Kennys 15 Minutes of Fame

Well, Kenny's taping of his show aired today and he isn't a millionaire. No big, he still did respectable and walked away with $1,000. He got one question away from locking into $16,000 but his lifeline failed him. What a useless lifeline she was.



Not to rub it in, but I knew the answer, the word was a derivative of epiditimus, or skin, so of course I would have said "freckles". Kenny went with his instincts, but it was a tough question. Of course, I would have gotten the first question wrong and said "ants" or something.



Anyway, glad you didn't embarrass the Goodyear clan, bro.


Hey Christy, I see you also got your 15 minutes, too!

The First Haircut

We went to the mall tonight and took Jack to the Cartoon Cuts for his first haircut. I brought along the camera to capture this momentous occasion. He was good until she squirted his hair with water and then he barely tolerated it.

I asked the lady that cut his hair if he was OK and she said, "he isn't screaming". I guess thats the litmus test.

The New Shed

I set the footings yesterday and today, with some help, got the flooring, walls and roof up. I was happy just to get that done, it should be the hardest part of the whole project.



I have not secured the roof to the walls yet, so it is essentially sitting on top of the walls, but those are renforced and have extra supports (those funny looking 2x4s that are set at angles). I hope a strong wind doesn't come along tonight.

Tomorrow I plan on shoring up the walls and covering the roof with roofing felt and shingles. Good thing the Skins game is on at 4, I have a busy day ahead of me.

Interesting Tree

I was preparing the area for the new shed a few weeks ago in the back yard and cleared away some of the foliage that had been growing for the last twenty years when I happened upon this:

This tree grew around and through the fence, it starts on one side of the fence and ends up on the other side of the fence, and into the neighbors yard.

So whats the protocol on this? Is this my tree or does it belong to the neighbors?

The 20th High School Reunion

The 20th High School reunion was last Saturday at the Sheraton in Tysons. I decided to go for several reasons, the foremost is the very serious realization that this will undoubtedly be the last time I will see some of these people. This dawned upon me when I heard about John Wagners untimely passing a few days before.

I thought that life is short and when you get the chance to look back, do it, especially when the memories are good. The high school years weren't the best years of my life, but there is a certain kinship that you have with these people, we are all about the same age and went through the same stuff at about the same time in our lives. That's an interesting dynamic, because where else could you ever force kids that have so little in common to interact every day for at least six years and twenty years later there is still that common bond.

Everyone asked about Kenny, especially when they would see my name tag. Some people recognized me right away and some it took a second. I realize now that in High school, the reson I knew so many people is because I was just a half of another. Kenny, my twin, knew a lot of people and so through him, I knew twice as many people.

I told everyone that Kenny lived in Oklahoma, was married and had three kids. I mentioned to a few that he was going to be on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" at the end of the month, too.

I tried to remember to take a few pictures, but should have taken more than I did, sorry, Kenny. I know you wanted to see how everyone looked, but I had my hand on a beer and wasn't thinking about pictures while strolling down memory lane.

I saw Kerry Wortzel, he is a lawyer in Richmond now and works for the prosecutors office. He has two kids and a wife, I got to meet her at the last reunion, and I must say, Kerry did good. :)

I saw Matt Grace, he was in high spirits. He is still married to the former Paige Geiger and they live in North Carolina. No kids, and I got the impression that he wanted to stay a DINK (Double Income No Kids). I didn't ask about his brothers, I hope they are doing well.

I ran into Kim Elmendorf, she looked good, too. We called Didi who lives in Pittsburgh and is a few weeks away from having her fourth child. I reminded Kim that they used to drive by our house and call us on the phone hundreds of times, this was before we knew this behavior as stalking, like we do today. (Don't you remember when stalking was still innocent and funny?)

When we called Didi, I almost hung up on her, that would have been funny! But I didn't, we talked a few minutes and it was nice to hear her. Kim had twins that were premies, once is tough as nails and the other is a momma's boy. She adores them both for who they are.

Lisa Reeder and Andy Benson all moved to the west coast, San Diego and live a few houses away from eachother. Lisa said that Karen Bunnel turned out to be a lesbian, this explains alot, why Kenny and her never hooked up and why she dated a sensitive guy with long hair. Who figured? I kid, I kid, I kid cause I love.

Scott Bell works for a Defense contractor doing tech stuff. He still looks like he could front a rock band.

I ran into Kathleen Fredericks sister and she said her sis is still single. Just a little info in case the wife gets to thinking she's too hot for you, Ken. :) I keed, I keed, I keed cause I love! :)

Teri O'Shea looked great, Stephanie Chong and Katie Adair also looked great. We all chatted a few minutes and they asked about Kenny. I wish I had brought a button that gave Kenny's stats, cause every person asked how he was doing and what he was up to. I got it down to a science by the end of the night.

I talked with The Mills sisters and Jennifer complimented Kenny and myself on how we were always nice guys and always gentlemen and how that is a hard thing to find these days. So I guess the Mills sisters didn't know us very well... I kid...

I ran into a girl that introduced me to her hus=band and then brought up that we played spin the bottle waaaay back. Uncomfortable moment, uncomfortable moment. tick, tock, tick. Um, I added that it wasn't me, it was Kenny. I could see her husband relax his shoulders. Then I excused myself and got the fuck out of there cause I think it was me.

I saw Bill McNulty, he patted my head and said us bald guys have to stick together. I'm not bald, I'm follically challenged.

I talked to Jackie Dilliensager, Rod Paredo and Maureen Delaney, who recounted that she saw that car that hit me when I was in fifth grade and she still thinks about it.

I saw Amy Knight and she looked great, she has a 9 month old now, and she still looked great. I also ran into the former Michelle McGuirk, she has kids that go to the grade-school near where I live and drives by my house every day, of course she didn't know it until we talked for a few minutes.

Kevin, Mike and Sean put together a very nice tribute to John Wagner with music and a running slideshow and pictures. I spent a few minutes with Johns memories in the room that was set aside for memorials. Ironically, he probably would have hated to go to this thing. I wish I could have had a last beer with him.

I keep up with the others like Kevin, Sean and Mike. They all live within ten miles of each other and see each other way more than I see them. I should definitely make an effort to see them more, time is too short.

Wow, twenty years. Where does the time go?

John Wagner

A buddy that Kenny and I went to High School with passed away a few weeks ago.

September 11th he collapsed at work of a heart attack, he was 39.

John Wagner was a great guy, always fun to be around. I remember Kenny and I going fishing with him and we were competitive, so John ended up having to sit between us, he was a good peace-maker. I don't remember catching anything, but it was a good time. If it was just me and Kenny, one of would have ended up in the pond.


When John would tell the story he would bring up that while one of us was steering the boat, the other was "jockeying for position", and he said it in a way that only John could say.

The funeral was this last Monday. The service was at a small Catholic church and followed by the burial at a cemetery just off Braddock Road. The service was very nice, a good showing of family, friends and workmates, John was well-liked wherever he went.

At the service, I couldn't stop crying, it was very overwhelming, a whole life wrapped up into a few short moments. It was surreal.

I'll miss you, Wags.

The Boardwalk

At night we decided to go down to the Boardwalk and check out the freaks. Apparently Saturday night is when the "Hoochie-Mamas" come out and dress up for their prospective hoochie-babies daddy's. Well, we didn't see many hoochi-mamas, but we did see freaks; fat, skinny, redneck and gang-bangers, white, black, other, gay, straight, old, young, sloppy and neat. It was like a cross-cut of American culture.

I won Jack a stuffed tiger when we stopped to play one of those water gun shooter games. The kids next to us decided to be assholes and shoot the guy running the game instead of shooting the target. If that's the way you want to spend your 2 dollars, I guess it was worth it to them.

We walked by Ripley's Believe It or Not with the Shark sticking out of the building, went into a few shops and even saw the religious sand sculptures.

A Day at the Beach

We spent Saturday on the beach, playing in the sand, building castles, digging holes, dipping our feet in the surf, all the silly stuff you do when you go to the beach.

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend we were invited to Ocean City, Maryland by our friends Randy and Theresa. Actually, Theresa's parents own the place and they said Theresa and Randy could use it that weekend, and they were nice enough to invite us. Thank you, Randy and Theresa!

It wasn't smooth sailing the whole time, we found out that Jack's patience runs short when he is cooped-up in a car for more than two hours at a time and expresses that easily. He did enjoy going across the Bay Bridge and likes water in general, as long as he doesn't have to stick more than his feet in.

We arrived Friday evening with Randy and Theresa due to arrive later that night. So we went out on the beach and tested the waters, so to speak. I brought along the camera and snapped a few of these shots of Jack's first beach experience.