What a handful!

Wow! Nate is becoming quite the handful. Tonight, I was tasked with grilling a pork loin along with watching Nate. It was next to impossible. I don't multitask very well. It's kind of hard to keep him away from a hot grill and to keep him entertained AND have him within your sites all at the same time.

We had a good time tonight though, we went on another bike ride while the pork loin cooked. It came out okay, just a little pink in the middle, but Nate loved it. Couldn't get enough.

I'm officially ringless again. Co-worker had another one show up on his desk, but I thought it the honerable thing to do to give to a co-worker that's been looking for one for his brother. He was happy to see it.

I've taken a step up with my role in the project since another of my co-workers is off in India for 2 1/2 weeks. It will be a little stressful as we get the application finely tuned to run correctly for implementation.

Well, not much else to say.

Later,

Trac-tore

Spent this weekend up north with my parents. We stayed over Monday night also cause I took today off work.

Nate has said another word (other than ma-ma or da-da). He's saying "Trac-tore". He loved to run over to the tractor and point this weekend. He logged alot of hours on the Mule, 4-wheeler and the tractor. The boy loves heavy machinary.

Sold 3 of those World Series rings on eBay over the weekend. They went for $71, $48 and $61 respectively. Don't know why anyone would want to pay that much for them. I have already shipped two off. My co-worker has the last one and I will need to pay him for it....



Above is a picture of my Dad and Nate in the tractor.

Nate also was getting adventourus this weekend. we'd pretty much let him wonder where he would like and he had this little push-4 wheeler that I had as a kid and he would go behind the garage with it on the gravel and would go about 50 feet until we realized he was out of sight. He wanted to head out west I guess. He also saw some bales of sheep wool and gave me the "pig" sign for them. Had to let him know, it wasn't pigs, it was sheep.

Jackson had a grand time also. He was out in the pond covered in mud within the first 30 minutes of us getting up there. He smelled really bad that first night, but I had him jump in another pond later and he smells a little better. Only a little. He's getting a bath later this week.

We stopped off in Columbia on the way back at Cosmo Park. He had a great time playing in the playground area. Recommend that you all check it out if you ever stop by there.

Here's a picture (aerial view).


Nate got really brave and went down one of the tube slides. I think the thing was about 30 feet long and he went down about 5 times. He loved it. Jackson wasn't allowed in the play area, so he was most disappointed.
Here's the picture of the actual slides:


We're going back this weekend to Columbia for a cousin's high school graduation, so maybe beforehand we can take Nate there for a while to play.

Not much else going on.

Later,

New BLog for Lynn

Lynn Started a new blog at http://www.starbuckmom.blogspot.com/. Check it out.


Later,

Hand in the cookie jar!

Tonight, Nate went into the back room and got really quite, and Lynn and I decided to go investigate and find out what was going on.

Seems he was standing on top of Jackson's box getting into his food and was playing with the cup with which we dip out Jackson's food. As you can see, Jackson was very eager to get something....





Later,

Visit from Sis

My sister came by after work tonight. Good to see her and Mr. Dave again (we're calling Mr. Dave, "Mr. Dave the Great" now). Just so he doesn't always get labeled as Mr. Dave only.

Nate got some pretty dirty hands tonight also. He had a blast though.

Not much else to talk about. My ring on eBay is up to $26. Highest bid is by a guy that has no feedback, so I'm hoping that he will be outbid soon.

Well, gotta go.

Later,

Hitting it big on eBay

So, my wonderful company decided that they should spend thousand's of dollars to buy everyone a 2006 World Series Champion Ring Replica (like the one they handed out at the first game). so me, being the sports fan that I am, stuck out on eBay to be sold. Currently, it is going for $21.50, but other's have ended at around $50. Hoping I can get that much. You can view my progress here. Also, if you hit the link, it raised up my viewings, so it looks like lots of people are interested in viewing it. Currently have 9 people watching it and I e-mailed losers of past rings and let them know about it. We'll see.

I also made my first posting onto craigslist. I picked up a book at a yard sale which was the "history of mercer and boyer counties"... thought it was MO, but it was KY. so, pretty much I don't need it. I guess if there are no takers, it would be an interesting read since it talks about pre-Civil War doings....

Pretty much uneventful night. Nate got his arm caught in the new toy he got this weekend. Aunt Amy bought if for him. WE also went to the park and had a pretty good time.

Well, need to get to bed.

Later,

Lynn's Bpday

We celebrated Lynn's Birthday yesterday and had a grand old time. took these pictures of Nate:




I like the second one a lot. He would go down this tube slide and he built up so much static electricity that his hair was standing out like crazy. Funny.

Can't write much right now. Lynn just left me alone with him so I need to check to see what trouble he's getting into.

Later,

Busy Week

Well, It's been a busy week so I haven't had much time to post. Monday night, Lynn had BSF so I was here all alone. I had BSF on Tuesday, but I was late so I decided instead to go and watch Spiderman 3 instead. It was a pretty decent movie. I would like to watch it with Lynn though, again. We saw the first one as one of our first movies to watch together. This one is kind of weird though. They've brought in a character called Venom, but, I really can't give much else away without spoiling it....

But being a comic book afficitionado, they did a pretty decent adaption of the stories. They had to change some of the black suit stuff though, cause it wouldn't have made sense in the gener that the movie was made.

Only movies that are coming out this summer that I would also be interested in would be Shrek the Third and the new Fantastic Four movie (would still need to watch the first one though).

Well, I need to go and get some of Lynn's Gifts wrapped for her birthday. It's on Saturday.

Later,

Granite Deficiency

Okay, I think that Nate has a Granite Deficiency in his diet.. Why else would he try to eat rocks? Maybe he's just a toddler?

Went up to the in-laws this weekend for a nephew's birthday and for mom's day. We had a pretty decent visit. This afternoon, Nate was playing with the rock fountain and decided to move the rocks around. He would hold one of hte rocks under the running water and then come over to Jackson and shake the water off on top of him. Poor Jackson. Jackson seems to have gotten into something up there cause his muzzle seems to be a little bit swollen. It's gone down though in the past couple of hours. HOpefully, He will return to normal soon.

Posted below are some pictures of Nate and me. You can see in the second one where he has one of his rocks in hand.

Later,

Getting Productive

Tonight, Lynn went out to Lake St. Louis to see her dad, which left me here all alone. Gave me some time to get some stuff done.....

1. I painted behind the refridgerator again, getting the Red to be more of a solid color, less splotchy.
2. I reconnected the ice maker water feed. Hopefully, it doesn't decided to leak again.
3. I took the hot water valve on the sink out and put it back in. It had been dripping unless you tightened it all the way down. DOesn't leak now, but makes a dreadful noise when you turn it on.
4. cleaned out the hallway closet and took the stuff downstairs. We had batteries that we just falling out of there. PUt them all into a milk crate and threw a lot of boxes out.
   

Found the camera, it had been in the back of the bike trailer since Sunday afternoon so I will need to get it out now and take a picture of the floor for you all to see. Stupid of me, I didn't take a picture of the before floor.

Well, In looking for a picture of the floor, here is a blast from the past. A picture of Nate from April 27, 2006.


Well, gotta go. My dad wants me to bid on a camera that the guy that is selling my grandfather's stuff on eBay is selling. supposed to wait for 5 minutes till it ends and outbid the other guy.

Fun...

Later,

New Floor

WEll, our floor was officially done on Tuesday morning. Bad thing is, since the installers manhandled the fridge so much, they made the ice maker water feed leak, again. so, I'll need to take it off, wrap it in A LOT of plumber's tape, and get it water tight again. All our ice trays got sold in the yard sale, so we'll have to go out and buy ice if we need it until I get it fixed up.

Well, it is sort of a blessing, cause I REALLY need to get behind the fridge and repaint the wall. Red is one of the harder colors to paint, I've heard, and it looks really really splotchy back there. I didn't really concentrate on it too much when we initially painted cause "heh, who looks behind the fridge?".

Well, I'm talking to my dad so I gotta go.

Later,

Marathon Floor Building

Well it is 10 PM and the floor guys are still here doing the floor. They are about %80 done and should be done by midnight. I think Nate's doing well sleeping through all the hammering.

Oh yeah, BTW, this is the kitchen floor. It's looking pretty good. They did a great job. Will be good to have it done. I've made Lynn wait to long for this.

Well, I need to be going now. Talk to you all later. Promise to post more later,

Well, maybe not. Here's some pics I took this weekend:

Nate and his cousins, Ethan and Nolan, with their Great-Uncle Charlie Nelson.


Nate driving his "Car" at Grandma's. He loves the Little Tykes Coupe....


Nate sitting in the Swing by himself.

Later,

Later,

No Posts this week.

Apologize to you all. Not had any time to post this week. Although I've introduced Lynn to the joy of playing Baldur's Gate on my PS2. She plays the elven sorcerous. Love the ball lightning spell.

Speaking of weather, Western Illinois had quite the little tornado watch going on today. we saw two of them on TV. We went to Nick and Elena's tonight for pizza again.

Funnels Hover Over Rush Hour

Bob Hamilton Reporting
Helicopter traffic reporters said they've never seen anything like it. . .so did drivers on their way home from work Friday evening. At least three large funnel clouds dipped out of larger cloud formations over Madison and Macoupin counties. The weather service issued tornado warnings for both counties. The service says they weren't conventional tornados. . .they were what are called "cold air funnels". They're not very strong and they usually never touch ground. Apparently, one did, near Glen Carbon, Illinois, but with no damage reported. Then, within about 30-minutes, the funnels broke up and faded away. The result? No damage reported but for those who saw it. . .something that, for a time, looked like a special effects movie.

Well, we have a busy weekend so I need to prepare.

Later,