Absence

I see it's been well over a year that I've written a blog entry. As I suspected from the first, my ability to maintain a blog...not to mention my overall interest in doing so...dwindled over time. Plus, once you get used to Facebook, blogs seem superfluous. Especially when you're as lazy as I am. So, an update. Or, shall we say, a series of updates.

Seth
Seth's in kindergarten now, and is doing well...except for that all-important "listens and follows directions" category. The kindergarten grade report at Seth's school is a simple series of Ys and Ns, Y being yes, this student has mastered this specific item, and N being no, your kid obviously should have attended a preschool. Thus far, Seth's grade report has been 99% Y and 1% N. Apparently, he doesn't like being told what to do anymore than I did. Acorn...tree. He's wearing glasses now. My little Clark Kent. He's done very well with them so far. Knows how to handle them, how to take care of them. Knock on wood, this pair will last a good long while. He's been taking piano lessons since this past October. His instructor says he's done very well. And yet he bitches and moans *every day* about practicing, says he HATES it. And I say, no one I've bought a $500 piano for gets to quit until they're 18. So there. We've got him signed up for machine-pitch softball this year, and practice begins this week. Last summer he played tee-ball, which was slow and boring, and to which I no longer wanted to be subjected. I mean, Seth. Seth didn't want to do it anymore. Brian took him to Chuck Gard's house a couple weeks ago to practice hitting, and said he did surprisingly well, so we're not worried about his skills. Just everyone's level of interest.

Us
We have a trip to Disney World planned for June, after school is out. We're driving down in the new Pilot, and spending four days there before driving back. Three days at DW, one (possibly) at the Kennedy Space Center. I'm in full-on planning mode, of course. We're also hoping to make it to Chicago again for Labor Day weekend this year, to stay at Hotel Arnold and see our good friends James and Kristal...not to mention Gabriella and the new baby (due in May). Brian is still at Billy Goat, and I am still at SH3. This means we haven't won PowerBall yet. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. Life goes on.

Seventy-four

President's Day. Or is it Presidents' Day? The important thing here is I get the day off work, so I don't really care where you put the apostrophe.

Another crap weather day so I'm staying home, which was not the kind of day I had in mind. I just don't like driving on slick or snowy roads if I can possibly avoid it. And since I'm all about avoidance, here I sit. I haven't even started doing laundry, I'm just...sitting. Reading. Goofing around with Seth.

Not too much going on these days. Brian and I spent this past Saturday night up in Kansas City. We got a room at the Westin Crown Center, went to the Nelson for a couple hours, and then had supper at Figlio's on the plaza. (The Spaghetti Diavolo was more diavolo than I remembered. Whew!) Seth stayed with Brian's folks overnight, and he had a good time too. Brian had roses delivered to the hotel room, when we walked in I was surprised with them. At first I didn't realize what he'd done, I just thought maybe the hotel had them in the room for Valentine's Day. And I'll be honest, when he first said that he'd had them sent...I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. But while he's something of a bullshit artist, he's not a liar, so I finally believed him. And I certainly brought them home with me.

I've really been wishing I were in New Orleans lately. You know I've been there three times, right? Last time was for our honeymoon. But lately...I don't know what it is. I just REALLY want to get back there. It's probably that it's Mardi Gras week and the Saints just won the Super Bowl and I just read a book about it and watched The Big Easy again, so it's on my mind. In the air. But we sure don't have much of a travel budget this year. I got a good deal through PriceLine for the hotel room this weekend, and my dad is letting use some of his timeshare points for a long weekend in Arkansas at the end of May, but beyond that we're homebound this year. And Seth starts kindergarten in August so from here on out our travel plans will be defined and limited by his school schedule. But, man...beignet at Cafe du Monde. Brunch at The Court of Two Sisters. Hurricanes on Bourbon St. That music. That SMELL. I want to go back!!!!!

Anyway. Looks like it's lunch time. Seth will be out here any minute looking for a turkey sammich. Best go get ready for that.

Seventy-three

Long overdue for an update, I see. Sorry, Facebook is easier.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.... Our tree is up, the stockings are hung, the lights are up outside. And it's coooold. Almost done with the shopping, but need to start the wrapping today. I think we're going to see Brian's grandmother today, take her her gift and visit for a while. We were at Anne-Marie's last night, making cookies and candy and just hanging out. Had some wine, the first I've had in AGES. Expected to get buzzed and then have a headache, but neither occurred. I'm guessing it has something to do with body weight. :oP

We've got a new front door in and almost finished, Brian is going to finish up the trim and whatnot today, if he's feeling up to it. He wasn't feeling very good yesterday or last night, flu-like symptoms. The old door was letting so much air blow through we might as well have left it open. We went ahead and bought the new door so we could get the tax credit. And because it's purty.

Seventy-two

Chicago
Labor Day weekend, 2009

Saturday: rode the train (Seth loved it), got to Chicago a half-hour ahead of schedule (everybody loved that), had a steak dinner at Hotel Arnold (yum), watched a movie when the kids went to bed (by Grabthar's hammer!).

Sunday: went to church (and did NOT burst into flames), lunch at Cafe Arnold (on the house), afternoon at the Museum of Science & Industry (rock star parking!), deep-dish pizza at Moretti's (topping compromise reached after some intense--but bipartisan--negotiations), Settlers of Cataan until 1:30 am (guess who won).

Monday: breakfast at McArnold's (Seth finagled some waffles), packed the bags and stashed them in a locker at Union Station (with fingerprint scanning! on a luggage locker!!), walked to Michigan Avenue (OMG my feet hurt), saw the Oprah brouhaha (she shut down two blocks of Michigan Avenue for her show), found the LEGO store (spent some money in the LEGO store), homed in on the Girardelli chocolate store ("Would you like a free sample?" "What do YOU think?"), caught the bus back to Union Station (oh thank god), arrived in KC on time. And tired.

Thanks again to James and Kristal for being such great hosts. Gabriella is beautiful and you make great parents ... and you're great friends as well. We miss you but it's nice to have such a cool place to go visit now.

Seventy-one

Am returned home from a nice, long weekend at Lake of the Ozarks; specifically, Ben and Karla's place near Laurie, MO; more specifically, near mile marker 43. Due to issues I won't go into in any great detail (let's just say the closer I am to a bathroom at night the better off I am), we decided to find a hotel room for the four of us (Brian, Seth, Lacey, and I), but we spent the rest of our time (not sleeping) at Ben and Karla's place. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Brian and Lacey each spent large chunks of time taking naps sprawled across various horizontal surfaces. Seth and I, not so much.

We drove down Friday and beat everyone else there, so we unloaded the groceries, scoped out the situation, determined there was no possible way I could navigate the stairs at night without killing myself, and went and found a hotel room. Went back to the house to find Karla and Erlan in residence, and Scott and Jenni Harvey parking and setting up their pop-up camper. Ben and Chip and Nicholas showed up shortly thereafter and we got the party started.

Saturday we swam and went out on the boat and some people rode the inner tube (main channel!) (not me) and we "parked" in a cove and had some lunch and swam some more off the boat, and then went back to the house (where we found Ben's sister Amy waiting for us) and cleaned up a little and ate a big supper (excellent burgers, Amy!) and then we went out on the boat to see the fireworks. Seth fell asleep on the way out. We found a spot, were waiting for the fireworks to commence, realized a storm was moving in, and turned and headed for the house. At which time we decided that cowardice was the better part of valor (or however that goes) and we pulled the boat tarp out and no sooner had we done so than all hell broke loose and we got RAINED on. But we were covered up and Ben got us home none the worse for wear. And yes, Seth slept through all of it. One thing to note: today Seth was brave enough to "swim" on his own. He was wearing a life-vest and pretty much *couldn't* sink, but finally let go of Daddy and struck out on his own. He was very brave and VERY proud of himself...and now, of course, we'll have to watch him a thousand times closer when we're anywhere near a large body of water. Now that he thinks he's unsinkable.

Today, Brian and Lacey decided to try a little fishing near our hotel room (we had a dock right outside our door, basically), but didn't catch anything so it was short-lived. We headed back over to Ben and Karla's where we had a big breakfast (excellent eggs, Amy!) and then pretty much just sat around and visited until it was time to leave. Brian helped Scott and Ben a little down on the dock, trying to fix one of the boat lifts. Seth and Erlan played together a lot ("We caught six roly-polys!") and we had some lunch and then headed home. Oh, yeah, also, this morning we stopped at little roadside park that we found between our hotel room and the road back to Ben and Karla's house, that turned out to be a little roadside park I was at, oh, maybe about twenty-five years ago. Has a little memorial to Zach Wheat (baseball player)...and we had gone down many moons ago with my dad so he could visit with Wheat's grandson (or whoever). Kind of a coincidence, I guess.

In any case, we had a good weekend and are looking forward to going again sometime. Oh, and uh...I forgot to take my camera. So if I can finagle some pics out of Karla, I'll try and remember to get something posted sometime. Otherwise, you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Seventy

Seems as tho I just haven't had much time to write on the blog lately. For those desiring a few trip details...Myrtle Beach was nice, but it ain't no Key West! We did have some excellent seafood at a buffet called Captain George's, and we spent some very fun and relaxing days at the beach. Excellent body surfing and wave jumping opportunities. Going out just past the breakers and riding waves makes me happier and more relaxed than just about anything else in the world. It's a true wonder that I live in the middle of the country and not on the edge of it somewhere. I must really love Brian!

Back at home and at work now, of course. Time marches on. I'd love to say we have some great Fourth of July plans approaching, but we do not. We might hook up with some folks we know whose son Seth goes to preschool with our son Seth, they're pretty cool. We chatted with them today at the ice cream social at the preschool and due to Joe's work and all the hay mowing/raking/baling about to commence they never seem to be able to make firm plans for anything in June or July either, so even if the guys are out in a field somewhere, Cindy and I and the two Seths may manage to make a day of it. Sparklers may even be involved at some point. (Yes, the metal ones! Dammit, we're mollycoddling these kids!!!)

Did you know I found out there's a Target right down the street from my office? I love Target. If Brian were paying more attention, the words "I'm going to Target today" would send a cold chill down his spine. They make more money off of my impulse purchases than I care to discuss. ("Hm. These flip-flops are only five dollars. I'm wearing flip-flops today, and I have four or five more pair at home, all rather similar. But these are only five dollars. I must have them!") (True story.)

I also love The Penguins of Madagascar right now, it is hands down my favorite new TV show this year. Seth's too. The new episode "Needle Point" is one of the funniest cartoons I've ever seen, I laughed my ass off. Tom McGrath is a comic genius, I am absolutely in love with his voice and comic timing (he's Skipper). In the movie Madagascar II, when he's in labor negotiations with the chimps, who are demanding paid maternity leave, and he goes "Maternity leave?" (then looks under the table for a moment, and pops his head back up) "You're all males!" leaves me gasping for breath every time.

Too much information? I was afraid of that...

Sixty-nine

Myrtle Beach (June 2009)