"There's no place like home..."

Getting ready for a quick visit... it's been too long since we've seen Mom and Dad. It will be quick, and jam-packed, but still nice.

If you're a friend living in the Philly area, I probably won't have much time at all apart from family things, so please forgive me if I don't get a chance to visit. Just sayin'...

Something tells me this guy's gonna have some problems at home, even if McCain DOES win the election.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-10-14-baby-politicalname_N.htm?csp=34

 

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — A new father has secretly named his baby girl Sarah McCain Palin after the Republican ticket for president and vice president. Mark Ciptak of Elizabethton put that name on the documents for the girl's birth certificate, ignoring the name Ava Grace, which he and his wife had picked earlier.

"I don't think she believes me yet," he told the Kingsport Times-News. "It's going to take some more convincing."

Posting to blogger can be fun

Jsut checking to see if this still works...

 

The Phillies won GAME 1 LAST NIGHT! Yahoooooo! I was reading Shane Victorino's blog (Phillies CF) about how/why he got thrown out at the plate...

 

"Oh, and on my trying to score on that shallow fly ball. That was a  miscommunication between Steve Smith and myself. I heard, 'go.' He said, 'No.' B.J. Upton made a great play and has got a great arm. I don't know why I tried to test him there. But we got the win, and that's all it's about. We were able to overcome some things tonight and pull out a win."

 

Here's what Dad has to say...

 

"From my blog" . . .  Good coaching would be to position yourself to be in sight of the runner and then drop your upraised arm at the moment of the catch (if you want to try to score the runner) - or give the stop sign if you're not going to have him break.  We all learned in school that the speed of sight is faster than the speed of sound.

 

I tell ya, I learned from the best! Go Coach Rezer!

Those Phightin' Phils!

Wowwwweeeee! I'm so excited I can scarcely contain myself. Those of you who know sports know that this doesn't happen for Philadelphia fans very often... so you'll need to excuse our complete and utter ecstacy right now!

It's been a lot of fun watching the games over the past few weeks, and one thing that's been even more fun is being able to watch parts of some of them with Sarah. While I can't say that she's a baseball fan AT ALL (she would rather watch football if given the choice), she knows quite a bit about sports in general, including knowing retired player names and things like the fact that the Dodgers used to be from Brooklyn. How many non-NYer women know that? Very few, I expect.

While watching the games, recently she's come up with a few comments recently that had be rolling. Let the quoting begin:

S: "Is that the manager?" (referring to Phils skipper Charlie Manuel)

J: "Yep."

S: "He looks like HE's had a few beers... look at his belly! It's all pointy..."




and referring to Manny Ramirez, Dodgers OF:



S: "Whooooaa -- what's up with HIS hair?"



and the best of all, referring to Manny's helmet...



S: "What's up with his batting helmet? It's all full o' crap..."

J: "Probably just pine-tar. They use it on their gloves to keep the bat from slipping."

S: "Well it looks like someone took a crap all over his helmet... it's NAAAASTY!"

(Sorry this is an old picture... apparently he liked spreading pine tar all over his helmet in Boston too!)

Just keep winning...

This is all I have to say...

Michigan, OSU -- here we come!!!

Since my last post...

I have lost two straight games. Hopefully we can turn that tide this week with a win and improve to 4-2. I've had some tough luck, leaving some guys on the bench that played well and at the same time having my stars get shut down unexpectedly... but "Them's the breaks..." I also tied a game last week and ended up losing on the tiebreaker, which was Fantasy D points allowed. What can you do? I won a game the same way earlier in the season, so I figure it's all karma, baby.

More to come... but first, a video of Ethan's 3rd birthday! We had a blast. Make sure you check out the photo gallery on Picasa!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrezer/Ethans3rdBirthday

Just to pat myself on the back...

Yes folks, the Gridiron Gurus are in first...

No thanks to ToOrry Holt and Ryan Grant.

But many thanks to my brother Rich.

:-)

Hannah is moving Eastward...

The updated storm track has our lovely Miss Hannah further off Florida's Atlantic coast than previously expected... so that's GOOD. Keep praying she stays out there in the water where she can't hurt anyone.

Hannah cometh

Oh, perfect.

Disney Time = Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue

Hannah Time = Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun... who knows?

Better start praying now... :-(

Fun with ladders

Got a prayer request for someone from our church who recently fell off a ladder and broke his pelvis. What's up with all this ladder falling?

So, during my search for a graphic that I could use to create some Facebook Flair touting the importance of doing tandem-ladder-thingy-stuff, I came across this page. Somehow I don't think this is what was meant when they say "Never climb a ladder alone..."

View all the latest entries for the OSHA-sponsored Darwin Awards here. The pictures speak for themselves:

http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/05/wheres-osha-when-you-need-em/

And if you want to climb a ladder... PLEASE... CALL ME! :-)

IT SHALL BE MINE AGAIN!!!

Muaaahahahhhhaaaaahaha!

Unlike the winners from 2005 and 2006, I am returning to play this year and will allow the league to TRY and win some of their money back. How generous am I?

Ethan strikes again

He is now singing the alphabet... BACKWARDS. No joke. Daddy and Mommy started singing it to him cause he thought it was funny, and now he has memorized it after hearing it only 5 or 6 times. I believe there's a video coming...

We were over hanging out with Charlie Hines (our Music Pastor) and his wife Traci, and we told them about it and they didn't believe us... until he actually did it. I love watching the look on people's faces when he does it. If I get this much enjoyment out of little things like this, I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when he hits his first homer or scores his first touchdown... :-)

The kid is FREAKY. I love him!

Medical Update 2

Just to update you all...

Rich came home mid last week... the doctors were amazed that he wasn't more injured than he was. No memory loss, and no muscle/nerve damage, etc etc... he does have a cracked sinus plate, but they are fairly sure at this point that it will heal within 6 weeks without the need for surgery.

I believe he is taking some time off from work and then continuing with vacation plans the following week. The key at this point is to keep his 100lb+ dog from jumping on him... needless to say that has the potential to hinder the recovery. :-)

He seems to be in good spirits... I want to thank everyone for your prayers!

Medical update

For anyone checking here, just wanted to let you know that so far Rich is doing well. He's a bit banged up with a broken left forearm (BOTH bones), a cracked/chipped tooth, black eye and some other scrapes and bruises. Other than the pain, he's doing quite well... and seemed to be in good spirits when I called and spoke with him the other day. He was hoping to be released today if all goes well, but they are still monitoring him for a possible cracked sinus plate. They are hoping to be able to treat with antibiotics, however if there is any leakage of sinus fluid they'll need to operate. We DON'T want that -- so please keep him in your prayers.

For those who hadn't heard about the accident -- Rich slipped off a ladder while cleaning his gutters at home and landed HARD on the driveway. Compund fracture of the left arm. OWCH. He was taken to U of Penn Hospital and he's hanging in there. There is a 4-6" plate in his arm with a bunch of screws that will need to be there for at least 12 months...

Things my son does that really freak me out...

Sometimes it's scary. Like really freaky scary... not BOO scary. :-)

I'm going to start a list here of things he does that make me stop and ponder how crazy his memory really is... prepare yourself... and remember that the kid is 2 and a half.

Today we were counting stairs at church. Not "1, 2, 3..."mind you. We got up to 22... cause there were a lot, of course. And he likes to count. He can go up to 100 by himself. And sometimes he'll do it by himself in bed just to pass the time... but that's not the freaky scary part.... After getting up to 22, we walked around the corner, stopped for a chat with someone, etc, and then there was another set of stairs -- but he didn't start over at 1. He picked up right where he left off a few minutes earlier... "23, 24, 25.... 31, 32..." Seriously, kid...

The other day I made up a stupid little verse to the classic kiddy song "The Wheels on the Bus"... and sang it ONCE about 3 days ago. He started singing it today all by himself, unprompted.

I planned on teaching him "Take me out to the Ballgame" for Pop's visit in July as a surprise and planned ahead by a week to make sure we had enough time. Ethan learned it COLD after singing it 3 times in one night.

He also learned the Lord's Prayer and can recite it all by himself...

Methinks he's got his mommy's memory and his daddy's affinity for numbers and patterns. I think it's gonna prove to be a scary situation for his teachers... when he finally gets into nursery school. I really am frightened for them...

What do I Need?...

So a bunch of friends of mine have started this little internet experiment... just type your name and "needs" into Google and post the results if you want to play along... you might want to put both items in quotes for better results.

Here are my top 10 answers:

10. Jeff needs a nap.

(ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz....)

9. Jeff needs to stay away from high profile...

(apparently whoever wrote this needs to learn how to finish their sentences)

8. Jeff needs a drink!

Don't we all?

7. Jeff needs to remember the tiny size of the Kindle market in the grand scheme of things.

HUH? I don't need to steeeenkin' firewood!

6. Jeff needs people in Myanmar.

Again?

5. Jeff needs a tan.

Burn baby, burn. They don't call me the Human Lobster for nothing, you know. You gotta EARN that nickname.

4. Jeff needs to see some movies [apparently]...

I only wish I knew what they were.

3. Jeff needs to Dance!

Too Bad SYTYCD is over for this year

2. Jeff needs YOU!!!

I'm gonna send this slogan to the US Army and see what they can do with it. It has potential...

...and the NUMBER ONE thing Jeff needs...

1. Jeff needs to fix my ^&*!er!!!!!

I'm NOT retyping this one. Google it and YOU find out what it says!

The words I use...

Sarah sent me a cool link... this online program called "Wordle" actually generates a map of all the words you use on your site in their relative weightings... larger words appear more, smaller words appear less. Pretty cool.

Glad to see Ethan and Sarah are two of the biggest words on there... although I AM surprised I don't see BEER anywhere! :-)



(click for a larger version)

Ma and Pa Re

Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow! We can't wait! It's been 3-4 months since we've seen them, and this visit will be a little longer AND over a weekend, so I'll actually get to spend more time with them than just the evenings! Last time they came it rained almost the whole time as well, so hopefully we'll be able to do some things outside this time!

In other news...

I rescued a little white dog yesterday... she was very cute, and very friendly, but had no leash and no dog tag. Nada. We live one house in from a busy street, and this doggie wouldn't have had a chance if she decided to take a stroll a bit past our yard...

So I scooped her up and Ethan and I trekked off down the street looking for the owner. Asked about a half-dozen people and nobody knew who she belonged to. Great.
So I headed home, put the doggie in the backyard and went inside to tell Sarah. After an attempt to get her to drink something (she didn't), we all set off down the street again, this time with the doggie on a leash. I was not about to give her another 30-minute-long "free ride". Luckily the first person we asked on the street saw the dog and said "Oh, yeah... she's mine..." Nice. Glad you were so concerned.

Time to blog again

Things have died down at work recently, as we're in between projects, so I decided it would be a good time to blog while having lunch. I am quite the multi-tasker.

Ethan scares me.

Seriously.

I think his brain might explode if he continues learning at this pace.

You may laugh, but it really does concern me that he's getting so intelligent -- it's going to be difficult for his teachers (once he starts going to school) to challenge him since he's already doing things that 4 and 5 year-olds are learning. His most recent accomplishment is that he pretty much can write ALL of his letters by himself, and now he's starting to write words. I've even seen him sound out words that peopls asked him to write and then come up with the letters that matched the sounds and then write them down. Are you kidding me?

He learns SO quickly -- in most cases, we give him something and after 3 or 4 tries, he pretty much has it down. I was planning on surprising "Pop" the other day by getting E to learn how to sing "Take me out to the ballgame". I figured I'd give him a week or so.

He learned it in ONE night.

So Mom and Dad are coming in a week! WE are super excited here, and are already thinking of ways we can spend the time together! This time we're not doing anything special at church, and they're able to come over a weekend instead of during the week, so I'll have much more time to spend with them... which is way cooler! I'm glad that Ethan will be able to spend more time with them, and even though our webcam sessions are great, a camera can't give a HUG!

Still struggling through finances. I put this out there not as a request for help but more of a way to honestly document my feelings and not hide from it. Sarah and I really don't spend money on frivolous things or things for ourselves -- it's more about spending money on "life" things... bills, house, etc... and there isn't ANYTHING left over at the end. We've tried everything short of something MAJOR like selling a car or something... but even selling the Van would put us in a hole cause we owe about $8K more on it than it's worth... if not more. We can't refinance to take advantage of low interest rates cause we don't have enough built up in equity to qualify. Even the extra money I'm making from web design clients and hosting ends up being spent on groceries and things.

I struggle with the idea of taking a second job cause I know it will really run me down, and I don't want to spend even more time away from the family, but it's getting to that point where I might just need to do it for a while to help dig us out and build our reserves back up again. Sarah is also looking into opps for employment, but having Ethan at home, needing to find and pay for childcare, and really needing weekends off for church really digs into most of the employment options (read: "retail") that would really fit our schedule. She's looking into AVON at this point and we may go that route... it seems like it might be a better alternative than PartyLite considering our home situation and schedule. Please say a prayer for us as we continue working through it all.

Ok - work calls. Thank goodness for Fridays and early dismissal at 3pm!

Long time, no blog

As usual, a lot of news to report... first, the most recent...

Sarah, E and I had a chance to get away this past weekend and get "back to nature". My supervisor at work has a cabin in the Hocking Hills area that is absolutely GORGEOUS and we were blessed to be able to spend a few days there relaxing, spending time outdoors, adventuring and all kinds of other fun stuff. The cabin looked to be only a year or two old and was beautiful -- a real log home, all wood, but outfitted with modern conveniences like electric, A/C, plumbing, stove, fridge, the works... we had an awesome time! I'm sure we'll be blogging and posting pix, but I wanted to at least get this bit up here ASAP.

Another fun thing I got to do this past week was FINALLY surprise my wife. I've been trying for YEARS without much success... Sarah is the QUEEN of surprises and always seems to figure things out before they actually happen. Usually it's my fault cause I do something stupid like leave my Email up so she can see it, or say something incriminating... but this time, it WORKED! We got a chance to go see James Taylor at Riverbend, an outdoor venue outside Cincinnati, and I was able to get the tickets and everything without her knowing. I even made her drive. AWESOME! She thought we were going to go stargazing at the Cincy Observatory (another gift I'd promised), so the fact that we needed to wear cool clothing and bring a water bottle and blanket made sense. There was even an overhead blinky roadsign on the way that said something about "Concert Traffic" that she totally missed... thank goodness. Needless to say, it was a great evening, and the weather was PERFECT. I told her she'd better remember this night cause I might not be able to pull something like it off again for another 5 years or so. :-)

This week's gonna be nuts cause my boss is out and we've got a ton to do -- new product releases and website launches -- so I guess I'd better get back to it... pix to come.