Carbon Offset
Well I calculated my carbon footprint.
http://www.bp.com. I found out that the average American carbon footprint is 18. So if you are over then you can buy offset points. But what happens if you are under?
Well I have an idea that you can buy carbon upset points. So if you are at 10 then you have to buy 8 upset points. I think I have a winner here. We will match people up who are under with people who are over and the world will be a great place. So if you are at a 26 you pay to match up with someone at a 10. Sounds good to me. Everyone walks away a winner.
How about that.
.mike
Church
Yesterdays Mass was quite a challenge. Ethan was acting up, Josh was not feeling well, soon to be realized later that night and Rebekah was hungry. Good times I can tell you. But I know I am doing the right thing. As tough as it is and as upset as I get I know it is very important for us to go to Mass as a family. It just seems to tought right now!
Later
.mike
Long night
Last night was a long night.
Joshua was sick, he woke up aroud 12:30 with a moderate temp and would not be consoled by me. So I traded kids with Michelle and I took Rebekah. I kept her for a while. I can tell you it was a bit crowded in the bed with 2 of us and 2 kids. Evenutually Josh calmed down and fell asleep. So around 3:30 - 4:00 I brought Josh back to bed. I could not leave him in his room alone. So I had to lay in bed with him and of course I fell asleep and woke up around 6:45, I leave for work at 7:15. Quick morning.
So..so tired.
Still have to stay awake for 24 tonight.
later
.mike
It's Friday
It has been a long week. Today is no different.
We have to bring Ethan to his hearing appointment. He failed his 4 year hearing test. Now I know he does not have a hearing problem. You see I can turn on the TV and DVD player downstairs - with no volume mind you. Open the draw of the DVD player and the boy runs downstairs asking to watch the video of the day (Could be John Deere, Cars, Veggie Tales). So no hearing loss. More like lack of paying attention. Just like his old man, can't be bothered to listen. Go figure.
Also we have a R.O.C.K. NH meeting tonight. (Raising Our Celiac Kids - New Hampshire). It's just a potluck dinner. Just to get together and exchange info etc... Should be fun.
More as I think of it.
Oh yeah we actually got some sleep last night. That is after Ethan came in our bed around 11:00 to 12:00. I was woken up at 5:30 by Ethan to fix "Cranky" and for those of you not in the know "Cranky" is a crane from Thomas the Tank Engine set. I told him that daddy was cranky and would fix it when I got up in a little bit. Which turned out to be 5 minutes because Joshua was crying. Ahhhh sleep.
later
.mike
Smoking ban in New Hampshire
Today a smoking ban passed the NH Senate and now moves on to the house where it is expected to pass.
This is bad. We do not need more government we need less. Let the market decide. If people do not like the smoking then do not go there. Period. The restaurant/bar will get the hint once people stop going to their restaurant/bar because of the smoke. A law is just one more thing the government has it's hand in.
If cigarettes are so bad for our health then get ride of the all together. But therein lies the rub. The government can't get ride of cigarettes the need the tax revenue. Hmmm. Go figure. Now I used to smoke I don;t anymore but far be it from me to tell smokers that they can't smoke in a bar.
Just ticks me off.
That is all.
later
.mike
Late night / early morning
As you may or may not know we have a 7 week old baby. She sleeps, like most babies, sporatically through the night. Which in and of itself is not a problem. The problem lies is the 4 year old. He is up anywhere between 4:30 and 5:00AM. Ready to go.
He comes in to our room wanting to see the baby. I tell him that he can give his sister a kiss and then back to bed because the sun is not yet up. So he goes back to his room turns on his light and proceeds to play with his Thomas the Tank Engine tracks and trains. Which is not so bad, he is actually quite good at building tracks and mostly keeps quite. Not this morning.
Apparantly Ethan was bored and wanted someone to play with. He decides his sleeping brother is a perfect chioce. Now we have put the boys in seperate rooms to stop this kind of thing, silly parents they know nothing. Ethan opens up Joshua's door climbs over the gate turns on the light and asks Joshua if he is awake. Now Joshua wakes up crying. Ethan decides the best course of action is to leave the room. Now Joshua is upset because he is alone in his room with no one to play with.
Enter daddy at say oh 5:30. After being awake from 2 ~ 3 with newborn. Michelle has finished feeding her and gave the baby back to me. I tried, in vain, to get her back to sleep , Rebekah not Michelle. So after 45 minutes of trying she finally fell into a somewhat sleep mode. I fell aseep right after her. Only to be woken up at 5:00 by Ethan. so I was in a GREAT mood. I went into Josh's room brought Ethan with me and had them play in there. Whilst I tried to get the last few minutes of sleep in Joshua's bed.
After 10 minutes of "quiet" time, and by quiet I mean noisy, there was a loud "thump" followed by silence. You know the kind just the breathless quiet before a crying wail. But no cry followed. I looked up and Ethan had climbed back over the gate and slipped and fell. But showing wisdom beyond his 4 years he kept quiet. At that point I was up and we headed down staris.
We started our morning routine at 5:45 I got the boys into the back room and turned on a John Deere video. Got their fresh sippie cups and dried cereal, set up the gate, futile I know, and headed to the shower. The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful - just tired. You'd think I would know better. After 3 kids tired is just part of life.
Well back to work.
Later
.mike
Lent
Well lent starts tomorrow. I still have not decided what to give up. I think it will be deserts. Should be good for the waistline.
Still at work. Really would like to get a new job.
later
.mike
A bit chilly
I get up at 5:00 AM on Mondays to go to a program that our Church is sponsoring called "That Man is You" it's about becoming a better Catholic Father/Man/Leader. Anyway before I left I took a look at the thermometer and it was 2 out. A bit cold. So I put on my fleece pullover on and then my flannel shirt.
While I was walking to the class the wind was whipping down the street. Reminded me of ice fishing without the beer and snomobiles.
Just thought I'd share that.
later
.mike
Rebekah's Baptism
Seems like it was just yesterday that Joshua was getting baptised (or bathtised according to Ethan).
So Dennis and Cheryl are the Godparents. We picked the 11:30 Mass because they have 5 kids and take a while to get the clan out of the house and to church. Now they were staying at his parents in Loudon which is about 30 minutes from Manchvegas. So Dennis's parents show up with Luke and Bridgette at about 10:50 telling us that Dennis was stuck in a snow bank but was on his way. Well after a bit of a wait they made it 11:35 - just a bit late.
The whole baptism went off with out a hitch. She did a great job. Took a bunch of pictures. Everyone came back to our place afterwards. Had a good time.
Very busy Sunday plus I had That Man is you at 6:00am this morning. I tell you 5:00am comes early when your youngest has a stuffy nose.
Later
.mike
GI appointment looking back
Well it's Monday and I have not posted in a few days so first thing first. i had my GI appointment on Friday. Not the Army GI, GastoIntersomethingorother. Anyway the trip was 30 mnutes down to Nashua a 15 minute appointment and 30 minutes back. i really am going to change my doctors to some that are a bit closer to good ol Manchvegas.
Anyway he re-stated that it's fatty liver disease. To make sure they want to do a biopsy. After he told me all of the things that could go wrong, from a bleeding liver to a punctured lung I am going to say no. Not to mention the fact that the treatment would not change one bit. Soooo I am leaning to no biopsy.
Not that I am not concerned about it but loosing weight and working out is something that I can do so I think I'll do that. Thanks.
later
.mike
Nor'Easter 2007
Well that was a bust. We started hearing the news a week ago. That a storm was-a-brewing. Coming in from the left coast to meet with another system coming the coast (east that is) and give us a bunch of snow. Well here in lovely Manchvegas I started to get excited. You see we have had very very little snow. (must be global warming) So when a storm was predicted I was looking forward to it. But is was for naught.
We got about 8-10 inches. Whee. Not a big storm in my book. I think other parts of the state (NH) got up to about 20 or so. Ski country mostly. Hell we got that much rain last spring.
So I am still waiting for a big storm. Maybe next week.
On the other hand the snow blower still works!
Oh yeah got a GI appointment tommorrow. Whee
later
.mike
Drs Appointment
Well went to the doctors last Friday. Well it seems all of my worry was fo naught. No real change. Which is good news/bad news. I did not get any worse on the Cholesterol or liver f(x) but I did not get any better either. Dr told me to work out more. Gotta do it.
I'll keep you informed.
later
.mike
That Man is You
That man is You is a course / study group that I go to at our church. It's aim is to help Catholic men become better leades at home and abroad. It's quite a good program. The only draw back is that it is at 6:00 am in the morning, and here is the kicker on Mondays. Makes for an early Monday morning. The program is that we show up at 6:00AM have coffee and donuts, sit a talk for a bit then the presentation starts, which lasts about 30 minutes. Then we break up into small groups and discuss the topic of the day.
Today I talked about how tough it was to bring my 3 kids (ages 4 years, 19 months and 6 weeks) to Mass. The guys in the group said I was doing what needed to be done by showing my kids that it is important to go to Church. Even though I do not feel that I am getting the most out of the Mass. They all said it is more important that the children get exposed to our faith than me paying attention for the whole Mass. Made me feel kinda good that at least my/our effort is not in vain. Michelle does as much as I do during Mass as well. Come to find out one of the guys in the group sat a few rows behind us and thought our kids behabed well. So I guess fro a few rows away thingd do not seem quite so bad.
later
.mike
SNOW!!
SNOW!!
Is on the way to New Hampshire. Finally! I can't wait!
This is why I love winter and why this winter has been so boring, no snow. Looks like it will be a good sized storm as well. Hopefully it will be.
More on the storm later
.mike
Cheap Trick Lap of Luxury
I'm listening to this
cd right now. I have a habit of putting concert ticket stubs into the jewel case of my
cds. And there are 2 in this
cd case. I saw them on August 24 1988 at the Hampton Beach Club Casino. I believe I was with Matt and his "friend" Lana or maybe it was Vicki anyway that was Junior year in college. Then I saw them again on the same tour at the
Orpheum Theatre in Boston on February 2, 1989. It was on the Lap of Luxury Tour.
At the
Orpheum show Joe Perry and Steven Tyler showed up for the encore with a couple of songs. I just remember Rick
Neilson handing Joe Perry a pink Fender
Strat with a picture of Bun E Carlos on the back. I think it was Matt, Dennis, Vicki and I but I'm not 100% sure.
Ahhh to be young again. Good times good times.
Am I the only one who does this? It seems that I just listen to these albums and I just think of a more carefree time in my life. Not that I do not like where I am now. I have a beautiful and loving wife 2 great boys and a newborn daughter. I would not have it any other way. It just seems the older I get the more I miss the college years.
Downtime now is almost non-
existent. Money is an issue every week and my job is a pain. I guess that's the great part of growing up no responsibilities except to yourself. Now people depend on me and that can be hard at times. Especially with the job situation. I do not know how many times I have wanted to walk out of the office and never come back, but I do every morning. I have a family now and I can not let them down.
Wow this post took a serious turn. Sorry about that. I was just reminiscing and look what happened!
well later got work to do.
.mike
looking for someone
I'm gonna try this Michael DeSisto aka Rocker and Gene McMahon aka Geno or mean Gene.
They are a couple of college buddies that I have lost touch with. I figure that if I put them in the blog google will pick it up and if they ever do a search they may find this site and email me.
I'd like to talk to them see how things are going.
later
bully
Superbowl XLI or some such thing
Well Indy won and I'm happy.
You see I live in New Hampshire which is, if you don't know, New England Patriots country. I am NOT a Patriots fan never have been never will be, Philadelphia Eagles here!! Anyway people were all upset that the Pats got knocked off, I was actually kinda psyched. The fans here have become a bit to "oh we desever the championship we are a dynasty" phbbbt! That's what I say. They have become NY Yankees fans, expecting a championship every year. I love to see them fall.
It was really funny there were news reports about how people were not going to bars to watch the superbowl, nobody seemed interested. Funny how this was the second most watched superbowl in history. Seems to me that a few of them watched it. I just get a kick out of it.
I'm glad Payton got his ring - he deserved it. He has worked hard, missed a copupla times. just seemed that Indy wanted it more than Chicago.
later
.mike
I'm Kinda Sore today
I had to move several tons of files from the basement to the third floor yesterday. All by hand no elevator. Pack the boxes bring them upstairs then unpack them. Repeat until file cabinet is empty, then bring up file cabinet and load back up with said files. Fun fun fun. I don't remember that being in my job description. I'm an IT manager by the way.
Anyway today I'm kinda sore at 38 one does not recover quite as fast as one used to.
Plus I had to move 2 pickup truckfuls to storage just so you know it was about 5 or so below with the wind chill yesterday. Not that I'm complaining, winter is finally here. Now we just need some snow!
People at this place never seem to amaze me. As I am in the middle of this moving project, people have no problem comming up to me, whilst I have 70+ pound boxes in hand stopping me and asking me questions. "No no please continue this box is really empty. I'm just trying to make it LOOK heavy."
Sheesh
Anyway as I stated above just a bit sore today.
Next time I buy a house - I'm hiring movers!
later
.mike
Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Boston Edition
Living near Boston we watch Boston news. The big story this week was the gorilla ad campaign for the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. In a nut shell an ad company did some gorilla marketing which was a light bright type depiction of Err and they were placed around the city.
In a typical overreaction the authorities went nuts chasing these things down. Arresting the guy who put them up and are charging them with some crime. Anyway the point I am trying to make here is that the authorities got carried away. When they finally realized what they did they had no choice but to go after the people who put these things up. Instead of saying we made a mistake, it was an ad campaign, no harm no foul.
I'm not sure if I am getting my point across but here it is. The authorities overreacted.
That is all.
.mike
So says Ethan
During the week I get up early to help Michelle. I usually take a shower get dresses then get the boys dressed. Then I bring them downstairs give them each a cup of dry Gorilla Munch or Panda Puffs (or panda pups according to Ethan), along with their water. Then I'll put on a DVD.
Well this morning was business as usual, the video of choice was John Deere - which if you know Ethan is not really suprising. Anyway I put the DVD on and I start to watch it (hey it's tractors after all). After a few minutes Ethan turns around and says to me "You can go now. I don't need you anymore."
Hmmm dismissed like a bad waiter.
Thanks son.
