Kickin' it Old Skool

First off, I hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving with family, friends and good times!

My brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece (who are 15 and 13) came down from RI to have Thanksgiving at my dad’s house on LI and stayed through the weekend. After we picked J up on Saturday morning we headed over to my dad’s so she could spend some time with her cousins that she doesn’t get to see that often. We hung around most of the morning and then J and my nephew started playing the PSP2 that he brought with him. They played for a while and then V told my nephew to hook up the original Nintendo that I still kept at my dad’s house so “she could school him in Duck Hunt”. I’ll never forget it…it was Christmas 1988, when I got that Nintendo system. That was the year it came with the Power Pad and World Class Track Meet! Now you give any kid a remote control with 20 buttons and they’ll be able to figure out what each one does within 10 minutes. Give them a mat that has 12 buttons and lies on the floor and they have no idea what to do with it. So after a few rounds of Duck Hunt, V and I decided to show them how it worked. Well forget about it! This turned into hours of competition among us all – my dad even got into it. The kids thought it was one of the greatest games they’ve ever played! It just goes to show you that even with systems that have graphics like you’re watching a movie, that 21 year old, 8 bit, “antique” still has it! Take that Wii Fit!

Short and sweet

University of South Florida v. Rutgers Football. That’s it! That’s the joke! The past two years Rutgers has outscored USF 49-16 (2008) and 31-0 (2009).

The win makes RU bowl-eligible for the fifth straight year! Go RU!

View from my Dugout

Dear Mr. Sabathia,

Please bring your “A” game tonight. Thank you.


If you ask V, she’ll tell you that I am an unbelievable “Couch Coach”. She’s often encouraged me to send my resume to the Yankees, but as I wake up this morning I am glad I never did and that they never came knocking. The fate of the Yankees winning the World Series rest on Girardi’s decision to start Mr. Carasten Charles Sabathia in tonight’s game. This could go either really well or REALLY bad. This is how I see it from the couch in my dugout.

Scenario 1
Being the horse that he is, CC on short days rest takes his best stuff to the mound (as he did in the ALCD). The Yankees win Game 4 and go up 3-1. Since they are now playing with “house money” Girardi should start Chad Gaudin in Game 5 see what the Yankees get out of him. Who knows, maybe he’ll pitch the game of his life? Maybe the Yankees actually get to Lee this time? Either way somehow they get the win. They’ll be celebrating #27 and Girardi will look like a genius. If they lose, they’re still up 3-2 heading back to New York with Burnett for Game 6 on full rest and if need be Pettitte on full rest for Game 7. It’s a lock any way you look at it.

Scenario 2
CC labors though innings, makes a few mistakes and the Yankees lose Game 4. Series tied 2 games a piece. Now there is extra pressure and the decision will have to be to put Burnett on the mound on short rest for Game 5 opposed by Cliff Lee on full rest. Who knows which AJ will show up to pitch that night?! Worst case, Burnett gives up a few bombs, Lee brings his “A” game again and the Yankees come back to New York down 3-2. It’s now do or die time in Game 6, so there is no choice except to put Pettitte on the mound on short rest. At 37, will he still have his stuff? I don’t think Andy has ever been asked to pitch on short rest in this type of pressure situation. But being the pitcher with the most Post Season wins, the Yankees come away with the win and it all comes down to Game 7. Again in all likelihood Girardi will turn to CC, again with only 3 days rest. Everyone knows that CC was in this same situation last year and the results were not in his favor. There are just too many variables and “what ifs” in this scenario and it has me worried as hell!

Staring down the barrel of Post Season pressure, he may have made some inept decisions with the bullpen but remember he’s the one that raised that bullpen to the high level that it is capable of performing at. I don’t want to see Girardi leave at the end of the season. I want to see him high atop a float going down Broadway in the Canyon of Heroes with the biggest smile on his face knowing that the #27 on his back needs to be changed to #28 next season. The decision to start CC tonight is a huge one that rests on Girardi’s shoulders. One that, either can have him celebrated like no other for bringing the Championship back home or come December, have him on the unemployment line like the rest of America. So dear Mr. Sabathia, please bring your “A” game tonight. Thank you.

UPDATE
It's the 5th inning and the Yankees just took the lead again 4-2.  CC is looking very shaking and is laboring through the first 4 innings.  Let's just hope the offense can keep him afloat.  Also Girardi has made the announcement that Burnett will start Game 5 vs Lee tomorrow night.  Let's just hope that the right AJ decides to show up.
http://www.1010wins.com/A-J--Burnett-to-Start-Game-5-on-Three-Days-Rest/5571458

What a day!

So I started my new job in sales this week and I had quite an interesting day. I called this one house and a little girl with a soft voice (so soft I could hardly hear her) picks up the phone. So I asked her if her mommy was home. She says yes, so I asked her if I could talk to her mommy. She tells me no that she is busy. So I then asked her if her daddy was home. And she says, “Yes, but he’s busy too.”  I then asked her if there were any other adults in the house that I could talk to. Are you ready for this? She tells me, “Yes, the police are here.”   Now I start to get freaked out and wonder what the hell is going on in this house.  So I asked her if I could talk to a police man, in which she replies, “No, they’re busy too.” Now I’m really curious as to what the hell is going on in this house. I then asked her what everyone is doing in which she replied, “They’re looking for me.”


Happy Friday!

the good with the bad

Well I’m a couple of days late, but last week we took AV for her one month check up. It was nothing but good news from her doctor. She is now up to 10 lbs 8 oz and grew ¾”, which makes her now 21 ¾”. But the biggest surprise was that her head measured 14 ¾” – 2 ¼” larger than at birth! I almost fell over, but apparently she’s on a normal growth rate. In other one month milestones, she has almost found her hands and is able to bring them to her mouth. She is also doing well with her neck control and can lift it up off her mat for a little bit at a time. Every day is something new and exciting!

On the flip side of the coin, my wife’s family is dealing with an upsetting death (not that any death is ever pleasant, but this is extremely hard). My mother-in- laws best friend, who was more of a sister, passed away yesterday rather suddenly. To just say she was her best friend, is an understatement. They’ve known each other since school. Their families did everything together; vacations, holidays, random middle of the week dinners. It’s hard to explain in words, but they had traditions between their families – traditions which they quickly and openly welcomed me and J (I think I’ve mentioned her before. If not she’s my daughter) into. They were special times that only their families shared – times that will be extremely hard to deal with over the next couple of months. How could this happen to a young, loving wife and mother? Someone that battled breast cancer at a very young age and beat it. Someone that always brought laughter to everyone. These are the same questions that I asked myself 13 years ago when my mother passed away from cancer. Spending the day with their family yesterday and seeing the faces on her husband and her kids, brought back so many memories of the days that followed my mother’s death and the look of complete loss. Not only of a woman they loved, but someone that held their lives together. We’ll miss you Aunt Jan!

Remember me?

Well it has almost been 4 weeks since my last post and there are good (and bad) reasons.

Back in the beginning of September I joined the 9.8% of America on the unemployment line. After being employed for three years by the same company I was laid off because the company was losing money and no longer expanding, which designing and overseeing franchise expansion was my key objective. At first it was so surreal; could this really be happening to me? I mean my new baby was due to arrive in two days! I do I go home and tell V? How would we be able to support ourselves and a new baby? I put that all behind me because I am sure V had the same questions and many more and I had to be strong for her. I had to show her that we WOULD be able to do this, no question. After being home for about 20 minutes I dropped the news and I could see the disbelief flash across her face as all the color faded. But as I knew I had to do, I acted strong and assured her everything would be fine. As the days went on from there we learned that we would have the total support from our families. So now it has been four weeks, I’ve submitted several resumes to an array of companies for a variety of positions, but still no response. I’m positive that as I continue to look, the right job and I will find each other and life will be “back on track”.

Well that was the bad news, the good news is that is that same dark period, the light shined through and we became proud parents to a baby girl! Yep, after nine months of being convinced that Baby D was going to be a boy, we were blessed with one of life’s few surprises. She ended up being five days late, much to the dismay of V, but everything went so well and quickly. The contractions started coming on “regularly and strong” on Thursday evening and continued into Friday morning. However the contractions weren’t regular enough to go the hospital. V decided she had had enough and called the doctor’s office to make an appointment to find out what was going on. When we go in to see the doctor he pointed out that we should head to the hospital immediately because V was 4 cm dilated. Now let’s take a step back for a minute. Before we left home to go to the doctor’s office, V made me go through her checklist and gather the remaining items for her hospital bag – which to me was a waste of time. I mean, we talked to her doctor at 4 AM and were told to wait until the contractions were 5:1:1 to go the hospital and they still weren’t at that point. I was convinced that we would see the doctor, be told to just go home and continue to wait so what was the point of lugging everything into the car only to take it out when we get back in 30 minutes?! Well caulk one up for the female gender, because boy was I wrong. (note to self - never question maternal instincts). So we got to the hospital, settled into the LDR and 4 ½ hours later baby girl (AV) was born.

AV is just shy of her one month birthday and it’s been one of the greatest months of my life. Being able to spend every day at home with V and AV has been a blessing in disguise. Who would have ever thought that being unemployed would be this great!?

Friday Chuckle

Taking a suggestion from a friend, I thought I would try a little something that might “lend some consistency” to my blog. I am hereby declaring Friday’s as “Friday Chuckle”! I might post a joke, a funny image or a maybe even a personal funny story. I’ll also be open for suggestions, so email me!

This was emailed to me from a co-worker and it plays right into my kind of humor. Enjoy and have a great holiday weekend!!

Hello in there...we're ready for you

Well what we were hoping would be our last visit to the doctor’s office, has turned into the next to last office visit. Apparently the baby is nice and cozy so s/he is being a little stubborn about letting us welcome him/her into the world.

“How much longer is this going to go on?”, I jokingly asked the doctor. Well whether the baby likes it or not, it looks like we’ll be welcoming her/him into the world by the end of next week because apparently the doctor has a vacation planned. OK, just kidding! Unlike when V was born (who decided to show up three week late) they really don’t like letting the pregnancy go longer than a week passed the EDD. For my sake (and the sake of everyone else), I’m hoping that the baby has a change of plans sooner than then.

Rutt's Hut (Clifton, NJ)

This place has been featured on numerous programs on The Travel Channel, The Food Network and is also features in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Now you’re probably saying to yourself why is this my topic of discussion today. Well that’s because two years ago that’s where I was, having deep fried hot dogs with my groomsmen, my dad, my brother in law and my father in law hours before I got married later in the day. Some guys play golf and some guys just hang around watching tv but in my wife’s family this has been a tradition, so I followed suit. Now ideally eating anything deep fried at 11:00 in the morning before you have to stand in front of a room church full of family and friends is probably not a good idea, but despite what you might think I couldn’t have imagined my day starting any other way.


As for the rest of the day, it was the best damn wedding party of the year! If you don’t believe me, just check out the highlights video. We were surrounded by family and friends who were partying on the dance floor with us the entire night (well we did sit and eat for a couple of minutes). But the best thing about that day, wasn’t the hot dogs, it wasn’t singing at the top of our lungs to “Living on a Prayer”, it wasn’t even that my best man ran around the dance floor singing “Sweet Caroline” to his filet mignon. It was that I got married my best friend.  Happy 2nd Anniversary V!

Eggshells...

With less than a week before the baby’s “birthday”, that’s what I have been walking on. Any subtle twinge or any noise louder than a pin dropping or any moment that I’m not by her side has me on edge and concerned for V. And the worst part of it all is that once the baby finally gets here it’s not going to stop, it’s just going to be twice as much.

Anywhere but here...

It’s a rainy Friday afternoon at work and all I can do is think of places that I would rather be, so I decided to compile a list of places that I want to visit some time during my life. So in no particular order here is my list:

1. Athens, Greece (The Acropolis)
2. Cairo, Egypt (The Great Pyramids of Giza)
3. Istanbul, Turkey (Hagia Sophia)
4. London, England
5. Dublin, Ireland
6. Italy (although I’ve been there before, V hasn’t)
1. Florence
2. Venice
3. Rome
4. Pisa
5. Nusco (where my family is from)
7. California (plan a Pacific Coast road trip)
1. San Francisco / Redwood Forest
2. Los Angeles
3. San Diego
8. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
9. Keystone, South Dakota (Mount Rushmore)
10. Hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and go rafting on the Colorado River
11. Take a cruise (I don’t have a specific location in mind – anywhere will do)
12. See a game and take a tour of every MLB park/stadium (yes, even Fenway)

I’m sure I’ll add to this list as time goes on, but I think that’s a good start.

A little over anxious

I guess I should take a step back and do an “about me” for anyone just stumbling across my page.

I met my wife (V) in November 2002 and we started “dating” shortly after that. V and I met when we were both working at a local chain restaurant; however we never actually worked there at the same time as each other. I worked there to pick up some extra income (the salary of an architect isn’t as glorious as it sounds – lol) and had quit right before V started but I would still go in to grab a drink and see my friends who were still there. It started off slow with us just having random conversations here and there and then I worked up the cajones to ask her out. On our first date (which is a story in itself that maybe I’ll post about at another time) we found out we both loved sports, especially baseball and the Yankees. Things were going well and boy was I happy for that because I mean who wouldn’t want things to go well with a good looking girl that not only loved sports, but knew more than the team colors and who the “cute players” were! We got engaged in March 2006 and were married in September 2007.

It was in December 2008 that V found out she was pregnant with our first baby together. I do have a daughter (J) from a previous relationship.  J has pretty much grown up with V being around and I couldn’t ask for both of them to have a better relationship.  J lives with her mom but we see her every other weekend and she can’t wait to be a big sister!

As I mentioned I received my Masters degree in Architecture and have been working in a few different offices since I graduated.  The elusive license continues to elude me as I still have an exam to pass…the same exam that has been giving me trouble for almost two years now. One day hopefully the stars will align for me.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Baby "D" at 27 weeks

Final Stretch

Yes, we’re about to enter the final month of the regular baseball season (let's go Yankees!), but that's not what I am referring to. There are only 10 days left until our baby’s due date. I can’t believe how fast the past nine months have gone by. It seems like just yesterday when V (my wife) was showing me the five (yes five!!) positive pregnancy tests. Ever since we found out we’ve spent every waking moment planning in some way shape or form for the baby’s arrival and now s/he is almost here (have I mentioned that already?!) As you can guess we did not find out the sex of the baby, which drove most of my family nuts. We’ve had a boys name picked out for some time now and we’re still sitting on the fence with a few girls names…and no, we’re not sharing that either.

What I will share are pictures of the nursery, which we decided to do in a Winnie the Pooh theme. The room used to be our daughter’s room (V’s stepdaughter) when we used to come back to NJ / our computer room. I cleared it all out, threw down some drop clothes, stripped the old trim and taped and spackled where it needed it. After a few different test swatches we decided on Benjamin Moore Morning Sunshine as the main color of the room. On the main wall of the room, I planned to paint a Winnie the Pooh mural. I found a few different images online and put together the design. I drew everything freehand in pencil and then began painting the background colors of the grass, sky and the tree. All in all it took me about three months to do everything in the nursery, usually working about 2 hours in the morning before work.

The week after I finished the mural (and I cleaned the room top to bottom) my father in law cleaned and polished the hardwood floors and I was able to put together the crib. It was a lot easier than I was expecting and it went together in about 2 hours. Both of the dressers came assembled so it was just a matter of taking it out of the box. Mostly all the clothes, diapers, and the rest of the essentials are put away (courtesy of V) and the only thing left we have to do is make sure the car seats are properly secured in each of our cars.

UPDATE:  V took her car this morning to a local police department to have them show her the proper way to install the car seat.  Guess that just leaves me to take my car...which I need to seriously clean first.

Everyone's doing so why not me?

So at some point during my day I spend time reading other blogs; http://redpeninc.blogspot.com/, http://newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com/, http://6pound8ouncebabyjoba.com/ to name a few... so I thought why not spend some time writing my own blog. Now I'm not sure if I'll actually keep it up or what I'll even write about but I thought I'd give it a try.



So that's where I'll start and I'll say thanks for reading.