Today started late for me. Ginger let me sleep in till 10:30. I was up late last night playing video games (City of Heroes). I may have to start curtailing that behavior if I want to get any sleep. Once I was up, I took off to Home Depot to get some more flexible pipe stuff to replace the bendy pipes on the other leaky faucet and the I figured I would replace the other two just for good measure since 50% of the old ones were leaking. The wall in the laundry room is still a bit dampish, but drying up pretty well. Anyone out there an expert on this stuff? Since it got soaked, do we need to actually replace that part of the drywall? Or can we just let it dry and paint over it? Enquiring minds want to know.
After that I went by multiple Giant stores to get our Low Acid Tropicanna Orange Juice (one store was out), and then I stopped by Craven Auto to have them come get my car. Unfortunately those guys at Craven apparently feel they need to enjoy the holidays and were closed. So my car's probably not getting fixed till Monday or Tuesday at the earliest.
Not much else exciting happening. After nap Quinn spent his time either playing Air Hockey or playing Mario Sunshine (he really likes Mario Sunshine, but hasn't quite got the hang of all the different moves yet). Catherine watched Quinn play once she got up (I think he almost shared playtime with her at one point, but then didn't).
Ginger made us chocolate chip cookies again tonight. Man, I love those things, but they're killing my waist line. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Years. We'll be celebrating by just hanging out here at the house (Ginger's upstairs watching "50 First Dates" while I'm writing this). And no, we didn't let the kids stay up, we need for Catherine to get on her correct sleeping schedule in preparation for her first week at school.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 30, 2005
I'm Not A Plumber
Ok, today started off well enough. Got to bed at around 4:30 AM last night and got up with Quinn just after 8. Yay! Three and a half hours sleep. Wheee. What was I doing to till that time? Worked on the blog till just before one, then from one to just after four I was doing the work I tried to do earlier in the day. Made a lot of progress and I can see pretty animations on the screen now, so from that aspect, it's all good. From the sleeping perspective, not so much though.
Ginger got up at just after nine with Catherine, although I don't think Catherine was actually asleep for more than like 6 hours throughout the night. Remember that thing I said about hearing about that decision to let them nap. Heard about it already. And then, on top of that, she was ticked off at me. Why? Because, get this, she had a dream that back in high school I had said something that embarrassed her in front of her friends. I didn't even know her in high school, yet here she is ticked at me for this imaginary situation, that never happened, that I didn't even have any control over since it was her dream (although one can argue it's my inconsiderate nature that prompted the dream).
Today was a playdate, and we had Karen come over with Rueben and Jacob in addition to Rob and Gretchen dropping off Autumn and Tyler. So it was 3 adults versus six kids. Zone defense was a must. Actually, except for Quinn constantly wanting to play with things like the race track and his video games that were too advanced for some of the kids, everything went fine. There was one minor mutilation, but it was all in the family as Jacob accidently smacked Rueben on the head with a Wiggle's guitar.
Karen left with Rueben and Jacob just before one. Rob and Gretchen came and picked up Autumn and Tyler a little after two and stuck around for about an hour. After everyone left, it was nap time and they probably went to sleep around 4:30 or so (and I tried to take one too, since at this point I was wasted). Quinn was up at six. And Catherine got up not too long after. After some dinner, we took a ride in the car to go see Christmas lights. We drove over to some of the rich neighborhoods since they have more expendable cash to drop on things such as lights.
Before we left though, Ginger noticed that the paint in the laundry room above the door to the garage was bulging out. Looking at it I felt myself saying, "Oh crap, that can't be good." Well, remember a couple of nights ago when we replaced faucets? Uh huh, that's right. The leak wasn't in anything we replaced (that only makes me feel marginally better about missing it), but rather it was in the shutoff valve. So before we messed with anything, everything was apparently fine, but by turning off the water, it must have broken a seal slightly or something to allow for a small stream of water to start escaping. The reason we didn't see it was because it so slight and it wasn't 'dripping', but rather running down the pipe (and into the ceiling above the laundry room apparently, for four days). So on our way to see lights, I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a replacement flexible pipe. So far so good. But just to be safe, I checked Ginger's faucet also, and it also has a small leak (but this one is a drip, and even less than the other one, so I don't believe it was responsible for any of the damage. At this point though, Home Depot is closed, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to be able to get the replacement part for that. Starting to look more and more like I should have just paid someone to do this (this is vaguely reminiscent of replacing the screens on the gazebo).
Borrowed jumper cables from Rob for my car and as I suspected, it's not a battery issue. At least I don't think it is, even with the cables, it seems like the car is getting less and less power each time it tries to turn over. Guess I'll be calling a mechanic and tow truck tomorrow (not something I'm looking forward to).
Ginger got up at just after nine with Catherine, although I don't think Catherine was actually asleep for more than like 6 hours throughout the night. Remember that thing I said about hearing about that decision to let them nap. Heard about it already. And then, on top of that, she was ticked off at me. Why? Because, get this, she had a dream that back in high school I had said something that embarrassed her in front of her friends. I didn't even know her in high school, yet here she is ticked at me for this imaginary situation, that never happened, that I didn't even have any control over since it was her dream (although one can argue it's my inconsiderate nature that prompted the dream).
Today was a playdate, and we had Karen come over with Rueben and Jacob in addition to Rob and Gretchen dropping off Autumn and Tyler. So it was 3 adults versus six kids. Zone defense was a must. Actually, except for Quinn constantly wanting to play with things like the race track and his video games that were too advanced for some of the kids, everything went fine. There was one minor mutilation, but it was all in the family as Jacob accidently smacked Rueben on the head with a Wiggle's guitar.
Karen left with Rueben and Jacob just before one. Rob and Gretchen came and picked up Autumn and Tyler a little after two and stuck around for about an hour. After everyone left, it was nap time and they probably went to sleep around 4:30 or so (and I tried to take one too, since at this point I was wasted). Quinn was up at six. And Catherine got up not too long after. After some dinner, we took a ride in the car to go see Christmas lights. We drove over to some of the rich neighborhoods since they have more expendable cash to drop on things such as lights.
Before we left though, Ginger noticed that the paint in the laundry room above the door to the garage was bulging out. Looking at it I felt myself saying, "Oh crap, that can't be good." Well, remember a couple of nights ago when we replaced faucets? Uh huh, that's right. The leak wasn't in anything we replaced (that only makes me feel marginally better about missing it), but rather it was in the shutoff valve. So before we messed with anything, everything was apparently fine, but by turning off the water, it must have broken a seal slightly or something to allow for a small stream of water to start escaping. The reason we didn't see it was because it so slight and it wasn't 'dripping', but rather running down the pipe (and into the ceiling above the laundry room apparently, for four days). So on our way to see lights, I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a replacement flexible pipe. So far so good. But just to be safe, I checked Ginger's faucet also, and it also has a small leak (but this one is a drip, and even less than the other one, so I don't believe it was responsible for any of the damage. At this point though, Home Depot is closed, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to be able to get the replacement part for that. Starting to look more and more like I should have just paid someone to do this (this is vaguely reminiscent of replacing the screens on the gazebo).
Borrowed jumper cables from Rob for my car and as I suspected, it's not a battery issue. At least I don't think it is, even with the cables, it seems like the car is getting less and less power each time it tries to turn over. Guess I'll be calling a mechanic and tow truck tomorrow (not something I'm looking forward to).
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Quinn Has A Dream!
Quinn slept late this morning. Till past 10. That's a really good thing, since I'm sure he needed the extra rest, he's been going almost non stop since last Friday when our guests first arrived. All our house guests are gone (the last of them left yesterday). But Quinn sleeping late doesn't mean time off, since Catherine was up at 8. She's pretty much exhausted also, but she apparently is a morning person and has one of those internal alarm clocks where she wakes up about the same time each morning no matter what. We don't know where she gets it, since left to our own devices neither Ginger nor myself would be what you call a morning person. So I got up with Catherine and made her some pancakes for breakfast. Then we played house with her new Little Critters house. Ginger slept in till about 9:30. Oh yea, and speaking of 9:30, apparently in an earlier post I mentioned something about sleeping in till 9:30, apparently I slept until 10:30 according to Ginger, she thought the record needed to be set straight. Anyway, once Ginger got up, I let her take over watching Catherine and went downstairs to do some work. They started watching Cinderella, and Quinn woke up about 10 or 15 minutes into the movie. I missed this part, but Ginger told me about it later, that Quinn came downstairs and told her about a dream he had. Now we know he's had dreams before (a couple nightmares if nothing else), but Ginger pointed out that this was the first time that he actually remembered the dream, and knew that it hadn't really happened and that it was just a dream. This will come as no surprise to those of you that know Quinn, but the dream was about his new race track. Unfortunately I never got all the details about what happened in the dream. Maybe I can get that info from Ginger at some point.
After they finished watching Cinderella (I'm still not keen on the idea of Catherine watching Cinderella since I really don't want her to get the idea that the only way she can succeed in life is if she's 'saved' by prince charming, but on the other hand, it is just a cartoon), Ginger decided she would take the kids and run some errands and I could go in to work. We decided we would meet up at Wendy's for lunch. So Ginger took off, and I got ready to go into work, and found out that my car is no longer starting. This is actually a little distressing. Not sure why it isn't starting. If anyone out there has any knowledge of what could be the problem, let me know. It's a Passat, I believe a 2002 model. Anyway, I can turn the key, and I can hear the engine doing the Rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr but it never catches and starts. Doesn't seem like a problem with the battery, since everything seems to work okay. It was low on gas the other night, but I stopped and put a couple gallons in (this was the Home Depot plumbing night, and I didn't feel I had time to completely fill it up). Couldn't really try jumping it since Ginger wasn't here, and it was raining anyway and I didn't feel like dealing with trying to jump it while it was raining. So I called up Ginger and finally got her (Cingular coverage around here pretty much sucks if you're in a store like Target, especially since we're still on the 'old' AT&T network) and she agreed to come pick me up for lunch.
We went to Wendy's, which even though it's fast food can quickly turn into close to a $20 meal with kids these days. After Wendy's Ginger wanted to run by Old Navy, so I foolishly told her she could drop me and kids off at my work and I would watch them while she went to the store. That was a mistake on my part. I managed to get some stuff done, but nowhere near as much as if I didn't have constant interruptions. At first they were fighting over who was touching the other's chair, or drawing on the other one's side of the white board. I finally was able to get some work done when they started working together creating some pulley using my window shades.
After that we came home and the kids took a nap (this is a point of contention since I thought they should nap, and Ginger wanted to keep them up and just put them to bed early). Quinn woke up a couple hours later, had some dinner and then went to bed (about 9:30). Just as he was going to bed though, Catherine woke up from her nap, and hasn't gone back to sleep yet (past midnight now). I can lay odds I'm going to be hearing about how bad that decision was on my part for the next week. The reason Catherine woke up is because she had an accident. She's pretty much completely potty trained now except for when she's sleeping, and even then, she's only had a couple of nights where she didn't make it through the night (I think it's going to take some time before she learns that she needs to get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom).
Latest movies we've watched.
After they finished watching Cinderella (I'm still not keen on the idea of Catherine watching Cinderella since I really don't want her to get the idea that the only way she can succeed in life is if she's 'saved' by prince charming, but on the other hand, it is just a cartoon), Ginger decided she would take the kids and run some errands and I could go in to work. We decided we would meet up at Wendy's for lunch. So Ginger took off, and I got ready to go into work, and found out that my car is no longer starting. This is actually a little distressing. Not sure why it isn't starting. If anyone out there has any knowledge of what could be the problem, let me know. It's a Passat, I believe a 2002 model. Anyway, I can turn the key, and I can hear the engine doing the Rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr but it never catches and starts. Doesn't seem like a problem with the battery, since everything seems to work okay. It was low on gas the other night, but I stopped and put a couple gallons in (this was the Home Depot plumbing night, and I didn't feel I had time to completely fill it up). Couldn't really try jumping it since Ginger wasn't here, and it was raining anyway and I didn't feel like dealing with trying to jump it while it was raining. So I called up Ginger and finally got her (Cingular coverage around here pretty much sucks if you're in a store like Target, especially since we're still on the 'old' AT&T network) and she agreed to come pick me up for lunch.
We went to Wendy's, which even though it's fast food can quickly turn into close to a $20 meal with kids these days. After Wendy's Ginger wanted to run by Old Navy, so I foolishly told her she could drop me and kids off at my work and I would watch them while she went to the store. That was a mistake on my part. I managed to get some stuff done, but nowhere near as much as if I didn't have constant interruptions. At first they were fighting over who was touching the other's chair, or drawing on the other one's side of the white board. I finally was able to get some work done when they started working together creating some pulley using my window shades.
After that we came home and the kids took a nap (this is a point of contention since I thought they should nap, and Ginger wanted to keep them up and just put them to bed early). Quinn woke up a couple hours later, had some dinner and then went to bed (about 9:30). Just as he was going to bed though, Catherine woke up from her nap, and hasn't gone back to sleep yet (past midnight now). I can lay odds I'm going to be hearing about how bad that decision was on my part for the next week. The reason Catherine woke up is because she had an accident. She's pretty much completely potty trained now except for when she's sleeping, and even then, she's only had a couple of nights where she didn't make it through the night (I think it's going to take some time before she learns that she needs to get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom).
Latest movies we've watched.
- Mod Squad
- If it comes on TBS, it might be worth watching, maybe.
- If it comes on TBS, it might be worth watching, maybe.
- The Story Of Us
- I actually liked this a lot. All married couples should watch this one.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Post Christmas Shopping
My Mom was still here today and had taken Quinn on a walk around the neighborhood. While they were gone we took Catherine with us out into the shopping arena. Today was my first foray our into the post Christmas Shopping arena (I'm not counting my search and destroy mission to Home Depot for the plumbing supplies), and I have to say, I didn't like it. Sure, Hallmark was amusing enough, grabbing up ornaments I would never buy at full price for close to half off. Although, really if I didn't care enough about the ornament to buy it before, I don't know why I'm buying it now (and I felt absolutely no desire to pick up the Locutus of Borg ornament even at a discount). Anyway, we bought some ornaments for the kids. We got the mini Rudolph ornament for Catherine. We also got her the Curious George: Paint Me Curious Ornament, but when we got home, we saw it was already on the tree. Oops. For Quinn we got a John Deere Tractor ornament and a Disney Chicken Little ornament. We've already had the Chicken Little Ornament get a broken leg as Catherine was having him 'walk' across the table by banging him. For the record, you shouldn't use the glue for pvc pipes to repair ornaments. Apparently that's pretty strong glue and the colors will run (I'm not going to go into details on how I know).
After Hallmark, we went to Border's Books. I've decided I don't like Border's anymore. Actually, I'm not sure I ever liked them, but now I have something I feel is substantial enough to back up my gut feelings. You see, the whole reason we went out shopping today was to go to Border's. As you may recall, my purchasing of gifts for Ginger was somewhat, shall we say, lacking. One of the items I had been instructed to procure was the new Diana Krall CD in which she covers holiday songs called "Christmas Songs." Of course, I totally forgot to get it. But I had looked online for it on Christmas Eve and saw that it was in stock at Border's Books just down the street. I checked again this morning and sure enough, it was still in stock. And I checked again from within Border's at one of their kiosks and it said it was in stock. But I couldn't find it. I found the poster of the album cover. But no album. So I had to resort to something I'm usually loathe to do, I asked for help from an employee. After going to the kiosk that I had been at earlier, and pulling up the same info I did, the employee went to the same place I had already been, and looked around and couldn't locate it. After a while of this (we went to another location of holiday CDs I had also looked at earlier and didn't find it there either), the employee went and asked some other employees. Turns out, they think they're out and haven't had it for over a week. I asked why they were still advertising that they had it then and got no answer. Now, I realize this person has probably no way of impacting what shows up with inventory stuff on the web. But the one employee that apparently knew something said that there had been a bunch of other people asking for the CD also, you think at some point someone might have changed the old "Available in Store" boolean flag for that item to false. And then they asked me if I would like for them to check the computer to see if another store was carrying it. When I asked why I would trust any answer they would give me since this store claimed to have it, they didn't have a good answer, but then decided they could actually call the other stores and have them check. At this point, I had already found a Star Trek New Frontier book I wanted and found a new Enya CD that I had been unaware of, so I decided I would just not buy anything, go home and order it all online and get like 20% off the price and free shipping. As I was in the process of 'storming' out (by way of the register so Ginger could buy her three Dr Suess buy two get one free books) I did notice though that the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection is out. Have to admit, that looked like something I would like have one day.
After Hallmark, we went to Border's Books. I've decided I don't like Border's anymore. Actually, I'm not sure I ever liked them, but now I have something I feel is substantial enough to back up my gut feelings. You see, the whole reason we went out shopping today was to go to Border's. As you may recall, my purchasing of gifts for Ginger was somewhat, shall we say, lacking. One of the items I had been instructed to procure was the new Diana Krall CD in which she covers holiday songs called "Christmas Songs." Of course, I totally forgot to get it. But I had looked online for it on Christmas Eve and saw that it was in stock at Border's Books just down the street. I checked again this morning and sure enough, it was still in stock. And I checked again from within Border's at one of their kiosks and it said it was in stock. But I couldn't find it. I found the poster of the album cover. But no album. So I had to resort to something I'm usually loathe to do, I asked for help from an employee. After going to the kiosk that I had been at earlier, and pulling up the same info I did, the employee went to the same place I had already been, and looked around and couldn't locate it. After a while of this (we went to another location of holiday CDs I had also looked at earlier and didn't find it there either), the employee went and asked some other employees. Turns out, they think they're out and haven't had it for over a week. I asked why they were still advertising that they had it then and got no answer. Now, I realize this person has probably no way of impacting what shows up with inventory stuff on the web. But the one employee that apparently knew something said that there had been a bunch of other people asking for the CD also, you think at some point someone might have changed the old "Available in Store" boolean flag for that item to false. And then they asked me if I would like for them to check the computer to see if another store was carrying it. When I asked why I would trust any answer they would give me since this store claimed to have it, they didn't have a good answer, but then decided they could actually call the other stores and have them check. At this point, I had already found a Star Trek New Frontier book I wanted and found a new Enya CD that I had been unaware of, so I decided I would just not buy anything, go home and order it all online and get like 20% off the price and free shipping. As I was in the process of 'storming' out (by way of the register so Ginger could buy her three Dr Suess buy two get one free books) I did notice though that the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection is out. Have to admit, that looked like something I would like have one day.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Visits From Waynesboro
Today Ginger's family took off for home this morning. They left about 10:30 or so. The kids all waved goodbye as Grammy, Pop pop, Grandma, Uncle JJ and Joey all headed for home. My cousins (Will and Jo Beth) and my aunt (Mary) all came up today to see the kids and exchange some Christmas gifts. The kids were obviously very excited about the idea of having more presents to open. 
Once again though, it wasn't so much what they got that they enjoyed as it was the opening of presents that they found to be fun. That's not to say they didn't like any of the presents. I forget who, but someone got an umbrella, and Catherine really liked walking around with it. 
Had to put the kibosh on that pretty quick since I could easily see some of the more breakable items in the room getting knocked over by the umbrella. Quinn got a coffee cup with his name on it. And I got the movie Serenity (best gift yet so far, although you just know there's going to be a special edition of it coming soon).
Will tuned Quinn's guitar while people opened presents, while Jo Beth was taking pictures of people with my Mom's new camera. We got the boring gift card for Will. He's in the process of setting up his own airbrush business apparently and needs some equipment, and rather than us guessing as to what he needs, we figured he could pick out whatever he wants. 
Jo Beth invited me to go snowboarding with her at some point, we'll see if that ever happens. It's something I've wanted to try for a while, but just don't have the time. Jo Beth also wanted me to let people know that she's available and that she's accepting applications from potential suitors.
Yesterday was Will's birthday, and we hadn't done anything for Jo Beth or Mary on their birthday's earlier in the year either, so we took everyone to lunch at Redrock Canyon Grill in Centreville. Food was good as usual, and the waiter was extremely courteous and seemed very knowledgeable about if any peanuts were used in any of the foods (which made Ginger very happy).
We stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home so that Jo Beth could buy this electronic 20 questions game. That thing is pretty cool. I realize it's all just a huge decision tree, but it's still pretty neat. It was able to figure out platypus, emotion and sunglasses (it did have some trouble with "Dark Matter" though, although it's possible I answered the questions wrong, since the game guessed infinity, which I thought was pretty close). Once we got back home, the kids played some video games, air hockey and other stuff with Will and Jo Beth until everyone left.
The wind last night evidently took their toll on our inflatable snowman. He was in the hedge this morning and I couldn't locate a couple of the stakes that had been used keeping him anchored. So fashioned some new stakes out of coathangers and put snowman back up. I didn't do as good of a job this time, since he's facing completely away from the house and you can't see his front from our bay windows anymore. I was hampered in part just trying to find places in the ground that the stake would even penetrate (some of the ground seemed pretty solidly frozen). For now at least he's back up and functional again.
Once again though, it wasn't so much what they got that they enjoyed as it was the opening of presents that they found to be fun. That's not to say they didn't like any of the presents. I forget who, but someone got an umbrella, and Catherine really liked walking around with it. 
Had to put the kibosh on that pretty quick since I could easily see some of the more breakable items in the room getting knocked over by the umbrella. Quinn got a coffee cup with his name on it. And I got the movie Serenity (best gift yet so far, although you just know there's going to be a special edition of it coming soon).
Will tuned Quinn's guitar while people opened presents, while Jo Beth was taking pictures of people with my Mom's new camera. We got the boring gift card for Will. He's in the process of setting up his own airbrush business apparently and needs some equipment, and rather than us guessing as to what he needs, we figured he could pick out whatever he wants. 
Jo Beth invited me to go snowboarding with her at some point, we'll see if that ever happens. It's something I've wanted to try for a while, but just don't have the time. Jo Beth also wanted me to let people know that she's available and that she's accepting applications from potential suitors.Yesterday was Will's birthday, and we hadn't done anything for Jo Beth or Mary on their birthday's earlier in the year either, so we took everyone to lunch at Redrock Canyon Grill in Centreville. Food was good as usual, and the waiter was extremely courteous and seemed very knowledgeable about if any peanuts were used in any of the foods (which made Ginger very happy).
We stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home so that Jo Beth could buy this electronic 20 questions game. That thing is pretty cool. I realize it's all just a huge decision tree, but it's still pretty neat. It was able to figure out platypus, emotion and sunglasses (it did have some trouble with "Dark Matter" though, although it's possible I answered the questions wrong, since the game guessed infinity, which I thought was pretty close). Once we got back home, the kids played some video games, air hockey and other stuff with Will and Jo Beth until everyone left.
The wind last night evidently took their toll on our inflatable snowman. He was in the hedge this morning and I couldn't locate a couple of the stakes that had been used keeping him anchored. So fashioned some new stakes out of coathangers and put snowman back up. I didn't do as good of a job this time, since he's facing completely away from the house and you can't see his front from our bay windows anymore. I was hampered in part just trying to find places in the ground that the stake would even penetrate (some of the ground seemed pretty solidly frozen). For now at least he's back up and functional again.
Monday, December 26, 2005
The Day After (The Sequel)
Today was interesting. See, today is my cousin Will's birthday. And just about every year I manage to get down to see him for his birthday. Today wasn't looking good. Today was the day I was suppose to install the new faucets in the bathroom. We would have installed them on Saturday, but Ginger didn't buy them yet. So Ginger, her Mom and Dad, her Grandmother, my Mom and the kids all took off around twelve thirty or one to go to Lowe's to get the faucets. Well, apparently they decided to go to lunch also. So I was thinking, they get back around three or four, I replace the faucets, then maybe I take a road trip to Waynesboro to see Will and the rest of the fam there, and then I head back late and I call it day. I figure while I'm waiting on them, I'll watch some TV. I watch four episodes of Boondocks (great show btw, but not for the easily offended though). I proceed to have some lunch, then I watch 2 and a half episodes of the Colbert Report, and then I watch an old episode of "Without a Trace" we have on the Tivo that I never watched. Then I figure, I really should shower, so I go do that. They're still not back yet. So I dismantle the existing faucets and finish doing that, and just about that time they get back. So that was the first crimp in the plan, they didn't get back till five thirty. Ok, no problem, a little behind schedule, I can still make it. After all, I had already removed the old faucets while they were gone, so really, how long could this take. Well, apparently this plumbing thing is harder than I thought. See, in addition to replacing the faucet, the new faucets have new drains also. I hadn't counted on replacing the drains, so I hadn't done anything towards removing those yet. Well, in trying to take apart the pvc pipes, I find out that whoever put them together coated all the connectors with plumber's putty. They coated the parts you're suppose to be able to unscrew, so when I went to unscrew them SNAP, the connector breaks. Great, just great. So now I'm off to Home Depot which is just like 3 minutes up the street (don't ask me why it took 5 hours to get the faucets from Lowe's which is like 20 minutes away when we could have gotten something at Home Depot). I get some new pipe pieces, some glue and a hacksaw and I'm back in business. I saw through the pipe, apply the glue, stick in the new pieces, and we're golden. Then it's on to the second faucet, and low and behold, now that I know what I'm doing with the pipe pieces, I see that I'm not going to be able to disconnect these either. So now it's back to Home Depot to pick up the pieces for the second one (this trip is much faster though, since I know exactly where to go and what I need). I get back, saw through that pipe, did a terrible job on sawing, initially got 3/4 through before I realized in the back the whole cut was slanted and I had to start over. Finally finish that, attach the new stuff, let it all dry for 30 minutes then screw together the connectors and BOOYAH, it works and doesn't leak. I'm now a plumber. The bad news is it's now 9:45 PM, so there's no way I'm getting to Waynesboro to see Will and the rest of the fam. But they've agreed to come up here tomorrow, so I guess I'll get to see them for the holiday. So Will, sorry I missed seeing you on your Birthday, and Happy Birthday dude!
So it was really warm here the past couple of days, but we still have some snow in our front yard. It's that whole the front yard never gets any sunlight thing. Even after the all day rain we got on Christmas. Although the snowman appears to have seen better days (here's the before picture). And here's some great news (in a sarcastic kind of way), we've had some really big winds here, and one time it was so windy it blew over the door in the gazebo I had resting against a post. This was the door I had already rescreened. It fell over on a board with nails in it, so the screen is punctured, so now I'll get to rescreen that.
So it was really warm here the past couple of days, but we still have some snow in our front yard. It's that whole the front yard never gets any sunlight thing. Even after the all day rain we got on Christmas. Although the snowman appears to have seen better days (here's the before picture). And here's some great news (in a sarcastic kind of way), we've had some really big winds here, and one time it was so windy it blew over the door in the gazebo I had resting against a post. This was the door I had already rescreened. It fell over on a board with nails in it, so the screen is punctured, so now I'll get to rescreen that.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas
Hope everyone had a lovely day and was able to spend time with their loved ones.
Long day today. Kids were up early, but due to complications of this and that, they weren't allowed to go downstairs until close to 9:30 (I plan on changing that rule next year, seems unfair they have to wait when they know it's Christmas and what's coming). Once again the kids were whirlwinds of destruction leaving no present untouched or unopened. Quinn got some phat loot and seems to enjoy the Fooz Ball / Air Hockey table. Catherine got a VSmile video game system she just didn't put down for the longest while. But after the dust cleared, Quinn was back playing with the race track, so I think that's his favorite gift so far (aside from stuff video game related since he's sit in front of the TV playing video games until he passes out if you let him). My Mom arrived around 6:30 this morning, so she was here for all the fun. I spent several hours of the day fighting a new Mozilla install. I had installed a new version about three days ago, and today it just stopped working (no error messages on startup or anything). It went wonky after the VPU on the video card just stopped working and demanded a reboot. Because of the lack of error messages it took a good while to figure out what the problem was (if interested, I can go into details, but I figure no one is that interested). We had a fantastic lunch / dinner around 4 again, and then after that the kids went to bed since once again they hadn't napped. We watched "Must Love Dogs" which was one of (if not the only) present that I bought for Ginger that she didn't buy herself. I think we all liked it. We had watched "Mr and Mrs Smith" the night before, and I don't know what I can say about that except that it's a love story / chick flick, but they did a fantastic job of window dressing it as an action flick. Unfortunately Catherine woke up around 9:30 and didn't go back to sleep till around 11. I didn't get hardly any pictures today with my camera, since we used my Mom's new camera that we gave her for Christmas, so I'll try and get some shots off of that tomorrow.
Peace out.
I was trying to figure out how to work Chevy Chase's famous Merry KissMyAss line into this, but never came up with anything good.
Long day today. Kids were up early, but due to complications of this and that, they weren't allowed to go downstairs until close to 9:30 (I plan on changing that rule next year, seems unfair they have to wait when they know it's Christmas and what's coming). Once again the kids were whirlwinds of destruction leaving no present untouched or unopened. Quinn got some phat loot and seems to enjoy the Fooz Ball / Air Hockey table. Catherine got a VSmile video game system she just didn't put down for the longest while. But after the dust cleared, Quinn was back playing with the race track, so I think that's his favorite gift so far (aside from stuff video game related since he's sit in front of the TV playing video games until he passes out if you let him). My Mom arrived around 6:30 this morning, so she was here for all the fun. I spent several hours of the day fighting a new Mozilla install. I had installed a new version about three days ago, and today it just stopped working (no error messages on startup or anything). It went wonky after the VPU on the video card just stopped working and demanded a reboot. Because of the lack of error messages it took a good while to figure out what the problem was (if interested, I can go into details, but I figure no one is that interested). We had a fantastic lunch / dinner around 4 again, and then after that the kids went to bed since once again they hadn't napped. We watched "Must Love Dogs" which was one of (if not the only) present that I bought for Ginger that she didn't buy herself. I think we all liked it. We had watched "Mr and Mrs Smith" the night before, and I don't know what I can say about that except that it's a love story / chick flick, but they did a fantastic job of window dressing it as an action flick. Unfortunately Catherine woke up around 9:30 and didn't go back to sleep till around 11. I didn't get hardly any pictures today with my camera, since we used my Mom's new camera that we gave her for Christmas, so I'll try and get some shots off of that tomorrow.
Peace out.
I was trying to figure out how to work Chevy Chase's famous Merry KissMyAss line into this, but never came up with anything good.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas Eve
So today we decided that since the kids are going to be completely spoiled, and they have about a zillion presents, we would let them open up the gifts they were getting from Ginger's family today. I'm convinced that while they are spoiled, they like the idea of getting presents much more than the actual presents themselves. They were like little tornadoes of tinsel destruction leaving discarded wrapping paper and boxes in their wake. 
Catherine got a Ballerina dress that she really liked (with a boa no less). She also got some books, a backpack for ballerina class / school, and some Angelina stuff (which as I may have mentioned in the past, I'm not overly fond of the Angelina stuff). Quinn got a lot of NASCAR stuff like carrying trucks, matchbox sized cars, the and the some of the oversized cars. 
Quinn's big present was an electric race car track. It's one of those tracks where the cars sit in the groove on the track, and you have the little handle with a trigger that controls how fast it goes. It's going to take some time for him to master it I think, since he tends to just jam the trigger down and his car will careen off the track (it's like watching a NASCAR highlight reel). He got better at using it as the night went on. Strangely, I didn't get a picture of him playing with it. Gotta try and remember to rectify that tomorrow.
I skipped breakfast. The reason I skipped breakfast was I slept in until like 9:30. One of the perks of having company up is there's someone to get up with the kids (although I think Ginger got up with them also, or maybe she was the only one, I don't know, for me nothing happened before 9:30). I finally got up and made myself an omelet for brunch, but there was no lunch because we had a big dinner early at around 4. I got around to cleaning the ice off the deck and tearing down some cardboard recycling in the time before dinner. We ended the evening by attending church services at 6pm. See, our church is one of those that decided attendance would suffer if they had services on Christmas morning, so they had Sunday morning services on Saturday night instead. Now Quinn had been going nonstop all day with no nap, so he was exhausted and fell asleep during the services about half way through. Catherine also has been going all day with no nap, but she has this weird behavior where she gets more and more hyper as she gets tired (I think it's a defense reaction on her part to actually keep her from going to sleep). So she fidgeted all the way through the service. After church we drove by and looked at some of the Christmas lights in our neighborhood. The kids went to bed shortly after we got home. Tonight's 'message' in church bothered me a bit, since it brought up this whole supposed 'War on Christmas'. And while he didn't refer to it with those terms, it's pretty obvious that's what he was talking about. This whole state of affairs seems really overblown. Almost like it was a slow news month, so they manufactured something to get people riled up about. Not sure exactly how there's suppose to be a 'War on Christmas' when there's more crossover between church and state than I can ever remember in my lifetime. We're almost to the point where the supreme court will be deciding cases based on scripture and personal beliefs instead of precedent and rule of law. I consider myself a Christian, and I'm not offended if someone uses Happy Holidays. Seriously, isn't there a prerequisite for being a Christian that says you forgive others. I don't see how getting indignant about a seasonal greeting does anything to showcase what it means to be a Christian. Comes across as a little crazy more than it does loving and forgiving. Sorry, went on a little longer there than I intended. My point (if I have one) is that the spirit of this season is not served by getting bent out of shape over something as innocuous as how someone refers to the holiday season.
I wanted to take this final section (not that I believe anyone is still reading at this point) to talk about Ginger. I joke a lot about her, but really, I'm not sure what I would do without her. At this point, because of the kids, I figure she's stuck with me though. And it's not like I'm that great of a husband, so she's really getting the raw end of the deal here. I didn't even get her Christmas presents, she bought almost all of her own presents (I did wrap them, but really, that was the absolute least I could do). And while I'm confident that she'll get something she wants, I can see how that is less than meaningful (just to lower people's opinion of me further, I didn't even get the kids any presents, she did all that too, at most I made some suggestions on what to get and then she took care of getting it). I fully admit that a lot of times I take all the work that she does for granted. She's watching the kids full time, keeping the house clean and livable (which as others can attest, with me living in the house is a monumental task), and still manages to get errands done. She doesn't really get a break. Even at night when I come home and take over / play with them, she's still fixing them dinner. She is the glue that keeps this family together, and I don't tell her that nearly enough. So Merry Christmas sweetheart, and I love you with all my heart.
Catherine got a Ballerina dress that she really liked (with a boa no less). She also got some books, a backpack for ballerina class / school, and some Angelina stuff (which as I may have mentioned in the past, I'm not overly fond of the Angelina stuff). Quinn got a lot of NASCAR stuff like carrying trucks, matchbox sized cars, the and the some of the oversized cars. 
Quinn's big present was an electric race car track. It's one of those tracks where the cars sit in the groove on the track, and you have the little handle with a trigger that controls how fast it goes. It's going to take some time for him to master it I think, since he tends to just jam the trigger down and his car will careen off the track (it's like watching a NASCAR highlight reel). He got better at using it as the night went on. Strangely, I didn't get a picture of him playing with it. Gotta try and remember to rectify that tomorrow.I skipped breakfast. The reason I skipped breakfast was I slept in until like 9:30. One of the perks of having company up is there's someone to get up with the kids (although I think Ginger got up with them also, or maybe she was the only one, I don't know, for me nothing happened before 9:30). I finally got up and made myself an omelet for brunch, but there was no lunch because we had a big dinner early at around 4. I got around to cleaning the ice off the deck and tearing down some cardboard recycling in the time before dinner. We ended the evening by attending church services at 6pm. See, our church is one of those that decided attendance would suffer if they had services on Christmas morning, so they had Sunday morning services on Saturday night instead. Now Quinn had been going nonstop all day with no nap, so he was exhausted and fell asleep during the services about half way through. Catherine also has been going all day with no nap, but she has this weird behavior where she gets more and more hyper as she gets tired (I think it's a defense reaction on her part to actually keep her from going to sleep). So she fidgeted all the way through the service. After church we drove by and looked at some of the Christmas lights in our neighborhood. The kids went to bed shortly after we got home. Tonight's 'message' in church bothered me a bit, since it brought up this whole supposed 'War on Christmas'. And while he didn't refer to it with those terms, it's pretty obvious that's what he was talking about. This whole state of affairs seems really overblown. Almost like it was a slow news month, so they manufactured something to get people riled up about. Not sure exactly how there's suppose to be a 'War on Christmas' when there's more crossover between church and state than I can ever remember in my lifetime. We're almost to the point where the supreme court will be deciding cases based on scripture and personal beliefs instead of precedent and rule of law. I consider myself a Christian, and I'm not offended if someone uses Happy Holidays. Seriously, isn't there a prerequisite for being a Christian that says you forgive others. I don't see how getting indignant about a seasonal greeting does anything to showcase what it means to be a Christian. Comes across as a little crazy more than it does loving and forgiving. Sorry, went on a little longer there than I intended. My point (if I have one) is that the spirit of this season is not served by getting bent out of shape over something as innocuous as how someone refers to the holiday season.
I wanted to take this final section (not that I believe anyone is still reading at this point) to talk about Ginger. I joke a lot about her, but really, I'm not sure what I would do without her. At this point, because of the kids, I figure she's stuck with me though. And it's not like I'm that great of a husband, so she's really getting the raw end of the deal here. I didn't even get her Christmas presents, she bought almost all of her own presents (I did wrap them, but really, that was the absolute least I could do). And while I'm confident that she'll get something she wants, I can see how that is less than meaningful (just to lower people's opinion of me further, I didn't even get the kids any presents, she did all that too, at most I made some suggestions on what to get and then she took care of getting it). I fully admit that a lot of times I take all the work that she does for granted. She's watching the kids full time, keeping the house clean and livable (which as others can attest, with me living in the house is a monumental task), and still manages to get errands done. She doesn't really get a break. Even at night when I come home and take over / play with them, she's still fixing them dinner. She is the glue that keeps this family together, and I don't tell her that nearly enough. So Merry Christmas sweetheart, and I love you with all my heart.
Friday, December 23, 2005
No Workie Today
I have today off from work. Kind of nice. Bad side of it is we have to work Jan 2nd. It's strange, we've never had Christmas Eve off in the past, and this year, we get the day before Christmas Eve off. Anyway, I was going to spend today doing some last minute shopping, but then decided heck with that, people just won't get anything. We took some cookies and presents over to Rob and Gretchen's today since today is Autumn's Birthday. It took her a while to warm up to the idea of other people being there in her house. Quinn, Catherine and Autumn had a ball playing on Rob's pool table. It's not so much that they were playing pool as it was moving balls across the table.
We stopped by Safeway on the way home so that Ginger could buy them out of their supply of Yoplait Nouriche. It's basically a drinkable yogurt loaded up with protein and vitamins. It's one of the few ways we can get anything healthy into Quinn, and it appears that Giant and Wegman's have stopped selling them here in the DC area. After that 30 minute stop (Ginger refused to go through the 15 item express line because she had 16 items, even though they were all the same thing), the kids were starving, so we stopped by Baja Fresh for lunch. Apparently trying to find a place to park at this time of year is just crazy. We eventually found a place, and probably had to walk less than a mile to get to the restaurant. So after lunch, Ginger had this bright idea that we could go by the mall and pick up the pictures the kids had taken the day before. All I can say is, if signs say incoming traffic has the right of way, then you better stop and give the incoming traffic the right of way. What is it about this time of year that turns people into maniacs on wheels?
After that we finally came home. Tried to put the kids down for a nap, but Ginger's folk's showed up right after they had laid down, and Quinn saw them, so he got up never napped. Catherine slept for a bit, then after she got up she watched the Nutcracker for about an hour while Quinn was downstairs playing Nintendo. He loves it when Ginger's brother comes up to visit, because then he basically gets to play video games all the time. My plan of making people come here for the holidays has hit a minor snag, Ginger's grandmother took a spill as she was coming down the stairs tonight. Hopefully it's nothing serious. She could still walk on it, so in all likelihood nothing is broken, but this probably doesn't bode well for having future holidays here.
We stopped by Safeway on the way home so that Ginger could buy them out of their supply of Yoplait Nouriche. It's basically a drinkable yogurt loaded up with protein and vitamins. It's one of the few ways we can get anything healthy into Quinn, and it appears that Giant and Wegman's have stopped selling them here in the DC area. After that 30 minute stop (Ginger refused to go through the 15 item express line because she had 16 items, even though they were all the same thing), the kids were starving, so we stopped by Baja Fresh for lunch. Apparently trying to find a place to park at this time of year is just crazy. We eventually found a place, and probably had to walk less than a mile to get to the restaurant. So after lunch, Ginger had this bright idea that we could go by the mall and pick up the pictures the kids had taken the day before. All I can say is, if signs say incoming traffic has the right of way, then you better stop and give the incoming traffic the right of way. What is it about this time of year that turns people into maniacs on wheels?
After that we finally came home. Tried to put the kids down for a nap, but Ginger's folk's showed up right after they had laid down, and Quinn saw them, so he got up never napped. Catherine slept for a bit, then after she got up she watched the Nutcracker for about an hour while Quinn was downstairs playing Nintendo. He loves it when Ginger's brother comes up to visit, because then he basically gets to play video games all the time. My plan of making people come here for the holidays has hit a minor snag, Ginger's grandmother took a spill as she was coming down the stairs tonight. Hopefully it's nothing serious. She could still walk on it, so in all likelihood nothing is broken, but this probably doesn't bode well for having future holidays here.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
More Details
Ginger pointed out that I did a crappy job of explaining why the Neurologist was putting me on a diet. See, starting about 6 months ago I started experiencing these really bad episodes where I would lose some vision because of seeing spots. Then I would get really sensitive to light, to the point where bright light would make me violently ill. Then I would be incapacitated with a serious headache. Everyone claims I was having migraines, but I contend it was merely food poisoning. That occurred intermittently. To only me. Over the course of a couple of months. And the frequency increased over that time period. I've never had one of these migraine episodes prior to like 7 years ago. I had two seven years ago. Then nothing for like 3 years. Then one or two a year. And this year they just went nuts. To the point where about 2 months ago I was having 2 a week. My personal opinion is that these last ones were caused by my switching my soda of choice from Coke to Coke Zero, which probably has some artificial sweetener in it that I react to as I'm exposed to it more. A couple of months ago I switched back to regular Coke and haven't had an episode (still had some headaches and whatnot, but not the super severe ones that were incapacitating). Anyway, that coupled with the knot on my head prompted me to finally visit a neurologist. He couldn't give me any definites as to what was causing them. He seems pretty convinced that stress was involved. But really, at that point, most the stressful stuff that had been going on was over. He also asked if my family had a history of these, to which I had to answer, I don't know. Anyway, my Doc is apparently a big believer that somehow diets contribute to these conditions, and thus his orders on my new eating regimen. I've already told him I don't plan on starting until after the new year. Hmmm, food can cause the migraines, and I never had them before I got married. I'm thinking this food poisoning thing might have something to it (just kidding dear).
Anyway, not much to report here. Kids went into Picture People for another sitting (with both of them this time). To be honest, I wasn't impressed with any of the shots. We put together a table tonight that we bought to put the foozeball, ping pong, air hockey game on. Not much more I can add here except to show the pictures from the sitting so everyone can see how bad they were.
Anyway, not much to report here. Kids went into Picture People for another sitting (with both of them this time). To be honest, I wasn't impressed with any of the shots. We put together a table tonight that we bought to put the foozeball, ping pong, air hockey game on. Not much more I can add here except to show the pictures from the sitting so everyone can see how bad they were.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Quinn's Back
He doesn't want to be back, but he is. Evidently he got really upset when he realized he had to go home. I guess Grammy's place is fun or something. He seemed better by the time I got home though. Then he was back to his old self. Here's a picture of him in his Mardi Gras hat playing with his streamers (this was the first time he had seen the streamers). Notice Frosty in the background. Apparently upon hearing that Catherine had gotten a Frosty, Quinn got to go make one. But check it out, they paid the extra money for the accessories. He's got the scarf, pipe, broom and for some reason (I'm thinking Quinn was involved in this decision) he got a basketball. Right, because last time I checked the basketball was an integral part of the Frosty story. They didn't get any of the support character though like Catherine did. So now we have 2 Frosties, Karen and Hocus Pocus (or Pocus as Catherine calls him).I had my appointment with the neurologist today. Got the old good news / bad news thing going. The good news is that knot on the side of my head I've been avoiding having looked at for two years is apparently a benign cyst. And no, I won't be operating on this one myself. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I've said too much. The bad news is apparently I'm not allowed to eat anything now. This is the list of foods I'm suppose to avoid:
- Ripened Cheeses (Cheddar, Emmentaler, Gruyere, Stilton, Brie & Camebert)
- Ok, I know Cheddar, and I've heard of Brie, but don't eat it. Those others sounds like names of D&D characters though, are those really cheeses? This is a bit annoying, since when I make omelets I use cheddar.
- Herring
- I've heard of this, but I don't think I've ever had it, so I'm good with this one.
- Chocolate
- Just kill me now.
- Just kill me now.
- Vinegar (except White vinegar)
- Obviously except white. Who drinks vinegar anyway?
- Obviously except white. Who drinks vinegar anyway?
- Anything Fermented, Pickled or Marinated
- Fermented and Pickled are not a problem, but I do like marinated meat.
- Fermented and Pickled are not a problem, but I do like marinated meat.
- Sour Cream, Yogurt
- Sour Cream is going to hurt. I rarely eat yogurt though even though I like it.
- Sour Cream is going to hurt. I rarely eat yogurt though even though I like it.
- Nuts, Peanut Butter
- Right, like I've been able to have any of that really since we found out Catherine's allergic to peanuts. Although that means no more raiding the company president's administrative assistant's peanut M&Ms.
- Right, like I've been able to have any of that really since we found out Catherine's allergic to peanuts. Although that means no more raiding the company president's administrative assistant's peanut M&Ms.
- Hot Fresh Breads, Raised Coffeecakes and Doughnuts
- Doughnuts? D'oh! Seriously though, Hot Fresh Breads? So cold and stale is okay?
- Doughnuts? D'oh! Seriously though, Hot Fresh Breads? So cold and stale is okay?
- Pods of Broad Beans (Lima, Navy and Pea Pods)
- Never ate those really except pea pods when they were in Chinese food (see next bullet)
- Never ate those really except pea pods when they were in Chinese food (see next bullet)
- Any Foods Containing Large Amounts of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), i.e. Chinese Foods
- *bleep* me.
- *bleep* me.
- Onions
- Not a problem
- Not a problem
- Canned Figs
- People can figs?
- People can figs?
- Citrus Foods (no more than one orange per day)
- Hmmm, wonder if Orange Juice counts, could be in trouble here.
- Hmmm, wonder if Orange Juice counts, could be in trouble here.
- Bananas (no more than 1/2 a banana a day)
- Because when I eat a banana, I normally leave half for the next day.
- Because when I eat a banana, I normally leave half for the next day.
- Pizza
- Well *bleep*.
- Well *bleep*.
- Pork (no more than 2-3 times a week)
- Interesting, I like pork, but we rarely if ever have it.
- Interesting, I like pork, but we rarely if ever have it.
- Excessive Tea, Coffee, Cola beverages (no more than 4 cups a day)
- *bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*. This one hurts. I'm back on caffeine drinking about 5 Cokes a day. I may have to start sleeping more if my caffeine kick gets taken away.
- *bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*. This one hurts. I'm back on caffeine drinking about 5 Cokes a day. I may have to start sleeping more if my caffeine kick gets taken away.
- Avocado
- Don't eat this much except if it comes on something at Baja Fresh
- Don't eat this much except if it comes on something at Baja Fresh
- Fermented Sausage (Bologna, Salami, Pepperoni, Summer & Hot Dogs)
- Had no idea those things were fermented. Now I have no desire to eat them.
- Had no idea those things were fermented. Now I have no desire to eat them.
- Chicken Livers
- Another one I have zero issues with.
- Another one I have zero issues with.
- Avoid All Alcoholic Beverages, if possible
- *sigh*
- *sigh*
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
She's Ready For Her Closeup
Not much newsworthy to report today.
Catherine went and got pictures taken at Picture People today. We're in one of their spend money, get 5 free sittings per year things. It's nice that they let you preview the pics online. These are how they turned out. Pretty sure we can still order more if people are interested in any of them, so let us know if you are. As you can see, she took her Frosty and his entourage with her.
Tomorrow is my big meeting with the neurologist. Hopefully he'll be able to confirm that the recent spat of migraines I had was simply because I was drinking too much Coke Zero and Propel (here's hoping it's artificial sweeteners and not something actually really serious). Quinn is also coming home tomorrow, so it'll be good to have him back home. It's been a little too quiet around here without him.
You would not believe how many times I had to adjust the pictures here to get the layout even close to something you could stand to look at.
Catherine went and got pictures taken at Picture People today. We're in one of their spend money, get 5 free sittings per year things. It's nice that they let you preview the pics online. These are how they turned out. Pretty sure we can still order more if people are interested in any of them, so let us know if you are. As you can see, she took her Frosty and his entourage with her.
Tomorrow is my big meeting with the neurologist. Hopefully he'll be able to confirm that the recent spat of migraines I had was simply because I was drinking too much Coke Zero and Propel (here's hoping it's artificial sweeteners and not something actually really serious). Quinn is also coming home tomorrow, so it'll be good to have him back home. It's been a little too quiet around here without him.You would not believe how many times I had to adjust the pictures here to get the layout even close to something you could stand to look at.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Monday Monday...
I'm doing a little bit better. Nose is still somewhat stuffed up. But I slept in this morning trying to recover some then took some "non-drowsy" Sudafed before going into work (non-drowsy my a**). And what's up with one tablet only lasting four hours. Way to try and squeeze more money out of me Pfizer. Check out the jump in their stock price from Friday to Monday. That's all me! I was out Sunday buying their 4 hour product. They should be sending me some free swag for that.
So Catherine is still here without her brother. I can't tell if she's getting better or not. Her voice still seems a little hoarse. In order to distract her and have her forget Quinn isn't here (or that he's off doing something that she isn't) we decided we should do something special for her. So Ginger took Catherine to Build a Bear today (it was my suggestion for those keeping track). Catherine got to make her very own Frosty. Both kids love watching the Frosty video, and we had seen the Frosty in the store a couple of weeks ago when I was watching the kids while Ginger was returning / buying stuff at the mall. She absolutely loves her new stuffed Frosty. She got Karen and Hocus Pocus also (the girl and the rabbit). She didn't get the Frosty accessories though ($7 for a scarf, broom and pipe? Seriously?). Anyway, she helped build him and then "gave him a bath" several times at the store. She even called me at work to tell me about it once she got home. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this was a good idea.
When I got home, Ginger and Catherine were still napping. But it wasn't too long after I got here that they got up. As I mentioned in a previous post, my company's Holiday party was last Saturday. It was Mardi Gras themed. They had masks, fan masks, hats and other stuff on all the tables. Ginger and I grabbed some of those things and brought them home to the kids. They really liked playing with them. In fact, I can remember them coming upstairs Sunday morning and waking me up just to show me their new loot. Well, one of the things on the table that we grabbed were metallic streamers. For whatever reason, they didn't get those on Sunday, so I broke that out for Catherine to play with tonight. Got some nice video of her doing a combination ballerina / rhythmic gymnastics thing. So the streamers were a hit. I'm thinking once those those break (and no, I don't mean "if they break", the kids are hard on toys) we may have to go buy some more of those.
We tried to call and talk to Quinn tonight, but he apparently was out all day and didn't nap, so by the time we called (8:30 PM), he was already asleep for the night. Tonight after we watch "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" I think we're going to start on putting together Quinn's Christmas present. It's a 6 in 1 table that has Air Hockey, Ping Pong and Fooz Ball. We both think he's really going to like it. Now if I can just find where I put my screwdriver.
So Catherine is still here without her brother. I can't tell if she's getting better or not. Her voice still seems a little hoarse. In order to distract her and have her forget Quinn isn't here (or that he's off doing something that she isn't) we decided we should do something special for her. So Ginger took Catherine to Build a Bear today (it was my suggestion for those keeping track). Catherine got to make her very own Frosty. Both kids love watching the Frosty video, and we had seen the Frosty in the store a couple of weeks ago when I was watching the kids while Ginger was returning / buying stuff at the mall. She absolutely loves her new stuffed Frosty. She got Karen and Hocus Pocus also (the girl and the rabbit). She didn't get the Frosty accessories though ($7 for a scarf, broom and pipe? Seriously?). Anyway, she helped build him and then "gave him a bath" several times at the store. She even called me at work to tell me about it once she got home. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this was a good idea.
When I got home, Ginger and Catherine were still napping. But it wasn't too long after I got here that they got up. As I mentioned in a previous post, my company's Holiday party was last Saturday. It was Mardi Gras themed. They had masks, fan masks, hats and other stuff on all the tables. Ginger and I grabbed some of those things and brought them home to the kids. They really liked playing with them. In fact, I can remember them coming upstairs Sunday morning and waking me up just to show me their new loot. Well, one of the things on the table that we grabbed were metallic streamers. For whatever reason, they didn't get those on Sunday, so I broke that out for Catherine to play with tonight. Got some nice video of her doing a combination ballerina / rhythmic gymnastics thing. So the streamers were a hit. I'm thinking once those those break (and no, I don't mean "if they break", the kids are hard on toys) we may have to go buy some more of those.We tried to call and talk to Quinn tonight, but he apparently was out all day and didn't nap, so by the time we called (8:30 PM), he was already asleep for the night. Tonight after we watch "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" I think we're going to start on putting together Quinn's Christmas present. It's a 6 in 1 table that has Air Hockey, Ping Pong and Fooz Ball. We both think he's really going to like it. Now if I can just find where I put my screwdriver.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Muh Code As Gotten Sidnificandly Wurse
Warning! The following will be mostly one long gripe session. You've been warned.
Ugh. So last night my nose was so stuffed up, I couldn't get to sleep. So after lying in bed for about an hour not being able to sleep, I got up and started scrounging for medicine. It's amazing how much stuff we moved with last year that isn't even any good (and wasn't even good then). I found 3 things of Nyquil, 2 bottles and one box of capsules. The capsules expired in August of 2004. One of the bottles (the unopened "normal" Nyquil flavor one) expired in April of 2004, and the other bottle (an opened "cherry" flavored one) expired in September of 2005. So I popped open the cherry one and downed some. I used quotes above for Nyquil flavor since really they all taste like turpentine soaked in different types of wood (I know, I know, taking Nyquil is basically just like taking a shot of alcohol). Anyway, while I waited for that to kick in, I went downstairs and tried to catch up on some Daily Show / Colbert Reports. I typically watch The Daily Show the night it comes on, but only up to the interview part. Then I catch up on interviews over the weekend. Now that the Colbert Report is on afterwards, I find I'm falling further and further behind on catching up with those interviews. Finally got to sleep around 3. Ended up waking up around 6. I thought Nyquil was suppose to last longer than that? Anyway, managed to get back to sleep at around 6:45, only to have Quinn call out for me at 7. Tried to get Quinn to go back to sleep, I think he may have, not sure, pretty sure I was delusional at this point. At some point he wanted to get up again, and I just let him go (really, what could go wrong with letting him wander around unsupervised?). I *think* Ginger may have been up at this point with Catherine, I hope so. Anyway, I went back to sleep and got up around 10:30. Catherine this morning also has the starting of whatever it is that has gone through our house also (she's sounding hoarse). So no church for us today.
Around lunch time Ginger decided that they would all go to the Toy Store and then to Wendy's for lunch. So Ginger, Grammy and the kids took off, and I tried to sleep, but at this point, all the medicine had worn off, so I couldn't get back to sleep. Watched some more Daily Shows (I'm just past the episode that had Jimmy Carter on) and then watched Painkiller Jane, which was a SciFi movie that was "based on the Event Comics series." And when they say based, they mean that took the name and the powers and rewrote everything else. So there's an hour and twenty minutes of my life gone forever that I'm not getting back.
Just as I was finishing watching the Masterpiece Theater that was Painkiller Jane, everyone got home. Quinn was very very excited. He told me that he was going to be going home with Grammy and spending a couple of days down there. Ginger and I had talked about this previously, but hadn't told Quinn since plans may have changed, and with Grammy hurting her wrist yesterday, there was a real chance it wasn't going to happen. But I guess Grammy decided she was up to it and they had told him at lunch. Quinn told me "You're not going, Mommy's not going, and Catherine's not going. Just me." He seemed pretty excited. I asked him if he was going to miss any of us while he was down there and he said "Ummm, no." Then he ran around the house getting his backpack and packing all the stuff he wanted to take. Everything was fine till he got in the car to go, then he started crying saying he didn't want to leave Mommy and Daddy and that he wanted us to go also. We explained that we couldn't, but that if he didn't want to go, he could stay with us. He then decided it wasn't going to be that bad and got back into the car.
After Catherine's nap, I finally took a shower and we all headed out to the grocery store (strangely, we needed cold medicine that hadn't expired, plus tissues, plus Orange juice, etc, etc). When we got back, we stopped by the house down the street to see if all the stuff in the yard had been turned back on. And it was up and going strong. I snapped a picture, but with it being dark, it's sort of hard to see. Basically this guy has a ton of holiday inflatable characters in his yard. I can't even imagine what this guy's electric bill must be.
Ugh. So last night my nose was so stuffed up, I couldn't get to sleep. So after lying in bed for about an hour not being able to sleep, I got up and started scrounging for medicine. It's amazing how much stuff we moved with last year that isn't even any good (and wasn't even good then). I found 3 things of Nyquil, 2 bottles and one box of capsules. The capsules expired in August of 2004. One of the bottles (the unopened "normal" Nyquil flavor one) expired in April of 2004, and the other bottle (an opened "cherry" flavored one) expired in September of 2005. So I popped open the cherry one and downed some. I used quotes above for Nyquil flavor since really they all taste like turpentine soaked in different types of wood (I know, I know, taking Nyquil is basically just like taking a shot of alcohol). Anyway, while I waited for that to kick in, I went downstairs and tried to catch up on some Daily Show / Colbert Reports. I typically watch The Daily Show the night it comes on, but only up to the interview part. Then I catch up on interviews over the weekend. Now that the Colbert Report is on afterwards, I find I'm falling further and further behind on catching up with those interviews. Finally got to sleep around 3. Ended up waking up around 6. I thought Nyquil was suppose to last longer than that? Anyway, managed to get back to sleep at around 6:45, only to have Quinn call out for me at 7. Tried to get Quinn to go back to sleep, I think he may have, not sure, pretty sure I was delusional at this point. At some point he wanted to get up again, and I just let him go (really, what could go wrong with letting him wander around unsupervised?). I *think* Ginger may have been up at this point with Catherine, I hope so. Anyway, I went back to sleep and got up around 10:30. Catherine this morning also has the starting of whatever it is that has gone through our house also (she's sounding hoarse). So no church for us today.
Around lunch time Ginger decided that they would all go to the Toy Store and then to Wendy's for lunch. So Ginger, Grammy and the kids took off, and I tried to sleep, but at this point, all the medicine had worn off, so I couldn't get back to sleep. Watched some more Daily Shows (I'm just past the episode that had Jimmy Carter on) and then watched Painkiller Jane, which was a SciFi movie that was "based on the Event Comics series." And when they say based, they mean that took the name and the powers and rewrote everything else. So there's an hour and twenty minutes of my life gone forever that I'm not getting back.
Just as I was finishing watching the Masterpiece Theater that was Painkiller Jane, everyone got home. Quinn was very very excited. He told me that he was going to be going home with Grammy and spending a couple of days down there. Ginger and I had talked about this previously, but hadn't told Quinn since plans may have changed, and with Grammy hurting her wrist yesterday, there was a real chance it wasn't going to happen. But I guess Grammy decided she was up to it and they had told him at lunch. Quinn told me "You're not going, Mommy's not going, and Catherine's not going. Just me." He seemed pretty excited. I asked him if he was going to miss any of us while he was down there and he said "Ummm, no." Then he ran around the house getting his backpack and packing all the stuff he wanted to take. Everything was fine till he got in the car to go, then he started crying saying he didn't want to leave Mommy and Daddy and that he wanted us to go also. We explained that we couldn't, but that if he didn't want to go, he could stay with us. He then decided it wasn't going to be that bad and got back into the car.
After Catherine's nap, I finally took a shower and we all headed out to the grocery store (strangely, we needed cold medicine that hadn't expired, plus tissues, plus Orange juice, etc, etc). When we got back, we stopped by the house down the street to see if all the stuff in the yard had been turned back on. And it was up and going strong. I snapped a picture, but with it being dark, it's sort of hard to see. Basically this guy has a ton of holiday inflatable characters in his yard. I can't even imagine what this guy's electric bill must be.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
It's the weekend
Yesterday was Quinn's last day of school before the winter break. His school put on a puppet show, so it wasn't even like a real school day. Catherine attended as well. After that, Ginger's Mom (Grammy) came up and everyone went shopping and they didn't get back till around 9:30. Quinn's still recovering today, I can tell he didn't get enough sleep last night since every little thing seems to be setting him off. While they were out shopping, I went over and visited with Rob's clan to see their new house. It's huge. I mean really big. I shudder to think how much it's going to cost to buy furniture to fill that place up.
So apparently I've caught the cold / bug that Ginger and Quinn have had. Been really tired, sore throat, coughing intermittently. Other than that, I feel great. So because of that, I stayed at home today and cleared ice off the sidewalk while Ginger and Grammy took the kids down to see the caboose in Clifton. Unfortunately there was an incident and Grammy and Catherine fell getting off the caboose. Grammy's hand is at least sprained, maybe worse. Catherine ended up with a bump on her head, but she's tough, so she'll be fine.
Tonight was my company's Holiday party. It followed last year's theme of dinner and then tables for gambling. I didn't get to enjoy this year as much as last since I'm still a bit under the weather, that meant I didn't get to partake of the free alcoholic beverages. Last year my feet were toasty warm from drinking a ton of Madrises (not sure that's the correct pluralization, but whatever). Ginger still isn't fully recovered, so she wasn't drinking anything either. We still stuck around and talked with people until almost midnight. I think we've setup a playdate with all the kids for the 30th. Here's a picture of Ginger and myself that Quinn took of us before we went to the party.
So apparently I've caught the cold / bug that Ginger and Quinn have had. Been really tired, sore throat, coughing intermittently. Other than that, I feel great. So because of that, I stayed at home today and cleared ice off the sidewalk while Ginger and Grammy took the kids down to see the caboose in Clifton. Unfortunately there was an incident and Grammy and Catherine fell getting off the caboose. Grammy's hand is at least sprained, maybe worse. Catherine ended up with a bump on her head, but she's tough, so she'll be fine.
Tonight was my company's Holiday party. It followed last year's theme of dinner and then tables for gambling. I didn't get to enjoy this year as much as last since I'm still a bit under the weather, that meant I didn't get to partake of the free alcoholic beverages. Last year my feet were toasty warm from drinking a ton of Madrises (not sure that's the correct pluralization, but whatever). Ginger still isn't fully recovered, so she wasn't drinking anything either. We still stuck around and talked with people until almost midnight. I think we've setup a playdate with all the kids for the 30th. Here's a picture of Ginger and myself that Quinn took of us before we went to the party.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Snow? Yes, but No.
Well, the weather was suppose to be really bad today. It started snowing this morning, and the roads were apparently a little slick around noon when Ginger picked up Quinn from school. So it looked like we were actually going to get some accumulation there for a bit, but then sometime around 1 or 2 in the afternoon the snow turned to rain. Temperature throughout the day was around 35, so we've had nothing but rain since then. In fact, it's still raining now. Not sure how cold it's suppose to get tonight, so tomorrow morning traffic may be nasty.
When I got home tonight, I helped the kids turn our couch into a fort. They played around in that for a good while. It's kind of like cat toys. You can buy all this expensive stuff, but what do cats like to play with? The plastic rings from milk containers. I get the feeling kids are the same way, the free activities to them are sometimes more fun than stuff you can buy.
When I got home tonight, I helped the kids turn our couch into a fort. They played around in that for a good while. It's kind of like cat toys. You can buy all this expensive stuff, but what do cats like to play with? The plastic rings from milk containers. I get the feeling kids are the same way, the free activities to them are sometimes more fun than stuff you can buy.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Back Home
It's nice to be back in VA. The trip to PA was long. It's like a three and a half hour drive up. We left at 6 AM Monday morning, got there around 9:45 (took a little longer than normal due to it snowing in some areas on the way up). It's cold up in PA, I saw Curt complaining that it was 17 degrees in NY, on Tuesday when I left the hotel it was 11 degrees. I heard people as I was checking out saying it had been 7 degrees a little earlier. Came back Tuesday night. Ended up getting home just after 9. The kids were in bed, but not asleep, so I actually got to see them briefly.
Wednesday we were going to have Autumn over (that's Robert and Gretchen's kid). They just bought a new house and were moving today, and we had offered to take care of Autumn while they moved. Both kids were really excited and kept mentioning it to me. Unfortunately it turns out that Autumn was sick and couldn't come over. Don't know how their move went yet.
We've decided to go ahead and let Catherine attend class in January. Catherine met her teacher today and she participated in class (while Ginger stuck around). She's been doing really well with the potty training. She still has an accident every now and then, but she's gotten to the point where she can realize it's about to happen and will announce to everyone that's she's going to the bathroom. It's actually somewhat reminiscence of when Quinn was just learning. There were times when Ginger and I would be sitting at the kitchen table, and Quinn would fly past us with his hand holding his butt running towards the bathroom. Ahh, good times.
Ginger's Mom is planning on coming up. Possibly tomorrow if we don't get the huge ice storm they keep predicting. If not tomorrow, then hopefully Friday. She's our baby sitter for Saturday night since that's the night of our company's holiday party.
Sorry, no pics today. I haven't had a chance to snap any since I've been back.
Wednesday we were going to have Autumn over (that's Robert and Gretchen's kid). They just bought a new house and were moving today, and we had offered to take care of Autumn while they moved. Both kids were really excited and kept mentioning it to me. Unfortunately it turns out that Autumn was sick and couldn't come over. Don't know how their move went yet.
We've decided to go ahead and let Catherine attend class in January. Catherine met her teacher today and she participated in class (while Ginger stuck around). She's been doing really well with the potty training. She still has an accident every now and then, but she's gotten to the point where she can realize it's about to happen and will announce to everyone that's she's going to the bathroom. It's actually somewhat reminiscence of when Quinn was just learning. There were times when Ginger and I would be sitting at the kitchen table, and Quinn would fly past us with his hand holding his butt running towards the bathroom. Ahh, good times.
Ginger's Mom is planning on coming up. Possibly tomorrow if we don't get the huge ice storm they keep predicting. If not tomorrow, then hopefully Friday. She's our baby sitter for Saturday night since that's the night of our company's holiday party.
Sorry, no pics today. I haven't had a chance to snap any since I've been back.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Lazy Sunday...
Busy busy busy. Got up and got everyone ready and headed off to church, it was a musical program today, so we thought we would keep the kids with us instead of having them attend their respective classes. Catherine really got into the music and was basically shaking her booty to the rhythm. Halfway through the program Quinn got completely bored and wanted to go to his class, so Catherine immediately decided she wanted to go to her's also, even though she was still enjoying the program (this whole sibling thing is just great).
After church we stopped by the grocery store, apparently with a few thousand of our neighbors. My guess is everyone wanted to get their grocery shopping done before a Redskins game. So after we made it through that, we came home and I fixed everyone lunch (melted cheese sandwiches and melted cheese and ham sandwiches, except for Quinn, who still refuses to eat just about anything other than starches or chicken).
After lunch we bundled up and headed outside for some sledding and snowman building. I'm sure it's hard to tell, but the snowman is a golfer. He also has on a hat, but the hat almost completely blended into the background since I took the picture later in the day when it was dark. I also used the opportunity to try and clean the sidewalk. As I've mentioned, the front of our house rarely gets direct sunlight, so our sidewalk was basically a sheet of ice. The kids weren't overly enthusiastic about sledding (they kept mentioning the sledding into a tree incident that had occurred with Mom a couple of days ago). We tried out Quinn's new jump rope outside, he actually did pretty good (no pictures of that, although there there was video taken). We also used this time to transfer the tree from the garage into the house. After getting that all taken care of, it was time for the kids to take a nap.
While they were napping, I headed into work so that I could finish up some schedules for tomorrow and update some problem reports with ideas that people could try while I was in PA. My computer was finally back on the network, but now my phone was dead (as were some other people's on my floor). I finally got home around 8. Catherine had just woken up and Quinn had been up for over an hour. After dinner (spaghetti, yum!) we put lights on the tree and put on some ornaments. We've only partially completed the ornaments although a good part of Super Hero Central has been done. I've got Superman squaring off against the Hulk, so we'll finally be able to see who's stronger.
After church we stopped by the grocery store, apparently with a few thousand of our neighbors. My guess is everyone wanted to get their grocery shopping done before a Redskins game. So after we made it through that, we came home and I fixed everyone lunch (melted cheese sandwiches and melted cheese and ham sandwiches, except for Quinn, who still refuses to eat just about anything other than starches or chicken).
After lunch we bundled up and headed outside for some sledding and snowman building. I'm sure it's hard to tell, but the snowman is a golfer. He also has on a hat, but the hat almost completely blended into the background since I took the picture later in the day when it was dark. I also used the opportunity to try and clean the sidewalk. As I've mentioned, the front of our house rarely gets direct sunlight, so our sidewalk was basically a sheet of ice. The kids weren't overly enthusiastic about sledding (they kept mentioning the sledding into a tree incident that had occurred with Mom a couple of days ago). We tried out Quinn's new jump rope outside, he actually did pretty good (no pictures of that, although there there was video taken). We also used this time to transfer the tree from the garage into the house. After getting that all taken care of, it was time for the kids to take a nap.
While they were napping, I headed into work so that I could finish up some schedules for tomorrow and update some problem reports with ideas that people could try while I was in PA. My computer was finally back on the network, but now my phone was dead (as were some other people's on my floor). I finally got home around 8. Catherine had just woken up and Quinn had been up for over an hour. After dinner (spaghetti, yum!) we put lights on the tree and put on some ornaments. We've only partially completed the ornaments although a good part of Super Hero Central has been done. I've got Superman squaring off against the Hulk, so we'll finally be able to see who's stronger.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Kid's Christmas Party
So we went to the kids Christmas party sponsored by my work today. They got to see Santa, play some games, decorate cookies, and some other activities. I think they had a lot of fun. The area for lunch was pretty crowded, so we all went down a couple floors to my office to eat, and the kids played on my whiteboard for a good bit. Quinn also passed out baseball hats to everyone. You may be asking why I have baseball hats in my office, that's because when Ginger was working in advertising she got a lot of free swag, a lot of which was baseball caps, I have them in my office as freebies for whoever wants to take them.I got a couple of pics of the kids sitting on Santa's lap. I took the video camera, I should have filmed it since it's one of the first times Quinn has actually spoken to Santa. But for some reason, I never broke out the video camera and was just snapping pictures. I should have gotten out the camera and let Ginger film while I took pictures. That would have been the smart thing to do (which I guess explains why I didn't do it). Seeing Santa gave Quinn his first real experience in differentiating long term and short term goals. We had talked about it before we got there, and he was going to ask Santa for a Race Track. Then, as we were standing in line, he decided he wanted a Race Car. Once it was his turn to talk to Santa, he saw there were some cookies beside Santa. And then when asked by Santa what he wanted for Christmas, Race Tracks and Race Cars became a thing of the past and short term desires took over and he said "I want one of those cookies." I could almost see "Ooooo... Shiny!" going through his head. Catherine was a little more timid about Santa. She had what she was going to ask for planned out ahead of time also, but then clammed up when it was her turn to talk to Santa. Which is strange, since she's usually always pretty vocal.
After the party was shut down, we stopped at the garden center on the way home and got a Christmas tree, a real one. These things are getting more and more expensive every year. I remember getting a tree for like $12 when I was a kid, and that was if you wanted one of the fancy ones. We haven't put it up yet (it out in the garage adjusting to non outdoor temperature), so I'll probably try and get some pics of that tomorrow. Although I'm probably going to have to go to work tomorrow, since I'm in PA on Monday and Tuesday working on schedules for one of our projects. Dinner tonight consisted of the family going out to Red Robin for dinner (apparently they are guaranteed to be peanut free).
Friday, December 09, 2005
More Snow
We got some snow. Doesn't look to be as bad as what Curt got, but it was bad enough that schools closed and morning traffic was nasty. Roads were more than passable by the just before noon. As I predicted Quinn's school was canceled, so he stayed home. He had a dentist appointment later in the day. When they finally got home, Ginger took the kids out to sled some on the hill. Unfortunately they were done and inside by the time I got home, but as Quinn was explaining to me, the snow had a layer of ice on it and Mom had hit a tree when she went down the hill (she took one for the team and protected Catherine). It's a shame I wasn't able to get home in time for sledding, I would have loved to have gotten pictures of it. Ginger's fine in case you're wondering. The kids went down for a 'nap' around 6:30 and nap time ended up turning into down for the night time. So Ginger and I watched Madagascar (which I thought the Penguins were good, but most of the rest of the film was kind of slow).
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Thursday Wrapup
From everything I've heard, almost all the demos today went extremely well. I'm kind of sad it's over actually, since I was actually doing stuff vs managing stuff. It felt nice getting to see tangible results from actually writing / changing code.
They're calling for the monster snow again. Although I think it's changed recently to be a little less. We'll see what it ends up doing this time. From the way the news guys were talking, I'm suspecting Quinn's school will be cancelled. The work sponsored Christmas party for the kids is this weekend, so that's what is currently on the agenda for this weekend. I think we also want to try and get a real tree at some point this weekend also.
Ok, I installed Gimp. I've decided I need to install the help documentation also. There's just too many options. It's pretty impressive though, seems like it can do everything Photoshop LE could do and then a ton more. Tonight I leave with a totally premeditated photo of life imitating art.
They're calling for the monster snow again. Although I think it's changed recently to be a little less. We'll see what it ends up doing this time. From the way the news guys were talking, I'm suspecting Quinn's school will be cancelled. The work sponsored Christmas party for the kids is this weekend, so that's what is currently on the agenda for this weekend. I think we also want to try and get a real tree at some point this weekend also.
Ok, I installed Gimp. I've decided I need to install the help documentation also. There's just too many options. It's pretty impressive though, seems like it can do everything Photoshop LE could do and then a ton more. Tonight I leave with a totally premeditated photo of life imitating art.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Will She or Won't She
It's getting really close to time for us to decide whether Catherine will be attending school come January. The school currently has a loose stipulation that the children must be completely potty trained. Catherine's been doing really well recently, but still needs some prompting at times. So it's getting really close. I think with where she's at we'll probably try and get her in and attending, since she really is almost ready. After four and a half years of having to buy diapers, I long for the time when that item will no longer be on our weekly list of required items. I assume if Catherine does end up attending, that she would be put into a different class than Quinn. I still can't believe how fast they're growing up. So on Monday night, we did end up getting some snow. Maybe around 3 inches worth, there was significantly less on the roads. Quinn's school was open an hour later than normal. And the roads seemed perfectly fine when I went to work.
Tuesday night we all watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the animated one). The kids liked it. I probably should qualify that we all were in the room, since I vaguely remember seeing the Grinch on the sled going down the mountain and then the next thing I knew Quinn was waking me up and the credits were rolling. Guess I was tired.
Thursday is our big demo at work. I think our part is pretty solid. We'll see how things go tomorrow. My computer here at home is acting a little wonky, this is the third time I've typed all this in (and I've been less verbose each time). I think part of the problem is earlier tonight I downloaded the PDF for my camera and adobe reader upgraded itself. Speaking of Adobe, I've been using Photoshop (LE version 5.0) for image manipulation, but to be honest, I'm not that happy with it. It does all the basic stuff really well, but for more complex stuff, I'm just not seeing how to do things. Like I wanted to add some word balloons to pictures, and for the life of me I see no easy way to do it using Photoshop LE, if anyone out there has a favorite image manipulation tool, let me know (free ones are obviously preferred over something I would have to pay to use). I've recently downloaded Gimp, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Let it snow...
No school for Quinn today. He was a little sick last night after he went to bed, so we kept him home just in case. That meant Ginger had both kids all day today. I believe they went on an excursion to the grocery store. From what I hear, it was extremely crowded (more than likely due to the 3 to 5 inches of snow predicted for tonight). Because, as you know, if it snows somehow all your staple groceries will just instantly go bad, so you have to get really fresh ones right before the snow. Seriously, it's a couple of inches, and the roads are usually cleared before the day is over. Does anyone really think they may have to resort to cannibalism if they don't go get bread and milk the day before a predicted snow? I'm actually surprised it's even going to snow. The weather men seem to rarely get it right around here. Saturday night they predicted one inch of ice would be on the roads. Ginger claims she saw some ice on my car (which is in the shade when parked at our house until afternoon) on Sunday morning as we were going to church, but I didn't see it (to be honest, the lack of ice anywhere probably caused me to not be looking for it). Anyway, it has indeed started snowing, but I kind of doubt there's going to be much in the way of real accumulation.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Saturday in Clifton
Thursday was a good day. We showed our part of the internal demo, and for the most part, everyone was pretty happy. Thursday was also Parent's night at Quinn's school, so I got to go with him into his class and see what it is he does there. It was pretty shocking. I'm still having a hard time believing the child I witnessed in class was my kid. He was polite, didn't push other kids, and would clean up after himself when he was done with a task. I searched the room for pods, but didn't see any.
Today was cold. Not unbearably cold, but cold none the less. I think the high was upper 30s or really low 40s. But despite the weather, we all bundled up and went on a road trip into Clifton. Today was a big day because in Clifton there was a parade. It was a pretty low budget parade, where the locals break out their horses and ride them down the street in costumes. When I think about how much it must cost to have plot of land around here large enough to house horses, it boggles my mind. The parade lasted *maybe* 10 minutes, if that. I don't think there was a theme to the parade that I could tell, other than general holiday festivities, although I could have sworn one of the riders looked like a ninja. And since it's tradition for holiday parades, the parade ended with Santa (although apparently it was extreme business casual day at the North Pole).
In addition to having the parade, it's also the day when the Caboose is opened up. For those that don't know, there's a Caboose on display at Devereux Station in Clifton. I believe it's an original from years gone by. They only allow visitors inside of it once a year, and today was that day. Because Quinn loves trains so much, we've visited the caboose on a couple of previous occasions (we actually found it one weekend when we were randomly driving around looking at the changing leaves), but he was pretty excited about being able to get in it. There's an independent toy store right by where the caboose is, and they were having a special thing going on today also. So between the parade, the caboose and the toy store, it was a pretty exciting day for the kids. The toy store had a tent with a couple of display toys, but they also had stuff like free warm chocolate milk, cookies, and they were doing a toy raffle. Raffle tickets were free and the 'suspense' was merely waiting until they called your number, so basically everyone won. 
The prize selection was actually some really nice toys, you could tell though that they were some demo items and / or things that had been opened and probably returned. The kids kept going from the Toys to the Caboose and then back again. They were letting people climb into the observation area of the Caboose and Quinn was up there when an actual train went by, I think it was the highlight of his day. Once we got home, we put up the inflatable snowman again. After that we came inside for some hot chocolate that Mom had fixed for us. Then it was nap time. Usually when the kids go that hard for that long and nap that late, nap time turns into down for the night. But not tonight, they both ended up waking up. So we had dinner while listening to George Winston's "December" CD and after dinner we watched the Snowman before heading upstairs to get ready for bed.
Today was cold. Not unbearably cold, but cold none the less. I think the high was upper 30s or really low 40s. But despite the weather, we all bundled up and went on a road trip into Clifton. Today was a big day because in Clifton there was a parade. It was a pretty low budget parade, where the locals break out their horses and ride them down the street in costumes. When I think about how much it must cost to have plot of land around here large enough to house horses, it boggles my mind. The parade lasted *maybe* 10 minutes, if that. I don't think there was a theme to the parade that I could tell, other than general holiday festivities, although I could have sworn one of the riders looked like a ninja. And since it's tradition for holiday parades, the parade ended with Santa (although apparently it was extreme business casual day at the North Pole). 
In addition to having the parade, it's also the day when the Caboose is opened up. For those that don't know, there's a Caboose on display at Devereux Station in Clifton. I believe it's an original from years gone by. They only allow visitors inside of it once a year, and today was that day. Because Quinn loves trains so much, we've visited the caboose on a couple of previous occasions (we actually found it one weekend when we were randomly driving around looking at the changing leaves), but he was pretty excited about being able to get in it. There's an independent toy store right by where the caboose is, and they were having a special thing going on today also. So between the parade, the caboose and the toy store, it was a pretty exciting day for the kids. The toy store had a tent with a couple of display toys, but they also had stuff like free warm chocolate milk, cookies, and they were doing a toy raffle. Raffle tickets were free and the 'suspense' was merely waiting until they called your number, so basically everyone won. 
The prize selection was actually some really nice toys, you could tell though that they were some demo items and / or things that had been opened and probably returned. The kids kept going from the Toys to the Caboose and then back again. They were letting people climb into the observation area of the Caboose and Quinn was up there when an actual train went by, I think it was the highlight of his day. Once we got home, we put up the inflatable snowman again. After that we came inside for some hot chocolate that Mom had fixed for us. Then it was nap time. Usually when the kids go that hard for that long and nap that late, nap time turns into down for the night. But not tonight, they both ended up waking up. So we had dinner while listening to George Winston's "December" CD and after dinner we watched the Snowman before heading upstairs to get ready for bed.
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