Lazy Days

Weekends, which start Thursday night, are starting to have genuine lazy hours. No body is a bigger fan of these than I though I always seem to miss nap time b/c of some project or another.

From post 4-15

From post 4-15

Patio, Beer and Hank but not in that order

A bunch of doings at the Lincolns. 1st, Hank is good. He walks, he talks (that's a lie, he points and grunts) he sits on command and will bring you tickle mits then try to out run you while you get them on. No item of great note, just he's a whole lot of fun.

Moving on our patio is currently going in. This is the same patio that has not been approved by the HOA, and we have no idea if the town requires a permit (Erin says the neighbor said he herd we didn't need one). But one way or the other it's going in. I'll have pic's as it comes along.

Beer is brewing again. Last Thursday I got it kicked off with a nut brown ale, and tonight I did and IPA featuring nugget and fuggles hops. My wife and I had a minor skirmish over where the beer could be while fermenting, She didn't want to see it or have Hank find it, and I wanted it on the main level for tempature control. So after much looking around the same couple of rooms I discovered this great spot...


It's a radiator cover that we bought 2 of and this one is in the bath room by the front door. Since the bathroom has an auto closing door it's hank proof, and even if hank has the unfortunate distinction of needing to join a parent in the room, he still cant get to the buckets. Erin can't see them, and the CO^2 they give off has the added benefit of a brewery air fresher.

I'll have to use the other one in the basement for aging beer's out of the light.

The tax business slowed a bit but we are still back logged with work so ton's to do. Random phone calls seem to take huge chunks of time. as does checking the stockmarket. On a personal note, I've managed to keep up running 3-5 times/week for 3 weeks now and feel much better for it. I'd still like a local running buddy like I had before in Frederick, but no luck yet.

Relaxed summer day

Nothing of note to report, but why not. Hank and family had a very chill day today, relaxing and playing. We wen't to neighbor Ella's 2nd birthday party which was a hoot. They had little water slides and a Elmo sprinkler, and lots of good clean summer fun. We stayed for 2 hours, had ice cream and cupcakes, then cam back hoem for family nap time. All around a pleasant day.

I'm Back

Ok, tax season is kinda like shipping me off to another planet for 3 months where I just get to make phone calls every now and again. Now that I'm back I have to re adjust to normal life. I have to relearn my routine, and what to do with spare time. I spend an alarming large amount of time sitting around thinking about what I should do, and very little time doing anything. I need a kick start. Of course I'm only 2 days into normal life.

So, changes since I last blogged...

- Hank is a walker now. He prefers to walk than crawl, but he's not that good at it yet.
- We are down one kitty. Murphy had kidney problems in the past, but it snuck us on him really bad about 3 weeks ago. Nothing to do but end the suffering. He miss him, but not as much as I though we would. There was 24 hours of tears and being up set, then, life as usual. I still think of him often, mostly sad that he doesn't get to cause any trouble any more. The shoe laces are safe now, and that's a little sad. Bye Murph Murph.
- I've had a hair cut. I go 3 months without and it kills me. I feel much better.
- I've lost 10 pounds. I'm thinking stress and being to busy to eat.
- Oh, after that hair cut I noticed I have even less hair than I used to. Son of a ...

Well here is to rejoining regular life.

8 down 4 to go

So if you were wondering how tax season is going, the answer is very fast. And thank god it's going fast. My weekly hours in the office are averaging 65. I know some people work those type of hours year round, to which I say your nuts. I'm fried and barely hanging on at 65 hours a week, I can't imagine what it would be like doing it year round.

So with 8 weeks down and 4 to go of the hard core season, I'm ready to be done. This week is the time to get on mail-ins Something which should have started earlier, and try to get caught up. Erin and I are doing well enough, and hank is a delight. He's started walking between people 3 or 4 steps so we are getting close to losing our sanity.

Basketball team shut out.

So did you all here about the Girls basket ball team that was recently shut out 100-0. It made CNN and a bunch of other news outlets. Well it turns out that the school that lost is a school for girls with learning disabilities, like dyslexia and such.

Well it occurred to me that that might be a good thing. Maybe they think they barely lost 001-0.

Can't quite move yet...

So I love google sites, but I can't quite get the features I want for a blog there. I can write the blog, I can have the latest post put on the front page, along with but separate from the latest Cigar and beer reviews. But I can;t get Comments to work the way I want. You can have people comment on your home page, but not on your log entry. And the blog highlights on the opening page don't include pics or videos that are in the blog. So It a close but not quite for the Blog. But For a lot of other stuff It;s swell. I'm going to keep both going for the moment.

Erin and I are thrilled to have gotten our first ever flu shots today. Maybe that will keep the worst of it away this season. Tax season is off and running. I finished my first return Today even if it was a 2007 return. I have my first appointment for 2008 tomorrow. It should be fun.

Hank is walking (while holding fingers) all over the place. In his walker he goes everywhere. We like playing where's DaDa. Lots of fun. At bed time tonight he was just being goofy. He didn't really want his bottle, but he wanted to crawl on DaDa, and Blow raspberries on my forearm. I was game for 15-20 min, but then I had to put him in the crib. He didn't seem to care. 1o min later he's still in there jabbering to him self content as can be. Silly kid.

We're Moving!!!!

Yep it's that time. We've outgrown the current location and are ready for new and better things. It's time to get a website.

I drank the Google Kool-Aid a little while back and just keep falling in love with what they do. From the new web browser "Chrome", to Google free web building application "Sites" I love it all. Even Igoogle has come back on my hot list. So anyway the move. I have not committed to a domain name yet but I will at some point. For now here is the URL for my Site.

http://sites.google.com/site/point9mm/Home

Please check it out. You can comment on Blog Post, read beer reviews, or see my Favorite Family pictures, which all consist of hank at the moment, but I'll get there.

If you have any questions about how to make you own web page using sites drop me a line and I'll give you some pointers.

Working hard, or hardly working...

So it's the time of year when the tax business is normally slower and I take a bunch of time off to be lazy. Well the tax biz has not been that slow thanks in part to your local congressman. Lot of law changes and tax updates mean a lot of time reading and mor to the point updating forms and procedures. See when the new First time home buyers credit comes out that will affect 1 in 200 clients we have to make sure we don't miss it or take it whe not allowed to. Further more this little gem as a 16 year ripple effect that we have to be ready to deal with for our current clients and clients we'll get 12 years for now. That a little bit of a headache.

Also when the home energy credits were renewed for 2009, we have to come up with a nice way to tell the people that did energy related improvements in 2008 that they are hosed. B/c while it was renewed for 2009, it skipped 2008. Not to mention that in most cases it's a tiny credit that involves a lot of hoop jumping. In short it's been a huge, huge waste of our time. We probably spent an average of 7 min per client talking about the energy credit, which is 8750 min or 145 hours. If we bill $100/hr that's $14,500 of time that maybee netted all of our clients combined $3,000. That doesn't count the time we spent learning about the credit, training our staff about the credit, or updating our files and procedures to deal with the credit. So like I said, IT'S A HUGE WASTE OF TIME/MONEY FOR EVERYONE. (we haven't even talked about the amount of time and resources that the IRS spent getting rules, forms and procedures ready and training there people to deal with it.

So next time you hear about some little tax credit or rebate (don't even get me started on rebates), or other legislative gem do so with a bit of skepticism. Most of the time no matter how good natured, it's a waste of taxpayer time energy and resources.

But even though business is not as slow as I'd like it to be, Erin and I have managed to get some stuff done around the house. We have redone the nursery, painted the master bedroom, added wardrobes, painted the Family room, kitchen, morning room and dining room, installed garage door openers, bought a new living room set, and got a dining room table.

We had help from both sets of grandparents who watched hank so we could paint. While a bunch of the painting was done in the proceeding 2 to 3 weeks, we went on a bender last weekend. We painted all day Friday until 3am and all day Saturday until 1:30 am. The result was a finished Living room, Kitchen, and morning room. The red was mildly terrifying as it looks like crap until coat 3. But now that it's done... I like it.

Midge update

New skills this week which signal an end of piece is near. I used to hold Henry's hands so he was in a standing position and drag him around the room so he would "walk". Now I hold him by the fingers and try to keep up as he walks around the room investigating things.

He can grab the edge of the sink during bath time and stand up.

He now cry's when he falls down regardless of whether or not he hit anything.

Beer and Baby

Two points of interest. I tried a new beer today. It was Michelob's Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale. Now since I became a beer snob I've poo pooed beers made by huge brewers. Budweiser, Coors, even collage staples like rolling rock and corona. Though I have stayed loyal to Yuengling, that's a tasty lager, or try there black and tan. But I digress, Michelob is definitely in the bad big brewer category. But 2 things made me rethink my snobby opinion.

1. I read an article in consumer reports magazine which rated beers, and it put Michelob very high on the list.
2. While on a tour of the Rock Bottom Pub in Bethesda the Brew master said he like Michelob.

So I decided to quit pre-judging, and give each beer it's due consideration.

That said, the Winter Bourbon cask ale was very good. Almost too smooth and nice, like they must have cheated and added in non beer stuff to make the beer taste that smooth. I feel like there must be a catch. Until I find proof that Michelob did in fact cheat, I gotta give it to them It was a very tasty beer. Erin almost liked it. I will be trying some of there other beers, because if they are all that good, I have a line of cheaper beers that still satisfy my high brow palette.

Baby news...
The kid is getting better and better at crawling. Not up on his knees yet, but fast none the less. all in all he's just a great time. I spent all day with him yesterday. We ate, played, fussed, napped and did it all together. Absolutely nothing special happened all day, yet as he was falling asleep in my arms I was praying to my self that I hope, no matter what happens over the years I always remember the day. It was that unassuming every day of early fatherhood and I feel like I could bask in that moment for a long time.

I always knew I wanted to be a dad, but I never knew it would be this good.

Life comes at you fast

At 9:30am last Friday we the installers came and put in our garage door openers.
At 9:30pm last Friday the door was closed while the bike rack on the CRV was still sticking out of the garage. 1 piece of metal and two screws ended up on the floor before we could stop it. That's fast even for us.

Second Best Man

This weekend I had the honor of completing my duties as best man, for the second time. The first was July 2000 for Bob and Sandy, and I did a chump of a job. Well it really wasn't that bad, but I have always wished I could have done better. When Ryan gave me the go ahead as his best man I was determined to do the best job possible. Both Ryan and Bob have been great friends of mine over the years and I'm so glad to have to opportunity to stand up with both of them on such a special day.

Now about the strippers...

Kidding, I'm not telling you about that stuff. I will say that the Bachelor party was a hit. It ought to have been with all the fricken time I put in on it. I have counted 72 e-mails exchanged with various parties, and a lot of phone calls and text messages to get it in gear. Really the final plan wasn't all that crazy, but it just took me a lot of time to come round to it. I have to give a big shout out to Kevin and Big Ryan Caldwell. Both were instrumental in bringing the plan together and reminding me to chill out, Ryan will dig what ever we do.

I do have to mention one part of The party. We got a brewery tour of Rock Bottom brew pub, in Bethesda MD. Geoff, the brew master, was "The Man". We got the coolest tour you can imagine. Geoff was through, cool, intense and informative. We were all in awe of him, and everyone said "There is a man that loves his job!" The tour was so awesome we tried to tip the guy. I almost think we pissed him off. He did it just because he was happy to share what made good beer good, and his beer kick ass. After the tour he poured us a bunch of free beers to taste, and I gotta say. I was in heaven. It was crazy good beer.

So if you are every with in a 2 hour drive of Rock Bottom - Bethesda, stop in have have some great beer. I recommend the brown ale, or better yet taking a cab so you can try one of everything.

The day of the wedding most things went pretty smooth. A bunch of people were taking care of details, and everything just kinda happened. The reception was awesome. The location overlooking DC at night was just breathtaking. Of course there was a toast I was in charge of. This is the item I pooched at Bob's wedding. I tried to roast Bob and Sandy a bit and just sounded like a tool. So with Ryan I wanted to make sure I got it right. I worried so much about it I didn't actually start writing in until the day of the wedding. Thankfully it all came together. the toast went very well, and more importantly I felt I was able to convey to the crowd and to Ryan and Kristen, how highly I thought of them, and how exciting there future together is.

It was truly a special day.

Triple boil over Beer

i have been more than a little intrepidacious about cracking open a bottle of the Barley Wine Geoff and I made on his last trip over. We had at least 3 boil overs, I changed the recipe a lot, and I went with a very diffrent hops that a big kinda homeless looking guy recommended at the brew store. Further more with the boil overs, we lost enough sugar that I was worried the champagne yeast would ferment all of the available sugar leaving a strong but empty tasting beer.

Lot of worrying about nothing. I had a sample last night, just to test quality, and it was good. Not outrageous, not awesome, but very nice. It has a full beer flavor and a subtle but strong kick.

While tasting the brew, I was bottling the second half of the batch. you see I split the batch after Secondary fermentation, bottling 2 gallons, and racking 3 off Tertiary fermentation where I added a bunch of oak chips. The 3 gallons has aged a additional 2 weeks, for a total of just under 6 weeks. I've never gone past 3 weeks before so we'll just have to see what happens. I think it's going to kick a little ass.

Little changes

Well for me it is just starting to happen. Lots of little changes that indicate my boy really is starting to grow. He is now big enough that I need to change the height in the jumper. When I kissed his head last night after bath time I was kissing a bunch of hair, not a cute little bald head. More than a few outfits are now to small, and he drinks and entire big bottle of formula in the morning and night. I remember when it was just 20mi in a tiny bottle, now it's 9 Oz. Does it always change this fast? I hope I can keep up.

Midge report

Hank is able to sit up now which very cool. He can't do it on his own, but if you put him in a seated position, he'll hang out for a while. He is also very giggly and interactive. Uncle Ryan hung out with us for dinner and bath time and got to spend some quality time with the little man. It was awesome seeing Ryan interact with Hank and have a good time. I look forward to more friends meeting the little man as he grows up.

Ryan and I did get up to the field and to a bit of flying. Ryan did not grab the controls as it was pretty busy in the air with up to 6 planes at a time flying. He was, as usual, a great wing man. I got to chat with him about his new place and life with "bride-to-be' Kristen. All the usual ups in downs of a move and merging of stuff, but I could help but be excited for them both as they get ready jump in. It reminded me of how fun marriage was in the beginning. The newness, and the excitement, and the permanent coed spend-the-night. I know it fades with time, and I just hope for Ryan and Kristen, that as the newness fades, and the weeks turn into months and into years, that it is replaced by the warm constant glow of love. Not that temporary full time coed spend-the-night type love, but the "we'll still be spooning at 80 type love".

I know my wife is saying "how fun marriage was in the beginning... it's not that way now...?" (women and only hearing what they want.... grumble grumble grumble). It's not new any more, and like more and more of my good memories, no matter how good things were I have no wish to go back. The road ahead is so much more exciting for me. The road I'm on with Erin looks better and better all the time. (Especially now that we have a little passenger.) I like my warm glow, it is constant and ..... well, warm and I just fricken like it.

No more babbling, night all.

Hank's Big Day

So it finally happened. Hank got his heart fixed. God willing that is that last in a long set of hurtles we had to clear to get hank here and healthy. He really is a modern medical marvel. From the fertility work in the beginning, to the genetic scare, to the early delivery, and now patching a hole in his heart. We have talk a lot about how lucky we are to have, and to have so close such excellent medical care.

The video shows you the day from our perspective.


This diagram shows you about how the procedure went down and how the device looks in place. They ran a line starting at his crotch up his femoral artery and into his heart. Once there they ran some test and determined that hand had twice as much blood circulating to his lungs to get oxygen, as there was going out to his body with oxygen. This is the result blood flowing through the hole in his heart and back to his lungs instead of out the vein and to the body. The Dr. later told us that 2:1 is way past the surgical precedent. After the test they then ran the device up the line and put it in place.



This is the actual device in hank. It's a crazy world when they can put this in the heart of my little boy and he comes home the next day with out a stitch.

Good news bad news

This has been an interesting week. On the bad side, I found out one of my former students, to which I used to be very close, took his own life. Of all things it was over a girl. I don't say that to diminish how he was feeling, but because I can see from my perspective that the pain in a relationship is temporary. I don't pretend to understand where he was coming from, or how he was feeling when he made this decision, but at the funeral all of those that survived him could see what a waste of a very good life it was. Now having a baby boy, I think I understand just a little more than I would have previously, just how painful it must be for his family. My heart aches for them. I have found my self wishing for some thing I could do, or something I could give them to lessen their suffering, but there is nothing.

The service was very good. I was amazed at how much the words of the minister and some of the friends of the deceased helped me in my sense of loss. After the internment everybody seemed to be rejoicing in the memories and the good things that were left behind. On the good side I got to see many of my former students. I was thrilled to hear of their successes and failures, knowing that both are all part of they journey of youth. A lot of the students in attendance got to be friends through the engineering club I started at LHS 8 years ago. It warmed me to see how close they still were even if it had been a while since they last spoke. I was told by some that the club had ment a great deal to them.

I have spent a lot of time this week thinking back to my high school days. To the good times and experiences I had, and to all of the door ahead of me that I didn't even know I would have the chance to open. I have also spent time thinking of Rob, My friend who died when I was in school, and the doors he never had. If it can be said, I feel Rob's passing was easier. It was an accident, nothing anybody could do, just a great loss. My former student took his life, he had in front of him what was taken from Rob, and chose to give it away. I would be mad except that I know better. He must have been in a horrible place in his mind. I feel great sorrow for him.

But I did stop by Rob's grave for the first time in a long while. It's been so long it took me 20 min to find it. I stared for a while, not able to say the words that I was thinking. Finally I ask Rob to keep an eye out for a new soul in town. I actually said it out loud, which was tough. I personally don't believe in an after life. No heaven or hell as far as I can tell. I figure you get your shot and that is it. But I do hope and hope that I'm wrong. That there is some place, where we will all gather one day, with our friends and family, and laugh and tell stories and talk of the wonderful times we had. I really do home for that.

I miss my friends, Rob and Roy. I will pray, even if it's not what I believe, I will pray, just in case I am so lucky as to see them again some day.

latest brew

In answer to Geoff's question, no. But my beer will have a lot of bite. It is a English Ale recipe that when sampled at brew time was too bitter for my taste. I'm not worried, I like to try everything. If it's to bitter then it means I'll have only one at dinner and not 2. I was quite happy to get another batch underway and am happier yet to report that it is actively fermenting. I plan on bottling about 2 gallons of it in a week or so and then moving the rest to secondary fermentation and dry hopping it. I'm not sure that's what I'll do, but if I like the beer "as is" at bottling time then I'll try to the extra step. If it's already too bitter at that point then I'll save my extra hops for another occasion.

In other news is the room makeover at my folks place. I feel a little guilty encouraging them to do the project since it has not been a smooth road. I will say that grumpy has taken charge and is making the room as kid friendly and fun as possible. While not the room I would have designed, I think the kids will love it. I'm heading over early morning to help for a couple hours each day before I start work proper. I'll put up some photos when the room is done.

Last item on todays post - Glasses. I have been pissed off since the first time I saw Ryan Jenkins in a pair of Oakley's that I can't wear shades. Well it's not that I can't, but I never got any prescription shades as a kid, and as an adult I know why, the are fricken expensive. The last time I got glasses, which was around the last Christmas season, I paid, after insurance, like $350 for two pair of glasses. It was outrageous. I got one pair of regular glasses and one pair of transition lenses, which I haven't seen since the move.

Well I finally sat down one day and tried to find a better solution, I did. Online glasses ordering. While a number of sites look good I ended up using ZenniOptical I ordered 2 pair of prescription shades, different frames and different tints, and even had to pay up for a really strong prescription in one eye, and got them delivered to me in about a week for................. $45. That's it. I mean holy crap what a deal. I could have gotten 14 pair of glasses for what I paid around the holidays.

I was thinking for $45 they have to be a piece of shit. But they are very comfortable and very nice. I will never buy glasses from a shop again. Online is the way to go. So if you know someone who wears glasses, send them the link.

To Blog or not to Blog

I keep admonishing myself for not blogging when I so often say to my self "Oh, I should blog that." I suppose that bloggers guilt is common, but I hate it. I want to share just a couple tid bits for family and friends that I don't talk to as often as I should and there has never been an easier way to do it. I just have to sit my ass down and do it. I managed to write a couple of good old fashion letters the other day, long overdue ones and felt great for doing it. I hope to do more soon, and blogging is certainly no harder than that.

Topics to Blog on

- Brewed another batch of beer
- Found a very cheap way to by prescription shades
- Henry's medical update
- Grandkids room makeover
- studying for the EA Exam
- Selling the Townhouse
- Smoked meat
- vacation

I will make a very concerted effort do get at least a few of these items on line this week and keep everyone better informed.