Jul 31 2018

Long time coming …

Tag: Computers and Electronics,Family,General,PaulPaul C. @ 3:53 pm

This site is going offline. My hosting provider raised the monthly rate from $7.99 a month to $13.99 a month. I will consider bringing it back online and hosting it from home, but for now, PaulandEmily.com is going offline – that includes the Gallery pages as well. I have everything downloaded and backed up, but who knows when I will have time to restore it all to a new server. The gallery especially is really old software so getting it to run on a modern operating system may not be feasible or doable.
So probably sometime in august 2018, this site will “go dark”.
-pc


Sep 21 2014

Weekend Roundup

Tag: Cars,PaulPaul C. @ 10:45 pm

Well hello there, and welcome back.
So this weekend was busy and fun. Emily had a church event Friday night and I hung out at home with the kids. Saturday, I ran my 2nd 5k race, and almost took a minute off my time, running just over a 9 minute split for each leg. The race was mostly flat, so that may be why – but I am training for a thanksgiving day 10k race, so I will take what I can get :).
I am training with Tri-State Running on Tuesday and Saturday with some scheduled off-day training on my own. Not sure I am ready for a 10k, but I am going to try! Saturday night we took the kids to one of the local Catholic church festivals. It has some really great rides and they had a fun time.
Sunday was church and then I came home and cut the front yard and side yard, and had a neighbor stop by interested in the Jetta. Their son is getting his license and really wants a manual transmission car. Just shy of a year ago, I found a note on the Jetta from someone letting me know they really liked it and was curious if I was selling it. Then this past spring, this same teen stopped by after I got off work asking questions about it, so it has been on his mind for a while. I let his dad know what was wrong with it (ebrake cables, AC died in July, etc) and they are considering. I’ll miss it, Here is the blog post from when I bought it. It has been a very reliable car for me and I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to pass it on.
We have quite a bit of exciting stuff coming up so I will make sure to post on that stuff.
update – Sorry about the closed comments. A WordPress update turned them off by default. Will try to fix that.
–PC


Dec 04 2012

November and December

So for Thanksgiving this year, we did something that Emily has never done in her whole life – we went to her dad and Colleen’s house in NY. Normally we bounce between St. Louis at my Mom’s and staying in Cinci with family coming into town. It was a long long trip, but quite fun! The weather held out until the very last day. We took a few pics, although we should have taken more (Emily’s dad took some so we will get a copy of those):

We left the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving and stayed in a hotel north of Erie, PA. It was Lillian’s first time staying in a hotel and she was NOT interested in going to sleep..at 1145pm. I rocked her until around 130am and she finally went to sleep.

We did the usual camp stuff – walked in the woods, road the four wheelers, etc. We got to visit with Emily’s Uncle Bob (a car enthusiast – Audi TT RS, so I got some car talk in) and Aunt Sue. Thanksgiving was delicious – stuffing with sausage in it? YUM! While we were up there, My good friend from college, Adam B. and his wife Kim drove up to visit friday – saturday. Haven’t seem him in years and it was our first time meeting Kim.

I also tried a local vodka made in Lake Placid, NY by Lake Placid Spirits called P3. This is bar-none the smoothest vodka I have ever had. So much so that when I poured it in a glass over ice, Emily actually asked me if I had watered it down! The final filtration process uses garnet! they have another vodka called 46 peaks that is filtered over diamonds. Only problem – its ONLY sold in New York!

Big thanks to my mom for lending us the Orange Honda Element for the trip!!

I flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul for my birthday this year to spend with Sean. Again, didn’t take many photos, but there will be other opportunities. We hung around his apartment a lot (because I had to work πŸ™ )but we got out to the Mall of America, Best Buy Corp offices, I at a Juicy Lucy called Spanish Fly (Yum!), went to the mill district and took some photos, and we had our Birthday dinner at Manny’s Chophouse (where the maitre’d called Sean … my …”partner”. what? business partner right? hmmm). I made a small album of the photos taken. Most are from the mill district that has some “ruins” from the original mill infrastructure from the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s. Photos are not in any order because we took some with my cell phone using both normal and HDR mode; and others with my camera (well, Sean took most of those). Gallery:

We are doing Christmas in Cinci this year and I think My mom, Megan (and matt?), and Sean are coming down for that. I don’t think I have seen Megan and Matt since Christmas last year! Crazy! Will get pics up when that rolls around.


Nov 16 2010

MORE pictures…and a Thanks!

Tag: Family,Lillian,PaulPaul C. @ 4:25 pm

I know I know – Emily and I have been poor fan club managers of the Lily and Sean Fan Club. I am back in the office full time now and since Emily has me out of her hair during the day, she finally got to edit some pictures πŸ™‚
Lily is doing very well – she was back to her birth weight within 5 days or so of being home. She is doing well with her feedings (every 3 hours or so) and sleeping. Emily is gracious enough to let me sleep most of the night, only requiring me to bear hug Lily once in a while (she passes out when I hold her).
A big thank you to my sister, Megan for knitting some of the cutest booties and little hat for Lily (Emily calls her Lily Bug so it s a perfect match!):


The rest of the photos can be viewed in the Gallery
Thanksgiving is coming up and Megan and Mom are coming down for that. They are going to head back to STL on Friday and then Emily’s dad and step-mom are coming down on Saturday for a longish weekend. Ought to be a lot of fun and plenty of photo-ops! And then shortly after that…I’ll turn the big 3-5! EEP!!

(if you need my address for gifts, please let me know – i keeeed i keeed πŸ™‚ )


Aug 04 2010

Project Time! (aka – how to make your wife mad)

Tag: Cars,Fun,General,PaulPaul C. @ 3:49 pm

So a few months ago (yeah..and I’m just getting around to posting this…shows how fast the project is moving), I bought a 1987 Mitsubishi Montero 2 door. For those that don’t know, is the car I had in college. It was the car I had my first stereo system in (thanks Kurt) and the car I had when I met Emily. I loved it. Took it off road, road trips, trips down south (beer run for non-Murray State folks). It started having some engine trouble and the Auffenburg Mitsubishi dealer told us the head was bad and would need to be replaced for a couple thousand bucks. My parents sold it to a friend of my sisters for $300 and he fixed with plugs and wires.

Ever since then, I’ve wanted another. I finally found one in Ohio. It was in okay shape for a 30+ year old truck and definitely fits the “project” status it has been given. It currently isn’t running though. After poking around the engine bay, it looks like the previous owner replaced all the obvious stuff – plugs, wires, rotor, cap, and even the coil and carburetor.

After buying it, I found *another* that did run, but its body and frame is in really bad shape (as in there basically isn’t a rear passenger frame rail). I got it for a steal to use as a parts truck and the guy had a barn full of of spare parts. I chucked a good portion of them though – who needs six passenger tail lights??

So anyway, that’s that. My goal this summer is to at least get it running (or at least firing!), and barring that, get any bad rust spots coated with rust kill, primer, etc. to stop it. I’m probably in over my head…but hey – we didn’t use the garage anyway, right?? Hopefully I’ll be able to find some time to work on it after baby #2 gets here in November!

Here’s a shot of the Montero sleeping and a link to the other photos:


Aug 04 2010

Where’s my head?

Tag: baby2,Emily,Family,General,PaulPaul C. @ 3:24 pm

Em and I were talking the other night and we realized we never made an official announcement about the name of baby 2.0. (or is it 1.6 since we have three months to go?).
We toyed about it for a very long time – wanting to have a first name from one side of the family and a middle name from the other. We did easily agree on the last name, however.
So – we decided on Lillian Catherine. Lillian is from my side of the family (I think from my dads?) and Catherine is Emily’s sister.


Apr 13 2010

Lots going on.

Tag: General,Paul,SeanAndrew,The HousePaul C. @ 10:45 pm

Emily and I finally got our taxes done this past weekend and now we are springing for a temprapedic mattress. We’ve slept on a few of those foam mattresses (on a cruise and at the local Episcopal diocese camp) before and really liked them. Now that Emily is pregnant, we need something more comfortable for her (and me?) to sleep on. Our current mattress is only 5 or 6 years old but it is super uncomfortable. We are getting it delivered on Saturday and I (we) are SO looking forward to it.
I’ve picked up three new projects for the summer. I am determined to get the garden we started last summer finished to some point – meaning its not some walled of dirt lot that its been:) The second project is to restore the grass in a number of spots in the yard that have become barren due to shade or poor soil. The third…and my most ambitious…is a truck. When I was at Murray State, my folks got me an 87 Mitsubishi Montero 2 door – the sport model (top o the line). We bought it from a guy on base from the “Lemon lot”. It was my first car I didn’t have to share and I loved it. I met Emily when I had the truck, installed my first stereo thanks to Kurt, and many other fond memories. So I bought another. I’ve scoured the net for years to find one…one that wasn’t way overpriced that is.
The problem with an 80’s truck is rust and carburetors. Both of which this truck has problems with. I am dealing with the rust with a wire brush, evap-o-rust, primer and other fun stuff, but I’ve only ever worked on fuel injected cars so this is new to me. I’m in no hurry – but next winter would be nice πŸ™‚ Emily is a very patient wife…because I bought a second one for dirt cheap – it is a rust bucket but came with a boat load of parts and extras that I can use to rebuild my project truck.
Sean has been potty training for a number of weeks now and its going slowly. Some weeks he is spot on and we think things are turning around, then the terrible twos turn their head and he fights tooth and nail. He’ll learn eventually and we are proud of everything else he does.
Lots of stuff coming up in the next couple months so I’ll make sure to keep everyone updated!
–pc


Aug 13 2009

So what has Paul been up to?

I’ve been really busy lately with work, travel, being a dad, husband, etc and haven’t really posted anything significant in a while. So what have I been up to?
Last month, I took a long weekend trip and flew to Seattle to visit Sean and Tim and Bridgette’s family, and go to a Mighty Mighty Bosstone’s concert (YAH!). While in Seattle, Sean and I visited one of my co-workers, Debbie, at her parent’s cafe – Chelan Cafe. Its a great place with AWESOME food. On our way out to the cafe, we drove by an import dealership and saw this parked on the street:

Its a VERY rare BMW M1 and it was in awesome shape. In the sun, you could see the carbon fiber reflecting back under the pearlescent paint.
So after our brunch at Chelan Cafe, Sean and I got on the road for our drive to Portland, OR, to visit Corey, Aija, and their newborn daughter Zora. I haven’t seen Corey and Aija since Stephen’s wedding, and have never been to Portland. on the way up, we passed this weird sculpture:

Its a very pretty city. We had some good meals there (especially lunch the next day!) and hanging out with old friends made the weekend worthwhile.

While in Seattle, I got to hang out with Tim, Bridgette, Rylee and Tyler. Turns out Rylee and Brig are big fans of So You Think You Can Dance, which is my anti-masculine guilty pleasure TV Show that Emily got me addicted to. Rylee LOVES the show. She knows every name, dance style, choreographer, etc of every person on the show. The three of us watch the show while Sean and Tim played some PS3 game πŸ™‚
I got to swim in the Snohomish (?) river. The river was VERY high and the curretn was so strong that sean and I couldn’t get more than 10 or 15 feet from the bank without getting a chance of us getting swept away. A great public park..things you just don’t see in this area. Another thing that was great? I actually got to see the sun shine in the Pac NW. The three or four times I’ve been up there, its always rained (surprise!).
So the last night there, Sean, Tim, and I went to see my all time favorite band, The Might Mighty Bosstones. They got back together and this was the main purpose of my trip – to see them again. Of all the concerts I have been to, I”ve seen them the most. I think this was my 5th or 6th time seeing them. This show did not let me down. I’ll post some video and photos (ala cell phone so not great…) at a later time.

So fast forward to a week or so ago. For Father’s day, Emily got me a gift cert for Boi na Braza (sp?), a Brazillian steakhouse in Cincinnati. For those not familiar, these places charge a flat rate and you get a pretty decent salad bar. Also, they have waiters walking around with 15 different cuts of meat – sirloin, lamb chops, chicken breasts, filet mignon, and plenty of others. It was amazing. While NOT cheap, one of the things Emily and I enjoyed the most was the personal time. The wait staff doesn’t bother you. Because you let them know when you want more food, they basically stay away from your table unless you need a refill on your beverage. We had a great time talking all night without some person interrupting us to see if we wanted to buy something else. And MANY thanks to Aunt SheShe for watching Sean so we could have some time out. Oh..and the deserts are freaking great too! I love a perfectly cooked flan. Their wine list is pretty decent also. We had a nice pinot grigio.

Coming soon – my twin brother Sean is flying in from Seattle for a visit over Labor Day weekend. When he is here, my mom, Megan, and Megan’s boyfriend Matt, plan on coming down and we are hoping to see Stephen and Amy as well. (Little) Sean is going to have a BLAST!

Tonight, I gave Sean one of my die-cast cars. Its a Porsche that I got when I was in the 8th or 9th grade as a Christmas present from (I think) my grandmother’s brother, my Uncle Jack McNaughton (the Scottish side!). Sean LOVED it. Its bright orange. When Emily picked him up to take him to bed he cried. He wanted his car! So she gave it to him and carried him upstairs. Up in his room, she tried to get him to put it down on his dresser so they could get ready for bed. He wanted nothing to do with that. He was hugging and snuggling her…while hugging and snuggling his new car!! I knew I loved this kid for a reason!!

Can’t wait to see what happens when he finds out I have 20 or 30 diecast cars in storage πŸ˜‰ He likes that orange Porsche 959 so much he may go into overdrive if sees the others! πŸ™‚

Last night Uncle Phillip and Gramma got back from their trip to the Cabin and NYC and Phillip brought Sean back a present! Sean is now the proud owner of some Air Jordans!

He thought they were so cool. He is wearing them to “school” today. Phillip has a matching pair so we’ll have to get a photo of them wearing them together. He is in size sixes now, and when he gets to size sevens he gets to wear his Chucks that Megan and Matt got him πŸ™‚

Links for the various galleries related to the posts above:


Seattle Trip:

Sean’s new car:


Jun 04 2009

New stuff

Tag: Emily,Family,Paul,SeanAndrewEmily @ 6:19 pm

I really need to update on the cute new stuff Sean is doing more often. Here’s what he’s been doing in the last few days/weeks:
-Sean got a new tooth this past weekend, his 5th, it’s the top left one next to the front teeth.
-Sean is clearly saying Hi (eyeee) and Bye (BuhBuh) while waving to people. He’s always waved, but now has put together saying hi or bye at the appropriate time.
-He’s starting to put an “S” on the end of his yes. He used to say “ayah” for yes, now he says “ayah…..s” so cute.
-He’s really like cars now, he’ll drive them all over the floor going “MmmmMMmmm” πŸ™‚ His daddy loves this one
-Whenever he passes by a picture of me or paul he points to us and says “Mama” or “Dada” He is so proud that he knows who people are πŸ™‚
-Sean is eating really well with a fork/spoon now. He can get food on them and most of the time make it to his mouth.
-Sean’s legs are finally long enough to propel himself on his ride-on toys!
-Sean’s Oma and Opa got him a puzzle for 2 year olds and up. It’s a wooden one with animal pieces. He’s mastered it and can complete it in about 2 minutes.
-Sean’s current obsessions are books and dancing. Loves both. Today we danced for about 10 minutes in the kitchen; he loves to hold my hand while he turns underneath it in a circle. We also read about 10 books about 4 times each when he got home. He likes to read every book he has downstairs, every day.
-My mom got Sean one of those old fashioned “popper” toys that you pull/push along. He will go around and around the rooms of the downstairs running with that thing. He loves it.
-Last but not least, Sean has taken after his “UmBye” with his adoration of ketchup. Sean will eat just about anything if it has ketchup on it. He goes nuts when he sees it in the fridge. So cute.

That’s about all the new stuff I can think of for now. I’ll try to update more often, as I know that everyone who doesn’t see him on a daily basis loves to know how he’s doing.

Also…I cant’ forget to wish Um-Bye (Brian) and SheShe (Ashley) a happy 2nd anniversary, and Philip (fi) a big congratulations on graduating high school last night!


May 06 2009

Make some awesome food at home

Tag: food,Fun,PaulPaul C. @ 10:26 pm

I’m a big fan of Asian food – I love sticky white rice. Emily bought me a rice cooker a few years ago as a present. We used it often, but got tired of the recipes we used that it kind of fell by the way side.
Emily and I were at one of our local grocery stores and came across a powder mix for General Tso’s chicken. It was produced by a subsidary company of Williams Foods, called Sunbird. We tried it and loved it. After that we tried the Honey Sesame Chicken and Mongolian Beef packets.
Basically, these packets are the spices and flavoring – you still add soy sauce, beef/chicken, veggies (GASP – yes paul adds veggies like green onions, spinach, and been sprouts!), rice and any other favorites you like in your Asian cuisine.
They are an inexpensive way to make your dinner night interesting – its a great home cooked meal but tastes just like (or better!) something you could get from your favorite Chinese restaurant.
For any of the single guys out there, these could give you the edge for an “exotic” dinner prepared at home!


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