A free moment...

Jacob is sleeping... it took a little bit of coaxing but he is asleep.

I figured I'd redo work I had done on my mtb. I installed new cranks and apparently I have a 73mm bottom bracket and not a 68mm... that tells you how long it has been since I've been working on bikes. I should've known that right?

Today is New Year's Eve, Kristen is working. So it is just the boy and I at home. (Don't tell Kris but Jacob is still in his pj's, I was not up for "the battle" this morning) Brent is having a party in DE and I'd love to get there but it seems like there is so much effort involved to do anything these days.

Speaking of effort, we are having company tomorrow for pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes ( P,S and MP). Apparently it is a tradition in PA. The first time I heard of it was from Derek. It was New Years Day and we woke up and went for a New Years ride, and yes we were feeling very "fresh"... I think I had to stop and puke. Anyway, got back from the ride and Derek says we need to have pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I gave him a load of crap about it, that's what friends are for right, but I love traditions and couldn't pass up a new one. Besides, P,S and MP sounds alot better than Black-Eyed Peas, right? We ran to the A&P and the pork selection was awful. Needless to say we made it, but is was not that good. I think I've been having P,S and MP on New Year's Day ever since. Although, now a days we do it right (thanks to Kris and Buba) Turned out Kristen and her family has been having P, S and MP since the dawn of time.

Last night I had a little discussion with my folks and it led to me once being called a conundrum, but they thought a curmudgeon was more appropriate. I think I liked conundrum better. Oh yeah, the same person that called me a conundrum also called me "weird-o monk-boy"...

Holidays

Well, one weekend of celebrating down and one to go.

Here's the short version:
Saturday night, had all of Kristen's family over for dinner. Cooked for 10 people.
Sunday went to Kristen's parents and cooked for 10 people again.
Monday had college friends over for brunch, cooked for 7.
I did a lot of cooking this weekend! I really do enjoy it, and everything turned out well!

The brunch crew:
cazz, otto, droopy, malcom, truc, schnerbs, andrea, hayley and coyle
Yeah, we all had nicknames in college, except for Pat.

fudge log blog...

Yesterday was a good day. I received a call around 10:00 inviting me to go out to lunch with the Planning Department. I went out to lunch the day before with the Engineering Department. So, I got taken out to lunch twice! Ah, the benefits of working for two departments! I can't believe how much crap the Engineering folks were giving me for going to lunch with the Planning folks, stuff like "You traitor!" and "What are you too good for the Engineering Department?" but it was all in fun.

I got a call from Jeff around 3:00 asking me if I wanted a "fudge yule log". I said I just dropped off a couple of "fudge logs" and who couldn't use a good "fudge log".

The Fudge Yule Log

Derek, Jeff and myself went to dinner last night at the Long Valley Brew Pub. We had a couple of beers at the bar and then got a table for dinner. BTW, the bartender there is in the top 5 ever! I decided I was not going to get a heavy entree, I had been out to lunch that day and the day before. I have also been eating the heck out of the cookies in the office... So, in addition to the wings, Jeff gets the prime rib special, then Derek gets the prime rib special and I then order a grilled chicken cesar salad... well they broke out laughing and called me a "sally", the waiter even got into the act! Great, can't a guy just have a salad for dinner?

After dinner we ended up at the bar again, I started drinking coffee, I had a long drive home. We asked the bartender for 10 singles or was it twenty? Anyway she asked us what exactly we were going to do with these dollar bills... we just wanted to play liar's poker! Honestly! I smoked the both of those losers! Once I got into the groove there was no stopping me! Anyone need some singles?

'tis the season, for holiday cheer, please be careful getting home! Remember, you can only roll the dice so many times...

I did it!

I finally finished the X-Men Legends game! Kristen is going to be so happy, I think. Now I can stop playing the PS2 and start doing "things" around the house... like pick my clothes up off the floor, put my shaving cream and razor in the medicine chest, rinse and put away my empty beer bottles... and much, much more!

Sunday Loss...

Eagles lost to the Giants... now I have to wear 2 Giants items at the next Giants-Eagles game with Derek. I wonder what he'll come up with in addition to the hard hat? At least I didn't have to wear the hat during this game, because Derek had to miss the game. (He went to a play... the sally) I think he would have really been in the weeds if he rescheduled again for the Giants-Eagles game. At least it was a good game! Eagles had their chances... oh well. There is always next year...

Saturday Santa...

Kristen worked today, so it was just Jacob and I for the day. Turned out we were to go to Cedarbrook with Buba and Pappy for a breakfast with Santa. We made it there only 10 minutes late! Jacob and I were walking around, he wanted to go see the Christmas tree in the pro shop, and we turn the corner and almost get run over by Santa. He seemed shocked but not scared (Jacob not Santa). We followed him into the main area and the other kids went wild, lots of cheering. We then waited for our name to get called to go sit on his lap (Jacob not me). Our name got called and Jacob was acting like he was not going to sit on Santa's lap. The "elf" even made a comment about Jacob not sitting on Santa's lap. Well he did, See:

Santa gave Jacob a gift and we went back to the table. Once we got to the table and told Jacob he could open his gift he started carrying the gift back to Santa. I don't know if he wanted to give it back or what?

Saturday evening Sean, Andrea and Hayley (spelling?) stopped by. Andrea's brother lives down the street. It was great to see them! We don't get to see them often enough. It sucked that Kristen got held up at work and couldn't make it home before they left. We are going to try and get together again when our West Coast college friends are back east for the holidays... Keep our fingers crossed.

Friday snow....

OK, so last Thursday night I tried to gather my things from work so I could work from home on Friday. We were expecting heavy snow Thursday night into Friday morning, and when there is that kind of snow I don't like making the drive to work as it usually ends up being in the neighborhood of a 2+ hour drive. In my haste to get out of work and head home I forgot my wallet in my desk draw. Of course I did not realize this until I was 30 minutes away! I turned around to get it. Otherwise I would have been without it until Monday! Way to go droop!

So, I woke up to snow and decided I was going to work from home. I have to say the commute when I work from home is the best! I started working around 8:00, I had some data I needed to download from a local weather station. Around 9:00 I decided to call into work, just to check in... no answer!?!? So, I checked to local radio's website to see if we had a delayed opening. There were other government offices listed but we were not listed... interesting. I figured I call around 10:30, assuming a 2 hour delay, no answer in the Engineering department, no answer in the clerk's office, and no answer in the planning office. Maybe they open at 12:00. 12:00 rolls around and I make the calls and no answer. That does it. I'm not working! I finally get a call around 3:30 saying we were closed for the day and not to work for the day! Gee thanks a lot! Turns out the township relies on Reverse 911 and the system is only as good as the data.. garbage in, garbage out. They did not have my number correct! We'll see what happens next snowstorm...

fair hill

Geez, is it really Thursday already?

This past weekend was the Fair Hill double cross race. I promoted the cross races there when the MAC first started, 2000?, and my friend Wayne is the promoter these days. So, I wanted to lend a hand. My task ended up being to try to find a beer sponsor. Which, I found out is not an easy thing to do at the end of the year, as most companies budgets are already gone by now. So, we ended up buying the beer at a discount from Victory Brewery. Thank you. All and all it was a good experience trying to land a sponsor, I ended up with a couple of contacts interested in something for next year... We'll see if I can get something together.

I picked up the beer in Downingtown, Saturday afternoon. Kristen was working Sat, and Amy was able to come over and watch Jacob for the afternoon. Thank you "Poochers"!

Boy the drive from Downingtown to Fair Hill was nice. I had been on those roads before on road rides. It is a very nice area. I wonder if anyone in that area is looking for a GIS Specialist?

Got to Fair Hill as the elites were finishing up and I was struck by the fact that there was no one around. I think a goal for promoters needs to be how to get folks to stay around for the "elite" races, beer?

I met up with Brent around 5 and he was up to his elbows in re-doing his bathroom. There are a few things I really miss about being down in Delaware and one of them is El Torro! Yep, I got to have El Torro for dinner, yummy! The same guy was there and I'm pretty sure he recognized me, which was cool. Heard that "The Cart" we used to get tortas from was busted for selling drugs. There did seem to be something fishy there, but they made great tortas!

The race went well, I always forget how much work is involved with putting a race on. I was exhausted afterwards.

Here's fatmarc going through the Victory Beer tent. Brent and I are in the background conducting our on brand of "training"

Thanksgiving and beyond

Wow, the holidays are a busy time. Spent early last week getting ready for thanksgiving. We were hosting my family for dinner. It was my parents, my brother, my grandpa and the May's: John, Ruthie, April, Cayley, Jeffrey and Russell. Yes, my cousin's name is (was, she's married now) April May. It was my first time cooking for and hosting that many people. Man, it was a lot of work, but it was worth it. They all said everything was great, but I think they were just saying that. The turkey was not all the way cooked. I did not have the thermometer in deep enough. There were some burnt sweet potatoes in the mix. My oyster stuffing came out a little weak. The bagged stuffing mix turn out like crap. But everything was really good, I swear.

Friday I went riding (mtb) with Russell. I kept telling him it was really cold out but he didn't care. I'm glad he stuck with the idea to go because I had a good time. We rode Ralph Stover State Park, which is pretty technical, but Russell rode really well. The place is pretty small but the terrain is nice and rocky with some pretty sick downhills. (We bypassed those because we would have had to climb back up from the river) We rode over to "High Rocks", a bluff overlooking the Tohickon Creek. In the summer there are a lot of climbers there.

Had everybody over again on Friday night for leftovers. Jeffrey, Russell and I ran over to EB games to get something we could all three play with my multi-tap for PS2. We ended up with X-Men Legends. Ended up having to run back over there because my old control would not work and got a used one for $5! The game is a lot of fun, I've been playing it ever since.

Saturday morning I ran the boys down to the airport. I was expecting a mob scene, but there was nobody there! We rolled right up to the check in counter and there were three ladies there to help us! Ended up hanging out at the gate for a couple of hours waiting for the plane to load.

Sunday I made Turkey soup and had my parents, brother and grandpa over to celebrate my mother's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Next thing you know it was back to work... and it is Wednesday already!

Looking forward to the weekend's Fair Hill races. I don't think I'm going to race but will spend the day helping Wayne. Rumors have it that there is going to be free beer and tiggers may show up...

Eagles lose to the Giants.

For the past 3 years(?) my friend Derek and I have been getting together to watch the Eagles-Giants games. He's a Giants fan and I'm an Eagles fan. So, it always a lot of fun. We have a little bet going that started Dec 28, 2002 at Giants stadium. We decide the loser would have to wear the other teams hat after the game and for the next game. Yes, I had to walk out of Giants stadium with a Giants knitty, and Derek informing anyone that would listen, that an Eagles fan was wearing a Giants.... Something like "Eagles fan wearing a Giants hat, na, na, na, na" It sucked. At least Derek has been wearing the Eagles hat for the past 4 games.

I was going to do the "C" race at the NJ State Championships with Jeff, but (insert excuses). We ended up just making it to Derek's for the game as it was.

Jeff bagged the race too...

We had a good time at Derek's house. We played some football in the front yard. Jacob even got into the action a little bit:

Derek's backyard:

So after the game we went out and played some more football. I was the steady QB and ended up with some pretty awful numbers, but it was my receivers' fault.

After the game I had to live up to my end of the bet:

Thanks to Kristen for keeping her eyes on Jacob most of the day, and thanks for driving home too!
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Allyson!

Public Library

The public library rules!

Today Kristen told me she went to the library. She often goes there to get books for Jacob. Well, I got all excited when she told me. I thought, "All right, 'The Prisoner of Azkban' audiobook!". She informed me they didn't have it, but she had another surprise for me. Yippie! What could it be?

"Wild Ducks Flying Backwards: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins", droopy likes reading Tom Robbins books, I've read them all, some of them twice. Yes, I'm going to read a book in my "free time". Looks like I'll be staying up late as it is only a 14 day loan.

She also picked up a bunch of books for Jacob. We read to him before bed. We started reading the books and they were all good "bedtime" books, until we came to one in particular. (I don't have the name of the book, but I remember the author, Nancy Carlson) In this book the older sister has a snow day and is going to play outside all day. Only her mother tells her she has to bring her little brother. They go outside and she calls the little brother stupid and worthless, because he can't make snow angels and such. Her friend shows up and starts saying the same things about her little brother, Walt, I think. At this point Kristen and I start snickering, we can't believe we are reading a book were the kid is being called all these names. At one point the sister tells "Walt" to wait near a flag pole, and whatever he does don't stick your tongue on the flag pole. Of course he does. We find this incredibly amusing. Imagine, Kristen and I cracking up trying not to laugh while reading to Jacob before bed. I think we had to add an extra two or three books after that fiasco.

and then there is the SPOT book...

Groenendaal, could it be?

"I... hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected by it. It's repulsive, isn't it? I must get out of here. I must get free and in this mind is the key, my key."

Could his fingers have something to do with it?

Oh how times change...

droopy trained for racing ... david commutes for work
droopy worked in a bike shop ... david works for the government
droopy had long hair ... david has short hair
droopy had a girlfriend ... david married his girlfriend
droopy lived in Philadelphia ... david lives in Quakertown
droopy went out at night ... david goes to bed early
droopy watched movies ... david listens to Harry Potter audiobooks
droopy had no kids ... david has Jacob and one on the way
droopy was happy ... david is happy

droopy rides ... david drives

Let's see here...

...figured out how to add a photo....
woo-hoo!

is this thing on?

testing one two