ok, so it’s been like a year and half since i posted anything.  what can i say?

 soccer is full swing now, well, actually it’s just about over (thank god).  we decided to move hannah “up” to play with the older kids and we’re really glad we did.  she is truly holding her own and playing great.  we’re going to investigate other avenues for her to improve and hone her soccer skills.  there are some city leagues that we’re going to get her involved with.

sarah is doing her acting and dancing thing.  she is going to be in the CLO’s Peter Pan production.  her rehearsal schedule is going to be hectic, but she’s really looking forward to it.  We’ll find out what her role will be early in the practices, i guess there’s an actual casting process.  it’s hard for me to wrap my head around her being in a “real” production.  i’m real excited for her and she’s is just brimming with confidence.

 i guess i waited too long to get holly a mother’s day card…

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derek eluded to the fact that we bought an 24″ iMac a couple of weeks back. nothing against windows, pcs, or bill gates at all. i was just ready for a change. apple must be doing something right, the folks that use them are some of the most loyal “fans” that i encounter. this is a bit superficial but you can just look at an apple product and know that it’s better than the competition. just by looking at it. seriously. i know, that’s iStupid (see i am a convert) to further drink the iKool-aid i went and bought a 16 gig iPhone. it’s an unreal piece of technology. everyday i have it it does something else that i didn’t realize it did and it blows me away. if you are a techno-nerd and you haven’t gone into an apple or at&t store and mess with this thing then you don’t know what you’re iMissing.

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…birthday dear hannah. happy birthday to you!  happy 9th birthday baby!

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i absolutely love the advancement of technology these days.  check these images below out.  the first couple are from google maps.  google maps has added a neat little thing on their maps.  check out the little picture of my house in the little balloon.  cool!

they have a feature called “street view” which literally gives you a first person perspective of what it looks like if you were standing in the middle of the street.  what?!?!?!  how in the hell do they do this?!?!?!?  i don’t think i want to know.

 and finally when you thought that google had the map imagery market cornered, along comes billy boy from microsoft with live search maps.  it’s been around for awhile but they now have “bird’s eye view”.  i highlighted my house with a yellow box, check it!

welp, i’m sure i’ll be checking back in before the end of the weekend.  big weekend.  hannah’s 9th, that’s right, 9th, birthday!  holy crap i’m old…

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yo yo!  it’s been awhile for a post (as usual).  let’s touch on a variety of subjects shall we? 

waaaaayyy back in december i got another tattoo and just recently realized that i never posted about it.  it’s an homage to the grandfathers.  i recall my mom’s dad having a tattoo of an anchor on his forearm so i wanted that and my dad’s father was the epitome of old school and for whatever reason i always think of a pin-up girl when i think of him.  i know, it doesn’t make sense but it’s what i think of.  so i mashed them together and added the last names and here ya go.  it turned out much better than i could’ve ever imagined…

 ok, enough about me.  hannah finished up basketball and now it’s time for soccer.  i’ll be coaching again and looking to take down anyone standing in our way!!!!!  i had a really great time coaching basketball this winter.  it’s a sport that i’m familiar with, unlike soccer, and i felt more comfortable in that environment.  the hardest part of coaching is being able to explain the unexplainable.  doesn’t make sense, but if you’ve been playing a sport for so long that you do things without thinking about it it’s hard to stop and describe to kids who haven’t ever played in a real game what you’re doing is hard.  eh.  i’m looking forward to doing it again.  boy that paragraph ended up being more about me again.  what a conceited jerk i am.

sarah’s really getting into reading, we went to eat ‘n park last night and she carried dr. seuss’s “go, dog go” book because there were some words in it that she was struggling with and she wanted to work on them.  it’s great to see her being drawn toward reading on her own.  it’s not unusal for the house to be quiet and holly and wondering what the girls are doing and hannah’s doing whatever hannah does and lil’ sarey to be sitting on her bed or in the play room reading.  love it.

big news in the sports world the last couple of weeks.  myron cope passed away.  yoi.  and double yoi.  a few years back i bought his autobiography and he was at a local barnes and noble signing them and i got one for me and one for agent 21.  glad i did now.  big ben signs a big contract.  $102 million over the next 8 years.  out of both of those big numbers i am more glad about the 8 years.  it’s nice to have that quaterback position solidified for that long.  especially when we have ben.  i don’t see us being happy having bubby brister for that long!  last sporting event to bring up - brett retires.  whew!  glad that’s over.  ‘nough said….

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we went to see the broadway version (in pittsburgh mind you) of the lion king saturday afternoon.  i’ve talked to a bunch of folks who have gone and they all rave about it and i’ve always thought “what the hell are these people going on about?  it’s a freakin’ disney play, what the flip can be so great about it?”.  boy, was i the stoop.  the show absolutely rules the day.  incredible scenery, lighting, characters, and production.  if you’re one for these kinds of shows you must, i mean must go.  ya know, i take that back, even if you’re not into these kinds of things you must go.  the coolest aspect of the show is that the actors are essentially puppeteers and they don’t hide the fact that they are.  in fact they celebrate and exaggerate it.  my little sarey is an aspiring actress and she was absolutely enthralled by the whole thing.  she couldn’t take her eyes off of the production.  i could go on and on, but i’ve probably already lost the 4 of you who actually read this thing….

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folks ask me and holly what we got each other for christmas and we answer that we don’t really get each other anything.  don’t get me wrong we still buy each other some stuff to open on christmas day (holly got me sirius radio, i got her a new garbage can.  really unfair, but what can i say) .  but we do, we normally buy something for the house or put the money toward a majorish house project that we’ve been wanting to do.   our bathroom has been a work in progress for the last 2 years.  it’s about as big as a closet, but we still broke it into 2 phases.  the first phase was the non-shower area, the second area being the shower area.  the former owners (or somebody before them) put in a real ghetto style plastic surround and it was crap from the beginning.  so, this was our christmas gift to each other this year.   it was a real project, not for the faint of heart.  my big learning experience was actual and factual plumbing.  soldering and everything.  never done it before, but i’m pretty stinkin’ good at now….

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Sup yinz! How ‘bout a quick synopsis of life in general at the ole casa? Let’s go!

- happy thanksgiving! From, what, 3 weeks ago? Sentiment’s the same…

- holly was elected to brentwood school board as a write in candidate. She was sworn in a couple of weeks ago. It’s all official. It took awhile for us to get the official word that she was in, I guess it takes some time to make sure it was all legit and on the up and up. She’s very excited about it and is hoping to make a difference. Silly woman! No just, kidding, she’s got the best attitude and experience that she’s going to be a valuable asset to the board.

- lil sarey is finishing up her acrobatics/acting class at the CLO. They had a parent appreciation day on Saturday so we got to go in and watch them. sarah is a total ham and it was a hoot to watch her. She got the crowd going during her rendition of Rudolph…

- Hannah has been doing basketball for about 2 months now. I’m assistant coach for this league, not sure why I get myself into these things. But, anywho, we have practice twice a week now and she is just absolutely loving it. We canceled practice because of snow last week and when I told Hannah she cried because she just absolutely wants to be out there playing. She was trying to get me to take her to my gym so that we could go and shoot. Love that girl’s intensity.

- The next house project will be finishing the bathroom. We did the non-shower area (not sure the best way to say that) a couple of years ago, now it’s time to focus on the shower area. We’ve got one of those early 80’s grungy plastic shower surrounds right now, so that will go, I’ll probably do new drywall, new fixtures and tile. I’m looking forward to this one. I think once that is completed the last big change will be the kitchen, but I think that one might be a couple years down the road. But ya never know, maybe next Christmas we’ll do it.

I’m sure there’s more I’m not telling you since it’s only been what…..a month ago….since I last wrote. Merry Christmas, just in case I don’t post in the meantime…..

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wow, who knew?

i love the metal too!  we have so much in common!  me and ben are going to be best friends now.  he’ll be my bff.  omg.  yeah, i’m lovin’ the man who put an absolute butt whoopin’ on those convict ravens on monday night football.  38-7.  whew!

 check out the bookshelves….

book shelves

check out lil’ sarey and hannah in their halloween regalia….

halloween 07

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aaaahhh, what can i say? writers block? stuck in a cave? dog’s got my internet? all the above! ha! it has been a very hectic month or so, when i get home i really haven’t even felt like thinking about doing something creative on here. i have been building bookshelves beside our fireplace, so most of my free time has been wrapped up in completing that task. it’s been fun, i have one half of them done (pix to follow hopefully this weekend ) and should have the other half, or side should i say, done by the end of the weekend. this has been a project on my horizon for quite some time, probably a year or 2. the thing that was holding me back was the price of wood, oak is exorbitant and that’s what we’ve got going on in the rest of the house. so my guardian angel landed and introduced me to a friend with a good quantity of antique oak that he so graciously has given me. i can’t thank him enough and i’m looking forward to yinz seeing the effort. a great tool that has come in handy is a craftsman laser measuring device that was given to me by da ole man for my birthday. what an absolutely beautiful and simple tool when working alone with longer distances. thanks pops!

whew! i’m whooped! that was way more writing then i’ve done in a long time. we’ve got the usual soccer going on too. my team started off slow, tying the first, losing the second and then winning the next 5 until losing this past sunday. our last regular season game is this sunday, i think we’re squarely in first but wish me luck anyway!

oh yeah, and if you think of it send holly birthday greetings. it was yesterday. love ya woman!

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