That's Right Santa - You can't stop him you can only hope to contain him

Kenny finally got to visit Santa. Kenny was OK with Santa this year. As you can see we didn't have to have Kenny sit on Heather's lap and then crop her out of the picture this year. You can also tell that Kenny was ready to run around the mall again.

Pittsburgh in November - Good Idea? No, Great Idea!

I finally got a chance to visit Carl and his mom. The funniest thing about this trip is that it's the first time that I've ever met Carl's mom. I've missed meeting her by a few minutes on multiple occasions. Meeting Carl's mom was the highlight of the trip. Sharon is a fantastic woman who I have to thank for hosting me while I was in Pittsburgh. It was nice seeing Carl's mom, it was ok seeing Carl. I mean, I've seen him 4-times this year now. Carl knows the two things that I like are sports and food (and not necessarily in that order). So after I landed in Pittsburgh we headed to Pittsburgh's famous Peppi's. It's a great sub shop that's famous for the Roethlisburger sandwich. I didn't get this but it did look good.

Carl picked me up in one of these.

Well, he actually picked me up from the airport in a Volkswagen. We went down to the stadium and they had all the Batmobiles from Adam West's to Christian Bale's.

It was pretty cool. The Dark Knight Rises was filmed partly in Pittsburgh. It's easy to tell when movies are filmed in Pittsburgh, just look for the yellow bridges.

We went to Heinz Field where the Pittsburgh Steelers play to take some pictures during the day. We were going the the Ravens vs. Steelers game the follwoing night.

Pittsburgh Skyline

Mr. Rogers - Who knew he was from Pittsburgh?

Me and the Chief - Steelers Founder and Owner - Art Rooney

 

Much more to come...

Chapter 8....

Kenny picked up Heather's book today and looked me in the eye and said,"And chapter 8, then..." His pretend reading was funny because the he was holding the book upside-down. He is cute.

I talk like a pirate, wherever I go!

Kenny had his first Halloween where he was able to trick-or-treat in his neighborhood. Last year Kenny's Halloween was relocated due to the October snow storm. Luckily he was able to trick-or-treat with his cousins who still had power last year. As you can see Kenny was a quite adorable pirate. Kenny enjoyed trick-or-treating but was very disappointed he couldn't go inside all the houses that he rang the doorbell of. He was especially disappointed that he couldn't go into the houses that had dogs.

Bring Your Son to Work Day?

Do you think it would be a good idea to bring Kenny to take your child to work day?

The Godfather Arrived

Carl came to Connecticut this weekend for a wedding. We were glad we got a chance to see him again. Carl and I started the weekend off by attending the Yankees vs A's game at the Stadium. We also went with Carl's sister who I finally got to meet.

Staying over the at the Lyon Estate can prove to be hazardous. You have to be willing to be woken up by rambunctious children and dogs. Carl didn't seem to mind. Kenny must have decided that Carl looks old, he has dubbed Carl "Grandpa".

National Cheeseburger Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is National Cheeseburger Day, I implore you to celebrate with the vigor and enthusiasm this holiday deserves. Heather and I celebrated early and went to the newest burger joint around yesterday - The Shake Shack. This could be very bad for me the Shake Shack is located exactly 0.3 miles from my office. I've asked to have this made in my size

The place was nice inside and very busy. Not as crazy as Sonic was when that finally opened in Wallingford. That place had 2-hour lines for a couple of months. The wall coverings were made from wood that was reclaimed from the bleachers of the old Yale Bowl.

Now let's get down to the reason we went - the burger.

I always get a bacon cheeseburger the first time I try a new burger place (it is the ultimate burger). They didn't cook the bacon fully, it didn't have the nice crunch that I like. They get a few points off for that. They also did not give me the extra tomato I like, two slices of plum tomato is not the definition of extra tomato to me. The burger was cooked nicely, a little pink in the middle no grey hockey puck. It was extremely juicy. The bun was a nice a little sweet and potato roll-like. I think to have a great burger joint you have to have great fries. Their fries are terrible, they are basically Ore-Ide crinkle cut fries straight out of the bag. They aren't the fantastic hand-cut variety fries you can get at many other place. There is also no free refrills on drinks which I hate, come on people seltzer water isn't that much. The burger was great, the toppings were lacking for me but Heather found them to be acceptable. It's ten times better than a fast food burger, but your wait could be ten times as long also. Worth a try if you are in the area. 5-Guys is better, cheaper, and quicker in my opinion.

Jogging and Horses

Yesterday, I was doing something in the garage. Kenny went into the house got his shoes, put them on, climbed into the jogger, and buckled himself in. He then said, "Horsies, please." That is Kenny's way of telling me that we need to go for a jog past the horses.

Car Wash Fun

I washed the car today and Kenny helped. Well, Kenny didn't really help but he did manage to wash himself in the process. At least he won't need a bath tonight.

School Time

Kenny had his first day of pre-school last week. As you can see he is very happy to go to school. He loves going to school early to watch the school buses bring the other children to school.

Threats don't seem to work with you people...

So my threats to not blog until you all blog or at least leave feedback on my blog does not seem to have worked. Really, we've just been a little busy with Kenny and work. Heather has been working like a mad woman. She is pretty amazing. Kenny and I think we'll keep her around, she is a very good mom also. I've been busy at work. I got a promotion and have been working on opening a BSL-3 cell sorting facility. It's been a really interesting experience, I'm learning a ton about bio-safety and work practices. So what has happened since we last blogged.

Mom has begun a hacking career. It's going a little bit slow at the moment as she sometimes has fights with the mouse trying to get the cursor in the right place.


Bogey was in the Christmas spirit


Kenny was very excited to see Santa. He clapped for Santa when he got to the front of the line. Cheryl and Tom invited us and April and the girls to CL-P where they put on a nice Christmas show. They had Santa, a puppet show, and balloons. You can probably guess which one was Kenny's favorite. OK, it's balloons.


High fiving the big guy


The best part of seeing Santa is the candy cane at the end.


We took Kenny to Hubbard Park to see the Christmas lights. He enjoyed this much more this year than last. It wasn't quite as impressive as previous years. The October storm caused problems that caused some of the lights not to be put up.
Kenny and Mom








He is really heavy



We saw Auntie Joyce and Ed before Christmas. It's nice to see everyone around the holidays. We really should do it more.


Kenny really like all his presents. The only problem is that if he opens something he likes, he stops opening the other gifts all together. He got some Jungle Junction toys very early in the process of opening toys which made everything else difficult to get through.

Goodnight New York!!!

We might be crazy but here is Kenny using his new drum set.



He sounds just like Ringo.

It's Finally Here!

I finally received my high school graduation quilt from my mom, yippee! It's a fantastic quilt that has taken 15+ years to complete. The stitching is magnificent and the colors are great. You can own this fantastic quilt, I will be listing it on eBay shortly. So I figure a master quilt maker has an annual salary of roughly $40k/yr. So $40k/yr over 15-years, I'll put the starting price for the auction at $600k. I'll consider offers of $500k or more though.



Thanks Mum, it's great (hopefully $600k+ great). I really appreciate it.