Monday July 20, 2009

Wow, its really been a long time. I forgot I even started this thing. So lets turn back the clock and see whats happened.

1. Brianna turned 3!! That's crazy. It was over 3 and a half years ago this surprise sprung on us. She has really been pretty good lately. I thought the terrible two's would run into the terrible teenage years. I took her to Dairy Queen to pick out her birthday cake. I should have only given her two choices of a design, but instead I showed her the book. She first picked out Cinderella. Then she really wanted Hello Kitty. Once the worker got the Hello Kitty design, she wants Shrek. Then she wanted Hello Kitty again but then she settled for Shrek. Wow, that was almost as exhausting to write as it was to pick out. We threw a little party for her. We had the swimming pool and small pool for under the slide. She really enjoyed it.

2. We went to Okoboji for a week. I found out a few years ago what its like to be the "Black Sheep" of the family. I wont go into details, but it resulted in e msleeping in the bathroom. Lately it has been common for the first night to be the most "productive" night of the week. I decided to take one for the team and put the kid to bed. Kristy continued the fun fest and somehow convinced her cousin Jeff and Uncle Randy to go to the bar. It all started when she brought her own beer into the bar. I guess the bartender didn't like that, mostly because she insisted she got the beer from the bar. Then as usual, she lost her balance. As she laid on the ground the bartender had enough and told her to leave. I almost wish I was there to witness this great sight. So Jeff and Randy had to practically carry her out of the bar and back to the resort. On the way back she fell and drug both of them to the ground, in the middle of the road. To sum this great tale up, she didn't feel so good the next day.

3. Baxter Fun Days. It all started out late Friday night. I was unfortunate enough to have had to work Friday night, so I missed the first night of fun. Katie and I left Omaha around 11:30 pm and a couple hours later the fun began.

I rode in Katie's car so I did not have any transportation. When I got to John and Peg's I was offered a vehicle to take to Baxter. Above is the Shitation. Other known as a 19-something, assumed to be late 70's early 80's Chevrolet Citation. The picture above does not do the proper justice to this car. This thing is more of a dirty brown with a rust coloration. I was grateful for the ride so how can I refuse this ride. I get in and I immediately scheduled a tetanus shot. Then the smell kicked in. There are no words to describe this odor. So I continue. After I left the roadway I nearly stopped to check and see where the muffler went. I later found out, its still attached. Now to some positives, it drove well. The cruise control worked and the radio worked. Not bad, but it was stuck on AM radio. After 15 minutes, I made it with no problem. The excitement was when I turned onto Main Street after 2:30 AM. This place is a ghost town, so I gun the Shitation and attempted to wake everyone up. Those results are not yet in if it worked.

Now we fast forward to Saturday night. It was a little too early to go to the festivities that are had at Baxter Fun Days. We thought a joy ride in the Shitation should be an order. We turn down one of the city streets and we are heading straight toward a T-intersection and Kristy's aunt and uncle's house. He Uncle Bruce is standing outside by the curb on his phone. We floor it and drive straight at him. The look on his eyes were priceless. I thought he would going to have to change his shorts. So we continued this fun just to be able to say we received a citation in the Shitation. It didn't happen and the Shitation is now safe and sound back on the far.

All in all its been a good summer. Its definitely going way too fast. Before we know it Bri will be heading off to Pre-School. She is really excited for it, lets just hope she plays nice and wont be the class bully.

Monday June 8, 2009

Another couple weeks have gone by and I am finally sitting down thinking of something to write. The biggest task in our latest adventure in Omaha is an addition to our deck. Here is what our deck looked like.

This was not a very practical deck. We just bought some patio furniture and it didn't fit, so why not add on. After a few trips back to Baxter, I was able to recruit some assistance. Kristy's uncles Bruce and Randy and her Dad volunteered to help. I have never built anything, so I was thinking I may be way over my head on this project. I looked at a couple of decks Randy just built and I got a feel of what to do.

I went to Menard's a week prior to get get a quote. I put everything into their computer and the quote they gave me was over $1,100. I even talked to a worker and he gave me the same price. I, of course left, thinking this project may be over before it starts. I then used the non-existent construction skills to draw up some plans. I went into Home Depot and told them what I wanted. To make a long story short, Menard's was way off. We were able to finish the deck under half of what Menard's quoted me. When Bruce and I started digging the holes for the post, I thought this would take a couple days. When sundown hit the first day, we had it all done by the step. Here is the finished produce

I thought I would add a couple more pictures from the past few weeks. Since our bowling league is over, a top 10 finish out of 40, there is a large void in our Sundays. We took Brianna bowling for her first time. She didn't do too bad, she beat Kristy on her first game!!!
The bumpers help of course, but she looked pretty funny rolling the ball down the lane. On her second time rolling it down the lane, she found out the oil is pretty slippery. In the end, Bri and Kaitlin had a pretty good time. After about the fourth frame, they began running around the alley and lost interest. They are getting close to turning 3, so four frames or interest is good for me.

Wednesday May 20, 2009

Wow, its been almost a month. I guess time flies when your having fun. There have been a couple things I have learned in this near month long absence, I am getting old and my kid loves Journey.

During the past couple weeks we have made two trips back to Baxter for Alyssa and Shawn's, graduation parties and ceromony. So there has been some drive time with a sleepy and cranky toddler in the back. So for some background here, Kristy's mom would always talk about them listening to the Carpenters when Kristy was little. Funny, cute little story. But the apple doesnt fall too fall from the tree. On a binge spending night at Wal-Mart, Kristy bought a new 3 dics CD collection of Journey with their new Asian singer. That CD has been played a ton and now the toddler just loves Journey. We will definately have to get a video made one of these days. Her current favorites are "the girl and boy song", Don't Stop Believing, (you should know the lyrics and what she is talking about, if not, iTunes it) and "anyway you want it thats they way you need it song" (Anyway You Want It).

The second part is that I am old. The first weekend we went back, we set up for the party the night before. There were a number of frosty cold ones getting ready for the festivities and we decided to get started. Morning came way too early. Then of course on the night of the party, those same frosty cold ones, mostly bought on the second and third store runs, were consumed again. Even an appearance by the Katie and Jeremy were had, but not easily remembered.

Then came Sunday. It was bowling night and the kid was at the grandparents with Kristy at work. Enough said. It was a rough Monday morning. So then Tuesday rolls around. It was my lovely bride's 20-someting birthday. Guess what my plans were? A concert at the Qwest with three other guys. Guess where my not-so-happy bride was? At home watching my kid and one of the other guys' kid. All in all it was a good time, but I am really suprised I am not living out of my car waiting for approval on a new apartment.

Dont stop yet, the hits keep on coming. We go back to Baxter the following Saturday, the day before the actual graduation ceromony. Why not have a few more while grilling out. Lets go to the bar, theres a band playing. I succomb to peer pressure like no other, thanks Liz, and another Baxter night closing the bar. There is really no other way to do things in that town.

So all in all, in 9 days, I acted like I was in college for 5 of those days. To make matters worse, on the Monday after all this fun, I buy tickets to Vegas for this August.

Friday April 24, 2009

Things have been a little rough in the household this week. The kid decides she doesn't want to sleep through the night. She has been getting up in the middle of the night extremely needy. She needs water. She needs to go to the bathroom. She needs to sleep in our bed. She needs us to cover her up. Its been a rough few nights. I think we have gone back to when she was a new born. I cant imagine those days again, who am I kidding, I didn't do anything then but sleep then if you ask Kristy. Needless to say, a whiny kid who is lacking a full nights sleep, plus her parents who have even less sleep makes for a grumpy house.

To add to the grumpiness, bowling. Who would have thought four guys joining a bowling league for fifteen consecutive Sundays would have caused so much trouble. The four of us joined a harmless, $10 a week bowling week. Its on Sundays at night. Its a party bowling league sponsored by a bad local radio station, I think that answers my question. Just out of principle, the only time we listen to the channel is when we are on our way to the lanes.

Its made up of about 30 teams, and we are currently inside the top ten. Its fun and competitive, its been years since any of us have competed in anything, that's why its bowling not a marathon. You would think our women and baby's mamma's would all show up and cheer and take part in this exciting time. They would be the only significant others there, since I am going to be judgemental here, but the guys in the league, don't really resemble the type of guys that a.) have a girlfriend and b.) definitely aren't married. I think the four of us have more rings and college degrees than the rest of the league combined. That alone should give us a higher handicap. So I guess I better be a little more thoughtful on the next time we chose a league to join, or just join anyway and endure the wrath of angry wives!!!

If the Dude can roll when he wants, why cant we!?!?!?!?!

Tuesday April 14, 2009

Recently I started to wonder why our house is a disaster. We have procrastinated to paint the ugly original white walls in our living room and hallways. As of now, there are a million colors that has mysteriously appeared on these walls. So, I have located 2 possible suspects:

A.

A is a toddler that still has not mastered silverware. She tends to use her hands and most of her food goes onto the floor. She has a tendency to take a drink of water and then see what happens when you tip a cup over with liquid still inside. The upside here is, she has not yet found out that markers indeed work on walls as they do on coffee tables.

B.B is a boxer that is not very smart at times. He will eat his food so fast that when he walks away, he ends up spitting full pieces of dog food and saliva out onto the carpet. After he walks around and digest some of the food, he goes back and finishes up his nice mess on the floor. This dog also has a thing for hitting every single mud puddle in the backyard. It can be dry for a month, but he somehow runs through the yard and brings 4 paws full of mud. (And yes its mud, I think)

So the winner is.......B.

Just last night I get woken up to a dog that sneezed. No big deal, but then he gets up, walks around our room, shakes a thousand times. He walks out into the hallway and he puts his body up against the wall and proceeds to walk down to the end of the hall rubbing his body up against the wall. He turns around and walks back to our room continuing this odd behavior. He does this again. I have no clue what he was doing. Its dry in our house, his skin could be dry and itchy, or he's a freak and he's sleepwalking. I really don't know what his deal was. Too bad he doesn't have thumbs and the proper vocal chords to communicate with us.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Well the Vegas trip has ended. We got back Wednesday night and we are still recovering this morning. The return trip was the smoothest time I have ever had at an airport. In Vegas we got out of the cab, checked in, luggage checked, and sitting at our gate in a matter of 10 minutes. No lines, no waiting. And the plane boarded and departed on time. That's quite the change from our trip out to Vegas. Here is a run down of day 1.

Wake up at 3:45 am, and get picked up at 4:30 am. We find a quick parking spot right next to the shuttle, things seem to be going well. We get into Eppley and everything is on time.

5:40 am, we begin to board the plane. We cant possibly have a delay when we are already boarding the plane. As 6:00 am approaches, we are informed we have to de-ice. No big deal, we have decent amount of time in Chicago for our connection. We de-ice and we start going down the runway. We get to the end and we pull off to the side. The pilot comes out and looks at the wings then a pick-up truck drives around us. The pilot comes back on the radio and tells us we have to go back to de-ice again because the left side of the plane has frozen back over and he can't physically see the wing. Meanwhile, about 2 planes have taken off while we sit at the end of the runway.

So we go back for more de-icing and then we make another run back out to the end of the runway. We sit, and sit, and sit, and sit. Then the pilot comes back out and is looking our the windows at the wing. He makes this wonderful announcement that we have to go back and de-ice again.

After waiting in line with about 10 other planes to de-ice, we get our chance. After the third time de-icing, we head back out to the runway and we finally take off. We boarded our plane at 5:30 am for a 6:00 am departure. We left Omaha at 9:00 am. We got to Chicago at 10:00 am or so. Our connection to Vegas was at 9:45 am.

So, since we missed our connection by 15 minutes, we had to get re-booked. All other flights from Chicago to Vegas were booked. So we got on a 3:45 pm flight to Los Angelas and after a quick layover we get to Vegas by 6:00 pm Vegas time. Not bad, 6 hours late is manageable. We sit down for lunch and I get a call. Not even 20 minutes after we re-booked, but our flight from LA to Vegas is cancelled and we are on a new one that gets us into Vegas at midnight. Freakin midnight!!!

So after going to every service counter for United, there was nothing else we could do. We were put on stand by for every earlier flight to Vegas and of course they are all full.

We were suppose to be in Vegas around noon, and get get in 12 hours later. As we sat on the runway in Omaha, Tim and Brooke taxi right on past us and take off and they were sipping cold ones int he hot sun shortly after lunch time.

To add insult to injury, we arrive at our hotel, Harrah's. There is no line to check in, so we walk right up. Even though we booked our rooms around Thanksgiving, we couldn't get one room for the 3 nights we were there. Since we arrived so damn late, our room was taken and we had one room for Sunday night and then had to check out and re-check back into another room. As crappy as this sounds, it wasn't so bad. They gave us a suite for the first night. It was huge. It had two 40 plus inch screen TV's, a huge bar, 2 bathrooms. It was nice, too bad we only had it less than 12 hours.

Other than those fiasco's, it was a good time. We didn't win crap, we spent a ton on booze, but it was a good time.

Friday April 3, 2009

Well Brianna's pink eye appears to have cleared up. She has been back to her true, bossy self the past day and a half. The poor dog. He spent the past 2 hours sleeping up stairs and once he get to the basement he has a toddler hanging on his neck.

Now that we have cleared the first hurdle on our voyage to Vegas, another one is upon us.

That's right, a snow storm in April. How in the hell does this happen? Its going to be 60 degrees today and for most of Saturday it will rain and be in the 50's. But, between Saturday evening and Sunday morning when our flight is suppose to depart, we will be getting snow and wind. To make things better, its going to warm up Sunday night and into Monday, but for a 12 hours time frame we get this junk. Talk about frustrating.

So we decided to look at alternatives, like drive to Denver, where we switch planes. This wont happen either because they are getting the same junk Friday night into Saturday. So our only option is to sit tight and hope to god this snow misses out and we get the hell out of Omaha on time!