Like you're gonna goad me in to posting!!

Deb "tagged" me to post my favorite toddler books. So here goes:

1. "Which way do you swing Mr. Froggy?"


2. "Don't Tickle Me There!"


3. "Leather Pants, Leather Undies"


4. "Don't Bogart the Jesus Juice!


5. "The Riding Crop Goes Whack, Whack, Whack!!"


6. "My Friend, Mr. Matchbook"


7. "Under the Sink"


8. "Make the Dogs Stop Saying My Name!"


9. "Mommy's In Heaven and Daddy's In Jail"

And for the pre-teen and teen:

1. "The Monster in my Pants"


2. "Altar Boy, Alter Ego"


3. "The Scoutmaster's Wish"


4. "The Magic Weed"


5. "NAMBLA and You"

My favorite fiction/horror: "The Clinton Presidency:The Hillary Years"

Okay, if it isn't obvious, the lists are satirical and I have no intention of taking part in getting tagged. At least not right now, not this topic.

Britcom Saturday Night

I'll be forced to record Keeping Up Appearances and Last of the Summer Wine. We'll be out of town for the day and come back in time to see a Rivermen game tonight. Maybe we'll enjoy them Sunday morning.

Why do I like Last of the Summer Wine? Well, mostly because it's funny. It's similar to Seinfeld in that it is a show about nothing, yet a lot happens. I like the recurring gags and the subtle humor. Then there's the physical humor. I know they use stunt doubles but it's still funny to think of an old man losing control of his bike and crashing into a hay bale.

Also because it's a nice show to watch on a night that broadcast TV offers nothing.

So I look forward to the eventual receipt of whatever tat Dan can manage to throw across the pond, whenever he can manage it.

I have to shower now so we can hit the road. GO RIVERMEN!!

Where's my tat?

Well the brits have come and gone and failed to deliver the "tat" they promised me!!

Sorry Dan, I had to say that because it made for a good post title!! Don't worry, I'm not upset. Unless you really bought the tat and Greg kept it for himself! And if that's the case, I'm not upset with you. Greg, you better 'fess up!

It sounds like the visit was a great time for all. I honestly thought Greg and Deb had visited you when they went to Europe, but they set the record straight. When they do come to your house, perhaps they can be of some assistance with your garden project? Maybe a deck on the house? Painting? You can always tell them it's a tradition in the countryside to leave the host's home better than you found it. They wouldn't know any better (I don't know if you realized that they aren't very well educated, but they fake it rather well).

Pancho We bred our boy Pancho with a beautiful black and tan dachshund in late February. If it took, the litter will be due at the end of this month. This particular female delivered 7 pups in a previous litter (not with our Pancho), so I hope she does the same with Pancho.

Lourdes is in gymnastics and is having a good time. She's quite strong on the rings. I should post a video of her on You Tube.

Gotta go.

Paragon Harrow Wiper allows safe recycling of difficult disks.

I did a Google search for something today and ended up looking at the page of a software company. I glanced through some of the descriptions of some of the software and one said Paragon Harrow Wiper allows safe recycling of difficult disks. I thought about it for a second and realized that difficult is another word for hard. It made me chuckle.

Dan and Kerry
Welcome to the US! I hope you enjoy your stay. Your hosts are terrific people despite their tendency to swing! Dan, if Greg invites you to go to the "store" with him, DON'T GO!! And Kerry, watch out if Deb invites you "downstairs". Be sure to ask Greg about the "ether bunny".

It's Official: We're crazy!!

I've mentioned before that my coworker Greg (not Greg of Greg and Deb on the Web) and I are trying to get/stay in shape by walking/running a nearly 3-mile trail as often as we can. It snowed a little last week, well a few inches, nothing compared to the several feet of snow in other parts of the country. Greg and I opted not to go the day it was snowing as he was not feeling well and it coming down fast. The next three days I went by myself as Greg was still sick. The trail was a little treacherous because the snow was quite powdery and there were several icy patches hidden underneath. It was like putting sawdust on a shuffleboard table. The snow was just deep enough and my mukluks were just heavy enough to make the trek quite a workout. Oh yeah, it was cold too. The wind chill was below zero, sometimes way below zero. I went again this past Monday and then Tuesday the area got hit with another 6-10 inches of snow with high winds. Again I didn't want to go in the blizzard. I didn't work on Wednesday.
Thursday I anticipated going to the gym and using a treadmill because of all the snowfall and snowdrifts. I asked Greg if he was feeling better and if he planned on exercising. He said yes and yes. Then I asked, with much hesitation and afraid of the answer, if he thought he wanted to walk the trail. My fear was substantiated with his reply of "I was thinking about it". Oh no. I tried to reason with him, but not too aggressively because I think I secretly wanted to try as well. I said that it was very difficult last week, like walking on a three-mile stretch of beach only with many long, steep hills. So I guess it would be closer to walking sand dunes and not the beach. Plus it was cold instead of hot. So maybe not like sand dunes at all. More like walking a three-mile, hill-infested, snow-covered trail in the cold. And now it was going to be even worse.
Well we're crazy. We went ahead and did it. The snow was just deep enough in most places (at least half way up the shins) but there were stretches of snow that went up to mid-thigh. We hadn't even gone one-half mile and I was thinking we were in trouble. It was slow going and much further to go without knowing if conditions would improve or deteriorate. My calves were burning, my feet were cramping, but other than that I was okay. Greg was in the same boat. Neither one of us mentioned turning around or taking a route that would avoid the toughest hills. The only thing we kept saying as we trudged along was that we're crazy. In the end, we concluded that it was very challenging, we were glad we did it and that, once again, we're crazy.
Rivermen - one of our enforcers was called up to parent NHL club St. Louis and got in fight. D.J. King held his own against a veteran, and may have actually gotten the upper hand (or fist). We'll probably go to a game this Sunday, maybe D.J. will be back with us then.
Movies - We used to go to movies all the time, but it's been a while since Raquel and I have gone without Lourdes. Finally, this afternoon we will leave Lourdes with our friend Anita and we will go see a movie intended for grown ups, an adult film if you will, but not an adult film. Actually it will be Eddy Murphy's Norbit which looks pretty funny.
Dan reviewed Hot Fuzz which I've seen previews for. Unfortunately it will probably have to be a DVD rental someday. We've rented a lot of movies since Lourdes got too big to be quiet at big people movies. Kids sure do change our lives!
Joke - Two buddies, Bob and Larry, are getting very drunk at a bar
when suddenly Larry throws up all over himself. "Oh, no...Now my wife
will kill me!"

Bob says, "Don't worry, pal. Just tuck a twenty in your breast pocket
and tell your wife that someone threw up on you and gave you twenty
dollars for the dry cleaning bill."

So they stay for another couple of
hours and get even drunker.
Eventually Larry stumbles home and his wife starts to give him a bad
time "You reek of alcohol and you've puked all over yourself!
My God, you're disgusting!"


Speaking very carefully so as not to slur his words, Larry says,
"Nowainaminit, I can e'splain everythin. Itsh snot wha jew think. I only
had a cupla drrrinks. But thiss other guy got ssick on me...he had one
too many! and he juss koudin hold hizz liquor. He said he was verrry
sorry an' gave me twennie bucks for the cleaning bill!"

His wife looks in the breast pocket and says, "But this is forty bucks.."

"Oh, yeah.. I almos' fergot, he shhhit in my pants, too."

Seems like a nice enough bloke

Greg and Deb have become friends with Dan after he stumbled upon Greg's blog/webpage a while back. Dan started his own blog and quickly climbed Greg's Links page settling in at number 3 behind Greg's wife and Greg's brother. Somehow, I have managed to climb to and stay at number 4 despite the fact that I only post sporadically at best.
Please don't think I'm jealous of Dan. On the contrary, I've recently started following Dan's blog on a regular basis and have grown to appreciate his sense of humor (or is it humour?). Well, actually I guess I am jealous of the fact that he blogs so much more than I, but I do enjoy checking his blog. Anyway, good on ya, mate. Or is that Australian? I'm not too good with the words and making them come out correctly.
Deb has become a prolific poster. It seems that not a day goes by without something from her. Thanks Deb for keeping us updated on the family.
I've wanted to become a regular blogger but I just can't seem to muster the determination or the topics. By the time I get done reading all the regulars, I don't feel like writing anything. Or if I do feel like writing, it takes me forever to write a single paragraph. How long does it take you (whoever you are) to do your posts?
Weather - a pretty good winter storm hit last night and all day today. At work, they implemented liberal leave and finally early dismissal. The roads weren't too bad but far from pristine. I had no problems with my big 4X4 and I didn't see anyone stuck anywhere. While at work, it was hard to keep up with the falling and drifting snow. My coworkers ran the plows on our little utility vehicles and were running out of room to push the snow. I'm taking tomorrow off so hopefully everything will be clear when I go back on Thursday.
Rivermen - They haven't done very well recently. After losing several games, they won last Wednesday and Saturday, then lost in sudden death on Sunday. They still have lots of games left and have the potential to turn things around for a playoff run. Seems like if I post something positive about them, they lose, so if I post a lukewarm blurb, maybe they'll do better.
Fitness - Greg, my coworker, fell a little ill last week and I went on the trail by myself three times last week and once this week. It snowed last week and it felt like I was walking on a three-mile stretch of sand. I was wiped out at the end of the week. I'm not sure I will feel like walking in even deeper snow this Thursday. By the way the temperatures had been really low with negative wind chill but it didn't stop me.

Mr. T, Pinky Lee, and Scott Hamilton

President Bush visited Peoria today. A recent Journal Star article commented on some of the preparations and speculations involving a presidential visit. According to the article, if the president were to become sick or injured then he would most likely be taken to OSF St. Francis. Mr. T, Pinky Lee, and Scott Hamilton were listed as entertainers who have been patients at the hospital. That's some top notch reportin'!!

Back in touch...

Last post, I talked about some around-the-world-on-motorcycle blogs/websites that I had been following lately. I was worried because there hadn't been any updates for a little while and I quite frankly wondered if something bad had happened to them. Finally a little news about them.
The World Rider guy finally put up a quick post and picture saying he was in Santiago, Chile. No explanation as to why he hadn't posted nor were there any tales of his travels. He did say he was behind and has lots of photos and stories to tell.
The "Round the World or Bust!" couple also updated and included a bit of a journal with their adventures. The key reason they hadn't updated was due to a maid knocking their laptop off the nightstand and breaking it. They've got a replacement computer now and should be back to regular updates.
Weather
Yesterday the weather was to take a turn for the worse. Rain was to change to freezing rain and later this weekend it's supposed to snow a little. It didn't seem too bad at first, but as the day wore on, I noticed more and more cars with ice on them. Salt spreaders were out in force, trying to stay ahead of the weather. There was a really bad winter storm in November/December that shut down this area. The storm came and went but the recovery took longer than many think it should have. Now public officials are wanting to seem proactive and implement a better snow/winter storm plan.
Fitness
My coworker Greg and I have been trying to focus on maintaining a level of fitness that will allow us to pick up where we left off in better weather and hopefully notch it up a ways. We are afforded the opportunity to work out three times a week on company time. We typically run a trail in the back 40 that has some steep hills. The trail itself is just shy of three miles. Greg started working with us full time in the spring last year and it only took him a few times to consistently run the trail without stopping. I took much longer to get there due to shin splints and foot problems. After changing to the Brooks Cascadia trail shoe, my legs and feet got better and I was able to run the whole trail without stopping on a much more consistent basis. With the onset of winter, we've been determined to continue hitting the trail, but we're not running it every time. Some times we'll run as far as we can, other times we'll fast walk, and still other times we'll fast walk most of the trail and run some of the hills. We've not allowed rain or snow or darkness deter us. After the first snow of the season, we put on the mukluks and waded through some knee -deep snow. Another time it had rained all day, but we hit the wet muddy trail with enthusiasm. By the way, we didn't see anyone else out there that day!
Last year, we were prepping for a major exercise and in turn a major inspection to prove that our unit was ready for war. A big part of the exercise/inspection process is to wear an anti-chemical suit, flak jacket and kevlar helmet while waiting for attacks to happen. If it's a chemical attack, you have to put on a mask and gloves and do what you have to do. During the simulated war, you most likely wear the ensemble minus gloves and mask for your entire shift. The chemical attacks in these simulations will put you the whole getup and "sucking rubber" for up to six hours. Greg and I prepped for these times by walking the trail in our flak jackets and masks. This was July and August by the way. In September when we had to play the first war game, Greg found himself in the mask and started to get a bit of a mild "panic attack". He calmed himself down immediately by thinking back to walking the trail in the mask and knowing that he made it through that hard physical exertion so sitting on the floor waiting for instructions should be a piece of cake.
Another benefit we've both noticed is that we pass our annual fitness tests much easier than before. There are four major components to the test and each carry certain amount of points. Waist measurement and cardio recovery comprise the most points and if you can't get decent scores on those, you get a marginal or poor score. Greg and I both improved our cardio scores and that's directly attributed to our running/walking regimen.
Greg has a goal of running the 15k Steamboat Classic which I think is in June. I haven't decided if I want to do that yet. Either way, we'll be increasing our distances. Don't be surprised if I get roped into it!!
Rivermen
The Rivermen won last night and are third in their division and not too far behind first and second. They're looking pretty good overall, but occasionally will have lapses that cost them dearly. They face the same problems that all farm teams have to deal with such as player callups, injuries, injury-rehab assignments, and the dreaded impatient - foreign - players - who - think - they - should - jump - right - into - the - NHL - because - they - were - stars - in - their - country - but - aren't - adjusting - well - because - the - game - is - more - physical - and - faster - so - they - jump - ship - and - run - home - to - mama types. Let's see how the rivs do tonight against a Milwaukee team that's not too far behind in the standings.

Post #85

Welcome to my 85th post!! What a milestone! I know there are those of you who never thought it would go this far, but here we are!!! Can you smell the sarcasm?

Actually, I know there aren't a lot of readers of this blog, but I really need to do a better job of posting (doesn't that sound familiar?). There are some blogs and personal web pages that I've been following and I always enjoy their updates. I'm finding myself worried because there haven't been any updates in a while. For example, there's a guy traveling around the world on his motorcycle. He started in the US, made his way to South America, and had an accident in Bolivia. He broke his leg rather badly when his motorcycle fell over on him and he needed to be medically evacuated back to the US. He had surgeries and therapy and recuperated for about 9 months. He then went back to Bolivia, got his motorcycle repaired, ran in to some red tape, had another minor accident (tweaked his leg/foot), etc. Well the guy hasn't posted for a couple weeks and that makes me a little concerned for his well-being.

Then there's a couple who are on their way around the world on motorcycles. They haven't posted in almost a month. I'm a bit worried about them and I can't even begin to think about what their families must be thinking.

I feel weird getting caught up in the lives of these people I don't even know, but I enjoy reading about their adventures. They are doing something that I would love to be able to attempt someday. I'm not so sure about how far around the world I would want to go, but I definitely want to travel extensively on a motorcycle. I think I would probably start on some smaller treks within North America, but the coolest thing would be a tip-to-tip trip, the Artic Circle in Alaska down to the tip of South America in Ushuaia, Argentina. What do you think, Greg?

Around the world.......

Dan's blog had a nifty link to a website that let you check off a list of countries that you have visited and it would generate a map of the world with the visited countries in red. As I was checking off the list, I cheated with a couple countries in that I really didn't spend more than a couple hours at an airport there. Those countries are England and French Guiana. Two other countries on the list are a stretch but allow me to explain them.

One time I was going to Kuwait for a 30 day temporary duty with the Air Force. Someone at our base was misinformed on how to get there. This person thought that all personnel going to the Middle East had to take a normal personnel rotation flight to Saudi Arabia and would then continue on to their destination. After delays getting out of the US and finally arriving in Saudi Arabia, we (I was traveling with one other person from my base) were informed that we should not have flown to Saudi Arabia as there are no continuing flights to Kuwait. The base there really didn't know what to do with us so we spent the remainder of the night under a giant overhang outside and waited for further instructions. The next morning, a small plane that did a regular mail run was able to give us a lift into Kuwait, and then we were able to hitch a ride with some Air Force security guys to our base. So my visit to Saudi Arabia was brief and limited.

Once I was returning from Paraguay and had to change planes in Brazil. There was a mechanical delay there and the airline put me up in a hotel in San Pablo (Sao Paulo). It was a somewhat eerie feeling to arrive at the airport the next morning without proper credentials (no Brazilian visa in my passport) and try to convince security that I was legally there.

My Visited Countries

Get your own Visited Countries Map from Travel Blog

We were able to have a short visit with Greg and Deb on Saturday. Their little girls were terrific with our little girl. Allie was very patient and shared her Leapster and Julia surprised her parents by sharing her little babies. They said that Dan had mentioned us in one of his recent posts. Thanks Dan and Amy! And we think our Lourdes is pretty too!!


It was nice to see Greg, Deb and the girls. I hope we can spend a little more time together in the future. Perhaps we should consider a visit to the magical state of Wisconsin (even the name is enchanting!). Greg explained the problem he is having with his blog. Basically he goes through his web page with his ISP to import from Blogger. That method has always been a problem for him and basically his web page host/ISP changed something and he's got to figure out what he needs to do to get back up and running. Good luck!!

The end of Greg and Deb on the Web....

Greg mentioned that Blogger Beta has caused the demise of his web page. I'm not sure what he means as he didn't give any details, so I thought I would post an update on my page to see if there are any problems.
I know October was the last time I posted, so I'll make the same empty promise of trying to do better in the future.
Everything is fine here and Lourdes is growing like a weed. In mid-January we'll probably be helping her move into the dorms for the spring semester at U of I. Just kidding, she's growing by leaps and bounds and seems to be getting smarter all the time.
Time to take a shower and go visit the family for an early Christmas celebration.
Take care and Happy Holidays (Christmas, Chanukah, Kawanza, New Year's, and any thing else that I swear to God or your higher deity (or lack there of) that I didn't intentionally leave out).

Move over "Ask This Old House"

I had to work on the garage today. Last year I replaced the soffit and fascia on one side of the garage and put off doing the other side. Earlier this year, I had a roofing and siding company come in and replace the gutters on the house and garage. Well before they could do their thing, I needed to tear down the soffit and fascia. I was able to put up the fascia but ran out of time to put the soffit. Ideally one puts up the fascia and then the soffit and then guttering. So here I was with new fascia and guttering and totally lacking the soffit. I had to get creative to avoiding taking everything down and starting over. So I put up F-channel all around, cut a piece of soffit in half lengthwise, and slid the soffit into the F-channel. So much easier than the normal way and just as effective! I wish I had done this sooner, today would have been a beautiful day for a ride.

Bad Rivs

Last night was a very disappointing outing for the Rivermen. They played sloppy and didn't attack on offense after the first few minutes. The penalty kill teams did a pretty good job overall, killing something like nine out of ten power plays. Otherwise it was a poor showing and they lost. Actually they got shut out 5-0 by the Chicago Wolves. It's still early in the season, so I'm not worried, but it's not fun to watch your team get a spanking.

Greg called asking when we could meet on motorcycles, but it's probably too late to try it this year. Next weekend is the only chance we would have and that's not looking promising. After next weekend we both have work interfering for a couple of weekends or more. Then it'll be well into November and the temperatures will most likely not be comfortable for a long ride. But I think we'll keep our options open or plan for next season.

I'm currently blogging from the couch using my new laptop (got it for my birthday) on my newly installed wireless network. The wireless network was easy to install. I followed the instructions step-by-step and everything came up perfect. I then fired up the new laptop which already has a wireless NIC built in and put in all the settings for security for my wireless LAN and bam! I'm wireless on my laptop.

I put a wireless card in my old HP desktop that I have in another room. I've been running SUSE Linux 9.3 on that thing for several months as an experiment in learning more about Linux. I like the fact that Linux can be free and often can breathe new life into older machines. The downside is that it can be a bit of a learning curve. Don't get me wrong, it was an easy install and is quite a bit like other operating systems that I've seen over the years. It even recognizes newly installed hardware. I haven't tried installing any new software yet, so I have yet to experience that. It recognized my PCI NIC and the wireless NIC, but the wireless NIC is a problem. It seems that many wireless NICs don't have drivers for Linux so users have to trick their computers by loading a piece of software that emulates a bit of a Windows environment and run the Windows drivers for the wireless NIC. Well instead of messing with that for now, I ran a piece of CAT5 from the wireless router to the HP and it was up on the net in no time. At some point in the near future, I will try to download the aforementioned software and be able to cut the umbilical cord to that computer. Wish me luck!

Well, I know that was boring to all but the geeks out there. What else can I talk about that might appeal to all? As I'm blogging, I've got the TV on to watch the NASCAR race at Talledaga, the dogs are napping all around me (if the computer weren't on my lap, one or more of the dogs would be), Lourdes is napping in bed, and Raquel just showered and is getting ready for us to go to Adam's house later for a fish fry/seafood fest. You can make fun of me for watching NASCAR but I don't care. These guys are running over 190 mph right now and are bound to wreck so I'm just waiting for the chaos!.

Last night I fired up Google Earth for the first time in a long time and checked out Paraguay. I had looked for Caazapa before and either I couldn't find it or there wasn't any detail yet. This time I found Villarica which is an hour or so north of Caazapa and I just followed the roa d south and found Caazapa. I marked the hotel that we stay at, the cemetary near my sister-in-law's house (I didn't want to mark her house), the sport's complex, and one of the hospitals. It was pretty neat to see. I tried to follow the road out of town to find where my inlaws live, but the details suddenly drop off. It was still really neat. Hopefully, the earth will get completely mapped in detail someday. Raquel actually got kick out of seeing Caazapa and her sisters house.

Well that's it for now. Besides the batteries are running low and two posts in two days is going to cause my friends and family to expect more consistent posts.

How did I get up here?

Okay another post. This makes what, the second one in three or four months? I should pace myself.

Raquel and I celebrated our fourth anniversary at the end of September.

Greg joined me in the ranks of the 40-year-olds last month.

The Rivermen kicked off the beginning of another season with a win last night. It was a good game that was 9.6 seconds away from a shootout. We were there and we'll go back to night for another game against another team. Good luck guys!

Lourdes keeps growing! I was gone for a week in September and she started putting more and more words together. It seems like she advanced so much in that one week. At this rate she'll be writing for the Times by age five. I'll be gone for another week soon, I wonder how far she'll be when I come back.

I'm suddenly very tired as I write this. I'm on the verge of being recovered from a cold but it feels like I'm coming down with it again. Let's hope that I'm just sleepy from a later than usual night. Plus I didn't get my weekend nap in. Actually, we've all had a touch of something over the last week and a half, but we all seem to be about over it.

Greg and Deb are closing in on their 10th anniversary. It seems like just yesterday that Greg and I were hanging out in his apartment, eating chili and ice cream after a workout at the gym!

I pretty much haven't been out on the motorcycle at all this year. I really don't like to ride it to work because so much of the time I stay after and run or walk and I don't want to have to change clothes again to get back on the bike for the trip home. Greg and I should try to coordinate a road trip where I head north, he heads south, we meet somewhere and ride for a short while then head back to our respective homes. What do you say Greg?

I wanna go home!

Lourdes keeps saying she wants to go home. The problem is that we are already home when she says this. What she is implying is that she wants to go to the neighbor's house. The neighbors will usually let her come over and eventually she'll want to come home on her own. One evening they had to go do some errands but Lourdes didn't want to leave them, so she ended up going with them and not coming home until after dark.

Like many little girls, Lourdes is crazy about the Disney Princesses. Well now she has her own little princess dress because like many dads, I like to spoil my little princess.

It seemed like we were gone quite often recently. We had two consecutive weekends of family reunions way out of town. We also had a wedding the day after one of the reunions, which meant a road trip. Then the following weekend we had a cookout to go to (also out of town). So we spent a lot of money on gas during that stretch. Even if we didn't have Lourdes, we couldn't have gone on the motorcycle because we had to haul some things from my grandma's house everytime we were near Decatur. I think all of that is behind us now and we're back to less frequent out of town trips.

There's another addition to the barn at my mom's. This cute little guy was born sometime around the middle of July. I think they now have 4 miniature horses.

"Stop touching my butt!!"

Monday was my day off. We work a compressed schedule and so I get a day off during the week. I used to get just about every other Friday off, but I recently changed to Mondays off. So we left Lourdes with the neighbors in the afternoon for a few hours so we could see PotC: Dead Man's Chest. We enjoyed the sequel almost as much as the first.

We met up with the neighbors afterwards at the ballpark for their boys' baseball game. Lourdes was happy to see us but she had a great time without us. She didn't want to sit still for the game; she kept running away. I had to chase her a couple times and bring her back to where we were sitting. As I was carrying her, she started shouting "Stop touching my butt!!" Of course it seemed like everyone was looking at me at that moment. For the record, I was not touching her butt.

Took Pancho to the emergency room the Saturday night. Not sure what happened but he was very distressed and shaking and occasionally yelped in extreme pain. The vet examined him and determined that his neck was sore. We think that maybe he fell down the stairs while we were gone that day.

Dover got neutered a few weeks ago. I had asked about the removal of stitches, but was told he had internal stitches so there was no need to come back. Well, I thought maybe the stitches that I could literally see on Dover's junk were the kind that dissolve after a few days/weeks. Well the were still there today so I called the vet. They looked up his chart and said that he didn't have stitches. I explained that he really did have stitches and that I wasn't just imagining them. They suggested I bring him over for a look. Sure enough he did have stitches (I told them he did!!) and the vet hadn't annotated the chart correctly. They promptly removed them and we were on our way.

I had told Raquel on Monday that I didn't have to go to work on Tuesday because I was scheduled for a workshop/class on datacomm at a local vendor. Tuesday morning I got up and headed up to the local gas station for a cappucino and I called Adam's office to make sure he wasn't there and that he was on his way to the class. Well he was in the office and had forgotten about the class, but he wasn't worried because it was actually on WEDNESDAY!!! Needless to say I felt foolish and had to go back home to put on my uniform.

My World Cup Fever has broken!

I didn't have much of a World Cup fever. I watched part of a couple of matches (like the tie between Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago and part of a USA match and part of the England final game) but didn't get to involved with the whole thing. I would check on how Paraguay did but that was about it.

I tuned in today to catch the final minutes of the final game today, just in time to see the replays of the French dude head butt the chest of an Italian player. I thought it was hilarious that a star player could lose his cool at a crucial moment and may have cost his team the game. Who knows what the result would have been if he had remained in the game. Regardless, France lost, Italy won. Between those two teams, I was pulling for Italy anyway. I felt a little more connected to Italy, having spent 4 months there a few years ago. Besides, who likes the French anyway?

We hit the Rock Island Trail again today. We didn't quite go as far as we did yesterday, but we were close. I think we got in a little over 14 miles. Our goal was to go just past the 7 mile mark to this mulberry tree that has huge, ripe mulberries that are easy to reach. I took a couple of pictures and posted them.

We rented a some DVD's this weekend. A Dirty Shame stars Tracy Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, and Selma Blair. It was pretty much retarded. I don't think John Waters should be given any more film to make movies. Ultra Violet was much better but still not very good. The Hills Have Eyes rounded out our trio of stinkers. But please don't let my opinion prevent you from renting these on your own. I think a bad review sometimes makes a movie better. Go in with low expectations and come out saying "It wasn't that bad!"

Gotta go shower. Check out the pics on Flickr.

He said "Little girls aren't very smart!"

Yesterday, we decided to go to Lenscrafters. Actually it was decided for us when my glasses finally completely broke. They had been limping along, all bent up, for quite a while. Lourdes has been very rough on them. With lightning quick reflexes, she grabs them right off my face and wreaks havoc on them. She hadn't done that for some time, but did so a few days ago. She bent one of the temples and actually broke it at the hinge, but not all the way through. It gave up the ghost yesterday.

So we went to Lenscrafters because they normally get you the glasses in the same day. Not having a spare set of glasses, I needed new ones and pronto! After getting the exam, I started looking at what kind of frames I wanted. I chose some, as well as some sunglasses. I've had small, rectangular lenses for a couple of years and I'm tired of them. They are too small, which is normally a good thing, but being smaller meant there was a smaller area to see through, so they were in the way. So I chose some slightly larger (yet still sort of small) frames with a bit of a roundness to them.

Anyway, we were waiting for the regular glasses to be made and Lourdes was playing with some toys they had to keep youngsters occupied. A little boy that seemed to be about six years old came along and wanted to play with the toys as well. Most toys were for toddlers, but there was a rubber whale/shark that Lourdes was playing with. The little boy desperately wanted to play with this whale/shark and kept trying to get Lourdes to give it to him. He tried bribing her with other toys. We tried to help him a little by telling Lourdes to share, but she didn't want to give up the toy. The boy complained to his mother and she was unsympathetic to his plight. She told him to play with other toys but he insisted that the whale/shark was the only toy there for bigger kids. He tried and tried and Raquel laughed at his efforts. He said it wasn't funny and then he said "Little girls aren't very smart!" As his mother was collecting him and his brother to leave, she commented that she didn't like the way he was acting.

Later we went biking on the Rock Island Trail. It is an old railway converted into a trail for biking, walking, running, and cross-country skiing (although I'm skeptical that it gets much use in that capacity). We've been trying to go out biking a couple times a week when we can. We've gone several times on the River Trail of Illinois in East Peoria which is also a converted railway line and last week tried the Rock Island Trail. We went about 12 or 13 miles round trip the last time and decided to push it a little further this time. Somehow we just kept going and ended up putting in about 18 miles round trip. Both trails have lots of mulberry trees all over and they are producing tons of sweet fruit right now. We found one tree that had mulberries about the size of large grapes. Lourdes couldn't get enough. She also couldn't get enough of them in her mouth and had mulberry juice stains all over her face!

I posted a couple more pictures on Flickr.

Gravity: Not just a good idea; it's the law!

Lourdes likes to throw things in the air. Most times the things will go up a little ways and fall to the ground behind her. Sometimes the things fall in front of her. Occasionally, she gets hit in the head.

She has become a bit of a rock collector. We walked to the post office on Saturday and she tried to pick up several rocks because she thought they belonged to her. There were some really nice white rocks at the base of the flag pole at the post office that she really wanted but I wouldn't let her have them and she couldn't convince me, try as she might, that they belonged to her.

Tonight, she brought one of her rocks inside and started throwing it up in the air in the living room. I was in the kitchen bringing a dead PowerPC Mac back to life and Lourdes began crying. She apparently hit herself in the head with her rock. I know she's young, but I hope that teaches her to not throw rocks straight up, not to mention in the house.

I uploaded a few pics to Flickr.

Baby Jesus in my underwear

Raquel is easy to scare. I can tell her that I'm going to scare her and still scare her. Yesterday she had my cell phone in her pocket. It's set to ring and vibrate. She was outside watering the flowers and I called her. The phone started to ring, but more importantly vibrate. This scared her. Of course I knew this would happen, so I watched her from the living room as I called. She jumped a little bit.

When she was finished watering and was coming in to the house, Lourdes and I hid by the kitchen table and jumped out to scare her. Of course it scared the pee out of her (almost literally).

Raquel had laid out a pair of my underwear for after my shower. When I was finished showering, she grabbed my underwear to give to me. There was something in it. She was scared because she didn't know what it was. She hurriedly gave me the underwear and was saying excitedly "What is it? What is it?" I took the underwear and shook it. Baby Jesus fell out. Well not the Baby Jesus, but a really small Baby Jesus from a really small Nativity scene that we have. Lourdes loves to climb up on the dresser where these little statues are and play with them. Somehow Baby Jesus ended up in my underwear.

Adam invited us over Saturday night for some brisket. Adam loves to cook and we love to eat his food. Lourdes loves to play with Zoey and Zoey seems to enjoy playing with Lourdes. So we ate some delicious food, watched Heavy: The History of Metal (I think that's what it is called) on VH1, and the kids played. Finally we put in the DVD The Ringer starring Johnny Knoxville and laughed our a$$es off. Johnny Knoxville plays a man who enters the Special Olympics even though he's not "special". Don't worry, it was made with the support of the Special Olympics and several special athletes.

Sunday, we went to Godfrey for a family reunion and ate too much.

Today, we'll probably see Over the Hedge and swim in the pool.

PS As I was putting on my shoes, I found a little angel from the Nativity Scene stashed away in one of them.