Pictures

When I was putting that sliding photo thing on the side of the blog, I noticed that we really haven't taken a lot of pictures of our kids lately. So, to rectify that, I took some pictures over the past couple of weeks. And now you get to look at them.

Hey, homey.

Peyton in his Halloween shirt that says "Will Scare For Food". It even glows in the dark.

Dylan's Halloween shirt says "Monster In Training".

You can probably read all of Andi's shirt. She likes it because it says the word "Princess" on it.

Our kids are cute. I'm not biased or anything.

We got Andi this shirt a few weeks ago. She likes it because it says the word "Princess" on it.

As an added bonus, it came with this cool nail.

Peyton was pretty tired after going to the doctor for a checkup today. I found him passed out on Sadie.

Ahhhh, furry warm pillow.

Kids in China

Sometimes I will say stuff to the kids that is really stupid and made up. Like the other night, the kids were saying something about the bad guy being up on the roof and he was going to come down and hurt them. I told them "There's no bad guy on the roof, the bad guy lives in Canada." One time I mentioned something about my boss, and Dylan asked me if he was mad and was going to spank me. I sarcastically said yes. Somehow the sarcasm was lost on the kids, so now they'll periodically ask me if I got a spanking at work.

I think I got that from my Grandpa Luthi. I remember one time as a kid I saw some skunks walking around in his field. I went in the house to tell everybody what I had seen. Grandpa told me to go grab them by the tail, because then they can't spray you. Being the smart kid that I was, I went outside to try to find the skunks. My mom came outside and told me that it really wasn't a good idea.

Anyway, today we were sitting on the couch just talking about whatever. Somehow we got on the subject of how there are a lot of people that we don't know. Andi said "We don't know the kids in China." True statement. Then she said "Kids in China don't have green plates. They only have white plates. Poor kids in China."

After she said that, I remembered one evening at dinner time trying to stop the fighting over who got the green plate and who got the less cool white plate. I probably gave the white plate to Andi, and to console her I probably said something along the lines of "Well, at least you can get the green plate sometimes. Ya know, you're lucky, because kids in China don't have green plates at all. They only have white plates. And they have to eat their food with two little sticks."

I'm surprised she even remembered that, because I sure didn't. I really need to watch what I say around the kids.

Baby On the Way

So, Sam had a doctor appointment yesterday to make sure everything was going fine with the baby and everything. They did another ultrasound, and everything is looking fine. She's still a girl (yeah), and the extra fluid that was in her kidney at the last ultrasound was not there any more. They estimated that she weighs 4 1/2 lbs now. Everything is looking fine so far.

We were able to set the induction date. If you're wonder why we get to set induction dates, it's because Sam's heart is super messed up, and it's probably best if I don't have to deliver the baby at home or on the interstate. Anyway, Soni's birthday will be November 29th, unless she decides to come sooner. If I'm doing my math right, that is six weeks from now. Holy crap.

Some uninteresting facts about her birth:
She'll be our third child born on a Thursday (Peyton was the only one not).
She's breaking the having a kid every 20 months pattern by two days.
She'll be our only kid not born in an even year.
Come tax time, she'll be another deduction. Woo hoo!
She will share a birthday with Don Cheadle and Howie Mandel, and lots of other people.

Come Back Jerry

Happy 45th birthday to my favorite wide receiver, Jerry Rice.

Now that the pleasantries are over, time for the real reason of this post. Jerry, get your butt back on the football field. I'm serious man. You're only 45. And I'm guessing that you don't smoke weed or go boozing every night like all the guys currently in the NFL, so you're really only like 32. Come on man, at 32 you were still the best receiver in the league.

It's not like you've been doing a lot since you retired. Just this:


And this:


A whole generation of kids are growing up knowing you as the bald guy who lost on Dancing With the Stars. Don't let that be your legacy.

Have you seen the bums who are out there playing receiver for the 49ers now? Those guys couldn't catch a ball if it was covered in duct tape and tossed to them from three feet away.

Come one, Steve's going to need somebody to throw the ball to. (I learned from "Everybody Loves Raymond" that you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but I don't care.)

Come on, come back and this guy can do your highlight reels. It would be cool.

Boom goes the dynamite.

Hey, don't make me beg. I love you man. You can join me and Steve in our apartment in San Francisco. Ummm, hold on. Scratch that idea. Bad idea. BAD IDEA.

McDonald's Monoploy

If any of you are playing that McDonald's Monopoly thing, I will trade you four Oriental Avenues for a Pennsylvania Avenue or a Boardwalk.

"We all live in a yellow house"

Recently at our house the kids have discovered a new passion. Cameron started it by playing CDs that had not been played for some time. He must have started doing it on Saturday mornings while I'm sleeping, because one day while Cameron was at work, Andi kept telling me she wanted to listen to the "We all live in a yellow house" song. I kept thinking it was something from Joy School, so I looked through those discs, and got nothin'. She got really irritated with me when I told her that I had no idea what she was talking about. Probably a week later, she told me she wanted to listen to the "Booties". Again, I had no idea what she was talking about. Finally I woke up one Saturday early enough to learn what she was talking about. There were Cameron and the kids in the living room dancing around to "We all live in a yellow submarine" by the Beatles. Suddenly everything made sense. It has since been claimed as a favorite song by Andi, and she and Dylan agree (which doesn't happen very often) that they love the "Booties". Hey, a classic is a classic, even amongst preschoolers!

Come Back Steve

Happy 46th Birthday to my favorite quarterback, Steve Young.
Now that the pleasantries are over, time for the real reason of this post. Steve, get your butt back on the football field. I'm serious man. You're only 46. Vinnie Testaverde is going to start a game Sunday for the Panthers. That dude's like 63 years old, and he'll have to be pushed around in a wheel chair for the second half of the game, but he's still doing it.

Come on man, your old team needs you. They're last in the NFL in yardage and points scored. They're 2-3 and they've only won two because those games were against the Arizona Retirement Community Cardinals and St Louis Hip Replacement Center Rams. Don't make your fans sit through more losses dude, it makes me feel dead inside.

Joe Montana won four Superbowls. You only won one. Do you want to live in the shadows of Joe Montana for the rest of your life?

You may say that you had to leave because you had multiple concussions. Pansy. My grandfather was trampled by a herd of cattle once. He had three broken ribs, a compound fracture of his tibia, a blown MCL and ACL, a broken wrist, and lost vision in one eye. Did he quit? No! Why? Because he had a job to do. Get your lazy butt out on the field on do you job, ya bum!

Do you know who the quarterback of your team is? Alex Smith! The kids has thrown like 300 interceptions in four games this season. He's ruining the legacy of all great 49ers quarterbacks. If you're not coming back at least teach him how to throw a football. Please.

I miss you Steve. I miss your laugh. I miss your musk. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together.

(That last part was from "Anchorman", if you were wondering.)

Going "Camping"

We bought a play tent for the kids the other weekend. They finally cleaned up their rooms, so they were able to set it up on Saturday. They really like it, and Andi and Dylan "slept" in it Saturday night. Sunday they tipped it over and said it was a rocket ship. I actually took some pictures, so I thought I'd put them up here.

I Get Confused

I'm not the most observant man in the world. One example of that is if two people have a similar characteristic, I get them confused or think that they are the same person. Some famous people I swear are just one person going by different names. Here's a few example of people that look the same to me.

Skeet Ulrich and Johnny Depp

Meryl Streep and Glenn Close

On a side note, both of those names sound like they could be a guy

James Caviezel and John Stockton

On another side not, James Caviezel was in an episode of "The Wonder Years" and he played the star on the basketball team. He looked like John Stockton so much I wondered why Karl Malone wasn't on the court too.

Ok, one more example of people that look the same to me....






Har har har.

I do have a point to all of this. Today one of the analysts in my group at work asked me to go talk with one of the users to get some information. Well it turns out that the guy I was going to talk to looks slightly similar to another guy who has an office two doors down from him. (When I say they look similar, it means they're both white dudes over 40.)

I was going to talk to Bruce who "looks like" Jerry. I wasn't sure where Bruce's office was, so I went walking in the general direction. I passed Jerry's office, and nobody was in there. I found Bruce's office and went in.

Ok, the guy behind the desk was either Bruce or Jerry. The wall outside of the office has a nameplate that says "Bruce ...", the desk has a nameplate on it that says "Bruce ...", the guy was sitting behind the desk, and he was doing some work on the computer. Anyone with half a brain would have thought, "Ok, this is Bruce." Apparently I don't have half a brain. I was so sure that this guy was Jerry, without even taking into account the obvious signs that this was Bruce.

Idiot!

I take two steps into the room and say "Hey, is Bruce here?"

Idiot!

He kind of looked at me and probably thought "Nope, I traded offices with him and liked his nameplate so much I thought I'd keep it. Here's your sign". He said "I'm Bruce." I should have known.

If Jerry was a chick, there would be a 75% chance that I would have figured that one out before I opened my mouth.

Idiot!

Going phishing

I've heard on the news about people getting emails from what looks to be their bank telling them that they need to sign onto a certain website to verify their account information. (I believe the term for that kind of thing is phishing.) I hadn't seen one of those before last week.

Last week we got an email from "Bank of America" telling us that there had been fraudulent activity on our account, and that we needed to log onto http://59.27.203.5/boa/online

/online_secure/index.php within 48 hours or they would disable our account. (The link no longer works.) There are a few things wrong with that. I assume that Bank of America would have you log onto bankofamerica.com instead of an IP Address. The return address is bankofamerica@yahoo.com That and, ummm, we don't have a Bank of America account. Way to know your intended target, Mr. Scam Artist.

The website looked pretty close to what Bank of America's site actually looks like, so I could see how some would be tricked into that. It was mildly exciting because this is the second scam email I've ever gotten. The first one I got was about helping Meka Bakasu Te Pemako, a Nigerian Prince, receive his inheritance. I'm still waiting on my cut of his $12.5 million.