Newspaper and Coffee, What Else Does One Need?

I spend a great deal of time reading the paper and drinking several cups of coffee each and every morning. I admit I even get up far too early because I am too excited to sleep knowing the daily ritual awaits.
Sometimes I feel like it's wasted time, (it can easily take hours as I do the crossword too), but I also see it as a reward for years of having NO time to do anything in the morning but get my butt out of bed and care for children and then later high tailing it to an office job at the butt-crack of dawn.
I share this love of the newspaper with my Dad. He still gets up early and reads the local paper from cover to cover. We have had some great conversations about our passion for the lost art of a good morning paper. I pray there will never be a time that the printed word is replaced by the internet (((shudder))). It ain't the same! Yet we both HATE a messy paper, black smudged hands are a sign of a cheap print.
Our love of a good newspaper will always be something I remember my Dad and I having in common. We discuss topics, sports and random issues because of our daily fix.
My love of a good crossword is inherited from my mom. For years she did it every morning and I just assumed I could never master one. Yet, here I am, years later, doing one and sometimes two everyday. I often think of her when I do.
My love of comics is one I share with my daughter Sarah and my granddaughter Lauren. They don't get the paper everyday, but I make sure to pester them with the really giggle-inducing ones whenever I get the chance.
I really do love reading the newspaper and enjoying a few cups of Joe!
Still... I have a hard time enjoying it completely, always feeling a need to be productive. It's a dilemma.
I know what you're thinking...waaaaaaa!

Bleacher Bums

Jimmy is down in the "workout room"/"music room"/ "ping pong room", (don't ask) practicing with his quartet. Their working title is "Bleacher Bums".
They will be performing at the newest HART, (Hillsboro Artist's Repertory Theatre) production. It's a play about Cubbie's fans sitting in the bleachers at a Cub's game and they will sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the 7th inning stretch. They are too cute for words.

"Ted", WE just call him "Ted"

Ted was in Jim's Boy Scout Troop, (Troop 10, Newport Beach California, he was "Teddy" back then).

He attended Newport Harbor High School with Jim and yours truely. His sister was a cheerleader.

He was gorgeous, a perfect example of the insanely, jaw dropping, excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin, specimens at my High School. And... he was a drama geek. I mean GEEK! They would patrol the halls, always in packs of 8 or more, too loud, too in your face.

I despised them. AND I WAS A BAND GEEK.

For me to judge the beautiful people, seems almost criminal, but you really had to experience this band of thespians invading your personal space and you'd be right there with me, bandy geeky and all, wanting them hurt.

Here's some Ted Trivia:

Ted was the captain of the water-polo team in college.

Member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Took a 16-year-old Brooke Shields to her Dwight Englewood senior prom in 1982.

He was in Love Boat and Happy Days.

(I LOVE this one!) "Patron saint" of the website "Jump the Shark" (a phrase describing an event in a TV show that marks the start of the show's decline) because of his frequent roles as a fresh or a replacement character shortly before the termination of many shows.

Before taking the role of Jefferson D'Arcy on "Married with Children" (1987), he played Peggy's husband in a Christmas fantasy episode in which Al wonders what life would have been like if he had never been born.

Ted McGinley, but we just called him "Ted"

Trains

My husband is downstairs right now, ripping apart his train set. You read that right. He is 50+ and he has a train set. I might add, it's a kick-ass train set.

Over the years, he's employed the family to contribute. Sarah and Josh installed a lovely

white-trash trailer. It has a car on blocks and is on the "wrong side of the tracks". (Duh)

Scott constructed a warehouse that is so detailed it deserves a good inspection.

There is a baseball field, a cemetary with mourners and an open grave. There are cars and trucks, some in the aftermath of a crash.

A haunted house sits on the hill and there is even a hobo's cave near the train tunnel.

All in all, it's pretty cool.

But read the beginning of this post again and you'll see, HE IS RIPPING IT APART!

Cause, you see folks, he is his father... His dad always had to have a project and Jim is just following his genes.

It's time for a new train layout. The kids and grandkids can't wait to get down and dirty composing the new and improved one. Trust me, it's a good thing!

(Good grief, I hear wood splintering, that can't be good...)

Crocs for the Cure

Could this be the #1 "Crap for the Cure"? Me thinks it could be...

Josh, my son-in-law. And Hayden...

It's as though he is being doused by an unknown.

Joshie, honey, that's you squirting you...

I titled this, "Josh sissy". Enough said.

Note the similarities...

A blogging slacker, but not a complete slacker...

I am a blogging slacker. I know I'm not the only one, but hell's bells, it's been ages!

This here is a pic of Jim singing in a quartet at our Tualitin Valley Harmony Master's picnic held at your's truly's. He and my dad sing together in a chorus. A SWELL time was had by all at the annual picnic.

There were about 45-50 attendees, much good munchies and lots of really good music. If you've never heard Barbershop 4-part harmony then, well I'm sorry for you. I was raised with it, (as were my own kids) and I can tell you it's mighty fine stuff. My sister Sarah, my Dad, Doug and I also performed with an old Hillbilly song my parents uesd to sing, called "Way Back in the Hills". I can still hear my mom's voice when I sing it. Kind of a good heartbreak.

Anywho, I just wanted you to know I was still kicking, even if it is in 4 part harmony.