Our play-date with Elizabeth, Robert, Colleen

While friends Patrick and Cate Coleman are attending to the final details of packing up their home in Virginia and making their final road trip to Minnesota, their children are hanging out here with Nonna and Da Coleman. We thought we would stop by this evening and get the five kids together for a play-date and provide perhaps a little reprieve for the grandparents.

We got to the elder Colemans' home a little after 7:00. The kids were really happy to see each other. It's been only a few months since they were last together, so no one forgot who anyone was. For our time together, we decided to walk down to the lake to feed a couple of bags' worth of bread Nonna gave us. Elizabeth and I talked all the way to the lake. She was telling me about the book she got at the library this morning. She is about halfway done already. I was so impressed. Robert and Cate ran all the way to the lake together. Max and Colleen stayed more or less with Kyle.

Once at the lake, it didn't take long for all the bread to disappear. All of the kids were giggling and laughing, bright-eyed watching the fish jump out of the water and the ducks fighting for the crumbs.After the last crumbs were done, we walked up to the park. Everyone played really nicely together. Obviously, they didn't want to leave when it was time.

Robert was running down the hill and stumbled slightly. He got up and brushed himself off. No blood, no scuffs, no worries. I gave him a little hug and then he wanted to hold my hand for a little bit. Colleen wanted to be carried, so I got her up on my shoulders. Max got envious and so he went up on Kyle's shoulders. Eventually Robert caught up with Cate and, same as before, ran ahead of us. As you can imagine, they were both disappointed when we denied them a trolley ride.

Once back at Nonna and Da's house, Nonna served ice cream and some interesting "lace" cookies she made. They were really good! We visited for a while--until about 8:40 and then we took off.

I know at one point one of the Coleman kids were sad that we were leaving and said, "don't go!" But Nonna replied, "It's okay. You'll play with them again. This will be forever!"

Amen to that!

And one other thing on July 30th...

Happy Birthday, Carl!

Happy Birthday, Colleen!

The Herkimer Peacocks Season Closer

We didn't lose our final kickball game of the season. We didn't win it either. It was a tie: 1 -1.

We started our season like the Vikings always do and went 3 - 0. But then we got cocky and ended up losing 6 straight and just never recovered. Oh well.

For our final game, win or lose, we decided to go out in a blaze of glory--me, almost literally. The theme for our final game was wig night. I can't take entire credit for the wig I wore. No, props go to my girlfriend Jessica who dug that one up from her archives. I didn't even ask...

The team was quite surprised I showed up in this number. I figured I needed to let the young ones know that I can still have a good time despite being at least five years older than the rest of them.

Credit to Ryan LeTendre (the 1-run homerun king, front and center with the balls) for our graphic team photo.

Thanks for letting the token old lady kick around a few balls for the summer...

He's still awake

It's 11:20 pm.

Oh boy...

We've been busy!

Friday night, July 25: Dance like you've never danced before
I got together with my girlfriend Shayna to see her husband's band, Series 5, and we danced all night long. I highly promote seeing this band. This photo was taken at the end of a very long night of dancing. Not drinking. Just dancing.

Saturday, July 26th: Downtown and a walk to the Lake
Kyle had to get a haircut downtown, so we all went. The kids had a snack while we waited, then we all enjoyed lunch and a bit of shopping at Macy's. Cool stuffed animals in the children's department.

yummy cookie

Is that a rat in Cate's hands?

After dinner, we went down to the lake to check out the ducks and walk on the dock...

Kyle giving Max a hand at the dock

Sunday, July 27th: Iverson Baby Baptism and a Visit with the Colemans
Sunday was a Godparents' extravaganza. The newest member of the Iverson clan, our nephew Howard Michael Iverson, was baptized at Mass. Kyle and I, along with oldest nephew Jack, are the honored Godparents. A luncheon was hosted by my parents at church.

Only my mother would arrange the meat so perfectly...

cousin Charlie and Max

Cate and cousin Nick

I can't resist holding a baby

Later on, I bopped over to Da and Nonna (Patrick and Donna) Coleman's house for a short visit and welcomed Cate, Elizabeth, Robert and Colleen Coleman as they begin a new adventure by moving from VA to live in MN. It was good to see all of them and we look forward to more fun in the future.

my goddaughter Colleen with her Pa (great-grandpa)

Time with family and friends, what could be better?

Two o'clock in the morning

It's 2:00 in the morning and I am just wrapping up some prep-work for a 9:00 meeting with the EVP of Interactive / Marketing. It's a group status to review financials, what's working / what's not, and what's coming up.

The last time I attended this meeting was six weeks ago. It was my first one. No one told me what to expect. I bombed. Terribly.

And due to various (non-work) reasons, I haven't attended another group status since.

I have spent almost 5 hours preparing for 10 minutes of fame. I really hope I get it right this time.

Presto Pesto!

This summer is the first time we've grown herbs and vegetables in our garden. I'm generally all about pretty flowers and that's it. We have cilantro, rosemary, basil, San Marzano tomatoes, fajita peppers. I feel that's pretty ambitious considering we don't cook so much and have no idea how we'll be able to use all of it.

Jen came over today and taught me how to make pesto. I had no idea how easy it would be to make something so very tasty and "gourmet-ish"? Cate even got into the action and trimmed basil, supervised the browning of the pine nuts, and pulsing the Cuisinart. We used the tiniest Cuisinart ever made, but it worked out just fine.

While we were prepping the ingredients, Jolene called, so we invited her to join us for dinner. Kyle grilled shrimp and chicken that topped our pesto and noodles. We also had more caprese salad and fresh veggies with dip. And beer bread. I know, it doesn't go with anything else, but I just felt like making it. To finish it off, we had a kid favorite--s'mores for dessert. Mmmm.

Pesto Recipe

Cate watching Jen brown the pine nuts

"Jen Squared" cooking in the kitchen

Cate pulsing the Cuisinart with one hand, covering ear with the other hand

Jen whisking the mixture

Can Max's face be any messier?

Fabulous dinner and guests

We are sitting back and feeling pretty good that our first monthly dinner evening was a success. After Max's birthday party back in April, I decided I'm still not comfortable enough with entertaining so I proposed we invite people over for dinner once a month. We are alternating the choice of who to invite. Last month's evening had to be postponed due to Kyle's hospital visit. This evening, I chose to invite Kristine and Michael Callaghan, friends of ours from church.

My intention of this evening would be an adults only affair, so my parents were kind enough to keep the kids for a sleepover. If it hadn't worked out, we would've survived, but the evening might have swirled a little more around the kids. Since the kids were not here, we were able to relax a little more and focus solely on our guests.

This was our menu...
Starter:
* Caprese salad paired with Bernard & Griffin Columbia Valley Chardonnay

Main Course:
* Pork Chops stuffed with proscuitto, pepperoni, provolone cheese and fresh basil
* Coleman roasted potatoes
* Italian grilled asparagus (brushed with an olive oil, lemon juice and garlic mixture)
* Ciabatta bread
* All paired with Saldini Pilastri Rosso Picano (an Italian red wine)

Dessert:
* Mixed berry sorbet garnished with fresh blueberries and raspberries

Overall, I think the meal pulled together nicely. The timing and pace moving from the starter to main to dessert was good. Everything from the Main Course was cooked on the grill. Each item sounds pretty impressive, but everything required five main ingredients or less (excluding seasonings) and was rich in flavor, yet simply delicious. I can't really comment whether the wine pairings were appropriate or not. Since I am a novice wine drinker, I relied on the wine guy's recommendations at the liquor store to make a selection. They tasted fine to me and the Chardonnay is completely gone.

Thanks for a lovely evening full of great conversation, Michael and Kristine. We look forward to the next time.

In August, we will be entertaining Kyle's parents and Uncle Cliff. They were to be our first guests in June, so it will be really nice to have them finally over.

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Let me know if you would like any of the recipes.

Know thyself

Today one of my fellow SNBC/kickball friends had replied to a general kickball call-out e-mail after which I sent him a one-off message inquiring how he and his "happily-pregnant-with-first-child" wife were doing. He indicated the usual stuff--wife feeling good but getting tired, swelling up in the summer, so he's helping out more, etc...

He then told me they were starting on their daycare search and asked if I had any suggestions.

I let him know how very fortunate we were to have family care for our children and gave him the name of a mutual co-worker who quite recently went through a very thorough daycare selection process and would have a ton of information to share.

In my infinite wisdom though, I thought I should send him some little parental nugget. Instead of giving him suggestions on daycare, I went this route:

So the only advice I have to give is this (and it also applies to raising your
baby and everything else down the road): each person’s opinion is just
that—opinions. Many people will try to influence you with their
perspective of how things should be and that their way is better. You do
what you feel is right for your lifestyle and your child’s needs.

I hit send.

He was kind and replied: Thanks for the advice!

I processed that for a moment, then replied back:

Ooh! And I should also warn you---I am probably the biggest offender of
sharing my opinions or offering unsolicited advice. Just tell me to shove
it anytime and I won’t be offended.

His response: HAHAHAHAHAHA

I think that was his polite way of telling me to shove it...

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One more thing: I will have you all know that the "tell me to shove it" offer is not extended to everyone who reads this (you know who you are!).

:)

A sucker evening

Okay, so things are settling down into normalcy. No more vacations or hospital stays are in our near future. So what is there to blog about? How about my evening with Mr Mischief himself, Max?

We had essentially weened Max off a pacifier prior to our trip to DC in April. But then as we were thinking about the flight, I got a little concerned that he may have ear pressure trouble in the airplane. So we decided it would be good to have the pacifier along for him to use. And it worked out really well. Problem--we didn't do an effective job cutting him off again upon our return and we really have become dependent upon the pacifier to, well uhm, pacify him when we need him to calm down. He used those bad boys a lot last week on vacation. I think we have three around somewhere. The key word in that last statement is somewhere.

This evening, Cate was a really good girl and so I let her stay up to watch a movie. Max hardly took a nap and was uber cranky. So I get him ready for bed and I'm looking in the usual places for his "sucker" as my guarantee for a quick trip to dreamland and I can't find one anywhere. So Max was not happy at all when I put him in his bed without his big sister and without his sucker. I can't tell you the number of times he has come out of the room and I have had to haul him back in. In between each coming and going, I would search around the house for one of the suckers. No luck whatsoever and these are good days where the house is perfectly tidy. Crap! I even went so far as calling Kyle during his guy's night out to see if he knew where any of the suckers might be. Fortunately for Kyle, it went to voicemail.

I got so frustrated with him constantly coming out that it took me a while to get smart--it finally occurred to me to put Max in the top bunk. Boy, was he stinking mad! He's still really apprehensive to get down on his own. So he bawled and bawled, but he has stayed up there and it's quiet now. I just hope he isn't in there pulling out all of the kleenex from Cate's kleenex box!

Photos I took while on a walk

Here are a few extra photos I took while I was out for a walk one night after dinner. This is also the same road I would run, so there's no wonder I was able to just relax and go.

Photo Highlights of our week up north

Saturday, July 5

Our Cabin

Sunday, July 6

Max and Kyle in the pool

Cate in the pool

Max watching Papa ready the fishing poles

Cate waiting for a bite on her line

Monday, July 7

Max "helping" Grandma with the green beans

Papa sharing his strawberry sundae with Max

Tuesday, July 8

Cate making easy chocolate crescent rolls (I ate a lot of them)

Tie-dye prep time

Family around the bonfire

Cate watching the bonfire from inside

Max and Cate enjoying their s'mores

Thursday, July 10

Cate fishing from the boat on the lake

Jennifer and Cate (by this time, she was "over" fishing and wanted to get back onto shore)

Papa, Cate and Grandma with Grandma's fish
Cate modeling her new tie-dye t-shirt

Cate and Jennifer in new tie-dye t-shirts

Kyle helping Max roast a marshmallow

Max, Papa and Cate

Friday, July 11

Sweet picture of Max at Itasca State Park

Cate and Nick crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi River

Cate in the Mississippi River

Max and Cate at Itasca State Park

The final sunset