As my birthday gift, Suzy gave me (us) a night away at a local inn. It was a "romance package". It was great!!

The room was great. It was a 2 story loft, with the bedroom (king bed) on the loft. Jacuzzi tub, wooded view and very nicely decorated. Also, there were chocolates and a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us.

First, we started with an hour long full body massage. This was the first time I've ever had a massage, aside from maybe a trainer during my wrestling days. This was much different than that! :-) I was honestly a bit tense, and spent about 1/4 of the time thinking "She's getting pretty close to my junk". But, overall it was great, and I was super relaxed when it was over. I'd probably do it again, but skip any upper thigh stuff.

After some relaxing, we headed off to dinner. The inn has a very nice restaurant. It's a top-notch restaurant for the area, in fact. Dinner was fantabulous, and we ate way too much. The room we ate in had the fireplace going, great lighting, and a great atmosphere.

The next morning, after breakfast, we came back home. It was truly a great night, and it was very nice to be away without "being away".

It's Kevmas Eve!

Had a great Xmas. Great time xmas eve with dinner, games and some gifts. And a great xmas itself. Kyla actually cried when she opened the Wii, she was so happy. And, of course, the micro-helicopter she didn't want, she ended up playing with all day long.

I will say that probably the best thing was my grandfather (about to turn 89 on the 1st) coming over, and playing the Wii. He bowled 4 or 5 games, and it was so fun to watch. I can't remember the last time I saw him so involved and smiling in any games we've played. He even seemed to get ahang of the remote. That was truly fun to watch, and I hope he comes over to play it again.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Until Kevmass!

Top 5 reasons why Kevmass is better than Christmas:

1. I'm still alive!
2. My birthday is ACTUALLY IN December.
3. 2 extra shopping days.
4. You don't have to go to church.
5. You only need to buy gifts for one person!

I had a great weekend in the city visiting Alan. It was great to spend some time with him after not seeing eachother for 5 or so years. We had a great time, and did a LOT of walking. I told him before I came that he'd see a lot of the city, and that surely happened. I'm looking forward to going down there to visit again, and for him to make it up here to visit as well.

Just a couple photos. My digital camera's batteries are basically dead, so I only had my camera phone. Firstly, as we were walking we noticed this written on a car in the snow. It just goes to show how much NYC loves me, and was happy I was there.

Here is the tree at Rockefeller Center. Which, I'll have you know, we walked to from the southern tip of Manhattan.

And, here is Alan any myself. Or, Nanook and myself. I'll also note that if you want various street vendors and bums to talk to you, wear a Guinness shirt.

Kyla did awesome last night at her belt test. Her taegeuk 6 was perfect (twice), great techniques, and she did awesome at sparring, as always. She sparred a boy, who has to have about 30 pounds on her. If they were doing points, she would have won (they just spar during a test, no "winner" or "loser").

So, as of tomorrow, she she be a Purple Belt.

From Saturday:

#1 in sparring (2nd year in a row). Won by a long shot:

#2 in forms (taegeuk 6). She lost by a very small margin. I'm talking about .3! It was a close call:

Congrats Kyla!

Happy Birthday Suzy! (yesterday)

Quit smoking on Fri Sep 7 15:30:00 2007
Days: 19.21
Money saved: $81.83 (based on $4.26/pack)
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 288 (based on 15/day)

Still using the patch, and still would smoke a cig if someone offered me one. But, the urges to have them continue to decline.

So, I've stopped smoking 100 times, so maybe 101 will do it. Last week I called the NY Quits hotline, which gives you a month supply of patches. Today, they arrived and I slapped one on my arm at about 5:30, having my final cigarette (last of the pack) at about 3:15.

I've tried the patch before, and I recall it working ok for me, but I hated the extra vivid dreams. This time, I'll be taking the patch off before bedtime, but I'll leave it on all night for the first few days to hopefully give me an extra "umph".

If I can make it through the month with no super stressful events, maybe I can do it this time. I really hope so, I'm tired of smoking.

While in Old Montreal, I found it quite interesting (and maybe a little sad) that we were surrounded by these beautiful old buildings, and in quite a few windows... bongs. Probably not exactly what the original people architecting the area thought would be there. Also, not exactly what you want to see when walking your kids around. However, a little better than the large neon sign near McGill which has a womans ass in a mans face.

Saturday night we went to a fund raising dinner/silent auction for the SPCA. At first, I was sort of leery when we got there. I guess I was expecting a non-silent auction, and more things. But, it turned out to be a great time. Here's what I won at the auction:

- 2 tickets to Great Escape
- Family 4-pass to Magic Forest
- Chevy Chase autographed photo
- Menina Fortunato autographed photo
- Sofia Milos autographed photo
- The autographed photo of some woman who I don't know the name of, but they said was on Star Trek. I can't make out the name. It looks like Nicole Ryof or something some last name with a 'y'. She looks familiar, and apparently lives in London, since that's where the envelope was from. Here's a photo of it, maybe someone knows exactly who she is:

- An original 'Archie' cartoon, signed. And by 'original' I don't mean cut from the newspaper, it's the original artist drawn/colored cartoon.

In all, great fun and for a good cause.

Last week we took a trip up to Montreal. I hadn't been to that city since high school, and it was cool to go back. It's roughly a 4 hour drive to get there (including the border, and stopping to stretch/pee/get gas), so it's a fairly close place to visit. Also, it's a really nice drive as it goes through the Adirondacks. Once you get into Canada, it's mainly farmland until you hit the metro area.

We did a lot of walking around. Saw the old city, Chinatown, McGill area, Biodome (sadly, no Pauly Shore) and casino.

It was such a good time, and there is so much more to see, and we liked the city so much that Suzy brought up buying a condo up there. Not a bad idea, so I'm looking into it. If anything else, we'll surely be taking another trip up there this year.

Today is my wedding anniversary!

Congrats to Kyla for finishing the 3rd grade yesterday! She did a great job all year.

This week dads (or father figures) can take class with their kids. So, I took class with Kyla yesterday. Now, it's been years since I did martial arts, but I still remember a lot and still have some pretty good form (if I must say so myself).

But, cripes.. it really showed me how out of shape I am. Not that I thought I was in shape, but I was sweating like a hog after about 10 minutes. And, even though I could do all the jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups they threw at me, I am long from the in-shape guy I was when I wrestled and wasn't a dorky computer programmer.. just a dorky wrestler.

But, the class was fun. I kicked Kyla's ass at sparring, she was impressed by me breaking a board with a jumping snap kick, and we had fun together. Time for a "in shape" change for me, I think.

Maybe I'll come up with a "Workout for Sedentary Geeks" routine. If I did a pushup for every line of code I write in a day, I'd be muscle-bound in 3 months!

I'll miss you buddy.

It was a fun (long) day at the tourney. Kyla did great, and I'm very proud of her.

Forms

She took 4th. She really should have taken 3rd. Not that I'm being "that" parent who thinks she deserved to place because she's my kid. She really did deserve 3rd. The boy who got 3rd didn't even do the whole form correctly, and didn't perform it as well as Kyla. The 1st and 2nd did do well. But, she deserved 3rd. I'm proud of her either way for participating.

Breaking

She took 2nd in breaking! This was even after changing her two routine just before she had to perform. Her first routine was a jumping snap kick, then ax kick. And, her second was a side kick, then reverse punch. She wanted to use 2 boards for each technique, but we did 1 instead. There isn't extra point for attempting extra boards, unless you succeed. The boys she was against all failed to break their extra boards (except the kid who got 1st). It's something that can work for, or against you. In either case, she was great and got a well deserved 2nd place for it.

Sparring

1st place!! She kept herself well guarded, and was aggressive. I explained to her that anyone she'd go up against would do 2 things which she could capitalize on:

1. They won't be able to block well. Let's face it, a 8/9 year old can't block very well. So, if she's aggressive, she'll land things since the opponent won't be able to block everything.

2. When they kick, their hands will spread out of their body. This is another thing kids do. They can't always control both their legs and arms at the same time. When they kick, 8 out of 10 times, their body will be left exposed. Perfect time for scoring.

She followed this advice, and won. If she was to take 1st in anything, I'm happy it's sparring. After all, in the street, pieces of wood likely won't attack you, and the statistical probability that a street fight could be fought in the steps of a form is pretty low.

It was a great day, and I'm extremely proud of Kyla. She also now has more medals to go with the others, and her trophy's. Plus, she tests for blue belt in a week.

Kyla has her TKD tourney tomorrow. She'll be competing in forms, board breaking and sparring.

Everyone wish her luck.

Just an action shot (from my phone) of Kyla sparring. And yes, she did connect with that roundhouse.

She spars in a competition this weekend.

Over the weekend we went to a small carnival that's in town. Rode some rides, ate some fried food and walked around. I generally try to avoid the "game" section of these things since they can suck the money out of you quicker than your wife in the mall.

After walking through it once, and somehow spending $10 on some dart game Kyla and Suzy played, winning a wonderful $.50 stuffed seal, I saw a game. I walked up to it, and was trapped. It was a spiral wire, which spun counter-clockwise, and a circle thing you had to get to the bottom of the wire without it touching the wire (if they touched, a load noise went off like the game Operation). If you did it, you won a huge stuffed bear. It was worth a few tries.

Damn, I kept getting close. I kept trying, and handing over my loot. I didn't even care about the bear, I just wanted to beat the game. It was a puzzle, of sorts, and I love puzzles. But, I just couldn't get past the final small turn and get it to the bottom. It beat me.

Damn carnival games.

Kyla got a Tamagotchi for the holidays. The thing seems to need pretty constant attention. So, now that she's back in school I have to babysit the thing. She wrote me 3 pages of instructions for it.

I'm charging her $1 a day for my services :-)

It's here! It's today! Everyone celebrate!

Only a few shopping days left until Kevmasnukka! That's right, just after the Jesus guy has his "let's ruin Kevin's birthday and celebrate mine 2 days before his" holiday, you have a final day of shopping!

I'd like to give a wicked big thanks to Alan for his early Kevmasnukka gift. I love it, and it's been coming in very handy. It was very thoughtful and is appreciated.

If you need any ideas, I'm always happy for gift certificates. Think Geek is always handy so I can refill on my caffeinated mints or a new tshirt. Or, whatever. Or, nothing.. like every year :-P

Anyways.. thanks again Alan. Awesome.

Kyla officially got her Green Belt on Friday.

Kyla and I had a great time in NYC together. Here's a little rundown..

Friday:

We waited at the train station in Saratoga, and the train was about 20 minutes late. No biggie. The train station here is really pretty nice. Once on the train we grabbed our seats, and Kyla plugged in her Nintendo DS. Luckily, there was a power strip all along the wall. The train down follows along the East side of the Hudson, and is a really nice trip (about 3.5 hours to Penn Station). The weather was sunny and warm, which made for nice views out the window. When we went to the food car to get a drink I met a guy named "Chin" (I think it was "Chin", he was sort of hard to understand). He was a very large black dude, dressed like... hmm.. very layered and very colorful. Sort of like a guy from Jamaica dressed for Winter with a huge staff/walking stick (think Mr. Ecko on Lost). And, that's kind of what he was. He told me of his houses in Vermont, and that he's originally from the islands. He also kept calling me "king". FINALLY! Someone recognizes my innate royalty. I talked to him for a bit, then he was getting off in Schenectady.

When we reached Penn Station, we made our way to the street. Penn was pretty crowded. We waited at the taxi stand for about 15 minutes, then hopped in a cab. At this point, Kyla was sort of wide-eyed at all the tall buildings. The cab ride was a typical crazy cab ride. About 30 near accidents, 4 red lights run, and 30 pedestrians almost hit. Kyla was looking out the windows, so I don't think she really noticed how crazy the drive actually was. After a few minutes, we pulled up in front of FAO Schwartz.

At FAO we met my aunt and uncle, as well as Suzannah and Kimberly. Suzannah is my cousins wife, and Kimberly is their daughter (I'm really not sure if there is a relation there, so let's just say my cousins). We walked around FAO for a while, which was fun. We got to play on the large floor piano (from the movie Big), which was cool. Kyla really wanted to do that. We also saw the toy trains, dolls and Lego's. Really cool stuff.

After FAO we walked around a little until we found somewhere where everyone wanted to eat. It ended up being a place called Burger Heaven. We had a nice dinner, some conversation, then headed to the car. The kids talked and stuff, and I mainly looked out the window trying to see the sights. Back at my aunt and uncles house, we watched a little TV, and hit the sack.

Saturday:
Woke up, chatted with my uncle and watched some TV. At FAO we got a Bedlam Cube, which I and Kyla were trying to solve. After a while, we headed out to the city again. Today, we went to the Museum of Natural History. It was great. We went to the butterfly conservatory, saw all the dinosaur bones, mammal exhibits and underwater life exhibits. Kyla really enjoyed it, and so did I.

After a few hours (not nearly enough) at the museum, we headed around the corner to eat. Since the weather was so great, we sat outside and had a really good dinner. Certainly the kind of place I wouldn't regularly go and eat (more fancy than I am), but it was really good. After dinner, we drove down Times Square, SoHo and the Villiage. We then went and parked in China Town, and walked over to Little Italy. Lots of people were out and about enjoying the weather. We found a pastry place, and got some sweets for dessert. YUM. After the sugar kicked in, we walked around China Town for a while, going into the stores, and enjoying the streets. I got myself a Mango Boba, which I discovered on my trip to LA. It wasn't as good as the one in LA, but it was a good treat. Can't find that around here. After a while, we headed back to the house. By then, it was about midnight, and Kyla passed out. I was soon to follow.

Sunday:
Breakfast, talking, good bye's and off to the train station. Kyla and I took the LIRR to Penn Station, then from Penn back up here. Another good train ride to finish off an excellent long weekend.

There is still so much to show Kyla in NYC, and so much I want to do that I haven't in years. It was wonderful spending time with my aunt and uncle, and I'm happy that Kyla and Kimberly got along well. NYC was pretty much how I remembered, with people moving about, lots of cars (and honking), and tons of things to see and do. Knowing the train ride is pretty good to get there, I'm sure we will head down more often.

Tonight, Kyla tests for her green belt. There is no question about her passing.

I'm pretty excited. I'm taking Kyla down to NYC for the weekend. We are staying with my aunt and uncle, which makes it double-nice as I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Not exactly sure all we'll be doing, but I want to make sure I take Kyla to the FAO Schwartz Museum [1] and the Museum of Natural History. Then, Central Park, China Town and whatever else we can fit in. This will be her first real "city" experience.

[1] When I was a kid, my uncle told me FAO was a museum, since I wanted a lot of stuff, and everything is expensive.

Realized I hadn't put up any pics of the finished exterior of the house. Here's the house, and the dogs :-)

Pic of house

Pic of dogs

I'm sitting in my living room at about 8:10pm watching a recorded Judge Judy waiting for Suzy to get home. Jazzy starts growling at the front door, so I get up and look. I see a car in the cul-de-sac, and think nothing of it. I figure it's someone coming from a neighbors house and sitting there for some reason. A few minutes later, I notice it is gone. I hear the garage door, and Suzy comes in.

"I'm calling the police", she says.

"Why?", I asked.

She then said something about being followed home, and starts talking to the 911 operator. She was very upset, and all I could make out was something about eggs and being followed home. I asked if the car I saw was the one, and she said yes.

I got my keys, wallet and shoes on and headed out to find the car. At the corner, I saw it.. and 3 cop cars. I pulled over, got out and asked the cop if he was there because of the 911 call. He said he was. He said that the guys car got egged, and he thought Suzy did it and called 911 from his car. But, they now realized it was a mistake. I told him my wife was pretty upset, since she was just followed home. He, and the other two officers (both female, I believe) came up to the house.

When I got back up to the house, Suzy was out there, and my dogs basically had the cop pinned against his car. Good dogs. He asked if I'd take the dogs in, and I did.

He explained the situation and misunderstanding to Suzy. Suzy was extremely upset, understandably. The cop went from somewhat helpful, to pretty unsympathetic by repeating "It was a misunderstanding, you're in no danger, it's over now." This was basically saying "Get over it". From Suzy's standpoint, she was followed home, for 15 minutes, on back roads. She knew nothing of eggs, or 911 calls. She knew that a car was flashing their lights at her, and following her home. Maybe this cop has been working in Saratoga County for too long. Maybe he should spend some time down in Broward County, where when a woman is followed home, it is usually followed up with a rape, not a misunderstanding about an egging.

One thing of note is that during the conversation we asked why the guy was following her. The cop said 911 told him to. We both were like "What? No way 911 told him to follow. 911 doesn't put people in more danger. They should just say to get the plate, and go." But, he said 911 said to follow. He was wrong.

As I watched my tax dollars start to be being wasted by him not helping much anymore, and the other two officers being completely silent, he left.

Suzy was so upset. She was angry, frightened and frustrated. She called the police station to speak with a Sgt. She wanted to tell them that the cop wasn't exactly sympathetic and should be told that when a woman is followed home, it isn't "over with" to her. Also, that we wanted the report that would be made, as well as a transcript of the 911 call to see if the operator told the guy to follow her.

I guess the Sgt. was helpful and nice. He said that he understood her feelings, and that he listened to the whole thing over the radio (I guess this was the only thing going on in the county). He said things went down as they should have, and that the 911 operator did not say to follow, and the guy did it on his own. And, we can't get any reports or transcripts without a subpoena.

A message to cops out there. Whenever a woman is followed home, at night, on back roads, she will be scared. Remember this and be empathetic to this. Don't patronize her or for an instant forget that being followed home is scary.

A message to people who get egg on their car and FOLLOW SOMEONE HOME. You are a complete fucking moron. The guy last night had his kids in the car. HIS KIDS. He's lucky he was following Suzy and not someone who was armed. This is a great way to get yourself shot or beaten to a pulp. Not to mention a great way to endanger your kids. There is a saying about not crying over spilled milk. In this case, don't endager your family over egg on your car.

Kyla took 3rd for her form at the TKD tourney this weekend. She did a great job, and I'm very proud of her. The kid who got 1st really did excellent. I think the kid who got 2nd only eeked it out. They were both very good.

This morning was the first hard frost of the year. It was about 29 or 30 degrees out, but sunny. It was nice. I actually put on pants (instead of shorts) for the first time. But, it's warmed up to 36, so I'm back in shorts.

Also, tomorrow is the Fall Tae Kwon Do Championship. Kyla will be competing in forms, and maybe board breaking. Wish her luck! If you don't, she'll use her skills for evil and kick your ass!

After all the variance stuff and hold ups for the last few months, my deck is finally complete. It looks great, and I hope to get a few weeks of use out of it before it snows :-)

Kyla is having a school fundraiser. Since I can't put the catalogs and order form in the break room and have everyone see it, I can give you this URL. Go order some personalized cups, or a candle or something. And, when you check out use this registration number: 55915. That should make it so her school gets the money, and Kyla gets the credit.

So, go buy something... now!! What are you waiting for? Support my kid!

I had to go in front of the town zoning board to get a variance to build my deck. Turns out the builder build the house basically right up against the set-back line. To get the deck, I had to have the zoning board give a variance so I could build the deck. I could put in a pool, shed or many other things without the variance, but for a deck I needed it. I guess because it's attached to the house.

So, I did what I needed. Sent registered mail to all my neighbors saying I was applying for the variance. Filled in the application, and went to the zoning board meeting.

There were no problems, and my variance was approved. There was just one board member who said "no" to it. It really got my goat that he said no. He only did it because he goes into a rant about people building a house against the set-back, then coming in for a variance to "expand" it. I, and two other board members, pointed out to him that when you build a house you don't really tell the builder where to build it on the property. It's in the contracts that they choose the location. Also, not like I decided where the setback line is. I don't know who does, but I have a feeling it's the town zoning people.

So, I think he voted no just to make a point. The only point he made to me was that I think he's a jerk. Make a point on your own time. You don't like the fact that builders build on a set-back, they vote no on the builders things. Don't make a point by going on the record with a 'no' when a family comes in just wanted to build a deck on their house.

The rest of the board said yes, so it was approved. They didn't need to use the platform to make a point. They know I didn't decide where either the set-back line is or where the home was positioned and did the right thing.

Next month, the deck should be built. This should be good timing as my grass is growing and it'll be nice to hang out back there watching all the trees turn color.

I have been very busy between trying to unpack, work, the dogs, etc... so haven't been able to update much.

The house is so nice. We really like it. We get deer in the back every day, which is nice to watch. I hear wild turkey, but haven't seen them. Unpacking is coming along, but slowly.

Being in the cul-de-sac is nice, and quiet. It's also sort of nice being on a hill so I can look down upon people as they come through. I get along with my next door neighbor. He's another work-at-home geek, so we IM eachother and chat outside during the day.

Being away from the annoying neighbors is great! No more hearing his air-horn and general loudness.

Next week my sprinkler system and lawn should be going in. Also my gutters. I'm happy to be getting sprinklers. I have enough to do than pay attention to moving sprinklers around the yard every day to water it as the grass grows.

So, that's a quick update. Basically, everything is going well, and we all love the house.

Just a brief note that we are in the new house! The closing was smooth, and now we're in the midst of unpacking. We LOVE the house. It's very very nice. More later.. back to work!

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. Married for 30 years.. I mean.. 10 years :-)

I'm in the home stretch of closing on the new house. Half my house is in boxes, and we're getting pretty excited. Suzy is excited to get into the new house, and I'm excited to stop herding cats (making sure everyone involved is speaking to eachother and doing what they need to, and I need to). I haven't even had time to really get over excited about getting the house itself. Every time I see it, I'm like "YAY!" for 5 seconds, then it becomes "Crap.. I have to call X, Y and Z."

We did go in on Sunday, and the house looks great! Especially my kitchen. I can't wait to be settled in so I can make a great dinner in there and test it out.

Tomorrow is my final walkthrough, and we should still be set to close on Friday. At least, my movers are still coming Friday and I'm telling them to put the stuff in the house. I think if I got a call saying it was being pushed back for any reason I'd go bonkers.. and by bonkers I mean postal.

I can't wait for it all to be done. I'm exhausted. Totally exhausted.

Suzy and Kyla had a good time in Mexico last week. I had a pretty relaxing week here on my own. I worked a lot, and started some packing, but it was nice having a break from needing to do things for others for a few days.

Kyla came in 4th in the 2nd grade spelling bee yesterday. She was awesome!

Saw a carpet guy (and rolls of carpet) at the new house yesterday. Also the guys building the form for the front walkway and steps. I'll surely drive by later today and see what's up. I like seeing people there, since I know things are getting done.

The baby frogs and fireflies are out.

The Ringer - I thought it was pretty funny.

Aeon Flux - Wasn't too bad of a flick.

Entourage and Deadwood have started the season well. HBO still sucks though.

The new house has a phone jack which has a power thing on it. But, I can't figure out how to tell what phones I can use the plug with. And, I need a new phone since Lola chewed off the antenna from the one we have now.

Lola is doing good.

I'm tired of the rain.

My contact at the lending bank sucks. She's impossible to get ahold of.

Well, I'm now sitting in a house I no longer own. The closing went smooth, and made 6 figures from the sale (all going to the new house). Now, for the new house!

On Sunday we went and got ourselves a new member of the clan.. a puppy. She's about 4 months old, and a shepherd/doberman mix. Very very cute (I'll have some pics soon). She actually looks a lot like my old dog Zeke.

She's very playful, healthy (says the vet today), and is doing ok with house training. No poops (yet) in the house. Oh, her name is Lola (I wanted Killer, but was outvoted).

Jaz is doing OK with her.. as well as could be expected by a dog suddenly having a new puppy show up. Tigger is doing good, and could care less. Lily pretty much keeps away and hisses.

I'll update soon with a few pics.

On Friday, Kyla got her yellow belt. She was psyched, and I'm very proud of her. Not only that, but she got a certificate and a trophy for getting the 2nd most 'attitude stripes' of all white to orange belts. She is super happy to have a trophy. She stares at it, holds it and took it to school today.

Way to go Kyla!

This was actually last Thursday, and I was going to post when I uploaded the pics from it. But, been too lazy..er.. busy to upload them so far.

Anyways.. she did great. She was first to bat in the first inning and got the first hit and first run! She actually had two hits and scored two runs. She also made two really good plays during the game.

I'm surely proud of her, she did a great job for her first time in a real baseball game. Pics will follow.. when I get a moment.

At her first Tae Kwon Do tourney this weekend, Kyla took the bronze in board breaking. I can't express how proud I am of her.

Here she is in action, breaking a board with her elbow. Notice the hunk of a guy behind her helping to hold the boards.

Holding her medal up.

Her excited face when they announced her name over the PA system.

The house is looking nice on the outside now. Looks like the siding is about all done, and the shutters are half up.

Been fishing the last 2 days with Kyla. She loves it. There is a nice lake nearby where only residents of my town are allowed to fish. We've been the only ones there the last 2 days. The place is stocked, and I caught (and released) 4 trout. It's nice being out doing something like that with Kyla.

Tomorrow is Kyla's first Tae Kwon Do competition. She'll be doing 2 board breaking stations, each with 2 techniques. Should be fun.

Yesterday Kyla read a poem she wrote in front of the whole school during the monthly 'Friendship Assembly'. I also just realized 'Friendship Assembly' sounds sort of Jehovah.

I need coffee...

Everything is going smooth.. too smooth. The buyers had their inspections yesterday, which all appeared to go fine. We also got to talk with them for a while, and they are nice people and really looking forward to moving in.

Our new house seems to be moving steadily along as well. They did make a mistake, but I'm assured it will be no problem to remedy. I just drove by and the siding is being put on. We should hopefully have our electrical walkthrough within the next week.

I like it when things seem to be going smoothly.. but makes me nervous!

Just got a call from my attorney. Looks like we're all set with the contract on the house. She also said that her office happens to be representing the people who are going to be buying our buyers house. I guess they have a contract which is now being circulated for approval, or being drawn up, or something. This is also good news since the 48 hour contingency will be removed.

It amazes me when things "fall into place" like this. It also makes me nervous :-)

In either case, tonight.. I celebrate!

Just signed the contract for the house. Now, it just has to go through "attorney approval" which is just a way for NY lawyers to make more money.

In either case, I'm happy I got my asking price.

We got an offer on the house yesterday. It's a strange offer, and is bringing things I didn't expect. First, the good thing, is that it's for our asking price. But, it's got these various contingencies attached.

Right now, we mainly have one sticking point. It's that we want them to apply for a mortgage now, and they want to wait until they have a contract on their house. We prefer to not wait, since we want to be sure that a bank says they will lend them the money... essentially that yes, they can afford to buy the house. The only thing we have is a pre-approval thing. Those things really aren't worth much, since I could likely get a pre-approval for $1,000,000 in about 5 minutes off the internet. But, no bank would loan me that amount.

The other things I think we can get around. The only main thing is that they have a certain amount of time to get a contract on their house, or we null the deal and I keep their deposit. That seems like it would be ok. So, just the mortgage stuff. My agent called their lender, and the lender says the people will have no problem getting the loan, and there is no reason why they can't just apply now. That's good to hear, but it isn't something on paper. Then again, even if it's on paper and one of them loses their job, the bank can not give them the money (same with anyone). Aaargh!

I almost wish we were haggling about money. This would be much easier. I met these people, since they came twice on Sunday, and one time they were early so I hung out talking. I'd like for them to have the house. They seem like a good addition to the neighborhood. But, how much trust and bending can I do? I almost feel like I'm bending over for them, hoping they have some KY. I am agreeing to a much lower deposit than I'd like. I'm agreeing to another thing or two I really don't want to.

Well, it should play out today. My agent will call me back in an hour and see if she heard anything new. Then, we'll just officially put in our counter, and see if they accept it. We really want them to apply for their mortgage. We want to see on paper that they will get the loan, and I don't think that's too much to ask for. Of course, they are offering full asking price, which is great. So, if I have some trust (faith?) that it'll all work out, I can go with it. But, I really don't trust people when it comes to money.. so that would be a pretty big leap of faith for me.

This sucks. I really wish they waited to offer, or we were just going back and forth on sale price.

Today there was an "Agent Open House" here for 2 hours. So, I had to make myself scarce. I took Jazzy with me to the Bog Meadow Trail for a hike. The weather was perfect, and even better for a hike. There is a large pond along the trail, and there were many geese and ducks in it. Also, the beavers seemed to be very active judging by the dams and trees they took down, and were in the process of taking down.

Jazzy was also great, and loved smelling all the.. well, whatever the heck she can smell. We ended up hiking about 2.5 miles or so, and was the perfect amount of time.

Tonight Kyla had, at her school, something called 'Authors Night'. The second graders made books on topics (all animals, I think) which they were interested in. They wrote, colored and bound the books. Tonight, they read them aloud and it was pretty fun. Kyla did a great job, of course :-)

Here are some photos from the past week. Since these were taken we now have a roof, which I'll probably get a photo of this week.

Suzy standing in what will be the kitchen:

Looking out what will be sliders (flanked by two windows) in the breakfast area.

Looking down the hallway to the guest suite:

Corner of the family room. I think that's 20' high, which will be the ceiling height:

View from the side. That's the side-load garage. The part with nothing on it (the left side) is where the sitting room in the master bedroom is. The rest of the stuff above that you see will be the master bedroom:

From the street:

From the street going up the driveway:

Another from the street. You can see they starting framing the sitting room:

Kyla threw up last night, pretty much out of nowhere. This is the third time this has happened. It happened first a couple weeks ago at Tae Kwon Do class (yes, at the class.. in my hands in fact). Then, it happened again about a week later, and again last night.

Each time, there was really no good reason for it to happen. At least, reasons may be a stretch. The first time she had a (lot?) of potato chips about 45 minutes before Tae Kwon Do. I thought maybe that was it. The second time, I recall her just eating a lot that day. Maybe some things didn't mix well. But, yesterday.. nothing I can even think of which would be a far fetched reason. Basically, just three random times in the span of a few weeks.

It's not even a 24 hour thing. She basically throws up, but then feels fine the next day. Not even a fever after she gets sick, or any real lead-up to the puking. She just suddenly doesn't feel good, then throws up about 5 minutes later.

One thing I was thinking is maybe from her swallowing her snot. The weather is changing here, and it's a time where many people get post-nasal drip and colds. She told me that when she's in school, she sometimes swallows the "stuff" dripping from her nose (internally, not like she is picking her nose and eating it) instead of blowing her nose. Maybe that's the culprit? I made sure to send her to school with tissues today, and told her to always blow her nose and never swallow snot.

If it happens again, I guess I need to take her to the doctor. Since there really isn't anything on the surface which would do this so randomly, I really don't want to do that. That will likely mean tests of some sort, which would really suck for her. And, aside these 3 random incidents, there has been no indication of ill health, change in diet, lethargy, etc... I did speak to the school nurse today to see if she knew of any other kids having this happen. She did say there was various stomach bugs going around. Maybe she somehow caught it 3 times, or 3 different strains?

I don't know.. I just hope it's nothing.

That's sort of morbid, isn't it? Prepping for death isn't something I like to think about. Sort of how I think going to a doctor somehow makes an illness progress faster.. prepping for death may make it occur faster.

What exactly should someone do? I mainly want to make sure that if I were hit by a bus, the State doesn't come in and say they can take my house, car, bank account, stocks, mutual funds, IRAs, bonds, etc... Also, if something were to happen to both me AND Suzy that the State wouldn't take everything and leave Kyla with nothing.

Is there an easy way to do this? Is this just a Will? A Living Will? Some other thing to make sure people are provided for? Hell, I don't even know if I have life insurance.

I hate thinking about these things, but, ya know.. shit happens. If I'm attacked by a bear while hiking this summer, I wouldn't want Suzy and Kyla to have any more issues above the fact I was attacked by a bear to deal with.

Drove by the new house (lot) last night on the way to karate, and saw some walls going up! About frekkin time!

I haven't said much about the new house, because I really hate the whole process. The agents have been pissing me off, delays have pissed me off and I now clearly remember why I didn't want to build a new house again. However, I know the house will be kick-ass, so am keeping my "eye on the prize" instead of going postal.

The date to get the house was originally March-ish. Well, now the latest we got is June 28.. which really means July. Why? Couldn't tell you. This Winter has been so mild it could be called Spring.. so it isn't the weather. So, I really don't know why it jumped back 3 months. But, it did.. and maybe that will help us since more people look for homes in the Spring, so we'll have more people looking at our house (which we've sort of put on hold, since this schedule changed from "soon" to "months away").

The framing of the house SHOULD be starting today. At least, I saw they delivered the lumber yesterday. I'll be happy to see the framing actually begin. We did get a goodie for free though... a side-load garage. That's a pretty pricey upgrade, which they are doing for nothing. The house will be sort of up on a hill (they had to raise it a bit because of the water table and codes), so having a driveway go straight up would have sucked. The site manager (my neighbor) made the call that it should be a side-load garage so they can wrap the driveway around. It'll be really nice. Although, taking the trash out in the Winter will surely suck!

So, although we have the delay, getting a free upgrade like that (which is something I wanted, anyways but wouldn't pay for) cools me off a little. Also, the base price of my house has gone up $10k since we signed our contract. It's nice knowing anyone else building our house is starting $10k more than we did.

I'll try to take some photos now that the process is starting. I didn't take any of the foundation, since that's pretty boring.

The other houses in the cul-de-sac are coming along well. It should be very nice when it's all done.

Tonight, Kyla broke two boards in Tae Kwon Do class. She didn't want to try breaking any, since she thought it would hurt. But, I got her two boards anyways, knowing she'd likely try it.

The first, she did with a closed fist, and the second with a snap kick. She was proud of herself, and I was proud of her. In the next class (Thursday) I'll get her some more boards to break.

Next month there is nunchuck week, which should be fun. I already got her some (padded) nunchucks.

On Friday we had quite the wind storm up here in the Northeast. Our power went out around 10:30am on Friday, and came back around 3pm on Saturday. Friday night was basically like camping out, in our living room. It was pretty cold, so we had the fireplace running all night, and used flashlights and my camping lantern for light.

We had two main bad side-effects of this. First, I watched the wind pick up Kyla's trampoline and slam it up against the fence. Luckily, the fence is fine.. but the trampoline isn't. The frame got bent up. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix it, or fix it in a way I feel it's safe. This really sucks, since it was Kyla's main birthday gift :-( Looks like I'll have to get a new one if I can't fix it, or can't order replacement pieces.

The other PITA from this is my DVR box is fried. It simply won't turn on, so now I have to make a trip to the cable office to get a new one. Not a huge deal, but.. well.. no DVR!! There's a lot of good things on tomorrow night, so I hope they are open for me to exchange the box!

Only one movie this weekend, which was today. Dukes of Hazzard. That was pretty darn bad. All the cussing and gratuitous nudity wasn't in Duke style. That's sort of like someone actually getting hurt on the 'A Team'! Also, Boss Hogg and Rosco P. Coltrane were terribly cast. I like Burt Reynolds, but Boss Hogg is a shorter, sweaty, fat hick. Not a good looking, smooth talking, tall guy. And Rosco P. Coltrane was a bumbling idiot.. not a henchman toughguy. That was pretty dissapointing.

Anyways.. I'm glad our power is back, as some people still don't have it.

Fairly normal weekend. The Nor'Easter didn't reach up here, so we're still snowless. Of course, the weathermen up here said we'd get a few inches.. again, they were incorrect.

Since it was a usual laid-back weekend, I'll skip to the movies.

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo - Suzy didn't want to see it, so I watched it late one night. I laughed my ass off.

The Pink Panther - We went to see this yesterday. I wasn't sure if Kyla would like it, since she doesn't know about the pink panther, and some would be a little above her head. But, she did like it. We all did. It was fun, and Steve Martin did a good job. Good, fun family movie.

That's it.

I usually buy these large boxes filled with various types of snack-sized chips at BJs for Kyla to take with lunch. Sometimes, it can take a while to work through these, as there may be 30 or 40. Well, Cheetos has a 'freshness date' on it. Yesterday, I put a bag of Cheetos, which should be able to be edible for about 100 years, in her lunchbox. When she came home, she said she didn't eat it because it said "Guarantees Fresh until February 7, 2006", and it is February 8. So, obviously, the Cheetos must now be sour and tainted.

I asked her today if she'd eat some Cheetos if I put them in her lunch. After all, I have 9 bags left. She said she wouldn't, even after I explained that Cheetos aren't like "real" food that spoils. But, no dice.

Damn you Cheetos packaging!

Let's see. Friday I think we just watched some TV. To be honest, I don't really remember Friday. Saturday, Kyla and I hung out, played games and kicked back. And, Sunday we all went to a dog show. That was a lot of fun. It wasn't like the ones you see on TV where you're sitting in the stands. But, you were right there next to the action, and get to pet dogs (when their owners let you). Going to the dog show helped solidify something... I don't like small dogs, and I don't care much for the owners of small dogs. I know that's a blanket statement, and has various exceptions. But, for the most part, I don't like small dog owners. They always think their dogs are allowed to walk around without leashes, and are allowed into places where dogs aren't. But.. anyways.. the dog show was fun to go to.

Three movies this weekend:

Robots. Not so great. Very predictable, and there is only so much Robin Williams schtick I can take these days.. even if it's animated.

Crash. Really enjoyed it. I guess it won some awards, or may win awards. Awards generally don't mean much to me when it comes to movies. After all, isn't Bareback Mountain winning awards or something? Of course, being gay is "in" these days, and a movie about gay cowboys.. whooboy. Cowboys AND gay? I smell Oscar! Or, is that my socks? I think that movie is about gay cowboys, or maybe I'm just making stuff up.

Serpico. Older movie with Al Pacino about dirty cops. I bet in many police forces, there isn't much of a difference today. Hadn't seen it in a long time, so I recorded from HBO or something.

I still have War of the Worlds to watch. They filmed some of that in a town somewhere around here. I remember it was all over the news, and people could go and be extras. I was thinking of doing it, but I would have had to be up early, and I really didn't want to hear Tom Cruise drone on about Scientology. Getting up early, standing in a crowd and listening to Scientology propoganda.. not my idea of fun.

Pretty laid back weekend. Kyla had a sleepover at my dads house, after we all went there for dinner. Cleaning the house, watching TV, some work, etc... nothing too exciting. Movies watched were 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'Coach Carter'. Both good.

I have a showing here between 1 and 2, so will need to clean up a bit. They wanted to come yesterday, but we just didn't feel like it, so we said no. They then called and said they wanted to come today, so no problem. I can't tell you how much I hate this whole process of buying/selling a house. I hated it before, and don't know why the hell I decided to do it again. Oh yeah.. the new house will be sweet! But, this process has re-affirmed my dislike for real estate agents and lenders.

Kyla will start her karate classes tomorrow. This place doesn't do a monthly membership. They have a "academy" setup where you pay for a membership. Not too cheap, but I can't tell Kyla no because I'd prefer to not pay it. I will say, she better stay at it for the year I'm paying for :-) So, we'll go twice a week.

Back to work...

Tonight I took Kyla to a private Karate lesson. She has 2 private lessons (2nd is tomorrow) to decide if she wants to keep going. She had fun tonight, and I'm sure she will want to keep it up. I'm happy she's doing, since martial arts is great for kids to get into.

One thing was funny. When we got there, there was a class going on which they were sparring. These kids had padding all over their bodies like they were dresses as the Michelin Man! When I was younger and took Karate (at a few difference places), all we had was a cup, mouth guard, and 12oz gloves. Either kids these days are soft, or lawsuits have made it this way.

I've been busy and haven't updated much. Lets' see...

More snow. Not a surprise, of course. It's so pretty outside. Some mornings have been pretty cold (-9F), but it usually warms up to a heated 20 or so.

I've won the past two weeks at poker.

We've had a few showings for the house. 2 people have really liked it, and wanted it. But, they have timing issues. One has his lease up in March, and the others want us out in Feb. No way.. these people are from New Orleans, and have family here which they are staying with (their brother lives somewhere in my 'hood). No pets, no kids, but want US to uproot ourselves. Sorry, no dice. Go rent a place.. that's what people do. The lease guy also has options, like asking his landlord for a month-to-month, which many will do. In either case, it shows that there are people who will buy the place. Maybe one of them will surprise me and make an offer and deal with their own housing in between like everyone else.

Kyla is doing great. She gets a Student of the Month award today, which I'll be going to watch. She's also now a gamer. We finished Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Anrsenal and Jax 3 together. And, we've been playing Midnight Club 3 (DUB Edition). She's pretty good with racing. She drives a '64 Impala and 300C.. which she has all pimped out with flames, neon, NoS, rims, a body kit and paint job. She now even understands drifting (to an extent), and how to start off the line. Makes me proud. Maybe she'll grow up to be a geeky hacker and tuner! Man, I'd love that... we can get the '98 Supra I've always wanted as a project car together! Other than that, she's kicking ass in school, and is generally happy.

The house SHOULD have the foundation dug this week. I'm kind of pissed this hasn't been done already.. but what do you expect from builders? I know we're next to get that done, and I'll probably drive by later to see if they started.

My birthday is coming up next week. It should be cool. I'll be on vacation all week, and Kyla has school until Wednesday, and my mom comes in on Thursday. So, I'll have 2 days without work to just do what I want all day.

On Thanksgiving my friend John IM'd me. I called him and we caught up a little. It was nice. I still don't know why we haven't spoke for so long, but I didn't ruin the conversation by asking (I laid out my feelings in an email.. the 21st century way of dealing with things). Hopefully, the catching up will be on a more regular basis.

Work is fine.

I got into a "fight" with some chick on my friends journal. I called chicks "chicks" and she said it was sexist. But, being a true armchair complainer, she couldn't give me a word to use which "expressed that every person of the female gender is a unique individual", which was basically her complaint about the word "chick". I hate it when people blurt out what they don't like, but can't give an alternative. I kept asking what would be better to use as the term, and she couldn't do anything but try to push my buttons. I guess a "chick" can turn into a "hen"!

I guess that's mainly it. If I forgot something, I'll write about it later.

Kyla is playing Zoo Tycoon 2, and came to tell me about the "peacock". She said the game is calling it a "pea fowl". I explained to her what a "fowl" is, so she asks "What's a cock?". Trying not to laugh, I just said "It's a male chicken or rooster" and she starts running around acting like a chicken yelling "COCK COCK COCK".

Actually, it's been listed since a few days ago, but no showing until tomorrow. We already have one showing set up for tomorrow morning and hopefully a few more will happen. We're listing a little high, since we have some time and may need to play with the number as time passes. But, if we got our asking price, or close to it, I'd be very very happy.

Wish us luck!

The trip to LA was long, as expected. But, the flights were good. Saw "The Island" on the flight from CVG to LAX. Horrible movie, but good time killer. When flying over the area I could see nothing but lights and sprawl for miles and miles and miles. It was like seeing the lights around Ft. Lauderdale, but 10 times more. I could also see tightly packed white and red lights on the highways.. showing that LA traffic I hear so much about. Waaay too many people here. I was met at the airport by my ride, who took me to my hotel. It's a nice place on a marina. It was dark, so I couldn't actually see the water, but heard the seals.

This morning I was up at 4am, since I'm still on East Coast time. I'm exhausted. Now I'm just chillin' with some coffee enjoying the free wireless in my hotel robe until they start breakfast at 6am. Then, I'll be picked up at 7:45am for 'second breakfast', and business pow-wows.

This is my first time in LA since I was maybe 8 or 9. Even then, we were going to Bakersfield so it wasn't really an LA trip. So far, so good (even though it's been dark since I've been here). Coming from a town with a population of about 13,000, and when you have to sit behind 3 cars at a light it's considered "traffic".. this will be interesting.

My L.A. Checklist:

* Pick on gang members
* Get in high speed chase
* Have the L.A.P.D. beat the shit out of me (on camera)
* Say "like, totally" a lot
* Find a 'valley girl' and ask if she knows the Frank Zappa song about her
* Find any of the kids from MTV's "Laguna Beach" and punch them (which could then help with the high speed chase and ass-kicking)

Halloween was cool. Kyla said it was the "best halloween ever", which is good. Plenty of trick-or-treaters came by. The weather was nice, and I carved a kick ass pumpkin.

Tomorrow, I'm off to LA until Sunday. It's a business trip, but should be fun. I'll have Saturday to bum around and see what's around the hotel. I'm staying at a marina in Redondo Beach, so it should be nice. I'm also excited to finally meet some of the people I work with/for. Almost a year and a half, and I have only met one person face to face.

In a few weeks I'll be heading out to L.A. for a few days. I haven't been there since I was maybe 8 or 9. It's a business trip, so I'm not sure if I'll see much touristy stuff, but should be fun.

Maybe I'll take a night and pretend to be a paparazzi. I figure maybe I'd get a photo I could sell, or an actor would kick my ass and put me on easy street!

Today is her birthday!

We signed off on the blueprints last night. The house is going to be so nice. They should start digging in 2-3 weeks. Our changes to Kyla's room will make it about 200 square feet (over if you include the walk-in closet). She should be happy with that, and gives plenty of room for growing up. When we went to the house they are building the other day, it had a really nice solid wood door with a large oval decorated glass window. Suzy loved it, of course. We had upgraded our door to have a "sunburst" glass on the top. But, turns out the guy buying that house wanted a steel door, not wood. So, the builder said he'd give us that wood door "at cost". Of course, they haven't told us yet what that cost is.

My only complaint so far is with my bank (USAA). They are usually great, but I'm not so happy in this case. When we originally got our approval packet, we filled it in and sent it back the next day. This was early-September. I waited a little, then tried calling the contact person there to make sure everything was correct. The last thing we need is to hold things up by not dotting an i or crossing a t. Left a message, no return call. I waited a week or so, and called back. Left a message, and got a call. She hasn't even looked at it yet. Since then, have heard nothing. Most may say "no news is good news", but not when you're dealing with a mortgage, IMO. Suzy called yesterday, left a message.. no call back. So, she called later on and got someone else. Eventually, she got to a supervisors voice mail saying we want someone handling us who seems a bit more responsive and helpful. It's been over a month, and we have no idea what the status of our info is in. Is it on someones desk? Is it at the underwriters? Are we missing anything? Does everything look just fine? Inquiring minds want (and need) to know. I'm sure it will all work out, but we do need a final commitment letter for everyone to feel all those warm fuzzies.

Oh, right.. and we're also over budget :-) Not something I'm happy about, but in the long run it should all hopefully be good. Since we plan to be in this house for a long while, we don't want to chince on anything.

Had a very relaxing weekend. It's been rainy and cool, which has made for great fireplace and snuggle up weather.

Friday: Work.. dinner.. then poker.

Saturday: Kyla slept at my dads. So, Suzy and I went out to dinner. We went to a Mexican place near the track (owned by some Mexican jockey). Then, we came home and watched 'White Noise', which was pretty unscary.

Sunday: Hung out with Kyla all day after she came home. Plus, relaxed. Suzy and I watched Ladder 49 (or 57?). Seemed like a few other 'fireman' movies I've seen before.

Monday: Pretty much the same as Sunday! Relaxed and played with Kyla.

Exciting, eh? It was nice to not do anything and play a lot of games with Kyla.

Not much to update. Today we went and did our "lighting" choices. The builder provides a budget, and you use it towards the lighting fixtures you want. It was fun, and we chose some nice things. And, of course, going past the "free" budget.

I think I mentioned they are building the same model for someone else, which I'm watching the progress on. They are now at the stage of doing duct work and wiring, so we went in yesterday. They house is very very nice. They finally had stairs to go upstairs (and to the basement), so we got to check out the bedrooms. Super nice. The basement is also awesome. Could probably put 2 pool tables, an air hockey table, ping pong table, TV area and bar down there.

It's nice seeing that house evolve, since we really have no idea what the home will look like. But, seems like it'll be a great house.

She keeps asking who I think has a smaller brain (is dumber).. Patrick Star (Spongebob) or Cozmo (Fairly Oddparents).

It's actually a hard question.

Yesterday we did a big "selection day" for the new house. For those of you who haven't built a new house, "selection day" is when you choose so many upgrades and new things that the cost of the house doubles.

First stop... kicthen and bath. We went to a kitchen and bath showroom to choose stuff. It was pretty fun, actually. And, the "standard" stuff my builder now offers is much better than he did two years ago. This was good, since it kept the cost down and we didn't have to upgrade much. We ended up choosing a nice maple wood with a cherry finish for the kitchen cabinets. The 3 bathrooms will also have maple, but a lighter finish on them. We decided to not do granite for the kitchen counter. Mainly because it's hella expensive. I keep giving Suzy a hard time that if she didn't insist on the "premium" lot, we could have put 2 layers of granite on the counters :-) But, these days, there are some great formica counter designs. From even a few feet away, they can really look like granite. So, that's what we went with.. upgrading to a nice beveled edge. The one we chose was actually on display, which was good because those little 3x2 sample chips do nothing for me.

Let's see. We also added an "appliance garage", to hide a few things in. I have them adding a tilt panel in front of the sink so I can put sponges in there (I hate them laying on the counter). And, we actually had her do the design with taking a wall out, and adding a panel so the fridge slides in, and you don't see the side of it. Yes, removing a wall. We lose 2 cabinets, but there are already a crapload of cabinets (then a seperate pantry), so the openness into the great room would be better. We still have to talk to the builder about that wall, though. Hopefully, it's not load bearing :-) I have some computer printouts of the kitchen... I should scan them in.

For the bathrooms, we get a regular "cultered marble" vanity tops. But, we upgraded to this new marble which looks exactly (even up close) like Corian. But, for a fraction of the cost! They really look nice, and isn't something I've seen anyone else do.

From there, we went to the other selection center for the builder. There we chose house color (it's called "cactus" and is some sort of soft green), tile for the 3 bath rooms, carpet (color is "gourmet mushroom".... I call it "beige". It's a tight shag which is comparable to Berber. Suzy doesn't like Berber), landscape plan, kitchen sink, etc... This is the soup to nuts stuff. We spent something like $1,200 on fauctes alone! Damn faucets. Every time they told me the cost of one I'd say "What?? Holy crap.. it only gives you water, not wine." But, I do know they aren't cheap even if you go to Home Depot so I had to suck it up. The "standard" faucets are crap. We also upgraded the master bath to have a jetted tub, which will be nice. At least, I guess it will. I'm not a bath person, since you sit there in your own filth. I guess it'll be nicer when that filth is bubbling all around me.

All that's left now is the lighting choices, and electrical. The builder used to put in these mushroom lights as standards. Now, he gives a "lighting allowance", which we take to a lighting store. That'll be cool. I usually just change lights myself, but having the ones I want in when I move will be very nice. The electical comes after the house is framed. Hopefully, not too many new things to add there.

Man, this is all so tiring! But, I think this will end up being a fantastic house.

2 Birthday parties. One Saturday, one Sunday. Kyla had fun at both.
1 tball clinic. Second one, and Kyla still enjoyed it. She really did do very well. I also somehow ended up helping with the batting station. I remember back when I played Little League, I had a .723 season. I was a hitting powerhouse.
1 movie. Well, really .5 movies. The Life Aquatic. Watched half then turned it off. Pretty sucky movie.
5 lot driveby's. I now compulsively drive by the building lot, especially now that the road is paved.

That's the highlights.

Got the mortgage approval package today from the bank. I hate these things. There is so much paperwork to sign, initial and stamp in blood. Of course, I had to call them to ask questions. My main questions revolved around the Final Monthly Payment line, which was within my comfort range. Not only that, it was within my comfort range and the approval is for more money than I expect to borrow, and with a 6% rate (estimated, since we can't lock in right now).

I should really go down to the lot and snap some photos, so I can journal the building process. Let's see.. the next thing we do is go to the kitchen showroom and choose cabinets and counters, then to another one for flooring, house color, landscape package, etc... Then, the blueprint meeting to make any changes, then electrical where I add in fun things like Cat5 and surround pre-wiring. At some point they start building, and I get to drive by every day watching the progress!

Yesterday we signed the contract on the new house. So far, I'm not freaking out. I know I will be when I see my bank account drop by more than half after all the down payment stuff is taken out!

Today we also went to pick out our new appliances. That's the first step, then next we do a kitchen design. I can't wait for that, but then again I can. I can't because they have our kitchen on the computer, so it'll be cool to see it. I'm not because I know the temptation to go crazy with upgrading will occur.

In either case, the appliances will be nice. All stainless.

Crazy.. my realtor called and said someone she works with has clients who are interested in my model house. And, they want to come see it this weekend. We aren't planning to put the house on the market until next year, and I guess they know the whole situation. It would probably be pretty stupid to NOT let them see it, since my realtor said "It's that, or new construction for them". There really isn't squat for real estate here.. it's a true sellers market.

I guess I'll start cleaning! I'd think that if they did want the house, it would be a good thing. Since it's not on the market, they would need to put in an agressive offer if they wanted it. Or, they won't want it, but we'd get some feedback at least.

Forgot to mention we went camping over the weekend. It was the first time for both Kyla and Jasmine. We went to Moreau Lake State Park, which is about 5 or 6 miles from my house. I figured it was close enough that if we needed to come back, we could. And, it's a very nice place which I've been hiking and to the lake about a dozen times before. It was really a very nice time. Kyla and I did some hiking, while Suzy relaxed and read a book. Good open fire cooking, smores and just general camping fun.

Hopefully, we'll get to do it again a few more times before it gets too cold.

Kyla started 2nd grade yesterday. I'm still amazed I have a 7 year old kid, in second grade. It really does go by pretty darn quick. She enjoyed her first day, and I just hope her second is as good!

Ugh.. so we put a lot on hold for a house. It's in the new section of our neighborhood. I really didn't want to do it this quick, but next week the prices are going up. By doing the hold now, we can keep the lower price AND still get out of it within 10 days if we change our mind or it just gets too expensive. Of course, we chose a "premium" lot on a cul-de-sac waaaaay in the backest of back parts.

Now they will call us and tell us a number based on the upgrades we know we want to do. Then, we either scale back, move ahead, or back out. All should really be ok as long as we sell our current house for top dollar. All the money we get would go right into the new house, of course. My hopes is that my monthly payment will only go up a few hundred. And, if something happens and we can't keep the house in a year, we should be able to sell it... again for a profit, then scale backwards again.

Well, everything is a risk and so far we've made decent ones. Hopefully, this one works out. Stay tuned!

Since Kyla is so into Garfield these days, I got some book lots off eBay for her. One arrived today, with 13 books. She lit up like it was Christmas! Can't wait for the other 17 books to arrive :-)

She is also reading Mary Kate and Ashley books like they are going out of style. I use the library for those!

I forgot to mention... I will be enrolling in a real estate course. NYS makes you take a course before you can take the licensing exam. The class is given twice a year at SUNY ACC, so I'm going to take it. At least that way I can sit for the exam and maybe get licensed. Why do I want a license? So I maybe make some extra cashola, but especially so I can get investment property a little cheaper (since I'd get commission in one way or another from buying/selling).

Well, I shouldn't say "again" since it never really stopped. We still go to open houses just about every weekend. The problem has been that the market here is doing well. That's great for a seller, but sucky for a buyer. And, being both it means you either need more money/cash or you make a lateral move.

We had the same problem in FL when we looked around down there, and now it's the same here. Things which we would want to live in are also more expensive than before. So, what to do?

We've seen a couple houses which we have liked. But, they are pretty expensive and none of them were "perfect", albeit some were close. Now, we are thinking of just building again, in our same neighborhood. Suzy likes a certain floor plan, and I think it's pretty nifty as well. It's, of course, more expensive than this house was/is.. but there would be benefits. First, same neighborhood. Second, same neighborhood, but far away from the neighbors I can't stand (I know it's a roll of the dice for what we'd get). Larger house. We can do the things during the build we didn't do before since now we've learned. And, I do believe that even though we'd use up all the equity in this house by buying the new one, values will still go up.

Not sure what will happen. I know I hate the building process, and I hate the selling process. I'm also not really sure what kind of loan I can get. I really don't know much, aside what I want! Here's what I figure the plan is... we'll get a price for the build. We know the base price, and the extra cost of the remaining "premium" lots. We also know the price of some of the upgrades. There are a few structural changes we'd want to make, so we'd have to get the price on those. Once we know the price, we can make any adjustments and see if we can get a loan for what we expect we'd need (cost of house minus what we expect to sell for, etc...).

I really do dislike that we didn't just build what we really really wanted from the start. But, we were short on time and did build a fine home. Also, since I was willing to rent at first, we instead built up equity in this house which will help us build a more expensive home. I guess it should all work out, but I really dislike the whole buying/selling process.

While hiking with Kyla yesterday, I spotted a hawk. Not a huge deal since hawks are all around. But, this one was in the woods, about 15 feet up in a tree which was about 15 feet away from us. It just sat there as we looked at it.. and it was really cool. We were close enough to see its eyes moving. When I finally went to grab my camera, it flew away. It was a red-tailed hawk, roughly 20" tall.

That's probably the closest I've ever been to a hawk in the wild.. was really very cool.

Kyla is really into Garfield these days. Just thought I'd mention it.

It was on the 7th.. and she is now 7. Amazing... 7. Seven. I still can't believe she is 7.. starting 2nd grade... and generally a cool kid.

Her birthday was very good. A bunch of family was in town, and we had them, Kyla's friends and some of Suzy's cow-orkers over. Food, pool, slip-n-slide, bounce house, cake, beer, etc... Was a really cool time, and everyone (said they) had fun.

Last week the light on the ceiling fan in the living room started to go on and off sort of randomly. At first, I was like "WTF???" and didn't know if I had a light loving poltergeist. Or, maybe the remote was broken in an odd way.

But, no haunting. I put a remote in the fan/light in Kyla's room, but forgot to change the code for them. So, now they have the same code as the fan down here. Remarkably, her remote has great range, and reaches through the floor and completely on opposite ends of the house. So when she's in her room turning the light on/off, or adjusting her fan.. I know it.

Now, I have to take the fan back down to change the codes. Fun.

I signed us up to get the digital phone service from Time Warner. Basically, for about $25 more a month than I already pay for my broadband and cable service, I get phone service. $25 is much better than the $80 I pay to Verizon (which I think is mostly taxes, line fees and oxygen fees). I just hope it all works well. I guess if it doesn't it doesn't matter much. I don't get many calls.

Her bday is in less than a month, and we really have nothing set up. The bowling alley we went to last year is closed up (high priced apartments will soon be on that spot). So, Suzy wants us to do it here at the house. I guess we'll get a bounce house, and wanted to get a huge inflatable water slide thing.. but they cost more to rent then they do to purchase! It's crazy. Another thought is we'd have a petting zoo at the house. I figure that would be fun for the kids to play with some animals, and ride a pony. But amazingly, I can't find any travelling petting zoos up here. The only ones I've found are "just South of close enough".

If all else fails, we can find a set of Jarts and have a "run around with scisors" game.

So, Toronto :-) I went to Toronto for YAPC this year. Toronto is a pretty cool city. It has a lot to offer, a great China town, lots going on, great transportation, and is a pretty clean city.

Saturday: I arrived at YYZ from ALB via Air Canada. The flight was only a little over an hour, and was on a twin engine plane, not a "real" plane. I hopped on a bus to take me downtown to the hotel. The hotel was 89 Chestnut, which is a hotel which I believe U. of Toronto took over and it's now really a "residence hall". But, they let people stay there like it's a hotel. It was OK for the price, but I don't think I'd ever stay there again. It was more of a residence hall and less like a hotel then I'd like. But, it served it's purpose :-)

Nobody was around on Saturday night, so I just walked around a bit, got something to eat, watched the TV and went to sleep.

Sunday: Went down and had breakfast. Sat and chatted with Dave Rolsky for a while, then went outside to decide what I'd like to do. I figured I had a whole day to go around the city, so may as well do it before the conference starts. It was also the end of "Pride Week", which is a week long gay pride thing. I didn't care much about that, but there was a huge gay parade in the afternoon, and figured it may be fun to watch.

I saw Jeff outside, and he was waiting for Steve to come pick him up. I would have gone with them, but I didn't feel like sitting around waiting. So, I hoofed it in the direction of the CN Tower. I made it there, then down to Lake Ontario. I took photos of various things, walked into shops, and generally took in the sights. After I got back to the hotel, I took a shower and headed over to the parade. It was, hmmm.. very gay. Very... gay. Unfortunately, the only women taking advantage of allowing women to not have shirts on are those which shouldn't take advantage of it.

After the parade, back to the hotel. After another shower (it was pretty humid, and I was sweating a lot standing and waiting for the parade), 200 or so of us walked up to China Town to have dinner at a restaurant. I sat with Larry, Uri, Fowler, Rolsky and a few people I didn't know. The food was really good, and it was a lot of fun. We basically load tested the restaurant.. and they failed :-)

After dinner I went and had a few beers with Jim Brandt and brian d foy. After a few beers and good conversation (which I do crave), I hung out in the lobby with folks until I could fall asleep.

Monday: First day of the conference. I'll pretty much skip any conference talk, and concentrate on other things. So after the conference I just hung out, went to have some Indian for dinner, and again hung out. I can't remember if this was the night I kicked ass in poker, or Tuesday. Anyways, it was nice seeing some people I haven't in a while. Fud, Lucs, DHA, Biz and the rest of the gang. At some point I also went walking around China Town looking for gifts and whatnot to bring home. Figured that would be a good place to look instead of getting touristy Canada shirts with moose wiping their ass with maple leaves.

Tuesday: At night we had the dinner cruise. This was a lot of fun. Some cruising on the lake, a few beers, the TPF auction and chatting with folks. Afterwards, brian, Jim, chromatic and I walked back to the hotel. Then, the regular hanging out in the lobby.

Wednesday: All much of the same. After the conference was over I say bye to some people I didn't know if I'd see again. Then, Biz and I went walking around for a while. We found a jazz bar, and drank a pint before going to find some food. We ended up getting slices of pizza from a place near the hotel. This place had slices the size of a small Vietnamese child. And later than night, more hanging out with folks and saying goodbye.

Thursday: Basically all travel. It was nice to get home, although I'd love to make it back to Toronto at some point.

YAPC itself was pretty good. The hotel was a good place for the conference, even if it wasn't a great place to stay. The talks were good and the content of the conference, over all, was very good. It was nice meeting new people, nice learning a few things.

That's my 2 week overdue brief wrapup :-)

Kyla is officially done with first grade! Yesterday we went to Six Flags after she got out of school, and I may take her back again later today. Having a season pass to an amusement park so close is really handy.

Now she's on vacation. Camp starts in two weeks (I think), then off to second grade.

Kyla ends first grade tomorrow. Congrats to her! She also had a 'Green Year', which means she didn't get in trouble once all year.. and did all her homework all year.

She's such a great kid :-)

I'll be going to Toronto for a week on Saturday. Starting to look pretty forward to the trip. I've never been to Toronto, and hear it's pretty nice. Even though I'm going to a conference, I should have some time to check the city out. I'll have all day Sunday, and half of Saturday to sight-see.

Pretty good weekend!

Friday I skipped poker night, and we watched Gremlins. It was the first time Kyla watched it, and she enjoyed it.

Saturday I hung out with Kyla a bit. She didn't really want to do anything but be lazy around the house. So, I also did some yard work since I couldn't sit inside all day. Then, I relaxed :-)

Sunday was good. I took full advantage of it being Fathers Day, and did nothing. Suzy and Kyla got me a new fire pit for the back yard, which is pretty cool. Suzy also made dinner for me (and my dad, and grandfather) which was excellent.

Small wrapup, but great weekend.

Seems like all the frogs from the pond spawned. I was outside and saw a bunch of baby frogs. I remember last year when I went near the pond, it looked like the ground was moving there were so many. It's pretty cool.

Since the wonderful school announcement, Kyla has been scared of thunderstorms and tornadoes. Yesterday, I got a call from the school nurse that her belly "felt funny". I knew.. KNEW... I would get some sort of call from the school yesterday. And, I knew the "funny belly" was a lie to come home. But, I went and got her.

While there, I spoke to the principal. She was extremely evasive, and really didn't seem to care. It went something like this:

Me: "Was there an announcement about tornadoes the other day?"

Her: "There was an announcement about some severe weather. We make an announcement since we can't go to every class"

Me: "Was it about severe weather, or tornadoes?"

Her: "Just that severe weather was coming through so they could.. blah blah.. be prepared.. blah blah"

(I just asked the same question twice, in two different ways)

Me: "Something happened that day, since Kyla has been scared since that day"

Her: She said nothing of substance, care, or anything. Just about how they alert teachers.

Me: "Did the announcement have the word "tornado" in it?"

(I felt she was holding back, so I had to ask her the question like she was a first grader)

Her: "Well, it did say 'tornado warning' to alert the teachers..."

(HA!! She was evading my question. I knew it. From now on, everything she said I assume is bullshit)

Me: "Well, do the teachers explain to the kids about tornadoes?"

Her: She explained how they prepare kids throughout the year for things, including weather. My question wasn't pointed like the other one, so she evaded my real question. I thought it was obvious I mean right after the announcement. It makes more sense to explain tornadoes to kids when the loud speaker says there is a tornado warning, as opposed to.. well, anytime else.

(Since Kyla was there, I didn't want to push her. Her lack of answer was my answer)

Her: "Kyla was afraid of fire drills last year wasn't she?"

Me: "Yes. She was afraid of sudden loud alarms, which has nothing to do with being afraid of concentrated spinning air."

Her: "I remember Mrs. Nolan saying she was afraid of fire drills"

(At this point I was feeling my face get flush. Was this woman now trying to equate fear of a fire drill a year ago to fear of a tornado? Being that we were in the middle of the school office, and Kyla was there, and this woman was no help at all, I just ended it)

Me: "Well, one has nothing to do with the other. Something happened that day, or didn't happen that day, here at school. I'll get her home now."

Suzy says she wants to write the school board. I think she should call the principal about it first. This is the fourth "major" school issue this year. And, this lame conversation with the principal (and the pretty lame last one I had with her) leave me thinking she kind of sucks. She was evasive, and seemed to be attempting diplomacy. All I wanted to know is what happened, and what didn't.

I got pretty tired of having hair on my head, so shaved it again yesterday. I really hate my hair.. always have. It's very thick, and is a pain in the ass to keep looking good a week after being cut. I always wished I had regular straight, thin, managable hair. But, no. The only way to keep it looking nice is to put 'product' in it, and I'm not really a 'product' kind of guy. Plus, I'm a hat kind of guy, which doesn't work well with 'product'.

So, I shaved it again. I've probably had my head shaved in some form for more than half my life, and it's how I'm most comfortable. I'll probably grow it out again in the Fall so it helps me keep warm in the Winter.

A rarity, I'm sleepy in the morning. There are about 30 geese in the pond, which is nice to look at, but doesn't help me perk up. On my second cup of coffee, but still sleepy. The house is a mess, but still sleepy.

There are some pretty big storms around here today. You can't escape it, since weather has pre-empted every TV show all day. But, I guess at school they made an annoucement that there may be tornados (we are in a tornado watch). This scared the crap out of Kyla, and she just came off the bus crying. We just spoke to her about it, but I can understand her being scared.

Way to go school. Great announcement to make.

Yesterday we kept Kyla home from school, and had a 'Family Fun Day'. Suzy, myself, Kyla and my dad all went up to Six Flags Great Escape up at Lake George. It's about 15 minutes from my house, which is cool. It was a fantastic day. It was warm and sunny, and since schools aren't out and it was a weekday, there was hardly anyone there. The longest we had to wait on any line was about 10 minutes. But, most of the time there were really no lines, and we could ride again without getting out. We spent the entire day there (11ish to 6), and all got season passes.

Kyla rode two good coasters. The Boomerang, which she loved. And the Comet. She didn't like the Comet too much, but it may have been because it was the end of the long day.

Unfortunately, the big water slided weren't open yet (although the website says they should be). But, she got to go in the wave pool, and the PAUL BUNYAN'S BUCKET BRIGADE.

It was a great day, and since we have season passes, we should hopefully go a few more times. I can't wait for the water slides to all open up! I love water slides. It'll suck when there are long lines for rides, but that's just part of amusement parks.

Friday night was poker night. I lost at Texas Hold'em, but then cleaned up at dealers choice. One of the coolest things was my neighbors new car. He had a classic Vette, which he took to an auction, and then bought a '57 Chevy Bel Air. The damn thing is beautiful, loud, fast, and half the trunk is a tank of NOS.

Saturday we went up to Lake George, did some mini golf and Magic Forest for rides.

Sunday we had family over for a BBQ, and Kyla also went next door for a bday party.

Monday we did yard stuff. Finished up a flower bed I was making along one side of the fence, then it rained the rest of the day.

Quick wrapup!

First, I introduced the art of spitballs, then explained the use of 'idiot' to Kyla. But, this time she got introduced, to my dismay, into the pain that a mans nuts can be put through.

Suzy had gotten Jazzy a new ball. It's an oversized tennis ball. Kyla was playing with it in the family room with her, taking the ball from her saying "MY BALL!", then tossing it for Jazzy to get. Well, there I was, laying on the sofa relaxing while watching the tube. I hear "MY BALL!" and feel something hit my inner thigh, then clunk down onto the jewels. I moaned "MY BALLS!", and rolled up in pain. Kyla kept saying she was sorry, since I was obviously in more pain than she'd think for being hit by a large tennis ball.

Suzy explained that testicles, only found on boys, are easy to hurt. Unfortunately, I was an unwilling prop in this impromtu lesson.

Yesterday I explained the right and wrong way to use the word 'idiot'. Of course, I gave her the 6 year old version. When she gets older she'll learn to call all mentally inferior people 'idiot', or to call them a バカ (baka) so they have to find translators to see what you called them. But, for now I stuck with "not calling real people idiot".

Why did I explain the word to her? Because she has started using the word. I've noticed that everything from Spongebob to Jimmy Neutron uses the word 'idiot'. Probably 90% of the shows for the 6-9 year old group uses it. When did this happen? I don't recall this being an acceptable word when I was a kid. Wilma wasn't calling Fred an idiot. I don't recall Mr. Sprocket calling George an idiot. Of course, things change and what is acceptable for kids to view and hear change with the times. I suppose that's OK, as long as parents notice it and talk to their kids about it.. like I tried to do. I also notice other slang terms being used, like "sucks". Luckily, she doesn't use that yet. She does say 'dang' or 'darn' a lot. But, I think Suzy and I also use that (better than damn, or shit depending on the context).

Here is a chronological progression of word usage:

Spongebob, 1950: "Patrick, you're pretty dim."
Spongebob, 1965: "Patrick, you're lame, man."
Spongebob, 1975: "Patrick, you're a square."
Spongebob, 1985: "Patrick, you're mentally challenged."
Spongebob, 1987: "Patrick, you're, like, totally lame. Totally."
Spongebob, 1994: "Patrick, you're not the brighted bulb."
Spongebob, 2000: "Patrick, you're dumb."
Spongebob, 2005: "Patrick, you're an idiot."
Spongebob, 2010: "Patrick, you're one dumb ass motherfucker."

The other night while out for dinner I felt it was the perfect time to teach Kyla about spitballs. What's a better time then when you're out for dinner, right?! Now, she's a spitball fanatic. To Suzy's dismay, Kyla has been using a mirror (I am supposed to hang up) for target practice. And, the living room is riddled with spitballs all over the place from us last night. Fun stuff. Next on my list to show her.. snot rockets.

Last year I mentioned that a robin made a nest under the deck. At some point it abandoned the egg it layed, probably because we are always out there and it scared her away. I left the nest, and egg, under there. I've been seeing a robin sitting on my fence for the past week or so. Nothing out of the oridinary with that, aside it was always staring at me. I just went out there to water my plants, heard flapping and saw two robins come from under the deck. I assume from the nest. They didn't seem to happy, but more scared. Hopefully, they won't abandon eggs this year, but if they lay them and they hatch, I wonder what I'd do.

I'll probably leave some bird food in a dish next to the nest for them. As well as a little lease. If they plan on taking residence here, they may as well pay!

A weekend wrapup on a Wednesday. Well, I've been busy :-)

Friday night we watched Fat Albert, which was actually more enjoyable than I expected. Saturday Kyla and I hung out and played games. At night we watched Finding Neverland (which we liked) and Hotel Rwanda (eh, it was ok. I think I just wasn't in the mood for it). Sunday we headed to Albany to go to the Christmas Tree Shop. Crowded as all hell, but found a few things we wanted. The store was in a mall, and on the way we passed a pet shop. Bingo bango, we end up in a room with a puppy! It was a cute, fluffy American Eskimo. We had to have played with it for about 30 minutes. We finally gave it back, and played with a Golden Retriever. I'll tell ya, these dogs are damn expensive! The Eskie was $1,200!! Unless that thing will shit gold nuggets, that's too much money. If I were to get another dog, I'd rescue one again.. not pay a high price for a dog I wouldn't put in dog shows.

The rest of the day was the usual. Cooking, some cleaning, Sunday evening TV, etc..

Friday went pretty much as I said it would. My boss called and said since it was supposed to rain all weekend he didn't feel like working, and I didn't have to either. So, I had the afternoon off. I putzed around a bit, relaxed, and enjoyed a nice afternoon. What a great boss!! After dinner Suzy talked on the phone with Kelly, and I headed over to poker night. Yep, lost again. But again, within the final 3 at the table. It feels good to be in the final 3 out of 8 or 9, but would feel better to win!

Saturday was a rainy day. We really needed the rain, so it was good. I played with Kyla all day.. Monopoly, wrestling, building a pillow fortress, etc... Saturday night we basically just all hung out here. We watched 'The Stepford Wives', otherwise knows as 'The movie which shows the perfect wives' ;-)

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. It rained a bit, and was too wet to do anything outside. My dad came over for a while. Suzy, Kyla and I went out to dinner (I simply didn't want to cook), and we watched 'Closer'. This movie goes to the top of "Holy Christ, this movie fucking sucks ass" list. We didn't even watch it all. At a certain point we just went to the final chapter to see how it ended. Horrible.

Now, back to work! I just heard that the YAPC schedule is basically done, which is good news. If you forgot, I'm the Perl Foundation Conference Committee Chairman. Long damn title. After this conference, I think I'll be done with it.

No postings this week! Been pretty busy. Last weekend was a good one. Between kite flying with Kyla, going for a hike, poker night, gardening and movie watching. Kyla has been on Spring Break this week, and I've taken her to an art class downtown every day. She has a lot of fun there as she gets to paint, draw, act and do ceramics. I'm also watching the grass slowly get green from the Winter, and hoping all the brown stuff comes around in my favor. Today I'll work, go pick up Kyla from art, drop her off at a friends house, work more, cook dinner and head down to poker night to lose some more money. That's my agenda! The weekend will probably include some yard work, cleaning, movies and games.

We ended up getting an '04 Durango to replace the '01 Durango. Suzy always liked the truck, and we've both been happy with it, so it made sense. New body style, and a bunch of upgrades. Now we both have new vehicles!

Overall, great weekend.

Friday Kyla had a short school day. We rode our bikes down to her friends house, then back again with the friend. They played for the rest of the day until dinner time. Later that night I went down to their house again for poker night. They play Texas Hold'Em every Friday. Men in the 'card room', and women in the kitchen talking and drinking. Good ole gender segregation! I never played Texas Hold'Em before. Stud, draw.. no problem. I lost, although I was in the final three. Next week, I plan to kick ass! Was a really good time, and was great to get out. Although I was still the quiet social retard I usually am. But, who care? It was all about the poker.

Saturday I played outside with Kyla until it was time to bring her to my dads for a sleepover. Suzy was going to a bday dinner for a friend, and I decided not to go. I didn't want to sit around more people I don't know and be bored for a few hours. Plus, I simply don't like her friends husband, and have no desire to sit at a dinner table with him. Instead I stayed home, did some yard work and watched Gangs of New York.. which I enjoyed.

Sunday started with me making breakfast. We then headed over to Lowes and got a few trees, some wood for a raised bed, dirt and other stuff. We picked up Kyla on the way back home. We planted the trees, I built the bed, raked the lawn, put some seed down, put some fertilizer down and watered. I also planted some seeds in cells. Suzy and Kyla also cleaned the truck. The lease is about up, so it needed a cleaning. I made dinner, and then everyone relaxed for the rest of the night. Very active day. I also put in a full word day last night, since today Kyla has another half-day.

Today Kyla will come home, then we'll head back to the school for a parent/teacher conference. After that, off to look at trucks. I both love and hate getting a new car. I love looking, but hate dealing with car salesmen.

So there you have it, a great weekend.

This is her new thing, jumping and hanging onto the tank.

The ducks have returned to the pond now that the ice has all melted on it. I have seen the ducks doing fly-bys for the past week or so. They fly over the pond a few times a day, quack, and keep moving. But, last night they were in there, and this morning there were about 10. It's nice to have them back. Two more just flew past my window coming in for a landing. It's neat hearing them come in, since there is this small-plan sound as they cut through the air.

I know I've spoken about maybe getting a new house. But, I'll tell ya, where our house is now is sure nice. Amazing sunrises, amazing sunsets, great views of the stars, ducks, cranes, singing frogs, deer, beavers. Could be hard to find another great lot with such great things available right outside.

There is yet another issue I'm unhappy about with Kyla's school. Here's the deal..

Kyla recently started saying she 'hates' school, reading and math. Although, she really shows no hatred towards them. Always happy to go, always smiling when she comes home. It's just a few times she has said it, and mainly to Suzy. But, being the concerned parents we are, I wrote a note to the teacher. It said that she has said it a few times, but we don't see that she hates it. I figure maybe she is bored, since she does say the work is too easy. Much like myself, when school was easy I would get bored, and not like school since easy work is a chore, not challenging and exciting. So I sent in the note asking if she has noticed any changes or has any insight. It may be a normal thing for a 6 year old to say they don't like school, but I don't think it's normal for them to say all the work is too easy. I put my phone number on the note, hinting that I'd like a call. Here is the response:

We can discuss these "issues" on the 11th when we meet. :-)

Yes, smiley face and all. I'm not too sure, and slightly offended, that she has the word issues in quotes. Is she saying they aren't issues we should be concerned with? Is she discounting our concern? The 11th is when we have the normal parent/teacher thing. That's in almost 3 weeks.

I think it is rediculous to make parents wait for close to 3 weeks to discuss their concerns. REDICULOUS!! I feel like she totally doesn't care that we have a concern, and have it now. What's wrong with a quick 10 minute call? What's wrong with writing "Thanks for relaying this to me, I'll see if I notice any changes".. SOMETHING! ANYTHING! Just validate the concern, even if you don't give a shit. But, I bet if she was acting up in class, we'd get a phone call right away. We are a bit pissed about this. And it's not just because of this.

Also, on the 'comments' section of Kyla's last report card, Suzy asked "How is she doing socially?". No response. There was this letter which also made no sense. Once she left a message for the principal about a letter about unexcused absences, which called Kyla 'Ariel' in the letter. Suzy said to call us, she never did.

WTF?? Dealing with parental concerns isn't limited to scheduled parent/teacher days. Sometimes parents need to speak with a teacher about concerns. After all, we don't see our kids at school, and most of the time kids "forget" what they did all day.

Now that I'm all worked up, I'm going to call the school and talk to the principal about this. I think that ignoring or putting us off 3 times is 3 times too many. I was going to go in and talk to her, but we have a fresh foot of snow and decided to just let Kyla stay home.

I'll update if I talk to her. I'll probably leave a message and she won't call me back... which would mean a letter to the School Board.

Friday night I watched "Collateral". Pretty decent movie. Saturday I hung out with Kyla during the morning, then took her to my dads house for a sleepover. When Suzy got home we went out to eat. We don't get out alone enough to do that, so it was nice. When we came home, we watched Ray, which was also pretty decent. Yesterday I picked up Kyla, and we all just hung at the house. I relaxed, and Suzy/Kyla did some cleaning. After dinner (pizza) and Kyla went to bed, we watched Donnie Darko. Well, I wateched it and Suzy watched some. She wasn't crazy about it so she went to bed.

Quickie wrapup. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's been in the 40's which is nice, and the snow is melting. I'm getting pretty excited about doing some yard work soon. I'm not looking forwrd to picking up a Winters worth of dog shit from the back yard. Once the snow is gone and the ground is dry I'll be happy to take her for walks again so she can crap where I don't need to pick it up!

Yesterday, I took Lily to get her innards scooped. Of course, somehow I end up getting into a tiff with a girl working at the vet.

When we got Lily, we took her to Banfield, which is a vet operating inside Petsmart. They have some 'plan' where you pay a flat fee for a year and get certain things... shots, exams, fecal tests and innard scooping. Lily is a small cat (odd since she is at least part Maine Coon) so the vet kept saying to wait on the gender-neutralizing until she gains more weight. So, taking her advice we waited. Based on her advice, this would mean she wouldn't be fixed until she was over 6 months old.

So I go to pick her up yesterday and the front desk girl tells me how much it will be. It was quite a bit more than I expected, since the fixing should be free due to the plan. There was also pain medication (not included in plan), and there was a cyst they also removed (not included in plan). Then, she says the rest is due to a "Over 6 months old charge". I was like "huh?". She says that they charge more when a pet is over 6 months old because it's more involved.

I said I understood that, but the reason she is getting it done at over 6 months is because I followed their vets advice. "Well, that's policy of what we charge." Bullshit. I tried to get her to explain why I was being penalized for following the advice of their vet, and that the vet didn't say there would be a charge. If the vet said there would be a charge, that would be one thing. But, she didn't and all I did was what she said.. to wait.

She then made the mistake of explaining the extra charge being that there are more blood vessels, and it takes more gauze. MORE GAUZE?!?! I know that's true, but, gauze? I told her I'd walk next door to the drug store and buy them gauze, but I wasn't going to pay for this charge.

"What do you want to do?"
"I want my cat"
"We can't give you the cat without you paying"
"I'm not paying for listening to your own vet"
"Would you like me to call your wife? Maybe she'll pay it."
"Excuse me? I make my own money."
"But, maybe she'll agree to the charge."
"No, she won't. She knows about it and told me I shouldn't pay it."

CALL MY WIFE?? GAUZE?? If I had shaved within the past month, I'm sure she would have seen my face started to get red. I felt myself getting flush and a bit annoyed. So, I just stood there, silent, so I wouldn't start ripping this girl a new asshole. She finally said I should go into an exam room, and she'd have someone come in and talk to me. Finally, she said something right. Get someone who actually makes decisions to talk to me.

I waited in the room. I wasn't annoyed anymore. I knew it would work out, but that other chick pissed me off with asking to call my wife, and saying this absurd charge was because of gauze.

The manager lady came in, looked on the computer at the dates, age and notes from the vet. Within 30 seconds she noticed the vet noted about the weight, and that this was at about 5 months and 5 and a half months. Logically showing that I was right about what the vet said, and that would take Lily to over 6 months. She took the charge off.

I wanted to tell the front-desk girl on my way out that I wasn't mad at her, just at the situation (which she could have handled better by saying "Let's get the manager and see what she says" in 2 minutes instead of 20). But, I didn't see her. I'll probably say something next week when I go in to get some new fish.

Lily only has a few months left on this plan, and after that I'll be taking her to another vet. Not just because of this, but I just don't like going there too much. I always seem to be waiting. If my appt. is at 9:15, I can be there at 9:10 and still not be helped until 9:30. It just never seems quick, and going to the vet is a chore, not a pleasure. Plus, I take Jasmine to a different vet which I've been happy with. You're quickly put into an exam room, and they are nice. Plus, they are a kennel as well. They also have this cat there which has useless back legs. It's a nice cat, and if you have to wait you can at least watch it dragging itself around.

In any case, my lesson learned here is to immediately say "Can I please speak to a manager" much quicker and not trust that front-desk person has any authority whatsoever or any care of what's right versus what's policy.

I actually IM'd Kyla upstairs to tell her it was bedtime.

It was only 9 months late, but Suzy finally got her review from her boss today. Great review, nice raise. Congrats to her.. she deserves it.

In case you missed that.. 9 months late. Fucking rediculous.

Let's see.. Friday. I cooked dinner, my dad came over and we hung out. I also watched Nepoleon Dynomite. It was not as good as I thought it would be. For some reason, I kept thinking of True Stories and Fargo, just not as good as those.

Saturday I hung out with Kyla. Played some Monopoly, and taught her how to play Othello. Playing Othello *trying* to lose is a hard thing to do, but I did it. She played one game and said she didn't think it was all that fun. But, I'm sure one day she'll ask me to play again. Kids do that.. "I don't like this" then later ask to do whatever it was again. I tried teaching Kyla how to tie her shoes. I'm not sure what the shoe tying age is, but think 6 is quite old enough to do it yourself. She can get the first knot down, but gets frustrated on the bows. There must be a way to do it that I don't know which is easier for kids than how I tried teaching her. Something with less multi-finger coordination. Saturday night we watched Paycheck. Not bad.

Yesterday we took Kyla to my dads house and went to the Home and Garden Show in Saratoga. Was pretty much the same as last year. We spoke to a builder about building a house, and found a few things to keep in mind if we do build a new one. One thing was the radiant heating. Instead of forced hot air, which rises, this system is within the floor. The floor gets warm and the heat doesn't rise as quickly. It also gets things on/around the floor warm. It's a good idea, and we saw it in action in some million dollar home we went to an open house at. They only had it in the bathrooms, but you could tell how it worked. They also can put it under walkways and driveways. That way, when the snow is coming, turn it on and watch it melt! He said that someones driveway (which they had pictures of them doing) cost about $18/sq-foot. For that price, I can live with using a snowblower! But, it's still a good idea for heating, and having multiple zones is easier than with forced air and duct work.

We then hung out at my dads for a while, and drove home. On the way, we saw an Open House sign, and of course went to drive by it. It was a home in a neighborhood we almost moved into. But, probably the best lot in that 'hood. The house is over 3000^ft, 6 bedrooms, full finished basement, oversized 3 car garage, multi-level deck, heated inground pool, 2 master bedrooms (1 downstairs, 1 upstairs), laundry is on the second floor, mud room, shed, and is just under 10 acres of land. The house is very very close to what we'd want. No fireplace, which was odd. And the people who built it seem to love green. Meaning, all the carpet would have to be replaced. I say it's almost what we want because I couse use a slightly larger living room and kitchen. Also, I like the master on the 1st floor better than the one on the second, but I want to have my bedroom on the second floor. What's the sense of a 2 story house if I never go upstairs? And, no fireplace.. but that could be added. Other than that, pretty doable home. It's at the end of a cul-de-sac, and is pretty private, yet in a neighborhood. Plus, 10 acres.. much of it wooded, but probably about 3-4 acres of nice open space around the house itself. Anyways, it was $450k.. still a little out of my price range :-) If it were $350k, I'd figure out how to swing it, but $450k is a little steep, especially knowing I'll have to replace carpeting everywhere, put in a fence for the dog, add a fireplace, etc... That crap adds up quick. If my price range was 450, I'm sure I could find somewhere which has all that already.

Last night we watched some of the Oscars and just chilled out. Today we are supposed to have some storm coming in. Probably be doing some snowmobiling tomorrow with Kyla!

Mom is in town and we've been having some fun. Lots of cooking, going out to Sushi, games and hangin out. Last night Kyla seemed to be getting little red bumps on her. Sort of rash-like. We're not sure if it's chicken pox or a rash yet. She wasn't feeling well the last few days, then suddenly these bumps last night. Suzy called the Doc and they said it may be a rash of some sort, since she had a shot for chicken pox when she was 1. Not exactly sure what she would have had a reaction to to get a rash, but, who knows.

Just sort of jotting this down quickly since I need to work today. Having a flexible schedule is great, I can do a few hours on, a few hours off. Right now.. on :-)

Kyla has been in this "what's your favorite..." phase. We have literally sat here for over an hour saying what our favorite part of every Spongebob is. If she gets a sheet of kitten stickers, I have to choose a favorite one. Pictures in a magazine? What's my favorite? A whole book of pictures of an animal? A favorite must be chosen!

Since we have done every Spongebob, she has now moved on to Fairly Oddparents episodes.

Well, had to get one. I was pricing out how much to get all the parts to fix/beef up the hosed one, and getting a new one just was more price efficient. Plus, has a DVD+/- recorder, so that's a bonus.

It started up fine, I removed all the crap they throw on I don't want, put on my own AV software and firewall, and Kyla is up playing on it.

The one funny thing is how XP doesn't seem to be able to figure out, automatically, how to connect to the network. Both SLAX and Knoppix.. boom.. online. This took finding the network settings, finding my DNS, etc... Pretty lame. It should just say "Hey, I can connect via this internal network you have and accept the IP address your DHCP server is trying to assign me. Accept?" Of course, Linux is better than Windows, but it would have been nice.

Why not just make a Linux box? Well, Kyla can't play her games. Why didn't I get a Mac? I thought of it. Maybe a Mac-mini. But, this was cheaper and I wouldn't have to re-purchase all the games Kyla likes which weren't a Mac version, or explain to her why certain games may not be available. No biggie. In either case, being a web-hacker, it's nice to have as many platforms available to test things. Lord knows a browser on one OS won't work the same as the same one on another.

Anyways.. let's hope theirs a few good years with this box. As long as it doesn't break before 3 year, since I didn't buy the extended warranty thing :-)

I'm so proud. I leave Kyla with Linux running (Knoppix this time) and she's browsing the web.. come back up and somehow she found Penguin Solitaire and is playing it.

A live CD is really a good way for a kid to get used to Linux, if not at least KDE.

I'm not sure what else to call it aside a blessing that I work from home. It's a great thing on any day, but on a day like today it's better. Today, is a snow day so no school for Kyla. It sucks that Suzy still has to go into work, of course. But, since I work from home there is no deciding who is going to call in, who will stay home this time or any of that. Nobody has to take a day off, lose a vacation day or lose a day of pay. No boss needs to be called, no coverage needs to be found. It's basically a whole set of hassles which don't exist at the moment, which is pretty cool. It's the same thing if Kyla wasn't feeling well.

It's good stuff. I suggest everyone work from home.

Well, we're not going. It ends at 3 today, and this is the only day we both get to sleep in. We wouldn't have much time. Anyways, Kyla has a bday party to go to. Oh well. There will probably be a smaller one going on in Saratoga soon anyways.

Pepsi Arena - Home Show

We'll be heading down to the home show this weekend. Kind of excited. I love walking around getting pamphlets for things I'll never buy. But, the good thing will be that we'll surely find some builders to talk to about possibly building a new house.

Either way, it's fun to get out and do something different. I haven't been to a large home show since I was in CT.

Our latest itch is to build a new house. Or, at least, find out how much it would cost to build a new house. Not any house, but what's closest to our "dream house" as is possible, and affordable. I'd like 5,000^ft or more, but realistically, it would be in the 3,000^ft range. Unless I become a master carpenter sometime soon.

The plan is this... we will find a few floor plans which we like (a few websites specialize in this). Then, we'd talk to a builder to see how much it would cost to build these houses, with our own tweaks. Like, add a 3rd (or 4th) garage or adding a mud room. Once we get a plan we are happy with, which is within our budget.. find a nice lot and build it.

This won't happen quickly (unless a sack of cash falls in my lap), but seems like a good plan. I'm really in no mood to move right now anyways. This house will do for another year or two. It's a nice house, in a nice spot. But, if the real estate market in this area keeps up, it would be worth selling in a year or two just for the sake of selling it. And, if at that time, we have in hand the house we'd like to have, all the better!

This is what we decided we'd like in the new house (basics):

* A cooks kitchen. Very large, center island.
* Kitchen has to look into family room (as it does now)
* Master bedroom upstairs
* Laundry on 2nd floor
* Guest suite on first floor
* A study/library/den that will be office
* 4 bedrooms (1 guest, 1 master, 1 for Kyla, and 1 for playroom)
* A mud room.
* 3+ car garage
* Front porch, and deck in back (like we have now)
* 2600^ft and above
* 3+ baths

That's basically it. Here are a few we liked:

Country Home
Nice Victorian
Another Victorian style
This one seems close to perfect.

I have about 20 plans on my "favorites" so far. Fun to look through these.

Here are a few of the sled. I keep it in the garage, obvious from these:

And a few of the back yard, this is from this morning:

Last night, Kyla lost another tooth. I was taking her over to my dads house for a visit, and she showed me how loose it was. It was basically hanging on for dear life. But, she wouldn't let me pull it out. When she got home later on, it was gone.

She got another tooth fairy visit last night. I don't think any others are very loose yet, if at all. It was just her two bottom front ones.

The main suckage for the weekend was a headache. I had it about all weekend.

Friday night I think we watched a movie, but I don't recall what it was. Oh well. Kyla slept in the bed with Suzy, so I slept on the couch...

Saturday.. woke up with a headache from sleeping on the couch. The headache kept on for the entire weekend to differing amounts of pain. Even still, I hung out with Kyla. The snow started about 1-ish. About 6:30 I went out and cleared the driveway. We had a 6" then, and it kept on. Suzy and I watched "The Human Stain", which is on my Worst List for movies. This was terrible.. horrible. I'd rather watch Fried Green Tomatoes two times in a row than watch this movie once. Alan gave me a call, which was a nice surprise. We chatted for a while.

Sunday, woke up.. head hurting. Immediately went out and cleared the driveway again (another 8" or so). We went to breakfast, and chilled at the house. I went outside for a while to play in the snow with Kyla and Jaz, watched Seabiscuit, and rested my noggin. This really sucked since there was some nice riding to be done in the snow, but my head just wasn't up for it. I also knew that if I went, I'd end up incapacited in bed from the bumping and adreneline rush (then crash) I'd have. I decided to play it safe. The snow will be here!

That's it. So far, my head is fine today. Let's hopt it stays that way.

A nice 3 day weekend. Let's see. Friday seems so long ago.. I don't think we did anything special. Saturday, hmmm.. nothing special either. Playing games, hanging around, we watched Troy. Yesterday we went to my dads and had dinner with them, and my grandpa. Then, watched School of Rock when we got home. Today, again.. pretty relaxing. I made a "treasure hunt" for Kyla. I made clues, and placed them around the house.. one clue leading to another with a small treasure at the end. I had fun putting it all together, and Kyla had a lot of fun. Then Kyla made one for me, and then we made one for Suzy.

Really a pretty non-descript weekend, which is pretty good to have once in a while.

Kyla lost her first tooth tonight. It's been loose for a while now, and it's driven me nuts that she wouldn't let me try to yank it out. When she'd talk to me, it would be in a different position every time she opened her mouth! I'd just stare at it, mesmerized.

But, tonight, about 20 minutes ago.. while in the bath she called me up there. "My tooth came out", she yells down the stairs. I ran up, all excited, and said "CONGRATS!" She was mainly nervous about the bleeding. A little tissue on it for 20 seconds, no more blood.

Very exciting. It's one of her front lower teeth, and the other one will be ready to come out soon as well. Maybe this time, she'll let me yank on it.

Friday night we watched 'Castle in the Sky'. Good movie, but of course, Miyazaki movies are all great.

Saturday, I played with Kyla and relaxed until Suzy got home from work. Then, we hopped on the snowmobile and went riding. When we got back, there was a snowball fight, and I cleaned the driveway. Suzy and I watched Anchorman, which was pretty darn funny.

Yesterday was another lazy day. We watched "50 First Dates", which was better than I thought it would be. Then, "What a Girl Wants" or something like that.. which was a stupid as I thought it would be. I went outside with Kyla and Jaz for a few hours and played in the snow. I shoveled the deck snow into a large pile below, which Kyla made into a "mountain-slide-chair". Enjoyed watching Jaz try to find a thrown snowball in a field of snow... and not being able too. Was a good time.

Since I was dressed already, I then hopped on the sled and went riding across the street for a while. Kyla wanted to come, but I wanted to let loose, and I always hold back when she's on. Riding really gets your adrenaline pumping! We ordered some pizza, and chilled out. After everyone else went to bed, I watched "The Bourne Supremacy". Good flick.

Now.. back to work!

Got some fresh snow today.. in fact it's still snowing. When Suzy got home from work, we all got dressed in our warm clothes, threw the helmets on, and hopped on the sled. We took off across the street where there are acres and acres of field. I didn't go too fast, since Kyla was on with us and it was sort of dark, being that it was sunset time, as well as snowing. I drove for a while, then Suzy took the helm. Man, I was surely nervous with her driving. She did pretty good though. Then, I drove again. It started snowing a bit harder, and was now dark so it got harder to see so we came back home.

Was a great time. Will be good tomorrow as well, since we can go earlier when it's lighter out, and the snow should (?) have stopped.

Got some snow today, which was nice. So, I took Kyla riding for a while. We went for about an hour, which was nice to do. She had a blast. I didn't ride too fast, since I didn't want to scare her.

After we got back I had to snowblow the driveway. She stood in the path of the blowing snow until she yelled "MY FACE IS FREEZING OFF" and went inside by the fire.

That was fun to do. She didn't have school today because of the weather, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with her (we also played some games) between working.

So another year has come and gone. A time to reflect and look ahead. Blah blah, blah. We made another full orbit around the sun.

Let's see. It was a nice long weekend for me. Friday night, Kyla had a sleepover at my dads. Suzy and I just hung out here. I made us dinner, we watched LotR: FotR, and rang in the new year (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Saturday was my grandfathers birthday, so we all went to dinner. I had a bunch of pictures I only had in digital format and had them printed out for him, and made a nice album. With everything digital these days, he really doesn't get to see all the photos we have. I figured this would be a nice way for him to see a lot of things he's been missing.

Saturday night and yesterday were mainly spent playing GTA and SpongeBob Squarepants on the PS2. Even though SpongeBob is Kyla's game, she more enjoys watching us play it. No biggie.. it's fun.

On Saturday night I stayed up late (surprise surprise) and watched Hero. Awesome movie. It's in my "top" list now. Beautiful movie, good action. Suzy tried to watch it last night, but it's just not her thing. So, we played more GTA instead.

Not too action packed a weekend, but very enjoyable. Hope all yours were the same.

The animals are simply driving me crazy. Lily, although cute, is a scrounge. Always up on the counter, which drives me insane. I used the squirt gun so much, I broke the trigger. You can't eat without her being around you, and up on the counter all damn day. I probably wipe it down 20 times a day because of it. I also can't get up and walk anywhere near the kitchen without her meowing at me to feed her. Constantly. All day. All night. Even when I just put food in her dish, the retard still meows at me to feed her.

Tigger drives me nuts as well. The fat cat would eat until he explodes. I feed him in a seperate part of the kitchen than Lily.. but when he's done with his food, he sneaks around to go eat Lily's food. I simply can't just feed them and walk away.. I have to watch. If Tigger wants to eat himself to death.. so be it. But, that just means Lily is still hungry.. as if she ever isn't. The fat bastard knows not to do it, and knows I'll be watching.. but doesn't care. When I get him away, he just comes back. I'll chase him around the house until he runs into the basement and I can close the door on him. And, this happens all day as well. I have to feed Lily during the day, since she's a kitten and needs more food.. and there is the fat bastard.

It goes like this all day:

*I stand up*
"meow"
*food put in dish*
"TIGGER GET AWAY GOD DAMMIT!"
*run around chasing Tigger*
"meow"
"You have food already"
*I sit down*
"TIGGER YOU PIECE OF SHIT..."
"meow"
ARGH!

And Jazmine thinks I'm yelling at her, and goes into her cage.

Jazmine, ALWAYS around you when you're in the kitchen. She's another scrub. We never give her "people food", and when/if she gets a treat it usually isn't in the kitchen. But, there she is. Looking at you like you're about to give her something. As soon as you step away, she starts licking the floor like something is there. *lick lick lick* Then, if you have food, she sits near you... looking at you, but not looking at you. Sort of trying to be sly about it and only looking out of the corner of her eyes. She does that or she outright stares at you begging. Not sure why, since she never gets food from the table. She doesn't even get scraps. Just a "dog thing" I guess.

Right now, Lily is sitting by my feet, as she usually does. I need to get up to refresh my coffee, and I know the cycle is about to start again. Meow.

Kyla is going to a winter arts program for a few days this week. In this mornings local paper, there is a big photo of her in there. Very exciting. She hasn't seen it yet, but will when I pick her up later.

Of course, the way my mind works, I thought.. "Wow, this is cool! I wonder if I can sue them for using my daughters image and name without my permission."

The side by side 'PIP' on the TV has really come in handy the last few days. One the gifts to Kyla was a Namco joystick game. It has Pole Position, Galaga and a few others. One of the features of the new TV is a side-by-side, where half the TV is one input and the other half is another input. So, we can have both a TV show AND the game on at the same time. Very very handy since watching hours of Pole Position or Mappy can get a little boring.

ME! w00t! Woke up to 6" of fresh powder outside. As I was snowblowing the driveway, the snowmobile was staring at me. "Keeeeevin... Keeeeeviiiiin". Oh yes, I shall hear that call. I shall hear it, and respond. I think I'm going to call the sled Big Blue.. since it's big and.. well, blue.

But first... need to make Kyla and me breakfast. Suzy works until 7, which is a bummer.

This year certainly went better than last year.. where my dad had a car accident, and Kyla was ill in the hospital.

This year, we went to my dads house for Xmas Eve, and had a nice dinner and opened gifts. Mostly, watching Kyla open gifts :-) Yesterday morning, Kyla opened all the gifts under our tree. We basically hung out and played games for the rest of the day. And, early to bed.

Today, still hung out and played games... watched it snow... called my buddy Alan and chatted... and relaxed. A very nice, relaxing weekend.

Tomorrow is my birthday, so I'll likely lay in bed longer than I normally would, lock the animals in the basement so they don't bother me (for one damned day), hang out with Kyla and chill. If it snows enough more, I'll go snomobiling.

Everyone has my permission to call their boss and tell them you forgot is was Kevmass.. and you need the day off.

On the 6th I ordered a Puss In Boots poster for Kyla from Art.com (via Amazon). PLENTY of time to be here by Christmas. Amazon says it should arrive between the 13th and 17th. The 19th rolled around, so I emailed art.com. They said it was shipped on the 10th, and should be here at about 8 business days. Well, it was 8 business days.

Still not here yesterday, so I emailed again. My response today was that it shipped on the 15th, so 8 business days will be the 27th. Huh? A few days ago they said it shipped on the 10th... suddenly it's the 15th?

I ordered the damn thing on the 6th. What good is it to get on Monday (maybe)? Maybe it will arrive tomorrow, but not looking good. Even the USPS site has no movement on it since the 15th. As far as I know, it's still sitting on North Carolina.

This is the first time I wish I just went to the mall and got something instead of ordering it. This is my first time ordering from art.com, and my last.

Finally purchased a snowmobile. It's a Ski-Doo 667 Grand Touring. The neighbor who was going to sell me one last year (which ended falling through because of engine problems) sold me another one. He is going to replace it, so now it's mine!

It's still at his house, since he doesn't have his trailer, and there is still no snow on the ground (all melted) to ride it over here. No biggie. Next snowfall, I can just ride it over here. It's pretty nice. Electric start, liquid cooled, reverse, hand warmers (front and rear) and thumb warmer, new plugs, new belt, and a cover. The 2-up seat is good as well. This way we can all go sledding at the same time, and the person on back doesn't have to hold the driver. Very good in case Gavin came down, since I wouldn't need him hugging me ;-)

I think it will be good to have it. Since there is fields across the street to sled, and we are close to the trail system. Makes for a "get up and go" hobby/sport.

Hopefully, my registration will be here by the end of the week. And, tonight we may go pick up some helmets. Need helmets.

The mysterious animal building in the pond is in fact a beaver. Actually, a bunch of beavers. They have built two dams. the one dome one near my house, and a long one on the other side of the pond.

I finally got a good look at them, as there are about 5 of the right now playing in the water, and hanging out on top of the dome.

Pretty cool.

Only 16 more shopping days until Kevmass. Or, Kevinukkah, or Kevanza.. if you wish.

What would you get Kevin for this joyous holiday? Well, if you didn't want to go shopping and pick something out.. gift certificates work well. I need more Penguin mints from ThinkGeek (http://thinkgeek.com). I can always use more Manga (Amazon, AnimeCastle, etc...). Sounds silly, but I need a new incense holder/burner.

But, don't worry.. I don't actually expect anything :-)

So, got the first real snow today. Not too much, only 4" or so out there. We've only gotten some dustings until now. A year ago, we had over 2' by now. I did my exercise of shoveling. Didn't use the snowblower, since 4" of powder is pretty easy to get up. Can't be all that lazy, after all!

We went to Scotty's for dinner as well. We were going to go to a BBQ place, but they were closed. The side roads were still sort of crappy. But, the Audi was fine in it. Better than I was. It's been a while since I had to drive while it was still snowing and the roads weren't all clear.. like the day after. Last year, with the Lexus, I didn't go anywhere if there was any white on the road. That thing would have slid off the road before getting off my street!

The Christmas lights now look really nice, with the snow down. When Kyla came home, we went outside and played in it for a bit. That was fun.

Let's see. Friday night I let Kyla sleep in the bed with Suzy, so I slept downstairs. I watched Gothica in my new widescreen glory. Then, whatever else was on. I think it was some Real Sex Extra or something. Then sleep.

I slept in Saturday morning. Suzy had to work, so she left early. Kyla is good about letting me sleep in. She usually just gets herself on the computer and plays games. After I got up, I made us some breakfast and cleaned up a bit. The rest of the day was basically Kyla and I playing either Rat A Tat Cat, Monopoly or wresting around. And of course, some cleaning. I feel like I'm always cleaning, picking up, need to clean or need to pick up. Even right now.

After Suzy got home I went grocery shopping. Saturday night isn't bad for grocery shopping. After stocking up on food, I stopped by the package store and picked up some wine for myself. Grocery stores up here don't sell wine, which I don't understand. An aisle of beer is there, but no wine. I think I once read something about it, or something about people trying to get it so wine could be sold in the grocery store. I didn't pay so much attention to whatever I read I guess :-)

Came home, unloaded the groceries, poured myself a glass of wine (Shiraz), and ate. I had recorded Rudolf, so we watched that and Frosty the Snowman. Anyone ever notice that when Frosty tries counting to 10, he has 10 fingers? Then, he has only 8 after that?

Kyla went to bed, and Suzy and I watched Kill Bill vol1. Good stuff. Volume 2 is #3 in my queue (after some My Little Pony disk and A Christmas Story... a seasonal classic).

Yesterday, we put up the Christmas lights. It was pretty chilly in the morning when we put them up, then actually warned up to 48 and sunny. Suzy cleaned, I cut up boxes that were in the garage, my dad come over and Kyla played. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then dinner, and I baked cookies with Kyla. We all hopped in the truck and went driving around looking at Christmas lights on peoples houses. There were some which were nice, some were lame, and some had none. There was one house which had about 15 of those large inflatable things, and about every lawn ornament you can think of. It was so tacky and cheesy it was great. It was the kind of thing your neighbors hate you for.

A decent weekend.

For your listening pleasure.. Kyla singing Rudolf and Santa Claus is coming to town.

On Sunday we did it... we got ourselves a new TV. We planned on it, since it's our holiday gift for eachother. Plus, there are sales and it's silly to keep waiting and me researching every TV known to man.

We ended up with a Hitachi 'Ultravision' 50" LCD. The thing is great. I picked up a HD-DVR box from Time Warner, and am in HD heaven. Right now, watching The Saint (great movie, haven't seen in a while) on HBO-HD. So far (2.5 days) I am very happy with it.

We also needed to get a new TV unit. The one we had only fit the 27" CRT we had before. We got two side towers (which has an upper, optional, bridge between them), in an oak color. They have both open shelves, glass doors and solid doors. Very nice. The base until hasn't come yet. I have to pick it up tomorrow. It will all look very nice. I'll snap a photo when it's all done.

I first noticed that some of the cat-tails seemed to be falling over. Not a big deal.. just before Winter they could do this. Then, I noticed they seemed to be falling over into a dome shape in one section. Ok, little odd. Then I started hearing more splashing noises in the pond. I figured it was the ducks splashing. But, then I would hear it more often, and late at night. Usually, the ducks are more quiet and don't splash so loud so often. Next, I noticed lines in the water, like something just swam in it. Then, I saw a shape swimming. Ah ha! A creature! I waited, and watched. I finally saw something swimming from the dome.. then back to it. I couldn't see what it was, but saw it was something. I walked down to the pond, it must have heard me.. I heard a big splash, then smaller splashed in the dome. It was on to me.

Today I was out looking. I heard a strange, almost scratching, noise from within a batch of cat-tails. I saw one moving, back and forth.. more of the noise.. a little splashing, then *whoop* that cat-tail dissapeared.

Beaver? Muskrat? Lock Ness Monter? Looks like I'll have to do some pond recon.

It was 10:30, and we were getting things ready to be cooked. The bird was to go in the oven at 11:30ish. Then, thunderstorm. Boom... lightning.. lights out. No power. The power was out until about 12:30. We were just getting things packed up to bring over to my dads to cook there, and the second I pulled the garage door release cord, *poof* lights back on. Whew.

The rest of the day, everything went great. We played games, ate, and I talked a lot with my grandfather. I like talking to him. I always like hearing about the days "back then" when he was growing up in the Bronx. Or his ventures walking through Africa and Italy in WWII. And, his complaints of his new lifestyle. For example, he was telling me last night about how his "complex" makes him seperate all his trash. Glass here, paper there, breaking down boxes, stacking things, etc... "In almost 90 years, I just throw things into the dumpster.. now it's like a job to just throw out my garbage." He's right. Then he starts cracking on downtown Saratoga. It is kind of funny how people here refer to it as a city, when it isn't. But, he's like "Downtown, downtown. Whoopty doo. When I was growing up there were 40 stores, mom and pop places, a movie theater, candy stores, and everything you need between our apartment and the subway. And that's just one side of the street." Again, he's right. Of course, different time back then when people didn't have cars, and everything was revolving around the "neighborhood". And he tells me about when he was living in Vegas (which he says was better when the mob was overtly running it), and they would say "Don't use the A/C as much to save energy." Everywhere you live, they probably say something like that. "When I was a kid we had to sleep on the roof or fire escape because of the heat. I paid my dues, I'm not turning nothing off." Classic stuff. I love it. I have a video somewhere when one Thanksgiving I was talking to him about this sort of stuff, and I just turned the video camera on, and left it on the table pointed at him. I have to find that. That generation is the link to times gone by. I think it's important to listen to these stories, gripes, and tales. Especially, from our family.

He did bum me out a little when he started talking about how he wants to have his funeral arrangements done beforehand. Not something I really want to think about, ya know. But, I told him if my dad was weirded out by it, I'd help him arrange things or make sure what he wants is done. I do hope he's around for some time longer. He's a great guy. I really love him.

After folks left, we relaxed, and watched Bad(er) Santa. Eh. It was ok. Then Suzy went to bed, and I watched some things I had recorded, and hit the sack.

Now, here I am. Just checking my email, writing this, and will be playing Monopoly with Kyla in a minute.

I hope everyone has a great day yesterday, and has a good weekend.

Not much going on lately. Mainly been working.

Hmmm... let's see. Started to sign up for NetFlix, but never finished.

Started to order Hero, but never finished.

The local guy on eBay who was selling the snowmobile, and someone did Buy it Now, relisted it. I didn't notice until 12 hours before the auction ended. So, didn't get it. Since it's local, I would have preferred to go see it first. Maybe the latest buyer will also be a deadbeat and I'll have another shot. Doesn't have RER, so I'm not too upset.. since I'd like reverse.

Finally got all the Fall decorations down.

At night I hear barking, but can't tell if it's dogs or coyotes. I don't hear howling, which you can always tell the difference.

Got a letter from Kyla's school mentioning "5 unexcused abscenses" and how they can be "detrimental to her academic future." Somewhere in the letter it also called her "Aurora". Kinda pissed us off. She has had 0 unexcused abscences, and she completed all homework sent with her on vacation. She could miss two months of school and not fall behind. Plus, her name isn't "Auroroa". Suzy called and left a message for the principal. She'll probably call back, and get me to talk to. Lucky her. Since a) we sent a note to the teacher about her vacation weeks in advance, b) I even told the bus driver and c) the first day she was out the school called me and I told them she was on vacation ("We sent a note to the teacher weeks ago. How many notes do I need to send?")... I don't see why we'd get a letter about "unexcused abscences", even if it's some sort of form letter. Plus, 3 of the days were half days, since they were parent/teacher conference days. Anyways.

We went out for Japanese the other night, was yummy. The place we go to has those private rooms, with pillows and you don't wear shoes. We always sit in there. It's nice.

Suzy's friend got a Kirby yesterday. Made me re-think about getting one (on eBay, not new like her). I used to sell those things (ages ago), and really do like them. My vacuum is pretty new, so not sure I could justify getting another one right now. Although, I know the Kirby would clean deeper in the carpet, and have a shampoo attachment.

Still thinking about a new TV. Still not sure if we'll do a mountable or non-mountable (projection LCD or DLP). If I do mountable, I think it would be the Aquos, since as far as I know Sharp is the only brand which the lamp is replacable, and not attached. I'm not into disposable TVs.

One of my Silver Dollar fish died. And my Pleca (a few weeks ago). I need to get new ones. Not sure if I'll get another Silver Dollar, or a red bellied Pacu.

The TV show Lost is finally getting more interesting.

I saw that there will be a "Simple Life 3". Aren't we done with these two rich, self-absorbed morons yet?

Powell resigned, and Bush wanted it done now (instead of in a few months) so he could appoint his lap-dog Condi Rice lickity-split. I'd like to see Colon and James Earl Jones do some "buddy" movie together.

I need to run to Stewert's and get some milk...

For the first time since Suzy went to FL. Actually, for the first time since the wedding I think. It was like bushwhacking my face. Maybe I should just grow a full beard for the Winter.

Very lightly, but it's snowing. Yet, sunny. The radar shows some large white spots coming this way. It's actually 40 out, and the ground isn't frozen so it wouldn't stick.. but pretty nice.

Nothing too exciting. Friday night, went to the bar for some Specked Hen and jazz. Came back, and watched some anime. Saturday I cleaned the cars. The truck was chock full of hay from various times we got hay. I got maybe 95% of it out. Hard as hell to get out. My car, of course, only needed a quick vaccuum and dusting. At night, I watched "Cheaper By The Dozen". Eh, kinda sucked. Yesterday I cleaned some of the house. Cleaned the bedroom, mainly. And took the snowblower out to see if it still started. It did. But, it wouldn't turn off. The key, no matter how many times I put it on "off" didn't turn it off. I somehow got it turned off. Whatever, I'll deal with it. It starts, which is the important part and no need to get a new one if this one starts. The belt on the vaccuum broke, so I had to go to the worse place on Earth.. Wal-Mart.. to get a new one. Luckily, my dad called and asked if I wanted to come over for dinner. So, I went to his house after that. Got a nice meal, hung out and talked. He asked if Kelly was coming this week. I said "I don't know". And, I don't. We chatted for a few hours, then I came home. Watched Desperate Housewives, and a Without a Trace and CSI I had recorded. Then headed to bed.

Suzy and Ky have been in FL since Thursday. I'm a little lonely :-( Last night I decided to go to the bar for a bit. I did, but just for enough time to drink a pint. Came home, and watched some anime. Drove around a little this morning, and will probably clean in a little bit. Kinda bored.

Kyla's class voted for who would be president. Bush won 70% to 30%. Kyla voted for Bush. Why would she do such a crazy thing? Because he has a dog and a cat with cute names, and Kerry only has a bird.

Wouldn't it be great if it were that easy?

I was voter #83 in district 9 this morning. Up here in the sticks.. no touch screens, no chads. Just the old-fashioned idiot-proof levers with large red arrows on them.

I hope you all go out today and vote.

This morning we had the conference for the first quarter. She has "Outstanding" for everything! My smart little kid. The teacher basically said she is excelling on everything. Reading, my main push for her, is going great. She can read "level N" books with very good comprehension. The hopes for first graders is that they can read at a level I by the end of the year. Since she is so far ahead, they have her in a reading group of one. She's also doing great in math, and social studies.

Way to go Kyla!

Horrible. Let's see.. put Kevin in a room full of about 200 people he doesn't know. Will he have a good time? Hmmmmm. Of course not! I'm not Mr. Outgoing, so it's a recipe for boredom. I just don't know how to break the ice with people, and if I don't think I'll ever see you again, I don't bother small talking with you. I'm not a small-talk sort of person.

First, we couldn't find the church. Mapquest gets a huge thumbs down on this one. Schenectady also gets a huge thumbs down for having the street of the church (Nott Terrace) be the only street without a sign... and have Nott Street two block away. So, we got there a little late. It was a Lutheran church, and when we walked in people were standing while the priest seemed to be blessing something or other. After the "I do's" everyone filed out to the fun shake-everyones-hand line. So, I did. Then, out of the church and off to the reception.

It was at a place called Century House. It was really nice. The receiption started at 8, and people were arriving at about 7:20. They wouldn't open the doors to the room, so everyone was either in the hall, at the bar, or outside. That kinda sucked... just open the doors. When they did open the doors, nobody seemed to move. Why? Because the finger food buffet thing was about 15 feet in from the door. So people were getting food, and bottlenecking everyone else. Ok, no big deal. Bad setup.. the bar was just to the left, so I went there. "I'll take a Long Island Ice Tea, please." That's my mixed drink of choice, along with a Whiskey Sour. "I can give you something that almost tastes like a Long Island." Um.. ok. It's an open bar, can't complain. The bartender explains that they aren't allowed to serve certain things.. like Long Islands or shots. I took my, what I'll call a Staten Island Ice Tea, and found my seat. Luckily, I brought a flask of Chivas if needed :-)

Suzy introduced me to one of the guys she used to work with, who was sitting at our table. I liked him. He was a pretty nice guy, and we spoke about electronics, cars and a few other things. But, he took off at 10:30 or so, a little after we were done with the dinner. The festivities ended at 1:30. 10:30 to 1:30. I sat there, from 10:30 to 1:30. I had a few more drinks, but I couldn't get drunk since I was driving. I'd go outside, I'd come inside. I'd sit there. Fun. Suzy danced, was drunk and had a lot of fun. I knew I wasn't going to have fun before I went, but it's good she was. I did get into an arguement with another wedding party there, but no need to go into that now. Let's just say I have a strong pet peeve about people thinking I am a doorman, instead of a nice guy holding the door.

Then at about 1:20 a guy I met earlier for a few minutes came and sat next to me. His name is Alan and is the husband of one of the people Suzy worked with. We started chatting, and he was pretty cool. Another guy who likes Scotch, debating, dry humor and slightly sarcastic. Turns out everyone was going up to his hotel room for an "after party", and Suzy wanted to go. I agreed to 20 minutes. I ended up talking with with Alan for over an hour and had a pretty good time. Too bad I didn't meet him 6 hours earlier!! We'll probably invite them over for dinner one night, play Scrabble, debate and have a few drinks. They live in Schenectady, so they aren't within "hang out distance", but would be nice to have people over.

Although I was pretty bored at the wedding, it turned out being a decent night. Suzy had fun, I met a couple decent folks, and would surely be more comfortable at the next event these people are at.

Tonight I get to put on a suit (blech), and go to a church wedding for people I don't know, and will likely never see again. An hour to Schenectady for a 6:30 wedding, then to Latham for an 8:00 reception. Open bar? Not known. When will I be served food? Dunno. What time will I want to come home, 6:29.

Maybe it will be fun. I just wish we could skip the wedding part. I can barely sit in a movie theater for 90 minutes, let along a church watching something I'm not interested in. This is the one time I wish I had an iPod :-)

A few weeks ago I was talking about chores and stuff. This week, we got a Goal Chart. We write in some goals for Kyla, hang it on the fridge, and she gets to put on stickers. So far, it's working pretty well. It's not like we have hard things on there. Take vitamins, brush hair, pick up toys, etc... But Kyla loves it. We'll see how it goes in the long term.

I just went out front for a minute, and what do I see grazing in the yard across the street? A big ole deer. I ran in and got my camera and took a few pics. It heard me, stared at me, then took off back into the woods.

It's always cool to see the deer out.

Today is her birthday. Happy birthday!

Remember the 45 acres I've mentioned? Well, I spoke with the guy who owns it and he's reduced the price. The price per acre now is outstanding. Plus, he's willing to give first right to refusal for another 10 acres of waterfront land he is going to unload. He also gave me good directions to the land, so I could actually see where it is. So, I did that this morning.

45 acres is actually quite a bit of land. I have around a half acre, so it's 90 of my properties. So went up there with my dad to check it out. It's basically all overgrown since nobody is there to maintain it, and nobody is farming it. I went through a bit of it, but when the grass became waist hight, I stopped. I probably only saw 20 acres of it or so.. which were the parts I could walk through. There are a lot of trees, and a lot of brush. Along with two hay fields (which I saw one, I think). Would be nice to have an ATV to go around and see more of it with. I have a few pics of it, and will eventually put them in my photo album. The land is also supposed to have a natural spring and a stream on it. Didn't see those.

I think it's very pretty up there. Lots of trees, farms and views of the mountains. Great place to ATV and snowmobile on.. and probably hike around in the woods. Maybe camp. Suzy isn't seeming too into it right now. Since we don't know when/if a developer will want to buy the land one day, paying for it (and the taxes) may not be in our best interest. But, that's the risk in buying land. However, even if it never sold... could be a great place to build a dream house. Wooded, secluded, wildlife, peaceful. I sent the photos and all my new info to my in-laws.. which I was originally looking for investments for. They still seem interested, and are doing more research on the area. So, we'll see what happens. If they want to do it, I think it would be silly not to get in on it. Even 5 or so acres... which is plenty to build a dream house on one day.

UPDATE: I just put the photos I have up on my album under the "Land" album. No thumbnails, so click on the images. You can see the hay field and trees around it. The part you see which is mowed is next to the road. There is 345' of road frontage, then the bulk of it doglegs to the right.

We were coming back from my dads today, and we took a "long way" to check out what was there. The colors are pretty everywhere, so it was good to drive around. On the way, we saw an Open House sign in the newer development we heard was nice. Since Kell and Dave is coming up to check places out we figured we'd go check it out and see what's what in there.

There were 2 open houses in there, one was the model home. We went to that one first. Kell would love it.. we loved it. About 3 acres, inground pool, two fireplaces, 2 master suites, wide-plank hardwoods everywhere, a "sun room", a study, tile floor in the bathrooms... actually, not only tile.. they were heated floors.. HEATED. The downstairs master bedrooms bathroom had a flat-screen LCD TV behind the mirror. So, while you're sitting in the jacuzzi tub, you can watch TV. Or, stand on the heated tile floor and watch. Simply awesome. The "kids" room was a nice size, then had a long (25' x 6', roughly) room attached to it. Built-in playroom in the bedroom. That bedroom had a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with another bedroom.. and the second master bedroom was also upstairs. Dinning room had a deep tray ceiling, waynscott (sp?) in the dining and study rooms. Granite counters in the kitched.. large island, great cabinets... cathedral ceiling. 4200^ft, 3 car garage, huge basement which was already sheetrocked. Bunches of goodies, 5 bedrooms.

The price, only $950k. A little out of Kells price range, but would be fun to go to again :-)

I'll add in that this house, being a model, was based off another model home which is about 1000^ft less, and starts at $450k.

We did go to the other open house in there. Nice house, 1.8 acres, 2900^ft and was $450k. The house was a center hall colonial. I think similar to some in my neighborhood. Nice treed lot, stone fireplace, cathedral ceilings, tray dining room ceiling, deck (Trex) built already, first floor laundry, etc... I think it was a bit overpriced, but this happens to be a really nice neighborhood. That first house, though, was really amazing. Seemed to be totally worth the price.. if you can afford it!

When Kell comes up, we'll skip that one... plenty of other nice affordable neighborhoods around.

I'm meeting Suzy for lunch today. I figured since she works so close to home now, we can take advantage of grabbing some food together.

I put some new photos in the photo gallery. Look under '2004 October'. Will probably be more added, but we did some leaf peeping today and I wanted to get those photos up. It's very pretty out these days. Was a bit cloudy today, but the colors are great.

Today is Suzy's second day working at the store closest to us. What a difference! She now has an extra 1.5+ hours of her life each day.

Not a bad weekend. Friday night I went down to the bar and enjoyed some live jazz and Guinness. The night was cool, so I sat outside. This was actually perfect since I could hear the music better outside since I couldn't hear the people chatting. I drank a few pints, relaxed in the nice autumn air, and headed home.

Yesterday was the birthday party for one of Kyla's friends. She lives up the street, and we headed over around 2. We ended up staying until 9:30. They had a bounce house, an big inflatable slide thing, and some 30 foot inflatable dragon the kids crawl inside of. Tons of food, beer, wine, cake and fun. It was pretty fun. Got to know a few neighbors better, and learned of some I don't need to know at all.

Today. Sunrises.. the damn sunrise. Our bedroom windows face due East, and we can see some amazing sun rises. Great colors, reflections on the pond. But, they really suck when you want to sleep in, have to get up to pee and happen to glance out the window. That happened (again) this morning. Man, the colors were fantastic.. so my eyes opened to a bit more than a squint. I then heard "quack quack", and saw some ducks in the pond. Now my eyes were open.. and counting. 17 ducks. Took me 20 minutes to fall back to sleep, and I only slept for about 45 minutes after that. No sleeping in, but I enjoyed the sunrise. I should keep the camera up there so I can snap some pics of it sometime.

After breakfast, Kyla and I went to Shuyler Farms. We got long in the 8 acre corn maze for about an hour before we found our way out. Great maze. Then we fed the goats and pigs, climbed in some hay and came home. Grocery shopping, made dinner, then we went for a drive. We went to look for some land I am thinking of possibly buying. It's 45 acres of farmland for a great price. Views of the mountains in Vermont, really nice spot. Well, the area is nice.. but I can't find the actual land. My neighbor is the real-estate agent, and another agent seems to be taking her sign down. So her "it's between a farm owned buy a nice guy, and an house that a nice woman lives in" doesn't cut it for accurate directions. I'll have to have her just drive me there.

Now, just TV time... then bed.

I usually use a vintage Star Wars pillowcase. When I was at Target today I saw a nice Spiderman one, so I picked that up to retire (for a while) the Star Wars one. Suzy doesn't like it. Kyla says it doesn't "match the rest of the bed." But, I like it!

Now, to find some adult sized Underoos for me. I wish there was adult sized Underdog ones (but, boxers not briefs).

I like teachers, and respect what they do. Kylas class has two teachers. Some sort of tag-team thing where one teaches math and science and the other does writing and math. Apparantly, it works well.

Today Kyla came home with her homework folder for the first time. There was a note on it from the teacher which said:

"This was supposed to go home last Friday, and is due back this Friday

Listening needs work..."

What? Listening needs work? What the hell does that mean? I asked Kyla why it didn't come home last Friday, and she said either she forgot or was in the bathroom when they were told. So, it sat in her desk until today.. whe SHE noticed it there, and not in her classmates. She then realized it was supposed to have come home.

So Friday afternoon, all day Monday and all day Tuesday it sat there.. not noticed by either teacher that it was there. A big yellow folder.

Of course, I'll be sending a note back on this. I'm not sure forgetting equates to poor listening. And I'm not clear how neither teacher noticed it for over 2 full days. Or, on their first week of having the homework folder (first time ever, since there was none in grade K) nobody followed up with the kids on if they were doing it. And a vague statement like "listening needs work..." isn't exactly useful. If she needs work listening, pick up the phone and call us. Tell us some times where this becomes a true statement and not an isolated time when it doesn't appear to be a listening issue to begin with.

The homework is pretty much BS this week anyways. Reviewing words she knew since she was 2 and reading... which she does everyday anyways. The only good thing is the journal, which they will have to write in three times a week. This week is only making it personal in some way with photos and stuff.

No mention to us yet about her having independent reading to stay at her level or reading and comprehension. I'd really hate to take her from this school (her friends, and being close by) but if they don't help her excell, and I get stupid notes like that from the teacher... it will be back in private school.

Police say fight preceded campground death. -- timesunion.com

On Thursday a "odd guy" and his "friend" were in Suzys store. She helped the "odd guy". I guess co-workers and her were remarking that he was a bit of an odd guy. Her co-workers said they thought he was gay, but Suzy just thought he was odd.

Fast forward to Saturday. The "odd" guy made sexual advances on the "friend".. so the guy spread gas around the trailer and burned it and the "odd" guy to the ground.

I guess the co-workers were right.

I think it's time I introduce chores, and allowance, to Kyla. I'd like her to earn the allowance, not just be given an allowance. After all, some years ago a kid of her age would already be working in the fields! So I have to decide on an amount for a task, and the task. I've just gotten her started in putting her dishes in/near the sink after meals. But, I think that's something that just helps out... not sure if it should be a paid task or not. So what is a chore which is a "you should do it since you live here" task, and what's a "If you do this chore, you get cash money" task? Here are the things I can think of that I'd like her to do, and she is old enough to do:

* Put her dishes in/near the sink
* Pick her toys up from the living room (daily)
* Clean her room (weekly)
* Take out the track from the bathroom baskets (weekly)
* Make sure shoes/sandals are all in one place (everyone but me seems to put them in random places). Annoys the crap out of me.
* Dust the flat surfaces she can reach
* ???

I think the first two are things she should just do. But, I can reward her extra for being a good helper for doing them. My room was never clean as a kid, and isn't really clean now :-) So, I don't really care if her room is clean aside for her having it as a chore.

Any ideas? Other things she can do?

Today should be the day we know if Suzy is staying with the company she works for, or if she quits. This story is the perfect example of corporate bullshit, and terrible "upper" managers.

When we were going to move up here, Suzy was offered a job. She was told she would be working in the store which is 10 minutes from where we were building our house. Instead, she has been in a store an hour away since starting. If we knew that was the case originally, she never would have accepted the job. Ok.. doesn't sound so bad so far.. so let's go through this.

Soon after she started the regional manager which hired her said she would be in the store here. He seemed like he meant it. Before she was to go, he wanted her to help in another store (where is still is) for a few weeks. No problem. Then, problem. This guy leaves the company! Now, there is nobody to actually TELL her she can go to the other store. No problem, we thought, whomever comes in should hopefully honor what she has been told. BZZZZZT. The Company then brings in 3 other regional (or district?) managers to help cover the others guys stores. I call these three guys Huey, Dewey and Louie. I think Huey is the one Suzy was under. Maybe it was Louie. They all report to the Companies bug guy, which I call Scrooge McDuck.

So, Suzy speaks with Huey about the fact she is supposed to be going to the other store, and when can she go. Huey says he has to talk with Scrooge McDuck. From then on, it was "next week, I'll know" as the matra Suzy would hear from Huey. I think she tried speaking with Dewey, but it didn't help either. Next week. Next week. Basically, Hewey, Dewey and Louie couldn't care less about things in these stores because they weren't really "theirs". Once a new duck was hired, they would go back to whence they came.

Enter Donald Duck. He's the regional who then took over. Donald Duck knew about the situation with Suzy, and that she has been promised to go to the other store and constantly jerked around with "next week, next week." What did Donald Duck immediately say? "We'll know next week." And, every week since then, that carrot is again dangled. It's always one reason or another why it has to be another week. Mainly, he says he has to "crunch the numbers" with Scrooge McDuck. It's not like she is a highly paid executive, and the numbers shouldn't be hard to crunch. She hears that "that store may not be able to afford to have you". The store she is at can, but this one (the one promised to her from the beginning) can't? I guess the Company doesn't put money into one pocket. They also don't seem to realize that Suzy really rocks as an employee. I'm not just saying that. She is organized, learned, enthusiastic, can sell ice to an Eskimo and is more qualified to manage a store as well as sell and do technical things than any of the other folks. After all, she has managed many stores before, and has been an apprentice optician for years (which is another story about NY not accepting her hours from CT, and having to pay almost $1k to re-enroll).

Next week.

Next week.

Crunch numbers.

Next week.

Then, Suzy went to the hospital. While she was out, things went to shambles at her store. Her co-manager really couldn't keep the store running like she does. Charts everywhere, no organization, more complaints, lower numbers. Not hard to see who really kept the ship afloat. How can the Company afford to NOT have her on board? During her time out, the manager at the store she was supposed to go to left, or was fired.. I don't know which. Of course, they immediately offered the position to... right! Someone else who is NOT Suzy. I guess a doctor or two from that same store also left. Ok, here's some budget surpluss! While Suzy was still recouperating, Donald Duck told people he was "crunching the numbers" with Scrooge McDuck again to get Suzy in there. Not really because he wanted to hold true to promises, but the new manager in the store said he wants Suzy there. She is being requested.

While home Suzy heard many rumors. Mainly all about how she was going to the local store. Rumors are rumors, and we've heard them for over a year now. Her and I talked about it. We decided that this is enough bullshit from these people. I'm now working fulltime, so she doesn't *have* to work down there. She has to work, but not there. The surgery was enough stress on her to have to deal with any more of the lies, run arounds and back tracking she has always gotten. Our deadline was Sept 15. If there is no definitive answer by then, she would quit.

All they have to do is say "Sorry, it doesn't look like it will ever happen." That would be an answer!! Not, "next week, next week, crunch numbers" and the bullshit like they are actually doing something. They aren't. While she was out, they even interviewed someone for her position. They pretty much know that one way or another she will leave that store. Her co-manager (I'll call him B) at the store was talking to one of the higher-ups (I still don't know if she really has any pull, seems like a yenta to me) and she said "Well, Suzy has threatened to leave before" and he said "Yes, but now Kevin has a good job and she doesn't need to work here" which she replied "Oh. Something needs to be done then." That exchange revealed a lot. As we suspected, they kept playing the game with Suzy that they would dangle a carrot and call her bluff. They don't realize that eventually, they would see it isn't a bluff. It was just an action awaiting the right timing. And, I've been telling her for months to call Scrooge McDuck herself and get the skinny. She wouldn't do it, although I believe it would be prudent at this point.

Now, she returns to work. Immediately the numbers for the store go up, the place is organized again and the ship is back on course. She calls Donald Duck and says "I heard rumors, what's the deal". Right back to "Next week I have a meeting with Scrooge McDuck to crunch the numbers. I'll have an answer on (some day)." When (some day) would come, she'd call. Same BS. Next week. Finally, Donald Duck straight up told Suzy "Scrooge McDuck has approved it. I'll give you a date next week." WOW!! A date?!?! Approval?!?! Too good to be true!! It was. Next week came, and she called Donald Duck to find out the date. All of a sudden, more back tracking. "Uh, I didn't promise anything. I need to meet with Scrooge McDuck to crunch the numbers. Uhhh... quack quack." Son of a bitch. Wednesday was supposed to be the date of the last number crunching braintrust meeting, Suzy was told.

Wednesday, no meeting. Yesterday, B did the right thing. He went over Donald Ducks head. He called Scrooge McDucks office. He spoke to some woman, let's call her Daisy (Duck). Daisy, from what I gathered, is the one who really gets things done for Scrooge. We know these types.. the real worker when the Big Boss is on the golf course or with their hand down an interns pants. B found out the meeting wasn't supposed to be about Suzy at all. It was about Donald Ducks review! B told her the whole saga, which all seemed to be a surprise to her.

Within an hour of B talking to Daisy, Donald Duck called B. B reamed him an new asshole. How dare he continue lying to Suzy and pussyfooting around everyhing? The girl they interviewed and wanted to hire... he never even called her back! B knows they were going to hire her, but Donald didn't even call her to do it! He's lied about meetings, he's lying to Suzy. B did a good thing. Apparantly, he let it all out to Daisy and Donald. Hello right hand, meet left hand.

So apparantly, Donald is supposed to come in today with an answer. Either she can go to the store, or she can't. One or the other. No more carrot, no more lies, no more bullshit. Just a god damn answer. If there is no answer, Suzy may just quit. No "next week" crap. Enough already. It's been over a year of "next week" or "later this week" and fake meetings with no resolutions.

These type of managers make me sick. If you can't have empathy for your minions, you have no need being in that position. If you treat someone this was, with empty promises and fake help, you don't deserve your job. Just be straight with people. Say yes or no. Be definitive. Be decisive.

You know, I figured out some numbers. Suzy spends almost a weeks pay on gas (especially these days) for work. And, she spends a week (2 hours+/day) commuting. Not to mention the miles and wear/tear being put on a leased truck. So, it's almost like she works 5 weeks a month, and gets paid for 3. She leaves before 8am, gets home after 9pm, works Saturdays, doesn't see Kyla or me very much. That's not really the way it should be. And, since the surgery, I really don't think she needs to do that anymore... or deal with any McDuck lying and baiting her on.

I hope it works out. I, of course, prefer her to have a new job before quitting! I'd most prefer she goes to the store she was originally hired to go to.

First, I hope folks in FL are ok. I'll probably be in some sort of contact this week.

Friday: After work I got ready for the next days BBQ at the house. Mowed the lawn, made some salsa, cleaned the grill, etc...

Saturday: The BBQ. Was a lot of fun. We only invited 9 people, so it was nice and small. We ate, played games, talked. Good time. After that, we just relaxed and cleaned up.

Sunday: Did some more cleanup in the morning. There was a block party at one of the neighbors. I went over there from 2 until about 7:30. Was pretty fun. Talked to some of my neighbors for a few hours, had some food, watched people turn red from my salsa and had a few beers.

Monday: Did yardwork today. Did some fall seeding and fertilizing. Pulled some weeds from the back yard. Aside for that, just hung out around the house.

Tomorrow is Kylas first day of first grade. We're pretty excited. We'll get her on the bus, then go meet her over at the school. Just to make sure she gets to her classroom, and well, watch her for a few minutes entering the brave new world of first grade.

Howe Caverns: Year Round Adventure

Went here today with Kyla and my dad. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and had a great time. The cavern is really cool to be in. It starts at about 156 feet under ground, and the tour ends at about 210 feet. Really cool stuff. It's only an hour away, which is cool. Not that I'd go there more than once a year, but cool that it's so close. It's also really pretty driving there, since it's in the Catskills. Was a really nice day.

On my street, 2 and 3 houses away are two girls, a little younger than Kyla. Those two usually play together since they live next door. But, they also love to play with Kyla and she loves playing with them. But, their parents NEVER call over to see if Kyla wants to play. It's either me calling, or Kyla just goes over when she sees them in the back yard. Give today for example. The two kids are in a kiddie pool. Kyla sees it, so I call over. No answer (the moms were outside sunning). An hour goes by, and Kyla wants to go over. So, I send her over to see if she can swim with them. The kids say yes, so I send Kyla back over. I can't wait around for parents to decide to call. Suzy doesn't really want Kyla over one girls house when her mom is there. This is because the mom came off as a real bitch a few times, notably at Kylas bday party. I say, whatever. I won't deny kids playing together because of issues with adults. Don't like eachother? Who cares. As long as the kids get along. After all, that's one reason to live in a neighborhood as opposed to the top of a mountain or a farm.

It takes about all my control not to just say to these people "So, why don't you ever call? It's pretty annoying to me and Kyla." I did it to another neighbor, who Kyla plays with a lot and was in the same class with. She said blah, and blah and I don't think I have your number. I gave it to her, for the 6th time, and said "Save it this time." I really have no time or patience for excuses or BS. These are kids, and we as parents should make sure they all get to play and spend time with eachother.

That's why I just send Kyla over. Bypass the parent. Avoid the clique stuff, avoid adult excuses. I wouldn't care if they just sent their kids over here, no skin off my back. It's all about the kids. Not keeping 2 kids together and excluding the others because the parents are a clique. The only reason I moved to a neighborhood is because of Kyla. I could pretty much care less about neighbors, and will be happy to move to a secluded place when Kyla is old enough to drive.

So I thought about it. Is it me/us? Did we do something why they wouldn't call? No, we didn't. One of the mothers I'm pretty friendly with. Chill out with a few beers, chit chat at the bus stop, etc... And the other 2.. well, they are just a clique. I know we did nothing to them, and even though one of the mothers comes across as quite the bitch, I still want Kyla to play with her daughter. Why? IT'S ABOUT THE KIDS!

Adults can really annoy me. THINK PEOPLE!! IT'S ABOUT THE KIDS!!

Today we went to the Ashville Game Farm, which is about 16 miles away. It's really cool with a lot of animals to see. But, the BEST part is you can have your picture taken with some tiger cubs. They are two males, one 4 months and one 5 months old. We got our photo taken with one, then as the other people were getting photos taken I decided to not leave the area and played with the other tiger (only one is in the photo). Nothing like wrestling around with a tiger cub! Their tongue is like sandpaper, and has pretty sharp teeth. Luckily, they were nice and didn't use their claws! I ended up playing with both of them for about 20 minutes... way way cool experience. I don't think I was supposed to be doing it, but nobody said to leave so I didn't.

On the way there a house had a sign "Free Kittens". Ugh. Somehow, on the way back I stopped there. They had three kittens, about 9 weeks, which were strays. They took them in a few weeks ago, and just put the sign up today (luck me, eh?). Well, now we have a new kitten. Kyla chose the one she wanted, and so far its name is Lily. It's pretty cute, I must admit. After we got back, I had to mow the lawn then Suzy and Kyla went out to get kitten food and whatnot. So I took Lily upstairs while I took a shower. I layed in the bed and she snuggled up to me, and played a bit. Now she's upstairs with Kyla. Jasmine is psyched, and just wants to play.. but Lily doesn't know what to make of Jas yet. Tigger hisses and is doing the normal "I'm the cat of the house" stuff. The fish haven't noticed, and probably won't. Photos of the kitten will end up on my photo album when I have a chance.

A kitten isn't bad, although I still want a llama!

When the in-laws were here, Kylas education of course came up. When we were in FL, Kyla went to a Montessori school for pre-K. We believe it helped quite a bit in various aspects, and of course her ability to read at a 3rd grade level by time she got to K and her understanding of concepts beyond her age. While in K they had her go to a reading teacher a few times a week so she could read, while all her classmates were learning letters. She would also read to the class, which was cool because the teacher said that helped the other kids want to learn to read even more. Great! But, we get a little nervous that if she can't be learning at her own pace the majority of the time she will fall behind, or get bored. I know I was bored as hell in school until I was able to take AP courses.

We were nervous about this for K, but figured she'd be ok.. and she was. Although if she was in private school she could have been farther in math than she is now (she can do some basic addition/subtraction now). So anyways, this conversation came up. The in-laws offered up that they would pay for Kyla to be in private school because they would rather spend money on that, than on things like toys. Very nice offer. One problem is that there aren't too many non-religious private schools around in the boonies. Montessori is a hike from here, but there is a private school in town which looks interesting if there is space left. I'll probably call them, and at least go in and check the place out.

For now, we will keep her in public school though. At least for part of this year. Why? Well, it's a mile away. Also she is making friends there and taking her to a different school now would mean she'd have to start over. Also, we can see if the school helps accomodate her again by giving her some "private" classes so she can do some things at her own pace.

Anyways.. some food for thought.

My mom left on Tuesday, and the in-laws left today. It was really nice having everyone up here, and we all had a lot of fun. It was very beneficial that my job allows me flexible hours. I was able to take day trips, and do things in the afternoons and still get in a full days work. Kyla is now home until she starts first grade (wow.. first grade!) next month, and Suzy goes back to work next week.

I'm sleepy.. think I'll go to bed.

Friday:
I worked on Friday, and the in-laws came over for dinner. Pretty relaxed night.

Saturday:
Kyla had her bday party. We did it at the bowling alley (which she wanted to do), and it was great. Kids bowled and had fun, adults bowled and had fun. At pizza, cake, opened gifts and came home! Easy! The alley has DDR, which I played for the first time. I got fairly good after a few times, but really need to go back and play with a few bottles of water.

After we got home a bunch of family came over and we hung out on the decks, had a BBQ, played in the yard, talked, played games, etc... Was a really really good day.

Today:
We went to breakfast with the family to start the day off. Then we went up to Grants Cottage. It was ok. We didn't go inside because you have to take a tour thing, and it seems like they talk a lot during it. Blah blah blah.. just let us see the house!! Instead we walked around, and went to the overlook where there is a very nice view. From the top of the mountain saying "Hey! I can see my house from here!" is actually true for me :-)

Then we decided to drive to Vermont for the rest of the day. We flipped a coin to see if we'd go to Rutland (North) or Bennington (South), since they are both about the same time to drive, according to Mapquest. The coin showed heads, which was Bennington, and off we went. Very pretty drive getting there. We found a place which had a bunch of antique stores, wine places and cool shops... so the women were in heaven. After that, we went to Bennington Monument, which was pretty cool. We drove around the town, checked out some covered bridges, and headed back. We stopped at a place to eat when we got back to New York, got filled up, and came home. Now, I'm here writing this.

A really cool weekend. In fact, the whole last week was a lot of fun between Lake George, Lake Placid, Vermont, the track, and family gatherings. My mom goes home on Tuesday, and the in-laws leave Thursday. So, more fun stuff is coming up. One thing that's cool about this location is there are a lot of day trips which can be done. And, it's great when company is here which helps us get up and out to do them.

Today is her 6th!

Forgot to mention this. Yesterday, when coming back from Lake Placid, there was a checkpoint on 87. One (maybe two, only saw one) state trooper and 2 border patrol. Everyone was stopped. The people in front of us were showing the border patrol their passports. All he did with us is look in my window and ask if we all are citizens. I said "yes", and he waved us on. I wondered if that's what they did with everyone, or if we didn't meet a "profile" so were let through no problems. If I had olive skin and an accent, would he have asked for our IDs? Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with profiling... but was curious about it. It was also odd to have a checkpoint with border patrol about 60 miles from the border. But, I guess that was good in case someone got through somewhere on some back road, then hit 87 southbound. It was good to see the security though.

Yesterday we all (me, Kyla, Suzy, my mom and in-laws) went up to Lake Placid. Very nice area up there, which they call the "High Peaks" region. One the drive there, you go through a town called Keene and Keene Valley which seems to have trail heads every 100 yards. I'll probably take a trip up there alone for a hike one day.

First, we drove around the town (mainly because we didn't know what we were going to do). Then, went to the bobsled track. They have bobsleds with wheels, practice sleds, which you can go down on the 1/2 mile track. Me, Suzy and my father in-law did it and it was pretty darn fun. Not really worth the price, if you ask me, for a 42.2 second ride, but I suppose was wort it for the experience. They said in Winter the public can also do it from the mile track... so I may head back up there then.

We then walked around the town, and went on a train ride from Lake Place to Saranac Lake and back. Went to dinner in Keene Valley and headed home.

Well, we went to Lake George today instead of Lake Placid. By time everyone ate, and was actually ready to go somewhere it was just too late to make it worth while. We're planning on going Thursday instead.

My mom came in today. I picked her up from the airport, and her and Suzy did stuff after while I worked. Then, we all went out to dinner.

One interesting thing that she told me was that she saw a guy in the aisle across from her open his peanuts with a pen-knife. Well, she said she saw his open something, slash the bag with it twice, then fold it back up and put it in his pocket. She then asked the stewardess how he got on the plane with a pen-knife. The stewardess shrugged her shoulders, said "I dunno" and that was that. Was it a pen-knife? Possibly. I know that if it was or wasn't, you'd think the stewardess would have at least checked it out a little better. If it was, how'd he get it through security? If it wasn't, then what the hell was it? After all, you are flying right over NYC when the area is in high alert. This was SouthWest, by the way.

Being that I do have to work, we'll try to do what we can while she's here. Tomorrow we may take a day trip up to Lake Placid.. and I'll just work at night. I have yet to be up to Lake Placid, so that would be a nice trip.

My aunt and uncle are going to Quebec for vacation, so they will be stopping in the area for the night. They called a week or so ago, and after some phone tag I got ahold of them 2 days ago. I did my best to find them a place to stay up around Lake George. I should have just offered up here, but didn't even think of it for some reason.

I haven't seen my aunt in, hmm.. a few years. I think the last time I saw her was at my grandmothers funeral. It will be nice to see them, and I'm sure they will enjoy seeing Kyla.

A robin built a nest under my deck on one of the support beams. When we go outside, it quickly fly up to the fence and stares at you. It's sort of funny, because if you stay out in the yard it will fly to the ground and inch it's way back towards the deck. But, if you look directly at it it flies back onto the fench.

Not a great place for it to have made a nest, but is kind of nice. I can't see in the nest, so don't know if there are eggs or not. I'd figure it would be more aggressive if there were. The red winged black birds are very protective. They nest around the pond and hover above you when you get too close. The robin seems to be more "duuuuuuuude.. go awaaaay".

Friday:

Kyla had a friend sleep over. I went and reneted a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and cleaned all the carpets. Great way to spend a Friday night!!

Saturday:

We went to the garden center and picked up some plants for the back yard, and got three trees for the back. Two pear, and an ash tree. I planted them on the outside of our fence so they don't take up room on the inside, and will eventually server the purpose of adding privacy (and pears!). The ash was planted on the far corner. It will get very large, so that was a good place. It will also prevent people from riding their snowmobiles too close to my fence (which has the side effect of keepting them off my property). After planting, I mowed the lawn. We then went out to dinner with my dad and grandfather. At night, relaxed. A good day.

Sunday:

The race track is starting its season on Wednesday, and today they had an open house. It sounded like a great idea.. food, music, games, stuff for kids, etc... But, it seems like everyone else in Saratoga County also thought it was a great idea. Everything had a line. We waited for an hour for Kyla to get her face painted. We didn't even attempt to wait on the pony ride line. They should really have the open house a few weeks earlier.. before all the tourists show up. So, we left and went out to lunch. Back home for a relaxing afternoon. I cleaned a bit, then went out and watered the plants/trees. Now, just wasting some time before Six Feet Under.

I added some July photos to the photo album. They include the Saratoga County Fair, and the photos from my hike at Saratoga Battlefield. If you don't know where my photo album is, let me know and I'll email you the link.

Her 6th is next month. Gifts can be sent if anyone wants :-) She likes large wads of cash. Oh wait, that's me. She likes unicorns, princess stuff, puzzles and My Little Pony.

I broke down today and called a landscaping place for an estimate on hydroseeding the lawn. I left a message. The guy two houses down knows the owner of this place.. I think their partners in something, or just old friends. They did his lawn and it looks great. My front yard, due to all my hard work, looks pretty darn good. The back, however, doesn't. Some of it is nice, but a lot of the grass seems to be stuck at 3" long and not filling in everywhere. There are also a lot of weeds mixed in and some spots with nothing. Instead of me getting more seed and fertilizer I may as well get an estimate on hydroseeding the back, and part of the sides. I figure one decent treatment should give me a good lawn in about 2 weeks.

Hydroseed is a mix of seed, water, fertilizer, tackifier (glue), and green wood fiber mulch. A machine mixes it together, and a high pressure hose sprays it on the ground. In about 2-3 weeks, you have lawn with proper watering. If you've ever seen a lawn or ground which looks like it's been spraypainted green, that's hydroseed. Well, it may be spraypaint depending on where you saw it :-)

Hopefully, it won't be too expensive. Or, at least, reasonable compared to a few bags of seed and fertilizer.

I think we may also get some more plants for the back. We'd like to outline the entire fence (aside the back, so we don't block the pond view) with various plants. We have some already, but need more. I'd also like to do some at the edges of the deck. I was going to put lattace there, but think plants would be prettier and more cost effective. Or, I'll do both! I planted my cayanne pepper plants out back, which I grew from seed, as well as some basil plants. We're also going to go to some plant shops, since it's getting to be the end of season trees should be getting pretty cheap. We'll grab some trees to plant around the yard.

Well, that's the outside. For the inside, we painted and redecorated the guest bedroom. New futon, rearranged it and it looks really nice. I just need to get a ceiling fan for in there. Not like people are coming in droves to use the guest bedroom, though. Today I hung new blinds in the living room. They are light oak colored (real) bamboo wood. They are very nice, and better than the drapes we had. The inside is coming along well. I don't care as much about getting the inside done, because Winter will come along and I'll be happy to do indoor projects. Winter.. that reminds me.. I need to start looking for a snowmobile!

Saratoga National Historical Park (National Park Service)

Today I went to the Saratoga Battlefield for a hike. I went on the Wilkinson Trail, which is about a 4.5 mile hike, through some open fields and woods. Along the way there are some "interpretive stations" which tell you about what happened there during the time of the battle. Plus, there are cannons and other interesting historic things along the way. It was an easy hike, and took me about 2 hours to do.

Site of the first significant American military victory during the Revolution, the Battles of Saratoga rank among the fifteen most decisive battles in world history. Here in 1777 American forces met, defeated and forced a major British army to surrender, an event which led France to recognize the independence of the United States and enter the war as a decisive military ally of the struggling Americans.

It seems a lot of the battle happened on the farm of John Freeman, who was a Loyalist. And, the Americans ended up kicking the butt of the Brits (and Germans) led by Gen. Burgoyn. What I found strange is that I didn't read the names of any of the Americans which faught. Everything was mainly about the Brits. Lots on Burgoyn, hiking the trail the Germans took, where British fortifications were, etc... In fact, I see a Burgoyn St/Ave/Rd in a few towns around here. Wonder why this "enemy" has this?! I'd expect to hear more about General Horatio Gates, which Burgoyn surrendered to on October 17, 1777. Here is a painting of that event.

Some highlights from the hike:

* Saw some red headed wookpeckers. Got a photo of one.
* Saw some monarch butterflies "doing it".
* The best was when I was coming to where the hiking trail crossed an "auto tour trail". I saw a deer bolt across the road. So, I got my camera ready thinking I may see it on the other side. As I walked about 10 more feet into a clearing from the woods, there was another deer about 30 feet away from me. Staring at me. It looked like bambi! I looked at her, she looked at me. I took a few pictures of her, then we stared at eachother for about 2 minutes. I took another step, and she took off across the road back into the woods. I crossed the road and got back onto the path in the woods, and there she was again. Hiding behind some trees she was watching me. I took another picture of her, made noises (like if I were calling a dog or cat to me) to see if she's come over.. but she didn't. I took another step and she ran off. That was really pretty cool. I saw about 3 more deer before I left.

Really a cool place to hike, and I'll go back again and check out some of the side trails there.

Went to the Saratoga County Fair today with Suzy, Kyla and my dad. Had a great time. Saw a bunch of animals; llamas, steer, goats, horses, zebra, etc... rode some rides, ate some unhealthy food, watched the pig races, and generally had a good time. Suzy couldn't really ride any rides, but she had a great time.

Suzy and my dad tried "fried Oreo's". You got it, deep fried Oreo cookies. I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but may as well just snort lard if you ask me. I didn't try them, but I'm sure it tastes great.

My dad won Kyla a fish from that carnival game where you try to toss a ping pong ball into a fish bowl. I put it in her room when we got home (her previous fish died a while ago). Kyla cried when none of her 7 balls made it into a bowl. Man, that was annoying (refer to previous post about crying 6 year olds).

Was a great day, and will look forward to the fair again next year. I think there a boatload of county and town fairs from now until Winter. I'll have to check some others out.

Well, Kyla isn't 6 until next month but it seems she has had a head start. I've read that at 6 kids can start to cry about things which aren't really cry-worthy. Man, she sure does it. For example, last night she started to cry because the video on Americas Funniest Videos she liked didn't win.

I read it is normal, so don't worry about it much. But, it sure is trying on the patience. Luckily, I have yet to say something like "I'll give you something to cry about." So far I just say "Are you in pain? If not, you don't need to be crying." Not sure what else to do aside send her to a different room (which I also do) and tell her to come back when she can use her "words".

I do try to remember that sometimes a trivial thing is important to a 5/6 year old. Oh well, another stage of growing up and another stage of parenting is upon us both.

We're going to Good Times tonight. We went there once when my mom was here in the Fall, and we loved it. It's on a lake, the food is fresh and fabulous. We're picking up my dad (who is treating) and heading down for a 4:30 dinner.

Can't wait!!

Today was Kyla's final day of Kindergarden. I'm so proud of her. She now has a few days off, then starts summer camp on Monday.

Suzy is sort of the same. Sleeps, but in better spirits than always tired. She is still sore, but in different places now (more internal soreness is starting). She's basically camped downstairs now on the couch. It's easier for her to get in/out of since the bed is kind of high.

My mother in-law came in tonight to help out, which is great. Suzy will probably be laid up for a while, and between her and Kyla (and my own insignificant needs), it's been up-n-down-up-n-down for me. So, the live-in help for at least a few days will be very nice for me. Especially since tomorrow is Kyla's last day of school, and she doesn't start camp until Monday.

I thank you all for the well-wishing on here. Makes me happy to see it.

She's home! Picked her up a few hours ago, and now she is situated in bed. Very sore, very tired.. but home. I have some walkie-talkies so she can call me from upstairs if she needs anything.

Went and saw her this morning. Brought her a pillow from home and a few bottles of Sierra Mist. She was going well, except when I made he laugh. I told her that after all these years (8 years married at the end of this month), she FINALLY thinks I'm funny when it hurts to laugh.

She can eat solid food now, so I gave her some Cheez Its Kelly sent. She got up and went to the bathroom, then got a little sore so I left to let her rest. I'll probably go back tonight and check up on her. Her new roommate is old, and forgetful. I guess she kept her up a lot last night because the woman thought she was at home, and kept looking for her clock, and telling people to turn the hall light off. Just can't win with the roommate shuffle.

Suzy is still a bit sore. I think she is now on a full-liquid diet. I guess that means she can have oatmeal, cream and stuff. Not just clear liquids. She's certainly better than earlier in the week, and there are still a few weeks ahead of recovery.

Went and saw her for a few hours today. She's still in pain, but seemed less than yesterday. Or, she's utilizing the "Happy Juice" more. They had her up and walking for a little bit.. she said it hurt. Still no food or drink, just ice cubes. She seems pretty feverish. Her temp was 102.9 when I was there. I sat there fanning her with a newspaper for a while. I think we had a small battery operated fan somewhere, but I'm sure I won't find it. Maybe I'll go by Target on my way there tomorrow and get one for her. I don't think we'll be going over tonight. Kyla being there is a bit much, so we'll just call. A kid visiting is pretty hard to do. Kyls doesn't know what's going on, and just wants to sit there and watch the TV. I just like being there for support, getting a wash cloth, getting ice, etc...

She has a new roommate there. Hates her. From what I could tell, the staff also isn't crazy about her. I guess she had a minor surgery and complains a lot, yells on the phone and has just been kinda nasty. I witnessed it a little. It seems she, her boyfriend and family are the kind of folks I may see on Jerry Springer one day. I think Suzy asked if she could be moved to another room, since the yelling and stuff doesn't help her rest too much. The nurses were sympathetic, but not sure if it will happen.

Still no word when she may be coming home yet. I'd expect Thursday the earliest, and Monday the latest. But, I'm no doctor so I have no darn clue. I'd guess she has to at least be able to eat for a day or two, and be able to stand on her own first.

Anyways... that's all I have to report for now.

This morning she was in quite a bit of pain, which would be expected. She wasn't using the benefits of the morphine button enough. After I left last night, she ran a fever of 104 degrees. She sort of dozed in and out all day. At about noon the doctor came in, and she was finally able to eat.. but only ice. I'm not sure when she'll be able to have more than ice and water. They got her out into a chair for a while, she said it was painful. Tomorrow I think they will be making her get out of bed more often.

I got about 4 hours sleep last night, and am pretty exhausted. Although, I know I probably still won't fall asleep until 1 or 2 AM. I'll be going back tomorrow morning to see her.

Very mixed bag this weekend.

Saturday:
Breakfast at Friendly's with family. Then, we all went to Congress Park for a few hours. There was a Flag Day parade on Broadway, so I watched some of that. Watched the ducks in the pond, had ice cream and rode the merry-go-round with my grandfather. Grilled up dinner, and roasted marshmallows in the chimnea. Great day.

Sunday:
Went to see Garfield with Kyla. The movie sucked. I mean, really sucked. It was 90 (or whatever) minutes of product placements, bad jokes, and non-laughter. Don't waste your money. This movie made me with you could get a refund for movies.

Now, the bad part. Over the last few days Suzy has been having a bit of pain on her right side.. appendix area. Last night and this morning it was pretty bad. She decided to go to the walk-in clinic, and I should take Kyla to the movie. When I got out of the movie there was a message on my cell that the ambulance was taking her over to the hospital. So, there I went.

After many hours of tests, waiting and a cat scan, we learn her appendix is enlarged, there is an ovarian cyst, and of course the Chrohn's. Long story short, she had surgery. They removed the appendix, 12 inches of intestine, and a tennis ball size cyst from her right ovary. She was doing ok when I left (self-controlled morphine drip and anesthesia).

Maybe more info tomorrow. She may be in the hospital for 4 or 5 days. Long day, I'm also worn out so heading to bed.

It looks great! (there will be some photos in my June photo album later this month). It's a nice size, and looks fantastic. Now the hard part.. writing the check out to finish paying for it! Eek!

We were just out on the deck[1], and looked out over the pond and field. There were so many fireflies it looked like fireworks. Very cool.

[1] The deck is now a platform. The railings go on Monday/Tuesday.

So, I'm sitting outside right now having a tag sale. We don't have much to sell, but it was a neighborhood thing and we figured we'd throw some stuff out here we don't need/want anymore.

Between going to Dunkin Donuts and Suzy buying a bike from the people across the street, this will be a losing day. But, it's nice out and not a terrible way to spend the day.

What's funny is that I'm selling some books. I really can't believe nobody wants "Classics of Western Philosophy", "Rise and Fall of the Hapsburg Empire" or my old chemistry books! When I was in college, I took a LOT of German History courses, and have a lot of books on the subject. Some, of course, are about the Nazis and have swastikas on them. This embarrassed Suzy. I have a big book about Hitler's Luftwaffe, which has a swastika on it (since his planes did). Wanting to cover it, Suzy put Alister Crowleys "Book of the Law" over it. I said "Great! Cover a military book up with a book on satanism! If someone isn't into satanism, they'll love luftwaffe!" It was funny.

I also have my old guitar out there. Nobody will buy that either (which isn't bad, since Suzy made me put it out there). To show how long it's been since I have played it, there is Motley Crue sheet music in there!

One good thing is that I found all my Phish/Dead/Allman bootleg tapes. I don't have a tape player anymore, but at least I found them. I also found my Bad Religion and Mighty Mighty Bosstones CDs. I promptly put them in my CD changer in the car and jammed out on my way bad and forth from the bank and Dunkin.

Welp, it's 12:40... time to switch from coffee to Corona.

Today Kyla was in her first play at school. The Three Piggy Opera, which is basically the Three Little Pigs. She played (starring role!!) the Mother Pig. Her name is even first on the playbill!! She had a solo song, and did fantastic. It was really great, and I'm so proud of her.

I video taped the play so we can watch it over and over again, and later bore company with the video.

Most of the frame is now done. They are supposed to come over and work on it all day tomorrow. The thing is freaking huge! It's close to 400^ft. It will be nice when it's done!

The footings went in today, since the inspector came and gave the building permit. All the wood is in the back, and it should be able to be walked on by this weekend... weather permitting. I guess I should take some before/after pics.

We have a lot of a certain type of bird around us. As best I can tell, they are some type of plover. One day I'll take a photo and see if anyone can identify it. I was just out walking Jasmine, I look down and there are 4 eggs in a nest built on top of the dirt. The eggs were spotted, and warm (so I know they are being tended to). I looked up a little on plovers, and they seem to do this... make a nest and lay eggs at ground level. So, I think they must be plovers, and plover eggs.

I went back out with Kyla to show her, but couldn't find them again. It's raining, so I was scanning the ground quickly. When it isn't raining, I'll go look again.

The May photos are now up. A few of my favorites:

Kyla with a dragonfly on her finger. There was a dragonfly in the grass, and let us pick it up. I think it must have been near the end of it's life and just didn't want to fly away. But, pretty cool to be able to have one on you. Kyla was enjoying it.. and it's pretty cool she wasn't afraid.

Kyla holding a frog. This is the first time she held a frog. Since this time, she loves chasing them and picking them up... as you can see in the album.

Kyla and a tree frog. I saw this frog when I was mowing. When I saw it, it was almost completely white. You will see in the photo it is then greenish brown. Between the legs and body it is orange. The frog seems to change colors, which was pretty neat. It let Kyla hold it for quite a long time, and she named it "Leapy".

Kyla getting Student of the Month. The light in there wasn't good, so the photos didn't come out great. But, this one was nice.

Kyla at a spinning wheel. We were at a llama workshop thing for kids. She got to sit at the spinning wheel.

This guy was at the llama thing. He just happened to have the longest mullet I have ever seen, so had to take a photo of it. The guy was about 4 times my size (his mullet alone was twice my size), so this was the only photo I took.

There are more photos on the photo site which are good.

Here's another weekend recap.

Saturday: Started with me making French (Freedom?) Toast for breakfast. Then, mucho gardening. We rearranged the shrubs in the front flower beds. Took out some junipers and moved them to the sides of the house, moved some shrubs to where those were, put a boulder in between two flower shrubs we have (one died, so this one takes up the space, and looks good) and put some day lillies in. Looks great. I wanted to make a fire pit in the back, so I went down to the construction area to look for rocks. Got a bunch of them (randing from 4" to 8" in diameter) and brought them back. I then thought to myself "Hey, these may look good as a border around the flower beds on the sides of the yard!", and behold.. they did.

Kyla was going to have a sleepover at my dads, so I hopped in the shower and got dressed. We took her over there and Suzy and I headed downtown to have dinner. We had a $50 gift certificate from our real estate agent for some restaurants downtown, so we figured we'd (finally) use it. We went to a place called Wheat Fields on Broadway, and sat outside in the front patio area. It was really nice because the weather was cool, and watching the people walk by is fun. The food was really good, and it was great getting out. What's funny, is that we were really trying hard to order more than $50 of stuff. We didn't have any cash, so were hoping the bill would be $60 so we could put $10 on the CC with a tip. Soup, shrimp scampi, soda refills (some places there aren't free), cappuccino, desert.. and it came to $48 and change!! Ended up that I ordered a piece of pie to go, so I could have something to charge to give the lady a tip.

We came back home, watched 28 Days Later (sucked), and hit the sack (*wink wink nudge nudge*).

Sunday: I went down to the construction area again for more rocks. We decided to do the front flower bed the same way. I always liked rocks a borders since they are natural looking, low maintenance, and in my case... free. My dad brought Kyla back, and also my grandfather. Dad, Kyla and Suzy went to the garden center for a few things, and I hung out on the front porch talking to my grandfather. It's nice to do that once in a while. Then, they came back with pizza and more stuff to plant. We ate, and we planted, then they left. Suzy, Kyla, Jasmine, Tigger and myself all hung out in the back and played together. Was a lot of fun. I decided it would be a good night to camp outside in the back, so we took the chimnae (sp?) out of the garage and brought it to the back yard... since I ended up using all my "fire pit" rocks. I set the tent up, got the sleeping bag, some wood and started a fire. I really thought Kyla was going to camp out with me, but she then decided she didn't want to. Suzy couldn't since she had to go to work in the morning. So, it was just me. After my fire burnt down to coals, I went in the tent, turned on the flashlight and read some more of Musashi until I was tired. Zipped up the sleeping bag and went to sleep.

Monday: Suzy was at work most of the day, and Kyla was very tired. She had a little temperature for some reason, so she just layed down and relaxed all day. I did some more work in the yard, and the garage for most of the day. I then made some chai, grabbed Musashi and sat out on the front porch for some reading. A nice lazy day (well, aside the yard and garage work I did). Now I'm writing this, and will probably just chill out the rest of the night.

Today the came out and dug the holes and stuck the hollow tube things into the ground for the footings. It's going to be a nice size deck (16x24). He said that next week we should be able to walk on it, then the following we'll have the railings done. Since it's a holiday weekend, things won't happen again until Tuesday (has to be inspected before the concrete goes into the tube thingies.

Either way... progress!

A great Clash song, and fitting for this evening. I got a speeding ticket in March, and plead not guilty in court. Tonight was my trial date. They never sent me the supporting deposition I had asked for, so I was pretty sure I'd get off anyways. But, I guess the cop didn't show up or something, and the judge called me up, and simply said "dismissed".

See! I wasn't speeding!!

Kyla got Student on the Month this month. I just went to an assembly where she got her award. She was soooo excited. Also, the kindergarden class will be putting on a play, The Piggy Opera, next month. Kyla did a little bit of one of the songs in front of the school. She did great! We also learned from her teacher that she will be playing the lead part, Mother Pig.

$proud_father++;

Last week a picked up a hanging basket plant for the front porch. I think it's called a Bleeding Heart or something. I specifically got that one because there was a hummingbird feeding off it at the nursery. Just a few minutes ago a hummingbird was feeding from it. Pretty cool.

Last night was an awesome thunderstorm. I was up until about 2am watching it from the bedroom window. Flashes, bolts, thunder... it was natures fireworks. I've always enjoyed thunderstorms and being able to look across the field from the bedroom gave a nice vantage point.

With the storm came quite a bit of rain, and the pond is much higher. I saw a momma and pappa duck in there swimming around with 7 or so duckling. They are soooooo cuuuuuuute. Hopefully, they will stick around a while.

In an attempt to get closer to going camping, I took out the tent and set it up to clean and air it out. The last time I was camping was at Franconia Notch for a few days. The second day it poured (it actually started pouring while I was up at Lonsome Lake, and about 5 miles away from camp). Here are some photos of that trail. So, there was a lot of Franconia Notch dirt in the tent to clean out. But, it's up and ready to go!

There is really a crapload of local places to camp. We'd like to try an overnighter with Kyla and Jasmine to see how they do. I'd really like to make another trip up to Franconia (I really like the Presidential range) for at least 3 or 4 full days of hiking and camping.

My mother is hard to shop for. Jewelry is always ok, but can't always do that. Gift certificates aren't good. I think she may still have some which we've given her in the past. I don't like getting her things for her house, since she usually isn't there. I don't like getting dust collectors for the sake of getting something.

This year, I had Kyla sing a bunch of songs and recorded them on my laptop, then burned a CD for her. There is also a recording of Kyla talking.. with Suzy asking her her favorite things, and Kyla just rambling a little.

I didn't get to speak with my mom yesterday, although I left messages at every number I have for her. But, when I got home last night I had a message from her, crying, that she loved the CD. I figured it would be a good. She doesn't get to see/talk to Kyla much, and this way she can hear her at home, in the car, at work, have friends listen, etc...

Another great weekend. Friday night Kyla had a sleepover, and Suzy worked late. I called Alan for a bit, had a little wine and relaxed. Saturday was spent working on some landscaping, and fertilizing the front yard. We got some bushes for both sides of the front of the fence, with some cedar mulch. I also mowed the area leading up to the pond so it is more maintained and nicer to walk on. Subway for dinner, a shower, and watched HGTV until we went to sleep.

This morning we woke up early, picked up my grandfather and surprised my dad at Friendly's for breakfast. Today is his birthday. After that, we went to his house for a little bit, then came home. Morgan came over to play with Kyla, and I finished up the landscaping. We all played in the front until Morgan had to go home. Then, dinner (fended for ourselves tonight). After dinner we took a walk (Kyla rode her bike), and took Jasmine along. We went to the end of the street and up to where more homes are being built. Since nobody is up there, we let Jasmine run around a bit, then we came home. It was nice!

We then headed down to the pond to look at the tadpoles. I let Jasmine come down with us and after a few minutes she jumped into the pond and pranced around. She always did love being in water. There must be a nest for red winged blackbirds somewhere on the far end, because a few looked pretty pissed she was in there. After running around, and looking at the tadpoles we came back in. Kyla is now in the shower, and I'm chillin' out waiting for Sopranos and Deadwood.

Yesterday I went to Town Hall to pick up some mosquito dunks to put in the pond. When I went to put them in, I noticed a crapload of tadpoles in the pond. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but we have a boatload of frogs here. You rarely see them during the day, but you hear them at night. They are loud, but it's nice to listen to. After seeing all those tadpoles I know we'll have even more! It's kind of nice, actually. The frogs take care of a lot of the bugs, and give a nice symphony every night. I really need to record it at some point so people can hear it.

So, yesterday I took Kyla down to the pond and we caught some of the tadpoles for her to bring into school. It was excellent timing, since they are learning about the life of a frog right now, and have a tank for tadpoles.

Took Kyla over to Gavin Park after school today. This is where she will be having summer camp. Decent park. Nice playground, some tennis courts, ball field, soccer, etc... The summer camp has a boatload of field trips, but I know she'll have fun when she is just at the park. We both had a good time today.

Made some more progress this weekend around here.

* Suzy painted the upstairs hallway walls. The ceiling above the stairway is about 25 feet, so we didn't paint that yet. Need to figure out how to do that area, then paint the ceiling too.

* I installed a new fan in the master bedroom. Of course, with remote. Got a cool remote which keeps the temperature, allows you to set different things. Of course, the fan will either be on high or off... but I like the LCD screen.

* Raked the hay off of the front lawn.

* Mowed the front lawn and weed whacked where needed. It's filling in nicely, but still has some areas which need work. Mainly where there is rain runoff.

* We took our dresser (it's a $1000 dresser) which we had in the garage and put it in the dining room.. without the mirror. It looks good in there... sort of like a buffet or whatever it's called. Also provides some good storage. You'd never know it's a dresser. Also moved the table from North/South to East/West. Really looks good in there now.

* Put some grass seed in the back. I maybe raked 1/4 of the back yard before I was too tired to do more! So, put down a bag of seed and all the hay. Hooked up a new sprinkler and watered it. I'll see how it does in a week or so, then do another 1/4 of the yard. I'll wait for the rest until the deck is up. No need to seed when builders will be walking all over it.

* Some other small stuff.. organizing and whatnot.

The house is coming more and more together. Now that the dresser is out of the garage, I can finish organizing in there. The only full room to do anything with now is the guest room. Need to paint the 3 bathrooms and finish the upstairs hallway. Get some new light fixtures and stuff like that. But, I'm happy with the progress.

I'm wondering who will come visit first:

Kelly
Alan
Frisher
Gavin

I know my mom and in-laws will be here for Kyla's birthday, so they don't count. Frisher should be up here for Phish in June... not sure if that counts :-) I think Kelly is a long-shot. Gavin is a few hours drive, but he seems lazy to drive like me (I'll probably go to his place before he comes here). Alan will surely come at some point, but not sure when.

For the last week or so I Blue Heron has been coming to the pond in the morning. When we moved in, there was a white one and now a blue one. It's pretty cool watching him (her?) walk around. Not sure what it's eating in there, but it's nice to watch.

It also seems that the 2 resident ducks have guests... or roommates. 2 other ducks have been in the pond with them. And I've been seeing more hawks hovering close to the ground in the field. Geese have been coming by sporadically. I haven't seen any deer for a while, and have yet to hear any coyotes at night.

It's a nice 79 degrees out with 28% humidity. It feels warm after having winter cold, and 50s/60s as of late. But, you can be outside for a while without sweating, unlike the norm for FL. Where I live also has a nice breeze about 90% of the time which is very nice. Sometimes, the wind gusts pretty hard, which isn't so nice mainly because of all the dirt (new houses, no grass).

Speaking of grass... I now have a front lawn with 3 layers of grass. A taller level which should be mowed, a mid-level from a seeding a month ago, and a low level from a seeding 2 weeks ago. Well, 4 levels... since there are still some dirt spots. It's encouraging seeing the new grass growing. My front should be nice this year, but not sure about the back. I'm not sure what to do. Where I do have grass will soon be covered by a deck. Seeding is really a pain, but the cost of sod is about $3 for 10 sq. feet. It could cost a few grand to sod the whole back yard (just the sod with me laying it). I'm thinking to just grow corn :-)

My April photos are up, for those of you who know where they are.

Suzy to Kyla: "Wow! You got a reading achievement award! That's wonderful!"
Kyla: "What's acheesement? Is that when you eat a lot of cheese?"

Gotta love kids with new big words.

Friday: Hung out with Kyla and played "Monster Tennis" in the back, and fed the ducks. Met my dad at the (well, "a") park near his house and played some real tennis with him, and Kyla. Then I came home for some relaxing before Suzy came home and we went to the dinner & movie place.

Saturday: Was woken up a few times by a bunch of geese. We slept with the windows open since the weather has been really nice. I made some breakfast, then went to a local gardening place and picked up a bale of hay. Then went to Home Depot to get some stones and flowers. We were going to use the stones to build a low wall around the flowers, and the two cherry trees I planted a few weeks ago. Picked Kyla up from my dads, came home and put one of the walls together, and planted the flowers. I then put some more grass seed down, and put hay over it to help it grow. Between the wind and runoff, the hay should help some of the seeds take a little better than before. Worth a try, anyway. Then watered the lawn, had some dinner and we relaxed the rest of the night.

Sunday: Woke up and I made some French Toast. Suzy went out to do some errands, so Kyla and I played some Monster Tennis again. We walked to the back fence to see if the ducks were around. The ducks actually spotted us before we spotted them! They came to our side of the pond, and even came out.. and stared at us. Quack quack. So I went inside to get some food for them. They waited, and we went over and fed them. I expect that by the end of summer they will just be knocking on the back sliders for food! Then Kyla and I started putting together one of the walls around one of the trees. Suzy came home, and we all did the other, then put some cedar mulch around the trees. Suzy picked up a bird feeder and hummingbird feeder, so we put those up in the back yard as well. I'm not sure if there are hummingbirds around, but worth a shot. Everywhere has a selection of feeders for them, so they must be around here somewhere. I again watered the lawn, went out back with Kyla, then more Monster Tennis. Cleaning, dinner, laying around with Kyla, and now will do some reading (still working my way through 'Musashi') and relaxing before The Sopranos and Deadwood.

Gotta love these great weekends!

We went to the dinner & movie place last night. Was really very cool. The movie was good, the food was good, and being able to drink Guinness while watching it was pretty cool. We will certainly be doing it again.

Friday night we have reservations at a Dinner & Movie place. They have a grilled portabello sandwich on the menu and the movie is "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Should be fun!

Since Kyla is on vacation and most of the other days so far she has either had a sleepover, or I had to do something mid-day, we got to spend some time together this morning. After waking up we went to Scotty's, our local diner we frequent. Then, headed over to the bowling alley for a few games, then Dunkin Donuts for a donut for her and some coffee for me.

Now, back at home for a while until gymnastics class. Unfortunately, it's a rainy day (April showers, May flowers... yadda yadda..) otherwise we could go for a hike. But, now she's upstairs on the computer for a while. Soon, she will yell down "Daddy, I need help" since that computer runs Winblows and between the constant popups, spyware, crashes, freezes and random memory spikes it can only be used in spurts. I need to either reformat and reinstall Windows on it at some point, or change it out for an iMac. Having to almost constantly change security settings, clean malware, adware, skyware is very tiresome. Actually, the main problem now is that if the Google Toolbar is NOT installed, IE closes after about 10 seconds. So, I have to install the toolbar (again), but when I reboot the toolbar is gone again. I don't get it, and don't really care to. Simple solution.. iMac! Least expensive solution, reformat and reinstall. But, I digress :-)

Bowling was fun, breakfast was fun, and DD was fun. I love the new tops on the coffee cups. One of the great benefits of working from home is being able to do things like this in the morning. As well as not having to figure out who will watch the kid when vacation is around.

Rain was forecast for yesterday (April shows, May flowers.. after all), but it was sunny and nice all day long. We went over to some extended family's house for the day. Dinner, beer, wine, trampoline, egg hunt.. all good fun. Was a great way to spend the day.

Been busy the last two days putting together a playground for Kyla. Yeesh, these make these things a pain. It has a rock wall, fort, 3 swings, monkey bars, picnic table and spiral slide.

I hope it doesn't fall apart!

Kyla is an inspiration to her classmates. She is reading on a Level F with good comprehension. Kyla reads with expression and enjoys reading to her classmates. Reading is truly a gift and Kyla is a little miracle.

Can't get much better than that!! The teacher says she actually can read above a Level F, but at Level F is where her comprehension is best. She's actually reading 3rd grade level books in class, but doing exercises with Level F. Her writing is getting much better as well. Many things she spells phonetically (like she may do "hereing" instead of "hearing"), but is writing a lot more.. as in often and volume. Her teacher said that she sits in front of the class and reads to them all. Also, she will read to small groups of kids on her own. The teacher says she is inspiring because other kids see her reading so well, and try harder to do it on their own. Makes me proud, for sure. Nothing like excelling in reading and comprehension, since you can always gain more knowledge by reading than from a lecture.

Also, she's been much better with other kids and has a lot of friends. All around, a great progress report.

My dad came over today with a box saying it was a surprise for me. After getting back from an Easter Egg hunt I opened it up. A telescope!!! That is an awesome gift. I've wanted one for a very long time, and being that the skies here are great for observing, it's perfect. It's cloudy today, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it tonight, but I can't wait until I can!

As I mentioned, we were having an estimate done tonight for the Owens Corning basement finishing system. I think the stuff is great. The guy came over tonight at 7 as planned. I expected he would just tell us about them (the franchise), measure, and leave.. then call in a day or two with a price. Not quite.

All began well. He seems like a nice guy. We all chat a little, then go to the basement to look at what we want done. We do, and he measures up. We ended up measuring out about 500 square feet, which is about half the basement. Why just half? He said the whole thing would get really expensive. No biggie.. let's see what half would cost. He's down there a while drawing up a diagram, and finally comes up. He said he had the price... but first he whips out this presentation thing and starts telling us about Owens Corning from the ground up. It was now about 8:10 and I saw there was about 20 more sheets to his presentation. I politely told him he didn't need to go through it all, since we like the product, they are the only ones who install it here, and don't need a presentation. Just need the price so we know if it's in our budget for now, or later. After all, that's why people get estimates!

His demeanor changed. He said "If you don't want the presentation, then you don't want the product." I was like, "huh?". I said it's either this, or sheetrock but we need to know the cost, it's getting late.. I need a shower, we have to put the kid to bed and want the price. He then said "if sheetrock is an option then I shouldn't even be here." Suzy was now getting agitated. I said "millions of people have sheetrock.. your product is new. Sheetrock is always an option." There was a little back-n-forth then he finally gave us the cost. It's basically the cost of sheetrock, doubled.

Anyways, the guy started getting pissy and he left. Although I love the product, it's simply too expensive right now. I'll get some estimates for sheetrock and a "normal" finished basement.

This morning we had a landscaping guy come to take measurements for retaining walls. Then, we went to breakfast with my dad and grandfather. After that, my dad and Suzy headed to the garden store and picked up some flowers and potting soil to do some planting in some pots we have. While they were gone.. me, Kyla and my grandfather did some kite flying.

After we planted the flowers in the pots, my dad and grandpa left and we headed back to the garden place. They are having a 50% off sale on trees this week, so we went to picked up two cherry trees for the front. Blooming cherry blossoms are very pretty, so we thought those would be good. They have good prices on other cherry, plum, apple and pear trees... but we will wait on those and do some in the back yard.

We came home, planted the trees, layed some grass seed, watered the lawn, rode bikes, scooters, played hopscotch and generally had a lot of fun around the house. I'll be going to pick up a pizza in a few minutes, then relaxing until The Sopranos and Deadwood come on.

Great day.

Now that we have the deck going to be built within the budget we expected for it, there are two more estimates going to be done. Saturday we will be having some landscaping estimates. It's going to be for some rock/retaining walls along the front of the fence, and around the landscaping we currently have. Then, Monday Owens Corning is coming out to give an estimate for finishing the basement.

I'm sure the retaining walls will be within budget for this year, and am pretty sure the basement will not. I really have no idea how much the landscaping stuff will cost, and I care more about having it along the fence than along the current landscaping. I guess it will depend mostly on the cost of the rock we want, and how high we want it. I'm guessing the basement stuff will cost about 20k for what I want. The Owens Corning stuff is about 20% more expensive than sheetrock, and I think sheetrock would be about 13-15k. But, I'll have him do a few estimates for doing various partial parts of the basement. What I'd love is to have it split into a TV/media/game room, a storage room, an office, and a craft room. I could probably fit a small guest room down there, but I don't really want to put in a bathroom. Too much hassle.

Anyways.. more estimates are good. It's nice to know what things you want cost so you can plan for them.

Going on a field trip with Kyla today to some Seasame Street play at the Glens Falls CC. Should be fun. This is one of the good things about working at home, you can enjoy these things with your child. I hope it's fun!

Signed a contract today for a deck. It will be 26x16, and should be going up in May. That's a pretty decent sized deck! What's great, is that it can be large, and barely take up any yard! It should be nice. It better be :-) We wanted to have a screened room surrounded by a deck, but that was a bit out of the current budget by about 10k. So, we are getting the same area as just a deck, and can later add on a screened room on it if we choose. Either way, the deck will be nice to have.

One of Kylas favorite shows is Spongebob. He says "tarter sauce!" in situations where you or I may say "damn" (or something similar). Kyla now (for a while) says "tarter sauce" to everything! If you tell her 'no', for example, she'll say "oh, tarter sauce!" Sometimes it's annoying, but it's better than her cursing :-)

Today was a productive day. I first met with a client, then did some work for another, then started tackling the garage. It actually looks more cluttered right now, even though it has less things in it. Mainly because I moved things from the sides to the middle. Lots needs to go down into the basement for now (like books), some things need shelves or to be hung, and some is in need of shed! But, it's progress. I'll probably work more on it tomorrow, and over the weekend.

I'll probably be making a Home Depot run on Saturday. I want to get some grass seed for the front yard, and will likely pick up some stuff to help organize what actually needs to be in the garage.

The one thing in the garage that I need to get rid of is the dresser/mirror! We moved the rest of the bedroom furniture into the bedroom (novel idea, eh?), but will just forgo the dresser. The guy who painted our living room said he may trade painting the stairs hallway, upstairs hallway and master bedroom/bath for the dresser. I think it's a good deal. I'll have to give him a call and see if he wants to do that.

Now, off to play some games with Kyla. Well rounded day :-)

This weekend we went to a home show in Saratoga. Was pretty good. We have some people who will do estimates on landscaping, a patio/deck, installing a plasma above the fireplace and the basement. There is an Owens Corning product for basement finishing. I have seen the commercial and was interested, but they were at the show. This stuff is cool. It's soundproof, washable, insulated, and only takes about a week for them to install. It includes a drop ceiling and lighting. It's almost like how they make temporary offices and cubicles in an office, but better. They said it's about 25% more expensive than sheet-rock. I'll get an estimate and see how much it is for the basement.

Speaking of the basement, there has been no more flooding yet. The people also haven't come out yet to snake the pipe. I hope they show up today as I'd like to know what's wrong with the pipe.

We had the living room painted. If you know where my photo site is, you can see some photos on there. One of the guys who came over with the guys looking at the pipe last week was a painter. He's been painting for over 20 years and seems to be well known. He's also very reasonably priced. So, I had him paint the living room on Sunday. It looks fabulous! We also rearranged the sofas a little and it looks so much better in here. This was also the first time we painted a ceiling, and I really like it. I painted the ceiling in the breakfast nook, but never a "real" room. Looks great on the cathedral ceilings.

I guess that's it for now.

Kyla has figured out how to use the DVR. She figured out how to pause, rewind, fast forward and play. On one hand, that's cool that she figured it out on her own. On the other hand, one episode of a cartoon can take forever to watch!! She'll rewind things to watch it over "Oh.. watch this", "Did you see this?" .. rewind.. replay.

She will also, as many kids may do, leave the room in the middle of a show. Maybe to go to the bathroom, get a drink, find a book or toy.. or all of these things at once... then come back 10 minutes later. She'll pick up the remote and rewind it. Daddy gets to watch it twice! Yay! Sometimes she'll just pause it, but most times she doesn't.

However, she still doesn't understand why you can't rewind a show you haven't been watching.

Now that the pond isn't all frozen anymore.. the ducks have returned! They were pleasantly swimming around.. then vrooooom.. a snowmobile came by and scared them. But, they are back! Yay ducks!

It's been above freezing here for about a week now (during the days, at least). Right now, it's a nice t-shirt appropriate 46F. With this heat wave, the snow is melting away. I'm looking forward to Spring so I can get started on some outside projects (shed, playscape, garden, lawn, etc...).

One thing I noticed in part of my front yard where the snow has receded is grass! By the end of Fall, my front yard could best be described as a Chia Lawn, which patches of grass here and there. If you looked at it from street level, it looked filled in, but looked like the Everglades from above. The yard was hydro-seeded twice last year (part of what the builder does). Of course, soon after each spraying it would rain. I expect the pond to have full and luscious grass around it! But, I'm wondering if some of the seeds quietly are still there, germinating under the snow. It would be great if that was so!

The lawn will be one of the first things to get done this Spring. Actually, I may just put seed on top of the snow (when it's low enough all around) so it can germinate and set in as the snow melts. The back yard... not sure what to do. I have to mark off the areas where we plan to have a shed, swing set, gardens and patio/deck. Then, only put seeds in the rest of the yard. Or, get a few palettes of sod and try that. The main thing is to get the back grassed so Jasmine doesn't track mud into the house and Kyla can run around back there. The front/side yard I don't mind using seed.

I look forward to doing some landscape design. We have some which came with the house, in the front already. But, there will be more! More! More!!

Since I work at home now, and am the Domestic God, some of the traits which would normally seem "feminine" are starting to show.

* I got excited today because the Ikea catalog I requested came.
* I requested an Ikea catalog
* I got excited that I got myself a new vacuum cleaner
* I actually pay attention to commercials for cleaning "wipes"
* I use coupons
* I clip coupons
* I make "lists" of things
* Telling people to pick their stuff up all the time

Luckily, I have yet to start menstruating, watching soap operas, crying at movies/commercials/Hallmark cards, gabbing on the phone all the time (I still barely answer it), or making sure my clothing matches.

But, it's all cool. I'm still easing into my Consultant/Domestic God/Super Parent role and noticing these changes means I'm acclimating a bit. Now, I need to find some people to hang out with! That's the one thing I'm missing.

The snowman keeps guard. Suzy wouldn't let me put a carrot as a penis.

Here's a pic of Kyla and her friend on the Kitty Kat today. You can see they are dragging a neighbor kid behind them on a sled. This is one of the things I think is great to be somewhere with snow. Kids can't do this in humidland!

Went out to Japanese tonight. It's been a few months, so it was nice to go. We went to a place (sort of) nearby. We ended up sitting in one of the rooms. That was nice to do.. more private, no shoes, comfy pillows. I had some veggie rolls, edemame, miso soup and warm sake. Was nice.

Kyla and I seem to argue a lot as of late. I'm not totally sure why, aside maybe because we see eachother so much (and Suzy so little) that she "tests" me more. It starts in the morning as I have to get her ready for school. It usually has to do with getting dressed. Something doesn't match, she "doesn't want to wear blue today" or she simply doesn't get ready when I ask her to. Sometimes I need to raise my voice. There are so many times you can politely ask for her to get her clothes on (which includes snow pants, snow boots, hat, gloves and a winter coat). Other times, it's her who raises her voice with me. I may ask her if she's hungry, for example. And she will snap back with "I want a bagel" (of course, you can't hear the tone by reading this.. but it's there).

So, sometimes I feel like she is always arguing with me... and indeed sometimes she is. Suzy says "Just wait until she's a teenager" but that isn't very useful to me now. When I ask Kyla why she acts like that to me sometimes, she doesn't have an answer. I wouldn't expect a 5 year old to have an answer. My guess is the fact that, well, I'm the main parent (Suzy hates it when I say I am). I wake her up, get her off to school, and there when she is off the bus, feed her and am there until she goes to bed. I'm with her alone on Saturdays as well. I'm the main caregiver, rewarder and the disciplinarian. Maybe that's why it happens. It's actually a reversal from when we were in Florida. She would give Suzy more of a hard time, and was generally good with me. In Florida, though, more of the parenting was shared. Here, Suzy is usually at work. When you get home 10 minutes before bedtime .. not much you can do. Plus, we were together alone for 3 months before moving up here (since Suzy was already here), then we were in the apartment with eachother (which Suzy was at work) for another 3 months. Lots of time together.

Anyone experience similar issues? I need to make sure I don't raise my voice. It's usually after saying something 5 times and not being listened to... so it isn't like it is done right from the start. Kyla is changing, and I need to change along with her. I just want her and I to get along more than not.

We got 8" of nice heavy snow last night. So far it's just been foot upon foot of powder. Not good for a snowman. But, last night was different. Made a nice snowman this afternoon. Was a lot of fun as it's been a while since I was able to make one. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow. I think we're supposed to get another foot+ thursday night so maybe there will be another!

Been 26 days now. I'm not using the patch anymore, although I have 2 in case I need them. The main time when I want a smoke is when I need to think about some programming thing. It's always been a good way to walk away from a program and come up with a solution within 7 minutes. Aside from that, I get the occasional craving, but nothing major.

I just went through the 20 messages on the machine, and I think 15 started with "Hey guys, it's Kell". One from a doctor, 2 from my mother, and 3 random ones. Kelly dominates the answering machine!

Another storm is on it's way. Already getting some snow (I think it's lake effect and not part of the storm system). It's so pretty when it's snowing. Not sure how much snow we will be getting. I think they said south of us will get more, and we will only get 6-10". Seems like tomorrow will be a good sledding/snowmobiling/snowball fight day!

We ended up going yesterday. Was a lot of fun. I need to do some skiing there, since it's right up the road.

Snow Tubing at New York Ski Resorts

Thinking I'll take Kyla tubing at this place this weekend. Looks fun, and the mountain is only 10 minutes or so away. Will be good to check it out, since it the also close by skiing and pretty inexpensive.

Still going well. I still want a cig, but don't crave one. Not much new to update on this aside I'm still not smoking :)

Non-smoking stats

Since everyone keeps asking me for a photo here it is. Took it myself, so it isn't great. You can see my lovely Jerry Garcia painting behind me on top of the mantle. Don't mind my hair, I was on the sofa before I took it (office hair, as I call it).

Don't I look sexy? I think I look 22.

For the first time in over a dozen years, I have shaved my beard. Why? No real reason, just figured I'd do it and see how I liked it. So far, it's odd. I look about 3 years younger and I don't look my age as it is. Suzy isn't home yet, but this will be the first time she has ever seen my without it.

As of right now, it's been 12.39 days of no smoking. I have my ups and downs still. The vivid dreams are every night, which is cool. I changed from putting a new patch on in the morning to the afternoon. I'm not sure how it works, just that it pumps nicotine into me throughout the 24 hours. I figure when I put it on in the morning it weakens by the night, and is the weakest by morning. So, by putting it on at 3pm, the morning and evening are still running strong. Since, morning and night are the hardest times. Maybe flawed logic, but doesn't hurt.

I think that quitting is a fragile thing. It could probably just take one cig to become a full fledged smoker.. or being an occasional/social smoker will be doable. At any rate, it's been almost 2 weeks. I only have a few patches left and probably won't buy another box of them unless I really feel like I need to.

It was -17F this morning when I took Kyla out to the bus stop. That's without the windchill (luckily, there was no wind). It's warmed up now to a balmy -11. I don't mind the cold. I was actually just outside for 45 minutes clearing snow/ice off my car, which I hadn't done for a few weeks) and some light shoveling. I can take the cold when there is no wind. But, I'm not crazy about having to take Kyla up the street to the bus stop (morning and night) when it is this cold. It's only about 30 yards away at a neighbors house, but she shouldn't have to walk in this cold, then stand there at the end of the driveway. The news says not to keep pets outside for more than 5 minutes, since they could die. They used to pick Kyla up at our house, then they made us consolidate (all 2 of us at this end of the street). We chose the other persons house because they are on the side of the street where the bus door is, so no crossing the street needed.

Suzy said I should call the bus people and demand they pick up and drop off in front of our house for the rest of the Winter. That way we can wait inside until we see the bus coming. I may call and ask (not demand). I agreed to consolidating in the first place because I understood that when you have 50 kids in a rural area being picked up, it would take forever to stop at 50 houses. But, with this kind of cold it just seems safer. It's not like the bus always comes at the same time. Sometimes it's 8:45, sometimes 8:40, 8:35, 8:50. So, I'm always out there at 8:30 because I don't know if it will be early or late. Today, we stood in -17 weather for 15 minutes waiting. I don't think the extra 30 seconds it would take to come to my home would matter.

Still no smoking. Yesterday was a little rough. I really wanted to have one. The day itself wasn't rough, just me wanting to have one was. But, I didn't and am still smoke free.

As I stated before, the patch can give you some vivid dreams. I've had them every night since wearing it. Last night I was having a crazy dream.. then woke up and started thinking about all that was in the dream... then *really* woke up! I woke up in my dream to think about my dream! Crazy.

I don't think I've been eating more than usual. Everyone talks about weight gain, but I don't think I've been eating more. I just work more! I figure if I'm not smoking, I'll be able to do more intense hikes in the Spring and lose weight that way. I've always been a decent distance hiker, but felt the smoke effects.

So far, so good.

Same as yesterday. Mornings and evenings are the hardest. I'm also used to breaking up the day by going outside for a smoke. Instead, I think I'll do pushups or something (starting tomorrow).

I also have HTML and RSS stats on my quitting attempt.

Well, it's been 23.5 hours, but this is the time I had my last cig yesterday. No smoking since then. Do I want one? Hell yeah! But, not because my body is craving nicotine (since it is being pumped into my by the patch), but mainly because of habit. I feel like I *want* to smoke, not that I *need* to smoke. But, instead of going out for one, I simply don't. This morning was rough. I'm used to having one when I get up and make some coffee. This morning I didn't make coffee to help me.. but still wanted one. I just went outside, shoveled the driveway of the fresh snow, and didn't have one.

Not feeling like I need one is good, that's half the battle. The habit is the rest of it. So, 24 hours, no smoking. Hope it can keep up.

Today I was in CVS picking something up while Kyla was at a birthday party. I look on the wall and see cigarettes and Nicoderm CQ. Cigarettes... Nicoderm... cigarettes.. Nicoderm. So, this time, instead of cigarettes I picked up a box of Nicoderm CQ (Step 2, since I'm not a heavy smoker). At 3pm, I slapped one on. Well, first 3.5 hours, and I haven't smoked. I want to, mainly because I just ate some pizza and habitually would smoke after eating. We'll see how this goes.

Been AWOL for a few days. Been very busy with some projects.

On the 31st we went to SPA Park to drive through the park. They had big moving light displays, hot cocoa, a hay maze and fun wintery stuff. It was nice. We ended up not doing anything New Years Eve. Oh well.

Last few days I've just been working like a fiend. More updates when I can!

Well, you already know how my Xmas Eve went. Xmas wasn't much better. Kyla still had a fever and wasn't exactly excited. I'm basically tired of her crabby attitude and wasn't very excited. Suzy was mad that nobody was excited. But, by the afternoon Kyla was sleeping, things were quiet... and Suzy and I got to watch a movie and relax.

About 7 or so my dad calls and says the hospital calls and want to see Janet. Someone saw something on the x-ray from the night before and wants to look at her again (an MRI). Since his car is gone, I went over and took them. While I was there Suzy called to see how things were going. She also said that Kyla was sneezing blood. She had some blood earlier, but we thought maybe her nose was just getting raw from blowing it. I told Suzy she should bring her in to the ER as well, but she figured it could just wait until today when I could try to make an appointment for her doctor. A little while later, she called me back and said she was bringing her in.

When she got there, she was mad at me for not somehow reserving our spot at the ER. We were there until about 1am. Kyla has a sinus infection, and the doc prescribed some meds. I went to CVS and picked it up, got home about 2am. Suzy complained the whole time we were there about the wait. She kept saying how we should just go home. Somehow, going home and me making an appointment at the pediatrician this morning for whenever she could have gotten in would have been better. The logic escapes me. When your kid has had a fever for 4 days and is sneezing blood, you stay where the doctors are at quick as you can. Her attitude kinda pissed me off, but whatever.

So, Xmas! YAY! Maybe tomorrow, for my birthday, I'll also get a fever! Oh, and to top it all off, on my way home last night my 'check engine' light came on. Whoopie!! Probably low on some fluid, but not the best timing.

But, I look on the bright side... I'm not in Florida :-)

So, most of tonight was spent at the hospital. At about 4:00 the phone rings. The caller ID showed it was from Pennsylvania, so I wasn't answering (I don't know anyone who'd call me from there). The machine picked it up and I hear "hello? pick up, it's important... hello.. pick up" I picked it up, and it was my dad. "We got into a car accident", he says. Turns out some punk ass kid turned in front of them. They were going northbound, and the kid was coming southbound on the road. You can turn left coming southbound onto another road (no stop sign or lights, so northbound straight has the right of way). The kid must have thought he had enough time, just wasn't paying attention, couldn't judge the distance because of the fog or something... so he went for it and hit my father. My dads wife was taken to the hospital, and my dad stuck around. The police and firemen were very nice to us. We took the presents from the car and put them in mine before the car was towed away. It looks totaled. There were witnesses, and the Trooper told my dad that the insurance company can call him, and all the witnesses said the same thing... the kid took the turn when he shouldn't have and caused the accident.

I went to the hospital with my dad. Ends up he has bruised ribs, and his wife has torn ligaments in her hand, and bruised ribs. So, luckily they weren't seriously hurt. I took them back to their house, and we hung out a while... but they needed their rest.

Now, of course, the real "fun" starts for my dad. Calling the insurance company, dealing with the damaged car (which I would assume will be considered totaled based on what I saw, and the value of the car), getting a new car quickly, being in pain from the bruised ribs and hopefully dealing with suing the kid for damages.

I'll help my dad find a new car and anything else he needs. But, not exactly the best Xmas Eve... but I'm thankful they are ok.

Until my birthday!! I accept Paypal, ThinkGeek or other gift certificates. Or, just well wishing (there is a $10 charge for well-wishing).

31 years old. The big 3-1. I actually don't care about being in my 30s. I feel like I'm 25, and never thought much about getting older. We'll see if I have the same attitude when I'm 39 going on 40, though.

We both slept downstairs last night. This was so Suzy could rest for work, and I'd be able to take care of Kyla if/when she woke up in the middle of the night. She did. Moaning, crying, tossing and turning. I fell asleep at about 2am (not unusual), and was awoken by Kyla a couple times. I think it was mainly crying while she was asleep. Or, she was awake but didn't know it. At 5:30am she said she had a headache, so I gave her some medicine. We both went back to sleep and awoke around 9 or so. Her fever is down, and appetite is back.

We'll see if this is just a small reprieve or if she is really better as the day goes on. What sort of sucks is that her class is on stage right now singing holiday songs. I was looking forward to seeing that. Oh well, at least she is feeling better! I don't know if this was a bad cold, a minor flu, or what the heck it was/is.

I've been totally slacking with pictures. So, figured I'd put a few up.

This one is Jasmine running around the back yard. This is before the first Nor'Easter, so there is only about 4" of snow. Our property goes beyond the fence.. but no sense in fencing right up to the pond.

Jasmine and Kyla outside during a quiet time in the storm.

I'm pulling Kyla on the sled. There's about 2 feet of snow on the ground, but nice and packed so it only goes up to the mid-shin when walking on it. Eventually we just went on the hill you saw in the first picture for some sledding.

Kyla and I in the sled. I think we were both telling the other to be the one to pull the other around.

Jasmine comes over and doesn't help settle the dispute.

Kyla and the lamp post. She is covered with snow because I kept blowing it on her with the snow blower. That was after the second Nor'Easter.

I'll try to put up the other pics later tonight or tomorrow.

Started last night. She has mostly been sleeping :-(

We went to Breakfast with Santa this morning at the South Glens Falls fire dept. It was nice. All you can eat breakfast, and Santa was there for the kids.

Went bowling with Kyla and my dad today. My grandfather was also there cheering us on. Did did fairly well scoring in the 40's the first game and 60's the second. The lane kind of sucked.. I swear it was bulging in the middle and was impossible for Kyla to have the ball go down the middle. I beat my dad the first game, and he beat me the second. We'll have a tie breaker next time.

Was good to get out of the house for a while today, since we are due for another 12"-17" of snow tomorrow/Monday.

I went outside at about midnight and saw it snowing with a slight dusting. This morning there is about an inch of snow. Not much, but it is nice and white out. While waiting for the school bus the neighbor took out the Kitty Kat for the kids to ride around on. That was Kylas first time on a snowmobile.

The fence is finally done. We had a fair amount of rain which slowed it going up, but everything is dry and done. It looks really nice. It looks great. We have a nice arched wood around the sides, and a black vinyl coated chain link across the back. The back is done that way so we wouldn't lose the view of the pond behind it.

Next thing will be a shed, then in the Spring we'll get a playscape for Kyla, and I'll mark off a garden. But, the fence being done is a good thing, since it was a big ticket item we needed. And, once the ground is frozen I can let Jasmine back there instead of walking her all the time.

I have one Windows machine in the house. It's basically only for Suzy and Kyla to use. Kyla was having problems on it today, so I went to take a look at it. Cripes.. IE windows opening everywhere, tons of software on it that shouldn't have been, desktop icons from nowhere. I did a virus scan, and was fine. Did a sweep for AdWare, and there was a ton. Some I had to fight with to get rid of. Went to the control panel, and removed a bunch of crap that didn't look like it should be there. What a pain in the ass.

I'm pretty sure Kyla didn't do it, and Suzy probably didn't (knowingly) do it. Tomorrow I'll go restrict the security settings even more. My router logs don't show anything malicious happening, so it's just an annoyance. I'd love to get a 20" iMac for them to use, then just make that machine another BSD box to toy around with. (You can help that happen faster by using the PayPal button on the right! :-)