The New Firepit Patio

Been working in the yard for the last few weeks on a replacement for our old "firepit patio". The "before" pictures are pretty depressing so I tore that old flagstone patio out. I finally got it to a point this past weeked where it didn't look like a bunch of mud and dirt. Should be entirely done in another 2-3 weeks. Then, lay out some Adirondack chairs, chill, and serve... 

Al Meets Annika

Strange when you have to fly 2500 miles and meet your very first granddaughter for the very first time when she's already two months old. That's what I did last weekend with Kid #2's kid... Would that be Kid #2.1? 

I'm not sure what to say here. There are lots of people much more eloquent than I. All I know is tears were welling up. After two months of worrying about being called a "Grampa", I met young Annika Elizabeth, and well, what they call me doesn't really matter now does it?

This shot was taken about two minutes after I met her.

Presque Isle

Presque Isle State Park. A little finger-shaped peninsula off the coast of Erie, PA. We were up there for the weekend recently for Kid #4 to play a little AAU basketball. Good weekend of hoops. Won two games. Lost one at the wire by only three points. After the tournament we decided to check out Lake Erie and Presque Isle. The day was a little grey, but you could see how the park would be very nice on a sunny Spring day. Here's a shot of the kids goofing around.

Baby Annika and Auntie

Hot off the press, this pic from Kid #1 of her and her new neice, Annika.

It's a Girl!!!

Welcome to the world!

Annika Elizabeth Champagne

7 lbs. 7 oz.

Wow... That was close.

One of our trees took a fall in a strong storm recently. Fortunately, there was no property damage nor injury. The tree went down in the middle of the night and ended up leaning against our neighbor's house. Must have just been blown slowly over until the rootball came out and the tree just gently leaned against their house. Lot of damage around PIttsburgh that night. News reporters were all over the place with reports of downed trees and power lines. The commute in to work was a mess with all of the lights out. Actually, I got up and left for work early and cruised all the way in to work since most of the lights were out and traffic was very light. Our tree did make the front page of our local neighborhood newspaper. Here's the shot they ran on the front page. The neighbor kids are chekcing out the situation.

Anyway... Not my favorite tree...

Christmas Day Hoops

Our family spent the holiday break in sunny Southern California visiting with family and friends. One of the highlights was being able to watch the Lakers-Celtics game on Christmas day. TK's brother Tom was able to score us some tickets to his company's suite. Food, beer and good basketball. Unfortunately the Celtics lost, but it was one heck of a game. Here's a shot of Jake and I hanging out with Magic before the game.

Laurel Caverns

  So we shoot down towards Uniontown, PA to check out the Laurel Caverns (a 435 acre geological park featuring Pennsylvania's largest cave. It is located just fifty miles south of Pittsburgh, off Route 40, east of Uniontown). We head out early for our 10AM start time. The trip is roughly a roundtrip of two miles to the bottom of the cave and then back up. A highlight of the trip is the "Mail Slot" a 50 foot long tunnel about the width of my shoulders. And, oh yeah, there's a small creek running through the tunnel. If you're even a little bit claustrophobic you better take the sissy way around this tunnel. I was one proud Papa as we all shimmied our way through that tunnel led by Kid #2 -- who can do just about anything.

Kid #1 and #2 Visit From Cali

Had a rare but nice visit from Kids #1 and #2 recently. Just a quick long-weekend trip (Thursday to Monday). We wanted to make the most of their time here so we planned several cool events. One of which was to go watch a Pitt football game. Pitt plays their games at Heinz Field in downtown Pittsburgh. We hopped into my truck for the 15 minute ride downtown and then jumped on board the Gateway Clipper to head across the river to the game. It was a good game. Pitt won. We scored tickets for about $10 apiece, and sat up in the nosebleed section. A beautiful night in Steel City.

FDOS 2008

Wow... First day of school already. The summer sure went by quickly. (And, actually the first four weeks of school have gone by quickly based on the timeliness of this post...).

Anyway, here are the obligatory annual shots of both kids on their first day. Kid #3 spent the night with a friend so poor #4 had to get ready all by himself in the morning -- and take a loner picture. I think that's a first for us. Kid #3 came home with said friend and took their picture after school. Amazing how quickly they grow up. We'll be sending them off to college in no time...

Pirates Baseball

Good Neighbor Nick is in town visiting from H-town, CA. This is his first time out to the 'Burgh so we decided to take in a baseball game. Kid #4 was interested so invited one of his buddies. Guys day at the ballpark. To make it easy we decided to take the 20-minute trolley (light rail system) ride  to Station Square near downtown. Once there we hopped on the Gateway Clipper for the short ride across the river to be dropped off directly in front of PNC Park. After the game, we hopped back onto the boat for the ride back to Station Square and dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. A good time was had by all... a beautiful day... and boy did I get sunburned...

Big Change - Update

The hint is in this picture... The tall building in the background is the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. Some of you already know this, but I recently accepted a job at the university and now work in that building. I'm only on the 7th floor so I don't have a spectacular view but it's still pretty cool stuff. Little known factoid: That building is the second tallest educational building in the world and has 2529 windows (two of which are in my office). For more info, go here.