The Bimonte Family Blog

Family Room Furniture is in!

2008-11-16T11:33:00.002-05:00

After what seemed like an endless wait, our furniture finally made it in. We still need a few pictures for the wall, but those will come in time. For now, enjoy the pictures of the new furniture, the last thing to enter this house for a long while.

A day in Mt. Airy Forest

2008-10-19T21:23:00.002-04:00

Saturday we decided to go visit Mt. Airy Forest down over on the West Side of Cincinnati. We had a great time exploring a number of different trails and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Will had a great time collecting sticks and leaves as we made our way down the trails.

Enjoy the pictures.

Last piece of the kitchen construction

2008-09-03T09:07:00.002-04:00

The built-in for the "mud room". We still need our kitchen chairs, but this was the last installed piece that needed painted to be ready to go.

Kitchen is done! (almost)

2008-08-04T20:31:00.002-04:00

There are still a few minor things to finish up like quarter round around the baseboards, and some paint/drywall touch up, but the bulk of the kitchen remodel is complete. The final pieces of trim went up today and we couldn't be happier. We've already started to use the new kitchen for our meals, but still doesn't feel like ours. Check out the pictures.

And a couple of the bathroom, we changed that a bit also.

The backsplash is in!

2008-07-30T11:27:00.002-04:00

The sealer/enhancer is still to be applied, but here it is.

Got back from Vacation and....

2008-07-20T19:39:00.002-04:00

We had more of a kitchen. Enjoy the updated pictures. Still a bit to get done, but this is a huge change from when we left 10 days ago.

Cabinets are up!

2008-07-02T10:49:00.003-04:00

Well, mostly up. The cabinets have been hung, but no doors yet. Also there is a ton of trim molding and all sorts of things to finish it off. But, the progress continues. Check it out.

We aren't in Hawaii anymore

2008-06-29T22:34:00.003-04:00

I'm guessing by now, everyone has figured out we aren't in Hawaii anymore. We returned months ago, and have moved on to our next major home project. That project is the kitchen. We still don't have any cabinets or countertops in the room, and the floor hasn't even been sanded, stained and sealed yet, but the transformation is drastic. Here are a few pictures to hold everyone over until the project is complete.

Before:

After:

And, of course the family room needed some freshening up with all the fun in the kitchen.

I'll even make an attempt to get an update in after each of the next major milestones in the project. Those would be the cabinets installed, the flooring finished, the granite installed, and 100% complete.

Now in Maui

2007-11-24T01:37:00.000-05:00

After a few days in Oahu, we took a short flight to Maui. Here are a few pictures from Maui.

This is a picture of a rare black beach right off the Hana highway.

Outside our Condo, there was a mini-reef right off shore, there are more Sea Urchins that you can count in this picture alone.

You can't really tell, but these waves are at least 25-30 feet tall, they were crazy.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Luau we went to at the Maui Prince.

And another Sunset, this time from our Lanai.

Here in Hawaii...

2007-11-18T01:18:00.000-05:00

We are on Oahu and the landscape is amazing. Here's an exmple of both a sunrise and a sunset.

Sunrise:

Sunset:

Will as Godzilla

2007-09-17T10:30:00.000-04:00

Will has decided he's going to be a little monster. Half the time he babbles like a normal little kid, while the other half he terrorizes everyone and everything around. Check out a short clip of the little monster.

SNAKE !

2007-08-27T09:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, as I was backing into my garage with the windows and sunroof open, I was greeted by this guy hanging from the garage door track. He was probably about 5 feet long or so and stuck. After getting out of his way (and telling Andrea to stay inside), he ended up falling from the garage door and hiding under the trash can. With some coaxing from the next door neighbor, we got him out of the garage and into bush.

Here he is in the driveway after being slid out of the garage.

Uh oh, Will is on the move

2007-08-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

And he's off.....

Will's Travels Part III

2007-07-19T20:28:00.000-04:00

Denver

Last weekend, July 13-16, we were in Denver. Long weekend, short trip, but it was enough time for us enough to do some sight seeing on Saturday and Sunday.
Working around the kids' schedules, we went to the Garden of the Gods and then to the top of Pike's Peak. Fun was had by all, even the sleeping babies. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Before the wedding, we went to the park.

Babies had to get ready for the wedding too. This is just before bath time.

Wedding picture.

At the Garden of the Gods, we wandered around a bit. Will got really brave.

Here is what the Garden looks like from the top of Pike's Peak.

More pictures from Pike's Peak.

Picture of the track that took us up and back down. Love that Cog railroad.

The end.

Will's Travels Part II

2007-07-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

Myrtle Beach.

Will has been travelling the country over the past few months. Here are some pictures as we try to keep up with him.

Here is Will with all his stuff that he brought on the trip.

And his view out the balcony.

Will says, "Enough of the balcony, I'm going swimming."

Even with the swimming, there is always time to pose for pictures.

All that sun makes a little boy sleepy.

And while baby is resting, daddy is relaxing.

The end!

Will's Travels Part I

2007-07-19T16:12:00.000-04:00

Miami/Naples

In Miami and Naples, we had a ton of fun. Here are only a few pictures from the trip.

We even made it to the beach.

I missed a ton of stuff in this post including seeing lots of other family and friends.

Sorry everybody!

Mother's Day at the Zoo

2007-05-14T20:51:00.000-04:00

For Mother's Day, I got Andrea a Membership to the Zoo. We had a great time on Sunday, and look forward to many more weekends spent there. Because it was Mother's Day, and the Zoo was having the Zoo Babies exhibit, it was packed. No worries though because we got in and out of everywhere we wanted to (after the hour long experience parking). Here are a few pictures from the day, first a few pictures of the animals, then a few pictures of the family.

Here are the animals:

Now, here are the pictures of the family. The last one is the BEST !

6 Months Old

2007-05-07T09:05:00.000-04:00

Wow, time flies. Not only in time between my posts, but also time since Will was born. Last week he went in for his 6 month check up. Only a day after his actual 6 month b-day, these stats are pretty accurate.

Length: 26 1/8" (I'm not convinced the got his full length, but it'll work).
Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz
Head: 42 cm

Everything looks good just at or under 50th percentile in H/W and still low at 10% for his head size. His weight/height is good at just about 60%.

Time to get some more pictures of him up.

Spring '07 is here

2007-03-26T12:30:00.000-04:00

Spring is here so I decided to take a few pictures from around the house.

Also, this past weekend, I was able to cut out some of the mulch beds in the front of the house, and really clean up a lot of the dead stuff left over from last year. Many of our plants are well on their way out of the ground and ready to bloom. As you'll see below, our pear trees and plumb tree are already blossoming.

Here you go...

One reason to pick on me...

2007-03-12T21:23:00.000-04:00

...my Garfield collection.

This is a shot of the curio cabinet that most of the collection resides in. There is Garfield in a recliner, Garfield on a picnic, and a Garfield stein. Most of the collection is ceramic Garfields, with a few other pieces mixed in.

This is one of those "other pieces". It is Garfield's car with rubber wheels, removable characters, and doors that open. It is one of the more "fun" pieces because it can actually be played with if I wanted to. I don't want to, so it stays in the cabinet with the rest of them.

"Bedtime for Garfield" is too big for the cabinet, so it stays in the spare bedroom with Pookie, his stuffed bear, and his bedtime story. At about 24" it is the largest Garfield in my collection.

This is one of my favorite groups of items in the collection. The two stuffed Garfields were bought by my Grandmother almost 29 years ago. The "well-loved" one was the one I grew up with. I took him everywhere and it shows. The other one, my Grandma kept in her home until she passed away. After she left us, I got custody of the newer looking Garfield, and the two were reunited. The little boy in the picture is me, and the Garfield on my head is the well-loved one. The picture is my 3 year old Pre-School picture. As the story goes, I refused to take the picture without Garfield on my head and after a lot of protesting and many tears, the photographer (and probably the teacher) caved and let me take the picture with Garfield on my head.

There are a few other pieces scattered around, but I will get harassed enough with these, so I'll save the rest for later.

Go ahead, make fun of me.

Will's 4 month checkup.

2007-03-05T10:46:00.000-05:00

Will passed his 4 month update this Friday.

He was 13 lbs 13 oz and 25 1/8 in.

Still just at or below the 50th percentile, so we'll take him being average (for now).

The Ice Storm

2007-02-23T08:18:00.000-05:00

So, it's only been a month. Let's see what I can update everyone with. First it will be the ice storm. Here are some pictures of what the ice did to our house a couple of weeks ago.

Will's Miami Friends

2007-01-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

So, now that will hit the milestone of 2.5 months old, we decided it was time to go on a family vacation. With all vacations, there are pictures, so here they are.

Here's Bonnie.

Here's Alex.

Here's Mauri.

Here's Robby.

Will's first stop out on the town was at Monty's on the Beach. He loved his time there, and really enjoyed the walk by the Marina with his buddies.

Here are all the friends together including Ayla and Rachael (sorry we missed you with Will somehow).

Finally, here is Will hanging out with the family out by the pool.

Overall, it was a great trip. A few days away from work, some sun, some time by the pool, and best of all, time with family and friends we don't get to see too often. Will was great on the plane there and back, so I don't think we have any hesitations of flying again soon.

My blog is way out of date again......

2007-01-08T15:51:00.000-05:00

And I blame these two.

Hopefully more updates to come.

It's been a while....

2006-11-09T14:01:00.000-05:00

...and so much has happened. I'll try to summarize the big events of the past couple of weeks, and include a few pictures along the way.

First Andrea was put on bed rest after the doctor decided the baby was riding very low and Andrea still had 4 weeks to go. Then on October 30th, we were sent by the doctor to the hospital to have the baby. We stopped for a photo op, and we were off.

At 1:46 AM on October 31st, 2006, William Schroeder Bimonte came into the world at 8 lbs 1 oz and 20.5 in. He was a very healthy little guy scoring a 9, 9 on the Apgar scale. Unfortunately, mommy didn't have it so easy. She ended up needed a few invasive procedures after she started clotting. This was found about an hour and a half after the delivery, and by that time the clotting had gotten pretty bad. The resident doctor tried to clear the clots, and in doing so, the severity of Andrea's bleeding became apparent. She lost about 2 liters of blood in 5 minutes, and continued to bleed, losing a total of 3 liters of blood overall. A normal person of Andrea's size should typically have 5-6 liters of blood in their system, so her loss was severe.

The doctors took good care of her, and the final procedure was completed about 9 AM when she was transported to the ICU. She was there about 2.5 days and received a total of 6 units of blood and 2 units of plasma to get her going again. During her time in the ICU, daddy and Will visted mommy a few times.

Eventually mommy joined us in the postpartum room, where we recovered for a few more days. Here is a picture of me with the little guy on his first day in the world.

Andrea continues to recover after a very long week. The next weekend we had more excitement with both of our families in town. The whole family was in town for Danny's (my nephew and godson) baptism, and we stopped for another photo.

Most recently, here is a picture of the two cousins. Amazing what 7 weeks will do for baby growth.

There should be plenty of pictures to come.

Less than a month to go....

2006-10-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

So, a lot has happened in the past two weeks and all of it has been keeping us busy. Officially Andrea is on bed rest, and that means I get to do all the cooking, cleaning, and various errands and chores. Needless to say, we are eating less, keeping the house more "lived in", and I get a free pass to head out each night to buy stuff.

Here is a picture of Andrea the day of her 36 week checkup.

Now, the room is "ready" with all the stuff in place, cars and pictures on the walls, and sheets on the crib. My favorite is the exit sign pointing to the lightswitch. It's great.

Nursery Update

2006-10-04T10:45:00.000-04:00

So, here is the beginnings of getting the nursery ready. I have stuff to hang on the walls (the mirror has made it up already), and things to put around the room (how exactly do you decide between a Diaper Genie and a Diaper Genie II?). In the coming days, I'll be assembling what needs assembled, and unwrapping what needs unwrapped while Andrea washes the new wardrobe, and keeps me moving.

It almost seems like we might be ready, then I realize we need to pack bags, and pop the baby out. I'm sure I'm missing some other requirements, but I'll worry about those later.

More pictures & more updates

2006-09-22T07:34:00.000-04:00

Here are a few more pictures Andrea painted for the nursery:

Also, we got the MINI back yesterday, and the only thing it needs is the bonnet stripes put back on. I was told that can't happen for 90 days to let the paint cure.

Finally, I'm recovering from knee surgery pretty well, I just can't wait for the swelling to go down, and for me to get my strength back. It all just takes time and exercises.

Week 31 comprehensive update - from Andrea

2006-09-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

It’s been a busy month! Bob and I have been busy preparing for Baby Bimonte by painting the nursery and painting some pictures for the nursery walls. Since our little boy will surely be like his Mom and like civil engineering and be like his Dad and like cool fast cars, we decided that the nursery will have a transportation theme. Plus, we liked that we can make it child-like and not too baby-like – it’s something that can grow with him for years to come. Yesterday we got a call from our furniture makers letting us know that the whole room is complete and we can come pick it up whenever we want. Since our weekends are pretty booked, we hope to take a day off and take a leisurely trip to Amish county to get a trailer full of furniture. I can’t wait to see if all done!

You can see the border in the room above, and here's a shot of the three pictures that are ready to go on the wall.

As some of you may know, Bob has had a rough month. Work has been crazy busy for him. On top of that, he hurt his knee playing soccer. And on top of that, the stress from his hurt knee and work caused him to break out in hives for 5 days. What a fiasco! So after some nagging, he went to the doctor and learned that he had a torn meniscus in his right knee which would be fixable with arthroscopic surgery. Today he had this surgery and all went just as the doctor planned. The doc was able to go in and remove the torn portion and left enough meniscus still in tack that he can return to sports again with out a problem. So right now, Bob is reclined in his chair watching football while I take care of him! I think that he’s loving it! J He’s probably basking in the loving care since he knows that soon enough I’ll be needing much of the same from him! He’ll go to therapy on Monday and should be off his crutches within a week. If all goes as planned, he’ll be able to be back to his sports well before Baby arrives.

Speaking of knee surgeries…… my mom had a full right knee replacement 6 weeks ago. I think that the two of them are secretly having a competition to see who can keep me the busiest and turn me into the best nurse. Mom is doing great and well on her way back to her old active lifestyle. This week she was able to bend her knee to 101degrees which is a big accomplishment. She can drive herself to therapy and working her way up to longer distances. She has two more months to be back to 100% so that she can help me with Baby when the time comes.

Two months from today til the due date! Baby has been quite active lately and keeps me constantly entertained by all of the kicking and the bumping going on inside there. This past weekend Lesley and Jon were even able to see my stomach moving from across the kitchen table! It was quite funny! I’ve been feeling pretty good even though I swear that I’m growing by the hour. J I have a rather nagging case of heartburn and my ankles and feet are swelling every day now no matter what I do. Down to 2 pair of shoes that fit (and one of them I bought this week - LOL!). I’m having what I call typical pregnancy aches and pains which are nothing that I can’t live with so far. It’s always an adventure when I get down on the floor to play with Happy and then I have to get myself back up again – it’s becoming quite challenging to say the least. I honestly can’t image growing at this rate for another two whole months. I am going to look like Shamu way before then!!

Knee update

2006-09-04T22:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it seems as if every time something starts going well around here, I get hurt.

Well, it happened again. This time, I was playing soccer and felt a crunch. Now, I've always heard about the "pop", but never a "crunch", so I figured it was a just a muscle that needed stretched or something, but I was wrong. I wobbled around for about 2 more minutes. The first time the ball came back to me, I thought I'd be able to do something with it, and ended up just watching it roll by me. I knew then I had to step off the field.

I went to the doctor, and after an X-ray, some yanking of my leg/knee, and an MRI, it was confirmed I tore my meniscus. I've learned there are many ways to tear your meniscus, and some aren't as bad as others. Mine is in the middle. When it tore, a little strip tore, but didn't detach and folded under itself. This is causing swelling, and lack of strength in my knee, and the doctor told me it would never heal on its own.

So, on September 14th, I'll go under the knife....well, under the scope. I'm hoping the doctor will let me stay awake and watch, or at least have the little piece he cuts out. I'll be sure to ask.

MINI boo boo

2006-09-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

Just over a week ago, my MINI got its first major bump.

You can't see very much in this picture, but the hood is dented, and there is a hole in the bumper. It's ok, because on the 11th it's going in for a nose job. All will be well in about a week.

Ok, I'm bad at this...another picture.

2006-09-01T10:17:00.000-04:00

28 weeks.

One more picture

2006-07-27T21:44:00.000-04:00

24 weeks.

Ok, picture time.

2006-07-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

Got a hold of a few more people. Here are the pictures from the ultrasound.

Also, if you didn't notice the text on the middle picture, we are having a boy!

More updates/pictures later.

We found out the sex of the baby!

2006-07-25T10:45:00.000-04:00

Well, due to some feedback, I decided to be a little cryptic in my message here. I realized, for a number of reasons, I have not been able to call everyone I have wanted to and let them know what we found out at the ultrasound yesterday. I also decided I want to call some more people (that may or may not even read this) to let them know what we found before posting it here. Sorry for the delay, but it will be worth it. Keep tuning in.

I've been away.

2006-07-17T14:31:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in any updates, but I was out of town first, then when I got back to town, I got a nasty case of ANUG, Acute Necrotizing Ulcerative Gingivitis, try Googling it. It really is a nasty nasty thing and comes with cold sores and a 102 degree fever. Thankfully I'm on the road to recovery, and there will be more baby updates soon.

Baby updates

2006-06-29T11:25:00.000-04:00

So, I don't have any pictures today, but I guess I can just give a general update. We (well, my wife) have passed the 1/2 point between conception and delivery. Ok, I'll stop with the big words/thoughts now....

We are at 20 weeks! That is 1/2 way, and I still think there will barely be enough time to get everything ready at the house before we need it. I think our furniture has been ordered (unless the Amish folks didn't like something in our letter), and that has a 8-14 week lead time, so we'll be cutting that a bit close. We still need to let them know what stain we want, whether it be a natural wood color, or a whitewash. We'll let them know once we find out if we are expecting a boy or girl.

That we should find out July 24th. That seems like an eternity away, but it is actually just around the corner. All our new carpet is in, and we just need to get the office setup downstairs, and our upstairs rooms back they way they should be. I'm sure I'll have a few tweaks to the placement of our bedroom furniture that was moved back by the installers, and so graciously put back together by Mike, our neighbor.

Well, maybe I'll try to get a guest poster on here with an acutal update, and then everyone can get an idea of what is really going on around the house. That's all for now.

Weather pictures from this week.....

2006-06-23T09:38:00.000-04:00

We've had some pretty interesting weather over the past week. Here are a few pictures from early in the week. You can click on these to see the full size versions.

Now I just need some carpet

2006-06-14T23:14:00.000-04:00

Here are the final pictures with the door trim and baseboards installed in the new office. I still need to putty over the nail holes, fill in a little caulk, and give it one more coat of paint, but for all intents and purposes, the room is done. Ok, ok, the doors need painted too, but ignore that for now. Enjoy the final pictures until the carpet installers show up.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I think I kicked up some dust putting everything away.

More basement pictures

2006-06-07T22:41:00.000-04:00

Above is the basement after the final mudding session where the entire surface was coated with a watered down mud compound. That steps takes out any imperfections in the drywall surface no matter where it is.

Here are the pictures after the first two coats of primer. The first coat barely did a thing for coverage, so I accepted that fact, and went entirely around the room and the ceiling, then started all over. Even the second coat didn't give full coverage, so I expect to do one more coat on Friday before starting the painting. It's starting to get exciting. Carpet is ordered, and I am on schedule to have all the painting and fixture work done before it arrives.

Keep tuned.

Taping Day 1

2006-06-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

So, I decided it was time to get some professional help and had a guy come over to help with the taping/mudding. The speed at which he moved was amazing. Today, we'll head back down to the basement, and do the next round of mudding.....stay tuned for more pictures.

Another week's worth of work

2006-05-31T14:20:00.000-04:00

The drywall is now done! Here are a couple pictures.

And really, it could have been a lot worse. There were a few little oddities to work out, but overall, a little bit of patience, and some thought, and it was done. I'd like to thank Zach, Mark and Mike for all the help with the drywall; as much as I would have enjoyed trying to do it myself, there was no way that would happen.

Next step for the room is to get the low voltage stuff hooked up, the HVAC connected, and then the mudding and taping. The fun never ends here.

In addition to the basement project, we also have some cornhole sets being made inside our home's walls. The boards will entirely be used by us, for our enjoyment. Here is a quick picture of one of the boards. A special thanks to Andrea for painting (some) of the white and all of the logo on the boards, and sewing the bags.

The basement and why it is.

2006-05-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

So, I am actually here again for an update. Recently I've been very busy at work learning new stuff for my new responsibilities and travelling around the country to get my training for that new role. Most recently I was in San Francisco, and unfortuneatly, all you get is this picture.

The basement is progressing, but not as quickly as I'd like it to. All the electrical work is done and just waiting for lights to be hooked up now. The insulation is up, and everything is ready for the drywall. Here are a few pictures of where I'm at.

The drywalling will start tomorrow with the ceiling, and progress from there. The plan is to have the drywall up by this weekend, and start with the taping and mudding soon after. Once that step is complete, I can start putting up the light fixtures and get a floor down. It is finally starting to feel like it is coming together.

Once the office is complete, the rest of the work can begin. That's right, this is the first step necessary for us to get the house ready for the baby on the way. November 14 will be here before I know it. Time to get back working on the basement.

Check back for more updates.

More updates coming

2006-05-22T10:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay, it has been very busy here. In the next day or so, I should have more pictures of the progress in the basement, pictures of the yard with the new mulch, and some other updates.

For a quick update, this past weekend, we got a lot of mulch, and re-mulched the flower beds until we ran out. We probably need about 2-3 more yards of mulch before we can finish. Got the grass cut back down to a reasonable length after my trip out of town, and now it looks great again.

The basement has all the electrical and phone lines run, but the phone still needs to be hooked up. Besides that, 3/4 of the insulation is up, and after that is complete, it will be time to start the drywall work.

Basement Update

2006-05-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

And the basement pictures have arrived.

Here are a few pictures of the progress. For some reason, I didn't get any pictures at the very beginning. To visualize that, imagine these pictures without any studs in it. :-) The room will finish up as about 11x11 with a small closet area around the water coming into the house.
Since the first pictures, I have cleaned up all the mess and run the wiring that goes all through these walls.

I still need to wire back to the breaker box and tie it all together. I can definitely say I have forgotten anything about circuits I learned in school, and I'm having to refresh my memory every step of the way.

I will be out of town this weekend and next week through Thursday, so not much more will be done until next weekend at the earliest. At that time, I hope to finish all the wiring, confirm it works, then start the drywall work.

This is fun.

I'm back

2006-05-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

Seemingly, nothing has changed with my posting habits. They are bad. I apparently cannot post more than once a week, or once every two weeks. It's not that nothing at all is going on here, it is just that I sit at a computer for work all day. Then when I come home, I have so many little things going on, that I'm not into sitting back down behind a keyboard and screen, and updating my blog. I have learned that the updating isn't for me. It is for everyone that reads it, trying to keep up with what is going on. And both those people want updates. That being said, I really hope this is a new start to the twice reinvented blog.

The past couple of weeks have brought a lot of work. Spring is typically a busy time of year anyways, but this year, there seems to be so much more going on. I'm transitioning into a new role at work, so I'm trying to wrap up all my old stuff, while learning all the new stuff. That alone is enough of a change for me, but it is only the beginning.

At home, Spring brings the twice a week grass cutting, the constant car washing, the ever-present house cleaning (that Andrea does most of), and this year, we have an additional task, finishing the basement. Andrea and I decided the best bet for right now is to start on the single room that will become the office. The room is only about 12x12, so it is a very reasonable task to undertake without feeling overwhelmed. So far, I have about 3 of the walls up, with the final wall to build holding the door to the room. While this additional item is not a huge deal, it is more than just putting studs up every 16". I want to be sure the door is right in the middle of what will be the opening between the wall and the bottom of the stairs, and that takes actual math. I hope to have some pictures of the current work up soon, some history behind the work, more pictures of the ongoing work down in the basement.

I guess I'm not very good at this

2006-04-19T14:08:00.000-04:00

Another week, another lack of updates. I guess I'm just bad at this.

Oh well, here's the short version of what is going on......

Work: Very busy there, I'm getting ready to train for new work while training my replacement. This takes up a lot of the day, and keeps me busy most of the time. My personal training will take me to Philadelphia and San Francisco in May, so that is exciting.

Home: I forgot how often mowing must be done during the Spring. Lots of rain and cool temperatures bring tons of growth. Most of our trees have leaves, the flowers are blooming, and I'm busy twice a week with the mower. Also, we got our new roof this week. It's the same color, and while it looks very similar, because they are dimensional shingles, it is still a big improvement in both looks and functionality.

Also, this past weekend was Easter. I was able to enjoy Easter at my own home, with my in-laws coming down for the day. We enjoyed some time together, and a very tasty dinner of deep-fried turkey and cheesy potatoes. Definitely a good day.

I guess that's all for now. Hopefully the updates will be more frequent soon.

Nothing must have happened this week....

2006-04-10T14:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, maybe that wasn't the case, but I failed to keep anyone updated on what was going on. Let's see....

At work, I was very busy, working on fixing little things here in there in our existing application, and getting the last little things in place for our new application. Both of which are now up to date, and ready to go. In addition to the every day type work, I found out I am headed off to Philadelphia and San Francisco for training next month. I have never been to either of these cities for work or pleasure, so I will have to find time for the pleasure half in between training classes. However, they are both three day classes, so I'm sure the short trips + air time will make for long weeks.

At home, the Spring change over continues. We got another quote for our roof and now they range from $4450 to $6600+....there goes all the fun money for this year. The outside updates also continue as we tore out three leafy evergreen bushes from in front of our dining room, and another evergreen that was very overgrown by our light post. The change was dramatic. We were able to find replacement bushes for up by the dining room at Costco. The 5 gallon boxwoods there were a tremendous deal, and looked very healthy, so we picked four of them up and had them in the ground in less than a couple hours. We will probably stick with low ground cover or plants by the light post as it really opens up the front of the house.

That's about it for today. Hopefully the updates will come more frequently in the future.

Rough weekend

2006-04-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was a rough one. On Thursday, the only plans for the weekend were to get outside and continue working in the yard, and then I had a soccer game to play in. It was the first soccer game of the Spring DASL (Dayton amateur Soccer League), and I hadn't been out on the field in almost six months. I know the game would be rough as the lateral movement of soccer is hard to recreate inside of a gym, but I was looking forward to the "good hurt" this morning. I underestimated the amount of hurt I'd be in.

Friday I found out that Saturday would no longer be a "work outside on the yard" day, but a "let's drive to the in-laws house and work, then drive home" day. While I wasn't fond of the four hour round trip drive, I enjoy working around the house, and was ready to go. We left about 7:30 AM to start the long day. After arriving, the work began immediately. We were laying a subfloor for the tile that is to be installed this week. For fourteen hours (minus about an hour for eating breaks), we measured, cut, and installed cement board over top of the plywood floor in the kitchen, entry, laundry room, bathroom, and pantry. The process included a layer of thin-set for leveling purposes, then screwing each board down every 8 inches. We left at 11:30 PM to head back home, it was a long day. Great work, but long.

Sunday morning at 10:00 AM it was time to get ready for soccer. I was excited as this was the first game of the new season. A chance to get started well, and not get hurt. One out of two wasn't too bad as I managed to not get hurt terribly. Other than being a tad sore, I made it out of the game unscathed. We lost the game 2-1 on two bad plays, and own goal, and a breakaway. We did not play very well as a team, and the lack of cohesiveness hurt us in the midfield, and that lead to a long day of running after the ball with the other team controlling it. Oh well, we have eight more games to get going, and I think we have a decent shot at playing better the rest of the year.

The latter part of Sunday was spent hanging with the neighbors, digging up stuff, and doing general cleanup and plant relocation around the yards. Good times to be had by all, except for the stiffening muscles in my legs.

Spring has Sprung

2006-03-31T11:23:00.000-05:00

Today is March 31st, and I have decided to reinvent my blog again. The goal this time is to keep track of what is going on in my life so those who live far away can keep up to date on what's new.

For right now, the big excitement is the advent of Spring. Just this week I noticed the grass starting to come out of its winter long hibernation, start to green up, and start to look a bit long. This means that one of my favorite hobbies can now resume, mowing the lawn. I took the little bit of early Spring growth as an excuse to mow the lawn for the first time. The first mowing of the season is always fun....I wonder if the mower will start, maybe even on the first pull; or if the weed eater will start; or do I even have gas left over from last year.

This Spring, the stars must have been aligned because I had gas, the mower started on the first pull, the weed eater started (within 5 minutes), and the end result was a beautiful, green lawn. Spring has officially started at this house, and that means time to get the patio furniture ready to move back outside.

December 4, 2005: A day in words.

2005-12-04T19:11:00.000-05:00

As I sit here on Sunday, watching my football, reading my friends blogs, I realize the I am not a great student of the language. I'm not particularly good at writing, I don't read very much, and when I try to speak intelligently, my wife just laughs at me.

Oh well, I guess I'll just go back to watching football.