I Should Write More

One of my favorite things to do these days is to go back and read the blogs from when Tyler was born. It's good to have a record of how I felt over those days, all the craziness that happened, and all the memories I wanted to store. And since I'm clearly coming up on another big event that would be nice to record, I figured I would. Might as well get in a few entries on the run-up as well, just to set the stage for the big event.

Tyler is almost 3. He's growing a lot. Every once in a while he will get a CRAZY hunger bug and destroy a whole plate of pancakes and eggs or a pint of milk or something, and then I'm pretty sure he's an inch taller the next week. He talks a lot and has lots to say, loves playing imagining games and has a ton of questions. Reminds me of me, or at least of what parts of me I remember from near that age. Does anyone besides me remember stomping around the house to what may have been Holst's “The Planets” and pretending to be dinosaurs? Well Tyler has been spending a lot of time alternating between pretending to be a baby, a bear, a shark, a monkey...rather a lot of things, come to think of it.

Casey is a kicker. She kicks a LOT. Especially at night, Jess and I will be laying down and reading or almost asleep, and then Jess will take in a sharp breath and I'll know that the little one is awake. She does it during the day, too. Casey hasn't interrupted any meetings yet, but she certainly could if she figured out the timing.

It's been a really cold winder for us down here in Austin. We've had two or three snow days already, which is kinda neat but also kind of a pain. A few of the snow days didn't actually involve any precipitation...just an overactive School System. I went in to work for that one, Jess stayed home.

To catch up on the other things from my last blog post (so many months ago) Tyler is still in his underwear. We have to tell him to use the restroom, especially if he's having fun. He'll wet his underwear a little then get upset and have to do a little 'Cowboy Waddle' over to the bathroom to finish peeing. And then we have to change his underwear. But that's happening less and less now. We even have him in pull-ups for nighttime now, and I don't think he's wet them once. He's pretty good at this.

Which makes me suspicious about the next one...hmm...

Also, I weighed in at 199.6 pounds this morning. I don't think I've weighted this little since...probably college. I'm pretty sure I was 190 through most of high school. Anyway, I'm pretty thrilled. I'm thinking the treadmill desk will turn out to be a really good idea. I burned 500 calories today while playing video games for a couple of hours. Didn't feel like a workout, that's for sure.

Christmas has come and gone, and Thanksgiving, so Tyler has managed to see most everyone so that we can all see how much he has grown. He likes to talk about Baby Casey a lot too. I'm sure he has no idea what life with a little sister is going to be like, but we just like that he has the idea in his head. He always does much better if we warn him before any big transition anyway, and a transition this big is going to require a LOT of warning.

Other than that, not much to report. Still at the same job, working on my mini-painting, excited for ReaperCon, went to Big Bend National Park, Volunteering to teach Kids Math...you know, stuff. I'm an old man now, I don't have time for crazy adventures!

-N

A Really Warm Christmas

Greetings from the days after Christmas! I'm writing to you from that wonderful time between Christmas and New Year when our office is still closed and we are mandated to stay at home and RELAX. Which is okay by me. We have just dropped off the last of our Holiday visitors off at the airport and the house has mostly contracted to its previous size.

I had a really great time.

The best part was being a host. I don't know if Dad was all swelling with pride for me, but I was pretty chuffed for myself. I own a house that can contain my entire family, and can construct and serve enough food to feed our whole Preecs Army, which I did on several occasions. Pizza Night, Krub, and the wonderful pseudo-thanksgiving of Christmas Eve were all fantastic hits, and we managed to balance that out on the other end with a couple of solid days of eating nothing but leftovers, allowing our fridge to mostly return to its normal state. We still have a little turkey left over, if anyone wants some.

Christmas itself was a hoot, especially now that Tyler is old enough to actually participate, mostly. He opened presents and got really excited when he got cool new things. The top three, clearly, are the Big Spider-man Tent, the Elmo Counting Toy, and the packing peanuts that came with his new G-Diapers. We may have to go buy those in bulk for next year. There was a lot of squealing and stomping with delight.

I also came off pretty well, especially as Jessie wrapped all my new, fancy Paint Brushes individually. And I got a really cool backpack. I'm excited to take that one out on the road. Jess got a laptop and Kelsey got a Surface. Sandlin and Matt got a ticket from Seattle to Austin, which, since it covers several thousand miles, clearly wins the 'biggest present' award. GW also came by with Kelsey and got a really cool rubber band gun. He was a very gracious guest, totally up for everything. Very hipster, too, so I think his favorite present may just have been 'Austin'. :)

Tyler's cute new thing is 'head bonks'. I am hopefully teaching him to bonk gently, or at least he has figured it out for himself, but it's a really cute thing for him to do. He has also started using 'Thank You' mostly appropriately.

The cats, too, would like to extend their thanks to everyone for coming by and giving them so much nice attention. They really appreciate it.

And, finally, a little story. I was out yesterday taking down the Xmas lights in front of the house when a couple of dogs that I recognized as having been walked by the house before came trotting down the street, owners nowhere to be seen. I managed to call one of them over, pick him up, and then store him in our backyard. The other one, larger, was clearly just too excited to be kept still, and so he trotted off down the street. I followed him, hoping to corral him toward my backyard, when from a couple of streets over I heard someone calling dogs. I gave Jessie a call to let her know what the deal was. She had just woken up from a nap and her brain hadn't quite completed its startup sequence.

“Hey, Jess.”

“Yeah?”

“There's a Dog in our backyard. Don't let him out.”

“What?”

“There is a Dog in our backyard. Don't let him out.”

“Don't let who out, Tyler? Why is there a dog in our backyard?”

“I saw some escaped dogs going down the street, I managed to get one in our backyard, and I'm trying to heard the other one. Don't let the dog out of the backyard.”

“Oooh...hey, Tyler, look. A Doggy!”

Luckily, the owners made their way closer to me, and I signaled to them when they came around a corner. Then the dog heard familiar voices and ran back to the owners. I asked if they were missing another dog, and they were, lucky me. I brought them to my house and returned the final dog to his rightful place. Evidently their backyard was small-dog proof. But not quite big-dog proof. Time to get a new fence.

-N

Lots of family over here. And sickness.

Meanwhile, down in Texas, Tyler has turned 1 year old. That's right! This time last year I was staying up from 2 to 6 in the morning, monitoring a baby who couldn't even open his eyes all the way. When you pinched his cheeks *nothing happened*. All he could eat was formula. He didn't sleep through the night. I didn't have to go to work in the morning. It's been a heck of a year, watching this little guy grow up from his larval stage to a fully functional pupal toddler. He's walking a lot, he wants things and has figured out ways to ask for them, he has emotions and desires, he can learn things. He's a lot more fun, now.

And being as he's a toddler, and will be soon tearing around the world with reckless abandon, everyone got him adorable Carhartts overalls. Which are great, because the knees are double-stiched, perfect for all the rowdy activity Tyler will be getting up to as a toddler now.

So we threw a birthday party for him...okay, if we're being honest, the first birthday party really isn't for the kids. Maybe not even the second, either. It's for us. We invited over a bunch of friends, mostly ones with kids, and had cake and made hot dogs and socialized. Tyler was busy nailing the transition from two naps per day to just one, so he was asleep from 12:00 to 2:00 and missed the early parts of his birthday. But never mind, it let me have more time to grill hot dogs.

The cake was, as predicted, my favorite part of the proceedings. We got him his own cake, dropped it on his high chair and let him do whatever he wanted to it. We took video, I'll let you know when we put it up somewhere. Anyway, ht started off a little tentative, but really started to enjoy getting this stuff all over his hands. Jess would feed him little bites here and there to eat, but he seemed less interested in eating, and more in making an *incredible* mess. He was wearing his Carheartts, though, so he was well protected. Then at the end I sat all close to him so he could make adorable messes all over my face too. I was a very proud dad.

We got some nice presents, too. We got him a little kids laptop, which he seems to enjoy a lot more than I thought he would. He gets really into pushing all the buttons and then opening and closing the laptop to hear it make noise.

Also, it's visitor time for us! We had Jessie's sister and her mom (who is still here) visiting us this weekend. Mostly for the birthday, but also because we like them. So we took them out to Innerspace Caverns, a natural cavern formation near us that we actually hadn't been to before. In the grand scheme of all the caverns everywhere it's probably not the greatest you could visit, but it's really neat to explore even just the areas to which they've put trails. Makes me want to maybe come by sometime to try their more extreme expeditions. The ones where you squeeze into tiny spaces. Maybe. We'd have to see. I'm not really shaped for tight spaces.

So after sending sister and her boys home, Tyler and I have been alternating illnesses for a while. He had a fever that hung around for a few days over the weekend, and when we took him into the doctor, she noticed that he had a couple of really bad ear infections. Which is crazy, because *we would never have known*. Seriously, the kid doesn't make a fuss, and I have no idea why. I've had an ear infection recently. It sucks. For some reason, he doesn't feel like making a big deal of it. Anyway, we got him some antibiotics yesterday, and then I went off to Judo, which has been going swimmingly, by the way, and then I got home and...got really sick.

I was pretty fevery last night, and very, very achy. It's died down, thank goodness, but I'm still making sure I'm never more than a few steps away from some painkillers. Which is a bummer, because there are some classes going on at work that I really wanted to take. I'll catch days 2 and 3, but I had to review the day 1 stuff at home. Which turned out not to be too big of a deal, because I knew a lot of it already. Bad time to get sick, though.

So I definitely owe you guys pictures from the party and the caves and the like. I'll let you know when I get those up. Also, this is post #750 on this blog. Numbers, right?

-N

These are a few of my favorite things

I got to spend the last couple days in Austin Texas indulging in some of my favorite things- squishy baby cheeks, dorky science, great friends, fun with the family and so much yummy food I'm not eating again until Christmas.  I came down for an algae workshop and met a friend from Pittsburgh who got me interested in algae for biodiesel in the first place.  It was at the University of Texas, so we BOTH got to stay with my favorite Texans, Noel, Jessie and uh... oh yeah, my nephew THE BEST BABY IN THE WORLD.  How fun! 

The workshop was fantastic!  We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back.  I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts.  And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then.  Prioritize.  My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with.  And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.

And I did get to see lots of Tyler.  I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days.  The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun.  They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch).  It was great all around.

Once the workshop was over, we were free to play.  We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again.  In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens.  This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast.  Yes.  Noel loves me very much.  He even braided my hair every day.  I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend. 

Finally, Rain

None of this '30 minutes of heavy downpour and then nothing' kind of rain. Real rain. It's been precipitating on and off for the past three days. That'll fill up some reservoirs, I'll bet. I worry a little much about water reserves here in Austin. We are a leetle bit close to a dessert, and changing weather patterns could hit us pretty hard. Though clearly before we hit the 'people start dying of thirst' stage I'll probaby hit the 'my lawn is getting pretty dry' stage, so I think I'll have some warning. Regardless, for now, we've got moisture. My roof has been well-tested, my grass is greening up, and the few of my#1 potted plants that don't have holes in the bottom are looking like serious mosquito hazards. I should probably go fix that, but the last time I tried to drill a hole in the bottom of some of those masonry pots I shredded a drill tip pretty well.

Tyler went to a birthday party this weekend. Not his own, clearly. But one of his classmates from school was turning one and we found an invitation in his cubby. As it turns out, they live about 10 minutes of walking away from our house. Which would normally mean we would walk, but instead we drove. I don't know if you heard, but *rain*. Anyway, there was a lot of activity, strange faces and sounds, and occasionally Tyler lost track of a mommy or a daddy and got a little fussy, but on the whole he was a very good guest. The birthday baby was sort of nonplussed by most of the presents, except for the *ball* he got. #1 excitement was definitely reserved for the cake, though. He plowed through that thing. I think the mess is most of the fun. His family had a one-eyed, very fat, incredibly friendly cat, so they seem like nice people, but I didn't see any video game consoles, so I don't really know...

Tyler is a fiend for puffs. He's definitely figured out how chewing works, and he's gotten good enough at it that we no longer have to ration him to one puff at a time for fear of him choking himself with his zeal. We've been trying to teach him some baby sign language for 'more' but at the moment he's eschewing the traditional sign for simply 'slapping the table'. Whatever works, I suppose.

Christmastime is almost upon us, and I've been shopping. Thank heaven for the internet, I don't know how I'd do this mobile Christmas thing without it. Jess is already getting excited about the prospect of staying home next Christmas, though. I'm worried a bit about Tyler on the plane, but I think we're set up to do it just about as well as we can. We'll get him some new toys to keep his attention and keep him dosed up with puffs. If he wants to eat those things for the entire flight and maintain a happy attitude, then he has my blessing.

Sensei mentioned at Judo that he might give me a black belt before Christmas. OH MAN!

-N

Can I talk about my baby some more?

He is really cute. He's having a bit of a rough time at the moment, but you'd never know if you didn't know how smiley and energetic he normally is. And what his normal body temperature feels like. He's got a fever, and the sniffles, so I'm going to chalk this one up to 'he has a cold' unless further evidence presents itself. He acts like I act when I'm sick and no one is around. I make that 'groany' sound and roll around in the bed, unable to get comfortable and feeling sorry for myself. I toughen up when other people are around. Tyler has no such qualms.

It's been a mostly boring weekend for us. Yesterday Jess took some mommy time and went of to roller derby and then got a massage. I took care of the baby. He's started eating applesauce, his favorite, so far. He's also gone through green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots without incident. Sometime we're going to start him on 'multi-grain cereal' (read: it has some wheat in it) but we may hold off for a little bit. He's actually mostly gone through the 'stage 2' baby food cereals (I think stage 1 is just formula) and we should be starting him on the next level of stuff: chunky things that he has to learn to mash a bit between his cute little baby gums before swallowing. It's a step. After that, we can start giving him food to eat on his own with his increasingly-well-developed little pincher grip.

And speaking of chewing, I've started brushing Tyler's teeth at night. It's mostly just to get it worked into the routine, at this point, but we have a cute little brush and I scrape it against his teeth a few times while Jess changes his diapers. He was a little startled the first time, but quickly decided he likes it. It's not a bad way to get some smiles out of him.

As for crawling, Tyler is getting more and more distance under his belt as his confidence grows. He can definitely see a thing that he wants and go get that thing, which must be immensely freeing for him. He's thinking about pulling himself to standing, but he doesn't quite have the muscles yet, and he occasionally flips and rolls and spooks himself something fierce in the attempt. You just have to hold him and smile at him and let him know that everything is okay, and before too long he'll be convinced.

Today we went out to the mall. Not for anything in particular, just to look at things and walk around with Tyler. There's lots of colors to see and people to stare at, and mommy and daddy can get some smoothies and pretzels. I considered buying Tyler his first video game system, but the point behind that little trick is to buy an old, cheap one and a million games for it. Turns out old Nintendo consoles have dipped past 'cheap' and are back up into 'collectable', or at least that's what my local 'old video game console' stores want me to think. I'll see if Ebay can't prove them wrong sometime later. Either that or Tyler gets a free upgrade to a cheap Playstation or PS2. No rush, though. I don't think his pincer grip is good enough to work video game buttons quite yet.

I think I'm allergic to mold. I've had watery (though not red) eyes and a stuffy nose for the past few days, and the allergy forecast has been high for 'mold' the past few days. Also my throat hurts. That might be unrelated. And I've been achy and tired, but only for a few days after I got the flu shot last week. I'm just saying, there are symptoms, okay?

I'm working on the Ticom Geomatics theme song in my spare time. It's hokey and simple which makes it easy to work on, but hard to get motivated by.

I'm going to to serve up dinner. Ta.

-N

Being on Vacation is objectively better than Home

As I already had the chance to brag about mention, I got to spend the last week in Austin Texas with the World's Greatest Nephew and his super parents.  I did a little bit of job hunting, a pretty decent about of cooking and a whole lot of baby squishing.  There is not one part of Tyler that doesn't deserve a kiss or a squish. And he is very amenable to adventures.  He got to go to the pool!  Which he liked looking at more than splashing in.... And the Neighborhood Festival (where the rest of us porked out on Bake Sale)!  And to Rudy's for awesome BBQ! Where he got his feet cleaned in the handwash jacuzzi, and he came to a posh Derby Party, where he got cooed over a lot, and I got some good contacts about Austin Jobs.  He is such a great baby.  And I got to feed him peas and carrots, and change his tiny clothes and he even feel asleep in my arms BECAUSE HE LOVES ME.

And then we took a plane home.  And then Matt and I got violently ill.  I was hoping it was something we picked up while flying, but no, the Austin Family is out for the count too.  I was thinking I am pretty lucky have someone as nice as Matt to feel so dead awful with, and I did have the passing thought that having a Baby around would be impossible.  And then I found out Noel and Jessie both had it... So, not feeling so whiney anymore.  But yes, the vacation part was WAY more fun than coming home has been. 

Tyler with Other People

We're sitting here on Saturday at the other end of Tyler's first nearly-full week at Day Care, and things are going pretty well. He's picked up a case of the sniffles and his temperature was up at 100.2 last night, just barely below the technical definition of 'fever', but this morning his fever is gone though he continues to have a runny nose. You're supposed to use the bulb squeezer to help keep his nose clear, but he hates that thing. It takes two of us to use it, one just to hold his head still, and he gets really fussy after we use it on him. He recovers quickly, though.

So I finished my festival of cooking last weekend and everything came out great. It turns out six grilled pizzas may have been slightly too much for Jess and I to eat, but the leftovers were nice, if not quite as nice as leftover oven pizza. I'm sure if we did the ingredient list for the pizzas we'd be stunned at how much the cost, especially the 'Alton Brown Recommended' pizza of Dates, Prosciutto Ham, fresh Mozzarella and Thyme, all ingredients purchased at Whole Foods. Heh. Anyway, that one came out great, the Margarita Pizza was delicious, and I made up a 'Spicy Salmon' pizza that involved Smoked salmon (Locks) Sriracha, and then Cream Cheese after it came out of the oven. A delight, especially for breakfast the next day.

The Fudge was also a hit, and much of it has already been given away at work. We did save some for ourselves, but knowing how much sugar is in that thing makes me want to eat it sparingly. I need to try more of that Avocado Ice Cream. I keep forgetting we have it.

Anyway, Tyler at day care has been getting better and better. Jess was worried earlier in the week as he didn't seem to be having as good a time, and was in a quiet mood when we got home. Dad fixed that quickly enough with nuzzles, games, and other distractions (I'm good at that sort of stuff), but Jess was still worried. That all changed, though, the next day when Tyler had a much better day and the day care actually called Jessie to let her know that Tyler was doing well. We picked him up in a smiling mood and he was much happier that evening. He's been pretty cheerful most every day ever since.

I was taking a shower on Thursday when Jess yelled at me from the bed. “I want Katsu Curry!” So we tracked down a place that did Katsu Curry for dinner and went there after work on Friday with Tyler. As always, he was a perfect gentleman, and Jess and I had some really great food. I order ridiculous sushi rolls and some Katsu Don (also great), Jess got her Katsu Curry and then we had some Mochi Ice cream and some Tempura Ice Cream for dessert. It was all pretty fantastic, especially as Tyler just sat and stared and occasionally made cute cooing noises at us the whole time. Also of note, we were surrounded by hot chicks at all the nearby tables. Jess kept saying that they were all attracted to a stable father taking care of his baby. I can't say I disagree.

Tyler has also started playing with one of the toys Great-Nana Preecs got him while she was here, a sled with a whole bunch of blocks in it. One of his favorite games is to sit with the sled in front of him and just pull blocks out and drop them on the ground, occasionally keeping a hand on one and stuffing it in his mouth and scraping his bottom teeth against it over and over. He's definitely better at coordination.

And because we keep getting asked, we are doing fine, wildfire-wise. There have been a couple of scattered fires in our 'neighborhood' that have been quickly contained, and the really big fire that everyone keeps talking about is outside of a city that is just southeast of Austin, and we're northwest, so if our house gets threatened by these wildfires it will have to have gone through the entirety of Austin to get to us, and I'm sure you'll see that on CNN.

This weekend we're inviting Dan and Amy, yes, the ones from Juneau, over for Fondue and baby talk. We have a big pile of things Tyler doesn't fit into anymore that we are planning to give away. Other than that, I'm mostly planning to write this blog and then go get lunch, because I am *hungry*.

-N

Adventures in Home Ownership: Cold Weather Edition

It’s still cold. It’s been below freezing here for three or four days, without ever getting above. And today, we even got snow. A good inch of it, and it’s still on the ground, even. It’s started to melt off the roof, and it’s thinning on the grass, but it’s definitely there. Our work even closed for the day. That’s right! Snow day in Austin! Who would have thought? It does happen, though it’s quite rare, clearly. Though with more and more climate change, I suppose I should be keeping an eye out for this craziness more and more.

Regardless, it’s been cold. Slightly warmer now, but for a while we were talking in the low teens of temperature, and a few days ago when I came back from Judo (by the way: stepping outside into freezing weather with a sweaty undershirt still clinging to your back? That’s cold) Jess told me the hot water had stopped. A little bit of research said that three things needed to happen for the hot water heater to work: electricity, gas, and water. Well the electricity was working because the display was still on, the gas was working because the heater was still going, so that just left the water. Hmm...

I went out to the water heater and played around with the valves that opened and closed the hot and cold water pipes at the inlet and outlet of the water heater. They seemed...suspiciously stiff. I couldn’t even turn them. I suspect frozen pipes, and frozen pipes aren’t good, not good at all. So I get our hair dryer (thank goodness Jessie has hair) and start warming up the brass valves until I can turn the handles. After a little coaxing, the valves turn, and I open up one of the auxiliary valves and expect to see water gushing out of it. After I get it all the way open and still no water flows through, I begin to suspect we may have more cold here than I originally expected.

It was then that I noticed that the inflow vent, the one that lets air in so that the water heater can burn the gas and then vent it out, is right next to the pipes, and the air that it has been letting in is beyond freezingly cold. They are insulated, but the air outside is down around 17 degrees, and has been blowing in this vent for a few hours. I quickly get to work ripping off the insulation and hitting the pipes with the hair drier. Before long, opening the cold water valve reveals a blast of water that kinda made a mess of everything, but wasn’t bad, other than that. I even managed to get the heater working by pulling on the pressure release valve and having it dump hot water to the outside of the house. Hooray! But still no hot water inside? Yep, turns out the hot water outflow was frozen too. We hadn’t been running our water and everything got all gunked up. It’s a good thing the new pipes were plastic, or we may have been looking at a proper set of burst pipes. Yikes.

So that was my Wednesday evening adventure, and I did feel like something of a superhero after fixing the water problem so that we didn’t have to call the plumber in the morning and also so that we didn’t have exploding pipes. I just left a little space heater in the closet with the water heater to make sure it didn’t re-freeze overnight. And yes, I woke up and checked it at 1 in the morning just to be sure that no insulation was catching on fire or anything.

Which brings us to the *friday* adventure. Thursday had been pretty cold, and the weather was calling for a chance of some snow with proper accumulation and everything. So Jess and I went to sleep at our regular hour, assuming that if it was just a light dusting we’d still be going to work in the morning. Well we woke up at 7 and I checked outside and sure enough, we had snow. And not just a light dusting, either. A full inch, which is just enough, when combined with the very, very cold weather, to turn the roads into skating rinks. Snow day! I checked my work e-mail and discovered that, yes, the office was closed for the day. If I was a little bit more clever I would have remembered to enable remote login on my computer so that I could have gotten some work done today, but there’s no changing the past. I’m doing my best, therefore, to enjoy my impromptu three day weekend. We’ve stared by making some morning waffles, which were great, even though the experimental banana filling made kind of a mess of everything.

And after our breakfast, Jess decided...she wanted to go back to sleep. She’s been out for the last two hours. I tell you, she is a *trooper* when it comes to work. I’m sure she could have easily slept an extra two or three hours for the past week, but barring a couple of times where she had to take a break from work to take a 1.5 hour nap in the car (she was *tired*) she’s been up and at work every day without complaint. I give it 33% odds Jess goes into labor *at work*.

Oh, and in the few minutes I’ve been typing this, the temperature has climbed above 32 degrees, and everything is already starting to melt. We did take some pictures, though, and I’ll put some up later.

-N

Oh my gosh it is the coldest!

Another cold front has moved in on Austin that has made me glad I haven’t done any gardening yet. It was below freezing most of the day, even with the sun, and it’s supposed to drop down to 17 degrees tonight, with windchill dropping it down to 5. I should point out that for Jessie, this is pretty much unthinkable. We are coping by wrapping her up in blankets and jackets and the like. I, on the other hand, am still in short sleeves. It does mean that I get extra-cuddled at night, which is nice.

I say this not to impress upon you how cold it is here, because cold is nothing new for us Preecs’s. It’s the wind. It’s BONKERS. The air has come south from Canada and it isn’t even stopping for local cuisine. It’s been whipping through the city and rattling windows all evening. I briefly considered checking for tornado warnings. When we woke up this morning, we had to pull the grill out of the grass. Evidently I had forgotten to set the brakes. And even that brief excursion required me to put on a coat. And gloves, even! There’s frost out there! I wonder if my rosebush can handle it?

The drive into work revealed a few more notable structural failures, though nothing drastic. There is a stretch of street, however, that is lined by trees on either side, and some of them had lost significant branches. One had lost a ‘branch’ so big that I hesitate to consider what remained a ‘tree’.

The best, of course, was when I left Judo this evening. I get pretty sweaty in there, and despite my jacket, the wind pierced to my skin and gave me quite a chill. I would have worn a thicker jacket, but Jessie was wearing it at the time, even though she is indoors.

Another doctor’s appointment come and gone, and nothing to report, which is pretty much the best news. Jess is in good health and isn’t gaining too much weight or loosing too much health. Tyler’s kicks are getting bigger and bigger. I think He’s really excited to get born, though I’m hoping he’ll wait a few more weeks to finish baking. Sometimes when I talk to him it calms him down, and sometimes it winds him up. He’s cute already.

-N

Weekend Adventures

I wanted to write about this weekend, so let’s get this out of the way real quick...



This is Hamilton Pool, a natural pool in a park about 40 minutes outside of Austin. We drove out there on Saturday and checked it out. It’s *beautiful*. I would travel to Costa Rica for a sight such as this, and it’s in our own backyard. We got there early and walked along the creek, which had some really neat views with some beautiful flora along the path. Then a little later in the day, when it got really hot, we went back to the pool area and swam around for a bit in the cool water. Not super cold, just like a pool. There was even a little waterfall that poured water down on a rock you could sit on. I did, for a while, but the water was pretty sharp with all its velocity and it kinda stung my head. We had a great time, though, that place is so nice.

We went shopping for some clothes on sunday, too, just stuff to fit us both better. I’ve managed to keep off my weight and it would be nice to have a pair of shorts that I don’t need to hold up with a belt.

Oh, and friday I want out with some guys from work and saw The Expendables, which is exactly the kind of movie you expect it to be. Lots of truly preposterous action and a lot of fun. Especially when you see it wit a bunch of other guys. We had a blast watching it, then met up for some drinks and munchies at a restaurant nearby.

Okay, that’s out of the way. Hang on, let me get this other one ready...

-N

Weekend Report

I know it's early in the weekend yet, but you guys deserve some blog posting.

Happy birthday, of course, to all people whose births took place over the last week. We're glad to have you around. We've had some new happenings around here, too. Yesterday (friday night) we went out to a new Snow Cone shop being opened by a couple of girls at roller derby. We had a few: all quite good, so if any of you ever happen to be in the east side of Austin in search of cold treats, check out Ice Queens. They've got *flavor*. Jess met with a bunch of roller chicks and then skated around for exercise and to pass out fliers. And then she had some snow cone afterwards. I hung out with some of the girls I know from hockey, and then red my book for a while and wandered around the neighborhood a bit with my phone looking for interesting locales. I almost bought a Po' Boy at a shop across the street, but I'm trying to munch less. There was also a store that sold electronic music gear: synthesizers and the like. As if I need more gear.

Let me tell you something about hummingbirds. We've got our feeder up and full and we've been getting a pretty good run of little buzzers coming in and having their fill. They are, of course, very territorial, and we've been having a quite good time watching them swoop up, eat, and then get dive-bombed by one of their rivals. I couldn't quite tell you what kind they are, though I've been looking at backs and throats in an attempt to identify them. I tell you what, though. Nagano has been *enthralled*. Every once in a while he'll spot one and just stare with his huge eyes or make adorable little cackling sounds while pretending he is a vicious hunter.

Jess let me cook salmon for dinner, and it came out pretty good. We got some wild salmon from whole foods (I don't trust the farmed stuff they sell at the regular supermarket) and covered it with brown sugar. I also took a section for experiments: a little bit with BBQ sauce and a little with gingersnaps: inspired by an Alton Brown Ham Glaze recipe. The cooking went pretty well, though I did have some flameups and the board didn't smoke quite as much as I had hoped. I was pleased, however, that I'd saved a bunch of money by just going off to Lowes and buying my own darn cedar board and then cutting off a plank of the appropriate size. First use of my fancy battery-powered circular saw, too. Thanks dad!

Anyway, the food? Pretty spectacular, Jess ate some and seemed to enjoy herself. The Brown sugar went best, though it didn't quite caramelize and get all smokey like I had hoped. Practice practice, I suppose. The BBQ sauce was pretty bland and tasted like, well, bbq sauce and salmon. Which isn't bad, but the other flavors were better. The gingersnaps were actually pretty well received. Right off the grill they gave a nice crunch and good flavor. Unfortunately as leftovers the cookie crumbs got all soggy. Less good. I got to cook salmon, though. Hurrah!

I may come back later and post some random pictures, but our camera is currently on the fritz. Love to all!

-N

More modern News

A few more notes, just while Jess finishes up some more playing in rock band, about stuff that's been happening, you know, recently.

1) We took off this Friday to go tubing with people at work, a tradition three years at this point. There were slightly fewer of us, and it was a little overcast, but that just made it easier to organize and less likely for us to get sunburned as far as I am concerned. Good times.

2) Inspired by Nana, we had a local neighborhood get-together grill. We didn't get *everyone* showing up, but we did get to meet and re-meet some neighbors, and we did get to see a lot of them when we handed out our little 'announcement fliers', though we had to convince some people, first, that we weren't there to tell them about the latest issue of The Watchtower.

The grill went off pretty well, although I made *way* too many hamburgers. Turns out grilling is pretty easy, I'm getting halfway accomplished at it. Lots of fun, lots of food, really hot, and we got a lot of 'thank yous' for organizing it. Next time, we may have to try Ice-cream, or maybe just have it indoors. It was pretty toasty.

Also, Rock band three has been announced, with the following upgrades:

a) A real keyboard
b) Upgraded Drums
c) Upgraded guitar
and, most importantly:
d) A version called 'pro mode' where you are pretty much playing the real guitar, drum, and keyboard parts. I could be learning how to play the keyboard! And the drums better (they'll have cymbals on them now) and the pro guitar, which is optional, has a button for every string and every fret now, and six strings to strum. How's that for realistic? I'm excited.

3) Jess and I are seriously considering joining the new century with sexy new smart phones, but being a good nerd I'm researching the possibilities. As in previous tech revolutions, the hardware is getting outdated every couple of months, but considering we're upgrading from really, really old phones, pretty much anything is acceptable.

4) Jess is still playing...what else...

5) We're trying to plan our vacation time for the rest of the year, which is pretty limited being as we burned pretty much all of it in Europe. We get more every month, though, so we're trying to figure out when we can go see Jessie's family, which we haven't seen for a really long time.

And that's about it. We've got a few more days of Europe and then we're done. It's been a pretty big writing project, and I'm *still* way behind Sandlin on the post count. Heh.

-N

Micro-News: Macro Edition.

Too much stuff has happened, here are the highlights!

Some friends of our came to visit from Albuquerque for an impromptu weekend. We showed them around Austin and fed them tons of food. The bats under the bridge were a definite hit.

I keep forgetting to write Nana back, but the sewing machine we got was a Brother machine. It works really well, and I like it quite a bit. No new sewing projects yet, though.

We’ve done lots of work on planning our vacation. So exciting! We get to see a lot of stuff and it’s coming up right quick! We’ve also got a wedding and a graduation to go see, so we are going through a lot of airline miles over the next few months.

Jess got a new laptop for her birthday from me. Which also means that I got my laptop back.

The husband of one of Jessie’s cousins was in town for a couple nights, too. We took him out for BBQ (yum) and then met Marci and Brian at a club near downtown. We watched a band I’ve never heard of before, they played swing music, quite good. I had my musician ear on, too. Trying to get inspiration and lessons wherever I can.

Last week was SXSW, south by southwest. An enormous music festival in Austin. It’s pretty crazy, every locale that can host a band does, as do several places that can’t. I may try and do it next year. It seemed pretty exciting, though expensive and very all-day. I’d probably have to take some time off to do it properly. Also, there are video games.

Weight! I’ve broken through the ‘wall’ of 205 lbs, and I’m down to about 203 now.

Martial Arts! I’ve found a place to do my exercise. There’s a Judo school up by me. Good instructor, good price, no contract, and a lot of fun. I’m in!

The grass is still hiding underground, hopefully it’ll sprout soon, as long as the birds haven’t eaten too much of it.

Our shower is complete and awesome. The glass looks really nice.

Oop, bedtime, and I need to go take an awesome shower in our awesome shower. Cheers!

-N

Sorry, my gender roles are all backwards

I had another pretty busy weekend, lots accomplished, it was just all *girl* stuff.

Jess and I went on a hike on Saturday. There’s a national wildlife reserve up a bit north of us, and we got our camel backs put together (thanks, Sandlin!) and decided to check it out. It was all quite pretty, and we ended up wandering around a bit off the beaten path to check out some really neat vistas. They don’t call this area ‘hill county’ for nothing. I’ll try to put up some pictures later, but I’m pretty tired from everything else.

After we got back from the hike, I tried out an Alton Brown cooking experiment. I’d seen an episode on making pocket pies and had showed it to jessie, who agreed that it looked like the greatest thing since sliced bread So I cooked up a double-batch of pie crust and made a whole big bunch of pocket pies. Most of them were apple pies. It was my first time making apple pie filling, too. Turned out pretty good. I also made some Pizza pocket pies and a couple with chocolate inside. Then I baked some and pan-fried some more. They all turned out delicious, because it’s hard to go wrong with that much shortening and flower, but the baked ones were a lot more uniform. It also took a really long time, though I was cooking a double batch. I ended up with nearly 30 pies. We’ve still got a lot of them, they keep really well.

Then today, Jess and I switch genders. She went off and played some sports then came back to watch the big hockey game. I did some sewing.

Big thank you to Nana for teaching me how to use a sewing machine, I got a lot of use out of it today. We bought some curtains that we liked but that were the wrong size or configuration for our bedroom or bathroom. We were just going to get them altered, but the cost for the alterations was almost as much as it would have cost for us to just buy a new sewing machine. So we did. (Sew we did. Ha!)

Jess set it up and read through the manual, and then I did again today to learn a few extra skills, like threading bobbins and the like, and learning about all the completely bonkers stitches our machine can do. Then I did some measuring and put together some pretty nice stitches, if I do say so myself.

So yeah, pies and curtains for me, hockey and hiking for Jessie. I need to go, I dunno, build a deck, or something.

Micro news: The birds have returned to our backyard, with the inclusion of our new, covered bird feeder. We’re going through a lot of birdseed. I blame the squirrels, but they’re cute too. I’m going to try and work on the yard next weekend, I think it’s finally warm enough to start planting, and maybe even turning on the sprinklers. Exciting news at work, there is a new project starting up that I get to be a big part of. Not the technical lead guy, but one of the primary workers. I’ve worked my way through the first of my old music textbooks. I want to try a simple composition, either in SATB or piano style, and then go onto book 2.

-N

I'm fine, by about a block

Hi, everyone.

If you've been paying attention to the news, (as I check, it's on the front page of CNN) you might have seen that there was a deliberate plane crash in Austin. It actually happened at a building right across the street from us thought the crash was on the other side of the building. A guy said h We could easily see the smoke, and there were reports floating around here of a fireball when the plane crashed.

Jess and I and everyone I know are all just fine. The building that got hit isn't related to our work at all, it's just shockingly close. You can get all the details from the news stories, and I encourage you to read his 'manifesto', as well. It's written well enough, none of the usual crazy ramblings you might expect (or fear) to see, and at least it gives context.

But yeah, we're fine. If anyone wants to give me a call, you know where to find me.

-N

AAAAAAAAAAH!

We're being told it may snow tonight.

I know these are the words every parent dreads to hear. To know that it may snow somewhere in the vicinity of one of their special, precious, children. There are no words I can think of to soften the blow. Everyone here is somber, quiet. Those that can have already fled, but for the rest of us, there is no time left.

No time.

I just want you all to know that I love you very much. You have all been supportive and loving, and after...I dunno, an inch or two...of snow falls on Austin, utterly destroying the city, that my thoughts and dreams will echo among the family I have left behind.

Already people have begun to see the coming of the end. There are snow parties. Madmen who will wait outside, defying nature to take them to their last breath. They hold strength and hope in their heart that I cannot mirror. I am afraid.

Jess and I will cuddle beneath some blankets, we'll keep the Cats close to us, but when that final, white death comes for us all, blowing through the house and disassembling us on an atomic level, I want you all to know that my final thoughts will be with you.

With deepest love,

-N

P.S. None of that was true.

P.P.S. Except that it is going to maybe snow tonight.

P.P.P.S. Oh, and the fact that I love all you guys is also true.

P.P.P.P.S. So, yeah. Snow! Maybe! Ticom has a policy similar to Dad's office, which is to say that if the schools are closed, so is the office. I'll check on it in the morning, but it wouldn't be the first time this sort of thing happens, it's just pretty rare. It was an ice storm last time. There is a holiday party that was supposed to be on Friday that got moved to Saturday as a 'just in case' measure. They are already making plans to show the Big 12 Championship there, so they do have their priorities straight.

I'll put up pictures if we get any white stuff, and Family members in colder climates can feel free to giggle at my state's weakness to snow.

Relaxing, mostly.

The parents finished off their little visit with us earlier this week. We saw some of the neat shops on South Congress, which I believe pretty much all of my family has seen at this point, and then on a couple of days when Jess and I had to work, we gave the Parents a car and a GPS and told them to have a blast.  Evidently they did, checking out the LBJ museum, Neiman Marcus (I think) and a few other stops before punching the 'take me home' button and coming back for DELICIOUS NOEL PIZZA. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it's because we pretty much do the same thing every time someone comes to visit. We're still checking out the city for ourselves. The Capitol building was definitely worth checking out, though. Old and beautiful.

Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.

Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.

-N

Visiting Parents

We picked up the Parents yesterday and have been hammering them with Austin Ever since. We went to a championship Roller Derby game where Jess was doing stats. Dad described it as a 'once in a lifetime event'. We went to dinner late after that, then came home and slept.

Today we checked out the capital building, which is really pretty and very historical, and even got a tour around our house and senate, which is out of session at the moment. Then we got some delicious mexican food at Chuy's and wandered around the massive Whole Foods building downtown. Now we're hanging out and resting. Jess and mom are on nap duty, dad is relaxing with his newspaper and the tv.

-N

Some pictures, et. al.

Hi, all,

I finally managed to get the pictures off the camera and up on the internet for the sisters visiting for the weekend. You can check that out at this link.

The visit was a pretty rousing success. We went out for BBQ multiple times, with delicious results. We took kelsey out to Salt Lick, which was fantastic, and then all the Preecs siblings went out to Rudy’s later, which is also really, really, really good. We went down to South Congress, full of strange and fun local shops and bought a lot of candy and browsed a boatload of antiques and strange things at ‘Uncommon Objects’, a neat store. I spent most of my purchases at the local candy store. Smarties, Sweet Tarts, and Lemonheads, in case you were curious. The Alamo Drafthouse showed a Master Pancake Theater production of The Fellowship of the Rings, which was hilarious. For those of you that have never seen one before, a few people sit up front and tell jokes throughout the whole movie. It ranges from really funny to injuriously hilarious. (Score-amir!) Raucus laughter was enjoyed by all.

From Sister Visit & Hike

We also did some clothes shopping and played a lot of rock band. We’re a pretty musical family. Best singing award goes to Matt, best inability to determine up from down goes to Sandlin, best country music purchase goes to Kelsey, and sweatiest drummer award goes to me. Jessie gets the most lefty-righty flips award, and a lifetime achievement award for playing rock band with pretty much everyone that has ever spent the night at our house.

From Sister Visit & Hike

There’s some other pictures in there from this weekend, too. Jess had an ‘outdoor’ itch, and so we moseyed off to do some hiking this weekend. It was actually a really good day for it, a little overcast in the morning, and not too hot when the sun broke through. It was 7.5 miles overall, which is right about at the limit of our hiking ability, it seems. And we also get a bonus half-mile for hiking to the river afterwords and taking a cooling, refreshing dip. Good times.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Oh, and we saw a snake.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Most of the rest of the weekend has been resting. Though there have been some other developments. Just in case anyone hasn’t heard, Peachie, the family cat up in Alaska, was put to sleep this weekend. She was acting very strangely and had gotten down to 5 pounds, a very unhealthy weight. Ultimately, age just was too much for her, and so the parents made the hard choice and let her go. She was 19 years old, which is like a Methuselah cat, and she was an absolute sweetheart, as long as you didn’t care overmuch about the state of your furniture. The world is a slightly less fuzzy place without her in it.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Also, I’ve had to call in professional help, though they haven’t returned my calls yet, because it’s pretty obvious that our sprinkler system is leaking somewhere underground. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but the easternmost fence area in the backyard is pretty much a swamp, and I don’t think that’s traditional for Austin. It gets pretty wet around the west side of the house, too.

A few other bits of Micro-News, I’ve been doing yet more writing, attempting to do at least a page or two every day in an effort to finish my story so I can try and get it published and move onto another hobby: sound. I want to try and do a podcast with the siblings. That would be fun. Jess is off at roller derby, and has another game next week! You can actually watch it over the internet, and if anyone wants to know how, just e-mail me and I’ll let you know the details. My proposed next work-exursion to England has been pushed back to June. A nice time to get away from the blistering Austin sun and go hang out with some Sheep.

With love to all,

-N