Not exactly a regular sighting

I'm not quite as rare as a mountain lion in Shawnee Mission Park, but me updating my blog is a close second.

Work is super busy, for more reasons than I care to talk about or put out for all eternity on the internet.

Our house is trying to cut the cord (AT&T).  I'm tired of forking out $160 a month to watch Real Housewives and Diego.  We got a new bedroom TV since Penny's high school TV/VCR combo finally bit it.  The new TV has Hulu Plus, Vudu, Netflix, and a bevy of our content providers.  Plus I hooked up a $25 antenna and now get HD over the air (OTA).  The quality of OTA is way better than cable, since it is virtually uncompressed.  The picture quality for the Olympic Closing ceremony was unbelievable (even if NBC screwed up Olympic coverage almost as much as humanly possible).

I've been listening to some good music courtesy of Brandi Carlile.  Fans of Grey's Anatomy may remember one of our songs "The Story" being sung during that musical episode last season.  Here is the music video.  The video is pretty lame, in my opinion, because of the gratuitous amount of lens flare that would make Michael Bay blush.  The song is excellent though, and Brandi sings with an amazing amount of emotion.  She has a few songs I really like, including "Raise Hell", "Keep Your Heart Young", and "That Wasn't Me".



I've been trying to learn one of her songs, and I just started work on Dave Matthew's "Gravedigger".  I've always loved that song.  The lyrics are well written, and aren't inspired by glaucoma medicine.  I had to throw that in because it would seem a lot of DMB songs are.

Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913

Made his great granchildren believe

You could live to a hundred and three

A hundred and three is forever when you're just a little kid

So Cyrus Jones lived forever

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain

Gravedigger

Muriel Stonewall

1903 to 1954

She lost both of her babies in the second great war

Now you should never have to watch

Your only children lowered in the ground

I mean you should never have to bury your own babies

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain

Gravedigger

Ring around the rosey

Pocket full of posey

Ashes to ashes

We all fall down

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain

Gravedigger

Little Mikey Carson 67 to 75

He rode his

Bike like the devil until the day he died

When he grows up he wants to be Mr. Vertigo on the flying trapeze

Ohhh, 1940 to 1992

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain

Feel the rain

I can feel the rain

Gravedigger

Gravedigger

Playing guitars

That's all I've been consistently doing these days.  I'm getting better, and I can occasionally play for 10-15 seconds at a time when it actually sounds musical.  It's a great source of enjoyment for me, and it is awfully relaxing and is great exercise for that side of my brain.  Not much room for music between the 1's and 0's.

I'm looking at getting an acoustic now, I have an electric that I'm quite fond of, but it does what it does well, and playing acoustically isn't one of them.  Penny will wonder why I didn't get one to begin with, I'm sure.  She's right, most of the time.  Hopefully she won't read this and find out I was saying she was right about something.

The boys are doing well, getting large that's for sure.  Kieran is growing up quick, but holding on to some little kid behaviors that we'll have to beat out of him.  Of course I wouldn't beat him, because when he's 6'4" 230# of muscle, I'll need him on my side to protect me from AB.  I can't believe how strong AB is getting.  He can nearly hold me down on the floor when we're wrestling.  That's crazy, when he's only 7.  Kid is like an ox.

No other revelations for me, other than we are entering the birthday season with Penny, my bigger little sister, and her husband all within a couple of weeks of each other.  Might as well drink and eat cake, because I'm not getting any faster on the bike!

Uncle at 35...

It was always cool in high school to see kids (peers back then) that were uncles.  Uncles were like the cool big brother, just bigger and wiser.  So I've waited for 20 years since high school *gasp* and now am finally an uncle to two beautiful wee babies.  Of course, timing would have it so I was still in South Carolina when the twins came 3-ish weeks early.  But at least it was at the end of the vacation.
We went straight from the airport to the hospital, yet somehow after 3 flights to get back home plus an extra 40 minute delay, I still was pretty wide awake to finally get to meet my dear niece and nephew.  I don't think it has quite hit me that my little sister has kids.  I figured it would be kind of surreal.  Maybe it's because they were a long time in the making I had some time to accommodate the thought of her having kids.  Maybe it's just because I'm so used to having my own it seems more natural than if I didn't have kids myself.  I'm super happy for her and Charlie.  It makes me happy to see both of them so happy and excited.
I'm anxious to be able to hold them.  I've never felt that way about anybody else's kids, so I guess that's cool.  I've enjoyed holding babies, but I haven't been excited to do it days/weeks in advance. It's always cool to hold a baby and realize how amazing our bodies are; it's easy to see when they are so wrinkly and small, when they are so tough yet still so fragile.  And to think that in a few short years they will be tearing around the backyard and making their parents smile.
Being a parent changes you completely. It's tough to explain the pride you feel in your kids.  From a practical point of view, it seems odd about the things your kids do to make you proud.  But it's little things, little acts of kindness or a well thrown baseball; these little glimpses into what they can become or accomplish, that make you feel as though you aren't a miserable parent or don't know what you are doing.  Those moments are the payoff to the massive investment of being a parent.
For all this, the possible and the potential, I wish Sophie, Colin, and their parents to be able to enjoy everything that this life can bring.

South Carolina Vacation Pics

7 days of fun in the (mostly) sun did the family good.  The boys had a great time, and K was ready to permanently move to the beach. I'm glad all the anticipation he had over the last 6 weeks wasn't let down in any way.  AB had a great time boogie boarding, and Penny and I enjoyed some much deserved work-free time.

I'd have to highly recommend Charleston, in particular the islands off the coast.  I think we could have spent another 3-4 days touring around, but chances are we'd end up on the beach again.  

Golfing buddy

Saw this feller when I was out golfing in South Carolina last week.  Thankfully he let us play through...

Ok, I'm getting back on the blog

Probably.

Here's a video.  I like videos.

It's alive!

I'm still here.  Still alive.  Still riding (a bit).  Still playing guitar.

I'm also still having heart palpitations after the OSU-KU game last night.  I found this video last night.  It's awesome.  Hope you enjoy.