the tonedef blog

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Saturday we slept in a little. Hell after yesterday 6 am would have been sleeping in. I was still up early enough to run out and get the fam some McDonald’s breakfast. After breakfast Pooh was picked up by her new beau and his family to go shopping at Cabelas. I decided since it was an unseasonably warm, nice day, I would cut the grass (hopefully for the last time before winter!)

Pooh got home around 4:30. We were all ready to go so we loaded up and headed up to pick up Band Mom’s Mom. Band Mom’s Mom wanted to take the whole family, including my folks and sister out to dinner since my sister was in town and My folks hosted Thanksgiving. So we all met up at Wai Wai in Canonsburg and had some Chinese buffet.

After dinner, we decided to go to South Hills Village Mall to do some shopping. Band Mom’s Mom opted out so Band Mom dropped Thing 1, Thing 2, Pooh, Pooh’s beau, and I off at the mall while she took her mom home. Pooh and her man took off on their own and I took Things 1 & 2 to the play area until Band Mom got back.

Band Mom stopped at the Phillip Pelusi as she came in and found that they weren’t busy. So she called me and I met her their. She stopped their because I was in desperate need of a haircut. So she took the little ones while I got my haircut. It turned out pretty good actually.

After the haircut I met back up with Band Mom and we wandered the mall a little. After a little bit we called Pooh to meet back up with us and headed home. Well not home so much as the middle of nowhere. We had to drop Pooh’s beau off first. Another friend of hers that lives in BFE.

When we got there Band Mom and Pooh walked him in and chatted with the family. I thought maybe a quick “Hello, yes he was fine at dinner. We stopped at the mall. See you later…” kinda conversation was gonna happen. Instead they were inside for an hour while Thing 2 slept and Thing 1 earned herself the new nickname Tootie McFartles. The only thing that saved it for me was that at 11 o’clock while I was listening to K Rock, Bob Orilee decides to play Side 1 of Slayer‘s Hell Awaits.

Band Mom and Pooh returned to the car as the last song of side one was playing so it looked like the ride home would be the Metal Disorder show so some old and new metal for the ride home. But instead they decided to play Side 2 of Hell Awaits. That hour restored my faith in radio. When have you or will you ever hear a Slayer song on the radio, much less an entire album. The final song of the album was playing as we pulled up to the house.

Friday was the infamous Black Friday. The kickoff of the Christmas shopping season. With retailers having huge sales at ungodly hours. Of course Band Mom has to hit these sales. So my alarm was set for 4:30 AM! That’s two hours earlier than it is set for me to go to work…

I finally got out of bed at 5:30 and got Band Mom and Pooh moving. We hit Wal Mart by 6 (an hour after the sale started mind you). We got some stuff there and headed over to Target, to get some more. Then over to Big Lots! for some cheap toys.

After that it was back to Walmart since they were running a deal on Cingular phones. We were still on the old AT & T plan through Cingular and Band Mom’s phone was dieing so it was time to migrate. The nice thing was Wal Mart had a great deal that when we migrated we could get free Motorola V3 RAZR phones. So Band Mom and I each got a Black one and Pooh got a pink one (that cost a little, but not much).

After that it was over to the Mall to hit EB Games. Then it we stopped at Garfield’s for some lunch. After lunch we headed home. Things 1 & 2 were with my folks till after dinner. Band Mom and Pooh both napped when we got home, but I couldn’t. But around midnight I was done and headed to bed.

I hate Black Friday. Why can’t the stupid stores just have the same deals, but start them at a reasonable hour like noon or something. Its nice to save a few bucks, but c’mon.

I hope everyone out there had a happy Thanksgiving this past Thursday. I know I did. It was a pretty relaxed day. We lazed around the house during the morning and Band Mom made some pumpkin muffins to take to dinner. Around 3 or so we headed up to South Hills and picked up Band Mom’s Mom. She needed to do a little shopping and yes stores are open on Thanksgiving Day. Actually K Mart was even running some sales. So Band Mom, her Mom, Things 1 & 2 and I wandered around K Mart for a while and Band Mom’s Mom even got some Christmas shopping done.

After shopping it was time to head to dinner. My folks were hosting dinner this year. My sister also made the drive up from South Carolina for the weekend. Right before dinner Pooh’s dad dropped her off at my folks’. Dinner was your standard Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and so on. We all ate till we about burst and sat around and chatted for a while. Around 9 we took Band Mom’s Mom home. Things 1 & 2 stayed with my folks’ overnight so Band Mom, Pooh and I could do the Black Friday shopping early Friday morning.

Saturday, I had decided to go paintballing with Pooh and her youth group. We met at her church around 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon. After everyone showed up we wagon trained it to the paintball facility. We made one stop on the way at the Park n’ Ride in Washington off of I70 to pick up the preacher’s wife. Heading out of there the lead car took off, the next two cars kept pace. Pooh and I were in my car and got a little behind, but we caught up with them by the next exit. We didn’t see Pooh’s Dad’s car or the other car the rest of the trip until we arrived.

We played paintball at All American Paintball Park in Greensburg. Its one of those indoor paintball facilities, like the stuff you see late night on ESPN or something. The whole group split into 5 teams of 7 or so after we got our rental weapons and our introduction to the game and rules from the staff. The games are fast paced. I’d never been paintballing before and didn’t really know what to expect. It wasn’t bad.

I think I would like to do an outdoor paintball session better though. You know something with a war-game kinda attitude not just a rapid fire boom your out kinda game. It was fun though shooting and getting shot at. The only thing is with this fast paced game you go through paint quick. Each rental gun came with 100 rounds of ammo as part of the rental fee. Extra paint was just that extra. The group bought like 6 cases of paint (at $55 a pop) and still ran out of paint.

After the session was over Pooh and I took off and headed home on our own. I wanted to get back before Mr. P was partied out. He was having a small gathering to celebrate his birthday. So we jetted home.

When we got home Bill was there. He wasn’t doing anything so Band Mom told him to come hang out and go to Mr. P’s with us. We went over to the party soon after I got home. We sat around and played some Texas Hold ‘Em and drank for a while. Around 11 or so Mr. P. was feeling no pain and thought it would be fun to prank call some people. So he did. Band Mom was egging him on pretty good so he tried to prank Rock, but didn’t get an answer. He did leave a voice mail for Sal though. One day I’ll call Sal and explain but not too soon…He also pranked Mike T who went right along with it and kept it going for like 15 minutes. He thought it was Santi for a while so that was killing Band Mom and I. We finally let him in on it though.

After the party Bill headed home, and Band Mom and I headed home to beddy bye.

Friday, I over-slept a little so was rushing to get out the door and get to work. I got ready and had some breakfast and was out the door with plenty of time to make it to work on time. Then when I started my car the “Check Engine” idiot light comes on on the dash. YIPPEE!! So I figure driving to West Virginia probably isn’t a great idea so I call in and take one of my vacation/sick days instead.

Band Mom and I figure its probably something minor like an oxygen sensor or something, so lets start with the obvious and get the oil changed, the oil filter changed and the air filter changed. So I take the buggy to Wal Mart for the 15 point oil change service. It takes about an hour and a half for them to get to my car and do the work.

When I get in my car again, the idiot light still lights up. So on the way home I stop at Auto Zone and have them hook up the little computer to check what the issue is with the idiot light. It turns out to be an oxygen censor, so I figure they just need to reset it and as long as it doesn’t come back on we should be good. And we were.

Now, while driving home I felt and heard the wind, as if my window were down. And lo-and-behold it was…sorta. See, my drivers side window doesn’t work. It comes off of the track anytime you try to lower it. Obviously the nice folks at Wal Mart needed to put my window down and couldn’t get it closed all the way. Nice of them to tell me…There is now about a 1/2 inch gap at the front bottom of my window and the top rear of the window. Its really not that big of a deal as I can fix it, but the least they could have done is let me know that they fucked it up in the first place.

The rest of the day was spent trying to get the stupid window up. Its easy in the sense that I’ve done this now a few times and know what to do, but its a matter of trial and error until it all comes together, so it takes a while.

The evening was spent at Thing 1′s school. They were doing a book reading/movie event for The Polar Express. The event was packed. I guess they were expecting like 50-100 people and got so many responses they actually had to turn people away. There were over 500 people there. Band Mom, of course, had volunteered to help out for the event and Things 1 & 2, Pooh and I also attended.

First we all gathered in the school auditorium. Then they broke us out into small groups and we went to other rooms in the building. Here each group got a teacher or administrator to read the book. After the reading we headed to the cafeteria for some cookies and drinks. Then it was back to the auditorium.

In the auditorium they showed the movie. All in all it was a nice event. Just a little long and right through dinner time, so there were a couple of kids that were a little annoying, but not many and it was kinda fun.

Since we missed dinner for the event, we hit the Arby’s drive through for a late dinner. Not long after we got home the kids crashed out and so did Band Mom. I stayed up for a little and watched the replay of Battlestar Galactica and played a few hands of poker on the PS2 before heading to bed myself.

Tuesday evening Band Mom, Thing 1, Thing 2 and I attended a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser for Bim and Bo’s church. It was out at Hugo’s in Brownsville. Usually spaghetti dinners are just okay, but this one was excellent. The spaghetti was suprisingly good. Then people from the church provided a bunch of deserts. Also excellent. We ended up having dinner with Bim and Bo and their parents, Councilman Matt, Sexual Vanilla and his mom. It was a pretty nice event and I hope the church raised the money it was looking for, because it was definitely worth it.

Thing 1 ate 2 plates of spaghetti, so she really liked it. For desert, she wasn’t really sure what she wanted and ended up with some banana bread. It was good enough that she had seconds. Thing 2 focused mainly on the deserts. She had some carmel cake, then most of Band Mom’s pineapple upside down cake, and pretty much anything else anyone would share with her. Bim and Bo’s mom made the carmel cake and some German chocolate cake that I hear was good (I hate coconut).

Sunday, we picked up Pooh from church around noon. Then we headed up to Band Mom’s Mom’s. We took her some gifts for her birthday and were going to take her to lunch. Band Mom found a short cut to the Grill Buffet that we have been going to for the past few weeks from her Mom’s. So we loaded up and headed out.

The shortcut definitely saved some time on the trip from South Hills to Bridgeville. However, when we got there the stupid Grill Buffet was closed. So we loaded back up and headed to Canonsburg to go to Wai Wai. After lunch we took Band Mom’s Mom home and headed home ourselves.

By this time the Steelers game had started so we listened to it on the way home. Holy crap we were winning for a change. Then we got home and by halftime we weren’t winning anymore. Luckily they did pull it out and ended up winning a game. So now its 3-6. Better than 2-7 but still nothing to cheer about yet.

Saturday, Pooh’s Dad came to get her and take her to Laurel Caverns to go caving with a group of friends for her birthday. Around 2 the rest of us headed over to a friends house. This friend (Miss Helen)’s 7 week old son passed away recently and she was holding a Celebration of Life in his honor. It was really touching. I can’t even imagine what she has been going through. Thing 1 & Thing 2 got to play with the other 3 sons and a bunch of other kids that were there. Miss Helen’s “mom” made a ton of food that was just excellent.

At one point during the gathering they had a balloon release. Everyone went outside and got a balloon that had a message taped to it. Unfortunately it started raining as soon as everyone got their balloon and it was time to release them. Many didn’t make it very far, but a few did take off in spite of the rain.

After that, Band Mom dropped me at home so I could get some stuff together and head over to Rock’s while she and Things 1 & 2 headed to Wal Mart. Yes that’s right we were getting together to practice again. We still haven’t found a bass player..so if you know one or are one call us already!

It was an early practice so I was home before 10. Band Mom and the girls were upstairs cleaning when I got home. After the bedrooms were clean I tucked the girls in and read to them for a little bit. Then Band Mom and I went downstairs and proceeded to clean up a little more. Its amazing how ratty our house can get.

Also this weekend Cinemax was showing all 6 Star Wars movies in order over and over again. So I had to watch Empire (twice today) and when nothing else was on any of the other 5 movies as well.

Friday evening we decided to take a trip to the mall to allow Pooh to cash in a gift card she received for her birthday from Hot Topic. She found some stuff she wanted while I was checking out the band Ts. As we were getting ready to leave Band Mom said I should get a shirt as I haven’t gotten anything in a while and it was pay day and all. Well, can’t so no to spending money on me so I got a new Slayer tour shirt.

After shopping Pooh decided she wanted to have dinner at Garfield’s. Now if you remember our last trip there you could guess how thrilled I was. However, this time wasn’t nearly as bad. We actually got decent service and the food we ordered.

The rest of Friday night was spent lazing around and catching the late replay of Battlestar Galactica.