Jennifer takes 1st step - maybe

All week Jennifer has teased us with stand all by herself, tempting to take a step. We waited and waited to see a step. I think this past weekend we had one. She was up, standing alone, and then took a step, just one as she fell. But I think it was a step. I'll see what mom has to say. She has been so big. She pulls herself up on everything. And, lately, she has been letting go and standing in one spot. It is so cool to watch. I'll have to post a pick or too here. We do have some with her on all four, legs extended. Jennifer actually is walking around in a Chinese push position. Her legs are extended, her arms out, her body is in a upside down "V" shape and she moves around like that. Too funny!!!

Guys Night - Midtown with New Guy

Friday, the 19th

Neighbor Matt calls me up to hit Midtown for a little guy time. Sure, I'm in. I’m rarely not up to the task. Matt wants to bring a new friend to the shindig, another Brian. We’ll call him New Guy for this post. That makes us three neighbors; Matt, Brian, myself and New Guy. Us neighbors plan to met at big ugly ~1930est. We just like to have a little time with the family and put the kids to bed. Apparently, that is a little early for Brian who calls me to say he’ll be more ready by 2000est. Fine I say. Matt, unaware, calls me at 1930 ready to go. Dilemma alert. I can tell from his voice he is ready to be out, but our other neighbor is not. “I’ll be right down,” I say. I tuck my little boy into bed and kiss my wife, ever so passionately. She is so great. I met Matt at big ugly and he’s ready to be gone. We call Brian again just to see. He is on schedule for 2000est. Matt and I decide to just hang in the truck till then. Man was it cold. Brian shows up, on cue, and off we go.

At Midtown, we pick a table right up front with my favorite waitress, Stephanie. She is fun and I should right about her in another post. The New Guy isn’t there, which was a relief for Matt. He surely thought we’d be late. I’m not sure why he cares. Well, yes I do. He’s just a courteous guy. We were ready for Acoustic Friday. But we are a bit early, as folks are still eating at tables that are on the 2” raised stage. No biggy. From what I gather from the other guys, we have all night. New Guy shows up a few minutes after we have our first round. 1st impression . . .

Side note: I was wondering how New Guy and Matt hooked up. Matt is a nurse and that is all I usually hear him talk about. You know, other friends from work. Well, it turns out that Matt’s wife knows New Guys wife from work. Now it gets weird. We are taking out a guy Matt’s wife hooked us up with – basically.

Ok, back to impressions. New Guy had on a collared shirt and sweater on. Perhaps Matt forget to tell him we were meeting at a sports bar, whatever. Let me help you with the scene; Matt has on jeans and a workout sweater, Brian has on – I think PJ bottoms and his Bears jersey. I have on my loud Steelers PJ’s, hat, and sweater. So, New Guy stands out just a bit. So much so, the acoustic guy picks on him. Now that was fun. I have to admit, New Guy loosens up a good bit after a few rounds of Guinness, I think. As the night went on, we dinged the acoustic guy for not playing guitar. He had this rhythm beat already programmed in. It was odd. I’m not even sure if he sang or PLAYED a song. It was odd. But the drunker we got, the funnier it was. New Guy rattles off that he is an architect of buildings, commercial if I recall correctly. We are all having a great time. Then New Guy straps on some more balls and starts to order mix drinks and one of my Crown Royals. He proceeds to slam them both and point to my glass. Sure, I’ll take another swig.

I’ve seen this before. Folks, mostly beer drinks from any sex, seem to be ‘put off’ by the nature in which I drink my Crown. Or, perhaps it is the fact that it comes in smaller portions then their beer and they perceive I’m a slow drinker. These folks don’t quite share the quality of the drink as I do. A simple example of misunderstanding that will bite them later for a few days. While I like the crown for it’s quality and I respects its alcohol content, beer drink do not and believe in sheer quantity. And guess where New Guy is 20 minutes later? Head on the table. Matt has to call his wife and have her pick him. Classic. We closed down the bar and did a Taco Bell run. I’m not sure what that last part was all about, but we did. I think it was Matt. He loves to eat. But all in all, we had a good time. I spoke to Matt on Saturday; New Guy was still having meetings with the porcelain gods. I wonder if his watched helped any???

Insomnia taketh over!

So I'm up too early again. You know that point a few hours before you normally get up, but too late to try to get back sleep again. And if you do, you'll sleep in too late and drag ass all day. It might be the block nostrils from a head cold. I've only spent the last 20 minutes in bed try to 'vacuum' them clean. All while trying to be quite for my wife, who has an appointment this morning uptown. Last thing I need to do is to wake her up. She is so precious and her sleep is too. With our two children, I'm not sure how she does it. Anyway, I'm going to try and catch up on a few posts!

The Toilet Runth Over

As foretold in my wife’s short summary within Jennifer’s birthday blog, our master bathroom became a pool for the vertically challenged. Therefore, it was deserving of its own post.

Since this happened on New Years Eve, I’m not sure if this incident was symbolic of the end of 2006 or a foreshadow of 2007. Nonetheless, we had a toilet that decide to runth over, clean water of coarse. The only silver lining here. See, the wife, 2 girls, and my son all went out for party supplies for my youngest daughter, Jennifer, of which I was watching. She and I played in Austin’s room as I installed a Christmas DVD burner. How cool of a wife is that?!? I mean, really! Anyhow, as I wrapped up the install, I heard the toilet still running. Of coarse, I instantly was like, “Oh no!”. However, I’ve been like that a few other, rare, times with that noise. But, nothing really ever comes of it. Well, it all ramped up to this event. As I rounded the corner to our bedroom, I could see the 2” pool of water on the bathroom floor. Nice! Can’t wait to dive into this mess. I put Jennifer down and ran downstairs to get my wet/dry vac. I couldn’t have imaged how this was going to turn out. I knew I had my daughters 1st birthday coming up and the main event was in the kitchen, under the flooded master bath. How much easier can this get??? I manage to get a good bit up before the wet/dry vac stopped because there was too much water. So I opened it and dumped it down the drain in our glamour bath. Enter surprise number 2. I had used the wet/dry vac to do some yard work and now there is mud, limbs, leaves, package material, and who knows what else floating in the bath tub my wife adores! Yippy! What a way to wrap up the year. I quickly run the rest downstairs and dump it on the scrubs. I make about 2 more trips on this. Now my pants are soaking wet and it feels like another 50lbs added on.

So, I have the master bath done, or do I? I check around and see the carpet in the master bedroom by the master bath is wet. I try to suck it up too and it works a little. As I walk back into my sons room, I step in a nice puddle of water. Great. It seeped into my sons’ room. Oh crap! That means the wife’s walk-in closet is soak. It only gets better! SO I run back into the mater bath to confirm my death. Yes, it is wet. I scurry to get all her stuff off of the floor and onto the counter. Well, there is no hiding it now. She’ll have to inquire as to why her stuff is now on the counter.

Oh, did I mention I get Jennifer to sleep. Well, ok. She cried to sleep when I put her down on my last trip of vacuuming up the water.

So, mom and the other kids come home and proceeded to have a great time getting party supplies all set up. Now, I feel like a party pooper. Because I can’t remember our insurance agent, I have to ask Kris. Sure, she’ll let that go with out questioning anything. I pull her upstairs and spill the beans like a squealing pig.

She took it rather well. I was really shocked. But, she is a great person and has cut me major slack. I’m sure she’d freak on anybody else. So I’m lucky there. Maybe it was the pure exhaustion on my face or maybe the fact that she could tell how bad it was. After digging though paper work, I get a number to call them. Ah, a recoding with no after hours number. Ok, I’m over that game. I’m just calling the first company I can think if, First Restoration. These folks tell me they’ll be out in a few hours and with the policy number and deductible, they’ll work with the insurance agent. Cool! Nice recovery so far. But I’ve got to back them up a few hours. We’ve got folks coming over at 1300est for a party. So they agreed to come at 1900est. All is good, and then Kris calls me down to the garage. It’s leaking. I grab a broom handle and poke a hole to let the water drain. The Kitchen is right next to the garage. I’m doing all I can to keep that room dry. From the hole in the ceiling, in the garage, I tie a 5lbs weight to a stick and put it up in the fresh new hole I just put in the ceiling. It does the trick. The water is now pouring out of that hole. I knew I had to get that water away from the kitchen ceiling.

Well, the party went of nicely and none of the guess suspected anything.

Part 2 coming later.

A Great Kid Day

We had a balst at our new local Red Robin resturant. We've had so much fun, it was hard to stop laughing!!!