Drippin' Eaves

Calling my brother back in KC to tell him about how I'm walking around in sunshine in sandals has come back on me today. It's good to see the rain though, since it really cleans the leaves and the extra blue brings out the deep green colors in the plants that is normally washed out by the sun. CP is at preschool this morning and I've been able to arrange photos and get things cleaned up in general. I also was able to book my first semi-official photo shoot with a friend this morning. I'm excited about it and nervous about things coming out like I want them to be. Either way it'll be fun and I hope to shoot some at some other events soon too.

This morning on the drive home, I was treated to this broadcast on NPR. It made me really grateful to hear that some folks are capturing stories like this and sharing them. There's so much dreadful stuff going on right now with factory farming and the chemical companies that run parts of the government.

Some folks aren't taking it and are fighting back. We really need to not only hear stories like this one, but seek out others and begin to understand what's going on with all of the things that many of us take for granted on the grocery store shelves. Perhaps folks think that they're immune from crap like the stuff that Monsanto is pulling, but none of us are immune if big companies gain a hold on the seeds, the very stuff that makes plants, and patent them. Yes, patenting seeds. Don't believe me? Check this out. They're taking seeds that have been around for eons - and claiming patents on them. It's almost as ridiculous as the schmucks at Smuckers trying to patent the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It won't seem rediculous though, when standard strains get mixed with the patented seeds and the patent lawyers come knockin'.

Shutterfly

I've been working a good bit in the past two days to get all of the family albums from the most recent holiday trip set and uploaded to Shutterfly. I've almost got everything set, but I'm limited on the number of albums that I can "share" within a certain time period. Soon, family and friends will get an email that's full of links to all of the photos.

CP is busy rediscovering the mesh bag full of toys that I dug out from under the car seats...and is now wearing it over her head. She's doing well, but still has a lingering bit of diaper rash. The LW promises to un-tether herself from the laptop and escape from her code cave in order to go to the Y with me some time today. I don't think that she'll really do it.......it's just a ploy to pull me out of my 4th spot in the FitLinxx standings for my age group.

School Closings

It looks like the super-genius school board we have thinks that it'll be a good idea to close CP's neighborhood school so that it will look, on paper, like they are saving money. The LW and I are LIVID and can't believe this. If this goes through and it looks like it will affect CP's education chances here, we might be done with this town. We love Tucson, but CP's education is our #1 priority. I thought the loss of accreditation in Kansas City's schools and the head-in-the-sand Kansas creationists were bad, but these guys are smoking crack.

The Day After

Well, CP made it through her first day at the preschool in pretty good form. She enjoyed herself, but came home with two issues that are getting better today.
#1. Something got into her eyes and she was rubbing them for part of the evening
#2. She had a little poop in her diaper and it wasn't changed for a while...this gave her a mean case of diaper rash and she's been upset with diaper changes.

I was pretty bent when I found this out, but we hope that this will change as the caregiver gets to know CP and her sneaky pooping ways. I'll be sure to have a bit of a discussion next Monday when I drop her off. She really seemed to enjoy herself, so I'm not too worried. She wasn't really interested in going home with me when I picked her up.......

This morning, I got two things sent to me. It's an interesting day. The LW sent me this. My new jeebus-fearin' sister-in-law sent this in an email about how this business owner should run for president. Try not to miss the irony in that last one.

First Day at Preschool

We got up this morning with the chickens and the LW got CP ready for her first day at preschool. Since she's been there before on a trial run, it wasn't really a big deal. By the time that I was getting ready to leave, I had to get her attention so that I could wave goodbye. I hope that everything goes well and that she enjoys her day.

It's awfully quiet around here.....time for iTunes!

I'm getting around to the research of photo hosting/sale sites. I started by looking at smugmug, flickr, and shutterfly. They all have sites where they charge professionals to load photos and then sell them for a commission. After a little more searching I found Exposure Manager and Printroom. These two seem like they cater only to professionals and have some nice little gizmos included.

Mud Pies & Crackheads

Yesterday CP and I made mud pies in the back yard. We started with some of the sandy top soil and mulch that was available, but then added some of the dirt from a tree removal project that I've had going for about 6 months now (another story altogether). Anyway, the dirt added just enough clay to make the mud pies sticky and they went together nicely. CP enjoyed getting to employ Grandy's pat-a-cake method of "roll him up...thow him in the pan" and it made for some dirty hands, but that's about all. Today they were dried and she really liked picking them up and seeing whether or not they had any taste.

We were out in the back yard playing this afternoon when someone, who didn't look like he was out selling girl scout cookies, came wandering through the alley looking around at what was in everyone's back yards. It just so happened that I had my camera out and was able to snap some pictures of this character. I called TPD to see if they could run by and check it out, but never heard anything back from them....even after I told them that I had snapped a few pictures of the guy. Giving him the benefit of the doubt I figure maybe he was looking to cut through the neighborhood to get to the major N/S street, then realized that it was a dead end. The thing is that you can tell that our street is a dead end the minute that you turn down our street....so, chances are, he was probably up at the methhouse apartment complex and couldn't figure his way out of the neighborhood. Anyway, the PD can come to my blog if they want his picture. I just hope that they don't have to come back and put a chalk line around this character someday. I think that a police officer's son from Pratt Kansas mentioned a bit of wisdom that his dad imparted to him about only leaving one side of the story for the police to take.......

Another Tooth Please....

..and could you bring that with a side order of cranky, a little draining snot, and a bit of intermittent malaise. Oh, and could you bring that out just before my next doctor's appointment so that I'll be off my food and lose weight? My parents reeeeeally love getting the stink-eye and lecture from the pediatrician when I fall out of the main portion of that little red weight curve diagram....you know, the one that's thrown off by all of the fat-assed similac babies.

It's tooth time around here again. It appears to be one of the larger pre-molars or molars and it's not very fun for any of us around here. We really enjoyed our weekend free day, but now it's back to reality.

We went to meet the preschool lady today and it was fun for CP. There will be two boys and CP. We're not worried about that and the place is pretty cool. The person in charge is a Waldorf type person and knows what she's doing. We've seen the results of her work in the child of a good friend and it's good. It'll be strange to have a day back during the week and I am looking forward to working more.

This morning there was an article in the "local" paper about women who are able to take their children to work with them. Reading the article and then seeing some of the comments that were left on the web, you'd think that this had been posted in Colorado City or in the Stepford 50's. Geez...some people in this town are smoking crack. Apparently all of the ills of society fall squarely at the feet of feminism. Damned uppity women wantin' to get out from the stove and go gallivanting across the countryside. Please. Today's problems have nothing to do with:

- the economics of today's world (and outsourcing or NAFTA)
- bad parenting (by folks that have no business procreating)
- that nasty little secret about the failure of at least 50% of heterosexual marriages
- wars involving this country for every generation since the turn of the 20th century (think about it (WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Gulf WarI, Gulf WarII)

Nothing like that....it's all just those arrogant women forcing their "choices" on everyone else.

Haaaappy Birthdayyy Tooo Youuuuuuuu

The LW and I have been baby free for most of the day. She spent some of it downloading songs onto her swanky black iPod while fielding birthday phone calls from family and friends - I went to a neighborhood support network meeting. It worked out well because I was out of the house and she didn't have to chase a toddler. Auntie M was nice enough to play nanny today and it's a great thing. We're about to go out for California rolls and stuff at a sushi place and then hopefully pick up Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on the way home. It's fun just playing like we're adults again.

Park Afternoon

CP and I had a good time at the park this afternoon. It's getting to where she expects to be taken out in the afternoon after her nap and that's a good thing, I guess. There's a water fountain ring near the baby swings and she really wanted to see what was inside it this afternoon. I was cold, but we looked over the edge and into it anyway. There were other kids at the park by the time we finished with the swings and she had a good time watching the older kids running all over everything.

Unfortunately, some cranker had been smurfing under the playground equipment and left the cold medicine packs. I looked around in the sand for other garbage or maybe more dangerous things, but luckily didn't see anything. Speaking of garbage, you may begin to note that photos of CP will be small and probably increasingly grainy when you open them. I'm doing this on purpose after seeing what happened to another blogger with a cute daughter.

Winding Down

CP will start going to preschool one day a week and I'm pretty damned excited to get one day a week back to work and finish many of the lingering projects around here, in my business, and in all of the volunteer work that I've unknowingly buried myself with. It'll cost us what amounts to another phone bill every month, but we'll make do. We'll go see about it some time soon, but we're pretty sure that it's a sweet gig based on a personal recommendation from a good friend.

Another day goes in the tank as CP goes down to sleep, but not before causing one more bit of an uproar though. I never thought that breast feeding would be such a logistical pain in the ass sometimes. I pulled CP from the LW's arms a bit ago so that she could finish figuring out how to insert song names on iTunes. Well, CP decided that she would start to crash out on my shoulder and I figured that it would be a good idea for her to nurse before bedtime to keep her from waking up at midnight. Man, was I ever wrong. Little did I know that this bit of last-minute switch up would send the LW into a complete swearing, tossing stuff tailspin...just one more thing in a day full of back to back tailspin fodder. Maybe tomorrow I can be the windshield.... and maybe this week or the next CP will wean herself from this single-parent need.

Who... Me?

Nothing like starting the day off right. (fellow blogger Chile-see link on right sidebar-urged me to post this)

CP comes into the bathroom this morning and starts messing with something...I can't even remember what it was now...anyway, Frago the cat is in the catbox taking care of things. I give CP the loud "ehhh" goose snort of a correction and Frago interprets it as something he's screwed up and bolts, unfinished, out of the catbox trailing litter bits. He settles into the hall and licks himself for a bit. I'm still running the sonicare, and CP is standing in the hallway near Frago just looking for the next thing to get into. The sonicare gives me the final beep and we make it past all of this craziness and head out into the living room just in time to see Frago the cat slinking out of the, thanks to the Ikea bookshelves, very hard to reach into corner. There's only one reason that he slinks...he knows he's busted. Yup, he'd sneaked into said corner and emptied his relatively full cat bladder onto the floor. Why, just when I'm trying to get out the door? I mean, I just got up and got all lined up to get the kid out of the house and away from the hard-at-work LW. Well, all manner of sailor-speak came out of my mouth and he took off running, leaving CP standing there befuddled and wondering what she'd done wrong.

All of this prior to changing the second really poopy diaper and putting CP in the car just to get to the gym and then to Costco. If this seems funny to you, remember it the next time you're walking through the store somewhere and you see that parent who, at 9:17am appears to be just on the edge of grabbing a bottle of Crown Royal in the liquor section and polishing it off in the store. Smile at them and tell them that their kid is cute or something else nice.....it may just help a bit.

iPodded

The LW's birthday is coming up, so I purchased her present with the help of her siblings and asked her if she'd rather wait and pretend to be surprised about it or pretend to be surprised now. Of course, being impatient as she sometimes is, she chose now and is completely overjoyed with her new black iPod. We've already loaded our entire music collection onto it and relegated the CD's to storage.....and we still have 71GB left on the thing. It's an amazing little gadget and it's brought us back in touch will all of the music that we haven't listened to in a long time with it's simple shuffle function.

CP and I escaped to the park yesterday afternoon and had a good time. I chose a nearby park for a change of scenery and there were kids all over when we showed up. I sat down next to a very talkative lady who wanted to play with my camera and was so tied up with her that I didn't really get to talk to the lady on the other side of me who at one time worked for the AP as a photojournalist....that's the way it goes, I guess.

I was reading about China's banning of plastic shopping bags over at Katie's site and saw a comment posted by a gal from central Mississippi near where I grew up. It discussed the strange looks that she gets when she walks into grocery stores there with cloth bags. In some ways I remember MS being ahead on things (my education, fads, etc), but in many ways the state is just plain backward and seemingly unchangeable (my uncle calling me out on our VW by saying that I was giving money to "fawrners"). T-town is pretty good for getting good cloth bags and for people actually putting them to use. My favorite bag though, is the one that I had my logo printed on at CafePress. If you're wondering about the price and size, don't worry. It's a big, sturdy bag, and you get to put whatever you want on it!!

Medicating Kids

I've only made it through a few minutes of tonight's Frontline show and I'm already spitting mad. If you stick a kid inside a house every day with a video game and a refrigerator loaded full of sugary crap and gatorade then wonder why your kid doesn't pay attention to a damned thing, pack your stuff, drive to Tucson, and I'll just pimp-slap you a few times. Holy schnikeys! Have any of these people seen the movie Idiocracy?! These are kids folks....hyperactivity, screaming fits, vivid imaginations..... sound familiar? Kids riding around on bicycles with so much high fructose corn syrup in their systems that they can't think straight is just silly - maybe they should be treated for corn syrup addiction.

These kids need to be taken outside and run every day like race horses. Had my brother and I been kept caged up like some of these kids, we would have been diagnosed with everything Biederman could possibly write down during a trip to the crapper.

Sunny Tuesday

On the way home from our recent trip, we stopped at Steins, an old ghost town of sorts just on the side of I-10 out near the state line. It was a good stop that got CP out of the car, but it was closed. The irony of this was not lost on the LW and I. A ghost town...closed for business. That's where I shot this photo of her sporting the new hat that her aunt got for her.

This morning CP and I escaped the gravity that's held us in the house after our return from 16 days on the road. We went to the Y where I spent an hour in the gym and she went downstairs to twirl the ladies in the childwatch program around her little finger. It was good to feel my heart pumping blood and to just be back.

We left there and headed over to the La Encantada mall up in the foothills where we looked at salt and pepper crushers. The place itself is rather uppity, but the store employees who actually have to work for a living, were very nice. It seemed to me to be a small scale version of Horton Plaza in San Diego.

It's our third or fourth day on our used IKEA PS Lovas sofa/bed. The LW was goofing around on craigslist and found it for $50. Since it sells for $350 new, we decided that it would be a good plan to just go ahead and pick it up and disassemble our old king. There's so much more room in there now and CP has really been enjoying another bright room in the house.

Home

We made it in this afternoon from Van Horn, TX. Wheewww...
Time for a nap!

BananaBelle & Auntie V.

Saturday was departure day around here for many of the family. The Charlotte contingent bolted after supper, followed soon by the Cheeseheads.

We took this mass departure as a sign to go and visit some friends in town before our visit here is finished. I'm sure that the LW's folks enjoyed a bit of quiet too. Well, CP got to go visit her friend AnnaB and they had an interesting time of it. These are two singleton children who are raised by stay-at-home parents - let's just say that "sharing" was an interesting new concept. They had a good time and all of the parents enjoyed getting to catch up and discuss topics of interest divided along gender lines (Boys - Cameras & Girls - Books) CP's Uncle Ian prepared a wonderful dinner for us all and Auntie R. finished our visit off with an amazing brunch. We were sad to go, but on we went.

Something was wrong with Auntie V's car, so the plans to meet her somewhere were on the fritz. We arrived at her place to barking dogs and a happily squealing Auntie V. CP was immediately happy with her and interested by her two crazy pups. Things settled down after a bit and the LW and CP started in on a bit of napping. While they were doing this, I figured out that Auntie V's car, a 2000 model Jetta, had the same problem that we had before leaving T-town. The only thing different was that her brake lights were stuck on and this had drained the battery. This presents an interesting problem due to the shift lock system on her automatic transmission. With no brake switch, the interlock won't let you out of park. After a bit of internet searching, we found a way to get around that and get the car started. This problem is common on this and other VW models and there is a recall (called N4) out there for it.

We let that sleeping dog lie for a while and went to dinner at Lucky Brewgrille. It was a nice place and the food was great. CP enjoyed getting to roam around downstairs and was exerting her will after being sleepy and after seeing what other little people get away with when they exert their willpower. Mostly, she was just sleepy and tired of traveling. She arrived happily at home and is upstairs enjoying a quiet 2+ hour nap as I type this.

Before leaving Auntie V's, I advised her of what to do with the car. This afternoon, she called and said that the dealer had towed it for free (as they were supposed to do) and fixed it for free as well. We were both relieved to hear that she was back on the road....now, if only she'd stop running over stuff and beating up the front of the undercarriage and plastic parts.........they're expensive for VW's.

It's quiet here today and the LW is getting some work done. She just got the yearly note letting her know that big blue can't get their contract stuff together and that she was headed for a cut in her weekly paid hours as a result. We planned and budgeted for it, but we hope that it won't last 3 months like last year.....sheeeesh.....bureaucracy. The joys of being a contractor, I guess. Tomorrow morning we'll be heading to Durdurdurdanelle Arkansas to visit with my folks in order to avoid a 10+ hour drive in the car with CP on the way to Dallas to visit with the great grandmother. This will cut our drive into a 5+hour day followed by a 6+hour day and greatly decrease the need for stress relief/boxing gloves.

On The Road Again

Thursday was takeoff day for the xmas '07 Clark Griswold family truckster travel-a-thon. We loaded the wagon with diesel and stuff and headed out by 6:30am and it was a good day of highway driving....until we got to Deming. They're still doing construction on the cutoff between Deming and Hatch, so we bugged out and went through Las Cruces. It added an hour to our trip and as such, we didn't get to go to the Kaliedescope store in Albuquerque like we wanted. CP rolled with it though and we wound up just going to dinner at the Frontier. Just google it and you'll see. The food was good and CP had a blast running around in the place. It is huge. If you've got kids, it's really easy and we give it two greasy baby thumbs up.

We left the KOA there on Friday morning a bit late and with the time switch, this put us into Elk City later than expected. It's a running theme with us. Late...late...later.... We had dinner in the KOA's little TV room and hung out with the guy running the place while the owners are away. Arden Rapp (spelling?) was the guy's name and he said that he's been on the Canadian and PGA tours before and was going back this year. A nice enough chap...but the skeptic in both of us wonders how much of the story will hold water. Uncle LeRoy should know something about it and we'll ask upon our return. Anyway, there was a little playground there and CP loved it. She didn't love the wind at 2am though and woke up screaming so loud that it almost caused her mom to lose her dinner. It was that much of a shock. The wind was blowing so hard that it caused out little kabin's window curtains to blow around.

We sailed out of there at about 2:30am our time and were happily headed out of Oklahoma. The LW was worried about beating the snow....and worry she did. CP slept quietly for most of the last day of travel because it was dark and the clouds hung ominously low. CP grew agitated by the time her tummy said, "EAT!", so we pulled in at the McD's in Emporia. It was mid-morning and the place was humming. When we pulled in there was old snow on the ground, but by the time we were done with breakfast, the car and everything else was covered in fresh snow. It was blowing hard and really nasty by the time we were 10 minutes down the road. Wouldn't you know that this was the perfect time for CP to load her diaper in the middle of nowhere. Rural highway Kansas nowhere....the worst kind for poopy diapers and blowing snow. We finally found a place that looked ok and made the change. The LW lost it while trying to change CP's diaper on the only thing around....a chair. Why those Koala changing stations aren't all over is beyond us, but we sure could have used one. The LW and I were running on 3-4 hours of sleep and it was just ugly when the snow was added into the mix.

Soon we got down to about 30mph because we just couldn't see where we were going. After a few miles of this, it started clearing up, but for a while it was all white knuckles. It wouldn't bother me if it was just me in a 4WD, but with the little person, even a slide off into the grass with the possibility of being stuck can be dangerous. It was too cold to be outside for even a few minutes. 20 more miles or so and things were still clearing. By the time we almost got to Wellsville, the roads were relatively clear and we punched it back up to 70. Just as I did this though, we went across a bridge where some folks were stopped. Half of the distance across the bridge, a gust of wind moved the car and in trying to respond, I realized why the people were stopped on the side of the road. When I moved the steering wheel, nothing happened; it was a big sheet of black ice. Of the cars stopped on the side, two looked driveable and one had the grill smashed up near the windshield wipers where it had contacted the bridge. It looked like everyone was ok though and we breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon the sign on the road actually showed mileage to the Gardner exit and the LW was all smiles and joy. You could feel the air in the car lighten up and the LW told CP that we were getting close to Grandma's house..this was met with a grin. A few slippery turns later, we walked into a really warm house full of happy family and CP's wild cousins. A good end to the trip.

It's been good to see everyone and get to relax. The LW is using her grandmother's hand-cranked bread pail in making bread today with her dad. The dough is rising near the fireplace/stove and all is well. CP says, "HI" to all her peeps and wishes everyone happy holidays.

Tricycle Motor

Auntie M. came over yesterday for a bit and brought her gifts for CP since we'll be out of here for xmas. CP was really happy for the sit~n~spin and the art supplies, but the tricycle has been her joy.

I spent some time at the VW dealership this afternoon after the brake lights went completely out on the car over the weekend. I guess there's a recall for the brake switch, so it was a freebie. It's nice to have the CD service manual with updates and TDIClub.com resources so that I can learn about these things.

The EOS350D came in the post while I was gone. The image on the left and the others out on flickr are the first run. The new business starts soon and should be fun.

Wedding & Presents

I just talked to my bro - he and his girlfriend are getting married on xmas eve. He sounds really happy, so it's a good thing. I had to ask - married on xmas? This isn't the first go for either of them, so they don't want anything even mildly extravagant. It'll be simple and will be at the house that they've been shackin' up in. I wondered why they chose that date and he said that everyone will be in town and they can mark it down for 2007's taxes....good enough for me! They'll go somewhere fun for a getaway and have a good time. Heck, I may have to spring for the string of lamps or maybe the full sized lamp for a gift! FRAGILE! It's Italian!

Fa rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah....

CP's still not eating a lot of food, but we keep putting as much different stuff in front of her as we can. She's still got plenty of fat and isn't having any problems running us both into the ground, so we're not too worried.

The photo stuff should start arriving tomorrow and we're all excited. Well, I guess I'm more excited than any other grown human in this house. I've been eyeballing this battery gizmo for extended shooting time. The LW and I discussed the stretching out of accessories as this camera earns its keep. I'll have to earn mine too....

Stop!....Go!

CP's figured out that she can bring her tickling to a screeching halt by simply saying, "stop". Of course, she learned right after this, that she could make it resume by simply saying "go". It's been fun and she's making the most of it.

Yesterday, the LW started choking and coughing on some water...go figure...and CP ran over to her and pushed her mouth open to look for what was making her mother cough. She said it was the funniest thing she'd seen in a while. Last night CP and I were playing with the kazoo. She'd laugh into it and start us all laughing. After this, she walked up to me with it in her mouth and had me bite on the other end. It was serious fun and just made us laugh all over.

This weekend, I'll be going to the local photography meetup.com meeting. It seems like a relatively active group of diverse folks with a good deal of experience. I hope that the LW and the baby get out to ride the Toys For Tots ride, but the weather may have something to do with her decision.

There's snow on the mountains and it's beautiful here. (click the little round dots on the right side to see the snow)

The Plunge

The LW and I have been kicking around the idea of my starting a photography business on the side and last night, we decided to dive in. She's wanted me to do this for some time, but I resisted for not wanting to turn a wonderful hobby into a job, but it'll be good for the eventual day that my hands and wrists just can't take it any more.

Our little point and shoot camera is ok, but so many irretrievable images are blurred or missed completely due to the hesitation inherent in such a small package. As you can see, my favorite subject is often too fast for even the flash. The newest prosumer additions to the camera stable will arrive soon and should lead to plenty of holiday pictures. I hope to get a website design going and get business cards in the mix too. I think that candids (as a backup guy for the professional), portraits, and sports stuff will be the majority of what I plan to do.

This morning it was a bit cool, so CP got her overalls on and we headed out for the book store and then on to the feed store. The chicks needed some pellets and scratch - plus the cats were a bit hungry this morning after I let their food supply run too low.

Blow!!

Today CP finally figured out the nose blowing trick today and has been showing off her newfound skills. It really helps the LW and I because the snot-vacuum thingy has come to be seen as the enemy.

We've been going for walks with the little person because, comically enough, she puts her hand up to your hand and says, "walk?". Who can resist that? She's become pretty adept at navigating over the landscape rocks and steep curbs that are in front of the houses of our neighbors. Earlier this week we were out and she'd had a little too much sugar (cookies), so we took her into the upstairs floor at the mall nearby. It was quiet and she kept us entertained while she ran through the isles turning that sugar into heat. The ladies working in the store just loved her and even played chase with her at one point. She was happy and tired by the time that we poured her into the car to head home.

Off to see Oma tomorrow...we hope!

Pull Over!!

....no, it's a cardigan.... (It's one of my favorite lines from a really crazy movie.)

We were supposed to go to the zoo today, but woke up to drizzle. Instead, we went to the Children's Museum and it was a blast as usual. We were early getting there by about 20 minutes, so we meandered over to the 17th Street Market. We picked up some Oolang tea for the LW and looked at all of the musical instruments that they have there. We'll probably be back for a xmas present or two from there. Once we got to the museum, CP and Teague were all over the place. One of the docents even came over when we were at the fire truck and turned on the lights. The kids got a kick out of it and CP loved all of the lateral running space. We didn't spend as much time in the music room this time, but it was really warm in there. We made up for it in the playroom with the frogs on the conveyor though. They loved that one. They have little stuffed toy frogs attached to a rope operated vertical conveyor setup with velcro and at the top is a ceiling fan with two blades. As the frogs get to the top of the conveyor, the fan blades come around and smack them off which sends them flying across the room. The kids then round them up and do it all over again. It was a hoot. It wasn't working the last time we were there, so this was my first time around with it and I really had fun with it.

Every Day...

..is a good day with my lovely wife and beautiful daughter. I woke up to a smiling baby full of laughter. We all played "tickle..tickle" this morning before getting up and getting going.....and she's been going full blast this morning. My LW gave me a wonderful card and a Wailin' Jennys CD, then my maternal grandparents called and sang happy birthday to me. It's pretty funny stuff to listen to, and remarkable because they never leave messages for me, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've been trying to get in touch with my mom, because today is her birthday too (I was a 20th birthday present, of sorts), but her line is busy busy this morning and that's a good thing.

Neti Pot

I use the wife's little oriental teapot for sinus irrigation usually, but this time I waited too long after my eyes started watering and sinusitis crept up on me like a fog, and on little cat feet even. It's been an interesting few days of sniffling and sneezing, but I hope to be over this soon because work's beginning to filter in more an more. I'm enjoying that, but it's tough to work when your head feels like a bowling ball.

CP and I have the house to ourselves today since the LW took off on the bicycle this morning. She went down to one of the coffee shops in town today to meet one of the garden coordinators that's now a co-worker. It's really good to see someone else land a good spot that allows them the freedom to work from anywhere with only a laptop computer and a wifi or cellular bb card. CP and I were outside a good bit today and she's now a wheelbarrow riding fiend. Can't get enough of the thing. We go and spend a lot of money on a bike trailer/stroller/hiker and all she wants to do is ride in a $10 wheelbarrow. It just figures.....

I've put out the word to most of the family already that this year we'd like for CP to get musical instruments and art supplies for xmas. She likes stuffed critters alright, but her interest in them fades really quickly and they're quickly tossed aside when crayons or drums are about. CP's uncle Richard has already alluded to the idea of getting her a bullhorn/siren for a gift. He's a funny man for an engineer. CP really likes the musical instrument room at the children's museum here in town. The only thing that dragged her away from that last time was the model trains that were running.

The flickr spot should have some new images from my last round of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Picher Perfect

The LW and I watched a disturbing show last night on PBS. It was an Independent Lens program called The Creek Runs Red. I didn't know that the LW had changed the channel, but I heard someone speaking who sounded a little bit slow. I turned around to see someone who could have very easily been a part of my family down in Mississippi. She was going on and on in an obvious redneck dialect about how lead poisoning hadn't done anything to her or her family and that she didn't know what all the fuss was about. I found it interesting that this person is basically a poster child for learning disabilities caused by heavy metals .......and that by having learning disabilities, she doesn't even realize that she's the poster child.

The show is worth watching. I had basically heard these people speak before. They're all over just about everywhere that I've lived. In Canon City, CO they're the folks that still believe that dirt from the Manhattan project that's stored near the water supply (and almost leaking into the water supply for most of western Kansas) won't hurt them or their kids. Yup, if you don't want to find anything, don't put in the correct monitoring wells....problem solved right? In Mississippi, they're the families of folks that have lived near the cotton fields and been subjected to boll weevil poison and defoliant drift all of their lives, yet continue to wonder why they have so many strange illnesses in their communities. CMT anyone?

Deadlines and a New Doctor

I left the LW this afternoon in a pretty bad state. She was buggin' because her deadline for file check-in was moving up fast and I had to leave for work. Something about a translation department in Japan, I think. Technical writers and their time-shifted global deadlines......

As usual, CP was doing her best to make everyone in the house fully aware of her needs and wants. We try our best to humor her, but sheeeesh, it gets hard sometimes. We took her to meet her new pediatrician today. You might recall that her last doc got fired down the road for messing with the labial adhesions in the old-school, "just separate them, it won't bother her" way. We had to find someone new because if he did that again, I was going to kick his old ass into next year....and then I'd need a lawyer for xmas.

Anyway, the new doc is a really nice lady who took a careful look at CP and judged her to be bright and happy. They have a large waiting room with a playground and CP was happy right from the start. The doc let CP play with her medical equipment and she absolutely loved it. She prescribed some cream ( at $100/tube) for her and things will be just fine soon. Of course, since CP was sick most of last month, we got the standard issue "are you feeding her?" type questions. I tried to explain that she had been sick/off of food for almost a month and that we'd basically been trying to throw everything in the cupboards at her, but little stuff like that just flies by, or so it seems.

CP's happily sleeping now and the house is quiet. The LW wore CP out this evening while I was at work with singing and ring-around-the-rosie. All is well.

Oh, if anyone else out there wondered how to create a backup of their blogspot blog, here's a neat trick:

http://yourblognamehere.blogspot.com/search?updated
-min=2005-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&updated-max
=2010-01-0101T00%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=3000

Insert this bit of code into the url line after you change the dates to reflect what you want. Once you're there, using Firefox of course, go to file and save page as. It'll save it so that you'll at least have the files should something go wrong.

What A Difference....

...a day makes. Auntie M. took the baby yesterday and oh my did the LW and I get some things done. I got to work on garden administration stuff as well as go to work. The LW got quiet time to get some work toward her latest deadline completed. It was good to just be able to switch off that constant "where's CP?" buzzer that rings in our heads all day. CP had fun playing with Auntie M. and got to do some finger painting. I'll post the other pics to the flickr spot, so check 'em out.

She woke up this morning at about 7:30 and was just laying around when the LW went in to get her for the liquid breakfast. Grandma called shortly after that and CP actually said "bye" to her. Pretty funny.

Monday Monday

It's Veteran's Day and this vet is going to ship his noisy tot off to Auntie M's place today, so that the LW and I can get some quiet time in the house and some peaceful yard work done. CP slept until almost 10am this morning, so we're getting a bit of a late start with plans for the day.

CP's been chatting a good bit lately. Mimicry has taken hold and she's catching on to different things around the house. Turning everything on and off, putting things in containers and taking them out, and just being a funny little baby in general. It's pretty fun...especially when she says, "COOKIE!".

Violet came back a few days ago. A nice lady a few streets over opened up her back yard shed and a dehydrated and hungry gray cat came hopping out. They looked at her collar and called us. The LW dropped everything and ran to get her. She's been happily recuperating on a diet of wet food and lots of snuggle time.

Missed Doctor, Meatloaf, and Panties for Peace

I could have sworn that CP's appointment with her new doctor was this morning. I was so sure that I didn't really listen clearly to the reminder message that they left for me. I mean really, I had it in my trusty little Palm. No worries. Well, that won't happen again. We got there half an hour early and ready to fill out paperwork only to find that the appointment was yesterday. Ohhhh....I was embarrassed, then mad at myself, then flustered......then the LW got mad at me because I just wanted to get out of there. This started a fight that lasted all the way home in the car. I'll have to call and reschedule sometime soon.

CP's sleeping now after a lunch of cold veggies and hot meatloaf. I found the recipe in the Petite Appetite book that Pat & Alice sent. It turned out really well even though I substituted pepperoncini peppers and mushrooms for the bell peppers that were in the recipe.

Listened to Hightower Radio over lunch since it appears that KXCI has done some program reshuffling. He talked about Panties for Peace. I think that the LW is up for it. Man, those dudes in Burma are crazier than some of the nutjobs running things here.....

Missing

Violet the cat is missing. She's been gone for a couple of days before and come back, but we're wondering this time whether or not she'll come back. The LW is pretty bummed about it. She's had Violet since she lived in the Ozarks and was married to the drunk trustfunder. We hope that all is well and the LW will stop by the local shelters today to see if she may have turned up there. She's a very friendly cat, and if she slipped her collar, someone may have taken her in thinking that she's a stray.

CP continues to kick the cold that she's had for weeks. We hope to get back into the regular swing of things this week. She just woke up and took her wet diaper off.

Halloween

CP had a fun little bit of Halloween. I say a little bit because even with all of the lights in the neighborhood, it seems as though most folks must have taken their little people to organized events somewhere. We thought about taking CP to the gig at the Parent Connection, but she's still really snotty and I wouldn't wish this gurgling coughing mess on anyone.....well, almost anyone.

Auntie M. came over and had a good time with CP except for the little bits of fright that came with that crazy costume that she had on. We gave out two costco bags of candy by loading up the kids that we did get. The LW had a good time in her witch's hat and really enjoyed seeing the cute little ones. There are some new photos from yesterday on the flickr, so check 'em out.

Never Fails....

..that whenever we have an appointment for CP to see the doc, she's in pretty bad shape. It looks like this upcoming appointment will not deviate from that. She started breaking in four canine teeth at once a week or so before my folks showed up and was able to get about a four day break after that. After this "break", she caught a cold from somewhere and had it for a week. Then came another short break where she started eating well again, but last week at both library playgroups, there were kids with snotty noses and coughs. She's got a really snotty cold right now and hasn't been feeling good for the past five days or so. As I look at the calendar, it is rather shocking to see that since the 8th of this month (22 days), she's only felt good and eaten well for about 8 of them.

To top this all off, yesterday we went to Jessie Owens Park and she took a little spill and busted her lip up pretty well. You can see it on the picture on her left side. CP and I will drop the LW off at big blue this week for some sort of seminar, so she and I will on our own. It's really nice not having the security blanket (mama) around and CP seems to focus more of her time on playing and getting into things. I look forward to her not feeling sickly so that I can get back to the Y for some exercise and CP can get back in the playgroups for some interaction with little people.

Flaming Trash Can

I'm running down 22nd street on the way to my office this morning at dark:30 this morning, when I see something dead ahead in the lights. At first I thought that the lights were reflecting off of the plastic sidewalls of the bus stop, but as I got closer, I realized that some moron had set fire to the trash in the can. When the LW and I first arrived in T-town, we really liked the way that the bus stops had purple saguaros made of steel that held the little roofs onto them. I didn't want to see the fire spread to the bus stop and waste a whole lot of our tax money, so I pulled in, pulled stuff out of the back of the packed car, and grabbed my fire extinguisher. As I was doing this, some clown dressed in black comes up and tells me just to let it burn out.

Now, what's a good citizen doing standing in the vacant and dark parking lot of a check cashing place at this time of the morning telling me to let the fire burn out? This guy wasn't a good citizen after all. "Six years in the navy going to expensive flight deck & shipboard firefighting schools and I get to practice on a trashcan that some moron set on fire......" was all that I could manage to tell myself. I put it out as best as I could then started getting back into the car. I didn't even get the door shut before this kid pulls out an old replica German boot brush and tries to sell it to me. "Yo yo man, check this out, it's from the 1930s man.....", was his pitch line. I told him that it wasn't worth a @#it to anyone unless it's authentic and even then probably only to a skinhead whackjob. I called the FD on the way up the street so that they could come by and splash the can with a bit of water and was on my way. I figure that the kid probably was burning some excess things that he'd stolen from an elderly person who might have had a souvenir collection from the war. Either way, it was just pretty sad. On a brighter note, there were only six gunshots loud enough to wake me up last night.

So...

..your kid participates in one of a string of armed home invasions (bullet proof vests included), runs from the police, and gets his arse shot with cocaine and alcohol in his system........and you want to sue for wrongful death? George and Cecilia Diaz...... get a grip. These guys held a 3 year old at gunpoint for cryin' out loud!

This is unbelievable. This gang of miscreants broke into people's homes on several occasions and took things, terrorized the owners, and eventually some of them got blasted by a homeowner. I don't see how anyone can see the police as being at fault when they were up against fully armed people in the dark and they didn't sit around and ask them politely to come have a chat and some tea. If there's any justice around, this case will get dismissed and they'll have to reimburse the county for court costs.

Big Jim

Today I was thinking of a wonderful guy that I know who has cancer. I looked around on the web and found out sadly enough that the cancer had finally gotten the best of him. He was a good egg and you have to look hard to find folks like him today. They're out there somewhere and you just have to hope that you get a chance to meet them. I'm a bit shocked because Jim was larger than life.

"Son...

..you need to get you an 8 to 5 job."

That's what I heard when I called my parents on the phone to tell them about the TV show on PBS called The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. Little did I know that a phone call to say hi would be seen as a grand opportunity for my dad to tell me basically that taking a few years at home to raise our daughter wasn't good enough for him. I alluded to the fact that the last times I listened to his advice I ended up in the Navy for six years and sold a perfectly good vehicle sending me down a long road to indebtedness.

The LW and I planned on me staying home with CP until she hits preschool and starts freeing up more of my time during the day. Once that happens, I'll be able to open up my available hours at work and get back to regular life....as regular as our life is, that is. I don't know what it is about blue collar thinking that seems to beget blue collar thinking and seems to cloud the view of anything else like dark glasses. I guess when your dad criticizes what you do, you just seem to pass it on. Well, that crap is going to stop with me. I've told the LW that if she ever hears me saying things like, "art/being a mechanic/etc. won't be a good thing for you" to CP that she should immediately smack me with the most solid movable object that she can get her hands around and swing.

I was so mad I almost cursed him (as in: "I've got two words for you and one of them is YOU") and hung up the phone. I called my brother and he was as dumbfounded as I was. He said that he'd love to stay home and spend more time with the girls. A 60-hour a week late-night concrete job helped ruin his first marriage and has kept him away from his kids way too much. He said as soon as his sugar-mama gets all set, he'll quit and be a stay at home dad too.

I guess from now on when I call the parents, I'll just talk to mom. Whaddaya think readers? Anyone else out there had this happen?

Migration

Finished up this morning with moving my website stuff from iPower to BlueHost. It wasn't really any fun, but it's now up and running. The two points that gave me fits were the MySQL database and the email stuff. I think that I screwed up with both of them. The database wasn't really backed up like it should have been and the email stuff was probably just that the mail server and the rest of the site come up at different times after the change. Still...it sure beats dealing with iPower - what a waste of money. I've been with them for 3 years and this last year it appears will have been a wash. That company pretty much has gone down the crapper in the past few years. Google them on the web and you'll probably find that they sucked before that.

The bright spot in the middle of this was Algis over at HitCode. If you need a calendar so that people can make appointments with you, this is the hot ticket. There are plenty of places out there that'll charge you $25/month to let you use their websites, but this solution works on your own website. You buy it...you own it. Algis will customize the template for you and provides wonderful customer service.

Elk & Pizza

CP's grandparents rolled into town this afternoon on the heels of a five day guided elk hunt in Coyote, New Mexico. It's good to see my folks and they look tired from travel, but happy to see our little person. We were regaled with stories of humorous guides and elk who seemed to know how to only show the wrong ends of their bodies from behind trees. Of course, no hunting story is complete without the requisite hard bed story....... CP was a bit shy tonight around them because dad's pretty much deaf and talks really loud around/to her without even realizing it. Tomorrow should be fun. Pumpkins to carve and halloween costumes to pick out.

CP and I got out the other day and went to the Children's Museum downtown with Aunt Carie, Teague, Caden, and Ashley. It was a wonderful trip and the kids were completely pooped by the time we were done. They all came back here for lunch and a bit of chicken chasing. The Children's Museum has some really great things for small people and CP will probably get a membership so we can go there often. Percussion and trains were a big hit.

system32/DRIVERS/pci.sys

For the second time this year, the wife's work laptop has crashed and taken her data with it. The hard drive is shot, but I put it in the freezer to see if anything will help it. I've downloaded PC Inspector, but I can't even get the laptop to get recognized by using a Cat5 cable or by putting it right into the router. Nada. The "new" (next victim) laptop is here, but it's a pain to get all of her remote stuff to come up and run.

Our rescue kitty is settling in and has only peed on me once so far. I scaled the wall at one of our gardens to get at the mewwing little stinker and it's been on the mend since. It must have fallen sometime or been injured somehow. The left hind leg isn't what it should be. The resident cats don't care for it much, so we've kept them separate. We hope to find a happy home for it soon.

Back In Action

CP has broken free of her teething/cold distress and according to the LW, was able to eat a lot of dinner last night. I had to work last night and when I came home CP came toddling to the door excitedly repeating, "Dadddyyyyyyyyy". It was the best welcome home that I've had in a long time and it really cheered me up. The LW is happily sleeping again, although she did oversleep a bit this morning which led to a last minute conference call scramble.

I picked up the prints and film from the first rolls to go through my "new" old Graflex 22 which looks just like the one in the picture at right. This photo is borrowed from the folks at Graflex.org. I used their site quite a bit when deciding on which large format camera I'd like to get in the future. That's when I found the 22 which makes a 2"x2" negative. It was a relatively inexpensive camera back in its day, but it makes pretty good images. I'll get accustomed to the reverse viewfinder someday. The first test roll was pretty impressive, but I wasn't really testing it with good film. The stuff that I used expired in 2003, but the prints were still good. If business keeps rolling along, I'll be headed toward a Graflex Speed Graphic or Super Graphic 4x5 camera. There are plenty of them on eBay, which is where I found this camera.

101 and Risin'

How high's the readout mama?
99 degrees and risin'

That may not make too much sense to you if you don't like the music of Johnny Cash. It appears that our "flood" of baby heat might be caused by the new teeth that are trying to break through. Last night she was at about 99 and this morning it had moved up to 101. She's sleepy, but still ate breakfast and in contrast to other kids I've seen, doesn't fuss much when she's feeling bad. She just slows way down and prefers that everything else slow down to meet her pace.

Last night we went to the GABA meeting to see pictures from a bike trip that some folks had taken to Prague and the surrounding area. It was a great presentation and we almost made it all the way through it before deciding that it would be best to get the sleeping tot home to bed. We enjoyed getting to see some of the gang there that we knew also. We both realized after getting there that it was just nice to be out of the house.

Sunday

Earlier this afternoon, a car came flying down our little dead-end street. I heard it from out in back of the house where we were busy playing with CP. We're accustomed to this sort of thing, so I cursed as I usually do and we went about playing. A few minutes later the LW heard something in the yard next door at the apartments. There were two people running through the yard and hopping the fence. There was also someone who ran through the alley on the other side of the house.....now, this seemed a bit odd. We ran out front and found a car parked in our neighbor's driveway. The neighbors had evidently come out of the house to see what the people in the car were up to and they just took off. I hopped on my bike and rode down the street to find a guy and a girl walking toward the main street and looking around...a lot. They saw me coming and started quickly walking the other way.

I rode back home and got the car...and my phone...and went back out sightseeing. On my way out of the neighborhood, the LW said that a car drove down the street and then backed it's way out. I found this car at the flower shop. The guy had been hit by the people who parked their car at the neighbor's house and ran. He had chased them across town. I found the runners out by 22nd street and called it in to the folks at Tucson Police Department. In a half hour or so, the TPD showed up and after descriptions were discussed, they went out searching for the runners. It's no surprise that they didn't find anything. They may as well have big neon signs on their cars.

A little while later, the owner of the car that had been used in the hit and run by the runners showed up and told TPD that she had loaned her car to a black guy so that "he could go to the Circle K". Oh, she didn't know his last name. She had come down the street earlier and lied about it not being her car. Just a few minutes ago, they let her have her car back. I found out that the guy has been doing "till picking" around town. (when the register opens, cash is grabbed) Sooooooo...... you loan your car out to someone and they use it for robberies and are involved in a hit and run. I guess that a hit and run is a class 3 misdemeanor roughly equivalent to stealing a pack of chewing gum.

As she drove her car away, I yelled "STAY THE #@$* OUT". She slowed down like she was going to stop, but then probably thought better of it. I was pretty bent. The TPD officer advised me that she'd probably file a complaint against him because I was standing next to his car when I yelled at her. I advised him to have his supervisors give me a call if anything was filed.

Tomorrow I'm off to find shotgun shells....and I'm reconsidering that handgun offer from my father-in-law.

Toys

We dropped by Tiggy-Winkles last night to see about picking up something for my wonderful niece who turns 8 this weekend. Yes, I know that my gifts are always late..... So I'm walking through the isles and see some funky little backpacks. The girl in the store comes over and starts telling me all of the neat things about them, which was nice, but then we saw the price tag. The one that I happened to be looking at was in the $130 price range. The girl goes on to tell me about the company and how it's a small US company and how well designed the products are. At this point, I'm figuring that the bags must be made in the US and that the high price of the bags is because they are made by US workers...right?.........ERRRRRRRRRRRRR. There's nothing on the tags at all that mentions where the bags are made, but down inside the bag is a small white tag: Made in China. WTH?! I showed it to the store girl and she went on to tell me the percentage of toys in the store that were made in China...blahblahblah. $130 for a bag that's made by folks that get a living wage and benefits here in the US is one thing, $130 for a bag that's made for $10 in material and $0.13 in labor....well, they can kiss my a$$.

Shorty Stubbs

Just got home from work and walked in to find this on the computer. Evidently the LW had been reading it. I just can't believe it. Shorty was the kind of radio personality that you dream of having in your town and now he's gone.

Shortly after the LW and I got to this town, we noticed the dearth of radio stations other than unclear channel and jbg. The shining spot on the radio was and has been KXCI. The LW has her favorite programs and so do I, but sometimes they overlap. Shorty's "Country Fringe" program on Twangin' Tuesday is one of those programs. You just never know what you're going to hear, but it's guaranteed to be good. The music he played sometimes reminded me of the old stuff my grandparents used to listen to when I was a kid....real twangy stuff that wouldn't pass for jack s#*@ in corporate Nashville these days.

A few years of listening to Shorty on Tuesday nights just wasn't enough. Knowing that he's gone is enough to knock the wind out of your sails.

Mahna Mahna

It's a little clip on youtube from Sesame Street and it has a catchy little song. So catchy that CP can't get enough of it. She seems to think that the sole purpose of our computers is to show her this little video. It makes things interesting sometimes. I'm just about tired of hearing it.

The LW and Auntie M. did really well on the EuroFresh ride this past weekend. The LW teamed up with a gal from Willcox that really helped her with paceline tips and she really enjoyed it. On the way back they dealt with a headwind....for 22 miles. Auntie M. was pretty well beaten, but still had a great time. It was an accomplishment for them both and I was impressed. CP seemed to really enjoy being out and about for the day.

It's getting tougher these days to keep CP inside. I just turned around and she was up on top of the dining room table. She's a climber. She's also begun to mimic things that people say, which in my case, could cause problems. She'll even start the ABC song, but she trails off into mumbles and smiles. I had planned to finish this post, then head to the Y, but CP got really whiney about not being allowed to scramble everything on the desk and then fell asleep in my arms. We'll go later, I hope.

I got word from my brother yesterday that his first trip to CO, one that I've wanted to be a part of for years, was ruined by poor trail selection and bad decisions. What a nightmare. I've tried to get him out to CO since we lived there about four years ago or so and there was always some excuse for him not to go. Now, he has another excuse...this trip not only cost him time and money to get there, it cost him bike parts as well - busted graphics (brand new) and a bent/broken chain guide that'll probably need a little TIG work. I can't for the life of me, understand why a local would take people out on front range trails (other than the easy stuff at Rampart) that are of the hike-a-bike variety or are illegal when you don't have street plates. Why not just head to Canyon City for a warm up on the Tanner Peak Trail, then on to Salida or Sargents for some fun trail running in the wide open spaces? It'll just be twice as hard now to get him to come to AZ to ride.

in other news: Who needs a manufactured distraction to keep the heat off of the new Gonzales than a little bit of O.J. Simpson craziness? Links aren't really needed for this one, now are they?

Tubes and Tomatoes

The LW has been a bit under the weather for a few days. We both think that it's a bit too much regular coffee, but we don't really know for sure. She's gone rounds with these symptoms before and the last time our doc had to give her some belladonna to calm her gut. She's in the back sleeping right now.

This weekend Auntie M. and the LW are doing the EuroFresh Ride. They'll do 22 miles out to the EuroFresh facility for a tour and then 22 miles back to where they started. I'll be running a personal sag stop with CP. We'll take the chariot so they can hitch her up and let her ride too, but the superjetta will be the backup. I just finished putting super-thick tubes from Pima Street Bikes in both of her tires.

Seeds and Change

Tried to do the click-n-ship thing with the complete order that I'm sending back to gurney's - get this - when you punch their return address into the USPS site, it tells you that the address isn't good and won't let you print a label. So, I'll be off to Choates this coming week to send their junk back. Thanks to Chile for this article.

Made DVDs for the family today. Auntie M. rode out to the mountain with the LW this morning and has spent the day with us. It's just amazing what another set of hands can do when there's a 16 month old little person running around getting into everything. Anyway, the slack created by having Auntie M. here allowed me to put together videos for most of the spring and summer movies, so they should be shipping out soon. It's pretty funny to see how much CP has changed in just a few months.

I came across this blog today (mmmmm...technorati) linked to a garden blog that I help run. It looks like an interesting read and it's interesting to see how gardening hooks people and reels them in.

Season 2

We picked up the first Muppets Season II DVD the other day at Casa Video. We're on the episode with George Burns right now. CP seems to like them, but they don't hold her attention for too long. The LW and I however are really enjoying them.

Our swampy has been working better now that the humidity dropped below 30% and the promise of a cooler fall season is right around the corner. The LW even had to turn the thing off this morning because it was only 75 degrees outside. That's a nice change.

Auntie M. came over this long weekend and played with CP a bit. We took quite a few pictures and I'll post them up on the flickr site soon. Last night was a trip to Lakeside Park. CP really liked the idea of a lake with ducks and she conquered the slide in no time.

I'm still waiting on my order from Gurney's (ordered seeds and strawberries Aug 18th) and I sent them a note to let them know that I didn't appreciate them second-guessing my order dates. Hopefully the "customer service" person will write back with the president's name and address soon so that I can let him know about what I think of his delayed shipping scheme.

Read Listen Sweat Repeat

Read a funny Violet Blue article today. It discusses burning man and the gifts that sometimes keep on giving. The LW was laughing out loud.

Also, while listening to KXCI this morning, we heard a song by Jason Isbell called Dress Blues. Pretty sad stuff. The song didn't really hit me until I heard the part about "bombs in the sand". It made me think of all of the faces that only Jim Lehrer has the stones to show at the end of his broadcast.

CP continues to exert her will lately. She's climbing everything, nodding yes when she wants something, and becoming quite clingy when we drop her off at the childwatch room at the Y. We went last night and she fell asleep while we were upstairs on the weight machines. She's keeping us busy just trying to keep up with her.

Green Light

At the 22nd & Kolb stop light this morning after dropping the LW off at big blue, a blue toyota truck pulls up behind me. Well, we're both in the turn lane to go left, and around here the green arrow trails the green. Freaky, but it seems to work ....sometimes. The light turned green and there was about a 1/2 mile of traffic coming toward us in the other lane. Some people like to creep into the intersection, but I've found that sitting at the line until the light is just about to give me the green arrow allows me to stay out of the intersection (emergency vehicles anyone?). I still end up beating the other guys through the intersection, so it's usually a wash. This time, the guy in the pickup starts honking at me and moves right up on me so that all I can see out the back window of the wagon is grille. He honks some more. Can you see this now? There's no way to turn, but this asshole just wants me to move up. What do I do? Sit there. When he honked about the third time, I put it in reverse and backed up toward him. He stopped honking. We cruise down the road and I get to my turn off and, using sign language, tell him that he's #1 in my book. I hope that this guy visits downtown LA for some hot lead & manners therapy some time soon.

Went out to the mall with CP for a new SAHD playgroup that's starting after we got back home from dropping the LW at work. CP and I ran into the mom that does the Cinema La Placita event while we were at the mall playspot and had a nice visit too.

I hope that the dad group takes off. The Tucson Moms group has a huge following and does all kinds of cool stuff. I'm glad that it is out there as a support system, but I'd rather not be around any talk of scrapbooking or get the stinkeye from a group of women who think that the friendly neighborhood atheist is just there to eat their children. Sitting in any spot where alot of moms congregate, you can just feel the looks of "hmmm, no job for daddy?" and, since I don't wear my wedding ring (work & it's small since my fingers are stronger now) the, "oh, a single dad out to pick up women with his cute little prop". Sheesh.

Literate

A good friend from NorCal sent the link to this article recently and it was a good read. It discusses societal changes and the no-child-left-behind mess that's being thrust on the kids of today. I have never really given much thought before to oral and written language and how much help I had in acquiring it. As a kid, I assumed that everyone grew up around both sets of grandparents when they were kids and had roughly the same experiences that I had.

The difference in experiences came to visit our home recently, but after reading the above linked article, I can now understand what I was seeing. It was good to read the part about comic books turning the author's experience around when he was young. It was reassuring to know, since the LW went down to Heroes & Villians and picked this up as a reading stimulant. It worked quite well and I hope that it will be the start of many things good and helpful.

I'm pretty confident that CP's education will be supplemented heavily by the LW and I, but what about all of the kids who struggle so hard to learn the answers that they don't have time to learn how to question their world or don't have the wisdom of a grandparent on tap?

Selling

My 4WD sold yesterday. It was sad to see it go down the road, but it has a good home with some really friendly folks. A guy purchased it for his mom and she was really happy about it. I told her that it was still my baby and that she'd better take good care of it. It went for $4200 and that has already been applied to balances that we were carrying. It basically paid off CP's birth and my knee work from a while back and that's a good thing. Our insurance rates will drop and our debt has been reduced to the price of a used dirt bike. Yayyy!

The LW is selling her jersey as well.

Auntie M. is over today playing with CP. I got out in the garden and pulled everything except the eggplant and butterbeans out. I turned the chicks loose in the garden and they went right after all of the grubs they could scratch up. The LW just went out to work in the herb garden which is pretty weedy after the recent rains. I'll be working to drain the cistern pretty soon and get the pipe clogging stuff figured out....ugh.

And under the selling out this country heading:

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse from my previous post, the LW sent me this link yesterday about the proposed "Real ID" program. Schnikeys!! Soon there will be an office of state bar coding where the state will just tattoo a bar code on your arms..... I sent a link to my folks, but they probably won't read it.

WHAT PART OF YOU MUST HAVE PAPERS TO FLY FROM STATE TO STATE DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?!

Can you imagine having to show your passport to enter the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone? Think about that for a minute.

What if I live in a noncompliant state?

No federal agency will accept your state-issued driver's license as a valid form of ID. You will need to use a passport at federal buildings and parks, and for domestic air travel.

Quick...

...said the shrub....with illegal/warrantless wiretapping going to court and Padilla's case going to the jury, we need a distraction! - anyone...anyone.....oh, yeah, I've got it, we'll declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization! These clowns have known for a while just who is funding the muslim brotherhood and their ilk and haven't done a thing about it. Methinks this is just another part of the show.

Now for some flip flopping....deferment style: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I

What's next? What can possibly top endless war and .....?

Lips Are Sealed

Took CP in for a well visit and all looks ok. Her weight is a little low at 19lbs, but she's 31" tall. Still in the curve for growth, so no worries. The doc looked at her adhesions this morning and decided that it would be a good plan to tease them apart without any topical anesthetic. Cripes...5 minutes on the web shows that this isn't a good idea with vaginal adhesions. As if this wasn't enough torture for her, she was in for two more shots as well. I took a happy baby to the doctor and brought home a bleeding, unhappy ball of a child. It didn't help that the appointment was scheduled in her nap time either. So, this afternoon, we decided that our pediatrician has had his ass summarily fired and relieved of duty. We'll be finding a female pediatrician soon.

Two garden meetings should keep me busy this weekend and we'll be cleaning up around the house. Auntie M has agreed to come over and hang out with CP. It's an amazing thing to be out in the yard at the same time as the LW. It's only happened a few times in the last 15 months and I look forward to it.

CP has been recognizing things from images lately. If you show her a picture of an airplane, she'll do the sign. It's the same with other things. She's a smart one in my book.

ABMT

Going through the paperwork machine that is the AZ Board of Massage Therapy renewal and it's pretty straightforward except for a couple of things. I overlooked the grammar problems including an apostrophe where it wasn't needed (th'at looks' reall'y pro'fesshnull), but when I got down to the CE and payment parts, it was more than I could stand. They'll send you a wall certificate with your license for an extra $25. What? $25 for a slice of paper that you have sitting there in a box? Gotta call BS on that one.

Then there's the CE stuff. I'm required to have 25 CE credit hours - ok, I've got that part, but when you get to the part about whether or not the stuff you have is approved, here's what it says: "It is your responsibility to make sure that a course is offered by an **Approved Provider**. There will never be a published list of courses. You need to find a course that you would like to take and make sure that course is from an approved provider." What? This seems a bit circular to me. It's your responsibility, but there's not a list to confirm whether your provider is on it or not. Thanks!

The pièce de résistance however, is the payment part. Please enclose a money order or cashier check ONLY in the amount of $75 made out to the "AZ Board of Massage Therapy". ( NO personal checks accepted) Are massage therapists just such deadbeats that the state office that maintains our license paperwork will not take a check from us? Cripes....this is enough to make one question their vocation. No wonder people make those "happy ending" jokes......our own license bureau doesn't take us seriously.

Tiggy Winkles

Our treat for CP yesterday was a trip to Mrs. Tiggy Winkles toys over at Grant & Swan. We'd have gone to Kid's Center, but they close at 5:30 for some reason. Man, another 30 minutes might make for some more business. Anyway, CP had a great time, touched everything, and came home with a little toy jeep and a set of hard maple ABC blocks that are made in Bread Loaf land...Middlebury, VT. We almost picked up a book too, but the selection at Kid's Center is really great, so we waited.
We made the mistake of letting her sit down and play a kid size piano made by Melissa & Doug. Holy schnikeys....we thought that she'd wake the dead with that thing. It's a good thing that we have ABSOLUTELY NO ROOM IN OUR HOUSE FOR IT! Oh...she got a kazoo as well and can play it better than her mother.

Soft Hum

Sent the nephew packin' this morning and the dust has begun to settle. The hum of the freezer and the computer's power supply fan can actually be heard now. CP's adjusting to the new quiet and getting back to being the star of our little show. I can only imagine what my folks went through with my brother and I when they were 30 or so. A 10 year old and a 7 year old...I guess that an ATV was the only sensible answer, leaving the alternative of sending us out into rush-hour traffic as a backup. Here I thought for all of these years that they were just joking when they told us to go play in traffic. Nope.

Yesterday was my first visit to that place where a kid can supposedly be a kid. Sheesh! We walked in on rainy day and it was pure bedlam. I really liked their idea of marking the hands with the black light ink as we entered. From the front gate, we made our way through a large pizza as the nephew made his way through 129 tokens (one was given to CP for the teletubby ride). CP had all of this stuff around - games, kids, a scary band of moving furry critters on stage..... and all that she wanted to do was move the chairs in the big open portion of the dining room. Not just one either...she wanted to move all of them. After the pizza was gone, the nephew and I discussed the economics of $13 worth of tokens (to be raced through as fast as possible, of course) which turned into tickets, which in turn were exchanged for two small rubbery squishy toys and a big rainbow lollipop. The lesson seemed to sink in, but who knows. He was indeed being a kid.

He said that going to the pizza place was one of the best days of his trip here which also included:
- a week-long skateboard camp at a park Skateboarding magazine rated 9/10
- purchasing a new skateboard at a real skate store
- leaning how to help raise poultry, harvest eggs, then cook them
- a good lesson in how not to call mommy 20 times a day
- a visit to the International Wildlife Museum
- dropping my Sonicare toothbrush in the toilet
- seeing the Simpsons movie
- a rained out camping trip to Mt Lemmon
- his aunt buying him some really amazing comic books
- getting some business advice and a great brochure
- a good lesson in how to manually do the dishes

Kids & Rain

Crying, crying, crying.....not the baby, the nephew. He fell in the skate park the other day and happened to have one of his prized status symbols, his phone, in his pocket. It was completely ripped in half and I listened to all of the things he was afraid of on the way home. His worst fear - over the part about how his mom would ground him forever, was that there was some outside possibility that his mom would take away his dog Buddy. Of course, that would never happen, but maybe the fear of that thought will make him think twice about riding the skate park without a new phone in his pocket. Yeeeeeeeahhh....that'll never happen - as soon as he knew he was off the proverbial hook, he was prancing through the house bragging about how he was getting a new camera phone. 10 year olds with camera phones - just doesn't seem right. When I was ten years old, you were the greatest if you had a bike with at least one new tire.

It's been raining here and both trees are now leaning. It keeps raining the nephew out of the skate park in the evenings. We hope that it will let up soon to drop the humidity and get him out of the house and on a skateboard soon. CP's picking up all kinds of signs and word stuff. It's pretty funny to see her walk through the house and recognize sounds and planes flying over.

Gotta go chase her right now...