Crosby vs. Semen.......I mean Semin

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

While Sidney Crosby continued to brush aside unflattering comments by Washington's Alexander Semin, Penguins coach Michel Therrien stuck up for his center.

In an interview last week that has been widely discussed, Semin questioned Crosby's stardom and abilities.

Therrien had some questions for the Capitals winger.
"Is he talking about the youngest guy to get 100 points in the history of the National Hockey League?" Therrien said yesterday. "Is he talking about the [second-youngest] guy to win the Hart Trophy and [the youngest] leading scorer? Is he talking about the youngest captain in the history of the National Hockey League, and to bring his team to the Stanley Cup final?

"That's all I have to say."

Now I have something to say on it as well. Lets even compare last year. Crosby with 53 games under his belt had a meager 72 points. Well Semin, I guess that's nothing compared to your 42 points. I mean you did play ten more games than Crosby. Maybe you're the "dead wood" in this equation.

Sorry folks.....that one was brewing for a while. Too bad the Pens don't play the Crapitals for a while.

Gullible?

So I've been hooked on the "Ghost Hunters" tv show. For Halloween they did the big live investigation of Fort Delaware in New York. Fort Delaware.....in........New York. Delaware......New York. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyways, during the show they recorded voices saying things, lots of noises that are supposed to be ghosts, and then the one guy had the neck of his jacket pulled from behind 3 different times. And the jacket thing they even were able to show on the cameras. You see the guy walking around and all the sudden, the back of his jacket looks like someone grabbed the back of the collar and pulled straight down. Creepy sure, but real.....who knows. It seems like you can do anything on tv these days.

Speaking of Halloween, I got the pleasure of working on it. I don't know if it was because I grew up out in the country and wasn't in a neighborhood so-to-speak, but there were tons of people out this year. Its nice to see kids out having a good time and that so man got to be out this year.

And I tell you....with all the new things out and all the different costumes, the most of one type that I saw was vampires. There were a ton of kids this year dressed up as Dracula.

Unfortunately though, I did see a few young (12-14) kids dressed up as pimps..........I'm gonna leave that can of worms closed.

Chas

Man Cave

Just a quick one. I needed to leave a few pictures of the new family room and the awesome new TV.

Then of course what would this blog be without a pic of the little guy! Hope everyone is well, I'm off to work.

I thought that I heard the sound of "Taps" being played. Gently.

My TV died. Yes the projector that shone brightly over the fireplace has died. I got a call from Melissa the other day at work saying that she couldn't turn the TV on. I thought it was just something that needed to be switched to get it working. But on Tuesday, when I went downstairs to turn the TV on, sure enough it was broke. The projector was flashing an angry red light at me. After searching for the manual, then searching through the manual, I was able to find out that the flashing red light meant that the lamp had burnt out in the projector. So, still being hopeful, I went online to see what a new lamp would cost me. The way the directions made it sound, it should be an easy fix. So it shouldn't be a problem, right? WRONG. $299 for the friggin' lamp. This stupid thing is like an inch by an inch in size and it costs 299 friggin' dollars. So Melissa says that since that is the price of a new TV anyways (a small one maybe), that we should just look at getting a new TV again.

So there I went back onto the internet looking at TVs. Now I am behind the times and haven't gotten an HDTV yet, although thats been my goal for a while. So after searching through the 'net for a while we settled on a Samsung 50 inch plasma that was priced at 1200 bucks. We decided to get it the next day. So early that morning (around 1 in the afternoon) I went back on the internet to write down the model number and saw that it was on sale for $997. SCORE!!

We got the TV and brought it home, along with a Playstation 3 (but no games) for the blue-ray player. Once we got the TV home was the interesting part. With the projector, it put the tv on a screen above the fireplace. We thought we could mount the tv in the same place or put it on the mantle. Of course that didn't work so we had to rearrange the family room. Strangely enough, once the room started to take shape, we realized how awesome it was going to look. The way we had the room before was a total waste of space. There was barely any room to walk and not enough room to have more than 3 people watching tv comfortably. Now its amazing. There is plenty of room to sit and watch the tv, plenty of room for Derian to play on the floor (when he gets to that point), and now the couch is closer to the fireplace (NICE). The whole room is a lot comfier and I think we'll be spending a lot more time in that room.

As for the TV, it is awesome. The picture is so clear and huge. Plus, I don't even have the HD receiver yet for the satellite so that's going to be even better.

PS - If anyone has some leftover PS3 games they wanna get rid of, send 'em my way.

-Chas

No rest for the wicked

So, its several weeks later and everything is still going well. Derian has been awesome. He was sick a little while ago with something the nurse we talked to described as a "gastrointestinal infection". Basically what that means is that he went to the bathroom 7 times a day for two days. And every time he went he wailed for a while because it must have burned. I'll spare you the rest of the details.

But after that, things are pretty much back to normal. Of course normal is sleeping for about 3 hours at a time. Everyone tells me that it starts getting better at about 3 months so we have a little more than a month left. I can't even remember what its like to sleep through the night.

I just finished my first full week of work since we had the baby and boy was it LONG. Pretty much now with the baby my schedule sucks. It would be nice to be home at night during the week and have weekends off. Maybe someday.

All the family has came and went too. Melissa's dad was here for a while and helped us out a lot. He helped us out putting in the new flooring we got for the kitchen and dining room. My mom and brother were out for a week after him. It was nice for everyone to get out here but its nice to have the house to ourselves again. Now its time to get back to life.

Other than that its been all Derian all the time.

Mass Chaos

SO......

Its been a while since the last post. Seems like every time I sat down with the computer Derian either _______ (cried, wanted fed, pooped, fill in the blank {your choice}). Speaking of, he has still been awesome. He's been a little cranky the last few days and it seems he may have some reflux issues. But the doc says (and its been working so far) that trying to keep him more in an upright position whenever we can is good. We also try to burp him more often when he is eating. And boy that kid burps, and farts like a howitzer. Sorry to be crude but he can make Melissa and I jump like we were watching a scary movie.

Melissa is still doing excellent as well. Tonight we went to Olive Garden with her dad and they ordered a pitcher of Sangria. Didn't take her much to get loopy. It was nice because she hasn't had any alcohol other than our champagne. Of course right when our meals came Derian woke up and was a major crank-ass. I had to go out to the car and feed him and change his diaper. So I got to eat my meal at home later. YAY.

So the other thing going on in our life was replacing the flooring in out kitchen and dining room. We had some nasty stained carpet in the dining room and some ugly linoleum in the kitchen. Melissa's dad and I ripped up everything and laid some laminate flooring. It would have been relatively painless if I would have had some half decent tools. Guess I know what to ask Santa for Christmas. Here are some before and after pictures of the renovation.

-Chas

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of formula

Short post today...

A while ago we were talking about how we were gonna decorate Derian's room after we found out he was going to be a boy. So Melissa says, "How about getting a mural painted." I think my response was kinda like "whatever" but after she said the art teacher at her school would do it for us I was all for it.

So as you can see we kept with the pirate theme and it turned out awesome. We hope Derian will like it once he gets old enough to realize what the heck it is. I held him up towards the wall and said, "Derian, look at your pirate ship!" He then proceeded to take a crap on my hand.

Later

-Chas

1995......a good year

1995 Dom Perignon. Tastes so good it should be illegal.

Let me rewind a few years here. Back in the summer of 2003, Melissa and I just bought a lovely house in the borough of Tarentum, Pennsylvania. It was $63,000 of heaven on earth in an up and coming area that was named in Money magazine's "Best Places to Live (population under 50,000)". So while Melissa, her dad and myself were moving ourselves in during I remember was a quite hot and humid day, my father stops over to see the new house. Well it wasn't a new house, it was built way back in the 30's. So my dad stops by on his way out to dinner at some fancy shmancy restaurant and says "Congrats, by the way, here is a house warming gift." And he hands me the coveted bottle of champagne. And then he leaves as we all continue to sweat our asses off moving everything in the house. (By the way, no A/C in that house)

So now flash forward a few years and 1,300 miles to the west. We have hung on to this bottle and every year we talk about opening it up for one occasion or the other. So we definitely said we were gonna crack it open to celebrate the baby and our new lives out here in Colorado. Plus Melissa was dying for some alcohol after not being able to drink for nine months. So we bring the bottle up to the lovely town of Evergreen to toast with the Banks'.

So, I'm getting ready to open the bottle and we all decide to go out on their deck with is really nice and has some kick ass views. Figured it would be a memorable bottle. I ask for a towel to hold over the cork so I can open it slowly and not spill any of the pricey liquid. So Pat says, "Don't worry, the cork won't go that far, it won't be a problem. So I take of the cap and let 'er fly. Cork shoots off the patio roof and here comes the champagne (down my arm). Luckily it wasn't too much and we all got to toast to friends and family. It tasted awesome. I just need to work some more overtime so I can feed my new expensive champagne habit.

P.S. Later that night, I wanted to see how much the bottle actually costs. Newer bottles are between $100-$150. The vintage 1995 now can cost anywhere from $300 and up. Made me feel all hoity-toity for a few moments.

-Chas

Mommy on birth and baby Derian

Well in the last blog Chas wrote about the baby being born, so I figured I would write about the whole labor experience and what followed for me and my new family. The baby's due date was August 18th and after talking to my doctor I finally decided to have an induction on August 11th. Well, Derian didn't want to wait until then because at 12:30 A.M. on August 11th my water broke. Chas and I had nothing ready because it was so early. After scrambling around the house we finally got to the hospital at about 1:30. Contractions started kicking in and I was definitely uncomfortable and in pain. The nurse explained that I needed to have half a bag of IV before my epidural could get started. My veins aren't the best so it took them two times to find my veins. By this point the contractions were awful. I started shaking, they said that was normal, but also part of my panic attack problems. After what seemed an eternity, my epidural was finally given to me and afterwards I felt great. My dilation went extremely quick, but I pushed for about 2 1/2 before Derian made his appearance at 11:07 A.M. I was so overwhelmed with emotion. What an amazing thing! As Chas wrote in his blog, the staff at the hospital was fantastic. We got to come home on Saturday, August 11th.

So far the baby is doing well. We started him off on Similac with Iron Formula and then decided to switch to Enfamil Gentlease, he seemed fussy with the Similac and had a hard time going to the bathroom. Now he is a pooping machine. Derian went to the doctors on Tuesday and is in the 20th percentile for height and weight. Also on Tuesday he had his first trip to Noodles and Company. My dad flew in today, so Derian got to go to the Airport. We also went to Red Robin for dinner. It was so noisy there and many Happy Birthday songs were sung with loud clapping...Derian slept through it all. He had a little bit of a rough night this evening, pooping twice, peeing, eating, not eating, eating again, fussing, eating, crying...you get the picture. Well I am exhausted so until next time.

Melissa

....and here we GO

Here he is ladies and gentlemen, about two and a half weeks early. Derian Joshua weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and was a little over 19 inches long. The little bit of hair he has is a sandy blonde color just like Melissa's. He is about as mellow as can be but hates, I MEAN HATES to be naked or have his diaper off him for even 5 seconds. Other than eating, sleeping and messing up his diaper, Derian likes to wave his hands in the air and suck his thumb (although it looks like he's shoving his fist down his throat). And when he waves his hands in the air, he does it so violently it looks like he's some crazy-mad symphony conductor. Oh and did I also mention that since he is early we had to go out and buy some more clothes to fit him. But I'm sure I also speak for Melissa when I say that he is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

As for Melissa, she is doing awesome. She made it through the birth great and I couldn't be more proud of her. Wednesday night/Thursday morning (right after midnight) we were just laying down after hanging out with the Fairbanks'. I was almost asleep when I hear this yell next to me and then "My water just broke!!!" So after a few minutes of running around like crazy and getting orders shouted at me, we were in the car to the hospital. We got settled into the delivery room after 2, Melissa was fully dilated at around 7 after she slept for a while (EPIDURAL), and Derian was born after a few hours of pushing at 11:07 AM (Mountain Time).

We spent 2 days in the hospital and had some friends come to visit us. The hospital was really nice and so was each nurse we had over the period of time we were there. We got home today in the afternoon and have been getting adjusted. Hemi and Gracie have been good with him, although I think they just see him as an object right now. I'm sure it will be different once he starts motoring around the house and harassing them.

Well, Melissa and I are ready to pass out and Derian just ate so I think its best that I try to get some sleep.

I know I'll be up a few times overnight . Take care.

-Chas

My First Post

Well today was a busy and exciting day. We began with breakfast at LaMar's Donuts...a great local donut place we found here. After that we went to my doctor's appt. (36 weeks). The doc said things look good, I am a centimeter dilated, and the baby's head is in position. Now, I believe we are going to try induction first and see what happens. Before we were thinking c-section. Next, we went to the Flatirons Mall to Kiddie Kandids. I had a coupon for a free 8x10 maternity picture. So we figured why not take them up on the offer, plus Chas and I have not gotten any pictures taken professionally since our wedding. So they took one of me by myself and the rest were with Chas and myself. The pictures turned out awesome. We continued this afternoon running errands and then crashed for a nap before dinner.

Things are getting close to the baby's due date, only a few more weeks. We are looking forward to it. I also have only 1 more week at my summer job (Sylvan Learning Center). My dad flies out 2 weeks from tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some time off with the baby and Chas and not going back to school at the beginning of the year. It will be a nice break.

-Melissa

Finally a day where its not 9000 degrees

That's right folks, its been over 90 for it seems like forever (although I'm sure it couldn't have been for more than 4 or 5 days. Right now, according to the trusty weather channel web page it is 77 degrees at 8 o'clock in the evening and low humidity (sorry Pittsburghers). And its also supposed to rain 'sometime' today. That would be great considering my yard is on the verge of doing a 'cough, cough, wheez' and just giving up. They are saying, and by 'they' meaning the news media, that it could be the driest year Denver has ever had. I used to think that would be awesome to not worry about rain, but there are downsides to that as well. So make sure to remind me of that when I used to bitch about it raining in Pittsburgh all the time.

I'm back to work tomorrow after having my usual three days off. Sorry, I don't mean to brag but its awesome. It will be nice to get back to a full four day work week. (Sorry, I'll stop that right now.) Last week I had the now infamous shotgun class that took up 2 days right in the middle of my work week, which is Thursday-Monday. So a nice normal week without any severe bruising to parts of my body will be nice.

So during my weekend I went to the dentist. Sounds like not much fun but I like the dentist. I think its because before we moved out here and had good dental insurance I hadn't been to a dentist in YEARS. It sounds nasty but I feel like I've always taken pretty good care of my teeth. Blame it on having braces twice. Plus its amazing what has changed in the field of dentistry these days. Gone are the days of endless scraping. Now they have these things that use sonic vibrations or something like that. So sue me, I like the dentist. I get nice clean teeth and don't endure any pain.

On Wednesday Melissa and I went to her school room to get it arranged. She wanted to get it done so that she doesn't have to worry about letting her substitute do it while she is off with the baby. So we went out and did that in the morning and hung out with some friends in the evening.

After those two days, my THIRD day off (sorry) we just hung out around the house. Melissa took it easy and I caught up on my netflix movies. First was Hot Fuzz. After seeing Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and thoroughly enjoying it I figured I would watch this. I must say, mindless humor is good every once in a while. I also watched Vantage Point which I really enjoyed. It was one that had you on the edge of your seat in a completely different way than most movies.

Other than that I seemed to have taken an interest in John Mayer's music. I never really paid any attention to him before. But I listened to some songs off of his new live CD and I must say I am now a fan. He does a really awesome acoustic version of Tom Petty's 'Free Fallin'. It goes on the playlist for sitting on you back porch chillin' out. Chillin' out, drinking a beer and typing your blog.

-Chas

after a short delay

Sorry its been so long, things have been busy out west for the last few months. The baby should be here in under a month and we are putting the finishing touches on getting everything ready. Here is the baby's room as it is right now. Melissa is having the art teacher at her school put a mural on the wall behind the changing table. So hopefully the ultrasound lady was right when she said it was a boy. Otherwise we'll have a lot of rearranging to do.

Melissa has been good, other than being tired quite a bit. She still seems to be trying to do too much and I keep telling her she needs to rest. Of course she is looking over my shoulder right now laughing at me. Melissa is now saying she is going to start posting things on here so maybe we might have some things worth reading.

We both seem to be missing Pittsburgh a bit more lately since the baby is coming and we won't be able to introduce him to a lot of our friends right away. This might warrant another trip home for a longer period than last time. We were thinking around Christmas time since I already have some time off scheduled. Melissa's Dad and my mother and brother will both be coming out right after the baby is born but there are still a lot of people to see.

As for me, everything is still good at work. Its getting a little rough working EVERY SINGLE FRIGGIN' WEEKEND. Of course, once the baby is here we won't have to worry about much daycare since I am home 3 days a week. I got the pleasure of going through shotgun training for the last 2 days. I'll leave you with a nice picture of the joy that it brought me.

FUN HUH??

-CHAS

Survey Says..........????????

See if you can tell by this picture...........

Well, neither could the ultrasound lady.....from that picture. After several minutes of searching and one prediction of a girl......she was finally able to find the infamous boy parts. So we are having a boy.......a son.....so what did we do to celebrate?? We went and spent way too much money on clothes for the baby. Plus we registered at Babies R' Us. The store was really confusing at first but it better once I remembered to take deep breaths. I tell you on thing, that kid is going to be spoiled.

In other news........the trip home was nice. It was of course way to short and we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to (sorry Lyker's we really wanted to meet Maggie). It made us miss everyone a lot when we had to leave after only seeing them for a couple hours. One thing I didn't really miss is the Pittsburgh winter weather. I know it's technically Spring but the weather is still Winter. That damp, cloudy cold was starting to wear on me after only a few days. It makes me appreciate how good we have it out here with all the sunshine and dry air.

I did get my fill of two things that I missed the most during my first year away from the 'burgh......Primanti's and Yuengling Lager. Boy they both tasted good too. They both need to think about expanding out west. Of course when I was hanging out with a buddy of mine I had to drink a Coors Light with the comment, "It tastes fresher out there", even though it tastes exactly the same.

Well I'm sitting here watching tv and trying to think of things to say, but not getting too far. So I'm gonna cut this post off.

Catch you all later.

Home Again

So, in the first time in over a year, Melissa are heading back to Pennsylvania for a visit. We had been debating on whether or not to go for a few months now. I kept checking airfares and there was never any good fares except for the flight that lasted 12 hours with a layover. The all of the sudden a good fare came up so we took it. The return flight has two layovers but it doesn't take too long, so we can deal with that. Especially since we probably won't be able to make it back again for a long time. Our flight gets into the 'burgh on Tuesday March 25 early in the afternoon and we leave then on Sunday the 30th. Melissa and I are both looking forward to seeing some friends and family that we haven't seen in over a year.

Other than that, everything else is going well, Melissa has been feeling great and has no more morning sickness, or all day sickness as it was in her case. The baby is doing well too, we got the heartbeat again last time at the doctor's and it was good and strong.

Not much more than that going on, life has been pretty boring lately. Hopefully will have more to write here in the next few weeks.

Lag time

Hello all, I hope this new post finds everyone doing well. Its been a while since I have been able to think of anything to write about. Of course that must mean how boring our lives are at this moment right now. Aside from all the baby stuff things have just been pretty stagnant. The weather has been pretty cold most of the time. It gets nice for a day here and there but the motivation to get out and enjoy it usually isn't. Plus I'm usually working on the nice days of course.

The job is going really well. Its nice to have a job when you can wake up every day and not feel miserable about going to work. Sure my line of work can have some high stress situations but it is always fun. Plus it makes me feel like I'm helping other people, although some may not think so!

As for the baby, Melissa is almost at 15 weeks. 5 more and we figure out if we are having a boy or girl. Scary huh? Time is going so fast. And there is so much left to get ready. Lucky enough that we have some AWESOME friends that have given us some essential baby items (high chair, car seat, etc.) Now all I have to do is remodel a basement, and move two rooms around. Should be easy right? Done by August?

That's my new source of motivation. :-)

Lame joke: A man walks into a bar with a giraffe. They both get pissed. The giraffe falls over. The man goes to leave and the bartender says, "Oi. You can't leave that lyin' there." And the man says, "No. It's not a lion. It's a giraffe."

Keep dreaming Pittsburgh

OK, I still love Pittsburgh but I had to make the move out here. Things are very different here and the overall quality of our lives have improved since we moved out here.



SOOOOO, even though something like this happens here.....

The Denver area roads are a million times better than the roads in Pittsburgh.

Now that I've got that out of my system, I can go on in life.

The last few days have been interesting with the pregnancy. Melissa got the flu at the end of the last week. Notice how I don't capitalize the 'f' in flu. I know you don't have to but I am definitely not going to give it the dignitity of standing on its own. The flu has been the bane of my existence in the last few days. It created havoc in Melissa and made her spend two evenings in the hospital for dehydration. But today it seems like she has kicked it in the rear and all is well. I hope this keeps going for the better and damn you flu if I ever see you again.

-Angry

It's a beauty, Clark

I love it out here. This morning and afternoon it was cool out but the sun was shining. I went to get a massage at 6 and there were some flurries flying. Just flurries, maybe a dusting on the ground. An hour later when I walked outside there were about 4 inches on the ground. Then tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny again. And its beautiful out here when the sun is out.

So I started playing hockey on Tuesday, man am I sore. I've only played once since I moved out here and the alititude is killing me on the ice. When I start sucking wind my lungs are on fire. With all the exercising I've done since moving out here, I would have thought it would be a little easier than this. I'm gonna play again tomorrow and hopefully it will get a bit easier the second time. Plus it gets me out of bed earlier in the morning and the mornings are beautiful out here. When the sun comes up and hits the mountains, it is something else.

Well there is not much else going on out here lately. Seems as though its all work these days. Hope all is well with everyone else.

Drunks

I tell ya, I've been coming into contact with a lot more drunk people recently. Usually my experience with people who are intoxicated are friends of mine, or God forbid, family. And all those times when you deal with them under the influence, its just kinda like "yeah yeah, look at you you're a jackass". But its always in good fun.

Nowadays, its like, what the heck is wrong with people. The get all hammered and then go out and drive around. Then its everyone else's fault when they get in an accident or arrested for DUI. Time to face the music people. You made the decision, now live with it.

In other news, Melissa is doing well after we went to the doctor. She was having a lot of morning sickness issues but that all seems to have gone by the wayside.

Before I go. As I sit here at 2 in the morning watching my TIVO'd 3rd round of the Buick Invitational, someone remind me when it starts getting nicer out that I need to play some golf. Its been way too long since I played and its something I want to do.

Enough rambling. I'm tired and hitting the hay.

Sleep Schedule (need to change)

So, for the last 3 months (give or take), I have been working 3 in the afternoon until 1 in the morning. I usually don't work up til 1, usually til around 1230 and make it home around 1. So due to my career, I can't usually fall asleep until between 2 and 3 in the morning. So me being me, I keep thinking that I should be able to get up around 9 oclock so it doesn't feel like I've wasted the day. That would give me around 6 or 7 hours of sleep and I should be ready to go, because I know once little Angry Orris comes along I won't be getting anywhere near that much sleep.

Now do I actually get up that early, HELL NO. I find myself waking up at 11 sometimes 12 oclock. And when I sleep that long it never fails that I seem to wake up with a crazy ass headache. Now, I know what you are saying, "Set an alarm idiot." Yeah I know, but when Melissa gets up for school at 5 in the morning, I'm usually less coherent than when I've had a few drinks and never re-set the alarm. But anyways, this is a problem I'm working on fixing. I need to get in the habit of getting up and taking a jog to get myself ready for the long day.

Now this blog seems to be getting a bit more fun, I seem to be thinking of stuff during the day to put in here so hopefully it won't be a total bore to people who ready it. Maybe one day I can be as good as Jen at http://jayesel.net

I think I'll leave you with a 'Quote of the day':
-"So I broke down and bought the H&K, but now I can't find a holster for it."

This is working REAL well

So apparantly blogging takes more concentration than i thought. People I know have these real witty blogs that they post to several days a week. And me, about once every month and a half. Don't call me dedicated.

But hey I think I might have an excuse. Since they last time I posted, I found out I am going to be a Dad.

So this is my son or daughter, too early to tell which yet. I must say, I've never been more excited for anything in my life. They tell me the baby is about an inch long along with all kinds of other facts that leave me dumbfounded.

I am definitely in for an experience unlike any I have ever had.