Bubble Tea - A specialty here

Bubble Tea - A specialty here
Originally uploaded by jwarnke.

Bubble Tea - this is a Taiwanese speciality and our favorite new treat. It is green milk tea with these little tapioca pearls that you suck up through the fat straw. YUM!!!

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Trip to Manila (The Flight and first day)

Well, I made my first trip to Southeast Asia to Manila, Phillipines to be exact. The flight was very long, but alot of fun. I flew Business Class which made it more bearable. Lots of great food. Here are some pictures of the flight and the first day in the city. I will post more as the days go on.

Here are the pics

Disney with the Lobbs

We took the girls on a long weekend trip to Disney World with our close friends, the Lobbs. The girls had a wonderful time with their best friends Nick and Nate. We stayed at Port Orleans. We had a great dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge on Friday night and then to our favorite place of all time, The Biergarten at Epcot. We did all the great rides as the crowds were rather light. We can't wait to go back in December!

Here are the pics

It's COLD here - so, we needed some new hats!

The weather is getting really darn COLD here in Florida. I think it dipped down into the 60s...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So, the girls needed some new hats to help them brave the cold. I was up in Calgary this week, so I picked up some cool Canada Maple Leaf scarf hats that I thought they would love. Sure enough, they haven't taken them off yet. They wear them everywhere now...

Here are some more pics in their cool hats.

New House Painting

We painted the bedroom and Jen also painted the living room (which turned out amazing!!):

Nick's 4th Birthday Party

We had a great time at Nick's 4th Birthday Party today. Nick had his party at the girl's favorite, A Play Patch. All of their best friends were there. Donuts, cheese, juice, cake...could you have any more of their favorite foods?? The kids had a blast and ran around with smiles on their faces the whole time.

Here are some pics from the party

Garrett's Birthday Party

Anna and Ellie were invited to a great Abrakadoodle party at Garrett's house today. They had a wonderful time doing their water-color resistance painting. All the kids had an awesome time and of course got to eat corndogs, dino-chicken and lots of cake. Happy Birthday G-man!

Here are some pics from the party

Street Rods with the Girls

Dad and I took the girls to the Souteast Nationals at the fairgrounds and they actually had a great time. They entered a coloring contest and braved the October heat to check out the beautiful cars with Papa and Daddy.

USF at Miami 2005

Jer and I went down to Miami to witness history in the making. The first time that USF faced one of the big Florida schools and we were there to witness it at the Orange Bowl in Miami. We had a great time. Even though USF gave the game away, we really did enjoy ourselves. Just to see the Bulls in a major venue playing a major powerhouse like Miami was fantastic!

We rented a nice Lincoln LS on Hertz points and headed down on Saturday afternoon. We got down there at about 4 and checked into the free hotel that Jer got (once again, on points). We then headed over to the stadium at around 5 just to walk around and check stuff out. It turns out that we happened upon a big USF Alumni gathering. They had a huge tent, awesome food, kegs and kegs of beer and live entertainment. Leroy Selmon was there, Betty Castor, Judy Genshaft, Tom Veit, the band, the cheerleaders, and about 600 of our closest friends. What a nice surprise...

We went into the decrepit old stadium and found our amazing seats (provided by my wonderful boss - Thanks Ed !). It turns out we had unbelievable seats on the 40 yrd line smack dab in the middle of the Miami fans. I thought I had been to some loud venues before, but damn, my hears are still ringing. C - A - N - E - S - CANES ! Ugggggh. How many times did we have to hear that ?!?!? 3 or 4 too many times, thats how many.

It rained, in fact, we had to move up into the cover of the upper deck to stay dry one time. We then were able to move down for kickoff and enjoy the fun.

USF just gave it away - we turned the ball over on STUPID mistakes. We basically included the Miami D in our routes. Ah, look, there is an open Canes safety, and wow, he's open ! Well, we were happy just to be there. The Bulls got an idea of what it is like to play a top team in their house, which was 58K strong with fans by the way. All in all, we had a FANSTASTIC time and wouldn't have traded it for the world. It is was a great father-son weekend, of which we will have to repeat again next year.

GO BULLS !!

Here are the pics

Garcia Comes to town

Jason Garcia and Joe Fisher came into town during the same weekend. Some might call it the convergence of 2 large storms (The Perfect Storm), but we all had a wonderful time.

Jason stayed with us during the weekend and Anna really took to him. Of course, 2 hams are usually drawn to each other.

Here are some pics of our evening out at Channelside.

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Weeki Wachee Springs

Jen was away for the weekend at Michelle's baby shower, so we decided to venture up the road 40 miles to Weeki Wachee Springs to see the Mermaids. We had a great time on a steamy summer day. The river cruise, the mermaids and swimming in the cold springs was very nice.

Here are some pics

Our Fairies

Can you imagine a cuter picture than this??

Sunday Drive to Wilderness Lake Preserve

Well, we took a Sunday drive to check out all the new neighborhoods up North in Pasco County. We went on a wild goose chase trying to find Connerton and finally found it just 10 minutes away from home ! While we were looking we found WLP which we always wanted to check out. Here are some pics from the neat Lodge and Lake. The kids LOVED the neat tree-fort playground and the fish that they got to feed. Overall, we thought the lodge was amazing. They had a spa, a nature learning center, boats you could check out, a swimming deck, a great pool, etc. But, the homes were just OK. Nothing really made us feel that the homesites were any different than anywhere else. I wish they had forced the builders to all build in the NorthWest lodge or cottage style of home. There is nothing stranger than seeing a great lodge and then a Florida style stucco house with palm trees - UGGH.

Here are some more pics

Our Anniversary

8 years ! Can you believe it? Well, Jen surprised me this time and made reservations at Armani's, the same place that I proposed to her. In fact, this picture is taken at the very table I said those words. Well, 8 years later and our lives have changed quite a bit, but we still are in love just like the day we met. I love you Jennifer !

A Day at MOSI

We decided to check out the new Children's Museum at MOSI in Tampa and it was great. The girls loved it. We even saw an IMAX movie all about those guys from the Broadway group STOMP. There was lots to do for the kids. The new Kids in Charge section was really neat. They have some more work to do on it before it is 100% complete, but the girls loved it anyway. They would have stayed in the Publix grocery store section for hours if we had let them.

Check out the pics here...

Washington DC

I worked in DC for a few weeks and was able to take a look around. My office was right across the street from the capital building. The US Capital is a gorgeous piece of architecture; one that makes you proud to be an American. Too bad I was sick for about the whole 2 weeks I was there or I would have been able to take in alot more of the historic town.

Baby Nate's 1st Birthday Celebration

We were invited to a small family gathering to celebrate baby Nate's 1st Birthday. What a cutie. The girls had a great time playing with Nick and Nate. Pizza and cake - how could you beat that???

Here are some great pics of the occassion.

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My Week Off With the Family

Wow...what a wonderful week off. I took 1 week to spend at home with absolutely NOTHING on the agenda, but to do stuff with the girls. It was heavenly. MerMer was in town for the week as well and we did all kinds of fun things.

It was really weird to have a whole week at home to do things as they rolled our way. We would get up in the morning and say "what do you want to do today girls?" And, of course they had all kinds of great ideas.

I will be posting some pics of our various adventures so what here for more...

GUTS !!!

I said to my team...you got Guts??? We are going Live in just days, people are stressed out, tensions are high, etc. So, it was time for a little extra motivation. How? A shaved head and Go Live Goatee !