OK … I’ve been sitting on this for TOO long … so since it’s my birthday week, I figured I’d start it off with a gift to all of you out there … with a big bit of news … Shari my darling wife is PREGNANT!!! Carder Kid number one is in the chute! WOO HOO!!!

She’s just coming to the end of her first trimester, and we’ve been wary of making big broad announcements to the world … but it’s looking like she’s doing pretty well … so there … it’s out there … and I’m feeling better for getting it off my chest … whew …

For those of you tracking this at home … that’s all THREE M’s knocked out in one year … Marriage, Mortgage and now Maternity … to say that it’s been a busy year is the understatement of the year …

Expected due date … June 26th … sex? … Shari wants to keep it under wraps … she feels it’s the one true surprise you can have in life … I agree with her, but it’s going to kill me … baby names? … picked out and ready to go … am I the father? … God I hope so …

We bought a bed … Shari’s back problems have been getting worse lately, so we uhhhh … bought a bed …

No insight or witty commentary … we just … bought a bed …

That’s it …

It shows up on Sunday …

We’re going to sleep on it …

…

…

Seriously … just a bed … I thought maybe you’d like to know …

I’m still here … things have been really hectic around here … it may look like we’re all calm on the surface, but really we’re making like ducks … calm on the surface and paddling like hell underneath!

Shari mentioned to me that it’s the one year anniversary of the passing of the Beario … so if you knew Freedom, smile a little smile for her this week …

Shari and I are still busy trying to unpack and reconfigure the house … she’s got aome Stampin Up classes this weekend, so she’s in overdrive trying to get her classroom ready. I’m busy just staying out of her way …

So in addition to the Kid Rock concert on Saturday night … the whole gang bundled up and went out to Port Hope on Sunday night to take in the Phantom Farm … which we went to last year as well … basically it’s a group of families who put this event on every year … they’re relatives of Kelly’s, Jessica’s boyfriend … it’s basically two things, a haunted barn and a haunted hay ride … they’re both REALLY well done and the ladies love going through and having a good scream.

Kate and Lee came down, and Katie screamed a lot apparently. I can’t tell because my ears were still ringing from the concert the night before … and Dawna, Morgan and Shari were all screaming as well … kinda … deafening …

Oh yeah … I love Shari … Shari Shari Shari … sweet sweet Shari … she always manages to surprise me with something, usually around my birthday. I can’t recall if it was this past year or the year before, but she managed to surprize me with an iPod nano. Now that I think about it, that must have been two years ago because at this time last year, she surprized me with an XBox 360 for an engagement gift. So why am I bringing this up?

Because she managed to land Kid Rock tickets for last night’s show.

GOD I LOVE THAT WOMAN!!! The show was muthaf**king amazing! I have ALWAYS wanted to catch Kid live, but figured I’d never get the chance. Between him only coming to town once in a blue moon AND the fact that I wouldn’t be able to find anyone to come with, my odds weren’t looking that good. Well once again thanks to that fabulous wife of mine, I can’t scratch another item off my life list.

How good was the show? It was sooooo good that even Shari enjoyed it! That’s saying something! It was down at the Kool Haus, so we were RIGHT THERE, like fifty feet from the stage. It was a great crowd, with everyone getting behind every song. Shari was enjoying mullet spotting as always. As the Kid himself would say, he rocked the joint.

Sorry if I have been talking in CAPS here and there in this post … my ears are still ringing so I may be speaking a little louder than I should … I SAID I’M SORRY!!! … but damn if I’m not happy … now what am I going to do to surprise Shari?

I know I mentioned it previously … but if you have a PC or a 360 … you need to pick up the Orange Box … I haven’t finished it yet, but Portal has been SOOOOO much fun … I don’t care that it will be done within a couple of hours of playing it … those couple of hours are fun, challenging AND entertaining … plus I want my damned cake man …

I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 during the beta period … it’s fantastic as well … I’ve been struggling with whether I want to take an offensive role and be on the front lines or if I want to hang back as an Engineer and wait for the kills to come to me … so again, yet another GREAT experience!

Episode Two will be played this weekend … nuff said …

Oh and in case you didn’t know … I did beat Halo 3 … on Heroic … which is the second hardest difficulty level … on my own … and I’m rather glad I played it at that level, because apparently the endings are different based upon difficulty … overall? The game made me very VERY happy … I enjoyed it start to finish, and was RIGHT into it … now it’s time to go out and get schooled online by some 12 year olds …

So what’s up with me you may ask? Well I’m glad you DID ask, so let me tell you … ummm … errrr … stuff?

Shari and I are still on our body modification projects … we’ve each lost around ten pounds and are still shooting for more … our inspiration is to watch the Biggest Loser every week and have pretend that Bob is actually shouting motivational tips at us …

I’ve been playing a fair bit of Halo 3 … I’m enjoying it thus far … aside from all the times where I keep dying … because apparently I’m an OK player … not a phenomenal player …

The family is coming out this weekend for the turkey bird weekend. It’ll be the first time that Kate and Lee have seen the new house, so Shari’s ramping up into hyper cleaning mode. With Survivor being back in swing, that means that she’s … errr … WE’VE gotta have everything clean by tonight … yay us …

Aside from that, my current headache is in trying to make sure that I can recover a number of songs off my iPod … I still haven’t docked the damn thing with the new Dell because there’s a number of songs I don’t want to lose …

No I still don’t have it … I’m very upset at Purolator right now … because they’re saying that I couldn’t pick it up from their depot last night because their trucks don’t get back in until 9 … then why was Rick here at work able to pick his up last night?

NOT happy …

Let’s rattle these off in chronological order … Wonderland was a blast … it was relatively quiet so we got to go on a TON of rides … INCLUDING … that XTreme Skyflyer … which in case you don’t feel like following the link is a ride where they strap you into a bungie, drag you up backwards and let you fly 200 feet down towards the ground like a swing outta hell … Morgan was carrying on all day long about how she wanted to go on it … I eventually caved and took the plunge with her … I think the best way to describe the experience was that I was VERY ANGRY at gravity …

So then to compound our thrill seeking ways … this morning I was in the office checking on servers as I always do … when something FLIES past my shoulder, out the office door and into our bedroom … A BIRD!!! There was a freaking bird in our house! Who must have been there ALL weekend … because I only had the windows open on Saturday morning … but yeah … scared the living hell outta both Shari and I … and we spent twenty minutes trying to hunt it down in our bedroom … moving clothes around … pulling the bed out … end of the story is that the bird was safely released into the wild …

I don’t want anymore adrenaline rushes for another 72 hours, OK? No more …

So a bunch of us are going to Wonderland this weekend … it’s nice, but as those of you who know me can attest to, it’s no Cedar Point.

So I’m doing what I normally do before I go anywhere … I start combing the net for info … and lo and behold, what do I find out? The CedarFair L.P. has just purchased ALL of the Paramount Parks INCLUDING Canada’s Wonderland! Sure enough, they’re building a big 200ft drop coaster to open up next year!

Jeez Louise! Does this mean I can hopefully start dreaming about Wonderland becoming CANADA’S Roller Coast? Hope Hope …