Newfoundland Trip: Day 4 (Trina's Wedding)

As this post's title implies, the big highlight of Day 4, Saturday, was Trina's wedding. Marilu was out of the hotel room early since she was one of Trina's bridesmaids and had to go get dolled up as female wedding party members are wont to do. She returned sometime later, and here's a picture of Makeup Mom with Passing-Out Baby.



I had hoped to spend the morning walking around St. John's with Lucas to check out the city, but fate would not allow it, dumping a boatload of rain on the surrounding area. So I hung out in the hotel room until early afternoon and then headed up to the church with Marilu's mom and Lucas. Here's a picture of the distinguished gentleman in his finest fashions.


After the wedding, we took a family shot that turned out to be one of the best pictures of the trip. Marilu even had this one turned into a 5 x 7 so I expect to see it on some shelf or nook within the next few weeks.


Later that evening, the reception ensued, and much fun was had by all. I already mentioned that the Newfies throw a crazy wedding, and this picture with bride Trina and bridesmaid Jaime pretty much sums up the night.


Plenty more Lucas-filled pre-wedding pictures and Lucas-less reception pictures in the photo albums so check 'em out.

Lightning crashes

We had an electrical storm earlier, and it knocked out our Internet access for several hours, so unfortunately no updates today. Check back tomorrow for Day 4 of the Newfie adventure.

Newfoundland Trip: Day 3

Before I get to the trip, I'd just like to point out that Lucas has yelled so much lately that he's made himself hoarse. On one hand, you feel bad for him since he sounds so pathetic trying to cry and simply mewling, but on the other hand, the patheticness is kinda amusing. He's got an appointment with the doctor to get his shots on Thursday so if he's still hoarse then, we'll have her check him, just to make sure it's only due to his affinity for howling.

So Day 3 on "The Rock" (a nickname for Newfoundland, not the professional wrestler) was one of our few "free" days, where we didn't have much we had to do. So we took the time to see Signal Hill, a famous historical site in St. John's, and then later on in the afternoon we met up with more of Marilu's family. Suffice to say Lucas was well shown off during this trip. That was about it for that day, making Friday the least active day of the weekend.

Lucas posing with his great aunt Gail and cousin TP.



Here's a shot of the Deal family on top of Signal Hill with St. John's and the harbor in the background. Lucas was completely covered up since the wind was ridiculously strong that day. I kid you not, we're talking hurricane level. Good thing there aren't any trees up there or branches would have been a-flyin'. Immediately after this picture, Marilu brought Lucas back to the car.


For those of you who've never been to St. John's before, below is a picture of it without three people standing in front of it. You can also watch a video I took of the entrance to the harbor ("the Narrows") and a panoramic shot of the entire city by clicking here. You can really get an idea of how strong the wind was by listening to that video as well.


Not for the first time, everyone cooperated in making this a good photo except Lucas. Pictured with Marilu and Lucas are great aunt Mary and great uncle Aiden.


Sometimes when you eat too much, you just gotta unbuckle the belt and kick back...


Finally, Marilu and I returned to Signal Hill that night to check things out after dark. Here I am in front of the tower.


Whoops, almost forgot this last thing. While in the hotel, Marilu had Lucas dance for us and I caught it on video. At the end, I zoomed in on his face. Watch this video and tell me that little bugger doesn't know he's being filmed.

(Friday was the biggest day of photos during the trip--over 40--so be sure to check out the photo album for loads more)

Newfoundland Trip: Day 2

In addition to being Day 2 of the trip to Newfoundland, August 16 also marked Lucas hitting two months old. So congrats, little guy, on making it this far despite all of the horrible dangers today's media would have you believe are out there. If it's on TV, it must be true, no?

This was Day 2 in a nutshell:

• Wedding rehearsal at St. John's Basilica in, where else, St. John's
• Visiting Mt. Pearl where we met up with Marilu's Aunt Gail and cousins Melanie and TP (it just occurred to me I have no idea what TP stands for...I'm sure Tanya will chime in with the answer)
• Attending Trina's rehearsal party in Kilbride
• Returning to St. John's to crash at Melanie's fancy-schmancy condo, only a couple of blocks from George Street, apparently the center of all that is alcoholic in town (i.e., their bar district)

Wow, when you look back it, we really got around that Thursday. My boneheaded thought of the day: I saw a picture somewhere that listed all the churches in St. John's. I thought, for a fleeting second, what's with all the churches named after St. John? D'oh!

Ok, you didn't come here for the jibber-jabber, you came for the pictures so here we go. I think Lucas is trying to say something in this picture with Nan, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what.


Lucas and one of Nan's many brothers and sisters, great aunt Mair. For those of you unfamiliar with Marilu's family, her dad is one of 10 siblings (note: Marilu corrected me after reading this...it's only 8 siblings, how silly of me); her mom, 15!!! My parents had a grand total of 3 siblings combined. The Polish apparently have nothing on the Irish.


This picture is just too darned cute, and that's all I have to say about that.


Lucas and his great aunt Madonna. This was the last picture taken before heading out from Holyrood.


Lucas's first (sort of) hockey-related photo! Ok, so it's just a stylized picture of Don Cherry on a menu at the restaurant bearing his name, but it's something. Now let's just hope Lucas doesn't follow Cherry's lead and become a homer for the Leafs.


Oddly enough, this isn't the first picture of Lucas posing with a Guinness. If I was a betting man, I'd say it wasn't going to be the last either.


Lucas, if and when you read this years from now, I hope you appreciate the sheer number of hot girls that posed with you as a baby. In this case, it's Marilu's long-time friend Jaime, photographed at that night's rehearsal party at Trina and Hunter's new house.


And we wrap up the day's events with a shot of three rugrats in a row. For once, Lucas doesn't steal the show since I can't stop laughing at the kid in the middle's eyes. That said, you gotta love the little baseball outfit Lucas is sporting.

Same time tomorrow...

Newfoundland Trip: Day 1

I have lots of pictures to show you over the next week so I'll keep the narrative to a minimum. In addition to the pictures I display here, the ones that didn't make the blog "cut" will show up on the photo albums so check em out!

First up, Lucas's first picture on a plane as we prepare to leave Ottawa:


We spent Day 1 just outside of St John's in the small town of Holyrood, at the home of one of Marilu's many, many, many aunts and uncles (at least compared to me).

Lucas's first picture with Marilu's dad, who will hereafter be referred to as Poppy. If you're keeping score, my parents are Grammy and Gramps, and Marilu's are Nanny and Poppy (or Nan/Pop). Lucas looks none too happy here, but as it turned out, Poppy had a magic touch, keeping Lucas quiet and smiling most of the time.


Lucas took many pictures with extended family, the first of which follows. These are three of Marilu's second cousins, so I have no idea what that makes them to Lucas (third cousins? second cousins once removed?). Feel free to chime in if you have any idea how that works. From left to right, we have Kate holding Sara(h?), and then Emily holding Lucas. Aww, cute, ain't it?


Finally for day 1, a picture of Pop keeping Lucas entertained. Or is that vice versa?

The family is back together

Marilu and Lucas arrived back in Ottawa earlier with no incident. Apparently, Lucas was just about perfect on the flight. They've both crashed since it's been a ridiculously long day for them, but I grabbed the camera and headed downstairs with it. However, after plugging the camera into the computer, I found out that there were 278 new photos on the camera. In order not to kill myself uploading photos, I'm only going to upload a day or two at a time over the next week. So hopefully, by next weekend, they should all be up on the photo albums.

In the meantime, I wanted to start off by showing off my favorite picture of the entire trip. This was taken the last day I was there, and I basically forced Marilu's aunt to stop at McDonald's so I could get the prop for this picture. Jimmy Buffet lovers: I hope you appreciate this. (you may want to click the photo in case you can't see what I'm holding)

Fantasy Football Baby Edition

Now that I've got the minivan entry out of my system, let me move on to something more manly: football! For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been playing fantasy football, often times in more than one league each season. This year, Marilu and I thought it would be cute to create a baby league. That is, we would make a league where the teams are "owned" by our babies/toddlers. We plan to keep it pretty hand's off, meaning we'll make the draft an auto-pick by Yahoo, and the only activity we'll have each week is accounting for players on a bye week. Other than that, we'll just let fate have its way with it. This way, a decade or two down the line, Lucas can say he's been playing since he was in diapers. Whether he'd want to admit that is a whole 'nother thing.

If anybody out there is interested in joining up, send me an email or comment and I'll send you an invite. For the record, Lucas's team is named Lucasaurus Rex. :)

On the subject of cars

Last night, while surfing the Net, my mind turned to cars. Right now, we've only got one, a mighty 2003 Chevy Cavalier. Yes, truly a legend in the making. One car is all we've really needed since I live within walking distance of work, and to be honest, I don't like driving much anyway. Also, with Marilu on maternity leave for the next year, there isn't much of a reason for one until late summer/early fall 2008.

Nevertheless, I decided to look at cars for the heck of it, just to get an idea of prices. Well, in a blatant indication that my life as I know it is near an end, I looked at, yes, minivans.

Believe it or not, I'm not (that) ashamed. If I learned nothing from our trip to the airport last week, we need a vehicle with space. The stroller took up almost the entire trunk so that left only the spaces on the back seat next to Lucas for our suitcases. It would be impossible to make the trip with even one more person. So, knowing space is a major consideration in our next vehicle, that limits our options to three main types of cars: station wagons, SUVs, and minivans.

Let's face it, station wagons had their heyday in the 80s. Yeah, they still make faux, trendy station wagons but there's nothing like those wood-paneled land boats that used to be all the rage. And as far as SUVs go, anyone who knows me well probably knows that I loathe SUVs with just about every fiber of my being. I often joke that SUVs are to soccer moms what sports cars are to middle-aged guys. That is, they buy them to compensate for the lack of something else. In addition to being overly large for the sake of being overly large, they also are hell on gas mileage. I'm sorry, but I'm not a big fan of giving the Middle East any more of my money than I have to, so better gas mileage, even relatively speaking, is a key consideration for me.

So that's what led me to the minivan. There wasn't any other choice really. Besides, most of them have more interior room than a comparably priced SUV so that seals the deal for me. Since a car isn't all that important to me anymore (though I wouldn't turn down an RX-8 if anyone is feeling generous), all I want is something that is big enough, comfortable, and has plenty of ways of keeping Lucas quiet on long drives when he is a few years older. Oh yes, the flip-down TV screens will be mine. Oh yes, they will be mine.

And I've apparently rambled on about cars for way too long now. Adios!

Back!

The good news: I'm back, although it's considerably late. My plane didn't arrive into Ottawa until quarter to 1 AM. Good thing I already took tomorrow off.

The bad news: Since Marilu and the rugrat will be in Newfoundland visiting more family until Saturday, she kept the camera so all the pictures we've taken over the last half week will remain unseen until at least next weekend.

I'll be sure to add a couple of posts over the next week, talking about the vacation, since I'm very good at rambling on incessantly, but for now, it will be a picture-free zone. However, keep in mind you can always root through the photo albums!

Now I'm off to bed...

Gearing up and moving out

Our plane flight leaves at the wretched hour of 6 something AM in the morning, and we have to leave here around 4:30, so we're just getting all our last minute packing done at the moment. Before we head out for good, I wanted to get one last post in.

First of all, a picture that Marilu is most likely going to hit me for since it's not the world's most flattering shot of her. However, Lucas looks hilarious, and I suck at editing photos, even something as simple as cropping.


And finally, links to two videos that Marilu took yesterday and I just put up. If you can, download these and then view them since the downloaded files have a much better resolution than the ones that play on the photo album page. Trust me, it's worth it, given Lucas's facial expressions.

I've dubbed the first one "Happy Baby," and that's exactly what it shows. You can see it here.

The second video looks like the first one, in the beginning. But then Lucas's stroller goes over a bump and his expression quickly turns to shock and then complete and utter dismay. It's SO much funnier than it sounds. This one is easily one of top 5 favorite videos now. I've titled it "Ride of TERROR!" See it here.

The videos are taking an extraordinarily long time to transfer over so it'll be a while before all of them are up. Right now, I think I've got everything up to June 30, plus a few recent ones. The rest will go up when I get back. Since I'll have a week to myself while Marilu and Lucas trek across Newfoundland, I should (key word) be productive during that week. I can almost hear Marilu laugh as I write that sentence.

Anyway, talk to you all again on Sunday night or Monday morning!

Quite a task

Well, it turns out uploading those videos is going to take quite a while so let's just call this a work in progress. There are currently 17 videos in the folder and more will be added regularly (when I get back from Newfoundland, that is). Here's the link, and in the future, you can just click on the link on the right side of the page.

Space, glorious space!

I just shelled out $20 to Google to add 6 GB storage to my online photo albums since I within spitting distance of the 1 GB limit on the free account. In addition to having plenty of space for photos for at least the next year or so, the immediate effect is that I can upload several mini videos we've taken of Lucas in the 8 weeks of his existence. I put a bunch up initially, and there are still a few here and there, but due to size constraints, I had to remove most of them. Well, size constraints be damned, I'm putting them all back up.

Hopefully, the videos will help keep you entertained since tomorrow night, Tuesday, will be last one in Ottawa until next Monday. Marilu and I are headed out to St. John's, Newfoundland, for the wedding of one of her close friends. For those of you who know nothing about Canadian geography, check here to get an idea of just how far away from the equator I'll be. Don't worry, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of the sled dogs and igloos. :) Seriously, St. John's is supposed to be a fun town, and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

I'll post some more pics of Lucas before we leave tomorrow, but here's a couple of highlights from the past couple of days. The first is him napping away on my chest:


And here's one of the last ones the Deal men took together before my dad headed home. There was another one where Lucas wasn't in quite as much "dismay," but I gotta admit, the kid looks funny when he's all-out screaming.

This makes it all worth it

Dad's Night

I got a reprieve from the munchkin tonight since he's off with Marilu at her monthly book club. I haven't been terribly productive with my free time, basically just sitting on my butt watching a couple of episodes of Stargate SG-1 that I downloaded a while back. Oh, I did water my miserable-looking front lawn so at least there was some physical movement on my behalf.

We took some good pictures of Lucas earlier and may have even caught an elusive smile on camera. He's finally reached the point where he's smiling for reasons other than having gas. We've even found that we can get him to repeat smiles by making noises or faces at him. It's totally worth it to make a complete ass of one's self for several minutes just to get that 5 second smile. Heck, he even had what sounded like a laugh earlier, but that's probably just unbound optimism on my behalf. I'd post some of those pictures now, but Marilu has the camera so I'll have to wait until later tonight to put new pics up.

On a completely unrelated baby note, I finally got around to finishing the last Harry Potter book earlier this afternoon (whereas Marilu finished it about 4-5 days after it was released). I felt the book got really bogged down in the middle, and I'm still not all that impressed with the explanations behind various characters' motives, but all in all, it was a good series that wrapped up with quite a bang. No spoilers here, other than to say, "Wow, can you believe Soylent Green is Muggle?"

Thank you, thank you, I'll be doing obscure references all week. Be sure to tip the waitstaff!

A good week

For those keeping score, I somehow bypassed the main wave of the migraine the other night. I still had an aching head for a few hours, but it was nothing compared to how bad those things have hit in the past. I guess my body knew it couldn't just run off to bed and sleep since I was taking care of Lucas while Marilu and my dad hit the racetrack/casino. It case you're wondering, it was my own choice to stay home. For some reason, I'm the only member of my immediate family who doesn't like casinos, gambling, and other assorted "losing your money" activities.

Tonight's my dad's last night in town as he drives back to Massachusetts tomorrow, before flying home to Florida on Sunday. As always, it's been great seeing him, and I was especially happy he got to visit with Lucas. My dad's wanted a grandson (or granddaughter) for so long now, and I'm glad we were able to give him a happy, healthy one. Well, somewhat happy since Lucas has been a grump lately. My dad loves playing with babies, and it worked out well this week since Lucas had a lot of free time, and Gramps (as he'd like to be known) was able to keep him occupied. I've already mentioned to him that when Lucas is a few more years older, he'll have to make a trip down to Florida for an extended period of time. No offense to other family members, but the northern climates just don't compare to Florida. :)

Now the moment you're always waiting for...pictures! Here's Lucas's own turn in that great big hat from the last post:


Gramps has the magic touch:


Lucas had his first trip to a pub this evening. I swear, that kid is gonna like Guinness before he even has a chance to taste it. Anyway, here's proof that not all of Lucas's pictures are prize-winning:


Marilu tried three times to get a good picture of three generations of Deal men, but Lucas refused to stop looking out the window since it was bright. Apparently, bright things are magical to babies. This was the best of the lot. If you look closely, you'll see me trying to push his face forward...to no avail, of course.


Next week, we're off to St. John's, Newfoundland, for the wedding of one of Marilu's friends. In honor of the occasion, Marilu picked some new threads up for Lucas. I think you'll appreciate them:


On a personal note, I wish it was Friday night.

Oh my god! This is MY gene pool?!

Ouchie

My head is flirting with another migraine, trying to decide whether it's going to latch on or go away. The "minor loss of eyesight" that usually accompanies a migraine for me has already come and gone, so I'm now hoping the Advil I took earlier wards it off. The point of telling you all this? I want to try and get some pictures on here quick before my head sends me to bed, writhing in pain.

So early Sunday evening my dad arrived in town to see Lucas for the first time. He'll be up here until Friday so he's making the most of his time here, soaking up quality time with the grandson. Some pictures follow...

I'll let you determine which one is goofier.


You can never have too many surf board pics.


Posing with Gramps:


And finally, a picture of the extremely cute puppy shoes my dad bought for Lucas.

Long Day

Saturday was one of the longest days I've spent with Lucas so far, if not the longest. I suppose that has a double meaning. For one, I did have Lucas quite a bit that day, chronologically speaking. He spent a good part of the morning and afternoon with me, and then Marilu had a girl's night out at a local pub, so I had him throughout the evening as well. The second meaning in our puzzle is that it was a long day due to Lucas being more than a little fussy. There were some points on Saturday that I think if you were somehow able to read a baby's mind, you would peer inside his head, and there would be a sign saying, "Hey Dad! Just crying 'cause I can!" Man, that kid can scream when he wants to. Thankfully, he can also sit for some great pictures, a number of which follow.

He didn't do the greatest job at posing, but I think his shirt is a riot here:


Posing with dad, whose hair is getting unwieldy once again. Off to the barber very soon for your's truly:


And finally, not one but two shots from the "surf board" since he takes the cutest pictures on there.


"Land ho!"

Yes, you may call me lazy

It's been a few days since my last post, but I have a sure-fire excuse: 3-day weekend! If you ever need me to do something, don't make your request on or near a holiday weekend. As sloth-like as I am during an average weekend, the prospect of three days of no work makes me so giddy that I may just lapse into a coma.

What 3 day weekend, you say? You're looking at your desk calendar and thinking I'm making this up? Not so, true disbeliever. In the fine province of Ontario, on Monday we get a civic holiday. Why? According to Wikipedia, depending on where you are in Ontario, it signifies different things and goes by various names. Odd, huh? In Ottawa, it's Colonel By Day. On the ridiculously slim chance you care to know more about the good colonel, feel free to read up on him here: John By. Note that I haven't examined that webpage thoroughly so if it devolves into a lively debate of animal husbandry halfway through, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Anyway, I've just updated the photo albums with several photos, some of which will find their way to this blog shortly. Since it's after 1 AM at the moment, I'm just hitting up Friday night's pictures for now and will return to finish off Saturday and Sunday sometime tomorrow.

As one may assume, heading into a holiday weekend, Friday was an extraordinarily lazy day after I got home from work. Lucas and I can attest to this:


Afterwards, Lucas was kind enough to show off that award-winning charisma for the camera. On a related note, anyone know an easy way to get rid of red eye in these photos? Key word being "easy" since I feel like a damned caveman anytime I so much as look at the bullet list of features in Photoshop.


The thinker...


And this one makes me think that he should be playing the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland: "Off with her head!"

Words and pictures

It's been a quiet couple of days on the blog since work has been busy, leading to me to just veg out when I get home. I have taken a couple of photos, in between watching the entire first season of Dexter (imagine if the main character in CSI was a "good" serial killer and you have the basic idea of Dexter, only with infinitely better writing). Things should pick up this weekend since my dad is visiting for the better part of a week. I'm sure we'll be out and about quite a bit, and nothing says "photo opportunity" like being out of the house.

For now, here's your daily Lucas fix. I really get a kick out of this outfit. You can click on the picture to see it better, but it's basically a little pirate onesie.


This one is cute, even though it looks like he's becoming a chunky monkey.