So this happened.....

What were you doing 8 years ago?  I can tell you what I was doing... making a brave trip to London to meet up with an American girl and her two friends who'd come over for a few days vacation.

Brave I hear you ask?  Surely I'm not about to endorse anything Mr Trump has said about sections of London being no-go zones???!!!! No, categorically no! 

Brave because I'd got food poisoning on the Tuesday, and it was bad enough that the exhibition I was supposed to be at saw me spend 85% of the time in the bog before I gave it up and decided to return home and cut out all food & liquid. 

I was supposed to meet up on the Thursday evening, but that wasn't possible under the circumstances, so we pushed it back to Saturday.  Now Jessica admits she actually didn't worry about me blowing her off, whereas I was quite a bit annoyed, guess who got the attraction bug first?

So to the Saturday, and of course because we'd spoken online  you always get the fear that will the person that turns up be something hideous, in my case that was almost true given the mess that had been pouring from me for 3 days, so I'm at Gloucester Road station and looking for a blond girl in a red coat, up the steps comes a blond head, red coat, OMFG she's about 60, I got out of my bed for this? FML.  Except it wasn't her, and I gave the 2nd largest sigh of relief that week (do you really need to ask what the 1st was? Ok, it was after the dry fart I'd let go on Friday - result!)

Up pops Jessica, followed by Paul & Jen who I'd get to know very well over the next few years.  Where are we going? Are you hungry? We thought BBQ....my thoughts instantly go to the impending doom that is going to occur, but they're the guests so my reply is sure, let's go. 

Jessica buzzes around the group, sometimes with me, sometimes ahead, asserting her personality over all of us.  It's quite amazing to watch.  We find the place, eat the food & I survive.  Walking back early in the evening towards the Thames it seemed appropriate to get a picture, the result is what you see up top, the very first day we officially met face-to-face, and it began an incredible journey where she stole me away from my family & friends, uprooted my life, took my home and it was all totally worth it because she shared her heart & her passion.

Without her, there is no blog, there is no life in the USA, no Boo, Wiggles, Nathan, Nugget or Jake Thug. 

In other words, all the crap I write that you may occasionally read is all her fault!

Hugs to her, and donations for her selfless charity work in keeping me off the streets will always be much appreciated.

J.

Mind Games

Hi everyone, yet more time went scooting by and I swear I wanted to write an entry before today but, my mind was playing all sorts of tricks & no treats on me.

So, usually I end up just spouting something as it flows into my mind, sometimes it's damn good stuff, others I may miss the mark, fundamentally I know you read this to hear about our kids. Therefore it might be down to tiredness, perhaps stress from work or maybe just something my brain says "get this out there".  Which is how a few weeks ago I was awake at 2am thinking about death & legacies. No idea what triggered it, but I had a whole blog constructed in my mind.  And then I fell asleep and recalling it when I woke, thought "damn, you're one morbid bastard!"  Which I'm not, but this simply didn't feel the right place.  Perhaps in a few years it'll be something to delve deeper into.

So that idea fell flat.

Also hitting the wall was a huge rant where I objected to being collectively associated as among other things, (edited because frankly it bores me to type it all out) insults simply because I may/may not share some political & social views as others.  What I found most annoying was the sheer hypocrisy of those spouting off (predominantly on FB) by tarring everyone in a group with the same brush, something they seemed to only have a problem with if it crossed their own social position.

But while rants can be fun, I'm not here to stir up the pot too much so here's an update on us.

Ryan had another great Halloween, can you guess what his costume was this year?  Plus of course Wiggles had her first, and wore the same "Baby's 1st BOO!" bib we bought for Ryan 5 years ago.  This year we actually began in the light, and it seemed far more people were out or not participating, but Ryan enjoyed the company of Sophia along with her very energetic little sister Hayley and brought back a mountain of candy which of course barely survived 1 night of Paul selectively nibbling.

He had his PALS test which is a guide to his progress related to a set series of targets, Ryan did really well to get a score comfortably over the zone and some of it is down to the exceptionally patient efforts of Kristin his speech therapist for over 3 years now, she's ably supported by Lowes Islands own specialist, Jessica, but there's no doubt Kristin resolves the majority of his struggles.

Ryan did get into trouble at school, turns out he'd simply been trying to fight his way out of a cubby which he'd been pushed into.  When asked why he didn't tell the teacher that he replied "We don't snitch". That got me seeing red so a return to the school and a pleasant exchange of views where I outlined that sometimes situations need to be explored fully & ideally prevented from escalating sooner.  Not that he's angelic of course, he's rambunctious, overly excitable and probably more physical than he realizes, but a line is a line & his comment showed me a line had been crossed and you've got to defend your kids haven't you?

Hannah is bouncing along, she's continuing to develop so fast, you forget just how quick they do change and grow.  Pounding the liquid content, sleeping well and now in her crib!  She's apparently also got horrendous flatulence, worse than Jake Thugs breath.   She also has exceptional timing, on Veterans Day, day care was closed, but Ryan still had Kindergarten, so I'm stood outside with her in the stroller, loads of other parents around and she goes red and parps out what can only be described as the human equivalent of the "exxon valdez", I swear birds and seals died because of it.  Of course, we're 20 mins away from 'safety' so that was not much fun, and it was worse when I got her home, cue bath, clothes in the wash and several wipes before cleanliness was restored.  Still she gave me a winning smile when I was done so it was hard to do anything other than smile back.

Teething is her thing now though and unlike Ryan who basically did nothing other than pop them out, she seems to be struggling, hopefully it's soon going to be over and she'll be chomping through the much missed "BooSnacks" but until then it's lots of drool and tears.

Final thing, I've mentioned it before but please click on Jessica's blog, she has written about our baby journey previously but now it's far more kid orientated, and it's nice to see her perspective on the family.  Her blog is at : http://www.jch4dcu.blogspot.com/  and though I'm biased, well worth a read.

Thanks
J, J, R & H

Time for some random stuff

Kids are doing well, Cats? Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad - Jet just cost us over $500 which will be money well spent if it stops her leaving pee trails & Jetty truffles everywhere - (I say a brick, a bag & a lake will also solve it, but Jessica wants to throw $$$ at the problem first - must be the Democrat side of her coming out).

So having pondered for a couple of days what to write and been unable to stick to anything which I thought I could make somewhat entertaining or at least thought provoking.  I'm just going to randomly spout some stuff and maybe some of it sticks.

As some people may already know, my supported sports teams had a bad weekend last week - so bad in fact that 3 fired their managers/head coaches by Monday afternoon and surely England rugby will join the list now their participation is done in the World Cup.  Moral of the story - WIN YOU USELESS MUPPETS!  Or at least lose with some obvious effort/talent application.

Ryan's creativity still amazes me, his inability to eat without making a mess or sleep in his own bed infuriates me, but at least I have no problems with him going to school unlike a work colleague who virtually has to drag his kid along like an unwilling puppy.

Since I returned to work I've been kicking ass, seriously I've been battering issues & my workload for fun, I've even gone above & beyond to get things sorted for our team - why's that? Oh, it's time for our annual review so may as well get a good opinion fresh in the mind.  I did have 1 colleague tell me this week  "you asked for feedback but were not specific so what should I talk about?"  I replied "well when I asked in June we'd just completed the massive contract that I worked through and resolved over 2 years of billing snafus, I was hoping you'd comment on that.  Besides, when you asked me last month what I did on the contract I actually thought you wanted me to write my own feedback!" "Actually, good point, I'll use what you told me".....

I no longer work in the office that I've been in since day 1, much clearing of crap (not all mine), a little cleaning and I have to say a touch of sadness.  Not that it was a great office, middle of the building with no windows, no A/C and far too long a walk to the restroom for my liking, but you get used to your surroundings and it's been a good time.  Now I get to enjoy Cube Farm hell with a random seat each day - I'm moving round the floor to try to find the best location, ideally a window, but also no traffic & little disruption - it's going to be a culture shock for sure and I'm positive I'll be sending people Dilbert Cartoons to emphasize how irritating it can be.

Hannah, I'm sorry everyone says you look like me, how cruel can they be? Maybe you'll be like my colleague said and make the best out of my parts :) Everyone tells us how wonderful it is to see you smile and we definitely agree!  Even if you did your best "Jet" impression and managed a completely inappropriate epic mega-dump in Pet Smart this morning.

Hoping for some more creative genius to flow for next time!

J,J, R & H

50 days of play

So here's an update through the 50 days we've been a happy family of 4.

Hannah got to meet her extended family with multiple visitors including special overseas guests from the UK and that includes Alison because despite being an honorary Sweaty Sock, they're still technically the UK until the looney left demand another attempt to bugger off to Iceland.

It was a quiet week while the family were here, obviously baby wasn't even 4 weeks old so her routine was basically eat, sleep, sh!t, & repeat, but we managed to get the regular treks to Longhorn & Cheesecake factory in - I even managed to inadvertently eat Jessica's dessert.  I'll claim disorientation - 11:30 pm trek to the kitchen - as my 1st excuse and a willingness to assist in her shedding the baby weight as a lame 2nd, other than that, I'm out of ideas and can only claim to be a bit of a dumbass.  Sorry Jessica, we'll get you a new slice someday soon!

Dennis bravely fought the northern trek up I95 and even trusted the Garmin Satnav to get him back - I assume it worked though I'm unaware if he's been in contact, he may well have ended up in Ohio.

A minor thing to report, Hannah developed what we thought was a feeding blister on her lip, but her 6 week check up saw us told it's probably a hemangioma, which sounds bad when you find out that means "tumor" but it's actually a sort of blood vessel clot, it can turn nasty if left untreated but with prompt action may disappear on it's own by 5.  Can't confirm this just yet as we have a meeting next week with the pediatric dermatologist.

Ryan is off enjoying Kindergarten, he's settled in really well - not really a surprise given how he reacts to changes, but good to see.  He waits patiently for the doors to open and walks in towards his class with barely a look back, though I'm told today he needed his Mom to walk most of the way with him!  His new Fall T-Ball season begins tomorrow, he's a Mustang and gets a new blue kit, photos & report will surely follow.

His Spring Coach is with the team as a "parent" and his wife told me that she posted a video of her son getting a hit, the video clip found favor because Ryan was on 3rd and decided to run for home (as he should) ... backwards - best get the showboating out the way in t-ball kid, you'll get your mates plunked if you keep that up!

I was considering taking my life in my hands and talking a bit of politics, but generally that only serves to rile people up, I'll just say this - Most logical people would think if your party chose a particular position on the political spectrum and had it's ass handed to it because your point was considered too extreme, it would be utter madness to vote in a new leader who makes your previous position appear to be tame & quite timid in comparison.  Ironically enough on both sides of the pond it appears parties will quite likely take up these starting points, I doubt their political rivals are crying too much over this :-)

1 final thing - let's hope for a rousing rendition of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in the best 2003 traditions.  COME ON ENGLAND!

Till next time,

Family Hunt

What's in a name?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments on the safe & very welcome arrival of Hannah, she's doing really well and eating in the traditional "American" manner which is to say, very large portions, often!

So a quick blog effort this time solely to go into a little more detail as to the naming of this entertaining gathering of words.

As you'll know it was initially The Booster Blog, that name came from Ryan first showing a reaction to "Boo" as a tiny baby, it's the time I can recall he looked for & focused on a sound and smiled as he did it, from there we simply extended Boo to Booster as that encapsulated just about everything he did.... temper tantrum? Boostrop.  Number 2? Boop.  Destroy something? Boosterized it. Sleep? Boonap.  You get the idea.

Now Wiggles is a work in-progress,  and that's of course because Hannah loves to wiggle at all times, she obviously needs to burn the 1,000,000 calories she consumes daily, Jessica may not be 100% invested in it, but its better than "Mandrake" from Harry Potter & the Unnecessary Sequel (Google it - hardly flattering - /bad Mommy!).

So here we are Booster & Wiggles, here to stay, & very grateful we are too.

J,J,R&H

Happiness

Good Morning everyone,

Baby girl arrived safely & is perfectly healthy.  And a huge sigh of relief echoed across the OR as we heard her first cry.

Hannah Claire Hunt arrived at 9.51am, weighing in 7lbs 13oz so just an 1oz less than her big brother, who took great delight in announcing he had a sister at school that day.

Everything about her is great, she's eating well, pooping for the USA & is generally settling down for good naps.

So, why are we now on this blogspot?  Because Apple decided to run an update to their software which stopped iWeb - the portal we used for our website - functioning, no big deal, I simply kept Jessica's old Mac and used it only for the blog.  But it's now full, so the blog/website won't/can't update.  Which  is annoying when you've constructed a carefully considered prose which would make the greatest literary talents weep.  It's true and you can't deny it because you'll never see it - thanks Steve Jobs...Twat.

Now it's here, I spent quite a few hours copying across the whole legion of blog to it, and this meant I had to prove I'm not a robot to Google.... think I managed it.

So, for now I'm done.  I think all that really matters was covered in the first few lines!

Very happy to say, goodbye from J, J, R & H!

Final Prep underway

Originally posted July 12, 2015

Suddenly Baby Girl’s arrival has become imminent, in just 17 days she’ll be here, plans are in place and we’re still going to be running around like numpties in the final few hours - you can bet on that!

The crib is built and in the right location, we’ve stocked up on diapers and plenty of outfits, even Ryan is making allowances for her arrival.  He now asks for 2 cookies because “1 is for the baby”..... sneaky.

Wouldn’t be a Jessica pregnancy without the prospect of some late drama so in true tradition last weekend she decided to become jealous of my “stomach virus” and go a little better, while I was recovering pretty well by Monday, Jessica was still in no fit shape to consider any food or liquid.  Fortunately just as we were debating the need for a repeat of what happened 3 weeks before Ryan arrived, a 4am trip to hospital for IV, the worst passed and everything settled down.

Ryan is excited by the new arrival, I’m wondering if that excitement continues when he finds out she’ll be demanding more than 50% of the attention & when he vainly attempts to show off Rescue Bots or explain what Baymax is doing. 

He is getting to the stage when he is willing & able to do several things for himself, it’s become normal for him to do up his belts and he’s become more regular in his sleep patterns as he’s no longer getting naptime at daycare.  As that’s in the summer he’s getting to go to a water park each week, and this week went to see Potomac Nationals (Triple A for those who know what it means - effectively reserves if you don’t!)  I think he enjoyed the first baseball game he’s been aware of, he has of course been to Washington a few times already.

Has it really been 3 years since we lost Nathan?  That has gone by fast.  Obviously he’s always on our mind, but especially so as we get to this stage of pregnancy, we thought it’d be stressful, I don’t think we quite comprehended how tense it would be at times, but I know some people will say he’s looking out for his sister so that’s good enough for me to hang on to until she’s here.

For now, that’s enough updates for 3 of us, next time it’ll be with a new member of Team Boo.  Can’t wait!

J, J & R.

Does this work?

Originally posted June 14, 2015

Well it may seem like 10 weeks since our last entry, but that’s only because this wonderful Apple Product spat the dummy and refused to upload my last cultured effort.

Anyway, it seems like this will work so I’ll cull all the crap I wrote about our birthdays into 1 single line:  We all had good birthdays, especially Jessica who didn’t reach a milestone (in her mind at least).

Interestingly she’s found an app on her phone which shall we say, creates an enhanced image.  I say it should be called “Iron” because it removes all creases & wrinkles!

Ok, matters more recent include Ryan graduating Pre-K - pics up on Jessicas FB page. Ryan is also going to say goodbye to 2 of his good friends Zachary & Jimmy who are both moving into other areas of VA.  He’ll make new friends at school, and we’ve already seen some from Pre-K will join him as well.

Ryan completed his first T-Ball session, he really enjoyed it and we’ll be signing him up for the fall, he’s opened a new trophy cabinet for his collection as well.

Finally, we have an expected arrival date for our little one, in order to reduce the risks to her & Jessica should labor commence, the c-section is scheduled for 38 weeks, which will be July 29th.  This should enable everything to go smoothly and result in a very happy outcome.

Shortish & Sweet..... assuming no more CrapBook issues, the next edition should be up reasonably soon. 

PS: It’s got bloody hot!

Spring Sprung

Originally posted April 8, 2015

Well I’d forgotten it had been such a long time since our last entry so apologies for leaving it so long.

Important stuff first, baby 3 is doing very well indeed.  I mentioned that Jessica had schemed up a baby pool and the first results can be revealed - Ryan will have a sister, which he’s delighted about and is already planning on showing her Angry Birds, Rescue Bots and how to avoid eating anything remotely healthy.  We had to explain that for the first year or so she’s going to be a lump but I rather feel that will only become apparent to him once she gets here.

All relevant data on B3 is good, nothing to be overtly concerned about and after 1 or 2 nasty moments including a necessary trip down a very snowy road to get a check up just because the doppler wasn’t behaving I think we’re settled in for the long run now.  No info on names at this stage, though I think we’ve plumped for a decisive selection which Jessica is busily assuring relatives will be on the lines of “Prudence Clementine”.......

As for Ryan, he’s doing rather well as well, his speech is still a work in progress, but after nearly 3 years we’ve almost cracked the real back of it, though he’s still a little troubled by a few combinations.

His swimming is still inching along, he’s now confident enough to go underwater on his terms which scares Jessica because he tends to stay down quite some time.  As it’s the summer his new adventure is T-Ball which has already provided some fun in his training sessions, as the youngest there, Ryan has already got the  coach’s mental label of “most likely to not pay attention” but he did show progress by session 2 and that’s good, next stop is hitting the ball and running - something the Nationals could also practice if Game 1 is the season mantra.

By the way this is an odd time for an entry and it’s because I’m waiting on my company to update data in our accounting system to allow us to invoice - so far we’re likely to lose 7 billing days out of the 20 initially scheduled, of course the work load won’t decrease so it’s a fair bet that a> weekends will be less at home than usual & b> Overtime is going to be in play - woohoo!

That’s useful because we had to get the car inspected/emission passed last month and it turned out a sensor had gone to shit, and the 30 mins taken to replace it would be $75 and the $225 for the part made it pricey.  Fortunately the screw in the rear tire was repairable and the intermittent light cluster issue resolved itself just in time to get a ‘pass’.  Factor in the $125 for the license plate (worth it without question) and some lingering health costs, it’s a very expensive month or 2 for us.

Never mind, birthdays coming up and one of us has a “Biggie”.

It’s Ryan of course, where has that sweet little boy from the photo gone?  Answers on a postcard to:

Did he get swapped at 18 months?

C/O Jessica.

Thanks

J, J, R & B3.

No joke, it's finally here!

Originally posted January 29, 2015

It’s finally time for the first booster blog of 2015, why the delay you may ask and the answer is quite simple.

Daddy’s fault.

That, apparently is the new 42 - the answer to everything.  It could probably solve chaos theory though I suspect Ryan is responsible for 90% of that in our house, and would only be stumped by the inadequacies of the ACA.  That’s right, a plan to make things more affordable sees families in a position where they need to find $2,000 or more in the first two months of the year... flawed? Oh yeah.

Anyway, moving on Ryan would like to announce some news and this is fundamentally the reason for the wide gap between entries.  He’s going to be a big brother!  After lots of pain & frustration, not to mention some serious financial outlay it turns out all we needed was time.  We’ve left it till now for a formal mention despite knowing since before Christmas because, well you all should be able to work out why. 

So, everything looks good & we’ve had some early genetic testing done which has put us in a position where we know a lot more about Baby 3 than we would normally, this has allowed Jessica to be her usual cunning self and set up a baby hunch pool.  So far we’ve had a lot of entrants and everyone is either right or wrong, time will tell. 

Jessica refused to put in my option of saying “50% ENGLISH” which was rude but made me think we’ll do a sneaky DNA test just to check for awesomeness!

Other than that, right now I’m staring out an impending snowstorm, which tops off the fact it’s colder than a reception from my ex-mother in law, previously when I saw a temp of 10 it’s really ok, now I’m seeing 1 0r 2 and thinking this is when Capt Oates said he was “going outside” - (Not true I know, but bloody Florida was bitching cos it was 40 so if they can exaggerate, so can I!)

Ryan continues to progress with speech, when he concentrates, the same as swimming though he’s finding it hard to trust now that he sometimes goes out of his depth - it’ll come, just needs time.

Well obviously nothing else matters till August, but we’ll keep in touch and shortly may have more interesting information.

Be good, and wrap up.

J, J, R & B3.

Ryan's Recap

Originally posted December 22, 2014

Well as Ryan hasn’t featured much in this blog recently I thought we’d make this last one before Christmas exclusively all about him.

So, what has happened to him this year? He began by starting a new school, Jessica was concerned how he may settle in, she needn’t have worried, quickly making friends and finding the move no stress at all.

His speech therapy continued, he now rides the bus twice a week during school time to go to his soon-to-be elementary school and he’s kept going to his private sessions with Kristen.  The change has been amazing, as his confidence grows in his ability to communicate he regularly leaves us pondering the days “when he said nothing and it was so peaceful!”  There’s still a few little kinks to iron out, but overall he’s almost up to par which is amazing given he was 14 months behind when he began at 2.

Ryan’s decided to add a few lumps & bumps over the year, a repeated impact to his left side of his forehead has seen a nasty swelling on at least 3 occasions - hopefully thats one thing to grow out of in 2015!

The year has seen him develop more interest in toys, first of all an interest in Transformers - Rescue Bots saw repeated viewing of a 2o minute DVD (sigh) we were very grateful to move him back to The Incredibles, Cars or Wall-E.  Next up was Minecraft after some problems understanding what he meant, a quick trip to Target saw the beginning of a collection.

It’s safe to say Ryan is quite talented in constructing things, and is happy drawing Wall-E, Eve & especially skeletons.  He’s able to make remarkably well thought out lego shapes with no intervention from us. 

The skeletons are linked to his favorite holiday, Halloween.  Singing along to the songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and telling us how he’s drawn Jack the Pumpkin King he really enjoyed trick or treating with some school friends, he even braved going into a haunted “garage”!

After a few struggles, the alphabet is now his most regular go-to song along with randomly quoting some numbers and slowly getting to work out time (a theory that will definitely need some working on).  He’s now totally comfortable spelling & writing his full name which he’s very proud of.

He is very, very excited about Christmas, he helps turn on the tree lights each night and can’t wait to raid the advent calendar - I think he believes Santa’s seen he’s been a good boy so he’ll do well on Thursday I think.

Ryan has begun to ask some difficult questions, he’s realized some of his friends have brothers & sisters and wants to have one, we’ve begun to explain some of the story of Nathan but he’s much too young to understand it fully of course.  He has decided he wants a sister though - maybe 2015 could see some developments to keep him & us happy.

I keep getting told not to teach him bad things, but it’s too tempting to wind him up at times “I’m not a numpty Daddy!” and “pffftttt, Mommy farted!” are humorous, but his uncanny ability to mimic things & people will see him in good stead at the right times I think.  Especially if he can continue to work on his Mommy impression.

Goals for 2015 will be getting him to have a full nights sleep in his room, going to school in August and working on his swimming class so that he can be more confident & capable in the water.

Well that’s it for this year, we managed to be a little more consistent with our reporting, of course Jessica diverted her time to her own blog which is full of more important stuff than my half-assed efforts, but without this, how would you know what we’ve been up to?

Have a great Christmas, I’m sure you’ve been behaving so Santa doesn’t have you on the naughty list even though most of you definitely belong on the permanently dodgy scroll and I hope 2015 proves to be a full kick ass year!

Best Wishes,

J, J & especially Ryan Scott Hunt

Turkey, Tantrums & T-Rex

Originally posted November 30, 2014

We’re recovering from the usual onslaught of Turkey & trimmings pondering the logic of a country that tramples, fights & battles for items less than 24 hours after they give thanks for all that they have.....

I spoke about Black Friday and the slow erosion of a so-called family day by stores that are always trying to one-up each other last year so I’ll skip that view because little has changed.

So, the feast was a success, even the political talk was kept to a minimum which qualifies as more of a miracle!  No-one spent anytime throwing up the next day either so all went well.

Ryan is currently enthused by the idea of T-Rex, when he’s throwing a tantrum - often instigated by his dad merely looking at him - a showing on YouTube of Walking with Dinosaurs quickly calms him down.  What’s somewhat entertaining is to see him stalking around as a T-Rex would, he even pulls his arms back and sticks his fingers out just as he imagines the dinosaur did.

He’s getting more excited about the prospect of Santa coming to visit, he needs to be reminded that Santa is always watching him and bad boys don’t get presents.  That works for a minute or so until his mind drifts off to the next scene of impending doom.

Ryan is exceptionally creative though, right now I’m looking at 4 colorful lego “Minecraft Skeletons” alongside a lego “T-Rex” all created by him with no prompting from us.  Hopefully he can keep that interest and desire to make things for many years.

A quick report this time, we’ll do our best to get 1 more in before Christmas.

Have fun,

J,J & R.

Veterans, Votes & Elections

Originally posted November 11, 2014

Today is a holiday in honor of veterans day, its nice to see the people who serve their country getting full respect, something that isn’t always the case in England - though I did note that the various poppy ceremonies seemed to be better respected this year but maybe thats down to it being 100 years since WW1 began.  Working for a company that places high value on its military connections and has a large majority of staff with service backgrounds ensures this day is properly respected & understood.

So, we enjoyed Halloween though Ryan had to resort to his IronMan costume as his Optimus Prime one will probably fit him when he’s 10.  We rumbled round the neighborhood for 90 mins or so and tagged on with some of his school friends so he suddenly got brave and began running up to each door - he even went into a haunted garage which is more than his friends did.

The first opportunity to vote came round, which I jumped at - at least I have a right to bitch about politics now!  As I’d sorted my registration with the new address I only needed to go across the road to vote, Jessica was less organized and ended up voting in Fairfax County.  VA ended up being a close run election which probably did little other than show the general dissatisfaction with how the current political landscape is playing out.  It’s probable that neither party provides the answer, but sitting on the fence accomplishing little or nothing isn’t what it’s about either.

One of the forthcoming decisions we face is our Medical Cover elections... as a result of the absurdly named Affordable Care Act, it’s common practice for companies to be switching to High Deductible plans.  As we’re with BAH plans we have no choice but to select something new and from initial checks it seems our premium remains similar, but our family deductible (what we pay before insurance kicks in) is much, much higher than before.  Of course all of this was predicted to be the situation, its possible that some knowledge of this influenced the various voting patterns in the elections.  I doubt anyone can legitimately gripe about people getting coverage and being able to afford it, but I can’t agree with anyone who says it’s affordable when you factor in a premium & deductible that can cost as much as $12,000 per year - I suggest if people could pay that, then they’d have had insurance in the first place.  It’s a bit like the Prius, probably needed, probably a good idea & theory.... just flawed when it’s not put to work correctly.

We’ve been in this house over a year - that time has zipped by.  Feels like barely yesterday Jessica was chuffing her guts and I was lumping boxes.... we’ve had the odd blip recently, all the lightbulbs in the kitchen clearly had a year lifespan because they needed to be replaced, the fridge bulb joined the club of fail and the front door lock sheared off and it too needed replacing.  Oh well, better now than at Xmas. 

Which of course Ryan is looking forward to immensely - “I want this for Christmas.”  “I want Minecraft Christmas” etc etc.  We’ll see what Santa brings, at least this year he’s behaved unlike his mother, she’s been evil all year, plotting & scheming against me - payback is coming.  And that’s all I’m going to say!

Till next time,

J, J & R.

House Arrest

Originally posted October 11, 2014

Well that was a fun filled few weeks.... as hinted at in the last entry, my parents came across as part of a vacation tour.

Experiencing the very best of Southern Customs they managed to visit more states (possibly) than I’ve done in 5 years, even more impressive my mum managed to understand almost 25% of the words said to her!

I collected them from IAD on the Tuesday and took them to collect Ryan, he didn’t know they were coming so his reaction when he saw them at his class window was one of shock, he was happy though especially as Grandad drew him a cartoon picture every day on his magna-doodle, of course Ryan being a thug saw the pictures barely last 30 secs before they were erased.

Potential plans for more expansive plans were sort of put on hold as Jessica first came down with a bad cough, later diagnosed as Bronchitis and Ryan was equally snotty.  The parents couldn’t really handle the pace so made use of the washing machine and wifi to read the latest book or fantasy stories from the Daily Mail.

We did manage to scramble out on the Saturday to go down to the Joe Gibbs fair, Ryan had a fun time on the bouncy castles and making piles with trucks in the corn pit - it’s like a sand pit but with corn obviously!  A couple of trips out including to Otani for an anniversary special (not ours, theirs! 43 years.... less for murder as they liked to say and I’m not sure who won out of that deal - probably they both deserve each other!!!)

After we kicked them back home to enjoy the house to ourselves the illnesses continued and Ryan had a disrupted week with little school time, the Wednesday in particular was highlighted by him coming in off the playground having worked up quite a sweat.  What convinced the teachers to give him milk, which he chugged, followed by oranges with the inevitable technicolor yawn that resulted is a mystery to me.  Oddly he managed to be fine for Cookie Friday, surely a coincidence!

Just also want to take this opportunity to give hugs & a shout out to Jessica, the past few weeks have been quite tough with things mentioned here & others that are not, at the forefront of our minds.  She’s a brave girl, not only for being with me, but for dealing with all the crap that is coming her way.  Hugs always!

Till next time.

J,J&R.

Back to school

Originally posted September 6, 2014

Warning!  Flood alert in Loudon County scheduled for September 2015.

That’s right, in a year Ryan will be heading off for his first day at Kindergarten and Jessica will be crying.  So will I, but it will be from happiness :)

In the meantime we’re working on our reading & writing skills.... and so is Ryan.  Only a few tantrums and timeouts required but that’s enough about me.  I’m not convinced creating guns from lego forms part of the curriculum, but if it does, Ryan’s got at least 1 A grade subject! 

Picture above is because both Poof & Thug Cat celebrate birthdays this month, Poof is now 9 and Jake turns 5. They certainly seem to be still full of the energy and not showing too many signs of slowing down unlike Jet who is most definitely more dopey than before.

As we’re into September we’re wondering what happened to summer, sure we had several hot days, but last year 10-15 days went over 100 and I can’t recall 1 this year, maybe it’s a rollover from the long winter but early indications say this next winter will also be a pig so we’ll see.  At least now we’re getting the occasional storm which saves me having to bother watering the plants.

Rumor has it we’ll be getting some special guests at the end of the month, Ryan doesn’t know this yet so he’ll enjoy the surprise.

Short & sweet this time. 

J,J&R

Special anniversary edition

Originally posted August 7, 2014

Ryan’s looking for a mention of him, well today’s entry isn’t going to feature him much at all - tough luck kid, deal with it.

This Friday is our 5th anniversary, that’s right - Jessica has (just about) tolerated me for 5 years - some may say brave, some may say foolish but you should all congratulate her on this achievement!

So to get to here, what happened?  You know, way back, before multiple moves, hurricanes, derecho’s, flooding, plane crashes & vandalism in the neighborhood, jobs we like, jobs we hate(d), redundancy, before Ryan, before a tank masquerading as a car its only saving grace being the best goddamn license plate ever (FACT!) Before Nathan and all that entailed, before Jake, before Nuggy & even before Swine Flu.... that’s right, we’ll go back to the beginning.

It was a typical grim & cold January night, a Thursday so I had the joys of soccer training to look forward to, an activity that while fun & social was becoming more & more of a hardship to recover from.  I had time to spare so loaded up the PC and found a soccer site I’d recently begun surfing, on this site you can create a profile and I happened to see 1 with a grainy poor-res photo.... SoccerGirl was the member name... aha, a Yank, and a woman (probably - it’s the internet after all).  A quick profile browse and all I knew was a rough age range, approx location of DC and a fan of DC United, who I’d heard of, but only on the basis they’d won a few things.

I moved on, only for my personal message notifier to sound an ominous warning - You have 1 new message!.. from SoccerGirl titled “Caught you peeking!”

Ah, this site allows members to view who’s looked at their profile... oh well, could be rude & ignore but what the hell, we obviously have something in common and she’s clearly got confidence & is cheeky.  I can buy into that.  So I reply.

PM’s go back & forward, time flies and suddenly I realize I have to run.  Well, it’s been nice, but I have to go and so long.  Maybe we’ll speak again, but probably not.

I go training, virtually die... honest, I got trampled by a Hippo.. and come home, shower & impulsively switch the PC back on.  SoccerGirl is offline, shame, but a quick PM to say thanks for the chat, good to know someone in USA has a bit of an idea, hope to catch up again for more chats is quickly sent.  As I shut down the PC, I hear the message signal... Damn... it’s nearly midnight.  Oh well, load it back up.  Chat more.  Then realize it’s not a small chat, it’s still midnight, just it’s midnight in DC, and that means without having had any sleep yet, I’m due at work in 2 hours or so.  Bloody woman! 

Our next chat is shared as we watch from opposite sides of the atlantic Man City smash the scum, over time we share more emails and drift away from the site to more direct communication.  Still separated by 3500 miles, it’s not going anywhere is it?

18 months later Jessica told me she was coming to London.  A meet-up was arranged only for me to get food poisoning, like a soldier I manned up and met up 48 hours after we originally planned.  The rest as they say is history.....

I have to mention my family & friends.  I guess I was probably a bit hard to cope with over the previous 5 years or so, I know I didn’t handle the whole “marriage 1” well, because well, when you’re 28 and divorced after 18 months, somethings got to crack to allow steam & stress to creak out.  Perhaps that’s why people were happy for me to leave UK! - In hindsight who I am today & where I am is all because of that, but it’s also because I had support & understanding when I needed it.  There’s too many to mention, but if you read this, you know who you are and how important to me you are.  You enabled me to be happy and I’ll always be indebted to you all.

Obviously the biggest shout-out goes to Jessica, she initiated all of this, sure I stuck around for a while hoping for her to see the blatantly clear fact we should be together to sink in, but in reality the amount of work she put in to get me here, the patience when I couldn’t get a job and the strength to cope with all the baby related ills astounds me.  I’m amazed at the shit sandwich life has often thrown her way, and proud of how she stands up to it all.  Ryan is a lucky boy, and he’ll know his Dad is a lucky man.

Ironically given the midnight references, it’s almost that time again, and it seems appropriate to leave this there.

With lots of love & gratitude to my very own “Warmonger”!

Transforms into......

Originally posted July 19, 2014

A quick entry today as we bring you up to speed with all things Boo & family related.

Well, we enjoyed the world cup, at least Jessica enjoyed her side’s performances whereas I was quietly resigned to lame defending costing England at critical times.  It’s good to see a continued growth of the game here & it’s rightfully making inroads into the sports coverage.

Ryan is now back and swimming each Sunday morning, it’s only a short 30 minute session but it’s a small group and he’s enjoyed it so far.  The best news is the water is warm enough to keep him happy even though he ends up shivering when he gets out.  Far better than the previous pool 18 months ago when even I got cold in it.

His current favorite activity is “Transformers - Rescue Bots”... these Transform into various things such as trucks, police cars & helicopters.  He’s very much addicted to the video we have, sadly it’s only 22 mins long - I guess it’s a TV slot type of cartoon - and he’s watched it 100+ times at least.  We finally managed to convince him to at least return to Wall-E in the car.

Ryan has decided everything transforms, even the cats...Poof is an ambulance because he’s predominantly white, Jet is Batman’s car and Jake is, well we’re not sure, maybe something like a magic carpet!

His speech continues to improve & school is even trying to give him incentive to try new foods, we’ll be anxiously seeing what we can learn & implement here.

His bedtime tricks are showing new levels of cunning, right now he’s heading up to bed with Mom, only to come down about 15 mins later when she’s asleep.  After maybe 30 mins with me, he announces he’s “So tired!” and volunteers to go to his bed.  Great you think, & you’d be wrong..... because when I go to bed, his door is now open and he’s asleep in our bed.

So I move him back to his bed.  And go to sleep.  To be woken by a boo-foot in the face at 2am because he’s come back to our bed.

Ryan clearly transforms into a ............!

Till next time,

J, J & R.

PS: if you’re interested in Jess’ thoughts - read her blog.

All too old for this.......

Originally posted June 7, 2014

Yes, it’s been over 2 months since the last update and I know you’re all anxiously checking on a regular basis for updates so now you can rest easy because here it is!

Ok, so why the long break, well so much has happened of course, we wouldn’t leave family & friends hanging for no good reason.  We’re all a year older... except Jessica, but then we know math isn’t her strongest asset. (Yeah, she’s a year older but apparently it doesn’t count....)

My family made a trek over to see us specifically for my birthday - they decided Ryan & Jessica didn’t matter and buggered off before their special days.  They even dragged Alison or Maggot as Ryan swiftly learned to call her, out of her slum before Scotland becomes properly isolated from England. 

Jessica was cunning and decided to throw me a special party, this meant I had to be out of the house for the day... like all flawed plans though the start time of 6 was delayed as we didn’t get back till 7.30 and by then everyone was comatose from waiting.  Still it was a good night and plenty of people were able to discuss the rivalry between two billing departments.

I’ve also finally become an official BAH employee, wasn’t quite as trouble-free as you may expect but all in all now I’m fully kitted out and have the sort of access & software that will enable me to complete my workload in my usual high standard.  As expected the insurance coverage is first class with the minor niggle that speech therapy isn’t covered - sadly that means Jessica will still have to “think” she can speak in an English accent.  Ryan will drop to 1 session a week but his progress speech wise is going really well - he can still say “No”, and “What?” at inopportune times though! 

Other skills are lagging a little, but with some solid work he can close that gap as well and almost appear normal, his party was a success though Walmart somehow managed to come up with a cake saying Happy Birthday 4th Stan.....they really are as much use as a chocolate fireguard.  Hasty scraping and re-icing followed so we at least had his name on it. 

World Cup is coming and Jessica is naturally excited about the USA’s chances.... maybe this year she’ll watch the games instead of taking to the bath because she can’t handle the stress.  This time though I won’t be able to barge in & yell “Donavan, last minute - you win the group!” and she won’t be able to tell me I’m full of BS..... not sure on the decision to leave him out, but I honestly don’t think it will matter, its a tough group and it’s more likely they get 0 points, than the 4 that will be needed at a minimum to get out. Frankly a repeat of the 2002 win over Portugal will make my day and I suspect Woof, Sac & Monkey’s. England could easily be in the same boat, you’d expect them to get at least a win vs Costa Rica so it comes down to Italy & Uruguay, even if they scrape through a probable QF vs Spain awaits and that will almost certainly be the end of the road.

So my upset radar says Chile are highly rated and playing in their own continent so maybe they could upset Holland, predicted to go further is Belgium as they do have a young emerging team, but this is probably a World Cup too soon for them.  As for a winner, somewhat regrettably I’m picking Argentina.  Very soft draw should it play out, Brazil will most likely face all European teams in the KO rounds - something like Holland, Italy, Germany and the tension in the final should they get there will be too much. 

Biggest work has gone into the front yard where after some assistance from foreign labor - didn’t even need to go to Home Depot for it (thanks Mum & Dad!).  We now have the path lined by fancy brickwork, with a nice little flower bed running down one side, up by the front window a few nice plants are now in place with better soil and sealed off by another row of bricks.  Principle idea is to stop the flow of mud & crap down our garden across our path where it pools until it drains leaving loads of mud and clay and an unpleasant mess.  So far, it’s not done badly.  Finally I finished the basics today, now we wait for the seeding to take in the grass and then it will look at least respectable.  By the way, the hard part was about an inch below the surface was solid clay.... it’s been a long time since I shed that much weight through sweat alone, and now I remember why.  It’s going to be worth it in the end but seriously, I am too old for this....

Till next time.

J, J & R.

Spring has sprung - Finally!

Originally posted March 29, 2014

So much for seeing an end to the snow, we even got a light dusting on Tuesday, I say light only because it didn’t settle though it snowed all day.  Right now it’s scheduled to be just wet so perhaps it’s all done for winter.  Of course people will soon be bitching about 95+ temps in summer.  No pleasing some!

Ok, first things first.  No new additions planned this month, first round of treatment didn’t work as those of you who follow Jessica’s blog will already know.  We’ll see what, if anything can be learned from it and see if we can get a better set of odds for attempt 2.

My news is good news :)  I am currently in final formalities to become permanent at Booz, yay!  It’s quite odd how it occurred though, early in the month Booz went through “Budget Conciliation” - PC term for laying people off.  One of those who was affected was my group leader, sad to see him go as he’d been a nice guy to work with but being honest he’d already voiced his concern & fear that he was vulnerable should cuts be coming.  Our division boss called an all-hands meeting and made it clear we were a> inside budget parameters & b> anyone leaving would be replaced - good news for me I thought as I was the only temp employee still remaining.  Later that day, someone accepted an offer elsewhere and a few days later I got called into a private room and made a verbal offer which I was glad to accept.  Of course it needed to be kept quiet because if the circumstances but all is now out and if things go as they should - officially I will get full employment around April 7th.

I have to do orientation and other sort of stuff, which seems odd given I’ve been there for 10 months already, but protocol is protocol.  We were expecting to go into “Hoteling” in 2 weeks, but that was put on hold on Thursday which could be concerning, but we’ll see how that pans out.

Moving on - Man Utd HA HA HA!  That’s three, which is clearly a good number for any team going there and whipping their ass!  David Moyes is clearly a genius, and that banner (which it was so tempting to use as a picture here - and should Liverpool win the title, it will be!) is top drawer.

Jessica is now really chuffed cos the motor racing season is now fully underway, not happy at the 4am starts though that allows me to write this now, she’ll be even unhappier when the races start at 9am!  By the way, F1 engines sound crap.  I recall taking guests to a race a few years back and saying the thing they’ll always recall is the noise, couldn’t do it now and that’s a shame.  As is any driver basically having his car break down before the start. It won’t last as the teams development is immense, but it’s a mockery of the sport’s claims to be the pinnacle right now.

Ryan is doing well thanks for asking, he’s still enjoying his films having added The Incredibles & now Frozen to his viewlist.  He does like to recreate the “Spider” from The Incredibles, though copying it bashing itself in the head isn’t the smartest move.

Less than 4 weeks till my parents womble across the Atlantic - early this year because I think they’ve made allowances as they want to see Ryan before he’s 4. Nothing else of any consequence is happening that might force them to come over, honest.

We recalled that it’s now been 4 years since we lost Super Nuggy and inherited Jake the thug - as said before we’re glad Thug is with us, it will always be a shame about Nugget though and he’ll always be in our thoughts at this time of year.

Have fun!

J,J & R.

Wrecking, Snow & Speech

Originally posted February 13, 2013

Well, a short break between blogs and that’s because we’ve been rather active in the “unusual things that happened to us” field.

Lets start with a bang,,, literally!  Tuesday we were the unpleasant 2nd car in a 4 car crash.  A line of vehicles had stopped, and for unknown reasons a young Toyota driver decided that brakes weren’t a requirement, she’d use the 4Runner ahead of her instead.  It was effective, it stopped her fast, sadly he then moved forward and wiped us out, and we got punted to lightly tag the car in front of us.  The damage to us was frankly stunning, the whole rear was basically shortened by a considerable distance and the front bumper was damaged enough to need a repair.  Fortunately there was no injuries (other than an odd bruise & abrasion) and Ryan had been dropped at school so he didn’t have to deal with a shock.  We;ll see what the estimators say, as long as our awesome plate is recoverable, all will be good.

Snow.... a lot of it, came overnight and that necessitated a dig out of our rental, 90 mins later and a fair few pounds (from me, not snow) had been shifted.  Most surprising, Ryan wanted to play in the snow.... he has always hated the cold & snow, so this was a real shock, but he went out onto the decking as I made him a reasonably small “snow ghost” - he turned it into a skeleton later - I have no idea how you do that, I’ll bow to a kids active imagination.

I think it’s time we give a quick update on speech because Ryan is now pretty active at having a conversation with us.  Most amusing is when he states categorically what will happen. “I go pee-pee, I get cookie, ok!” “Dadda, you go work, I stay with Mommy, ok!” He’s also regularly running through the house doing an “IRON MAN” impression, or a “Hulk SMASH!” and often requests “I watch Skeleton Movie, please” (Which we all know is The Nightmare Before Christmas) - He even tries to sing along as phrases come up he’s familiar with.  It wouldn’t be right for me to finish without mentioning that he also says “You wipe my butt...” after he’s used the potty. <-- Jessica is proud of this!

Speaking of Jessica, she’s writing her blog again- sniff, she obviously isn’t prioritizing here :(  Anyway, we are going through some interesting things which are quite personal to her and that’s why I’ve not blogged it here, but as it’s out there & if it’s on the net, it must be true!  You can follow along on www.jch4dcu.blogspot.com be warned though, if you venture back far enough you’ll see she meets some English guy.  Never trust a foreigner, all they do is come here, steal jobs and disrupt the gene pool.

Hopefully soon we’ll be updating with more positive news on the car and other things, and we won’t be under siege from the winter weather.

J,J &R.

Great Expectations

Originally posted January 20, 2014

Hi everyone & welcome to the first Booster Blog of 2014!

We decided to keep our thoughts to ourselves prior to Xmas (or couldn’t be bothered to commit anything to here - you decide) but suffice to say we survived, even my cooking! 

All is tidied away now so we can now tell you all about it.  First of all, Ryan’s new school is going well, he’s taken to it really well and has settled in better than we could have hoped.  He’s made new friends, and though the cold weather has stopped him enjoying the play area, the times he’s made it outside he’s had lots of fun.

Oh, the weather.  ******* cold isn’t it? Not too much snow so far though, we did have a couple of “snow” days which meant Jessica could stay at home and be whining to me about “Ryan is annoying me, please come home”. You’ll be pleased to know I made a huge sacrifice.... and arrived home early.  5 minutes early actually, which owed more to lack of traffic than any willingness to be unusually helpful!

The title of today’s entry refers to Ryan’s belief that “he asks, he gets”.  I can’t really tell him it doesn’t work that way when it’s clear his Mom works to the same belief system.  He knew Santa was coming, but insisted that he took delivery of his presents in advance. This meant that steadily his Xmas day was looking bleaker than David Moyes chances of winning a trophy for the scum this year (ha-ha-ha).

Anyway, his big wish was for “Angry Birds Star Wars” which as he actually said to us (huge AHHHH! moment) we decided he’d definitely get.  And then 2 days before we get “Angry Birds Space.... Santa?” Ok, “I thought you wanted Angry Birds Star Wars?”... “No, Angry Birds Space”.  Sigh. 

Yes he got both.  Spoiled Child.

It gets worse.

He’s had a stuffed Wall-E for ages, he likes it, but he wanted a stuffed “Eve” the co-star.  Well just after Xmas we found Eve at a reasonable price (read - GIFT CARD! - Thanks Parents!) and put in an order.  On the first Friday at school as we picked him up, Ryan runs to us and drags Jessica to a part of the classroom and gleefully holds up a tiny “Eve” figurine.  After much fussing at being told to leave it, the teacher said he could take it home.  We get home and stuffed Eve is waiting in a box.  It’s like buses.

He then says “I need M-O” - the 3rd character.  We’ve been strong so far (understand it’s a tough toy to find!).

It gets worse.

He wanted an Iron Man toy, he got 1 at Xmas.  Then he saw a Spiderman so we got that as well.  This week he wanted Hulk.  Yes he got that as well.   On the flip side we may have saved him hurting himself, it’s not copying Spiderman firing off his webbing, or Iron Man flying around and giving the “stop” signal, it’s the running and jumping onto his knees and “HULK SLAM” of his hands onto any solid object that makes us wince.  If spoiling him rotten saves his knees & hands from surgery we’ve done well!

So Xmas was a success in our new house, we even worked out what was making Jet crap on the carpet --- she wanted to go into Paul’s room and was showing her disgust at not being allowed in.  I think that’s conclusive proof she’s gone mental, no sane living creature wants to set foot in the room of doom!

Till next time.

J,J & R.

Oooh, Shiny!

Originally posted December 7, 2013

Ok, I know it’s been nearly 8 weeks since we last updated, but this is a biggie!  We moved!  Yes that’s right, having lived in the same house for my last 8 years in UK, I’m now on my 4th address in 4 years here.  Sigh. I guess Yanks have itchy feet, might explain why they invade every country possible!

We're now in a location in Potomac Falls (actually Sterling, but snobbery over-rules honesty).  To be fair, we got a super nice place, it’s a 4 bedroom town house for a rent that’s actually lower than the apartments wanted and we’re locked in for 3 years.  The bonus of this is it will get Ryan into the Loudon school system which has good reviews and should be good for him.

Speaking of Ryan, oh he can speak now... oh yes he can.  The cheeky little sod.  Favorite phrase is “Stop nagging me Mommy” (not encouraged by me, not at all - I’m too busy laughing). Less popular with me is the “No, you stop it” whenever I tell him something.   Gets it from his mother obviously. 

He’s working on our names... Jessa, Honey & Booster - but he does know he’s actually Ryan before I get grief from my parents.  He’s going to be moving schools at the end of the year as we have a pre-school virtually opposite us and that will enable him to get settled prior to actual school, some of his friends may be missed, some less so. But I think we’ll catch up with them in a few years when they pop up on America’s Most Wanted.

We’re getting ready for Xmas of course, the tree is dominating the room and has already been attacked by Poof.  He’s not the most badly behaved cat, that honor is reserved for Jet who’s decided not to use the litter box on a regular basis.  We’re not happy, at this rate I think the odds on a foot/cat’s ass collision are rapidly shrinking.

The move actually went pretty well, fortunately we were able to get an overlap on the leases, so we moved a lot of stuff over, then did the full move and spent the next week clearing up & throwing out.  Jessica was struggling to think of a way to dodge the work - having already used the “I give birth in 4 days” card - she was low on options as it was quite a quick decision, so she played it safe by installing a virus.  This led to simultaneous data dumping from alternate external ports and an eventual shut down in the debris of the bathroom.  Husband tried to be sympathetic, but was more concerned with the additional memory drain he’d just inherited.  The good news is that full working order was restored just as the work was complete, I know you all share my joy that was the case & I’m truly glad it wasn’t as much of a shambles as the Obamacare website :)

We’ll see what we can come up with prior to Xmas, but in the event of nothing happening, we hope you all have a great time & a very happy New Year!

J,J & R.

Personal Recollections

Originally posted October 16, 2013

Ok, first up... a confession.  This isn’t going to be the usual blog... wait, don’t go back to browsing Daily Mail or anything, I’ll still update you on Jessica & Ryan, it’s just that today is going to be about me, and how I’m feeling.

Selfish? Yeah, probably.  But I bother to write this so here goes.

Jessica & Ryan are fine, we’re moving in 3 weeks - still staying in north VA and packing is already underway, I’ll discuss more when we are settled in on the next entry.  Furloughs have been hitting us a little bit, Jessica has 2 days vacation to fit in, but so far I’m surviving.... but if the Washington Numpties don’t pull their fingers out, we’ll all be in the brown stuff!

Now, to my thoughts (plural - hoorah!)

Motor Racing films have been a mixed bunch over the years, Grand Prix was excellent, Le Mans so-so, Winning was pretty good, and Driven was more accurate as Drivel.  Senna was a documentary which was excellently done, though a little too much of a whitewash for fans, and Ron Howard’s recent film Rush - principally about my namesake and his battle with Niki Lauda in 1976 - has got rave reviews.

So how’s this for a film idea:  Young hopeful leaves his home country at 20, travels to USA in search of racing stardom, slowly working his way up the ladder he breaks into the top echelon of open-wheel sport in America.  He embraces the biggest race and makes it his goal to win the Indy 500.  In 2005 he fulfills that dream, and also becomes series champion that year. 

He turns down an opportunity to return to Europe and drive as part of an F1 team, preferring to stay where his heart is.  But slowly his career seems to be stumbling, by the end of 2010 his career reaches a low point, released by his team he is obligated to sue them to pay his salary.  He begins 2011 as an ex-driver, too sure of his talents to drop to the lower end of the field, the opportunity will come his way he’s certain.

An old team-mate offers a shot at Indy, the team barely qualified last year so it’s not much of a shot is it?  But the driver makes it work, quick from the first lap at the track, it looks like he’s not quite going to have the fairytale result as he’s 2nd going into the final lap, trailing a rookie driving for the team he’s just sued.  The final corner sees disaster for the rookie, “He’s hit the wall”..... our hero comes past the wreckage to win.  The next night he’s on a popular talk show, “You’re now unemployed” says the host.  “Thanks for reminding me!” is the response to applause from the audience.

Towards the end of the season rumors are a new drive may be lined up, he’s spent the season driving the 2012 car and testing it, it’s supposed to be much safer and give better racing.  He’s a hot commodity once more.  Would he like to drive for a $5million prize at Las Vegas? Hell, forget the prize, he’ll drive because that’s what he does, it’s who he is.

On the day of the race a new contract is lined up, the signature driver in the series is moving on, a lime green car with a very good team awaits in 2012.  Everyone is delighted that he’s going to be back full-time, even the broadcast network is pleased, even though he had got stellar reviews as a co-commentator in the season.

Is that the Hollywood ending?  I suppose it could be.  Maybe he wins that final race and pockets the $$$ and spends time with his wife & 2 young sons.  It would re-write history though. 

Sadly Dan Wheldon didn’t get to drive the 2012 Go-Daddy Indycar, he died in a horrific crash that day in Las Vegas.  2 years ago today the motor sports world lost an absolute star and the reason why I watched Indycar.  I often wonder just how the future could have turned out in that Hollywood style, but you’d go crazy if you though about it too much.

When I found out Jessica was pregnant near Christmas 2011, I decided that if we had another son, I wanted to have Daniel in his name, so that when he asked where it came from I could spend time boring him with stories about the 2011 Indy 500 and many other brilliant days I spent watching Wheldon go to the limit.  I’ll never get to share that story with him, but with Ryan & any other friends & family I’ll never tire of saying why DW meant something to me.

“A lot of fans always ask me why I never finish a broadcast with “Goodbye”, it’s because “Goodbye” is so final.  “Goodbye Dan Wheldon”.   <- Marty Reid’s closing commentary on ABC at Las Vegas.

Family visit & other stuff

Originally posted September 30, 2013

Hi everyone,

Many months have passed and we apologize for having little to say in that time, truth is we’ve allowed ourselves to use the “dodgy MAC” as an excuse not to bother!

The major reason for this update is that a week ago we booted my parents out of the country, they’d come over for their traditional annual trip and this time didn’t bring a hurricane - hooray!  We packed in a lot of trips, and have plenty of photos from such locations as The National Zoo, Luray Caverns, Baltimore Aquarium & Great Falls.

Of course the big development is that Ryan can actually talk now, which is the first time they’ve been able to enjoy that.  Naturally Ryan got shy and said bugger all for the first 3 days..... sigh.  But then he began to relax and be happier with the guests - obviously inspired by the cookies he often got...... and he was able to show off his various vocal range.

The most common phrase was “More Wall-E Robot” which led to my parents probably seeing the film about 10 times in 20-30 minute segments - I doubt they were impressed, still it’s a class above Downton Abbey or Coronation Street..zzzzzz.

Weather was awesome with just a half-day (Saturday) of rain, but we knew that was likely & planned accordingly.

All in all, a successful trip.  We’ll see when they plan on coming back, I’ve heard whispers it may be for Jessica’s big birthday next year ;-)

Over here, all is well. Officially I’m no longer a Target employee which is great because the style of management grated much too often for me.  As I said “If you want to pay me $9 per hour, give me a little respect, if you want to treat me like **** - you pay more”. 

Oh, the soccer ball? Well it is a proper soccer season and the mighty Pool seem to have started reasonably - losing to the Saintly Shambles notwithstanding - plus Ryan enjoys naming the various balls, football, baseball, soccer ball etc.  We’re slowly getting him to understand the most important thing about soccer.... “Man Utd are scum.” Once he masters that, the next step is “USA always beats Mexico 2-0 in Columbus!”.

Later.

To our son

Originally posted July 5, 2013

Dear Nathan,

It’s been a year since we lost you and though we haven’t talked here about you much recently we want you to know that you’re never far from our thoughts and today especially is a hard & sad day.

I think Ryan would have enjoyed teaching you how to “Boosterize” and cause havoc, of course given his current level of behavior he’d most enjoy blaming the spills, smells and sniffles on you. 

Overall though I think he’d be very protective & loving of his little brother, give him some more time and we’ll make sure he’s part of this day and he understands why we’re both a little more clingy on days like this.

Life is hard at times and I have no idea what challenges you could have faced had things turned out differently, but to us you would have been a wonderful little boy and a great addition to our little family

We’re sorry that we never got to see you smile, nor do all of the milestones that Ryan ticked off.  We had lots of hopes & dreams for you which of course will never happen.

I believe you were a little fighter though, no matter what got thrown at you I am positive you would have done all you could to overcome it.

Baby Bear & Baby Bear 2 sit together watching over you, and Ryan often gives your butterfly a kiss, we do our best to keep your area clean - though there is photographic evidence of Poof Cat paying you a visit!

Our life was never going to be the same once we knew about your arrival, we would never have guessed you’d never come home.  We can’t change it, but we would do anything to have the chance to.  Maybe one day in the future we’ll be asking you to keep another brother or sister safe and allow them to meet Ryan.

Regardless of that, I want you to know you’re always in our heart and our family.  We miss you.

Love & hugs always.

Mommy, Daddy & Ryan.