Now Playing -  Don't Stop Believin' by Journey   Life -    When I was growing up, I hated my last name. Despised it. Every thing about it. Not to go into history too much, I was raised by my mom, my parents divorcing when I was two, before my brother was born. I grew up raised by my mom and, as she worked two jobs and went to school to support us, I was raised by my family and

Now Playing -  On The Radio by Regina Spektor   Life -      Ahhh.... Life! When last we left the ROUS Motel, it was November in 2012. Now, in January of the big 2013, Our life is totally different. Both Lindsay and I have quit our Corporate, long term, stable jobs and we are working full bore, full time on Deeply Dapper and our writing! Which is insane, frankly. I had been

  Where in the world is The ROUS MOTEL, you ask? Working like mad on Deeply Dapper, our novels and "real" work. But I hope I'll be back soon as things start to stabilize.  Sorry. The ROUS FAMILY -              

 For a limited time, you can get my first novel, The Whispering Ferns for FREE on amazon.com! Go HERE to buy it and visit our other blog, Rainy Day Writers to read more about it! The ROUS FAMILY -              

Now Playing -  Is This Love by Bob Marley   Life -    Now that's how you spend a laid back Saturday in Maine! Last year, we were lucky enough to stumble across the Swap Meat while my mom was here and we made it a point to attend this year.   What is the Swap Meat, you ask? It's a yearly event, arranged by Spring Creek Bar-B-Q in Monson, Maine. Coinciding with Monson's yearly summer

Now Playing -  Sound Of Sunshine by Michael Franti and Spearhead   Life -      I was looking at my Etsy Shoppe offerings the other day and sighed. It was doing well - better than I could have hoped. There's some really fun stuff over there and it's getting attention, but not as much as I wanted. How are we to quit our jobs, buy a Motel and live off our writing and Etsy income? I

Now Playing -  Crutch by The Tossers   Life -   New Month, New Blog! Not this one, The ROUS Motel shall continue to sporadically chronicle our lives and attempts to eventually see our dreams of owning a motel come true and in the meantime, fill space with pictures of our dogs. (Though I plan to start posting a few recipes too) Instead, I refer to Lindsay's and my new blog, Rainy

Now Playing -  This Could All Be Yours Someday by Guster   Life -     Spring in Maine... Doesn't exist. They have the Thaw. And Mud Season. And Blackfly Season. And at some point, in between or after or all at the same time, Summer arrives. It is here now in the Bangor area, and it's pretty great. Temperatures in the mid seventies, a light breeze, rain every eight days or so, just

Now Playing -  Say Goodbye by Norah Jones   Life -    When we were headed back to Idaho, I had actually been concerned that the thinner mountain air would cause some difficulty for me. I've never been the best when it comes to breathing - I always feel stuffy, but I'd read that many people have trouble making the switch back after being gone for a while. I did not have that problem

Now Playing -  All A Dream by Norah Jones   Life -    The next few days were a bit blurry, we continued sorting through the shed, taking time out to eat Mexican food, chat with friends and family, eat more Mexican food, dividing boxes of books and comics and generally working or moving around from 6:30am to 1 or 2 in the morning. The shed got finished, mostly, everything re-boxes

Now Playing -  Stuff That Works by Guy Clark   Life -    Man, it was odd driving back into Pocatello after two years. Poky is one of those quintessentially Western places that was started back in the wild days, boomed with the railroad, stayed expanding for a while, saw a few hiccups of growth with a college and few other amenities and started a gradually declining retirement in

Now Playing -  Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne   Life -   Smothered Mushroom and Jack Enchilada from The Red Iguana    Since we moved out to Maine, we'd only been back to our home town of Pocatello, Idaho one time, and that was just to buy a car, load it with essentials and pets and drive back to Maine. That was about two years ago, so we finally decided the time was right

The other day, on my way home from work, I saw a short dude, probably about 5'4" walking along the road. Quite muscular. Or toned, I should say. He was wearing a backpack, hiked up and strapped, over both shoulders and with the little belly strap fastened. He was also wearing a pair of chinos, a ball cap and a pair of tennis shoes. And that was it. No shirt. And every time a car drove past, you

Part One - The Suit Naturally, in a lot of ways, this is the most important part. I was volunteered for the role of The Bunny for our five stores here and I had no involvement in choosing or renting the suit. This was a horrible, horrible mistake. If possible, go to the rental place - see the suit - try it on if at all possible. The suit we got was a misbegotten thing that looked like it was

Now Playing -  Crazy In Love by The Puppini Sisters Life - One thing Linz and I have always enjoyed is doing the local tourist things. We find that a lot of people never take the time to explore the area they live in and we've been guilty of that lately too. SO this weekend, we bit the bullet. The last weekend in March every year, the state of Maine's Maple Syrup makers or Sugarhouses have

Now Playing -  I've Been Everywhere by Johnny Cash   Life -  Well, it's not as bad as I'd feared. A few months ago, the large chain drug store I'm a manager for announced a major management restructuring. And that was all they said. No info, no reassuring words, just a formal announcement then the sound of a zipper sliding across their lips.  So naturally, speculation ran rampant. And I

Now Playing -  West Country Girl by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds   Life -      Okay. This is the beginning. Again. I've been a slacker for a while now, doing awesome things and not writing about them. Well, doing things and not writing about them, anyway. Nothing too spectacular. But life. And since that's the heading on here that shows up every time I start a new post, I guess I'd better

Which Now Playing -  Your Love by The Outfield   Lumberjacks Are Sexy! Life -    At my job I'm salaried and working in retail, that means from November to January, my position works six days a week instead of five. Which, when you typically work ten or eleven hours a day, that's a lot of working. So in return, they give you two extra days off in January to compensate. Mostly. Usually

All sites in the ROUS world will go dark in protest of the SOPA/PIPA bills. Click on the black bar and get angry. This should not happen in a free world. Period. The ROUS FAMILY -           

Now Playing -  Body Of An American by The Pogues Life -      My Life indeed. I've been a slacker this year, at least in regards to posting. Less than a post a week and not nearly spaced out that way. No reading updates or tracking... missed an entire vacation with family picture post to say nothing of our own adventures and mishaps. But that's gonna change. I'm not making any

Note: This "game" is recommended for adults. However, if you choose to ignore our recommendation and play this "game" with children, please draw the line at three year olds. After all, in addition to a tickle wand and fuzzy cuffs, there is a choking hazard.This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos

Customer- Excuse me, which one of these angry birds is most popular in high school?In my head - Gee, I don't know, 55 year old woman in skinny jeans with a tramp stamp. The red one looks like a jock, so probably that one. But after high school, I'd put my bets on the blue one. He looks like he would do well in the world of post school business. Red will end up blowing his acl, lose his

I have to question one of those things as a selling point... Read the rest of this post

Now Playing -  Always Something by Cage The Elephant Life -    Well, I should have called my last post "Knock On Wood" cause just a few days later, my wife calls me from work - Her car has a leaking tire. Grr. I've kind of suspected that we'd have to get her car new tires soon, they weren't exactly new when we bought the car two years ago, and we've put a lot of miles on little Bluebelle

Breakfast at Dysarts! Half order of corned beef, raspberry white chocolate muffin, molasses toast and home fries. Awesome.