Tuesday, February 24, 2009
So, I'm trying out Twitter. For anyone who's interested, I'm @coreynash. You can see my feed at http://twitter.com/coreynash. I'm still trying to figure out the balance between Twitter and Facebook, so we'll see what happens as time goes on. I'm guessing I'll use Twitter more once I have an iPhone (which looks like May at this point).
Monday, February 23, 2009
Captain Trips
Wow - the illness that my family had was not yet over after my last blog post, not by a long shot. I ended up working only one day last week. Even though I was feeling better, my family was not. We're still not out of it, we all have residual coughs, and Griffin still had an upset stomach as of yesterday. At times during the whole ordeal I was thinking about the superflu Captain Trips from The Stand. Luckily it was nothing so fatal...
So the weekend was an interesting one. On Friday and Saturday Dina had a Creative Memories regional convention, so I was in charge of the boys. I got barely any sleep on Friday night, but there was no vomit, so it was a win in my book. The twins slept great on Saturday night, so that was very welcome. I also got in a good, long nap late Sunday morning. Dina got a great photo of Caden and Rohan laying in bed with me, one laying on each of my arms. (Of course, I'm writing this blog entry at work and have no access to photos. Blarg.)
Sunday evening Dina and I went on a double date with Lundo and Amy to Fogo de Chao in downtown Minneapolis. For those who don't know, Fogo is basically an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. It's expensive, but the cuts of meat are all perfection. You sit at your table, and servers bring various kinds of meat to your table on skewers; if you want to try one they cut off a slice and you put it on your plate. Absolutely delicious. We were all stuffed silly when we left. I literally could not eat another bite.
That night I was going to get together with the Flock of Kobolds guys to play some Irish music at Lundo's place. However, the location was changed, which added a lot of drive time for me (but saved a lot of drive time for others), so I decided to stay home, be there for my family, and catch up on stuff I needed to do after being sick. I'd still love to play along on some of the tunes, but there's no more time for rehearsals before St. Patty's day due to vacations, so that's a bummer. But I did get some stuff done and got another good night's sleep last night, which is exactly what I needed.
This morning, my car didn't start, because it was too cold. My car's been having way too hard a time starting when it's cold...I may need a new battery. I tried to start the van so I could jump my car, and it had a dead battery, too. Frakking machines! Blarg. We ended up calling AAA to jump the van, and then I jumped the car from that. It was far too exciting a morning for a Monday. But at least I got to work.
So the weekend was an interesting one. On Friday and Saturday Dina had a Creative Memories regional convention, so I was in charge of the boys. I got barely any sleep on Friday night, but there was no vomit, so it was a win in my book. The twins slept great on Saturday night, so that was very welcome. I also got in a good, long nap late Sunday morning. Dina got a great photo of Caden and Rohan laying in bed with me, one laying on each of my arms. (Of course, I'm writing this blog entry at work and have no access to photos. Blarg.)
Sunday evening Dina and I went on a double date with Lundo and Amy to Fogo de Chao in downtown Minneapolis. For those who don't know, Fogo is basically an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. It's expensive, but the cuts of meat are all perfection. You sit at your table, and servers bring various kinds of meat to your table on skewers; if you want to try one they cut off a slice and you put it on your plate. Absolutely delicious. We were all stuffed silly when we left. I literally could not eat another bite.
That night I was going to get together with the Flock of Kobolds guys to play some Irish music at Lundo's place. However, the location was changed, which added a lot of drive time for me (but saved a lot of drive time for others), so I decided to stay home, be there for my family, and catch up on stuff I needed to do after being sick. I'd still love to play along on some of the tunes, but there's no more time for rehearsals before St. Patty's day due to vacations, so that's a bummer. But I did get some stuff done and got another good night's sleep last night, which is exactly what I needed.
This morning, my car didn't start, because it was too cold. My car's been having way too hard a time starting when it's cold...I may need a new battery. I tried to start the van so I could jump my car, and it had a dead battery, too. Frakking machines! Blarg. We ended up calling AAA to jump the van, and then I jumped the car from that. It was far too exciting a morning for a Monday. But at least I got to work.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Busy. Then sick.
If it seems like I've fallen off the face of the planet lately, it's because I basically have. For the first two weeks in February, my wife had jury duty. She was just on call-in for a while, but then she did get called in and assigned to a case. She was part of a two-day trial. She was excited to be part of the process, but with her being the main caretaker of our kids during the day, it meant a combination of working from home and taking vacation days for me. Luckily Uncle Guy came over to help out while Dina was gone.
Then, after Dina was done with jury duty, she got sick. Shortly thereafter, of course, the rest of us got sick. Today is the second day I've taken off work due to sickness. I'm starting to feel better and am hoping to be back at work tomorrow, but it depends on how much better the rest of the family gets. It's tough for Dina to take care of three sick boys when she's not feeling well herself.
Well, I should go continue recovering. Until next time!
Then, after Dina was done with jury duty, she got sick. Shortly thereafter, of course, the rest of us got sick. Today is the second day I've taken off work due to sickness. I'm starting to feel better and am hoping to be back at work tomorrow, but it depends on how much better the rest of the family gets. It's tough for Dina to take care of three sick boys when she's not feeling well herself.
Well, I should go continue recovering. Until next time!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Blog URL is changing!
My current blog URL is http://coreytime.blogspot.com
The new blog URL will be http://coreynash.blogspot.com
Hopefully you all get this message!
The new blog URL will be http://coreynash.blogspot.com
Hopefully you all get this message!
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.
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.
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 #*$%! do I live in this state?"
It's only natural to ask; I mean, sometimes this state just seems downright unfit for human existence. Skin freezes within a few short minutes of exposure. Plants are dormant, or dead. Animals are scarce. Machines do their work to wildly varying degrees of success. Birds fall dead from the trees. (Okay, I made that last one up. I've never seen it happen. But I can believe it could.)
I normally only wonder for a short while though, because it's pretty easy for me to focus on all the reasons I love living in Minnesota. After all, where else can you hang out in a major metropolitan area thriving with music and art, then drive half an hour and lose yourself in a cornfield? Yes, I love this state, from its fantastic hiking and camping spots to that Mecca of Capitalism, the Mall of America. (I mainly enjoy the people-watching. It's a human zoo.) Also, I have many friends and much family here, which means a great deal to me. And it is a great place to raise a family. So yes, it gets very cold, but the tradeoffs are worth it to me.
But still, every year, without fail, I ask the Question.
I suppose it's healthy to do so, because without asking the Question, I would never know if I could answer it.
And as long as I can answer the Question, I know I'm still in the right place.
Every year I ask myself the Question.
"Why the #*$%! 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.
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