Good morning Boys and Girls.

Okay, okay, so it's been a very short hiatus.

Shoot me.

I'm sitting at the dining room table of one of my oldest and dearest friends this morning. Bob lives here in Hell, Michigan, just a few hundred yards from the Damn (Dam) Site Inn and the capitol of Hell, Michigan, the year-round Halloween store where, I'll assume, he bought the "Once in a Lifetime - 666 (6-6-06)" mug out of which I'm drinking coffee this morning.

Bob went with me yesterday to see my son perform at Second City over in Novi. It was the graduation performance of Ry's level D class and it was pretty damn funny. Lots of improv games and audience participation. -Very glad I went.

This house sits on a little island just next to the wooden bridge that connects the island to the mainland - some twenty-four whole feet away. Yes, I said that right. I've been here a dozen times over the years, but I never even realized we were on an island here.

It came up because early this morning I noticed how solidly built the bridge across the channel is and mentioned it to Bob, which prompted him to tell me about the rebuild a few years ago. The township told the lake association it would no longer send emergency vehicles across the old one, so rickety had it become. I'd never noticed when I was here, but then, as I said, it's not all that long a bridge anyway. Regardless, he said it was fun pulling himself along a rope-line in a little boat to get home for a week or so while the rebuild took place. Bob the pioneer.

When I was eighteen, Bob was one of my investors in an ill-conceived plan to bring an incredibly talented, if obscure, Rock Band to Kalamazoo. The whole plot imploded a week or so prior to the concert and I lost my ass. It took me a couple of years to repay Bob, who at the time worked a job he hated as a parts-puller at a G.M. facility in Pontiac, Michigan. I'm pretty sure he'd lent me his entire nest egg. He was SUCH a good sport about it though. I don't think he even accepted any interest on the loan. Anyway, we've been friends for thirty-odd years and I love the guy.

Sounds like Sweet Lady and I may be coming back here to "Bobonia" (the name his friends have given the place) for Memorial Day. Hope so.


Be good to everyone.

For you Moms.

youtube.com/watch?v=IGoelj7l668

I'll be taking a break for a while.

Enjoy. 

Good evening Boys and Girls.

Just mowed the lawn here for the first time of the year. Smells great out there and, as usual, I have a sinus headache as a result.

Mixed emotions here. Looking forward to seeing my kid at Second City, Saturday in Novi, Michigan, but missing Sweet Lady and crew out in Iowa.

Good roomie Dot - now actually, ex-good roomie Dot, as she's already moved into her new apartment with beau Terry - is having some medical concerns after an appointment today regarding a breathing problem she's been dealing with for some time. Tests at the hospital Monday. Hope it's not too serious.

Roadie, the five-year-old Calico that owns a good chunk of my heart, went AWOL last night for a few hours. Couldn't find her anywhere. Then, just before I went to bed, and as I was yapping with Sweet Lady on the phone, I found her in the basement purposefully staring at the area between the washer and dryer.

Glad to have found her, I said goodnight to Sweet Lady and went to sleep quickly.

This morning, when I went to make coffee, I noticed something on the floor, just under the back of the easy chair Roadie jumps up on a few times a day to receive her treats. At first I thought it was a hairball. Nope. A dead baby mouse, tiny as can be, obviously presented as a trophy just for me. Roadie has no front claws, and to my knowledge this was her first kill. I was so proud.

Of course, earlier today, Sweet Lady pointed out to me that it's unlikely there's just one baby mouse down there and that I ought to be concerned about the ones Roadie didn't - or, as I prefer to see it, hasn't yet - killed.

Considering the location of this place, I'm surprised there aren't more mice around here than there have been. Other than when we first moved in, and we caught a few, this is the first of them. I know, however, that babies don't appear magically, so obviously there's at least a pair of them floating around.

I'm not worried.

I have a hunter cat.


Be good to everyone.

Just went to my kid's website and saw this. Someone did a weird youtube video to one of Ryan's strangest songs.

If you're interested, go to ryanparmenter.com (He's not in the video at all, but it is him singing.)