General Amusements

Stuart is adapting to life here on Union Ave. We've gotten him into a fairly good routine, he's only getting up about once a night. Give him another couple weeks and we'll stop responding to him at night but that's another matter.
Janna and I decided to enjoy another one of our world famous Italian picnics. This time around we had prosciutto di parma, porketta, filsette oldani salami, soperassata calbresse, mixed spiced olives and fresh mozzarella cheese. All purchased at G.B. Russo and Son. Janna an I enjoyed our feast, with plenty left over for snacking.
Stuart was not amused that his mother wouldn't allow him to have any of our feast. I was more than willing to give him some porketta but Janna wouldn't allow it. Poor kid.

Stuart did get to enjoy some baby rice cereal, in fact we started him on this stuff earlier this week. I frankly think it's disgusting but he seems to think it is a gourmet treat. If he's a really good boy he'll get pears or peaches next week. The excitement never ends when you're two weeks old.


Ok, that picture is huge. In any event, Janna and I will be celebrating our first anniversary this weekend and in celebration of this we went to Tre Cugini for dinner last night. We were able to eat outside, which was simply wonderful. We started with the traditional antipasti plate of assorted meats and cheeses and as always it was great. Janna got the gnocchi, pillows of potato pasta in a delicious cheesy sauce. I got the saltimbocca, perfectly cooked it was like velvet. For desert, Janna got sfogliata, which to no ones surprise was a chocolate lovers dream. I got fragole, strawberries in a cream sauce with liquor. Both were quite excellent.
Stuart stayed with his grandparents when we were at Tre Cugini. We got a good report from Mark and Joy, he slept the whole time. It appears that he's just getting up again and we can expect great dramatics when the boy is required to wake up. Gee, I wonder which side he got waking up dramatics from? Janna. I say nothing.

Checkmate!

I received the following email from my wife about 45 minutes ago:

"You are a complete jerk - did you think I wouldn't figure out that ourgoing up to the cottage would preclude our going to Festival? You'revery clever, and have once again outmaneuvered me. Well-played, myfriend. Well-played.

Bah."

Sweet victory. Sweet, sweet victory!

Stuart Is Home

It was time to take Stuart home this morning and Janna got him all ready to leave the hospital. The outfit was from Janna's sisters, the winds of war and gentle breeze. The hat is from my folks, or so Janna seems to think.
We managed to figure out how to use the car seat, which was quite a little production. He looks as though he's been folded up into the thing. In any event, he's taking a look at his new home and likes what he sees.
And of course he has to meet his older brother Seamus. Stuart was very interested in Seamus and watched him very intently. He seemed amused by his presence.
Seamus was nervous of the new arrival at first but now he's very interested in his little brother. He of course sniffed him out and such. We were a little worried about what his reaction to be, we thought he might be so excited that he would jump all over little Stuart. But we forget sometimes, Seamus is a good boy and has been very nice to the baby.
And here we have a picture of the three men of the Birn household. No doubt this is the first of many pictures to be taken of the three of us. Stuart likes his new home and we are certainly glad he is here.

So Stuart Arrives

Stuart was born yesterday at 7:11pm via emergency C-Section. Since everyone I've talked to has asked, he weights 6 lbs 11oz. I don't know why everyone cares but they do. In any event, Janna is fine and so far as I know she's sleeping over at St. Mary's.
Apparently they knocked Janna out, so she didn't actually see Stuart after he was born. I was the first to visit with him and thankfully a nurse was kind enough to take the above picture. Notice the look of terror on the boy's face while looking at me.
And here we have a picture of the lovely family, though let's all be honest that Janna looks completely out of it. Poor thing. In any event, all is well and in that we have been blessed. The scripture passage from our wedding was quite appropriate. Psalm 46:1 reads "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." In any event, we would appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery for Janna.

An Amusing E-Mail

Seamus has taken to sleeping on the floor in our room at night. It's a welcome change for everyone but Janna. I have no problem having the dog in the room at night, if anything I know that if some criminal sneaks into the house Seamus will be right there to defend me. He won't defend Janna but at least I'll be protected. The dog is more than welcome to sleep on the floor in our room, and in a year or two perhaps he'll sleep in Stuart's room if the child so requests. Children aren't welcome in our room but sweet little Irish Terrier's are.

In any event, I received the following e-mail from Janna yesterday, tis very amusing:

So your ridiculous animal when bananas when you left today. He kept running all over up stairs, coming into our room to nudge me, going back to the top of the stairs, coming back to nudge me again, running crying back to the top of the stairs, more nudging (cold nose, btw),then changing it up and running to the window (which he has figured outis the ultimate window of despair, in that he can watch you leave from it), and generally freaking out. When your car was out of sight he began his usual frantic pacing of the upstairs, clearly worried about what would happen now, as if this weren't normal. He finally calmed down 5 minutes later and is currently dozing on his blanket and giving me dirty looks anytime I dare come into the room. I'm telling you, this animal thinks that room is his now and he's gradually going to take it over.

Anyway, you have a perfectly ridiculous animal. But at least said animal is very fond of you.

2007 NFL Draft

Today is the first day of the NFL draft and probably the most important day of the NFL offseason. ESPN shows the entire draft and each year I find myself watching at least part of it. It's fascinating watching each team try to put the last piece of their puzzle together via the draft. It's also fun watching the Lions blow yet another draft, for the fourth time in five years they've drafted a wide receiver in the first round, the morons. Seamus could make better draft picks than Matt Millen.

This year is the first year that Janna has watched the draft, in fact I think it's safe to say she didn't know about it until she met me. Janna knows nothing about the teams that are drafting players, she knows none of the players being drafted and she knows next to nothing about the game of football. Nevertheless, about two hours into the draft Janna turned to me and said "I blame you." I of course wondered what she was blaming me for. She informed me that she couldn't stop watching, the draft it seems was utterly fascinating to her. Apparently she enjoyed the drama of it all, never mind she doesn't know about anything that's going on. That said, she is enjoying watching former Notre Dame Quarterback Brady Quinn drop from a sure fire top 10 pick to, at this time, not yet drafted. Got to love Miss Janna.

Springtime For Hitler Or Springtime At the Birn Compound

Now that it's warm outside Seamus is able to spend a lot of time outside. He's very excited about it. When he's being a good boy he likes to lie out in the sun as he is above. Such a good boy Seamus is and such a good role model for young Stuart.
Seamus wants to play with his Daddy.
It seems Mr. Seamus has found a ball to play with. Seamus loves playing ball with his Daddy.
Mr. Seamus likes to run all over the yard with his ball, he's very protective of it.
Look at that Seamus go!
Even if Seamus doesn't have a ball he loves to run around the yard.
My, my he's wild today.
And now it's time for a little rest under a shade tree. Even sweet boys like Seamus need a rest.
In other news, Janna is still pregnant.
Seamus just loves driving his Mommy crazy, isn't he cute?

Michigan State: 2007 NCAA Hockey Champions!

On the banks of the Red Cedar,
There's a school that's known to all,
It's specialty is winning,
And those Spartans play GREAT HOCKEY!,
Spartan teams are never beaten,
All through the game they'll fight,
Fight for the only colors, GREEN and WHITE
Go right thru for MSU,
Watch the points keep growing,
Spartan teams are bound to win,
They're fighting with a vim,
RAH! RAH! RAH!
See their team is weakening,
We're going to win this game,
FIGHT! FIGHT! RAH TEAM FIGHT!


Michigan State won the NCAA title last night. The Birn household went absolutely nuts when Justin Abdelkader scored the game winning goal with 18.9 seconds left in the game. Jeff Lerg played great in net, keeping the Spartans in the game, including the amazing save pictured above that prevented Boston College from going up 2-0.

Tim Kennedy tied the game at 1-1 with about ten minutes left in the third period. Needless to say, I was nervous throughout the game. State went down 1-0 in the middle of the second and I thought for sure the game was over. BC is a better team, they have better skaters, a better power play and a better penalty kill. But I knew that so long as State was only down one goal, they had a shot to at least tie it. That said, it nerve wracking to watch them down one and even more nerve wracking when they tied it up. When Abdlekader put the puck in the net with 18.9 seconds left I screamed and jumped up, Janna was scared half to death and Seamus was alarmed. Chris Mueller got an empty net goal with 1.2 seconds left to give the Spartans a 3-1 victory and the national title.

For me, this is absolute huge. I've been suffering with this program for a decade and half now. Back when I was in school in the late 90's we had great teams and were often ranked #1 throughout the year only to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. 1998, 1999 and 2001 were especially bitter pills to swallow. This year's championship was very unexpected, State finished fourth in the CCHA, barely made the NCAA Tournament and no one expected them to do anything. We had less talent than every team we faced, yet our boys stuck to their game plan and grinded out four victories. Lerg was great in net, he only gave up 5 goals in 4 NCAA games, he deserves a ton of credit. He stood on his head when it counted.

This is what hockey is all about. Passion, teamwork and exciting games played for national titles. It's a great day to be a Spartan, all MSU alums should be proud of this team today. It makes up for all the disappointments of years gone by. To win a championship when no one expects it, to come out of no where makes it that much sweeter. Janna I think finally understands why I'm such a hockey fan, she witnessed it last night. Decades of suffering for one special night, it's worth every heartbreak.

MSU, we love thy shadows
When twilight silence falls,
Flushing deep and softly paling
O'er ivy covered halls;
Beneath the pines we'll gather
To give our faith so true,
Sing our love for Alma Mater
And thy praises, MSU.

More Free Hockey

Last night Janna and I went to the Griffins game against the Toronto Marlies. It all started back on Feb 7th when the Griffins played Syracuse. The Griffins were offering discounted tickets in the lower bowl for $5 and we decided to go to the game. What we didn't know is that the Griffins had another deal by which if they win their games on Wednesday nights everyone gets a free ticket to the next Wednesday night game. The Griffins won on Feb 7th, then they won again on Feb 21st, then they won again on March 14th and again on March 28th. Because there were no more Wednesday night home games, everyone got a ticket to last nights game, which they of course won. Needless to say, we parlayed $5 tickets into five games, and the Dutch and Jew in us rejoices.
Last night was perhaps the best night of all, it was Steve Yzerman night. Yzerman was my favorite player growing up and sadly I wasn't able to get tickets to his number retirement in Detroit earlier this year. But this wasn't a bad makeup for that disappointment. Yzerman spoke briefly, thanking the Wings fans in West Michigan. Yzerman was humble as he always is. Of all the players a kid could look up to, Yzerman is definately one that parents would want. He's humble, puts team first and from all accounts is a respectable family man off the ice.
I usually hate mascots, especially minor league mascots. But I will have to say that Griff amuses me. He's one angry looking bird and he flys in the face of all these silly mascots that have goofy smiles on their face, as if everything has to be smiley and fun. One of the teams the Griffins played had a logo of a smiling skull, I mean come on now. Griff is ridiculous but at least he looks annoyed.
The game ended with a 4-0 Griffins win. Jimmy Howard looked playoff ready in net last night and here he is saluting the fans after he was named #1 star of the night. (Matt Ellis was #2 and my boy Kip Miller #3) After the game I took Janna to the Sierra Room for desert. Sadly the Sierra Room is closing at the end of the month, so this was our one last chance to stop in. Janna got the Creme Brulee sampler (chocolate peppermint, espresso and vanilla) and I got a cheese sampler. (parmesan reggiano, an aged American cheddar and a wonderful goats milk cheese called midnight moon) In any event, we planned on sharing both of our deserts and share we did. We both agreed that the chocolate peppermint and espresso creme brulee's were excellent and the vanilla wasn't very good. I am not a fan of cheddar but Janna said it was very good. We both agreed midnight moon was excellent, it had real depth of flavor with subtle hints of brown butter. The parmesan reggiano was excellent as well.

And thus ended a fine evening in downtown Grand Rapids. How I can't wait to take Stuart to his first hockey game next season. Did I mention we're excited about taking him to Chicago for his first Cubs game in June? Good times, good times.

The Joys of Grilling

Last week we were blessed with slightly warmer weather and with that warm weather we were able to break out the grill. Oh the joy of being able to grill animals outside, there is no greater enjoyment in life. I was as excited as a June bride on a feather bed when I tossed some Birn burgers on the grill last Tuesday. Later in the week we enjoyed some wonderful lemon pepper chicken and on Sunday we enjoyed Berkshire pork chops with Merlot sauce. (Joy you have to try this sometime, it's soooooo easy and it's wonderful.)

Saturday we grilled a split turkey breast on the grill and made turkey bacon sandwiches out of it. Let me tell you, if you've never had grilled turkey before you don't know what you're missing. It was simply amazing, the turkey came out perfectly moist and the smoke from the grill gave it an added debth of flavor. Thinly sliced and placed upon wonderful toasted french bread with some perfectly cooked center cut bacon and it is a real treat. Not only was it wonderful in taste but it was wonderful on the pocketbook as well. Our dinner came out at less than $9 and we had enough left over for sandwiches on Sunday as well.

Unfortunately it seems that God has decided for us to have cool weather this week and so grilling won't be on the Birn menu. It gives us a chance to enjoy our old winter favorites again one last time. Sadly, Janna refuses to allow me to make gumbo and for that I am extremely disappointed. Nothing says yum like a good pot of gumbo. Sigh....

Go Sanjaya!

It's so awful, we can't look away. Am I the only one hoping this idiot goes all the way? I mean seriously, the longer Sanjaya is on this show the more reason I have to continue watching. He's so bad, so awful, I literaly can't bring myself to look away. The rest of the contestants are adequate singers (bald guy, black white guy and big hair guy aside) but this Sanjaya has it all. Yeah, he can't sing but he has Weird Al and William Hung on the ropes for best comedy singer. With his rooster mohawk last night, how can he lose?

Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis

I won't meet you at the fair, but my Spartans will be more than happy to meet you at the Frozen Four. That's right, my MSU Spartans beat Notre Dame last night 2-1 to advance to the Frozen Four. They'll be playing Maine on April 5th. I couldn't be more proud of this team, they've really turned the season around. In any event, you will all be happy to know that we got out of Van Andel well before midnight last night. No overtime for us, thankfully. I don't think my blood pressure could handle MSU in overtime.

Late Night At Van Andel

We had an interesting night at Van Andel Arena last night. It was the NCAA hockey Midwest regional, the first game was between big time underdog Alabama-Huntsville against #1 Notre Dame. Game time was 5:00 and the Irish came out ready to play, scoring two quick first period goals. But then they sat on their lead and never quite got back on track for the rest of the game. Huntsville scored two second period goals to tie the game. I thought for sure that ND would get the go ahead goal in the third but it never happened. That meant we're going to overtime.
For those of you who don't know anything about playoff hockey, overtime means we play 20 minute periods until someone scored. And 20 minute periods we did play, nearly two of them. The first overtime came and went and I was shocked that Huntsville had more chances to win the game than Notre Dame. Over 15 minutes into the second overtime (35+ minutes of OT and 95+ minutes for the game) Ryan Thang scored the game winner for Notre Dame. We'll see them in tonight's regional final.
And yes, do note that we're playing in period #5. Also note the Irish out shot Huntsville 53-30. Huntsville's goalie did a standout job last night keeping his team in the game.
Now, on to the second game. Our Michigan State Spartans were set to take on Boston University at 8:30 last night. Unfortunately because of the first game, our game didn't start until after 10. That's bed time as far as I'm concerned.
And bed time it was early in the game. Not only was Janna tired but our Spartans looked tired, falling down early 1-0. Notice Janna's slick MSU hockey jersey. Our Spartans tied the game up at one in the first and came out roaring in the second period to take a 4-1 lead. After the second, I joked around that if this game went into OT there would be a lot of unhappy people in the building. Janna was not amused, I think she would have been outraged.
No overtime was needed though, the Spartans netted one in the third period to take the game 5-1. Post game handshakes for one and all.
And our Spartan heros salute their fans after the win. We'll be facing the Irish at 8:30 tonight at Van Andel. I hope that Notre Dame comes in tired after playing two overtimes but we'll see. Our Spartans ought to be tired, their game began shortly after 10:00pm and didn't end until 12:30am. Needless to say, we got home after 1 and I'm still tired. But I'll muster up the energy to cheer my Spartans on to the Frozen Four tonight. Whether or not Janna will be able to muster energy remains to be seen.
One more pic of Janna in her awesome MSU sweater.

Lawn Mower Issues

It's almost time for lawn mowing season. Only one problem, my lawn mower is broken. Anyone know where I can get it repaired? Better yet, does anyone know of a repair place that will pick it up for me? Believe it or not I can't get the mower in my Monte Carlo and Janna can't get it into her little purple people eater.

Swiming Hippopotamus Club

Janna has joined the Swiming Hippopotamus Club which meets at the MAC every Tuesday and Thursday. What is the Swiming Hippopotamus Club you ask? It's a swim class for pregnant women, apparently it's supposed to be good for them or something. Needless to say, Janna enjoys her classes and I enjoy taking her there. It helps that while the hippos are stomping around the pool I get to do my workouts. What we won't do for little Stuart eh?

Oh and for those of you who are thinking to yourself something like 'I told Janna not to marry that Jewish jerk,' Janna and I chuckled about me putting together this post. I'll hear none of it from the peanut gallary.