Yeah yeah, I've been neglecting my blogging duties by not posting anything in several months, but I have a good reason: my wife Cara gave me a beautiful daughter a month ago. As you can see here, she likes to impersonate a koala.
It's been a lot of fun and nerve wracking at the same time. Most of the family has been down to see her, though my brother and his wife are coming this weekend. After them, I think that does it for the immediate family.
We're having a great time doing stupid things with her and taking pictures of it:


We just came back from Hanover, Pa where we celebrated Thanksgiving. It was Mallory's first car ride of more than 20 minutes and her first trip over state lines. Even though I tried to warn her, Mallory just couldn't help herself from eating all of the delicious food. She ate so much, her belly button blew:
I mean, look at that! In all my years of gorging myself on Doritos and stuffing at my aunt & uncle's house, I've never done anything like this.
Anyways, that is what has been going on around here. Well, there has been some other stuff, but this is the only part that is really worth mentioning....for now.

ttfn.

ps - I promise to get better with my posting, especially as I will be giving my two weeks' notice next week as I begin the next phase of my life, stay at home dad.

Hey, it's only been one month since my last post, go me!!
For those of you who haven't heard (Sorry, Mike) my wife is pregnant with a girl and due in mid-October. I like to think I've adjusted pretty well so far. So far everyone seems to be healthy and we've mostly been real happy. And before you ask, yes, I am: excited, anxious, nervous, scared outta my wits, and pretty much every other feeling there is (except thirsty, I'm fine there)
We had our first baby-related class yesterday, about epidurals. Good stuff.
They say babies cost a whole lot of money, and so far, that seems to be right. To justify any purchase of any kind, I find us saying "...you know, for the baby". Hence my recent purchase in 50 shares of Smith & Wesson stock. seriously, we're trying to get our house in order, which involves new carpet in the family room and we got our bathtub lined so now that bathroom is less pink. We're planning on putting down new tile and a new vanity in there. We'll keep the toilet though, it hasn't let us down. We're also thinking of getting a new door to the patio and a new garage door with an opener. I'm looking forward to the opener the most.
I'm still riding my bike to work most days and will continue to do so until my wife says I can't. I've done a few neighborhood tours (NYC 5 Borough, and Rockville, MD) Those were both in May. I don't really have any plans for any other rides for the forseeable future.
We did some travelling in the spring, too. In April, we went to visit the in-laws in Ft. Worth, TX for the better part of a week. I had never set foot out of an airport down there, so it was nice to see what's going on. As it turns out, not much. It's getting overdeveloped just like the rest of the country. We did drive up to Oklahoma for the Indian casino right over the border. I think I won $10 in the hour we were there.
Last month, we joined some friends of ours (and some of their friends) in Duck, NC, on the Outer Banks. It was our first time out there and it was very enjoyable. We rented a 7 bedroom house a block away from the beach. I rode my bike 60 miles on two different rides, spent many hours at the beach, won $35 at bingo, ate some weak barbecue (turns out I like KC style better) and spent a lot of money on groceries. Oh, the guys went flounder fishing one morning/afternoon. I wound up catching about 7 (I think 5 were keepers) and we ate them for dinner that night. Brian really knows how to fry a flounder. I had a great time. Cara mostly had a great time too, but she really missed her own bed so we left a day early. I'm sure we'll wind up back there sometime soon, the three of us that is.
All in all, everything seems to be going very well. The Jets & Knicks had good drafts (we'll find out how good soon enough) I got some potentially devistating news about a cousin that I can't & won't get into, but also found out that someone else got himself engaged. It looks like we're going to Phoenix in the spring.
Ooh, and perhaps the best news: my auto insurance went down by $15/month!!!
In the months to come, we have several more baby classes and will learn all there is to know about laying bathroom tile and how to move and reinstall a toilet. I'll let you know how that works out.
That's about all I got for today. what's new with all of you??

Holy crap, has it really been nearly 6 months since I last wrote? Anyways, I got a joke for you, via the old Truly Tasteless Jokes books that were popular in the 80s:

What's gross? Finding a dead squirrel in your yard.
What's grosser than gross? Finding just the tail the following week.

Thank you, you've been a great audience!

hehe, My last post was #69. Dude!
Not too much has been going on for me in the month of January, or so it seems. It started with a lame New Year's. Why lame? Knowing you have to work on New Year's Day really brings you down, even if you know that you weren't going to be doing anything anyway. Work did try to help by buying us lunch, but it was sandwiches from Panera. Not one of my favorites: too girly and everything is sneaky not so great for you. And freaking Chipotle wasn't even open!!! bastards.
I did fall for the first time on my bike ride to work. I knew there's a spot where it's always wet, and I knew the temperature was below freezing, I just didn't put it all together until I was already on the ice. Luckily, I slid more than fell with a thud so I just got a little dirty and sore. I didn't tear any clothes and I think my judo training helped me try to fall correctly (not put your hands out to catch you) Some guy in a truck was lucky enough to witness my daring do. I hope he enjoyed the show.
Perhaps the biggest news of the month is that my better half decided not to go to grad school. I have no doubt that she would have done very well there, I just wasn't sure if everything she would have learned was worth the time and money, and a lot of both of those. To celebrate, we enjoyed some fine food at the Melting Pot, the fondue chain that is probably overpriced, but BH enjoys it every time. I think we'd both be miserable if we went to a nice place that she didn't like. Me? I like everything, so that's not a problem.
I've managed to ride my bike about 200 miles this month. I still get people asking how I can do it. I dress in layers and keep moving so that I'm not outside for too long and I stay warm by not standing still. I put on a fender over the front tire to help keep water and gook off my legs and feet and made an attempt to replace my brake pads. Once we get a week with crappy weather, I'll bring in my ride for a tune up and have them make the adjustments, including truing up the wheels.
My parents came to town over MLK weekend. We had a good time, getting dinner at Big Fish Grille in Crofton on Saturday night. The food was pretty good, but a bit pricey. Sunday I took them to Eastern Market in Capitol Hill. I hadn't been there before either, but now I know where to go if I should need pig ears or tails!
That night, I made a roasted/broiled leg of lamb, courtesy of www.FoodNetwork.com. It turned out very well, and I got to eat lamb leftovers at least once a day for the next week and a half. I felt quite accomplished when I polished off the last of it.
This past weekend, we got together with 3 other couples, one of whom recently moved up to Philadelphia. The following morning, we got together at Silver Diner with my friend Jen and her husband Todd. They were in town for the anti-war protest. I had a great time as I had only seen Jen like once in the last 5+ years, at her wedding so I finally got to chat with Todd.
And the food wasn't even that bad!
One thing I've noticed recently is that I'm longing for the days of my middle teen years, when music really meant something to me. Between rock and my friends, I didn't really need anything else. I'm thinking of writing a lenthy blog about it, possibly involving saving drafts and editing and all that crap. I bet you can't wait. Maybe it's some kind of Early-Onset Midlife Crisis...
Oh, and I baked my first ziti last week. I think it was the easiest baked pasta I've made so far (macaroni & cheese, manicotti, & lasagna). I had leftovers today for lunch and dinner, and it was still good, possibly better than it was when I first made it.
Did I mention that I shampooed the carpet in the family room? Here's the before and after pics:
This one is what it looked like before.

Frankly, I'm not sure if you can tell much of a difference in these pics, but it made a HUGE difference.
I wound up having to rent 4 different shampooing machines from two different places because the first three and a half didn't work. After returning the first three, and having the guy at the store prove the fourth one worked, I finally got the thing to work. The only thing different I did was to use a different outlet. Now, I'm not as dumb as that sounds (really!). All four would turn on and make noise, but only with this other outlet did the soapy water start coming out and did the brush start doing stuff. Go figure.
In the "After" pic, it looks like I missed a few spots, but that's only the direct sunlight coming in from the window, the rest of the room is fairly dark.
I'm pretty sure I had some deep thoughts that were worth mentioning, but of course now I can't remember them. Fudge.
Oh well, this should keep you busy for a while.

TTFN

In case you hadn't heard, we went to Orlando just after Thanksgiving. My whole plan was to do anything that didn't cost over $10 to get in. So f you Mr. Disney and Mr. Shamu, and especially you, Mr. Universalstudios. Someone suggested that I go to Kennedy Space Center, which sounded intriguing, but then I found that it would take nearly the whole day, if not more, to see the whole place, it was about an hour away, and something like $30 to get in, so f you Tom Hanks and Mr. Nasa. I did find that I could drive up to Daytona in about an hour, and I found a coupon for admission to Daytona International Raceway (in case a Canadian showed up) so the total cost would only be $20. Sold!
It turned out to be just about all you can expect a race track to be. There were some displays, a history of how it was made and famous events. I took a few pictures:









Here I am celebrating my victory in the gift shop. It's not easy finding something reasonably priced in Nascar. I thought I had a better picture taken, but I was toting a lot of technology for those rednecks I rode with on the tram car ("Please watch...") I mean, I thought denim was cutting edge in 1850, but not with these guys. Yech.
Here I am cheering myself on. Everyone else was in the bathroom after drinking way too much of Jr.'s main sponsor: (That'd be Budwiser)You can see the cloud cover. It made the track a bit slick and we had some harrowing moments on the tram car. Since I didn't want to be labeled a narc or worse, possibly Canadian, I had to remove my shirt.
The next day, in addition to the celebrating you just saw, I blew off some steam at one of the many buffets on International Drive in Orlando. I wonder which weighs more: the food consumed in one day at all of the buffets in town, or Epcot Center. (Speaking of which, does anyone know what they keep in there? Is it storage for a wig outlet like the tower from the 1984 World Fair in Knoxville, TN?)

And here is what I left them with:


Note how I went back for seconds. THAT's how you blend in with rednecks: gorging. The buffet was at the aptly named Cici's Pizza. All that food cost me about $5!!!
I think I downloaded some pics from my trip that night to Cafe TuTu Tango but I don't know where they are.
Man, all this food talking is making me hungry. I think I'm going to have some beer and pretzels while watching the 2nd half of the International Bowl. That's right, the battle between Cincinnati and Western Michigan is too big to be contained within American borders. They had to send it to Toronto. Hopefully, the drunken Bearcat revelers won't start any international incidents. I don't know if the US will take anyone hiding from the Mounties like they did with our Vietnam draft skedaddlers. Someone should look in to that.

On a side note: It's early January and nearly 70 degrees and I don't have any plans on going outside today, except to bring our cardboard to be recycled, which I already did. I was thinking of going on a 44 mile bike ride with the Oxon Hill Bike Club but my better half talked my wuss self out of it. I could use the exercise. I broke 180lbs for the first time in a couple years last week, Damn you pork products. How lean is venison? Maybe I should've had some of that...

have a good weekend, I'll write more later.