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.

Another great day

While walking around the parking lot on a break on Tuesday I was showing my new shoes off to Billy and I said offhandedly that they were so awesome I could totally beat him in a race. Now I'm used to hanging out with lame people who would never take me up on that, never even consider it, but to my pleasant surprise he took off running!! It was close at first but about halfway thru I pulled away and he couldn't keep up. That was amazing!!

That wasn't even the best thing about that day. I love when things just come together. When I left work and picked up Isaac I thought it would be a cool idea to stop at Bushy Run park and take a walk. It was. (I just wish my walking tracker thing would have worked. I must have not hit the button or something) So we got a nice little workout there to keep our fat asses in shape. We went home and did our bookbag thing where I looked at all his papers and he did his homework. No Mimi today so we got to cook our own dinner (tacos, of course) and cleaned up after that. There was a little time to play and I used that chance to update my MovieDB with something I was working on and it worked!! I can now change the results of a drop box menu box based on the choice from another one. We made our lunches for the next day, got cleaned up and our clothes ready and even read a story good night. I just love days like that!! <3

2010 Labor Day Weekend

We've been having a lot of fun lately so I wanted to give a quick update on some of the stuff that has been going on.

Friday was the start of Labor Day weekend so I had the car packed and ready to go so when I left work I went straight to get Isaac and hit the road. My dad was moving this weekend so we had to check out and enjoy his resort one last time before we weren't allowed in here anymore. It's also hopefully the last time we have to take those twisty wine country roads that slow you down. I found a new route that is all highway that I can't wait to try out. On the way down we stopped at our usual Burger King that we always go to. It's our tradition. We got there late but still a good drive time and hung out for a little bit. The house was a wreck. Everyone was packing and moving stuff. This is where it was first hinted to me that I have been shanghaied. I thought we were coming for some pool and playgrounds but apparently I was one of the main work horses they were waiting for. That was okay I guess. I come down here and have fun all the time so the least I could do to help my family was help them move. Olivia's boyfriend Kyle was also here to help.

We woke up early on Saturday and went at it. We were hauling stuff out for the Uhaul at 8 in the morning. We completed our first load by 11:30 and thought we were having a good time. Until it was 8pm and we could barely life our arms anymore. We did 3 loads and although we did get most of the big things that needed moved, there was still stuff at the old house. We were all exhausted and La ordered way too much pizza. It was cool that we got to spent one night at the old house and one night at the new house, the first night anyone stayed there.

Speaking of the new house, it was great! It had very similar qualities to the old place but it was way bigger. It had a real finished basement instead of just dirt. The only drawback really was that it was not on the resort. I wonder what sorts of things will we do now when we come here to vacation?

At least on Sunday morning since most of the moving was done we got to take a break. After an awesome breakfast at my favorite place in the world IHOP (only 5 minutes from his house!!), we went up the road to a playground. It was pretty nice and there were some other kids there. Dad and I played some frisbee and he later told me how much he enjoyed that. I guess that's one activity we can do. I wanted to try and hit another park but dad had to go to work later so we decided it was time for pool. The resort put in a new pool area and we hadn't hit it yet so that was our destination. It was very nice two new huge pools and two hot tubs too. Dad didn't stick around but Isaac and I had a blast. We were very sad to drive out of there knowing that we were probably never going to be back.

We went home and packed up all our stuff (in the craziness of moving we did forgot some shoes) and gave everyone a hug good-bye. They were very grateful for our help and we happy to be there for them. We drove home and brought our stuff in. We still had a whole day of vacation to go!

I woke up early on Monday and changed my oil. I was hoping to do that down in VA but that didn't work out. Mimi took us to get Isaac some school clothes at Kohl's and we both got new shoes so we were very happy about that. After that we hit the last 2 close playgrounds I had on our list and then I took Isaac to see the Scott Pilgrim movie (best movie ever) and he really enjoyed that. We went home and got some much needed down time after getting our clothes and lunches and backpacks ready for the next day. An awesome ending to a great weekend.

2010 Playground Fest

INTRO
We started our 2010 Playground Fest today 05/16

I will log where we go and stuff. I decided to do this realizing that my mother makes awesome scrapbooks. What better way to give my son a lifelong memory then take him out a as many playgrounds around our area as possible, document it with pictures and turn it into a scrapbook? I thought it was a good idea so that's when I invented the whole #2010PlaygroundFest idea.

UPDATES
09/08 This might be it for Playground Fest. It's getting colder now and we about ran out of playgrounds to go to. I do know of a few places we could still go but they are very far away and not very close to each other. The next weekend Isaac is here is when the PT Fall Festival is on so we will definitely be there. By the time I get him again it will be October.

So in 114 days we went to 52 playgrounds. (actually half that because I only see him every other week)
So in 58 days we went to 52 playgrounds and got over 700+ pictures. That is crazy. Well I can say now that we did a lot of work. We know which playgrounds and parks are awesome and which ones to avoid. I guess we can start on the scrapbook now. I'll probably make a digital version out of this blog. I'll flesh out the descriptions and add pictures and get a verdict from Isaac on each other as well. We can be official 'Playground Critics' now. :D

08/23 I thought we had maxed it out last weekend but I guess I was wrong.
I got Isaac not soon after I got home and we took right off. The Westmoreland Fair was going on so instead of eating first I figure we'd go out and do our thing and when we ended up there we'd eat. So off we went I had plotted out Greensburg since that's where the fair was. We ended up hitting 6 that night including some good ones and probably the worst one yet. Then we went to the fair and rode some rides. They didn't have Walking Tacos which is what Isaac wanted though. :(
Saturday morning we woke up and took off early in the opposite direction. We went out far first and came back. My camera died right when it was time to eat so we stopped at Dairy Queen and got some food and took it home. We ate and watched 'The Secret Of NIHM' while the battery charged. I was prepared to call it a day at that point but I asked Isaac if he wanted to go back out and he said yes. So we hit the second part of the trip which was about 4 more before it started to rain. A total of 9 that day. We cleaned up a bit at went to Jim's to watch the Steelers game and Moddy got to meet Isaac. Needless to say she LOVED him!
Now on Sunday we were supposed to go clothes shopping for Isaac but my mom was too tired from whatever she did Saturday so that was off. I realized that after the past 2 days we had exhausted the list playgrounds I had. How could that even be? So in the morning I got on the computer and checked out some in an area we had yet to hit, Latrobe. I came up with about 9 more we could do and I didn't think we'd hit them all but I mapped it out anyway and we left. We did about 5 before we just became too exhausted to go on. We went home and called it a weekend. I think 20 playgrounds was enough for anyone. Next time he comes with me we're going to Virginia and hit a few more down there with Pappy! Summer is coming to an end and the 2010PlaygroundFest is almost over.

08/09 Man we went a little crazy this weekend. I thought we were in for the night on Friday but Matt stopped by with Maddy and we decided to go over to McCullough to play. That turned out to be a great idea. As much as I love doing this, it's really for Isaac and when we go to these playgrounds where there are no kids, it's really not that fun. McCullough always has kids plus he was with his buddy Maddy so that was great. Plus Daddy and Matt got to shoot some hoops while we were there.
Then, which will ever go in history as Playground Day, we hit 8 playgrounds on Saturday. Yes you read that right, EIGHT. I didn't plan it like that, it just worked out. My main goal was to hit Twin Lakes and Mammoth and then fill in a few of the in-between ones but damn. Some were super fun, some there was nobody at and were pretty lame. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day. As fun as that was I think 4-5 max in one day is good from here on out.

07/13 I had the idea for the scrapbook to have the schedule on the first page and have each playground written in different colors. That way when paging thru the book the backing of each photo will be the corresponding color. EH!!

I also thought to make a google map with a pin at each area and print that out and put that in there as well.
See it here - > http://bit.ly/a7IhEY

PLAYGROUND LOG
* * * * *
10/20 Eliot Company Playground : 5/10
While looking for Geo-caches we found another playground we didn't even know existed

09/06 Oak Hollow : 9/10
Always tons of kids, weird equipment but lots of it and fun, in a huge park w other things to do

09/06 Bushy Run American Legion playground : 5/10
Close to home but not that great, small equipment and a swing set. There are hoops though.

09/05 Gordon-Barbour Elementary : 8/10
Another one that separate's the big kids playground from the baby one, cool drum thing and a jeep on springy things, you can tell this place is older because it is faded.

09/04 Dad's personal playground : 3/10
At least it's close to home.

08/25 Harrison Park Elementary : 9/10
We finally hit Isaac's school! This is one of the better playgrounds. The best part is that daddy himself help build this for Isaac and all the other kids by volunteering his time.

08/22 Legion-Keener Park : 9/10
It's like Little Knights Kingdom!! 100% original awesomeness

08/22 Baggaley Elementary : 6/10
Standard stuff, nothing spectacular, one side of the school was the baby playground, the other side was the big kid version

08/22 Mt View Elementary : 9/10
Big, wooded area, nice standard stuff plus and lot of unique extras

08/22 Burger King playplace : 4/10
small area, can get food

08/22 Maxwell Elementary : 8/10
Standard stuff, nice area

08/21 Sheridan Terrace Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, nice and new also with a weird enclosing fence, I don't understand the purpose of that

08/21 North Irwin playground : 4/10
Merry go round and tire swing and that's about it

08/21 White Oak park : 6/10
Big area but spread thinly, most of the stuff was older, pluses for the merry go round and the train though

08/21 Stewartsville Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, nice and new in a weird enclosed area behind the school

08/21 Sunrise Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, big area, nice but was lacking something

08/21 Level Green Elementary playground : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area, the old caterpillar thing from Harrison Park looks to have found his way here

08/21 Woodland playground : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, a few things we've never seen, surprisingly better than we expected

08/21 Trafford Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/21 Monroeville Community Park : 7/10
Nice park, big area, lots of stuff, equipment was kind of weak, nice disc golf course (for beginners)

08/20 West Point Elementary : 9/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, tire swing, climbing wall, cool monkey bars, big area, everything seemed really nice

08/20 East Hempfield Elementary : 1/10
2 swings and a slide, worst playground ever, we pity the poor kids that have to go to this school

08/20 Amos K Hutchinson Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/20 Pearl Carroll Memorial playground : 5/10
Several mini-playgrounds strewn throughout the grounds, a few cool things but the main attraction here was the pool

08/20 Stanwood Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/20 Fort Allen Elementary : 7/10
Standard stuff, big area, other kids

08/12 Bovard Elementary playground : 6/10
Sliding thing was broke, standard stuff, nothing spectacular

08/12 Hawksworth Apts : 4/10
Unique stuff but old and beat up

08/09 Jack Town Park : 5/10
Small area, not much equipment

08/07 Norvelt Elementary playground : 5/10
Nice area, not much equipment although it is new, too far away

08/07 Mammoth Park : 10/10
Huge area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, big slide, awesome merry go round, fun for all

08/07 St. Clair Park : 6/10
Not very big, not much stuff, at least it's close

08/07 Twin Lakes Park : 8/10
Huge area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, digger, too many people with dogs

08/07 Thomas Lynch Field playground : 9/10
Huge area, lots of kids, lots of other stuff to do, equipment is very unusual though

08/07 Dr Robert F Nicely Elementary playground : 7/10
Nice sized, friendly environment, standard equipment

08/07 Hempfield Park : 7/10
Big area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, ground always seems wet there though, must not be good irrigation

08/07 Pedora Park : 5/10
Not very big, not much stuff, too far out of the way

08/06 McCullough's Boundless Playground : 10/10
Big area, lots of kids, nice equipment, pretty standard but there is a lot and some of it is unique, sand pit w digger, close to home

07/28 Warrior Wonderland : 8/10
Big area, lots of kids, nice equipment, pretty standard but there is a lot, close to home

07/27 Wolfe Field playground : 2/10
Old and run down, no other kids, no swings on the swing-set

07/27 Jeannette McKee Elementary playground : 5/10
Dirty, lots of garbage, no other kids when we visited, seems like it was not put together properly

07/24 Chick-Fil-A playplace : 4/10
Small, other kids, can get food there

07/24 Boyce Park O'Block playground : 8/10
Nice, seemingly brand new equipment, other kids, seemed like most of the stuff was walkways to other parts, a little different than the standard stuff, also located in a huge park with other stuff to do

07/14 Penn Park : 8/10
Nice, newer standard equipment but there were a lot of unique things strewn about, ringing bells, race cars, other kids

07/14 Manor Park : 7/10
Standard stuff, big area, other kids

07/09 Adlai E Stevenson Elementary playground : 7/10
Nice equipment, no other kids at the time of visit, had a cool piano that really played so that was unique, cool looking climbing thing but playing on it was awkward

06/26 Keystone State Park playground : 8/10
Nice, newer equipment although it is the standard stuff, other kids, right by the beach and in a huge nature park

06/13 Irwin playground w Little Knights Kingdom : 10/10
Enormous area, tons of varied equipment, custom equipment, no cookie cutter playground here, tons of other kids, top notch playground!!

05/30 Romas playplace : 6/10
Small area, indoors, not much equipment but had coin operated machines, nice climbing wall, other kids, can order food there

05/30 Trevillains Elementary playground : 8/10
Huge area, tons of varied equipment, no kids there when we went

05/29 Shenandoah Crossing playground : 9/10
Big area, lots of different equipment, other kids to play with, digger and sand pit

05/16 Altman Park : 8/10
Nice equipment, other kids to play with, solid playground

05/16 Christian Fellowship Church playground : 4/10
Not much equipment, no other kids to play with, area was filled with crazy shredded tire stuff

* * * * *

Yet to hit

Metzgar Elementary School
New Derry Elementary School
Loyalhanna Elementary School

Blue Spruce Park and Playground

VA
Grace Adams Davis Memorial Playground
Washington Park