The Big Benford Show

I’m thinking maybe it’s time to officially take a hiatus from the blog again. Mostly because I’m not near a computer as often as I am during the school year (that’s a GREAT thing) and I feel guilty if I don’t blog every once in a while. I promise I won’t let any nifty recipes go by unrecorded and if something spectacular comes about that I need to let everyone know in any and every way I can, I certainly will. Take care and as always,

Love you, mean it!
~C

Wow, it’s been a LONG time since I blogged. Almost two months. If you look in the archives, I don’t know if I’ve ever gone over a month without blogging here before. Oh well, what can ya do?

So, what have I been up to these last two months? Well, if you follow me on Facebook and on Twitter and on Posterous, (or called me), you’ll know what I’ve been up to - lots of stuff. And it’s been pretty much a mixed bag of good and bad.

In April, I worked a Choice Music Event every weekend, except the last weekend when I was a customer. I made some good money except the weekend it rained for the first time in forever and I hydroplaned into the back of a lady about 7 miles an hour and my weekend’s pay was devoted to my insurance deductible. Thank goodness for Express Auto Body in Georgetown. They got my car back to me all fixed up right at a week. And I was treated like a princess, as always. Thanks, Dave!

May was a blur. Aside from my wonderful birthday day, a lot of stuff happened in May that I don’t want to or can’t talk about now. But I’m certain there is a silver lining to all the crap of May that will make itself seen soon, if not already.

So school is out and I’m bombarded with summer projects. I’m going to pull up the carpet in the living room and hallway and stain the concrete. It’s a fairly big project but I’m going to take it in stages so it’s not overwhelming. First up, pulling up the nasty carpet and padding. After that, assess the situation and probably hire someone to do the rest! I may not be kidding about this. We’ll see. I’m also getting with my friend Fred to put down some stones in the back portion of my back yard. Most of my back yard isn’t shaded so the grass burns up fairly quickly by the back fence. Why try and waste water and money trying to make grass that won’t grow grow? Yup - stones it is.

I also have little projects for school here and there along the way but luckily, most of that can be done from home.

A couple of shout outs to my friends who have some big things happening in their lives right now. I won’t say what because it’s not my place to say but I want them all to know that I’m thinking about them and they have my support every step of the way. So, shout out to Monica, Martin and Brad. You’re all very special to me and everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.

Alrighty, that’s it for now. Sorry it’s not more interesting (maybe this was interesting, I never know). I might just blog again soon now that I have a little more time so check back!
Love you, mean it!
~C

I’m going to grill/smoke a brisket tomorrow. Thanks to Dr. Dave for the instructions on what to do. I’ve already started by marinating the brisket in Guinness, onions, & garlic. I have some pictures taken and will take more as I can. I’m really excited to see & taste how it all turns out! I’ll blog when it’s all done to let you know.

Love you, mean it!
~C

By the way, I got this in an email. I’m bothered by coming around the bend towards 40 but certainly not THIS bitter! Thanks, Naomi for the funny forwards! Read this for the purpose of laughing:

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot…BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! My favorite of the whole list, btw. ~C

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!

There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends”. OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn’t have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside… you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!

See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Okay, I’m gonna admit it - it’s 4pm and I’m still in my pajamas. There, I said it so guilt be gone! I actually don’t feel guilty at all about it, which is kinda odd. I tend to carry a lot of guilt. But that’s for another blog entry.

Most weekends, I wake up with at least a few things “to do” in mind or a band something to go to. Today, none of those things occurred. I let the dog out to go potty, made myself some breakfast and proceeded to just hang out the rest of the day. I’ve surfed the web, watched TV (both live & DVR’d stuff), played with the kitty and doggy. I keep thinking there’s something I should be working on but the thought only lasts about a moment before it passes.

Tonight, I’m going to join Crystal out and about for her birthday. Should be fun! I guess the only thing I wish I would have done today is drink more water.

Tomorrow, maybe I’ll get a few things done. MAYBE…

So, I think you can leave me a voicemail here. It will get transcribed and sent to me as an email or something. Let’s give it a try:

***udpate***
So, maybe not. It seems like I can call a number from this widget, maybe? I don’t know. It’s certain I have to do more reading about Google Voice. Whatever it is, I have it now…and I can share soon, I’m sure. By the way, do you Google Wave yet? I have an account but haven’t found anyone who uses it regularly.

Okay, have a great day, enjoy the beautiful but chilly weather!
~C

***udpate***
Okay, so it seems that I have a universal number I can use! It’s 707-50-Cathy. Eureka, I have a Google number. You can leave me a voicemail there or it will ring to any phone(s) I assign. Cool, huh? Okay, I’ll post more as I understand more.
~C