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The family and I got back from New York on Saturday. The trip went well with no surprises. While we were descending the plane hit an air pocket or something and dropped a few feet unexpectedly. Erin almost jumped out of her skin and everyone let out a surprised gasp as if we were free failing.

We sat in a row with 3 seats. Erin and I had the middle and aisle and a 20 something woman had the window seat. Once we were allowed to use our DVD player I put on a Dora DVD for Shannon. The 20 something was annoyed as soon as we took it out and asked "if we had headphones for that." I turned down the volume a bit but throughout the flight I'd turn it back up. I'd like to see her get a pair of headphones on a two year old. Not gonna happen.

The people behind us were talking louder than the DVD volume was. Would you rather hear a little bit of Dora or a kid scream and cry the whole flight???

So I was put off with her attitude and hated her the rest of the flight. When she tried to recline her chair and it didn't budge I openly laughed. She tried it two or three times before giving up. Karma is a bitch. I hope it was the most uncomfortable flight she has ever had.

A Small Scare

We are currently in New York visiting with friends and family. I went out last night to a local bar to meet up with a few friends and have a drink or two. Erin went to Port Jefferson to meet up with some friends of hers and have dinner.

Around 9:45pm I get a phone call from my brother in law. Erin fainted in the parking lot and was taken to the hospital by way of ambulance. Her sister, who was out with her, became very concerned and wanted to make sure everything was ok so she called 911.

Erin has had fainting spells in the past but they are few and far between. They have never been anything serious.

I rushed to the hospital to find Erin in the ER. The doctor ordered a bunch of tests and and IV bag. All tests came back fine and after Erin "drank" most of the bag we were discharged. She spent a total of 3 hours there. Must have been a slow night cause all the tests came back pretty quick.

The official prognosis was that she was dehydrated. So everything was fine but still a little scare none the less.

Springfield, Vermont

For years the mystery to many a Simpsons fan was in what state they live in. The creators teased us many times but never spilled the beans. We were left to wonder where is this magically Springfield with Moe's Tavern, the remains of the once hyped monorail, and the Kwik E Mart?

Well wonder no longer for Springfield Vermont was proclaimed the Simpsons' hometown after winning an online poll to host the movies' premiere.

Springfields in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee were also in the running but failed to get as many votes as the small town in Vermont.

Vermont's Springfield -- which has a bowling alley, a pub, a prison and a nuclear power plant just down the road -- wasn't initially part of the contest, but a local Chamber of Commerce
executive appealed to movie producer 20th Century Fox and the race was on.

Springfield Vermont has a population of 9,300 and the movie theater showing the premiere only has 212 seats.

Home Improvements

It was a busy weekend for me. Saturday Buck came over and put in some recessed lighting in our bedroom. We had 6 lights put in. 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and then 2 above our bed. The ones above our bed are on a different fader from the others. So that is a nice feature.

I "helped out" which consisted of standing there and talking to him while he did all the work. I'd had him a random tool or light fixture from time to time.

Our ceiling fan in the bedroom had been making noise on and off for a while now. Sometimes you wouldn't hear anything and other times there would be this loud clanging noise. It was so annoying that the noise would wake us up or keep us up to the point that we would have to turn it off. So I picked up a new fan from Lowe's and put it up myself. It took me pretty much all day to do cause 1) it was the first time I've ever hung a fan and 2) I'm not handy at all. The down bar on the fan I took down was smaller than the one I was putting up so I had to go back to Lowe's and buy a bigger one. So that took me a little while to switch out.

I got everything up and power to the fan. Knowing myself I was almost certain that when I flipped the switch it wasn't gonna work. To my surprise it came right to life, but it wobbles a little bit. So Buck is gonna come over today and try to balance it out for me. I tried for like an hour to balance it but just couldn't get it to be wobble free. I was proud of myself that I got the old fan down, the new one up and working and I didn't kill myself doing it.

Happy Birthday Shannon

Today is Shannon's 2nd birthday.

Happy Birthday to my little angel.

Best gifts so far, her Dora chair, the Cozy Coupe car, and a basketball hoop.

14 Years Of Bad Luck???

I know you get 7 years of bad luck for breaking a mirror, but what about a window?? Does that tack on another 7 years???

On Saturday we had a BBQ to celebrate mine and Shannon's birthday. We ended the night with some fireworks in the front of the house. One of them misfired and shot at the house. I didn't even see it happen cause it hit behind me.

Apparently it directly hit my guest bedroom window broke through the first pane of glass and then bounced off the second pane and landed on the ground and exploded. If it had broken through the second pane it would have exploded inside the house.

The worst part is that a few of my friends got hurt when the firework exploded on the ground including a little girl. It rips me up inside that someone got injured because of something I participated in. It was completely an accident and there was nothing I could have done but this doesn't help me with the guilt I am feeling.

The guilt has almost brought me tears several times because of what that little girl and her family must now experience. There is nothing that I can do and there aren't enough ways for me to apologize to make me feel better. She is gonna be ok but it will still be something that is gonna haunt me for a while.

This is something that has really shaken me up over the past few days. You never think that things like this can happen to you but they do. So on this 4th of July if you are gonna set off fireworks and watch them be more careful. Take an extra step back and be prepared for anything that could happen.