September 2016 may have been the best month of my life

I had a bunch of stuff scheduled for this month. I did not know how much was really going on though. Around the middle of the month I was like 'Damn'. I decided I should write this all down and make a blog post about it. I tried to put everything that I could recall happening here.

• Got tattooed
• Hung out with Danimus
• House related
• Met with builder
• Scheduled lot evaluation
• Got loan preapproval
• Got an ultrasound on my neck due to weird, scary pains
• They say they found nothing
• Went to Danny's 3rd birthday party
• Saw WEIRD AL at the Benedum
• New Weird Al cartoon, Milo Murphy's Law, came out
• Went to the PT Fall Festival parade
• Pax's first parade
• Boys got their picture in the paper
• I biked a bunch
• I ran even more
• Steelers 5K
• Best time ever!
• Greensburg 5K
• Even better time!
• Post race after party with free beer!
• Gabby 5K
• She's not dead!
• Went to my first BEERFEST!!
• I drank a ton of new beers (not only at this event but all month in general)
• Went to the eye doctor
• Took Pax to his 18 month doctor appt
• We paid our school taxes for the year
• Finally paid off the loan for our property
• Went to a ton of new restaurants
• Michael's Neighborhood Griddle
• Ricks
• Abruzzi
• Hugos
• Checked out the new bike shop in Greensburg, Flat Tire
• Watched the first presidential debate
• Steelers season started!
• Bought tickets to go to Joe Louis arena
• Started bingeing Luke Cage
• Got a new credit card with the fancy, secure chip in it
• Got myself the new iPhone 7

The best thing didn't happen until Oct 1st so I will write that into it's own post. 

TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

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.

40TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY SPECTACULAR!!!

I turned 40 this past weekend so I planned a nice weekend out for the occasion.

Day 1 Friday July 31st

• We first waited out for the Dark Pit amiibo
• Went to the David L Lawrence Convention Center for ReplayFX
• Went to Pappy's

Day 2 Saturday August 1st

• Left to go to the beach
• Arrived at the beach after much driving and traffic
• Swam and beached for a few hours
• Came back via the shuttle to get our Neptune photo
• Had pizza

Day 3 Sunday August 2nd

• Went to Sandbridge
• Saw the USS Wisconsin
• Drove back to Pappy's
• Grilled out
• Had cake

Day 4 Monday August 3rd

• Played frisbee
• Drove home
• Stopped to hang out with the boy and eat food

Yay! Fun! I'm 40! :O

New Carpet

I think we were doubtful when we first heard that there were plans to get us new carpet but it happened and we are so happy.

You remember the old carpet right?
So dirty that even after we used one of those steam cleaning machines you rent at the store your feet/socks would still turn black if you walked on it. Plenty of marks and burns and other gross crap as well. That's where it started we told the landlord that we couldn't put the baby on that and it seemed like it was well past time to re-carpet this place. Ale started sewing a quilt thinking this would not come to pass.

We heard before Xmas to look for the end of February and then as that time approached a guy did come over to meet with Chuck and check things out. After that meeting it was definite. We were told we were scheduled for 02/24. Yay! I immediately started moving things off bookcases, etc to make it easier for later. Chuck said he would come over that prior weekend to assist with ripping out all the old carpet. Those 2 days, Saturday and Sunday were pretty crazy. You had to start pulling out the carpet on the edges and kind of cut it down to a strip and just keep going until you got it all. Under that was the padding and you ripped that out next. There were lots of staples holding that in so after that grab a pair of pliers and pull all those out. The amount of dirt that was under that carpet was extreme. In our bedroom we found newspaper from 1976. Even crazier under that was more newspaper, from 1946! We moved out as much stuff as we could shoved it in the back room and in Isaac's room. The only places we could since there either was no carpet or wasn't getting new carpet. It was a messy, dirty job but except for one spot in the computer room where the padding was stuck to the floor underneath, most everything came out pretty easily.

My mom came over and cleaned. That was not pleasant. Although she is a super good cleaner (as you would think someone who has spent every Saturday of their lives cleaning and re-cleaning their home would be) she was super bitchy about it. I was not dealing well with this conflict. If you insist you need to come over and clean that's fine but do we need to hear over and over how horrible you think we are because our house is below your impossibly high standard of clean? I don't think so. That didn't stop her. A couple times we almost started yelling shit at each other but it never exploded. I would like the focus of this article to be on the new carpet but this insane cleaning part has to be explained.

By the end of the day Sunday we had bare wooden floors.

Finally Tuesday came and I took a 'work from home' day from work because I knew I would have to be there to help move furniture around. I was not used as much as I thought I would be but it was still good that I was there. The one guy showed up and seemed irritated that there was still furniture around. Hey man there is no where to put it. What do you think we were supposed to do with it? We forked everything into the living room so they could do the computer room, the stairs and our bedroom. Once that was done we could move everything over to clear that room out. There was really no issue there and the guy did calm down but I thought he was rude and I think with his temper Chuck almost blew up but luckily we kept a lid on it.

Mainly I stayed in the boy's room working on my laptop until I was needed for something. It worked out okay. The other installer guy was nice and kept trying to engage in friendly small talk. In about 5-6 hours they were done and we started putting everything back. Apparently there is a lot of loose fuzz in new carpet because every time I've vacuumed it so far it's filled the canister up with fuzz.

The worst part again I hate to bring this up but my mother came back to iron our curtains or something. She was there when we weren't and when we came back and saw that everything was rearranged in a manner that I knew my mother favored and we got a little irate again. Furniture was moved, things that didn't need touched were touched, she even freaking rearranged our refrigerator magnets. That was quite enough. She insisted she come back to clean the boys room since he missed out on all this but as politely as I could, I declined. Fortunately she didn't push it. What a weird situation I was put in there. We all were grateful for her willingness to help but the way she did it, it was not worth it to us. I'd rather pay someone to come in and keep their damn mouth shut.

We had to make some new rules to keep this carpet as awesome as possible for as long as possible.

• No eating of any kind. 
• No drinks unless it's in a container that has a lid. 
• No shoes. 
• Someone must vacuum the carpet every weekend without fail. 

Hopefully the baby doesn't puke all over it and ruin it.

Mentoring Field Trip and More

It is the time of year that we take our field trip for my mentoring group from work. We meet like every other month and one of the last meetings of the year we do something fun out of the office. I do not know who picked it or how it got approved but I honestly am standing here applauding right now for the people who did make where we went this year happen. Last year we did a tour of the other MSA facilities at Evergreen and Rockpointe. A nice field trip no doubt but still a bit too tied to the work environment. This year we went to Wigle Whiskey in Pittsburgh and then across the street to Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle for some food. Now that is something to get excited about!

I had to find a way to get down there as I was not driving in the downtown area in my car. No way. I thought at first it was only 2 miles away for some reason but it was actually 4. That is a bit too far out for walking. I was told to email some people to try and get a seat in one of their cars but I had a better idea. I'll just ride my bike. I was in the tour the other week. I have a better idea of the streets around here now. It should be no problem. It would actually work out really well as I had to take another trip to the Apple store because when I woke up that morning it turns out my 1 month old iPhone 6 took a dive off my nightstand and was now smashed.

Luckily it was only a half hour job (but cost $116) to get the screen fixed and I was good to go. I was able to get that handled during lunch.

Now I just relax until a little after 1pm and I'll ride down to the distillery. I was able to stay on the sidewalks for the most part and it wasn't bad. I did get to see that they have a section of Penn Ave ripped the hell up down to one lane and everything was dirt. They must be fixing some serious sewer pipe issues or something. Since it was only 4 miles the trip was over soon and I didn't have to wait long for others to show up.


They gave us a free cocktail to start which was delicious. No whiskey burn at all. It was smooth and awesome. The guy led us into the back and showed us all the equipment used to make the whiskeys and even gave us history on Pittsburgh and Prohibition and stuff. It was all pretty cool. We then sat down at these tasting tables and we had 5 different kinds of whiskey to sample from. Also very awesome! Unfortunately I didn't think ahead far enough I guess. I was unable to purchase any as I had no way of taking it back with me on my bike.















I also found out about this Festival coming up that some of my favorite local companies are involved in. Hopefully I can make it to that.

Even though it was only Thursday this seemed like the unofficial start to my weekend this week. On Friday we had to quickly cram in a stop at Sam's Club in Monroeville so we had some food to cook for when my dad got here. Since the boy had friends over the weekend of his birthday, my dad rescheduled his trip to come over to this weekend. We made it home and got the groceries put away before he got here. He actually walked in right during Freedom Friday which was really just Taco Tuesday but on Friday. We didn't get too crazy that night. Ale was even working on the boy's costume. 

Saturday we started early though. My dad took the boy to get donuts and found out the Jeannette Bakery no longer exists then we burned the trash and made our plans for the day. We would show my dad the property in Claridge that we now own, visit Aunt Dee and then go out to Ligonier for food. I read an article recently that the people who now own the old Hollow restaurant (used to be Sleepy Hollow) have reopened and now call it the Steel Wheel Grille at the Hollow. I wanted to take Ale and sit out on the back where you are overseeing the creek. She would probably like that. 

So when we ready we set out. The property was first because it was the closest. We parked on the road and walked up. It looks the same as it did last time I was here, very woodsy. This time however I tried to go as far up as I could. I never went on the back acre this far and I was impressed. Sure lots of trees were falling down but I bet when I moved in and started cleaning this up things would grow again. I had a ton of firewood if I wanted it. I could landscape this to be whatever I wanted. The boy asked if he could build a fort back here. Obviously you can. Have at it boy. 

When we got ao Aunt Dee's she was already outside with Billy. She says she has glaucoma now so that sucks but besides that she seemed to be doing okay. Jed is currently living in the trailer court in Penn but apparently Zippy was still here. We stayed and chatted for about an hour then headed out.

When we got to the restaurant it was not what I expected. Apparently the huge restaurant part is not yet fixed up enough from when it burned down to be open. Instead they had a little outdoor part open on the side and that was the way it was for now. We sat outside and ordered some food. It was good. There were lots of lady bugs flying around and the boy met a friend who was working on his Minecraft costume. I asked the lady before we left what was going on and she told me they just got the permits approved and now they can go in and first thing they want to do is fix up the bathrooms (currently they have 2 port-a-potties and a sink in the parking lot, Ale was not fond of that) and then they'll go from there. I figure give them the winter to take care of whatever they have to do and maybe by the time next summer rolls around we can come back and see the whole thing. 

On the way I also made us stop at All Saints Brewing to fill up the growlers. They were out of Oktoberfest so that sucked but the 2 beers I did get were awesome anyway. 

We watched the Pens win that night against Neal and the Predators. Fleury got his 29th career shutout. My dad woke me up at 7 in the morning the next day as he was leaving. I thought he'd stick around but whatever that's usually when I try to get us out of there when we visit. He seemed very happy for us, his family, and was glad he visited. I was glad too. 

Too bad he didn't stay. Big Ben set a bunch of records and had one of the greatest days in Steelers quarterback history as he won his 100th game in 150 chances (only the 4th QB to do so) and we beat the Colts 51-34. Recap here.

All in all a great weekend. I made sure to note aloud to Ale several times how happy I was. I love my wife and family!

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Tim's Tour

I took my biking TO THE NEXT LEVEL this weekend. I signed up to do a 3-2-1 Ride that was held in Pittsburgh on 2014/10/12.

There were 3 options:

1. Rita's Tour - Only 7 miles, not what I was looking for.
2. Metric Century - 62 miles. Maybe a bit much for me yet.
3. Tim's Tour - 25 miles. Seems just about right.

So I signed up for Tim's Tour. I almost didn't. I was nervous. I couldn't get Joel to commit to go with me. I had my co-worker Neil interested but he had plans to go camping that weekend so he couldn't go either. It wasn't like I couldn't do it myself but it'd be nice to have someone to ride with. My main concern was knowing where to go in riding the streets of Pittsburgh. I've never done it before. I don't know where anything is. I wasn't tired of my regular trails but I definitely wanted to go check out something new, the trails down Pittsburgh. This was my chance. I figured they would have to mark it well enough. When I emailed the lady she assured me that 'No one would be left behind'. That was what I needed to hear. I paid my $25 and filled out the form. I found out later that this was a fundraising thing and I had to commit to another $10 but that was okay. They even had scheduled early packet pick-up at the bike shop right by my work, the one I bought my bike at. So I was able to make it to that and acquire my free shirt, water bottle, stickers, race bib, etc. 

I woke up on Sunday and got ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I hate driving down Pittsburgh but with no home Steelers game today there were no problems. I paid for a spot in the lot rather than park on the road and the stupid toll guy tried to give the wrong change but whatever. Since I was early I got to ride around Heinz Field by myself and it was awesome!! This was fun as all hell. It was a little cold in the shadows of big buildings when the wind blew hard but I'm sure my body would heat up once I started riding in earnest and things would be okay. I was already drinking water and had to pee so there was another pre-race situation where I had to find a place to go. I saw other people searching for restrooms and eventually did find an unofficial place to relieve myself. Now it was ride around until we were ready to start. 

I lined up on the road where it looked like everyone else was lining up. Some lady started talking but I couldn't hear her so I went the whole way to the front so I could. I hoped I was in the right place. And WE WERE OFF!!

I can't describe how much fun it was. It was really fun. I tried to stay in a pack but then I saw people moving up. Eventually I figured I better make a move too or I'll get left behind. We rode on bridges and trails and roads. There were easily visible signs where changes in course were required. I slowed down a bit going up some hills but I never stopped or had to get off my bike. I skipped the halfway rest stop. There was no reason for me to stop. I was able to stay in a pack until the last straightaway and I arrived back at Heinz Field in 2 hours and 23 minutes. People were taking our picture and I felt great. I could keep going. I rode around and saw they had some stuff laid out for us but I wasn't socializing. The whole ride was perfectly documented in my RunKeeper app and that made me happy. I couldn't wait to go home and analyze it and tell Ale all about it. I was surprised that it turned out it wasn't even my longest ride at that point. It was a few tenths of a mile short. 

I loaded up the car and drove home, calling the 6 pack shop to have a sandwich ready for me when I got there to grab some beer for the Steelers game. I made it back just in time. What a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do this again. I'd do it again next week if I could. 

More pics
Media coverage

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.

• 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

2011 Father's Day

It was the weekend of Father's Day again and because I was keeping Isaac an extra day this weekend (Friday into Saturday so I could make sure he went to karate practice) I thought we'd do the Father's Day thing on Saturday since I already had him. My mom cut me out a page from the PT paper about an event going on down Pittsburgh this weekend called LegoFest and I saw a couple people facebooking about it so I decided 'Hey, Isaac loves Legos!' this is going to be our activity this year!!

We got up that morning, had some cereal and went to karate practice. After we were done we went home and had some lunch as our tickets were for the 3-8pm session that day (I printed them on my new wireless printer that ma babby bought for me). Around 2-2:30pm I decided it was time to go so I grabbed all my fully charged electronic devices (I brought my 3DS for 3D pictures, my iPhone for tweeting and facebooking pictures and my Sony camera to take high quality pictures and videos) and we hopped in the car. We had no problems with any traffic or finding the place. We parked and walked towards the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and went in. There were lots of people but we really didn't have to wait that much.

The place was ENORMOUS!! (PIC) The first thing we saw were these little boxes with scenes set up in them and that was pretty neat. Then we saw a huge map of the USA made of Legos all laid out on the floor and although its outline was complete and the east coast was built up the majority of it was blank. I wondered what this was so we investigated. Here you could take a base piece and build whatever you wanted on it, a house, a tower or a weird art thing. Pretty much anything you could imagine that fit on the piece and then when you completed it you took it over to the map and someone would take your genius over and put it in the masterpiece. Isaac built a crazy little house and I think it got placed somewhere in the Kansas/Missouri area.

Some of the other thing we saw:

• An area with life size Lego characters such as the Harry Potter gang, characters and droids from Star Wars, and a lot of different kinds of dinosaurs.
• There were several areas where there was only 1 color brick to build with. I guess Target was a sponsor because in the red brick area they were putting those white dog mascots with the target around their eye on everyone's finished piece. There was a pink section were a lot of the girls were, a dark blue section and a green section. Green is where Isaac spent a good amount of time constructing his awesome tower.
• There were a couple of huge spots where they just dumped a bout a billion Legos out on the floor and you could just wade out there and sit in the middle and build whatever you wanted.
• There was a part where grown-up nerds that probably take Legos way too seriously made some cool scenes, some guy had a car show out of cars he made from Legos, there were a bunch of cool trains and futuristic monorails that Isaac definitely took an interest in, and neat dirt bike track.
• There was an area that had lots of wheels and other parts to make a vehicle of some sort and then you took it over to these ramps where you raced your creation against other peoples.
  
• Another section had high-tech futuristic Legos that had sensors and hooked to computers that you could program to do stuff. They also offered Lego camps there but it's too far away from where we live for us to go.
• The other big thing we did which I didn't think Isaac would want to do was climb one of those big rock climbing walls. I was surprised at his enthusiasm and lack of fear for wanting to do it but I was a bit disappointed he gave up about a 3rd of the way up at the first place he kind of got stuck at. Maybe next time he'll make it to the top.
  
• We also signed up to get a free subscription to some Lego magazine so that will be cool when those start coming for him.
  

All in all it was another fun daddy/son day. We were there for a long time and he got a little cranky at the end so I decided it was time to go. It seemed like the place was already clearing out and there were a bunch of workers taking some of the things down. We walked out through this cool fountain waterfall thing they have and then I drove him back to his mom's. I was sad to see him go but happy we spent quality time together doing something memorable.

You can see the rest of the pics on my fb

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

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!!

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

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.

History Was Made

This past weekend seemed to fly by. I can't believe it's Monday morning already. Now that I think back I guess we did do a lot but it seems like I should have at least one more day to rest and recover here. That is disappointing. What isn't though is the fact that Isaac came with me to the Pens game on Friday night to kick off our weekend and the Pens made history. They got the first ever win in the new arena and we were there for it. Now Isaac can tell people when he gets older and all the kids grow up and forget there even ever was a Civic Arena that he was there for this historic victory. I'm super happy about that. (you can read more about the game here)

He was very good during the game although he did get a bit delirious towards the end. We went right to bed when we got home because I thought I had way too many things we needed to get done on Saturday. It turns out I was wrong. My mom was supposed to go with us to the toy store to see what kinds of toys Isaac wanted for Xmas and to get him something for his birthday but she was too busy. I think she's taking him Monday while I'm at the game with Joel. We also skipped grocery shopping because I couldn't figure out how to fit it in without having to leave the stuff in the car while we did other stuff.

So Saturday morning he ended up playing video games all morning for the most part. He did take a birthday call from Pappy and open Aunt Autumn's card to him. I talked to Chuck about various things including some interesting information about his house and he helped me look at my car again. There was an issue with the battery light and so far I got a new alternator and battery but it still flickers on every once in a while. Hopefully that doesn't turn out to get more serious. Once that was fixed, we took off. We needed to work on his Halloween costume so we were headed out to Greensburg to find the Halloween store. On the way however we made a bunch of stops because I discovered a new pastime that I wanted to share with Isaac, Geocaching! We ended up stopping a bunch of places that day and while we did experience some frustration finding the one we did find all we attempted. It sucks that it's almost winter or we'd be out more often looking for them. No hurries I guess. They ain't going anywhere.

We found one cache and then made it to the mall. I could have sworn there was a Halloween store here behind the mall but I was wrong. I decided to try our luck and actually go in the mall. Maybe it was in there so we went inside and did find it. Whew! Why is it half toy store though is my question. The whole front end of the store was toys, not just Halloween toys but regular toys. That was confusing. No good costumes here either for kids here unless you want to be Spiderman or a fireman. Looks of sexy adult costumes though. Isaac wants to be a zombie so we did find fake blood capsules. That was all the good this place was doing us so we left. On the way out of the parking lot we found one more cache and then another down the street further. We stopped Arby's to get some food as we headed out to Nate's to watch the Pens game. I got us there a bit early so we could walk out to the lake to find the one cache we couldn't find last time I was here. That's 4 total for the day. Good job us!! The Pens destroyed the Flyers and we had a blast hanging out with Nate and the family and then we went home.

The next morning we went over to Brandon's again to watch the Steelers game and played a little frisbee after. For dinner he had his favorite meal of tacos and afterward we all sang 'Happy Birthday' to him and ate chocolate cake. Yes, these will be the time I will love to remember when I'm older.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!!! :D

Alevacation part 3

2010/07/04

We woke up today and I got to show Ale some of my domestic skills. I used some of the food I bought to make a kick ass breakfast for us. Eggs and bacon and toast and all the good stuff. I think she liked it. When we finished up and got ready it was time to head out to do our activities for the day.

The first stop was Laurel Caverns. It was a bit of a drive to get there but it was awesome because we just got to sit besides each other for real and enjoy us just being there for once instead of just over the video screen. It's cool that we can talk over the computer and chat and all that but to finally be in each others presence was a totally different kind of awesome.

I may have been here before but I don't remember it and it was around this time that Isaac was going to go here on a field trip with Penn Pals so that's how I got the idea. With both of us going we could talk about what we've seen separately and that would be cool. Plus it's a cool activity to do anyway. The view from the top of that mountain is insane. You can see forever and it's just very peaceful and awesome up there.

When we walked inside the building they have at the opening of the cave we saw all kinds of cool brochures of the other stuff that was around here so we grabbed a few as souvenirs. There were also all kinds of cool pictures of bats and maps of the caves from different viewpoints all over the wall and we stopped to check that stuff out too. We had a few minutes to kill before the next tour so we played with some of the crap in the gift shop and soon they paged us to begin our descent.

You'd have to experience this yourself to see what it's like. I wish they'd give you a map and a flashlight and let you go at it yourself but I can see they don't want morons getting themselves lost and killed and stuff. I guess if we'd really want to do it we could join their group and get in that way somehow but not right now.

The tour lasted about an hour and we got to see some cool stuff. There was one point where they locked us in a room and shut out the lights. You totally could not even see your hand in front of your face! They played a song with some colored laser lights that lit up to the beat and that was neat too.

There wasn't much left to do when we walked out of the cave so we just hopped in the car and headed out to our next destination.

Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival @ Twin Lakes
This was pretty fun. Although I hear horror stories about how packed this place is being as it was the last day, it wasn't that bad at all for us. I was cautious though and parked maybe a little too far away. We had to walk a distance to get there but that was okay. We played on the fun activity thingies they have on the path as we went and just talked and enjoyed each others company. We took the wrong path and had to walk the whole way around both lakes to get there but again, what was the hurry?

When we got there Ale got to have funnel cake for the first time ever and she loved that. I also bought her a tie-dye shirt so she can be a hippie with me now. We looked at some of the crafts and other stuff that was there and that was about it. We hit the end and walked back through a second time and then decided we were tired and it was time to head back to the car. We went back to Jim's and that was about it for that day. We ate some of the food I bought and went to sleep.

2010 PT Fall Festival

This past weekend was the 4th Annual PT Fall Festival and of course Isaac and I went. We went last year and had probably one of the best times of our lives and when I heard midway through August when the dates for this year's was (Sept 17th & 18th) I immediately marked those off on my calendar. I don't think this year's was a super awesome as last year but that would have been difficult to achieve. We still had a blast, saw many of our friends and family and had an all around great time.

It started on Friday night.
Isaac wanted to go the second I picked him up from Penn Pals but I knew we needed to hold off a bit. I did splurge and order some Pizza Hut pizza for us to eat that way we wouldn't be hungry and spend money when we were there. (Side Note: The new Big Italy pizza sucks. The Bigfoot was better. Don't waste your money) I waited until about 6:30 or so and we walked down. It wasn't exactly pumping yet but at least it was still light. We did see a few people we knew, Candy & Bob, Brandi, Walt, Becca so that was cool. I did find out in horror that the cost to ride the crappy rides had gone up considerably. $2 a ticket or $13 for a bracelet to ride everything. The bracelet did not cover both days. I was hesitant to spend that kind of money but I did make a deal with Isaac that since he has been doing good in school and following the rules that I had a 20 dollar bill that was pretty much his to spend as he pleased. I let him know that rides today equal no rides tomorrow and as you would expect he opted for rides now!! Did I mention the rides were crappy? I mean they were serviceable but not that thrilling in any sense of the word. He did ride the swings and the teacups and anything else they would let him on. I was making sure we got our moneys worth. He did freak out on the haunted house as he did back at the WM county fair so that was funny. He was terrified of someone stepping on the thing that activates the screaming noise.
It was starting to get dark and there were people streaming in from the football game going on across the street at the high school but we stuck around to play a few games first. He won a little dolphin stuffed thingy at the fishing pond, a whistle at the 'throw darts at balloons' game and a lollipop at the kids shoot basketball game so that made him feel accomplished I hope. We walked out of there happy and went home to go to bed. We had to get up early the next day!

And continued into Saturday
Although I gave Isaac the choice to sleep later and hurry or get up early and take our time I decided when I opened my eyes at 8:30am that it was time to get things moving. We got up, got dressed and I made some breakfast and we were out of there. We had to walk the whole way to Aunt Dee's to get our seats for the parade. (I found out via RunKeeper that it was exactly 1 mile from our house to Dee's) This year there was no Nicholas or Jed or Zippy but it was still fun. The parade was nice and we remembered to bring a bag to keep the horde of candy that was thrown his way. We chilled at Aunt Dee's for a bit after it was over and then headed down and checked out the classic car cruise that was there as we entered since Isaac loves those mighty machines! We met up with Stephanie and Allie at around 1pm and walked around with them for a while and went to the petting zoo. We saw Mary Jo and her daughter Kim there and then we went up to the Warrior Wonderland (or the 2 playgrounds as we call it). Anne met us there with Sean and Ella so that was nice. We walked back down to the fair and they were as outraged as I was about the ride cost. Luckily for us most of the ride operator's must have not been checking too closely because they let Isaac on with the bracelet from yesterday so that was good. We got some food after a bit and we did find the Walking Tacos that Isaac loves so much so that was also good. We got some ice cream and farted around a bit more having fun until about 4pm. I was sunburned at this point and everyone was casting off for other things they needed to do. Isaac and I walked home and took a much needed rest. Last year we went back for the fireworks but this time we didn't seem to care as much. We did see some of them through the trees from the front porch when it was time but we didn't fell like standing there in the dark getting eaten by bugs so we went back in to whatever we were doing at the time.

All in all a definite fun time that is going to be part of our yearly activities. I'm just kind of hoping to bring a special someone with us next year so I can enjoy it with someone rather than just Isaac.

Isaac's First Baseball Game

Opening day 2010 for the Penn Trafford Athletic Association was Saturday April 24th. I was there because it was my son's first day of baseball. This was how I saw it.

It was supposed to rain. The weather forecast all that week called for it. I was bummed about this because there were 4 practices before the games started. Out of those practices, 3 of them were cancelled due to rain. Although I did practice with him myself several times I don't think Isaac was catching on yet. I thought he needed more practices with his team and coach but that time has past. The games were how he was going to learn now.

I woke up around 8am and got ready. I needed to remember to grab his gloves and his cleats. He would be receiving his uniform today when we got there and found his coach. When I was ready I put the stuff in a bag and walked over to the fields. (I live very close) It was cloudy but it wasn't raining yet. Maybe it would hold off.

I got there and I texted my ex and located her and Isaac. She was unsure of where to go so even though I thought I knew I pulled out my iPhone and verified anyway. That's what I thought. We were headed the right way. No worries. We went up on the hill by field 5 and there was everyone. The Pirate Parrot was even here. (Probably more fun cheering for and watching these kids then our loser MLB team) We found Isaac's coach and got him into his uniform. It did start sprinkling around this time but wasn't raining yet. We hung out, took a bunch of pictures, and schmoozed with his teammates and their parents. We tried to get a picture of him with the Pirate Parrot but for some reason he was terrified of him. I'm not sure what was going on with that. We pointed out that there were girls even smaller than him that weren't scared but that didn't convince him. He was awful whiny even besides that. As soon as he got his cleats on I encouraged him to run as fast as he could over to a bench and back to test them out and he flat out would not do it. He kept hiding behind Lisa. I don't know what the problem was but it better get fixed quick. Oh they are yelling for us to line up. It was time for the parade to start.

We walked down with them and then had to hurry around the side of the field as they marched on and got in line to be announced. I think the guy said something about there being around 1500 kids involved in the baseball/softball programs. That's a lot!! I could believe it too because the field was packed. They would announce the team and coach and then they would run out between the cheerleaders and slap hands with the Pirate Parrot and then go line up. The whole field was full by the time they were done. Some high school girl sang the national anthem after all the teams were announced and it was raining pretty hard by the time all that was done. Isaac got a ticket to get a free hot dog at the concession stand. The only problem with that was that so did the other 1499 kids. :\ I wanted to get out of this rain so I went for the nearest pavilion and started catching up with all my junk on my phone. Soon Lisa and Isaac found me and he had his hot dog. He still won't eat them in a bun. He was the only kid I saw who took it out and and ate it naked.

We had an hour to kill before the skills competition so we sat there for a while. When we went down to the field I saw some of his teammates so I encouraged him to run around the bases like they were doing for practice. We did that for a couple of minutes before the coach came over and told us the rain had cancelled this event but as far as he knew the game would still be on. At least that was good news. Lisa offered me a ride home but I refused. I needed the exercise so I walked home. It had almost stopped raining by then anyway. I hoped his game wouldn't be called off. I got home and took a nap before Chuck woke me up to start messing with my car. It was pretty nice out now so we started taking things apart until around 2 when I mentioned to him about the game. He told me to go ahead and go. That he would handle things until I got back so I jumped on my bike and bolted.

I got there just in time. Apparently this is how it goes. Everyone bats for each team. there are no outs or strikes. You get about 10 pitches to hit the ball and if you don't you get to use the tee. You hit it and you run to first base and everyone else advances. The last guy clears the bases when he hits and then it's the other teams turn. Isaac only needed the tee one time which was good. The other team must have had more practices cause they killed us. They were all hitting it on their 1st or 2nd pitch and they were cranking it too. Maybe they had better coaches. I don't know. Isaac kept playing in the dirt while he was on the field. That did not please me. I wish he would pay attention more. He still runs like a little girl half the time too but he's still a small boy and that's what signing him up for baseball was supposed to help him with. Learn to be on a team and get along with them, learn discipline and hand-eye coordination and get some exercise, oh and of course have fun. I think they played like 5 innings before it was over and they all got their snacks and were happy. I gave him a big hug and told him he did good. I got nice pictures and good memories. :D