Lounging on Deck 4

Ten wonderful, incredible years!!!

DizWiz — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:30:00 +0000

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe that it's been that long since Tammy and I were married. It seems like yesterday that I watched in amazement at how beautiful Tammy was when she was walking down the isle toward the altar.

But so much has happened in that same span of time. Just since our last anniversary we have been blessed with a beautiful, wonderful daughter, and we are now home owners. It's amazing how time seems to fly some times and stand still the next.

I am looking forward to the next ten...twenty...fifty--and longer--years of marriage to my wonderful, beautiful wife, Tammy.

I love you Tammy! You're the greatest!

I'm still here!

DizWiz — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:29:00 +0000

Wow. March 20th was the last time I posted an entry here. It seems like a lifetime has passed in that short time.

Let's see...what has gone on since then? The greatest thing to happen to Tammy and me: We had a beautiful baby girl on May 13, 2005 at 5:55 a.m.! Her name is Megan Storey Welch, and she is the most wonderful baby in the world (at least we think so). I'm not going to go into all the details here, because I've set up a web page for her where you can see all the updates and pictures. Just go to meganwelch.com to catch up on the latest.

Tammy has been off of work since shortly before Megan was born, and she goes back to work on August 7th. On August 8th, Megan will start day care at the Disney/YMCA facility on Disney property.

Speaking of work, I started a new job with my company on May 2nd. I now work in Technology as a Sr. Applications Specialist. The title isn't too descriptive, but basically what I do is I support systems for the Circulation Department. I haven't moved too far away from Circulation, but it's a new challenge and I'm learning a lot, which is what I wanted and why I made the move.

We recently traveled to New Orleans (Megan's first trip) to have Megan baptized at St. Angela Merici church. We had a wonderful party afterwards and many family and friends attended. During our trip to New Orleans, Tammy and I were lucky enough to attend the Duran Duran concert at the UNO Lakefront Arena. My family babysat Megan while we went. It was a great show.

I had the opportunity to meet Jeff Gordon again (this was the second time this year) at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. I met him, got his autograph and took a picture with him. I also toured his transporter and met his crew chief, Robbie Loomis. We had garage passes, so we saw all the drivers. I have tons of pictures. Click here to see them. It was a blast!

I've also been doing some work around the house, mowing the grass (will it ever end?) and such.

This time I mean it: I'm going to try to write more in my blog.

Mowing the lawn

DizWiz — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 02:39:00 +0000

After 10 years of living in an apartment, I couldn't wait to have a house of our own so I could have grass to cut (among other things). Well, we've been in the house since early January and the grass had finally gotten long enough to start thinking about mowing it. So, I bought a self-propelled Troy-Built mower and a Black and Decker trimmer/edger at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago to get the ball rolling.

I decided this was the weekend I was going to finally cut the grass. I couldn't wait. I got started at 11 a.m. today. I started in the back yard, but I had to move some junk that the previous owners left, so that took a little while. I then got the mower out and started it up. It started on the first pull. Can you believe that? Anyway, I started cutting the grass. And more grass. And more grass. Our property is a quarter acre. Thank God we have a pool and concrete in the back yard to cut down on the amount of grass.

After the back yard came the front yard. Our lawn in the front slopes down pretty dramatically. That was tough. I had to stop a few times so I wouldn't pass out.

Then I had to edge and trim the weeds. That took a while since it hadn't been done in about four months. After the edging came the cleanup.

When all was said and done, it took me five hours from start to finish. Damn! I am sore all over. I'm telling myself that this was a one time thing, and that it should take less time as I keep it up. But I can only think of summer when I need to cut the grass each week.

I still thank God that I have a lawn of my own to mow. But I hope it gets easier than today! At least in the summer I can jump in the pool after mowing to cool down :-)

Been a long time

DizWiz — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:53:00 +0000

Sorry about the lack of updates. It's been so busy around here, what with us expecting a baby in May, moving into a new house in January and work being busy for both of us--oh yeah, we also took a trip to New Orleans in February as well.

Let's hit the highlights since the last post two months ago: We completely moved into our new house and did some minor renovations (painting, new furniture, etc.). You can see the progress here. Were keeping these pictures somewhat updated so you can check back and see the changes.

Tammy and the baby (Megan) are doing fine. Tammy went for her bi-weekly checkup today and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Everything is on schedule for the due date of May 18.

We went home to New Orleans in February at Mardi Gras. You can see some of the parade photos here and here. Our families threw baby showers for us and everyone was incredibly generous with their gifts. You can see the photos here and here.

In February I also had the opportunity to meet 4-time NASCAR Champion Jeff Gordon. It was the thrill of a lifetime for me. You can see the pictures here. I want to thank Tammy and Melissa for coming with me, but a big thank you goes to Chris for coming along and taking all the great pictures. Thanks a million!

Well, those are the highlights. I promise to try to post more often, especially about the silly and meaningless stuff I normally post about :-)

Out of the apartment and in the new house

DizWiz — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:24:39 +0000

Tammy and I said good-bye to the apartment last night. We moved everything out and cleaned it up this past weekend. We lived there for nine years. We stopped by last night to make sure everything was in good order and to take video and photos. Many tears were shed. Although we didn't intend on staying there that long, and we it wasn't our dream house, as Tammy said, "We made it our home."

We're going to miss the place because so much happened to us while we were there. But, we're moving onward and upward with our new house and our baby on the way, so we still have a lot to experience.

Merry Christmas!

DizWiz — Sat, 25 Dec 2004 15:53:54 +0000

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tammy and I are thankful for having such a wonderful year and for having such loving and supportive family and friends. We received our Christmas presents early, being blessed with expecting a child and with buying a new house.

We wish everyone a happy, safe and wonderful Christmas spent with loved ones.

Company anniversary

DizWiz — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 18:47:29 +0000

Today is my 10 year anniversary with the Orlando Sentinel.

Wow. Ten years. A decade. Nearly a third of my life. It's gone by in a flash. It seems like just yesterday that my sister, Tiffany, helped me move to Orlando. Two weeks after moving here, I got engaged to my lovely wife Tammy.

What a wild, strange trip it's been. :-)

Christmas Entertainment

DizWiz — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 19:30:39 +0000

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. One thing that's great about it is watching all the great movies and TV shows that have become Christmas classics.

My favorites shows are "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the animated version--not the movie).

As for the movies, my favorites are: "Christmas Vacation," "Scrooged," "Home Alone," "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original) and "It's A Wonderful Life."

And my favorite Christmas albums are: Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," "Elvis' Christmas Album," Harry Connick Jr.'s "When My Heart Finds Christmas," "A Very Special Christmas," and 98 Degrees' "This Christmas." (Yes, I know they are a boy band, but it's really a good CD.)

Each one of these takes me back to my younger years when we decorated the tree and put the lights up around the house. And then we waited for christmas. And waited. And waited. (Remember the string of 25 candy canes, and you would pull one off each day in December until Christmas? And going to church--if you're Catholic--and seeing another candle on the Advent wreath lit up each week?) Ahhh...the good old days.

Video Games

DizWiz — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 00:17:27 +0000

As we enter the Christmas season and start decking the halls, it always gets me in the mood to play video games. I guess it's because Santa has left most of my new video consoles and games under the tree. One of my fondest Christmas memories is getting my Atari 2600 in 1980 and having my Dad hook it up and play some games with me.

Anyway, I've always been into console video games (Atari, Nintendo, Playstation, etc.). But Chris has introduced me to some multiplayer PC games that are awesome. We have a "game night" every Tuesday night where we hook up with one of Chris' friends from New Jersey--Sean--and his buddy, Bill for a few hours. We've been playing Unreal Tournament 2004, and it's a blast! It's new for me to be playing against actual humans, and it's a heck of a lot of fun, because it adds a whole new dimension to the game. And Sean and Bill are great competitors, so it's great to play against them.

Thanks for getting me hooked, Chris! :-)

Hate having a cold

DizWiz — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 01:39:09 +0000

I have a cold, and as Tammy will tell you: I'm a horrible patient. I'm a whiner and a big sissy when I don't feel good. The cold came upon me all of a sudden on Friday night, and I still feel week and lightheaded (it's Sunday night). Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel better soon. I'll quit whining to you now. :-)

Big news items

DizWiz — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 18:16:25 +0000

Well, it's been a while since I've written. That's actually for a reason. A lot has been happening to Tammy and me and we didn't want to publicize it until our immediate families knew.

First and foremost: Tammy and I are going to have a baby!!! The due date is May 18, 2005. Everything is going well, and everyone is happy for us. We're thrilled that this is happening to us and we can't wait to meet our new addition next year. We've nicknamed the baby "Boo" until we know what the sex will be.

Next, we're buying a house! We've been looking for a few months now, and we found one we liked so we put in an offer, and it was accepted yesterday. We've been living in the same apartment for nine years, so we're a bit sad to be leaving it (as weird as that may seem), but we're very excited and anxious at the same time to be moving into a new place. Hopefully we'll make it into a home quickly. We should close on the house by the end of the year.

Finally, we just returned from a trip to New York. It was the first time Tammy and I had been to NY, and we loved it. We met my Mom, Tiffany (my sister), Scott (my brother) and my Grandmother (all from New Orleans) at JFK and went to the apartment that is rented by my Uncle Malcolm. You can see the pictures from the trip here. My objective is to compile a trip report and post it on our site. I'll post the link here when it's completed.

I think that's it for now. I think we have enough to keep us busy for a while :-)

Halloween Photo Contest

DizWiz — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:07:10 +0000

I'm not big on posting on discussion boards (I'm more of a lurker), but I decided to enter the Halloween Photo Contest on WDWMagic.com. I posted a picture that I took at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party of the Haunted Mansion. You can see my post here (my screen name is DizWiz--shocker, huh?)

One of the best things about MNSSHP is the lighting at the Magic Kingdom. Disney does a wonderful job of making everything so colorful. The Haunted Mansion is lit up with green, blue and purple lights and fog is everywhere. Eerie! Even if I don't do all that well in the contest, I am getting to share a photo that I like. It's all for fun anyway!

By the way, if you look at the post, check out WDWMagic.com. It's a great Walt Disney World fan site with a large community, including cast members. This is where I get most of my information on rumors and coming attractions.

Disney Halloween Party

DizWiz — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 20:00:47 +0000

Last night Tammy and I met up with Chris and Melissa and went to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. We had a pretty good time. I've posted photos on DizWiz.com. Enjoy!

This wet weekend

DizWiz — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 01:07:25 +0000

Well, as most of you know, Orlando was hit today with its third hurricane in six weeks. Hurricane Jeanne is moving on now (slowly but surely [and don't call me Shirley!]), but the high wind and heavy rain has been hitting us since late last night. Fortunately, we haven't lost power and there's no major damage to our little part of the world (at least looking out the windows).

And why do these things keep hitting on the weekends??? Arrrgggghhhh!

I did take off work on Friday (unrelated to the hurricane), and Tammy and I went to the Magic Kingdom. I've posted some of the pictures we took on DizWiz.com. It was a nice day, even if it was a bit more crowded than we expected. We were there for about six hours, which is a VERY long time for us. We made two rounds around the park. We had a lot of fun. I'm glad I took the day off, especially since today was lost to the hurricane.

Last Tuesday I bought the Star Wars DVD set (the day it came out--that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone). Tammy and I watched Star Wars: A New Hope this week. I was going to watch Empire and Jedi before watching the special features on the bonus disc, but I couldn't wait. We stayed up until 2 a.m. this morning watching this disc. It is great. Tons of history and information. If you don't have it, get it!

I also got the new Star Wars game: Star Wars Battlefront. It's pretty good. It puts you right in the movies! Chris and I have been playing online a bit. The only thing we have an issue with is that it seems too easy. We're going to experiment to see if we can make it a bit tougher and more interesting.

I made a few subtle changes to this page, in case you haven't noticed. If you look at the right column, I've included a link to the XML feed (just click on the graphic) as well as links to blogs of friends and other great sites. Enjoy!

Fun day

DizWiz — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 18:26:07 +0000

Yesterday Tammy and I were awakened at the crack of dawn by a phone call from Chris. Since we were up, we got ready and headed out for lunch at the new Fudruckers at Festival Bay. I love hamburgers. Let me tell you...the hamburgers at Fudruckers are pretty darn good. They even bake their own buns. And the onion rings are quite possibly the best ones I've ever eaten. It was all quite tasty! It's a bit expensive (two burgers, regular fries, large onion rings and two cokes cost $19) so we won't be dining there every day, but it's a nice treat.

We then walked around Festival Bay and did some shopping and peeked in the Vans Skate Park. It is HUGE! We stood around and watched the kids skateboard and rollerblade. It seems like a nice, safe place for the kids to skate around.

After we left Festival Bay, we went to Belz Outlet Mall and walked around. Tammy bought a nice skirt and shirt while we were there. Then we headed home for a bit.

We decided to go to the Magic Kingdom around 17:30 (that's 5:30 p.m. for normal people). We had a really nice time. We just walked around a bit, ate some dinner at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (the old Tomorrowland Terrace--I like eating there because we sit outside with a nice view of Cinderella Castle and Tomorrowland) and rode some attractions. We went on the WEDway PeopleMover, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. We also took some pictures of our evening. You can see them here.

We left the Magic Kingdom when SpectroMagic started so we could beat the crowds. We went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping. We bought the new "Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs" cookbook. It's great because it has recipes from the Disney Cruise Line, as well as recipes from Disneyland and WDW. I also picked up the new WDW CD.

We got home about 22:30 (10:30 p.m.). I TiVo'd the race from Bristol so I watched that. At least until Jeff Gordon was unfairly penalized and was black flagged. Then I fast-forwarded to the end to see who won, and saw that rube Dale Jr. jumping up and down in Victory Lane so I turned it off and deleted it to make room for something else worthwhile.

The best thing about the day was spending it with Tammy. Saturday is the only full day we have together because of her work schedule. That's what made it a perfect day.