First Karate Class

Well, the Korean flavored version of the matial arts anyway. Taekwondo is the Korean National Sport and the boys were pretty good today. A couple kids got there first belt and one boy got an upgrade which made Sam all pouty because he wanted a belt too but I think he understands that it will take a few classes and some listening before he gets his first belt. An air conditioned karate studio was a good place to be for an hour on a hot day like today. 105 heat index, good times....

Standing Still

Standing Still
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

For the first time in months.

Tae Kwan Do

Tae Kwan Do
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We are going to watch a kids class today to see if the boys have interest in taking a class this summer. Hi ya.

Fashion 101

Sam asked me to come upstairs with him tonight when I got home to get some fashion advice. He got down in front of his dresser and dug around a bit to find a red polo shirt with a Ralph Lauren logo on it and then asked me what shorts he should wear with that shirt. I said that I thought either jean or kaki shorts would probably work well so he laid the shirt out on the bed and grabbed two pair of shorts and compared them. We decided together that the kaki shorts were and red shirt were a much hotter combination and high fived on the decision. He made his underwear decision by himself but bunched the whole combo together and put them on his night stand.

This behavior and his desire to pick out my clothes in the morning shows a certain flare for fashion. Dylan likes to dress well too but doesn't seem to have a need to plan a day in advance. I have to admit, I think about what I'm going to where the night before but don't lay it out. Just some ramblings of an ever surprised papa.

Ace of Cakes

We went to dinner at Steve and Patty's on Saturday to enjoy a chef prepared meal and a wine barrel themed cake, complete with bunghole (the thing on the top) created by the people at Charm City Cakes. Yes, the Ace of Cakes for you food channel people. It was a nice night with lots of good food. We got home that night and found the 3 year old refrigerator had stopped working and ice was leaking on the floor. We moved everything downstairs and had a repair guy out tonight. It will be Saturday before he and the part can come back to fix it. It's tough to run to the basement to get what you want to eat. Could be worse.

I spent Sunday scheduling repairs for that, buying then installing a new cable model and battling with Cox Cable for three hours to get it back on the network. Fios can't arrive fast enough. But then again, Verizon sucks too. I'm going to build my own internet. I need some cable, lots and lots of cable....

Mario Kart

The boys do love Mario Kart on the Wii. They have been playing it on the DS for a year or so now but they totally dig the little wireless steering wheels and really cool graphics of this game. I let them play last night for about 45 minutes while I had a glass of wine and listened to some music upstairs. Having the Wii in the basement reduces the competition to watch either a kids show or play the Xbox 360 in the family room. Leaving it to me and Nicole for some grown up time. At least one grown up anyway.

Big Frog

Big Frog
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

My new office is across the street from National Geographic and they currently have a frog show going on. Not sure how similar it is to the one we took the boys to in nyc last summer but I bet they would get a kick out of it.

Beautiful day here on the east coast. On my way to get my colesteral checked. Needles = good times, not so much.

kindle

kindle
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I forgot to blog about a new toy in the eletronics arsenal. This one is actually a Nicole birthday benefit. Adam sent kindles to me, Linda, Gil and Nicole for her birthday which was pretty sweet for us. Its a cool ebook ready device from amazon.com. The screen is something called digital ink and is not back lit like a typical laptop. You can read it at an angle and the whole thing is lighter than a paperback. It can hold hundreds of books, magazines, blogs and newspapers. You can listen to audio as well and it downloads the latest edition of whatever and allows you to buy books wherever you have a cell phone signal. Oh yeah, I can also send work documents to it via an email address for easy storage and reading. Very cool little device.

Ouch

Ouch
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Not a good round but it was a nice day.

Water Squirters

Water Squirters
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys didn't want to leave the water guns in the car as it got washed. Off to Lowes next.

Haircuts!

The boys got some really short cuts today. Patrick wanted to go even shorter but we didn't want to get to close to a buzz cut. Just got down with a few games on the Wii. Hot Momma (her wii mii) beat me and the boys in bowling then I knocked her out in the third round of boxing. Dylan knocked Sam out in the 2nd as well. Had to turn the ceiling fan on high to keep us cool with all that action. Good times...

Snug as bugs

Sam has a habit of getting into Dylan's bed in the middle of the night or as soon as he falls asleep. I don't think Dylan minds much because he sleeps like a rock but usually gets crowded out eventually and moves over to Sam's bed.

Another Busy Week

Having to learn so much at once can really fill your brain space and take away from things like blogging semi interesting things I see on the street and other random thoughts. I'm finishing up week five on the new job and am starting to put some of the pieces together but have a giant list of things I need to do at home and in the personal life. I have been getting home most nights at a real reasonable hour and spending time with the boys but things like calling an electrician, plumber and contractor to do some maintenance and upgrades to the house have fallen way behind. I need to spend some time this weekend organizing some things and catching up with people.

Grandma Duritz and Aunt Florence were there this week so I had competition for kid attention. When Dylan was heading upstairs for a story Grandma was going to read before bed he said "Grandma, your the best" in a matter of fact kind of way. Florence and Linda played a little Wii bowling on Wednesday night and Florence pulled out a victory in the last frame. It's a fun game. Anyway, not much happening this weekend and I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Raining Again

Raining Again
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

On my way to Columbus for the day. Should be back in time for dinner.

The Mountains

We just got back from a quick weekend trip to Blue Ridge Mountains in Western Virginia. Basically, this is the Shenandoah area of Virginia and very beautiful. We stayed at the Massanuttin Resort, which turned out really well except for the food. You should definitely bring your own food when traveling here because the food situation on the resort is not good. Maybe restaurants in Harrisonburg are better but the restaurants on property are scary.

The condo was very nice and big and the trails, water park, go-kart track and giant arcade were great. I'd go there again. I swear we wore the kids out big time on Saturday but they just kept going and were up again at 7am this morning looking for more. We took the long way back today and stopped at Luray Caverns for a quick tour of the oldest caverns in Virginia. The boys liked it for the first 20 minutes but the hour tour started to drag and we couldn't understand a word the tour guide said. He didn't enunciate anything and it didn't matter if you were 20 feet away or standing right next to him.

Great birthday weekend for Nicole and the we topped it all off with some games on the new wii. I beat Nicole in our first bowling match by 3 points, let the reign begin.

Check out the pictures on Flickr.

The Tubes

The Tubes
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

At the Massanuttin water park. We spent all afternoon riding the slides and are back now for dinner. 4 mile hike on rocky terrain and about 25 trips up the three story slide complex has made mark a tired boy.

Top of Massanuttin

Top of Massanuttin
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Our morning hike has at about 3000 feet cell phone reception is still good. Beautiful day in western virginia.

Forgot

Nicole wanted to blog this picture of her in JuJu's birthday hat last night but she forgot the password to her own blog. I have nothing else to say today and I kind of like the green hat, orange wall shot in general so I'm posting it. I think Nicole had a great birthday with lots of cool gifts but I will let her blog about that. We are off to the mountains tomorrow for a quick get away and some hiking. No Wii until we get back and that's driving the kids insane. I didn't have in video games when I was a kid (obviously abused) and I turned out ok, in general. I think they will survive.

Happy Birthday Nicole

We all went out for a fairly grown up dinner at Stardust. At least the boys wanted to look grown up with their handsome jackets and I think they pulled it off pretty well. Dinner was good and we came home and to open a few presents. Nicole seemed to like my very thoughtful gift of a brand new Nintendo Wii. Yes, she is quite the gamer and actually was asking for one for months. It will be a ton of fun when I get it set up and will actually be something she will use particularily when I get the new Wii Fit setup.

I also sent flowers to work today but they didn't show up which kind of ruined the birthday surprise. I would not suggest anyone ever use FTD, ever again. THEY SUCK.....

Fancy Sam

Fancy Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Sam trying on my jacket this morning. The boys have been into picking what I wear in the mornings lately. Today they made sure momma wore her shiney red dorothy shoes. They also brought her a big bunch of roses that they picked up with Blancas help yesterday. Happy birthday Nicole.

Ahoy Matey..

The Pirate Cruise today was a big hit and we got it in before the monsoon hit us around 4pm. The whole thing keeps the kids extremely busy trying to figure out how to find the treasure, complete with a map, message in a bottle and firing water canon at a pirate to get the keys to a treasure chest we find floating in the bay with a big x attached to it. We had lunch with Jud, Lisa, Maggie and Gage afterwords and then back home for a nap. It has rained 7 inches in four days in these parts. That's a lot of water and the lawn could now use some sun.

Here's a link to the whole set of pictures on flickr.

Hangin On

Hangin On
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

To winter that is. It got just chilly enough today to warrant one last fire until October or November. You can see dylan on the left surfing You Tube for chinese toy train videos on his laptop. He's turning into quite a computer geek. It won't be long before he has his own blog and you all stop reading mine. Pirate cruise this weekend, arggggg

First Happy Hour

Well, most of you know that I mean the first happy hour with my new colleagues at ACS. I'm a well known happy hour fly that hardly needs instruction in the successful happy hour, start early and end before clubbing time. The team in WSO planned and executed a great ACS get together at a place called Lime and I loosened up and had a great time with some of my new office mates.

Happy hour became a ritual at AARP for many years and they would tend to extend into the night because we knew each other so well and enjoyed having fun outside of work. This happy hour seemed like the beginning of all that. I met some new people and connected with some I met just a couple weeks ago. We are all older now and have more complicated lives but I get the impression that this group has potential to become close in our work and play making for a highly creative unit. Things are looking good.

PS, I think those pesky tent worms killed one of my trees, bastards.....

April Showers

This picture was taken a few weeks ago during a very wet couple days. We are expecting another round of heavy rain over the next day and a half and I'm sure the boys will wear their little Gordon's fishing outfits to school. Mr. Woo and team came and did their spring cleaning of the yard and trees. They cut down one whole tree and did a lot of trimming of branches and bushes. They laid down a truck full of mulch and aerated, seeded and fertilized the lawn in hope it will grow this year. The rain is the needed trigger to get everything filling in and looking lush until the sweltering heat and lack of rain this summer turns everything brown again. I'm really a fall and winter guy but I do like the clean feeling of spring but it also seems to call me to fix, repair, improve and build and that takes a lot of energy. Fall and winter says recoup, take stock, reflect and hunker down, I tend to like that more. Don't know what it means but Sam sure is cute in his little rain outfit.

Falling Apart

Falling Apart
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

This building on the corner of Connecticut and k street has been coming down in little pieces the last couple weeks. I've been getting used to my new gig piece by piece the last couple weeks at the same time. One going up, one going down. As the blog turns.

Bombs Away

Bombs Away
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Modean on the 17th at waverly woods. Perfect day for golf.

It all happened so fast

The week that is and my blogging is really lacking lately. I worked, played with the kids and slept. I never promised this blog would be exciting. I did have lunch with Donkey and Gina on Thursday and dinner with the Customer Experience group in Alexandria. All and all, I'm tired and going to bed now.

Caterpillar Attack!

They are everywhere and I mean everywhere. They are hanging on the side of the house, the screens and our mailbox looked like grizzly adams yesterday. I've never seen this many of the little bugs in my life. I only hope that means we will get lot of butterflys.

Big Machines

I took the boys down the street to an old estate they have started to rip up to build about 10 new houses. I used to play in construction sites on a regular basis as a child and probably cheated death many times. I actually built a two story clubhouse like structure in the woods near my home with some friends when I was 11 or 12. We stole all the materials from the new home construction in the neighborhood. Anyway, I wanted to show the boys what a construction site looked like and point out all the activity that was taking place to build new homes. They crawled over the machines, the big drainage pipes and piles of rocks. I lost my balance an almost destroyed my camera falling but survived with big gashes on my wrists because I couldn't fall on my hands (because I was holding a camera) I never fell when I was a kid, age and balance, hmmm.

The site being build on is an old plantation like complex a couple blocks from our house. The house itself has to be saved because it's has historic credentials but they will be taking down all the out buildings and barns and things to build 10 new monsters. It will be fun to watch. Out to dinner tonight and no plans tomorrow.

One Week

It was an incredible first week on the new job and I think I'm going to like this place. I know it took a while to post something about what I was doing and now this is two posts in a row about the same thing but it feels good, like a good fit. Enough said.

I forgot to post about picking the boys up at school last Thursday afternoon. They seem to love the surprise and it's great see them running at you screaming "DAD!" We jumped into the car and headed toward a park to run around a little bit and Sam said "Dad, we love you" as if knowing that Dylan was thinking the same thing. I need to remember to take an afternoon off every once in a while to pick them up at school.

Day 4

Day 4
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Its been a busy but exciting first week on the job and I'm starting to feel at least a little comfortable. New jobs are weird but you start to see famliar patterns pretty quickly and you can start feeling like your contributing something by using that outside perspective to add to the dialog. Very nice people here and I have a lot to learn. I don't talk a lot about my job on this blog so the bottom line is that I'm very happy with my move based on the first four days. I'm meeting some of my old aia buddies for happy hour tonight and it will be good to see them too.

The picture is my new view, National Geographic across 16th street and a hotel next door. Thanks for all the nice comments on the last post.

Museum Day

It rained all day so the kids, Mom and the Grandparents went to the National Gallery while I stayed home to prepare for my first day on the new job. I did some reading and a little writing and watched a ton of rain fall. I also walked the yard with Mr. Woo to talk about spring clean up and all the tree trimming and chopping down he needs to do. We found a dead tree near the road and a lot of others that need some serious work. With spring comes house and yard maintenance I guess.

Happy Passover




Aunt Elaine came down from Philly for Passover and we did a 5 year old friendly Seder which was good for me. I know I was a Lutheran once but I don't think the story was all that complicated.

Movin On

Some of you may know this but my last day at AIA was today. It was a semi-tough thing to do but time to move on to a new organization. My first day at the American Chemical Society is on Monday. I'm going to be leading the Web Strategy and Operations team there and I'm looking forward it.

The AIA gig was great and I'm leaving a lot of people I loved working with and a product I was proud to work on. It's weird leaving a job where you are pretty comfortable and familiar with the surroundings but I got an offer I couldn't refuse. I accepted the offer at ACS a couple weeks ago and have been taking care of all the AIA loose ends until today. I still have a few more things I need to take care of but I also have to get my mind out of the AIA issues and prepared to start thinking about my new responsibilities.

It's scary to think I will be learning to work with a whole new team and organization on Monday morning but very exciting at the same time. So long architecture and hello chemistry.

The other side

The other side
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Central park and the gw bridge.

Top of the Rock

Top of the Rock
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Beautiful night on top of Rockafeller Plaza. I'm having a couple drinks and skipping dinner to see Passing Strange. Don't tell anyone.

My Roommate

My Roommate
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I've been staying at Adam's place in the villiage the last fews days and spending my days at the Harvard Club on w44th. Stew, the creator of the show Passing Strange is also staying at Adam's place and his show is on the same block as my meeting. This is supposed to be a fantastic show and I'm half thinking of skipping some of my meeting to catch it today. It's funny but I also saw Stew at TED 2006 and was blown away with his performance. Go see it if you're in new york.

Astor Place Jam

Astor Place Jam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

These guys are good.

Idyllwild Airport

I was getting ready to head to new york this morning and Dylan asked how I was getting there. I told him I was flying and then asked if I was flying into Idyllwild airport. Now, I'm pretty sure most adults under the age of 60 don't know that jfk used to be called Idyllwild (not sure I'm spelling it right) but how does a 5 year old know this? I thought it was very odd and makes me think there is something to reincarnation. Maybe he used to fly into that airport in a former life.

Anyway, I was running a little late this morning when Sam asked if I could pitch to him outside. I had to make a call and said no, but had a stong urge to take him up on his request. I made my call and looked out the window at the boys hitting and throwing the baseball around with Blanca and decided pitching a few balls to the boys was way more important than packing all the right stuff for my trip.

I ended up playing some ball with them for 20 minutes and when I went back into pack. On the way back inside, the boys both yelled out to me "thanks Dad!" which basically made my day. I threw a lot of stuff in a bag in no particular order and headed out to the airport shortly after. I may look rediculous the next couple days but they do have stores in nyc in case I forgot something and a few more minutes with boys throwing a ball around was priceless.

80's Prom

80's Prom
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

So Edison high school is having an 80's themed prom. Are they trying to say the 80's were so much cooler, we want to be like them? I personally think what I worn to school back then is way better than the slacker gear of today.

I laughed, I cried

I laughed, I cried
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

A two hour production. The boys loved it.

The Rose Hill Players

The Rose Hill Players
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Are putting on a production of Enchanted Sleeping beauty today and we are in the fourth row. Its been a busy couple days with a Joe Jackson concert thursday night, I shot an 80 on my first golf outing this year on friday and this, what I'm sure will be a moving performance by fairfax countys finest grade schoolers today.

Architecture Week

Architecture Week
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

And a new exhibit at AIA. Lots of community redesign projects I haven't had a chance to view yet but will get to them tomorrow.

Any Given Monday

This morning, Sam said he wanted to pick out my underwear for me. I thought that was nice and one less thing I had to worry about each morning. Dylan told me that he wanted to go to China this morning. Maybe those two things are connected since most underwear is made in China. When I got home today the boys and I went through a stack of dinosaur cards. Sam wanted the Carnivores and Dylan the Herbivores. Sam had 12 and Dylan 24 at the end of the exercise. Then we created card houses out of the cards and ran into them with toy cars. It was all very hilarious actually.

I know this makes no sense but I wanted to write what we did today so that I can look back in a few years and remember how simple it all was.