I decided this day that since Americans as a whole are overworked and do not get enough paid time off and most of the holidays we do get off are some sort of religious or governmental in nature that we should define our own family holiday with our own rules and customs for us to celebrate independently of whatever else everyone is doing. Cartwright Day if you will. Are you with me so far? Good.
I said it should probably be in summer because although adults can take a vacation day, children can generally not miss school. It should also be in a month that typically does not already give us another major holiday. I boiled it down and came up with June 15th which like a birthday can be celebrated on that day specifically and/or can be deferred until the weekend.
I don't have everything figured out yet but I think it's a good start. So far there is no mention of trees, cake, candy, flags, turkeys, cards or poles. The boy wants to call it FLY DAY for some reason but let's see what else we can come up with. I have a few suggestions below. I got a good response from the rest of the family and I think it has been suggested that we go to the beach for the inaugural holiday. La will rent us a vacation house for 4 days, June 10th - June 14th. Let's make this work!
Potential Names
Fly Day
Cartwright Day
Festival of Beerjuvenation
Core Values
Relax
No work
No major chores
Everything gets postponed today and that's okay because it's your time to relax
Massage / Spa
Beer
Beach
Friday, January 8, 2016
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Post-Thanksgiving Update
I haven't written in a while and we got some much needed time off over the holiday so I figured I'd try to put an update out here.
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
THURSDAY
Thanksgiving was fun. We went to Mimi's as we normally do. She tried to get out of it but apparently my sister threatened her with 'I'm not coming up to visit unless you cook and have Thanksgiving at your house' so she relented. Everyone pitched in and made something and all the normal people were there, Me, Ale, Isaac, Pax, Mimi, Chuck, Autumn, Gaines, Dee, Jed, Jed's 2015 girlfriend Lisa, Zip, Chuckie and Kevin.
From what I've gathered from talking to everyone after this was one of the better Thanksgivings. Everyone had a great time. I know I did. I don't think Mimi had a great time. She takes it upon herself to do too much and I think that causes her stress. Maybe that's where I get it from.
FRIDAY
We didn't really do anything but relax and recover. I played games and hung out her Ale and the babby.
SATURDAY
Tried to set up a lunch with Autumn and Gaines so we could hang out since they made the trip the whole way here. It didn't work out so Ale and I had our own lunch which was awesome. They did come over afterwards to our house and hung out so it worked out anyway.
SUNDAY
Just did more relaxing. Got a lot of database work in.
EMPLOYEE YEAR END BONUS
We received bonuses at work for the holiday. Nothing great but better than nothing is how I'll politely describe that. The problem this year is that Ale and I got different amounts but somehow in their system the gave us the wrong ones. I got hers. She got mine. We weren't supposed to know that but we did. The official story as I understand is that there was just an error. On the paper they give you when you go into the meeting the amount was crossed out and rewritten, the deposits were wrong in our bank accounts, redacted and redeposited and the statements on the ADP website are also incorrect. Instead of fixing mine they gave me a second bonus to make up the difference. Why they didn't do something to resolve this before handing them down is something I do not understand. It really reflected badly on whoever is in charge of that and I heard all the managers were irritated as well.
MORE EX DRAMA
The boy texted me the other day at around 9-10 pm (which is super late for me, luckily I was up) telling me he was scared and that I should come get him. Mom and Anthony were fighting. What I found out was going on was that apparently she found a new boyfriend or crush or something and for some reason told the boy about it. (This must have been part of the plan because it is naive of her to think telling the boy anything will not get back to the relevant person) In hanging out with her current boyfriend (who from what I understand is just a babysitter to her) the boy must have slipped and said something. The guy immediately latched on to this and made the boy spill his guts as to everything he knew. This caused this guy to go into some sort of rage. He broke the plasma TV, her phone and it got physical between her and him. Obviously she has attempted to cloud the true events of that altercation as she is wont to do with severely confusing misinformation after the fact. The worst part, the part I find unconscionable is that she straight up puts the blame on that on Isaac. She texted me that it was his fault. Everyone has known she is incapable of taking responsibility for anything that has happened to her in her entire life but now she is starting to blame her children. I am doing my best to set the boy straight but man is she in his head. I fear for his future with the things she has done to him. I can tell he is getting smarter and can see what's going on but it some cases she still has him wrapped around her finger and it is really saddening. The boy was not the one who got a new boyfriend before breaking up with the old one. She did. I truly do not know where her head is at.
Anyway I did find out that instead of getting a PFA against this guy as she told me he promised that he will pay for the TV and phone, get a job and everything is just hunky dory and they're back together. What a wonderful gesture. You certainly wouldn't want to lose your rent-free house, etc, etc. I give this 3 months. He'll be back on the couch and everything will be as it was. Some people just don't learn and can't move on. Again as the boy gets older he will see.
I got another text of some sort recently basically saying if she can't get free healthcare for the boy then she will do nothing else to help provide it and it will fall to me to handle. Wonderful parenting! You don't pay for anything you can't lie to welfare and get for free but I'm somehow always portrayed as the bad guy to her.
BOY DRAMA CLUB
I told the boy at the beginning of the school year that he needs to get more involved with things and to do that I suggested that he join some sort of club. I don't care what. My first choice would have been some sports team but as long as you pick something I don't care. I found out at the beginning of the month that he had chosen the Penn Middle Drama Club. Ok good enough. I'm cool with that. So for the first play being held in December they had chosen to perform A Charlie Brown Christmas. Again that's fine. That's a classic. He did not chose to participate as an actor. He chose to be a part of the Stage Crew. This all makes me happy. I guess his job is to make set pieces and move them in and out during the different scenes. Good job boy. I am proud of you and I can't wait to go see the play (Dec 17th) so I can see you in action. My only concern (as it usually is): is his mother capable of getting the boy there and back to all his practices he needs to be at. My vote is on 'Extremely Unlikely' . He already needs to stay over Friday night since she can't get him there for Saturday's rehearsal. He needs to be there every single day next week and that worries me as well.
I did have a weird experience picking him up the other day from there. Apparently every parent that has a kid there tries to jam into the back parking lot when rehearsal is over and there's not enough room so a traffic jam is created. When I pulled in and saw that I parked in a lot that was away from all that and figured I'd just walk over and get him then come back. Well just as I got out of the car some guy, I don't know who, the principal, a teacher, someone who felt they were in some position of authority, sharply barked at me if they could help me. Of course me being me I instantly had 5 smart ass things I could have said but I bit my tongue and just as politely as I could answered, 'Nope just picking up my kid'. I don't know if he was confused at my refusal to get in the traffic line like every other sheep or what but it was unsettling to me.
GAS LEAK
The other day we came home from work and found several trucks with red flashing lights parked on our road. It wasn't the police so I guessed fire trucks. maybe someone had a kitchen fire or something. it ended up being the gas company. A guy came to our door to tell us that there was a leak in the line somewhere between our house and the meter on the road and that they shut our gas off. We needed to call a plumber and get it fixed before they would turn it back on. I called Chuck right away and he was in denial about it. He talked to the neighbors and got it all straightened out. I guess there really did end up being an issue because he had to pay $1000 he said to get someone to fix it. It was only out 2 full days and wasn't that big of a deal to us.
STAR WARS
Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out on Dec 18th. I definitely want to go see it and take the boy. He wants to go with his friend Dylan so I friended his mom on Facebook so I could communicate with her and figure something out. We're definitely going when I planned so we will definitely see it. Hopefully we can work something out because this is the kind of movie you see more than once so I'm cool with going again.
CONCLUSION
Sorry so long. I should try and keep up with this more but that's okay. I finally got a good thing going in my database to log life as we go and that makes me happy. Ale makes me happy. Isaac is doing okay. Pax is the most cutest bestest babby ever. I think things are going to be okay.
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
THURSDAY
Thanksgiving was fun. We went to Mimi's as we normally do. She tried to get out of it but apparently my sister threatened her with 'I'm not coming up to visit unless you cook and have Thanksgiving at your house' so she relented. Everyone pitched in and made something and all the normal people were there, Me, Ale, Isaac, Pax, Mimi, Chuck, Autumn, Gaines, Dee, Jed, Jed's 2015 girlfriend Lisa, Zip, Chuckie and Kevin.
From what I've gathered from talking to everyone after this was one of the better Thanksgivings. Everyone had a great time. I know I did. I don't think Mimi had a great time. She takes it upon herself to do too much and I think that causes her stress. Maybe that's where I get it from.
FRIDAY
We didn't really do anything but relax and recover. I played games and hung out her Ale and the babby.
SATURDAY
Tried to set up a lunch with Autumn and Gaines so we could hang out since they made the trip the whole way here. It didn't work out so Ale and I had our own lunch which was awesome. They did come over afterwards to our house and hung out so it worked out anyway.
SUNDAY
Just did more relaxing. Got a lot of database work in.
EMPLOYEE YEAR END BONUS
We received bonuses at work for the holiday. Nothing great but better than nothing is how I'll politely describe that. The problem this year is that Ale and I got different amounts but somehow in their system the gave us the wrong ones. I got hers. She got mine. We weren't supposed to know that but we did. The official story as I understand is that there was just an error. On the paper they give you when you go into the meeting the amount was crossed out and rewritten, the deposits were wrong in our bank accounts, redacted and redeposited and the statements on the ADP website are also incorrect. Instead of fixing mine they gave me a second bonus to make up the difference. Why they didn't do something to resolve this before handing them down is something I do not understand. It really reflected badly on whoever is in charge of that and I heard all the managers were irritated as well.
MORE EX DRAMA
The boy texted me the other day at around 9-10 pm (which is super late for me, luckily I was up) telling me he was scared and that I should come get him. Mom and Anthony were fighting. What I found out was going on was that apparently she found a new boyfriend or crush or something and for some reason told the boy about it. (This must have been part of the plan because it is naive of her to think telling the boy anything will not get back to the relevant person) In hanging out with her current boyfriend (who from what I understand is just a babysitter to her) the boy must have slipped and said something. The guy immediately latched on to this and made the boy spill his guts as to everything he knew. This caused this guy to go into some sort of rage. He broke the plasma TV, her phone and it got physical between her and him. Obviously she has attempted to cloud the true events of that altercation as she is wont to do with severely confusing misinformation after the fact. The worst part, the part I find unconscionable is that she straight up puts the blame on that on Isaac. She texted me that it was his fault. Everyone has known she is incapable of taking responsibility for anything that has happened to her in her entire life but now she is starting to blame her children. I am doing my best to set the boy straight but man is she in his head. I fear for his future with the things she has done to him. I can tell he is getting smarter and can see what's going on but it some cases she still has him wrapped around her finger and it is really saddening. The boy was not the one who got a new boyfriend before breaking up with the old one. She did. I truly do not know where her head is at.
Anyway I did find out that instead of getting a PFA against this guy as she told me he promised that he will pay for the TV and phone, get a job and everything is just hunky dory and they're back together. What a wonderful gesture. You certainly wouldn't want to lose your rent-free house, etc, etc. I give this 3 months. He'll be back on the couch and everything will be as it was. Some people just don't learn and can't move on. Again as the boy gets older he will see.
I got another text of some sort recently basically saying if she can't get free healthcare for the boy then she will do nothing else to help provide it and it will fall to me to handle. Wonderful parenting! You don't pay for anything you can't lie to welfare and get for free but I'm somehow always portrayed as the bad guy to her.
BOY DRAMA CLUB
I told the boy at the beginning of the school year that he needs to get more involved with things and to do that I suggested that he join some sort of club. I don't care what. My first choice would have been some sports team but as long as you pick something I don't care. I found out at the beginning of the month that he had chosen the Penn Middle Drama Club. Ok good enough. I'm cool with that. So for the first play being held in December they had chosen to perform A Charlie Brown Christmas. Again that's fine. That's a classic. He did not chose to participate as an actor. He chose to be a part of the Stage Crew. This all makes me happy. I guess his job is to make set pieces and move them in and out during the different scenes. Good job boy. I am proud of you and I can't wait to go see the play (Dec 17th) so I can see you in action. My only concern (as it usually is): is his mother capable of getting the boy there and back to all his practices he needs to be at. My vote is on 'Extremely Unlikely' . He already needs to stay over Friday night since she can't get him there for Saturday's rehearsal. He needs to be there every single day next week and that worries me as well.
I did have a weird experience picking him up the other day from there. Apparently every parent that has a kid there tries to jam into the back parking lot when rehearsal is over and there's not enough room so a traffic jam is created. When I pulled in and saw that I parked in a lot that was away from all that and figured I'd just walk over and get him then come back. Well just as I got out of the car some guy, I don't know who, the principal, a teacher, someone who felt they were in some position of authority, sharply barked at me if they could help me. Of course me being me I instantly had 5 smart ass things I could have said but I bit my tongue and just as politely as I could answered, 'Nope just picking up my kid'. I don't know if he was confused at my refusal to get in the traffic line like every other sheep or what but it was unsettling to me.
GAS LEAK
The other day we came home from work and found several trucks with red flashing lights parked on our road. It wasn't the police so I guessed fire trucks. maybe someone had a kitchen fire or something. it ended up being the gas company. A guy came to our door to tell us that there was a leak in the line somewhere between our house and the meter on the road and that they shut our gas off. We needed to call a plumber and get it fixed before they would turn it back on. I called Chuck right away and he was in denial about it. He talked to the neighbors and got it all straightened out. I guess there really did end up being an issue because he had to pay $1000 he said to get someone to fix it. It was only out 2 full days and wasn't that big of a deal to us.
STAR WARS
Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out on Dec 18th. I definitely want to go see it and take the boy. He wants to go with his friend Dylan so I friended his mom on Facebook so I could communicate with her and figure something out. We're definitely going when I planned so we will definitely see it. Hopefully we can work something out because this is the kind of movie you see more than once so I'm cool with going again.
CONCLUSION
Sorry so long. I should try and keep up with this more but that's okay. I finally got a good thing going in my database to log life as we go and that makes me happy. Ale makes me happy. Isaac is doing okay. Pax is the most cutest bestest babby ever. I think things are going to be okay.
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.'
Monday, August 10, 2015
Trail Extension
I went to ride the other day and I took the PT Cruiser using the brand new bike rack my dad found in his garage. It uses ancient strap and buckle technology which can be confusing but if you mess with it long enough it does actually work.
When I got to the trail I saw something new right at the start. There was a picnic table and a new sign. My goodness what was the news?!?
Future - Trafford thru Murrysville to Export
Oooh What does that mean?! I knew they'd be extending the trail sometime in the future. When I first started riding this was pretty much immediately after the part that took it to Delmont opened so I've never know the trail any different than how it is now.
They're coming FROM Trafford TO Export? That seems confusing. Where the heck is there currently a trail in Trafford to come from? How long will this take until we can ride on it? Most importantly, where will the Penn Trafford connector section be? There is no way they cannot have at least an extension that hooks us in to the main trail if it the main trail can't actually go that way. Now I don't want so many people on it that a person can't reasonably ride their bike in safety but I feel everyone would enjoy it and it would get lots of traffic from PT people if we had access. I'm probably going to have to give them money and join so I can somehow have a say in this. I'm sure there have to be PT people already trying to sway someone. There were also some maps and brochures on the post so I just need to mail that in now.
I thought about how cool that will be when it happens for a large stretch of my bike ride and that was nice.
That was until I found someone's phone. It was on the ground in the tunnel right before the mile 4 marker. I wasn't even planning on going that long but I was feeling good. Plus I devised a plan for next week to finally ride the entire length of the West Penn Trail. I'm going to park at the parking lot I found at the 5 mile marker and go to the end and back however long it takes me. So I figured if I"m going to start at the 5 I should ride the other half of the trail up to the 5 so over the 2 weeks I hit every part of it.
Anyway so I go through the tunnel and I see a snazzy electric portable phone. I don't know if my first thought was 'Screw it' because I did ride by but something stopped me and I turned around and grabbed it. It wasn't broke or anything so I put it in my pocket and kept going. So then I started thinking about what I was going to do and how. I figured when I got done riding I could just find a likely contact and call it to see if they could get a hold of whoever this was but then I thought 'No'. I don't want to go through dudes phone. I'm sure its nothing but what if hes a weirdo or a closet cheating freak or mafia or who the hell knows what. I yelled out at a few people I passed asking if they lost a phone but no luck. By the end I was decided to just drop it off with the cops.
Of course that was an affair. How stupid am I to go walking right up to police and give them me to beat up or whatever? They were right on the way home though (after my GPS took me in the stupidest circle I ever took) in the basement of an old brick building with this locked steel door and camera and stuff. I rang the bell and just as I thought no one was coming and 'Should I just leave it here on the ground' some (obviously) big, bald cop opens the door and I'm pretty sure he just said 'What?' gruffly and not "How can I help you?'. I just said Lost and Found and handed it to him. I said I found it on the bike trail and he took it and I bolted. Hopefully whoever lost it got it back.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
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
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
- 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
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.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Trail Fest 2015
Apparently I have evolved into a cyclist. My goals is to ride 500 miles this year.
Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.
http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012
http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/
5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007
WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010
GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/
RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/
Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.
http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012
http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/
5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007
WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010
GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/
RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/
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