New Princess Palace

Here are the pictures of the new room for the to girls SM and CG. They do not know that they are getting a new room. Right after Christmas all Three kids went to Grandmas, the main reason was so that all of this work could take place in secret.

These pictures were taken on Friday morning. I will be at home working today and Ms. Clean will be working hard to complete the room. For those not familiar with what was in this room before, we had our office in this room, which was a 3x5 desk and all the computer paraphernalia on it. The desk s still in the room and can be seen in one of these pictures. We also had a sofa bed, and a full size bed in the room. The sofa bed is now down in the living room and the two other sofa's that were there are being given to a family member. The full size bed is now in the girls old room which is now our new guest room. And the office will be in the living room in a new hutch that my in-laws are giving to us that we will be getting this weekend.

We are very excited to see what the girls think of the new room that they have. We both think that they are going to love it. We feel that the space will be great for them as they grow up.

KZ may be a little jealous about it however he has his own room and does not have to share with anyone. He may like the fact however that he won't be able to hear the girls talk and talk when they go to bed now. In their old room the girls could be easily heard through the wall in KZ's room. So over all things should be good. We still have a lot to get done though.

Cub Scouts and Chirstmas

We went to KZ's Cub Scout Pack meeting this week and it was quite the show.

It was the Christmas show and each den had a little skit to do. Most of the skits were very cute, one thing we learned very early on in the show is that young Cub Scouts have no concept of how to USE A MICROPHONE!!!

Now not to completely blame the Scouts the leaders, DID NOT TURN IT DOWN!!!

So at the end of each skit there was some kid that felt that they needed to hear voice in the Space Shuttle and this would be his one shot at making that happen.

But it was fun anyway. KZ got his first awards at this meeting. KZ is the only one wearing the hat in the picture and he got lots of beads to put on the paw print on his shirt pocket.

Hopefully next time there won't be any time for the Scouts to talk in a Mic.

Next is the Pinewood Derby, and I plan on winning. Oh I mean KZ plans on winning. I bought two car kits to work on KZ and I will practice on the first car the tips that I have gotten from a Pinewood Derby speed book. Then I am going to have Zach do it all by himself on his own car, once he knows how to do the work. So in the end we should have to identical cars.

Will keep you updated on how the race goes once it is over. Race is in January.

Small Group Christmas Party

On the 17th we had our small group Christmas party at a friends house. Our friends have 20 acres of land and quite the lot of animals around. They invited us to come a little early and have some time to ride the horse.

CG was the second one to go for the ride and she was a little unsure at first but I am sure that the experience that she had at Nan and Pop's helped to make her decide that this would be fun. Plus she does not like to let her brother and sister to show her up.

SM was the first to get a ride and she was very excited about it. She got to go with our friend and also by herself with someone leading the horse for her. She could not get enough of the horse she wanted to keep riding and riding.

Mrs. Clean went third and was going to go by herself and guide the horse. Mr. Ed had other ideas however. It looked as if he could only turn right and did not want to go any direction that Mrs. Clean wanted to go. He did however want to go to the garage. Maybe he wanted to get parked in the warm house. Good thing he did not go all the way in or Mrs. Clean would have been removed from the horse by the house.

I was asked if I wanted to ride the horse and I turned it down. I prefer to ride machinery. I get to control it and it does not have a mind of its own. SM and CG wanted to go with me, and with 20 acres to explorer we had lots of fun. I opened and up and got "my horse" racing across the pasture. SM loved it CG thought I was going a tad fast and told me so. But they both had fun racing around on the 4 wheeler.

KZ was not left out. He got himself in quite a bit of trouble before going and his punishment was that he would not be able to ride the horse. I was not aware at the time of punishment that there was a 4 wheeler. I did let him go out with 2 other boys on the 4 wheeler and he couldn't get enough of it. He did still ask to ride the horse after the 4 wheeler, so I feel that the punishment did have some effect. But we all had a great time before and during the party.

Indiana Jones 4, Yippieeeeee, .......Oh Wait!

Indiana Jones 4 is in the works. It may take another 20 years before the actor will be ready to start shooting the movie however. But if they can do it with Star Wars why can't they do it with Indy.

KZ has seen, and loves the Indian Jones pics. I was not home the day that this picture was taken so not sure what prompted the dress up session. But I think KZ will fill in nicely once there is a script. The movie might not have much dialoge if it started filming today, unless it includes a lot of the words, "pig wig can hit"

The Evil Digit !

You get to see all sorts of things when you visit NYC. Take a look at the attached picture, see anything missing? I think my kids could even figure this one out. My NYC office is on the 20th floor, or is it.

Yes, by now you have probably noticed that the 13th floor is missing. Oops, the 13th floor is not missing, some doofus decided to label the 13th floor number 14. I know that some people are superstitious and all but if you were really superstitious about the number 13 do you think you would be on the 14th floor?

A comedian that I heard on XM radio one day was talking about this problem. He said that the 14th floor is the 13th floor and if you don't think so jump out the window a count the floors on the way down, you will hit the ground a floor sooner!

But then if you completed the test, being superstitious of the 13th floor will no longer be a problem. So my office is on the 19th floor, I wish people could get it right.

New York vs. Boston

New York Yankees Vs. Boston Red Sox. This is one of the most bitter revelries in baseball. The fans dislike each other, OK HATE each other. I being a Yankees fan, makes sure I watch these games. I may miss all the others but I do my best to watch all of these games. By the way the Yankees swept the Sox in 5 games last season and killed the Sox's chance at post season.

Now lets compare New York and Boston from another perspective. The perspective I am going to use is that of a business traveler (big surprise) and what I have experienced.

Let's start with the roads. In NYC the roads make sense they go north, south, east and west and they make sense to anyone that has been in the city more than once. You go uptown or downtown, and west side or east side, makes sense to me. If you can count I would feel quite confident that you would be able to get around the city. Seems a little overwhelming at first. Now side step here for a moment to a money lesson. Manhattan was purchased for 60 Guilder from the Indians. Now your saying what is a guilder? 1.5 Guilder equals a daalder. 1 daalder equals 1 dollar. Now were talking money you understand. Got all this info from Wikipedia. So Manhattan was bought for 20 Bucks, what a steal, (side thought here, did you ever wonder what the Indians needed money for, why did they think this was a good idea?) and I pay 200 for the shoe box I sleep in, I think they got a good return on their money. So the people that were smart enough to buy an Island for 20 bucks, were smart enough to make roads that people could understand.

Now Boston, for those of you familiar with Boston history, you may recall that the roads were based on old cow paths. That's right I said cow paths. Does this seem to make sense to any of you? I mean who lets a flatulence belching bovine decide where the roads are going to go. Mankind was able to build a ship, sail from England to Massachusetts, in an age without GPS, but was not smart enough to realize that letting a dumb as a rock animal that we turn into hamburgers decided where the roads would go, would be a bad idea? Now I am sure that if I stayed here long enough they would make sense to me as well. However trying to leave the airport was a mish mash of driving around following all sorts of airport exit signs. Then you go through the "big dig" which took 13 years to get to 94% complete opened on 2004, and oh by the way the roof has this neat trick falling down and killing newlyweds. They were on there way to the airport for their honeymoon, rough way to start a marriage. Maybe it's because they can't say R's in Massachusetts, (Notice no R's in state name) so the roof is really a oof. Maybe I found a major construction flaw. By the way the big dig also leaks. A tunnel that goes underwater that leaks, no wonder people drive 90 MPH they don't want to be in the tunnel when a section of the oof falls that was keeping the water out. Now I am sure that my wife will remember this the next time we are in Boston driving through, she will be telling me to drive faster.

Now I do give more kudos to the hotel that I am staying at in Boston (in the Burbs) not quite the same comparison. But I can spread my arms out. So if you were to ask me which city to visit I would probably tell you NYC, at least the oof's don't fall on newlyweds.

Return of the Cone Heads!

Does this look like a familiar picture to anyone? The annual ritual of making our children happy by making them look like cone heads.

It was CG's special day today and we had a small party at Grandma's house. YIPPEE !! it wasn't at my house. Don't get me wrong I love my kids and all, but I don't like having all the kids (that are not mine) mess up my house. I used to look at people that would spend a fortune at a place the sells pizza and has a mouse come out and say hi to the kids (can't say the name I now hate this place, but I bet you know what place I am talking about) like they were nuts. After three kids I now understand, your not paying for the pizza and the mouse, you are paying to keep everyone out of your house and the stress that goes with it. Well CG had a great day, it was a Dora the Explorer birthday.


Her brother had some fun as well. As you can see he decided that he would be the triple cone head, or punk rocker can you see the resemblance? If he decides to go this route as a teenager he is going to look like me by force.

I Can't Drive 55 !!!!!

This is one one of my favorite rock songs, "I Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar. However sometimes living by that philosophy, can get me in trouble. As it did the other day. I was visiting my mother-in-law and was traveling down the road that heads to her house and I got busted.

The speed limit / recommendation, was 35 MPH. Now usually I try not to be 10 MPH over the recommendation, this time my foot was a little heavier than usual (I should have a license plate that reads "Pb Foot", go back to chemistry class to figure it out) and I was not paying attention. As I was traveling (flying) down the road, out of the corner of my eye I see one of Pennsylvania's finest.Now why is it that no matter when you see one of these beautiful cars sitting on the side of the road you hit the breaks and slow down. Why don't we look at the speedometer and say hey I am driving the speed limit and all is good. I would guess it it because most of us don't drive the speed limit. So we assume that we are driving to fast and need to slow down.For me however at that point it was too late. I was busted! I slowed down as soon as I saw him and I knew he was going to pull out and test his lights to make sure that they were working, right behind me! So I pulled into the nearest neighborhood and started the routine of digging through all the other trash in the glove box looking for my registration, insurance, and thank goodness I had my license. My wife knows all to well that there are times that I leave my licences at home by accident. v>

So I gave the nice trooper my info and he tells me why he pulled me over. "Sir, you were going 53 in a 35 zone". Ouch! 18 MPH over the limit. This is going to hurt. Mr. Trooper takes the info that I have provided and walks back to his car to write me a note (or ticket). Whatever you call it we all know that we don't ever want to get one. As the officer is in his car my wife and I are already discussing

What Were They Thinking!

Well you see all sorts of things in NYC, and this was one of them. This was hanging inside a building on Lexington Ave. in NYC. This is a very high class building.

Now, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you see these. If you mind works like mine, the first thing I thought was boy some big urinals. Notice the door on the right, these things are about 8' tall.

Now as Paul Harvey would say "now for the rest of the story". The person that was responsible for buying and having this .....interesting art work installed was on site as they were being put in. Preface that with the fact that the building was still under construction and there were construction workers in the building. Now we all know how subtle construction workers can be. So one of them said "looks like and elephant urinal". The art purchaser heard this comment and left the building in tears. I guess she should have taken a guy along when she was looking at buying this art work. Or at least walked into a men's room. Two pictures look alike don't they?

Stuck in a Closet

So I have been going to NYC on a weekly basis for about the last 3 weeks now. Quite and interesting experience.

Now I have been to NYC before as a tourist however not in the capacity of a business traveler that has to stay over night. So the last few times that I have had to stay in a hotel, the price and the SIZE or lack there of has been surprising.

I have stayed at two hotels in the Manhattan area. One was the Hotel Pennsylvania, supposedly a famous hotel in Manhattan. Two hundred bucks for the night and the AC did not work. I was very hot and uncomfortable for the whole night. The next morning I find that the shower head was placed at a level for say ................. my son who is a whopping 4 feet tall. However for me at 6'1" my chest gets quite the blast of water, and for those of you that know me and the condition of my head, soaking my head before shaving makes me look like a cripple that can't stand up straight in the shower (Sorry to give you all that image, I know it is burned in your mind now). So I decided that I would not be returning to this hotel.

Hotel two Econo Lodge, the name is quite deceiving for a hotel in NYC, nothing Econ about it. Cost $206.00 per night. I think the room was smaller than the last one. I could shimmy around the bed but walking like a normal human was kind of out of the question. As you can see from the picture, if someone was sitting at the desk you can forget getting to the bed. Now on to the pluses. The shower head was actually above my head, and the AC in the room did work and I was quite comfortable. So I think I have found the place that I will be staying for the times I have to go up to NYC. The "NOT ECONO LODGE" on 47th st.

Tales From the Dark Side

Well it was Halloween yesterday and the kids could not wait to walk around the neighborhood and collect all the tooth rotting candy they could from every possible person that they could. So around 5:30 I started to get them ready to go. KZ decided to go as the evil Lord Vader, SM was a fish in the sea, Princess Ariel, and CG was a butterfly.

Now CG thought she was Luke Skywalker. Before we left for the night she says to me "KZ is Darth Vader" yup that is right I said. Then to show that she has seen the movie and knows it a bit well she says "Darth Vader is my father!" I got a good laugh out of that.

So off we go candy collecting, and did we make out. We have about 5 pounds of candy that mostly I will eat. I must sacrifice my body for the well being of my children, or in the famous words of Spock "The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few!" So next time you see me and my teeth look rotten and falling out and I weigh 20 more pounds (yes that's right I said 5 pounds of candy, however once eaten it multiplies by 4. So my recommendation don't eat 20 pounds of candy) you will know that it was because I love my kids so much that I did this.

To Puke or Not to Puke That is the Question......

So have you ever gotten up in the morning and known that you are going to have a crummy day? Well that is what happened to SM and CG the other day. They both got up and lasted about one hour before the fun began. CG was laying in mom and dad's bed when it started. You know what I mean that feeling that starts in you toes and works it's way up through your legs, into your stomach (key location) and up to you head. Specifically your mouth and then if you are lucky into your throne of choice.

CG however did not make it to her throne of choice, I don't even think that she knew that she was supposed to go to the throne. She doesn't use it for anything else why would she go there? After her first experience with the urge to regurg, CG decided that it was best to just put her hands over her mouth and keep it in that way. Not totally successful however. So KZ and Mrs. Clean we on constant vigil to throw something in front of CG to catch the deposit.

SM was not far behind in the regurg department, however she is a great sprinter and does make it to the throne quite often. About every half hour to be precise, for most of the day. As you can see from the picture, she wised up and just decided to park herself in front of the alter, making it much easier to deposit the sacrifice.

Well after a morning of playing catch the puke and praying to the porcelain convenience, the fun ended. AMEN! and they were both fine by dinner time. Hopefully that won't happen again anytime soon. If it does I hope it doesn't start in my bed.

EVOC in the BRT

So I have been a member of a fire department for the last 2 years and I am just now starting to drive the BRT. Mrs. Clean is not as happy about it as I am. But she has been a trooper through the whole thing. So what is EVOC you ask, it stands for Emergency Vehicle Operations Class. In other words how to keep the BRT from looking like this. So today, I got to sit in class all day and here horror stories of drivers that had accidents, and ultimately why I would not ever want to drive the BRT. Because in our sue your pants off society, you will be at fault if any one runs into you even when you have come to a complete stop and then slowly go through an intersection. And if that happens I will then have no money and may end up like this. But one thing I know is that no matter what happens when I am driving that God is good and will be watching out for me and everyone that I may come in contact with. Maybe contact was not the right word when talking about driving and crashing. So if you see me on the road in the BRT or anyone else on the road in any town in the USA in the BRT trying to get to an emergency please move to the right and let us pass. And if my small little plea does not convince you to move. Think about this, our tower truck weighs 80,000 pounds, your car if your lucky is about 2,000-3000 pounds. Even if the driver of the fire truck is at fault and you and he have a collision who do you think would win the collision? And if your car looked like that would it really matter who was at fault. Maybe to the surviving family members and the courts but most likely not to you.

Tomorrow, the driving portion of class.

Roaring Tiger, Crouching Dad, Part 2

So after the archery off we go to the BB guns. The weapon of choice for any self respecting 6 year old that wants to "shoot your eye out". For those of you not familier with that line start watching your Christmas movies. So here we are at the shooting range, the first time that KZ has ever picked up a gun of any fashion that has a projectile that actually shoots out the end of it. Unless you count suction cup darts, in that case he has had a gun and bow and arrow that he has used. In fact he wanted to play William Tell with his sister the first time he got the bow and arrow. I 'll save that story for another time.

So we all march in and sit down to listen to the instructor that thinks BB guns are the same as a .50 caliber sniper rifle and gives us the safety lecture. Don't get me wrong I think that the safety is very important, and I so much as told KZ that if he did not follow the instructions given I would remove him from the range myself. We also had to here the instructor tell us that the big bad government wanted to take our guns away and to vote for Charlton Heston in November, if we cared about protecting ourselves.

Now onto the shooting. I gave KZ some tips about using the sites on the gun and lineing them up however it is pretty hard to know if he is doing it right. KZ does not have a hole in the back of his head like the Six Million Dollar Man doll that I had when I was a kid. So the only way I could tell if he had it some what right was weather or not he actually hit the target.

He did, in fine fashion. He had about 19 holes in the paper when he was done and about 4 of them were in the black center section of the target (about 3" in diameter). So I think that maybe we are ready to go off to Africa with the Elephant gun and take down the big game. But we are going to stop and vote first.

ROARING TIGER, CROUCHING DAD, DAY

Mr. Clean and KZ went to Tiger Cub day up at the local Scout camp. The day did not start all that well. I woke up late and had to wake up KZ to even get him ready for the day. (Why is it that the times that I want him to be up at the crack of dawn he is never up?) Well after a quick breakfast and getting ourselves together we pulled out of the driveway in the yuppie mobile, aka the VOLVO and went to camp. We had no idea what to expect and were looking forward to all the things that the Scouts had planned for the day.

When we got to the camp we started by........ Standing in line! WHOO HOO! We had to register and find out what our group schedule was for the day. They had five events planned for the kids during the day. Our order was 1) Nature Hike (in other words run around in the woods, find a stick and whack everything you can with it until Dad chucks it further in the woods in frustration and then start the process all over again) 2) Games 3) Craft 4) Archery 5) BB Guns. I must admit I think that we had the best order for the day. If the Archery and BB Guns had come first the rest of the day would not have been so bearable. It made KZ really put up with some of the more un-interesting items.

So it was not until latter in the afternoon that we got to the Archery. YIPPIE, KZ got two rounds of shooting arrows at a target that was a whopping 4 feet away. Round one, not so good. 5 arrows and here is how it went 1) HIT, about 1" for margin of error.
Hard to tell from the Photo to the left however KZ's arrow is the one closest to the left edge of the target. 2) MISS 3)MISS 4) MISS and surprise surprise 5) MISS. KZ was a little discouraged by the results of his first 5 attempts. I think he figured that this would be a piece of cake since he already had practice at Nan and Pop's and he would not have to practice to hit the target. So then he got to sit down and wait for the other 2 groups to go before he got to go again. While he was waiting, Dad gave him some pointers before round 2. Round two, he only had three arrows. Makes sense to me, can't hit it with 5, lets take some arrows away. All the adults were jumping up and down yelling YIPPIE!!, in their heads of course.


So off we go to round 2, and here were the results. Arrow 1) Dad is busy taking pictures and KZ is busy hitting the BULLSEYE DEAD CENTER. Dad was very proud, all the pointers I gave him worked! Well maybe some of them. Arrows 2 and 3 he also hit the target. So he made much improvement in 5 minutes of sitting. I guess he is ready to go hunting. After the archery we got to go to the Grand Poohba of events the BB Guns. Will follow up with that later.