Babies are the best!

It's been brought to my attention that my blog hasn't been updating itself. Let me just say that I am shocked! Floored! And quite frankly, a little upset. I read all the rules and regulations of having a blog and nowhere did it mention this. Oh well. I guess I'll warm up the fingers and type it myself!

First off, as you know I had a baby. Yay! I of course did all the work, don't let Kelly fool you. She may say something about 9 months, pain and delivery...but that is all BS. She always finds excuses! I am in pain. I get 6-7 hours of sleep a night instead of 8. You may now take a moment to sympathize with me. Thank you. I also get to go to work and get a break while she stays home and ...oh wait, that can be a good thing at times. Actually, I hate leaving Maggie. That first week back was so hard. I was afraid I would miss something and have to hear about it rather than see it. I'm sure something will happen and I will miss it, but I'm going to try to catch anything I can.

Maggie grew so much just over the last couple weeks. I couldn't believe it. The coolest thing is while I feed her she will look at me and then follow my eyes when I move! I feel bad looking away cause I don't want her to wonder where I went. Then of course I have the dog to amuse. He lost my undivided attention and I think he is jealous. I'll say things to Maggie that I would have said to him and he looks confused/left out. I'm doing my best to make them both happy, but the dog is just going ot have to learn. He is actually doing well. We told him to give her "kisses" so he wouldn't do anything bad to her and he does. Now he does it too much! Better than biting I guess. lol

I could go on and on about Maggie, which I probably will do when I post. Note to self: make conscious effort not to stay on same subject!

I do continue to read everyone's blogs from time to time. I hope everyone is doing well!

Dave

Summer Fun

Well, the title of this post is misleading. While I love summer and the warm weather, it does mean it is time for yard work. Yuck! I wouldn't mind if it was just cutting the grass. But then you have the weed whacking and the hedges to trim. Plus the lovely hill you get to mow and almost fall down, and the hill isn't that big. I can usually finish the yard rather quickly, but it still brought up the discussion of hiring someone to take care of our yard during the 4 summer months. This idea sounded really good at first. More time for me, less sweating, more time for me...Did I mention that yet? But then I thought about how lazy I would feel watching someone do my work. It jus would sit well with me. Plus, it would feel like such a waste of money. I'll save that money for things I can't do on my own like finish my basement or build a new wall outside. I could try those things, but I don't think it would turn out right.

So, one by one we are removing our bushes in front of our house. This warm weather sucks because the last thing I want to do is be in it working. I'll just have to suck it up and do it. I do recommend heated astroturf for everyone. No maintaince plus no shoveling during the winter because the snow melts.

Baby stuff

You'd think registering at a store for your baby would be easy. Just go out and scan what you need. Well, not really. Thank goodness Kelly had a list of the essentials we needed, because I was lost. There are so many things and until I am in need of it, I don't even know what the item is used for. Or if we really need it. We did manage to get 15 or so items on the registry.

We are having 2 showers. One is a small dinner shower which is next month and the other will be about a month after the baby is born. By then, I should know a little more about what I am doing. One thing is for sure, it seems like forever till the baby will be here. We are about halfway along and it seems like 9 months already. I'm sure even longer for Kelly.

Anyways, we are excited and nervous at the same time.

Computer Woes

One of the most frustrating things to me is not being able to figure something out. First of all, if I can't figure it out right away I get upset and don't even feel like doing it. Yeah, I know...not the right way to handle things! Anyways, I usually keep trying and figure it out in the end.

This brings us to my dilema. Currently I have a bunch of .avi files of tv shows on my computer. I would like to put these into DVD format so I can watch a nice quality show on my DVD player. Sounds like a simple "google search" will do the trick. Everything starts out fine. I download trial versions of converters so I can convert my .avi files to .mpg which is the better quality file format.

Now it gets tricky. Each program is confusing in its own. Some converters mess up the file so it skips. I'm just glad I could try the trial version and not waste $30 on the full version. So, about an hour later I have my converted .mpg file. I then open my burning software(nero) to burn my dvd. To make a long story short, I find out Nero needs some kind of fix to recognize my new file and that requires about 3-4 more confusing steps. It just isn't worth it.

If this post is confusing to anyone, now you know how I feel. Why can't any of this be easy? No wonder it costs so much to get computers fixed!

Down but not out.

Well, it has been awhile to say the least since my last post. I couldn't even remember what I wrote about till now. Talk about an intreging topic! I'm sure everyone was talking about it for months!

Seriously though, I should have gotten pregnant myself so I would have a valid excuse. The truth is I just don't take the time to sit down and write. I'd like to say that would change, but we'll see. (Hopefully :) ).

Now, I propose a situation to everyone. We watched the Apprentice from this week and the winners had the wonderful award of swimming with sharks. While some might think that is great, I think you are nuts. Lucky for them though, they were in a cage with these 12 foot sharks. I don't care if there was a window between us, I would never get in that water. I look over at Kelly and she admits she would get in there. The only thing bothering her was that the sharks look creepy. I try explaining that your hand can still go through the bars, but it doesn't sway her decision. Maybe I am too cautious at times (ok most times), but I don't care how much you give me I would never do it. I wouldn't even be able to watch Kelly do it. So with that said, who would actually go in the shark infested water? Who would run the other way?

Crazy Stuff

Just when you think our rights aren't heard, this 17 year old student shows us what to really fight for. He is fighting his high school dress code because he cannot wear shorts to school. His issue is that girls are allowed to wear skirts and the ban on shorts doesn't make sense.

Ok, first of all, this kid picks the wrong things to fight over. Just wear pants and put your focus into your grades. Secondly, and this is where it gets wierd, he decides to fight the ban by wearing skirts to school himself. He actually went out and bought these skirts to wear daily. The school banned him to attend wearing them. He fought this and is now allowed to wear skirts. Nice win there bud!

I guess he would rather be laughed at and called a girl than have to wear pants. Maybe I should pick this fight with my employer...

My Debut at Mellon Arena

Well...the hype was there. They all had high hopes for #84. A man called Dave D. Would he score a goal on his first shift like Lemieux? Would he drop the gloves and fight his way to victory? Or would he just fall apart under the pressure and croak like Peyton Manning in the Divisional Playoff game.

Let's go with none of the above. I did have an average night. I scored a goal and had an assist. Nothing else really stood out. I was thrilled to get my goal. Nothing like saying you scored a goal at Mellon Arena. I would have had the game winner, but some bad calls lead to a tie game instead of a 2 goal win for us. Oh well.

So, on to the experience outside of the game. First, we get to park in the players lot and walk in the players entrance. Very cool. Next we had to get through security, which consisted on one female who only half payed attention to what we were doing. Then we make the long and boring walk to the locker rooms. I couldn't believe how dull it was. It was like the inside of a warehouse. We had big metal boxes which I can only assume were controlling the power. And that was basically it. The Penguins locker room was closed shut, so we couldn't even see in it. That is understandable though. We get to the locker room and it is very tiny and they only give us one room for 2 teams. Some of us had to get dressed in an office.

The trip onto the ice was neat. We walked onto the ice the same way the visiting team does. Once we were on the ice, the arena actually looked small. It is amazing the size difference between being in a seat and on the ice. A funny thing happened too. We were on the bench and the whole thing started falling backward. It wasn't even screwed down. I agree even more now that we need a new arena.

In the end, it was still exciting to play there. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I would love to do it again. Here are some pictures Kelly took. She gets a special thanks for all the effort she put in for me!