Weekend Update for Sept 19-21

I know very few people would care to read the following long post about my weekend escapades, but I still want to blog about it anyway, just for the sake of posterity.

FRIDAY NIGHT
Friday night I had just gotten home from a bonzai trip to Ft. Wayne Indiana.  I had driven up on Thursday evening, visited our supplier on Friday, the driven back Friday night.  I have no idea what Amanda and I did that evening and neither does she. It's not too surprising for me to forget, but it's unusual for both of us to have no recollection.  We might have watched a South Park episode.  Before bed though I got to play the tooth fairy for Emily, who lost one of her front teeth that day.

LITTLE GREY MOUSE?

Saturday morning I got a couple things done around the house before Lucas' soccer game.  Just before we were ready to leave for the game, the kids and I were waiting in the car for Amanda to come out of the house.  Then Emily yelled "look, a little grey mouse!".  I thought she might have seen it scuttle somewhere, never to be seen again, but she could still see it so we all got out of the car to have a look.  Sure enough, there it was roaming around in the mulch area near out garage door.  Then I realized and proclaimed "That's not a mouse, it's a mole!" We have been encountering a few piles of dirt in our yard and we had suspected it was due to moles.  When it ran onto the cement and started heading toward the opened garage door I instinctively stepped on it.  I had only meant to trap it though, until I could figure out what to do with it, but when I lifted my foot it looked like I had squished it dead.  

Well, the kids started freaking out.  Emily started crying (she's and Lucas was definitely upset too).  I really didn't think I had stepped on it that hard (I was surprised at the results), and if it was only injured then I didn't want it to be suffering with internal bleeding and pain.  So I decided in all my brilliance to fetch a machete with the intent to chop off its head.  When the kids realized what I was doing, then started freaking out more.  Amanda came out of the house at that moment and convinced me not to continue with my plan of mercy.  So instead I simply scooped it up with a small shovel, placed it in a ziplok back, and threw it in the trash.  Needless to say, the kids were still upset in the car, but I apologized and explained that I didn't want to hear it anymore and that's just the way the world works sometimes.  It probably wasn't the best reasoning, but it surprisingly seemed to help.

LUCAS SOCCER GAME

I insisted on bringing our dog Hope to the game with us, and she did pretty good for the most part.  I kept her leash reigned in close, but I'm glad she got to get out of the house a bit.  The weather was great for Lucas' soccer game too, and the coach kept him in it for ~3/4 of the game.  He's definitely getting better.  Amanda's parents joined us there and also to Penn Station for lunch (yum!).

WRETCHED FAN PROJECT

I worked on Emily's ceiling fan project for the rest of the day, and found yet another unexpected obstacle in the wiring.   This project has been taking me months to complete, and now it will be at least another week or two.  Ugh.

AWESOME DATE NIGHT

That evening was awesome!  Our friends, the Tipton family, watched the kids so Amanda and I could go on a date.  We take turns returning the favor for them also.  We started our date with dinner at a restaurant that was part of a hotel.  We never would have chosen it, except for a gift certificate that we had for restaurant.com (I think).  We had to pick from their selection of restaurants, and this place sounded OK.  Well, it turned out to be way better than we expected.  The food (and glass of wine) was uniquely flavored, very tasty, and mostly healthy too.   The ambiance was ok (nothing exciting, but clean and pleasing), and the service was great also.  Overall we were very pleased.  We followed that up with dessert and tasty decaf coffee at Starbucks (pumpkin spice latte and salted caramel mocha).  Then lastly we went to play outdoor putt-putt at Fairfield Fun Center.  Finding an outdoor place was harder than you'd think here, presumably because no one would want to play outside during the winter season.  We were the last people on the course before they closed.  Between the good food, perfect weather, and deep and thoughtful conversations it was a perfect date night.

SUNDAY'S BEAUTIFUL WEATHER, FAMILY RUN
Sunday morning we attended church as usual.  Then after lunch I got to watch the Bengals stomp Tennessee (33 to 7), and Amanda went climbing with Clara at Lifetime Fitness.  Clara did much better than we expected, considering how little she is!  Before dinner, we went for a jog as a family, stopping halfway at a small pond in the adjacent neighborhood..  Well, Amanda and I jogged, the big kids rode their bikes, and Clara rode in the stroller.  But it was still good exercise and we took our lazy dog along too - she surprisingly ran for almost the entire way!

When we returned home from the run, Clara wanted to stay outside and enjoy the weather.  So I grabbed a baseball and a small kid-sized glove and we both played catch for a while.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Finally, after dinner I went to church to help out with the high school youth group (like most Sunday evenings).  Before the worship/talk/small groups though we played Ultimate Frisbee.  More outdoor exercise is just fine for me!

It was a fantastic and memorable weekend.

A Fight Fan's Fulfillment

I've been a fan of mixed martial arts for over 20 years.  Ever since my friend and then-roommate Giovanni and I discovered the early Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) videos at a VHS rental store.  Whenever we noticed a new release we would rent it and gorge on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (2 at a time) while watching.

Since those days I've had trusty UFC viewing partners in every place that I lived.  After Giovanni moved away it was Rob Hughes and/or Andrew Hass.  In Sacramento it was Mike O'Brien.  Now, here in Cincinnati it's Chris Waklatsi.  But through all this time of being a fan and enjoying the events I've never actually attended a live UFC production, until now.

When I learned that the UFC was coming to Cincinnati for a "Fight Night", I marked the date on my calendar that the tickets would be available.  The first day I could purchase them I reserved pretty decent seats, along with Chris and another co-worker.

When the night finally arrive, the other co-worker (not Chris) had a stomach bug of some sort and had to cancel his attendance.  Chris and I both tried to find someone to fill his seat, but had no luck with it being so last minute.

Chris and I were originally supposed to meet at a bar called The Yard House at 7pm, but parking downtown was scarce due to (according to one of the parking lot attendants) four events going on at the same time that night.  I don't know what the other two were, but in addition to the UFC there were plenty of fans walking around headed to Reds' baseball game.  So after 20 frustrating minutes of driving around the city in circles I finally found parking and texted Chris to let him know I'd be late.  I was equally relieved and annoyed when he responded that he was just then leaving his house, especially since my cell phone battery was rapidly depleting (the display was yellow).

So with a sigh I walked to The Yard House and sat down to have a beer.  The bartender mentioned a local IPA called PsycHOPathy, so I gave it a try.  It was an excellent tasting brew.  So there I sat, at the corner of the bar, in my "Jesus Didn't Tap" t-shirt.  After finishing my beer I walked outside and stood by the door waiting for Chris.  While it was kind of a bummer that I had to wait an hour and a half for my friend to arrive, it was also kind of nice to just hang out, people watch, and to unexpectedly be a human billboard for Jesus.

After Chris arrived we made it to the U.S. Bank Arena sometime after 9pm, but the preliminary bouts were proceeding until 10pm, so I didn't mind getting there a little later than originally planned.  As we made our way to the seats I realized that our view was pretty freaking good.  We were right on the aisle seats, just one section away from being directly in front of the octagon and in the first section up from the floor.  the picture above was taken right from my seat.

This event was a "UFC Fight Night", so the caliber and name recognition of the fighters wasn't as high as a pay-per-view event.  The arena was far from full too, with the entire upper section being empty and a surprising number of seats in the lower section still vacant too.  I had to wonder if the attendance was smaller because it was only a "Fight Night", or if the UFC didn't make this a pay-per-view event because Cincinnati doesn't typically have the high attendance that would make it worth using their higher quality fighters.

Either way, I was still giddy to be there.  It was interesting to see the production aspect of the event - the fighters walking out through the crowd, the camera men standing around the cage, the press sitting ringside, and familiar faces walking around like Bruce Buffer, Herb Dean, and Dana White.  It was exciting to hear the booming walkout music, Bruce Buffer's voice, and the smacking of leather gloves on skin.  The main event was a phenomenal fight too, with Matt Brown (who fights right here out of Cincinnati) decisively winning it.

This was only the 2nd time that the UFC has been to Cincinnati, with the first time being back in 2007 for UFC 77.  If/when they come back for a 3rd event though, then I will definitely plan on attending it live again.  As a long-time MMA and UFC fan, to me it's money and time well spent.

It Lives to Suck Again!

The carpet in the house that we moved into has a fuzz problem.  Lots of little balls of carpet fuzz are all over the surface, and keep reappearing after vacuuming.  A little online research indicates that this is common with new carpets  But in the process of preparing to have our neighbors over tonight, our vacuum stopped working.  The sound was probably twice as loud as normal (and it's normally equivalent to a 747), it smelled like it was burning, and it wasn't working at all.

I cleaned out the roller and tried it again, to no avail.  Amanda has owned it since before we were married (over 13 years ago), so we were considering whether to just trash it and look around for a new one.  As a last ditch effort though, and since we have many other things that we need to spend money on, I thought I would take it down to the basement workshop and take it apart to see if I could figure out what's wrong with it.

I requested Lucas' help with it, to which he complained incessantly, until I was at the end of my tolerance and threatened punishment.  Once we started taking it apart though, and I was showing him how it worked he started to gain interest.  Once the major vacuum pieces were separated I realized that the whole suction path from bottom to bag was clogged with compressed carpet fuzz. 

Lucas ended up somewhat enjoying himself, using the needle nose pliers to help pull out what turned out to be a small mountain worth of carpet fuzz.  

Now the old Hoover lives to suck another day!

Snowy Sunny Sabbath

Despite us not making it to church this morning, I had a great day with the kids/family.

I made my breakfast specialty of egg/cheese/ham sandwiches. Then I went outside to shovel the driveway (with the kids following me), and we all ended up playing in the snow.  Despite it being chilly (25 degrees), the sun was out so it felt good to be outdoors.  I pushed the kids in sleds down the driveway and we all had snowball fights too. Then before lunch I spent a few minutes to play LEGO with them (all 3 kids).

Later (after nap/rest time), we went to our gym and ran around their indoor field kicking soccer balls and shooting around on the basketball court. Finished with Taco Bell for dinner (not healthy, but tasty) and ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

Unexpected Outdoor Activities

I finally convinced my two older kids to go outside with me today.  Amanda was picking up Clara from a birthday party, and I promised to spend some time with Lucas and Emily.  We planned to do various things like playing LEGO with my son and having a tea party with my daughter.  While those are fun things to do, I noticed the sun was out and while it was pretty cold (in the 40's) there was no snow on the ground.  I had the idea then to head outside and throw a ball around instead.

After much persuading (they wanted to stay indoors), we headed out to the front yard.  I had just grabbed a couple of balls from the garage and secured our dog on her cable in the yard when I noticed a couple waking by with their young boy and dog.  I realized that it was my co-worker - the same one that we just noticed (this morning, in fact) attend our church too.  I found out that they had just moved into the neighborhood in September.

While I was talking to him and his wife, the neighbor kids walked over and started playing with my kids.  By the time I was finished talking with my friend/co-worker, the kids had disappeared with the neighbors.  With the kids occupied, I seized the moment to work on my car for a few minutes, then decided to explore our wooded (and somewhat treacherously sloped) backyard.  This is something I've wanted to do since we moved in, but the conditions have never been favorable due to slippery fall leaves or snow.

When Lucas and Shane (the neighbor boy) noticed me in our backyard, Shane said he could show me their trail (in their backyard, which is flatter and easier to traverse).  We ended up exploring down through the woods, and into areas that I had no idea existed.  The still-present fall leaves and mud from the melted snow made climbing the slopes pretty challenging.  One time I grabbed the trunk of a small tree for support, but it was a dead tree and it immediately snapped off.  The good news is that i didn't slip down the hill from the immediate lack of support, but the bad news is that Shane (the neighbor boy) was right behind me and the broken tree hit him in the face when it gave way!  He didn't have any noticeable cuts or bruises thankfully, but it was still pretty unnerving, especially since I just met their family today (great first impression)!

In the end, it was a fun and outdoorsy evening - I met some new neighbors (one of which is also a co-worker), and I finally got better acquainted with our natural surroundings.  I also realized that the gulley in our backyard is somewhat (and unfortunately) unique to our particular property, but I'm still excited and determined to make the best of it.  Eventually I plan to figure out how to make a trail through our backyard too.  One (precarious) step at a time though.

Fun Sunday, Grace by Distraction

Last weekend we went to Clifton Mill, Clifton Gorge, and Young's Dairy Farm (for a pumpkin fair) with Amanda's family.  The scenery was breathtaking at both Clifton locations (check out the pictures from my phone), and it was great to be outside and walking around in the cool air.  

The Dairy Farm was fun too.  We had a tasty lunch at the restaurant there.  Lucas and I navigated through a corn maze (picture below).  The girls got to ride in a little airplane ride that was pulled by a tractor.  We also ate some ice cream and picked a pumpkin from the patch too.  

Because we knew we would be gone for the whole day, we utilized a coupon for a free day of boarding at PetSmart for our dog, Hope.  The only drawback to boarding her though was that we had to make sure we arrived back at PetSmart before they closed for the day.  

Well, we were in the middle of eating our ice cream when Amanda realized that it was 5pm, and we were approximately an hour drive away from PetSmart, which closed at 6pm.  So we loaded up in the minivan and raced against the clock to get there on time.  

Well, maybe "racing" wasn't the best idea, I realized as the blue and red lights flashed behind me.  How fast, you ask?  76 in a 55.  Yep, >20mph over.  Truth be told, I really didn't realize I was going that fast.  The happy ending to this story though, is that after collecting my license and returning to his car, he immediately and briskly walked back, handed me my license, and informed me that he's letting me off with a warning.  Then he briskly walked back to his car and sped off after someone else.  

I don't know if they were in the hundreds of mph range, or if it was just Amanda's prayer just before pulling over.  But whatever the reason, grace was given that day, and we gladly accepted it.

And we actually made it to PetSmart in time.  Right at 6pm.  On the nose.

Weekend Update - Amanda's Birthday!

Monday was Amanda's birthday. So we celebrated it slowly over the whole course of the weekend.

Friday night we went to Fresh Choice for dinner. Afterward, we picked up a bottle of ice wine from a adjacent beverage store. I was too ridiculously full from dinner to enjoy it though, so we refrained from opening it.

=====================================
On Saturday she went to lunch and clothes shopping with a friend. While she was gone, I fed the kids lunch and we watched the US soccer team lose to Ghana. Since we have an antenna for our TV though, the only channel I could find it on was a Spanish channel. And despite my previous post, I kinda enjoyed watching it, although the kids got bored way before I did. Maybe it's because neither team was doing excessive flopping.

Then in the evening we ended up watching our good friend's kids so they could have a date. While that doesn't sound exciting, we ended up jogging to the park with them while they rode their bikes, which was both a lot of fun and some exercise. Then we had a popsicle party in our front lawn when we got back home. To finish the evening, they all enjoyed watching a Pooh movie together. Both their kids and ours had a great time., which of course also makes us happy.

=====================================
Sunday, we went to Bodega Bay where we met Amanda's cousin and his wife. The weather was perfect, and I had some good one-on-one time with Emily when we went for a walk along the beach, and Lucas too when we were running and trying to fly a kite (not much wind though).

Amanda's other cousin (the first one's brother) also met us there later with his girlfriend, and after the beach we went to her Aunt's house for a phenomenal tri-tip dinner that he (Ben) cooked up.

=====================================
I took Monday off of work, in honor of Amanda's birthday. We mostly took it easy that day though, since Sunday wore us out (too much sun and lots of driving).

After I let her sleep in that morning we made crepes for breakfast (I cooked the dough and we both assembled them).

Later the kids and I baked a cake for Amanda - she requested vanilla cake with a lemon middle, and vanilla frosting over it which she made to make sure it came out right. It tasted great!

After the kids' afternoon nap, we went to watch Toy Story 3 in the theatre. Since it was Amanda's birthday, I took care of Clara for 90% of the time. Which meant that I only was able to watch the 1st half of the movie, until she was sick of popcorn and started getting restless and noisy. I ended up pacing the hallways with her during the 2nd half of the movie in an attempt to keep ourselves occupied. I can't blame her though, since she has no idea what they are saying in the dialogue.

Finally, after the kids were in bed we sat on our front bench outside and opened the ice wine that we picked up on Friday.

=====================================
It was a memorable and enjoyable weekend. I'll have to post some pictures once Landis (Amanda's cousin) sends them to us, since we left our camera in the car:-(

Weekend Update - 1/30/09

Weekends are so fleeting, as are most pleasant memories for that matter. So if it's an especially good couple of days then I'm going to blog about it, mainly as an assistance for remembrance.

Highlights from the weekend of 1/30/09 are:

• Lucas' pre-school periodically has a family movie night in their gymnasium. They showed "Finding Nemo" on Friday. Michael O'Brien and his daughter Omara joined us too.
  
  
• Saturday night was UFC94 - featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn.
  
  When we got to our usual sports bar though, there was only 1 tiny table left, and the view from it sucked (it was right under a high-mounted TV). Sure there were still plenty of seats, but the tables were all reserved by a few people at each one.
  
  Michael's friend called and told him that another small bar, Diamond Plate, was showing the fights too, so we went to check it out. The $5 cover sucked, and there were no more tables for 4 there either. But the door man noticed two tiny tables in crummy locations (in the corner and by the door), so he offered to move them and put them together in front of one of the TVs.
  
  So we ended up right in front of a high-def TV, all sitting on the same side of two tables. It felt like VIP seating, especially since everyone else who was watching that particular screen was behind us. The food wasn't quite as good as Mandango's, but it was still quite satisfactory.
  
  Oh yeah, and the fights were great too. GSP was dominant and Lyoto Machida had a great KO. The rest were all decisions, but good fights too.
  
  
• Sunday was Superbowl 43. Our good friends, the Hughes family came over to hang out, eat dinner, and maybe watch the game a little too. It was really nice to see them and spend time with them again, the first time since they moved back here to Sacramento.
  
  For dinner, I grilled Salmon while Amanda made yellow rice, asparagus, and cake for both dessert and as a celebration for our roommate's birthday. And that was some really good salmon, let me tell you. Everyone, including the kids, enjoyed the meal tremendously.