Chicago

Well we made it to the Chi. The much anticipated trip is underway. After dropping the dog off, going through the kid's passport process and leaving Thomas with Becky, we made it to St Louis and saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid which I gave a B-. Continuing on our trek, entering Chicago at 11:30PM, was a little overwhelming. The Palmer House is ridiculous. This place is awesome. We only circled the block once before finding the place! I'll post the link later.

Most important, after incidentally speaking with a few homeless folks, Will made the effort to make sure we prayed for them and their situation.

He is growing up... in a bubble... in Arkansas. It's been a while since I've spent time in a big city. Chicago will be an eye opener for all of us

No longer a heathen

Quick post: I spent Saturday morning, with my neighbor, helping the church clean up a depressed neighhood which was rewarding in many ways. Then Jazmin and Melissa were baptised on Sunday which makes today a special day. We had a great group of friends in attendance to witness the event and most came to brunch following. Stephenie gave the girls very thoughtful gifts and we were also able to attend a celebration party with friends in our small group who's daughters were baptised as well.

Summer is over - A few observations

• My kids didn't evern care what brand of sneakers they're mother purchased
• Jazmin still hasn't worked an hour at the job she was hire for in March
• Again, without picking the color, the black Pacifica was replaced by a black Expedition
• My kids only spent 11 days of summer vacation at their home
• Launching the Aqua-Trax cost me the deductible on my HTC Touch Pro. Should have just bought a case rather than carry it in my pocket
• Camping in WV seemed more like work than relaxing
• Vick is an Eagle. Yes, this is good news
• Still haven't wired speakers to the garage or deck... lazy or intimidated
• 80 hour work weeks still suck
• Summer colds (caused by kids going back to school and 80 hour work weeks) suck
• 1.75 years old are tough
• Looking forward to a fall vacation

The Fence is Down

At Jazmin's request, on Mother's Day, we began taking down 3/5's of the fence in our side yard. There was no marching or trumpet blowing but the wall still came down. The hardest part of this is moving the gate from opening West to parallel to the house opening north. We left the back of the fence up to border the woods. (Our next door neighbor found a 3.5' to 4' snake across her front door.) We found 2 snakes in the fence demolition process. 

Fence demolition process - favorite tool - Craftsman Reciprocating saw (thanks Dad). The whole fence was down in 2 hours. Digging out the post was a different story. In the end, the fence and gate I put up is 99.5% recycled, we have enough cedar for the fireplace for the whole summer. 

Well. Sunday, a week later, and we are 100% done and the gate actually works. Now we have to grow some grass!

Eagles & Vikings v Mall of America

My Will and Melissa have mentioned more than once that they wanted to go to an Eagles game. After hearing that there were thousands of tickets available for the playoff game, at 11AM we decided to go. We left for the 10+ hour drive at 2AM on Saturday morning. 

We visited the Mall of America which is really something to see. Roller coasters, the Lego store, Starbucks, and Eagles jerseys everywhere; Melissa was allowed to pick up an early birthday present at the American Girl store. 

The weather was ridiculous! Saturday in Minneapolis was complete with a Winter Storm Warning and snow, maybe 2", then ice. Sunday was worse, with the high temp of 8 degrees, clearing a car covered with snow and ice, and then packing that car was not fun.

The game was great. We rode the Metro rail right to the stadium, sat in the 2nd level, watched a great game then returned the way we came. Will and I cheered on our team, watching Samuel and Westbrook each score touchdowns. We didn't even mind seeing AP run one in for a score. 

The roughest part of the weekend was returning to AR after the game. Minnesota rodes were not great. The temp stayed low and the salt caused some melting and re-freezing. Iowa on the other hand was horrible. when we crossed the state line we were greeted with horrible rode conditions and cars off the rode everywhere. I prayed a lot in northern Iowa. 

By the grace of God we made it home in time for Will and Melissa to go to school, which they did. I took 2 hour nap and went to work. What a great weekend! 

Thomas and the "Ball Activity" Station

Uncle Carl bought the Ball station but come Christmas Morning there were no batteries. He left town before he could see that that Ball Station was a hit. 

Anyway, Thanks Uncle Carl!

Thanksgving Stay-cation

For the record... For as much as we like to travel, it has been a great week staying home. It was 65 degrees today in NWAR. I put up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving because I hate cold weather. The Trees are up and decorated. Heck, I even ran a cable line to the bonus room for the upstairs computer and installed a webcam for Skype. Feel free to reach out.

Here are the best parts of a "stay-cation": No rental car, no hotel bill, no long car ride, eating at home v. eating out for every meal (no McDonalds!), sleep in my own bed, didn't forget anything (toothbrush, phone charger), arrived ahead of schedule... for that matter, there is no schedule. No need to even turn on the GPS. Need I continue?

You know I'm trippin' b/c we event went to the Mall and I didn't complain! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Best yet, Carl, David and Tiffenay will be here. The kids are excited. We're planning to cook the turkey on the grill and play paintball in the woods. 

On a different subject, Fantasy Football, I actually have a chance to make the playoffs in my work league. I will most like not finish last in my neighborhood league and therefore not have to host the Superbowl party; and have a good chance of not losing in my family league. The bottom line is, I am in way too many leagues. I just don't have the time to study NFL stats and certainly don't have the memory to remember all of the players on my 3 teams b/f the bi-weeks. With all of the bi-week moves I was completely lost. I am finally coming up for air but have to figure out how to lessen my Fastasy Football burden for '09. Any suggestions?

Great Getaway

Last week was a nearly perfect vacation. First we went to FL and spent time with Jazmin's parents eating out, Disney, you know the routine. Then Jazmin and I left on a 4 night cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas to the Bahamas and Coco Cay on Royal Caribbean. Here's the thing. It was a really cheap cruise. Last year we were on the brand new Freedom of the Seas. FYI, You may be a little let down when you go from a state of the art, largest cruise boat in the world, flag ship with all of the bells and whistles to a 20 year old, in it's last 20 days of life in the fleet boat.

On the flip side of the coin, we discovered that there was not much to do on the boat that we hadn't already done so we really just relaxed: watched movies, drank coffee, worked out, spent lots of time on the beach. We did want we wanted to do. No pressure to climb the rock wall, spend $300 on an excurison, smoke Cuban cigars, or shop for lavish jewelry. Also on the flip side on the coin, the staff on the boat was about the nicest we've seen. The folks that took care of us, entertained us, and safely conveyed us were some of the best we've come across. (The one exception was the lead male performer. He really got on our nerves.) All told we were very impressed with the staff. As always, we met a lot of nice people on the boat most of whom will end up on Jazmin's Facebook page.

We were last at Coco Cay the weekend after September 11, 2001 and Jazmin was pregnant with Melissa. When we were on the island, there was a few rows of beach chairs, a few picnic tables, no electricity and low rent snorkel gear. No complaints, the beach was great and the weather was perfect. RCL was busy during the those 7 years. There were beach chairs and hammocks as far as the eye could see... or at least as far as I was willing to walk; PWCs, giant water slides, an inflatable mini-water park, electricity... It was really nice. I snorkled for hours (saw a sting ray, grouper, lion fish, cow fish, and plenty of tangs, angels, pork, and damsel fish. Jazmin read a book. We agreed that we'd rather 2 days at Coco Cay than go to the Bahama's. We also decided that we won't go on any more small boats. We're planning a cruise in 2010 on the new Oasis of the Seas. You're welcome to come along. Hollar at me for the details (or just call Jazmin cause I'll tell you that I have to get the details from Jazmin and I'll call you back, then get side tracked and forget to call you back and you'll blame me when you miss the trip). 

Jazmin's parents did fine with the kids while we were gone. Finally, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Jazmin's family and I headed home. Jazmin and the kids, her mother and sister and her sister's 4 kids went to Siestia Keys for the second week of Fall break.

Tommy Walking

Yeah... At 11 months the monster is walking about 1/2 the time. His confidence has grown in the last week considerably. He still does his spider walk and crawls occasionally and you should see him climb a flight of steps!!

Bail Out???

Just a few things on my mind...

Cub Scouts - As it stands right now tonight William will begin his career as a Scout by attending the Pack 136 meeting tonight... More to come

Chevy Treverse - I've been looking at this car for a few weeks (b/f the commercials) as a replacement for the Pacifica. The gas mileage (claim) of 24 mpg hwy is outstanding. Seats 8. Hate to buy a car in it's first model year but it's a sister to the Arcadia, Enclave and whatever the Saturn version is... This could be our next car. Let me know what you think about the Treverse.

If you make $50,000,000 a year and have stock options worth as much or more and drive your company into the ground, you should LOSE YOUR JOB and maybe go to jail plus consider giving back the coin. You deserve a brick as a parachute... the gold should go to the share holders.

If you make the policies that allow people to make $50,000,000, run a company into the ground the politically position yourself to be on the "right" side you should consider bailing out your career. Main St saving Wall St?

A point of clarification... I am traditionally very conservative. I understand that this bail out is important to "saving the global economy" but I also believe there should be consequences for your actions. If you screwed up, maybe the taxpayers should bail your (public) company out. But from my side of the street, I wouldn't put the money back into the hands of the folks that made the mistake to begin with, rewarding poor performance.

Jazmin is heading out of town for two days and leaving me with the three kids. Will and Melissa will be fine but Tommy.... at 11 months and nearly walking you can't take an eye off of him for a moment. Throw in a couple flag football games and a "pumpkin patch visit" and we're gearing up for an interesting weekend.

If you live in S. Florida does that make you an expert on Cuba? If you live in Detroit does that make you an expert on Canadian affairs? I didn't think so. So what is Palin talking about? And just for the record, what is Biden talking about? Clinton would be a better running mate. The next few week will be interesting. It's nice to not live in a battle ground state for once.

Labor Day in Ohio

Most people thought John McCain announcing his running mate would be the biggest and best thing to hit Dayton over Labor Day weekend... they were wrong. The Taylor's converged on the town and took over every venue we visited. Here the play by play:

1st Inning - Arrival and Greeting by Bree - According to Bree's 6th sense, Dad is as shady a character as Carl! Who knew. Thank God Bree pointed that out for us.

2nd Inning - Bob Evans and Wal- Mart - North Dayton thought it was a Philadelphia Eagles convention b/c of all the Eagle's appeal (pre-fantasy draft).

3rd Inning - The family draft was accompanied with a little Brain Age on the DS. So who had the biggest brain after all? The Draft went off without a hitch and 7 of 8 players participated.


4th Inning - Bowling, Sirmans and Chipolte - The Sirmans came to visit while we bowled in Moraine. GG Harris play 2 games at the age of 87! Dad put up scores to prove why he is king and never talked any trash. His high game was a 173 but he beat EVERYONE on EVERY game! If you know E&J you know that no trip to OH is complete without a visit to Chipolte.

Bottom of the 4th - The only major downer of the weekend was Mom's ailing Nissan Murano which quit working for no apparent reason. The vehicle only has 8000 miles on it so there was no reason for it to break down and strand 4 people 500 miles from home.

5th Inning - B/c of a debate over church locations and times we ended up at the Apex Church in Kettering. The 9:30 contempory service was well done. I think everyone enjoyed the message on idolatry. Church was followed by a Jazmin favorite, First Watch. During the wait Uncle D bought Will the coolest pop-up book I've every seen. Really! Following brunch the ladies went to?, Dad and Will went to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum and Carl, David and I went to play paintball at RUSH paintball. David was unstoppable as the sniper (with arguably the most impressive paintball shot ever) and this outing was my best outing to date. Playing with a little confidence helps. I was picking off 10 year olds left and right. Carl was on the short end of the stick primarily b/c he was playing against us most of the time. When the 3 of us were on a team we were unbeatable. Believe that!

Bottom of the 5th - Following paintball we met at a new rally point, Kerri Scott's house. It was time for Jazmin to put Carl's tennis trash talk to bed, once and for all. While Carl had a few bright moments, Jazmin could have made him cry. Since she didn't say it, I will: "Grasshopper, Do not go to war against a shark in the sea or a tiger in the jungle or a polar bear on the ice or Jazmin on a tennis court." Rally in the 5th - Following tennis, we ate and played Taboo. The group had grown considerably by this point. Tammy Enright stopped by and the Sirman 4 were present as well. Although some should not have nearly all stayed up passed their bedtime, and for one it took a magic pen to bring the night to an end, all had a great time and the boys were victorious. We won by 3!

6th Inning - Labor Day - The plan was to eat at the Golden Nugget but Rosemary was smart and called ahead. They were closed so Cracker Barrel received our 15 person party and the tip to go with it. Mary and Missy dress alike and took a picture.Despite the fact that everyone want to do something different the great negotiators of the group worked out a deal that was approved by all (at a 2:1.5 ratio) . The Sirmans took Tommy and Missy for the afternoon. Then we headed to the Dayton Mall where bargains were found, massages enjoyed, and comments like "no one wears jean shorts any more" and "the situation is skewed".

7th inning - All of this was followed by an invigoration round of Paintball. Per the deal made earlier after 2 hours in the mall the girls had to play 1.5 hours of paintball. We choose an overgrown field in the middle of nowhere. We crawled through poison ivy and all types of thing in the field. We ended up with 5 working markers for 6 people. Major props to Dad, Jazmin and Kerry for getting out there and playing with the boys. Special mention for GG Harris who was willing to come along video tape. It was an outstanding event.

Run rule- After showers everyone showed up at Cheesecake Factory. Cool restaurant. The Cheesecake Factory was effectively the end of the weekend but a great time was had by all.

Thank you all for coming and making this a great weekend. While a few things did not work out the way they were intended, this was truly one of the best weekends of my life. Thanks for making it happen!

Totally 80's

A co-worker and friend of mine, Jen Silverman had an 80's party last night. The party was well attended and everyone had a great time. The party was complete with a "slide show on steroids" which included 80's pics of most in attendence and trivia, and an HD projection video of 80's music and movies.

I realized that even though I was young in the 80's there wasn't much good about the 80's. The styles were crazy, most of the music was sorry, AIDS, the cold war, MTV, ALF, the drugs.... The good things, as I see it were Star Wars, RUN DMC (hip hop in general), the Cosby Show, MTV and ET. Most agreed that they wouldn't go back to the 80's to save their lives.
Ross T. Cloyd and I decided to attend the party as Crocket and Tubbs from Miami Vice. After several trips to the Good Will, party stores, and other consignment shops, we were ready to protect Shadow Valley CC from crime.
Other costumes included several of the big hair eighty's girls, a graduate, rainbow bright, tight rolled pants, the guy who's only line is grunting in Meatball or Revenge of the Nerds (or one of those movies), preppy guy, preppy girl, trashy guy, trashy girl, too many guys in rediculously short shorts, but no one showed up as Mr. T.

Deck Project

When we moved to AR, we purchased a beautiful house but the deck was in desperate need of some work. The previous owner did a horrible job staining the deck. There were visible sneaker prints, splash marks, drips, and even perpendicular brush marks. Beautiful view from the deck, horrible view on it.

In April, following Easter, I began sanding the 4 year old stain off of the deck. This was a huge task and because of the mess, I usually reserved weekends to put on a dust mask, knee protectors, ear protection and old jeans and get to it. After buring out my old sander, I completed the sanding last weekend. I tore down the railings and began to stain new wood pieces.

Just today, I stained the 4x4's and first 2 boards. The stained board below is one which needed to be replaced.

Tornado

On Saturday Night, May 10th, 2008, we were headed to our country club's clubhouse for dinner with some friends. When we arrived there was a sense of urgency from everyone. The TVs were showing tornado warnings and the weatherman was showing "rotation" over our general area. The sky was dark then began to lighten and a protrusion began to extend from a cloud just north of the clubhouse. The offending cloud continued to extend. The rotation was visible. The cloud continued to drop into an easily distinguishable funnel cloud. The cloud blew over without touching down. The end of the story is that the tornado never touched down. To my knowledge, no one was hurt. We continued with dinner and had a great night.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. Mom's truely never get a day off. H had a pretty good day but as I type this, she is handling laundry and kids. Since the CT tri-cycle incident, she's really become a great Mom.

Here's how Mother's day unfolded in the Taylor household: I woke up at 6:30 and took Melissa to do our Mother's Day shopping. We headed stright for Wal-Mart (where an associate tried to talk me into a Land of Frost sliced lunch meat b/f I informed her at that I represent Oscar Mayer) and bumped into a a co-work doing the same thing. Funny thing. Shoppers in Wal-Mart at 6:40AM on Mother's Day are 98% men. My Dad explained that the women plan better... they all shop the night before. With time as limited as it has been, I had a lot of shopping to do. Flowers, potting soil etc. At the end of the day, Missy and I headed home with a 4 gig Ipod and a Digital Picture Frame.

This is where the day became interesting. Jazmin and I spent the morning, and some of the afternoon going through thousands of digital photos. As many as 255 could have been duplicates. We look at the birth of all three kids, vacations to beaches, theme-parks, countless birthdays, Christmas and Easter Celebrations, and 2 of the goofiest kids on Earth along with hundreds of friends. The trip down memory lane was the most fun Jazmin and I have had in a long time. Next week is the hard copy photos.

Bonus: If you have a chance, ask Melissa to read you a Skippyjon Jones book. I HIGHLY recommend it.

A TV that fits

If you visited us in NW AR you know that our old TV did not fit well in the cut out above the fireplace in the family room. Well... we finally remedied that situation. After extensive research, I decided on an LCD we went with Samsung over Sony.

The photo is terrible but the TV fits with less than a quarter inch on all three sides. We decided to go with the full 1080p for the maximum flexibility: Over the air HD (the best signal available - 1080p), HD movies (Wal-Mart went with Blu-ray and thus Blu-ray wins the battle over HD DVD), gaming (PS3 is the best deal going on Blu-ray), computer monitor, Directv etc. Directv only broadcast in 1080i so we haven't made that upgrade yet.

Mardi Gras

Apparently it was time for the Taylor's to get a little culture. Having grown up in the Northeast, neither Jazmin or I knew anything about Mardi Gras. Stephenie Sullivan went to great lenghts to put this together so the least we could do was show up. Here's some vocabulary for the event:

• Hurrican - Tropical punch made with Rum
• King Cake - A cinnamon roll - cake with a plastic baby inside

The was pretty much it. We had a great time. Thanks to Stephenie Sullivan for throwing a great party!

Kraft Christmas 2007

"If you told me a year ago that I'd be at Christmas party listening to Jay-Z in Arkansas I'd have asked you what you were smoking" - E

The Kraft Christmas party is unlike any I've ever seen before. This was a classy event held at the Pinnacle Country Club Clubhouse #3. Before I get into the details I need to tell you that the hype for the event was staggering. The few who were here last year spent the previous 4 week recalling (and possibly embellishing) the events of previous parties. The talk about dresses, hair, and who "such-n-such" (Stephanie) was going to bring was overwhelming. With that out of the way, here is a brief recap:

The Seba's babysat for us and we picked up the Cloyds at 6:15 then headed to Stephanie's to meet the rest of the group. After a drink and a few photos, we left with rain falling and snow in the forecast.

The event was classy. On site sitters, valet parking, live music with appetizers, professional photos and then the meal. Paul Callahan and Craig Sutte briefly addressed the group then on with the drinks, DJ and dancing. There were no tuxedos but everyone was dressed to the "T". I was witnesses to three NCMs and their spouses dancing to Mase on the dnace floor! Although I was in Arkansas, to my delight, there were only 2 or 3 country music songs played! The night ended with fewer then expected meltdowns considering the open bar. Even a few of the out of town field team were present for the event.

Highlights:

• Stephanie brought Mike, a longtime friend... or more than a friend?
• Courtney was off the hook and the life of the party.
  
• I met Holly's husband Mike who is from South Jersey and increased the Philly contingent by one. (Kevin, Ed, Chuck, Eric and now Mike).
  
• Although the weather called for snow and/or freezing rain, neither came to pass.
• While you may think I am fibbing, Jazmin actually danced to 3 or 4 song at the end of the night.
• Most notable, Jazmin looked like a million bucks. More than one person was left wondering how I ended up with her and/or what bet she lost to end up with me.
  

I'll post the photos to Flickr.

And the Merry Thanksgiving to all...

After 10 years we have finally cracked the code. This Thanksgiving was one of the best we've had.

H and the kids arrived in Tampa on Thursday. Small world: My parents were flighing out of Tampa on Thursday. They were able to spend a few hours together at TPA. Mom and Dad were able to see the baby for the first time. Thank God Tampa was such a nice airport.

I arrived on Sunday, following the Saturday "not so surprise" party for Mr. Gmuer. (I don't think they wanted me there). With no small effort on the part of my father, we were staying in the Orange Lake resorts in Kissimmee. Originally we were staying at an extended stay type hotel which was basically a glorified truck stop. Jazmin blames the need for a change on me and my high standards but I never saw the place. Thanks to the Taylor's RCI membership, the Orange Lake (with 2 bedrooms, full kitchen, laundry, 4 swimming pools, Starbucks, Internet Cafe, etc), was only $60 more the the hole in the wall. Here's the catch, The 6 Mora's stayed with the 5 Taylors... and it went surprisingly well.

Monday: John and Doris took the 4 oldest grandkids to Sea World. R&R for Mom and Dad

Tuesday: The Mora's, Taylors, and John went to the Animal Kingdom. John worked out a deal to basically get all of us in for free! We saw all of the best including Nemo, Dinosours, the Safari
and Everest. At about 4PM the 5 Taylor's left for MGM. Melissa, William and I went on the Tower of Terror. Melissa was so brave and did great! Mommy is now the lone whimp in our family. We visited the town of lights, then saw the Beauty and the Beast live on stage followed by the 8PM installment of Fantasmic. Truly, this was one of the best days we've ever had at Disney.

Wednesday: Medieval Times. Doris came to watch the two youngest Moras. Special note: if you've never been to Medieval Times, they will ask you to arrive at 6PM for the 7:30 show. This gives you a chance to visit the 3 over priced bars, have a kid take your picture 5 times (he'll print them on a HP and try to sell them to you for $2o each when you are elbows deep in half a chicken), take pictures on the fancy chairs and with suits of armor and shop the 600% mark up "knight" themed items. Show up at 7PM; you'll have plenty of time for pictures and to be seated before the show. After all the time spent cheering and screaming, the Green Knight won! only to be assassinated moments later. Liliana had the Flower thrown to her and Will was captivated by the action. A day later Liliana went onto the patio and pulled the flower apart leaf by leaf and Will express a concern about the people being hurt with the swords (even though he took a picture with the Green Knight after he was assassinated). Melissa didn't want to watch the battles but loved the show. At the end of the day, they were able to eat with there hands, sit with their cousins, and see and awesome show. Say no more. Hosea and I ended the day with a few pieces of premium tobacco and a well-aged Rum.

Thursday: Thanksgiving. We ate a Cracker Barrel breakfast, watched the Macy's Day parade, read the paper (important social articles like the Circuit City and Best Buy Black Friday ads) napped and snacked. We traveled to Clermont to the Gmuers and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner. They made Turkey just for me!

Friday: The Mora's left before 5AM for their flight to the New York area. We had the day to pack, clean, check out and make the 80 minute drive to Tampa. Despite a 30 minute connection in Memphis, from far ends of the terminals, our travel was smooth and we were in AR at about 11PM on Friday. With the weekend to relax.

Random Rants

Tesco opens 6 new grocery stores on the west coast. These stores are a new concept bridging the 7-11 and fresh grocer concept in a small convenient. This is to be to ultimate in convenience meets the ultimate in fresh. They are bringing 100 stores to the USA.

My wife has a habit of booking flights in the middle of the night. She is traveling with 3 (count 'em) children to FL leaving at 6:05AM... From TULSA, two hours away. Guess who gets to drop her off and then got to work. She was nice enough to book my ticket for a few days later when my schedule clears. I'm leaving on a weekend... at 6:05AM... from TULSA! Which is still two hours away.

Did i mention that she plans to take their luggage, stroller, and pack-n-play and the five of us in a Jeep Compass?