iamspartacus.net

Another Easter weekend, another 500+ eggs scattered on the lawn at the Merritt home in Perry.  Much smaller crowd this year, and much colder temperatures; but that still didn't keep everyone indoors when the hunt began.  Tucker passed the bunny torch to Logann, and Grandpa showed off his latest insurance claim waiting to happen -- as it turns out, PVC pipe, combustible gas and vegetables are a lot of fun!

Many more photos are available in the Gallery.

Three days after returning from Ireland, I finally had time to go through all of our photos.  This was an amazing trip for Jeannie and me. Never seen so many castles (okay, never saw any castles before this trip). Anyway, photos are in the gallery and I'll eventually write up a summary of what we did.  But in short: this is a beautiful part of the world and our country could learn a thing or two from the Irish culture.

Photos are available in the gallery.

Okay, so it's been awhile and I thought I would take a moment to provide a brief (okay, very brief) update on what everyone has been up to lately. And since he has never been given top billing before, let's start with the laziest member of the family.

The cat (currently known as Eragon) has two modes of operation: asleep and assault. They seem to be somewhat easy to predict. For instance, around 11pm he is interested only in burrowing under the covers and drifting off to sleep. However, 5am seems to be the hunting hour -- the prey being my foot which hangs over the bed. Oh, and somehow we managed to acquire a cat which plays fetch.

Andrew brought home his best-ever report card this week. All A's and a B+. He's gearing up for the move to Junior High next year (oh, what fond memories that brings back for me... NOT). I think he is actually reading on three different books right now -- hence, one of his "A" grades in language arts.

Logann has been putting in long hours preparing for this weekend's performances of "Wonderland", a production in which he plays the Lion.  This is an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, put on by CYT of Kansas City. Logann is also writing a story, with the aid of his younger brother, which will hopefully be unveiled in a reading later this year.

Martin has taken up a career in ice-fishing.  To add to that challenge, he has thrown out the fishing pole and chosen a spear as his hunting weapon of choice.  Seriously, Martin is doing great.  His favorite things in the world right now: Legos and Grandma, but not necessarily in that order.

And the girls of the family, despite being out-numbered, still seem to rule the roost. Jeannie has spent the last two weeks fighting a nasty cold while keeping up with lesson plans and grad school. Jessica, who is inching toward her 7th birthday now, is reading like crazy lately and is getting to be quite a good reader.

As for Jeannie and I -- we're just counting the days until we depart for Ireland (only 20 days from right now). Jeannie's time has been eaten up with homework for both high school and grad school, and as you have noted if you've read the past several postings, work has consumed most of my time as well.  I have managed to slip in a couple of photo challenges in the last few weeks and done adequately, but still nowhere close to that top 10 finish I want to achieve by the end of the year.  We'll see how that goes.

Okay yes, I was one of those people years ago who made fun of management for not actually "doing" anything. I reveled in my role as one of the trench workers as we thumbed our collective nose at management -- especially middle management.

...How I long for those days. Here was my schedule today:

8:30-10:00am	Meeting / conference call with software vendor
10:15-10:30am	Daily stand-up meeting w/ developers
11:00am-12:00pm	Discovery meeting with Events staff
12:00-2:00pm	Webinar with software vendor and AMS staff
2:00-3:00pm	Meeting with CME staff to further refine project requirements
3:15-4:30pm	Meeting to discuss data conversion

I knew I should have taken the blue pill.

As a temporary break from worrying about the impending root canal, Saturday night marked a very important event for Jessica and for me -- the annual Lawrence Daddy / Daughter Date Night. Last year Jess was too young to attend (ages 6-12 only), so this year she was on pins and needles about going.

It was a 1950s theme this year, and seeing as I am somewhat thematically-challenged, my only solution to this problem was to pull out the old motorcycle jacket and Chuck Taylors. Jess fit the part with her makeshift 50s-era attire, down to the ribbon in her hair. Anyway, the event was a blast -- one that will no doubt christen our calendar about this time next year. A few photos from Saturday are in the usual place.

I wish I could write this story in its entirety, because that would mean the saga of my number 2 molar (as I've learned it is called) had come full circle. However, I am currently wading in the middle of the sea of anxiety I'll refer to as "dental drama". To date, the events have unfolded as follows:

Wednesday, January 24th, 6:45am -- En route to the office on my daily K-10 drive, I am nagged by what feels like a popcorn kernel stuck in one of my teeth. Odd, considering I haven't eaten popcorn in who knows how long. As I try to retrieve said phantom kernel with my finger, I instead come out with a sizable chunk of tooth; followed shortly by another slightly less significant morsel of bone. ...Now am I worried. What to do? One question had to be immediately answered: what of my hot coffee? With great trepidation, leaving one hand on the wheel I cautiously raised my travel mug full of a steaming hot dark sumatra roast to my lips. One small sip; bracing for the white pain of exposed nerves colliding with hot liquid... nothing. Another sip... still nothing. Braver now, a gulp of hot java swished around my mouth... yes! At least I knew I could lower the alert level from orange to yellow since the largest threat had passed without casualty. With my coffee intake no longer in jeopardy, all I had left to deal with was the razor sharp piece of bone that was breaking off inside my mouth.

Being one of those people with an admitted unfounded, irrational fear of the dental trade, I have not been to a dentist in well over the recommended 6-month cycle. In some manner, I could justify my fear of the dentist by professing a concern for keeping my blood pressure at a healthy level. Given the fact that I nearly break out into a sweat and feel my heart pumping like a piston in the engine of a souped-up GTO whenever I pull into the parking lot of a dentist office, I feel that in some way, I'm protecting my body from undue hardship by avoiding dental check-ups as a practice.

That, and the fact that every time I do force myself into the dentist office and ultimately into that chair of torture for a "check-up", the result is always the same: "Wow, Mr. Merritt, how long has it been since you last saw a dentist?"; and then, said to the ever-judgmental dental hygienist (read: aid to the executioner) "You might go ahead and get another sheet of paper to take all of this down. We're going to be here awhile." This always ends with a look of "I've never seen anything like this before", and a summary of "Well, you have cavities in eighty-seven of your teeth and we'll need to schedule twenty-six more appointments in order to get things back on track."

...Or something like that.

This latest saga is just in that first stage of the game. Nice dentist office, as dentist offices go, but that's kind of like saying "Do you want me to use the gun or the knife?", you know? So, I left with the same broken tooth in my mouth, with much more than I ever wanted to know about nerve endings, and a referral to another sadist (professionally referred to as an endodontist) for a root canal.

To end this chapter in what will no doubt prove to be a tragic novel, when I called the endodontist's office to schedule the root canal, the receptionist kindly took my information and worked with me to schedule an appropriate time for my "procedure" (apparently that word is less terrifying than "root canal" or "drilling multiple holes into your skull and sucking out the rooted nerves while you're awake and listening"). When I asked her how long I should expect the "procedure" to take, she said "about an hour-and-a-half, absolutely no more than 2 hours". "Two hours at the most?", I asked for confirmation. To which she replied, "Yes, sir. It should take less than two hours... unless something goes terribly wrong."

I feel so comforted.

So, with Andrew's birthday came a new family member -- one that walks on four legs... four legs with razor-sharp claws. Meet "Untitled", our new cat. Hopefully it will be christened with a name at some point in the near future, but for the time being, it is merely the gray ball of fur that chases the laser pointer light across the hardwood floor and goes crashing into the walls at break-neck speed.

Given the fact that work is currently sucking the life out of me, I haven't had the time nor the creativity to post anything witty as of late. Rather than try to fake it and come off only halfway amusing, I'm posting some photos instead. Great snow this weekend, and I dodged many a snowball in order to get these shots. Enjoy.

Photos in the gallery

Outside temperature: 16.5 degrees fahrenheit. Road conditions: icy and snow-packed, at least according to the local interstate conditions on weather.com. Our first "inclement weather" weekend at the new home. Now, if only I could use that "beam me up" machine from Star Trek to get Logann from Lee's Summit to Lawrence.

So, I'm going to start the van shortly, let it warm up and melt it's thin layer of ice, dawn my boots and flannel, and go retrieve my eldest. Logann hasn't seen the new house since it was empty, and we have a good solid night of video games ahead of he and Andrew.

Tomorrow, Tucker and Mason will join the boys for the night, which I'm sure will be filled with yet more video games, junk food, and jokes not intended for my ears. I'm sure more photos will follow after that event.

With much less fanfare and a smaller crowd than in previous years, we rang in another new year at the Merritt home in Perry. Just a handful of adults and kids, almost all of which made it to midnight. Craig, Jeannie and Jess shared their stories of recent travels to Disney World and Los Angeles, respectively. The rest of us simply listened and gorged ourselves on far too much food.

More photos are in the gallery.