Whew! I had a whirlwind of a weekend. The family spent Friday afternoon at Six Flags: Kentucky Kingdom. Saturday was spent at Julie's sister's cabin and on the dock and boat at Nolin Lake. And Will and I spent the afternoon playing mini-golf and riding go-karts on Sunday. My pasty, IT-geek skin can't take all of this sun :)
I got a little burned at the lake but Julie really took the brunt of the rays that day. She was suffering from sun poisoning that night and Sunday. Poor thing :(
Kentucky Kingdom was fun. My little nephew Patrick joined us. Will really is getting bold and expanding the rides he is willing to ride. Patrick also did a great job with the Ferris wheel and the viking ship (although he definitely had a "thrill" on the ship). Afterwards we hit up the flea market. What a weird place. This was my first flea market ever. They had the stuff that I thought they would have like knives, homemade goodies, and collectibles. But they also had stuff like aspirin, shaving cream, cereal, and other food stuffs. Strange.
Riding go-karts was absolutely awesome! I promised Will that we would do that again. Maybe next time we'll go to Kart Kountry. It was a blast :D
I loved the weekend. I'm tired but it was scads of fun. I love when the kids are with us 'cause I love being a dad so much (don't worry honey, I love it when it's just you and me too :)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Life seems like a smudged blur
I remember when I was a kid I had playtime, dinner time, bath time, time to go to bed, time to get up, breakfast time, outside time, lunchtime, and nap time. Everything seemed to have its own time allotment and fit like LEGO blocks into their respective slots in the day. These days, not so much.
First off, let me say that this is not a complaint. I am not bellyaching about this. I'm just making an observation here. That said, whereas life as a child appeared to be a box of crayons with it's tidy scheduling division wrapped up into a nice box of 8 (or 64 with a crayon sharpener if you were so lucky), life these days appears to be overlapping streaks of crayon marks, smudged further together by the pressing fingers of the confining hours of a single day.
It all starts with waking up. After that it is a melody of feeding dogs, showering, working, feeding kids, spending time with wife, playing, skating, reading, painting, talking, listening, arguing, feeding cats, watching, playing more, parenting, learning, taking medicine, cleaning, planning, saving, budgeting, emailing, feeding myself, gaming, sleeping, and finding enough time to spend a few quality moments with my wife and also for myself.
Life is hectic. But in the chaos I find a good amount of challenging fun. "Hard fun", as the wise Matthew Barzun used to say. In time, with kids gone off to start their own lives and responsibilities shifting, things will slow. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the blur and bear witness to its sublime, chaotic beauty.
First off, let me say that this is not a complaint. I am not bellyaching about this. I'm just making an observation here. That said, whereas life as a child appeared to be a box of crayons with it's tidy scheduling division wrapped up into a nice box of 8 (or 64 with a crayon sharpener if you were so lucky), life these days appears to be overlapping streaks of crayon marks, smudged further together by the pressing fingers of the confining hours of a single day.
It all starts with waking up. After that it is a melody of feeding dogs, showering, working, feeding kids, spending time with wife, playing, skating, reading, painting, talking, listening, arguing, feeding cats, watching, playing more, parenting, learning, taking medicine, cleaning, planning, saving, budgeting, emailing, feeding myself, gaming, sleeping, and finding enough time to spend a few quality moments with my wife and also for myself.
Life is hectic. But in the chaos I find a good amount of challenging fun. "Hard fun", as the wise Matthew Barzun used to say. In time, with kids gone off to start their own lives and responsibilities shifting, things will slow. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the blur and bear witness to its sublime, chaotic beauty.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Viva Las Vegas!
What an awesome time. We arrived Saturday morning and checked in. Everything was so smooth and easy. We ate at the the Bellagio buffet and stuffed ourselves. We walked the strip a bit and then shopped at Miracle Mile. Afterwards we went back to the room and headed to the pool for some sun. We each had a drink and then headed up to the room. It had been a long day and the walking and the sun had taken it's toll, so we crashed about 7pm.
Twelve hours later (yep, TWELVE hours later) we woke up and walked the strip some more. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant (I can't remember the name but it was the place where you bought a yard of Margaritas). There was more shopping, more walking, and more sunning by the pool. Later we showered and headed toward Treasure Island for the Cirque de Soleil "Mystere" show. We grabbed a quick sandwich at Canter's. The show was astounding. It was truly the highlight of the trip. And we were nearly in the show. The couple in front of us were the victims and we narrowly escaped. Whew! We walked back and went to bed.
I woke up Monday morning and whispered "Happy one year anniversary," to my wife. We did our best to sleep in but just couldn't. We walked the strip some more. We picked up a new pair of sunglasses for our daughter and Julie modeled them in front of the MGM and New York New York. We went to Mandalay Bay and I won $8 on a penny slot machine. We walked back, sunned by the pool, napped for a bit, dressed up, and went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We walked through Caesar's Palace on the way back to the Bellagio. That place is amazing. We caught the fountain show in front of the Bellagio and then headed in. In the Fontina Bar we noticed a World Poker Tour tournament taking place and I saw Danny Nguyen. Crazy! We had a drink and went upstairs to bed.
Tuesday morning we packed and headed home. Julie bought a book in Vegas and had the damn thing read before we reached Memphis. Man-o-man, that grrrl can speed read. I finally finished "Microserfs" (loved it) and read the 6-issue trade paperback "The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite" (loved it too).
Overall, it was a great trip (tainted only slightly by us locking ourselves out of our house once we got there). Four days in Vegas is the perfect time. We'll be back and we'll stay at the Bellagio again for sure!
Twelve hours later (yep, TWELVE hours later) we woke up and walked the strip some more. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant (I can't remember the name but it was the place where you bought a yard of Margaritas). There was more shopping, more walking, and more sunning by the pool. Later we showered and headed toward Treasure Island for the Cirque de Soleil "Mystere" show. We grabbed a quick sandwich at Canter's. The show was astounding. It was truly the highlight of the trip. And we were nearly in the show. The couple in front of us were the victims and we narrowly escaped. Whew! We walked back and went to bed.
I woke up Monday morning and whispered "Happy one year anniversary," to my wife. We did our best to sleep in but just couldn't. We walked the strip some more. We picked up a new pair of sunglasses for our daughter and Julie modeled them in front of the MGM and New York New York. We went to Mandalay Bay and I won $8 on a penny slot machine. We walked back, sunned by the pool, napped for a bit, dressed up, and went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We walked through Caesar's Palace on the way back to the Bellagio. That place is amazing. We caught the fountain show in front of the Bellagio and then headed in. In the Fontina Bar we noticed a World Poker Tour tournament taking place and I saw Danny Nguyen. Crazy! We had a drink and went upstairs to bed.
Tuesday morning we packed and headed home. Julie bought a book in Vegas and had the damn thing read before we reached Memphis. Man-o-man, that grrrl can speed read. I finally finished "Microserfs" (loved it) and read the 6-issue trade paperback "The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite" (loved it too).
Overall, it was a great trip (tainted only slightly by us locking ourselves out of our house once we got there). Four days in Vegas is the perfect time. We'll be back and we'll stay at the Bellagio again for sure!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Vegas, here we come!
We're nearly packed and just about ready for our Las Vegas trip. It will be a very relaxing four days, spent mostly at the pool of the Bellagio. I'm taking my camera and some books and plan on doing as little as possible. This will be our first time in Vegas and we will be celebrating our first year of marriage. We'll be landing about 27 hours from now...
In other news, we're taking the kids to go see Hellboy II tonight. We're all looking forward to that. The kids and I watched "The Host" earlier this week. It is a Korean film that was actually very good. Later that night Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead", George Romero's latest installment of his zombie genius. I'm also playing the crap out of the game City of Heroes/City of Villains. Will picked it up two weeks ago and I spend an hour or two a night, on average, fighting good or evil with the super-heroes or super-villains that I've created. Good times!
In other news, we're taking the kids to go see Hellboy II tonight. We're all looking forward to that. The kids and I watched "The Host" earlier this week. It is a Korean film that was actually very good. Later that night Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead", George Romero's latest installment of his zombie genius. I'm also playing the crap out of the game City of Heroes/City of Villains. Will picked it up two weeks ago and I spend an hour or two a night, on average, fighting good or evil with the super-heroes or super-villains that I've created. Good times!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Still Not 100%
I am still somewhat struggling with day to day affairs at work and at home. I had hoped to have bounced back from my hospital stay by now but I'm not where I want to be. I have energy when I wake up but ultimately run out before I'm done with the day. And it sucks. I'm used to being able to be on the go and do what I want when I want. But I just don't have the energy to get me through each day. Weak.
Well, enough of the whining. Life is good. I had a low-key July 4th weekend. My friend, Brandon, from high school was in town and I had breakfast with his family. We had planned on a little get-together with another friend, Duane, but the wife came down with a terrible stomach bug. We did manage to make the family reunion on my dad's side for the afternoon on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone. But I ran out of gas around 5pm and we reluctantly came home.
The kids and I watched the Korean flick "The Host" yesterday and then Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead". Both movies were good. I was pleasantly surprised by both. Who's a huge Romero fan? Yep, this guy!
Julie and I leave for Vegas this weekend. I'm so stoked! I'm doing my best to finish up the painting Coco Monique before I go. I'm looking forward to a break - a real break and not a hospital stay or bed rest :)
Well, enough of the whining. Life is good. I had a low-key July 4th weekend. My friend, Brandon, from high school was in town and I had breakfast with his family. We had planned on a little get-together with another friend, Duane, but the wife came down with a terrible stomach bug. We did manage to make the family reunion on my dad's side for the afternoon on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone. But I ran out of gas around 5pm and we reluctantly came home.
The kids and I watched the Korean flick "The Host" yesterday and then Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead". Both movies were good. I was pleasantly surprised by both. Who's a huge Romero fan? Yep, this guy!
Julie and I leave for Vegas this weekend. I'm so stoked! I'm doing my best to finish up the painting Coco Monique before I go. I'm looking forward to a break - a real break and not a hospital stay or bed rest :)
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