Tonight is my first night of being home alone. Tuesday my folks came over, Wednesday I worked. So tonight I'm kicking it. I've got some studying for the two games I have to cover on Friday and Saturday night, I'm going to watch the UW-UCLA mens basketball game, and I'm going to relax and watch my shows, The Office, Earl and Scrubs. I love Tivo!

I hope I can just relax and kick it. I'm not so good at being lonely or just doing nothing.

Before I begin with my Day III review, let me just say that I lost last night. The TV woke me up as it was shutting off. This time I conceded victory and fell back asleep. TV 2, Kevin 2.

This morning I came into work and got a nice surprise. Lis hadn't forgotten about me after all. She had left me seven emails. I was so surprised and excited! I love those moments.

What she told me was that Lukas was having a blast with his cousins and going in the pool. Tomorrow he'll join his new buddies - they're twins and just 10 months younger than Lukas - at school for a Carnival party. Ah yes, Carnival begins next week for the Brazilians.

Lis also wrote that everyone loves Lia and her little chunky thighs. I guess she looks good in her sundresses...I want to see! Hopefully she sends pictures soon.

She didn't have too much more to say. Sounds like she's busy but I was happy that she made the time to write me and tell me that she missed me.

I’ve always been afraid of the dark. Even as I’ve gotten older I’ve continued to sprint down the hallway, flicking on the light switches as I dart by them. And now I’m left home alone for 30 days, that doesn’t make getting to sleep easy. So I use the TV as my sleeping pill. Which is how I put myself to sleep last night. Set the timer and hope that I fall asleep before it shuts off my TV. Last night I won. But then the TV turned off and I turned on. Darnit, TV 1, Kevin 0. I tied the score when I reset the timer for 30 minutes and was out 3 minutes later.

I woke up this morning with stomach problems. Ninety-percent of it was due to the half of pepperoni pizza I chased with a bowl of chocolate ice cream and 10-percent because I think I was nervous about Lis, Lukas and Lia arriving in Brazil and getting to my in-laws. I wasn’t nervous because I’m afraid she’d never comeback, like that story that was featured on Dateline recently. Similar situation, wife takes their 4-year-old son on vacation, however that lady never returned. You can read about that frustrating story here:

I think I was nervous just because I wanted everything to go smoothly for her and the kids. If you’ve been to a foreign country (NOT Canada) you know that people drive crazy. Brazil is no different. And my brother-in-law driving them home scares me. He nearly killed Josh and I three times on our way to the airport in 2006. Man, has it been that long since we last went to Brazil?!

My fears and stomach problems disappeared when Lis called me at work and I received this good news:

Update from Brazil:

Lis called at 12:11pm...they arrived at her folk's house and it doesn't sound like they miss us at all. Lukas jumped on the phone and said "Oi!" - he's already speaking Portuguese! - then said he was "going to the piscina (pool)" and yelled "Tchau!" before heading out the door. Lis said Lia was great. Didn't fuss or fight the entire flight and she received compliments from everyone on the plane. Just like her big brother...great traveler! Lukas was great as well. He fell asleep a 1/2 hour before the flight took off and woke up a 1/2 hour before they touched ground. He was all excited to watch a flick but never was able to. Oh well it was "Beverly Hills Chihauhua."

A nice Brazilian man (hopefully older and ugly) volunteered to help Lis with all her luggage so that made things easier. "It was awesome!" were her words about the flight.

Lis was picked up by Elen and Alan, transported to Eliana's house for lunch and Eliana drove them to her Mom's house where my mother-in-law has not stopped laughing from all the excitement. Seriously, I heard her in the background.

Lukas is all pumped to see his cousins, Edu and Leo. I'll try to talk with them on Saturday via MSN Messenger.

Just thought I would give you an update. So glad that everyone was great on the plane. I was worried that Lia would fuss and be a disturbance. She'll probably just do that when Dad flies back with them.

I have this feeling that I'll be lonely for the next 30 days. I've tried to get people together for an Oscar Party on Sunday, no one is interested. I'll probably spend Saturday watching high school basketball until I work until 8pm. Might as well, nothing better to do. I can hangout, watch basketball from 2pm to 8pm then work. Friday night I'm going to visit my friend Ian and possibly watch a flick at his house. Other than that not much is going on. Nobody loves me. Hehe! 

Thirty days! That’s how long I will be alone without my family. They left this morning at 9:15am and will arrive in Brazil around 3:30am my time! I leave for Brazil on March 19. In the meantime I’ll be eating a lot of junk food, staying up late binge drinking and watching a lot of dirty movies. Okay, so that’s what I would like to do but instead I’m working the next two Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm.

Since I have exactly 30 days of freedom I thought it would be fun for me to take this time to try and keep up on my blog. I haven’t written for awhile so what I’ll do is write about my 30 days this way Lis can keep tabs on me.

I’ll recap the pre-departure stuff and then leave you alone for day so you can soak in my sorrows.

We woke up at 5am ended up leaving at 6am and made it to the airport by 7am. Nice work!

Ticketing was a piece of cake! It took a little time for them to scan all the passports in but there were no problems. I asked if I could have a pass that would allow me to bust through security and go to the gate with them. I figured I would hear a “nope”, instead the guy looked at Lis with her two bags wrapped around each arm, the baby hanging from her chest in the Baby Bjorn and the stroller with the toddler and gave me a “that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Security was fun. It’s always a blast when you have two kids. Lukas take off your shoes. Lukas walk through the gigantic magnetic scanner. Lukas put your shoes back on. Fun stuff. He did get a little sticker that says he’s a TSA Junior Agent from the Port of Seattle.

The next hour or so I got to spend some time with the kids before they left. Lukas and I walked up and down the escalator walkway. We used the bathroom, stretched before the long plane ride and eventually I watched them leave me.

I thought I would be sad, and I was, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Lia doesn’t know what’s going on. Lis is too busy trying to get everyone and everything together and Lukas, he was pumped for the plane ride. He always travels well. From when he was a baby going on his first couple of plane rides to road trips he’s always a good traveler. He was excited to get on the plane, was goofy when I left and is probably either taking a nap or enjoying playing with his toys.

I look forward to the first phone call from them letting me know how everything went.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a day of work followed by a night of going to bed at a decent time after a night of American Idol and ice cream!

UPDATED: 2:40PM
Lis called. They made it! Lia was great! Lukas was awesome until the plane landed and came to a complete stop. That's when his motion sickness came into effect and he barfed on the chair he had been sitting on. Lis said he ate quite a bit before that. If any of you have gone on a road trip with Lukas you know that he often does this and when he does he blows. Lis said he was like a fountain, spewing about seven times. Meanwhile the people she sat nearby were very helpful. They held and played with her. Then the stewardness took her while Lis helped clean up. Nice...so far American Airlines has made us happy.
 
Lukas wanted to talk with me. And he didn't stop talking. He explained how the whole airplane thing works. You get one plane and end up at one "station". Then you change and go to another "station" and that's when you're in Brazil. I think he thought he was one plane ride and then he was in paradise. Not so fast buddy! Then he talked to me about how they throw stuff around and he's hoping the cars that he brought and the cars he bought at Target don't get ruined because the guys are just throwing things. Then he let me talk to Fantino (his lil' elephant) and finally gabbed on about how others are talking on the phone and going from place-to-place. It was amusing. "Okay, I'm going to hang up now...bye. (pause) Bye. Click."
 
And that was that.

Super Bowl XLIII (43) is two days gone and like last year’s Super Bowl (XLII) people are already dubbing it the best Super Bowl ever. I was one of those people that proclaimed last year’s Super Bowl in which the New York Giants upset the previously undefeated New England Patriots, as the greatest Super Bowl of my generation.

This year’s Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals unfortunately would fall to No. 3 on my list. Behind last year’s Giants-Patriots game and the Rams-Titans game in 2000 that ended with the Titans losing on the 1-yard line.

Once again Hotel Johnson hosted its annual Super Bowl Party complete with Super Bowl Party Pool. This was our sixth Super Bowl party and once again we had a good-size crowd. Twenty-three people came over to share snacks, drinks and hang out and watch football.

Fellow Goonie, Ryan ended up as the pool champion getting nine out of a possible 25 points and winning $21. Ryan’s nine points were one behind the all-time champion of 10 that my Dad scored in 2004.

Though we weren’t as fortunate as the people in Tucson who saw porn after Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald scored on a 63-yard TD reception, we did have some highlights.

Third Dimension: I was wise enough to snag about 30 3D classes from Fred Meyer a week before the game so we all had 3D glasses ready for the 3D commercials that weren’t so good. At least I was a good host and had props ready for everyone.

Big Dog, Good Food: The Big Dog and his family came over for his first Hotel Johnson Super Bowl party. It’s a good thing they did as both dishes they brought were a hit. First there was the shredded beef and rolls that everyone loved. Then there was some sort of garlic/cheese dip that was delicious, especially on top of the bread they brought.

Tadow!: My favorite one-word phrase from the mid-90’s made a return thanks to MC Hammer and his gold-cashing commercial with Ed McMahon. Yah, we all shouted it for a few minutes before it quickly went back into the vault. Tadow!

The Urban Dictionary says that Tadow! was started by Garrett Morris’s character Ta Dow, who was a pimp and ended every sentence by shouting his name “Ta Dow!”

Halftime football: This was the first time we played some two-hand touch football during one of our Super Bowl parties. It was actually fun. We played on my parent’s narrow street that was lined with cars, thus giving us yard markers. My team of Chris, Nick, Erik, and then Ryan defeated the Big Dog’s team of Randy, Stephanie, Jake and Mike. Lukas was the permanent ball boy and he had a great time playing football with the big people. We were all winded after 10 minutes of playing ball but he was begging us to come play some more. I had a TD catch from Chris and an interception for a TD that ended the game – whoohoo!

The only other highlight was when Mike and Ryan found my “Love-Making Mix” on my iTunes. So I got ribbed for a bit for having “Bump and Grind” and Ryan’s personal favorite “Take My Breath Away” all on one playlist. Uhh…it’s Lis’s list. That’s it!

Other than that it was a good party that was made better because of a great game and yummy snacks.

You can check out photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62846&id=508473921

Now it’s time to focus on the next couple of weeks when I’ll become a bachelor for 30 days. Lis and the kiddos leave for Brazil on February 17.

Thirty days of bachelorhood! Thirty days! That’s a long time! For most married men this would seem like a vacation. And I have to admit I sometimes feel that way.

I look forward to sleeping in on a Saturday without having Lukas stand in front of me at 7:15am telling me he’s hungry. I look forward to being able to sit down and watch the TV without having to worry about being interrupted by Lukas getting up four or five times from 8:30 – 9:30pm and Lis having to get up to feed Lia. I look forward to maybe having a Guy’s Night with Josh and possibly going partying. I look forward to living off Little Caesar’s Pizza for a couple of days. I look forward to having the house to myself. I look forward to chilling out on a Friday night, playing Nintendo games until the wee mornings and then being able to sleep until at least 10am.

In reality none of that will happen. I’ll get up early on a Saturday to a cold and empty house. I’ll work the newspaper job every night and will be so worn out come weekend time that I won’t feel like doing anything. After all it is the high school winter sports postseason, which means I’ll be extremely busy. That’s part of the reason I okay’d Lis and the kids to go at this time because I wouldn’t see them anyway.

Though I would like to be alone I’ll probably be going to my parent’s house for dinner and asking people to hang out every night that I may not work. I’ve never been good at being alone.

And I’m sure it won’t feel like a vacation because I’ll miss my family a ton and will be jealous that they are enjoying the sunshine and her family will be oohing and ahhing over my kids!

Oh well, just 45 days until it’s my turn to head to Brazil!