2008 Wrap Up

I just have a few stories remaining from 2008. So I will get them out of the way and we can focus on 2009 because it is a 'new day'.

On Christmas day we had the wife's family over for dinner. We went to church earlier in the day and the wife had invited the priest over for dinner. Only we didn't tell the inlaws. I wish I could have captured the shock on their faces when he rolled in the door. Imagine Nosaj on his best behavior for a couple of hours. The funniest part was when he asked them if they were from out of town because he never sees them at church. Classic.

You already saw my pictures from the National tree. I am sure you loved the one taken by granny with half our heads chopped off. Nosaj got some random person to snap his family picture. He made out a little better than me. When asked how he picked the person to take the picture, he replied that he chose someone he thought he could outrun so they wouldn't be able to make off with his camera. Nice.

On New Years Eve we had the Nosaj family, the inlaws, the Hawkmen and another family over for festivities. Let me break down the evening for the unnamed family. Roll in and attack the food like a swarm of locusts, pillage the beer like hearty sailors and have one of their kids blindside one of my Christmas trees, knocking it over and scattering broken ornaments all around. Then roll out. Not a bad appearance. However, they missed late nite Cornhole matches. To say it was cold would be a vast understatement. It was beyond fridgid. But there was too much smack talking to not play the games. So we bundled up and played for around three hours, right up until midnight. We had to take a small break for Nosaj to run home and get his boards, his kerosene heater and firepit. The heater was not a real help but you sure stayedd warm on the firepit side. After three hours we still ended up tied and that was probably best. I think Nosaj and the Hawkman were close to coming to blows with all their smack talk.
.But probably the best story of the holiday season is from the father in law. He drives for a brown delivery service. During the last month of the year he gets all kinds of goodies from people on his route. This year he got a more than generous gift from a local school, a $20 Starbucks gift card. However, when he went to use it there was only a $1.32 balance left on it. Can you imagine the inner glee of the chick personally handing him a mostly used up card, knowing she had enjoyed the rich, aroma-filled flavor of her favorite brew earlier that day - at his expense. Awesome.

Christmas Time Too

Ok you have seen the pictures. Now a couple quick stories. This is like my Christmas letter to you all. You know the one where people tell you how great their life is what has been going on all year.


First of all, I am going on a diet in January. I have gotten to the edge of the jean size so I must scale back. When the jeans are too tight, that is my barometer. So until January, I plan on eating like a friggin machine. So to help me in my endeavor, my local McDonalds has brought back the McRib. You can just never get enough McRibs. I had four the first weekend. I plan on a few more before the year ends.

Before Christmas, we had the baptism for our latest. It is too hard to remember names, so we shall just say number seven. The Hawkmen came up from NC to be the Godparents and didn't even bring an illness. So we have invited them back for New Year's Eve. I am sure there is a disease waiting to happen here soon.

Christmas went off without a hitch. We had Christmas at my parents, then Christmas at the wifes grandmothers, then Christmas at home, then Christmas with the wifes parents. I think the kids got enough. I got my jersey. And some of these. Nice.







Here is a picture of me and the wife at church on Christmas.






Here is a picture of me and little number seven in D.C. at the National Christmas Tree. What a wonderful father I must be to take my kids to one of the worst crime cities in the county, at night.







Number seven still doesn't sleep much at night. I have been off work most of the month so it hasn't bothered me that much. Next month I might be getting grouchy with no sleep and no food.

The dog is still alive. She hasn't escaped the house in the last month, but not because she isn't trying.

So everyone have a great New Years Eve and I will write much more often in 2009.

Christmas Time

I know I am worthless. I haven't updated this in a month. Would you believe I have been a little busy? So here are some quick Christmasy pictures and stories.

This first one is little Cecilia with her new best friend Brobee. It says stuff when you touch its hand, like 'I'm Brobee dammit.'




This next one is what happens when you let old people touch electronics. The picture is only half as funny when you can't see her holding the digital camera above her head and moving it around trying to get us in the viewfinder.







This is me with my smooooth Ovechkin jersey.




This is me with my sister and parents. I am the fat guy on the right, as opposed to the fat guy in the red.





This is the rough draft of our Christmas card. If you got a card, you will notice the diaper rack and other useless items have been removed. I guess I could have just moved them before I took the picture but then how would SteelerFanBoy practice his Photoshop skills?

The Power of the Blog

Sometimes things just turn out well. And I am not talking about my fine post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. Although that was delicious. I didn't even make potatoes. How about that.

No, I am talking about the fear of bad publicity. Just yesterday my sister had a birthday party for her son. He turned one. What was her biggest fear on party day? That no one would show? No. That someone would spill something on the carpet? No. Her biggest fear was a bad writeup in the blog. She couldn't have family and friends reading about no food or subpar beer.

I have to give her credit for a fine showing. Plenty of food. Actually had some leftover ham and turkey thrown in. She even showed me some leftover potatoes she had in the fridge. They had more leftovers than I got offered on Turkey day. And plenty of beer was flowing. Good work sis. She supposedly has pictures of the food. I will post if I get them.

Updated Baby Pics

Here are a couple new pics of the baby. The first one where it looks like she is smiling. It is either her knowing that she has an awesomely cool dad OR she has gas. The second is her sleeping. Obviously that one was not taken between 3 and 7 AM on any day I have been home this week.

Drastic Measures

This is what it has come to. I have been craving turkey ever since the Thanksgiving Day debacle. (See below) So I had to take matters into my own hands. I will be having a little mini bird party tonight at my house. AND there will be enough potatoes for everyone. See, one of the bad things about not hosting Turkey Day is no leftovers. Problem solved. Fresh bird from Bloom and now I have turkey sandwiches and turkey soup. MMMMMMM. Turkey.

Day of the Bird

You know how there are a couple of days you look forward to during the year? Christmas, The Superbowl, your birthday and Thanksgiving. Well I might have to cross off the day of thanks from my list. We celebrate the day at Nosaj's house. This year was a little subpar.

First I get the call that Nosaj has provided a weak imitation of beer for the festivities. Just because he has no taste buds, does not mean I want to drink Miller Lite. You can see one of them in the picture of the sweet potatoes.



Just wait till he sees what the guest beer is at Christmas. It will be something from the other end of the beer shelf at the grocery store. Not the end where they have real beers. More like a Schmidts or a Red, White and Blue. Stay tuned for that.

So back at the big turkey day. We are told that we will be eating at 4. So I get my green bean casserole prepared and I take it Nosaj's house to cook. We arrive at 3 and now dinner is at 3. Guess what. The green beans aint ready. So then we see the potatoes. Keep in mind there are 15 people here. It looks like granny brought enough potatoes for herself. I have seen more spuds in a small side from KFC.




Then we see what was supposed to be stuffing. It seemed to have more of a stuffing soup consistency.


So, on the up side, at least I didn't ruin my diet with all the food. Maybe that was the plan. Thin me out by starving me. So then we went outside and played some bags. It was Nosaj's kind of weather. Cold. You know Syrians don't do well in the cold. The highlight of the afternoon/evening was Nosaj throwing the fourth ringer in a row and start his premature dance as I tossed my fourth in a row right on top, cancelling out his points. Needless to say, I did a little victory dance in the street. I don't think his neighbors like us much.

Not enough work for SteelerFanBoy?

Obviously SteelerFanBoy needs some extra work. He has too much Photoshop time.

Number 7

Kateri Joseph (still no middle name) was born this morning at 4:40am. She was 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. Here are some pics. Baby and mommy are doing fine. Daddy is unshaven and still in his clothes from yesterday AND very tired. Don't these kids ever want to be born during the day??

Recent Pics

Here are some Halloween, pumpkin patch and apple picking pictures.