A Subtle Shift in Priorities

Well just take a look at how timely this blog entry is. Ha! Fantastic.

Recently, which is to say 'the last few months', I have not been enjoying the prospect of going to Judo. I would realize it was Monday, my normal Judo day, and my stomach would sink. Judo isn't that bad, not really, but compared to some of the other things I do with my evenings, it just always felt like a waste of an evening. We often spend a frustrating amount of time just talking about stuff, and I've never felt like my progress has been that marked. I got my black belt, I guess, but I still never really felt like I earned it, but just going to judo because it was 'judo day' hasn't really felt right in a while.

I sat down with Jessie to talk about my 'crisis of activities', something that comes up every few years, and she told me exactly what you'd expect her to tell me: if you're not enjoying it, then why are you going? We have our Kinect at home for exercise (and it keeps kicking my ass), there's no need to go if I'm not enjoying it. So for now, I've decided to take a hiatus from Judo. As Jess reminded me: I can always go back. They've been doing Judo for a couple of centuries now, I don't think they're going to quit anytime soon.

So I certainly don't lack from good uses of time in my life, or at least not fulfilling ones. Miniature painting continues to be great fun, and I'm getting better at it with every mini I paint. I even have a permanent home for my painting, now, as opposed to just keeping it in the library and moving it every time we want to play cards or something. I carved out a little corner of my studio and now have my stuff all set up for all the painting I could want. I also shuffled my studio over so it's now in the same upstairs room as the guest bed. We can use the old studio room for...other things.

There's also Piano, which I am attempting to be as diligent as possible about, because you know what practice makes, don't you? I did get a little down on it because, like most of my hobbies, it's not really leading to anything. I'm not going to any recitals, or joining a band, or anything. Though the better I get at piano, the easier it will be to compose music in the future, which is nice. Still, though, playing the opening to Journey's “Don't Stop Belivin'” is a pretty good way to end a day, so I keep at it. If anyone knows of a band in Austin looking for a piano player without a whole lot of time to invest...let me know.

But if I'm cutting back on Judo, perhaps it would be a good time for me to try doing something else with my time, eh? Maybe a little...VOLUNTEERING? Yeah, I know great minds think alike.

I scrounged through various volunteer listings online, hoping to find something that could make some use of my expertise. Something maybe with education, too, because I really, really like education. I ended up signing up for Austin Partners in Education. I start on Tuesday.

I'm volunteering! It's quite exciting. All I saw on the sign-up-form online was that they needed people to help with groups of two-or-three middle schoolers who need help learning math. Sounds up my alley, yes? But I had some questions, which I brought to the lunchtime training session I went to last week. Turns out this group has around 2000 volunteers (!) and what they do is one class a week, the whole math class meets with a group of probably 10 volunteers who guide them through the lesson for the day. The job is to ask questions, get them thinking, and generally show our excitement for the subject matter at hand. I can do that.

I'm coming in the the middle of the school year, which usually means I'll be replacing someone who couldn't make it through the year (Life happens, you know?) so I'm hoping that I'm up to the standard set by my predecessor. If this goes well, and I've only got something like 7 more classes before the end of the year, maybe I'll sign up for a full year next time.

Of course, right after signing up for this, the local community magazine came out with their summary of a boatload more volunteer opportunities, so I can certainly expand if I want. I may have to, if I'm going to help Sandlin meet her goal.

So let's see, what do you need to know about Tyler. He's coming up on his terrible twos. They're not really that terrible, cause he's such a great kid normally, but you can definitely see where the beginnings of a furious little id are going to create a few frustrating afternoons before we get him properly civilized. He doesn't want to share, he gets angry when he can't have is way...you know...kid stuff. On the plus side, the house next door to us sold, and we met the neighbors today while we were getting ready to take Tyler out biking. (We bike, he rides behind). They have a 9-year-old boy, and a 2-year old boy as well. Score! Jess made them cookies. They move in tomorrow. We know pretty much nothing more than that (except their names) but we are going to bring them cookies, so I expect we will be fast friends.

Tyler is starting to sing. You have to know what you're listening for, because he can't carry a tune yet and he only get's about 70% of the words, but we've heard him do 'Twinkle Twinkle', '5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed', 'The ABCs,' and 'The Itsy-Bitsy Spider', with hand motions and everything. He is also really excited because he gets to go to Disneyland for his birthday, or at least near his birthday, and Nana and Grandpa are going to be there too. Though to be honest, at this point the trip is about 30% for Tyler and 70% for Jessie. Also, we get to visit some friends in LA while we are out there, so good fun then, too.

-N

Busy Getting Stuff done

Just in case you're wondering why I don't blog more, its because I'm still spending all my time doing awesome stuff. I am, yes, still practicing the piano. I got myself a couple of songbooks for myself for my birthday. So I'm currently learning how to play the theme music from Super Mario Brothers. Yes, you should be impressed, it is very impressive. I can physically play about half of it, for now, but a little less than that with both hands at the same time, and essentially just the intro at the proper speed. So there's still work to do, but I'm really enjoying working on this song. I also got a book of radiohead songs, and I just have to figure out which one I want to learn to play first. And another book of exercise and basic songs to learn, to further expand my skills at a basic level. I'm still just playing on my keyboard, which is just wide enough for Super Mario brothers, though It doesn't use the lowest octave. Of course, I can just push a button and then it won't use the highest octave if I want. Electronics are great like that.

Also, paining miniatures. I've showed off a few of them to some of you over Skype, but I have yet to put up any pictures. They're pretty cool looking, if a little basic, but the process is very time consuming and cannot be rushed, which is part of what I like about it. You have to take your time, consider the process, decide what you want to paint on what surface...you know, ART. I find the whole thing pretty relaxing, and so I decided to invest a little more into our painting gear. I went out yesterday and picked up a bunch of random paint brushes (different kinds, so I can see what I like) some porcelain paint palettes (much easier to clean), and a few other odds-and-ends like slo-dry (for easier paint blending) and some finishing spray to keep the paint well set on the mini's when I'm done. I really like just going out and considering all the options and making decisions and...I don't know even going out to buy brushes yesterday was fun. Maybe because Jess was at home taking care of Tyler for me and, as it turns out, taking down all our blinds.

We're getting new windows put in in the near future. The nice fancy ones that the guy came to our house and punched through for us. Jess got down all the blinds, but we'll wait for a little bit before doing the curtains. We do need some privacy.

And then, of course, there's Judo. I've been doing more Shiai (sparring) recently, which still isn't a lot, but it's more than the 'none' that I've done before. I'm getting a little better, bit by bit, which is encouraging, though I'm still pretty far below most of my peers. I is encouraging, however, that whenever we get new students in that Sensei usually has them work with me. I like to think I'm a pretty patient teacher.

Anything else? Any other activities taking up my time? OH, that's right, my son.

Last weekend we went to Houston for Jessie's great-uncle-in-law's 90^th birthday. We learned that 1) Driving during Tyler's nap is a great idea. 2) Driving while he's supposed to be asleep is not. I also managed to pick up whatever upper-resperitory cough-fest Tyler happened to pick up from day care last, which is still making my voice a little croupy. But other than that, the trip was a pretty great success. Everyone was all excited to see Jess, and Tyler got to play with a couple of twin girls a little younger than he was. He was a little scared of them. I'll tease him about that when he gets older. We also brought back Jessie's Grandmother to stay with us for a while. Tyler eventually got used to her and even gave her some kisses on the last day she was here.

The comprehensive Tyler-dictionary is going to have to come to a close. He's learning a new word or two every day now. It would be difficult to keep up. He's using his words a lot more often now. Here are some highlights.

Nana: What he says every time we tell him we are going to Skype. He knows about grandmothers.

Areyou?: What he says when he is looking for things. Either Waldo in the waldo books or Daddy.

Doo-Doo!: This is the sound a train makes, and a lot of things are enough like trains (cars, rocks, pretty much anything he can push around) that they also make this sound too.

Yikes!: Luckly, this was what Jessie said when her antibiotic ointments took hold on her latest road rash. He's also picked up “Whoah” and “Oh no!” Nothing R-rated yet.

TeeBee: We let him watch TV when he's feeling bad and needs to relax, but he's also figured out that you can watch it at other times as well. He'll ask for it a lot. We generally just tell him no.

Ninite: Certain kinds of clothes are ninite clothes. They are the kinds you put on before it is bedtime.

We took Tyler out to a neighborhood festival this weekend where they had some pancakes, a hot air balloon, and plenty of booths selling arts and crafts. They also had a bounce house that Tyler was really into, even though he was the smallest one there. He was having fun getting bounced around by all the kids...and then the fan kicked off and the whole thing deflated. Which is scary, if you are small and don't know what's going on, and also potentially dangerous. Jess got to work pulling out some kids while other people (myself included) did their best to try and keep the thing from falling over too much. Tyler wasn't at the exit, though, so eventually Jess just dove in after him. She found him in a very unhappy mood, but having mama nearby definitely helped. Still spooky. He's been in two bounce houses in his life. Both deflated while he was inside. I'm not sure if he'll want to go into any more.

Tyler also got a haircut yesterday. His third. The second went just fine. The third was NOT fun. He didn't want the little cape thing on, and he did not like the clippers one little bit. There were many tears, but eventually we got through it with bubbles and patience. There's been a lot of trauma in his life this weekend. I'm surprised he's still this well adjusted.

Other Micro-news:

-Jess has had to go through her polygraph test. It was a horrible experience and she has to go back.

-Jess also is traveling in October for work. I'll have Tyler for the week. Planning to get him a tattoo.

-With all these activities, I barely have any time at all for Video games. Crazy, I know.

-Tyler, for those keeping track, will be 18 months old (1.5 years) at the end of this month.

-Also, Tyler sits in a Big-boy car seat now.

I'll probably write again in another two months when I have some time. :)

-N

P.S.: I have some pictures to share, too.  But photo upload seems to be wonky, so I'll try again later.  

Other Finger Exercises

One of the main reasons I haven't been blogging as much is that whenever I get a free 15 minutes or so, I've actually been indulging in a new, different hobby. I'm learning the piano. Again.

I don't have much of a recollection of playing the piano before. I can't have been that good at it, but my body clearly remembers a few of the tricks. I still remember 'doggy D', and whenever I put my hands on the keyboard, my first, third, and fifth fingers are always ready to hit the C Major chord. So far my strategy of 'make sure you practice every day, preferably before you play videogames' has been paying off. I picked up a book of instructional songs for adults to teach themselves, and it's been a great help in just lining up songs that push my dexterity a little bit at a time. I should put up some video (or maybe just audio?) later, but Jessie says she likes listening to me, so that's pretty good to hear. I keep thinking that if I still am doing this after a year I'll reward myself by getting a real piano. Probably an electric piano, or just a better keyboard. An upright at best. We technically could fit a grand somewhere in the house, but I'll save that until after I become a world-famous performer.

The idea that we should have Thanksgiving in Seattle catalyzed yesterday, and has quickly run away as a fantastic idea. It'll be neat to see the family again, of course, but I haven't really gotten to see much of the city, and I'm told it's a pretty cool place in spots. Also, Tyler did quite well on his last flight, so we're up to trying it again. Getting him his own seat is a real boon to his comfort, as well as ours and all those around us. It's an investment, but it's been a good one so far.

Jess played hookey today to go riding down the river on inner tubes with work-mates, drinking and generally having a relaxing time. I took over baby-caring-for duty, and Jess has been taking every opportunity to tell people how nice I am being to her, which is a kindness that I definitely appreciate.

Tyler's latest trick is that he really likes noticing when things are the same. If you're reading a book, and the picture on the front of the book is the same as the picture on one of the pages, he'll get really excited (if he remembers) and make you flip back to the cover to make sure they are the same. He also got really excited when he noticed that the cat on my 'darth vader kitty' t-shirt was the same as the cats running around the house. Both dee-dees.

My sparring (they call it shi-ai) in judo has never been very good. I'd mostly quantify it as 'really bad', and I've decided I have to face my fear of sucking at judo and just practice it more. After all, that's pretty much how you get better at anything. I get myself pumped up by listening to energetic music on the way in, and I'm trying to convince myself that, much like the piano, I just have to do it every day. Not a lot, necessarily, but every time needs a little more practice. I'll get there eventually if I put in the time.

-N

Nearly an Official Toddler

As a follow up to the last post, Tyler went in for his checkup at two weeks after the surgery and everything looks just great. His ears seem to be doing really well for him and there's no more sign of infection. Of course, there was rarely any sign of infection before he got the tubes in, but I'm just going to assume that everything is going well.

Tyler is still *technically* in the baby program at Day care, but he has been spending time, along with some of his other classmates, out in the playground with the toddlers. His whole class has become pretty adept walkers, and so they're out there doing all sorts of crazy things with the REALLY old kids. His teacher tells us that all the other babies tend to stay within sight of her, just to be sure to be safe. Tyler, on the other hand, is off and exploring the whole place with no fear at all. Definitely his moms baby.

Here's some other neat things he has done:

-He wears shoes all day now, except for when he is at home. We've even had to abandon some of the smaller shoes: he's grown out of them.

-He likes throwing balls. He has a small whiffle-ball sized one and one only slightly smaller than a Yoga ball. He saw the latter one day at target and we decided to get it for him. He was really excited the whole time at the store. Now he likes to grab one of his balls, run forward, and throw it as hard as he can, all while squeeling.

-MORE TEETH. His bottom left molar is starting to peek through, and if you feel around in there you can feel the top two molars coming in. Because Tyler is the best baby, he's not complaining about this.

-He likes buttons. He is, therefore, obsessed with the remote and with his little baby laptop that we got him. This also makes it difficult for us to skype with people: he's found the power button on my laptop.

-Jess is at Derby tonight, and I just put Tyler down to bed. After a few minutes, I heard the mobile music turn on through the monitor. Yeah, he did that.

I've been doing Judo, still, though a bout of some sort of nasty fever/throat infection kept me out for a week or so. One our old school at the gymnastics academy had to move, the school pretty much split into two, so I tried going to the other one for a while, which is nice because it has more people for me to practice with.

Jess is doing lots of derby and has even signed up for an ice hockey tournament this weekend. She's worried, because worrying is what she does, but she can skate on ice just fine, and it's actually a mixed-skill-level tournament, so she doesn't have to skate against the really good guys, just the other C-level skaters on the other team.

Our cats are fuzzy, adorable, and REALLY into getting attention, especially in the early morning. Gizmo has taken to jumping up on the bed, meowing a bit, and then taking up a sleeping position in my armpit. To each their own, I'm sure it's really warm there.

Diablo 3 is out, and Jess and I are playing together. Yes, it's a video game, but it's something we're doing together, and we're having a lot of fun in the process. We can't do it lots and lots cause, you know, *baby*, but what time we do get together is really nice, both in and out of game.

-N

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

Turkey, Et. Al.

'Tis the end of our Thanksgiving weekend too, and it has been a very nice one. This also marks the first time Jess and I have celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home and not traveling across the country and driving ourselves crazy. I gotta say, if you can swing it, Thanksgiving at home is a pretty good way to go. Though you do have to cook for yourselves.

Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.

Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.

Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.

It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.

Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.

-N

That's a lot of baby

Tyler currently clocks in at 15 pounds, 12 oz, and 27 inches long. That puts him in the 75% for weight and greater than 95% for height. That's rather a lot of baby. I knew he was getting big, but I didn't think he was quite that big. Guess he has been putting all that formula to good use, even though he does return a lot of it to sender.

Tyler's well-baby check went just fine today. We asked a few questions of the doctor and she gave him a clean bill of health. She gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods if we wanted, but we'll probably wait until 5 months. He's less likely to have food allergies that way. He got a few more shots (frowny face) and cried quite loudly until dad broke out his phone and started playing electronic music on it. Seriously, he really likes music with a beat. He calmed right down, tear running down his cheek and everything, just starting at the phone. I'm glad I got a new one, it's paid for itself already in calm-baby dividends.

Tyler discovered he can scream yesterday. It's a little weird, until you see his face and realize he's not actually hurting, and it's really good exercise for him. He scrunches down and does this little death-metal yell. I'm surprised he doesn't have a sore throat this morning. He's actually asleep right now, and has been for quite a while. Either the vaccines are tiring him out or the 12 hours of sleep he gets at night isn't quite enough to recover from all the exercise he's doing. Between pushups, superman flexes and crunches, he's turning into quite the little body-builder.

Grandparent swap #1 happened this weekend. We dropped grandma Swanson off at the airport and picked up grandpa Preecs, who will be covering the next two weeks of Tyler-time. He's picked up on the basics so far, and I'm staying at home today to critique his technique, but he's raised a baby before, so I'm sure he knows how the basics work.

In non-baby news, I've decided on my next musical project. I've decided to try and cover a song from an old video game I played on the Super Nintendo called Actraiser. There's some seriously great music in that game, and it frees me from having to decide on a lot of the aspect of the music, allowing me to focus on 'production', if you will. Picking instruments, adding interesting twiddly bits, that sort of thing. The downside is that's it's only 12 measures long, and it loops, so it's not likely to be a particularly large project, but I'm determined to make myself create things. I'm not going to get any better if I just sit around wishing I could create something good as opposed to actually creating something.

Hey, Tyler is awake. Good 1.5 hour nap, there. Also on the plus side, the doctor told us we were feeding Tyler a bit too often, and the long nap means we successfully stretched out the time between his feedings. The next one will probably be a little trickier, though.

Jess started, and has nearly finished, a project of her own, too. We swiped a good storage box full of old family albums and school pictures, and Jess has managed to scan quite a lot of them. There's some fully adorable pictures of Jessie in her younger years. She looks a lot like she did back in high school, and even in middle school, but for some reason her grade-school self looks almost completely different to me. I'm sure you'll all be able to see them soon enough. I'll let you judge.

The North Judo school is closing. It's been sounding like the Gymnastic school has been wanting to get us out of there for a while, presumably because they have some clever plans for the space. They have already opened, however, another school to the south. It's maybe another 5 or 10 minutes drive for me, but nothing dramatic, and the space is a little bigger, I think. It's a nice little area to get thrown around. Jess, on the other hand, is in a bit of a free-fall, exercise-wise. Rec Roller derby finished a session and is trying to secure a space to have future classes. There's still hockey and plenty of derby girls are meeting up in various locales to skate around and be awesome, but nothing fully official yet.

-N

Man, I'm tired

Yesterday I went to Judo and had a really great class. I worked with one of the black belts all class and he kept saying how good I was to work with. He was training for a big tournament he was going to in Miami and so we practiced resisting throws and then did Shiai (sparring) for a half hour straight. Heck of a workout, but I just feel burned out today. I'm not sure I can blame it all on the exercise, but I've been tired and lacking focus all day. I even took a nap this afternoon after I got home from work. I never take naps!

We've been doing battle against the bugs in our yard for the past few weeks. I picked up some ant poison that seems to do pretty well, though in investigating my yard for red ants I stepped on a couple of nests while wearing flip-flops. No permanent damage or severe pain, but you do tend to hop pretty quickly when you discover you've made that mistake.

I've killed of a good half-dozen mounds, but now that Tyler is spending so much time on the floor playing, Jess is extra worried about keeping whatever bugs we can out of the house. I picked up some stuff that's supposed to get sprayed around the perimeter of the house and keep the bugs out, we'll see if it works. Jess gets spooked even more than usual when she sees bugs now.

Tyler has started to laugh! He likes it when you much on his belly, and he gets especially excited when mom and dad come home from work. We always get big, toothless, gummy smiles. He's still entranced by colors and faces, we went shopping today and he spent the the entire time just looking at all the stuff. Very well behaved, though. The best baby in the world.

Good news for Adventure Baby (He's #1 for adventure!) he has discovered that the white monkey has but one weakness...baby drool! He's getting increasingly good at using his hands to get stuff. Mostly it's just waving and grasping, but he's become exceptional at grabbing whatever cloth is on his chest, be it burp cloth or just shirt, with both hands and stuffing it into his mouth. We even spied him delicately reaching for Mr. Toucan today on his play yard. Progress!

He's doing great, also, at being baby-sat, behaving quite well with Grandma Swanson even though she complains all the time about how he spits up on her. I'm not sure why, though. I've had a much better track record by simply deciding that baby vomit isn't worth worrying about and just ignoring it when it gets on my shirt. Those with aversions to body fluids may want to think long and hard about this baby thing.

And finally, of course, a hearty congratulations to Dr. Seguin, the smartest new doctor in the country. Kudos and a hearty hurrah! Can't wait to catch you tomorrow on Skype!

-N

I am Less Exciting

Well after the initial flurry of pregnancy related craziness, the last few weeks have been relatively sedate. Tyler is still getting his daily workouts, though, and the kicks are getting stronger and stronger. I’m hoping that when he gets large enough, he won’t have the space to really wind up before delivering swift kicks to Jessie’s insides. He’s certainly getting stronger now, but he still gets a little performance anxiety whenever I put my hand on him. I can usually get him to wake up and kick around by talking to him, though.

Judo continues: our teacher is even opening up another school. It sounds like it’s a combination of factors, including space, the fact that the rent is pretty cheap, and that we might get kicked out of our current space. It’s a little bit farther away from me, but not significantly so. Certainly not so far that I wouldn’t drive to go learn.

Jessie got her raise today. Let me reiterate. Jessie got her RAISE today. I won’t discuss specific numbers, but remember how we used to have pretty much the same income? THAT ISN’T THE CASE ANYMORE. There are some big numbers on that sheet. BIG ONES! I’m really quite proud of her, because she works hard, gets important things done and, most importantly, her bosses *recognize* her hard work. It really is a great company to work for. I am jealous, but only because I wish that I was that well regarded and rewarded. So jealous in a ‘want to work harder so I get better’ way, not a ‘wish Jessie got worse’ way.

In a real sense, this means it’s looking more and more like I’m going to start stepping down to part time. We both still make enough that having us work is worth the investment in child care and whatnot, but if we have the opportunity to take less time working and more time for family, we might as well take it. Tyler is only going to be a baby once. We’ve floated the ideas to our higher-ups, but they understand that our plans must remain somewhat fluid because we’re about to have a BABY so things can change pretty quickly.

So proud of Jessie! Applause for her!

In ‘clothing my future son’ news, we have discovered a nearby ‘used baby clothes’ store, and I have convinced Jessie that we don’t need to buy them completely out of their stock until at least after christmas. Once that’s done, though, we are going to help those people pay their *bills*. Also, mom sent me some of my old baby clothes (still adorable) including one that I recognized. Jess said I couldn’t have, because it’s baby sized, but I figured it out eventually. It’s the same ‘georgetown’ white t-shirt that I’ve seen on a lot of old pictures of dad when I was a little baby myself. So cute! Also, go georgetown! Woo! Wikipedia.com has just informed me that you are also known as the Hoyas! So go Hoyas, as well!

If anything else interesting happens, I’ll be sure to let you know.

-N

Practice Thanksgiving

Last time I wrote, I think I was still in the desert, so lest anyone be using these blog entries in the far flung future as a digital, archeological record of the era before everything was captured and recorded on supercomputers: yes, I did return on time. (I read about that in a short story once and I’ve been mildly obsessed with the idea ever sense.)

We’re slowly constructing a baby room from its component atoms: furniture and baby toys. Ever since the gender got out: (it’s a boy, in case you’ve been under a rock) and the presumptive name (Tyler Rex Preecs, cause then we can call him T-Rex) we’ve been flooded with intriguing gifts from all corners of the...well, if not the world yet, then at least the country. Sandlin sent us a fantastic set of nerdy early-development stuff, like a flash card set for numbers that contains Pi, and an alphabet poster that has “J for Jovian Moons”. Good stuff for a nerdy baby, which ours is likely to be. Mom and dad (we think? We’ve just gone off the return phone number) got us some baby onesies with T-Rexes on the front. Ha-dorable.




As for us, we’ve been in charge of slightly more heavy stuff: primarily furniture. We’ve gotten the crib (thanks, consumer reports!) and a chest of drawers/changing table. We’re hoping to paint before it gets too late for us to do so, (read: we get too busy/tired) and we’re excited because we can finally pick something with *color*. I’m intrigued by the possibilities presented here.

I’m whipping Jessie back into shape, which is to say that we’re jogging again. Jess has slowed down due to the fact that she has to carry about 20 pounds of baby around with her at all times, so that’s okay. I come up with things to slow me down, like running back and forth, dropping and doing push-ups, and the like. Good exercise. Judo is also going well. I’ve told the teacher that I need to practice more Shiai (sparing, like what you see at the Olympics) not because I like it. Because I’m bad at it and I therefore need the practice something fierce. There are tournaments to attend, if I wanted. Once I feel either curious about how I would perform (I can probably guess, now) or want to try doing judo with different people I may go to one. But for now? No rush.

I’ve been using tools. An old branch or two has broken off on one of the trees in the backyard. We yanked it down with our fancy tree-cutting kit. It wasn’t easy, but I figured out how to saw halfway into the branch and then get the teeth stuck in it so I could pull it down. Then we sawsalled it into trash-can-sized pieces. Also it’s a little windy and there’s a branch out there that looks to be hanging a little bit awkwardly. I may investigate after I post this.

And finally, and most interestingly, Fake Thanksgiving!

I hope you have your plane tickets already and don’t mind getting groped by strangers or having naked pictures taken of you and posted on the internet because it’s time for Thanksgiving Vacation. A recent spate of Good Eats watching led me back to the Good Eats Thanksgiving special, where Alton Brown (my hero!) talks about his tips for Turkey success, namely:

1) Brine the Turkey
2) Don’t stuff it (at least not with stuffing)
3) Start at 500 degrees, drop to 350 and finish with a probe thermometer

I’ve never got a chance to do any of this, but the Florida Family is perfectly willing to let me take over some thanksgiving cooking duties, so I thought I’d give it a try. I wouldn’t want to try it without knowing what I was doing, though. Who knows what a brined turkey could taste like. So rather than just trying it all blindly next weekend, Jess and I decided to do a preemptive thanksgiving this weekend.



All came out well, as you can see. The turkey, brined, was great. Not too salty, and CRAZY-moist. Really good. Jess made a green bean casserole (from scratch, people) that came out fantastically. The stuffing was from stove top and the rolls came almost-pre-baked, but there’s only so much from scratch I’m willing to do all at once. Anyway, we just finished it up (thanksgiving is always better for lunch) and Jess is, of course, napping, which means success, in my book.

Oh, and I got to use my electric knife again. Thanks person who got it for me for Christmas several years ago. Probably parents.



-N

Random Shenanigans

While not speaking in front of any major national conventions, I’ve been up to some things of my own.

The “wow new toy” sheen has worn off the phones, and they’ve settled in as mighty, mighty useful pieces of equipment. I still haven’t explored all of the functionality, and it’s neat really just to browse around the phone and learn all the neat stuff it can do. I find myself using it for navigation, looking up silly things online at random, the occasional video and the so-useful-I’m-not-sure-how-I-lived-without-it functionality of a speaker phone. Jess really likes hers, too. It’s not cheap, but it promises to be, with luck, worth the cost.

I made some more bread this weekend. My whole wheat loaf is much improved over previous iterations, though I have to be careful to really let it rise like crazy, because unlike regular bread loves which rise pretty significantly after you put them in the oven, the wheat loves pretty much just bake into whatever shape they were when they went in there. And you can loose some volume off putting the thermometer in there, too. I also found, finally, a good way to make cheesy bread so that you don’t get loaves with big, cheezy holes in the middle. Essentially they’re just great big cinnamon rolls, except with cheese instead of cinnamon. Jess really liked those ones.

Judo, have I not talked about it much before? Well I’m still doing it and it’s a blast. It combines many of my favorite aspects of a martial art:
1) It’s competitive. Not aggressively so, but it’s always good to have an art where you can try things out and if you’re doing it wrong, you’ll know, because it *won’t work*. It’s also nice because the looser doesn’t get knocked out, just thrown down. I can take that kind of defeat.
2) It’s really good exercise. Mostly for those core muscles in the middle. Because it’s just fall down, get up, fall down, get up, for an hour and a half. Just standing up is enough to break a serious sweat.
3) I get to practice falling. Let’s be honest, here, I’m not likely to ever get into a fight. But I’m sure to fall over one day, and being able to do so safely is a very useful skill.
4) No contracts. I’ve learned my lesson on that one.

We’re in the summer doldrums, of a sort, for video games, in that there is little of note that is coming out until the really big stuff hits for the holiday season. Lucky for me, this means I get to go back and play some stuff I missed from last year. As well as catch up on reading and making music. And baking bread.

We found a farmers market! And, lucky us, it’s actually going to be moving *closer* to us next week. It’s peach season round here, so we got 8 or so of them for munching later. They’re ripening as we speak. I drool with hunger! We also got some veggies and made up some salad for dinner. Little (tasty) tomatoes and some sort of Zuccini variant that is crisp and delightful. I’m looking forward to learning my way around that place better.

Jessie has been skating like a maniac. She took, I think, one day off last week. The rest of the time she was on wheels either for hockey or for derby. Her recreational league had a (closed door) game this weekend and she has actually been a team leader for a few weeks. Well it turns out all that work on proper lineups and the excellent leadership that comes with a positive attitude rubbed off on the team because they *DOMINATED* the opposing team. From the sound of it, her team gelled quite well, everyone skated to their utmost potential, and Jess scored MASSIVE points when she got to be the jammer a couple of times. Next time you see her, make sure you let her know that you are in awe of her skills, because she doesn't quite seem to grasp how great she is on wheels.

-N