P. Large

To Appease the Divine One

2009-02-02T08:25:00.003-06:00

The Divine One (my Dad) apparently keeps looking at my blog for updates and I have all but abandoned this one. Maybe a monthly update I could keep up with, life must be pretty good because this used to be a release for me of all my thoughts.

My Parents grew up in Plymouth WI and both families (Stegers and Andrews) had a tie to the fabric in the growth of the town. Stegers had a sheet metal business that eventually moved into heating and eventually air conditioning. Probably the first in town but everyone new Grampa George. The Andrews owned the local watering hole and beds for the night. Right down the winding road over the river sat the City Club. I only remember little things from the place. Pool, fryer behind the bar and the back apartment after walking through the long hallway to get to it. I know there were snacks back there but I can't remember what they were......oh wait now I remember little pretzel barrels.

The City Club was sold a couple of years back and I thought it would be a shame if it wasn't in the Andrews Family in some way. Take all the old photos throughout the years, tie the history to the building, listen to all the old stories and recreate the laughter that came out through the screen doors on the hot summer nights. At the very least if for only a family gathering place.

Wecome to the Right Where the Woman Wear Make-Up and the Men Don't Play Soccer

2008-11-06T17:19:00.004-06:00

I love one liners, I try to remember as many as I can. My dad is pretty good at them and has more than I could possibly remember. I think that has something to do with growing up in a bar. I realized that the Andrews side has a pretty good sense of humor, quick and witty, not slow and stupid.

I do watch the Daily Show and Jon Stewart but Steven Colbert is my favorite..enjoy

Time Slows Down

2008-10-27T08:03:00.002-05:00

For the last three months football has been the epicenter of our world here at the Andrews house. Dominic played his first year for the Redskins of the Lightning League (these are the 5th and 6th graders). They were the North Side Champions but lost to the South Side team in the championship game. He played center this year and as Grampa Chuck stated "he fills out his uniform well". He and his QB never missed a snap this year, meaning they never dropped the exchange. Of all the years that I have been around youth football players I have never seen that. He should be very proud.

I coached the Thunder Redskins (7th and 8th Graders), after a rocky 1-3 start we ended the season 3-1 winning our last game 20-8. It was a fun season, lots of hard lessons learned and having it finally come together at the end.

Now the world slows down a bit, not sure what to do three times a week from 6-8pm....maybe plan for next year.

....But One Life to Give the IRS

2008-09-19T06:21:00.003-05:00

Hey Biden, I am my own favorite charity.

Dominic's Football Practice

2008-08-22T09:25:00.003-05:00

FotoViewr - Create your 3D photo gallery

I Didn't Say I Wouldn't Go Fishing With the Man

2008-08-17T05:58:00.001-05:00

I don't know why but I love this commercial.

Football

2008-08-08T17:33:00.002-05:00

Football season has started. Packers are in camp, Badgers are in camp and my youth team is in camp. Only this year our league went from 190 kids to 325, which of course means that we are going to have less problems than last year right?....right?

let me just say that going form 190 to 325 has created so many problems you have to wonder why this was done in the first place. But I digress, as I am only a coach. That is what I do, coach. Don't ask my opinion, don't call me wondering what my feelings rather let me know what the board decided and I am your pawn. That makes my life easy.

As a team though I have some great kids this year. Returning are about 11 of my players from last years team along with about 13 that are new but overall I am good to go.

My younger sister sent me an email about how the group Tesla released an album 18 years ago and it seem like yesterday....I just wanted to let her know, that feeling will come more often now.

Two CheeseBurgers in Paradise

2008-07-27T08:55:00.002-05:00

Dominic had received a new bike for his birthday back in April and has been riding it everyday since. But all went awry this last week when he couldn't get the bike into third gear. Well since I am so mechanically inclined I hopped right up to fix his problem.....

Actually I dragged my feet for a couple of days so Dominic took things into his own hands and started to take the bike apart. With tools laying everywhere he fixed nothing and only made a mess. What he did do was figure out what was wrong he just needed some help fixing it. So after taking off the thing-a-giggy (which was the de-railer) and getting a new one, new cable and buying a chain tool we had it figured out and fixed. If only it hadn't taken 4 trips to the cycle shop and 4 hours later we might have looked like we knew what we were doing.

So with greasy hands and some sore backs we went for a walk while he rode his fixed bike and it worked awesome. As a reward we went to Chester's in Plymouth to eat greasy cheeseburgers with deep fried onion rings and wash it all down with a big root beer. Oh yeah we had to get a ice cream cone before leaving too but my son and I fixed his bike with no casualties and a sense of pride.

Oh and if you haven't seen "The Dark Knight" go, it was awesome.

Andrews Kids are in Therapy Again

2008-07-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

Dominic took on the responsibility of mowing some lawns this summer. The new job he just took on is bigger than the rest but he was excited about doing it. I told him to mow the other houses and when he got to the new one I would help him out with it. Well, he did it himself without me, which shows ambition and is great but it wasn't done right. In fact there where huge rows of missed lawn and when I told him that he needed to do it again he got mad. So with huge tears rolling down his face he worked through it, got it done and ultimately feeling really good about doing it right, in fact there was even a smile. Learning that taking money for a job that wasn't done right is stealing, he learned and if I know Dominic, that will be the last time he does a half ass job.

I now know how my dad felt when I didn't do it right. Sorry Dad

Hi Honey, Yep That Would Be a Tornado Siren

2008-07-16T19:37:00.004-05:00

These are just a few pictures from the storm that came through Sheboygan tonight. And yeah that is a crushed car!

I am Man!

2008-07-14T08:17:00.003-05:00

This was a good week for me, I represented man well.

Getting the roof caulked off, me thinks leak stopped. That warms my heart after 6 years of trying to figure it out.

Fucking-A a grill gets hot when you set it up correctly. I bought this grill when we moved into our house. I got is from an old lady down the street who decided that it just didn't work right or get hot enough. So this $200 grill I picked up for $75, but she was right, it just didn't work right through the years. I replaced the cooking grill, gas lines, warming grill and lava rocks but it just got hot in certain places. Then this weekend I got a lava rock grate that goes above the flame...holy shit it burns the hair off the knuckles now!

Return to Cool

2008-07-09T22:41:00.001-05:00

Yeah, came back with the old school site cuz it is asshats.

Summer TV

2008-07-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

Since it is the middle of summer and all the shows are on hiatus that we normally DVR Jen has decided to start recording shows like Shear Genius and Design Star. I need Lost back, it is like heroin withdrawal (not like I have ever done heroin but if I did I am sure the withdrawal would be just like this).

My roof gets fixed tomorrow morning but it is only a short term fix until next year. I can't wait to deal with contractors, remember the movie Money Pit? Yeah the Horror.

Gas is $4.03 here.....whaaaaaaa?

The boys are at camp all week, tomorrow is sleep over night...we are hitting the bar after we drop them off just because we can.

Leroy needs a walk, he just needs to retrieve something.

Parades

2008-07-08T06:49:00.002-05:00

I don't like going to parades. There I said it, I have been ridiculed for this opinion but even as a kid I didn't like parades. I guess not so much the parade itself but as a kid it was the steam engines that came down the street. You could hear them about a mile away...chuga, chuga as the steam pushed through the engine. Then there was the whistle, wholly shit it was loud. As it turns out I don't like loud, who woulda knew. To this day every parade we go to this primal fear is brought up by my family and they laugh and laugh...he he...

Today I don't like parades because of the lack of steam engines. Thinking about it there is a lack of fire engines....and police cars, tanks, bands, clowns and most of all candy. Todays parades are taken over by politicians and church groups like gods pottery (see below). So when Youth Football called and asked if I was going to walk in the parade to promote Youth Football I had to decline because not only do I hate parades so why should I be in one, but also because registration is closed so what's the point.

Total Slacker

2008-07-01T20:31:00.002-05:00

I am a total slacker with the whole blogging thing. In fact I have been thinking about letting it end and putting it to rest. I kind of like it though and decided to go back and look at some of the more memorable posts, just to bring back some good memories.

1. Pooping Cows
2.Kitty Returns looking like a crack addict
3. Job Search
4. The Big Day
5. The Divine One, on golf

This has been kind of fun and I am only through year one, will have to continue the fun another time. Hope you enjoyed the "best of p.Large".

Obama's Portland Turn Out

2008-05-19T19:33:00.002-05:00

Did you see the turn out for Obama's rally in Portland, Check them out here.

Man, I bet all 57 states were represented.....whew...

Church Going Voice

2008-04-30T20:26:00.000-05:00

I love this....

Tommy"isms"

2008-03-15T20:36:00.002-05:00

For what ever reason Tommy seems to be able to file away little tidbits and phrases he hears and pluck them out and use them whenever he wants for what we have called Tommy"isms". If you ask us what he has said we couldn't tell you, we seem to forget just know how funny they were. So in an attempt to keep up and remember what he says I will post them here for all to have fun with. Now keep in mind these are coming from a 7 year old.

1. Tonight on the way home from a Mexican restaurant where he refused to eat what he ordered (cheese enchilada with beans and rice) Mom says "Well I guess we know know Tommy doesn't like enchilada's"....Tommy: "You got that right!" which at that point he sings the Pepto Bismol song.

2. After reading Tommy a book and Tommy learning something, out of the blue he actually uses the phrase "Fancy that!". What 7 year old knows when to say that?

Lightning Strikes

2008-03-03T18:28:00.002-06:00

On ESPN they had a contest to see what is the best sport highlight of all time, we the public get to vote on a bunch of different clips but it came down to two. First was a college football bowl game between Oklahoma and Boise State in 2007. I don't watch to many bowl games but this one I had on being it was prime time and I wanted to see how a mid-level conference team does against the powerhouse, below is the clip.

Then the winner by a vote of 55% was the Mike Eruzione goal to beat the Russians in the 80 Olympic games. I try to think back to some memory of this game but being that I was 8 years old and not a hockey nut I don't ever remember hockey being on the TV at our house but for some reason I think I remember the game on our TV when we lived in Sheboygan on a little 16" TV (yeah that was the main TV). I don't know if that was the case or not but I would like to think so. Until they make a movie of the Boise State game I am going to have to pick the hockey upset too.

Running on Empty

2008-01-23T08:15:00.000-06:00

If anyone pays attention anymore, I really haven't been keeping up on this blogging thing. So let me get everyone up to date.

First, let me address the Green Bay nation. I am as sick of the loss as you are but could we please put it in perspective? we ended the season at 14-4 and if anyone can prove they predicted that at the beginning of the season you'll get a big ol' cookie. Favre, for the most part, was the MVP of the league. McCarthy was the coach of the year with what he did with this team. Lets look back at the season and enjoy the fun we all had on this bus trip, because we won't sneak up on anyone next year.

Second, my son Dominic entered the Geography Bee at school. He first won the Bee for his classroom, hey that was cool. He then had to go up against 11 others throughout the school in an elimination round. I was just hoping he wouldn't be the first one out but to my surprise he ended up third, losing only to 5th graders....this was way cool.

Lastly, can I just say that the cold sucks. 1.8 degrees at 8:30 in the morning just isn't right.

What Are They Talking About?

2008-01-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

We are in the middle of another presidential race that will end, not soon enough, next November. We are going to hear a lot over the coming months about how crappy everything is and for some it really is but I saw a survey that said that 94% of Americans are happy with their lives.

Check out this article from David Brooks of the New York Times or just listen to Colin Cowherd from ESPN Radio talk about it, I think he is my new favorite radio host.

Christmas Repost

2007-12-25T10:15:00.000-06:00

from 12/24/05....

The following post is from a story writer of the Milwaukee Journal by the name of Charlie House....a long time ago.....Like before I was born..which was a long time ago.

I am sure that he wrote this, published it and maybe never thought about it again but if one of his kids ever googles his name I want them to know that it has been used in our family for close to forty years and will be used when my kids find out. The following is from my Mom....

“I found this article in the Milwaukee Journal newspaper (we were living at 2227 N. 7th Street in Sheboygan). I’ve read this story to each of you children when it became apparent the proper time had come for you to hear it. You then became part of a
Very special secret and were allowed to stay up late on Christmas Eve, bring the gifts out from their special hiding place and place them under the tree for the rest of the family as they slept."...Mom

With that, here you go. A Andrews Family Tradition.

When you were littler than you are now, you believed in Santa Claus. Now that you are bigger, you may be wondering about the beautiful secret of the really, truly Santa Claus. You are old enough to know, so this is a real story. It happened. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a baby was born in a city called Patara in a place called Asia Minor. The baby's name was Nicholas. I think they called him Nick. Except for one thing. Nick was just like other babies. He laughed some. He gurgled some. He cried some. He did all the things that other babies do. But the very one thing that was different about Nick was that he was going to grow up to become the really, truly Santa Claus.

Nick's father had a funny name; it was Epiphanies. Nick's mother had a pretty name; it was Joanna. Nick's name wasn't Santa Claus; not yet, anyhow. He got that name in a very funny way, which I will tell you about after a while. Nick's mother and father knew that Christ had come from heaven and that Christ was wonderfully good and kind. He loved people on the earth, and the people always tried to do the things that Christ wanted them to do. Nick's mother and father believed in Christ, so they called themselves Christians. They taught Nick to be good and kind, and to help people. As he grew from a baby to a boy and then to a man, he was always good and kind. One day some people came to Nick. They asked him if he would please come to work in their church so that he could help people. Nick said that he would like to do that, so he did. After a long time people saw what a wonderful person he really was. They asked him if he would come to a much bigger church in a much bigger city, which was called Myra. Nick did; and then, after a while, the people started to call him bishop, because that is what you call a person who is at the head of some churches. Bishop Nicholas was very happy. He liked big people and he liked little people; but most of all, he loved children. Sometimes he carried candy in his pocket so he could give little children a present when he met them. It was fun for him to see little children happy. Other times when Bishop Nicholas learned about people who needed something, he would go to their house and drop the something down the chimney. He enjoyed giving secret presents. Well, people began to think that Nick was so nice that they decided to call him a saint. (A saint is a person who is so nice that you could hardly know anybody nicer.) So the people called him Saint Nicholas. Nick began to travel from place to place to try to help people. Sometimes he traveled east; sometimes he traveled west; sometimes he traveled south, and sometimes he traveled north where it was very, very cold. And here is an odd thing. When St. Nick traveled to the north kind of places, he dressed as warmly as he could. He wore warm, black boots, and he wore red clothes (because some bishops wear red). He wore red mittens and a red hat and red trousers and his clothes were all trimmed with white fur. I am sure' that you know exactly how he looked. I think you know how he traveled, too. He had a big sleigh and he drove reindeer, just as you have thought of him doing all those years when you were little. But one day, after Nick had grown old become a very, very old man, a sad thing happened. He died on December 6 of the year numbered 343. That was 1,624 years ago. Everybody was sad. They looked at each other and asked, "Who can take his place?" Some people were willing to try. They dressed in red clothing trimmed with white fur, and they put on a make believe beard, and they went from house to house to give presents to the little children. They wanted to make the children glad, and they did. The people who dressed up like St. Nicholas couldn't make believe all the time so they did it just around Christmas time, because it was near to the time that Saint Nicholas went away. Other people got St. Nick mixed up with Christmas time, even though Christmas doesn't really have very much to do with the wonderful, true story of Santa Claus. Then a long, long, long time passed. Some Dutch people who lived in Holland moved away from there and came to America, where you live. Did you know that the Dutch people talk differently? When Dutch people want to say the name St. Nicholas, they say it this way: San Nicolas. Now I am going to stop reading for a little while so you can try to say San Nicolas a few times, very quickly. Try it. Now you see? It sounds exactly like -Santa Claus." So you see, the name as we say it is not a really truly name- it is a fun kind of a Nickname! Santa Claus is a kind of a fun man, too. Even though there was once upon a time a really, truly St. Nick, there isn't any more, except just for make believe. You are big enough to know that if the really, truly St. Nick had stayed alive all that time, he would be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old and, of course he couldn't live to be that old, could he? So now, big people make believe that the wonderful man who lived ever so long ago is still in the world. The reason they do this is because it is a very special way to make little children happy. And that's the really, truly story of Santa Claus.

2007, The Wonderful Year in Sports

2007-12-23T10:09:00.000-06:00

I am a big fan of Steve Czaban who I only get to listen to while he is on Bob and Brian in the morning on 102.9 in Milwaukee. He was giving thanks to the year in sports and I wanted to paraphrase.

Year of Shame: 2007 Sports..

1. Dog fighting…Michael Vick's love for dogs
2. Ref. gambling…This includes NBA and Big Ten referee’s
3. Adam “Pac Man” Jones….Strippers are so much fun
4. Bill "look I learned sign language" Belichick
5. Imus “love those nappy headed hoes”
6. Isiah “where’s the love” Thomas (suspiciously Martha Burke was no where to be found)
7. Barry “What’s up with my head getting bigger” Bonds
8. Marian (Sorry I got caught) Jones
9. Mitchell Report (really does anyone really care anymore, lets play two people)
10. Chris Benoit….The ultimate in roid rage
11. NFL Shootings…..One to start the season in Denver and one to end the season with the Redskins moarning.
12. O.J.’s reality show wanna be (hey everyone, there’s a party down the hall, got your guns?)
13. DUI’s in all sports, Jerry Buss and Tony Larussa the most notable
14. NFL Network and Big Ten Network strong holding the cable companies.

Positives
1. Thank you Tony Dungee for proving that a good guy can reach the top.
2. Thank you Brett Farve for giving the gift of football to all us Packer fans for yet another year.
3. Thank you Ava Longoria Parker for keeping my waining interest in the NBA alive
4. Thank you Sopranos’ for leaving us all wondering if Tony finally got it in the end.
5. Thank you Devin Hester for all you do, it is fun to watch
6. Thank you Navy Football for stomping on Notre Dame while they are down.
7. Thank you Mike “I’m a man” Gundy for the best coaches rant all football season

8. Thank you Britney Spears for taking the time out of your busy day and show us how not to raise our kids.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I'm Rick James Bitch!

2007-12-21T19:10:00.000-06:00

Today I was watching the morning news and they had this story about Oprah giving every one of her audience members (30 of them) $1000 at the yearly "favorites" things show where audience members go fucking crazy because they get all the stuff free. The only caveat is that they had to "Pay it Forward", meaning they couldn't keep it they had to give it away then report back what they did with it. Some of the stuff was amazing, like turning that $1000 into helping to pay for brain surgery for someone....really?

Now I am not a Oprah fan, in fact I think she has gotten to ridiculous but this was a good idea so....

Today I am at the post office and am in line waiting to mail some items for work and this 6' blond bomb shell comes in and gets in line behind me. You know the type, big sunglasses (even though it was not sunny out all day), fur coat, big dangling purse with lots of metal circle things and jingles all over the place. I smile...she ignores..whatever. Anyway as I leave the post office she is in front of me, we walk up to the doors and she stops...moves to the side where I see this women coming in with a cane and moving a little slow so now I am at the door, the blond has moved a side and in approaches the lady with the cane. I do the obvious and open the door to let the lady with the cane walk through but as she gets past me the blond quickly moves through the open door that I am holding then proceeds to not hold the next set of doors in front of her and letting it close in my face never even considering that I was behind her...there she walks away to her Cadillac CTS and off she goes, wow oblivious to the world around her.

Well I was only a block away from a small quaint store called "Sense of Taste" that I decided to stop in and purchase a couple of cigars, not that I am a expert on cigars or anything but about once a year I get the craving for a good one. I got out of the car, walked up to the meter and pulled out the change in my pocket (going ding-a-ling-a-ling) and I had a nickel which gave me 10 minutes, more than enough time really but there in front of me in my hand were two quarters which would put 2 hours on the meter...I dropped in the quarters, got two hours put on and left it for whoever pulled up behind me...merry Christmas to someone....until Jen pointed out at supper that it was probably the blond bitch that got the two hours.....UGGGHH!!! Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!!!

Clang Clang Clang Came the Trolley

2007-12-18T07:04:00.000-06:00

This weekend something special happened. It doesn't happen very often but sometimes everything just comes together. This weekend it was the 1913 Steam Locomotive that came into Plymouth WI. It was big, black, loud and just plain impressive. Sister has lots of pictures and with the light snow falling and having my boys with me I couldn't help of love the time spent.