Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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Monday, January 26, 2009

I'm Tellin' All Y'all

The quick version:
1) letting the cousins play together is fun
2) three and a half hours of sleep is not enough
3) family get-togethers always seem to involve some drama
4) singing "Sabotage" on Rock Band is lots of fun

The long version:
What a weekend! We had Dina's sister and brother and their families to our house for a Christmas in January. Friday was all about getting the house cleaned and ready. On Saturday morning, Dina's sister Gretchen and her husband and two boys came over. Their contribution to the weekend was an ENORMOUS EIGHTEEN POUND HAM. We'd managed to borrow a big roaster from a friend, so thankfully we didn't have to heat up the whole house to cook that thing. A little while later, Dina's brother Guy and his wife showed up. They brought a bunch of food, so we got all the food put away and started playing video games and hanging out. The games of the weekend were Mario Kart Wii and Rock Band. Good times! That afternoon almost everyone headed out of the house to see Guy's daughter sing in a choir performance. I stayed at home with Rohan (who was napping) and Griffin (who was sorely in need of a nap). I put Griffin down for his nap, and found myself with a very quiet house. My brain made a noise that in text looks much like this: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. That's mostly a huge exhaling relaxing sigh, but it's also a bit of a scream from fear of the unfamiliar. Anyway, with my chunk of free time I watched this week's Battlestar Galactica on my Macbook Pro in glorious Standard Def. (I tried a 720p version, but neither Quicktime nor VLC would play it.) Great episode - not as good as last week's, but still pretty good. Later everyone came home, we ate lots of ham, and played lots of video games (mostly the kids), and the kids opened up their presents. Toys, toys, toys, toys! It always amazes me how generous everyone is. That night, everyone stayed at our place except Gretchen and her husband, who went back to their place (their boys stayed at our place, though). It was a pretty late night...I think I turned in at about 2:30.

At 6:00 Rohan woke up and would not go back to sleep. Ugh. So I was up with him for a while before anyone else got up. I did manage to doze a little, but it was a rough morning. When everyone else was up we had our breakfast, which was make-your-own belgian waffles, and made-to-order omelettes by Guy's wife. Yum! Dina was making coffee drinks, too, which was delicious.

There was some drama when Gretchen and her husband didn't come back when we thought they would. (It wouldn't be a family get-together without drama.) We called them to see what was up and to basically say, "hey, you need to come watch your kids," and Gretchen's husband got VERY offended, to the point where he called and swore at my wife. Not cool. So he stayed home, Gretchen came over, and we got over it by playing Rock Band with the volume cranked and drinking homebrew (my Power Pack Porter turned out very good). I sang "Sabotage" (by the Beastie Boys, of course) which was a ton of fun and good stress relief. Dina played the drums a lot; I think she needed to hit things. I don't blame her! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and the rest of the day was spent hanging out, watching some DVDs, playing more video games, and playing with the kids. It was exhausting, but fun overall.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What a year it's been

Last weekend was a doozy. Dina had a Creative Memories retreat from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, so I was in charge of the three boys. Luckily, my mom came up to help out. What made the weekend tricky was that Caden and Rohan had separation anxiety and had a really tough time getting to sleep without Dina there. Dina actually ended up coming back home on Friday night because she forgot a few things, so the babies clung to her while she was home. Saturday was spent pretty much just hanging out around the house. Griffin played a lot of Mario Kart Wii with Grandma. It just cracks me up how much he loves to play that game, and how well he does, considering he's only three and a half years old.

Saturday night was a really long night. Dina wasn't around, so the boys were distraught again. My mom and I took shifts staying up with them, as they'd only sleep for about an hour at a time. They both woke me up at 5 a.m., and since I had nothing else to do and no one else was awake, I watched the newest Battlestar Galactica episode. WOW! That was one powerful and perfectly done episode. I can't wait for the remaining episodes of the season as the series winds to a close.

The rest of Sunday was spent getting the house ready for the party that evening. Oh, did I mention Caden and Rohan's birthday was on the 19th? Yay! We had a little party with family on Sunday night to celebrate. I still can't believe it's already been a year since Dina and I made the late-night drive to Menomonie, WI, where the babies were born. Wow! Anyway, attending the party were Grandma Lynn; Grandpa Dice; Grandma Cathy and her friend Todd; Aunt Gretchen, Uncle Vidi, and cousins Devin and Keefe; and Uncle Guy and cousin Lizzie. Caden and Rohan got some cool new toys and clothes, and we had some good food, with cake and ice cream. Little kid birthdays are fun! I'll put some pics up when I pull them off the camera.

Keefe stayed at our place Sunday night, and I had Monday off work for MLK Jr. Day. Griffin was tickled...he adores his cousin Keefe, and wants to be doing things with him constantly. Keefe was a great sport, but I could tell he was getting annoyed at times. Dina took Griffin and Keefe ice skating Monday morning. We also did a little shopping, and had a visit from Dina's friend Christine and her son Aidan, who is good friends with Griffin. That evening Griffin had his ice skating lessons. He's doing pretty good; he can skate for a short time without the cheater stand (they call them "race cars" at the lesson), and whenever he falls down he always gets right back up. He is so determined to skate - he loves it! It's pretty cool to watch. Keefe's mom picked him up later that evening.

Last night Dina and I took the twins to get their one-year pictures taken. We went to Flash Photography; we've always been really happy with the results we've gotten from them. There were some very cute pictures taken, and I can't wait to see the prints.

Tonight - the season five premiere of Lost! Woo hoo! It's been a long time since the end of season four, and I'm itching for more. It is going to be a little draining watching both Battlestar Galactica and Lost at the same time...those are two of the best shows on TV, and they're heavy-hitters. I think I'm up to the task, though.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Question

It happens every year at one time or another, usually in the deep winter. It's happening now, in the wake of the coldest temperatures around here for five years, in which my car was impossible to start this morning. Hell, it was just barely possible to open the car doors.

Every year I ask myself the Question.

"Why the #*$%! do I live in this state?"

It's only natural to ask; I mean, sometimes this state just seems downright unfit for human existence. Skin freezes within a few short minutes of exposure. Plants are dormant, or dead. Animals are scarce. Machines do their work to wildly varying degrees of success. Birds fall dead from the trees. (Okay, I made that last one up. I've never seen it happen. But I can believe it could.)

I normally only wonder for a short while though, because it's pretty easy for me to focus on all the reasons I love living in Minnesota. After all, where else can you hang out in a major metropolitan area thriving with music and art, then drive half an hour and lose yourself in a cornfield? Yes, I love this state, from its fantastic hiking and camping spots to that Mecca of Capitalism, the Mall of America. (I mainly enjoy the people-watching. It's a human zoo.) Also, I have many friends and much family here, which means a great deal to me. And it is a great place to raise a family. So yes, it gets very cold, but the tradeoffs are worth it to me.

But still, every year, without fail, I ask the Question.

I suppose it's healthy to do so, because without asking the Question, I would never know if I could answer it.

And as long as I can answer the Question, I know I'm still in the right place.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Wrist pain sucks

Since about mid-November, I've been having pain in my wrists. It came on gradually and has gotten steadily worse. It was getting really hard to do things like pick up Caden and Rohan, and sometimes hard to do simple things like pull my keys out of my pocket. Just before Christmas I finally went to the doctor, who said it was tendinitis. Joy.

Today I had an appointment with an occupational therapist. It was somewhat cool; the therapist did all sorts of tests to isolate exactly what the problem areas were. I learned quite a bit about the anatomy of the wrists. Anyway, she decided I should get a splint on my right wrist. She wanted to splint both wrists, but thought that might make daily life a little difficult. I'm glad she just went with one.

Here's the splint. It immobilizes my thumb and extends up my forearm.

From splint


In addition to helping me heal, it's good for spreading positive vibes, and for hitchhiking:

From splint


Hopefully I recover quickly. This is going to majorly interfere with my already scarce video game time.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The holiday whirlwind is (almost) over

The holidays were a whirlwind, as this post will have to be, to catch up.

We had two Christmases, one with Dina's mom, and one with mine. On Christmas Day Dina's mom Cathy and her friend Todd came over and joined us for our traditional non-traditional Christmas lunch: homemade sushi! We bought ingredients from Coastal Seafoods (an AWESOME fresh seafood place), and United Noodles (an AWESOME Asian market).

On the weekend after Christmas, my mom came up on Friday and stayed until Saturday afternoon.

There were, of course, lots of presents for the kids, and a few choice ones for the adults. The gift highlights were a teddy bear that lights up for Rohan (from Grandma Cathy), a robotic puppy that responds to voice commands for Caden (from Grandma Lynn), a mini trampoline with handlebars for Griffin (from us), a kids' piano for Caden and Rohan (from Grandma Lynn), Guitar Hero World Tour for me (from Dina) and a membership to our local WineStyles wine club for Dina (from me). There were many more gifts and they were all appreciated!

We celebrated New Year's quietly at home by staying up way too late playing video games; mostly Guitar Hero: World Tour and Mario Kart Wii. Both of them are incredibly fun! The morning after a 3:30 a.m. bedtime is pretty rough these days, though. Oy.

And now the holiday season is (almost) over. I say "almost" because although we've had two Christmases and a New Year's, we still have one remaining Christmas. We're building a tradition with Dina's brother and sister, and their spouses and kids, in which we get everyone together for a weekend in January. It was at our house two years ago and was a lot of fun; last year was also supposed to be at our house, but the weekend of the party Dina and I got the best possible present: Caden and Rohan were born! That threw a wrench in the party plans for us, but I was told that everyone else had a good time. I'm looking forward to taking part this year!

Life is settling back into routine now; just how I like it.