What Time Is It?: October 2006

Blog? You still have a blog?

Gosh, has it been a week since I last updated this thing? Yeah, I know I said I was going to try to update this thing on a weekly basis, but that hasn’t exactly worked out for many reasons.

So what’s happened in the past 5 weeks?

1. The boys are five weeks older and while things sometimes seem the same, everything has really changed. A lot. In the past two weeks, the boys have generally been going to sleep around 10ish and sleeping through to 6:30 or later if we are lucky. Finally, the return of more than 3 hours of straight sleep! But with more sleep at night comes more awake time during the day. After eating around 6:30, they usually go back to sleep for a couple more hours and then proceed to stay up usually until 4:00 or so, and then they are usually awake until they go bed. This is usually a very good schedule, but I am consistently amazed at how the boys are just so stimulated by everything they see and never want to sleep. So, often the 4pm nap is skipped, and then they become overly tired. In the past few days, the amount of food they eat has really kicked up a notch. What does mean? Well, we usually start feeding them around 8pm for bed, and end up feeding them straight for 2-3 hours until they fall asleep. Needless to say, that eats into the blogging hour, so there is excuse number 1. The boys have also started eating solid foods for the first time. Another big deal. Like I tell Thomas and Joseph, “Are you guys ready for bowl of rice mush? Mmmmmm, yummy rice mush! So bland and yummy.” The boys also are each over 14 pounds now, with Thomas consistently weighing a couple ounces more than Joseph. In the past few days they have really started to try the whole rolling over thing. From their backs they roll completely over, except they don’t pull out the arm that gets stuck underneath. Give it a couple days. It’ll happen. The best part, however, is that the boys are really smiling and laughing a lot. Most often at their parents, but also randomly on their own. It’s a great feeling in the morning when they first wake up and are talking to each other, and then you go look at them and they greet you with the biggest grin you’ve ever seen. Good stuff. I’ll tack on a bunch of pictures at the end of the blog.

2. My cousin Molly was married on September 30th, and the boys attended. But Katie and I were very quick to note at the reception that small infants do not belong at an open bar reception, so Katie’s parents came to pick them up. It was a grand party.

3. ND Alumni Band weekend. Katie and I went our own ways this weekend. I went to ND and she stayed home to attend a college friends’ wedding. Alumni weekend was even more fun than I could have imagined. I flew into Chicago and drove into ND with Nick Lambrecht and we did what all compulsive ND fans do: obsess about 16 and 17 year old high school athletes who will hopefully play for the Irish in a year or two. After the Gyro plate at King Gyros, and a very important visit to Jordan Hall, I attended the music rehearsal which was a ton of fun, but I think everyone lost their chops after five minutes of playing. Alumni weekend was awesome because it presented an excellent opportunity to see and talk to a bunch of people with whom I usually don’t get a chance to see when coming down for a game. It was a blast talking to these people as some knew about my boys and other did not and watching their reactions was outstanding. Generally, most everyone has put on some weight since graduation, however, I must present an award to Tambre Paster who bucked the trend and looked fine. F.I.N.E. Keep up the good work! Friday began with dinner at Cjs where slender Mark Luzcak dominated a double patty Golden Domer sandwich. You are my hero. And then he went to Dairy Queen for dessert. You are my idol. Angelo, Ben, Antonio, and I proceeded on to Fiddler’s for some good Irish beer and crappy scotch. Antonio brought cigars. I didn’t smoke one, and was glad when he said they cost $1.25 each. You know that had to taste like crap. From Fiddler’s we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for some beer and wings, and then decided to visit a house party on Washington street. We were apprehensive of attending, but it ended up being a great decision. $5 cups. We played pong, cups, and kings, danced to all of old songs. It was glorious! In a very bizarre occurrence that I still do not understand, Dave Rigato insisted on making the thumbs up pose in ever picture that night. I guess that’s what they do down in Miami, ain’t that right Dave? We hit up Taco bell and then crashed at the Days Inn. I think sleeping on my garage floor would be cleaner than that hotel, but hey what are you supposed to expect to for $60, I mean, $200 a night. Saturday was awesome. Great weather, fun rehearsal, tailgating at Mothballs, showing everybody my bling bling. Watching the game from the field was awesome. I forgot how fast the game is played, and how big the players really are (Sam Young is a beast). After the game, I was dead thirsty and had two beers to drink which helped rekindle my pregame status, and I proceeded to go one a 25 minute rank about why Ty Willingham sucks. Actually, everyone joined in. It too was glorious. All in all, the weekend was awesome and I would definitely play again. The amount of time it required was minimal, getting to play on the field was awesome and to sit on the field to watch the game with all of your college friends around you was well worth the commitment. Those of you who came down but didn’t march missed out.

4. Katie and I have also been very heavily involved in planning a super-secret surprise birthday party for my dad who turns the big 70 this year. Lots of super-secret planning went on behind the scenes and the party was yesterday and was super-secret success. To commemorate the event, I wrote lyrics to the song “Be Our Guest” from the Beauty and the Beast to roast my Dad and then played the song on piano to roast him right at the start of the party. It turned out awesome and was a ton of fun!

Here's my Dad, in high style at his surprise party. He could pass as a 45 year old stud.

Here's the entertainer singing away a roast of his father.

Now that we’ve gotten a few of these things out of the way, hopefully I can post more than once in 5 weeks.