Good Grief...

The Giants, in a desperate effort to completely ruin my life went ahead and made it into the playoffs...now Jen needs to listen to my completely idiotic Tom Coughlin rantings for at least one more week. At least Hufnagel got the boot...that was a nice change!!!

Houston, we have a problem!

First, let me apologize for the delay in our blog updates...as you can imagine we have had quite an adventure this past week. First, we did not get out to ABQ until Sat vs. the plan of Thursday due to Hertz being a bunch of incompetent boobs (oh yeah you knew that already). Then we got down to ABQ and everyone got sick...and Payton decided to be a momma's girl which pretty much tied up Jen for the entire stay. Then we had to leave on Wed vs. the plan of Friday due to the incoming snow storm. So to recap: 2 days of traveling for 3 days at the grandparents! Hmmm, that sounds familiar....oh yeah...that is what we did when we went back to CT in the beginning of December. So I guess to sum up our December...4 days of travel for 6 days of "vacation". And we wonder why we are all so tired ;-)

Christmas: Besides the fact that I overcooked the prime rib, Christmas was a success. The kids had a ball. It was especially great for us since this is the first year that Kade seemed to really understand the whole concept. We even left out a cookie for Santa (which he liked) and some carrots for the reindeer (which I guess were good per reindeer standards). Funny how we forgot to leave out a beer - I mean milk - for Santa! And maybe next year we will leave out some Beefarino for the reindeer...I bet Santa and his elf would love that!! ("I'm so keen-o, on Beefarino, what a delicious cuisine-o, fit for king and queen-o." - Kramer)

Kades Birthday: So we ended up at Peter Piper Pizza for the party which turned out to be a nice break after spending the entire previous day opening gifts. It was actually a lot of fun for the kiddos as they really enjoyed the games. Kade especially liked the race car simulators. Dad really liked the basketball game as he whooped up on mommy...she must have been thinking about tea parties or something and didn't bring her A game ;-)

Uh...Houston we have a problemo. When I went to download the Xmas and Birthday pictures from just the one camera we have 298 pictures. Obviously this is going to take a while to settle out...and I am sure that Jen will claim she has a picture hangover after sifting through the ashes. Anyway, I gave it a go and tried to pull out some of the better (or at least funnier) pictures...

First one is a little pre-Christmas cheer going on by Jen. Apparently she was trying to "cheer" her way through a headache...personally I wanted to see this one succeed as I could have greatly benefited from that...

Second one is a little surprise I caught at the dinner table. Kylie (a.k.a., The Blizzard) was wearing black olives on all 5 fingers...by the time I got my camera she had stuffed 4 in her mouth...
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house the boys were fixing Santa's deliveries ;-)
Payton also got a charge out of the John Deere Gator. She liked driving more than riding in the back with Kade-the-destroyer...
So Kade figured out "forward-at-full-speed-into-the-coffee-table" pretty damned fast. He is apparently nothing like his father ;-)
I do believe that Rocky summed up the Chrismas festivities the best with this one picture...it was a long day...Fay gets an honerable mention too for her demeanor here also, but by far and away Rocky has it nailed.In an interesting experiment...it appears that the Gator's battery lasted longer than Kade's ;-)The two amigos in the Blizzard's new Barbie Jeep. Apparently Kade had a little more juice left in him after all!!!
One last shot before I sign off for the evening...apparently Payton had something else in her formula...maybe Russ slipped in a little eggnog....I guess we will never know for sure...but I have my doubts...
Later!

Quick Post

Just a quick post from Albunukie since I am hiding in a coffee shop and I do not know how long I will be able to get away with that :-) We did get out on Sat morning thanks to Jill and her Chevy Tahoe w/ 4x4 since they still had not plowed our streets. We got down to ABQ sat night and all the kids and Jen are sick...wonderful trip. I will have to tell you about our Burger King experience - it was craptacular. Christmas was great although it did take us all day to finally get through all the gifts...a long day indeed. The kids (Kade and Kylie) loved their battery cars...I will have to get some photos/video up on that since there were many humerus crashes. Kylie even managed to damage great grandpa's car a little!

Today is Kade's birthday and he is over at Ken;s with Kylie at the moment...need to get back soon to pick him up! They are having a blast together!!! We are just going to Peter Piper Pizza today and having a cake...pretty low key but that is nice after yesterday. Payton is a disaster with her cold...she is not sleeping well. Although she is still a trooper and opening gifts ;-)

Looks like there is another storm coming in over the next few days. I can't find any snowfall projections on the net but that is probably because I don't know what I am doing on the Internet. Looks like 8-12 inches in the next 2 days...wonderful. Start the vac with a blizzard and end with one too. Ok, gotta run and pick up Kade...will put up pics/video just as soon as I can!

And did I mention that the Giants were really fun to watch this week :-) Oy vey!

Kiss my butt - and other funny Kade sayings...

Alrighty...so today officially stunk. The day started on a bright note with the roads being somewhat passable. They had been packed down enough with no ruts so small cars could get out. So I called Hertz to go and pick up the car (score one for Jen as she told me I should call before I went over)...well, apparently Hertz had not gotten around to getting their cars out of the snow...so we had to wait until they called...well they never did...GRRRR! I finally called them about 3pm and they were like...oh yeah sure...your car is ready. Well, the sun had softened the hard pack so by afternoon the roads were a bloody mess. Even the 4WD vehicles were getting stuck. Stacy (our neighbor) offered to try to get me to the Hertz pickup...but we got stuck at the entrance of her drive...yes...we only made it about 3 ft before getting stuck. Yuck...so Hertz officially screwed us today. On the bright side...I was home for the entire day and being a somewhat young male...that apparently entitles me to hours of getting other cars unstuck. You see, almost the entire neighborhood went out this morning when the roads were good...and they all came back when they were not. There were 5 cars stuck on our road at one time. It was sooo awesome. In total we got a total of 9 cars into their driveways...I told everyone that we should have just shoveled the entire street to start with as it would have been faster...I do not think that anyone was amused except me ;-)

On a bright note, I did get to play with Kade in the snow again for the better part of the day...today we made a "cave" (as Kade called it) in the giant snow pile in the front yard. He got in it and immediately said that it was a "big cave" and that there were spiders and bats...well, you gotta give him credit. At another time during the day (daddy not present - probably either pounding beers or getting cars unstuck) Kade was pushing Jen's buttons a little - ok what's new about this you say.... Well, apparently she got a to the breaking point and sent him to time out. He proceeded to tell Jen to "settle down"...gee, not sure where he learned that one :-) We also had one last funny run-in with Kade today. He was re-arranging the presents. For some reason he wanted his birthday present over against a different wall. I said to myself "Self, this is not a battle worth taking" so he proceeded to move the presents around. Well, he immediately fell down on his butt...apparently slipping on some imaginary ice or water. Remarkably the crying never came...hmmm, interesting. Well about 20 mins later we are in the kitchen making dinner and he was pointing to his head...so naturally I kissed it to make it feel better (FYI - the magical powers of a kiss at this age is somehow stronger than any form of medicine). He immediately turned and pointed to his backside and said "kiss my butt". Jen and I just looked at each other and started laughing...I am sure Payton thinks we are all quite nuts ;-)
And that was our wonderful day of waiting for the snow plow to arrive!

Ouch - what hurts.? Oh, that's my back!

Well the blizzard has come and gone. We got a total of about 2 feet of snow. Official numbers range from 21-24 so being a fisherman I guess I should have said 3 feet ;-) Kade had an absolute ball out in the snow today...he really loved making the snowman and sledding off the hill in the front yard. Here are a few pictures to show you all the straight skinny.

I made some special seats for the kids in the snowbank as you can see here. They were perfect for the kiddos. Kade and mom also hit the hill in the front yard. As you can see it ended up being pretty steep after I was done shoveling the driveway. Looks like we wont be getting out of town for Albuturkey until Sat morning now...good thing we are not flying! Oh, we also opened another couple of presents this evening...we figure it is best given the fact that the kids have about a zillion presents this year waiting for them...need to get a head start. One last photo before I logoff...
L8R

Blizzzzaaarrrdd!

Well, as you all probably already know we are having a bit of a blizzard today. I can't tell you how many inches of snow we have gotten because its all blowing around....all i can tell you is how many inches I have shoveled thusfar and that is about 1 foot. Note in the picture that the sandbox is buried and the snow is about up to the patio chair level. Jen was out taking Kade to his 3 year appointment this morning when the storm really started kicking up. She wanted to run some errands but luckily she thought about it and decided to come back home. By the time she got home she could barely see and barely drive. She left the car at the bottom of the driveway and started to shovel...uh, that did not last very long. She turned said - "that's enough of that" and left the remaining 90% of the driveway to me...no one can ever say she is not smart! We were supposed to leave for nuclear capital of the world tomorrow...a.k.a., Albunukie...but decided that with the conditions we would hang in FTC for another day. Good thing too as our neighbor made a run over to our house to borrow some Vodka...apparently she is planning to wait out the storm drinking Cosmos...cheers!

Kade opened his first present last night...it was a Geotrax Airport from poppy. He has not stopped playing with is so I would say that it is a resounding success!

Kid news: Payton is really getting close to crawling. I have put a video on YouTube (link below) which shows her progress. It also includes a little bonus footage of the monster dancing ;-) I know that grandma Judy will enjoy that one! Kade has also started referencing Jen as "my friend mommy"...it really is funny to hear him say it. He is also doing pretty well potty training...we have moved into the mode of just making him go every 45 mins...he does it on his own now...besides the need to be told to do it. We also found that after a big drink...it is best to make him go about 15 mins later as things start to work their way through...that is one lesson you learn the hard way ;-) Anyway, hope you enjoy the dancing... (and yes mom, that is the computer you just bought him that he throws...sigh)

Tag This and Cavitation

So I got tagged by Rhonda in a previous post so here goes...

Tag rules:

• Find nearest book
• Name book & Author
• Turn to page 123
• Go to the 5th sentence on the page
• Copy the next 3 sentences and post to your blog
• Tag 3 more folks
  

Tag Result: Since most of the books in our house are <20 pages long and many do not have more than 5 sentences on a page (two kids under 3)...I grabbed the best I had...my Dilbert comic book. Since that does not make a lot of sense without the pictures...I scanned the whole of page 123. Click on the pic to read the comics ;-) Also, I will not be tagging 3 more people since all the bloggers I know have already been tagged...except for Sue but I am sure she has better things to do ;-)

On another subject...I have been given the name "Cavitation" by CherkyB. While I am not exactly sure where this came from, I did go to wikipedia just to see if there is some hidden meaning (as Brian apparently likes the wiki). The one line which struck me as being close to home is the following "Cavitation is, in many cases, an undesirable occurrence." While I can not completely argue against that one (in fact I am pretty sure that Jen would whole heartedly agree)...I am sure this is not what CherkyB meant ;-)

Good Giant Article

So this could be some of the best writing I have ever seen, really puts a good finger on the pulse of the lame duck Giant season. Wouldn't normally just post a link but this was too good to let pass.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612180390

Lat

Self, what the heck is wrong with you?

So an odd thing happened this Sunday. First, let me backup to Friday. Jen and her friends decide to go out and have drinks...no problemo, after all I am super dad so I will just give the kids a bath and put them both in bed. The night goes off without a hitch - and as I stated in a Friday's blog...Kade even managed to pee on his own. Not a bad start to the weekend. Then Sat rolls around and apparently the wife has plans to clean the house and wrap everything not tied to the walls. Ok. So we clean the first floor (on the short list of things I REALLY love to do)and then head off to Megan's 3rd birthday party. The party is a lot of fun for the kids but apparently Kade doesn't want to come off his sugar high, so no nap for Kade - damn. After dinner we struggle to get Kade to bed and then its time to start wrapping (also on the short list of things I REALLY love to do - right next to cleaning). So I wrap for like 3 hours while watching the Cowgirls beat up the Falcons (not a good start to the football weekend).

Then Sunday AM rolls around. After feeding the kiddos and getting Payton down for her first nap...its time to clean the second floor. So I head upstairs. By this time I am still festering on the Cowgirls win, doubting the Giants prospects against the Eagles and cleaning...a bad trifecta. Then something odd happened. While cleaning the kids bathroom (and being grumpy as all heck)...I have a strange thought....I am very thankful for everything that I have in my life. HUH? So I says to myself...self, what the heck is wrong with you? But the more I thought about it the more a smile started to cross my face (something similar to that famous Grinch smile I suppose). It amazed me how just simply thinking about my beautiful kids, wonderful wife, food in the fridge, roof over my head and even my job (oddly enough) brought a smile to my face. (Ok, now I am sure to hear about this from someone on Monday morning!) Unfortunately, it is just too darn easy these days to forget what we have in life. We all get caught up in the rat race and before we know it life has passed us by and we are just bitter and angry. So as I finished up cleaning - smile fading slightly - I continued to think about all those little moments that make our lives special for which we should be thankful.

AND THEN THE GIANTS GO AND LOSE TO THE EAGLES...and that was the end of that...craptacular!!!

Gotta run...

Did I mention that we are potty training Kade?

So for those people who say potty training is easy...you can just leave this blog anytime now. As far as I am concerned it could be one of the most mystifying experience of my life. Take tonight for example. While I was putting on Payton's pajamas, Kade was running around the upstairs like a little naked wildman (you see we had just got the kiddos out of the bath). Then all of a sudden everything goes quiet on the western front...not usually a good sign for daddio. So I set Payton on the floor (as any responsible parent would never leave an infant on the changing table) and head over to see what disaster is awaiting me. Much to my surprise...there is Kade whizzin into the toilet...uh, ok Kade. Now in contrast...yesterday Kade was standing approximately 1 foot from his potty and he proceeds to just pee down his leg and onto the floor. Uh, ok Kade. It has been a long few weeks with loads of "accidents" for mama and papa to deal with. He is getting better but still forgets at least 2 times a day...generally when distracted with something more fun to do then sitting on the can...still not sure how that can be as when you get older in life that seems to become a highlight of the day ;-) So I hear that CherkyB is intending to try potty training this upcoming holiday break...may the force be with you! You better head over to Sam's and buy a hell of a lot of paper towels!

Speaking of the kids...the other night Kade found the little Santa hats and REALLY wanted to try them on. So we all put on our hats in the privacy of our home. Then Kade picks up the digital camera and proceeds to take pictures of Payton and I (maybe you will see those later when Jen sends out an update but for now you will just have to take my word). Then I get Kade to sit with his sis for a little and capture a snap or two...here is a sneak preview. It is amazing that they only smile when we are not paying an arm and a leg to have a professional take the pics. Oh well...such is life.

In another action packed day at the grindstone...I ran across another odd article. I find it completely ironic that I found this while sitting in my ever so exciting staff meeting. The full article is over here, but the main jist is that there is a man in Canada with no pulse but is living. It is a new type of artificial heart which just circulates the blood instead of simulating the normal heartbeat. Now before everyone goes to sleep on me (as I am a certified boreblogger), the point is that I got quite a laugh from the article as it struck me that the reporter clearly did not bother to interview anyone in my staff meeting. From my vantage point, it appeared quite clearly that most everyone in the meeting had no pulse yet somehow was alive...interesting...

Lastly (for the night), I wanted to plug a new camcorder. Jen and I have been in the market for a new one the past few weeks - ever since Kade dropped our last one on the hardwood floor. So I asked around and the general consensus was that Sony was the way to go due to the superior lowlight performance. Well, then I started reading about the new Canon Elura-100 and it actually got good lowlight ratings, on par with Sony. So I decided to march down to Best Buy and check this baby out (as the wife threw down the mandate that we NEEDED to have a new one before xmas morning). Well as we all know, the inside of Best Buy can be described as anything BUT a lowlight environment. Even more disturbing, they will charge you 15% restocking fee (~$50) just for opening and returning the damned thing. Well, I took this up with a few of the managers at the store as I saw it completely asinine that they would neither provide me a lowlight environment nor allow me to return the device w/o a restocking fee. Well after a few choice verbal exchanges (no kids were present) they agreed to let me return it by the end of the day w/o the fee...oh yeah, this is not a Best Buy commentary...I forgot. Anyway, so I finally get off work and bolt home to try this thing out being the nerd that I am...well Jen was not too happy about that as she was trying to take care of the kids and cook dinner...I guess the camcorder would need to wait a little longer. After dinner we finally get to the real issue of the day...the damned camcorder. I am pleased to say that I still have the camera. I did a side by side with the old and new camcorders and Jen was amazed. The old one was really saturated and had a terrible focus and frame rates. The new one handled our dark living room with ease...oh thank heaven...we are back in business. I still have to test it out a little more but in general I am happy with it thus far and for only ~$350...it really is a pretty solid camera. I will let you know more as I get more footage under the belt.

Uh Jen, you sure you want to head on down to ABQ?

So apparently the pressure is on given the "blog of the week" title...good thing us married men have the hours from 11pm to 5am to ourselves to do things like blog ;-)

Couple more ramblings:

1. Relief! Apparently Jen and I are now officially 2 for 2 in the carnivore kid department! Payton had her first chicken the other night. I can not tell you how much joy this brings to my life. Just the thought of having to support a veggie head under my roof - or worse yet...conform to the veggie diet...its enough to make a grown man shutter.
2. I continue to struggle with the age old question "Do you get heavier or lighter when you fart?" I did google the topic a few years ago and got very few hits...well I guess technology has come a long way. Now when you google it you get approximately 209 thousand hits...jeez! I guess I now know where all those powerful Xeon processors are heading ;-) I did pose the question to CherkyB but he gave me that far off look and I pretty much knew it was over. He took over my laptop and proceeded to find some info about pressure of the gasses in your bowels effecting the resultant effect on your weight...I think I am done pondering one of life's biggest mysteries. I do find it amazing that all men universally agree on one point...if you fart, you immediately form an airtight seal so no air backfills the void left by the expelled gasses...gee I wonder why ;-)
3. I just so happen to be an email subscriber to "thebulletin.org". If you don't know what this is then you should cruise over and take a gander. Basically this is the "clock" which follows the nuclear threat level...really quite interesting for those of us men up at 11:30pm with nothing better to pontificate upon...but I digress. Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that I got an email from them with an article entitled "Where the bombs are". Well, that is just too tempting for me so I had to cruise on over. You really should read it because I was surprised at the level of detail and geographic dispersion...but the one quote I found most interesting was the following: "The large underground facility at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, stores more than 1,900 warheads"!! Ok, so I think to myself...self, you are about to take a week long trip down to ABQ...what could be more explosive than a trip down to see the in-laws whilst sitting on 1900 nuclear warheads...uh Jen, you sure you want to head down to ABQ? :-)
4. And oh yeah, my truck is still leaking coolant...but don't worry...at $5 a gallon I have a lot of breathing room now that our un-named employer announced that we get one extra day bonus pay...

Go G-MEN! (and for Mr. Surdilla...nice show tonight by the 49ers...Seattle looked like the cowgirls tonight!!)

Out! (Romey style)

Ramblings of a master mechanic...

Only have a few minutes but wanted to jot a few things down:

1. Have you ever gotten an odd email in your inbox stating that an email that you never sent has been bounced back to you and is undeliverable? Well, Jen and I have and its friggin' annoying. Here is an article on the issue...you are a victim of a "Joe Job"

2. What the heck is going on in Texas...maybe you Hill country folk (you know who you are) can explain this one to me...should blind people really hunt? My first thought...who goes to jail if a blind person shoots someone while hunting?

3. I am tired. Kade woke up at 3am last night and did not let me go back to sleep until about 4:30...he was complaining about his mouth hurting...I am guessing that is a sore throat. The part I do not understand...since when has Tylenol ever helped with a soar throat? Apparently it helped Kade (at 4:30)...I am still highly suspicious.

4. The Giants have hope! I was impressed that Michael Irving actually gave the G-Men some props this week on TV. If we can pull it together for the Eagles and win...then the Saints game should be a great game! Boy did they every make the cowgirls look stupid. Which leads me to my next point...

5. Cowgirls stink and Homo (I mean Romo) is over-rated! And oh by the way...Grossman RULES!!!

5. My 11 yr. old Dodge Ram w/ 100K miles is falling apart. My latest issue is my coolant...and it goes a little something like this:

• Several weeks ago I am driving along and my truck loses its ability to maintain temperature (yes - up to the red zone)
• I proceed to say "crap" several times...for some reason that did not fix the issue.
  
• I decide to stop and look at the coolant...hmm...its really low.
  
• Ding, lightbulb appears so I go get more coolant and put it in.
• Wow, that seems to help a lot.
• Next day, crap...what is that big puddle of green fluid under my car...maybe the same stuff I put in yesterday...
• Again I say "crap" several times hoping that this time it will work some magic...damn!
• I get under my truck ... yup its leakin'.
• I proceed to say "crap" several more times ... still no magic .... double damn!
• Now, I have several unappealing options: keep putting more coolant in at a stupid rate...or go get someone to fix the old thing. Easy choice...right?
  
• Like I said, that was several weeks ago...I am still putting in coolant ;-)

L8R!

Welcome Little Scarlet...but...

Congrats to Billy and Karen!

But...Billy, if you are going to name your daughter Scarlet then why wear the pink shirt!

Hope/pray that all continues to go well for the three of you all!!

And for those of you so inclined here are some more pics... head over here