Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Disaster Avoided

Last night when walking from our family room (which is a newer addition to our house) to the office (part of the original structure), I got hit in the head by a drop of water. I looked up and there was water dripping from the door frame. We were in the midst of a downpour outside and it somehow was making its way inside. Robin went upstairs to our bedroom which overlooks the roof of the newer addition. Our roof is rubber and small buckled gap in it. I had most likely created the issue a couple weeks ago when I was up there cleaning the gutters and trimming branches. To make a long story short, Robin was able to reach the offending gap, seal it, cover it and stop the leak. All we need to do now is real seal it. Disaster Avoided.

On the Nora running front, we did two 3 minute stints today. We ran for 3 minutes, rested a bit and then ran for 3 more. We covered .41 miles, Nora got a stitch in her side and learned about pacing. She did a great job and I am very proud of her.

Well I think it is about time for relaxing here in the Robinson household. First step will be to convince the kids this is a good idea and the second step will be to shake up a martini.

Cheers

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Summer Olympics 2020

As you know I have begun running. I am having a blast doing it and have has a reasonable amount of success in the races in which I have competed. Nora has taken notice to the amount of fun I have both training and running the races. She started asking if I thought she would be able to run in a race someday. I said sure as long as you practice and train like I do. She asked if I would teach her. That made me pretty happy. So, I went out on the internet and found a running program for kids. It is based on time instead of distance. We started today. (Josh, I did not ditch you for her. I have been sick and did not think I could handle anymore than a run with her.) We ran for 2 minutes and covered .14 miles. Tomorrow we run for three minutes, rest and run for three more. We are both looking forward to the day. She had a blast and told me that it was the best part of her day. I have been looking forward to playing sports with the kids for about 6.5yrs. Never thought it would be running. Life is good.

Cheers

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Best Party Ever

Update to the weekend:

We just returned home from the pool party. It was a success to say the least. There was an inflatable water slide, a kiddie pool, a 4ft deep pool and a big swing set. Nora and Nigel loved the water slide. Each time Nigel went down he ran over to us to tell us how awesome it was. This was the perfect end to a great weekend. Now to finish it off with a few hot dogs.

Cheers

Great Weekend

This has been one of those weekends that you never want to end. We have all had a lot of fun and have managed to get a lot accomplished around the house. Anyone care for a recap?

Friday:

I took a half day off of work so I could go swimming. One of the members of our church has a pool and invites people over Monday-Friday, and Robin & the kids have been taking her up on her offer. Nora and Nigel love it and have been begging me to come with them. So, on Friday I went home at lunch time and hit the pool. Nora showed me how she floats on her back and Nigel kicked around in his floaty tube. Fun was had by all.

Earlier in the day Nora lost her first tooth. She was very excited. The night before a bite of corn on the cob started the process and a sandwich at lunch finished the deal on Friday. Our girl is growing up in spite of our best efforts.

Friday night was our Wild Night as noted in yesterdays post.

Saturday:

The kids started their day at Grandma and Grandpa's house with some very special waffles from the "Silly Snacks" cookbook Nora checked out from the library. They were called Wafflewiches. You make them by preparing two waffles, spreading one with a mixture of melted marshmallows and peanut butter, topping the mixture with sliced banana and chocolate chips and then closing the sandwich with the other waffle. Instant energy. The kids went off to a park after that and ran off all that energy.

During all this Robin and I spent the morning at Menards getting landscaping materials. We then hit the yard and showed no mercy to our weeds. We expanded and mulched one bed and weeded and mulched an other. We also picked up material to make a small fence to separate a rock parking area and a flower bed we put in earlier in the summer. Doing yard work is very satisfying. You see instant results for all your hard work.

I got big news from Brett yesterday. He called me from the top of the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Yes, I said on top of the Green Monster. One of his Air Force buddies, Major Dan Begin, called him up and asked for a favor. Last year Dan entered a raffle to win an authentic Red Sox World Series ring. He won. Yesterday was to be the day that the ring was presented to Dan. They were going to have him read the line-up and throw out the first pitch. When The Red Sox found out that Dan was in the military, they wanted to play up that fact and pay homage to our service men and women. So, they requested that he wear his uniform for all the activities. He said no problem, excepted his uniform was in Baltimore. The Sox said they do not care, get it here whatever the expense. The expense ended up being Brett. The Red Sox flew him out, put him up in a hotel, gave him a ticket to the game, and VIP treatment once in the park. That treatment included endless brats, burgers, sausages, and Heineken, and access to the top of the Green Monster. While he was up there he get hit in the hand by and homerun ball hit in bp and Julio Lugo's autograph on his ticket stub (which he gave to one of the kids there). Not a bad day.

Sunday:

Today will be a big day to finish out the weekend. We have VBS celebration at our church service this morning and a pool party with one of Nora's kindergarten friends. Robin and I would love to do more yard work, but I do not see that happening. The list of things we want to do is endless. Why does the weekend have to end?

Cheers

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Wild Night

Robin and I decided to celebrate her birthday last night. I know it is a bit late, but celebrating on a Friday night is better than on a Monday. We started things out by dropping Nora and Nigel off with Grandma and Grandpa Robinson for a sleepover. Then we were off for our night.

First we hit Ming's, our favorite Chinese buffet. I know, buffets do not sound like our thing, but this place does sushi and they do it very well. The amount of sushi Robin and I put away more than covers the price of admission. We filled our bellies and were ready for the rest of our night. Next up...home. We got into our cozy clothes, mixed up a couple of Martini's, and put in a movie. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing night at home. I know, we are crazy.

Cheers

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Home Alone

This is an odd week for me...a sensation that I am not used to feeling. Robin and the kids are attending VBS at our church this week, so, that leaves me at home alone. I can do whatever I want!

First up was pretty obvious. I re-enacted the scene from Risky Business, because who doesn't like Old Time Rock 'n' Roll. Then while still in my undies I downed a beer in front of the fridge with the door open. Later I ate a bag full of chips and followed it all with some chocolate chips. I of course did plenty of belching and scratching during all of this.

Reality.....
I showered, made my lunch for the next day, washed some dishes and did a little laundry. Now I am sitting in a very quiet house wondering what to do with my time. A beer does sound good...

Cheers

Monday, July 21, 2008

Slacker

Many apologies. I have been a blogger slacker. Many things have happened in the time since I last posted. Babies have been born, people have passed on, the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie has been viewed by my children 327 times, the Detroit Tigers made it to .500, then under, then back, then under and back again...you get the picture, Nora's first T-Ball season wrapped up, The Dark Knight made $155.4 million in its opening weekend, Robin and I celebrated 12 years of marriage(July 20), followed by her birthday(July 21), and I found out when I will die. You get the idea, lots happened. and I was not here to give you all the details. For that I am sorry. I would fill you in on all the details, but I am sure you would no more want to read them all than I want to write them all. Instead I will focus on more recent and future events.

Something funny from church this past Sunday. We were celebrating Christmas in July and the sermon was of course on the birth story. Within the sermon our minister used the work "fantastical". My mind immediately went to a Dr. Seuss birth story, and from there a little rendition of Noah's Ark...One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. I avoided laughter, barely.

In future news, I am going to brew again soon. In honor of the one year anniversary of the last Tuke reunion I will be making B's Point Place Vanilla Porter. I may have to figure out how to ship....

Cheers

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Time For Recovery

This has been an action packed weekend, and I for one am tired. After all the festivities of Thursday and Friday I spent yesterday doing yard work.

The day began with my bro-in-law, Brandon, over at Robin's parents house. They needed brush clearing and general clean-up done around their yard. I actually enjoy doing that kind of work so the time passed quickly. We got a lot accomplished. I hope they like the results.

After that I came home and spent the remainder of the afternoon trimming bushes, picking up sticks in the yard, and doing some general clean-up. I wanted to get more accomplished, but both my weed whip and my lawn mower are out of commission. That is just as well since all the activities of the day really got my allergies going.

Once I did what I could do in the yard I hoped on my bike to run some essential errands. We were dangerously low on gin, needed more milk, and something to throw on the grill. So I threw on my backpack and peddled up to the local liquor store, got our provisions, then headed back over to the grocery store for milk and hotdogs. I love living in a town small enough that allows us to walk and/or ride anywhere in town that we need to go.

Today is another beautiful day. It may bring more yard work, it may bring brewing, it may bring nothing but laundry and movies. I think we have done enough this weekend to deserve a break. I know my nose could use it.

Cheers

Saturday, July 5, 2008

What A Weekend...

...And it is only Saturday. Let's recap the action so far.

Thursday:

We started the weekend with a bang. Nora had a T-Ball game at 6. Her team was up first and she was the 2nd batter. The first pitch she saw she smacked down the 3rd base line. Her second hit from the pitcher in as many games. She gets very excited when she gets a hit, almost as excited as Robin and I. My parents were there to see the action and were very proud Grandparents for sure.
After the game we all caravaned over to my parents house for a little dessert and fireworks. Morton puts on a nice little 15-20 minute show. We have a pretty good view from their front yard, and do not have to deal with finding a parking place. The kids loved the show and I will never tire of them either.

Friday:

Race Day. I have decided to channel the powers of various superheroes for each of my races. For my first race I selected Green Lantern and ended up being mistaken for a girl. So, for this race I decided to go with SpiderMAN. As promised I have pictures from the Firecracker 5000.

Spidy and family pre-race.


Spidy is tiring but finishing strong.

The official results were posted this morning. I finished 94th out of 591 and turned in a time of 22:08. Not too bad if you ask me. Yesterday I forgot to mention the best part of the race, the post race spread. They provided a buffet of water, Gatorade, bananas, apples, bagels, pizza, and beer. You better believe I had a 8 a.m. pint.
After the race we headed home for the Eureka forth of July parade. We are very proud of our tractors and firetrucks here. The kids had a blast and ended up with way too much candy.

Nora, cousin Sofie and cousin Pete waiting for the parade.

Nigel looking cool while passing the time with a pinwheel.

After the parade we all rested up a bit for the big Bressner July 4th cookout/picnic/bonfire/Kirsten's B-Day(Robin's older sister)/firework show. We went over around 3 and stayed until 10:30. A long but very fun day. The kids survived on sidedishes while I downed some great ribs provided by Brandon's Dad, Randy. A good time was had by all indeed.

Well I think I have babbled on long enough. Time to go do some landscaping at the in-laws.

Cheers

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July!


The Robinson Household wishes all the Chrisophiles a worry free Independence Day.

Our day has started out early and quickly. As I had mentioned before, I was running in the Firecracker 5000 5K this morning. Nora and Nigel really wanted to go watch Daddy race, so, the whole family was up and going at 6 a.m. We met my parents at the race starting area around 7, and I was off and running by 7:30. It was really nice having such a great cheering section, and it paid off. I turned in a personal best time of around 22:04. You may remember I ran my last race as a female and turned in a time of 23:44. From now on I think I will run as a male. I will post some pics from the race later.

The rest of our day is action packed as well. As I write this the rest of the family is getting ready to go to the Eureka July 4th parade. After that there are several activities in town and a big family cookout at Robin's sisters family's house. A great day will be had by all and I trust your day will be great and Worry free.

Cheers

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Groove

I figured staying in my groove while on vacation was going to be tough, but getting back into it once home was the real challenge. I go days without even checking my e-mail let alone sitting down and writing. I am fairly certain that my brain is still on vacation. It is the only explanation for how so much time has passed between my last posting without me even noticing.

Speaking of grooves...Nora found hers last night. She got her first hit from a live pitch in a game. She was so happy and a little surprised that she just stood there at the plate and watched the ball. After a bit a encouragement from the fans she ran on down to first where there was a very happy, excited, thrilled, proud Dad/1st base coach waiting. Now all we have to do is get her to learn how to catch! Of course, that can be said for all the kids playing.

We have a big 4th of July coming up. So big that is going to take two days. On the 3rd Nora has a game after which we will be heading to my parents house with the Bressners (Robins sisters family). Morton does their fireworks on the 3rd and my parents have a great view. The morning of the 4th I have an other 5K race in downtown Peoria. From the sounds of things I am going to have a big cheering section as Robin and the kids will be there as well as my parents. Then that afternoon we will be heading to the Bressners for a cookout and a viewing of the Eureka fireworks. I know we are going to have a blast and I hope you all do as well.

Hopefully this posting means that my brain has returned from vacation and I am a bit more regular with the No Worries.

Cheers