Kerrigan's Birthday

Well, last week was Kerrigan's birthday and she got to spend it in the hospital.

Last Friday she started throwing up and throughout the day it didn't get any better. By that night, Amy had had enough and took her to the ER. Her tummy was tender, so they suspected for a moment that it may be appendicitis (sp?). They ended up staying until Sunday afternoon. By the end of it, they just guessed it was a nasty little virus. Poor girl.

She got a new bike, helmet and knee & elbow pads when she got home though.

Happy Birthday, Kerrigan!

Bio Project

For fun at my job we were all given an opportunity to make a collage to describe ourselves. When everyone's project was finished and collected, they were all put in a photograph album and set out in the lobby for clients to look at. Being an Architectural / Design firm, there was no lack of creativity - I wish I could post everyone's creation here.

Anyway, above is mine. I intentionally didn't explain the meaning of the images so if someone was curious, they could ask. You learn more about a person that way. However, for this post, I put numbers on the image so i can put a brief description there for you - though I think most of them will be easy guessing, especially those of you who know me well. For fun, see if you can tell what everything is before looking at the 'answers'...

1. "More Cowbell" is a reference to the classic Saturday Night Live skit: "VH1's Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult". By far my favorite skit. Gotta have more cowbell!

2. If you read the small seal closely, it says, "Alden Kindred of America Incorporated." Through my paternal grandmother's side of the family, I am a direct descendant of John & Priscilla Alden, who were of the original 100+ pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower back in 1620. Pretty cool.

3. A humble wooden cross. The center of my life.

4. My beautiful kids, Jude & Kerrigan.

5. A djembe drum. I love all music, especially percussion But more than anything, I love the simple primitive sound of a djembe.

6. Putto Musicante by Rosso Fiorentino, circa 1500. My favorite piece of art.

7. 'Jesus Shaves' is... muti-dimensional. People often overlook the humor and automatically see Jesus Saves, but no... he shaves. I think many will see this as sacreligious, but I think it's funny.

8. Our wedding day: July 3, 1998. This is our favorite shot from that day. I remember we were the first one's out of the church and we were alone for just a moment. Kimber Brownlee, our photographer, caught our only real private moment of the day between us. It would be an understatement to say that was a really great day. We are more in love today than we were that day.

9. Tabasco rules. It belongs on everything.

10. 'Shaun of the Dead' is one of my favorite movies. Probably my favorite comedy. You've got red on you.

11. Jack Black rocks. This is him in 'School of Rock.' One of my fav's.

12. Amerigo Bonasera speaking with Don Vito Corleone in "The Godfather". Never get tired of The Godfather.

13. I am a closet Harry Potter geek. I have all the movies, hardback books, audobooks on disc narrated by Jim Dale and even the UK versions on disc narrated by Stephen Fry.

14. Hidden in the background is an 'Oshkosh B' Gosh' logo. I was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, though the brand is no longer centered there. Most locals are pretty bitter that they left... who am I fooling, they're all bitter.

15. Star Wars. I'm such a nerd. I love it.

16. Baseball cards. Though I haven't seriously collected since I graduated high school, I still have all my old cards. Even though I do not own any of the following, these are some of my fav's:

16a) 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card

16b) 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card

16c) 1968 Topps Johnny Bench rookie card

16d) 1909 T206 Honus Wagner tobbacco card

17. Moe's Southwest Grill is my favorite mexican place.

18. BEER! My fav's are Labatt's, Honey Brown, Rolling Rock... but mostly Miller Lite.

19. 'Ecstasy' by Maxfield Parrish. Both he and M.C. Escher are my favorite artists. Many people mistake Parrish as a Renaissance era painter, but he was actually born in Philadelphia, PA in the late 1800's.

20. NFL Vince Lombardi Trophy. The Pack has three of these puppies.

21. The famous Bucky 'effing' Dent home run in the 1978 season ending tie-breaker game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Yanks went on to win the World Series that year. I love being a Yankee fan! Though I must say that I am deeply a Brewers fan at heart.

22. If you've been on this blog at all, you've seen how I feel about the Packers. The only major league professional sports team in the US that is community owned. They may not always be great, but they are by far the best team in the NFL... regardless of the standings.

23. Back to baseball, this is "The Catch." Willie Mays made this catch in the first game of the 1957 World Series off the bat of Vic Wertz. The Giants ended up sweeping the Indians in four games for the championship. One of the greatest catches of all time.

24. This is the logo of the A-6 Squardron I was in while I was stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana. VA-35 Black Panthers.

25. Another Navy reference, classic WWII military propaganda... er, I mean poster.

26. A-6 Intruder logo. This is the type of aircraft I worked with while in the Navy.

27. Old-style Milwaukee Brewers logo. Like I mentioned earlier, the Brewers are my home team. I grew up with Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Gorman Thomas, Rollie Fingers, Pete Vuckovich (et al.). I am just now starting to like the Cardinals... I have hated them indiscriminately since 1982.

28. The Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams. Being a Yankee fan, albeit a transplant fan, I respect and love all the old Red Sox greats: Ted, Carl Yaztremski... uh, are there any more? Anyway, Ted was amazing, even though he is cryogenically frozen in a Scottsdale, AZ lab. Way to go John-Henry.

29. Bucky Badger. I did not attend the University of Wisconsin , but as far as college loyalty goes, they are my team.

30. Just a football... thought it looked cool.

31. Max, from 'Where the Wild Things Are.' My favorite book as a kid and now.

Hope you enjoyed and learned a little more about me.

I had fun making it.

Packers Wallpaper contest # 3

This was my third and final entry.

Much more simple than the others, but fun to make.

Post Script: You can tell by the 'post date' how late I stay up making these stupid things!

Kerrigan took this picture of Jude and I.

Miami Dolphins Wallpaper

Here you go, Rob. As requested, a customized Miami Dolphins wallpaper just for you... and whoever else wants it.

Packers wallpaper 02

This is the second desktop wallpaper I put together for the Packers.com wallpaper contest. It's an ode to their three Super Bowl victories: 1967, 1968 & 1997, though they also won 9 others before there was such a thing as a Super Bowl - 1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, & 1965. I thought the images of Vince Lombardi & Mike Holmgren balanced each other excellently. Pressure and frustration leading to winning their respective championships, being carried away by the team. I like this one better than the first.

Packers Desktop Contest

This is one of the Wallpapers I made and submitted to Packers.com for a contest. If you like the Pack, feel free to download it and grace your desktop with it's chessiness!

Hope we beat the Chargers tonight. It may be a long season.

Jude & Kerrigan on 'Cars'

Can't remember if I've mentioned this, but the kids are absolutely in love with all things 'Cars' by Pixar. As a treat, I thought I'd surprise Jude and Kerrigan with a little picture of them with their favorites... I put it on the computer's desktop, so they saw it right away this morning. They were so excited to be 'riding' on King and Sally!

If any of you happened to get the McDonald's happy meal cars and have extra or don't mind parting with them, we missed Lightning McQueen, Ramone, Fillmore & Sally. We have extra Mater & Doc if you're up for a trade as well.

KaChow!

The Reverend in Rhythm

I would love to hear this album!

Nice pipe...

Polar Bear at the Glass

You can read the story below to get a better idea of what was happening here...

Polar Bears

With Amy in Dallas till Wednesday, I took Monday off work and thought I'd take the kids to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. I've posted images before of a previous trip, but that was the 'African' side of the zoo. Today, we went to the 'North American' side.

It was pushing 100 degrees by the time we got there, so we weren't expecting too much activity from the animals. I was initially proved right when we went past the lounging kangaroos & wallabies, both sacked out in the shade. We strolled over to the sea lions and got a small treat. A family of three were playing and the kids were fired up.

Right next to the sea lions were the Polar Bears; honestly, I was not expecting much. I've seen Polar Bear exibits before at a few zoos and those big northerners don't take kindly to warm weather, especially a day like today. As you can see from the pictures, I was quite mistaken. They were all about having fun. From the upper observation deck, we could see a few of them playing in the water, so we went down to where you could view them from below. I wish I could post all the shots I took. Absolutely AMAZING. I've never seen anything like it. A couple of them were playing right up against the glass. The coolest part was that we were the first ones down there, and when one of the bears saw us, they stopped and he wanted to play with us. He grabbed a little rubber washer toy he had and kept pressing it up to the glass like he wanted to play 'catch' or something. It was really incredible.

The pictures don't even do the size of this thing justice either. Their paws alone seemed as large as my torso. This went on for about 10-15 minutes until it appeared he wanted to go back and play with the other bear. Jude and kerrigan were beside themselves. The only thing that suprised me more than the bears was the kids nerves. They weren't scared or intimidated at all. They were right up on the glass wanting to get as close as possible.

So glad I had the camera.

Polar Bears Cont...

Polar Bear wanting to play with Jude.

Polar Bears Cont...

I think Jude wanted to play with him, too.

Burrito Eating Contest Results

Here's how the competetive eating went:

There were waves of contestants. The first wave had five eaters, the second wave also had five and the third wave had four. I was in the third one. The guy on the furthest left, Marc (to my right), is my boss at work.

I didn't stand a chance. The first wave's winner ate all three burritos in 5 min 2 sec. The second wave's winner ate all three in 4 min 22 sec! The winner of my wave won in a marathon 8 min 30 sec!! Marc,was a bite shy of winning our round. I got through the first one on pace with everyone, but I couldn't keep it up. Those black beans were killing me! Hard and gritty, they were tough to swallow without much water. Especially since 'chewing' was at most optional. Once I ran out of water, I gave up.

I ended up eating only 1-1/2 burritos when it was all said and done. I took the third one home and ate at for dinner.




I'm full... I'm going to go take a nap.

This really threw Jude for a loop

He couldn't quite process how we could be in the same picture together like this...

Kerrigan's Summer Haircut

Kerrigan AFTER her haircut tonight...

She was very excited about it.

Kerrigan's Summer Haircut

Kerrigan BEFORE her haircut tonight...

Doug's first day of school

Found it...

Wow, not too much different from Jude's.

I guess that this would be back in '79?

Jude's first day of school

Last Monday was Jude's first day of Kindergarten. He has had such a great time and loves school very much.

If you're wondering why he's staring school in July, it because it is a year-round school. Very good actually; 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off for the whole year. Not bad. Seems to be a great system and much of Raleigh is on this schedule.

On Thursday, we had a meet the teacher night at his school already. We all went together and got to meet his friends from class, their parents and Jude's teachers.

When I saw this picture, I couldn't help but think of the picture of my first day of school. I'll post that one when I find it.

This is us on vacation with Amy's family earlier last month... sorry, I forgot to post this one sooner. Probably the most recent 'family shot' we have. We had a great time. Well, Amy and the kids had a great time. I drove them to the beach (4 hours, one way from Raleigh) on a Friday, then I had to come back alone to be back at work that Monday. I got to go back at the end of the week and enjoyed the weekend with them, then we all came back home together on Sunday morning.

Still, it was a great time!