I haven't posted anything on this site for awhile and the reason is that Facebook makes it obsolete.  The only reason I had this site at all was in case someone searched the internet for me and wanted info about me, but now that most of the people I know or knew are on Facebook, we get connected via social networking.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this site in the long run.

So we just got back from Vegas a few days ago and it was an awesome trip, but I haven't been able to get to sleep since I got back.  It would be cool if it was just jet lag, but it's not and I'm not sure what to do about it.  To tell you why I can't sleep, I need to tell you what happened after we got back home and went to get the kids from Mom and Dad.

 

Usually when we travel without the kids, we send the kids to my parents in Virginia.  A lot of the time, we'll meet halfway in Henderson or in Durham at Northgate Mall.  When we got back from Vegas, we drove to Northgate to meet Mom and Dad and get the kids.  This usually entails a brief meeting in the mall - sometimes with a meal in the food court, sometimes not.  This time, it was a quick get together because Steph and I had slept very little since the day we left Vegas, maybe 2 or 3 hours.  So we met the folks in the mall and then walked out to the Vans to exchange luggage and scooters and all of the paraphenalia associated with the boys.  While we were doing this and chatting, some douchebag was tearing through the mall parking lot, sqeualing his tires and narrowly missing other cars in the lot. 

Being a sarcastic family, Mom, Dad, and I waved our arms at the truck and yelled "Woo hoo!" and "Impressive!".  I've done this before and never really thought twice about it.  This time, the guy slams on his brakes and whips around in a U-turn then squeals to s stop beside us.  We're standing there outside of our mini-van with Gabriel and Colby strapped in their seat belts and this guy just starts flying off the handle.  He screams at Mom and tells her to "stop waving her fucking arms" and says "that's a good way to get shot."  Dad and I can't resist pointing out that he is waving his arms at us while he s saying this.  This infuriates him even further and he tells all of us to "shut the fuck up".  Mom and Dad tell the guy to watch his language around the kids and he just gets madder and yells more profanity at the kids.  I make some sort of mocing gesture at him and he puts the truck in park and goes for the door handle.

 

At that point, I start thinking maybe this guy is on steroids or pcp.  Maybe he has a gun and he's crazy enough to go to prison to prove he is a man.  I turn around and get my phone out the van and start to dial 9-1-1.  He asks who I'm calling and I tell him the police.  He says "What are you gonna tell them?"  So I think to myself "I 'm gonna tell them a crazy guy just pulled up to me in the mall parking lot and threatened to kill my family because my 60-year-old mother waved her arms in the air and he perceived it as a threat."  But since I think the guy may be batshit crazy, I tell him "I don't know, but I just want them here." At this point, Mom apologizes for offending him and he and I have a stare down for about 3 more minutes.  He finally puts his truck back in drive and takes off with another squeal of tires.  We finished getting the kids packed up, laughed about the incident, and parted ways and I didn't think about it again for awhile.

 

Last night, when I settled into bed, I started thinking about it again.  What if he had a gun?  What if he had gotten out and shot someone?  What if he had shot wildly and hit Gabriel or Colby?  What if he had killed Steph or Mom or Dad or Me?  What would happen to the kids if they saw opne of us shot to death in front of them?  Why was this guy so angry?  Was he crazy?  Did we narrowly miss getting hurt because some sociopath wanted to prove a point?  What if he had pointed a gun out the window and I tried to stop him.  What if I had gotten shot doing this?  What if I had caused him to shoot someone else while trying to stop him?  This went on and on in my head for literally hours.  The good part is I got in bed at 8:00pm and slept until midnight, then woke up at 2:30 and started this spiral, so even though it kept me up until 4:00, I still got a lot of sleep.

 

Tonight, I went to bed at normal time and I'm still up at 3:40 AM.  I'm thinking about going to the doctor to get some Ambien or something, but I know that is just a band-aid?  Do I need therapy or do I just wait it out until it's a bad, but faint memory? I guess I'll ask the doctor.

The original front walk at our new house was pretty awful.

  It was a short, right-angle walk from the front door to the driveway.  The ground underneath the pavers had settled in random spots, so the walk was rippled and uneven.  We decided to redo the front walk and, in the process, enlarge it to serve as a patio.  This gallery shows the progess.

 

 

Once again, I am thwarted.  I had to work all week and, even with daylight savings, I didn't get a chance to work on the sand box any more.  Now it is supposed to rain all weekend.  I suppose I will spend some of that time working on the cover design and possibly the Lower Deck on the house.  Dumb Stupid Rain.

 

 

 

Update (3/15/2008):  I ended up cutting out the seats and dry-fitting them in the rain.  It's looking good.  If I had had the foresight to buy some long exterior wood screws, I could have had the seats on today.  I finished up the cutting right before the rain let loose. 

 

Update (2/16/2008): I went to Lowe's and bought some screws.  Mission Complete!  Pix are in the  sand box gallery.

It's that time again!  Spring has sprung and I have about 1,000 projects I'm ready to get started on.  The first one to hit the drawing board is the sand box for Colby.  It's the only thing Colby has asked for as a birthday present besides "A Thomas the Tank Engine that sticks to the wall."  Here's the sketchup image:

 I have the sandbox base done and the box is already full of sand.  Next come the seats.  Then the cover.  I'm still designing the cover.

So I broke my toe the other day falling down the stairs right after I woke up one morning.  That's a funny story, too, but this is about a side-effect of that awesome event.  I have been putting off going back to the gym because I'm afraid I'll hurt my toe doing exercises with a lot of weight. Also, the tennis shoes hurt like hell, too.  So I looked around the net for some bodyweight exercises I could do at home with just my bodyweight and barefoot.  I stumbled on Matt Furey's combat fitness articles and he had several good things to say about traditional Hindu martial arts exercises.  The three major ones, in his opinion, are the Hindu Squat, the Hindu Push-Up, and the Bridge.  I thought they would be moderately hard since I have been working out steadily for a few years now, but MAN!  Those things are tough!  I'm going to try to incorporate this stuff into my regular workout as much as I can.

  Christmas this year was filled with family, travel and an enormous remote control tractor trailer.  Easily the largest toy I've ever seen, this gargantuan semi was one of the highlights of the gifts received by the boys this year.  Dad and Janet's house was complete chaos after they brought this thing out.  For a preview, check out the gallery.

 

 

 

We went on a trip to Kentucky for a wedding.  Click below to read the details.

 

We are in our new house and things are going well.  On the day of closing, we tested the limits of our penmanship in a frenzy of signatures that seemed to drag on for hours and hours.  After the last page was turned and the last papercut treated with band-aids and neosporin, we walked out of the lawyer's office without the key to our new house.  I was a little frustrated. Ok.  I was pretty pissed off.  The realtor for the seller said he had to "Call the seller and ask her about her emotional state on the issue" of giving us the keys before the sale was recorded at the courthouse.  Nevermind the fact that the keys are traditionally handed off at closing.

 We went to lunch to raise my blood sugar a bit and let me cool off and while we were there, the realtor called us and said he had left the key under the mat at the new house. That was the only real problem with the closing other than the fact that we closed a day late.  The new house is 3100 to 3400 square feet and we are still loading our stuff in.  The kids are having a ball and there is a 5 year old boy next door, so Gabriel has already made a friend.

The boys are still adapting to their new house when bed time comes around, but Gabriel slept in a cardboard box in the living room last night and seemed to enjoy it immensely.  It was the first night he slept through until morning, so the box is staying as long as it's necessary.

We were initially a little worried about selling our house because the market was supposed to be kind of bad right now.  Several houses in our neighborhood have been on the market for quite some time, so we had some doubts after we took the plunge.  Fortunately, the time and money we put into the house paid off.  We sold it in five days and the buyer is in love with the paint colors and the upgrades we've made.  She is expecting a new baby Aug. 15th and her family  wants to move in by the 20th, so even though the stress of selling was gone, we suddenly had the stress of not having a place to be.  We spent a few days looking at houses and found several we liked and a few we loved.  It seemed like every time we found a fantastic house, the yard sucked.  The houses with good yards were bland and uninteresting or had the wrong room configuration.  Finally, we narrowed it down to two houses and deliberated for awhile over which one to grab.  The one we decided on is huge (3100 sq. ft.) and sits on a 1.3 acre wooded lot.  It has lots of nice updates inside, but is in desperate need of some TLC on the exterior.  It is 18 years old and still doesn't have flower beds around the house.  There are some boxwood hedges in the front yard that will have to go.  Aside from the landscaping, though, it is perfect.  It's in a nice neighborhood and we've seen plenty of other kids around.  It's also in the best school district.  We're putting in an offer today, so wish us luck.  Here's some pictures of the house:

 

 

Update July 31st - The offer was accepted and we are under contract! 

Update August 13th - We are still waiting for our lender's appraiser to appraise the property.  One week to go and we still don't know if we can get the house...