along the journey

This video made me cry when I saw it on Sundance Channel the other night. touch your|mom while|you can - that part tore me up. I miss my parents. I missed moms birthday. I’m sorry mom. I love you.

Unexpected car problems are setting us back $360. Ugh! I hate cars. I really really really hate cars. Anyway, we’ll probably go looking for a new car if not before the new year, shortly after.

Unexpected health problems on top of the car problems prevented our dinner at PFChangs last night. Instead we ended up at Mo’s Seafood. We both had a bowl of cream of crab soup and shared a pound of steamed shrimp. Very nice dinner. It really was. I enjoyed our time together greatly. We then went to the mall, shopping for an anniversary present for her. We ended up with a down comforter set. It’s really nice and especially toasty. This morning I woke up and had pushed all the other blankets aside and was only under the new one.

In other news- I’m going grey. This isn’t a new discovery at all. I mean I’ve been going grey for years. These past two weeks, my hair has gone noticibly grey. Before it was just a few hairs here and there. now I have whole patches of grey hair. I also predict that by the end of the year I’ll be nearly completely grey.

Hadn’t been too busy don’t much of anything. Playing Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sunshine, and chasing a little one around! This weekend we veg’ed at Amy and Jesse’s. We had some nice family time. I wish mine were close enough to spend the weekend with.

Tonight Amy and I should be going out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. It’s 4 years not 5 as I had previously mentioned here. We’re probably going to P.F. Changs, as a result of reading on Suz’ fishy about lettuce wraps.

This time change really messes with my head. It’s almost dark when I leave here at 5, and is dark at 5:40 when I get off the bus. I remember this time last year experiencing the same thing, except that I still had an hour commute ahead of me by the time it was dark. I’m definately happy to be working in Baltimore.

I was re-assured several times this week that I’d be hired on here permanently. This is excellent news. The manager even told me that they couldn’t have asked for someone better. So it ends up that my first day as an official employee will be January 1st.

Spent some of my time today editing pictures and putting them online. Here’s what I did:

• Aaron, Mel and us at Sharon Woods.

• Baxter, Caleb and my legs
• Caleb, Lissa and Jay at Codys Cafe
• Added the rest to this album- Ann’s Birthday (check out the boxers on the dog)
• Donnies Birthday

My 5 year anniversary is next Friday. I’m 24 years old, and been married 5 years and got a 1 year old! I’m just a baby! It blows me away. Amy bought me a Nintendo Gamecube for our anniversary. That’s over $200. All she wants is a robe and an electric blanket.

The marathon was here last weekend, it was a dreary day, but it seems like everyone had a good time. November is National Novel Writing Month (NanNoWriMo). The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s just about 1700 words a day, if you write 7 days a week. Or 2500 a day if you only write Monday through Friday. I’m thinking about doing it, however after breaking it down like that, I’m not sure I’ll even attempt. It’s kind of like last year, just after the Baltimore Marathon, I told myself and my wife and roomate, that I was going to run the marathon this year. Then I started looking into training for it and such. I’m just not athletic at all, and I got discouraged. So no marathon this year, and probably not 50,000 words either.

Tomorrow, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is set to be shipped. I can’t think of any game that I’ve really been anticipating the release, and now that I have a game cube, I’ll probably be getting it. I played the demo version at Wal-Mart the other night, it was really sweet. The graphics were stunning, the animations so much smoother than THPS3, the lines at least on the demo level were unbelievable, so many options, and easy to pull manuals. I wasn’t able to figure out how to complete the objective which was to collect C-O-M-B-O through one combination, however I imagine this is one of the easier of the goals in the game. I honestly can’t wait to play this game.

So we had a really excellent weekend. Friday night Amy and I ended up eating at Pizza Hut and getting our food more than half off, cause they delivered the wrong pizza, and late. Then we ended up shopping at ToysR-Us, and Amy bought me a Game Cube along with Super Mario Sunshine, for our Anniversary. We set that up Friday night and played a bit with it. We slept in yesterday morning, didn’t leave the house until after 3. Caleb started the day out pretty sick, threw up quite a bit, so we were weary of going out. We went to a pumpking farm and let Caleb pet the goats and sheep and other farm animals. We got some apples and a couple tiny pumpkins, and some fudge. Then we went to the Christian book store and I got a couple CD’s on clearance- Ghoti Hooks -Two Years to Never, Poor Old Lu’s - In Their Final Performance, and Erick Haucks- Dusty Little Feet. Only one did I pay more than $5 for, the other two were $4.99. Amy commented that I buy a lot of CD’s, and it’s true, I do, but I rarely pay full price for one. The last one I got for full price was Pigeon Johns’ Clueless. I really like PJ, and clueless has been in my cd player ever since.

We ended up having dinner at Amy’s mothers house, and then went to Wal-Mart and bought some comfy sweats that we got the opportunity to break in today.

We slept in again this morning, not wanting to take Caleb to church and risk contaminating the nursery. I played some Nintendo, and we ate some ribs for lunch. After lunch we watched Wonder Boys. I made home-made chili for dinner, and for dessert a Jewish Apple Cake. yumm…. both turned out spectacular, althought the cake ended up all over the bottom of our oven.

So it’s been a fun weekend, and we’re both exhausted even though we did so little.

1. How many TVs do you have in your home?

We have 4. One in our bedroom, one in our living room. Stacey has one in her room. There’s another in a spare bedroom that doesn’t get used.

2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?

Sheesh. TOO MUCH! at least 7 hours a week…. but probably close to 15 or 16.

3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children?

I think there is a lot of stuff on television that is bad for young children, however there’s also a lot of stuff on tv that is excellent for young children. Caleb loves to watch Elmos World and Sesame Street, Amy told me yesterday that he likes to watch The Wiggles.

4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken?

Heartbroken is a strong word for the feelings that I have when I miss a show. There are shows that I like and am disappointed when I miss. Lets see:
Smallville
CSI
any Law & Order (barely)
I like Survivor, but it’s doesn’t really belong in this list.

5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?

I would love to have TV-U, I’ve not had the opportunity to watch it, however an excellent christian music channel would be the best. Mix episodes of Pete & Pete in there, perfect.

For the last week we’ve probably had 4 or 5 days of steady rain, including today. I love rain. With the political climate the way it is, and the sniper running around, the weather adds to an almost comic book feel, the way gotham always seems dark and possibly haunted.

It has also been quite cool over the last week or so, the warmest it’s been is probably mid 70s or so. Last night we turned our heat on for about an hour or two to get the chill out of the air, definately made getting to sleep a bit easier. One thing about this weather is the cuddle factor. It makes getting out of bed in the morning so difficult. you know that the bed is all warm from laying in the same spot for 6 or so hours, not to mention another warm body next to you, and that the temperature outside of the covers is much, much cooler….. it makes you want to stay in bed, and asleep…. but that doesn’t work on workdays, especially when I’m so close to work. Back when I’d take the train to work, it was a lot easier, trains didn’t come but every hour or so…. the busses are a different story. If I miss a train, I don’t have a chocie but be another hour, and might as well sleep for some of that. If I miss a bus, another one should be by within the next 30 minutes, if not 15.

Standing at the bus stop this morning, pouring rain, umbrella balancing on the edge of open and hyper extended the way you see cheap umbrellas discarded in trash cans. Rain whipping around almost stinging as it blows in from a different direction with the shift of the wind. Two busses arrive at the same time, I can see that the one in the back has open seats where the one in front has none visible, usually making for an uncomfortable ride, especially when any open seats have water in them from the leaking seals around the windows. I choose the one with open seats, jackpot!, it’s an express, costing .35 more, for a faster trip, most of the stops in the middle of the route are skipped. The bus driver starts hounding me for my money… I’m trying to put my change in and she tells me that it’s an express and costs more. “Didn’t I put in .70 already?”, “Yeah, hurry up and put your dollar in!”, she replies. Ugh! It’s not like it was sunny and I was standing empty handed, fumbling through my pockets or anything. It’s not like she would be driving that bus if it weren’t for people like me….. she proceeded to yell about various things throughout the ride, today my walkmans batteries died.

One of our biggest reasons for moving back to the Baltimore area last year was the opportunity for Caleb to grow up knowing his family. I knew that my family was more likely to visit Caleb in MD, than Amy’s family visiting Caleb in Ohio. A year later we’re very close to Amy and Jesse and Tyler. This past weekend we went to visit on of Amy’s friends she hadn’t seen in years. She lived halfway to Jesse’s house, so at 2 when they were heading out, we called Amy and arranged to meet them at their house. We ended up having dinner out and then going back to their house to play games and visit with Amy’s sister and her 6 month old. Realizing that the Amy’s are getting confusing- Amy’s brother is Jesse. Jesse is married to an Amy as well! Trying to differentiate them makes thing even more confusing- cause my Amys maiden name is Cullum, and Jesses Amys married name is Cullum, so saying Amy Cullum doesn’t work. So it’s usually Myamy or Jessesamy. We didn’t leave there until after 10pm, not getting home until after midnight. And it feels good.

Yesterday while half the world was off, either for Thanksgiving or Columbus day, Jesse and Jessesamy and Tyler came to visit with Amy and their mom. We had dinner once I got home and then went to Best Buy and Target, where we split ways.

I’ve really realized how fortunate we are to be so close to them. There’s a lot of circumstances behind how close we’ve become, but things happen for reasons, often unknown to us, until we realize the results.

I’ve also realized how much family we don’t take advantage of seeing. I mean we’re here, we seldom visit with much of the extended family, unless there’s a party or something. I’ve discussed this with Amy and I understand why, however it really makes me feel bad, cause I know that we’d be with family almost constantly if we were in Ohio. And this makes me sad. I miss my family tremendously, we’ve made a decision and were sticking to it, just missing my family.

I’ve been looking at e-bikes today. E-bikes are electric motorized bikes which can fully move you, supplement your pedaling, or used just like a regular bike. They’re generally under $1000, and I’ve been wanting to get a bike lately anyway. I think that if I can get a child carrier to go on the back of one, we might just look into it. The ride to work is approx 4.9 miles from my house to the office, sort of hilly once you get down town though. They can legally go 20 mph, but no faster. And you can usually get about 10-15 miles on one charge going around 10-15 mph. So the trip to work would be around 30 minutes. If I didn’t ride to work, but still took the bus, I could get a fold up model to take on the bus with me, and then ride to the office from where I get off the bus, and ride to the baby sitters in the evening. It’d be a bit cheaper than another car, gas/registration/and price, as well as repairs. I’m not sure if we’ll get one, but it’d be awesome.