Picture of Ofelia and Grace

The above picture was included in a post entitled Easter Sunday At Our House. My grandmother Ofelia, on the right, and her younger sister Grace, on the left, are pictured here in my living room on Easter Sunday, 2006.

Easter Sunday at Our House

Alleluia, the Lord is risen! What a wonderful day it was yesterday. Not just because it was Easter. It was also a family gathering to celebrate a birthday.

Awhile back my wife Laura decided she wanted to have the family over for Easter. We usually go to my mom’s house for Easter, but Laura wanted people to come here. I don’t have an issue with anyone coming over. I just know that our house is not really suitable for entertaining. Not that it’s a filthy pigsty. That’s just what I say to the kids to try and get them to clean up after themselves. After all, if I have to endure a household that is less clean than I'm accustomed to, then they can endure my bitching about its condition.

Our house is also not very big, so when you get about 12 or more people in it – including us, it starts getting closer to crowded and further from cozy. Anyway, Laura invited everyone over, and at some point early on it was decided to celebrate my sister Donna’s birthday. My mom volunteered to bring the ham and the pies. (Donna wanted a certain kind of pie instead of a birthday cake). Here's a picture of her blowing out the candles.

My other sister Denise volunteered to bring the salad. Laura was going to cook a string bean casserole. As the date got closer, my aunt and uncle were invited and my aunt volunteered to bring potatoes. The day before Easter, Laura’s grandmother (our next-door neighbor) brought over a freshly baked pineapple upside down cake. Finally my grandmother wanted to buy the dinner roles. Now the food is covered.

Laura did lots of shopping the day before Easter. Laura does a lot of shopping anyway, but this time for Easter Sunday. And after working our asses off cleaning all day Saturday, and I can’t forget acknowledging Laura’s and the kid’s extra cleaning efforts on Thursday night, we were nearly ready for guests. Sunday morning started off as it usually does for me by attending mass. Sometimes with everyone, but this time just me. Then home for last minute cleaning and shopping.

Finally it was time to start the celebration. Laura’s parents (Tina and Ed) arrived first, followed by my mom and grandma (Norma and Ofelia), and my great-aunt (Grace). My aunt Grace and my grandma are pictured together here.

The others who followed in no particular order other than how they popped into my memory: my aunt and uncle (Dolores and Gilbert), and my cousin (Michael), my sister and my brother-in-law and their two kids (Denise, Dan, Christine, and Jacob), my sister the birthday girl and my brother-in-law and their son (Donna, Louis, and Timothy), and finally Laura’s grand-parents (Bertha and Gil). When you include the four of us (Danny, Laura, Brady, and Nina), that’s 21 people! Bertha and Gil are pictured here, and yes, that's their dog Mimi pictured in Gil's sweatshirt.


We had a great Easter egg hunt for the kids (the start of which is pictured above). The kids also played cards and the adults had lots of laughs playing Canoga (a dice game). We had a great time and a lot of fun. Good food, good family, and good conversation. Thank you God for giving us such a great day.

Why Do I Need A Topic?

After some careful thinking, it finally occurred to me to just write. Don’t over think everything; just write. But, before I get started, I want to make some formal acknowledgements:

Thank you God for everything you’ve ever given me: my life, my health, my family, my friends, all the people who I’ve encountered throughout my lifetime.

Thank you God for allowing me to exist in this place on Earth, and in this time in history.

Thank you God for all the opportunities you’ve afforded me: my education, my career, my recreation.

In short, thank you God for everything, for I truly believe that it is because of you that I am who I am.
Now I just didn’t say that because this is Holy Week.

Thank you Mama and Papa, for everything you’ve ever done for me. I have come appreciate far too late in life the sacrifices you’ve made for me and my sisters. I miss you Papa, and I wish you could have spent time with Nina before you moved on to a better place.

Thank you Laura for your love and understanding.

Okay, moving on. So I’ll just write from time to time about whatever pops into my twisted mind. There won’t necessarily be a topic, I won’t care whether anyone reads my postings, and I won’t care if anyone comments on my postings. As I become more skilled at things like placing links to websites, and downloading photos, I will incorporate them into my postings. (As it is, I can’t even figure out how to download the pictures that have been in the family digital camera for YEARS onto the computer). So for now, the postings will be short and simple, and will appear occasionally. There’s no way I’m going to commit to any schedule, such as daily or weekly.

Why Do I Need A Title?

Six months ago I don’t think I even heard the word blog. When I did hear it, I didn’t know what it was. Then I found out what it was, and wasn’t interested. Now, sometime in the last couple of months after hearing about a certain blog written by a radio personality, I began to read it. I found it interesting, informative, entertaining, and even inspiring. I began reading other blogs by following the links to those who left comments on the same blog. Then I felt like leaving a comment. Then I thought I should probably set up an account so that my comment isn’t anonymous. After all, even with an account name I’m still anonymous to the owner of the blog and any of its readers. So I set up an account and started leaving comments on this blog and that blog.

My next step was to step up my own blog. But what to call it and more importantly what to write about. Well I got half of that problem solved pretty quickly. One of my recreations is off road riding on all terrain vehicles. That’s the last time I’ll refer to it as that. I like to ride my quad. I’m in a club with others who like the same thing, although not everybody has a quad. Some have motorcycles, some have sand rails, some have all of the above, and some have none of the above. But there’s one thing we all have – fun.

So I incorporated the name of the club and my name (well one version of it anyway) to come up with my blog title. But I still don’t know what I’m going to write about. I’m surely not going write exclusively about riding my quad and what the club does and where the club goes. That part of the problem will reveal itself in due time.

More on the D.O.M.

For anyone who might be wondering what the D.O.M. is about, here's a link to the unofficial web page. It's all about fun. When I get around to it, I'll be posting pictures of the people and outings.