Grutz says, "Darn it! No, really, you need to darn it." or "No, no, no, tell me more, more about the surprise."

Post-birthday glow.....
Carleen and I are still giddy from the effects of Saturday's (late) surprise birthday party.  Aunt Peggy sent us some more pictures from that joyous evening.  Without further ado.....

Shocking Carleen at the Honky Tonk BBQ, from l-r, Tim, Laura, Paul, Carleen, MarySue, a wee bit of Kristina, and my nose.

The happy birthday girl, Carleen, with super-fantastic-awesome pistachio cake.

Carleen eating my beard, like any good wife should.  Right?

The only drawback to this uber-boss night is that I have set the bar high for Carleen's next birthday.  I'd best get on that, only 350 days to go..........

Hey, I'm going to sew your a$$......
(Seriously, I have a million of 'em.  I suggest sending me money to stop with the terrible jokes, a guys got to make a living.)  So of the many domestic duties (hehehe, duty, hehe, honestly, send cash and I'll stop) I do around the apartment, needlework is one of my fondest.  Really.  I'm fixing something, using tools, and it can draw blood.  Manly. Oh, and instead of a scissors, I use my pocketknife, like a man.  So today I darned (I can't even begin to tell you how many awful jokes/puns I can put here) a few socks and re-attached all the buttons in Carleen's new, VINTAGE spring coat.  Yo, check it....

I placed the button just so.  It was ever so important for the light to dance off the mother of pearl.  I mean, yeah, it's reinforced with coated-kevlar thread with a pneumatic-piston suspension back-up.  I had to put it on the lift and use an a torque wrench, too.  Oh and I dropped an engine block on my foot, too.  But I didn't go the hospital, cos, you know, I'm manly.

Get Away Weekend!!! (Only one left in March!)
This Saturday we will be paying our great friends, Jim and Jane, a visit in Baraboo, WI (oooo, forgot to include THAT in our interesting city name game a while back) for Jane's 60th birthday party!  Carleen and I always have such a great time with them.  And we most certainly will report back with all the crazy details.  Soon.  But as for Friday, we are planning a nice b&b get away for the night.  So I have be entrusted to find a place with/that has/is (according to Carleen's commands): "romantic", "a tub", "a hot tub", "cute", "romantic", "bed & breakfast-y", "cute", "pool",  "nice".  I'd like to add in, on the way to Baraboo from Chicago, also.

Such is my quest now.  To find a place to stay to satisfy my lovely ladies (boy, that bad grammar would have got me in a warm pile of doggy poo!) lady's requirements.  Hopefully, I'll find success, as Wisconsin has a good number of wonderful b&b's (it also has atleast one douchebag governor, too).  Whew, calm down Nick.

Brainiac transformation: Execute!

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Craft Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball (1888) and the utopian News from Nowhere (1890).


Norman Fell (March 24, 1924 – December 14, 1998) was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.


Yeah, that's a pretty long stretch.