What the ?

Apparently I hadn't had enough coffee this morning, because when I looked down just now this is what I saw. . .



Hopefully the day will improve from here.

We still aren't really moved in yet. I live in the land of cardboard boxes, as best I can tell, and the house has that weird cardboard box smell. . . the smell of the homeless.

I love it here

Can I just tell you all how happy I am to be home?!

We moved into our new place this past weekend, and our neighborhood is great! I took the boys for a walk the other night and we have such nice people around. Lots of kids the same age as the boys, everyone says "hi" and is interested in meeting us and the boys. I'm loving it.

We also checked out our new daycare, which is awesome. Nicole, the director, is very energentic and enthusiastic about the children in the center. Another plus is that Jacob and Johnathan will have time together during recess, lunch and naptime, which should really help with the transition.

I also dropped by my new office the other day to introduce the kids to my new boss and the HR people. Fortunately the kids were on good behavior, and my boss has kids about the same age, so he's pretty understanding about not just their behavior, but everything that comes with having little ones. I'm really excited about this job. The company, the people, everything sounds fantastic, and I'm sooooo looking forward to a pleasant work environment. Not to mention, awesome benefits package, great 401K, and casual Fridays when you can wear, get this, JEANS!!!! Awesome!!! The best part is, as much as I'm excited about this job, they are excited about me and what I can bring to this position. I know this job is going to be a breath of fresh air in my life, and I can't explain what a joy and a relief this will be for me.

Well folks, more later. I'd like to get some pictures of the house, the neighborhood, etc. to post, but so far the house is still in "move-in" mode and not picture worthy. And we've had a ton of rain, so getting outside for pictures is about impossible too. Soon, I promise.

We're Here!

I'll post pictures in a few days, but just to let you all know we are "here" and we are all safe and sound.

For those of you who don't know, I got a fantastic new job with a big bump in my pay, plus some great perks! However, and not that this is a bad thing, we had to move back to Pittsburgh. We'd been talking about moving back for awhile, and when I was contacted by a headhunter in Pgh about a job it all just seemed to fall into place. I don't start work until next week, but that's fine because we've certainly got a lot to do around the house.

I'll update everyone on everything else later. There are boxes calling my name.

Burn Notice - the great show you probably aren't watching but should

O.K., I've gone from book recommendations to t.v. I've been watching Burn Notice on USA (Thursday's at 10:00 p.m., which I am never awake for, but the DVR or VCR is a wonderful thing, so tape it). I have to admit a lot of what is appealing to me about this show is that it's written very much like the Robert B. Parker books I've enjoyed over the years, as well as Robert Crais, but it also has a Macgyver-ish feel to it as well.

If you like one or all of the above mentioned items, you will love Burn Notice. The lead character has dry wit (which I love) and his ex-girlfriend (friend, but I hope they get together again) is smart, and sexy and tough as nails. You can't help but like her. The only character that they could kill off, and I wouldn't give it a second thought is the main character's mother, played by Sharon Gless (you might remember her as the pretty one from "Cagney and Lacey", however, she is no longer pretty and completely annoying).

So there it is folks, take it or leave it. The good news is that you can pick this show up pretty quickly, so if you don't ever see season one, it doesn't really matter.

Happy Viewing!

Hold it

As ticked off as I am about this, I have had to put school on hold one semester. Wayyyyyy to much happening right now. I wouldn't be able to give school my full time and attention, so now I have to wait for spring. I'm disappointed to have to do this, but why try to do it half-ass, right?

I'll have lots to blog about next week. It's a secret, that probably isn't a secret to a lot of you, but you'll understand come next week.


Stay tuned, more updates next week.

Jenny and Dave

My sister-in-law Jenny got married this July and I am just getting around to adding some pictures. Bad, blogger, bad blogger. Well, hopefully you can all forgive me.

It was a really nice wedding, but more importantly, these are two people who love each other so completely, and have created such a lovely family by this marriage. I'm so happy they have found each other, as they both are people who deserve the best and seem to give each other the best.

We love you guys!

Taco Bell Hell

Ohhhh, I don't know where to start with this one. I'm still fuming a bit. Yesterday afternoon, on my way to get the boys, I decided "I'm not cooking" so off to Taco Bell I went. When I pulled in the parking lot the line of cars at the drive thru was snaking around the building and I thought I better go inside because time was limited. I walked in at 5:30 p.m. I walked out at 5:46. Herein lies my complaint. . . fast food is not "fast" if it takes 16 minutes. And here, ladies and gentlemen was my complicated order. . . 3 soft tacos and an order of nachos. Yes, dear friends, it takes 16 minutes to throw together 3 soft tacos, a bag of chips and a small cup of cheese. WHAT!?!?! I know it was busy at the drive thru, but it was as if I and the three others fools in the restaurant did not exist. That for us, time would stand still until the lucky bastards in the drive thru got their food.

To top it off I witnessed a dumbfounding conversation with the assistant manager and a relative of one staff member. . . it went something like this:

Assist. Manager (AM): "Can I help you?"
Relative (R): "No, I'm just here to pick up Terri" (or Jerri it was hard to understand him)
AM: "I'm sorry, Terri or Jerri?" (Apparently AM couldn't understand him either)
R: "Terri. I'm her brother-in-law and I'm here to pick her up."
AM: "I'm sorry you're her uncle". (OK, the guy was hard to understand but where the heck do you get 'uncle' from brother-in-law . . . I was baffled)
R: "BROTHER-IN-LAW, not uncle. Just tell Terri I'm here to pick her up"
AM: Terri is on until 6:00 p.m. She got 20 minutes left.
R: No, 10 minutes.
AM: No, 20 minutes. You can wait and I'll tell her you're here.
R: Whatever. (storms out to care)

I'm with him. . . whatever!!!!!

Meanwhile, according to my watch Terri had 15 minutes and that's about the time my food showed up from the far-reaches of the kitchen somewhere. UGH! When I got in my van I noted the time and raced to daycare. I wanted to wring someone's neck. Terri's perhaps?