here's danny!

whew! it took some minor technical miracles to get these files posted but here they are. cute kid. looking good dad! more later...

"who's paying for this good time?"...

was a famous line that my posse used to use a lot back in our single days. at this stage in my life, with all of the family activities and social occasions there is but one answer to that question so it's not even really worth asking anymore.
yesterday morning the wife took owen to see sesame street live, an event we used to take the girls to annually but who are now sadly too old to be impressed with elmo and big bird. according to allie, owen sat in wide-eyed amazement, polished off a box of popcorn and then slept it off all afternoon. tomorrow allie takes the girls to see go fish, a family-friendly band they have been listening a lot to lately. i will stay home saturday night with the boy. don't get around much anymore...
the latest update from indiana is that kelly and brian have possesion of baby "danny" and they are staying in a hotel for a couple of days until they can take him home to boston. unfortunately i don't have a ton of details, nor do i have a picture yet but i will post one as soon as i am provided with one.
thanks to all who bought girlscout cookies. today is the last day so feel free to grab another box or two of caramel delights. more soon...

big news!...and other stuff

my sister and brother-in-law received some news that they've been waiting for for a long time. they have been on a seemingly endless list to adopt a newborn and they got the call this weekend. baby boy "x" was born on saturday, january 28th, in indiana. they are leaving boston this afternoon to go meet their new son. looks like they may be in indiana for at least a week or so. congratulations you guys! look for more updates as soon as they are available..
went to the mn wild hockey game friday night with a couple of friends. it was a great time, great seats, and a good game. wild beat the blackhawks 4-1.
in other news, jeff and i went to the father\daughter breakfast at st. charles with our daughters yesterday. it was a good time with some pretty interesting entertainment, including a man in a chicken suit who juggled and performed magic tricks. he looked like a cross between al franken and mr. noodle. it worked in a weird sort of way.

support your local (or otherwise) girlscouts...

it's that time of the year where i am made to feel like dead-beat dad if i don't hit up my friends to buy a few boxes of cookies. alaina and noelle have been involved in selling girlscout cookies for a couple of years now, and each year about this time i am given the reponsibility to peddle as many boxes as i can, to pull my weight cookie-wise. no free rides for dad, get out there and sell. so...it is not often thirdthoughts plugs any cause, but they are my daughters so i'm obliged to at least publish the information and hope to catch a few people at a weak moment. so, if you would like to spring for a couple of boxes (or more), and support troop #'s 1403 & 486, give me a shout here, or leave an order in comments. if you gave at the office, i will understand. here's the essentials:

caramel delites

peanut butter patties

shortbread

thin mints

peanut butter sandwich

lemon pastry cremes

reduced fat cartwheels

thanks-a-lot

all boxes are $3.50

it's good karma...

you know where your fingers have been?

from slashdot.org...

"A test carried out by Pegasus Lab on account for Swedish magazine PC För alla showed that a normal PC keyboard was infected by more bacteria than a normal toilet seat. More specific it contained 33000 bacteria per square centimeter, compared to 130 on a ordinary toilet seat. The tests also showed occurrence of up to 3100 fungi per square centimeter. Also note that unless you read Swedish, you still have plausible deniability when asked to windex yours."

as someone who works in the IT field, and often hacks on multiple keyboards a day, of various levels of cleanliness, this does not fill me with happy thoughts. i wonder how many common colds are spread around by contaminated keyboards? guess we'll never know. maybe i need to get some rubber gloves and walk around with a bottle of disinfectant?

ordinary weekend...

an average week by almost any measure. hopefully to be followed by an average weekend. our anniversary offically ended the "holiday season" for me. there are a few scattered houses on our block that still have lights up but they are decreasing by the day. yes, we still have ours up. its' been grey, cloudy, with above average temps for the past couple of weeks, contributing to my mid-winter doldrums, general lack of enthusiasm, and leaving me with absolutely no excuse to not get on the ladder this weekend. probably watch some playoff football and then we have plans to go to a friends party tomorrow night here. borrowed "cinderella man" so maybe get a chance to watch that too. maybe play a little guitar, log some xbox time, blah, blah, blah...more when i have something more interesting.

thirteen and counting!...

allie and i celebrated anniversary # 13 last night although officially our anniversary is today, jan 9th. we dropped the kids off at grandma's and enjoyed a great dinner at jensen's supper club in eagan.
why a mid-winter wedding you ask? well, no particular reason other than to be a little different than most. it was definitely more fun to go to jamaica in january than it would have been in june. a lot has happened in that 13 years but i wouldn't have had it any other way.
happy anniversary hon!

Happy Birthday Owen!

ok, i'm a day late with this post but we were too busy celebrating yesterday. owen, turned three monday, and he really seemed to "get" this birthday thing. the poor guy has been struggling with a nasty cough lately but we had a good time at the party with grandma and grandpa(s). here's a few pics taken with the new camera.
look here if you're still looking for christmas pics...