Such a neglegted blog

So I need to at least get that other post off the top of the page.

Nothing much going on other than the little guy is growing like crazy. Last Drs. appointment he was almost 16 pounds and that was over a month ago. He's 5 months old now. He's starting to sit up a little, he usually ends up falling backwards. He hates being on his stomach but seems to like standing up if I hold his hands.

Nothing much new with us. I'm working with a new team since the beginning of the year. I still watch all the Pens games even though they suck right now.

So there is the lame "update" post.

Take care.

Chas

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