Lately I have had an interest in discovering new wines. With weekly trips to the liquor store resulting in 3 or 4 new bottles. I have been finding my increased alcohol consumption a real big factor in my lack of focus and ability to say no to other things. I have been trying to leave the wine for weekend dinners. Splitting a bottle on Saturday and Sunday with my wife and maybe another throughout the week. Some small bottles, some not so small bottles. An open bottle usually results in my drinking 3/4 of it, something that I need to put an end to. At least on a weekly basis. I have fond myself looking forward to the weekends, which can be a good thing. But, I have also found myself eating more and more on the weekends as well. Looking for a nice dinner to make and enjoy with the wine. Not a bad thing in itself, but when I make a nice dinner, I tend to go overboard. Making more and more stuff for the 4 of us each time.
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Here comes a rant! I have been holding back on this one for awhile. But, I have come to a point where I need to vent. It is hard enough to find decent clothes when you are built big. I can’t go down the street to the local shopping center because they just don’t have the sizes. I think there is one store locally that sells clothes and is generally way overpriced and most places just don’t sell anything over 2XL. As much as that sucks, it isn’t really a big problem. A few years ago I found a couple of places to buy from online. One being Casual Male and the other Being King Size Direct. Each one had different products that I liked. King size had some shorts and jersey knit pants that I really like wearing. They were built well and very comfortable. Casual Male sells shirts that I like as well as casual khakis. For the most part, the products from Casual Male have stayed the same. The quality is pretty good. But the stuff from King Size has had lower and lower quality each time I place an order.
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I took my son on his very first camping trip this past summer. It was a great opportunity for the two of us to spend some quality time together and we both had a great time. I wasn’t sure how things would go seeing it was my first time camping in well over 15 years and my first time tent camping since I was a kid. I bought a bunch of gear over the past two years. I had planned on going last year but, I just didn’t feel up to it at the time. So, I put it off until this year. We bought the Wenger Lugano 16- by 10-Foot Two-Room Eight-Person Family Tent with Canopy. We also picked up some good quality air mattresses and tons of other essential and non essential gear. I decided to make it a short mid week trip since this was our first outing. I wanted to see how things went before taking any extended trips. We made a reservation at Ricketts Glen State Park for 4 days during late August. Ricketts Glen is about an hour or so north of us. I wanted to go to a place close enough to home that if something went wrong we didn’t have to drive far to get back home; yet far enough away that it felt like we actually went somewhere. I also wanted to go somewhere that would give us plenty of options for activity during our stay.

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We went into summer with the intent of doing a little bit of landscaping. That little bit turned into a lot! Our initial plans were to put down some edging, some stone and some outdoor lighting along the walk that goes through our yard. After getting the ground ready and starting the edging, we decided to get an above ground pool installed. Probably would have been much easier if we had decided on the pool first. But, life isn’t easy. After the pool was finally installed, we continued with our plan for lining the outside of the walk with stone and lights and expanded on it to include 4 – 2 foot square stones to go under the ladder for our new pool and surrounding the pool with stone as well. We ended up with 4 – 80 pound 2×2 foot stone blocks and around 8000 pounds of river rock. We still have around 1200 pounds left in the driveway with additional plans that we put off until fall.

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I have wanted to get a pool for awhile. But, it was never the right time. Between money and work and other factors, we just never did it. This year changed that. We decided to get an above ground swimming pool installed in May. Back in April we decided to do some landscaping with the yard. Some edging, a little stone and some walkway lights. In late May I was out getting some of the work done and it was a super hot day. I decided that this was the year. If it was so hot already in May, then we were going to get a pool and enjoy the summer. After talking with the guy at the pool place and an excavator he recommended we decided to push forward after they assured us we could be swimming in our new pool by the end of June. Things didn’t quite go as planned. Mainly because the excavator couldn’t be bothered to return my phone calls or come and level the land for us. Anyway, we finally got to take our first swim around mid July and we have been enjoying the pool since.

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I was shopping a few days ago at one of the local grocery stores and in their deli section they had meatloaf on sale. I have been wanting to get some for awhile, and just never have. My wife and kids don’t much like meatloaf. So, it isn’t something we ever have. I decided to get a pound and take it home. I almost forgot how much I like meatloaf sandwiches. I like to take two pieces of toast and some mozzarella cheese, heat up two thin slices of meatloaf about 1/8 to 1/4 pound of it then place the meatloaf on a slice of toast with the slice of mozzarella over it and melt it in the toaster oven. Then i put a bit of ketchup and mayo on the open piece of toast and slap it together. Good thing I don’t get that too often or I might start to look like a meat loaf.. hehe

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