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.