Jack O'Lantern

Since we got the pumpkin on Friday, Kate wanted me to carve it this weekend, so I did that this evening. Jack insisted on helping. It turned out great I think.

A little off the top.

Cutting...

More Cutting...

And more cutting.

Showing his "Scared" look.

Jack and the Jack O'Lantern.

Ethan's 2nd Birthday

Cousin Adam and Thai Phi's kid (Ethan) had his second birthday this weekend, so we went over to celebrate today. We haven't seen them much this year so it was good to catch up and check in. Janine made the trip down from Providence an Reet showed up for a few minutes, even though she wasn't feeling 100%. (Hope Jim gets better soon, too)

Mmmmm, Cake.

I was trying to get him to smile, he will but only if you tickle him.

Ethan playing with his toys.

Ethan and Jack playing well together.

A Visit to Cox Farms

As a new tradition, we take a half day on a Friday in October and visit Cox Farms, out in Centreville and spend a few hours celebrating the Fall Festival.

We usually get our pumpkin there and pick up some apples as well. But the "funnest" part is the slides, rides and animals. They have Goats, Calfs, Chickens, Cows and great people-watching. The goats are fun because they are really interactive since you have some food and they are really into food. Any kind, they will eat it. One of them jumped up on me like a dog with its front feet up on my chest/stomach.

We also fed some calfs that were in a pen. They were very tame and not too skittish, so if you wanted to pet them, they would let you.

There was the Cornundrum, which is a maze cut through high stalks of corn and had fun diversions and surprises. The Hay Ride was fun as well, even though it was the exact same as the year before, but there is fun in that.

We stopped for a few minutes and had a huge cupcake and a soda before we tackled some of the larger slides. Jack loved those and went on nearly all of them at least once. He did this thing where he would go down sitting, but then turn and slide on his tummy a third of the way down.

I let him sit on my lap for the larger slide and I am glad I did, it was fast and steep. That first drop we accelerated fast, so much that it took my breath away for a second. I heard him let out a little squeal, but then he was fine the rest of the way.

It was a good time and a great way to spend a half a Friday. The weather held out perfectly, too. It started to rain as soon as we got to the car - perfect.

Lots of Pumpkins - Lots.

One of the more easy-going goats in the petting pen.

Jack walking just before he spotted the Big Slide.

One of the wooden trains around the kids play area.

Smilin' Jack G.

The Hay Ride.

One of the fun mirrors in Cornundrum -

Getting lost in Cornundrum.

The BIG slide.

The castle at the top of the hill, one of the medium-sized slides.

One of the calfs we got to feed and pet.


Looks like he's over three feet tall now...

But still a little man.

iTunes Library Updated

I spent nearly the whole weekend sorting out my iTunes library. Since I got my new laptop, I have transferred all of my old files over and updated all the software as well. Everything went well, or so I thought.

I played a few songs when we were all outside sitting next to the fire pit and the software kept stopping. It was running into doubles of the songs, one of which would play and the other had a broken link. The broken link would stop the songs from playing.

So I went through the entire library, 5 days worth of songs and got rid of all the duplicates with broken links, updated the missing songs, of which there were plenty and then tried to figure out why it didn't import some of the album artwork.

I am disappointed in Apple's "Migration Assistant", which had some holes in what it decided to bring over, namely the MP3s that were left out of my iTunes database. I even paid $29.95 for a special firewire cable that would transfer the files faster than using the network option. I had to eventually move the files over by moving them onto an external hard drive and then taking the files back off of that external hard drive and onto my laptop, not the best way to transfer files.

I am still having trouble getting the hard drive to recognize some other MP3s that for some reason, will copy onto the external HD , but when that same external HD mounted onto my laptop, the files do not show up. They are all Lynyrd Skynyrd MP3s. The Beatles I could understand, but Skynyrd?

Naked Coffee Guy

So a few months ago, the Fairfax County Police made national news when one Officer charged a guy for stopping traffic so that some geese could safely cross the parkway. The judge ended up letting the guy go with a warning.

This last week, the Fairfax County Cops made the national news again, for arresting a man for making coffee in his own home while naked. A woman made a complaint after she was cutting through the yard of this guy at 5:30am with her 7 year old in tow. The cops come and they eventually arrest him saying they THOUGHT he was trying to be seen, from his kitchen, at 5:30am, while making coffee.

Here are a few of the links to this story;
Fox News Story
UPI Story
News 7
Metro.UK

Did they skip common sense in academy training?

Halloween Shirt

Kate has subscribed to this weekly blog all about crafty stuff. They send out cool stuff to do and give you ideas on how to do it. This weeks was making a Halloween shirt that is embroidered with a simple design.

I had to draw a quick sketch for her and she did the rest, made it in only a few minutes and it looks really cool.

What do you think?

Another Loss

I have resigned myself as of a few weeks ago, that the Redskins were not playoff contenders this year. What I did not know was that they would become the doormats of the entire NFL. I knew when we lost to Detroit that the low point of the season was yet to come.

We still watch and hope, we still wear our "uniforms" on Sunday, but we are not emotionally involved as we were in years past. Its getting pretty old, this rut they have found themselves in.

Its the owner. Everything else has been changed, but the ownership. Thanks for taking such a proud franchise and fan base and demoralizing them, Danny.

Awwww Mannn...

Mystery Package

We received a mystery package in the mail on Friday from Grandma Witchey and Tino. It was a coloring book for Halloween, her favorite non-holiday. Jack opened it, checked it out and gave it a thumbs up.

Thanks Grandma.

Crafty Kid

I picked Jack up from daycare on Friday and found that they had made pasta necklaces as a craft. He made it for mommy, thank god, I just couldn't pull the look off. I told him to say "I made this for you, Momm, I love You.", we rehearsed on the way home and when I we get home and we show Mommy the necklace, I prompt him and he says, "Thank you."

Its good to know I can't feed him lines, it would get real dumb , real quick. I would have him regurgitating every stupid movie line I ever thought was funny and would make him learn them and say them on command.

Right now he does actually relay some movie lines but from the "Cars" movie. He just says stuff like "Low and Slow", "Speed, I am Speed" and "Yo Yo, Check it out, we got ourselves a nodder."

Kate thinks its something in male DNA that makes us relay lines from movies. I agree.

Tongue -Tied

We went to the Fall Festival in Fairfax City last week and walked around a lot to see the different vendors. Popped in to see Kristin at her t-shirt tent and got something for my Dad that I can give him at Thanksgiving.

We stopped to eat some really good, but really bad-for-you, festival food. You know, the elephant ears, french fries, gyros and soft-serve ice cream. Soft-serve ice creaaammmm...

While we were sitting and noshing our food, I look over and see this dog, a boxer that was alert and guarding its owner as they ate. The dog caught my eye because of the enormous tongue that protruded from its mouth. Maybe he just had a small mouth? Naww.

Take a look at this fuzzy guy, he was adorable.

Anita's

I remember when we used to go to Anita's, a little Tex-Mex restaurant growing up, my Mom loved the chips and we liked the tacos. We have an Anita's a few blocks away and we still go to it regularly for some good mexican food.

I learned this week that Anita Tellez, the persona behind that small restaurant chain passed away.

Interesting Conversation

Jack and I went out last week to Micro Center so I could get a new laptop bag and he sometimes brings a toy to make the trip more interesting. This time he brought a race car with the number 88 on it. I asked him about the car, if it was "Chick Hicks", a character from the movie Cars. He said it was 88, so I ask him if it was Chick Hernandez, a local sports reporter, he said no, I ask if it was Chick Fil-A, and he said no to that too. I like to play word games with him sometimes.

He says that he "held a chick at school, a little baby chick". He then says "it was black, a little baby black chick. Dad, do you like black chicks?"

The question halted me for a second and I assured him that I like black chicks.

The Flu

I awoke Friday morning with a sore throat, after I got up it was just sinus pain. After a few hours at work, I took some Advil and it helped a lot, really relieved the pressure. Made it through the day and had a decent evening. Even sat out and had a pit fire in the back yard.

I awoke sometime in the night shaking and trying to keep warm. Kate got me some more Advil and I did better, but my sinuses and throat were on fire. Awoke really early with the same symptoms and took more Advil and again the symptoms went away for awhile.

Kate let me sleep in and I felt pretty good, the Fall Festival was at the Gubamint Center that day so we decided to go. There is always good food there and plenty of stuff to do. The Dayquil kicked in and I lasted a few hours, but faded after holding Jack up to see the model trains for a few minutes. Took it out of me, like I ran a marathon.

Went home and slept for three hours straight. Got up and took more Dayquil and the rest of the afternoon and evening I couldn't get warm, but was burning up. Finally broke a sweat and fever that night as I was trying to keep my mind off of the coughing and general misery. Took some Nyquil and went to bed upstairs so that Kate could get a good nights sleep too. Sunday was better but then it was coughing up stuff, lots of stuff, but the shakes and temperature were not around. Didn't have any energy and slept a lot. Watched the Skins (yeah, we won!) game and slept more.

I decided to take Monday off cause I awoke with congestion and still didn't have my strength back fully. Feel better tonight, so tomorrow I will go in, unless this thing has another round I don't know about.

If this thing was Swine Flu, I would say it was much more abbreviated than the last time I had the flu, which was only a few years ago, so this one was short but intense. Just glad to be feeling better and feeling normal again.

Jack has had the sniffles all this week, but we have had a change in the weather, the first cold snap. That usually means he is constantly walking around with a runny nose for a week. Kate hasn't had any symptoms either, except for a headache. But that could have been from my constant whining all weekend long. :)