Seen in Parma

Why didn't I think of these?

Awesome.

Good News!

I'm famous

check me out.

Greenville Trip

I realize I've been bad at blogging in a timely manner. But I have been busy with a number of things. Seems like we've got something to do after work everyday. Add to that our attempts to get to the gym and it's hard to find the time to blog.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to Greenville, SC to judge their ADDY Awards. All in all, it was a pretty good time.

This is the view from one of our host's house. Impressive view.

I wonder what he's a doctor of

Things Mariella wouldn't let me buy - Episode #452

Who doesn't need a prayerful frog.

Jesus Chinese Calendar

I know it's been a while, so I'll make it up to all my readers by cleaning out my photos from the past few months that have been languishing on my cell phone.

This first one is a pic of my new calendar from "toothpick"/the chinese buffett down the street from my office. They always give these out around the holidays. You have several options typically featuring scenes of the chinese countryside. I HAD to get this one. My favorite part is the animals of the chinese zodiac pictured below Him.

Princess Pete

Saw this set of action figures while shopping at Ollie's. Seemed pretty normal until closer inspection.

The princess seems to be just one of the guys.

Welcome Woods

I was at Progressive Field the day new reliever Kerry Wood came for a press conference. They welcomed him with this scoreboard message. Can't wait for the tribe to come back.

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?