Wordless Wednesday: I will get old, but I refuse to grow up

Yes, I'm 40 now.

For some reason we must have Chocolate Cake at every birthday, even if I wanted my Carrot Cake!

Been doing this for years ;-)

Even the little guy thought it was cool. Too bad no pictures of Deb's face when I did this ...






Yes, I washed my hands really well before and after this.

Now see who else is sharing today.

September 15, 1968

40 years ago yesterday, the N.Y. Giants won their season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.



Also, I was born a little after 11 am, just in time for my Dad and uncles to go watch the game on TV.

Unlike many friends, I kept the event low key. No party, no big dinner plans, no outrageous gifts. Well, I did go out to eat a few times this weekend, and I did buy myself a new toy. I had bought a 'theater in a box' several years ago but the DVD/receiver died before Christopher was born. So I finally replaced it with a nice Onkyo TX-SR606. I had to deal with the less than helpful sales people at Circuit City to get it, since they are the only authorized dealers around here. (Make sure you check the 'internet' price on anything you buy there. It was $120 less than list and the sales guy pretended he didn't know what I was asking him to check.)

The day went pretty smooth:
- took Courtney and a friend Abbey to school in the Mustang
- took Meghan to school in the Mustang (she had to be there early)
- took Christopher to school, but not in the Mustang. Poor guy started crying when he got out of the van, but his teacher left us a note he was fine later
- Went to breakfast with Deb
- Went to Lowe's, Circuit City and finally back to pick up Christopher
- I spent several hours trying to put the receiver together, only to figure out that it would not upconvert S-video to component, so I need to get an HDMI cable now
- Went and picked up Courtney and Abbey in the Mustang. Had 3 or 4 different boys tell me I had a cool ride. Hmm 40 year old impressing 10 year olds. Damn I'm old.

Dinner was good, Deb made me a steak and fajitas. The cakes were great. Yes cakes. As a kid I loved a 'carrot' cake, which was really a spice cake with some carrots in it and I asked Deb and Meghan to make it for me (this was the first time in probably 15 years I've had it.) Of course we can't have a birthday without chocolate in this house so Deb also got her, um me, a chocolate cake.

The girls and Deb got me a couple of different Giants things: a dress shirt with the Super Bowl champions logo and a wind breaker like they wear on the sidelines. Christopher got me a couple of movies and a Star Wars book.

The kids are now in bed (except Meghan, but she'll be shortly) so I'll sit down, drink a beer then go to bed. Not bad for being 40.

Pictures here.

Burn After Reading

We had dinner last night we our good friends and after 3 hours in the bar/dinner we decided to go see a movie. A movie that didn't include animated characters, dogs or aimed at tweeners. Wow.

So we saw 'Burn After Reading'. I think this was the first 'R' movie Deb and I have been to in a long time and it was worth it. I don't really like Brad Pitt, but he was hysterical in this movie as an idiot personal trainer.

The plot tool a little to get into, but once you understood what was going on the little jabs and level of incompetence in each character was funny. It wasn't stupid slapstick like a teenager movie so you had to pay attention to catch many of the jokes.

I recommend it.

Middle School Open House

I went to open house at Meghan's school tonight. At least now we can sit in the desks. Trying to cram my petite frame into an elementary school desk was never fun ;-)

I was going around with a couple of the same parents to all the classes and one group, two moms, struck me as having the totally wrong attitude about education. One complained about the need for the kids to read for 30 minutes at home each night saying 'don't they know we have football every night?' to her friend. The friend replied with 'well, we'll just settle for a B in that class then'. This was within ear shot of the teacher. Amazing.

I'm also getting old. I'm older than all but one of her teachers. All seem really nice and Meghan likes them but I guess I'm feeling a little old now.

Yes, I signed up to present at career day again. When I told Meghan her only comment was 'use pictures of Courtney this time!'.

True meaning behind one of the most annoying songs ever

I'm pretty sure I didn't have to sit through Titanic at the movies with Deb. I know I've seen it from beginning to end at least once, but I don't think I would have wasted a rare childless night out with my wife to see it (we reserve Star Wars movies for that!) I think she saw it with several friends.

Why is this relevant? Well that Celine Dion song "Because You Loved Me" was featured in a blog by Tom Peters. Yes, management guru Tom Peters. Personally, this song always annoyed me because of the message I thought it sent. Way too sappy and needy. Tom described my thoughts on the song pretty well. I disliked the song so much that I used to sing it like 'Astro' on the Jetsons. (Try to lose that visual next time you hear it.)

Anyway, it turns out it isn't based on the movie where you had the annoying (but good looking ;-) brat crying for her dead boyfriend. The song is actually about the song writer thanking her father for all he did to support her growing up and achieving her dreams. This totally changes my view of the song. However, I love singing it as Astro to amuse Deb so that won't stop.

So next time your kids are acting like unappreciative br- um, little kid and teenagers, keep supporting them and some day they will thank you. Yes Mom and Dad I do appreciate all you did for me and my ungrateful brothers. (Remember, I'm the favorite according to Deb ;-)

First win and second loss

Courtney had a double header today, first game at 11:15, second at 12:30. First game ran into extra innings and included 2 ties before a final come from behind score for their first win.

Courtney was walked a couple of times and did good in the field for the first game.

Second game started 30 minute late because of the first game. It was very hot and humid and you could tell our girls were tired. They did well, but made some fielding mistakes that they didn't make in the first game. Courtney walked once and went down swinging the second time.

If they play like they did the first game for the rest of the season they shouldn't have any problems beating any teams in their league. Fortunately no more double headers!

We have ice!

Yes, I fixed it myself with out any help from outside sources.

Giants: Good start to the season

Not great, but good. After that first series I thought they were going to crush the Redskins.

Makes you wonder how hurt Plaxico really was. Or getting $11.5 M guarantee for this season made him play better.

Unfortunately, they didn't show up in the third quarter again. Good thing the Redskins didn't either. Reminds me of the 2nd half of last regular season.

Now I get to wait until they get on Monday night or Sunday to see them again. It sucks living in another city (I can't justify $300 for the Sunday Ticket with everything we have going on either). Especially when the local team sucks ;-(

I promise to get pictures of the kids in the new jerseys. We were really busy this week.

Softball started!

Courtney's first game was last night. I am again 'dugout dude' and Meghan did the scoreboard. Only one girl looked at me and said 'what?' when I was telling her what to do. Much better than last year when half the kids didn't understand me.

The girls did really well but lost. Our pitchers did well, getting strikes on almost every girl and making most of them hit to get on base vs. walking everyone (This is 10 and under).

They were a little rusty in the field, but that will get better the more the girls play together. Most of the girls hit or were swinging at good pitches.

Oh yeah, Christopher broke the keyboard on the kitchen computer after my last post (sigh).

Next thing to go wrong ...

My wife is one of these people who believes things go wrong in groups. Famous people die in threes etc. Me, I don't believe that stuff.

Well, second major item failure happened this weekend. Deb's been hogging the bed for a couple of weeks and I didn't think much of it (other than waking up with a backache each morning). Until this morning when I was giving her a hard time about hogging the bed she said that her side is really uncomfortable so in her sleep she rolls to my side. I don't think mine is that good, but apparently is better than hers (yes we rotate the mattresses)

So today we bought a new mattress. Turns out the one we have is 11 years old. We got it just before Courtney was born so it has served us well.

No, we didn't deal with the con-artists in the local 'mattress stores' (want to have fun, google mattress store scams). We went to Original Mattress Factory, which is where be bought the one 11 years ago and bought Christopher's. Christopher loved the store, he ran in circles for about 10 minutes with me walking between the displays 'chasing' him. Luckily the girls were with various friends so it was just us.

Deb picked the one she wanted, I tried it and we bought it. All in about 15 minutes time. It gets delivered tomorrow. I still haven't fixed the ice maker yet. Maybe next weekend.