Archive for: December 2004

The holidays have come and gone (except for New Years). Patty, Patrick, Erin and I had a great time, although it seemed like we were moving at the speed of lightning with so many things going on. Jennifer came in from New York at it was wonderful spending time with her. The kids love visiting with Aunt Jennifer.
Christmas Eve was spent at Patty’s Parents. The food was, as always, more then enough and with wine was flowing. We also had gone to the 4:30 Children’s Mass and to our surprise, we found a seat rather easily and the kids were very good.
We went to my Mom’s Christmas Day and later on back to Patty’s parents. The kids go a lot of good presents. Erin got her dolls and Patrick his Thomas trains. I gave Patty some stuff from Catching Fireflies and she got me the Master and Commander DVD and a Lacoste golf shirt. I can’t wait to golf!!! I didn’t get any comics, but I may buy some for myself with some bonus money that I received.
We visited with more friends on the 26th and 27th and on the 28th we celebrated my Dad’s birthday at our house with Jenny and Dan Cahill. We all watched Something About Mary. I forgot how funny that movie was.
On the 29th I took my Mom and Bob to the airport and we went to Mike and Melanie’s for dinner. Colin, their son is so cute. He reminds me of Patrick at 10 months – just a butterball.
Thursday we did nothing – by choice. Patty and the kids took a well-deserved nap. I took the tree down.

Tonight Patty and I are going to Kevin and Linda’s, the kids will be at Carol and Joe’s.

Tomorrow Michigan will play in the Rose Bowl against Texas. I hope to God Michigan wins.

I have to touch on the Tsunami in Asia. I find it simply mind blowing. I can’t believe that 125,000 people are dead and many more wounded. Patty and I have given money for the relief effort. There isn’t much I can say. While watching the horrors unfold on TV, I had to look away sometimes. My family is truly blessed that we live in such a great country. I complain about cold weather and snow, but it pales in comparison to and earthquake of this magnitude.

Christmas is in the air and I’m not even close to being done with shopping. I have a few ideas for Patty and I still would like to surprise Patrick and Erin with something that Patty has no idea about.

Today has to be the coldest day of the year. We all ventured out to the mall so Patty could pick some things up at Old Navy. The kids and I sat in the car listening to Christmas songs - which was just fine with me. Even going outside tonight to pit the garbage out I thought I was going to freeze on the front lawn.

BTW, did I mention that the Lions truly blow?

Patty and I settled in for Desperate Housewives and, as usual Patty got lost with all the intrigue. That’s fine with me. I think it’s funny in a weird way. She is so smart, but when it comes to simple things she gets lost. I love her so much!

I’m going to put more things on eBay this week mostly some old Archives I need to get rid of. All of them are second and third editions. I’m using some money that I received for my Christmas bonus from the golf course to replace them.

Mom and Bob came back from Florida this week. It’s good to have them back. Now they can baby-sit the kids. Ha-ha. Jennifer will be home on Tuesday. The kids can’t wait to see her. This should be a grand Christmas!

On our way to Church this morning, Patty, the kids and myself witnessed, first hand, a brutal car accident right in front of our eyes.
It seems that a car was speeding and got right up on my bumper (I was going the speed limit of 40), swerved to the next lane to the left, came around and got in front of me and smashed right into a car that was going East-West to cut across the road. I know it’s a little hard to comprehend if you went there. In any case, I was the first to call 911 and it appeared that both drivers were OK. Five police cars and an ambulance came to check everyone out. I gave my statement to the police and they said they would call me with any questions. I made a .PDF document (from Visio) for my own personal account of what happened in case they do call me to court.
Accident Diagram

As you can see, I made a complete stop at the median and when I headed up Northbound Woodward the traffic was clear. The car in question came out of nowhere! She didn’t lay on her horn or anything to suggest that I cut her off. She was driving and swerving way too fast.
I’m just glad that wasn’t us who got hit. We went to church and thanked God.

Saturday night the family went to the Detroit Zoo to see the Festival of Lights. The kids really enjoyed it and it wasn’t too cold. The Reptile house was even open and Patrick loved looking at all the turtles and snakes.

I started my 2004 New Year’s resolution 11 months late, Thursday night. My promise to myself was, that I would read one novel every month. I hope to switch off between fiction and nonfiction, but I don’t know how well I’ll be able to stick with that order. I started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and I’m so enthralled with it, I really want to read The DaVinci Code next. I started DaVinci a year ago, but was sidetracked and never got through it. A real shame, because, everyone I know as read it.
My little promise will also get me off of the Internet, too. Something that I do way too much.