Showing posts with label Alejandra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alejandra. Show all posts
Friday, March 4, 2016
Pax Is 1
Pax has turned one year old. We did it! We were able to take such good care of him that he is still alive one year later! We are super proud! I don't think I've ever been happier. Every time he looks at me I have to smile and be happy because I want him to smile and be happy too. It's a nice positive feedback situation to be in for sure. I think I have done a half decent job recording his life progress so far in my database. He will know things like; the first time he rolled over, sat up, stood, hold his own bottle, climbed the stairs, took steps, took a sip of beer, etc, etc. We also probably have 5 billion pictures and videos of him. It's ridiculous really. Everyone loves him because he is so cute. I can't wait to see how this next year pans out. What else will he do / learn? All I know is that I will do all that I can do be the best parent possible for him.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Date Night for a Cause
This weekend went pretty well. It was Valentine's Day and Ale's birthday. I found that the Westmoreland Heritage Trail (WHT) was holding a fundraiser and because it was on Feb 13th I thought that would be an airtight argument on why we should go. Due to my introversion I rarely thrust myself out there for strange events I don't know anything about but I needed a date night plan and I wanted to help the cause so in this case I was able to successfully overcome.
We picked up the tickets at the Lamplighter a few weeks prior and then just waited. Besides my mom playing silly babysitting games there was no drama. The event was held at the Delmont Fire Hall. I've never been there but I guessed it was probably like most other fire halls and I was correct. It was filled with folding tables and chairs. I mean packed in there. It was a pain to have to get up and go somewhere because you really had to squeeze around.
I had every intention of participating in the fundraising part but I didn't really do anything. They had baskets you could buy tickets for and they ran at least 3 50/50's as well. I'm sure they made a bunch of money which is good. We tried to sit as far away from everyone as we could. Our table did seem to end up being the table of the stragglers. We didn't really talk to anyone at all.
The food was fine. We were starving so maybe that had something to do with it. Chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and a piece of cake. Wow has it really been that long since I had mashed potatoes? It was cash bar so I did grab a couple drinks while we there.
The main thing we were waiting for were the professional comedians. They continued to advertise it like that without saying who they were. That was such a broad definition it was funny. That turned out to be okay too. The first guy I never heard of Ray Zawodni. He was all right. The headlining guy I heard of Mike Wysocki. He is always on the radio on DVE. He was funnier. I am pretty sure I laughed a bunch of times.
I was getting super tired towards the end and I wanted to leave. They were still doing stuff when he finished his set but we were out of there. We had to stop at Walmart and get some stuff before we went home. Not a perfect date but at least a realistic one. Ale seemed to be pleased by everything. I wanted it to be awesome as hell for her and I felt she found it acceptable. Now I have some time to come up with another idea for our next date.
We picked up the tickets at the Lamplighter a few weeks prior and then just waited. Besides my mom playing silly babysitting games there was no drama. The event was held at the Delmont Fire Hall. I've never been there but I guessed it was probably like most other fire halls and I was correct. It was filled with folding tables and chairs. I mean packed in there. It was a pain to have to get up and go somewhere because you really had to squeeze around.
I had every intention of participating in the fundraising part but I didn't really do anything. They had baskets you could buy tickets for and they ran at least 3 50/50's as well. I'm sure they made a bunch of money which is good. We tried to sit as far away from everyone as we could. Our table did seem to end up being the table of the stragglers. We didn't really talk to anyone at all.
The food was fine. We were starving so maybe that had something to do with it. Chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and a piece of cake. Wow has it really been that long since I had mashed potatoes? It was cash bar so I did grab a couple drinks while we there.
The main thing we were waiting for were the professional comedians. They continued to advertise it like that without saying who they were. That was such a broad definition it was funny. That turned out to be okay too. The first guy I never heard of Ray Zawodni. He was all right. The headlining guy I heard of Mike Wysocki. He is always on the radio on DVE. He was funnier. I am pretty sure I laughed a bunch of times.
I was getting super tired towards the end and I wanted to leave. They were still doing stuff when he finished his set but we were out of there. We had to stop at Walmart and get some stuff before we went home. Not a perfect date but at least a realistic one. Ale seemed to be pleased by everything. I wanted it to be awesome as hell for her and I felt she found it acceptable. Now I have some time to come up with another idea for our next date.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Don't Forget
The happiest time in my life is right now. The best time in my life is right now. I love spending time my wife and boys. This is why I've toiled and suffered for 40 years to get to this point. When they look at me and smile because they are satisfied, it's the best feeling in the world. I can see now that this is time I will look back on when I'm old and say 'Yes, this is the time I knew I'd made it. When I was at my happiest.'
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Continued Success
I own 2 acres of land. I have an 11 year old son and a 3 month old son. I have the most beautiful, real, soulmate that anyone could possibly hope for. I have every amiibo released so far. I get to play all the awesome new games that come out on the best systems. I have plenty of awesome bike trails to ride to my hearts content. Now I just got a promotion at work. It doesn't feel like a promotion you see on TV or in a movie but I think it's pretty darn good. Certainly turned this year around from the way it started. Let's hold this together and keep moving forward to even better stuff.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Have I Finally Made Positive Progress?
I feel like I'm happy. What's wrong with me? :O
Usually when I accomplish things I feel as though that was expected to be accomplished and I barely get any joy of them but lately it has been different. I don't know if it's the meditations or the babby or what but I feel happier recently, more appreciative and I think I like it.
THE MEDITATIONS
I read a bunch of meditation books towards the end of last year and got some guided audio meditations on my phone I have been listening to. I've been learning to clear my mind and be in the moment more. In my life so far my brain just runs future scenarios. Whether they be I wish this interaction would have came out differently this way or planning for a future interaction I know will be happening that what it does always. Maybe doing that distracts me from being able to do other things I don't know. I have been clearing to clear my mind and then focus on what it does, label it and put it behind me. What I try to picture I try to describe as Super Mario Galaxy when I talk to someone about it. I picture the nothingness of space and myself flying through it and extraordinary speeds as when Mario gets propelled from planetoid to planetoid in the game. I picture a huge star that more than fills my field of vision but I am still far away from it but that is where I'm going; enlightenment. When I get distracted and my brain goes off on tangents as soon as I realize that I picture that line of thinking as an asteroid or something I temporarily landed on but the realization breaks it up and it crumbles behind me as I once again continue forward towards the light. I think that is working for me. Some days I can calm myself and clear my head rather easily, some days it just doesn't happen for me but I think continuing to try is worth it. I can push my brain to do more for me.
THE BABBY
Maybe it's the babby. He is super cute after all. Ale and I came up with the idea of Pax long before she ever moved here. When she finally got pregnant and he turned out to be a boy and then was born healthy things all seem to go according to some plan. I haven't had a newborn baby in so long I almost forgot what it was like but it's wonderful. I feel I love Ale even more for successfully producing such a wonder. Her family visited for almost a month to come see him and help her take care of him and they just left this past weekend and dang do I miss them. It was wonderful to have them here. I really enjoyed their visit and was sad to see them go. I feel sad when I think they will miss the babby being so far away. I feel like more of a family than we were before somehow. If I can just get my mom, Aunt Dee and Elaine to cooperate and help us with daycare we could even entertain the possibility of another little bundle of joy. That has to happen real soon though.
Quick substory to the babby I wanted to add.
We did have a bit of trouble with him at first. The feeding part did not go as planned. Unfortunately Ale's body was not cooperating with the plans to breast feed him and was only producing a few ounces of milk per day when Pax required much more. This is upsetting to Ale and that made me upset but I understand and it's not her fault. There's nothing you can do. The doctor's keep saying 'Oh it'll probably all work for the next baby'. Well that's great and all but what the hell is this one supposed to eat. He's the one screaming right now that he's hungry. >.< It took us the whole first weekend to figure that out (which was miserable) and that somehow set some red flags off when we took him for his first doctor's appointment. They expected him to lose a little bit of weight but not as much. We told them what we found out but they scheduled another appointment in a week to make sure we were on track. Then when we went to that appointment weight was good but now his temperature was low for some reason and the lady was alarmed about that. I may have taken this the wrong way but it seemed to me it was a threat that she would insist the babby go to the hospital if it doesn't rise in the next 20 min. I definitely did not like how she imparted that information to us. I had to jam the babby down my shirt, skin to skin, to warm him up enough so we could leave but at least that worked. A few other things that may have caused me some slight worry:
Anyway the point of all this is I'm happy. I feel happy. I am noticing that I am and feel happy which makes me even more happy. I don't think that used to be the case. Whatever is going on I like it and want it to continue. I love my wife and family!
Usually when I accomplish things I feel as though that was expected to be accomplished and I barely get any joy of them but lately it has been different. I don't know if it's the meditations or the babby or what but I feel happier recently, more appreciative and I think I like it.
THE MEDITATIONS
I read a bunch of meditation books towards the end of last year and got some guided audio meditations on my phone I have been listening to. I've been learning to clear my mind and be in the moment more. In my life so far my brain just runs future scenarios. Whether they be I wish this interaction would have came out differently this way or planning for a future interaction I know will be happening that what it does always. Maybe doing that distracts me from being able to do other things I don't know. I have been clearing to clear my mind and then focus on what it does, label it and put it behind me. What I try to picture I try to describe as Super Mario Galaxy when I talk to someone about it. I picture the nothingness of space and myself flying through it and extraordinary speeds as when Mario gets propelled from planetoid to planetoid in the game. I picture a huge star that more than fills my field of vision but I am still far away from it but that is where I'm going; enlightenment. When I get distracted and my brain goes off on tangents as soon as I realize that I picture that line of thinking as an asteroid or something I temporarily landed on but the realization breaks it up and it crumbles behind me as I once again continue forward towards the light. I think that is working for me. Some days I can calm myself and clear my head rather easily, some days it just doesn't happen for me but I think continuing to try is worth it. I can push my brain to do more for me.
THE BABBY
Maybe it's the babby. He is super cute after all. Ale and I came up with the idea of Pax long before she ever moved here. When she finally got pregnant and he turned out to be a boy and then was born healthy things all seem to go according to some plan. I haven't had a newborn baby in so long I almost forgot what it was like but it's wonderful. I feel I love Ale even more for successfully producing such a wonder. Her family visited for almost a month to come see him and help her take care of him and they just left this past weekend and dang do I miss them. It was wonderful to have them here. I really enjoyed their visit and was sad to see them go. I feel sad when I think they will miss the babby being so far away. I feel like more of a family than we were before somehow. If I can just get my mom, Aunt Dee and Elaine to cooperate and help us with daycare we could even entertain the possibility of another little bundle of joy. That has to happen real soon though.
Quick substory to the babby I wanted to add.
We did have a bit of trouble with him at first. The feeding part did not go as planned. Unfortunately Ale's body was not cooperating with the plans to breast feed him and was only producing a few ounces of milk per day when Pax required much more. This is upsetting to Ale and that made me upset but I understand and it's not her fault. There's nothing you can do. The doctor's keep saying 'Oh it'll probably all work for the next baby'. Well that's great and all but what the hell is this one supposed to eat. He's the one screaming right now that he's hungry. >.< It took us the whole first weekend to figure that out (which was miserable) and that somehow set some red flags off when we took him for his first doctor's appointment. They expected him to lose a little bit of weight but not as much. We told them what we found out but they scheduled another appointment in a week to make sure we were on track. Then when we went to that appointment weight was good but now his temperature was low for some reason and the lady was alarmed about that. I may have taken this the wrong way but it seemed to me it was a threat that she would insist the babby go to the hospital if it doesn't rise in the next 20 min. I definitely did not like how she imparted that information to us. I had to jam the babby down my shirt, skin to skin, to warm him up enough so we could leave but at least that worked. A few other things that may have caused me some slight worry:
- There is the red mark on his nose and one between his eyes that hasn't gone away yet.
- He had some skin issues at first too, flaky and such but that seems okay once I started using that lavender smelling babby lotion on him.
- I feel weren't weren't washing him enough and he got some bad babby acne before I started taking care of that.
- Also after a bath one day and a few other times I've noticed his had a weird pattern of small red circles all over his skin. People have since explained that away to me but I still didn't like it.
Anyway the point of all this is I'm happy. I feel happy. I am noticing that I am and feel happy which makes me even more happy. I don't think that used to be the case. Whatever is going on I like it and want it to continue. I love my wife and family!
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Pax Oliver Cartwright
Pax was born.
Ale did say she was having some sort of back pain that was followed up by informing me that's a sign of labor. That was in the evening of Tuesday March 3rd. I also recall her telling me as we were going upstairs probably around 8-9 that night that she felt something going on down there in the general belly area. All I know from that point was that at 12:45am I was awakened by Ale who seemed to have some concern. She said she started having contractions around 10 and they were 5 minutes apart and now they are 3 minutes apart. I advised that we should call the doctor as we were told and see what they say so Ale did and they said we should go ahead and go to the hospital. I took a quick shower and I told the boy what was going on and to make sure to text me when he goes to catch the bus. He has been very responsibly handling this for a while now. I also grabbed a small bag of stuff to do. I didn't think to take clothes. Ale had 2 bags full. She had snacks and all kinds of goodies, At least she reminded me to make sure the car seat base was installed so we were good to go there.
I guess we got to Forbes around 2:30am. It was raining like crazy and there were huge puddles and streams of water on the road. I told her this was going to make a good story! For some reason I pulled around the front as usual thinking that one door int he front was the regular emergency entrance. Apparently that was not the case. It was a visitors and it was locked. We walked the entire way around the building in the dark to the back. This is where the emergency was. We went to the desk and told the lady what was going on and she took our info and had a guy there with a wheelchair for her pretty quick. We went to one room where a nurse was taking her vitals and some young Asian female resident doctor lady came in and measured her after about 20 minutes and decided Yep! you guys are staying and having a babby!
They then took us to another room on the fourth floor. It was a big nice room. Here they do everything in the same room. You deliver here. The bed was super high tech and there were lights and all the tools necessary right there. Ale put on one of those hospital gowns and started getting machines and tubes hooked up to her. For about 2 hours a few nurses came and went and looked at the output of the machines. We weren't entirely sure what was going on or how this was going to play out. They asked her if she wanted the epidural shot and she was like if I need it, I need it. In the next hour or so Ale got a little uncomfortable. She was starting to feel some pain. She was laying on her one side moaning and didn't even want me to rub her. I remember walking over to her and she told me her water broke. I could definitely see something that collaborated that had happened. Shortly after that they kicked me out of the room for 10 min while they administered that shot. They said to keep it sterile but I was the only one that had to leave so I'm not sure what that accomplished besides keeping me from seeing what happened.
When I came back in things were happening. There were definitely more people hanging around. Something was going to happen. Ale wanted to start pushing but the nurse was trying to get her to hold back. Apparently she dilated super quickly but not quite enough yet. In a few minutes that didn't matter anymore. The real doctors were there and they pulled sections of the bed off and transformed it into the birthing cradle machine. At one point so many people were yelling at her trying to tell her how to breathe. I know it was confusing for me let alone her. I wanted to yell hey how about one person but she followed along just fine and it wasn't a big deal. I think it only took a good 4-5 pushes to get where we needed to be. The doctor showed me that you could see the tip of the head in there. They pulled out this suction cup vacuum machine and when enough came out that they could grab onto they sucked his head right on out of there. That was wild! Now she had this baby head sticking out. It was purple! Yikes! I'm pretty sure he snipped things a little wider to help get the baby out. Not cool. They grabbed an arm and pulled him out. Welcome to the world Pax! They started toweling him off and this time I got to cut the real cord. They took him to a little side table to make sure all was good as they were sewing everything back together. Lots of blood. Poor baby but she took it all like a champ. The whole 9 months she never really slowed down too much. She went from contractions to birth in what seemed like a few short hours. I am super proud of her and what a great job she did.
Pax was born at 07:19am on 2015/03/04
7 pounds 13 ounces
3.544 kilograms
20 1/2 inches
52 centimeters
We lived in that room for 2 days. It was crazy. I played a lot of Majora's Mask on 3DS. The couch thing they had for me to sleep on was not super comfy. They did have lots of blankets and pillows so that was good, I took a bath in the fancy whirlpool tub which was so sweet. That gave me good experience as far as criteria for the type of bathtub we want in Dream House. Ale got her meals served to her but I had to eat scraps. I did get a steak dinner the one night but that was it, The one night I did go to cafeteria it was closed. I didn't mind. Mom, Isaac and Aunt Dee visited the one day. It was a bad snowy day. Thankfully my mom was able to help us and watch Isaac for the 2 days we were in there. Lisa still after 16 or so weeks hasn't fixed the van so he couldn't go there. One day I walked over to the doctors office where Ale went for the bay to deliver them papers and get a new appointment. I got to walk across the sky walk thing which was fun.
They gave the babby hearing tests and blood tests, They did the circumcision. (Now we have to glob huge amounts of A&D ointment on his parts every time we change him) We had nice nurse ladys come in and take care of stuff for us, We learned not to shake the babby via informative DVD. I gave in and let the middle name be Oliver over Mycroft and had to fill out the birth certificate and social security number forms accordingly. We stole all the free stuff they told us we could have and maybe a little extra.
I forgot how this went it's been so long but the first few days are the keep babby alive phase. It's up to us now to know to feed the babby and not squish the babby and do enough to keep him alive until his
first appointment on Monday. We had a little bit of trouble with that so far. It appears as though the milk didn't just magically start coming out right away so we had to give the babby some formula here and there but Ale is good at making the babby latch on every time anyway so he learns, Luckily today Sunday it has been noted that for sure the works is functioning and we see there is milk happening. Hopefully that continues to work out and the babby is not starved for nourishment,
Just a couple of other things we noted:
I guess we got to Forbes around 2:30am. It was raining like crazy and there were huge puddles and streams of water on the road. I told her this was going to make a good story! For some reason I pulled around the front as usual thinking that one door int he front was the regular emergency entrance. Apparently that was not the case. It was a visitors and it was locked. We walked the entire way around the building in the dark to the back. This is where the emergency was. We went to the desk and told the lady what was going on and she took our info and had a guy there with a wheelchair for her pretty quick. We went to one room where a nurse was taking her vitals and some young Asian female resident doctor lady came in and measured her after about 20 minutes and decided Yep! you guys are staying and having a babby!
They then took us to another room on the fourth floor. It was a big nice room. Here they do everything in the same room. You deliver here. The bed was super high tech and there were lights and all the tools necessary right there. Ale put on one of those hospital gowns and started getting machines and tubes hooked up to her. For about 2 hours a few nurses came and went and looked at the output of the machines. We weren't entirely sure what was going on or how this was going to play out. They asked her if she wanted the epidural shot and she was like if I need it, I need it. In the next hour or so Ale got a little uncomfortable. She was starting to feel some pain. She was laying on her one side moaning and didn't even want me to rub her. I remember walking over to her and she told me her water broke. I could definitely see something that collaborated that had happened. Shortly after that they kicked me out of the room for 10 min while they administered that shot. They said to keep it sterile but I was the only one that had to leave so I'm not sure what that accomplished besides keeping me from seeing what happened.
When I came back in things were happening. There were definitely more people hanging around. Something was going to happen. Ale wanted to start pushing but the nurse was trying to get her to hold back. Apparently she dilated super quickly but not quite enough yet. In a few minutes that didn't matter anymore. The real doctors were there and they pulled sections of the bed off and transformed it into the birthing cradle machine. At one point so many people were yelling at her trying to tell her how to breathe. I know it was confusing for me let alone her. I wanted to yell hey how about one person but she followed along just fine and it wasn't a big deal. I think it only took a good 4-5 pushes to get where we needed to be. The doctor showed me that you could see the tip of the head in there. They pulled out this suction cup vacuum machine and when enough came out that they could grab onto they sucked his head right on out of there. That was wild! Now she had this baby head sticking out. It was purple! Yikes! I'm pretty sure he snipped things a little wider to help get the baby out. Not cool. They grabbed an arm and pulled him out. Welcome to the world Pax! They started toweling him off and this time I got to cut the real cord. They took him to a little side table to make sure all was good as they were sewing everything back together. Lots of blood. Poor baby but she took it all like a champ. The whole 9 months she never really slowed down too much. She went from contractions to birth in what seemed like a few short hours. I am super proud of her and what a great job she did.
Pax was born at 07:19am on 2015/03/04
7 pounds 13 ounces
3.544 kilograms
20 1/2 inches
52 centimeters
We lived in that room for 2 days. It was crazy. I played a lot of Majora's Mask on 3DS. The couch thing they had for me to sleep on was not super comfy. They did have lots of blankets and pillows so that was good, I took a bath in the fancy whirlpool tub which was so sweet. That gave me good experience as far as criteria for the type of bathtub we want in Dream House. Ale got her meals served to her but I had to eat scraps. I did get a steak dinner the one night but that was it, The one night I did go to cafeteria it was closed. I didn't mind. Mom, Isaac and Aunt Dee visited the one day. It was a bad snowy day. Thankfully my mom was able to help us and watch Isaac for the 2 days we were in there. Lisa still after 16 or so weeks hasn't fixed the van so he couldn't go there. One day I walked over to the doctors office where Ale went for the bay to deliver them papers and get a new appointment. I got to walk across the sky walk thing which was fun.
They gave the babby hearing tests and blood tests, They did the circumcision. (Now we have to glob huge amounts of A&D ointment on his parts every time we change him) We had nice nurse ladys come in and take care of stuff for us, We learned not to shake the babby via informative DVD. I gave in and let the middle name be Oliver over Mycroft and had to fill out the birth certificate and social security number forms accordingly. We stole all the free stuff they told us we could have and maybe a little extra.
It is so nice to have a cute little babby again. He is so precious and so adorable. We love him so much. I posted about it on facebook and I think that first picture is probably the most popular picture I ever had as far as number of likes and comments. It is nice that everyone is so happy for us. It makes me feel good. I am happy now. I don't need to wait. Ale is the best and Isaac is the best and Pax is now also the best.
I forgot how this went it's been so long but the first few days are the keep babby alive phase. It's up to us now to know to feed the babby and not squish the babby and do enough to keep him alive until his
first appointment on Monday. We had a little bit of trouble with that so far. It appears as though the milk didn't just magically start coming out right away so we had to give the babby some formula here and there but Ale is good at making the babby latch on every time anyway so he learns, Luckily today Sunday it has been noted that for sure the works is functioning and we see there is milk happening. Hopefully that continues to work out and the babby is not starved for nourishment,
Just a couple of other things we noted:
- super snotty one day, he squeaked when he breathed out his nose and it was so cute sounding
- flaky skin
- feet look way better
- wasn't scared of the vacuum sound
- flails his arms knocks pacifier out, already maybe doesn't like be swaddled
- neck is strong, can already hold his head up sort of
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
PAX
Not only has it been confirmed earlier in the year that Pax exists as a person, we found out today that he should end up male when he's ready to come out. That is unbelievable. I am super happy. I'd have been happy either way but this is just so awesome. I feel super great now. I like thinking that things are happening, aligning and 'I'm on'. I am absolutely going to buy some lottery tickets right now and ride this!
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Mario Lemieux 6.6K 2014
2014/10/05
I ran this again. This time I trained more definitively. I could do even better. I went once every 2 weeks for 5-6 sessions to the track at McCullough. I ran for 30-50 min each time. It helped me pretty much run the entire time. I think only 2-3 times did I have to slow down to a walk and even when I did it was only for a couple seconds to catch my breath. I was proud but not unexpectedly so that I crushed my time from last year. This was definitely the best run of my life. I was totally on. I was super happy the whole day after this.
I enjoyed running this course better than last year. It seemed easier and not much uphill. My GPS (and I bet a lot of other people's as well) glitched out going through the Armstrong Tunnel but I went to the website after and fixed it as best I can. I don't know what they are thinking with the 2 Bridges, 1 Tunnel motto though.
Results
2015
http://www.runhigh.com/2015RESULTS/R100415AA.html
2014
I ran this again. This time I trained more definitively. I could do even better. I went once every 2 weeks for 5-6 sessions to the track at McCullough. I ran for 30-50 min each time. It helped me pretty much run the entire time. I think only 2-3 times did I have to slow down to a walk and even when I did it was only for a couple seconds to catch my breath. I was proud but not unexpectedly so that I crushed my time from last year. This was definitely the best run of my life. I was totally on. I was super happy the whole day after this.
I enjoyed running this course better than last year. It seemed easier and not much uphill. My GPS (and I bet a lot of other people's as well) glitched out going through the Armstrong Tunnel but I went to the website after and fixed it as best I can. I don't know what they are thinking with the 2 Bridges, 1 Tunnel motto though.
Results
2015
http://www.runhigh.com/2015RESULTS/R100415AA.html
Bib Place Class Place Name Age City State Clock Time Chip Time Pace
1067 930 61 Marc Cartwright, 40, Jeannette, PA 39:09 38:52 9:29
1066 2932 281 Alejandra Cartwright, 33*, Jeannette, PA 56:13 1:18:02 1:13:58 18:02
out of 2955
2014
604 1456 106 Marc Cartwright, 39, Jeannette, PA 42:20 39:49 9:43
603 3841 349 Alejandra Cartwright, 32*, Jeannette, PA 1:12:22 1:07:24 16:26
out of 3977
2013
409 2247 137 Marc Cartwright, 38, Jeannette, PA 51:48 48:12 11:45
408 2899 279 Alejandra Cartwright, 31*, Jeannette, PA 1:05:57 1:02:21 15:12
out of 3051
Ale did great for a person in her condition (which is pregnant). She started to get sick right before it started but then she felt better and walked it.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Father's Day 2014
There were a few things that threw me off this past week but for the most part it was a great time.
For starters this past week was E3 and there was tons of good stuff going around. The Nintendo event started with Reggie fighting Iwata and that right there was enough for me to call a winner. They showed a lot about the new Zelda and Hyrule Warriors and they finally became available to preorder on Amazon.
There was an incident where a cop punched my car but don't get me started on that. I was kind of upset for like a day after but I have since calmed.
I also got a little irritated trying to convey a lesson to the boy via Ale. Not sure what happened there but I guess it worked out in the end. I'm still not sure.
Besides those downers I guess everything started on Thursday. Since the boy was going away for the next week we had our Father's Day celebration this day. We had an awesome cookout outside and the food was great. I am really liking the grill we bought last summer and I think I am pretty good at cooking on it. We cook pretty much every piece of meat we have in the house when we cookout so we don't waste the charcoal and then we have food to eat for several days afterwards. I invited my mother for like the 10th time to our cookout but like every time but one, she ignored the invitation and did not show up. Her loss.
The boy made me a gold trophy at Penn Pals out of a piece of paper and Ale collaborated with him to buy me a new power screwdriver set so that was good. It's nice to get something useful once in a while. The boy did fail to call me on Sunday but I guess I won't mess with him over it.
Friday was awesome too. I had a tattoo appointment with Danimus. A lot of progress was made on the 'I bleed black and gold' tattoo. It may even be finished the next time I'm in. I guess I will finally be able to show it off. After we were done we even hung out and did some stuff. I was kind of jacked how Dan never acknowledges my texts or anything so I wasn't expecting to do anything but it seems like we are still friends and I should let stuff like that go more easily. He showed me a lot of what he has been learning about beer. Apparently he is at a whole different level than I knew even existed. He's online trading beer and I rediscovered that the Giant Eagle in Irwin has an awesome section of craft beers which would ensure I never have trouble trying something I've never had before. I even got a bunch of new badges on the Untappd app from all the different beers I tasted.
Weird Al got permission from Iggy Azalea to parody her so a cryptic announcement was released this weekend. July 15th the newest Weird Al album will be released.
In 2 separate trips I rode the boy's new bike over 20 miles this weekend in training for the PT Triathlon which is this next weekend (June 21st). My legs were killing me the 2nd trip but I am super happy with the bike's performance. Hopefully the boy really appreciates that bike because it was not cheap. I am happy my bike is still able to be ridden as I've enjoyed the couple times we have gone out together riding. Hopefully that continues.
Saturday after the bike ride I know I worked on and made good progress on my VGDB so that made me happy. I wish I had more time and resources to research and add all these games. I do it because I love it but I do kind of wish on the side that I could monetize it in some way. At lease showcase my skills to an employers that will let me do this would be nice.
The LA Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup. They kicked ass. They were absolutely the best team.
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The World Cup has started in Brazil and we watched Argentina beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 in their first match.
On Sunday I got a good few hours in on Watchdogs. That game is pretty fun and for as long as I played it for as much as I did I am still not even that far along. It is an extensive game to be sure.
Besides all that I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful wife, Ale. I don't know what I'd do without her. We are still moving forward with the house. We do own the first acre of the property and we are still saving up I guess. I am still paying my student loan down and I hope to have that taken care of by the end of this year.
For starters this past week was E3 and there was tons of good stuff going around. The Nintendo event started with Reggie fighting Iwata and that right there was enough for me to call a winner. They showed a lot about the new Zelda and Hyrule Warriors and they finally became available to preorder on Amazon.
There was an incident where a cop punched my car but don't get me started on that. I was kind of upset for like a day after but I have since calmed.
I also got a little irritated trying to convey a lesson to the boy via Ale. Not sure what happened there but I guess it worked out in the end. I'm still not sure.
Besides those downers I guess everything started on Thursday. Since the boy was going away for the next week we had our Father's Day celebration this day. We had an awesome cookout outside and the food was great. I am really liking the grill we bought last summer and I think I am pretty good at cooking on it. We cook pretty much every piece of meat we have in the house when we cookout so we don't waste the charcoal and then we have food to eat for several days afterwards. I invited my mother for like the 10th time to our cookout but like every time but one, she ignored the invitation and did not show up. Her loss.
The boy made me a gold trophy at Penn Pals out of a piece of paper and Ale collaborated with him to buy me a new power screwdriver set so that was good. It's nice to get something useful once in a while. The boy did fail to call me on Sunday but I guess I won't mess with him over it.
Friday was awesome too. I had a tattoo appointment with Danimus. A lot of progress was made on the 'I bleed black and gold' tattoo. It may even be finished the next time I'm in. I guess I will finally be able to show it off. After we were done we even hung out and did some stuff. I was kind of jacked how Dan never acknowledges my texts or anything so I wasn't expecting to do anything but it seems like we are still friends and I should let stuff like that go more easily. He showed me a lot of what he has been learning about beer. Apparently he is at a whole different level than I knew even existed. He's online trading beer and I rediscovered that the Giant Eagle in Irwin has an awesome section of craft beers which would ensure I never have trouble trying something I've never had before. I even got a bunch of new badges on the Untappd app from all the different beers I tasted.
Weird Al got permission from Iggy Azalea to parody her so a cryptic announcement was released this weekend. July 15th the newest Weird Al album will be released.
In 2 separate trips I rode the boy's new bike over 20 miles this weekend in training for the PT Triathlon which is this next weekend (June 21st). My legs were killing me the 2nd trip but I am super happy with the bike's performance. Hopefully the boy really appreciates that bike because it was not cheap. I am happy my bike is still able to be ridden as I've enjoyed the couple times we have gone out together riding. Hopefully that continues.
Saturday after the bike ride I know I worked on and made good progress on my VGDB so that made me happy. I wish I had more time and resources to research and add all these games. I do it because I love it but I do kind of wish on the side that I could monetize it in some way. At lease showcase my skills to an employers that will let me do this would be nice.
The LA Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup. They kicked ass. They were absolutely the best team.
The World Cup has started in Brazil and we watched Argentina beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 in their first match.
On Sunday I got a good few hours in on Watchdogs. That game is pretty fun and for as long as I played it for as much as I did I am still not even that far along. It is an extensive game to be sure.
Besides all that I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful wife, Ale. I don't know what I'd do without her. We are still moving forward with the house. We do own the first acre of the property and we are still saving up I guess. I am still paying my student loan down and I hope to have that taken care of by the end of this year.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Done with Kennywood
I love roller coasters. I don't like waiting in line after line only to have the ride break and be shut down before I get my turn. That's the only way I can describe my most recent (and probably last) visit to Kennywood Park. I haven't gone for a long time anyway. I know I've taken the boy before but he was just an inch too short to ride anything good. He wanted to stand at the end of the Pittsburgh Plunge and get splashed all day that time anyway. We decided to go this time because Ale's parents we visiting and it seemed like a fun activity to do with them.
First thing I noticed that I didn't like was that they changed the parking lot structure. Used to just be able park anywhere, not anymore. It's pay. The free spots are way way in the back and seemingly insufficient in volume. Now I walk so I would prefer to park in the back but when I see the pay lot is completely empty and idiots are parking on the hillside in the free lot then I think we have a problem.
Second thing I noticed was the entrance fee is back to one price only. You have to pay $41 to get in. That seems like a lot for a regular person. That seems like a whole lot for people that don't intend to ride anything. What happened to General Admission? Ale's mom and sister aren't going to ride anything. Why do they have to pay full price when they are just going to sit on a bench all day? Luckily Ale researched and found so coupons so we didn't get totally ripped off buying admission tickets.
So we are through security now (because that's totally necessary). You walk through that tunnel that takes you under the road and BAM! You're in! At least that is still fun. The boy couldn't reach the ceiling. I remember knowing I was growing the time when I was able to touch it. So they took the Turnpike ride out and put in the Sky Rocket. I say let's jump right in and get in line. So me, her dad and the boy get in line. We wait 35 min. We're at the part that goes up the stairs to the area where you board the cars. We hear an announcement. The ride is shut down for maintenance. Wow that sucks. Should we wait it out or come back later? We were close enough we could see that some guys came over and are working on the brakes on one of the cars. We waited 10 more minutes and then left the line. This wasn't going to be running again soon.
The boy wants to ride the Phantom so we head that way. On the way we did stop and get on the bumper cars so at least we got that first ride under our belts.
When we left that, across the way was the Cosmic Chaos which I have ridden and enjoyed before. The line didn't seem long so we queued up. After about 10 minutes we can tell we will be in the next batch of people to get on. The ride stops and the people get off clearing the way for us. Excitement! Wait what are they pointing at? Where are those employees going? I hear another announcement. Someone yakked on the ride and they are closing for maintenance. Wonderful! We are out of here.
The boy had enough at this point. He starts dragging me towards the Phantom. I see a sign: "Only one car running today. Sorry for the inconvenience". Oh really? I pretty much have no choice. We get in line. About 55 minutes later we are in the boarding area. At this point I can tell 2, 4, 6 people in front of us so that's 3 cars worth until our turn. I also notice in the one working car they have that 2 of the double seats on the cars are blocked off. Their one car isn't even capable of a full load. The boy is really excited. At least this ride is working huh Dad? Don't jinx us boy, I said. Finally we are next. The car pulls in and the people get off. Announcement. Temporarily closed for Maintenance. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK! I could see disappointment clouding up on the boys face. Someone asked what was wrong and the guy replied something back that didn't seem to serious. In fact, as we all stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just 5-10 minutes, no one looked at anything that I could tell but then all of sudden we hear the 'please board carefully' message. Yay! We can ride now! The boy was fairly terrified but he did it. We even got this cool picture Ale paid $15 for. :|
After that success we walked around a little and saw the other parts of the park. I told them where everything used to be around the park. We rode the train ride. I noticed they have huge dryers outside the water rides now to bilk stupid people of money. We went into the arcade where I explained I spend plenty of time in my younger years. They had almost all of the exact same games, Rampage, Double Dragon, etc. That was kind of depressing. While that was a Golden Age of Arcades some good games have come out then you should probably have here. Did they do nothing but rearrange them every year since then? We wanted to get some food or something but I said I had to at least ride that new Black Widow ride before we left so I went over to get in line solo. You stand almost under it to wait in line and it seems pretty impressive for that vantage point. I was excited. Too bad that 2 rides into my wait they shut it down. That's it, I'm out. Everyone got out of line and I went to find my family by the Merry Go Round. I'm pissed. I want to go. If they new the rides weren't ready yet or whatever they could at least warn you and charge you half price or something. So we left and I had to apologize to her family. This isn't what I expected. This isn't a good impression to show a bunch of people who have never been here before.
It's because of this total bullshit that I will not come back to Kennywood.
First thing I noticed that I didn't like was that they changed the parking lot structure. Used to just be able park anywhere, not anymore. It's pay. The free spots are way way in the back and seemingly insufficient in volume. Now I walk so I would prefer to park in the back but when I see the pay lot is completely empty and idiots are parking on the hillside in the free lot then I think we have a problem.
Second thing I noticed was the entrance fee is back to one price only. You have to pay $41 to get in. That seems like a lot for a regular person. That seems like a whole lot for people that don't intend to ride anything. What happened to General Admission? Ale's mom and sister aren't going to ride anything. Why do they have to pay full price when they are just going to sit on a bench all day? Luckily Ale researched and found so coupons so we didn't get totally ripped off buying admission tickets.
So we are through security now (because that's totally necessary). You walk through that tunnel that takes you under the road and BAM! You're in! At least that is still fun. The boy couldn't reach the ceiling. I remember knowing I was growing the time when I was able to touch it. So they took the Turnpike ride out and put in the Sky Rocket. I say let's jump right in and get in line. So me, her dad and the boy get in line. We wait 35 min. We're at the part that goes up the stairs to the area where you board the cars. We hear an announcement. The ride is shut down for maintenance. Wow that sucks. Should we wait it out or come back later? We were close enough we could see that some guys came over and are working on the brakes on one of the cars. We waited 10 more minutes and then left the line. This wasn't going to be running again soon.
The boy wants to ride the Phantom so we head that way. On the way we did stop and get on the bumper cars so at least we got that first ride under our belts.
When we left that, across the way was the Cosmic Chaos which I have ridden and enjoyed before. The line didn't seem long so we queued up. After about 10 minutes we can tell we will be in the next batch of people to get on. The ride stops and the people get off clearing the way for us. Excitement! Wait what are they pointing at? Where are those employees going? I hear another announcement. Someone yakked on the ride and they are closing for maintenance. Wonderful! We are out of here.
The boy had enough at this point. He starts dragging me towards the Phantom. I see a sign: "Only one car running today. Sorry for the inconvenience". Oh really? I pretty much have no choice. We get in line. About 55 minutes later we are in the boarding area. At this point I can tell 2, 4, 6 people in front of us so that's 3 cars worth until our turn. I also notice in the one working car they have that 2 of the double seats on the cars are blocked off. Their one car isn't even capable of a full load. The boy is really excited. At least this ride is working huh Dad? Don't jinx us boy, I said. Finally we are next. The car pulls in and the people get off. Announcement. Temporarily closed for Maintenance. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK! I could see disappointment clouding up on the boys face. Someone asked what was wrong and the guy replied something back that didn't seem to serious. In fact, as we all stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just 5-10 minutes, no one looked at anything that I could tell but then all of sudden we hear the 'please board carefully' message. Yay! We can ride now! The boy was fairly terrified but he did it. We even got this cool picture Ale paid $15 for. :|
After that success we walked around a little and saw the other parts of the park. I told them where everything used to be around the park. We rode the train ride. I noticed they have huge dryers outside the water rides now to bilk stupid people of money. We went into the arcade where I explained I spend plenty of time in my younger years. They had almost all of the exact same games, Rampage, Double Dragon, etc. That was kind of depressing. While that was a Golden Age of Arcades some good games have come out then you should probably have here. Did they do nothing but rearrange them every year since then? We wanted to get some food or something but I said I had to at least ride that new Black Widow ride before we left so I went over to get in line solo. You stand almost under it to wait in line and it seems pretty impressive for that vantage point. I was excited. Too bad that 2 rides into my wait they shut it down. That's it, I'm out. Everyone got out of line and I went to find my family by the Merry Go Round. I'm pissed. I want to go. If they new the rides weren't ready yet or whatever they could at least warn you and charge you half price or something. So we left and I had to apologize to her family. This isn't what I expected. This isn't a good impression to show a bunch of people who have never been here before.
It's because of this total bullshit that I will not come back to Kennywood.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
QNAP
I thought we had a networking solution last year when we bought a new router that had capabilities to attach an external hard drive. It seemed to work at first. We could get to all of our files, stream videos to our devices and FTP in remotely to access things but then weirdness started. Files we know that were there or updated starting disappearing. This was particularly troublesome when we were trying to do the bills. Permissions kept giving us trouble. We couldn't delete or move things sometimes and there seemed to be no consistency on what or why. We needed another solution.
Ale did some research and found this, a NAS server for home use by QNAP. I had thought about getting a server in the past but I was hesitant as I wondered if I knew enough about it that I could keep it operating 100% of the time. Ale seemed confident so we went with it. We had to buy our own hard drive for it but that wasn't an issue. It all came in a few days and we started setting it up. Best. Decision. Ever. The thing works like a charm. It has an awesome management interface that we can get to over the wifi at home or over the internet away. It has an app for about any use that the system can do which makes things super easy. No more having to go through the crashy Windows Explorer interface. It is giving us no issues moving, copying, deleting anything so far. No files have been lost and it still even has a port for external drives so we don't have to burden it with gigs upon gigs of video files. We just moved the documents and pictures over and it's been like a dream. I wish I knew about it sooner. Just read that website about the stuff it can do. If you are looking for a place to store all your files where you can access them anytime, this is what you want.
Now if we can just find an awesome picture solution to tag and sort through all my folders of pictures. I like Picassa by Google but it seems to be a single machine solution and not for a networked environment. QNAP has a picture app that is functional but doesn't have the tagging and other bells and whistles that Picassa has.
Ale did some research and found this, a NAS server for home use by QNAP. I had thought about getting a server in the past but I was hesitant as I wondered if I knew enough about it that I could keep it operating 100% of the time. Ale seemed confident so we went with it. We had to buy our own hard drive for it but that wasn't an issue. It all came in a few days and we started setting it up. Best. Decision. Ever. The thing works like a charm. It has an awesome management interface that we can get to over the wifi at home or over the internet away. It has an app for about any use that the system can do which makes things super easy. No more having to go through the crashy Windows Explorer interface. It is giving us no issues moving, copying, deleting anything so far. No files have been lost and it still even has a port for external drives so we don't have to burden it with gigs upon gigs of video files. We just moved the documents and pictures over and it's been like a dream. I wish I knew about it sooner. Just read that website about the stuff it can do. If you are looking for a place to store all your files where you can access them anytime, this is what you want.Now if we can just find an awesome picture solution to tag and sort through all my folders of pictures. I like Picassa by Google but it seems to be a single machine solution and not for a networked environment. QNAP has a picture app that is functional but doesn't have the tagging and other bells and whistles that Picassa has.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Highlights 2013
Well I wanted to make a Top 5 list of the best things that occured in my life this past year but as I was looking for notable events that happened I found way more than 5 things I wanted to remember. Without further ado here is a list of things that happened this year that are memorable to me and a brief explanation of each. This is somewhat in chronological order.
Ear Of Luigi - According to Nintendo after pushing Mario down our throats for 20 some years it is finally time for Luigi to shine.
Data Analyst 2 - At work I have finally been recognized for my hard work and effort and after they retooled the job titles I have been promoted. Long overdue but at least I finally got a noteworthy bump in salary to help pay for the things that have gone up in price in the last few years when they skimped on giving us more money.
Attended 100th Pens Game - I've been to a lot of Penguins games and luckily I have a lot of friends that are fans that went with me. I don't know how much longer I'll have the tickets but I am super satisfied with what I have achieved so far. (add my record here)
May Trip To Argentina - Well I have been out of the country before. This was actually my 3rd trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in my life but this time we were able to take Isaac. He is now an international traveller. I think this was super good for him to see another culture. Hopefully it sticks with him.
1 Year Anniversary - On 2013-06-08 I have been married to my wonderful wife for a whole year now! How is that not awesome?!
Took Isaac To See Weird Al - This wasn't the first concert the boy was ever at. We took him to see Phish before but we haven't been able to get him to a Weird Al show until now. Unfortunately due to the venue we were not able to meet up with him after the show but it was still a great experience.
Bushy Run Battlefield 250th Anniversary - Despite living only a mile or 2 away and it being around my birthday ever year, I have never been to the Battle Of Bushy Run Battle Reenactment before. We finally made it this year and it was the 250th anniversary to boot so it was a good one. I got some cool swag.
Ale Got Her Driver's License - She failed the test 5 times. I was admittedly not very happy. I couldn't understand how someone as smart as Ale could not grasp the concept of driving. She's still not a pro at it but finally at least she passed her test and is a licensed driver.
Green Baycation - I had on my 'bucket list', if you will, to attend an NFL football game at the holy mecca of football stadiums, Lambeau Field in Green Bay Wisconsin, for several years now. The problem is due to the way they make the schedule the Steelers only play Green Bay once every five years and of course last time they met they played here in Pittsburgh but finally this year it was our turn. I have been pushing this to all my friends for years and it seemed like I had a following but when it came time to put up or shut up, no one came forward. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had to shanghai Ale and take her instead. Luckily the whole trip worked out better than I imagined. We saw Chicago and the game went down exactly as I pictured it, snowy and wow what a game to boot! (link doc and pic album)
PS4 - Sony released a new system. Pretty impressive. I hope they follow it up with some good games. There wasn't really anything good that I craved at launch so I am still awaiting justification. Hopefully Infamous Second Son, Watchdogs and Destiny are kick ass.
Xmas Vacation - I took the rest of the year off after December 20th. Not only for the Green Baycation but to spend time with the boy and play with him and play video games of course. I had a lot of stress this year so it was nice to be off and not have to do anything for a while. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing.
Babbies - To say this was the year a lot of my friends had a baby is an understatement.
IN CONCLUSION
Well if you look at it like that it seems I had a fairly awesome year. Hopefully in my mind I can change my perception to think of this year in these terms and that should help me stay happy and positive. Next year as Ale and I have already discussed won't be filled with as many trips and events as we have been doing because we need to start saving money but I think it will still have some noteworthy happenings going on. Here is a small preview:
Big Stuff Planned for 2014
Ear Of Luigi - According to Nintendo after pushing Mario down our throats for 20 some years it is finally time for Luigi to shine.
Data Analyst 2 - At work I have finally been recognized for my hard work and effort and after they retooled the job titles I have been promoted. Long overdue but at least I finally got a noteworthy bump in salary to help pay for the things that have gone up in price in the last few years when they skimped on giving us more money.
Attended 100th Pens Game - I've been to a lot of Penguins games and luckily I have a lot of friends that are fans that went with me. I don't know how much longer I'll have the tickets but I am super satisfied with what I have achieved so far. (add my record here)
May Trip To Argentina - Well I have been out of the country before. This was actually my 3rd trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in my life but this time we were able to take Isaac. He is now an international traveller. I think this was super good for him to see another culture. Hopefully it sticks with him.
1 Year Anniversary - On 2013-06-08 I have been married to my wonderful wife for a whole year now! How is that not awesome?!
Took Isaac To See Weird Al - This wasn't the first concert the boy was ever at. We took him to see Phish before but we haven't been able to get him to a Weird Al show until now. Unfortunately due to the venue we were not able to meet up with him after the show but it was still a great experience.
Bushy Run Battlefield 250th Anniversary - Despite living only a mile or 2 away and it being around my birthday ever year, I have never been to the Battle Of Bushy Run Battle Reenactment before. We finally made it this year and it was the 250th anniversary to boot so it was a good one. I got some cool swag.
Ale Got Her Driver's License - She failed the test 5 times. I was admittedly not very happy. I couldn't understand how someone as smart as Ale could not grasp the concept of driving. She's still not a pro at it but finally at least she passed her test and is a licensed driver.
Green Baycation - I had on my 'bucket list', if you will, to attend an NFL football game at the holy mecca of football stadiums, Lambeau Field in Green Bay Wisconsin, for several years now. The problem is due to the way they make the schedule the Steelers only play Green Bay once every five years and of course last time they met they played here in Pittsburgh but finally this year it was our turn. I have been pushing this to all my friends for years and it seemed like I had a following but when it came time to put up or shut up, no one came forward. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had to shanghai Ale and take her instead. Luckily the whole trip worked out better than I imagined. We saw Chicago and the game went down exactly as I pictured it, snowy and wow what a game to boot! (link doc and pic album)
PS4 - Sony released a new system. Pretty impressive. I hope they follow it up with some good games. There wasn't really anything good that I craved at launch so I am still awaiting justification. Hopefully Infamous Second Son, Watchdogs and Destiny are kick ass.Xmas Vacation - I took the rest of the year off after December 20th. Not only for the Green Baycation but to spend time with the boy and play with him and play video games of course. I had a lot of stress this year so it was nice to be off and not have to do anything for a while. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing.
Babbies - To say this was the year a lot of my friends had a baby is an understatement.
- ADELYN MAE WEYANDT - MAY
- CARTER RYAN MEALS - AUG
- DANIEL MOOK FREY - SEPT
- ZACK WEIN - OCT
- GALL - NOV
Health - Also did a lot of things to stay healthy.
- I walked 4 million steps (4,322,302 to be exact)
- Did 10k push ups (10,220 to be exact)
- Read 50 books (52 to be exact)
IN CONCLUSION
Well if you look at it like that it seems I had a fairly awesome year. Hopefully in my mind I can change my perception to think of this year in these terms and that should help me stay happy and positive. Next year as Ale and I have already discussed won't be filled with as many trips and events as we have been doing because we need to start saving money but I think it will still have some noteworthy happenings going on. Here is a small preview:
Big Stuff Planned for 2014
- Paying Off Student Loan
- Buying Property For Dreamhouse
- Groundhogs Day
- Cartwright Babby :D
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Boy Does Homework
The boy made us very proud today. It was unfortunate that he had to severely disappoint us first. He is learning long division and he had a 6 problem worksheet to do. It was not a good time. We kept trying to explain that it you just do the same steps over ad over again until you run out of numbers. He wasn't getting it. I tried. I could see the look on his face and none of the information or methodology was getting anywhere near his brain. I did example problems, walked him through a few and every time I'd leave him alone for one second he just went blank. Very frustrating. Ale tried. She did great as she maintained her patience a little longer than me but after 3 hours together it eventually ran out too. Nothing was registering with him and he wasn't absorbing anything so we sent him to his room. He had to be in there for 2 hours or so but when I eventually stuck my head in I was surprised to see he had all his papers strewn out on his bed and he was trying to do problems. This was a positive sign. So I sat in with him and asked him what problem he was on now. We went over the method again and something amazing happened. I could see the gears turning in the boy's head. I swear I actually heard something click. He was getting it!!! We all persevered through this day of long division hell and he boy was getting it! Wow was that amazing and totally worth it. The best part of it is the way I could see that he knew he was getting. He understood that at first he didn't know what he was doing. He understood the pain of the effort of working on problems over and over all day. Now he was understanding that he got it. I made sure he also recognized that progression. It was wonderful to watch and I was proud of him. He was proud of himself. I think that was even more important.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Satisfaction
I still don't understand my internal set of values and things that allow me to feel satisfaction. I think accomplishing certain things should make me feel good and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I do things that I feel are unimportant or insignificant and feel great satisfaction after completing them. It's strange.
I was super impressed with the help the boy provided this weekend. I had a huge list of chores that needed done, from cleaning, to phone calls, to errands run and everyone was extremely helpful in getting them done. The boy himself personally oversaw the cleaning of the bathroom and vacuuming. I again was very thankful and I've conveyed to him several times now how much that meant to me. I hope he gets my feeling and it helps him build on it and grow into a better person. I do wonder why most of my satisfaction comes from chore related tasks. I think I have my mother to thank for that.
Also I don't really like barking commands to be followed out to my wife. I like to bring them up in regular conversation at earlier points and be like 'Hey we're going to need to do this soon. I'll need you to do this.' Sometimes we reach the point where I can't continue until she comes through though so sometimes I do have to say to her 'Hey, get up, let's go with this'. What is absolutely wonderful about her is even if she not in the mood she is smart enough to realize the advantages of taking a few minutes of her day and getting up and getting things done. It's not like I'm trying to inconvenience anyone or that I'm asking some back-breaking, effort-intensive activity that benefits no one and I'm asking simply to irritate her. If you put a halt to what I'm doing here I may become cranky and who knows when I'll work up the gumption to get on this kind of a roll again. She realizes that helping me out really helps our whole family out and damn, after what I've been through in the past this is indescribably beautiful to me. I love that woman so much again I don't know if whenever I feel these waves of emotional thankfulness and I try to convey that to her if I could ever possibly come across in a way that she can understand. I love talking to my wife. She is my best friend. Most of the time I get the feeling that she listens to me and cares what I say and think. That is a good feeling. She shares my concerns. We are in this together. Sure some times I talk about stupid stuff that doesn't matter but even then she still half-listens. I can't really remember connecting like this with someone in the past.
I guess I'm just trying to say I love my wife, I love my son, I love my family and I am super lucky to have them. I am trying my best to be the best for them. Doing so makes me feel good.
I was super impressed with the help the boy provided this weekend. I had a huge list of chores that needed done, from cleaning, to phone calls, to errands run and everyone was extremely helpful in getting them done. The boy himself personally oversaw the cleaning of the bathroom and vacuuming. I again was very thankful and I've conveyed to him several times now how much that meant to me. I hope he gets my feeling and it helps him build on it and grow into a better person. I do wonder why most of my satisfaction comes from chore related tasks. I think I have my mother to thank for that.
Also I don't really like barking commands to be followed out to my wife. I like to bring them up in regular conversation at earlier points and be like 'Hey we're going to need to do this soon. I'll need you to do this.' Sometimes we reach the point where I can't continue until she comes through though so sometimes I do have to say to her 'Hey, get up, let's go with this'. What is absolutely wonderful about her is even if she not in the mood she is smart enough to realize the advantages of taking a few minutes of her day and getting up and getting things done. It's not like I'm trying to inconvenience anyone or that I'm asking some back-breaking, effort-intensive activity that benefits no one and I'm asking simply to irritate her. If you put a halt to what I'm doing here I may become cranky and who knows when I'll work up the gumption to get on this kind of a roll again. She realizes that helping me out really helps our whole family out and damn, after what I've been through in the past this is indescribably beautiful to me. I love that woman so much again I don't know if whenever I feel these waves of emotional thankfulness and I try to convey that to her if I could ever possibly come across in a way that she can understand. I love talking to my wife. She is my best friend. Most of the time I get the feeling that she listens to me and cares what I say and think. That is a good feeling. She shares my concerns. We are in this together. Sure some times I talk about stupid stuff that doesn't matter but even then she still half-listens. I can't really remember connecting like this with someone in the past.
I guess I'm just trying to say I love my wife, I love my son, I love my family and I am super lucky to have them. I am trying my best to be the best for them. Doing so makes me feel good.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Fixed the Desktop PC
I've had my desktop PC for a while now. I bought it new from Dell a while back and it's served me well for a long time but it's been so crappy slow and buggy for so long I almost couldn't stand it anymore. My plan was for Ale to help me redo everything when she came up for #mayvacation but that didn't work out so I needed to think of a new plan. What is the best way for Marc to accomplish something? Set a goal! So that's what I did.
I started on Sunday. I hooked up my external drive and started backing up my music while I made a list of everything else that needed saved off. As long as I got all my files (pics, music, databases, etc) and the programs I use on an every day basis saved off I didn't care what happened to the garbage that filled up the rest.
It took me another 2 days to get everything saved off but on Wednesday I was ready. Now my plan was to reformat the whole drive and use the bios to put Windows back on when it was done. I wanted the whole thing wiped and clean but Ale's idea was to just add a partition and install Windows there. I wasn't so sure about that. Wouldn't the garbage still be on there? I don't know but I put in the disc and picked the Custom install option. This says it will totally disregard any files currently on the drive but the first time I tried to install Windows it died almost at the end and I had to shut the PC off to break it out of that. Restarting set it in a repeating loop so something went wrong. My worst nightmare! What if I couldn't fix it and my PC was junk? :(
I went back in the bios and booted straight from the disc. What was this option.... What drive do I want to install Windows on? Oh reformat? Yes please. BOOM!! Not even an hour later my PC was up and running a brand new copy of Windows 7 and I had an entirely clean hard drive to put everything back on. I had done it. I put it off for so long but all it took was for me to make it a goal, write it down and plan it out. I am super happy. I starting putting everything back together and crossed this task off my list. :D
I started on Sunday. I hooked up my external drive and started backing up my music while I made a list of everything else that needed saved off. As long as I got all my files (pics, music, databases, etc) and the programs I use on an every day basis saved off I didn't care what happened to the garbage that filled up the rest.
It took me another 2 days to get everything saved off but on Wednesday I was ready. Now my plan was to reformat the whole drive and use the bios to put Windows back on when it was done. I wanted the whole thing wiped and clean but Ale's idea was to just add a partition and install Windows there. I wasn't so sure about that. Wouldn't the garbage still be on there? I don't know but I put in the disc and picked the Custom install option. This says it will totally disregard any files currently on the drive but the first time I tried to install Windows it died almost at the end and I had to shut the PC off to break it out of that. Restarting set it in a repeating loop so something went wrong. My worst nightmare! What if I couldn't fix it and my PC was junk? :(
I went back in the bios and booted straight from the disc. What was this option.... What drive do I want to install Windows on? Oh reformat? Yes please. BOOM!! Not even an hour later my PC was up and running a brand new copy of Windows 7 and I had an entirely clean hard drive to put everything back on. I had done it. I put it off for so long but all it took was for me to make it a goal, write it down and plan it out. I am super happy. I starting putting everything back together and crossed this task off my list. :D
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Still Super Happy
My awesome gf linked me to a leaked copy of Weird Al's new album ALPOCALYPSE so I don't need to wait until they actually sent it to me and it's AWESOME!! The unusual thing I find about Weird Al's album which has happened again is that I don't really get it the first time I listen to it. Al is my absolute favorite artist ever and you would think I would instantly be falling in love with everything he does but it's so weird that not only do I not get it the first time I listen to a new album but sometimes I actually don't like some of the songs. I find that very strange. What turns out to be awesome though is that the more and more I listen to it though the more it starts to jive with me. [My current Top 3] I don't know why that happens but I think it's even better than immediately liking everything. It kind of bonds and grows on me and that makes it be awesomer longer somehow. That's the only explanation I can come up with.
The best part is that even though I'll have heard and learned all the words to all the songs before I even get the album I still can't wait to get it because he made VIDEOS for every single song on the album. I don't know if those have leaked yet or not because I haven't looked for them but I can wait. I'm sure those are going to be a hilarious bonus to what he's already created.
That reminded me how bad the last album went for me. I started ordering the albums directly from Al's website. I do that so all the money goes directly to him and he has my name somewhere in his database so he knows who I am and that I definitely have his stuff. Well the last album (or maybe it was 2 albums ago, I forget) was released and every one bought it and listened to it but the shipping from Al's site took so long that I didn't get it until almost 7 full days after everyone else and they already knew all the songs and everything and it sucked.
The other thing that is going good right now is that Isaac has kicked butt the last week or so at karate. He had a really bad class last Saturday where he got yelled at like 3 times, was made to push-ups a bunch and then actually was told to sit out due to his lack of trying. Since that day however he has bounced back strong. I think he was doing bad because his mother decided that she was no longer on board to take him or practice with him or anything. He finds it easy to manipulate her I guess. So because of him being out of the swing of things for so long he had a rough time getting back on track. Luckily with me he has resolved that. We've been practicing a lot everyday because his belt test is coming up soon (June 25th) and he would really like to make sure he knows enough to test so he can earn his gold belt and move up in the ranks. I am very proud of him and I made he a deal to help motivate him. If he is permitted to test and he passes we will immediately go to the hobby shop and buy him a model for us to put together and I will also take him to go see the new Cars movie that will be debuting that weekend. He is really excited about that and I think as long as I continue to work with him he should have no problem accomplishing that goal.
I have also been watching the Smallville TV show lately. Ale had watched all the Star Trek: Voyagers with me so in turn I decided to watch her favorite show with her (Although we're not exactly watching them at the same time so far). The weird thing is that I always thought this was a 'teen' show and that I wouldn't really have an interest but I'm finding it's a very well written show. A little too much drama and dialogue sometimes but like I said there is good writing and the story is constantly progressing, there is lots of action, semi-good (for a TV series) special effects and you can always tell when something happens you don't understand that it's a part of the mega huge underlying plot that is running throughout the series as a whole. I am really enjoying it and that makes me happy.
Of course I can't close this post out without reiterating how awesome Ale is again. She is so awesome that I don't know what to do sometimes. She's always there for me to talk to and to get advice from and just to be there for me when I need someone. I hope that I am doing enough back for her to show her how much she means to me. I think I am but I always want to try harder because she so deserves it. I just am so amazed every day because I have never had a connection like this with anyone in my life and it just makes me so happy I want to puke. We're filling out the immigration stuff now together and it just sucks that paperwork takes so long to process. Before we even do anything she needs to fill stuff out and mail it to me because some of the forms have to be signed by her that go into this packet we submit. That right there is going to take a while. The only thing that could make my life any better at this point is for her to be with me physically. We are going to tear stuff up when we get together.
Although I still get depressed sometimes and feel things suck, thinking about her and trying to pick out the good stuff that is happening in my life so I can write about it always makes it seem better. My life may not be as awesome as someone reading this might make it out to be but if I could just find a way to get over the bad stuff quicker and stop it from bringing me down, it would be damn close.
The best part is that even though I'll have heard and learned all the words to all the songs before I even get the album I still can't wait to get it because he made VIDEOS for every single song on the album. I don't know if those have leaked yet or not because I haven't looked for them but I can wait. I'm sure those are going to be a hilarious bonus to what he's already created.
That reminded me how bad the last album went for me. I started ordering the albums directly from Al's website. I do that so all the money goes directly to him and he has my name somewhere in his database so he knows who I am and that I definitely have his stuff. Well the last album (or maybe it was 2 albums ago, I forget) was released and every one bought it and listened to it but the shipping from Al's site took so long that I didn't get it until almost 7 full days after everyone else and they already knew all the songs and everything and it sucked.
The other thing that is going good right now is that Isaac has kicked butt the last week or so at karate. He had a really bad class last Saturday where he got yelled at like 3 times, was made to push-ups a bunch and then actually was told to sit out due to his lack of trying. Since that day however he has bounced back strong. I think he was doing bad because his mother decided that she was no longer on board to take him or practice with him or anything. He finds it easy to manipulate her I guess. So because of him being out of the swing of things for so long he had a rough time getting back on track. Luckily with me he has resolved that. We've been practicing a lot everyday because his belt test is coming up soon (June 25th) and he would really like to make sure he knows enough to test so he can earn his gold belt and move up in the ranks. I am very proud of him and I made he a deal to help motivate him. If he is permitted to test and he passes we will immediately go to the hobby shop and buy him a model for us to put together and I will also take him to go see the new Cars movie that will be debuting that weekend. He is really excited about that and I think as long as I continue to work with him he should have no problem accomplishing that goal.
I have also been watching the Smallville TV show lately. Ale had watched all the Star Trek: Voyagers with me so in turn I decided to watch her favorite show with her (Although we're not exactly watching them at the same time so far). The weird thing is that I always thought this was a 'teen' show and that I wouldn't really have an interest but I'm finding it's a very well written show. A little too much drama and dialogue sometimes but like I said there is good writing and the story is constantly progressing, there is lots of action, semi-good (for a TV series) special effects and you can always tell when something happens you don't understand that it's a part of the mega huge underlying plot that is running throughout the series as a whole. I am really enjoying it and that makes me happy.
Of course I can't close this post out without reiterating how awesome Ale is again. She is so awesome that I don't know what to do sometimes. She's always there for me to talk to and to get advice from and just to be there for me when I need someone. I hope that I am doing enough back for her to show her how much she means to me. I think I am but I always want to try harder because she so deserves it. I just am so amazed every day because I have never had a connection like this with anyone in my life and it just makes me so happy I want to puke. We're filling out the immigration stuff now together and it just sucks that paperwork takes so long to process. Before we even do anything she needs to fill stuff out and mail it to me because some of the forms have to be signed by her that go into this packet we submit. That right there is going to take a while. The only thing that could make my life any better at this point is for her to be with me physically. We are going to tear stuff up when we get together.
Although I still get depressed sometimes and feel things suck, thinking about her and trying to pick out the good stuff that is happening in my life so I can write about it always makes it seem better. My life may not be as awesome as someone reading this might make it out to be but if I could just find a way to get over the bad stuff quicker and stop it from bringing me down, it would be damn close.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Immigrate
Well we've decided during the course of #mayvacation that Ale and I will go forward and begin the process of obtaining her a fiance visa so she can move up here to be with me. I think that is great. I've never had a connection with someone the way I do with her. It's amazing and every time I get on one of these gushy rants about it I love to make sure she knows. It's going to be hard. I can't imagine what it would be like to totally move out of your country and far far away from everything you've ever known. Love won't fix all our problems but it will sure feel awesome. I'm confident that we can pull this off and live long happy productive lives together. Buno
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Quick Update
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I have been doing so much (that I probably should have been writing about).
I finally got my new job in December. I moved from my old Miller project group to my new Stores group. I"m finally getting to learn new things and be useful. I love this job. I'm writing SQL and learning Appworx chains and all kinds of things. There's so much to know that somedays I feel like, 'Oh yeah I"m getting it' and then the next day I'm like, 'OMG I'll never ever understand all of this'. It's all okay though. I'm just going to do the best I can and I know good things will happen.
I finally got a new car to replace my beat down Buick. I bought a 2001 PT Cruiser from a junkyard that was totaled. Someone Chuck knows does body work so he fixed it up. It took 2 months but I finally have a sweet car that hopefully won't give me problems for a long time.
And lastly, I am finally back out on my own (w Isaac). It took about a month of constant hard work but we fixed and cleaned up Chuck's old farmhouse and I moved in there. It's pretty nice and big and we like it. It's just nice to be out by myself again. I'm scared about paying all the bills with Lisa still hounding me for money but I can't stop living my life just because she's a freak.
The best part is the #mayvacation is like less than 70 hours from now. I finally get to see and be with Alejandra again. She's so awesome. So many people were asking me, 'What's going on' and we finally get to sit togehter and figure out when she can move up here and stuff.
My life is rocketing off towards good things and I love it.
I finally got my new job in December. I moved from my old Miller project group to my new Stores group. I"m finally getting to learn new things and be useful. I love this job. I'm writing SQL and learning Appworx chains and all kinds of things. There's so much to know that somedays I feel like, 'Oh yeah I"m getting it' and then the next day I'm like, 'OMG I'll never ever understand all of this'. It's all okay though. I'm just going to do the best I can and I know good things will happen.
I finally got a new car to replace my beat down Buick. I bought a 2001 PT Cruiser from a junkyard that was totaled. Someone Chuck knows does body work so he fixed it up. It took 2 months but I finally have a sweet car that hopefully won't give me problems for a long time.
And lastly, I am finally back out on my own (w Isaac). It took about a month of constant hard work but we fixed and cleaned up Chuck's old farmhouse and I moved in there. It's pretty nice and big and we like it. It's just nice to be out by myself again. I'm scared about paying all the bills with Lisa still hounding me for money but I can't stop living my life just because she's a freak.
The best part is the #mayvacation is like less than 70 hours from now. I finally get to see and be with Alejandra again. She's so awesome. So many people were asking me, 'What's going on' and we finally get to sit togehter and figure out when she can move up here and stuff.
My life is rocketing off towards good things and I love it.
Monday, January 3, 2011
What A Great Holiday
This was an absolutely fantastic holiday season. Perhaps one of the best ever!! Everything went great and with the exception of my car not a thing went wrong at all. I saw tons of my family and friends and did all sorts of fun things with them. I am so very lucky and happy and I wish I could feel this good all the time.
Wednesday 12/22
It all started when I went to the Pens game with Drew. (read more) We had a blast and got to see each other and hang out and catch up on stuff not to mention that the Pens whooped some ass that night. Perfect way to start the holiday.
Thurs 12/23
No more work for the weekend!! I was supposed to call Drew to invite him over to Matt's for his holiday/the dog's birthday party but he ended up being busy with his family but it didn't matter. I had another absolutely fabulous time. I got to meet Matt's new girlfriend Brandi and she seemed really nice. Plus tons of other friends came over and we watched the Pens and then the Steelers and did shots and got drunk and it was just insane. I remember wanting to cut out early when I started getting tired but because I was the first one there my car was jammed up in the back and there was no way I was getting out. I ended up sticking it out and being the last person to leave. The only bad thing that happened is that Brandon broke the ESPN food dispensing football thing that Matt had. Now it doesn't play the sound when you hit the button to open it so we had to do it manually all night. People wondered why we were doing that but it was funny to us.
Friday 12/24
I got up late today and decided to just laze around until 6pm when Isaac was supposed to be here. I had a package in the mail though when I went out to check and it was my copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes for PS3 that Ale had bought me for Xmas! Yay!! There was something for me to play.
Got Isaac, left out bells for Santa
Sat 12/25
Xmas!!
We played all day!! The big toy of the year, Snap Circuits, was a huge hit!
Sun 12/26
Globetrotters, went to see Pappy, Rick's for dinner
Mon 12/27
Played, went to see Pappy, saw the cigar box guitar museum at Speal's Tavern
Tues 12/28
Played, practiced karate, built Lowes trains
Wed 12/29
Thurs worked
Fri 12/30
Went to Nate's, played w iPad
Sat 12/31
Winter Classic, tailgating
Sun 01/01
Recover time, went over goals with Ale
Wednesday 12/22
It all started when I went to the Pens game with Drew. (read more) We had a blast and got to see each other and hang out and catch up on stuff not to mention that the Pens whooped some ass that night. Perfect way to start the holiday.
Thurs 12/23
No more work for the weekend!! I was supposed to call Drew to invite him over to Matt's for his holiday/the dog's birthday party but he ended up being busy with his family but it didn't matter. I had another absolutely fabulous time. I got to meet Matt's new girlfriend Brandi and she seemed really nice. Plus tons of other friends came over and we watched the Pens and then the Steelers and did shots and got drunk and it was just insane. I remember wanting to cut out early when I started getting tired but because I was the first one there my car was jammed up in the back and there was no way I was getting out. I ended up sticking it out and being the last person to leave. The only bad thing that happened is that Brandon broke the ESPN food dispensing football thing that Matt had. Now it doesn't play the sound when you hit the button to open it so we had to do it manually all night. People wondered why we were doing that but it was funny to us.
Friday 12/24
I got up late today and decided to just laze around until 6pm when Isaac was supposed to be here. I had a package in the mail though when I went out to check and it was my copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes for PS3 that Ale had bought me for Xmas! Yay!! There was something for me to play.
Got Isaac, left out bells for Santa
Sat 12/25
Xmas!!
We played all day!! The big toy of the year, Snap Circuits, was a huge hit!
Sun 12/26
Globetrotters, went to see Pappy, Rick's for dinner
Mon 12/27
Played, went to see Pappy, saw the cigar box guitar museum at Speal's Tavern
Tues 12/28
Played, practiced karate, built Lowes trains
Wed 12/29
Thurs worked
Fri 12/30
Went to Nate's, played w iPad
Sat 12/31
Winter Classic, tailgating
Sun 01/01
Recover time, went over goals with Ale
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Alevacation part 6
2010/07/07
Today we got up and out a little later so we decided to skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. We went to the TGIFridays in Greensburg and ate. It was very delicious. Today we were going to stay local since we had a very important event to attend this evening so we could relax a bit and just see the stuff around my town.
After we had lunch I figured we needed dessert and to fit in the theme of our day I took her to try the best ice cream there is: Baskin Robbin's Rocky Road. So we went to the mall had some and walked around there for a little while so she could see the subtle differences and similarities between her malls and ours. Not so many I think.
I decided then to slow down on the vacation stuff and do some real world, every day life kind of things. If she comes up here and lives she will have to see what kinds of things need done and how I currently go about doing them. I thought to take her on a grocery shopping trip with me so we went to Wal-Mart. It was cool to do a stupid little thing like that. I needed to get this done anyway. I showed her my pattern of going through the store, what things I bought and how I decided to pick them out and all that good jazz. It was all nice mundane stuff that I hope will be more special for us both together.
After we went back and put everything away it was getting to be late afternoon so we went back out to Greensburg for one more task: Hit up the Best Buy because Ale wanted to get some tech! So we did and she grabbed up some stuff she wanted. I am pretty sure she loved this place and I found that extremely awesome. I bought Picross 3D for my DS. I figured since we both liked puzzles it would be a cool new experience for us to share.
Our last destination before the big event was to go see Dan at Unique Ink. I still liked showing her the tattoo shop even though she would probably never get any ink. Dan didn't have a ticket so when it was time to go he only walked us as far as his car. We said goodbye and went further up the road to where a crowd was already gathering. Something big was going on. Something amazing. Something that would rock this small town for the next few hours. There was a man I needed to introduce Ale to. A great man. A man of greatness. A great man who had some great greatness and this greatness made other great people come to see him. This man was the reason Ale was here. He was why we even knew each other. She did not come to his fan forums to find love but it found her anyway and it was all thanks to MR WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!!!!!
Yes I said WEIRD AL YANKOVIC was in town at the Palace Theater for one night only. This was the reason we picked this particular week for this trip. Ale wanted to see a Weird Al show and damn it here we were.
We walked around out front to see if we would run into anybody that we knew. Matt was here and he came up to say Hi. As we went in and found our seats we also saw Jeremy and Denise and her pack was sitting right in front of us. If you never saw a Weird Al concert than I'm not going to spoil anything for you here. GO SEE HIM YOURSELF!!! He is amazing and it will totally be worth your time and money. TRUST ME!!
Al knew she was there. He had to. He many a few references that we knew he was talking about her (Now all the Venezuelans!!). That made it so extra special that we both almost burst with weirdy happiness. We knew he'd be waiting out after the show to meet the fans so we lined up with everyone else and I got to meet another internet Al buddy, Heather, real quick and Jeremy got in line with us. We didn't have to wait long and it was our turn. I thanked him for coming out to our little town and he signed my VIP badge while Ale took pictures and then she got to meet the man himself. As she talked to him he signed her Al's Brain keychain she got at AlFest 2009 then she received a big Al hug. To remember her she gave him an Argentinian flag and some candy and soon we were left standing by ourselves somewhere in awe as the grins slowly faded from our faces. That would not be a night we would forget anytime soon.
Today we got up and out a little later so we decided to skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. We went to the TGIFridays in Greensburg and ate. It was very delicious. Today we were going to stay local since we had a very important event to attend this evening so we could relax a bit and just see the stuff around my town.
After we had lunch I figured we needed dessert and to fit in the theme of our day I took her to try the best ice cream there is: Baskin Robbin's Rocky Road. So we went to the mall had some and walked around there for a little while so she could see the subtle differences and similarities between her malls and ours. Not so many I think.
I decided then to slow down on the vacation stuff and do some real world, every day life kind of things. If she comes up here and lives she will have to see what kinds of things need done and how I currently go about doing them. I thought to take her on a grocery shopping trip with me so we went to Wal-Mart. It was cool to do a stupid little thing like that. I needed to get this done anyway. I showed her my pattern of going through the store, what things I bought and how I decided to pick them out and all that good jazz. It was all nice mundane stuff that I hope will be more special for us both together.
After we went back and put everything away it was getting to be late afternoon so we went back out to Greensburg for one more task: Hit up the Best Buy because Ale wanted to get some tech! So we did and she grabbed up some stuff she wanted. I am pretty sure she loved this place and I found that extremely awesome. I bought Picross 3D for my DS. I figured since we both liked puzzles it would be a cool new experience for us to share.
Our last destination before the big event was to go see Dan at Unique Ink. I still liked showing her the tattoo shop even though she would probably never get any ink. Dan didn't have a ticket so when it was time to go he only walked us as far as his car. We said goodbye and went further up the road to where a crowd was already gathering. Something big was going on. Something amazing. Something that would rock this small town for the next few hours. There was a man I needed to introduce Ale to. A great man. A man of greatness. A great man who had some great greatness and this greatness made other great people come to see him. This man was the reason Ale was here. He was why we even knew each other. She did not come to his fan forums to find love but it found her anyway and it was all thanks to MR WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!!!!!
Yes I said WEIRD AL YANKOVIC was in town at the Palace Theater for one night only. This was the reason we picked this particular week for this trip. Ale wanted to see a Weird Al show and damn it here we were.
We walked around out front to see if we would run into anybody that we knew. Matt was here and he came up to say Hi. As we went in and found our seats we also saw Jeremy and Denise and her pack was sitting right in front of us. If you never saw a Weird Al concert than I'm not going to spoil anything for you here. GO SEE HIM YOURSELF!!! He is amazing and it will totally be worth your time and money. TRUST ME!!
The Set List
Polkaface, Frank's 2000" TV, Good Old Days, Smells Like Nirvana (he tossed his gargling water right on us which I felt was an honor), Skipper Dan, You're Pitiful, Dare To Be Stupid, CNR, Let Me Be Your Hog, Canadian Idiot, Wanna B Ur Lovr, (ALE GOT THE FULL WBUL TREATMENT!!!) Medley: [Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies, Whatever You Like, I'm In Luv Wit Da Skipper, Confessions Part III, eBay, Bedrock Anthem, Another One Rides The Bus, Ode To A Superhero, Trapped In The Drive-Thru, Gump, Eat It], Craigslist, Amish Paradise, White & Nerdy, Fat, We All Have Cell Phones, The Saga Begins, Yoda
Polkaface, Frank's 2000" TV, Good Old Days, Smells Like Nirvana (he tossed his gargling water right on us which I felt was an honor), Skipper Dan, You're Pitiful, Dare To Be Stupid, CNR, Let Me Be Your Hog, Canadian Idiot, Wanna B Ur Lovr, (ALE GOT THE FULL WBUL TREATMENT!!!) Medley: [Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies, Whatever You Like, I'm In Luv Wit Da Skipper, Confessions Part III, eBay, Bedrock Anthem, Another One Rides The Bus, Ode To A Superhero, Trapped In The Drive-Thru, Gump, Eat It], Craigslist, Amish Paradise, White & Nerdy, Fat, We All Have Cell Phones, The Saga Begins, Yoda
Al knew she was there. He had to. He many a few references that we knew he was talking about her (Now all the Venezuelans!!). That made it so extra special that we both almost burst with weirdy happiness. We knew he'd be waiting out after the show to meet the fans so we lined up with everyone else and I got to meet another internet Al buddy, Heather, real quick and Jeremy got in line with us. We didn't have to wait long and it was our turn. I thanked him for coming out to our little town and he signed my VIP badge while Ale took pictures and then she got to meet the man himself. As she talked to him he signed her Al's Brain keychain she got at AlFest 2009 then she received a big Al hug. To remember her she gave him an Argentinian flag and some candy and soon we were left standing by ourselves somewhere in awe as the grins slowly faded from our faces. That would not be a night we would forget anytime soon.
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