Say a good word up there for me will ya?

We on this Earth lost a really good one. Mr. Boike lost his battle with the D@MN 'C' word, cancer. It's just not fair that good people like him are not here with us but THIS @$$ CLOWN is!
Here are a few things I want to thank you for:

THANK YOU for paying me to clean your accounting firm even though there were nights I did it after I worked promotions for the Checkers and then an after party at Samson's Hole (Don't bother looking for it because it's gone) and 95% of the time I was PLASTERED and I THINK I cleaned your office... HA!

THANK YOU because you are one of the people that 'exposed' me to The Clark Howard Show.... You see when I cleaned your office, a few times it was on your radio at your desk and so now I download his podcast and listen EVERYDAY!

THANK YOU for ALWAYS being in the SAME section every time I did a promotion for the Checkers so I knew exactly where to throw a 106.5 'The End' t-shirt.....

THANK YOU for being one of the people to mold the way I think about money.

THANK YOU for helping me 'get back on my feet' when I moved back from WI. with the odd jobs you would give me.

THANK YOU for giving me 'the rabbits of the plant world' day lilies like 8 years ago. I always think I gave most of them away to friends at work BUT I STILL find some growing someplace and I always say to myself  "that's weird, I don't remember planting any here."

THANK YOU for buying the container, designed by someone from NASA, and filling it full of chocolate chips so I could relive my breakfasts in high school!!! 1st period= ON FIRE. 2nd period= sleeping....

THANK YOU for always laughing and just shaking your head when your wife would ask me a random question, usually about something that would make most people 'blush', and I would answer it honestly.....  

THANK YOU for buying that piece of property out on Lake Wylie in 1978 so years later I and your son and others could drink a beer or two out there when we weren't of legal age.

THANK YOU for always paying your son and I for all the bags of leaves we could fit in the Gran Torino station wagon so you could put them in your garden and instilling in me that ANY organic material is great for the soil.

THANK YOU for 'tolerating' your son and I using your garage to work on our cars when we were teenagers.

THANK YOU for sleeping soundly so that Boike had no problem coming home WHENEVER because he knew YOU would sleep through anything.

THANK YOU for always giving me tax advice when I had questions.

THANK YOU for taking this picture 15 years ago that I STILL laugh at!!

THANK YOU for having one of the best dry scene of humors that always had me laughing! 

THANK YOU for ALWAYS giving me a beer so I could cope with working on your computer that was as slow as the TRS 80 I worked on in Ms. Bednar's reading class in 1986.

THANK YOU for being an all around damn good guy!

Believe me now, and hear me later, tell someone how you feel about them before....... WELL..... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE........

Go ahead "MAKE MY DAY punk"! HA!!! But seriously, it's that time of the year when you can ask me anything and I will answer it..... So fire away!!!!! The ground rules are that there ARE NONE!!!!! Leave me a question and I will TRY NOT to be a politician and SPIN IT!!!! I'd say write me a question on DA BOOK, Instagram, Twitter or MySpace (Is that ever around anymore?), but I'm hardly on them so just ask it here. OKIE DOKIE?

Before I go, I want to present a great piece of history which is now the center piece to my table on 'DA ODE'. I PRESENT to you the 'leaning tower of hot dogs'!!!! HA!!!!! Boike made this like 30 years ago in an art class.

Sure, it has a 'phallic' look to it, but I don't think the 8 year artist was going for that; I think his love of hot dogs was the main inspiration. Here, let's have the artist describe his sculpture:

"Dude, I did the thing in like 4th grade. I don't even know what I was thinking last year, let alone what drove me to build a tower of wieners. It could have been after seeing the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile on I-95 coming back from Savannah. It could have been a wiener replica of the Eiffle tower (to defame the Frenchies most visible symbol, of when they were great, with the lowly HOT DOG). It could have been that I was in a bit of a box funk (you know after you build to many box like things in pottery class). Of course I did glaze it brown, so it could be some kind of dirty wiener too. In the end most of us artists like to leave what it means up to the people that view them, so please have your vast web audience let me know what they THINK it means!

*and please spell check this $hit!*

Have a great month and always remember that 'people don't leave jobs, they leave bosses'!!!!

WOW!!! I have some already..... That was quick... Let's begin.....
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Well thanks for the kind words but I do have to ask what am I 'uncovering' on the net? I ask myself a ton of times why I'm not as popular too!!!

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Thanks again! I'm glad you 'stumbled' on it and I'm pretty stoked that you are subscribing to it. Oh and BTW, I did check out your blog but I don't live in China so I think I will just stick with my Wii Fit. 
 

Anonymous asks- WOW!!! This guy asks A LOT of questions!

"Hello There. I found your blog using msn. That is a very smartly written article. I'll be sure to bookmark it and return to learn extra of your helpful information. Thanks for the post. I'll definitely comeback.

Thanks for the props bro but I've reread your post/question and I can't find anything remotely resembling a question.

SON OF A!!! They are as fake as some of the wigs the ladies wear at work!!!!! D@MN YOU SPAM!!! DAMN YOU TO H@LL!!

OKIE DOKIE! I feel a like a prom date now, USSSSSSSSSSSSSSSED but I just need to get over it..... Leave me some REAL questions and I will respond to ya...

DAN asks: "Who cuts your hair?"
ANSWER- Being that it's usually pretty easy, #1 shield on some clippers and it's FREE, 'Catholic Kate' does it but I have not cut it in two + years. When K-Dawg, Mike Kiener's daughter Kylee, and I get it our hair cut at the end of this month, Kara K will cut it back to normal!!! Then Kate will resume her duties.....

MELISSA HANZSEK-BRILL asks: "Boxers or briefs?"
ANSWER- Neither!!! Been letting 'the boys' breathe since 1995... TOO RESTRICTIVE!!!

THANK GOD FOR KELLY!!!! I felt like a loser that only two people asked questions and I think it was because Dan and his wife Melissa felt sorry for me!!

KELLY SEDINGER asks: "What's with the new font they're using on interstate highway road signs?" 

ANSWER- I like it. I have noticed it each time I take trips. DUDE!!!! Did you know this is the FIRST time since they designed the interstate highway system that they have 'modified' the font? CHANGE is good once in a while..

AND "Why DOES food taste better outside?"
ANSWER- I think because usually when you eat out, it's a nice day and you are so happy about that fact, that the food ALWAYS tastes better.

AND " I give you a perfectly cooked burger and bun: what do you top it with?"
ANSWER- First off, it needs to be marinated in Chavetas (which reminds me, I sooooooooo have to get some when I am up there in a few weeks. Oh where was I???????? OH YEAH!!!! And any cheese, I know very plain but to me it's all you need to have if you have marinated with Chavetas!

AND "Favorite tree?" 
ANSWER- The weeping willow, HANDS DOWN!!!! We had a big one in the back yard at one of the houses we lived in growing up, Dean St. in Olean to be exact. Whenever I see one, I think of not having a care in the world, well one. What was mom going to have for me to eat at SNACK TIME!

AND "Of all the stuff in our old hometown that ain't there anymore, what makes you saddest that it ain't?"
ANSWER- It's a tie between the Sub Shop and the athletic field. My mouth ALWAYS starts to salevate when that place is ever brought up. Sure Fred, who owned the place is WEIRD, we saw him a few years ago at Fat Heads and he was wearing a woman's top, BUT the subs and pizza were "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooooooooooooo good!".
The other is the athletic field because if Mr. Curley or Mr. Bess had us go outside for gym class it meant that it was nice enough to finally go outside after it being too cold and snowy. Also it meant that the school year was winding down and summer was right around the corner. 

AND HIS LAST ONE.... "Do you ever get the sense that you haven't done shit with the twenty-plus years since you graduated HS (because I sure do)?" 

ANSWER: HA!!! I was just pondering this while I was playing outside (picking rocks) and whenever I hear this song Supertramp's song "Take the Longway Home" ("When you look through the years and see what you could have been oh, what might have been, if you'd had more time.") and came to this conclusion. Yeah I can look back on A LOT of things in my past and say "I would have done that different' BUT I'm NOT going to be that guy that thinks about that a lot. I did/didn't do stuff that would have made me happier or better in my life but regardless I live a pretty decent life. I have a roof over my head, I'm gainfully employed, money in the bank, I can go on but I won't.

BOIKE asks: "The chops you are currently rocking are past their expiration date. I will bet you $1 that you are not able to grow a kicking mustache in their place. What do you say? Take the bet?"
ANSWER: The 'chops' are apart of the whole package and will be removed on June 30th 'National Hair Day'.... I will NOT attempt to grow a mustache due to me STILL going through puberty and NOT being able to grow a full one!! HECK!! I would look like this guy with the 'senior prom party I THINK I am cool because I can sort of grow facial hair"mustache...

   
AND- "What is the story/experience that makes you laugh the hardest anytime you think about it (please don’t be about me!)?"
ANSWER: So many to choose from but the one time that will ALWAYS get me chuckling is when we were all on the roof of the RV in Michigan raising cain and Gary finally coming out after hours of trying to sleep and saying "WHAT THE HELL!! You guys bowling for dollars up there??" HA!!!!!

AND- "What is your favorite bar in Lancaster?"
ANSWER: I can never pronounce it but it is that hole in a wall/ converted gas station place. Sure it was smokey but it was super laid back and the few people that were in there with us loved hearing about our adventures in going to a few NASCAR tracks. Plus they served our beers in a CAN!!! FIRST CLASS ALL THE WAY BUDDY!!!!!!!
AND- "Is there anywhere on your ‘I want to go there’ list right now?"
ANSWER: YES!! I want to go to South Dakota and see the 'Crazy Horse' monument..... I have always wanted to go there just to experience it. I know it will not be done anytime soon BUT STILL!!
AND FINALLY- "Who will you be pulling for in the world cup?"
ANSWER: First off soccer/futbal is NOT my 'cup of tea' and I really don't see the USA being very competitive in it for at least 60 more years... In my very limited knowledge of the sport. I would say that Brazil of course is the favorite. They are hosting it and they want to impress the world even though the country is a DUMP!
STEPHANIE ALBRO asks "Now this I just HAVE to know..... What IS your favorite color?!"
ANSWER: I'd have to say black, NO i'm not GOTH or anything,

and NO none of the rooms at casa de McBride are that color either. It represents and old friend who died before, YOU YOUNG LADY, were even a twinkle in your mom's eye. It was 1988 and a friend of my older brother was tragically killed in an auto ACCIDENT. Fade to Black from Metallica was one of his favorite songs. Even to this day when it comes up on my iTouch, I revert back to that little 8th grader that just found out a very cool kid died that day.

I know that if you just go by the lyrics, you would think he was suicidal but he wasn't. He was a musician and he loved the way the song was 'structured'.....

DA anatomy of a blog entry

 I ALWAYS revert back to Ms. Kautz' class in 1985 and start with a rough draft of ideas that I have pondered, usually during my 'moment of Zen' AKA 'PICKING ROCKS'! HA!!!! Some have the bottle, a pipe or a TV to 'veg out' in front of to cope with things we alllllllll have to deal with; an @$$ clown at work, AHHH H@LL anything there, relationships, money, choices... The list goes on. I have ROCKS! I just throw on some old clothes, work gloves, knee pads and put my iTouch to 'shuffle'. I then pick rocks that I can use for one of the many projects I have going on at casa de McBride1. Being that I really don’t have a deadline per se, I work on the topic, adding stuff, grammatically fixing for weeks, months, sometimes even years!!! I look at it like a virtual diary that the nurses at the old folks home can go to and put me in front of so I can reminisce about stuff I use to do. I forgot about this until BUBBY, a GUY I work with, sent me his wife's blog. I think a blog is about YOU and your interests and thoughts. Kelly blogs about some stuff I really don't care too much about BUT that's OKIE DOKIE with me because it's HIS blog DANG NABBIT!!!! Anyways, I then send it to a proof reader, FYI I’m on my third one! My first was Steph and she would ‘suggest’ I add stuff that made me think “who would EVER think I actually said that?” Then there was Amanda who went M.I.A on me, rumor has it that she went on one of her ‘EVERYONE NEEDS TO BREAST FEED’ tangents and has never come back. HA!!!!!! My old friend the MS. KATE in Portland, OR does it for me. I send it to her via email, she looks it over and highlights punctuation errors and misspellings. Sure there might be something’s that you will look at and say, “That soooooooooo doesn’t look right” BUT you can see me saying something like that and that’s what I am ALWAYS going for. Through the years my mother has even volunteered to be a proofreader, “THANKS but I am good mom”. There are quite a few items that I have written where I can see her saying “Andrew?  Is that something you really need to tell people?” HA!!!! Her rules would be: 1. DON’T say anything that MIGHT embarrass ME or someone in our family. 2. Don’t be mean. 3. DID I MENTION, DON’T say anything that might embarrass me or someone in our family. Well that's happened A LOT soooooooooooo I think we are TOOOOOOOOOOO late!!! My favorite line EVVVVVVVER was when she said, "ANDREW, I can't believe you wrote that, I can ONLY image what your great uncle Bernie thinks." Between you and me, I think he laughs and like most people just shakes his head. In the past, I have published an entry BEFORE a project I have been working on is completed BUT I really don't like doing that. I feel I am TEASING you like a prom date!!!! I want the job to be complete before I blabber to you about it. When this happens, I always have a back up entry ready to go if needed. I think of it as my PLAN 'B'!! FYI, I LOVE 'back up' plans! OH and in case you were wondering, these are just a couple of the projects that I have used all the gravel I have picked in my ZEN MOMENT!

Sorry this post is short, but I didn't do too much to casa de McBride due to having to deal with some crazy stuff happening at work and it raining A LOT!! I have thoughts on this BUT I will keep them to myself because the last time I checked, CHICKS like guys with a job and NOT laying on their couch watching daytime TV.

OH and don't think you are the first, NOR will you be the last person that is PI$$ed at me for NOT playing your mind games!!! Been there, done that and I got the T-shirt....  

1. This is an old picture because the digital camera I used for these kind of shots died and I am soooooooooooooooooooooo too cheap to buy another one! HA!!!

Update, thoughts and....

Other stuff that are on my mind that I think the 5 people that read this might like to know...

• Health-wise I have my good and bad days, and I know I need to go to Duke Medical and have another neurologist look me over and NOT try to charge me 12k for blood work! YEAP!!! 12 thousand EFFING DOLLARS! Needless to say, I almost had a heart attack in my kitchen when I opened the bill!!! I will soooooooooooooo tell ya the story if ya want to hear it.....Oh, and for you people that only spew out sounds bites from your political party, the Affordable Care Act AKA OBAMACARE would NOT have changed that. Where was I, OH YEAH, an old A-TOWER, DEEE LITE (the girl on the right)

         had some brain surgery up there and gave me all the info of who to see... Also, I feel VERY comfortable when Mrs. Boike comes with me, she is like a pit bull and asks and DEMANDS all the questions her and I ask to the doctor are answered. I love that the Dr. will say something and she will look at me, if I have a 'puzzled' look, she will say, "you need to explain that again because Andy didn't understand what you said." She has got A LOT on her plate with a husband dealing with brain cancer, so I told her that I can wait... Not all days I have are good, sometimes run into stuff and I DREAD going down some stairs BUT I manage and I just take my time doing stuff. Speaking of that, I will NEVER forget being at the airport like 15 years ago and witnessing a guy fall down a flight. After he stopped tumbling, he was all bloodied and had the 'I CAN'T believe that just happened to me' look... That STILL haunts me today. For the people that DON'T KNOW than READ THIS!

• Been thinking since last summer of not going to BEER-PA-LOOZA. I personally feel that it has 'run its course'. NO WAIT, I think I will still go up to A-Town and other stops BUT I don't think I will go to BEER-PA-LOOZA and instead of just taking 2 1/2 weeks off to go up there, I will take a week in June and then make another trip up there in August.

• WOW!!! This is my birthday month!!!! I will be celebrating 20 years of not needing my fake I.D to purchase UMMMMMMMMMMM 'adult beverages'!!! WOO HOO!!!! BEHOLD the actual receipt from my first purchase of beer!! 

         FYI- I NEVER looked back after this!!!! BEER and B@@BIES RULE!! Speaking of that.......

• Ode to B@@B!  Yep, you read that right. using the SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET compass I used in Mr. Rickle's (R.I.P) drafting class in 1992, I designed a patio and a fire pit in ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm the shape of, well, you know. We had to make a few 'alterations' to the design of the patio due to the proximity of the septic tank and leach bed but the FIRE PIT looks AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME!!!!

This is just PART of the many things I am doing to the back yard so it doesn't look NASTY! I may not be the fastest at doing stuff but DANG NABBIT it will get done... Let's go back in time shall we? The year was 2009 and I inherited a sorry @$$ deck when I bought the house....

You couldn't even walk on it with your bare feet because it was it such bad shape, CAN YOU SAY 'SPLINTERVILLE'? So I and a friend showed it who was boss- ME!!!

 Getting back to the fire pit, it is the best representation of the part of the female body that I think is pretty darn cool! I'm pretty sure guys AND some girls, will 'appreciate' seeing it when they are flying in or out of Charlotte. I'm also sure Agent 2112 of the NSA will LOVE seeing it when he is operating the SPYONEVERYBODY SR2000 satellite. Here ya go!! Those geeks at Google haven't updated it BUT it will be RIGHT here and here is a 'ground level' shot.

          I ALWAYS had a fire pit

but last summer I started thinking of ‘upgrading’ it due to seeing mama and papa Gaughn’s one that we all sat around at BUCKOFEST in July.

• As you can see in the picture above, the hair is long enough and will be coming off Monday 6/30, along with K-DAWG (Kylee Kiener), 

       

        we will be visiting Kara, an old friend from A-TOWN who is a hair dresser and will cut it for us

        and then we will donate it to WIGS FOR KIDS! 

That's all I got for ya this month, REMEMBER to fly low and beat the radar...... It's a phrase I learned in the 80's and came from one of the best shows EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVER!

When it rains, IT POURS!!!! HA!!!

This happened a few years ago when we had a really, really, really bad rain storm. I had a freakin' RIVER in my front yard. Pretty much, when it rains, it happens so I did something about it.

With a weed barrier that I got when my Grandpa McBride passed away in 2008 (I think he and my grandma bought this back in the 70's)

.....And rocks that I have collected over the years from Boike's former farm, the old athletic field in A-Towm (Allegany, NY), my grandpa and grandma Cawley's house, and other places up and down the east coast, I made a gully for the water to flow and to look GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD doing it...

SON OF A!!! That's one SMART dog because I did run out of rocks so I guess I will need to get more when I am on my 'WORLD TOUR' this summer...... This is what I have done so far....

In other news at casa de McBride: We had a BIG @$$ snow/ice storm AKA SNOW-APOCALYPSE 2014, and they say it was as big as the one we had in 2004. HA! I totally remember my cousin Laura and I trying to get out of Charlotte to go up to N.Y for my grandma Cawley's funeral.....

 OH MAN!!!! This new iTouch mom gave me for Christmas takes panoramic pictures!!!! SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!

Sure I didn't have power for a little bit and I couldn't drive anywhere because the roads were such a mess, that's all stuff I can deal with- BUT the fact I ran out of beer is something that I deemed life threatening!!!! GOOD GOLLY MS. MOLLY!!!

OH AND I DECIDED TO BE A BIGGER CAPITALISTIC PIG so read on.... This is dedicated to, WELL I really don’t know BUT I thought I would start out my paragraph with that little nugget of information! HA!!! Seriously, I have been toying with this idea ever since the fateful day at casa de mama and papa McBride when my mother, who had just gotten back from seeing her sister down in Florida, showed me some pictures her and Cece, my aunt, took to CVS of some old photos my Grandma Cawley had. Needless to say, it was NOT very pretty!!! DEBACLE comes to mind! As God as my witness, I started that day scanning pictures and putting them on the internet. FYI- It’s a VERY complicated process which involves space age polymers, a cold fusion engine and a crew of Oompa Loompa’s from Willy Wonka… KIDDING!! I just sit in my back room with my Grandpa McBride’s space heater, a computer, scanner (I got from POPS when it stopped printing for him), a beer or two and my iTouch with 1900+ songs on ‘shuffle’ and I just scan pictures…….

 Here are a few pictures I have done, my thoughts on doing this:

• I’m NOT looking to become a HUGE success story with this so I am just going to put this on here and NOT blabber it on DA BOOK AKA FaceBook, but the extra cash is ALWAYS appreciated at casa de McBride.

Pricing:

500 or less .25cents per scan

501-1000 .24cents per scan

1001 OR MORE .22cents per scan

• FYI- You would be AMAZED at how many pictures you have that you want scanned, KRIPES, I just scanned pictures of me that my mom gave me and I am up to 700 and I am NOT done!

• I will do your pictures (depends on how many ya got) in a month or sooner. ONE FAMILY’S PICTURES AT A TIME! I’m a guy, I CAN’T multi task!

• I will NOT chew off more than I can handle. It’s an easy process, You email me that you want me to scan your family pictures and I will reply with a month what works best for me and my address you can ship them to.

• I will scan it AND label it if it’s marked. If not then I will scan the picture without labeling it and you and the rest of your family can guess where the picture was taken and who is in it. OH AND I might have to email you a time or two asking you to specify some writing because I can’t read it.

• I will create an account on FLICKR for you with all of your pictures. It’s NUTS how many pictures you can post on it, 1 TG! I will make it ‘PUBLIC’ so everyone in your family can see them if you just give them the link…. I will send you the username and password of your account so if I misspelled someone’s name or the date is wrong, you can go in and edit it.

Before I go, I want to give you your moment of ZEN! HIPPIES crying over a tree!!! ENJOY!!!!

P.S.S. I'm not the only McBride that loves CAPITALISM, My cousin Shelley does too!!!
She is the blond with the blue (that's the color right) blazer in the first row to the right. She didn't want me to tell y'all this BUT it was her 26th birthday too!!!! WIN/WIN BAAAAAAABY!!

GOOD LORD!!!! P.S.S.S. Remember to make sure the first thing you say to me when you see me is "I LOOOOOOOOOVE YOUR BLOG!!!" when you have never actually read it......

I'm an art collector!!!

KISS THE RING SIMPLETONS!!!

Truth be told, I am the farthest thing from someone that likes art, unless it's porn, then I am sooooooooooo cool with it! HA!!! I just put that in there to cause my mom and other family member's to shake their heads and say "Oh Andy, where did I go wrong?" Let's get back on track shall we? I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Anne Conroy-Baiter!

She and Melissa Hanzsek-Brill are the only two women I TRUST with hyphenated names. Call me old fashioned, I'm 'Kool and the Gang' with it. Anne was born and raised in A-Town (Allegany) and I will not divulge what the year was BUT, graduated with my brother. She was ALWAYS cool to me, even when I was an annoying little 13 year old!! Thanks to DA BOOK (F/B) we reconnected and I am soooooooooooo thankful we did because she does LIKE TOTALLY RAD paintings. Now I have NO IDEA what type/style of painting she does you can read all about her here. TRUST ME, I ain't that sophisticated to know!!!! All I know is that she has ALWAYS been a COOL person to me and she paints places I know are from A-TOWN.

To me, she is an artist not like this guy who freakin' nailed his balls to the road to protest something! For what I have NO IDEA!!! FREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANYWAYS, she also helps me with ideas I have like: A few years ago I thought it would be cool if I had some paintings that represent different stages of my life. When I was up in A-TOWN I went over to her house and we threw around some ideas, HA! While her girls were watching cartoons on the TV, she suggested 9 pictures and she would do 3 at a time, and when I had ideas for another 3 she would paint them. I WILL NEVER forget her asking "what is the price range you are looking at?" and I threw out a number because I really didn't know. She said, "I can't do it for that."....... I STILL feel like I insulted her, but again in my defense, I had no EARTHLY idea what was a good number!!!!

As you can see, the paintings are сладко, that's 'SWEET' in Russian my comrades.

        1.   Is of the old score board at the 'athletic field' in Allegany. The 'Blue Devils', A-TOWN's old
              mascot, use to play ALL their sports up there and as a kid, I always LOVED it when the
              scoreboard was lit up for a game. Weird huh???? I KNOW but it reminds me of my
              childhood.

        2.   That is Joe Walker, Mike Carbonara and I at one of our first jobs, STP car wash in 1992.

              AHHHHHH The fun we had!!! I tried to write about it in a post so I can have the nurses at

              the old folks home go to it for me so I can reminisce.... 

        3.  THE LAKE HOUSE AKA DA BEER HOUSE/LOVE SHACK, I will NOT divulge anymore,

             all I will say is that it was a great place to go in my 'high school' years!

        4.  I used to be someone, HA!! Yours truly was the on-site promotion manager for 106.5 'The

             End' or as one of the DJs would say, the V.P of van operations. Don't believe me? FINE!!!
             Here is proof.

          Believe me now? ANYWAYS, I helped put on an ALL DAY concert, much like Lollapalooza. 

          It was called the 106.5 'Weenie Roast' and this is the stage getting set up in 1997.

          DARE I SAY, the BEST job I ever had....

      5.  It's WYLIE! The 'pupper' a former girlfriend and I had when I lived in WI. I will ALWAYS
           remember being sooooooo upset that I would never see her again when I moved back to

           NC.. I could only image having a child and feeling like that!

     6.  DUUUUUH! It's my house or as I like to refer to it 'CASA DE MCBRIDE'!.....

     7.  This is me on a tractor up at my best friend's former land. I'm pretty sure this was taken

          the first time I was up there in 2002.

     8. I am the proud owner of a Mustang that my Grandma McBride got in 65. In a future post, I  
         will write all about it so stay tuned!

     9. This is the front porch of Lisa and Mike Kiener's house. I like chilling out there with either

         coffee or a cold one when I am up in N.Y..

I myself, can't even draw a straight line but I have relatives on both sides that were/are pretty d@mn good artists.

My cousin Jeff,

who I get 95% of my comedy material from, is an art teacher and asked me what picture I wanted. He would do it in his class so he could teach the kids a lesson on it each week. I just picked this picture of the old Vandalia bridge in A-Town. No rhyme or reason, I just liked the picture.

Another one he did is of a Buddhist Temple in Hawaii that my boss Jamie (ONE OF THE COOLEST BOSSES I'VE EVVVVVVVVVVVER HAD, Keith Brownlee was the other) took when he was there for a 'business' trip..... 

Getting back to the lovely Anne, do yourself a favor and check out her site and if you tell her you know me, she will paint anything for you except for dogs playing poker, and send you a 6 pack of PBR!!!! WOO HOO!!!! KIDDING!!! http://www.anneconroybaiter.com/ Oh, and her girls have a pretty funny blog you should check out too. http://crossthecreek.weebly.com/index.html . CARB!! You will be happy to know that I fixed the toilet and I put a new shower head on too for the next time you come down...

 Now I wonder what you will WHINE about now?

Finally

######WINTER STORM 2014#######

Now most of you in the north will laugh at this and mutter "MY GOD! That's just a dusting!" BUT remember, there are none or few plow trucks and people drive like idiots down here. It's best to just not go out of the house and RISK tearing up your car because of the conditions of the road or being hit by some EFFing driver who is driving too fast. So stay in and do stuff inside for the day, KRIPES, I did this that day and I have more to scan.

Have a great month and remember that as soon as you realize that you are a peon just like all of us, the better off we will ALL be......

ODE to 'Catholic Kate' AKA my mom!

Because without her pushing out 8.5 lbs. of me in front of a bunch medical students, I would NOT be here to entertain, pi$$ off, delight you- and it's her birthday!!! SERIOUSLY! She was born 1/1. Anyways, these are pictures she had in the attic AND FYI, you usually can find me there on Sundays when I am at casa de mama and papa McBride eating yummy dinner and drinking my 3 beers.

 

Kate Cawley 1947

Mary Catherine Cawley 6 months (1947)

 Kate and Cece Cawley

Katie 1961

Katie and Tom Cawley 1965
NO! They didn't go together! THEY AIN'T FROM WEST VIRGINIA!
 

Cece and Katie at Lake Michigan

New Years 1950 at Joe's. Katie's birthday, Jo, Mary and mom

Mary Catherine Cawley

Katie Cawley

Sherry, Mary Lou, Steve, Katie, Charlotte, Bonnie, George.

Bonnie Brinnie, Charlotte Church, Katie Cawley

Katie, Suzanne, Jennifer

Kevin, Tom, Pat and Katie Christmas 1969

Winter 1952 

Cece, Mary Kay, Ellen Shaner, Annie Hogan And Phyllis Cole. Taken at Betty Shaner's.

Katie McBride, Cece Root, Mary Cawley

Katie and Cece Cawley 1960

Katie and Alex Christmas 1979

Cece and Katie 1948

Katie and Ron McBride

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Katie + Marty, Clara Stilson

Katie and Ron McBride 1983

Katie 1962-63 school year

Catherine + Katie 1976 Dean St.

Charlotte and Bob Mead's wedding 1967

Katie + Norene

Katie + Ron McBride

Kate McBride at Mike McBride's house 8-2000

Katie McBride 'Boston on way to PLAYBOY CLUB' 1972
(AS GOD AS MY WITNESS, THAT IS WHAT IT SAYS ON THE BACK OF THE PICTURE!)

Katie and Jackie Fagaeri (SP)

Katie, Norene, Suzanne Shannon, Monica Crowley

Katie 1967

Cece, Katie and Tom 1951

Grandma Parmeter with Cece and Katie 1950

Katie, Norene, Tom Ferris, Tom Ford 1962

Katie's graduation party 1965
Becky Cawley, Caroline Cawley, Tom Cawley, Joe Wolcott, Kevin Cawley, Jo Richardson (IN CHAIR), Mary Cawley, Katie Cawley, Brian Jordan, Jim Cawley

 Katie Cawley, Brian Jordan, Debbie Dunsmore.
Baptismal Day 4-1966

Katie and Ron McBride 1/88

Katie, Cece, Tom? 1949

Ron + Katie Kamp 5-78

 Happy Katie!!!!!

Cece + Katie 1960

Party at Geo (SP) and Connie Bradley's 1971

Katie 1960

Cecelia Anne, Mary Catherine, Thomas Joseph, Nancy Kearne THE CAWLEY KIDS 1953

Ron and Katie McBride 1988

4-94

Katie and Pat Cawley (Charlotte Church's wedding 1967)

Katie Cawley showing of the EXCITING products that Hysol was introducing in 1968.
J. Carl Burke Studio 91 Willow Breeze Rd. Kenmore, N.Y.. Sorry kids but it's no longer there, I 'GOOGLED' it.

Mom, Katie and Kevin 1960

Kevin, Mary + Bob Cawley, Katie, Brian Jordan, Faye Slaven, Suzanne Torre
Katie's graduation party 6-1965

David Erickson 1986

Katie 4-1990

Katie and Rachel Pfeiffer on Lynda Kockler's back porch 7-92

The Katie Cawley photo shoot for Hysol in 1968