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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
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4:55 pm - sex survey-comments screened
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| Sunday, September 18th, 2005
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4:49 pm - pictures of Zach
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Here's two crops of Zach and then Zach with Lillian.
Clicking on either picture to bring you to the scanned instant camera pictures.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 16th, 2005
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10:10 pm - Zachary Stephen McDonough
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Zach was born at 12:24pm today.
weight: 6-lbs 11-oz
height: 19.5"
I can't find the digital camera, so I took pictures with a Kodak disposable.
So I won't have pictures up for a few days.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 29th, 2004
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9:49 pm - Travel
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| Monday, October 27th, 2003
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4:45 pm - finding Lily a good home.
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| Friday, October 17th, 2003
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3:01 pm - first tooth very soon
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About a week ago, Lillian was sitting with me on the couch, while we ate dinner.
I gave her a spoon to keep her occupied.
She slipped forward, and I didn't notice until she started crying.
But I think the spoon cut her gums. A little blood.
She was fine after a few minutes.
Then here recently, Kim noticed the bottom gums have a white bump, as if she'll have a tooth very soon.
I started freezing wet wash cloths, gave her one last night and she LOVED it.
Her hands were cold after though.
Today Kim just called me to say she can feel the ridge of the tooth now.
I can't wait to attempt to take that picture, first tooth.
Looks like it'll be VERY soon.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, October 15th, 2003
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4:41 pm - spirits lifted
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Kim and I started talking today about getting Dawn to babysit again...
this time at night, so we could get out together after Lillian goes to bed...
So I sent Dawn a message about how I want to pay her $10/hour (her rate).
I hope to hear back from her sometime tomorrow.
Then just a minute ago at 4:40pm Kim got a bright idea... why wait for Dawn...
Dad can watch Lillian at night!!!
So I called Dad during his evening commute and he said yes...
All at once I because so happy, spirits lifted.
I'm going out with my wife to dinner without my child.
Like a date!
Kim and I are making major efforts to divide our time to keep from being Mommy & Daddy 100% of the time.
She found some new normal friends she's going to play pool & kereoke with on Saturday night.
On a side note, I should have heat working in the half-bath within a day or two.
I finished all the copper last night, filled the system.
All that's left is wiring it up and getting all the air out.
Two days ago it was 60 in that room at 5am... a lil cold to have a seat:)
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, October 13th, 2003
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3:49 pm - new computer desks
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Kim found these new desks at Staples last week.
She got two of them, one for each of us, this freed up a LOT of space in the front room of our house.
I like the design of the tower.
I put my scanner on the middle shelf, and the printer on the top shelf.
They are very sturdy, made with MDF not particle board, and metal tubular supports.
The best part was the garbage men took the old desk and chair away.
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(comment on this)
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11:03 am - Topsfield Fair
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We had a great weekend. Saturday we went to the Topsfield Fair for a few hours. Lillian got to touch a goat, see some cows, Clydesdales trooped right past us. We also listened to the Air Force Band out of Hanscom. Great family day with great weather. Another way for us to heal. Can't sit around the house all the time.
Saturday night Kim got to go dancing, it was her first time out by herself, not with the Marys, not with a girlfriend, ALL BY HERSELF!
Another step in bringing back our relationship from being 100% Mommy & Daddy into being "real people".
She had a great time, danced her ass off in her new J.Lo jeans she bought in NYC months ago.
Oh yeah, when I say J.Lo you think "bootay" and yes... they were booty jeans.
She called me from the parking lot, before she went into dance, and we had a nice long talk for 45 minutes about all kinds of things.
We are really becoming close, finishing sentences, thoughts.
I always new she was the right person for me, mother, friend, lover... but even more so now that we have made such big changes in our relationship.
I was so wrapped up in being Daddy 100% of the time, I had no idea I was missing out on so much.
It's a new beginning for us, and I can't believe I was missing out on this.
Sunday unfortunately was a rainy day. We visited my grandmother who turned 84 on Sunday.
Then Aunt Flo decided to pay a visit, it's nice that she visits regularly on time, but causes Kim some discomfort. I was of course the "best husband" ... when appropriate, providing a buffer between Flo and Kim, since they get into some arguments. After 5 years, I've learned how to deal with them together, take the abuse.
She doesn't stay long. So I can handle those crazy bitches for a few days:)
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, October 7th, 2003
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3:31 pm - old school dunkins
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12:58 pm - progress
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Some of you may know by now, my marriage has been, lets put this delicately... stressed.
At issue here is the lack of time my wife and I have off from being parents and to be a couple.
Luckily, we have great communication and have built upon that communication in the last few weeks.
To the point where I think we are now closer than ever before.
She is the best person for me, she completes me. Not only is she my best friend, lover, life partner, mother to our child... We were just lacking some adventure, some excitment, some time off from being parents.
We love our daughter dearly, love the time we spend with her, but everyone needs some time off.
We don't have any family that can watch Lillian... we have a friend who's cared for her once, but her health isn't always best, so she's not available.
I talked to this friend of Kim's, Dawn... who I just mentioned... and asked her if she could watch Lillian today, while I treated Kim to a "day at the spa". Funny thing is, it took Kim 4 days to really accept this gift.
Kim is not someone who NEEDS a spa treatment, which is why it's a perfect gift. It something she would never do for herself. I wanted to pamper her for one day from being a mommy.
I love the new Kim, she's come out of her shell since her surgery with her weight loss. I wouldn't want her to change for anything. She's finally getting attention from men... Does this bother me? No of course not, this makes me feel really good that people notice my sexy wife.
This weekend, while shopping in the mall, we ran across a new perfume. "Still" by J. Lo.
The scent is so refreshing, it's not old ladies at church on sunday. Not strong at all. Fresh is the best description. If you're with your lady in Filene's, take a whiff.
The last perfume we got her hooked on was discontinued, so we had to find a new scent anyways.
I feel like this is a new beginning, or a new chapter in our relationship.
We've both had so much stress released recently, we're going at it like two teenagers, everyday for the last 4 days. We realized, it's time to make time for US too, it's just as important.
Hopefully sometime soon, Dawn can watch Lillian at night for us to get out to dinner or a movie...
But for now, we're making time for ourselves after Lillian goes to bed.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, September 15th, 2003
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1:51 pm - weekend update
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I had a great weekend with my daughter.
At 6.5 months, she's finally becoming a little person.
When we were on our summer vacation, all Mom had was a walker to put her into.
She didn't do too well in it at Mom's... but when we got back from vacation we bought her one.
She's a master at it within 2 days.
She can move in all directions... turn around...
She's so happy that she's got something else to do now.
She gets so bored with her limited physical ability, but you can see her mind is ahead of her body with her actions.
She played in her walker in the kitchen while I worked on the half-bath heating project.
If you've been to my house, you know my half-bath is attached to the outside of the house.
That means out of the 6 sides, only 1 side is NOT exposed to the weather.
In other words, it's very cold in the winter.
When they added it on in the 80's, they tapped off the zone-1 heat and ran 3-feet of baseboard.
The problem is, the door is closed to the bathroom all the time... the thermostat doesn't kick on to warm it enough.
My plan? Make the bathroom it's own zone with it's own thermostat.
Also double the linear feet of baseboard.
Well, more than double... I'm going from 3 to 8 feet.
I successfully removed the old equipment from the half-bath this weekend.
I also reattached zone-1 from where they tapped it.
Next step is to lay the baseboard.
After that... run the lines to create a sub-zone off of the porch.
I'd love to have this done by the end of the month.
Believe it or not, winter is around the corner.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, September 5th, 2003
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2:57 pm - sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
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I have a big problem.
Before vacation, Lillian was sleeping through the night... usually only needing a pacifier or bottle once in the middle of the night.
Our 2 week summer vacation really messed her up.
Now it's only gotten worse.
Now the only way we can sleep, is if she's in our bed.
For example, last night she slept from 11pm til 6am, without a bottle or pacifier, because she slept next to me all night in our bed.
Kim and I do NOT want a "family bed" but we desperately needed sleep.
Lillian has had us up all week.
I want to try the Ferber method.
Clearly she showed last night she doesnt "need" the middle of the night feedings.
But she throws the biggest fits at night.
She gets so worked up she loses her breath.
I'm going to try the Ferber method this weekend... since I can take naps during the day if I have to.
Any other experienced parents have any ideas?
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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9:58 am - cah pahts
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Since the dealership wanted extremely high prices for accessories, I found them for half price on eBAY.
But be careful, some of those eBAYers are not selling genuine Honda parts.
I found an importer for the mud/splash guards that gets them shipped to warehouses on both coasts.
So I didn't have to wait for them to come from California like all other Japanese/Taiwanese parts.
They should arrive today from Deleware.
I found a dealership in Washington State, who gets their parts out of Canada for the floor mats.
Canadapost.ca estimates 11 days to get to me. But again, factory parts at half price.
Lastly... my K&N filter is coming from California, dragging behind a Brown truck, arriving Monday.
AJusa.com ships K&N filters below retail cost with free shipping.
This is where I got the K&N for the Windstar.
I have decided not to get the moonroof visor... who uses their moonroof in the rain?
I didn't like how they attach. Factory parts use these metal retainer clips, which can cause a leak point in the rubber seal of the moonroof. Non-factory parts uses double sided tape, the last thing I want is double sided tape on my car.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2003
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3:51 pm - 2003 Honda Civic Sedan EX 5spd MT
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Welp I finally did it.
Retired the Plymouth Breeze at 6 years 11 months, 115000 miles.
I bought a 2003 Honda Civic sedan EX with a 5 speed manual transmission.
The MSRP is $17,520.
The invoice is $16,052.
Edmunds.com pricing is $15,779.
I bought mine for $15,250.
I was able to get Autofair.com pricing from their website.
Their price is under invoice at $15,390.
I after two days of emails, I got Atamian in Tewksbury down to $15,299.
But Atamian didn't have a silver colored model.
So I got Commonwealth in Lawrence to beat Atamian by $49 just so I could get a silver one.
Kim drove the car more than me this weekend:)
Oh and the seats fold down so you can fit an 8-foot board in the center.
I of course had to goto Home Depot and try it out.
Now I can rice it out like all other Civic owners.
I found the molded splash guards on ebay for $56 shipped.
I also found the floor mats on ebay for $60 shipped.
Those are both about half the cost at the dealership.
Yes floor mats are an option on Hondas.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, August 25th, 2003
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10:07 am - Vacation Summary
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The first week in Myrtle Beach was very relaxing.
I took lots of pictures. We each spent time with Lillian in the ocean and in the pool at the condo.
I knew things weren't going to go well, when I emailed my mom and my brother about our flight information from Myrtle Beach to Jacksonville.
My brother emailed me back saying my Mom and Lee were on a cruise and wouldn't be home until Sunday afternoon.
We fly in Saturday morning.
Thankfully he picked us up at the airport with his Nissan Xterra. Plenty of room for all our "stuff".
We have much more stuff with a 3rd person around:)
Allow me to back up a bit... one day after emailing my brother from Myrtle Beach...
My sister calls Kim's cell phone.
Says she's left her husband and is staying at Mom's with her daughter because he "pushed her".
I was of course concerned, as any big brother would be...
After we got off the phone... and it had a chance to sink in...
WHERE ARE WE GOING TO STAY?
There's only 1 spare bedroom at Mom's.
There's only 1 crib at Mom's.
I paniced, called my brother... he said he'd find us a crib... and everything would workout when Mom got back Sunday night. Portable cribs are just popup playpens with thin foam mattresses in them. Not something a 20lb baby can sleep on comfortably. Kim luckily found a toddler bed's mattress under the bed in our room.
So Lillian spent the week on the floor on a real mattress.
My mom sent my sister back home to her husband to work out their differences.
Basically they are getting a divorce. Sadly my mom saw it coming months ago, she said "You'll be lucky if they aren't divorced by Alyssa's first birthday." ... which was 2 days ago. So she was close.
It's really the best thing for them. He's useless. They'd be better off on their own with his child support checks, than with him.
We did not have a good second part of our vacation in Jacksonville, spent a lot of time with my sister and her daughter... Lillian got sick, then I got sick...
Pepto Bismol is the only stuff that works for people with IBS.
Imodium AD is a false medicene, it only slows the intestines it does nothing to stop.
Next year we'll split up our vacations... maybe 1 week at the begining of the summer and one at the end.
WTF happened to Angie? She was doing a great job watching our animals... until Saturday.
We came home Sunday afternoon, she knew when we were coming home, because Kim and Angie talked a few days before that.
Clearly she wasn't at the house at all on Saturday or Sunday.
My Saturday and Sunday papers were outside, Saturday mail was outside.
Animals were out of food and water.
[EDIT]
The facts are there was a miscommunication, Angie thought we were coming home Saturday.
All is better now.[EDIT]
She put the rugs into the washer and dryer, but didn't put them back down.
So Lily Dog had accidents.
My bed sheets were on the floor in the celler, I'm guessing to be washed before we got home... but I had to do them...
It's like she got distracted or abducted or something.
I'm looking for any other excuse other than "I just decided to spend with weekend with my boyfriend instead".
Sadly I'm kinda looking for something tragic that took her away, this is not like Angie at all.
Some explanation...
Oh and thankyou Bill Gates, Microsoft, for another sploit that ruins my internet access.
Sniffed the cable modem last night, tons of ARP requests for the whole subnet.
Lovely worms.
Actually it's not Microsoft's fault, the patch was released July 16th.
It's the users that never upgrade, it's the corportations that need to "test" a patch before rolling it out.
Nortel got hit bad by both worms because they take forever to release patches to our desktops and ban us from the Microsoft Update website.
That's about all... oh... and I asked my boss for some work this morning... and he hinted at GEICO.
GEICO... you don't want me back, cause I'm going to make it very hard on you.
This time I'm going to be agressive. Roll out my fixes from February before I work on your new problems.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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10:03 am - Bay State Gas
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I realize not everyone has BSG... but... sooner or later your local gas company will switch to a radio based meter reader.
About 2.5 months ago, at 7am... A tech rang my doorbell and said he was here to swap out my telephone based reader for a radio based reader. He was going door to door in the neighborhood this early in the morning to catch people before work.
It only takes a few minutes.
This is where my problems began.
In the summer I only use natural gas for hot water.
I typically use $20/month.
Two months in a row now I have received bills for over $100.
Somehow they are reading my meter and adding 100/therms to it.
The meter is acurate but their new meter readers are somehow making a mistake.
I finally talked to a senior tech today about exactly what's wrong and they swear they are going to correct it with the reader this time.
We'll see next month.
Now all my utilities are on radio based readers, water was first, then electricity about a year ago, now gas.
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, August 24th, 2003
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11:00 pm - home from our summer vacation
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More details tomorrow... but this picture sums up our vacation.
Lillian watching the landing in Boston's Logan Airport, over the water...
There are 229 more pictures here.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, July 28th, 2003
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4:17 pm - funniest prank at work
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We just had a team meeting from 2:30-4pm.
At the end of the meeting the boss sprang that they have been playing a prank on the "new guy".
Poor "new guy" has been getting news update pages on his Skytel pager.
These pages are fake news reports.
Some of these pages are:
Saddam was captured.
Sammy Sosa caught using a 2nd corked bat.
GM announces they have a car that gets 100mpg on regular unleaded.
Playboy.com : are you a horny boy?
We were all laughing so hard, cause he honestly believed these were real news reports.
He even called Skytel to try to get the news reports stopped.
Poor "new guy".
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(comment on this)
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10:40 am - weekend with Lillian
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Kim was in NYC all weekend with her friends.
So Lillian and I got to spend the weekend together.
She does very well on a regular schedule of things to do.
I was able to cook and eat all my meals without her getting cranky, key is to put her in the doorway jumper right after waking up or a feeding... then she keeps herself busy with the pacificier and jumping while you cook and eat.
This morning I did the same thing... put her in the jumper after she woke up at 5:30... so I could make my breakfast and eat it. I left the living room to check my email... and I noticed... it got VERY quiet... too quiet... no jumping... no sucking sounds on the pacificier...
So I peaked around the corner to see this: PICTURE
Yep, sound asleep in the jumper. This was the first time this ever happened.
Normally she needs to eat breakfast before she takes her morning nap.
She woke up a few minutes later and I finally got breakfast into her... but of course, no nap after it, since she took that nap in the jumper.
I can't wait to get that first picture of her falling asleep in her food.
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