Karate Tournament

Jude had a karate tournament today and did so well!
I have video and a couple pictures, but will have to post them another day...
He had three different events he was judged on: Punching/Kicking, Escaping from Strangers, and an overall knowledge performance. He won 4th place in the Punching/Kicking event and even though he didn't come in the top five for the other events, he did super great and we were so proud of him. He was so confident and really did great.

Can't wait to post the video clips from all three events.

Great job, Jude :)

Trip to D.C.

At Easter-time, just aftet our visit to see Amy's family, we made a detour on the way home to stop by Washington D.C. and show the kids the sights. We 'warned' them that it was going be more like a museum and not so much like a 'park', and they were both geared up for the trip. So, we took a train from Vienna to the heart of D.C. and the four of us toured the hot spots between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

It had been about five years since the last time we came to D.C. with the kids. Kerrigan was literally a baby and Jude wasn't quite 2-years old. Since that time, the World War II Memorial and the Korean War Memorials were built and we were looking forward to finally seeing them as well as the other monuments we've seen before. Jude is especially interested in presidents, soldiers, wars and history. He was so into the trip... I'm so glad he was not disappointed. Even Kerrigan was totally into all the monuments and never complained once.

The picture above is of the ... uh, never mind.

Not so obvious, this picture is also of the WWII Memorial, though all you can really see of it is the fountain. The memorial itself is totally impressive and we spent more time there than at any of the others, I think. You can read more about the WWII Memorial here if you want.

The picture above, in case you didn't see the reflection in Kerrigan's sunglasses is at the base of the Washington Monument.

The Lincoln Memorial was one of Jude's favorites. Not only because Abe is one of his faves, but also because he bought a flip-card set of all the presidents in the gift shop :)

Now his favorite presidents are George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren... you get the picture. He was telling me all about Grover Cleveland the other night and how he was the only president to serve two inconsecutive terms in office... way to go buddy!

The Korean War Memorial was my favorite; if not from simply an artistic perspective, the power of the soldiers in the garden made the whole atmosphere very hushed and somber.

Even the picture below as from the same memorial. Much like the Vietnam memorial, the stone was very reflective and the kids were in awe.

When we got to the Vietnam memorial, Jude and Kerrigan both looked at all the names written in the stone and said, 'that's a lot of people that died.'

'Yes it was', we told them. It sure was.

Even though we didn't get to go to the White House, the Capital Building, the Jefferson Memorial, any of the art museums, the Holocost Museum, National Archives, et al... we told the kids we'd grab them next time. They can't wait for the next trip.

It was by far the best D.C. visit Amy or I have ever had.

Easter visit to VA

Eric had so much fun with his cousins at the park.

... especially when he was with his daddy.

Eric seems to be the only one not quite into this.

Amy with Eric.

The cousins headed for the pond to feed the fish.

Jude couldn't get enough of Eric. He was always wanting to be with him and hold him.

On the hunt for Easter eggs...

Relaxing after the hunt.

Another blog

At the request of my beautiful and wise wife, I am going to discontinue my beer posts on this site... however, to the one or two (or none?) of you still interested in my venture for 200 brews can keep pace with me at a different blog, Doug's Beer Knurd Tally!

I'm glad that Amy is supportive of my quest for the gold plate, albeit with rolling eyes. :)

Look forward to seeing you there.

My Favorite Picture

I think this is the best picture I've ever taken of the two of them.

New Pictures

Three more...

Three more beers to add to my quest for Flying Saucer immortality:

Wells Banana Bread was the first. Like I mentioned in my last beer update, this one was a keeper. I had it again this time to count toward my total. Smithwicks Ale (pronounced 'Smiddicks') was my second not the best of the three but decent enough. Brooklyn Monster was my third and was served in .

Wells Banana Bread

Container: Bottled

Style: English Ale

Brewer: Charles Wells Pub Co.

City: Bedfordshire, England

Country: United Kingdom

Desciption: Pours a clear amber body with a small creamy head. Aroma of "surprise" banana bread. Flavor of banana, mild hops, and nuts with citrus-peel bitterness in the finish.

Smithwicks Ale

Style: Amber Ale

Brewer: Guinness & Son Co.

City: Dublin

Country: Ireland

Description: This beer is imported from Dublin, Ireland & has been well sought after in the US. It is dark amberish red in color with a nice thick head. Very well rounded beer with some hops and roasty malts toward the finish.

Brooklyn Monster

Container: Bottled

Style: Barley Wine

Brewer: Brooklyn Brewery

City: Brooklyn, NY

Country: United States

Description: This classic Barley-Wine Style Ale, pours a deep copper color with a thin amber head. Aromas of apple, raisin bread, and a brief flourish of hops follow thru in the flavor with some bready and earthy malt notes. The high alcohol is hidden well in the lingering finish. It is vivacious when young, but will age gracefully for many years, becoming more complex over time. 10.8% abv.

What a Weekend

We just got back from a weekend trip to Boone, NC where we went snow tubing and went to the top of Grandfather Mountain.

The weekend started early with a suprise day-off on Friday. So I spent the day home with the kids while Amy went to work (ha-ha). The kids and I had a blast together and took a nice long walk together to the closest convenience store (about a 3-mile round trip) that took up a couple hours of our morning. By the time we got home, Amy was here waiting for us and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon together, then got our stuff ready for us and the kids for the out-of-town trip the next day.

We pushed off for Boone the next morning, and made it there mid-day, going straight to Seven Devils (just South of Boone) for our snow-tubing excursion at Hawksnest. I am so proud of the kids! It was cold and windy, but I didn't hear a single mumble from either of them! We played and sped down the hill several times before our time was up and we all had a blast! Jude went by himself the whole time (except our first run, where he went down with me but was bounced off when we bumped the side berm pretty hard. We both were laughing pretty hard at that and he jumped back in for the rest of the ride down). Kerrigan took turns riding down with me and Amy. What a great time. When we were done, we grabbed some chow at a great local diner (Troy's 105 Diner), then went straight to the hotel and after winding down in the pool we gave the kids a hot bath and we all crashed out.

We had planned to come back to Raleigh the next morning, but when we were in the city of Seven Devils snow-tubing, we could see Grandfather Mountain and remembered talking with Dave & Tari about meeting there sometime and knew we had to check it out.

So, the next morning, we set off for Linville (which was under and hour away) and had a beautiful trip there. Instead of taking 105 straight South (which would have been quicker), we went around the East side of the mountain on 321, then 221 slowly winding our way though the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains until we happened upon the entrance to the Grandfather Mountain. We first took the kids to the Animal Habitats where we saw cougars, a bald eagle, a black bear (from a distance) and several deer including a buck. We also took them to the natural museum where we walked around for a while. After that, we drove further up the mountain to the peak of Grandfather Mountain where we walked across the mile-high swinging bridge (which, according to the website, is the highest in America at over 5,700 feet altitude). Once we all crossed the bridge, the paved path stopped and only rocks continued. Amy and Kerrigan waited while Jude and I hiked on a bit. I was so proud of him. He was fearless! The sights were awesome and inspiring. We went out a ways, took a few pictures, then turned back to get the girls and headed back down the mountain.

On the way back to boone, we stopped again at Troy's 105 Diner, since it was so good the day before, and grabbed a bite before our drive back to Raleigh.

What a great time. We're already planning a ski trip back to Boone next year!

Updates

A few updates:

Jude had been taking Karate classes for the past few weeks and Kerrigan has been taking ballet classes as well.

Amy and I are preparing for a fun weekend coming up... we're taking the kids to the mountains to go inner-tube sledding! We are all really excited about going. I'll be sure to take some pictures of that one.

NC State at Duke

I scored amazing tickets the other night for the NC State/Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Front row, right behind NC State's bench. I grabbed a bunch of great shots, but I'll only post a couple, plus a video I shot.

I was hoping that NC State could have won this one, but they were no match for Duke.

A month in the making...

Over a MONTH since my last post!? Unacceptable. I am sorry to have kept the handful of folks who actually check up on this blog waiting... I'm sure you were all on tenterhooks, weren't you? Sure you were.

So, what's happened since the 22 of Dec, 2007?

I marked five more notches on my 200 goal at the Flying Saucer, but I'll get to that later.

Christmas was amazing. The kids had a blast, Santa brought the kids board games, Amy got me a leather jacket, Amy got Coco Chanel... but the funnest part was having mom and a house-full of Handy's in the house. Two days after Christmas (Tasia's birthday), Dave, Tari, Taylor, Amanda (Taylor's girlfriend), Seth, Tasia, Eric (Tasi's fiance) and mom all came up to Raleigh from Charlotte to visit for the day. Eric is considering going to NC State so we packed up in the car and toured the campus (albeit a deserted campus, as it was Christmas break), and got to show them around the capital city a little. We went to the Saucer for a few Flyers (Flyers are sample platers with 5 large shot glasses of different styles of beer) which they loved. We all went out for dinner and then when the Handy's made tracks for Charlotte, mom stayed the rest of the week with us. That weekend, we brought her back to Charlotte and we got to hang out some more at Dave and Tari's. What a blast!

I've started freelancing more regularly, which is to say that I have had two freelance projects in the past few weeks: one is helping design/drafting for a woman who is renovating her house and another project is for my old employer, Phillips Architecture, doing facade renderings in Photoshop. Having the extra income has been a relief.

My Packers had surpassed my expectations, and even though they couldn't pull off the NFC title game against the NY Giants at Lambeau field, I am proud of their season and am hoping that Brett decides to keep it going next year. We still should have won that game though.

The kids are doing great. No new lost teeth, not even any new loose ones. No crazy stories or dramatic happenings... that's probably the reason I haven't thought to post anything recently. Everything has been, well, uneventful and boring I guess :)

Alright, in addition to the two flights we had when Dave & Tari came to visit, below are my latest additions to my 200 beer goal at the FS:

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dark
Container: Bottled

Style: Dunkel Weiss

Brewer: Weihenstephaner

City: Freising

Country: Germany

Description: Superb dark wheat beer. Full rich favor, sweet malt and hop finish.

Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale

Container: Drought

Style: Pale Ale

Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery

City: Denver, CO

Country: United States

Description: Two- time medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival. This Classic Pale Ale is dry-hopped with Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest and has enough hop character to satisfy hopheads. Beautiful amber-copper color and pleasant malt flavor.

Big Boss Coffee Stout

Container: Draught

Style: Stout

Brewer: Big Boss Brewing Co.

City: Raleigh, NC

Country: United States

Description: Pleasant coffee aroma with some roasted malt and a hint of chocolate. Pours a thick reddish khaki head leaving spotty lacing. Dry, bitter coffee on the tongue. Medium bodied with good carbonation. Finishes with some bitter astringincy. (Brewed with Larry's Coffee Beans)

Again, these were were all very good. The Coffee Stout was a suprising thumbs-up, since I'm not a big Stout guy. The Dunkel Weiss was thick and had some great flavor. The Doggie Style Pale Ale was my favorite of the three. I've found that you just can't go wrong with any of the Flying Dog beers! Great stuff. I also had a bottle of Wells Banana Bread beer, but it didn't count towards my 200 since you're limited to tallying three per night, no matter how many you put down. Anyway, that beer was bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S), sorry, had to. THAT one was the best of the night. I'd order one of those every time I went if I could.

I promise I will post messages sooner next time.

Peace

Good Buds

Jude & Kerrigan

Testing the New Camera

Ah, finally... we got a new camera.

Doesn't make me look any better but it takes good pictures :)
I put the timer on for this one, that's why it's off-center, but I like the way it turned out.

Christmas Card

Here is this year's Christmas card... if we have your address, you'll get one of these in the mail. If you don't get one, it's not that we don't like you, it's just that we don't have your address :) The fun part was that my neighbor (who sadly moved to Texas) took this picture for us beyond our backyard and I did the rest myself in Photoshop. The not-so-fun part is that it is the 2nd week of December and we're wearing t-shirts... Bring the SNOW and the 10 degree weather!!! These are the days I miss Wisconsin.

Eric with Aunt Amy

Eric Isaac Sorkin

Jude and Kerrigan with their new nephew, Eric.

Great job, Michael & Karen. You made a good lookin' kid!

The Burrito Ride

Jude loves it when I do this for him...

Accidental Flush...

I have a heart-breaking/funny story about Kerrigan.

Tonight when I was putting the kids to bed, I was in the kid's room tucking in Jude while Kerrigan was in the bathroom. I was walking toward the bathroom when I heard Kerrigan say, 'daddy', so I opened the door to see what she needed. As I opened the door she started to scream, and I'm not talking about a stubbed toe scream, this was a 'there's a big creepy bug, a bat, a lion and an alien in the bathroom with me' type of scream! I held on to her and tried to ask what happened, but she was incoherent and inconsolable and only screamed harder and louder. I was a little scared, I didn't know what was going on or what had happened. She had been fine a moment ago, but then went to pieces in the period of a few seconds. I thought maybe she slammed her finger in the toilet seat cover, but it didn't look like it.

So, all this happened within a few seconds... I tried asking her again what happened and by this time I hear Amy flying up the stairs. Kerrigan wailed something that sounded like, 'I lusssssssed I saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.'

Amy got it before I did. She said, 'Kerrigan, did you flush your sock in the toilet?"

She unburried her face from my chest and cried, "YEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!" and screamed even louder.

Amy and I, in spite of Kerrigan's trauma, started cracking up (are we bad parents?) and laughed. I held my poor little girl and tried to comfort her. Finally she settled down enough where we were able to get out of her exactly what happened: She had changed into her pj's in the bathroom before going potty. She picked up her clothes and tried to flush when one of her socks fell into the toilet and helplessly watched it swirl off into sewer oblivion. She was SOOO upset; it was a very special sock, you know?

It's not over yet... So we get Kerrigan settled down a bit and then we hear Jude crying in his room. We go in to see what's up and he's hiding under his covers, visibly shaken. Seeing that Jude was crying, Kerrigan started up again. He had never heard Kerrigan cry like that beofre (none of us had, even when she had 2nd degree burns on her leg when she was a baby, I don't remember her crying so loud).

It took about 10 minutes to restore order. I had to dramatically re-inact (which wasn't too far off from what happened) the whole event before they both started seeing the humor in the whole thing and began laughing as we re-told the story to each other several times before we said it was enough and it was time for bed.

It's still not over yet... a little while after all had settled down, Ames and I were downstairs watching Sunday Night Football, Kerrigan came down asking if she could use the downstairs bathroom because she didn't want to accidentally flush her sock again... Poor little sweetie.

Ames is going to get her some new socks tomorrow.

3 More Down & New Job

Well, today was my last day at Phillips Architecture. It was a great gig while it lasted, but hopefully the new job that I start on Monday will be another exciting and fruitful chapter in the Smith book of fun.

Speaking of fun, a handful of friends from Phillips met up at the Flying Saucer at quittin' time to knock a few back, and that we did. I marked three more notches on my 200 goal. Below are my latest additions:


Ska Buster Nut Brown Ale
Container: Bottled
Style: Brown Ale
City: unassigned
Country: United States
Description: This brown ale produces a nice head that lasts awhile. The flavor has a touch of nuttiness due to the use of Victory & Munich malts. Well rounded brown ale with a touch of hop character.




Pauwel Kwak
Container: Bottled
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Brewer: Brouwerij Bosteels
City: Buggenhout
Country: Belgium
Description: Full-bodied Belgian Specialty Ale. Amber in color with beautiful foam and slightly sweet, seductive malt character. Rich, satisfying Belgian experience. 8% abv




Flying Dog Tire Bite
Container: Draught
Style: Kolsch
Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery
City: Denver,CO
Country: United States
Description: Light lager, Kolsch style beer, with a well balanced taste and a hint of hops. Finishes very smooth and is refreshing for hot days. 5.1% abv




They were all very good. The Ska ale was excellent, a micro-brew. The Belgian ale was interesting, kinda wish they had served it in it's intended kwak glass though, that would have been cool. The Tire Bite kolsch tasted a lot like a Miller Lite. Sorry I'm not a better beer reviewer guy... Maybe by the time I reach 50, I'll do better :)

Anyway, on Monday I start at MI Homes. Really looking forward to making new friends, learning new stuff and having lots of fun.

Wish me luck.