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.

I've been tagged

Deb tagged me in a blog cause I whined last time she didn't tag me, so
I guess that means I've got to play along this time. Bummer I already
posted for the day... I coulda sued this post instead. :-)

Rules:
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers
the questions about himself or herself. At the end of the post, the
player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their
blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged
and asking them to read your blog.

Ten years ago:
1998. I was rockin' the east coast in one of the area's premiere cover
bands, Flip Like Wilson. Just started dating a girl who I'd date for
close to 5 years, and I was still living in Philly. Had started my own
consulting company and really was just working weekends with the band
and taking an occasional job.

Five things on today's "to do" list:
1. Figure out why the crap Google Analytics isn't tracking storefront
item detail pages
2. Work with Sarah on upcoming work assignment.
3. Do Dishes. Feed Dogs. Change Diapers. All that other house nonsense.
4. Go through music for tomorrow evening's Shareholders event at Vineyard.
5. Figure out how to prioritize all the other things from my to-do list

Three bad habits:
1. Too much TV and not enough one-on-one time with Sarah
2. Eating out way too much
3. Too much time on email

Five places I've lived:
1. Havertown, PA (SW Philly suburb)
2. State College, PA (Go Nittany Lions!)
3. King of Prussia, PA
4. Montgomery Village/Gaithersburg, MD
5. Cincinnati, OH

Five jobs I've had:
1. Drive Thru Convenience Store Clerk
2. Asst. Title Clerk
3. Web Designer
4. Director of IT
5. Manager of Online Advertising

I will tag:
1. Keith
2. Dan
3. YOU!

Memorial Day fun

Had a great time this weekend... a lot going on, and a lot not going
on. Just the way I like it.

Got a chance to go spend Memorial Day picnicing and playing at a local
park. Sarah and I got a picnic lunch together the day before,
consisting of sandwiches, fruit salad, hummus (Yummus!) and pita chips
and some Orangina. Mimi accompanied us and we sat underneath a big
shade tree and ate lunch, Ethan ran around like a crazy man and
learned a new game -- Duck Duck Goose. Thanks Mimi... he won't stop
saying it now. :-)

There was a "thank you" party at church for all members of the tech
team, so we also got a chance to go and hang out and eat free food.
Nothing wrong with that... They also had a Wii setup on a large screen
and had Rock Band running in another corner of the room. I think Ethan
is obsessed, and although I'm not sure right now if he's gonna be a
singer, keyboardist, guitarist or drummer in the future Rezer Rock
Band, I do know that he may go the Jimi Hendrix route and play
left-handed... it was all I could do to get him to hold that guitar
controller the "right" way... he kept wanting to hold it like a lefty.
On another "note", he is starting to match pitch, and his songs now
have a distinct melody and his relative pitch is SPOT ON! It's
amazing...

Speaking of amazing, Ethan is up to like 50 words now (or so it seems)
and is starting to recognize words INSIDE of other words... the best
examples are seeing ETHAN in "Ethan Allan" and NO inside of words like
"KNOW" and "NOT". He also knows the difference between TO and TWO (as
in "T-O- that spells 'to'... not the number..."). Crazy. I got him to
also start counting backwards... and not just 5-4-3-2-1. He's starting
at TWENTY. Yipes. There may be a future for him as a NASA launch
operator. "20-19-18... BLASTOFF!"

We served in the band all weekend as well, so all in all it was a full
weekend. Glad to be back at work (I think) cause there's a lot to do,
but I wish I coulda had another day of doing a lot of nothing. :-)

I used to have cool musician toys...

I recently decided that in order to make some extra money for
vacation, I would start selling stuff that's now not being used
anymore and sitting on my shelves and laying around the house. A 19"
flat panel digital monitor, some powered speakers, and... my theremin.
(GASP!)

Seriously though, I can't say that I ever really used it... it was one
of those cool music toys that I bought when I had money. Now I don't
have money... and I need money... so I sold it. End of story. I am no
longer cool. :-)

Can I just say that I love CraigsList? I posted this (and some other
items) last night and by morning I already had 3 inquiries! We sold
our couch and love seat earlier in the year and now I think we really
need to purge and start getting serious about what we need and what we
DON'T need -- and then spend the time and energy to list the items and
sell them.

Remote Blogging can be fun

This is so much easier that logging in to my blog and then posting.
Most times the page doesn't even load all the way, and then I have to
refresh and do all kinds of other adjustments because of the bandwidth
shortage and firewall issues here at work. But this is much happier.
Yay for Email blogging.

Sarah and I started working on a new site for the Moms group she's
going to be involved with again -- same group, only now our friend Amy
is taking over the leadership role, and Sarah is thinking that this
new direction is going to be a welcome change and will appeal to her
much more. She's really been getting into the web stuff, and is doing
quite well. Most of the changes she's making herself, including
designing graphics, etc. Check out the coolio logo she made (while we
are getting the site set up). She's really quite talented!

http://morethanjustmoms.com

Words to live by

I sure am glad I can post this way now.

Posting remotely

I love technology. I love the fact that I could post to my blog from
my phone if I wanted to. I just don't want to right now.

Today we're in post-party-slowdown-mode. Sarah V stayed over last
night, we took her to Skyline for her first Cincinnati-style chili,
and we'e getting ready to head out to Ikea for some window shopping
and Swedish meatballs after finishing a rousing game of Ticket To
Ride. Ah... Sundays.

My Little Brainiac

Ethan's getting so FREAKING smart. I'm not sure if he's actually just brilliant or if he's got a photographic memory, but he's doing some things that are really freaking me out.

Ethan's got this little puzzle with cut out pieces of race cars, all with their own numbers from 1-10. They are out of order on the puzzle, and are alos all different shapes. I was handing him the pieces the other day and he was putting it together SO fast -- hardly even looking at the pieces -- that I decided to test him. First I picked up each piece and asked "Where does this go?" and he promptly took it and placed it in the spot. Then, I actually held the pieces BACKWARDS (so the BLANK side was showing -- just the car outline) and asked what numbers they were.... and he got 8 out of 10 right. Then -- I asked him where the pieces went -- BACKWARDS again -- and he got them ALL right. So basically this means that either he has memorized the shapes and the numbers and the positions on the board, or he's got some sort of crazy spatial recognition ability of some sort. Either way, it floored me.

He also reads about 30 words now. Every night he's reading flashcards like RUN, STOP, GO, YOU, etc as well as recognizing the diff between GOD and DOG. He also has a number of CAT-HAT-FAT books that he blows through in about 30 seconds. Crazy. I want to encourage him to continue on this path, and Sarah is doing an amazing job, but I am seriously frightened that at some point he will be smarter than me. Like maybe even next year.

Well, at least he still poops in his pants. I've at least got THAT still over him. :-)

Birthday Parties and Backyard Swamps

So we got to celebrate two events this week... Mother's Day and Sarah's 30th! Needless to say it was made a little stressful by the fact that I was participating in a conference at church (2 all day sessions, one of them being on Sarah's actual Bday), we had way more things that we needed to purchase than we had money for, and E was a little out-of-sorts. We made it through thanks to some help from friends and family, a few well-times phone calls, Emails and visits, and a nice party that we managed to have today. Sarah V came down from Indy, and Headoo & Co. came up from KY, along with Benji & Liz from IL. We made all kinds of yumminess, including some creme brulee ice ream in our ice cream maker! We also had a great cake made specially for S by a woman from church who just started her own business.



Ethan had a great time playing ball with Uncle Benji and Aunt Lizzie outside, and they even got to play ring around the rosie too!




During the week, we got to go out to eat at a new place near church, plus we escaped on Thunight to go see a 2nd run of "Vantage Point" at the Dollar Saver theater near our house while Mimi watched E. All in all, I think everything came out great.

Oh -- and I got a chance to cut the grass! Finally! Now I can actually see the dogs when they go outside... and they don't get swallowed up in the Bog. It was a bit tricky, since our backyard kinda resembled a minefield with the puddles of water, dog doodies and tree roots every 3 feet or so. I had to keep the lawnmower on its back wheels just to be able to push it around... but eventually it all got completed. Not looking forward to the next mow....

Ethan's Noggin

Ethan is quite the active child, and yesterday's experience only goes to prove that fact...

About 5 minutes from the end of the last service at church, I looked up on the screen and saw Ethan's number on the "kid call" monitor... the digital sign where they post numbers of the children that are in need of parental assistance. Since Ethan never has had a problem like this -- EVER -- I figured that something out of the ordinary must have happened... and I was right.


Apparently he fell and hit his "noggin" and ended up with 1/2" long split in his forehead over his right eye. He was absolutely fine, but we ended up having to go over to get 2 stitches at Children's Hospital. After talking with him about the incident, we found out that he fell because
"David pushed him" and David pushed him because "I took his drink". Well there... that settles it.

He was gret at the doc, and they were very good with him -- told him that when they put him in the restraints, it was like he was going to be getting a big "hug" and that he could have a lollipop afterwards. He did, and all was good.

I'm so glad E has Sarah's pain tolerance -- and that he's so chill about everything. It was a long afternoon, but yet another instance of E performing well under pressure... :-)