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.

work,work,work...hello boys... I missed you

I think the blood is finally getting back into my hands. Friday we had to go in and sign the 200 pages of B.S. for the refinance of our house. Yeah, I figured we killed at least 4 or 5 trees, but I guess it's worth gaining a whole point. It just amazes me all the crap that you have to sign and date. Half of it I really don't know what it was, but I am just there to sign and sign and sign. Lucky for us Jen is on top of things and found $300 they were trying to charge us that we have already paid. Let me just say that the person working for our guy at the bank is a total ditz. Which installs a lot of confidence in refinancing your house. An HOUR later after "autographing" paper work we were finally done. I hadn't really planned on an hour so I had to bust butt back up to Auburn to get to an event that we were doing in the afternoon. I was hoping to run home first to change my pants since I had spilled hydraulic fluid on them trying to "fix" a door at work. Lucky for me it wasn't as noticeable after it dried up more. Anyway I will sign my name all day to be able to pay over $100 less a month on my mortgage. Maybe we can actually get back to a few projects around the house. Or maybe a new TV. Nah, it will probably to go William's tuition.

busy busy busy

Man the past couple of weekends have been busy. First up was an event for work. We were a sponsor of the March of Dimes "Walk for babies" in Dekalb county. Actually since I have worked with the March of Dimes for 13 years now I made sure I put a little something in the budget for them this year. Come to find out it was nothing new since work used to be more involved in past years, but for some reason just stopped. I can see how it can happen since they go through personnel at the March of Dimes like tissue paper. Just when you get comfortable with a director, they would quit or get fired. Anyhow I arranged to be a sponsor this year. I put out the word to get a group together to walk or just help at the start of the walk. I got a resounding 1 reply from my email to all employees.. and she ended up cancelling. The problem is that the March took place on the same weekend as the credit union was going through a computer conversion so it was all hands on deck for that Saturday. So I show up with some giveaways for the walkers and also bring out a 12 foot high inflatable piggy bank. Its actually a pretty cool inflatable that can also float if I put helium in it, but I am reserving that for parades since helium is so expensive. I got the idea to put air into it, to be able to use it at more events during the year. My first attempts to inflate this balloon took a little over an hour with an air compressor. I was thinking that it might be a bad idea to use it with air. But at our annual meeting as we were deflating the balloon a member came up to me and said, "why are you using an air compressor, you need volume not pressure, you should use a shop vac" All I could say was DUHHHHHH. So I bought a little shop vac that can inflate and deflate the balloon in a little over 10 minutes. So I hung out at the beginning of the March, and after they left, I grabbed something to eat and took off for the day. It was a small crowd, but there was ALOT of other stuff going on that day in Auburn.



The next weekend was the March of Dimes "Walk for Babies" for Fort Wayne. The Auburn walk takes place at 1:00pm, the Fort Wayne walk takes place at 9:00am which means set-up starts at 6:00am. You know, it's dark then. Of course as I am driving to help with the set-up. It's dark, and I am tired. All of a sudden I see a duck walking down the middle of the street. I hit the breaks and try to swerve, but *thud* oops. Stupid Duck. The setup for the walk goes pretty good for a start location. The chairperson of the walk was in charge, and the new director was walking around in a daze and not telling anyone what to do. Hopefully she will get a little more assertive if she sticks around. After setting up tables and whatnot, I was in charge of the stage area and also recruited to be an emcee for the event, but I knew I wouldn't be required to talk much since the radio sponsor was sending out some DJ's. The DJ's were guys that I knew and worked with back in the good old days so it was fun to catch up and joke around. They guy that they sent out with the vehicle and equipment was a guy that was my intern and remote tech back when I worked for WOWO downtown. The jocks showed up, but no vehicle and no P.A. system. Nothing like a couple hundreds people in a large area and no way to talk to them. I found out that he left the station without a microphone. I called him up and gave him a rash of crap, calling him a Rookie. He finally shows up and we plug everything in to find out that the DC converter to power the P.A. doesn't work. Lucky for him I had a backup and grabbed a generator that we had and plugged him in. Of course it's so late that we have to immediately start the program and rushed to get the walk started on time. Finally the relief of getting everyone started. Usually after the walk starts is when we got into setup mode for the lunch for when everyone gets back, but I had to head North for another event for the credit union. This was a kite fly for a radio station in Auburn. It was a windy freakin' day so not much kite flying was done. I had never been to this event before so I wasn't sure how it worked or how much room I would have to set up. I asked if I would have room for the balloon "pigzilla" and was assured there was plenty of room. Well I got there to a couple rows of 8 foot tables. I started inflating the pig and it pretty much dwarfed everything around me. There wasn't a picture of the event that didn't have the balloon in the background. Put the other bank there to shame. SCORE. So I hung out there for 4 of the longest hours of my life. By the 3rd hour I was seriously dragging, since I was up at 5:00am. I quickly tore that down and headed home. I felt bad for the event because of the wind, but it looked like a fun event.

It kind of sucks that I have to work weekends every once in a while, but I basically set my own hours during the week. I am just thankful to be employed, and the events are pretty fun to do.

Death from above

So for Christmas my dad got the boys (and me) one of those little helicopters that you do a quick charge with and then you can fly it around the room. Ironically I got Dad one of those helicopters too, since he loves a good toy. This toy is the coolest thing. You can't really control it that well, but with some skill you can get it to hover pretty good and kind of control where it goes. William is actually pretty good at it and can control it pretty well. Andrew on the other hand, is full-throttle, let's slam it into the ceiling, flyer. It helps having the high ceiling in the family room to give us a little more fly room. We WERE having fun with the copter until "the incident" Usually I would only let the boys play with this helicpoter when I am in the room and can help them with it. So we are flying it in the room the other day and I had to run upstairs to put Christopher down for his nap. I hear the boys laughing and giggling, but then also hear, thud, crash. Oh crap that is not good at all. I get downstairs to see that the boys had flown the helicopter onto the mantle and knocked a candlestick off. Of course it is part of a special Cinderella set that was a wedding gift for us, so not a typical run of the mill candlestick. I have been doing some searching on the net hoping to find a replacment for prince charming (he is the one who took the header onto the bricks, Cinderalla is fine) but no luck so far. There is a reason that we don't have Jen's Disney stuff around the house. Because we have 3 boys and me. So the helicopter is now an outdoor toy...

the good and the bad

Well there is good news and bad news. The good news is that we now have a brand new laptop with a 17 inch monitor that is humming right along. The bad news is that the old laptop crapped out with alot of pictures that weren't backed up. I just need to hunt down some of them. Like pictures of Christopher's first birthday. I posted a few on my blog. I know the video of William's first swim lesson is posted on my yahoo video acount. I stopped putting pictures in my flickr account since I was filling it up. I probably should have splurged and paid for the yearly service for unlimited pictures rather than just the free accounts. There is also a way to undelete pictures on my old video card, but I am not sure I want to try and play that game.

It seems like the new wireless modem/router is working pretty good right now.

I am not sure having the new computer will get me back to blogging any more than before, but there is alway hope.

Don't move anything...

So the other day Jen calls and says the wireless is down. She has verizon do a test and they tell us that our modem is crap. I get home and do a few things and sure enough it won't stay connected to the line. In Jen's conversation with Verizon they tell us that they can replace our modem/wireless router for $70. That seems a little steep, so I decide to to a little looking around. Come to find out the $70 deal is actually not too bad for a modem/router. But in my looking I am finding quite a few of the exact model on ebay. They aren't new, but they are a lot cheaper than $70. I haven't bid on ebay in years so I was surprized that I remembered my login and password for that and paypal. I find one that is supposedly almost new so I put in a maximum bid of $30. They have some others for $24 "buy it now" so I figure $30 would be good enough to get it. OF course I have to do my bidding at work (secretly) since we don't have dsl at home. The auction ends at night so I decide to try and take a look at it, just in case I do get outbid. I still have my netzero account that I can dial into at home for just such an emergency. I am trying and trying to sign on and it won't let me. This is where I find out that John Q has disabled my laptop modem because it was interfering with the dsl. Crap. I could have tried the tower upstairs, but wasn't that concerned. I get into work the next day and I was outbid. I bid for another one and keep to around $30 for the modem. Unfortunatly with the second one the shipping isn't free and it costs $9.99. I actually win the auction and I am sure that the actual shipping on this will be far less than $10. Freakin' rip off.

So I am sitting here waiting for my modem to arrive and I come home to pandelerium a couple of days ago. The phones are out, the TV doesn't have any volume, the kids are hungry and whining (found out later that William has fluid in his ears), and Jen is at work. The TV problem is nothing new. There is a problem with an internal sensor that doesn't allow you to turn the volume up and will turn off the TV. After some searching on-line I found an answer to the problem that allows me to go into a secret menus and reset the factory settings that solves the problem. I have printed out the instruction for the reset and also bookmarked the page with the instructions, but I don't have internet connection so I have to look for the print out. Jen has filed the printout and tried to tell me where it was, but I can never find anything in her "filing". So I ditch that problem and on the next, fix the phone and feed the kids. I figure the phone thing would be simple. Call the phone company, they send someone out to fix the phone. The is soooo far from what is actually required that it's laughable. First of all you have to call this number and go through menu after menu after menu and just hope that you get to a person. While you are going through the menus you can either dial in the numbers or speak a command which almost never works. They test the line and finds out that the problem isn't in their line. The phone died in the middle of a phone conversation so I am thinking that somehow it's still connected. During one of the numerous menus I can do a self test which requires opening a box on the outside of the house and plugging in a corded phone. I find that I get dial tone so the problem is definitly the phone. I go inside, unplug the cordless phone, wiat for a few minutes, plug it in, and it works. Sigh. So feed the kids and turn my attention back to the TV. The modem for the dsl has been off for a couple of days, and I am thinking that maybe I can get enough of a signal to let me access the website. I turn it on and here it is, 3 days later and it's still working pretty good. I don't know if it just needed a little break to reset itself or if we are just lucky it's working, But hey I have a backup on the way....

shhh.. don't tell anyone

DSL went down at home.. logging on at work real quick to tell my loyal listeners and to list the stuff I want to blog about.

1. william's swim lessons with video
2. DSL fubar - ebay auction
3. hellicopter accident and I am in the doghouse
4. basement remodel

I am sure there is more.. hopefully I will be back up again soon.

bye

Propane and propane accesories

I had a bright idea when I was putting away my stuff before winter. Since the cover for my grill was falling apart (after lasting one season) I decided to put it in the garage for the winter. Yeah I know I should store it inside every winter,but I didn't have enough room to fit the grill in the garage every year. Anyway I decided that if I am going to put it in the garage that I was going to put it somewhere that I could get access to it easily and possibly use over the winter. I enjoy a grilled steak rather than the George Forman way. Well the best laid plans of mice and men only saw me use the grill once this winter. It sounded like a good idea to use the grill in the winter, but it didn't heat up that well, and I still had to go out into a freezing garage to watch the meat. The second time I used it was last week since the weather was getting warmer and it wasn't as bad standing outside. I fired up the grill and went inside to get the meat while it heated up. After a few minutes I walkoutside to find the grill barely warm and notice that there is no flame. No propane. Little did I know how close I came last season to running out of propane. I know that I had to be getting close, but at least it happened now rather than in the middle of a party or when the meat was half done. So I will either head out pretty soon to refill the tank or maybe just wait until the season begins, since I wasn't using it that much anyway. Hopefully the season will get her soon.

Are you kidding me?

For St. Valentine's day I stopped by the Debrand's store to pick up a little something for Jen. It's her favorite chocolates, but I can't stand the stuff. I don't think it's worth the extra $$, but it's her favorite. So I walk in the store and they have a display of heart shaped boxes already made up and ready for purchase. They have 1/2 pound, 1 pound, and 8 pound heart shaped boxes. I see they have a price list on the counter and it says that the 1/2 pound box is $29.99. Even though I buy Jen a box of Debrands a couple of times a year I can never remember how much I usually spend on it. I am getting ready to as for it when I decide to look around a little bit since she also likes the Truffles. I ask what kind of candy is in the heart shaped box and she tells me that it's the same candy that is in the 1/2 pound rectangle box. So I continue to look a little and I happen to hear the lady next to me ask how much the rectangle shaped box is, and the lady behind the counter says that it is $19.99. Wha? The counter lady comes back to me and I ask, "so the chocolate is the same, but you are charging $10 more for a heart shaped box?". She says "Yes". I was close to leaving this rip-off place, but remembered that it's Jen's favorite, so I buy a rectangle box. As I am leaving I notice that I could have bought an empty heart shaped box for $1.95!! WTH??? I know things will become inflated around the so called holiday, but dang....I also found out that they charge like $2.50 for ONE truffle. I just don't get it..

Pre-St. Valentines Day

So Jen had to work on St. Valentines day (today) so we decided to go out for dinner last weekend. We were able to pawn the kids off on Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of hours. I was trying to angle for a sleep over night at the grandparents, but we couldn't quite work it out. So we drop the kids off and make a run for it. The next question is where. This is always the biggest question we run into since we hardly ever go out to dinner anymore. Do we go to one of the "usuals" or try something new. I was hinting at trying something new, but Jen saw a special dinner deal at Olive Garden (one of her favorite restaurants). I kind of like the restaurant, but haven't quite found a favorite dish that I like there. So we finally decided to head over and try it. We go in the front door to a packed lobby. Typical Saturday night in the Fort. We put in our names to an hour wait. We almost went somewhere else, but hey, we weren't really in a hurry to get back to the kids. Occasionally they would bring around a pizza to the people waiting which is a nice touch and makes waiting a little less of a hassle. There was always a chance that it wouldn't actually be an hour, but just our luck a little over an hour later we were finally shown to our table. We are greeted by our waitress "Destiny", I almost asked if she was working down the road later on that night, but she would have bent the pole :). After sampling a nice little wine we finally decided on our entrees. Jen went for the special she saw advertised on TV, but I was being a little different and decided to go for a Parmesan Talapia with pasta that sounded pretty good. "Destiny" didn't bother to write down the order. A little while later we were munching on our salad and bread sticks. I tried a pretty tasty Italian beer that I might get for special occasions. They bring our entrees and Jen's meal looks delicious, but they try and hand me the seafood Alfredo and I tell them that's not what I ordered. I feel sorry for the girl bringing out the entrees since she isn't our waitress so she has no clue that it's wrong. So they take the meal back to the kitchen to make the correct one. Pretty soon the manager comes over to the table and apologises profusely and tells me my dinner is free and that he is buying dessert for us. Then "Destiny" comes over to apologise and swears she hit the right button. Unfortunately my meal is one that takes a long time to make so Jen and I visit and I snack on her meal which is delicious. Finally my dinner arrives and it is very good as well. (I might have a favorite.) I also notice that when I was pulling my chair in that it was very loose. I figure that if I move the chair enough and it breaks that I will get more free stuff :). During all of this I kept wondering if the Cramers were in the area since most of this stuff usually happens to them. I found out at Joshua's birthday party that they were in the restaurant next door earlier in the day so we figure it was just residual ju-ju that effected us. We finally got back to the in-laws a little before 10:00pm which is waaaayyyy past bedtime. We get everyone home and into bed a little before 11:00pm. During the night both boys come to visit and then they are up promptly at 7:00am the next morning. sigh..