Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

I'm thankful. Thankful for my life, my love and my health. Have a great season, everybody.

Thankful:

Double Improv Weekend.

Homey on Friday PrimeTime
THEMS gets a stowaway at 10:30

It'll be good to be back. I missed it, and my creative cauldron is bubbling over. Time to pour some out.
Of course I miss the improv, but what hurts the most is the people I don't see nearly enough. Improvisers are the most insane, childish, self-loathing, creative, wonderful, lazy, nerdy people in the world, and I love them. See you on Friday.

Suspension of Disbelief

For everyone who is clamoring for a resolution to the Facebook conundrum, here's what happened...

I actually signed up an account, went to my 20th reunion Facebook page, took the details and left. Never to return. I've since gotten 150 friend requests that I've ignored. Not because I don't like anyone, but because I don't like Facebook. I just don't have the time.

But, something interesting did come out of this. I reconnected with a person from Way Back. A girl. A first love, or at least first crush.

I was apprehensive to resume contact to say the least. To be completely honest, all of my happiness and successes have been a direct result of meeting my wife, so I'm not interested in anything that would jeopardize that. But, the impact of a girl from your past telling you that you're her greatest mistake is great for the ego.

My wife, of course, it totally cool with the whole thing. She busts my balls everyday anyway, so this is just fuel to the fire. It's why I love her.

So...to go to the reunion or not, that is the question.

On one hand, I loved my 10 year reunion. But we were all young and willing to party. And party we did. It was...interesting to say the least. It was like Less than Zero, and I was Robert Downey Jr.

Now, the plan is to go to Mass(catholic school reunion) and a possible picnic with kids and spouses. Not exactly my ideal weekend. In fact, it sounds like a snoozer.

Viva La Revolution

It's August now. Another short summer.

Interesting things afoot. I was just contacted by an old friend from Grammar School regarding a 20(ish, we passed it a bit ago) year reunion. The reunion itself is no big deal. I'm comfortable enough with my life, wife, money and status that it's not very stressful to me. What is much more fascinating to me is how they came to find me.

Facebook. Which I am most definitely not on.

Friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of my sister, who obviously knows my info.

Listen... I'm not hiding from anyone. As a matter of fact, the girl who originally wanted to find me grew up a block from my house now. The girl who finally found my sister...I saw her mom 2 weeks ago.

I'm back home everyone!!! If you can't find me, it's your own damn fault. I'm a believer in the fact that I kept in contact with everyone that mattered to me. If you don't have my info, it's probably for a reason.

Now I'm forced to decide whether or not to continue the blissful ignorance of a facebook free lifestyle, or sign up and be inundated with useless knowledge of people's whereabouts.

Here's Grace at her Ballet recital. It's cute and disturbing at the same time.


Here's Jack in his native environment.

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day. A contrived holiday, but I'll take it. This is my 4th. Until this year, I've never planned anything for Father's Day. Content to stay at home all day with Grace and Jack, I've never felt the need to go fishing, or to the nudie bar, or off to a baseball game or anything. I treat Father's day as a family day. I am a nerd.

But...

NOT THIS YEAR, Suckas!

My wife, the love of my life, mother of my kids, and all around kick-ass human, has given me 2 gifts this year.

1.
Wilson Ci7 Irons. Golf Digests 2008 #1 rated irons. Unlikely to help my game in any way, but pretty as hell. I can no longer blame inferior equipment.

Even more wonderful...



Full disclosure: I'm a hippy. A true blue, dreadlocked, mud covered, smelly, wookie trapped in the body of a nubile yet aging, middle class, fat white guy. My wife knows this fact about me. And is generously sending me across the midwest to follow the band that started it all for me.

Keep on keepin on, and I'll see you down the road.

Coming out of it.

My tulips are budding, so it must be spring. Currently raining and 38 degrees. Gonna drop some pics from our Easter trip to Colorado Springs:

From Garden of the Gods:


Pike's Peak Zoo:


Last but not least, Grace being Grace:


The bra belongs to the Mother-in-Law. I don't know how many husbands read this blog, but here's a friendly word of advice...Try not to ever see your in-law's giant bra. It leaves scars that don't easily heal.

Anatomy 101

Well, as is typical in the Higgins household, Late Jan/Early Feb is more about hunkering down and riding out the winter than anything else. The days of snowmen, snow forts, and snowball fights has given way to indoor activities like Wii's Enchanted Princesses.

But, one thing of note happened during yesterday's bath time. My wife wondered why Jack's balls were so saggy. So I got to invoke the "Do your balls hang low, do they wobble to and fro" nursery rhyme. So that was nice.

Yes, my son has old man balls.

Round and Round

I've found that parenting is cyclical. One day, your boy's struggle to put on his mittens is hilarious and beautiful. The next day, you just want him to PUT HIS F'IN GLOVES ON ALREADY. WTF?

When your daughter tells you about her day in school, it usually takes longer than the school day itself. But that's ok because most of the time, it's just a joy to hear your cherubic child taking a real interest in her daily activities, and it's wonderful to hear her try to verbalize her day. Other days you just want her to EAT YOUR GDAMN PEAS, YOU NEED TO GET TO BED AND YOU STILL NEED A BATH!!

The real key to parenting, I'm finding out, is to keep a straight face. Good and bad days come and go, so you can't sweat the small stuff. They're just kids after all, and sometimes they do childish things.

Goddamn it's cold

Wow. Really cold out there. I kinda like it though. It makes me enjoy summer. And let be honest, with my extra layer of blubber, I'm uniquely qualified to spend my time in sub zero weather. I'm like a harp seal without all the clubbing.

Xmas is upon us. We had a family party on Saturday. Jack got a bunch of trucks, Grace got a Barbie Cruise Boat. Talk about re-enforcing stereotypes. It's a fun time at the old Higgins household, so I can't complain.

My basement is finally completed. Sump pump, DryWall, painted and carpeted(EMPIRE!!). Looks great, and I reclaim some of my living space. Good times all around.

10 Days til Breckenridge. No Kids!


*not actually me.

Happy Tuesday

So, the holiday went well, as always.

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday. All the food and family you can handle, but no gifts or roasting chestnuts.


It also helps that my Wife's family is completely out of town, so we only have 1 responsibility on Thanksgiving. We are only responsible to our lower GI.

Actually played football on thursday, so I tested the Achilles, it responded well, so I'm on the road to playing a dominant third base like I've been doing for the past 15 years.

It's Grace's birthday on Thursday. 4 years old. So I built this last night:

Twitter Nation

Ok...I signed up for Twitter so that I could get text message updates about Da Bears. Which is great. I get updates right from Halas Hall about who's practicing, who's not. Who looks good, who doesn't.

Then after a while, I get a note saying so-and-so is following me on Twitter, no big deal.

But, I don't actually send anything out. But maybe I want to. I assume I can text from my phone, right? Or do I have to do it online from my computer? That would hurt, because most of my inspiration comes while looking at mullets on the train.

Action packed weekend

So...I ran for 8min last thursday. The ankle felt fine, the fat ass did not. But, I'm back. The pain in my heart, lungs, back and legs is a good pain. The ankle gives me no problem.

Jack is also beginning to develop the superior sense of humor that was genetically transferred to him from his extremely hilarious parents.

His newest thing is pointing to someone and calling them by an obviously wrong name, laughing and saying: "Nooooo"

Example: Pointing at me, saying "Mama, heeheehee, NOOOOO!!"

He also thinks one of the most hilarious things in the world is when I throw a beach ball at him and it bounces off his giant head. He'll actually fall on the floor from laughing when that happens. AFV here we come.

So, the recap of my weekend:

Me chucking things at my son's head.

The End of an ERA

Yesterday, exactly 149 days since that fateful spring evening in Mayfair Park, I was finally cleared to resume all activities.

In short, I can run again. The doc says to expect it to be another year before I feel 100% but as of now, I'm not at risk to re-rupture the Achilles.

Outside of some genuinely beautiful moments, this was the worst summer of my life. But now it's over. I recommend that if anyone gets injured in the future, consider tearing an ACL or breaking some ribs rather than going for the Achilles.

Now I can keep up with this dude...

Disney updates part II

Couple pics just came in...Hot off the iPhone presses...

She shows uncharacteristic patience. This is serious business.

The finished product(she's the Genie from Alladin). Kinda creepy, but she's obviously super-pumped.



Meanwhile, back on the home front, Jack pooped. TWICE!!

Disney updates

The ladies are having a grand old time in the nation's tourist capital.

Couple pics:

Grace enters the park, stands with only her face in the sun, and squints like she's having a stroke:
A more representative pic of my favorite girl in the whole world:


Meanwhile, Jack and I languish at home amid a flurry of wrestling, tickling and eating meat. No Veggies for us men!

Surprises

I have to say, even though I'm not involved at all, my wife is doing one of the awesomest things of all time this weekend.

She's surprising Grace on Saturday Morning with a trip to...Disney World.

My wife and I have known about it for awhile obviously, but Grace has no idea. She's almost 4, but this has been her life long goal.

Last night, when she was going to bed, I asked Grace what she wanted more than anything in the world, and she said: "To see Disney World" then she got a little sad and said: "but you have to be 5 to go there."

HeeHee. She's going to poop herself.

While all that's happening, I get to spend the weekend with this guy:


Jack's newest thing is that if he wants to sit next to me on the couch, will walk up and say "Sit with the Dude?". It comes out more "sihwdoooo?" but I know what he means.

And yes, Jack, you can always sit with the Dude.

Halloween

Not sure what year this is from...Somewhere near the turn of the century, I guess(that sounds weird) maybe even earlier.

I have no idea what costume Juan is wearing. Beastmaster? Braveheart? ANd why the fuck would I be eating an apple?

Anyway, it's always nice to find lost gems like this from pre-digital camera days.

Run DMV

So...I moved last year. I needed to change my voter registration and address on the old Driver's License. A prick cop told me a few months ago that you only have 10 days to change your DL address, and he was actually doing me a favor by writing me a $100 ticket instead of calling in the state troopers to haul me in. Evidently, bogus DL address is a state offense yo.

So, Tuesday became my getshitdone day, since I was already off work for rehab and a doc appt at Northwestern.

My day started with a choice, and whenever that happens, I invariably choose wrong.

My choice: go to the DMV by my house, or the one on the way back from Northwestern?

Well, I don't know what the one by my house is like, but the one on Laramie and the Eisenhower is being remodeled. So, I sat in a party tent, setup in a parking lot, with 350 of my closest friends while waiting for my License.

But the wait was well worth it. Check this out yo:

The blog jinx strikes again.

The blog jinx: Name the demon and invoke that demon.

I poked some fun at Hurricane Ike forcing me to work on Sunday. His buddy, Gustav, decided revenge was in order.

Now I have no carpeting or drywall in my basement. You can say Gustav game me "a full 6 inches". Or maybe "he let his juices run all over my basement".

Regardless, he flooded my house.

So I spent Sunday working, and pumping, and working and pumping. I then spent Monday paying. Paying for someone to tear apart my basement. Then paying for Jimmy John's cuz what's $10 when you just spent $4k, right?

All you homeowners out there...Get flood insurance. It matters. With luck, I'll make enough from insurance to cover the plans I have in store for my soon-to-be waterproof basement.

Rock me like a Hurrucane

So, Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Texas coast. Towards the main energy producing region of our great country.

To residents of the effected areas, this represents turmoil, uncertainty, danger and sadness.

To me, it means I have to work on Sunday. I would much prefer to feel empathy towards the good people of Houston from the comfort of my HDTV, while watching my favorite NFL teams battle for the right to say: "Screw You Mother Nature!!"

Instead I'll be working, blech.

Saturday should be fun, though. Company golf outing...play well, and I can pay off my car. Play poorly, and I get drunk for free. Win-win in my book.

Then off to a bachelor party. I'm not much of a traditional bachelor party guy. Not really into midget strippers, for instance(my own bachelor party notwithstanding). But I do like hanging out with dudes. You chicks should try it some time.

Over under for sack-showing...midnight.