I have a question for all you gamers out there. I am thinking about buying a game system for Christmas. I am from the Atari generation. Pac-man. Space Invaders. Asteroids. Missile Command. Pitfall. I wore out at least a dozen joy sticks in my day. I dabbled with the Nintendo in the 90’s (with my son), but am unfamiliar with today’s systems.

PS3, XBox 360 or Wii

I am looking at the PS3, XBox 360 and the Wii. My teenage daughter and two young nephews would be the primary players, although I will probably be right there with them. All three seem to be fairly pricey, so I am trying to do my homework and make the best choice. Anyone have any thoughts on the best system? Your input would be greatly appreciated!

I can’t believe summer is already over. Well officially it’s not over till the 21st, but in my book it ended Labor Day weekend. Even though the temperature here in beautiful Virginia Beach, Virginia is still in the 90’s. It went fast and we had a blast!

Like I said, for our family, Labor Day marks the end of summer. We had our annual friends and family Labor Day camping bash. Four days of fun in the sun. We were swimming, tanning, boating, hiking, biking and cooking on the grill. It is our annual end of summer family ritual. We almost need a vacation to recuperate!

If you are a regular here, you know I didn’t post much this summer. I spent almost all of my spare time with family. We had several back yard barbeque’s, pool parties and Birthday get togethers . We took our annual B-Family summer vacation in New York City. We had a awesome time!

Also, I try to get off work at a decent hour during the summer to do things with my family. We enjoyed weekly movies, board games, walks and going to the beach. We play hard all summer long!

But now it’s time to get busy!

We don’t do much work around the house during the summer (outside of normal chores). I save my projects for the fall. The weather is cooler and it’s easier to work outside. I have a fairly large to-do list right now and I am about to get working on it this weekend. It’s sort of like spring cleaning but different!

The hardest thing to do is get motivated to work around the house. But I have a plan that I have been following for several years now. I get all my projects out of the way in the spring and fall. This leaves me with maximum play time in the beautiful summer months. Knowing that I will be able to relax and enjoy myself all summer long is pretty good motivation to stay on track. I make myself a checkoff list with everything I want to accomplish.

Here is my to-do list that I plan on completing by Christmas.

• Build a 20′ - 2 tier work bench in the garage
• Clean out shed
• Build housing for our well pump
• Hang 8 new interior doors

There are other things, but you get the idea. I am going to build the work bench first because it is going to take quite bit of time. Also, other smaller projects like cleaning out my shed depend on the bench being completed. I plan on moving most of my tools to the new garage and need the bench in place.

I also have another list of yard work that needs to be done over the next month or two:

• Till vegetable garden
• Turn compost
• Prune trees and shrubs
• Plant grass seed

So, as you can see I have my work cut out for me. I will take a break during the month of December and resume with a new list of projects in January.  I will try to get all of my projects wrapped up by sometime in the Spring. That way, when summer arrives, I will have maximum play time!

Can you relate? Do you have a list of Fall projects? OR am I just plain crazy….

Our campsite

The view from our campsite

Out on the lake

Guest Post

When given another chance to write a guest post for John’s blog, I jumped at it. Not only do I respect his writing, I appreciate the ideas he writes about as well. Which is why I’m happy to share with you this post about marriage. Thanks, John, for the opportunity. - ssgreylord

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

They were sitting outside of the ice cream parlor. She was eating a vanilla cone, he, a chocolate. So simple. Simple as the two of them, the wrinkles on their faces telling a story of many happy memories.

She was in her late 70s. He, a few years older. When the husband dribbled a bit of his chocolate ice cream on his chin, she leaned forward with a napkin and delicately wiped it away.

Their ice cream was interrupted by smiles and the holding of hands. They were so content.

They were friends.

I smiled at the image of them. They’re happiness stood out like an elephant in a tea shop.

And then I wondered. How did they make it to this married place still so in love and obviously fulfilled.

Had I been able to ask them, I believe they would have come up with the following attributes:

1.) friendship
2.) sense of humor
3.) forgiveness
4.) selflessness

The list of traits goes on as long as the Mississippi river. But my guess is that they would narrow it down to these 4 characteristics.

Friendship is an obvious one. Who wouldn’t want to stick around a long time with a good friend. Lovers are important. But that is easy. Do you also value your spouse as your friend?

A sense of humor is crucial. It deflates the stressful moments like a helium balloon running out of air. If you have the ability to laugh at yourself most importantly and your spouse too, so many prideful conflicts can be avoided. When was the last time you laughed with your spouse?

Forgiveness. The unhappy ones are they who hold on to grudges and refuse to forgive. It is as though they think this somehow gives them points that they can collect and use against their spouse to one up them in martyrdom. Do you possess the ability to forgive or are you a martyr?

Finally, selflessness. One of the crucial qualities that binds a marriage together like paper and glue. If one is selfless in a marriage, one can never be accused of coming from the wrong place. If one places the other above themselves as most important in their relationship the other will trust and love in a way that cannot be matched. DO you possess the ability to be selfless?

The couple stood up from their chair. His first inclination was to reach for her hand. She smiled up at him as though he were her hero.

I smiled at the picture of the two of them and hoped my own marriage would continue to be as peaceful.

I would like to thank Sarah for guest blogging here on EzGreatLife. If you have not already discovered her blog, My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be, you need to go check it out! I have become a regular reader and you will too!

And why not subscribe to the My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be feed.

If you have been reading along for a while you have probably heard me talk about my dog Missy. Little Miss Sunshine! She is awesome! We adopted her from our local SPCA when she was two months old. She had been abandoned in a field with her two sisters. In hind sight we should have taken all three. We also adopted a kitten, Precious at the same time. They became fast friends.

Here are my 3 Reasons to adopt a puppy dog:

Companionship

You know what they say, “Man’s best friend”. I think it couldn’t be more true. My little Missy girl greets me everyday at the front door. If you leave the room for two minutes, she acts as if you have been gone all day! Like, “Where Have You Been All My Life”. Unconditional love!

Exercise

A side affect of adopting Missy was plenty more exercise. She patiently waits each morning for her walk. If she gets excited and I take to long, she will grab her leash and try to hand it to me. On the weekends my daughter and I and sometimes my nephews take her to the park. She loves the park. Fetching balls, playing frisbee and running around like crazy. She has a seemingly never ending supply of energy. Until bedtime that is. Then, she just says “that’s it” and crashes for the evening. Very cool!

Because their fun!

Dogs each have their very own personality. Missy is outgoing, fun and cute. She cracks us up with her “facial expressions”. If you say something that catches her ear, she tilts her head and stares at you in the cutest puppy dog way. She also LOVES water. When we go camping, she will walk herself down to the lake and go swimming! At home, if you turn your back, she jumps in the pool. She is an avid swimmer. She has webbed feet, which make her an extremely fast swimmer. She loves to race people in the pool.

Tips For Adopting

• Research the breed to make sure it is a fit with your family. Do they get along with kids? Are they too aggressive? Do they have known medical problems?
• Discuss the adoption with the whole family. Is everyone on board with taking on all the necessary responsibilities? Does everyone understand what there responsibility will be?
• Does your lifestyle permit having a dog? Are you or someone home enough?
• Be aware of how much the new pet will cost in ongoing expenses, food, vet visits, flea and heart worm medication, etc.
• Be prepared to make up to a 15 year commitment.
• Make sure to have your new pet spayed or neutered.

I hope you will find it in your heart to adopt a puppy dog for your family. Your kids will love their new friend. It will teach them some responsibility. And, your new pet will definitely add some love and excitement to the family!

Pictured above: Missy waiting to be adopted at the SPCA

Here are some more pictures of our little girl:

Missy & Precious taking a nap!

Little Princess taking over my daughters bed.

Missy racing me!

Trying to pose for a picture.

Crazy girl jumps in!

At the beach in January (Atlantic Ocean)

I know, everyone likes to brag about their kids! I just wanted to share this with you because I had such a wonderful day yesterday. I hope you did, as well.

My daughter woke me up yesterday morning with coffee, a sliced orange and steak and eggs. I began to wonder what was up when she said “Happy Fathers Day!” Not bad! She then informed me that I needed to be ready to leave at 11:00AM. Okay! Being that I am a bit of a history buff, she had arranged a private tour at a local historical home called the Francis Land House. It was originally a sprawling 1000 acre plantation built in 1805. It’s funny, I have lived in Virginia Beach all my life and have never visited it. Even funnier that it is 1/2 mile from my house and my neighborhood sits on the original land! Afterwards she took me to dinner at my favorite seafood restaurant. All said it was a great day.

What made it special was my daughters hand made Father’s Day card. She has a job, she could have bought one. And even though she is a miser like her Daddy, I’m pretty sure saving a few bucks had nothing to do with it. The card, with the cover pictured above, contained the following words with another hand drawn picture.

“To the dad who is always there to help or fix. Never says “no” to me (unless he wants to ). Who is caring and funny. Through the rough times and the good times, you always end up being the #1 Dad. Thanks for everything you do, Dad!
I Love You, ”

It almost brought tears to my eyes again!

Along with the card, she gave me a shirt that reads “#1 Dad”, which I am wearing in the picture below. In fact, I proudly wore it all day. I got comments everywhere we went, “Hey dude I was told I’m the #1 Dad”. Yeah, well you’re not, I am, can’t you read? No I didn’t really say that, well, just to this one guy, but he was rude and deserved it! So, you could sort of say that I have been there, done that and got the T-shirt!

Our relationship is not perfect. I play parent first, friend second. We definitely do not see eye to eye on everything, she is a teenager after all! And, as she pointed out, I am not known for an automatic “yes”. But, at the end of the day, we love each other and that’s what counts.

The Francis Land Plantation House, in Virginia beach, VA. Built in 1805

“One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters.”
~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

There are times when an opportunity comes your way and you’re unsure. And then there are times when you don’t have to think at all. This is one of them. When approached by John to write a guest post, I immediately told him yes. Who wouldn’t with such a well written blog?

So here I am, writing from my blog: My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be. I’m excited to be sharing a post with you. Thanks, John, for the opportunity.

Two Blondes

She was laughing as she ran. Her blonde hair streaming down her back. She was only five. And she was headed my way. The smile on her face was as bright as the closest star. She was filled with joy. She was filled with innocence.

And she was my daughter.

Her older sister was chasing her making silly noises and silly faces. Her blonde hair was caught up in a ponytail bobbling around as she ran. She was a playful eight year-old. So patient with her little sister.

They both landed in a heap in front of me. Still giggling.

I smiled so hard it made my face hurt. It was the type of smile you can’t seem to erase from your face like an old chalkboard refusing to cooperate.

I closed my eyes so I could concentrate on their laughing. Sharpening my senses like sharpening a pencil.

It was one of those moments that you don’t want to end.

Five turned to six. Six turned into seven. And now the little one is eight. Her older sister is eleven. I don’t want them to age any further. But I know I must let go.

The teasing still goes on. The innocence is still there. And they are still young enough that they don’t mind expressing love with each other and with me. It pours out of both of them like a pitcher of water.

This is family.

“The happiest moments of my life
have been the few which I have passed
at home in the bosom of my family.”
(Thomas Jefferson)

I would like to thank Sarah for guest blogging here on EzGreatLife. If you have not already discovered her wonderful blog, My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be, you need to go check it out! I have become a daily reader and you will too!

And why not subscribe to the My Life as it Was, Is, and Will Be feed.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter approached me about having a “End of the School Year” party. As I sunk back in my recliner, my eyes glazed over, I began experiencing a really vivid flash back from parties long ago. As I came to, wiping the sweat from my brow, I asked “What kind of party?” For those of you with kids in their late teens, you can probably relate to the thoughts flowing through my brain at warp speed. “I don’t know, just a party” she so innocently replied.

I don’t know about you guys, but the kind of parties I went to at 17 were not gonna be happening at my house! I remember (or not) grain punch-fruit filled coolers, beer bongs and no parents. In my day, if I told 2 guys I’m having a party, 100 people would show up with a band in tow. So, I was fully prepared to reject my daughters invitation to pay for a night out on the town in exchange for full run of our house. Didn’t happen. She explained that she wanted to invite 30 of her closet friends (my words). She promised there would be no alcohol and you won’t believe this one, she asked if I would cook on the grill. So, “You want us here?”, I said. “Yes”, she replied. Now this is where my suspicions began to run wild. I felt like I had a text book case of Max Horkheimer’s reverse psychology being played on me. Not so.

My daughter took the bull by the horns so to speak. She made all the invitations, picked out a Hawaiian theme, planned the menu, picked the music and helped clean up the house and yard. I will have to say I was totally impressed.

One thing my daughter did that I was not in agreement with was to make the party from 3:00 PM till 10:00 PM. I thought to myself how in the world are we going to entertain thirty 17 year olds for 7 hours? Again my daughter one upped me, she new that some of her friends were at the beach in a sand soccer tournament and couldn’t come over until 6:00PM. Some had to work and didn’t get off until 9:00PM or 10:00PM. Some would come over at 3:00PM and would be leaving by 7:00PM. So the outcome was a nice steady flow of kids all day long. The only negative to this was the 100+ degree temperatures I had to sustain ALL DAY LONG while cooking on the grill! No kidding, we beat a 100 year temperature record on Saturday!

The Menu

We kept it simple, we had hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, chips and dip, my now famous Pasta Salad and fresh Pineapple.

Drinks

Of course we had plenty of soda, bottled water and my wife made virgin Pina Coladas and Margaritas (huge hits)

Suggested Activities

• Number one on the teen list seemed to be music. We made a play list of MP3’s and had continuous music.
• Water balloon fights were extremely popular
• Basketball was very popular
• Swimming
• Soccer
• Horse shoes
• Volley Ball

So everything ended up working out just fine. All the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. One of the biggest hits at the party was also one of the cheapest. Water balloons! Who knew a group of teens would have so much fun pelting the hell out of each other with ice cold water balloons? Of course the extreme heat of the day played a big part, I’m sure. On a humorous note, while I was cooking on the grill I overheard one of the guys talking on his cell. He was giving a rundown of who was here, she is and he is and some old people! Ha! If that doesn’t make you feel old, I don’t know what does!

A note about venue: If you are not comfortable having a party at your home or you do not have the space, Recreation facilities, either indoor or outdoor can usually be rented very reasonably. Our kids have been to many parties over the years at different rec centers.

I hope this has been helpful, I know I was nervous about the whole thing right up until show time. We had not had any parties this large since girl scout sleepovers and even they were not this large. My advice, if your kid wants a party, go for it! Lay down the ground rules up front, involve your kid in the planning and have a blast!

My only regret, is not taking pictures like I usually do. I was busy cooking and talking and got totally side tracked. Normally I would have dozens of pictures to choose from. Here are a few that I did manage to take.

The first party goers play some b-ball

Missy, super dog!

Chillin in the pool, current temp 100 degrees!

Preparing for another water balloon fight.

Hanging out late night.

Kids today seem to be so self absorbed. Into everything about “me”. On the surface they just don’t seem to care about much except the latest Hollywood gossip and whatever the latest drama bomb their friends have just dropped. I think our culture is on the skids and much has to do with the horrendous condition of our school system, both public and private. Now that I have depressed everyone in the room, let me share a bright spot with you.

I was asked to give a presentation this past Friday night to a group of girl scouts. Not any old troop, the owner of my company’s, wife’s girl scout troop. No pressure there! This troop of about 15, thirteen year olds are working on their latest badge and are learning about careers. My portion of the evening revolved around “How to prepare for a job Interview”. I gave about a 20 minute interactive presentation, with me speaking and the girls asking questions. Afterwards, I held a mock interview with each girl, one on one, for a position with the local SPCA. I asked the following:

1. Please start by telling me a little about yourself.
2. Describe a problem you have encountered and how you were able to overcome it.
3. Please tell me about some experiences you have had working with animals.

Having not been thirteen for quite some time, I struggled with what questions I was going to ask. I was particularly worried about question #2. However, after successfully interviewing the first girl, all of my worries were put to rest. These girls rocked! From the word go, they began telling me who they are and all of their accomplishments. Question #2 didn’t seem to phase them one bit. A common theme in the answer to #2 was conflict resolution with their friends. I began to see that there is much more to all this drama that they experience. Most were very concerned about the fighting amongst friends and didn’t seem to understand why it has to be like that. But all wanted to be problem solvers and help work things out. I was very impressed with the answers I received. These girls proved to me that you can be absorbed in all of the Hollywood glamour #@!$ and still have your head on you shoulders and care deeply about things that matter. An opinion that I probably couldn’t have formed simply by watching the paparazzi driven entertainment stories force fed to us daily on all forms of media.

In conclusion, I have great news! There is hope for the future! Not all teenagers are mindless, consumerism driven, techno gadget addicted, mush brained, me too lemmings! Not that I really thought that ALL teenagers were like this. But I have been worried for some time now that kids today just don’t care about the future, ours or their own. Friday night opened my eyes to a new perspective about our young people. I am sure you know teens like the one’s I met Friday night. I encourage you to get involved in some way and make a difference in their lives. If you already are doing so, good for you and let us know about it!

For years I have been harassed by my family for always having that !#%! camcorder with me where ever I go. When I show up, family members begin ducking for cover. My Grandmother, bless her heart, usually starts with “Oh no, not that thing again! Go take some pictures of the young people. You don’t want pictures of this old lady.” Well actually, yes I do. That’s exactly what I want. I have been documenting our family with the camcorder since 1995. Just about every birthday party, holiday and get together is stored on dozens of tapes, hundreds of hours of video.

I am known as the family documentarian, is that a word? I show up at every function with a camera strapped around my neck and my camcorder hanging from my shoulder. I look like a tourist that just stepped off the tour bus. Everyone loves to make fun of me and my cameras. Everyone except my nephews. You see, they know I have hours of video of the family. Hours and hours of all of our funny family moments. Every time they come over, I get a request to watch the family movies. Mothers Day was no exception.

After we polished off our huge buffet style brunch, everyone gathered in our den, at my nephews request and we watched several of our family movies. We started with the video of our 2001 multi-generation beach house vacation that I told you about in Plan Your Next Family Get Together Now! My nephews are especially fond of this one for several reasons. One, they can’t believe how young everyone looks, including themselves. Also, we had my dog Sandy, my Grandparents dog Blitz and my Sisters dog Sheyman with us. All three of which have since passed away. The kids loved all of these dogs. Another highlight was seeing my Grandfather. He passed away in 2003. We all loved him dearly. This was the last vacation we took together before he died.

Every time we get together and watch these movies it inspires all kinds of conversations. Do you remember that. Remember when you….I can’t believe you… and on and on. One thing became very evident on Sunday, despite all of the complaining and humorous criticism about my camcorder, everyone is grateful that we have documented so many of our family events. It allows us to relive precious moments and visit with those no longer with us. At times we were laughing so loud we could no longer hear the video. At other times we were almost in tears.

I think that video taping family gatherings is a great way to document your family. It will serve as a reminder years from now, how things were back in the year whatever. I still take my camcorder everywhere I go. I recorded our gathering in front of the TV watching the old videos!

The last video we watched was our family vacation to Pennsylvania. We started off at Gettysburg, visited Amish country in Lancaster, then on to Philly and finally stopping at the Baltimore Aquarium on the way home. While viewing this video on Sunday, we came across some scenes that we had completely forgotten about. Everyone was cracking up, so I decided to edit together some of the scenes from Lancaster and make a short clip. This is my first attempt at making a video.

We have a long standing tradition of finding unique stores on our trips. We pick out hats, wigs, costumes, sun glasses, toy guns, you name it and adorn ourselves with them and make a general spectacle of the B-Family. Yes we make fools of ourselves, but we have had an awesome time doing it! The first few times I did it the kids were embarrassed. I told them “Hey we’re never going to see these people again.”, they loosened up and we have had a blast ever since! Yes my family’s a little weird. Is your family just a little weird? Trust me, it’s OK!

So sit back and take a minute to watch our video. Try and forget about my bad haircut and super casual attire. At the time I had to wear a shirt and tie everyday so I let it go on vacation. BTW, I got the House of Blues T-shirt on a business trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras in ‘96. We saw a Metallica cover band, that rocked old school circa ‘83 with songs like Whiplash and Seek and Destroy. Ultra cool! Oooops, I am getting way sidetracked…..enjoy the video. Oh and make sure your sound is turned up!