Jen

One reason I really like this time of year is that it reminds me of the night i mEt my wife. My brother, a friend and I were hanging out at MacNivens pub on Mass. Ave. here in Indy. It was a very nice night and not one that I normally find myself out on. But I was, and so was she, both out when they normally would not be. We had our first date on new years day later that week. About a year later I proposed to her. And now I have a great wife, an awesome kid and another on the way. So that is one reason I like this time of year that does not involve Christmas or New Years. I love you guys.

Pictures and other fun things happening these days

There is a lot going on these days.  The holidays are crazy and even more so since my wonderful wife has been put on bed rest for the time being.  She is pregnant and due in March.  Anyone that knows my wife knows that bed rest is her definition of Hell.  She is a very active woman and exercises almost every day.  Well, she did.  Now she has to sit in bed and read, or watch TV.  Luckily she has a three year old who is very understanding and loves to sit still...?  But Jen is coping and the little girl or boy she is carrying in her belly is growing just perfectly.

On to Oscar.  Oz has been growing like a weed and he has been challenging us in ways we had not expected.  Recently he has been trying a new move at bed time.  He waits until he is in bed, he has stopped resisting us and actually let me leave the room without crying and screaming.  Then I head down stairs to relax a little with Jen on the couch.  That is when we hear it, "daddy, I'm here." Kind of creepy when you hear it whispered.  Then I would get up off the couch and look up at the stairs and sitting in the dark is my boy, staring down at me.  Kind of startling the first time. 

I had to take a picture, could not get the lighting right though

So after getting him back to bed and telling him stories, he finally goes down for the night and Jen and I can finally relax.
On to other things.  I stole this idea from a friend who has a kiddo just a week older than Oz.  They gave her a camera and let her take pictures.  Not the made for kids ones, those are crap.  I happened to have an old Canon point and shoot that was sitting around doing nothing so I thought it would be fun to let him play with it.  He always wants to take my camera when I am taking pics so why not let him play with this one.  I can't even get five bucks for it on ebay, might at well put it to some good use.
Oz took to it like a superstar and has proceeded to take a ton of pictures.  Most are of his fingers in front of the lense but there are a few nice ones in there.  The camera is old though and the battery does not hold a charge anymore, so I will have to see about getting a replacement battery if he wants to continue.

I have included a few pics that he took, well a slide show of both the good and bad.  I threw in a few of mine as well after that.  I just had to get pictures of him taking pictures.

Now just a few pics I have taken this month.

Hiding in a toy box

climbing on furniture when he shouldn't

we started a dueling cameras game

Uncle Ryan captured by the paparazzi

bed rest with the kiddo, couch, bed, whats the diff?

Buzz and his fellow Space Ranger squad

December Sahm Christmas Party

Just a few pics of Oz and Santa from the Sahm Christmas party!

Oz beating up pops

Oz playing with his cousin Anna

Oz is so excited about his Riddler toy

Oz and Santa

Oz listens to Santa

Oz waits patiently for Santa with his cousins

Oz school pic

Oz currently goes to Crab Apple Creek at Saints Francis and Clare in Greenwood.  He had his school pics in November and we did not know what to expect.  What we got back was completely unexpected but awesome.  I simply love this pic.

Love it!

What a weekend!

What a crazy weekend. The kid has really run us ragged this week. Poor Jen is exhausted with a baby in her belly and Oz is giving no quarter and showing no signs of slowing down. We try to wear him out but he just keeps going and going. The only way to get him to stop is to put him down for a nap and that is a chore as well.

We tried to get a little Christmas and gift shopping done this weekend, and it brought back the many reasons why I hate shopping this time of year. The crowds, the rudeness of people, the mess in the stores. I'm sorry, but a sale is no reason to completely destroy a stack of sweaters. I don't care if they are 75% off, show a little courtesy to the people who work there and don't completely destroy a stack looking for a 3t. When you do that you make it an even more difficult search for the next person, and so on, until the end result is a massive pile of shirts and sweaters and probably a nice home for field mice. Maybe it is just that people aren't considerate of others anymore. Everything in the world is so me me me and very rarely do people take time to consider others. Which, I believe is one of the main tenants of the season. You are out buying gifts for someone else, take a second and be considerate of the person in front of you. Pick up the shirt you knocked off the table or help someone grab the right size of a sweater. By the way, someone did do that for me today and thank you. I know not everyone is horrible this season and I like to think the vast majority are not, but man, those few who are a$$%@les, really ruin it for the rest of us.

Didn't I start this off talking about the kid? He really has been horrible these days. Don't get me wrong, I love the kid to death and I am in wonder every day I see him but when he goes nuclear because one little thing doesn't go his way, I start to really wonder what we are doing wrong. So sweet one second and then devil child the next. If he could spit pea soup I would not be surprised.

We love him though. We need to record some of these blow ups for blackmail later on in his life. Oh, you think you deserve a new car...well here, look at this. You screamed for three hours here because you batman pajamas you had been wearoing for three days straight were dirty. So sorry we did not want you catching leprosy. So, no new car, here, you can have dads 16 year old elantra with 500,000 miles on it. Your mom and I are going to get a rocket car.

Mongo, my buddy.

Mongo and Me

I first met Mongo in the early fall of 2001.  I had just moved in to my first house near Garfield Park and I was living by myself, for the first time.  I did not think coming home to an empty house would be that bad but it was pretty quiet.  Never fear, my mom had found another dog that needed a home and she brought him by.  Actually, Mongo was found on the side of the road by one of her friends.  She had picked him up and brought him to my mom. She thought that a dog would be a great addition to my house.  She was right of course and as soon as I saw the bug eyed little monster, I knew that he would never leave my side.  It only took a few minutes of playing with him to figure out that his name had to be Mongo.  For those of you who don't know, Mongo is the name of Alex Karras' character in the classic movie, Blazing Saddles.  I think it was a perfect match, and if you ever met Mongo and saw that movie, you would agree.

Bug eyed and tongue out, the only way to live

Mongo's eyes were a bit more bugged out than the standard pug, his face was a bit more mushed and his tongue was always out.  It was probably the longest tongue I have seen on any animal outside of a giraffe.  Mongo was a great little sidekick.  He loved to go on walks, but as he was a pug, he wasn't exactly an athlete.  So you always had to have a plan on where and when you would be making breaks.  I remember taking him downtown to the 500 parade one year and I think the random kids enjoyed Mongo more than the parade.  "Is his tongue always out like that?"  "Does he always make that noise?"  We barely made it halfway back to the car before he just stopped and said, 'that is enough dad, I need a break'.  He would become an unmovable stone at that point and you either had to find him some water or carry him the rest of the way.  On that day, we stopped and ate at the Red Eye Cafe.  The server was kind enough to bring out a little bowl of water for Mongo and he sat under the table as everyone passed by on their way back to their cars.  Mongo just laid there, underneath the table, snoring.
Walking was interesting with Mongo, at least at first, pre-surgery.  Mongo had a good set on him, to put it bluntly.  When he walked, he had a swagger, so much so that he would kind of zig zag down the sidewalk like he was trying to avoid sniper fire.  It was hard to walk with those things.  Post surgery, he still walked with a swagger, but in a straight line.  Walks were always fun with him, he would always draw attention and since he wasn't exactly menacing, people liked to come up and pet him, kids thought he was funny and he loved the attention.
Mongo did sleep in my room for quite a while, usually on my bed, when he could get up.  He was not the most agile dog.  When he did get up, he took up most of the queen size bed.  I don't know how he did it but he managed to cover a large area.  He did snore, loud!  It got to a point where we did have to move him out of the room. He could rattle windows.

Ozzy, the wild one

Shortly after getting Mongo, my brother moved in with me.  Shortly after that, he brought Ozzy in to the house.  Ozzy was a Blue Heeler, probably deaf.  Beautiful dog that was a blast to have in the house.  Ozzy was crazy.  Drive by licking, tearing up of boxes, insanely obsessed with playing ball. We used to take empty beer and coke boxes, toss them in the air and Ozzy would leap up and destroy them!  Down to scraps.  In fact, he tore a full size stand up of Lorenzo Lamas to pieces one time.  Why did we have a stand up of Lorenzo Lamas?  Story for another time maybe.

That video doesn't really do it justice, but you can see the tattered remains of the box.  We really didn't live like slobs, we just enjoyed the company of our dogs and the weird talents they possessed.  Ozzy and Mongo were pals.  They got along great together and it was good.

Buddies

Even later, probably around 2004, Thanksgiving, we were gifted with yet another dog.  This one was born on my brothers bed.  We had taken in a stray, and we were getting ready to take her to a friend of Scott's who ran a no kill shelter on Saturday.  On Friday, Scott bangs on my door and tells me there is something wrong with Asha.  After a quick call to the vet, who never even hinted that she might be pregnant when we visited with her, and several minutes later, little puppies started to pop out.  Right on Scott's comforter.  So we had five new puppies and a mommy to take care of for a few months.  All of the pups and mommy were adopted, but we kept one, Big Jake.

Big Jake, Mongo and Ozzy, hogging the couch

Big Jake was a blast, a playful friend to Ozzy and oversized lap dog.  He grew to be a beast who was probably one of the sweetest dogs I know.  When I got Jen the two little dogs we currently have, Coco and Cosmo, they used to climb all over Jake and play in his mouth.  He just took it all and played ever so gently with them.  With Mongo, he was a big little brother and with Ozzy, a play mate.

I mention Ozzy and Big Jake because this has been a very sad year for Sahm family dogs.  I know my sister and her husband lost one as well, and I am sorry I don't have any pictures to share.  But Mongo, Ozzy and finally, Jake, were the little crew that made up our family in that old house for quite a few years.  We lost all three this year and I didn't realize how much that would suck.

We lost Jake first, to an accident.  He was still very young and always a big sweet heart.  We just lost Ozzy a couple weeks ago.  He was pretty old, not doing too well and in a lot of pain.  Today, I had to take Mongo to the vet as well.  He fell asleep with Jen and I petting him.  I will really miss that big, black lump. 

Look at my hair! Glorious!

Oz and his stars

So Tony is always telling me, I need to update our blog. So after years of hounding, I would like to dedicate this entry to my adoring and supportive husband. Anyways, here it goes:

First, I will give a little back story. Oz has proven to be a strong willed, dramatic, energetic, intelligent, and may times unreasonable child. Need less to say, this has made disciplining quite the challenge. I have read countless parenting book (ugh!) and we have tried time outs, praise, taken all toys away, etc. Basically everything except chinese water torture...although the day is still young. Well one day Tony started putting stars on a dry erase board. We give stars and we taketh away. Oz has been quite intrigued with this star process. So much so, that he has asked us to take away stars from anyone whom he has perceived as wronging him or anyone he thinks should lose one. It has been quite humorous fodder around the house.

So driving home from school yesterday, Oz says " Jesus can't eat anything." We of course inquire as to why and he states, " He drank too many Pepsi's and lost his teeth." This of course being funny for may reasons, but also making the hygienist in me quite proud. I say, "yes Oz, pepsi's aren't good for you!" He then says, "Mommy, when we get home will you take a star away from Jesus." Seriously, too funny!

Now a side note. While writing this blog, I have been asked 22 questions, have been asked to go upstairs 1o times, have heard the word MOMMY 30 times, and been asked to look at something 15 times*. This may contribute to my lack of blogging. Later--Jen

* approximate times, may be a dramatization, but not likely!

Butch Walker and the Black Widows

Jen and I got to go see one of our favorite artists, Butch Walker, and his new band, the Black Widows. Jane and Ryan got to go with us as well. The little guy, Oz, stayed with grandma and grandpa.

Not everyone knows Butch. He is a rock star and producer. He has been around since the 90s, with a glam rock band, I know..., the Marvelous Three later in the decade and then independent from then on out. Recently he has released an album with his band, the Black Widows. The album is amazing!
We have seen Butch live one other time, in Norfolk, Virginia, with Correy and Laura. At that time he was touring with the Let's Go Out Tonights. We got to meet him that time, we cornered him in a H&M and got our picture taken with him. We then met him again after the show and he was a very cool guy who was a blast to hang out with.

Butch Walker and the Black Widows

So, new band, new album, great show. The location was in Columbus Ohio at the Basement. A pretty small venue, similar to the Patio in Indy when it was around. The ceilings are low, and you are close to the band, very close. I think we were about 10 feet away the entire time. Well, not the entire time. At one point Butch got down in to the crowd and we were about a foot away. Instead of a couple of opening bands, Butch decided to have the individual members of the group get up and play a few songs. It was pretty cool to hear how good all of the other members of the group were as you don't normally get to hear from them until a band breaks up and everyone tries to go solo. You never know what to expect from a Sunday night show. But f@&*ing awesome show! Loud! I forgot how much my ears rang after shows, but being that close and such a small venue, we were blasted. Oh yeah, did I mention, Jen is about 20 weeks along at this point. There was no way I could keep her away from the show though, baby or no baby. She loves Butch. Besides, Laura was pregnant with Eli the last time we all saw him in Norfolk. Plus, it was a little anniversary present as Jen and I celebrated 5 years on the 13th.
I took a ton of video at the show. Some with a little canon camera and a few with my Evo 3D. I think the sound was actually better on my Evo. It has been a long time since I went to a standing show. My legs and body were dead tired afterward and I can't recall what kept me standing for 5 hours in the old days. It could have been the alcohol but I don't think we drank that much at the shows. Younger legs last longer standing I guess. Anyway, I only had one beer at this show because it was practically impossible to get back to your spot went you went to the bar. I must have lost some of my edge in battling my way back up front. Plus, our spot was perfect. Dead center stage, on a couple steps so that Jen and I were basically eye level with Butch and the band.
Butch started his show with a few acoustic versions of some Marvelous 3 songs. Then the rest of the band joined him and they started with a great version of Summer of '89. The rest of the show was the same high energy, rock music that makes you forget that your knees are sore and that you are exhausted on a Sunday night standing in a crowded, humid room that smelled like death because someone was stink bombing the place in front of you. Butch and the band finished off a fifth of Jameson for the final song, a 17 minute long version of Suckerpunch. Granted most of the 17 minutes is not the song, there is an intro of the band, then some time when Butch is on the floor hanging with the crowd and in the end, a guitar battle between Butch and Fran that seemed be without end as they had a day off the next day and were ready to burn themselves out for the night. I recorded the entire end bit with my Evo and it was around 355Meg. A bit too big for this venue. So, instead, I put it up on YouTube and hope that you can enjoy the embed below.

Tardy for the Party.

Sorry about that.  I mean the title.  But I am tardy.  Our little guy had his third birthday on the 25th and I am just now getting around to posting about it.  It might be simply that weekends are no longer free.  I think Jen, Oz and I have spent every weekend since Mother's Day with at least one side of our family.  As much as I love them, I need a break.
On to the point though.  Our little guy is now three years old.  What has happened in the last year?
A lot, most notable though is that Oz has gotten rid of those pesky diapers, and that is AWESOME!
Any parent will tell you how great it is to not have to shell out dough for those darn things.  We are both so proud of Oz.  Add to that his ever increasing vocabulary, ability to not eat anything we put in front of him and amazing memory for everything he is NOT supposed to say and you have a pretty well rounded kid.  We love the kiddo and every day is just as great as the last and makes me look forward to the next.  Even when he is a total s*@t!  I will get back to eventually posting more about our Europe trip, but it has just been so crazy.
In the meantime, enjoy some pics over the last year of OzMan.

Day Three & Four - Drink, food, drink and more drink!

I combined a couple days here as the third day of our trip was primarily a full day meeting.  The fourth day, which was a Saturday was a Gantner sponsored ski day that included a beautiful trip up the side of one of the mountains and a few beers at very high altitude.

As I said, the third day involved quite a bit of time in a meeting.  It was a very good day and when it was done we had a few hours to spare and wander around the town of Schruns a bit.  Jen and I ventured out and there are quite a few very beautiful homes in the area, a nice little waterway and even a guy practicing tight rope walking.  


After a brief walk around town we headed back for pre-dinner drinks with the rest of the SAS crew, Gantner people and anyone else that wanted a drink.  That was pretty much the pattern of the evenings.  Dinner was a Gantner sponsored dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  It was awesome!!  Our appetizer was a plate of assorted meats, cheese, tomatoes and so much tastiness.  We each got a plate that I would normally have as a meal.  For the actual meal I had a shrimp and fetuccine dish that was so good.  Dave ordered a pizza that looked amazing and according to Dave, tasted better.  Wine flowed very freely throughout the night and I think Dave became very familiar with the bartender as he rarely made it to his seat before having to get up and grab another carafe.  After dinner we all went to a Spanish bar that was very small.  We all crammed in there and continued to drink the night away.  I had a great conversation with one of the German guys from Gantner and Jen and I drank until about 1am.  John and Janet were heading out and we took the opportunity to join them.  We had heard that staying out until 5am was pretty common on this night and doing that and then getting up and heading up the mountain just did not seem like a good idea.  Call me crazy.  But Dave did it, and he seemed fine.


DAY 4 - Where we ride up the side of a mountain and drink some beer while watching people throw themselves out in to the great wide open!!

The idea of waking up early in the morning on a Saturday and going to the top of a mountain and skiing sounds like a good idea at 1am.  At 9am when you actually wake up and realize you missed the early shuttle to the mountain and the next shuttle is leaving in 30 minutes, you rethink the idea.  Our basic plan was to pack everything up and head to Fussen, home of the famous castle and spend the night there.  To do this we would have to drive about 2 hours through the winding roads of the mountains.  So we decided we would enjoy the hospitality of Gantner for the morning and then head out.  We all jumped in to the packed car by around 11am and headed towards the lift up the mountain.  Now Jen is very anxious about heights, VERY.  So riding up the side of a mountain in a glass box held up by a single cable is not her idea of a good time.  But she did it and she was very anxious.  She faced the mountain rather then the receding town.  Probably a good idea as we got pretty high up the mountain.  Practically to the top but there was an open ski lift up the remainder of the mountain.  Once we got to the top we basically were indulged with beers and food.  We could have skied but decided against it as we had a few more days in Germany and neither of us had skied in a long time.   So the idea of really hurting yourself and then traipsing around Munich was just not a good idea.  Dave was a little shaky after being out until 5am and he broke a beer on the patio.
The view was amazing at the top of the mountain.  I took a panoramic shot and probably a hundred other pictures.  There were guys who were carrying very large backpacks and no skis up the mountain in one area.  On the way up we noticed some parasailers floating down.  It looks like they would haul their gear up, hike up to a section of the mountain that was fairly open.  Then unfurl their canopy and simply walk off.  They caught some updrafts at some point as I captured several rotating around us in the open sky above.  It was amazing to watch.  It was so nice up there, the temp was 70 and the sun was shining.  I even got a little sunburn and we were only up there for a couple hours.



Day 4 - On the winding road to Fussen, or was it Fussen, maybe it was pronounced Fussen.
The winding road to Fussen was just that, a winding, switchback, narrow road through the Alps with barely enough room for two cars to pass.  I think Jen found this more nerve racking than the ride up the mountain.  I wouldn't be me if I didn't take a load of pics on this section of the trip.  Hell, you have a couple gigs on a card you might as well use them.
Fussen is another small town in Germany.  Quite nice and it has two beautiful castles in the town that are pretty famous.  Ludwig was the one who commissioned both castles and the people of Bavaria love crazy Ludwig.  We were there in the off season so it wasn't that crowded and we ate at a nice Croatian restaurant.  The hotel was called the Hotel Fantasia and was very nice.  Crazy Ludwig was looking down on our bed and that was a little disturbing but I can't complain too much about that.  The weather was awesome and so were the sights and the people. 


Jen has a better memory than I do and remembers the crazy things we did so much better.  Must be all of the hops on my brain.

Euro Trip 2011 Continued Day 2

End of Day 1 and Day 2-the 7 day Hangover begins
We arrived in Schruns on the 30th, later in the day, so really still part of Day 1.  The hotel is beautiful, the town is beautiful, everything is amazing.  We basically got there, checked in and then everyone went to their rooms to rest before dinner.  The hotel has a great restaurant and very well stocked bar.  I know because I think we tried to empty it every night we were there.  Our bartender was very kind and understanding of the tired Americans who just wanted to drink a few beers and head to bed.  Unfortunately, that was not the plan.  First came dinner, where Jen and I sat at a table with a couple of guys from Korea.  Very nice, but after a few discussions about Kimchi, North Korea, China and Japan, we pretty much hit the language barrier and ran out of things to talk about.  It was about at the fifth and final course of dinner that they had a few other Korean friends show up and I jumped at the opportunity to let them reunite with them so we could join our gang, who had come in later as they had all been napping.  A nap would have been a good idea.  We were joined at the table by Rob and Julie from Gantner USA.  A great couple who we would spend much time with at the bar.  I mentioned our great bartender.  Dave, originally had a different opinion of him.

Dave: Every time I ask Gustavo to bring me a drink he ignores me.
Rob: Gustavo, who is Gustavo, his name is Bjorn.
It went downhill from there as both Dave and Jen started to speak Spanish to the bartender and were more and more surprised that they were not getting their drinks.
Eventually Julie told Jen about her secret look to the bartender to let him know that her wine was empty and that she needed a refill.  Once again the unspoken gesture is more powerful than the spoken, incorrect language.

As far as pictures, I didn't really take any when I got there except for a few shots out the window of our room.

However, after a full night of drinking and closing down the bar, lets say we went to bed around 3am Schruns time on the 31st.  So that would be 9pm in the US on the 30th.  Since we didn't sleep on the plane, which left at 2:30 from Indianapolis and we dropped the kiddo off at school on the 29th, that would mean that Jen and I, and probably John, Janet and Dave, did not sleep from say 8am the 29th until 9pm the 30th.  37 hours without sleep is probably not good on the body.  Then subjecting it to the Austrian equivalent of moonshine, schnapps did not help.  Pour a little, say 3 liters of beer down after it and you understand why their meals consist of 5 courses.  You need that much food to survive drinking that much alcohol.
We actually got up at a decent hour the next day and had a little breakfast.  We didn't start the Gantner meeting until 1:30 and that was really just an introduction at the bar at the hotel.  Yes, more drinking.  I am loving the ways of business in Austria.  Anyway, we decided to take a short trip in to town.  It is only about a 5 minute walk to the center of town and it is such a beautiful little town.  We had lunch at a small cafe in town and I had to have a little fuel, aka beer.  Then back to the hotel for the beginning of the meeting.  Then another dinner at the hotel, 5 course again, this time we sat with John, Janet and Dave throughout the entire meal.  Rob and Julie joined us at the bar,  and Rob uttered those most insane of words, "We're going to make this an early night."  Cut to Jen, Julie, Rob and I closing the bar and finally letting poor Gustavo/Bjorn go home.    End of Day 2.

My Body is Now 60% Beer Instead of Water, OR, Our Trip Through Bavaria!

There are probably a few other titles I could have thought of, but as my body readjusts to non-beer beverages and jet lag, I have found that my wit has also diminished.  Probably a good idea to just keep drinking then. 

Janet, John, Dave, Jen and I in Schruns, Austria

For those who did not know, I was given the opportunity to join my boss, John, his wife, Janet, and a coworker, Dave, on a trip to Europe for a business trip.  Jen was invited to come as well so even though it meant leaving the little guy for 8 days we thought there was no way we could not pass up this opportunity. The trip was mainly to attend the sales meeting for Gantner Instruments, one of our principals and a very good one at that.  They are located in Schruns, Austria.  We were also going to visit a few other principals that were in the region.  Sensormate near Winterthur, Switzerland and Sensortechnics, just outside Munich, Germany. 
I like to take pictures, and I take a lot of pictures.  Even when the subject matter isn't that interesting, you put a few beers in me and if I have a camera, you can be pretty sure you will be seeing dots from the flash for a few days.  So you can imagine, that when I was surrounded by the beauty of Switzerland, Austria and Germany, 850+ pictures was not a surprising final tally.  That was after just a quick edit of the blurry pics, out of frame shots and just easily identifiable bad shots.  So to make life easy, I will break it up by days of the trip and maybe even throw in a few slideshows so that you aren't scanning through a few hundred pictures of the same mountain.  I am not kidding, I was so amazed at the beauty of the mountains that I just kept taking the same picture over and over and over and over. 

Day 1
Jen and I left Indianapolis on Tuesday the 29th around 2:30 to catch our connecting flight to Zurich in Washington DC.  Dave was going to meet us in DC and he would be on the same flight.  John and Janet would arrive shortly after us in Zurich.  Since our cell phones would not work in Europe, we would be without easy communication for the entire trip. 

Plenty of room

John had purchased a couple of world phones but we kept those for emergencies.  There were no problems with the flight, we arrived in Zurich about a half hour early, so about 7:30am.  Yep, an overnight flight.  I don't think any of us really got any sleep so when we landed in Zurich we felt like crap.  Plus, as we were walking to get our luggage, Dave and I both realized that we had no way of getting in touch with John.  Luckily, nature called and we stopped at the baggage carousel to clean up a little.  While Dave and Jen took their turns in the bathroom cleaning up, I waited by the bags and John and Janet came wandering around the corner.  So no issues there.  Our first meeting was about 10am near Winterthur, a small town outside of Zurich.  John had rented a car, it turned out to be a Toyota wagon of some sort.  He also got a GPS. I don't know how we ever survived without one of these.  We squeezed in the car and piled in the luggage and John began working the GPS. Our trip was pretty fast and scenic, but we were really all pretty tired so there wasn't much conversation.  Though John did tell us about these little shacks that everyone has in the country side.  They are basically gardens since there is no room in the city.  There is a picture of it later, it does look like a shanty town and the fact that they are not filled with meth addicts and homeless is a testament to the country and people.  Anyway, Janet and Jen were to be entertained by Bruno's, from Sensormate, wife when we arrived.  They decided not to follow us inside and instead tried to take a nap in the car.  When Theresa showed up, John took her out to the car and Jen and Janet were passed out.  John had to tap on the window and shock them awake. Theresa was very sweet and even bought Oz a little wooden cow.  He loves the little fella and puts him in weird places to surprise us.  I opened up the fridge today and found him on one of the shelves.  We had lunch at this very old building, which I believe was once manor built around the 1800s.  Beautifully restored, we had a great lunch and I enjoyed a beer and so did Dave.  Which might have contributed to the bathroom incident.  Now remember, no sleep, so we were not at our sharpest.  Apparently it started with Dave who went to the bathroom at the restaurant.  He came back sat down and said that there was someone in the bathroom and it was locked.  Janet and Jen then left to go to the bathroom and came back after a short while as well.  They both said the bathroom was locked and that someone was in it.  Theresa had been earlier and had not had a problem.  So finally, they could not wait any longer and all three decided to try again.  So all three left for the bathroom.  A short while later Dave came back around the corner with an embarrassed look on his face.  He sat down and of course I had to ask what was so funny.  He simply replied that apparently you had to push the door open and they had been trying to pull the entire time.  Then Jen and Janet came back, they were laughing hysterically and they sat down knowing that all three of them could not figure out these crazy Swiss bathroom doors that had you push instead of pull. 
From Winterthur we headed out and over to Schruns via Liechtenstein.   A tiny little landlocked country that speaks German and is probably about 5 miles wide.  We would have not even noticed it if we had not decided to stop and get a beer.  Little did we know that stopping for beer to refuel would be a common theme throughout our trip.  After leaving Liechtenstein, we jumped back in the car and headed to Schruns. 
And now a video break, please enjoy.  These pics are at a much lower resolution that what I took them at, it would be just too big of a resource hog to load them all at full resolution.  If you want a better look at one let me know and I can send it to you or post it at a higher resolution.

Cousin Bubbles turns Uno!

Just a few pics from Violet, aka cousin Bubble's birthday party.  It was a fun time and the Oz-man hung out with all of his cousins and wandered around the same house that my dad grew up in and that I wandered around in when I was his age.  So that is kind of strange.  Three generations of Sahm men bounced off the same walls when we were 2ish.

If I wanted to take a snowmobile to work I would move to Canada

Is anyone else sick of the snow? We are.  When will this winter end?  I mean Oz is really cute in his winter coat and boots, but it has been so cold outside he can't even play in the snow.  Snow, what snow, now it is just ice and it is soooo much fun to watch big chunks of it fall off the roof of the house.  I am just looking forward to a nice big chunk sliding down and slamming in to the windshield of my car.  One good thing though, there is about an inch or two of ice on the windshield, so it would have to pierce that first.

I did finally have to get a new car.  The old Honda, well, I just didn't feel like I should be driving it all over the state and back.  She is still a great car, she has over 233 THOUSAND miles on her.  That is close to 23+ times around the earth.  I am sure she would have lasted for another 50-100 thousand.  But I drive a lot, and I have a wonderful kid and amazing wife, and the last thing they need to worry about is my butt sitting on the side of the road because my car died.  It has been twelve years since I bought a new car, so it is about time.

As for winter.  I am ready for it to be done with.  I am going a little stir crazy, I know Oz and Jen are as well.  She does an amazing job of keeping the guy entertained.  Which is no small feat.  He never stops moving and he is always on to the next thing.  You think he is calm and ready to play for a while, you think, finally, a break.  Nope.  He senses that, jumps up and says he wants to play blocks now, or play-doh or draw, or read, or color, or watch Mama-Mia, or Toy Story, not the blue one the red one, not the one with the monkey screams, the one with the train.  Those are the same one kiddo.  But he is growing fast, and he speaks to us in full sentences and knows so much about the world now.  It is amazing that you can kind of reason with him now.  I say kind of because you can't reason with a 2 year old, he just understands you when you try to reason with him.  Everyday he looks older, acts older and does more to impress, entertain and infuriate us.

So enjoy a few pics of him over the last couple months.