Firehouse Visit

On the weekends our family likes to go for a walk to the park down the street. Often we will also walk around the long block that takes us past our local firehouse. It's a small (one engine) firehouse that has the stereotypical firehouse dog. Our firehouse dog is a friendly Lab-Dalmatian cross named Freckles.

This weekend we found out just how popular Freckles is. As we were walking through the park and telling Will that we were going to go see if Freckles was out we had 2 different groups of kids ask us if we meant Freckles the firehouse dog. The kids totally knew Freckles and were excited for Will to go and visit. It was very cool to see how the kids' faces lit up.

We got to the firehouse and the door was open. Sue was the lieutenant on duty. She was happy to bring Freckles out so Will could pet him and even let Will give Freckles a treat!

We chatted with Sue a bit and then she invited us in so Will could look at the engine. Which he loved. After standing next to tires taller than him and looking at the shiny red paint, he got to climb up into the cab so he could drive.

Vroom Vroom VROOMY-VROOM VROOM....William at the Wheel!

 Sue got a huge kick out of Will's excitement. She grabbed a helmet for Will to try on, then she gathered Freckles up and setup an impromptu photo shoot for Freckles and Will on the front bumper.

We also found out about the local TV stations Top U Dog Contest. Freckles is competing as the firehouse dog. Here is his commercial, it's pretty local tv-ish, but you can see a bit of the Freckles personality.

If you want to vote for Freckles you can do so at the wciu website.

Will loved getting to know the firehouse and especially Freckles. We now drive past on our way home and Will is anticipating the "Firehouse" and "Freckles" from blocks away.

Happy Daddy!

Today was Father's day. Now I'm new to the receiving end of the festivities so I don't have much to compare to, but this was an outstanding day.

I got to sleep in as late as I wanted, of course my body decided that was about 8:00a, but being able to lounge around was great! Then I was woken to Will saying "Happy Daddy" which is Willspeak for happy birthday, happy Fathers Day and "Hey there's my dad!" It was very sweet.

We had these yummy egg cups Megan made for breakfast, then went to Mass. It was our last time seeing Fr. Andre as he's moving on to be pastor at St. Ita Parish

Football!

We had some good play at the park.

Lunch was a bacon, spinach and tomato sandwich, totally awesome (as is anything that incorporates bacon).

Perhaps the best present....Will took a long nap. Record breaking for home. He shattered his prior record of 90 minutes with a 2 hour 15 minute nap WOO HOO! I used that time to re-build a little cart into a potential box/furniture mover (more on that later, I'm sure) and play a few minutes of Portal 2.

Dinner was a feast of steak, potatoes, asparagus and Parmesan onions. Totally mid-western but I don't care it was awesome.

So this Father's day had everything. Awesome play with Will, rest, light construction/tinkering, video games, bacon and steak!

Thanks go to Megan and Will for such a great day!

¡Viva España!

Ha Ha, yep, I got upside down quotes and the tilde to work in my title. I'm awesome. Also check out the sweet back-dating. It totally looks like we've been writing during our trip rather than waiting I'm not going to tell you how long after we got back. Oh and It says I was in Madrid when I wrote this. Having computer hacking skills rocks! This has been a paid advertisement for the Matt Cox Computer Skills course, we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

Today we arrived in Spain! Getting here included a day of firsts for Will. We neglected to prepare with bus and train rides before embarking on the adventure. Will was very apprehensive about the “EL” in Chicago, but we taught him how to mimic the train’s sounds by moving his hands up-and-down with the clickety-clack. By the third stop he loved the train and giggled as he made the train go.

Ah, Security Theatre!

The airport was a breeze for me, but Megan got flagged for the full pat-down. Seems something in her carry-on looked suspicious. I'm guessing it was the squat round tube she was holding...it was either a secret canister of shaving cream, or our extra camera lens. At any rate they had to unpack her bag, then some chemical residue (damn you lip balm!) meant everything had to come out and be swabbed. Meanwhile, Megan got the full treatment, I think she may have gotten the TSA agent's number so they can hook up when we get back.

After getting through security and suiting will up in his comfy jammies (I'm using the O'Connell term here as we are 4183.70 miles from home, give or take a few inches), we read our book, and took our airplane juice (ah Benadryl), then it was off to slumber land for the entire flight. YAY for Will.

On the way from the airport we took two trains. Getting off the circular and out of the subway at our stop was a trek worthy of Odysseus. We had to wend our way through at least ½ mile of tunnels and go up about a dozen elevators. Then, we got to the street and realized we had failed to properly write down directions. After less than 2 hours in the country we were integrating with the locals. We asked a clerk at a motor-scooter shop where Calle de Gallelo was. It turned out we had made it, there just wasn’t a street sign. After thanking the clerk we turned the corner and headed to the apartment. However we thought an alley was a street and buzzed the wrong Patio Izquierda. DOH! We pressed on and found the right apartment and our family! We dropped our stuff and had a quick snack before venturing out to explore the city.

In the park near the apartment a great dane was wandering around and Will lurched toward him. Both Megan and I lurched toward him with great haste. We need not have worried. The owner was very nice and informed us that she (the dog) was great with kids and proceeded to call the dog over. Much like our Zoe, the dog completely ignored the calls. We wished the woman “buenas tardes” and were about to leave when she rushed back, dog in tow and instructed will to “toca la”. Will got to pet a dog he could ride like a pony and we got our first instance of the Will factor. He definitely inherited his mother’s (and Mommo’s) charm and people skills. Everywhere we go he seems to make friends and charm people.

Will and Morgan at the Park

After siesta we wandered toward El Parque Oeste. Marcia had to head back to the apartment and found out they changed the locks on us. Luckily a neighbor let her in and she also borrowed an extra key until we could get the new copies from the management company. Meanwhile Will loved playing in the playground (especially the little houses) with Morgan and Ceridwen. After the play session and a quick walk around the park it was time to head to dinner. We decided to dive right into the Spanish lifestyle, so dinner was at 10:00pm (also the start of the “El Copa del Rey” Soccer game. We found a bar and had tapas. Will continued to charm the locals by his love of soccer. We took several trips in from the sidewalk cafe to check on the soccer game. Will also loved running up and down the block being chased or chasing the O’Connell Girls. After a lovely dinner we returned to the apartment and everybody turned in at about midnight.