Seattle Rain

I am sitting here sipping a coke ( I gave up alcohol for lent) listening to Dan's latest band Seattle Rain. Kind of a 90's grunge/heavy rock band. Once again he is in a band that is pretty good. I am thinking back to all of the bands he has been in and all of the genres he has covered over his  career. All of the garage bands practicing wherever someone had a spare room. I am sure I only know of a portion of the actual number. He has always surrounded himself with very talented musicians, but was usually missing one or two ingredients, usually a good singer. Either that or life would get in the way. Being in bands is fun but you got to pay the bills. It's a shame Dan couldn't do this full time because he enjoys it so much. One of the last bands he was in turned out to be pretty successful regionally but he had to leave to go to jewelers school in search of another passion.  Reflecting back to being a roadie for him in high school jazz band to now there has been a lot of music and premieres of new bands like tonight, but he really enjoys it and you gotta love never giving up the dream. 

She Blinded Me.....

William's science project for fourth grade. The idea for the project came from one of his teachers and fell upon me to try to assemble. I actually enjoy trying to make this stuff work once I get into it. We got the material needed for the project at lowes but the majority of the material came from around the garage. Man, I really need to clean the garage. The chime was from some old chimes that we got from Dan. He was going to get rid of them and I thought maybe donate them to school or something. The doorbell I just happened to have laying around after replacing ours this summer. The fun part is when I get started on something I tend to overdo it a little. I now have designed and assembled 5 different plungers to get the proper chime soundout of the chime. Like usual i tweek until I run out of time and I am sitting here with it due tomorrow so I am done tweeking because I have to be. This is the first of many science projects for the boys 

OMG ITS BEEN 3 YEARS

Sad but true it's been three years since I posted in my blog. I blame Facebook for getting me out the habit and being a lot quicker to post stuff. Also getting time on the laptop to post can be a challenge. But now I have Blogger installed on my iPod so I should be able to post more. We will see how it goes. Reading old posts is really fun and brings back allot of good memories. 

Beta Beta Beta

So with the extra time on my hands due to unemployment, I decided to work on some projects that have been around the house. One of these projects is to try and find a way to get my old high school marching band tapes onto the computer. Problem #1 is that I don't have any way to do it. I know that there are stores that can transfer my tapes to cd, but I don't currently have the money and I am a little leary on giving these special memories to a stranger. I remember that Dan had a toy that he bought that could transfer the tapes, but I could never get it to work. So I found his little machine and brought it home again. After some internet searching I found out that the version that I have has a problem with windows vista and I need a newer version. So I upgrade the newer version and get the silly thing to work. Problem #2 is a bigger problem. The tapes are in the beta format. At the time it was the better format of the two, but vcr's had better marketing and won out in the format wars. I was hoping that a friend on facebook would have one sitting in their basement, but no such luck. Dan was able to buy me one on ebay that I can hopefully sell for the same price so it isn't a total waste of money. So far the machine only will run for a couple of minutes before it locks up. I can't tell if it's the machine or the tape. I am trying to edit out the mess ups, but still have some work to do.

Yes I still know I have a blog

Yes, back in February I promised to blog more and I can confidently say I have failed miseribly. So, let's go over my life up to this point. The major thing is my job. Back in December of '09 we found out that our company was going through a merger with another company, but that was all the detail that was given at that time. It's a slow process, but I was looking forward to working for a larger company and was very proud in what I had accomplished in the year at my current company. So over the first couple months of the year, I was doing my thing cautiously since I wasn't sure what the new company had in stock. During that time we all had to go through the interviewing process to see where we would fit in the new structure of the company. April came about and they were finally nailing down everyone's job titles and positions. I was called into my meeting and informed that there would not be a position available for me. Son of a B****. But they gave me 4 months to find something before I was shown the door. I thought, Heck, four months shouldn't be that bad, but little did I know in this economy. The four months flew by pretty quick. The four months was very difficult since everyone knew I was basically fired so I am not sure they were comfortable around me knowing that. To the upper management of my current company as well as the merging company I was non existant which was extremely disspointing having praised the "family" of co-workers that I had. Finally my last day, just sitting at my desk, fuming at everyone. I though for sure I would get an exit interview, or at least have to fill some paperwork out and turn in my key.... but nothing. So, I stood up, threw my key on the VP's desk, bit my tongue from saying something nasty, and headed out the door. Only felt this bad leaving a job one time before and that was when I left the radio station.

Update: It is now 6 months since the above post. I was getting ready to post the post above and got hit with a virus so blogger has made me nervous. The interviews have been few and far between unfortunatly. There have been a couple that I would have loved or been perfect for, but no such luck. I keep plugging away every day. Back to my routine that last time I was unemployed. I get up every morning and get ready for the day. Take William to school and come back and search the net for jobs. I have 6 or 7 internet places that I look at and then to searches for major companies around here. I am getting quite a few projects done around the house after doing a major landscaping project for uncle Dave. Wish I had the money to finish the basement before Easter, but I have been in untra conservative mode for money for months now. How Jenny is keeping the heat on with what we make with her part time job and my measly unemployment, I don't know.

August... Seriously

My last blog post was August? I need to get back on the horse here. It so helped that I could blog at work. I just don't have the interst to get onto the computer when I get home. But tonight the boys begged me to play "monster trucks" on the Wii, so I thought I would stop by and say hi. I will say that the monster trucks on wii is very cool.

So last night we decided to take the boys out to eat and then over to Kohl's to buy me some new shoes, and to let Jen return some stuff. This has been the plan for two weeks now, but something always came up that didn't allow us to follow through on the plan. Most times it was Jen's work calling her in for the night. We usually don't go out as a family to restaurants since it can be a little pricey with 5 people now, and you never know how the boys are going to act. Even though saying that, the boys have done real well lately. The only hiccup is if we go to triangle park there is a mad rush to get outside and feed the ducks halfway through dinner, but we figured they could handle Cracker Barrell. Lucky for us it was snowing outside and Cracker Barell wasn't that busy. The only part that I don't like about Cracker Barrell (at least with 3 kids) is all the toys and candy that you have to walk by twice going to and from the restaurant. We sat down and the boys did really well. Andrew was having fun with the golf tee game even though he didn't really get the concept. He just took out all the golf tees and color coordinated them back in the triangle. Christopher was happy with the crayons. We ordered our dinner and of course it was time for the inevitable "pee break" with two of the boys. As of this point Andrew is still fighting us on his potty training, we might have to get hardcore on him. Anyway the food arrives and I am trying to move stuff out of the way so that Christopher can't grab a hot plate and move all of the crayons and stuff. My plate is placed in front of me and I am moving one last thing, and wouldn't you know it I knock my full glass of pop onto my plate. Son of a B*****.So I am picking ice cubes off of my plate and trying to drain as much of the liquid as possible. The waitress says she will get me "another one" and will also return with a towel. Well she comes back with a stack of paper towels and "another" pop. Dumping the pop was totally my fault so I didn't expect to get a whole new meal, but I thought it might be a nice gesture on their part, but alas they didn't. I did ask for some new bread to replace the now soggy break on my sandwich. I only asked for two pieces, but I should have asked for for since the other side was totaly soggy as well. But hey at least my fries didn't get wet. Jen just laughed at me. So besides my problems, the boys did fantastic and ate all of their food. We payed the bill along with another trip to the bathroom for William and headed over the Kohl's. I took the boys with me to look at shoes while Jen returned my shirt. I made the mistake of not strapping Christoper down so he escaped for a minute which caused a little panic on my part. Lucky for me Jen showed up to wrangle the kids and I picked out a pair of shoes. I was amazed at the 25 pairs of shoes they had I would only even consider wearing 1 of them to work. I tried them on and they fit fine. We picked up some socks and headed to the checkout. Jen forgot her coupon at home, but they still gave it to her just on her word. Antoher qhick trip to Walmart to pick up juice for the boys, but with the snowstorm, there was a run on juice. We got home, put the boys to bed, and settled in for LOST.

I am going to attempt to blog more. if nothing else to catch up on what's been going on. It's really not that much. Maybe I will run an update on the basement remodel. Drywall is done, now it's just a matter of mudding and sanding (the part the sucks)

Labor Day 2009???

I found this draft in my blog. I have no idea what year but I am thinking 2009 or 10

Labor day was hinting at being a very busy weekend. Earlier in the year my dad hinted on possibly coming up for the weekend. That ended up coming true as my dad and step mom came for a visit.

They actually stopped in Bowling Green on the way up from Montgomery, AL to visit the corvette museum to see the new addition. In case you didn't know, my dad is a corvette nut. Starting years ago in the 70's when my parents got their first one (a '71). Ever since then he has been hooked. When my parents divorced, the vette was one of the things that he got (just kidding dad). After getting married, and bounced around in the '71 long enough. He went out and got a '99 convertible what is much easier on the butt for long hauls and cruising around. They took the '99 with them to Bowling Green and then to Fort Wayne. They spent Wednesday night in Bowling Green which gave us another day to get the house cleaned. Good motivation to clean the carpet again. They made it up to Fort Wayne Thursday around the time that I came home from work. Jen had to work so the boys and I got a chance to visit with grandma and grandpa. My dad is alot like me when I first had kids. Not really sure how to deal with a baby, but the older the boys get, (and the more you have) the more you get comfortable with them and can play with them. Dad and Betty had a unique opportunity with their visit for lodging. My brother got the house in his divorce and is in the process of selling it, so they just stayed at the house while they were in town. Kind of like renting a condo or something. So after visiting for a while they headed to the house.

Friday I took the day off of work so we could visit and do some stuff together. In the afternoon, Dad and I went up to Auburn so I could show Dad where I worked. it's not really that impressive, but he wanted to check it out. I knew that there was an event in downtown Auburn that night, but had no idea who big it was. The road in front of the credit union was blocked off for a block party with a bar and live band. The band was big caddy daddy which is the band my brother was in before he had to go back on the road. This is the only band in which he was in that actually is doing very well. All of the other bands were good for a while but broke up for one reason or another. I heard stories of a car show downtown but had not idea how huge it was. The show didn't offically start unil 6:00pm, but they already had the town square filled by 3:30. So dad and I walked around and gawked at the cars for a while. We headed home for dinner. We sat on the deak grilling a london broil adn doing some more visiting. After dinner, Dad and I took William and Andrew to a Tin Caps game. Knowing that my dad was coming to town I was looking around and stuff to do and noticed that the last regular season tin cap game was the Friday that they were around so I decided to get tickets. This would be my first experience at a Tin Caps game and the first one taking the boys with me. I thought that they would get bored and would want to leave, but they both did extemely well and sat in our laps for the entire game. They didn't get what was happening on the field, but they enjoyed just being there. Dad got the boys some popcorn and pop which they devoured in minutes. I bought the boys both a hat so they could remember the night, but of course they wore them that night and haven't touched them since. After the game there was to be fireworks. Neither one of my boys like loud noises so they have never been to a fireworks display of any kind. I asked them both numerous time if they wanted to stay and watch the fireworks, and they said "yes". So we stayed. There was a few time that Andrew looked scared, but as long as they both had their ears plugged they seemed to do alright. the lines for food and drinks never went down all night. The offical attendance of the crowd was 7,800 people. The only bit of advise that I can give to people going to a Tin Caps game is to NOT park in the parking garage. What a pain in the butt that was. First of all you couldn't get into the garage that easily and after getting in it took you forever to drive up to the top level to get a parking space. And if there was a elevator to get down, I didn't see it so I ended up carrying Andrew down 4 flights of stairs since he fell asleap in the van on the way there. After the game it was a 20 minute parking lot to get out of the stupid garage. They were only letting one lane out of the garage and you had to turn right which cause a huge bottleneck. you would think after this amount of time they would have that down a lot better. Find street parking is my advice. We got home late and put the boys to bed.

Saturday morning we got up a little later than we wanted to and had to quickly get us and the boys ready for William's soccor game. Dad and Betty met us at the house and we headed over to the field together. When we got to the field we met my mom there and we all sat down. My mom and dad get along pretty well for being divorced which makes these visits alot easier. With William's soccor league they don't keep score, but man they got creamed. Either the other team is just that good or his team needs alot more work, but hey they were all having alot of fun. Usually the chore at Willliam's soccor games is keeping the other two entertained, but they are getting a little better at staying with us. There was no real plan for after the game. I thought we would just head back to the house and think of something. Then my mom invited everyone over to her house for a visit. I was a little hungry since we woke up late and didn't have a chance for breakfast. I simply asked if she had a few eggs or something for breakfast Before I knew it there was Jenny, Betty, and my mom all in the kitchen fixing breakfast for everyone. I felt bad since I didn't mean for us to invade my mom's house like that and clean out her fridge. With 3 women in the kitchen I figured the best place for me was outside on the deck, reading the paper. Mom has a great deck on the back of her house on the 15th green at Cherry Hill. So a very good breakfast and more visiting. After breakfast Dad and Betty had some running around to do, and Jenny had some shopping as well so I took the boys home. While the house was somewhat quiet I made some cookies for us and Jenny's family fish fry. When Jen got home with some groceries I ended up making a second type of cookie as well. All part of Snack Night!! My first visit down to Alabama years ago I was introduced to snack night, where Betty puts out a HUGE spread of appetizers and you just eat and eat and eat. So every time we get together we have a snack night. So after I got done with my cookies, Jen and Betty take over the kitchen and start cooking. So a few hours we put on the feed bag and stuff ourselves.

night Golf V

I noticed that it is the middle of August and start calling around to see if I can get information about night golf. I remembered the name of the guy in charge so I call his office and get all of the information. Much to my surprise it is only a couple of weeks away. So once again I invite everyone in my address book to play with me. This year I added inviting all of my facebook friends who live in Fort Wayne as well as put out an email for people at work. Once again I get a few people saying it sounds like a lot of fun, but again they start canceling or saying they can't make it. Comes the night of the outing and no one has indicated they want to play. I was considering not going myslef, but, screw it, I have fun. Also by now I know a few of the guys so I figure there is a chance I would get teamed up with them. I show up early just in case someone shows up and grabbed a beer and dinner. The dinner was a bit of a dissapointment. They had a pulled pork, but it didn't have any sauce on it. They let you put your own sauce on, but the pork was so dried out and tough that all the sauce in the world wouldn't have helped it. The bratwurst looked a little scary, but the beans and potatos were very tasty. So I sat there and had a few beers waiting on the off chance that someone would show up. When no one did I ended up getting paired with Dr. Phil, who I had played with before, and his brothers. We headed to the first tee with a cold beer in hand and prepared for a night of fun. They actually postponed the start of the round because it wasn't dark enough, but the threat of rainy weather in the area made me think that we might want to get going. The first hit of the year was a little disspointing, but still not too bad for the 3 or 4 time on the course this year. Bewtween the 4 of us we made a pretty good team all contributing to the effort. Once again the beer cart was never too far away :). By the 4th hole we were one under par (legitamate) and playing pretty good. We had felt a few drops as we approched the tee, and then it started to really come down. We all scramble for the rain gear and umbrellas that we had remembered to bring with us. We continued to play the hole in the hopes that it would stop or at least let up. We finished the hole and the rain let up and then stopped. The rest of the night only sprinkled a few times which was lucky for us. We finished up a little after midnight and went back into the proshop to wait for everyone to come in. We waited and waited for one last team to show up, but they never did. I have said it before where there is usually one group who has to "play in" and make everyone wait. (That really pisses me off). We started to walk out to the course get tell these a-holes to hurry up, and even grabbed a cart to run out there, but finally decided that the group must have finished and just left the course. Still annoying. I think we ended up 2 under and in third place or something like that, once again I don't think the people who "won" were actually keeping score. So we all got out little prize and were done for the night. This is still alot of fun to play in and I am sure I will play again next year. Hopefully one of these years I can take a big group with me. They were supposed to move the outing so it wouldn't conflict with HS football, but they didn't. Hopefully next year they will let me know when the outing is and I don't have to hunt them down.

School Days

William started his first day of Kindergarten a week ago (yeah I am behing in my blogging). He is actually repeating Kindergarten. He did really well last year with his speach delay, but we thought another year would do him good and that now would be the best time to have him repeat a grade. The other factor is that he is changing schools as well and going full day so he wouldn't notice it as much. I missed his first day the last time due to the new job, but I decided I wasn't going to miss this one so I just went in late. Jen had a pretty good plan for getting everyone up and around so we put that into play on Monday. They allow parents of Kindergarten kids go bring the kids to their classrooms on the first day only so we decided ot make it a family trip. Everyone got up and around and we actually headed out the door on time. As we are pulling out of the garage, the heavens opened up to a down pour (perfect). We got near the school and the traffic came to a stand still. So we muddled through that and worked our way through the "drop off" process. all the parents were parking to drop their kids off so we had to park kind of far out in the parking lot. Lucy for me we threw a couple of umbrellas. We attempt to unload all the kids in a downpour with the parking lots flooded. I took Christopher's cup of juice and put it on the floor and of course it hit a blanket and bounced out and UNDER the freakin van. I am dressed for work with an inch of water covering the parking lot, but finally I said forget it and took my umbrella down and hit the cup so it would go behind the van and of course it got caught by the back tire. Finally I got the stupid thing and grabbed Christopher. So here I am carrying Christopher, holding Andrew's hand, and managing an umbrella as Jen took care of William. We got in the gym and William takes off like a shot to his homeroom. We did our best to keep up with him. He went into his room, put his backpack away, and found his seat and sat down. No fuss, no muss, happy as a clam (Thank God). We said good bye and waded back to the car and I took off for work. It's been almost two weeks and William is still having alot of fun. He get's to eat lunch at school every once in a while which makes us a little uneasy because of his peanut alergy, but so far so good.

Yard Work

There are a few things that have been bugging me for years now. One is the state of the landscaping around our house. When we moved in 3 years ago I knew it was in need of some attention, but with having two babies and lack of funds, that project kept getting pushed into the back burner. Finally the kids are a little older and we had a few dollars in the bank so we decided to work on the landscaping. First I defined the area on the side of the house and transplanted some hostas over there with some edging. I ended up taking a Friday off work to try and get some stuff done. I thought that it might be easier to get stuff done since things would be open longer on a week day than a weekend and Jen wasn't working. I had to tear some bushes out of the front planter. I could have killed myself trying to dig these bushes out, but I decided to take the easy way out and invite my father and brother in law over and had them bring a truck. The bushes were no match for the truck. The yard dipped where the bushes were so I decided to grab a load of dirt to even it up. As always looking for a good deal, I found a place on the Northwest part of town. So I ran over there and grabbed a load of dirt. My father and brother in law helped me spread it out to even it. While I was doing that, Jen was on the hunt for plants. We hired a landscaper to come up with a plan for our front yard, but we wanted to see if we could save a little money by buying some of these plants at a home improvement store. She found the rose bushes at Home Depot for a pretty good deal. A little while later, Jen and I loaded into the truck to get the other bushes. I found out that a member of the board of directors of the Credit Union also owns a landscape business. I thought it would be a good idea to give him my business and maybe he would swing me a little deal. We came back with all the plants that we needed and spent the next couple of hours planting 25 bushes. Jen and I had a pretty good system down where I would dig the holes and she would put them in. We finished just in time, since I was totally burned out and I had been at it for about 12 hours. I got up the next morning and headed out for a mulch run. Another trip across town to save a few bucks which by the time I put gas in the truck actually didn't save me anything. I had to make two runs since the one truck load didn't quite cover everything in the front yard. So another 8 hour day of running across town and moving mulch I was spent again. Sunday I think I might have putted around the house a little bit, but spent most of the day recuperating. Talking to Jen later on, she tells me that the money we used to work on the landscaping she had actually put aside to buy a new TV. (I think the TV would have been cheaper). Yeah I was a little bummed about not getting a new TV, but the front of the house looks so much better and I think I enjoy having that project done than I would enjoy a new TV. If nothing else, I am not embarrassed to go outside and talk to the neighbors, and I am sure they are breathing a sigh of relief that we aren't a bunch of hillbillies. Now we just need to maintain everything, plant some flowers occasionally, and refresh the mulch every couple of years.

You have to be freakin' kidding me

So months ago I felt the first tinges of pain like a kidney stone when we were on vacation in Alabama. Then a few weeks after that I spent a night in the hospital with the pain again. After the hospital stay I had a follow up with my urologist. He didn't seem to be too concerned about the size of the stone that would require a procedure. He gave me some medicine that would supposidly help pass the stone. Then I had to have a follow up xray in week. So I go through all of the stuff of medicine and drinking tons of water. A week later I went for my xray and was hoping for an immediate response from my doctor whether or not I still had the stone. Unfortunatly the doctor wasn't in, so I had to wait for a day to get the results. Finally the nurse called and said I was "all clear". I was thinking, "thank God" I didn't even feel it pass. whoo hoo!! at least I thought.... A couple of weeks of later I felt the same pain of a stone. What the hell? I figure that the nurse read the xray wrong. So I down a couple of pain pills and start the process of drinking tons of water again. Every time that I get ready to call my urologist, I start to feel better. Finally I feel some discomfort in my bladder, but again it's just discomfort and not pain. I thought maybe I passed it and was a bit irritated. So then last week I was leaving for work, I felt a little tinge of pain in a very bad area just South of the bladder. I thought about calling sick into work, but finally just decied to grab my happy pills and go to work. After getting to work I down my big container of water. As I am going to the bathroom I fell extreme pain in my (you know). By definition I had one stuck in the chamber and it freakin' hurt. I get back to my desk and pop a few happy pills and just try and sit still until they go into effect. I quickly call the urologist to see if there was a procedure they could do to get it. After bouncing a few calls with the ditsy nurse she tells me that they can get me into the hospital the next day. The next day!!!!Forget that. And I have to go to the hospital. Son of a B***ch. They called in some more medicine to help, but I am thinking, forget that I will just go to the emergency room. We have already reached our deductable for the year because of the first visit, so it would be free. I decide to get the medicine and try and tough it out. I am getting ready to leave work, but remember I had a huge glass of water a short time ago. I have to pee, but I am thinking its going to hurt. I go into the bathroom and do my thing, and by the grace of God it just comes out without any pain (either that or the pills were taking effect). This thing is freaking huge. I only have passed one stone in my pass and never really saw it. The rest have been blown up by sonic stuff. After passing it I feel soooooo much better. I actually finished out the day at work. Of course then I am pissed because i got the all clear from my urologist. I found out later that some stones don't show up on xray. The emergancy room visit was a CT scan so that's how they saw it. So after a few days of healing I feel alot better and know for sure that I am all clear now...

Soccer for kids

We decided that it was time to start getting the boys involved in sports. We wanted to start William a little earlier, but with Christopher being born last year, all of our free time was spent with that. We missed the first opportunity to get William involved with the local parks and rec, but we have signed him up for an Upward program that starts next month. We did make the deadline for getting Andrew signed up for every monday and wednesday of July. First practice that we showed up to we had no idea what to expect. We can't even get Andrew to keep his clothes on at home, so who knows how he would act around other kids. Would he pay attention? Would he want to participate? I am happy to say that he ran right out onto the field and is having a blast. He actually listens to the coaches. There are a few things that he still does on his own terms, but overall I am glad he is having fun. It's hard to believe that it ends next week, but now that we know he can handle it, we will make sure we sign him up more often. I wonder what other sports that he might be able to do...

Greekfest

I am soo far behind on my blogging. Let's see if I can catch up...

So I get a call from "cousin" Marc inviting the family to meet them down at greekfest in downtown Fort Wayne. I think the last time that I was at greekfest was a long time ago and it was in the Northcrest shopping center and not downtown. I missed germanfest, but decided to give this one a try. Also, I thought it would be a nice time to visit with Marc and Chris since I hardly get together with them. We load up the family into "herbie" and head downtown. I find a parking spot across the street from headwaters. We go into the fest for a very resonable $2 for Jen and I. After a little walking around we finally find Marc and Julie with Chris and Cami and the kids. Marc and I run over to grab some food for the families. A couple of gyros a eggplant lasagna thing and a pop was about pretty pricey, but very tasty. As we are heading back to the table we run into the Kannings who join us. It's a little hard to visit since the music is a little loud and we are pretty close to the stage. I try a greek beer and it is very tasty. Seconds after eating the boys get antsy, so we head over to the kids rides at the fest. It only cost a buck for the boys to ride the rides. The picture above is William bailing on the ferris wheel and letting Andrew ride it by himself. You can see the look in the above picture, William is like "this thing is going to do what?" and Andrew looks scared as heck. Another ride has these little planes that go round and round, and both the older boys loved that.

After the rides Christopher was getting a little cranky that he couldn't ride the rides, so we called it a night. We didn't really get a chance to visit that much, but we are going to try a guys night to let us be able to catch up. I would probably do greekfest again in the future, just for the beer and gyros.

Just the tooth

The other night I was giving the boys a bath and noticed William kind of playing with his teeth, but didn't think anything about it. The next day William presents a tooth to Jen that had fallen out. It kind of freaked us both out since we thought it is a little soon for him to be loosing teeth. Instead of calling his Dentist or any professional to ask if we should be worried, Jen decides to call Carrie. I don't know when Carrie became a tooth expert. According to the experts (Carrie) it's a little early but not unheard of to loose a tooth this early. The good part is that he didn't freak out about it,which is good since dealing with loose teeth gives me the heebie-jeebies. Jen and I have to quickly decide what to do about the tooth fairy since we didn't think we would have to deal with this for a while yet. We let William take the tooth to school the next day to show his teacher, but then the following night his tooth was replaced, by the tooth fairy, with a quarter.

Goodnight and Big Balls

I started watching "wipeout" last year and found it to be a very humorous show. It just amazes me how these people can continually get the snot beat out of them and keep going. It also amazes me that these people aren't seriously hurt. They time the challenges and some of them can take 10 minutes. I can't imagine doing these stunts over and over again for 10 minutes. I get tired just watching it. The boys started watching it with me on occasion and fell in love with the show. It must be a guy thing seeing people get smacked in the face. They ask me almost every day if the show is on that day. The other part that is very funny is the tag line that the host says at the end of the show. "goodnight and big balls". The other night we were putting the boys to bed. After tucking Andrew into bed, William goes to hug him goodnight and says, "goodnight and big balls". I thought Jen was going to fall over laughing. It's just something you wouldn't expect to hear from your 6 year old.

Damn, I forgot how much that hurts

As you might have read in my Alabama entry two blogs down (if you actually read all of that) that last Saturday during vacation I felt the pain in my side like a kidney stone. Well I went to bed Wednesday night around 11:00pm or so and was only asleep for a little bit when I felt pain again. I tried a few things to get around the pain. Over the counter medicine, heating pad, and some other stuff. Well the pain just kept getting worse and worse. By this time it was about 2:00am and Jen was asleep downstairs. Two hours of this excruciating pain was enough for me. I put some clothes on, told Jen what I was doing, and drove myself to the hospital. Why does this shit always happen at dark o'clock. There was no way that I was going to make Jen take me since that would mean waking all the kids up. And I didn't want to call my mom at that hour. So I get to the hospital around 2:30am or so and there is no one in the lobby. I kind of look around and finally someone comes out and asks if I need help. By this point its about a 9 on the 1 to 10 pain scale. As I am sitting there thinking they will usher me right in and get me some pain killers, a guy comes walking in. She asks him if he is alright or if we were together and he says no. He says that he is having chest pains.... come to find out that chest pains trump kidney stone pain and he gets ushered back right away. She tells me to have a seat in the waiting room and they will be right with me. Just my luck. I thought for sure that I would be the only person there at that time of night. Well I waited and waited. I tried sitting, standing, walking and do anything I could to ease up the pain. It seemed like forever,but finally they took me back and got me checked in. It wasn't long and they started an IV with that magic medicine. I started to feel a little better and they took me to get a CT to see if they could see the stone. After that they wheeled me back to the room and I started to fall sleep for some short cat naps between the blood pressure machine going off and nurses checking on me. The doctor came in and told me that they saw a stone about 4mm between my kidney and bladder. Stones this size they usually just try and let pass by themselves and don't usually require a surgery or procedure. Unless they get stuck. So I am basically free to go with a prescription for pain medicine around 5:00am. I run into a problem that they won't let me drive because of the morphine and I don't want to have Jen wake the kids to pick me up until a little closer to the usual wake up time. They let me catch a little more sleep and I finally call Jen around 6:30. After my second nap I am actually feeling pretty good and fell like I am alright to drive, but they insist I wait. So I go out to the waiting room after singing my paper work and wait for Jen and the boys to arrive. I get thinking of the pain in the butt of trying to pick up the Saturn later on in the day and I really feel fine. So, I am debating what to do, and finally just walk out the door and drive home. Yeah, I am a bad boy. Needless to say I took the day off to try and get some rest, but again Jen had to work so I tried to catch naps around watching the kids.
So now I am just sitting around trying to pass that stone. I know it is still there as of Monday night since I got hit with some more pain, but lucky I had some pain pills. Got to keep the water and cranberry juice going.

El Destructo rides again

We call Andrew El Destructo because it seems like everything that he touches, he eventually destroys. On our trip to Alabama, my dad gave us an old DVD player that he had. He knew that the DVD player that the boys used in the toy room was the portable one, and that it has been taking a beating over the last year or so. He just happened to have an extra one that they didn't use. So we get the player home and the very next day Andrew is whining that he wants to watch a movie in the toy room. I think that this is a good opportunity to pull out the new player and get it hooked up. I put in a movie and it works fantastic, but the movie that Andrew was watching quickly fell out of favor so he put in a new one. Seconds later I hear, "daddy, the TV isn't working". I figure that it is just a dirty DVD. The boys always finger up the discs so they stall or skip. I get in there and try to eject the disc to clean it and it won't eject. Crap, the DVD player wasn't even on for 10 minutes before Andrew breaks it. I play with it for a while, but can't get it to work. Finally I decide that there is no way to get the DVD to work so I decide to pry open the case to get the DVD out. I am trying to be a little careful for the chance that I can tear it apart and get it back together again. I finally get into the tray and notice that Andrew had put in two DVDs at the same time which jammed the player. Lucky for me I was able to put the player back together again and it is working fine. El Destucto rides again....

'Bama bound

Here is the long blog entry about our trip to Alabama.. fasten your seat belt.

A couple of months ago my dad brought up the fact that my step-niece was graduating from High School down in Montgomery. Now I haven't been down to Montgomery that much since my dad and his wife moved down there, but I have watched Kirsten grow up from a little kid in the times that I have made it down there. It's hard to believe that she is graduating already. I remember one of the first times I visited I help my dad put together a plastic car for Christmas. I also heard that my Aunt and cousins were going to make the trip down for the graduation as well, and I haven't seen them in forever either. So after some discussion we decided to try and a make the trip. The only factor that was a real worry to me was how the boys would do in a car trip down there. I figured that it would be 13 hours with lunch/dinner/potty stops. They did really well in our trip to Rochester last year and that was 11 hours. As long as the DVD player holds up I figured that we would be good to go. The trip planning and packing started early and we were pretty well prepared. After getting off work on Wednesday night I was trying to load everything that I could in the van (aka. Herbie). Jen had to work so I wasn't sure about some of the stuff to load. Finally Jen gets home and we do what we can for the night. Jen settles in to watch the recorded tape of "Lost", but it's already 11:00pm and the finale is 2 hours long. I head to bed since we have a long drive in the morning. Just before going to bed I watch the weather forecast to see how the drive is going to be and they are all talking about a huge thunderstorm that is heading our way. Crap. Thunderstorms mean that the kids will be in our room. I crash quickly but start hearing the rumbles around 3:00am. Around 4:00am William comes in the room and won't sleep on his make shift bed on the floor so we let him sleep in the bed. The only problem with William sleeping in our bed is that he is all elbows and knees so he is no fun to sleep with. Shortly after that Andrew starts crying so Jen goes in to solve that problem. Even with Jen gone, William has to be right next to me. I finally get fed up and crash on the floor. The alarm goes off way to early, but I get out of bed and start getting ready. The boys are a pain to try and get up since they were up alot. I am trying to get out on the road by 7:30 - 8:00 since I didn't want to be getting to my dad's house after dark since I hadn't been there in 6 years or so. So after all the waking and loading we were pulling out of the garage at 8:45 which isn't too bad for us. The trip down was pretty uneventful. We ran into a little bit of rain, but the traffic wasn't too bad and we didn't hit any jams. The boys were glued to the DVD player and Christopher did great with a little bit of fussiness. We pulled into Montgomery a little after dark. They are an hour earlier than us so we actually gained an hour, but we spent the whole vacation with "their" time and "our" time. It was almost exactly 13 hours when we pulled up to the house. We were greeted by Dad, Betty, and Rugby (the dog). We visited a little bit and then put the boys to bed.

A little more visiting and we went to sleep our self.

I thought with the long drive and late time to sleep that the boys would sleep in, but no such luck. 6:00am (their time) I hear Andrew in the front room saying "hello" so I get up and get some breakfast for him. Betty is an early riser too, so she was up soon after. After a little while everyone woke up and we had a nice relaxing breakfast. I actually felt pretty good after the long drive and short sleep. The boys are running all over the place so I know they are feeling pretty good too. Either that or they are just real excited at playing with the dog. (The poor dog) After a while we decide to go over to the Montgomery Zoo and check that out. We pull up to busloads of kids waiting to get in the zoo. Lucky for us it just looked impossible to get in and we walked right up to the entrance. Another bonus for the day is that our season pass to the Fort Wayne zoo also got us in free at the Montgomery zoo. The Montgomery zoo is a very nice zoo with alot of animals the Fort Wayne doesn't have. The first thing that William sees after getting into the zoo was their train that ran around the zoo. Of course this is the one thing that William fixates on so the whole time we are there he keeps asking if we are heading to the train. We kept saying no, look at the elephant. Finally we get to the train ride and it is like Fort Wayne's train only a little longer of a ride. Unfortunately the train passes by the animal cages, but the trees and bushes are so overgrown you can't see anything. After the train ride and an hour or so of walking around we decide to head home. It was real hot down there (compared to up here). We get home for nap time for the kids and me. Kirsten show up so we end up visiting for a little while. Man she got tall, not the little girl I remember. After that we just hung around the house. Whenever we visit, Betty has "snack night". This is a HUGE freakin' spread of all kinds of snack and appetizers. It's become quite the tradition to do this when we go down there and Betty does a great job in putting it all together. Most of it is home-made. So eat, drink, eat,drink and general merriment. Cami (Kirsten's mom) also comes to the house for snack night. Boys and us get to bed at a pretty good time.

Bright and early Saturday morning I once again hear Andrew up at 6:00am. Hey, at least they aren't waking me up in the middle of the night. After another lazy morning of getting up and having breakfast we decide to head out and see the Children's part of a museum with Kirsten. it's a pretty neat little area of the museum that is very hands on and has lots of activities. The museum is in the same area as the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Yes.. two things that don't really go together, Alabama and Shakespeare. We had fun at the museum, and of course the boys had the most fun feeding the ducks,turtles, and fish outside. After that we took the kids home and my dad and I had some errands to run in town (we had a list). First stop was a casino that was recently built near their house. They say casino, I say, pull-barn with a bunch of electronic games. It's all on cards so you don't hear the sound of change hitting the pans. We walked in and out of that place. Next stop was to drop of some trash. After that it was the great search for beer. Dad wanted to get Coors light in bottles, but our first stop to Walmart and then to Cosco but they only had cans. So back in the truck and over to Sams Club. Both of these places are basically the same thing, even in the store layouts. I was able to find the 4th book of the Twilight series for Jen to read on the way home. She blew through the 3rd book on the way down. While at Cosco dad remembered hat he had to pick up a cake for Kirsten's graduation party. Unfortunately in getting the cake, the fun part of our running around (hitting a bucket of balls) wasn't going to happen, at least not without melting the cake in the heat. We get back and Betty has put together a very tasty looking lasagna, but all of a sudden I feel some pain in my left side. It's the familiar feeling of a kidney stone so I wasn't able to eat anything. Lucky for me after an hour or so the pain let up and I was feeling better the next day. My dad's pool isn't heated (it doesn't need to be, it's Alabama) so it wasn't warm, but it wasn't too cold. Basically it was lake temperature. The boys were having fun putting their feet in the water so I decided to try it out and put on my suit. The first dive was pretty cold, but I got used to it very fast. The boys put their suits on too and joined me in the pool. William has had swim lessons, but still doesn't swim that well. After playing in the pool for a while, some dark clouds rolled in and we started hearing thunder so we decided to call it a day for the pool. More merriment and visiting with my dad until dark. The boys found out that there was a TV in the front room that could get satellite so they would go in there to watch Disney while we watched whatever we wanted to.

Sunday was graduation day. I heard Andrew up again bright and early, but by the time I got out to the front room Betty was already up and feeding him an Oreo poptart. I was kind of surprised to see him eating that since he isn't a real big chocolate eater. The rest of the house is gradually waking up. Betty is in the kitchen cooking like crazy since they are having a get together at the house after graduation. Out of the corner of my eye I see Andrew walking toward the front room and then the familiar sound of him throwing up all over the place. I quickly get up and try to catch as much as possible in my hands. My dad is telling me to get him outside, but he usually has one big puke and he is done, and the fact that if I don't move him I will only have one spot to clean rather than a trail. Of course it's the oreo poptart all over the WHITE carpet. I am mortified and quickly try to clean it up as fast as I can. Lucky for me they have a carpet cleaner just like ours, so I spend the next half hour trying to get is as clean as humanly possible. This was the first incident of many for Andrew for the day including bloody toes and other bodily harm. We eventually get ready and head out to the graduation. It was a very rainy day in Alabama. The boys did pretty well at the graduation and behaved pretty good. After the graduation we all headed back to the house for another large meal. Betty put out a huge spread including a whole baked ham, a ton of chicken breasts, and alot of other great food. I am not sure how much weight I gained on vacation, but I know I did. Only one of my cousins made it over for the graduation,so I was a little bummed about that, but it was good to see him. Eventually the party broke up and we did some more visiting and whatnot. I loaded as much in the van as possible again, but again I had to wait on stuff. I wanted to get going early again if it was possible.

Around 5:30am (their time) Christopher woke up. (he was sleeping in the same room as us) and he was wide awake. We tried to lay him in the bed with us to get a Little more sleep, but he wouldn't hear of it. It actually worked out since we got a little earlier start. But again the chore of getting everyone up, dressed, fed, and yada yada yada it was around 8:00am (their time) before we finally hit the road. Again another uneventful drive back to Fort Wayne. The boys did very well again, with Christopher being a little more fussy that first time. The only difference in this trip is that that boys were eating like we hadn't fed them in a week. They barely touched the snack food on the way down, but hit them HARD on the way home. Even after their snackfest they still ate the meals when we stopped for Lunch (Cracker Barrel) and dinner (Pizza Hut). I was real tempted to not stop for dinner since we were only about an hour and a half away from home, but the boys hadn't been out of the van in a while, and we didn't have any food at the house so we decided to stop. We got home at around 13 hours again,but the drive didn't seem that bad. Pulled in the driveway, called everyone to let them know we made it home safe, put the boys to bed, did a quasi unpacking and finally headed to bed after a bit of an unwind.

Overall the trip was really great. The boys did well in the van, and didn't destroy my dad's house too much, even though his collection of cars might need some repair. It was a good time, but next time I think we will do a whole week down there.

Thanks to Dad, Betty, Kirsten and Cami for a fantastic time

how to fix the TV

My POS tv keeps messing up and I found the way to fix it online, but everytime I bookmark the page how to fix it I either loose it or my computer dies so I decided to blog it so I will always have it.

> Samsung\TXG2746\Volume at max and adj vol- shuts down the set\\\\

Using> the r/c* enter the factory mode by> pressing mute* 1*8*2* and power. This brings up the svc menu. Scroll> down using the CH button on the> remote to Factory Reset.\Press the volume + button. The set will shut> down* but all will be well. Somehow> the EEPROM was corrupted\\\\\\\

Shave and a haircut....

So this morning I get up bright and early. Who am I kidding I was awaken by the boys before 7:00am. I ran outside and put down weed and feed on the front yard to help keep up with the Joneses next door and have a weed-free lawn. I will do the backyard tomorrow morning. Anyway after doing that I headed out for a hair cut. I wanted to get my hair cut short for our vacation. Oh, by the way did I mention we were heading to Alabama to see my dad? The forecast for down there is mid to upper 80's so I want to have as short of hair as possible. After my haircut I headed over to the Saturn dealership for an oil change and to see what "other"service they want to try and talk me into. We get free car washes for the Saturn as long as we own it, but since we live on the other side of town we don't use this service that much. It was real handy when Jen worked across the street at Lincoln. I figure over the 8 years we have owned the car we have used it enough. Anyway, I find that if I get the car washed before I get the oil changed I can usually avoid a huge crowd at the car wash. Yeah they are free, but they are free too ALL of the cars that they sell at the automall, and there is only ONE thing to drive through so it gets real busy on the weekends and after 5 on the weekdays. The quality of the wash is kinda poor but it's free. Anyhooo. I get into the dealership and it doesn't look that busy. I deal with the girl service advisor that I like working with. They have a grumpy old man that tries to sell you everything under the sun and makes it seem like if you don't do the service he recommends that you will surely kill yourself in an accident. I notice that I am 500 miles away from 100,000. The advisor says it's time to start looking at the 90,000 service for the car, but then she does an ideal thing. She actually takes the time to look back at my previous service to see that I had had alot of the stuff done over the past couple of years. That's the kind of service that I appreciate. I can't afford the "recommended" service at 30, 60,and 90,000 miles, so I have been doing a couple thing at a time. I call it my a la carte service plan and it works pretty good. She tells me that I am next in line so it won't be that long which is fantastic. I go into the waiting room and grab a pop and a couple of cookies (I really like that feature at Saturn). I go outside to look over the used cars and some of the demo models. I like to take a look just to have some idea of how much it would cost if I would ever have to replace the Saturn. It's cold and windy outside so I don't hang out there long. I go back in and grab a refill to hear my name being called. Dang that was fast. Of course as I am paying my bill some one else pulls a car in front of mine blocking the exit. The service girl gets pissed at her co-worker and kind of lets me know it under her breath. After a short wait I head out.

After my quick Saturn adventure I head over to my brother's house. I agreed to take care of his lawn while he is out on the road. Just to keep you up to speed on that story. My brother got divorced in December. In the settlement he got the house, that he didn't want, and also let his ex live in the house for a couple of months until she found a place to go. Well, the deadline for move out was May 1, which came and went since she didn't have a place to go. And then the deadline was extended to May 15, but later extended to the 18th. After she moves out, we move in for a major clean,repair, update, job on the house. We don't want to throw alot of money into it, but it has to be presentable for when it goes on the market. Anyhoo again, I feel a little awkward going to the house with her still there since I haven't talked to her in months and wasn't sure how that meeting was going to go. I pull up to the house and see my mom and another van in the driveway. That's weird. Come to find out that a guy from the gas company was there to disconnect the gas grill from the meter so we can get rid of the gas grill. For some reason my brother's ex just leaves for work after letting the gas guy start the work but then locks him out of the house. Yeah he does the work outside, but he can't turn the gas back on to the house without making sure that the water heater is properly lit and the furnace is working. You know the general stuff they do to make sure the don't blow up someone's hosue. So they call my brother, who is somewhere USA, who in turn calls my mom, but she doesn't have a key or garage door opener to the house. My ex mother in law was supposed to be there to let him in, but didn't show up. Finally the gas guy leaves a note on the door and takes off. Mom and I chat for a while, but then I decide to give the grass a cut. Lucky for me the lawn mower is in the shed out back so I didn't have to worry about it being locked up. I grab the mower and start cutting the grass. I lived at that house with Dan and my friend Paul for a couple of years, so it was like old times cutting the grass again. The only thing is that when I cut the grass the last time I didn't have to worry about the doggy landmines in the back yard. Man, that's alot of shit. I finish up cutting the grass and am heading out and see my ex mother in law standing there, so I end up talking to her for a while. She got the wrong message from her daughter so she didn't realize that we were locked out. The conversation with her wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be and we both expressed our feeling that we wish that the marriage would have worked out. But, time to move on. As I am leaving I get a bright idea. I ask my ex mother in law if she has a key to the house. I run down to the hardware store and have a couple of copies made for mom and me. I get back to the house and test the new keys out to find that they are extremely tight in the locks and they won't turn. I am doing everything to get it to work including using motor oil to lube the key down and using a pair of pliers to get it to work. Finally I look at Alta and ask her if she is sure this is THEIR house key and not HERS. She looks at me and gets that look like "oh crap". Yep I made copies of her house key. She just gives me the real house key to my brothers house and I take off. I run in the door, put the kids together, and head out to William's haircut since Jen was working. That went very well with Andrew behaving (pretty much) and Christopher behaving as well. By the time I got home I was done for the day. We spent the rest of the day just playing and watching TV.