Colony Street Diaries

Friday Knights Episode 3

2008-12-09T11:39:00.001-05:00

Watch the new Friday Knights about I Am Legend.

Fatty

2008-12-08T12:46:00.004-05:00

So, we have been paying particular attention to Milo's weight. Because Cody, we think, is the runt of the liter. I have always wanted a big dog and when I finally had a good chance of it I got stuck with 53 pound Cody. So we have been hoping Milo would do a little better.

He already looks "fuller" than Cody which is a good sign. So I decided to weigh Milo again because I picked him up last night and he felt really heavy.

40 POUNDS!! The chunker weighs 40 pounds. That's only 13 pounds less than our fully grown Cody and Milo is not even 6 months old yet. Looks like He's well on his way to being that big dog.

Christmas Lights

2008-12-05T16:54:00.003-05:00

Christmas is my favorite time of year by far. Everything is so happy, everyONE is so happy all the time for that matter. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas tradition has always been setting up the tree and all the lights. Though admittedly in years past the lights part was never really that big of a highlight and I would kind of crap out half way through it. But now that I have my own house this year it was a little bit different.

Kristina went on a little bit of a splurge with all the Christmas lights and decorations. Luckily Jared was over at the time and he was ale to help us set everything up, all the while commenting on our tree's lack of....well, life. And then there were the ornaments and things to put on the tree.

Then the lights. The outside is all white, as evidenced by the picture, and the ones hanging from the gutter are supposed to be those icicle kind, but they are still shriveled from the package so it looks kind of lame. But, after freezing out in the cold, hanging off the porch railing, (I thought those days were behind me, but alas, seems I will be doing it at least twice a year) and arguments about light placement, several return trips to Wal-Mart, we finally finished. And I must admit that it was pretty fun doing the lights the whole way through this year.

New Friday Knights Episode Up

2008-11-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

Check out the new episode here.

Friday Knights 1st Episode is up!

2008-11-24T10:10:00.004-05:00

The first episode of mine and Nick's "show" is now up for your viewing pleasure on my other newly created blog Friday Knights of the Round Table. Enjoy!

Down to Hershey

2008-11-21T13:08:00.002-05:00

This past Sunday I took the day off of work and Kristina and I went down to Hershey, Pa. to visit the Davis'. For those who don't know, they left us this summer to become House Parents at Milton Hershey School. We were really excited, this was the first time we had seen them since the wedding reception.

It was a really easy drive down there; all the way down 84, then on 81. No tolls, traffic or bad weather. We left here just after 9 on Sunday morning and arrived just after 2pm down there. The house they are living in is amazing. Their apartment is attached right to the kids house, which is huge. It was nice that they didn't have any kids yet so we were able to utilize the entire house while we were down there.

This is our "hotel room" where me and Kristina slept.

It was a nice relaxing time while we were down there. We just hung out a bunch, visited Jon and Kate +8's house (not very exciting as there was no one visible from the outside), and went to a really sweet mall. We visited Sierra at Chocolate World and I bought some chocolate bars. There was a 5-pound bar that you could buy for $30, but I stuck with the 1/2-pound bar. We also went on a tour of the school, visited a couple of the houses Ace and Debbie were working at and Kristina got to go to the outlet stores. And finally me and Ace got to talk a bunch about Wheel of Time, which I think was cathartic for the both of us.

Ian in his room.

On the return journey we got stuck in some traffic and tried to detour, then quit the detour after the GPS wanted to take us home by way of Iowa. It was a little longer ride than expected but we got home and in bed relatively early so all ended well. All in all we had a great time and can't wait to go back. We are hoping everything works out so we can soon.

Change and Hope

2008-11-05T09:35:00.000-05:00

So Barack Obama is now the President Elect. Starting next January we here in America are going to have 4 years (hopefully that's all) of an Obama administration. I was sitting there watching the TV when they announced it and all I could think of was, well America you got what you asked for. For the past 4-8 years we have all been inundated with anti-Bush slams and a lot of talk about change. Well, I fear that we are going to have "change"; and a lot of it.

This election would not be as big of a deal if it were not for the number of seats that Republicans have lost in Congress. For at least the next 2 years the Democrats are going to have carte blanche on any policies and bills that they want to pass. This country just took a radical turn to the left. As I look at the TV and see all the Obama supporters cheering in the streets of Chicago waving their "Change" posters around in the air I wonder: What about this amazing country do they want to change so badly? Is it the healthcare system that everyone in the world, except us, think is the best around? Is it the war in Iraq that has steadily been getting better, and keeping us safe? Is it the millions of opportunities left out there to make something of yourself and advance yourself in the world if you are just willing to put in some hard work? America is the greatest nation this world has ever seen, and they just voted to "change" it.

As I look back on this campaign, and into the future, I do have hope though. Hope that as President of the free world Barack Obama will realize all the power that he has. I hope that he will be the man that he has said he is for the past couple months, and not the one that he has been for the past couple years. He touted himself as a man who could work across the aisle but his record does not show it. He said he was a uniter but his record shows him as one of the most partisan Senators of the past 4 years. I hope Obama falls very far to the right and lands somewhere in the happy middle where most Presidents have been, and should be. Because right now he is a lot more to the left and a lot more of a radical than, I think, most people realize. I hope that the true colors of Barack Obama do not come out, but stay hidden behind this mask of middle America that he has been wearing all these months.

So America, you got what you asked for, Barack Hussein Obama will be the next President of the United States of America. Here we go...

New Spring Graphic Novel

2008-10-17T14:51:00.005-04:00

So this past Monday was probably the most exciting day of my life. Not really, but I was pretty excited. Because my Wheel of Time graphic novel (comic book to the untrained eye) finally arrived. And that in itself is a miracle. I spent the previous couple of weeks searching comic book stores and regular book stores for the series and cannot find it anywhere. Even searching online they are all sold out except for one website. Whenever I come close to finding another website that would sell them the website is either shut down or they are only selling one....used. Now needless to say that the site I did buy it from is way overcharging. To save my mothers sanity I will not say here how much I did shell out for only 1 volume out of 5. Suffice it to say I would rather not do so again, if it can be helped. So I call upon you, my faithful blog followers to keep your eyes peeled, though good luck having a better time of it than I did.

Anyway, the book itself is really cool. It's nice to see the things that I have been reading of. Especially for a fantasy book where a good deal of the things are made up, it's nice to know what the author is thinking. Now about this time I am going to start losing my audience because no one really cares but me, and maybe Ian, though he probably gave up on reading this blog a while ago.

Though on a final note they are producing books now on the rest of the series and the first is due out in December, so I'm excited about that too. Hopefully they will be a little bit more accessible.

Holy Land Experience

2008-10-16T19:06:00.003-04:00

We finally did it! Nick and I finally made it up to Holy Land U.S.A. We had been planning on doing this for ages just never got around to it. I guess that's what happens when two not very self motivated people plan something. So anyway, it finally came to fruition and let me say that it was the weirdest place I have ever been. It was a cross between Jerusalem and Middle Earth.

Apparently back in the day it used to be some kind of bizarre theme park that Catholics could make a pilgrimage to, or whatever. They had like a mini-Jerusalem set on a hillside with little concrete buildings all over the place. They recreated the Temple Mount and Calvary and different scenes like that.

And I must admit that it was pretty cool, don't know if I would have paid money to go and see it, maybe just trespass and park illegally to boot.

Now the real reason why anyone knows that this place exists is because of the famous Holy Land Cross that can be seen whilst driving down I-84. It's up high on the mountain in Waterbury, and I always used to wonder what it was when I was a kid and driving by.

As you may or may not know they just newly renovated the cross. The old one, I'm told, used to light up and looked a lot junkier, but it was the original, so a lot more highly coveted. I guess that's what procrastination gets us. Anyway, we finally got to see the new one up close and personal, and it was really cool. The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular too. Waterbury actually looked like a decent place from up there.

It was just a really neat place. There were all sorts of statues in seemingly random places with writing on huge, cracked stone tablets. It really did feel as if I was in Middle Earth. I was expecting Frodo (or Steven Chadbourne in costume) to pop out at any moment.

If you want to see all my pictures that I took, the full album is on my Flickr page.

Day on the Town

2008-10-09T19:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning when I woke up I called my mom to see if she wanted to come hang out with me for the day. Being the bum she is, she was still sleeping at 10:30am. Just kidding of course, she was probably up all hours of the night tending to a cranky grandson. So anyway, I called back later and asked, and I must say I didn't really have high hopes as my mother is not one to deviate from a schedule and/or make spur-of-the-moment plans. Surprisingly she said she would and showed up at my house around 12:30 or so.

This being her first time over in well over a month, I had to give her a tour of the updates on the house, which weren't all that numerous, but the niceties need to be followed. We sat with the dogs for a bit and Cody beat up mom pretty bad while Milo took advantage of the monopoly on the toys. She had suggested we go out to eat, and with activities being rather limited we hopped in her new Ford Explorer of which she is so very proud. We then proceeded to drive around aimlessly down Route 6 to find a good place to eat and finally settled on Carmine's, an Italian restaurant that ended up being very good.

Anyway, we ate, talked, she paid and left. I then tried to convince her to run across (literally) Route 6 with me to GameStop to see if they had a baseball game I could buy (they didn't). She refused and took her car across instead to T.J. Maxx. I joined her there after my fruitless search and spent about 5 minutes trying to find her. Finally succeeding, in the baby section, I steered her over the the men's section and a really cool hat I wanted her to buy. To make a long story short, didn't get the hat, but I did get a really sweet jacket for the winter. Then she dropped me back off at home and left, supposedly not wanting to be mauled by dogs again.

Lunch and a jacket, we should do this more often mom, thanks!

The 10 List: Most Beautiful Women (After My Wife)

2008-10-08T06:00:00.003-04:00

1. Kate Beckinsale - Beautiful in every movie she is in, from Pearl Harbor, to that awful Adam Sandler movie. Especially in Serendipity.

2. Gabrielle Anwar - For you unfortunate lot who don't know her, she is from the TV show "Burn Notice". And she is beautiful, especially with that Irish accent.

3. Alexis Bledel - Oh Rory, I love you.

4. Kelly Ripa - Now I might catch some flak for this, but so what, she's beautiful even in her late 30's. And she's smart and funny, what more do you want?

5. Winona Ryder - She may be a little strange, but she's a decent actress and I think she is beautiful.

6. Zooey Deschenel - I love her.

7. Naomi Watts - Picture says it all. Wow.

8. Jessica Alba - Oh come on, you knew she was going to be here. Who cares if she can't act, does she really need to be good? Who listens to what she says anyway?

9. Ellen Page - So apparently I'm in the minority on this one, but hey, if she looks beautiful even when she is pregnant in Juno then she's good.

10. Rachel Bilson - *sigh*

A slimy piece of worm ridden filth...

2008-10-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

Milo has worms and it's disgusting. He pooped some out, I have pictures, but I won't put them up. Anyway, we brought him to the vet and are giving him meds now. Ew.

Big (Trash) Day

2008-10-06T22:36:00.008-04:00

Today was big trash day for me and Kristina, which is very exciting for us. We were finally able to get rid of all the crap in the garage and the remnants of the shed on the side yard. Though sadly this also had to include getting rid of the Davis' couches that were stored in the garage. These were the most comfortable couches in the world, not to mention they brought back some good memories of hang outs at the Davis house. I'm still kicking myself for not bringing those upstairs when we first got them. Due to the nastiness of the garage they grew mold and were very dusty and rendered unusable.

It is a big relief to get rid of all those things on the side yard and the rest of the stuff in the garage though. We had been wanting to do it for a really long time, but didn't have anyway of disposing of it. We are also hoping that it will help a little with the air quality in the house as well, because Kristina has been complaining about it. The job was a bummer to do because I had to bundle up all the loose wood with string, and cut it to size with a sub-par circular saw. Though to be perfectly honest, two cinder blocks with the wood between them and me jumping on it did a better job of it. I was amazed at how much junk there was to throw out. I mean the house has only been lived in for 10 months, how could we have accumulated so much stuff to throw away? Crazy.

Unrelated picture of Kristina running away
from the U.S. Capitol.

But that was not the only reason today was a big day. Today was the day that my DirecTV was repaired. As you may or may not know I tried to fix it myself with less than desirable results. But....but, it was not all my fault because the repair man said that when the branch fell it warped the dish so even when he aligned it it still didn't work properly. So he had to replace the entire dish, which he didn't charge us for. I thought that was very decent of him. Also, the cable is now buried, which he also took care of, to prevent any recurrences.

All in all, a very satisfying day.

Milo and Cody Update

2008-10-05T13:49:00.005-04:00

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now. Just wanted to update everyone on the whole Milo and Cody situation. Because as you all my know, due to a prior post, when we first got Milo Cody was all up in his grill like 24/7. Which I suppose is understandable because it's a new thing, and Cody is used to being by himself and the center of attention.

However, I am glad to report that things have settled down considerably. They act more like buddies now than Milo just being Cody's plaything. Every once in a while Cody will steal whatever Milo happens to be playing with. But for the most part they just leave each other alone. They will still play with each other, it's just not a constant thing.

When they do play Cody will lay down and flip over on his back to get down to Milo's level. I think it must hurt Cody, though Kristina disagrees, because Milo will bite down on his "mane" on his neck and jerk it around like dogs do. But Cody doesn't do anything, he'll just playfully bite Milo's ear. I must say that Milo does start a lot of the "fights" though. He will run up behind Cody and bite his back legs and try to jump on him and run away. Cody has turned out to be a lot better than we ever expected.

They have even got to the point now where they will sleep with each other. Granted it only last about a minute before they start scrabbling, mostly because Milo will bite Cody, but it's still cute. Last night Milo was laying with Kristina on the couch and Cody jumped up with them and started licking Milo like he was cleaning him. Milo just laid there and took it and it was very cute. And I know I am using the word "cute" a lot in this post, but don't think any worse of me for it.

The 10 List: Minor Irritations

2008-10-01T08:26:00.005-04:00

So today I launch a new segment on this here blog called, "The 10 List." First off let me say that this is not a VH1 style countdown, it is just a list. The members of this list are in no particular order, ranking things just frustrates me and causes ire in others. So I hope you enjoy these, they came out of what me and Nick call "brainstorms", where we just pick a topic and see how many things we can come up with, it's fun, and most of the time pretty funny....to us. Anyway, here is the first list of things that I find really irritating in everyday life.

Thirst v. Urination - The conundrum in which one is very thirsty but also has to urinate very badly and is forced to choose between the two.
Light Switch Direction - This happens when there are multiple light switches to one light. The light will be off but the switch for it will be up when all the other switches on the panel are rightfully facing down.
Anonymous Pizza Boxes - No logos on the pizza box. Oh man, this pizza is really good, where is it from?...No body knows, bummer.
Signal but no turn - An especially annoying bit where the driver of the car in front of you is oblivious to the fact that their blinker has been on for the pas mile and a half. Somehow they manage to ignore the odd clicking noise and blinking light on the dash.
Change Jingler - You know what I'm talking about if you have ever been in an awkward conversation with someone. The other person seems to think that the situation would become less so if he stands with hands in pockets and jingles all the change in them during the silence. Is he trying to show off his money, or what?
Know What I'm Saying? - Basically anybody who ends every sentence with"Know what I'm saying?" Only they were mumbling so badly the only part of the sentence in which you did know what they were saying was the last bit. Ironic. People guilty of this are usually from the "urban culture".
Condescending Computer Nerd - Everybody knows what I'm talking about, whether it was the Tech Support guy on the phone, or the lonely looking kid in the back of the room I was trying to befriend. Sorry for asking what a binary code was.
Socks and Shoes - This is when the sock sticks to the shoe instead of your foot when you first put your shoe on. It results in the sock rubbing up against your foot in a very irritating fashion.
Back Splash - I know we have all experienced this so don't knock me for it. When you are taking a poop and one falls in and the splash gets on your butt. Really annoying, and uncomfortable.
Shaving - Pretty self-explanatory, and both guys and girls suffer from it. Some people get a hard time for not shaving for a while, while girls can more easily conceal the fact, fair? No, it's not like I'm going to wear a mask around just so people don't know.

Well I hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned for more lists. If you have any ideas for a brainstorm, let me know, and I'll see what I can come up with.

Movie Review: Smart People

2008-09-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

When I saw the trailer for this movie I must admit I was very interested. It looked like a funny movie with smart, witty dialogue, which I love. However, I was very disappointed with this one, I don't think it delivered at all.

The main problem I had was the real lack of an interesting storyline. I think they were going for a character development angle. Dennis Quaid's journey to becoming a better less, self-centered person didn't really pan out very well, I don't think they quite got there.

Now, the whole tag line of the movie was "Even smart people have a lot to learn." Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page were both the "smart people" with a lot to learn, socially, romantically, etc. The only problem they had with that was the fact that they made a political statement out of it. Of course they had uptight, snotty Ellen Page in the Young Republicans group at school. She became the "symbol" of the Republican party as viewed from the left for the entire movie. Some examples include, but are not limited to: comparing her Young Republicans meeting to a Hitler Youth rally. Made her afraid of her widower dad dating another woman and even tried to sabotage the relationship,saying that right wingers are afraid of any change at all. Donated her dead mothers clothing to Goodwill in order to get a tax write off, saying tax write offs were better than nostalgia. There were many more but I won't go on.

Besides that there was none of that smart, witty dialouge that I was so looking forward to. They had a couple good lines but that was mostly it. They resorted to something I like to call "academia speak" in order to try and back up their title choice, none of it was good. Also, all the characters were exactly the same, they all talked the same, all had an alarmingly amazing grasp of the English language, even the not-so-bright lacky adopted brother/uncle.

There was some things to salvage of this movie however. The acting was pretty good all around, or as good as it possibly could have been. I think Thomas Haden Church's performance as the zany, clingy, irresponsible brother/uncle was the best part of the movie. Also, I got to look at Ellen Page quite a bit, no complaints there. Although it did come with the price of having to stomach Sarah Jessica Parker as well. It was also fun to see Dennis Quaid's character get some much needed slaps in the face throughout too. He was supposed to be a egotistical professor, the one everybody hates and thinks he knows everything. It was fun to see him get knocked down a couple pegs.

Overall, I don't know if this was really worth the watch, just watch the trailer, it should be enough.

6/10

Backyard finished

2008-09-25T09:30:00.001-04:00

Finally the time is here. After months and months of working sun up to sun down the backyard is finally finished. That last part wasn't true, but it was two days of pretty irritating work, and more tedious than difficult. Making sure all (or at least most) of the rocks were gone was the main job of it. But yesterday I finally finished that last portion, cleaned it up, planted, fertilized and watered. The only downfall is now we have to take Cody out on a leash again because his runner goes right over the newly planted area and this lawn is going to need all the help it can get.

And if look close you can see my DirecTV cable on the ground.

That being said, I am being met with some confusion when I mention the DirecTV incident. Well here is the story.

I was sitting on the toilet one morning reading my book. It was semi-windy outside but nothing too crazy. Now for those of you who don't know our backyard is completely surrounded by trees, both on the side of the yard and looming over the yard. So anyway, I'm sitting there and it's a pretty tense part of the book, so I'm kind of on edge, when I hear this really loud crash from right outside the bathroom window. Needless to say it scared the crap out of me.... So I look out the window to see this huge branch a little bit wider than my thigh and about 15 feet long in a couple of pieces all across the middle part of the yard. The branch was really dry and dead looking so it must have broken up when it fell.

I go outside to see if it had done anything, not really feeling safe in the house anymore, if there are falling trees I wanted to see them coming. My first thought was that it was a bummer that it had fallen on top of the microwave that was sitting in the middle of the yard. (Sidebar: This was a microwave that was given to us by my parents but we didn't end up using it. So naturally we brought it outside and plugged it in and put all kinds of different things in it to see what it would do. Pretty much every little kids dream. Light bulbs are the best we found by the way, I highly recommend it.

But then, to my even greater dismay, I see that the branch had taken down my DirecTV cable that runs from my house to a tree in the backyard. As the ground was frozen when I had the dish installed we couldn't very well bury the thing. One can imagine how I regret not doing that now. So the branch had fallen pretty much directly on it and ripped down the cable and took down the panel of siding that the cable was attached to. So I rush inside to assess the damage, and lo and behold, when I flip on the TV....nothing. Back outside everything was still connected where it was supposed to be on the dish, it must have just been knocked out of alignment.

There is more to this story but this is a long enough post already so I'll let you go now.

Backyard again...

2008-09-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I continued my get-work-done-that-should-have-been-done-months-ago week and got cracking on the backyard. I started on the far end where the shed used to be because it was easier and I didn't want to get myself discouraged too soon into my new found motivational self. Only problem was that side of the yard, while mostly devoid of any rocks, is infested with roots. It wasn't so bad because they were tiny little ones that broke after a little bit of tugging. But almost every time I moved the rake it would catch on a little root, irritating.

Before picture: If you look really close you can see
a pile of sticks and stuff in the way back.

Well, I was only about 5 minutes into the project when I decided I was just going to do this half of the yard today. This way I could get it completely done and have at least some of the yard looking decent if and when my motivation for this little adventure wore off. So I used my fallen DirecTV as a divider line (got to use it for something) and did a little over half of the yard. I also decided that I wasn't going to worry about the hill either, I could put mulch on there in the spring or something. Now, most likely that won't happen, but it makes me feel better for now.

I started with all the debris that has accumulated over the summer, fallen branches and such. put that into two full garbage bags and hauled them out to the trash. Next came the time consuming part, the raking. I don't have enough funds for top soil so I am forced to do the best with what I got. The soil itself doesn't look that bad to me (and my professional eye) where there is any soil not obscured by rocks. I dug up the grass seed and fertilizer that has been sitting under my porch since I bought them back in April. Ideally you are supposed to have a spreader that does this for you, but, again, funds being limited I was forced to do it the biblical way, with my hands. I thought it came out alright, so I did the same with the fertilizer. Then I just sprayed some water on it, and on myself but that was unintentional.

This is the after believe it or not. The foreground is the part
I didn't do, the background is the part I did.

Now I'm feeling really good about getting the next installment done today, or at least making a good dent in it. Though when I woke up this morning my back was really hurting so I may just use that as an excuse to read Wheel of Time all day.

Progress on Patching up the Porch

2008-09-22T14:08:00.000-04:00

Today started off how the past couple days have, and I hope this trend ends very quickly. At 6:ooam I woke up to a very soft whine coming from downstairs. I tried to ignore it but the image of a urine soaked puppy kept me awake until my conscience got the better of me. So I let him out and went back to bed. Kristina got up at 8:45ish and I asked her to wake me up at 9:30. She said okay and went downstairs. Now I had every intention of tackling the war zone that is the backyard today and attempting to get some greenery back there. So, around 9:15 the thought of doing that was getting me antsy to start work, that and the smell of cinnamon buns coming from downstairs. So I get up and make my way downstairs and meet Kristina in the living room with a tray laden with food and a sad puppy dog face on. So I run back up stairs and climb into bed as if nothing happened and got a nice breakfast in bed from my beautiful wife.

Unrelated Kristina picture.

All that to say that a little after I started eating Cody starts barking and we hear movement downstairs, presumably from the neighbor. But the dog continues to bark depsite our protests and whacks on his butt. So just as I'm finishing up breakfast Kristina's phone rings and it's dad saying he's on the porch and ready to work on the gutters that we (more like I) have been putting off pretty much all summer. Also, he brought me a new desk to swap for my old tiny one. Cool.

My new setup.

So anyway, we spent almost 3 hours on the stupid porch roof, but we did make some very good progress, though we are not quite done yet. We got the boards out front back up, the white aluminum stuff back on and the drip edges up. The only really visible part being the white stuff. Which is kind of depressing to do all this work and not see very much from it.

Dad is laughing at me because I was not doing
any actual work in this photo.

And the tough part about working on our porch is that there is a huge drop off and some bushes so it's tough to use a ladder on either half, so we end up hanging off from the railings, and as dad puts it "risking our lives."

Dad "risking his life."

So now all we need is to stick the gutters up there and we will finally be all set with the dumb porch. Needless to say my yard did not get any attention today, apart from removing the branch that killed my DirecTV. More on that later.

Milo

2008-09-19T11:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a very long day. But I guess you could call it a rewarding one. It started with a call from the "puppy bus" driver telling us to meet him a Jake's steakhouse at 1:15....AM. Now Jake's is right down the street, so me and Kristina were excited because they could have been up to 60 miles away. So around 12:45 me and Kristina climb in the car and head out, just in case he was going to be early.... He wasn't going to be early. In fact he wasn't going to be on time either.

Meanwhile, we get to Jake's and for anybody who knows this place, it was pretty scary. The parking lot serves all the stores along the main street, and as in most places like that the parking lot is in the back. Apparently none of the proprietors felt the need to leave any lighting in said parking lot at 1:00am, go figure. Except for the one floodlight that is illuminating a very dodgy looking garage full of tools, and probably one or two illegal things. This place looks right out of a Guy Ritchie film and I'm expecting 10 or so heavily armed men in trench coats to step from the shadows and demand to see "the stuff". I mean this whole situation had the feel of a drug deal. Anyway, the car had barely stopped moving when Kristina was dialing these guy's number and asking to move the transaction across the street to a more well-lit area.

So we drive across the street to bunker down having just been informed of a 1:15 arrival. Come to find out the lights are off in this less-than-safe looking plaza too, so we settle to parking on the street beneath a street light and take comfort from the fact that the police station is right down the road. Well, 1:15 rolls around and still no puppy mobile, shocker, and Kristina had just finished her book so she was stuck talking to me. Around this time we started theorizing what this van/bus was actually going to look like, Kristina thought it would look like a big van with no windows, you know, a hitman van, a bank robber van, an I'm-pretending-to-be-a-plumber-but-I'm-really-an-assassin van. Ya that's the kind. So around 1:30 we see a similar van pulling into Jake's parking lot, which we could see from our vantage point, apparently they just decided to ignore our previous phone call.

We call them up, yet again, and ask if that was in fact them, it was, and tell them we'll be right over. So we get out of the car, one of the guys having just woke up, ha, and we see them open the back of the van. The entire driver's side wall is full of cages, full of yelping dogs. Then they extracted from their midst the cutest sleeping tiny little Golden Retriever, who, once in Kristina's arms, put his chin on her shoulder and looked around quietly. We finish up our business and take him back to the car to meet the big brother, Cody, who during the whole 4 minute trip home was foaming at the mouth and drooling all over the dog and Kristina, what?

To make this long story somewhat shorter, I didn't end up falling asleep until 4, getting up at 5:15, and had to sleep in front of the cage to stop Milo from whining. But last night went a lot bit better as the dog was so tired from having Cody harass him all day, he was a pooped pup. Him and Cody get along really well, which surprised me, but Milo has to spend the entire day under Cody literally, Cody walks right on top of him so he is walking between Cody's legs.

But after a somewhat rocky start and lots of fecal matter, urine, bleach and napkins things have settled down nicely.

Where is Micah?

2008-09-17T16:39:00.000-04:00

So I'm writing this post a little belatedly, but better late then never seems to be the theme with this baby. To start from the end Micah Andrew was born on Sept. 15th to my sister and her husband weighing 9 pounds 1 ounce and 21 1/2 inches long...I think.

Early last week was when the baby watch really began in earnest. That's when Jess and Dave has set their due date, and as the baby was already fairly heavy we all expected him to make an appearance sometime around then. But, alas, there was no baby to be seen. So I got a call from Jess while on my way home from work on Sunday night informing me that she was going to be induced at 5 o'clock the following morning. Now let's make a sidebar here to point out that the entire 23 minute car ride home was taken up by this phone call, that in itself is a noteworthy feat as I like to keep my phone conversations under 2 minutes. But the entire time I was driving. Let me remind you that I now drive a 5-speed so let's all take a minute to appreciate this...

Anyway, fast forwarding to 5:45 the following morning when I inexplicably woke up and thought that the baby should be beginning it's final push for freedom about now. Monday was all of a blur, I think, for everyone involved. A string of hospital waiting rooms, hurried phone calls and lots of false alarms. Kristina and I made our first visit around 2:00 (pm) until Kristina had to leave for work at 3:15. While there nothing much happened, we watched the contraction monitor bounce up and down, getting excited every time there was an especially big one.

Fast forwarding again, past a trip to Boston Market, past an encounter with Jeffery Sherman, past the news of a C-section, past a trip back home, past a trip back to the mall for Kristina's cell phone/right arm, and stopping at the nursery window. Finally after a 14 hour "labor" (she was asleep half the time and couldn't feel anything, can we really label that labor?) the end result was the beautiful, though temporarily unhappy, baby boy through the window. Jess and Dave were no where to be found, but that wasn't really that important. After they cleaned up the baby, Dave was able to cart him off to go see mommy, and the rest of his contingent.

All in all it was a very exciting and very happy day all around, and like I said, better late than never.

*NOTE*
***If anybody gets the reference in the title Justin will give you five bucks.***

Cody Contained

2008-09-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I finished a job six months in the making. I finally built and installed the new Cody-proof gate at the end of the porch. All it took was several arguments, a break-out attempt and a trip to the neighbors dumpster to complete.

Not much to this story really. Kristina and I have been wanting to build a gate for Cody since the beginning of the summer. So every other week or so we would "talk" about how it was not getting done. I wanted it done as much as she did, but you know, the motivation factor was kind of lacking. So fresh off another "talk" with my wife I finally decide to act. So naturally in the dead of night me and Nick sneak over to the neighbors house, who just completed finishing their porch, to help clean up their scrap wood. It was a much cheaper trip than it would have been to Lowe's, though I had to listen to complaints the whole time about splinters and such.

So the next day when Kristina went off to work, I set to work. Which in itself is a rarity, usually when she leaves I plant myself on the couch and, as George Feeny phrased it somewhere in season 5, "dive into a good book." And after 8-10 hours of hard, physically demanding, back breaking labor a new gate was born. (hyperbole)

Now Cody is free to roam as he pleases in and out of the house, ane methinks he is very happy with it.

School buses. A rant.

2008-09-08T15:12:00.000-04:00

For every person in this world who is running a little bit late to work, what is the worst thing that you fear? Is it the red lights or car accidents and rubberneckers? No. It is school buses. Why? Because in case you haven't got the memo, school buses are the single most important entity on this earth. Do you disagree? Well so do I, but talk to any school bus driver and they will tell you differently.

If you have taken a school bus in recent years, or if you can dredge up old memories of school bus trips of old then you know exactly what I am talking about. School bus drivers seem to think that they have been entrusted with matters of top-level national security. They make a show of talking over their radios to the other drivers, and they fiddle importantly with all the lights that deck the outside. In elementary school you most likely had assigned seats which, let's face it, is going just a little bit too far down power trip alley. And during the rides it did not matter if there was a line of cars a quarter mile long, they were a school bus and had the right to do it. They were not only carrying a bus load of children but seemingly the nuclear football as well. Though I never saw any evidence, what else could give someone that amount of self-important pride?

Meanwhile there I am, more often then not when I worked the 3 o'clock shift, stuck behind this leviathan as it stops at every single side street. I didn't matter that I was now late for work, I had to wait my turn and count myself lucky to have sacrificed in service to my country. God forbid you pull over every once in a while and release the dam you have made yourself, no. They are a school bus and they have the right. They do not even try to expedite the process either, they seem to always have all the time in the world. Once the kid is off the bus there is the inevitable lag of 10-15 seconds or so before they get moving again. Ten to fifteen seconds is not a big deal one time, no. But every single street, come on!

Luckily, now as I work at 11am on Saturday mornings, this is no longer a problem for me. But a recurrence this morning brought back all these old bitter feelings.

So there you are...school buses.

Justin Time...To Wait

2008-09-03T14:15:00.001-04:00

Well I guess this story starts back on last Friday night when Justin's got pulled over and his car summarily got towed. Justin did not have a current registration you see. So on Monday he's talking about how he needs to go to the DMV on Tuesday but doesn't have a ride. So I, being the good friend that I am, offer to drive Justin there (for a favor to be named later). Just kidding.

So Justin calls me on Tuesday having supposedly spent all morning making calls to the right kind of people. I drive to his house around 1:30 and pick him up and we make it to DMV and get out little number ticket (D648, yes...I still remember it) at exactly 2:12pm. Only I look up to the little display thing and they are already somewhere in the D780 range, hmmm. But after about 30 minutes of waiting the counter resets back to D600, lucky us.

Now I'm sitting in DMV with nothing to do, Justin has his cell phone out, the girl next to me has hers out, the guy next to Justin has his out, as do the people in front of us. So, naturally I pull out my cell phone to try and blend in, only to remember that the most interesting thing I can do is look up different currency conversions, fun. Meanwhile Justin is watching all kinds of interesting TV shows and the girl next to me is texting so fast that her thumbs are blurred. It was around this time, about 3:15, that I started cursing Justin's timing in all this. The Tuesday after a holiday, and there are so many people there that I start to wonder if I'm missing out on something really interesting happening.

But, as 4:00 rolled around D648 finally got called and me and Justin became the type of people that others waiting in line really like. Why? Because it took as long as asking Justin his license plate number before the lady informs him that he has delinquent taxes in Farmington that he needs to pay off first. He asks why he wasn't told this when he called earlier, (I told him that he should just be proud he actually got a human on the line) only to get the response, "That's not our department." So Justin immediately starts packing up his pile of paperwork as both I and the lady behind the counter are laughing at him. On our walk back to the car I'm still laughing as Justin is re-tallying the total cost of his little pull-over. He did apologize for wasting my time, but let's face it, my time's not that valuable, and I told him it was all worth it.

His one saving grace though was the "quick pass" he got to avoid another 1:45 minutes in line, though it was only good for that day and the next. What a day, now just imagine if government ran health care too. Ugh.

It Starts...

2008-09-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

And thus begins my foray into blogging, yes, I am now officially one of "those people". On this blog I will now reveal to you all of my deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings... Well, hopefully it doesn't come to that, I don't think I'll be that starved for material.

Anyway, for my first entry I am going to write about...Cody. Why Cody you ask, well because he is the first thing I looked at just now. Me and him have been hanging out all morning, with nothing to do today besides chauffeur Justin around and await the delivery of Season 3 of Prison Break later on tonight, I have resorted to writing this to no one, and, I suppose, everyone.

Anyway Cody has been following me around the house all day, he's like my little dog shaped shadow. He is constantly around me except when he is getting into something. If there is a suspicious lack of Cody for any significant amount of time it's time to check the laundry basket. It's like a veritable buffet of toys, or so he thinks. Like when I arrived home last night it was to find Kiko, Kristina's stuffed Koala bear, on the living room floor with it's pants down, hmm. This is neither where or how I left the bear, and there was a mysterious spot on the butt that was devoid of any fur. I found the missing fur only a few feet away (not very inspired Cody) and tried to put it back, kind of like replacing a divot on the golf course, so that "you-know-who" wouldn't find out. And I guess by reading this the cat's out of the bag, or dog in this case...bummer.

You know, I'm just as interested as you are to see how long this pointless rambling can go on. Hopefully in the future I'll have something a little more interesting for you to read about. Tune in next time to hear about some of the strange goings-on around Colony Street.