Whew I need to get a job

So I am trying my best to stay to a routine during my "time off" of work. I get up in the morning at 7:00am, grab a shower, and usually end up taking William to school. I made the mistake of coming home from dropping William off and watching the morning news shows like Good morning America or Today (like I do on the weekends). Before I know it, it's noon and half the day is shot. My job right now is to find a job but it only takes so long to search my websites and check my emails. Now I don't turn on the TV I seem to get more done in the morning at least. I try to keep it off all day long, but two days ago I turned it on in the afternoon while the boys were taking a nap and flipped around. I came across Judge Joe Brown which is one of these typical two people straight from the trailer go into his "courtroom" and he yells at them and awards money. It's mesmorizing and addictive to see this guy goes off on these poeple. After that was Judge Judy which is pretty much the same. I don't know why but these shows are entertaining to me. Another reason to keep the TV off and get some stuff done around the house or yard. I actually got some yardwork done yesterday that has been bugging me for quite some time now. Just a little corner of the yard that has gotten away from me, but I kicked it's butt yesterday. We are still being bombed by the acorns off the tree.

On the job front I am still waiting on word from my second interview last week. They said that they would be in contact with me the first of this week, but it's Thursday. I might drop her an email later today. I have also set up a interview in Auburn for next week that sounds like a good job as well. So a couple of things going. I am sure Jen is ready to get me out of the house, but I hardly see her due to her work schedule any more. I am sure the grandma's are enjoying their time off as well.

Take Cover !!!!

Well this is something new. For the past week the tree in our backyard has been dropping what I think are acorns (or some sort of nut/seed). Of course with one of the tree's branches over our house they proceed to hit the house at all time of the day and night. Nothing like settling into bed at night just to hear "thump", "rattle rattle rattle". I already sleep pretty light due to the boys getting up at all hours for different problems, but these things only add to the annoyment. Occasionally one of these squirrel bombs hits the skylight in our bathroom for an especially LOUD thump. And the ones that fall even further to hit the glass table top on the deck are loud too. I don't remember this tree throwing this many acorns in the past. I guess the tree just had a good year or the squirrels aren't doing a very good job.

ugggggggggggg

Being unemployed sucks, but being unemployed with a cold sucks worse. That time of year again when William is in school and starts bringing home bugs and colds. Usually if I was at work I would have a good chance of missing a cold, but nope, it's gone right down the line from William to Andrew to Jen to Me to Christopher. It's just the headache,runny nose, eyes burning, sore throat, drainage kind of cold (just enough to make you miserable). The kids seem to be getting over it pretty quick so I am hoping that it will do the same with Jen and I.

I have been sending out resume's and getting stuff done around the house. It still seems like a long weekend to me and I don't think that it has truely set in that I don't have a job. I am sure by next week I will have a reality check one day... probably when my head clears up a little bit more... snifff.

Unemployed doesn't mean not busy

Well my first day unemployed and it was very busy. I am going to make it a point to get up early in the morning and start my day just like usual. Not that I have much of a choice with the kids anyway. I got up and took William to school. Of course with school being at church, I stopped and gave a shout out to the big guy. After that I headed over to Office Depot. I needed to print out more copies of my resume but my printer at home isn't working and my mom's didn't print out either. I have 3 printers in the house and none of them work. I think the ink just drys out for lack of use in those printers. I went to Office Depot not knowing how much they charged or if they could use the paper I brought in, but they were very helpful and I was able to use my own paper. I threw my resume on a floppy disc since I didn't really feel like using a CD for a 30 meg file. The girl plugs in my disc and starts doing her thing, but it freezes up and says that the disc is corrupt. Crap. Lucky for me they have internet connection on that computer and I pull it up on line since I had emailed it to myself not to long ago. For a nice laser copy of my resume it was only 9 cents which isn't too bad. Color would have been 49 cents apiece, but the only color that I had on my resume was my email address. So I leave there and head next store to Kohl's. I tried on my suit last night and it was a little big, but I couldn't find a black belt in the house. So I run in the store and start looking around at the selection of belts. I try on a couple of different sizes, but one looks to small and the other looks to big. I finally found a size in the middle that I think will work out pretty well. After checking out I notice that there is a Red Cross RV in the parking lot and a lady inside asks me if I want to donate blood. I have been wanting to do that for a while, but for one reason or another I have never done it. So I sign up and head out to the RV. You can tell by the inside that this RV has been through alot. It wasn't dirty or anything, but I will say it looked "well used". So I finally get to meet with a person to fill out the paperwork and questionnaires to get started. After that I laid down on a little couch and went through the process of giving blood. Overall it wasn't too bad. I didn't have a chance to grab breakfast before leaving so they had me drink a coke while I was giving blood to keep my blood sugar up. I felt a little weird after giving blood, but I couldn't tell if it was because I gave blood or if it was because I am not used to drinking caffeine anymore since I stopped drinking it 8 years ago. After giving blood I was sent to the front of the bus and given a couple of cookies and watched a mechanic working on the engine of the RV. (like I said this thing has been well used). I wasn't sure if I had to sit there for a specific amount of time, but finally they said, "oh you could have left when you wanted". Maybe next time I will go to the plasma center and make a little $$$. So I get home and grab some breakfast, then head over to pick up William from school. After getting home I got online to start the process for unemployment. I still need to get more details on what exactly I need to do and that kind of stuff. Saturday I got a call for a second interview for a job, which she later called back and set up for this afternoon. She told me to block out at least 5 hours for the interview... 5 hours????? I would be meeting with 3 or 4 different people in the same afternoon. She scheduled every person at least an hour and a half. I couldn't possibly fathom trying to interview someone for that long, but hey whatever they want to do. I made it to the appointment early. The first guy I talked to had a script of questions and he took the full time together asking me his scripted questions and drilling me on some other stuff. The second guy just kind of skimmed over the scripted questions, but we spent most of the time just talking. After about 30 minutes he says that he can't think of anything else and decides to end it early, which is fine, but kind of messes up the schedule for the last guy. They were able to call him in a little early so I spent most of that time talking with some of the staff until he showed up. The third guy didn't have his script at all and we just talked for 15 minutes or so. About 3 and a half hours total, I was basically done for my interview. I knew there was another person who might want to talk to me, but I wasn't about to hang out without a specific appointment. So I headed home stopping by the Disney store to talk to Jen. I grabbed some Mikky D's on the way home for the boys. I will hear about the job the first of next week. Until then I am going to keep looking on the internet and sending out resumes. Overall I think I did well on the interviews. The job sounds exciting and overwhelming at the same time, but I think I can probably handle it.

That's all folks....

Well I almost made it through Monday. Now I can say that monday's truely suck. It's called a layoff so there are some benefits and paid for my unused vacation days and such. It's weird sitting here in empty surroundings with all my pictures and stuff off of the walls. Just have to pack up my radio when I leave and that's all. I appreciate my boss giving me the heads up a couple weeks ago and I really hope that he can save the business. If this job interview this week works out then it will truely be a blessing. Until then I am going to keep on searching and see how this unemployement thing works. I have been paying into it for 25 years, so now it's time to take a little back. Hopefully it's enough to get the family by for a little while. I need to see what projects that I can get done around the house that don't cost anything (I am sure there are a ton of them). Nothing else maybe I can work on the basement project and get that at least to a point that it's ready to go for paint and drywall when I get some money rolling in later. My blog entries will probably start to sound like MDH's.. just without the decoder ring....

Am I just that lucky

I have applied for a few jobs since I got the heads up from my boss few weeks ago. I did a phone interview for a postion last week. Then I got a call for a second interview on Saturday for this week some time. I think it's a job that I would really enjoy, and hopefully it will work out since it's the only one that I have going on so far.

Say a little prayer for me (if you do that sort of thing). I will tell you more about the job later.

Check Check Check

A very good weekend to put a couple of check marks on the honey-do list. I made it through Friday and still had a job at the end of the day.. whew. I went to bed kinda late. Around 3:00am William comes walking in the room so I had to trudge him back to bed. Then at 5:00am he came back with his blanket, but I noticed some thunder, Lightning, and rain outside so I figured that he was just scared so I just let him get in bed with me (Jen crashed on the couch downstairs again). Minutes later Jen comes up to bed which puts William nuzzled up next to me. I was already a little warm, but William's body heat doesn't help. At this point there is a loud clap of thunder and Andrew starts crying. So I go into his room for two reasons. One, to calm him down, and two, to give me a place to sleep. After calming Andrew down and trying to settle in I hear an ear piercing noise. What the heck is that? That sounds like the alarm for the battery backup for the sump pump. We have power in the house which only means one thing. The back-up sump is running which means the primary pump is either not working or being overwhelmed by water. It is raining extremely hard, which is how the basement flooded the last time. So I run down to the basement to see both of the pumps running full speed, but they are keeping up with the water coming in the sump and keeping it from over flowing. whewwww. I was going to try and use a bucket to help drain some of the water, but with the install of the back-up sump, I can't get a bucket in there. Oh well at least it's keeping up. I then hear Andrew screaming upstairs. I get him back into bed. I am standing in the basement watching the pumps run. Of course I think "If the sump starts to flood there isn't anything I can really do about it", and with two pumps running it shouldn't. Anyway so I am standing there and finally the pumps start to get ahead of the water to the point where the back-up stops running and the primary can handle it. I am so glad I got that installed. So I trudge upstairs wide awake. I was close to blogging about the experience while I was awake, but I was just too tired. I thought about going back to bed, but William is there and it was real comfy in the chair downstairs, so I stayed there and grabbed a little nap until Andrew woke up.

Saturday: I headed out to get a haircut in the morning (got to look good for interviews). After I got my hair cut I decided to run down to redi-med. A couple of months ago I stepped on a little rock with ball of my foot and it has hurt on and off since then. I figure I better get it looked at while I still had insurance. I walk in the door to a packed waiting room and a line to the counter. Yeah, I am not that bad, I will come back later. I head over to the in-laws to look at there closets. Jen wants shelves in the front room and she likes the way the in-laws looks. So I get an idea of the design and head over to Menards to look at parts and prices. I get home to lunch and stuff. Then I clear out the front room of all the toys. Another job for the front room is to put a second coat of paint on the walls. I was able to get this room painted before Easter, but wasn't able to get the second coat done before we had everyone over. Actually I thought the one coat would do the trick, but it looks better with the second coat. I spent the next 3 hours working on the room and trying to keep the boys out. I finally let them into the room with me with the restriction of staying in the CENTER of the room and away from the walls. They did pretty good, but started drifting toward the walls after a while. I was able to finish the room pretty fast. So dinner and the usual stuff at night. After puting the kids to bed I headed back to redi-med to a nearly empty waiting room. While the nurse was writing down my information I was describing the pain in my foot and showed her where it hurt. She says "oh right there on that wart?" Huh, what, a wart? I didn't have wart there before. So finally the doctor comes in the room and says "Hi I am Shannon" What, no I am Dr. so and so? That's usually what they say. I find out later that her last name was Quinn. I guess she had enough of the Dr. Quinn medicine woman jokes for the day. She looks at my foot and says, yep it's a wart. I find out that it is a virus and is contagious whereupon I remember that we just got done getting rid of a wart on William's foot so I probably got it from him (or gave it to him). As she is using the liquid nitrogen I am thinking that I could have been pain free months ago, oh well. After redi-med I stop by Ritters for some ice cream and one last hurrah since they are closing for good at the end of the month. Our usual splurge is Zesto's since Ritters is a little too far to keep the ice cream from melting. After I got home we pulled out the laptop and got caught up on "Bonz" which took us after midnight.

Sunday: Got up early of course and headed to church. After church we went over to the in-laws for lunch. They just got back from a road trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and some other stuff out there. It sounds like they did quite a bit of stuff when they were out there. Jen tells a story of a road trip when she was younger when the family stopped by Mount Rushmore, but the mountain was fogged in so they never "saw" the mountain. So after eating and contemplating a nap on the couch I got up and headed out. I went over to Menards to grab supplies for the shelving project. I decided to make the shelves adjustable so I found the lumber with the little holes for the pegs. I actually found the sides for the shelves in a bargain bin. They had some bad spots, but I was going to cut them anyway. I actually have someone helping me, which is a bit of a shock. I ask how much they are and he doesn't know but takes me up to the guy who does. So he does some stuff with the computer and gives me a piece of paper that says they are $15 a piece. They are usually $19. I tick the guy off a little and ask if he can do a little better than that, but he won't. The last thing I need is the pegs to put in the holes that will hold the shelves. The guy who was helping me earlier asked to help again. I tell him I need the pegs for the shelves. He says, "oh the way you connect the panel to the wall?" I said no I need the pegs that hold the shelves. He says, "oh you mean kind of like an L-bracket". I said no it's nothing like that. After a couple more exchanges like this I take him over to my cart and show him the sides with the holes in it, and say "see these holes? I need the pegs that go in here and hold the shelves!!!" He says "oh, the pegs". Yes Einstein the pegs. So he takes me over to the wire shelves. no no no you idiot these are not wire shelves they are wood!!!! So finally he asks a co worker who takes me right over to the exact area I was heading and shows me a full display of PEGS!!! So I load up my lumber in a downpour (Remnants of Hurricane Ike)and head for home. I stop by mom's house to grab my brother's circular saw (by the way Dan, can I borrow your circular saw??) So I tear all of the crap out of the closet and start making a plan of attack. I will save you boring details (yeah I know it's probably too late) but the install went pretty good for being a custom install job (everything pretty level). I set up an area in the garage for cutting wood that works out pretty good. Usually this kind of thing I would ask my father in law for help, but wanted to see if I could do it myself, and it worked out pretty well if I do say so myself. I finish after about 3 hours of measuring, cutting, walking back and forth to the garage, I head back to the in-laws to pick up the family. Of course I see the gas station at the corner has a deal on their mulch. When I loose my job I will have time to work on more projects, but no money to do it. Ironic isn't it. So bring the family home and up to bed. Jen and I just collapse in the family room. I tried to watch the football game, but didn't make it that long.

Another busy weekend, but at least I got a few projects done.

I get to join the crowd

Great. I get to join Carrie Q. and MDH in looking for a job. My boss just came by and gave me a heads up that I might want to start looking around. Nothing to do with me, just something with the company that will require a budget cut for not only me but a couple other people.

So, keep me in the loop if you hear of anything.....

Major moves.... stalls...

Every day I drive I-469 to work. I could take I-69 to work, but with the constuction on the road widening and the amount of traffic at that time of the morning I chose to go the other way. It just takes one idiot to have and accident on 69 (which happens alot) to back everything up for hours. Both ways are just about the same distance. At the begining of the spring they started to do construction on 469. Basicly they would block one lane of the hightway for about 4 miles (for two weeks at a time) to tear up sections of the concrete road to pour new concrete. There were some sections that I could see the problem with cracks, but there were quite a few that I just didn't see it. Yeah I am going over the road at 65 miles an hour so you can't see every crack. So all spring and summer I was dealing with this lane closed, that lane closed, this section, now that section. Luckily 469 is not that busy, so there are few delays, but you do have to slow down to 45 in construction zones. They would block off a lane for two weeks (and do nothing) and then work on it for two weeks, and then give it two weeks to dry the concrete.Well finally they finished all of the 20 miles that I drive every day, so I was getting ready to go back to my steady 65 miles an hour drive to work. But no, they are now going back over the same sections of roads that they just did and do it all over again. I have watched as they jackhammered up new concrete to repour it. Either they didn't do a good job the first time, or they just don't have anywhere else to go, but more money to spend.

I think they just need a place to store all of the orange barrels for a while longer.

ahhh... football is back

Yeah I know it signals the end of summer and the begining of colder days ahead, but I feel good that football has started. Not just pro footbal, but even college football. I plopped in front of the TV on Sunday and just watched football all day long. Heck, I was even watching some games where I didn't even care for either team. I am not really a sports watching guy, but I like football.

Sunday I didn't think anything could beat the hype of Brett Favre's return to football with the Jets. Man, that got real old with the commentators beating that story to death... until....the golden boy, Tom Brady got hurt. Dear God, you would have thought the president was shot for as much media attention that this story got. Not only all over the TV, but even the internet and radio. Yeah he got a boo boo on his knee and is out for the season, but so did a bunch of other players and no one cares. Just gives him more time to knock up some other chick.

Before we know it the season will be over, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.

Night Golf IV

Friday night was the annual Kiwaniis night golf tournament. Like every year I invite everyone since I know how fun it is, and like every year I struggle to put together a foursome. This year was no different where the maybe's turned into can't make it's, so it just left me and my brother. So we show up for the event with a chance of a couple of other people showing up that I invited. We settled down with dinner and a beer. This year they had a choice of bratwurst or a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. The brat was boiled and just alright, but the pork was very good. They also had potatoes and green beans as sides. After eating we were talking to the organizer of the event and he said that the attendance was down for the year, I think due to it being after labor day and on a Friday night (high school football night). Next year they have already said that they were going to move it back to August. It's a shame since this is such a good event and I am sure I will try like every year to get as many people to play as possible. I am not real sure how they market this event, but I don't think it's enough. So with some last minute instruction we head out to the course.

Dan and I start our trek out to the 12th tee which is just about as far away from the club house as you can get. That was a good stretch of the legs to get warmed up. Since it was just Dan and I playing they gave us two extra balls so we could each play two. This was nice, but at the same time a pain to keep track of both balls and chase them down on every shot. Dan's first drive with the glowing balls was pretty good (his second was even better). Not bad for only playing once this year when he cleaned my clock. I actually got off a pretty good drive as well. Playing at night is alot of playing the "feel" of the ball and not as much visual. Of course at night you have to throw out the depth perception and just hope that you have the right club. We played the 9 holes at a pretty brisk pace. We didn't need to since there wasn't anyone behind us, but we just did. I think I had the most bad shots of the two of us. There was a couple times that even with two shots I couldn't hit it 10 yards, but I started to hit my drives really well at the end. Again the beer was cold and close so we never had to worry about running out. What a perfect night to play golf. I think in the lower to mid 60's with a slight breeze blowing which was just warm enough not to need a jacket. It was an overcast night which reflected the city lights so it wasn't too dark out on the course, which is good since the sliver of moon wouldn't have given us much light to play with. Last year it was clear, but it was a low, full moon providing plenty of night light. We ended up at a legitimate 1 over score which I thought was pretty good. The guy who came in first was the guy I played with last year and I remember how he keeps score in his head so I wonder about that. We tied for second with a foursome of girls who I question there score as well since we saw them tee-off, but hey it's for fun and charity. We still ended up winning prizes. I got a gift certificate to Starbucks for Jenny to use and Dan got a Bobicks gift certificate and just gave it to me since he is hitting the road again. Once again I had a blast and I will be playing again next year. Hopefully they will put it on a day where my friends will be available next year. Home and to bed by 1:30am where Andrew wakes up at 6:30am... yeah I got a nap in the afternoon.

Labor Day weekend

Another good and busy weekend around the household. My dad and step mom came up for the weekend. I offered to let them stay at our house, but with my dad's allergy to the cat and not wanting to get up at 7:00am with the kids, they decided to stay at a hotel. They made it up on Friday afternoon and came over Friday night with my bother. Of course they came loaded with food and toys. They gave the boys at least two bags full of toys including a couple of street rods, a couple of huge dump trucks, and some plastic power tools. My children, with the patients of gnats, can't wait for me to get them out of the box. My step-mom Betty is a fantastic cook and brought a bunch of stuff up to snack on including queso, banana bread, and cookies. She takes tortilla shells, cuts them up, and pan fries the pieces to make her own chips that are delicious. I would attempt to do that myself, but I am not sure I would want to deal with all the grease and stuff, but it might be worth it. After visiting for a while we broke out the Wii. My dad didn't understand what the big deal was with the game so I was trying to show him. I showed him the Leggos Indiana Jones game, but he wasn't too impressed, but when I got out the Wii Sports I think he finally got it. I think he really enjoyed the golf, tennis, and bowling. My dad, brother, and I were bowling at just about the same level, when my brother started throwing strikes right after another and beat us both. After playing for a while we decided to call it a night. It was getting late, and we were making too much noise downstairs, keeping the boys awake. Reminded me of the times when my dad and the neighbor would play ping pong in the garage at night and Dan and I would sit by the door learning new vocabulary words (not the good kind either).

Saturday: Company came over in the morning and my dad,brother and I took off and headed up to the ACD auction. I originally thought about taking the boys with me since they love cars, but later I was grateful that I didn't since it was pretty hot and we did alot of walking around. There is nothing like paying $20 to walk around and look at cars. Yeah being a typical guy I was drooling over alot of them, but not as much as my Dad :). We walked, we gawked, we shopped and told stories about how we knew a guy who owned one just like that one, or my dad owned one. It was pretty hot walking around the parking lot. Finally we found some seats in the auction area and just watched them auction off cars. I was doing my best to keep my hands down since I really didn't feel like bidding on a car by accident. There was one idiot who was waving at his friend and they thought he was bidding. He almost bought a $40,000 car. It is fun to sit there and try and guess how much a car will go for. That's what Bob Chase and I used to do when we were there with the radio station. I was close on a couple but waaaay off on others. Some of the cars they would spend quite a bit of time of trying to get bids and some they would spend little to no time at all. Reminds me of when I took mom's Prowler on the auction block. I think we were on stage and off in a few minutes, ticked me off. I think they would spend more times on cars there were there from their buddies or people they knew. I had a chance to say something to Dean Kruse on the way out of there, but didn't. Nothing like spending a couple of hundred dollars to run a car onto a stage for 3 minutes. The other part that ticked me off on that day is that the car was scheduled to be on stage at a certain time in the afternoon, but ended up being HOURS late when most of the crowd had left. Yeah I will never auction off another car up there. Anyway..... After a couple of hours we headed home. My brother took off to get ready for his "gig" playing with his band at the American Legion and my dad and step-mom headed back to the hotel to freshen up and go out to dinner. Jen had to work, so I was playing with the boys until she got home. My dad and step-mom were going to meet up with my mom for dinner before Dan's gig, but found out that the Legion didn't serve food on the weekends. My dad ended up heading over to Triangle park and my mom and her friends ended up having a pizza delivered to the Legion. I showed up around 8:30 to find out that the band hadn't started playing yet. I set up my mom's camera to record the band and just let it roll. My brother has been playing in bands for most of his life, through many genres of music, and with moderated success. Most of his bands haven't been too main-stream usually leaning to something alternative or original (see barnyard animals post post HERE). Most of his bands usually have very talented musicians, but not the greatest singer. The latest band "Big Caddy Daddy" is the best one that he has been in yet. Great musicians and singers, a set list that you can dance to, and a fun attitude. There was a pretty good crowd at the Legion and everyone danced most of the night.

I hung out recording their show until a little after 11:00. In between sets I had a chance to talk to Dan and he showed me his custom "fuzzy" drumset. He put some fake fur on his set and had a couple skulls topping his cymbals to name a few things. I took off for home not long after that.

Sunday: After church and a trip to the store, we all met up again and I took my dad, step-mom, and brother up to the lake for the annual Clymer family fish fry. This is always a good time with good food. Unfortunately my in-laws lost their shade tree to rot so we spent most of the time under the canopy or looking for shade since the sun was freakin' hot. So we sat around, visited, ate, and looked for a place for a nap. After a while my dad and brother took off for home and we took the boys down to the lake for a swim. William is getting alot more comfortable around the water and isn't too afraid about getting in some deeper water if he is on a float. He actually fell off a float and went underwater for a nose-full once, but it didn't scare him out of the water. We really need to get him some swimming lessons. After that and some more food (urp) we packed up and headed for home.

Monday: Jen made a run for the new Dunkin' Doughnuts to grab a dozen for breakfast. They are good, but I am not sure they are worth the drive. The doughnuts are Meijer are still very tasty. We decided to have a cookout at our house and invited everyone over. My bother wanted to make steak Fajitas and grill some corn so they stopped out in Amish country in the morning to grab some stuff. Everyone made it over to the house a little after noon. I thought we were trying to eat between 2 and 3 but Dan thought we were looking at between 4 or 5 so I ended up putting out some stuff to snack on while we were visiting. I love my brother, but when he tries to cook something, it usually doesn't turn out that well for one unforeseen problem or another. Of course I was trying to help, and Betty was trying to help, so we might have had a few too many Chiefs in the kitchen. I just drifted out of the way after a while and just stayed on stand-by in case I was needed. Stuff happened all day to make it one to remember for myself at least. Mom spilled her full pop on Jen. The sirloin that Dan got had huge bones in it like a T-bone (usually sirloin is boneless). Then Dan brought in the cooked steak to cut it up and put it in with the sauteed onions and peppers. Betty asks if that is going into this and Dan says "yes". Well Dan thinks she is asking about putting the steak in with the onions, but she is asking about putting the cooking summer squash in with the onions, which she ends up doing. oops. they end up picking out the summer squash and putting in the steak. Bottom line is that the fajitas were simply delicious, great flavor, tender meat, with a hint of brown sugar (from the squash). It was seriously the best fajitas I have ever had. We ended up eating out on the back deck on a fantastic evening. I was worried that it would be too hot, but in the shade with a bit of a breeze was perfect. So some more visiting and the company decided to head back to the hotel. My dad brought a cooler to stock up on the Win Schulers cheese since he can't get it down in Alabama. After they left we did a quick clean up, which wasn't much thanks to Betty. Jen and I were sitting in the front room watching TV and thinking about putting the boys to bed, but not physically able to. I notice that Andrew is going to the fridge quite alot to get a glass of water, which usually he doesn't do. After the third glass I told him that was enough. Then I hear the water running in the bathroom. I go to see what they are up to when I see that the back of their new dump trucks are full of water and the carpet is soaked. I yell at the boys (yeah I was cranky) and tell them to get upstairs and to bed. We soak up the water with towels and I get out the steam cleaner to pull water out as well. After cleaning up I apologize to the boys for yelling at them and we put them to bed. I finally drag my butt up to bed around 11:00.

It was a long but a very good weekend...

kind of a wierd day off

I took yesterday off to take Andrew down to Indy for a follow up for his eyes. We were not leaving until 10:30, so I figured that I had a couple hours to get something else done in the morning. My dad is coming up for the weekend so I want to get the house cleaned up and possibly some yard work done. I decided that the morning would be the time to try and dump the big screen TV since the recycling center is only open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4 (or bankers hours). I got everything set up with borrowing my in-laws truck and arranging for my brother to help load and unload the truck. I get up, grab a shower and run over to pick up the truck. I waited for my bother to show up to load the TV, but the agreed upon time has passed and a call to the house goes unanswered. I figured he is on his way or I told him the wrong day. So anyway after a bit of grunting and groaning I load the TV into the back of the truck myself. Even though it's pretty big it wasn't too awkward to tip into the truck. I didn't have to really worry about scratching or breaking it since it was broken anyway. So I am on my way to the recycle center with the TV, a VCR and two printers and call my brother to leave him a message, and he picks up. The conversation goes like this:

Me: "hey Dan"
Dan: "hey Dave, what's up?.... (pause)... oh Crap...I will be there in 5 minutes"

I tell him that I got it loaded and I was on my way. I end up stopping by his house to pick him up since he has a keyboard that he wants to recycle too. We find the place and pull into the fenced-in area. There are 4 or 5 guys helping to unload trucks. The guy comes up and sees the TV and comments that he didn't think they took TV's that large. Crap. I knew there would be something like this even though the website clearly states TV's of ANY size. But after a conversation with his boss he tells me they do... whew. So dump all that stuff off, pay my $5, and head back for home. We are trying to leave for Indy by 10:30 to give us a chance to eat lunch before Andrew's appointment, but we weren't pulling out of the garage until 11:00. The trip down was pretty uneventful. Andrew's eyes are still doing pretty good with little to no change from the last time we took a 4 hour car ride for a 15 min appointment. The doctor doesn't want to chance anything and wants to see us in 6 months for another 4 hour drive for a 15 min appointment. Unfortunately we didn't get down to Indy early enough to eat lunch before his appointment so we had to go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch after the appointment (tragic I know). So another $60 lunch with bring home cheesecake for dessert. We get back and head to grandma's to pick up William and visit with my mom for a while. After a while we head home so I can tear apart the family room of all the furniture and steam clean the carpet. As we are pulling up to the house I forgot that I still had the in-laws truck and needed to return it. Nuts. So my quick trip to return the truck turned into an hour chore since my in-laws had company and I ended up talking with them for a while. In my conversation with the company I get some information that sheds a dark light on a former boss (mentor) of mine that shocks me quite a bit. I might tell the story later. So I finally get home and start pulling furniture out of the room and into the kitchen. I am trying to get the carpet cleaned as quick as possible since there is no way that the boys will go to bed with me running the sweeper and steam cleaner. I am fishing up around 9:30 so the boys can fall asleep. As I sit on the couch (in the kitchen) I eat my cheesecake and try to think of what else I want to try and get done before my dad's visit. Actually I am trying to think of what I have enough time to get done. I am falling asleep in the kitchen around 11:00 and head to bed.

Kindergarten

William started kindergarten last week. Looking back at these photos and video I should have been there. So far he really likes going to school and hopefully he will do well. Andrew really wanted to go with him into class, so that just added to Jen's fun for the morning.

Seeing this video it takes me back to an 8mm tape of my first day of school. The boys are growing up real fast. I guess I will just buckle up and get ready for take-off.

TV shopping

I was doing a little TV shopping this afternoon while I was out and about. I have heard that lcd is better than plasma, but it's not like I am going to be running a satellite or cable through this thing. The main complaint that I have heard is the glare off the screen, but I am going to do some more research into this. I stopped at best buy and circuit city just to get an idea of how big the TV's are and to get an idea of pricing. I was leaning toward circuit city since they had 36 month no interest, but I found out today that best buy offers the same thing now. The guy at best buy also showed me some projection TV's that are similar to a flat panel, but you get alot bigger screen size for a comparable price. We just need to determine a couple of things before making a purchase. One is the size that we need for the room. I am not sure it is feesable to replace the big screen with a similar size, but now that I have had the 27 inch TV in the front room I am getting used to it. The other is financial. Need to look at what the budget can handle for the next 3 years. I just set up payments for Christopher's birth so that is also a factor. (Christopher will be ours in 35 more payments !!!) And with the kids going to private school and so on and so on.....

In case you were wondering what I found out today.. Here is a quick overview

inches	type	price	Tax	place	mo/payment
42	plasma	749	52.43	bb	22.26
42	lcd	799	55.93	bb	23.75
42	lcd	899	62.93	bb	26.72
50	plasma	1099	76.93	cc	32.66
47	lcd	1199	83.93	bb	35.64
50	plasma	1251	87.57	cc	37.18
50	plasma	1299	90.93	bb	38.61
50	project	1299	90.93	cc	38.61
46	lcd	1399	97.93	cc	41.58
46	lcd	1499	104.93	cc	44.55
47	lcd	1529	107.03	cc	45.45
60	project	1599	111.93	cc	47.53
65	project	1699	118.93	cc	50.50
65	project	1749	122.43	bb	51.98

I would appreciate any opinions on the whole lcd/plasma controversy. Or I probably should just ask MR since he is the owner of two new TV's.

The good news is that I found out that I can take the old TV to a recycling center and get rid of it for $5, but the bad news is that I have to get the inlaws truck, load it up, and drag it over there.

The boys are growning up

This is Christopher's 6 month picture (taken at 7 months). He can't really sit up like that on his own quite yet. He is getting alot better, but still prefers rolling all over floor. This picture was one of those times when Jen held him until the last possible moment, moved her hands, and snapped the picture. The funny part is that Jen sent me the link to the website that had thumbnails of all of the pictures on that day. When I tried to right click on the pictures to save it on my PC the site wouldn't let me. So, I just turned to my Mac, pulled up the pictures, and drug it to my desktop. he he he heeeeeeee.

Today is William's first day in Kindergarten at a new school. He is excited about it which makes me feel pretty good, but there is always a little worry. I think there always will be. I worry that the other children might look at him a little different due to his speech delay, but I think his friendly personality will make up for alot of that, but you never know how other kids will act. I will post pictures tomorrow.

So I was looking through the newspaper on Friday and saw that they were having an open house in New Haven for the Fort Wayne railroad historical society. It was a chance to see some old steam locomotives and take a ride on an old train. Like many boys, if there is any activity with cars, trains, or planes they are into it. I recalled a memory of my dad taking myself and my brother out to New Haven at least 25 years ago to see an old steam locomotive. I remember that my dad knew one of the guys working on restoring the engine or something like that. My brother actually remembered the guys name, but I forgot it already. Anyway I remember climbing into the cab of this old engine while it was working and it was quite impressive. I wasn't sure if this was the same locomotive that I saw over 25 years ago, but the one thing I did remember that to get the whistle to work, you had to pull a lever on the far right side of the cab, and sure enough when the boys and I climbed into the cab, there was that lever. I forgot how huge this train was. It had to be at least 20 feet high. Unfortunately it wasn't working, but they did have a restored 100 year old caboose that we got a chance to walk through and down memory lane. They were offering rides in one of those old cabooses so I took the boys on it for a ride. The caboose was pulled by a 1950's diesel locomotive that was also pretty impressive. All around this warehouse where they were working on the trains they had other project cars all over the area. Most of them were no where near completion or even started, but as I understand that the group that works on the trains are all volunteers and they only do a few events like this to get donations.

At the midway point of our ride we pulled up next to a fairgrounds with a bunch of RV's. I noticed the sound and look of old steam powered tractors. I asked the conductor of the caboose if that was the Maumee Valley steam and thresher show. Back in the days of working for WOWO I had been to this event a bunch of times and always found it very interesting. Along with the old steam tractors they also had a pretty impressive flea market. Also part of this complex was a large field where they flew remote controlled airplanes. After getting off the ride we headed over to that other show. As I pulled up I noticed people leaving and people packing up the flea market. We were too late to see the flea market, but there were still a couple of the old steam tractors around. I took the boys over to the remote controlled airplane area and they really enjoyed watching the people fly their planes. I am sure when they get a bit older we will buy an airplane. We got back to mom's house and I put together their planes that they got a cracker barrel on vacation and they had fun playing with those. The wood that these planes are made of is that flimsy, thin as paper, wood. So I don't plan on those lasting that long around the house. Minutes into putting them together I was already in repair mode with the scotch tape trying to put planes back together again.

More info on the steam locomotive can be found at: www.765.0rg

blogging and surfing

Saturday night at 11:00pm and I should be in bed, but I chose to grab the laptop, light the tiki's, and surf the net out on the deck. I can't believe that I haven't done this yet this summer and it's the middle of August already. Seems like most weekends there is one reason or another that kept me from coming outside. Usually it's the fact that after the boys are in bed and I watch a little TV that I fall asleep in the chair. The weather has been fantastic since we got back from Rochester so now I am going to try my best to enjoy every minute of it. I actually got some landscaping done in the front yard this afternoon that was waaayyyy overdue. When I watch the kids on the weekend, when Jen is at work, I usually try not to take Christopher outside since I can't really watch him that well, but now he is able to hold his head up and be a little more independent. I put him in the exersaucer (and in the shade) and got quite a bit done outside. The other boys tried to help me as well, but spent most of the time playing in and around the van. Chris lasted a couple hours with me until getting fussy and headed inside for his afternoon nap.

As I was working this afternoon I thought to myself that I hadn't been surfing on the deck this year, so here I am. It's a bit chilly tonight (around 63) but it is very clear with a full moon rising. One of the tiki's has bit the dust (out of fluid), and the cicada's are out in force tonight. There is a solice in these moments that I really enjoy, but don't get often enough. I just need to turn off the TV a little more often and just do something else. It was a bit annoying when we lost the big screen in the front room for most of this week, but it was also kind of nice just turning on the radio and not watching the "boob tube". When I was doing a TV swap with some other ones on Thursday night I thought about not putting a TV in the front room. But now I am just talking crazy. Nope, just going to take a little discipline on my part to try and get the most out of the rest of summer. William starts Kindergarten next week so I know that fall can't be too far away. Tomorrow it's church and Triangle Park for lunch celebrating my Uncle Dave's birthday. After that Jen goes to work and I am either going to bring the boys home and get some more stuff done or take them out to see a steam locomotive in New Haven.

ahhhhh.. beautiful night....going to be good sleeping...

R.I.P

For the past year I have been writing about the TV going out. Every time I blog about it I usually go home and it comes back to life. This time I think it's definitely gone. Ever since we got back from vacation we have been trying to get it to work by unplugging it, letting it set, and then powering it up again, as the Philips people recommended. We decided to call in a TV repair man. I didn't think these people still existed. Best Try wanted to charge us close to $100 to come and look at it, but the names that we got from the Philips company would only charge us $55 for a service call so we decided to do that. Jen and I had talked about how much we would be willing to spend to save the old TV but never came up with an actual number. She called me yesterday after the guy looked at the TV and said that it would be around $300 to fix it. I figure $800 for a new 42 inch TV when I can have it repaired for $300 is something that is doable, so I tell her to go ahead and have it fixed. But then he tests a few more things and says that there is one more thing that needs replacing as well, that he would have to order, and that would take the repair bill close to $600. Crap. That's a number I can't deal with when I can have a brand new flat screen plasma for $800ish. I tell her to declare the patient dead. Now the search for a new TV and how the heck do I get rid of a 55inch projection big screen. I think I might have to make a trip to the dump. I put my 27 inch TV in the front room last night and it's like watching TV from 40 feet away.

Stay tuned for the search

Our trip to the Q collective

***** You might want to get a bag of popcorn and a beer... it's going to be along entry *****

I knew that the trip to Rochester was coming for weeks, but it seemed to just pop up in my mind last weekend before going into full planning mode. Overall I say that we did a pretty good job (especially Jen) in getting everything together and making sure we had everything we needed. Someone to take care of the cat.. check (I guess we have too :)) Of course the mind wandered with any possible thing that we might need for the kids. The last trip that we actually took was to geekfest two years ago and we only had two kids. It's always the little stuff that you forget. I just kept reminding myself that it's not like we are going overseas, it's just Rochester, and they have stores there too. Little did I know they had a heaven-like (according to Carrie) store called Weigmans or something like that. The other factor is how the boys would do being stuck in a car for at least 8 hours. All I can say is thank God (and my dad) that we had a DVD player. So let the journey begin.....

Wednesday - I would have liked to be on the road by 9:00am but Jen was thinking more like 10:00 so we were shooting for something in between. Of course we were up by 7:00am and starting putting the last stuff together and getting ourself ready. I was waiting until the last possible moment to load the van since when I start that and the boys have their shoes on, it is time to GO for the boys. So I get the van loaded, snacks, DVD player, cooler with drinks and so on. We are pulling out of the garage a little after 10:00 (not too bad). Jen road in the back with the boys so she could be closer in case they needed anything or if Christopher fussed. I wanted to take it easy on the drive over for the boys sake which mean stopping for meals and frequent potty breaks. I have a feeling that when they get older I will be like my dad (and many other dads) and just drive drive drive until we get there. We little after the Ohio Line it gets to be around noonish so I start asking the boys how they are doing. They are fine gazing at the DVD player and Christopher seems to be pretty good too. I remember from the last vacation to Sandusky that the first "travel plaza" in Ohio is a pretty bad hole in the wall, but all of them after that are very nice, so I opt to drive further toward Toledo. The one thing that I was trying to avoid on the trip was pulling off the toll road. Yeah I know the gas is a bit cheaper and you have a better selection of restaurants, but to me it's a hassle. So we stop neat Toledo and have lunch at Burger King at a travel plaza. Now I don't usually eat at Burger King so I am not familiar with their menu, or should I say how the menu will agree with my stomach. I didn't want to get down the road a few miles and have to pull off for internal reasons. Good new is that the Jr. Wopper did pretty good with my stomach, the bad news is that the onions stayed with me until dinner (burp).The drive through Ohio was pretty uneventful. Lucky for us Carrie called to find out where we were and told us about the best way to get through Cleveland. Mapquest tells you to go through it to the South, but it's best to just stay on 90 all the way through. I guess John had emailed me that on Tuesday night but I didn't check my email before leaving. A few other people heading to Rochester had listened to Mapquest and had quite the adventure. Granted, 90 does some real funky stuff with off ramps and lane changes, but it is better. I noticed that John was right and the gas prices in Ohio are definitely better. I was going to hit the last off ramp in Ohio before going into Pennsylvania but missed it. I am thinking that this is the first time that I had been in Pennsylvania, but think that I might have went through a corner of it years ago on a road trip to North Carolina to visit my Aunt and cousins. We only travel in Pennsylvania for less than an hour before you get to New York state. I know for a fact that it was the first time that I had ever been in New York state. The scenery in Pennsylvania and New York is very nice. Lostsa trees and hills. I find it interesting that the first signs that you see in New York aren't welcome signs, but signs about what are state laws and doubled fines. A little after Buffalo we decided to stop for dinner. We got off the toll road and stopped at a Cracker Barrel. The boys did pretty good, but Andrew wanted to wander and was getting cranky. Let's just say this is the first of MANY times that you will hear that Andrew was cranky during our trip... I was trying to get to Rochester before it got dark since we had to look for the Q's house and it's easier to read house numbers and see colors of houses in the day time, but that didn't work out. I missed their house and had to turn around. Lucky for me their road isn't too busy so I could go real slow. So we pull in a little after 9:00pm. So 11 hours on the road, whew. I could have made it in 8 going straight through, but it worked out stopping when we did since I didn't feel that tired. So start the pandelerium of kids playing and running all over the house. I unloaded the van and we started to visit with the Q's. Finally we decided to put kids to bed. We put both the boys on a air mattress in the lower level of this tri-level house with a basement. Andrew started fighting me on staying on the air mattress with William saying "I don't like it" "I don't like it". He said that about 20 times that was quickly followed by his snoring seconds later. William was wide awake. I think he was excited about being there, so he kept flipping and flopping (of course shaking the mattress and waking up Andrew). I was sitting in the room with them until they fell asleep, but William wouldn't calm down. I just kept having flashbacks it the first trip that we took with William to Bowling Green 4 years ago where he didn't sleep the whole night. We spent all night trying to keep him from crying in the hotel room in fear of waking up the other guests. I even took him for a drive at 3:00am to try and knock him out to no luck. I think both William and I got about an hour sleep that night in Bowling Green. But after a while he finally conks out and I got upstairs to see it's around 11:00pm. After some more visiting with the Q's we finally called it a night around 1:00am or so. I am thinking that it will be nice to sleep-in in the morning since the boys will sleep in too, or at least I thought they would.

Thursday - 7:00am Andrew wakes up and thus wakes up William. I get up and entertain the boys so they don't wake up the whole house. We go upstairs and grab some breakfast. I grab an "awful big" muffin (as Mary calls them) and a glass of milk and that's enough breakfast for me. After a lazy morning with members of the crew waking up one at a time all morning. The Q's have a real nice TV that was just purchased not too long ago so I get to surf around the satellite. After a while we decide to pack up the crew and head to a museum of play that is in Rochester. This is my first experience in following Carrie "leadfoot" Q through the highways of New York in an effort not to loose her. We pull up to a huge building that is full of all kinds of stuff for kids to do and play with. As soon as you go into the front doors there is a carousel and an actual 1950's dinner that you can eat in. As soon as we get in the doors Andrew want to be carried which is not a good thing. This is the first clue that we probably should have done the museum on Friday to give the boys a chance to recover from the car ride, but William did just fine. Andrew on the other hand was a day full of crying whining flopping and meltdowns. This museum of play is a very cool place with TONS of stuff for kids to play with and on and over and under. It's a very hands-on experience in every part of this place. I was a bit unnerved trying to keep track of the boys in the seas of kids, but we only lost track of the boys a couple of times, but it's a pretty safe place to be lost in. Upstairs in the museum they have a collection of toys from different decades. That was pretty fun to see stuff that I played with as a kid behind glass in the display. There was quite a collection of old video game stuff that I got a picture of. I will post that later on. The kids weren't really interested in this part of the museum so we didn't stay too long upstairs. We decided to call it a day and hit the carousel on the way out the door. We looked at our watches and we were only there for 3 hours but it felt like we were there alot longer than that. (might have just seemed longer due to Andrew). We got home and grilled up some burgers and dogs to feed the crew. After that we broke out Mario Cart on the Wii. Yeah the kids (especially Keith) was beating the pants off of all of us. I couldn't quite get the hang of how much to steer the wheel so I found myself oversteering alot of the time which put me in a ditch usually. I don't know if I would have had a little more time to learn how to steer if it would have been more fun. So after a while of playing that we put the kids to bed. I stayed downstairs with the boys again to make sure they got to sleep alright. Andrew fought me a little bit, but went to sleep pretty quick. I was upstairs by 10:30 or so. After we were sure that all the kids were asleep we broke out Rockstar for the Wii. This is the version of guitar hero that has drums and bass and microphone. The Q's have two guitars so it worked out that everyone had their own instrument. I opted to play the drums being the most experienced in the group even though I haven't touched a drum stick in years (decades). The drum setup is alot like the tri-toms I played in high school so I thought it would be a breeze. Surprisingly I actually sucked at it. I thought I was keeping pretty good time and hitting the notes, but not according the the game. After a while I just picked up a guitar and was pretty good at the easy level. John is really good on the hard level, but has alot more experience than us. The Q's don't have a clock in their front room so it is easy to loose track of time so imagine our surprise when we saw that it was 2:00am. I felt bad for us, but even worse for John since he still had to work during our visit. But I didn't feel too sorry for him since he could go into work basically whenever he wanted.

Friday - Another 7:00am wake up call from the boys. Five hours of sleep it not enough. It seemed like I just got to bed when it was time to get up. So another lazy kind of morning and it's 11:00 before we know it. We decide to run over to one of their malls to just wander around stores, check things out, and try and wear the kids out. Andrew is in typical form, but was happy
when I was carrying him on my shoulders or giving him "penny penny" to throw into the fountain. After blowing a couple of hours there we head back to the house. Jen and Carrie decided to take the kids over to a playground that is close. I opt out of that idea and decided to try and take a nap while they were gone. I wasn't able to do that since Christoper was being a little fussy. After that it was a lazy kind of day with the kids running all over the place. I had a pretty good back ache in the morning, but with the help of some ibuprofen it finally let up when we hit the mall. The kids went down for the night pretty well with only a little bit of fuss. Either they were getting used to the air mattress or they were just that tired. We broke out the rockband game again (I think Jen is addicted) and started playing, but I was just too tired. Not sure if it was the lack of sleep or the medicine, but I fell asleep and trudged down to bed around midnight.

Saturday - Another 7:00am wake-up. The Q's had to take care of a couple of things in the morning, but we finally were ready to hit the road to Niagara around noon. We had to stop at the cellular store to let John get a new cell phone since he broke his (or it was broken for him) on his recent vacation, guys event, or whatever you want to call it. Before we left I find out that we only
need birth certificates to cross over to Canada and won't need passports until 2009. I have heard that the Canadian side of the falls is a little nicer, but it has been years since I had been there so I didn't know. Unfortunately we forgot the birth certificates so we were stuck on the American side. We headed to Niagara, not on the main highway, but on a kind of scenic back road. Actually it was a very nice 4 lane road that went right along Lake Ontario. This was a real nice change of pace to the crazy Highway 90 to buffalo and it gave us the opportunity to see the lake. Checking out the lake was another of the things that I wanted to try and do during vacation. We didn't get a chance to go the the shore, but I got a chance to see it which was fine. We passed a couple of state parks that were shore front that I am going to keep in mind for the next time. After a while the 4 lane highway became a 2 lane road that went through a lot of small towns and farmland with just about everyone selling firewood for some reason. It was nice to see that New York was kind of like Indiana in that aspect of small towns and agriculture. As we get to Buffalo this little road runs next to the main roads of Buffalo, but without the stoplights. The condition of this road is pretty poor and looks like they have been thinking about working on it for the past 10 years. When you can see 5 inches of dirt around barricades you know they have been there for a while. We stop at this nice little park near Niagara for a picnic lunch. At the far side of this park you can see a place downstream of Niagara that acts like a whirlpool. From the Canadian side you can take a gondola over the whirlpool.

After eating lunch and dealing with a very persistent bee that wanted John's Dr. Pepper we headed to Niagara which is pretty close to the park. We get to the main area of Niagara where the falls are and get stuck in a traffic Jam. It tells you to go straight to park, but you can't get through the intersection without getting stuck, and then the cross traffic gets blocked and so on and so on. Finally John just turns left and I do the same after the next light. We pull into this pretty sad looking parking garage that charges $10 for the day.We unload the kids and try out best to try and figure out how the heck to get out of the garage. Again this is a pretty sorry garage that doesn't have any instruction or directions on how to get to anything. We finally ended up carrying the kids and strollers down 4 flights of stairs since we couldn't find the freakin elevator. We get to the street where John asks me which way to go. I just point a direction since it seems like all places lead to the falls. I was wrong and we ended up having to walk around a run down building that added another couple of blocks to our walk. Someone is really missing the boat in this area with the crappy run down buildings and lack of any real tourist attractions. Either that or we just choose the worst place to park around the falls. As we are heading toward the crowd I see this guy kind of mulling around the front of this run down building. I just kept telling myself "he is going to hit me up for money" and sure enough he walked up to me and said "excuse me". I just ignored him and finally said "go away" after he persisted. I must look to friendly to panhandlers. We crossed the street to head to Niagara Park. I expected a little nicer area for tourists with some better stores and things. I wasn't expecting all of the "hot dog" carts along the pathway selling all kinds of food. We finally get to the falls after some more misdirection of where to go. That's it, I am going to stop following John :). It's still an awesome sight to see Niagara falls. The beauty and majesty of it is overwhelming. We finally found out how to contain Andrew. Strap him into a stroller and don't let him out. He actually didn't mind being in the stroller for most of the day, but did want to get out and roam a little bit. It was a very busy day around Niagara and filled with a TON of Indian people (dot not feather) for some reason. We went to the visitors center for a potty break but it was too small and too full of people. Again I think someone is missing the boat. We walked around for hours and went on the observation deck to get a better view of the falls. I thought about trying to do the Maid of the Mist ride with the boys, but I think I will save that until they are a bit older and can really appreciate it. We headed from what I think are the horseshoe falls over the the main falls through a real nice park. It was alot of walking, but it wasn't really that bad. The boys did really well and stayed with the group for the most part. It helps having Carrie coral the boys also. We saw where we needed to go if we ever want to go to the caves of Niagara with a huge line waiting to get in. Our last stop was at the main falls. It is so strange that a 4 foot "fence" keeps you inches away form the rapids at the top of the falls and from the falls themselves. Most attractions like this you can't get that close to ever.



After viewing the falls we hit the gift shop and got the boys a couple of T-shirts so they could remember the trip. The Q-kids got a couple of stuffed birds that chirped and sang. (I feel sorry for Carrie:)). Then it was the loooonnngg walk back to our cars. But again it didn't feel that long and we had Andrew contained in the stroller. I was making a contest of seeing if I could hit people with the stroller as they cut in front of me, but I didn't have any successful hits. After going through the gauntlet of crappy stores and people selling hand made jewelry we made it back to the parking garage and find out that they do have an elevator. We thought that we were parked on the 3 rd level, but when we got there we didn't see our cars. John opted for talking the stairs down a level, but I didn't feel like doing that again so opted to just follow the ramp down to the next level, but the ramp didn't exactly go down to the next level. Like I said this is a messed up parking garage. We finally had to jump a railing and pass over the strollers to get to our cars. I so wanted to make a comment to the teller as I was paying my $10, but decided against it. We head back to Rochester on the busy highway 90. I am trying to keep up with John around traffic and through toll gates all the while watching the lightning flashing in the sky. We decide to stop at at Bob Evan's on the way home and feed the children. Ironically it's the same exit that we had stopped a couple of days earlier to eat on the way to Rochester. While we were eating the heavens opened up and it poured rain, but finished before we had to leave. Dining with the boys that night and all during vacation went pretty well in restaurants. Andrew wanted to wander a little bit, but he ate well as long as it was mac and cheese or some other generic kid food. After that it was back on the road with another stop at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. How Rochester rates one of these and Fort Wayne doesn't I will never know. I didn't realize how close the restaurant was to the Q's house... lucky buggers. We get home and put kids to bed pretty late. I had my dessert and headed for the bed as well since we had a long drive in the morning. I think Jen might have played rockband a little more.

Saturday - We get going with a tearful goodbye. Again shooting for 9:00 but actually leaving a little after 10:00. I get the fun of driving through rain, sometimes downpours, until we get just outside of Cleveland (so about halfway). As we are going into downtown I can see the Cleveland skyline and Lake Erie next to each other. I am not sure how I missed it the first time, but I was probably worried about traffic. Sometime I would like to stop and check out the Rock and Roll hall of fame and an area called "the flats" that my brother and co-workers recommend, but not until the kids get older. After crossing the Ohio state line I started looking for a place to eat. Since we have McDonalds coupons I look for the golden arches. They aren't that easy to find in New York and Pennsylvania (or at least they aren't on the road signs). I pull off on the first sign of McDonalds and end up driving 4 miles into a quaint little town with the restuarant. I would have preferred to stay near the interstate to keep better time, but I wasn't sure how often we would see the signs. Of course just about every exit from there on in had a McDonalds right by the interstate. We make pretty good time through Ohio with another stop for a potty break near Toledo. I decided to fill up Herbie (what the boys call the new minivan) at a toll road rest area. The name of the gas station is Volero so I have never heard of it. I pull up to the pump and get out to pump the gas, I swipe the card and the screen on the pump says " key zip + enter ". Huh? what the hell is a key zip? I know what a key gen is but not a key zip. I figure that it might be some special thing that only Volero gas stations have. I look around the pump to make sure I am not at a special pump or something but don't see. I cancel the transaction thinking that I might have hit a wrong button, but it asks it again. I cancel again and go ask the attendant. "What is a key zip?". He tells me that I need to put in the zip code for the building. What? how the heck would I know what the zip code is for this building??? "No" he said "the zip code for your billing not the building". Opps I felt like such a dolt. I am surprized that Jen didn't poke her head out the window wondering what I was doing. The freakin' display on the gas pump has enough room for at least 80 characters, how hard would it be to actually type out "Key in billing zip code and press enter". Let's see....39 would do it. So anyway, we get to the Indiana state line and to hwy 69. The next 40 miles are a cake walk since we do it all the time coming back from the in-laws place. It is around 7:30pm and we figure that if we go for it we could be home before 8:30, or the other option was to stop for dinner. We chose to stop for dinner since there wasn't that much to eat at home since we purged most of the food due to vacation. We decided to do one last splurge and go to Caruso's at the lake James exit. We love this place, but rarely get to go since it is too far from Fort Wayne to drive and we are usually too tired after visiting the in-laws to stop on the way home. We had a nice dinner and the boys did pretty well also. The last 40 miles went real quick, and it felt good to get home. Another 11 hours in Herbie, but again the boys did very well with only a few little fusses. We got home to a cool evening that allowed us to open the windows and air the house out a little bit. We get the boys to bed and do a little bit of unloading and putting away and just general collapse. I finally get up to bed after 11:00 and fall asleep very vast. Unfortunately I forgot that it was Sunday night so the garbage truck comes promptly at 5:30am which is even louder since we have the windows open. William joins us at 6:00am but he finally falls asleep in our bed. I got up at 6:30 since I had to take Herbie into for servicing on the way to work. And also I get to be out on the floor walking back and fourth and helping with a phone book for the past 4 days, so I am still trying to catch up on sleep and rest. And of course trying to find a few minutes here and there to write this blog entry. It's taken me 4 days!!!

Besides some of the issues that we had with Andrew the trip went well. Herbie did well too with 1250 miles in all of our driving around. He got a little better than 27 mpg on the way out but a little less on the way home due to the rain and windy conditions. Thank you to the Q's (if you are still reading this diatribe) who have a very nice place is a pretty cozy city. We hope to see you again real soon......