Reunion

Good Morning. All kinds of things to talk about on this Monday. Last Wednesday, Mia and I watched the Champions League game against PSG in the 2nd leg together with my Dad. It was an important one, and sadly, we were beat 2-2 on aggregate. PSG wanted it so much more then us. We couldn't get pace or a good string of passing going. Diego Costa looked like he was about to explode and kept getting in trouble with every call. The controversial red card early in the first half against Zlatan Ibrahimovic was (in my opinion, a yellow) but our instant reaction to get the entire squad in the referee's face a bit too much. Hazard and Cahill's goals weren't enough to get us through, so now we have to focus all of our attention on the league title. More on that later.

So that was a frustrating day to say the least, but we enjoyed the rest of the day off with Jill when she got home from work. Friday, Mia had school. Her teacher (who was sick last week) returned and she was happy. Mia had a good day. Learned about St. Patrick's Day, shamrocks and rainbows. She gave her pals hugs after bathroom time and we were off on our way.

Saturday the weather was pretty nice, so we spent as much time as we could outside. Mia played at a couple parks with some kids and started doing more slides. She doesn't like the big ones still, but she'll get there. She pulled out her Mustang and drove it around the cul de sac. The boy across from our house last summer would run out and give her a sucker when he'd see her, but Saturday, he wasn't around. "Where is Max? He's the only cute boy that I know. Well, I LOVE YOU TOO DADDY!" that comment she made explained the whole "I don't like boys thing" to me. She wants to consistently prove to me that I'm her #1 boy whether I have to be or not, but man, was she so upset when Max wasn't home. She sad-face drove and parked her Mustang back i the driveway and kept repeating "Max is the ONLY cute boy that I know.."
Saturday night was a super rare night for me. My tech college friends and I got together (4 of us) and had dinner/drinks for the first time since my wedding. We went to La Estecion, one of the more authentic places to get Mexican food. Later, we head out for drinks at a local bar. My face hurt all the way home from smiling and laughing so much. These are some good old friends that I haven't hung out with in so long, so it was a total blast to catch up. My friend Nicole, we hang out from time to time at the park with our kids, and she'll be coming to Mia's birthday party in a couple weeks. Hard to believe we've been friends for 13 years. Anyways, when I got home, we put Mia to bed and watched a movie.

Sunday, I watched a very frustrating Chelsea vs Southhampton game. We got an early goal but a take down in the box left us tied 1-1 at HT. We should have been able to take this game, but we couldn't get that 2nd goal. We had a lot of chances, but in the end, we split the point and are now 6 ahead of Man City with a game in hand. I tell you, when I found out Man City lost Saturday, I thought we'd be able to capitalize on that and give some significant distance between us and them. 6 is still a good number to be ahead on, but we have to make more space and strengthen the defense. After the game, we later watched some of the Pens/Wings slaughtering before Mia noticed something outside. "DO YOU SEE IT??!! DO YOU SEE IT??!! MAX IS HOME! OH MY GOSH WE HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE NOW!!" I have never seen that kid get up and off the couch to get shoes/jacket on for anyone, but oh, the boy-next-door is outside and she has to go see him. She grabbed a sucker of her own to hopefully exchange with him. They were all shy to each other, but in the end, exchanged the suckers. It was pretty adorable.

I'm going to try to make as much progress as possible on this dog portrait that I've been casually working on. That's it for now, thanks for reading!

One Down, Two to Go!

Good Morning, hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. It was a pretty quick week over here, and now that we're in March, we hope the snow eventually melts and that we can finally enjoy some nice weather. Thursday, my little bro and I took the kids to Tot-Time at Helium. This may have been the LAST time we will go, because they changed the rules. Upon arrival, we found out that NO parents are allowed to jump with their kids. We were both pretty bummed out since both kids like having us out there. Eventually, Mia was fine and I sat on the platform in the middle of the park and watched her jump, but my nephew Easton is 2, and needed his Dad out there. They stayed for about an hour, but Mia wanted to hang a little longer. We were whipping balls at the basketball hoop from 20 feet away. Eventually, I made one in. Not as much fun as dunking, but whatever.
 Friday, Mia had a pretty good day at school. She invited a few of her friends (Alexa and Olivia) to her birthday party in a few weeks. I even had her write out the letters on the envelop to give her some practice. When I went to pick her up, it was the first time that she wasn't coming from either the gym or outside. Usually, I have to hang out a bit in the entry way and wait till I see her running down the hall way. I came in, and the class was enjoying some free time with some music. She didn't see me for a few minutes till some kid goes "WHO ARE YOU?!" They've been reading a lot of different books, and learning about the artwork created. They even have a little "book store" the kids can play and checkout books to read during class. Cute right? Friday was a normal busy day at work. My inlaws came in for a short visit for the weekend. When I came home, they were at the house looking up houses with Jill and Mia. I changed and headed over to my little brother's hockey game. Got there, doors were locked. DAMMIT.

Saturday was a pretty low-key day. We didn't do too much. Mia had them watch Lego Movie. Still funny and awesome. Sunday morning was what I was amped for. Sunday was the class of the rivals Chelsea vs Spurs for the Capital One Cup Final at Wembley. The final wasn't on TV or even NBC Sports Live which made it difficult to find a different place to watch it on. I swear, if I wasn't working, I would have went to a soccer pub and taken my Dad to go watch since he too couldn't watch the finale I eventually found a BEin sports in Spanish that worked for the first half before going down. Terry got the first goal, an awesome corner that he was able to get a loose ball and boot it in. In the 2nd half, I found a Youtube channel that had a live feed of the game in Russian. It was a few minutes behind, but whatever, it WORKED. Costa got the 2nd goal off a deflection (like Terry's) When it was all said and done, we won the trophy. Spurs couldn't dig their way through our defense. We had a very strange formation when they showed the line up, and for some reason, Mourinho had Cahill playing a more attacking mid position instead of the likes of Oscar. At one point, my favorite Left Back Azpilicueta got kicked in the back of the head and was bleeding. Mia came over and sat on my lap with this sad look on her face "IS HE OKAY??" With Man City losing to Liverpool, we're looking real good for the Premier League title. They need to continue to blow these important games so we can widen the gap. We play West Ham on Wednesday and our 2nd leg of the Champions League against PSG soon. I worked later 2-10, and when I got home, read Mia a story and she was fast asleep.

March is shaping up to be a pretty busy month with a handful of birthdays, a baptism and other events filling up our weekend. Thanks for reading!

Everything is Awesome!!!

Good morning everyone. Hope the weekend was enjoyable. Everyone here is pretty much back to normal and not sick and miserable as we all were in the previous week. Mia went back to school Friday and when we arrived, she had discovered she got a bag of Valentines from her classmates that she would have got if she went last week. She was pretty stoked by all of them. When I went to pick her up, her teacher told me how she had such a great day with her friend Olivia playing in the kid's Post Office for quite a while writing and making letters for each other. That kid is so sweet to Mia. As she gave a hug goodbye to her when we were leaving, a brave little boy ran up and hugged her too. I think his name is Finn. After he ran back to the rug for "Calendar Time" she whispers to me "Daddy, I did NOT want him to hug me". Kid, it's no biggie, he just wanted to say goodbye. Ugh. What was real nice Friday, is that I had the day off. I rarely take off on Fridays but since Jill was in Madison till about 7ish for a conference/seminar for work, I spent the rest of Mia's day after school with her.

We grabbed some lunch after I picked her up and went to Monkey Joe's. Haven't been there in a while, but she had a good time. I can never talk her into going down some of the bigger slides, but we still had a lot of fun. They were pretty busy, and later I found out it was because a lot of the area schools had the day off. Afterwards, we visited a few stores, and on the way home, she was fast asleep. When Jill came home, we made dinner and watched The Lego Movie. Mia wanted nothing to do with this, but as soon as I turned it on, she instantly got into the film. It was pretty cute and very funny. It was really nice to enjoy the evening with Jill and Mia.

Saturday morning, I got up, did the usual routine and made my way to the computer to watch the Chelsea vs Burnley game. This should have been easy. Real easy. It still drives me insane that we couldn't secure 3 points at the Bridge, but something wasn't right. Ivanovic set the tone in the first half with a great goal from a very creative pass from Hazard. We had two different instances in the box and the referee didn't even pull a card or stop the play. One guy, easy hands in the box. Everyone saw it. Nope. Ref didn't stop the play. Costa, got shoved in the box. Once again, no card. He was pretty furious about that one. Then the cherry on top. Matic had the ball, and Barnes from Burnley stuck his boot straight into his leg and clearly missed the ball. NO CALL ON THIS. When I saw Matic get up and sprint to go shove Barnes, my jaw dropped. Now, we're out a key CDM for three games including the Capital One Cup final all because the incompetent ref didn't catch that blatant and dirty tackle. Ashley Barnes was fouling our boys all game. It was crazy. I don't know how Mourinho didn't go crazy in the post-interviews, but the game ended in a draw 1-1.

Tuesday, we played PSG. Sadly, I missed the Champions League match, but we also finished 1-1. Hopefully we can beat them in the 2nd leg.

After that frustrating game Saturday morning, we spent the rest of the day doing laundry and later Jill and I went on a rare date and had grandma babysit the kiddo. We haven't had a date night since I believe May. I thought August at first, but I just figured out that the last movie we saw in theaters was A Million Ways to Die In The West. Yeah, it's a raunchy comedy that we felt dumber after it was over, but it was still funny. I'm not going to go into great detail what we went to see, but It was nice evening. For the first time, we did the Dine-In thing where you order food there, and watch the movie. It's like cutting out the "going out before the movie" and just eating there. The food was pretty good. Mia wasn't too stoked we went out, but she had a great night with Grandma.

Sunday I worked. Nothing too exciting. When I came home, Mia was asleep. Jill said she fell asleep sitting up watching Cinderella at 8:30pm. WOW. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Goodbye, Goodbye.

Good Morning. Lots to go over, plus I've got to leave for work in a short while, so let's get to it. Last Wednesday Mia and I watched the Chelsea vs Schalke game with my Dad. That was a rough one. We had the early goal by Fabregas which gave me hope that we'll win. Didn't happen. We ended up finishing off with a draw. Schalke was a stubborn team to try to get goals on. We had lots of chances. Drogba started and just couldn't get one in. My favorite moment of the game was when Fabregas got the goal, Mia jumped up and down and stops...looks down and realized she jumped right out of her flower jeans. "Uhh Daddy?" Couldn't stop laughing. So today, they play Manchester City, which I'll be sadly missing.

Mia had a great day in school Friday. She was hard to get moving in the morning, said "okay Bye Daddy" when I dropped her off. She totally loves school, and when I went to pick her up, she was sad because she didn't want to leave. My time Friday was mostly used on the pitch working on some shooting practice. Had the entire place to myself. I realized after about 10 shots, that I'm better right footed then left. Well, at least that day I was. I kept curling the ball with my left foot the wrong way. All of my life I've always shot lefty because it was the more comfortable one to shoot with. I get more power and accuracy with my right for some reason. Anyways, it was nice to get some quiet time to play. I wanted to get into my new art project, but that's okay.

Earlier in the week, we learned that Jill's grandma fell and broke her pelvis and with that, had a blood clot in her leg. Wonderful...Well yesterday morning when I came home from walking with Remi, she got the call that she passed away. 95 years old is a amazing. She always treated me like one of her own grand kids and Mia absolutely loved her. She's been through a lot and throughout the day, Jill kept quietly saying "it feels weird knowing she's gone" So while Jill worked on photos for the service, Mia and I went to my best friend Jay's birthday party for him and his wife's little boy Caleb. It was a lot of fun, even for the short while we could stay. Mia made friends with another girl her age.

Later, Mia, my Dad and I went to watch Carroll University take on Lawrence University at my old college while Jill and my Mom went to the early Just Between Friends sale. The rain clouds were threatening, but that didn't stop me. Well, in the end we didn't stay long because the rain+ wind blew into our section (under this overhang) so before my Dad started to "melt" we got out of there. Maybe another game in October we can hit up.

Today, 9am-5pm shift. No idea what we're doing later. Maybe laundry. Anyways, thanks for reading!

The Good, The Bad, and the Depressing

Greetings. I'm just going to dive into the recent happenings and events, alright? Okay then. Last Friday evening post-work, we packed the car and headed down to Illinois for a weekend with the in-laws (and Jill's pals) Mia was super excited, in fact she was so excited, she crashed before we even got to Lake Geneva. Good. A nice quiet drive is always preferred when we're making the late-night road trip. Arrived at 1:15am, and got right to sleep since Jill had to be up early for her plans with her friends in the morning. Saturday, she met up with her longtime friends to celebrate one of the friends' birthday, so we didn't see her the rest of the day. Mia and I enjoyed our time with Jill's parents. We even got to watch the Penguins/Blue Jackets game. It was a great win for the Pens. Sunday, I got up at 8am to watch the big Chelsea vs Liverpool game. It was quite enjoyable to see our team, with most of our usual starting men out and injured, beat an otherwise healthy Liverpool. Even during breakfast, Mia quietly asked me in my ear "Daddy, I'm done eating, can I go watch the Chelsea game now?" Love it.

This week's game against Atletico Madrid was far more nerve wrecking. The anticipation to today, was intense and with last week's leg drawing at 0-0, anything could happen today. We had a few of the injured playing with high hopes of going on to the final against Real Madrid. Fernando Torres had a great goal that had me thinking "Okay, maybe we can pull this off, just need a few more
goals to finish the game" but Atletico responded with an equalizer. Bummer.

2nd half, the game only got more intense with Atletico getting stronger in the back, and muscling our forwards to ground. I can't remember a time when Eden Hazard wasn't getting shoved. I still don't get how they didn't call a foul on the heavy shove to Andres Schurrle. However, Eto'o's challenge in the box gave our possible new striker come Summer time (it's still in the talks of course) Diego Costa a PK. The turkey did get yellow carded for taking way too long to set up for his strike, but when we finally settled on his ball placement, he fired in the 2nd goal for AM. Crap...

A lazy move by Hazard let them finish us off with their 3rd goal. It was a tough match, especially at the end. Perhaps we shouldn't have been playing some of our injured guys, or maybe we were just making too many mistakes, regardless, it wasn't enjoyable. Mia even said "Daddy, I'm sad Chelsea lost too"

The week has been quite overcast and rainy, so me and Miss Mia have not been able to do anything outside. I did however see some sun this morning on my daily early walk with the dog. New art coming hopefully soon. Not sure what we're doing this weekend. Jill's got to work Saturday, and I've got a 7-3pm shift. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

6 Months In a Leaky Boat

Hello friends. Getting late over here so I'll make this one quick and to the point. Over the weekend, Jill, my Mom and I went to my old High School for Breakfast with Santa. We arrived late and skipped the breakfast part. It was weird strolling through the school I haven't attended in nearly 10 years. Ran into an old 7th grade band director that still remembered me as well as some other alumni's and such. Mia enjoyed watching Santa from a good safe distance. Or as I call it "stranger danger distance". We didn't want to ruin her morning/afternoon by sticking her on his lap. My buddy Mandi and her kids met us there. They too had a fun time, especially with Mia. Later Jill and I hit up a holiday party. First party we've been to since Mia was born. It was a great time seeing old friends that we sadly don't get to socialize with anymore. Always fun catching up.

Later Sunday after work, I attempted to play some indoor soccer. Mia fell asleep on the way and when I walked in the arena, I once again was turned down by both teams. They didn't need subs that day. Goddammit. I just want to play. I understand the goofiness of the process that if you are a SINGLE player, you have to show up and hope to play. These teams are formed by paying players who all know each other. If there was any way for me to contact a "coach" or whomever runs any of the Men's Open Soccer teams, I would have done that a month ago. But, they keep telling me they can't give out any contact info so I just have to keep trying even when I get the frustrating "no thanks, we're good tonight". I'm debating about waiting till the new season starts to try to find a team. This weekend, there are TWO 9pm games, which means I would have the opportunity to try to persuade one of the 4 teams to let me play. If it ends up snowing a bunch, I'll probably skip it.

Working very hard on Mandi's tattoo design. It's more of a concept for her to take into a good tattoo place and show them the direction she'd like to go with the tattoo. Eyes are bugging out sketching this one out.

Mia and I had a great day off. Got my oil changed and we were able to catch the majority of the Chelsea FC game. It was wonderful to see my team FINALLY win, despite being knocked out of the Champions League. There's always the Europa League right? Lately, Mia's been grabbing both Jill and I by the necks and saying "momma, daddy and Mia" over and over, followed by family kisses. It's incredibly adorable. Especially when she says "I'm gonna kiss you Dadda!!" Love this kid and her Mom more then anything in the entire world. Alright, that's all for now. Sleep time for this tired father. Adios and thanks for reading :)