MR's Christmas Party

Here is the picture from MR's Christmas Party. The night had a very 80's feel to it with us playing 80's trivial persuit. There are 16 things added to the orginal picture. Can you find them all?

What's the deal?

I came back to work after Christmas kinda expecting a eazy 4 day week to another three day weekend only to come back to a couple of huge projects that has put me out on the production floor for two days straight. Don't they know I have a blog to maintain?

The one thing that I love about being in an office this time of the year is that we have a break table that is usually full of stuff to snack on. Every once in a while, during the year, someone might bring in a little something to snack on, but this time of year it's quite the nice display of cookies, cheese and sausage, and candy. Yummmmmmm.

Man, what ANOTHER weekend

WOW. What a busy busy weekend.

Friday night - I decided to make Christmas cookies. Yeah the same ones that I was talking about for about a week now, but I needed to get them done since I saw the rest of the weekend getting full fast. Jen had to work, so I started after putting the boys to bed. The recipe that I use is one that has been in our family for years (as long as I can remember). They are a real good sugar "cut-out" cookie with real grated orange peel in the dough. The cookies went together pretty fast, but didn't have the exact taste that I was going for. The recipe calls for butter flavored crisco, but I used regular since it's all that I could find in the pantry. Of course I found the butter flavored crisco after I was done and I dug a little deeper in the pantry. Dang. In keeping with tradition from my grandma, I drank a beer in a regular glass and gave up a nod to grandma. I seem to remember my grandma having a glass of beer handy when she was cooking. While I was making cookies I put in "Christmas Vacation" for atmosphere while baking. After cleaning up my mess (I would frost and decorate Saturday) I decided to get a head start on making caramel corn. Jen decided to make caramel corn for her co-workers as gifts but had to make at least 5 batches to fill the tins that she bought, but in inspecting the pantry, no corn syrup. I had used the last of it for my Hoosier pies at Thanksgiving, so, no caramel corn tonight.

Saturday - The family gets up and Jen heads to Meijer to grab some corn syrup for the caramel corn and to look for honeybuns (another tradition with me). She gets back and I start putting together the stuff to make the caramel corn, but just remembered that we were almost out of popcorn too. Opps, So, Jen head out to Scotts to buy popcorn and look for honeybuns again (none at meijer). She gets back and I start putting together the caramel corn and I make a little routine where one pan is baking while I cook caramel in the stove. The first batch is good, but the caramel seems like it isn't mixed well enough. I call it grainy, but it's like the sugar isn't melting. I thought it might be a fluke so I keep going. Second batch, still not right. Third batch, still not right. We decide to stop. We figure that the corn syrup that she bought is bad somehow, or the brown sugar has an issue. I still say it was because I wasn't stirring the pan well enough before putting the caramel over the corn. SO, a third trip to the store, this time to Kroger's to buy new corn syrup and to look for honeybuns (still can't find them). We start the process again and finally it's starting to go together much better. So with the three first tries, the 5 batches for the co-workers, 1 overcooked batch, and 1 batch for my mom, we ended up making 10 batches of caramel corn. Once Jen and I got into the routine we were able to hammer them out pretty fast. Finally we finished the caramel corn and Jen headed out to deliver the caramel corn and do some other stuff. When she got back I headed out for some last minute shopping. When I got back Tracy and the boys had come over so we visited with them and the boys played until 9:30 or so.

Sunday - The boys kinda slept in since they were up late the night before and we started putting stuff together for the day. Jen continued baking, while it was my job to frost/decorate cookies and get the boys bathed and ready for church. I had to make a Kroger run to get yeast for Jen's next project in the kitchen. We got stuff done around the house and headed out to church around 4:00. Upon arriving at 4:10 for a 4:30 service, it was already standing room only. Lucky for us we found a couple chair in the cry room so we were able to camp out there. William was being difficult. He had his cars, but insisted on kneeling in front of the chair to play with the cars on the chair. Of course with chairs being at a minimum he wanted to play on my chair. Initially we said no, but I finally ended up standing just so I wouldn't have to deal with his whining and pouting. After church we headed over to my mom's house. Mom puts out a great meal with shrimp cocktail and other snacks for an appetizers and then a great pan of Johnny Marzetti that was delicious. We exchanged presents with my mom, uncle, brother, and sister-in-law. We all got some neat presents, of course the kids getting the vast majority. Upon reading my blog about what I wanted for Christmas and my memories of "ULTRAMAN" and other stuff from my childhood, by brother got me the DVD collection of "STARBLAZERS" which is another cartoon/anime thing that we watched at kids. I had stared collecting the VHS copies of the series a few years ago, but at $20 a tape for one or two episodes it became real expensive so I stopped, but now I have the full series. The kids of course were loaded with all kinds of toys and some clothes. Some of the most interesting stuff were the things that my mom brought back from China. We even put the boys in these silk pajamas that mom brought back. My brother presented my sister-in-law with a pendant that he designed and that he created from scratch that brought tears to her eyes. (Stay tuned for pictures and more description about that). We finally headed for home around 9:30 or so again. Upon putting the boys to bed we still had a ton of presents to wrap for the next day so we were up till about 11:00 wrapping presents.

Monday - Sunday morning we hear the sound of William leaving his bedroom around 8:00 or so and we are waiting for him to come into the bedroom, but he doesn't. After a few minutes we go to the balcony where we see him downstairs playing with the toys he got the night before. He didn't even notice that there were presents around the tree and in the stockings. The morning was busy with opening presents and having breakfast. Jen had made cinnamon rolls since we couldn't find the honeybuns, and they were pretty good. So we get the crew cleaned up and head for the in-laws house whereupon we have more food and present opening. We hung out there for most of the day and stared to head for home around 6:00. We ended up hitting my mom's house one more time to give her a chance to see the boys on Christmas, and because we had forgotten a present for her the night before. Finally home around 8:00 and kids quickly to bed. Jen and I just looked at the carnage in the living room. She likes to say that it looks like Radiator Springs exploded in our living room. After trying to clean up a little bit I headed to bed. One more holiday down. The plan for New Years? Not a F##&*ng thing.

Man what a weekend

Friday - I took Friday off to get my shopping done, or at least a good dent into it. I had an idea of what I wanted to get so I figured a good trip to Wal-mart would take care of it. About an hour and $100 later I left the store with a good dent put into my list. On the way home I decided to run to a hardware store to buy stuff to strip the paint and stain off those old kitchen cabinets. You know, the project I started 6 months ago. I found some goo that was working really good, but I ran out, so I stopped to get more goo. I noticed when I went into this hardware store that they cut car keys with computer chips in them. SCORE!! I talked to the guy and he told me that it would be around $30 for a key to be made, that is so much better than the $80 the dealership was going to charge. I ran home and grabbed the jeep, and went back to the hardware store to have a key made on the way for an oil change. They put my key in their machine and pushed a few buttons and then started pulling off key blanks on the regular key display. I had a copy of the jeep keys made before without the chip and it didn't work and they were getting ready to cut another key like this and I stopped them. Upon talking to the hardware employee (later confirmed by the dealership) Jeep's have a special system that requires only the dealership to copy keys. Damn. it's nice to have that security, but why is it so expensive? I guess that goes back on the christmas wish list. After the oil change I went out and about to do some more shopping, but didn't really find anything. Either that or I was just too tired to continue.

Saturday - Saturday started with a lazy kind of morning, but we noticed that Andrew had the sniffles, so that translates to preparing ourselves for everyone getting the sniffles. We packed the crew up and headed to Bell's rink in New Haven for a 5th birthday party for Charlie. This is a nice gathering of friends and family that is also pretty fun. I was chasing the boys around and actually got William to try rollerskating for the first time ever. He actually did very well and was having a fun time, but found the video games much more interesting. I have a feeling that he will want to try this more every year if we keep going back so I might have to refresh myself on rollerskating too. Let's seeeee... it's only beeeeeenn.... mmmmf... years. After the party ended and we were given last call we headed home where Jen made dinner rolls and I got a bit of a cat nap (I needed that) We packed up the crew again and headed for the mall. We had pictures taken of the boys a few weeks ago and the studio informed us that one of the pictures that we ordered with Andrew (his 1 year) was blurry and required a retake. So we took or lives in our hands and took the crew to the mall on a Saturday night (mistake). We got to the portrait studio and had to wait. I was trying to figure out why since they were only using one of the two studios and the photographer and 2 other people were behind the counter making plans for the night. Anywhooo, we get Andrew's picture taken and we are waiting for the pictures to appear on the screen and we get the pictures from the first photo session and lo and behold there is the picture that they said was blurry as clean as if we were looking into a window. They later explained that when they were printing the 8"x10" they must have bumped the machine. yeah, right. It's a good thing we weren't charged anything for the retake. Being the foolish people that we are we decided to do a little shopping while we were at the mall (mistake again). Nothing like trying to push a stroller through the mall on a saturday night the week before christmas. One, idiots just stop in front of you to look around for no reason. Two, just trying to get a stroller through some of these stores with the tight fixture placement is a nightmare, especially if you are trying to chase the 3 year old. Three, the three year old now has the sniffles and is looking like he caught the cold that Andrew had, so he wants to ride in the stroller and tries to kick out the 1 year old. Four, they were hungry. Five, we didn't have an idea of what we wanted. I am such a guy where I want to get stuff and get out. I am not a wandering shopper, especially not with two kids in tow. So we buy one thing and call it a night. Of course William now with the cold in full effect wakes up at least 6 times during the night screaming and crying. So much for sleep that night.

Sunday - Now Jen and I are also feeling the full effects of the cold with sore throats, sniffles, and sinus drainage. We are able to hobble the boys together enough to go to my mom's house for lunch. The food was very good and we had a good visit with my Aunt and my brother, but all of us were felling like dookie. After a few hours there we packed the crew up and headed to the other side of town for another gathering of Jenny's family. By the time we get there I am feeling the full effects of the cold and I am fading fast. I spend the next couple of hours chasing Andrew all over the house since he loves the stairs. Upon the first mention of leaving, I quickly pack up the kids and throw on their coats, (since leaving usually entails at least half an hour of us saying "we are going now") but I expedited that since I was beat. We get home and get a few things done where I head to bed. Of course William wakes up again at 3am and won't go back to sleep for an hour and a half. So I sit here at work Monday trying to stay awake and trying to think of when to get my shopping done and things baked, and drugs to take. Nose running, head pounding, eyes burning. Man what a weekend, and it's only the week before christmas.

Quinmores come to Visit

I have finally posted pictures from the Quinmores visit in November. I have put them on my new flickr account (since I filled the other account up). More pictures can be seen here.

De Plane ! De Plane!

I was working out in the production floor when something caught my eye. It looked like there was a problem with my co-workers arm. I looked a little closer and saw that he now had a tatoo on his forarm. Not just his forarm, but the WHOLE top of his forarm from wrist to elbow. It's a real mecabre dragon tatoo. Tatoo's are certainly not the taboo that they used to be, but still there are still certain types of people and types of tatoo's that you kind of expect on people. You know, like a school teacher having a little butterfly or dolphin on their ankle. Or like Carrie's tatoo on her lower back, some tatoo's just meet my exepctations, but this one blew me away. This guy seems pretty normal and a quazi computer geek. He drives a freaking BMW for christ's sake!! I can see a little something like the Dell logo on his upper arm, but I just can't put my mind around a full forarm "dragon" tatoo on him. But then I got to thinking, in a few months the hair is going to grow back on his forarm and he is going to have a harry tatoo of a dragon. I really don't try and stereotype people, but sometimes I wonder about peoples decisions.

What's in a Name?

Saturday afternoon my two boys and I met a couple of friends over at Casa's Italian restaurant. Now I didn't want to stuff myself on food since I was heading over to MR's party in a few hours, but I knew the boys would like to eat, or at least Andrew the human vacuum cleaner would for sure. I look at the special kids menu, and like all restaurants in the world they have the usual fare of hot dogs, grilled cheese, and macaroni and cheese. All restaurants offer these same dishes since the know that kids don't like anything new and will only eat the same basic things. Some restaurants we have been to might change things up a little bit to make it more like their restaurant, like toasting the bun for the hot dog or grilling the cheese sandwich a little different (if that is possible). So I order macaroni and cheese for the boys and milk. I forget to tell the waiter to bring the milk with the meal and he brings it right away whereupon my boys both drink themselves silly on milk before the meal gets there, dang. William actually shakes his empty milk cup at our waiter (behind my back) like he is telling the waiter "Milk, Boy". I am embarrassed that my child would do this, but lucky for us the waiter thinks it's cute. After waiting for a while the food finally arrives, where I see a plate of pasta shells in an Alfredo sauce much like the quatro formaggi that I usually get. I think that it's a dish for my friends, but no, the waiter hands it to me. I say "excuse me, is this the macaroni and cheese?" and the waiter says "yes". OK. A few things come to mind. How do you not put MACARONI in the macaroni and cheese? The name of the noodle is right in the title!!! Oh wait, maybe they don't have macaroni in this ITALIAN restaurant!! God only knows what they would have brought me if I ordered the hot dog... they probably would have brought me steak. Lucky for me, Andrew the human vacuum cleaner could care less about it as long as it is food, and William was being a pain in the butt anyway so he didn't want to eat since he was filled with two glasses of milk.

In other food news.... Wednesday we took Andrew down to Indy for another checkup on his eye. (Everything is going well, but he will probably need another surgery next year to tweak things up a little more.) Now usually when we leave Indianapolis we hit the cheesecake factory to grab something to eat and bring back some cheesecake to snack on the next couple of days. After our last trip to the cheesecake factory and the $60 bill for lunch and bring home cheesecake, we decided to eat somewhere else. I saw a restaurant by the highway called "cheeseburger in paradise" and went to the website the last time down there. It's a Jimmy Buffet Margarittaville type of franchise with a tropical theme and food. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty cool and the food was delicious. The crab cake sandwiches were fantastic and Jen's wrap sandwich was very tasty too. I got 6 mini cheeseburgers that were a little dry but tasty. The funny part of the day was when we were waiting for our food there was tropical type music playing in the background. When a Regee song came on Andrew started to giggle and didn't stop until the end of the song. So it looks like we have a little Rasta in the family. Can you have Blonde dreadlocks?

Swiss Cheese Memory

Me and my swiss cheese memory. My brother commented on my last post about Christmas gifts and he pointed out some toys that we had as kids that I remember as clear as if it was yesterday. All of our GI Joe stuff and the ghost gun were as clear as his first drum set.



WHY DO I REMEMBER THAT KIND OF STUFF? Thinking about that stuff got my Swiss cheese memory working again and I came upon a mental picture of a movie that I saw when I was a kid. I think my parents took my brother and I to see this fine cinema. I vaguely recall it being a superhero type of person with a silver and red outfit with a facemask that fought monsters like the old Godzilla type of monsters with the typical Japanese genre of monster movies. I recall a huge satellite dish with an octopus type monster wrecking it. My brother and I were both into the Godzilla/Mothra/King Kong thing back in the 70's and 80's so it kinda makes sense that we would have seen a movie like this. (Actually I still love the genre and looked forward to AMC's Monsterfest around Halloween.) I kinda remember this movie/superhero being called Ultraman, and lo and behold, through the modern marvel of the internet I actually found the movie. According to www.imdb.com the movie was released in 1979 (I would have been 12 years old, that's about right), but doesn't say that there was an english version. Ultraman is still a popular character with tons of listings on eBay. You can actually watch some of the tv series on www.youtube.com. Was it really a movie in the theatre that we saw? Don't remember. Why do I remember it? Don't know. Would I want to see this bad Japanese movie again? Hell yeah!

What do I want for Christmas???

With Christmas being under a month away Jen asked me what I wanted for Christmas. She needed ideas for a list to give the in-laws and another to give her ideas for me. This year I am really stumped on what I want. For years it was easy. GI Joe with the kung foo grip and assorted toys, as I got older it might have been clothes, and now it's more like some electronic toy. But nothing is screaming "BUY ME" yet. Every year it gets to be more about the kids, which it totally fine with me, but it's nice to be a little selfish every year and to be able to let other know what you want. I think this year it more be stuff that isn't quite as normal. Maybe have someone make a copy of the Jeep keys so I don't end up taking them to work with me again (happened twice this year). This would make me happy so I don't have to worry in the long run. Maybe new controllers for our garage door opener since the ones we got from the house's previous owners were trashed with one not having a door on the battery compartment and neither one having clips on them so they get lost in the change dish/catchall. Gift Cards are so impersonal, and I hate giving them, but dang they come in handy, so load me up with gift cards to home improvement stores and restaurants.

I really enjoy giving presents alot more than getting them, but I am drawing a total blank on what to get anyone else this year either. I have one idea for Jen, but that's about it. She is taking care of getting stuff for the kids with a few ideas from me, but besides that I don't have a clue. Since money is a little tight this year Jen and I decided to put a budget on spending for each other this year. (OK every year Jen tries to put a spending limit for us and I always blow it. But this year I am really going to try). Our first year together she put a spending limit for us. I went to the mall at the same time she was working and I kept going back to her store asking if we could increase the budget a little more since I kept finding stuff. After a while she just told me not to spend it all. I did the same last year with that Lord of the Rings autographed poster which was way out of the "budget". I think I am going to take my one remaining day off for the year and just go shopping. It would be nice to do something else with the day, but it would also be nice to be done with shopping and not have to worry about it. I usually get in the christmas mode later in the month, but I think I will try to kick start it a little bit.

How embarrassing

Last year we had to live with my mom for about 5 months while we were looking for a new house about this same time last year. We had our mail forwarded to my mom's house for that short period, and now to our new house. For some reason she still gets junk mail for us at her house. I keep telling her that if it doesn't look important to just throw it away, but she insists on bringing it to our house to let us throw it away just in case we would actually like to look at.

Fast forward to last night. Usually I rarely get a chance to see the mail in our house since Jen takes care of it, but she does leave the catalogs out for me to look over. Usually this is my "Creative Irish Gifts" catalog and such. Last night I see a pile of catalogs and start looking through them. The last one that I come upon is a Playboy catalog. WOO HOOO!!. Just like the Victoria Secret's catalog, but a bit more edgy with videos on "self pleasure" and a few other swings and such that aren't for the kids. So of course I am looking through the catalog, for possible Christmas gifts let's say :). All of a sudden I realize that all of this mail came from my mom's house since it was all had my mom's address but our names. Great, now my mom thinks I am a sex freak that orders this stuff from Playboy. (OK once from the Adam and Eve catalog, but that was years ago.) Nothing like being 39 years old and still dreading the thought of your mom busting you with a dirty magazine, or thinking you are a freak. Damn how embarrassing. How do you let your mom know that you have no idea why you got the catalog without looking like you are trying to cover something? How in the world did I get on this mailing list? I think I will just ignore it and pretend like I didn't even see it.

Let's Talk Turkey

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. Every year we do the same thing. Lunch at the in-laws at 1:00pm with Jen's side of the family. Now it's nice to know exactly what we are doing every year, but you count on it being a stress free fun family event, of course it wasn't this year. We show up to the in-laws a little after noon and enter the house to some new faces this year. It's not unusual to see some new people at the lunch since there are still a few single members of the family and EVERYONE is invited to lunch. There are three kids in the living room (around 7 or 8 years old) playing on the floor. Upon seeing that I have a Disney Scene-It game in hand comes up to me and grabs the game. Doesn't ask, Doesn't know me, Doesn't care. I will call this oldest brat... brat (and that is being kind compared to what I was thinking). He opens the game (it was still shrink wrapped) and proceeds to layout the game and get the DVD into the player, and then starts yelling that it isn't working. OK, One: It's not your house Two:It's not your TV Three: Ask someone to help him. Finally my father in-law helps him get the DVD working, but I could see that he was really thinking about not letting him play at all since he was being such a shit, but he let him play. This brat was horrible, yelling at his brother and sister because they didn't know the answers and calling them stupid. I was about to get vocal with this brat, but hey it's not my kid and I don't know his parents (or what trailer park they were from). I was trying to leave the room, find a beer, and a quiet corner near the food, but no, my kids want to be in the same room. Andrew actually started chewing their pokemon cards and I was thinking "you go kid". Besides the brat, my day was basically spent chasing kids around the house. I miss the days when Andew wasn't moble since it made watching him so much easier. Man, Andrew was all over the place. Usually when we are at the in-laws I get help from them watching the kids, but they had 30+ people to take care of so it was up to us.

I was milling around the food having a few snacks and I look down the hallway to see a bunch of kids. I see the brat and another kid (who I know) around the same age wrestling with each other. And then I see his mother heading down the hallway toward the kids and I soon realize that they are fighting!! The mother yells at them to stop and they don't. MY TURN, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. I say one word "HEY!!" and they immediately stop, and the parents pull them aside to have talks with both of them. I finally see the brat's mother and she seems pretty normal, but I can tell that she has little to no control over this brat.

In comes my next issue. Tradition is that the kids get their food first and then everyone else. We get food for both my boys and finally head toward the line after 10 minutes or so (30+ people you know) By the time I get my food and sit down, the kids are done eating and want to go outside and play. Damn. So I am trying to shovel down my food with my son trying to hand me his shoes and coat. I sure am not going to let my kid outside alone and especially with the brat. So I go outside with William and he is playing with the other kids, basicly just chasing them around. I soon realize that I am the only adult outside with these 8 kids. I guess I am the only one that cares. Granted they were all around 8 years old so parental supervision isn't really necessary. So I am watching William and keeping an eye on the other kids so they don't get into trouble or destroy my in-laws place. The brat finds my in-laws burn pile and starts throwing sticks from the pile into the pond where I have to stop them. Then all of the kids are around the pond and going into the woods to find sticks to throw into the pond. WHAT PART OF DON'T THROW STICKS INTO THE POND DIDN'T THEY UNDERSTAND!! It sucks that I end up being a babysiter for all these kids and I am not even getting paid for it. I don't know how many times I yelled at the brat to stop doing stuff. I figured that I was just making sure William doesn't get to close to the pond and I guess I can fish a kid out of the pond if he falls in too. I would have taken William inside but he was having so much fun, and who knows what would have happened to the other kids if I left them alone with the Lord of the Flies. Finally after a half hour, the brat's mother comes out and yells at them because they were told to stay away from the pond. HUH? No one told me that. Opps. So I feel bad since I let them play around the pond, but hey that's what kids their age do. My saving grace is that the brat was leaving to go to his father's house, but that got delayed by "tattoo talk" with they guy she was with (classy). Finally things calmed down a little and it was back to chasing kids inside. Then we packed up and headed to my brother's house for dessert. That was surpisingly the normal part of the day. After a visit there back to the house to pass out and get ready for work the next day for both Jen and I at 6:00am. Damn. Of course Andew has an issue so we end up being up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Man I need a nap.

ChristmasWeb

Yeah, I have been playing again. Here is the daveandjj.com Christmas page. Hopefully I can get together with Keith so we can make it the home page for the site. I was going to tweak the design some more but my mac died and took my files with it, so this will do for this year at least.

www.daveandjj.com/christmas

Now I am trying to decide what holiday to do next. After new years it will be valentines day. Maybe a sexy daveandjj.com website.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Beverage firm offers pea-flavored soda

39 minutes ago

SEATTLE (Reuters) - After introducing the world to new soda flavors like fish taco and salmon, Seattle specialty beverage maker Jones Soda Co. is offering a new flavor: Green pea.
Green pea, along with other unusual sodas such as turkey and gravy, dinner roll, sweet potato and antacid flavor, will be part of the company's $10 to $15 "holiday pack" of bottled drinks available nationwide.
Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda, said on Monday the collection of strange-flavored sodas usually sells out quickly, even though he can not stomach the drinks. Past flavors included broccoli casserole, corn on the cob and Brussel sprout.
"Why people buy it is beyond me. I can't drink a bottle of this stuff," said van Stolk.
Jones Soda, which sells traditional sodas alongside more exotic flavors like fufu berry and green apple, first introduced the holiday soda pack in 2003, gaining notoriety for its turkey and gravy flavor soda.
"We have the market share leader in turkey-flavored beverages," said van Stolk. "We know we can't compete with Coke or Pepsi by playing their game, but we know they're not going to come out with a turkey flavor or antacid flavor."
Asked if there were any flavors that were off limits, van Stolk said he put his foot down when it came to curried chicken flavor.
"Fish taco was just nasty and we tried curried chicken. That was just wrong," he said.


Other Flavors this year are Turkey and Gravy soda, Sweet Potato Soda, Dinner Roll Soda, Pea Soda, Antacid Flavored Soda

If you must, the new holiday pack can be seen here:

http://www.jonessoda.com/files_new/turkey06.html

Planning that Assault

With Thanksgiving next week (huh? what? no way!) I started thinking about decorating the house this year for Christmas. I am mostly in charge of decorating the outside with Jen doing most of the stuff in the inside. Of course with a 1 year old there won't be much inside this year. So far the plan for the Christmas tree inside this year is to get a real one and put it in the corner where we can barricade it with land mines and barbed wire, or maybe just a gate. William's first Christmas he really didn't mess with the tree that much, but Andrew is a little more of a free spirit. Last year for the outside decorations I only put up a couple wreaths on the front porch since we had just moved in and I didn't have the time (so unlike me). This year I am chomping at the bit to put up lights,but like most people in a new neighborhood I am kinda waiting to see when the neighbors start working on them. I don't want to be the nut who puts them out too early, but I also don't want to do it if it is snowing or 30 degrees outside either. I am thinking this weekend or next weekend to start working on lights (nothing turned on until after thanksgiving or the first of Dec, I refuse to). With a new house I get to plan on where to put lights and how to best use my decorations. I am trying to plan on stringing together the lights to end up near an outlet where I can put a timer. At the other house I put all of the decorations on the lightswitch since I didn't have any outdoor outlets, but this house has an outlet right on the front porch. At the last house I did put lights on the 2nd story gutters, but I was basically taking my life in my hands doing that getting on a cold, wet roof and hanging over the edge, so I am thinking "no" to the second story this year. Maybe I will do like the last house is just gradually add a little more each year. Of course thinking about this, I remember that I have to pull everything out of the attic, . There are about 6-8 of those huge tupperware containers in an attic with no stairs and me only with a 6 foot ladder, so prepare yourself for the story about that to come.

Rumor Mill

Rumor has it that a certain family from the East might be heading to the Fort for Thanksgiving....


And that she is pregnant again.... (not really, just wanted add some excitement)

:)

And Now, The News

I figure rather than doing a bunch of posts that I would just make one with stuff going on.

In the Son of a B****h column

I am working on my Mac friday and it freezes up (like macs are apt to do sometimes) so I hit the reset button, whereupon it won't boot up with the master drive and I can't get it to recognize the drive at all. Of course that is the drive with all of my files on it. Our IT guy just looked at it and thinks the drive is toast, so yet another computer that fried on me in the past couple of weeks. My PC got infected with spyware and I ended up wiping out the harddrive and starting over from scratch, so I am still in the middle of reloading the programs that I want. But unlike the Mac, I was able to backup my files on the network before the hard drive wipe. I do have a backup disc that I did a month or so ago with my mac stuff, but still it's the idea of starting from scratch again with another computer at my station. My boss is really going to start to wonder what I am doing over here.

In the good times column

We went over the Jeff and Paulas for a housewarming party on Saturday and ended up having a good time. Jeff ended up pulling out a horseshoe type game with bean bags and wood stands with holes in them. It's called cornholing or the corn hole game since the bean bags are actually filled with corn. WARNING: DO NOT LOOK UP CORNHOLING ON THE INTERNET (LIKE JEFF'S MOM DID) YOU WILL GET SOME RESULTS BACK THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE. We took the kids outside to get them some exercise, whereupon the adults stayed out for hours and the kids lasted 10 minutes. The game is extremely fun and simple (so to speak). Tons of Inudendo. What is it with the simple games being the most fun, like when we played 'spoons' in Chicago for Jeff's bachelor party. I felt so stupid suggesting the simple game, but we ended up having a blast with it (the beer helped too). I see this game being used quite a bit in our get togethers for years to come.

Movie Review

Jen and I pawned the kids off on grandma and grandpa and had a "Date afternoon". We went and saw Nightmare before Christmas in 3-D. Jen (and Carrie) is a huge Nightmare fan as proven by our Jack Skellington antenna topper. I kinda like the movie. I really enjoy the animation and imagery, but the story bugs me for some reason. This is my first 3-D movie, and I do have to say that for a movie that wasn't actually designed to be 3-D they did a very good job at creating the illusion with the rich backgrounds. I would recommend the movie if you are a nightmare fan or like seeing 3-D stuff. One small complaint is that we went to the matinee to save a few bucks and ended up being charged $2 apiece for the glasses, but hey, they were ours to keep.... uh, yeah these will come in handy. The funny part is that they look exactly like the ones they had for Chicken Little with the green frames like the lead character wore, so I am thinking they ordered to many for "Chicken Little" and thought what else can we release. But hey, if they come out with something else, I am ready.

Leaves

For the first time since moving into the new house I got to put my leaves out by the road and the city takes care of them. Now people in the neighborhood were doing the same, but they were putting their leaves actually on the road instead of on the lawn just off the road. I have heard and read that you are supposed to put the leaves on the lawn next to the road and not on the road. Along with making driving a little more difficult, they are more apt to blow to the neighbors property. So being the good city boy, I put my leaves on the lawn. Upon getting home I see that they have either driven a truck or tractor though my lawn to get the leaves. WTH? What happened to getting the chain gang out there to pull them with rakes out onto the street. Yeah I know officially the lawn area next to the road is actually city property (right of way), but they aren't the ones that have to deal with dead grass and ruts in the yard for the rest of the year. Luckily the ground was still pretty solid and didn't really do any damage, but I can still see clearly where they drove over MY lawn. (Hey if I maintain it, it's mine). Gee, guess where I am putting the leaves the next time....

Halloween Collage

Larger image can be seen Here

Here is the latest pictures from MR's party. I need more people's halloween pictures to fill out the picture and so they can say that they were there. E-mail them to me people. I need a pic of marcus for sure since he was actually there.

Just a little venting

I need to vent a little bit, not bitch, just vent.

Daylight savings - yeah I know it's been done to death how much people hate it, but I have to agree and add my two cents. I spent the past couple of weeks getting used to driving to work with the sunrise hitting me in the eyes as I get on the highway, and then to the point where it was actually dark when I left for work, and than all of a sudden POOF, it's light in the morning again and I have to go through the whole thing of driving into the sunrise again for the next couple of weeks. And then at night, I could always tell what time of year it was by seeing what time it started getting dark outside. It was getting darker sooner a couple weeks ago and then POOF, it's getting dark by 6:00pm. Yeah I know it's more of a mental thing, but still after being used to something for 39 years it's hard to get over it.

Halloween Candy - I can see why candy companies put out "fun size" candy bars a couple of years ago. They are just the right size for a bit or two, but why the hell did they come out with the "mini" size??? You have to eat at least two at a time to get a mouthful. And what is it with people giving ONE of these "mini" sizes out for halloween and thinking that it's more than enough? Yeah I know I am not the one getting the candy but still it's the principle. The kids get loaded up with enough candy anyway, but still. I always made sure when I bought halloween candy that I would go no smaller than "fun" size and I hope you do the same. We actually went to a house giving out "full" size candy bars. Of course it was peanut butter cups that William can't have so I took care of it (urp). Or if I want to be a little more health conscious I was planning on buying some little toys to hand out this year from the good old Oriental Trading Company.

Halloween Teens - I know that it's voluntary for people to decide when they are old enough to trick or treat, but after seeing a bunch of teenagers (mostly girls) going door to door, barely wearing a costume kind-of outfit, I think there should be a law.

Spyware - I had always heard of people getting viruses and spyware stuff but never thought I would get nailed. I was visiting a clip art site to get some art for my webpage (no it wasn't a porno site) and all of a sudden I get flamed with a ton of pop up ads and later find out that a program was loaded on my machine that seeks out pop ups, so I will be typing along and all of a sudden 5 or 6 will pop up at one time. It's annoying and pisses me off. I would love to get ahold of these S.O.B.'s and get their nuts in a vice. I have asked the braintrust of friends and they have come up with some great ideas for programs and setting, but nothing seems to be able to fully get rid of my problem, so it looks like a possible hard drive wipe and reinstall.

whew.... that's better... thanks for listening...

Halloween 2006

More pictures Here

Every year Halloween has been a little different. Last year we couldn't get William in his costume, and this year we can't get him out of it. Last year Andrew wasn't quite a month old so this year we got a costume on him, and of course he hated the top of the costume so he wouldn't put it on all the way. We ended up going over to a friends house again like last year. All of these people are part of a play group that Jen is involved with so there were a TON of kids there. I think the last count was around 15. Jen had to work so it was up to me to get the kids together and over to the party before they left to go trick or treating. We made it in plenty of time since we ended up eating first and then heading out. The boys were having fun playing with all the kids and Jen ended up arriving a short time later. When it came time to go trick or treating we put costumes on both the boys and William and I headed out. Last year William hated wearing his costume and we were late to the party so this was the first time he has actually been trick or treating, and so it is MY first time trick or treating in 25 years or so. I was very proud of William. He did very well staying with our group and going up to doors and kinda saying "trick or treat" and "Thank You". The fact that he was following two girls helped. (that's my boy). We were out about 30-45 minutes and all over the neighborhood. I was kinda surprised that there weren't more people handing out treats, but as I soon came to find out, it's a neighborhood with older people. It was getting pretty chilly by the time we decided to call it a night, and lucky for William, his Tigger costume covered his head and hands so he stayed warm the whole time. After getting back to the house we packed up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Clymer to say trick or treat to them since they live in the middle of nowhere. After a visit we headed home and put two very tired and sleeping boys to bed. Where a short time after that Jen and I fell asleap too. I will say that I did get a chance to watch "Young Frankenstein" Sunday night while we were carving pumpkins. Fraur Blucher (neighhhhhh)

Abby.... something.... Abby Normal

I really like this halloween time of the year. Saturday night we went to MR's (becoming famous or infamous) halloween party. I decided that this year I was actually going to put forth the effort to go to the party in costume. In past years I have done half-hearted attempts with stuff I had in the closet, but I was actually thinking ahead and started planning early. I actually went to one of those halloween u.s.a stores, but I really can't afford a $40 costume. I am thinking that I might go back later this week to see what kind of sale they have (60% or more???). My first thought this year was to actually grow a beard and do a lumberjack type thing or something along those lines, but the thought of a month or so of itching and maintaining a beard for one night didn't sound like that much fun (maybe next year). That and the fact that I saw that you could just buy a beard at the halloween shop. I like having a beard in the winter, but only if I am going to be outside alot. Jen isn't a real big fan of the beard either. So looking around the house for costume ideas I remembered seeing a Santa Clause costume during the move last year and I remembered putting it up in the attic. I don't remember where the costume came from, but it didn't matter. So I went up there and dug it out. I also came across a garbage bag of old T-shirt that I have collected over the years and ended up digging out a couple of those too. The one shirt was so vulgar that I have owned it for years and never wore it, so of course I put it underneath the santa costume with plans of revealing it when I changed to go to the airport to see my mom flying in from China.

Lucky for us we were able to find a babysitter for the kids at the last minute since my mom was in China and Jen's parents had a party at their house that night. We left for MR's party with me in the santa suit, and all of a sudden I am thinking, what happens if I were to get into a wreck, or if someone sees me driving the car with big fluffy red and white shirt? I do a panic look at the gas guage to make sure we have enough gas since I sure has hell am not getting out of the car to put gas in it in this costume. We get to the party and after putting on the beard and wig, I proceed to go into the house. The look on everyone's face was priceless, with about everyone's face saying "who the hell is that?". It wasn't until Jen came in after me did they quickly figure it out, since our attendance to the party was doubtful earlier in the week. So we started to eat and drink and MR had to do a run to Meijer to get a new "Operation" game since his finally bought the farm. Around 10:30pm I change from the Santa suit to regular clothes with the vulgar shirt and walk out to the front room, and no one notices the shirt. I stand there for about 10 minutes or so and finally leave to go to the airport (after putting on a sweatshirt). I get to the airport before my mom's flight arrives and notice that my Uncle isn't there which is kinda strange since he was picking my mom up. While waiting for mom's flight my cell phone rings. It's the babysitter and she says that Andrew has been screaming for about an hour and she can't figure out what's wrong. So I am giving her instructions on what to try and tell her that I am going to leave the airport and grab Jen at the party and head home, whereupon she tells me that my uncle had called the house earlier in the night to tell us that her flight was cancelled. You see, my trip to the airport was a surprise,but it ended up being a surprise on me. So head back to the party to pick up Jen, where the ratio of girls to guys in favor of the girls. I am not sure how many of them were married, but I was thinking that MR and MH might be in store for a good night. We head for home and Jen comforts Andrew who quickly falls asleap after about 5 or 10 minutes. We figure it was either gas or the fact that when he woke up it wasn't his mom or dad comforting him.

Overall it was a pretty fun night with only a few things going spooky. Poor Lori had an issue with a Jello shot in the car when leaving MR's party, sorry about that Keith. And next time you see MH, just slap him on the nose and say, "bad Marcus". The chirstmas party is little over a month away, I better start making arrangements now.

Boo

Hey all. You know me. I had to play. The following is a link to a Halloween daveandjj.com webpage. I was trying to get it to be my main page, but I designed it a little late and I haven't had a chance to get together with Keith so he can show me how to do that. It might take a little while to load so be patient

www.daveandjj.com/halloween

I am now starting a design for Christmas. I figure I am either going to change my main webpage to the season, or I am going to create a flash intro where you can choose which home page that you want.

Shit

Sunday was a very windy blustery day here. So on the way back from church jenny and I were discussing the meals for the day for the kids since jenny had to work and we didn't have much in the house since we ate it all. So we decided to run to the store and pick up a few essentials, of course we decide this after I have already driven past the store, so I have to turn around. We pull into the parking lot and I ask jenny if she just wanted to run into the store by herself or if she wanted me and the boys to come with her. We decided that since the boys were both awake to make it a family trip into the store. That and the fact that when I go with her we end up buying stuff that she wouldn't have bought, cookies, easy cheese, etc. As I was opening my door a huge gust of wind grabs the door and rips it out of my hand and I hear a huge "thump". I look over and see the side view mirror of the car next to me just hanging by a wire. Son of a M*&^ F@#$$#% B@#$%@. The look of terror in my face must have been priceless. I just felt sick to my stomach. Nothing like that has ever happened to me. I might have dinged a car or two in my life, but never taken off a part of the car. I was thinking maybe I should call Keith, since he has alot of experience with hitting cars and taking off side view mirrors (just kidding buddy). So I sheepishly write a note apologizing for what happened and my name and number. We go into the store and end up buying bananas and mac and cheese. I am thinking "great, a $1.78 trip to the store is going to cost me a couple hundred". I ended up getting a call from a guy about an hour later and lucky for me he was very understanding and cool about it. I still don't really know how damaged my car is since I was more worried about his, but I think I only have a huge black mark where it hit. So basically Sunday was sitting in front of the TV saying "shit".

Haunted Nemo

William has this cute flashlight of the "Finding Nemo" character, Nemo. When you push the button you hear bubbles and the mouth pops open to reveal the flashlight. Like I said it's a cute little thing. The other night was bath night for the boys and I was getting ready to put Andrew into his bath with William "helping" me. As I was walking into the bathroom with Andrew I noticed something in the bath. Now it's not unusual for William to "help" me and put bath toys in the bath, but I quickly noticed that it was the Nemo flashlight. I wanted to scold him for putting it in the water, but hey I figured that I really couldn't fault him since it was Nemo and just like the other nemo bath toys. So I took the flashlight out of the tub and put it in the sink to dry out. After a day or so I pushed the button on the flashlight and it still worked. Cool, I thought.

So fast forward to that same night. In the middle of the night I wake up thinking I am hearing something, but it just doesn't register, and both the boys are still asleep. So back to sleep. A few minutes later I hear it again. It's the bubble sound coming from the flashlight next to the bed!!! I didn't touch the button. I figure the button is just stuck so I press it a few times and go back to bed. Nope. The thing kept "bubbling", so I just threw it under a bunch of clothes to kill the sound and went back to bed. The flashlight "bubbled" all night long. The next day I took it down stairs to put with the rest of the toys. That night Jenny fell asleep on the couch downstairs and it bubbled next to her and about scared her half to death. She took the batteries out of the light and it kept "bubbling". Now if the little mouth would have opened and the light came on too I would have quickly performed and exorsisim and chucked it out the window for sure.

I figured the flashlight is pissed for getting dunked and is seeking revenge. We have since banished the light to the closet in the den. Hopefully it won't escape and get the other toys to join him in a revolution.

Mom's China Adventure (the China Syndrome)

My mom left on Saturday for a two week visit to China with her friend. Her friend's daughter married a diplomat and is stationed in China at an embassy or something like that, so at least they will have someone who knows the area.... and can get them out of trouble when they get into it. Those of you who are saying, "what trouble can they get into?" don't know my mom very well. One of the reasons I love the World Wide Web, it that I just received a couple e-mails from them telling me what they are up to, how cool is that? My mom is going to have some stories to tell when she gets home because in the first day they were there my mom has already got into dickering with the merchants at the markets even though she doesn't speak the language. But she sure has the value of a dollara (or whatever) and the conversion down pretty good. She also found out that her visa doesn't work there, but her friend's ATM card from a local Credit Union does, go figure. She has also been in a car crash. The cab they were riding in rear ended another car, but everyone is alright. ALL THAT IN THE FIRST DAYS OF VACATION!!! I hope that there is a China left when they leave :).

More to come.....

And now the news....

This weekend was the typical, "OMG it's getting colder, now is the time to try and get all the projects done I should have done this summer" kinda weekend. Saturday's project was to fix the yardlight in the front yard. It was working when we moved in, but stopped working sometime in the spring. I knew that we had clipped the line when we transplanted some of the plants around the house, so I figured here was the problem. The head of the yard light is in need of help too. Like everything else in this house it's seen better days and is being held on the post by a screw.. maybe. So the plan was to replace the head of the yardlight and fix the wire. I am thinking maybe an hour or so. Nope. Took most of the day. I cut the wire where we had clipped it and attached a light and found out that it still didn't work. So I dug out most of the wire, backtracking until I found a spot of the wire that was very crispy and burnt. Repaired that and the other part in the wire that I had just cut. We decided to make the trip to the hardware store a "family" event with the whole crew. We ended up going to two different places and still didn't find a light that would be close to matching the other lights. That and the kids and Jenny were cranky so the last stop at Menards was quick. So put the old head back on the post and hooked everything back up, and it actually works.

Sunday's excitement was a trip to a school carnival, or harvest festival (my first). This was an alright event where there was a ton of kids in cramped space all running around and playing games trying to win pieces of candy. I took William to most of these games and he actually did pretty well in some of them. Most involved him throwing something, which he is real good at. We went to grab something to eat, Hot dogs and Chili, and they ran out of dogs. bummer. They brought out more, but quickly ran out of those too. The highlight of the night was that I took William on a Straw ride (not hay ride) on a trailer pulled by a tractor. We had a lot of fun and William enjoyed it, but man they packed in the people into the back of this trailer and the kids were all over the place trying to shove their way to the front so they could look out the front. I had to actually have William in my arms and keep my arm up so the other kids wouldn't crush William. Besides that it was a pretty fun night. The night ended up about an hour early since they had such a huge turnout that they ran out of everything and had to close up.

Andrew Update

We took Andrew down to Indy yesterday to have his operation on his eye. Man what a stressful day for Jen and I with little to no sleep the night before. But good news, the operation went very well. The problem with his eye was exactly what they thougt it was. A muscle on the bottom of his eye was very thick and wouldn't Andrew to move his left eye up, so he moved that muscle to a different part of his eye as well as moving another muscle to allow maximum movement. Andrew was really tired and cranky the rest of the day after the operation, but from what I could see his eyes are almost even and they move with each other correctly. The one bad part is that he will never be able to look straight up in his left eye, but that is small compared to the other stuff that could have been wrong. Another trip to Indy next week for a follow up to check things out. The doctor said there might be a chance for another operation to "tweek" things up a little bit depending on how things turn out after everying heals.

Hopefully with this being over Jen will be able to destress a little bit in her life. She has way too much crap going on that stresses her out, and not much I can really do about it except try and take care of the kids and the house when I can. Hopefully one less thing will help.

Who would buy this??

I saw this gargoyle over the weekend at a garden center. I asked the person working there, "who would buy such a thing?" She told me that there were two people actually interested in the statue. One was a another landscape owner with a huge yard and pathway to stick among the other statues that he has, the other was a person who wanted to put it in their front yard. Wouldn't you love to be that neighbor? Now this statue isn't one of those cute little halloween props that you usually see, this is an actual cement statue that's at least 5 feet high and probably a ton or two. There are two obstacles in buying this statue. One is that it is $600 and the other is that they don't deliver so you have to pick it up yourself (if you can). This is one of those things where you really want it..

Now I know I am a parent

While giving William a bath last night I stepped out of the bathroom to grab his pajamas. While out of the room he dropped a duece in the tub. When I came back into the bathroom he was trying to hand it to me.

Now I know I am a parent

Don't shoot it.. you will just make it mad!!

I know I have a few jobs as a husband that are truly only mine. One is Spider Killer. Jenny's job is to point them out to me and say "kill it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". I think she actually put a cup over a bug for a couple of days I think trying to starve it. I was hoping to pass along the job of spider killer to my son, but he just calls the spiders "ladybug" and doesn't know exactly what they are. This time of year brings alot of bugs into the house, but the one lately have been these wolf spiders. They are huge, harry, ugly things that are extremely fast. I spotted one of these things in the family room the other night and proceeded to hit it with a shoe that I had laying around. After hitting this spider, it just looked at me and said, "huh? excuse me? can I help you?" and kept on moving whereupon I lifted the shoe up as high as I could and made sure he wasn't getting out of the next hit. Yesterday morning I was eating a bowl of cereal and saw a little wolf spider in the front room and promptly stepped on it. While finishing my cereal I saw another HUGE mo-fo along the side of the room. So I decided to finish my breakfast first then kill it. I looked up and the SOB was gone (they are so fast). So I tracked it down to the corner of the room. Now, the fun part of this spider hunt that there are toys all over the floor so they can hide under them and surprise the crap out of you when you move it. So I am moving toys away from the corner of the room and all of a sudden there are 3 huge spiders in the corner. Was it an ambush?? The spiders scatter so I start stepping on them like I am dancing a jig. They are so big there is actually a "snap" when I crush them (ick). Now not much scares me, but even that gives me the heebie-jeebies. ughhh.

Overkill

Why is it that sometimes I go into overkill with some of my projects?

Problem: I wanted to make a sign to put next to a pile of rocks in my front yard to advertise that I am selling them.

Simple solution: Get a piece of cardboard and a marker and make a sign.

My solution: Get a flat 18"x24" piece of wood and paint it white. (two coats of course). Since my writing is so poor, I go on the computer and type up a sign that says "flagstone for sale - 486-xxxx". The idea is that I am going to print out the sign and create a stencil to spraypaint the sign. Of course I can't print out 18"x24" on a piece of paper so I end up printing out 3 different sections and taping them together. I start cutting out the letters with a knife. Then I think... I can't spray paint this because it isn't stiff enough and it will not be clean lines. So I find a piece of thicker cardboard and transfer the stencil again and cut out the letters again. I tape the stencil on the board and proceed to spray paint it. Also upon finding a can of red spray paint I decide to make the letters black and the phone number red. Why? I don't know. So I lay out the stencil and spray paint the letters onto the board. I pull up the stencil and it looks like crap. The lines aren't as sharp as I want them. I want it to look nice if I am going to do it this way. So now I am going to take the stencil and outline the letters again and probably use a marker or a paint brush to get the clean effect that I want. So far I have been working on this little project for a couple weeks trying to find the time here and there to work on it. I figure one of two things are going to happen. Either snow will be flying by the time I get done, or I am going to find out that this sign isn't allowed by the neighborhood association and get in trouble for it. I am thinking #2.

Birthday Party

Sunday was Andrews 1st birthday party. His actual birthday is on Tuesday, but kids' birthday parties usually fall on the weekend before and usually on a Sunday (or so I have been informed). Usually Jen and I plan the hell out of parties that we have, but we didn't do that for this one which was nice, and a bit unerving. We had discussed the menu a little bit a few weeks ago, but hadn't really talked much about it lately. We have both been working so much that we hadn't had a sit down together meal in a while. Jen tells me that she is getting ready to mail out the invitations, where I inform her that it's less than a week away, so phone calls instead of snail mail. The day really snuck up on us. We rushed around trying to get the house cleaned up, and food prepared for Sunday, which wasn't easy with both of us working during Saturday. I was planning on getting alot of stuff done, but I worked 6a-3p and Jen worked too, so I got a few things done Saturday night when she got home, but the real work came Sunday morning. We were both rushing around cooking, cleaning, washing boys, etc, etc. Finally about an hour before the party Jen informs me that she has to go out and get balloons for the party. What? And they have to be special balloons and go all the way over to the mall (on a sunday afternoon). I am thinking that Scott's or Krogers have balloons too, what makes them so special. Well found out there wasn't really anything special about them other than they had Winnie the pooh characters on them. I guess they aren't available at Scott's/Kroger? But it worked out.

The weather on Sunday was very nice. It was so nice I ended up wearing shorts and my "Charlie Harper" (two and a half men) shirt all day and was comfortable. The swingset got it's first real test with 4 kids crawling all over it and jumping in and out of it. Finally we grabbed some lunch. I cranked up the industial hot dog steamer that has been in our family forever that is capable of cooking 40 hot dogs at one time. I also defrosted some of my coney sauce. So after eating we did the whole present thing. Of course Andrew has no clue what is really going on so William was very helpful into tearing into Andrews presents and playing with them too. Now if William will let Andrew play with his own toys that would be good. We moved on to cake and ice cream, and we gave Andrew his own little cake. I was expecting the whole scene where the kid tears into the cake and gets it all over, but Andrew wasn't really sure what to do with the cake in front of him. Either that or he was wondering why everyone and 3 cameras were pointed at him. So finally we put a little bit of frosting into his mouth and then he got the concept. OOOHHH GOOOD. He tore into the cake and downed about half of it (of course alot ending up in his shirt to). After the cake, everyone basicly headed to the door which I didn't understand at first since I am used to people hanging out for a while, but hey it's a kids birthday party. After a quick half-assed clean up, Jen and I hit the couch exhausted. That's one down....

Do Not Overtighten !!!

Over the weekend I was trying to get some projects done around the house.

Saturday was shot in the butt when I had to go into work from 6am to 11am. And of course Andrew had a tummy ache Saturday morning so he was crying and screaming for about two hours as Jenny tried and tried to rock him to sleep from 12am to 2am-ish. He finally rolls over, cracks a fart, and falls asleap. So about 3 hours of actual sleep before the alarm went off. I Came home from work and basically watched kids until she got home from work and then we just spent a quiet night home. I would have tried to get my work done Saturday night when she got home, but it is such a pain in the butt with William trying to "help" and I was just dog tired. That and I had to cut off all of the water in the house to repair the shower and didn't feel like doing that with the family there. I figured Sunday when Jen and the kids are over at the in-laws I can sneak away and get some stuff done. Of course I am so tired I fell asleep in the chair and I miss the end of the Notre Dame game...son of a b***ch. They were playing like crap and wasn't expecting them to win anyway, but I just miss one of the greatest comebacks of the year. I woke up just enough toward the end of the game to see what I thought was the score through sleepy eyes. I told Jen in the morning that I was dreaming, or I missed a great comeback. I missed a great comeback.

Sunday morning was William's turn to get up crying and screaming at 4 am. Now usually when he gets up in the middle of the night, I can put him back down in bed and he immediately goes to sleep, but something was bugging him. So about an hour of him fussing around, HE rolls over, cracks a fart, and goes to sleep. What is it with our kids and gas??? I am saying it was the bag of popcorn that he had in the afternoon. After that, the kids kinda sleep in and we get up and had breakfast. We head over to the in-laws around noon for the usual lunch/visit and hear about their vacation to colonial Williamsburg. So I sneak away around 4pm and head to my brother's house to return a miter saw that I "borrowed". So after two house of shooting the shit with my brother I head home to get my stuff done. I didn't realize that it was so late so I basically had about an hour to get two projects done before heading back to the in-laws to pick up Jen and the kids. So I kill the water in the house and replace a cartridge in the shower handle that should fix the leaking problem. I go down to the basement to turn the water back on to the house, and by the time I get back upstairs the shower is running, which is usually a good thing, but not when the knob is in the "off" position. I thought for a second that I had installed this cartridge upside down, but I didn't. I quickly fixed the problem and it worked fine after that. Next was replacing the ballcock in the toilet downstairs. Yeah I know.. I said "ballcock" (snicker) . When replacing this part you have to bolt the part in the bottom of the tank. It said in bold letters DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN. Excuse me? so you have to guess how tight to put on this bolt. Not tight enough to crack the tank, but tight enough so it doesn't leak all over the place. I just snugged it enough and just prayed it was enough. Shortly after replacing this part I headed out door to pick up the family, hoping and praying that I wouldn't come home to a toilet leaking all over the place and a shower erupting like a geyser. But so far so good, no leaks, but it's still nagging me enough that I want to tighten stuff a little bit more, but when I do that kind of stuff, that's when I get into trouble. Hopefully I will soon forget about it.

Blown Away

Monday we took Andrew back to Rileys to have his eye looked at again. Much to what we expected nothing has changed and we scheduled surgery for October 12th to try and correct his eye problem. Still sucks that this happened to him, but again it could have been alot worse.

The part of the trip that blew me away was a trip to the Casleton Mall in Indy. After some walking around, killing time before his appointment, we decided to grab something to eat. We had some chicken from chick-fil-a where Andrew experienced his first taste of fast food, and it loved it. After I ate I went into the bathroom to wash up after lunch. After washing my hands I noticed that they had the hand blowers and not paper towels. I hate these hand blowers since it takes forever to actually dry your hands and even after two cycles they are never dry and you always end up wiping the last bits of water off on your clothes. I know why they do it, and I don't really want to kill trees for my convenience, but it's just annoying. So I put my hands under the jet and it turns on automatically...the air came out so fast and so much that it actually scared me a little since I am not used to that from an air dryer. It was like putting your hand under an air chuck on an air compressor at 100 psi. After only 10 or 15 seconds under this power-jet my hands were totally dry. Wheeeeeee. Finally, someone gets how to make something like that actually works right.

Sigh....Yeah it's the little things that impress me.

Ye olde festival

Saturday we decided to take the kids to experience the jonny appleseed festival. Actually we just went because my mom was working a booth and asked us to stop by. Now amazingly I have never been to this festival in my life. Somehow I actually got out of going to this festival in my 7 years of working in radio, going everywhere from Farm focus in Van Wert to the flat rock creek fall festival in BFE. I have heard over the years that it is a pretty nice festival with good food and crafts for sale in tents. Now I am not a knick-knack or "country decor" kinda person, but Jenny is, or at least she was until we were married. But hey, Jen might like it and I know my mom would love to see the kids...

The festival is at the coliseum... kinda. The memorial coliseum is a huge indoor complex that can house concerts and other huge events including home and garden show and the like, but this festival is in the grassy area on the other side of the parking lot from the coliseum (close to the gravesite of Jonny Appleseed). They try to keep the event with a certain "period" feel with tents instead of booths, and all the vendors wearing "period" or close to "period" clothing. So the feel is that you are walking back in the the 1800's. So I knew that the festival was in the grassy area outside of the parking lot, what I found out is that the festival is spread out over a 4 square mile area, not in the flat area, but in a very hilly area with narrow passageways to different areas that hold anywhere from 6 to 30 tents. There are little areas of tents around these trees, and those trees. It was like a treasure hunt trying to find where the tent was my mom was working. We finally found a map at the information tent and after a few minutes of trying to figure out where we were we finally saw her tent. Trying to get there was a major pain in the ass, in a mass of humanity on narrow passageways, pushing a stoller, up and down hills in deep grass, sometimes carrying william in 80 degree weather... am I having fun yet? We get to the tent a few minutes after the time she was supposed to leave and of course she was gone. Damn. We found out later that she actually left alot earlier since she wasn't feeling that well. Maybe we should have told her we were coming, but we wanted to surprise her. So we tried to make the best of it walking around looking at the crafts and food tents trying to decide what to eat. We were going to buy food from mom's tent, but the line was too long. On another note, It just amazes me how stupid people are in walking around these festivals. It's bad enough trying to push a stroller through a crowd, but these idiots just stop in the middle of the crowd to look around, or they will walk backward looking at whatever and not paying attention to where they are going. I almost saw a fight right in front of me where this guy ran into anther guy because he wasn't paying attention. But hey we survived, we didn't buy anything crafty, but did end up spending almost $15 on crappy food that wasn't even filling. $2 popcorn, $4 funnel cake (they had funnel cake in the 1800's?) $5 bottle of root beer, $4 apple dumpling. Of course Jen and I got little to none of this food with the two human vacuum cleaners with us. Finally after 2 hours of walking around and fighting the crowd we decided to call it a day and made it back to the car. I seriously doubt that I will ever go back to this festival, or if I do it won't be until both kids can walk on their own the whole time. There were some cool parts to the festival. They had some neat reenactments, and a couple of drum and bugle corps bands that were fun to see and William seemed to enjoy that, so maybe, for the kids, I will go back again. There were some people from the "God squad" on the sidewalk giving away free bibles. I almost got one just to say I got something free from the festival.

Happy Anniversary

I just realized that this Saturday will be my one year anniversary for this blog. Man it's seems like I have been doing this a whole lot longer than one year. I know I am a relative newbie to blogs compared to monkeyjack and some others.

I have made 126 entries (127 counting this one) so far, and with pretty decent content. Some rambling and bitching, but overall entertaining I think.

How cool is that?

How cool is it that we can watch live TV from the space shuttle on the internet. The video is totally awesome. I have been watching them work on the international space station for the past couple of days. Not really watching, more like just having the window open and occasionally seeing what they are up to. It's just so cool to see live images. No longer do you have to count on network TV to cover what they are doing (when they feel like it), or see a 20 second blip on the news. Its nice to know that schools can have access to what they are doing whenever they want for educational purposes. The work they are doing is tedious so it's like watching paint dry or grass grow, but interesting non the less.

www.nasa.gov

Oh God that was funny!

A coworker just walked up to the copy machine and I came up behind him, going to another part of the building. I decided to stop and talk to him a minute, but he was standing in front of the copier with a puzzled look so I paused a minute and got real close behind him. I said, "what are you doing?" and scared the living crap out of him. He must have jumped at least a foot and probably gave himself whiplash turning his head. I laughed so hard I was almost on the floor. I am just lucky he didn't come out swinging or I would have really been on the floor. Lucky for me he found it just as humorous. I found out that he was actually trying to figure out a paper jam and trying to overhear a conversation from our boss in the next room, so he was distracted. I told him that's what he gets for eavesdropping.

Are they really worth 6%???

I am stuck proof reading Real Estate and Homes this week. We have to look over every page of this 400+ page book every other week to make sure have the correct pictures with the correct descriptions and look for typos. We used to retype all of the text on the pages, but we currently have this toy where we can just "flow" the text submitted by the realtor (from email or disc) into the ad. It's pretty bad but not uncommon to find a mistake that we typed in, but its amazing how bad the mistakes are that COME FROM THE REALTOR. I know they abbreviate stuff, but these mistakes are horrendous and could have been easily found if they would have just read it once before submitting it. I am not sure if the mistake comes from the realtor or from a secretary in the office, but dang. I am not sure if they don't care since they know we proof read it and they think we will find and correct their mistakes, but it just annoying that they couldn't take the 30 seconds to proof read their own crap. They are making all of the money from selling these houses!!! And of course the realtor will be the first one screaming for a refund if a mistake actually get published in the magazine. I would love to talk to these yahoos and give them the old G.I.G.O. discussion.

School Daze

William still has a speech delay. He talks a little bit where we can actually understand him, and we know he can understand us a little bit since when we ask him to do something he actually does it. We have been working on it for over a year now with speech therapy and other testing to see why he doesn't' speak. Doctors and specialists are almost certain that it isn't autism, just a speech delay. When he turned 3 years old he aged out of the free state sponsored program and then became the responsibility of the school system. After more meetings and testing (that Jen had to deal with for months) we finally decided to send him to two hours of school , 5 days a week. So far it's been just over a week and he still seems to like going and doesn't realize that it's school. I was so scared that when Jen dropped him off that there would be a meltdown (from both of them) or that he would wander off, or the million other things that a parent worries about when trusting your kid to the school system. Most parents don't have to deal with it at 3 years old with a child that doesn't speak, so terrified was an understatement. It's still a concern, but luckily it's a class with only 5 kids and at least two teachers so I feel a little better. Tonight we go to a "back to school night" so hopefully some more of my fears will be taken care of.

I feel lucky to have Jen since she has the "job" now of getting him to school every day (no way we are putting him on a bus) and arranging to pick him up with trying to fit in work every once in a while.

Bad Luck

My In-laws live on the north side of town. They actually almost live in Leo/Cedarville because they are so close. For some reason they get their haircuts from a barber/hair stylist on the south side of town. So basically they drive half an hour one way for their haircuts. They are loyal to their barber, I will have to give them that. I think that the barber moved to that end of town and that's why they drive all that way for a haircut. About a month ago they were getting their hair cut and decided to grab some lunch since they were on that end of town. They ended up going to Pizza Hut. Unfortunately an employee had hepatitis A which is highly contagious, so they both had to get shots to make sure they didn't catch the disease. Fortunately the tab for the shot was picked up by Pizza Hut. So, for something they have done every couple of months ends up getting them a possible contagious disease and shots. Bad Luck.

The kicker to the story is that they brought home leftovers that my brother in-law ended up eating, so he had to get a shot too, and he wasn't even there. Bad luck in a box.

Reality Check

I had one of those experiences this weekend that stops you dead in your tracks.....

I got a call from an old friend Saturday night. He told me that he had just heard that our class was having a class reunion in about half an hour, and that he just heard about it himself. Quick math on my part and figured 20 years, what?, Huh? no way!! 20 YEAR reunion. I actually paused and thought, "nooooo, it can't be that long", but yes it was. I was just going along in my life, happy as a clam, then WHAM... REALITY. Damn I am old.

I guess being in the phone book makes it real hard to get ahold of me or know what my address is. Not that I would have went anyway, but it would have been nice to have that option. I can imagine who was actually at this event over the weekend. The same click that hung out together in high school so I didn't really miss anything. I went to the 10 year reunion and we actually voted (as a class) never to have another reunion. Obviously someone didn't get the memo.

Monkeyjack works in the martix

A few days ago Scott posted a couple pictures of Keith on his blog and indicated that they worked in the matrix. Of course you know I couldn't leave those pictures alone...

Hope you are feeling better Keith!!! Love the leather !!!

Jeff's Move

Man what a day!! The morning started out with me trying my hardest to get to Jeff's apartment by 9:00am. But with kid wragling in the morning the family and I didn't actually make it there till almost 9:30. I was real worried that I was holding up the move and had people waiting for me, but when I pulled up I didn't see anybody. Then Jeff and MR came out of the apartment. Now I have been to Jeff's apartment once but that was about a year ago and I was thinking, "it's only a two bedroom apartment, how much stuff could there be?". I found out that he and Paula were able to get alot of stuff into that apartment. So the three of us proceeded to load up the truck, up and down a flight of stairs. Hello leg muscles. The funny thing is that the truck was getting real full but the apartment was still full of stuff, so the apartment was winning. I tried to stack stuff as high as possible, but I didn't want to break or scratch anything. About halfway through loading the truck I said that we would need two trips for all the stuff, so we decided how to best use the space available in the truck for the first load. Finally a couple more people showed up toward the end of the first load which was good since we were getting real tired and sweating so much that our shirts were pretty much drenched due to the heat and humidity.

The next part comes the washer and dryer cluster f***k. I will let Jeff tell the story about that, but pretty much in a nutshell. The delivery company delivered Jeff's new washer and dryer to the apartment by mistake and REFUSED to take it to their house which was less than a mile away. He kept saying that he couldn't go to another location, and that he had a schedule to keep. And my response was "you could have been there by now rather than arguing with Jeff". This guy was a toal asshole. I was real close to getting into it with this dick, but hey, it's not my washer and dryer so I figured that it was best to let Jeff take care of it. Found out later that it was the delivery company's mistake and not Jeff's, so they got their delivery fee returned along with another $50 from Sears. So if you buy from Sears, pick it up yourself.

The unload at the house went alot faster (like they do). There was alot of activity at the house when we showed up. People painting rooms, doing electrical work, replacing door locks, unloading pick up trucks, and kids running all over the place. I was thinking "where were all these hands for the loading?", but everyone actually had a job already so I was thankful to get help unloading. After a quick bite to eat we got the truck unloaded and headed back to the apartment for load #2. That load went alot faster with a few more hands as well as not as much stuff. It started to rain when we were leaving for the house, but it actually felt pretty good. Unload #2 went fast again with lots of hands to help. I was soaking wet with sweat and real tired so after load #2 I took the truck back and met with Jen and the kids for home. I felt kinda bad not staying around to see if I could help with other stuff, but I was pretty much spent, and there was already a bunch of people in the house. I am sure I would only get in the way. Another shower and then the comfy chair for the rest of the day.

Jeff and Paula's new home is a real nice place with a huge backyard. (you will have to ask him about the crop circle). I think they will enjoy this place for many years to come.

ENJOY HOME OWNERSHIP JEFF AND PAULA!!!

Night Golf II

Friday night was the second time I played in the Kiwaniis Night Time Golf Outing. This year I asked everyone I knew who played golf or knew what a golf ball looked like to play with me. Last year when I played I really didn't press anyone else to play with me since if it wasn't fun, I didn't want to be blamed, but I had a blast last year. This year's list was growing to around 6 to 8 people to play, but unfortunately it quickly died down to only 4 due to illness and other commitments that came up. My mom and I headed out to Lakeside golf course around 7:00pm. We got ourselves organized and grabbed some food. This year they kept it pretty simple with hotdogs, burgers, and brats with sides of beans and potatoes. The potatoes were simply delicious where they were kinda in between sliced and mashed with this fantastic cheese flavor. I had seconds and then thirds after we were done playing. Before we teed off they had a 50/50 drawing for cash. Now I usually don't enter these contests since I never win, but what the heck it's for charity and I had $5 burning a hole in my pocket. Of course I missed the winning number by only 2, but then realized that my cousin Marc had bought the next 5 tickets in the roll, so I ran inside and told him to look at his tickets and sure enough he had the correct number. He ended up winning $78 in the drawing. Lucky bugger. My friend Gina showed up a little later and we took upon the challenge of trying to find her a pull cart to rent at the golf course, but there weren't any available. I still find it hard to believe that at 7:30pm at night that all the rental pull carts were still on the course, but there was another night time golf outing going on at the same time on the par 3 course, so maybe. So we ended up throwing some of her clubs in mom's bag (already on a cart) and she played with some of my clubs on the course.

So with full tummy's.. OUT TO THE COURSE.

We started on #1 hole which is good since we didn't have to walk far to our first hole to tee off (shotgun start all over the course). Since the advent of daylight savings I wasn't sure if it would be dark enough on the first couple of holes to see the lighted golf, but it was just perfect time of the day to just see them. Gina and Marc hit their drives pretty safe on the left side of the fairway and then it became my time to hit. First hit of the year for me sad to say, no practice, no bucket of balls beforehand. I hit the ball very well and then noticed the ball start to curve for a nasty slice heading for the ONLY FREAKING WATER ON THE COURSE. 3...2...1.... spashdown. Son of a biscuit. So I was close to the clubhouse and decided to grab another ball before heading down the fairway. I had to pay $8 for another ball and glowstick. Of course my luck I actually ended up finding my ball on the edge of the water after already "activating" the new glowing ball. It took me a couple of holes to get warmed up, but I finally started hitting the ball pretty well. All of the team had good shots and bad shots.

You never really know what the weather will be out on the course, but it ended up being a very humid and warm night. Unlucky for mom and Gina who wore long pants and long sleeved shirts who were very hot the whole round. They were expecting a mosquito attack on the course, but I think all night only one mosquito buzzed my head. It took around 3 holes for the beer cart to find us, but lucky for us they were never far from us after that. I could have really used some water instead of beer for the heat, but the beer was just as tasty. I was a little concerned since we seemed to play alot faster than the group in front of us, so we had to pause a couple times to make sure we didn't hit our balls into the group in front of us. They were really hard to see. Toward the end of the round we were all getting pretty tired and had a few drinks in us, so we started hooping and hollering whenever we hit a halfway decent shot. That was fun.

We finished playing and went back inside the clubhouse to wait for everyone else on the course to come back in so we could count up all the scores and see who "won". It was already after midnight when we headed for the clubhouse. I don't remember it being that late, but that might be due to a later tee time due to daylight savings. As we waited for the rest of the groups to come in we ended up having leftover hamburgers and potatoes. Overall results for the night is that our group came in 2 over par and in second place in the mixed groups (missed by one stroke) and we ended up winning some door prizes. Everyone in our group had a real fun time and I think I can count on them comming out next year for sure, and hopefully get some more friend out there too. I finally got home at 1:00am not looking forward to getting up the next morning to move Jeff (yawn). That's the next story.....

You are freaking kidding me

Every once in a while I wish I was a police officer. Not necessarily because I would actually want that job, but more for people always doing stupid things in front of me. Since a real cop never actually is around I would love to be able to pull people over. This is my story:

I am going home yesterday and I get off I-469 and try to turn left onto Maplecrest Rd. I have to stop at the offramp and wait to cross the lanes of traffic. Some times I sit there for a few seconds and sometimes its a few minutes since I have to try and cross 4 lanes of traffic going 50 mph (at least) going both ways. So I am waiting and finally see my opportunity, but then this punk on a crotch rocket comes flying up the road to my right. And he is really giving it some gas and winding it out. This is one of those times when I wish I were a cop to nail this yahoo. But then I look to my left and see a plain white Chevrolet Impala. Could it be? Could it be? YES IT'S A COP!!! JUSTICE I SAY. SOMETIMES WE WIN!! This cop in the unmarked police car quickly slows down in front of me and I am thinking that he is going to do a quick U-turn and nail that little s.o.b. NO, cop does an illegal left turn onto the 469 on-ramp, ignoring the motorcycle. WTMFH? I actually threw my hands up and yelled at the cop, but to no avail. I just had to shake my head. I know he probably has other stuff to do then nail kids on crotch rockets, or he wasn't on duty, but I was so expecting to see some read and blue lights. Sigh

A little something for MR

USB BBQ

I thought with MR's job and his love of Steak that he could possibly use this at work. And there is video of it working.. kinda

"This is one hell of a mod. Using 30 USB ports spread out over five USB PCI cards, this barbeque was created. The PC is still functional, too. Enjoy cooking a 1 ounce steak on that tiny grill—and no, I don't have a damn clue what they are trying to cook in the picture and video. It looks like a piece of bacon, but who the hell BBQs bacon like that? Hit the jump for the video. – Travis Hudson

Click this link to see the Video

Memories

Every once in a while you come upon a smell or sound that reminds you of your childhood. A couple days ago William got out some play-doh. Now I haven't really had a chance to play with, or be around play-doh for quite a number of years, but as soon as I opened the little plastic jar, the smell of the play-doh brought back alot of memories. The smell was exactly as I remember it 30 years ago as well as the texture of the doh. The same texture that stuff had from years ago was kinda comforting (in a mental health sort of way). In these days of everyone trying to "improve" stuff, it's good to know that some things are just the same way they were ... and there isn't anything wrong with that.

We came.....We Saw..... We kicked it's ASS !!!!

(Title from Ghostbusters)

Another marathon session from myself and my father-in-law has finally finished the monster swingset/playset. Overcast skies made the forecast for Saturday look bad, but we decided to go for it. We started working on it around 11:00am or so dragging out the tools and stuff that we would need. I still had to make many trips to the garage to grab the pieces and parts as we needed them which sucked, but it was better than getting everything out there and then having it rain on us. Yes I know "who cares if the pieces get wet, it's a freaking outdoor swingset!!". But I liked to keep that parts separated so we didn't have to worry about using the wrong pieces.

I gave my father-in-law an option a couple times during the day to stop working, but he got into the "lets finish it" mindset, which was fine with me. Jenny unfortunately had to work during the day so our "hardware separator" was unavailable for the day (which made the day longer), but my mother-in-law was able to watch the kids during the day which was nice. Finally as it was getting dark (around 8:30pm) we put in the last screws and bolts. The clean-up was quick where we just threw everything into the wheel barrow and threw it into the garage.

Jenny and her mom had ordered Riverbend Pizza. So with muscles aching, and a cold beer in my hand, I ate my pizza. The next day it felt good to look outside and see the completed project. I would never have thought that it would have turned out so well. I hope that my boys get years of enjoyment out of it.