Unpacking

It's been two weeks since the furniture arrived; we've had ice, snow, a funeral, a lost wedding ring (found after 4 days), and the worlds largest supply of unpacked cardboard boxes and used packing material. We have ice and water in the fridge, FiOS on the TV and internet, calcium deposits in the pipes and squeaky floors in the kids' bedrooms.

We still have more boxes than I care to count to unpack, especially in the garage. Our two car garage has been a one car garage for the past two weeks and that really sucks when the temps are in the single digits it's snowed every other day. I've become reacquainted with my friends the ice scraper and a can of windshield de-icer. And God bless the man who came up with "Driveway Heat" from Prestone (Mr. Prestone?).

There's lots more to do, but all-in-all, it's starting to feel like home.

Welcome Home

Here we are on the eve of the big move into our new home. There were times I thought we'd never sell the house in Fairfax; that we'd never find "the" house in Pittsburgh; that we'd never get on with our lives.

For the past three months we've more than imposed on my parents and turned their quiet home into the Toddler Dream House and Scream-a-torium. I've been back in the room I spent my teenaged years in. The Who and Led Zeppelin posters are gone, the computer is an iMac instead of an Atari 800, the stereo has been replaced by Sirius Satellite Radio. It's been crowded and noisy and sometimes chaotic, yet it has also felt comfortable these past 3 months. You can still hear the sounds of pipe rolling off the mills in the middle of the night, the train's horn as it echos down the valley, and the slow rumble of trucks on Duss Avenue.

We start our next chapter tomorrow as we move into our new home, and I'm excited. But I know I've already been home for a few months and it makes me happy.

My Wife, the Pittsburgher

The other day when we had a little ice on the road, Nancy said to me, "Be careful, it's slippy out!" Welcome to Pittsburgh, sweetie!

Holy Crap, it's Christmas!

Well it's been a long time since I blogged. Lots has happened. We moved us; we put the house on the market; we sold the house; we moved our stuff; we bought a house; we bought furniture for the house even though we don't officially own it yet and can't get in; we decorated my folks house. We saw "The Polar Express", we bought all our Christmas presents; Nancy wrapped them, otherwise everyone would think a not very happy monkey wrapped them if I did it.

And today I realize it's just over a week to Christmas! Where has the time gone?! "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" have all come and gone. I chide Clay with the occasional, "Don't do that, Santa's watching" and I feel guilty for doing it. But today I think I'm starting to get more into Christmas. It all came from listening to "The Ukrainian Radio Program" today. It has been on every Sunday afternoon for over 50 years. Today they played all Ukrainian Christmas carols. Watching Drew dance and listening to Nancy sing the two carols she knows made me smile.

I still may not be in the Christmas spirit, but I guess I still have eight days to get there. This afternoon was a good start.

Adventures in Moving

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Lots happening here; Drew's 1st birthday, my birthday (I got a iPhone!), trip to Las Vegas, and the biggest news of all; we're moving. I lived in my hometown for 22 years and 11 months, now 21 years and 4 months later, I'm moving back home. Literally. Nancy got the job she's been going after and the house is up for sale. Even though we've signed with a realtor, taken one 17' truckload of stuff to my folks house, been packing boxes and all that fun stuff, it still seems a little unreal. I don't know if it will really hit me until Nancy is gone and the boys and I are here alone for a few days; or if it's when the first potential buyer calls to see the house; of if it's the day I wake up in my bed in my room in my parent's house.

But before any of that happens, there's lots to do here. Packing, cleaning, painting. U-Haul has there motto on the sides of their trucks, "Adventures in Moving". I'm not so sure I want an "adventure", but that's out of my hands. Let the adventure begin!

Baseball

I took Clay to his first big league baseball game this past Sunday. We went to see our Washington Nationals take on the Atlanta Braves. Clay was kind of impressed with RFK Stadium. Remember, his idea of a baseball stadium in a softball field in West Potomac Park. We had good seat in the Mezzanine so there was no one in front of us.

The entire way there, Clay told me that all he wanted at the stadium was popcorn. So after we found our seats, I said Ok, lets go get some popcorn and get back to watch some batting practice. Holy Smokes! We must have spent 40 minutes walking around RFK looking for a vendor selling popcorn. Finally, we found it and spent $6 for a bucket of kettle corn. After the walk back to our seat; and a stop for a hot dog and beer for dad; we opened the popcorn. Naturally, Clay decided he didn't like it. So he ate the cookies that mom packed for him. She jokes that there were 9 cookies there; one for each inning. Well, sorry mom but they were gone by the bottom of the 4th, and that was with rationing.

The Nats lost 0-3, but we had a great time and I hope Clay will remember that he saw one of the last games at RFK Stadium. Next year, there's a new Nationals Park where we will go many times.

Weekend in Pittsburgh: Part 1

Well, we just returned from a whirlwind super long weekend in Pittsburgh. We drove all over: Dahntahn, Squirl 'il, Wes End, Sahs Side, Nor Side an' even ova der in Swickley n'at. For thos eof you who don't speak Pittsburgheese, I'll translate: We drove all over: Downtown, Squirrel Hill, West End, South Side, North Side and even over there in Sewickley and more.

But one of the best things was getting free tickets (Thank You Anna W!) to the Carnegie Science Center. Back in July, we took the kids to the Children's Museum of Richmond and Clay had a blast. But the CSS had so much more and I think Clay would have stayed until closing if we would have let him. The only thing that made him even think about leaving was the last 15 minutes playing at the water tables. He did the all too familiar "pee-pee dance". One hand holding his crotch and bouncing up and down rapidly, while giving us that look like, "I can still hold it another 5 minutes".

Well, let's just say that we cut it pretty close. But we had a full three hours at the CSS. One of the highlights for me was seeing a show in the Planetarium called "The Stars Over Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". It was hosted by the late Fred Roger; a Pittsburgh icon; and was a neat 20 minute show for the under 7 crowd. Clay enjoyed it, even though in this age of Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, PBSKids Sprout and all the rest, he hasn't really ever watched Mr. Rogers. I remember watching him almost 40 years ago and and even in college we had discussions about the Neighborhood of Makebelieve and even went to get Mr. McFeeley's autograph once ("Speedy Delivery"!).

I think I'm going to make an effort for Clay to watch less "Zack & Cody" and a little more "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"