Canadian Szczepanik hailed as a hero.

We're good people.

I'm busy

but apparently not as busy as some of my siblings whose blogposts are way more tardy than my own.

Here's a run-down of what we've been up to.
For Halloween, Mariella and I were a wii remote and a nunchuck (we didn't actually wear the costumes anywhere except to show Grandma.) And frankly, I think I was robbed in my work halloween costume contest. My costume had actually working LED lights but the best of show goes to some guys dressed as Wayne's World? A movie that I think came out before they were born. I've expressed my disdain for movie-themed halloween costumes here before. They were amusing but again, not very original. Nathaniel (a newish guy at work) won a prize for his spot-on LEGO man costume. It was pretty incredible.

I beat the snow in installing a new paver walkway for grandma. It's definitely an improvement over her old sidewalk. Thank goodness Mary and Kristen pitched in and helped or I would've never finished the project in one day.

I continue to be active with AAF-CLE and I'm currently helping recruit judges for this year's ADDY show. And I've added a new organization to my repertoire, The Social Media Club of Cleveland. It seems to be a fun group and I've gotten to meet people I've only previously "knew" through twitter.

We're getting caught up in our annual holiday madness. We had the fam over on Saturday for the OSU/UM game and fried turkey. It was delicious and so were the leftovers. My soup was pretty spectacular if I do say so myself.

That's all for now. I have to get some photos off my phone, so I should post again shortly.

Tight security

Dear joggers,

After the leaves have fallen, shirts should be worn.

Thank you,
The mgmt

I hope the Indians make better free agent decisions than this

So my pumpkin pictured below didn't make it into the finals of the Cleveland Indians Pumpkin Carving Contest but these did?!



What gives? I know I'm biased but seriously?!

Chief Wahoolloween

Here's the pumpkin I carved for an Indians contest. I may need your vote, if I'm chosen as a finalist.

Car fire

The plume of black smoke made me believe it was going to be a long commute. I could actually see the flames jumping from the front of the pickup truck as I approached. I arrived about the same time the firetrucks did. And somehow it was my fastest time in at least a month.

Sasha P: a man of the people

The wife and I were at the Parma Giant Eagle - not the highest class community or grocery store. We were selecting some yogurts and we run into Cavaliers star, Sasha Pavlovic. Can you believe it?! In our Giant Eagle?! Wild! He and his lady friend were shopping for groceries - just like me and my wife!

The best part is when it was time to check out, he didn't rely on his NBA star power to convince the checkout lady to accept expired coupons. Instead he went to the self-checkout aisle and rung up his own groceries (while his girlfriend bagged.) Do you think LeBron would do that or even do his own grocery shopping? That Sasha is one salt-of-the-earth kind of guy.

And as we left, it turns out that we parked nose-to-nose with his giant black Escalade.

Nothing says loving like curtain rods

Not sure if I've mentioned here, how much I despise Sears Grand. Basically it's the merger of Sears and Kmart with half the selection of either - which means they rarely have anything you need like switchplate covers or mini paint rollers. But if you happen to need some MacGregor sneakers and a Kenmore ice-making refrigerator, it's your store!

But I digress... We've moved Grandma from Maple Hts to Solon and been trying to get her and Uncle Gary set up. I was going over today to install some floor molding and mom called and said she needed two curtain rods. I had already left Home Depot at this point and did not want to go back, so I went to Sears - because it was conveniently located. I was shocked that they had the curtain rods I needed. I proceeded to the check out. The curtain rods were $2.99. So my total came to 6-something. As I was paying the girl asked me if I wanted a gift receipt. I couldn't help but laugh a bit. If I were to give these as a gift wouldn't I get a higher end rod?

The other thing that always shocks me about Sears Grand is they always give you about an arm's length of receipts - there's coupons, survey information and assorted other items on the scroll. Maybe they could lower prices if they didn't have so much overhead caught up in receipt rolls.

But now I know what I'm getting everyone for Xmas this year.

Deli bailout?

I like this spot

Apparently it's old, but I just saw it.

Not funny

Wait, yes it is.

BFLK Wordle

Interesting results from putting this site into the wordle engine. "Mariella" just beat out "skunk" for popularity.

Dear Dad

It's been two years since you've been gone. Things have changed a lot in that time. The biggest change being that I'm now married. I'm glad that you had a chance to meet Mariella. We all missed you on the big day. I'm sure you would've loved the party. It was huge and we had beautiful weather.

Mariella has been very understanding and a huge support to me. I'm trying to take care of as much as I can which gets to be a lot sometimes. Although we've pushed her to her limit on taking down wallpaper.

Mariella and I have been getting adjusted to life together. One of the strangest parts is calling someone else "Dad." It's nothing against Mr. Sidoti, it's just odd.

Everyone's been doing as well as can be expected. Mom continues to inspire me with her strength. There seems to be a never-ending mountain of work between our house and the rentals. We've been doing tons of work at the rental house getting it ready for Grandma to move in. Lisa, Mike and the boys have been helpful through everything and have put quite a bit of mileage on their vehicles for our many causes. It was nice seeing Karen and her gang on vacation. Mary continues to be the tough, dependable one. Joan seems to be doing well at work. You'd be proud. Kristen's in Alaska, apparently having a great time. We're all doing okay but would really wish you were still here with us.

Love always,
Mark

I'm buying one of these for each of my brother-in-laws

Order your own here. There's also a democrat version.

This reminds me of my nephews

Cristoph Niemann is an illustrator who tells the story of his sons who are infatuated with the New York Subway system. Sounds a bit like Henry and Sammy to me.

Skunked

We've been trying to catch a skunk in the backyard to no avail. (They keep taking the bait.) But my nephew Sammy is super intrigued by the prospect of catching the skunk and is waiting for video footage of the capture.

I'm going to post this sign to let the skunk know he's welcome and lure him into a false sense of security.

Good Luck

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I've been extremely busy in every facet of my life. I've been facebooking more. It you aren't on there, you should be.

Here's something from one of my favorite blogs that made me laugh.

This is a cake featured on Cake Wrecks - a blog that looks at cakes that came out horrifically (and often hilariously) bad. Read the story behind how this one came to be.

They're serious

You probably can't see it but this house had estate sale signs in the front yard as well as a hearse parked out front.

Madonna & a-rod

Rick and terry got topical at this year's aaf outing.