The weather's finally getting cold here. Lit a fire in the fireplace for the first time (well, since we've owned the house anyways). Happy to report I didn't burn the place down.
Cody had his birthday party this Saturday. It was actually a lot of fun, even if some of the kids were on the hyper side. Gail organized a treasure hunt of sorts, with the treasure being the kids goody bags. Cody's party was set to a Harry Potter theme, so Gail made the treasure hunt go into rooms the book had. Cody's was Gryffendor Tower, or something like that. The final stop on the hunt was the "Whomping Willow". Whatever that is in the book, I don't know. But I got to play the part of the Whomping Willow, and as far as I'm concerned, if I get to whomp kids, that's fine by me!
I borrowed my old neighbors gilly suit (for those that don't know, a gilly suit is a suit with strips of burlap and camoflage hanging off of it. I looked like a huge bush :) and sat out in the lawn with all the leaves (Those suits work really well. My mother-in-law took a picture from our deck looking down at us. Aside from the cardboard wrapping paper tube I was using to whomp the kids with, you can't tell where I am). I sat very still, and as the kids came out, they saw me right away. However, I don't think some of the kids knew I was in there, 'cause when one reached for the bag, and I whomped him with the tube, he jumped. Pretty soon I had kids yelling and screamin' and laughin' and hollerin' (Sounds like a Charlie Daniels song) and I was a-whompin away with my whompin tube. Great fun.
After that, Cody had another birthday party to attend at McDonalds. Needless to say, when it came time for him to go to bed that night, it didn't take much to get him there.
Sunday, Cody and I went on a hike up Sugarloaf Mountain with our Indian Guides tribe. We rode across Whites Ferry, and then hiked up the mountain. It was a good hike...at least my lungs and legs told me so. The view from the top was great. Jon, one of the dads there, was telling us how they used semaphore from the top of the mountain to signal troop movements during the Civil War. It was a great hike.
Finally saw The Perfect Storm last night. Gail loved that movie so much when she saw it in the theaters, she bought it as soon as it was available on DVD. It's rare that I buy a movie I haven't seen before, but this was a good one. I really enjoyed the story, and the special effects rocked.
After work I get to go to Maryland: First, to pick up a treadmill from my office spouse Heidi, then to my friend Jon's. Mostly to stop in and say hi, but he's also going to loan me all of his darkroom equipment. I've been wanting to get into photography for awhile, however, I've just never had the resources. Jon's a font of resources though. I have his helmet, along with his Dazzle, and now his darkroom equipment. Maybe he should just move in.
Man, slippery tubs sucks. I was in the shower this morning, and the wife hopped in. As I was maneuvering around so she could get under the shower head, I slipped, both feet going out from under me at the same time.
Naturally, I was against the shower curtain, and not the wall when I did this. Went ass backwards right out of the shower, hit my back against the corner of the counter, and flopped on down to the bathroom floor, where I managed not to yell out all sorts of obscenities.
Now I have a wonderful cut/bruise up my back (about 4 inches long...damn sharp counter top!) and it hurts to rotate my right arm around, as it's sore. Geezus, I tell ya, when it rains, it pours.
Some days I look upon my wife with awe and wonder, simply amazed by her beauty, her compassion, her inner child. And other days, I look upon her, and go "you are such a dork"...
Take last night for instance. She told me about this dream she had. It was one of those dreams you have that incorporate reality into your dream. We were snuggling in bed, and I was rubbing her butt, simply 'cause I know she likes her butt rubbed (yeah, alright, I like rubbing it too. So sue me.) and she dreamt that as I was rubbing her butt, this pink smoke came out of her ass and consolidated into a genie, who then proceeded to give me three wishes.
No more ice cream for her before she goes to bed!
And for those of you wondering, yes, I rubbed her butt a lot trying to get the genie to come out.
I meant to post this yesterday afternoon, when I got back, but for some reason, I never got around to it. The largest group ride I've ever been on prior to today was about 25 bikes. Today, I met with a group of about 30 at the dealership for the Toys for Tots run. From there, we headed down to Classic Iron where, we met up with about 500-750 more bikes for the run to Fredricksburg. Yup, you read that right. Between 500 and 750 motorcycles. It was way cool (And loud!). There were bikes everywhere...mostly Harleys, but there were also BMWs, Ducatis, Hondas, Yamahas, Kawazakis. You name it, it was there.
The Toys for Tots run is sponsored by the United States Marine Corps every year, to help get toys, and raise money for those less fortunate during the holidays. It's a great cause, and I'm glad Gail kicked my butt outta bed this morning to go. They had one vendor there, and one concession stand. However, this is the first year they've done this, so I suspect next year it'll be even better.
There was a radio station onsite doing a live broadcast, and they were doing USMC and Harley-Davidson trivia. First question was; what was the first names of the Davidson brothers? I happen to be close to the the table, so I wandered down there, gave the right answer, and received a set of Mac tools. Well, it was two screwdrivers, and a tape measure, but it was still pretty cool :) (The answer, in case you're wondering, is Arthur, William, and Walter)
So after grabbin' some grub, and chattin' some, I headed home. I like riding in groups, but I think I like alone better, or with just one or two other people. It was a wonderful ride back up 17 to 28. Sad to say though, I believe this will the be last good ride of the season. I'm sitting here in sweats and am just now warming up. My fingers were cold, my knees were cold...getting to be that time of the year!
You know...I hate it when I'm taking a shower, and the shower curtain blows in. It cuts the shower in half, unless you want to shower with vinyl stuck to your backside. So naturally you weigh down the bottom of the shower curtain with shampoo bottles. And you know, if I wasn't married, that would be a problem. When I was on my own (and had hair), I had one shampoo bottle. Now, there's at least 4 bottles in there: shampoo, conditioner, special face wash, hydroxexfoliatingsomethingortheother...all sorts of cool stuff.
Ah, November. Woke up this morning, peeked outside, and saw a sheen of frost on the cars. Guess Fall is finally and truly here. Part of me is thinking I should be out on the bike every second I get, before the riding season is over and done with. The other part of me is thinking "alright! SNOW is on it's way!!!"
In case you haven't guessed, I LOVE the snow. I love cold weather. I love it when it's like 20 below, the wind is blowing, the snow is falling, and it's just crap outside. I love that.
Yeah, well, same to you.
Halloween has come and gone, and I swear, these kids are just getting rude. Were we like this when we went trick or treating? They rush up to the door, half the time they don't say trick or treat, and the other half of the time, they don't say thanks. When we went trick or treating, we said all the proper things, and were usually polite. Oh, and we tee-pee'd houses.
Gail just IM'd me, said we should be practicing Tantric Sex. I don't even know what the hell Tantric Sex is, but apparently Sting swears by it. I also told her I was going to put this in my journal, and she said go for it. I think either a) she doesn't believe me, or b) she doesn't think anyone reads my journal. Which is probably true. Although I know my mom reads it.
And of course, because I had a good Friday, I'm going to have a crap Monday. Well, I might not have an entirely bad crap Monday. But it's not starting out very well, that's for sure.
My computer has decided that it needs to be rebooted about every 20 minutes, and it tells me this by locking everything on the screen. My shoulder STILL hurts (tore it up about 6 weeks ago...my mom says it's rotor cup related. weee. Thanks ma) and I didn't get to go riding at ALL This weekend.
This weekend was busier than a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest. We had Sarah's Birthday party, Cody's Little League game, Cody's End-of-the-season team party, and a Halloween party. And that was all on Saturday.
ugh.
Gail and I are going to be spending most of the next 2 weeks cleaning, as her parents are coming to stay with us for three weeks starting the 9th of November. Gotta make my computer area all nice and neat. Darn.
Nothing like riding to work in the fog. It's quiet (well, as quiet as you can be on a Harley), the other vehicles loom up out of the fog at you, and disappear as quickly...almost surreal.
So I made it to work ok, and get settled in with a nice cup of hot chocolate to help chase the chill from my cheeks. I read through my email (or is it e-mail??) and discover that I have to ride to one of our other offices to update a machine for an executive type. Oh joy. Oh hooray. It's one thing to be blitzing around (albeit carefully) on a bike in the fog at 7a.m. It's another to have to do it when there's a bunch more traffice out.