Dobrindts dot com...again

Christmas was good this year. A little tiring, well, exhausting really, but fun. It seems as the kids get older, Christmas gets pretty unbelievably insane.

On Sunday my sister flew in from DC and Patti’s parents drove up from NY, both in before noon. Later in the afternoon, I drove friends of ours to the airport and picked up our friend Sandra who came in from LA to spend Christmas with us. Later that night I attended a wake (an elderly lady on my block passed away) and then came home where we got down to drinking, eating, more drinking and a long night of playing Mille Bornes.

Christmas Eve day was good. I was going to fly to NY for work but the Shuttle was on a holiday schedule so I would not have gotten there early enough. So I worked from home, went to the gym, and hung out in the morning. I then got some last minute food for the next day and a half and then took my kids, Dora and Sandra on my famous Boston driving tour. All visitors, if they are lucky and have the money, get to sit in our black mini-van with black tinted windows, and look out as I drive by famous sections of Boston. Since we live near Dorchester and South Boston, I start with some nice areas over the river, then to the JFK Library, South Boston and the L Street Bath House, Castle Island, this really great spot near Black Falcon to watch the planes land, then into the financial district. I also took them to Cambridge along the Charles River and then capped it out near Quincy Market and the new Kennedy greenway or whatever its called. Overall it was pretty nice.

Christmas Eve I had all intentions on going to church but never made it. We had a great pasta dinner Patti made then hung out, not doing much but keeping really busy.

Christmas morning looked like a box and Christmas wrapping store blew up. At one point when the carnage was all over, Sandra sat there and said “This is overwhelming”. Since we were having more people over for Christmas dinner, I started cleaning up and got the house into somewhat decent shape. All friends and family spoiled us and the kids again with fun and useful gifts. We have a great network of family and friends who make sure our holidays are filled with warmth, gifts and love.

Another couple with their two young kids came over, and my buddy Tom, for Christmas dinner. Patti made a great meal with enough food and dessert to feed our end of the street, and we all retired by the fire late in the afternoon. We ended up sitting at the dining room table talking until 1AM. I would bring up some of the topics or one liners, but said out of context it's not as funny. Just think of Chuck Norris and 40 Year Old Virgin, and you can get the picture.

The next day Sandra and Patti’s parents left and my sister’s boyfriend flew in from Virginia. They recently got engaged and this was the first time he was meeting anyone from my sister’s bizarre family. Good thing he started with me, at least he got to meet the normal one.

While Christmas was chaotic, it was filled with a lot of laughing and good friends. By the time the weekend came and everyone had left, we were ready to pack up the decorations, take the lights off the bushes and trees outside, and clean up. By the end of Sunday, the house was back into shape and we had caught up on most of our cleaning.

Pictures to be posted soon.

Posted by David at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Click here or cut and paste.

http://www.sawse.com/2007/11/02/25-photographs-taken-at-the-exact-right-time/

Thought I'd share from one of hundreds of blogs I follow out there.

Posted by David at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, its Patti.
So you all know Ethan had his tonsils and adenoids out on Monday. Everything went like they hoped and he is doing as well as can be expected. Apparently the tonsils and adenoids were bigger than the doctor remembered and he thought it was good that we took them out now. He also said Ethan had an abnormally large amount of blood vesels on his septum which is probably why he had so many nose bleeds. Hopefully that is taken care of as well.

We had a rough time of it when we first got home because he was throwing up, what fun. I can't imagine it feels great to have stomach acid on your throat when you just had it sliced up. Once we figured out that it was the codeine that was causing the queasiness we switched him to just regular Tylenol and he is fine, cranky, but fine.

The doctor had mentioned when we first talked about having this procedure done that Ethan's voice might change. He said we had probably not really heard his REAL voice yet because there was so much stuff in his throat. Well, 3 days post surgery Ethan sounds like he has been sucking helium balloons. Its weird. We'll see if this is his REAL voice or a transition voice.

He is eating OK, not great. Its hard to see him eating so little when he has always had a big appetite. I am sure he'll be back to his old self soon enough.

Updates on the other two another time.........

Posted by Patti at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We are getting more snow right now. So far this December, Boston has gotten over 20 inches. Normal snow fall for this time of year is around 5 inches. Today it is coming down slow so probably another 4 and it has been really cold so none of it has melted, which means 20+ inches on the yard and other areas I don’t shovel.

To be honest, I like it. I usually love the heat and humidity, I think because I was born so close to the equator, but snow makes people slow down, it covers the earth in a blanket of white which makes things look clean, and it breaks up the monotony. Plus we are going to have a white Christmas for the first time in years.

Just thought I’d share.

Posted by David at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Staples, the office supply store, promotes a feature on its web site where you can upload a file, like a Christmas newsletter, fill out a work order, and pick it up at one of their stores a short time later. To me this was great since I wanted to have them print out 75 copies of something, double sided, in color, but didn’t feel like driving to Dorchester to drop it off and then back a couple of hours later to pick it up. I like doing as much as I can online.

I thought that it was simple, I know Staples spends a lot of money on technology, and it seemed an easy process. I put the order in, a process management tool will alert the store, someone would download my Word document and print my order.

Well, filling out the order online was easy, picking it up…not so much. I had Emily and Emerson, 5 and 20 months, yesterday because Patti was at the hospital with Ethan. I had some running around to do (drop off the prescriptions for Ethan’s meds) and wanted to go to the gym, and thought I could pick up the copies while coming home. So I left with the two kids around 3:30, dropped off the scripts, and went to the gym. I left the gym around 6, picked up the meds and some food, and headed to the Staples store in Dorchester. At this point, it was around 7, Emerson was tired and hungry, Emily was being good but was restless since she was on the go right after school. My point is that by the time I got to Staples, it was a huge pain in the a** to keep the kids calm. Long afternoon and we were all tired.

I went to pick up the copies and guess what? Yep, you got it, they weren’t ready. In fact, the two girls working the copy center looked at me like I told them I was going to strip naked and dance when I informed them I ordered online (after they couldn’t find my order). They were nice enough but it seemed that getting something online was like building a time machine. It took them about 15 minutes to figure out where my file was. Then another 15 minutes to figure out how to download it. As I was waiting, Emerson was going bonkers. Fortunately, Emily was being great and kept walking him up and down the aisles. But every now and then he wanted to climb a ladder or take crap off the shelves, and I would have to grab him and he would start crying. Hey, I don’t like crying babies, but it was about 2 hours past his normal dinner time and right at the time he usually goes to bed. And we were still not home. Ugh.

When they finally got the document loaded, it took about 5 minutes to print the letters. And I had to pay extra for speedy delivery. What a joke. When I ordered online at noon, it charged me an extra 4 dollars to have it done by the end of the day, whenever that is. I guess the end of the day was 30 minutes after I told them I put my order online.

I was very nice during the entire thing, my new attempt at remaining calm and not being a jerk in front of my kids. As I was about to leave, I said

“What should I need to do next time, so the order is ready?”

Copy center lady “You should call the store to let us know you put in an order on the web.”

Me “should I also bring the document into the store, you know, as backup?”

Apparently driving it there is faster than the world wide web.

The joke went over her head.

Ugh.

Posted by David at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ethan, our 3 year old, had his tonsils taken out on Monday. He also had his adenoids taken out, and something done called cauterized (he has nose bleeds kind of a lot so they decided to take care of that as well by cauterizing something in his nose).

The surgery was yesterday at 7:30am, so Patti and Ethan left at 5:30 to get checked in. The surgery was going to be done at Children’s Hospital in Boston. A friend came over at 6:30 to stay with Emerson, our 2 year old, and another friend took Emily to kindergarten. The girl that came over at 6:30 is great with the kids and got Emily dressed since she was still sleeping when I left at 6:30.

Ethan was really excited going into the surgery, probably because he had no idea what he would feel like getting out of the surgery. Children’s is great with kids and he had fun with the doctors and nurses and stuff. Patti and I waited and after about an hour the doctor came in and told us it went well. It’s a pretty common procedure so we weren’t worried.

We got to him in the recovery room about 10 minutes after he woke up. And things were not good. He was really confused, and upset, crying and whimpering and tried to take out all the tubes sticking out of his arm. They gave him some morphine and that got him to fall asleep.

I stayed until late morning and headed back to take care of the other two children. After he woke up the second time, I was still there but left for an hour to take a work phone call. Apparently he threw up. After I left, he threw up a couple of more times during the afternoon.

Patti stayed in his hospital room last night and she said he is still really uncomfortable and his stomach is bothering him. Oh well, he had surgery and the anesthesia really takes its toll on some people. Plus, he is three after all.

They were supposed to come home mid morning today but he is still throwing up, so they are going to wait until mid afternoon.

Emily had her school concert this morning that I went to. Patti usually does this and watching our 2 year old while Emily’s class did their thing is really really hard.

So for the next two weeks, which unfortunately is over the Christmas time, Ethan will not be able to go sledding and take it easy, plus eat soft things, something he is already not happy with.

That’s it. He broke his foot earlier in the year, and now his tonsils taken out. I’m sure next year will be more of the same.

Dave

Posted by David at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know I haven't posted much lately. For the 2.3 people who read this blog, I'm sorry. Work has been crazy and with the holidays, a home improvement project, work on my truck, getting the yard ready for the winter and my wild rock star partying, not much time.

But I had a real good trip to Atlanta with my middle child Ethan (3), also known as The Devil, to see my folks. And the political race is getting interesting - do you know the difference between a caucus and a primary??

I love the fact that there might not be any new shows, I can actually catch up on reading when Patti and I have free time after the kids go to bed with all the reruns, and the Pats, according to the local homers, are the best thing to ever happen to any sport in the history of the planet.

And oh, a lawyer ran away from home and said she was kidnapped, a lunatic in England faked his own death 5 years ago and turned up I’ve been following this closely since it was first leaked on The Guardian UK web site, and there is the little matter of my annual Christmas Letter, which people bid on ebay to get.

So please be patient, I have many diatribes to get to, I just need some time.

Dave out.

Posted by David at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Debra Lafave, the Florida teacher who pleaded guilty to lewd behavior with a teenage boy, has been arrested for allegedly violating her probation on charges she spoke to an underage female co-worker.

Thinking to myself: Must...fight...urge....to....comment.

Damnit, this one is a layup.

Posted by David at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I started to put up our Christmas decorations today. I usually do it the weekend after Thanksgiving but we were away, plus it was kind of early this year, so I waited until this weekend. I do a fair job with the lights (no plastic Santa but I am very very close to doing it), some pine garland and bows on the outside. The inside is pretty much different every year depending on how much of our holiday crap we want to take out. I started out with plans to complete the outside but after 2 hours in 30 degree (19 with the wind chill) temps, I decided to come inside, build a fire and return feeling to my hands. I then went to work on painting (more on that later, but we just finished redoing some aspects of our kitchen, including repainting, and decided we need more work and are repainting our dining room and adding a chair rail).

So long day, starting at 5AM with child number 2 up, the gym, swim class for child number 1 and 2, lunch, mowed the yard which seemed really bizarre since it was so cold and the ground was rock hard, a Depot run to get the roping, outside freeze to death, inside warm up with paint fumes, a fire in the fireplace, child herding and some alone time because Patti went out tonight.

Tomorrow I predict…more of the same.

Just thought I’d share.

Posted by David at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)