This past weekend poor Kyle got the stomach flu, so he was basically out of commission all day Saturday. The good news is that when Kyle gets sick, all he wants to do is sit on the couch with his blanket and cuddle with you. He doesn’t really fuss too much as long as you are willing to just sit and hang out with him. Luckily, Barbie was in one of those moods this weekend, so she took complete care of Kyle, while I got to the “honey do” list that has been hovering over me.

I started off with installing the final piece of the puzzle of our kitchen, the ceiling fan. To be fair to myself, the fan got delivered just the week before, so it really hadn’t been hanging around for too long. It took me a couple of hours to get it hung, adjusted, and ready to go, which also included a trip to OSH to get some screws, but in the end it actually looks very nice. It took forever to actually pick out the fan b/c we had to get one that had a low profile with no light on it so that it wouldn’t interfere with the possible TV screen on the far wall. It’s amazing how hard it is to find a fan without lights these days…thank goodness for the Internet.

After that got installed, and we all had some lunch, I decided to start in on the toilet. The current toilet for some reason started to not work mysteriously, so we had a plumber come out during the construction, and he said there was something stuck in it, but he could get a new toilet, installed, and have the old removed, and it’d only cost about $500-$600! OUCH! I told him to hold off, and I’d do it myself. This was over a month ago, so I finally got around to it. I removed the old one without much problem, mainly do to the fact the flooring guys had removed it and installed a new gasket and wax ring when they had to move it to install the floors. I was hoping they wouldn’t put it back, but apparently my Spanglish isn’t as good as I had hoped. Anyways, the new toilet went in without any problems, despite me expecting Murphy’s Law to jump out and get me at any time. Now we have a brand new, fully flushable, non-leaking, white commode, so feel free to stop by and give it a flush!

You all know my cousin Jacqueline, and now it is time to show your support. Actually, I don’t really care if you don’t know her or not, you should still vote for her. She is in an American Idol type contest in Miami and can win an all expenses paid trip to the Caribbean if she wins. Since you can vote as many times as you want, feel free to vote multiple times…she’s that good.

Here is the link: http://www.miamifly.net/superstar/index.php

This has to be the funniest thing I have read in quite some time. I was actually in the middle of a meeting, and had to step out halfway through reading the article b/c I was about to lose it. The funny thing is that I was two years old when this came out, so my parents were probably looking at this and saying to themselves “Geez…that would be nice to have.” The good news is that I don’t remember getting any of these things.

http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html

The Miami Dolphins have already revealed who their first pick will be long before the NFL Draft even starts. They, or should I say Bill Parcells, decided to pick an offensive lineman to help protect a QB who really isn’t that good, but also to open up holes for Ronnie Brown, who could be that good. Rather than take the chance and draft a high profile skill position player and take the chance of not being able to sign him (see Raiders and Jamarcus Russell from last year), they will be able to get Jake into training camp and already have him signed. According to reports, it will be a five-year, $57.75 million deal with $30 million guaranteed. Must be nice.

Growing up in a family that has postal workers, you come to appreciate them more than probably the normal person would. Of course, that is if you didn’t have to rely on a Postal worker to catch your 1 year old baby as it falls out of the second story window. When this kid turns 18, she better run to closest convenient store and buy a lottery ticket, b/c she is one of the luckiest people in the world.

Letter carrier catches falling baby

ALBANY, New York (AP) — A postal worker is credited with saving a 1-year-old girl’s life by catching her after the baby fell out of a second-story window in Albany, New York.

Lisa Harrell was delivering mail to a home late Monday morning when she noticed a baby in a window above the front door. Harrell says the next thing she knew, the baby had fallen into her arms.

When the baby’s mother realized what had happened, she ran outside and grabbed the girl from Harrell. The woman thanked Harrell and then ran down the street to her mother’s house.

Paramedics checked the baby at the scene but found no injuries.

No charges are being filed against the mother, who says she had placed her daughter on a bed that was up against the window. The mother said her back was turned when her daughter crawled out the open window.

How Valid Are T.V. Weather Forecasts?

This was a lengthy, but good article about the validity of predictions from the weathermen, and women of course. Of course, I’m not saying it is easy to predict the weather, or that I know how to do it, but at least if someone is getting paid to do a job, they should at least be better than a coin toss.

If you don’t have time to read the full article, the following line pretty much sums it up for you:

When station managers were asked about this, one said, “There’s not an evaluation of accuracy in hiring meteorologists. Presentation takes precedence over accuracy.”

Yesterday was one of those days where I was basically living under the mantra of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t. (Diyd,Diyd)” It started off with Barbie asking me to “help with the laundry” while she took a nap. So, I got downstairs with Kyle and saw one load in the washer, one in the dryer, and one waiting to be washed. I took out the dry clothes, replaced those with the wet clothes from the washer, and began filling up the washer with the dirty clothes. I actually put Kyle on the dryer with his feet dangling in the washer (don’t worry I was careful), and handed him clothes to throw in the washing machine. He loved it, but I think he went a little overboard…more on that in a bit.
OK…all was set…so I thought. Barbie also asked that I put some of Kyle’s old clothes that don’t fit into the attic for storage (for kid #2 possibilities ). Unfortunately, the closet that has the entrance to the attic is full of Gift bags, wrapping paper, gift bag tissues, old cards, etc all on the floor, where I needed to put the step ladder to get to the attic. It’s been like this for a year at least, so I decided to pull it out into the hallway, and began organizing it. I got all the bags organized, cards in one place, and well, the tissue was everywhere. Anyways, I could finally get to the attic, which was the point. Barbie gets up, and first thing she sees is all this stuff and she is pretty upset that all this is everywhere (Diyd,Diyd #1). Of course, I try to explain why it is everywhere, but oh well.

Later on, I’m in the Living Room and Barbie comes in asking if I started a new load of laundry. Of course…she asked me to help with the laundry, but apparently that meant not to start a new load, just finish what was started (Diyd,Diyd #2). About half an hour later, she asks me if I put cardboard in with the laundry. Why would I? Apparently “I” wasn’t the one who did it…Kyle was. I guess he had grabbed the dryer sheets box and threw it in when I wasn’t looking, so there were cardboard particles all over our clothes. I felt bad, b/c I had washed some of Barbie’s clothes also (Diyd,Diyd #3) b/c they were in the waiting to be started load…or so I thought. Luckily, cardboard comes out in the dryer, but I didn’t know this, so it was a welcome relief.

Next thing I did was go to the store to get a Pie for our dinner guests. When I got there, there was one person in line, but by the time I got served there were about 9 people behind me, and the girl was taking forever. I got my pie, some extra whip cream, but didn’t take time to look at it. Sure enough, when we opened the pie at home, there wasn’t enough jelly, or whatever it is they put on top of the strawberries, so I’d messed up again (Diyd,Diyd #4).

Finally, I had to get out of the house, so I took the dogs for a run. I actually went while Kyle was sleeping so Barbie didn’t have to watch Kyle by herself, so I was being thoughtful. When I got home, I put the dogs outside b/c it was cooler, there water was outside, and I wanted to give Barbie and Kyle some peace in the house. Sure enough, 15 minutes later Barbie is asking me if I purposefully put the dogs outside when there was food out there (Diyd,Diyd #5). Of course I didn’t do it on purpose, but it was just one of those days where no matter what I did, it ended up wrong. My only solace for the day was the 2 bottles of wine the 4 of us (me, Barbie, and our 2 next door neighbours) drank that night, plus the extra 12 Seirra Nevada beers that my neighbour brought for me.

Move over Steve Nash, here comes Kyle Graver! I couldn’t believe it, I went to pick up Kyle yesterday, and while we were both waiting for Barbie to get there, all the kids went outside to play, and the first thing Kyle did was grab a ball, and head towards the basketball hoop. I hadn’t noticed this hoop before, but he apparently knew about it from watching one of the other kids, and he was all about it. It’s amazing how fast they pick this stuff up, and it’s awesome that he loves to play it and Dunk!

 

 Kyle Playing Basketball [1:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ah…the good old days when you feel invincible and don’t have a care in the world.

More Sky Diving Photos

Sometimes something will popup or point out to you where your priorities are and what is most important to you. Today, I was in the process of planning to back up our online photos to my personal computer, so I did a quick estimate of the sizes of each our photo albums. Take a quick look and you’ll that the little guy seems to be taking over!

81MB     Wedding
433MB	  barbie
283MB	  donnie
976MB	  international
1900MB	  kyle
3.7MB    sempernole
26MB	  travel