Free Weekend

We went up to see the show on Friday with Erin and that was a good time. Two of the three actors were the same as last time. They did a great job again. Their show is very polished after doing the same thing for 9 years.

We left Erin's around noonish and picked up the largest roast beef sandwich that Arby's offers. It was good.

Drove home and we worked on the house a lot. We moved the kids rooms downstairs, made a guest bedroom out of Olivia's old room, put up a light outside on the deck and took out the old grimy no sprayer kitchen faucet and replaced it with a nice new one with pull out spray like in our old house. Elena also put up a new shelf unit in the hallway for pictures and stuff.

Elena also made a very nice supper with steak, potatoes and beans by candlelight. How romantical.

Past few days

Mark had given me a really cool hand-held poker game for Christmas and I played it pretty much every day for at least a few minutes. It was awesome. Was being the key word. I set it on the couch and the kids were playing rough with me and we bumped it onto the hardwood floor and cracked the screen. It doesn't work anymore. I was really really bummed. I found another one like it at wal-mart but it isn't as good.

We're going up to Minneapolis tomorrow to see Erin and go to a comedy show called Triple Espresso. We've seen it before a few years ago and it was really fun. They do comedy, songs, magic tricks, hand puppets and different gags.

There has been a bag sale at Menards the past week so I have been buying lots of stuff at good prices for all the household projects I want to do. Gotta buy it while it's cheap. Copper is very expensive right now. Now is not the time to do a lot of electrical wiring or running copper for water lines. 12-2 250' NM is going for $40 up from $19 a year or so ago. I'm just glad that I bought a bunch of it when it was cheap back then.

Mean Girls and Chai Tea

We watched Mean Girls the other night. Had a red-headed chick in it and I can't remember her name right off but she's in the news a lot. Oddly enough I liked it. Tina Fey of SNL fame was a screenwriter and co-star and she did a good job as a teacher in it. The red-head was a new girl trying to fit in at a new school and break into the cliques. They are mean to each other. Hence the title. This is a movie I would normally just hate but I'll loosen up a bit and give it an A-OK.

Elena has me addicted to this instant chai serenity green tea from Caffe D'Amore. It is really good. I like the green tea and she gets the spice one. MMmmmmMMMmmm.

It has been really cold and snowy. Overnight it will get to -20 or lower. That's -20 temperature not that wind chill garbage. Elena and I have taken turns snowthrowing the driveway. It goes quickly with that thing and way easier than with a shovel. I still can't believe that we didn't get one sooner.

We've seen a lot of birds but I did spy a hawk and that wasn't so good. Hopefully he was just passing through. It seems the colder it gets the more birds flock at the feeders. They just love the thistle and sunflower seeds.

Christian Comedy

We sent the kids off to my parents on Friday afternoon for Elena and I to have a little break. She bought some tickets to a comedy show and I had thought that it was at a new comedy club that opened up in Rochester. I was thinking a bar atmosphere, have a couple drinks and a few racy jokes. Nope, we went to some church for some clean comedy. We walked in and it was packed. It was a fairly new church, only about 6 months old I'd guess and there were about 2000 people already there. Holy cow.

We found some seats way off of stage right and the pastor went up on stage and made some joke about how he wasn't the comic and isn't that funny but that he is happy that everybody is there. Ha ha ha. Oh man.

The show started with some Canadian with huge hands. He was OK. He had lots of jokes about the physical things he could do with them. The second guy I thought was the funniest. He looked like a skateboarder with long front hair, tapered off in back, long underwear shirt with a t-shirt over and blue jeans. He had the best stories and wove them in between each other like a person with ADD, which he also made a joke about him having. The third guy was the most polished but I don't think he was as funny. He has good stuff about being a bit-heavy Hispanic catholic.

I really enjoyed myself and I'm sure Elena did too. The thing I wasn't keen about was when the first guy kept referring to himself as doing a "clean comedy" show. All I could think about was, "Don't tell us what you are doing, we know. Just do it." Like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible all of a sudden stopping the movie mid death defying stunt and saying, "Hey, this is an action movie." It just drew me right out. The other two did bring in a Christian theme but wove it into their stories to bring people in.

After that we went to Applebee's for an after show meal. I had nachos.

I watched the Bourne Supremacy last night. Matt Damon starred and I thought that it was entertaining. I read the book many years ago and didn't remember hardly any of it which was probably a good thing because I hated the remake of the movie The Bourne Identity because it was so far from the book and so much worse. I mean, movies are usually a lot worse than the book but jeepers that was terrible.

We went to church this morning. The kids tried to be good. Olivia is so funny. She folds her hands nicely when it is prayer time but oh, she is so hungry and the Cherri-O's are right there in an open bag. She poked out her index fingers to make small pincers and with her hands still clasped she picked out some "O's" and stuffed them in her mouth. Again and again. The whole prayer she spent eating her "O's" this way and was happy as a clam. When everybody said, "Amen" she did too and commenced eating them in her usual hand over fist manner.

Super Bowl

Went to our Estimator's house for the Super Bowl party this year. Was a good turn out with about 40 or so people in and out. Lots of kids like always running around and a couple of rowdy Steeler fans. It was a fairly blah game. Steelers won 21-10. I closed up the store at 7 and made it there for the second half. But a good time was had by all. I lost miserably in the pool, never had a chance.

Watched a lot of movies recently. Man on Fire with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. It was OK. Good enough to not fall asleep through. It was pretty much like Proof of Life with the 3rd world kidnappings.

Hitch with Will Smith. It was about a dating counselor. I fell asleep about 1/2 way through. I don't think I missed anything.

Turned on a bit of Alexander with Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie. I watched until the first big battle scene and lost interest. I'm willing to give it another shot though.

Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom. This was an OK movie. I liked Troy better for the epic movie. He helped defend Constantinople against Saladin. The siege which I think lasted years they condensed to a few nights but what can you do in 2 hours.

Ocean's Twelve for the second time. Not as good as the first but entertaining non the less. I think they know what kind of movie they are in and just have fun with their characters. They aren't going for any awards or to be compared to Citizen Kane, just to have a good time. Thats cool.

Zach has been having troubles sleeping through the night. He usually just can't handle not having a full belly at one and six. What a goofball. It was his teeth that were bothering him but I don't think so anymore. I think he's just used to getting up then and does.

Olivia is so funny with her sleeping. She has a mental inventory about what should be on her bed. Exactly the right pillows, her little beany baby bear and Grandma Gable's red stuffed goose. She also likes to have every single book she can see laying on her bed. She will then babble her way through them one by one. Elena and I will be laying in bed and we'll hear a THUD from the little girl tossing them off the side and landing on the wood floor.