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.