Bullet Baby

Lucas: You know I'm thinking about getting back into performing.  That Pied Piper incident in third grade when I had a wedgie the whole time and then I finally had to do something about it, and everyone in the audience saw me excavate my underwear was pretty traumatic.  Maybe I'll start with a dramatic reading of "never ever ever getting back together." 

Me: The only performing I'll be doing is wedding ceremonies.

Zach: Then I hope your monologue is better than "never ever ever getting back together."  Actually, Tiffany, you probably shouldn't use that during the ceremony.

I spent a lot of time focusing on work and those stories are either dull, or probably not appropriate for here.  However, Shana did send me a Pep Talk that you all really should experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o&sns=em

Lucas: You know why I like sugar in tea?  One, it tastes good.  Two, it has good homogenous properties. Way better than honey.

Zach: But honey is better for you.

Lucas: That isn't on my list.

On Friday, Becky called me back to say, "This is great!  I totally wanted to hang out with someone but I couldn't think of ANYONE that wouldn't already have plans this late on a Friday.  I didn't think of you at all.  Of course YOU would be free!"  And I was, home on a Friday, snuggling with Percy who wasn't feeling well from his shot earlier in the day. 

Me: I'm so glad you could come over.  And that you're wearing sweats because I actually changed into pajamas when I heard you were coming over. 

Becky: I was so excited about coming over I almost left the house with my shower cap on.  Jared had to ask me if I was forgetting something. 

Me: Pick out whatever you want, I'll watch anything.

Becky: Star Wars?

Me: Don't make me ask you to leave. 

Becky: Ooh! Let's watch A Walk in the Clouds.  It's one of my FAVORITES.

Me: I really like that your favorite movie has Keanu Reeves in it. 

 Me: My sister was calling Percy, "Little Nose."  I think that would have been his Indian name.

Lucas:  Did you know that when the Pilgrims came, they were talking to this Indian Chief and he said he would trade them drinking water for their beans.  The Pilgrims agreed, and handed the vegetables over, and the Chief yelled, "Hey Drinking Water, come over here and meet your new parents."    

Percy was chewing on a chair, so we sprayed it with the no chew stuff.  We barely finished spraying, when he went back to chewing.

Me: You son of a b*tch.

Zach: That is quite the factual statement.

Lucas introduced me to a civil war myth that I had never heard of before.  The story goes (and I've included a link for more details) that a soldier had been hit with a bullet through his left testicle, and then traveled further into a girl getting her preggers.  My first response was Man! That chick was pretty quick on her feet with the lies to cover up being with child and without husband.  I mean she convinced newspapers!  That's fantastic.  Way to go, Lady.  Way. To. Go.

http://www.security-faqs.com/the-virgin-bullet-pregnancy-of-1874.html

We did some shopping at the outlet malls on Saturday, followed by a viewing of "Eddie and the Cruisers Part II."  (Obviously, an Oscar worthy movie weekend.)  Sunday, was more concentrated on chores, reading the page to screen HP book, and running Percy around at the park.  Oh, and doing our jobs as best groupies ever at Chop Suey watching Luke's band, Allium. 

We were talking about how to gain mass/muscle etc.  We naturally called in some help from Roy Boy.  In the meantime, Lucas was talking about how that might bring in the ladies.  Dawne was telling him that he was just as good looking as Zach and Derek. 

Luke: but I'm your son! Really, I have a face made for radio.

In previous car shopping moments, I've always put an emphasis on how it would drive in the snow.  For example, a mustang, despite its convertible properties, is rear wheel drive, so I would never even considerate.  (Maybe this specific example is from driving to skiing class in Laura's mustang and essentially sliding in and out of the parking lot.  This go around, when faced between the option of the all-terrain Jeep Wrangler and teeny Fiat that sees speed bumps as a challenge, I went with the Fiat.  I have genuinely been excited about the opportunity of a good old fashion Seattle snow that equals a sum total of a 1/2 an inch when I can call in and say, Sorry! Stella doesn't do snow - and then get to work from home for a week.  I thought it would happen when we had a those long weeks of 20 degree weather... but noooooo we got SUNSHINE like we were living on the east coast or something.  And now we're back to dark, raining and 45 degrees, so I gave up and got a car wash.  Maybe one day...

Have a good week kids!

Shana, Help Me Burn That Old Man

Not that I had Monday off... :) 

Last week we spent some collective time studying for finals.   At some point, and I don't even know what he had done to deserve this response, I started singing to Percy, "Who's Lame?  Lucas is Lame!" I didn't realize I was singing this until I heard Lucas say, "That is the worst song ever.  It's probably going to be a hit." 

At work, we needed to get some images for a project I'm working on.  In order to do that, we had to play the game, and shoot near each other without actually hitting each other (which is a bit of a specialty for me.)  I pretty much ran around randomly near everyone, pressing all of the buttons on my controller.  Unfortunately, Carlos was close to me when I was pressing buttons and I accidentally assassinated him. 

Me: Whooopsedaisy!

Carlos: SO MUCH FOR NO KILLS!!!

Me: Um… didn’t you run me over with a warthog?  Twice?

Carlos: I WAS TRYING TO PICK YOU UP BUT THEN YOU JUMPED IN FRONT OF ME LIKE A DEER! TOO FAST!

Tyler: The group was full of remorse.

That's right.  That there Spartan is doing a victory dance on Carlos' still warm body.

Last week was particularly foggy.  I hear it was causing an atmospheric pollution problem - that's how thick this fog was.  I might have mentioned on facebook it reminded me of when the horse dies in The Never-Ending Story.  I'm what you call a regular Susie Sunshine. 

Lucas was finishing up some paper mache projects one night when I started talking to Percy.

Me: You didn't know him then but he used to paint and do crafts any time he wanted to... like he just didn't care... [with his hands in the air.] You could tell his lack of caring by the direction his hands were pointing.

Ooh!  I became a "minister" of the Universal Life Church... so I can officiate Evivova's wedding in February!  So excited!

I am TOTALLY kidding, Ev.  I'll be awesome and appropriate, but this card was also amusing and appropriate for this message. : ) 

Friday, I put away the Nutcrackers that were lining the stairs because Percy loves going up and down the stairs and those Nutcrackers were no match for his exuberance. Saturday, I went to a puppy class with Pam.  We didn't bring the pups - so it was a lot of teaching us what to do.  I felt like I was on the right track already - but not sure how helpful the class will be.   Afterwards, I met the boys for lunch and then a trip to Value Village.  While perusing the merch, I found my life's work validated when I found these side by side amongst bags of random toys.

Immediately after, Lucas told me I could have just gotten this little guy instead of Percy:

Later that evening, I met up with people to celebrate a co-workers birthday.   The bar was cool, the drinks were complicated, but I thoroughly enjoyed the big open windows that allowed me to people watch all the hipsters walking by.  Sunday, I can't remember what occupied most of the day, but it definitely included some QT with Matty.  We hunkered down at Earls in Bell Square, and our waitress had only our table to wait on.  She was pretty amusing and extremely attentive.  Plus, Matty and I were able to catch up without feeling like we had to rush out and give someone else the table.  Win/win.

I'm not sure why I think this is hilarious, but I really do think this is hilarious.  Enjoy, my friend.  Enjoy.  (Thanks, Shana!)

Other than that, I bought some UGGS and they are like walking on PILLOWS! Warm, snuggly pillows.  I don't understand why, when I was complaining about how ugly these shoes were and asking why anyone would spend that kind of money on boots that made your feet look fat, no one answered: because these shoes feel like heavenly clouds.   I'm wearing them every day and I (obviously) don't care who knows it!

Splish Splash...Percy hate baths. But he loves redistributing all of the water in the bowl on to the floor. Actually, a piece of food fell in the bowl and he worked at getting it out. And then I thought he was just playing, but then I saw there was another crumb at the bottom of the bowl. He kept looking up at me like I was going to tell him to stop but I figured it's good to teach him how to put his head under the water. 

I hope I didn't miss something, but I probably did - so just assume my week was fabulous even though we all know I spent most of the day hanging out with these guys:

Unless you wanted to hear a rant: As I was cleaning the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher, while trying to get Lucas to focus on studying for finals, when I broke a glass. So there I am, my hand bleeding and I'm barefoot - picking up Percy, throwing him in a pen and running the other dogs downstairs and outside.  Lucas hands me a gigantic band aid, picks up the large pieces of glass and goes back to studying. I then have to bandage my hand (with a different bandage) sweep up the glass while Percy is crying. I then realize I had made coffee so it was ready to go in the morning but accidentally put it on so I have to do it again. I finish unloading and loading the dishwasher from a dinner I didn't make or have. Then Luke rolls the chair on Percy enough that he's squealing and then... I step in another shard of glass - foot bleeding I try to mop the floor again. At this point all I want to do is cry - but feel dumb because nothing really terrible is happened - but it all happened in a 15 min period. PS: Looking at the cut now, I wonder if I should have gotten stiches.  Oh well! It’s now covered in a Band-Aid I got from Christy that says, “You have a heart of a Champion” smiley face, smiley face. 

 

Papier-mâché

Last week, I spoke to you a little bit, though not enough, about my friend Cece.  Well, I just received more bad news – we lost Marion, too.  For those of you who know our family, you no doubt hung out with Marion – or luckier still had some of her chocolate chip pound cake. (Very lucky actually, because often she would bring this cake to the Christmas Party and I would “accidentally” forget to put it out.  She found me out though, and started bringing two. Such a smart lady.)   When I was really little, Cece and Marion came as a duo.  As their relationship splintered, our good times with Marion were not.  I guess you could say if Cece was my honorary grandma- Marion was the great aunt in my life that I never had.  I don’t remember her ever getting mad or angry.  If you dropped a dish, she would immediately tell you that it was just a dish.  Things break, drinks spill, no reason to get upset as long as no one got hurt. (I’m kind of a klutz, so this understanding attitude was novel and appreciated.)  She was always baking.  The first time I went over to learn how to make cookies with her I found out her chocolate chip cookies were nothing but the Toll House recipe.  The Toll House recipe plus some serious, old fashioned, elbow grease transformed these cookies to something I have never experienced in a cookie before or since.  No electric mixers for Marion! No sirreee. She was also a very strong German woman who didn’t let us have breaks during bake time. She had so many grand-kids, but every time I went over for Christmas, my Styrofoam bell covered in glitter from, I’m pretty sure kindergarten, hung on her wall.  She was happy and excited all the time, and not even a stroke dampened that enthusiasm.  She was kind and positive and showed me what true patience was.   Simply put, she was a treasure and I miss her already. 

I feel like all I did last week was come home from work, played with puppies and maybe watched some BCC Being Human.  Oh and I played a bunch of IconPopQuiz.  I have a love/hate relationship with this app.  I love when I know the answer, I hate that they expect me to know who someone is because they wore a non-descript hat once. 

I also learned about Angler Fish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BbpaNXbxg

Lucas: If I have a girl, I’m going to name her Pashmina Shaw.  Not shawl, Pashmina Shaw.  Her nick name will be “Pass me the salt” or at least that is what siri thinks her nick name is. 

I got some pretty adorable pictures of Percy’s new friend, Lucy!  She is Pam’s new puppy.  About a month younger than Percy and I think they’ll be best buds. 

Friday, I worked from home so that I could put some serious time into potty training Percy.  By the end of the day I felt like a complete failure.  The kid decided to walk off the potty pad 6 inches and pee three times in a row.  THEN on Saturday, I said, fine, run around.  And you know what he did?  He didn’t make one mistake all day.  Guess who doesn’t like being told what to do.  He’s still not perfect – but we’re getting there. 

Lucas came home for lunch on Friday and told me that his school was in lock down that morning.  Apparently, there was an armed guy outside the school.  Lucas parked a couple of blocks away from school, and walked by this armed guy, in fatigues, that had set up barracks around his truck.  He just walked by him, doot do doot do doo.  When he arrived at school, he was locked out until someone finally let him in.  Another kid was also late for school.

Lucas: Should we let him in?

Teacher: LUCAS! We are not letting the crazy guy in!

Lucas: Uh, no.  I meant the other student. 

Don’t worry, apparently everyone was fine.  Not that I remained calm after getting an amber alert to my phone with a screeching noise like those emergency drills.  I only freaked out for like 5 minutes. 

Friday, Luke also got his grades (pre-finals) and lamented about his college-less future.  We called Maureen to book some time for math help, and then went out to get supplies for his paper mache party. 

Mo: So… you’re having a party instead of studying?

Me: We need to make sure we get flour for the glue.

Lucas: In the biz we call that paste.

Me: Would we call this a biz?

Lucas: It's an industry - the industry I'll be in with these grades.

Friday evening I met up with Laina, her bf Mo, Rach, Anders, Jen, Hays, Sonya and Steve.  They had all gone to bingo at the senior center, to which I sadly, could not attend.  As I could not attend, here is Dr. Rach’s summary:

This pretty much sums up the crowd at Bingo last night. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would witness a senior citizen giving a lap dance to the karaoke version of Play that Funky Music, but it happened. Oh yes, it happened. I nearly choked on my Werther's Original.

Saturday, we worked on Algebra Dos and cleaned the house for not one, but two parties.  Simultaneously.  Lucas and his friends did paper mache, Encino man, and the pool.  Mark came over to host a “Wizard” party – at least that’s what the invitation said.  I know, because one guest showed up as Gandolf – not realizing it was a Harry Potter party.   I have put the link to the text below, but basically we listened to a spoof audio book of the Sorcerer’s Stone read while the movie is on silent.  It was so funny that it hurt.  The laughing hurt. I think my favorite part is that he refers to Prof Snake as a woman, the entire time.  Highly recommend. 

http://www.erikkennedy.com/wizardpeopledearreaders.html

Sunday morning I met with Laina, Shana and Dr. Rach for brunch which was lovely.  Then I skipped the wedding show (though I hear it was very productive) to come home and support Lucas while he studied.  Maureen ACTUALLY helped with studying but I was there by his side the whole time.  Which was probably best seeing as I hear the flu is going around and there was an awful lot of people at that convention show.  I feel the need to take some airborne just thinking about it.

Thestrals

I want to have a somber moment today before I begin.  I just found out that my honorary grandma died last week.  My grandparents lived so far away, that for me, Bob and Cece filled the role.  For those of you who had the chance to meet her, you know that Cece was pure awesome.   She was what happens when you mix honesty, reality and a genuine happiness for life.  Bob and Cece lived down at the bottom of the hill when I was growing up.  My parents were down there so often that our dog Chico, who never left the yard, would run straight down there to find my mom (or maybe he could hear her laugh, I’m not sure. : ) When I got off the bus, I often stopped at Cece’s on my way home – just because.  She taught me how to dive – all while floating on her back, drink in hand, not getting her hair wet.  To this day, I don’t know how she was able to manage this feat for so long.  She also had the only rotary phone I knew of and adored Sinatra and Jimmy Roselli.  I’m not doing this well, I’m not capturing her.  I wish I had my quote books handy so I could share exactly what kind of things she would say so you could see how her humor was born of no nonsense effervescence. Maybe when I dig them up I’ll have a throwback update so I can share moments with them with all of you.  I feel like I lost her twice.  The first time was a slow sad slip of time until she really didn’t remember us.  So, when I got the news this morning, I wasn’t expecting the blow.  I guess what I’m saying is that she has been missed and will continue to be missed. 

And now I’ll commence with the update.  On Monday, I went down to play with my nieces.  We played the Harry Potter Scene it game.  Bailey and I were separated because technically, I’ve read books 7 times and seen the movies at least 4 times.  However, it’s been a while, and my memory isn’t as spritely as a 14 year old.  While I was able to keep up, it must have been painful for everyone involved because my answers when like this:

Q: What is the Felix Felicis most commonly known as?

Me: Fool’s Gold… Lucky duck…. LIQUID LUCK!

And Bailey’s when like this:

Q: I forgot the question.

Bailey:  Thestrals.  Remember because on the same page Luna and Harry…

We also played Pictionary.  The girls got to choose the teams.  When Stacey and I heard that we were on the same, we both said, “Really?  Are you sure?” And then… no one else got to leave the start square.  To be fair, Bailey had an upward battle with her 7 year old partner who, for example wanted to draw “Front Door” would start with the top of the chimney… and when she finished with the chimney, another team had already gotten it.  As always, Bails was a good sport.

Before I had arrived, the girls had been making video’s with Barbie’s.  In one video, Jackie (11) asked the Barbie’s, “Did you know that Ken is… CHEATING ON YOU?”  In another series, Ken asks Barbie to marry him and she answers, “Ken, you can’t just spring that on me.  You know I have to talk to all of my friends before I make any decisions!”  Then Ken leaves to go to the bathroom and gets murdered.  I’m going to skip ahead to Barbie, played by Jackie and a “friend” played by Morgan (9).

For New Year’s Eve, I went to a party at Mo’s where Percy was more freaked out by the small children then the two large dogs. He did alright though, and we ended up doing a count down and cheers’ing with kid wine at 8:30.  Then we played one last game of Canasta for 2012.  On Tuesday, Mo and Kyle shoveled small paths through the snow on the driveway so that Percy could run around and get tired for his trip back to Seattle.  I wish I had taken a picture – but to be honest he was so close to my heals, I would never have been able to capture the moment.  (I did capture this moment though with him and Nala from yesterday: )

I got to Newark with plenty of time to get on the plan… or so I thought.  It took over an hour to just get though the bag drop line.  Every single person from United was mean to me.  They also had me bring my bag somewhere else – even though they knew I only had 30 min to get through security.  All of the people on all the lines were delightful, so I don’t know why United was so mean.  I got to the gate with ten min to spare, but they told me I couldn't get on the plane.  Mind you, every person refused to make eye contact when they were being mean to me.  I’m not ashamed to say that I cried.  I also set up a space for Percy to stretch his legs a bit – and REALLY wanted him to make a “mistake” on their rugs – but he went for the potty pad anyway.  I took a flight two hours later, which wasn't terrible, but meant that I got home after midnight and at that point Percy was ready to play play play.  So glad it was a three day work week.

After being on the east coast last week, I've decided to break down and get a pair of UGGS.  I made this announcement at work and people were VERY adamant about me not getting them and I’m not going to lie.  Every proclamation indicating that I was making a bad decision, just made me want them more.  Honestly, they don’t have to be UGGS, I just want a really nice pair of warm and cozy boots.  The search is on.

Saturday, I had brunch with Becky, Jared, and Becky’s brother and sister-in-law (who were visiting from Alaska.)  We went to the British Pantry, because tea and crumpets are awesome.  Then I took Lucas down to IKEA for a shelving unit to hold all of his gaming stuff.  We lost the piece of paper with the numbers on it… so we kind of just guessed at what he needed.  That always works!  (Wait for IKEA part II when we have to go back to return/get what we really needed.)

(ACTUALLY… I bought Dr. Rach and Anders knives because nothing says love like a multicolored set of knives from IKEA.  )

That evening was Dr. Rach and Ander’s engagement party.  Everything was lovely.  I only got into two situations.  One, when I watched the host cut the cake.  I mentioned to Anders and Rach what I would do to cut the cake more easily.  But then, when they didn't pass on the knowledge I ended up having to speak up.  Slightly too late, I was told but I don’t know them!  I can’t go around telling strangers what to do… or can I?  Then we had a puzzle contest, which I protested because the winners worked as a team.  I gave them a 5 minute time out – but I didn't time it or anything. 

Yesterday was seriously lazy.  I did wake up early and got donuts for Lucas’ birthday, but then there was a lot of chilling, training Percy and hanging out with the pups and Zach.  Until Lucas and Mariana got back from the pin ball museum and then we got his birthday dinner – Subway.  He totally chose that! 

You Betchya!

Getting back into the swing of things is not one of my favorite past times so it is with a big yawn and great need to rub my eyes that I tell you about what happened during my week in New York.  Before I do though, I would like to share with you two of the responses I received from last week's update (surprisingly, neither of them was "Way to send an update on vacation when all you want to do is play with your fam!" 

From Cristi:

I am jealous -- incredibly jealous -- of Sean's sign "It is what it is". I created my own for days when important assignments are due. It is colorful paper binder clipped to a yard stick.  I hold it up and smile. It reads, "I will be deaf to pleading and excuses" and at the bottom is a little MLA citation for Romeo and Juliet.

And from Erika:

Cute.  Maureen's kids crack me up.  Love your hair.  Fam is in town through the 2nd.  Dinner went fairly well despite my stress level and massive liquor headache.  After spending 6 months asking for power wheels, we broke down and got him them.  He rode for less than a minute, then said, 'I don't want it. '  Awesome. 

My nephew Kevin came over to help me set up the presents on Monday.  It takes around 2  1/2 hours to set them up so that your pile of presents is in front of you - but together it looks like a big pile of presents - but you still have to be able to see over it, of course.  And then we take around 5 or 6 hours to open them.  :)  As always, my parents created the perfect Christmas for everyone.  All the kids were super happy and excited and the adults were all smiles too.  Just as everyone was packing up, two of my nephews were play fighting until all of a sudden one realized where they were standing and yelled "MISTLETOE!!" and went in for a smooch. 

Christmas day, we were walking out to the car, about to perform our annual Christmas carol of "12 Days of Christmas" on our way to church when I mentioned, "I don't have anything with me.  No cash, nothing."  When we all got settled in the pew, my mom passed down a twenty to me.  When I asked what it was for, she told me it was for the collection.  I guess I DID need my wallet. 

Percy had a very eventful week in that every single day he had the opportunity to hang out with small children and larger dogs. Here are some shots of Bella & Percy:

I also brought him out into the snow, even with two coats he wasn't having any of it.  He enjoyed when Mo and the boys shoveled paths in the snow for him a lot better than going out when the snow was still coming down. 

On Wednesday, I hung out with Briana.  My dad had a special Christmas present for the both of us.  I'm not sure, but I think it was a school project from elementary school.  Even back then, Briana was good with typography.  Speaking of which, if anyone is throwing a party and needs some design help, here is her new site: http://www.sudzandink.com/index.html

On Thursday, Debina came over with baby Matthew.  Such a cutie!  I took far too many pictures.  I also bought a onsie for him that was on the small side - but Debina managed to shove him into it.  Like magic, the night he wore it to bed, he slept for 10 hours.  I'm just sorry I didn't get it to him earlier.   As he was getting ready to leave the house, Matthew started to cry a bit.  Kevin asked, "Is he afraid of the giant Santa?"

  

Thursday night, Momela, Frita, Mo and I all went to see Miracle on 34th street at the Westchester dinner theater.  After 5 minutes in the car:

Mo: Where is my purse?

Frita: Oh, the old, I forgot my purse act.

Mo: Wait, I got it. 

But then she left it in the car... conveniently.  I made two bets with everyone before it started.  The first was if the Santa was going to speak to a deaf or Dutch kid and the second, if he was going to be proved as Santa by the dollar bill or the USPS.  I won on both accounts (Dutch and USPS).

Mo: I guess if I noticed that they were going with Macy's instead of Cole's, I wouldn't have been such a loser but what are ya gonna do?

Me: I have a feeling you are just not going to pay up.

Mo: I don't know.  Dad did give Patrick [her son] three dollars today.

Mo: I was just going to drink Tiffany's.

Me: Oh? You want my wine? You can have it.

Then I proceeded to take a big swig of my wine.

There was a guy who gave a spiel before the play began. 

Me: That guy looks really tall.  How tall do you think he is?

Mo: I don't know. Go stand next to him...but don't say anything.

Friday I hung out at with my nieces followed by an evening at Mo's.  Basically, I played games for 10 hours straight.  While playing Apples to Apples, Morgan was reading the description for Canadian and it ended with "... eh?"  Only, she couldn't say it with a Canadian accent (I tried) and instead kept saying, "Ay! Howyoudoin'?" with her genuine, bona-fide New York Accent.  Love that girl!  In other news, Maureen was telling me that one of her students, in response to a nosy parker who was inquiring about something that Mo was doing, said, "Don't you worry about it." (Please insert same NY accent for full effect.)

At one point, Mo asked Kevin to take Bella out.  5 minutes later, Kevin walks back into the house.

Mo: What happened to you, Kevin?

Kevin: I forgot the dog.

Patrick: You know, pretty soon I'll be old enough to go to the rest of the gym at Club Fit.

Mo:  Don't rush time.  When you are old enough for the gym, you won't be able to go to the energy center [kid section.]

Kevin: That's probably because when you become a teenager you start using bad language.

Apparently, Mo at some point said to Kyle, her youngest, "You know if Nana and Pop-Pop weren't around we wouldn't have had you." I'm not saying it's completely related, but at every opportunity, Kyle says,  "I'm gonna sit next to Nana and Pop-Pop."

We also taught the boys how to play Canasta with us last week.  Traditionally, you ask your team members if they want a Canasta if you are going to use your wild cards.  Kevin took it to the next level, asking if we wanted a Canasta, then putting down an 8 to make the Canasta.  Also, every time we asked him a question, instead of saying yes, he said, YOU BETCHYA! Hello, new catch phrase. 

On Sunday, I went down to the city with Sean, Stacey, the girls, Sean's friend Tim and his three girls.  We got go into the BOAT (Bank of America Tower) and see the views from there.  We also hit up Times Square (because who doesn't love Times Square - before NYE that is), Rockefeller, and then up to Dylan's Candy Store.  From there we headed down to Union Square for some BBQ and then to Washington Square.  The whole day was pretty awesome, but my favorite part was the train ride down when Morgan left her friends to sit next to me with a close second, seeing Sean wear his beard head around town. 

That's all that I can remember at the moment.  I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday week.