Wow! We actually made it out of the house and down to both places that we wanted to go yesterday. The farmers market was really nice, if a tad small, but we still managed to get 2lbs of tomatoes for salsa and a pint of apple butter that's made over in Willcox. It was sprinkling on the west side of town and CP wore her little white hat that her Aunt LaRue recently sent to her. We were glad that it had the strap because it was a bit windy as well. By the time we made it home, the little one was beat tired and was having nothing but a bit of the boob and some sleep. The above picture was taken yesterday afternoon when she was wide awake and happy as a clam.

We hit the Ordinary for a bit of Chariot bike trailer/stroller/hiker consumerism and before the wife took a 2005 Aurora out for a spin, we ran into Matt Zoll, who is Tucson's Bike & Pedestrian Coordinator and his family. Wonderful folks. There are alot of great things that go on in this town with regards to bikes and there are alot of people who work very hard to make it happen.

On a similar vein, I'll have to go against the Tucson Bicycle Advisory Committee when it comes to the proposed ban on motorized bicycles like the bikes offered by Spooky Tooth. It seems that road cyclists in town want to cry foul whenever the cars don't share the road with them in a way that they'd like, but also want to cry foul when someone wants to use the bike lane on something a little different than a titanium seven. "Oh, but it goes faster than 25..." is the cry, but I bet that you could clock the shootout (Saturdays at 6am) at faster than that if you'd like to get going with that argument. These motorized bicycles are kinda stuck in no man's land. They can't be called motorcycles because they don't come that way and they can't be called mopeds because that cuts in on some other things. I say just let folks use them and bust them when they're running them on the paths that are specifically non-motorized.

I started playing with things on the blog today. I added the Flickr badge to the right after I saw in over at SweetJuniper. The Feedblitz box below the pictures lets folks subscribe to the blog feed using email and there's also an RSS feed from Feedburner down at the bottom of the sidebar for those less technically challenged than me. (Yes folks, you can put your email in that box and get my daily rant delivered to you without even having to go near those internets.) Firefox was doing some strange things to the layout earlier and I'm glad that's over with. It probably has something to do with the Norton Internet Insecurity/Processor Hog that I have running.

I stopped off at the bird store up on Grant and got a refill of the thistle seed that I give to CP's goldfinches. It was a warm one out yesterday and I was driving home from picking up Aunt Melissa at the airport. As I was paying for the thistle, the guy at the counter remarked about the cash being damp and asked if I'd been caught out in the rain. Man, I was tired, sweaty, and as usual, I wasn't quick enough on my feet to take the opportunity to mess with the guy. On the way home I thought of all kinds of things that I should have told him:

"I dropped my wallet in the toilet down at the truck stop...and after I fished it out....."
"Yep, I was standing still down at the park and some lady's great dane peed on my pocket.."
"The baby spit up on it, but I hope that I wiped off all of the solid stuff, you might check that..."

Ahhh....the things that I wish I was quick-witted enough to do.

The LW met her deadline and as usual, just plain rocks. She's been bustin' it late into the night this week and it's good to see her taking it a bit easy today. We hope to go to the farmers market tonight to check things out and to get out of the house. I think we'll stop down at the Ordinary and get CP's Chariot Cougar ordered as well.

It's fairly quiet here today. No police helicopters overhead, only a couple of fire truck calls out on the main road, and CP only wailed for a bit this morning. She overslept this morning with the LW and as a result, skipped her morning nap and went down in between her morning and afternoon nap time slots. This could have ugly implications for the remainder of the day.

I pulled a huge watermelon out of the garden the other day and just cracked it open. It's ripe all the way out to the rind and is very sweet. I wonder if there really is something to that bit of folk wisdome that my dad imparted about planting a hill of cantelope next to watermelons to make them sweeter. Just like the number of licks required to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop, the world may never know.

The knee is quite sore this morning and it hurts on the backside of the knee in the area of the popliteus, which is a strange little muscle, but evidently quite capable of making a grown man wince. I remember learning about it in my A&P classes and not really finding it remarkable - but ohhhhh, how I've remarked about it this morning......

The LW and I have been eyeballing this car this morning and wondering what the scoop is on it. The price is definitely right, although I'm well aware of the saying that there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. It would be relatively easy to make some money on it if only the transmission holds up. I noted with consternation that the owner leaves the post very vague in the areas of mileage and transmission condition. Replacing a $2000 transmission is a pretty big "quirk". The 78-80 W116 models are supposed to have lower gearing than the later models and this makes them feel stronger. Who knows, the LW and CP might be toodling around in an old Benz that runs on biodiesel someday....

Humor enough for an entire day.

CP enjoyed my rendering of the Cat this morning. She was cooing along as I went through it and it had her mother in stitches. We got some of it on video, so it'll make it into the next video. The current video will go in the mail some time in the coming week.

Speaking of stitches, mine are doing fine and the knee only twisted a little bit when I tripped this morning whilst trying to weed-whack the pigweed in the garden and back yard. It's close to amaranth, which does well here, and will grow to about 4' tall in short order. I caught them in the pollen stage, so I hope that the seeds they're carrying will not germinate. I'd really hate to have to go sprinkling the back yard with monsanto's perfectly safe products.

After 28 years or so of my mom working to help people get the benefits that they need and have (most of the time) earned, she's being hit with a grievance for not hiring the sibling of the union representative in the office. It wasn't filed by the chicken- that got beaten for the job, her sister filed it for her regarding an issue that's blatantly trumped up and is outright slander. I can't for the life of me understand why, people who can't get fired....ever, need a union. Gompers would be rolling over in his grave if he hadn't long ago turned to dust. I remember when she started in MS when she would come home upset by not being able to help honest folks and then seeing the scammers getting all the gubment $$ that they wanted. She's done it all. She started basically as a clerk, got transferred and accepted into a new office (sight unseen) since her name is spelled a bit differently than most caucasians, and finally, after working hard, after raising two boys and cleaning up after a husband for 27 years, moved into her own office. She commuted from another town for the last year since she knew that retirement was coming and endured her husband complaining about the separation the entire time. All of this to quietly retire and spend more time with her nose in a good book and to have the time to spend with grandkids.

The LW and I looked up lawyers this morning in her area. I hope they own this girl, her house, her cars, and her belongings as a result of a slander lawsuit. I hope that I then get invited to sell all of her personal items back to her at a yard sale.

In other news: I still can't believe that Asscroft's thugs were stupid enough to arrest Tommy Chong. For a guy who was beaten out of office by a dead guy, he sure lived up to his potential as a jackass while enjoying his appointment by Shrubby.

The LW and I had a good laugh at the Daily Show posts over at Crooks and Liars (see link on right side of blog). It was a nice break from the misery that was yesterday.

CP's sleep timing continues to shift and we're trying to deal with it as best we can. This is exacerbated by the LW being under some pretty heavy deadline stuff right now with work and I can't drive or care for things around the house very well. Last night at about 11pm the LW had finally had all that she could take of an entire day's worth of CP's catnapping and ensuing crankiness. I've been lobbying for the Ferber type deal where she just cries it out and begins to realize that crying at nap/bedtime will not bring the parental units to the rescue (unless of course, there's something really wrong) for anything other than some reassurance and a bed check. At 11:42, 40 minutes after she was put in the crib kicking and screaming, she tired herself out and took off into dreamland. I'm sure that my mother and brother will tell me that it's about 2 months overdue.

I'm managing to hobble around a little better and the knee's returning slowly toward a normal size. It already feels less crunchy. I got out to the garden meeting yesterday and things seem to be going well. A little fine tuning here and there, but good on the whole. One of the committee members is going to China soon with a group called China Focus. It sounds like an interesting trip and I look forward to hearing him tell the tales. I only got to see a bit of Hong Kong when I was there in '94. It was a dash from the liberty boats, into Wanchai, off to Kowloon, and then back to the boat.

I got called a bigot recently for posting what I thought about the recent immigration woes and about a recent crash that left quite a few "suspected illegal immigrants" injured or dead after the suburban that they (21 of them) were packed into. Interesting stuff, but no big deal really. It's hard to know someone from just a few sentences of a post on a website. I've done similar stuff, but have learned lessons from it.

It's a good thing to see good people getting written about in the paper and that evidently happened yesterday while I was getting my leg worked on. There are some people that cross your path in this spec of time that is life who, when they cross your path, you just know that they're good through and through. I know a few people like this. I married one of them, and I'm lucky enough to know others as friends or clients.

The knee feels about like it does when I twist it or fall on it, but nothing more. I still can't get out of the poang while holding CP, but that will come in time. The LW is off to the airport to drop aunt MM. She's headed back to the midwest to visit "family" and to see her brother off on his way to don't drop the soap prison. Crazy stuff. It's things like listening to her stories that scare me back into realizing how lucky I was to have a family who wasn't crack-addicted, hateful, and just plain criminal in sooooo many ways.

Then, there's this.

Today was up and out for a bit of versed. Oh how sweet the sleep was. We packed the car this morning for a short trip over to the Tucson Surgery Center where I was going to go on a mini-vacation while my ortho doc did a little bit of mining for cartilagenous gold in my right knee.

There was this tree back in '97 that was just minding it's business when my wretched hubris led me and a 54-horsepower dirt bike (my first!- that damned Honda CR250), out of the sky -literally- for a visit. It didn't go so well for me or the bike as the tree brushed me off and hung onto the bike. It took four or five guys to go back and get it out of the tree. It took 3 months before I could walk, or work again. I still remember the office ogress (that's as nicely as I could put it), at that car dealership where I worked, telling me that she hadn't filed my disability insurance paperwork. After that incident my re-located shoulder didn't work very well and my knee had a big frown on it in the form of a scar (see picture) where the handlbar crossbar mount had torn it open. Billet aluminum parts aren't really soft and fuzzy, especially around the edges, but then again, you're not supposed to slam into them with soft fleshy parts of your body. Silly me.

My kneecap was fractured on the proximal medial corner and the lovely ortho guy there in BFE Missouri (aka St. Joseph) told me to just let it heal. Nice. I let it heal and every time I kneel down it crunched like that sound your mouth makes when you munch the chicken cartilage off of the end of a hot wing at Hooters. Nine years of that hopefully ended this morning, but I'll know for sure sometime soon. It's a bit swollen since they distended it with water and sliced into it, but it really isn't much. I didn't even bother filling the scrip for the Vicodin. That crap is only good for a headache anyway.

The lovely wife (LW) sat and waited on me from noon to around 3:30 or so. When I finally got out of recovery she was famished, flustered, and had fed CP twice. I take forever in recovery. I made sure that she had $$ for lunch, but she said that she didn't want to lug CP all over the place to find the cafeteria in the hospital. We dashed off to a burger joint for some lunch and then home where she settled CP and I in and, after a while, went back to work.

CP's been busy this morning with the drooling and all, so it's tough to read and comprehend anything as my shirt has begun to look like I was on the wrong end of a water balloon fight.

It took me forever to get through this Time article that I found, thanks to AGITPROP. The time digesting what "Ghosh" has to say, was in part due to the baby and in part due to the fact that the outcome for Iraq seems to be getting pretty dim and it's a sad thing to see. Why are we even there anyway? WMDs? That was a bad joke on Colin Powell. I can ony think that folks will read about this in history books someday and think to themselves how could we have been so stupid to think that our country (~200 years old) could fix a civilization that has pretty much been around for, ohhhhhh.... alot more than 2000 years. To top this off, it's proposed that some vertically challenged Korean guy is the real danger in the world.

Last night was CP's second night in her room/home office in the crib. It's gone well for both of us and CP has begun to make it through the night until about 3am before needing the boobs. I think that it's made us happier and hasn't bothered her a bit.

The above picture is from the garden meeting where she got to play with 'Oma' Darlene and George under the pomegranate tree. We were late due to a bit of regurgitation into the car seat. The LW had just fixed her in the seat when it appeared that she was a small milk pump and began shooting every bit of liquid from her stomach into the crevices and basin of the car seat. We got a little bit of training about how the covers go on and off of the Britax yesterday. Not as bad as expected, but, as an acquaintance noted the other day, "man, that's a huge car seat".

We went over to Oma's for dinner last night. CP got to swim in the pool again and absolutely loved it. Her schedule was a bit off though, due to a really long nap on the LW's chest, and her sleeping times got a little mixed. I got to try out a new addition to my salsa experiment - roasted anaheim peppers. It turned out really nicely and after blending, it ended up looking similar to the salsa that we really like over at El Charro.

Found out this morning that our good (master gardener) friend Sam is helping to put on the Great Tucson Beer Festival. It sounds like it'll be a good gig and it benefits Sun Sounds. They deliver print news and information to visually impaired folks through audio broadcasts. It's beginning to look like I'll be the designated driver for this gig since I don't drink beer. Maybe there will be a bourbon festival soon that's closer than Kentucky!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

CP is three months old today! The LW and I began to talk about different ideas of co-sleeping and doing the Ferber tricks. We'll see....

Caught part of this show today while I was making lunch for the LW and I. It was good and it made me think of my great uncle Coot. His body got hammered by multiple myeloma for a few years and it finally got him this year. Coot was, as a student of anthropology might say, mother's father's brother.

Every time he saw me, he asked whether or not I remembered cutting wood with him as a kid and how I tied a red rag on the back of the truck because he was carrying more than I thought to be safe - as if a red rag dangling from the tailgate mattered when one was driving a bright mint green colored pickup with a buttload of firewood in it down the road. It was something to him though, and it stuck with him.

Jason and I never really got to spend much time with him and aunt Dot. We lived in different parts of MS and eventually in different parts of the world. When we were little, we got to see him at christmas gatherings once a year or so at my great grandmother's house in Learned. He always greeted my brother and I enthusiastically - it was as if we were his favorite people on earth every time we saw him. When you're small, shy, and have a father who is a bit of an authoritarian, having someone look at you as if you're the best thing since sliced bread really has an impact. We heard about him, as we grew up and made families of our own, through my grandfather from time to time and kept up with him and aunt Dot that way.

Hearing that he had cancer was quite a shock. What do you do? What do you say? Is there anything really? I don't think so. All one can do is hope and that's what I did.

On June 6th of this year, he passed on into the ether. He was, as my mom always says, "a good egg". I couldn't really bring myself to send a card to the family or to aunt Dot because there's nothing really that I can say that's original other than what I have written here. I can only hope that I have the presence of mind, when dealing with the little ones in my life, to greet them with the enthusiastic "heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" that he always gave my brother and I, listen to what they have to say, and watch for the little red rags that they hang for me.

Knowing Coot was quite a gift.

Just been doing some light reading today.
I can't believe that these things are going on in MY country.
Just aint right.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/3416941.html
http://openvotingfoundation.org/
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9574663/detail.html

Back from the whirlwind trip to Dallas. It started out a little rough and rainy and ended quietly with puddles of water resting everywhere upon our return. Ya see, I'd never actually used the Park 'n Ride part of the Tucson airport. I've been past it plenty of times, but never actually had to get my vehicle into the place in the dark...when it was raining. I thought that I was going to self destruct when we couldn't find the correct entrance, were running late, and were running late. Did I mention that we were getting there behind the schedule that I'd attempted to set. We made it to the plane with about 10 minutes to spare. I learned some things on this trip.

Lessons learned:
Pad time 45 minutes - 1 hour
Pack everything into the fewest number of bags humanly possible
Britax Boulevard car seats are built strong and as such are HEAVY
My wife would be a saint if she believed those kind of fairy tales
Carry cash, so you don't have to stiff someone after they load heavy things on a bus

We made it into Dallas on time and happy and the nice folks at Hertz had everything lined up and waiting. CP did well on the plane and only started getting antsy when she couldn't exit the plane when she wanted. It took me a while to get the car seat into the car. The seat tracks on the Malibu that we got were typical American car stamped-metal cheapos that weren't set up to accomodate the front strap of a rear-facing car seat.

Lessons learned:
Hertz Rocks!
Ask for a Japanese car if you're given a choice

Trying to find Gramma's house turned out to be an almost knock-down-drag-out affair thanks to the lovely folks at Google Maps. The directions were so far off of the mark and convoluted that I would bet that the best cartographers would need a valium or two if they were forced to follow them. When CP started screaming we had to pull in behind a strip mall and just vent a bit. It wasn't pretty. All of us calmed down after a bit and the LW called her aunt to save our bacon. We made it to Gramma's shortly after and were met by air conditioned air and huge smiles by Gramma and one of the LW's cousins.

Lessons learned:
Google maps still has a bit of de-bugging to do - cross reference with other map offerings
Stop the car when the baby really goes ballistic and you're hopelessly lost
LW can soothe baby in short order, but also inflames tired husband with similar expedience

The weekend went really well. We stayed at a Homewood Suites in Bedford, TX and that place was nice. It's really the same four stick & stucko walls that you get anywhere, but the staff were top notch. They transferred us from MIL's "holding" room to our other respective rooms after the cleanup crew got them ready and everyone got settled in. They even had a crib set up and waiting in the room when we got there.

Later on, CP got to meet and snuggle with her cousins and other relatives. The LW and I tried to lay low and get some relaxation time, but there wasn't any of that. When planning this trip, we sat around in a dream-like state thinking of how we would hand little CP off to some of the anxious relatives and sneak back to our room for a nice nap together (since we haven't had one since May 3rd). You can almost hear that big buzzer coming........ ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. That didn't happen. CP's schedule was a bit off and this meant that her naps were shorter and more frequent than usual.

Lessons learned:
Pay some baby-eyed, but baby-less relative to watch baby so that you can nap with the LW

The weekend was full of laughter and eating. Two good things in equal portions. The LW soaked up all of the time with her family and it was good to see. It seemed like all too soon when Monday rolled around and we had to pack it all in. We arrived home to find our town dealing with flooding due to rain measured in inches, not just in hundreths of inches as it has been for the last few years.

CP's nap times are shifting around a bit and we're trying to keep up. It's a bit strange, but we're fighting our way through it, quite literally at times. I'm beginning to think that having a 28-day alarm on my pda is not such a good idea. On the good side, at least I know what I'm in for, but the bad side is that it doesn't make the LW's short fuse, screaming, tears, and anger any easier to accept...or avoid. After a week or so, it passes, and then seems like a small price to pay in order to live with such a wonderful woman.

This week we're off for the cool temperatures and chilly breezes of Dallas Texas. Yup, we've had enough of the low-humidity and lack of haze, this week we'll pack it all up to go see Gramma! CP's going to have a good time getting to hang out with all of the family and the LW will get to see a familiar face other than mine.

It's been right near the record marks here, and in most of the world, all week on the weather scene. Records from the late 1800s that is. It's a good thing there's no climate change going on though. A rethuglican congressman from Oklahoma of all things has the whole thing figured out. He says that it's all a ploy similar to what happened in Germany after WWI. Somebody elected this guy? Of course when the oil and gas industry gives your campaign over $300,000, you'd better pay the piper sooner or later.

It's a crazy world that little CP will inherit, but at least she'll have a chance to go to camp.

Just catchin' a breather here after the 5:30 wakeup. The LW made coffee this morning for the first time in what seems like eons and we're both wide awake and happy. The swamp cooler started working this morning again. Well, it's been running for about 10 days straight, but the humidity was beyond the threshold of its effective operating parameters.

Uppp... things were going good until a few minutes ago. The LW's brother is selling his house in Kansas and the LW thinks that I should tell people back there that it's for sale...oh, but she doesn't know how much and is completely bent because I had the nerve to ask. Yeah, I can see that that scenario will work out.

Potential conversation:

"Hey, my BIL is selling his house outside Kansas City"
"Really? How much?"
"Oh, I don't know, do you really need to know that for buying a house?"

The LW thinks that it's absolutely absurd that I would need to know the price range before I tell someone about a potential house for sale and that's all it takes these days to send us into our morning tailspin.

CP's in the swing gnawing on her fingers. That's her trick for the day. Earlier she had the blanket in one hand and didn't want to let go in order to put her fist in her mouth. It was pretty funny.

CP's been holding her head up more and more recently. She's able to keep it steady even when she's bouncing or being rocked. It's pretty funny sometimes and I figure that she'll bobble and bust my nose with that huge head of hers some time soon. The LW transplanted some agave plants out front the other day. They had been growing on one side of the yard in a temporary space and needed a new home. Checked the water meter today since the person checking our water use says that last month we used 6732 gallons last month, up from around 3500 gallons last month. The meter was supposed to have been read yesterday, but wasn't touched and looked as though it hadn't been for quite some time.

The crackheads that filed charges against our neighbor dropped them. They must be afraid of drug dogs in the courthouse. The charges are dropped, but our neighbor incurred legal fees and now has not got a job. We'll probably lose them as neighbors because of this.

It seems as though things are heating up in Mississippi (where I grew up) recently too. Their one abortion clinic is under seige by some misguided members of the skydaddy fairy tale club. I can understand restricted federal funding, that's fine for now, but these folks need to get a grip. I don't see them out protesting fertility clinics. All of those embryos are going to be DISCARDED, but could be used in stem cell research. What part of thrown away don't these sheep understand? What a joke. As if the local weather wasn't blowing enough hot air around down there, vice-president Falwell will be bringing some of the locals his official take on morality.

In the same day, the reverend bush vetoed a bill that might someday save people's lives with stem cell research. Someday one of his daughters may need a new liver or treatment for liver disease and he may have to send her to Korea or some other country that has completely beaten us in the stem cell research field by not being hung up on some twisted pandering to the religious right.

It's just baking now, but it actually rained here the other day. As you can see our swales kept the water in the yard, but it may have been a bit too much for the mesquite tree. The dirt around the trunk was really soft and the wind whipped it pretty well. We'll see. They are a tough tree and it'll probably do just fine. Our little palo brea over in the right side of the picture was sheltered from the wind by the fence. CP didn't seem to mind the rain and couldn't figure out what all of the excitement was about. We took her to the garden meeting on Saturday and she did well. It seems that excursions of two hours or less are fine. After that, it's rollin' the dice. She'll go tonight to the cycling club meeting and get to see some new people, but right now she's sleeping now and it's quiet.

The "new" video camera is finally here and works really well. I ordered a firewire PCI card from newegg.com that allows me to write the video to the hard drive where the Ulead Video Studio software makes it into a movie automatically. I can still alter it if needed though. I've had fun with the night shot function on the camera. Everything comes out green, but being able to see in the dark is pretty wild. The next DVD for the grand and great-grandparents will be a bit different from the grainy previous offerings.

CP finally has a mattress for the crib that Grandma Sch brought for her. I found a set with a bumper, sheet, mattress, and blanket at a local Twice as Nice shop and it's been good. She'll just nap there though until the LW's SIDS paranoia is reduced to levels not requiring medication.

The LW and I watched a PBS show about Vancouver by Rudy Maxa the other night and it was nice for her to see what I saw when I went there. Wanderlust set in immediately and we'll probably vacation there with CP if we ever have a spare cent to our name again.....ever. Kids there can learn several languages in grade school as compared to here where the offerings are spanglish, street slang 101, thugwannabe 45, and english for the (child who is) left behind.

There is hope yet, in this strange place and some are standing up and waving the BS flag. Lt. Cmdr Swift deserves a promotion.


"The people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

- - - - Reich Marshall Hermann Goering

This morning, CP has declared her independence from peace and quiet. Nothing seems to keep her from screaming at the top of her lungs just when we think she's finally drifted off into a nap. The LW was up most of the night and I didn't sleep well either. Supposed to make cookies and go visit Oma Darlene today, but we'll see whether or not that pans out. I just dropped a dish in the sink while washing it and the wife came into the kitchen with that, "drop another one and you're dead meat" look.

We made sweet pickles the other day. Not the boil and seal kind, but the kind that just get boiled and put into the refridgerator. I guess we have to wait two weeks for some reason before we can use them. I think that I'm going to sneak some of them though.... The first watermelon of the season came out of the garden on Saturday. It wasn't quite ripe, but it was still really great. The birds haven't taken over everything.....yet.

Found out about this garbage yesterday. It just figures that it's from Faux News. An "office of censorship"? You've got to be kidding me. Everyone knew that the gubment was watching wire transfers. They've crowed repeatedly about freezing assets for years. This isn't a revelation, but it is an easy opportunity to go after the NYT.

A$$hat politicians. This time it's someone local. Revoke the NYT credentials. He must be smoking some of that stuff that comes across the border.... If they didn't print some of the corrupt stuff that our government does, where would we be. In the dark and certainly not in a democracy.

Another beautiful day with CP is in the tank as she dreams on the couch. It actually rained here today as we kicked around the house. I was trying to catch up on some sleep this afternoon and was awakened by water running off of the roof into the back yard. The LW was nice enough to unplug everything due to the lightening and made sure that I didn't get shaken out of dreamland by random pot clanging in the kitchen. I found myself awake near dinner time and she was mixing and baking some granola-type stuff while watching CP in the swing. I don't know how she does it. At least three times today CP was screaming like there was a fire in her diapers and as soon as she hit the LW's arms - calm, it's like she was instantly intoxicated with the smell and feel of mommy. I can't blame her for that.

I didn't realize that the job of SAH Dad would require me to shave every day, but evidently it does. I can't really hold CP without her random head balancing act causing her to smash some tender part of her face into my beard. She's backing off of the post-shot crankiness a bit, but a smattering of it remains. I was advised by my brother to never let the LW take CP to get any more shots. "That's your job", is pretty much what he said. The LW is still somewhat traumatized by the screaming, but is recovering well.

We got up and out this morning to water the plants and were met with a 5-0 convention in our front yard. At one time there were four unmarked cars, a crime scene van, and three marked cars. The only time I've ever seen more cops in one place was at the Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Grant & Swan when someone apparently must have tried to rob it a few weeks ago.

Anyway, there's a chop shop on the SE corner of our neighborhood and it's a bit of a diversified business because they apparently sell drugs as well. Guess where the crackheads and crankers go when they need money to get their fix. Thaaaaaaat's right Bob, into our neighborhood looking for things to steal. The carpenter next door surrendered his tools, I gave up several dollars in change, my owner's manual for the truck, and my ashtray that held the aforementioned money. The neighbor across the street had his kid's christmas toys ( a battery operated atv toy) stolen. The theif/crackhead apparently dropped his hat on the way out of the yard and while the neighbor was calling the cops, the thief sneaked back into the yard and took his hat. By the time the police came the hat was gone. Of course, there were only two of them and they stayed at the house for about 20 minutes.

The neighbor evidently found out that the brain surgeons over at the chop shop/crack emporium were somehow involved. I had been told that it was a chop shop/crackhouse by a neighbor. It's supposed to be an auto repair shop. Evidently people take their vehicles there and the "technicians" take the cars out and make drug drops with them. Heck the next door neighbor even owns an old "drop car". The gas tank is gone and it has an open hanging area for bales where the tank was. It wasn't made for carrying hay bales either.

This last theft of toys was six months ago. Well, someone shot at the crackheads last night and they told the police that it was our neighbor. I guess the cops showed up early this morning at about 4am and went through everything that they own looking for gunshot residue and a gun. I doubt that they found either one since the neighbor is a good kid and he doesn't even own a gun. He's had a bit of a checkered past, but has his stuff together now and loves his kids. The cops didn't find a thing, but he had a four year old warrant for something or other (probably parking tickets), so 5-0 had to take him in. The cops even remarked that they wish that they could shut the crackhouse down, but haven't found anything yet to hang them on. Something tells me that they soon will. The 5-0 finally took off at around 10am or so.

CP got her first chance at the pool the other night. We took her over to Oma Darlene's place and she enjoyed a short dip. She was very calm, but kept turning her head to get her hands in her mouth and got more than she bargained for when she'd get some water in there with all of those fingers. It was a good time though and any time with Oma is good as gold for her.

I've been having some trouble coming to grips with this fatherhood gig. The LW took to it like a fish to water, but she has spent a good bit of time around babies. It's tough when CP gets handed to me after eating or when she needs changing because she's usually not very happy. Then, of course, the LW shows up when she's screaming, takes her from me and it's like a switch goes off in her and she immediately quiets down. Odd and a bit more than disconcerting.

The LW was up early this morning and made cinnamon and raisin scones. They're the best batch yet. Just right! CP got her first round of shots this morning while I was over at the garden meeting. It was hard on mom and baby. They're both sleeping it off right now. CP weighed in at 11lbs 2oz this morning and she's 24" long. Every inch is beautiful.

It's a bit humid at 24% and 93degrees at 11am. That's nothing to everyone back in the midwest and south, but it's double what we've had for months now and you sure can feel it.

8:30am Loud music coming in the sliding door to the bedroom. LW and baby sleeping soundly. I spent the night with CP on the couch, so the LW could get a good night's sleep.

Holy @##$$# @#$%, who in their right mind blares the radio at 8-@#$%^&-30am in the morning? I wander out to see what's up and there's a Jeep Cherokee in the new neighbor's driveway idling with one rear door open, ac running, music blaring out of it, and the open door pointing toward our house and our bedroom window. I got my nastiest duds on and tromped sleepily over there.

Go to door.
Child opens door to find me.
Child's sister is on couch watching tv.
Child's sister sees me and yells, "shut the door".
Child slams door in my face.

Knock on door.
Child's mom comes to door.

"Is that you're...", as I point to the Jeep.

"Yes, it's a rental", she says.

"Is it supposed to be sitting out here with the radio blaring?"

"Oh, I'll tell my husband. He must have had to run in ...blah blah blah..."

"Uh huh...thanks...", as I tromped angrily back across the yard and to bed.

What the hell is wrong with people? Can one be so utterly clueless? Like I've said before, it wouldn't be all that out of the ordinary if it was a couple in their 20s, but it's not.

Well, yesterday I moved their trash can back into the yard just to be neighborly and in order not to send out the advertisement to the local sticky-fingered crackheads in the area that noone was home. I see the folly of my action now. Good neighbor my arse....

CP sleeps quietly as the LW sits with her laptop in the office/nursery on a conference call for work. Mrs. G will come by soon for a bit of lunch and reverie on her day off and then the LW will be off to the BWHC later for a visit. I hope to get some things done on the upcoming issue of the garden's newsletter today and I've already downloaded the most recent video of CP for the upcoming DVD. We started a Vanguard Star fund account for CP's college/first house fund today, so in lieu of toys or other things that she will never remember, we would like to request that anything sent to CP be sent in monetary form in the LW's name. Flimsy Chinese toy today, or college tomorrow. It sounds like an easy decision to me.

Thanks to Google Video and a link from the World Wide Rant, I got to watch the Root Of All Evil part 1 and part 2 videos by Richard Dawkins. This is the guy who was invited to take on the school boards in Kansas and said basically that there was no point in arguing with clueless midwestern fundamentalists. He does it well enough in the videos to expose them for what they are.

__Update______________________________

Mrs. G was just by and brought some tasty stuff from Feast on Speedway. She said it was from there anyway. See, she's a wonderful cook and I figure that she just whipped a few things together, put them in little plastic take out trays and brought them over. It was good to see her and it did the LW a world of good to have someone to visit with.

Got up early yesterday, got the LW ready for the day, went out to the truck ready to go downtown to the CNF meeting and as soon as I turned the key I knew how my day was going to go. RRrrr... RRrrr ....clickttttttt. I've been putting off any sort of vehicle maintenance for a while now and it's finally caught up with me. This battery wasn't very old, but I can only assume that the heat and low humidity had finally beaten it out of liquid and the spark of life needed to start things spinning. I took the superJetta over to one of the local parts stores where I parted ways with over $100 and loaded up on things involved with engine electrical and lubrication systems. Once home and rushing to beat the heat, I smirked as this was one of the few times that I've ever actually worked on a vehicle while taking advantage of a "shade tree". Humor for a guy who used to work the flat-rate system in dealerships. In short order the truck was done and the car followed. Thanks to this, we can now take off in the car with the A/C running without having to rev the crap out of it.

I had to work in the afternoon, so most of the day was spent lazing around. An uneventful and indulgent pre-father's day trip to the grocery store wound out the evening. Lots of smiles for the middle-aged bald guy carrying a 6-week old infant! Cake mix, sour cream, ice cream, and a package of oreos. I think that I'll get accustomed to this father's day thing....

This morning we were all up and out - headed for the Chaverim garden and the monthly garden meeting there. It's a good group. Very few of the gardeners actually belong to the congregation there, but they make the garden a beautiful, quirky, and interesting place. George was being peppered with wilt questions, as usual, and handled them well. Tomato russet mite and my buddy the squash vine borer were about and making themselves known. The plants seem to be holding up pretty well to the heat and insect pests. Life struggles to go on, no matter what.

The LW, CP, and I went over to the Kelly's place for tea and cherry tomatoes afterwards where we discussed everything from babies to strawbale B&B's. George and Darlene were there and told us of their recent trip to the Antiques RoadShow as it stopped here recently. George was a bit disappointed in their review of a portable writing table that was given him by his grandmother, but noted that the reviewer took notice of the brass Tanganyikan military uniform buttons that he had purchased when he was a young horticulture agent there in service of the Queen.

I had an agreement with the LW that we wouldn't buy things for each other, but it seems that she has taken this first father's day as an opportunity to blow that deal. On my first father's day, not only did I win the beautiful wife and child lottery, I got a copy of the oft-quoted movie Raising Arizona and a box style cheese grater. Mmmmm cheese graters... See, we've had one of those pampered chef flat ones for a while (that they won't even sell anymore) and I curse that thing's very existence any time that I have to use it in the kitchen. It flexes, it threatens to injure my digits, it doesn't shred very well, it just sucks! Now, there's a shiny metal one that sits ready for use, in the cabinet. Ahhhhh...just knowing that it's there is a comfort. I'm going to try to sneak out back and treat it to a little bit of Office Space style love a la 3lb sledge hammer. You know, like they all gave the copier in that movie.

We got home at 11am and I had bacon, eggs, toast, grapefruit, and lemonade for lunch. Dessert was cookies and cream ice cream with more oreos added (since they never give you enough in the ice cream anyway). It's a good day!

This haze of a week has apparently come to an end. I did a little work and got to try out some anatomy trains type work. We'll see what the consensus is and see if the concept helps me to help people take care of themselves.

I had to go on base this week and it just brings back memories of being Uncle Sammy's little pawn. Can't hardly stand it. I pulled up to the house to hear "Made It To Arlington" blaring. I got into a little discussion of how the song is sung in the first person of a dead military person. (It was apparently lost on this person that I spent six years in the military as well.) The song is basically speaking for a dead person and presumes that this dead person saw his father the day he arrived in a casket...as a dead person. I guess I'm the only one that finds this rather odd and bit morbidly disrespectful. The song presumes that there is some sort of afterlife, another thing I find strange as a materialist. I wonder how many of the dead, if they could come back, would look upon all of us and scold us for the folly of killing ourselves as a matter of common course because our governments believe that one creation myth is better than the other. Simply absurd.

CP and I spent a little time with mommy at the credit union today getting the details sorted out on the little trail bike that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. It's all plated and ready to go, but I have to get my permit/license endorsement to be fully legal. I look forward to being able to run short errands on the thing around town so I don't have to fire up the truck. You just can't beat 50mpg. After we got home, the LW made some mushroom enchiladas and I took CP out in the garden for a tour and a look around. She seemed enthralled by the corn blowing in the breeze and I got down close to the Mexican Hat that's growing in the flower plot. The cantelope are growing like mad and I wonder how much CP will have changed by the time they ripen. We started getting goldfinches this week. They're fun to watch and the house finches have been trying their best to hang upside down and get at the tiny thistle seeds.

Our new neighbors to the west have been in the house for a couple of weeks. Seem to be nice folks, but still have not put any curtains or window dressing up. It's kinda strange. If it were a couple of college kids, I wouldn't really think twice about it, but it's a family of four. Oh, and trash day is on Saturday, but they put the can out on Thursday. The lid blew open and not only filled the yard and desert plants with various trash, it smelled like something died in the trash can. Niiiiice.

The Coronado National Forest planning meeting is tomorrow downtown and I hope to get enough sleep between now and then to make it and be able to compose coherent thoughts. I'm sure that some of the folks from the Center For Biological Diversity will be there and it might be a good show. The gal that was at one of the meetings last year was an angry person. She seemed in a huff the entire time and snapped when one of the guys at the tables started talking about something concerning critters. They're working for "roadless", and while I agree on many of their points, I'm just not down with that.

Life lately seems like a broken record. This one spins on a 12 revolutions per day. It goes: Child cries, mom rushes to pick up child, dad looks on as child quiets down. Now, if you alter this tune to where dad listens as baby cries to see if she'll settle her self down, it turns into something that sounds like a Rob Zombie tune. It changes in the latter part to: Child cries, dad looks on, mom comes rushing in, looks at dad as if he's an idiot, mom "rescues" child from dad, and leaves in tears. We're vascillating among the different versions of this twisted tune daily as the chorus of sleep deprivation plays in the background.

Other than this it's just pretty warm here.

Last week in Santa Fe, CP started holding her head up by herself and she's been improving her fine motor control ever since. She no longer bounces as bad as she did when she started and can hold her head up while she's prone on the blankets. She's growing fast and just this week started throwing out random smiles, creating enormous joy for her parents. Yesterday was a big day. She was awake and not really screaming for most of the day. She had little catnaps, but no real long periods of sleep. When we put her down last night at around 9pm, she was out until about 2am. This was HUGE!! The LW and I got some much-needed contiguous sleep and well, it just made us really happy. I hope that this will continue.....

The first planting of corn turned out to be a bust. I got about 7 half ears out of two 8' long rows. Now, if I'd been raising earworms, it would have been a bumper crop! Most of the ears not only had worms, but hadn't been pollenated and the kernels were unformed, so I dropped about a dozen empty, worm riddled ears into the compost heap. This is a definitely a learning year. I also, had to get rid of my "Black Beauty" zucchini this week. I saw it slumping during the day, but didn't think much of it. I should have been inspecting the vine closer because a few days later it REALLY slumped over and the leaves wilted. When I went to pull it up, the squash vine borers had eaten completely through all three vines and they just snapped off at ground level. Sad to see a productive heirloom variety of plant cut down like that. I got a little bit of revenge by putting the caterpillar and the grubs out in the water bowls that we keep in the front yard for the birds. Cucumbers are on the vine, as are the tomatoes, peas, and okra. A dozen or so red peppers currently hang from our 3 year old "Anaheim" plant in the mid morning sun.

Whew! It's been a while since I put anything down here, or anywhere else for that matter.

We just returned from Santa Fe. I had to attend a massage seminar there. It's a racket really. The states mandate that you take a certain amount of continuing education within a certain amount of time and the providers know that they have you over a barrel. They're all too happy to charge you $450 for a weekend of their opinions on this or that "new" technique. There aren't really any new techniques as such, just new names for them. I managed to skim a few new ways of looking at things and some ideas about assessment that I can use in my practice. We'll see.....

It was CP's first road trip and she did well. She slept in the car seat most of the way and then spent the night fussing and keeping her parents awake. Maybe we'll travel at night in the future. I don't know the answer to this problem. We have to go to a family reunion in July, so maybe we'll try something different then.

We rented a Hyundai Sonata for the trip from Budget and it performed well. It's pretty evident why the US carmakers are taking it in the shorts after a long drive in that car. It was nice. I wish that it got more than 23mpg though, but if they don't have to conform to any efficiency standards, why should they?

I found out this morning while listening to the local NPR station, that the county is going ahead with the purchase of some Diebold voting machines under the ruse of helping better serve the disabled voters in the state and county. I don't really think that this is a good idea and I like the old paper ballot method. Call me crazy for wanting a verifiable vote count. It makes me wonder if our secretary of state is looking to follow the path of Katherine Harris.

There was an interview also with John Peterson about the upcoming documentary movie that's being shown on PBS called The Real Dirt on Farmer John. It sounds like an interesting show and it showcases the promise of Community Supported Agriculture. Through my work with community garden projects, I'm a bit biased toward that idea, but for people who don't want to or can't grow their own, I think it's a pretty good plan. It was pretty sad to hear about how the community reacted to him initially by calling him a devil worshipper and other crap. I guess small town small minds will do as they may....

Grandee and Papa enjoyed their visit, but CP's parents were just drained the entire time that they were here. I think that CP enjoyed seeing some new people, but she seemed to miss them at about 2am and took this anguish out on her parents. We enjoyed their visit and look forward to seeing them again in October.

The garden put off it's first tiny blast of summer vegetables this morning and we'll cook them up this coming week. Not much going on today. I juiced some lemons a bit ago and put it in the freezer in the ice trays. Grapefruit are next on the list.

It's memorial day weekend and I had planned to go do some riding down near the border on the dirt bike, but lack of sleep crimped that plan. Instead this weekend fills with thoughts of those who joined the military and other government branches to see the world as I did, but never returned home to their families. My thanks to you all.

My folks are in town this week and it's good to see them. We've caught up on all the family news from "down south" and they are really enjoying playing with CP. She just rolls with it and does whatever pleases her at the moment. It seems that while we're sleeping, it pleases her to scream or make some type of noise every 20 minutes or so. Mmmmmmmmmm that's really pleasant.

The veggie garden is coming along nicely and the corn is really moving along. I think that I learned a good lesson this season about corn though, and that is to not plant things directly on the north side of it. It tends to make a nice shade tree and forces things to sprawl in search of sunlight. The tomato plants from Lowes have started bushing out in search of sun as a result of the corn shade. All else is well and the zuccini have already started producing. I'm so glad that I only have one plant though - it's a beast. Brandy came by a few days ago (all days are the same now) and took some onions and zuccini home. She promised to come and raid the herb garden some time soon as it needs a good mowing.

About Cady Paine's namesake:

"But, whatever may be the imprudent utterances of the one or the impolitic methods of the other, the animating motives of both are evermore as white as the light. The good that they do is by design; the harm by accident. These two women, sitting together in their parlors, have, for the last thirty years, been diligent forgers of all manner of projectiles, from fireworks to thunderbolts, and have hurled them with unexpected explosion into the midst of all manner of educational, reformatory, religious, and political assemblies; sometimes to the pleasant surprise and half welcome of the members, more often to the bewilderment and prostration of numerous victims; and, in a few signal instances, to the gnashing of angry men's teeth. I know of no two more pertinacious incendiaries in the whole country. Nor will they themselves deny the charge. In fact this noise-making twain are the two sticks of a drum, keeping up what Daniel Webster called 'The rub-a-dub of agitation.'"

Theodore Tilton

If you have not seen it yet, check out the Ken Burns documentary called "Not For Ourselves Alone". Also, check out the last speech of Elizabeth Cady Stanton called "The Solitude Of Self". It is well worth the time that it takes to read.

Now this is a welcome sight. Yaknow all of those parents tell you about getting your sleep and all that crap. Well they're right to a point. Most of the first week was great and CP was just a happy camper.....then the LW's milk dropped and so did our levels of consistent sleep. We're doing ok though. It's nothing worse that the LW experienced during the KU 5-year plan or that I dealt with during my 6 years in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club.

As far as feeding goes, she either:

a. gets too much
b. gets enough and gets hellish hiccups
c. gets enough and can't burp which leads to power regurgitation
d. gets enough and gets painful (baby opera) gas
e. gets just the right amount and keeps it down happily

We hope to make it to "e." more than once a day some time in the next year.

It's good to have Grandma here, but a bit nerve wracking at the same time. It's a strange thing to have someone foreign in your home, but is sweet relief to hand a screaming kid off to someone at 3am when you really just need one more hour of sleep.

It's Melissa's birthday today and there's a cake in the kitchen, but no Melissa. She's not feeling well and goes waaaaaaaaaay too long without sleeping. It must be rough for all of the hospital folks who have to dodge deadly diseases and cranky people on the aptly-named graveyard shift.

I just got home from a run to Sierra Vista to pick up a motorcycle to find CP sacked out in her secure sleeper on the dining room table. The house smells like a bakery. Yayyyyy!

Grandma has arrived safely from Kansas City this morning and is enjoying her time with CP already. This time with grandma should allow the LW to get back into the swing of work and get into a bit of a routine. CP and I went out in the garden today to give the LW some rest time. It's amazing how every little noise and burble from CP jolts us both out of sleep like a bucket of ice water. The LW was able to catch up on some rest this morning and is as beautiful as ever. Last night I took CP out into the corn patch at dusk so she could see everything without having to squint. She seemed to like it, but was really interested in her fingers and the nursing session that she seemed to know was on the way.

Brandy and Carie came by yesterday and visited with the LW. It was just what she needed and right when she needed it most. The nursing, lack of sleep, worrying about work, and again the lack of sleep had conspired to break her down, but her dear friends showed up just in time to lift her up again and put a smile back on her face.

CP's been sleeping well and having only a little bit of trouble with nursing. It seems that the shift from having to work at it to having it come easily to her, has been a bit strange. She's fine though and it's more worrying for the LW than for CP. Last night was the GABA board meeting and it was a big surprise to see what all of the wonderful board members had in store for us. The decorated cake was really great - it tastes wonderful too. CP got her first helmet and a gift certificate to our local baby stuff store, Aldrich Baby News. The helmet is really cute - it has fairies and unicorns on it.

This weekend we had some visitors. Kurt and Lisa came by to see CP as did Melissa. The LW's milk came in also and CP has been taking full advantage of that. The Traditional Medicinal tea really helped get things jump started. CP's sleep has calmed down a bit and we've been able to get a few hours at a time during the night. I've tried to sleep through some of the night feedings (since I have nothing to offer) so that I can "step~n~fetch" during the daytime and take care of household stuff. CP has been getting some "nekkid time" and a bit of supervised time on her tummy lately and is enjoying both. The indirect sunlight coming through the window in the bedroom seems to be doing her some good too. The follow-up visit at the Birth Center went well this morning. CP and the LW are fine. It was reassuring for the LW to get a quick checkup too. She's been worried about the blood/clotting and was happy to hear that she was really doing fine.

CP had her first pediatrician appointment this morning at 8am. It was a bit of a rush to get our breakfast made (biscuits, jam, bacon, & bananas), get dressed, and get CP into the car and going. We made it 5 minutes late and all was well. The nurse measured and weighed her while we were waiting for the doc. Dr. Callie (Jr.) came in shortly afterward and checked her out. We looked at her skin in the sun to see where the jaundice was, and she looked fine. He's very nice and we're glad that Dr. Tooley recommended him and his father. It's a father and son practice.

After the doc, we went over to the Corbett Garden and got to see the gang. Oma, George, Naniloa, and Gary got to see CP and hold her. Two days old and she's making the rounds.

She's been eating well at the colostrum fountains and the LW is using an organic mother's milk tea to get things started. She's nursing about every two hours and actually slept for 3 whole hours this morning. The LW had the 10p-2a watch and I got the 2a-6a portion. She was a bit fussy during the LW's time, but settled down while I was on watch. By 4am, she settled into the secure sleeper and was off in dreamland until around 7am when I started rustling around in the kitchen. She's been enjoying the aquarium take-along swing that Harmony let us borrow, although it's made for a bigger person and swings like crazy with her in it. I've been just turning it off and pushing her in it a bit to soothe her - it's great during the early mornings.

Our neighbors Bill & Karen were out this morning and saw me out moving the trash cans and watering the plants. They came over to get the news and were really happy to hear that all was well. They are soooo nice. They've both been fighting cancer and Karen recently had another surgery. All of this and her brother is going to Iraq soon - still all she could talk about was our baby. It's wonderful to have good neighbors.

We're still just overwhelmed with gratitude towards all of the folks who helped get little CP here. Caryn Fraser of Agave Massage, our doula, was a lifesaver. Her husband is a world class cyclist, but she will always be my hero. She took the role that I couldn't have figured out and helped the LW in so many ways. Tanya and Tiffany, in addition to the remainder of the top notch staff at the birth center did what they must do every day at work. What a job to have - seeing beautiful little things come into the world on a regular basis.

Wednesday morning our midwife Tanya told us that the LW was set for the prostaglandin gel and that we should make our way to the hospital. It was our last possible day to have CP at the Birth and Women's Health Center, so we got right on it. After the requisite check-in and paperwork fumbling, we were put in a windowless room and told that we'd probably be there for 12 hours. Now there's nothing that'll take the wind out of your sails like going to the hospital for what you thought would be an in-and-out procedure and realizing that you're stuck there. You're not only stuck there though, there's a chance that your wife will go into labor and all you brought with you were the clothes on your back and a book to read. We got lucky. The nurse, Anne, came in and told us that she needed to check with Tanya to see which gel we were getting. There's one kind that's a slow release kind of deal and the other just gets squirted near the cervix. She came back in and told us that we'd be using the kind that only required a 3 hour stay. SWEEEEET! All that was settled and we just waited.

Anne came in to apply the gel and see the monitor readings. The LW and CP were working as advertised and all was well. The gel went on and the LW was at 2cm/80%. Anne is evidently the resident gel master as the LW's contractions started hammering away soon after it was applied. This continued until 3pm when we were to go over to the birth center. By this time, she could not walk or talk during the contractions and was working on her bedside white-knuckle grip technique. By the time the release papers came, her grip was in top form. She was at 4cm and we were off to the house to pick up our stuff and head the the birth center.

Evidently, my driving does nothing to soothe the discomfort of contractions. It's not hot enough for all of the snowbirds to have left town, so driving was a bit sketchy. There are numerous gerontology specialists and drugstores along the route from our house as well. I sketched "wife in labor" in the dust and pollen on the back of the car as an open apology to those who I offended during our drive.

In the front door of the birth center we went. Suitcase and aching wife in hand. The midwives were in a meeting and as we walked by the doorway, I heard one of them say, "It looks like they're moving in..". We were. We just didn't know it would be a 20-hour stay at the time. Nothing like a wife in labor and a husband with a suitcase to get things stirring though. Chris came in and helped get things settled before taking off for the day. Tanya was with the LW in short order and things were moving along nicely. The LW was moving through the contractions using the breathing stuff that she uses for yoga. It worked well, but as we would learn later, it's all about how well you can control the muscles of your pelvic basin and floor.

I got on the phone to everyone and let them know that things were ready to crank up. Short messages, but happy news! The gang started showing up around 5 or so and by 7, they were all there. It was good to have them there too. Melissa, "Oma" Darlene, our doula Caryn, and Lisa rounded out the friends and family crew and everyone settled in to watch the early part of the show.


By 7pm or so, the LW had come entirely out of her clothes and didn't care who saw her that way. She was having serious contractions with euphoria in between. She had spent time up on the bed hung over the ball and in the tub. Caryn really helped the LW through the contractions and the rest of us took turns holding the LW's hands during them. By this time I could see that we had made the right decision to have Caryn help us out. She's the best! She said the right things, did the right things, and best of all, took the heat off of me. The LW takes everything that I say differently than what comes from other people and this really saved our butts and kept the birth process from getting ugly..until the end, but I'll get to that.

Between 8 and 9pm, the grunting/yelling portion of the process began. She spent a good bit of time laboring on the toilet and birthing stool during this portion. Her knees aren't the best, so the squatting idea wasn't an option early on. The LW was completely worn out by this time and didn't really know who or what was around her. We all tried to keep her drinking water and I brought some Cytomax energy drink mix with me as well. I don't know where we'd be without that stuff. It seemed to give her just enough juice to keep going and it didn't make her sick. Some time between 9pm and 1am, she must have hit "transition", but she couldn't tell. She was doing so well, but was so tired.



1am and then 1:30am came and went and the gang was still taking turns. Caryn ran the support crew and stayed with the LW pretty much the entire time. The LW was "purple pushing" by this time and it was hard to watch. She had begun to fade out a bit. She was pushing against her own pelvic muscles. When she went into a contraction, she also tightened these musles and was basically fighting against her own strength. (Note to female cyclists. Figure out which muscles you'll need to relax ahead of time or you'll regret it.) Tanya seemed to think that labor was progressing, but by about 1:45am, I was concerned and begin to question whether or not we should call it after 13 hours and ship her over to TMC for a C-section. Tanya, and Tiffany (our wonderful nurse) were thinking of the possibility of a vacuum extraction and the LW said that she'd rather be cut open than have something like that done to the baby. They refused to give up and didn't let the LW give up either. About this time, the squatting option came into play. Caryn had her under the arms and she sat a bit on a little 8" tall horshoe-shaped stool. I don't know who makes that stool, but I'd like to hug them as I am eternally grateful to them and the people who put it in that room.

I got more involved near the end and stopped worrying about whether everyone could see or whether I was getting in the way. CP was on the way now as her head was almost near the opening. On a couple of the strong squatting pushes, I could actually see her head moving out. This is where it got really exciting, but also worriesome, as the LW was almost completely spent and I knew that she couldn't take much more. Tanya and Tiffany were on either side of me making sure that I didn't screw anything up. The LW kept working on her positioning and pushing and things began to happen fast. Melissa worked so well at keeping hot compresses made and Darlene passed them along for the rotation. I put my yell ("Push that baby out damnit!!") in with the rest of the encouraging words that the LW was getting and I got the "you're number one" gesture that she often makes with her middle finger. I had her attention and she was mad. I think that making her mad gave her a little bit of a boost. She's pretty powerful when she's mad and I've seen it more than once! A few more contractions and little CP's head was cresting. It seemed like only a minute had passed when after the contraction stopped, her head no longer ducked back out of sight. It was now staying there. Her head was just sitting there, trying to make its way out. We worked the edges back and away and applied some lubricant to the head and surrounding tissues. Tanya asked me to push the head down, but when I did, it mashed her skull in, leaving imprints, and that was just more than I could stand. I stuck to doing the warm compresses on her distended perineum and let Tanya do the head work. More contractions came and with a flush of blood, fluid, and skin, CP's head came completely out. She was draining well and her face was down and to the LW's left. Tanya and Tiffany got her cleaned up a bit and the LW got to see her head out. I couldn't take my eyes of of the baby, but I wish that I'd seen the LW's expression. She was in the home stretch and would be done in only moments. While Tanya was working on CP's exposed head, she figured out what some of the problem was. CP's right hand was up near her face and under her head during the labor and delivery. She had come through the canal with not only her head taking up space, but her arm too. I looked over at Tiffany and asked her if all of the blood was normal. She assured me that it was and that I shouldn't worry. The LW was doing just fine. She also said that the other shoulder would come next. Another contraction and more encouragement to the LW were followed by another flush of blood and more flesh. The other shoulder had cleared and this time, CP was free.



The LW and I had been worried about this kid since the early portions of the pregnancy when it looked like things weren't going to work - when, for 12 weeks or so of constant vomiting she was losing a pound a week. Now she had bounced back and we'd made it through all of the hurdles. As a beautiful little body emerged from the LW's, all that I could do was laugh out loud. All of the worry, questioning, waiting, and wondering were gone in a flash and our anxiety spilled on the floor, finished. Without cleaning her or anything, CP was put right up on the LW's chest. Melissa cranked open the oxygen bottle while Tanya gave it to her and Tiffany helped to get other things rolling and checked out. Blood was still streaming out as Cady gained some color and everyone savored our fleeting special time.


She's home and beautiful now after wonderful care at the birth center. Our morning nurse Lisa helped us understand some of the things from the baby owner's manual after Tiffany bought us breakfast. I don't know how we'd have made it through today without those pancakes! Before we left, our pediatrician stopped by to pronounce CP as healthy. It's a little after 5am here and we haven't had much sleep, as everyone advised, but we haven't missed it either. The sun of Cady's first full day is coming up and there are too many beautiful things going on in that baby's face. If I fall asleep, I might miss some of it.

Still no baby. Today is the last day that we can have the baby at the BWHC. Their new med group will toss us to the amateur golfers wild western medical show tomorrow if Cady isn't here. We just heard back from the oncall MW and we're getting set up for a prostaglandin gel treatment for the LW. We'll hit the MW clinic after that and see where we go from there.

Well there's nothing like waking up to being another day closer to Pitocin and an amateur golfer with a set of forceps. We went for a bit of a stroll around da'hood this morning and the LW made a castor oil smoothie when we got home. She came outside while I watered the plants and finished the thing off. About half an hour later, I heard the sounds that were familiar back in the first and second trimester when she was dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum. Yup, she was face down at the porcelain altar. Now I thought that castor oil was supposed to work with gravity, not against it, but I guess that I was wrong.

Then I found this while reading the morning news. I guess I was expecting crap this morning, but from my wife, not a failed yankee oilman who thinks he's been appointed king by his man-deity in the sky: http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/04/media-finally-starting-to-report.html

We just returned from the Birth Center. Chris and Fran took great care of the LW this morning. The non-stress test was normal and little CP seems to be reacting just as she should be. Her heart rate really jumps when she starts moving around. It went from ~130 to ~165 when she started kicking and stretching.

They talked to us about what's going to happen this week. I guess since the center has a new medical group, they are less willing now to let the mother move beyond 41-3 or so. That OB malpractice insurance premium sure does scare the crap out of people. (41wks-3days) LW is at 41 weeks today. Fran checked her and she's at 1cm dilation. We picked up some homeopathic things on the way home. Black Cohosh, Blue Cohosh, Evening Primrose, and Castor Oil. The castor oil bit will probably be tomorrow. That should be fun!