numerology rules this family.......

... so one week later from my i.m. with oregon (sister #2 acsending order),
and now one day away from the BIG day -
the wedding,the betrothal,
the joining,


the
family.







we are gathering, here and there,
from hither and yon, near and far... try to keep up - it's gonna get very confusing ahead!

... i was on the phone this evening with the groom to be (nephew #3 descending order), and his brother (nephew #2 - middle man), and could hear the very pregnant rae (brothers' wife - niece in law #2 with great nephew #4 in oven) in the background, and juggling overhearing a one sided phone conversation between my two sisters (#3 and #4 ascending) in my background, and getting a call waiting from yet a third nephew (nephew #1 acsending order) whose family (niece in law #1 and great nephew #2 and son to sister #4 above in one sided call) will not be making it this weekend, due to a newly purchased "first" home for them (ain't i proud!) and he wants information on champagne to christen the house, and the original nephew (#3 descending again)... is telling me how cool is all of THIS!... no butterflies or cold feet for this one anyway LOL!

follow me so far?

catch my snow drift i am buried in?

okay, moving along then...

nephew one is telling me that he is there with nephew two and the missus, and they are at the hospital for an ultrasound........ i'm thinking the worst now ... due date is less than two weeks - flown down from Washington State - ultrasound = baby trouble (this one is my fourth great nephew), airplane ride was too much - all of that rushing thru my head while I still hear sisters(#3 and 4 respectively of 6 total - sister #2 being mom to nephews #2 and #3 above..and not due to arrive from Oregon for another hour at this point... still with me? good moving on...) here in background talking on land line about "the minasian hospitality suites" for saturday nite (this is a family tradition - brother in law #8 from sister #4{see phone call above or below - i'm lost now} ascending third marriage - we'll call him "fred"... always rents an extra smoking suite at the hotel and everyone brings cigars, noshables, and drinks to set it up proper...for afterwards of course)...
speaking of 'course' - back on it now...
so i'm thinking and listenening and wondering and worried about great nephew #4 when i get it - the ultrasound is the radically new "4D" version - unavailable up in washington state where they live unless they want to drive to seattle to get it done, so since rae's doctor gave approval to fly down, and nephew #2 - middle man - is telling me that Michael Jace (impending great nephew #4) keeps putting his hands in front of his eyes and a knee in his ear, so he is becoming distraught over the cost of this imaging session with a future son who already is bucking the folks desires ... and ain't even took a breath of stale air yet!

the nurse asks them to take a walk around, get some ice cream, and come back in twenty minutes to try again - at least she is feeling his anguish as a new daddy to be and wants to give them what they are paying for... a head shot!... all good in my book, and obviously - NOT managed health care at this clinic... hehehe. so at this time of posting, i don't know if the second trip thru the gel and magicke did it's tricks or not, can only assume that nephews #2 and #3 made it to lax to pickup thier mother and her wife (sister in law #1 for me as i have no brothers...just brothers in law come and gone from many marriages we can't even begin to graph here now with an excel spreadsheet twice as long as my current blog; so this is a milestone here!)

okay still with me so far? good. moving on...


so distraught nephew #2 - middle man - is telling me about babys hands in the way and i'm saying. "tony - whats the big deal? he will be here in less than two weeks anyway and we'll see pictures then in live 3D, so if the "4D" doesn't produce anything other than a cute "before birth" picture - it's still album material, right?"


dead air drags for what seems like two minutes, but is only maybe 10 or 15 seconds,

and i hear this incredulous voice on the other end of my cell say... " uncle doug, just how old ARE you... 'cuz it's way too early for alzhiemers in this family without a history of it so far.... Michael Jace is due in january, the third actually, and that is some time off still........."


um.

duh.

yeah, i think you told me that a couple months ago when we talked.... yep!

"what nephew is this again?" i am muttering now...

so long story try to be shorter...
i am looking forward to saturday, very enthusiastically too, because my s/o and the asher are going too, so i am happy - very happy - at this turn of event, and i know that up above - mom is watching me type and try to explain the brood of hers and all it's permeabilities, and knowingly i smile that she is esctatic at the outcome we will attend all saturday.





the cast above as closely i can recall:


Sisters (descending)
not attending - gail #1 and ex brother in law #1 and kids
not attending - marty #2 and ex and current brother in law #2, 4 and kids
attending - kim #3 and brother in law fred #8 and kids (attending - niece andrea #1 and family, not attending - nephew allen #1 and family)
attending - jeri #4 - the only solo one of them... lives with me or me with her, i dunno anymore...
attending - stef #5 , and her wife josie - sister in law #1, and sons/nephews tony#2 and john#3 (the groom) and family rae - niece in law #2 and unborn michael jace - great nephew #4 and bride to be wendy - niece in law #4 (?)
attending - dale #6 and brother in law dennis #9 or 10, i really don't know now{divorces and deaths from above marriages have altered this number over and over}... and alice - niece #3


Yep.

the family reads like the general assembly at the united nations in full attendance...

awww hell, i haven't even met the brides' side of family yet - and they are latin... and numerous also... where's my Staples Card at.... gonna need a new hard drive to tree this family now.....

Calle' de Morte' revisited........

Multiple Family -Highway 98 - Merced CA - July 23rd, 2003

Imaged on Sep 03rd, 2003

a few years back, i started documenting roadside memorials during my travels for a project i wanted to do... a small independently published book perhaps, or an e-book maybe; but the images are still just sitting in my files on my hard drives waiting to be called up again and put together.

i posted one about a month ago on MySpace blog, and thought with halloween approaching, and on the heels of that - "Dia de las Muertes" - i wanted to get back to this project again somehow - so i will randomly now post here from what i have gathered to date.

the subject matter results from the roadside memorials placed after an accident by loved ones and friends - you know what i mean here - a small cross, bunches of flowers, a candle or two, mementos of a life lost abruptly.

I have endeavored to gather as much background information as possible on each site - the names and dates of the accident, any thing else i can research out of local newspapers about the circumstances - but sometimes all i am left with is just a mile marker indicator of the road it took place on.

Unknown - back road blind intersection - Lodi CA

One of Three total at intersection - imaged July 11th, 2005

lately, i keep returning to the folder on my computer and looking at the images there every time i look for something else - the folder just sort of draws me back into it each time the directory tree comes up on the left side of the screen and probably because i placed it into my blogs files folder to try to use the information more.

reminding me of the good times i had on those trips, but sad each time when i realize what the subject matter really is.

morte' - death.

en el calle' - on the road.

and more often than not... alone.

Larry & Carole - Hwy 49 - between Placerville and Sutter Creek CA - Sep 21st, 2001

Imaged on Jan 12th, 2004

am i questioning my own mortality then?
associating the good vacations and trips out with images of the roadside ends of lives instead of the 'vacation' pics we want to show everyone upon our return? (in reality - i don't show these images upon returning home when everyone wants to see the vacation pictures...)

i am not sure why or what it comes down to, but there is beauty in these images of death, there is comfort to those who build or maintain these memorials - to know that others may see them and grasp that the person or persons involved mattered ... and to see that their memories are kept alive long after they or the memorial is gone.

Unknown Youth hit and run - 223rd St/east of Avalon - Carson CA - Apr 08th, 2005

Imaged on Apr 12, 2005

maybe it's more of a fascination with deathly things - again, i have a rather large collection of Dia de las Muertes artifacts; but i also owned a florist shop for years and dealt with death second hand at best but was directly involved in the planning and execution (bad choice of wordage) of the memorials to those who have passed on. when you are on a first name basis with most of the mortuary personnel in southern california and can navigate your way thru the back rooms of their places of employment, know the technical and nick names of tools and products used in the service of death that way- it's probably not a good thing to know ultimately what or how you yourself will go out.

opt for cremation if possible, and leave a marker someplace to show you were here, even if only temporarily.

i choose sometimes to image in sepia or B&W to heighten the effect, as it adds to them and i think does justice to the subjects in whatever small way i may be able to.

"I don't hold with all that washing..."

"why, what's the matter?"
"nothing pooh bear, nothing. we can't all, and some of us don't. that's all there is to it"
"can't all what?" said pooh, rubbing his nose.
"gaiety. song-and-dance. here we go round the mulberry bush."
"oh!" said pooh. he thought for a long time, and then asked, "what mulberry bush is that?"




..so, there is a commercial on TV lately promoting eeyore as some childs sing along play along toy... "peek 'n play eeyore" i believe it is called.



now - i have always felt a kindred spirit in this droopy eared rumply stuffed jacka, er 'donkey' (he looks and feels most like my own persona at times is why); and always truly liked the fact that disney in all its' 'family wisdom' generated cash flow kept it at least true to a.a. milnes character in depictions of him - that being the depressed member of the hundred acre wood.
after all, not everyone is as happy go lucky as a certain round overstuffed bear with a honey pot always stuck on his head; much the same as our world has it's share of said bears, honey pots and depressed donkeys too. ...and don't we all write some of the best blogs out here behind these "personnae"?

so this commercial pops up and he is a smiling ear flapping to music or hand claps.... jackass there, now I said it...... yep.

am i the only one who see's this as an affront to my modern sensibilities? an outrage/sham of a character well loved and depicted even by a greedy corporate giant who stayed the course? ... every kid i know who owns or ever owned one KNOWS he ain't the happy camper in the 'wood... and as such, very VERY rarely smiled if at all, and then only as if it were an inside joke known only to the blue rag hisself!

along comes fisher price - who everyone knows has "little people" and "wee folks" sprouting out of every orifice on the body of every member of the boardroom (too many hits of ol' "Smiley Face" acid tabs in the 60's perhaps?) and creates an eeyore who smiles. and hugely at that.
just like all fisher price abominations - that same simpleton, vacuous insipid smile plastered on every plasticene face that peers back at you thru plastic fronted packaging up and down every shelf within eyesight of every toymonger out here - in and out of retail.... yeah, i'm on a soap box here and it ain't gonna get anywhere near "clean" by the time i am done...
in the words of our leader of sadness and despair:
" i don't hold with all that washing..." grumbles eeyore, "all this modern behind-the-ears nonsense."





i learned to live my life by homilies from my favorite blue man...

...the old gray donkey, eeyore; stood by himself in a thistly corner of the forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "why?" and sometimes he thought, "wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about. from "the pooh book of quotations" by a. a. milne
"when stuck in the river, it is best to dive and swim to the bank yourself before someone drops a large stone on your chest in an attempt to hoosh you there." eeyore from "eeyore's gloomy little instruction book" by a. a. milne
"no give and take. no exchange of thought. it gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person's tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation." eeyore from "the house at pooh corner" by a. a. milne

It Was There...Now It's Gone

You think you can
Depend on tails.
You don't expect tails
to go wrong.
The last time I looked
It was right there.
Now when I look there,
it's gone.

It was always
Just behind me,
always tagging along.
A little something
at the back...
I thought it was there,
And it's gone.

I assumed it was
Attached to me,
that it actually
Hung true.
I'd hoped it was stuck
Very firmly on.
Maybe we needed
some glue.

It used to trail
right behind me,
Always tailing along.
My little extra
at the back...
I thought it was there,
now it's gone.
from "Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood" by Hallie Marshall

... ok, so where am i going with this you may wonder or ask?

i'm just bent at commercialism for a new world i suppose, if it was good enough to last a couple lifetimes so far - why change it? i am disgruntled to say the least, and outrageously pessimistic at what passes for "marketing" now-a-days... that we have to put a smile on something in order to have it accepted, and then perpetuate the false hoods for later in life when we learn the lesson that says:

"snap outta your daydream, sincerity is only sarcasm with a smile on it"

... hell, i could be wrong - but i like my jackasses to stay melancholoy as originally drawn... only then will we learn from it.

and then having learned it - we get to soar!



note: small images are clickable to "go big!"

I am remiss, and it has been brought to my attention in being so!

recently i was commented upon by a loyal reader, that; to whit:

"Doug, you don't post often enough! --Posted by kenju to just a dork with words in his fingers... at 10/22/2005 09:25:22 PM"

and she is right!
i have been remiss in attention to my own stream of wordage, and too busy it seems trying to read everyone elses' ... hehehe!

... so i will return to my page here, and return to my tales of life in general, and want to thank all who have visited me thus far, and hope only to amuse enough for you to return again sooner...

and especially thank Kenju for snapping me outta my funk, and to Always Aroused Girl who thinks bald is sexy yeah baby! Yeah!

... please continue to play my newly formed game - which is when the "word verification sequence" pops up at comments - create the most comprehensive sentence you can using the letters and include it in your comment, and then be sure to do it elsewhere also, and then tell two more commenters, and they can tell two more commenters and then so on and so on, and sit back and watch as vocabularys get built, language gets used to it's fullest and just view some plain fun reading!

... all for now, back in 12 hours with more! doug.

New Tag Games: Word Verifications

i have developed a new diversion, as i come across more and more Word Verifications for comment posting....

(yes i know - some like them, most don't!).....

when you see one in the comment window, add the combination to your post and develop a euphemism for it as such.

you will get your opportunity below as you post here -

for i too, subscribe to the dreaded WV ... (",) !

at most, you get to exercise your vocabulary skills.

at least - you get to disregard it maybe...

Has it been a week already?

wow.

time flies, then slows to a crawl . . .

only to start again.

it is lightly raining here today,

after a week of temps that exceeded 100 degrees

on more than one afternoon.

i said i would return, hehehe...

and here i be!

i have had a relatively good week thus far -

i spent less than 20 mins at the DMV for renewal purposes

(sorry judy! i beat your experience i believe)

I went to lunch with my pal on tuesday,

and rekindled a small flame of closeness between us as such.

i had my first deposition in my WC case against the former employer

that resulted in what appears to be a win for me afterall!

(see this story line at my other site: http://blog.myspace.com/bdvsteegh )

i was looking at at least another three to four months of legal

wrangling over it,

but in just an hour and half i apparently eloquently expressed my pain and suffering so much so that the defense attorney ended with the statement:

"i see no need for subsequent deposition statements, and see no reason to schedule a judicial review in this matter. upon reciept of a pending dr. review summary - our next meeting should be for

COMPENSATORY

(this being the only word i think i heard!)

concerns and the results for re-training of mr. versteegh in a career

to be determined."

at the same time i was hearing those words,

my pal was getting great and fantastic news of her own:

she recieved the accolades so richly deserved to date, and has been awarded a promotion to a top position with her company, and as such -

i expect her career now to soar!

when i called her to see if lunch was still a possibility after my depo (missed it anyway) she listened while i related my news, then asked if it was her turn to share... and related her promotion story to me.

we have had a "bridge" link like this for almost three years now -

psychically linked as such - emailing each other with the same questions or answers at the exact same time, calling each other on the phone only to have the other already dialing it seems, and to both recieve the good news at nearly the same time that morning

just fell into our routine that way, very gratifying and solid yet again.

so, today i sit here catching up, waiting for someone to come by and purchase avocados fresh from the tree

and at way below market value i may add, and playing with online jigsaw puzzles - one of which i share with you below.

the image is one of my own - taken a couple years back, but very fitting for how i feel today.

enjoy it, and i will return tomorrow with more news and stories!

if you wish to complete this puzzle at the site as opposed to on this page - please go here:

http://four.flash-gear.com/npuz/puz.php?c=v&id=648942&k=11525895

otherwise, roll your cursor over it to speed loading!

currently "offline" ..........

... pretty much sums it up.

i am "blog-stipated", bereft of words and ideas.

but only temporary.

i have a lot going on, my plate is full, my cup overfloweth.

give me the weekend, i'll be back.

refreshed.

anew.

amusing you!

d.

ate... update... update... update... upd

boobie-thon 2005 totals just in:

as of midnite - tuesday, oct 03,2005...

Dollars raised: $ 5330.40

Red Cross shares: 895.40

Susan G. Komen shares: 4435.00

(2004 totals: 8696.30)

Participants list (optional): 112 entries named

Donors' list (optional): 86 entries

Images:

"Covered Galleries" - 358 images

"Pay -Per-Boobie" Galleries - 152 images

(donations of 50.00 or more will get you access,

or a submission in the uncovered catagory, see site for details)

"Guys racks" - 27 images

(see "pecs17" and "pecs2" for mine!)

Using a dial up connection?

Go here for a sample page that

loads easily on dial up:

http://www.boobiethon.com/photos05.html

Home Site:

(Main Page always "safe for work")

http://www.boobiethon.com/

for daily updates,info for submitting/donating

and links to various Galleries!

(caution - all Galleries may not be "work safe"...)

i congratulate all who have donated - either images or dollars,

or even gone to the site for info and donated elsewhere then!

i do endorse and ask that if you haven't - please do go and check it out,

i am astounded by the diversity alone in the images submitted, and

proud to be a part of it all.

i find the variety of creativity, heart and soul,

bravery and humour that is on display

to be a very telling sign in regards

to the awareness of this cause in so much

as the Blogger Community is "out" there, up front in your face, supporting it whole heartedly!

and...

yep! i find breasts - uncovered and covered -

truly beautiful in all shapes, sizes and complexities...

but the fashions on display are even more beautiful -

the sheer (figuratively speaking of course)

"support" that is submitted is a parade in itself highly erotic viewing!

again... yep!

i love a great looking brassiere, what can i say!

so,

ending Sat night at 11:59 pm est...

there is less than four days left to participate in this great cause - whichever way you feel comfortable doing so -

please remember first and foremost -

ALL images are anonymous

Participation and Donor Names are Optional

and not connected to the images

and the donations go to a cure!

"i donated - will you?"

Tuesday "Do Good" Day!

today, i give you the opportunity to do good with one simple little click of the mouse!

you are EMPOWERED to make change,

you can achieve greatness,

you can contribute.

. * . *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *.

DO GOOD WITH A CLICK !

http://www.moveon.org - Support democracy in America

http://www.cartercenter.org/ - Waging peace, fighting disease, building hope

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/ - American citizens of good will

http://www.hungersite.com - Give free food with a click

http://www.ecologyfund.com - Save & protect nature for free

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com - Help fund free mammograms

http://www.freedonation.com - Click to donate to many worthy causes

http://www.redjellyfish.com - Click-to-give for rain forests

http://www.solvepoverty.com - Clicks here provide 2 cents for education & more

http://www.tree4life.com - Rainforest reforesting

http://www.worldwidemedicalsupport.org - Provide medical supplies

http://www.networkforgood.org - A wide variety of charities

http://www.habitat.org/ - Habitat For Humanity, non-profit home building

http://www.unfpa.org/support/34million.htm - $1 to the UN Population fund

http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org - Support global education!

. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. * . * . * . * . * . * .

my thanks to:

Daniel Will-Harris from

www.SchmoozeLetter.com

for this simple little list

that does such huge complex things!

go there, read him, sign up for the Schmooze

get free stuff and have a Great Day!

Hair today - gone today!

how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Bed Head?

so, lately i have been awaking with that ever so popular phenom known as, simply :

"bed head".

you know, when you hair decides to have it's own "fashion show sense of hilarity" obviously while you are soundly sleeping... because you never remember walking that catwalk, or sitting in the chair where the little "all the rage today" hair sty-leest of the absolute moment, tortures your hair into the positions that...

not even ANY amount of Aqua Net Super Industrial Liquid Lacquer as if sprayed from a fire hose or gel from hell itself can produce if you wanted to on your own anyway.... much less any amount of water and scrubbing when waking can reduce either before heading for morning coffee to prepare to go back and relieve your scalp of it's offense incurred last night.

now, for me - who is in all reality these days "hair deficient" - it comes really, as a shock to see it when i awake, stumble into the bathroom to relieve myself (maybe the bathroom trip is due to the champagne i don't remember drinking also all night during the fashion show described above?), and turn around to see an image reflected back from the mirror - that is at most - me? ; but is always enough to shock you then dead awake.

i mean, afterall, my hair is not much more than three measly quarters of an inch long at it's most, and that is only in the back and sides of my thickest thickets (hengh?) left from the migration from the top of said head to those sides and back now (is it gravity? is it lack of nutrients in my diet? is it just heredity afterall... i had hair down to nearly my ass crack when a younger man - thick, luxurious, full yet unruly also kept in de-riguer ponytail style so popular first in the seventies, then eighties then cut so very short when i got tired of it in my mouth gagging while i slept...)... so i cannot comprehend how it gets to its' current state of affairs the last few mornings....

out comes the Conair trimmer, Model # HC200 - second only to the legendary WAHL trimmer and it's offspring made forever famous by the "stubble cut" Don Johnson sported thru the career of pastel jackets with sleeves just so at the elbow, facial tonsorial splendours that was and always be -

Miami Vice at it's best hedonistic era...

and none of those confounded clip on attachments for me no sir!, just set that cutting/grabbing/sawing toothy metal shearing edge at "less than zero" and hit the head..... start at the sides, up then over the thinning field of play, then to the back and up and over,watch those ears now - looking like a taxi cab

going down the street with it's doors open (i dunno - something my dad used to say, ears sticking out and all that) - and all the while watching the little clumps of short hairs (no, not those "short hairs" - nothing electrically powered goes near there.. "cutting" anyways) ; which look so much darker once sheared than when still attached to my forlorn, now shorn; graying at the temples head.

but once done - i forever hear inside same said shorn head while looking intently in the mirror for those strays that always seem to escape those shearing metal teeth and stand alone proudly in defiance of the rest laid waste around them...the voice that makes me giddy to hear it:

"yep, you sure clean up nice now and then!"

ahhh, the sound of one who cared enough to tell me that i look good with, now very little or even sometimes no hair when the shaver gets a shot at my pate to leave it slick and shiny... bald as a newborns backside, and truthfully? ..... just as soft!

i much prefer it this way, no extra expense for shampoo or conditioners every day, and "bald" goes with any fashion sense really, and that is of course -

where i make my little turn on the catwalk...

bring on the party tonite -

i'm ready for you!

title generated thru the use of:

http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi

a great little timewaster of a site, guaranteed to give you a giggle or laugh dependant upon the chosen word submitted to "sloganize", or at the very least a huge ego boost if you merely insert your name here - and who doesn't love THAT?

samples generated for todays post?

How Many Licks Does It take To get To The Center Of A Bed Head?

It Makes You Bed Head Smack.

And All Because the Lady Loves Bed Head.

Theres Only One Bed Head.

Got Bed Head?

TAGGED!

Tagged


I was tagged by:_____________ (enter blog URL here and first name if known)


Copy and paste , change to your answers, then tag five more at the bottom and send them in a comment that they have been tagged at your Blogsite!





So, here it goes…


Fifteen Years ago: October, 1990
I was 33 years old, had just bought my first “Family” business – a flower shop I was working at part time - and set about putting my Mom and two sisters to work there. No degree from school, no career choices really, no “love interest”, still doing three jobs at once, and thinking I was relatively happy anyway – surrounded by Family and Friends.



Ten Years Ago: October, 1995
Converted the “Family” business from Florist to coffeehouse and art gallery, right at the beginning of the coffee explosion taking off, after one of the sisters had embezzled us into the ground – every family has a black sheep, some just never show themselves till it’s over and done.
Took about 9 months to set up out of pocket expenses, but it was quickly embraced into the neighborhood as the “in” spot to be, and garnered some really nice acclaim which made it worthwhile to rise from the ashes of the former business.



Five Years Ago: October, 2000
Now moved on from the coffeehouse – due to an expansion failure with a very bad choice in business partner to expand with, and working for Americas Largest Home Improvement Chain/Do It Yourself Warehouses where I was on a fast track to Administrative Management Position – and I really loved that job and the people I worked with. Injured on the job 3x in 6 years…



One Year Ago: October, 2004
Been on Disability for three months from work for the injury that literally “broke the camel’s back” , after seeing a Neurosurgeon, a Ortho Specialist, a Pain Management Specialist from referrals from my GP – I found out that my back was not gonna support the work that a Doug has to do anymore, and living with the Woman I thought I would grow old with – for I was truly in LOVE note: I have more Doctors phone numbers in my cell than I do family and friends combined… and ZenChi Greeneyes the First had joined our family just a week before…

Yesterday: Friday
Had a fantastic “pre-deposition” meeting with my new (second) Lawyer, who tells me I may see my settlement right around Christmas (What a gift that could be!), but have no one to celebrate this good news with….. my LOVE and I seperated Aug 21st, and I moved back in with my sister to begin again… and on the phone to tell her just isn’t the same as if in person.


Five Songs I Know All The Words To:
* Walks Like Lady - Journey
* Will of the Wind – Kenny Loggins
* Celebrate Me Home – Kenny Loggins
* In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
* Love is a battlefield – Pat Benatar


Five Snacks:
* Nutella and Ritz Crackers
* sliced lunch meat with mustard rolled up inside
* COSTCO Trail Mix
* Ding Dongs
* Red Licorice


Five things I'd do with 100 million dollars:
* Pay My Bills
* Buy a house in San Pedro, San Francisco; …and a Villa in Tuscany! (all where my heart lies…)
* Invest in the Youth of America thru Educational Programs
* Buy an election to clean out the White House
* Divide 50 million between 50 charities at random – 1 million per and do it anonymously


Five places I'd run away to:
* The City, and the Villa.
* Thailand and the Orient
* Amador County Wine Country
* The arms of my beloved
* A train ride across America


Five things I would never wear:
* Pants that would hold my entire family and hang halfway down my ass
* Pink shirts
* Members Only Jackets
* Makeup
* a toupee – hell, I’m 2/3rds bald now, why bother!


Five Favourite TV Shows:
* HOUSE
* Family Guy
* CSI – any of them
* NEWS junkie – CNN, FOX, Headline News any of them
* HGTV programming


Five Greatest Joys:
* My Barraza “Twins” in San Pedro – even though we are apart
* A childs laughter ringing thru the air…
* Coffee, Coffee Ice Cream, Coffee candy – is there a theme here?* A kitchen full of people – family, friends, and more while I make pasta or cook
* My Libraries – Books, Vinyl, Music


Five favourite toys:
* Digital and standard film cameras
* My 6 Disc Cartridge CD Player
* My Computer – because it keeps me connected to the outside world while disabled
* Word Based board games
* Silicone based Bedroom “Accessories” (Oh My!)


Five Current Reads:
* FROMMERS Dollarwise Guide to Italy – used while cataloguing my Italia Vacation from ‘88 pictures/slides
* Baudalino – Umberto Eco
* The DaVinci Code
* “Paris 2005” - Carlo Zezza Technology/Spy Novel
* Total Massage – Jack Hofer


Five People I am tagging to do this:

* http://ajgentile.typepad.com/ajs_piece_o_the_w/

* http://schmutzie.blogspot.com/

* http://everydaystranger.net/

* http://squelchie325.blogspot.com/

* http://www.micheleagnew.com/

(or, email me for a blank template to start clean: http://dversteeghblog.blogspot.com/)