I am creating a monster

This past week we suffered through our first significant snow of the winter season.

Here are some pictures









While we were all snowed in Thursday Lex told Lisa and I he wanted to play a video game. So we put on Wii sports and let him have a shot at Wii bowling. Well Wednesday when we played didn’t go so well. Naturally for a 3 year old he had some difficulty with the concept of releasing the button when it was time to let the ball go.

On Thursday due to the storm Lex and I had some time and he wanted to try again. He was a bit better at it but still didn’t get it yet. So on Friday when I came home from work he asks me if we can bowl. So we create a Mii for Jack and then the four of us bowled against each other. To be fair we let Lex bowl as Jack. Well, I saw the light bulb go off in Lex’s head and he has gotten bowling down. He ended up bowling a 186 as his high score (my high score is a 177). Everyone tells me that it will be tough when your kid starts to beat you at things, but I was having so much fun with him it did not bother me at all he will be able to destroy me in Wii Bowling.

After that game we then went into Wii Sports Resort, where he started to play the jousting game. He figured it out pretty quickly how to play and did surprisingly well. This actually led to me taking the below video.



I am never getting rid of this video by the way. Finally, he wanted to try golf.

So on the second tee (a par 3) he hit the ball 12 feet away from the hole. He then putted like Happy Gilmore. I was waiting for him to yell at the TV and tell the ball to just go to his home.

It was such a fun day… And I am sure I have created monster. Now I just need to teach him how to play Madden.

My World Crumbled Right in Front of Me

Have you ever experienced something so earth shattering that it changes everything you believe in? Something that was so impactful that you can not look at the world the same way again.

Recently, this has happened to me.

I don’t remember the exact date in question but I will never forget the story. Lisa and I took Lex to see his second movie ever in the movie theater,”Tangled”. For those who do not know Tangled is the Disney version of Rapunzel. While I was watching this movie with everyone I realized that Ariel from the Little Mermaid is no longer the hottest Disney Princess. As of this movie, Rapunzel completely took over the reigns as the hottest Disney Princess.

I know this revelation doesn’t seem like much to you, but for me this has been earth shattering. Ever since 1989, Ariel came swimming into my heart, when she made a deal with the seahag, Ursula to meet her true love, Prince Eric. Now for the longest time I always thought Disney made a huge typo when they wrote Prince Eric and they really meant to write, Scott. I just let the typo stand and not make a big deal about. Ariel was the perfect girl, she is pretty comes from a family that has hot sister and she is the most attractive of all of them and the best part is when she is on land she can’t speak…. Ahh the perfect woman.



I feel like it’s a new relationship with Rapunzel. The poor girl was locked in a tower her entire life and kidnapped from her family. She is a bit annoying when she speaks but part of me feels it’s because of the repression she has lived through.




Even Lex could not make up his mind which girl is hotter.

So my world has been changed and Ariel has fallen to #2 on the Disney Princess list (I bet you can not guess who #3 is)...

Hello Rapunzel... I look forward to many years of proclaiming you to be the hottest disney princess.

Goodbye Ariel, I will leave you with a rememberance of the we met in Disney World. Thanks for the memories

Awesome Moment

When I saw this video for the first time it gave me goosebumps.



I also find it very funny that there is a commercial in front of this post.

Crushed

My heart looks a little like this today.

UGH…. The last time I felt like this was when the Orioles lost in 1997 to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series.

Look at this line up for the 1997 Baltimore Orioles
C – Chris Hoiles
1B – Rafael Palmeiro
2B – Roberto Almoar
3B – Cal Ripken Jr,
SS – Mike Bordick
RF – Geronimo Berroa/Jeffrey Hammonds/Eric Davis
CF – Brady Anderson
LF – B.J. Surhoff

Their Starting Pitching consisted of
SP – Mike Mussina
SP – Jimmy Key
SP – Scott Erickson

This team was loaded. Two Hall of Famers (Ripken and Alomar) and possibly two more (Mussina and Palmeiro)

This team won 98 games and went wire to wire as the American League East Champions….

Than came game 6 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians. The game was taking place in Oriole Park @ Camden Yards. Cleveland had a 3 game to 2 advantage over Baltimore, but it didn’t matter our ACE was on the mound and we were home. Mike Mussina was the starting Pitcher for the Orioles and Charles Nagy was the starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Both pitchers were the Ace’s of the teams and both of them pitched a beautiful game.

Charles Nagy pitched 7.1 IP with, 9 hits, 0 runs, and 4 Strikeouts. While, Mile Mussina countered with 8 IP with, 1 hit, 0 runs, and 10 Strikeouts. It was an amazing game and I was on the edge of my seat for the entire game. In the top of the 11th inning Tony Fernandez and all of his 11 regular season Homeruns hits the first pitch to win the game 1 to 0.

I was devastated. I hate all things Cleveland because of this game. And because of this game all of my guilt from taking their football franchise is gone. I also found out that watching ESPN classic the game is still just as painful.

So this brings me to last night. The Ravens had a tremendous season. Going 12 wins with 4 losses is nothing to sneeze at. It just drives me crazy that with the score tied and about 4 minutes to play I knew the Ravens were not going to win. They blew a 14 point lead in the 3rd quarter with three really bad turnovers. Joe Flacco played a good game but made two critical turnovers in the 3rd quarter (a fumble and Interception). But Anquan Bolden dropped a critical TD in the 4th quarter and T.J. Houshmandzadeh dropped pass to end the Ravens season…. I don’t even know what to say. I do believe that if T.J. Houshmandzadeh was playing against us he would have caught that pass. This makes it all the more frustrating. I don’t even want to get started on the 58 yard reception on the 4th and 19…. I heard Shannon Sharpe say how horrible the officiating was, but it’s no excuse. As the great, (yes I said great Matt) NFL coach Dennis Green once said….



We live to fight another day. I can not wait to listen to Baltimore sports talk radio about how all the Monday Morning Quarterbacks would have coached differently or how they would have made the receivers catch the ball. Not to mention how all of Baltimore will be handing out pink slips to the entire Ravens organization…. Good bye Cam Cameron, Good Bye Joe Flacco, Good Bye John Harbaugh. Maybe I will just listen to music on Monday. One thing is for sure and I know who I am cheering against next weekend.

Pitchers and Catchers report in 28 days…. At least we have the Orioles to look forward too. Oh wait….. Never mind.

GAME DAY

Here comes the pain



Let's Go Ravens!!!!!!

Worst Blogger Ever

I know…… I know……..

I am the worst blogger ever

After taking pretty much the entire month of November and December off from blogging I have decided to come back more awesome than ever.

WOW…. I just looked at my blog and saw I haven’t posted since November 21st. I guess it’s a good thing I haven’t given Lisa a hard time for not updating her blog since September 11th.

I feel like so much has happened that I have no idea where to start.

One of the really cool things I did was send Lisa away for her birthday. Lisa, her mother, and sister in law went to New Jersey and spent the weekend in New York City and saw shows like the Rockettes and Avenue Q, besides doing a ton of shopping. While the ladies were away the boys stayed home and played…. And boy did we play. On the Friday that they were gone Lex, Jack and I were accompanied by Uncle Buzz, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Jason for an outing to Chuckie Cheese. We got there around 12:30pm and left around 4:30pm. Besides four very tired adults we had two children who were beyond exhausted when the day was done. We did get about 500 tickets from the games.







Every time we see a Chuckie Cheese commercial now Lex tells me we have to go back.

Christmas was awesome this year. There is something so cool about waking up on Christmas morning and seeing the boys so excited and opening up presents. Santa clearly came from them and me. I do not have any good pictures of Christmas right now but once they start showing up on people Facebook pages I will definitely repost on here.

Like I said Santa definitely came for me this year and I received the Kindle that I wanted. I never thought I would see the day where I wanted basically books for Christmas. So far I have downloaded two books. Chris Jericho’s “A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex” and Steig Larsson “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

I also received from Santa France Hooper a Superman Snuggie being modeled by Lex here below.



I think I need to end this now. The Ravens are in the Playoffs and I am distracted by the TV.

Sweet November

Guess who is back…..

That’s right. I haven’t had a blog up for almost a whole month and truthfully this could be the only blog I do for November.

First thing is Halloween.

Halloween is so much fun in my community. I remember as a kid walking around that huge circle in Barrington and walking up everyone’s drive way, knocking on doors, than the person has to walk to the door and give you the candy. In my neighborhood it feels like Halloween is an event. Around 5pm everyone starts to head out side. There are very few houses you actually have to knock on a door. Everyone comes outside and they are set up and you just walk up to them. It’s really cool and a lot of fun too. I thought I was going to sit this year out and hand out candy but thankfully Lex realized everyone else was too slow and I was the best trick or treating partner.

Here are some pictures of Lex and Jack ready to trick or treat.


Jack dressed up as Dumbo




Lex dressed up as Thomas the Train Engine


Lisa trying to take Jack's costume


A good old fashion family photo

Than on November 6th we celebrated Jack’s first birthday!!!!

We had the party over at my parents place and had a lot of family that was able to attend. Lex made sure that Toy Story 3 was running on a continuous loop all day long. Jack had a blast being passed from person to person. Probably the best part of the day for me was I got to open up all of Jack’s gifts. Out of everything he received I think his favorite was a toy cell phone.


The Birthday Cake


Jack with Aunt Melba


Lex with a pumpkin... probably barking orders out to someone


Jack looking at his new toys


















Jack's battle with the birthday cake

I also have the election to cover. November 2nd was Election Day and it was a good day for the Republicans. Locally I made some political endorsements for 17 races. Out of the 17 I endorsed 13 won their election. I also participated in guessing nationally for 140 races and I have 118 right so far (some races have not been called yet still).

Here is my scorecard from the previous blog post.

Political Endorsements:
Governor Race – Martin O’Malley won (wrong)
Senate Race – Barbara Mikulski won (correct)
1st Congressional – Andy Harris won (correct)
2nd Congressional District – Dutch Ruppersberger won (correct)
Slots at the Mall won (correct)
Maryland 7th District Senate – J.B. Jennings won (correct)
Maryland 7th District House – Rick Impallaria won (correct)
Maryland 7th District House – Pat McDonough won (correct)
Maryland 7th District House – Kathy Szeliga won (correct)
Maryland 8th District Senate – Kathy Klausmeier won (wrong)
Maryland 8th District House – Joe Boteler III won (correct)
Maryland 8th District House – Eric Bromwell won (correct)
Maryland 8th District House – John Cluster won (wrong)
Maryland 42nd District Senate – Jim Brochin won (correct)
Maryland 42nd District House – Sue Aumann won (correct)
Maryland 42nd District House – Bill Frank won (correct)
Maryland 42nd District House – Steve Lafferty won (wrong)

And finally there is some sad news to pass along. On Monday November 8, 2010 at 12:54am Lisa Grandfather Milton Beever Sr. passed away. Lisa and I were fortunate enough to be able to go to the hospital and say our good byes to him on Sunday. Milt was a joy to be around and I enjoyed the 9 years that I have gotten to know him. The Baltimore Sun posted his obituary on Wednesday. Which you can click HERE and sign the guest book. Below is the obituary that was published in the Baltimore Sun this past week.

"BEEVER SR. , Milton On Monday Nov. 8, Milton Beever Sr ., age 81 died after a long illness. The youngest of eight children, during World War II, at the age of 16, he left school to work to help support his mother. Milton married his wife of 60 years, Lorraine, in 1950 and began to raise a family and work at Davidson Chemical. He also returned to night school, graduating 3rd in his class at Univ of Baltimore receiving his law degree. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the bar in the state of Maryland. After a number of years in the insurance industry Milton joined the Social Security Administration retiring 20 years ago. As a final expression of his concern for the good of all, Milton donated his remains to the Maryland State Anatomy Board for use in scientific study. Milton was preceded in death by his son Bill Beever. He is survived by his wife Lorraine; children Milton (Vicki) Beever Jr, Joanne (Mike) Borman, Karen (Emry) Whitworth, and Keith (Toni) Beever; grandchildren Megan (Daniel) Redmon, Lisa (Scott) Williams, Milton (Ann) Beever III, Jason (Allie) Borman, Hagen Beever, and Maguire Beever; and great-grandchildren Audrey Kate and Benjamin Redmon, Lex and Jack Williams and Victoria Beever."
Published in Baltimore Sun on November 18, 2010

RIP Milt