the tonedef blog

Saturday Band Mom and I slept in past noon because of last night. We got up and got a slow start to our day. We got the girls back and later in the afternoon Band Mom took her car to Sears to get new tires and to see if they could fix the spare thingy. The girls and I headed over and picked her up after she dropped the car off. Then we all headed home. Later Band Mom got a call from Sears. Apparently they wanted to juice her for more money. They tried to upsell her (over the phone) for some stuff that she didn’t want in the first place, then ended the conversation by telling her that they broke a pin and lug nut trying to remove the spare and they were going to charge her for the part and the labor to fix it. The guy on the phone is really lucky he didn’t say this to her face and that she was not holding a sharp or a blunt object…

I took her back to get the car around 6:30. She didn’t even play, she just asked for the store manager. He immediately took the charge for the part and the labor for the part they broke off her bill. They weren’t able to fix the spare thingy. (I think they didn’t try very hard for fear of breaking a second item on the car, but that’s just me.) But they did manage to rig it a little better than we did to keep it from dragging.

We stayed in and just sorta hung out the rest of the night. We had dinner. Watched some TV. Then around 11:30 Band Mom found out Mr. H and Ms. K were at the casino. She decided she wanted to go again to. So we got JuJu to babysit for us and headed out. We stayed a few hours and came home to all 3 girls sound asleep on the futon. We then headed to bed.

Earlier in the week Double D gave me a call and invited Band Mom and I to join him and his wife at the Pirates game Friday night. Even though Band Mom nor I gave 2 hoots about seeing a baseball game a night out with Double D and his wife sounded like a good time, plus I can’t pass up free tickets to anything.

So Friday Band Mom dropped Things 1 & 2 off at my parents’ house on her way to pick her mom up from physical therapy. My parents’ agreed to babysit for the night so we could go to the game. I got home from work and changed and then we waited for Double D to come pick us up. He finally did and then we headed out to the ball park. We were running a little late and missed about an inning and a half. None of us cared, we weren’t there for the game per se, just the trip.

Its a shame I don’t like baseball. PNC Park is a gorgeous ball park. And we had killer seats right behind 1st base. Well no one had had dinner yet so Double D and I left the girls in the seats and went on a food run. Both wives wanted some wings from Quaker Steak & Lube. So we got in line there and got them each an order of wings and a drink. Double D then got in line at Primanti Bros. while I took the girls their food. I got back and he hadn’t moved much in line, but finally we got our sandwiches and headed back to the seats.

We ate and chatted and watched some of the game (not really, but it was right in front of us and hard not to watch). Well at the ball park the 7th inning stretch is also last call, so we figured that was as good a time as any to leave. The Pirates were actually in the lead over the Reds 5 – 2, not that any of us cared.

Then we headed back into town. We stopped at our house and Band Mom got her car and went and picked up Princess. While she was doing that Double D, Mrs. D and I headed to Old Trails. KJ was working the door and Ruff Creek was playing. Soon after we got there Band Mom and Princess got there as well. We all hung out there till after 1, then Band Mom and I took Mrs. D home. Double D had to close up the bar after the band, but Mrs. D went home. We then picked up the Ds’ babysitter who is a daughter of a friend of ours. We took her home and finally dropped Princess off at home.

Then Band Mom and I made one more stop. Where you ask? Duh? The casino. We ended up playing for a couple of hours more. We finally got our asses out of the casino a little before 5 in the AM. As we’re walking to the car we notice the we have a flat. @#*!&$^@

Well how bad can that be? If there’s one thing I can do its change a tire. Except on a damn mini van. Have you ever done that? Its a pain in the ass. The spare is underneath the car. In our van because of the Sto & Go seats its in the front under the driver and passenger seats. Getting that down was a giant pain in the ass. But we finally got it down and got the tire changed. Then we couldn’t get the damn thing that hold the spare to crank back up into the vehicle. It was dragging on the ground. We fought with that for ever and finally Band Mom jury rigged it so that at least it wasn’t dragging on the ground. We ended up not getting home until after 6:30, both tired, bitchy and dirty.

Outside of the flat tire crap, this was truely a fun night out with friends…

Here’s a little funny for you all…I was checking out how my blog was doing using Google Analytics. One thing you can check is search terms used on different search engines that to the site. So apparently someone using bing ended up on my blog after using this search term:

feeling of pooping when asleep

Now that is funny…

So out of curiosity I headed over to bing and did that search myself. After 100 pages of search results I still didn’t see my blog anywhere. I was really curious which blog entry that search term led to.

If the person doing that search happens to be reading this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment and tell me the story of that search…

Things 1 & 2 headed out to the beach with my folks last Thursday. I worked Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But starting Wednesday night I was on a 5 day weekend. Wednesday night Band Mom and I started our vacation with dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Princess. After dinner Princess went her own we and we ours. Ours was to the casino…Surprise, surprise. We spent a few hours there, but didn’t have much luck. Oh well, its vacation.

Thursday, during the day, we put some new carpet in the office, that was our big project this year. Okay there were other things that didn’t get done, but such is life. Eventually I went and picked up Telly and headed back to our house. KJ and Princess also came over. Band Mom did some chicken and burgers on the grill and we all ate and watched the first pre-season game for the Steelers. It was more bsing than game watching, its pre-season after all. But we did watch the Steelers beat the Cardinals in a replay of last year’s Super Bowl.

After the game, KJ and Princess took Telly home, and then Band Mom and I headed back to the casino. Our original plans were to go to the new Rivers Casino during the day to check it out, but because of the Steelers game, they were charging $50 for parking. Really? $50? I don’t think so. So we just stayed local. We both had some crap luck early on, but I then hit on a few machines and came out ok. We both ended up walking out with some cash in our pockets.

Friday and Saturday were spent at home for the most part. We didn’t do much. Except get on each others’ nerves. All things worked out in the end, but those 2 days weren’t exactly great.

Sunday, I got to use on of my birthday presents. My mom and my sister got me 2 tickets to Crue Fest 2. So Double D and I were on our way. I picked him up a little before 5 and we hit the road. We made a stop at the beer distributor and then ran through McDonald’s on our way to Post Gazette Pavilion.

Neither of us knew any of the bands on the second stage so we were in no hurry to go into the show. We hung out in the parking lot and tailgated for a while. We finally wandered into the show a little while later. We had missed all of the second stage bands and actually missed a couple on the main stage. We caught the very end of Theory Of A Deadman. After them was Godsmack. They put on a killer show. They were one of the bands I was really looking forward to seeing and I wasn’t let down one bit.

Finally it was time for Motley Crue. I’ve been a Crue fan since the early ’80s. I’ve seen them a number of times over the years. I was a little disappointed this time around. It was the 20th anniversary of my least favorite Crue album, Dr. Feelgood. They opened the show by playing the entire(?) album. After that they only played a few more songs and nothing off of Too Fast For Love. I was a little bummed. But, all in all it was a good time hanging out with Double D for the day.

After the show we headed back to Double D’s house and hung out for a little bit and then I went home. Band Mom and I stayed up pretty late talking before finally heading to bed.

Monday, Band Mom had to take her mom to a doctor’s appointment and physical therapy. After we picked up her mom from therapy, I dropped Band Mom at home and headed to my folks to pick up Things 1 & 2. They got back Sunday night, but went to the pool during the day Monday. I picked up the girls and headed home. The four of us visited for a while, then I took Thing 1 to cheerleading practice. After practice, Band Mom, Thing 2 and I picked her up. Then we picked up Pooh at Band Mom’s Mom’s. The 5 of us then headed to dinner at Red Robin at Pooh’s request. This was her going away dinner since on Tuesday she was moving in to her dorm at Duquesne. After dinner Band Mom dropped the little ones and I at home and took Pooh back to her Dad’s.

That ended my vacation. Tuesday it was back to the grind…

Saturday was the first day where I didn’t have work, there was nothing on the schedule, and there were no kids. Band Mom and I spent the day just lazing around the house for the majority of the day. It was kinda nice having zero plans and a house that was quiet. There just wasn’t much going on.

In the late afternoon both Band Mom and I got showered and dressed and ready to go. We got a quick bite at home before heading out for the evening. We headed up to Old Trails. Double D was working the door, and our friends KJ, and Princess were also there. The band for the evening was Ruff Creek. We have friends in the band and always enjoy being able to head out and see them.

We hung at the bar until around 1:30, then took Princess home. We then headed over to the casino. We’re both still playing on the money that we started with about 4 or 5 trips ago. And we both came out up on the night so that was fun. We finally headed home around 4 and hit the sack…

Wednesday night, after Thing 1′s cheerleading practice, we went out to dinner with my folks. Nothing fancy just a quick dinner at Eat N Park. After dinner Things 1 & 2 went home with my parents since on Thursday they were all heading out for their yearly trip to South Carolina. Band Mom Pooh and I then headed home. It was strangely quiet since the little ones weren’t there and its not been that long since we got rid of Daisy.

Thursday after work, Band Mom and I were heading to the casino. A former employee of Band Mom’s is now a waiter at one of the restaurants at the casino. Band Mom wanted to go and support him and this was originally supposed to be a group dinner, but turned out to be just the two of us. And of course we couldn’t just eat there and not play games, so after we ate we played for a little bit. Neither of us was doing particularly well, and I had to work on Friday, so we didn’t stay long or late.

Friday we were going to go out and see a friends band. We’d been talking about it for a week or so. We had every intention of going. Then we ended up getting a really late start on our evening. When I got home from work, Band Mom was wiped out from the days activities with her mom (chemo, physical therapy, etc) and was laying down. She finally got motivated then we headed out. We had to make a stop at Target before they closed and then Wal Mart. We were looking for something for her mom and neither place had it. Then we stopped over her Mom’s to do some stuff and visit for a little bit.

We still hadn’t had dinner when we left there so we went to Applebee’s for some grub. We ate and by the time we left the restaurant it was after 11. We swung back home and picked up our neighbor. Then the 3 of us headed to the casino. Band Mom and I were both up and down all night and weren’t doing real well. Ms K on the other hand walked out rather up on the night when we finally did leave and head home.

We got home and after walking the dog went to bed for the night.

Saturday had nothing major on the plans. I slept in. I finally got up and got moving. My dad had called and wanted to pick up Things 1 & 2 and take them to the pool. So Thing 1 jumped in the shower and got ready. When she was done, I threw Thing 2 in the shower. That’s when the “fun” began.

After the shower I turned to get Thing 2 a towel. And WHAM! It felt like someone ran up on me and cracked me in the back with a 2 x 4! I doubled over and fell to the ground. I had to crawl into my bedroom because I couldn’t even get up. I made it to the bed and found a way to climb onto it. The girls got themselves ready and then got Band Mom for me. I didn’t know what was up with the pain. No position relieved it. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was my back or something wrong internally. I couldn’t get up. We actually were trying to decide if we needed to call an ambulance. It hurt so bad I couldn’t even take a deep breath without getting balled up with pain.

My folks came and got the girls, and I was still on the bed. I finally was able to stand and get downstairs. After walking and stretching a bit the pain was bearable. Not gone mind you but bearable. Every now and then my back would spasm again and double me up. I laid on the couch and just tried to maintain. I got caught up on some DVR though.

Band Mom had to run to Pittsburgh around 6 to pick up Pooh from her new job. I wasn’t going anywhere as I couldn’t sit up for more than a couple of minutes without being racked with pain. So Band Mom made it a girls night out. Her and a couple of friends went to pick up Pooh and have some dinner. While they were gone, Things 1 & 2 called to see if they could spend the night at my folks. That was fine with me. Wasn’t like I was going to be able to do anything. Band Mom got back around 9 and Pooh headed back to Band Mom’s Mom’s. Band Mom and her friends were going to go out for the evening, but instead ended up hanging out on Ms. K’s porch and chatting.

I ended up clearing all my DVRed stuff. I then watched Pineapple Express on OnDemand. This was a mistake because laughter hurt…bad. I watched some more movies as well. But no more comedies. Band Mom ended up going out for some late night grub with her friends. When she got back around 3 she convinced me to head to bed rather than spend the night on the couch. So I hobbled upstairs and tried to get comfortable. It took a while, but I eventually fell asleep.

Friday there wasn’t much going on. Band Mom had spent the day running around. After work I came home and watched a little DVR and hung out with Things 1 & 2. Pooh was over for the night as well. Later on I put in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl on Blu Ray, that a buddy at work loaned me. Pooh has always been a fan of the Pirates movies and lately Thing 1 has become a big fan thanks to the online game. And since my birthday, I’ve been wanting to watch anything Blu Ray.

We were watching that and then Band Mom collected me and we were going to head to the casino. She and I were going to eat there and then game a bit. When we got there though the crowd was about as bad as when we took her mom and aunt. (We found out later it was a combination of a big $95,000 drawing and The Four Coins.) Like last time, we weren’t parking in a field, so we turned around and headed somewhere else to eat.

We ended up eating at Applebee’s since Band Mom had a gift card. We had a nice meal and then decided to try the casino again. This time we got up and into the parking garage. So we headed in to play. We both had a good night doubling our money before we left. So after a few hours of gaming we headed home and to bed.