Fire Dept arrives

The Gorham FD lesurely puts out the smoulder 

Pics of the fire area

Pics of the fire area: 

New bikes and a brush fire

So I bought the wife n kidz new bikes this weekend. Nate got his first "big boy" bike with hand brakes and a grip shifter, and Tess got her first 2 wheel bike.... with training wheels of course. :) Molly got a nice comfy but light and pretty nice cruiser.


We found a parking lot to ride around in...it was such a beautiful day, and Tess needed some gentle space to practice in. When we first got there Molly said that she thought she smelled smoke, and sure enough, I did too. We assumed that someone was burning leaves somewhere nearby.


We rode around for about twenty minutes, going around and around, the kids getting used to their new bling rides, and Nate and I are off in another part of the parking lot when Molly shouts out "James! There's a fire!!"

Sure enough, some bushes spontaneously caught fire in one of the parking lot islands. We called 911, the fire dept arrived and put it out. 

Has it really been this long?

Has it?


I suppose it has.

In the intervening time, I have:

Had tear duct drain surgery

Loved my job

Hated my job

Bought a Glock

...and a colt defender

Traded my M60 .38 for a M38 Bodyguard

Seen Nate's first T-ball practice

Had Christmas at out house

Had my 40th b-day in a hotel near the data centre, working

Discovered a great Shootin' Pit just a few miles from home

Hunted with Tom again (saw deer, did not shoot)

And a lot of other stuff. Now that picassa can link photos to blogs, I will blog more stuff.

tear duct infection thing

OK. Been going through the tear duct infection again.

It's been watering for the past 4 weeks or so, since a major allergy attack. Friday, it started to hurt, and by friday night it hury enough to decide to go to the er in the AM.

I had started 2x asprin and 1x tylenol every few hours. Also took a couple of old codeine tabs I had left over from last spriing's ear infection. ER doc gave me prescription for keflex, 500mg, 3x a day.

The pain was okay until 3pm or so, then started getting bad. Meds were not much help. Very painful at night and in morning. Sun AM went to eye doc, who stated it doesn't look so bad. After leaving there, very bad pain, seemingly related to sinus stuffiness... when sinuses where stuffy, pain was intense. When sinuses were clear (on that side) pain was minimal.

Sun PM pain not so bad after regimen of benadryl. Sun night, swelling started, with brown discharge. Discharge continued monday, pain minimal monday. off most pain meds monday.

Notes: when the pain is bad, meds don't do jack shit, it seems
Pain is connected to nasal stuffiness.

If WWII was fought by gamers...

*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
*Eisenhower has joined the game.*
*paTTon has joined the game.*
*Churchill has joined the game.*
*benny-tow has joined the game.*
*T0J0 has joined the game.*
*Roosevelt has joined the game.*
*Stalin has joined the game.*
*deGaulle has joined the game.*
Roosevelt: hey sup
T0J0: y0
Stalin: hi
Churchill: hi
Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0JO: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]; sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle: fuck Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got crap to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: fuck
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do shit til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullshit u fuks im gunna kick ur asses
T0JO: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullshit u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
benny-tow: haha
benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1
T0J0: o shit i cant help u i got my hands full
Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
Roosevelt: yah thats right biznitch im comin for ya
Stalin: church help me
Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
Stalin: dont be an arss
Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
Eisenhower: LOL
benny-tow: hahahh oh shit help
Hitler: o man ur focked
paTTon: oh what now biotch
Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
*benny-tow has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: lame
Roosevelt: gj patton
paTTon: thnx
Hitler[AoE]: eisenhower hax hes killing all my shit
Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
Eisenhower: Nuts!
benny~tow: wtf that mean?
Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker
Stalin: rofl
T0J0: HAHAHHAA
Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
*Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
benny~tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
Stalin: OMG LMAO!
Hitler[AoE]: i didnt click there omg this game blows
*Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
paTTon: hahahhah
T0J0: my teammates are n00bs
benny~tow: shut up noob
Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
Eisenhower: yah me too
T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
Eisenhower: fock u
paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
Stalin: go to hell lol
paTTon: fock this shit im goin afk
Eisenhower: yah this is gay
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: shit now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY SHIT I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy shitholyshithoylshti!!!111
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!*
Eisenhower: awesome!
Churchill: gg noobs no re
T0J0: thats bullshit u fockin suck
*T0J0 has left the game.*
*Eisenhower has left the game.*
Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for shit
Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
tru_m4n: l8r all
benny~tow: bye
Churchill: l8r
Stalin: fock u all
tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
*tru_m4n has left the game.*
benny~tow: lololol u commie
Churchill: ROFL
Churchill: bye commie
*Churchill has left the game.*
*benny~tow has left the game.*
Stalin: i hate u all fucks
*Stalin has left the game.*
paTTon: lol no1 is left
paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
*paTTon has been eliminated.*
paTTon: o shit!
*paTTon has left the game.*

large thunderstorm, some damage

Yesterday afternoon I was at work in Woburn and Molly calls, all out of breath and excited sounding. Turns out we had a fairly destructive thunderstorm that tore Tess' window off it's hinges, killed a few birds, flung our lawn furniture around and soaked the house.

This morning, Molly told Tess to go out and play on the trampoline. Tess kept coming back saying "Mommy, where's the trampoline?"

Molly and Tykie spent 10 minutes or so searching all around for the massive 15 foot diameter, 10 foot high thing.

They finally found it, across the street, crumpled and destroyed in a farmer's field, looking like a dead spider. The farmers said they'd drag it back to us.

Man it's hot

Every time someone comes to visit us during a weekend, we seem to have a heat wave.

When Nana and Grandad were here a few weeks ago, it was amazingly hot. High 90s. Now, when Molly's Finnish friends are here, it's not only amazingly hot, but humid too. All we can do is lie around and wilt.

This supposed 12,000 BTU air conditioner sure doesn't seem very powerful. It blasts in our small bedroom and only cools down the place a degree or two an hour. For an expensive portable unit, it seems to do jack shit for cooling.

We went to the beach today, my first time at a Maine Beach. It was fine, a tiny bit rocky in places, and the water seemed FREEZING at first, but after a while, I decided not to leave the water at all- it felt too good. I got out after my hands and wrists started getting quite cold, but my core temperature was still doing fine.

Last night was jsut as hot and humid, but we decided to have a fire in an outdoor fire pit thing and make s'mores with all 5 kids. The end product of Smores are definitely not worth the effort of making the fire, getting all the materials ready, and preparing them. Might be fun with older kids.

Daddy you have a gold toof!

Is what Tess told me today in the car... I;m like, What the fuck... "Where?" I ask.

"Smile Daddy!" I grin. "Look! Dere it is! You have LOTS of gold teef Daddy!"


Really time to consider a tooth whitener apparently.

Kill those damn Wops

We have some wasp nests in the new garage/office space. Upon moving in it became my first priority to kill the wasps and remove their nests so I could start renovating the space into a home office.

Tess and Nate accompanied me the day after the carnage to examine the bodies and look for stragglers, so I had a can of wasp spray with me and told them that we needed to kill any wasps we see. Nate agrees to watch out for wasps, and Tess agrees to watch out for wsap...swaps...wips...waps! Her mouth and brian very active in puzzling out this new word.

"No Tess", I say, "Not Waps, Wasps."
"Waps!"
"No, wasps!"
"Yeah, Wops!"

She just couldn't say it correctly so I stopped correcting her.

We spent the next few days killing all the Wops we saw. Every now and then she's come in the room all excited, eyes wide saying, "Daddy! Daddy! I saw a Wops!" and I'd say "Really? Wops? Let's go kill those filthy wops!"

Good times, good times.

Hopefully all the wasps are dead now over there. They'd better be, because insulation is going up.

Lots of emergency activity in the new town

For some reason, this little town of Gorham Maine has a ton of emergency activity going on. It seems like five times a day I'm hearing a siren or two, or three, and I only live near one of the major roads. Either we live right next to a very dangerous intersection or there are a lot of siren happy cops and EMTs around.

Seriously, it's like living in Boston or Allston or somewhere. In Sudbury, if we heard a siren, we paid attention and wondered what was up. Here, it kind of blends right in.

Dictionary Nate

Nate's Word of the Day:

Magnetical!

Some updates from recent life

Well, we certainly are moving out of Sudbury to Gorham Maine. We found a beautiful house, (Pictures Here) I feel like I've had a cold more or less since November 2004. I still have one.


maps.google.com is great. It's only a matter of time before Google takes over Microsoft and creates their own Nation.

I Find your lack of faith disturbing

hair boogies

Tess sits in my lap, looking up at me and says "Daddy, I have boogies in my dose.:
Then she puts her hands up, cradles my face in her hands, leans in close with a biiig smile and says "Daddy, you have HAIR boogies!" and starts laughing.


Really time to trim the nose hairs I think.

Secret Electical Rocket

For some reason, Nate's been all about "secret electical" stuff lately.

As for me, I've been sick for what seems like forever.

I have the flu!

Go, me.

Christmas eve, went bunny hunting early in the morning. Got there at an hour before sunrise or so, saw one rabbit on the walk in, but it was way too early to shoot. HE hopped almost up to me before I told him it was his lucky day, and kept walking. Saw nothing else that morning, other than some local crows and a flight of geese heading north for some reason.

Matt Nicole and Penelope came over later in the day, and Matt gave me a cool R'C plane. We flew it for 15 minutes or so until Nate crashed and had to be brougth home screaming. We lost the remote somehow so haven't been able to fly it again.

Christmas day- good fun, exhausting.

Nate has the runs, all the time

My five year old Nate is not physically capable of not running. He seems to be actually hardwired to run rather than walk. Maybe most five year olds are like this, I don't know. From one room to another, he runs, or at least jogs. From activity to activity, he runs. from house to car and vice versa, he runs. He tries to run at school in the halls, and is constantly told that he has to walk in the halls. He even runs in his sleep!

At night, when he wakes up and wants to either go to the bathroom, or find one of us, he runs. Even when he is so barely awake and can not even talk coherently, he starts to run. He'll stumble out of bed, barely able to stand upright, and start running for the bathroom. He'll do his business, slam shut the door, and run back to bed and crash in. And be asleep instantly.

We're trying to plan Christmas now, and who we will see when. Molly wants Sunday to be a kind of wind-down day, and wants to see Dad, Merge, Matt Nicole and Penelope on Christmas eve. Mom and Vic will be over Christmas morning, as per usual. I think I'd rather do nothing Christmas eve, and do an early morning sunday with the family, leaving the afternoon to decompress. We'll see.

Christmas list

The nice thing about no one in my family knowing about this blog is the secrets I can tell. Here's what I'm getting for people this year:

Molly: Health club membership.

She can bring the kids to this place, and they can play. It's a great setup. It's a thousand bucks. This one is going on a credit card, and I guess I'll have to do a lot of mileage at work to pay it off.

Nate: Toys. A cheapie electric train, to see if he like electric trains. A hovercopter. A toy helicopter rescue thing. A set of electronic drums.

Tess: No idea. Molly got her doll shit and stuff.

Dad: A surefire flashlight. He seemed to really like the one I got Matt for his birthday.

Merge: Photo stuff, a little collage in a frame from the beach last summer.

Mom: We agreed, in the spirit of de-cluttering, and relative poverty, to not give each other anything this year. They'll just do a couple small things for the kids.

Vic: Same. I had gotten him a Surefire flashlight too, but that was before we agreed to not give anything this year.

Matt: Benchmade knife. Looks nice, Vic says it's good quality.

Tom: Surefire flashlight.

So excited to give people things. Hopefully it will be a great Christmas. Can't wait to give Molly her present. :)