PS3

Papa's gotta a brand new PS3 as of this afternoon!!

I would like to thank all of you who made this possible: My Mom for the gift card, My Sister for buying a game before I actually had the system, Jake and Courtney for another christmas giftcard, Kelli for being understanding, and Allie for being born and creating a warped reason in my mind for getting a new game system....*tear*

Video's

Video is now working. See Past Posts:

09 Nov
22 Sep
07 Sep

Oh No…My checkbook is missing!

Well it turns out that me losing my checkbook isn’t quite as bad as it could be. No, there aren’t any unexpected checks being written so it is truly lost at this point. Additionally it has provided me with unexpected fortunes.

Amidst searching for the checkbook I began looking in places I often put my belongings and places I rarely put my belongings. I found an old candy bar…yum. I found a couple sticks of spearmint gum…refreshing. I found some old pictures of my buddies and I at a party being our normal drunk selves…good times. I found a lot of dust on top of trash…bummer. Then I opened my magazine drawer (for reading not shooting) and reached all the way in the back. I felt what seemed like random receipts lying at the back of the drawer so I pulled them out to instead find three $20 bills…sweet! Never found the checkbook though.

Next morning, I dropped Allie off so Aunt Dee could watch her. I was sitting at a stop light and thought….”Hmmm, what if my checkbook fell on the side of seat?” So I wedged my hand down to see what I could find. I found a black pen…great. I found a couple sticks of spearmint gum…refreshing. I found some straw rappers…bummer. Then I felt what seemed like random receipts but hoped it was cash only to find it was random receipts…figures. I reached one more time and felt more random receipts only to find this time it was $45 in cash. Never found the checkbook though.

So I put that $45 with the previous $60 I found the day before in my wallet and laughed at myself, because along with stressing about not finding the checkbook I was stressing about where I had spent my money.

Santa!!!!

We took Allie to our friends house who had Santa over, she did great and just liked being held. I'll wish for the same results next year.

Carpool #6

Allie and I got home from the babysiter and for some reason she was particularly tickled to be home. She was cooing, and then blowing bubbles and then started getting giggly, so I snapped this little number.

Hunting

Grant my buddy and I went Deer hunting. Grant claimed he has bad hunting luck so I took him to an area that was his best chance at breaking his curse. Results are as follows

16 Nov 2007 = I spotted a small buck early morning. When we walked back to our truck, I was 200 yards in front of Grant. Exactly in the middle of us a medium to large buck decided to follow me. There was nothing we could do but watch it run away
17 Nov 2007 = Nothing
18 Nov 2007 = Nothing
29 Nov 2007 = Nothing
30 Nov 2007 = Nothing
01 Dec 2007 = We abandoned the Deer hunting and deemed Grant and having bad deer hunting luck. Instead we went Duck hunting with Kelli’s uncle so we could shoot at something. Bagged Two ducks.
02 Dec 2007 = Duck hunted again, 9 ducks and a goose. Good times.


What was nice was Kelli came down to the clubhouse with Allie and Sable. Grant’s wife Lisa came down with Henry and we got to hang our last night. But the early mornings proved to be a drain on Grant and I who were exhausted.


Yeah she looks like a boy but she really is a girl.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We took Allie on her first holiday tour and she was pleased she did not have to move a muscle. Not once did she hit the floor. All she had to do was look cute and that she did.

my week with allie

Kelli - Email

Kelli posted an email... I liked so here it is on the blog...

Hey Everyone!

It's hard to believe that Allie is already 2 months old. And I go back to work Monday. :( It's been a fun (and exhausting) nine weeks but it will be good to get into more of a daily routine. Attached are a couple of pictures of Allie. She was a flower for Halloween. And she wasn't too happy by the time she was in her Halloween sleeper.

Have a great weekend!
Kelli

Honda CRV Dipstick Problem

During my lunch break, I took my Wife's 2001 Honda CRV in for an oil change.

The guy pulled on the dipstick to check the oil level and out came the tube connecting to the Engine Block.

(you should of seen his Deer in the Headlights stare.)

After he scratched his head for a while, I told him to put the tube back in so at the least I could drive with a very minimal amount of oil loss. As the guy tried to do this he told me he thought it broke off and I would need a new tube and dip stick because it was all rusted. Hmmmm....yes rust was on the outside handle of the dipstick, but the tube base showed no rust or broken edges and neither did the dipstick. My speculation was that this part was press fitted, and the press finally gave way after 6 years and 190K Miles. Then I researched the net when I got back to work and found a thread explaining the same problem and the cost of having a dealer “Weld”. I wasn’t sure what “Weld” method was used but the price was $100.

I called the dealer and talked to service who said I could bring it in and they would do a JB Weld.

I called my Wife’s brother, Mikey, who is a certified John Deere Mechanic to see if he had this JB Weld. He did and I went to the farm after work and we fixed it. For the non-mechanics, which I am a JB Weld turns out to be epoxy from two tubes you mix together that can withstand high heat.

If you’re reading this and want to know the steps to fix this, read further…this should take no more then 1 hour. If you’ve done this before it will probably take 15 min. The cost of JB Weld is $8.00


STEPS TO REPAIR:-What I did in the evening so the Weld had time to bond (and what I found out the Honda Dealership would do as well) is purchase some JB Weld (tubes of epoxy you mix together) to bond the tube back in.
-Take off the plate guarding the block (4-10mm head screws)
-Clean the base of the tube so no oil would hinder the epoxy weld. I gave a generous dousing of Ether after removing the oil with a cloth.
-Clean the hole inside the engine block to remove oils. (Careful not to let debris fall in the Engine Block Hole.) I did give a short blast of ether at the hole.
-follow the directions on the JB Weld package and apply to tube.
-insert tube in hole. Lightly tap the top of the tube to make sure it is snug in the engine block hole.
-insert dip stick
-re-install guarding plate.

Mount Pleasant Winery

Kelli and I went to the annual Mount Pleasant Winery with her SLU friends. It was a good time as usual, minus being slightly chilly and a rainy day. Unfortunately, it’s all outdoors. There were two occasions to celebrate. Kelli’s friend Lisa’s 30th Birthday, and Kelli being able to finally partake in alcoholic beverages since giving birth.

While there two incidents happened. One a guy was cold cocked a couple times and dropped immediately to the pavement and bled everywhere. The cops chased the guy who threw the first and only punches tackling him and causing him to bleed every where as well. When the guy who was cold cocked came to, he evidently looked around at the blood on the ground and said "Hey, Who got beat up?" An ambulance took him away.

Towards the end of the wine day, a guy in our group pointed on a morning sports radio personality on the AM dial. It was Brian McKenna from 590AM The Fan. He was alone for a while just watching everyone, so I went over and said hi. We chatted for a while until his wife came and got him, but he struck me as surprisingly very nice. Maybe not surprising, but some people could get full of themselves if they reach any sort of celebrity status. He did not.

So when we go to leave my wife is no where to be found. It turned out she and some of other SLU friends were off talking to these guys throwing a football. Evidently, she was trying to talk the guys into getting together with one of her friends. Kelli’s efforts were futile. We finally get Kelli into the car to leave and had to pull over once when she thought she was going to yak. We got back to where we meet another couple to carpool and I got her back in our vehicle and headed for her parents to pick up Allie. Kelli, obviously passes out.

When I get to her parents, Kelli stirs and looks at me sort of squinting. I said "Hey, I’m going to run in and get Allie. Just stay here and relax." I run in get Allie, tell her mom Kelli’s just sleeping when she inquires why Kelli didn’t come in, load Allie up and head for home. Kelli then looks at me and said "When you said you were getting Allie, I was thinking wait,...how did I get in our vehicle. So how did I get in our vehicle?"

I’ll spare the details of the pump and dump efforts that ensued, but yep, my wife blacked out on her first return social drinking outing and sadly she probably had less then ¾ of a wine bottle.

Gone Hunting,…but not today.

My plan was to get to work early, so I could leave early and go Bow Hunting for the evening hunt. I get into Freeburg which was 10 miles from work and about 20 miles to where I was going. I’m on the phone with Kelli and as she’s telling me that Allie rolled over twice that afternoon, (at the age of 7 weeks), my vehicle starts sputtering like something is wrong with the gas.

Long story short I call Kelli’s dad, who towed my a couple driveways passed where my truck died to an automotive shop. They hooked up diagnostics but in the end they took out a mallet and banged on my fuel tank. Truck starts right away, and alas we have our culprit. I need a new fuel pump. Since it’s end of day Friday they wouldn’t be able to fix it until Monday, but was nice to let me know it would cost $760.


No hunting, and I now needed to wait for Kelli to pick me up, but Kelli’s dad did know how to numb the pain but doing some last minute odds and ends on their farm as we polished off a few beers. Her family rocks!

What was most odd about all of this, I didn’t get pissed once and stayed calm the entire time which is very unlike me.

Reagan Alyssa

My buddy Sam and his wife Jamie had their baby girl, Reagan Alyssa, on 03 October 2007 weighing 7lbs 0oz.

We went to see Reagan when she was a week old and it's amazing to see the difference between a week old and Allie at 6 weeks.


Salute!!! To our little girls!!!

We've got Smiles and Baths

Kelli captured Allie doing one of her post feeding smiles. Allie looks strange to me in this picture, but Kelli thinks it's adorable. Maybe I should put it to vote...


Later the same day we took a picture of Allie getting her first bath where she can sit in the water. In a prior post I showed her hating the bath. This was because she still had her belly button cord that couldn't get wet so we had to wash her outside the water and she inevitably got to cold. The belly button cord finally fell out, and Allie finally can lay in the water. Allie is totally relaxed now, and like her baths. Yeah!

Peter Pan Peanut Butter

It's Back!!

Peter Pan Peanut Butter has finally returned after the Salmonella Outbreak that took it off the shelves. Kelli came back from the store with a jar, and made me two sandwhich's. One for lunch and one for dinner between class.

The Smooth, Creamy taste of Peter Pan Peanut Butter is back in my mouth and that's all I care about. No more Jiff, none of the vegetarian peanut butter or whatever the heck that was that I had to mix the layer of fat in with the butter.

Yeah, I'm 2 years old and my wife makes me a sacked lunch....oh, well my lunches are back to normal.

Relleke Pumpkin Farm

Today, Kelli and I took Allie on her first Pumpkin Farm visit to visit the one and only Ms. Kelly Tracy who was painting face's and had some painted pumpkins for sale. Relleke is a great place to go to take kids with many activities to keep the entertained. Allie however is not to that point in her young life yet.

We didn't stay long, but long enough to buy some pumpkins and snap a few photographs. We especially had to get a picture of her outfit, in spirit of the upcoming Halloween Season.

The Hunt: 01

Deer hunting in the heat is not the best of plans. The way it works now is go when I can, not when I want. It's an insignificant drawbacks to having a family. Luckily Bow hunting lasts until end of December in Illinois so their will be many more opportunities, and I can write this trip off as a scouting trip.

7 a.m. It's 75F and muggy in October. In the woods, it's 72F, muggy and mosquito's are very abundant. I kept swatting them which moving around isn't good because deer will see you. I couldn't put spray on because their sense of smell is outstanding so I had nothing but dirt smell on which left welts on my neck, face, ears, and hands. At one time I had 8 mosquito's just on my legs. In fact, I feel like they are on my just typing this.

9 a.m. Forget about it, it's too hot, I probably saw 4 deer who all watched me twitching around.

Despite they aggravation it really is neat to see deer more through the woods, with little to no noise.

Mapmyrun.com

This is a new site that will help map runs. Great for mapping routes around the town you live or possibly the town you are going too. Check it out.

I Haunt my own House

So, I played around with the settings on our Cannon Rebel XT Digital SLR camera for fun trying to create RAW images. While I was not able to find this feature, I did figure out how to take remote pictures (this means having the camera connected to my PC and snapping pictures without touching the camera). This freaked Kelli out a little. The feature is only good if you wanted to make adjustments on the fly or see the full image immediately.

More importantly though, another trick I stumbled on was generating the ability to ghost myself in the picture. Here is one. Kelli just thought I was a goofball. Allie wants to be a ghost too, Kelli said she wasn't old enough, but she will someday.

Action!

I think Allie is going to be crawling before long. Here is photo of her trying move. Moments before this photo was snapped, she proped herself up with her arms and held her head up for a minute or so just looking around in wonder.


That little activity reaped rewards of her passing out on me while I watched the Ken Bearns PBS special on WWII.


Non related to Allie, Sunday night I take the trash out. Monday morning our trash is collected, so I also move the Cans, and recycling bin, closer to the alley. (ha...I guess this is related to Allie in way!!) On with the story... So I open the gate and what is standing at the edge of our garage/shed in the middle of city?!? A skunk. This one was mostly white with a narrow stripe of black running from it's head to it's tail. I quickly halted and Pepe' decided to back up and took off somewhere dodging any spray incident. Kelli and I were going to tear down the garden, but I think Kelli and I need to can those tomatoes for pratcial reasons. I have a bad feeling I may be blogging about this same skunk later.

Allie Dancing to 'Jive Talkin'

Yawning is interesting?

How can yawning be interesting? Have a new born and you'll find out. Pretty well everything they do is interesting.

Allie is 3 weeks old and has these monstrous yawns that end with her putting her lips together in a small "O" shape and sticking her chin as far away from her body as possible.

I know I'm a guy, and guys don't typically type this stuff about their kids, but darn it, she is too cute not to type about.

Here is one Yawning picture and one normal picture.

Lewis and Clark Half Marathon

I ran the Lewis and Clark Half Marathon today earning myself another medal and a bonus run around town medal. My time was 1:57:xx. With Allie being born I haven’t been able to train but was glad just to finish under the two hour time marker.


Later we celebrated Dee’s 22nd Birthday. Fun times, but now I am exhausted!

Annie's Frozen Custard

We took Allie on her first non-medical related outing. We went to Annie’s Frozen Custard, which is a few blocks away. It gave Kelli a chance to leave the house confines as well as get some fresh air.

I got in trouble almost immediately for popping a wheelie with Allie in the stroller. She didn’t seem to be upset because a block later she was asleep.

Umm, umm. Annie’s was good.

Birthday

It was my 29th birthday today and pretty well kicked ass actually.

We started off in the afternoon visiting the pediatrician for the first time. Allie, it turns out, is very healthy and has surpassed her birth weight by 2oz to 9lb 4oz. She wasn’t expected to do this for another week so we say she’s very healthy (chunky).

Then I came home and hooked up our telephone line and DSL. Side note, Kelli and I have not had a phone line or internet in our home for 5 years, and we still don’t have cable. Were so Stone Age, but hell we’re never home enough to watch it, or do we stay busy because we don’t have cable. Hmmmm, I’ll digress.

Then I went and purchased the DCR-SR42 Sony Handy Cam from Best Buy. It has a 30Gb HDD built in with a touchpad LCD. It’s sweet. A slight ordeal though at Best Buy. I purchased the Handy Cam w/extended warranty, a LAN Phone, and a tripod for the Handy Cam and Digital SLR. (I should post pictures Kelli takes with the SLR. They are amazing.) Any way, I had a 12% discount from Best Buy because it was my birthday so I used it. Only the clerk kept applying it to the smaller $70 items and not the $600 camera. I kept explaining the huge price difference which she never caught on until she got it right and a Manager came over expecting me to back down, before finally overriding the system. I win, it’s my Birthday.

Later my Family came over and my Sister gave me a wireless remote for my PS2. This is something that should have been purchased a long time ago. Dee, is brilliant.

This could have been the best electronic birthday ever. I went to bed somewhere around 1:30 in the morning because I kept messing with all the electronic stuff. I was like a kid with a sugar busy that kept going until I finally passed out.

Yeah, my 29th was pretty darn good. Oh speaking of old; a week earlier I got carded for a lottery ticket. Seriously, you have to be 18 to buy a lottery ticket. She thought I looked 18!

Happy Birthday-from the Rose's

To set this video up, the audio is a message left on my cell phone from Jackie and Ed wishing me a happy birthday. I can't tell you how much I enjoy there random phone calls so this is my attempt to let it live in infamy. I have no software to do audio editing (and even less time to investigate) so I grabbed some pics, used my new fancy HDD Sony Handycam, and shot this gem.

Mixed Household

Allie is going to be raised in a mixed house hold. Here is a picture to prove it.

It's going to be rough growing up around St. Louis Allie, but stay the course.

First Bath

So evidently Allie hates baths right now.

She gets so upset and she sticks her little chin up in the air as far as she can with a just as cute pouting face.

After the may lay was over, will held her only to hear whimpers as though she went through the most traumatic event ever. (It wasn’t the most traumatic event. I watched her being born, that had to be the most traumatic event.) Either way, she’s makes our once quite evenings a distant monotonous memory.

Attention!! We've got Jaundice!!!

All days now are spent with family and friends. In fact Allie meet her cousin Braydon today. It's funny people used to come over to visit Kelli and I. Not so much anymore. Now it's all about Allie.

It was around 7 pm my mother in law raised our concerns about Allie having Jaundice. Now we knew she looked a little yellow, and it was to be expected since Kelli is nursing. My wife, I know from past experiences, tends to not get excited about much but when she finally gets excited, it’s serious. Combine that with just enough medical knowledge to be dangerous and you’ll see she is dangerous. (She diagnosed a stomach ache I had as an emergency room trip to have an appendix removed. I still have my appendix.)

Now her mom is a nurse at a children’s hospital and I found also thinks in the extreme direction. So when her mom questioned the jaundice the both of them sent the conversation quickly into the direction of Allie having mental retardation.

This drives me nuts. After the mental retardation comment I was ready to drive to the Emergency room, ASAP. I really don’t want to become the worst parent ever who let the jaundice get so bad….well you know.

2.5 hours later they finally had stopped talking about it and now we’re ready to go the Emergency room. We hopped in the car, and the car won’t freakin’ start. Folks, this is the very second time Allie has gone on a car ride. One thing I do, that probably drives my wife crazy is blow up at the drop of a hat. This is the moment I usually lose it, but with the concern in Kelli’s face I keep it together. Do some finagling and start it after a few more tries.

Okay we’re on our way and I convince myself, and attempt to assure Kelli, this can’t be too bad. Her point is as long as his would have been planned, this would not be upsetting, but this is unplanned and she’s only 4 days old and we’re taking her back to the hospital. We get there 10pm’ish, sign in and head to the registration area. We get to the window and the lady asks, “May I help you.”
Kelli starts to answer “We..” stops and just starts crying while holding Allie.
The lady looks at me. “Umm yeah, we need to get a Jaundice test done.”

We go through the sign in rigmarole and finally go in for the test. They need to do a blood test. The lady takes Allie and lays her on the bed and tries to draw blood from her heel. They need two samples incase the first sample doesn’t get them the information they need. This is bad news for Allie. The lady couldn’t draw blood to save her life and after each blood droplet she collects shakes the jar. Clearly I can see she has a way to go, but she does it every time. She even laughs when Allie cry’s. This sends Kelli’s once upset mood into that of a defensive cat, hairs on the back of her neck sticking straight out and all. 20 minutes later we were both pissed and Allie’s heel is now purple instead of the vibrant pink. (For those that do not know me, I don’t exaggerate, I’m factual. It took her 20 minutes)

We just waited in the parking lot for the pediatrician to call. Our levels were at 15.4 so they were higher then the 8.7 when she left after the birth discharge. He said this wasn’t surprising, since 4 days is when they peak and to come back the next day.

We did and the level dropped to 15.2 so he said she probably already peaked, was at the plateau and is now coming down. He was right. . By the way when we got the test done the next day, it took a different lady only 2 minutes and when Allie cried she said. “Ohhh, Why don’t mom come over here to tell you it will be okay.” What a Huge Difference and that was the most perfect thing that lady said considering the blood nurse of the previous night!

So now Allie is free of Jaundice, and Kelli is fine, I’m relaxed, but most importantly we didn’t cause our daughter to become mentally retarded…yet.

Carpool #5

Baby Allie came home today. We left Memorial for the journey to Edwardsville which, for those that don’t know, is mostly Highway driving. Half way home, on Highway 255, an unusual event occurred that I would normally take great interest in this.

50 yards in front of us are two cars locked in game of “Road Rage”. They were swerving back and forth over 3 lanes with the lead vehicle keeping the pursing vehicle from passing. I looked at Kelli and said “Seriously, don’t they know we have a new baby on board?”

Naturally I slowed down to 25 mph to let them get really far ahead but what a crazy incident for Allies first car ride. I hope this isn’t a telling sign of our future car rides with her.

Just another day and life in the Carpool.

Baby Girl

We have a new family member. Allie Louise. She was born at 11:26 p.m on 29 August 2007. Weighing in at 9lbs 2oz, 20inches long.

The nurses let us know Mom had braggin' rights for the biggest baby that day. :-)

All I can say is what an unbelievably exciting and exhausting time.

Kelli was wonderful, never complaining the entire time and had smile on her face the second Allie was introduced into this world.

One last note: This kid is tough. She already raised her head off my shoulders on the first day!! Also hospital foldout chair beds are not comfortable.