Got a call today from Oma to let me know that a guy wanted to donate a tiller. I'm always a bit suspect when folks want to donate things to the gardens, but this was a shocker. Oma said that it sounded nice, and she was right. It's a Sears rear-tine model in very good shape. The fellow that was donating it said that he just picked up an electric Mantis and was very happy with it. Those things are great and if we could get one for each garden, we would. This rear-tine will serve us well in breaking ground at new gardens.....something that seems to be happening lately.

The LW has sent off two grant proposals in the past month or so and we already have been short-listed for one of them. One is a max of $15k for a garden to be set up and another involves an amount that's about 10% of that in equipment and starter equipment. Both would be nice and we hope that everything works out. Now, we just need to find a lawyer that'll set up our incorporation as a 501(c)(3) without running us into the poorhouse and all will be good in the world.

CP's teeth in the front continue moving into the open and it's funny to watch. She's been a bit finicky with food lately and that seems to be the pattern that surrounds teething for her. She's crawling faster and faster and has really begun to understand what "no" means. She's a wonderful baby and we both see these as some of the most beautiful days of our lives....even though we're sleepy and cranky. =0)

I don't know that I'd want to go head-to-head with Richard Leakey, but it seems some people there choose to remain willfully ignorant.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/06/kenya.fossil.ap/index.html

Don't drink anything when you watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBE2h8Gdmvc&eurl=

It's India, and apparently no rules apply:
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/

Third paragraph from the bottom says it all.

CP's two front teeth are almost through the skin now and the grandparents will have just one more thing to grin about when they arrive in a week or two. Been working on a new website design for my work site and it's time consuming since I'm just a hack. It'll be a good change. I'm supposed to go out to the garden today and look around at how the work is progressing. I have some questions about how to hook in the irrigation timer to the existing wiring and I hope that I can get that figured out soon without turning myself into a light bulb.

Using compeed style bandages on my elbow and they are amazing. They form a little gel pad over the wound and it makes a nice cushion for when you're clumsy, like me, and tend to smack into things. 3 days and the road rash is healing over already. I'm going to pick some of these up and keep them around the house. It doesn't really make sense to have anything but these, peroxide, and some guaze for wound cleaning.

The LW took off for the coffee shop this morning, so I'm the man of the house. As in, I run things...when she's not around.

Just talked with my broand he's looking at getting some tire balls from the gang at BulletProof Designs due to all of the flats that he gets on the CR450X. I think that it could have something to do with not having a good tire gauge. I think that he just mashes on it and guesses. Not really a good plan unless you like walking.

MMmmmmm 10am - time for Sesame Street.

Just got back from speaking with the neighbor across the street about the booming stereo that he just installed in his car. He said something is wrong with it and that it cuts out when it's loud. There's some justice for ya.... Anyway, the thing still rattles every window in the house when he comes down the street and it'll be time for Five-O to remind him of the limits to his freedom if it keeps up.

Had fun at the race this weekend, but I ended up crashing on lap 3 and I wished that I hadn't given my elbow pads away. I've already spent 3 times what it would have cost to buy a pair just in bandages from the drugstore. I hope that I'm able to work tonight, because if I can't, this injury will cost me $100 or so in short order. I

I was chasing a guy that I had caught. It was my first time to catch anyone really....ever. I enjoyed going by him only to crash and get passed. I caught up with him again, but we both caught another guy. He got by the guy and I didn't. By the time I got around this guy, he was slipping away and I needed to make up some ground. I came out of a turn in a creekbed/rockbed and got just a little off balance or something because before I knew it I was face down pushing up rocks with my right elbow and shoulder. I was just lucky that I didn't break anything. One rock punched through to the bone and it even punched a hole in my shirt. I drove back home and the LW fixed me up. It still hurts, but everything's fine.

CP is back to the wake-mommy-up-all-night stuff again. It started with the sickness and hasn't stopped. The LW is hitting the wall and I figure that she'll be back to letting her cry it out soon enough.

Another week disappeared in a fog. We've seen the virus stuff run its course and as soon as CP could eat, she started teething. I don't know which is worse, seeing her not feeling well and being sedate, or seeing her go full blast teething all the while. Of course, I'm happy that she's up and around more. She's been laughing alot lately and when the LW was sleeping off an entire night spent soothing a fussy baby, I was shushing her with my finger over my mouth. Now she does it. It's pretty funny stuff. Her appetite is back 3 times over. She eats just about anything in her path - edible or not. Tonight, she crawled from the living room into the kitchen and headed straight for the cat bowls. Almost nothing is safe....including the cats. She found out recently that Violet doesn't care for her brand of petting by leaving her 4 little claw marks on the side of her face. Just like her dad, CP learns the hard way.

I'm still working on getting the motorcycle boots stuff figured out. I picked up some Alpinstars Tech 3s the other day and I like them. My ride this past Sunday was good and the boots did well. I wish that I could say the same for the handlebars and clutch lever which now both have a snazzy new "custom" bend created by gravity and it's aftereffects. My buddy Kermit says that he has another set of stock bars, but I hope to get into a set that are a little more sturdy. We'll see how that pans out.

Word of 5" of snow tonight from the family in Kansas City. Yikes! I actually had a long sleeved shirt on when I went out to get the mail tonight in my shorts and sandals. I'm so glad we don't have to tolerate that anymore. Everyone seems to counter with the high heat, but 110 here is really not much different than a 98 degree day back there.

Haven't heard anything about the cousin who is in Air Force boot camp right now. Suckerrrrrrr. It'll probably be a good thing for him and I hope that he's getting hammered on right now just like I did. He's a good kid.

The LW's back to work now. She'd been on 30hrs/wk to do nothing for 6 weeks and it looks like the two companies that she works for are finally playing nice with their contracts. It's good to see her back in action again. We've both been working lately and it's been fun.

Got a call yesterday to remind us that today was CP's ninth month appointment. Of course, her weight was really off due to her week long fight with the latest noro-roto-crap-til-you-puke virus that's going around town. [Enter Daydream like JD on Scrubs: Hmmm... this stuff comes to Tucson in the winter - I wonder how it gets here? Snowbirds that crap like geese, maybe?] Anyway, the doc gave CP some vitamins after checking her hemoglobin levels..which were off a bit as well. He mentioned that sometimes breast-fed babies don't steal enough iron from their mothers. I wanted to pipe up and say that they sometimes don't get enough because their mothers are just recovering from the above-stated virus, but I played nice.

The LW is working on making bread and I'll be off to the new garden soon. It's 80 degrees and beautiful out - we just awakened from a well-deserved nap.

CP is still making norovirus diaper hollandaise, much to the chagrin of her parents. The LW is coming out of her bout with it, but CP is still drowsy and quiet. I've even had a chance to give her some snuggles and have her sit quietly on my lap. I know something's amiss when that happens.

Found an interesting read this morning from the Lactivist. It seems as though Big Pork thinks that her "The Other White Milk" stuff is too close to their offerings. Their lawyers must be suffering from BSE or it's been quiet at the office for the quarter and they need to prove that their retainers (hefty, no doubt) are worth it. It seems as though it'll all work out in the end. I'd hate to be the guy that thought going after a stay-at-home mom for shirts that make you think of pork and giggle about boobs would be a good idea. Headed for a "production" job at McD's?

The LW's got wheat bread in the fridge and pork roast will be on the grill soon. I made it out into the garden this morning to turn the compost and tinker a bit in sandals and shorts. Email from the bro this morning and it's supposed to be all of 26 degrees in KC today. Yikes. Sucks to be there.

CP officially has the norovirus stuff that I had. She seems to be handling it well and the diapers are bearing the brunt of the gale force GI blast. I think at times she's definitely hitting an 8 on the Beaufort scale. The LW has avoided it so far.

"We are the people who run this country, ..We are the deciders." ~ Molly Ivins
Who will fill the shoes of this woman? 62 short years on this rock just wasn't enough.

The LW and I watched the Supreme Court show on PBS last night and it was good. There were some interesting decisions that came down under FDR. It was interesting to me to be reminded of the New Deal public works stuff that went on during the depression era and contrast that with what little I've seen of the what I consider the "lame deal" public works efforts in foreign countries by US corporations.

New Deal - US citizens got jobs to build US infrastructure.
Lame Deal - US government "loans" money to foreign countries and then has US corporations do the "building", thus leaving foreign countries as debters who can be controlled. Throw in regime change before or after the loans and things get interesting.....