Back From D.C.

Most of these pictures are self explanitory to anyone, but some of them do require a story. I shall do my best. (Getting things started with a bang) A now very angry Mother-In-Law.

Our guides Chris & Laura

The Hope Diamond.

First time swimming.

Some shots from Manassas VA, site of the first battle of the Civil War.

Closed things out with a stop at Cabela's on the way home.

He Saw His Shadow...6 More Weeks Of Lent

Happy Easter!!! Here's today's latest and greatest.

Picture Day II The Storm of the Century (So Far)

Not much to talk about. It snowed. Alot. We took pictures. Here they are.

In case your wondering, the snow got so bad that we had to put the baby in a basket. It was for her own protection. She is okay.

Picture Day

Since I haven't posted in ages I thought I might put an entire post dedicated to the most wonderful little girl ever. Plus we just loaded about 200 pictures off our camera from Christmas and whatnot and as long as I'm still barrowing one of our neighbor's internet service (shh...they don't need to know why the internet has been so slow for them lately.) Besides, AT&T comes on Monday to install our new cable and internet, so it's only a temporary situation. Now what was I going to do? Oh yeah...the cutest baby pictures ever. Here goes! Here's Grandma H. and Claire just before Christmas. Grandma had just had surgery on her wrist so she could hold her but that didn't stop Grandma from cuddling.

Here she is with cousins Ryan (right) and Matthew (left) on Christmas Eve and Great Granda Millie's. Maybe she doesn't look impressed, but they were all a little cranky...okay...mostly Claire.

This picture is unreal. I've never seen three members of my family with the Denny Look at the same time. (My family will get that one. Everyone one else need not worry.)

Here she is with her Great Grandpa Anderson who clearly just bribed her to get her to smile. That or she was pinchin' one off. Hard to tell with her sometimes.

Mommy and Claire on our Christmas, which wound up being more like an Eastern Orthodox Christmas because we spent so much of the Holidays Traveling. This may have been after Groundhog Day.

Like I said, the Holidays involved a lot of travel and it really took it's toll on us.

OMEA conference weekend in Cincinnati. Just daddy and baby trapped in a hotel room while mom runs around with all of her teacher friends. Typical.

We love our Giraffe. Maybe more that we love dad. But we love our Giraffe.

This picture was taken shortly after Claire helped the others in the pride track down and devour the weakest zebra in the herd. Not to worry, no part of that went zebra went to waste. Or maybe those were carrots. At any rate, it was not a good day to be a zebra or carrots.

Some Updates

Tonight is the first weigh in. For those of you who care I'll post the results tomorrow. Well, I'll post my results. Lori will shove the scale somewhere on me making it very difficult to sit if I post her results. It should go well for me. The weigh in, not the scale shoving. I came in under points every day last week except Saturday. That's because I started the day off by stopping at Taco Bell for 3 soft tacos on the way home from work Friday night. Three soft tacos = twelve points. Oops. Then to cap it all off we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner. Lori's staff Christmas party a few weeks late. Even though I didn't bother to count my points Saturday night I feel I still did okay because I didn't leave hungry, but I wasn't so full I couldn't move either. I guess that's something. Claire is sitting in her Bumbo on the floor behind me doing excersizes or something. And she's squeeling alot. Hope that's a good thing. While we were at Buca the other night one of the other teachers had the father of a student buy her a bottle of wine. Not a drink or a glass. But a whole bottle. A $47 bottle. He joked that he wanted his kid to get a good grade but seriously...$47? I tried explaining to this teacher the proper etiquette of when a man buys a woman a drink. 1 drink means she has to have a conversation with the guy. 2 drinks means she has to give a phone number. It doesn't have to be hers, but a phone number still. A $47 bottle of wine...well...lets just say that the evening is supposed to end with breakfast. That's all I'm saying. And finally, I loaded the video of the McZena New Year's Bash. Notice I said video. For whatever reason my POS computer will not load the audio. But I did capture the video, and sent it to the fine folks at youtube. I must say that this is one of those times that video fails to capture the true magic of the moment. By the way, in case your wondering what your looking at, it is a 6 foot inflatable pirate with 300 white lights wrapped on him and he is sliding down a home made zip line. When the lights come on at the bottom...thats the start of the New Year. Enjoy. Oh, by the way....Week 1 weight loss is 4lbs. Go me.

The New Coffee Diet

I know that folks are waiting for the holiday pictures of Claire. They're coming, stay patient. I'm also trying to add the video of the big New Year's celebration but its kind of slow going.

Anyway, I did something dumb yesterday. I signed up for Weight Watchers. I'm more doing it as a moral boost but I suppose I can make it work. I'll go ahead and put it out here. I'm at 178 lbs. right now. I don't really have a target, just less than where I'm at now. The plan says I can have 29 points. It seemed like a lot until I entered in the chicken wings I had for dinner last night and discovered that I chalked up 22.5 points right there. Thank God I know because I damn near enjoyed those things. I was relieved to learn that black coffee is 0 points. However, adding sweetener and creamer takes it up to 3. So the way I see it, I can still have 9 cups of coffee a day and still have room for an orange or grapefruit for dinner. I can be pioneer in the weight loss realm. A legend like the Subway guy. I'll have my own commercial for Maxwell House..."Hi. I'm Jef. I lost 15 pounds by only drinking Maxwell House coffee. My pee smells bad, but I lost the weight and so can you."

Just a thought. Or wind up looking like this guy.

Goodbye Old Friend

It is with a heavy heart that I blog today. Yesterday evening I discovered that my friend K.C. of the last 7 + years had passed away.

I bought K.C. in February of 2000 shortly after I moved to Columbus. I was working various part time jobs and really didn't know anyone in town and he was my constant companion at home. He would sit on me on the couch watching TV and occasionally wake me up to remind me to let him back in his cage. He was a lot of fun. Sadly though we had a falling out in 2001 when he refused to give himself a bath and I thought pouring some warm water over him would do the trick. He took that act very personally and our relationship never recovered. From that point on he refused to come out of his cage and would bite me when I'd try to take him out. That doesn't change the fact that he and I were good friends at a time when I needed a friend, even if he was a birdbrain.

I do wish our relationship had been better but its too easy to have regrets once its too late. At least we had eacher when I needed him most. Thank you K.C., and may a host of Angels guide thee to thy rest.

K.C. (2000-2007)

Beloved friend of Jefe. Known also by Lori. Unknown by Claire. Survived by Zoe and a handful of fish. Will always be remembered and loved, especially by the plastic bird who shared his cage whom he often felt the need to take advantage of.