Bryson City and Santa Land

As you may or may not know, I'm currently in the midst of 22 days off from work (yes, that's 22; for you Romans or Super Bowl numerologists, it's XXII). Why so many days? I started a new job with Air Force Research Laboratory (I'm still in the Air Force--I finished at AFIT in early October). The best time to take a large chunk of leave is between jobs because you have no responsibilities whatsoever. I don't even have an email account at my new job, so I won't be returning to a full inbox (rather, no inbox...at least for a little while). Plus, I have over 60 (LX) days leave saved up (which, as Ashley has pointed out, means I haven't taken off near enough time). The end result is that I'm not working until November.

Unfortunately, Ashley still has to work (and hard at that; God bless her). However, she was able to sneak away from the chains of the office for a few days allowing us to make a speedy trip down to Bryson City, North Carolina, and visit her parents (she did bring her work computer--damn you ITT). We had a nice little visit. We went to a craft fair in Asheville, enjoyed the beauty of the fall colors, and played with the Little Man. One day, we went down to the metropolis that is Bryson City. There were some neat little shops and a train that goes around town--"Choo" as Bode says. One of the shop-vendors gave Bode his first lollipop which he loved.We also went to Santa Land in nearby Cherokee. There were rides, a little zoo, Santa, and of course, lunch.As you can see, Bode loves his fries. Well, maybe not the fries. It's more the ketschup that he likes. In fact, when the fries are gone, he'll just eat ketschup as is. Yum yum. After lunch, we went on some rides. Fortunately, they were rather tame, so no one got sick.Bode loved driving the pink bus--he was steering the wheel and saying "Vroom vroom." The boat wasn't near as fun. The best ride was probably the ferris wheel. When they came over the top, Bode said, "Wheeeeeeee!"
There were animals to pet
and goldfish to feed from a paddle boat (tons of them!)And when it was all said and done, we needed to call our peeps and tell them about how much fun we had!Pleasant day.

Bode in the Hood

Happy 22nd-month birthday, Little Bodeman. Pretty soon we'll stop tracking the months and just concentrate on the years (although it is amusing to think that Ashley is 466 months old...)

We had a rather fun weekend. We went to Benson's Animal Farm, but that's really not the name of the place. If you've watched Dane Cook's special on Comedy Central, Benson's Animal Farm is the name for a place in one of Dane's bits that has rides and animals and just a good time for little kids. The place we went to is actually called Young's Dairy Farm and it fits the description for Benson's. Thus, that's what I call it, much like I call Water World in Denver Wally World for the fun park in the movie, Vacation. Anyways, lots to do at the farm. First up was to pet some animals. Here's Bode and a goat.
Next we went into the barn, and I must say the smell was a bit gamey. They could of used a few gross of candles from Bed Bath and Beyond, but I guess that's one of the draws (horrors) of the farm. What made the smell even more appealing was Ashley stepped in nice pile of dung (guard your forks, people), so the smell actually followed us wherever we went. As it turns out, literally five minutes before we went into the barn, a cow gave birth. And this farm is old-school in that NO ONE helped. No vet, no farm-hand, nothing. Just a mama cow in labor. Here's a picture of the cow and her calf--note how the little fella is still quite wet (eeeyouuu!)Next, we went inside for some ice cream. Young's Dairy Farm (Benson's) is famous for its home made ice cream. It was quite yummy. Bode and I split a shake, while Mommy had a cone. A large group of folks from Bode's daycare made the trip, so here are some pictures. First, here's Bode with Mommy, Alyssa, and Alyssa's Mom, Brandy.
Next, we have about the same people, except Miss Michelle, one of the room care providers, is in this one. Bode really recognizes people and even knows their names. He'll usually say good-bye to Miss Michelle ("Bye-bye 'Chelle"), and when we were looking at this picture, Bode pointed and said, "Chelle."
We then headed back outdoors. There's an area with some tricycyles and big-wheels. Bode doesn't yet have the ability to pedal, but he did enjoy getting pushed. Here are some action photos.To finish things off, we went on a tractor ride around the farm. It was a beautiful fall day, so the ride was quite pleasant.
Today, the weather has turned cold. Lows are forecast to be in the 40's. Yikes. Fortunately, Bode is prepared. He's learned the word, "jacket" and always wants to put one on.
The mighty Auburn Tigers are now 4-0, undefeated in the month of September. Of course, they were 4-1 last year and finished the season 5-7, so let's not start planning a bowl-game vacation just yet. Pleasant week to all.

Bode Dancing

Greetings on this lovely fall day--if you define lovely as raining, which I do on a football Sunday. It's sort of an excuse to stay indoors and watch TV (the Steelers play the Bears today at 4:15 in the p.m.) The other reason it's a glorious day is the Mighty Auburn Tigers improved to 3-0 with a thrilling 41-30 victory over the Mountaineers of West Virginia. The game was supposed to start at 7:45 p.m., but lightening caused kick-off to be delayed for over an hour. Thus, the game did not end until after midnight. Amazingly Ashley and I watched the whole game (although we did have TiVo setup to record in case we dozed off). Thankfully, Bode slept in until...6:30? Yes, we'll all be napping today.

Earlier this week, I had an interesting conversation with Ashley. She had gone shopping on Sunday and bought some new clothes. As we were leaving for work on Monday morning, Ashley asks, "So do you like my shirt?" It was plaid. And while her ensemble was probably fine from a fashion sense, I didn't like it. So I replied, "No, not really." My honesty should not have surprised Ashley, as I've told her many times, "If you don't want my honest opinion, don't ask for it," with the only exception to this rule being when she gets her hair done ("It looks great, honey. It really does.") Nor do I see anything wrong with what I said. But somehow, me not liking her shirt translated in her head to, "Gosh you look ugly today." She was very quiet on the drive to work. I thought she was tired, but evidently she was stewing over my comment. After awhile, her lip pouts out (much like Bode's does) and she mutters something about me not liking the shirt. A man without almost 10 years marriage experience might have tried to respond, to somehow win this unwinnable pot like a Texas Hold'em player drawing dead on the river. Not me. I kept quiet. I've learned. :-)

I don't regret saying I didn't like the shirt, as somehow this would have led to a series of plaid clothes in my wardrobe. It's like a guy who's been dating a girl for a few months. Perhaps she offers to give him a back-rub. To his horror, he quickly realizes this girl has no skills in this area. But does he say it feels bad? Of course not, thus resigning himself to bad massages the rest of his life**.

Bode really likes to dance. A woman at daycare even commented that, "Bode's got some moves." This morning, I brought a radio out to the family room. We're not convinced he's a future contestant on So You Think You Can Dance?, but here are some action shots.
Finally, here's a movie of Bode cutting that rug to Little Richard's Long Tall Sally.

Overall the weekend was pretty good. I ran in the USAF Marathon on Saturday, but sadly, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I went in trying to run a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:15:59, and I was confident I could do this. I cruised through the halfway point in 1:33:10. However, around mile 16 I started having muscle cramps (both calfs, both quads, both hamstrings...basically the trifecta of leg pain). I ended up walking a good portion near the end, as my quads simply refused to work (for those that don't know, a cramp is not something you can just power through). I'm proud that I finished with a personal best time of 3:40:58, but disappointed. That being sad, I don't envision trying to qualify for Boston again in the near future. Ten kilometers is about as far as I ever want to run, and the only running I'll be doing this week is to the refridgerator. I've got a summer's worth of ice cream to eat! Pleasant day to all.

** This is just a fictious anecdote. No way is this related to me or anyone I know (I love my leg massages).

The Fair

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone. Hopefully you've done anything but. We've been laboring our a*ses off. Saturday morning, Ashley and I ran in the Alterfest 5K run (3.1 miles for you non-runners). It was a beautiful morning--cool and low humidity. We both did very well--Ashley finished 4th out of 16 in her age group (47th overall out of 127 runners). I finished 3rd overall and ran a personal best time. Before you think this is more impressive than it is, I must say there is another local 5K race tomorrow morning. This race typically draws 500+ people, and most of the fast ones at that. So my third place is kind of like the bronze medal at the Goodwill Games :-)

The mighty Auburn Tigers started the season off with a bang last night, beating up on a resilent Louisiana Tech team. Auburn played well the first half, but a critical fumble and a lack of pass rush made half-time at the McGuirk home an unhappy time. Fortunately, Auburn turned it on in the second half, and even had an 85-yard TD pass. Final score 37-13. Yea!!! Thus, Ashley has been in a good mood for the first time since the Bush administration on a Sunday during football season.

Today we went to the Montgomery County Fair. We went early before the crowds (freaky hicks) showed up. We walked through all the animal pens, which Bode loved. He was able to pet a bunch of them, although we encouraged him not to try to pet the chickens and roosters. Here are some photos. First, here's Bode with a sheered lamb.Next here is Bode and one large pig.This little goat was happy to let Bode give him (or her) or nice rub.Bode, one hot chick (aka Ashley), and some chickens.
Finally, here's Bode trying to pet a horse.After the fair, we went up to Alterfest, which is a carnival/fund-raiser for Alter High School, a local Catholic School. It's an impressive event, complete with rides, bands (good ones), beer (yes, beer--Catholic, remember?) and...gambling? Yes, gambling. I don't know how this is legal, but there are a bunch of black-jack tables, poker, and a Texas hold'em tournament (winner gets $3,000). And no, it wasn't play-money, or money for tickets. Real money (and lots of it--it certainly wasn't one-dollar bills being played). They also had a roullette type game. What surprised me most (other than the booze and gambling) was that kids were allowed to bet on roullete. Bets were typically a buck, but sometimes there were two or even three dollar bets down on a number. Now, I'm not against gambling, booze (those under 21 weren't allowed to drink), or even strippers (those college girls gotta earn a living ya know). What I don't understand is how this is all legal. What sort of permit do I need to fill out in order to get gambling legalized and have my own little Bellagio here at Casa McGuirk?

Ashley took Bode on one of the rides at Alterfest. It was a big slide. Ashley carried him up a bunch of stairs, and the two of them sat of a large rug and slid down. It was probably twenty feet up and sort of steep but not dangerous. Bode loved it. After the ride, he goes running for the stairs, wanting to do it again, much like he does for the slide at the park. We tried to explain it to him that each ride is $5.00 ($2.50 for him, $2.50 for Ashley). This didn't sit well with him, so we had to drag him away from the slide. If I were a better gambler, I would've won some money and paid for a day of sliding. As it is, we left Alterfest and stopped off at a park on the way home. The slide wasn't as good, but Bode still had a great time.

I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight. Pleasant Sunday.

Bodeman at Work

I hate Andrew "Dice" Clay. You may remember him (said in your best Phil Hartman voice) from such box office hits like The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and...well, there aren't any others. He was the comedian who liked to make children's nursery rhymes a bit dirty. As an example, "Little boy blew [sic]; he needed the money." Yes, there was a time in my adolescence when I gave this type of humor top marks. He had many others, and I've found that even after fifteen years, they are still ingrained in my memory (but somehow I can't remember to buy T.P. at the store...) So now, anytime we are reading Bode these lovely nursery rhymes, all I can think of are those stupid (but still funny) lyrics. Fortunately, I am able to censor myself around the little man, because we certainly don't need him going to daycare singing the R-rated version of, "Hickory Dickory Dock..."

Speaking of Bode, we were reading Dr. Seuss's The Alphabet Book (or whatever it's called). It's the one that goes, "Big A, little A, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's aligator, A, a, A." Like most of Seuss's work (and also Shakespear), you can just about sing the words, and they have a catchy little beat (iambic pentameter?). So, we get to the letter, K, and it goes something like, "Big K, little K, what begins with K? K-word, K-word, K, k, K." It's the last part that struck me as, well, perhaps something the editor missed. K, k,...K? Do I need to be singing this to Bode? Yes, it's very innocent, but I'm surprised someone hasn't sued...

We were out fixing our stone wall earlier this week. A rock had fallen out of place, so we got some quickcrete to secure it back into place. Bode was a big help (hinderance)...the best part was playing with the hose. He managed to soak himself, but loved it. Here is a picture of a wet Bode-man with some crazy hair.
Yesterday, we took the camera with us to daycare. One of Bode's buddies is a little tyke named Tyler (aka Ty-Ty). Whenever Bode sees him, he says, "Hi Tywer." After they exchange their formal greetings (usually a shove), they immediately run over to begin their busy day of playing.Finally, here's a shot of Bode as we're leaving. (Un)Fortunately, he isn't at all upset when we leave. As a matter of fact, it sort of looks like he's saying, "Mom, Dad? I'm with my boyz! What are you still doing here? "
It's getting cool here. Temperature for Saturday is forecast to be 71. Yikes. Ashley may have to go against what society says and wear nylons before Labor Day.

Pleasant weekend.

It's Football Season!

Well, sort of. I flipped on TV and saw the first preseason NFL game is on. I can't really get into the preseason NFL games. Sure, I'll watch the Steelers...for the first quarter. Once the starters come out, I lose interest. This year, the actual season should be lots of fun. I joined my first fantasy football league. I sure hope it's everything I've ever dreamed it would be (I really need to work on my dream choices :-) I imagine I'll be soundly defeated because my intention is to let Bode help me decide my weekly roster.

Ashley is starting to get nervous about the upcoming Auburn season. The night sweats have started, and sometimes I hear her whimpering in her sleep about the evil Nick Satan, err, Saban. Once she woke up screaming about not knowing how to defend the little jump pass from Tim Tebow. My wife is certainly strange. Speaking of strange, check out these two idiots.
There really should be some sort of certification required before allowing someone to purchase a digital camera.

It's been hot here. Real hot. Ashley was tempted to break out the thongs, but I told her it wasn't yet hot enough for me to wear one (temps would have to be like those on Venus for that to ever happen). We should have gone to the pool to beat the heat, but instead, we went to the new outlet stores in Monroe (not that anyone outside of Dayton knows where that is--about 20 miles from our house). It was a lot like other outlet malls I've been to. I've noticed that everything in every store is always marked down or on sale. When is something not on sale?

Bode is great. He got a haircut this weekend (actually, he got them all cut, ha ha). Here are a couple pictures taken on the porch. First, we have Bode in some sort of action pose. Yes, he is one solid little dude.Too bad it's so hot here. Bode was ready to do some snow-shovelling. Give it few months, son.
Nothing else really going on. However, I must get up on my soap-box (only briefly) and say this. If you're in the men's locker room, I believe it's just good etiquette to yield the right-of-way to the naked guy. Otherwise, a gross encounter of the worst kind can ensue. And, as Forrest would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Bode has really started to enjoy story time before bed. Every night we read to him, and he seems to love it. In fact, there is no greater joy than when your son says, "Soory Daddy?" while carrying his favorite book.
Pleasant week to all.

Bad Parents. Baaaad Parents.

Saturday, Ashley, Bode, and I went to The Greene, which is basically a big outdoor mall with a large common area in the middle. There is a guy on stilts that makes balloon animals, sometimes there's live music, and there is a big in-ground fountain that kids run through to stay cool in the summer heat. We left the house around five, and I always feel bad going somewhere this time of day. Five is about the time Auburn goes on her walk, so if she sees us getting ready to go somewhere around this time, she thinks we're heading out for a W-A-L-K . She'll watch us go downstairs, eagerly anticipating the, "C'mon Auburn," which doesn't come. I wonder how long she stays at the top of the stairs after we leave. Perhaps she lets out a little whimper and wonders what she did wrong. If only dogs were welcome everywhere...

We had a nice time at The Greene. Bode sort of played in the fountain, but as usual, he was more interested in puddles off to the side. This is probably a good thing because he didn't get soaking wet like all the other kids. Afterward, we went to dinner at Noodles and Co., and Ashley was nice enough to let us stop for ice cream on the way home. We got back to the house around 7:30, and Auburn was waiting for us, ready and raring to go on a walk. Sadly, neither Ashley nor I took man's best friend around the block. All night, she kept following me around with a sad, pathetic look on her face. I felt a little guilty, so I gave her a nice massage and belly rub before bed time, and telling her, "We'll go tomorrow, I promise," which, of course, she doesn't understand.

About 2:30 am, I hear Auburn get up--the click click click of her paws on the hardwood floor is unmistakable. I also hear her stomach making strange noises. This is nothing new, as sometimes she (like me) gets an upset tummy. I hear her make it to the kitchen, but I don't hear the dog-door slap shut. A few minutes later, she comes back to our room and just stares at us. I get up, thinking maybe the dog-door was stuck. I checked, but it was working fine, so I said, "Auburn, go outside." She just looks at me. "Whatever, dog, I'm going back to sleep." So she comes back to the room with me, and I get back into bed. I keep hearing her belly make those strange gurgling noises. Was it something she ate? I thought. And then it hits me. We forgot to feed her! Poor girl didn't get her dinner. What awful parents we are--how could we forget to feed our little baby (well, maybe not-so-little)?!? I get back up, go over to Auburn and say, "Do you want eat?" Well she's off like a rocket down the hall and is waiting for me in front of her dog-bowl. I give her some food, which she inhales, amazingly her stomach quiets down, and we go back to bed.

Fortunately, Bode will make a little more noise than Auburn when he's hungry, so it would be impossible for us to forget to feed him :-) Pleasant week to all (yes, there were no pictures with this post...I'll try to take some this week).