Sunday, July 30, 2006

The end is here...

6pm –So this is my last entry to my vacation blog. I didn't update the blog on Friday or Saturday so thought I would wrap it up here today on Sunday. And I'll apologize right now for this very long blog...but I've got three days and a finale to do here.

We had a really good time on Friday. We got up around 8am and took off to Austin to visit Liz’s good friend and Emmy’s God-mom. They had a pool so the kiddos were able to swim to their heart’s content! I sat around the pool and did my best life guard impression (notice I'm in my Hawaiian shirt) for about an hour then took off to Frys Electronic Superstore.


It’s like Best Buy, Circuit City and Altex Electronics all rolled into one huge store! I was able to walk down every isle and spotted the new Apple 30” inch Cinema display hooked up to a Mac G5. I don't know what attracted me to that display...but I think it was that heavenly beam of light illuminating it that caught my eye...like a moth attracted to the flame, I fluttered over to it and I think I even genuflected before I touched the keyboard. Man the display is huge and gorgeous! I really want one but can’t afford that and a new Mac too - which I hope to get next year. Finally after the third salesperson asked if they could help me...I walked away and just meandered down each isle of the store - you know, window shopping for geeks. After 2 hours I got back to Liz and the kids and watched as Emmy and Joaquin proudly showed me how well they did canon balls into the pool.
Emmy doing her best...

Big Brother showing her how it's done!

We had a relaxing dinner and at 9pm we drove home. Everyone kind of dozed but at San Marcus I stopped for some gas and then Liz and I just talked and talked while the kids slept in the back seat. It felt good not to wonder what day it was or not worry what time we got home. Finally at 11pm we pulled into our driveway. Joaquin was a trooper and walked in himself while I carried my daughter to her bed. What a great day...thank you (Big) Emma and Janet. Maddie...I'm glad you're doing better.

Saturday was another busted day. I slept in late (why is it that NOW I'm able to sleep in late?) and then just watched some TV. At 1:30pm Liz took the kids to a birthday party while I folded 5 loads of laundry. Just can’t get away from that. Liz got home around 5pm and we decided to grill again. I grilled some steaks, chicken with some veggies and we had a great dinner. We even BBQ’d some pineapple slices. We modified the recipe we found online and then ate them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top – yum.



Sunday was another lazy day. Except for the raccoon we saw in the Crape Myrtle tree in our neighbor’s back yard next to our fence. Max had cornered a raccoon up the tree so I asked Joaquin to take Max for a walk and I got a long pole and started poking him. My intention was not to knock him down but show him that it was not a good location to be. As I was "coaxing him" to come down, my Spidey senses started to tingle and I thought, "could he be rabid?" That scene from Saving Silverman briefly flashed into my mind, you know...Steve Zahn's exterminator character fights off the raccoon that jumped on his face? So I let him be and walked into the house. He finally figured it was time to vamoos so from the window I watched him climb down and dart off behind our green belt. Another of God's animals saved...I am speaking of me of course :-) Oh and Max is not doing his impression of Popeye as much anymore - the medicine is working.

Later in the day we went to our friends home that moved from SA to Boerne. What a nice home and neighborhood they live in. They are close to the river and have a greenbelt behind their yard too! I’m happy for them. We left and picked up some stuff at Lowes to kills Wasps and Crabgrass.

So – I come to the end of my vacation (blog) and I begin to reflect on my two week sabbatical. I know that most of the stuff I’ve mentioned on my blog can be done without being on vacation but it just seems harder. It's easy to make more excuses when you're tired from a long day of work - the kids being in sports, laundry to do, grass to cut and even more chores to do - it just seems to do more, means more work. But I hope that being on vacation for 2 weeks has jumpstarted my life so that I will continue to do the things I love…like sitting on the sofa with my kids laughing hysterically as we watched Americas Funniest Home Videos, the kids using Daddy as the big pillow….or doing an honest days work with your hands…trying new restaurants without worrying about the money…appreciate different kinds of music recommended by friends...talking (without interruption) with the one you fell in love with...or walking into your kids room at night to check on them and notice how peaceful they look as they sleep. Yes…I am going to continue to do the things I love and even though I started this blog as a jab to my friends…I hope you consider doing the “2 week vacation” thing as well. Trust me, you won't regret it. Take the time off of work to enjoy life...no one will die at work (unless of course you are some sort of doctor) while you're gone...things will get done.

Being on this 2 week vacation was (and I hope to continue) a wonderful experience that I highly recommend. For me, it put things in perspective and as most people know of me...this was my "cracker of life."

Quick explanation about the cracker - if you've ever been to a food tasting party - they give you a cracker to reset your pallet before you try another food.

So thanks for reading and letting me share. I hope it helps you as much as it did me.
Now...where the heck is my briefcase?

G-man

Thursday, July 27, 2006

11th Day July 27th - Cut the yard...now my hair and shaved!

9:30pm - So today was another blow off day.

We had breakfast with Liz's Dad at a nice little Mexican restaurant near our home. Afterwards he came over and Liz proudly displayed our landscaping. Joaquin was not feeling well so he took a nap while Liz and Emmy went to finish up the school supply shopping around 10:30am. I was working on the computer and then went to check on Joaquin around 11am. He looked so comfortable that I crawled into bed with him and took a nap myself! He woke up around noon and I woke up around 1pm. Liz took our kids and the neighbor's kids to see Monster House. She said it was pretty good...but scary.

(I'm finally getting the hang of setting up links on my blog - you can tell by the blue underlined links on the pages. Always learning...I am.)

Around 2:30pm, I headed to the comic book shop and then got my haircut. For those of you comic book geeks out there...Thor is back! And for those of you not geeks...yes...The Might God of Thunder had been killed off! But pick up Marvel's Civil War #3 and look for the surprise...okay so I've ruined it for the geeks. Sorry.

I got home around 4:30pm and headed straight for the shower. I got all that nasty hair clippings out and then then shaved.

I used the new Gillette Fusion shaver. Man...what a great shave. I was skeptical because I thought it was alot of money for a shaver...but it was worth it. I know you really can't tell but I did have a growth...my wife said I looked "scruffy." And really...I did get my hair cut.

Oh and if you're interested...I got inspired and built a page on my shaving experience. Click on the picture below. Most people that loved 70's TV will appreciate it.

So - we ordered Chinese food and ate while watching The Incredibles. I'd forgotten how much I liked that movie, I hope they make another one like they did with the Toy Story movies... Later I spread out the soaker hose and turned it on the front lawn. Tomorrow we head to Austin to visit "M-e's" God Mom "M". I call my daughter Emmy and her God mom is Emma.

I'll post more tomorrow but it will probably be late.

G-man

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

10th day July 26th - Finally mowed the yard...sort of.

7pm - winding down the day.

I got up this morning around 9am to the sound of a lawnmower. As I sat up from my nice comfortable, warm, bed and while rubbing my eyes, I reached over for Liz - but just patted an empty bed. I then turned my head to look out the window and there was my wife...mowing the backyard. So I dragged my a$$ out of bed, put on a cap and then went outside to mow the front yard. Yuck. Then I edged both lawns and I am glad I did. The yard looks great. Afterwards I walked to the backyard to put away the mower and saw Liz clipping at one of our bushes in the back. We had pulled up two of the four a while back and they just looked overgrown. She had been watching those darn HGTV Gardening shows and had seen how these bushes were supposed to look. She explained to me they were to look like ice cream cones ...okay....


So she started and then I got "Zen" inspired and started clipping. 1 hour later this is what I came up with. Not bad. I'm surprised that they are supposed to look that good. But leave it to my wife to tell me how to create a masterpiece! Later I scrubbed the outside of my grill - lots of bird poop. Plus I may grill later this week.


I can't believe my second week of vacation is halfway through...

Later we all showered and then we took off to Milbergers Nursery and then Gardenville. We needed to find something to keep our dog Max out of the garden planter I built. You could tell he was in there because of the big paw prints. I thought Liz was going to kill him. I was not too impressed with Gardenville but Milbergers...oh my...you could buy alot of stuff there. But then there would be a whole lot of digging!



After we got home Liz and the kiddos took off to buy school supplies. She came back $140 less and still didn't get everything! She'll finish up tomorrow. And Joaquin needs Floppy disks! What the heck kinda of school am I sending my kids to!? But I digress...while they were shopping I made an appointment to get my haircut and I'll probably shave. I've got an idea of how to show you that so keep reading my posts.

So tonight we'll just have some sandwiches and some other libations. I'm doing some laundry and will finally watch some of those movies I rented. I returned The Interpertor (with Shawn Penn and Nicole Kidman) - I didn't even get to watch it. Oh well. Got Flightplan and Syriana showed up today in the mail. So I'll leave you all with our evening activity.

G-man

P.S. I know it's Diet Coke...but I've got to start cutting back!