Married In Ohio » Reflections

Back To Reality

Midwestern City Boy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:39:51 +0000

Last week seemed like a long week but it really wasn’t. Memorial Day (our next long weekend/short week) is 138 days away. Realizing that is not how you want your Monday morning to start.

After a brief vacation with temperatures in the mid-50s late last week the Ohio winter has returned. We didn’t expect for it to last; but it makes normal weather seem a lot colder. At last there is no snow in the forecast.

We haven’t forgotten about the “year in review” post that we usually publish the first week in January, we’ve just haven’t had time to pull everything together. It’s definitely harder to keep get back mojo this time of year.

Both gyms I regularly use were full of people implementing their New Year’s resolution to lose weight. It’s only been a week and they’re already not as crowded. It’s difficult to see results in just a week, especially if your “workout” consists solely of walking in the treadmill at 2.5mph for 25 minutes.

I haven’t yet made my resolutions for 2012. Usually by this time, I’ve reflected on the past year and selected some achievable goals; but it’s another thing that’s turned into a round tuit.

HNT – 330

Midwestern City Boy — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:00:42 +0000

As you know, today is the last day for Half Nekkid Thursday. Today is our 330th and final post. California Girl and I have thoroughly enjoyed participating as posters and as followers. We want to give our heartfelt thanks to Osbasso for organizing and running it for almost seven years. That is a monumental achievement. California Girl and I wondered how to best commemorate our final HNT. We thought about taking photographs in a variety of places; but nothing seemed worthy. Ultimately, we decided that the best tribute would be to highlight our HNT photos over the years. For the finale, we created a Flash movie of all of our primary HNT photos. The picture changes faster than normal so it’s not too long.

Get Adobe Flash player to see this video.

We’ve also included a Flash movie of all of our alternate HNT photos. It’s slightly longer than the first movie; but, together they contain every still photograph that we’ve ever posted for Half Nekkid Thursday.

Get Adobe Flash player to see this video.

Happy New Year. To find out what Half Nekkid Thursday is all about, visit Osbasso. And while you are there, please thank him for creating such a fun way to spend the early hours of Thursday morning.

Class of 1981

Midwestern City Boy — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:21:01 +0000

California Girl and I went to my 30 year high school reunion on Saturday night. It doesn’t seem like that been that long. Most everyone in attendance looked good. Sadly, there were a number of classmates who had passed; some of whom I knew about, and some whom were a surprise. It was good to catch up with old friends, especially those who had moved who had moved away. Facebook is a great way to keep up with people but it was still very nice to see people in the flesh. The evening was over all too quickly. I am really looking forward to seeing some of the pictures taken by the photographer the organizers hired. I took some photos myself; but not as many as I would have liked since I was so busy socializing. The world has changed a lot since we graduated; but, some things, like having a good time with the people you grew up with that will always be the same.

Empty Nesters Once Again

Midwestern City Boy — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:50:12 +0000

After a four week Christmas break, The Girl has gone back to school which means that California Girl and I are empty nesters once again. The house is much, much quieter than it was a few days ago. We had partially adjusted to the change last fall; but, after a month like old times, we are beginning the process anew. It will be doubly difficult this time. Party because of the winter blahs that we always seem to get in February; and partly because we’ll be around the house a lot more since we won’t be making as any road trips to watch games likes we did in the fall. We still keep in touch; but there is no substitute for being there.

2010 A Year In Review

Midwestern City Boy — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:00:15 +0000

January
Had an occasion to do the Snoopy Dance because of something that happened at work.
Took a cool photograph of California Girl with the flowers she received at The Girl’s last senior night.

We reviewed the proofs of The Girl’s senior photographs and made our selections. It was a bit discomforting how rapidly her high school days were winding down.

February
Commemorated the fifth anniversary of MarriedInOhio.Com.
MarriedInOhio.Com went over 2,500,000 visitors.
Took some neat photographs for Two For Tuesday and Half Nekkid Thursday in the aftermath of a huge snowstorm we had.

March
The Girl had an epiphany and decided where she wanted to attend college. It hadn’t really started to sink in how different things were going to be without any kids around.
Decided to see if I could hold up a hat with no hands for Two For Tuesday.

Worked on a special project for California Girl that kept me busy in the evenings. We still found time for our weekly photo session.

April
Changed the image in the “About Us” area of our sidebar. We haven’t changed much wanted to create a new one since the photograph was many years old. We posted the candidates that we were considering for Half Nekkid Thursday.

Went on a 900 mile round road trip with The Girl for an out of state soccer tournament. Then two weeks later, watched The Girl win the last trophy of her club soccer career.

May
Celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. Went out to eat at our favorite restaurant. Posted a photo from our anniversary dinner for Two For Tuesday.

The Girl graduated high school. Then the next day, she registered for classes in the fall and got her college ID.
Got a new camera. Took nekkid photographs of ourselves to test it out.

June
Wore boxing gloves in one of our more interesting Two For Tuesday posts.
The swimming pool is still where we retreat when things aren’t going as well as we would like in the real world.
For Half Nekkid Thursday we did a documentary of our bedcam setup.

July
Created and published our favorite HNT photo post of the year.
Practiced being empty nesters. Posted a NSFW tour of our home for Two For Tuesday culminating with a grand finale in the study for Half Nekkid Thursday.

Photographed and posted a lot of pictures of California Girl in a bikini showing her summer tan lines for Two For Tuesday and HNT.

August
Finally got an Android smartphone. California Girl got a Droid too. We should have upgraded years ago!
Installed a special, mobile friendly theme for Androids and iPhones.
Took both kids to school and officially became empty nesters. Posted about our first pizza night without kids for Two For Tuesday.

September
Posted some cool sexting photographs for Half Nekkid Thursday.

Watched The Girl play soccer at the next level in college. We’re not in Kansan any more, they play rough.
Got another new camera. Again took some NSFW photographs of ourselves to test it.

October
Discovered that I still own a hairbrush despite not needing to use one in years.
Went to Florida for vacation. Posted some photos from our trip for Two For Tuesday and Half Nekkid Thursday.

Added a new hard drive to the server. The old one was getting filled up since we have posted so many pictures over the years.

November
Took another “instant favorite” photograph of California Girl.
California Girl changed the color of her hair. Heather was the first person to notice.

Decorated the Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving now that both kids are in school. Posted a NSFW Christmas card style photo for Two For Tuesday.

December
Made an animated slide show of some of our recent photographs using JavaScript.

Click here to stop the animation. We also posted a more traditional slide show for our Christmas tree Half Nekkid Thursday.

Get Adobe Flash player to see this video.

California Girl and I both got new glasses. We featured them in an artistic Two For Tuesday post.

Created our and posted first high definition video for Two For Tuesday. It was also our first movie in FLV format.

Get Adobe Flash player to see this video.

MarriedInOhio.Com went over 3,000,000 visitors, a milestone we noted in our Christmas Wish Half Nekkid Thursday post. It’s definitely not 2005 anymore so we removed our hit counter widget.

Empty Nesters

Midwestern City Boy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:00:24 +0000

We took The Boy back to school so California Girl and I are officially “empty nesters”. I never realized how much I talked to and interacted with the kids until now. The house is really, really quiet. The Girl called earlier today just to check in. We text and FB chat a lot but it was nice to hear her voice. She had a lot of homework; but was trying to stay on top of it which I think is good. She’s certainly matured a lot over the past year. I know what she can take care of herself; but I still worry about her. She used to call me every single day when she got out of school and let me know what she was doing, where she was going, and who she was with. It was one of the rules unless she was going straight home which she seldom never did. Now she’s making her own rules. I just hope that the “wisdom” I tried to teach her is enough.

A Freshman Again

Midwestern City Boy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 02:50:05 +0000

Sunday was the last time that the “Fab Four” will be together for a while. The Girl will start classes soon and orientation has already started. It’s hard for us to believe that we have TWO kids in college. It doesn’t seem that long ago that The Boy was starting high elementary school. I know that they’re “grown”. After all, I do things like go to boxing class with them. But, to me, she’ll always be that little girl who years ago when we were having a series of heavy snowstorms that were cancelling school and work said with such excitement that “There’s snow outside almost every day Daddy!”

A Mini Preview

Midwestern City Boy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:30:14 +0000

The Girl is so busy shopping, attending graduation parties, and generally hanging out with friends that California Girl and I are already getting a mini preview of the fall. She doesn’t have a summer job, so, unlike when school was in session, she doesn’t have a regular schedule. We recently decreased her allowance because she didn’t do all of her assigned chores. It will be interesting to see if stays that way for the rest of the summer or if she gets another reduction. (She’s going it to need to budget more than she did previously or she’s going to be “surprised”.) With the freedom of graduation comes responsibility. Hopefully, that is a lesson that she already knows and won’t end up learning when she least expects to.

Two Kids in College

Midwestern City Boy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:00:09 +0000

The Girl had her last club soccer game this weekend. She won’t “officially” be an adult for another month or so; but I feel a lot older than I did last week. In just a few days, she’s graduated high school, got her college identification card, registered for classes this coming fall and found someone to room with. She went from being in the midst of high school to being well along on her preparations for college. California Girl and I have already started looking for a dorm-size TV (Her roommate is getting the refrigerator.) It’s good that she got everything taken care of so early; but it really brings home a reality that I wasn’t planning on facing until the fall.

The Last Trophy?

Midwestern City Boy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:20:36 +0000

It was another busy but successful weekend for us. For the third weekend in a row, The Girl had an out of town soccer tournament. She played really well in the championship game and her team was victorious. You may have seen in the background of some of our photographs that our mantle is full of trophies that she and her brother have won. But, there is always room for one more. There is only a month left in the season and then there will not be any more opportunities to win sports trophies. We were there when it all began when she was a little girl. It’s amazing how quickly time has passed.