Well the Yankees are out... long year... going to be a longer off season.   One good thing happened, I scored tickets though the post season lottery and got to go to ALDS game 3 with my dad.   Glad I chose that game, it was the only game they won.

Calvin busted out his baby Eli jersey against the Redskins and the Giants won.   He maybe the spark that the Giants needed, since that moment they crushed the Eagles and beat the Jets to improve to 3-2.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Calvin (who is sitting up pretty good now) rolled over for the first time and I missed it.   It happened when Honore brought him over to her parents house and I was jsut waking into Yankee stadium.   Out little boy went from his belly to his back.

He hasn't done it since... but I am keeping an eye out for it!

Next week I leave for Ohio for the ultra mega football trip.   Should be a great time and hopefully we will get to see some amazing games.  It will be hard to top last year's amazing Notre Dame victory of Michigan State.  My buddy Ian out in Ohio has the tailgate all set up, they got the TV, the generator, the grills... it is going to be an awesome trip.

Well, a few weeks left and it looks like the Yankees are solidifying their wild card playoff spot.  They are closing in on the division too, not needed but just a nice zinger.  I registered yesterday for Yankee post season tickets; hopefully I will get a game.  This is the first year since 1995 that I have not seen a Yankee game.

As for the G-Men, I went to that Packer’s game last week, nuff said

Major things have happened in the last month at the homestead.  My dad and I finished the walkway.  Our friend Fred came over and installed a new furnace and hot water tank.  We had not had a tank prior, just hot water off the boiler and I am not sure how we lived these past 10 months without one.  Also we have put a deposit down with a mason for some major work in April 2008.  The plan is to replace the two collapsing concrete retaining walls in the front with nice stone walls, patch the foundation, and install better drainage.  In addition to that, he will also replace the front step and construct a massive patio in the back.  This patio will be a great place to entertain, just in time for some special little rug-rat’s first birthday bash.  Honore and I are very excited, those walls  is the LAST of the “triple U” jobs that need to be done in the house.  Triple U stands for “Ultra-Uber-Urgent” by the way.  The last job for the year will start late fall or early winter when we replace the last of the green carpet with a hardwood floor in the downstairs hall/office.  We want to get that done before Calvin starts crawling in the next 3-4 months.

So with 10 months gone by, Honore and I have done the following to the house with a lot of help from family and friends (list below not in order)

• Replaced the roof (both layers and plywood).
• Removed the old shrubs, had the stumps ground down, and replanted new ones in the front after pulling up tons of ivy.
  
• Replaced the furnace and added a hot water tank.
• Replaced the refrigerator.
• Redid the front walk using the original bricks.
• Built a baby nursery.
• Upgraded to new front loading washer and dryer.
• Pulled all of the green carpet from the stairs, upstairs, and baths.
• Installed new light fixtures in most of the house.
• De-brushed large sections of the back yard.
  
• Completely gutted the downstairs bath and installed a new toilet, sink, and tile floor.  
• Repaired the upstairs bath rotted floor and replaced the toilet.
• Replaced the toilet in the master bath as well.
• Repainted every room in the house except for three.
• Replaced every storm and screen window.
• Had a baby boy. 

Of course most of you reading this news probably doesn’t care about anything I have written so far… so let’s get into the important stuff.  

I have finally uploaded some new photos of Calvin to the gallery, ten new photos in all.  Enjoy, thank you, and good night!

The walkway is moving along, we are about 65% done though we underestimated the amount of stone we needed to buy.   Take a look at what it was verses now!

Personally I love it!  We have completed up to the front steps from the driveway.  Once the project is done I will upload the photos to the gallery.

Speaking of the gallery, Calvin's new sub album, "13 to 24 weeks", is now up with almost two pages of new photos including a exclusive bath scene!

Calvin is now the ripe old age of 12 weeks today.   Yesterday morning I had the idea of "lets put him in the exersaucer".   Not sure of the results... it turns out he LOVES it.   He spends most of this time smiling at the sun thing or spinning the wheels.  After I took a few more photos of Calvin I came to realize that Calvin's gallery was 15 pages and completely unwieldy.  So I broke things out a bit.   I created two nested albums for him bringing the total of sub-albums up to five.   I created one album called At The Hospital which is just the 3 days we spent in Hartford Hospital when he was born.  The next sub album I created I entitled the First 12 Weeks which holds all of his photos from the first 12 weeks of his existence (obviously).  The hospital one has 31 photos, but the second one has over 80!  Once he ages a day, and I take a few more photos I will create the next album most likely called 12-24 weeks.  BTW, I uploaded 10 new photos as well, most of them are Calvin in the exersaucer (as seen to the left).

The walkway project took a big step this weekend.   I dug out the first third of the dirt on Friday and then my dad came over and we dug out the final two thirds.   We did some estimates and figured we need 850 bricks to complete the walkway, and I luckly have about 880 bricks at my disposal.   Next weekend we get the crushed stone for the under-layer and we will attempt to level it out.  In other house news our Washer machine died.  Honore purchased the washer and dryer 6 years ago for a grand total of $100.  We figured we got our moneys worth out of the old, so we picked up a pair of front loading Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer.  You can check out the washer here. 

In other news my best friend and fellow best man (he was mine and I was his) Mr. Matt Lesieur turned 30... happy birthday!