a nerd's life.

Cubs 6, Sox 5

No I'm not referring to a real Cubs game because they are playing the Pirates right now.  I'm referring to the pretend game my kids and I were playing in the backyard - except it was playing kickball.  Joey and Lydia picked to the be the Cubs so I was stuck with being the White Sox.  The score was 6 - 2 when I kicked one over the fence to make it 6 - 4 in the bottom of the 2nd inning (also the last inning) - wohoo, go Dads everywhere! 

Then I had the chance to tie it up with a ghost man on 2nd and me kicking the ball just right...but once I got on 2nd base Joey fooled me with the old, "hey dad, what's that over there, is that a chicken?"  Then he beamed me as I stepped off base to see the chicken.  Man, the Sox almost had 'em, but we fell for the oldest trick in the book.  Go Cubs!

where is chanahan IL?

well i found out tonight, as my family and i drove there (just past joliet) to look at a motorcycle.  i know, right now you're thinking, "how could he be looking at a motorcyle when he has a wife and 3 kids??"  i was thinking the same thing the whole way there - and i kept trying not to think it - cause i wanted the bike!  not to mention that 2 year ago i was hit on my first motorcyle and it wasn't my fault!

well, after 2 years of waiting and gas prices soaring, i decided to give it another whirl, but i just couldn't do it.  honestly, i couldn't get a bike knowing i have such a rockin' family - if you've met my wife and kids you would totally understand!  no offense to anyone who has a bike and family, i just couldn't go through with it; knowing i was one of those stats in my last accident where it totally wasn't my fault and i still got plowed.

so i made it to chanahan, IL to only ride the motorcylce a few blocks and then say thanks for your time, but i just can't buy it.  guess i'm just gonna have to hang my head out the window of my car to get the motorcyle-like effect.

summer time is great

i was at ace hardware getting a couple new bulbs for our lights under the cabinets and i noticed the "everything is a $1" section.  i don't usually look in these sections and i totally give my wife a hard time cause she's sooo lured by this type of advertising.  but i was with joey and lydia and we decided to take a look and we hit the jackpot: 250 waterballoons for a dollar!! 

ok, so it wasn't the jackpot, but i bought 'em anyway and you know what, 50% of them busted as i tried to fill them up...big surpise eh?  well, anyway this was joey and lydia's first experience with water balloons so i they weren't really sure how you went about playing with them.  so i decided to give them each a balloon and then say, "Go!"  well, this is what happened - who do you think won this battle, joey or lydia?

summer time is awesome.

reality tv...yawn

i can't wait for fall tv...so i don't have to tivo this - and they sent him to Las Vegas - boring reality tv formula wins again.

lake geneva here we come!

going to take a 2 day vacation in lake geneva with the fam (max - 8 months, joey - almost 5 years, lydia - almost 4 years, and erin - almost 25 - she paid me to say that).  we are staying at the timberlodge resort with an indoor waterpark!!

we were originally going to travel to the dells, but after contemplating traveling with an 8 month old and paying 4 ba-gillion dollars in gas, we decided to go with lake geneva.  plus, timberlodge has a special offer where we get a $50 gas card for staying with them - woohoo!

anyway, i'm looking forward to it - i can remember as a kid taking family vacations playing with my dad in the hotel pool and running around the hotel with my siblings.  these are memories in the making.

friday night go-karting

i wanted to do something a little different than watch tv tonight...so i went outside to see what came to mind.  well as i stepped out my neighbor's daughter (abigail) said, "we're going go-karting and yoooou can't goooo."  hmmm...that was enough for me to say, "oh yeah, well you can't tell me what to do!  joey, lydia, get in the car, we're going go-karting!"  ok it really went more like, "hey michael, how about we all go go-karting?"  so we all went together and had a blast at the local go-kart track. 

now who's in charge abigail??  :)

family night

every tuesday my 2 oldest kids (joey and lydia) play t-ball at a local park in hometown, aurora where we live.  its such a great experience with about 20 neighborhood families. 

joey's 4 years old now and he is getting much better at hitting, throwing and catching.  tonight he actually got under the ball with a hit and popped it up over the pitcher just passed the short-stop.  awesome!  Lydia is in her first year at 3 years old and is just perfectly cute as she tries so hard to blast the ball, but misses...then she reluctantly lets me help her - she's a spitfire.

joey played first base for the first time ever and he was soooo bad at talking to the person on base and not paying attention to the ball.  he distracted the poor kid on base so much one time they got hit in the face with a ball that was intended for joey...good times.  but a few times joey got a good throw into home plate as he focused with all his might to throw with his right hand back, step left foot forward and release.  where's lydia during all this?  she's drinking a kool-aid pack with mom - go t-ball!

joker vs joker

i got the chance to see dark knight just recently and i think it was pretty good.  i'm not a huge dc comic fan so i never really walk away in much awe.  i mean batman doesn't have any mutant powers (unlike hulk, spiderman, avengers, x-men), so its hard for me to like him that much...but it was still entertaining.

heath ledger's joker was very crazy and strange to watch knowing he had recently died.  without seeming too disrespectful, i really have to say that i enjoyed jack nicholson's joker better.  he was a little less dark and a little more playful and i think his lines were a little more memorable.  however, ledger certainly pulled off the homicidal joker.  overall i give the movie a B+  what did you think?

never done this before

i performed a wedding off of navy pier on the spirit of chicago.  it was a great wedding and a lot of fun.  there was about 50 people who attended the wedding and another 100 people who were there for other reasons (red hat women, family reunion, and couples who struggled with pda- awkward).

if you're not sure who the red hat ladies are - here's a pic - i got to laugh with/for/at them a lot :)

some silly videos

years ago i was just a silly guy and goofed off alot.  i'm so glad i stopped doing that kind of stuff ;)  if you want a glimpse of what i was like, watch this video (oh, and my friend bret was even sillier than me and you get to see my wife rock it out in DC)