Spring has sprung in our front yard. The first flowers are coming up to be followed by a bunch of different stuff as spring continues. It was 82 today but it actually may snow later this week. Go figure... If you look closely, you can see the boys in the window to the right of the door. You gotta look hard. 

Day at Fort Washington

We took a quick trip to Fort Washington in Maryland today. It's really only about 10 miles away, over the Wilson Bridge and down Indian Head highway a bit. It sits on the Potomac, across from Fort Hunt which is on the Virginia side. I've seen it from the Mt Vernon Parkway for years as we trained for marathons up and down that road but never ventured across the river to look around. It's a cool park with a bunch of history.

Originally built in the early 1800's to protect DC from ships coming up the river, it also was reinforced in around WWI with six or seven big gun bunkers behind it to stop more advanced invading armies. In WWII it served as a training base and was turned into a park in the 60's after it was a bunch of different military offices in the 50's. The interesting thing is that the army now has a small portable radar station near the river at the base of the fort. It is part of the air defense network set up after 9/11 that rings the city with military radar and anti-aircraft defense batteries. After 200 years, the fort still has military significance in a different world.

I posted a bunch of pictures, including one of the new radar station in my flickr account. Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594080708999/

The picture above is the boys sitting on a couple of old canons in the main forts courtyard. Dylan left, Sam right. They had a great time running around and getting really dirty. This area has a ton of history to visit that is only a short drive away. We need to make sure we are visiting as much as we can while we live here. Who knows when we will move.

It was in the 70's here again today. Too damn hot for March.

I met Nicole and the boys at the train station last night after a quick happy hour for Gina's birthday. Happy birthday Gina, enjoy the weekend. The boys saw two Amtracks, two VRE's and a CSX while waiting for me to get there. Needless to say, they were excited. It's been in the 70's the last couple days and feels like summer. I need a little more winter, so I'm hoping it will get cold again soon. Here they are playing pirate with their Williamsburg hats. Their little heads have gotten so big, the hats don't fit anymore. Growing up fast..... 

Boys

Boys
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Sam watching TV and Dylan checking out the Viewmaster.

Good morning

Good morning
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Bed hogs

So I didn't post yesterday because I was so tired from posting so many times over the weekend. The boys loved spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and will get some more Grandparent attention this spring from both sets, which will make them happy. Here they are watching Fireman Sam, which is a new favorite. I'm sure it's educational.  

Very Good Show


We ended our long weekend in New York by going to a show with Adam and Amy last night. The rendition of Sweeney Todd http://www.sweeneytoddonbroadway.com was amazing with the actors actually playing all the instruments on stage. These were some extremely talented people moving from Cello to violin, flute to clarinet, guitar to piano and so on. Patti LuPone, pictured above with Adam, actually played tuba at one point and did a bunch of the percussion while playing the part of Nellie Lovett. Michael Cerveris played Sweeney and was brilliant. He also invited us back stage after the show where we had a few drinks with him, Patti, Lawrence Fishburn and Johnny Depp. Lawrence and Johnny happened to be in the house and were not in the show.

We didn't leave the theater until around midnight so we had dinner a little late but it was a good time. This morning came kind of early and we took the 11am shuttle home. The boys were eager to see the presents we promised them before we left on Thursday. I think they actually missed us a little but were more interested in the dinosaurs and lighted dinosaur hunting helmets, complete with miner light attached. We've been catching up with the boys the rest of day and will probably hit the hay early tonight.

The grandparents did a fantastic job with the kids and we really appreciated the time away. Time for bed.

Show

Show
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Sweeney todd

Taxi

Taxi
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Grand central

Shopping in Soho

Did a little shopping in today. Bought some pants and some jeans. Good stuff. We are sitting around relaxing a little now but will be heading to a show in a couple hours. Can't wait to see the kids but it sounds like they are having a fun time with the Gil and Linda. They've taken trains and subways today and are going to have pizza somewhere tonight. More soon....

Soho

Soho
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Irish bar

Brunch

Brunch
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The noho star

Adams place

Adams place
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Watching bad tv on big

Temple bar

Temple bar
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Five years

Relaxing Day

I've added a small set of photos from today to my flickr account. Check them out here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594074283203/

Off to dinner soon. Should be good.

The village

The village
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The slaughtered lamb

Anniversary update

We went to the public library map room for a quick tour then off to buy some dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Having a drink at Ocean Grill on Columbus right now. Good times.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

At bar in ny

At bar in ny
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Nicole

Nyc

Nyc
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

New york morning

My Bad

I missed a couple days of blogging this week. I guess I've had a lot going on at work and haven't taken any new pictures in a while. Linda and Gil have been in town since Monday and Gil took a quick trip up to Philly to visit Elaine, who had a little a slightly abnormal ekg at the doctors office this week and spent a night in the hospital. I hear she's feeling much better. Nicole and I opened her anniversary gift to us last night and thank her very much. We also got a nice card and resources from my parents to help us eat an extremely expensive meal this weekend for our fifth anniversary.

Dylan and Sam are loving the new google video service and we have found a number of train videos posted by users out there that we watch on laptops, desktops and the media pc in the basement attached to the big plasma. That one has the added benefit of all the train noises in 5 channel sound. Try it out, go to google video and search trains. Actually searching "chicago trains" gets you to their current favorite. That video includes a couple double decker Amtraks, some Metra's and a whole bunch of "double diesels" with intermodal cars. We have a good time counting the diesels and naming the cars. I hope to add footage of trains coming and going from Alexandria to google video when the weather warms up.

Oh yeah, they also like jumping off the furniture into the bean bags. Sam actually has a few Greg Louganis moves when he jumps. He's almost got a complete 360 degree spin going, but has mastered the jump forword, spin to land on your butt move. He also has the spread your arms out wide and fall thing going to, complete with rolling his eyes back in his head as if he's passing out. Dylan seem to like to dive for distance. It's all safe, I've got both bean bags together and their is really not room to miss, yet...

The boys have been going to school this week and only have minor coughs so they're pretty happy.

Gotta go...

Ok, enough about TED, I'm back and it turns out I took a bunch of pretty ho-hum pictures. I do have a load of shots from the Valentines Day pajama party. So, here's another one with big smiles. The whole photo shoot was a wrestling match between the two of them but they were having fun. Gil and Linda arrived today and the boys were hyper all night. I need to do some work, more soon... 

Headin Home

Flight from Monterey was quick and now we are ready to go at SFO. TED was very good this year and I feel refreshed. The back is getting better as well. It's cold back in dc and I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday Linda! I know it was yesterday but I hope you had a good day.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

6 am monterey

6 am monterey
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Early flight

The party at the Monterey Bay Aquarium was a lot of fun last night. I got a lot of jellyfish shots as did everyone else but this is a shot of a dude with a jellyfish jacket with a view of the one of the jellyfish tanks. Mike Lee actually took this picture with my camera because he left his data card for his D70 in his hotel room. I've done that before and it sucks. It's all about composition and this was a brilliant shot. Anyway, I have a D70 as well and I need Mike to teach me how to use all the features to take cool shots. Actually, when it comes down to it, you have to look for the right shot, regardless of the camera you have. Mike has a good eye. The last day of TED has been good and I'm ready to go home. I have a bunch of pictures that I'll post later this week. More soon.... 

So Tony Robbins just spoke and was amazing. He's the guy you've probably seen on TV talking about motivation and all that stuff but he is an extremely engaging speaker and pretty funny. Here he is saying hi to Al Gore after his talk. At one point Tony was asking the audience about failure and what things they blamed on failure. The crowd shot answers back like, lack of information, technology, bad management. Then Al Gore pipes up pretty loudly, "the supreme court". It was a riot and Al got a standing ovation for that one. Then Tony went on and used Al as an example in a bunch of his talk. Funny stuff. One more session today and then off to another reception. 

Star sightings

I just said hello to Meg Ryan and Daphne Zunaga in line for the next session. Besides them, the Google guys, Jeff Bezos, and other celebs are roaming around. We were just entertained by Jill Sobule and Ethel so the day is off to a good start.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Good stuff at TED today. I don't have any really good pictures of the event but some of the people here have posted a bunch of good stuff on their flickr sites. Check out this photo stream of the first two days http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurioso/sets/72057594069363781/show/

This is also a good photo stream from TED http://flickr.com/photos/person/sets/72057594068990273/

It's been a hectic couple days with a lot of mind numbing presentations about all sorts of of important and diverse topics. I just got back from the awards gala and need to get some sleep. My back problem is still an issue so sitting and walking are problems but I think it is getting a little better. More soon...

TED

Mike Lee and I spent some time talking with Nicholas Negroponte at SFO last night on our way to TED. Nicholas is still on the hunt for the $100 laptop for developing nations. A way to give children access to technology across the globe. Pretty ambitious stuff. He's going to be in DC next Tuesday and Wednesday and wants to spend some time at AARP talking about his quest.

Al Gore spoke tonight about global warming and was fantastic. If he only had the passion in the last Presidential race, we'd all be better off. Actually, he will probably be more effective in his quest not being the President than if he was. Funny how things work out. A movie about his globe trotting jihad to get people doing something about global warming is coming out in May and got rave reviews at Sundance this year. Based on the hour long presentation, you should definitely go see it.

Time for sleep, my brain is full.

Opening

Opening
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Ted

Pre flight

Pre flight
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Prop

I'm not a bad boy

Dylan was extremely upset with me the other morning because I called him a bad boy. He was running around doing something he shouldn't be doing and not listening me telling him to stop. After I told him he was being a bad boy, he came over to my side of the bed and told me "papa, I'm not a bad boy!". He's right, really. He is a pretty good boy and I told him that he was but he had to listen. He agreed and gave me a big hug.

Below is an email from Nicole to me talking about Sam in the hospital.

So they woke Sam up to check his IV and poke him a bit and he wanted to go back to sleep so he said to me " I want to sleep, I going to dream of Papa, Mama and Dylan.". It was very sweet!!!
They also had to re stick him get another blood sample. He was very brave and said thank you to the guy who drew the blood.
He's sleeping now. I'm going to try to sleep soon.

Good little stories of the boys growing up. All too fast if you ask me.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Stayed home today with one bad backache. Don't know what I did by it sure hurts. The boys are much better and will probably go to school tomorrow for their class picture. They wouldn't want to miss that, nor would we. Time for more advil.

Happy Valentines Day


The boys finally posed for their annual Valentines Day pajama photo. They've been all full of energy this weekend with no sign of the dreaded rotavirus still in their system. I on the otherhand am broken. My back is killing me and I can't stand up straight. I have too many meeting tomorrow to miss work so I'm going to be looking like the hunch back of Notre Dame all day. That will be nice.

Happy Birthday Gil, it's tough turning 50 I'm sure.

Last night after my haircut I had a couple drinks at the chop with Chris, Kumie, John and Jake. It was a wild week with work being extremely busy and Sam's hospital stay causing some stress. I was heading to the metro and found no less than 6 fire engines and 8 police cars near the Navy Memorial metro. I don't know what was on fire or who left a suspicious package on the street but the all the lights were amazing.

I did something bad to my back this morning at the gym and now I'm just sitting an watching Garden State with a heating pad attached to me. The boys are continuing to get better and don't seem to be showing many signs of that nasty rotavirus. Not much planned this weekend but we are going to watch "Smartest guys in the room" the documentary about Enron. I'm looking forward to that. I can't remember the last film I've seen that I really liked and this is suppose to be good.

We still need to take a picture of the boys in their valentines pajamas and get that up here. I'll try to tonight or tomorrow.

Sam is looking even better today but has tossed a couple times. The rotavirus hangs around for a while I guess. They won't be going to school for another week but hopefully will get outside soon, it's getting warm here again. I posted a small batch of pictures of Sam's journey through the medical system, including a shot he took himself from his bed in the Ambulance.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594065081945/

Everyone is glad he's home.

Sam's been sprung!

His pee came back in good shape so we are all home now.

Sam

Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Feeling better

Hospital

Hospital
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Playing

Sam looking better

So, Sam justed pee'ed in a cup and depending on the chemical composition, he may get to go home tonight. Dylan and I got to the hospital about an hour ago and the boys are playing with blocks on the bed. Nicole is hoping for a shower so a ticket to ride from this place would be ideal.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Talked to Sam on the phone this morning and he told me he had to get blood taken last night and this morning. He also said he was feeling better and that maybe the bug was gone. Dylan called it a "stupid bug" last night when I asked him about Sammy being sick. Hopefully, Sam and Mom will be home this afternoon. Dylan was still a sleep when I left this morning but I know he misses them.

Sammy is Sick















So the boys went to the doctors office this morning and while Dylan has another ear infection, Sam was dehydrated and needed IV fluids at the urgent care center. Dylan and Blanca went home and Mom and Sam went to urgent care. Sam was brave with the IV needle and all but as the day went on, the Doctor at the urgent care facility decided he needed to spend the night at a hospital. Too sick to come home.

Dylan and I took a cab to Urgent Care where we saw Sam off in an ambulance to Fairfax Hospital and picked up the mini van. Dylan's sleeping with me tonight and Nicole is either on a chair or in bed with Sam at Fairfax. This is the first night since Dylan came home from the hospital at 2 months that he and Sam have not spent the night in the same room.

Dylan doesn't seem to freaked out, we had some toast and a treat and he's now sleeping next to me. I hope Sam is having a better night than last night and will kick this thing soon. They are testing for the roto virus but he will hopefully be home tomorrow. Good thoughts for Sammy.

Finally got the snow


Sam is not feeling so good laying on the couch with his hand on his head while Dylan is looking much better. We told Sam this morning that he had a bug in his belly and it was making him feel sick. We offered to suck it out of his belly button and Nicole and I both tried and he looked down there expecting to see something but he's still sick. We managed to get all bundled up and went outside to run around in the 8 inches of new snow but the boys ran our of energy fast.

Most of the snow arrived last night after we went to bed. It seems like a lot but it is really sticky stuff that will probably all be gone by Wednesday. The roads are clear and the driveway really didn't need shoveling. The boys are laying around watching Nemo right now and I'm thinking of doing the taxes. Good times....

I posted 16 pictues of the snow and boys in the snow in my flickr account. Here's the link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594063345593/

Stomach Flu and Snow

Dylan has had the stomach flu since Thursday and is only now starting to be able to keep some water and crackers down. Sam, puked for the first time this morning so he is next for the bug. I hope Dylan can start eating something when he wakes up from his nap. He's looking pretty pathetic. They are both taking naps right now and I'm waiting for the snow to arrive. We were promised 6-10 inches but we have yet to see a flake. It's been raining all morning but no white stuff.

Regardless of how much snow we get or don't get, I think we'll be inside the rest of the day and a good portion of tomorrow. The flu bug is really nasty and seems to sap all energy from the little guys. Time to make another fire and open some wine. More soon.

Cold

Cold
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Olympics and fire

Sam

Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Potty head

All day meeting

All day meeting
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Priorities

Meeting at the

Meeting at the
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Jefferson hotel

Aunt Robbie bought the boys these shirts for Christmas I believe. Here they are modeling them on Superbowl Sunday. In case you can't tell, Sam is saying it's his brother's fault and Dylan is sporting the good idea at the time shirt. We had a few people over last night and had a good time watching the game. Chili, Mac and Cheese, peach pie... Mmmmmm, all good. Another busy week at work. Time for bed.

More pictures from this photo shoot at http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/

Enjoy

Sam

Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Are ready for some football

Here's Mike at Jud's party last night. Gina, his spouse to be is just to the right of him. He's so excited to be getting married he can't get that grin off is face. The wedding is in Key West in later this year. We've already got our reservations and tickets, should be fun. The boys came with us to the party and spent part of the time in the basement with the rest of the kids. Jud hired a baby sitter but that only lasted for a while until the combined energy of 10 children proved too much for the basement and the baby sitter. We had a good time but we were home by 9pm. It was past the boys bedtime and they were spinning out of control. We are having a few people over for the Superbowl today. Hope it's a good game.  

Juds party

Juds party
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Fire

Range

Range
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Large bucket of balls

The boys got two new Thomas engines this morning that Nicole bought last night. Dylan fell in love with Spencer this weekend and "needed" it and Sam somehow became a huge Gordon fan. Of course Nicole couldn't stop herself and picked them up last night and I figured we might as well see the excitement in their little faces by giving them to them this morning. They did promise to listen to us and Blanca as a condition of receiveing them and promised not to say "stinky" anymore, but we'll see how long that lasts.