Good Day

We had a great day today with Payton. It went by much too quickly...

Magnificent Seven

I can't believe my little angel turned 7 years old today. Wow.

Lots of good stuff happened over these past 12 months. Teeth lost, sports played, reading levels leaped, a few tears here & there, but mostly smiles, laughs & kisses.

I love you sweetness!!!

Payton's Webkinz

This will be a running list for everyone to keep track of the Webkinz Payton has & will be getting. Look for a link on the right once this gets pushed down the list.

Current Webkinz (updated 7/13/08)
**New additions: Crocodile, Toucan

ALSO, please let me know if you have any of the figures, which I will also start to list here.

Beagle
Bengal Tiger
Black Arabian
Black & white cat
Black cat
Black lab
Black Stallion
Brown Arabian horse
Brown dog
Bull frog
Charcoal cat
Cheeky Dog (Black & white)
Cheeky monkey
Chicken
Chocolate lab
Clydesdale
Collie
Cow
Crocodile
Dalmatian
Duck
Elephant
Elephant (velvety)
Frog
German Shepard
Golden Retriever
Gorilla
Grey Horse (Arabian)
Grey & white cat
Himalayan cat
Hippo
Husky
Kangaroo
Koala
Lemon-Lime Gecko
Leopard
Lion
Lion (little kinz)
Lioness
Love frog
Monkey
Orange & white cat
Panda bear
Penguin
Persian cat (white)
Persian cat (little kinz)
Pig
Pink google
Pink & White Cat
Pink pony
Pink poodle
Pinto
Polar bear
Rabbit
Raccoon
Reindeer
Samoyed
Siamese Cat
Spotted frog
Tiger Snake
Tree frog
Unicorn (little kinz)
Velvety Elephant
Wacky Zingoz
Whimsy Dragon
White poodle
Yellow lab
Yorkie


Purchased, but haven't given to the Princess yet:

Black Bear
Black Poodle
Blue Rhino
Bull dog
Chihuahua
Cocker Spaniel
Tiger
Toucan


Figures:
Brushing Up Hippo
Chillin Out Polar Bear
Fire Chief Elephant
Kinzpinz Panda
Shootin Hoops Black & White Cat

Misc.:
Notebook
School Supplies kit

It's A Miracle

38 years ago today, Jerry Koosman got future Mets manager Davey Johnson to fly out to Ron Swoboda, completing the storybook year of the Miracle Mets.

I was still four years away from being born, but I love reading about that team & all the early Mets teams. Hopefully there's some interesting items in the Hall of Fame I'll be able to check out when I get up there in December.

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In other news, here is a shot of Payton, her soccer team & handsome coach.

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The "renovations" on the house are continuing. I still feel like we're camping. The first project we're doing is redoing my computer/TV room. We ripped out the carpet & Mary has painted the ceilings. Once the primer & paint is up and I scrub off the old paint off of the hardwoods, I'll be able to set everything up in there, including this computer. I haven't touched my 360 in almost two weeks!

I do have lots of pictures to share, but first I'll need to locate my memory card reader so I can take them off of the camera. The real interesting shots will be of the driveway/patio project, which started yesterday and is progressing nicely.

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I should have plenty of time to enjoy my new setup during the first week of November. I will be having my wisdom teeth ripped from my mouth. I am not looking forward to this procedure as I have been hearing horror stories about this my entire life. Ugh. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy lots of ice cream.

Birthday Recap & More

Ugh. Another birthday came & went on Tuesday. 34.

With every year that goes by, the day feels more & more like an average day. I try to fend off all the well-wishers, although I do appreciate them. It's obviously not the same. I look more forward to Payton's birthday than I do mine.

It was still a nice day. My big gifts were tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld a couple weeks ago & this nice jersey:

I also received some nice gear with the 2007 US Open logo on it. I love squirrels. :)
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Anywho, just some random items to close this entry.

- More t-ball photos have been added to the online gallery. Eventually I'll throw a link up on the right, but for now, scroll down a couple of entries to find the link.

- Speaking of t-ball, here's Payton's YouTube debut. Notice the lack of a tee.


- I had no idea Coach T had been through this. Wow.
Cystic Fybrosis & Coach T

- In closing, another fantastic shot from Patty. The M/V Race Point sailing back to New London in a gorgeous sunset.

Baseball (Cards), T-Ball & Softball

Yes, a smorgasbord of ball & glove activities.

I'll start with t-ball, since Miss Payton is the main reason why the majority of my visitors make it over to this little corner of the internets.

Payton has now played three t-ball games & loves it. Lucky for you guys, I remembered my camera on two of those days.

Here are a couple of my favorite images:



Click on this picture to see the entire collection of shots:

Payton T-Ball

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As for myself, I will be helping out Joe Cuff in a pinch on Wednesday, filling a roster spot for his softball team. I haven't stepped into a batters box since 2002 and that was for only one game. I haven't played truly competitive softball since the late 90's. This could be ugly. Hopefully the knee will hold up and I'll play in the outfield, greatly reducing the risk of my jaw fielding another ground ball.

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I'm back into the baseball card collecting gig.

As a kid, I loved my baseball cards. I can look at an 1980 or 1981 Topps card and be instantly transported back to those years, at the Mystic IGA with Dad, picking up a rack pack during a grocery shopping trip.

I didn't get too many cards in the next few years until the collecting bug started again in 1985. In 1986, in 7th grade, I joined a baseball card collecting club in school and that was that. I was in deep. My collecting peaked in 1987, as I have tons & tons of 1987 Topps, Fleer & Donruss cards from that year. (Which for the record are basically worthless, since the rest of the world has tons & tons as well.)

When Upper Deck jumped on the scene in 1989, baseball card collecting started to become too difficult. All the companies produced too many different sets, too many inserts and I couldn't keep up, let alone afford all these new cards.

The 2001 Topps set was pretty cool and I amassed almost the entire Series 1 set for that year. I've picked up some cool Mookie Wilson cards as well as Roberto Clemente cards over the past five or so years. However, I now have a new focus.

I've narrowed my collecting to acquiring every Mets Topps card ever produced. I picked up a fantastic checklist on eBay & have been figuring out what I have & what I need over the past couple of weeks.


I managed to score a couple good deals on eBay and I hit a card shop and a card show (that was a blast from the past!) the past couple of weekends. There's nothing like digging through the common bins, finding a bunch of cards you need and spending less than $20 for your treasures.

Right now the process is fairly easy, as I need lots of cards. Save for 2001, I had practically zero cards from 1991 through the present day. Thankfully, these cards are cheap. Going back through the 70's & 60's will be a little more challenging, although there are bargains to be had.

I'm enjoying it and hopefully I'll be able to keep crossing off more & more years as the summer wears on.

Success!

BYDTWD was an rousing success! Payton had a blast & I'm pretty sure she didn't drive everyone completely crazy. Seriously, she kept busy for most of the day by helping out with a large project. The rest of the time was spent coloring, drawing on the white boards, going to the bathroom (three trips) and helping me out. I can't wait until next year.

That's my girl, closing the sale!

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

Thursday is Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Yes, Payton will be joining me at the office for the day. This should be interesting. I'm confident she will be fine, but you never know.

If I remember my camera & can find a way to grab the pics off it while working, I will try & post some pictures during the day. If not, they will be posted tomorrow night.

Wish us luck!

T Minus 4 Hours

Just a few more hours to go before my surgery. I'm looking forward to getting this over & done with. It will be nice to not have to worry about the cartilage tearing all the time. Plus, the few days off will be nice. Nothing like sitting around napping, watching TV & playing some 360 to help you recover. I will miss my Payton though. :(
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Speaking of Miss P, this is what she wrote in her journal (yes, she has a journal) Monday night, with no prompting:

In football you can not pul down there fas mask and it is a foul.

Is my little girl going to be a football announcer?? I've heard John Madden say things much more obvious than that!
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Speaking of my Xbox 360, there's a new way to keep track of my gaming. There was always my 360's blog (which is linked on the right), but that only gave a daily recap. (It does have some interesting statistics, but is limited.) My 360 LiveEye breaks down my gaming hour by hour, game by game. Pretty scary, but pretty cool too, at least to me.
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My first quiz in English Lit? An "A". Sweeet.
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Before I leave for surgery, here's a passage from one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, The Jimmy, (Top 20 coming soon!) that always pops in my head when I hear "surgery":

KRAMER: "So, you're heading home?"

JERRY: "No...Got dental appointment."

KRAMER: "Ah! what.. Tim Whatley?

JERRY: "Yeah!"

KRAMER: "Oh yeah.! I got a check up on Thursday."

JERRY: "Oh! How d'you like that?"

KRAMER: "You know.. You really shouldn't brush 24 hours before seeing the dentist."

JERRY: "I think that's eat 24 hours before surgery."

KRAMER: "Oh no, you got to eat before surgery, you need your strength."

(I haven't had anything to eat or drink since 8:30 PM last night.)