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Just one year away from double digits! After almost 14 months we broke down and cut your hair to a more manageable length. You told me right after your cut that you would begin growing it back out again.

Hope your day was great – love you buddy!

I’m skipping out of work early today. I’m going to run home, pick up son #1, buy new tires for the van, then drive to training camp.

I’ve never been to Eagles training camp so this should be a good experience for both of us.

Here are the pictures of the old transit I mentioned in July.

I wish I had more time to scan in photos. The alternative is buying a digital camera. That is at least a year, if not two away.

About the stability of neighbors other than Lawn Boy.

First an update on good old Lawn Boy:

His old lawn tractor crapped out about a month ago. He must have recovered from the grieving process rather quickly as a brand new tractor is now in his garage.

So last Sunday I was up with Son #3 at 5:30 AM (yes he is an early riser) when I looked out the window to see Lawn Boy bent over looking at his driveway. He had a small brush and was intently coating the cracks in his driveway with sealer. He has already coated his driveway 3 times over the last three weekends. I guess his coating has not adhered the way he thought it should. That would explain the multiple coats. I would imagine he feels this way because of the amazing amounts of rain we have experienced lately. If it rains today we will set a new record of 17 days straight with precipitation. Ugh.

Anyway, Lawn Boy has added an additional step to his 4 times a week lawn care regimen. He now pressure washes his driveway for about an hour after mowing. I should mention that his driveway is maybe 300 sq ft. He sprays and sprays and sprays this thing. Then he recoats the next day.

He keeps getting stranger.

In a move to keep things interesting another neighbor has begun to act in a somewhat strange fashion. He has begun to shop vac his garage and front porch 3-4 times a week.
He has always taken great care of his home and his cars. He washes, waxes and vacuums all of his vehicles on a weekly basis.
This seems a bit on the extreme side. I like this guy; I hope he’s not heading off the deep end. Come to think of it, I hope this is not catching. I don’t have time to do this sort of stuff.

Things are moving quickly on the vacation front. We picked up a mobile vcr/dvd player yesterday. If it wasn’t for Son #3 and his absolute hatred of being confined in a car seat we would not need this thing. If we don’t do something to entertain him during the trip I don’t think he’ll make it.

I need to confirm that the car top carrier we borrowed actually works. I need to grab all of our coolers and clean them up. I need to gather all of the camera equipment and video equipment to document the trip.

I am so looking forward to this trip. Obviously we will all be exhausted when we get back but that’s ok. We need this trip.

Met up with Jason yesterday afternoon and broke out of work an hour early. We headed back to my house dropped off my truck and headed for the city.
The Schuykill Expressway was it’s normal aggravating, gridlocked self and we pulled into our parking spot around 6:30. We wandered over to the venue and split a $5 pitcher of beer and a light dinner.
It was obvious that the devoted Manson fans have remained just that. With the doors to the Electric Factory not due to open for close to two hours there was already quite the menagerie present. Inside the bar we witnessed several people trying to escape from their daily image. The master of the escape was the balding man in his late 20′s mid 30′s with cheap white face paint, black mascara dredged across his fake contact eye. Finishing the look were black stocking sleeves and a handmade black t-shirt with the word EVIL in silver studs.
After eating and making use of the facilities at the bar we headed out to find out spot in the line.

Jason and I realized very quickly that we had missed a real opportunity. The scene that was transpiring was suitable for a documentary film.

Across the street from the corner we occupied were two factions of parking lot attendants. One set of attendants in the standard issue orange vest and flags was attempting to direct concert goers to make a left down a side street to their lot (forever known now as the ‘lefters’). The other set of attendants dressed almost exactly the same were encouraging people to continue straight (aka ‘straighters) . This resulted in at least 25 near accidents as drivers decided to follow one group of flaggers over another. Add to this the obvious animosity the two groups felt towards each other and the entertainment level of the night moved up another notch!

Ten minutes into the spectacle up walks another man (no vest but obviously associated with the straighters). He quickly grabbed a framed sign that belonged to the lefters and proceeds to smash it into a worthless piece of crap. With a satisfied nod he walked away with the lefters screaming insults at his back. Ten minutes after this the line began to move. I’ll never know if the lefters and straighters worked things out.

Moving through security to enter the venue took another 20 minutes. Once inside the factory we headed quickly for the steps to the second level. The factory is set up with a nice balcony that gives a great view of the stage. It is also the only place where alcohol can be purchased. Our seats ended up being 20 feet from center stage. Not bad at all.
We occupied ourselves with watching the strange creatures move back and forth through the crowd. Some observations from this Manson show:

Manson’s fan base is getting older. If he wants to continue to have a broad base appeal he better figure out a way to get the kids ears again. I’m in my mid 30s (same age as Manson actually) and I saw a TON of people that were at least 15 years older than me at the show. These people were not there with kids. They were dressed up in costume (more on that later).

The opening act was downright horrendous. 13 seven or something like that. They had a giant black guy dressed in a jump suit and hockey mask on stage for their entire set. He never said a word. He never moved. He just stood there.
Dumb.

The set change took a very long time. We watched grown men with beards walk around the crowd dressed in nothing but a lace cat suit. We saw plenty of fake dichromatic eyes. I’ve seen Manson 7 times now and I’ve never seen more than 3 or so per show. I saw at least a dozen last night. Must have been a sale somewhere.

As for the performance itself, it was better than the average of what I’ve seen of them. Of course this includes the first show I went to where they encountered a ton of technical difficulties and left the stage 5 songs into their set never to return. Manson himself seemed to be enjoying himself much more than any other show of his I’ve been to. I wonder if that has more to do with the bands new bass player, Tim Skold of MDFMK or the fact that they played mostly music off the new album. Dropped was Cake and Sodomy, Lunchbox and many other favorites of old school Manson fans. I would place myself in that category. However, the set transitions and performances that accompanied them were very good. I actually enjoyed Sweet Dreams live for the first time in at least 3 years. The back up dancers really added to the German burlesque feel of the show. I don’t want to get into any real details of the sets or changes as this is a real departure for the group and I’d hate to ruin the show for someone.

After the show we headed over to Geno’s and slowly worked our way home.

Dead tired today. The appraiser was supposed to stop by today. He never appeared. I wonder if he did the appraisal as a drive by. Can you do that?

No plans tomorrow other than focusing more on the upcoming vacation. I have a secret trip planned for Son #1 on Wednesday. More on that later.

Between work (month end – project start-up – bids), home (remodel/addition – vacation – small projects), personal (Manson tonight) I barely have time to think!

Last night I watched the boys so my wife could start gathering all of the additional supplies we will need for vacation. The boys were in bed by 8:40 PM. I ran downstairs and sanded and polyurethane the base board trim for the Man Room. This project started around this time last year. I was expecting to be finished by the Super bowl. Now I hope to finish before the Eagles home opener. It is sad what children and a full time job can do to your hobby time.

After finishing the third coat of polyurethane I ran downstairs and began the process of a water change for my fish tank. The tank is sitting in the workshop, waiting for me to install the first piece of baseboard. Once that it done I can give the tank a good cleaning and move it back to where it belongs. I had initially wanted to create an opening for the tank in the common wall between the Man Room and the workshop. That way you could enjoy the fish and not have to see the stand etc. Unfortunately the only place it will fit has a post in the way.

Anyway, I get the hose set up to begin filling the tank, sit down on the sofa to watch CSI while it does and whammo! The power goes off. Now I’m in the basement with no lights. I stagger up the steps, trying to get to the laundry sink that is feeding the tank. I have a private well and need to get the water turned off as soon as possible. If I don’t and the pressure drops, we will not have water until the power comes back on.
The last time we lost power it was 10 hours before it was restored.

The worst part of the whole ordeal is watching the neighbors across the street watch TV while we sit wondering when the power will come back on. See, our house seems to be on the edge of a very touchy section of the power grid. While 95% of the development loses power, the 4 houses right on the fringe do not.

I’m beginning to develop a healthy dislike for our power company.

The power finally came back on at 1:15 this AM.

So if you ever try to read this blog and can’t connect, chances are I’m sitting in the dark.

We are getting ready for our first family vacation ever. It will be our first vacation period, kids or no kids in over 5 years. Add getting ready for the home renovations and the usual insanity at work and you end up with posts at 10:22 PM.

Speaking of vacations, have you noticed that several comic strips are running what could be considered recycled/filler strips? Talk about stealing money.
I usually enjoy Zits but the current story line is a cop out. It shows the family driving across the US with the oldest son sitting in the back playing with his gameboy advance. Whoop-de-doo. No dialog, nothing.
I don’t enjoyFamily Circus in the first place but when they ‘go back in time’ to a previous vacation it’s worse. The whole strip is a circle. It has one maybe two lines of text. How hard could it be for this guy to scribble a weeks worth of strips? Obviously very difficult.

Anyway, Jason is heading down our way early Friday. We are going to see Marilyn Manson at the Electric Factory on Friday night. It will be nice to have a couple of beers and maybe grab a couple of steaks after the show. I may try to sneak a disposable camera inside. The seating is general admission so if we get there early enough we can grab seats in the balcony and be 15 feet from the stage.

Ordered cabinets and countertops on Sunday. Boy was that a painfull process.

Our contractor dropped off his (handwritten) proposal on Saturday. I need to review it fully before signing it. Just glancing at it I found one item that he left out of the detailed description. I have a good overall feeling about this guy. My only reservation is just how loosey goosey he is with the details.
I’m a detail person so this does bug me quite a bit. He did throw in one extra for ‘free’ that we had discussed as an add on. When we add the room above the garage the chimney will have to be raised as well. Throwing that one in was nice.

We are shooting for a mid September start date. The project should be completed in 10-12 weeks. Add in the normal amount of drift a project like this can experience and we’re looking at maybe a week or two before Christmas. It would be very nice to have this job completed before the new year.

I have over half of my pictures from my first trip out west scanned. I still need to go back over my journal to look for any details that I may have forgotten. I can’t wait to take the boys out there. It is such amazing country.
I guess I’ll have the journal up by this weekend.

Finally, the Eagles will participate in their first pre-season game whoa my mistake! next Monday. These things are pretty low on the entertainment scale. However, anything to take the bad taste out of my (and every other Eagle fans) mouth from last years finale is good.

Previously I posted relating to the Eagles management outlawing fans bringing food into the new stadium.
It may be hard for those of you from outside the Philadelphia area but the Governor, that’s right The Governor of the state got invloved. End result? Hoagies are allowed to enter the stadium again.
Just shows you how seriously we take our sports around here.

A different vantage point for a well known monument.

In late summer 1987 my Aunt and Uncle gave me an unusual graduation present. They carted me around the west (Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota) for 21 days. I shot 21 rolls of film on an old Yashica 35MM SLR. I dug the pictures out of the basement last night and began scanning them for display here. I kept detailed notes of my trip and will pull excerpts from that journal for the photo journal. Some of you may remember the fires that ravaged a portion of Yellowstone National Park. These occurred shortly after my visit.

In 1992 my wife and I returned to the park via a different route. We traveled from Denver Colorado to Yellowstone and back. It was interesting to revisit areas and see the damage of the fire as well as the re-growth that was evident. I’ll cover that trip in a separate journal later.