I have been having some challenges with this blog.  The location where this blog is hosted has been experiencing some technical difficulties.  They lost a router and the replacement has not worked up to par since.  The majority of the sites the host serves now work great but anything running on WordPress has been a bit slow.

They are trying to figure out this mystery, in the mean time please be patient as this blog loads.

Thanks

Ahh…I remember when I was a kid during this time of the year.  There was great anticipation for Christmas.  The snow would make the landscape a winter wonderland and everything would be great…

That is until the Scary Christmas Shows began showing up on TV.

The most frightening of them all was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer created in stop motion animation. Every year…every single year, since 1964 they have shown this terrifying TV special. I know most of you think of this show as a cute if not quirky rendition of the classic song by Johnny Marks and the original 1939 poem by Robert May.

But there are kids the world over that cower in fear when they realize that their parents are going to watch this horror flick.  The frightening Bumble also known as the Abominable Snow Monster of the North has scared me more times than I would like to admit.  His incredible strenght, gnashing teeth and psycho eyes…..brrrr…..a shiver has just run up my spine…..yes he is scary indeed.  This creature, probably a Yeti, chases anyone and everyone and probably eats his prey.

Near the end of the show there is the misfit toy by the name of Charlie-in-th-box.  Charlie guards the Island of Misfit Toys.  This Jack-in-the-boxesque entity pops out unexpectedly as visitors approach.  His eyes hold a bit of crazy similar to Bumble’s eyes.

Fortunately the show has a happy ending otherwise it would be completely unbearable.

While browsing the Kmart Lay-Away online I ran across the iLive flat panel speaker system. I would like to upgrade my surround system that I currently “own”. As with much of my electronics my current system was given to me second hand. Which is a great way to get stuff but it usually isn’t the most current equipment.

Anyway back to the iLive speaker system, it has an iPod dock so you could watch downloaded video on your TV.  Cool feature!

Kmart’s Layaway Program offers the opportunity to pay for your merchandise over an 8 week period.  It is an easy way to pay for Christmas gifts.  Don’t be left out in the cold!

The do charge a $5.00 fee for new layaway contracts.  They also charge a $10.00 cancellation fee.  And they have a laundry list of items that you cannot put in layaway.  Some examples are: beer, wine, smokes, food, live plants, personal computers, cell phones, oil, drugs, and magazines.  There are more but I got tired of typing.  I’m sure you,  dear reader, get the idea.

Kmart doesn’t accept new layaways between December 12th and January 2nd.

You can pay for your layaway with cash, check, credit card, debit card, gift card….but not EBT food stamps…like duh…if you can’t layaway food why would you think you could use food stamps.

Ok maybe food is a stretch.  More like treats.  Lots and lots of treats.  Two birthdays at work this week so that means two days of cake.  Plus pumpkin pie with whipped cream [I love the whipped cream ].  Not sure why the pumpkin pie was there but I took some anyway.

Now there are donut holes!  And apple cider! Wow! what a week for treats!

With me eating the treats at work it means that I can spend less on food.  I know, I know it is not the healthiest stuff to eat but it is free.  I’ll take all the free stuff I can get.  Such is the life of a beach bum.

They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  But they are wrong, dead wrong.  I eat free lunches all the time.  Today’s free lunch was from Cheeseburger in Paradise.  I had those tiny little burgers with sweet potato chips.

I ask you dear reader, “Isn’t getting a free lunch just part of being a beach bum?”  My answer, “Of course it is!”  Your opinion may vary, although I have no idea why it would.

You maybe wondering how this beach bum gets a free lunch.  It is all a matter of being in the right place at exactly the right time.  My current example is wandering into the break room as the delivery of food was being made.  A co-worker in the sales force, of which I am not part of, won a lunch for her work group.  I happened to mention that the food looked tasty much better than the dry sandwich which I was about to eat.  I didn’t mention that I was going to lunch early because I had got wind of the quasi-celebration.  They of course asked me to join in the festivities.  Voila!!! Free lunch!!! Hardly any work at all. 

The days grow shorter, the air becomes cooler, beach shops begin closing and I closed my pool.  Alas poor Summer, I knew you well.  And I will miss you.  Until next year my old friend.

So I bet that the devoted readers of this humble little blog are now wondering, “What is this guy going to blog about until next summer?”

Great question.  The answer will be revealed right after this brief commercial.  Ok no commercial, but if I had a TV show you know that would have been the case.

I think that over the course of the impending winter I will be discussing, among other things, the sand quality at various beaches in Michigan.

I know!!! Those posts will be sooooo exciting!!! I can hardly wait to write them. <wink>

Yes, that’s right I did two paid posts in a row.  At this point of my blogging paid posts are my quickest way to make some cash.  So you’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to since the end of volleyball season and the whole big bee incident.  Well I’ve mostly been working that real world job that allows me to spend some of my time as a beach bum. 

But now that the bee situation seems to be taken care of I now have an woodpecker that thinks a corner of my house would make a good place to live.  So back to Google to find a way to keep old Woody away. Tomorrow I’ll be running to Meijer to purchase a couple of concave mirrors to place on the house.  They are suppose to make Woody think twice about pecking on my house.  Wish me luck!

You may have seen advertisements for the Great American Seafood cook off on the Food Network.  It is brought to you by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion Board.

I visited the site and reviewed the recipes.  Since I’m partial to creole cooking I selected the Mississippi Redfish Courtboullion with Seafood Dirty Rice.  The recipe was created by Chef John Currence of Mississippi. The picture makes the recipe look yummy…I’m hungry just thinking about it.  Or maybe I’m hungry because I skipped breakfast this morning.  It still looks yummy though.

There is one thing that I would change about the recipe.  I would replace the Top Shock beer in the dirty rice portion of the recipe with Bell’s Oberon beer.  Oberon is a local favorite and would give the dirty rice more of a Michigan flair.  Hmm I’m thinking of giving the recipe a try this weekend.

All the recipes include domestic seafood. This means that the seafood is both fresh and locally caught.  Of course fresh seafood has better taste and texture than seafood that has been sitting in a container ship of days.  Buying seafood caught locally helps our economy and this year the economy needs the help.

Due to regulations that apply to domestic fishing our seafood is a sustainable resource.  There is no need to worry about over fishing that could create a shortage that could lead to higher seafood prices.

So check out the contest and the recipes at www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com.  If you enter and vote you could even win a trip to New Orleans!

As with every other year Labor Day is the bookend to summer in Michigan.  The season of Michigan’s beach bums has expired.  Truly a sad day for me because I know a long cold winter will keep me from the beach.

Labor Day brings what is usually the final day of beach volleyball.  This year my partner and I made it to the “Club Finals.”  Although it is not actually a country club or even a yacht club this is what we call it. We divide the contestants into teams of two and play single elimination until only one team remains.  I had the advantage of being paired with this years tallest player.

We played well through the rounds and felt confident going into the finals.  The team that we faced consisted of our gracious host and top notch regular so we expected a good game.  It ended up being a good match although we had a hard time sealing the deal.  Yes we won!

Now it is time to morn summers passing.  Cheers!

Well the buckets sprayed with bee killer seems to have done the trick.  There were a bunch of dead bees around the entrances and I am hoping that some bees that had been coated with the poison returned to the underground core of the hive to spread the poison to the queen.  I have dumped dirt over the two entrances and soaked it with water.  I’ll monitor the two spots for the next several days to see if new entrances appear.

Thanks for you comments on the previous two posts, I appreciate the input.