Reminiscing

The Wife and I broke out some of our old photo albums to show the kids. Boy what a trip down memory lane. We had pictures that went way back to the early days of us dating. What kids we were! The boys marvelled at how much hair I had back then. I marvelled at the fact the Wife looks pretty much the same now as then. Different glasses and different hair as the years have gone by, but still the same woman. She's as foxy now as she was in the pictures on our honeymoon.

I did notice we were much sillier and laughed and smiled more back then. Of course, we had a lot less responsibility then too. One of these days I'm going to scan a picture or two of those days to post. But somehow I don't think the Wife will let me post the picture of her in the shiny pink leopard print outfit. However, I bet I could post the one in her polkadot sun dress and high heels. Meow!

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all the moms out there had a nice day. We did the usual, church in the morning and "dinner" (meaning dinner served at 1:30 in the afternoon) at my mom's. My bro stopped by with his wife and MIL so it was quite nice. Afterwards we did a little shopping and the Wife got herself some nice tops for work. Then we just chilled at home. All in all not a bad day.

I probably got other stuff I could blog about,, but lately I just don't have the energy. The boys are getting into summer mode. Soccer practice started up. Soon we'll have sports 5 days a week. Plus Boy Scout camp for Maverick and maybe Cub Adventure camp for Grasshopper. I deal with craziness for so long at work lately that I just don't want to crack open a PC or laptop when I get home. It's all I can do to pick up a guitar. My usual lunchtime surfing has been reduced to about 15 minutes, the time it takes me to eat. Lunchtime seems the only time I can get caught up with all the email I deal with.

Anyway, I'm around and I'll be coming by everyone's place from time to time. A couple of blogs I once read are now bascially gone so I didn't want anyone to think I'd dropped off the face of the earth.

I am so tired...

You know, I really should rant on about work. I just spent 2 hours, at night, when I should be chilling, catching up on a project that the project manager is trying to blame my team for delaying. I now need to hit him back to show that this is a poorly run project to begin with. I finished the day today very pissed off that my team is getting acused of dropping the ball, when we're one of the only teams willing to step up and try to make things happen. Not to mention we DIDN'T drop the ball. So I got my dander up. I'm totally willing to take the blame when we screw up, but no one is going to knock down my guys when they're busting their asses to do 10 people's jobs with 4 guys. No one.

So tomorrow I need to get some stuff on track and AGAIN show the world why my guys kick the most ass. And then we'll go kick some more ass.

Do you understand now why I feel the need to take over this department?

End of an era

For about the last 2 years, the band has been playing Masses at a group of churches in the town of Greece. We really like playing Masses there since the people that attend are really into the style of worship the band is ministering too. However, all good things must come to an end. There's some changes in organization and the planning group that set up the Masses is not sure what they want to do now. Two of the people that were driving forces behind it are being reassigned to other parishes. So we're done there for the summer and we don't know what will happen come fall.

It's disappointing, but as one of our singers stated, this is the Holy Spirit's ministry, not ours. The Spirit will take us where He will. We will still be doing some Masses at our home parish. So the band keeps going. We did a rocking job tonight so hopefully we'll get to play out there again.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today, I am XLII.

Normally, I wouldn't make a big deal out of my birthday. However, today turned out to be a very cool day. I got nice gifts from the Wife, new kick ass shirts to wear to work to keep up my image of a IT King Rocker Guy. Also, she made my FAVORITEST dessert, chocolate chiffon pie (well, I did ANY chocolate cream pie, but this was especially heavenly).

As an added, surprise, totally kick ass bonus, today I got the new toy I'm typing this post on. That's right, I finally broke down and got a brand new laptop, and it totally kicks ass. Here's a link to HP's website with a look.

Sorry for my Mac lover pals out there, but this baby was half the price and works just as good. I've played on Macs and PC's and trust me, Macs are elegant, but not that superior. Anyway, I ordered it about a week ago and it just happened to turn up on my birthday! And best of all, it comes with Windows XP! Out of the box! Big Yay all around!

Now I'm going to spend the next couple of days configuring and securing it. But never fear, it will be in tip top working order in no time.

DC Trip

Just let me say that the quick and dirty summary of our DC trip was "Whew!" Man did we cram a lot into just 4 days. And didn't get to see half the things we wanted to see. I will say however that I really love that town. The Wife was sorry to leave and with the exception of my hurting feet, I could have stayed longer as well. Here's the quick blow by blow of what we did:

Arrived Friday 4/11: Got into the hotel and grabbed some dinner at a great resteraunt called Cosi. It was a pizza/deli/coffee bar sort of place and it was just grand.

Saturday: Arlington Cemetary in the morning. Saw the Kennedy Grave, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and Arlington House. Went into the city and had lunch at the McDonald's at the Air and Space Museum. Ran up to Catholic University to see the Basillica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Took the tour and went to Mass. Went back to hotel for dinner and were exhausted.

Sunday: Air and Space Museum in the morning. They had a small exhibit from the Museum of American History which is currently closed. Boys saw the ruby slippers. Wife loved that exhibit a lot. Had lunch at the cafe at the Museum of Natural History. Great food. Toured the museum after lunch. Boys really liked it, especially seeing the Hope Diamond. Not so interesting for the Wife and I, but we dealt. Dinner that night back at the hotel.

Monday: National Archives in the morning. Got to see Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Grasshopper was really keen to see these since one of his classmates claims his great-grandfather was a signer of the Declaration. Went to the Old Post Office Pavillion next and went up to the tower to get one of the best 360 degree views of DC. Very cool up there. Had lunch at the pavillion. Went to the Navy Memorial after lunch and checked out the new Navy center briefly. Then went to the National Art Gallery and saw a DaVinci, Monet, Gaugin, Picasso, Pollak, and lots of other cool art. Dinner again back at the hotel.

Tuesday: Monument day. Saw the Lincoln Memorail, Korea Memorial (very cool), Vietnam Memorial (deserved a B-), WWII memorial, White House center, Boy Scout Memorial, Union Station (had lunch there), Jefferson Memorial, and FDR memorial (also very cool). Had enough time to go back to Arlington and tape changing of the guard at Tomb of the Unknown. Dinner again at the hotel.

Wednesday: Travel home

I must say, probably the highlight of the vacation for me was something I was only neutral on doing when we planned it, the view from the Old Post Office Pavilion. The Wife said we should do it so I was cool with it, but the view was totally awesome! And the building itself was ultra-fab. The most disappointing thing on the vaction was our hotel interent access was SO FUCKING SLOW! I swear it was like dialup or something. Luckily, it didn't really have an impact. This trip really rocked.

Our hotel was the best. The Wife picked it due to the reasonable cost and the kitchenette in the room. We figured we'd save on meals by making out own. As it turned out, we used it once. The hotel offers free breakfast, which instead of the usual coffee and danishes, was full buffet breakfast, with scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon, home fries, oatmeal or grits (of course, it's the South), pancakes or french toast, and an assortment of breads plus friut cocktail. Our hotel amenities sheet said "light dinner" Monday and Tuesday. When we checked it out, it was nothing but light. First night was steak tips, mashed potatoes, and brocoli, second night was meatloaf also with all the trimmings. Let me tell you I never ate so good on hotel food and it was all free!

Anyway, I could go on for pages with all the little detail of how things went. Suffice it to say we basically did everything we wanted to do, the boys had a blast and took pictures of almost everything they saw (I swear Grasshopper would have taken a picture of EVERY painting we saw if I let him). The boys behaved resonably well on the trip, and besides tired feet, the Wife and I managed not to feel like tired old people. We looked a bit touristy with our fanny packs, but fuck it cause at least we knew how to get around with no sweat. We may even go back next year to see more stuff. Right off the top of her head the Wife came up with enough things we didn't see to pack another 4 days.

Like I said. "Whew!"

Day 4 and home

We're back. I'll have all the blow by blow soon. For now, enjoy Day 4. BTW, for Lowa's sake, the last picture from Day 3 is a Jackson Pollak painting.