School Days

Here's the Friday Five!

Yes, I know its Saturday night...I was busy! Heck I haven't even had time to decide what I'm going to start calling the blog now that I've already turned 40!

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I had heard that it was homecoming week at WVU this weekend and it got me thinking about songs that are associated with the local sports teams.

West Virginia, for example, has adopted this song from John Denver as their theme over the years.

Much closer to home The University of Pittsburgh also had their homecoming this weekend. I had to reach out to an old friend and ask if there was a song they used to get the fans up or something they called their own....and he came through for me!

(And kudos to the guy who did that video!)

Once you get to the pro teams its a lot easier!

Starting with the Pirates...yes they are pros...its hard to believe its been 30 years since Pittsburgh won a World Series. OK, not that hard to believe. But back then there was a real family feel between the team and the city.

(By the way...best use of this song since 1979? Right here!)

Onward and upward and I'm not sure the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, your Pittsburgh Penguins, still use this song as Gary Glitter ran into a little bit of trouble in the recent past.

And of course there is the six-time and current Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers with their 4th quarter anthem!

So there you have it! The Friday Five!

Enjoy and if you have any suggestions for a future list drop me a line or leave a comment!

~ Glenn

Going to the Chapel

I know...I promised to write more frequently.

So sue me.

Its summer, we've been running around a lot and I haven't felt like writing much.

But today I wanted to wish my parents a happy 41st anniversary!

Here is the original write up from the paper when they got married in 1968:

I have no idea why it came out that small!

Here are some more pictures from their wedding day:

I know my sister and I could not have asked for better parents over the years!

Even if they did dress us like that!

I can only hope to have as good and as long a relationship as they have had!

Love you guys!

~ Glenn

Every picture tells a story

So I've slacked and not updated in a couple days...I have an excuse! (signed: Epstein's mom)

Michelle and I are fortunate enough to have some wonderful friends and neighbors. One in particular is gracious enough to invite us for an over night stay at a cabin owned by the company he works for.

This past Saturday we went with four other couples and spent the day riding quads, and drinking and playing cards, and eating!

Here are some pictures of the adventure!

From Cabin 022109

First thing we found out was the water line tot he cabin had frozen! The guys there spent all morning working on it and got everything up and running by 1pm!

From Cabin 022109

No, they are not playing hide and seek! LOL! Lisa (our neighbor) and Michelle are watching Lisa's dog dig for moles and are scared to death that she might actually pull one out of the ground!

From Cabin 022109

It was more than a little chilly riding of the quads but most people dressed appropriately! As shown here by my sister-in-law Michelle.

From Cabin 022109

And my brother-in-law Jim.

From Cabin 022109

The rides might be a lot quicker if everyone did stop for beverage breaks so often!

From Cabin 022109

From Cabin 022109

See what I mean? LOL

From Cabin 022109

This is one of the beautiful sights along the quad trails. Oh, and the Spark can was the drink of choice this past weekend. 7% alcohol with ginseng AND caffeine!

From Cabin 022109

I TOLD you it was cold!

From Cabin 022109

Now SOMETIMES people don't do the smartest things! Mark, our neighbor, told us not to run through the puddle because it was too deep. Then drove into it because someone else said they were going to!

From Cabin 022109

He kicked up a little mud trying to get out...which he did with some help from a couple of the guys.

From Cabin 022109

Another wonderful sight. A natural pond that you can actually see bubbling up from an underground spring!

From Cabin 022109

From Cabin 022109

It was also my brother-in-law's birthday so there was some celebrating going on!

From Cabin 022109

Then there were card games too!

From Cabin 022109

The next day we woke up to a few inches of freshly fallen snow! It was great riding around in that!

From Cabin 022109

From Cabin 022109

Even if it was COLDER than the day before!

So like I said...I had a good excuse to not be blogging! LOL!

Again, we had a wonderful relaxing time and I hope to do it again sometime.

~ Glenn

Birthday

Another one! LOL!

Today my one and only Godchild turns seven years old!

Alex is the first born of my only sister.

Really, when you think about it being a Godparent is quite the accomplishment.

It means that someone ELSE thinks you are going to be good enough to raise THEIR kid if anything ever happens to them! LOL!

When my grandmother passed away a few years ago I met my mother's Godfather at the funeral home. I told him that my mother (then in her 50's) was now his responsibility. I mean does your responsibility ever end? Am I going to be responsible for Alex when he's older?

That's a lot of pressure!

Still all of my nieces and nephews are a treasure to me. Each has their own unique personality and bring something different into my life as I am sure they do for their own parents.

~ Glenn

Happy Birthday

Just wanted to take a second to say happy birthday to my dad.

Dad with his dad around 1946 and his mother in 1945.

(I wanted to post this over the weekend but couldn't find the attached video!)

After graduating from high school in 1963 he enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam war.

Returning to the states he met and married my mother in 1968.

Several jobs and years later we still rely on him as much as we did as kids.

Dad will probably not retire any time soon. He has no real hobbies and all the grand kids will be in school in another couple years.

But he does more for our families then we can ever hope to repay him for!

Hopefully he knows we love him and we would lost without him most of the time!

His 64th(!) birthday was Saturday and below is a slide show I did for his 60th birthday.

(Music is "Root Beer Rag" by Billy Joel)

~ Glenn

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Well its a quiet day here at the homestead and all the Christmas decorations have been put away.

We start decorating the house for Halloween, then Thanksgiving, THEN Christmas!

I enjoy it, but its kind of nice to have the house back to "normal" after the hustle and bustle of the Holidays.

So since everything is put away I guess its time to post some pictures from Christmas!

Enjoy!

My family on Christmas Eve.

Our "kids" tree after Santa came!
The kids on Christmas morning.
The madness at my in-laws on Christmas night.

~ Glenn

I love this bar...

We have a great time getting together to watch Steeler games!

Win or lose it is always an adventure!

I never liked to get with other people to watch a football game because I tend to get loud and upset when the team I am rooting for is doing poorly.

But for the last three years a group of us have been taking turns hosting the games and its turned into great fun.

However the best place so far is at my in-laws house.

They have the best set up in their basement with a full-sized bar, dart board, big screen television (with speakers even in the bathroom!), a pool table...its a great place to watch a game!

Not that this is an earth-shattering revelation to anyone but I thought I should at least thank them for putting up with all of us most of the time!

~ Glenn

Radio Gaga

Show 36 Links!


Happy Thanksgiving!

It was tough going on air this week with the Steeler-Bengal game still undecided, but I had faith on my home team and they came through!

By the way...the REFS SUCK! Honestly, can't the NFL afford to hire younger guys who can keep up with the play? How can they make a call when they can't even breath after running downfield!?!?

Still, I have to give props to the fans of the Bengals...they have to go through some really tough times with that team!

So since it was the Thanksgiving show we had some great comedy bits from Lewis Black, Adam Sandler and some wonderful older stuff from Andy Griffith!

After the closing credits it was time for weird news!

1) A cougar attacked! And it wasn't the hot kind of courgar either!
2) A German supermarket chain got caught poisoning their garbage to keep the homeless away. Funny, maybe they could just have GIVEN it to them since they were throwing it away anyway?3) A woman hid a rotting corpse in her bathroom so she could continue collecting the social security for her religious leader. I had two jokes...listen to hear them...they're funnier that way!4) Wisconsin water authority threatned a lien on a blind, 74 year old woman's house because she owed 1 cent from last year. Yea, she never saw that one coming....


NEXT WEEK:

A one hour show!

I'm going back to my love for local radio and playing back a 45 minute program recorded live at a local hospital and performed by my daughters school. Its Christmas carols and musical presentations.

I feel its important to support our local communities even in the age of a global community via the world wide web.

Join me!




~ Glenn

Family Tradition

I have been studying my family's genealogy for many years now.

In fact there are times when I become obsessed (as my lovely wife will gladly tell me) and it is all I want to do.

But after a while you find that there are no more surprises. You hit one brick wall after another and you lose the will to keep looking.

So it was recently that I was considering ending my memberships and the various sites I use for my research.

But just tonight my daughter said she needed some information on members of our family you served in the military.

And there are more than a few!

My father was in the Air Force and served in Germany during Vietnam.
His brother was in Vietnam in the late 60's.
Their father was in the Army and was station in Panama during World War II.
My other grandfather was also in the Army and was in France during WWII.

I was showing her pictures and newspaper articles...even my grandfathers WWII duffel bag that still has his canteen, sandwich maker and other items he carried with him half-way around the world over 60 years ago.

So as I dug around for information the old genealogy bug bit me and I started going through my old files again.

It was then that I remembered a chance email from this past summer.

A distant relative had turned up doing research and was looking for information that I had. Our common ancestor was long gone, but I had the dates and info she needed. In exchange she said she had pictures of the person in question.

One problem.

She traveled during the summer and would not be to her home state until winter.

I was willing to wait.

Coincidentally, tonight as I was preparing to email her and see if she ever made it home I got an email with three pictures of my great aunt!



Its like finding a treasure!

Pictures of someone that you studied and know so much about, but never knew what they looked like!

My dad had never seen the pictures and didn't recognize his own aunt. He's going to show them to my grandmother (his mother) and see if she knows anyone else in the pictures.

I realize its not Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail...but it gives me hope that there may be more discoveries and there might be more to my family than I already know after 10 years of research.

~ Glenn

Something about you

This was originally posted on my Myspace page.

For some reason it seems to want to screw up the page so I am re-posting it here for the sake of linking it and making my life just that much easier!

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It was brought to my attention that I have never posted anything about me on this page!

I guess I never thought anyone would be interested as my family and “real world” friends already know all about me, but maybe I should.



I am 38 years old and live in PA. I’ve been married to my best friend since October 26, 1996. We met on a blind date (set up by a mutual friend) in 1994. We went out again a week later and then saw each other every day after that until about three months before we got married (and then only because Michelle had to take a business trip).

We have two great kids.

Veronica was born January 27, 1998. She was 3-months premature and scared the heck out of us! After some great medical care we brought her home in April, 1998. She is 10 years old and (knock on wood) has no lingering effects from her early troubles.

Joshua was born January 9, 2002, also 3-month early. He gave us MORE of a scare…as did Michelle as she had some complications that required some great medical care also! Michelle came home in a week, Josh three months later…and he too has shown no (knock on wood) complications from his early adventure.


I’ve had several jobs. My favorite was morning DJ at WPQR-FM in Uniontown, PA. I left there when the checks stopped clearing! I moved to WASP-FM (before they were bought by the conglomerate that is Froggyland) but the pressure of being on call 24 hours a day (and the lack of high pay) was putting strain on my relationship with Michelle. I switched careers completely and went to work for Rainbow Rentals delivering and cleaning appliances and furniture. After a few years I had taken their management class and was given my own store in 1998. Traveling back and forth to Johnstown, PA, Michelle and I were debating a move when I was offered my current job at Craft Tire. I now have a two-minute commute to work and better pay and some freedom when I have to leave for family matters!



Through it all Michelle has been my constant.

Despite the job problems or personal problems I know she’s the one to right my ship…even when I don’t think it’s wrong! LOL! We’re not perfect…we squabble and have our differences just like any couple that has been together as long as we have…but we find a way to work things out and for that I am eternally grateful. I’ve made some good friends over the years. Some I am still in contact with, some I may never see again. None ever supported me the way Michelle has.

That’s about it. I have a wonderful family (that extends to in-laws, parents, my sister and her family, my nieces and nephews) and overall a pretty good life. And I guess that’s all anyone can ask for.

~ Glenn