by Greg

Kirstie’s Day

What a great fourth birthday for our little Kirstie! I figured it would be fun (at least for us!) to write out all the details of the big day, so here we go!

Kirstie was the last of the kids to wake up yesterday, so I gathered the other three and my guitar and we snuck into her room and quietly sang Happy Birthday to wake her up. 🙂 After a little disorientation… she stumbled out her door to see her new birthday poster (see below) and open a present (a new pink booster seat for a BIG GIRL in the van!) and then went downstairs for breakfast.

Mom did some fun-for-Kirstie things till lunch time, and then at lunch Dad came down from the office and Kirstie went on a birthday present scavenger hunt! Mom gave her an initial clue, and then each present she found had a clue for where to find the next one! Great idea by Jen, lots of fun for Kirsten (and the rest of us, too!) After that I made an awesome pink cake – later to be frosted with pink icing – for my pink-lovin’ girl!

I worked a bit more in the office, until the evening fun, which began around 7pm when we headed out for dinner.

First up was a birthday meal at Red Robin. Kirstie got a pink balloon (which ended up in the ceiling rafters…) and ordered a full kids meal – since she was a big girl – and of course had the free sundae which is brought out by singing red robin employees. Ian sang along and said, “I know all the words by heart!” 🙂 Fun times! We love birthdays at Red Robin!

After that we headed around the corner to Chuck E. Cheese! We love birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese! Thanks to some coupons, we got 120 tokens for $10! That’s a great deal, and a LOT of games! We fanned out and had a blast. Kirstie got to play games with all her family members, and just had a great time. One of her favorite things to do!

We stayed until close (they were very gracious) and then headed home, but with a stop at Uncle Scott & Aunt Leah’s first to eat her pink cake! It was a bit late for all, but they were great. Leah had the plates and ice cream (and birthday candles!) ready, and we got right to singing happy birthday, blowing out candles and eating cake & ice cream! The whole visit was only 45 minutes but nice that we could share another birthday with them before they move to Washington DC. We’ll miss them.

At the end of all that, Kirstie was BEAT! Exhausted. Wasted. But… in still able to bring up a few fun things from the day. When we got home she was crying about something (again, just exhausted) but managed to stop, and give Dad a big smile as I was saying good night. For her fourth birthday she felt like the little princess that she is. 🙂

Kirstie is four… next is Julia in just under two weeks… unless….

Baby is due pretty soon, too!

Lots of BIRTHdays! 🙂

by Greg

Happy 4th Birthday, Kirsten!

Happy Birthday Kirstie!
Today is our little girl’s 4th birthday. Kirstie Rae is FOUR today! The other kids and I sang her happy birthday this morning to wake her up, and then she opened a few presents (and got her birthday poster…) before heading down for breakfast. Mom has a fun scavenger hunt planned for her other presents, and then tonight we’ll celebrate at Red Robin and Chuck E. Cheese (two of her favorite things!) 🙂

So happy birthday little girl! Love you! 🙂

by Greg

Third Party Candidates

Ralph Nader runs for President again
No, I am not a Ralph Nader supporter. I would not vote for him as his view of government seems to be quite different from mine. (He wants universal healthcare, less military spending, etc… which I don’t believe I am for.) But on one level, I wish I could.

We saw Nader announce his candidacy (I think?) on Meet The Press this past Sunday. Tim Russert did his best to dissuade him, saying he would just ruin the chances of the Democratic candidate by stealing votes from that party. Nader said basically, “What kind of system is that??” I agree with him entirely. I don’t like the two parties. I think anyone and everyone should be allowed to run for president, especially if they can get some support. I would most definitely vote for a third-party candidate that I agreed with on major issues.

Why are we so locked into the current system in this country? What would it take to break out of it? Nader is just ignoring the system and doing what he wants. I do applaud him for that, though again… I am also thankful he most likely won’t win. 🙂

Power to the people. Or… something like that. 🙂

by Greg

Sabres Deal Campbell to Sharks

Defenseman Brian CampbellAs predicted last night, the Sabres did find a taker for their all-star (super star) defenseman. He will join the San Jose Sharks who are having a very fine season, and look to make a run at the Stanley Cup. He’ll also join former teammate Mike Greer, who joined the Sharks a couple years ago.

The Sabres acquired winger Steve Bernier in the trade, along with the Sharks’ 1st round and 7th round picks in 2008. They are definitely looking at it as getting something instead of nothing for Campbell. This article at NHL.com says that Regier tried to sign Campbell till the last minute here, and then dealt him so they didn’t just lose him.

It’s sad to see him go. That’s three really big name players that we have lost in the past year. Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, and now Brian Campbell. Ouch.

We did sign Thomas Vanek, though…

The Sabres are in a bit of a slump, still riding a ten game streak with no losses in regulation, but only 2-3-1 in their last six. That puts them in 9th place for the moment, and out of the playoffs if they began today. Not sure if Bernier will be enough boost (or compensate for the loss of Campbell?) but perhaps the Sabres are not done dealing just yet.

They are a good team with a lot of talent. But this front office is getting a little annoying. It’s time to hold on to guys like Drury, Briere, and Campbell. Is Ryan Miller the next to go?

Let’s hope not.

by Greg

Puzzling

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

A while ago I found a fun application on Facebook that lets you make Flash puzzles from your own photos. It works really well, and makes me wish we could make a “hard copy” of some of the cool photos we’ve taken across the country. (They’re pretty pricy, however.)

So for now, they have introduced this embed feature, and I can now share a puzzle or two here. Just one for now. 🙂

Enjoy!

by Greg

Trade Deadlines and Free Agency


It’s that time of year again, in fact this year it’s one week of craziness in my two favorite sports.

On the one hand, the NHL has set tomorrow at 3pm as the deadline to deal players. A couple trades have already occurred, more will come tomorrow. The NHL is pretty good at keeping things fresh, to be sure. People get caught up in the frenzy of the deadline as Sabres’ GM Darcy Regier says above.

The main name on the board for the Sabres is all-star defenseman Brian Campbell. (Note: had my sister have been a boy, that would have been her name!) Campbell is fantastic, and could be a foundational piece for the Sabres for years to come, but for some reason, they have not come to terms on an extension. He’s set to be a free agent come July 1st of this year, so the Sabres are certainly considering a trade in order to get something out of losing him (if he were to choose to leave).

On Friday, we have the other side of things. Free agency begins Friday Feb 29th for the NFL. That means players whose contracts have expired can shop around to the highest bidder. Last season the Bills knew exactly who they wanted, and they got them within half a day of the free agency period starting gun! Will that happen again? Not sure. We had some big name guys who were set to leave last year, not so much this year. And there aren’t a lot of big name players on the market who have generated the press you might expect leading up to such a deadline.

One deadline ends with a frenzy, the other begins with a frenzy. And all in one week!

So, stay tuned, I’ll probably have a report here, and definitely on my Buffalo Bills site.

by Greg

Mr. Deity – "An Helpmeet"

Not really sure why, but this week’s episode of Mr. Deity made me laugh. So, here I shall share. 🙂 This show can be a bit “sketchy” at times, but I happily approve of this one. Funny stuff 🙂

(By the way, if you haven’t seen this show yet, visit their site for more info on who these folks are.)

by Greg

Simple But Hard

Quick story before bed…

Tonight I was talking to Julia (our almost two-year-old) about an event at lunch today. The lady behind the cash register thought Julia was a very cute baby (turns out she has a two-year-old of her own) and just gave her a friendly greeting. Well, Julia who is normally very friendly decided to not reply to this person, and hid her head in Dad’s shoulder. A few attempts to get a response from her were in vain.

Finally, as we were leaving, she mustered a smile. (Maybe it was the free toy [read:bribe] that the lady handed out…)

That was the end of that, and I apologized for Julia, but of course the cashier thought nothing of it. “I have a two year old, also!”

So fast forward to the dinner table. I told Mom the story, half re-telling it to Joodles. She was listening intently (people don’t give two year olds enough credit!) and finally I repeated what had happened (acted it out) and Julia sort of laughed, but then I asked her if she would like it if someone did that to her? Surprisingly, she immediately said, “Nooooooo!” I think she really did understand (though I know there will be PLENTY more training to come…) 🙂

It was pretty amazing to see how even at not-quite-two, Julia understood the concept of, “Treat other people the way you want to be treated.” And right there I said, “It’s so crazy how simple the idea is… every thing is better when we think of other people that way… but how hard it is to actually do it.”

Even when you’re one.

by Greg

Sickness Invades The Campbell Home

Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn’t stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.

The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.

Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all – in fact quite the opposite for the “evens” (kids #2 and #4…). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.

I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy’s where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes… I am old…) 🙂 No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a “people person.” 🙂

Untill…

Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. 🙁 He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.

Scary thing? So did I.

As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird… maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that’s when it hit me.

COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! 🙂 I really didn’t feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som’n fierce!

So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.

Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. 🙂 I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn’t taste right.

Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I’m gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! 🙂

Here’s hopin’!