Carl Carlson's Corner

R.I.P. Carl Carlson

2008-11-23T11:31:00.002-05:00

Well, if you haven't heard, we unfortunately had to have Carl put to sleep yesterday. It turns out that he had a grapefruit sized tumor on his spleen, which is apparently common in labs, and it had burst. It totally came out of nowhere. He was showing no signs previously and was his normal self on friday, but we woke up Saturday and he didn't want to move and was in obvious pain.

Rest In Peace Mr. Carlson. We'll miss you.

Hockey Game

2008-11-18T13:20:00.004-05:00

So as promised, here are the pictures of Jessica's first hockey game. We went this past Sunday to watch the 'Canes take on the Lightning. It was a good game, and even went into overtime and tehn a shootout. Jessica had a good time, but fell asleep during the 3rd period. She would dance anytime that they played music which was pretty funny. She watched a little of the game, but probably watched more of it on the little TV's that we had at our seats than the actual game going on.

Ready to go before the game

Hanging out with her Stormy doll that we bought her (Stormy is their mascot. he's a pig)

Pregame warmups

Watching the warmups

Rocking the cool hand tattoo

A mouth full of raisins

Watching the game while playing with a fork and knife

More watching the game

Halloween

2008-11-07T11:29:00.004-05:00

Ok, as promised here are the Halloween pictures and a few other sprinkled in. There will also be another update coming from me soon as we will be taking jessica to her first hockey game on the 16th. Now one final thing to discuss before I go and that is......the lack of Rich blogging. Whats up with that? One or both of Bich will hopefully read this and give the audience an acceptable answer. Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm done

2008-10-22T08:37:00.002-05:00

That's it. It's over. I'm officially done. No, not blogging. I'm done with this election. I voted yesterday (thank you early voting) and now I am done. I don't know about you, but I am so sick and tired of this election already, i just want it to be over. I don't even care anymore. We've been so inundated with advertising and the back and forth that it is nauseating. There should be a way that people that voted already could turn off the commercials and stop receiving stupid pamphlets in the mail. The amount of political commercials is crazy. Maybe it is a little worse here because we are in a potential swing state. not sure how it has been in jersey. There is at least one political commercial in every break and I have even seen breaks where the whole one was all political commercials. And not just ones for the presidential election, but ones for senate, Governor, justices, utility heads. It's insane. Has a commercial ever actually changed someone's vote? i think they should do a study on that. And seriously, is there really anyone out there right now that still doesn't know who they are voting for? So not only do we have to suffer through all of these painful commercials, but at least once a week we get hit with multiple pro-Hussein pamphlets. (Ok, I'll put another parting shot in here. You know, for someone who supposedly cares about the environment and reducing spending, he sure isn't proving it by killing all these trees and spending the absurd amounts he is , but hey, I guess winning an election is more important than values.) it's so bad that Lisa (not me though, I guess they gave up on the white male vote) got a hand written letter from some lady telling her that she should vote for obama and that if she needed someone to watch her children while she went and voted that she would be happy to do it. Are you kidding me? Would any sane person leave theirs kids with some random fanatical person that just happen to write them a letter? Seriously? How many of these did she send out? It is lunacy. Maybe it is just me, but i don't recall any previous election being this bad. Sure there is always annoying commercials, but not the pure volume that there is now. i know this is a supposed "historic" election and all, but come on. Anyone else feeling this or just me? So there you go. My diatribe is now done and so am I.

P.S. - all 3 of my loyal readers, if they are even loyal readers anymore, are really getting your moneys worth this month with all the blogs I've done. Plus, there is still the halloween pictures of Jessica to come.

Hockey Season

2008-10-19T10:53:00.003-05:00

So it's the greatest time of the year, hockey season. Jessica is all ready and we'll hopefully be taking her to her first game soon. As you will see below, she of course has her Devils jersey, but also has her very own personalized autographed Canes jersey. Her jersey is autographed by Justin Williams of the Canes. One of the girls that works for me knows him so she got Jessica's jersey autographed for her. Unfortunately, she won't be able to see him play this year as he tore his achillies and is out for the season. I'll probably have another blog soon with halloween pictures, but just don't get too spoiled by all these blogs, because you know my normal frequency of blogging.

Jessica's first trip to the zoo

2008-10-14T17:51:00.004-05:00

So we took Jessica to her first trip to the zoo. It wasn't too exciting. Most of the animals were either sleeping or too far away so she didn't get to see too much. So here are some pics from that and some other random pics of her.

Checking out the sleeping polar bear

Riding the fake elephant

Playing with the monkey statue

Modeling the awesome shirt that Kenisti got her

nuff said

Her new thing is sitting in baskets. So here she's chilling in the dog toys.

Sitting in her toys

That's all for now. I'll be back shortly with some more.

Insert Clever Title Here

2008-09-22T16:55:00.011-05:00

OK, so I couldn't come up with anythign wity to call this blog. And as usual, this will be a pictoblog. Stories are better told via pictures than me rambling on and making incoherent statments. This is just a range of pictures. Some from our trip up to jersey for the McGricca wedding and some just random jessica pictures of her being silly. Nothing else is really new. Not much on the calendar coming up either. I think Wilson and Roger are coming down in January and Lisa's mom is coming for Christmas. It's almost hockey season so we will be taking Jessica to her first game and we may be taking her to the zoo while the weather is still nice. Other than that not much else coming up that we know of. I'll keep you posted. And now on to the pictures:

crazy hair

uhhhh.......

Riding in her new car

Riding with Elmo and some other furry thing

....

apparently putting bowls on your head is fun

Matt Reeeeeeeee

First walk down steps as man and wife

the infamous jacket snafu. Those sleeves do look awfully short.

I believe this belongs to you

mmm....cake

Apparently it is jewish law to dress alike at weddings

Someone thinks they are cool...

I think the exception to the law is if you are brothers

Little jew in the headlights

I don't even know what to say here

the haugs

Shu showing off how he can shave a perfect beard curve

Douchebag

the soon to be haugs

kissy kissy

Nern!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One

2008-08-18T13:01:00.004-05:00

No, not the James Hetfield penned ditty, the age of my daughter. Jessica turns one on Thursday. I know. It's crazy. It definitely doesn't seem like it's been a year. It went real fast. She's growing and changing and doing new things every day. We're having a little party for her on Saturday, not that she'll know whats going on. Lisa's mom is coming in and my parents are coming down and we have invited a few friends over too. I'm sure she'll have a ton of presents to open and play with. I'll try and post some pics afterwards. So for now, you'll just have to settle for some recent pics.

Prepare your eyes

2008-07-15T18:37:00.007-05:00

You asked for it. Now you got it. Giganto pictobloggy. Assorted pictures in chronological order starting with our trip to jersey and ending with the baseball game from Sunday.

Has an official name been chosen yet? Chrisicca? McGricca? Riccguigan?

Mikey being Mikey

Starting young

Jessica with uncy ricca

Douchebaaaaaag

Looking kind of natural there. Just saying.

Jessica with Grandma and Grandpa

Cousin Caden and Jessica

Jessica in her first bouncy house

Jessica and cousin Brandon

Just Chillin

Obligatory baby butt

Jessica and Moe taking a bath

Jessica and her first time in a real pool

Hanging with Carl Carlson

Baby pool in the back yard

Swimming with Moe

Swimming with Carl

Spaghetti is goooood

Balloons are fun

Ah 1 douchebag...ah 2 douchebags...ah 3 douchebags.

Wax on. Wax off.

Being a big girl and sitting in her seat watching the game

But she couldn't make it all the way through this time.

So that is all. I hope you are all caught up now. I'll try to stay on top of this a little better going forward, but no promises.

Slacker

2008-07-10T11:20:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I've been slacking lately. Obviously, it's been a while since i last posted. A combination of business and laziness, mostly the latter has not been condusive to blogging. So what's been happening since the last update you ask? Well not much. Frankly i can't remember that far back so i will just tell you random things that we did as they pop in my head. We went to a friends house on the 4th for a BBQ and Jessica got to see her first fireworks. She also took her first steps. not really fully walking yet, but can take 4 or 5 little ones and then fall down. We are going to see the dark night next weekend, sans jessica. I can't wait it's gonna rock. And Rich, since you asked if we take her anywhere else than the pics in my last post, we are actually taking her to her second baseball game this weekend. I got some more sweet seats, so we couldn't pass them up. 2nd row behind homeplate. and yes, still $9 each. we were up in jersey in the beginning of june and saw some of you. jessica's top two front teeth are coming in and she looks funny when she smiles. moe is still a douchebag.

So thats about all that I can think of right now, so that will have to hold you over. i've been meaning to do a pictoblog with some updated pictures, but haven't gotten around to it. maybe i'll try to remember to do it this weekend. maybe not. we'll see.

Jessica's 1st Baseball Game

2008-05-13T12:04:00.006-05:00

So, if you read the previous blog, you know that we took Jessica to her first baseball game this weekend. Below are the pics from the game. It was a good time and Jessica was really good. She didn't cry or fall asleep or anything. She had a good time and was making friends with the people around us and waving at them. She even tried to clap when everyone else did, but she always wound up being a few seconds late and clapping by herself. It was a good time and the weather was great. We will definitely have to do it again, although this time we probably won't get seats so close because I spent most of the time worrying that a ball or bat was going to come our way. And, since I had to keep alert, I couldn't get good and drunk which is what baseball is really about. Once hockey season starts again, we will take her to one of those games. So without further ado..........

Ready to go in her fancy new hat

Waiting for the grounds crew to finish up

Fingers taste good

Obligatory shot of some players

Ready for the sun

The Blue Monster

Hit Bull Win Steak

National Anthem

Jessica gets her first game ball (one of the players was nice enough to give it to her)

Dirt tastes good

Wool E. Bull

Bulls win, Bulls win!!!

Jessica eating the stuffed baseball that the Manager gave her after the game

Pondering why it doesn't taste as good as the dirty one

Take Her Out to the Ballgame

2008-05-07T12:00:00.002-05:00

So we are taking Jessica to her first baseball game this Saturday. It should be an interesting experience. We'll see how she reacts to the crowd noise and all the people. For all we know she could sleep right through it or scream the whole time, but hopefully neither of those. I got some sweet seats, front row right behind the dugout. And the best part is......each seat is only $9. you have to love minor league baseball. Best seats in the house are $9. Unfortunately, the Rays called up Evan Longoria and Kazmir is done with is rehab stint, so i don't think we are going to get to see anyone that great, but it is supposed to 82 and partly cloudy which sounds like great baseball weather to me. We'll try and get some pictures of Jessica at the game and post them.

Other than that, not much else is going on. the baptism madness came and went. Did some yard work last weekend and got my first sunburn of the season. I was wearing a wifebeater too, so I have the nice bright red to pale white contrast going in the wifebeater shape. it's classy. That's really about it. Still trying to finalize plans for the weekend we are up at the end of may/beginning of june. The diet is still somewhat there. i am in more of a maintain mode then pure diet. I'm down 22 pounds from where i started, so if i can maintain and maybe take off a pound or two here or there, then I will be happy with that. the weather is beautiful here. i don't want to be cooped up in the house running on a treadmill or staying home and eating healthy. I want to sit in the backyard, eat lots of grilled meats, and drink a lot of beer and enjoy the weather, and needless to stay, that is not a recipe for dieting success. For those of you going to Fetus' wedding, have fun. wish we could be there. hopefully we will be able to see you all when we are up at the end of the month.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.....

2008-04-11T10:03:00.005-05:00

I can't remember being this excited for a movie in a long, long time. have you seen the trailer for the new Batman movie? If not, check out http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809271891/video/5569794 The Joker looks absolutely amazing. Not all cartoony or anything. I can't wait. It's gonna rock.

Now on to some recent Jessica pictures:

Gigantor Update

2008-04-01T10:33:00.002-05:00

So, as usual, it's been a while since my last update. I tried to write more often, but let's face it, my life just isn't that interesting and I'm sure you don't want to read me babbling on about nothing. So here are the recent updates, separated in paragraphs to make your reading experience easier.

Jessica
She's getting big. Sorry i was not prepared and I don't have any pictures here at work with me to add, but maybe I will follow up in a few days with a picture blog. She is crawling now and is constantly on the move. She's also got two teeth. She's got her bottom two middle teeth. they came in at the same time. She is also waving and clapping now. Although, she hasn't perfected the wave yet. She's not sure if she wants to wave by opening and closing her hand or rotating it side to side, so she does both at once. We'll probably look to take her to her first baseball game in May or June. That should be interesting. And, she will be getting baptised soon. Which leads me in to....

Jessica's Baptism
So, Jessica's baptism is on April 19th. We are having a bunch of family come down for it so it should be a madhouse of a weekend. We got family from both sides coming. We were nice and invited a lot of people assuming most wouldn't make the trip, of course, we were wrong. Nearly everyone we invited is coming. So that should be interesting. It'll be good to see the family again. Some we have seen somewhat recently, others we have not. Needless to say, it will not be a good weekend for the diet. Which, speaking of....

Diet Update
So I unfortunately did not meet my goal that I put forth in my last blog. i came up 3 pounds short. Overall thought i am pleased with my progress. I am down a total of 18 pounds So over the 3 months, that's an average of 6 a month. not bad for a half assed diet. I'll keep going. i don't now for how long, but we'll see. But who needs a diet when......

I'm a redneck
Man I am good at segues. It's official. I've taken one more step closer to becoming a redneck, if I am not one already. I joined a gun club and as part of joining the club, i am now a card carrying member of the NRA. Honestly, I didn't join the club for the social aspect, I did it so that I could have somewhere to go shoot whenever and whatever I wanted to. I was getting tired of going to the indoor range and getting there and finding out that there was a 2 hour wait to shoot. So, now I can go to the club whenever I want from sun up to sun down, 7 days a week and never have to wait. If I go at least once a month, it works out to be the same price, even a little cheaper, as going to the indoor range and I can bring guests whenever I want too. So if anyone comes to visit and wants to go shoot stuff, we can go. Plus, as an added bonus, i can make friends with rednecks and hillbillies if I want. whats not to love. Speaking of rednecks...

Upcoming Wedding
We have a wedding to go to also in April. It is one of Lisa's friends that she used to work with down here and still talks to regularly. It should be a good time. weddings usually are, but I think the reception is in a barn. Now, i think it is a fancy barn, but i think it is still a barn. It's probably nice. It's probably some old historical thing that was renovated or something, but who knows. i guess we'll find out when we get there. And speaking of weddings....

Our trip up
So we will not be able to attend Fetus' wedding as we will be coming up for my nephew's baptism on June 1st instead. So we'll be up that weekend. We're still trying to plan everything out. i am sure it will be another crazy weekend of trying to squeeze everyone in and see them in the short amount of time that we but it'll be good. So that leads me in to...

Nothing
I'm done. I got nothing else for you. Stop reading.

Diet Update

2008-03-03T15:33:00.003-05:00

Don't know whether you really care or not, but I don't have much else to write about right now, so I'll give you an update on my diet. As you may recall, i started the new year off by going on a diet. So it's been 2 months already. This last month definitely was not the best month to be on a diet. First there was the trip to jersey in the beginning of the month, so there was no exercising and lots of eating crappy and drinking. Then I was sick for about a week, and it wasn't even one of those good sicks where you lose your appetite and don't eat so you wind up losing weight. It just made me feel miserable enough to not want to work out. And then last week my boss was in town from NY, so there were a couple of nights of eating lots and drinking heavily on his dime. Combine that with a general malaise, and this month definitely wasn't what it could have been. Now these all sound like excuses, and frankly they are. I'll be honest. i am really half assing my way through this diet. There are nights where i just don't feel like working out, so I don't and there are days where i don't feel like eating healthy because I just feel like having a burrito or something. And weekends, when i have plenty of time to work out, I just don't. I should, but I don't.

So after all of this, i am still managing to lose weight. So it can't be too bad, right? I still managed to lose 4 pounds last month. So my total is up to 12 for the year. I might try and push myself and make the extra effort this month so that I can get up to a total of 20 for the first 3 months. We'll see.

In other news, we are looking in to our next trip up to Jersey. right now, it looks like it will be either in May or early June. We have both Fetus' wedding and my nephews baptism going on in that timeframe. The baptism isn't set yet which is making us not be able to set our plans. Ideally it would be great if they work out to be the same weekend, but we don't have that kind of luck. So family is probably going to have to outrule friends here and we'll probably be up whenever the baptism is. Who knows. We'll figure it all out at some point.

Picture Blog

2008-02-20T08:39:00.002-05:00

So there really hasn't been anythign too interesting going on lately to write about, so enjoy some recent pictures of Jessica.

Weekend Update

2008-02-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

So if you had read my previous entry, you would know that we went back up to Jersey this past weekend. I'll recap that for you in a moment, but figured I will give you a diet update first. So I weighed myself Friday morning before we left, to see the results of the first month of the diet. I lost 8 pounds. I was hoping for 10, but will take 8. The Wilson weekend definately did not help the matter, and in fact, I actually weighed myself before that weekend and after and gained back 4 of the pounds that I had lost before it. And of course, i am not getting off to a gret start this month as this past weekend put 3 of those 8 pounds back on. So it's back to work for me.

Now, to the weekend. We left a little after 6:00AM on Friday and thanks to my perfected skill of speeding and not getting caught, we made it to my parent's house in only 7 hours of driving time. We thankfully only hit a little bit of traffic, so we really made great time. We stopped for lunch and gas and stuff for about a total of an hour, so the whole trip door to door was only 8 hours. We got to my parent's house a little after 2:00 and hung out there with my dad for a while and then went to my sister's so that all of the cousins could met for the first time. We hung out there and actually surprised my mom as she didn't know that we were coming up. So my sister created a ruse to get my mom to come straight to her house from work where we were waiting. So we spent the rest of the night there and then stayed at my parent's house that night. Saturday morning was spent with the family again and Jessica got to see her great grandparents. Then Saturday afternoon, we went and saw Lisa's dad and then hung out with her brother and went out to dinner with him. Then back to my parents house again for some much needed sleep.

Sunday morning started again with the family gathering for breakfast as my mother made a huge feast that definitely contributed to the aforementioned gaining of 3 pounds. After digesting, we headed back to her dad's for a little while. I ran out to the store to grab some food and beer to bring to Shu's and learned the very valuable lesson to never go to a supermarket on superbowl sunday ever. Every register was open and they all had lines of like 7 and 8 people deep. It was madness. We left her dad's and ran to the hotel real quick to check in and drop some stuff off and then we headed to Shu's. Hung out at Shu's and ate some good food, drank some beers, and shot the shit with everyone. It was good to see everyone and catch up on whats been going on in everyone's lives. I don't think Jessica even sat down until the game started as everyone was taking turns holding her and passing her around. She did really well with everyone and was really good considering she was around a lot of strangers. She was a little upset in the begining of the game when everyone would be loud and cheer and Roger's high pitched cackle deeply distrurbed her. She got better as the game when on and i think I even saw her point and laugh at Kristi as she was crying during the last few minutes of the game because she couldn't take the pressure. I think I don't have to go in to the details of the game here. It was great. The Pats lost. NY has fired another salvo in the NY/Boston war and NY/NJians now have a new chant, 18 and 1. After the game we headed back to the hotel.

We left Monday morning a little after 7:00AM and again made great time thanks to my talents. We got home and unpacked the car and said hello to the boys, who were bouncing off the walls after not seeing us for 4 days, unpacked everything, caught up on everything we had to, and then finally got to sit and relax. It was a long, hectic weekend, but it was great to see family and friends. I am definitely not in a rush to do that drive anytime soon, but would love to get up there again to see everyone. As of now, it looks like our next trip up will be in May or June. There are a few events going on during those times and I'm sure we are not going to get lucky and have them all line up on one weekend, so we'll have to see what's going on, but this time hopefully we can spend a few more days up there so that we have more time to see everyone.

Quick Trip to Jersey

2008-01-31T10:20:00.000-05:00

So it turns out that we are making a quick trip up to Jersey this weekend. We will be departing of Friday morning and driving up, spending Sat and Sun in the area and then driving back home on Monday. As usual, there are tons of things to do and people to see. Jessica will get her first glimpses of the garden state and meet some family that she hasn't gotten to meet yet. Looks like Shu will be hosting a Superbowl party, so we will be going there and seeing everyone on Sunday and hopefully watching the Pats lose and then hearing a news story that they all died in a firey plane wreck after the game.

So not only is this coming up, but Friday is weigh in day for the diet. So I'll have to weigh myself before leaving in the morning. Unfortunately, I don't think this trip will be good for the waistline, but at least it comes at the beginning of the cycle and I have plenty of time to make up for it before the next weigh in.

The World Is Coming to an End

2008-01-22T15:20:00.000-05:00

No, not because the unthinkable has happened and Eli Manning led his team to 3 playoff victories. I say this because this is how everyone around here acts when there is even the littlest threat of snow. Now, I get it. They are not used to it as it rarely snows here, but come on. There were two near catastrophes this past week.

On Wednesday of last week, it was all over the TV, radio, internet, etc. that Thursday morning there was gonna be some sleet, not even full on snow mind you. So there were warning emails flying around work. Everyone was constantly checking the internet for the latest updates. We even had to have a meeting about what to do in case people couldn't make it in to work. Now, like myself, most of the other managers here are from the NY area, so this is all pretty hilarious to us. But people really freak out down here. I was told a story about a storm that they had down here like 2 or 3 years ago where it came out of nowhere. the weathermen didn't predict it and it started snowing pretty heavily around lunch time. Well, every place closed and sent their employees home at the same time. Well you guess what happened next, mass hysteria. All it took was one accident and then they started piling up and the roads were unnavigable. It took some people over 8 hours to get home. Police and ambulances couldn't get where they were going it was so bad. Some people even left their cars in the middle of the road and walked to the nearest hotel to stay the night. Crazy, right? It gets so bad that the night before they are predicting bad weather, the supermarkets are mobbed and they even run out of bread and milk and stuff. Ok, so back to Thursday. it was supposed to start at like 2 or 3 in the morning and no one knew what this terrible storm held. So schools and businesses were already closing and calling delayed openings for the next day on Wednesday night before it had even started raining or anything. Well, I was up early and wanted to get in early so that I wouldn't have to be on the roads with these retards. Needless to say, the roads were perfectly fine and it never even sleeted, it was just rain. Crisis adverted.

So the next day, here comes the storm warning again. This time it was supposed to happen on Saturday, which made the panic a little less, but they were predicting the horrible, death bringer that is snow. they were saying 2 to 4 inches. So once again, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. All over the news and everything, yada, yada, yada. turns out it did actually snow, but since it rained for hours before there was no accumulation on the roads or anything and maybe a quarter of an inch on the grass. Once again the crippling deathblow of old man winter was narrowly adverted.

The Wilson Weekend

2008-01-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

So I am sure that you all have been sitting on the edge of your seats dying to know what went on this weekend. Well, your wait is over.

It all started off on Wednesday night when he flew in. Being the large douchebag that he is, he booked the latest flight and that of course, was delayed, so he finally landed around 11:20 and by time we got his bag and hit the road, we didn't get back to my house until almost midnight. So we talked for a bit and had a beer and then called it a night.

As for Thursday, you can see from my previous blog that Wilson slept in. I, unfortunately, have lost the ability to sleep late anymore, so like 9:00 is really late for me. We headed out to the supermarket to get some beer (another reason to live in the south, beer in the supermarket) and some stuff he had forgotten to bring with him, and we grabbed a pizza and headed home. After lunch it was time to play some video games. So we did that for a few hours until it was time to go to the game. The Devils were in town to play the Hurricanes and we got some sweet tickets in the Lexus Champions Club section of the arena. I have sat here once before and I am now spoiled. i don't know that I can sit anywhere else now. All you can eat food, free drinks, comfy high backed leather chairs, waitress service. It is the greatest place to watch a game. not to mention that there is a great view. So we enjoyed our free food and beverages, and watched the Devils win 4-1. After that we decided to go to a "club" that may, or may not, have been gentlemanly in nature. So after hanging out there for a while and drinking some beer and enjoying the scenery (and yes, another reason to live in the south, they can serve alcohol while being topless) we decided to head home. What should have been a 45 minute ride home took about 20. probably in part to the fact that we were cruising down the highway and then i just happened to look down at the speedometer and realise that we were doing 100 at one point. So we returned home safely and had a couple more beers and then called it another night.

Friday started with me getting up early again and Wilson sleeping in. So once Wilson finally mosied his way downstairs, we all went out to lunch while discussing the midget stripper that will be appearing at the club in a few weeks. I shit you not. I would link to the site, but I am at work right now and that would probably be frowned upon. We went to Moe's and stuffed ourselves with some fantastic burritos and then headed back home. The original plan was to take Wilson to the range to go shooting after lunch, but we were too stuffed to move. In hindsight, that may have been the right move as I don't know that Wilson and guns mix well. It was beautiful out, in the 70's and sunny, so we sat out side and drank some beers and digested while I smoked a cigar and played with the dogs. And after that, it was video games until we went out to dinner. After dinner, we headed back home and it was a pretty low key night as we were all tired and not feeling well from overindulging ourselves on dinner and the desserts that we all just had to get.

Saturday was more of the same. we were up early, Wilson slept til almost noon. after he had arisen we grabbed some pizza for lunch and started with the sailor and cokes while watching some hockey. we had some more sailors and then played some more video games. then it was time for Bojangle's This is Lisa's and my new favorite fast food place. It is just fantastic and we can't get enough of it. (yet another reason the south rules). It is so good that Wilson had it last time he was here and even broke his homo-vegetarian rules to have some. (Sorry Wilson, i had to out you, but I won't tell anyone about the sausage you had on your pizza the night before) After Bojangle's, it was back to the house to watch the Devils game and hope the the Pats would lose, and of course, drink more. The Devils did win, but unfortunately, so did the Pats. After the games, we watched some movies and then called it a night.

There wasn't much on Sunday. Wilson pretty much slept until he had to leave. I brought him to the airport and stopped on the way so he could pick up some super cheap cigarettes (cartons are $28 here instead of the $70 you pay in jersey. and yes, that's another reason). That was it. i am sure you all have been really enthralled by my story, but sadly it must end. Tomorrow is supposed to be my first weigh in for the diet and I am kind of dreading it as this weekend was not good to me since I haven't even thought of the diet or exercising since Wednesday, but we'll see. Hopefully I made enough progress early on that it will carry me through this past weekend without gaining any.

Recent Jessica Pics

2008-01-10T10:37:00.000-05:00

So the Wilson visit officially started last night. It's 10:38AM, we've been up for over 2 hours and he is still sleeeping. I guess that is one of the main differences between being single and having a family. I'll recap the whole visit next week, not that it will be too exciting, probably just us drinking and playing video games or something. So for now, here are some recent Jessica pictures.

What's on tap

2008-01-02T12:43:00.000-05:00

First off, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year's. We didn't do anything for either of them. You know, kinda hard to go out and party with a baby. Believe it or not, people frown on bringing them to bars. So it was quiet times at home for the 6 of us.

So on to the new year. I've never really made resolutions before and i don't know that I would consider them resolutions for this year, but more like goals. The first of course, is to blog more, which I am off to a good start. The second is to stop being so fat. It's time to start the good ol' diet and exercise routine again. Lisa's on board, so we are both going to start eating healthier which is a big help. I'm hoping to drop at least 20, but more like 30 or 40 pounds. 40 would put me at the lightest I've ever been. I got 2 pounds shy of it a few years ago when I did a whole diet and exercise program, so hopefully I can do it this time and maybe even go down more. But of course, the problem is time. There are never enough hours in the day. But we'll see. With Lisa and I both doing it, hopefully we can push each other to keep it going.

And now on to whats going on in the new year. We have a few things planned so far for the new year. The infamous Mr. Wilson will be coming down on the evening of the 9th and flying back up that Sunday. And i am sure there will be plenty of drinking involved which will definitely not help the aforementioned diet. So for those keeping score on visits, that's Wilson - 2, Rich - 2, everyone else - 0. That's right, the man that has his own time and is never on time for anything managed (or will manage, hopefully) to be on time for two flights to come down here. Surely the apocalypse is upon us. Next, in April we will be having Jessica's baptism, so lots of family from both sides will be in town for that. Then, there will probably be a trip up to Jersey in either May or June and then another trip up in September for the Ricca's wedding. Hopefully, there will also be another trip to see Bich, but we will have to see about the logistics with the whole baby and such. it may just have to be another solo trip. And I think that is about it so far. We'll see what the rest of the year brings.

Getting started

2007-12-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

So, as I said in my previous post, I am going to try and write more in the new year. So I am starting a little early since it is really dead at work and I need something to do to pass the time. What little spare time I've had lately, I've spent reading. Plus, I've been spending most of my Sunday's reading since the Jets haven't exactly been giving my anything exciting to watch. So, I put the Jets game on in the background as I tear through page after page. Below is the list of books I've read recently and a short description or my thoughts on it. Of course, I recommend them all. Most of them may not interest most of you, but I found them to be good reads and interesting. So without further ado, here's my list:

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill - Wow is all I have to say. Now you know me, i don't get into the whole political thing much and I actually bought and read this book before the whole scandal that came out recently. I knew nothing of Blackwater before I picked this book up, but geez, after reading it, it's pretty scary. Now everyone knows more about Blackwater and their "above the law" rules that they lived by over there, but it wasn't too apparent that long ago. And the amount of money that the government is giving them is absolutely insane. And that is only the amount that they are allowed to disclose. it doesn't count the millions in "black" contracts which are top secret and aren't disclosed. The fact that this far right wing guy has billions of dollars, his own personal army of thousands of people, and all the arms and military equipment to launch a full scale war is really pretty scary. All in all it was a pretty good read. I think the author was obviously to the left and may have exaggerated some, but still even if you take 50% of what he says to be true, it ain't a pretty picture. ok, enough political talk.

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz - You had to know at least one Koontz book was going to be on here. This was a standard Koontz book. Full of suspense and leaves you wanting to just keep going cause you want to know what happens next.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - This one was on my list of comic books, or graphic novels if you prefer, to read for quite a while, but I just never got around to it. So I finally borrowed it from my friend and read it. I really liked it. Well written, great story. Threw a little bit of Superman in there too.

Watchmen by Alan Moore - Again, another that was on my list to read and finally got around to it. i figured i better read it before the movie comes out, so I also borrowed it from my friend and gave it a read. Good story. I am definitely interested to see how the movie holds up. The part that really bothered me was the stupid comic book within a comic book about that guy at sea. That really annoyed me and after a while, i didn't even bother to read that part.

The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum - Man, I love me some Ludlum. The Tupac of author's as he has been dead for 6 or 7 years now, but continues to publish. What they say is that he left a bunch of story ideas and outlines and a ghost writer has been writing in his name following his style. Anywho, it was a good book. Obviously he wrote the Bourne series and all of his book are of that ilk. kinda spy type books, but he is very suspenseful and makes you want to keep reading to find what happens next. I've actually read quite a few of his books and they have all been great.

Tales from the Devil's Ice by Chico Resch - This is a book about the Devils written by one of their former players and current commentators, for those that don't know him. This was a quick read and pretty short, but it was quite interesting. He talks about the franchise from inception until now and gives a whole bunch of inside stories and tales from the locker room. it was quite interesting to read and find out little tidbits about the organisation and players.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness by Buster Olney - This was a recommendation by Shu and was fantastic. A must read for Yankee fans. Like the previous book, it had a lot of inside info and talks about all of the players on the 2001 team, giving insight into their past and what was going on with them at the time.

The Ice Man:Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo - Ok, so you have to know who the Ice Man is right? Richard Kuklinski. He lived in Jersey and was a hitman for the mob. HBO did a few documentaries on him. This book was written with him before he died and he gave the author accounts of all the murders that he did. He claims to have killed over 200 people. That's right, 200. Most of them can't be corroborated as there is no evidence and he was quite good at getting rid of the bodies (he tells you how he got rid of each one and some are pretty gruesome). But there is a lot of detail about each which makes me think it is plausible. He talks about all the hits he did for the mob. He worked for all of the 5 NY families plus the 2 Jersey families, so he saw a lot of business. Plus, he had a really bad temper and would just kill people randomly if they pissed him off. He claims to have taken part in some famous hits like big Paul Castellano outside of Sparks, Jimmy Hoffa (and tells you exactly what happens to his body and why it will never be found), Roy DeMeo (another famous mob murder) and did many hits for Sammy the Bull and John Gotti. If this guy really did what he claims, it is insane. he chronicles from his first killing when he was in his young teens up until the time when planning his next 3 murders and was arrested. A great read if you like mafia books (which i love) or if you just want something suspenseful that you can't wait to see what he does next. The author could definitely improve his writing as he was very repetitive about little details that didn't have too much bearing on the real story but would bring them up in almost every other chapter. But all in all, definitely one of my favorite books.

And on to what I am currently reading:
Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War by Robert Tonsetic - Like mafia stuff this is another subject I like, Vietnam. Don't ask me why, but I can't get enough Vietnam TV shows, movies, video games, or books. I know everyone loves WW2, but Vietnam is my war of preference. Anyway, the title pretty much says what the book is about. It was written by someone who lived it and got back in touch with and found the other people in his battalion that were there to get their stories and views of what happened and piece it all together. It goes into great detail and really makes you realise what these guys had to go through. I'm almost half way through it, but it is great so far.

And up next in the queue are:
On the Run: A Mafia Childhood by Gregg and Gina Hill - That's right, you read the names right. Henry Hill's kids. Like I said I love mafia books, so i am interested to read this and kinda see where Goodfellas left off. I read the book Wiseguy, which Goodfellas is based on, a while ago and that had so much more info on Henry in it, as books usually do rather than movies, so I am definitely interested to continue his saga. We'll see how it is.

The Bourne Legacy by Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader - Again, Ludlum, Bourne, what's not to love?

The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz - Koontz's newest book that was just released.

So I hope you found this interesting. Maybe you found something good to read. maybe it just killed some time reading all this. Depending whether or not I can keep this reading pace up or not, this may be a regular feature. We found a great book overstock warehouse place where you get all the newest hardcover books (I prefer hardcovers, but hey do have soft also) for like 6 bucks after they leave the stores. So if you can wait a month or two after it comes out to read the book you want, it's a great deal. If you actually made it all the way through this babbling, then Kudos to you.

Happy Birthday Moe

2007-12-03T18:56:00.001-05:00

So it's been a while. I've just been too busy to write. A lot has gone on, but nothing earth-shattering that you would really care about. Jessica is getting big and so is Moe. It was actually his birthday the other day, so he is officially 1 year old now. One of my resolutions for the new year will be to try and write more, but we'll see how that goes. So here is the rest of my blog in picture form. P.S. - Congrats Kenisti!

Moe when we first got him:

And Moe now, 10 and a half months later:

And some recent jessica pictures:

A Long Overdue Update

2007-09-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ok,I finally have some time to sit and write and try to catch everyone up on the craziness that is our lives. I hope you have some time to dedicate to this because it's gonna be a long one.

Now where to start? I guess we'll start with the whole baby thing. So obviously, we had the baby. It will actually be a month tomorrow, but it seems like just the other day. I actually can't believe it's a month. So baby came out good. Lisa was good. She was actually doing so well afterwards that they let her come home a day early. She was up and walking around the next day. The whole thing went smoother than we could have hoped for. Jessica was born on Tuesday and they came home a day earlier than they were supposed to on Thursday.

We got home Thursday and got settled and then I had to go pick Lisa's mom up at the airport. We pretty much just hung around the house for the next week. I went and got a new tattoo, Jessica's name with her birthday and footprints. Got it on my ribs, which they say is supposed to be the most painful spot, but I didn't think it was that bad. Did some projects around the house like putting up a tile backsplash in the kitchen, and went to the shooting range a few times. nothing too exciting, just sitting around and getting fat. So Lisa's mom stayed for a week and a half and left on the 2nd and after she left, a few hours later, my parents arrived.

My parents were down for a week and we pretty much did the same thing, just hung around the house. I did some more projects like putting up shelves in my garage and thats about it. my parents left on saturday the 8th and we had a day and a half to ourselves to finally relax. it was great to see our parents and have them down, but after two weeks of nonstop action, it was nice to finally be able to sit back and relax.

So Monday comes around and I have to go back to work after having 3 weeks off. I was not looking forward to it. Waking up that morning was not fun, and I didn't think work was going to be either. So I get to work and get to my desk and my computers and all of my stuff are gone. So I ask my friend Ross what happened to all of my stuff and he shows me my nice, brand new, shinny office. While I was gone, they decided to move me into an office. So that makes the day a little better and maybe coming back to work won't be so bad. So i spend the next few hours getting settled in my office and then my boss, who is down from NY, comes in and wants to talk to me. So we talk and I find out that I got another promotion. Apparently I should take 3 weeks off more often. The day turns out to be pretty good after all. So basically I have spent the last 2 weeks trying to catch up on everything for the 3 weeks that I was out while also trying to take care of all the new stuff that was heaped on me. So I have had barely any time to do anything.

Jessica is doing really good, and she is actually sleeping pretty well. She usually sleeps about 4 hours at a time and is pretty content. We have been pretty lucky considering some of the horror stories that I have heard. Lisa is trying to adjust to her new life as a stay at home mom. The dogs are pretty indifferent to Jessica. Carl will sniff her and check her out once and a while, but they don't really show too much interest in her. We are finally getting around to sending out the official birth announcements, so you should see those in a week or so. Other than all that, there really isn't anything else going on. I might be up in Jersey the weekend of Oct 27th as Wilson and i are supposed to go to the Devils home opener at the new arena and Kenisti has graciously offer to have some people over and allow me to crash there, but that is not definite yet.

So seeing as it has taken me almost 3 hours to write this as I have had to go to meetings and deal with stuff and have to go to another in a few, I guess I will wrap this up. uh, not sure exactly how to close this so..........

Pictures

2007-09-12T18:35:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while. I 've been busy. Not too much time to write now. lots going on at home and work, so here's some pictures of Jessica.

Movie Reviews

2007-08-06T06:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it has been a while since I last wrote, but between trips to Babies R Us and finishing up the babies room, we actually had time to see 2 movies. Now, we hardly ever go to the movies. Actually, I think the last time we went was to see Saw 3 and that was October of last year. So needless to say, us going to the movies 2 weekends in a row is a sign of the apocalypse, but there were 2 movies that I HAD to see. First, I am sure to no ones surprise was the Simpsons movie. Of course there was all the hoopla about that they made it too late and they should have done it in their prime and yada yada yada, but if you go into it expecting it to be like their prime, then of course you will not like it. I went in to it with no expectations and rather enjoyed it. The first half of the movie definitely carried it. the second half had some lulls, but overall it was pretty good. I haven't read any reviews on it so not sure if the fanboys are slamming it or not, but I would recommend seeing it, but as I said go with no expectations of what it used to be and i think you will enjoy it.

Now the second movie is an adaptation of a series of books by one of my favorite authors, the Tupac of authors (he's been dead for 6 or 7 years and still publishes books) Robert Ludlum. So if you haven't figured it out yet, the movie is the Bourne Ultimatum. Now I loved the first two, and was pretty sure i would love this one, and i was right. Just a great story. Great action scenes and realistic fight scenes (not the cheesy hollywood kung fu fighting, but the secret agent, i can kill you 800 different ways while using anything I can find and using it as a weapon kind). The question is, there is another book in the series, will they do a 4th? Either way, great movie, i would definitely recommend it. Good times.

Now on to another bit of information about movies that I figured out and must share with you. So Saturday morning we were sitting around being lazy and I was flipping through the channels and saw that The Lost Boys was on, so of course I stopped and watched it. then right after that on the same channel was The Princess Bride. Then I looked at the dates each movie was released and they were both released in 1987. So that got me thinking and then some internet research was needed to confirm my suspicion that 1987 might have been the greatest year for movies ever. Listen to these other movies that were release in '87 besides the 2 listed above: Can't Buy Me Love, Full metal Jacket, Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Raising Arizona, Robocop, The Running Man, Spaceballs, Summer School, Throw Momma from the Train, The Untouchables, and Wall Street. Now that is only just some of the movies released that year, not even counting Over The Top. There is definitely a strong argument to be made for '87. Just thought I would share that with you.

15 days 'til baby.

Weekend Update

2007-07-02T11:28:00.000-05:00

So I haven't written for a while so I figured I would post something about this weekend. Saturday started off with car shopping for a new car for Lisa. We wound up getting her a Ford Explorer after sitting in the dealership for almost 4 hours. The picking out, negotiating, and paperwork all went through pretty smoothly as it only took about an hour and a half maybe, but then after all was done, we had to wait for them to reprogram some the remotes and stuff and get it cleaned up. So we sat there for a good while making fun of the other people that came in to pass the time. So after that we went out to dinner and found a pretty good seafood place, Rockfish Grill. After that we went home and since it was absolutely beautiful outside, we sat outside and played with the dogs while I drank a few beers and smoked what may or may not have been an illegally imported Cuban cigar. After that it was time to watch a slasher flick that Lisa wanted to see that we had DVRed. Please do not ever, I really mean ever, see the movie Black Christmas. Horrible is not even the appropriate word for it. Needless to say, this is why Lisa does not get to pick out movies that we watch more often.

So on to Sunday. Really just a boring day of sitting around the house. I played some video games. Lisa went shopping. I went to the range to go shoot, but found out that there was a 2 hour wait so I said screw it and turned around and went home and continued to sit around and do nothing for the rest of the day.

So now we are finalizing the last of our plans for the weekend that we go up to jersey. Too much to do and not enough time. Looks like Thursday will consist of driving up to Atlantic City, spending the night there gambling and drinking. Then Friday is returning Lisa's old car, driving the rest of the way up to the Monmouth County area, Lisa visiting her old work, seeing her family , and then spending the night hanging out and drinking and seeing everyone. Saturday morning is up early and driving down to my parent's house, getting changed for the wedding, driving to the wedding in PA and spending the night there drunk (me only of course). Sunday is driving back up to my parent's house, Lisa's shower, visiting with my family, and then leave Monday morning to drive home. there is still more people that I want to see and things to do. just trying to fit them in the schedule is a pain in the ass. Oh well.

8 Months Gone

2007-06-14T06:48:00.000-05:00

Well, not really 8 months, it's actually been a year, but wanted to throw an old reference out there, even though only probably Shu will get it. Anywho, tomorrow, July 15th will be officially one year since this whole crazy journey started. 1 year ago tomorrow is when I officially agreed to move down here. Of course, it doesn't even seem like a year, but soooo much has happened in this year, it's pretty crazy when I sit and think about it. I've accumulated more frequent flyer miles than I would really have cared to by flying between here and Jersey numerous times. I literally flew around the world and drank $14 beers in Singapore. Bought a brand new house and watched it be built. Finally sold my house in Jersey. Went to a 10 year high school reunion. Got another dog. Uh, the whole baby thing would also probably qualify as a major event. Got a new car. Made some new friends. Got some new tattoos. Missed a wedding that I really wanted to go to. Went to a gun show. Ate alligator. Memorized a new home phone number. Still don't remember my new cell phone number. Got drunk with friends a few times before we left. Probably talk to Rich more now that we don't live in the same state, as we are now bound by the Confederacy. Went to my first minor league baseball game. Went to my first Devils game not in Continental Airline Arena. Learned that first class is the only way to fly on long flights. Bought a gun and shot things. Learned that Ranch is the official dipping sauce of the south. And many, many more things that I just can't think of right now.

And you know what? I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's been great down here. Better than I even hoped. And I would have to say, there is probably no chance in hell that I would ever move back to Jersey. Jersey, we had our good times, but like my Spiderman under-roos, I've outgrown you and it was sadly time to move on. It's funny, I always thought "quality of life" was just one of those made up terms that didn't really exist. But, I can now definitely say that the "quality of life" is a bajillion times better here. So, year one completed, and absolutely no regrets.

Missing Bubba

2007-05-30T11:29:00.000-05:00

So Lisa and I are going to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park this Saturday night to catch a Durham Bulls game. As luck would have it, the Louisville Bats are in town. They are the AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. So you know what that means right??? That's right, former Yankee fan favorite Bubba Crosby is going to be in town. However, it of course had to rain on my parade, as the Bats website lists Bubba on the 7 day DL. Will he be back for the game? Who knows. Unfortunately, the amount of injury updates is not as plethoric as the big leagues, so I don't know. Maybe we will get lucky and get to see Bubba. If not, we will have to settle for seeing Josh Hamilton, who is down on a rehab stint before returning to the big club. As well as other washed up MLBers and prospects like Homer Bailey, Kirk Saarloos, Mark Belhorn, and not to mention the Bulls own Jonny Gomes, Mitch Talbot, and Seth McClung. And the 2 time AL all-star and World Series Champion coaching the Bulls, Gary Gaetti.

So when the best seats in the house are $8 a pop, there is no shortage of beer, you get to see some MLBers, and of course you get to watch a good game, I guess you can't go wrong. I think I'd still trade it all to see Bubba though.

Virginia is for lovers

2007-05-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

Well, at least that is what I am told. But my investigation into that theory would have to be put on hold, as this trip to Virginia was all about Bich.

So I hopped in the new ride and made the drive out on Saturday morning. Mapquest told me it was supposed to take 3 1/2 hours. I said mapquest be damned and did it in 2 1/2. Hitting 115 mph at one point obviously helped the cause. So at around 2:15PM, I arrived in Bichland. Got a quick pseudo tour of their very lovely apartment building and apartment and then we sat and shot the shit for a while.

Rich then embarked on his major home improvement project of hanging a dry erase calendar on his fridge. After looking up online where the nearest Home Depot was, we took a ride there and I introduced Rich to Home Depot and explained what exactly it and the merchandise inside was used for. After he got over his disgust at the idea of actually doing home improvement, we found the necessary items and were off. On the way back to the apt, Rich decided to introduce me to a local legend. There was a restaurant that he had heard about and people actually put stickers for it on their cars. With recommendations like that, it had to be good right? It reminded me a lot of Stewarts as they had the whole drive up, eat in your car thingy going with some inside seating also available. We went inside, sat down, and perused the menu. Our ever so charming (and by ever so charming, I mean bitchy) waitress came over and took our orders. I got a pork roll sandwich, a rarity down in the south I might add, and rich ordered a steak sandwich. A few minutes later, our plastic saran wrapped sandwiches were thrown our way (and yes, literally thrown, remember the bitch thing from a few sentences ago). I actually enjoyed my sandwich. Pork roll on a roll. Not too hard to screw up. Rich on the other hand, didn't have as much luck. They really shouldn't have called it a steak sandwich, a more appropriate name would have been a fat and ligament sandwich. On the bright side though, I got a cherry coke and they make it the old way by just dumping cherry juice in the coke. That rocked! So after that lovely experience, it was back to the apt to hang the board.

After completing the project and catching a horribly hacked and edited version of Dumb and Dumber on tv, it was time to start drinking. We went to a cool little bar/pizza place. They had a lot of beers on tap and it had a nice feel to it. The waitress was friendly and a very smart business woman, as she took her 2 best "assets" and shoved them together and pushed them up so that they were flowing out of her shirt. I am sure that works to get nice tips from a lot of guys, but not when a jew is at the table. So after a few beers, it was on to dinner.

Rich wanted to try a steak house that he had never tried before and heard was good. I should have known something was up after the lunch situation, but we went for it. It started out nice. Good salad bar, really good buffalo sauce, but then it was time for dinner. And like the aforementioned waitress, this place also had a sound business plan.....the customer cooks their own food. You know how much money you save by not paying cooks? That's right. You pick out your slab of meat that you want from the fridge, and you cook it. There was like a 50 foot long bed of charcoal in a room and you find some place and you add any spices that you want to it and slap your meat on the grill. In theory, this doesn't sound too bad, but when you are already 5 - 7 beers in to the night (i lost exact count, but around there) and when one person orders a thin sirloin which only takes a little while to cook and the other orders a thick t-bone which takes a while, and add extreme heat just standing by the grill, it doesn't make for fun. Oh, and there are just loaves of bread that you can butter and grill and such. Yeah, well again, not a great idea, as I would say that maybe 4 of the like 20 pieces we made weren't burnt. So after that agonizing ordeal, we sat down and ate. On the plus side, the meat was actually good quality stuff, so that redeemed it a little. And then it was off to a bar.

We then went to a spot in town where there were a few bars and ended up a sportsy kind of bar to watch the Yankee game, as luckily it was a west coast game. So we watched DeSalvo pitch a great game and get his first major league win. And then Brooke joined us after she got out of work for some more shit shooting and drinking. We sat and drank and talked the night away until the bouncer/closing time nazi was yelling at us to get out and literally took the beers out of our hands.

The next morning was filled with lots of sleeping and then a good breakfast at a little hole in the wall down the street from their apt. This place luckily saved any hope of me not bringing my own food next time and giving me a little faith in the areas food service industry. Although the service was pretty slow, but the omelet was great. Then it was off to make the drive back home to see my preggo and the boys, which by the way I did in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Rich might blog about the weekend (and definitely craft better written story than I) and include anything that I forgot or just blatantly got wrong, but I figured I would let you know my experience of the weekend. I look forward to the next trip where i will hopefully not have to cook my own dinner.

Getting Around

2007-05-07T06:53:00.000-05:00

So, we've finally started to explore some of the area down here. By ourselves and with the help of my friend and his wife, we have been slowly expanding our horizons and learning the area and the good places to go. So in no particular order, mainly because I can't remember which came in what order, here are some of the cool places we have discovered:

First, I'll start with this past weekend because it is the freshest in my mind and can probably remember most of the details. This weekend took us to the gun show at the NC State fairgrounds. At the same time as the very popular gun show, there was also a train show, a flea market, and a cheerleading competition going on at the same time. So we had to park a ways away, but we trekked through the sprawling fairgrounds and eventually found our way there. And yes, I bought my gun and a large amount of ammunition while I was there. So after the gun show, we met our friends at their place and went out for dinner. They took us to a little place right on the NC State campus and gave us a little tour of it as we drove through. The restaurant was a little too fancy and overpriced for my taste, and the food was mediocre, but at least we tried a new place and discovered a new section of the city. So after dinner it was off to Charlie Goodnights, the local comedy club as we had tickets to see Bill Burr. If you don't know who Bill is, he is on the Opie and Anthony show alot and is also known as "the white guy" from Chapelle's Show. The show was great and Bill was hilarious. I would definitely recommend to see him if you get the chance. So I think that about wraps it up for this weekend.

Here are some other places we have found.

- Blue Flame Tattoo - My new tattoo home. Really nice shop. Real cool guys.
- Streets at Southpoint - This is a whole complex which has a really nice mall, a million times nicer than freehold (not that that is saying much), plus movies, restaurants, and such
- The Durham Bulls - Our local AAA baseball team. They are affiliated with the Devil Rays, but they are still fun to watch. Plus the best seat in the house is only $8 so you cant go wrong to watch a game and drink. i haven't made it there just yet, but am going on Thursday night with some people from work. Plus I hear the stadium is really nice and it is only 15 minutes from our house.
- Tyler's Taproom - this is a restaurant and bar right outside of the Bulls stadium. there are a few restaurants and bars along the street that the stadium is on. We went to this one one night, again with the aforementioned friends, and I really liked it. The food was pretty good. Your standard kind of barish food and an overwhelming selection of beers on tap. They have 33 beers on tap on their beer menu. And this is all specialty beers. There are no really normal beers on tap. So if you want a Miller Lite or Bud, it is bottle only. Now you know me, I'm not really a fancy beer kind of guy, but i decided to try one and I actually liked it. I had the Ska Nut Brown Ale and it was pretty damn good. i would definitely get it again and would recommend it for anyone who has the chance to try it. You can read about it in the beer menu on the site linked above if you wish.

So I think that is about it. We've explored some other places that I am sure I am forgetting about and some that really don't need a whole breakdown, like the Benz dealer and the shooting range. So if anybody actually ever comes down to visit us, at least we will know some good places to go.

Rollin'

2007-04-30T07:07:00.000-05:00

So I FINALLY got my new car. I've been impatiently waiting since we moved down here to get it. Obviously, I needed to get rid of that little thing called a Jersey-sized inflated mortgage for the house up there and then pay off some bills and such and then it would happen. Well, the stars finally aligned and it was time. So after much indecision, I finally drove off the lot with the new ride.

For the past few months I had been debating, 2-door coupe or 4-door sedan? I had originally wanted the coupe. Maybe it was the kid in me that wanted to hold on to the younger years and wasn't fully ready to venture into the "family car" area just yet. Who knows. But over the last few weeks, I was starting to actually lean towards the sedan. I mean 4 doors can't hurt right? It'll make it easier to get the kid in and out. So there it was. 4-door. I was doing the family car thing. So we went to the dealer on Saturday. The overly nice salesman met us at our car before we even got out of it. Had he of seen me before I got out of my car in my stunning attire of my shorts and raggedy t-shirt and all covered in tattoos, he may have thought differently, but it was too late. So I told him what I was interested in and he of course did not have any of them. He had said that the plant is on their annual hiatus and wont be making any more cars until they start making the 2008 and dealers only have their stock left to sell. So the good news was that it gave me some negotiating leverage, but the bad news was that they didn't have the model that I had wanted. So I asked about the coupe that I was originally interested in and they only had 2 in my standard car color of black. So we checked those out. We then decided to leave and try another dealer to see what they had. They didn't have the sedan I wanted and only 1 coupe, but it had tan leather interior, which i just wasn't feeling.

Sooo.....back to the original dealer it was. I decided that it would have to be the coupe, screw the sedan. It just wasn't meant to be family car time yet. It was a sign and I accepted it with open arms. So we looked at the 2 coupes they had. One had all fancy wood trim inside and a wood steering wheel. it was just a little too fancy for me. So we looked at the other one. It had black leather with black trim, some premium package, and some sports package to it. I liked it. So it was time for the test drive.....and boy was it sweet. I don't think the guy was too happy when I got it almost to 100 on the test drive, but if he wanted the sale, he knew to keep his mouth shut. And that was it. I fell in love. It was over. Deal done. We got back and we did the paperwork. And after a few hours, I rolled off the lot with this.

Man is it sweet. It does everything but drive for you. I love it. And i can't wait to take my first road trip in it. Rich and i are currently planning a trip for me to go up there. So it will be great to cruise at a very rapid speed on the open road. And then when I get there, Rich and I can cruise around Norfolk and pick up chicks(Note: Lisa and Brooke, please disregard that last sentence. Thank you.) Just two guys rollin' through Norfolk with the windows down and the sunroof open with the breeze blowing through what little hair we have left on the top of our heads.

I'm Rich, Bitch

2007-04-10T06:56:00.000-05:00

Well, not really, but I finally closed on the house in Jersey and got the check in the mail yesterday. After the last few weeks of nervousness of whether or not it was definitely going to happen and running around and trying to get all the paperwork in order and things notarized and overnighted, it's very nice to breathe a sigh of relief. It's finally over. I am officially no longer a part of Jersey.

So the next few weeks will probably be a spending spree where I hemorrhage cash left and right. I already have a long list of things to do and buy like paying off the credit cards, buying a desk so we can actually make our den a den and we don't have to sit on the floor to use the computer (and so Rich won't spill coffee on the floor anymore), a new car for myself, a new car for Lisa, some baby stuff, an xbox, and the list goes on and on. It is going to be really nice to only have to make one mortgage payment from now on. Especially since this mortgage payment is a lot cheaper that the one from Jersey.

Ahhh, Jersey and your horribly overpriced real estate market, I thank you for the cash, but I will not miss thee.

Guns a-blazin'

2007-03-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

Well, not quite yet, but I did just get my gun permit. So, now I only have to wait until this to buy my gun for really cheap, and then I can start shooting things. Man, I love the south.

And yes...it will make me feel like a big man.

The Great Weekend Fiasco

2007-03-20T10:02:00.000-05:00

Damn! I'm pissed that I missed the wedding and seeing everybody, and then I see Shu's recap of the wedding and it makes me even more pissed. So here will be my long winded recap of what exactly transpired to not allow Wilson and myself to make the wedding.

First, I will explain exactly how things were supposed to go. So Wilson and I came up with the grand plan that, if completed successfully, would have been a really great weekend. It was supposed to start with Wilson flying down on Wednesday night, then us hanging all day Thursday and then going to see the Devils play that Hurricanes and getting drunk while doing so. We were then supposed to be up bright and early and hop flights back to Jersey and Wilson's car so that he could drive us out to the wedding. Now we were supposed to be back in Jersey by noonish and would have been to Penn State by dinner time on Friday night. We would have gotten to see everyone and hang out and drink and have a good time. Then Saturday would come and we would do the wedding and imbibe a lot of alcohol and then on Sunday Wilson would drive back home and drop me off and I would spend the rest of the day with my family and see them and then spend the night at my parents house and then fly home on Monday afternoon. So that was the plan. it was going to be great.....hockey, beer, seeing friends, beer, seeing a nice wedding, beer, seeing family, and more beer. but, this is what actually transpired.......

So, Wednesday was fine. Wilson flew down and landed and we went back to the house and had a few beers. Thursday rolls around and it starts off good too. We go out and eat some burritos for lunch and then come back home and drink and play video games until Lisa gets home. Then this is where the first strike comes. About an hour before we are going to leave to go to the game i get a call that my 8:40Am flight on Friday has been cancelled and i need to rebook. So I call and the only flights she has available is either 3:45 Pm on Friday or I can leave Raleigh at 11ish and fly to Boston, hold over there for 2 hours and then fly from Boston to Newark and get there around 4:30Pm. So I mull my options and look at the weather and decide that Boston is out of the question because the weather is going to be worse up there. So I take the 3:45 and tell them to put me on standby for Wilson's flight at 11:20Am. we decide that if i can't get on Wilson's flight, he will take his 11:20 and get in and go home and pack and do stuff and then pick me up at 5:15 when my plane lands and we will leave right from there. So we figure we can still make it by 10ish as long as the roads aren't bad. So with that crisis narrowly averted, we set out to the hockey game. It was a great game, the Devils won. We had great seats, first row, on the glass, behind the Devils bench, we were actually only 2 feet from the players, and we drank a lot. So the night wrapped up and we went to sleep hoping that our flights the next day would not be cancelled and we would get there.

On to day 2.....So we get to the airport and Wilson checks in and the guy tells him that the flight is one of the only ones still on time. I go up to the counter and double check that I am on standby and the lady tells me that I am first on the list and that there looks to be a very good chance for me to get on because the flight was originally scheduled to be a model XXXX plane, but now it is a YYYY which apparently can hold a few more people. So we go through security and are thinking that things are looking up. We get through security and we hear an announcement over the PA that the 11:20 to Newark is in route and should be landing shortly and is still on time. Great news! We then take a walk over to the monitor wall to see what it says and all flights to LaGuardia and JFK have been cancelled and a few to Boston, Washington, Philly and so on have also been cancelled. Not good. So we wait around for a while and at about 11:10 or so the lady comes on the PA and says that the 11:20 flight is oversold and they need volunteers to give up their seats. So at this point, it doesn't look like i am getting on Wilson's flight. So now it's about 11:20 and they are still asking for people to give up their seats and the plane hasn't even landed to offload the people yet before it can turn around and go back to Jersey. So about 11:30 the plane lands and the people get off and we are thinking that maybe this can still happen. Once the plane is off loaded, here comes another announcement......"We are not going to board the plane just yet because of deteriorating conditions in Newark. Stand by and we will make another announcement when we have more info. unfortunately we do not have a time frame, hopefully we can tell you something around noon." Great. So we take a seat and sit and wait. Around 11:45 I decide for the hell of it to check the flight status on the website using my blackberry. So, I look up the flight info and on the website it says CANCELLED. I tell Wilson and he is none too happy. i decide to check my 3:45 to see what that says....CANCELLED. meanwhile, they still have not made any announcement over the PA about it being cancelled. So we sit and mull our options. If we can get the earliest flight on Sat morning, we can land by like 10:30 and drive out and still try to make the wedding, but at least make the reception at the worst. We talk about renting a car and just driving up. So they then make an announcement that all flights to the Northeast have been cancelled and everyone needs to rebook. So we get in line and wait. We finally get to the counter and Wilson gives the sob story that his car is parked in the hourly lot at Newark because he is retarded and he needs to get there as soon as possible. They take a good 15 minutes of making calls and looking things up in the computer and talking on the walkie talkie and they somehow get him a seat on the 8:40Am on Saturday. for me, no luck. earliest they had available was Sunday at 3:45 Pm. I said, "gee no thanks" and told them to cancel everything. So while Wilson was sucking the guy off to get the Saturday flight, i called a car rental place to see how much it would be and the availability. Wilson, got his flight and i told him about the car and he said that he spoke to someone and that portions of the turnpike and 95 were closed so we probably couldn't even make it there by car. So we scrapped that idea. We then went home and I looked online to see if there were any other airlines that had flights that i could get on and of course.......there was nothing. So at this point I resigned myself to the fact that i was not going to be able to make it to the wedding, but at least Wilson had a slim chance. So we went home and i called Rich and broke the news to him and apologized and wished them luck. I then cancelled the hotel reservations for that night and switched the ones for Sat night to Wilson's name since he still had a shot. So it was about 2ish once this was all done, so we decided to drink and play video games until Lisa came home. We went out to dinner, drank some more and then it was about midnight or so and i decided to check Wilson's flight status. So i punch it in and it says.......CANCELLED. So Wilson calls the people to rebook and the first available flight for him was Sunday at 7:00Pm. So needless to say, Wilson spent the weekend. There was much more beer and video games and food. And then Lisa made cookies on Sunday, which made it a little better.

So that is the tale of our weekend. i am sure i left some details and stories out (like the girl who was crying in line in front of us), but you get the gist. it really sucked. Such high hopes of seeing good friends get married, catching up with friends I haven't seen in a while, and even getting to spend some time with the family, but it was all down the drain. This is probably what happens when that god person sees a semite and a non-semite get married. (threw that last one in there for you Rich!)

More Moe

2007-03-11T15:37:00.001-05:00

The title says it all. Some more pictures of Moe.

Under Contract

2007-03-08T07:56:00.000-05:00

Ahh, 2 of the sweetest words in the English language. I finally got someone to buy my house. So now hopefully all will go well and then as of April 20th I will no longer be paying 2 mortgages....yay! Now I just have to sit back and wait for the even sweeter word...SOLD!

Rich 2, Everyone Else 0

2007-02-28T07:41:00.000-05:00

So Rich made his second visit. It was under the guise of doing "work", but we really know that he just couldn't stay away. It was a good time again. Well, other than the "Rich Quinn Memorial Coffee Stain" that is now in my rug, but he's forgiven for that. Apparently according to Rich, downtown Raleigh is really cool. Unfortuantely, we can't confirm because we still haven't made it down there yet, but one day.....

So even though Rich is pulling away in visitiations, there is rumored to be a challenger. Yes, there is highly speculative rumors that there will be a Wilson sighting in 2 weeks. Now, of course this is Wilson, so he said he was booking tickets to come down back in Jan and I still think he hasn't booked them yet, but we'll see.......

Hockey Greatness

2007-02-23T10:33:00.000-05:00

Another great reason why I love hockey. Read This and watch the accompanying video. For those who are too lazy to read, here's a quick summary. 100 minutes in penalties handed out, one of the goalies got the most penalty minutes of anyone - 22, and of course, there was some blood that started it all. Oh, and yeah, they play each other again on Saturday. Yet another great feature of hockey, home and homes. For example, the Devils kicked the crap out of the Rangers on Tuesday at their place, and then went to MSG on Thurs and did it again. Good times.

Oh, and if you want some more goodness, checkout one of the greatest sites ever http://www.hockeyfights.com/

Endless Meat

2007-02-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

So we went to this Brazilian Steakhouse on Friday night with one of my guys from work and his wife and it was one of the greatest restaurants ever! If you ever have a chance to go to a Brazilian steakhouse, go and go hungry. Basically, there is one thing on the menu, meat. i think you can order a serving of the fish of the day, but why would you? You are only going there for one reason and that reason is to eat endless meat. So you go, you sit down, they offer you the obligatory fish of the day, but they know what you really want. So you tell them what you want and they give you a card. One side is green, one side red. But first, before you dive into the meat, there is an appetizer and salad bar that is also all you can eat which has a ton of stuff on it. I of course chose to pass on it, but Lisa took a shot at it and said it was pretty good stuff.

So on to the meat. Once you are ready, you flip your card over so that the green side is up and then it is a feeding frenzy. There are just guys walking around carrying skewers of all different kinds of meat. If they see your card is green, they stop by your table and tell you what they got. if you like it, they carve you off a piece. And they just keep going around. There is constantly meat available. When your plate is full or you just want to sample what you have without being bothered or even take a breather, you just flip your card over to the red side and they know not to bother you. And then when you are ready again, back to the green side.

It was fantastic. I think there were like 12 different cuts of meat in all. there was fillet mignion, top round, bottom round, pork, chicken, lamb, ribs, and a "house specialty". You would think that a Brazilian steakhouse where people just walk around with meat might not be the fanciest place in the world, but it was really nice, very clean, service was pretty good, nice ambiance. It was a little on the expensive side at $35 a head, but for all you can eat meat, I think it was well worth it. I definitely look forward to going back and if anyone ever comes to visit and is really hungry, we'll definitely take you there.

A familiar face

2007-01-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

Well Rich came down for the weekend and it was good to see a familiar face and hang with one of the boys again. We had big plans for the weekend. On Saturday it was in the mid 60's and sunny and we had planned to hit the links or at least go to the driving range and soak in the sun. But, it turns out that we sat around and watched movies and played video games all day. It was cool just to hang out and shoot the shite again.

He came down on Friday night after work and we just hung out, had some drinks, stayed up late, and caught up and talked about life. Saturday brought the aforementioned movies and video games and then we went out to dinner and then hit an Irish pub. I think it was called O'Malleys, but it was my first time there and it was a pretty cool place. So we drank some beers and rocked some Golden Tee. They had a cover band rockin out and they were ok. The place had a few pool tables and video games and even a foosball table. And, it wasn't even that crowded for a Saturday night. I will definitely be visiting there again. The next day bought more laziness and sitting around and watching movies before going out to dinner. Soon after dinner, Rich set out on his trek home.

All in all it was a great time and was nice to hang again. We had some great conversations, caught up on each others lives, filled each other in on the lives of other friends, reminisced about the good old days, and even talked about the future. I don't know if Rich feels the same way, but it was a really great weekend. Even if we were really lazy.

A Sad Day

2007-01-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

So, I don't know if Shu would have covered this in his blog had he ever started "rolling" again, but I feel the need to now. Over the weekend Bam Bam Bigelow died. A sad day for the current and former residents of New Jersey. I don't know about you, but I was pretty big into wrestling when I was younger and then came this cool fat guy with tattoos on his head. He rocked! He was cool to start with, and then I found out that he was from Jersey. And even better, Asbury Park. At that young age, it was a place in Jersey that I had actually heard of and knew was kinda close. It made him even that much cooler. Bam Bam had a good career. Never reaching anythign like Hulk status, but he was still pretty cool. So add Bam Bam to the list of wrestlers from NJ that died at a young age like Big Dick Dudley and Chris Candido. They don't know what the cause of death is yet so don't ask me.

P.S. - If you couldn't tell, I've had the last few days off of work to housebreak Moe, so I've had plenty of time to think and write about this stuff.

Introducing Moe

2007-01-21T13:41:00.000-05:00

Well, we got him. Here are the first pictures of Moe.

Hillbilly Beard

2007-01-18T10:34:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't shaved since before Christmas and let me tell you that it is the greatest thing ever. Not having to shave everyday is fantastic. I emplore all the male readers to give it a try. Its great! I may never shave again. I figure I'm in the south anyway so might as well grow a big beard.

Sneak Preview

2007-01-11T08:06:00.000-05:00

See, one of the benefits of reading my blog is that you get information before it is released to the public. This is a special service for all of my regular readers (thats you, Rich and Brooke. I don't think anyone else actually reads this) So without further ado..........Lisa is pregnant! There will be a llumbus jr or llumbette joining us in the end of august. I'll write up and official email and send it to everyone tonight, but just figured I would put it out there now for the people that actuall read this. See what I do for you people.

Little Moe

2007-01-08T08:26:00.000-05:00

So last weekend we went and picked out Moe. We went to the peoples house and there was a basket with 3 little puppies in it and we had to pick which one we wanted because we had pick of the litter. We wound up picking the biggest of the 3, so Moe should wind up being a pretty good size. The guy thinks he will end up being around 90 lbs. or so. We also had a chance to meet Moe's parents. His mom was pretty cool, but his dad was great. One of the nicest, well behaved dogs I have ever met. He also looked great. Hopefully Moe will get his looks and his disposition from his Dad. But who knows. We get to go pick him up on the 20th. So now we are just sitting back and counting the days until the arrival of the great Moe.

Lisa gets a job!

2006-12-18T11:34:00.000-05:00

Woohoo!!!!!! Lisa started her new job today. She's working for some doctor down here doing some doctory type stuff or something. Gone are her days of sitting around and watching soap operas all day. The boys will probably take a few days to adjust to not having someone home all day, but they'll get used to it.

Won't you be my neighbor?

2006-12-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

ok, so we still don't have any neighbors. All the houses around us are built, but no one has bought them yet. I kinda like it cause it is nice and peaceful, but at the same time, it would be nice to actually have some neighbors, maybe even become friendly with them. Who knows?

So if anyone wants to move on down, you can be our neighbors. And, I just saw a sign go up that says 6 months, no payments for the houses. So they are cheap and free for 6 months!

Anyway, thats all I have for now. They'll be a new post Monday to celebrate something........

Reason number 72,859 why Carolina rules

2006-12-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Thats right. It's Neill McNeill. He is one of our local newscasters and I applaud his parents for not taking the easy way out naming him something like Scott or Bill. It's Neill motherfuckin' McNeill. He has possibly the greatest news name ever.......... Just sayin'

The Llumbus family is growing!

2006-12-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

That's right. You heard it here first. Breaking news. The family is growing and we wasted no time in making it happen. There will soon be another little boy running around the house. Lisa will continue to be the sole female in the house. That's right, any day now lil' Moe Szyslak will be born and he will be coming home to meet his brothers at the end of January.

For those of you that haven't figured it out yet. We are getting another dog. A black lab this time who will promptly be named, Mr. Moe Szyslak.

We finally got the fence put up in the backyard so the boys are now able to run free, so we decided that it was time to get Moe. We are getting him from Here. And here are some pictures of his Dad, Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3. I hope he looks exactly like his dad because his dad rocks! I'll post some cute puppy pictures once we get him (and once I figure out how).

The First Visitors

2006-11-28T09:53:00.000-05:00

Well, we had our first visitors at the house for the holidays. Lisa's mom came up from Texas on Monday and was here for Thanksgiving. We also had her grandparents over on Thanksgiving too. So the first holiday in the new house was a success. And, Lisa made a killer pecan pie which really rocked! So her mom left on Friday morning and we had a few hours to straighten up and do whatever we needed to do before my parents arrived that afternoon. They spent the weekend and left on Monday morning.

It was nice to have them all there and show them the house and the area, but it feels really good to get back to normal life again where I can walk around in my underwear whenever I want!

Who knows what christmas and new years will bring. We probably aren't coming home, so it will probably just be us at the house. Me with my beer and Lisa with her new found love for chardonnay.

Hope you all had a better holiday than Rich. Sorry Rich.

The entry into dorkdom

2006-11-27T10:42:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is. I think I promised myself some time ago that I would never be a dork and have a blog. Well things change. I figure this is a lot easier than calling people and giving them updates on our lives. And lets face it, I hate the telephone and am not one to spend hours calling all of you and talking about what is new. Nothing personal, just not me. I want to know whats going on with everyone and want everyone to know whats up with us, so this is the easiest way I figure.

Anywho, there it is. This first post. I just broke my cherry.