Well, tonight we're taking my brother and sister-in-law to see Unbridled. I think they'll like it. Hell, after being stuck in the frozen tundra of North Dakota anything will seem interesting, right? Ok, it's probably not that bad there, but during the course of conversation they said that last winter got down around 75 BELOW 0. That's -75 degrees. Minus. As in less than 0. As in not a positive number. That's not a good thing. It's not even a, "wow dude that's cold" thing. That's insane. Positively insane. There are things you can do when it's cold. You can MOVE to a more suitable climate. Maybe if I was a polar bear or a chunk of ice 75 below wouldn't be bad. I might even like it.
Enough about that. Work is driving me insane. In addition to the fact that the project is already a complete and utter nightmare, now there are 85 different levels of access that I have to go through. I need to push this thing right into the middle and get the hell out dumping it in someone else's lap. I'm also beginning to suspect that maybe in light of everything that's happened, they are actually hoping that I will leave on my own. That could just be my paranoia talking.
Anyway, enough about work. Why have something I can't stand encroach upon my little creative endeavors? This weekend is going to be fairly packed with stuff that I need to get done. In addition to dinner tonight, tomorrow I have to sit in front of a computer all day and finish my internet course. It has to be done. I have no other choice. Thankfully there's a television in the library with the computer, but even so, it's going to be a long tedious day.
Even if I manage to finish before the day is out, there's still more yard work and house work that will need to be finished. So, it's a never ending cycle. And, I could always job hunt.
Oh well, all that aside so that I can enjoy tonight. It's been almost two months since I've seen Lindsy and the band play so it will be a fun night out. And, the little one gets to spend some quality time with the grandparents.
Oh, and did I mention that Duran Duran's album Decade is a pretty good album to work to?

Alright, I finished Craig's incredibly hard sports questions quiz. Took me most of the afternoon and I had to call in a lot of help considering I don't follow most major sports.
Now, I just have to get my nominations in for the second round of Rick's movie contest, and the first round of Craig's song contest and I'll be all set web wise. If only the rest of my life were that easy.
Not too much going on today. Like I said I blew off most of the afternoon for the sports thing and just general personal stuff that I wanted to finish up. We're almost locked in on a daycare that I can't possibly afford. Talk about motivation to get the hell out of here.
Anyway, here's something that I ran across today that scared the hell out of me. Everyone has heard about Jolt Cola. Today I found Jolt Caffeine Energy Gum. In two flavors, no less. Makes me wonder how I didn't end up in marketing.
Nothing else out of the ordinary. I have a picture of Gage in his bouncy seat that cracks me up everytime I see it. It's not posed or staged. Terri was just trying to get a nice picture of him in Aunt Niki and Uncle Tony's bouncy seat. So, that is keeping me cheerful at work nowadays since little else will. My to-do list at home, at work, and wherever else I may be grows momentous. I now feel as though I've lapped myself on the crazy trail, which is a whole other topic completely. And, one that I will blog about at a later date when I've gotten some distance and perspective on the situation.
I think that's about all for today. Besides, I've got a million other things to take care of that don't involve typing, a monitor, or a blog. And, people keep telling me that I should be doing some of those things too.

Ok, I'm having some trouble viewing other pages, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Everyone has been updating but me it seems. Anyway, let's see what's happened since I last found the time to blog. In my last post I said I had several things to blog about, but with my failing memory...they're gone. They obviously weren't all that important. But, what in my life is nowadays?
Anyway, I did inherit the nightmare project that kept me away from my blog so much last summer/fall. However, that won't happen this year. Mostly because I'm going to try and get the hell out of here before the project gets into the nightmare stage. Although, the people here at work have already managed to screw it up and I'm working with less than 30 documents at the moment. Last year it grew to over 4,000 I think. So, there are plenty of mistakes left to be made.
On Wednesday the 30th, we had our last day of the fiscal year. I'm not sure why, (though the new manager will certainly take the credit for it), but this year's close went smoother than the last two I've been a part of. I think it has to do with the fact that we have almost as many temps as we have regular employees. However, I didn't have to work monster overtime to save their collective asses. Not that I would have done it this year, with a new baby and all, but thankfully the situation didn't arise.
We met with the preacher at the church we've been going to about getting Gage dedicated (the Baptist's version of christening/baptism/etc.) We're also in talks about becoming members ourselves. So, that's another life struggle that we'll be tackling since once the Catholics have their hooks in you, they don't like to let go very easily.
Friday night we had dinner at Niki and Tony's house. We got to see James' nursery and Gage got to try out some of his stuff. The mural that Tony and his brother painted on the wall behind the crib is really cool looking. Glen, Amy, and Cole were also there for dinner and we watched Ken win yet again on Jeopardy. I'm really interested to see who or what actually stops this man's streak.
On Saturday I spent about 8 hours working out in the yard. I got the yard mowed and the hillside weed whacked and raked. Boy did I ache Saturday night. Tom was back for the holiday weekend and headed over Saturday night to hang out. Terri and the baby still both have colds so they weren't feeling up to going out. So, we all just sat around and talked.
Sunday morning, Terri, Gage, and I went to church. Gage sleeps pretty much through the entire service. They announced that 20,000 troops would be coming home from Iraq. One of the women in the congregation is hoping that her son is among them. Then, the preacher announced that he was saddened over the fact that the slots bill passed in Pennsylvania. I know that gambling goes against the church and the like, but I was definitely in favor of the slots bill since revenue from that is supposed to help the Penguins with a new arena. So, I just kept that little bit to myself.
After church we headed down to Terri's parents house for lunch/dinner. Her Uncle Charlie and Uncle Regis were there to meet Gage for the first time. Everyone seemed to enjoy him. And, other than one of the cousins I can't stand showing up, all went ok.
Monday we headed down to my parent's house for a cookout. We also got to see my brother, whom I haven't seen for about two years since he joined the air force. We also got to meet his wife, my sister-in-law for the first time. She seems like a nice person. They are expecting in October so if they ever move back to the area Gage will have a cousin very close in age to play with. They aren't sure if it's going to be a boy or a girl yet. There's a chance that they won't be able to find out until the birth. So, I don't know if I'm going to be an aunt or an uncle.
And, now it's today. John Kerry screwed up my normal commute by closing down several city blocks (not a good way to earn my potential vote). So, Terri had to drag Gage and herself out of bed early this morning and drive me into work so I could be at a job I can't stand on time. Oh, and the woman who managed to end up with my promotion started today. Woo-Hoo!!!!
One last set of strange things I've seen and heard over the past week or so.

An SUV driving around a speed bump in a parking lot. An SUV! No wonder I can't stand most of the idiots that end up buying those things.

At random time on B-94 (which used to be a vast wasteland of Britney, Beyonce, N-suck, and the Backstreet Boys) Under the Bridge and Give it Away by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen Just So Very Wrong.

And this of course. Courtesy of Dwight's trip to visit Joe and see other sites of California.

I think that's all for now.

I have several issues to blog about, but not a whole lot of time to squeeze it all in. So, I'll have a monster post later on I guess. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to cram in a semester's worth of an internet course into the 10 or 15 minutes I have a night to myself. I know, I know. Why are you wasting time on your blog when you have this work to do. Well, this is more fun of course.
I found out last night my eyesight got worse. Wonderful. Just what I need at this point. I think I'll start carrying a bag to pick up the pieces as they fall off of me.

This past weekend was a blur of activity. Amy's mother was moving from Pittsburgh to Maryland and Glen asked me to give him a hand. Since his part was out of obligation, I told him that I'd help. So, Friday night after work I headed downtown to meet Tony. His very pregnant wife Niki picked us up and we all headed to Monroeville. Glen, Tony, and I then proceeded to spend the next 6 hours unloading the apartment into a U-haul and trailer. We managed to get almost everything. Amy visits her mom frequently so she's going to haul out the last little bit of stuff.
Saturday morning I was up at 5:30 and I loaded our car full of stuff and Terri, Gage, and I set off for Glen and Amy's. I then unloaded the stuff from the car into the van and off we went. We got to Maryland and unloaded the entire U-haul and trailer and helped move some of the bigger furniture into the rooms they belonged in. Then, in lieu of relaxing, Gage was being cranky on his first trip out of state. So, I bundled him up in the snugli and off we went. All told I think I walked him about two miles. And this is after loading and unloading furniture for two days. My knees were ready to fall off my legs. So, then we headed out to dinner and got a little sleep.
We were back up at 6:00 am for the drive back to Pittsburgh. We were supposed to meet another Amy (this one from Terri's office) at 12:30 and didn't want to cancel on her. So, we made it back to Glen and Amy's house and I unloaded everything from the van back into the car. Then once we got home, from the car into the house. After seeing Amy, we headed to Eli's 3rd birthday party. Eli is Tom's nephew. It was the best birthday ever. There was not one present that needed assembly. (That's my job at parties.) Looking around at their house, I had put together two tricycles, a picnic table, a wagon, and a bouncy thing on wheels. The kid is only 3! And, of course, everyone ooohed and ahhhed over Gage. Especially Tom's parents. I've known them so long they're practically family. So, of course they think of Gage as their grandson.
Tom's sister-in-law is pregnant again and due at the end of August. When Eli was born, it was a scheduled C-section and we knew what time it would be. Because of the time of day, Terri and I actually got to meet and hold Eli before Tom did. Now, with him living across the state, there's a pretty good shot the same thing will happen with his (might-be-but-aren't-sure-yet) niece.
After Eli's party we headed to my parent's house to pick up Terri's car and then finally headed back home. So, the weekend was a tad busy. Gage seemed to enjoy everything though.
Today I found out there's a pretty good chance I'm going to re-inherit the nightmare project that I had last year from July to October. Now, I'm certainly finding a way out of here and fast!

The system we use at work decided to crash today in the middle of the most hectic month of the year. Needless to say things are a little touchy around the office. No one is getting anything done, but it's ticking off the manager and the supervisor. They want stuff to be getting done around the office, but there's nothing left to do that doesn't require the computer system. Wheeeee, what a predicament.
Anyway, all turned out well with the babysitting. I didn't realize that Terri was going to be on a conference call from the house, and Gage would never be totally alone with her. So, that made it a little better, not much, but a little.
Of course, the day I don't have a ton of extra non-work things to take care of is the day the system crashes. Such is the content of my life. Next week, once the hurried pace of June dies down in the office, the job hunting starts again in full swing. I want to be out of here by the end of summer. To that end, if anyone hears of anything, let me know.
Gage and I walked around the mall yesterday while Terri was in with her clients. We found out that when you're pregnant, everyone wants to make clothes for you. When you're nursing, look out. So far, we've only found one store that has nursing shirts and pajamas, etc. Makes it very difficult to build a wardrobe, or buy presents.
I've also been scouting different locations for printing pictures from digital media. So far the standard price seems to be about .29 cents per picture. Although I've found some coupons for 20 free pictures and some for .15 cents per picture. So, I'm going to spend some time, figuring out what pictures I want printed and how many I'll need. Then it's off to the different CVS, Rite-Aid and Eckerd's. Ah, I love beating the system. Will I actually save money? Who knows. However, I'll feel like I'm saving money. And, since it isn't a great trek to any of these stores, it's not like I'm driving 90 miles out of the way. We have an Eckerd one block before the house and a Rite-Aid one block after the house. I could actually walk to both. Oh well, I guess I've wasted enough free time today. I've got one or two minor administrative tasks and then it's out of here for the day.

Woo-hoo!
Susiezy has decided to join the wonderful world of blogging. You can see her link to the right.
That link has replaced Diane and Ed since they seem to have fallen off the internet.
Anyway, not much in the way of earth shattering news here today. Terri informed me that she asked my mother-in-law to babysit tomorrow. Not a good day so far. For those of you that don't know me personally, take the normal animosity for that particular relationship and multiply it by infinity squared and you might come close to scratching the surface of the past history. So, I don't have any recent updates about the little one. I've been a little too peeved to call home to check on him.
Yesterday, Terri claims he rolled over onto his stomach. I think it was because he was on the bed and just rolled towards her, but you never know.
Anyway, I'll be venturing out to the mall with Gage again tonight while Terri is in with her clients. I'm hoping to finish up the errands that I've been trying to run since last week.
My dish was hooked up yesterday and I didn't get a lot of time to play around with the features and functions due to class yesterday, but hopefully I'll get to experiment a little tonight.
Anyway, again the main purpose of this post is to welcome Susiezy to the blogging world. I'm sure you'll find her as entertaining on the web as she is in person, unless you don't know her in person and then she'll just be a web page, which may cause some dismay since you can't talk to a web page. Well you can, but people look at you funny. Kind of like the people were looking at the woman I saw in Wendy's today. She had to be at least 80. She was wearing a black leather beret, a red sweater, and gold lame pants. She also had on what appeared to be slippers, but I couldn't tell for sure. But I digress and say again, welcome Susiezy!

Terri called me at work to tell me that the dish is all hooked up. Of course she was watching TLC. That stupid channel reminds me of Oprah. They both give normally good people bad ideas.
The talk around the office today has been Bill Clinton and his book which is released today I believe. I don't have anything against Clinton per se. I mean, I did vote for the man twice. However, I don't see the reason to hype this book. It's about 1,000 pages long and I'm guessing only about 10 pages of that will be actual fact filled information that a reader might find interesting. I was in college when the whole Monica Lewinsky thing broke. Her brother, Mike, attended the same school. We got to experience first hand what a media circus it was. Radio stations called the campus constantly trying to track him down. The news crews came from far and wide and camped out. Mike was in a frat then and normally I'm not a big fan of fraternities and sororities. However, I was very impressed with their conduct. He stayed in the house and his brothers got him everything. They took notes in class for him, turned in his homework, explained to his professors why he couldn't be there personally, and most importantly, fended off the media with a chorus of, "No Comment." everytime one of them went outside. After a while the camera crews realized they couldn't stake him out forever and left. I chalk it up to a small victory for organized friendship. Where was I going with all of this? The sex in the book is what will generate the frenzy. Then when people realize that there's no content they'll back off quickly. At least that's my hope. Who knows? Maybe I'm just bitter because no one is handing me a ten million dollar advance for my words. In any case, I'll wait for it to hit the dollar bin at Barnes and Noble before I pick it up.
After the marathon post to catch you all up to speed, there's not a whole lot left to report. I have class tonight so it'll be a while before I get to see the little one. Last night I ended up putting him in the Snugli and walking him on the treadmill. It worked like a charm. He slept the entire time I was walking. The only drawback was the fact that I can't walk forever like some one man version of "The Long Walk"
I also didn't realize what a popular place the zoo was to hang out. Mark, Robyn, and Jacob go all the time and for father's day Glen, Amy, and Cole went. I guess this means that we'll be taking Gage sometime in the not too distant future.

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted. So much for getting back to regular posting.
Well, that Monday Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup. Although I don't think their coach deserved the coach of the year award. Let's see, what else happened recently. I finally came to a head with the morons at Comcast and dumped their ass. The people for the dish are installing it tomorrow. I can get every channel the Dish offers on every TV in my house for 6 dollars less per month than cable. Funny how Comcast just blows. I'd tell you the whole story, but I don't have the three hours to type it out and you don't want to listen to that rant.
That same day my parents came up and I drove Terri to see her clients for the first time since giving birth. So, for just over 2 hours the little one was all by himself with Grandma and Grandpa. He apparently did really well. He had his two week checkup and everything was A-OK. So, again we haven't managed to screw anything up too badly.
A couple Saturdays ago we had a bunch of people out at the house to help with me some long overdue yard work. We worked for about 8 hours, had a picnic type lunch and got a lot accomplished. I could actually see that I had a yard which was an improvement over what it had been.
That same weekend we also went to a graduation party for Jaime. Jaime is the younger Jacob's mom. So, as usual, those functions are always lots of fun. The little one didn't take too well to the heat, but other than that he seemed to enjoy himself. He was in the Snugli (a gift from Uncle Matt and Aunt Alison) for the first time. He has really grown to like being walked around in it.
Then on Monday we had dinner brought to us by Randy, Elizabeth, Katie, and Suzy. It was delicious Chicken Pie and Brownie Sundaes for dessert. We were all talking about the plethora of children. Katie was born in December, Gage in May, and as you'll find out in another paragraph or two, another one followed in June.
So on Tuesday I was off work and hung out with Terri and Gage all day. Alison was scheduled to be induced early that morning, so we waited by the phone just in case. Turns out their son (yes a little boy) decided to be just as stubborn as Gage was. In any case, at 7:03 AM on Wednesday the 16th Nathan Thomas joined dad Matt and mom Alison. I've seen pictures and he's adorable. I'd point you to the site, but I should get Mom and Dad's permission first. Hockey practice will be starting soon for all the boys. Also, before taking off for the sunny world of California and visiting Joe Dwight dropped by with a quilt and bear that his mom had made for Gage. I was blown away by the amount of work that went into it. And, the bear was charged with watching over Gage and making sure that he slept well at all times. We've got some cool pictures of everything, but I have to download them and make them a more manageable file size before I can link anything.
On Friday night we took Gage to see his first movie, "Harry Potter 3 and the Prisoner of Azkaban." We went to see how he'd take to the noise and atmosphere and because the tickets were courtesy of Matt and Alison. He slept through the majority of the film and in retrospect he had the right idea. Suzy told me to take some sort of Xanax or Prozac or something before seeing it. I doubt it would have helped. Those of you that know me know that I like things to stick to their original incarnations for the most part. I rarely like remakes and especially in a popular series like this, I think there's an obligation to get it right. Now, Chris Columbus built a pretty decent world from the books. My biggest gripes with his two films were the main parts of plot and characterization that they left out or conveniently forgot about. Cuaron decided to throw the book away entirely. This movie had about as much in common with the book as this had in common with the Frank and Jesse James story. Anyway, in addition to the fact that he moved major events around within the story, there were missing gaps so big you could fit the Empire State Building through it. I'd go into a ton of detail, but what's the point. Everyone would just disagree with me and then I'd get even more pissed about it. I will say that throughout the books and the first two films my impression of Hogwarts has been akin to a prep school for the witches and wizards. Rowling is very detailed about the robes and the look of Hogwarts to reinforce that belief. Columbus also made it seem very clean and prep like. The attitude of some of the characters, Malfoy for instance, also plays into an elitist type culture. Cuaron took a very dark book and made it...dirty. Everything and everyone in this film seemed grungy. The robes and uniforms were barely present and when they were they were disheveled. The kids were unkempt and the new look of Hogwarts took on that of a barrio or a ghetto. I half expected to see John Cleese swooping by with a boom box on his shoulder listening to 50 Cent with a '76ers uniform on and the shorts pulled down to his knees.
Anyway, Gage was good throughout the movie. Saturday we headed down to my parent's house for an early Father's day. Then we all headed up to an old family friend's house and had a wonderful chicken roast. If you are unsure of what that might be, picture a 12 foot stick with 25 chickens turning slowly over an open flame while being brushed with spices and marinade. Excellent. And everyone, of course, oohed and aahed over Gage. After the roast, we met up with Tom and had a sort of farewell dinner. I still can't believe he's actually moving. Although today was actually his first day of work out there so we'll see how it went. I expect he'll be updating his blog a little more frequently now that he'll have some steady computer access.
Sunday we went to church where Gage receieved another handmade quilt. Then we headed to her parent's house for a second Father's day. Turns out Gage let me pick out a 1/2 inch drill to run my hole saw. Not bad for my first Father's day. And, I'll wish a belated Happy Father's Day to all the first time dads. Rusty, Glen, Randy, Matt, John, Rob, Erik, and me. I don't think I've forgotten anyone, but with all these kids you never know. So, if I did forget someone, my apologies. Also, Happy Birthday to Matt. He's one year closer to catching up with his hair loss.
Tonight I was supposed to go see the Vandermark Five with Mitch, but I'm not sure either of us is going to be able to make it. That's a shame, I would have loved to have met Ken and had him sign my disc. And, tomorrow I get my Dish so all is well at the moment. In case you hadn't gleaned from above, Gage and Mom are doing fine and we'll be sending out hospital pics real soon to those who haven't gotten them hand delivered. And, that's about enough for today.

Well, today was the first day back at work. As expected it sucked. I wonder, as I usually do at work, was I more upset being away from my son or just being at work? I realized today more than ever, I need a new job. I have never had a job in my professional career that even began to challenge my abilities. I have skated through every job I've ever had earning a slacker reputation because I could do the work necessary to the job in less time than most of my co-workers. And believe me, I'm in no way demeaning the people that I've worked with. They are some of the best friends I've made in my life and without them, I would certainly have a big gaping hole to try and fill. They are also some of Pittsburgh's best and brightest workers in their respective fields. I was just never able to lock on to the type of position that would suit me. I used to intentionally let things go at the smaller internet firm I worked at and then see how quickly I could accomplish an entire day's work. My record was just under an hour. About 56 minutes to accomplish about 8 hours worth of work. No wonder my freecell abilities shot up. So now, in addition to just looking for a new job...I'm looking for job fufillment. I can't just skate through another dead end job. I had a company that I was looking at, but being a smaller firm, they've been pretty hard to crack into. I've been slowly expanding my search, but so far nothing.
What does all that mean...not a damn thing to you, o readers of mine. Just me whining about my so called lot in life I guess.
Gage is doing well on his 11th day of life. There are lots of annoying new parent things I could say about him, but I don't want this blog to turn into...My son smiled for the first time today. He did it faster than any other kid I've ever seen. He's a freakin' genius...That annoys me and I won't bother anyone else with it. (Although he actually began smiling about 5 days ago and I think that is borderline genius)
The Calder Cup certainly didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. However, the Baby Pens put forth one hell of an effort and played in more post-season games than they ever had before. The Stanley Cup is going my way at the moment. Tampa Bay scored in the second overtime to force a game seven which stands at 1-0 Tampa Bay with about 7 minutes to go in the second period.
Now that I'm back to work I'm hoping to post on a more regular basis. However, life sometimes gets in the way so I won't promise. I'm also slowly beginning to work on a project with a friend from CMU that started with a great head of steam, but life like I said sometimes gets in the way. She will also yell at me for my use of the ... to space things out. She can't stand that and honestly I can't either, but looking over the posts, you'd never know it.
SCORE!!!!! 2-0 Tampa with 4 mintues to go. And I think it's time for me to go tonight. Although I will say that there are two reasons in my life to be sad at the moment. Ronald Reagan is indeed dead at 93 and less important on a grand scale of things, but very important to me, tonight is the absolute last hockey game of the season. No more hockey until August when the World Cup starts and who knows about next season.

Well, he's one week old. He's still alive and functioning so I couldn't be a total failure, right? And, we're still alive and functioning. So all is going well I guess. Sorry I haven't been more wordy recently. This whole raising a kid thing takes it out of you. My yard looks like the south 40 of a hay farm. I need to get out and take care of that and start on the inside. I thought I would have lots of time this week, but Gage has decided that he's going against all the newborn info. He spends a lot of his time looking at the world around him. We've read through all of the books that Aunt Susie gave him and most of the big book of Curious George that Terri and I bought for him. He seems to like them all. We went for a little outing today to see how he'd do. He was fine in the car seat and the stroller so we don't forsee too many problems taking him out and about. Niki's baby shower is on Saturday as well as Jacob's 4th birthday party.

So far so good, I guess. I realized that in preparation to go anywhere now, I feel like I'm managing my own equipment store. You have to have this bag and that bag, extra clothes, warm clothes, cold clothes, food, diapers, and a whole ton of stuff that we haven't even figured out a use for yet. And all of this just to stand on the porch. I can't imagine vacations at this point.
On the hockey front, I read that the Baby Pens beat the Wolf Pack in game 7 on the road in overtime. So, they will meet the Milwaukee Admirals in Milwaukee tomorrow night.
The Lightning are in the process of evening up the series with Calgary 2-2. It's 1-0 at the end of the second period. Hopefully they can hang on to win the game and tie everything up heading home to Tampa.
There are other things to blog about, but I said I was going to go in little doses. I will say that if you look back in my past couple of posts, you'll see I made fun of the McDonald's commercial for the "adult" happy meal. When we were in the hospital, I noticed that one of Terri's doctors actually had the little pedometer that comes in the meal. It was difficult not to laugh and point. And, speaking of nice new commercials...Bud has brought back the frogs to deal with the Miller spokesperson. They have decided to hit back harder and funnier. The frogs beat Traves-sha-mockery anyday.

Well, there is a lot to say and since it's been almost a week, I'll try and do it a little at a time, especially since I only get little blocks of time to myself now anyway. I definitely want to say that it was an experience and a good one at that. I also want to say thanks to Tom, Glen, and Amy for all the stuff that they brought to the hospital for Terri, Gage, and I. Without them I would have been admitted to the hospital myself for starvation, exhaustion, knee surgery, dehydration, boredom and a ton of other things. We are in debt to all our family and friends throughout the past 10 months. Everyone has been so great and supportive. And, there is more news to come, but the particulars are...Thursday the 27th at 2:04 AM...7 lbs 14 ozs...20 in long.

Absolutely nothing. I guess this means that we'll have actual news after all the tests and things tomorrow. So, if I get to update tomorrow I might have good news.
Just when I thought the ads weren't clocking me anymore a French ad shows up. That's when I realized I used the word "deux" in the last entry. So, big brother is always scanning I guess. Not much else is going on, we've simply been sitting around waiting.
The one thing that I realized through all this is that we're very isolated. Now, don't get me wrong, we have a ton of friends and family waiting to jump at anything we need. The only problem is, we can't just call to chat. Invariably if they see our number on caller ID or pick up and hear our voice they think that this is "the" call. So, in addition to both of us dealing with the burden of waiting, we've transferred it to everyone else.
At the very least neither of us we'll have to go into the office tomorrow. They have so many tests and monitoring scheduled it just made more sense to take the day off.
In hockey news the Baby Pens pulled even with Hartford. Hopefully they can take the next two games, close out the series and head to the Calder Cup. Tomorrow night also starts the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames. I'm still routing Lightning. Mainly for the good of the franchise, but also for their captain. Hoisting the Stanley Cup is the dream of every NHL player and Dave seems worthy this year. At least more worthy than Andy Ference and his ever moving mouth.

And nothing is going on.
We went to church this morning and though it's only the third time we've ever been to this church, even they realized that we should be three instead of two.
So, it looks as though I've been knocked out of the pool and while I'm not surprised, it means that I'll have to get up at the same time tomorrow morning and go to work and endure one more day of all the comments. And, more importantly so will Terri.
However, the hockey game finally went my way. Yeah Lightning. Now, I'm kind of rooting for them to beat Calgary. It would be nice to see them win a cup in their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. And of course, Dave is kind of Ray Bourque part Deux. So, let's go Lightning. Game one Tuesday.

And the ongoing saga continues.
Just working around the house yesterday. I integrated new book purchases into the library and realized that, yes, I do need another set of shelves. Here's hoping that a new job follows a new son. I also just learned from Tom that Knight Rider, The A-Team, and The Dukes of Hazzard are all being released on DVD. As though I wasn't being tempted enough by what's already out there.
And, as game 7 commences again I say...Let's Go Lightning.

Nothing.
We went out shopping and walking around trying to run some last minute errands. Although last minute, seems to all be in the hands of Gage.
I guess I need to add catching up on my soap operas to my list of things to do. I haven't read or caught up on any of the story lines since November. This was brought on by something I discovered just a moment ago by channel surfing and hitting the daytime Emmys. Anna Lee passed away on May 14th. That means I was a week late hearing about it. Now, for those of you not instantly familiar with Anna, she was the uncontestable matriach of General Hospital. She's been on the show since 1978 and been amazing throughout the whole run. She was also one of the nuns in The Sound of Music. I'm sad to see her go and know how much the show and all those who knew her will miss her terribly.
In the past month we've lost three great talents. Alan King, Tony Randall, and now Anna. I'm sure they don't rank in the same categories for everyone, but they were all immensely talented in their respective fields.
Oh well, that's good enough for today or tonight. Hopefully I won't be able to post tomorrow due to pre-emptive circumstances, but at the rate things are going, I'll be here. Let's go Lightning. Home ice advantage, not ever having been this far before. Dave Andreychuk is the reigning "I've been playing forever, but haven't gotten a cup yet" player and he's fairly deserving.
And, in hockey news a little closer to home, Assistant Coach Lorne Molleken resigned to be the GM and head coach of an WHL team. And the Baby Pens are in a 1-1 series in the Eastern Conference finals for the Calder Cup.

Well I was holding off on blogging this evening hoping to have some happy hockey news. Alas, that is not the case. Simon Gagne decided he didn't want his season to end so now I have to wait til Saturday to see the Flyers go home. It will be nice for Tampa Bay to win it in front of the home crowd.
No baby yet. Not even a hint of baby. Over half the people entered in the baby pool are now cursing those left. I installed both car seats today and put the strollers in the trucks of the cars. I've also put together the little bouncy seat and the swing. The cats aren't quite sure about the bouncy seat. It has a vibrating motor attached to it. When Newbie decided to be adventurous and put a paw on the seat, I turned on the motor. They both just stared at the chair.
No news yet on the job front either. I have several resumes in for positions that I'm damn near perfect for, but I haven't heard anything yet. So, I just keep plugging along.
One thing I hadn't mentioned was my activity Tuesday evening. I started my summer classes. The one that I'm not taking over the web is called Intermediate Accounting. It's in the same classroom with the same teacher. That means in the practice test, I'll be getting every test question. I forsee another A.

Another day ticks off the calendar and another 400 hundred questions all directed towards the same topic. No, no baby yet. The due date has now come and gone. People are dropping from the pool like crazy. And still he refuses to show. Just like his dad.
We had another Doctor's appt today and the doctor, upon examination, said that there was no change. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Zero. No progress. So, now we wait another week til Tuesday and if nothing has happened yet then we have a day full of tests. (I say we, like I have something to do with it. I really mean Terri.) So, we decided to get out of the house for a little while.
Anyway, headed out to the Best Buy today and picked up Miracle and the last episode of Friends. I know I'm a consumer moron, but I did like the show. Then we went with Mitch to the Improv for open mic night. Now, you know that amateur comedians are hit or miss, mostly miss. However, two local DJ's and one local columnist were working out material for a charity event. Keep working. Keep working. Jim Krenn and Val Porter both from DVE were mildly amusing. Then the columnist was none other than this jackass. I don't know what it is about him that irks me so much. I won't spend more than 5 seconds at a time in passing thought so I've never really figured it out. I don't like his column. I don't enjoy his writing. I can't stand his little mini-rants on Fox Sports Tonight...my channel changer and mute button don't work fast enough at that point. And, his stand up wasn't even mildly amusing. He tried to play on the fact that advertising and the like aren't masters of the English language. Duh! Advertising panders to the general populous and they aren't masters of the English language. And, his weak attempt to belitte the Ford truck commercial doesn't even come close to the real live person who sat two seats away from me in a Principles of Management class and said, "Internship don't pay child support." When your example is that strong, you don't need to go any further. The six actual open mic night contestants were a wide mix. The first three were pretty funny, the last three not so much. Oh well, it was a mild distraction for Terri and these days that's pretty important. Now, we both have to head back to our respective offices tomorrow and endure another round of..."You're still here?"

Ok, it might have been a false alarm, or we might just be off to a really slow start. Anyway, up until the time she went to sleep we were still having pains every 20 minutes. I'm making this entry now, more in the interest of keeping up with my, at least once a day, blogging attempts. That way if things blow wide open tomorrow, I'm covered for a little while. Although I'm gonna be damn tired tomorrow. Hope the coffee tastes good tomorrow.

Well, I don't want to alarm anyone, but I do want to keep people updated. Terri called me this morning saying she was having pain, but it wasn't like they described contractions. So, I told her if they keep happening to call the doctor's office and ask. I'm certainly no expert in this matter at least not yet. The doctor's office said that they MIGHT be contractions. They wanted her to drink lots of water and walk around and see if anything changed. They also wanted her to start timing them. They said if they get to be under 10 minutes apart or her water breaks to call back. Well, as of this afternoon, nothing has changed. She's still having little pains every twenty minutes. So, he might be on his way or she could have had bad pizza for lunch yesterday.
In other news, I'll bet if you posted this picture in the locker room a lot more boys would work a lot harder in gym class.
Tonight is Game 5 in the Sharks/Calgary series. The game starts at 10 so hopefully I'll be there to see it. However, with the above information, I don't really know where I'll be tonight.

Well today almost got the better of me. After church, we decided to catch up with Terri's family at brunch. We got the car seat that her aunt had bought, but we also ended up spending almost all of the rest of the day with them. So, I didn't get home til almost seven and then spent the next two and a half hours finishing off the hillside. Between Friday night and today, I filled 20 33 gallon lawn bags. So, how was your weekend? Better than mine I hope. Now I just have to replace the light in the laundry room, the light switch in Gage's room, the outlet cover in Gage's room, the outlet cover in my writing room, write out the bills for the latter half of the month, mow the lawn, and on and on and on. I hope Gage likes yardwork.

Well, today was an interesting day. No yard work since it decided to rain 95% of the day. I was about 20 minutes from heading out to do a ton of shopping that we need to get done when the phone rang. Terri was mouthing to me that I needed to get ready quick and I figured that meant we got roped into spending time with her relatives. Some of them are in town this weekend for her cousin's graduation. Turns out Robyn's grandmother had had a stroke and they needed us to watch Jacob while they went to the hospital. We quickly got ready and headed out the door. We got most of the scoop over a cell phone call on the way up and found out that the family had tickets to see Dora the Explorer Live this evening and we were supposed to take Jacob. Thankfully, it turned out that Robyn's grandmother didn't have a stroke, but a blood condition that mimicked a stroke and with treatment, she'll be fine. So, not only is that good news, but they were back in time to take Jacob themselves, which made us all happy.
No news on the baby front yet, but Terri keeps hoping.
This came damn close to making me fall out of my chair laughing. If you want to be fit, stop eating the slop they're serving.
Lemieux was once again named to the Canada World Cup team. It may be the only chance I get to watch him skate as there has been no new news on the CBA front. I also can't believe that Philadelphia managed to pull even in the series again. Although if the current trend keeps up, I can watch Tampa Bay win game seven. This took me by surprise. He's not exactly one of my favorite players. I figured the least I could have done would be to egg his hospital window or something.
Hopefully the weather will be nice after church tomorrow and I'll be able to finish up the hillside. I doubt I'll make it to cutting the grass again, but you can't see to much of that from the road.

I don't know who the brain trust was that scheduled a workshop from 1-5 on a Friday afternoon. I was upset at first, but when it let out at 4 and I got a free hour, I decided it wasn't so bad. When I got home I changed clothes and headed out to do yard work. I cut about 1/3 of the hillside with a weedwacker and then proceeded to fill 9 lawn bags full of stuff. I have a lot to finish tomorrow. Then I need to work on cutting through some of the rest of the jungle. Plus, the grass needs cut again.
Once I finished with the amount of yard work that I was going to do, I took a cool shower and then grabbed the box out of my trunk. Then I proceeded to put together our christmas present from my parents. They bought us a grill. So, once I got all that together I came in the house, had some dinner and discovered that On Demand is now showing older movies. I was going to watch one of Tom's DVD's, but Monster's Ball was in the player and I just didn't think I was in the mood for that. I actually found a 40's movie called, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. I had seen it once or twice before and love the way it portrays journalism. I also noticed that Guys and Dolls was on the list too. Maybe they've realized that you can only watch 2 Fast 2 Furious so many times.

Well, it'll have to be a short post so that I can get it in on Thursday. Yeah Lightning. They are now up 2 games to 1. Hopefully, San Jose can make a comeback. And, God said...Let there be light. Well, ok we had to ditch the light, but we did manage to get electricity in Gage's room and as a by-product in my writing room.

Once the millionaire game closes this time, remind me to tell you a funny story.
There's no hockey on this evening so it's been a rough night. I think I'm having withdrawals. I don't know what I'll do if the season is locked out.
The Lightning beer giveaway has been sacked. Those responsible for the Lightning beer giveaway have been sacked. Those responsible for sacking those responsible for the Lightning beer giveaway have been sacked. They have all been replaced by Ralph the Wonder Llama.
Anyway, no kid yet and boy is Terri frustrated. I keep trying to tell her we're 5 days from the ficitional "due date" to begin with. I wouldn't expect the kid to show up early. He's from my side of the family and seriously, when have we ever shown up early for anything let alone on time.

The finale of Friends was written for 3 sets of people. 1.) The cast and crew of the television series, most of whom spent the entire 10 years on the show. 2.) The writers and creators of the show. 3.) The "faithful" fans. Why do I bring this back up? Well, it's partially due to Matt's comments on my little finale rant and it's due in part to some nostalgia from tonight's redux of the Dick Van Dyke show or the original DVD as I saw it referred to in an advertisement.
I respect Matt's opinion on just about everything (although he and I will never agree about the best Pennsylvania hockey team). In this case, however, I think (and I stress think because I'm not certain) he's only a casual fan of Friends due to dislike. A casual fan of the show has no real reason to care about the six Friends. They also had a fairly good reason to dislike the finale. It was laced with the faithful tie-ups. They didn't try to do anything unusual (although the twins gag was nice). They ended the show the way they started the show. They took a little snapshot of the six and slowly had you care about each character in turn through backstory, drama, laughter, tears, and maturing. The final show didn't try to advance any character, no one had a life changing experience (that they didn't alredy know about), no one was jailed, no one died, no one hit the lottery. It ended with a nice piece of symbolism followed by one last punch-line. It didn't end making you think that nothing else was going to happen. You kind of create the next few scenes in your head and that will probably continue to happen until Joey hits the air this fall.
Once Joey begins to air, the universe that the writers of Friends spent so long crafting (and made so few mistakes in continuity in) will gain a dramatic wormhole by dragging Joey across the country. Unless he keeps in pretty close phone contact with everyone else and gets frequent visitors, it will do the finale a great injustice.
Ok, enough rambling about a show that ended a week ago (although the finale hit store shelves today and I wonder how it sold).
On to hockey. The Flyers managed to tie their series and apparently San Jose has just fell apart. They gave up two goals in the time it took me to switch subjects and they're losing 4-1 now. That means, barring heroic play that I have yet to see from San Jose, Calgary is going to go up 2-0. I can handle either team coming out of the west, though I'd prefer San Jose. I just have to keep hoping that the Lightning come screaming back in game 3 and take control of the series once again.

Just kind of bummed out today so I'll wish good luck to the Tampa Bay Lightning who are currently down 4-0. No kid yet, but I'm sure that will change sooner than we think.

Well, this post is kind of late because of all the upgrades to blogger. Not much going on since yesterday. However, I don't want to break my streak of writing every day. Now, I just need to get some consistency in size of post and time of writing. Then I should be ready to tackle actual structured topics. As though I give a damn on the structured topic front. Anyway, that's not too important. We're basically just hanging out playing the waiting game at home trying to get all the last minute things cleaned, built, put away, taken out, or whatever needs to be done with them. Although we're still 9 actual days away from the due date babies don't seem to run on any sort of schedule that I can determine. I was able to determine the sex of the baby by using a co-worker generated form of statistics. I worked in a group with 10 people when I first started working. At this point, I'll be the fifth in the group to produce a child. The men all had boys and the women all had girls.
Alright, there is no actual system. I just got lucky in my guesses. However, there's also no rhyme or reason on the due date either. And, there's no sense in rambling on about that either. At this point I'm just ready to be able to hold him when he arrives.

Not too much in the way of stuff today. We had lunch with my parent's, uncles, and grandmother to celebrate Mother's Day. Since we were down in the area, we decided to drop off Evan's birthday gift from the end of March. Right on the ball aren't we? Evan and Bela are the two children of my old boss. She and her husband live down near my parents and we try to drop in around the kid's birthdays and Christmas. We only meant to stay for a few minutes, but a few minutes turned into almost 5 hours. We ended up leaving with all sorts of diapers and clothes that Evan has outgrown. Wendy also lent Terri a bunch of maternity clothes. I don't know what we would have done without her and Chris. In fact, all our friends have been wonderful throughout the entire pregnancy. No one can believe that it's all almost over.
I just read an e-mail that said Michael and Kim had their baby on May 3rd. Man, 2004 is the year of the child. The baby pool is rocking along. I feel like I'm running my own little bookie window.
Oh, and in other news. Tampa Bay 3 Philly 1. Picture happy dance here. One down, three to go. I can't believe I'm rooting for Tampa Bay, but as long as St. Louis can fill the net behind Robert Esche I say, Let's Go Bolts.

Well, I got the list up and heard about it almost immediately. In the comments section, you'll notice I missed the Hooters which now seems like a pretty obvious choice. I also got questions as to why I started with the Bunny Hop. That's so easy to answer. Ray Anthony used to be Ray Antonini and he was from my hometown. Now, he's not like a local celebrity. I doubt you'd find anyone in the town under the age of 50 that a.) knew he was from the town or b.) knew who he was period. But, useless knowledge is the plague of my circle of friends and that's just my little nugget for today.
I watched the series finale. I came close to tears, but didn't actually cry. The last show is hard. The publicity was overwhelming and they were already under fire for spending most of the 10th season showing "viewer favorites". However, I think they managed to put together a good show. Nowadays 50 million is a pretty good crowd. Although it all depends on where you look. I've heard numbers from 45-55. But, who cares. It's over and the hype will continue for the majority of the summer while they release the last episode on DVD a mere 5 days after the showing. And season 7 is still doing well in the markets soon to be followed by Season 8 and in September, "Joey"
Why waste all this space on a sitcom? Because over the course of 10 years of watching the show it was the closest thing to the type of writing that I wanted to see more of on TV. Tom mentioned seeing the movie Oscar on my recommendation. I saw it purely by accident and now watch it anytime I happen to catch it on cable. Over the course of the hour and a half of the movie, it has some of the best jokes and subtle writing. Other examples that leap out in my memory are M*A*S*H (the TV series) and Radioland Murders.
Seinfeld was supposed to be a show about nothing and that sounds like the purest concept and I thought for sure I would love it. Anyone who knows me knows what's coming next. I can't stand Seinfeld. Each and every one of the characters annoyed me by being vapid, shallow, and completely lacking in any intelligence whatsoever. Okay, the show was supposed to be like that, but that didn't mean that the writing had to follow suit. Even the Dukes of Hazzard, which is supposed to be a backwoods, small town, hick show had smarter writing than Seinfeld. That's one of the reasons why movies made out of books or remakes of old songs, movies, or TV shows also have to pass a close scrutiny for me. I've been called a purist and our California (soon to be Michigan) readership says that nobody hates stars like I do. And both crowds are probably right. I came out of the first and second Harry Potter movies saying words that the children around me weren't supposed to hear. To take books that had that much hype and butcher them the way that they did is just crushing to an aspiring writer. I know that in the back of my mind on occasion I don't want to have a popular piece of fiction on the market because there's a chance it might get hacked to pieces. Alright, enough rambling for tonight. The cable people are visiting yet again tomorrow which is a story that I don't even want to get into right now. Maybe I'll be reminded of it later on.
Now, I've seen this on both Craig and Diane's blogs. It's a question and answer session. Craig uses three questions. Diane uses five questions. I'll be average and use four. So, ask any four questions in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer as quickly as possible.

Ok, after reading Dek's latest post, I decided to see just how hard it would be to come up with 30 songs by Pa. artists. In no particular order, here they are. Feel free to comment as you'd like

1. The Bunny Hop- Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
2. Penny On The Floor- The Clarks
3. Send Me On My Way- Rusted Root
4. Catch A Falling Star- Perry Como
5. Roses Are Red- Bobby Vinton
6. One Last Time- Dusty Drake
7. The Pink Panther Theme- Henry Mancini
8. Oh, Susanna- Stephen Foster
9. It's Such A Good Feeling- Fred Rogers
10. Parent's Just Don't Understand- DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
11. Wild Wild West- Will Smith
12. Mickey- Toni Basil
13. The Twist- Chubby Checker
14. Lightning Strikes- Lou Christie
15. Turn Me Loose- Fabian
16. I Love Rock 'n' Roll- Joan Jett
17. Nothin' My Love Can't Fix- Joey Lawrence
18. Volare- Bobby Rydell
19. Ain't No Mountain High Enough- Tammi Terrell
20. Sentimental Journey- Les Brown and his Band of Renown
21. Time In A Bottle- Jim Croce
22. Born Too Late- Scott Blasey
23. I Alone- Live
24. Beautiful- Christina Aguilera
25. Motownphilly- Boyz II Men
26. Head Like A Hole- Nine Inch Nails
27. On The Sunny Side Of The Street- Tommy Dorsey
28. Runaround- Blues Traveller
29. Every Rose Has It's Thorn- Poison
30. Can't We Try- Teddy Pendergrass
and a bonus
31. Bang The Drum All Day- Todd Rundgren
Now, it took me a little longer than I expected to compile the list, but there it is. I'm not saying I agree with all 31 choices, but they are all Pa artists in some form or another. And, that's probably enough blogging for today or at least enough typing. I may get to the whole ending of Friends, etc, etc a little later. Now, it's time to get the hell out of work.

Ok, there were probably quite a few things that went through my mind to blog about today. However, it's late and there are only two things that I can remember off the top of my head. Jessica Simpson's new version of Berlin's Take My Breath Away is, um, horrible. And, at least the baby Pens are doing well. They beat the Philadelphia Phantoms 5-4 in the first game of their series in the Calder Cup playoffs. And, the news seems to think that Mario Lemieux's status if there is a next season is a go! Woo-Hoo!

Today's post will be one of the short posts that I was talking about. I may post more later. How about the Flames? Knocking off a number 3 seed and a number 1 seed. And Detroit makes it's second quick exit from the playoffs in as many years. Wonder how secure Dave Lewis's job is now? I wasn't rooting for one team over the other, but it's a shame to see Robert Lang and Brett Hull go home early. And, after his comments made post-trade, I guess I was rooting against Andy Ference.
Hopefully the hockey action tonight will benefit me. I'd like to see San Jose close out the series against Colorado. I have nothing against Colorado and I like Tony Granato as a head coach and Rick Tocchet as an assistant coach, but I gotta go with the Sharks. And, it's no secret that Toronto needs to force a game seven and then whip the pants off of Philly. (sorry Matt) Philadelphia has advanced far enough. I don't think my head could handle a Tampa Bay/Philly conference final. It's already trying to comprehend how Tampa got there.
Anyway, I had my last Management test last night and aced it. I have my last accounting test tonight. I don't even have the will to study, but I do need to get a decent grade to keep my A. Wow, am I turning into a student or what?

Even if I just get on to say hello and goodbye I want to attempt a post of some sort every day. Why, you may ask? Well I recently had an interview for a writing position. It's been so long since I've had one of those I had to comb back through my portfolio and update it with new work, but more importantly go back and review old work. One of my old pieces was an interview with Robert Olen Butler when he was promoting Tabloid Dreams. One of the things that he said in that interview was that a writer has to write every day. If you aren't prepared to write every day then you shouldn't be a writer. This is something that kind of struck a nerve with me since I do purport myself to be somewhat of a writer. So, even though this is certainly not what Mr. Butler had in mind, it's a small start for me and for now I'll have to be happy with that.
Saturday May 22nd on QVC...Cure by the Shore is a huge sale on sunglasses with all net proceeds going to MS research. For those of you that don't know, this is a cause that is very near to me. My cousin Kathy passed away in December from MS related complications, Robyn is also affected with the disease as is Brian's mom. Terri and I walk in the MS walk every year (although this year Terri had to cut the walk a little shorter) Apparently 8 months of baby and 5 miles don't mix.
That's about all for this evening. One more blog to go and I'll be all caught up.

This morning somewhere between the ass crack of dawn and way too damn early to be mobile, the cats decided to fight. Not too much of a problem on the surface. However, they decided to fight on the windowsill at the head of the bed. They managed to make it sound as though someone was pounding on the window which for some reason snapped me to attention. It also snapped something in my neck which I haven't been able to move without pain all day. I can look right without too much of a problem, but don't stand on my left side.
That combined with the rain today made sure that I couldn't get outside for any more yard work. I guess it's just as well. I have enough stuff that needs to be done inside the house. I also have a test Monday night and Tuesday night.
We're almost completely done with the baby's room. I just need to get the electricity up and running from the wall outlet, but since I can run an extension cord off the ceiling light, I'm not overly concerned right away. Especially since he'll be bunking in the bassinet in our room for at least the first month. Terri arranged most of the stuffed animals in the "jumbo" net in his room and she'll probably finish up the rest either later tonight or tomorrow.
And, outside of the fact that neither of the sporting events went my way and we went had another interesting church experience today wasn't too bad. Stuff around the house got done as mentioned above and it was a mostly relaxing day which is something that I'm fast running out of.

Well, in four and a half hours and a lot of back and forth, I managed to get my lawn mowed today. Oh well, I guess it's true. The first cut is the deepest. Sorry, couldn't resist.
Anyway, I want to know why instructions have to be written (and I use that term loosely) in a fashion that not only guarantees that no one will read them, but if someone does happen to try, they won't understand them. They are trying to shrink them to smaller sizes and the other day I put something together that only had pictures and it looked as though my directions were photocopied from the original.
I had a professional writing professor in college who decided that my approach to the mousetrap instructions that we were supposed to create didn't serve any useful function and I was told to stick to the status quo. If the status quo isn't working, shouldn't it be changed? I'm beginning to feel as though I'm the only sane person on the planet.
Anyway, time to work on some other projects around the house that will invariably require me to read some sort of instructions.

Well, since I'm easing back into this slowly, I'll try to keep the entries short and sweet as well. That means that I probably won't gear up to full hockey rants til about the Finals. However, I will say that I'm glad the Leafs are finally working out their agressions on Philly. Let's Go Leafs!
Since the California contingency caught me on-line, I was reminded that I should probably inform people that hell hasn't frozen over and to date I have no viable offspring. However, the day is fast approaching with a super scary emphasis on fast.
Two quick commercial notes. I would never even remotely think of putting a bottle or can of Coors Light to my lips even if it meant dying of thirst, but damn they have funny commercials. Wingdog gets a nice nod. And my other new favorite is the DQ burger commercial where the guy ends up setting fire to his entire office. Maybe it's just because I've thought of doing that without eating jalapeno bacon and tabasco sauce. I've covered 2 1/2 blogs of the ones that I list on my site and I'm still continuing to plow through them. I wanted to finish them this weekend, but unless God sends extreme rain conditions I have to work in my yard. Anyone who's seen the house knows that it's out of hand on a good day and I have yet to touch it this spring.
And I would wish myself a happy one year of blogging, but since I basically blew off the last, almost two months, I'll just pride myself on returning to the world of blogging.

I'm in the midst of so many projects that listing them all would just simply create a new project for me. Over the past day or so I'm slowly starting to get caught up on everyone's blogs. I can't believe all the good hockey talk on Craig's blog that I could have been a part of. However, slowly but surely I will return to the world of blog. Although in three weeks or so that may all change again.

Well it's been several days since I was writing last and sadly enough I have nothing to really say. So, other than to just see some words on the web, today's entry is just a slight recap of the last few days. Tuesday was Cole's first Penguins game so now I've been to Jacob's first Penguin game and Cole's first penguin game. And, hopefully I'll be able to make my son's first Penguin game. The game was actually a pretty good one. The Penguins came from behind to tie it up and that's the way it ended after overtime. 3-3.
Wednesday night we headed to the Rhythm House in Bridgeville to see Lindsy's band. The sound guy (not their normal person) was horrific. The first set sounded like it was being done by a third grader using his dad's broken equipment in the room above a garage with the furnace banging and clanging and the wind howling through the cracked windowpane. And that doesn't even include the outside noise of the police sirens and firetrucks showing up at the house in question because the neighbor thought cats were being tortured and set on fire. After much deliberation and wire switching on his part, he finally managed to get it together for the second half and the band was excellent as usual.
Thursday we were back in the arena and watched the Pens have a nice 9-4 meltdown against Nashville. I understand that Nashville wants to keep the playoff spot it currently has, but they didn't have to rub it in. Chiodo had a very off night and I'm not sure I understand what rationale Edzo was following leaving him in there for the whole game. We had an interesting dinner before the game too. Ask Terri and Amy about the pie if you get a chance.
Thursday I also had to don a suit and tie for the office and teach an internal workshop class to all of my co-workers. I had to break the news to them ever so gently that they were not only making mistakes, but making them more frequently and to a larger degree. Then I had to explain the right way to do things. Ton of fun, let me tell you. Now I know what some of my teachers went through when I was in their class.
Today has been a return to boring. I've been playing phone tag with a gentlemen since Tuesday. Hopefully I can catch up with him on Monday. I think 4:30 on a Friday is a little too late to try and talk shop.
I think we're headed to see Lindsy's band again tonight. Although this place is a lot further away and in the middle of back woods nowhere. Ahh, a return to my roots. And, don't let them kid you it's the same story for Dwight Tom Joe.

Have no fear, I will be back to reading and writing soon. And, let's go Pens!

The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! Ok, maybe not the Stanley Cup, maybe not even a spot in the playoffs, but they won a game. After going 0-17-0-1 it was a long time coming. It was kind of nice that we got to stick it to Wayne Gretzky's club, which is always nice.
Topics around the office today include the suspension of, what I consider to be, a morning annoyance on the Pittsburgh airwaves. I look for music in the morning and this guy didn't have it, therefore, I don't listen to him. And now thanks to Clear Channel communication, I don't even have to worry about accidentally listening to him. And, while this borders on censorship (a nice hot topic for me) I'm still willing to let it slide since it indirectly benefits me.
I also saw this article about another celebrity that I don't personally care for. And, it has nothing to do with her impending marriage. She lost me completely when she blindsided Tom Selleck on her show. Tom is one of the nice guys of Hollywood (at least in my opinion--he traveled over 3,000 miles to a funeral) and didn't deserve what he got. Now, I could go on and on with the list of celebrities that piss me off, but why bother. They aren't worth the time or the effort. Although, if there is any justice, every copy of the newly ruined version of this old favorite will spontaneously combust and then sweep up it's own ashes, and combust again.
Not much else is going on. I started checking out some job sites today and there are a couple that might actually hold my interest. I'll have to keep you posted. For now, that's about all. This is me, having never worn a skirt, signing off.

Yesterday was pretty good. We got to the ultrasound and they prepped Terri and started showing images. The technician took a bunch of measurements and then started on the pictures that they wanted to capture. They wanted a nice 3D picture of his face, but he was sleeping with his chin tucked down and to the side. So the technician decided she was going to jiggle him awake. She started bouncing the wand up and down on Terri's stomach. Watching the television monitor I could see him being jostled around. Finally, he decided that was enough. He shook his head, pulled back his leg and kicked Terri right in the ribs. It was so funny watching him. He's going to be just like his dad. Grouchy in the mornings and God help the person that has to wake him up. We got a cool 3D picture of part of his face.
The woman here at work became a grandmother for the first time yesterday when her son and his girlfriend had a little boy and her daughter is due the week before Terri. So, in the matter of 3 months she'll be a grandmother twice over. She's very happy. I hope our parents are that excited when the little one shows up.
I have finished 4 versions of my resume so if anyone hears of a good position, let me know so I can zip off the appropriate version.
The stupidity of some people just baffles me and let's leave it at that.

Ever notice the fact that when you actually have the will power to get something done, there's always that one little piece that someone else holds that prevents you from finishing what you started. Case in point, my resume. I'm almost completely done, but I'm waiting on someone in the tech department to give me the actual name of the financial accounting software we use in-house. It's all just sitting there waiting on that last bit of information before I can start zinging it out to other people.
Friday night on the drive down to Maryland, the Pens dropped another one to Florida and then Sunday they lost yet again to Ottawa. On the plus side, everything went well to Maryland, in Maryland, and from Maryland. The U-haul that we had apparently snapped what little shocks it had left somewhere around the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. So, everytime we had a slight wind, a car passing, or a curve to go through the truck rocked like a boat. Ray and I thought we were going to get seasick at one point. It reminded me of my old Cavalier that I had in high school. It had no shocks and would continue to bounce a mile or so after a big pothole.
Robin is mostly moved in. We had so much help in Pa. that it took less than an hour to unload the entire truck. After that we started assembling things like we were a squad of professional movers. So, by the time we left her apartment, she had the big stuff pretty much situated and in place. Now she has a week or so to get settled before she starts her new job over with Mark, Ray, and Diane.
Management class this evening. Hopefully he'll be in a good mood and let us go early tonight. I could use some time at home to get stuff straightened out after spending most of the weekend in Maryland and the rest hanging out with Mitch and Tom. We played Texas Hold 'Em and I cleaned house. When you're playing poker with Tom, make sure to look at your cards everytime you bet or think about betting. He'll take it as a sign you're holding nothing and bet big. Twice during the game yesterday I came up with straights. It felt kind of nice considering my usual luck with Poker. Then Tom and I got stomped at Euchre by Terri and Mitch. Oh well, time to go. Tomorrow is an off-day because of the doctor so you may see an update you may not.

I came to the realization today that if I don't blog about the abusive atmosphere at work, I have very little to talk about these days. Terri has another ultrasound next week, but other than that, there's no new news on the baby front (we do still have the name thing, but Matt is very stubborn)
I'm just pushing time once again til the end of the day. This is a bad habit and one that I don't want to keep up. Once I get the resume polished, I can at least slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job and have no resume to send, although if I find a good job, I'll be pressured into finishing the resume, which means that I can slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job...well you see where it's going.
I'll miss actually watching the Pens game tonight unless we can find some sort of sports bar or something mid-way through the trip. I'll get the scores on my phone, but tonight is the critical game 17. They've lost 16 in a row and 17 will tie them for the all-time NHL losses in a row record or however you want to state that. Maybe they'll win because I'm not watching. Who knows? Chiodo played fairly well against the Islanders, but with no defense in front of him, he was left hanging a couple of times. Although with the way things are going no one deserves any excuses. Maybe Edzo should run the Brooks drill until a few of these guys starting puking. I'd be willing to see anything tried at this point.

Alright, made actual progress on my resume today. I'll have to finish it up tonight when I get back from my parent's house. That way I'll be able to head to Maryland with a semi-clean slate. Which means that in addition to finishing my resume tonight I'll have to pack for Maryland. I'll only be there overnight. We (Tom, Ray, and I) are helping Robin move back to Pittsburgh. She worked with us at Lycos and now she's going to work with Diane, Mark, and Ray over at the company they work for.
Other than that, not much is going on today. Since Matt won't release his information, I'm still not releasing mine. Although I will say that I felt him kick the other day. That was a weird experience. He's been kicking Terri for quite a while now, but this was the first time that I could feel him from the outside. Kind of made the whole thing just a little more real.

There were a bunch of articles that I was going to link up today, but I'm too lazy and it's getting too late in the day. It was another typical day at work. I need to clear time in my schedule to finish up my resume. I need to get the hell out of here long before the baby comes and the "long" part of that sentence grows shorter every day. I don't exactly want to leave orientation to drive to the hospital for labor pains. This week it's kind of desolate around here after 4:00. The supervisor's been leaving early and the older workers who get here at ungodly hours are gone by 4:00. And two of the other regulars aren't here today which means that once again, I'm just pushing time til 5:00 and getting myself out of here.
I wish there was some sort of reset button for parts of my life. If I'm playing a video game, there's usually an option to restart the board or level or whole game. What if life had that? I could restart my college career and give a damn this time. I could restart my actual career and find a stable industry with a good paying job and coworkers. Perhaps I could even go as far as to restart my bicycle riding career and opt not to fly down the big red-dog road and lose part of two of my teeth. But then if I did that there might be a ripple effect and who knows where I'd end up. With the exception of the fact that my job neither appreciates me nor pays me enough to exist, my life is fairly good. I've got a pretty wife who loves me, a family who teases me incessantly, (wait, how is that good?), wonderful friends who incessantly tease me (are you starting to see a pattern?), and I've had some kick-ass co-workers over my much whined about career path. And let's not forget my son who is set to make his appearance in exactly 3 months from today. Ok, nothing is exact and he'll show up when he damn well wants to, but you get the picture. Oh well, time to shut down the computer and get the hell out of dodge or chevy.

Well, yesterday's test went well. I didn't get a hundred, but 97.5 is pretty close. I was disappointed. I wanted excellence. It's hard to be as arrogant as I am without excellence. And, if the rest of the tests in this class go like this one did, my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class will do just fine. And, I'll share it with you here because no one else will believe me, but this is an actual question from my test yesterday.
Management By Objectives (MBO)
a.) was popularized by the writings of England
b.) is an operational objective for ROI
c.) requires mutual goal setting by employees and their supervisor
d.) is Phase 3 of the gnomes' plan for success
e.) is a premium channel offered by TCI
I told the professor that if he had used Phase 2 instead of Phase 3 that's the answer I would have chosen. Everyone knows Phase 3 is Profit. Now, not all the questions were that easy, but that one just threw me. I've never had a professor use South Park in class before. He claims that it's the best show on television, but has yet to share his reason.
Anyway, enough about the test. I was just surprised about the ease of it all.
Not much else is going on around here. I need to take my tax forms down to my parents so they can drop them off at the accountants and he can tell me what mistake we made in favor of the government this year. And, I guess it might be nice if we actually tell our parents what name we chose for the little one. Though I could just tell them that Matt ruined it for everyone. I need to know if I have my goalie, dammit!

This weekend turned out ok, I guess. Friday night we headed out to play pool with Mitch and Tom. Tom and I beat Mitch and Terri just about every game.
Saturday was the sacchrine sweet holiday of Valentine's Day. I think Terri and I said Happy Valentine's Day in the morning and that was the extent of it for the rest of the day. We didn't even exchange cards. My Uncle Donny and Aunt Lu came down to visit their son (my cousin) who lives near Oakland. They had been reading through some old stuff on the city and decided that they wanted to eat at Primanti Brothers in the Strip District. I had forgotten how crowded the Strip District was on a Saturday afternoon. The sandwiches were good though. Sunday started the "Nextel" Cup Season. That will take some getting used to. The big one this year involved last year's winner Michael Waltrip. And, since DEI dominates the restrictor plate races that left Junior to step up and claim his first Daytona 500 win. It took his dad 20 years to win the Daytona 500. Junior did it in 5. He also made a really nice move around Tony Stewart to take the lead with about 30 laps or so to go.
Now, to clarify Friday's statements...I don't immediately assume that the kid with the 3 feet of boxers is an idiot (well, ok, in my head I do). The person that set this whole rant into motion was actually in the outer office. I never saw him. I only heard him. He might have had on a 3 piece suit complete with gold cufflinks and a leather briefcase. Or, he might have been the guy with the red mohawk. However, instead of stating his problem calmly and quietly, his voice kept escalating. Then he started tossing around the phrase, "You are disrespecting me. I have never been so disrespected in my life." He came here with some sort of a problem and when the solution presented to him was not satisfactory, he resorted to screaming and yelling about his lack of respect. My point was that I could never see someone like King or even Ford screaming that phrase. If boxer boy walked into the office with the same problem, calmly explained what he needed the solution to be and then not finding the solution to his liking simply said, "I'll be taking this up with your superiors." He would have earned a lot more of my respect. The guy that was actually in the office headed for the elevators saying that the supervisor here was, "a fuckin' shriveled old hag." Now, that's a lack of respect.
So, that counters what I actually meant. Although I do make snap judgements based on clothing, etc. I don't let that interfere with the interaction between our office and the customer. And Buntz, I feel your pain. When I did the tour of duty through fast-food, etc. I was treated like crap. I was actually taunted because I wouldn't work during the week because of college. However, I look at this office to be a little more grown up. Just slightly.
And, to jump on Matt's comment, I think the parents that felt they had it rough need to explain to their children why they felt that way. Terri's little cousins each have their own TV's and Playstation 2's and VCR's, etc. in their bedroom. They are just slightly this side of spoiled, but most of the time you wouldn't know it because her Aunt does a decent job of parenting. I would like my children to have a better (no that's not the right word) easier time than I did, but I don't want to hand them everything and a platinum credit card. Just my two dollars I guess.
Tonight's my first test in several years. I actually cracked the books for this one, albeit just slightly. I didn't think my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class would cut it this time. Though, it used to work pretty damn well. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Today has been the longest day on record in a while. I can't even do constructive slacking. I'm clock watching which is something that I usually don't do. I'm so damn bored, I don't even have anything substantial to blog about. The Valentine's day party in the office went well, I guess. There was a ton of food and people ate from 8:30 in the morning til, well, they're still eating now. I watched them demolish almost an entire sheet cake. There isn't even enough left to cover a plate to take home.
There was also a nice argument out at the front desk area. There was a younger kid screaming about how he was disrespected. I'm trying to figure out where I missed the boat on this one. The generation below me (God, that makes me feel old) seems to feel this sense of entitlement. And, I can't for the life of me, figure out where they got that idea. I was taught that respect was something you earned through your words and actions. Martin Luther King, Jr. commanded respect because of his principles and ideals. The young kid on the street with his jeans down somewhere around his knees and boxers up to his nipples (which are pierced of course) just doesn't hold the same standard to me. And yet, King never demanded respect the way that kids do. He had earned his respect and was very humble about it.
And, even those that aren't as humble about their station in life still have a backing for their arrogance. Harrison Ford could probably walk in somewhere and pull the "Do you know who I am?" ploy that would generate his respect and get away with it. Again, same kid on the street corner, probably doesn't even know his own full name can't get away with it, but he thinks he can. Ford is probably a bad example, because once again, he's pretty unassuming about the whole fame thing. If anyone else out there has any clue about where I went wrong on this one, feel free to let me know.

Since Terri and I had decided on a name yesterday, I was going to announce it here today, but Matt ruined that for everyone.

Today is more of the same. The office is having a Valentine's Day party tomorrow. Everyone is supposed to bring in some sort of Valentine's colored food. Being the office cake maker, I'm supposed to come up with a red-velvet cake with red, white, and pink icing. Sounds like a fun Thursday night. I'd prefer to just sit and watch the Pens game with a woodchuck in one hand and my management textbook in the other. Why the textbook, you ask? I have a test on Monday evening. I haven't had a test in a long time. Makes me wonder if I remember how to take them. I still have about 2 1/2 chapters to cover for the test. I guess reading the material beforehand is probably a good idea.
The job is still the job. They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I wish I could find the fence to discover this for myself.
Oh well, I'm not going to get bogged (or blogged...hehehe) down in that discussion again. I've decided I'm going to be more positive about my life. Ok, not really, but I can try. I don't remember which comedian said it, but hopefully this is true. "If all the good and bad times in my life balance, I'm gonna have one hell of an adult life."
Not to say that my childhood was bad, on the contrary it was rather good. It's been my professional life that has wreaked havoc over everything else. I always seem to work at a mediocre job with really nice people. Mabye I need mediocre people to go with a really nice job.
Looking back over the past few weeks, I've noticed that I tend to stick to the same three topics...baby, hockey, and work and not necessarily in that order. I think that means I need to get out and do a little more with my life. Except that that requires money and money requires a better job (see the sinkhole forming?). Today is finally almost over. You know it's been a long week when you're having difficulty slacking off. I did watch the leaderboards for the 125's at Daytona today. Junior won the first one and Eliott Sadler won the second one. The rest of the people stacked up pretty much where you'd imagine. Although newcomer Brian Vickers (who did fairly well at the end of last year) finished very poorly in the second 125. Hopefully his owner will have some provisional points to get him into the race. I guess that means since Nascar is starting back up I'll have a new topic. Whoopee! My life is a thrill-a-minute. Ok, enough bitterness for today.

At least the ads at the top of the page are getting better. Today anyway.

It's almost painful how much the day drags on when you not only dislike your job, but have reason to leave it. It's also a little difficult to job hunt while in your current position. Makes me wish I was still in my old office, but then again if I was still in my old office, I might not have reason to job hunt. What a nice vicious cycle. I guess that means I'll have to find some more non-existent time at home. I wonder if I could go insane by reason of insanity? The Pens dropped another one to the Bruins last night. I don't understand it. They stayed with them almost the entire game. Ryan Malone had 2 goals and probably could have gotten a hat-trick if they would have pushed a little more.
I don't know. It seems as though I rarely have any good news to post here. In about three months my son will make a grand entrance into the world. Seems like good news on the surface, but we have no furniture, no name, no daycare (or money to pay for daycare), and a very non-child conducive house. Everyone keeps saying it will all work out. Maybe if I lay odds and take action on that statement I will have enough money to make it all work.
Oh well, enough with the negativity. Tomorrow is a better day, right? It would have to be otherwise that's going to make today look awful tempting to return to.
I'm midway through the second of 5 parenting books that I've acquired through various means during the course of this pregnancy. One has been very good, this one is so-so. I hope the others pick up or I'll be really bummed by the time the kid makes his way into the world. Oh well, there I go being negative again. I guess it's time to sign off.

Well, I am officially on the hunt for a new location now. And, by location, I mean job. I took this University gig with the understanding that it was going somewhere, hopefully profitable. Two years later (and about three months from baby) I have yet to see any promise. They've been dangling a promotion in front of me for about 8 months now and I can't see them closing the deal anytime soon. And, even if they did I'm not sure the trust is still there for me to work in this environment. I like to be comfortable where I work. I like knowing that I can count on the people around me and I'm sure they like knowing that they can count on me. I don't really have that here anymore. I used to think the internet world was a little backstabbing. They have nothing on University life. The politics games around here fly thicker, faster, and heavier than a WMD discussion at the Iowa caucus. So, if you know of anything in the Pittsburgh area let me know. About the only thing I can't do is write code. And, I'm going by the Jerry Maguire philosophy..."Show me the money." It's kind of like a family motto at this point. I'm reworking my resume as we speak (or as you read) and I'll be sending them out til I find something better or at the very least more profitable. So, if you know of anything please drop me a line.

Miracle was one of the few movies for me recently that lived up to the hype for me. I'll admit that knowing so much about the team, Herb Brooks, and the games took a little of the suspense out of it, but that's about all that disappointed. I could have done with more "Brookisms" The only one that they used in the movie was "The legs feed the wolf, boys." There's not a whole lot of plot to give away. I think most everyone knows how it turns out. It was kind of hard to see the dedication to Herb at the end of the movie. He was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me very hard, almost like Herb was a distant member of my own family. Granted, I'm not from Minnesota and never met Herb personally. I think the closest I came to Herb was sitting several levels away in the arena when he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins. But, he still meant a lot to the game of hockey and more specifically, the American game of hockey. Watching the movie on Sunday made me realize that all the more. America sunk all their trust into Herb Brooks and those kids and they paid them back in spades. Kurt Russell came pretty damn close to making me believe that he was Herb Brooks. I'm glad he cared enough for the movie and the game of hockey to take it so seriously. Kurt is one of those celebrities that you see at the All-Star games and this year was no exception. He was there hyping the movie, but he was also there as a fan.
Which brings me to the other topic of the weekend. The All-Star break. Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik did pretty well in the Young Stars game. Ryan had a nice goal even though the East didn't pull it out amongst the Young Stars. The skills competition was pretty typical and even though I can't stand Philadelphia, I had no choice but to be impressed when Jeremy Roenick went 4 for 4 on the shooting accuracy drill. The East dominated the skills competition and then won the game surprising me. Usually the West is faster and more skilled or so it always seems. It was sad to have the Penguins shut out of the All-Star game, but they'll be dominate in a few years with the young talent that they've accumulated.

Why is motivation such a driving force in what makes the world go 'round? Why isn't motivation just some hidden source that I can tap into like the inner strength that David Banner tried to find? I could even deal with the freak motivation accident where when I get angry I organize everything in sight. And why, when I actually find motivation, does it leave me at the same time every day...week...etc.?
Did I mention that I have no motivation to finish out the work day? I am geared up to see Miracle this weekend. I don't think I'm going to be a geek and rush out and see it tonight (although if I was a super-geek I would have tracked down the sneak preview last weekend). However, it is about hockey and the underdog and Herb Brooks and you gotta love that. So, Terri and I, and whomever else wishes to attend will pack into some theater, probably on Saturday to witness the Miracle once again.
Part of me wishes that my parent's had watched that particular Olympic game back in February of 1980. I would have been a little over 5 and I have other memories from right around there. I remember people talking about the 4th Superbowl win by the Steelers and the World Series win by the Pirates (both being the last time they won the big trophy). Alas, my parents were not sports fans, so I'm guessing that we were probably watching something like the Love Boat or Fantasy Island instead. Such is life. Perhaps one day my son will look back and wonder why I didn't give a damn about football or basketball or baseball or boxing or...well you get the picture.
Terri's been pressuring for a name and she brings it up right in the middle of ESPN Classic's coverage of the 1980 Miracle team. For some reason Herb, Eruzione, and Brooks didn't get the nod. Guess I'll have to keep trying.

Ok, so I didn't bother with the other set of steps last night. I didn't do much of anything last night. I sat around, watched Magnum, PI., Jeopardy, Friends, My Wife and Kids, and Little Big League. Then I took NyQuil and went to bed. Eventful night, huh? Geek night is tonight and I'm headed down with Tom to see if there are greener pastures somewhere else. I'd hate to change jobs this close to baby time, but if I see something good, I'll take it.
Not much else is going on around here. Craig, Joe, and I'm guessing Tom have all done the states I visited map. I would do one, but it would pale in comparison to theirs. I haven't even been in half of the States and Joe only has 5 more to go. Though, I can't believe for all the places he's been he's never hit Florida. That still amazes me. I guess because I've been there 4 times. Ok, here it is. I told you it was sad.


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
I've hit a lot of east coast stuff, but never seem to hit west of the Mississippi much. Maybe we'll take baby on a whirlwind US tour to fill out the remaining states.

Well let's see. I survived my first two class sessions. One good, the other not so much. The Principles of Management class seems like a decent class, though most of the stuff is going to be review for me I think. The Financial Accounting "Professor" stumbles over his words and makes it clear that he's only there because they are paying him to be there. Wonder how he acts in his day job. I'm fairly certain I can ace both classes. I can drop my lowest test score in the Management class. I haven't been in a classroom where I could drop my lowest score in at least 11 years.
I would mention the Penguins, but it hurts too much. They seem to be playing a little better, they just can't seem to close. I'm gearing up to go see Miracle this weekend. Maybe that will make me feel better about hockey in general. And, there's always the All-Star game and skills competition. Although since none of the Penguins will be there, I have no one to root for. I certainly wouldn't want to cheer on a Flyer or a Ranger.
We've now set dates for Terri's baby shower, Alison's baby shower, Robin's move to Pittsburgh, and Lamaze class. Just when I thought I was going to get to relax. Such is life I guess. And, we still have no name, no crib, etc. I don't even want to think about the amount of work left to do in the house. And, the past couple days, I haven't felt very good which is due to a combination of man vs. nature as I worked to clear off the steps and sidewalks for the party. Adam and Tom did help towards the end. I still need to deal with the other steps leading up from the house. Maybe I'll look into tackling that tonight. And then again, maybe I won't.

Not much to say today. The superbowl party went well. Although all the guys that wanted to order the lingerie bowl actually missed out on the real entertainment. Such is life I guess. What I take from this experience comes directly from the commentator of the Lingerie Bowl. "With all the injuries, these girls are gonna have to play both ways." DEK will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but that sentence was said with total sincerity.
There were about 12 or so people there and we got a phone call from the California constituent. Other than that, things were pretty normal. I watched little to none of the game, saw some of what they called the better commercials and ate a lot of food.
Adam has departed for Philly and things are moving slowly at work today. I'm already tired beyond belief and I have 4 hours of class tonight. I hope I can make it to the weekend intact so that I can sleep.