Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween. Trick r Treat at the Turks again. Gonna be cold and windy. Kiki is semi sick too. :(

Have an awesome menu planned.
Aunt Nancys home made sauce meatballs and sausages
Spagehetti
Polenta
Bread
Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes
Apple Crisp

Jenny, Jadyn, Jenna, Mom will be over.

Visited my brother in the hospital yesterday. He looks like he's in a ton of pain yet, pretty miserable. He needs to get well soon.

Had a wonderful birthday dinner last night. Kathy, Glen, Susie, Tim, Tracy and I all went to Wasabi for sushi. It was really good. Kamakazi rolls, Wasabi rolls, a few stanadard rolls as well as some assorted Nigiri. Had a few drinks and made it a really nice night. Thanks to everyone!

Glens band Spoiled Rotten starts tonight as a Halloween bash. Can't make it - but Good Luck!

Oh yea, Happy Anniversary to Tracy - 17 Years, WOW. Love ya.

Its my birthday. I actually looked forward to it this year. Not sure why. Probably cause I don't care too much and the fact it falls on a Friday. That I took the day off. That I am going to dinner with friends tonight. That I actually had a birday present I wanted. That tomorrow is Halloween and thats always fun. It's also my 17th anniversary.....

So behind on the blog. Have a ton to say no time. Here are the kids 1st quarter report cards. Kiki's really not supposed to get letter grades. Just lame D and S (developing and secure). Luckily the teacher does this on the side...

Nice weekend. No stress to push me over - did not touch the shower tile. Cleaned up the shop, went to Reilly's birthday party. Learned that Jim is going in for surgery on Tuesday. Apparently his ribs are not healing right, overlapping. So he gets flayed open to fix it. He'll have a cool scar if anything.

Changed the oil on both cars, picked up Kiki from camp, went to the pumpkin farm with Grandma, then the apple orchard, then home for dinner. Joel drove himself to open gym at the high school. That is awesome.

Got a tough week this week. Lots to do, next week I will be in NYC, then the week after that Jacksonville. Let's hope I can really get this done. Still have not found any drive to do much in work or other.

Kickoff birthday week with a bang.

Catching up

A lot has passed since my last post.

Lets see I got the bathroom floor tiled and grouted. The toilet and sink set and made the bathroom actually usable. No pictures for now, since I had to send my laptop in for a replacement GPU do to overheating. So I will be getting back to the bathroom in a week or so, need to get that shower done. But I have a full weekend this upcoming Saturday. Reilly's birthday. Fundraiser pickups, Season pass pictures (Sunburst). Clean that basement work room and get that back in order. A few other things I can't thing of

Joel's 16th birthday went off well, I drank too much, but it was a long time since I let go that much. He scored ok, has a new iPhone in his possession and he's happy.

Jim came home from the hospital on Sunday, Nicole and Mom took care of him. He just told me his chest tube hole is leaking a bit and he may need surgery for the ribs, as they are overlapping each other incorrectly. Yuck. On a good note the police report indicates that someone pulled out in front of him so it was not just incompetence on his part. He doesn't remember what happened and this helps.

I had what I hope is my final epidural steroid injection on Tuesday. Again Mom had to take care of me due to the sedation. Man she as a bunch of dilapidated sons. In 8 days I turn 41. Yeesh. The nurses at the surgicenter were giving me early birthday well wishes....

Relaxing

Here it is Sunday. The birthday party has come and gone. All that work remodeling, cleaning, preparing. And its over. Slept a bit later (8:00). Gonna spend the rest of today doing nothing. Watch some TV, maybe plant my garlic. It is pretty nice outside today.

Thanks to everyone for the gifts and money, Joel did alright.

Fall is here and the colors are changing very quick. A rare sunny day yesterday.

Until my brother was in a motorcycle accident. 13 broken ribs! Ouch. Gonna go visit him in the hospital tomorrow.

Well Tuesday is here and I still have a ton to do. Finishing the woodwork today, gonna start the tile tomorrow after the countertop is installed. Do the floor first then the shower. Not gonna make it I am afraid.

Well its official, Joel is a licensed driver. The DMV is still a trip. Go to the info line, fill out a form. Wait. Take the test, review errors with instructor. Go back to the information line, get a new form and a number. Wait for your number to get called. Go to that window, finish filling out the forms (notarized). Pay for it ($43.00). Get another slip, give it to the picture window. Wait. Take your picture, wait. Get your license!

One interesting note, by the 10:55 appointment that Joel had, the instructor had given 6 road tests, Joel was #7. Amazingly, even the instructor thought it was amazing, all 7 passed. She did say she was done for the day. I don't know if I could take 7 road tests in a row...

Look a cute Woodpecker....what?

We heard this woodpecker on the house yesterday morning. Aw how cute. I looked at the ground to see a lot of wood chips. So I chased it away to see this nice hole.

#@%$^ing woodpecker!

Time to kick this bathroom in the ass. Drywall is done, texture is down. Next prime and paint. Meanwhile I build some drawers for the cabinet. Should be doen with that today. Then I can start tiling should be awesome with the cold and snow predicted. Time to make sure I have kerosene for the torpedo heater.

Yes, it's Joel's birthday but it's also the 1 year anniversary of Dad's passing. It all seems like such a blur, time went by so fast. I am sad, if not a bit angry because it just doesn't seem right. I will deal with it, but I still miss him.

October is a month with a lot of special days. Birthdays galore.

Happy Birthday to Joel who turns 16 today. Man hard to believe he's that old already.

Joel about 6 here.

Almost 16 here.

I couldn't ask for a better son. Makes me proud.

Closer...

Look drywall with mud. Yea! Countertop gets measured today and I can almost start tiling. Hope my wood work shows up soon I need to stain that up quick.

Well the bathroom progresses ever so slowly. Pocked a hole in a supply line with a drywall screw, had to pull the wall down and re do the copper. all under time constraints of haveing to get to my Mom's for dinner by 5:00. At least I don't have a Packer game to contend with today.

Mom had put together a nice dinner, getting us all together.

I finished that new Dan Brown novel - the Lost Symbol. Reads very much like his other books, pretty fast paced (it still took me way to long to read). some surprises. some good, some not so good in my opinion. Anyone want to borrow the book is more than welcome.

Got my first piece of regular drywall up last night. Was going to go for 2 but then it started pouring and I did not have the energy or the will left to track wet through the house. I can only get these sheets up the stairs through the front door.

I will finish today if it kills me.

Birthday Month

Wow October already. Time fly's whether you're having fun or not.

Best month of the year, really, they don't call it Septemberfest, do they?

Bathroom remodel is plugging along, I should have walls up this weekend. See the Picasa album here for pictures