Kiwanji's House

What I did on my summer vacation... from hell

2010-11-02T11:42:00.000-04:00

Please forgive me as it's been (aside from those Kiva posts) 5 1/2 months since my last confession. The worst part is... it was entirely purposeful. Why? Because my summer sucked. Not just a little bit. It sucked big. Epic sucking. Yup, it was a bad few months. If you've made the questionable decision to also be my friend on the FB you most likely saw, or at least actively ignored, my periodic posting and updating on the home improvement hell that we were living so you've already got an idea of what went on.

Well, even if you lived through all of that, I'm going to take some time to recreate the whole project in one spot here for me to relive. Someone please explain to me why I would want to do that to myself.

Here we go. Starting with the investigation into why there was water damage to our wood floor in the dining room. It seemed so innocuous at the time... who would have known?

June 9, 2010 - noticing the mold.

June 10, 2010 - Yes, dealing with this on my birthday was a blast! The first plumber we called comes in, rips some holes in our wall, tells us it'll be $500 to replace the 4 foot section of pipe that is actively leaking. We then got an estimate from his company on a whole-house pipe replacement - $5,000. Um, there's the door - have a nice day.

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Took Wifey and the kids up to Connecticut to visit with her parents on June 18th. I stayed up there for a few days then came home to deal with the broken pipes and the rest of the mess while she remained with the kids up there.

It took a few (anxiety producing) days to get in touch with a plumber/cousin of a friend who came recommended. Although I was angry at his initial lack of responsiveness (later found out he was out of town) I stuck with him. Got an estimate on the project from him - got the family discount even - and fell in love. Just to be sure, and following the directions of all the shows I love on DIY - I got a third estimate at over $6,000. Yeah, plumber/cousin - you're in.

On the 21st I stopped by two different Lowes' on the way home to pick up tile for the floor replacement phase of the project. I tried my best to estimate how much tile I'd need but all those estimates flew out the window when I got to the store and started second guessing myself. So, I just bought everything I could get my hands on knowing I could return anything I didn't use. My poor van wasn't happy with me.

Loaded with tile -

Back to normal -

This is what 1,232 lbs of tile and a thousand dollars looks like. Yup, my poor van held 1,232 lbs of tile plus accessories. And I carried it all in by hand in 90 degree heat.

June 23, the destruction began. Had to move everything off of the DR floor into the LR and some stuff even lived on the stairs for a while.

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The Pergo comes up and the mold underneath is visible.

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The whole wall, opened up.

The mold in the wall, and on the studs and sill, was absolutely disgusting/heartbreaking.

The floor coming up in the hallway. No wonder the previous owners put down the Pergo - just look at that linoleum underneath!

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Looking back into the DR from the hallway. Looked like someone previously had done the unbelievably hard work of ripping up the linoleum. I wonder what this place used to look like.

June 26, the stove gets moved down off of the hearth even though there is nothing wrong with it or the tile under it. Had to do it so the new tile would match.

Locked and loaded, trying not to get sick as I rip out the moldy studs and sill.

Drew came over and helped me move the heavy stove and computer cabinet down into the LR. I love my friend Drew!!!!

Studs are out, temp wall is in.

Close ups of the sill. This is literally feet from where my family ate dinner! I was sick thinking about that.

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With the wall out, the destruction continued with the floor in the kitchen coming up. Notice the mold where the dishwasher is? The seal under the washer failed a while back, causing some leaking. I never thought that there would be this kind of damage under the floor as a result.

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More unseen/unknown mold coming out of the laundry area.

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With the wall down and floor finally out throughout the first floor the piles were large and spread out.

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The tile from the hearth wasn't exactly easy to remove. I didn't want to have to replace the cement board so it all had to be chipped up by hammer and wrecking bar.

Oh yeah... I did all of this without the A/C on (remember the mold? I didn't want to close the windows) in 100 degree heat. I wasn't feeling very good when these days were over. Sleeping was next to impossible.

June 27, the prep work for the plumbing begins. Holes in the walls to get to the tub pipes, the floor in the bedroom comes back up (had to take it up a few months ago when a different pipe leaked), crap gets piled in our bedroom.

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Somehow talked another friend into coming over to help. Thanks Chad! He was a wiz with the hammer and bar in getting the tile taken up.

New wall is in! I went through three bottles of Clorox Clean-up scrubbing the wall clean.

The tile is out, after a lot of blood, sweat, and yes, a few tears.

This is what has become of JAM and Red's bedroom. With no room untouched downstairs, and Pudge's floor literally missing, their room has taken the brunt of the storage duties.

June 28, more holes for the plumbing work. It was a really good thing we did this project. We found more leaks all over the place, including in this hole, right behind the kitchen sink. The pipe leading to the sink looks like it sealed itself up after doing minor damage but there's no guarantee it would have stayed sealed.

Pipes getting removed - including the ones that started this mess. This is the new wall sans pipes.

Pipes removed from the closet under the stairs where the water heater lives.

Had to rip out much more of the floor upstairs to get to the pipes leading back down to the kitchen. Better this than ripping into sheetrock downstairs. I was standing pretty much above the sink where the new holes had to be cut.

All the crap that we store under the stairs in the utility closet had to come out. No where to go with it except into the kitchen.

I pretty much cried when we had to open a hole in the dining room ceiling. After not having had a ceiling in there for more than 2 years we finally got it finished not long ago... and now to rip it open again... just killed me.

Taking the washer/dryer out. Just happy to get to clean in there!

The kitchen gets more crowded with the washer and dryer moved out of the closet.

Empty W/D closet, waiting for me to cut the hole for the new dryer vent.

The bathroom demo begins.

June 29 - Ripping apart, then putting back together, the W/D closet. And a good view of the best plumber in the world - Casey Biddex.

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More help from Drew let me get all the crap into the van and to the dump so I could start the week without piles o'crap strewn about my yard.

July 1, I got "smart" and hired out the rocking work to a pro. There's a lot to be said for not having to spend days and days fixing your mistakes in the taping and mudding of sheetrock. Best $300 I ever spent.

The first, and most critical (and interesting) of the tile goes down. I went with a little floor mat type design as something cool to see as you walk in the front door.

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Tile goes into the bathroom. But, at 11:30pm, with my ability to do basic geometry to make the cuts absolutely gone due to exhaustion, I decided to call it a night with only those few pieces left to cut.

July 2, downstairs bathroom tile done. Glad I stopped when I did the night before, those final few cuts took a long time, mostly because of the one tile that went around the toilet flange. It's hard to cut round patterns with a tile saw that only goes in straight lines.

Tile goes into the kitchen.

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Went up to Connecticut on the 4th to get the family. Brought them back into a whirlwind of mess and chaos. It was not a happy time in the kingdom. Spent the next couple of days finishing the floor upstairs, getting rooms put back together, and navigating the tricky waters of disappointed marriage.

July 6, the dining room is almost done.

July 9, tiling done. Yeah, I was exhausted at 1:30 in the morning. This is what you look like when you've stayed up past midnight tiling every night for a week.

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July 10, grouting in dining room and bathroom done.

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July 12 -Wifey and I were up until 2 am finishing the tile on the hearth. Only a few tiles left here and there then we're done. The hearth is by far the best part of the job. Intricate cuts made it look so much better than bland square tiles.

July 13 - tiling complete!!!!!

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July 21 - My Dad came up to stay and help for a few days. Other than his not being interested in sleeping in a chaotic living room (he bailed and went to a hotel) everything went really well. His major project was finishing (1st coat anyway) the oak trim that surrounds the raised platform where the fireplace sits and the fronting on the step don to the living room. We picked a nice dark color so it outlines the space really well.

The last part of the grouting started well into the evening. By 1:30 in the morning the grout was done. Wifey and I had a good set up... I grouted and she rinsed the sponges in a never ending process. We went through a LOT of water during this process but the look is fantastic!

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I loved the way the tile and grout look against the dark stained wood.

July 22 - Wifey spent a ton of time sealing the grout and now the tile job is complete! The kids and I took a moment to do a celebratory dance on our temporary dance floor.

July 24 - The painting process has begun.

July 25 - the new wall is painted, the trim is ready for install.

Trim is in and we're ready to move the heavy furniture and stove back into place.

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The LR is starting to look normal again. No, not really. But, it is nice having some space again.

September 15 - Life has returned to "normal." I realized I never took any "Done" pictures right after the project was over but that was probably not a terrible thing as odds and ends were wrapped up over a few days. But, the job (downstairs at least) is done and I think everyone in the family has enjoyed our new look - even the purple bathroom.

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Kiva Loan #5

2010-09-15T21:47:00.003-04:00

It's amazing how time has flown since my last post, and it's funny how the last one was a Kiva donation as well. This time I sent my money to Mongolia where Dashdavaa Hurlee will be putting it to use buying more supplies for his grocery store.

Adding another check to my map of countries where my money has gone....

visited 5 states (2.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Kiva loan #4

2010-05-16T21:14:00.002-04:00

My last loan, to a woman raising pigs in the Philippines, was paid back recently so it's time to make another loan via Kiva. So far I've loaned money to four women in Mali who were selling clothing, a group of retailers in Paraguay, the pig farmer in the Philippines, and now a woman's group in Uganda that run a general store.

If you're still unfamiliar with Kiva I recommend taking 5 minutes to get to know them. As I said, I've successfully lent out money three previous times and my money always comes back to me. They're helping people get ahead in life and I find that worthwhile so it's a no-brainer to me.

My lending map is slowly filling up...

helped folks in 4 countries (1.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World

A very good one!

2010-05-15T22:14:00.010-04:00

Days - they don't get much better than this one. Unless you're Charlie Sheen and you've just found yourself in a slightly downtrodden hotel bar, but I digress... This was a fantastic day.

First, Red's last soccer practice/JAM and I run around the lake this morning. I've been feeling less than svelte lately so I wanted to take the opportunity during Red's last soccer practice (which would usually find me standing on the sideline tending Pudge and messing around with JAM) to take a run around Greenbelt Lake. Yessir, JAM and I ran all 1.73 miles (yes, I measured... using Google Earth thankyouverymuch - see the end of this post) around Greenbelt Lake! Didn't even stop running once (except two short times to try to explain to JAM how to run without stomping and digging his feet into the ground on every step and to let Pudge - who I was pushing in the jogging stroller mind you - throw his rock into the lake). So, mostly 1.73 miles without stopping. I know... and no one was even chasing me with any sharp kitchen utensils!

When we got back to Red's soccer practice we were in time to see some final games being played:

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After the games the coaches called us all up to the Community Center for an end of season shindig - and by shindig I mean cupcakes and cookies and apple slices (thanks to Wifey) - to give all the 3 and 4 y.0.'s their medals. Yes, medals. Red was so proud of her medal!

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And Pudge was happy as a pig in slop to get a cupcake of his very own.

After lunch, JAM and I took off for his baseball game. (I really need to bring a camera to one of his games because poor Wifey, when she does get to make it to a game, is saddled with the two little ones and she can't do both jobs of cameraman and playground monitor for the other crazy kids on the death-trap playground.) JAM's team has gotten soooo much better in the 10 weeks we've had them all together. They've gone from a team of all brand-new-to-this-level-of-ball kids (who most of them didn't know where first base was - honestly) to now I've got the whole infield moving on each pitch, they know where they're supposed to be and they move without hesitation. I'm so proud of them. They were even in the game today until the end of the third inning (thanks to the other coach putting in their "project" pitcher we were tied at 7 after the 3rd)!!! But then the other team got tired of us being close and put in their real pitcher and shut us down and they scored another 7 in the 4th so we lost 14-7. But HEY - we were tied after 3!!!!

Then, we had such a fantastic time tonight when we had some long-lost friends over for dinner. Alright, not so lost, but we've owed them an invite to our place for a long time and I finally nipped things in the bud and somehow the planets aligned and we were able to make it work. Certain people, who were supposed to join us, were either in another country or tied up with previous engagements so our party was slightly less populous than originally planned but we had such a fantastic time reconnecting with these good friends. The kids all played so spectacularly in the yard, with no problems to speak of - even after not seeing each other for so long - so we were blessed with being able to enjoy the fire pit unmolested for quite some time before we had to relent and break out the s'mores. :)

Yes, from exercise to soccer party to a grand day for baseball to a wonderful evening with friends..... they don't get any better than this!

The run:

Happy birthday to my Red

2010-05-11T11:33:00.003-04:00

Yup, my "little" Red turned 4 this past weekend and as usual I don't know where the time has gone. But, because I knew a long time ago that I didn't want to leave it up to my swiss-cheese-brain to remember all the good times I take a LOT of pictures. This also allows me to do cool things like this:

So, happy birthday to my little firehead (as her Mem likes to call her). You bring such... energy into our lives and we love you so much for it.

Spring planting, Take I

2010-04-25T19:23:00.007-04:00

It's not even Mother's Day and I've already started the spring planting. I know, I'm shocked too. Year's past have seen me buy my plants nice and early only to have them sit around and wait until June to get in the ground. Not this year buddy! No way.

Okay, so I've only gotten the three new planters done so far. But, in my defense, I did a really good job on them if I do say so myself. We've always had a set of mismatched planters on our front walk, and Wifey's always hated having them take up a big chunk of the sidewalk. So this year I got a set of three nice new round planters from Costco and I put some concrete blocks into the grass to set them on. And, to really top it all off, I did some research on how to design a really good planter. This is what I found:

Although these articles did a good job giving some advice, and even pointed out a few good plants in each of the thriller, filler and spiller categories, I found that the number of plants they pointed out was fairly limited and most were way too exotic for my local Home Depot. I was getting kind of discouraged until I found this awesome PDF - Container Gardening Plants: Thrillers, Fillers And Spillers

With all this research in my pocket, and the PDF printed out, I went to both HD and Lowes and compared prices. I found that my HD was about 20-25% cheaper than Lowes which surprised me for some reason. During nap time yesterday, with my Dad along for moral support, I took a trip to HD and loaded up on all the supplies I'd need for my planters and planting beds this year. I took a while to lay out a number of different options for my planters and this is what I came up with:

looks like -

Altogether they look like this -

And of course the little ones had to get into the action. It was nice having them outside, showing an interest in what I was doing. I found a few nice sized worms while I was digging up the grass to place the blocks and I threw them into the new planters. With Wifey's latest foray into project work with the kids, their study of worms, Red was absolutely amazing when Wifey picked up a nice juicy one and placed it in Red's palm. I don't even like to hold worms very much (too much like snakes I guess) but Red was just fine, looking intently at it as it wiggled around in her hand. Both she and Pudge were fascinated when I moved a bag of peat moss in the woods and we found 13 worms underneath. These kids are a lot of fun, and summer is going to be a blast around here with their inquisitiveness running rampant.

Here they are, hamming it up...

I'm planning on getting the planting beds done next weekend. We'll see how that plan works out but I'm optimistic!!!

I'm sorry - wha?

2010-04-20T14:30:00.004-04:00

Found this today while doing some research online.

I'm sorry - what? Oh, wait! It was published in 2008 - you know, right before it was found out that Toyota was lying to federal investigators and its customers about potentially fatal flaws in the design of it's most popular vehicles. Well... that's alright then.

A tale of two Reds

2010-04-18T09:46:00.013-04:00

Soccer practice for Red. So much anticipation, so much opportunity for fun, excitement, breakdowns... oh yes, you get the idea. Last week was Week 1, and we started out with high hopes:

Wifey was awesome. She ran, cheerleaded, cajoled, encouraged... all was great.

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Yes, all was great, for about 10 minutes. Then, Wifey had the sheer audacity to suggest to Red that she shouldn't use her hands to pick up the ball. Oh... my... God... the break down was instantaneous and absolute.

Suffice it to say that practice ended early for our dear Red. We spent about 15 minutes sitting on the bleachers trying to get her to calm down - to no avail. We finally gave it up and moved up around the side of the Youth Center to where the little basketball court is and the kids were able to run around and play without the "pressure" of an organized practice.

Week 2 was yesterday and it was so much different - thanks to Wifey's week-long campaign of preparation for Red. They talked about the rules, what to expect, how fun it would be, etc. And Red rocked the house. Until another breakdown threatened to bring the storm clouds once again...

But again, Wifey to the rescue. Apparently Red was confused and upset because the group and coaches were playing a game that she didn't know the rules to. All week long Wifey had been prepping her for playing Red light-green light and Simon Says - two games they played the week before that confused her - causing the breakdown. But she was ready this week:

So while Red was ready for those a new game caused her to be unsure about what was going on. It seems that my little girl and her older brother both share that anxiety gene - they both need to know what's going on, what's going to happen, in order to be comfortable. But like I said, Wifey got her quickly calmed down and back into the action and all went really well. YEAH!!!!!

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- Jazz-Hands Mommy?

It seems that Red might actually get to have some fun with this whole thing which is awesome because she loves to be moving, running, kicking... a little sporty lady to be sure... and soccer just seems like a natural outlet.

Here's hoping.

Community Priorities

2010-04-15T22:15:00.003-04:00

Got an email tonight through our community's listserv that I thought was a bit misguided, through no fault of the sender. Seems this person is a member of a tennis player's club or some such and they've been working for a while to get the tennis courts in my community resurfaced and lights put in. In and of itself - a very valiant effort and a true benefit to our community. Now it looks like the City Council will be discussing the funding for the project and she's trying to get folks to speak out, for or against the plan.

Here's part of her message:

It has taken several years to get to this point - where the Council might actually be considering making repairs. We have a very real concern that the city council will not approve the entire budget needed to resurface the courts (#1 - #4) and install the needed lights on all 8 courts. Please come and be part of the audience so the city council is reminded of the number of active tennis players in our community. Or come to give your opinion pro or con.

I used the word misguided in the beginning of this, and even with the general usefulness of her cause I still feel that way. Why? Because of the overall lack of _any_ suitable basketball court anywhere in the city. These folks are trying to get pretty usable (if I remember correctly) tennis courts resurfaced while there are absolutely zero usable basketball courts anywhere in town. Here was my response to her message:

This is in response to _____'s message about possible resurfacing of the Braden tennis courts. While I agree that it is important to repair the much used tennis courts I need to put something else out there for public consumption - the almost absolute lack of quality outdoor (or indoor for that matter) basketball courts in our community. I'm not sure what argument I could make to gain the attention of the city council, especially if a seemingly well organized group like Ellen's has been working for years to get repairs done on the tennis courts, but the current situation is absolutely laughable. This is even more true with our being a community where so many of our youth are eager for spaces to gather and play.

I started to compile a list of "courts" spaced around Greenbelt and on paper it seems quite impressive. I use quotes because none are close to full size, none have lights, most are downright dangerous. I know I don't have an absolutely accurate count but there are at least a dozen in various states of repair, and none are in any condition to play a safe game. I'd like the tennis players to try playing one game on the basketball court at Greenbelt Lake then you'd understand what's going on here.

Again, not taking anything away from the tennis players of our community, but if we had to make a decision according to the pure numbers of potential players I think building at least one decent basketball court would win. Or, maybe it's because most of those potential basketball players are young, non-voting, and (am I allowed to point out without starting a brouhaha?) *whispering* minority, that revitalizing our city's basketball courts hasn't happened?

I'm wondering if there's any hope of going to the meeting Monday night when they discuss this issue. Pretty sure JAM has a baseball game so it unlikely but at least, through this message, I've put my opinion out there.

Don't let the door hit you in the...

2010-04-12T10:21:00.005-04:00

I got the strangest and most amazing phone call Saturday afternoon. When we started baseball practice this spring JAM and I were so excited. New coach, yours truly helping out again, JAM didn't lose much over the winter, just good times ahead. Then, he showed up. Again. Remember the coach from hell? Yup, back with his poor kid who obviously doesn't want to be anywhere near a baseball field. His "hot Latino blood" - direct quote from his wife as she apologized for him last year - overflowing at his kid and others. I feel so sorry for that poor boy. He either has no aptitude for the game or he just doesn't want to play with his father around so he does absolutely nothing on the field. Just a bad situation.

Until blissful Saturday afternoon. A little while after JAM and I got back from practice (from which Idiot Coach and his boy were absent) Good Coach calls me up and asks if "anything happened" between Idiot Coach and myself. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't inviting Idiot Coach over for tea and crumpets but I made a concerted effort to be as polite and accepting of him as possible this year. I've said hello while he's ignored me (we didn't leave last year on the best of terms after I had to tell him to stop yelling at kids all the time and to do something to help the kids other than stand there with the score book in his hands during games). I've made pains to help his kid try to get better without screaming at him. I just tried to act like he was any other person, not someone with whom I haven't had the best relationship with. Clean slates you know? Even if it is obvious you are trying to project your unfulfilled baseball dreams onto a kid who doesn't care a lick about it.

So back to the phone call. After Good Coach asks me if anything happened I'm wracking my brain. Did something happen and I not notice? Did I say anything that I shouldn't have? Did my general lack of understanding social norms come into play here? Nope, I couldn't come up with anything. Then, I remembered something - something so insignificant that I forgot about it immediately after it happened. IC (Idiot Coach - my fingers are getting tired) butted in while I was attempting to help out a kid totally new to baseball try to become a pitcher.

Side note - yes, we have a team made up of 15 kids either totally new to this level of baseball or totally new to baseball in general. JAM is going to be a 9 y.o shortstop and GC's kid will be an 8 y.o. third baseman. Yup, it's going to be a banner year.

So IC butts in while I'm trying to help this kid and he starts explaining how the kid needs to stay balanced while he pitches "otherwise you're going to fall on your ass." I'm sorry, WHAT? You say this to a 9 y.o. shrinking violet of a kid? I interrupted and told him to watch the language, and I thought we moved on from there because he immediately corrected himself and we went on with helping the kid.

That's it. That's the only thing I can think of. Honest. So imagine my surprise when GC tells me that IC's wife called the commissioner and asked that her son be traded to another team because IC and I can't get along. At first I laughed because dude, you've got to make your wife make the call? Then, I was mad because I've really made an effort here. Then, it dawned on me. It must be my birthday! We're going to lose both IC and his kid (who can't throw or catch) who we were going to have to play somewhere in the field. It was impossible to keep the smile off my face. It grew even bigger when GC confided that he wasn't the least bit upset at the development.

Goodbye IC, I hope all the best for you and your poor little boy. I just look forward to seeing you on the other sideline this year.

What a beautiful day for a walk

2010-04-05T22:29:00.011-04:00

It would be just my luck to plan for a day off and have it end up being 50 degrees and rainy. Imagine my shock that today turned out to be about as beautiful as it could possibly be. Wifey asked me to take the day off as it was the last day of JAM's spring break and she had planned a doctor's appt for him. When a follow-up for Pudge was planned at the last minute (and she had to admit that she's been unable to find a way to successfully clone herself to be at both appointments at the same time) I was called in for backup. SOOOO happy I was. As soon as the appointments were over, and we shoveled some lunch down the kid's gullets, we set out for the Metro to catch what I thought was the cherry trees in full bloom.

Oops.

We ended up being about two days too late.

No matter though. We had a great walk around the Tidal Basin with D, C and J, took a TON of pictures, and then had a picnic on the lawn outside of the National Archives before heading home. Yes, a thoroughly enjoyable - and very bloggable- day.

Let's start with one of those "Owners end up looking like their pets" pictures. Both of these guys were pretty funny but the guy on the right took the cake. I think his bulldog ate his neck.

- Us, Cherry Blossom Style

Pics from the walk around the Basin.

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- Me and my boys

Ever seen the Photobomb blog? Hysterical stuff man. We had our own little bomber hanging out with us today.

- We'll call this one "The Lurker"

- And this one "The Lurker Strikes Back"

- Goofballs

- There are no words. I'm printing this one poster-sized for her wedding.

You need to take the obligatory monument pictures right?

With the day so warm we stopped by the WWII Memorial and dipped our toes in. It was cold, but perfect.

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- Of course Red decided to be anti-picture at just the right moment

Picnic and run around time before heading back to the Metro for the ride home.
- mmmmm. Pudge LIKE Nutella!
- Red's a fan too. Wonder where they get that from?
- ???? Sometimes I wonder what is really rattling around in that noggin of his.
- Man, who's that handsome devil?

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- Extreme CLOSE-UP!!!!

- Pudge running after some poor birds. The birds were far smarter than Pudge though and took off as soon as he got anywhere close.
- We'll call this - "Here Birdie, Birdie!"

I finally know what I want to be...

2010-03-17T22:51:00.004-04:00

...when I grow up. Or, when I continue to refuse to grow up I guess is more appropriate. Tonight was the final class and "performance" for JAM and I at our Parent-Child Circus Camp. This is the same class that I posted about the other day where I got to take out a little aggression on JAM. We had an absolute blast each Wednesday for a few weeks, learning a lot about juggling, stilt walking, diablo, devil sticks, partner gymnastics, etc. If you've never had a chance to see Greg May in action we really do recommend it. Greg has risen to become something of a mythical creature in our house with JAM being enthralled with him for years and Red and Pudge soon following along. In fact, Greg's high-pitched, laugh-inducing "It's NOT FUNNY!" has been known to ring out loud and proud around our house.

Yes, JAM and I got our chance to perform (let's just call that a loosely defined term) tonight, for a huge audience (i.e. about 20 people made up of friends and families of the campers). We had so much fun that I had to post about it here and share the glory that graced the Greenbelt Gym this evening...

Here's JAM and I with "Circus Greg" as he's been dubbed around our house -

Some of the crew:

The whole class getting into the mix with some different group stacking:

The lighting in that gym is horrendous. We don't usually look as... well... yellow I guess. Wifey did her best, while being tapped with child-wrangling duties as well, to get some pictures but the videos (below) are much more fun to watch.

Our first trick - juggling. I spent pretty much my whole time getting better at juggling. I started knowing how to do the basic three-ball weave but by the end I was able to do the tricks you'll see here -

This is JAM performing with some spinny thing but I can never remember its rightful name -

Here's JAM again with the diablo. He does a very cool trick but then it gets all tangled on him -

JAM with his best trick by far - spool walking. Dude got so good at this he could go all the way down the length of two mats -

I gotta say - I'm most proud of this -

Here's JAM and I getting a little creative... then a little crazy -

And finally, we ended it up with this huge merry-go-round trick -

As you can tell, I absolutely loved my Wednesdays. Huge thanks to Wifey for making it possible for JAM and I - I can't wait until next year.

Who wouldn't want to go?

2010-03-16T09:03:00.004-04:00

I've posted a little bit about TED in the past but this year I took my dream of going a step further - I actually applied. If you aren't familiar, applying to TED is no small feat. The mere idea of applying to go to a conference is just the first clue that something is different - and this is a very different sort of event. I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the smartest people on the planet each and every day. The work that we do is truly marvelous, groundbreaking, and of such importance that I can't imagine working anywhere else. The only problem is - as an organization we live inside a very well defined box. There is a certain way of doing everything, very conservative but with good reason. Change isn't always positive right? I'm absolutely loving my professional life but I can't help but feel like inspiration is something that we should always be on the lookout for.

Having the opportunity to attend TED would be a truly amazing experience. To immerse myself in that sea of intellect, to hear the stories of innovators and leaders, to be inspired by imaginations that I could only dream about... I eagerly await the response to my application. With all my fingers crossed. But in the meantime, I must be appeased by the thousands (?) of inspiring talks they've made available online and watch their trailer once in a while. Again, who wouldn't want to go?

Sweet revenge

2010-03-15T19:13:00.004-04:00

It's been nine years in the making, but it felt sooooooo good!!!

This was JAM and I at Parent-Child Circus Camp during our next to last class tonight. Yes, tonight was Pie in the Face night for those that wanted to try it out. Me? No, I had no real interest in taking a plate of shaving cream in the kisser, but JAM was all for it and I was more than happy to oblige. See? I'm nothing if not a supportive and compassionate father. Whatever makes 'em happy right?

Yes, I dance around like a goofball, and I'm not sure why my lovely wife let me go out of the house with that outfit on this morning, but you can hopefully excuse my exuberance at getting to smush my kid in the face with a pie. It's a must-do for every parent at least once.

Taking some time off

2010-03-13T13:26:00.003-05:00

I hate all those posts I see on people's blogs where they talk about why they haven't been posting for the last month. Well, maybe not hate, but why do they (we) do that? It isn't like anyone is waiting eagerly to see what the hell I've got to say. This is my place dangit, and I'll post when I've got something to say. That is... I'll post when I've got something to say or when Wifey says "hey, you haven't posted in a while - over a month actually - why is that?"

Guess I didn't realize how long it'd been. And to be honest, I didn't really have an answer at first. After thinking about it, I think I came up with something... not much has been going on lately. I use this space mostly to document events, or post pictures, and during the long days of late winter there hasn't been much to talk about other than the monumental snow or the stomach bug and/or strep throat constantly destroying weekend plans including a long-anticipated date night tonight. Yup, good fun at the ol' homestead.

There are some blog-potential events coming up soon. Today was supposed to be tryouts for JAM's first year of real baseball until three days of rain put a stop to that. We did start working out earlier this week though, that was awesome. I'm proud of him, he didn't lose that much over the winter, fielding-wise. Hitting is another story but I think some time at the batting cages will help with that. And I'm proud of me that I didn't get annoyingly upset when he was making mistakes. That's something I've been working hard on these last few years. Here's to progress! So as the spring moves along I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in real baseball. No more coaches on the field, no more machine pitch, real kids throwing real baseballs with real hits and real strikeouts. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with disappointment in front of peers in a competitive environment. We'll have our work cut out for us that's for sure.

I've got a trip coming up in a week that should be fun as long as I'm not sick as a dog when I'm supposed to leave. Unfortunately, Wifey and the kids aren't able to join me (we tried - 4 plane tickets were too expensive) but I'll be headed down to Orlando for four days for an e-Learning conference. Looking forward to hearing what other people in my field are doing in a pretty nice place - right across the street from Downtown Disney. Would have been heaven to have someone come hang out with the kids and have Wifey join me but we're not that lucky.

Red's b-day is coming up and poor Pudge keeps saying, pretty much every day, that it's Wifey's birthday because he knows his birthday can't come until after hers passes. Sorry kid, that ain't 'till November. :)

I did start something that I've been meaning to do for years. I bought a used guitar and our friend C took some time one night to begin my lessons. We'll see how the lessons go but I've been enjoying playing for about 20-30 minutes most nights. I must be doing something right because I pretty much can't feel the tips of my fingers on my left hand. Oh, and I can play Marry Had a Little Lamb, the whole C scale and about 4 chords. I know... Metallica will be calling me any day now.

That's it. Looking forward to some warmer days...

Oh, I wish!

2010-02-09T23:23:00.002-05:00

With 5 inches of new snow on the ground (up to a possible 12 tonight - on top of the 2+ feet we got the other day), a fire in the fireplace, hanging with the Wife, life feels kind of good right now. To top it all off, work is already closed for tomorrow so there is no stress to be seen.

So before heading off to bed I wanted to check the weather, just to see what they're saying lately. Going on to weather.com I was presented with this...

THAT is what I call beautifully targeted advertising.

Baby It's Cold Everywhere!

2010-02-07T09:42:00.003-05:00

19 degrees outside, 64 degrees inside. Can't turn the heat on because the heat pump is snowed under and I don't want it to burn out. Wouldn't do much good anyway, what kind of heat can a heat pump get out of 19 degree weather? Can't make a fire in the stove because we're out of wood in the holding bin outside and I haven't shoveled a walkway to the wood pile yet. Did I mention it was 19 degrees out there?

So, what's a guy to do?

Make bacon and eat apple cake of course! Oh, and a steaming mug of hot Tang helps too. Good, good times. And when Wifey adds a couple fried eggs to the mix the world is a very good place.

What's apple cake you ask? Even if you didn't, I'ma tell you anyway. It's cake people! That you can, and should, be encouraged to eat for breakfast! In all its apple-cinnamony-sugary goodness!

Witness-

It usually comes out a bit more firm than these pics let on, but who cares, a crumbly pile of apple cake is way better than anything else you can eat in the morning! And, if you're so inclined (read - this is for P if she wants to try it out):

Apple Cake - courtesy of my mom-

Cut 4 apples into small chunks. Mix with 2 tbsp of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar. Set aside.
Mix the following together until nice and thick - make sure there are no clumps of flour left, they don't taste good if you don't mix them in well:

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup orange juice
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Fold apples into the batter (it will be thick).
Pour into a greased circle tube pan - don't use the fancy bundt pan, the cake will stick too much.
Bake 75 minutes at 350 degrees.
Enjoy your cakey goodness.

Oh, and for a brief public service announcement - Oscar Mayer bacon is the guvment cheese of the bacon world. This stuff is horrible. Almost no meat on this at all. What's that you ask? Of course I'm going to eat it, what kind of dumb question was that? Oh, you didn't ask that? Good, 'cause that would have been a really dumb question.

Snowpocalypse 2010

2010-02-06T21:38:00.012-05:00

Wow! Now that was a storm! Being a NY transplant to a state much further south, I've been wishing for this for years. We got a good one back in December and, except for the delayed visit from my beautiful K, we were so thankful for the winter wonderland we were able to go out and enjoy. Kids need to be able to go out and play in this type of weather. Some of the only childhood memories I haven't repressed are from great times outside in huge snowstorms back home. :)

With the storm finally over we bundled up the three amigos and took a short walk (in distance only, short legs in deep snow makes for a lengthy stroll) around the neighborhood to see what Mother Nature had done to our community. With pictures rolling in to Facebook from friends all over we had to bring our camera with us to document the event. The little legs of two members of our party were very tired by the time we got back home, and the legs of the two biggest ones were pretty sore as well from having to bushwhack our way through the 2+ feet of untouched snow coming back to our house. I carried Red through, put her down on the other side and went back for Pudge so Wifey could concentrate on not slipping and breaking an ankle. By the time we got home I was ready to crawl into a hot tub... wish we had one of those.

Enjoy the pics-

- Pudge, ready for battle.

- The snowbank on our back patio is taller than JAM. Pudge doesn't even stand a chance.

- Mondo icicles hanging from our roof. And yes, our Christmas lights are still up. Don't judge me.

- Snow up to Wifey's thighs.

- It's about to swallow Red!

- Pudge to the rescue.

- My angel making an angel.

- My van's in there... somewhere.

I love snowy trees. My favorite photo of all time is Ansel Adams' Oak Tree, Snow Storm. I know. poofta.

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- Our driveway, absolutely untouched. I don't think I'll be at work on Monday.

- Do we finally throw in the towel when we see the monster tow truck stuck in the snow?

Um... would someone tell these people to get the hell out of the road?

- Resting in a snow bank on the side of the road. Stay classy Greenbelt.

| - Dunno, just liked it.

- All was quiet on our abandoned roads.

We walked down to the soccer/baseball field down the street to see how it looked. The snow was way too deep to do much but we played for a minute.

- Cars just absolutely buried.

- Quiet road at sunset.

Our new playground. Wonder why no one was around?
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Check out this zoomed pic. Don't think I've ever seen something like this - the snow stacked up on the kiddy swings. This will be fun to think about during those hot summer days playing at the playground.

- Poor Pudge, with his little legs, was not at all happy about walking back up the hill. Especially as the snow plow hadn't been by yet and we were having to walk in tire ruts.

- Untouched snow - it was really pretty out. And so quiet.

- If ever a sign was not needed, this was it.

- Looking back down the hill at the buried cars. They're not going anywhere anytime soon.

- Guess who's had enough?

- The wind was playing cool tricks with the snow in between the houses near us.

- Us. Wifey commented that we hadn't taken any pics, just us, in a long time. Well, consider that oversight rectified.

Proud

2010-01-21T20:07:00.004-05:00

Earlier tonight was just awesome. My big guy, who we spend wayyyy too much time trying to keep on the straight and narrow, absolutely wowed us twice in one night. First, the spelling bee.

JAM brought home this monster spelling list that was something of a culminating list for 1st and 2nd quarters. 150ish words were on this thing. Some of them I don't think I'd be able to spell without writing them down (I am a man who LOVES SPELL CHECK!!!) It was a daunting list to say the least, especially for a kid who has to work as hard as he does to sit and concentrate on anything not Lego or Star Wars. But he and Wifey studied. And practiced. Hard. For many days. Practiced until words like thoroughbred and ninety nine and handkerchief came out flawlessly without fail.

Then, today was the big day. Actually, it was supposed to be yesterday but they got a one day reprieve from their teacher. For most kids I think that would be a blessing but for our little man it was just another day for the anxiety to build up. He admitted to feeling "real nervous" this morning as he thought about the upcoming event. Did he back down though? Nope. He threw his hat into that purely optional ring (yeah, he could have sat it out if he had wanted, like about half the class decided to do) and he aced that sucka. You heard me - he's one of three finalists from his class now. Got all 13 words he was asked correct. Didn't even pass on a single word. And I'm bragging. And I'm happy to do it.

The finals are tomorrow. The 3 finalists from each 4th grade class. As he said - "8 losers, 1 winner. I better be one of the winners." I didn't say he was the sharpest knife in the drawer, he just spells reel gud. Just like his old man.

So as I sat here tonight watching him absolutely engrossed in his book (with toes on both feet tapping and his left hand playing with his lips, nose, and cheeks - always moving) I was just in awe of this amazing kid. He shows his beautiful head on occasion, like when Wifey posted on FB about yesterday morning when this neverseenbefore kid got up early, all on his own with no grumbling or arguing (a small miracle unto itself), made his bed, came downstairs and made his own lunch.

Then, tonight, was proud moment of the day #2. We all loaded into the van to go see the big science fair backboard viewing thing at his school. They line up all the backboards and present the awards in the gym. It isn't anything formal, just a few hours when parents can walk through and check out all the different projects. In the middle of all the projects on rusting pennies and soda explosions and melting ice there was JAM's, sitting proud with his award taped on, and the smile on his face was priceless. He gave a little fist pump and I gave him a high five and that was it. No running around, no jumping up and down, no hysterics. Another piece of evidence that he's growing more mature every day. Of course I didn't think of taking a picture though. *smacking head* I take pictures of EVERYTHING and I miss that? I'll take one when it comes home for sure but in the moment would have been so much better.

Yup, tonight was a proud night.

Two strikes against me

2010-01-14T11:51:00.004-05:00

Being white, and very white at that, and being from upstate New York, did nothing to encourage a love for, or even an understanding of, jazz. I am sad to say that I just don't get it. Don't get me wrong, I've listed to some jazz (or what other people called jazz anyway - who am I to put a label on something I don't understand?) that I've totally gotten into. Usually the jazz I like involves horns and a sweet voice to go along with it so this video just makes me wonder. Apparently these guys are masters. The comments to this video talk about a "conversation" between the three musicians and how they never miss an opportunity to hit the right entrance or come back to a line. I'm sorry.... what?

I need to get out more I think. Maybe find a club in DC that wouldn't mind a tall goofy white guy (with obvious confusion on his face) and his lady sitting in the back trying to fit in.

Check them out - you might enjoy them at least...

Go out of your way for this one

2010-01-13T20:42:00.003-05:00

Wifey was kind enough to let me go on a little sojourn down into the gift shop while on our date to Franklin's the other night. In an effort to do some research (it was purely research, no personal enjoyment was intended at all!) for the impending beer tasting event I picked up a couple craft and micro brews that you can't really get anywhere else. No mass-produced or local stuff here - Franklin's really does a great job getting some out of the way stuff. It's NOT cheap in there, all their beers are imported by them, not distributors, so I could only get a few to sample. Had my first taste tonight, and it was heaven.

It's my pleasure to introduce -

Red Rocket from Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg, California.

One word.... awesome. Probably can't afford to keep it coming but it was a good choice, well worth the money. I do take donations though, or just in case you're thinking about birthday presents.

Just wow

2010-01-10T22:30:00.001-05:00

Other than you MUST see this, I have no words...

Like I needed this?

2010-01-08T12:16:00.003-05:00

Driving to work today I got behind another car while they decided to clean their windshield. This kind of thing is usually annoying but no big deal right? You just turn your wipers on, squirt a little cleaner and presto - you've got a clean windshield too.

Did this work for me? Take a wild flippin' guess.

My wipers decided that my life was way too boring and they wanted to add a little excitement so instead of turning off in the normal down and stored position they would turn off by staying up on the windshield. Fantastic. Oh, and you know what made this even sweeter? I was getting on the Beltway when this happened.

I did find a site where some kind soul had a similar problem (of all the sites that I found with solutions to this problem they were ALL about GM cars for some reason) who posted pictures and video about how he fixed it himself. Doesn't seem too difficult but now I'm looking at a few hours of working outside on my car in 20 degree temps this weekend.

For some reason this isn't doing anything to lighten my recently rotten mood.

Sorry Pepe but I'm never buying another GM.

Oh how I love thee...

2010-01-07T08:18:00.005-05:00

What or who ever you happen to thank for the creation of this here 'verse, there are few things that can truly be praised worldwide. Pizza, Angel Falls, the Grand Canyon, James Cameron (seriously, did you see Avatar? Totally made up for Titanic), the Great Barrier Reef, Firefly... not a whole lot else though. Oh, except for one more thing....

It's strange the things you find at work. I was minding my own business, trolling through our internal social network, checking out blog posts and reading people's bookmarks when I came across this...

Yes folks, it is a handy dandy how to choose a beer chart. Where have you been all my life? Funny as hell and helpful to boot! Especially so considering a certain plan some friends and I are concocting for the Super Bowl party - a beer tournament. 64 beers (maybe 32, we're getting old), bracket style, best beer wins. I'm way more excited than I should be. I understand this and I embrace it. Don't judge me.

Hmmmm... Beer....

My wild things

2010-01-01T23:06:00.004-05:00

Going through a ton of pics from the last few weeks, I've got a lot to catch up on. Not enough time to even make a dent in things tonight but I wanted to throw up this one that I took last night of the three amigos wearing the shirts I found for them for x-mas.

Presenting... my little wild things...

I literally feel sick

2009-12-31T21:32:00.003-05:00

I've tried to make my feelings about Facebook well known. I don't want to do it. Well... I guess I need to say I didn't want to do it. I took the plunge and signed up for this blog on Jan 1, 2008. I started that new year with a new _thing_ so I thought this might be another good opportunity to start a new year with another new thing. Yeah, it's true. I took the plunge and just signed up. And yes, this is what life has come to while sitting here in my Dad's awesome leather La-Z-Boy watching the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on New Year's Eve. Yup, I'm old and I just joined the evil empire. While friends are out partying it up I'm sitting here geeking it out.

I'm about to throw up.

So... why? The real kick in the pants came while K was up visiting last week and everything she does is on there and I'm missing it all. So not only am I missing everything in real life I am missing it all online as well and it seemed silly not to sign up.

Doesn't mean I feel good about it though. We'll see how it goes. While I was writing this Wifey somehow found out that I just signed up and she's already sent me 25 friend requests or some fool thing.

I'm doomed.

Didn't know hurricanes could come inside

2009-12-25T10:54:00.013-05:00

The presents were all unwrapped by 9am. The Lego sets have been built. The animals and books and Little People sets and paint supplies and cool new homemade Lego table have been ooh'ed and aah'ed over. We were even able to squeeze in a little breakfast of their favorite cereals (which Daddy gave them all for presents :) ) and playtime has now begun. Of course we've got some pics and vids to share. Merry Christmas to all!

Wifey's family had a tradition growing up - you get to open one present on Christmas eve. We thought it would be nice for the kids to open the presents Mem and Pepe sent and I wanted to document the fun for them to see...

We had to get the kids to model those wonderful homemade scarves and hats. I'm putting up two different pics because of the inevitable 2/3 factor. You know - when you have 3 kids in a picture it is inevitable that at best only two of them will ever look good. I'll leave it to you to figure out who's who...

- Putting up the stockings, getting ready for Santa's visit.
- The stockings all filled up sitting on top of the new Lego table I built.

- I put this at the top of the stairs in hopes of getting the kids to not go downstairs without us in the morning. It kind of backfired during the night though - Wifey and I heard Red crying and when she went out to find out what the problem was Red was at the top of the stairs crying. When Wifey asked why she was crying Red said she had to go to the bathroom. Her reason for not just going downstairs to go? Yeah, my dumb idea of putting the easel there. Poor kid. But how about my little three year old getting up on her own in the middle of the night to pee and then seeing that I put the easel there and knowing she shouldn't go downstairs? See? I see the bright side of things.

- This is what the kids thought of my idea in the morning. I don't think they were very happy at having to wait. :)

- JAM happy with his Clone Wars stuff.

- Pudge didn't like his cereal at all. Nope.

Some general opening pics -

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Forget the shirts, this is the coolest present I ever got Wifey. Check out her new sock monkey footie PJs.

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Pudge fell in love with his big gift - a Little People carnival set. Little guy even carried it around the room for a bit, and that box was not light.

Some Lego adoration was had by all.

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Well documented path of destruction -

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By lunch time JAM had all three Lego sets already built

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Pudge playing with the Little People set -

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- Red looking good in her new hair ties.

That's it for now. I'm sure a ton more will be coming in the next few days but I'm exhausted and Wifey is busting her butt cleaning this place up so I'd better get off mine and help. AND, I've got dinner to cook. Why the hell I said I'd do that alone I have no idea. :)

Touchdown!!!

2009-12-21T10:15:00.002-05:00

Yes, the moon must have aligned with Venus or something because somehow the weather finally allowed K to make it here yesterday afternoon. We had to divert her into National (which sucks to try to drive to btw) but she's finally here and all is well. We spent the first afternoon just sitting around chatting then we all went to dinner at Tuesdays. I know - fancy fancy! Nothing but the best for my kids!

Today's plans call for sledding time and then not sure what in the evening but we'll have fun no matter what.

A Winter Wonderland

2009-12-19T23:05:00.018-05:00

With all the trials and tribulations that the snow has brought with it this weekend it's nice to see that we can still get the munchkins outside and have some fun. Well, fun with a whole lot of hard work on the part of their parents that is. There was a whole lot of shovelin' goin' on around here today, and not a whole lot to show for it. Without further ado... today in pictures...

The three amigos getting ready to face the blizzard head on-

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Fun times were had by all... wish I could have grabbed more of it before the camera card filled up. :)

As I was just about ready to go in JAM saw that his friend from next door was coming outside so they played for a few minutes, which was cool. He said goodbye pretty soon though as his hands were blue. He had gone through three pairs of gloves by the time he finally called it quits.

Not a lot of pics taken during play time though because while the kids were having fun Wifey and I were working out butts off trying to shovel out at least the first 8 inches or so. We knew it was going to continue to snow but I don't think we expected it to wipe away our hard work so quickly. Here's a couple pics of the area right after we got done shoveling. Notice the nice layer of snow already covering everything?

Now, check these before/after pics out. I've never seen so much snow come down so quickly here in DC. The before pics were taken right around 11am and the after were at about 3:30.

These were taken around 1pm with the snow really coming down. Notice the larger piles of shoveled snow? Yeah, this is after the second shoveling. And notice the layer of snow on the ground again? It was just disheartening, that's what it was.

By 3:30 the accumulation really showed. Remember our "cleaned off" car from a few hours before in the pic above? Notice the difference between our van (the one on the right of the two) vs. our neighbor's car? We'd cleaned about 8 inches off of it already but you'd never know it until you looked in comparison to the other.

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After nap the kids were itching to get back outside. While I stayed in to fight with Air Tran (their automated system hung up on me more than 2 dozen times and their web site refused to let me reschedule!) Wifey brought the amigos out to try a little sledding. And by little I mean LITTLE.

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Some other random pics of the day... and bear with me, I'm feeling artsy. You'll see...

- I call this one "Forgotten" - looks like a toy that belongs on the island of misfit toys.

- A pic of the ol' homestead. Quite different from this one taken in April huh?

- Our road, all peaceful in the snow.

- I call this one - "Freaking Nuts" :) What were these people thinking??? You know what? We saw people out walking all day! Most of them were coming down the road with shopping bags from K-Mart. Guess they didn't get the memo - you're supposed to stock up on TP and milk the day BEFORE the storm.

- Our little home, all decked out in snow.

Here's another before/after, taken today vs. in April. This is looking down our road from the middle of the intersection, normally a VERY busy 6-lane highway. It was surreal standing in the middle of this intersection on a Saturday afternoon, without a car in sight.
/

More from the intersection - the quiet was just eery.

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- I call this one "Potential"

- and this one "Alone"

I love how these trees look when it snows. I think about getting a picture of them every year but I never do. Well - guess I can cross that off my list now.
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My poor lights got absolutely buried. I knew they would, but I didn't really think it would get so deep. Still, it looks pretty cool.
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There you have it, the day in pictures. It's now 12:30 and the snow has stopped. Let's hope the hard working snow plow drivers at National Airport can get their runways cleaned off by noon tomorrow huh?

New flight - fingers crossed

2009-12-19T22:41:00.002-05:00

We've got a new flight booked for tomorrow morning but that brings up all sorts of new issues. All the flights today were non-stop - apparently Saturday is a good day to fly to DC from Disney - but there aren't any NS flights from ORL to anywhere in the DC area on a Sunday. Going into BWI tomorrow was going to require a huge layover in Milwaukee and bring K in later than 9:30 at night so that was not an option. I'm glad I had a light bulb go off though - why not check National? So there we go, she's got a short layover in Atlanta but if all goes well she'll be in before 1pm. If all doesn't go well, and she gets on that first flight in Orlando but something is wrong in DC she'll be stuck in Atlanta.

I'm getting an ulcer.

Update - plane is canceled and Air Tran sucks

2009-12-19T16:27:00.002-05:00

Yup, all flights have now been canceled. Can't say as I didn't see this coming but it still sucks to see it finally happen. I've been on the phone trying to get through to Air Tran for the last 30 minutes but I keep getting hung up on after ~2:55 into my call. I tried going online to switch my flight but there's a problem with their site and it won't let me choose a city in the departing cities list so then it yells at me and says I need to choose a departing city in order to make a change to the flight. I'm so mad right now. I need to get her on the first plane tomorrow but I CAN'T GET THROUGH TO THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

I hate Air Tran now.

Blizzard? Are you kidding me?

2009-12-19T12:38:00.006-05:00

Dear God-

Why do you hate me? I try to be a good person, really I do. I pay my taxes, I hug my kids, I go to work almost every day and I haven't put salt on any slugs in at least 3 years. Or is it sugar? YOU SEE!!! I'm such a good person I don't even know what to do to slugs!

Now that we've established what a good person I am... I have to ask... a BLIZZARD??? SERIOUSLY? When's the last time PG County saw a blizzard? It had to be this weekend didn't it. Now THAT is holding with the tradition of my luck. If it's going to be strange and happen to someone it's definitely going to be me.

Thanks to this crazy storm K's second plane has been canceled and she's now booked on the fourth plane of the day. I decided to skip getting a seat for her on the third plane - the snow definitely won't be over by the time it was supposed to land. 50 fingers are crossed around here hoping that everything works out for tonight. Do you think you can wink or whatever it is you do in order to make things happen for us? We'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!!!

Yessireebob, we've got ourselves an honest to goodness wimpy blizzard. People from Syracuse or Oswego (look it up) would be laughing at us right now. At last check we're at 11 inches at the ol' homestead. This is a normal Tuesday for them. The kids loved it though. After breakfast we (Wifey) bundled them up and out we went into the snow. I think Red might remember last year's snow storm but I know this is really a first for Pudge - he didn't want any part of it and he slept through the whole sledding event last year. JAM, of course, was in his element. And I loved how the snow muffled all his crazy yelling! :) He can go as wild as he wants out there and not only is there no one around to hear him, they wouldn't be able to hear anything even if they wanted to. NICE!

I don't mind telling you that we were the only idiots out there shoveling right in the middle of a storm. Most of our sane neighbors were smart enough to be inside, cozy under some blankets while we were out with the kids. Wifey even took the lead with the shovel so I could go knock the car off. I knew it wouldn't matter but it helped to think that I'd only have to shovel out 1/2 of what everyone else was when it finally came to a stop.

Now we're getting ready to walk out the door, the sledding hill is calling. Can't drive there because apparently things are so bad out there that the county executive has said that all county roads are closed and police have been given the power to turn people around if they're out without dire need. Marylanders are funny.

Pictures forthcoming...

Never been so sad to see snow

2009-12-18T23:38:00.004-05:00

I love snow. I absolutely love everything about it - from sledding to shoveling, having snow on the ground is better, to me, than lying on a beach any day. Living in the DC area is tough for a guy who likes the snow so much. We usually have to suffer through all the cold without anything to show for it. I'm pretty sure we went two straight years without even enough to go sledding on. Yup, cold and rainy is about all we get to look forward to. With this in mind, to say I was excited to hear about this impending snowstorm we're now enjoying was an understatement - that is until I realized its implications. You see, my oldest daughter, K, was scheduled to fly in tomorrow morning to spend 5 whole days in our little home with us. Yes, apart from our brief trip down to Pawley's Island some 4 years or so ago when we hadn't even yet met Red or Pudge, this would be the first time she's spent with our whole family.

Then... the snow. As the week progressed the reports went opposite of the norm - they kept getting worse and worse. Wifey was telling me this evening that some people on the news were calling this the storm of the century. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? On the weekend that we're finally going to get to have K come visit? I'm as bad as Alanis when it comes to knowing what constitutes irony - is this it? It certainly feels like Karma is kicking me in the head irony or no. I've been a good boy - I promise!

We knew the snow was coming, and I spent most of this afternoon preparing for it outside the house - getting rid of all the leaves that have blown back up onto the lawn, cutting up a big pile of pallet wood for the stove, fixing up the new wood rack, and finally putting up the x-mas lights, just in time for K's visit. Poor Wifey has been working like a maniac for days trying to get the house into just the right shape too, so much effort has gone into getting ready for this visit and I've been so excited to have her actually see our home. So imagine my reaction when Wifey logged on to the Air Tran site then and found out that K's flight had been canceled. Yeah, sad doesn't begin to cover it. But we got in gear, went online to find out what to do and I quickly called the company while Wifey got the munchkins in a bath. It turns out that they must be shuffling their planes because K's now got a seat on a later plane that should put her into BWI around noon - this gives them a few extra hours to clear up the runways so I'm hoping that all will go according to plan.

So here we are, almost midnight, and the snow is falling, Wifey and I can hear the plows on the street outside, and I'm almost scared of what I'll find when I wake up. Again, I love the snow!!! But I can't help but wish it could have held off for 12 more hours.

Fox Fail

2009-12-17T11:20:00.005-05:00

I hate Fox, so any chance I can to stick it to them I'll take gladly. The fact that I kind of enjoy their NFL and MLB coverage only slightly lessens my urge to point out that the general level of ineptitude in their organization is tipping the scales - witness...

Did you see it? I know, there's a lot of crap on that screen, so let me give you a hint.... the numbers don't add up. Alright, here's a more helpful hint....

Yessiree folks, only at Fox will you find that 9 really does equal 8. In the immortal words of Barbie - "Math is hard!" (well, she didn't really say that but you'll have to read more in order to learn more about that.)

I know, it's petty and you can't believe I wasted my time pointing all this out. Well, in my defense... you read it didn't you?

I'm angry

2009-12-03T20:27:00.003-05:00

I know this post is going to be pitiful/a less-than-satisfying waste of time even as I start to write it but I've got no other outlet for my anger. Two things are on my mind, and in typical guy fashion I want to take steps to either fix the problems or at least lessen the pain but I can't do a damn thing about either. I'm going to be purposefully abbreviated (i.e. not go into huge detail) because this isn't about letting everyone else know all the dirty details, it is purely about me starting to get things off my chest.

First, my mother. I don't have words or emotions to adequately explain how much she continues to hurt me. I don't even think she's trying to, or at least I hope to God that her nastiness and back handedness are unintentional. We got her semi-traditional holiday letter and Christmas card in the mail today and it was chock full of happy bullshit - letting everyone know how much they (her and her drill Sergeant husband) loved spending time with their kids... how they loved making special time for their grand kids. Excuse me? I'm wondering exactly when she's ever made special time to be around my kids? THAT was at the heart of my issues with her and she never even acknowledged it, no matter how hard I tried. Yup, my JAM has well documented difficulties that made it tougher to spend relaxing time at the beach with him but it was always my thought that family was supposed to be able to deal with that - they were supposed to find a way to support the parents and shower the kids with love - no matter what the difficulties were. Lord knows we did it for other people's kids. But the same could never be said for little JAM. He was always the odd one out and our "peculiar" or "strict" way of raising him didn't help any. I know - not letting a two year old watch Star Wars or drink beer is just too outrageous to comprehend. And I can really understand how much of a burden it must have been for us to have asked for some help, or at least a visit, after her granddaughter and subsequent grandson were born. Yup, it was very rude of us to think they'd maybe reschedule a trip out west, or maybe just cut it short or something, in order to be here with us. No, that's too much like selflessness and the only "self" that works in this family is selfish.

I'm digressing... so the first thing that got to me tonight was her bat-shit crazy letter and her little personalized note saying how next year she hoped that she'd have more to say about spending time with us. Yeah, as soon as she makes the least bit of an effort to say she hears our message and she's going to work on not treating us like second class citizens...

The second thing that happened tonight, as if I really needed a second thing, happened at JAM's school. We've been lucky enough to have JAM attend his school even though we live about 18 feet past the boundary into another horrible district. Yup, that huge ugly highway right outside our door? That's the boundary between the have's and the have-not's. In the beginning, JAM was going to before and after care at his old babysitter's place in the "good" district so we were able to get a special transfer for him to go to the "good" school. It didn't hurt that I was working in the school system at the time so getting the transfer was easy. In the three years since we've had really great relationships with the Vice Principals at the school and continuing the transfer has never been an issue. We've been involved, we've volunteered and donated (even more than we really should have money-wise) and been supportive of the school and the teachers the whole time. We thought we'd earned some credit.

Now though, the system is making noise about not allowing special transfers anymore. None. Not for any reason that I know of although I'm sure there are special-special transfers that will be allowed to continue. I mean, some boys just need to continue putting ball through hoop at certain schools right? So anyhow, we're at the school again tonight, supporting and participating in the book sale and art night when Wifey makes a comment to the Principal about her fears re: the transfers. The Principal's response? Paraphrased - "Oh - that school isn't so bad!" Yup, no concern about our little boy having to pull up roots, lose all his friends, go out of his neighborhood to another school... just - "don't worry - I'm sure he won't get shived."

So there you have it. I felt just fine until right after dinner when the shitstorm hit. And I'm not sure if you've noticed but I've made it a point of pride not to have cursed - at all - ever - on my blog. I'm making a special exception just for tonight.

Is it over yet?

2009-11-24T16:05:00.003-05:00

It never amazes me - Americans can take a perfectly average person and elevate him or her to God-like status when so many truly amazing people are out there doing wondrous things every day. Why aren't these people on every news channel, being interviewed by Oprah, getting book deals?

I've just got one thing to say...

JAM + Piano = this guy

2009-11-19T08:50:00.003-05:00

Have you ever heard of TED? No, TED isn't a guy, it a conference where very smart people get together and talk about changing the world and spend time inspiring one another. It's uber expensive, ultra exclusive (you need to write essays on your application - they want a cross section of people, not all monochromatic like usual conferences) and brings together a truly amazing cast of speakers to stimulate your senses. I can't help but think that this type of environment might kick me in the right direction - get me interested in taking a leap of faith and get me to follow through on one of my brilliant ideas that I'm always too chicken to do anything with because of a whole host of factors - money, insurance, mortgage payments, you know, the little stuff...

Someday I hope to go but in the meantime I'm pacified in that many of their talks are available online - here's the 2009 conference website. It seems that most of the vids they put out are posted through their blog.

In looking at the site today I came across this performance. If you've got a few minutes, and want to see something that I think is pretty unique -

Yeah, this is definitely what JAM would do if we ever got him 20 years of piano lessons.

I've changed my mind

2009-11-17T20:54:00.003-05:00

Forget back to school time, November is definitely the most wonderful time of the year!

Why?

That's right, college basketball season is back baby!!!!

Happy days, happy days.

Happy day to the Pudge

2009-11-15T15:06:00.005-05:00

My smallest man turns two today. And as Wifey has learned to her dismay all the family pics are stuck on our hard drive which happens to be sitting in my office at work so I can't even post the obligatory baby pic of the Pudgey goodness. I suck at life, my apologies.

In typical parent-of-the-year fashion we're not doing a whole heck of a lot today. After Wifey's blowout last weekend we're just about tapped out - in every sense of the word. Does every kid need a huge party each year? Where do you think we're from, Westchester? We started the day off with a fun filled present opening session - soon to be followed by a huge meltdown on the part of Red who just couldn't get the whole "that's Pudge's new toy and no, you may not grab it from him" thing.

Witness:

I love watching little kids open presents. After all the thought that goes into them, the staying up late to wrap them, the hoping that they're just the right thing... it is so funny to watch them tear into the package, ohh and ahh for a minute then drop them in search for the next thing to unwrap. Too funny.

Things got better after a while when we got the kids outside for the first time in a very rainy four days or so. They played in the front while I got a bit further along on my preparations for winter - I cut up 5 pallets for kindling and put the Rubbermaid woodshed back together.

During nap I got to take JAM to see a movie down at our historic local movie theater - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I thought it was brilliant, and we both had a blast eating ourselves silly on popcorn and laughing our heads off. Except for the whole needless love interest smoochy-face thing it was a perfectly funny kids movie.

So now nap is almost over, and when the babies wake up we're headed down to the lake to meet up with some other families to play and picnic for a while until the sun goes down. Then hopefully a few of them will be interested in joining us back here for some cake and ice cream to put a nice touch on Pudge's day.

Let's hear it for quiet weekends!

How to know you're a geek...

2009-11-13T20:45:00.005-05:00

...and/or a moment I never want to forget.

I've embraced my geekdom. Better yet, I should say Gleekdom. I admit it, I love watching Glee. I guess I'm realizing that I never really got over my unfulfilled high school musical potential. Without going into therapy-like detail, there was a legacy for me to live up to in my school - my brother was a high school musical superstar and since it was what I saw it became what I did. I wasn't half bad either. But, I was as socially inept as it comes and I screwed up that scene royally and had to quit everything after my junior year, even though I knew I was good. I was making all-county choirs and leading our school's (kick-ass) choir without even trying but like I said, I drove those relationships into the ground. I told myself leaving was a good thing - I'd never have to deal with those people, and that horrible teacher, again. But truth be told - I missed it once I left. I knew I missed out on a good thing, if only I'd have known how to act.

Wow, getting off the self-pity express now...

So yes, Wifey has successfully gotten me reconnected with my geek self in the form of being hooked on Glee and I'm not one bit ashamed. I mean I'm the one leading the pack trying to get people to join me for our periodic trips to Howl at the Moon (if you don't know what that is you are not even close to cool enough to be reading my space - go fix yourself) so yeah, even after the wanna-be trauma of my high school days I still do enjoy to sing. For her birthday this past weekend (man, I need to post about that party - it was fantastic!) a very nice person got her the Glee Season 1 Soundtrack. It's pretty much been on ever since.

Where's this incredibly off-track/rambling story going? Tonight, as Wifey was putting the little rug-rats into the tub I was being all domestic taking care of the dishes and blasting the Glee on the CD player. I was having a ton of fun, and I'm pretty sure I'd be beaten up in a second if I ever said something like that during a pickup basketball game growing up. Yup, 34 years old, doing dishes and rocking out to pretend teenagers singing the best of the 80's, 90's and today! I ooze cool. Someday I may teach you how.

Unlike what I just mentioned, which I should quickly go get partially lobotomized just so I don't ever have to remember my full descent into geekdom, there was a part of the evening that I don't ever want to forget.... Not wanting the singing goodness to end I threw on the Rent soundtrack after Glee finished. Yeah, I'm a fan. In fact, except for the F'ing Weird song (Tango: Maureen), and the "mooing song" (Over The Moon), I really love to sing to the whole damn soundtrack. With tubby time over, Red came back downstairs just in time for two of my favorites. We rocked out together, dancing all over the kitchen and drumming on everything in sight, including each other, to Today 4 U. Then, I sat on the floor and sang Santa Fe to her. I love that song and sitting there, just the two of us, on the floor of our little kitchen singing together is something I never want to forget.

Singing is good for the soul - and even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket everyone should do it every day.

27 is a lovely number

2009-11-05T08:54:00.005-05:00

I won't belabor this. It's probably best to keep it nice and short seeing as how EVERYONE who reads this post will be lumped into the category clearly labeled "hater."

As Wifey will attest, these last few nights have been very stressful, and I had to watch much of the series in fast forward on the DVR because I just couldn't handle all the waiting for the next pitch or to see if Swisher or Tex struck out again.

In the end, it was magic, and the Yanks are back on top where they're supposed to be.

Wayyy too early

2009-11-03T11:46:00.004-05:00

Have you been into a Target or (*ewww*) Walmart recently? Actually, forget recently - how about the last six weeks? Notice something a little unusual? Such as - CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS UP IN SEPTEMBER????? That is just freaking ridiculous don't you think? I get it that the economy is in the toilet. I understand the stores are trying to get us to buy Christmas ~~crap~~ decorations over a longer period of time so they can make their money to stay in business. But it wasn't even Halloween and I was getting accosted by elves at Costco for crying out loud.

*panting*

Okay, calming down now. I love the Christmas season, really - it's my favorite time of the year right after September. I love the lights, the presents, the snow (really? in Maryland?), the family, the presents.... My favorite Americanization of Christmas has got to be the outrageously ostentatious light displays set to music.

Witness my two favorites:

and...

And, a new one! To me anyway...

Why is all of this coming out now? I saw this on the FAIL blog today -

That's my kind of guy. And you know it was a guy.

Halloweens Collected

2009-11-03T09:06:00.012-05:00

I liked my idea of the family pics post, where I can collect pictures of the whole family, so I thought I'd try to copy that for different events. First - Halloween.

2009 - Pudge's award-winning costume, a mermaid and Commander Cody at your service.

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2008 - Star Wars all around with Pudge starring as Yoda, Red as Princess Leia (episode 4 NOT episode 6 thank-you-very-much), and JAM leading the way as young Anakin.

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2007 - A Maryland Terrapin themed year with Red as a cheerleader (*SHUDDER*) and JAM as his favorite Terp basketball player - D.J. Strawberry. Pudge makes an "appearance" as well.

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2006 - JAM sports the second-best costume ever (keep reading) as Greenbelt Road. Red completes the theme as a very cute, almost-sitting-up-by-herself, stop light. And, Red gets to take a picture in the family pumpkin costume. Pudge got out of it in 2008 thank goodness but as you'll see, JAM didn't in 2000.

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2005 - Year II of the firefighter. Can you guess what the intended vocation was?

2004 - Now ~~~THIS~~~ is the best costume ever. People - when JAM came to me and said he wanted to be an ambulance we knew two things. First, we lived too close to a major road where we hear sirens at all hours of the day and night. Second, Wifey and I were screwed. But, behold - the Mooney Family Rescue Squad is here.

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It's hard to see in the pictures above but I went out and got snap lights and those push lights you're supposed to use in your closets from those annoying commercials to add to the costume. JAM had a blast with it as we trick-or-treated around his cousin's neighborhood. We definitely would have won a contest had there been one! And, how cool is this -

2003 - Year I of the firefighter. We were up in CT at Mem and Pepe's house and JAM got to trick-or-treat to all Wifey's old neighbor's houses. That was fun.

2002 - Apparently we were VERY lame and except for a brief trip across the hall to our neighbor's place we didn't go out. I know - parent's of the year right? JAM did dress up as a cowboy though. Does that count for something?

2001 - Again, no official trick-or-treating this year so this is the closest I can come up with for Halloween pictures. We went pumpkin picking in VA with my brother and his family with a very small JAM.

2000 - Obligatory pumpkin costume with JAM. He even had his own carved pumpkin.

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Don't judge me - It's about survival!

2009-11-03T07:39:00.006-05:00

Wifey beat me to the punch, already having posted about our Halloween festivities. I tried to remind her that I'm supposed to be the one who posts the photos but she wasn't having any of that - something to do with a maternal instinct or whatever. Well, since this is my house I'll have to put up a few pics of my own.

As usual, we stormed the DaB's house and gathered with friends to ~~pillage~~ take advantage of the townhouses built very close together in Old Greenbelt. As I was explaining to a friend, even if only 1 in 5 houses are giving out candy the sheer number of homes packed into the very small area of Greenbelt make for some hearty loot. I know as the kids get bigger we'll be going home with multiple bags but right now we're still moving at the pace of some very small legs.

Here's Pudge with a very sweet E who seemed to have taken a shining to our little man. Maybe she's just happy to have someone else little to take care of that's not her own little brother? :)

They all got into the act. JAM wanted to be SOMETHING Star Wars related (of course) so we got him a Commander Cody (I think) costume and Red was practicing for what she wants to be when she grows up - a mermaid. No, seriously - she's absolutely locked onto the idea she's going to be a mermaid when she grows up. I was happy that about halfway through the night she even started to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" to the people handing out candy. For a little someone who talks as much as she does, and can get as loud as a passing ambulance, she certainly can clam up at times.

Our little fisherman Pudge was a natural. Even though the people mostly couldn't hear him say it he said his "trick or treating" to everyone (yes, it was trick or treating) and most of the time a "shank you" followed. No, he's not threatening jailhouse violence on anyone, he's still working on his th's thank you very much. :)

Here's the whole group - including a trying-to-hide Wifey who had to join the picture in order for Red to participate. Too funny! I'm such a proud papa... There's JAM, ready to eat the entire pumpkin full of candy in one bite and Red looking like a deranged serial killer for pic #2. Thank goodness Pudge had E there to hang out with. I'm thinking we're going to have her over to babysit - I don't care she's only in elementary school!

And, after seeing those two group pics you're probably already anticipating the next photo. Yes, it's a tradition (okay, maybe only in my mind) that trick or treating down the dark paths of Greenbelt makes for a perfect opportunity to enjoy a beverage or three. Again, don't judge me - after 60 minutes of this motley crew how could I not need a drink???

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yanks - Take II

2009-10-29T22:19:00.003-04:00

Yeah, the Yanks stunk up the joint last night... I know. You know what made it all better? All the love and support I got from my friends. Everyone was so kind and supportive, it was really helpful.

Anyway, tonight is another chance. But, as I sit watching again on the DVR the Yanks are already down 1-0 in the 3rd inning and my DVR is giving me fits with the sound. I think it's just the signal the dish is picking up from FOX because it's happening during other shows as well. If the picture goes out too I'm going to lose my mind.

As last night's really cute picture didn't bring us any luck, maybe this will. JAM drew this a long time ago, obviously, but I am not sure exactly when. Hope it works....

Translation -
GO NYY
~~NYM~~
NYY
~~GOO~~
GOO!

I love the smack to the Mets thrown in there. Isn't that great?

Sending some help to the Philippines

2009-10-29T20:52:00.004-04:00

It's Kiva time again and I thought it would be nice to spread some of the help to the land of my bigger girls ancestors - the Philippines. I found this woman raising pigs, she only needed a little bit more money and hey - who hasn't wanted to help out a pig farmer?

Introducing... Elisa Labordo - from Sto Niño, South Cotabato, Philippines. She's almost to her goal, maybe someone here can click over and give her a few bucks? Or, if she's already met her goal by the time you get there please consider giving to someone else. The Kiva experience has been fantastic. They take care of everything, send you updates when parts of your loan get paid back, and let you know when it's time to find a new worthy person looking to make their life better. It's a no brainer to be sure.

Continuing with the mapping of my loans, so far I've donated to folks in Mali, Paraguay and the Philippines

helped 3 states (1.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Redism of the day

2009-10-29T20:13:00.002-04:00

When looking at some of the older pics I've been uploading with Red and Pudge we came across this pic -

Red took one look and said "awww... that was when Mem was having a kitty!" Funny stuff - I didn't know my mother-in-law ever gave birth to a kitty, especially one that was really a little dog.

All dressed up...

2009-10-29T19:12:00.001-04:00

...and nowhere to go was my little lady when I came home from work today. Weren't she purdy?

And, not wanting to be left out, Pudge rocking the shades too. "Nonner icture Daddy?" he asked? How could I say no to that?

Fingers crossed

2009-10-28T21:41:00.004-04:00

I've tried to be really good about not turning this space into a sickening Yankee smooch-fest, but I've got to say something tonight. The Yanks start the World Series tonight so I'm sending much good mojo their way. I'm sitting on the couch watching the game now, it's on the DVR so I can skip the commercials, and in the top of the 4th inning the Yanks are down 1-0.

Let's go Yanks!

In the spirit of the season, here's a pic of JAM from early on -

***Update - top 8th, 2 out, runners on 1st and 3rd. Yanks down 2-0 now. I'm not feeling very well.

Posting the past

2009-10-28T15:19:00.002-04:00

I've recently been thinking about my blog in terms of its original intent - that of a place for me to look back on as time passes. And, as I wrote here, having that public component always keeps me interested in adding, sharing, and making sure times get recorded. As I think back to my past attempts at keeping a journal in a far more private way (I used to keep up with a web site I built on my computer that wasn't shared with anyone) I realize I spent a lot of time, during a brief period, recording events and posting pics. I always knew they were just languishing in anonymity and now I want to get 'em out there.

As such, I've started posting some of these old journal entries. If you look over to the right you'll see an archives list. As time goes by that list will get far more comprehensive as I post past entries with their original dates going back to perhaps even before JAM was born - we'll see. This is a very enjoyable exercise for me to do - it gives me an opportunity to go through all these old pics, post the pics that are really fun to see, and read about all the fun we've had. Good times....

Family Pics

2009-10-26T23:08:00.015-04:00

I've wanted to do this for a while. We've got lots of different family pictures, spanning the "ages," and I've got to go all over the place to look for them when I want to see this one or that one. So, I'm going to use this post as a collection, and just add to it as I come across them.

2010

April 5, 2010 - Washington, D.C. - Walk around the Tidal Basin
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April 4, 2010 - Easter Party at Friend's House

2009

November 28, 2009 - Hike in Greenbelt Park on a huge fallen tree

September 15, 2009 - @ The movie - Time Traveler's Wife

September 26, 2009 - @ the National Book Festival

May 17, 2009 - At J-Mac and MB's wedding

February 8, 2009 - Playing with the monkeys at the National Zoo. Red wasn't feeling up to a picture.

2007

November 15, 2007 - Pudge's birthday

2006

August 26, 2006

2000

December 25, 2000 - Our family Christmas picture

Thanksgiving, 2000

September 30, 2000 - Maryland football game - our real first outing as a family.

August sometime, 2000 - Right after JAM's birthday

August 12, 2000 - only about 8 hours after JAM was born, getting ready to leave the Maternity Center. Look at those smiles - what were we thinking???

May sometime, 2000 - at the beach in Rehoboth, DE

1999

September 8, 1999 - My Mom's place in Myrtle Beach

1997

January 20, 1997 - My Dad's wedding - dang we looked good

We've all been there

2009-10-23T11:51:00.003-04:00

Well, maybe not all of us have been there, but if you're a guy, and you went to college, or especially if you were ever a college-aged townie of some kind, you'll know what this is like. And, as usual, I'm the last to know about these things so you've probably already seen this. If so, sorry - you'll need to either make friends with some more original people or just take pity on me. I'm guessing it'll be an even mix of both.

So here it is - this guy's best weekend EVER! I mean, it was epic...

Apparently it even made the late nights rounds...

And, as tends to happen with (insert Arnold impression here -->) 'tings uv deese naatcha, the video went viral and caused many lonely teenage boys with nothing else to do to spoof this poor poor man. A great collection of these remixes are found here.

It is a tie which one I like the best. It's either the last one on that page - the one using the theme from Benny Hill - or this one with the silent film influence.

Happy Friday! After my last post I thought we could all use a little levity before the weekend.

This probably isn't my place, but...

2009-10-21T21:58:00.004-04:00

...I need to say something about it. Something really sad happened last night to a local family and it has grazed our family in a very unexpected way. A little boy in JAM's class, not someone I knew other than in passing at some events here and there, but according to all reports one of the sweetest little kids you'd ever be lucky enough to meet, passed away last night. Apparently this fantastic little guy had been born with some health problems and the fact his family got to be with him for 9 years was something of a miracle in itself.

So here we are, on the periphery (at best) of this tragic event, and it's amazing the effect is still so great. Wifey related to me that she can't get the image out of her head of the time, just last week, when she's helped him down the stairs off the school bus on JAM's class' field trip. Although I came home too late for the big talk with him and I missed it, JAM had his own feelings to work through regarding his interactions with his friend. Without going into too much detail, apparently his friend had some mobility challenges due to his illnesses and at times this year JAM had decided not to play with him while on recess in favor of playing kickball, which apparently did not include this young guy. It sounded like JAM was hard on himself for what he characterized as his being mean to his friend, but even though I wasn't there I don't think I'd go as far as saying it qualified as being mean. But, I wasn't there so I have no idea what was said or how it was said. We just have to help JAM think about the times he did play in the sandbox with his friend, the times they did have fun together.

I told JAM about the time I was in high school and a good friend of mine passed away. I told him how sad I was and it was good for me to be able to relate to him that way I think. We'll keep talking to him, and I'll make more special time for that tomorrow. Tonight I let him have something special that he's been wanting for a while - we let him watch two episodes of the animated Star Wars: the Clone Wars off the DVR. Hadn't let him watch that before - the violence is a bit much but I thought he's getting to the point of being fine with it (he'd probably already been there - it was us that was lagging) and he deserved something fun to get his mind off of the day. We all need that sometime right?

There are these life lessons that I know we'll have to go through, with all the kids, but that doesn't make it any easier to anticipate or to deal with. And again, we're so out there on the periphery of this sadness, I can't even come close to imagining how the family is doing right now. They are great people, and we're looking forward to doing whatever we can for them but we know they've got so many people who are closer than we were looking out for them. I just hope that some good comes out of this - the kids work to realize that life is short, that they need to be as good to each other as possible (one thing JAM said - this little guy was just nice to everyone, even if they were mean to him because of his disabilities he still just wanted to be every one's friend), and hopefully we're all surrounded by people who love us.

I'm not particularly religious, to any one deity or dogma, but I will pray that God's looking out for that family tonight and in the future. And I'm going to hold on to my little ones just a little tighter.

When is it good to be a bully?

2009-10-21T21:19:00.002-04:00

Saw this tonight. Loved it and what it portrays. I’m constantly going back and forth in my thoughts about the prospect of Dems getting the “right thing” done without the help of the dark side but then my 6-year-old self rears its head and thoughts of fairness invade. What would I think if those conservative f’ers had gotten to the magic 60 in the Senate in the mid 90’s (they had the majority for a long time!)? Good bye Roe, hello universal concealed weapons, death penalty for all!!! Who knows what else? But, I love the thought that this video portrays - and it's funny as hell – I just wish we would do it sometimes. After all the crap they put us through?

Christmas is coming!

2009-10-21T10:19:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted about anything really outrageous that I absolutely have to have in a while. Then today I saw this on List of the Day. Oh yeah, I really want one. For all sorts of reasons!

Only 65 shopping days left 'till Christmas. No, seriously! I counted.

***Update***
I checked - it only runs $200,000. Called the Python. Oh I definitely need one!

I'm not alone, but I might not want to admit it

2009-10-20T21:32:00.004-04:00

I adopted the whole blog writing thing late, after Wifey had been at it for at least a year. As I've said, I did it to create a space for me to look back at later in a way that I could never have done with a written journal. I'd tried a hand written journal before and could never stick with it. I'd even tried keeping a journal on the computer but I couldn't stay with that either. I know, big surprise - me not remembering to keep up with something. There is something about the public nature of this space, the fact that "it" is "out there" that makes me want to stay up to date with my posting. There isn't a single person who looks to this space with any expectation (including Wifey - I mean, she lives this with me!) but just being public makes me want to do my best.

Other than this blog though I just haven't gotten into the whole social networking arena. I've been gently (or sometimes not so gently) mocked for my resistance to joining Wifey and friends on Facebook, I haven't had any interest in tweeting, and you can take your My Space and shove it. But amongst my own age group I seemed to be a lone island of sanity in a sea of ridiculously addicted socialites. That is, until Wifey pointed out this article:

In a Generation That Friends and Tweets, They Don't

Yuppers, apparently we're such a well defined group that the Washington Post decided to write an article about us. It was an interesting read too, especially since I've been wavering in my devotion to remain unplugged. You see, although I've been thinking how nice it might be to have another means to keep up to date with people I have a very addictive personality and I know it and I don't want to feed it. That's why I'm very careful about my drinking, I don't gamble, and the only thing I allow myself to fall deep into is whatever game I'm playing on the computer. :) So I know that if I jump into Facebook it's inevitable that I'll be one of those goofs who get all wrapped up in whatever those games are on there, the ones that Wifey says she's always blocking. I'll be updating things all the time, adding info, searching for people that I've been perfectly happy not seeing or thinking about for years.

The bottom line - I think I'm just happy with the way things are going right now so it's pretty nice to hear that I'm not alone in resisting joining the hordes of automatons flocking to those sites.

My only problem? This from page 2 of the story...

On a broad level, there might be differences between those who tweet or issue status updates and those who don't. Pew researchers point to a new but very small study they conducted to show that resisters and adopters 18 to 29 have demographic differences: Social networkers are more likely to have an annual income of $75,000 or more, and nonusers are more likely to have only a high school education.

I'm wondering how quickly I can sign up for a FB account. And, how I can convince the MVA that I'm really 29 again.

Now that's a good start

2009-10-19T21:48:00.004-04:00

Had to DVR the Yankee game today because it started at 4pm. Finally got a chance to turn it on, skipped all the pregame garbage and fast forwarded to the first batter. Jeter is up, took the first two pitches and launched the third into the left field seats.

If all goes well the Yanks will be up 3-0 on the Angels by night's end. Finger's crossed.

***Update***
They lost. In 11 innings. AND, even though I recorded the whole game, AND the two shows after it, I still didn't get to see the end because it went more than 1 hour past its scheduled end time. So basically I stayed up until after midnight to not see the end of the game and they lost.

$&%@!!!!!!!

A very good day

2009-10-15T22:56:00.005-04:00

A day worth remembering for sure so I've got to make sure I write about it. I took the day off from work because Wifey had volunteered to go with JAM on a field trip with his class. Being responsible for entertaining or planning a day for the two little ones is not something I'm really used to doing by myself but I wanted to make sure it didn't end up being just a sit around the house during a rainy day-type day. As I'm not the expert on such days I called in the experience, the big guns. Thank god for my boy D, he came up with a plan. At first we were thinking of taking a drive up to Baltimore to visit Port Discovery but after a lateish morning (I was trying to get some work done from home at the same time) the 40 minute drive up there didn't sound like a great idea. Neither did the huge price tag that would have come with it.

D's solution? Never would have thought of it myself but we went bowling. And had a blast. He and I and the four little ones.

Witness...

Red doing it all by her big self with her pink ball (of course!!!).

*yes, I know the vids are too big for this space. I've got to figure out a way to make the space bigger without screwing up the rounded corners!

The kids cheering for the littlest member of our group.

Some pics of the general merriment-
- My big girl

- Little Pudge was fantastic in sitting and waiting his turn really well.

- C refused to smile - he was a focused kid on that bowling. :)

- He's a computer genius! Even if this one is only a bowling scoring machine.

- Yeah, little J's gonna' be taller than Daddy real soon.

After one game we paid and went to find some lunch. I was so pleased that we spent well over an hour bowling (yes, one game for four little ones took over an hour :) ) and it only cost us $4 each. For lunch we took advantage of some certificates for free kid's meals at Chik Fil-A and had a blast catching up while we let the kids play in the play area. Thanks to the free meals lunch only cost us about $6. So, we had an entire morning out and a lot of fun and it only cost me $10. NICE! :) I could get used to this stay at home thing.

Who am I kidding, I'd pull my hair out after two days. lol

After the regular nap/working from the couch/JAM home from school/homework (finally got some valve oil for his newly acquired baritone so he could practice)/dinner routine we had a real family moment... I had uploaded the vids from my phone for this post and sat back down on the couch to watch them for a moment. There's something really funny about my kids - as soon as they hear sound coming from a computer they instantly run over and want to watch - without having the slightest idea of what it will be. Even Pudge. I think it started way back when as we used to show him videos of himself and laughing babies on YouTube...

And...

But anyhow, as I was checking out the uploaded vids they all came running over and we spent the next 45 (!!!) minutes watching old videos of them that we had uploaded. It was fantastic. Pudge just couldn't get it into his head that the little baby we were watching was really him only about a year ago. It's old hat to JAM to watch those old vids but even Red was funny while we listened to her talk, ride her scooter or sing for us as a smaller version of herself.

Then, to top it all off, after I finally had to call it quits on the videos we somehow all found ourselves in a tickle fight on the couch that lasted for a good 15 minutes WITHOUT ANYONE GETTING HURT OR CRYING!!!! I don't know if this is normal for other families or not but it seems whenever we try to do something like that someone always takes it too far (read - JAM) or gets hurt by a flying elbow or cries for some random reason. I'm so happy to say that none of that happened tonight and we all had a really great time.

So there I have it - a fantastic day that I just had to write down so I couldn't forget. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Ouch

2009-10-12T10:51:00.003-04:00

Back from my PT appointment this morning. Everything was going swell, going through my workout, lifting weights and stretching without any worries. No, it still didn't want to bend but I was pushing it and even though it hurt a bit I was making it go further than I had. All was good. Until she stepped in. My therapist decided today was the day to make a push. And she pushed. She pushed hard. I've never felt such pain. Yes, I'm a wuss but when I'm sitting in the middle of a very crowded PT office I really can't let the expletives fly. That sucked because I had a string of choice words ready for her.

Sorta like this -

I don't like that place at all. I was in such a foul mood when I came back to the office that there was only one thing in the world that could make me feel better. Today was the first day of a new employee orientation program that we do like three times a year, and they always feed those people going through it. When the breakfast is over the extra food gets brought back to our office and I was so looking forward to it. Yup, a big plate of bacon, sausage and hash browns. OHHHHHHHHHH sooooo good. I'ma drown my sorrows in fried meat and potatoes and there's nothing you can do to stop me.

Oh, and in trying to find the video above (apparently there are no just clean scenes of the waxing part - Universal Pictures sucks) I found this other video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj-xmcpPP8g. That is some funny stuff! And they turned off the embed code, which I thought was pretty crappy, but the video is funny nonetheless.

Now, on to my bacon.

1 down, 2 to go

2009-10-12T07:55:00.003-04:00

The Yanks moved one step closer to another World Series banner last night by ~~beating~~ sweeping a mistake prone Twins team. What made it even more sweet was the same happening to the Red Sox by the Angels. Yup, the mighty Sox were swept by the Angels. Oh, glorious day!

And how's that for an infield huh? A-Rod, Jeter, Cano and Teixteira celebrating the win.

Huh? of the day Take II

2009-10-07T21:22:00.004-04:00

This? This is not for the faint of heart. This is not for people of weak constitutions or folks who are a bit squeamish about, shall we say, more adult topics. And, it is just down right unexpected.

Wifey and I are sitting on the couch watching the Yankees-Twins playoff game when A-Rod came up to bat. She asked me - "did he just get someone pregnant?" I'm not too interested in keeping track of page 6 type gossip so I had no idea what she was talking about. Well, what do you do when you need an answer? Google of course! She starts to type in her search query - "first time A Rod in October" because she knew someone on TV had made the joke about this being the first time A-Rod produced anything in October. Even though I'm a Yanks fan I thought that was pretty funny. In fact, in his first at bat tonight, with Jeter on second, he flied out to end the first inning. GET A HIT MORON! His glove is amazing but dude needs to find the gap! No pun intended.

Sorry, digressing. So Wifey is typing in her search string and Google, being its ever-helpful self, starts giving her suggestions based on what she's typing. This is where the squeamish part comes into play...

As she types in "first time a ", and you need to make sure that last space is in there, the first very helpful hint Google fed back was... let's just say a little more off-color than she was prepared for.

Witness...

Um, yeah. We're not sure what to think about that either. And no, I didn't click on that link.

-------------------------

Oh, and as an update - as I finish this post (it has taken a while - I'm watching the game at the same time) A-Rod just struck out with Teixeira on first right after Jeter homered. COMMON!!!!! He's now 0-29 with runners on base in the post season.

Huh? of the day x2

2009-10-07T11:35:00.003-04:00

Couple things made me go huh? today. I had to share.

First, I was looking for one of those things you can hook up to your camera to take the picture without you having to press the shutter button. Called a shutter release something or other apparently - the guy at Ritz Camera didn't know either. (but I'm sure a certain someone out there knows what it is and will email me soon!)

As I was perusing their web site I came across this item in their clearance area. I'm not sure about you but I'm thinking this isn't as good of a deal as they try to make it out to be. Can you see what I mean?

If not, click on this picture and I'll give you a hint...

Not much of a sale if you ask me.

And second, you might not want to watch this if you have just eaten dinner or anything. This kid is absolutely nuts. I wonder why he didn't have any friends sitting around him during the taping.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Eating the Distance - The Brad Sciullo Story Pt. 2

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Michael Moore

On the Road Again

2009-10-07T10:15:00.002-04:00

Took three big steps toward getting back to normal in the last two days. First, I had my first PT appointment yesterday for my knee. And, as my colleague is fond of saying, her PT guy told her that PT actually stood for Pain and Torture. This was pretty accurate, and we didn't even get into any of the hard stuff yet. As I indicated in my initial post about my injury, when referring to the slightly less than masculine whelp I let out when the fat man fell on me, I'm a wuss when it comes to pain. I'm a firm believer that if men had to give birth we'd have established a social caste just for that purpose. But, I'm looking forward to the next three weeks as Hina, my torturer/therapist, makes me do horribly painful things in order to get back to normal. It will be nice to be able to put on my shoes without shifting into three different positions, or be able to sleep on my side again.

The second of my big steps is a pretty simple one. I took off my brace all day yesterday, and it's off again today. Except for sleeping, and for what I'm about to relate in item #3, the brace has been off. Gotta build that muscle back up and learn to walk correctly again and that's not going to happen with the brace on.

Finally, and this was perhaps the biggest mental hurdle of all so far, I went back to the gym this morning. Wednesdays and Fridays were my regular basketball mornings and I've missed going so much that I'm sure it was a huge piece of my recent mental malaise. But, with the start of my PT I'm looking to get back into some form of "in shape" so I thought it might be good to get back into the habit of getting up early and getting out of the house to go to the gym. It was a good thing. When I walked into the gym all the guys went right back to busting my balls which was nice. It's good to know things haven't changed. I know it's only been a month for them but it's felt like a millennium to me. No, I didn't play, but I did lift weights for a while and yes, I bounced a ball and shot for a few minutes. I even jumped (little white boy hops really) once or twice just to see how it would feel and all was well.

It was good just being there again to be honest. I need things to be back to normal. I need to feel well enough to finish all the jobs that are sorta-started around the house and I need to not have to rest on the couch after a simple trip to the store.

These last two days were a good start I think. I'm on the road again...

Boy's Weekend

2009-10-05T20:02:00.006-04:00

It's almost too good to be true but this past weekend Wifey momentarily lost all control of her senses and gave me a pass to go camping with the fellers. Yup, that's right - boys weekend. Very simply put, it was an excuse to get away from it all (including all the crappyness I've been feeling lately), make large fires, sleep in a tent, eat lots of dead animals and drink copious amounts of liquids you don't normally find at play group.

Life was good.

After literally months of going back and forth about locations, dates, who could and couldn't come, more locations, etc., etc. we finally made it happen at Cunningham State Park. After waiting so long to make up our minds about where we wanted to go all of the 130+ camp sites were booked at the Houck area so at first I thought we were out of luck. But, I've been watching and learning from my world-class planner Wife and I had a backup plan all set. CSP has a secondary camping area separated from the main part of the park that is first-come-first-served so I thought that if they still didn't have any room at the inn on that day I'd just head up early and grab a space for us in the Manor area. If that still didn't work for some reason we had the Catoctin Mountain Park campground to fall back on but that was a last-ditch choice for us. Why you ask? There's no drinking allowed in National Parks. :)

I got up to the manor area of Cunningham around noonish on Friday, found a great site with an electric hookup and mostly put up the borrowed tent (thanks G&K!) by myself. Then, I settled in to wait for the rest of the guys to arrive. One by one they (almost) all showed up and I had dinner already cooking. I was seriously domestic for this weekend. I ran the planning (with way too many emails - I just didn't want to plan something that anyone objected to!) planned a menu, did all the shopping, did almost all of the cooking, cleaned the place up each morning before the hungover/lazy b-tards even got out of their sleeping bags... it was impressive if I do say so myself. But don't tell Wifey - she's not a huge fan of me doing crap like that elsewhere when not much of it gets done around here.

The weekend was literally fantastic. It rained some on Friday night but we were drinking enough that we didn't even notice much. By the time we all passed out it had stopped so the weather Saturday was absolutely perfect. After friend #6 showed up, and making breakfast for some hungover chaps, it was time to sample some of the local flavor. Not wanting to just sit around all day I dragged a few of the guys up to the main part of the park where we took a short (and slow thanks to my still messed up knee) hike up to see the falls. They weren't as impressive as I'm sure they are in the spring with more water coming over them but they were cool to look at anyway.

A pic via the cell phone -

Then we took a drive through Catoctin Mountain Park, a National Park Service park. My only goal was to try to check out Camp David which is surrounded by the park. As you might imagine, we weren't even able to get close. We saw the road that led up to the Camp but it was flanked by some hard to mistake Do Not Enter signs. Instead of adding ourselves to the daily news cycle by storming the Bastille we just drove on by. I had to be comforted by a fleeting view of one of the watch towers that are a part of the perimeter of the facility.

Yup, that's the tower. How doofy am I that I thought that was so cool?

Anyhow, after we got back it continued to be a lazy and totally relaxing day under beautiful mountain weather. A lot less liquids were consumed which was a good thing. Especially since this is how certain people were feeling on Saturday morning....

Not to poke fun at someone else's misery but... :)

We did stoke up an excellent fire, played some cards and listened to C play his guitar for a while. A nice relaxing night.

FIRE!
J & D
C & M
The Big D

Camp was struck after a truly mesmerizing breakfast feast prepared with love by D. I had packed a few pounds of hamburger which I had seasoned with some Worcestershire sauce, garlic and Italian seasoning (YUM for hamburgers!) but not so much for a breakfast meat wouldn't you say? Someone came up with the idea that it would be great to turn that into a breakfast meal with the dozen eggs we still had. Um yeah, I didn't try it. But some other crazy men did and they even mentioned that it was even borderline good. I took their word for it and ate Saturday's left over normal eggs and bacon. Look at me being the smart one huh?

By noon the camp site was cleaned up really well, the cars were packed and we were all on the road. Didn't want to say goodbye to a fantastic weekend but I knew Wifey was eager to not be a single mother any more.

All in all it was a hell of a weekend. We're definitely going back next year (and a certain someone better get off his thespian-ish back side and join us! and another certain orange colored luzer better tell his wife who's (or should that be whose?) boss and ask really nicely if he can join us too.).

To top it all off the park is also already on the agenda for a family camping outing next spring too. I'd highly recommend that park - loads for the kids to do at the main part of the park... we just need to get off our duffs and make a reservation in time. :)

----------------------------------------

And, just to provide definitive photo evidence of something never before seen - and it's bigger than getting a picture of Nessie or the Abominable Snow Man..... it's a large angry Asian being domestic!

That's right folks, the big D was doing dishes. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Hence the picture.

Update from the land of the gimp

2009-10-01T10:52:00.003-04:00

Went to the Dr. this morning. The update on my knee is that the healing has finished as far as he can tell. His moving my knee all around didn't even hurt so he's reasonably comfortable with me starting PT next week. I'm glad he's comfortable with it because I know it's going to hurt like a bitch. Right now I can't bend my knee enough to even drive without pain but after a month of PT and a bottle of 800mg Motrin I'm hoping to be able to at least climb the stairs like a normal person.

Wish me luck, cause this is gonna sting a bit.

Oh, and as an aside - do you think I was wrong to give him some S&%T about making me wait 45 minutes for a 9am appointment? I took that appointment because it was his first slot of the day and I still had to wait until 9:45 for him to walk through the door. When he finally did come through, and asked me how I was, my first response was "annoyed." He gave the same song and dance that all doctors do about each patient taking time and the front desk not knowing how long appointments will take but when they schedule appointments every 15 minutes, AND PURPOSEFULLY DOUBLE BOOK EACH SLOT, don't we have a right to be annoyed?

What do people think about that? Does anyone else say anything about it when the Dr. comes in? This is now the second time I've done it and the one time before this was with the pediatrician and she's bent over backwards since getting us the first appointment of the day. That doesn't mean she's done anything to fix the problem but it certainly worked for us.

The truth is finally revealed

2009-09-26T17:08:00.005-04:00

Red, Pudge and I found ourselves in the house without JAM and Wifey this afternoon (see explanation below). Since it was a pretty dismal rainy day and they had just gotten up from nap the TV was still on. Who am I kidding, the TV would have probably been on anyway this being college football season and all. :)

Anyhow, we found ourselves switching back and forth between the Yankee-Red Sox game and the Miami-Virginia Tech football game. As I was changing his diaper Pudge pointed to the TV at the crowd of people they were showing and said something about the people. Red looked and said "Yes Pudge, look at the people! Hey! I saw my Daddy on that show!" I laughed and said "No Red, your Daddy is right here." She giggled a little bit and then said, with a totally straight face, "No, my real Daddy!" No joke! She even walked over and said "Let me show you."

Yup, she walked right over and pointed to a Virginia Tech player running on the field. Now, ever since she was born with this mop of bright orange hair we've (I've) been making poor jokes about not being quite sure about her lineage but for some strange reason I'm pretty sure this young man had very little to do with her creation.

Either that or someone in this house has some serious explainin' to do.

Where Wifey becomes a star

2009-09-26T16:38:00.005-04:00

Today is the day she's been waiting for. She's been working harder and harder on her writing on her blog, building her own readership which eventually led to a gig working with the book-dedicated blog 5 Minutes for Books. She's a machine - reading more than I ever thought humanly possible (although she tells me stories of other book bloggers out there that go through dozens of books a month) and posting so many reviews that she quickly built her own following on that site. She's even been noticed by another very impressive group where she will soon begin posting her thoughts (I don't think she made nearly enough of a big deal about that in her announcement buried within this post).

But today was the culmination of all that hard work. We packed the whole fam into the van and picked up L at the Metro station before heading down to the Mall in DC. We all walked Wifey right down to the Media tent (yes, the Media tent - she's an official member of the press now) and said our good-byes as she prepared for her first interview with Craig Hatkoff, to be followed by her interview with Mo Willems.

Without much of a plan (my bad with that I realized) I took the kidsso Wifey could concentrate on the task at hand. Yup off I went with all three of them by my gimpy self, down to the PBS tent where we spent some time coloring before quickly coming to the realization that there wasn't really anything I could do with the three of them by myself - the age difference is just too big between them. Someone must have been looking out for us though because there was a stage set up in the PBS tent with some carpets on the ground right in front with rows of chairs behind. I found out there were going to be some authors reading from their favorite stories which reminded me that Wifey had said Mo was going to be reading somewhere. Putting 2 and 2 together like the smartypants I am I realized that THIS must be the place! So I plopped the 3 Amigos down on that carpet before anyone else had even shown up. That was the best idea I've had in a while. The place quickly filled up because word must have spread that Steve Sings was going to be there with Mo following. The place turned into a zoo but we had prime spots! I didn't record any of that Steve guy but I did video Mo's reading-turned-interpretive-dance. :) The sound quality from my phone stinks - it picked up all the snotty nosed kids in the audience but not his voice from the speakers.

But the purpose of this post is going slightly astray... the purpose was to sing the laurels of my beautiful, talented Wifey on her big day. She rocked the house with some fantastic interviews and I'm so proud of her for swallowing all that anxiety I didn't want to call attention to this morning and going for it. Good job lady - you're my hero. I'm sure she'll follow this up with some posts of her own but I had to get it out there first. I'm a buzz-kill like that. :)

What's good for the goose...

2009-09-25T09:42:00.005-04:00

I've got to admit to a bit of hypocrisy. It started with a simple little email sent to a friend asking if he was feeling alright after not hearing from him in a while. It reared its ugly head again yesterday when I made my innocent little comment to Wifey. But much like my friend and Wifey, I know I haven't been recording what's been going on in my own simple world either.

And I know why too. Although I've known for a while I just haven't wanted to put it out there. But, I need to keep reminding myself of the promise I made when I started this thing. This is my space and I need to use it to record what's going on in my life, and hopefully as honestly as possible. So, here goes.

Life, for the last few weeks, has - in the immortal words of Mike Myers from Wayne's World - blown chunks. I haven't been interested in just about anything and as stupid as some people might see this, I think it all boiled over when a fat guy fell on me. It's hard to put into words, but ever since then I've just felt like garbage. I knew I put a lot into those morning games as a way to keep myself grounded and get out my much bottled-up aggression, but I never thought I would feel quite this crappy without them. I guess I always figured that if I ever had to stop playing, maybe if my schedule changed and I couldn't play in the mornings or something like that, I'd quickly find something to replace it. But in this situation I can't even do that!

Okay, so there's that part of the problem. Now lets add the double fact that 1.) I can't even kick a ball in the yard with my kids and 2.) in all honesty I get home too late to do much of that anyway. The late arrival-quick transition into dinner-bug infested yard has had a very negative impact on my instigation of outside quality time with the 3 amigos. I've never been really great at the inside-sit down type quality time stuff like Wifey is able to whip up. Painting, games, puzzles, playing cars, etc. etc. - I just can't seem to get excited over. I've always been far better at outside play but I think we've reached a critical juncture. I think we need to do something about both the schedule AND my interest in sitting on the floor-type quality time. I don't think anyone is in danger of starving when I get home, so I think an adjustment of the schedule might be doable. But, that would require a father able to play with them. I've got work to do.

Adding to this (this is really hard to admit in a public forum but its not like everyone else doesn't go through it too) is the lack of connection Wifey and I have been going through. Again, it didn't exactly start from scratch with the knee thing, but since then poor Wifey has had to deal with four helpless kids instead of three, then to top it all off she got wicked sick while I wasn't able to pick up much of the slack. I know everyone goes through times like this, it is a part of being in a relationship, but it is just so hard to deal with so many issues all at the same time.

The cherry on top has got to be the more difficult financial situation we've been in since #'s 2 and 3 came along and Wifey started staying home to be with the babies. It is such an amazing thing for her to be there for them (I know I couldn't handle being home all day every day - I've got much respect for all the moms and dads who can do that) but if I'm being honest it has definitely taken its toll. We've talked about the impact of working vs. not working - the cost of child care would likely wipe out most of the added income, then add to that the costs of her not being able to take care of the hundreds of little every-day things she does during the week. Having to get everyone up and out of the house way early in the morning, getting home late after picking everyone up, then worrying about a dinner and homework and play time and baths and bed.... It just seems like a whirlwind that would sweep us away. I have a generous respect for people who make that work as well. All this works to add to the daily mental baggage though. We're (like most people) literally one car accident or water heater meltdown (I just realized I never posted about the almost-fire we had with our water heater!) or water main break away from a really bad situation. We can't take actual family vacations, a dinner out once in a while is an extravagance...

I'm even annoying myself with all of this. But the point is made. It drags on the mental outlook.

Hopefully my outlook will clear up some as I start to get back to normal and that will help - but a break is needed. Personally, as a couple, and as a family, there is much work to do. But thank God that I've got them with me to work with - I'd never want it any other way.

**Update - I just realized how bizarre it is to have this post and the post immediately under it right next to one another. Seriously, happiness should be far easier to come by.

Happiness is easy

2009-09-20T21:06:00.002-04:00

With working so hard every day to try to find some elusive measure of happiness - family, job, home, friends, etc., etc. - I'm happy when I find reminders that happiness is really easy to come across. It was a simple but really good day with a young friend's birthday party at the lake and playground in town starting things off nicely. Spending time with the fam and great friends at the park where we've had our own birthday parties was really fun. After some homemade quiches for dinner made with love by Wifey and a surprisingly easy bedtime comes some quality me time. While Wifey is busy reading/reviewing/blogging inside on the couch I'm enjoying a nice fire in the fire pit outside while watching my Giants beating the Cowboys and drinking a beer.

It really is simple - and I've got to remember that.

So much for Twinkle Twinkle I guess

2009-09-10T20:05:00.003-04:00

Typically, when I put Pudge to bed our time includes a few songs after we've read our story and the lights are out. We usually go through the old standards - Row, Row, Row Your Boat, The ABC's Song, All Around the Mulberry Bush, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star... you know, the songs adults usually sing to children. Tonight was a little bit different apparently. Tonight I snuggled in with Red while Wifey had the joy of putting Pudge down. As I walked out of Red's room I heard the usual singing coming out of Pudge's room but I was amused by the choice of tune. I think this might be the first time I've ever heard a song about a bank robbery being sung to a 22 month old. But, when you marry a woman who would much rather be married to a bare naked lady, what do you expect?

Just don't call me Costanza

2009-08-30T14:53:00.004-04:00

This? This is what I'm reduced to. :)

After two days sitting on my couch I needed to get out of the &$#@ house. So, we packed up the kids and hit the Bagel Place this morning for breakfast, then took a trip up to CostCo to load up for the week. There weren't any way I was walking all over creation inside that megastore so I asked to borrow a scooter. Yes, I felt like a goof. And yes, everyone looked at me funny. But it saved us from making a 30 minute trip into a 90 minute trip so it was worth it. The kids were fantastic both during breakfast and while we shopped so that was a blessing and a half.

Got to watch some of my Yankees beating the White Sox during nap and now we're discussing a sojourn to the pool while we still have the opportunity - it closes after next weekend. Here's to the Yanks winning and me not killing myself at the pool. :)

And for your viewing enjoyment...

The Sap needs someone to hug!

2009-08-29T12:34:00.003-04:00

Ever since the kids came along I've turned into such a sap. Not for kittens and babies in cute outfits or anything like that, but when a story turns to a father and a child the water works turn on as sure as the sun comes up. I've been a mess in movies, while reading books (ever read The Road? If you have, you'll remember the moment that the main characters came upon that fire cooking on the side of the road. Or, how about the moment in The Pillars of the Earth where the main character has to decide what to do with his newborn son?) and sometimes even watching TV.

It happened again just now. I'm sitting here, adhered to the couch due to my bum knee, watching the memorial service for Sen. Ted Kennedy. I tuned in just in time to hear his eldest son, also Ted Kennedy, speak about his father through a choked up voice and a sea of tears in the audience. I just about lost it.

What was worse was that Pudge was sitting on the couch next to me playing with some toys, totally oblivious to what was on the screen. I just grabbed him and hugged him tight - which he is NOT a fan of. Both Red and even JAM are far more snuggly, both at least put up with my hugs on a regular basis but Pudge just isn't interested in snuggling of any kind really. He even refuses to come into bed with the rest of us in the morning! Goofy kid. :)

So, I'm a sap who needs to give hugs and I've got a kid who could just care less. Good thing I'm still like 4x his size. Before my knee gave out I could even chase him down when I wanted to.

I'm going to need to get a net or something.

I should just learn to be quiet

2009-08-28T19:22:00.006-04:00

I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again. I should just learn to be quiet. I'm not typically a believer in jinxes but this one should take the cake. If you don't know, I'm a huge basketball player. No, not at all skilled enough to call myself anything other than a (to use golfer terminology) duffer. Basketball players might call me a hacker or a chucker. No, I'm not really that bad, but I ain't in any danger of being offered a shoe contract. :)

So where does this jinx thing come into play? I was having a conversation with one of my basketball buddies the other day about injuries, commiserating about all the ankle sprains we've had in the past (I've sprained each ankle about 6-8 times each) and for some ridiculous reason I marveled OUT LOUD (!!!) that I've never had a real knee injury. WTF was I thinking?

Do you see where this is going yet?

Yup, it happened yesterday morning. I was minding my own business, guarding my guy underneath the basket when someone on my team stepped on the foot of someone on the other team which caused him to fall. Where did he fall you ask? Right onto my foot. That's not too bad you say. I'd agree with you if it had stopped there. But, said falling fat guy didn't just stop after falling on my foot but he continued to roll up my leg which was pinned to the floor under his fat a$$. Not sure if you're a fan of the NFL but stuff like this happens all the time to the linemen but those guys all wear huge knee braces now. Me? Nope, no knee brace. I saw it coming, felt it right away, and immediately screamed like a little girl and fell down. I'm so happy that I didn't hear a pop which is the tell-tale sign of a ligament tear. It hurt like a somnabitch but after a few minutes the endorphins kicked in and I thought I was just being a wuss at first. I was even able to hobble off the floor, down to the elevator and took a shower in the locker room.

What the hell was I thinking? I knew I was in bad shape in the shower when my knee tried to fold sideways on itself. I got really lucky after I got dressed when a gym employee came in to collect towels and asked me if I was okay. I had to admit that I wasn't, and he asked if he could help me get to the car. Yup, I got wheeled out of there in one of those PVC pool wheelchairs. I had every intention of finding a doctor to go to but only after I made an appearance at a meeting I had at work. That plan was blown out of the water when I tried to climb in the front seat to drive and my knee tried to buckle sideways again like it's just not supposed to. So, my new BFF Trevor from the Columbia Gym was nice enough to drive me and my van to the hospital in Columbia so I could get myself checked out. I just can't help but think that things like that just wouldn't happen in PG County.

After spending waaayyyy too long in the ER of this lovely hospital I learned that there was no bone damage but they refused to do an MRI to check the ligaments. What is all this crap about doctors prescribing needless tests???? Not for me they didn't. So now I've got to wait until next week to even begin to find out what is wrong in there. I just know that it feels like crap, it wants to constantly bend sideways like the inside ligament is totally gone, and my whole body hurts after spending most of two days sitting in the same position. This sucks. I have no idea how long I'll be laid up adding yet another burden onto my already overworked and under rested beautiful Wifey. I feel like crap that I'm adding more work to her plate. She's amazing, not showing any ill feelings toward me because of my predicament. I don't deserve her. She's amazing and I love her.

We'll see how she feels about me by the end of next week.