Man I am getting old

Over the weekend I decided that 90+ degrees with a heat index of near 100 would be a good opportunity to get a little yardwork done. I didn't bother grabbing a shower in the morning and just went right to the swimsuit rather than shorts. After cutting the grass I decided that now was the time to mark out the area that the monster swingset would be positioned. I had tried to do this before, but it was hard to imagine the actual footprint of this monster, so I took out a bunch of string and steaks and layed it out to the inch. After measuring, sweating, marking and sweating I went in and had Jenny come outside so get her approval. Little too close to the fence. So more measuring,sweating, marking and sweating. She came back outside and thought it looked good whereupon I quickly agreed.

NOW what to do about the ground underneath the swingset. We had decided to put down mulch as a "soft" barrier in case the kids fell of the swings or whatever. Question was do we dig down a little bit to create a pit or just put up landscape timbers, kill the grass, and mulch on top. I decided to dig up the sod a couple of inches thick. It actually went surprisingly well with the soil having just enough moisture to let me get a shovel beneath it. I transported this sod to another part of the backyard where I had pulled up the flagstone and it's starting to look pretty good. Digging up sod is a long and tedious process where I am digging up 12" x 8" pieces at a time so I can transplant them to another area of the yard. I might see how much it costs to rent a sodcutter since these little miracles do exist, but after a couple hours of work I am almost a quarter of the way done (of a 15' x 26' area) so it will just depend on cost.

I took special care to stay properly hydrated during the day by taking out a large container of ice water whereupon William kept drinking it since he loves drinking out of a straw so many trips inside for a refill. One of the best purchases of the summer has been the $10 inflatable pool from target. I filled up the pool in the morning with some real chilly water outta the hose and took a few trips to soak my feet and get my head wet. I decided to call it a day after a couple hours of doing this and ended my day on another project outside and actually felt halfway decent going to bed.... and then I woke up the next morning. ouch ouch hey they hurts. Pain in my arms mostly and a few complaints from my back too.. man I am getting old.

Question

Since everyone else I know has cable I doubt that they watch regular TV anymore, but just in case you did, I have a question. Has anyone else saw the sports promo on WPTA 21 alive promoting the return of their night time sports thing? The commercial starts with a guy looking around a store and getting hit with a football. When I caught a glimpse of this commercial I asked Jenny "what the hell is MH doing in a commercial?" I soon saw that it wasn't him, but it sure looked alot like him at first glimpse.

Has anyone else noticed this promo commercial and saw the same thing?

Would anyone with the capabilities be able to capture this commercial so I can post it here?

I was this close to almost knowing someone famous

The start of a Rebel???

My mom gave me a bunch of "cute" pictures that she took of her little "angles". This one picture made me do a double take. It looks like William is giving her the subtle "bird" and Andrew and the dog are looking back saying WTH? Hopefully not the start of a rebel...

Wedding Anniversary

Last Friday was our wedding anniversary. Sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday that we were dating and getting married, and then sometimes it seems like we have been married for 80 or 90 years since we finish each others sentences and know what the other is thinking. But it's only been 5 years. We have put alotta stuff in that five years. If you count the houses that Jen and I owned before getting married, we are on our 5th house in five years. We have had two kids with relative ease since Jenny had a "supposed" medical condition that makes conception very difficult (yeah right) I just look at her funny and BOOM. (Just kidding dear).

We were able to have a kidless dinner at the Red Lobster with dessert provided by Ritters. It was nice to have time alone with Jenny and doing whatever we wanted, but alas it ended so quickly and we went home to kids. I look back at my life before Jenny and I am extremely happy that I have met and married the love of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without her.

Appropriately we went to the wedding of my cousin the next day and it brought back a flood of memories of my wedding day too. I found out that my cousin played golf and tennis before the big event. I played golf the morning of my wedding with some of the groomsmen and friends. Funny story of the day is when Keith was on an island hole and tried to hit a ball, with his putter, to our group on the next tee and ended up launching his putter head across the water. The round ended up taking a little longer than I expected so I was alot later to the church than I wanted to be and kinda sweaty. (I will recall the rain/convertable story later) My cousin's wedding was really nice and the reception was alot of fun with a ton of food and drinks. We didn't stay around the reception long since we had the kids with us and a half hour drive home. On the way home I just kept thinking of our reception and how after everything was over there ended up being a big group of our friends going back to my house to deliver a couple of kegs of beer that were tapped. Those people just kept sitting around drinking and talking until the wee hours of my "WEDDING NIGHT". I kept thinking, get out, I have plans and they don't involve an audience. I am just kidding guys, it's memories like that I will always cherish.

Movie Poster

Recently Ransackery and Monkeyjack have had some interesting posts about excrement. You can read Ransackery's observations HERE and Monkeyjack's observation HERE. I wondered how a movie poster for their observations would look, so here it is. Sorry Carrie :) he he he he

Feel free to give me input on the text.

mmmm... pizzzaaaaa

Every once in a while Jen and I treat ourselves to a little Italian carry-out. We don't usually go to the cookie cutter pizza places in the area. We treat ourselves to grinders and sausage rolls from a little place called Riverbend Pizza on the corner of St. Joe Rd. and Wheelock. It's an old converted gas station (you can still see where the pumps used to be), where it's carry-out only. There isn't any room in the building for seats. It's run by this jolly old guy with a gray handlebar mustache that has some connection to the old Lexy's pizza (according the the literature on his waiting room wall). They make the best sausage rolls and the grinders remind me of the old Hoffman House grinders if you are familiar with those (pizza is pretty good too). The changeable sign in front of the building usually has a cute saying on it like "you'll be graduate our pizza" around time of school getting out.

I have only one small complaint about this place.. Our "usual" ends up being about $11.17 with .83 cents change. This place (usually the jolly old soul) gives me a 50 cent piece as change every time we go there. Now I know it's "cute and unique" to give out these coins, but they are pretty much useless. You can't use them in vending machines and they are big and bulky in you pockets. Most businesses don't have a place in their registers for these coins so I feel kinda bad using these coins in other businesses and passing along this burden. So I have come up with a few ideas to return the "cute and unique" idea to the pizza place. I am going to save up all these coins and pay for the pizza the next time we go there or maybe I will return the favor by using Susan B. Anthony or Saquaguia dollar coins the next time. Maybe I will pay for the food the next time using $2 bills. I don't want to get too "cute and unique" with this small business in fear of being banned from the establishment.. "NO PIZZA FOR YOU"!!!!

Some assembly required???

Through mom's guilt for feeding William peanut butter Thursday and sending him to the hospital, she went out Friday and bought a swingset. She told me about it and said I can pick it up Friday night (my birthday) or Saturday. Saturday it was. I picked up this swingset/playset in my in-laws pick up truck and brought it home. I opened one of the 4 boxes to get out the instructions. There are literally a million parts to this monster and of course no two pieces are the same. It's going to take me a week just to find and label all of the parts so we don't get the pieces mixed up. I say "we" since I am going to need my father in law for sure to put this thing together since he has alot more experience building stuff than I do. I have put alot of stuff together in my day, but nothing that took 96 steps with a manual that looks just short of "war and peace". It says that it should take 2 skilled people around 16 hours to assemble, so I guess that means it will take my father in law and I about a month with my help.

The other fun part is where to put this thing in our backyard, because once you put this thing together, it's going to stay where ever it is assembled. Not like the old days of the metal ones that you just picked up and move to another part of the yard so the area under the swings don't get worn out. For "safety" reasons they say you have to have a 6 foot barrier around the swing, which makes the footprint of this thing 30' x 35' which is basically half the backyard (I think I will be fudging on this for sure). They also recommend a "soft" area under the playset which includes 12 inches of mulch. Excuse me? It will take 5 dump trucks to fill a 30'x35' area 12 inches thick. We didn't have a "safety" barrier or a "soft" area when we were kids. Our "soft" area was if dad didn't cut the grass for a couple of days, so needless to say there will be some fudging on the footprint and ground cover. I am not saying I want my kids to get hurt, but come on, that just seems a bit extreme to me. Of course Jenny might veto me on these things. So stay tuned for me bitching about this in the upcoming weeks/months.

Joke Joke

There once was a newlywed couple. They were both very shy people, and neither one knew when the other was "in the mood". Finally the guy had an idea. He said to his wife, "Listen dear, If you want to have sex pull my penis once, if you don't, pull it a hundred times."

FWOP

Favorite word or phrase

" Don't sweat the petty stuff

and

Don't pet the sweaty stuff "

that was close

When William was very young, we gave him something with peanut butter and noticed a little swelling around his eye, so we figured he might have an allergy. Of course a few months later I forgot about it and gave him a bit of a peanut butter cookie, and of course he swelled up a little bit around his eye. So we have been keeping him away from peanut butter, just in case. The plan was to give him a little bit after he was 3 years old in the morning and keep an eye on him. I actually tried to give him a little bit last week, but he didn't want to eat it (smart kid). Which brings us to yesterday. Mom was watching the kids while Jenny went to work and was putting together some food for the kids. When William is at grandma's, her pantry is a free-for-all where she usually keeps gummy snacks and raisins where he helps himself. He grabbed a breakfast bar and gave it to grandma to open. She opened it and gave him a bite, then she took a bite too and noticed it was filled with peanut butter. About 15 minutes later his face started swelling, his skin all over his body got real splotchy, and he started coughing and weazing. So he was having a serious reaction to the peanut butter, not the little swelling that he did when he was younger. Mom immediately gave him benedryl and rushed him to the ER at Dupont (again, the best in Fort Wayne). Even though she wasn't technically William's guardian when they found out what was going on they immediately rushed him into a room with nurses and a doctor in the door right behind them. They gave him and I.V., a shot, and a couple of breathing treatments. Jenny left work and went to the ER. I ended up going to Mom's house to take care of Andrew since Uncle Dave is not that good with little babies. I finally made it to the ER and by the time I got there William was sleeping on Jenny's lap and looked real good. I didn't think it was that severe since my mom tends to overstate stuff, but the way Jenny described it, it was pretty bad. Lucky for us he woke up from his nap, we left the hospital and headed back to grandma's. By the time we got back to grandma's he was acting totally normal running around and chasing the dogs. He doesn't seem to have any lingering effects from his reaction, but now a whole new set of worries with him and what he can and can not eat. Looks like another trip to a specialist.

I feel sorry for mom since she feels guilty for "almost killing my kid" as she puts it, but I told her she did all the right things getting him medicine and taking him to the hospital. Of course all my comments won't curb her guilt, she just kept saying "I am going out tomorrow and buying him a swingset". My uncle had the comment following that saying,"good idea, then he can fall off of it and break his arm". Kids are so much fun....

Challenge

Last week I got an email from Marcus with a link to a girl's blog. One of the entries in the blog was the urgent request to design a new header for her blog, so Marcus challenged me to do that. After reading the blog which had an idea of what she wanted I also noticed that there was a link to her flickr account. Photoshop here I come!! I e-mailed Marcus to see if there was anything else he could tell me about this girl to help me with the design. You see, I thought this girl was a friend or relative of Marcus... Nope... Just a random blog that he had read that requested a header. I felt kinda weird doing this for essentially a stranger out in cyberland, but hey, it was a little slow at work and I love a challenge.

Here is the design that I finally designed:



I e-mailed the header design to her trying to describe how I ended up at her website and not to seem to stalker-ish. I got a simple "looks good, thanks". I thought I would get a little more response than that, with maybe a few corrections or ideas for changes, but it looks like she has other stuff going on in her life and maybe a header wasn't quite as critical as she thought. Since she isn't using the header I thought I would post it on my site. Maybe a little side business as "header designer".

FYI

Just in case you are wondering why the little countdown clock is still on the left side of my blog. Well the answer is simple. It was a such a pain in the butt to find the html code that would countdown stuff, and then it was just as difficult to insert it in my blog (I don't know html coding). So I decided to keep it and countdown to ramdom things all year long. So if there is something that you want me to countdown to, just let me know. Or let me know if you want the code and I can pass that along to you, it's up to you to find out how to put it in your blog or website.

Man, I need cable

Since moving into our house one of the things we haven't done is signed up for cable TV. First it was because we couldn't decide whether to get cable or dish, and then it became more of a financial decision not to get it. After living without cable for a couple of months and only watching the old UHF we noticed we really didn't need cable tv since the networks offer enough programming. We have become big fans of pbs since they usually have something on interesting when the networks stink. Usually finding something to watch isn't that difficult (unless it's during the week during the day... sorry jen). Anyway Sunday I am taking care of the boys and having a hard time finding ANYTHING to watch. I am very lucky since I can put in a movie for William and do the picture in picture thing so he can watch a little screen in the corner of the big screen to keep him entertained (he doesn't need sound).

So I come across the finals of the world cup soccer match and decide to watch a little since it was the final. I noticed something good was going on during the match! The referee pretty much kept the whistle in his pocket and made the guys play ball. One of the annoying things that I had watched in the earlier rounds was the stoppage of play when anyone was accidentally tripped or if they had to actually fight a little rough for the ball. Everytime someone hit the ground they would throw there hands up in the air expecting a penalty, and most times they received them. These guys were more actors than athletes with all the "flopping" that they were doing, but this final the ref actually made them play. That made watching this two hour boredom of watching guys running around and kicking a ball a LITTLE more entertaining. The most entertaining part was the vicious "head-butt" of another player which made it feel a little more like American football. (if you haven't seen the video, it's all over the web). Yes I actually watched the whole thing including the overtimes and penalty kicks. I doubt that soccer will ever become the World sport that it is in Europe (thank God). I think after that I watched a program on PBS about gay Macedonian kings who loved sheep or something like that. Man I need cable.

Cover me.. I'm going in !!

This was the first year that Indiana has allowed so called "out of state" fireworks to be shot off legally. Of course everyone shot these fireworks off in town even when they weren't legal, but it was a little more discreet in the past.

Reminds me of a story of my youth when I was around 13 years old or so. I had a ice cream tub full of single firecrackers that I had undone from bricks to use for assorted purposes. Blowing up my plastic models being first and foremost. Anyway I wanted to set some off so I took my tub of firecrackers to the driveway. I didn't have any punks and I didn't feel like lighting a lighter every time so I got a candle. So here I am sitting in the driveway with a candle and a huge tub of firecrackers lighting them off one at a time when I look up and see the front end of a police cruiser heading slowly down our cul de sac. I freak out and run, leaving the tub of firecrackers and candle sitting in the middle of the driveway. I don't know where to go so I do whatever a kid that age does. I go in the backdoor of the house and down to the basement thinking "crap, I left everything on the driveway", but maybe the cop won't notice. Nope the door bell rings and I vaguely hear a conversation between the cop and my dad. Luckily the cop was cool and just told my dad to tell me to be careful. My dad just looked at me and shook his head. Thanks to dad for smoothing that over.

Anyway, going back to the original story of this year being the first for "out of state" stuff. All weekend long its been like downtown Baghdad around our house. (Luckily it hasn't effected either of the boys sleeping.) I decide to run down to the DQ for a couple blizzards last night and pull out of my driveway to see people shooting off all kinds of sparking, launching stuff in the streets. I drive around a bunch of these launch pads hoping not to catch a spark or a missile in the side of the car, and go quickly to the DQ and back. I get back and quickly close the garage door and tell jenny to "batten down the hatches!!!!"... where she promptly tells me "they are battened down"... and then I tell her "batten them down again, we'll teach those hatches!!" (thanks Bugs Bunny). It wasn't as bad in the past years since people had to be more discreet, but now it's like a freakin free for all. I am sure when the boys get a bit older they will get into the fireworks thing, but for now, I'll just duck and cover.

Happier than a tornado in a trailer park !!

We finally got a chance to go out and see "Cars". We have been trying to arrange a time to see it with Jenny's work schedule and working out getting someone to watch Andrew. The film was simply amazing. Pixar takes it to the next level with some of the best animation that I have seen at the same time actually telling a good story with heart and emotion. I am real tempted to go and see it again, but with Pirates coming out this week, we need to pick and choose movies to see because of all the wragling that we have to do for getting to a show.

"Cars" also marked the first time we took William to a movie. There really hasn't been anything out since he was born that we have wanted to take him to see, but this was a definite exception because he loves cars and trucks. By the time we got to the theatre, the previews were starting, so as we rounded the hallway leading to the seats, the noise and darkness scared him (which I worried about). But I told him it was alright and carried him into the theatre and to our seats. I think he really enjoyed the movie. Most of the time he watched the show in my lap, but was getting a bit distracted by the other kids in a crowd. But a simple solution to that was popcorn. Jenny bought a bag and he spent the rest of the show in our laps watching the show and eating popcorn. I wish he could communicate with us more so I know if he enjoyed it or if he would want to do it again.

And the Saga continues.....

A while back I reported about how our AC unit was out and required a replacement part, it will never end. Synopsis in case you haven't been paying attention. AC unit goes out on Memorial Weekend. Repair guy comes out and says we have a burnt coil (which should have been caught by the guy who looked at it before we bought the house). The repair guy sumbits a price quote to the warranty company for a new coil that is actually here in town. Warranty company doesn't like his quote and attempts to get the coil cheaper.

This where the latest clusterf*&^k happens. Jenny starts calling the warranty company once a week and then once a day as it's been a month without AC. After finally talking to someone at the Warranty company who will actually help Jen, they tell her that the paperwork is in purchasing. It's been approved, but it's in purchasing and the part should ship in 2 - 3 days. After another week we call and find out that the paperwork has just LEFT purchasing but the part should be here in 2 -3 days. Wait longer and then another call. Part was ordered but not there is a problem at the factory with the part and they won't ship the part. Finally the vice president of the warranty company gets on the phone with the factory and tells them to ship the damn part and he wants it overnighted. Another couple of days of waiting and no one has any idea where the part is or if it even shipped out. People are so freaking lazy.

Which brings us to today: Jenny calls me and tells me the repair guy is at the house, and then she asks if I want the the bad news or the bad news. I said "bad news please". The factory sent us the wrong part. WTMFH????, "but" Jenny quickly adds the repair guy is going to do a little wheeling and dealing at his supplier to get us the part we need. (you know the part that we could have had a month ago) so we should have AC by this weekend. "What else?" I ask sheepishly. The repair guy was looking at the furnace while messing with the coil and noticed huge cracks in the heat condenser. One, he is surprised our carbon monoxide detectors weren't going off, and two, damage like this usually requires a TOTAL furnace replacement. Thank God for the warranty, but still bites that we have to replace a furnace in a 10 year old house... and that's only IF the warranty company will pay for it. God I love home ownership.

Don't worry Carrie, it's just us. I am sure your new home will be fine....

I am not that Sleepy

I read this story the other day. I know I can be a pretty sound sleeper, but I think I would have noticed this...

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus. Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.
"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else," Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan. "We had to take it out intact," said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. "Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation."
Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there. "When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said. "I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."
The doctor treating Mohammad said he'd never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon's story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.

Vacation 3 Brain cells 0

Saturday - Day 3 - My son must have known we went to bed at 2:30am because he picked this day to get up at 6:00am. We quickly pick him up so we don't wake the other people or his brother sleeping next to us. After feeding him, he decides that 3.5 hours of sleep for us is enough and he is up and wants to make a lot of noise. Jen and I decide to take turns taking him for walks down the monster hallways to keep him entertained and to allow everyone else to get some sleep. On my turn down the hallway I really wasn't expecting to see too much activity at this hour, but there was a dance competition in the area so there were a ton of little girls with glitter everywhere. I did find a place that sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts so we ended up buying a dozen for everyone when Jenny took her turn down the hall. The funny part is that when she was bringing the doughnuts back to the room, Andrew was giggling and laughing down the hall and someone commented to Jen that even at that age, he loves Krispy Kreme (maybe a call down to corporate for that story). So after everyone wakes up we have another day of waterparks and whatnot. It's actually a kinda nice day (it had been cold outside) so we ventured outside to more pools and waterparks. They had just opened the new section to the outdoor pool that morning so there was even more stuff to do outside, which was great since inside was so crowded. So another day of swimming, sunning, eating, and playing.

Sunday - Day 4 - We woke up kinda early and much to my surprise, everyone else was up also. Keith was spearheading the effort to get packed up and outta the room which surprised me. It was fun to pack everything up, separate everything in the kitchen, try and find a luggage cart, and not step on kids eating breakfast. Finding a cart is a whole story in itself, but at least we can say we found a couple. After packing up the cars and checking out, one last blast at the waterpark. It's a nice feature that you can still use the waterpark after you checkout. We all ate at a Perkins down the road and then headed for home around 3:00 or so. I was ahead of Keith, but not soon down the road he goes flying past me with Jeff soundly asleep riding shotgun. I found out later that Keith missed the exit for 69 off the toll road so he had a nice extra tour of north Indiana. The ride for us went pretty smooth where the kids slept most of the time. Andrew fussed after a while but calmed down when we stopped at toll booths to pay tolls and get tickets so we wonder if he gets car sick. Home in 3 hours. Unpack. Collapse on the couch.. I need a vacation

Vacation Part Deux

Friday - Day 2 - Kinda lazy start to the day with everyone getting up around 9 or so (except our kids who were up by 7:45). We decided to try out the dry play area in the morning, have lunch, and then down to the waterpark. We ate breakfast and loaded up the kids for the mile long walk down to the play area/arcade only to find out that the kids needed socks to play there. Jenny took the long walk back up to the room to get William socks. We could have bought socks out of a vending machine next to the play area, but it seemed silly when we had socks in the room. So we put Williams socks on only to find out that the room with all the "soft" balls scares him because of a big thing in the middle of the room that makes a whooshing noise whenever the button was pushed, but I finally convinced him to go into the room. OK I carried him into the room. I am looking around at all the stuff and see that in an upper area there are these bazookas that shoot these "soft" balls, whereupon I catch one of these "soft" balls directly in the nose square in my face. That freakin' hurt. So after messing around there, including a paniced search for William when he walked away from us, we ate lunch and then back to the waterpark for the rest of the day. During vacation, after the kids were in bed the grownups would play games. Thursday night's game was this tetris type of board game that I wasn't too interested in and didn't play. That and I was real tired. Then Friday night Jeff and Paula inroduced us to a card game called Phase 10. It was a pretty fun game that went on and on and on (kinda like the hallways). Upon playing one game for hours we finally called it a draw between Jeff and Keith and headed to bed around 2:30am.

I need a vacation from my vacation

Well, overall I have to say that Geekfest 2006 was pretty successful I think. I think everyone had a good time and we all left friends. No major conflicts (besides the cheese incident) and only minor meltdowns by kids on some occasions. I am not sure about everyone else, but I did A LOT of walking all starting from parking the car to the room which was at least a mile one way. My days were spent walking around with William as he went everywhere in the waterpark and never stood still. A quick trip down to the lobby of the resort had to be at least half a mile walk. Even after all that walking I got to come back to work on Monday and work on collating Real Estate and Homes which involved 8 hours more of, you guessed it, walking... so I am freaking tired. I figured I better write some stuff down before I forget about the weekend.

Thursday: Morning rush to get kids ready, food packed, and the car loaded. After all was said and done I was attempting to leave around 10:00, so 10:45 was actually doing pretty good. The traffic wasn't too bad and the kids did pretty well on the way over. Andrew was entertained watching William playing with his cars. After we got on the Toll Road, we decided to stop and feed Andrew since he was getting a little fussy. Unfortunately, once we got into Ohio we had to go almost 40 miles to the first travel plaza (I didn't want to get off the toll road). We pulled off and this place was basicly a 1970's throw back (which is probably the last time it was cleaned or updated). There was another plaza another 30 miles down the road, but I don't think Andrew would have made it that far. So we got out and went inside for lunch. According to the sign there was a Nathans, a Uno's, and a Cinnebon at this location... that was false advertising. The offered AN item that those places might have offered. It was just one big room with cold and hot cases where the display for Uno's was just a small personal pizza in a hot case. So we grabbed a pizza and chocolate milk for William and two sandwiches (the kind you would find in a gas station.. just wrapped in plastic) for us .. $17. Yes we had a ton of food in the back of the Jeep, but that would have entailed tearing out half the stuff I just packed up. We ate quickly trying not to touch anything and keep William from crawling on the disgusting floor. I thought we had just done a quick stop, but we ended up being there for almost an hour. Calling Keith when we got back on the road I found out that they were ahead of us a couple of miles and were just getting ready to pull off for something to eat also. I had overhead people talking at the travel plaza that Chicago was getting nailed with a storm, and in talking to Keith, he said that Fort Wayne was getting nailed too so I knew we were just ahead of a storm. Down the road, we saw the other travel plazas in Ohio, and they all looked like they were really nice, and redone. Leave it to us to pick the worst travel plaza in Ohio. We arrived at the Kalahari and checked in. It was a very nice place and better than I expected. The lobby was so cool with a very African theme. We decided to check out the room before unloading the truck. I was a bit worried about the room since photo's can be deceiving and we were putting 14 people into this room, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was big and roomy where we all fit very comfortably. I called Keith again and found out that they stopped at a sit down restaurant and were just leaving Toledo in the rain storm that I had heard about. I quickly ran down and unloaded our car since I knew it was comming, and by the time I got back up to the room it was pouring rain. Unfortunately Keith got stuck in the middle and was able to go about 40 miles an hour so it took him a bit longer to get there. After Keith and his group got there I was pretty much staying out of the way while Lori and Jenny tried to put the kitchen together and then I heard "crash". 10 minutes into vacation and already we broke a bowl, but luckily it wasn't a sign of things to come, it was basically just getting a bad thing out of the way early. We went to the pool and met up with the Quinmores later in the day and spent the rest of the day unpacking and setting up the kitchen with all of the food everyone had brought and visiting.

More later......