I couldn't eat another bite.

It was a fantastic morning. The sun came up and burned off the fog that has lingered for the last week, and when it finally got cleared up, it left a beautiful blue sky. The Wind began blowing as soon as we got ourselves bundled up and we all headed out to get Gigi for brunch. She was sleeping when we arrived, and was a little groggy, but she soon rallied and we all went out to La Luna in Branford. Nice place and the brunch was crazy big. It had your usual eggs, omelets, fruit and pancakes; however, it also had ribs, potatoes, Chicken piccata, and all sorts of desserts.

Ryan and Connor settled down for a long meal of trying new things, and actually enjoyed stuffing their faces with the adults. Ryan ate a huge plate of shrimp and Connor ate everything in sight. He really enjoyed the whole experiance. After eating about 6 jumbo shrimp, Ryan ate a bunch of Auntie Nee Nee's and scavenged the rest of the table. :) I can’t wait to come back when they are teens, this will be my saving grace for two hungry boys.
After our orgy of eggs, pancakes, meat, cheese and fruit came the desserts. OK, sooo, I'm not supposed to break my diet, but they had peanut butter mousse pie. OMG. Let's just say, I helped Lise by splitting what I got for her. :) I am now stuffed to the gills and actually feel a little sick from my gluttonous rampage, but now and then, you have to splurge so your pancreas can find out how nice you've been to it all these months.
Happy Birthday Connor... and thanks for the excuse to stuff ourselves.

Another look

As a part of my resolve to take a picture once a day for an entire year, I am suffering from some serious "fear of photographer's block" and I have to admit, I love being in this position. I know that I wont be able to post a picture every day, but I fully intend to take the image and post a bunch at once if travel or other things in life come to play. That being said, along with the reality that I'm going to have to take a photo in the morning or when I get home from work (cameras are not allowed in my building), I am wondering when I'm totally going to run out of ideas and start have to dig deep for an interesting image. Getting a picture of Ryan or Connor every day would be fun if I was trying to document their growth, and I might do that one day. So the other part of this, is trying to keep my posts somewhat interesting, and relevant to my life. What would you do? Where do I start? I know that a blog about what goes on in my house is a great way to connect with my friends and family in a way that I can't do any given day.The way schedules are and life being what it is, that's fabulous. Coming up with an image that says something about it...that's interteresting... that's difficult. Drawing insperation daily will be a heck of a challenge.

Ok, that's enough ... A Marie update for those of you interested in her prison sentence at the nursing home. While she isn't feeling the best, we believe the quarantine at her unit should end tomorrow and we look forward to liberating her, when she can tolerate a nice fish dinner. I'm sure she'll jump at the chance.

Feeling all powerful?

Ever feel like you would have to be a superhero to get everything done? This morning I had that feeling. Part of it was self inflicted, part of it was divine influence. :) Ryan and Connor both have head colds, but Ryan woke up barking like a seal and we determined visit to the doctor was in order. Meanwhile, Connor pretty much hasn't fallen asleep before 9pm (unless he hasn't had a nap) in about a week. Both are super overtired... but sleep is enemy and must be resisted at all costs. :)
So now I have two overtired, sick kids, and we have a meeting with Connor's speech people to see if he qualifies for additional services (post 3 yrs old), a Dr's visit to fit in and on top of everything, I forgot my power supply for my laptop for work (oops, there's the self infliction) and all needs to be taken care of between 9:30am and noon. ANYWAY... Lise and I are about to run out the door in different directions to take care of our errands and we find out that Marie fell, and broke her glasses (and her unit is locked down due to an outbreak of the norwalk virus -- eek-- it's enough to make your head explode). Seriously, I know... it's just how life is, and other folks have it much worse than I, but this blog is about my self indulgent blatherings (see the title), so deal... So it all got done and no one was seriously sick, injured, or excluded from services or fired, but in the midst of it all, as I barreled down the highway at 65MPH, on my way to the Pharmacy with Batman and Robin in tow, I thought... "If I was the Flash, I'd be done by now.", and then I thought "If I WAS the Flash... I'd have other problems... better count my blessings."

-SuperMike

Dinner With Marie

Tomorrow I go back to work and so to celebrate the occasion, we took Marie out to Dinner at a new Restaurant. It had all you can eat ribs tonight, so I figured we'd stuff the boys and Marie and then send all to bed... Like all good plans, this one SOUNDED good when we left but Marie didn't feel all that great when we got there, and overtired children don't seem to eat anything that's not junk-food. Like any other night, we arrived as batman and batman...

Ryan eventually had to relocate to calm down a bit after a long year of crime fighting had finally taken it's toll, and he just couldn't sit. Connor Stayed with Mommy and spent the rest of his time trying to keep her attention... he was marginally successful.

I only got one picture of Marie tonight, as she is a world renown photo-phobic. Ryan of course, hammed it up to the point of asking for pictures on the ride home in the car. I took this one over my shoulder while waiting for Lise to take her Mom back to her room.
Well, it's 9:12 and suddenly, it's a work night. I'm not looking forward to going back to work.. There is SO much that has to be done there, and what feels like very little time to get it all done. I hope I'm able to keep up and start posting here regularly. I see soo many blogs with no posts in them... I don't want to become a statistic. :)

Hope your year is great.

-Mike


PS - I found a great site from a photographer that posts one picture every day. (http://onepicaday.blogspot.com/) I'd really like to see what I could do to do the same. What a great way to increase my photo-chops. I might make a lame attempt this year. I'd love to commit to something so lofty, but work takes it's toll. That's something a single artist can better attempt. :)

Christmas break musings.

We're almost finished with Christmas. It's like the holiday that never ends. I like it because I get to see family and friends that I don't normally get an opportunity to see, however, I get so exhausted in the process that I feel happy to be back at home for a day or two after the visitation is over. :)

Here are the pictures so far....




Today we have some more friends stopping by and tomorrow I am going to start installing hardwood floors in Ryan's room if this cold I have brewing doesn't overcome me in the morning.

This year, I completed a kitchen renovation that took about 5 days of time, and with the help of my family, we completely gutted and replaced my kitchen. It was hard work, but I loved the results:

Kitchen Renovation

I have since installed new flooring into my bedroom and my brother-in-law helped me install some recessed lighting in our living room. Next will be Ryan's and Connor's rooms along with gutting the three bathrooms. (eek) Lise and I are excited about the transformation, but we have to get some trim work completed and a few weekend projects done before we can get our teeth into the baths. Who knows, maybe I'll changes jobs and work as a carpenter like my grandfather.

Ok.. back to more house cleaning and getting Connor to go to sleep. If anyone knows anything I leagally do to make an overtired 3 year old take a nap, I'd be interested.