Sunday, December 31, 2006

Nicole on the plasma car


Nicole on the plasma car
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

She looks good.

Plasma Cars

I put together Uncle Adam's Hanukkah present to the boys yesterday and we rode them on the driveway in the afternoon. You can see an instructive video of the Plasma Car here if you've never seen one. The boys don't quite get the theory on the movement to get it going but they will. I rode it a bit too and it actually does hold 220 pounds, man I need to stop this holiday eating. Not doing too much today, it's suppose to rain later and we are going to stay in and eat some more. Good times...
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Saturday, December 30, 2006

30th Birthday Party

My buddy Mike threw a party for his girlfriend Kelly last night so Nicole and I got Kim to baby sit and headed downtown for a nice dinner and party in the U Street area. It was fun but we headed home before the rest of the crew that didn't have a $16 an hour baby sitter went out dancing at Chief Ikes.

Went to the gym this morning and the boys got passport pictures taken. Sam didn't want to have his taken until I told him you needed a passport to go to Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia is his favorite movie right now and he immediately said after that "I want my picture taken for a passport" He then started asking "how do you get to Narnia?" If anyone knows how to get there besides walking into a wardrobe, let me know. We aren't leaving the country anytime soon but we figured we will eventually and a passport would be a good thing to have.

Actually, we may be able to convince Sam that Ireland or Scotland is Narnia and plan a trip there soon. Everyone would talk like the characters in the movie and I really would like to visit Ireland again and hit Scotland for the first time. That would be fun.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Warm chocolate chip cookie


Warm chocolate chip cookie
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Here's Dylan enjoying Jimmy Neutron and a warm chocolate chip cookie on our midwest airlines flight home.

Humphrey terminal at MSP


Humphrey terminal at MSP
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys hammin it up up in the kiddie play area. Notice Dylan, with no front teeth is the hockey player. The flight seems to be on time and I'm all stocked up on new cartoons from the iTunes store.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Morning Play

We went to the Hopkins Community Theater this moring to see a Christmas Carol. It was a childrens production and only lasts about an hour and change. The boys loved it and enjoyed getting autographs from the high school actors after the show. Jeff and I went to the Minnesota Historical Museum after that and saw an exhibit on Baseball. Very good stuff. We're heading home in the morning after some good times in Minnesota.
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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

First time on the ice

We took the boys new skates that Grandma and Grandpa bought them for their first glide. Nicole and I rented skates and it was the first time in probably 25 years that I've been on skates and it wasn't pretty. We really didn't have much of a choice since you couldn't go on the ice with shoes and the boys have never skated before. All in all, we survived but my knees still hurt and my thighs are a little sore. The boys really seemed to like the whole skating thing and wanted to back out on the ice over and over again. I was glad when it was over.
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Monday, December 25, 2006

Checking out the new toys

Here are the kids checking out some new toys last night. They really do enjoying running around together and Mae holds her own with the triplets. Tony and Bill just showed up and the Carpengrandy's will be here again shortly. More fun and pictures on flickr later.
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Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas

The boys would not really sit still for a good shot but I did take a couple hundred pictures this evening. I'll post a bunch on flickr tomorrow while I'm sitting around drinking nog and doing a lot of nothing. We set up the electric train and opened all the presents, except what will come from Santa tonight. They really liked wearing Aunt Elaine's hand knit birthday sweaters and they kept them warm on a chilly Minnesota Christmas eve. Merry Chrismikkah everyone.
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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Minnesota


Minnesota
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Danny Phantom


Danny Phantom
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I bought a bunch of episodes of danny phantom on iTunes last night and put them on my laptop and ipod. Sam got the big screen and dylan got the small screen this time. We'll switch it up on the way home.

Dylan Phantom


Dylan Phantom
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan with the small screen. They almost old enough for their own ipods.

Dylan ready for flight


Dylan ready for flight
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We're leaving now.

Sam ready for take off


Sam ready for take off
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Lines were bad this morning. Real bad. We got on the plane with one minute to spare.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Donkey birthday


Donkey birthday
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I went out last night to celebrate Donkey's birthday. He claims to be turning 36 or something like that. It was a good time at fado with a bunch of people from my old group at aarp. I'm glad I get to see those jacks on a pretty regular basis. I like my new gig but I miss the old crew.



Packing and celebrating the last crazy night of Hanukkah. The boys are excited to see my old electric train set tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

On the 5th Night of Hanukkah

Papa got a delivery from the UPS guy at 7:45pm. It was six fantastic bottles of wine from Linda and Gil. I consider wine the perfect gift and wish I could open some now but it is Tuesday and I have an early meeting tomorrow. Thank you so much for something I will be enjoying for a few weekends to come.

Whitehouse wreath


Whitehouse wreath
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I walked on penn to the gym today instead of across the elipse and got there without being detoured. I got this photo of a wreath on one of the front gates. Lovely. Have another aia holiday party tomorrow. I'm getting all partied out. Had the big all staff party on friday, the management council party at the ceo's house yesterday and my division party tomorrow. Good times.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Second Night

The boys made Menorahs in school on Friday and we used them last night to celebrate the second night of Hanukkah. It seemed to be a free form exercise, using a block of wood, bolt nuts, glue and glitter. The kind of randomly got placed on the board but basically work. The boys open presents from Grandma and Grandpa Duritz last night. I don't know what they get tonight but our friend Liz is coming over for dinner. She moved to Boston last month but is back for a few days to say hi. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Christmahannukkah Wishes at School Yesterday

It looks like the boys want to do some driving for the holidays. They went to Jakes birthday party this morning and are taking a nap right now. I don't like this 60 degree December weather, when's it going to get cold again? Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 15, 2006

Happy Hanukkah


From Momma, Papa, Dylan and Sam. We opened Aunt Elaine's presents tonight. Very nice purse, sweater, toys and a sit and spin. More tomorrow. Posted by Picasa
Pet Peeves Continued

Ok, so I think what irritates me the most about the secret service closing down my way to the gym on a regular basis is that I don't really think the President should leave the Whitehouse. He basically runs his administration with a bunker mentality and only seems to visit other departments of government to tell people "he won't accept ideas that will lead to defeat" What's that all about? That basically allows him to accept no ideas because he can claim anything would lead to defeat. Besides, shouldn't he have been doing this for the last 5 years? Maybe if he got out and asked people for ideas before he invaded Iraq, we wouldn't have this impossible problem. Maybe, if he would have asked people for ideas and adjusted his strategy all along, we wouldn't have this impossible problem. I didn't have to walk accross the elipse 5 years ago, he could have gone on many fact finding missions in DC then, but didn't.

In case anyone else noticed, Kumie closed down her blog. That annoys me too and I went to Quiznos again yesterday and sure enough, they still want to know if I want Tomato's and Lettuce on my BLT. I may go in next week and tell them that I'd like tomato's and lettuce but hold the bacon and see how they react.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I really hate when the White House security closes down the top of the elipse for motorcades. Their is absolutely no reason why I can't walk through on the way to the gym while they prepare for the heavely armoured motercade to head out. I mean, come on. They don't shut down sidewalks on any other street when they go by and they don't tell you its blocked until you are halfway there which requires me to go all the back and around another way. Really annoying.



Also, I've been going to quiznos every once in a while lately and ordering a really tasty double bacon blt and every damn time the guy asks if I want tomatos, lettace and mayo. what do they think blt stands for? Wow.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Christmas in AIA Lobby


Christmas in AIA Lobby
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The lobby is getting all decorated.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Tiger Woods Golf

I've introduced the boys to Tiger Woods Golf on the Xbox 360 this weekend. They aren't bad. Sam pared the second hole he played and Dylan chipped in from about 60 yards out. They are doing better than McConnell did the first time he played it. They have had challenges with the game here and there but they seem to get the whole concept of golf now. Good sign.

Momma and boys went back to the Botanic Garden today on a play date with Charlie and his parents. The pictures are here. I stayed home and rested my sore rib cage. I fell down some freshly mopped stairs that didn't have a wet floor caution sign on it Wednesday and it feels like I cracked some ribs. I don't think I actually did crack ribs because I landed on my butt and kind of pulled the rib cage a bit. Anyway, it hurts..

Sam has a nasty cough and Dylan is probably right behind him. I hope they feel better so they can go to school tomorrow. They like school. Man, Sam just birdied number 17 at Pebble Beach.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Capitol Christmas Tree


My friend Jessica and I took the boys downtown to the Botanical Gardens today and checked out the Capitol Christmas Tree as well. We also took the boys to a quick run around the Air and Space Museum. Nicole got the day off and shopped a little. I have a bunch of pictures I'll put up in Flickr tomorrow. Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 08, 2006

Time Flies

I guess I forgot to post the last few days. It's been another busy week at work, but busy in a good way. I was able to get out with a few people on Wednesday night, which was fun but otherwise, it's been work. We had a plumber come over yesterday to replace a shower faucet valve that went bad. It only gave us steaming hot water which made it difficult to shower. Unfortuneatly, I didn't realize they would have to cut a hole in the guest bathroom to replace the value in our shower. That kind of sucked but Nicole was itching to have that bathroom redone anyway. All in all, I had a nice normal shower this morning before heading out in the the 20 degree morning.

The boys are doing well and we are heading down to the US Botanical Gardens tomorrow to see a model train set up in the plants. They should like that for a little while anyway. I'll take some pictures. It's going to be cold this weekend so I plan on lighting a number of fires and sitting around. It's a good time of year.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006


Don't forget, this is the Day of the Ninja. Forget "talk like a pirate day" this is a real holiday. More information here http://dayoftheninja.com/index2.html

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Play

In honor of the Cal win over Stanford this weekend, I thought I would post "the play" on this blog. I also noticed flickr did a whole "Big Game" cluster that you Cal fans will find here http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/biggame/clusters/cal-berkeley-stanford/

In honor of the Cal win over Stanford this weekend, I thought I would post "the play" on this blog. I also noticed flickr did a whole "Big Game" cluster that you Cal fans will find here http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/biggame/clusters/cal-berkeley-stanford/

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Decorating the Tree

We did a lot of shopping today. Some for a couple of Angel Tree kids we adopted for Christmas. These are kids in the DC Metro area that may not be getting a lot under the tree. Both were boys around 5 or 6 years old so we bought a shirt and sweater, hat and gloves, a book and two toys a piece. I hope they like them. We also bought a new faucet for the master bedroom shower. The one currently installed only delivers extremely hot water. Hopefully the plumber will come this week. We are moving our showers to the guest bath for now. And finally, we got a new HP Printer, scanner, copier and fax. It also has built in wireless Internet so that our laptops can print from it without the family room computer being turned on. The family room computer used to serve as the print server to the old printer but new one is on the network all by itself. Very cool.

The boys are doing well and liking all the holiday stuff. We raced our bikes on the driveway for a long while tonight and they have become pretty slick on those trikes. They can pick up some good speed and put them into a complete 180 at the end of the driveway. I got my bike out this weekend and filled the tires with air to ride with them. They really like papa's bike and want to ride it. I guess it's time to get new bikes for the little speed demons and for momma to finally get her bike back in shape. Got a busy week planned, need to get some sleep.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Scottish Walk and Tree Trimming

Man, it turned cold around here in a hurry. It was 75 yesterday and this morning we woke up to 30 degrees. We went down to the annual Scottish Walk in old town Alexandria this morning to see the parade of plaid. It was chilly on the sidewalk but the boys loved all the bag pipes, dogs, politicians and men in skirts. The parade was entertaining per usual and I got a bunch of pictures of it here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157594402565053/

We headed off to buy a small Christmas tree after that and brought home a lovely miniture tree complete with it's own base. We are still sticking with a mini tree at this point because we really don't have room for a big one in the family room and the living room is still basically a play room for the boys. We're going to have to get a bigger tree soon, we seem to have too many ornaments for the 4 footer we have now. We also got the stockings up but realized that Nicole doesn't have one. Not surprising really, considering her heritage but it is sad that me and the boys will be getting cool stuff put in our stocking by Santa and Nicole's going to miss out.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Here's Marine One


Here's Marine One
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Its kind of interesting to watch actually. I've seen marine one fly by before but never land on the south lawn. They always fly in twos, one with the president, one with a dummy. (hard to tell which is which) but today, the first chopper swooped down and almost landed then took off to let the second one land. You can kind of see the second one in this picture.

Funky new path


Funky new path
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

This a new path over an empty lot that used to be the convention center. Had lunch with an old friend from aarp today and then walked to the gym. On my way back to work I got stuck taking the long way around the whitehouse cause the prez was returning from the middle east and they close all the streets while marine one comes in

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Back to Work

It's a rude awakening when you get back to work after a week off and find a full schedule, tons of email and deadlines. I've been trying to negotiate all that and get the workout schedule in tune with the rhythm of business. It's only Tuesday and will get better later in the week. I wasted an hour and a half wrestling with my printer\scanner last night that I could have spent it getting some work done but such is life. I've had this Dell printer for three years now and it looks like it will have to go soon. I have an HP downstairs that still kicks out the printed page that I've had for over 6 years. You tell me what I'm going to replace this Dell with.

The boys are doing well but Sam has another sinus infection. He tends to wander the upstairs when that happens and ends up sleeping part of the night in every bed available. I'm sure we're in store for more of that tonight. The boys are watching a Charlie Brown Christmas for the 10 time this season. I actually enjoy it too.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Captain Dylan


Captain Dylan
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

In the cockpit.

Captain Sam


Captain Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We were the first people on the plane this morning at 5:30am and the pilot invited the boys to the cockpit to sit in his seat and wear his hat. They also got to say hi to mom over the intercom. Much excitement for that early in the morning.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Morning drive


Morning drive
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys taking a cruise in the estate wagon. Happy thanksgiving everyone.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Rainbow vulcano


Rainbow vulcano
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We've been taking the boys down to an elementary to play most days and I snapped this picture of one of the walls around the grounds. Gil and I went to best buy this morning to boy a wireless router for the house. Adam and I are sick of stealing a fairly weak signal from the neighbor across the street. I've just finished a nice workout and I'm heading home to do the install while everyone else cooks. The weather is still great here but I noticed a nor easter heading up the east coast. I hope the trees in our yard stay standing.

Napa Getaway

We are back from Napa and getting ready to start the whole Thanksgiving food extravaganza. The boys didn't seem to miss us that much and had a ton of fun with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Adam at the Cal basketball game and at the Livermore Sciene Museum. Sam really enjoyed seeing a "monster dunk" at the game last night. Napa was as fun as ever and picked up some really good wine for Thanksgiving and to ship home. We had a fantastic Cab at Stags Leap called Cask 23. It's $175 a bottle so we didn't take any with us. We have a lot on tap for tomorrow so I need to hit the hay. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Stags Leap


Stags Leap
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

One last tasting on the way home.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Mmmmm mud bath


Mmmmm mud bath
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Something we won't be doing tomorrow.

Relaxing


Relaxing
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

After a hard day of wine tasting in napa. Terra Valentine was jiggy stop on Spring Mountain Road and Keenan was laid back like I remember it from last month. We are in Calistoga, at the Cottage Grove cabins. This is our third visit here and this time we are in the Tuscany cabin. Weve done the Nautical and Audobon cabins in the past and haven't found any misspellings in this one. More wine then a short walk to dinner. Good times.

Quintessa


Quintessa
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Our second winery of the day. We had a nice time at Trefelthen and bought a few bottles there. We are on our way to St. Helena for lunch then up Spring Mountain Road to Terra Valentine. Should be jiggy.

Kumie Shoes on the Tracks

Another Kumie shoe sighting. This time on the tracks of the Redwood Valley Railroad. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Clairmont


Clairmont
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Just got a nice, long workout in at the resort down the street from grandma and grandpas house. I have to make sure I'm in shape for the 14 course meal that adam, linda and nicole will make for thanksgiving. The Duritz's like to make a lot of different dishes and have a little taste of each which usually addes up to a streched belly. Can't wait. Off to napa tomorrow for a day of tasting.

Redwood Valley Railroad


Redwood Valley Railroad
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We are up in Tildon Park taking a ride on the miniture steam train with Margo and her grandsons. Its a little foggy around here today but its pretty nice in general. I'm off to the clairmont for a workout after this ride.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Kumie Shoes

I took a lot of pictures today but this is my favorite. This is one of the boys in their new Chuck Taylors, also known as Kumie shoes. I have some pictures of the boys and Kumie showing off their identical shoes that I'll try to post at some other point but Kumie hooked the boys up with a pair each for their birthday. I'm watching the Ohio State, Michigan game right now and the boys are taking a nap. Cal and USC later today. Go Bears!!! Posted by Picasa

More pictures from the day here..http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157594381803691/