I don't know if anyone has even visited them recently, but I fixed the broken image links on the old picture pages.
Thanks to Jenn Miller for pointing out the error. Jenn, I'd put you on retainer if I could. You know, if I had money and all. :)
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So I took Maddie to the bookstore tonight to do a little browsing. While we were there, I saw the hottest chick working in their cafe. She was smokin'!
I chatted her up a bit, and we seemed to really connect. I was extremely happy to learn that she loves kids. In fact, she and Maddie got along great!
Man, I am head over heels for this girl!
The only problem was that I never got her name. I did manage to snag a few pictures of this beauty with my handy digital camera. If anyone can get me this babe's number, I'd be eternally grateful!
Here are the pics:
Isn't she the hottest coffee shop girl you've ever seen?
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Those of you who weren't paying attention as this page loaded may not have noticed the change, but our family page now has a new address.
Instead of using "pushthepulldoor.com," we're now on "family.pushthepulldoor.com."
Please bookmark this page right now, and delete the old bookmark you have in your browser. The redirect on the old page that sent you here will be taken down next week. So you need to bookmark this page to be able to find it again once that happens.
When I originally bought the domain "pushthepulldoor.com," I intended to use it for some creative projects of my own. But now that it has become a family site, I can't use the address for public projects without allowing random strangers to access my family stuff. For that information to remain private, I have moved it off of the main drag. It's now on a "side street" of the site, and it can only be reached if you know the specific address.
Now, I'm free to turn pushthepulldoor.com into whatever I want it to be, without much fear that random goofballs will...um..."pleasure themselves" to pictures of my wife in her wedding dress. Hey, this is the internet. Let's not be naive--stuff like that happens.
So make sure you bookmark this page. I will send out an email soon so that people who may not visit as often will still be able to find the site.
Thanks for your patience!
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I know it's been a long time since we've posted anything of substance on this site, but it's not our fault. Alecia has been working long hours at Barnes & Noble, so we've been practicing the "handoff" style of parenting, and we haven't had time for much besides the baby. (The "handoff" style is where one parent comes home from work around 6pm and has the baby handed to him while the other parent heads out to her own job. Then, when that parent comes home from work around midnight, she gets the baby back so the first parent can get some sleep before getting up at 7am and starting the process over.)
This weekend was a rainy one for us Georgians. It rained out my first men's league soccer game this morning, which was a shame since Alecia took a closing shift last night just so she could babysit this morning. On the other hand, after gaining about 15 lbs. (on top of the other 15 I was already trying to get rid of) and not touching a ball for five months, I may not have made it through a whole game today. Now, I have a whole week before I can kill myself on the field.
Because the rain made us feel like staying in bed, we did just that. We took naps in shifts, and now we feel well rested. Even Maddie joined in the sleepytime fun, taking a several-hour nap with mommy. That allowed me to do some touch-up painting in her room, "girlifying" it a little more. Basically, I just added some flowers around the too-plain Pooh scenes I had already painted on her walls. I'm not 100% satisfied with the job I did, but Maddie seems to like it. Next, I plan to work some more on my homemade lava lamps, while Alecia feeds the baby. Then, she will hand Maddie off to me, so she can go work on a buffet she's restoring. It may actually be a productive day!
Here are some pics from the weekend that I didn't feel like putting on Snapfish. Click for larger versions:
Maddie's "girlified" murals.
The lava lamp needs a little work. And this is the good one.
Maddie likes to read! And to eat books!
Toss in Maddie, and it looks like Daddy's sleeping in the guest bedroom, again.*
"E" is for Eeyore, that's good enough for me! NUM NUM NUM!*Note: Alecia is not sleeping nude in that picture. The white thing is her nightgown, not the sheet. Concentrate all you want, you still won't see boob, you perverts. (Sadly, even Alecia asked, "Am I naked in that picture?")
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I fixed the issue with the comments, and am now testing to make sure they work. I'm sure this is very exciting to anyone reading this right now...
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We finally did the server upgrade I mentioned a while ago, and it went just fine...except for the fact that it killed my comments tool. I'm working on installing a new solution for feedback...
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...is now in a Zip file. I dunno why I posted the .exe to begin with. But I corrected my error. Now, if you click on the link below, it will ask if you want to save or open a Zip file. Save it on your desktop, and double click to open it. If you get too confused, let me know. :)
We just got back from celebrating a belated Christmas in Alabama this past weekend. It was great and Maddie had such a good time meeting the rest of my family as well. Just like in Indiana, she loved all the attention, especially from her cousins. It seems like she starts smiling and giggling whenever she sees other kids.
It's as if Maddie has aged so much during the last few weeks. Even Bill's family commented on it when we were there. She learned so many new things from the beginning of our arrival in Indiana to the end of the visit. She now loves to suck on her fingers, "stand up", "talk" and "sit up". I used the parentheses because she does all these things with a little of our help or prodding, but she still shows the initiative. We now have conversations nightly where she curls up her face very seriously and coos or makes little shrieks of happiness. So much fun!
In other news, I quit my job at Target and have started working at the Starbucks Cafe at the local Barnes and Noble. Yes, I am officially a coffee-house chick again. :) Not bad, too, considering the unlimited access I'll have to a vast array of books and magazines (and you all know how I love my magazines!)
That's about it for us as we settle back into normal life. Bill is getting ready to start soccer again, as I made him promise not to play during the final month of my pregnancy and during the first few weeks with Maddie (Thank you, Sweetie!) I was just too worried about 1) going into labor without him nearby, and 2) not having any help during those first months. He's proven to be a wonderful dad and wonderful help at occupying Maddie's time.
New pics are posted on Snapfish under the January 2004 folder. Enjoy!
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Below each post, you'll see a "comments" link. Click that, and it will allow you to leave a comment for Alecia and I (or even Maddie). You can say 'hi' without even sending an email!
Let us know if there's something you want to see on the site, or if there's anything you strongly like or dislike. Are you here just for the pictures? That's fine, just let us know. If we know what you visit this site for, we'll know what to post more or less of.
We know we're getting some traffic, the little counter to the left tells us so. But with nobody leaving comments, we don't know who's visiting, or why.
So let us know when you stop by. :) Thanks!
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We didn't have much money this year, and I wanted to do something special for my new wife on our first Christmas as a married couple. So, I tried to get creative. Without much time to work with or many resources, I put together a little flash cartoon for her.
It's stupid, and amateurish, but it made her laugh, which was worth the time spent.
If you would like to check it out, right click on the link below, and choose "save as..." Then, you can save it to your desktop. Once it's downloaded, unzip it, then double click to run it.
Yes, I know you've always been told not to download "exe" files and run them on your computer. But trust me when I say that this is NOT a virus or malicious code. It won't harm your computer in any way.
My friends who know a little about Flash will ask, "Why didn't you just put the file on a page, so we can watch it without downloading it?" Well, I didn't know how to make a "load" screen. And without it, it runs choppy when slow connections try to watch it. Also, it always seems to be out of synch (meaning sounds and animations don't match up) when I watch it online. I could probably solve both of the above problems, but I'm just too lazy.
By the way, it may still be "out of synch" if you have a slow computer. We've noticed that the lips don't match the words on some antique devices. Sorry.
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And when I say handful, I mean, like, five. We've been a little less picture crazy in January than we were in December (of course). But we did take a few pics of Maddie with some of her Xmas gifts. Click here to go to Snapfish.com and check them out.
Alecia also took the following pic, which I'm pretty sure will someday be used against me in court when Maddie sues me for being a lousy dad.
Okay, so maybe I was a little too into the PS2. But Maddie wanted to watch me play video games, I swear!
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I'm not sure if this is one of the first signs of the apocalypse or not, but my mother--just weeks after getting a new computer--is now a broadband internet subscriber! How did this happen?
Next thing you know, she'll be using her stylish PDA to program her new PVR, before she sits down for a wild IRC session to discuss some UNIX coding. And Mom, if none of that made sense to you, that's a good thing.
Anyway, since my mom is now part of the digital revolution, I thought I would post some links here for her to use to show off her new connection (and for a good laugh). I already sent her some of my favorites, but there's always more to be found.
Peanutbutter Jelly Time
David Hasselhoff...singing. (They love him in Germany.)
Um...I have no clue. But it will grow on you if you give it a chance.
Sing with Wing
The Kittens
Mahir...the ladies love him.
Move Your Feet with Junior Senior
Who let the dogs out?
Alcohol Warnings
Peter Pan is on crack.
And here are a few that are more functional than funny:
Music Videos at Launch.com
Movie Trailers at Quicktime.com
Games and Toons at Shockwave.com
Games at Zone.com
Even more games at Uproar.com
Wacky animations and toys at Zefrank.com
Funny Cartoons at Homestarrunner.com
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My host is switching the site over to a better server, and there's a chance that it may be inaccessible for a little while during the transition. I don't know when this will happen or how long it will take, but I wanted to give you all a heads-up, anyway.
If you have trouble logging on in the next few days, you'll know what's up...or down, that is.
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Alecia got all of our Xmas pics online, and you can now find them by clicking on the "Newer pics" link to the left. I have yet to browse through them, so if there are any blackmail-worthy shots of me from when I had the flu, please don't use them against me...
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Sorry to be out of touch for so long. We're obviously back in Atlanta now, and doing much better. Our flu symptoms faded as we headed south of the Mason-Dixon line, but we spent our first few days back in bed, just to be sure.
Shortly after returning home, we took down our Christmas decorations. The tree was looking pretty bad after almost two weeks of inattention. We also spent a day this week exchanging incorrectly sized gifts and getting the house back in order.
For New Year's Eve, Alecia had to work, so I stayed home with Maddie. We watched some football and played some video games. Then, we cooked dinner for mommy. When Alecia got home, we all ate in front of the TV and watched the ball drop in Times Square. Here's a question for you: Do the Central, Mountain and Pacific timezones see the same Dick Clark special at the same time as the Eastern time zone? I have only ever lived in the Eastern part, so the New Year's ball drop has always been our live countdown to the New Year. But do other timezones see it on tape delay, or do they see it an hour (or two or three) before their own New Year begins?
Anyway, not much is going on for us now, which is good. Alecia is stripping old paint off of a buffet we have, and I am trying to get in as much goofing off as possible before I go back to work on Monday. Maddie is loving the time with both of us home (at least we think she is--who knows what she really likes?), and she's playing with us as much as she can. All is well and good in the McLochlin household.
We have a ton of pictures from our trip to Indiana, but haven't gotten them online yet. When we do, we'll let you all know.
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