Monday, February 25, 2013

I Suck At Celebrating My Daughter's Birthday

On Saturday, Karen and I celebrated my daughter's first birthday. Happy birthday Bridget! Unfortunately, I suck at celebrating my daughter's birthday.

Originally, the party was scheduled for Sunday but with the upcoming snow storm this weekend, we opted to move the date a day earlier. As it turns out, having the party today probably would have been okay. Weather forecasters (shake fist). Just kidding. And interestingly enough, we lost power for over an hour on Saturday during the party. So Sunday may have actually been the better day. Oh well.

Anyway, I think my daughter enjoyed the party. She practically inhaled her birthday cake. Surprisingly, Bridget ate her cake much neater than her sister (Briana) did when Briana turned one. And for anyone curious, there was a heart theme for the party. The cake was decorated with hearts. Karen and Briana made a "Happy Birthday" streamer of hearts. My favorite sister-in-law (Janine) cut bread into heart shapes for sandwiches. We made heart shaped ice cubes. It was nice.

Most importantly, Bridget had fun. And what's not to like about constant attention from both sets of grandparents, an aunt (Janine), cousins (PJ and Kaleigh), godparents (Karlene and Tommy), a great grandmother, and Karen's aunt and uncle (Denise and Paul)? And of course, I got to rib Karlene, the self proclaimed "fuddy-duddy". So that was always fun.

Incidentally, Saturday also happened to be Janine's actual birthday. Happy birthday Janine! Thus, following Bridget's birthday party, we immediately headed to the Villa Rosa in Quincy to celebrate Janine's birthday. For anyone curious, I think the Villa Rosa has the best eggplant pizza. I'm not sure what they do to their eggplant pizza, but it's always so good.

All in all, Saturday turned out to be a birthday celebration day. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I Suck At Getting Sick

Karen poisoned me yesterday. I'm just kidding, because I suck at getting sick.

Yesterday morning, I didn't feel quite right. And naturally, we had a lot planned for the day. My parents had wanted to go to dim sum with us for the new year. As well, my friends (Cass and Ellen) were having a birthday party for their daughter.

Needless to say, I wasn't feel too good for either dim sum or the birthday party. I practically didn't eat all day, which is a rarity for me. So something had to be up. And unfortunately, my condition grew worse as the day went on. So by the time the birthday party came, I was getting shivers.

And naturally, I wasn't thinking too clearly because when I got home after the party I thought it was a good idea to install a ceiling light. Maybe I should get sick more often so that I would actually accomplish more home improvement projects. Oh well.

Shortly after installing the light, I went straight to bed... at eight o'clock... another rarity for me. We have a heated mattress pad, and I remember thinking why am I so cold when I have so many layers of clothes on and the heated mattress pad is turned on. Eventually, I did fall asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night thinking that I am so hot with all these layers of clothes on... with the heated mattress pad on.

Luckily for me, I am feeling much better today. My bug seems to be only a 24 hour bug. Unfortunately, I may have gotten my two year old (Briana) sick.

I Suck At The Hunger Games

On Friday, my friend (Andrea) came over for a movie night. Having movie nights on a routine basis is something I always wanted to do. So it was good that I was able to have a movie night with Andrea. For Friday, the plan was to watch The Hunger Games.

Now, I suck at the Hunger Games. When the movie first came out in the theaters, Andrea and I were probably the only ones in our circle of friends who were interested in watching the movie. We never did end up watching the movie in the theaters, but I was fortunate enough to DVR the movie when it premiered on television this year. And it just so happened that Andrea was available this Friday to watch the movie.

Needless to say, it was good hanging out with Andrea. We got to chat about a lot of things. Plus, she kindly took some of my amassed freebies off of my hand. Granted, she just took the Chapstick, but she took it nonetheless. The funny thing about getting things for free is that no one seems to want them. It's weird. I didn't think it would be so hard to find takers for free things.

As for the movie itself, I thought it was very entertaining. I would definitely watch the rest of the movies in the trilogy. Heck, I thought the movie was much better than the entire Twilight series. At least Jennifer Lawrence can show more than one emotion.

All in all, it was a good time. I'm looking forward to having more movie nights.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I Suck At Blizzards

It has been one crazy weekend.

And sadly, the weekend is pretty much over and I can't say I really did much this weekend other than shovel snow. Interestingly enough, I do own a snow blower. My driveway is long enough that shoveling it by hand can take some time. So when the blizzard forecast came about, I thought I'd be good and actually get the snow blower ready. After all, the snow blower has practically been untouched for about two years, which was the last time there was a big chunk of snowfall.

Needless to say, I think my snow blower incident was an indicator of things to come during this blizzard. Yep, I suck at blizzards. Not only could I not get the snow blower running, I actually pulled so hard trying to get it to start that I ripped the chord right out of the blower. Not just once. Twice. Both times, I had to take apart the back just to rewind the pull string. It was frustrating, especially since I still could not get it to run.

And since I really couldn't spend too much time tinkering with the snow blower (I have kids), I decided I'd just forget about the blower and remove the falling snow the old-fashioned way... with a shovel. It took a while. But I suppose the plus side is that it was a great workout. Heck, I'm still a little sore from shoveling.

And yet, shoveling was not the worst part of the blizzard. Shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday night, we lost power. I only happen to know the time because I was up late watching a movie on my laptop. For anyone curious, I watched Fright Night. The reboot was actually pretty entertaining. I enjoyed the movie. But while the movie was playing on my laptop, I noticed the power went out throughout the house. Thankfully, I still had enough battery power in my laptop to finish the movie. Just kidding.

But for most of Saturday, we were without power... which I suppose made shoveling that much more bearable since it was something to do to kill the time. The down side of course... heat. My house runs on electricity, including the heat. If it were just Karen and I, we'd probably have no problem because we could always just wear layers and layers of clothing to keep warm. Well, I'd probably have no problem. Karen gets cold easily. But when kids are involved, that's when things get a little tricky. Truth be told, I was starting to get a little concerned after a while for my eleven month old daughter (Bridget).

Luckily, my favorite sister-in-law (Janine) had power during the blizzard. Not only did she have power, she had heat. So off we went to her place, just as the driving ban was being lifted by the governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I always knew Janine was my favorite. It probably should go without saying that it's good to know that we have a bunch of good friends and family who are willing to help us during times of need. So thank you everyone.

Anyway, it definitely felt nice to take a nice warm shower at Janine's. My two year old daughter (Briana) had a blast playing with her cousins and her auntie. It was a great time. Interestingly enough, Bridget took her first steps at Janine's. Similarly, Briana also took her first steps shortly after being at Janine's when she was learning to walk. That was yesterday.

So as to not wear out our welcome, we packed our things and headed to my parents in Quincy today. After all, the town of Norwell was not supposed to get power until three days from now... Wednesday. Things were looking pretty grim, not only because the temperature in our house had fallen to 40 degrees, but because living with my parents until Wednesday wasn't too high on my list. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents. But spending that much time with them may drive me crazy. Yes, I know. I'm a terrible son.

Anyway, my parents definitely enjoyed seeing Briana and Bridget. They were extremely happy because today is Chinese New Year (the year of the snake) and they thought it was such a nice way to start the year off. The "nice" part being the fact that they got to spend time with Briana and Bridget, not the fact that there was a blizzard that wreaked havoc. I think my parents get all giddy whenever Briana and Bridget are around. It's cute.

While at my parents, my neighbor (George) called telling me that power was restored to our neighborhood. That was exciting news. Thank you Stop and Shop for being so nearby. I am guessing that may have benefited us. Truth be told, I think my parents were slightly disappointed to see us go home, probably because they wanted to spend more time with Briana and Bridget. But at least they got to spend some time with them, right?

All in all, it has been a crazy weekend. Thank you again to everyone who was involved in helping us. I hope the best for those who still do not have power from the blizzard.