Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

Remembering Gary Porter, aka Skinner......

As some of you may know, one of my local friends and allies, Gary Porter, passed away from cancer this past Wednesday. He survived throat cancer (2009), and anal cancer (2012), but after a valiant effort, was not able to survive lung cancer (2013).

( I first met him in 1993... )

I am a better man for having known him. He will be missed. And the world is a poorer place now that he's gone.

Here is his obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dayton/obituary.aspx?n=gary-alan-aka-skinner-porter&pid=164456668

Spent the weekend staffing a New Warrior Training Adventure weekend. 16 men took a huge step forward in their lives and went through the training.

I'm exhausted and joyful.

[Updated 11:05] Shout-outs: Happy birthday to jodimuse!

Yesterday, we went shopping at the Mall at Fairfield Commons, in Beavercreek. I try to avoid shopping at malls because there just isn't a lot of stuff there that interests me. Okay, there are a few clothing stores there that I like -- Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie & Fitch, Structure, American Eagle Outfitters -- but I didn't go clothes shopping. I needed to get next year's calendar pages at the Franklin Covey store. My wife wanted to go to a few stores as well, so we put Maria's car seat in the stroller and did one lap of the mall. We came out with a pair of shoes for Rebecca, clothes for Maria, and some Disney DVDs for us -- Schoolhouse Rock, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White. (Oh yeah...and some Godiva truffles for Rebecca since it was Sweetest Day.) That night, instead of going out for dinner, I went to the Dorothy Lane Market and brought home some yummy heat-and-serve food -- herb-roasted beef tenderloin, green beans almondine, grilled portabella mushrooms, and twice-baked potatoes.

Today, I cleaned out the refrigerator and inventoried its contents, one shelf at a time. I now have a spreadsheet that lists what I have in the fridge, and where it is. In some cases, I know when I first put it in there. I understand that future models will have built-in computers. If they add a wand or built-in barcode reader, that would be perfect -- the fridge can take and keep the inventory for me. I also have a cleaner fridge, since I got rid of stuff that was no longer appetizing or edible. Meanwhile, my wife was watching Trading Spaces and complained about the designer who spray-painted a couch pink, left it outside to dry and became ruined because it rained that night. What was the designer thinking?

That's quite a far cry from ( what I did this weekend five years ago. )