Orlando Outlet Extravaganza!

Yesterday we hit up the last (or hopefully the last) outlet stores within two hundred miles from here. So I guess next time we'll have to travel to Miami to find even better deals. Hooray for me. But we did stop in downtown Orlando this time, which was cool to see, except for the continuous rain. It would stop for a while, and then start, and then stop again. Paul of course, was quite fond of the puddles left behind, as he would run through, turn around, and splash back. We spent quite a while at Lake Eola Park in the downtown area.

The lake was full of these pretty incredible swans among a variety of other birds, and they even had giant swan shaped boats. Unfortunately, the rain closed up the boat rides, or you would probably see a picture of me paddling out into the water looking like a chump in a big bird boat. Paul liked the long necked fellows, but once they figured out he didn't come bringing bread or other edible goods, they impolitely snubbed him and went about their business. Stupid birds.

After that, Paul took his first shot at breaking and entering. He exclaimed, "No trespassing, eh? Do you know who I am? Get my lawyer on the phone!" Of course, this sort of behavior always results in Paul's mother shooting him the evil eye that only a mother could produce. Too bad he'll never learn to listen to his mother... or at least I never did.

As always, we had a good time, and we did our fair share of shopping and sight seeing in Florida's biggest tourist trap. Other than the rain, it was a great day. And to top it off, after dinner at the beach, Paul got to roll around in the sand for a while. There's nothing like waking up in the middle of the night with sand in the diaper to make a boy scream at his parents.

It was the weekend...

But now it's over. And since I didn't make a post, I'd better do that now. Not much to post about, yesterday was my birthday, which was so exciting. We did some shopping, as we do most every weekend. But this weekend Old Navy was offering $12 jeans, so we just could not miss it. And that, on top of the fact that most people had been bottled up in their homes the past few days due to the storm, made a wonderful shopping experience. After we had our fill of Old Navy, we went to a birthday party for my boss's daughter, and surprisingly enough, they not only bought a cake with my name on it, the whole room of people I'd just met sang happy birthday to me! So it was a good time, and Paul turned into Paulnon the Barbarian when he got the pinata stick. He was all about slaughtering the candy-stuffed paper donkey with his frilly rainbow colored sword. He didn't want the candy, he just wanted to slaughter something. Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera, or you'd get to see the maniacal facial expressions he made while bludgeoning the helpless animal.

Today was a little less exciting though, we just went downtown and walked across the bridge to the landing (aka the over-rated downtown mall, for those of you who have yet to visit Jacksonville) and took some pictures. Yes, the picture above is the bridge we walked over. It was interesting to see some of the flooding that occurred due to the storm. One walkway we frequently travel was entirely under water, probably five feet deep.

And then Paul found this yellow pole, which amused him for quite some time. I had to take this picture because just before this, Becky decided to stand in a pile of red ants. She then she opted to run around the parking lot in an arm-flailing frenzy, screaming, "My legs are on fire!"

And that was the excitement of the day. So in recap: my birthday was successful and I am now a year older, which makes me roughly half the age of the average reader of this blog (aka, all you old people), Paul enjoys simple things like yellow poles, garbage cans, and the occasional wooden fence to look through, and Becky learned that it's not a good idea to stand on the home of a million biting ants while taking photographs.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Yes, we're still alive. But this is probably the worst storm we've seen since we've been here, and the eye is still 60 miles away. But the weather men keep changing their minds about what is really going on, so who knows. One minute it's going to be a hurricane, the next it's just a tropical storm. So we decided to act like intelligent people yesterday and went out to the beach.

As you can see, Paul was thrilled. We walked out on the sand as the red flags warned people not to swim (which of course they did anyway) and then the rain hit, so we had to hurry up and hide with all the other intelligent people under the pier. The waves weren't overly high, but the rain comes in horizontally, and the wind will pretty much rip an umbrella out of your hand. So we got soaked.

But it was pretty incredible to experience just how powerful the weather can be. I imagine a full blown hurricane would be awesome, until you got skewered by a flying palm tree. And I don't think we want that to happen, so we'll just be hiding in the bathtub from here on out.

The End of All Things

Captain’s Log, Stardate 2008-0819

We’re boarded up now, safe inside. The sky outside is dark, but a few clouds can be seen scattered about, distant scouts leading the way of the monstrous storm that is rapidly approaching. Becky and Paul are hiding in the bathtub as I write, their cheeks streaked with the liquid fear of impending devastation. I just got back from Walmart. It was hell on Earth. The shelves were stripped down to nothing, no bread, no Cup-O-Noodles, no Bumble Bee tuna. I saw a small child reach for the last pack of D batteries and a 300 pound woman tore his arm off at the shoulder and ate it. As the beaten down blue-vest wearing workers hastily pulled pallets from the back room, they were attacked like unfortunate gazelles wandering into a pool of ravenous piranha. I loaded the peanut butter and beef jerky into my cart, anything to get us through the days ahead, all the while dodging the rioters as they tore down displays of bottled water and Wheat Thins, rolling on the floor in fits of rage, overtaken by their quest for survival.

The hurricane is coming, and there’s no way out.

The schools are shut down, the streets are empty. The old man across the street is building a large boat out of hickory bark. Chester is buckled up tightly on the porch with a cat size life preserver. Families are gathered around their television sets as panicked weather men speak of our comrades to the south, already overtaken by Fay. When she gets here, she’ll be a Category I Hurricane. In 2004, the power in Jacksonville was out for nine days. This could very well be my last transmission.

Wait... I hear the thunder. It’s here.

Say Cheese

After having amassed an immovable amount of debt pursuing my own so-called dreams of being an arrogant, self-righteous attorney, dedicated to taking the innocent’s hard earned cash all in the name of upholding the law, I finally decided that maybe I should be a nice husband and let my wife have something for a change. I know, as she is fond of telling me, that it’s very rare that the money we spend is on something she wants. If she asks to go to SeaWorld for a fun filled family day, I say, “70 bucks!! Each?? Are you kidding?? Is that American dollars?? Uh, no.” But if I want an iPod, I say, “$240 doesn’t seem half bad, let’s go buy one today!” So she whines about all the things that I buy for myself while she is left wearing worn out shoes and a bathing suit from five years ago. But now… now I have something to hold over her head for at least the next seven years!

So we bought a new camera. And now Becky can continue on her journey to make Paul the most photographed child in all of Jacksonville, North Florida, and beyond! Of course as part of this deal she has to take 200 photos a day, enroll in night classes at Jacksonville University, and read 300 pages a night from some photography related literature.

But we all know it will pay off, as you can already see, Paul had his picture taken a few times this weekend. And who doesn’t love a picture of Paul?

NOTICE: This posting is an over-exaggerated version of the truth. The poster has never in his life overlooked an item his wife sought to purchase in order to buy an item for his own amusement. Neither is the poster’s wife wearing worn out shoes or a five year old bathing suit. In fact, on top of the new camera, said wife also recently purchased a new bathing suit. WHEREAS, the poster has also fully agreed to attend a fun filled family day in Disneyland or another acceptable venue as long as a third party is capable of coming to assist in the care taking of the poster’s son, hereinafter referred to as Paul, during said outing. Further, the terms hereinbefore laid out in this posting regarding said wife's requirements are a binding agreement, and any reader of this blog may bring an action to enforce said agreement upon said wife to produce a substantial amount of photos of PAUL each and every day. Let this be full notice to all parties present this 17th day of August, 2008.

Buy Paul Some Peanuts...

Since it's the last weekend of summer (for me anyway) we decided to catch one last baseball game. The season will be ending soon, so we thought we'd better eat one more hot dog and bag of peanuts. When we got downtown we immediately realized something was not quite right. There seemed to be a lot of people for just a Suns baseball game. So we asked one of the traffic directors what was going on and then found out that the game was conveniently starting at the same time that 13,000 people would be going into the next door arena to watch Bruce Springsteen. We almost turned around and left, but since we were "born in the USA" and enjoy baseball, we waited in the traffic. But of course the traffic made us late to the game, but also thankfully we were "born to run," so we rushed in and didn't miss much. We hurried across E Street (now I'm making things up) and sat in our seats to enjoy the last "glory days" of summer.

After the game, they lit off a pretty cool firework show, but Paul wasn't "dancing in the dark" to it. Mostly because he grew tired of the game after the first 30 minutes and preceded to try to run up the stairs to escape. But it was a good time, and the Suns won, so the home town crowd was happy. And they gave away four cars, but I didn't win. So now if I ever go to Philadelphia, I'll just have to walk the streets.

Ok, I'll stop.

Flying Beach Boy

Wouldn't you know, Paul wanted to go to the beach again tonight. But who can blame him? It was a beautiful night out in Jax Beach after a long day of heavy rain. We threw the football around again, and then decided to throw Paul around. We figured since he's taken swimming lessons, he should probably take flying lessons. (I would like his grandmothers to know that in trying to capture this picture I only dropped him almost once. I caught him by the leg just before he hit the sand. So no big deal. And he had a smile on his face the entire time.)

Other than that, he ran up and down the beach pointing at all the dogs and kites that people had brought out, and then played around in the sand a bit. But once again we had a good time, even though the summer is ending, as this is the last week before school starts.

The water seems to be getting a little colder too. Soon enough it will be winter again in Northeast Florida, which means the temperature will be unbelievably cold, like in the 60's. But for now, Paul is still enjoying the sand and surf of summer.

Monday Night Football

Hank Williams Jr. and all of his rowdy friends would be proud. Paul stepped out on the beach for some pig skin action... or more like cheap rubber $3 Target football action. Nothing gets Paul more excited than seeing all the colorful balls of all sizes when we go past the toy section in a store. So we got him this football to provide hours of entertainment and something new to chew on. It was a little late by the time we got to the beach, and the rain started to fall shortly after we got there, but he still had a good time as always.

And speaking of cheap entertainment for one year olds, who doesn't like chalk? For a buck and a half we got a whole bucket! Yeah... a whole bucket! And that's why Target is Paul's favorite store. And can you believe how smart this kid is? He's got his name down already, check it out:

Seriously, we didn't help him. He then used the chalk to map out a complex algorithm that he's been working on to be used in NASA's Costellation Program. I didn't really understand it.

Hannah-Not-Montana Park

We decided to stick it out in Jacksonville this weekend, since we're kind of tired of driving hours out of town to see broken down buildings and giant spiders. We decided there were still plenty of things to see around town anyway. So we went up to Hannah Park today, in the north east corner of town bordering the ocean and Mayport Naval Station. We'd been there once before, but when I saw that you had to pay to get in, I turned around and left. But today I coughed up the three dollars and it turned out to be worth it. It was pretty busy, but the park was enormous and there was actually a lot of parking for a change. First up, we hit the water park fountain area type thing. Whatever it was, Paul loved it.

Of course, that's easy to see, by the big goofy smile on his face. But you can't blame him on a day like today. It's been pretty hot and humid, but it is Florida.

After getting splashed for a while, we hit the beach. Paul did a fine job of covering himself in sand, as always, and I think he might have even gotten a little tan today. Other than that, it was a great day. Oh yeah, and he discovered how to take his diaper off all on his own, so we may have some fun days ahead. Great.

A Child Runs Through It

There's nothing like running through the water on a hot August day! Paul was in heaven. He's a big fan of the pool, but we were unsure of how he would do with the fountains. I'd say he had fun, check it out:

The Before and After

So the exciting event of this week was that they painted our apartment complex! It took a few days, but overall the place looks ten times better. It was definately in need of something, the faded blue was probably from the 80's. Check out the before and after:

Can Paul borrow some sugar?

For the first time since I started working, I've had weekends off on a regular basis this summer. That has left us trying to find something new to do every week, which is why we keep traveling to these out of the way historic sites. Today, it was Ormond Beach and the Bulow Sugar Plantation Ruins.

The day didn't exactly go smoothly. First, Becky missed our exit off I-95 and we argued about how to get back. We drove over to the coast to catch A1A because I knew the road we needed would connect somewhere. Too bad it wasn't marked. We drove past it two or three times and then decided just to have our picnic lunch by the beach. Paul destroyed his diaper and filled the car with a pleasant odor, and I had to wash his pants in the ocean so he would have something to wear. When we finally found the turn, we drove down this tiny backwoods road to the park, only to discover there was a $3 parking fee. Honestly, who carries cash? Most of the parks we've been to require it, and the last time, we had to dig through the car to find every nickel and dime we had just to pay... so you would think we would learn. Nope. We had to drive back out and find a grocery store, and we missed the turn again and had to drive another mile out of the way to turn around. But we did make it, and of course our camera's battery died after about three pictures. Yeah. But we did get this:

It was Florida's largest sugar plantation back in the day, and the ruins were pretty impressive. Paul enjoyed running down the paths. As you can see in the picture he's in full sprint... though I'm sure Great-Grandma Steele could probably still outrun him. The plantation shut down in the 1830's after the Seminole Indians killed everyone. I guess it was one of the few times the natives came out on top, and that's why today it's the Florida State Seminoles instead of the FSU Sugar Farmers.

Big Wheels Keep on Turning

Not a lot of excitement today, but we did go to the park this morning to take a few pictures. The nice thing about the digital camera is that you can take loads of them with no cost, but our computer seems to be running a little slower these days. I guess that can happen when you overload the hard drive with baby pictures.




In case anybody hasn't heard, Paul will be visiting Big Sky Country for Christmas this year. He is scheduled to arrive in Spokane on December 4, and will not be returning to the southeast until January 8. But I'm sure by that time we warm blooded Floridians will have already frozen to death in the arctic tundra that is Montana winter.

Swinging Child

On this episode of Paul TV, well... he plays on a swing. Definately nothing exciting, but check it out. I'm still waiting to capture that moment that makes Paul a Youtube star. One of these days...