Life's Been A Little Busy Lately....

My last entry was on November 2nd. I haven't had access to a computer at work yet and haven't had time at home to post anything to my blog so I'll try to catch everyone up on what's been going on since then.

Work

I've been here for 11 days so far, and out of those 11, I've been in to NYC to job sites 9 days. Most of the time I've been tagging along with the guy I've been working with - Paul. He's got a company truck with commercial plates so it's not difficult to find a parking space. For the 3 times that I've had to drive in by myself it's been impossible to find a parking space in the vicinity of the job site, so I've had to park in parking garages. The money isn't an issue since I get reimbursed, but it's when it's time to get the car and there are 10 people ahead of me all waiting to get their cars first.... and the place is understaffed.... and it's a multilevel garage.... and I've got class in an hour.... and it takes almost two hours to get out of Manhattan and down to New Brunswick....

School

The estimating class that I take on Thursday nights is going well. The teacher is pretty good and makes the class interesting. We're always working on some kind of estimating problem either in groups or together as a class - which keeps everyone involved. The tuesday night class about Consturction Procedures, Materials and Costs is a whole nother story. Anyone who can read the English language could do what this teacher does. It's a ten week program and he's got ten powerpoint presentation slide shows that he shows. He's got each week's slides printed out with notes on them that he reads from as he shows the slides. He rarely adds anything not covered by the slides to the class. It also doesn't help that he needs reading glasses to read the notes. He'll go from reading the projector screen, then putting on his glasses, finding his spot on the paper notes, read a note, then take the glasses off, then repeating something from the projector screen, then back to the notes. It's just painful to have to sit there and go through.

Home Life

Last Wednesday my little girl turned 1. We had the NJ relatives come over after dinner for some birthday cake. Nicholas and Jennie made her a small personal cake just for her and Nicholas did the icing job. Like any kid, she just ate the icing. Saturday was her birthday party with more relatives and some friends. Thomas was his usual shy self and spent most of the time in the basement with either Jenna or his brother and cousins playing basketball. Alexis got some really cute clothes and some toys. Her brothers have gotten a better kick out of seeing and playing with her toys than she has so far. She's also reaaallllyyy close to walking full time now. She stands up without holding to anything and she'll take 3 or 4 steps between objects/furniture. She'll also take longer walks (8-10 steps) if we trick her and she doesn't notice what she's doing. (The old trick - mom and dad sit on the floor a few feet away from each other and have Alexis walk between us. Then when she starts walking to one of us, that parent will slide back as she's getting closer, thus causing her to take more steps to reach us.)

Thomas will be turning 3 in about 1 month and has now been in underwear for 3 weeks. He's had a handful of pee-pee accidents and 2 poo-poo accidents, but that's to be expected when potty-training. He hasn't had any accidents of any kind in the past 1-2 weeks so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he's finally crossed that final hurdle....

Nicholas is doing great as a big brother. He loves his baby sister so much and is always trying to hug her, kiss her, help her. Thomas loves her too, but often smothers her when he's doing nice to her. He'll learn one of these days (I hope). Nicholas is pretty good with Thomas also. They rarely fight unless they're playing "power rangers" or one of them is cranky. No sibling rivalry developing yet, so we'll have to wait and see how things progress over time....

Sports

The Jets have got to be the most heart-wrenching team to root for. There is never a definite identity to the team. They're never "great" or "horrible". Just when you think they're done for the season, or even the game, they'll come up with some kind of performance that makes you believe that they can pull it out. Then they'll do something stupid and smash all hope. But the very next drive/week they'll get your hopes up again, only to drop them again. It's like a rollercoaster ride of emotions with that team.

The Nets look like they'll win the Atlantic Division this season. With Kidd, Carter, Jefferson, and Kristic - they've got what it'll take to win easily. That's not really saying much because their opponents in the Atlantic suck. But at least they'll get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Sherryl Swoopes came out of the closet a few weeks ago and I still haven't decided if the lack of hoopla over the statement is good or bad. Is it good that nobody cares? Do they not care because alternate lifestyles have become so well accepted that a lesbian coming out isn't earth-shattering news anymore? Or is it because it's just because no one really cares? Mainly I think it's because she's a woman coming out and not a man. It's definitely more accepted to be a lesbian than a gay male in this society, which shouldn't be the way it is, but it is. But I just can't put my finger on why Swoopes' coming out causes such little commotion.

I'm in a football pool run by my uncle who lives in Portland, OR and out of the first 10 weeks, I came in second 8 times. I finally broke through and won this past weekend by succesfully guessing the most correct winning teams. Each week's winner wins and then at the end of the season the total wins leader wins some extra. You'd think that by coming in second almost every week would have me at or near the total leader position, but you'd be wrong. My Aunt has won 5 weeks so far and is leading the pack by a wide margin. I'd cry "Fix!" or "Conspiracy Theory!", but they're family and it's all in fun. I'm hoping now that she was the one who used her run of good luck and took a ride down the California to buy that $315 million dollar Mega Millions lottery ticket.

Upcoming Events

Once I get settled down in my permanent desk with my own computer here at work, I should have more time available to post entries in the blog, but I'm not counting on it. So for those of you who looked forward to me posting my silly thoughts every day or two like I did in the past, you'll have to settle for maybe a weekly post or two.

I've got a bunch of pictures that I have to download from the camera to the computer at home so I can post them online, but first I've got to find a block of time at home to get that done. Hopefully I'll have some time this coming weekend to do that.

The Teaneck Jewish Center winter league starts this coming Sunday. I'm no where near as good as I used to be so I'm not expecting to see my name on any of the leader boards. I'm one of those veterans who are past their prime and are still clinging to home of winning one last chamipionship before retiring for good. I feel like Clifford Robinson. Coming in off the bench for short stretches and just trying to do a few of the little things to help the team. Not relied on to carry the team, but to come in and hold things down for the starters when they need a breather.