Rainy Saturday Blahs

It's been a pretty boring day. Started out with me waking up to Ellen walking up to me while I was sleeping on the couch. I slept on the couch last night for a couple reasons. One, Stacey is kinda sick and really needs some sleep. She goes to bed earlier than I do, so I decided to not wake her by crawling into bed, or by snoring, or by any other type of unpleasant noise that may be emitted by my body in my subconcious state. Two, I like sleeping on the couch under my awesome blanket that Stacey got me for Xmas last year. Anyways, when Ellen saw it was me on the couch and not Mommy, she hightailed it back to the bedroom. She and I are not getting along these days. It's a battle of wills right now and we are at a stalemate so far. If I were not twice her height and five times her weight, she might be winning.

We made breakfast. I had bacon of course. Then we kinda just hung out. Stacey ran some errands, I made the kids lunch. Then my friends Ken and Michelle came over with their (his, not hers, but kinda are now). They bought a new set of bunkbeds for their kids and needed a truck to move them. I don't generally let anyone borrow anything of mine. I've been burned too many times, but Ken is a stand-up guy amongst stand up guys. He's one person that understands why I read a blog post like this from January 19th from Surly and enjoy it thoroughly. So he has my truck right now and my cell phone is in the cubby in the dash because I forgot it there. He's probably trying to call me right now to see when it would be cool to bring the truck back along with a few beers. But there the phone sits, in his driveway, with the ringer off.

I did my homework last night and am way ahead in my class right now, allowing me to take a little break from it today. So while Stacey and the kids went down for a nap today, I went to the garage to clean the messy floor, listen to the Cyclones lose, and to put my wrenches to my Karate Monkey that sorely needed it. Bottom bracket is out, crankset is cleaned, rear hub is lubed.

Now the kids and Stacey are waking up from their nap as I enjoy my potato chips, dip, and my 3rd Miller High Life.

Ken just walked in . Time for some beers and some Mountain Bike videos.

Crazy Kehrt Xmas

We got together with my side of the family this weekend in Clear Lake. It was supposed to be last weekend, but the freezing temps and overall crappy weather made it a bit risky. By some miracle everyone's schedule for the following weekend was open as well so we just switched it. Friday afternoon we headed up there. My brother Chad (Chuck) and his wife/fiance Roxeanne were already there. We were next, followed shortly by my sister Sara (Bag) her husband Bruce and their daughter Emerson. Finally, Roxeanne's kids Jill, Josh, Jake and Jill's husband Nick. We started in on the beer fridge pretty mightily right away. The Guinness was going down good. Mom and Dad had snacks galore as usual and we let the girls play late into the night. Saturday we opened gifts right away in the morning. The girls raked it in, as did we. Mara was pretty good being patient with her turn, but Ellen was a devil child. I got a glimpse of what my dad must have gone through with me. A parent with no patience that has to deal with a kid with no paitence = red ass and sore hand.





As tradition would have it, we kinda snacked all day followed by Soup and Chili later. The beers started out pretty early, though I held off for a while. Did a lot of sitting around chatting and watching football. Stacey and I placed our bets for the weekend games, and it looks like I'll be buying her a new purse. Dammit. Later on we dug a little too deep into the fridge, so Bruce and I had to make a B double E double R-U-N. Unfortunately we got sidetracked at the Bunker (see: bar). We'd been in the house all day so it was good to get out.





Again we let the girls play late into the night. The adults exchanged L gifts (an alphabetized version of elephant gift game). Everybody did good except for Bruce. He kinda got the gag this year. That's how it goes. I personally am looking forward to placing my Pilsner lamp on my nightstand. We finished the night off with many more beers and a game of Chicken Foot. The Chili and Beers were starting to hit everyone after a while. Musta looked like a scene from Blazing Saddles.

It was a damn good time. Sure is fun to get everyone together. I think we should do a summer version of that for sure.

Mommy's Daughter

This is how Mara usually sleeps. Her beloved Doggy covers her face.

Every family has children that resemble their parents visually. And every family has children that act like their parents. But there are very few examples I know of that better illustrate this than Mara and Stacey.

1. When I see Stacey's pictures of when she was a kid, I swear I'm looking at Mara. She looks just like here.

2. Mara has Obsessive Compulsive tendencies just like Stacey. Actually they're worse than Stacey's. They're even worse than Uncle Brian's. They may be right up there with Gramma S's. Either way, it's very clear that Mara does not inherit these traits from me.

But this evenings dinnertime behavior takes the cake. Mara ate very well tonight which is rare. But some events that happened throughout dinner are what made this particular dinnertime amusing. First as soon as she sat down at the table, she let out a super loud tonsil rattling belch. Later, as she was worming around in her chair, her chair moved on her. It slid in such a way that Mara had to get off the chair to push it back to where she could sit on it and reach her food. As she was pushing the chair, she said (in an irritated tone) "This Damn Chair!" Finally, near the end of dinner she winced her face a little, lifted one butt cheek of the chair, and let a blast out of her little ass you could have heard in the basement.

I tell ya, she acts just like her mother.

Some 2010 Goals

• Be Home ALOT!!: To many bullshit obligations tied up my weekends last year. I promise all of you this will not happen this year even if it does create turbulence in my house. I will not attend weddings of people that are only inviting me to "be nice". I appreciate your kindness, but this kind of thing has to stop. I want to wake up in my home more often than I wake up in someone else's this year.
• Camp More: I want to take my kids camping this year. The camper is already out of the budget again, so it'll be tent city or a rustic cabin. There is nothing better than waking up to the cool crisp air of a campground. And bacon cooked over a fire is second to none. The girls being potty trained now adds a challenge here, but I'll figure it out.
• Get My Family Involved in Mountain Biking: It makes me smile to think about how my my riding buddies and I have gone from being beer guzzling, ball scratching, sleep deprived, and hygiene challenged weekend warriors to being beer guzzling, ball scratching, sleep deprived, and hygiene challenged parents. We all have kids now and we keep finding ways to get our kids and spouses involved. I hope to step this up this year. Stacey would be a great rider if she wanted to be, but she'd have to be willing to get her bike dirty.
• Cook More: I used to cook all the time. I worked in a kitchen for nearly 10 years. It was hardly gourmet chef work, but I was around food and heat a lot and learned a few things. I can cook as good of a steak as you can order anywhere. I never order burgers when I'm out simply because they all suck compared to the 1/2 pounders I grill up. I am already working on becoming an excellent cheesecake maker, but I hope to perfect it soon. I love cheesecake. Other than Chili and Vegetable Beef stew, I've not tried to make many soups, so that's another thing I'd like to work on. I'd also like to start making my own Alfredo sauces. The jarred sauces just plain suck. They suck.