I Heart Holiday

Ok, first of all, it's 9:45 currently and I just noticed my fly is down. Damnit.

Anyway, I had a great break so far, with more to come after these two days of work. Keep checking back to this post. I'll be posting up some pictures to spice it up a bit.

Dec. 22:

We went to the inlaws for dinner. My father-in-law hired a guy playing Santa to come and visit for a few minutes to get any last minute requests and he gave them little cheapy gifts. We always used to have wife's uncle sneak over and do this, but her side of the family is at odds with eachother right now, so we haven't seen many of them since July. That isn't necessarily a bad thing with some of them. So that was pretty much it for that day. We had a good time.

Dec. 23:

We got together with many of my family's old neighbors at the house across the street from my parents. It was pretty fun talking to everyone there. I wish I wasn't the youngest one there of the original neighbors, but that's ok. I talked to one of the guys that grew up across the street for the first time in over 10 years, and even then I don't think I've ever said anything other than 'hello' before. Him and his older brother mostly hung out with my brother.

I got home from that party a little depressed, however. The older brother I just mentioned was diagnosed with brain cancer within the last 6 months or so. He went through surgery and they were able to remove about 98% of it. I guess the last 2% isn't going to go away and they gave him 3 years to live. How fucking horrible is that. He's my brothers age (34) for god's sake. I guess 3 years isn't too bad, considering it's brain cancer. About 10 years ago his mother died of the same exact thing. The other sad thing was their neighbor to the left (picture below) was crying for some of the night because it was her deceased husband's birthday. He died in May of 2004. I loved that guy. He was like an uncle to me.

This was taken Dec. '03. I never did show John this picture.

Dec. 24:

This is my parent's annual Christmas get together. The kids got lots of gifts. Nothing really worth mentioning happened. We had a lot of fun watching all the kids.

Oh...yea early in the day I witnessed possibly the worst football (American) game ever. We got crushed by the Steelers 42-0. It was horrible. Out of the 72,000 fans, there had to be at least 10 - 15,000 Steelers fans. WTF!? The only enjoyment I got out of the whole thing was watching that drunk dumbass run onto the field and get his ass tackled.

haha!

Dec. 25:

Merry Christmas! So we went back to the in-laws after opening presents for dinner and what-not. I guess it's more of a brunch? I dunno. Anyway, Wife's sister gave me an awesome present! She found the original Star Wars soundtrack on record and put it in a wall mount display for me. I used to have the exact same thing when I was a boy and played it all the time on my parents turn-table. Holy nostalgia! It was very thoughtful.

After dropping the dog off at home and briefly visiting my Aunt's house just down the street, we visited Wife's biological father's family. I attempted to fix her Uncle's clapped up WindowsME computer, but failed miserably. I told him I'm going to come back and load Win2000 on it.

We went home to relax and watch the Boy play with his stuff. After he went to bed and Wife & Baby were settled, I went back down the street to my Aunt's house and drank a lot of wine with my cousins and twin Aunts and played sherades(sp?) and Cranium. I had of fun. I don't think they've seen me drunk before.

Dec. 26:

LAN Party!! Got up hung over and drove way the hell over to Lakewood for some gaming at John's house. I didn't get home till 3am! I'll post some pictures. It's always a blast, especially with Hot Steve and Carlson there.

Dec. 27:

Had my parents over for dinner and installed a new thermostat. Lousy heating bills.....

Butter

I just f'ing spilled butter all over my crotch. God damnit.

- Blank -

This is kinda weird
www.this-page-intentionally-left-blank.org

Apparently there's a whole group of people who are dedicated to making blank webpages.

Why that?

"In former times printed manuals had some blank pages, usually with the remark “this page intentionally left blank”. In most cases there had been technical reasons for that. Today almost all blank pages disappeared and if some still exist here and there, they present flatterly comments like “for your notes” instead of the real truth: This page intentionally left blank!

Nowadays the “This Page Intentionally Left Blank”-Project (TPILB-Project) tries to introduce these blank pages to the Web again. One reason is to keep alive the remembrance of these famous historical blank pages. But it is the primary reason to offer internet wanderers a place of quietness and simplicity on the overcrowded World Wide Web—a blank page for relaxing the restless mind."

Winter Moonlight

Wow, am I overdue for a post. Well, don't get your hopes up. I'm just posting a picture of my backyard in the moonlight. We don't get to see the sky very much this time of year, so it was a nice surprise that the moon was full and the clouds were gone.


I'm don't think the full effect was captured. Believe me, it looked cool. I'm going to continue playing with the contrast and crap to see if I can make it look a little better.

Week In Review...

I'm sitting here holding my daughter, typing one-handed and watching 'Two Towers' on TNT. It's very comforting holding a sleeping baby. She's kind of making a cooing noise right now. Very cute.

This week was somewhat trying. My father was rushed to the hospital with chest pains on Monday. Well, long-story-short, after a number of days and tests, he's fine. I don't know if he ever found out what the pain was. He came home yesterday afternoon, and is very well. So that's good. It was scary though. I f'ing hate hospitals so much right now, you have no idea. I visited dad twice during his stay and couldn't wait to get out of there. I want to go 2 years without stepping foot in one. Is that too much to ask?

I've been frustrated at and away from work. My projects at work don't seem to have direction lately.

I just wish I knew what people expect of me. I can't stand guessing.

PQ's Personality Quiz

This will be fun... NO CHEATING

What is your favorite animal? Toad

Three words to describe that animal: Solitary, Nervous, Adaptable

What is your favorite Color? Green

Three words to describe that color: Cool, Soothing, Natural

What is your favorite season? Summer

Three words to describe that season: Warmth, Bright, Relaxing

Now, you are in a room, everything is white, there is nothing in the room but you. How do you feel? Lonely, Frustrated, Tired

Check Pepsiqueen for the results of this quiz.

Only The Daddy Dies?

We had one busy weekend. Well, one busy Saturday, rather. Today I didn't do much but sit at my parents house and watch the Browns lose. Yesterday was pretty cool. It started out with my work throwing their annual children's Christmas party. We had a fun time. More importantly, the boy had a fun time. First, he was very excited to see Mary's girls. And if that wasn't enough, Jungle Terry the traveling petting zoo was there too. He touched everything except the tarantula, which I don't blame him. When I was his age I had a fear of spiders. I think I can thank my sister & mom for that one.

(Sidenote - I just bolted upstairs because I heard Audioslave's 'Be Yourself' playing on TV. I thought it was weird that wifey was listening to my music. When I got up there it was playing during the final few minutes of "Crossing Jordan" during a scene montage thingy. I only mention this because I was talking to someone about that song months ago when it came out, that it sounded like a song that would be playing during a montage scene in a movie. Weird. This is the second time I've heard this song played in this fashion. I heard it a month ago while wifey was watching 'One Tree Hill' [barf].)

Where was I....Oh yes, So the boy & the girl got to sit on Santa's lap. The boy play some games too, so he enjoyed himself. The only thing that sucked, well, only for me I guess, is that I took a nice healthy gulp of chunky milk from that awesomely bad breakfast they served us there. I still get the barf reflex just thinking about it. Wifey thinks it's funny and keeps mentioning it. It'll be funny when I barf all over her...boo ya!

Next up was the X-Mas party for the boy's preschool. I didn't have as much fun here as the last party, but at least I didn't drink anything rotten. The boy had an OK time. He was sad he didn't win a stuffed animal door prize. They had a really bad magician perform for about 10 minutes and the Santa(Yes, again) line was horrible. We were there for about 2 hours or so then split to my parents house for some rest in between events.

Me and the boy took a nap for about an hour and then it was off to the FarmParks for a horse drawn carriage ride through their X-Mas lights displays. It was really neat, and really cold. We both had a good time. Wifey and the girl waiting inside because we were afraid the baby might get too cold. When we were done we went inside to Santa's Workshop where we got to pick out a wood toy kit, build it and paint it. This year the boy picked the fire engine. I picked a unicorn for my sleepy princess. It was pretty fun, but no where near as fun as last year's when Rangersto
was working. Our elves did a fine job helping us build the toys though. Thanks again, Chris!

Whew!!! We ain't done yet! So, next was dinner. We had a $25 Pickle Bill's gift card we've been holding on to for almost a year and finally after 2 different times trying to eat there, we actually made it in. The first time they just started their winter hours (closing at 9 on a Saturday?!?! wtf) and the second time we drove up only to see they are closed Mondays. I had all-you-can-eat crab legs. Goddamn I love the seafood. Apparently so does the boy. I had to keep sneaking him crab bits all through dinner. I think for his birthday we'll get him his own crab dinner. We had a good dinner there. We are still trying to figure out why they need a police officer sitting there. Were they robbed recently or something?

Our boy cracked us up on the way home from the restaurant. Out of nowhere he asked us:
"Do scweas poop?"
"What?"
"Do scweas poop?!"
"What? Do stores poop?"
"NO!!! Scweas!"
"Stars?!"
"Scweas!"
"What's a scwea??"
"Uhhhh. A scwea." (Thanks!)
"Well, what's it look like?"
"Scweas....(long silence as we are laughing our asses off)....they eat nuts."
"Ohhh squirrels?!?!"
"Yea!!!"
(Lots of laughing)"Yes, they poop."

I was laughing so hard I cried. Hilarious. You probably had to be there to the full humor out of it. It was good.

All in all it was a fun day. Exhausting too.

Oh, I almost forgot about the title of this post. The last few nights the boy has been having problems sleeping by himself. Last night he came in and hopped into bed with us, which made for somewhat of a confrontation between me and wifey, because we are both crabby as hell when woken up during the night. Anyway, long story short, we were over the in-laws this morning for breakfast and my mum-in-law asked him why he hopped into bed. He said he had a nightmare. When asked what about, he said that he and I were walking in the woods when a monster tried to get us. Mum-in-law asked, "Well, didn't daddy save you?" The boy said,"Uhh, daddy died." WTF?!?!

I'm gonna get ready for sleep now. I think this is my longest post evah!!! I've passed 50 posts, sweet.

Novy's Google Me-Me

Do a Google image search of the following and post the first result for each:

The name of the town where you were born
The name of the town where you live now
Your name
Your grandmother’s name (just pick one)
Your favorite food
Your favorite drink
Your favorite song
Your favorite smell

----------------------

The name of the town where you were born:
Euclid, OH

The name of the town where you live now:
Wickliffe, OH (not really, but close enough)

Your name:
Luke (I'm buff, apparently)

Your grandmother’s name (just pick one):
Mary - Ok, this one is weird. First of all the pic has the names of both Grandmothers in it, and secondly, there's something going on with this chick. My guess is she's a prostitute that's all strung out. I don't want to associate my Grandmas with that, damnit.

Your favorite food:
Italian Wedding Soup. Nobody makes it like my Mom.

Your favorite drink:
Water!
Your favorite song:
"The Day I Tried To Live" -Soundgarden

Your favorite smell:
Steam Engines (I know, weird)