July 14, 2008: New Gym

This weekend Michelle, Evan, and I joined Lifetime Fitness. It is the biggest gym I have ever seen! It has hundreds of weight lifting machines, dozens of ellipticals, what looks like a hundred treadmills, a bicycle studio, a gym with two full length basketball courts, a rock climbing wall, racketball courts, a kids center, cafe, spa, three pools. It is an experience more than a gym. Evan and I spent more than three hours there today. He spent nearly two hours in the kids center while I worked out, then we went rock climbing, that is Evan climbed the wall, I supported him, then wewent to the pool, and had it been earlier, we would have spent more time at the pool. As it was, we got home at about 7pm. The place is great! Tomorrow I am meeting with a trainer in order to get a fitness evaluation and a fitness plan. I am really looking forward to utilizing this new facility. And on top of it all, it is open 24 hours. Can't beat that.

July 10, 2008: Mobster

Today, I am a mobster. That's right, a mobster. I spent parts of my day robbing liquor stores, pulling off stoplight car thefts, and dealing drugs, not to mention the occasional hit and attacks I carried out against rival gang members. It is pretty dangerous, I must say. I nearly died, and visited the hospital in order to patch up some wounds, but I inflicted some serious damage on my foes as well. I mean, you have to expect that mobster toting a Colt 1911, .44 Magnum, Pump-Action Shotgun, Tommy Gun, and Assault Rifle while wearing a bullet proof vest and cruisin in a Ford Crown Vic is a force to be reckoned with. I have successfully recruited three additional members below me in my gang so we are poised to do some serious damage in the up coming days.

In between my criminal activities, Evan and I went up to Rooms to Go and measured the staircase section of the loft we bought. I am pretty sure that it will fit up the stairs if we take it out of the box. We also hit a McDonald's for lunch, and played around for a while at North Cary Park, off of Cary Parkway. We played some MarioKart and Monopoly before heading out to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.

And in case you are wondering, my mob activities all took place within the confines of Facebook. It is an add on application which passes a little bit of time. If you are interested, check out my Facebook page and if you have a Facebook page yourself, add the Mob Wars application. The larger our mob, the bigger and better crimes we can pull of!

July 9, 2008: No Bed

The big event for today was the delivery of Evan's new bed. It was going to be REALLY cool, with a loft, a desk, a twin bed below, and stairs. Evan was even excited to get it, more excited than upset to be losing his old bed. The delivery from Rooms to Go was scheduled for somewhere between 2-4pm. And I know that you must be thinking that they never showed up, but you would be wrong. What happened was even worse. The solid stairs section of the bed set would not fit up the stairs in the box and I was a little worried to take it out of the box and still not be able to get it up the stairs and then be stuck with a piece of furniture I could not use. So here we are, Evan's old bed dismantled and downstairs in the playroom, and him sleeping on the two mattresses set on the floor in his room. Bummer. Tomorrow he and I will head back up to Rooms to Go to measure the piece out of the box and then come home and figure out if it would be able to fit up the stairs. I have a feeling it will, but we'll see.

Picture of the bed set from Rooms to Go

July 6, 2008: Fireworks!

Friday was our nation's 232nd birthday and it was celebrated in traditional fashion, with fireworks. Well, not here at least. We were all set up on Kildaire Farm Road at about 8pm to see the 9 o'clock firework from the nearby park. But as 9pm drew near, so did the dark storm clouds as well as the lightning and thunder. There would be no fireworks that night - postponed until Saturday.

Saturday we were at Michelle's coworker's house for a cul-de-sac cookout. We enjoyed the small fireworks display by the neighbors, but did not go back to our spot on Kildaire Farm Road to watch the "big" show. Fortunately we chose to stay put since it began to storm, again, right before 9pm. The good news is that Evan got to play with the kids on the street who all partook in inventive ways to set off firecrackers and other miniature explosives.

It has also been confirmed that I wirk best under pressure and with deadlines. Friday evening before the fireworks, Dan, Wendy, Aidan, and Poppy came over for a small cookout. That morning Michelle asked if I could rehang the old bathroom door upstars or hang the new one. If I a mgoing to hang a door, it may as well be a new one. And believe it or not, I hung it in what was, for me, record time, about an hour and a half. That includes, cutting it down to size in height, trimming its width using the router, routing hinges, fitting and hanging the door. I was amazed since the other three doors I have hung this past week each took far longer - admittedly, there is a bit of a learning curve. Today included doorknobs, as will tomorrow.

This evening we went to see Get Smart. Very funny, even Evan laughed for most of the movie. If you haven't seen the movie and were thinking about it, I suggest you see it. I am often times worried that the trailers or TV commercials show all three of the funny scenes from a movie, but that is not the case here, the scenes from the the commercials and trailers are, of course, funny, but there are far more funny scenes throughout the movie. And as for Maxwell Smart, he is the bungling secret agent of Control, but not nearly as bungling as the TV show, he often times has a plan and is also quite capable as a secret agent.

July 2, 2008 - Movies!

It has been a little while since I posted, but there isn't much to report. Summer is in full swing and I am having an annoying time hanging these doors, but when it is all done it will look better than the flat doors from before. I/We have been to see a few movies lately. In fact, this past weekend was a first for me, I saw two movies on their opening weekend: Wanted and WALL-E.

I saw a couple of commercials for Wanted and decided I had to see it because Angelina Jolie is in it. But I was also intriguied by the shooting, explosions, chases, and of course, professional assassins. It has everything a guy could ask for in a movie. I enjoyed it. The way I describe it is as entertaining. It had plenty of unbelievable stunts and actions but I didn't see this movie for something believable, I saw it for entertainment, it did not disappoint.



WALL-E, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing. I was expecting something a little more geared for the kids and it was a little too mature. Don't get me wrong, it was good and made some good points, but since I was expecting a kids' movie, I was disappoinited.



More Pictures added to MyPhotoAlbum:
Fathers' Day: June 15, 2008
New York June 2007: June 15-17, 2007
Lake Johnson Pool: Juyl 1, 2007

Updates to:
Evan's 1st Grade Program: June 19, 2008
Evan's Birthday: May 29, 2008

June 19, 2008 - School after School

The past 2 days have been filled with elementary school after elementary school. Yesterday was Chris' 2nd grade program, "Going West." Chris' class chronicled the experiences of those who were involved in Manifest Destiny and expanding the United States from coast to coast. Today Evan had his 1st grade program, "American Tribute." Evan's class sang patriotic songs and gave information about symbols of America. Evan was a little shy, or nervous, but performed when he needed to. He spent a good amount of time singing from behind a tissue so that he would not have to make eye contact with anyone in the audience. This evening we returned to Evan's school for "Meet the Teacher" night where we meet Evan's 2nd grade teacher. It is amazing, he is already going to be entering the 2nd grade! What is also weird is that he hasn't finished 1st grade yet, he still has 6 more days. The year-round schedule makes it necessary to hold "Meet the Teacher" at this time because in two weeks tracks 1-3 will be starting the school year, while Evan's track, track 4, will be tracked out for 3 additional weeks.

I have added some more pics to MyPhotoAlbum:
Fishing at Lake Johnson: May 25, 2008
Evan's Birthday Dinner: May 29, 2008
More Strawberry Picking: May 30, 2008
Evan's 7th Birthday Party: May 31, 2008
At the Pool: June 1, 2008
Chris' 2nd Grade Program: June 18, 2008
Evan's 1st Grade Program: June 19, 2008

June 17, 2008 - Fathers' Day & Summer Break, so far

I really need to update this more often!

School is out! Yay! I survived and am enjoying my summer so far. It is nice to have to get up somewhat early in order to get Evan ready for school; I am usually out of bed around 7 - 7:15 to make sure I have his lunch made and ready before he wakes up. The days are pretty quiet after I drop him off, it is nice. I don't have a chance to get bored because there is so much to do, both have to and want to - I work in a little of both each day. The office floor is still in progress, that is to say, we are working on completing the thresholds. It shouldn't take this much time or energy, but the unforeseen will always show when you want a job to go easily. As if that wasn't enough, and quite frankly, it wasn't, we now have eight new doors to install around the house (Home Depot was having a sale - 6 panel doors, all sizes, $25). In addition to replacing the doors in the office, we are replacing the doors upstairs in the hallway (3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 closet). It should be a little challenging since they are not bored, I will have to rout the doors for the hinges and bore the holes for the knobs - it will probably be more time consuming than I will anticipate (I think the "Rule of 4" will apply - if it is a project that you are not very familiar with, take the expected amount of time necessary and multiply by 4, that should result in how long the project will actually take!).

Fathers' Day was this past weekend. I have to say, it was probably the best Fathers' Day I have had in my now 7 years of being a Dad, not that we did anything out of the ordinary. We got up and Michelle made a variety of pancakes to choose from - plain, blueberry, banana. Next we went to Putt Putt to play miniature golf, ride the Go Karts and play some games. We then stopped at Taco Bell to pick up some lunch and bring it to Lake Johnson pool. From there, after changing from our bathing suits, we went to see Kung Fu Panda (funny movie, I highly recommend it!). And finally we went to dinner at Ruckus Pizza. Clearly a full day. It was very enjoyable!



I have been able to post some pictures on my MyPhotoAlbum site:
The Boys at Monkey Joes, April 6, 2008
My Birthday Dinner at Biaggi's, April 7, 2008
Brendan's 5th Birthday Party at Jump Zone, May 3, 2008
Strawberry Picking, May 17 & 18
Evan's 7th Birthday Pictures