6 Kids, 3 cats, 1 dog, Mom, and Dad

Sunshine Day or I think I'll go for a walk outside.

It really has been beautiful outside the last couple of days. The snow is melting and only the large snowbanks or shaded areas in the yard have any amount remaining.

I think I may try to go outside today. It is almost 50 degrees, which isn't quite as warm as it was yesterday, but still nice enough for a walk.

Now, if I could just find that bit of spare time I set aside for when I don't have something to do for work, or around this house, I just may use it for the walk!

When it rains or Shoveling water is fun.

Boy, do I ever feel You Who's pain though I don't have near the problem that he's having at his home.

We got home after Beautiful Wife's chemo and had a small lake in the bottom of our driveway and into both sides of our garage. The connecting room between the garage and basement was also flooded and the cat's food bowls were floating.

I spent around two hours total yesterday chipping channels in the ice with a pick, spade, and snow shovel and then shoveled the water from the place by the back door that doesn't drain to the channels I cut in the ice.

The rain has been warm enough that it ran through the channels and finally wore them down to the asphalt. It is still building up by the back door so I'll have to shovel more water today since it doesn't seem like the rain is going to stop any time soon.

The pictures show the channels in front of the garage, the drainage area, and then the last one of the driveway shows the slope. The shiny area in the middle of the driveway is the constant stream of water running down to the bottom.

Bunny cake or When I was a kid...

My Sainted Mother used to make this nearly every year. I really can't remember the first time she made it but it was a hit. She hasn't made one in a while but she's pulled out all the stops during the holidays since all this has gone on with Beautiful Wife.

It is chocolate cake, home-made cream cheese frosting, colored coconut, licorice, and jelly beans.

It is melting or I just keeps getting dirtier.

Here's a shot today after a sunny weekend. It was only in the 40s but the rocks really warmed up under all that sun.

You gotta know when to hold or Playing poker with the outlaws.

Youngest brother-in-law has regular poker nights at his house. He has a big table, official chips, pristine cards, and he can tell you the percentage chance there is for a certain winning hand to show up based on the cards on the table. I never go these games because I'm really not much of a poker player and they are serious players.

I've played pinochle and cribbage for money before, like 25 cents a game tops, against my father and grandparents but it was still mostly for fun.

Also, I'm not really sure what beats what in poker and I needed help with the rules in terms of calling, raising, who deals, etc.

Anyway, they decided to get a game going and it started with about eight of us at the table. You could buy into the game with $10. We played for a few hours while BW, the princesses, their cousins, and other assorted out-laws talked, ate, and watch a movie.

When it was time to go I cashed out and went home with $32. Now they're all convinced that I'm a card shark. LOL

It all comes down to knowing when to hold, when to fold, and how to read when someone is just trying to scare you into folding.

I'll probably lose my shirt the next time I play.

Dirty Snow, Dirty Snow or Here's proof!

I always try to please, even those that laugh themselves breathless!

Embarrassing moments or Cleaning out the corners of my mind.

I was reading a entry about embarrassing moments over at Antipodeesse's blog today and even posted one such event in the comment section.

Of course, that got me to thinking about other such embarrassing moments and I decided to put another one here.

My parents hung out with this one couple quite a bit when I was in the 13-18 age range. The Hot Chick in the relationship was beautiful. She was about 5'2", dark hair, beautiful tan in the summer, and she had golden eyes. She was 11 years older than me.

I had a crush on her and plenty of time to indulge my fantasy life as I was the one that washed their cars each week and mowed their lawn. They went to the beach with my family and we hung out at each other's homes. She knew I had a crush on her and liked to make me blush, something that was easy to do back then.

Their friends in the neighborhood had a pool and we'd go there on hot summer days. I was in there swimming and kind of lost in my own world. Hot Chick got in the pool and then got right in the way of where I was swimming. I reached for the wall and instead of hard concrete I got a handful of boob.

I started to babble my apologies while still holding on to her boob. I finally realized what I was doing as everyone around the pool, that saw what she did, was laughing. I wanted nothing more than to leave the pool but the physical evidence of my attraction to her was...apparent.

So I swam back in the other direction hoping the whole time she'd either get in front of me again, or that it would suddenly be just be me and her in the pool with everyone else magically gone.

Feeling a little dirty or When Spring starts springing.

More bare ground is exposed by the minute it seems. The snow is dirty and tired looking. The ground is muddy and devoid of any color. It is the dreary/drab time of the year that isn't fixed until all of the snow is gone and the first crocus and daffodils poke their heads above the ground.

I wonder when the peeper frogs will be back...

Learning how to kiss or Pucker up your lips, like this...

For some reason kissing came up while we sat around and discussed the outcome of American Idol tonight. Mikalah was voted off but I don't think she was unprepared for it after being in the bottom three last week too.

I was taught how to kiss by a girl that lived across the street from us. She was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. I think it was funny because I remember her telling me to lay down on the couch with her because that's the best way to learn.

She told me to relax my lips and I remember her putting on some sort of strawberry lip gloss before we started.

After we had kissed for a while I asked her to "go out" with me and she said yes. I found out at the bus-stop the next morning that she was already "going out" with a friend of mine. I know we didn't go out long but I'm not sure how or when the breakup occurred.

I do remember that she smelled good and had soft lips.

I think I am or What am I doing with my time.

I think that I've posted to my blog but then I realize that what I've done is comment on other blogs and neglected mine.

This reminds me of when I was teaching and doing a lot of extra classes for karate. Before black belt you have to attend a certain number of classes a week. I would be in the dojo every night yet still not have the required number of classes because I had missed the "official" night for some reason.

We went over the outlaws tonight because BW's Aunt and Uncle from MD were up for a visit. Her aunt is her father's sister. Her uncle is her mother's brother. How weird is that? But, in the grand scheme of things with the outlaws, they are very nice and a lot of fun.

In my spare time this afternoon I made Rachael Ray's Gutsy Red Pepper Gazpacho and I also made a crab stew. Both came out good and everyone liked them.

So now you finally rested or Not by a long shot!

Youngest Daughter had a friend sleep over. I hear that they had every intention to be up late but when I got home at 12:30am they were sound asleep in her room while the Spice Girls movie played in the background.

That meant that they were up at 8am and woke me up too since I'm still doing my best to utilize our sofa to its fullest abilities. BW had started the bacon and home-fries but then I took over and finished cooking the bacon and making pancakes while she scrambled some eggs.

I worked on the quotes that I promised until 1:30 when I took a break to take Youngest Daughter to her indoor soccer game. The team lost, 6-2, but YD had a smoking goal from nearly mid-field so that was awesome. They do this one season of indoor soccer before their regular outdoor season starts for conditioning purposes and to get used to the one-touch and then strike mentality.

We got home at around 4pm and I worked on the quotes until around 9pm. It was a long weekend but fun.

So after that big night you rested or I'm a black belt evaluator.

I agreed to be an evaluator for the black belt test held at our dojo this Saturday. I was up, dressed, and at the dojo by 9:45am for the test that started at 10am.

There were 16 candidates evenly split between adults and kids that were testing that day. My job was to sit there and watch as they went through all of their material and fairly evaluate how they did.

The test ended at 8pm and we started the evaluation process by 9pm. It went until a little after midnight. Most people were obvious yes or no votes. The time was spent debating those that were marginal. We asked to hear the essays that they wrote, or how they did on the written test so that we could be fair and give everyone the best shot at passing.

There was some spirited discussion while we ate pizza and drank soda but I think all of the decisions where fair.

Friday night blast or Thank you, Daddy.

Friday afternoon I left work a little bit early and traveled down to Boston for the long-awaited Ashlee Simpson concert.

We made it down there in pretty good time and only had to stop for a pee break once. That is a record with Youngest and Middle Daughters.

I had just pulled into a parking space in the parking garage when my cell phone rang. It was the global account manager for an account I used to support and my boss when I was in that group. This very demanding customer that I no longer support as of March 1st needed quotes and wanted them by Monday. My ex-boss and the manager told me that nobody else in the company of 15,000 would have the ability to do the quotes but me.

I agreed to do the quotes but told them that dinner was going to be on them. We went to Legal Seafood and the three of us ended up with a bill for $155, including tip. I had a half-bottle of wine, 2002 Qupe Syrah, and we all had appetizers, expensive entrees and dessert. It was a great time.

We took a taxi over to the Orpheum since we ate in the theater district and the Orpheum is over by Park Street.

We got seated and watched two different boy bands strut their stuff while waiting for Ashlee to hit the stage. The Princesses loved the boy bands, of course, and swear that the piano player waved to them.

When Ashlee hit the stage the sound was deafening. She didn't need a helper track because every girl in the audience knew every word to every song and sang it at the top of her voice. It seemed pretty entertaining though it was hard to see from my vantage point. If I stood up all the way I would have easily blocked the view of at least three rows behind me and disappointed those little girls immensely.

I went to the snack bar for some water (they don't sell beer at teeny bopper concerts) and then stood in the ramp area for a while shooting the breeze with the staff.

Getting in and out of my row or even walking around was a challenge since the moms at this concert figured any grown-up male walking around was fair game to rub against or grab on the way by. I felt sooooooo used!

The concert was over by 10:15 and then we made our way back home. Both princesses told me thank you multiple times and couldn't wait to get back and report to everyone:
1. They had whatever they wanted at Legal Seafood.
2. We took a taxi to the theater.
3. The boy playing the piano waved at them and said "I love you!"

Lucky me or What are you going to do tonight?

I'm taking Youngest Daughter and Middle Daughter to the Ashlee Simpson concert tonight in Boston. I'm not sure what to expect but after watching her "perform" on SNL I'm not expecting a lot.

I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope her older sister shows up.

I took Oldest Daughter to see Jessica Simpson around five years ago when she performed in the parking lot outside of JC Penney at the mall. It was general admission and we were right up front at the barricade. Oldest Daughter, her cousin, and her cousin's cousin from the other side of the family went and I was the token adult. I spoke with Jessica's dad when the other bands were playing that led up to her part of the show.

Jessica hit the stage and at one point came over to where we were standing and blew me a kiss. My daughter and niece turned around with shocked looks on their faces and couldn't believe that she did that.

It sure made my night though I'm sure it was a "you remind me of my dad" blown kiss.

A friend to nature or My bad!

I throw stale bread, leftover popcorn, and questionable vegetables outside for the animals and birds to enjoy while we have all of this snow. Once spring arrives I'll have to stop so we don't end up with our very own pet bear in the yard.

Last night I decided to throw some radishes out. I opened the sliding glass door and quickly tossed out the radishes...and hit the skunk that was running for the cover of bushes.

To the skunk's credit it didn't even raise its tail and I'm very happy about that. It looked very familiar and I wonder if it was my old friend.

Happy St. Patrick's Day or Bring on the green Guinness!

We're going to the outlaw's tonight for corned-beef and cabbage. After I escape from there and get Beautiful Wife and all the princesses safely home I'm heading out for a green Guinness.

When I'm driving or Use #98 for phone camera.

I was driving down the road the morning of the big snow storm we had on Saturday. It didn't seem bad out when I started but then it really started to come down. The snowflakes were big and they were coming down so fast that it was hard to see at times. I was on the way to the auto dealership to get my tail-light replaced and didn't want to miss the appointment.

Anyway, here's what it looked like out the front window of my car as I drove down the road.

From Russia with love or Another 30MM.

I made Rachael Ray's Chicken Kiev for dinner last night.

I didn't have any fresh herbs but I decided to make it anyway. I used parsley flakes, dill, cumin, and some chicken grilling spices that I had in the cupboard. One hint/confession that I have to make is that I often used dried herbs because then I don't have to shop or plan ahead for what I want to make.

I don't have a mallet for flattening meat so I used my fist and palm to do it instead. Yet another use for all the karate lessons!

I had wooden skewers in the cupboard that I broke down to size with Middle Daughter's assistance and used them to close up the chicken after I added the chunk of herb-encrusted butter.

It was incredibly good. Beautiful Wife wasn't really that hungry and ended up eating an entire breast because she said it was so good. I'm not a big fan of dill but it was really good in this recipe. I would definitely make this again and will experiment with different herbs too.

Snowball Fight or You said what?

I decided the rest of the entry about the snowball fight didn't belong in the section containing pristine photos of the landscape and the natural world.

Youngest Daughter was on one side of me and Middle Daughter was on the other. YD unloads with her snowball volley...and misses! MD moves in for the kill and...she misses!

I get YD and then turn up the driveway to get MD. MD starts slipping on the snow and ice and yells out, "Oh Fudge." Except, she didn't say fudge...if you've seen the Christmas Story movie you know that means she said the Queen Mother of all swears.

She couldn't believe that she said it and I teased her the rest of the day about how easily it flew from her lips. I love it when they do stuff like that since it gives me something to blog.

After the storm of Most snow of the year.

I finished clearing the driveway just before the drive belt broke on my snow thrower. I went out again last night and cleared the driveway the old-fashioned way, with a shovel.

Middle Daughter helped for a while but things got put on hold when I decided that a snowball fight would be more fun. Youngest Daughter joined in the fun and then we built a snowman in the front yard. After all that, I still had to clear the driveway but I didn't mind.

I cleared the end of the driveway and the path to the front door this morning since Youngest Daughter had a friend sleep over and her parents were going to pick her up.

Beautiful Wife's Brother showed up and plowed the couple of inches that had accumulated overnight and also widened the entrance of the driveway.

I took some picture after the storm and they can be found in the extended entry section.

We could get a lot of snow or Isn't it almost Spring?

We could get 10-20 inches of snow by tomorrow afternoon. If things go according to form, we'll get closer to the 20 or more.

This is what my back yard looks like tonight. The ground was bare in places until we got snow earlier this week. I will post a comparison picture after the storm is over.

Look at all the pretty birdies or Hey Mr. Man, your tail is in my way!

Storm, aka Mr. Man, was laying in front of the sliding doors watching all the birds in the yard this morning. I toss stale bread and some bird seed out there so our yard always has visitors.

He was so entranced with them this morning that he didn't seem to realize his tail was in the water bowl. Even worse, every time he got a bit agitated he'd flick his tale and splash water on the floor.

Poor Fizban...she just wanted a drink sans Mr. Man's tail!

It's a hard knock life or One ringy-dingy...

Fizban performed guard duty while I showered. She likes to hang out on the sink or the ledge of the bathroom window. After that arduous task nothing else would do but to take a nap.

I wish I had my camera in hand to capture her expression when my phone rang and the sound came through the headset under her paws.

Looking down as I walk or Winter flowers, trees, and stars.

I noticed these leaves in the path that I clear across my front lawn after it snows. I think it is pretty amazing to see what happens when something is exposed to water and then experiences a sudden drop in the temperature.

One thing I'm proud of or It is a little known fact.

I was reading Michele's Blog and noticed an entry asking people to name three things that made their parents proud when they were growing up.

When I was 11-years-old I helped save two boy's lives. My friend Greg was there and a kid that I think was named Ralph. Greg and I were great friends from 5th grade through high school. We were playing down at the beach and ran into this kid but didn't do much with him afterward.

This section of the beach, in North Hampton, has a jetty of jumbled granite blocks that leads to an island a ways off-shore. The granite blocks are covered with algae, seaweed, and barnacles. There's a good 2-3ft drop-off if you walk off the edge of them and they are very slippery when wet.

When the tide is low you can walk out on the rocks and explore the tidal pools on the island. This island is only 10x20 and it is completely covered with water when it is high tide.

We were playing on the beach in early May. On that day it was probably in the 50s and the water temperature was probably in the 40s. The tide was on its way in and we noticed that a couple of small boys were playing on the island. Already, the water would have been too deep on the jetty to make it back without assistance even if they knew where to step.

Since me and this kid Ralph were bigger than Greg we sent him back to a house to call the police and me and Ralph waded out to the island. The water was over my knees and ice-cold. We kept on our shoes and coats but it didn't make the rocks less slippery or make me feel any warmer.

The boys had no idea that they were in big trouble. They were on the other side of the island and didn't know that the way back was covered with water. Ralph carried the four-year-old and I helped the six-year-old walk, at first, and ended up carrying him too. The water rose rapidly and was chest high at one point. There was no way to see where you were walking, the waves where pushing and pulling on us, the rocks were slippery, and we had little kids in our arms. A fall or wandering too far to either side would have been disastrous.

We stumbled on to the beach just as a police officer showed up. Ralph lived across the street and headed home. Greg and I had our bikes with us but the officer loaded them into his trunk and drove me home first.

I'll never forget the look on my father's face when we pulled into the driveway. Certain death for whatever I did was written on his face until the officer explained what had happened. Suddenly, I was his favorite son (it helped that I was his only son) and pride was written there instead. By this time I was shaking uncontrollably and they hustled me inside to change.

The mother, that dropped her kids off at the beach to play while she shopped, never contacted any of us. I can still remember her quote in the newspaper, "It is nice to know that others will help when someone is in jeopardy." The police chief for North Hampton wrote us a nice letter and I believe the Hampton police chief did too.

We were honored by the town of Claremont's American Legion. They gave us medals and had a parade in our honor. The Manchester Union Leader newspaper has a yearly banquet for people that they considered heroes and we were invited to that too. It was a great meal and we got granite awards with special certificates detailing what we did that day.

I often wonder what those kids remember about that day and if the mother ever gave us a second thought.

I never considered not going in and helping those kids. My only real concern was that I would be in trouble because I had on new shoes and the salt water was going to wreck them.

Went to the town meeting or Just being neighborly.

I went to our Town Meeting tonight. It was a pretty calm affair with everything passing that was recommended by the selectmen. There was a contingent that worried about the number of trees that would be cut down in order to have a parking lot for the new town hall addition but they were a minority.

One thing we have plenty of in this town is trees. I think we can lose a few scraggly pines, oaks, and a maple or two so that we have decent parking when we go to the town hall to conduct business.

One of the civic groups in our town provided free snacks after it was done and we had a couple of girl-scouts selling cookies just inside the front door. It was very small town and I loved it.

It is snowing and blowing or We've had a lot of light flickering going on.

The lights have flickered quite a bit but we haven't lost power yet. This wasn't supposed to be that bad a storm and it is now turning into a 6-10 incher with lots of blowing snow.

I took two pictures outside our sliding door. I didn't turn on the outside lights. The first picture is with the camera set on Auto and the flash set on auto too. The second picture is set on Night with the auto flash. In either case, you can see that there is a lot of snow in the air.

A hair cut or My hair is longer than hers.

Beautiful Wife finally had enough of dealing with hair on her pillow. Her hope was that her hair would stop falling out but that wasn't happening. It was around 2-3 inches long and it covered her pillow and filled the drain when she showered.

She finally decided to have me cut her hair. I bought a brand new set of clippers with a guides of varying lengths. We tried 1/2inch but that was still pretty long so we settled on the 1/4inch guide and I went to town.

Princess Middle Daughter took pictures but the other daughters were pretty much out of the area as I cut BW's hair. It was a hard thing for her but she hated dealing with the hair more. I hope that this works out better because she needs as many breaks as she can get.

I told her that it really let me enjoy her beautiful eyes, the shape of her face, and the elegance of her neck.

I decided to wait on sending any pictures until after she's had a chance to shower and put on some makeup.

Went to the movies with Son or Oh! I remember you!

I saw Constantine with Son, Son's Girl Friend, Son's Friend That is Like Another Son, and Son's Friend That is Crazy.

The movie was ok. At the end we watched the credits because something was supposed to happen when they were done. The "big something" happened and then we got ready to leave.

Two couples were a little in front of us and on the other side of the aisle. The cute girl on the end stood up and then put her entire hand down the back of her pants. I'm guessing that she was straightening out the pantie situation. Just as I looked over and saw that she looked over and saw me looking.

Suddenly, she gives me this big smile, rushes over and all but hugs me in her excitement. Turns out that she used to work in my Favorite Coffee Shop after graduating from the local high school a few years ago and remembered me coming in there every day.

We chatted for a couple of minutes and then she ran off to catch up with her friends. Son and Son's Friends all wondered why she looked like she was ready to jump in my arms.

Whatever the reason, I left the theater with a big smile. There's something flattering about having a cute girl like that happy to see you.

Who am I kidding...I probably remind her of her father, grandfather, or favorite pet dog.

Fun Friday night or We're a couple again!

I'm not talking about Beautiful Wife. She was still feeling tired and under the weather from her recent chemo treatment. I'm talking about Good Friend over at You Who.

We went to a wine tasting at a great kitchen supply shop called Artichokes and they were featuring Italian Wines. They also had samples of different flavored olive oils, balsamic vinegars, crackers, and bread sticks.

The best thing about the tasting is that it is free. Of course, I always end up buying wines that I've tasted there but I've never regretted a purchase made at that store. I always end up with wines that you usually don't see in the Liquor Store system and they are awesome.

Our next stop was sitting at the bar of a nearby French restaurant. I had the mussels for an appetizer and we each had a glass of wine. I picked a rose since I've not tasted many and most restaurants mean white zinfandel when they put rose on their menu. We sat next to a chatty husband and wife at the French restaurant and at one point I felt compelled to mention that we had wives lest they think that we were a couple.

Our last stop was at Breaking New Grounds for coffee and dessert. I don't think we garner as much attention there as we did when he had a pony-tail.

We walked back to our cars and the magical evening ended with me having to change a flat tire on my car with You Who's able assistance. It DID feel a little funny when I called Beautiful Wife and told her I was going to be late getting home from my time with him because I had a flat tire...

When the wind blows or It's a hard knock life.

Fizban has it so very hard. All the decisions that she has to make each day regarding when to sleep, how long to sleep, and what position to sleep in...it must be overwhelming.

She's laying in her bed, on my desk, not a care in the world.

Suddenly, there's a gust of wind and a leaf blows by and hits my window.

The wind dies down, the leaf drifts out of site, and it is time for some more beauty sleep!

Doe a deer or A peeping deer!

I've mentioned before that we have deer that travel through our yard. It is easy to tell that they do in the winter because they leave tracks in the snow. Our deer really like to nibble on some of the evergreen bushes we have in the front of our house.

I noticed the other day that the deer tracks go behind the bushes! These bushes are right up against our house and it is a tight fit for a person never mind a deer. They're hiding behind the bushes?!?!?! Is this the hide-and-seek yard for the local herd?

I sleep downstairs on the couch so that Beautiful Wife can have full use of the bed and bedroom. She still keeps funny hours as she deals with the side-effects of chemo. I sleep with my head at the end of the couch farthest away from the window so I'm looking at the window when I open my eyes.

I like waking up at night and seeing the deer outside, bathed in moonlight, and oblivious to the fact that I'm watching them. I'm not sure what my reaction would be to see one staring in the window at me!

Back in the dojo again or Talk about stress relief.

I made it to both black-belt classes this week at the dojo. I miss going there on a regular basis. I miss teaching classes too. It is nice to walk in there and get to be Sensei Bob for a while.

This week's focus has been self defense. I always enjoy working on this type of stuff but it is during these classes that I miss Son the most. He and I worked well together. We had similar mindsets, would think outside the box, and could challenge each other too.

I tend to get paired up with women and spend most of my class in teaching mode. I end up going slower and taking it easy so I don't accidentally hurt them either. My partner tonight did a great job though. We worked hard and both learned so it was a good class.

I also have to be careful because the attitude is he's big, he can take it.