Returned from spring break.  Power is out to the dock, the shower is leaking into the hall, I lost my pocket knife, my workload is huge, and the bar bill from the cruise is spectacular.

 

Oh, and today I had to put down my 14 year old dog.  RIP bocky.  1994-2008.  One damn good dog.  I held him while the vet did it.  It was hard to do, but I owed it to him.  I'll get his ashes and bury him where he used to like to lay in the sun. The vet allowed me to stay with him as long as I liked.  I cleaned the piss and stuff off him before I left.  Leaving him on the table was horrible.  For those of you who think I'm an ornery s.o.b with a nasty gruff exterior, this is how you get me to cry.  I miss him.

 

Bocky, say hi to chopper/spike/penelope/uffy/sport/oprah and krewe for me. We have big dog party when I get wherever. 

 

 

stuff about Bocky to remember - when we went to friends of strays to pick out the puppy he was the one who jumped at the fence and barked at us the most - puking in my jeep when he got carsick on the way home from FoS - the vet going "hey, he's got some nice pit bull in him" and my wife looking at me funny - us leaving his sister behind, i still regret that - biting through a beer can to get the beer - jerry feeding him cookies at the fence - catching a fruit rat and playing flippy with it in the living room while anne screamed - catching a snake and playing flippy with it in the living room while anne screamed - catching baby duck and baby racoon, ugly - long walks with grumpy sullivan - hauling him in the wrangler to st george island - being able to snatch a sandwich off the dining room table without moving the plate - stealing morgan's sandwiches all the time - morgan saying "bock was max's best friend and he misses him", max is one of her stuffed dogs - cookies in the morning - laying in the sun - sunshine puppy - biting any of my rugby friends who so much as shook anne's hand - me turning down a permanent transfer to london w AA becaue I couldn't bring bocky due to stupid pet laws - will add more as i remember them...

 

I hope I don't outlive my children.

http://www.heartgallerypinellaspasco.org/heart/meetinfo.asp - damn 

I am now "doody" (ryan).  Wheat thins are now "weekends". 

Posted link to westlake dude ranch.  May try this one weekend! 

"went to ground" 4th of July week.  Eseentially did no work.  the 4th is one of my favorite holidays.  fireworks, beer, bbq, and fishing.

saturday: anne and girls somewhere up north.  go play poker

sunday: pickup anne and girls at airport - girls totally wiped due to 1130pm arrival

monday: planned on taking day off, but get involved in fy08 budget wars

tuesday: yearly urologist appointment.  enough said

tuesday pm:  ryan starts puking all over - anne starts puking - anne calls "food poisoning"

wednesday:  ryan ok, anne normal - crisis averted - 4th party still on

wed afternoon: morgan starts puking - party is off - 3 cases beer - 4 packs chick thighs - burgers - sausages - i'm going to eat well

wed night : shoot off some mortars but no fun without party

thurs : take care of girls - supposed to go out w/ kevin+andrea but anne cant find sitter - invite kevin/andrea/katherine over for cookout - party on - party was good - fireworks beer buffer n capn sam

fri : daytime = normal survival - nighttime - go to kevin andrea for bbq - good stuff

saturday : rattatouie and over to bj's brewhouse for late dinner w/ bill / joe b and us

sunday : take tim berry and jim blizzard fishing on tampa bay - not to self, need heavier spinner for mangrove snapper fishing

Pinellas county = school choice, aka crap shoot or roll the dice on where your kid goes.  We applied for some of the good schools but wound up way down the wait list.  So off to shorecrest.  One kid, kindergarden, a mere $11,332 / year.  Holy shit. Almost makes me want to move to seattle. 

Took Ryan Morgan to Pole's son Gavin's 'jedi' bday party yesterday.  Morgan was scared of ?John?, Pole's bro who dressed up as a jedi.  When we got home the star wars with the ewok's was on the goon tube.  Ryan deemed the ewok's party a 'star wars luau'.  Cool.

 

I remember my dad taking me to see star wars when I was 10 or 11.  3 generations now. 

friday - tim huck was in town after doing a wpf talk.  basically i bribed Tim to talk in tampa.  took him and keithk out for an early ran up north to culbreath isles, one trout.  lunch at http://www.rattlefish.com .  the macdill airshow was rehearsing during the show.  first pass was a f86, an a4, and an f-22 raptor flying formation.  then we watched the blue angels do their stuff for a while.  two sierra nevadas and a remake of the famous rattlefish 'oniononion' burger.  tastes even better when you came by boat.  then on to threepalm island (no 1 dead palm, frances really took its toll on this one) - 1 sheepshead.  then down to 'offcall' dock by snell, one redfish.  then to haverty dock, one big red, small snook, pinfish.  then to keith's catfish hole at weedon island - 1 jack, several hardhead cats, 1 pompano.  i'm eating the pompano tonight.  can't decide to grill it or saute it

 

saturday - out to the beach condo - some fixup things before we can start renting it.  dalenleslie came out for wine and cheese on the intercoastal. after wine and cheese we head over to the pearl for tapas (  http://www.gotothepearl.com  ).  trick to dining there is when they hand you the dinner menu, hand it back and ask for the tapas menu.  mmmm.  more sierra nevada on draft.  then we go to caddy's on the beach to watch the gators kick the crap outta ucla.  http://www.caddysotb.com/pages/3/index.htm .  never thought i'd say it but go gators.  ick, i feel dirty now.

 

sunday - back out to the beach, bring the rugrats this time.  ryan and morgan do good in waves with me before morgan starts having a mommy meltdown.  mommy was working on the condo from 1p-3p.  morgan goes down for nap, take ryan back to hang out with geeksatthebeach crowd keithk and billR.  dinner at caddys.  their brisket is goood.

my brother ed is quite the fisherman.  he catches lots of fish.  and he's actually fairly psycho about his fishing.

 

my dad used to take our family to cedar key 2-3 times a year to go fishing.  many memories there.  but ed never really fished.  interestingly enough he preferred crabbing, often running five or six of the folding steel basket traps at once off the cedar key community pier.  a real treat  was when he's throw the traps into the family station wagon (genuine lime green vista cruiser with brown imitation wood panels and moon roof) without taking the bait out.  cedar key is quite hot in the summer.  the smell would be, ummm, interesting.

 

so eddie went out and caught two monster reds for his 39th.  go eddie.  great job.  picture in the fishing gallery

Peace to Kelly Muldoon.  Hope she finds her soccer team in heaven.  http://www.legacy.com/TBO/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=86793973 .  Note to self:  hug my little girls tight when I get home tomorrow.

Sometimes this job has some great rewards.  Jonas, a friend and associate through my work, is from Argentina.  He went home recently and asked me what he could bring me from there.  A bottle of wine - Don Valentin Lacado - turned out to be a good choice.  Apparently you can't get it in the usa.

 

I did up a nice pork roast with 'mojo criolo' marinade (plus extra garlic) on the napoleon rotisserie attachment.  Note to self: 1 hr 15m not enuf, go for two hours next time.

 

The wine, while not what I would normally serve with mojo pork, actually turned out to be a great accompanyment. 

 

Here's a nice photo of Ryan making sure Mommy got her share!

Into page 1 of sunday paper and ryan spots girls next door out in the pool continuing their sleepover.

we worm over there and get ryan a swim invite.

Lots of manatees in the canal.

We go downtown (st pete) for lunch at chacha coconuts ( http://www.stpete-pier.com/dining.php?LID=1   ).

Wind is up too high to eat outside but food and atmosphere are good.  Nothing like 5 stories above tampa bay for fun.

tons of sailboats out.

ryan and morgan loved the pelicans and the trolley ride to the parking lot.

its so cool watching them get exciting about bits of nature.

got them little bags of candy for dessert.  ryan at hers in about 10 seconds.  wow.

came home, cold caught up with me and I crashed in a hard nap.

 

on back porch now.  just smoked a cigar to try and kill the cold.

wind is still up.  i can hear the manatees breathing in the canal and rolling.  just saw one by the dock light.

bedtime

Wake up destroyed from cold but its saturday.

Off to ruben's kid's bday party. 

Best part was Ryan and I taking 2m hike in the woods.  We went looking for Leslie's tree house and squorg's.  We saw lots of troll footprints and ogre damage.  She broke her magic sword fighting alligator snapping squorgs and racoons.

Take a 4 year old on a 2m walk and you get to carry her 1m back. Not bad but definitely could feel my ACL-less knee crunching a little.  Such is life.

Then back to the house for kiddy party #2.

My new neighbor Tony had a sleep-over luau for his 9 yr old.

Ryan was thrilled to be at a big girl party.  Sucky part was when she had to leave and all the other girls got to stay about about 630p. 

Even suckier part was her pressing her face against the window shouting the little girls name cause she could see all of them still playing as we left to go out to dinner.  Gramma-inlaw was babysitting.

Nice dinner w bill/joe - husband from the mom's club - and wife units at the Parkside Grill in downtown St. Pete.  Couldn't find a URL for it but very nice. Then off to the Vinoy http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/tpasr-renaissance-vinoy-resort-and-golf-club for dessert.  Due to cold I had no dessert mood, so I settled for a Glenlevit 10y + coffee.

Dropped anne off at house at midnight, went to Courtside Grill (  http://www.courtsidegrille.com/menu.html ) on Ulmerton to celebrate dumey's bday.  Kabza and dumey hanging out, good conversation. Slow night so the boogers running the place shut it down at 100a.

Ah well, tired anyway!

 

Tough work week last week.

But a good one.

Monday off to jax for tues am event. 

Tues event with jeffb and dans and a partner.  Good stuff.

Have option to drive w dans back but fly instead from jax.

Make it home in time to put kids to bed.

Tampa event on Wed, same crew.  Good event.  Put kids to bed again.

Up at 400am on Thurs morning to try and see how download of new vpc went.  Eep. Abysmal failure.

At airport at 600a, catch 735a flight to FLL, make it to event at 910a for 1000a start.  jeffb/quent/jimbliz/scruggsy.  Good crew. Another great event.

Cut out at 200p to drive to Naples for user group. Set new attendance record.  Woohoo.

Finish off night with pitcher of bass, wings, and a ruben at www.pelicanlarrys.com .  Great spot.

Catch viscious cold during the night.  Actually sleep in until 930a.  Head to tampa, drop off rental at airport, have concall at home at 200p with pnp group and client.

Done by 330p.  I'm physically done for the week, so on to the boat ride on Friday afternoon.

Just ran out canal with morgan/ryan/anne to main tampa bay.  Ride down to snell island and back.  By then morgan and anne are asleep on my http://www.e-searider.com marine grade beanbags. Pull up on the North shore of riviera bay to let them finish their nap.

Ryan and I practice her fishing.  Got my first experience with what do you do with a 4 year old who has to poopy on the boat.  Eeew.

Head home for dinner.  I forget where we went.  Sad ain't it.

Tough week, good rewards.

So yesterday it was too nasty to take the girls for the boat ride I had planned.  So I decide after a bit to take the girls to see Bridge to Terabithia - http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/terabithia/index.html .  Fantastic movie - lots of stuff about kids using their imagination and about the importance of having good friends and such.  The girl and boy in there gave the imagery of children I want my kids to see - creative, strong, imaginative, fiercely independent.  3/4 of the way through the movie Ryan is getting the message.

 

Then Leslie dies.  bam.  I did not see this coming.  My wife cries.  Ryan asks "Is Leslie dead?".  Morgan ask "Is Leslie dead?".  Everyone in the theatre is crying.  The whole movei to this point had been about the boy and lesie being friends.  Now the gap without her there is so large you can feel it.  Amazing way to develop the story.  Horrible emotions to experience.

 

I felt like I did when I watch "Where Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams.  You want to roll back the plot and restart the movie and make it come out with a different ending.  Same way I felt when bear died.  This was 2007 Old Yeller. Emotions like this are best experience in the movies.

 

After the show we went to Chili's for dinner.  The little girls got their ice cream sundae which we normally skip on buying them.  Bad teeth and such, you know.  F&ck bad teeth, get them their sundae.

 

Ryan got 3 stories read to her that night instead of her usual two.  And she laid in bed, asking me questions about heaven, and dying, and the bible.  Some things daddy's don't have all the answers to.  She went to sleep.  I went back to work preparing for a presentation on Monday.

 

 

 

I was going to be out on the road 4 nights next week.  I'm flying back early on Monday, and will be home Tues as well.  Life is short.  Carpe diem.