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Last week, Emily took Sean up to New York for some grand parent time. Diana was back in town from her trip to Europe with Philip and Phil came up. Of course, Oma and Opa (sure..i probably mispelled that) were there as well.
I had the weekend off and took advantage of that to do some yard work, clean out the garage, watch a couple movies, and hang out with my buddy Jim.
So, I didn’t really see much of Sean after Thursday last week. Emily left on Friday morning with Sean. Monday she called me at work, and got my “permission” to let Sean stay with the grandparents and Aunt Cate for the next couple days until Diana came home on Wednesday. Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed. Emily and I took advantage of those couple days to catch up and eat at John Philips (see previous post!) and watch Vantage (disa)Point.
We picked up Sean on Wednesday evening, after a massive plane delay (Thanks Comair!). Man…I swear this kid is growing faster than my lawn Especially when I look at pics like this:

I’ll bet he’ll be crawling in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
Tonight, Emily went to bed early and Sean woke himself up…I suspect after a bad dream. I SWEAR he was saying “mama mama mama mama” when he was crying. It was VERY distinctive. So much for my hours of whispering “dada” into his ear”.
I should probably get to bed. Its been a very long week.
-pc

Our family has always been a Jeff Ruby’s restaurant fan club. The steaks (Ruby’s Gem or Collinsworth anyone?) are to DIE for. Its about the only place you will see me order a salad ( A Freddy…no tomato, no dressing thanks) and king crab legs too. Although..I get funny looks when I ask for soy sauce with my crab leg!
Anyway, in the Crestview Hills Towne Centre, there used to be a place called Mike and Jimmy’s Chop House. It was a steak place…and the food was pretty good. Not great, but good. It was open for a couple years and eventually shut its doors. We had a few really bad experiences there and we gave them quite a few chances to make good. You tell my pregnant wife that you have a special that includes a desert that she is craving and then tell her its all gone by the time we are ready for it…thats one thing. When you come back a week later, explain to the wait staff what happened last week, are promised it won’t happen again…and then it does?? Good riddance.
But I digress. Mike and Jimmy’s closed its doors. Not too long after, another proprietor took over the establishment and dubbed it John Phillip’s. Its a whole new restaurant. While the interior changed slightly with a new wall in the non-smoking section, a new wine room, and I believe the smoking/bar area was changed a bit too - the service and menu has changed tremendously.
First off, if you do go there, ask for Richard. He is our waiter of choice and always does the best job. The first time we went there, we spent three or four hours with family. Richard wasn’t our waiter, but was working. Emily and I went for Father’s day and he did serve us then. He actually remembered us! (is that a good thing…or were we that obnoxious? ). He is a great waiter - never pushy, recommendations are excellent - be they wine, meals, or soup; and he has a knack for timing meal after appetizer, drinks during, and - one of my biggies - he doesn’t bother interrupting if the conversation is flowing between his patrons. He waits for a moment when there is a pause.
Emily may chime in for her recommendations, but if you do go - and you are a steak person- make sure you get the Steak Bites appetizer. Skewered steak bites served mostly medium, with sides of bearnaise and a this lighter mushroom wine sauce that is to die for! Emily and other’s highly recommend the Tuna appetizer. Their main coarse steaks are really good - def. give Ruby’s a run for their money. The roasted chicken breast entree is also very good, although the rice pilaf was a tad on the dry side. Emily and my mom both boast the Prime Rib. It comes in two sizes - queen and king. The Queen size is MORE than enough for a meal…order the king if you want a nice doggy bad though Emily also recommends the halibut main course.
What you’re still reading my rambling? Amazing! I’ll cut to the chase and say if you want to impress your date or wife, go here. Want to go for an excellent meal without having to drive far? Go here! Ask to be seated with Richard -he’s the waiter with the Asian tattoo on each forearm. Haven’t asked him what they mean yet. Appetizer prices range form $9-15 and main courses run $10-25 depending on your choice (steaks on the high end of course).
They do have a website, but I guess its still in the design stage.
Drink, Eat, Enjoy.
-pc

These two pictures will break your heart!

This probably sounds like an essay I would have written in 4th grade (Sean’s teacher was so much cooler than mine!), but no, its present day 2008, not the mid 80s.
But yes, I hate him.
Well, okay, hate is such a stong word and I should probably clarify that I am extremely jealous. Why? Because of THIS LINK. On Monday, the editors of the Cardomain Blog were invited to take out three Lamborghini Gallardo’s around the mountain roads of Washington (state) and then onto the highway to test the speed limiter and massive brake rotors.
What did I do Monday? Drove emily’s Mazda3 seven miles to work and sat in front of my laptop fighting with an instant messaging server and other fun stuff.

Hey Sean - you suck.

So after a long 6 years, I have decided to leave my job at NorthKey. It’s been a great experience here: my first “real job” during grad school, two internships, an unbelievable job in children’s crisis, great coworkers, great learning experiences, and wonderful friends. After a lot of research, soul-searching and long, drawn out conversations with Paul, family and friends, I decided to take a chance a something new.

I will be the Transition Coordinator for Campbell County High School. Basically, I’ll be working with Title 1, Part D kids (neglected & delinquent) who are transitioning from state agencies, residential facilities, detention center, and alternative school into the regular high school. I’ll be helping them to compile all of their credits from previous placements, do career planning, be a liason to all the agencies they are invovled with, work with their families, hold meetings, and basically monitor them intensely to make sure that they have the resources and safety net that they need to be successful in school. These kids typically get handed a schedule on their first day and told “good luck.” This is a unique position that will keep these kids from falling through the cracks, and work to reduce dropout rates and truancy. Cool stuff.

I’m excited for this new step in my career; it’s better pay, I’ll be in the school systems (one of my long term goals), and of course I get the amazing school schedule ;-).

When Big Sean visited a few weeks ago, we got a picture of him holding Little Sean just like he did when Little Sean was just 2 weeks old. He has gotten so big!!

Sorry! I haven’t posted ANY pictures so far this month. I apologize!

Here’s a bunch, from the past two weeks:

We’ve been taking small steps toward trying to get Sean to fall asleep on his own, instead of being rocked to sleep every night. He has put himself to sleep for a nap (when he can’t keep his eyes open) but never at night. He takes about 10 minutes of wiggling and rolling before he can get himself drifted off to sleep. We have been using our “aquarium” (even though it’s the jungle one, we still call it the aquarium) that we got from “the cousins” to get him used to hearing the music and associating it with sleep. He’s done really well and now falls asleep in our arms in about 2 minutes after hearing the music start.
Tonight was the first night that I fed him his bottle, burped him, sang him one song, then put him in his crib. 20 minutes later and without any cries or fussing, he’s sound asleep. Yay Sean! Hopefully he’ll continue to do it by himself…it’d save us a lot of time at night!

As seen on Chris’s blog, Scott is doing the 100 mile MS bike ride again this year. Follow this link to donate to the cause! He has almost reached his goal!