Jason's first day of pre-school

Jason and Ryan pose for a pic before school.

Today was Jason's first day of pre-school. He was pretty excited, he had his backpack on long before it was time to go. I think watching us take his big brothers to school has gotten him in the right frame of mind. When I picked him up at the end of the day, the teacher said he did just fine. Some of the other kids were crying and raising a holy fit, not my boy!

House Project Update

I've been slacking off and not updating my blog as much as I'd like to. Life is funny like that, keeping me busy with all kinds of shit that I don't really want to do. Well, here goes.

The front entrance has been completed, the new columns are in place and the new front door has been installed. We shit-canned the planned arches on the front porch because, in the words of Jerry - the lead carpenter on the job - "they looked gay". Well, I don't know if they were gay or not - not that there's anything wrong with that mind you - we just didn't like the way they looked. So, we killed 'em. The front porch and steps have been put in place by the mason, so no more moat!

We've also gotten the inspections for electrical, plumbing and framing - so that means it's on to insulation. The insulation was installed and inspected and we then raced on to sheetrocking. And since I'm a lazy ass I didn't take any pictures since the insulation was put in place, you'll just have to use your imagination. It looks like this, only there's sheetrock on the walls.

If you squint a little you can see the sheetrock.

Well today (9/11) I stopped by the house to check on the progress and all the sheetrock is up and taped and spackled. Lot's of progress. The next major milestone is the install of the hardwood floors and the stair hand rails. We thought we were going to be able to just patch the stair rails, but wouldn't you know it, since we've change so much of the house we now have to follow the "new" code standard for rail height. Our existing stair rails were two inches too short so they all had to be ripped out and will need to be replaced by new ones. Of course.

We finally picked out granite for the kitchen and we decided on silestone for the bathrooms and Julie has finalized the tiles for the kitchens and baths.

Up next is the delivery and install of the kitchen cabinets. Somewhere along the line we have to paint the interior and exterior of the house. Oh, did I mention that they've started to install the cedar shingles? Well, they have. I love the look of the plain unpainted cedar shingles, I'm half tempted to strip the whole house down and have them put up fresh shingles. Mind you, I'm only half tempted and that half of me is an idiot.

Meanwhile, the bank account is looking a tad spartan these days, so any and all contributions to the Billings Foundation will be graciously accepted (and immediately forwarded on to Ethan my contractor, aka: The guy that has all my money).

Betcha can't wait 'till you do your own house project! It's so much fun!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend we headed up to Cape Code to spend the weekend with Kim and Jim and their three boys.

They boys had a blast playing at the beach. They loved to ride the "floaties" and catch minnows with their nets.

Here's Cory, the Great White Hunter!

This was my best attempt at catching a photo of all three of them together. It's next to impossible to get all three of them looking at the camera, smiling and not making a face, looking the wrong way or sticking their tongues out. In fact, I think it might violate some of the laws of physics. Or the third law of thermodynamics. I think Wile E. Coyote had an easier time catching the Road Runner.

I only got this picture under threat of violence. Anyway, all the other parents had a great time watching and listening to me try to heard my pack of wild boys together and all smile pretty for the camera. I'm glad I was entertaining.

Afterwards, I went back to the house and self medicated with the help of some beer. Lot's of beer.

August 21st, 2007 - House project update

It's been a while since I updated the blog on the status of the house project, so here goes. The roof is finally completed and the big blue tarp is off the house.

No more big blue tarp!

The new garage doors have been installed and the chimney has been rebuilt to the new height also.

The new front entrance is still a work in progress, so in the meantime, we have a nice little moat. I'm thinking about keeping the moat, it's a nice throwback feature. Maybe I'll stock it with ill tempered seabass.

Jason crossing the moat. With his blankey, of course.

Inside the work has transitioned to the HVAC installation, which is just about done, and the plumbing and electrical rough-ins. We did a walk though with the electrician on Monday going over the light, outlet and switch location in each room. We've decided to have an alarm installed and have the bottom floor wired for audio. So that should be happening this week. The kitchen cabinets are on schedule for delivery the first week of September.

Ethan, our GC, is very pleased with the progress and thinks we are on schedule. The next milestone is the install of the sheetrock. That will surely make things look different.

If you've ever run a large house project renovation, or built a new house, you know that it certainly is an experience. There are decisions to make just about every day. We still haven't picked out the countertops. Oh boy! Luckily Julie and I are on the same page about most things, so that makes the process easier. Except for the countertops, I like the darker stuff and Julie doesn't. So we'll probably compromise and get what Julie likes.

If everything stays on schedule and goes well, we should be back in our house in early November. We'll see...

Jason turns 3!

August 10th, 2007

Jason turned 3 on 8/10/2007!

We had a party for him on Sunday. We invited some good friends and his God Parents for a brunch. It turned out to be a great day weather wise and the kids had a great time playing wiffle ball, riding bikes, making crafts and generally just being kids. Even the parents got into the act and did some playing too. Although, it's not easy to play wiffle ball holding a beer.

Jason and Anthony share a birthday hug.

Rachael and Cory.

The boys had some of their best friends over to play with, it's great that they have so many friends about the same age. In particular, Racheal and Cory have been friends forever and love to play together. Rachael is about 6 months older than Cory and they've known each other since Cory was about 2 days old. How cool is that?

Julie and I worked like slaves prepare food for everyone. Not! We had it catered. Brunch turned into dinner with most folks sticking around for an evening BBQ. The party broke up when we ran out of beer and food. Which was alot like my 40th birthday party, exept without the drunken air guitar concert at 3am. But I digress.

I think everyone had a good time.

Trip Report - The Dykes

Saturday August 4th The Scuba Connection chartered the dive boat Stingray for a planned trip to the Alex Mac. The Alex Mac is a 64-foot scallop boat that was lost at sea in July of 2006 after an accident with a barge. Regrettably, two lives were lost from the Alex Mac in the accident. For more information about the Alex Mac and the accident, check here: http://njscuba.net/sites/site_alex_mac.html

The Alex Mac sank in about 80 feet of water about 6 miles off the coast of Manasquan. Sailing out of Belmar on the Stingray we left the dock at about 7am. After several failed attempts to hook into the Alex Mac we decided to head to an alternate site. Most likely the Alex Mac has broken up since it sank. In any event we gave up on it and headed for the Dykes.

The Dykes is a 306 foot long steel hulled five masted schooner built in 1919. The State of New Jersey sank it intentionally in 1983 to create an artificial reef. There's a great write up on the Dykes here: http://njscuba.net/reefs/site_nj02sg_dykes.html

On the way to the Dykes we were visited by a pod of dolphins. This is the second time in as many trips that we've encountered a large pod of dolphins. I hope the trend continues. I'd love to see them while I was under water. We arrived on site at the Dykes and prepped for dive one. I splashed at 11:36am with Bob Muckin as my dive buddy. We quickly dropped down to the bottom at 66 feet and got ourselves oriented. We first headed aft to the stern then doubled back and headed forward to the bow. Most of the Dykes is lying very low, offering about 5 or so feet of relief. The bow and the stern are still somewhat intact and offer about 20 feet of relief.

From left - Scott, Bob and Craig onboard the Stingray.

The visibility was about 15 feet or so and it was relatively dark. There was a slight current on the bottom. Bob and I were looking for lobsters - though we knew this wreck wasn't famous for giving up lobsters. This is a much better wreck for mussels. I don't much care for mussels - so I didn't bother collecting any. I did collect a few sand dollars 'cause I thought the kids would like to see them. Unfortunately Bob and I didn't find any lobsters, so after 45 minutes on the bottom in 55 degree water - we headed up for our safety stop.

During the surface interval we were visited by a large leatherback turtle - something I've never seen off of NJ before. He looked to be pretty large and he didn't stick around long. There's another marine animal I'd love to see while I was underwater.

Unfortunately for Bob, during our first dive his drysuit leaked and his undergarments were pretty soaked so he opted to sit out dive two. I geared up and splashed with Stephan and Alex. Stephan was returning to a spot that he saw a large lobster in hopes of bagging him. After watching Stephan try to dig out his prey for a while, I signaled that I was heading back to the anchor line. Back at the anchor line I ran into Mike and I stayed around there with him for a while while he snapped pictures. He took one of me, but, since it was pretty dark and the vis only so-so, there isn't much to see except the beam of my HID light.

That's me back there, behind the beam of the HID light.

Mike signaled to me that he was heading up and I waved goodbye - I was collecting more sand dollars and generally just enjoying view. After a few minutes Stephan and Alex returned from their hunting trip and Alex headed up the line. Stephan and I hung together by the anchor line for a bit then decided to head up at about the 30 minute mark. While hanging on our safety stop I watched as an endless supply of small comb jellies drifted past us in the current, catching one on my gloved hand every so often and watching them phosphoresce. These jellies are very abundant in NJ and they are bioluminescent.

Stephan and I were the last ones back to the boat so the mate quickly jumped in to pull the hook and soon we were on our way back home.

Unfortunately for Bob he lost his wreck reel somewhere down on the Dykes - most likely while rolling over the side of the Stingray to start the dive. So, if anyone diving the Dykes finds a Halcyon Pathfinder reel with "Muck" written on the handle, shoot me an email and I'll see that it gets back to the owner.

Jason is out of diapers!

Just a couple of weeks shy of his third birthday Jason has made the transition from diapers! For those of you that are parents, you know that this is a major milestone. Finally, all of the kids are out of diapers! Woo hoo!