Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

First off, here's a belated thanks to all current and former members of our military, who dedicate themselves to the defense of our country and ideals, and especially so to those who have given their lives for that noble endeavor.

Concise version of the weekend's activities: move crap out of garage, return TV, move crap back into garage, organize crap.

We didn't do anything specific to Memorial Day over the weekend; instead we took the extra day off and cleaned and organized our garage. We threw out and donated a whole bunch of stuff, and our garage is much less cluttered now, which is awesome.

On Saturday we realized that what we thought was a grease smudge on the screen of our TV was actually a permanent scuff. Our 30-day unconditional guarantee on the TV had just expired earlier that week, so I wasn't sure if we'd just have to live with the scuff. I called Best Buy and talked to a manager, and ended up returning the TV for store credit. According to the manager (and the head tech of that store) the scuff was probably caused by Best Buy packaging up the TV, which was an open box display model, with bubble wrap before it had properly cooled. So right now we're back to our old TV until Best Buy has a TV deal we consider worthy. I feel like I have to squint at the TV now! Hopefully we find a good deal soon.

An interesting note about donations...I tried to take a bunch of our stuff we don't use anymore to Goodwill on Tuesday night. They declined a bunch of it, which surprised me. Apparently they can't take Christmas stuff out of season, they can't take small appliances like our humidifier, and they can't take metal bed frames. Strange. They did take a bunch of my computer science textbooks from college, and a bunch of my old fantasy paperbacks. It killed me to get rid of my first paperback Lord of the Rings trilogy, but they weren't in great shape, and I've got a really nice hardcover version, so it was past time for them to go.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Trying to stay awake...

This weekend was exhausting, not only in the amount of running around we did, but in the terribly poor amount of sleep I got.

The big event this weekend was that Dina's dad got remarried. The ceremony was Saturday afternoon in Glenwood, MN. That means on Friday we had to pack. Unfortunately, Dina also had a going-away party for a friend of hers Friday night, so she was out until about 11:00. We were up late getting as much packed as we could, so we didn't get much sleep Friday night. Anyway, we got out of the house on Saturday, went and visited Dina's mom in St. Cloud for a while, then drove out to Glenwood for the wedding. After the wedding we had a reception dinner at the Lakeside Ballroom. (The filet mignon special was awesome.) Then we headed over to the Scotwood Motel and played in the pool with the kids for a couple hours. That was fun - all of our boys love the water and had a great time. We thought they'd sleep soundly.

Two thirds of them did. However, Caden was not happy with being away from home, and got stuffed up from the dust in the room's air. He cried almost all night. Between Dina and I, one of us was up all night long. Ugh.

The next day is kinda hazy, but we visited Dina's dad and his new wife, drove to Benson to visit my dad and hisnew girlfriend (but the kids fell asleep on the drive, so we didn't stay long), visited my mom and grandpa (also in Benson), went back to my dad's after the kids were awake, and then headed out of town.

Visiting my dad was...tough. When I was a kid he was a heavy drinker and into various drugs, so my childhood was very much not normal. I wasn't physically abused, but I saw a lot of stuff that kids shouldn't see, and experienced things that have caused a lot of pain. My dad still drinks (don't know about the other stuff), and I've kept a considerable distance between us, especially since my own kids have been born. We normally give my dad lots of notice when we're coming, so there's no crazy stuff when we get there with the kids. Well, when we stopped by with little notice on our way out of town, because Griffin wanted to see his grandpa, my dad had obviously been drinking, and his new girlfriend was altered out of her mind on something...if it was booze, it was a lot. Not a good situation for the kids, so we got out of there. I'm not looking forward to the time when Griffin is old enough to see what's going on, because I'm going to have to deal with this crap again.

Ok, enough with the heavy stuff. On a lighter note, on the way home I was starting to feel tired, so I drank a Bawls energy drink (mostly because of the recent spoof). It actually tasted fairly good. I'd never had one of those before, and wow did it affect me. After getting home at 11:15 pm, I unloaded the kids, and all of our stuff, and put almost all of it away immediately. Usually when we get home that late we carry our stuff into the entryway and leave it until morning. Of course, after doing that I collapsed into a nearly-dead state in bed until morning. I think I'm still recovering today.

Monday, May 11, 2009

The Weekend

Friday night my wife and I did something we haven't done in quite some time. We went to a movie! Together! Without any kids! (Thanks, Uncle Guy!)



Our friends Lundo and Amy rented out the VIP box at a local theater and invited us and a bunch of other friends to watch Star Trek. The night was awesome before the movie even started. The VIP box had a receiving room where we got to hang out and eat some food, and then we moved into the box itself, which had ultra-comfy fully-reclining very-plush and otherwise-hyphenated leather chairs. The box had its own little sound system as well, which was better than I expected. I will definitely be watching movies from a VIP box again in the future.

So aside from how good the viewing experience was, the movie itself was 100% awesome. It was a reboot of the franchise, and it was superbly done. This movie was exactly what it neeeded to be - it was a ton of fun, it was adventurous, it had geek-out moments, it hearkened back to the original series when it needed to (and departed where prudent), and it set things up perfectly for further adventures in the newly conceived world. JJ Abrams did it just right. The movie's only flaw is that it's a little light; it doesn't have the social commentary that was such a big part of the original series. However, even with that flaw, here's a bold opinion: this is the best Star Trek movie ever made. I'll have to rewatch the others to confirm this opinion (ok, maybe not Nemesis), but I'm pretty sure I'll stick to that opinion.

The next day Dina hosted a Creative Memories workshop at our house, which meant that I had the boys all day. I was unsure how the day would go, because I was very tired. We're night-weaning Caden and Rohan, so that means less sleep for me for a little while (when they wake up at night it works better for me to soothe them, because if Dina does then they just want to nurse). The day went pretty quickly though. The morning was mostly taken up running errands, including the first time I'd ever gone to Costco. What a huge place. I probably would have enjoyed wandering around the place feeling like an ant, but I had all three boys on the cart (Caden and Rohan in the seats, Griffin hanging on to the end), and the place was PACKED since it was a weekend. It took me a long time to find what I needed to get. As it turned out, the afternoon went by pretty quickly, too. Griffin played with his cousin Keefe since Aunt Gretchen was over for the workshop. Rohan took an enormous nap, so I ended up basically watching only Caden. It was easy enough that I was able to put together a set of Ikea storage bin shelves for the play room. I'm the man.

That night Dina and I decided that we should go buy a couple cigars. (WHAT? Yeah, we enjoy a cigar about once every two years.) So, we found a place in Coon Rapids that is in this cheap little strip mall, but has a pretty nice walk-in humidor. Dina bought herself something small and light, and bought me something huge and robust (qualities which I would later rue). We went home but didn't really have time to enjoy them after the kids went to bed. Besides, it turned out we didn't have a cigar cutter to snip the tip, and it was too late to go buy one. So we decided we'd try them the next night if we had time.

Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day. Part of my Mother's Day present to my wife was that I spent the night on the couch with Caden so she wouldn't have to. :-) Caden just would not sleep unless someone held him...it was a long night. Dina got to sleep in a little, and then worked on some digital scrapbooking on her laptop while I cleaned the kitchen. We ran some errands as a family, and ate lunch on the go: Costco Chicken Bake Sandwiches rule! We also stopped by a smoke shop in Maple Grove to buy a cigar cutter. The place is called Tobacco Grove, and it's one of the seven businesses that got an exemption to allow indoor smoking when the smoking ban went into effect statewide. They have a big lounge area with padded chairs and lots of dark leather and dark wood. Seems like it'd be a pretty cool place if you're into that kind of thing. That night we made pancakes, bacon, and eggs for Dina's Mother's Day meal. (Well, Dina started cooking the bacon...I finished.) We also had some fun playing Youtube videos on our big TV; I recently bought the digital audio and video cables I needed to hook up my laptop to the big TV, and that's a lot of fun. The kids really love it.

After the kids went to bed and we'd cleaned up, Dina and I decided to smoke our cigars on the deck. It was chilly, but not horrible. We had a glass of dessert wine, lit up our cigars, and reminisced about good times gone by. The cigar Dina bought me had a great spicy taste to it, but it had my head spinning by the time I came inside. It ended up making me feel a little sick...too much cigar for me! I'll have to stick to the lightweight stuff in 2011.

HOLY CRAP THIS WAS LONG! WHY ARE YOU STILL READING? Don't you know that this is really just for my own convenience, so I can have a searchable record of my life? ;-)

Monday, May 4, 2009

Weekend update: Party edition

What a fun weekend! We had our Guitar Hero: Metallica party and cookout on Saturday afternoon. Of course, that meant Saturday morning was all about cleaning and running errands. There was a lot to do because Dina got slammed with allergies the night before, and the twins didn't sleep very well because they had colds. So we were moving a little slow on Saturday morning...in fact we were still finishing up as the first people arrived. It was fine, though - the party went great! It was fun to meet some people I'd never met before, and also to get together with old friends. And really, how can you go wrong with video games, beer, grilled meat, and an inflatable jumping house?

After the party wound down and our house was ours again, we cleaned up as much of the party mess as we had energy for, and then got our kids bathed and off to bed. That evening Dina's friend Christine came over to play with Dina's new Cricut machine, which cuts custom shapes out of paper. While they were playing I installed some magnetic child safety locks on the cabinets in the kitchen, as we no longer have the twins blocked off to the living room; they have free roam of the upstairs now. They love it, but we're finding what's not babyproofed well enough.

Sunday morning was a lazy morning since we were up late Saturday night. After doing a whole lot of nothing in the morning, we ate lunch out on the deck (the sunny weather was FANTASTIC) then packed up into the minivan to go to the Living Green Expo at the MN State Fair grounds. The biggest reason we went was to pick up a rain barrel that Dina had ordered, but we also stopped to see Dina's friend Elaine who was running the La Leche League booth. We also like to show our support for local food by visiting the co-op and CSA booths. Oh, and of course we also like to laugh at the tiny, tiny cars.

We got home just before dinnertime, so I mowed the lawn for the first time this year while the kids were on the deck playing and Dina was cleaning out the minivan (and boy, was it dirty). I realized that I really like mowing in the Spring and Fall, and pretty much hate it in the Summer. I'm sure this is largely related to the amount I sweat in various seasons.

Today it's back to work. For a half day, anyway...Dina, Griffin, and I all have dentist appointments this afternoon. So, by this afternoon I shall have Shiny Clean Teeth (and hopefully no appointments to fill cavities).