Here's a bunch of videos we took of Katelyn this evening. Sorry there's so many but we had problems trying to pick which one(s) we should post. Sorry Lisa, I have a new girl in my life......
Monday, October 20, 2008
I almost forgot to tell you about the most exciting thing that has happened this summer. My long time friend Jeff is a long time entry hog of sweepstakes and he wins quite a few. I decided with a little encouragement and guidance from him to start entering sweepstakes as I run across them online and wherever I find an entry form and the prize is one that I deem worthwhile to pay the taxes if I were lucky enough to actually win one. As luck will have it and after about 3 months or so of heavy entering just about every sweepstakes I could find, I finally won!
I won a 4 day, 3 night vacation in Key West. My trip includes airfare, hotel, rental car and $1000 spending money! We are planning an April trip and have hotel reservations at the Hyatt and they rented a convertible for my use during my stay. I still can't believe I actually won. Un-freaking believable! About 3 weeks later, I also found out that I won a $25 gift cart to Dave and Busters. Now if I could only hit the lottery......
I won a 4 day, 3 night vacation in Key West. My trip includes airfare, hotel, rental car and $1000 spending money! We are planning an April trip and have hotel reservations at the Hyatt and they rented a convertible for my use during my stay. I still can't believe I actually won. Un-freaking believable! About 3 weeks later, I also found out that I won a $25 gift cart to Dave and Busters. Now if I could only hit the lottery......
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Summer seemed to fly by. Shawn's first quarter of school is over, everything is turning brown and work is starting to get busy once again. Where did the summer go? My blogging has not been as regular as it probably should be but I'll once again tell you I will try and be better.
Katelyn is talking up a storm. She's still the little handful and makes it difficult to get anything accomplished around the house but she's a blast to watch and talk to. She seems to have her Mommy and Daddy wrapped.
Shawn has had a busy start to his school year. He decided that he wanted to join the cross country team at school. Cross country in 2nd grade is a new concept on me. I didn't even know that cross country existed until I was in 7th grade. Shawn really seemed to enjoy running; I'm not sure who's genetic code has the love of running in it but he got it. His practices, which were 4 days a week consisted of pretty much 45 minutes of motion of one kind or another. He typically ran between 1-1/2 to 2 miles at every practice and the races for his age group (2nd & 3rd grade) was 3/4 mile. He started practice about 2 weeks later than most of the other kids but he got better as the season progressed. It was pretty amazing to see 140-150 kids his age (only the boys) run at a meet. They had 5 meets and his school was far and above better than the others. At the diocese meet, each of the divisions for his school won a trophy. I think 6 were first place, 1 was runner up and one was third place. Shawn's group ended up in first place in 4 of 5 meets this year. I think he liked it so much that he will be doing it again this year. Up to this point, cross country is the only sport that he really seemed to enjoy.
Shawn is also involved in piano lessons. Lisa and I have had a piano that was my grandmothers for the past 12 years or so. It has survived 3 moves and has broke my back on 2 of those moves so you can guess that I am thrilled that the piano is getting some use other than the occasional pounding it gets from Katelyn. He seems to be excelling through his first half dozen lessons and I am trying to teach myself as he moves forward.
I just got home from a trade show in Fort Worth Texas. The trade show was downtown and within walking distance of a lot of things to do. We ended going to a Cajun restaurant called Razzoo's one night where I had the Cajun combo skillet. The food was just average but different. I also got to go and have several beers at the coolest draft beer bar I have ever been to except for the time I went to the same bar in Houston for lunch. Unfortunately in Houston, I had calls to make after lunch so I couldn't enjoy the tasty liquid goodness they offer. The Flying Saucer has the best selections of been on tap that I have ever seen in one place. I bet you they had close to 100 beers on tap and probably that many in the bottle. I had an Arrogant Bastard, an Avery's Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer 5 and a sampler flight that included Dale's pale Ale, Maharajah, racer 5, one of the Chimay drafts and a Stone Pale Ale (I think). I would be in serious trouble if The Flying Saucer was in Toledo; I would never leave the bar.
The next night, there were several parties for exhibitors in hospitality suites in one of the conference hotels. One of the suites served Mexican themed finger food along with margaritas, another served up a full bar, another was wine flights and various finger foods and another purely wine and beer. We were also invited to another exhibitor's flight for something he called the underground wine lovers club. This guy was really creepy. He had to be about 50 and he pretty much invited any cute woman under the age of 30 to this party. I have no idea why we got invites but we did. When we got there, he was there with two women and 7 cases of wine. We filled up and took off. The next morning we talked to others that were invited an it seems that there were never more than 12 people at the party at any one time. All this guy was trying to do is lure sweet young things into his suite and then into the bathroom for a little extra circulars. He was really creepy. After that, we met up with a bunch of other exhibitors that were going to another party. This party was pretty cool. It was in an old speakeasy called Scat. Scat was located in an alley and you had to take an elevator from the outside directly into the bar that was in the basement. The entire bar was closed for this function, in which we pretty much crashed, and the bar was open. There was a guy set up with his ipod singing Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra songs who was not only a pretty good singer but entertaining as well. We had several drinks at Scat, saw some of the exhibitors who had booths near ours at the show and then took off. At this point, my co-worker wanted to stay up all night and party away but needed some food first. Where does one eat at 10:30pm in downtown Forth Worth? We ended up at the Fox and Hound. As soon as we ordered food, the Jack Daniels hit my co-worker like a ton of bricks! He couldn't get back to the hotel soon enough!
Other than that, there was a whole lot of other things that took place but I will not bore you anymore and I would have a tough time writing about all of them. This weekend will be about winterizing the yard and getting ready for a small party we are having with some of the families we have met through Shawn's school activities. We are hosting 3 couples and their kids next Saturday for a giant play date (9 kids). I'm sure there will be a few adult beverages and a fire pit involved as well.
Shawn and his CC team at the awards dinner
Katelyn is talking up a storm. She's still the little handful and makes it difficult to get anything accomplished around the house but she's a blast to watch and talk to. She seems to have her Mommy and Daddy wrapped.
Shawn has had a busy start to his school year. He decided that he wanted to join the cross country team at school. Cross country in 2nd grade is a new concept on me. I didn't even know that cross country existed until I was in 7th grade. Shawn really seemed to enjoy running; I'm not sure who's genetic code has the love of running in it but he got it. His practices, which were 4 days a week consisted of pretty much 45 minutes of motion of one kind or another. He typically ran between 1-1/2 to 2 miles at every practice and the races for his age group (2nd & 3rd grade) was 3/4 mile. He started practice about 2 weeks later than most of the other kids but he got better as the season progressed. It was pretty amazing to see 140-150 kids his age (only the boys) run at a meet. They had 5 meets and his school was far and above better than the others. At the diocese meet, each of the divisions for his school won a trophy. I think 6 were first place, 1 was runner up and one was third place. Shawn's group ended up in first place in 4 of 5 meets this year. I think he liked it so much that he will be doing it again this year. Up to this point, cross country is the only sport that he really seemed to enjoy.
Shawn is also involved in piano lessons. Lisa and I have had a piano that was my grandmothers for the past 12 years or so. It has survived 3 moves and has broke my back on 2 of those moves so you can guess that I am thrilled that the piano is getting some use other than the occasional pounding it gets from Katelyn. He seems to be excelling through his first half dozen lessons and I am trying to teach myself as he moves forward.
I just got home from a trade show in Fort Worth Texas. The trade show was downtown and within walking distance of a lot of things to do. We ended going to a Cajun restaurant called Razzoo's one night where I had the Cajun combo skillet. The food was just average but different. I also got to go and have several beers at the coolest draft beer bar I have ever been to except for the time I went to the same bar in Houston for lunch. Unfortunately in Houston, I had calls to make after lunch so I couldn't enjoy the tasty liquid goodness they offer. The Flying Saucer has the best selections of been on tap that I have ever seen in one place. I bet you they had close to 100 beers on tap and probably that many in the bottle. I had an Arrogant Bastard, an Avery's Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer 5 and a sampler flight that included Dale's pale Ale, Maharajah, racer 5, one of the Chimay drafts and a Stone Pale Ale (I think). I would be in serious trouble if The Flying Saucer was in Toledo; I would never leave the bar.
The next night, there were several parties for exhibitors in hospitality suites in one of the conference hotels. One of the suites served Mexican themed finger food along with margaritas, another served up a full bar, another was wine flights and various finger foods and another purely wine and beer. We were also invited to another exhibitor's flight for something he called the underground wine lovers club. This guy was really creepy. He had to be about 50 and he pretty much invited any cute woman under the age of 30 to this party. I have no idea why we got invites but we did. When we got there, he was there with two women and 7 cases of wine. We filled up and took off. The next morning we talked to others that were invited an it seems that there were never more than 12 people at the party at any one time. All this guy was trying to do is lure sweet young things into his suite and then into the bathroom for a little extra circulars. He was really creepy. After that, we met up with a bunch of other exhibitors that were going to another party. This party was pretty cool. It was in an old speakeasy called Scat. Scat was located in an alley and you had to take an elevator from the outside directly into the bar that was in the basement. The entire bar was closed for this function, in which we pretty much crashed, and the bar was open. There was a guy set up with his ipod singing Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra songs who was not only a pretty good singer but entertaining as well. We had several drinks at Scat, saw some of the exhibitors who had booths near ours at the show and then took off. At this point, my co-worker wanted to stay up all night and party away but needed some food first. Where does one eat at 10:30pm in downtown Forth Worth? We ended up at the Fox and Hound. As soon as we ordered food, the Jack Daniels hit my co-worker like a ton of bricks! He couldn't get back to the hotel soon enough!
Other than that, there was a whole lot of other things that took place but I will not bore you anymore and I would have a tough time writing about all of them. This weekend will be about winterizing the yard and getting ready for a small party we are having with some of the families we have met through Shawn's school activities. We are hosting 3 couples and their kids next Saturday for a giant play date (9 kids). I'm sure there will be a few adult beverages and a fire pit involved as well.
Shawn and his CC team at the awards dinner
We're number one!
Monday, October 13, 2008
I've been terribly busy and not good at updating lately. I am heading to Fort Worth for a trade show tomorrow and when I get back I will make an effort to try and be better. I wonder if anyone is even checking to see if I'm updating anyway. Funny how life seems to get in the of something as simple as blogging.
Monday, August 25, 2008
So there I sat on Friday afternoon, just waiting until the weekend would start so I could just hang around the house and relax. Then the first text message came in: "I'm brewing beer on Sunday and you're welcome to come help and drink some beers in the process". Who am I to pass up drinking beer? 8 hours later and Lisa, the kids and Lisa's mom and dad were sitting in Chicago land drinking several of Brad's fresh home brews. By the way, the home brew was delicious; much better than my feeble attempt at brewing beer several years ago with a Mr. Beer kit. I'm convinced my issues were purely in poor sanitation methods and really bad measuring. One day in the not too distant future, I may give it another try since I'm now much better educated in the process.
On Saturday, I watched Brad brew and it really seems rather simple. I can't believe I botched it up so bad when I tried it. Once the brewing was done, we headed over to Two Brother's Brewing Company for lunch. Since I have been watching my rapidly expanding girlie figure I had the grilled veggie sandwich and it was really good. Lisa and Shawn split a pizza that I managed to sneak a piece of and it was good as well. Once we finished lunch we took the brewery tour which was really interesting and the beer samples weren't bad either.
Sunday we headed out to breakfast and then to an ethnic grocery store. We headed back about 1pm. I did make the trip in record time. On the way over my total moving time according to my GPS was 3 hours, 45 minutes. My return drive time was a mere 3:30! Of course actual time was longer due to gas and rest room stop but not by much. With such a short commute to Brad's maybe I will do it more often.
Tonight we're taking Shawn to a cross country practice to see if he likes it. Cross country practices 3 times a week and they have 5 meets this fall. Shawn's grade is classified as junior and their races are 3/4 mile long. I'm not sure how he's going to like running but I guess I will see very shortly. If he likes it, he's going to have to get a quick physical in order to get a doctor's release to participate. Next week, Shawn starts piano lessons. He's pretty excited about piano so hopefully the piano that has been collecting dust in the living room for the past 12 years will finally get some use. Unfortunately, it also means we will have to invest some cash in getting it tuned.
Lisa and I are taking Friday off this week so we have a short work week this week and next week and an extended long weekend coming up. I can't believe we are moving into September soon and the leaves are beginning to change a lighter shade of green. Before you know it, the leaves will be gone, the weather will be crappy and work will become hectic once again. I can't wait until spring already!
On Saturday, I watched Brad brew and it really seems rather simple. I can't believe I botched it up so bad when I tried it. Once the brewing was done, we headed over to Two Brother's Brewing Company for lunch. Since I have been watching my rapidly expanding girlie figure I had the grilled veggie sandwich and it was really good. Lisa and Shawn split a pizza that I managed to sneak a piece of and it was good as well. Once we finished lunch we took the brewery tour which was really interesting and the beer samples weren't bad either.
Sunday we headed out to breakfast and then to an ethnic grocery store. We headed back about 1pm. I did make the trip in record time. On the way over my total moving time according to my GPS was 3 hours, 45 minutes. My return drive time was a mere 3:30! Of course actual time was longer due to gas and rest room stop but not by much. With such a short commute to Brad's maybe I will do it more often.
Tonight we're taking Shawn to a cross country practice to see if he likes it. Cross country practices 3 times a week and they have 5 meets this fall. Shawn's grade is classified as junior and their races are 3/4 mile long. I'm not sure how he's going to like running but I guess I will see very shortly. If he likes it, he's going to have to get a quick physical in order to get a doctor's release to participate. Next week, Shawn starts piano lessons. He's pretty excited about piano so hopefully the piano that has been collecting dust in the living room for the past 12 years will finally get some use. Unfortunately, it also means we will have to invest some cash in getting it tuned.
Lisa and I are taking Friday off this week so we have a short work week this week and next week and an extended long weekend coming up. I can't believe we are moving into September soon and the leaves are beginning to change a lighter shade of green. Before you know it, the leaves will be gone, the weather will be crappy and work will become hectic once again. I can't wait until spring already!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Not too much new going on in my neck of the woods lately. Shawn starts school Monday and he isn't too happy about it. I can't believe that summer is starting to wind down, it's beginning to get dark earlier in the evening and winter is just around the corner. I absolutely hate winter!
Last weekend we had Katelyn's 18 month pictures taken. We actually got one decent picture out of the 50 or so they took. Speaking of Katelyn, her attitude is getting worse as the days go on. She's just cranky and irritable all the time now. I'm not sure if it's because she moved into the toddler room from the infant room at daycare and she's now lacking attention or if it's just because she's a girl. I apologize if that last comment sounded a bit chauvinistic but I've heard that girls are just drawn that way and I've heard it from women (I had to qualify the comment so I don't get bashed).
We don't have any big plans this weekend that I know of yet. Lisa has a jewelry party to go to on Saturday and she doesn't even wear jewelry. I will more than likely take Shawn to see "The Clone Wars" on Friday after work and we are going to dinner on Sunday with Bev and Ted as a thank you for watching Shawn all summer long which was a chore at times I'm sure. Between asking Papa what a "slut" was, letting people know that his burp "taste like butt" and letting Bev and Ted's young neighbor that "he likes naked girls" we was probably a perfect little angel....NOT!
I think we're all ready for school to begin. I have a funny feeling that Shawn is going to get in a lot of trouble this year.
Last weekend we had Katelyn's 18 month pictures taken. We actually got one decent picture out of the 50 or so they took. Speaking of Katelyn, her attitude is getting worse as the days go on. She's just cranky and irritable all the time now. I'm not sure if it's because she moved into the toddler room from the infant room at daycare and she's now lacking attention or if it's just because she's a girl. I apologize if that last comment sounded a bit chauvinistic but I've heard that girls are just drawn that way and I've heard it from women (I had to qualify the comment so I don't get bashed).
We don't have any big plans this weekend that I know of yet. Lisa has a jewelry party to go to on Saturday and she doesn't even wear jewelry. I will more than likely take Shawn to see "The Clone Wars" on Friday after work and we are going to dinner on Sunday with Bev and Ted as a thank you for watching Shawn all summer long which was a chore at times I'm sure. Between asking Papa what a "slut" was, letting people know that his burp "taste like butt" and letting Bev and Ted's young neighbor that "he likes naked girls" we was probably a perfect little angel....NOT!
I think we're all ready for school to begin. I have a funny feeling that Shawn is going to get in a lot of trouble this year.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
This past weekend was pretty busy. Lisa had, or participated, in her second garage sale beginning on Thursday and did pretty well. The sale pulled in over $900 but only about $400 of it was ours. We did manage to sell some larger items that we have been wanting to part with for awhile. We sold an old patio table and chairs, the flowered couch that sat in our living room that we rarely ever sat in if ever, the Thomas the Tank Engine train table, coffee table and end tables as well as other items that were collecting dust. Now that the living room is pretty much cleared out for the exception of a diaper changing table, a piano and a make shift desk we are going to transform it into a home office. So now the task begins to look for a couple of leather chairs and a desk.
Brad also came into town this past weekend. He arrived on Friday and we ended up taking a trip to the adult candy store (liquor/beer store) and picked up a bottle of Red Breast and a six of Mad Anthony's pale ale. The Red Breast is remarkably smooth and other than the fact it is twice as expensive as Jameson's, it is my new favorite Irish Whiskey. Brad, Bev, Ted and I sampled Brad's home brew, the Mad Anthony and some mead that Brad has brewing in his basement. The mead was very good, not that his home brew is not good but the mead was different. I would describe it closer in taste to wine than beer. The mead will probably only get better with time.
Saturday, we all headed to the Woodville Army Surplus store to browse a bit, Titgemeiers for home brewing supplies and then we ended up at The Maumee Brewing Company for dinner and beer.
Sunday went out to breakfast at Rumors and pretty much just hung out the rest of the day.
This week we have a house guest. Jill and Todd's dog is staying with us while they are on vacation. It's strange having a dog around the house all the time again. It's nice but also inconvenient at the same time.
I also booked Lisa and my annual trip to Columbus to act like 21 year old college kids (at least I do). Can't wait for the sweet sound of Heineygate and the cold beer that goes with it. This year we are going to see some singer that Lisa go out to hear in college. I'm sure he won't be anywhere as good as she remembers since she was in a drunken fog every time she heard him sing! Not sure what else is planned for that weekend but I'm sure it will be fun.
Brad also came into town this past weekend. He arrived on Friday and we ended up taking a trip to the adult candy store (liquor/beer store) and picked up a bottle of Red Breast and a six of Mad Anthony's pale ale. The Red Breast is remarkably smooth and other than the fact it is twice as expensive as Jameson's, it is my new favorite Irish Whiskey. Brad, Bev, Ted and I sampled Brad's home brew, the Mad Anthony and some mead that Brad has brewing in his basement. The mead was very good, not that his home brew is not good but the mead was different. I would describe it closer in taste to wine than beer. The mead will probably only get better with time.
Saturday, we all headed to the Woodville Army Surplus store to browse a bit, Titgemeiers for home brewing supplies and then we ended up at The Maumee Brewing Company for dinner and beer.
Sunday went out to breakfast at Rumors and pretty much just hung out the rest of the day.
This week we have a house guest. Jill and Todd's dog is staying with us while they are on vacation. It's strange having a dog around the house all the time again. It's nice but also inconvenient at the same time.
I also booked Lisa and my annual trip to Columbus to act like 21 year old college kids (at least I do). Can't wait for the sweet sound of Heineygate and the cold beer that goes with it. This year we are going to see some singer that Lisa go out to hear in college. I'm sure he won't be anywhere as good as she remembers since she was in a drunken fog every time she heard him sing! Not sure what else is planned for that weekend but I'm sure it will be fun.
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