Crazy Train

It's been a restful few days at my parents house after a very crazy, long train ride from Jacksonville to D.C. Some of you may have seen my Facebook status with a brief re-cap ... here are some more details.

Bryan brought Dylan and I to the Amtrak station on Thursday afternoon for a 14 hour train ride.  The one-way ticket only cost about $80 and we could bring several big bags of luggage at no additional cost, so it seemed like a good deal.  Sitting in the train station, though, all I could think about was the bus station scene in Adventures in Babysitting where Chris's friend Brenda gets stranded and encounters her share of crazy people.  It felt eerily similar to that.

This is how I sometimes felt on the train.

Once aboard the train, the seat assignment guy put Dylan and I in a dark corner with no windows but with extra leg room.  I was thankful that he gave us two seats when we had only purchased one.  Across the isle from us sat a man who had some kind of brace on his legs so that his knees didn't bend at all so when he sat down they just stuck straight out.  Dylan took a liking to Straight-Legs right away.  Behind Straight-Legs sat a giant 500+ lb. man who must have eaten two or three huge bags of sunflower seeds throughout the duration of the trip (I can't imagine what his sodium levels must be like!).  It was really annoying to listen to him cracking and spitting sunflower seeds onto his tray table for pretty much the whole 14 hours.  I guess it was probably annoying for him to listen to Dylan jabber on to Straight-Legs for a good deal of time too, so perhaps we're even.

Straight-Legs and Sunflower almost duked it out in the beginning because Straight-Legs made the mistake of looking at Sunflower.  That prompted a "Whatchyou lookin' at, boy?  You aint got nothin' to look at back here." They exchanged some heated words then quieted down.  By the end of the trip the two were good friends after bonding over their shared desire to get off the train and have a smoke.

His career must not be going so well since he now rides the Amtrak.

Around 6:30 Dylan and I went to the dining car and shared a hot dog and some yogurt for dinner.  It was there where I'm pretty sure we ran into Lil' Jon and his posse.  Lil' Jon and about 3 other questionable-looking men stopped at our table and tried to say something to us through their gold-capped teeth.  I don't speak "crunk" so I have no idea what they said and I just smiled and nodded and thankfully they moved on.

After dinner, we went to use the restroom.  Here, we ran into a lady who was coming out of the bathroom as we were going in.  She told me as she was exiting that she had hung up her pants to dry on the purse hook and did I think anyone would steal them?  I shrugged my shoulders and said I didn't know, so she said "No one's going to want those pissy pants anyway!" and walked away.  She was wearing a skirt, so perhaps she keeps extra clothes in her bag in case of an accident, just like how I do with Dylan.

Dylan playing in his seat on the train.

We settled into our seats for the night and I tried to get Dylan to calm down.  He was pretty jazzed up from all the new sights, sounds and people so he and Straight-Legs carried on a spirited conversation for quite a while.  A lot of the passengers by this time were starting to get pretty drunk.  Amtrak must have  good deals on beer and booze because pretty much everyone made a beeline for the bar-car as soon as the train was out of the station.  There was a big commotion several rows back when one lady started to get sick.  She made it to the restroom in time, but someone tattled on her to the train conductor.  The conductor apparently doesn't have any tolerance for sloppy drunks and booted her off the train at the next stop!

9:00 - 10:00 was Dylan's worst hour.  He was overly tired but just couldn't get comfortable.  He cried a lot this hour, and I felt like crying too.  He finally did fall asleep and we cuddled up together, but he wouldn't share his blanket with me at all so one of the train attendants brought me a paper table-cloth from the dining car to use as a blanket.

We must have been a cute sight to see because an old man who had told me earlier in the night that he has five sons and lots of grandkids wound up his disposable camera and snapped a picture of us as he was walking back to his seat.  I didn't know whether to be touched or creeped out.  A little bit of both, I guess.

Dylan pretty much slept through the night, although he woke a few times to change positions.  The seats were fairly comfortable (much more comfy than an airplane) and Dylan is small enough so he could lay down completely.  7:45 a.m. couldn't come fast enough and I was so happy to see my Dad waiting for us in the station.  Amtrak itself was great - the ticket process, the conductor, the attendants, the accommodations were all very good, but I don't think I would ride it again until Dylan is a little older.

Here are some picks of what we've been up to so far this week:

Here we are in front of the White House.

And the "Forrest Gump" shot with the Washington Monument in the background

Dana's Strange Request

Saturday afternoon, as I was relaxing on the floor (we sold our last couch) and watching golf on TV, Dana stormed into the living room and demanded that I head outside and measure the dimensions of our van that I am taking to Washington DC. Normally me+floor+golf= Do Not Disturb, but I could hear a little stress in Dana’s voice so I didn’t want to ask too many questions. I’ve learned this after 8 years of marriage.
I went outside and came back with the dimensions scribbled on a napkin. I thought I had fulfilled her request and could go back to the floor to enjoy some precious me/golf/floor time. I was stunned to hear her next request.

Dana: Do you have any chalk?

Bryan: No, why?

Dana: I want to outline the dimensions of your van in the garage.

Bryan: What? Like a dead body?

Dana: Exactly. Do you think blue painting tape will work?

Bryan: Yeah, I guess. (Shaking my head)

So, we went out to the garage and laid tape down 100 % to scale of the back of my van. We even taped the height on a nearby wall. The good news is we still have room to spare, which made Dana feel a lot better (and a lot less stressed out).

I was afraid that if our "keep" pile wasn’t going to fit in the outlined dimensions, Dana would have made me create a computer software “packing Simulator” so we could practice. I’m glad we didn’t have to go that far…yet. We still have some packing to go.

Everything we are keeping must fit in this van.

Things We Know and Don't Know About Our Move to Germany

We're getting a lot of questions about our move back to Germany.  Here are the lists of the top 5 things we do and don't know about where we're going and what we're doing.

Things We DO Know

Bryan will look great in tweed.

1. We know a lot of people in Germany; several in the vicinity of where we will be living.  Can't wait to see all of our old friends!
2. We know that the program Bryan is in should last around 4 years, but we do not have definitive plans for after Bryan gets his degree.  (Other than Bryan plans on insisting everyone - including me - call him "Doctor."  I plan on buying him a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, corduroy pants, and black rimmed glasses to give him the "sexy professor" look.  He hasn't admitted to it, but I think he really wants to get a hot tamale for hotness on http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/. )
3. We know that we are bringing Oscar with us.  Oscar is totally freaked out right now - his doggie-sense has kicked in and let him know that something is afoot.  Piece by piece we are selling our furniture on Craigslist and each time something goes he gets more nervous and clingy.  What a pain all of the Pet Passport paperwork has been, though.  3 trips to the vet down and 1 more to go. 
4. We know that we need to buy a winter wardrobe once we get to Germany.  The average high/low temperature is 39/32 degrees in January and 71/56 degrees in July.  Brrrrrrrr!  Both summer and winter seem cold to me.  According to Wikipedia (which means it must be true), we won't get much snowfall, but it will rain a fair amount.  That's a far cry from the summer we've had here in Jacksonville.  We recently had 50 days in a row with a heat index of 105 (41 Celsuis) degrees or more.   

This is a photo of Munster in the winter.  It must have been on one of the 12 days of the year when they got snow.

      5.  We know that 'die Hohner' is on tour this fall in Germany.  They are Bryan's favorite German music group and he has been carefully watching the Hohner "Termine" website (German for Concert...evidently)  for the latest concert updates.   Though we haven't learned German yet, Bryan will appear to be fluent for the two hours of the concert, as he knows the words of each song so well.  Going to a Hohner concert will shorten Bryan's 'Things to do Before I Die' list by at least one entry.  I wish that was a joke. 

Hohner: Proof that Bryan is "a 49 year old trapped in a 29 year old body."

Things We DON'T Know

1. We don't know how to speak German, but we plan on learning. The PhD program that Bryan is in is all in English (whew!).  Dylan will probably learn the language faster than we do.  We will look into enrolling in some kind of language classes or possibly doing an English-German tutoring exchange.  We'll have to figure that our when we get there.  On my list of things to do before leaving is to buy a new German-English dictionary.



This image from Google Earth is the only image
we have of where we will be living.

2. We don't know anything about the place where we're going to be living.  It is furnished, but that could mean many things.  We haven't seen any photos except for it's location on Google Earth.  All we asked for was that they have a crib and highchair there for Dylan when we arrive because I'm pretty sure the first thing Dylan's going to want to do when we get there is either eat or sleep.  I'm assuming there will be a bed for us to sleep in, too.  Once we get there, we will take some pictures and post them.
3. We don't know who is going to be renting our house in St. Augustine.  We have signed up with a Property Management Company and are praying for a renter fast.  If you know anyone in the Jacksonville / St. Augustine area who needs to rent a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhome with an expertly built 16'x16' deck by master-craftsman Bryan Foltice, please call or email us! 
4. We don't know when we'll be coming back to visit.  That is one of the things that is totally up in the air at the moment, but hopefully we'll get back our friends and family in the US often.  We'll love having visitors on our side of the ocean too, so please come and visit us!
5. We don't know how to drive stick shift.  Not totally, but I haven't driven a stick shift car since learning once in high school.  Bryan learned 6 years ago when we were in Germany and drove a manual car maybe 5 times total.  We expect to learn this quickly by driving very late at night or very early in the morning.  Hopefully, nobody (or transmissions) will get hurt in the process. 

Big News - You're Going to Want to Read This

We have big news! (No, we are not expecting another baby.)

Bryan has decided to pursue a PhD in Finance at the University of Munster in Munster, Germany! In addition, a nearby basketball team in Borken, Germany has picked up Bryan to play for the upcoming season (and hopefully future seasons). We are so thrilled and excited to begin a new journey. Moving back to Germany, Bryan getting a PhD, and playing basketball again have been big issues on our hearts that we’ve been praying about during these past 2-3 years and we are so thankful for the opportunity to move our little family (Oscar included) to Deutschland.

Munster, Germany

We have been busy selling a lot of our belongings and sorting through our stuff in order to depart. Since moving back to Germany has been on our hearts for several years, we’ve been pretty strategic to not purchase anything that can’t be replaced – most of it is just “stuff” and that makes selling it much easier. Those few items that truly can’t be replaced, we will keep in storage (thanks Mom and Dad!), but mostly we’re bringing our clothes, Dylan’s toys and Oscar with us – everything else must go.

To those of you who we just saw in Michigan in July – sorry for not saying anything. We really wanted to tell everyone, but all of the details weren’t final and we didn’t want to risk saying something then having it fall through.

Borken, Germany

We’ll be renting out our home in St. Augustine and on September 2 Dylan and I will take the train up to D.C. to spend a week with my parents. Bryan and Oscar will wrap things up here in FL (cleaning the carpets, selling everything else, bringing what’s left to Goodwill, etc.) and drive up to D.C. a few days later in the van (yes, that same van that has no A/C or working windows … good thing they’ll probably drive at night). We then leave for Germany on Thursday, September 9!

We will need lots and lots of prayer to make it through the 8-hour flight with a 1-year-old on our laps and a dog in the cargo area. My blood pressure rises just thinking about it. To everyone else on our flight – sorry in advance.

The nature of our blog is going to change a little, but we think it will be much more interesting to write about our adventures in Europe than the adventures of a stay-at-home-mom. The pictures will probably be more interesting too.

There’s probably a lot of questions unanswered, so please send them to us and we will do our best to follow up or post responses in the comments section of the blog.

The purple bubble is Borken and the pink bubble is Munster.

Picture Update!

We haven't done a picture update of Dylan in a while and there is some catching up to do.

Dylan loves the swingset. This was the only day in July where the seat wasn't scalding hot.

Dylan thinks it is cute when he wears Bryan's hats.  We agree.

Dylan is getting to eat all sorts of new things.  I am trying to feed him a cube of mozzarella cheese and he is rejecting it by sticking his tongue out and pointing to his mouth.  He does the same thing with broccoli and anything else that is green.

Dylan likes to help fold the laundry by getting in the basket and throwing all the clothes out.

Yes, he is wearing my sports-bra on his head.

Extreme close-up!

We went to the beach to expend some energy.  He was afraid of the waves at first,
but by the time we left he thought they were funny.

Running into the ocean...

He was very tired on our way home from the beach.  I forgot
to pack him a dry outfit, but at least he was wearing a dry diaper. 

Aerosmith Weekend!

After a crazy long date drought (again) we took things to the extreme and booked a babysitter on Saturday from noon to 3 a.m. so we could drive to Tampa to see Aerosmith in concert!

This was a concert compromise because I finally became fed-up with going to see the same bands over and over again (Poison, Def Leppard, Skid Row, etc. etc.) that I refused to go to those anymore and Bryan would go by himself.  It was just time to see a new band, and Aerosmith met our criteria for a mutually enjoyable concert:

1. They're a rock band (Bryan's requirement - if I ever want to go see John Mayer again, I'll have to go by myself)
2. We've never seen them before (my requirement)
3. We know enough of their songs to sing along (both of our requirements)

We made it to Tampa with about 2 hours to spare before the concert, so we headed next door to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.  Bryan had never been to a casino before and was so excited to check out all the games.  I didn't want to be a "Dana Downer" so I didn't tell him how boring casinos and gambling actually are, but Bryan quickly found out for himself. 

After a couple of games of slots, Bryan was clearly upset by the stupidity of the game.  "This is the dumbest thing ever!"  He exclaimed for the entire row to hear.  "Why do people do this all day?"  Soon enough, a casino employee was on the spot explaining the surprisingly complex slot machine rules to Bryan.  It still didn't satisfy him, but it kept him quiet. 

Bryan with his slot machine winning vouchers.

Feeding the vouchers into the machine.
Let's see how much he won...

Booo.  Only $1.20.

Here are the top three reasons why gambling isn't fun:

1.  The casino's have made even the simplest games (like the slot machines) crazy confusing.  It's not as simple as putting in a quarter, pulling the lever and three Cherries = Jackpot.  There are up to 25 different "lines" to play on one spin, just making your chances of winning anything that much smaller.  

2.  No one looks like they are having fun.  The casino is full of sour-faced zombie people mesmerized by the flashing lights.  We were convinced by the end of our time that the casino was playing a tape of winning (ding, ding, ding) noises over the speakers, because we never saw anyone win anything. 

3.  You lose money ... every time.   We spent about $5 on the slot machines and were so bored it was tempting to just walk away leaving spin credits remaining on the machine.  

The only fun part was making fun of what all the zombie gamblers were wearing.  For whatever reason, all the younger girls were dolled up like they were actually going out in Vegas (not just outside of Lakeland, FL where the Hard Rock is located), but the guys were a mess.  I am not usually the fashion police, but socks and sandals are always a no-no. 

The highlight of our time there was observing the 'high limit' poker table.  We went around the table, having a field day on each guy.  I caught fire.  "That guy looks like he has no idea what's going on.  I wonder if he took acid this morning and wound up at this table.  He's gonna wake up tomorrow asking himself, 'Was I at the high limit poker table yesterday? Why are these headphones around my neck'?"  (Bryan's note:  I love it when Dana gets on fire...and I'm not the target.)

We also theorized about what the guys with headphones were listening to.  I say it's a self assurance CD that repeats encouraging words of affirmation a la Stuart Smalley.  Bryan believed that everyone was listening to John Tesh.  We will need to research this more in order to get to the bottom of this.   

We made it to the concert around 7:30 and were pleasantly surprised that Blue Oyster Cult was the opening band.  They played "Godzilla" for about 45 minutes, then wrapped up their set with "Fear the Reaper."  I honestly think they only played two songs.

Some people nearby (on the lawn) let us sit in their folding chairs.  This family told us that this was their 6-year-old's 4th Aerosmith concert.  Bryan joked that Dylan is only a year away from his first concert.  I am almost positive he was serious.

In between sets, we struck up a conversation with a guy who we thought was handicapped due to our inability to understand him.  Turns out, he was a drunk guy named Russ from Yorkshire, United Kingdom.  The difference between the two were quite negligible.  Bryan is used to speaking with people from London, but he was having a tough time understanding Russ' "English."  It was an awkward conversation.  We were happy that Aerosmith came on stage early. 

Aerosmith came on about 8:45 and for whatever reason opened with a cover song that no one knew.  Weirdest opening song ever, but they quickly recovered and went into "Love in an Elevator", "Livin' on the Edge," Walk This Way," "Crazy", "Cryin'" and a bunch of others classics. 

All in all, the concert was excellent, although the temperature was around 80 the entire time, so it was very sweaty with no breeze.  I was super hot, so I can't imagine how Bryan felt in his leather pants.  Also, due to the noise restrictions for the amphitheater, this was the only concert I've even been to where I left and said without any irony "You know, it could have been a little louder."  Bryan and I could hear our own voices singing along way too much.

Before the concert began, and before it got too hot.

Very sweaty, but a great concert.

I promise, Aerosmith is up there somewhere.

Trip to Michigan Part I - Chesaning Here We Come

Two weeks after starting my new job as SAHM, we took off for a 10 day trip to visit family and friends in Michigan.  We rented a car (gasp!) and drove the 18-hour trip straight through.   Dylan was a champion traveller and - thanks to Baby Einstein and in-car DVD players - we barely heard a peep from him the entire time.  (Note: since returning, he cries whenever we put a Baby Einstein on.  I think he is over it. We feel his pain.)

 

Our first stop was Chesaning, MI where some of my family lives.  Uncle Bob and Aunt Cathy graciously hosted us and all of the accessories that come with travelling with a 1 yr. old.  We stormed their house much like a road crew storms an arena on the day of the show.  We joked all week that we were Dylan's roadies whenever we invaded a house.  We had our set up and pack up process down to a science by the end of the week.

 

I always knew Uncle Bob was very handy, but he turned out to be a wealth of information for some around-the-house issues we were having, as well as some fun facts.  Here are the top three:

1. After hearing us complain that Dylan's kiddie pool is really hard to drain, he explained to us how siphoning works.  Actually, he explained to us three or four times how it works because Bryan didn't believe him that you can trick the water into travelling up before going down.  We will probably try it out this weekend since rain water has filled up the pool.
2. Both of our cars have air-conditioning issues, a total drag since it is July and we live in Florida.  Uncle Bob showed us how to add Freon to our vehicles.  Bryan has gone three summers without AC in his car and has refused to even get it checked out to see what is wrong.  He's going to be really upset if all it needed was some Freon.
3. Uncle Bob showed us that you can squish lightning bugs on your skin and then you glow in the dark just like they do.  A little gross, but way cool.

 

Dylan and I on the swing at Bob and Cathy's.

Dylan trying to wiggle out of Aunt Cathy's arms. 

Dylan couldn't get enough of Michelle.  He parked himself by her all evening.

Uncle Bob trying to squish lightning bugs on Dylan.

 

Bryan was very impressed that it was light out so late.  We had to look at a US map to see how much farther West Michigan is than Florida - turns out, quite a bit.  It was so light out at 9:30 p.m. that Bryan could track his hit golf balls into the woods. 

 

Stay tuned for Part II - The Invasion of the Keeler House.

 

 

All This for a Sprained Ankle...

So they say embarrassing stories make good blog posts, so this should be a good read. 

On Wednesday afternoon I took Dylan to the neighborhood playground to push him in the swing.  I'm not sure what our community planners were thinking, but there isn't a sidewalk that leads to the playground, so to get to it you have to push the stroller through a parking space, over a curb and then through the grass.  I have twiggy, bird-like ankles and can basically twist them on a crack in the sidewalk (yes, I have actually done that before), so it came as no surprise that when returning home I twisted it pushing Dylan's stroller back over the curb.  To my delight (and surprise) although it hurt badly when it happened, I walked home normally and without a limp or swelling.  That whole evening my ankle barely hurt and I even mentioned to Bryan how lucky I was to not have a worse injury.

About an hour after we went to bed, I woke up with excruciating pain in my foot.  It was paralyzed - I couldn't flex or point it, or turn it from side to side.  Every move of the sheet over my foot caused a wave of pain to go through my ankle and up my leg.  I thought surely it had swollen up to the size of a baseball, but every time I reached down to check it felt perfectly normal. 

I decided to get some Tylenol from the bathroom to help with the pain, so I got up and limped across the room ... then everything went black.  The next thing I remember, Bryan was standing over me with the phone at his ear and a panicky look on his face.  I was confused and uttered "Where am I?" and Bryan stressed into the phone "She doesn't even know where she is!" At that point I realised who Bryan was talking to.  When I passed out, he heard a thud and woke up to see what happened.   I had landed next to his side of the bed so when he got up he nearly tripped over me. Then he shook me a few times and I didn't wake up so he called 911.

Within 5 minutes the paramedics arrived and 5 huge, strapping young men lumbered up the stairs and filed into our bedroom.  They took my blood pressure and it was crazy low - like 90 / 50.  They took it again and again, but it wasn't getting any better and I was still  feeling light headed and nauseated so they insisted in taking me to the hospital because my sprained ankle didn't really explain the hypotension.  So, off the Baptist South I go in the ambulance with Bryan and a sleepy Dylan following shortly behind.

I get hooked up to an IV and once I get to the hospital they take an X-Ray of my ankle.  They had to keep asking which one was injured because there was no visible indication of an ankle sprain.  Of course nothing was broken, but it did make me feel slightly better that the X-Ray did show some inflammation so I wasn't totally crazy to be in pain. 

After several hours, my blood pressure returned to normal and the Doctor told me that I had a vasovagal (rhymes with bagel) response, which basically means I'm a wimp and passed out from the pain of a mildly sprained ankle. 

Since we've been home, for pretty much everything I do Bryan tells me to be careful otherwise I might pass out.  I guess I deserve it.   I walk very carefully when pushing Dylan in the stroller and I haven't been back to the sidewalkless park for fear of hopping the curb and twisting my ankle again.

On a different note, Dylan was a champ at the hospital and despite being woken in the middle of the night he was very well-behaved. On Friday I took him to his doctor for his 1 year check up and he is 95% for height at 33" and 85% for weight at 26 lbs (although he feels more like 30-35 lbs). 

Dylan is 1 year old!

It's hard to believe, but our little guy turned 1 year old on June 5. To help us celebrate my parent's came down for the weekend. We started out the weekend by getting some professional photos taken (thank you for the awesome gift, Susan Hamilton from the Pineapple Post!).

We met Meg Pryor, the photographer, at a park in Atlantic Beach at about 8:45 a.m. We wanted to go early for two reasons - 1) Dylan is more flexible in the mornings when his routine is messed up than he is in the afternoon and 2) it's really hot and humid here and we wanted to do the photos before our hair got messed up. You'll see some of our favorites from the photo shoot at the end of this post. They turned out so nice, I am going to have a really hard time picking out which ones to print.

Dylan's birthday was Saturday. He was pretty apprehensive at all the attention - I'm not sure I have any photos of him smiling durning any of the activities. All of the stimulation was a bit much for him. I put together a little first birthday video but Blogger.com (the program that the blog is created in) is having problems posting videos on all of its sites and apprarently has been since January / February. The best we can do is to provide a YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GcbfcKP17Q

(Bob and Cathy, Char and Lou - please share this video with the grandparents the next time they are over - thanks!)

Here are some of our favorite photos from the photo shoot. These are 5 out of about 200.

A Very Foltice Christmas

We are back to the grind this week after having a great holiday season. For Christmas, we packed up the rental car for Washington D.C. to be with Dana’s family (our cars can barely putter around town, so a rental was necessary). It was nice to see snow for Christmas, though for the past 9 years in Ft. Lauderdale we had started to get used to sitting by the pool after opening Christmas presents.
We left on the 23rd at 5pm and travelled straight through until 4:30am. On New Year’s Eve, I couldn’t stay up past 10pm, but when travelling, I become Superman. Actually, the two cups of truck stop coffee made me Superman. Despite taking directions from a “lady” for the last 90 minutes of the trip, we arrived with no issues (I am still not sold on Garmin). I think women must have invented Garmin so that men have to listen to a female voice give directions. All week I was looking for the Pierce Brosnan voice setting on the Garmin device. (Editor’s Note: Thank you Garmin for making the voice female. We would not have made it to my parent’s house without it and I found it gratifying that Bryan was at the mercy of a “female” direction giver. He had no choice but to listen.)
We had a great Christmas with family. Robyn and Dan made it in at 2 pm Christmas Day, which delayed our gift opening. It was a great week in the life of Dylan. He started to crawl the day Dana was trying to pack everything for our trip, making packing take twice as long and more complicated. He gets around quite fast, has his two bottom teeth coming in, and is piecing sounds together. We are telling him to slow down, but he is not listening (a sign of things to come).
I dominated in ping-pong the entire weekend and made sure everyone knew it. The only blemish came on the first night to Dana’s Dad. I made him pay after that. Ping-pong trash talking runs in my family and it usually ends with someone crying. This all adds to the family traditions. I can still hear my Dad saying (predicting) over and over “into the net” as he hit another shot with an obscene amount of backspin.
We hung around through Sunday night to celebrate Grandma Z’s 80th birthday. We went out for brunch at an Irish restaurant and I decided that I am in love with all you can eat brunch buffets. For my first plate, I went with a breakfast theme. The second plate was lunch food, and the third was a ‘best of’ plate (consisting mainly of bacon). The fourth and final was a dessert plate. I blacked out shortly after that and came to 4 hours later.
We woke up at 3am Monday morning and drove until 3pm. It was good to get home and Dylan was a champ. He just slept the whole way. I have never seen so many motor homes with Quebec license plates heading south. On a two lane highway, these are traffic cloggers. My blood pressure rises now whenever I see one on the road.
(Just to recap this post so far: I’ve insulted women and Canadian retirees. Who’s next?)
We had a great New Year’s. We purged the house and watched a ton of football. We are doing two fasts this month: one is a spending fast for the month of January posted on our financial blog, justaskmoney.com, and the other 21 day Daniel fast through our church starts on Sunday. We are looking forward to a great 2010.
“It’s gonna be a great year, Gilbert. HAAAHAAAHAAA” - Lewis Skolnick, Revenge of the Nerds