We got ourselves a new one!

His name is Logan Anthony. I'll talk about why that name stuck later. Right now I am pretty tired. He's a good fellow, hasn't talked back to his parents yet. I'm tired. I'll write more tomorrow. See his pics at our family site, thehickmanstory ...

Robotech, The Motion Picture.

It looks like another movie for Dad/Scott day out!

Luke sent me this. I hope they do a good job. Toby as Rick Hunter? Maybe he can pull it off. But the real questions is (and maybe Trena already knows the answer) WHO will play Minmei?

Fathers Day

Fathers day was great. The kids, with a little help from Jill, made me breakfast and I even got to eat it in bed. Scott got to cut the onions himself, he was pretty proud of that. Jill made sure that the food was perfectly salted (I like salt a lot).

I got cards, two packs of Necco wafers, the greatest candy on the planet, and a new Koonz book. Plus, lots of hugs and smiles.

I got up at 5am in morning to throw a rack of ribs on the smoker. I had a pretty good rub on them, although I could have added some more salt. Turns out Scott and I prefer not to have a sauce on them but Jill loves the sauce. Caitlyn is ambivalent about it. She does like the "crunchy parts though".

At night Jill made her first pineapple upside down cake. It was pretty dang good too.

We got to talk with Grandad Bob on the phone and my brother Luke and his family called in to talk for a while also...

The only down side was the fact that I promised Jill I would hang a few towel racks on the kids bathroom wall the day before and it wasn't till 10pm that I got around to it. I think Caitlyn yanked the old one out of the wall a few months ago.

It was a good Fathers day.

Help Name the NEW Kid!

6 week count down and nothing solid yet!

We've got:
Logan
Oberon
Anthony
Sharkey

I've been taking names out there and thinking on names that are similar or associated with them. You can get some really cool name. I thought of these:

Lance- could also be Mace, Hammer, Dagger. (Dagger Hickman... cool)
Tony- could also be Tiger, Frosted, GRRReat.
Pierce- could also be Slash, Hack, Critical. (Hack Hickman!)
Dakota- could also be State, Colorado, or even South

I'm also pushing for another Robotech name but Jill ain't having it.

As for middle names I'm trying to push Arlynn, an old family name. Jill is pushing back. It's actually a girls name I just found out... crazy. So how did my great grandfather get it? How'd I get it?!?! I don't care. I'm still pushing it! Reminds me of 'A boy named Sue'. It'll tuff'n him up.

AWOL

Ouch, I haven't touched this thing in two months. Bad, bad, bad, Carl.

Just some quick updates,

• Jill is six weeks from delivery.
• Summer school is going well.
• Scott and Caitlyn are enrolled in a 'tumbling' class and are having fun there.
• Scott and Caitlyn are also doing a summer reading contest put on by the library. It is amazing how much Scott can read already.
• I got my concealed permit.

Hmmm, I need to add some pictures in here. Text only is boring.

5,4,6,7

James and I can't find a decent group to beat up with our foam weapons. We'd better form one soon (maybe I can grab some guys from work or church) or we might turn those weapons on each other.

Dad came by for a week visit. I always love it when my dad comes. We have great conversations about everything and the kids love him. Scott gets all teary-eyed when he leaves. Scotty-boy loves his Grandad. We saw movies, went to Garden of the Gods, checked out guitars, got some steaks, the kids got some toys... we did all sorts of stuff. I wished my parents lived much closer. I miss seeing them a lot.

When my dad did come he handed me my Christmas present. He built and painted an electric guitar. He already told me he was going to do this and the way he made it sound over the phone was that it was one of the 'test' guitars he was putting together for his boys. I thought it was going to simply be an art piece to hang on the wall. But when I opened the case, there sat a genuine, fully functional Hickman Stratocaster! It plays great! It inspired me to take my playing much more seriously when he gave me that and them introduced me to the Digitech RP 350 at Guitar Center. I'll get some pictures of my new guitar up. Thanks dad! And thanks to Jill for letting me buy an 350! The 350 even came with some recording software. Time to practice and lay down some tracks!

I have also been dabbling in sculpting, molding, and casting pewter with those molds. It's really fun to do, watching metal melt down and pouring. Caitlyn, my 3 year old, got too close when I was doing a pour and I told here to stay back, "Dad is pouring lava!" She ran away. Whatever works right?

3. I love hiking and camping. The weather patterns for spring here on the Front Range can be chaotic however. A warm day can be followed immediately by a blizzard day. I kid you not. So you really have to check the weather before you head out. Dunno if I mentioned this but Chris helped me pick out a nice pair of Merril hiking boots that I am dying to try out.

2. James and I walked into the open house and both applied for our concealed handgun permits. It should take a few more weeks to get the permit in the mail. James already has a holster and has been wearing it for some time to get used to it. I still have to purchase one. I think the most useful times that I'll be carrying the weapon is when we go camping and hiking. With the permit I can just throw the weapon into backpack and still be legal. In the Pikes Peak National forest which we visit regularly many times each year you can go target practicing practically anywhere.

Ok. Got some breathing room so let me post before the moment is gone.

1. It's real nice to have found a whole lot of blogs from the old friends. Friends make me happy. It also makes me happy to see them and their families doing well. I'll add some more links to their own blogs over to the right side soon.

Oh man. School is a drag... It's eating my time and my blogging is heading south already. But to be honest it's one of those good kind of drags. I'm learning tons.

Ok, so I don't have a lot of time so I am going to list the things that I WILL talk about more in detail.

1. Leah Gardner lives! I haven't heard from her in a long time. Of course she is wanted by the feds for unspeakable crimes so she changed her last name and integrated with some family somewhere. Check out her blog... uh look into the comments somewhere here, the link is there... no time to copy it.

2. Gun permit in the works!

3. Hiking season is returning!

4. Visit from the Bob!

5. Finding a boffering group not panning out.

6. Grabbing the guitar again!

7. Pewetering. Look it up for now.

8. Jill's Belly is getting bigger in the good way ;)

9. An after school special that warmed my heart.

10. Ha. Aprils Fools on number 9. Suckers...

11. Friends blogs links posted.

12. Trip to DC.

13. A foul, foul smell.

14. Pampered Chef... girl stuff I want to rant about.

School starting again

School is starting again. Man, it takes up so much of my time! I love the idea of getting my Masters but I can't wait until I have my weeknights back. I'm sure my kids do too.

Teasing the kids

I tease the kids too much. Scott has fun with it though and gives me a evil look when I take it too far. This afternoon when I was telling him he could buy a snack but could only eat it a few days later he lifted his fist high in the air with a terrible scowl on his face and cried out "Fist of Anger!"

No more Bruce Lee movies for that kid.

Waiting...

Ugh. I went to apply for my concealed handgun permit but the sheriffs office that handles it is completely booked. There is an unprecedented number of people trying to get their permits. They are having a 'open house' in the next few weeks where anyone can walk in and apply. First come first served. Guess I'll be getting up early that day.

Let's get physical!

James came over tonight and we put our boffer swords together. We still have hours of work to do on them. Come Saturday we should have them ready. I sure hope so. How old are we? Last time we tried this we were on a golf course in the middle of the night, looking for a missing tooth. That was like nearly twenty years ago. Sheesh. I like the idea of beating the tar out of somebody with a foam bat but James is getting serious. He wants to head to Ragnarök this summer. It's an all out Battle Royal. And some of these guys are hardcore. Check out these pics. It's like real life World of Warcraft for these people... here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I'm losing weight regularly now (2 pounds a week) but I want to drop some real fast so I plan to go on Atkins for a few weeks pretty soon. I also seem to lose about 10 pounds in that time period but I usually put it back on right after going off. But now that I am getting pretty disciplined about counting calories I should keep it all off and them some. Now I just need some motivation to hit the elliptical that is in our basement family room. I hate exercising for no other purpose than to exercise. It's soooooo boring. When I do go on the blasted machine I try to imagine someone is chasing me with a rusty axe sometimes to keep me going. But if I do that when I work out late at night I tend to be all freaked out when done, hearing noises and stuff. Can't sleep too good if you think someone is around the corner with an rusty axe, especially if the axe is named Otis...

It's warming up!

Chris and I ran over to the Sportsman Warehouse today. The weather is warming up and all the guys are looking forward to getting back to the mountains. Chris helped me pick out some nice Merrill hiking boots. They are much nicer than the crappy ones I had before.

Dad called. He's coming in a couple of weeks. Hopefully a blizzard won't come and stop him from getting here. I want him to be here when one of the spring storms hit. It's pretty impressive. But it gets old quick when I have to shovel 4 feet of snow off the driveway... three times a day.

Jill is getting larger... in the good way of course. The little baby boy is moving around quite a bit now.

The family found King's Chef (use IE, looks messed up in Firefox) old Valentine Diner a few weeks ago. Great place. I plan to go back and show James the place this Saturday morning. Yum...