A chronicle of your typical 30-ish suburban family.
Neil - Dad. Works for a big ol' company run by old white men with deep pockets.
Send mail to Neil
Sarah - Mom. Stays at home. Tries to keep kid and house clean and orderly. Succeeds admirably with both!
Ethan - First kid. Now 20 months old. Wonderful kid. The apple of our eyes! Baby #2 - Expected Time of Arrival: July 1st.

 
Birfday, birfday!
Sarah gave me a very nice birthday gift on Tuesday. She paid for Mark D. and myself to play racquetball for 2 hours at her club. Afterwards, we went to a tavern down the street, had a cheesesteak dinner (You say: "first you exercise THEN you eat the greasiest sandwich known to man?" I say: "So?") and watched part of the Phillies game. Just a great evening out and a great way to remind yourself how many muscles you've ignored in your back, your legs and your shoulders.

On the birthday itself; Sarah and I dropped Ethan off at her mom's place and went to Maggiano's in KOP. Good food.

Looking forward to easter good eats this weekend.
posted by Neil at 4/18/2003 10:31:00 PM

 
Providence & Boston
This past weekend, Sarah and I took a trip to Providence and Boston. Meghan and Jim were great hosts and
even better babysitters! I can't tell you how much reading I was able to do thanks to their expertise!

Actually, when we arrived on Friday, Ethan only slept for an hour during the 6 hour trip up (lots of traffic) so he was already very very cranky. He didn't like the dogs (Meg and Jim have two: Maggie and Yankee) and every time Yankee walked close to him, he started bawling. He went to bed that night around 8 or so and went right to sleep.

On Saturday, he seemed to be much more comfortable with the dogs but still somewhat shy. Meghan and Jim showed us around Brown U, where Meghan works and their new house as well. It's a beautiful single family home near a really good hotdog joint called "Spike's Junkyard Dogs". Great selection of hot dogs and the dogs themselves are really good.

Later on Saturday, we left Ethan in Meghan and Jim's capable hands and drove north to Boston. Kevin was excited to see us. While his living quarters are very nice, I think the boys would be wisely advised to spring for some kind of cleaning service to come to their place and do some cursory cleaning in the common areas. Of course, these ARE college boys so one cannot expect too much.

We then took the T to BU and walked around their campus. A nice campus. Kevin forgot to bring his 1st film to show us but he said if he has time, he'll try to transfer it to videotape. We then took the T to the Museum of Fine Arts and cooled our heels (literally) while waiting for the film to start. The movie is "Touching Lives: Portraits of Deaf/Blind People" and required for Kevin's class. The movie was a nice movie. Sarah and I both felt it seemed to be more about the woman who produced the film and her deaf-blind siblings (who declined to be interviewed on film) than the deaf-blind people she actually profiled.

We ate dinner at a tex-mex place down the street from where Kevin lived. This kind of "experience" really made me wish at times that I lived off-campus while I was at Gallaudet. Actually, the portions at this restaurant were so good that Sarah and I were full by the half-way mark. We donated the leftovers to Kevin's roommates. (Some of these guys definitely need to eat more than Ramen noodles every day..)

On Sunday, we were delighted to see Ethan so comfortable with the dogs that he was spontaneously giving Yankee hugs. Maggie didn't seem to care much for Ethan getting too close to him so she and Ethan didn't share many fleas. Jim had to work on a report he's submitting so Meghan, Sarah, Ethan and I all went to the Providence Zoo. It was really nice there. They had a much bigger selection than the $8 entry fee would suggest. Ethan saw penguins, seals, zebras, elephants, and more. Like our experience at the aquarium, we think he was more excited to be out of the house and running
around than seeing these different animals. He was visibly more excited chasing a squirrel than seeing a zebra.

After the zoo, we went to a sandwich place on the Brown U campus. It was a beautiful day on Sunday (mid 50's and sunny). We spent the rest of the day at Meghan and Jim's decompressing and getting our lazy bones ready for
the long trip home.

On the way home, we made VERY good time. We left Providence at 8am and got home by 12:45. There was no traffic at all anywhere on the whole trip (of course, driving a few mph over the speed limit helps).

posted by Neil at 4/18/2003 10:21:00 PM

 
He who knoweth not the blog-eth, shalt not complain-eth

Yes. My own personal arch-nemesis, Lloyd has been bugging me yet again about my lack of updates to the blog. I am guilty as charged. However I asked him if he knows what Blogging really is about:

NeilMcD [8:28 PM]: so when are you gonna put up your own blog?
LLindley2 [8:28 PM]: i aint
NeilMcD [8:28 PM]: you ain't?
LLindley2 [8:28 PM]: cuz am too blunt and would offend the sensitive, backstabbing, gossiping folks
NeilMcD [8:29 PM]: actually a blog is great for that shit..
NeilMcD [8:29 PM]: if someone accuses you of being a gossip, just tell them that you're not gossiping behind their backs..
NeilMcD [8:29 PM]: you're actually making it plain what you think of so-and-so right in their faces.
LLindley2 [8:30 PM]: nah...better not.... cuz will cause problems on my end and etc.....
NeilMcD [8:30 PM]: awww....

So obviously Lloyd doesn't know how much sweat, blood, toil, and tears go into this.

I have lots of updates regarding our recent trip to Providence. However, I sent a really good e-mail to my folks describing the trip so I will just post that instead (it's at work. I'll post it tomorrow).
posted by Neil at 4/16/2003 08:40:00 PM