Where am I?

Fantasy Baseball

2007-06-02T08:31:00.001-04:00

I've never been a "fanatic" of any professional sport. I've been to a number of professional games including MLB(Braves, Phillies, Pirates, Yankees), NFL(Bills) and NHL(Thrashers). I've even had the pleasure of attending Game 5 of the '95 World Series. I have kept up on highlights and headlines pertaining to sports over the years - and found it mildly interesting. That's about it... until this year. The wife's cousin asked me to become involved in a Fantasy Baseball League. I accepted and it has been dominating my life. Well, I take that back. Dominating is a fairly strong assessment - let's use the word "consuming". Ever since the season started my head has been filled with "stats". I initially thought that I would be the laughing stock of the league. I was very nervous at the draft because honestly, I didn't even know who 75% of the players were. I did a little research on the net based on stats and used that as my basis. There are seven of us involved and three of us met at the cousin's house while the rest were on the phone. I was at the end of the draft order - I have no idea if this is good or bad. I heard a few snickers when I made my picks but, for the most part, everyone was cordial. Now, two months into this thing and I've been #1 for 75% of the time. I watch Sports Center religiously and am following baseball like never before. I find it fascinating and only wished I had done this a long time ago.

My cousin, who is a very talented artist, just produced some artwork involving Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. Go here David Evans Art to see it. Obviously, this is huge right now. I find it interesting that Aaron doesn't really care about someone eclipsing the record he has held for so many years. Some think it's because he doesn't like Bonds. Others believe he is just plain tired of all the hype. I tend to believe the latter. He's an old man who just wants to live quietly, away from the limelight. I respect a guy like that.

Roswell's Ramblings

2007-05-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

The wife returned from her busy week abroad on Friday. She said it was very productive from a business standpoint and she was happy with the experience she gained from the travel. Now she will be off again in a few weeks. She received her schedule from her coordinator in regards to the Dominican Republic. It was basically what she had anticipated - a week away and then two weeks at home. This will go on most of the summer.

The boy and I fared well with her absence - well at least I did. The boy missed her very much. He kept asking about his Mommy and when was she getting home from Gerbany. You should have seen him when we picked her up from the airport. He went wild for a couple of minutes and then wanted to know where his present was. He decided over the weekend that Daddy wasn't his friend anymore - just Mommy. He was very clingy - so much so that she would have to slip into the bedroom and close the door. She just needed a break! hahhaha.

Saturday was fairly low key. The wife slept on and off and the boy and I puttered around. He has really gotten into "mowing" the lawn with me. So that's what we did. Later in the evening we went to a family gathering and then the in-laws came over to our house and spent the night. They stayed for a while on Sunday as it was Mother's Day and I cooked them a big breakfast.

We came home to a warm house Saturday evening. The wife and I had noticed that the A/C was not working too well during the day. I went downstairs into the laundry room and looked at the blower and it had ice on it. I then went outside and the condenser also had an ice build up. So, at 11:30 at night, I got the hairdryer out and started thawing the ice. If the in-laws hadn't been there we would have suffered though the night as it wasn't really that hot - 78-80 degrees. Anyway, I think it's just low on freon and that's one thing I know nothing about. You've got to be licensed to deal with that anyway so we've got to call somebody in. I hate that but, now I know the view from a homeowners standpoint. I get so worked up about somebody ripping us off. And now, to top all of it off the wife wants to replace the heating and air system. The furnace is original to the house and I'm sure it is inefficient. We replaced the A/C condenser a few years back because the old one broke down over the fourth of July holiday. I just don't want to shell out $4000 right now. Yeesh! The joys of homeownership! I think I've got her convinced to limp along with this behemoth until the end of the summer. We'll see.

Brewing

2007-05-06T08:23:00.000-04:00

I started a batch back in the late winter when I had my kidney stones. The first pic shows the ingredients that come in a kit. There are varying degrees of difficulty when you decide to brew. I lean towards the easy/ intermediate kits, because to move up in difficulty means the purchase of more equipment - which I'm not ready to do right now. Someday, I would like to have my own mashing equipment and be able to purchase the grains and make my own malt. In all honesty though, I am not ready for the additional steps... I need to perfect what I have at the present time. This was a Honey Brown Ale kit and as you can see there is a large jug of malt extract, honey, yeast and two different kinds of hops. What you don't see is the 5 gallons of filtered water, the extra grains for steeping and the priming sugar. The apples you see to the right were not used in this recipe... ha ha!

The second pic shows the grains steeping in a cheese cloth. The wort - as it's called now is slowly being brought up to a boil. Before the boil came on strong I removed the grain bag and added the malt extract. I then added one of the bags of hops and let it boil for about an hour. Towards the end of the boil I added the finishing hops and the honey. The chore after the boil is to bring the temperature of the wort down quickly and efficiently. I chose to submerse the pot in the sink with ice and cold water but, there are other methods which can make it faster. It's like anything else - if you have unlimited funds, there is always some doodad that makes things easier.

After the temperature comes down you can transfer the wort into the primary fermenter, add the remaining 3 1/2 gallons of water and pitch the yeast. The last pic shows the lid on the primary fermenter with the airlock installed. The fermenting wort lets off a lot of gas and it needs a way to escape - hence the airlock. I left the wort in the primary fermenter for a week and a half and then transfered it to a glass five gallon carboy. Usually you leave the wort in the secondary fermenter for a few weeks and then it's ready to bottle or keg. Well, as usual I didn't get around to bottling for more than a month and a half. Leaving it in the secondary that long is okay as long as the airlock is in place.

The wife finally had enough of seeing the carboy in the laundry room and told me to get it bottled. I use "Grolsch" style bottles if you are familiar with that brand of beer. They are the bottles that have a flip top with a rubber seal. I use these because the are larger and they are much easier to seal. I have a bottle capper and bottle caps but, trust me when I say that bottle capping is a pain in the ass. To prepare the wort for bottling I boiled a pint of water along with 1/2 cup of priming sugar. Priming sugar adds a little fuel for the remaining yeast cells in the wort. I then added the sugar mixture to the bottling bucket and transferred the wort from the carboy into the bottling bucket. I gave it a little stir and began bottling. This batch makes 5 gallons of beer - which equates to about 2 1/2 cases of bottles. The priming sugar is what carbonates the beer. Mass manufactured beers use a forced carbonation method with CO2 gases - this is also what home brewers do when they keg rather than bottle their beer.

I waited about a week and opened up a bottle. It was better than I expected. It's a dark, slightly bittered beer with a good head. The longer I let it age, the better it gets. The alcohol content is slightly higher than what you get in a mass produced beer... and these days one of them is about all I need at a sitting. Talking about this makes me want to order another kit. Cheers!

I didn't do it! I swear!

2007-05-05T17:41:00.000-04:00

You all have probably heard by now that there have been some uncontrollable wildfires in South Georgia. The fires started near a town called Waycross. We happened to drive through that area a few weeks before the fires started. We were on our way home from a week in St. Augustine and decided to take the scenic route, because we had never been through that area before. Ever since the fires started they have been threatening the Okefenokee Swamp and Wildlife Refuge. We visited the Okefenokee Swamp Park and that is where this picture comes from. I have never before had any interest in visiting a place like this but, I was pleasantly surprised. It was very educational and I learned that this park has been around for years. All of the signs along the highway indicated that we would be seeing alligators and we were not disappointed. As we drove in to the park the wife said "Oh! Look at the fake alligators on the bank over there". I asked how she knew they were "fake"? She answered me rather sarcastically " Can't you tell? It's obvious." I let it go and said no more not knowing what to think. As we exited the car we saw a group of people standing near one of the "fake" alligators. My wife, with the boy in tow, saunters up to them and asks the boy (loud enough for everyone to hear) "Do you want to go stand on that alligator so I can take your picture?" A woman standing there asked my wife "Are you serious?" To which the wife replied "Well yes, after all, it is fake." The woman looked at the wife rather incredulously and said "I don't think fake alligators move around and breath". At that moment the "fake" alligator opened his mouth with all of his big shiny teeth and slithered into the water, while my wife's jaw fell to the ground. She swooped up the boy and ran back over to me at the car. I asked her what she had expected? Damn city slickers anyway.

Okay, I have to ask...

2007-05-04T15:22:00.000-04:00

Who works for Freddie Mac? Come out, come out - whoever you are! LOL!

Hello again.

2007-05-04T13:42:00.000-04:00

Golly gee willakers Wally, it's been a while. I guess I got out of the habit of posting. What to say... hmmmm. I think I will make this an update of life's goings on rather than any funny stories. It's been a very busy spring. In March the boy and I spent 8 days in Wellsboro visiting my sister, her husband and two kids. It wasn't really a pleasure trip - I spent most of the time helping Sis and my Mom with odds and ends around their respective houses. Sis had a number of electrical things that needed taking care of, such as hanging light fixtures and fixing things that didn't work. My Mom recently bought a house and we tiled a tub surround and I hung some fixtures for her. I knew going in that I would be busy - that's the main reason for going. The boy had fun with his two cousins and got to see snow for the first time. Overall, it was a really fun trip.

Same old projects going on here at home. The week before I went to Penna. we had our house painted on the outside. There is still more work to be done. I've haven't been attacking the punch list like I should. Gutters, touch up painting, some trim work etc. I'll get to it - I putter around but, I really need to just get at it and get it done.

My contracting work has really slowed down and that's okay. I've done some service work and have roughed in a fairly large basement. Now, I'm just waiting on the painters and trim guys to finish so I can go back in and finish up my end. Not having a lot of work has been good right now because the wife has been extremely busy with her career. She has recently changed projects (temporarily) and has been under a lot of stress with that. Her company is launching a new project and she is quite involved. The vendor that is helping them is located in the Dominican Republic - so as you can guess, she's going to be spending a lot of time down there. She's been putting in a lot of hours and it's a good thing that someone is around the house to hold things down. She is leaving tomorrow morning for a whirlwind trip to Germany, Italy and the UK - meeting with prospective clients for another project she's been working on. She'll be gone for eight days and I'm hoping the boy and I fair well with it. Her trips to the Dominican are going to be ongoing for most of the summer and into the fall - up to two weeks at a time. I don't know if anything will come of it but, she said the company is willing to pay for the family to go down there over the 4th of July for a week. If it comes about I will take advantage of it. I'm going to schedule some cigar factory tours... cha, cha, chaaa!

The boy has three weeks left of school. Good God! I can't believe how the time has passed. It seems as if he just started. He has really enjoyed it but, unfortunately he will not be returning - at least not there. It was a great program but, our needs are different. I think we're going to place him in a daycare for two full days a week. The church program we have been sending him to is just three and a half hours a day. We have found that having someone pick him up and then watching him the rest of the day has been very frustrating as the caregivers are either sick or can't come for one reason or another. Knowing that this is the situation has prevented me from taking on the work that has been offered to me. Anyhow, we've been checking out various daycares near us and hopefully we'll make a decision soon.

As far as other things in our lives, well, let's see. We have started a large garden. It's located at a friends house out in the country and it's been a lot of fun and a lot of work! We started working on it about a month ago. We tilled up the soil and added some amendments, such as horse manure and granite dust. A few weeks ago we tilled again and planted. It's been very fulfilling watching the plants come alive. The boy and I go out every few days and putter around for two to three hours - watering and planting. I have a fence that has been started and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to irrigate the whole thing. It's fairly large for greenhorns like us, but we're learning a lot. We're going the Organic route... no chemicals. I can't wait to taste the corn and the tomatoes...

We're still talking about selling our house and moving to a bigger one - who knows? The housing market here is in a slump, so now is not the time to sell anyway... I guess we'll see what happens later on this year.

I need to download and post some pics - I've got some from my trip to Penna., gardening and my beer brewing - which by the way came out great... if I say so myself.

Chugging along

2007-02-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still around. I was just viewing my last post and decided an update was in order. I really need to keep up on this blog as I find it very relaxing. I passed my kidney stone the following Thursday. It's not something I care to go through again. The day before I passed it I had a 6 hour session of intense pain and discomfort. No amount of pain medicine was going to do the trick. I took a little more than prescribed hoping it would knock me out. About 5 hours into it I finally drifted into a restless sleep mode. When I awoke about an hour later the pain had subsided. The next day I had an appointment to see a Urologist. I went to the hospital to pick up my MRI photos and as I was leaving I had this sudden urge to urinate. I found a bathroom and as I did my business, PLOOP, out it dropped into the toilet. I was so happy that it finally had passed yet, was disgusted that it had decided to come out at that particular time. You see, I had previously had to strain my urine for four days to try and catch the stone and the one time I didn't have the mesh funnel it decides to come out. Unfortunately, I had to reach into the public toilet and retrieve the stone. Yuck! After cleaning and sanitizing my hands and arm I examined the stone. I kept envisioning a small pebble, you know, all smooth with rounded edges. No. This was a shard of glass. It was oblong with dagger like points on both ends. It looked like a minute piece of shale. Now I know why it gets stuck in there. It keeps sticking itself into tissue on it's way out the urinary tract. The Urologist sent it off to be examined and I have a follow up appointment this week so he can tell me to stay away from certain foods - or not. He said that Atlanta is known as the "stone belt". The emergency room staff told me they see on average, 3 patients a day for stones.
Enough of that... well sort of. I saw a new primary care physician, the following day after I had passed the stone and she put me on an elimination diet. It's basically a "fast"- for 25 days. It's to allow my body to cleanse itself from all of the junk I eat. It's not designed as a weight loss program but, when you can't anything good, you are going to lose weight. No red meat, pork, dairy products, eggs, wheat, soy, sugar, corn products, alcohol etc. Lot's of fish, chicken breasts and all the fresh fruit and vegetables I can eat. Brown rice and beans have become a staple for me. I feel like I'm living in Costa Rica. Thankfully, I'm 2/3 of the way through. Honestly though, I am feeling so much better I'm going to try sticking to this as a way of life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going torture myself and not indulge once in a while but, I hope I don't have the cravings that I once had for all the processed foods and sugars. Time will tell. The wife's work has a fitness center that I can join for only $50 dollars a year, so I'm going to start on that soon.
Let's see, what else? They are starting on the house painting this week - can I get a hallelujah? I'm going to be bottling my brew today, it' been in the secondary fermenter for about a week and a half and the fermenting has stopped. Once it's bottled, it will need to be aged a few weeks - just in time for a little celebration from getting off this diet! The boy and I are planning a trip to see my family in Penna. for a week or so. My sister has some projects in her house that she needs some help with and my mother just bought a house, so naturally she wants me to help her move - fun, fun, fun. My work has been slow but, it's starting to pick back up. I have a basement build out to wire for one of my previous clients.
I've got some pics to post of the brewing process but I need to take a few more...

At least the sun is shining.

2007-01-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I haven't posted in a while. It's not like I've been too busy to write. I guess, I just felt like I had nothing to say. I'm in one of my periodic funks. I get this way from time to time. I think I inherited it from my Mother. There are some days that I just don't feel like doing anything. When I'm in this kind of funk - it takes a lot for me to get motivated.

We are planning to get our house painted in February - maybe the middle of the month. I have been completing my punch list of items in preparation for the painters. I have some more trim to install under the eaves and I'm working on the installation of some lighting and finishing the ceiling in our entry outside. There is still quite a bit of caulking to do on the siding and I tackle that when we have warm enough days. I'll be so happy when I can turn it over to the painters and let them work their magic.

I worked on trimming out the garage door frame on Saturday. The old frame had been damaged by termites - evidently from long before we bought the house. I installed some man made products that are supposed to be termite resistant. The only thing left to do is install a weatherproof seal around the door but, I have to wait until the painters are done painting to do that.

I woke up yesterday morning with severe pain in my lower back. Initially, I thought it was normal lower back pain that I sometimes receive after a long day of work. After laying in bed for a few more minutes, I realized that this was no ordinary backache. The pain level was increasing rapidly and it was now more pronounced on the left side of my lower back. I got up to go to the bathroom and really didn't go that much considering I had drunk a lot of fluids the evening before. I went out into the kitchen where the wife and boy were preparing for breakfast. I got a drink of water and the wife asked me what was wrong. I was sweating profusely and now was starting to bend over from the pain. I feel like I have a fairly high level tolerance for pain but, this thing was starting to kick my ass. I told the wife to get her and the boy dressed as we were going to need to go to the emergency room. To make a long story shorter and assuming you have already guessed, yes I have a kidney stone. By the time I got to the hospital I couldn't stand up straight. Thank God that it was a Sunday morning... there were only a handful of patients there. I was taken into an exam room and asked to change. I was laying on the gurney writhing in pain. The admissions woman said a nurse would be in shortly. "Shortly" was a long, long time or so it seemed. The wife was so scared looking at me rolling around on the bed moaning that she ran to get a doctor. He asked what was wrong and she said "We think he has a kidney stone. He's in a lot of pain". He ran in and did an initial exam and ordered up the meds. Once he got involved it seemed the whole army of nurses were there. They did an MRI and found one stone has already dislodged from my left kidney and there is another one in my right kidney. I have not passed it yet and now have a greater appreciation for what people that have them go through. It's very, very painful. It appears to be small enough to pass, so they sent me home with literature and a prescription for pain killers. I've had a few bouts with some heavy pain yesterday and this morning but I am doing fine. The pain killers keep me loopy so, I can't drive. Fortunately the in-laws came in and picked up the boy while I wallow in my sorrows from my misfortune. The wife delayed her trip to Dallas by one day, hoping I'll pass this thing soon.

While I'm in my homebound state, I've decided to brew some beer. It's a Honey Brown Ale that's supposed to be fairly close to a mass produced beer that the wife and I enjoy. I'm going to get started on it this afternoon. Maybe I'll get enough gumption up to post some pics of the process.

Sometimes I'm such a dumb ass.

2007-01-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

My poor son. Okay, I'll set up the scene... today was a school day. I'm in a good mood, the boy is in a good mood and things are humming along just fine. I get breakfast ready for the two of us, I'm showered/dressed and picking a few things up before the maid comes. Done with breakfast, clean the boy up and get him dressed, while he watches Sesame Street. I'm thinking to myself, things are going well this morning. I'm not rushing around - the boy is co-operating. Now, the reason I tell you this is because, usually, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. The boy has never been really late to school, but there are times when he's the last one there. We arrive at school and as I'm getting him out of the truck I notice some of his classmates next to us getting out of their vehicle. They are twins, a boy and a girl. It's usually very chaotic in the mornings, with all the kids and parents all over the place. I always pay attention though, to the twins, because their grandparents bring them. The grandparents ALWAYS look completely frazzled and rightly so. The twins are a handful but, what can you expect? They're 2 1/2 years old. So, I say hey to the grandma and take a glance at the kids and say to myself... "What the Hell?" The girl is still in her pajamas. She's got these huge slippers on with some cartoon character sticking out of her toes. She's crying and the grandma is trying to soothe her. The grandpa then comes around the side of the vehicle with the boy and he's got pajamas on too! The kid looks like he has just gotten out of bed. His hair is all disheveled and and he's screaming that he doesn't want to go to school. The grandpa looks completely disgusted and he's trying to juggle a screaming kid and he's got a container full of snacks for the class. We exchanged "Hi's!" and I grabbed my boys hand and we head into the school. As we are climbing the stairs, I'm thinking - "Ms. Sandy(teacher) is going to be really pissed off that those kids are still in their pajamas. Who's going to dress them?" I decide, oh well, it's not my problem. The co-administrators greet the boy and I as we walk down the hall, but I notice, they look at me kind of strangely. We arrive at the classroom and what do my wondering eyes see? A room full of kids with PAJAMAS on! Teachers too! Of course, teachers and parents alike are staring at me. I'm sure they were thinking, "Kid, your Dad is a dumb ass". I looked at the teacher and she gave me the same look as the day I had forgotten it was Picture Day. She said "Don't worry about it" and I replied "If any one would forget, it would be me"- which prompted some stifled laughs from the perfect "soccer moms". Fortunately, the boy was completely oblivious to it. He just immediately started playing. As, I was driving home I called my wife at work and told her the story and we both had a good laugh at my expense... oh well.

The following are a few photo's from Christmas Eve, showing the pig and Santa.

Traveling

2007-01-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

I lied. I didn't post yesterday. The wife and I spent all of yesterday and most of today storing our Christmas decorations and doing the mountains of laundry that was here waiting for us when we returned from our trip. Christmas, as always, was fun. We had an excellent time with the family on Christmas Eve and Santa even made an appearance that evening. We spent Christmas Day with the in-laws and the wife's sister who was in from Jackson. The wife and I realized, as we were putting the gifts under the tree, that we had gone way - WAY overboard. We could barely walk through the room. Needless to say "the boy" was very excited on the morning of Christmas. He really got into it, ripping the paper and having to play with each toy. It sounds bad but, some of the things are going back to the store. This is probably the last year that we'll be able to do that as he will surely remember what he got next year. He received a number of duplicate things or toys that were really close in design. Say for instance, flash cards. He must have received 4 sets. The ones we got him are going back. There also is a number of toys that we didn't even wrap because we decided at the last minute that he had enough. I think this evening is our time to return things. The wife totally surprised me with an acoustic guitar. I had talked about it back in the fall, but really hadn't said anything since. It's going to be a great guitar to learn with and I'll be signing up for lessons soon.

A week ago today we left for Miami. We decided to make the trip a few weeks ago when we learned that the wife's Abuela had been in and out of the hospital. It was not anything major but, she is 88 and we hadn't seen her since last Christmas. Her health, being the way that it is, prohibits her from traveling anymore and when she realized that she was going to spend the holidays alone she kind of went a little crazy. So, the wife thought it was a good time to visit as she had the week off. Her Abuela lives in an assited living complex in Coral Gables which is just outside of downtown Miami. We surprised her with the visit and you could tell that she was pleased. I had never been to Miami and although I doubt I would ever live there for an extended amount of time, I found it to be rather enjoyable. We spent a good deal of our time with Abuela but we also found the time to visit the hospital where my wife was born, take the boy to Parrot Jungle, briefly visited South Beach and had a couple of wonderful meals at Versailles - a well known Cuban restaurant. The wife has told me about this restaurant for years. She and her family have visited it every time they go to Miami and it's a "must do" if you want to experience Cuban culture. We had a good time and I'm anticipating the next trip we make. We left on New Years Eve Day and drove to Jacksonville. We missed the ringing in of the New Year as we both were exhausted. The following day we drove to Savannah and had lunch on the Riverfront and then drove home to Atlanta. We're glad to be home and to sleep in our own beds. I haven't downloaded any pictures yet but, I will soon. There are some interesting ones from Christmas Eve and from Miami.

Happy New Year to All.

2007-01-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

I have a lot to write about but, it will have to wait. I'm tired as all get out. We just returned tonight from Miami and I'm beat. It's been non-stop since Christmas Eve. I'll post tomorrow - with pictures.

The Cuban Way

2006-12-23T21:30:00.000-05:00

The wife's family celebrates Christmas together on Christmas Eve. We gather at Cousin Jim's house... he's expected to have 30 guests. The torch was passed last year - meaning, the gathering used to be at the wife's Aunt and Uncles house. The older generation decided that the younger ones need to take on some responsibility for the gatherings. Our day is coming. Not neccesarily for Christmas but, some other holiday gathering. Anyway, the traditional Cuban meal consists of a roasted pig, rice, plantains, yucca with all of it smothered in mojo sauce. I can tell you, for me, mojo has been an aquired taste. It's a citrus, onion sauce with various spices - don't ask me I'm not Cuban. Jim and his Abuelo ordered the pig a few weeks back. Today they picked it up at the store and brought it home. They spread it apart onto a wire rack and then Jim's Abuela starts stabbing it with a knife and inserting a mojo paste deep inside the flesh with her fingers. Then she smears the whole outside with the paste. Jim then returns it to the store where his Abuelo works and they graciously put it back in their cooler for the evening. Bright and early tomorrow morning they will pick it up and take it to Jim's house where they insert it into the pig roaster. It's filled with a bed of charcoal and then slowcooked all day. Periodically they baste it with mojo sauce. By the time we arrive at 6 pm it's all cooked. It's so tender and juicy. I'll try to get some pictures of it before they carve it up and post them. The women folk don't really care to look at it as it still has it's head in place with it's eyes giving you the staredown. When we all arrive we stand around, gab, eat appetizers and drink - all in anticipation of the carving. Usually, people can't wait and grab pieces of it while it's being cut (narrowly missing fingers or hands). This year we're in charge of the rice... 7 uncooked cups of the stuff. After the pig is carved, we then gather together for a blessing. Afterwards, it's survival of the fittest. People pushing and shoving to get their place in line to get some food. No, it's not that bad but, these damn Cubans go nuts over this stuff. Like I said before, it's taken me 7 long years but, I now enjoy mojo. It really is a good meal. Dessert follows with some delectable treats.

The family then engages in the yearly tradition of the "White Elephant". There are many versions of this gift giving game, which I'm sure most people have played. We have a $25 limit and we buy gender specific gifts. We then get to pick a gift or steal someone else's if we so desire. A particular gift can only be stolen three times and then it's retired. This year it's a little different. We used to mix in shitty gifts with the good ones. Someone always ended up with a "White Elephant". One year I received gold lamay underwear - xxxl. Another time some unexpecting guest received a thong and nipple tassels. Let's see... someone always seems to get stuck with a triple F bra or some crazy thing like that. Well, the older folks decided that we no longer should get the crappy gifts. It seems that one of the Grandparents always ended up with the thong or something. I guess it was embarassing for them - I can't imagine why. The thing is, the cousins liked to buy the outlandish gifts and the old folks are in for some surprises this year. Cousin Jim and I have some malicious ideas in our head. It's going to be the best year yet.

Another surprise that no one knows about is the appearance of Santa. Cousin Jim is going to get dressed up in a Santa suit for the boy and some other kids that are coming. The only people that know about it is Cousin Jim, his wife and me. It's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see the boy's reaction.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2006-12-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time or the desire to post anything lately, for obvious reasons... tis the season. Things are coming together and although it's always hectic, we're better prepared than we have been in the past. We're done buying for the boy and all of his things are wrapped. I have a few minor things to get for the wife and we've got small things for other family members to purchase but, they consist of things like books, movie tickets or gift cards. All of those things can be purchased at the last minute if need be. I bought a number of items online. Every year I buy more gifts online. I personally can't stand shopping at the mall or stores. People are so stressed out that they begin to do crazy things... one of the many reasons why I stay away. I'm expecting a few more things to be shipped - I've gotten to know the UPS man pretty well in the last few weeks. With all the chaos that the delivery guys have to deal with they have been very friendly. So much so that they take the time to chat for a minute or two. Since I've been home more this year, I've gotten to know the mail carrier fairly well. He came to the door last night at 6 pm with a package from my father. His normal delivery time is around 3 pm. He looked like he had been pulled through the ringer. He's counting the days till it all ends.

Since Sunday, the boy has been with his grandparents in South Carolina. We miss him but, the wife and I have enjoyed the time alone. We've gotten a number of things accomplished without our "shadow" following us. The remarkable thing is the quietness in the house. It's kind of spooky. Grandma and Grandpa are bringing him back tonight - I think they are ready. They are used to a sendentary lifestyle and the boy is far removed from that.

Tonight we have a little family get together for a cousin that came into town with her family from Ohio. They have a daughter that is a few months older than the boy, so we are going to exchange gifts with them and have a little dinner. My sister-in-law is flying in Friday and the in-laws are coming back in Saturday. The sister-in-law is going to take the boy to see Santa, although he's seen him at the wife's work party already. Can't the kids tell the difference between these imposters?

I'm gearing up for baking in the next few days. Following what my Grandfather always made, I am going to make a batch of Chex party mix, chocolate chip cookies and a couple of pies - apple and pumpkin. One thing I do miss is his pizelles. He had an old waffle iron that his father had passed to him and now my father has it. I'm pretty sure they don't use it and I would love to try it out a time or two. Grandma and Grandpa would be at the stove working as a team to make dozens upon dozens of the things. The pizelles had a black licorice taste to them and they would make so many that they would have to freeze them so they wouldn't go to waste. Grandpa would call my sister and I to come help him make cookies. We would spend a whole day helping him. I can smell the baked goods and hear Bing Crosby in the background now. Grandma would help with the pizelles but, all the other baking was done by him. She would come into the kitchen once in a while to refill her Tab and then retreat into the living room to read her blabber papers. What a wonderful teacher he was... ahhh I'm lost in thought now.

Err ahh, where was I? Um, yeah I'm not going all out like he did but, just enough to bring back those precious memories. For the most part Christmas Day dinner is going to be your standard fare of ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, creamed corn and dinner rolls. One tradition from my mother's side was oyster stew on Christmas Eve. We are going to be celebrating the wife's Cuban tradition that night so, the stew will have to wait till Christmas Night. Well, that's about all for now. I've got to keep marking off my list of things to do. In the next few days I'll post thoughts on my wife's traditions which are quite different from mine. Till then...

Bacon, ohhh what a treat!

2006-12-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

The in-laws came into town early Saturday morning so the wife and I could get some things accomplished without our shadow (the boy) chasing us around. The wife spent most of the day Christmas shopping while I helped one of the cousins with some auto related issues. His "service engine" light had been on for the last six months. While he wasn't experiencing any serious problems with the truck, he couldn't renew his tag because the vehicle wouldn't pass the emissions test. The problem was a vacuum line that had a hole in it. It was in the fuel vapor recovery system - which has to do with the emissions. While we were under the hood we performed some minor maintenance. We replaced the spark plugs/wires, air filter, fuel filter, another hose for the fuel vapor recovery system and changed the oil. It took us a good five hours between diagnosing, buying the parts and actually doing the work.
Later that evening we all attended a family friends Christmas party. It was a nice party and the food was great... which leads me into BACON. What is there not to like when it comes to bacon? Think about it. When I think of bacon, I think of the master multitasker of foods. You can use it as a primary ingredient. It can stand alone on a plate. Bacon really could and should be considered a spice. As far as I'm concerned bacon compliments most any other food. I love BACON! Well, here's the thing... they had these little tiny weiners wrapped in a thick, sumptuous layer of bacon. If that wasn't enough, a mixture of real maple syrup and brown sugar had been drizzled all over them and baked to a wonderful lightly crusted texture. I liked them. I liked them ALOT! Fortunately for me, there were three cookie sheets filled with these delightful little bursts of salty, sweet, treasures of goodness. Okay, I know I'm getting a little carried away but, for the love of God, we're talking about a hotdog wrapped in BACON. My mouth is watering right this minute. This is how bad it was. Everytime I took a few of them and put them on my plate, I looked around to see if anyone was watching me. Later on, towards the end of the evening, I didn't give a damn. I loaded my plate and ate with gusto. This was a Christmas party! Live it up! Ahhhh... the little things.
Sunday the out-laws helped us decorate the house and the tree. Last year they gave the boy those annoying Hallmark dancing Santa and piano playing Snowman singing, dog yelpers from hell. Oh all right! I don't really mind them that much. The boy loves them and insists on playing all three at the same time. What bothers me is that they are so damn loud. What the hell do they need to be so loud for? I'm not kidding when I say that he played with them for an hour today - nonstop. I finally made him play with them on the couch because it absorbed some of the racket that had previously been echoing off the glass coffee table.
We had a scheduled appointment today for some holiday photos but, I cancelled them early this morning when it was evident that he was not going to be cooperative today. It's amazing how out of wack he get's when his sleep schedule is disrupted. He didn't go to bed until 10:30 Saturday evening because of the Christmas party. Today we just took it easy. The rest of the week looks chaotic. Rest while you can... that's my motto.

Scary Santa

2006-12-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

This is our tree. It's in our lower level family room. I put it up on Monday evening and installed the lights on Tuesday. We're going to try and decorate it this weekend. I'm not sure I like it where it is... it's blocking my view of the tv. I've got my priorities - you know?

This is "Scary Santa" - for reasons you can obviously see. The boy was terrified of this thing last year, but has taken to dragging it around by it's hat this year. He talks to it and constantly tells it what to bring him for Christmas. My in-laws gave us this a few years ago. When the father in-law worked for Coca-Cola he was given this hideous thing. Evidently, it was a promotional item. Anyway, he brought it home for his daughters and it scared the crap out of them. If you look real close on the left hand side of the picture, under his mustache you can see some dark colored crud. The boy thinks it's blood and has told "Scary Santa" a number of times that he needs to go to the doctor for a shot. I think it's gum. This next picture really gives you the idea that it's a troll in Santa's clothes. I wonder if someone in the marketing department at Coke got fired over this?

I'm a little disappointed tonight. My beloved "The Office" was nowhere to be seen. It's the only television show that I am addicted to. Oh well, I'll go watch a rerun (commercial free I might add) to make myself feel better. Toodles.

Ba badoo ba.

2006-12-01T13:41:00.000-05:00

The wife is stuck in Milwaukee. She left Tuesday afternoon and attended a conference in Philadelphia. Late on Wednesday she flew out to Milwaukee to run some trials at one of their mills. The trials are for one of their products that they are trying to launch by the end of the year, so it's been critical and stressful for her. Evidently things went well yesterday but, the trials ran late and she missed the last flight out to Atlanta. Well, it wouldn't have been a problem but, Milwaukee got hit with a snowstorm last night that dumped twelve inches so far and it's continuing to fall. This mornings flight was cancelled and the one o'clock is full. It looks like she's not going to get out of there until five - if all goes well. I feel bad for her. She's stuck in a hotel room, exhausted from her travels and she can't get home. She called a few minutes ago and I could tell she's getting very antsy. I'm also worried because her drive to the airport is normally twenty minutes and now, who knows how long it will take. Furthermore, she hasn't driven in that much snow since we left northern Pennsylvania ten years ago.

The boy and I are just hanging today. A cold front pushed through this morning and brought with it a lot of wind and rain. I see in the back yard that we have a number of tree limbs down. The temperature has dropped twenty five degrees from what is was yesterday. So, we've stayed inside. He watched "The Jungle Book" which has become his new favorite and now he's taking his nap.

Some random Christmas thoughts that I have been thinking of was the time our family and grandparents made the trek from northern Pennsylvania to northern Virginia to spend the holidays with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. The excitement of the trip set in once my sister and I learned of it. It was always exciting to go visit my cousin, but going for Christmas was unbelievable! A few things I remember from the trip are the deer that we saw on the front lawn on Christmas morning. Then there was my sister getting up to go look at the presents under the tree and the adults were just getting into bed. I don't think she slept a wink that night. I don't know if that was the year that we received our Atari from Santa but, my cousin got one and we played that thing nonstop, for the remainder of the trip. There's a picture of my uncle sitting on a toilet in the middle of the living room. My grandparents brought a toilet with them because a bathroom was being built in the basement and they put the toilet under the tree with a bow on it. We all went to Eve Mass and my cousin and I couldn't stop laughing all the way through. Stern looks were given by all the adults... but we didn't care. It was Christmas. My mind is kind of foggy about the details, because it was some years ago but, I will tell you this - it was a damn good time.

Memories

2006-11-29T09:25:00.000-05:00

I watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" last night with the boy. I look forward to watching it every year. This is going to sound corny but, I felt some sort of torch was passed. Another notch in my life. I remember as a young lad getting excited about Christmas specials that aired on television. My mother would allow my sister and I to ignore our bedtime and stay up to watch the various shows. Rudolph, Frosty, The Grinch... etc. And, here I was, allowing my son to stay up past his bedtime to watch. The holiday season, for me, was always an exciting time in my childhood - as I'm sure it is for most everyone.

One story that I always remember is the year that my sister and I started opening up presents before my parents were awake. The rule was, that if we awoke before my parents, we were allowed to get into our stockings and play with whatever was in there. Usually, Santa would leave such things as candy, playing cards, matchbox cars and trinkets. There would always be one tiny present that was wrapped and my mother had always hoped that it would keep us occupied for a while. Well, this particular year, my sister and I decided that we could open up our presents to and from each other. Our reasoning was, that mom and dad wouldn't care. They didn't buy these particular presents, so why would they care? This was all taking place at about 5 - 5:30 in the morning. There was no way that we were going to drag my dad out of bed that early. So after a period of time as my sister and I sat under the tree admiring the few things that we had opened up, we began to talk about opening more presents. We kept rationalizing why we needed to go ahead and open more presents. Don't ask me what those thoughts were but, suffice it to say... we started opening things one at a time. We started with the smallest items first and then progressed to the bigger things. We were so excited that the thought of what my parents might say was far removed from our minds. Sometime later, when we were halfway through, I heard stirring in my parents bedroom. My mother came out and turned on the lights. We had been caught red handed! Thinking back to it now, who else would it have been? Who would break into our house, unwrap only the presents to my sister and I and leave? Mom was not happy. She did a little bit of yelling. I kept thinking to myself... Hey, hey, hey - Take it easy Mom. This is Christmas. We get yelled at every other day of the year. We don't need this now. This is the most wonderful day of the year and you're ruining it by yelling at us. It was obvious that she was not thinking along the same lines that I was because she sent us to our rooms. How could she send us to our rooms? For God's sake woman - it's Christmas! Anyway, we laid in our beds, wide awake, until she came and got us an hour and a half later. All my dad said was "What did you do that for?"

Okay, one other quick story. One year my sister and I begged for ten speeds. All autumn long, we kept bugging my mom and she would say "Ask Santa". Finally, Christmas Day arrives. We run out to the tree and there they are! New ten speed bicycles! Although, wait a minute! What's this? Why would Santa do this to us? These bikes are hideous looking! Disgusting yellow in color. Who in their right mind would paint a bike canary yellow? Sis and I were not happy. Now, you have to realize that the only lighting was the blinking colored lights from the tree. My sister and I sat in silence for the next 45 minutes, waiting for mom and dad to get up. We were trying to decide on how to tell them that they needed to take the bikes back and get us a different color. Mom came out first and turned the lights on and we couldn't believe our eyes! The bike were really red. Don't ask me how but the lights on the tree had distorted the color on the bikes. How they went from red to canary yellow is beyond me. My sister and I were, at times, ungrateful little shits.

What have you been doing?

2006-11-27T18:48:00.000-05:00

Where did the last week of my life go? I find myself asking this more often then not. Not specifically referring to last week, but to time in general. Things get so crazy sometimes. You spend all of your youth wanting to grow up and once you get there you long for the life you had with no responsibilities. I know, I know, it's just a fact of life you say. True, it is. I often wonder how many other people out there have a life that parallels mine. I will be poking along, taking care of all the things I need to do then BAM! I have more things thrown at me than I can handle. Now, to be honest, I bring most of it on myself and furthermore you would think by this point in my life that I would have learned how to properly manage my time. I wonder if I'll ever learn to just say "no".

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the wife's family. We were in charge of bringing butternut squash. I'm no fan of squash and have never cared for the way it has been prepared in the past, so this year I decided to "kick it up a notch" and buck the trend. The traditional way to cook butternut squash is to halve it and cook it till tender. Then scoop it out and beat it like mashed potatoes. You can add some spices and maybe some brown sugar to liven it up, but it just doesn't do it for me. We found a recipe that cube's the raw squash and saute' it with shallots. You then add chicken stock, brown sugar, various spices and cook it for about ten minutes. At the end you add some balsamic vinegar and pepper it for taste. In theory it sounds fairly easy but, have you ever tried to cut raw butternut squash? It's not an easy task by any means. To top it off, we had to make it for fifty people. Now, we didn't know how much to make. We guessed at 24 servings and there was over half of it left over. Either there was so much food that everyone took a smidgen or it tasted like crap. The wife had to remind me that it was squash... who goes back for seconds, for squash? I'd like also to talk about the wonders of sugar and butter. If you add enough of either ingredient or both, you can make any dish edible. Case in point - sweet potatoes. I have never cared for them. To me there is nothing "sweet" about them. One of the wife's cousins prepared a dish with sweet potatoes and tons of butter and sugars. It was topped with some crusty combobilation of pecans, brown sugar and something else crunchy. It was served as a side dish, but I went back to it at dessert time. It was heaven! So tasty! I think that the sweet potatoes really are used as a filler for the recipe because their original flavor was no where to be found - thank god. The fried turkeys were a hit with the Cubans. One of the turkeys was consumed before it was completely carved. Vultures.

I spent the better part of last week finishing up a contracting job and then spent the rest of the time working on our siding project. The gang came over yesterday (Sunday) and then today, two of the cousins came over in the early afternoon. We finished tonight. Well, I wouldn't say we are finished but, the installation is for the most part complete. There is a two foot wide section on the back corner behind the chimney that need to be done. I can handle that on my own in about a day. The front around the door has yet to be finished - we haven't decided on the material to be used yet. I have some trim work to take care of around the garage door and under the overhangs. Then, the whole house needs to be caulked and painted. So, it's far from finished, but the battle of the installation is over. Check that off the list.

Monday morning...

2006-11-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

Ahhh yessss.... It's Monday morning. I'm drinking a strong cup of coffee while the boy is watching his daily dose of Sesame Street. I finished "A Walk in the Woods" Saturday evening. It was a good book but, I did envision a much different ending. Without giving away anything to any prospective readers of the book, I will say that I am more than impressed with Bill and Katz's accomplishments - as it relates to the trail. I've been perusing the various websites on the AT and have found them very interesting. I've specifically been studying the Georgia section and realized that there are close to 100 miles from the trail head to the North Carolina border. My thoughts have been to try a few day hikes and see how I like it. I really haven't been hiking since my days in Wellsboro and I never did anything more than day hikes. Of course I've been having grand thoughts of being a thru-hiker, but they are just dreams in my head. Wouldn't it be great to say that you walked the whole trail? I'm finding, that since I've been a part-timer, that I've had more time to think of other things to accompish besides work.
It's going to be a busy week. The wife is off for the week starting tomorrow and I'm going to take advantage of that. I will probably work on one of my contracting jobs one day this week and then devote the rest of the time to my own project here at home. One of the wife's cousins is coming in from Orlando and wants to take the boy for the day on Wednesday - we said, "Have at it!" Wednesday evening the family is having our annual injection party. No, it's not drug related. We inject the turkeys with spices to marinate over night before we fry them. The wife's uncle is in charge of frying and has, at times, fried up to 16 turkeys on Thanksgiving day for family/friends. Usually, there is one traditionally cooked turkey and one fried to feed our family, but this year we are going to experience the "Cuban Invasion". There are going to be over fifty people at Thanksgiving this year! All the relatives from Miami are coming and they've decided to fry four turkeys for us alone. I can't wait... what a feast it's going to be. I can taste it now... mmmmm. It's quite an experience walking into the wife's Aunt and Uncle's house on Thanksgiving Day. You can hear the noise as soon as you get out of the car. The laughing and cackeling. You walk in and spend the next half hour greeting, hugging and kissing everyone while they are talking to you in spanish. I do a lot of head nodding and laughing. I haven't got the slightest idea what they are saying. I usually retreat to the back deck where the beverages are kept. I will find the wife's cousins from her mother's side, who are New Englanders, and spend the day with them, because we can actually communicate. It's a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to the festivities.

Karma

2006-11-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day in this part of the world. Sunny skies in the upper 50's. As far as the project is concerned, I'm on my own this weekend. The family had conflicting plans, but we're on for next week. I decided to get started on the right side. I worked about half of a day yesterday pulling off the aluminum and I installed a few sheets of plywood before it got dark. Today I continued with the plywood. I'm only lacking a few sheets and that part will be done. I'm going to finish tomorrow with getting the house wrap installed - that way it'll be sealed up in case it rains before next weekend. This side is taking longer for a number of reasons. Number one, I'm working alone. Then you have the fact that all the utilities come in the house on this side. The phone, electric, tv cables and some networking cables that I had run for various rooms in the house. I ended up cutting channels in the brown board and concealed all the wiring. It's going to be very "clean" now. The other thing that has been slowing me down is a couple of bushes that are around six feet tall. The branches were everywhere that I needed to be.

I went out last night with my wife's cousin. Usually once a month he and I partake in some alcoholic beverages at a pub called the "Dunwoody Tavern". It's a typical bar, but the atomosphere is agreeable to us. We sit around and talk like two old women. Last nights conversation centered around his purchase of a new Toyota Tundra. He's been talking about this for some time and finally decided to do it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous... it's a beaut. It's a black four door with grey leather interior and an awesome tire/aluminum wheel package. Now, here's a funny little thing that happened after we left the pub. We decided to go back to his house because, he had some food he wanted to give the wife and I. He works for a specialty food company that sells to various markets here in Atlanta. His biggest account is Whole Foods. He constantly has a garage full of food and we're not talking about cheap junk. We get to his house and he fills box after box for us and as we're getting ready to leave he says he has two five gallon buckets of paint that he wants to get rid of. The paint was left in the house when he bought it. There is so much construction going on we decided we would hit a site and throw it in a dumpster. We throw the buckets in the back and head out. I'm thinking we're just going to go a few miles and find a place to dump it. We're heading down some back roads and I hear the buckets bouncing off the sides of the bed. I say "Take it easy, this is a brand new truck". I'm thinking to myself that there is going to be dents and scratches all over the place. Well, after five or more miles we find a deserted site. It was a future home of a Wachovia Bank. We pulled into the parking lot next to the dumpster and I jump out. I get to the back of the truck and am horrified to see that there is paint EVERYWHERE! White on black. I yell to him to get out and take a look. He had a few choice words and said "What do we do now?" Fortunately, we were only a few miles away from my house and it was cold out. There was no way that the paint was going to cure in that weather. When we arrived at my house he got the hose out and started spraying and luckily it just washed away. What a Jackass.

Blogger Boogs

2006-11-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

I changed over to Beta and now my script for "Recent Posts, Archives, and Links" are messed up. I don't even know what Beta means. It took me hours the other evening just to get links on my blog. My template didn't have them so some how I found out how to install after messing with it. Now this. Damn Mo Fo's!

I tell ya... it's a bunch of scrap!

2006-11-13T19:33:00.000-05:00

I took another truck load of aluminum siding to the scrap yard today. I'm thinking that I will have to make just one more trip after next weekend. We're going to make the final push this coming Saturday and Sunday to complete the installation part of the project. We received a letter today from the homeowners association concerning our lack of "approval" from the architecture committee. My wife had inquired at the front office before we even started the project as to the neccesary requirements. The very woman that sent the letter today told my wife that replacement of siding didn't need to be presented before the committee. However, she did inform my wife that we needed to have the paint colors approved, which we had intended to have done from the beginning. She basically told us to stop work until the paint colors are discussed. I wrote her an email immediately, explaining what she had expressed to my wife and that we would be continuing on with the project to finish it. I also reassured her that we would get the committee's approval before painting. As an extra, I sent her two photo's of the front of the house - before and after. I explained that the differences in looks at this point are minimal and that the changes will come after it's painted. I'm not upset with the woman - she's got a job to do. The various committee's throughout the neighborhood are, in fact, looking out for everyone's best interest. It hasn't been our first letter and it certainly won't be our last.
The same thing happened some years ago right after we moved in. We wanted to take down some pine trees that were right next to the house. As most people know, pines are dangerous. Pine are brittle and their root system is shallow. Again, the wife made the neccesary phone calls and a committee member actually came out and approved the removal of various trees we were concerned about. He marked them with ribbons. About three weeks later we had a company removing the trees when a gentleman, in his car, came to a screeching halt in the middle of the street. He jumped out and came running towards us all the while screaming "Quit cutting!" I asked the wife "Who in the Hell is that?", she responded "That's the idiot that approved the removal." She led him back out into the street and told him that he, himself had given his approval. He told her that he didn't remember. She in turn showed him the ribbons still on the logs laying on the ground. He sheepishly got back in his car and took off. You know what the problem is here? Well, I'll tell you... nothing is written down. Everything is verbal. We are slowly learning that we need to get everything in writing from the HOA.
On another subject, the wife and I saw "Borat" on Saturday night. Without hurting anyone's feelings I'd like to say that while I laughed at different scenes, I didn't think it was "all that". I don't know, I guess my expectations of laughing nonstop for an hour and a half were a little unrealistic. The wife said it best "It was just to over the top for us". I guess that means I'm an old f*ck. After the movie we ventured over to Barnes and Nobles, grabbed a cup o' joe and spent a few hours browsing. I bought the boy a book on going peepee and poopy on the potty. I asked a woman if she could direct me to the section of books on going to the bathroom, preferably with well known characters and she gave me a blank stare. Actually, she looked a little repulsed. Finally, after an awkward moment or two and more of an explanation from me, a light bulb went off in her head. She took me over to three shelves, full of books with characters guaranteed to magically make my kid go poop in the potty. I settled on Caliou as the boy really seems to like that show. I then searched for books on hiking the Appalachian Trail. I found a number of factual books but I kept coming back to a book I had seen a number of times before. It's called "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. It's a humorous look at the author's hike from Georgia to Maine. I'm about 70 pages in and I like it. I've been thinking lately about the trail because the start of it is a mere 5 miles from Amicalola Falls. It's the same park that we took the boy to a few weeks ago when we went to the pumpkin farm. From what I gather Bill started his hike in March '96. The book has been out for quite a while so, many of you may know about it already. I'm a little slow about these things, like I've said in my profile - I'm an occasional reader.
Let's see, what else? I worked on the front of the house, around the door, on Sunday. Today, I went to the scrap yard, took the boy to the doctor and then took him to the park. The doctor's visit was for the boy's lingering smoker's cough. He hasn't exhibited any signs of sickness in the last week and a half with exception of the cough. The doctor said it was just lingering effects of previous colds and it will eventually go away. He did get a flu shot that he wasn't expecting, but was happy with the bandaid that was provided to cover his wound.

Taking a break, but still working.

2006-11-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

We've decided to take a break this weekend from the siding. I've got a house that I've been working on that is closing at the end of the month and I need to focus on that for the next week. I had the fixture package delivered today and I have decided to work there tomorrow. I took the boy out to said house today because I needed to meet the lighting company. The house is approximately 5500 sq. ft with a full basement that is unfinished. He had a ball running around - inside and out. I found him in the rear of the house studying some ladybugs. I am always amazed at what kids find fascinating. As adults, we don't give bugs a second thought... usually, they're "pests" to us. There's always a new learning experience for kids.

Civic Doody

2006-11-07T21:38:00.001-05:00

I voted this evening. It couldn't be any easier for my lazy butt. Our precinct is located around the corner in our neighborhood elementary school. I was listening to Sean Hannity on the way home from work. He was blabbering on and on about voting machines not working and voters being denied and turned away unjustly. A few thoughts came to mind. Number one was, why can't a reliable voting machine be built? We can send a man to the moon forty some odd years ago and we can't build a simple voting machine. It's not like the machine has to clean the house or even figure out the square root of 3006775. All it has to do is display the candidates and tally the votes... it can't be that hard - can it? The second thought has to do with the candidates that felt the need to bombard our house with phone calls. All last week, in the evening, it was never ending. I would come home after work and find 4 messages from some guy telling me that old Sonny Perdue was a crook and that I needed to vote for Guy Smiley. It was funny that today I took the boy to school and when I came back home there were 3 messages in the span of twenty minutes telling me to get out and vote today. When will the politicians realize that the "mud slinging" and endless phone calls/mailers do nothing more than piss me off. Talk about the issues you damn educated idiots!

More of the same.

2006-11-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

This was taken mid morning on Sunday. We accomplished what we set out to do, which was finishing the front and working on the left hand side. That's me with the blue hat, the wife's cousin to the right of me and the other wife's cousin down below cutting the siding.

I took this photo this morning. We are still debating on what to do around the door. One thing that we're going to do is lower the light. It was too high before. Hardiplank makes a product that is in the shape of cedar shakes that we are considering. My contractor friend came by on Friday and I picked his brain for ideas. He suggested stacked stone, with an inlay of sorts - possibly round or half moon shape. We just don't know what to do with it. We also need to work on paint colors. The Hardiplank comes with a primer already installed and the wife actually likes that color. The Homeowners Association has an approved colors book for us to look at so we need to make a decision on that. The photo also shows a pile of aluminum siding laying in the grass. Last Monday I took my first load of the siding to the recyclers. They are paying 50 cents a pound and I had 180 pounds. We will have approximately 3 more truck loads to get rid of so it's working out well... the scrap money is covering our costs for all the food that we're providing our worker bee's. Speaking of which, we had a feast yesterday evening - surf and turf. The wife's Aunt and Uncle returned from their trip at the beach with fresh shrimp and grouper. It was delicious! We had all sorts of seafood delights. The menu consisted of clam chowder, three kinds of dip - clam, shrimp and fish, shrimp, steak, grouper with bruschetta, corn on the cob and salad. There was so much food we didn't even get to the dessert of apple pie and ice cream. It was the perfect ending to an exhausting weekend.

Progress... slow but sure.

2006-11-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

This is what our house looked like in mid July. As you can tell it is a typical house built in the late 70's. The siding was aluminum with minimal trim. The reveal on the siding was only 4" which gave it a very dated look. The paint was the original and we made the mistake of pressure washing it after this photo was taken. It looked horrible! A few years back we had a contractor friend of mine replace the back deck and while he was at it we replaced the siding in the rear because it was in such poor shape. (aluminum dents easily). Finally we have decided to do the remaining ourselves.
The second and third photo were taken yesterday morning (Friday). This is what the neighbors saw for most of this last week. This is the left side and front with the aluminum removed, 1/2 inch plywood installed over the brown flake board and then house wrap stapled over the plywood. You can tell in the third photo that the lower part of the front is done but, the top half has not been touched. My wife's cousin came over and helped me all day yesterday to complete the front so that today we could start on the actual siding... it's all in the preparation!

This last picture shows the wife's two cousins slaving away while she supervises on the right. This was late in the afternoon today. We installed the trim and drip cap on the bottom and corners. Then we trimmed out the windows with brick mold. After all of that the actual siding can be seen installed. The wife's two cousins along with her mother (she watched the boy and made dinner) were invaluable today. Without them we certainly would not be where we are with this project. Tomorrow we are really going to push to have the front done and try to see if we can get a few more pieces put up on the left hand side.

We are seeking energetic able-bodied workers. If you aren't doing anything on Sunday and you have just been dying to help install siding - COME ON BY! Tomorrow it's all you can eat Shrimp!

No title

2006-11-03T06:15:00.000-05:00

I woke up early this morning thinking about the days work that lies before me. The wife took the day off so we could have three solid days of working on our siding project. Luckily, no rain is in the forecast. I'm trying to fomulate a game plan into completing the most amount of work in the least amount of time. Today, I'll be working alone for the most part. The wife's cousin may come over this afternoon depending on how his day goes. On Saturday and Sunday the whole gang will be back to help. The wife's Aunt and Uncle are returning from their stay at their beach condo in St. Augustine with a carload of fresh shrimp for dinner on Sunday - that will be a treat to look forward to.

Thanksgiving is only three weeks away. With this current project and the holidays approaching, it's going to be an extremely busy end to the year 2006. My holidays, now in the present time, are so different from the days of my youth. For starters, I'm not a kid anymore. Then there's the fact that I don't live in northern Pennsylvania with my parents. My wife's relatives are all about family. Coming from Cuba, it's their culture. Not to say that my family was not but, it was just different. I'm so wishy washy - for so much of my life I wanted things to stay the same but, at the same time I embraced the change. The funny thing now that we have a child is that we have our own ideas, our own traditions, our own way of doing things. Is it normal for a man to just assimilate into his spouses family? I mean sure, I miss my family. I do have great memories of the times we had, especially at the holidays. I don't know, it's so different now. My wifes family - is my family too.

For some reason this morning my I'm having a hard time trying to formulate my thoughts - this is not uncommon for me. I'm like my Grandfather in that respect. His mind always raced at 150 mph while his tongue was in a school zone. So, if you can't follow what I've written above, don't worry, you're not alone.

To put it straight out there - I'm looking forward to the holidays.

Halloween

2006-11-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

It took some effort but, the boy went trick or treating last night. He didn't want to wear his costume, a giraffe that Grandma had purchased for him. At school yesterday they had a Halloween party and a parade in the parish center for all the kids. Evidently, per the teacher, it took some doing to get his costume on. He just didn't like it. I don't think it was so much it being a giraffe... it had to do with the giraffe's head being in the hood and the long sleeves. The boy has had a problem lately with pants and long sleeve shirts. He has gone the whole summer with shorts and t-shirts and now it seems he doesn't like the restrictive feeling of fall/winter clothing. The costume was basically a furry set of pajamas with a tail and a head/hood. We begged and pleaded with him to put it on and he wanted nothing to do with it. Finally, when the kids started coming to the door he got excited and wanted to go out. We just got his costume on when another group of kids came to the door. Before we knew it he was out the door following the kids to go to the next house. The wife ran after him and met up with some neighbors and walked around with them and their kids. She came back about twenty minutes later and then I took him for a little while. He was insistent on carrying his own pumpkin filled with candy and walking on his own to each house. He kept telling the other kids how he had a pumpkin with candy and "Happy Halloween Kids". We went to five or six houses and then returned home. He was excited about all the candy but, exhausted from the day of fun.

Siding

2006-10-30T07:50:00.000-05:00

We had an interesting weekend. We started our latest project that I had previosly mentioned in a post below... re-siding our house. We are in the process of removing the 70's era aluminum siding and replacing it with Hardiplank. I'm hoping it looks updated when we're through. It was a family affair. The inlaws came into town and were a tremendous help. My mother-in-law watched the boy and cooked while the father-in-law brought a lot of tools and helped with the project. By Sunday afternoon we were all exhausted. We did have more able bodies on Sunday - two of the wife's cousins came and helped out. Everyone was extremely helpful. Just to summarize, we are removing the aluminum siding, sheeting the whole house in 1/2" 4 ply plywood, installing a vapor barrier and installing the Hardiplank siding and trim. We haven't decided on paint colors but, obviously painting will come after that. At some point after all that is done we are going to replace the gutters - if we are still alive! We got one side and part of the front to a point where we can start with trim and siding. I think we've got at the very least 2 more weekends to be at a point where I can finish up the loose ends. Then the painting will begin. This house was very cheaply built. When we removed the aluminum siding there were large gaps in the sheeting letting air in all over the place. We're hoping the addition of the plywood will close up the gaps and also create some more sound barrier to block traffic noise that we hear from the expressway which is about a 1/2 mile away.
I'm sore today from all the lifting and ladder climbing - as I'm sure everyone else is. I'll post some pictures of the process a little bit later.

Ho Hum...

2006-10-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

The wife is in Milwaukee tonight. She left early this morning to catch her flight at 8:30. She's been traveling regularly as of late. Her travels have really never been an issue, in part because they are usually only a few days at a time. Her friend who has a little girl the same age as our boy called me this morning to see if we wanted to go to a kid's place called Jeronimo's. Yes, that's how they spell it. I had never been before. We met around 10:30 and we had the place to ourselves. It's basically those huge air castles and slides that you see at a carnie. They had about six huge structures and a small one for younger tykes. The boy loved it and he really burnt off a lot of energy. We stayed for about an hour and a half and then headed home for some lunch. He was very tired, so he really didn't eat much. I put him down for a nap and I decided to take one myself. It was kind of cold today - low 40's, so laying on the couch with a blanket on made it nice and toasty. It was a pretty normal day other than that.

Burt's Place

2006-10-23T15:12:00.000-04:00

This is Burt's Pumpkin Farm. We took the boy there yesterday. He had a ball running all over the place. We left Roswell around noon and first went to Amicalola Falls State Park. It's about an hour drive from our house. We had a little picnic lunch near the stream and then walked part way up towards the falls. We weren't sure we were even going to go as it had rained the previous night and threatened to do so again. It turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun came out and there was just a tinge of crispness in the air. We drove to the top of the falls, let the boy run around and then proceeded to Burt's, which is half a mile down the road. The place wasn't as mad as it had been last year but, the downfall was the previous night's rain. There was mud all over the place. This year they also had some redneck yelling over the loudspeakers to not sit, stand or jump on the pumpkins. Obviously, this was a problem but, I didn't need to hear it every five minutes.
I took numerous photos of the boy and we had some taken of all of us. The wife said she's going to use them for Christmas cards? Okay. We bought a carving pumpkin and a pie making pumpkin and the boy got a small pumpkin the size of his hands. That's about it. I will say this, Burt's Farm smells wonderful... not your typical farm. The smell of pumpkin bread and kettle corn was everywhere. Mmmm good. I would have bought some treats if we had thought to bring more cash. We only had twelve dollars between us because I had forgotten to stop at the ATM and I absolutely refused to put a pumpkin on our credit card.
We headed back home and enjoyed the fall colors. It was a good day.

Give a Hoot, don't Pollute!

2006-10-20T09:02:00.000-04:00

I was laying in bed this morning thinking about my late Grandfather. I certainly have many great memories of him. I was thinking about the many hours I spent with him and it led me to the time that my sister and I helped him with the church fair that was held at the local fairgrounds. Grandpa K. had been a cook in the CCC camps when he was a young lad. So with that experience he was naturally a shoe-in for any kind of food related activities that there may be. He was a great cook and he knew how to handle cooking for the masses. Our church held a yearly fair, usually in the fall, at the local fairgrounds. It was a one day affair that consisted of bingo, raffles, flea market, games of chance and more importantly food. Grandpa was the head cook for the food. My sister and I always looked forward to helping him, we did everything from serving and collecting money to doing the dishes. Somehow, working with him, it never seemed like work - it was always fun.
My grandfather loved his beer. He could be seen taking a slug from a bottle all day long but, I never saw him drunk. He would drink beer like some would drink a coke or coffee. Anyway, the fair was no different with the exception that he hid his bottle because he knew that some may object... after all it was a church affair.
It was late in the day, my sister had gone home with my parents and I stayed to help clean the kitchen. At that point all the old folks were indulging in some brew that my grandfather provided them. We loaded the truck up and set off to deliver some dishes and pots/pans to a church member who had donated them for use. As we were driving down a country road my grandfather decides to teach me some important life lessons. He tells me that we have to save our environment. We must protect old mother earth. He's going on and on about litter on the sides of the roads and how plastics don't degrade for years and years. It was dusk and the headlights were on, shining down picking up every white piece of trash along the road. At this point in the day his lips were pretty loose as the effects from the last few beers and his exhaustion from the day shown through. He wasn't intoxicated but, he was drinking and driving. As a kid, I never thought to much of it. Whenever we'd be driving down a country road he would have a bottle between his legs, taking a slug every now and then. So, after his "life lesson" we sat in silence while we continued towards town. As we approached the city limits I watched in astonishment as he downed the last quarter bottle of beer, rolled down his window and threw the bottle out the window into the weeds. I was always taught to respect my elders but, at that moment I wanted to scream - "What the fuck are you doing?". Now, I would never address my Grandfather that way, I mean shit, he was my idol. I loved him. But, how could he say one thing and a few minutes later do the exact opposite? I was truly perplexed. He took me home and I remember keeping it to myself for a while. I did, later on, ask my dad about it and he basically shrugged it off saying "yeah, he probably shouldn't have done that". Today I remember it and laugh my ass off. I've told a lot of people that story and they just don't find the humor in it like I do. I think I have a strange sense of humor or maybe it's in my delivery, because things that are silly and I think are hiliarious, others look at me in bewilderment.

Money Issues

2006-10-19T11:09:00.000-04:00

My quality of life has sucked shit lately. There is really no one to blame but me. It's up to me to be positive and value each day as if it would be your last , but I seldom remember to do that.
I know you're sick of hearing it but, I'm still sick. The boy is too. Seriously though, I pray it will be gone by the weekend. I do feel a lot better.
My son has been acting like a hellion since we picked him up from his grandparents on Sunday. He stayed with them for 3 1/2 days. Of course he receives minimal discipline and gets anything he wants... that's what grandparents are for - so they tell me. He has begun hitting us when he doesn't get his way. He argues over EVERYTHING and is being a royal pain in the ass. I took him to the park yesterday and all he wanted to do was eat pretzels. I finally got him on the swings and then he wouldn't get off. He started falling asleep in the swing and everytime I tried to get him off he started screaming - NO NO NO! Obviously he was tired. We came home and I tried to feed him - no he didn't want to eat. I then put him into bed - now he was wide awake. Yesterday was one of those days where he needed attention at all times. It wore me out. On top of all this he scares the shit out of me by telling me that he "ate money". He was really irritable when I tried to put him down for his nap. He kept balling up his fists and lying in a fetal posistion. I asked him if his tummy hurt and he just looked at me. I said "does your tummy have a booboo?" He said "yes, I ate money". The problem with this is that I've found coins in his mouth before and he happened to be playing with coins earlier. I took them away but, really didn't think anything more of it. Of course I freaked out and called the doctor. All the doctors were at lunch. I talked to a nurse and she basically said that if it was anything but a quarter that it would more than likely pass and to just keep an eye on him. So, all day yesterday I was going to look after him as soon as he was crying, trying to ascertain if he had in fact swallowed coins. When he told me that he "ate money", it was so matter of fact that I had no other choice than to believe him. As the day wore on it became more evident that he was just irritable for the sake of being irritable and I gained more confidence that he probably hadn't swallowed coins.
By the time the wife got home last night I needed a serious break. I went out in the garage and consumed a few beers and just mellowed. The wife was very good to me and let me be. She took the boy on a walk and I had about an hour and a half of peace and quiet.
The boy slept well through the night and he had his morning constitution. So far there is no obstructions and he seems to be doing all right. I did have to check his doody though, for coins. None found. Yet.

Real World Estate

2006-10-16T09:29:00.000-04:00

I find that during the day I try to think of interesting topics to write about. It seems to help take my mind away from the daily stresses of life. Now, with that said, just because I think of them doesn't mean that my topics are of any interest but to myself. No one reads this blog at this time so my only audience is myself.
For the last year my wife and I have been working on our house to make it more marketable for sale. It's been filled with weekends of pressure washing, painting, deck sealing, landscaping, etc. I thought we were actually coming to the end of our list of chores. My wife scheduled a couple of real estate agents to come and look at the house and give us an idea of what it's listing price may be. Both agents sell heavily in our neighborhood. One (A) has been selling here for about 15 years while the other (B) may have been here for 5-6 years. It was interesting how my wife and I dissected the agents spiel. Agent (A) has a wonderful marketing plan and her listing price was substantially higher than agent (B). For various reasons, we were looking for a fairly quick sale with the largest monetary amount realized. After each session with the agents my wife and I talked about the different approaches the agents made. Agent (B) complimented us on the way the house looked as far as presentation but, pointed out many flaws that she thought were especially detrimental and pricing our house accordingly. Agent (A) also complimented us on the presentation and told us repeatedly that the house was "move in condition". When we pressed agent (A) on the faults that we could see, she dismissed them. She told us point blank that all the houses in this area had the same faults, being that they were all built in the 70's. She said "Let's get it on the market and have an open house immediately". The feed back received from the open house would determine our next moves. Agent (B) told us that it needs to be "priced right" in the beginning or we would sit on it for months.
My wife and I have mulled over this for a few days and then she shocks me by saying "let's stay for a little while longer and re-side/paint the outside of the house". Just when I thought that our (my) projects were done! The rear of the house already has new Hardiplank. The two sides and the front will need to be completed. Of course she wants this done ASAP. So here we go. The siding was one of the faults that agent (B) pointed out. In my wife's mind and mine, I must confess, we would like to be "on top". By saying that we mean that we want to be in a position that we can get the maximum amount of money and have it sell quick. By the time the bargaining and agents commission is all said and done, it doesn't leave us with the money we need for a different house that is both larger and possibly newer. Considering that the labor will be ours, we will get back our investment easily. Everything here in the Atlanta area is all about looks. No one cares about things they can't see, but are neccesary. We feel that by improving the appearance of the outside of the house that it will have the curb appeal that will lure potential buyers to make offers immediately.
Well, I guess I need to go make some plans for my next project... siding. Oh boy. I'm excited. (9)

For future reference, the number represented in parenthesis is what I call the "sarcaso-meter" The numbers range from 0-10, with 10 being the highest level of sarcasm. Good Day!

Sick of being sick.

2006-10-11T14:23:00.001-04:00

What the Hell is going on here? I've been sick for two weeks or more. It's really getting old. You may ask - "Did you go to the doctor?" No, no I didn't. It started out as just a common cold, so I thought and it's lingered forever! Actually, from my research, I think it was the flu. It hit me hard with fever, chills, sweats and then congestion in my lungs with this annoying cough that never stops. It's a ticklish, dry hack that hurts my head when I cough. When I woke up this morning I felt pretty good and thought that today was the day it was going to end... now I don't think so. They say this crap can last for weeks. All the doctor is going to do is give me something to soothe my cough. The bad part about it is that the wife and son have it also and I'm wondering if we are just passing it back and forth to each other? I don't even know if that can be done. I blame it on one of them. Either the wife got it from work or the boy got it from them damn kids in preschool. Damn, he only goes there two days a week but it seems he catches something every other week. We usually keep him out if he's sick but, I took him anyway this week. The only sign that he was sick was the awful cough he has. I said screw it! Let him get those other damn little bastards sick. Serves them right for passing it on to my kid. Honestly though, he's on the downhill slide. His snot is clear and the cough is really not that bad.
My Grandfather would have had some home remedy that he would suggest and it probably would have worked. Something like, eat leek soup for three days straight and wash it down with some cold beer. He was rarely sick. Let that be a lesson to all... LISTEN to your elders!

Fall

2006-10-06T22:27:00.000-04:00

Tonight my wife, son and I went to Jim's for a birthday dinner. It was a simple get together with all the cousins, Jim's parents and grandparents. We had a hearty meal of chili and cornbread. Perfect food for this time of the year. I am very much into "Fall foods". I have already made a crockpot full of chili and one evening we had keilbasa and cabbage. Whenever Fall comes around I immediately think of my childhood and home. Every Fall I tell my wife that this is my favorite time of the year. And every year she tells me to quit telling her that. There's just something about the cool crisp evenings, football season, MLB playoffs and the leaves changing colors. Living in Georgia, I do miss the spectacular color changes. The North Georgia mountains have some nice colors but, nothing beats the hardwoods of northcentral Pennsylvania. Last year we took the boy to Burts Pumpkin Patch in Dahlonega and we'll probably go back again this year. Yeah, it's so touristy that they actually ship in pumpkins to keep up with the demand - but it's still fun and the boy enjoys it. I'm having trouble tonight keeping my thoughts together. I have been trying to tame a cold that I've had for over a week. So, between the two Amstel Lights and the cough medicine with codiene (sp), I'm kind of hazy. I think this is a good place to stop and hit the hay.

Crazy thoughts.

2006-10-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

I told my wife last night that I wanted a guitar. I prefaced it by saying, "I've got a nutty idea I want to run by you." I proceeded to tell her that I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Most of the time she is supportive of my ideas and this was no different. I really didn't have to sell her on it, but I gave her the whole spiel anyway. I've always had this idea in my head that it would be great fun to know how to play. I'm not talking about electric Stevie Ray Vaughn playing. Just a simple acoustic guitar. I envision sitting around a campfire with friends and family singing fun songs. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I have no idea how hard it is to play. The only music in my blood is 8 years of piano lessons from a woman who never pushed my sister and I. We would be on the same lesson for weeks. My sister, Janie, liked playing more than I did. She actually sang when she played and it wasn't bad. Let's see... my lessons ended in the eighth or ninth grade and I'm about to turn 38. What does that tell you? Honestly, one of the reasons I want to learn is to expose my son to music. I'm not going to force anything on him but, I am definately going to expose him to many different things and let him make up his mind what he might like to pursue. He loves singing. He begs us to sing along with him all the time. He goes to bed with music and begs to listen to it in the car. His first choice obviously is nursery rhymes but, today when we were driving down the road he wanted to listen to songs on my Ipod. He likes Stevie Ray, Jack Johnson and John Mayer. His little head was bouncing up and down to the beat like a metalhead would at a Metallica concert. Since he was a baby he has been exposed to all kinds of music and I personally think it's great for his mind. I'm going to start looking around for a good quality used piece, take some lessons and learn some chords. Should be great fun.

Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya
Oh Lord, Kumbaya!

What do I want to do?

2006-10-02T14:37:00.000-04:00

Well, the boy is asleep and that gives me a few minutes to think. My son is a handful right now - he was 2 in July. I am a part-time stay at home dad, since last January. Here it is the first of October and I'm still having a hard time adjusting to this role that my wife and I have decided would be mine. I still work a couple days a week. I have operated my own electrical contracting company since early 2002. I now take on small electrical jobs to help with our income and to get me out of the house. Back when the business was running full bore, I had no time to think about if what I was doing was making me happy. It seemed, at the time, like the next logical step (operating my own business). Now, without the hustle and bustle of activity, I'm wondering... do I want to continue on in this line of work? At this point, my job as a stay at home dad will come to an end, eventually. My wife and I don't really forsee any future offspring beyond what we already have. What will I do when the boy starts into all day school? There are many reasons why I don't think I want to continue on in my own business. To me, I've been there - done that, and I don't care to do it again. I have always been like that. With the exception of working with my father, I usually don't stay in the same job for longer than 2-3 years. I get bored easily when I have accomplished something. When I ran my own business though, I never really came to realize my full potential. I am a great electrician but, when it came to the business end, I lacked the knowledge and ruthlessness that it took to become a shrewd business man. So, I can say, I didn't get close to reaching my goals and you know what? I really don't care to try again. Sounds a little like a defeatist attitude. Probably is. I came from a long line of entrepreneurs with relative success stories and I thought I wanted to be like them... but, maybe I don't. It's possible that maybe I do, but in a different profession.

One of my wife's cousins gave me the inspiration to create a blog. He has recently begun documenting some of his family history on video. His mother's parents are still alive and full of stories dating back to their youth in Cuba. This last summer my grandmother passed away and it really got me thinking about all the good times I had with my grandparents. What a wealth of knowledge. They taught me things that they never intended to. Jim (my wifes cousin) worked with me for a period of time last year. I would tell him crazy stories about my family and he would laugh and say "you need to write this stuff down". So now, I think I'll take his advice.

Well?

2006-10-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

Why do people feel the need to annouce their first post? Isn't it quite obvious? Who are they specifically targeting?

Anywho, I've finally decided to do this blog thing. We'll see what transpires...