Upper Heavenly

So I went snowboarding up at Ski Liberty last weekend up in Pennsylvania.. had a blast. Didn't get to make as many runs down the mountain as I would have liked, but it was crazy crowded due to a majority of the trails and lifts opening up for the first time this season. They haven't had hardly any snow up there, but they've been making a ton of the man-made stuff. I went with Holden, my sister-in-laws (and their husbands, kids) and some other family. Us guys went snowboarding of course, and the kids went snow tubing.

Nate & Jason are pretty good skiers, but decided to try their hand at snowboarding (how hard could it be, they said). Our first couple of runs were pretty pathetic, we went down a green trail and each of us fell probably 20 times until we reached the bottom. Our next couple of runs got substantially better, I made it down only falling once.. and the other guys I was with were getting tired of running the same trail over and over (as was I).

So we decided to check out the backside of the mountain. We had no idea, but there were a ton of trails on the backside. All of them ranged from Blue (normal/moderately dangerous) to Double Black Diamond (I hope you have your will in order). We started our decent down the blue trail.. Upper Heavenly I believe is what it was called. It was really fairly steep and very bumpy. Nate takes off and makes good time getting pretty much out of sight, while me and Jason try not to kill ourselves right off the bat on this new trail. Jason wipes out pretty hard and I pass him.. I'm taking it easy, making big sweeping carves and just enjoying the quiet (the backside was WAAAYYY less crowded than the front). About 1 minute later Jason comes flying past me.. he's flailing his arms around looking like he's about to crash.. and does. It looks bad.. he doesn't move... I work my way down there to see if he's ok when out of nowhere I hit a big mound of snow and fall very awkwardly (and going rather fast on a steep slope) on my left arm. It twists back behind me and I feel a "pop".. sharp shooting pain down my arm and all the way to my shoulder. I'm laying on my back (still sliding down the hill.. can't stop.. too steep). Some skier stops to ask if I'm ok.. he saw me wipe out and my arm bend back).. he asks me if I'm ok.. and I tell him I'm not sure.

My arm is completely numb.. I can move it but not without pain... I'm guessing that it's dislocated. I sit there for about 2-3 minutes until I can finally get the tingelys back and I feel like I can make it down. I get going and see Jason walking down the mountain holding his board and making a grimacing face.. "I think I broke my arm" he tells me. I felt bad for him, he's vacationing from Florida and they've had a pretty shitty couple of days from the stories he's been telling me.. this is just icing on the cake at this point.

We get down to the bottom and meet up with Nate.. Jason finds a medic and gets driven to the first aid building to get it checked out. Turns out it was a shoulder dislocation.. but really that's worse news than a break. Dislocations take many more months to heal and sometimes require surgery later on down the road.

Otherwise I had a blast.. I wish we lived closer and it was cheaper to go.. I would go every weekend if I could. Funniest moment of the trip was when me and Nate were sitting about halfway down the front side marveling at the little kids that were tearing it up... I mean, some of these kids are like 8 or 9 years old look like pros out there. We see this one "kid" on his way down and I'm like "woah, check out this kid coming down" So we watch him go by... with his goatee and stubble.

I'm sorry if I offended you little person... you were kicking ass out there.

When all else fails... post pictures

All Nimbly Bimbly

Somebody Has A Case Of The Mondays

It Was Dang Cold Out

So the other night Maria comes back home from a trip to Baltimore. She had already made inside the house with Pearl and I ran out to help unload the car and bring Delilah inside. On my way back from the car to the house with my first armfull of stuff I see Maria is on her way from the house to get stuff from the car too. I get up to the front door and it's locked... the kids had managed to lock the deadbolt and Maria and I were stuck on a cold rainy night on our front porch. We started banging on the door and asking Larry or Pearl to unlock the door (since it was probably Larry who did it), but they had no idea what those crazy people outside were up to. We kept banging and yelling for the kids to open the door (we were surprised none of our neighbors heard us and came outside to see what all the ruckus was about).

So at this point we've been outside only about 5-10 minutes.. but we have Delilah with us on the porch and it's really cold. So I run around the side of the house to try and get Holden's attention, he's upstairs in the office playing a game on the computer. So I yell for him as loud as I can to look out the window at me.. and he does, but dosen't see me and goes back behind the curtain to his computer game. I yell for him again (this time jumping around like a fool waving my arms). It's pitch black on this side of the house but he eventually sees me the second time and realizes what I'm saying.

Holden comes down and effortlessly unlocks the deadbolt and lets us in. That little guy comes in handy every now and then ;)

The Tide Has Turned

I no longer want to be a Republican anymore

I Should Have Gone All In

Maria and I were driving around running errands and going shopping when we somehow got into a discussion about Gout. Maria said something like this "Isn't gout what sailors get on their necks? It's a big lump on your neck!"

I start laughing hysterically and tell her it's a foot problem and it hurts really bad, and that my uncle has/had it and told me all about it.

Maria at this point tells me how dumb I am and that I'm totally wrong (negating the fact that I'm usually right when we get into an argument about totally random things (like her thinking that cheese wiz came in the aerosol can.. it's not EZ Cheese, it comes in a glass jar.)

We are both highly competitive (in a friendly wifely/huserbandly type of way) and alway are like "We'll Google it when we get home", or we make monetary bets (sharing the same checking/savings accounts makes that funny) but this Gout issue wouldn't wait. I guess it was my joking about "What's that on your neck? I think it might be Gout!" that made her brake down and call her father. She calls him up and asks him what gout is.. telling him she thinks it's something that happens to your neck. He laughs and says no.. it's mainly feet related.. you're thinking of a goiter. We both bust out laughing and I hold my hands over my head for keeping my streak alive (and almost hitting a curb).

It ends up that she confused Gout for Goiter & Goiter for Scurvy. (do your best pirate.. arrrrrr!) lol

Vote For Delilah

http://bluebugphotography.blogspot.com/

Go this site above and vote for picture #6. If only because my arm looks spectacular in the picture.. or that my baby girl is very pretty in it.

Vote early and vote often... and tell your friends to tell their freinds to vote as well. Picture NUMBA SIX!!!!!!

Lack of Planning

Maria and I would really like to go out on New Year's Eve to enjoy an adult night out to bring in 2008. We only up until this past week or so thought about the fact that we probably would need a babysitter to pull this off. Problem is we don't have a heck of a lot of family down here and what family I do have down here just happen to be out of town that night.

Oh well... I'll just keep Maria from drinking 2 different types of wine and we'll be ok. (There is a story in that... but I'll save that for her if she wants to tell...)

Bank On It

So I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and all that good stuff. The kids had a blast , acutally at times it was probably a little overwhelming. We couldn't fit all the kids loot into the big honking expedition to bring home with us.

Maria, Hope and I went to our local IKEA megastore earlier today to go spend some of that Christmas money we received. I pull up to a branch of our bank that we've never been to so I could deposit the cash into our account. I walk into this new bank and I looked around a minute and something was missing. There was one lady working at a tiny little round table with a computer and a smile. She welcomed me and probaby took joy in the confused look I had on my face. So I wander on to the back where the deposit slips are and start filling all that good stuff out. I get done with that and now I have to figure out if this is a real bank or not because it looks like there are just a bunch of kiosks with TVs everywhere (well, not everywhere.. but like 6 of them.

So I go up to one of them and out pops one of these drive-up banking tube cylinders (you know, the type where you put your checks and slips and license and it gets sucked up the tube). So I put my cizash into the tube and off it goes, flying up into the ceiling. No idea if people other than the smiling lady work here. Next to the tube is a phone and there is a tv screen in the middle. I'm wondering if I gotta pick up the phone or something until a nice lady pops up on the screen to welcome me to the bank and asks me if I need anything else.

So this is probably gonna get rolled out to more and more banks. I can see why too, there is no way for a bank robber to get to anyone at this bank. It's just a shame that our world is becoming so impersonal though :(

Love the Lolcats

She Has A Point

Italian Food For The Ass

So we had a very busy second half of the weekend. We took the kids to basketball at the Y from 9-10am. Larry really dosen't like doing anything but passing, and Holden won't do things on his own when I am trying to help Larry. So we get done with basketball and we head on up to Baltimore for my God-daughter's 1st birthday. We hang out with family most of the day Saturday, and on Sunday we went to the party (which we had to leave really early for ANOTHER party 2 hours away). So we get there early to help out with getting the house ready and the food and whatnot. I get in the mini-van with Chuck, with what looks like red stuff all over the seat. The car wreaks of bad italian food and I ask him before I sit down if anything was spilled on the seat (it looked like a stain.. not fresh).

He told me "NO, we had some takeout that must still be in here somewhere" and that was good enough for me as I proceeded to sit in some nasty old italian spillage on the front passenger seat. I didn't notice it until several hours later when the wife is like "You smell like ass, what the hell?" I told her she was crazy and I didn't smell like anything. Until I got out of the car then the full bouquet of aromas hit me and it was bad... real bad. My pants looked like I had some sort of anal leakage.. nasty stuff. I had to change real fast and head over to the other party. Couldn't go to the party with that asstastic smell on my ass now could I?

Iron and Wine

So the holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving came and went (where did November gooooo?). We hosted thanksgiving this year at our house and it went off pretty awesome. Maria and I started cooking around 10am or so and we had the dinner around 2pm... or so we hoped. I had never cooked a turkey before, but I figured "how hard could it be" and waiting until it was time to get the bird in the oven to start to wonder what the hell I was doing wasn't the best course of action. I goggled about preparing a turkey.. what's this about removing the neck? The gizzards are in a bag inside? There is a plastic hook thing that needs to be removed? Do you baste the bird or season it at all? Do you cover it with tin foil or leave the rag top down?

The neck was interesting to take off. I had to basically break the neck (Maria could hear the cracking and popping and was getting really grossed out, while the kids took great joy in seeing their father snapping the neck of a large bird in the comfort of our home.

We made way too much food, and now have way too many leftovers. Thanksgiving was fun, it was really warm as the temp outside got up around 72 degrees or so. We had to open all the windows and turn on the ceiling fans cause it got so hot inside (or maybe it was all the wine we were drinking?).

I got a new computer game that is rather nice, COD4. My friend Dan is probably gonna get it and we will get back to the nerd paradise of online multi-player gaming until 1am on a school night. Maria used to give me so much grief for being a dork, but I guess now that I shower her with the "You're a dork!" comments she has subsided.

Why is it that every time Maria and I open a bottle of wine we finish it? It's nice, that some nights we can sit on the couch and watch a funny tv show or movie, and basically just have a glass and enjoy each other's company more than some hilarious tv show. Maria and I laugh at how people thought we wouldn't make it or got married too soon, or were too different personalties. I think we get along better than most married couples we know....or maybe it's just all the wine we've been drinking?

Camera Woes

Our kids broke our new camera only a day after our 30 day return window expired

how awesome is that

*cries*

Send In The Clowns

So we had Larry's adoption party this Saturday and I must say it was probably the bestest party we've ever thrown (that was kid related). We had a couple of party platters from Chik-fil-a and a friggin' clown came by to entertain the kids. It went off really well and it was the first major event we've held inside the new house (the floors didn't cave under the weight of 30+ people.. yay!) Pictures from the party below.

Smelly Used Car Salesman

Yeah, I'll get to why this is titled what it is in a minute. Today is Halloween, and we are taking the kiddos to our friend's house to walk around their neighborhood. We had planned going our our new neighborhood, but we'll do that next year. Only problem is we bought a lot of candy.. hopefully the kids are still out in our neighborhood after 8:30pm. I have been attacking the Sour Patch Kids, damn good! Holden is a Sheep, Larry is a monkey, Pearl is a Princess, & Delilah is a lion (I'll put up pictures tomorrow, honest).

I bought a 22" wide screen LCD for the computah yesterday at lunchtime, less than 24 hours later and the damn thing is already out for delivery according to UPS tracking... talk about a quick turnaround. It's great to have the best online computer parts warehouse only 3 hours away. Now it will be a little less painful when I'm working with long video-editing time lines in Adobe Premiere & After Effects.

Finally got my business registered with the State of Maryland and was able to deposit all these checks I had that I've been carrying around with me for the past 4 months because they were written out to the "company" (that didn't "officially" exist yet). I can't think of anything worse than trying to deal with any State or Federal government agency... such a pain.

So yeah, anyway... we went to look at some mini-vans (welcome to nearing middle age Daddom & Soccer Momness). We look at nearly every van they had on the lot, nobody asking if we need help or bugging us about anything, it was great. We find a couple that are really nice for pretty decent prices. We are not planning on getting one too soon, but we saw what we could afford and we were a little excited about getting one in the next year or two. Before we could get by the front door the oldest, smokyest old used car salesman snags us. Asks us if we want to get one and take a test drive. I'm figured why not, we are already here... maybe we could get one sooner than we think if the price is right and they treat us fair on our trade (har!). We check one out and I take it for a test drive, nice van.. good shape, low miles. I wanted to make sure it wasn't owned by a smoker... but that was impossible cause the Used Car Salesman was a chain smoker and the car filled with his smoke when he lit one up right next to me and my family.

Right about then is when we were pretty much not going to buy from this guy. Common sense would dictate that you do not smoke around a young family with 4 children under the age of 3 and you definitely don't get the smoke in a car they are potentially gonna buy.

To cut out the middle and go to the end. We let them work up an appraisal of our Expedition. The guy tries to get us to put pen to paper before telling us what our trade is and before we haggle on price. Maria asks him what the trade-in value of our truck is... we are floored. We basically just get up and walk out... no need to haggle here... it's late on a weeknight and we didn't really even want to go through all this in the first place.

Moral of the story is don't smoke if you work in sales and don't even bother trying to help us if you wanna take advantage of people like that.

I Gots Da Powa

I got a 30GB Zune a few days ago... love it. I got one for Maria too for Christmas. Holden has his official first day of Pre-K today.. he's as excited as a monkey eating pringles. Maria might take some pictures and I might post them if I think about it later. Until then, tootles

Reel Big Fish

No, nothing to do with the prominent ska band of the 90's.

Holden had his first day of pre-K today.. and seemed to really enjoy it. It was an open house so Maria & I and all the kids were there with him to check it out.

Just a few hours ago during our talk about your day and pray routine I asked Holden if he liked the Guneia Pig and the Goldfish in the aquarium. Holden shot back with "no daddy, those were real fish"... took me a few seconds, then I realized that the only thing that he knows called goldfish are these

They Need To Make Digital Cameras Out Of Kevlar & Granite

We have kids.

We want to be able to catch those "kodak moments".

We have kids.

We have kids who get a hold of things they shouldn't.

We have a digital camera.

We have kids who got a hold of our digital camera.

We need to buy a new digital camera.

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Also as a footnote... I think Maria is going to be deaf (or death, if you asked Davey) by the age of 30. She plays things at very high levels, like NPR and various other audio that litter our hard drive. Well, she called me today to tell me our computer speakers blew out today as well. I almost pulled the trigger on a nice 2.1 channel Logitech computer speaker set a few mins ago, but I think i'll wait and use my old set of speakers I got hidden away in my computer parts box. Suffering will make the new speakers that much more appreciated.