Annabelle

We have a new niece that I haven't yet written about. Her name is Annabelle Jean Schwartz born to Brian and the infamous Jen Schwartz on 4-17-09. Stacey and the girls have met her but I haven't yet. I intend to next weekend though. For full bio click on the Brian and Jen link to the right.

Not me

I did not take the pic below. It was on the local paper's website. I did watch the storm from my pation while my wife and kids were in the basement. Mara had just learned about fire drills at school on friday. So the alarms confused her a little. Tornado inside, fire outside. I can see how this could confuse a 3 year old.

I did have a cold beer in my hand, and left 2 my bikes out in the rain to get washed off. One of them was a Surly.

Nasty weather

This sucka was about 4 miles from our house. Sky was eery.

Last Weekend at the Lake

We spent Easter weekend at my parents' house in Clear Lake as planned. Stacey and I both had Good Friday off, so we took our time getting down the road on Friday afternoon. After a peaceful ride up there with a stop in Center Point at Joensy's for the biggest and best tenderloins (a lot of places claim it, but this place has my vote so far) in the world. It's a tiny little greasy spoon place in a small town. I discovered it on a bike ride a couple years ago with some friends.

We got up to Clear Lake around 3:30 or 4 on Friday. The girls were very excited as they always are when we get there. Too bad Grampa and Gramma were still at work. Suckas. Grampa rolled in shortly thereafter and Gramma wasn't too far behind. We hung out at home for the night and ordered Chinese take-out. Us being the boring old farts we are, we went to bed early that night.

Saturday was beautiful. Everybody spent some time outside. It was great. I had grand plans of sitting at Sips for a few hours behind a pint glass, but since it was so nice, we spent part of the afteroon on the deck having a few brews. It was great. Mara was having a blast running around the house. Perhaps the greatest moment of the weekend for me to see is depicted below. Our kids love their Grampas and Grammas and talk about them non-stop. It's really nice to see them interact. Below is Grampa K and Mara discussing the inequities of life, love, and capitalism. Actually, I think they were talking about ducks.

The pic below here is Gramma K and Ellen on a walk. Ellen had her pissy pants on so the walk did her good.

We had fun hanging out in the house on Saturday night. Kim Didio came over and we colored Easter Eggs.

Easter Sunday the girls ate too much candy (Ellen ate so much she barfed all over herself) and I ate the best Prime Rib I've ever eaten. Uncle Buck, Aunt Gayle, Brandon and Whitney came over for dinner. Good to see them.

This pic is Mara and Ellen playing with new Easter toys while Josey is trying to get in on the Snickers action.

Easter weekend

The Easter Bunny is going to Grampa and Gramma K's house this year.

The girls are stoked to go to Clear Lake. So am I actually. Crazy how it takes getting out of the house to spend some quality time with the family sometimes.

Sugarbottom opened on Tuesday. I got out and rode it Wednesday night. Got that burn in my quads as I climbed steps today. Feels good. Gonna try to get out tomorrow morning if the rain holds off.

Okay Bruce, here ya go.

Yes Cutler is a crybaby. Yes the Bears gave up a lot for him. Kind of. But the way I see it, who the hell were the Bears going to draft anyway? They've been trying to rebuild mainly through the draft anyway for years and it's most notable first picks as of late that come to mind are Rex "anybody need a QB, anybody?" Grossman, and Cedric "I'm going to fall down as soon as I'm hit" Benson. Sure Orton "got the job done" by not fucking up, but is that anything to build on? You can say the Ravens did it with Dilfer and won the Superbowl. You could even say the Bears came close with Grossman in 2006. But the Bears defense is not what it was in 06 and it definitely isn't what the Ravens was when they won the whole thing. So I see it like this analogy:

I don't really like Bologna all that much but I eat it from time to time. But if I were eating a shit sandwich, I think Bologna would taste pretty good. Cutler is Bologna, Orton is a shit sandwich. I'd eat a shit sandwich if I was hungry enough, but I'd rather eat the Bologna. And faced with eating a shit sandwich, I'd pay a lot for a Bologna sandwich.

Get yourself a 6 pack

Of this stuff:





I'm usually not much of a Pale Ale fan, but this stuff is yummy.