I have been catching up with all the events of this summer and I have also updated the pictures page, so now there is actually a 2010. I should be all caught up now and ready for August!
Some Updates
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Monthly Archives: July 2010
Update: Crackdown 2 and Where Have I Been?
I went to my doctor’s appointment, and this was the last one. There are no other options for me to pursue really as nobody will do anything for my hand. I have been told now that since the bone is at the angle it is it is rubbing against the soft tissue in my hand and that is why I still have discomfort in my hand, the pinky finger doesn’t want to go out straight, and I have swelling. The doctor actually said that if something had been done earlier and he eluded to the angle it is at. The only thing I can do now is possibly talk to a lawyer concerning the mistreatment I received. I do not know if I am going to take that route, but it is really my only option now that I have been told that having a lump on top of my hand and limited motion is just how it is now.
Patty’s Birthday or Lucky Number 13
The big 13. This is the birthday where the child becomes a teenager and the parents get to feel a bit older. I do not remember feeling like asking “where did the time go” since I turned 30. I have to say that it is a weird birthday. She is already starting to put away her toys and she is asking for make-up and clothes now. She wonders when she will get a cell phone and she wants more money for stuff.
A great many people showed up for this birthday. More than I think have shown up to anybody’s birthday at this house ever. We had all the people that live here, which is Deanna, Grandma, Patty, Eddy, and I. Kristy showed up and Michelle was here visiting for the weekend. Becky showed up with her two kids as well. It was a good thing the weather was so nice that we could do all the cooking and eating outside, because I do not think we would have had much room to seat that many people in my tiny dining room.
Patty got all the presents she asked for, for the most part anyway. She also asks regularly for a laptop and a cell phone, but those things are not going to happen anytime soon. Patty got new clothes, posters for her wall, a Justin Bieber CD (I still think in this world of downloading music on the internet it is important to be able to give people the physical media that they can listen to and give away to their friends if they want), and a Betta. The last one is a fish that apparently her mother has, so she wanted one too.
Trip to Maryland
My sister, Becky, invited me to drive out to Maryland to see our parents and brother. I decided it would be a good idea, for a great many reasons. The first is that I have not been out there since they moved into a house. The second is that this would be the first time either of us had seen our brother this year, because while my parents did take a trip to Ohio and we all visited them in the hotel our brother did not come, and instead opted to stay home. The third is that Becky offered to drive and she just got a new and very comfortable car.
We drove out there and it did not seem to take long at all. We left early in the morning on Saturday and we were there by around 1 in the afternoon. We arrived, said hello to everyone, and after we got done talking and sitting around we decided it was time to do something. We decided to go see a movie. Becky, Adam, and I all piled into the car, and with my brother’s directions, we all went to see “Despicable Me”. We did not go to the 3D showing (side note: Kristy actually took the kids to see this movie and I really wanted to go see it anyway). The movie was great fun and then we went out for ice cream. When we got back to my parents house Becky and I had to make the decision of either staying or going to a hotel. There was some discussion and we ended up staying. I went to sleep in Adam’s room and Becky slept in the living room on an inflatable mattress.
We awoke to breakfast and coffee. My Dad is a great cook and he always wakes up early to make breakfast whenever we visit. Becky and I decided to hang out with Adam for the day again, so again off we went to putt putt golf. It was a great deal of fun and then again we went out for ice cream. We hung out at the mall for a bit, because it is a great air conditioned place to just wander around and do nothing. We ate pizza. My brother bought a shirt and I bought Hot Tamales Gum. We drove back, said our good-byes, and started the drive back to Ohio. I will try and avoid driving through Pennsylvania at night, because it seems to take forever. There really seems to be a huge difference between driving at night and day.
Paintball
One thing that really amazes me about Deanna is her ability to find coupons for all sorts of things. I know that it is typically stereotypical to assume women can find coupons for all manners of shopping, but she really can. She is also far more spontaneous than I am, so she ends up finding coupons for things that I was not even aware that I wanted to do. I do not know how she does this, but she found a coupon that allowed two people to play Paintball at a place in North Canton for $10 a person, which is a phenomenal discount considering with the cost of renting the equipment, the field, and purchasing the paint balls it would have been over $30 a person normally.
Deanna said that she used to go paintballing, either in a league or just with her brothers and some friends, but she had no intention of going this time (other than to take pictures). She got the coupons for Eddy and I to go. Eddy and I have never gone paintballing and between the aforementioned cost and the idea of getting pelted with small balls filled with paint it never seemed like something that I would be particularly interested in, but we decided it would be a good idea anyway.
After learning all the rules, the correct way to set the safety on the paintball “marker” (they do not want you to call it a gun), and getting our masks to fit right we were finally able to go out onto a dirt field and play. Eddy did a good job of following the rules and the directions for how to play. It was a warm day and I asked him to wear the long sleeved shirt and I am ultimately glad I did. There were two fields right next to each other and the one had inflatable objects and the other had metal and wooden objects placed about. Neither was really big. Eddy and I got to go one on one, because there was no one else there. This is actually how I would have preferred it anyway, since it was our first time.
We played until all our paint balls ran out. They do sting a bit when you get hit, but even though Eddy got tagged a few times he still wanted to play, so we had some fun. I got tagged quite a few times, but lucky for me two of the shots were into the helmet and mask, which you don’t honestly even feel. If I were asked if we would do it again I can not honestly say. It was sort of fun, but without a coupon I am not exactly sure that is something I would be willing to spend that kind of money on and I did not feel particular enthusiastic about the event enough to warrant the purchase of any of the equipment to reduce said cost of participation. All in all I would have to say that it was a good experience and maybe it is something Eddy can pursue.
Crackdown 2 and Where Have I Been?
You will have to excuse the quality of some of the pictures that I have been putting up lately. I have been trying to use my HTC Evo to take some pictures, since it is very easy to take the pictures and then upload them directly to the FTP, Facebook, or even Twitter. I think that for some applications the phone will work, but I will still be carrying around my camera for important things. To answer the question of where I have been I actually broke my hand this summer. The fifth metacarpal, which is the bone behind the pinky finger, on my right hand. I have been spending a great deal of time going to doctor’s appointments trying to find a doctor that will actually fix my hand. Since I was telling all the doctor’s I wanted it “set” and that is not actually the correct terminology I have been wasting a lot of time this summer. I have not been very impressed with how I have been treated by the medical community. The bone was at a 45 degree angle and something should have been done, but nothing has been done and it has healed quite strangely. It has discouraged me from doing a great many things this summer, even though I was capable.
The only thing I have been able to do apparently is play Xbox 360, take short bike rides, and work on home repairs. I managed to get all 1000 gamerscore points in Crackdown 2 with Nate and another friend of ours. It is the first time that we have all done that together. To just put the rest of what is going on in a list without any details: We have the basement almost completely cleaned out, so we are almost ready to start dismantling the downstairs shower and ripping out the drywall. I am still having a problem with my teaching license. The upstairs bathroom is done. Eddy’s window broke and I am not completely sure how to go about fixing that. I have one more doctor’s appointment for my hand and I am hoping this will be the doctor that will do something. That is just about it.
4th of July 2010
This was a fantastic 4th of July. Deanna, Patty, Eddy, and I all went to downtown Akron to see the fireworks. Originally it was not clear there would be fireworks, since there was a rumor that Akron actually did not have the funds for it, because of the recession, but they did end up having the show. It was different than other 4th of July firework shows in Akron though, because they blocked access to the bridge that people usually congregate around to watch the show. I believe that was due to the construction. It was the kind of 4th of July that I think might have started a new family tradition. The fireworks are only about 2 miles from my house in downtown Akron, so this year instead of fighting the traffic and all the hassle of finding parking for the event we just rode our bikes. It was a great idea and it worked out splendidly.
The ride downtown was not too bad. I think it took me almost as long to do some quick maintenance on the bikes before we left as it took us all to ride the two and a half miles downtown. I worry sometimes having to ride my bike around so many fast moving cars with the kids in tow, but we were able to take a lot of side streets before we had to get on any main routes. Patty ended up suggesting that we go down to the park area where you see the pictures taken from. This is actually where the towpath runs through Akron. We have not gone on the towpath this year, but we should probably get around to that in the next month. People were standing on the bridge that you see in the pictures, but we all wanted to sit down on something that was not cement.
The fireworks show itself was pretty mediocre. The kids were teasing each other and generally restless before, after, and during the show. I do not remember if I was unable to sit still and wait for fireworks when I was their age, but I know I really appreciate fireworks now. The show might not have been cancelled, but it was evident that there were some cutbacks. The firework show started much later than it was supposed to, there was not much of a grand finale, and I think the entire show lasted approximately 10 minutes. Despite all these things though a firework show is still sort of an amazing thing to just sit and watch.
When the fireworks were over we had to head back home. I did not want to say anything, but I was leading, so I led everyone to McDonald’s. It was a little out of the way, and there was a very long line when we got there, but it was completely worth it to have some ice cream before going home. When we got home I opened up the boxes of Sparklers that I got at Wal-Mart and started lighting them up. The kids ran around the front yard pretending that they were in some sort of Harry Potter adventure (as a side note Eddy is actually reading all of the Harry Potter books). I always promised myself that I would make sure that my kids got to run around with Sparklers.
Ice Skating
Deanna really loves ice skating, but I have not really been up for it this summer. She decided it would be something fun to do with the kids and the only thing I asked was that if she went that she should take pictures. She found an ice skating rink in North Canton that is reasonably priced. They have actually gone twice as of this post, but I do not have pictures of the second time they went. I will have to go and take the pictures myself if I want more and better pictures.
The kids are still getting used to the skates. They had to try the figure skates and the hockey skates to see the difference. As of right now I still do not believe that Eddy has decided between skates. Michelle is actually the only one who knows how to skate, because apparently she used to go quite a bit when she was younger. Patty and Eddy do not have this advantage, since this was actually the first time they have gone. They have gone rollerskating a great many times, but despite people saying that the concepts are similar and almost insinuating interchangeable I have personally found that ice skating is far more difficult, and apparently that was the same experience Patty and Eddy had since they fell down several times.
The important thing is as always that they had fun and that they enjoyed the new experience. I would say they most certainly did, since they want to go back. I am sure that we will try and make this something we can all do as a family. I have not really felt like going back since the first time I went last year, but I am sure to give it another try. Maybe if the kids really get into this we can buy them their own skates.