Saturday, August 30, 2008

About the Deletion

Sorry. Had to delete a post. Too much whining. It drove me nuts when I read it.

Things are going okay. Had an extremely busy week so that I could enjoy my 3-day weekend. And I'm now enjoying my 3-day weekend.

Cancer sux.

So do hurricanes.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Long Story Short...

...I've been thinking a lot about Andy's treatment lately. I've been cranky. But happy too, if that's possible.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Cah Leh!

No I'm not pronouncing my last name funny. I'm not naming mantras from the cardinal Ultima series. I'm actually speaking Andese.

It's no secret that Andy is running a bit behind in speech development. Chemotherapy slows things down. You remember us being worried about his not walking just before he started walking. His doctor wants him to be saying 2-3 word sentences within a month or we may be looking at speech therapy.

He points and grunts. He has a couple of words he says but usually when he wants something he just points and grunts or says, "Hey!" I'm trying to break him of it. I made him tell me he wanted a cup. Then I made him tell me he wanted milk. The result was "Cah leh!" (cup milk)

He's getting there. If he needs a bit of speech therapy, no biggie.

Don't sweat the small things. And nothing in life is big.

Pics coming soon! Julie if you're reading this, post some of your favorites on your Myspace and I'll link them to this page. Of course you're reading this. Do it. ;)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

New Look Coming Soon!

I mentioned that I picked up thekelleys.org. If you go to thekelleys.org now you'll see that it's just a plain ol' vanilla Google Site.

Not really sure about the content yet but at least I'm going to start migrating toward the new template. The first part of the change will be to this blog. If it's even possible. We'll see.

So if you come to the site and it looks different or is broken, I apologize, I'm probably goofing off.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Old Friends!

So I was playing around on the new Ubuntu Linux box, figured I'd fire up the IM software. I popped in my AIM info and my ICQ info. I had a nice chat with some friends who I haven't seen in 10+ years! It was pretty cool.

I also talked to some UO friends. I've been away from there for way too long. Need to get back.

I'm also remembering why I ditched IM a whle back. Too distracting. Next thing you know you're in 3 or 4 different conversations and you can't do what it was you set out to do to begin with. :)

Anyway, I know some of ya are reading. Hello all!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of 2 year olds that need their asses kicked. Have a good Saturday!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

@thekelleys.org

I've been waiting for a while for a short list of domain names to come available. I grabbed thekelleys.org. If any of you (with the last name Kelley of course) would like an @thekelleys.org e-mail address lemme know. 'dan' is taken of course.

Also, if you go to kelleydad.blogspot.com notice you'll be redirected to dan.thekelleys.org. I rox. u sux. Greg is gonna get his ass knocked back to Kanada if he doesn't straighten up. We need to send Michael Moore to Kanada. etc. etc. etc.

Dan + Soda = IBS?

Ok so here's the deal. I ran out of Pepsi a couple weeks ago and told Julie not to buy anymore. I got myself into the habit of walking up to the gas station for a 44-oz Coke in the morning and making it last all day. When that's gone, I'm onto water. And by "all day" I mean until after lunch.

So I'm cutting WAY back on my soda intake. I'm also increasing my water intake. Not sure which is doing it, probably both, but I haven't had to take an IBS pill in a couple weeks. Basically, since around the time I ran out of Pepsi.

It seems I may have found a culprit!

And Greg, quiet or I'll knock you back to Kanada!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Joey's School Day

Well, it was a good one. *sigh of relief*

Joey was a bit overwhelmed when we left him, but once he ate breakfast and went to his class he was better. There's only 16 kids in his class, so that's much less intimidating.

The general theme of today was behavior and getting used to being in school.

Oh, for what it's worth, he played basketball at recess. :)

Quite a good first day, when all was said and done. He's looking forward to going back tomorrow.

More later, it's bath time.

Joey is at School!

How crazy is that? My baby boy is at school.

He was a bit overwhelmed. We dropped him off and took him to the cafeteria. He walked in and realized he was the smallest one there. He's not used to being the smallest! But he waited in line with his backpack in one hand and lunchbox in the other. We'll see how it goes.

More later upon Joe's triumphant return! ;)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Open House at Mason Elementary

This evening was Joey's open house. And I must say, I'm extremely impressed. If you believe what you hear on the news about St. Louis Public Schools, you're wrong. As was I. I have a feeling the district is pulled down because of some of the north side schools or some of the less-than-savory south side schools for that matter. Mason is different.

So long story short, we met his teacher, the music teacher, the art teacher, and the gym teacher. We also met his counselor. I'm going to give his counselor a call to let her know about Joey's little brother. I'm also going to have a talk with him about how it's not really appropriate to bring it up. I mentioned it to his teacher and she said she knows how to deal with it when he starts talking about it. All I wanted to hear.

School starts Monday. We're all very excited. Joey is just THRILLED! This is good. He won't be one of the kids who cries when we drop him off. Of course mommy will be one of the moms who cries when we drop him off. :)

Exciting stuff. Can't wait!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Michael Phelps Can Get Any Woman He Wants

Alicia Sacramone, on the other hand...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Breaking News from Kanada!

I was just informed by a Kanadian official that the "freecreditreport.com guy" is actually French Kanadian! Please be on the lookout for this man. If you see him, throw eggs at him!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Economic Shakedown Possible!

Ok, what I'm waiting for is a margin call in the commodities market. That aside, the market is fixing itself.

Now that the summer driving season is coming to an end, oil prices are dropping.

I would say there's about a 75% chance that ONE of the following will happen (assuming no war, natural disasters, etc.):

Option 1) We'll see a slight increase in oil prices toward the middle of the month in an attempt at an empty market correction. After this, the bottom will fall out of the oil market, the bubble will pop (some think this is already happening), speculators will panic, and the price will go WAY down. Sure it will come back up next summer but will be nowhere NEAR $4 a gallon. Probably less than $3.

Option 2) We MAY see a slight increase in oil prices toward the middle of the month in an attempt at an empty market correction. After this, the oil prices will drop again but the dropping will lose some momentum as we realize that the prices aren't ALL because of speculation. Next summer's driving season will see prices near $4 a gallon but won't get up there again.

Of course, nobody can see the future, and it's very possible that the truth will be somewhere in the middle.

Here's the problem. A big part of why oil is dropping as fast as it is dropping is because we've made adjustments. What happens if we have $2.50 gas? Will we go back to being gas hogs? Will it pretty much put an end to the "green" movement? If so, we'll be back here in a couple of years.

If the botom falls out of the oil market, will we start seeing prices of other items going back down? Or will they stay where they are? That is, if option 1 comes to fruition, we'll go from stagflation to potential severe inflation, thus actually WORSENING our economic situation!

Be careful America. We're walking some very fine lines here, economically.

OBTW, if you have more than $100,000 in any single bank account, split it up! And don't forget about interest. If you have any more than $80k or so, I'd start splitting. I don't think we've seen the end of the bank problems.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Andy's Party

Judging by the calls I'm getting from hungover people, I'd say it was a good time!

After grilling 60 burgers, 60 brats, 20 hot dogs, and the peppers for the black beans & rice, I joined the party, already in progress. The turnout was good, and everyone had a good time. I spent all day moving from group of people to group of people, mingling, etc. It was awesome.

We really appreciate everyone's coming out. It meant a lot to us. And I think we can all agree it went a LOT better than Andy's birthday a year ago. It was certainly a lot more fun than we were having 365 days beforehand (the day of Andy's diagnosis).

Mr. Andy was the center of attention and he knew it. He loves attention and yesterday it was all pretty much aimed directly at Andy. It was awesome.

Thank you all again. I need to go out to the backyard to finish cleanup. And thank you all for using the trash / recycle bins. Fortunately cleanup wasn't bad at all. :)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Black Beans & Rice

All I'll say is this: Fresh peppers.

UPDATE: I'll add this: Grilled.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Happy Birthday Andy!!!

Mr. Andy is 2 years old today! What a crazy year it's been for the little guy. So glad it's over!

Have I mentioned that 2 year olds are a pain in the ass? And now I have 2 OF THEM!

"But it wasn't that much!"

If you're going to help your friend get his computer up and running and plan on having a couple adult beverages in the process, make sure it's not 5.5% BEFORE you decide how many you'll have.

Oops.

To quote Alanis, you live you learn.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Kindergarten!

It's either feast or famine. I'm posting 2 or 3 times a day, like today, or I'm going days without posting!

So Joey is starting Kindergarten on the 18th! It's shank or be shanked for Joey, as he'll be going to STL public school. Not really that bad. He'll be going to Mason Elementary, which seems to be a decent school. We have open house next Thursday, so we'll see how it goes.

All supplies have been purchased. We went to Target over the weekend to take advantage of Missouri's tax-free weekend for back-to-school items. Joey was SO excited... as was I. And yes, Patience & Greg, there were a LOT of MILFs there at the same time. That always helps. :) Joey got all of his supplies including a Transformers backpack and a Cars lunch box! We're excited!

Once we have all kids in school, we should be able to afford private school. So by the time Joey's in 2nd or 3rd grade, he can transfer to a private school. The problem is we can't afford babysitter and school, just or the other.

Then again, it may turn out that Joey likes Mason and decides to stay there. That's fine too.

I can't believe Joey's already going to kindergarten!

Thinking about Emma, born 9/7/2005, and Andy, born 8/6/2006. Depending on the cutoff date, Emma and Andy could be in the same grade! Sheesh!

Brown Recluses

Yeah, we have 'em. Fortunately I do not have arachnophobia. It's close, but it's not there. In fact, I've peacefully coexisted with quite a number of brown spiders for the last year or two in the basement. I even had a friend who I watched go through his entire life cycle over the course of a few weeks.

I always assumed they were wood spiders, perfectly harmless.

Then we discovered that they are brown recluses. Naturally I freaked.

We (ok, Brandy and Julie) got rid of a bunch of em. But it's still freaky. Knowing they were brown recluses. Downright freaky.

We were going to get all of our Christmas boxes moved to the attic prior to Andy's party. This won't be happening now, as that's the kind of place where my friends the recluses like to hang out. I'll wait until we can get an exterminator.

Freaky.

Friday, August 1, 2008

It's Official - The Nightmare is Over!

The port is out. We have it in a cup in a drawer in our room. The nightmare is officially over.

I'm tired.