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2/28/08

O's Birthday... 6 !!!

What a trooper ... he got up early, had his plaid tie on with button-down shirt and 'birthday boy' ribbon on (plus some remaining red streaks in his hair... don't ask). Today is Spanish class - extra work at 7:30 a.m. once a week. We trail-biked in with the wind chill leaving it at about 15 degrees. Lots of hootin' and hollerin' but no complaints. I think little O is becoming a man.

2/25/08

Re-fi

Now's the time for one of my smart money friends to step up and tell me what the catch is w/ the mortgage refinance situation. I ***think*** I just saved $300/month on my mortgage going from one at 6.25 and another at (hold on) 8.04 to one single mortgage at 5.625. The best part is that I actually caught them trying to double bill me for the appraisal. I said to the 'mortgage expert' that there was a $500 charge on my credit card and another on the closing documents. He said, 'Oh no, I'll double check, I may have put $335 but I've never put $500.' Suffice to say he's at least done it once that we know about....

2/24/08

Docu-tastic

Check out "King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters." All you Wii and SEGA freaks will see how the world used to be -- and apparently still is -- for an elite group of classic arcade game warriors.

2/22/08

What you could be doing besides reading my blog...

I heard a 'This American Life' piece on a UConn professor who is trying to make a device for time travel (see: second act):
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=324

Since you may not have time to listen to it, I'll tell you that he was very close to his father who died when he was 10 years old. Since then, he's been consumed by the idea of discovering a way to travel through time so he could see his dad again. I wish I could tell you that he's in a parallel time/universe hanging out with his dad right now but he hasn't quite pulled it off yet. It does have a happy ending though if you can wriggle your way out from under the world's weight in wistfulness.

2/19/08

Spring/love is in the air...

*
I dragged O out of the house on our 65 degree partly sunny day yesterday. Who would be at the park but Eva, Owen's classmate and the apple of his eye (not counting Mommy of course)...


Eva rides a mountain bike without training wheels. She wears an ill-fitting helmet at a jaunty angle; she rides far distances out of sight of her chaperone(s). As we left, Owen very much wanted to ride past her on our tandem bike. She seemed impressed and from what I know of Eva, she's not the type to act impressed just to make you feel better.

Then, on our way back to my house, we ran into Emma, O's Kater St. crush. Emma told Owen that she's in love with him and he said, "No way!"

*This cupid is supposed to be shooting at Owen but has a striking resemblance to him don't you think? (Plus, there's the squarepants which appear to be made out of an envelope.)

2/12/08

In the Weeds....

This is an expression Julie taught me that servers/hosts use when they get busy. I've never waited tables in my life. Lest you think that's because I'm above the work of the commoner, don't forget:
paper boy, bagger/checker, lawn/snow care, telemarketer, vacuumer/custodial, house painter
dog poop scooper, laundry boy, pizza delivery, bike messenger, medicine intern

Anyway, I got pulled in for two weeks' attending and thus have been off the blog for a bit.

recent news:
-the O's traded Erik Bedard, their best player and perhaps the best starting pitcher in the AL East, to the Mariners for prospects (Adam Jones, CF as the centerpiece). All in all, it has brought some optimism to Bird Nation IF this means we are building our farm system and will be ready to supplement with a big free agent signing or 2 in '09, '10. But no doubt, 100 losses in '08 is a realistic possibility.

-SNL returns w/ a new episode 2/23. I hope you saw Brian Williams' episode at some point this year.

-Barry Bush (no relation) will be helping me parge the basement. We'll also finally be hanging Owen's much anticipated (one man) ceiling swing.

-4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days was SLOW, weighty and not at all suspenseful. I guess I missed something.

Don't forget Steve's blog for all matters political, financial AND MORE!

2/4/08

Updates...

Owen is out of the Wildcats gang. The gang may have disbanded entirely, but to Owen's credit, he got out while the gang was still going.

He's up to the BB reading level. He came home with a Frog and Toad chapter book and also a book where the main character learns how to get her cat to love her by ignoring it. I'm not sure about that message but I doubt O will take it literally because you can't ignore Jack and Sam: