Merry Christmas (thank God that's over)

So Monday I am putting in my time at work of half a day in which nothing is actually getting done. (I didn't get to sleep the night before until 1:00am due to the fact that I was making buckeyes.) Just for grins I call the Walmart near my house to see if they restocked the elusive TV that I have been looking for for weeks. I have been to every walmart in town numerous times in the past two weeks (at least 10 visits to 4 walmarts) for a gift for my Uncle from my mom. They actually had the TV that I have been searching for. I should have let my fingers do the walking before, but it's a guy thing I guess. So I am trying to get out of work and over to the store before they sell out. Jen has also asked me to pick up a few things for her at the same time. So 12:30 at walmart on Christmas eve.. yeah it was nuts. I had to wait in a long line to check out, but was pumped that I found that frickin TV for my mom. I get home and Jen heads out the door for work. After some farting around I head out the door with the boys. We go to CVS for some tape for presents and then to Papa Murphy's to pick up Pizza. This was my attempt to keep Christmas simple so we wouldn't have to worry about cleaning up dishes at mom's house, and to keep the amount of food to a minimum. Those two little jaunts were almost half an hour. Lucky for me the boys were in a pretty good mood and had fun running around papa Murphy's while I waited for my pizza to be made. Of course they made it wrong (was supposed to be half and half) so I waited a little longer for them to correct it. We headed to mom's and the boys were having fun running around and playing with the dogs. Of course there was a ton of food even with me trying to keep it simple, but nothing that couldn't be frozen. Mom had Uncle Dave get a sheet cake and had them write "happy birthday Jesus" on it (very cute). Of course Uncle Dave gets a huge 22x18 sheet cake which no one ate since we were stuffed with everything else. We visited with mom and uncle Dave for a while. Finally around 6:30 I started putting the pizzas in the oven to bake. Dan and Rhonda showed up around 7:00. Jen didn't get there until almost 8:00 because of work even though the mall closed at 6:00. Got to love retail. Anyhow we started opening presents and of course the boys got one thing and just wanted to play with that. They didn't fully get the concept of having more (a whole bag of stuff) to open. For some reason Rhonda was in a real hurry to leave so the present opening got rushed a little bit. We sat the boys in front of us and just opened opened opened. After that everyone headed for the door. I could tell the mom and the boys were getting tired. I was attempting to clean up the kitchen before I left, but for some reason Andrew got into a fowl mood and was screaming and crying, and he only wanted me to hold him. I was trying to quickly clean the kitchen, load the car, and get the boys home with Andrew screaming. On my last trip to the car I look back at Andrew crying on the floor and then "that" cough, and puke everywhere. Son of a Bit**. So Jen and I were attempting to clean up puke on top of everything else. Finally we headed out the door and got the boys home around 10:00. Andrew was asleep in the car and William was not long in falling asleep too. Then Jen and I had to wrap presents for the boys, so we were doing that until almost midnight. Both Jen and I commented that we both felt a great calming feeling hit us after getting home. I don't know if it was just the stress of Andrew or the thought of all the other stuff going on.

Christmas morning, but boys kind of slept in (almost 8:00am) and we all headed downstairs.
The boys don't even notice the presents in their stockings and under the tree and start playing with stuff from last night. But after a little bit we tore into them too. The present of the year for the boys was a train track called Geo tracks which the boys have been playing with non stop for two days now (even without batteries). One of the bonus finds at Walmart on Christmas eve was a package of honey buns. Every year it used to be a tradition for us to get up on Christmas morning and have Mortons honey buns and orange juice, but the Morton company stopped making them and I didn't find anything to replace them, but the ones that I found were real close and very tasty. So after "present carnage II" we loaded up the Jeep and headed to the in-laws for "present carnage III". We had a very nice turkey lunch and then more opening of presents. We hung out there for most of the day and headed home around 9:00.

Wednesday I took off of work to burn off a personal day and to give me a little more of a vacation. Of course Jen had to work, but the boys spent the day playing with their toys and new Geo track. One of the things that I got from my mom was a nintendo WII. I was really close to telling her that it was too much and that she should take it back since she has alot of expenses now after her surgery. But I hooked it up and played with it a little bit, annnnndddd yeah it's not going back. It's pretty fun. Hopefully I will find the time to play with it more often. Wednesday night I spent a couple hours trying to get the web cam working so my dad and I can talk to each other on-line, but I think he had a glitch on his side somewhere so it kinda worked. My in-laws then showed up and delivered one of my presents (attic stairs) that I got the night before. So overall it was a petty good Christmas.

Merry Kiss-moose

I am still in a cheery mood....

The weekend before Christmas and all was well. Of course the family is suffering through their sinus congestion and other maladies. The boys both got a case of pink eye, but that has been clearing up pretty well with eye drops. William woke up the other night and chucked all over his bed 4 times during the evening, but I think that was just part of the start of pink eye or the sinus drainage finally getting to him. All I can say is thank God that I can handle blood and puke since that would have made for a looooonnnggger night.

Saturday morning I finally got the chance to get the oil changed in the Saturn. I still go to the dealership to have this done since they do a pretty good job and have a nice waiting room with drinks and snacks. After the oil change I did a little "finish up" shopping at a few stores. And I was home by noon. When we put Andrew down for his nap we started rearranging furniture in the 4th bedroom for the new paint job. We are turning the room into a Lightning McQueen room for William for the great Bedroom swap. After moving furniture around, I threw together a Hoosier pie for Christmas eve. After all that we just kind of lounged in front of the tv for the rest of the afternoon watching the kids new favorite move "chitty chitty bang bang". I got it at a gift exchange a week ago and they love it . I will go into more detail about the movie at a future blog... Jen got ready and headed off to work. As I was pulling the pie out of the stove I was in debate about going to MR's Christmas party. Jen hadn't confirmed things with her parents about baby sitting, I wasn't feeling that hot with my drainage, and I wanted to wrap presents and make buckeyes for Christmas eve as well. But I finally decided to go after my mother in law called to see what was going on. I am glad I got out for a little bit. I really like going to MR's Halloween and Christmas parties since it gives us a chance to get away from the kids, and since it's unfortunately the only time of the year that we all get together anymore. The crowd was small but mighty with the Mike, Jeff, Paula, Lisa and Jeremy. Had a great night visiting and watching Christmas story. I stayed long enough to watch "Ghost Rider", but I am not sure why now. Pretty Bad from what I could catch between conversation and visits to the buffet. Around 11:00 I decided head for home. Actually I hit two Walmarts on the way home looking for the elusive Christmas present that my mom wanted for my Uncle.

Sunday morning was church and then home. During andrew's nap we broke out the presents and Jen and I wrapped all the stuff for the in laws and family. We have still to wrap the boys presents and will probably have to wait until after they go to bed tonight which means another late night. After wrapping presents Jen got ready for more time at work. The boys and I hung out for the rest of the day watching football and "chitty chitty bang bang". After Bath time and putting the boys to bed I pulled out Jen's presents and wrapped them. I was trying to get started on the buckeyes as soon as possible so I could get to bed, but I didn't finally get started on the buckeyes until 10:30. So I was baking in the kitchen with "Christmas Vacation" playing on the laptop. I finally finished up the baking around 1:00am right when Jen came home. So I am sitting here just putting in my 4 hours for the day and then off for the next two and a half days. Wheeeeee.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Here is that recipe for those drop sugar cookies that I mentioned a few blogs ago. The batter looks real suspicious, but it makes great soft cookies.

Soft sugar cookies with butter and egg yolks and vanilla and nutmeg.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract ( I usually use all vanilla)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

PREPARATION:

Cream shortening and butter with sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour milk into a large measuring cup; add extract(s) and baking soda. Into a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets then sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes at 375°. Store sugar cookies in an airtight covered container.

Rambled Ramblings

A couple things to get off my chest.

First a couple of PSA's. Now is a good time of the year to check you smoke detectors batteries to make sure they are good or just replace them. A lesser known chore that should be done frequently is the empty the crumbs from the bottom of your toaster. I hadn't done that in years and it was quite full and dirty. Another lesser known chore to do is to clean your refrigerator. No not just the inside, but if you take off the little face plate at the bottom (front) of the fridge you should be able to see the condenser for the fridge. Take you sweeper and clean the condenser so you fridge will run better. My father in law asked me about this earlier this year and I hadn't cleaned it in years (I didn't know about it). When I pulled the grill off there was a 1/2 inch layer of dust blocking the condenser. Just wanted to pass this along to others to check out. Note** your fridge may be different so check your owners manual. Also good time of year to replace your furnace filters..

Pet Peeve: For the love of God do not shovel or blow the snow from your driveway into the street!!!!! A bunch of my neighbors do this and it's like freaking tank traps trying to get out of the addition. With this much snow there are going to be these mini-mountains on the road for weeks. It's not like the snowplows are coming back (especially the city) to do the additions again in case you blow all of your crap onto the street. Even if they did come back the plow is designed to stay on top of the piles and not dig into it. It's going to stay that way and get encased in ice!!! I know with a snow blower there is a chance of getting some onto the road, but I am talking about the yam heads who blow or shovel all of the snow onto the road. Unless you see the plow coming down the street, don't freaking do it!!! Whew

I think there was something else, but I can't remember..

Milk Please :)

So I am trying to get my Christmas shopping done yesterday. I actually took the day off and had a list of places to go and things to get. Jen had to work in the morning so I decide rather than have her mom come over that I would watch the kids in the morning and then do my running around in the afternoon. Jen had to work until noon so she gets home around 1:30 (she almost never is able to leave on time). She closed the store Monday night and got home after midnight and then had to be back in the store by 7:00am yesterday. She was only able to get a couple hours of sleep so I decided that I would pick up William from school and take him with me on my shopping. I was hoping that Andrew would take a nap and let Jen catch one too, but that didn't work. So after picking up William at school we started to do some running around. One of the stops was to Hooters to get the new 2008 calendar as a gag gift for my uncle. I felt a little uneasy unloading my 4 year old to walk into Hooters with me, like people were watching me and judging me. Hey, it's not like I was going into the Showgirl next door. As Jenny reminded me William had been to a Hooters before when she took him there for a lunch with her former co-workers at Lincoln. Of course he was still a baby so he was probably thinking "LUNCH" as the waitresses walked around. As we walked in I noticed that there are 4 tables with people at them and 2 of the 4 had kids! Wow I didn't know how kid friendly it was. The plan was to get in and get out as quick as possible, but I had to stand at the front counter for 10 minutes (darn my luck) until one of the waitresses finally came up to help me. William was having fun walking around the restaurant and looking at the stuff hanging on the wall. The waitress flirted with William a little bit and I think he kinda liked it. We got the calendar and headed out the door.

Christmas is getting near...

Friday I decided to take the opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done. I am a hunter/gatherer kinda shopper where I go out for as long as it takes and go where ever I need to go at one time. Friday was one of those days. With list of some gift ideas I headed out after work. My first stop was Darlington Farms. This is a factory that brings in cheap Christmas gifts one time a year and just my luck it's right down the road from where I work. It's a neat place where just about everything in the warehouse is $1.39 a piece. There is some pretty nice little nick-knacks and other stuff. I originally went in there looking for stuff for my Dad and step mom, but nothing stood out to me, at least nothing I wanted to spend $7 in shipping a $1.39 item. But I did end up finding some stuff for other people. I left with a big bag of stuff for a little over $13 so pretty good on my part.
North. Being ever the Next was the part that I dreaded..... Jefferson Point.... I like Jefferson Point as a shopping center, but whoever designed the way the traffic flowed has to be mental in the head. Who in their right mind designs a 4 way stop with at least 4 lanes in 4 different directions (including turn lanes) and then does it twice in 1000 feet?? I would have to say they need traffic lights, but I think it's private property so they can't or something like that. So my first stop was Kohls to get see if they have a gift that I saw over at another Kohls, and stuck out. Of course it was nuts busy in the store and there was the "gauntlet" of trying to leave the store to get to the parking lot. People do not understand the concept of Yield to pedestrians at all. Next stop was Wal-mart. Of course nuts busy again to the 10th degree. I went in looking for a few things including another gift for my father in law. No such luck.... again. I did find the one thing for my brother in law, but I wasn't about to get in the checkout lanes for one thing. I figured that I would hit the Walmart out by us since I had to buy eggs and butter anyway. The one nice thing this year is that I have been able to keep a little change in my pocket so I am actually able to put a little something in the kettle at the doors of walmart unlike the past couple of years when I had nothing. Even having a little pocket change, I found myself only putting in a few coins to give myself something for the next time since I was going to walmart so often lately. I was thinking about getting out of Jefferson Point when I decided to be brave and attempt the 4 way stop from hell to actually go to Jefferson Point shopping complex and see how bad it was over there. I get across the streat pretty well and it was a totally different story across the street. It wasn't too crowded at all, everyone was relaxed, and I was able to stroll easily into a couple of different stores and get SERVICE almost immediately!!! So with refreshed enthusiasm for shopping I headed out to the Northside of town. Fist stop was at Target for a few things on the list. I was able to get one of the things with the other ending up being way more expensive than I thought it was. Next stop was Walmart. I decided to hit the Kohls up North in the slight chance they restocked that item I was looking for, and by God they did! Score! Next over to Walmart to get a couple things and I was able to get most of my list over there. I get to the 20 items or less self-checkout behind a couple with a whole cart full of stuff. I was going get pissy about their 40 items but decided just to hum a merry tune. As I was checking out there was a thing where the kid working the self checkout had to check me out at his station. Nothing like the personalized service at the self-checkout. Of course I found out later the kid forget to put something back into the cart after scanning it so I had to go back the next day to get it. At that point I am pretty tired so I grab Wendy's and head for home where the boys help me eat my frosty and fries.

Saturday we got up and around and out the door to Charlie's birthday party. That is such a fun time at the roller rink. My boys find the video games fun to look at so I spend most of the time with them on the other side of the rink. I sadly didn't get a chance to visit with anybody that much. First thing when we get in the door I am getting ready to say hey to Keith and he proceeded to drop a bowl of meatballs on his lap. I tried not to laugh too hard. As I was helping clean up meatball juice off the floor I notice the chocolate phallus on the counter. It was supposed to be a chocolate fountain, but the chocolate got too thick (Lori blames Keith) so it just caked up all over the fountain. The little bit of chocolate trying to come out of the top was a little unnerving..... Anyhow in the process of chasing kids here and there, both the boys said they wanted to try and roller skate. I got them both skated up and I was able to drag them about 30 feet before they both were done. I think William was just goofing around where Andrew wasn't getting the concept of being on wheels. I think that if I would have been able to do them one at a time I could have gotten them a little more comfortable on the skates. So off come the skates and back to the video games and running around. Before I knew it the party was over. Lori invited everyone back to their place for a visit, but we had more stuff to try and get done before Jen went to work. So a couple more stops for Christmas shopping (including a place I hadn't been to in 15 years so I couldn't believe it was still there) and we headed home. With snow flying the boys and I settled in and Jen took off for work.They had predicted all kinds of different snow and accumulation for Saturday night/ Sunday so we didn't know what to expect.

Sunday morning we woke up to 6 - 8 inches of snow. Dang they actually got a forecast right!! Lucky buggers. So while Jen gets ready for work I run out to shovel off the driveway. I like to try and get it shoveled before we drive on it since it makes it easier to maintain. I decided to have Jen take the Jeep to work. The tread on the tires isn't the best, but at least its 4 wheel drive and higher clearance. So I get the driveway shoveled in time for Jen to leave for work. Yeah I need to get the snow blower working again. Basically the boys and I just hung around the house for the day watching even more DIFFERENT Disney movies all day. During the majority of the day we were stuck on Dumbo, but not too long. In the morning I decided to take the opportunity to make my Christmas cookies from my grandma's recipe. I was attempting to do it alone, but quickly got help when I started to put them together. Overall the boys did pretty well and I let them help me every once in a while. The funny part is that they got into the container with the cookie cutters so William stars handing me all different kinds of forms. So this year we have a Christmas Cat, some stars, and some moose. The cookies turned out perfect, even the raw dough tasted exactly as it should have. Afternoon I went back outside to shovel the drive again as Andrew was down for his nap. William told me he was going to watch me from the window in his pajamas, but after10 minutes came outside fully dressed with coat and boots on. That kind of surprised me. So I gave him a small shovel and was trying to explain what to do, but he found it more entertaining to put the snow back onto the driveway then off of the driveway. The rest of the day was just watching movies and football.
Overall I would have to say we have most of the Christmas shopping done for this year. I still have to try and find something for my mom. She is a hard one to buy for. I also found out that I have 3 days to burn before the end of the year so I am planning that right now... wheeeeee. I am still in the Christmas spirit and feel pretty good besides my possible sinus infection.

Gift Idea

I was looking around the net for some promotional items or Christmas gift ideas for our company a couple weeks ago. Along with ideas for candy and stuff, I remembered that the cookie cottage had a thing where you could get a custom imprinted cookies. I contacted them to get more information about how they needed the artwork and how long it would take to get. I dropped off a hard copy of my design as well as a computer disc with the design. I wasn't really planning on the artwork turning out to be that clean, but I wanted to give them everything they could want for the design. They ended up being the coolest thing and the artwork on top of the cookie was extremely clean and precise. It took about a week to get the cookies back, but I think they could have turned them over in a few days.

At $20 a dozen it's a little pricey, but its a very cool and unique kinda thing for those of you who like the unique. I am definitely keeping this one in mind for special occasions.

http://www.cookiecottage.com/

Busy weekend

Another busy weekend. Seems like all my weekends are like that anymore. Thursday night Jen and I went over to Menards to see about getting a Christmas Tree. Yeah every year we talk about going out the day after to get one, but either never do or they are sold out, so we decided to just go and buy one. Menard's had a sale on all trees and of course the tree that Jen saw and liked a few weeks ago was sold out (even the floor model). She had them call around and found out that the South store had 16 of them, so she headed on over Friday after work and picked one up. Friday night we got an appointment to get the boys pictures taken for the Christmas card/Andrew's 3rd. We decided to just do the boys this year since who want to see Jen and I. We showed up and it was really crowded in the photo area. Everything was going pretty good. The boys were pretty happy, they were keeping pretty much on time to schedule and then it happened.... I was playing with Andrew and chasing him around the basement of Penny's. I see Jen down the hall signal me that it was time for the photos. While we were heading back Andrew sees a couple of kids in those kids cars/carts and wanted to play in them. Whoever invented those cars and who ever put them at EVERY freaking entrance to the Mall should burn in hell (or at least get a bad case of hemorrhoids). There is nothing like trying to go to the mall and encountering a kid meltdown every freaking time because you won't spend the $5 to rent these plastic aggravators. (yet another reason I rarely go to the mall) You see we took the boys to the play area of Menards Thursday night and they played with some riding toys in the play area, but I couldn't explain to a 2 year old they they aren't for everyone to play with. So Andrew is in meltdown mode as we step into the photo studio and won't do anything we want him to do. Lucky for us the photographers at Penny's are real pros and she was able to entertain him enough to get him to stop crying. (That and the fruit snacks helped). We were able to get a couple of keepers from the 20 or so photos that she took. Friday night I went home and started assembling the Christmas tree while Jen stopped and grabbed a pizza on the way home. Amazingly the tree assembly went pretty smooth even with my two "helpers". I need to actually read the instructions before starting those projects since I started building the tree from the top down and they suggest building it from the bottom to the top... that would have been MUCH easier. The funny part is there was as much needles on the ground as if we would have had a real tree. I am hoping that eventually it will stop dropping all it's needles and that those were just some loose ones. Jen finally gets home from getting pizza with a story. She ordered this new double crust pizza half meat and half veggie. Of course it came out all meat (were the Kramers in the restaurant?). So rather than wait for another 25 minutes (pizza hut on a Friday night) she just took the pizza and a coupon for a free one. Overall I have to say I wasn't real impressed by this pizza. First of all it was only a medium (for $12?) and there wasn't anything real special about it. Just like a pan pizza. But you never know unless you try. I still like the stuffed crust from the Hut and the regular pizza. I assembled the Tree and passed along the responsibility to Jen for decoration. I had to place it in three different spots in the living room before finally finding a good place. Dang that tree is freaking heavy. I had to take it apart in sections to move it.

Saturday and Sunday were a Disney movie marathon at the house. William got into the DVD cabinet and was pulling out all sort of movies that aren't in the regular rotation. The one he saw and stuck with for most of the weekend was Cinderella II. I am telling myself that he is watching it because Cinderella is HOT and nothing else. Lucky I at least the the picture-in-picture to watch football or whatever (I wish I had split screen). Saturday night Jen and I talked about going to see a movie. She wanted to see "Enchanted". It looked slightly amusing so I decided it would be worth seeing, especially if we went to the Cinema Grill and I can get a beer. So we were trying to get someone to watch kids and weren't having much luck. Finally Jen got ahold of Tracy and as I was overhearing the conversation I hear Tracy say that she wanted to see the movie too, so I suggested that she should go with Tracy instead of me. I know Jen could use the break from the kids and her and Tracy hardly ever get together, so I thought that would be better. That and we weren't going to Cinema Grill so no beer :) ... Jen said that they might bring Tracy's boys back to the house after the movie and play with our boys a little bit. So I decided to make some cookies for the boys to snack on. I look in the cabinet, no chocolate chips, darn, I look in the fridge and only half a stick of butter so no snickerdoodles which are my usuals. I decided to get creative and bring down the laptop and hop on the Internet to look for a recipe. I look for a sugar cookie recipe that requires only half a stick of butter. I actually find one, and after much internal debate decided to go for it. I have been burned by an Internet recipe before so I was a little leery. I start putting the cookies together and of course the boys have now confiscated the laptop to play games, but I have the recipe on another page for reference. I put all of the ingredients together (getting egg yolks without the white is hard) and it looks like this big gooey liquid mess that looks like quicksand. Son of a B****. Jen then shows up and says that Tracy's boys were acting up in the car so they weren't coming over. Great. I look over the recipe again and I have all the proper measurements and ingredients, so I decide to throw it onto a sheet and throw it into the oven to see what happens. They ended up being the best, soft sugar cookies that I have had in a long time. And it made a ton of them. So I have added that recipe to the arsenal (I will post later). I ended up putting the lights on the tree. Of course there weren't enough lights so I had to find another strand and restring it. The tree is still waiting for ornaments and tinsel. We decide that it would be easier to do it after the boys are in bed, but after the boys are in bed usually Jen is asleep on the couch, so I am hoping that it might be decorated by the end of the week. Either that or let the boys help us and just keep an eye on them so they don't break anything.......

Christmas Cartoons

Getting into the spirit

I finally have been getting a little more into the christmas season. Saturday I saw a slim opportunity and got a chance to put up my lights. Lucky for me Andrew took a 3 hour nap so I could get the lights done with some help from William. Once again the lights are done, but I still want to tweek it a little bit, like always.

Last night I was getting ready to put the boys to bed and noticed that the Charlie Brown Christmas special was on, so I let them stay up and we all watched it together. The first episode was the classic one with Linus telling us the true meaning of Christmas (1965). The second half hour was a Christmas themed peanuts cartoon, but not the pull as the first one.I noticed tonight is rudolf and last week was the classic grinch cartoon. There is something about those little half hour cartoons that make you just feel good. Whether it's the call back to your childhood or just a good message.

So I can say I am getting more and more into the Christmas spirit. I think when we finally get our tree and I make cookies and buckeyes I will be able to be full tilt Christmas. (I was trying not to peak too early and get burned out). I am listening to Christmas music stations (WMEE) in moderation right now so I don't get tired of hearing it too soon.

The Christmas schedule is a little in the air right now too. Christmas Eve is usually at my mom's house, but I wasn't sure if she would feel up to entertaining everyone. I am sure we will discuss tonight. On a side note: she has been having alot of pain in her butt and down her leg so she finally got to the doctor yesterday and found out that when the put the screws into her back they ended up fracturing something in her pelvic bone so that has lead to more pain than usual. IF it wasn't for bad luck my mom would have no luck at all. But hey she can still move around and walk, but she won't be able to do the full tilt rehab for a month or two until the fracture can heal.

Merry Christmas

Mom Update

Mom finally goes home today. Her back surgery on November 8th was successful but the rehab has been very slow. She spent the first week at Parkview North in the Orthopedic Hospital. She was thinking of going home after that, but she wasn't rehabbing that well so decided to to to the Rehab Hospital at Lutheran. She has been there for two weeks. I have been stopping after work almost everyday to see how she was doing. She told me how far she was walking and stuff but I never actually SAW her walk. By the time I got there at 5:00 she was always in bed and tired. Then earlier this week I finally saw her walk down the hallway and get out of and into bed. I feel better now having actually seen her get around pretty good with not much pain. I was afraid that she was telling me how well she was doing, but kinda exaggerating... she wasn't. Her arthritic hands make grabbing and pulling alot more difficult.

Most of this week I have been doing things to get her house ready for her. I pulled off the shower doors for her and installed a new show head with a hose that she can use easier. A couple things that were needed I was dreading. She told me that she needed a ramp to get into the house. She still can't quite make the 4 1/2 inch rise from the garage to the house. I was racking my brains on how to make one from scratch. And I pretty much had a design figured out. I of course called on the expertise of my father-in-law to help since I only had one day to put this thing together since I just found out about it Wednesday and needed it Friday afternoon. The other thing was needing a railing or handle for the shower that she could pull her self up on. She has a fiberglass insert so the thought of drilling through the fiberglass would pretty much make that a permanent fixture of the bathroom. But I caught a lucky break on those two items.... While running around yesterday for work I stopped by Debrands to get the nurses some candy for being so nice to mom, and then I stopped by James Medical rental place. I was able to find and rent a metal ramp, so no "SHOP" class for me and my father in law. Then I was able to find a handle for the shower that works with extra strong suction cups so no drilling into the shower insert. WHEW..

So tonight she will be home and with her dogs. She is having a bunch of friends spend day and night with her in case she needs anything. Monday Aunt Suzie comes to town and is going to spend as long as it takes until mom is able to get around on her own. Of course being ever inventive, I am taking our baby monitor over to mom's so if she needs help, they can hear her in other rooms. I thought that was a good idea. I think she will really enjoy being home finally. I know my uncle can't wait for her to get home so he can stop watching the dogs. Now we just have to make sure she keeps up on her walking and exercising!!! No Lallygagging!!

Saturday Thing

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30am and out the door by 5:45am. This was in an attempt to do something or get something for Jenny for Christmas so I will post that adventure after Christmas...

bedroom (where the Q's are sleeping) above the garage and almost directly able the garage door opener. The last time the Q's were in town both Jen and I had to go to work at 6:00am in the morning which meant two times for the garage door to go up. We didn't realize at the time how much noise and vibration went through the floor of the 4After my morning "thing" I decided to head to Target on the way home, just in case they restocked any of the items that I wanted overnight. Much to my surprise they did restock the v-smile game so I was 2 for 4 with my purchases. I asked about the TV's and the phones, but I was told they did not get any more in. Crap. But I was happy to get the game for the kids. As I am pulling up to the house I debated on opening the garage door or not. You see.. the 4thth bedroom when the garage door was opened. It wasn't until later on when I was sitting in the room when Jen came home from work when I realized how much it scared the poop out of you. So this trip I made sure to park outside both Friday and Saturday morning so not to use the garage door opener, but I figured it was 9:00am and with 3 kids they would surely be up.... nope... But they sure were after I opened the door. So more visiting and kids playing. Finally the Q's got stuff together to run out and visit with family in town and Jen headed off to work (again). William let me take a nap in the afternoon while Andrew was down for his nap. I had to wake Andrew up from his 3+ hour nap and we headed out the door to visit mom at the hospital. Andrew found a vending machine that sold animal crackers, so every time we visit he has to get a bag. He doesn't eat them that much, he just likes to see the money go in and the crackers fall from the shelf. After visiting for a while, they again got fussy so we headed out.
We ran over and visited Jen at the mall. After terrorizing Disney for a while we ran down to terrorize Andrews jewelers where my brother works now. The boys found out they have M&M dispensers and were constantly trying to get more. Andrew doesn't really like them that much, but the held a couple of them in his hand. Of course the chocolate melted and he ended up fingering the glass display cases with his greasy hands, but hey, it gives my brother something to do. The boys and I head home just missing the Q's visiting Jen at Disney. When the Q's get home we quickly put everyone to bed since Keith is especially tired and cranky, and they have a long drive on Sunday. Again the parents visit till the wee hours .

Sunday - Everyone finally starts stirring around 8:30 or so. After the Q collective grabbed some breakfast they pack up the van for a road trip to Michigan and then home to NY. It was alot of fun to have them around for the weekend. There were no major problems or meltdowns (a few minor ones). Everyone played nice together, including the kids. What is so fun about the Q's visit is that if they need something or want something they just get it. I don't have to worry about being a "host" all weekend, so that is relaxing. I know that we defiantly owe the Q's a couple visits in the near future. We will have to see what happens next year with the baby and all.

Back Friday

I usually avoid the stores like the plague on this weekend, but my mom and I saw a couple things in the Target ad that would be worth the hassle. Jen finds out that I am going to attempt to shop and adds to the list. So I have a total of 4 things to get. Two things for mom for presents, a v-smile game for William and to look at a new digital camera for me. I set the alarm for 5:30 with the attempt to get to Target by 6:00am-ish. I figure if I slept through the alarm that it wouldn't be any big deal. Of course not getting to bed until almost 2:00am made that a huge possibility. So the first I hear the alarm is 6:00am. I get up, throw on my clothes and a hat and head out the door. Target it not the far of a drive for me (thank God) so I am there at about 6:15. As I pull into the parking lot, it is filled all the way to the McDonalds parking lot. I find a spot in this little known side parking lot next to the store and head in. It is a madhouse. There are no carts at all available. Of course the biggest crowd is back in electronic where I want to go as well. All along the way they have pallets fulls of merchandise at pretty good prices, but I am there for 4 things only and to get out. I fight my way to the back of the store past people with carts (I don't know how they are able to maneuver through that crowd) and past the display with $4 DVD's. The first thing I look for is mom's items. A TV and cordless phones. Everything near the TV's is gone but I hear that they have another pallet in the Men's dept, so I head back over there... nothing...crap I am 0 for 1. I head to the cordless phone area and there is a huge hole where the phones were.... crap I am 0 for 2. I head to the v-smile area so see a bare shelf...crap I am 0 for 3. I go up to the counter to ask about the digital camera where the guy working the counter picks one of the top of a HUGE pile behind the counter.. so I am 1 for 4. I decide to walk all over the store just in case they have stacked the other stuff I needed someplace else. That and occasionally they would wheel out more merchandise, so I decided to hang out in case they brought more out. I saw that someone had one of those TV's in her cart and asked if it was the last one. She told me it wasn't, but she did see the last one go a little after 6:00am. While I was walking around I notice that there is a huge line at the back of the store. I decided to see what they were waiting to get (and to see if I wanted one too) and soon realize that this is the line to the checkout at the FRONT of the store. Crap. Is waiting in this line really worth a $84 digital camera. But I remembered that they were checking people out back in electronics and there were only like 4 or 5 people in line. So I head back and get checked out pretty quick. Overall I would have to say I have done Black Friday once, and unless there is something I REALLY REALLY REALLY want, or able to get a good deal on, I won't be doing that again.
After I left the store I decided to head up to grab some Tom's Doughnuts at the Higher Grounds coffee house on Dupont. I grabbed a dozen and headed home and waited for everyone else to wake up. After breakfast and general merriment, the Q's packed up and left to visit some friends in town. Jen had to go into work. And I just stayed around the house. We decided to have a get together with friends that night, so I threw together some of Carrie's cookies while Andrew was down for his nap. Around 8:00 or so Jeff and Paula showed up. Then Kevin and Lisa (who were also in town) showed up. So we sat around and visited while the kids ran all over the house. We finally got kids to bed around 10:30 again and the party kinda broke up after that too. Jen got home around 11:30, so we ended up sitting around and visiting till 1:30am again. I was planning on doing something early Saturday morning so again this was a good idea. Next... Saturday Thing

THANKSgiving 2007

whoooooooooooooo I need a nap.....

Where to begin.....

Thursday - Thanksgiving - We woke up in the morning and worked on getting the boys ready as well as last minute cleanup for the Q Collectives visit. We attempted to get to the in-laws at Noon, but it was more like 12:30 before we got there and we were the first one's there. At this point I just try to find a place to stay out of the way. I am there to help, but I figure one less person in the kitchen the better. The boys were having fun running around the house and were behaving themselves so I didn't have to worry about chasing them this year. Slowly people start showing up to lunch and I sit and watch the football game and visit with some of the relatives occasionally venturing into the kitchen for a snack. I am sitting there watching TV when "the brat" shows up. If you don't recall from last year this little spawn of satin made thanksgiving stressful for me last year. Jen and I just kinda looked at each when he showed up and had a little bit of a laugh. Overall the food was delicious. The turkey was the most tender, mouth watering turkey that I had had in years. Everything else was very tasty... almost. My mother-in-law has serious gravy issues. She just cannot make a good gravy. Usually she just can't get it to thicken, but this year I don't know what happened but it was pretty bad. Of course I find this out after dousing my mashed potatoes and turkey in it, Crap. So I am sitting there and eating when I see the kids go running outside with my son running up to me asking to go outside. I tell him we will go out in a minute as soon as I finish eating my meal. He then of course goes out into the garage and I see him a minute later running outside. Darn Kid, but luckily I was almost finished. So I grab my coat and head outside so I don't leave him alone with the "brat". The Brat and brother and sister climb up this pretty steep hill outside the in-laws house to play, but I decided not to let William go up there since I know there are hidden tree stumps and other stuff underneath the fallen leaves. I decided again to ignore the brat, and much to my surprise the brat's sister started talking to me and was a very nice little girl. She wanted to help out with Andrew when he came out too. Actually she wanted to carry him around but he is much to heavy for that to happen. So I ran around with the kids while the brat was at the top of the hill and everything was right with the world. That's the way the afternoon pretty much ended. We came back inside for dessert and more football. Around 6:00 we packed the family up and headed for the Rehab hospital at Lutheran to visit my mom who is still recovering from her back surgery. (She is doing pretty good and scheduled to come home this Friday.) After visiting for a while the boys were getting cranky so we decided to head for home. Just before I left my mom we talked about a couple of things that we saw in the Target ad for the black Friday sale. I usually avoid the stores all weekend, but I decided that if I happened to wake up that I would give the black Friday shopping experience a try. I had no clue. I ended up actually setting my alarm to get up. After we got home we were kind of settling in, but we knew the Q's were on the way to the house. Around 8:00 or so they finally arrived. Let the fun begin. All of the kids were having a blast running all over the house and playing with each other. The adults sat around the table visiting in the middle of the carnage. We finally started putting kids to bed around 10:30pm or so (way past bedtime). Last year Keith and Mary slept in the pull out couch downstairs but this year Keith found the room a little too scary so Mary got the room to herself. John, Carrie, and Izzy got a roommate. After putting the kids to bed we ended up sitting around and eating and drinking till at least 1:30am which was probably not a good idea since I was planning on getting up at 5:30am, but hey it's an experience. Next.... Black Friday....

Quiz Answer

Well I have either stumped people about what movie the Mustang was in or no one really wants to play. The movie was Innerspace with Dennis Quaid and Martin Short and Meg Ryan (pictured behind the car). It was a Speilberg picture so it was pretty mainstream. Jen and I talked about the movie and could recall dialog and names of characters. I just remember the car. That's why she is my Lobster (Friends reference)

Hoosier Pie Recipe

One of my main recipes for the holiday season is Hoosier Pie. It's like a Pecan or Derby Pie that has been in the family for years and I took it upon myself to make this pie, buckeyes, and grandma's Christmas cookies every year. We are having a carry-in here at work tomorrow and I was going to make a pie. Jen and I looked for my recipe and couldn't find it. I can't believe that I lost it. I would just get the recipe from my mom, but she is laid up in the hospital for another week to 10 days so who knows where it is in her house. Luckily I sent the recipe to my step mom a year or two ago, and thank God she is more organized than I am. I decided to post it on my blog so I would always have it on-line. Much like Carrie's fantastic cookie recipe that I have had to reprint a couple times off her blog when I loose the hard copy. So here it is

Hoosier Pie

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs beaten
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp Bourbon
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter, beat in sugar gradually. Add eggs, syrup, vanilla and salt, blend well. Stir in chocolate chips, pecans and Bourbon. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake 40-45 minutes at 375.

I like to refrigerate the pie after it has cooled. It helps the pie set up and get a little more firm in the middle. Usually serve with whipped cream on the top. This is a really rich pie and the taste of bourbon is pretty subtle and alot gets burned off so don't worry about it tasting like a bourbon pie.

Next I post my buckeye recipe..... Enjoy

Why Jen is my Lobster

You know. There are a few things that happen that prove that Jen and I were made for each other. We share the same amount of geekyness and have a phychotic, no, that would be psychic connection with each other. Just when I think I can pull out a little bit of way out trivia, she knows exactly what I am talking about. The other day we were pulling into Kroger and I saw that someone had a real nice late 60's mustang fastback sitting at the gas station. This triggered a memory that I had seen the same mustang only a convertible in the local Wheels and Deals. I made the comment to Jen that I had seen the car in the auto magazine and it reminded me of the movie....

Wait....

Let's have fun.....

Here is the picture of the car from the movie....














Name that movie... Let's see how many other geeks are out there.

She knew all about the movie. It's not like it wasn't a main release film like "Bad Taste" (darn you Jeff, that's 91 minutes of my life I will miss), it's just obscure. What surprises me is that she has seen this movie many times but never has seen a classic like "Jaws". With me it's all about the car, I think with her it's about the star of the movie......

I feel the need....

We finally have DSL at home!!!! I don't know how but I finally talked Jen into getting DSL for the house. A couple selling points is that its only $5 more than we are currently paying per month for dial up, we didn't have to worry about tying up a phone line, and the kids are starting to play alot more on the computer. It's one of those questions that we couldn't answer.... We don't really use the Internet that much at home, so it is worth the extra money, but then there is the question if we would use it more if it was easier and faster. We will find out...but I am thinking we will use it alot more now. Went a little crazy and go the wireless router too. I messed with it a little bit Wednesday night but couldn't get it to work, but Jen got it running on Thursday, but not the wireless. I got that working last night. I am going to look into web cams so I can set something up with my dad for maybe a video conference once a week to visit with him and the kids. But in looking around there are different types of web cams and some have audio (I thought they all had audio) and the services like Yahoo and IM are video only (I think). I never payed that much attention to the technology and I have questions. Looks like a trip to Best Buy (darn... he he). Maybe set up a web cam thing with the Q's so Jen and Carrie can yap. Also, now if we miss a show during the week, alot of them are replayed on websites so we can catch them later on. I also need to put together one more computer for the kids to play with and will stop messing with the other ones, but I need some ram. Brother can you spare some Ram??????

Long Day

Yesterday my mom went in for surgery for her back. She has had back and hip problems for years now, but finally decided to get it taken care of. The surgery involves putting in a metal bar and hardware to decompress some of the vertebrae. She had to get to the hospital at 5:30am with surgery at 7:30. I wake up yesterday thinking that if I get there around 6:00ish I would have a chance to visit before she goes in. Also, I try to drag out what time I leave the house hoping that the sound of the shower and me leaving the house won't wake the kids up. NOPE. As soon as I walk down the hall William wakes up and won't go back to sleep. I figure the more I argue with him the better chance of waking up his brother so I take him downstairs. Jen isn't too happy to see him awake at 6:00am either. So I grab my stuff and head out the door. Knowing the surgery will be 3 hours I threw together a backpack with a book and DVD player with movies. I head to the Orthopedic hospital of Parkview North in a pretty good snowstorm.... yes snow storm. Nothing sticking to the ground but depressing non the less. I am not real sure where to go and I drive toward a door for the Orthopedic center, but I noticed that when I turned it says "construction traffic only" and go through two red cones. I figure this is just the road they want the heavy machinery going down. As I drive down this "road" I feel the car drop around 8 inches into a dirt road. Oops. I turn around and head back to the main drag (of course hitting the back bumper on the now eye level curb). I finally get to the hospital and see my brother and uncle in the waiting room where they are waiting while they prep mom some more. So a little bit of visiting and she is wheeled away for surgery around 7:00. She tells me that her doctor's name is McGee so I am planning on seeing an Irishman or Scott and was a little surprised to see a black doctor. He's the best in Fort Wayne, I just assumed with the last name of McGee he would look different. So mom gets wheeled into Surgery and we go out to the waiting room. With 3 hours to kill I figure I can sneak away and help Jen take the Jeep to be serviced, so I take off. That was quite the adventure to get all the kids together and arranged while Jen took her shower and then drive across town, drop the Jeep off, transfer car seats, and drive across town again. You would think that 3 hours would be enough, but it wasn't. On a side note: Odaniel's called Jen with a laundry list of repairs for the Jeep that totalled near $3000 to fix everything. I told her to have stuff fixed that would pose a safety risk and we will go looking for a new minivan this weekend, crap. That was a task we were going to try and put off until later next year. Anyway I get back to the hospital and my brother and uncle are already back talking to the doctor so I walk into the room just as they are walking out...crap... But good news everything went as expected and the surgery took less time than expected. He told us it would be another 3 hours in recovery and she would get moved up into a room. So my Uncle took off to grab something to eat and take care of the dogs and my brother took off to go to a job interview. I pulled out the portable DVD player and watched a little bit of a RUSH concert then changed over to Ghostbusters. My uncle showed back up and we watched the movie on the player. At around 4 hours after surgery (an hour past the time she should be in a room) I decided to start asking what was going on. The told us that she lost alot of blood and if her blood pressure stayed the same she would be moved to a room, but if it went lower she would be moved to ICU. So I go and talk to this old guy working the patient desk. He is a slow lumbering old guy. I just called him "lurch". He told us that all he knew she was still in recovery. About 2 minutes later he comes up to us and tells us she is in her room. Either it was a coincidence that I had just asked or someone forgot to tell Lurch. So we go up and mom is pretty out of it. She wakes up a couple times to talk to us and have us call her friends to tell her about the surgery. Dan and I just spent the next 4 hours up in her room talking and watching TV while mom napped with her "Magic Button" medicine dispenser next to her. Dan and I did run across the street for dinner at Culvers which was good but expensive. I took off around 8 to go home and help put the boys to bed. Of course I came home to find out that Andrew has just puked all over the place so Jen had to clean that. Put the boys down, played on the computer, and went to bed. It was a long day, but mom seems to be doing pretty good. Now the long road to rehab and alot of crying and pain for her, but hopefully it will make her feel better in the long run.

Hectic Halloween

Halloween was NUTS !!!!!!

We planned on going to a party with some other people from Jen's playgroup that was starting at 6:00pm. Jen had to work until 5:00 so I figure she won't get home until 6:00 since she almost never gets home on time. I thought an hour to get stuff together and kids ready would give me more than enough time since I get home at 5:00. NOPE. I get stuck in a meeting at work (you know the 3 hour meeting where no much gets done) and don't leave until 5:00pm. Crap. So I come home to find that mom has put the kids in their costumes for their photo op and so they are ready for the party. It wasn't until then that I noticed that William's costume was actually made of quality material and real thick, almost like a kiddie Cardhart. He had jeans and a shirt underneath but it wasn't that cold outside. I decided that if he started to look too hot that I would just strip off the jeans and shirt and let him wear the costume sans clothes. Andrew actually liked wearing his costume this year but not so much for the head gear. So I am scrambling to get myself and kids ready. Jen comes home around 5:45 and she is running around trying to get stuff done and packed up too. I can already see it's going to be a stressful night. It's not supposed to be.... it's freakin' Halloween. So everything packed up we leave around 6:00 and drive to her friends house. We walk up and there are kids everywhere, running all over the place. I know a few of the mother's (kinda) but have no idea who any one else is so it's a little awkward for me. Jen and I get something to eat and decided it was pointless to try and feed the boys since they are downstairs where the chanting has begun for the "lord of the flies" group down there. There are a couple of little girls in that group that are holy terror personified. Little alpha females. I would love to have a little girl, but I see this and THANK GOD that I have all boys. Finally someone says "we start to trick or treat in 5 minutes". So 15 minutes later with the majority of the little darlings running all over the driveway they try and get a photo with all the kids, all I can say is good luck to that. So more farting around with trying to get kids and parents together I am ready to take off with my boys and do our own thing, but decided to try and stay with the group. So we finally unleash about 20 kids on the blackhawk neighborhood. God have mercy on their souls. The kids run from house to house with the little alpha females leading the pack. Some parents try to slow them down, but it didn't work that well. William was kinda keeping up with the group, but started to fade back. I couldn't tell if he was getting tired because of all the layers of clothes or he just wanted to do things at his own pace. William would actually wait for his turn rather than push his way forward like most of the other kids which made him a little slower than the others. Jen stayed with William while I brought up the rear with Andrew. Him and I would hit a house every once in a while, but he got more of a kick out of just walking around than actually trick or treating, but he walked the whole time. He was fascinated by all of the decorations on the houses. So after half an hour or so we head back to the house for more playtime, but I tell Jen we need to take off. We head out and stop by my brother's house for a quick visit and to play with the new puppy since he is just around the corner. Then we decided to run over to one of Jen's co-workers houses to see his Halloween display since he goes all out, and he really did again this year. This is the same guy that has Disney in every square inch of his house too. He gets the Styrofoam pumpkins and carves them with images so they can be reused every year. He had about 25 on display in front of the garage door and probably another 10 around the front yard. So another quick visit there and we head out to the in-law's house. We get there for another visit and for snackage for the boys since they hadn't eaten anything all night. So finally we head home around 10:00 get the boys to bed and collapse ourselves.

THAT'S IT I have had enough... Next year we stay home. If people want to visit they can come to our house and I am going to take the boys at their own pace in our neighborhood. The last thing I want is for this fun holiday to be stressful for everyone like other holidays. It's supposed to be fun for cripes sake.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!! Plans for tonight include taking the boys to a party and doing a little trick or treating in another neighborhood. Some day I would like to stay home and see what it's like around our house, but there is always a party to go to. Probably a trip to my mom's house for pictures and possibly a trip to the in-laws so they can hear what the doorbell sounds like since this is the one time of year it actually get rung. And since they are in the middle of the country, the boys will be the only one ringing it.

We carved pumkins on Monday night. After I got done carving mine (pictured above) it reminded me of someone or something. What do you think?





It reminded me of Tim the Enchanter









Or the ghostbusters dog

Full Pumpkin Lineup

HAPPY FEET !!!!!!!

We tell Andrew that it is time for "Happy Feet" and he does a little dance around the area. Last night he threw in a new twist. When He would stop and we would say "yeah" and start to clap he now will take a bow. We didn't teach that to him, who knows where he got it.

MR Halloween party

By Saturday we were finally able to work out the logistics of actually going to MR's Halloween Party. My mom was out of town, Jen's parents were going to a party too, but lucky for us Jen's friend Tracy was available. Also Jen was able to rearrange and switch her work schedule to be able to make it. Her boss asked her why she needed Saturday off and Jen told her that she wanted to go to an adult party. Her boss says "ADULT" Party??? No, not that kind of Adult party, just one without kids. So anyway..... I had been looking for a week for a cheap costume. Costume's aren't required for MR's party, but it can be kind of fun to dress up. I just didn't want to spend more than $20 on a costume. Many trips to Walmart, Meijer, Halloween USA, and even some Internet shopping didn't even get close. The weekend before Halloween probably isn't the best time to get a deal on costumes, but I tried. I wasn't finding anything, but remembered that I had an old basketball uniform in the attic from the days when I played with the radio station. It was a pretty gaudy shiny turquoise outfit which was my backup costume idea. I got the uniform down and it still fit pretty well. The pants were a little snug, but I figured it would work. We decided to put Andrew down to sleep before we left and let Tracy put down William when he was good and tired. I gave both the boys baths and we put Andrew down. A few minutes later he started crying like he knew we were leaving. After about 10 minutes of crying it started to go into screaming which is not like him. The funny thing is that he did the same thing last Halloween to Tracy while we were at MR's party, but it was at 11:00pm and lasted an hour until we got home. Jen and I decided to go upstairs and calm him down before we left him with Tracy. We walk in the room to calm him down, and then "the cough" starts. Nooooooooo. Yep, he pukes spaghettioos all over the place. Crap. So we cleaned him up and his bedding. Jen rocked him to calm him down and he finally fell asleep after half an hour, but not without more struggle. So finally Andrew asleap, William set, Jen and Tracy start gabbing. Finally we get out the door around 9:00. We get to the party and see some new faces and a few familiar ones. Once again the food and drinks were fantastic. It was great to be able to visit with friends again, it has been too long and not often enough. MR did the whole Mentos/Diet Coke experiment and it actually worked out pretty well. MR got a neat little Margarita machine that could some in real handy during the year. The one bummer is that time went way to fast. Keith, Jeff, and wives left around 11:00ish and before I knew it the clock said 12:00 for us too. Time to get home. We got home to find Tracy the boys asleep on the couch. It was again a lot of fun and I am looking forward to MR's Christmas party. I also need to look around now for a good deal on a Halloween costume for next year. I am looking for the group picture of the party people to do have a little photoshop fun..

Venting

Yeah it's time for me to bitch again.....

Item #1: My freaking windows. We have two windows in our front room that are both screwed. The one window won't shut correctly and the other doesn't work for crap. So I decide that since it's almost fall and we won't be using it anymore, that THIS is the time to fix it. I decide that the window that is hard to close isn't really that big of a problem so I turn my attention to the one that doesn't work properly. From what I can see it has lost a couple screws on the bottom of the sash that keeps it from working properly, so I figure a couple screws and that would solve the problem. I got outside to see what kind of screws I need to reattach the bracket and I look on the bottom of the window to see Swiss cheese for wood. Son of a Biscuit!! All the wood on the bottom is falling apart and like a sponge. So my quick fix is probably now going to entail replacing the window since I am not sure if that could be fixed.

Item #2: My WTF of the day. Over the years I have had what I would say is a questionable stomach. Over the years of test and diets and stuff it has actually calmed down. The one thing that I found to help was a over the counter medicine called zantac 150 (I highly recommend MR!!) It is a pretty efficient acid reducer/stomach helper. I noticed a commercial for this medicine over the weekend that now it's coated in mint... MINT.... WTF?? How is this flavorless medicine that you swallow with a glass of water going to be helped by a mint flavor??? What a waste of money for the company that will no doubt increase the cost of this already pricey medicine. Only thing I can think of it that it will taste minty when you burp. Lucky for me I rarely need this stuff anymore but still..

Item #3: Dumbledore is Gay. Why the Fark did JK Rowling "out" Dumbledore. It makes no sense at all for her to "out" a FICTIONAL character after the story is done and it had absolutely no relevance in the story. Great, now all the muggles who looked up to that character now have to worry about their own sexuality, did they like the character because he was a father figure or did they just like the way he "swung his wand". In my mind he will never be gay, he will always be giving it to professor McGonagall right the in the grand hall when no one is around and nearly headless Nick watching. What's next Frodo and Sam with the old slap and tickle with Gollum? Yeah I am a little pissed about this.

Thanks for Reading... whew.. I feel better...

Useful Internet

I am in the process of working on my basement including the installation of shelving in the furnace room and the basic organization of crap down there. The ultimate goal is to clear out enough stuff and put in in the furnace room so I can start to work on the basement remodel. Which means DE-MO-LI-TION.... God I love Demo... I am going to do a subdued demo with controlled dismantling of the drywall and not the typical sledgehammer. I really want to just see what I am dealing with behind the walls and under the ceiling. I decided to clear one room so I could get into the walls, but that means clearing the room. In the process of clearing the crap I decided that would be a good time to sort stuff and either pitch crap, earmark for a garage sale, or throw it into the attic to worry about it another day. One of the bigger items in the room was a 27 inch TV that I bought 8 years ago. It was a really nice set that made it through Tartan's Glen and then Pine Valley. But during the last move something must have happened to it. I noticed that when we got to the new house that it wasn't working. When you turned the volume up it turned the set off and nothing I did could solve the problem. I figured something in the 5 months in the garage must have cause the problem. Well I just threw the TV in the basement when we moved in and decided to deal with it later. So, here it is later. I decide that anything that I pull out of the room MUST be dealt with at that time and no stacking it elsewhere. I pull the TV out of the room and have to decide whether to pitch it or if it's worth taking somewhere to get fixed. I decided to surf the net to see if I could find an owners manual or some other help. I figure taking it to a repair shop would be a minimum of $75, nope, scratch that idea. I found the owners manual on-line that I could buy for $15, nope, don't want to do that. But I did find a forum on-line with one of the questions stating the exact problem that I had. HOLY CRAP!! The forum suggested a TV reset using the factory commands that only insiders in the TV repair world would know about, and wouldn't you know it.. it worked. The Internet is actually useful and not for just looking at kitties. Yeah I know I am lucky to find the exact problem that I had on a forum, but it was still cool that I fixed it pushing 4 buttons and at no cost. My elation of solving the problem and thinking of enjoying the TV in the basement was tempered by the knowledge that in a couple years it will be useless due to it not having a digital tuner. sigh. I only hope that the little box that they sell for us "old school" UHFers do convert digital signal to analog will be somewhat affordable.

Geekfest II ????? maybe Geekfest 1.5

I came across this story about a new waterpark in Shipshewana. I was thinking that WHEN/IF the Q's come in town around the holidays of possibly heading up and doing geekfest II. It's no where near the quality of the Kalahari, but it's only about 65 miles away and would be easy to get to. It might be a pain in the butt getting some rooms around the holidays, but just wanted to throw that out there for you consideration. Of course we could always just do the Holidome for a day also for the Q's possible visit.

http://wanawaves.splashuniverse.com/

ps. The Kalahari is adding 93,000 square feet for next year by the way, let's plan ahead and start saving. Info HERE

Open for Business

More cool internet toys

A co-worker put me onto a website that looks like fun. The site is called Cafe Press. What you do is design something either a graphic, logos,text, or just a picture. Then you can take that file and place it on numerous items like t-shirts, mugs, magnets and other assorted mechandise. The cool part is that they do all of the work. It is a free site with no minimum orders with them taking care of shipping and stuff. You can either order the stuff you design at your cost or assign a profit to it to make a few bucks if other people order your stuff. You can either keep your site/store private for friends and family or make it public with a chance of making a few more bucks, but you have to think of a design that others would want. But even if they don't you aren't out anything since it's free. I am thinking about a design for Halloween but haven't found my inspiration, of course I don't think I have time before MR's party.

Here is the address of a store that I opened using an old logo design that I was playing with. I would need to tweek the design before I ordered anything, but it's mind boggling to think of the stuff you could do.

http://www.cafepress.com/hogansbeachbar

Yeah, Carrie.... I will get back to work....

Field Trip

Yesterday William's class went on a field trip to a pumpkin farm. It was his first field trip in school as well as his first bus ride. Lately he has been a little touchy about loud noises so I was concerned that the bus ride would be something that would upset him. Jen had to work so I took half a day off and went with him on the field trip (parents were welcome to come along). It was a nice little field trip. We loaded on the school bus without any trouble and got into a seat, (with seat belts nonetheless!!). We drove out to the Kurtz farm which is a little family farm along hwy. 37 going toward Harlan. This is the same place that we have been going for years to buy our pumpkins. They have this neat thing where the pumpkins are separated by size and price. It is totally on the honor system with a money drop box by the barn where you put your money, so you can go whenever you want, even though the prices are getting a little salty. After getting to the farm we got some instructions from Mrs. Kurtz and went into a barn for "Pumpkin School" where she described how pumpkins grow at a pre-school level. Of course being pre-school she was interrupted numerous times from the kids with real silly questions, but the got through the very interesting presentation. After Pumpkin School with numerous interruptions including the tractors, we loaded up into the back of a trailer for a (straw) hay ride out to the pumpkin patch so the kids could pick their own pumpkin. Nothing like asking a bunch of pre-schoolers to choose from hundreds of pumpkins. After that we loaded back on the buses for the ride back to school. Overall William did great on the trip and didn't have any problems at all. I think there was times when he totally forgot I was there with other classmates around and things to see so no problems if he does another field trip.

Man I haven't been on a school bus in at least 25 years. What a total "end-of-Ferris-Bueller-with credits-rolling-esque" moment that was. Numerous times I felt like I was Ed Rooney. Not much has changed on the school bus in all of that time, but the video camera was a bit foreboding pointing at me.

A side note to this post. I had about 40 minutes to kill between the time we got back to school and when I had to pick up William so I decided to run over to Keith's business and pick something up. After a few wrong turns I finally got there to a jammed pack parking lot. I parked in a sales rep slot, (screw it he should be out selling anyway) and went inside. I told the lady at front that I wanted to see Keith, and she told me ALOT of people would like to see Keith. She informs me that he is out to lunch..dang. I was heading out and I see him in the parking lot. I can see why he doesn't have time to blog or get together anymore. As I was following him around the office he was introducing me to people, putting out numerous fires, taking care of sales weasels, watching the packing, catching crap from his boss, and a ton of other stuff in the 10 minutes I was there. I can only imagine dealing with that ALL DAY long. There is a man in need of a serious "guys night" out or he will surely explode...

Happy Birthday Andrew

Saturday we had a 2nd birthday party for Andrew. It was kinda thrown together at the last minute since Jen's work schedule was all over the place. We were looking at the middle of the month before we could do a party for him, but I saw an opportunity on Saturday since Jen wasn't going into work until 6:00. Unfortunately the plans didn't work with my mom and Jen's dad due to prior commitments, but we had a get together with them on Andrew's actual birthday on Wednesday. Jen's dad did get back in town to stop by for a visit at the end of the party. We decided to keep it real simple with just pizza, cake and ice cream, and surprisingly that's what it turned out to be. Usually when I try to keep it simple, it gets complicated or the menu expands alot, but it didn't. Jen did a fantastic job on the cake (pictured above) it really looked good. Actually it was better than the picture shows. It was a curious George inspired cake that turned out fantastic with little tufts of grass on the top and palm trees on the side that looked great.

For pizza we decided to run over to Papa Murphy's pizza take n' bake. We like their pizza and it is really affordable. I was instructed to get two "family" sized pizzas, one being peperoni and the other "whatever". I am really bad decided "whatever", but when I got there they had a special on a 5 meat stuffed pizza that looked interesting so I ordered it. I got back to the house as people were showing up and threw the first pizza and breadsticks into the oven since the stuffed pizza required a lower cooking temp. I pulled out the first pizza and put it on the table and put the second in the oven. The first pizza was quickly disappearing and I could only hope that the second would be done before the first ran out. Just after the first pizza was finished the second came out and they both were great. The stuffed crust one was de-lic-ious with thick crust. I got quite a few comments and questions about what kind of pizza it was and how good it was. At first I was worried about left over from two "family" sized pizzas, but there ended up being nothing left which was even better. I just noticed that that stuffed pizza is on special again now so I might have to get another one pretty soon.

After we ate the kids went outside and the adults were visiting, of course in the visiting room..... the kitchen. Thank God we have a big kitchen. After a little bit I decided to get things going since kids birthday parties are supposed to be short, but it was hard since we were all having a good time visiting. I didn't want to seem like I was rushing people out the door, but I also wanted to get things moving so people wouldn't feel bad if they had to leave, so it's a strange balance. We opened up Andrew's presents and he seemed to enjoy everything that he got. Of course he got to play with them for a short time until William decided to play with them. After presents, it's was cake and ice cream. I felt bad cutting into the cake but that's what they are there for. More visiting and people slowly made their way to the door.

It was a great party with good friends, but too short for a good visit. With everything on paper plates the clean up went very fast with only a few thing in the sink to clean or put in the dishwasher. Jen got to rest a little (I think we both took a nap) before she had to head into work for the night. A few more pictures can been seen on the neglected flicker site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveandjj_ii/