20 Questions Tuesdasy: the apology

Sorry, folks. NO 20 Questions today. Both kids are snotty beyond belief and will take active parenting to keep them asleep. Send non-stuffed up and sleepy thoughts to the kiddos.

I have a good assortment of questions in the queue about the topic "Myths and Legends" that I will have to table until next week. Cheers. I hope everyone else is not having to deal with illness or deal with family with illness.

12 Things

So, yesterday was mine and Wifey's 12th anniversary. Yep we are working on a baker's dozen in matrimony. So today is 12 things about our marriage.

Thing the First:
You always have my back... even when you are dragging me kicking and screaming... I am not sure how you do it, yet you do do it.... I said "do do."

Thing the Second:
Our musical tastes have converged over time... don't get me wrong she still is all about Ani DiFranco and I still listen to Tool, but there are waaaaay more similarities now

Thing the Third:
Only since Q was born have we had "assigned" sides to the bed. When we kick Q out of the bed, I imagine those assignments will be done with as well.

Thing the Fourth:
I cook and she bakes... I can whip things up in the kitchen, but she is much better at the measured success that is necessary for baking.

Thing the Fifth:
Sorry, Capt McArmypants, but you were supplanted as my best friend soon after Wifey and I started dating.

Thing the Sixth:
Our marriage has so far outlived one of the marriage cats.

Rest in Peace, Lenny

Thing the Seventh:
Since being married we have lived in 3 different places all within about 5 blocks of each other.

Thing the Eighth:
She likes to bathe in the evening and I like to shower in the morning... that worked great until we had kids, no the bathing is catch as we can.

Thing the Ninth:
We have reached a tipping point in the marriage, from no one we will have been married with kids longer than without kids. Yikes!

Thing the Tenth:
I really feel like it is only going to get better. We are on the cusp of greater stuff, babe!

Thing the Eleventh:
Little Man and Q are the best things ever.

Thing the Twelfth:
I am the luckiest bastard ever, and there are throngs, throngs I tell you, of people willing to corroborate that story.


To recap:
Q seems to like the turkey bacon
I feel kind of like I am betraying bacon
I'm sorry bacon, you just have too much un-health in you
This post was harder than I thought it would be
It is difficult to come up with 12 things about a relationship, that aren't just about the partner
Listening to Tainted Love by Soft Cell... on purpose

3 Things

Okay, so I didn't post at all last week. Big deal. I had nothing to say anyway...

So since the week before last I am sure you think that there have been at least 3 things that have occurred. You are partially right. There have been more than three things, but, due to my lack of mental acuity, I will be hard pressed to remember 3.

Thing the First: I had to drop someone off my friends list in Facebook. "Whaaaaat?" you ask with you mouth agape and knuckles on the floor. Firstly, The guy was someone who graduated the year before me from my high school in Alabama, and well, I am not quite sure what his take on Facebook was all about. And secondly, You seem more troglodytic than would have thought. "Mouth agape and knuckles on the floor," you should evolve enough to be ashamed of yourself.

Anyhoo... I feel that maybe I should mention my own Facebook etiquitte. You see, to me, "friends" on Facebook are the equivalent of people I might recognize on the street or have some passing knowledge of on the Internets. If I recognize the name and I get a friend invite, I will most likely accept. It is no skin off my back and typically It is something that doesn't really get in the way. Sure there are people in real life whom I have "friended" in Facebook yet don't want to EVER speak to face to face, but that is the beauty of Facebook. It means absolutely nothing.

So, I am sure you are wondering why I would "defriend" someone on Facebook. Well, I didn't think I had any reason to do that until this guy. Now I know that I am not going to agree politically with everyone I have ever met in real life and digitally, and, furthermore, I am not some naif waif that thinks that all smart people think like I do. So it doesn't really bother me when FB friends spout something political with which I don't necessarily agree. The issue is that this guy was using his status setting to link to internets articles that agreed with his particular political viewpoints... about every 5 minutes. I just got tired of reading his status updates. That and he ate babies. Seeing as how I am currently in possession of a baby, I felt that I should not associate with him anymore, even this cursorily.

Thing the Second: We got new family portraits done. That is for Digital Thursday, bitches!

Thing the Third: Today was Little Man's first day of the Kindergarten. It was a rough day on Mama and Papa, but Little Man did not seem any worse for the wear. He is kind of a cold fish that way. No one can prepare you as a parent for the conflicting emotions that occur whenever there is a threshold event in your child's life. Needless to say, Mama and Papa are both very proud of how far Little Man has come, but we are also devastatingly aware that he is no longer our baby boy.

To recap:
Disney bought out Marvel Comics
Don't know whether the Mouse owning Spiderman is a good thing or a bad thing
I think these temporary breaks from the blog are good
I am still jobless, but at least I have some small contract work to keep me moving
I will divulge more about that as the product gets stronger
But not until then...
20 Questions Tuesday is up again tomorrow
listening to The Outsider by A Perfect Circle

Vacation

The problem with posting to my blog in the evening is that I am rather burnt out by the time I get around to typing anything. All day long ideas float through my head about what I should post about, but they flit though my consciousness like a good metaphor that you cannot remember. (How is that for meta-metaphoring?)

Anywho… I am back in good old Central Ohio and happily sleeping in my own bed. The place that the fam stayed was a nice place, but, truth be told, the beds were meant to be slept on for only 3 days in a row. Everything after 3 seemed to cause mighty back aches in myself and Wifey.

This being a Monday, I feel I should invoke a number of “things” to mention to my 3 loyal readers since I have been doing “3 Things” and “4 Things” posts on Mondays for a while, but I have decided to askew that tradition and just give a quick wrap-up on the vacation that was.

The family and I went to the South Coast of Nova Scotia and stayed just east of picturesque Mahone Bay at Oak Island Resort. For the first 4 days or so, Wifey was earning the money while I school-marmed the kids. This school-marming included going to multiple grocery stores in search of allergen free foods and keeping the kids in general good spirits until Wifey could release her shackles of employed obligation and join the family on our Nova Scotian “Holiday.”

So on Wednesday afternoon with a full compliment of Family we went to Lunenburg (or Lunenverg as Little Man liked to call it) for dinner. Between that Wednesday afternoon and Sunday Morning we went to a small little beach with a friend’s kids (some of the pics from last post), the Ovens (sea caves), 2 hours of Splash Bomb with TheMikeStand and his kids (the final score was something like kids = 40 and dads = bunny, needless to say the kids won the 24th Oak Island Urn), a birthday trip for Little Man (who is now 6) on the Historic LeHave Cable Ferry, some time at Rissers Beach, and some hanging out the fam we saw on Thursday. In a word, it was awesome.

To recap:
Had a great time, but glad to be back home
Gone for 8 days and there were only 2 voicemails on the home phone
1 was a paid political announcement
We are just not that popular
Only 2 voicemails on my cell phone
1 was from my mom
I am just not that popular
20 Questions Tuesday is back tomorrow
Listening to the near constant hum of the baby monitor

2nd Dinner?

I just tried to talk with Wifey and Q started to rouse. This is the big problem of living in a hotel room with your kids. There is no opportunity for conversation about how the vacation should be going in the evening when both kids are supposed to be sleeping. To get that kind of separation we would need two rooms, and even when I was working with a paycheck we could not afford a 2 room suite.

The night time is the time when Wifey and I are typically able to de-brief about the days events in the night time. That is the time when we become a unified team and an unassailable front. Sadly, we have not had that opportunity this entire international endeavor. Hopefully tomorrow night we can have that time.

It looks like the fam will have 2, count them, 2 international play dates. Tomorrow we will potentially be building sandcastles with one of Wifey’s friends and his 2 kids. Does he have a name? Of course he does... there are those who call him Tim.

Then on Friday it looks like the Family of SRH will be spending some time with Famiglia del TheMikeStand for some awesome Lunenburg action.

Through out this entire entry writing process Little Mna has been complaining about not being able to get to sleep. Keep in mind that he has tried nothing and is all out of ideas, so don’t feel too bad for him.

To recap:
The whole family is now awake and eating a new dinner
Except for me
Now I feel hungry though
Listening to the 3 of them smack their lips like hyenas on the Serengeti
I could eat a gnu
Or even a wildebeast

20 Questions Tuesday: 140 - Vacation 2009

Here it is Tuesday again, so I guess I should come up with some questions. It is an odd process to come up with 20 questions for myself around this vacation.

So, thanks this week to me. That’s right ME! On to the questions...

1. So, how is Canada treating you?
I think I am doing just fine with the hospitality of my international neighbor (or neighbour, as it were) to the North.

2. So what do you miss most about the US?
Ok, there are a few different things. The first is US channels. Not because of anything missing in Canadian TV as much as it is about the familiarity with US TV. The second is the food brands. Grocery shopping here has been a bit of an adventure because of the different brands and more importantly, the missing brands from the US. The third things is the portion size. No wonder Canadians are typically less obese than their American counterparts. he portions sizes here just leave me hungry.

3. What has been the most challenging this so far on this vacation?
So far, I would say it is getting Q alseep without a rocking chair. I will have abs of steel by the end of this trip.

4. Seen any bears?
Do you mean the “gay guy” kind of “bear” or the “I like salmon” kind of “bear?”

5. Hey, I am asking the questions here!
Well, then, you should be more specific.

6. Okay answer both, smart guy!
You aren’t the boss of me, but I will answer both anyway. “Maybe” and “no”

7. How about moose?
How about moose?

8. Yes, have you seen any moose?
Nope, nor any mounties. In fact, I have not seen any kind of law enforcement since I got out of the airport. If it were not for the excursion to Wal-Mart yesterday I would say this is a lawless frontier town populated by really polite people.

9. Even though it was established in 1754, you think of it as a frontier town?
Well, it is kind of a frontier of the East of North America...

10. So, how long have you been an idiot?
Was that even called for?

11. Was that even called for? Yes, it was called for, you dunderhead. Frontier of the East or North America? What kind of crap is that?
I was just trying to answer your insipid question. Couldn’t you have sent an email call for questions?

12. Seriously, who is asking the questions here?
I thought you were. Aren’t you?

13. I thought I was too, but you seem to be asking a bunch as well. So, why didn’t you send a “20 Questions Tuesday Round-Up?”
I was not sure what a good topic would be, or how long I would have to write articulate responses.

14. Why should you start worrying about articulate responses now?
Har dee har har, smart ass. I always try to bring the articulate.

15. So, how is the bed time routine working out?
Horribly. LIttle Man cannot sleep because Q is not ready to sleep just yet. It is a bad situation that seems to be deteriorating.

16. So what are you gonna do with the rest week when Wifey is done with her 3 days of work?
I think we will still stay around on the Southshore area and look for the Oak Island Treasure. Tha treasure, she will be mine.

17. So anything that still needs to be figured out for the fam on this trip?
We just need to figure out a ferry ride for Little Man now that we aren’t going to PEI.

18. How is Little Man’s ear doing, by the way?
It looks like it will be healing up nicely. There will be a bit of scarring, but I don’t think it will be bad at all.

19. Do you need some caffeine as bad as I do?
Do bears poop in the woods?

20. Do you mean the “gay guy” kind of “bear” or the “I like salmon” kind of “bear?”
touche


To recap:
We are trying to figure out some birthday extravagances for Little Man
He will turn 6 on Saturday
We are trying to figure out how to have Q’s 2nd birthday in Nova Scotia and Wifey’s next birthday here as well
It only seems fitting
Listening to the kids finally fall asleep
I get my partner in crime back tomorrow afternoon
I define “crime” as “parenting” in this case

3 Things

So, I am up here in Nova Scotia at Oak Island Resort and Spa serving as the primary childcare while Wifey works her fingers to the bone with her Talk Fu. So a few things have happened that need to be mentioned. Three in fact.

Thing the first:
Traveling with 2 younguns is still difficult to say the least. The whole traveling part is difficult, but when you add in the 2 hour delay on the tarmac in Toronto, it gets a whole bunch hairier. An air conditioner unit needed replaced (a repair that did not show up until after the plane had been shut and the intro movie was played). Cue an hour and a half of maintenance and paper work. This was followed promptly by the flight crew realizing that they could not legally fly due to an impending overage in consecutive flight hours if they carried on with the continuation from Halifax to London. So we had to wait for 15 minutes for another flight crew to make there way to gate 140, and then another 15 minutes for them to do all their pre-flight stuff.

This delay brings up 2 questions. Question the First: Is there any way they could have done the air conditioner check prior to closing the plane up? It is much more reasonable to have a 2 hour delay in the concourse than in the plane itself. Question the Second: a 2-hour delay threw these pilots over the edge of they acceptable hours? I have circled cities for 2 hours before. How razor close was their schedule?

Thing the Second: Great googly moogly Mahone Bay is picturesque as hell! the fog lifted Sunday morning and I was pretty much dumb struck by the place. I will hopefully have some pictures later.

Thing the Third: While I am not really happy with the infiltration of the big box stores into more "pristine" retail enviornmnets, you always know what you can get at Wal-Mart. Doesn't matter where in the world you are, if you need diapers and pool toys, you know that Wal-Mart hjas your back. Now in the US you also know that you can find a cure for your low self esteem by people watching the knuckle dragging troglodytes that frequent the Mart of Wal. I am well groomed, polite, and in shape when I am at Wal-Mart... in the US!

In this Wal-Mart found in this maritime province I git none of that I am doing pretty well for myself feeling. The "dream-low" benchmark was gone. So, not only do I feel like an ass because I gave money to a soul-killing retail virus, I also didn't get the smug sense of self-satisfaction that I so need and enjoy.

To recap:
I have a blinding headache here
I think it has either something to do with the weather or the maritime
Still jobless
Little Man is about to lose one of his upper front teeth
He is insanely close to it falling out
I will do something 20- Questions-ish tomorrow
Listening to the sonorous slumbersong of my sleeping family

20 Questions Tuesday: 137 - Q is Turning 1

Here it is. My second kid’s birthday week. Yikes. She is going to be 1 in 2 days. AAACK

Today’s 20 Questions is about this momentous occasion. Thanks this week go to ACW, Capt. McArmypants, Riley, Dr B-Dawg, and Some Other Guy. On to the questions!


1. The kid’s school year has passed by so quickly – much quicker than usual. Do you think it might have something to do with the other distractions we have in our lives (work, activities, news stories etc)?
I think it has to do with pure percentages. One year to me is only about 2.86% of my life where when I was 10 it was 10% or a whapping 20% when I was 5 or 100% when I was 1. As I get older, the perception of time speeds up.

2. It’s amazing how the kids can get older and you don’t – isn’t it?
It is a pretty interesting phenomenon at that.

3. “What a difference a day makes” – lame slogan or what?
I am intrigued… I will go with the "or what?"

4. NO STRAWBERRIES!!?
’Tis true, she is allergic to strawberries now.

5. What about blackberries?
Haven’t tried them yet. We are avoiding most multi-seeded fruits right now due to the strawberry thing.

6. Talkin yet? Any first words? Likely candidates for first words?
Tonight she said “mama” much to the delight of a certain mama.

7. What would she want as a birthday present if she could talk?
She is into taking things out of one container and putting them in another container. So two wide mouth jars and a collection of something she cannot choke on. But that is what i am getting her, so you are on your own.

8. What is the biggest personality difference between her and Little Man?
She is way more independent. Way. More.

9. Do you get annoyed at how often people say things like “Oh, wow, is she already hitting the big day??? Where does the time go?”
It is a bit annoying, just because it reminds me of the events that are never going to happen again.

10. Biggest difference between her first year and Little Man's first year?
We have another child to deal with as well. When you only have one, you can sleep when they do in the early days.

11. Any expectations of her second year?
I have decided to not expect anything, except to have a job. I will have a job, Damnit!

12. Do you plan on getting a present for Little Man on her birthday so he doesn't feel jealous/left out?
He is super excited for it to be HER birthday. I think he might get a bit flummoxed if we tried to give him anything significant. That being said, I think we are going to try and give him his favorite foods in celebration of her birthday.

13. Did you know June 4th is also Old Maid's Day? What do you make of that?
Well, Q can be pissed at the OB-GYN who scheduled her birth then.

14. How many different of sizes of clothes does a 0 to 1 year-old pass through?
Typical kids will go through 4 to 7 different sizes. Q went through premie, newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, and is in 9-12. Most kids are larger than Q and would also be in the 12-18’s but most likely skip the premie.

15. How disappointed is Q by the fact that she has not seen the advent of the flying car in her lifetime?
She has a lot of lifetime left and is not giving up hope. She is just sooo naive.

16. Are you surprised by Q's aforementioned high expectations of how fast technological innovations should be occurring, despite being only one year old? That is a lot pressure your daughter is putting on society already. I don't want to tell you how to raise your child, but you might want to work on that. Seriously.
If you don’t push society it will only stagnate. You should be happy that she is un-happy with the status quo. If we have taught her anything it is to keep the fork out of her eye, but if we teach her something else, it will be that the status should not be quo.

17. So, why didn't we let the car companies fail?
Because so many ancillary industries depended on their existence.

18. What do you see in the upcoming year for the family?
Lots and lots of poopy diapers.

19. Explain 1 in set theory.
This is from my faulty memory of a class I did not get a stellar grade in. Well, it all goes back to the null set. The set that has no members. 0 is described as the null set and 1 would be the power set of the null set which is the null set and a set containing the null set. Therefore a set that contains the null set and another member ergo 1. QED. It is a bit circular, but much of set theory is.

20. Sheesh! I was kidding. You are a freak. I weep for your children.
I weep for them when they have friends over. So will they...


To recap:
1 on Thursday
Wifey’s Mom gets some surgery tomorrow, so positive thoughts and prayers are appreciated
Nothing scary, but necessary
I have some work to get done before a meeting tomorrow
It might get me some contract work, so’s I got’s to get
Listening to The Beast and the Dragon, Adored by Spoon

3 Things

There are 3 things to go over today.

Thing the First:
Q is turning 1 on Thursday. It seems like just yesterday that I got to meet Q, so how can it be that she will be a whole year old on this Thursday? People who have mentioned how fast one’s perception of time increases when they have more than one child are woefully inadequate at the description of the bending of space and time around multiple children. It is hard to concept that Little Man has been around long enough for us to pay off a 30 month loan much less that the new kid in the house has been here long enough for her lease to go month-to-month.

Thing the Second:
Did I mention that my second child has been in this world a year on Thursday? I mean really, it was just a few days ago that she started to like me. How can she be a year old? Seriously. How could there have been duration of 289,898,835,498,720,000 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom? “How?” I ask you?

Thing the Third:
No, Seriously. The girl is going to be 1 in less than 3 days. WTF? I have a near 6 year old and a near 1 year old. What is up with that?!?!? If it were not for the calendar we would be celebrating her 100 days of being in Casa del SRH. Sure she would be mighty advanced for a 3.5 month old, but that is the amount of time that she has been here. So shut up.

To recap:
Time is a fickle harlot
Q took her first steps on Friday
Pretty advanced for a 3.5 month old
She is also on the verge of speaking rather coherently
20 Questions Tuesday will be about the passing of a year
Listening to Little Man whine about not getting to watch Youtube vids

Sick Baby

Okay, Q is snuffly and all congested, so I will not be giving any attention whatsoever to 20 Questions today. I know it is hard to deal with, but, please persevere as best you can.

To recap:
Q being sick = short non-interesting post
Just a normal everyday ailment
Nothing swiny or fluey about it
Hopefully I will have more to post tomorrow
That is, if she is not even more sick

Belated, but only a little bit

I am usually the last person awake in the happy SRH household. Little Man and Q both go down around 8 or 8:30 and Wifey follows around 10 or 11. So I figured that I would get to this post on the 7th instead of after midnight on the morning of the 8th.

Little Man had a rougher than usual night getting to sleep at a late late 9:30. He has a bit of an asthma flare up going on. He seems to get one around this time or a few week later than this every year. It will pass, but there will be much coughing before all is said and done.

I have gotten Q to sleep three times this evening and Wifey has gotten her to sleep once. Q is taking up most of the night tonight and I am rather tired of rocking the little girl, even though she is amazingly cute.

Since it is still the 7th at least in Central, Mountain and Pacific Time Zones I am counting it as still being the 7th.

Happy birthday, Wifey. I had a wonderful day with you today at the BMV renewing your tags, at the grocery store getting your birthday meal ingredients (NY Strip, Baked Potato, and Broccoli, for those of you keeping score). I enjoyed chatting with you all day long and loved the I've-Got-to-Walk-This-Steak-Off stroll that we took after the meal.

I love you and am proud to be married to you, so Happy Birthday to you, albeit a bit belated due to family circumstances. Even as I type I am doing so with an annoyingly awake Q on my lap. Darn babies.

To recap:
Happy Birthday, Sweetheart
That has a different meaning if you accidentally misspell "Sweetheart"
Happy Birthday, Sweatheart
See?
Baby not asleep
And potentially pooping while sitting on my lap
Thank you diapers for your poop-catching majesty
Boy in asthma flare up
I need to give him a breathing treatment in a few minutes
Not sure how to do that with Q awake and slowly defecating
I was going to digitally alter a pic of Wifey all artistic-like but I can't do that with a baby on my lap
So no "Digital Thursday" this week
Listening to The White Stripes Seven Nation Army
Have a great weekend all

3 Levels

Well, this weekend was a sobering trip. The fam went up to Northeast Ohio and visited my lone remaining grandparent while she was in hospice. That’s right, hospice. She most likely only has a few more days. There is a sadness of three levels that I am going to mention here on the blog.

Sadness level 1:
It is my grandma, and I am sad for her passing. It is difficult to see someone you care for, however much or however little pass on. It is more difficult to see someone you care for more have to deal with this process when they are unwilling/incapable to deal with it. This has been a struggle for my mom. She is not having a graceful time of this and I wish that things were easier on her through this process of losing her mom.

Sadness level 2:
It is hard to see someone less vibrant. No matter who it is, less vibrance is a sad thing to see.

Sadness level 3:
I recognize that there is a problem with my familial relations that it is incumbent upon me to rectify. Some background. My nuclear family is not a close family, therefore my extended family should more likely be referred to as my very-loosely-knit-through-some-kind-of-DNA association. With grandma’s passing the binds that draw these disparate groups of similar DNA together will dissolve nearly completely. That which society considers my extended family will cease to interact.

My mom will most likely not talk much to her bothers anymore. Aside from the odd occasional Christmas Card, I imagine there will not be any significant contact between cousins at all. The cousins will drift away from each other and that which is the extended family will cease to be. All that will be left is the not closeness of my nuclear family.

I need to make my nuclear family closer, and I am the only one who can do that.

On to something more enjoyable about the weekend trip.

When no one else was watching and I was holding my dying grandma’s hand, she looked at me and asked through her labored breathing an occasional aching moans in a voice barely above a wisper…

“Have you found a new job yet?”

Thanks a bunch grandma. I will miss you.

To recap:
There is nothing to recap
20 Questions Tuesday tomorrow is an interview with Riley from the soon to be insanely popular All Rileyed Up

Ailment

Both Little Man and Q are sick today. More to the point they were both sick last night and this morning.

The really crappy part was that Little Man was still sick this morning and today at preschool was going to be the day that he could bring things in for his alphabet show and tell circle that started with the letter "T."

T as in TRAIN.

There was much weeping this morning. T Day is is favorite show and tell day because he can show them his trains.

To recap:
There are both doing better today, but still on the mend
Little Man has rebounded a bit more than Q, but I think his fever is hovering just out of site... waiting to pounce
Hopefully they will both be better tomorrow
Now I have to figure out something for dinner
No new job prospects as of yet
Still betwixt and between books
Listening to Wifey and the kids playing upstairs

4 Down

The Christmas Holiday was great. Little Man was out of his mind happy. Q was suitably impressed with the comings and goings. Wifey was pleased with the events and their happenings. Mim was excited by how much love and warmth there was around the household. I was grateful for all the thought and energy that had gone into the gifts that I received. We were all basking in the glow of Christmas love and affection.

It was amazing. By the end of Christmas Dinner, the house was not in bad shape. We had most (aside from 2 baking sheets) of the dishes clean. This includes the Christmas Eve meal dishes and the dishes necessary to make the feast that was Christmas Dinner. The recyclables had been gathered together and still take up waaaay too much of the office. Most everything was ready to be put away where its awayness belonged. All was pristine and well within festive Chez SRH.

Then the vomiting began. It has been an amazing weekend at Casa Del SRH. I did not realize just how bad it could get with 4 people ill at the same time. Wow… The fam is slowly recovering. It seems that Little Man had a bug of some sort on Tuesday of last week which got worse on Christmas Evening and then again Saturday morning. Friday and Saturday was all about Wifey and me being ill, and the entire time Q was fussy and difficult. We think Q was spared the brunt of it because Wifey was steadily feeding her antibodies and allowing her to leech any and all vitamins and minerals from her already depleted system. Go Wifey!

The fam is still a bit under the weather. Our bellies are all starting to be less ungracious to hosting more food.

Needless to say, it was a great holiday season.

To recap:
Saturday’s weather was beautiful
High of 67°F (19.4°C) in late December?
WTF?
Wifey and I both enjoyed it by staying inside and shivering under blankets and running to and from the bathroom
That’s how we roll in Casa Del SRH
Tomorrow’s 20 Questions will be about New Year’s Resolutions

Digital Thursday

For today's Digital Thursday I want to show off some of the photo shoot that we did with franzphotography for the family. It was primarily Little Man's 5th birthday shoot (although they were taken a month after his birthday), but the whole fam got involved. Me and Little Man with are pirate faces

Wifey and Little Man
Q with an Elvis collar
It seems from this picture that Wifey actually likes me? I know... WTF?
Me and Q
The Family
The Family again


Little Man hopping
An innocent Little Man
Wifey and Q
A meeting of the minds
Happy Q

To recap:
Just got word from Wifey... we have cable TV and Phone... can the Internets be far away?
The photographer who took these shots is a great guy
I should make more of an effort to hang out with him
There are a few other local people I need to make more of an effort with
When I get home I will re-attach the pics so they can be embiggened
*EDIT* oooh it looks like I can already click for embiggination!
Had a cracking good sinus headache when I woke up this morning
Listening to Strangers in the Night by Cake off ofB-Sides and Rarities
Have a great weekend everyone

3 Things

Oh, there are many a thing to tell from the weekend that was, I will instead only focus on three of them.

Thing the first: And They Call the Wind Maria: So it was a bit windy last night. By a “bit windy” I of course mean quite windy. There are quite a few trees down in the ‘hood and there is a good possibility that the fam will be without the power for a few days. The good thing is that we had not gone grocery shopping yet. We need to do laundry, buy groceries, and pay our bills electronically. I hope we are back online sooner rather than later.

Little Man was pretty freaked out by the power being off… not necessarily the wind storm itself. More to the point he was “scared” because he couldn’t play his new Diego based Wii game. He also might be kind of freaked out by the big ass tree that was knocked down onto a car down the street from us and watching the other tree split into thirds down the street from us. These are just guesses though.

Thing the second: Mom and Dad: Beyond the Thunderdome: My parents were going to pass through last night and have dinner with us prior to driving 2 more hours closer to their home. Well, they decided with the massive winds going on that it would be better to spend the night in Columbus and travel more today instead of part-way last night. This morning they decided to curtail their visit with the fam in order to travel get the HELL OUTTA DODGE!! I swear the looks on their faces made me think that they were uncomfortable in our lawless anarchy ridden post-apocalyptic war-zone. SWEET JEBUS THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS AREN”T WORKING!

Thing the Third: Hot Fresh Now: Little Man consumed his first food item that included egg in it’s preparation with no ill affects. We have been dairy-ing him up for a while now, yesterday he had his first taste of something with egg as an ingredient. He had no reaction other than wondering when we could “go to the store and get some when they are HOT FRESH NOW.”

To recap:
Driving to work today was like walking on glass
I had to help a poor bicyclist across the street
His heart was racing like a coke-addicted rabbit
A bicyclist trying to negotiate a 6 lane intersection where the drivers did not understand that they needed to treat it like a stop-sign
I almost said, “Grab onto my bumper and I will drag you to freedom”
Instead I said, “Stay close and follow me”
I am a super-hero
In my own mind
If it is only in my mind… why am I wearing a costume?

11+

This weekend Wifey and I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss. Bliss, DAMNIT! BLISS! So, in honor of those 11+ years now I give you 11 facts about our marriage in no particular order.

1. We do not have a “side” of the bed. We switch sides regularly or we fight over the middle and make the other sleep somewhere else. It is good that I am bigger than her. It is bad that I sleep more soundly.

2. Both of us regularly cook meals for the fam. It is not only one person’s chore.

3. She fills the dishwasher and I empty it. She hates putting dishes away while I hate filling the dishwasher. It is a yin to yang thing. We complete each other.

4. We both strongly feel that committed relationships are serious work.

5. Both of us have a disdain for most things reality T.V. I shall not mention the guilty pleasures in the realm of reality TV. We need to keep some level of Internet respect here.

6. We are both totally and completely who we are in the marriage. No apologies given and none are expected.

7. She is both hotter and smarter than me. But I am white and a man, so I guess it evens out there.

8. Over time she has migrated from being a night owl to being a morning person. I blame the kids…. Darn kids.

9. We love traveling with each other. But rarely make the effort to have it happen.

10. My love of bacon is
only equaled by her distrust (yes, distrust. She is quirky. That is why I like her) of the breakfast meat. Together we are a circle without beginning or end.

11. One of our favorite pastimes is good-natured making fun of each other. It is good-natured, right?

To recap:
Wedded Bliss! DAMNIT! BLISS!!!
Not sure what we are having for dinner tonight
Found a recipe for dairy-free/soy-free margarine
Flieschmann’s Light Unsalted is no longer dairy AND soy-free
Bastards
The recipe involves palm oil shortening, xanthum gum, yellow food coloring, and love
Listening to One Way or Another by Blondie