Yeah, I'm 36

Well, yesterday was my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! :) I turned 36 and for the life of me can't believe it. I don't feel 36 at all. Perhaps it's not really as old as it sounds out loud when I say it, but inside I still feel 21. Time seems to play funny tricks on you. Before you know it you're married and have two children. Speaking of children, they seem to age exponentially. Again, I'm sure it's me. But it seems like only yesterday they were both born.

In the end I guess your only as old as you let yourself feel. Hopefully I'll feel 21 for a long time...

Happy Birthday Chris!

Christine, a former co-worker at Kinko's and lifetime friend welcomes another year since birth. She sadly left us several years ago and moved to Arizona. (How selfish!) But we look forward to their family visits when they return home (this will always be their home no matter what she says).

Happy Birthday Chris! We miss you guys!

Cade's First Day Of School EVER!

Excited And Ready To Learn!

So today was Cade's first day of school. He now enters the world of academia totally unaware of what lies ahead of him. He got his new hat and backpack and was excited about starting kindergarten. It has been a year now that Cade has been talking about school. One of his buddies @ daycare started a year before him and he felt a little left out.

Cale got upset when he found out he wasn't going with Cade. It was funny and sad at the same time. Check out some of the Flickr pictures for his reaction.

Overall, Cade had a great time at school. Before he left, I asked him what he wanted to do when he grows up, a question I often ask him. Here's how it went:

Craig: What do you want to do when you grow up?

Cade: Scientist

Craig: Scienist? That's cool.

Cade: And I want to be a race car driver.

Craig: (laughs) Grandma would be happy to see that. (I happened to be video taping this)

Cade: And I want to be a pilot.

Craig: Ha! Grandpa would be happy about that! What else do you want to do?

Cade: I do want to take care of dogs.

Craig: That's cool. Like a veterinarian?

Cade: A vet-ta-terra-ian.


So, anyway, we head off and meet at the school. (We school choiced Cade to a different school.) Shelly drops him off on the way to work and our daycare provider, an extension of our family, picks him up when he's done for the day. I took my own car so I could go straight to work, which is conveniently just up the street. I suppose all first days of school are nuts. This one was no exception. The lot was full, people were parking on the grass. Parents were everywhere wielding cameras and taking pictures. It was actually quite fun.

Cade was the first one in. We hung around for a few minutes and took some pictures. Shelly showed signs of separation anxiety once again. :) I nearly had to drag her out. LOL!

Cade had a really nice time and enjoyed his day. He's looking forward to going back tomorrow and filling his head with knowledge. Cale, from what I understand, gave him a warm welcome when he returned to daycare and was very happy to see him. Apparently he missed his older brother. :)

Ah, the sweet innocence. He loves it now... Just wait until the homework and term papers starts rolling in full force. That'll wake him up to reality. :) But in the meantime... Enjoy it while he can.

Check out more first day photos over @ Flickr.

Who's the next Rock Star?

Well, my prediction at this point for the next lead singer of Inxs and overall winner of Rock Star : Inxs is... MIG. There are still seven contenders. We'll see if my prediction is correct. While Jordis is probably my favorite overall, Mig continues to step it up and seems like the best fit overall. It doesn't hurt that he's a fellow Ausi either. JD, a one time probable for me, appears to think this is more of a game than a career. His personality kinda sucks, but he does lend himself well to the stage and microphone. I feel JD's popularity is waning when he opens his mouth off-stage. He just doesn't appear to get it.

Cale Moves In...

Cale Sees His Room For The First Time

Cale's furniture arrived today and we quickly moved most of his stuff in. There's still some work to do, but the foundation is down. He was so happy and couldn't wait to sleep in his own big boy bed.

It's actually the same furniture, more or less, as what we got Cade.

Check out a few other photos of Cale's new room over at my Flickr page.

Sleeping Habits

Ok, so what kind of sleeper are you? We've got two kids with totally different sleeping habits.

There's Cade... He's "never tired". Yeah right. He really just doesn't like going to bed. Then, when he finally does fall asleep, he's dead to the world and doesn't want to wake up. Quite honestly, this habit is unfortunately the same sleeping pattern as yours truly. Why is it that all my bad traits have to rub off on him. :)

And then there's Cale... Cale is the total opposite. I'm not sure really who in the heck he takes after in this regard. Maybe Shelly's dad. He seems to take after him in every other aspect, so that's probably it. Anyway, when he's tired he'll willingly lie down to rest. No hassles what-so-ever. Just give him his stuffed puppy and he's happy. Now Cale isn't a deep sleeper like Cade is. Nor is he a light sleeper. He's kinda middle of the road. Make a loud enough noise and you'll wake him up. If anyone in the house was to "catch the worm", it's Cale. He's the early bird and usually the first one up when we don't have to go to work.

Shelly is a mix of Cade & Cale, but she's always tired. I supposed we wear her out a bit. But that's our job! :) I try to make an effort and at least let her sleep in on the weekends to catch up if she wants. See, I'm a good husband sometimes! :)

10 Pounds Of Shit In A 5 Pound Bag

Ok, so Cale's room was half storage, half his stuff. But he's still been sleeping in his crib in our room. Realizing he's getting to the point where he really needs to be in his own room, we bit the bullet and bought him bedroom furniture. This forced us to clean out the storage stuff we had stuffed into his room. Honestly, Shelly did the majority of it, God Bless Her.

Shelly's mom has a storage shed that had lots of extra room. My role was lugging the crap (um, our prized storage possessions) to the storage shed and arranging things to make everything fit. Most of the stuff will end up in a garage sale when we decide to have one.

Thursday his stuff should arrive and he should finally be in his own room sleeping in a big boy bed. Ideally, we need to move. We've slowly begun the process (pre-approval), but there are some things we need to do to this house before we get too far into it. I'm hoping within a year or so we'll be in a new house. Let's see how things pan out.

Got Crabs?

I'm Feelin' Crabby!

Once a year or every other year, my parents invite us over for a good ol' crab feast. I'm by no means a pro @ eating these things. Anyone who knows me, knows that I eat fast. Really fast! Crabs are so damn frustrating for me. Talk about slowing me down! Gimme the meat already! But they are so tasty. Definitely worth all the extra work and time.

We lucked out on the weather. I supposed the storm we had the night before broke up some of the heat and humidity.

The boys made a new friend named Jake who happened to live a couple houses down fom where my parents live. They ended up playing for a little bit after we finished up eating.

For more pictures of Crab Fest 2005, visit my Flickr page.

Gotta Light?

It's Not Halloween!

Tonight a nasty storm ripped through Dover. Ever since the city buried our electric, we really haven't had an issue with losing power. We calculated possibly 3 times within the last couple years. Anyway, tonight we lost power in a fierce way. We went into a brown out mode where there was barely enough power to keep everything on. Lights dimmed to 50% or so. Then the power would slowly restore to normal. A few minutes later, we would go back into brown out mode. Finally, it kicked off for good.

A couple months ago, the neighbors behind us had the roof of their 2 story house struck by lightning. The thunder was so loud, we all nearly peed in our pants. :) They had some major damage, but at least everyone was ok. It was a wake up calling for me. I've gotten somewhat lazy about unplugging the electronic devices throughout the house during storms. If a storm is bad enough, make sure you even disconnect the input (cable or phone) to the modem of your PC. Lightning could easily tear up your computer.

Anyway, we had a little excitement tonight. The outage lasted a good hour and 15 minutes or so.

Jordis Rules On Rock Star : Inxs!

Jordis singing David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World was absolutely fantastic! The song was chillingly moving. She's has been my favorite from day 1 and seems to have the most raw talent IMHO. If rock is your genre, you have to like this show. It really is quite good.

Brandon didn't deserve to be at the bottom this week, but his Inxs performance to keep him alive was a little shaky. He's lucky he's still around. Tara really didn't seem to fit in. She had more of a country feel, for the most part, and didn't really do anything for me. I hate to see people leave, but it was just in this case.

Most of the dead weight is gone. There are only one or two borderline performers left, who will probably be the next to go. After that, it's going to be tough and things are going to get exciting.