O dear!

Me: Haven, whose birthday is it on Christmas?

Haven: MINE!

[Haven busts out in song]: hape duyas (happy birthday) to haven... hape duyas to..

Me Interrupts: No. your birthday is AFTER Christmas.

Haven: oh...

Me: Whose birthday is on Christmas?

Haven: SANTA CAUSE!

Me: hahah no...

Haven: YES!

Me: No bud, it's Jesus's birthday.

Haven: NO SANTA'S!

[jen and i hang our heads in shame]

it took another couple minutes to convince him it wasn't Santa's birthday.

Cricket goes for a walk

Macgyver lives on...

So every time we go to a garage sale, or one of Haven's friends house and he sees one of those Little Tikes cars, he MUST ride on it. He loves them. We were going to pick up one, but we really don't have a lot of room in our house with all the billion other toys, cars, etc.. so we never really thought it would be a good idea. Yesterday I got to work and the place where i always park is a consignment shop, and every now and then they throw out stuff. We got this kid booster seat there a while back that was the exact replica of the other kid booster seat, so that was cool. But this time BOOM the car was sitting there. Well of course I couldn't pass that one up. FREE is the new awesome in the Cardine home. Look at some of the things jen has scored in the last couple months
. So i brought the car home and while i was cleaning it, I noticed that there was no steering wheel. At first I was just going to leave it like that but the first thing Haven said was of course, "Where da deering wheel". And Maiya sat there trying to grab the invisible wheel. So there kicked in my Macgyver sense. I found and old PS1 controller in my basement, cut up an old curtain rod, and found some electrical tape. I screwed the rod into the controller, cut up some plastic pens to keep the steering mechanism (yes i said mechanism) from being too loose in the hole. and then i put it all together, with some more pens fastened internally so the kids couldn't pull it out. /flex

Not only did the kids love it, they absolutely loved it! Haven proceeded to make us laugh with is impressions. Imagine the famous line "Feeling Lucky Punk" by Dirty Harry being said by a 2 year old, and replace it with "Wanna DRIVE?!?!??!". I was rolling. Anyway, it was a fun night in the the Cardine Household.

It's been a while...

So as you can tell from my lack of posting in the last... month, i've been pretty busy. Work has been tremendously busy. In sept & oct we were working on completing a huge project for Church & Dwight, which still isn't complete. It should probably be up in Q1 of next year once it passed their legal review in the next couple months. The Cardine family went on a needed 2 week vacation to visit my parents down in sunny Florida. It was mostly a chill vacation, so we didn't do the disney thing this time. Plus we weren't sure the kids would appreciate it as much at this age. We'll most likely do it next year when we go down.

This past monday was my first day back at work and it was fairly quiet since i left. No fires came up, which was amazing to hear. We have an awesome opportunity to do a sizable job with a very high profile client, so this week I started learning some new technology we will be using on it. So this week I made a pizza ordering app in Silverlight which we will use internally to handle our monthly pizza party. It was pretty fun to do. I'll put up some screenies next week.

The fam is good. Maiya has been amazing us with the amount of words and things she's been saying and understanding. She walks around the house and sings the first line of the Barney song which cracks us up. Haven has hit the phase of needing to do everything himself, and if you even think about doing something that he thinks he can do, there is a meltdown. Jen and I are still trying to figure out how to deal with that. Today Jen is having another yard sale at Danna and Mannys house. Hopefully it is a little more successful than last time. I think with the money from the last one we were able to buy pizza for dinner. Here's hoping for chinese tonight! =)

Anyway... thats about it. I'm hoping to keep this a little more updated, as i know you all are dying to hear from me! =P

So last night 2 people told me it was too cold to play golf... i called them weenies! What do you think knowing that if you agree I will be calling YOU a weenie too!

Holey Cat

Our cat Cricket (AKA Rickety Cricket) is an indoor/outdoor cat. He goes outside when he needs to do his business, when he wants to terrorize the neighborhood wildlife, and when he wants to meet up with his pals and girlfriends. The other day when I came home he was laying by the door and I notice a hole a little smaller than a quarter in his side. It didn't go through his body, but it was deep enough to cause concern, and it looked infected. I guess one of the neighborhood gang cats thought he smelt good from his bath the other day, and tried to eat him... So Jen took him to the animal hospital that night and it ended up costing approx $210. I mean geez... $58 for the checkup, $47 for an antibiotic, $48 for rabies booster, and the rest for medicine. I mean talk about markup... No stitches. No surgery. Just a cleaning and some drugs. This is my first experience with a veterinarian, and hopefully my last. Growing up i don't remember ever bringing my animals to the doctor. We normally took the "It'll fix itself" approach, and it always worked out.

How much is it to put my animals on my health insurance? =P

Dark clouds over my head

So I was thinking this morning about a post i could write about how this week has been pretty cool so far, and then my COMPUTER GOES DOWN! I mean seriously?!?!? For the most part this week has been good...

- 3 Free Lunches
- Shortened Week
- Saved money by fixing Ole Betsy (my car) myself
- FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS TONIGHT! (Go Titans!)
- Outback Ribs filling my bellah
- Awesome time at our churches Rock & Run for Africa
- Jen and I decided to host a small group for our church (let us know if you want to come! all welcome!)
- Jen found some awesome deals this week. Including: Free Playground which we put up in our front yard (pictures to follow), some nice patio furniture (Free), and other random stuff.

vs

- BROKEN COMPUTER!
- Delay of fixing car b/c store didn't do what they said they were going to do on time
- 1 number off on the Mega Millions from winning $10! (i mean cmon... 2 numbers should give me my money back at least!)
- Finding out i have to demo an app for our client and like 20 others next week in Princeton... maybe we'll go to Keens afterwards again... if so, you can scratch this.
- Birds pooping all over our car, and on my buddy who brought me to work while my car was injured.
- Jen running out of water the other day at home (happens when all the planets align)
- Maiya with a cold waking up every night this week

Childhood Friends

I had a fun weekend this past weekend. After an exhausting work week with fast approaching deadlines and … special clients =), it was nice to have some time to be with friends, and family, who desire nothing of me apart from love.

Saturday we got to hang out with some friends who have a little girl, who has in the last year has become Haven’s best friend. It makes me happy to see how much fun they have together, showing off their ABC’s, 123’s, songs, jumping skills, and just being kids. We taught them how to play Hide & Seek, which was an epic fail as they couldn’t stay hidden as when one would declare “Here I come!” the other would answer back “I’m right here!”. It was funny to say the least. I hope they and the other rugrats around them are friends for a long time.

Sunday we went to a birthday party of the little girl of some long lost friends, Sam and Rob, of whom we recently got back in touch with. I think I had a better time at the party then my 2 children. It was great to reconnect with them and a bunch of others who I’ve missed. Rob and I were childhood friends. I spent many of summers at his house during break from school. The Forests were like my other family. They had the biggest family I had ever known of at the time, with 6 kids, which made it easier to find people to play baseball with. =) I would stay over weeks at a time and would occasionally phone home to let my mother know I was still alive when Janet (Rob’s mother) would ask me to. I would go to their family functions and trips, and they introduced me to cinnamon toast (the real stuff, not the cereal =P)! Janet even tried to force feed me foods I hated (cough broccoli), unfortunately that didn’t go over that well, and she never tried again. At times I was the voice of reason between Rob and his mother, and would coerce & help Rob to do chores for money. I think we were saving up to buy something cool. Possibly a radio controlled plane or something as we both wanted to be air force pilots (obviously didn't happen =P). And now that I think of it, I don’t think I ever got my cut. The Forests were my first experience with homeschoolers. I remember thinking it was so cool that they didn’t have to go to public school, and had tried to get my mother to let me go check it out a couple times, but she didn’t buy into it. My second experience with homeschoolers was with my lovely wife and her sister, who I don’t think had a similar experience.

The Forests also lived in the largest house I had seen at the time, a large log cabin in the woods, which they had built themselves. I remember I was dropped off at the bottom of their development a few times in the winter as it was “treacherous” to drive up their roads in the snow. It seemed like a long haul, but it was all worth the fun I would have when I got there. We used to have large capture the flag games in the woods that surrounded their house. Before we got caught and reprimanded, we used to tie our captors up to trees in our jail area. They were also my first experience with foster care. They fostered a number of kids when I was there, which was something I never knew about. I was there so much, that it was sad for me some times to see them leave. They even took me in for a few weeks when times were rough at home, and I needed a place to stay. The great thing is that even after all their kids have grown up and left they are still caring for foster kids, and looking to adopt.

It’s funny because even before this party, and before we got back in touch with these friends, I was thinking about writing a post like Billy Corgan’s “I want my band back” ad in the Chicago Tribune, but called “I want my Forests back”. I learned a lot from the Forests growing up. I learned that I love big families, no matter how dysfunctional it can be at times, they are always there for you. I learned that we aren’t here to just care for ourselves, but for others. I learned that we can do so much more than we think we can, no matter how difficult we think life can be. I’ve learned that there is more to life than fame and fortune, and that there’s nothing that can take that realization away. I thank God that I was able to grow up in a “safe” environment. I know many who haven’t had the same, and have fallen to the wayside, and have to make bigger decisions then they should ever have at those ages. I thank God for my family, and hope my children have Forest families in their life that can help them grow, and learn when they feel their mother and I just don’t get it.

Many thanks to the Forest clan for putting up with and taking care of me for so many years; I hope that we can continue to be in each other lives.

Cheers to Childhood Friends.

Rock & Run for Africa!

[I copied this from Jen's blog to get her some more traffic]

Did you know that 1.1 billion people don't have access to clean drinking water!? Have you heard that two million people will die this year from unsafe drinking water and that 80% of those are children!

I can't imagine if I didn't have the option to turn on the faucet and give my children clean water. What must that be like?

I'm participating in an event called Rock and Run for Africa on September 6th with my church, Liquid. I am not going to send individual emails, because I know that there are thousands of worthy causes that you could choose to donate to. Please consider this one, I think it's incredibly important.

We are attempting to raise resources to help families in Africa who don't have the privilege of clean drinking water.

Here is a video with more information.

Run for Africa from Liquid Church on Vimeo.

If you wish to donate, simply follow this link. Any amount is appreciated!

Interview with Dave Ramsey on the recession

Jen found this interview which i found interesting. We're currently doing a 13 week class on our financial life called Financial Peace University with our church by Dave Ramsey, which is turning out to be really cool. Enjoy.

I don't know what to say...

Why Church?

Jen and I have been church goers for most of our lives. We've been at various types of churches, and the one are currently attending I have to say has been unlike any other we've attended. It's called Liquid Church. They have 2 churches that meet in hotels. One in Morristown NJ, and one in south jersey. They are different to other churches we've been to b/c it just seems like everything they do is for others. They choose to meet in hotels b/c they rather invest money into others rather than a mortgage. They have the 2 churches that meet in the hotels and a pretty large internet campus.

We've enjoyed every message we've seen in the last 6-8 months that we've been attending, which says a lot, b/c i can't remember the last time i've been able to sit still while someone talked to me. They just started a new series a couple weeks ago talking about God & how he doesn't answer prayers like we think he "should". It's pretty interesting. The series before that they did movie blockbusters. Not bashing them =). But using the themes in them, which was pretty cool. Movies like the Harry Potter, Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation. But the most interesting thing about them is that they are modern. They are up to date on trends, technology, people and life. They did a series on money management featuring Dave Ramsey which was really helpful, and I'm sure with the economy the way it is, people were able to take a lot from it. We even joined his 13 week financial course, which is rough, but i think it will help us in the long term.

If you are looking for a church, or looking for something but don' t know what, check out their website. All their messages are on there. Maybe you will find one you like. You don't even have to go there, as they have an online church. Convienient Much?

House O Lego

My first movie. Enjoy!

Fun Work

So my job @ Parse3 can be fun and hell at the same time. Mostly the latter... j/k =P. Anyway, I get to be a part of some cool sites, and one of which just launched in the last week. It just so happens to be for Oxiclean you may have heard of it. Or probably heard of their pitch person Billy Mays. When we first started working for them we would crack jokes on how much we couldn't stand the guy. We didn't work directly with him, but just knew him from his commercials. But as we worked on the project/site it was interesting to see and hear how much the employees there respected him. It was sad to hear and deal first hand with his passing, as it occurred a week before we were scheduled to launch. That was one crazy week... trust me.

Anyway, my team and I were responsible for this site, and I had the pleasure of doing the flash intro (i hate flash btw...) , along with a load of other stuff.

www.oxiclean.com

ps. If you or your company needs any custom software or website help, talk to me! =)

My Band

Someone sent this to me on facebook, and i did it... i swear i didn't cheat

What would your own album look like if you were in a band? Follow the directions below and find out.

Here are the rules:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random... Läs mer”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.



here's mine

World Series baby!

Can't believe i forgot to mention our softball team is in the WS!! THIS SATURDAY! ROFLMAO. Seriously. Ask me what our record was... do et! Well... not counting the forfeit from the other team... 1-7 or something like that. How are we in the WS you ask? Well basically there are 16 teams split into 4 divisions. we are in the noob division, and in this league everyone makes it into the playoffs. During the season the top 2 divisions and the bottom 2 divisions play amoungst each other, but in the finals only the 4 teams in each div play against each other. So last we was the first round of the playoffs... AND WE WON! Bwahahhaha. We killed the whole game and almost lost it in the last inning while up 10 runs. yea it was brutal. Anyway, i went 4/4 with 3 doubles and 1 single. i think 3 rbis and 3 runs. Not too shabby. Tomorrow is going to be rough as we will be missing like half our team. So pray for rain!

I'll let you know how it goes, but I don't think it's going to be pretty. The team we're playing beat us like 26-4 last time. Groan...

ps... Haven knows Louuuies, Alex (Cora), Gary (Sheffield), David WRIGHT, and Ryan Church now! hehe. o and he also says "who is that" now instead of "what is that!" whew! (those are mets & ex-mets players btw (buh bye ryan church!))

Avoid this Job

this is my new favorite blog

http://www.avoidthisjob.com

check it out.

there was a new post this afternoon, that i can't stop laughing at.

Funny Post

To Golf... or not to Golf...

So I went golfing the other day... Well I tried to that is. I was taken to the craziest course I've ever seen (please note I haven't seen too many, maybe 4 or 5). But as I'm looking up information on it for this post, I feel better, because it seems I'm not the only one to have their a** handed to them by it. I'm not a pro by any means. And maybe it was my lack of hitting the ball, then it was the actual course besting me, but it was still crazy.

The course is up by me and called Crystal Springs. It was a beautiful course, and the best part (although it added like an additional 45 mins to the day!) was driving the golf cart to each hole. Each hole was basically separated by wooded areas, and land, and condos. So it was very scenic. here are some pictures i found on the website.

Here's my favorite hole. Why? Well, do you see that little space between the row of condos at the top of the picture? Well... that's where the tee box was. Par3 150yds, and about a 50yd drop =) My shot conveniently sliced way to the left of the picture. Lost ball #8


This one looks all innocent and stuff, but too bad they didn't back up the camera and actually show you the actual fairway. On my 6th shot of this par 4, i landed a ball right on that little piece of land sticking out into the water, about 8inches from the edge of the water... I was excited! =)


You see all those rolling hills? Well imagine 75% of the holes having them and 60% of those with ones 2-3times larger.


Please notice the text at the bottom of this "Rated the most challenging course in New Jersey". NOW YOU TELL ME!


All in all it was a fun time. I shot a 125 (not actually as we didn't have anything over a double par... so if par was 5, the max you can get for the hole is 10). If we were doing a straight out game w/ no concedes, mulligans, or "i didn't see that"'s i probably would have gotten like a 150. I still have to work on getting my drives down, my middle game, as well as my putting... so basically everything. To you new players, when you first started skiing did you hit the black diamond the first time? NO! so don't go here unless you have a LOT of extra balls, and at least a bottle of vodka to numb the pain.

1 Year Old

My little one turns 1 tomorrow. It's hard to believe 1 year has already passed since she was born. These past couple years have flown by, and I hope it slows down some, so that i can enjoy the years when my kids don't regard me as baggage. I love being a dad, and it makes me sad when i hear people say they have no desire to have kids or rather wait until they are ready (like that ever happens =P). I never knew how much i would love being a father until i was one. I guess it's something you just have to experience for yourself. Anyway...

Happy Birthday Bean

(Bean is our nickname for her. I remember we called Haven every form of the word Pumpkin when he was her age...) What are some nicknames you guys use or were called?

Fun Game

Although the Mets were horrible... that's being REALLY nice. I had a real great time. Went with a bunch of friends, and we had an enjoyable time. There was a ton of rain which ended up delaying the game for about an hour, but it stopped and that was it for the rest of the night. Here are some pics & vids.

b/c of the rain there were some areas where fans were NOT allowed to walk... primarily any where... We almost got involved in the first mob rush at Citi field! 2 guards blocking a walkway from 100 angry fans... not a good combo. They got backup though =(.



some lightning...



Amazing to see a brand new gazillion dollar stadium with leaks...



Depressed Met fans...


Angry yankee fans...



Bad stats...


cool clouds...


Finally, the only thing that kept me entertained throughout the game... heckling Melky Cabrera. At one point i had like 6 others screaming his name with me. fun times...



I'm looking forward to my next game! Let me know if you want in!

Computer Blues..

So at work I've been known as the black hole of working computers. Computers come to me in perfect working condition, and out of the blue they just stop working. I don't do anything to it besides my normal work activities and don't install anything other than the programs I use to carry out my daily todo list. I write to you now at 1:36pm on a monday afternoon, b/c today my computer decided to die. We have network monitoring on virus software, so that is always up to date and run daily. So i don't know how the heck these things crap out on me! I am writing to you from my MAC... the one that has never crashed... required a reinstall... required ANYTHING from me... while i wait for our IT guy to give me the diagnosis of my PC. I mean this thing knows just when to die on me... it's not like I have a mound of work to do, or 2 site launches, or a new project with a tight deadline which needs me or anything. I mean seriously! Sigh....

IM Conversation:
Jen: hey how's it going?
Dave: as good as getting pooped in the mouth while sleeping on the beach with my mouth wide open.
---- 5 mins later ----
Dave: no comment?

If IT tells me i have to do a format/reinstall. I am seriously going to cry. seriously... I've cried for less.