Look Who's Four!

Look Who's Four!

Cale turned 4 today. It's hard to believe how quickly they grow up. Our one time baby is turning into quite the young man.

We gave him a Nintendo DS as his gift. Now he and Cade have their own DS. While we don't encourage gaming all the time, it's always nice to play some video games every now and again. I liked video games growing up, so it's in my blood too. We just don't want them to live and breathe only video games. They would play all day every day if you let them. :)

Several new photos taken over the past month or so have been posted over at Flickr. Feel free to check them out.

Happy Birthday Cale! We love ya buddy. :)

Missing Tooth

Something's Missing

Cade's 3rd tooth has fallen out. Well, er, was yanked out. Sherry, once again, pulled the tooth out per Cade's request.

That fairy person visited and left two dollar bills, a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and a penny. Not a bad deal. :)

Supernova Live

Yesterday Keith, my brother-in-law, took me to see Supernova as part of the birthday gift they gave me back in August. The tour is now just getting started...

As you may or may not know, our family has been a big fan of the series Rock Star. It's an edgier version of say American Idol, which we also happen to enjoy.

Anyway, Lucas wasn't really whom I was hoping to win but he won none-the-less. Surprisingly, I ended up liking the album very much.

The show was at the Spectrum in Philly. Once there the guy behind us strangely asked us if we had bought our tickets. The looks on our faces must have cued him into elaborating a little further. Apparently they only sold 3600 tickets. 3200 tickets were given away! Eek. Not a good sign.

Before the show started, Lucas made a sneaky appearance into the arena to check things out. He couldn't have been more than 6 or so feet away. He said to those around to enjoy the the show, then waved and went on his way.

Dilana, the runner-up, opened with an acoustic set of 4 or 5 songs. Magni, also a contestant, accompanied her on guitar and backup vocals. I was a fan of Dilana and she lived up to my expectations. A little more stage was then opened up and Juke Kartel, Toby's band, played a short set of 4 or 5 songs. Toby was really whom I wanted to win the contest. He ended up coming in third which left me a little confused as to why Dilana opened. Juke's set was very good and they mixed in a cover (Burnin' Down The House) with some originals.

More stage was opened up as Juke finished to give more room to The Panic Channel, which is Dave Navarro's band. For those unfamiliar, Dave was co-host of Rock Star. Neither Keith or I had heard anything from The Panic Channel up until this point. We had no idea of what to expect. But as it turns out, they really appeared to be the highlight of the show. Their style is nothing more than good old hard rock. Just how I like it. But they had a great energy and sound that left you wanting more. Dilana visited the stage at the end of their set to add vocals to Highway to Hell.

Finally it was time for the Grand Finale. The rest of the stage was opened up and Supernova made their appearance. Right off the bat both Keith and I thought the bassist didn't look like Jason Newstead. Well, it wasn't him. Later, when I returned home, I found out he injured his shoulder and was unable to play. So, how was it? In a word... OK. Something didn't seem quite right. There was no electricity and the songs sounded iffy. Not bad. Not great. Average. Right now they are taking a lot of heat in the press. Honestly, I can see why. Lucas, while a nice guy, doesn't seem to have that stage presence that a good frontman might have. It's something that Toby has for sure. Lucas is ok but at times seemed at a loss for words in between songs. As the night progressed people slowly started to trickle out. By the time the encore finished, half the people had already left the building.

All that being said though, I still enjoyed the show. Yes, I was hoping for a little more, but I still left happy.

If you are into this type of music, download it to take a listen. If you like it, make sure you buy it. Right now they need all the help they can get. :)

It's Snowing In Delaware!

Tonight I opened the door to take Baltimore for a walk and was surprised that the ground was covered in snow and that snow was actually still falling. It is the first real snowfall of the year. We'll be lucky if it's half an inch, but it counts none-the-less.

The snow made for a really nice walk and Baltimore seemed to get invigorated by it. Now if we could only get a couple feet of snow to have some fun in!

Cale Finally Gets To Slide

Ever since Cale started swimming he wanted to go down the slide. Unfortunately he wasn't at the right skill level to do so. But now he's a Pike B and able to do so. The first two weeks they didn't have time to go down the slide. It was killing him. :) This week they finally got to do it. Slowly he climbed the steps, never looking down... Never looking back. It's actually a very tall slide with a couple corkscrews. The steps are a little far apart and quite honestly I was a little worried just watching him go up.

I made a point to tell him when he eventually did get to go down the slide to not look back. He did just that. Once you get to the top of the stairs there is a big deck and then a tube slide at the end. Cale walked to the slide's opening and slowly climbed in. Then, all at once, he disappeared. Cade and I waited for him to come down. It seemed like a really long time. For a brief moment I even had thought he possibly got stuck somehow. Then, all of the sudden, voooosh out he came like a torpedo like his brother.

Apparently for what he's saying he started out sitting up and spread out his arms and legs in the tube to slow himself down. Eventually he took a turn and it threw him to his back and started jetting him down leading him to his torpedo exit.

Did he like it? Heck ya! You couldn't erase the smile from his face if you tried. :)

Virus Protection

Looking for some good virus protection? Check out Kaspersky. For years I didn't use any virus protection. I'm careful about what I do. But you really can't get away from using virus software anymore if you have a PC. It's generally a good thing to run. Getting a good virus program is a whole different issue. Many of the more popular aps (McAfee & Norton) are way more bloated than they need to be. As a result they use up vital system resources.

Kaspersky, in my humble opinion, is the best thing going right now. It's lightweight and does a fantastic job protecting you from both virus' and malware (spyware). In the past I have tried Norton, McAfee, AVG, Bit Defender, and a few others. Kaspersky is my personal favorite.

If your virus protection is in need of renewal, check out Kaspersky. CompUSA has a deal where it's $20 after rebate. HERE is a link for you.

Sounds like an ad almost, doesn't it? It's not.

The Return Of Kinko's?

This morning I woke up from the weirdest dream. I took a job at Kinko's again. As many of you probably know, I spent many years working for Kinko's right before I got married. Since then I moved on with the State of Delaware in the Division of Communications. Since my teenage years I haven't held many jobs. I seem to hold on to them. But of all the jobs I have had, Kinko's was one of my favorites.

So anyway, in my dream, I find myself back in the Dover store nearly 10 years later. This would be a miracle in and of itself because the store closed down shortly after I left. But anyway, I find myself on the job the first day. Not a lot has changed. They even still had the old Macintosh computers with the small black and white screen and floppy drive. :) The people though were all new. One thing that was so great about working at Kinko's was that the co-workers got along so well and we had fun together. I made some great friends and many of them I still stay in touch with today. I kinda wish the dream threw me into a time warp or something and put me back into the store with the old crew, but that's not how it went down.

The dream itself was kinda boring. I was just doing a normal days job, but started slowly since it had been so long since I had worked there. But when I woke up I felt good. Those days were really fun and at times I miss them.

Dream On!

PS - I didn't jump over any counters for those of you that know that story. :)

A Night Out...

It isn't often Shelly and I get to get out alone. I'm sure anyone who is a parent out there understands. But the 11th of January was our 10th Anniversary and it was a good excuse to get out and spend some time alone. A friend from work gave us a gift certificate for Christmas to a local restaurant called Cool Springs (thanks Denise & Steve!). We have been there a couple times before and have enjoyed it in the past. Friday night is usually they busiest night, but we decided to go anyway. Kelly graciously watched the kids for us and we headed out. The wait was 40 minutes but it was worth it. Our appetiser was some steamed shrimp that were sauteed in garlic sauce. A salad came with my meal and it had a delightful honey mustard dressing. Shelly enjoyed a Salmon Caesar Salad as her entree, while I had my way with some swordfish. :) I must admit however that I didn't look at the menu close enough because the swordfish had some sort of sauce in it that contained various nuts. Honestly, I'm not much of a nut guy. But without the sauce the swordfish was very good.

After dinner we ran a few errands before heading back. I bought a lawn mower if you can believe that! Do I know how to woo the ladies or what? :)

It was a nice evening and we had some great alone time together. It's something we need to try to do a little more. ;)