Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man

I have completed my Best Of series last week and I have to say that it seemed to have gone well.  I was really impressed by the comments.  I was also pleased by some of the requests for some past posts.  It was interesting to see what a few of you thought were your favorites.  Thanks for the input.

Maybe the same time next year I will do it again, if I remember. 

This stupid blog is 1 year old and I just passed the 10,000 views mark.  Two big milestones at the same time. 

I never figured that I would continue with this blog past a few months, let alone for a year.  It was supposed to be an experiment.  I have found that I enjoy the experience and some of the bonds I have made with a few of my readers.  I have found that I have enjoyed the outlet because it allows me to vent, ramble, journal and it serves as a reminder to me of events that I might otherwise forget. 

I’ll continue through with this silly little blog.  I’ll experiment here and there with different things, like I did with the Best Of.  Some will work, some won’t but I’ll continue to write and entertain myself and maybe a few others while I am at it.

Thanks for being here.

I was thinking, since this silly little blog is now 1 year old, doing a little reposting of some favorites from the past year. 

Has anyone ever done a “Best of…” on their blog?  How did it go?

Did you ask for readers to request their favorites?  Or did you just post what you felt was your better posts?

Or do you just think that a Best of is a stupid idea?

Where has everyone gone?  It is like all of a sudden everyone stopped coming to this stupid little blog and posting comments and reading what I have to say.

 Is no one interested in me anymore?  Have I bored you?  Did I offend you in anyway?  What happened?

Truth be told, it’s not you, it’s me. 

I know, you’ve heard that line many times before but it’s the truth. 

I know, you’ve heard that line before too. 

But seriously, in this case, it is I that have been gone not you my 5 faithful readers.  But the fact that no one has posted a comment or inquired as to where I have been lets me know that I have been forgotten about.

How sad.

Anywho, in case there is one person interested, I have been traveling with work and have been stuck smack dab between the Hamptons and NYC.  It has been keeping me busy and when I am done with my classes I just crash in the hotel room and sleep.  Later this week I plan on taking the subway into NYC to have some fun. 

So there you have it, I am alive, and still posting and I will try to become more active again because I know that there are so many of you that enjoy my drabble. 

Why can I not get into the Super Bowl this year?  In past years, I would be excited and pumped up, looking forward to partying and getting into betting pools, but this year I can not psych myself up for it.  I am going to a party but I have not put any money into any pools.  By this time, I am usually about $200 deep into the pools.  Not this year. 

Is it because one of the teams is the Giants?  Being from Philly, the Giants are a division rival and we hate the Giants.  But I would like to see the Giants beat the Patriots because they are going in as the underdog.  I don’t like the Pats either and I do hope the Giants beat them.   The Pats are going into this as the favorite and this is the last game of what would/could be a “perfect” season.  Of course there are some that will see this season marked with an astrisk (*) due to the filmgate scandle from earlier this year. 

The reality of it all is that I am totally uninterested in it at all.  Around friends and coworkers I am playing it cool and making like I am into everything Super Bowl but the reality is I would rather not bother. 

Where usually I would be plopped in front of the TV, in the best seat I could find, at a party, at a friends, not moving except to use the bathroom (there are others that will gladly bring the beer and food to me like my wife and kids), yelling at the TV and laughing at the commercials, I will probably be found in the kitchen or den, where the food is, and socializing with all the other uninterested Super Bowl watchers and party guests.  This group mostly consists of women and the geeks.  The geeks are usually the husbands that have no idea about the game of football, or any other sport for that matter, and they are just there trying to fit in or because the wife dragged them along.  At the very least I will probably pick up a good cooking tip or recipie from the ladies and learn how to better manage my 401k from one of the geeks. 

On the brightside, I don’t see waking from a hangover and missing a day of work this year.    

The holidays have been a challenge for me to get over here and post.  Kids, family, shopping, returns, parties, playdates and the holidays tend to get in the way of writing.  Now that I am back to work and back to a somewhat normal routine I hope to be back to regularly posting.  I apologize to my 4 regular readers for not keeping up with this blog. 

Finally, it is the 2nd of January and I can use my new calender.  The first question of my Jeopardy Trivia calender what about Philadelphia’s on Mummers Parade.  While that was a very easy question for me to answer I have to admit that being a Philly guy I am not really into the Mummers.  I don’t get it.  I have friends that march in it and get all into the whole Mummers thing but that is just not my cup of tea. 

So it is back to the grindstone for me.  Work, then home for dinner, homework with the kids, maybe a little TV and then bed.  Damn!  I live such a boring life.  Sometimes I yearn for the old party days.  The days where I was playing in a band, staying up late until 4 or 6 in the morning with friends.  No worries, no responsibilities, just living life.  New Years eve made me realize that I can no longer hang much past the 10 o’clock news. 

The Holidays have given me some things to write about.  I have a few new Donnaism jems to report.  Hang in there.  Things will pick up here.

Happy New Year!  

I wnated to take a moment before I get really busy to wish all of my readers a very Happy and Wonderful Thanksgiving. 

I have been feeling uninspired to write lately.  I have been feeling unmotivated to write.  I am in a writing slump.  I think that it may be because I have been so busy with work and family that I have not really had that much time to devote to a blog nor have I done anything blog worthy. 

I am hoping that after I get through all this busy stuff that is going on that I will get time to get back and into writing.  I am sure that if given time to think I could come up with something witty, humorous or an observation on life that would lead to some sort of interesting to read rambling but right now I just don’t have it in me. 

Just know that things are going well. 

I have been extremely busy lately, too busy to regularly post as I had been and for that I apologize to my 4-5 regular readers.  What I intend on doing is to give a short little update as to what I have been doing and why I have not been regularly writing here.

Work has been crazy nuts for me and will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future.  I have several classes to present in Seattle, in NYC, in Philly and possibly one or two in Virginia all before Thanksgiving.  I have been presenting (practicing mostly) in Philly the past week and a half and I fly out to Seattle next week.    

Home life has been hectic too.  This time of year there are hayrides, pumpkin patches and harvest parties every weekend.  During the week there is after school activities and homework that needs to get done meals that need cooked and a yard to rake leaves.  I also help to run 2 online forums.  Talk Delaware  is a great forum that is a general interest forum that also focus’ on Delaware issues.  TalkPa is a new forum that we created for Pennsylvania.  It is also a general interest forum with a focus on Pennsylvania.  This new forum is taking up my evening time as I try to help grow it. 

Somewhere in all of that I have to find a moment or two to blog and I have been lacking in that department.  Hopefully you all will forgive me.  I have not even have had time to visit all my regular reads and again I apologize for that.  Once in Seattle I hope to catch up on my reading. 

Until then…..  have a happy happy

Just wanted to give an update that I am feeling better and that this blocked gland thing feels like it is going away.  I will get back to writing regularly after I get out of this painkiller fog that I am in at the moment and after I catch up on all the stuff I have put off the past few days. 

Thank you to all my friends out there for the well wishes and good thoughts.  I appreciate it. 

I have reached one of those rare points where I don’t really have anything to write about.  Is it writers block that I have?  Not really.  There just is not anything really exciting going on that warrants writing a whole post about.  So I thought that for my 5-6 loyal readers I would just write a rambling post on some little things that go in my Slightly Mad world.

My 4 year old son takes the whole “camel up” thing too seriously.  When he wakes up in the morning and takes his morning pee he will go for over a minute.  I don’t know how he can hold all of that.  He just keeps going, and going, and going……  To put this in perspective, stop reading this for a moment and time one minute on your watch or clock.  See, I told you that is a long time to pee.  I have no idea how he holds it that long.

I forgot to unpack a bag when I returned from the race at Richmond.  In that bag was my wife’s cell phone charger.  She was frantically looking for it for nearly a week and she was starting to get upset that she could not find it.  I had found it in the bag and when she was not looking I slipped it under some mail on the kitchen counter.  I then yelled to her that I had found it under the mail in the kitchen and told her that if she just moved things she would not be going crazy looking for it.  She swore up and down that she had looked in that spot and did not see it there.  I told her that it was kinda like the ketchup that was behind the milk in the fridge, you have to move things sometimes to find things. 

It is dark when I get up and leave for work in the morning.  I don’t like that.  I should still be in bed sleeping while it is dark. 

A friend and I have started a new forum for Pennsylvanians called TalkPa.  It is in its infantcy phase and we are hoping that it will take off soon.  I have been working hard on trying to get the word out to friends and family.  I made business cards and have started to place them around the area while I have been out. 

I have to get out into the flower beds and start working on getting them ready for fall.  Time to start planning Mums and such.  I love working out in the yard this time of year.

Now that school is back in session for my daughter the daily ritual of fighting her to get homework has started in full force.  I told her that if she wants to become the next Hanna Montana she needs to be educated and go to school.  I was going to tell her not to become like Britney but thankfully she really does not know who she is and I would rather not lead her to the disaster that Britney is.

That is my Ramblings for the day.  The weekend is upon us.  Enjoy!