Month: November 2007

The Five Day Holiday

Rachel and I had 5 days off for Thanksgiving this year.  Eigenmann Hall, where we work, was essentially shut down.  We visited with many people and did many things with our time.

Wednesday:  Taylor came up to spend her time off with us.  It had been a while since we last saw her, and we sure missed her.  She brought along her 2nd grade pictures, which I think are the best she has had thus far.

Thursday:  A very busy Thanksgiving.  I must say, I’m very thankful for all the friends and family I have around.  We started the day early and headed to my memma’s house.  We didn’t stay long, just long enough for Taylor to see her memmas’.

We then headed over to Basswood, where we used to live, and where my dads’ family’s Thanksgiving has been held for a little over 10 years now.  This year was much different, there haven’t been as many children around since I was a child.  Overall there was a feeling of happiness, although there has been some much felt losses.  We ate a little bit, talked and spent some time mingling.

Then we rushed the 3 miles or so back to our home.  As this year we hosted the Lee family (my in-laws) Thanksgiving.  Not fifteen minutes after we got home, my mother and father in-law showed up.  This was destined to be a blast.

We had prepared the turkey last Friday night as it was originally planned to be last Saturday.  A certain football game in Atlanta changed who showed up and I think the atmosphere for all.

We followed directions on how to prepare this bird from both of our mothers’ and added a little thought of our own, and voilla!

 

Overall, I think this was a Thanksgiving to be truely be thankful for.

Friday:  Mom, Taylor, Rachel and I went to see the new Disney movie, “Enchanted.”  I must say this is one I have wanted to see.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up on this one.  We then spent the rest of the day with my memma, Taylor and her had loads of fun playing Connect Four.

Saturday:  Taylor and Rachel primered the hallway while I rehung our dining room chandiler and installed a new receptacle.  The girls seem to like to brush versus rolling paint.  We then ran some errands and went to the MCPL.  Taylor has been wanting to go for a while, but it’s hard to do when you’re 2 states away.  She found some interesting books about “Dumb Bunnies.”  So we all read and laughed.  After getting back home we got a special visit from my little sister.  She flew out last minute from Phoenix!  Sadly her BFF’s dad was killed in a wreck.  We capped off the night by watching E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  I hadn’t seen it since I was Taylor’s age.

Sunday:  After playing Uno Attack for what seemed like forever, Taylor left for Tennessee around 1:30.  Rachel and I seemed to act like teenagers for the rest of the day.  We paid for it once the sun fell though.

To get my wife’s perspective, check out http://raclee.blogspot.com

All in all, a very good five days.  Very good indeed.

 

Sliding On

Recently I have been scanning slides for a new client.  He worked with my father at Westinghouse/ABB back in the day.  He has given me over 700 of these babies, and let me know via email last night that there are more.

With my single slide scanner I have been making headway, but it’s very time consuming.  My slide scanning services have been utilized very much, so this is one area I will be improving on once I have the funds.  An automatic slide scanner runs about a cool grand.

There’s only one trick to scanning slides.  It’s not easy to find which side is the “correct” side.  Most of the time, the only way to correctly distinguish the back from the front is if text of some type such as signs are reverse or not.

Runnin’ On Empty

Rachel and I have been busy the last week with lots of preparing for our first Thankgiving in our home.  Since we are young ones in our families, we generally go elsewhere to have this holiday feast.

Our first task was to finally start painting.  We have decided on 2 colors, with one color used for an accent wall.  Our colors?  “Bookmarker Red” and “Grand Stand Tan.”  The red color is a color from The Biltmore House.  If you’ve never been, I highly recommend a visit.

Painting was a royal pain.  I have painted for a living, and never in my life have I had to put so much work into two walls.  This red color required SIX COATS!

Here is 2 coats:

Here is 4 coats:

Here is 6 coats:

Our second task was to replace our old almost non working range.  We had picked one out, and was waiting for the right moment to buy.  I asked my family for Lowe’s gift cards for my birthday, so we put them to good use.

Our third task was to purchase a new dining room set.  Our aging dinette set was past it’s prime, and more suited for a college student than dare I say it, adult homeowners.  We went to Big-Lots to purchase the rest of a set of living room furniture and fell in love with this table.  Since we needed the table more than we needed the new couch and chair, we went for it.  I must say they have really got some good furniture.

Then, in my spare time today I installed new drapes and rods.  Our house is really starting to look more like a home.

We’ve decided to take a break until after Thanksgiving.  Then we will be painting the “Grand Stand Tan.”  After that we are painting all of our trim white!

My Presidential Vote is Going to Santa Claus!

Last Saturday evening, my father and I went to the Murat Centre to see one of my most favorite comedians, Lewis Black.

It was my first time visiting the Murat, and the first time my father and I had seen Lewis.

He is most known for his “rant” style of comedy.  For those who know my father, they are very similar as he loves to rant about my step-brother.

I have attempted over the past several days to embed clips from YouTube of Lewis, but for some reason can’t, so I will leave links to my favorite clips.

Here he is at the 2007 emmys:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFYhupmhhBw  I know the producers of a certain show will enjoy this clip tremendously.

He often speaks about politics, but his set didn’t have much to do with it this time, even though it was only few days away from election day.  His main message:  Santa for President in ’08!  I know it may be shocking, but it has some merit behind it.  Lewis said, “None of the current canidates for president have the one qualification needed, joining the republican and democratic party’s to attain goals.”  I believe him.

This clip is the beginning of the set he performed for us (minus the helicopter):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUCxoeGZ_Js

There was one hiccup, as confetti speraticly fell from the catwalk above the stage.  It diverted the audiences’ attention from Lewis and the other comedian.  In a moment of frustration, Lewis said he would track down Sammy Hagar, who was the previous performer there.  He would then put S*** on top of his stage to fall on him.  It was a moment of pure angst.  Somewhat similar to the clip above.

Lewis is also famous for his part on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  He has a segment that airs from time to time called, “Back in Black.”  I love it!  Here’s a clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4SDQu7Izrk

All in all, I think he’s as cutting edge as George Carlin was in the 70’s.  I can’t wait to see him again.

I Thought It Was Over

Last night I received a call from my daughters mother.  Taylor had a seizure!

I was almost certain this was over, when she was around 1 she had a few seizures.

This brought me into an immediate depression with thoughts that I had passed it to her via my DNA.  I was assured by the doctor’s that since I was not born with epilepsy, I could not pass it to my children.  I’m starting to doubt that.

There are 2 events that occurred that could have actually given Taylor an impact to her brain to eventually cause epilepsy.  When her mom was 3 months pregnant with her, she had a bad car accident.  She broke her ankle and did a number on her nose.  Her car was turned into a V shape.  Then, when Taylor was a few months old an incident occured with my mother.  My mother was watching her for the day, she went and got some groceries and upon her return to home, placed Taylor on the counter in her car seat.  Taylor proceeded to rock a little bit, and she fell to the floor, face first.  She had a black eye that just made you cry.

Taylor had a few seizures a few months after the 2nd incident occurred.

There are some strange coincidences around this though.  Both my sister and I have epilepsy, and it started around the same age.  In both cases it has been contributed to blows to the head, but it can’t be proven to the Nth degree.

I hope my daughter doesn’t have to go through this horrible condition.  I believe it makes you a better person inside, but nobody wants their children to go through things such as these.

Hang in there Tator Bug.  Daddy loves you.

 

Ding Dong The Shed Is Gone!

When we purchased our home, there were several things we didn’t exactly like about it.  Those things mainly being the above ground pool and the shed.

Yes, having a shed is nice.  This one was impractical though.  It sat almost a foot off the ground and the setup was weird.  It had a loft level accessible from the deck, a door on the side and the main doors were shot.  Plus the view out one of our bedroom windows was the roof!

Most people put things in sheds like mowers and other “outside” type items.  We could not.

So it was decided to try to get rid of this, but how?  It’s not an easily movable shed, such as ones that can be purchased at home improvement stores.

I placed it on Freecycle.  The first time, I got many responses.  Nothing turned out to be serious though, as nobody even came out.  The second time seemed to be the charm though.  It was removed today, 4 days after placing the post.

The plan is to build a new shed in an area we assume used to be a garden.  It connects to our driveway, and is perfect.  I have some other projects to do before I can get to building.

Bye bye shed, I hope you make your new owners happy.  I heard you’re going to be a greenhouse!

Halloweens of Past and Present

UPDATE:  I uploaded the Vamipress picture to the Herald-Times website and it’s on there! 

Since my child is a girl, she has mainly wanted to be “cute” things.  This year was a departure on that theme.  She recently dyed her hair a bright red, and decided to be a Vampiress.  I must say I think she pulled off the scary part quite well from the pictures I have seen.

She has been an M&M, an Angel, a Kitty, and a Pretty Witch on previous Halloweens.  This has been the first Halloween I have been apart from my daughter.  Her mother and I have always tried to make a point to go out with her trick or treating.  This year was impossible with the distance between us.  I’m sure it was great though.

You should be proud Taylor, as a Vampire was my favorite thing to be on Halloween!  I love you and miss you sweetheart.

I have this strange feeling of pride and sadness.  Every year, my daughter enters different stages of life that make me love her even more.  This is one big step in my eyes.  The sadness you ask?  When she isn’t my little girl anymore 🙁