Anniversary post

One year ago tomorrow, our fathers brought forth on these tubes a new blog, conceived in Hope, and dedicated to the proposition that breaking with the past was an appropriate way to move forward.
One year ago yesterday, this amazing woman I now call my wife took a chance and went against her own utter distaste for intraoffice romances to date a younger guy. Over a pizza at Old Chicago.

I could never have predicted how the year would turn out from that point forward. Anything I write here about it would sound cheesy and repetitive. So I won't do that. If you know anything about me you know what an amazing and mind-boggling year this has been. There are lots more wonderful years to come.

Nancy Reagan endorses McCain

(!?!?!)
I am perplexed as to why this is Front Page News on msnbc.com. I mean really. Richardson endorsing Obama was news. It was unexpected, going against his former boss Bill Clinton, and much needed considering how Obama has fared with the Latino community. So it's not that an endorsement can't be valid news...but this? The former Republican First Lady endorsed the Republican candidate for President? Why not "Pot endorses color of Kettle"*?

And yes, I know why these things happen. But it's amazing to watch my 2nd post-political-awareness Presidential campaign and the blatant media manipulation. McCain has an endless list of high-profile Repubs he can call on as needed to get him back in the headlines while we Dems have to endure the neverending saga on our side. If only Clinton would just agree that she's not going to win and step aside then we could all go ice skating in hell, since it will have frozen over at that point.

*These days, wouldn't the pot have to call the kettle "African-American"?

Also...great article from The Onion

First post from home

That title is more profound than it sounds really. Since this blog started just under 1 year ago I have been living in temporary circumstances. At the time my brother was my roommate, after my ex had moved on and out of the apartment we had shared. From there I moved into a one bedroom place down the road from Steph, signing a 7 month lease with the hope that by the time it was up our relationship would have stabilized and grown enough to move in together. 2 months before that lease ran out we were married and I was living with my new family in an apartment that I never quite came to think of as "my" place. It was always Stephanie's apartment and I just felt lucky that she was willing to share it with me.

Now we have a home. We purchased it together, legally and emotionally. Decorating and furniture purchasing decisions have been made together and I've done my fair share of moving/unpacking/organizing chores. This is really the first time in my life that I haven't had some sense that I would eventually move out of a place. My parents' house, of course I was going to move out someday. Since then I've been in a constant rotation of knowingly temporary apartments. It's a very new feeling, unpacking things with the thought that wherever I decide the silverware goes may end up being where it is for the next 40-80 years of my life. No pressure!

I love the house. We did really well for ourselves with this transaction and I'm happy about that. We have a beautiful view of the mountains across Standley Lake on the drive home every day and that's what we all want in Colorado, isn't it?

I love my life. I love my kids. I love my wife.
What I have right now...it's my 42.*



*Because I know there are people reading this who won't get that...in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "42" is the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Last post from here!

As of Sunday I will be sleeping under the roof of my new home. I had a long mushy post in my head just now, but instead I'll say this:

I hate it when rappers rhyme a word with itself.

Jay-Z:
I don't surf the net
no I never been on Myspace
too busy letting my voice vibrate
carving out my space

Ludacris:
I stroke so good, like Tiger Woods
and I ROWR like a tiger would

I like some of the hippity hop sometimes, but this reminds me why rock is better. A quality rock lyricists would NEVER stoop to rhyming a word with itself.


Today I figured out how to maintain a hot tub. Kind of...I read the instructions and got the colors to match the "OK" range on the UA strip you dip in the tub. I'm sure I have more to learn, but we should be able to get in tomorrow and enjoy it a bit. It'll be a nice escape for Steph for the last 4 cycles of chemo!

Which brings this up: I have no concept of what it will be like to own a home. It's exciting, but it's a strange concept to be living inside of something that you basically put a majority of your investment dollars into. It seems like a weird, exciting challenge/adventure/totally normal thing to do. (If that's the right word.) I've also realized recently that somewhere in this process I haven't ever really thought about what it will be like to live in the house with a healthy Stephanie. All of my thoughts have been about how nice it will be that the kids can play in the basement and mom can still sleep after chemo...and other things about how this will improve the recovery process. Little time has been spent on how wonderful it will be to go forward in my life having a house with my lovely wonderful wife. But that's down the road too!

Onward to HOME!

Object permanence and you!

Somewhere between 6-12 months old, most of us learn about Object Permanence. This is the not-so-earth-shattering concept that an object you can't see still exists. A ball that goes behind a wall is still a ball, just now behind the wall. Mom leaving the room doesn't mean that she has ceased to be, just that you can't see her at the moment.

This is a concept easily forgotten in certain cases. How many times do you check your pocket for the tickets on the way to a concert? How many times is it necessary to make sure that that vital document of attendance still exists? I personally do this all the time, but I didn't realize the bizarre obsessiveness of it until Friday, when I noticed the frequency of my unzipping the zippered pocket of my coat to once again check the existence of the cashier's check contained within. Throughout the day I did this probably at a minimum once every 15-30 min.

Said check led to the closing on our new home and the successful transition of my status from perpetual apartment-dweller to homeowner. Everything went quite smoothly, and we will be moving into our new place in a week. It's been less than a year since we started dating and we've come a long way, eh? We further solidified the officialness of it by going to Home Depot for the first time today to buy our first home improvement materials. (The house doesn't need much, but we thought we'd give K1 a blue bedroom instead of making him sleep in the all-pink girl's haven in the bedroom which is to be his.) It's a vastly different experience from the hypothetical Apartment Depot ("which is just a big warehouse with a whole lot of people standing around saying, 'We don't have to fix shit!'"-Mitch Hedberg)

I am rapidly running out of ways to upgrade my life. It's been an amazing year.

The easy fix

Yesterday my little girl came to me with the words no parent wants to hear. "Anthony, my heart is broken." I asked her how we could fix that and she calmly replied, "A teacher would use glue." Oh, ok. So I got the trusty Elmer's and we glued her Valentine's Day heart project back to the construction paper. All better, all fixed, not a tear was shed. I hope it's always that easy.