Happy New Year

Happy new year! Ang took down all the Christmas stuff today. I was ready the day after, Ang does not call me the "Grinch" for nothing. We celebrated New Years with Tomi and Jeff. All of us went out to Old Chicago at the Peoria riverfront for dinner. I have never been there, I had heard of the famous amount of draft beers they have on tap... It was pretty cool and the food was great. After that, we came home, Linda had been watching all the kids till we got there, later everyone of us proceeded to get schooled by Tomi in "Scene-it TV Edition". Holy cow, we have joked in the past that Tomi must sit around all day and read Trivial Pursuit cards... But it obvious that Tomi has watched her share of TV! I started moving furniture out of the foyer today. This house project will be rolling out over the next 2 weeks. Photos soon.

Wiggles and Quarantine

We went to the Wiggles last weekend in Peoria. Just as I expected, Aiden became bored within 30 minutes. Summer was amused. I have to admit I was amused quite a bit... Captain Feathersword singing in the style of Metallica or Green Day at the request of the Wiggles was certainly not for the kids. They actively tried to keep the parents from falling asleep as well! They may have even played their own instruments too... This is not confirmed though. Ang went to a dinner at the Itoo hall in Peoria tonight. Summer got to hang out with Senator LaHood who sat at the next table. No camera! Sorry! The Stahl house is under quarantine this past week. Everyone, and I mean everyone has been ill with a cold like thing. A big drag! I officially started working on the living room this morning. I did not want to strip all the woodwork, so I have been washing all the wood down with Mineral Spirits. It seemed like a great idea when Bob Yapp talked about doing it... To be honest, I either have weak spirits, or am terribly impatient for something to happen. I dont feel like I am improving anything with the finish of the wood. I am committed now, I have finished 3 windows today, and will continue around the room this week.... With any luck, I will be applying new finish at the end of the week. New paint and light fixture soon after! Check out the house page for images. As part of the reconstruction of the living room, all the toys have been dumped in the old dining room.... Oh my God... You have never seen 2 kids with more junk...

More Bad Luck

I get a call yesterday... Linda has won tickets to the Wiggles.... Seems my bad luck has continued!

Bad Luck

Talk about a string of bad luck! We get home to find that a cat had been locked up in our car... Our new car! Let me tell you about smell! I ended up getting most of that clean. There is still the little issue of 1500.00 in interior repairs that the insurance company is working with me on! Seriously! And yes, the cat did live.... For now! Then, I was lowering storm windows last week and one got me. Really got me! From the full up position one of Summers windows slammed down on 3 of my fingers on my right hand. Ang was not home. The kids were downstairs watching the Wiggles.... I wanted to curse, cry and scream at the same time. It was bad! I removed myself from the window and gently placed myself on the easy chair to watch Wiggles. I think I was whimpering... 2 of my fingers are trashed. Of course it was my writing hand. I had to take a day off work the next day, since my fingers had the look of sausages gone bad. I eventually had to relieve the pressure beneath the nails with some shop tools in the basement. No more details for now. Lets just say that I have not really been able to type till yesterday. More bad luck. I slipped and fell down the back stairs the other night. Ang says it was because I was having a few beers with Dan... But I think I was just in a hurry. I ribs are still killing me! What else? Oh, I had a sty starting to grow on my eye!!!! I quickly handled that with an extreme exercise in hourly washings with alcohol on my eyelid. I did not care! I am already falling apart all over... I don't need some kind of freak eye infection as well. Never had one before... Don't have one now. So, bad luck aside... Its good to be home!

Vacation

Vacation, Day 1 We headed out after I got out of work on Friday night. We were ambitious in thinking that we could get to Nashville by the end of night one. We ended up in Clarksville, just 25 miles out of Nashville. Actually, we ended up spending 45 minutes looking for a hotel with pool. We had promised Summer a swim.... And she was quick to remind us of this. After hitting 5 hotels, none had a pool open, they all had closed for the season. Thankfully Summer was understanding enough to let this promise slide for a day. Day 2 After leaving Clarksville, we headed south towards Atlanta. We were inundated with signs for Ruby Falls. I mean they were everywhere!!! Anyone who has traveled this route knows the billboards for Ruby Falls. They are everywhere! What the heck, we headed for Lookout Mountain and did the tourist thing. It was cool. It was a poor mans Mammoth cave, but the kids liked it. It was a great release for us after spending lots of time in the van. Informally, we had Savannah on our schedule. That is where we are headed tomorrow. Tonight, we stopped driving at Dublin Georgia. Its about 85 miles out of Savannah, so we will have to get an early go of it. Day 3 Dublin was great, but not work sticking around for... Savannah was on our mind. Ang asked the clerk what there was to do in Savannah. "Noth'in" was here answer. She may be right, we don't know... We spent the whole day at Tybee Island. What a great time. Ang said this was the first fun day of our vacation. The kids got too much sun as did the adults. We played in the heavy surf. Summer was game and Aiden was totally freaked out by the waves. It did not help when Ang fell down with Summer trying to get in! ("It's not funny Eric!") We finally left the beach around 3:30... And realized that we had no beach towels. Oops... fortunately, the kids have no pride and I don't have much more. There was a beach shower at the end of the path. We showered the kids there. I did everything but remove my shorts. In the end, I was driving us to lunch-dinner a little wet and a little more clean. We had dinner at Fanny's on Tybee. Pretty good. It was down by the beach. There was a pirate convention going on today in the downtown area. I figured something out today when watching these "pirates". Pirates in Savannah are mostly an excuse for the goth kids to come out dressed up. There must a regional Goth thing going on around the US. We have these trucker hat guys with died go-tees and sideburns in Pekin. Its like Country Goth. I digress. We then hit the road for St. Augustine. No reservations for anywhere in particular. We checked a few places in our Choice Hotels guide. They had a Clarion right on the beach with a bunch of open rooms. We ended up with a giant sized executive room with all the amenities for just 99.00 a night. We will be here two nights. Tomorrow should be lots of beach and sun. I think we will be using the suntan oil! Day 4 That fountain of youth is a rip. I think Ponce said that a few days after his visit to the mythic fountain. I know I shared that point of view after today. We started off bright and early with some stuff and Mom and Dad wanted to do. First, we hit the big fort in town. The kids enjoyed sitting on the cannons and looking at the vintage beds. There was even a room where you had to be 2 ft 5 to get in.... I could have crawled back there, but the kids enjoyed going someplace Mom and Dad could not. Next was Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and mansion. In hindsight, it was probably too intense for the kids. Actually, At one point it was too intense for me! We then hit the last touristy thing that was on our very very short list... The fountain of youth. bucks gets you in the door, a half full Dixie cup of sulfur smelling spring water and a tour of the ruins. It is about that dramatic. The nice part, we hopped out of the tour, looked at some birds, let the kids walk the railroad ties, and then discovered that most everyone was covered in fire ants. Yikes! Ang was first, she came back hobbling... Her leg was tingling, (Its not funny Eric) and she was quite upset. Summer got a bite, and she would not stop scratching. Aiden fell off the railroad tie, and thought it would be fun to roll around in the grass.... Unfortunately the ground occupants did not see the fun. The next thing I know, he has 2 of those buggers on him. We escaped no worse for the wear. We went back to the Clarion for lunch... Pita pockets from Publix the night before. Next was the beach. The tide was ripping! Surfers were everywhere. We had to watch the kids close, every once and a while we had a wave that would wash Aiden over, and keep him rolling. It was kinda funny and he was a good sport. We cleaned up, put Robots in the in room DVD player. Everyone liked that. After a short nap, it was off to Dinner at the local eatery. When we returned from dinner, we headed out to the pool. Aiden was slow to like it, but by the time we were ready to go, he was walking back into the water and swimming by himself. I felt bad taking him out, but I was drained! No more energy here! Fountain of youth my eye! Tomorrow. Its off the beach for one last time, checking out, and heading to Orlando to meet up with Tomi and Jeff. Trick or Treat at the Magic Kingdom! PS, this hispeed internet access at the Clarion is ripping!!! Seriously! Day 5 The beach was a bust in the AM. Overcast and windy. It made for a scenic tour of the beach, but not worth getting in. Of course the kids did not understand that! They still found ways to "accidentally" all in the water. We headed back in to the hotel. The kids swam in the pool for 2 hours and were probably happier than they would have been at the beach. After we were sure that they were tired out, we loaded up the van and headed out to Orlando. That was only 2 and a half hours away! Wow. We really got there too soon. Tomi and Jeff were out doing things, and we had to stall for time. Fortunately, Ang spotted an outlet mall on the way! We got some new shoes and other gear, and then proceeded to get very lost. I am talking Eric and Ang bickering lost. It was miserable. I finally stopped at a Walgreen's and paid 7 bucks for a lousy map. Come to find out we were 10 minutes away. Tomi and Jeff had a timeshare deal for a few days. They invited us to used the other bedroom for as long as we wanted. After haggling with the gatekeeper at the timeshare, we were allowed to enter. There was just enough time to let the kids play in the pool before we headed to Disney. We had ordered tickets for the "not so scary Halloween celebration" at the Magic Kingdom several months ago. I had thought this was going to be a colossal waste of money until I realized shortly into our adventure that we were getting on the rides in record time. The kids were able to trick or treat, and ride 75% of the rides in the park in the span of 4 hours. Wow! That is great. This also meant that any plans for the magic kingdom on Day 6 could be canned! Yeah!!! Guilt free, I was able to save hundreds of extra dollars. We were at the park till 12:30, believe it or not, Summer was still revved and ready for more! Day 6 The kids were generous enough to sleep till 8 am. Uhhhhh. Talk about dragging. I still have a limp! We hung around the time share until our hosts got up. Their kid decided to sleep till 9:30! Oh the luck! Planet Hollywood had free kids meals with Adult purchases... Even so, 4 adults clocked in at 100.00 dollars. That is 3 meals at Larry's for 4 people! Priorities. Actually, the Planet Hollywood in Tampa did have one awesome piece on display.... Laura Palmer's promise necklace from Twin Peaks. That was worth a few bucks to see. We headed Tampa for make a quick stop at Don's. The kids totally dug Shyla... His dog! She proceeded to entertain them with tricks. Don had made me a few CD's from Bob Walkenhorst's show in KC Mizzou that he had attended. You can hear Bob talking to him in the CD. Excellent. Best quote.... "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a Guinness today." I knew I liked the Rainmakers for all the right reasons! He also loaned me a 6 channel mixer for Dan and I's fledgling podcast. Next, Fort Myers. I told Summer we were going over one of the biggest bridges in the world to keep her occupied. We hit the Sunshine Skyway just south of St. Pete on 275. Totally excellent driving if you like looking at water. By 7:00 we were in Ft Myers. Aunt Carla and Uncle Mikes house. Day 7 Beach day! Mike, Carla and the rest of us headed out to Sanibel to Doc Walkers place. The weather could not have been better. Seriously.. It was great. Carla noted the weather had not been this nice in a long time. The waves were low. The kids could wander out into the water without fear. Same for Ang! Aunt Carla had given the kids a gift of a Castle form and a scoop. But every time I created a castle, Aiden knocked it down! I could barely get one wall up before he would run over and knock it down. Paybacks are rough, I will remind him of this behavior next year when he is trying to create something. We ate lunch at the beach. Carla had us stop at the hardware store before we went out. She had some crafts with plaster she wanted to do in the sand. Ang, Carla and the kids made creations while I sat in the water and Mike read a book. Once we got back, the kids totally crashed! Till 6 PM! Aiden and Summer hopped in the pool after their naps... Aiden now swims all over the pool with his water-wings. Very cool to see him confident in the water. This was also the first time I could stay out of the pool and just watch them. Believe it or not, I was getting water-logged by this point in the trip! Day 8 It was like beach day #2. Not a whole lot of variation on day 1. I did help make a sculpture... It was the best. Mike did not come out to the beach. Aiden almost drowned. Yeah, I was watching him, but a few waves snuck up on him and Summer. Next thing I know, he is up to his nose in water, and his eyes are staring a hole through me! I ran like Hasselhoff to the surf. Grabbed him and he started crying. I think it was probably a good thing to happen to him, he kinda stayed away from the deep water after that. (Am I tough on these guys or what?) Otherwise it was a continuation of Day 1. The sunscreen was getting spread pretty liberal at this point as well. After the kids naps we headed out to Fort Myers beach for dinner. Pete's Time-Out was packed, but a new place right next door had lots of tables out on the sidewalk. Wahoo Willey's. (Sounds like a bad Fairbury Bar) Wahoo's was great. Delicious food, and great service. Plus, this look right down at the water. We headed out the pier. The kids dug that. Grabbed a treat at DQ, the kids dug that too! Headed back to Carla and Mikes. Day 9 We started out back home. New route home suggested by the relatives. Nashville via Tallahassee and Montgomery Alabama... Looks further on the map, but we made it in better time than I thought. We left at 9 EST. Hit a McDonalds with a Play Area in Gainesville for an hour. Had dinner at a Cracker Barrel just north of Montgomery. Arrived in Clarksville at 10 PM CST. Not bad! Day 10 Once again, we left late. Aiden destroyed the continental breakfast area at the Comfort Inn. I had to apologize to the poor woman cleaning up, and we promptly ran out. After leaving Clarksville at 9:30... We arrived at our house at 2:30. It left me plenty of time to mow the lawn.. Whoopee! Welcome home!

Rage vs Poi Dog

What a morning. I ran into the DMV this morning to get a sticker for the truck... I expected to stand there in line for an hour, but instead, I walk right up and am the first person in line... When was the last time that happened to you? That was excellent. I was happy, and as luck would have it, I had grabbed some Poi Dog Pondering the other day for the truck. Very cool, I was feeling really calm and cool with the combination of good luck and Poi. I get home and start working on my bike, the pedal is broken... I picked up parts at Little Ade's this past week to fix it. Every thing is going good until the pedal would not come off the pedal shaft. I tried everything. I broke a craftsman wrench, I heated it, and tried other tools. Pipes for leverage... You name it, none of it worked! I was getting more and more pissed by the second. Actually, by the time the wrench broke, I was raging. I grab all the parts associated with this disaster and head back into town... Rev the truck up and get ready to lay a patch on the road with my newfound rage... Then I realize that I was not in optimum anger conditions.... Poi was still on my CD player, and it was all I had with me! If you don't know Poi, then you don't get this, but its true. You cannot listen to Poi Dog while angry... Does not work.

Getting back to normal

We have settled back down to our routines around here. It has really been a long 2 weeks. As I said before... I don't really have a comment for the blog on what happened. It was freakishly bizarre. Honestly, none of this fully struck me until we had the service at the church. We (Ang, Dan and I) had gone down to Kentucky to collect personal items at the house the weekend after it all happened. I really hardened up my mind not to think about it while I was there. It worked so well that I had bottled myself up till that day at church. It is hard to let go of someone like my Grandfather. He was a wonderful soul, and his passing really does make you believe that there must be a better place. He was the greatest.