Augie

That’s a long time. I’ll pretend to think that you were just being funny, but I have my uncertainties. After all, it is TBD. .

I don’t love it if the pattern continues, but this ain’t that again.

….and be glad it happened in early June instead of August or September. What was his injury last year that caused him to miss games? Do you think the actual number is higher? Or lower?

It is their curse for beating us in the Super Bowls. Learn to live with it!

This is a good list to me, though somehow I’ve never seen more than snippets of Goodfellas. You had the first mention of Field of Dreams which I enjoyed. I’d add Contact to that list, not because it’s a great cinematic masterpiece but some things just speak to you more than others.

Well, it’s the Bengals, soooo…. Not shocking.

They are great, until you lose internet connection! We had a storm Saturday and have not had Spectrum internet since, hence no streaming anything including regular DTV Streaming programming. The wife went to the trouble of resetting everything and then getting a new modem. Nada. She even reinstated the DTV dish for a few channels at least, but of course it’s raining so that doesn’t work either. All this great technology is great, until you lose it. VERY frustrating!

My wife was recently informed that her position was eliminated as part of a reorganization. That sounds like a bad thing, but it’s a GREAT thing! She was “eligible” to retire in about 13 months. She would have worked much longer if she was enjoying it, but that was not the case. It was hell on earth. So, they offered her a package paying her NOT to work most of that time. It’s not just about the money. They say if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water it will jump right out, but it you put it in water and slowly turn up the heat they will cook to death. That is what was happening to her. It’s happening all over corporate America. SO…… the great part is having my wife back. We are going to a show tonight and doing things we haven’t done in years. It’s so great to have her back relaxed and tension free. It’s a whole new life for both of us.

I’ll go with Spiro Gyra. I had some of their stuff.

That was what I was afraid of. Venice is the one I have not seen, and it’s kind of tugging on me. I’d like to include that in a trip also seeing Lake Como and some of Switzerland. We just saw the Amalfi coast on a day trip and I’d love more time there, but I want to see more new places.

Thanks. Obviously their music was part of the backdrop of the times, but it was never really my thing. While I never went out of my way to hear their music, I’d love to see their story if it’s easily accessible.

I really doubt anyone wanted to touch him there!

Happy birthday! Be thankful for your blessings and take nothing for granted.

That is officially for reading menus in dark restaurants. As far as you know.

I mentioned above the 3 hour drive to Sorrento to take a small boat to Capri. There were 4-5 couples on this boat, and I had been up since 5:30am to get there on time. We’re running late to leave because one couple has not shown up yet. A little more time passes, and nobody is yet looking TOO annoyed….and then they show up and he was in a Bills shirt. We were brothers, and all was forgiven. .

My sister regularly uses a travel service and goes with groups and they LOVE it. It’s a family who own a hardware store who used a travel agent to plan a big trip and they said “We could have done better than that!” And they did. She’s been using them for decades and they have run out of places to go….from Viet Nam to most recently the Antarctic. For that trip there is stuff you need to know and gear you have to have. They tell you what to bring and provide the rest. It’s a LOT more than just booking hotel rooms. Someone who knows the lay of the land adds value as long as you keep flexibility. I’m very curious, I’ve been to two of the three cities in Italy. How would you rank them? .

Fred Jackson didn’t feel like just another player on the team. Somehow he felt more like Uncle Freddie, one of us.

I found the language barrier to be intimidating before going to Europe the first time, but my first trip was on a small cruise ship. The cruise aspect with the side excursions booked made me feel more comfortable. I quickly realized my fears were greatly overblown. As one of my sisters said, “You know what I see most of in Europe? Other tourists.” The places we traveled are generally geared to serving us in exchange for our euros. My SIL used to take college kids on trips to Europe for Penn State. She worked with a French lady who splits her time between Paris and NYC and got all the agendas worked out. This lady knows the ropes and we had an amazing trip. I don’t know how much extra that’s cost was on the Paris/Italy trip, but I’d say it was well worth it.

I took 6 years of French as a kid, and I currently have over 600 consecutive days of French lessons on Duolingo (free, easy and helpful). We went to Paris then Italy a couple years ago, but I’m glad I didn’t have to rely on my language skills. I’d ask for the check or simple things in French trying to be polite with my attempt, but there was no way I was keeping up in a conversation. English was spoken almost everywhere, and where it’s not, you will figure it out. We had a driver take us from Rome to Sorrento for a day trip to Capri, about 3 hours each way. We left at 6am and after a couple hours of him driving and me sleeping we stopped at this “gas station” for a break and to fill up. The “gas station” was also a first class deli and bakery, with restrooms that looked like a spa with showers, etc. The driver goes out to fill up, and we were the only English speaking people inside. We went to the bakery, took a pic of what we wanted and showed it to the cashier and held up 2 fingers. We paid, and we took the receipt to the baker who gave us our food. This was before we had the translate app, and figuring out how to get it done was half the fun. The translate app makes everything super easy. You just talk into it and it does the translation for you. One thing about Italy that surprised me was the archaic plumbing in places. You might go into a nice restaurant in a nice area, and even toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet. Flushing was not always a given, but I’d love to go back. Helpful hint: Learn a couple basic phrases to save you in a pinch. We were in a very touristy area in Spain a few years ago but nobody spoke English. Knowing “Donde esta el bano” came in extremely handy on one occasion! 😂 EDIT: They have earbuds now that will do the translation for you, but I don’t have any experience with that yet. These translation apps are a very cool thing about living right now. They knock down barriers and that’s a good thing. .

Do you mean….the famous millionaire? I know who he is!

I would have done better on the SAT’s if they didn’t take place so early in the morning. The hangover didn’t help either.

….generally if you are the under-performer.

Golf is more between the ears than on the club face. Everybody is up and down, that is the nature of the game and it always has been.

But I’ll take the over on how many plays he lasts. Vegas has the over/under line kinda low since he was gone after the 4th play a couple years ago. I bet he gets into double digits before something goes south. That’s an interesting point I had not considered. We need to move Hard Knocks stat!

….except I may or may not actually show up….drama is everything.