The Terrible Catsafterme

And it’s a darn good thing. Before Megan came around, there just wasn’t anything to report in those frozen months of tedium known as January. Unless of course I was able to sneak in a reunion or two, star in a work training video, play some pool with my cousin, catch Tiny in the act of stealing and hiding her treats, or visit a Chinese restaurant where the waitress pleads to hold Adam. But in the case of 2011, none of those things happened. So I go back to saying, it’s a good thing that Megan is now around to liven up our bleak midwinter.

Aside from her birthday party which came smack dab in the middle of the month, I didn’t do much exciting. Yes, there was the standard New Years resolution diet, which I attacked with moderate success. I got on a regimen of ‘light eating’ (in other words, salmon, vegetables, and a Clementine orange for dinner) and exercise (three 15-minute intervals throughout the day on the treadmill) that I actually stuck to – off and on – for about a third of the month. The initiative was of heightened interest because Heidi and I had a bet going to see who could lose the most weight. Our January 2nd weigh-in was followed up on Friday, February 4 with the result being that I was the victor, losing 12 pounds.

Although I’d say I was only modertately successful on the dieting front, I was completely successful in the movie and TV watching initiative. As planned, I got though the Oscar nominees of 1975 and 2009, finished watching my three seasons of Barney Miller, viewed season 7 of All in the Family (which was released after I initially watched the available DVDs of the show), and began That 70’s Show. I also got through most of the run of Twin Peaks.

Overall, the weather was relatively mild. We saw two snowstorms of decent size, the first one that came and actually required shoveling was on Tuesday, January 11. The second, which was even worse came on Thursday the 20th. We didn’t get sent home until 2pm on that day. On Friday the 21st, it took me nearly two and a half hours to get to work.

The now-traditional ‘snow blows’ photo – from January 20

In between, I had one of those crummy winter surprises that seem to be common in January when the furnace in my house stopped working on the 12th. All efforts for me to fix it myself were in vain – but I knew that the cause had been the ridiculously dirty air filter that I had neglected to change in some unspecified amount of time – probably approaching a year if not more. It cost precisely $153 for them to come reset the main switch the next morning – after sleeping in temperatures that were getting down into the 40’s by the time they came.  

So the highpoint of the month was clearly Megan’s birthday. Aaron & Denise had a nice party for her at Mom’s house on her actual birthday on Saturday, January 15. Ashleigh went along with me and we stopped at Target on the way to pick up her gifts – a stuffed Curious George doll (or ‘Curious Joe Ridge’ as she calls him) and the DVD Elmo in Grouchland. Although it’s nice to have the great January diversion of Megan’s birthday, it’s kind of hard to find things for her on the heels of Christmas.

Mom & Bob, Dad, Ashleigh and I represented our family, while Barbara & Joe, Maura & Micah and Jackson, Ethan, and new baby Claira were there from Aaron’s family. Micah had to take off early with Jackson to go to another party. The party started at 11am and Ash and I got there on time, ready to dig into the cheese puffs and potato chips. Ashleigh started to make some pizza rolls until I informed her that there was Donato’s pizza on the way.

Megan explains why she likes cheese puffs

Actually she just goes ahead and shows me

After we had eaten the pizza, it was time for her to open her ridiculous amount of presents. She got some good stuff including a giant play kitchen and some cool light-up gym shoes – and was adorable opening everything, gingerly peeling back the wrapping paper of some gifts, tearing into others, and often discarding the gifts and cards in favor of moving onto the next one. That is one lucky kid. Adam was in rare form during the opening, jealous of not being in the spotlight. At one point he declared “Today is MY birthday. Megan’s birthday is tomorrow!”

Adam surveys the loot. Wait a second, this isn’t his stuff!

Megan begans to systematically dig into the gifts

I restrain Adam from approaching the gifts…at least for a few seconds

Megan seems to like this doll baby

Maura and Claira

Megan checks out the pop-up card from Ash and me

She gets ready to pull out the Curious Joe Ridge doll from us

Ethan assists

I wasn’t doin’ nothin’

Megan checks out the doll accessories

One more and then…playtime!

Ethan, Joe, Barbara, and Aaron watch from the sidelines

Dad, Mom, and Ashleigh do the same

Megan cleans up after the gift-opening has ended

The gift-shredding was  followed up by Megan’s requested ‘pink cake’ and ice cream. Megan wasn’t quite as messy with her cake as she had been at her first birthday. She was now using a spoon to dig into the icing, which she would then chew on until it cracked. At a couple of points, she did however bury her face into the cake. Ashleigh and I headed out about 2pm.

Megan has her fingers in the ‘pink cake’ before Denise even finishes lighting the candles

Denise assists with the big blow-out

Megan shows me how to karate chop the table in half

Birthday coyness

OK, it’s pink. Check. Now let’s see if it’s good.

This is easier, even when the spoon is nearby

Denise and Megan share a cake-eating moment

For some reason, the spoon usually stays in the mouth even after it has been cleaned of all cake residue

Bathtime!

The next three weeks were filled with some attempts at getting the basement cleaned up with the ultimate goal of clearing out everything in the upstairs spare room for the baby, planning for a couple of upcoming trips (including watching all of the unrest going on in Egypt, the trip that I had planned for the end of March), watching TV and movies, and the on again/off again diet and workout regimen. One evening that I was definitely off again was Monday, January 31, when I met Mom and Denise and the kids up at Marion’s by the Dayton Mall for some pizza and air hockey with Adam. I was ahead, but we never reached the the winning score of 7 – as the time ran out.

We had some snow and ice that night, and although it didn’t amount to all that much for us (although other parts of the east had snow that was measure in feet), we only worked 10-2. That Tuesday night, we had another interesting weather phenomenon when it rained and froze everything, everywhere. All trees and bushes were covered in ice, which then weighed down branches, destroying trees, and taking out power. We never lost ours, but I did have one casualty as the tree drooped down over the lightpost in my front yard, and then when it unfroze, it pulled the top of the light right off of the pole!

Ice weighs down our frontyard tree

The tree attaches itself to our light, fully prepared to rip its head off

The state of Ashleigh these days, now back on the name Chase Denver. This was taken February 2.

On the afternnon of Friday, February 4, I bid adieu to work for a week and began my weeks vacation. I stopped at Heidi for the wiegh-in and to claim my prize, then stocked Ashleigh up on groceries for the week, picking up a salmon cheese ball, a block of parmesan cheese, and a bottle of Da Vinci Chianti. From there I kicked off the start of my vacation by spending the evening with my friend Jennifer Young for another one of our famous wine and cheese parties (it’s important to note that I headed there directly after the weigh-in at Heidi’s).

As usual, Jennifer had enough food to feed a small army including Jarlsburg cheese dip, a garlic Bourson cheese, spicy hummus, summer sausage, mozzerella rolls, and pot roast sandwiches. She also supplied some Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon and 7 Deadly Zins red Zinfandel. Her son Jake was there and I got to see his video of his hip hop dancing which was a hoot. I also saw my old friends Rosie and Tinkerbell and an new dog named Lucky – who was saved by her through a bizarre set of circumstances. We watched The Green Mile, some ridiculous ghost investigating show, and made our obligatory call to Jon Petering, all amidst lively and humorous conversation as we caught up on our lives since we had had our last wine night in February 2010. We didn’t end the fun until 3am.

Jen’s son Jake is very pleased with this spread. He’s a cheese fan. Smart boy.

Jen consoles Rosie. A word to describe this dog might be ‘nervous’.

Lucky and Tinkerbell await their share of the food

Jen and me – in the small hours

It’s not the wine that dood it. ‘Twas the lateness of the hour.

Despite the lack of sleep, I got up at a decent hour on Saturday morning to get completely packed and ready to head out on my first trip of 2011.

2011 will continue in Miami, Florida…

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 5th, 2011 at 12:36 pm and is filed under 2010's - Early, Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.