June 2005 Archives

The soccer team on which Todd and I play won our league championship this past Wednesday night. After winning the first two games of playoffs 3-0 and 4-0, we met our rivals in the finals. We won the regular season with a record of 6-1-1, and this team was the only team that had beaten us. So we knew they'd be tough.

We held a 1-0 lead for most of the game, but they equalized with about five minutes left (a goal for which I was at least partly responsible). The two overtime periods were scoreless, so it went to a penalty kick shootout.

Our goalie made some amazing saves, but a few of our better players blew their kicks, so the first round of shots ended with a 3-3 tie. It went to sudden death PKs, and it took a few more good saves from our keeper and an improbable goal from our team captain (the eighth kicker!) to win the shootout for us.

This is the first time we've won this league, but it's the third time a team with both Todd and I on it has won a championship. Being five years older than he is, I was never able to play on any of his teams when we were younger, so it's a thrill to get to play with Todd now. And I feel especially proud of this team, since Todd and I both play defense and our team finished the season allowing only five goals in eleven games. How's that for a wall? :)

This weekend has been exhausting. I'm returning to work twice as tired as when I left on Friday. But that's all my fault--my lovely wife did everything she could to give me a relaxing Father's Day, I just had too much I wanted to do.

We started the weekend on Friday night with a trip to the Westside Pizzeria. We'd passed the place a million times on the way home from work, and decided we'd test the "Best Pizza on the West Side" claim. I have to admit, the pizza was pretty darned good, as was the service. The only problem with the place is its location. It sits right on the edge of the industrial part of Atlanta road, and its patio is bordered by the road and by an old, overgrown Civil War cemetary. (Yeah, I know it sounds odd to eat next to a cemetary, but it's impossible to get away from these things in Atlanta.) While eating on the patio, you get simultaneously buzzed by mosquitos from the woodsy cemetary and blared at by big rigs going down Atlanta Road. They're a new restaurant, so they may yet work out this problem. But until they do, we'll make our next visit an indoor dining experience.

After the pizza, we took Maddie and Josie to Carvell for ice cream. Carvell is an East Coast tradition that's just invaded the southeast. They're known for their rich soft serve and their ice cream cakes (which are carried by grocery stores all over). Alecia and I each got cones, and Maddie nibbled off of each of ours. Even though she wasn't holding any ice cream, she still managed to get it all over both hands and in her hair. You just can't win, sometimes.

On Saturday, like I said in my last post, we went to Home Depot to stock up. We bought a new handle for the toilet in the master bath. Alecia didn't like the way the old handle stuck, so she "fixed" it--a week later, it didn't work at all and needed replacing. We also bought hardware to replace all of the porch door handles. Once we threw in some stuff for the yard and for other projects around the house, we'd spent over a hundred dollars. Yep, you gotta love all the money you save owning a home and not renting!

We got home with the supplies and spent the next eight hours working around the house. My big project for the weekend was to remove the bushes in front of the front porch. Although they provide for privacy, that area has gotten a little out of control. The bushes make our floor-to-ceiling windows a little useless, since they block any light we'd get from the windows. Removing them, however, was one of the toughest projects I'd taken on in recent memory.

Here are some stats from the project.

• Duration of project: 2 days
  
• Number of shovels broken: 2
  
• Bushes pulled out using the car: 3
  
• Number of times the rope broke, almost shattering my rear window: 2
  
• Bushes pulled out by digging around them then leaning on them with my fat ass: 4
  
• Objects found buried in the dirt while removing the bushes: butter knife, horseshoe (huh?), bottle of men's cologne (now filled with dirt), welcome mat, lead pipe, softball without a cover

I finally finished the project last night. Here are the before and after pics. Keep in mind that we still have to groom that area and plant some smaller shrubs and flowers.

Before:

After:

Sunday was a great Father's Day, by the way. Alecia let me sleep in as late as I wanted, then greeted me with two dozen Krispy Kremes when I finally stumbled out of the bedroom. I was determined to finish my project from the day before, so I worked outside for the first part of the day while she stayed in with the kids and cleaned the house. When I finally got to a point where I could put away the shovel, I cleaned up and we all went out to do some "Bill-type" activities.

We started with a trip to the William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum, the home of "zap! pow! bam! the superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938—1950". The exhibit has been there for almost two years, but is leaving in August. Alecia knew I wanted to see it before it left, being the geek that I am, and with the exhibit being the greatest current collection of original Golden Age comic art. The exhibit was cool. Beyond the art, they had a kids' drawing area, a movie theater showing old superhero serials, and a bunch of other neat stuff. Maddie especially enjoyed the batmobile ride they had there, although Josie screamed when we put her in the little car.

After the museum, we went to Outback for dinner. I know, it's not so fancy, but we've found that the kids behave better at more casual places. I don't know what it is, but Maddie and Josie act out of character whenever we force them to sit down at one of Atlanta's hundreds of new, trendy eateries. Maybe they're over-stimulated by the industrial design or the neuveau atmosphere. Whatever it is, Outback seemed like a safer place to have an early dinner than Cherry, The Food Studio, One Midtown Kitchen, etc. At Outback, the worst Maddie did was put penne noodles on her fingers and make me talk to them like they were hand puppets. (She has this voice she started doing for her stuffed hippo that she now does for any talking animal--it's as deep as she can go, and it's guaranteed laughter.)

When we got back from dinner, I spent a couple hours finishing work around the yard, including spraying a "home defense" bug spray all over the exterior of the house. We're at war with ants, and they've almost overwhelmed us. All year round, we have to constantly fight to keep them out of the house. When we went to Indiana for a week, we forgot to start the dishwasher on the way out of the house, and we returned to find it FILLED with ants. There weren't any elsewhere in the kitchen, they were all inside the dishwasher. It's so annoying (although it does make us keep a clean kitchen). Let's hope the recent offensive will keep the little insect invaders on the run.

Father's Day ended with Alecia running for ice cream while I put Josie to sleep and watched "Into the West." The only glitch in the whole evening was that Alecia spilled one of the shakes in the car on the way home from DQ. But after all the work she did to make my Father's Day special, she can spill ice cream wherever she wants.

Thanks to everyone who called on Sunday, even if I wasn't there to hear it. Thanks to Alecia for making my whole weekend special. And thanks to Maddie and Josie, without whom I wouldn't even be a dad.

I know. It's been a while since we've entered a substantial post. What can I say, it's been a busy month!

With the exception of Alecia's happy birthday post, we haven't really posted since halfway through our Indiana trip. I would update you on what happened during the second half of the trip, but it's all a blur by now. I remember that we attended Alecia's ten-year high school reunion, saw Alecia's stepfather and aunt, went to the zoo with my Grandma and the nieces and nephews, and that my mom and dad threw a birthday party for Alecia that was attended by all of our friends and family from Northern Indiana, Chicago, and Southern Michigan. I also remember that we had a blast the entire time we were in Indiana. Beyond that, it's all a distant memory.

We are very grateful to my parents ("Geepaw and Geemaw" as Maddie calls them) for being such good hosts/babysitters, and to my sister and her family for the same. We never had to worry about where Maddie was or who had Josie for the entire time we were up north, and that's a great feeling. Every time we visit that area, the people up there make a pretty good case for us moving back to Indiana. We know it's a cool place to raise kids. If only there were a job in that area that would make the package complete. (Note to the Indiana crew: don't waste your time hunting for said job. Now that we've just bought our house, we're committed to this area for at least the next year.)

Since we've been back from the great white north, we've been SWAMPED, both at work and at home. Alecia has had a myriad of activities including Mom's Club stuff, baby showers, and other Alecia-type activities. As for me, I've been struggling to keep up at work, having returned to a whirlwind of activity with the launch of a new show and some changes in personnel and programming. We've had every intention of posting since we returned, but just haven't had the time.

We've also been meaning to post some new pictures, but we keep forgetting to bring the camera with us whenever we do anything eventful. We forgot it when we went to this great, new restaurant called Thai Palate for Alecia's birthday. The kids were uncooperative, but we had a good time, anyway. We remembered the camera when we went to Turner Employee Appreciation Night at Six Flags, but then forgot to take pictures. Basically, we've neglected the camera whenever there was a Kodak moment to be found.

I posted to Flickr the few pictures we have taken, but there's not much there. We'll have a few more soon, though. We've started working on the house and we took some before and after pics to document our struggles. Also, the kids being as cute as they are, we'll have to be better about documenting their lives on film. Of course, that will probably be better done on video. Maddie is saying more and more every day--using complete sentences and demonstrating a vocabulary that constantly surprises us. (No, it's not the cuss words. She doesn't use those as much anymore, but it wouldn't surprise us if she did.) Josie still smiles like a fool all the time, but now she's also started to move around more and interact with Maddie. It's so great to see them show love for each other and to interact, despite the fact that neither really speaks the other one's language.

Anyway, that's it for me tonight. It's been a long weekend already. We went out for pizza and ice cream last night. Today, we spent the early part of the day at Home Depot, then the latter part working on the house--repairing the toilet, replacing doorknobs, removing bushes, etc. My back aches and I'm falling asleep at my computer...and we still have Father's Day stuff to do tomorrow. I'll post about that stuff AFTER the fact. Don't want to spoil any surprises. :)

Happy Father's Day to my dad and all other dads out there. I just noticed that it's after midnight now, so your day has begun! Enjoy it!

Today, my lovely wife turns 28. Everyone wish her a happy birthday!

(Sorry this post went up so late in the day--I've been SLAMMED at work.)

For Rob and Marcia, Mark and Marci, and Jamie and Jennifer, all of whom are still hopefully coming over to my parents' place on Sunday afternoon to hook up with us before we leave the state, here is the info you need:

Time: 3pm Central
Place: Bill and Judy McLochlin's
11845 Loughlin Dr.
Mishawaka, IN 46545
Phone: (574) 259-4325

The linked address above will take you to Yahoo maps. If you click on "driving directions to this place," it will give you the longest possible route with the smallest possible roads. I don't recommend doing that. Instead, call the number above for better directions.

Anyway, we look forward to seeing you guys on Sunday. Until then, Alecia and I are heading to Muncie for her much-dreaded (by me, at least) class reunion.

Greetings from scenic Mishawaka, Indiana. Sorry for taking so long between posts. We meant to blog from the road, but for the first three or four days of our trip, our server was down. And for the last couple of days...well, we've just been very busy!

We left Atlanta last Friday for New Site, Alabama, where Alecia's mom lives. We had to stop there first since Regina and Mic are taking care of our dogs, Sindri and Mallory. (Our cat, Astrid, is still at home, with our awesome next door neighbor checking in and giving her food and water.)

On Saturday morning, we began the twelve-hour drive from New Site to Mishawaka. Surprisingly, Maddie and Josie were wonderful for most of the trip. We stopped as little as possible--mainly for gas, diaper changes, and a couple of rest area stops so Maddie could run around and burn some energy. We had a ton of snacks and sandwiches in the car, as well as Mic's portable DVD player and some Sesame Street and School House Rock DVDs. We quickly learned that we should have brought more DVDs, as Maddie watched the Sesame Street ones over and over, driving us nuts with the sounds of Elmo and Zoe.

We finally got to Mishawaka around 9pm on Saturday night, in time to have some Sloppy Joes and tuck the girls into bed. We've been very lucky in the fact that Maddie has taken to my parents' guest bedroom from day one. On that first night, she climbed eagerly into her own bed, and has slept there for almost a week without a single complaint. I guess all of our work getting her to sleep in a "big girl bed" at home is paying off. :)

On Sunday, my mom and dad held a cookout, attended by Grandma Horvath and the Schneiders. (Doesn't that sound like the world's worst band name?) We had lots of food, and played about three hours worth of some made-up volleyball game with a big red ball. It was a blast, if totally exhausting. Nobody swam in Grandpa's pool, as the weather wasn't quite warm enough and the pool was freezing. But I made the bold prediction that we'd be in the water by week's end.

On Monday, it was time for another cookout, as my sister, Julie Schneider, had a Memorial Day party. We got to hang out with all of the Schneiders' friends (and they have some great friends). We were lucky enough to hear Ryan Szklarek play piano (learned in six months of piano lab--making us all feel untalented), to meet the beautiful Macy Hakevich (only four days old, with a head full of coal black hair), and to reunite with an old high school chum of mine, Mike Rairdon (who was thoughtful enough to bring me a copy of a PC game he burned for me). It was a great day, even if I did embarass myself several times (including the time I was sitting on a stool, talking to a group of my sister's friends, only to have my mom point out that I had a big hole in the crotch of my shorts). The day ended with Julie, Alecia and Aly taking Maddie on the trampoline, which she absolutely loved. I wish I had taken video of that. Oh wait, I did...but it's a little uneven. :)

On Tuesday, Alecia, Maddie and I spent the day in Grandma and Grandpa's pool with my nephew, Connor Schneider. (See, my prediction came true!) Connor's other siblings all had school, so they missed out on the fun. Of course, they may have also missed out on the sunburn I got and on having to help me wash my car. Apparently, I ran over a paint can or something on the drive up from Alabama, and my CRV side panels were splattered with white paint. Connor and my dad helped me scrub it off, though we couldn't get it all. That and the sunburn have been the only downers on the trip so far, though, so I'm not complaining.

On Tuesday night, we went to Aly Schneider's softball game. It was fun, and Aly's team creamed the opposition. Afterwards, we all went back to Julie and Randy's for another cookout. If you're counting, that's three cookouts in three days. That almost makes the drive worthwhile all on its own. Of course, after seeing pictures taken of me while I swam in Grandma and Grandpa's pool, I'm thinking I should be eating a little less at these cookouts. In fact, I intentionally saved these horrid pictures, so I can use them as motivation to lose a bunch of weight before our September trip to Myrtle Beach.

Today, we had a nice lunch with Alecia's dad, Mike, and her Aunt Dodo. As is always the case, they loaded the girls down with gifts, including some homemade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and some other toys. Maddie wasn't really cooperative at the restaurant, being unusually quiet (the action of the week was starting to wear her down), but we invited Mike and Dodo back to my parents' house, and Maddie perked up there.

We finished out the evening tonight by eating more grilled food (pork ribs, this time). Then, Alecia and I took my mom's convertible out for ice cream while the grandparents watched the kids. Another great day on a very exhausting but enjoyable vacation.

As for the rest of the week: tomorrow morning, we'll be going to Connor's kindergarten graduation followed by Blake's Reading Picnic (an event where the fourth graders have an outdoor lunch and read stuff they wrote throughout the year). When all of the school stuff is done, we're taking the kids and Grandma Horvath to the Potowatami Park Zoo. After that, we'll watch Connor's T-Ball game, then head home to bed.

Finally, on Friday, Alecia and I will leave the kids with my parents as we head to Muncie for her ten-year high school reunion. We'll return on Sunday afternoon, just in time for ANOTHER cookout. (Yes, Jamie, I know I owe you directions and a schedule for this one--I'll talk to you tomorrow about it.)

We'll leave to return to Atlanta on Monday. I'm a little worried we'll be too tired to drive, after such an exhausting week. Even worse, we'll have to stop in Alabama to get the dogs and still make it home on Monday night so I can get up and go to work on Tuesday (we're launching the next season of The Real Gilligan's Island on Wednesday, and I have a bunch of things to do before the premiere). I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be braindead for the rest of the work week, which sucks, since I'll still have to figure out something to do for Alecia's birthday next Thursday.

I remember long ago when vacations were relaxing. What the heck happened to me?

By the way, on a totally unrelated note, my mom now has a flickr pro account, which means she'll soon be posting a ton more pictures, accessible through the animated link to the left. Check it out!