Learn from my mistakes people...

So, here is a list of things that I forgot to bring on vacation that would have enhanced our trip...and an explanation regarding each item:

• A rubber mallet: Have you ever tried to put up a tent and drive the stakes in with your hand or your flip-flop? Not good.


• Camping chairs: Going to Wal-Mart to buy beach chairs at $10 each, when we already have 6 camping chairs at home? Ouch.


• T-shirts to wear to the beach: I packed lightly, knowing that we had a washer/dryer in our rental house and we could do laundry whenever. However, my good intentions led to underpacking for this particular activity. So, I ended up wearing a white undershirt to the beach. Dork.


• Tennis rackets/gear and a basketball. Guess what is across the street from our rental house? That's right, a community park with really sweet tennis courts and a 4-goal hardtop for bball. Dude. A real missed opportunity. A little research with our mutual friend Google could've been beneficial in this situation.


• Food: I have been saving a big bucket of trailmix for this trip, and where is it? Still on the shelf in our pantry...all alone. And it could have been in my belly. Just like the sixpack of Woodchuck that's sitting in the pantry floor. Also, we have several muffin/ brownie mixes that could have been put to good use, and would not have taken up much packing space.


• The newspaper. Jeez, I am going nuts with no TimesFreePress to read. I've got to look into having it sent to wherever I'm staying instead of putting it on hold or having a pile at home when I get back. I know I can read it online, but it's just not the same.


• Bike Lock: How many bicycle cable-locks do I have at home? Two? Three? How many do I have here? None. I do not trust my fellow man long enough for me to go into a store for 10 minutes and do a little shopping. There are several shopping areas within a short bike ride of our rental and I can ride my bicycle by and window-shop only. Dude.


• A tandem bike for Jack would've been nice. He's three years old, and can ride his bike, but man...it takes a lot of coaxing and cajoling to get him to go any faster than a leisurely three year old's pace. Which is slow. Very slow.


• A real shovel. Plastic shovels at the beach are really only novelties. They are not very good for digging or castle building and they break if you use them more than twice.

That's not to say that the vacation was a bust or not fun or any of that negative stuff; on the contrary, I think our family has had a very relaxing, very fun time. We have been to the beach every day, and had opportunities to go running and biking. We have also played some awesomely fun games on the Wii such as Karoke, Just Dance 2, and American Idol. And I am telling you people, if you want to laugh, play some of these dancing games with your family and/or friends. If you haven't yet, you are really missing out.

Gone fishing

On Saturday evening, Leslie and I loaded the wagon with my tackle box, a couple of fishing poles, and Jack. We meandered down the street to the neighborhood pond, and hoped for at least a few bites from some brim to pass the time. Four bass later, it had turned out to be a fun evening. Thanks to Leslie for taking some timely action photos.

Does anyone else do this?

My wife has many superpowers...among them is the following:
Whether she has been sleeping for one hour or 10, she wakes up disoriented. Sometimes she even sits up and looks around bewildered, then she looks at me and inevitably says, "What day is it?"

Also, she has the power to have a hightened body temperature. However, under pressure from a party that shall remain nameless...I have edited this part. Just suffice it to say: It's crazy. Meanwhile, I'm laying beside her shivering and just trying to make sure some part of my body is touching her so I can stave off frost bite. I call her "Wall-heater Girl." That's her super-power name. More to come on her other super-powers some other time. These are some of her funnier super powers, endearing one and all, making her whole package "all that and then some."

Jack speaks...

1. While at church last weekend, Leslie, Jack and I were headed upstairs to the second floor, but instead of steering towards the stairs, Jack tried to pull us toward the elevator and he said, "Let's take the illustrator!"

2. Leslie was singing the B.I.B.L.E. song to Jack the other day
"It's the b-i-b-l-e, yes that's the book for me"
to which Jack complained: "I don't want to sing the bee-hive, bee-hive E!" Pretty funny stuff.

Fast-Track Posts

Okay people...Life is too busy these days, and I find myself unable to make time for blogging. So I am going to adjust by going to a mostly text-style update for the time being.

The first text update is about Jack, of course...

Halloween 2010

Jack trick-or-treating with the children of some of our friends.


Mommy with a red dinosaur.



The ferocious red dinosaur serveys his surroundings
with a suspicious eye.

The dinosaur takes a swing at a halloween spider pinata.

As I've previously stated, the pumpkins turned out pretty nice. Leslie did the happy one, I did the cat (not the high degree of difficulty), and Jack did the mean face.

Caught with their hands in the pumpkin's brains! Yuck!

Jack was hesistant, but as always with Mommy leading the way, he overcame his hesitation and pressed on with his Airborne mission.

A trip back in Oct '10

We went to Kristen and Dave Trout's wedding back in October, and on the way back, we stopped at a place called Lamb's Farm in Illinois outside of Chicago. It was a decent stop and we had a good time with Grammy and Opa.

Grammy and Opa riding the kiddy train with us.

Giddy with anitcipation for the train ride.

Jack rides the chicken. See how excited he is in this picture?

It was close to Halloween and they had some decorations up - this one was a nice photo op.

3 big men.

While Mommy is away... (1st weekend of Nov)

Leslie went away with her Mom and sisters for there annual girls weekend in Gatlinburg.

So, Jack and I entertained ourselves with several fun activities.

Here are the ladies ready to have to together time.

Jack and I went to Play Dog Excellent and watched teams of 4 dogs each run relay races! Talk about crazy loud and fun!

We watched high school bands at Finley Stadium that Saturday night. Jack and I sat in 40F weather for an hour while we ate Halloween candy and watched the bands.

We had a great time and nearly froze to death.

Good times!

Here is the bigger-than-life sized Cat in the Hat. We saw him and his friends at the WTCI open house that weekend. They were a little too big for Jack to be comfortable with them, so you can see below that even Clifford was a even a little too scary to approach. I did get him to stand beside Curious George long enough to snap a quick pic. You can even see in the pic that he's blurry because he wouldn't stand beside George long enough to get a good shot.

Clifford

Jack and George

Jack beside the big Fire Truck that was on display.

He was interested in it for about 3 minutes.

Here's the results of Leslie's shopping trip with her Mom and sisters. Jeez. It was a good weekend for everyone apparently!

The Annual Pumpkin Carving Fiasco

Jack had no nap today despite our best efforts. We went to TJ Maxx, and even out to the fall festival at Burks UMC for a few hours, so carving the pumpkins was the last event of the day. Jack was skittish at first, but with some gentle encouragement (and a few honest threats thrown in) he finally warmed up to the idea of putting his hands in. All in all, despite teetering on the edge of three-year-old eminent breakdown, I think all of the pumpkins turned out real nice. Leslie did the happy one, I did the cat, and Jack's is the "mean face."

A child's unique perspective...

The other day, Jack was using the toilet in Mommy and Daddy's bathroom.

He noticed his Daddy (me) stocking a

cabinet with Mommy's femine hygiene products.

The wrappers were plastic and multicolored,

and I was taking them out of a bright pink box.

Jack asked me: "Daddy, are those lollipops?"

I replied: "Yes they are. Only for Mommy though."

And with that, we finished our business and went on our way.

Conversations like this are a daily occurence between us.

And I only lie to him most of the time.