Washington D.C.

Now that I have made the trip back to "Blog land" I decided to stay a while and tell you a little more about what has been going on with me. Last month I went to Washington as a Chaperon with Hannah and her orchestra from school. I had never been to Washington so I decided it was a great opportunity to see the sites and spend some time with Hannah and it turned out to be a great trip. I would say the only down side to the trip was that the travel agent packed so much into the trip that we never had enough time to enjoy what we were seeing because we were so rushed. All in all though it was great. We did all the war memorials, the Lincoln Memorial and that kind of stuff on the first night we were there and it was cool to see those things all light up at night.






Because it was at night most of the pictures were not that great but here is a good picture if good old Abe. We also had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which the kids all loved, but for me it was just another burger and fries that we wolfed down in a hurry. The next day we saw Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier and we got there just in time for the changing of the guard and a wreath laying ceremony. That was very impressive.







From there we got to go on a tour of The White House which was also very cool. Since the Obama administration took over tours have been hard to come by but our travel agent, who is a former teacher from Duluth High School once taught a girl who is now in the military and her job is to arrange all tours and events at the white house so we got lucky as scored a visit.
As it turns out the Obama's were lovely hosts and we had a wonderful visit although had I known ahead of time that I would be meeting the president that day I would have dressed a little different but hopefully nobody noticed my poor choice of shirts.





As it turns out we hit it off pretty well and I was invited back for dinner, but I did manage to spruce up a little before dinner.





If you are wondering about the microphones in front of us, it turns out the Obama's have started a tradition they call "karaoke desert" and just to show their were no hard feelings about the tee shirt mishap earlier in the day Barak and I teamed up for rousing version of Ebony and Ivory that brought the house down. I would say a good time was had by all.
Ok, I admit I made that last part up, but we did tour the white house and Barak was in Mexico at the time. We also went to the Smithsonian Institute but again we only had about three hours to cram in as much as possible and that's just not enough time.



On our final night in Washington we got to go to The Kennedy Center and see The National Symphony perform. We were told ahead of time that our seats were behind the stage where we would have a good view of the conductor which was great for all the kids in the trip since they are in the orchestra at school. what we didn't realize until we got there was that there are only three rows of seats behind the stage and we were actually on the stage. At one point you could hear the conductor breathing and I would have to say it was an amazing experience that I will never forget.
So I guess that's it for now but I will talk more later.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Let me start by saying that I am not going to promise to blog more often because I always say that and I never do so I will just say I'll try, but no promises.
Now on to the story that the title is referring to. As some of you may be aware I have taken half of my basement and turned it into a work shop for all the little projects that I am constantly working on around the house so i don't have to set up all my tools in the garage every time I want to get something done. Every little project ended up with two or three hours of setting up tearing down and cleaning up and I never got enough accomplished because of it. Now I have a place all my own to leave my tools set up and everything is at my fingertips as I need it and not tucked away in the back of a cabinet behind the lawnmower. So one of the last things I added was dad's old radial arm saw that he has had for years.




It's most recently been at Dennis's house and he was nice enough to bring it over because he was not using it anymore. When I got it I went on line to try to find the owners manual so I could get familiar with the saw, and to my surprise I found a bunch of recall notices for that saw. I decided to investigate and it turns out that with a click of a mouse I had a new safety guard on the way free of charge. Then I saw a link to the "users guide" so I downloaded it and after looking a little closer something was a little funny. The manual was about sixty pages long which seemed about rite, but as I looked closer I realized that this manual was just for the installation and use of the new safety guard I just ordered. Sixty pages to explain a plastic guard to go in front of the blade? That's when I first started to wonder, What have I gotten myself into? About a week later I came home from work and was greeted by the "guard" I had ordered. As I suspected the box, much like the users manual, was huge.







So I waited until Saturday and decided to dive into this thing with both feet. After opening the box I found, you guessed it, more boxes.






After unboxing everything I discovered a ton of new parts and accessories and I am proud to say that I managed to disassemble and reassemble the saw in just about an hour and now it looks and works like a brand new saw.






The boxes included a new table top as well which is something I was going to make myself because the old one was pretty torn up so I'm glad the gigantic box of parts arrived before I took on that little project.
Now that I have the saw and my workshop, or as Heather likes to say "the man cave", completed, I have on more excuses for avoiding the projects Michelle has for me to do, but those projects are what I live for. Just don't tell Michelle. That's all for now. I'll try to write something again soon.

Book challange time.

This comes from the pages of the book I am currently reading and I am almost finished with it.

At that young age he consoled his mother, saying, "Don't worry , mom. When I grow up, I'm going to work really hard and I'm going to be a success. I'm going to be a millionaire and I'm going to own a plantation and a yacht." Given their circumstances at the time these were very lofty goals, but by the time he shared this story with me he had achieved all three.

The book is "Call Me Ted" and it is the autobiography of Ted Turner. What a great book. As some of you may know I am not a big reader, but when I do read I go for biographies every time. I prefer to read about real people who have been successful or have made a big mark on history so I can try to see what these people all have in common. This book confirmed something I already knew. Most successful people accomplish great things by treating every decision equally. Ted Turner put the same amount of thought into what color to paint his office as he did deciding weather to borrow six billion dollars to buy a business he wanted. Just do it an move on.

Enough about that, it's Christmas week!!!!!!!!!! (I got that little move from you know who) I am super stinkin excited (got that one from Katie) for all of us to be together and for the chance to finally meet Mrs. Maddy. Cris and April are coming this weekend and we are looking forward to seeing them and Shiloh again. Since their last visit at Thanksgiving I went all out and put a sink in the hall bathroom so we now have completed the indoor plumbing upgrade. If you were not at my house for Thanksgiving I will explain that at Christmas.

I don't have much new to add, but I wanted to take up the book challenge while I was thinking about it. See you all very soon.

What am I thankful for?

I read Peg's blog and as it turns out I was already contemplating a blog on this exact subject. As some of you may know the week leading up to Thanksgiving was to say the least not a good one for me, and I was working hard to muster up some sort of holiday spirit going into the big day. I won't go into all the details but I'll say that work is not going that great, my bathroom remodel had taken way too long to complete and to top it off I rear ended someone on the way home from work on Tuesday.(detail to follow in another blog)
So the first thing to happen that started turning the tide to a happier note was on Wednesday when I got a call from Chris asking if he and April (and Shiloh) could join the crowd at my house on Thanksgiving Day. Not only was it OK, but it was great to see him and April again. They even spent a few day with us and we had a good visit.
As for turkey day, I guess that's when I started get the holiday spirit in full swing. As I looked around the house at all fourteen of us I realized that the thing I am most thankful for is family. It's real easy to take your family for granite, but when you are surrounded by the people that mean the most to you, all the other little things seem so small. My holiday spirit didn't get a jump start from Thanksgiving, but from the way I spent my Thanksgiving and with whom I spent it.
On Friday we all went to Mom & Dad's house and it was even more family, fun, and a few birthday's to celebrate and another good time was had by all. No detail's needed because I'm sure the event will be covered in many blog's to come from everyone in attendance, but if you've been to one Towhey birthday party you can probably picture the whole thing.
Today I'm back at work and all the problem of life are still here, but I am ready for all the challenges life has in store for me with a new outlook on life, and a much happier attitude. I guess to sum it up, I am grateful to be married to my best friend and for the two perfect children we have together and for all the other people that let us be part of their lives.

New cell number

.....I have a new number you will need call to reach Mike's cell phone. If you call the old number you will hear a message giving you the new number. I did have the new number posted here in my blog but I realized that I may be giving it out to some people I do not want to have it. After about 12 years it is finally changing. I won't go into all the details of why I cannot keep my old cell number because then this blog would turn into a rant and I just don't have the energy for that. In a nut shell my old phone was owned by my company and the new phone is not and to get the number released to me from them would take an act of congress. My company is more than willing to give me the number, however the company that has the service now is to say the least incompetent, (hence the desire to switch services) and then couple that with the fact that they are losing business to a competitor means their desire to be helpful is about zero. So I bit the bullet and got a new number. OK, so it turned into rant anyway. Just be grateful I'm giving you the PG13 version. On the brighter side I got a cool new phone with unlimited texting and a keyboard for people with bad eye's and fat fingers. I will keep the old phone for a few day's until I'm sure everyone has the new number but please feel free to pass this number along to anybody that may not read this blog.
I guess that's it for now.

Best Childhood Memories.

I can't lie, this is a toughie for me. Just the other day I was talking to some friends about where I grew up and our childhood and it made me reflect on our old neighborhood Edinburgh Estates. I could have spent hours talking about all the things we did and the people we knew and so when I read Peg's blog about Childhood Memories I realized there is now way to cover it all or this blog would drag on for hours so I will try to tell one or two stories that stand out to me.
One memory in particular that always makes me smile involves the time Mom and Dad made a new rule about leaving your shoes in the living room. It seems that one day after tripping over shoes left in the room Dad made a rule that any abandoned shoes would be thrown out in the front yard and the guilty party would have to go out in their socks to get them back. This could really if you don't discover this until the next day and they are covered in dew. One day I was sitting in the living room when dad got home and he looked at me and said "get your shoes out of the floor or you know where they go." It was then tat I informed him that those shoes belong to Bill, to which dad growled back "then throw them in the damn yard". Now you have to realize that this had all the elements of a great opportunity. Dad gladly takes all the blame, I get to do the deed and Bill is the one who's gonna suffer. It was nine year olds dream come true.
As I stood on the front steps holding the shoes I decided to not just toss them over the bushes, but I was gonna set a long distance record. With any kind of luck there would be grass stains and maybe even make the street. I let the first one fly and it went all the way to the curb. The second one actually landed in Mr. Webb's yard. This insured a cross country trek to find both shoes. This is however where the fun ended. As the second shoe left my hand I saw something out of the corner of my eye that scared me to death. You guessed it. It was Bill..... bare foot and running. At that point it didn't matter that dad told me to do it. I was doing the deed and loving it and he was gonna kill me.
I think I actually made it to Mr. Webb's yard before the shoe did but I was still too slow. I'm sure whatever he did to me when he caught me seemed a lot worse because I was nine and all, but at the time it was like a near death experience.
The point of all this is simple. These are the kind of memories an only child will never have and they are the greatest times of our lives. I love to tell people how tough it was growing up with four older brothers always picking on me but we all know, Growing up in a big family like ours was the greatest gift we could all have. I could tell these stories all night but for now this will have to do. I too want to thank Mom and Dad for the best childhood a kid could ever have.

Back By Popular Demand...

By reading the 51 comments left on my last blog it appears that you all have been missing me, so I guess I should catch you all up on my life. Since my last blog I have (in no particular order),

1. gone to the beach where I got too much sun, drank too much beer and had too much fun.
2. turned 40 (which may have had something to do with the whole drank too much thing)
3. had a date with Hannah to go see "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" in 3D.
4. had a date with Heather to have dinner at Chili's per her request.
5. had a date with my wife for dinner at Provino's for our 18th annaversary.
6. had a small cameo roll in a film I like to call "Maddy's Baby Shower".

Other than that life has been pretty dull. Work all week to pay for all the !!!!!!!!!'s that Heather uses on a dailey basis, and try to keep up with everything else life has to offer. I guess Kelly mentioned that she and I have become "work out buddies" (a.k.a. wob's) over the past few months because we both felt the need to get in a little better shape, and we both realized we need someone to push us along the way. It's tough to do it alone so we are helping each other. We started with walks at the park and we stepped it up to the occasional walk up Stone Mtn. We also joined a Gym and we have been going there a couple times a week in addition to the walks and I must say I feel a lot better than I have in years. I don't look any better, but I feel good. :) I think I will use the gym even more when the weather get's cold and it starts getting dark at 5 o'clock. For now we can walk at the park till 8:00 or 8:30 so we are enjoying the fresh air while we can. Also the walks at the park often include Michelle and the girls and sometimes Doreen and Jimmy so it's nice to do something that includes the whole family.

I guess that's all that I have been up to for now. You can keep up with most of the excitement around our house by reading Heather's blog!!!!!!!!! every Saturday. Till then I'm done.