I Give Up

Okay, so I'm not going to even pretend to update this page anymore. I will keep it around in case I have something to share, but since my last post was 4 months ago it seems unlikely that will be anytime soon. Surprisingly I still get quite a bit of traffic based on my Disney posts from a few years ago, so I'll keep the page open as long as Google allows me to. In the meantime you're better off looking for me on Facebook.

Until next time...whenever that may be...

Regards,

Jared

A Walk in the Park

Some Christmas cheer at Largo Park in Clearwater, FL. Enjoy!

Oh Christmas Tree...

This video is pretty self-explanatory. It's the Tocksteins putting up our Christmas tree. We've always favored the artificial variety. The time and money saved are worth more to us than the smell of fresh pine in our living room (or the leaky water basins, or the shedding of needles, or the potential fire hazards). We've had this particular tree for 11 years, and before that my folks had this tree since the mid-1980's. So this tree has been with me since I was around 11 years old. And this will be its final year of service. It's time to upgrade. The old girl still looks great, but we are creatively hiding her flaws more and more every year. 25 years is a nice stretch for an artificial tree (probably a good 15 or 20 years past her normal life expectancy). Tune in next year to see what the Tree of Christmas Future will be like...

A Day at Work

The glamorous life of a TV producer is chronicled in this amazing piece of video!

Enjoy...and don't be jealous!

First Day of Preschool

On Tuesday, September 21, Hanna started preschool! She loved it! Below are some pictures of Hanna (and her GIANT backpack) as she embarks on this important journey. Enjoy!

Finding Nemo...and Slippers, and Princess, and Prince Charming...

The Tocksteins have had an interesting history with fish. Pet fish, not the kind you enjoy with some lemon and cracked pepper. Before Terri and I were married, she got Neptune, a fantail goldfish. Neptune was built of strong stuff. He survived a move from Knoxville to Nashville, and then from Nashville to Clearwater. We got a larger aquarium once we arrived in Clearwater, and we added some friends to his tank. One of these new "friends" was a small crayfish who decided that he liked snapping off chunks of Neptune's tail with his claws. We didn't discover this abuse until it was too late, and the toilet claimed two fish that day...the poor, deceased Neptune and the bloodthirsty crayfish (who was very much alive when I flushed him...and I didn't feel bad about it at all). When we moved into our house, our aquarium had about 5 fish in it. Over the years their numbers dwindled (and we didn't replace them), until there was one: Jango. Good old Jango was a survivor. We eventually got rid of the big aquarium and got Jango a small, sleek one-bedroom studio that he had all to himself. He flourished for 5 years, but 2 weeks ago we lost him. I found him floating next to the filter, and with a trip to the bathroom I laid him to rest.

So last week Terri takes Hanna to Petsmart, which now ranks just below Disney World as Hanna's favorite place to go. She picked out three colorful fish, and Terri got a new fish tank as well. The new fish have been christened Slippers, Prince Charming, and Princess. In the video below Hanna gives us a tour. Enjoy...

Happy Anniversary

May 3, 2010 marks the 12th wedding anniversary of Terri and myself.

It also marks the 2nd anniversary of the "Tales of the Tocksteins" blog. As I look back on this particular online journal, it certainly seems I have been more active at some times than others at keeping it updated, but it's still a nice alternative to the increasingly crowded (and more times than not irritating) Facebook.

That's it. Just a quick congratulatory post for my marriage and the blog. Keep checking back. There's always more to come...

It's a Disney Dad day...

Haven't posted any videos in awhile, so I thought it was time for another one (or two). This was a Dad/Hanna trip to Disney a few weeks ago. They aren't embedded here because the YouTube versions look better.

Please enjoy.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCKIA6K7S5A

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bUDkFWMYBQ

Goodbye Stink!

The date of this writing, Sunday April 25, 2010, is the day we finally got rid of the dreaded Diaper Genie.
The Genie has served us well, starting on the day that Hanna was brought home from the hospital. Within it have been stored the most heinous, putrid atrocities ever produced by a toddler. But with potty training now down to a science (knock on wood), we really have no use for it. I haven't purchased Pull-Ups for the past 3 weeks, so the only thing it was doing was sitting there empty.
Farewell, Diaper Genie. Thank you for the odor protection these past few years. May Hanna never require your services again!

(The Diaper Genie is the one without fur...although Wallace has been known to produce some odor of his own...)

The New Palace

This weekend Hanna's room was transformed into a pink wonderland of girliness.

Terri is fortunate enough to be friends with Leah, one of the set designers at HSN. Free of charge, Leah helped Terri turn Hanna's room into a place where Hanna actually wants to spend time! A few months back Leah actually drew up plans on how the room would be decorated. Terri took a portion of our tax refund and bought new wall art, paint, furniture, and other various bits of decor. Over the weekend of April 10, the construction walls went up and the work began. Here are the results...

The door remained unchanged. We put her name on the door before Hanna was born, so we decided to leave it.
In one corner of the room is the new reading nook, or as Hanna calls it, her "castle". And yes, that is a TV in the room, although it is only connected to a DVD player so the content of anything on the TV is totally under parental control.
On another wall is her "Wall of Fame", which includes pictures of friends and family. It's still a work in progress.
The "chandelier" was a stroke of genius by Leah. It's actually the lampshade to a lamp fitted over the light fixture in the ceiling. It's one of Hanna's favorite additions.

The closet, now divided by curtains. For the first time, this is a neat and organized space!


Another place to read.
A brand new toy kitchen where many imaginary meals will be prepared.

This little display is just above the bed. Leah and Terri painted the stripes on the wall. The sign reads "The Princess Sleeps Here".

The Princess lounging in her new palace...

End of an Era

Two months with no blog! I can only imagine the anticipation that my audience of three readers has been going through! Well, I'm going to try and do better. I promise.

With today's entry, we mark the passing of an era. For the past three years, Hanna's primary mode of out-of-the-car transportation has been her Evenflo stroller, Model 31937. It could be best described as the Honda Civic of strollers. The Civic is a reliable, not unattractive vehicle that gets the job done (we own one). The Evenflo Model 31937 is much the same. No one is ever going to confuse a Civic for a Porsche, and the Evenflo 31937 is never going to be confused for one of those fancy $800 jogging strollers (or beach strollers as they are known in Florida).

We owned two of them, one for Terri's car and one for mine. One was a gift from my sister and one was a gift from some co-workers. Between the two strollers, we've probably got close to 17,000 miles on them (15K of those miles from Disney World alone). Initially, the strollers included the baby carrier/carseat attachment which we used from the day Hanna was born until she was 9 months old. After we got rid of the carrier attachment, Hanna enjoyed the roomy expanse of this reclining chariot! In addition to a smooth ride, these strollers have acted as high chairs, beds, and shelter from the Florida sun and rain. Time and use has taken a toll however. Fabric is tearing, the tires have little tread left, and there are more stains on these strollers than on Hanna's bib after a spaghetti dinner. Even the Salvation Army and Goodwill would turn their noses up at these!

Just today we bought a smaller, sleeker replacement that will take Hanna to the end of her stroller riding days. It's about 10 pounds lighter, and folds up to half the size of her former chariots. It will soon get its shakedown voyage when we visit Walt Disney World over President's Day Weekend.

Before the end, the venerable strollers have one last trip to make. This final voyage will take them to the end of my driveway, where they will come to rest next to our mailbox. If the past is any indication, within hours they will be scooped up by a passerby, where they will hopefully serve out the remainder of their days giving someone else the same reliable service they have given us.

Rest in peace, proud Hanna Chariots! Thanks for the memories...and the mileage!

Merry Christmas from the Magic Kingdom

Here's a video from a recent evening trip to Disney. The lights on the castle are impressive, and there was just enough chill in the air (a nippy 48 degrees) to make it feel quite Christmas-like! Enjoy the video.

Star Wars in Concert

In honor of Halloween, I give you a freak show! Well, more like a "geek show" actually. Star Wars in Concert at the Jacksonville Memorial Arena was a blast. What follows is a short video summary of the experience. Enjoy...

Anyway, as I was saying...

I thought I should at least get one post up on the blog before October ends.

This is a very busy time for us here at the Tockstein home. On November 1 we will once again be loading up the Jetta and heading north for Tennessee. We'll spend a few days in Nashville, and a few days in Knoxville. My sister Julie, her husband Chuck, and their daughter Mila will be visiting Knoxville for 2 days of our visit. I'm very much looking forward to getting Mila and Hanna together. My Mom has already booked a photo shoot for both of them complete with matching outfits. Should be a hoot!


On October 29 I will be heading to Jacksonville with my buddies Matt and Mike for Star Wars in Concert. I'm very excited about this. A huge orchestra in a huge arena with a huge screen displaying scenes from my favorite series of movies. That's pretty much a Star Wars geek's dream come true. And I love that I have such an understanding wife who puts up with this nonsense on a daily basis, and even encourages it. Love you baby!


Hanna's potty training is...well...the training continues. Pee is no problem. Poop is another story. And so it goes...

And this week I had some troubling news from my doctor. I made an appointment to see if I could get rid of this cold that has been bugging me for the past month, and I left with a prescription for high blood pressure medication, asprin heart therapy, and a warning to get my butt on a treadmill YESTERDAY. Not fun, but rest assured I am taking this advice seriously.

And finally, my sister Julie and her husband Chuck lost a member of their family on October 27. Marley, their gentle, kind, and very sweet St. Bernard had to be put down. I only met Marley once, but she was the one of the sweetest...and largest...dogs I had ever met. This made me grab old Wallace and give him a bear hug and half of an ice cream sandwich. At 11 years old, he is no spring chicken, but thankfully he still keeps up with us.

Marley will be missed.

Expect more after the vacation. I promise to write more...which is to say at least twice a month.

Hanna's Video Diary: September 8, 2009

Another entry from our recent trip back to Walt Disney World. Please excuse the awkward close-ups of my face. When I am my own cameraman, the shots can get a little TOO close! Enjoy.

8 Years...

On Friday, September 7, 2001 (exactly 8 years ago today as of this writing), Terri and I bid Nashville farewell and headed south to Clearwater, Florida. I accepted HSN's job offer in late July, so we had a little over a month to get the move planned. Terri worked out a transfer with her job at Lerner, NY. When we were in town for the interview with HSN, we did some apartment hunting and found a place that we liked. Fortunately when the job offer was made it was just a matter of a phone call to reserve the apartment. I remember how strange it felt sitting in our dining room in Nashville filling out the Change of Address forms on our bills with a Florida address. A little scary, but very exciting.

The next few weeks we proceeded to pack up our lives into boxes. We also threw a lot of stuff away. I am a pack-rat by nature (I have calendars from the 1990's for no good reason at all), so purging of stuff doesn't come naturally to me. Fortunately Terri has no such qualms about getting rid of junk. To this day she can fill 6 garbage bags full of clothes and send me off to Goodwill without batting an eye! So for the better part of two weeks we lived out of boxes. We finally got the moving truck two days before the move. My friends from work were kind enough to move all of our wordly possessions down a flight of stairs and into a brutally hot moving truck. They were paid with beer and pizza and I could never have done it without them.

The 15 foot moving truck wasn't big enough. We had an 800 square foot 1-bedroom apartment. It wasn't tiny, but it certainly wasn't a palatial spread. How could all that stuff not fit into a 15-foot truck? We ended up stuffing both of our cars full of stuff as well. We would be towing my Nissan Sentra on the moving truck and my folks would be following us down in our Honda Civic. Both cars were stuffed to capacity, leaving only enough room for our dog Wallace, my folks, and their luggage. The one thing we didn't have room for was our vacuum cleaner. It was the last thing to be packed because we needed to use it for one last sweep of our old apartment, and when the time came to pack it there was just no room. So my buddy Mike got a parting gift of a vacuum cleaner in addition to the beer and pizza.

My last shift at Shop at Home was the day before the move. It was bittersweet. I had worked with these guys for 4 years, and had grown quite close to them. Just minutes before I walked out the door, I was invited out onto the set of the Knife Collector's Show to say goodbye. In the following clip I am called "Bullet" as that was my nickname for much of my Shop at Home tenure. The guy next to me is Glen, who was also leaving to continue his career at HSN at the same time.




One big question we faced was what to do with our goldfish Neptune. I had bought Terri this goldfish before we got married, and she had taken care of him for 4 years. It seemed cruel to just flush him, but moving him seemed to be very problematic. We managed to rig up a system in the cab of the truck between the driver and passenger seats where we secured a box on top of a pillow and placed Neptune's fishbowl inside the box. It worked beautifully and Neptune survived the trip. (Unfortunately Neptune passed away in 2003).

Our last night in Nashville, me and Terri slept on an inflatable Coleman air mattress with only a clock radio and a flashlight in the room. The next day, September 7, my folks met up with us in the afternoon and we dropped their car off at the Nashville airport, where it would be waiting for them when the returned on Sunday evening.

On the way out of Autumnwood Apartments, I stopped at the office and handed in our keys. Then, at 4:00 PM Central Time, with my folks and our dog following in our Honda Civic, we headed south. We stopped for the night in Valdosta, Georgia and continued the trip the next day. The rest is history and stories for another time.

Strange to think that just a few days later, on my first day of work at my new job, the attacks of September 11 took place. That day holds different memories for everyone, but for me it was and remains a day of complete overload. New job, new city, new faces, and the world suddenly is turned upside down and you are 700 miles from all that is familiar to you. But me and Terri got through that together, and 8 years later have made a pretty good life for ourselves down here. New friends, new opportunities, new cars, new cat, new house, and most importantly a new daughter. Will we be here 8 years from now? Who knows, but whatever happens it won't ever be quite the same as that first huge step away from the familiar and into the unknown.

Happy Birthday Terri, part 2

Well, it's over a week late, but suffice it to say that Terri's birthday was a happy one...mostly.

As we pulled into our parking space at the Magic Kingdom, I ask Terri to stow my iPod in the glove box. As she opened the glove box, there was a small, blue box with a white ribbon waiting for her. I usually wait for Christmas to give Tiffany's, but I figured I'd shake things up a bit this year. It wasn't a diamond or a platinum band or anything, but it was a silver ring with "I Love You" engraved on it. Simple and elegant and, it turns out, a HUGE hit!

We went to the will call window and got Terri's birthday present from Disney...an 80 dollar gift card. This year Disney is offering everyone free admission to the parks on their birthday, but Annual Passholders are given a gift card of equal value to an admission ticket. She also got a large pin that said "Happy Birthday Terri" on it, which she wore throughout the day and got more birthday wishes in one day than she will likely get for the rest of her life.

It turns out that I've created a bit of a theme park touring monster with my numerous "Dad and Hanna" trips to Disney. Hanna has a set routine that includes the following (in this exact order):

1. It's a Small World
2. Dumbo
3. Peter Pan
4. Go and meet Ariel, the Little Mermaid
5. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
6. The Carousel (sometimes)
7. The Walt Disney World Railroad

Any deviation of this plan will result in extremely bad behavior. This time she cried for the entire time on the carousel, as if those lovely horses were racing her to her doom. No idea why she did this. And don't even think about venturing outside Fantasyland. Terri wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion, but it became clear as we approached the menacing structure that Hanna was not having any part of the happy haunts that dwelled within. Nor was she going to be setting sail with the Pirates of the Caribbean. Amazingly, we did get her into the Hall of Presidents. I wanted to see the updated show with the Obama robot, and when Obama took the stage Hanna said "There's Donald Duck!" It was hilarious. I'm not sure why she said that, as Obama neither looks nor sounds like Donald Duck, but it provided a chuckle for us and those sitting around us.

We then headed to Epcot to grab lunch at the China pavilion at the Nine Dragons restaraunt. This almost didn't happen as Hanna decided it was going to be time for a complete meltdown just before we sat down to eat. After a trip to the bathroom with Terri, Hanna's attitude was put back into alignment, and we had a nice meal. For her birthday, Terri got a delicious piece of some kind of ginger cake and the serving staff wrote Terri a birthday note in Chinese script which was very neat.

After a walk around the World Showcase part of Epcot, we rode the Finding Nemo ride and decided to call it a day as it had started to rain a bit. Despite a few bumps it was a wonderful day with the family. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but amazingly I didn't think to take any! Next year perhaps...

Bye for now...

Happy Birthday Terri

August 12th is my lovely bride's birthday. I am a gentleman so I will not reveal her age, but I will say that she was born the same year I was and I was born in 1975.

I bought her an ice cream cake and got her a George Foreman grill to replace the one she had (this was what she wanted -- just to be clear). Our old grill had nonstick coating flaking off in our food and always shot out a wicked spark every time I plugged it in. So the grill was not only a practical gift, but one that probably saved our lives. Yes, the days of gifting Victoria's Secret and Tiffany's have given way to electric grills. And she was thrilled to get the grill! We are well on our way to being an "old married couple". And that is just fine with us.

We celebrated with the cake and the gift the evening of the 11th since on the 12th we will be heading to Walt Dis....do I even need to type it out? This year as Annual Passholders we get a $75 gift card on our birthday. I claimed mine back in March, and Terri will do the same. Of course $75 at Disney World will get you a t-shirt and a hot dog if you're lucky. But I'm sure we'll have fun. We'll be lunching at Nine Dragons at the China pavilion, which is Terri's favorite place to eat at Epcot.

The saga continues tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Hanna's Video Diary, July 13, 2009

In what I hope will be a new series of videos, I present the first episode of "Hanna's Video Diary". The plan is to post these short videos every so often just because I need some blog material to keep my audience of 5 people satisfied. So enjoy and tell me what you think!

We begin with our trip to Disney World on July 13. Yes, I know...big shock. Enjoy!

Mila Rae Brown

On Friday, June 26, my sister Julie gave birth to Mila Rae Brown. She was 8 lb, 12 oz, and 21 inches long...(and her head was 14 inches in diameter!!!!)....that part she gets from her father no doubt.

I'm kidding. Sort of.

Proud Dad Chuck, his big head, and his daughter.

Chuck's father, Charlie, and his new granddaughter.

What a beauty!

Way to go Sister! I'm proud of you!