Our Lionel Town

Josh and I took a ride over to Glen's train shop over in Akron yesterday and bought a few accessories for his (our) train. It almost seems like one would need to open up a home equity loan to buy some of this stuff...and as it is turning out...the locomotive is the cheap part of this hobby. Josh had some Christmas money that he was wanting to spend, so he picked out the gray/blue country house, the Harley Davidson billboard, a couple of extra 8" tracks, and some people to populate his town. With the little guys being $25, the billboard $35, and the house $30...he went through his dough pretty quick. I had wanted to get some trees for the layout, but this particular shop doesn't carry them. Oh yeah...a typical 6" tree will run you about $15.

As I conveyed to Josh...and myself...this will be a hobby or ours that we can add pieces slowly over time, as the cash flow permits. The old black water tower and coal station are both from my collection as a kid (Josh doesn't know that yet...) The grass mat came just today, so with Josh off at a buddy's house for a sleepover and Sarah Kay snoozing away upstairs...I meticulously disassembled everything to lay the landscaping mat. It would have been a whole lot easier had this come prior to Santa's arrival last week, but the postal system didn't exactly cooperate.

Our next investment- next to the trees of course- is a trestle-bridge. Donations can be sent over to Barberton for anyone who would like to buy some stock in this layout.

After what seemed like months of hiding gifts and anticipating Christmas morning with the kids...the New Year is almost here. 2009 sounds so weird- especially considering that I was born way back in the 60's...ouch!

Ironically, Marie was the first one up, followed by her brother. After watching the older two stare at the tree for what seemed like hours, I meandered upstairs to wake the two year-old. I figured redemption was in order for all her past early morning arousals. At first, she wanted nothing to do with leaving her warm bed, but as soon as I mentioned the Santa word, little Sarah Kay jumped out and scooted down the hallway to see what he had left her under the tree.

Saying for months that she simply wanted a dolly for Christmas, I don't think she was disappointed as she opened her packages, complete with a high chair, baby doll accouterments, and a bunch of other toys that I don't even remember buying.

Josh was totally pumped when he and Marie opened up their Playstation Rock Band. I gotta tell ya...this is one addicting game. I've never been a big fan of Nirvanna, the Clash, and Weezer, but jammin' on their songs with this is nothing short of awesome. Both Josh and Marie prefer to play the drums, and I'm definitely hooked on the guitar, with little Sarah Kay leading the way on vocals.

Being a HUGE fan of my beloved Cavs (not sure when she got that from), Marie was pretty excited to get an autographed photo plaque of her favorite player, Boobie Gibson, who she'll get to see in person as we're also going to see them play this afternoon at the Q. The teenager is also an official member of the 24 fan club, complete with an array of 24 gifts...including a poster of the none other than Jack Bauer.

With all the packages opened, Josh found a letter under the tree addressed to him. It read that there was a special present for him and his daddy waiting downstairs...the Lionel train. This was the one gift this year that I was most excited about giving to my son. Having had one myself- given to me by Santa for Christmas when I too was 7- I had assembled it all for him the night before, combining the new set with some of my old cars and accessories. Thanks to Scott who had delivered the plywood a few days prior, the train was all set to go as Josh ran down the stairs to see what "the special gift" was. He and I are planning on heading over to Glen's train shop later this week to get a few more buildings; I'm waiting for the landscaping cover to arrive any day now, so I'll definitely post "updated pics" of the train as we add to our layout.

After playing for the Christmas Eve services at the Chapel, we headed down to Marietta the following morning to spend the day with Cindy's folks, and then had Christmas #3 with mine on Friday.

Baby Blues

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So I just got this new toy...no, not the kid...I've had him for quite a while now. But Santa came early and left me a Canon PowerShot SX100 the other day.

I've been wanting to get a new camera for a long time now, and I figured the arrival of the holidays would be an opportune time. I constantly was battling red eye and blurriness with the old one. I am so impressed with the zoom feature on the Canon. I think I took this photo about 25 feet from the little guy...not to mention, the camera is also equipped to take true night shots as well as landscape settings and video clips. The manual is about 100 pages, so I've got a little homework to do between now and Christmas morning...gotta be ready for the kiddos.

This pretty much sums up my disdain for the Yanks, who once again, were big winners at the winter meetings. We'll see if it pays off for them in October...hopefully not!

Varejao Wig Night at the "Q"

Leading the way with 17 points, Andy Varejao- along with the rest of the Cavs- destroyed the Pacers last night. This team is frighteningly good...and I have big time expectations for them to compete for the championship this year.

After chowing down at Quaker State and Lube, Marie and I donned the wigs right before we headed to our seats...fun evening!

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