Simon's Room

It's almost done. We're just waiting on the glider/autumn now.
I don't EVER want to put together another piece of furniture as long as I live. :) But I know I will. Look at it this way, it's good practice for all those toys I'm going to have to assemble at Christmas time.


And my wife is allowing me to post her picture too. Just because it's the only picture of Simon we have so far. LOL.

I still can't believe he'll be here soon. Real soon!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE look again!

It almost happened yesterday (Wed) on the way home from work. I was almost a road pancake. By the grace of God (I firmly believe he was riding on the passenger seat with me), I was able to use what I learned in the MSF class and NOT become like a bug on a windshield.
I want to preface this post with: I WAS NOT RIDING LIKE A CRAZY PERSON. I WAS BEING VERY RESPONSIBLE (because I don't want to become a statistic).
I was on my way home on my motorcycle, traveling North on Hillside Road. I do NOT have a stop sign at the intersection (Huntsville Corners). A minivan at the stop sign on State Route 1005 did not look AGAIN. Pulled right out in front of me. Again, by the grace of God, I didn't go down, but my saddlebags did graze their back bumper. And they didn't even stop. I pulled over by Huntsville Dam (because I was shaking so bad...and I wanted to make sure I didn't pee my pants), a different vehicle stopped to see if I was OK.....only to have the car behind them start honking their horn and yelling to "MOVE IT!". WOW. Unbelievable.
Funny thing is......I didn't get mad. I got disappointed that the person didn't stop, and that other's didn't care about anything except getting to where they had to get to. Oh well, that's my problem I guess.

The big reason for this post though, isn't to tell you I had the daylights scared out of me. It's not to tell you how I almost met my maker yesterday......it's to BEG you....LITERALLY...I'm on my knees here.......BEGGING......PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE....when you're at an intersection, or changing lanes, or turning anywhere......PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE look AGAIN. We motorcycle riders aren't anywhere as big as cage (car/truck/van/suv/etc). You WILL overlook us if you don't look again. And you may end up KILLING us.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to let us rule the road....I've got a TON of things I have to do on my part......look 12 seconds ahead, cover the brake/clutch, pretend I'm invisible, etc. And I plan on doing everything I can to be safe for me, and for you as well. Really. I don't want to end up in the passenger seat of your vehicle (unless you're giving me a ride somewhere :))

The weather is nice, and we're all over the place. Please, for the love of life, look again! I want to be around when my son is born.

PLEASE!

May Day weekend

This past weekend was, I think, the nicest weekend weather-wise we've had. (Wow, say THAT 10 times fast).

Saturday was a day that was chock-full of stuff. It started out at 4:30AM. I get up, shower, gear up, pull the bike out of the barn, and as it's warming up, I noticed this......

Whoooo HOOOOOOOO!!!! 4 thousand miles I've ridden since December 2008. :) And the good thing is, I haven't killed myself yet. :) (God forbid). Reference here.

So I ride to work at 4:45AM, and by the time I got 4 miles into the ride...I was FREEZING cold. It was a chilly morning. Now, I still have PLENTY of time to get to work, so I stopped at Sheetz, got a cup of coffee and warmed up. I also put the full-fingered gloves on, the neoprene face mask, and zippered up every zipper on BOTH jackets. Made it to work with plenty of time to spare, and wasn't an icicle.
For the next few hours, I played Continuous Soft Rock, gave some stuff away, and had a pretty good shoe. Then I went to breakfast with one of my first interns. She was in the neighborhood, so we ran down to the local diner and enjoyed artery clogging eggs, bacon and coffee. Plus we had a lot of catching up to do. She's doing great, and I'm so happy for her.

Home I went...now SWEATING my brains out. The temperature shot up into the 80's by the time we were done with breakfast, and I still had all those layers (and not enough room in my saddlebags). Needless to say, I made it home without dehydrating (too badly). Once I got the bike back in the barn, stripped off the 74.3 layers, I noticed this amazing aroma wafting through my yard. The lilacs are in FULL-bloom, and they smell wonderful!

A friend of mine showed up at my house around 2:30, and we went fishing.....for the whole afternoon AND evening. The weather was wonderful. It was so relaxing. Plus we caught ooodles of fish. Tony is now known as the "Crappie-KING". Everything he threw in the water, wherever we were, he caught crappies. He did whack a few perch, bass and pickeral too. I, of course, had my fair share of pickeral, and bass.

That's not the lunker of the day, but it was a nice fish altogether. We ate hoagies/subs/grinders/whatever you want to call them, fished, drank oodles of water, and I had a great, relaxing day.
I also slept wonderfully that night! The Mrs. woke me up early enough on Sunday for us to have our traditional breakfast at the local restaurant, and off we went looking for a dresser for Simon's room.
We've looked at so many dressers, they all look the same to me now. I wouldn't know what I was looking at anymore. I did see one thing though that made me laugh (to myself of course).

That chair is a VERY small chair. It's for little kids. I was going to sit in it for a reference in size, but I'm too big. THAT'S how small it is. It's cute. It would be cool for a little kid.........but ONE thing made me wonder. See the cup holder? It's for a cup! Right?

I don't know if you can read that (click on it to make it bigger), but what little kid will be using that as an ashtray? Funny stuff.

So, all-in-all, this past weekend was good. Too short, but good. :) I got to ride my bike, I got to see an old friend, I got to go fishing, and I got to spend time with my pregnant, hormonal, cranky......oh wait....wonderful, thoughtful, caring, VERY ALTRUISTIC wife. :) She knows I'm teasing







I hope.