You know it's crap.

Ok, not really, but I am asking for a little help ifs you gots the time.

The fam is a finalist in the Parenting magazine ultimate road trip contest. We are up with 9 other families for a chance to win "the ultimate family road trip vacation".

The only details they gave us so far is that it will happen sometime in February of next year (so hopefully in the southern end of the US, you know, where there will be a heck of a lot less snow) and they will also fly you out to the beginning of the road trip if you are too far from it.

Anyway, the listed value of the vacation is huge, so it could be a great experience.

The contest will be based on a tally of daily votes for each family at the end of the contest duration (which I believe will be a month or two). You do have to enter an e-mail to vote (I believe they are using this instead of ip addresses to verify unique votes), but there is a separate check box for joining their mailing list so you shouldn't be setting yourself up for any future unpleasantness.

Anyway, if you have a second or two, pop on over to:

http://www.parentingextras.com/familyroadtrip/sweeps.php

and sling us a vote. If you can remember to do it on another day as well, so much the better since each person can vote once per day. Oh yeah, for any that didn't know already, my last name is Fulmer... might help.

If you feel comfortable sharing this with any of your connections to vote for us as well, it would be much appreciated. I will keep everyone appraised as to what happens.

Wish us luck! Out.

Some stuff... and things.

Several weeks ago now I got to see the Kids in the Hall at the Palace theater. The show was awesome, they have definitely not lost their funny. If anything, the show was better than the old series used to be.
I got tickets from one of our friends at the radio station and was surprised to learn they also came with meet and greet passes for after the show. So I got to say hi to all the guys and take a picture. They were all extremely nice.

I especially like the pic of Bruce McCulloch groping me.

We finally got a Wii a couple of weeks ago which has been a lot of fun. It definitely has a different kind of video game fun to it. I wouldn't want it to be my only game console (since I still appreciate the more traditional experience as well as high def graphics of the 360), but the motion sensor play is a lot of fun.
Then we spent almost two weeks trying to get a Fit. Finally scored one when a local Toys R Us got a small shipment in on a Thursday morning and I left work immediately to grab one before they were gone.
The Fit is pretty damn cool too. I don't think I would want it to be my main source of exercise, but as a supplement to going to the gym in the morning it has been great. I've especially enjoyed the yoga stuff, since I've always been interested but never pursued it. Definitely helps with improving flexibility and balance which I am not covering at the gym.

Last night we took Gavin to Walking with Dinosaurs at Quicken arena. That was pretty cool. The dinosaur robotics were very realistic looking / acting and the largest dinosaurs were truly huge. Gavin really enjoyed it.
Had dinner and some beers beforehand at the House of Blues, which was tasty.

I think that about covers the high points... you be all caught up bitches.

I am also loving this tune.

Crystal Castles - Crimewave

Perhaps it's because I enjoyed so many video games back in the late 70's / early 80's (which is quite reminiscent of a lot of the sounds used).

Check it!

Elbow - Grounds for Divorce




Really good tune... I'm going to have to go wear it out.

Made it back from 9 days in Disney alive. I'll tell you, with a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 1/2 year old... it's definitely the kind of vacation you need another vacation to recover from. Sadly, instead I am right back to work.

Definitely had a great time and the boys did too. With almost freakish luck, we had sun all day every day. It started to rain literally as we were leaving the Magic Kingdom yesterday to head back and return the rental car.

Anyway, I am kind of fried now since we are rolling out some new tech to our truck drivers at work and I got up at 3:15 this morning (or last night, depending how you look at it) to make it here by 4:30am, so I will keep this short.

Pics so far...

This set is arriving at our resort on Sunday the 20th then going to the Magic Kingdom.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dawnlf/DisneyMagicKingdom

These are going to the newly renamed Disney Hollywood Studios in the morning, the resort pool in the afternoon and a few back at the Magic Kingdom that evening.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dawnlf/DisneyMonday

This set is Epcot all day. Later that afternoon, my parents, aunt and grandmother arrived (the family wanted to share in the boys first Disney trip). No, they weren't staying with us or anything... do you think I'm insane?

http://picasaweb.google.com/dawnlf/DisneyTuesday

Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning and back to the Magic Kingdom for the pirate and princess party in the evening.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dawnlf/DisneyWednesday

Last, we took Gavin to Universal Studios on Thursday. We wanted him to see all the superheroes as well as the Dr. Seuss area there. Definitely very cool. I will always make a day or two for Universal in the future when we spend a week at Disney.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dawnlf/UniversalThursday

Hopefully this is vaguely coherent. Man, I am sleepy.

Later...

New LiveJournal rocks! I started this entry like 3 weeks ago, then something happened at work and I ended up closing the web page. I log in today and it says, "Do you want to restore your last entry?" and here it is. Sweet.

I think illnesses are finally done running roughshod through our household. I think...

The boys have given me 3 different colds since Christmas and most recently an awesome bout of the flu (I'm blaming the little bastards 'cause they're always sick first).

Lets see, last weekend in a rarity so rare that it would indeed bleed copiously if cut open on your plate, we went out twice.

That's right. You heard me.

Twice.

Friday we went out for a friends birthday and had dinner and a respectable amount of drinks (at a couple of f

...and that was all I had, but allow me to quickly finish up.

at a couple of f

Huh... a couple of f... not sure what I was going to say there, but I know we went to a couple of different places that night.
Then Saturday night we met two couples for dinner and drinks at a great Mexican place. Blah, blah, blah, I'm sure it was awesome, but frankly it was a while ago and I don't care as much now. Still, cool that the draft was auto saved.

Anyway, we are taking the boys down to Disney World for eight days on Sunday, so I am excited for that. It will cool to see Gavin's reactions to everything and of course at 1 and a half Bryce will just have fun running around.

So I will be away 'til next week, but I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures when we get back.

Later...

before I forget yet again.

I'm not really sure whether this story says I'm letting Gavin play too many video games or whether it's just a bizarre statement on how increasing technology is changing the culture we raise our kids in (I suspect it's the former).

So back on Super Bowl Sunday, Gavin's in the bath and says to my wife, that he has to get out because the football game is going to start. She's getting him out and says to me, "Did you say something to him about the game, 'cause he's asking to get out so he doesn't miss it."

I said no, and for those that may not be sure, allow me to reiterate that neither myself or Dawn are in any way "sports fans", so it's not like we've pumped him up for this ahead of time. Strange enough in and of itself. Anyway, we do turn the Super Bowl on just to see the commercials and at least be aware of the score if nothing else. So Gavin comes out on the couch with me and as the kick off starts the game he says, "So which controller is it?" as he grabs one of the Xbox 360 controllers off the mantel. I look at him blankly, understandably confused as he sits down with the controller in his hand. "Is this the controller for the game?", he asks again.

It dawns on me what he's talking about and I say, "No kiddo, it's not a game that we can control, it's real people playing a game on tv." We argue back and forth as he fails to come to grips with the situation (which I think speaks something of the increasingly realistic graphics of the next-gen systems on hi-def tv, but that's neither here nor there). Finally the closest he can come to getting it is, "So, it's like a demo?".
Seeing this is as close as I'm going to come to explaining this, I conede, "Sure... it's like a demo. They're playing the game, but we can't control what they do." Shortly after this, he lost interest in the game and went about playing with some toys.

One other amusing, but completely unrelated point.

Last weekend we were in the car going to the mall I believe and I had turned on my indie rock station Left of Center. Most of the time in the car we listen to Kid Stuff, the Sirius channel that is all kids music, which isn't terrible, if somewhat repetitive.
At any rate, it's a Left of Sessions live set by Kate Nash and I'm all tweaked, so I keep it on. She goes through Foundations, which is good then launches into an acoustic version of Dickhead.
As she sings sweetly over strummed guitar,
"Why are you being a dickhead for
Stop being a dickhead
Why are you being a dickhead for
You're just fucking up situations"

Dawn looks over at me and says, "I don't think this is Kid Stuff."
I figure when the oldest is 3 and change you can still get away with a certain amount of cursing that slips through their radar unnoticed, which is generally true.
"Alright." I grudgingly conceded and switched the channel.

Oh well.

I've been meaning to post about finishing the last issue of Y the Last Man.

I thought it was quite good. A satisfying ending. Certainly not what I expected, but I knew there would be no huge revelations at this point, I was just looking for a decent wrap up. I definitely felt more satisfied than I did with the pat, exactly-what-you-would-expect wrap up of the Harry Potter series.
All in all, one of the best series runs in comics.

Brian K Vaughn's other pre-determined 5 year run comic Ex Machina is also superb, but in a completely different vein. Much more West Wing meets X Files, with a touch of superhero.

At any rate, I was sad to see Y end. It was a very well written series where every issue was entertaining.

Other than that... Gavin has been taking ice skating lessons, and he's finally able to move without holding on to someone's hand now, so that's cool.

We are taking the boys down to Disney World this spring, so as tax money and the yearly bonus check rolls in shortly, the planning for that will kick into overdrive.

That's about all I've got for now.

We took the kids to an indoor waterpark at the end of last week (Dawn had a free two night stay certificate from work that was going to expire). It was actually pretty fun and of course the guys had a good time. It was Great Wolf Lodge which is a chain waterpark/resort. The "great white north log cabin lodge" decor is not my favorite, but you're really there for the waterpark anyway.

Here's a link to the pics (ignore some of the ones where Dawn had accidentally turned the flash off, apparently she just uploaded them all to picasa without editing).

Other than that, Dawn started a new job this week. Clear Channel has basically done away with all their promotions staff, so she was "downsized" out of a job over the holidays. Luckily she was given a ton of severance pay which allowed her to stay home with the boys over the holidays and gear up the job search afterward. She is now handling the marketing/promotions/advertising for a local (non-chain) fitness club.

Things are going quite well and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Out.

I think the thing that has been stopping me from posting is that I always like to include pics in my post... and all the tweaking, cropping, shrinking, et al tends to be a pain in the ass. So now in the interest of just posting, I shall embrace the freedom of text only.

Woo.

Anyway, Christmas was great. Gavin was old enough this year to be anticipating the holiday and Bryce is at that fun age of running around and playing with toys, so it all added up to good stuff.

We got Gavin this ridiculous 8' x 8' inflatable bouncer as the big Christmas morning surprise, and surprised he was! We inflated it in the living room (it comes with it's own electric blower, so it goes up and down easily) and he freaked when he came out of his bedroom.

Other good things... finally sold the old rear projection tv and got a new 50" plasma, which is the awesome. Of course, after that I had to take my Christmas gift cards and put them towards a next gen gaming system that would take advantage of the high def and 16:9 (both of which we had on the old set, but sweet baby Jesus, is the plasma brighter and more vivid than rear projection sets).

So my choices were 360 or Playstation 3, and since money is always an issue, I went 360. It has been phenomenal. I picked up Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Gavin and I have been happily whoopin' bad guy ass for days.

Boys have been real good. Gavin has started ice skating lessons (Dawn's family is big into hockey) and he will be starting a 2 day a week preschool tomorrow. Bryce has been walking since he was 10 months, so he can run decently at this point (14 months). No real words yet though, maybe a little mama... but it's hard to say if he's saying it on purpose or not.

Anyway, there. I've got the update ball rolling now. Let's see if we can keep it up.