A Trio of pics of my Trio . .

Sorry about all the mess in the background :)

42 Days

As of 6 p.m. tonight, it's been 6 weeks/42 days/1008 hours since I last had a cigarette. Actually, 1008 hours since I last so much as held a cigarette in my hands.

Which is something, considering that even in the 'breakthrough' quit of earlier this year I didn't go more than a week without stealing some 2nd hand smoke or bumming a drag from someone.

It's still hard, especially after a meal. As my wife says "it's the period at the end of my sentence" and its absence is felt.

On the other hand, I'm mildly confident. It is getting easier, and I've begun to think of cigarettes as a crazy lover you no longer see but occasionally miss. It's tempting to link up for a quick one, and lord know's you'd enjoy it - but in the end you say no, because it isn't worth dealing with all her psycho c*** later.

In other words, it isn't worth going through the agony of quitting again just for the sake of a cigarette.

I'm still eating too much to compensate, but that too is slowing down. Heck, I even ignored the desire to watch TV and instead hit the gym for a good 1/2 hour tonight.

Maybe there's hope for me yet.

 

Two Unrelated Pics

Here's a bland pic of Parker in the tub. Because of the kooks in the world I won't put the rest of the pictures online, but check out the eyelashes on this kid. Believe it or not, he gets that from me. 

Secondly, here's a pic of my girls entranced by the computer. In additon to Barbie.com, Disney.com, etc. we've now discovered how to play videos on AOL.. They've watched two Mary Kate and Ashley Christmas videos, and one of the Smurfs.

Update on the Crickets

The dang things are still alive.

After that first night I made a quick attempt to drown them by dumping over the plant they hid atop. It didn't work, as they just jumped on the turtles shell.

Smart buggers.

Plus I felt kind of creepy trying to kill them. Nevermind that I've killed a million bugs in my day or that I had bought them as feed for the turtle, it felt wrong.

So I was hoping nature would take its course, but at least one of the monsters is still alive.

Lisa is NOT happy.

If they're still at it tomorrow night, I might just have to go euthanize them after all.

My Mother In Law's Annual Xmas Party

Another tradition is my mother-in-law's Christmas party. It was originally held at her house and often featured my co-workers. We'd have dinner, open presents, then journey down the road to tour a decorated house.

In recent years it's moved to Chuck E. Cheese, in honor of all the youngin's now in the family.

Here's some pics from Tuesday's (12-12) party.

I think most of the pics are self-explanatory.

 That was the first visit to Chuck E Cheese, btw, where we were given not tokens but DEBIT CARDS to use on the games. I'm not sure if I should say that technology is grand, or that the world is changing too much for my taste. It certainly was different, I can tell ya that.

Me, I miss the feel of the tokens in your pocket, but that's just me.

Here's Parker and his Mom playing basketball. He loved it and wanted to keep playing.

Now while the entire event was fun, I have to say it's hard on my nerves. Watching 3 little kids running in different directions . . sigh. lol

Each year my mother-in-law makes a Gingerbread house and raffles it off to a guest. We've yet to win it.

Finally, here's a shot of my nephew.

A good time, and thanks go out to my mother-in-law - the kids had a blast!

Breakfast with Santa December 10th

My Great-Grandfather was one of a group of people that formed a fraternal Polish life insurance company a century ago; my Grandmother was Women's President of the company until her death in 1981.

Every year that company hosts a breakfast with Santa, with each child getting a very nice, brand name gift at the end of the meal. I've been going since I was a wee lad - probably since I was born - and my kids go every year.

[For a few years they dumped the breakfast format and went with pizza, then burgers. Thankfully, they went back to pancakes this year]

Best. Breakfast Sausage. Ever.

We brought YaYa's friend (and daughter of Lisa's friend) along too.

Everything went suprisingly smooth, with no hiccups at all to report.

YaYa is in that 'either act really goofy or smile stiffly and artificially' stage, but she's still cute:

When YaYa was three we had her wrap up her di-di's and give them to Santa at Mayfair Mall, with a request to give them to babies who needed them. Well, we didn't do that, not with Park still a youngin', but we did have her promise Santa to give up the pacifier as she is a 'big girl'.

As of this writing, only a few hours shy of a week later, she is still di-di free.

Parker wasn't scared at all - he just wasn't keen on sitting still. He would rather just steal a candy cane and move on :)

As for the gifts, Parker first got a noisemaking hammer, but we asked for something else, as he already owned one. The lady acted like the request was a tad rude, but the boy doesn't have all that many toys - if he did we'd have just said thanks and moved on. The second time around he got a toy cell phone.

Lu got the best gift, a Little Mermaid toyCD walkman that plays miniature 'CD's' with Disny music.

YaYa's gift was a bit of a miss. It was a craft kit that converts a picture to a jigsaw puzzle. Aside from the fact that the craft was messy, largely ineffective, and quickly used up the supplies that came with it, I was impressed that she handled seeing Lu's gift like a champ, without even a whimper.

Oh, and their friend? Her Dad bought her a Barbie, which we smuggled in to Santa's helpers :)

Blake's 7 You Tube Experiment

 

 

This is (essentially) a test of embedding a YouTube video, as I'd like to feature some videos of the family [oh, can't you wait?]

However, a little background on the clip: Blake's 7 was a late '70's BBC science fiction show that featured a gang of 7 escaped criminals (political prisoners, thieves, smugglers) who fought the evil Federation. Their leader was the idealistic Blake; another centerpiece of the show was the sociopath Avon.

After the second season the actor playing Blake left, his character officially missing in the context of the show. Avon took over and much of the next two years had the underlying goal of locating and reuniting with Blake.

This is the last few minutes of the show's final episode, in which Avon has finally found Blake - but believes him to be a traitor. .

[When I was ten or twelve I talked my folks into letting me watch the Super Bowl and getting the living room to myself, when in reality it was to watch this very episode broadcast on the local PBS station.

 If memory serves, the Bills lost that SuperBowl.]

Broadcast on a December night it lead to several Christmas suicides, from what I understand

They certainly turned the tables on the conventional 'happy ending' . .

St. Nick's 2006

December 6th brought St. Nick to our house again. Bear in mind these pics were taken at around 7 in the morning, and we all look horrible. [Check out the family portrait on the wall btw - it's a beaut]

Both my parents and Lisa's Dad contributed material to the stockings, including these jump ropes. We got them the electric toothbrushes of their favorite characters; the character bandages from their Grandpa were a great hit, although they quickly became attached to everything in the house.

The girls also received the Belle and Little Mermaid ornaments they wanted in Disney World. Ain't it grand how St. Nick is so psychic?

Here's Parker Bear with his gifts

And dang that di-di in Lu's mouth - but we crunched that soon enough . . .

Just some random pics

 Lisa and the girls

Parker and YaYa