A Red Bull

This is another item on display in my office that not many people get to see. It belonged to my grandmother who had it on her top shelf for as long as I can remember when we would visit. Over top of the shelf was a picture of a brass bull with a red background that my brother inherited. It is a little out of place amongst much of my stuff. But I always loved it at my grandmother's house and I still think of her everytime I see it. How about you? Do you have anything in your house that doesn't really make sense to others, but is there as a reminder for you?

Seth's Birthday

Saturday was my nephew's birthday. He turned 18. I was almost a horrible uncle and almost forgot to call him. He is by far my favorite teenager in the world. He is a really great kid (well I guess adult now) and one of the hardest workers you'll ever find. He is going to school in October to learn auto maintenance. He goes by Tim these days instead of Seth which is his middle name. His father's name was Tim and was probably the best friend I will ever have. If you want to know more about him I have a separate blog about my Tim Stories.

I wish I could have been there for his 18th birthday this weekend. But I am glad I was able to go and see him graduate from alma mater. He did so on the same football field I had graduated on almost 15 years to the day. Well I just wanted to tell you a little about my wonderful nephew. The picture is of him and one of my other all time favorite people, his sister Rachael. I tell you about her and her wonderful little boy some other day.

Being a parent

When was the first time you realized you were a parent? I mean when your little one is first born you have a sense of pride and awe of the responsiblity you now have. But for me it really hit me about a year and half after Anna was born. We were out picking out pumpkins at a local greenhouse. We were walking through the dirt stone parking lot when a big truck rumbled past and made a loud noise. Anna jumped and grabbed my leg. That was when it truly hit me for the first time that I was now officially a dad. I reminded myself today of that importance...

So if you read yesterday's blog and have seen "Stranger than Fiction" you can understand why I was thinking about life in general last night. Where is life going? Whose story am I part of? Then this morning I am watching my girls on my own while Amber enjoys a full 13 hour (well she left 30 minutes late so 12 and 1/2 hour) day of scrapbooking. I walked them down to the park near our house. It is only 4 or 5 blocks away but there is no sidewalk after 2 or 3 blocks. So we are walking along the road when my girls hold my hand for the last part of the walk. We get to the park and I give them pushes on the swings and help them on the slides. (That's about it, it is a very small park.) Then as we begin our trek home they hold my hands again until we get to the sidewalks again.

As I am holding my girls hands on the way back home I realize whose story I am a big part of. I may not be learning to play the guitar or traveling the world. But I am pushing my girls on swings and keeping them to and from the park. What more important role could one be playing in a story than that?

Stranger than Ficition

Just finished watching this movie. This is such a good movie. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. If you have share in my experience of watching this movie and only moments later reading this blog entry of a friend of mine.

My collection of cups

I wasn't sure what to name this collection. Cups, mugs, steins? I went with cups, but as you can see it varies. Most of them are used for drinking either ice tea or hot tea. Since I posted my new favorite drink yesterday I thought I would make a series of posts of my favorite things. The next one was going to be my favorite "cup" This first one below. But then I realized I have this collection most of which sit on a shelf in my office and are rarely seen. So I may get back to the series of my favorites, but for now I am going to start a series of things that I display in my office that are rarely seen. Starting with my "cup" collection.


This one I bought at the
Ohio Renaissance Festival last year.


This one if you had really good eyes could see
I bought this one at the
Maryland Renaissance Festival in 1998.


This one was a gift from Lee, one of my best friends,
for being best man in his wedding.

This one was made by another one of my friends Pat.


I received this one and the below in a box set for Christmas one year.




And this one is definitely my favorite for my hot tea.
It was bought for me in England by Lee when he was over there.

New Favorite Drink

Cannot beat it for the money!!

Another Ball Park - Wrigley Field

So my friend Ron calls me on Tuesday and says...what are you doing on Friday? Want to go to Chicago? Of course....to go to my fourth ballpark that i have not been to before...



Me in front of the famous Cubs Marquee.


A beautiful day and ballpark


The old scoreboard with a little update.


As my tradition...me in front of the scoreboard


Jim Belushi showed up to throw the first pitch...


and sing during the 7th inning stretch....it was a great day!!

Father's Day

O.K., so I am a bit behind in blogging. For Father's Day weekend we all went out to Kansas City to visit my college roommate and best friend Bubba. (Real name Roy) I was hoping to see a couple of other friends too, but that just didn't work out. Mainly b/c one of them never got back to me...eh hem..G!!!

So here is my and Bubba's family outside the Royals' and Chiefs' stadium getting ready to go in and watch the Royals and Marlins. Our wives our behind the cameras.



Here are some pictures of around this beautiful ball park.










Me and my girls and Bubba's oldest. It was the first MLB game for all 3 girls.


Ella and Anna both enjoying their first ball park hot dog.






And as my tradition, my picture in front of the score board.
It was a great Father's Day!!

Ella's birthday party

Slideshow of the girls

Some new pics of Ella

Posted some new pics of Ella on her blog.

Anna's 4th birthday

OK so I know I am a little behind. OK a month and 2 weeks behind. But here are some pictures of Anna's 4th birthday party. Enjoy!!!

Baseball trip

Finally getting some pictures of my baseball trip. We had a lot of fun. We did not get to the Pirates game...it was rained out. But we are going to try and go back. So here are some pics from Baltimore and Philly.