Interviewing a new doctor

Before Olivers was born, we shopped around for a pediatrician. We found one that we really liked in Dr. Julia Young. But she decided to relocate to a practice closer to her home. We were reassigned to another doctor at the practice, but we really didn't like her. If you notice that I didn't mention her name, it is because I don't believe that she's ever said, "Hi, my name is ..." So we decided to find a new pediatrician.

At a LLL meeting a couple of months ago, we mentioned that we were in the market. One of the leaders recommended that we check out Dr. Zuckerman. He immediately has several things going for him. One, he was recommended to us. Two, his office is closer to our house. And three, his office is on the way home from work. Little things, but still points in his favor. We finally got around to setting up the appointment and yesterday we met with Dr. Zuckerman.

The practice is small but cheerfully decorated. The doors to the examination rooms weren't closed which I liked as it projects more of an image of openness. There wasn't anyone waiting in the waiting area when we got there. We were treated to a tour of the office by the nurse and shown into an exam room to wait until he was able to talk to us.

While we were hanging out, my wife and I attempted to brainstorm some questions. I felt a bit like I was cramming for a test I forgot to study for. For the similarly unprepared, here was my crib sheet:

Breastfeeding
Diet
Sleep
Vaccinations
Preferred hospitals
Things to watch out for

We talked to him for about a half-hour on all sorts of children's health issues like breastfeeding, diet, and vaccinations. It was a good conversation. After about a half-hour we wrapped it up, and my wife and I headed out to get some food. We didn't absolutely decide that we were going to go with him, but I'm not sure what the next couple of steps will be.

Google responses

Here are some responses to people who found my blog:

"Growing Moss", "Growing Irish Moss", "how to kill growing moss", "wear moss come from"
I get hit a lot by gardeners (some with better spelling skills than others). And I'm sorry to say, I can't help any of you. I've got two brown thumbs when it comes to gardening. If you have any doubts, drop by my house and look at the "lawn."

"Katherine Mary"
Something tells me that you weren't looking for a review of Soap, but today is your lucky day.

"vd condom broke"
You, sir or madam, are potentially in a world of hurt. Yes, you can get a venereal disease if you are using a condom and the condom breaks. I would go and get yourself checked out if you have any concerns. The sooner, the better. Oh, and by the way, don't sleep with anyone else in the mean time.

"messy night"
Messy Night was a lot of fun. I keep thinking of ways that I could do it at home. I have some vague ideas involving a big bowl of gelatin and lots of towels.

"myspace spam"
It keeps coming. I really don't know where these people find me, but find me they do. In real life, I don't seem to attract tons of nubile 20-something women, but online they are attracted to my geeky self like flies to honey. Somehow I have trouble taking them seriously.

"Desperate Housewives", "breastfeeding"
I'm honestly really surprised by the lack of reaction to my post about the discouragement of the breastfeeding mom. Maybe everyone thinks that nursing your child beyond six months or so enters the realm of deviant behavior.

"Lansinoh overuse"
My wife and I didn't run into this problem, but I have heard of other mothers who overused Lansinoh and ran into problems because their skin on their nipples was too soft to withstand the rigors of breastfeeding. That said, if I were a woman, I wouldn't avoid using it especially in the beginning. It speeds up the healing process, but you also need to let some air get to the nipple tissue too.

"Lightning Reaction"
I'm just waiting to find the Tanks or Lazer Tag versions online somewhere where I can spend my gift certificates. As soon as I do, they'll be in the mail and I can write up a review. My take on Lightning Reaction is that it would be fun to play as a drinking game, but my friends are getting too old to interest in games that can cause them pain. Only a few of us even play hockey any more.

Didn't know I had a label...

It turns out that I'm a Grup. Now the wondering can cease.

I like this - I'm not sloppy, I'm passionate.

Review: Soap (Season 1)

Soap features the families of two sisters, Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (Cathyrn Damon). The Tates are wealthy and the Campbells are middle class, but everyone has problems. As befits a soap opera, there are love triangles, misunderstandings, and murder. But Soap is not a soap opera but more of a soap comedy. The characters veer from very intense dramatic moments to broad slapstick humor in the space of a few beats. The mix makes the show very compelling to watch.

In some ways, I'm surprised that Soap was made back in the 1970's. I would have a hard time imagining the same show being made today. It dealt with a lot of sensitive topics from homosexuality, adoption, the feelings of an empty nester, and mental illness. Each topic is dealt with a mix of humor that draws you in and seriousness that makes you think.

The only real annoyance is that I couldn't believe how stupid the Jessica Tate character is. While it makes for a funny character I always have trouble taking her seriously when it comes to more dramatic scenes.

It's funny to look back at the show and see the future stars in its ranks. Katherine Helmond I knew from Who's the Boss. This show put Billy Crystal on the map. Robert Guilliaume would continue this character on his own spinoff Benson. And a pre-Spenser For Hire Robert Urich appeared in the first season as the gigilo tennis pro, Peter Campbell. I also had a couple of Hey It's That Guy sightings on Ted Wass (later appearing in Oh God, You Devil 2) and Richard Mulligan. I think the entire cast of WKRP in Cincinatti makes guest appearances at some point.

Review: Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck has been described as a civics lesson. And it is most unabashedly so. The movie opens with a post-McCarthy Murrow lecturing an assembled gathering of television people about how the medium can be used to enlighten, not just entertain, its audience. Then the movie flashes back to the period surrounding Murrow's anti-McCarthy episodes of See It Now.

As an entertainment, the movie is an equivocal success. Much of the drama is defanged by the passage of time. Any student of history knows that the broadcast happened and that McCarthy ended up self-destructing. While the movie attempts to convey the paranoia of the day, it never quite resounded with me. I was not involved enough in the characters to care about their eventual fates. But I was still riveted to the screen.

As a civics lesson, it is an unequivocal success. The movie tells a story that has a certain resonance in a post-911 America where the public is only to ready to cede their civil liberties to a demogogue who plays to fear. Current day America is also involved in a "hot war/cold war" just like 1950's America (Iraq/Korea - Communism/Terrorism). We can only hope that someone both brave and credible can step forward to pull the cloak away from the figure as Murrow did with McCarthy.

Breastfeeding on Desperate Housewives *some spoilers*

While we were catching up on our TV shows last night, we caught a bit of Desperate Housewives. During the episode, Felicity Huffman's character is recruiting another woman to come work for their firm. After FH points out how mother-friendly her office is, the recruit asks about how people would feel about her breastfeeding her youngster at the office. Her fears allaued the woman is recruited. At this point, I was excited to see breastfeeding showed in a positive light.

The comic potential of the situation shows up later as the woman's youngster turns out to be five. And he's still breastfeeding - *flat* how funny is that. When FH tries to talk to the woman about possibly not breastfeeding her child, the woman flies off into a rage of indignation, fact-based but still slightly crazed. Later when FH tempts the youngster with chocolate milk, we turned off the television. Appointment with television cancelled.

I don't know how it ended but I don't care. The episode of the Amazing Race that I tape without adjusting the reception was more entertaining.

TV on DVD

My favorite way to watch TV is to wait for shows to come out on DVD. The problem with episodic television shows is that if you want to know what happens next, you have to tune in each week. But as the parent of a toddler, I don't always know where I'll be each week. I could set up my TiVO(that I don't have) or my VCR to record all of the shows that I want to see, but that still doesn't help with the delay of a week to find out what happens next.

When a show comes out on DVD, I get to watch it in sequence with no delays between episodes and no delays for commercials. It's great. I can watch as little as I want and pick it up where I left it. I can watch as much as I have too. Watching 24 doesn't take an hour any more. My wife and I watched the first Season of 24 while the second season was showing. Guess which one we liked more?

The problem becomes that it is very expensive to buy every show that you want to see. Enter the library. The library has entire seasons available to borrow so that you can watch what you want cheaply. If the library doesn't have something, you might be able to rent it from the video store or borrow it from friends. You only need to buy the shows and specifically the seasons of shows that interest you specifically.

Disturbing Situation

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with some friends. While we were talking, they told me that one of our mutual friends was expecting. I hadn't heard that she's gotten married or was even dating anyone seriously. When I asked, I was told that she wanted the baby and had been having unprotected sex in order to become pregnant. I'm not sure, but I don't think that her partners were aware of her plan. All concerned are waiting until the baby is born so that they can do a paternity test and figure out which of the two or three possible candidates is the father. Once paternity is determined, he'll end up paying child support.

I may come from a sheltered life, but this is probably the most irresponsible thing that I've ever heard. There are plenty of knocks to go around. On the guys to have unprotected sex with someone in the age of VD/HIV/AIDS without a condom and not in the context of a committed relationship is just plain stupid. But most men, heck even most people, enter into a casual sexual encounter with the assumption that no one wants to end up pregnant.

So everything else falls on her. See earlier comment about unprotected sex. Add on top of it that you are trying to get pregnant and withholding that information from your partner. I'm having trouble coming up with an analogy that describes how sick that is. It's bait and switch ("Instead of a night of shared passion, you picked up a life time of obligations."). It's financial theft ("Gimme your wallet. And 25% of your future earnings."). And it's emotional theft taking what should be the seminal moment in a man's life - the birth of his first child - and co-opting it for your own ends. Then toss on top of that that she will likely end up always being a single parent, and you've created a very nurturing environment for your child. Yes, some single mothers can provide a very good environment, but really from what I've described does this woman sound like that kind of woman?

It would be one thing if the condom broke. Then it becomes an accident. No one is at fault and you deal with the consequences. I'm sure that it would seem like a completely different thing if they used condoms and he poked holes in them. But here the shoe is on the other foot. She purposely provided the faulty (read: placebo) birth control and kept it up until she got what she wanted.

It's her body. But it's also his life. And the baby's life.

Weekend update

Friday night was uneventful. As my wife brought home a cold with her from Seattle, I retained responsibilities for child care much to my chagrin. And to be honest, annoyance. I'd done the Mr. Mom thing for four days and was looking to get some help. I was much less sympathetic than I should have been given my wife's condition. I know that I really should apologize. After we got Oliver down for the night, we stayed up and finished watching Soap and watched some Buffy Season 1.

Saturday morning I went for a run with Dead Squirrel and Blows Like a Freight Train, both of whom are the the River to River team. We met up by the Dog Museum in Queeny Park. Queeny Park has a very hilly four mile loop. It's perfect for training for the very hilly River to River. We took off at a very leisurely pace. I could have pushed the pace, but it was more important that I run with the group than ahead of them. On the first trip around I twisted my ankle at the bottom of the first hill. It wasn't too bad, but I made sure to take extra care in choosing my foot placements the rest of the way. I decided that what I would do to put more workout in my workout was to surge up all of the big hills, sort of turning the course into a fartlek workout. We ended up going twice around before it was time to go home.

After running I headed home to relieve my wife who had a shower to go to. After a change of clothes, I gathered up Oliver and headed to my friend S's place for a Scotch tasting. And no, Oliver didn't get any. At a party last year, a discussion turned to the finer things in life. Now S is a Scotch fanatic. So when he started talking about Scotch, he was met with a lot of blank stares. No one in our group knew enough about it to speak intelligently and the idea of a Scotch tasting wsa born. Over the course of a couple of hours, S let us sample a few of his bottles. It was really interesting how adding water either brought out the flavor of the Scotch or killed it entirely depending on how complex the flavors were. I came away with a bunch of new knowledge that I'll never be able to make use of.

On the way back, I got in touch with E&J about hanging out that night. E&J have a daughter, Evelyn, who is a couple of months younger than Oliver, but otherwise in the same developmental area. I made an appetizer of mozzarella and tomato on bread to take over while I waited for my wife to make it back. I finally had to call her at the shower so that she would come home so that we could go out again. We had a good time over at E&J's place. Oliver and Evelyn played well together and spent most of the time chasing the cat. The food was great and the company matched the food.

Sunday morning everyone else slept in, but I got up early and went for a run. I put in a couple of easy miles. When I got back, I took over child care duties from my wife. Bundling Oliver up into the car, I headed for the St. Louis Zoo. Oliver and I got to see the bears, the penguins, some birds, and antelopes before heading back. The nice thing about having a free zoo near the house is that we never really feel compelled to see the whole thing when we go. Oliver and I stopped at St. Louis Bread Co for lunch before heading home for nap time. He took a good long nap while my wife and I watched some episodes of Buffy season one.

S&A came over for dinner Sunday night. We had a good time catching up with them. After dinner we sat in the living room and let Oliver entertain us. Line: "It's a lot like having a puppy. Except this one you have to put through college." When my wife took Oliver up for bed time, S&A headed home. A little while later I went upstairs to help my wife wrangle down Oliver. We gave him some Motrin to help with the teething pain and he dropped off to sleep soon. The rest of the night was spent catching up on some TV.

Happy Anniversary to us

Happy Anniversary.

May we have many happy returns.

Trying to be good

Last night, my gaming group played over at my house. When we play, someone is responsible for dinner. Last night it was P&A who brought Racinelli's pizza. Now Rac's pizza is probably my favorite pizza in town, but it is definitely not on my diet. But I was otherwise engaged when everyone was eating so I was safe. But at the end of the night, everyone was leaving and there was still half a pizza in the kitchen. After a vigorous internal debate, I turned to M and said, "Some people are born into pizza. Some people have pizza thrust upon them. You have pizza thrust upon you." Thankfully, he agreed to take the pizza home with him and it was not around for me to succumb.

This morning I had a staff meeting at work. My manager brought in pastries and bagels for everyone to eat. After some level of resistance and an hour of boredom, I succumbed and had a bagel. And a half-hour later, another. It was good, but probably not worth it. The pizza would have been better.

Congrats to Sarahlynn

I was talking to a friend last night. As we were talking, he said, "Oh, by the way, I picked up an RFT (Riverfront Times) and Sarahlynn's blog is their 'Blog of the Week.'" I picked up an RFT and there it was. I don't usually expect to ee friends of mine in print. Or at least not in sections outside the police blotter (kidding!).

So congratulations, Sarahlynn, on your selection.

Regulating my child's behavior

Oliver is a happy, confident toddler. He gets over his initial shyness with new people quickly. He is quick to smile and to laugh. He's a natural flirt. He shares well with others. He is naturally curious. He initiates games like peekaboo or chase.

But like all children, he has his bad moments. For instance, when he is done with his dinner, he will try and give one of us the plate to take away. If we don't take it from him, it gets tossed or swept on to the floor. He does a lot of sweeping food on to the floor in frustration. While he is not a particularly fussy eater, he does have his strong preferences. Not to his preference = sweep. We are quickly getting to the time when we can't really go out to eat with him. We need to work on both communication and manners.

He's got quite an arm and he's big on showing it off. It's not such a problem when he's throwing a ball and you are ready to receive it. But when it is a spoon, fork, sippy cup, book or you are not ready to catch, it can be a problem. We need to work on teaching him not to throw at people.

I just don't really know how to do it all.

Just Dad Day 4

I picked Oliver up at day care at 4:00. The weather was on the cusp of being good to play outside, but it was muddy so I opted to stop at the store, pick up something for dinner, some flowers for my wife, and a card for our anniversary. By the time we got home, it was just about time for dinner. Oliver ended up not liking the food that I'd bought for him to eat for dinner and I audibled to yogurt. He happily ate the yogurt. After a little post-dinner clean-up we took off for Messy night. Note to self - changing your child's clothes BEFORE Messy Night is not a good idea.

After messy night, we headed home for some clean up before bed. With no one else in the house and having just had a very exciting time, he was easy to get down and was in bed by 8:00. After he went to sleep, I got some chores done and then cast about for something to do. I settled on miniature painting and kept myself busy until it was time to go pick up my wife. I bundled up Oliver and we took off for the airport.

Airport pickups have become so much more interesting in a post-911 world. While it is easier to pick up from Lambert than, say, O'Hare, it's still not always smooth. I did get to kiss my wife on our anniversary, but her bag did not make the flight with her and we had to wait. She and Oliver waited inside while I got to read a book and circle and circle and circle the pick-up area. Finally the bag arrived and we got to go home. At home, my wife took Oliver up to bed while I finished some diaper laundry. If Oliver woke at night, I didn't. It's good to have my wife back. ;)

In the morning, Oliver woke up first and didn't want to go back to bed. He also didn't want to potty in the bath tub or on the potty. However the kitchen floor was just right *frown*. We had some breakfast and went upstairs to get cleaned up for my day. There was no waking my wife (came home with a cold), so we took a shower and dried off. Finally my wife got up to get cleaned up. Oliver and I got dressed and waited for my wife to get done. Once she was done, I handed over supervisory duties to her and headed off to work.

After four days of more or less flying solo, I feel more comfortable with my ability to do it on my own should my wife have to go out of town again. But towards the end of the week I started thinking back to a year ago when I left to go to River To River. There wasn't nearly as much drama involved. I just sort of assumed that she's be able to do it and she did. Our mammory capacity is markedly different but it wasn't as much of an issue for her to fly solo. Funny, huh?

Messy Night

Last night I took Oliver to the Julia Goldstein Center for Parents-As-Teachers Messy Night. Basically the event consisted of a set of stations for children to get different sensory experiences and, oh, about a billion munchkins and parents. We arrived just after the scheduled start time of 6:00 and found the place packed. We lucked into a parking spot and headed in.

The first place we went was a kiddee pool full of confetti. I gave Oliver some to hold. He promptly threw it on the ground. I showered some over his head, but he didn't like that. Scratch one activity and on to the next.

The next place we went was the corn/meal table. Oliver had some fun taking out the corn meal and throwing it on the floor. That was okay until he decided to try and eat it. Then we were on to the next activity.

There was a giant piece of paper taped down to the floor. I directed Oliver over to it and we sat down. I tried to interest him in the giant chalk pieces and succeeded. I tried to get him interested in using them to mark on the paper and failed. We came back later and tried with markers to no avail. Next time.

We walked around and purposefully passed the painting, gluing, and taping areas. We settled in at the water table for a while. Oliver had great fun playing with the water and splashing about. The only problem was that the water table was so much fun that it was hard for him to get to the table itself. After he got tired of the water, we were on to a different activity. He kept coming back to the water table throughout the night.

The next stop was the mud pit. They had a big trough full of mud with shovels and rakes stuck in it. Oliver played with the mud a little bit - enough to get a smear below his eye that looked like eye black. But then he was done with the mud and just wanted to carry around the muddy shovels and rakes. I got him to give them to me and they got tossed back into the mud.

The next stop was the Oobleck area. Oliver played with the Oobleck a little bit but it wasn't that interesting to him. His real fun was attempting to climb up on to the kindegarten chairs. They were a bit too high - the closest that he got was airplaning on top.

Oliver played briefly in the sand pit, but he was more interested in wandering around with the dinosaurs from the sand pit. We tried writing on a paper plate, but Oliver wasn't real interested in that. We went to the Playdo area but he wasn't terribly interested. Finally after an hour and a half of sensory fun, it was time to go home.

The thing that struck me about the evening was that I only saw one attendee that I'd known. I would have thought that between Gymboree and LLL that I would have come across one person, but I didn't. I'm taking this as a sure sign that we need to get involved a little more in the local toddler scene.

Just Dad Day 3

Day 3 got off to a good start. I picked Oliver up at day care and headed home. We stopped at the New Balance store on Clayton so that Daddy could get a new pair of shoes to run in. Oliver amused himself by running around the store. Fitting. Then we got home and had some dinner. Oliver ate his steak with potatoes and hummus dish well while Daddy had a bit of chicken just in case I couldn't eat the gaming dinner. In lieu of cancelling the gaming session, we relocated from M&K's place to mine for the evening. After dinner I got Oliver dressed in his PJs and did some last minute straightening up. He was a little clingy, but this whole cleaning thing probably threw him off.

My gaming group started arriving at 6:45. P&A were on for dinner and P ended up going to the Loop to pick up some dinner. While he was gone, everyone showed up. M&K brought Charlotte and so Oliver had a playmate. At one point when A was playing with Oliver, he threw a ball and hit her in the lip. (*Sorry, A.*) But no blood was spilled among the toddlers.

At 7:30, I took Oliver upstairs to try and get him down to sleep. I had hoped to time him going down with everyone else eating. But between the excitement of all of these people being over, missing Mommy, and Daddy trying different things to get Oliver to sleep, the first try failed. I brought him down as everyone was finishing their dinner. We played for a bit. A alternated between playing and entertaining with the children. After a little while Oliver was showing definite signs that he wanted to go to sleep. I tagged another player to take the reins, took Oliver upstairs, and successfully got him down at 9:15. Shortly thereafter it was time to wrap up the gaming session.

The rest of the night passed largely uneventfully. There was a session of wakefulness at 3:30, but once he went back to sleep, he didn't wake up again until morning. At 6:30, he woke me up, happy as can be, when it was time to go downstairs to eat. It was a good things that he did as I had an early meeting. Breakfast, cleanup, dressing, and we were out the door.

I'm glad that we did this as I feel that I can be Oliver's primary caretaker if I had to, preferably for a short duration. But I think our house just works better with both of us home. Mommy comes home tonight. All three of us will be happy to see each other.

Diet update

This morning I got a pair of pants out of the dresser that used to be a little tight. Today I'm wearing them with a belt. Since we restarted South Beach, I've lost about 15 lbs. I'm not sure how much of it has been due to following the diet and how much has been due to increasing my level of activity, but either way it's still 15 lbs. I found a BMI calculator on a website the other day (As an aside, can we talk about how out of whack their ranges go? Overweight runs down the middle of the chart. Obese takes up a significant chunk of real estate at the right of the chart. "Healthy Weight" is a narrow band in the corner and Underweight barely registers. I know it's for a diet yogurt, but come on. Welcome to America 2006, I guess). I'm still in the middle of the range for overweight. I started at the top of the range for overweight. I need to drop 15-20 lbs to get to the top range of "Healthy Weight." I hope that some of that comes from the training that I plan to do this summer. However it happens, I guess I'm halfway to my goal.

Just Dad Day 2

I picked Oliver up from Sarahlynn's place last night around 5:00. He had spent a fun two-and-a-half hours playing with Ellie and Lizzie before I arrived. Thanks, Sarahlynn. I owe you several!!

After picking him up, we ran by the grocery store to get food and dinner. I zipped around the store trying to pick up the essentials. I'm always amazed at the size of our grocery bill. It wasn't a full cart but it certainly was an expensive one. I had given around the idea of stopping at the New Balance store to buy some new shoes, but I thought better of it when I saw the time.

At home, I brought in the child in one load and the groceries in the next two, much to the child's dismay. It's always the little things that trip me up. Oliver was good as I put away the groceries, but he started getting fussy as I split up the chicken for dinner. In the end I think he ended up having more sweet potato than chicken, but all things considered dinner was a win.

After dinner, I trotted Oliver upstairs to get changed for bed. We looked at a few books and then I started walking him down. When he started getting sleepy but not yet asleep, I took him up to bed and lay down with him. He latched on to the sippy cup almost like a teddy bear and worked his way to sleep.

I did some cleaning downstairs and watched the rest of the second disk of Soap. I tried to do some vacuuming, but the vaccum was filled. When I went out to dump the contents of the canister into the dumpster, I accidently tossed out the air filter as well. Looks like I'll be stopping by Target on the way home.

Over night things were relatively peaceful. There were a couple of wakings, but he went back to sleep easily each time. In the morning he started a wake-and-pat-me-back-to-sleep routine about 5:30. I gave up on patting-as-snooze-bar at 7:00 and we started our day. He had his typical morning breakfast of banana and an egg before we took off for day care.

I am feeling more confident in my ability to get through this, but I'll definitely be ready to welcome my wife home with open arms. It's not so much that I can't handle it, but it is nice to have someone else there to share the moments.

Just Dad Day 1

It was a bit of a scramble getting my wife ready to go on her trip. She hadn't finished packing when I got home from work. I looked after Oliver as she got the last odds and ends together. We had thought that we might go out to eat and then do some grocery shopping before driving her to the airport. But between packing and hunting for Oliver's shoes, that was not to be.

We went to Outback for dinner. We ordered our food and attempted to entertain Oliver. He ran out of patience with dinner before our entrees arrived. From that point on, we played Parent Tag, as one of us would follow Oliver around the restaurant while the other ate food. Since it was a Monday night, there were big patches of the restaurant that were clear of other diners, so I kept trying to corral him there to with some measure of success. It is a good thing that he is so cute otherwise we would have annoyed the other diners much more than we were already doing so.

After dinner we piled into the car and headed to the airport. Oliver fell asleep on the way. I dropped my wife off at the airport. After a quick good bye, Oliver and I headed home. When we got there, I went ahead to open the door and leave the screen ajar so that I could get Oliver in the house with no problems. But as I was getting Oliver from the car, our House Cat decided that he wanted to go outside. I took Oliver up to bed, but I ended up putting him down too quickly for him to drift back off to sleep. So I took him downstairs to change into his pajamas and walk back down to sleep. Thankfully it was raining out, so the cat didn't want to stay out long and I didn't have to chase him down.

Oliver was having a hard time settling back down and then the phone rang. So much for a first run at getting him to sleep. After disposing of my sister-in-law, I started walking him down to sleep when the phone rang again. This time it was Mommy who wanted to see how her darling was doing. After a quick update, I finally got to finish walking him down. Twenty minutes later, he was out. From there the rest of the night was pretty routine. He woke up once around 3:00 and a quick diaper sent him back to sleep.

He woke up for good around 6:00. Ordinarily, my wife will nurse him for a bit and then he'll drift back to sleep for an hour or so. Lacking the technology, it was time to get up. We went downstairs for breakfast. But since we hadn't gone out to the store last night, pickings were slim. I ended up making some eggs for us and Oliver had some pear. He was doing pretty well until he was finished and I wasn't there to pick up his plate which went flying. We took a quick shower, changed our clothes, and got the bags ready for the day. But then I had to go out and shovel the walk and warm up the car. A few tears and shovels full of snow later it was time to go.

One day down. Two to go.

Single Dad

After weeks of worry and evenings of experimentation, tonight begins the Single Dad Stretch. My wife is leaving tonight for the next few nights. I don't have a lot of worries that I'll be able to get him to sleep. That I've done. I think the biggest hurdle will be keeping him asleep. Generally that has been my wife's job up until now. So I'll get to try for the next few nights.

The thing that I'm really hoping is that my wife gets to relax and Sleep over the next couple of nights. I've said that she's some sort of maternal superhero for the way that she's given up sleep to nurse Oliver. And by the time I go to pick her up from the airport I'm sure I'll have a new level of appreciation.

Green Dress Run

Have you ever played the game "I Never"? For the uninitiated it is a drinking game where you go in a circle making statements that begin "I never ..." and if someone says something that you have in fact done, you drink. It's a good way to find out things that you didn't want to know but really actually did about your friends and acquaintances sex lives. For example, "I never kissed a girl" or "I never had sex with a cat." For the record, I would only have to drink for one of those. And up until Saturday I never had to drink for "I've never gotten dressed up in clothes of the opposite sex."

Saturday was the Green Dress Run for the Big Hump Hash House Harriers. Green Dress Run is one of the biggest events for our hash. Hashers from around the area come to St. Louis for a weekend of debauchery and running. I was going to skip the Friday pre-lube, the on-after party following the run, and Sunday's Hangover Hash, but I wanted to do the run. But having never worn any clothes of the opposite sex, I had nothing to wear.

So after Gymboree, Oliver and I went to Goodwill to go dress shopping for Daddy. We poked around looking, but I didn't see anything that would be my size. Thankfully I ran into another hasher from out of town who took pity on me and showed me a couple of options. I had a choice between something lime green with a hat or a hunter green corduroy jumper. I took the jumper for $4.50 and was on my way.

Oliver and I rolled up to the hotel just before the run was going to start. Unfortunately it was an A to B trail, meaning that while the finish was at the hotel, the start was going to be somewhere else. All of the hashers were going to get to A by piling into the back of a UHaul and getting hauled over. I thought that that was a bad idea for getting my child from here to there, so I checked with the organizers as to the location of A so that Oliver and I could drive over there in a slightly safer manner. A turned out to be the rabbit statue on Washington University's campus. Not only did I know where that was, but I was able to direct the organizers as to the best way to get there. We hung around for a bit, and then it was time to go.

When we got to the campus, we found the statue. But they had forgotten to bring the tap for the beer kegs. The first UHaul-load of hashers hung out by the statue and sang a couple of songs while waiting for the next UHaul-load to arrive (and bring the tap). They sang "Father Abraham" and a couple of other songs as our voices echoed through the campus. I can only imagine what the students who did not leave for Spring Break thought of this goofy group of green.

The goodwill was running low by the time the second load arrived. "I'm getting sober!" exclaimed one hasher. But the second group arribved with the tap. We all gathered by the statue for the Grope Shot and then retreated back down for the introductory circle and beer. Mostly for the beer. We surrounded the beer truck. The keg was tapped and the hashers were happily drinking as the hares took off. The pack milled around drinking for fifteen minutes or so before it was time to take off.

The trail started back by the statues, but it took a while to figure this out. Tricksy hares - taking off while no one was paying any attention as to where they went. The group ran past the chapel, no doubt causing a stir at the wedding inside and making for some interesting memories. The trail wound through the university and the out and into Forest Park.

The first beer stop was across the water from the art museum. The beer truck was pulled over to the side of the road and the organizers made the rounds with pitchers of beer. Always a social group, we made a point of waving to the cars as they drove by. Some enterprising hasher made up postcards that read "You've just encountered the Big Hump Green Dress Run" and had some other information about us. We handed these cards out to anyone who seemed interested in us or whom we were interested. A half-hour or so of milling about and it was time to take off again.

Trail led around and through the Muny. It seemed as if the hare was looking for any hill that he could find - almost as if he were training for a hilly run sometime soon. The second beer stop was at the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park. The hares did a good job arranging the trail so that the FRBs got all tangled up and the DFLs beat most of them to the beer stop.

At this point I arranged for my wife to come and get Oliver. Oliver had been having fun going around in his stroller. I let him wander around at the stops and look at all the hashers. But it was a bit cold and I thought he might be getting bored and hungry, so she came by and took him. They wandered over to the zoo for a bit.

After the beer stop, the pack took off. Trail led us to the gates of the zoo where the pack saw a "Hash Halt" marked on the pavement. But since the tricksy hares had not explained the mark in circle, the FRBs blew through it and on into the zoo. Some of the more experienced hashers obeyed the mark and waited for the rest of the pack. When most of the pack was there, the group went streaming through the gates and into the zoo. I'm positive it was a sight - dozens of people streaming through the zoo wearing green dresses. People waved and pointed. But there were not problems with security and we made it out of the zoo and to the third beer stop by the turtles.

After the beer stop the trail led more or less directly back to the hotel. A lot of the hashers ended up zenning the rest of the trail. Or at least I did. At the hotel, I turned around and ran back to A since I had just paid to do the run. But that was enough fun for one day.

Gift certificates

I've received $250 in gift certificates from work in recognition of various and sundry projects. All of the gift certificates are at GiftCertificates.com where I can get gift certificates for other gift certificates. It's nice, but I have to figure out where I want to get my gift certificates for before I can get them. I know that I'll be passing some of it on to my wife, but I don't know what I'll do with the rest. I keep thinking that there are a couple of different options that I'd love to have a gift certificate for, but they are not options. Like Ebay or PayPal or Amazon. But I'll stop whining about my good fortune now.

Last night

We went out to Red Robin with Sarahlynn, Paul, and Ellie last night for dinner. Since all of the adults at the table are doing the South Beach Diet, we all got our meals served to us "protein style," each wrapped in enough lettuce to create several salads. Except for me who had the Chili Chili burger. Just in case you are wondering - there are a number of burgers that work protein style - the chili burger is not one of them.

After dinner I took Oliver home, and my wife went with them to pick up the other car. Oliver got tired, so I got him ready and put him to bed. There were a few tears, but all in all it was okay. I put him in bed and went downstairs.

I had some time to kill before I went to bed. I didn't feel like reading or watching TV. I played around on MySpace for a while and checked my email. I was waiting for my wife to get home so I could go for a run, but when that didn't look like it was in the cards, I got ready for bed and was down by 10:00. In review there were a couple of things that I could have done whether it was dishes or miniature painting, but going to bed early also works.

When I got in bed, Oliver woke up a bit. I got him some water and held him for a bit and he drifted back to sleep. Later that night, my wife came home and joined us. I'm starting to feel more comfortable about next week. Besides, it's only for a few days. That much I can handle. I think.

Dressing up for the holidays?

I generally don't get dressed up for the holidays. I don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day. I don't wear red on Valentine's Day. I don't dress up like one of the Village People on Labor Day. I don't have Christmas ties. I don't wear red for Opening Day here in Cardinal Nation. Part of the reason is that I just forget. The other part of the reason is that I have a hard enough time picking an outfit for myself that is non-hideous that putting in extra effort to pick something with a particular color scheme is beyond the pale.

Besides with my pasty white skin and screaming red hair, who doesn't know I'm Irish?

Afraid of the rest of the world

I don't know about you, but I'm afraid of the rest of the world. Okay, maybe not the whole of the rest of the world. Like I'm not particularly afraid of Iceland, Britain, Canada, Italy, Austrailia, or Micronesia. I guess my fear threshold is set below tiny island nations and first world nations. South America and Africa frighten me slightly like a PG or PG-13 horror movie. I guess it is really Asia that scares the bejeezus out of me.

To a certain extent all of these frighten me because I can picture the hemmoraging of jobs away from the United States and into all of these nations where labor is cheap. When it was just manufacturing jobs, it was fine. After all, those are less skilled positions. If you're on the bottom of the job skills ladder, your job stability is always going to be at risk either from technology or other workers. But now that outsourcing is climbing up the corporate ladder it is less fine. After all, now they are talking about My Job. Eventually they could outsource any job. Except cooks, plumbers, and dishwashers, but those are filled by immigrants. The situation reminds me of the quotation from Pastor Niemoller about Nazis and the Holocaust

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.


I'm afraid of the impending economic disaster in this country when the price of labor evens out across the globe in part because I seem the price of labor dropping to the lowest denominator not raising to the level of the US workforce. I know that Oliver will not have the same standard of living that I now enjoy. The laws of supply and demand indicate that unless something changes, we won't have nearly the same access to energy as we now enjoy as an example.

Recently my company reached an agreement with two consulting companies based out of India. These two companies are offering consulting services to our company for a fraction of the cost of a US provider because their labor costs are so small. If they can do it for consultants, how long do you think it will be before they start outsourcing actual employee jobs? My job?

My other fear stems from the fanatical fundamentalists. I'm already frightened of the ones that have been put in place in our government. Then there is the matter of all of the fanatical Muslim extremists/terrorists. Is it a stereotype? Yes. Is it accurate that there are Muslim terrorists? Yes. Any time you have a group of people who believe that things will be so much better in the next life that they'll do anything to get there, you create the possibility that they'll do the unthinkable. Whether you are talking about the Crusades, the Inquisition, or someone smuggling in a nuclear bomb, the result is never good. I don't believe that I will die in a terrorist act. I live in St. Louis which even terrorists would count as flyover territory. But that doesn't mean that I'm not in some ways afraid.

Planning my running summer

I've been getting together my summer plans. I know that at some point we'll take a vacation, but other than that I don't have any major plans. So I'm planning which races I'll run this summer.

St. Louis Track Club calendar
Fleet Feet calendar

I'm already planning on running in the River to River relay on April 22. In total I run about 10 miles that day divided up into 3 5K runs over hill and dale. That is my goal race for the beginning of the season. It's probably also one of the only reasons why I'm getting off the couch now.

My goal race for this summer is the Lewis and Clark Half-Marathon on September 17. In past years, I've done the Chicago Marathon as a goal race, but I really like the half-marathon as a distance. One of the nice things about it is that it isn't as grueling a race so you can run it more often. Depending on how I feel, I may run at the Chicago Half-Marathon on October 1. Or the Mattoon Beach Multi-sport half marathon on October 28.

I like running 10K races so when I'm reviewing the upcoming races I'll highlight the 10Ks as a race that I want to run. I'd go so far as to say that if I had a choice between running a 5K next door or having to drive for an hour to do a 10K, I'll be driving. When you divide up a marathon into its relay legs, each ends up being about a 10K, so that's another option. Here are some of the 10K races that I'm looking at:

Spirit of St. Louis Marathon Relay 4/9
St. Charles CC Wellness Festival 10K 4/29
Kingdom House Eat-N-Run 10K 4/30
Run for the Stars 10K 5/20
University City Memorial Day 10K 5/29
Fair St. Louis 10K 7/4
Summer Sizzler 15K/10K 7/22
St. Charles Flat Five 5M 8/6
JCC Labor Day 10K 9/4
Gumbo Flats 10K 10/28

It seems like every other weekend you can find an organization somewhere nearby holding a 5K race. I don't think that I'll focus on any of these, but if they happen to be nearby, I may run them. Here are a couple that I'm looking at:

Thurtene 5K 3/25
Spirit of St. Louis 5K 4/8
Chevy's Cinco de Mayo 5/13
University City Memorial Day 5K 5/29

There are a couple of other races that I think might be fun, but I'm not likely to compete in:

Goomna 6/24 - I really don't think this is going to happen, but it certainly sounds like fun.
Multisport Mayhem Duathlon 5/13
Wolf Creek Sprint Triathlon
Mattoon Beach Triathlon
Momentum challenge Biathlon
Rec-Plex Summer Triathlon
Ballwin Triathlon

MySpace spam

Well, it didn't take long. Within the first few days of setting up a profile on MySpace, I've gotten several messages from well-endowed, scantily dressed 18-year old girls who are looking for a new friend and from service providers who will be happy to spruce up my space. Now, if you are actually a well-endowed, scantily dressed 18-year old girl who has sent me a message and you are annoyed that I haven't replied, well, I'm sorry about that. No offense, but I'm not there for you. If you are a well-endowed, scantily clad 18-year old BOY, I've Definitely Not There for you either. However, I might have a few leads for you. But chances are you'll just end up talking to yourself. Literally.

I have managed to get a hold of some friends from the area, from high school, and from college. That's been cool. So it's not a total waste of time. In a way...

Need a new doc

Yesterday we took Oliver in for his 15 month checkup. We were shown to a waiting room relatively quickly. The nurse had us strip him for his measurements. After his measurements we waited in the room for the doctor to arrive. It was the smallest examination room we'd been in yet. I think it was a closet before they decided to make it into a couple of exam rooms. Oliver decided that he didn't like the room and kept crying to leave. And this from the World's Happiest Baby (tm). We couldn't interest him in singing or exploring the room or reading a book. He just wanted out. By the time the doctor arrived he was quite upset.

When the doctor came in, she asked to us about his development. But we had just been through this early in the morning with the women from parents-as-teachers so I had the summary off the top of my head. She asked about his sleeping and we replies that he nursed to sleep and would nurse back to sleep in the middle of the night. She said that we should stop doing that as the sugar from the milk could cause tooth decay! I asked about Oliver's poop. Apparently turds are abnormal and softer stools are the creme de la creme of childhood excrement. So bummer for me and hooray for Oliver. After she left, the shot nurse came in and Oliver got a chicken pox vaccination.

When I refer to the doctor as "the doctor," it's because I don't actually know what her name is. She's never introduced herself to us formally. The pediatrician that we had first met has moved on to a new practice and she got assigned to us. We don't feel comfortable with her and after her comments about night weaning Oliver for the sake of his teeth, we're in the market for a new pediatrician. Any suggestions?

Recognition at work

Today I got two awards from different sources for my performance at work. The awards were for the same project that was difficult but has proved valuable to the business. It's nice to be recognized, but at the same time it's humbling. I know that for all my work it was also the contributions of others that were vital to the success of the project. I'd like to do something to thank the other people who were involved in the project, but I don't want it to seem trivialize their contributions. Does a plate of cookies or ice cream sandwiches say thank you? Or would a card be better?

Living the American dream?

I've been sending emails back and forth with a friend from high school who I haven't seen since high school. In the course of our conversation, she made a comment about me living the American dream. In my reply, I demurred, but it still got me thinking.

Professionally, I have a good job that, barring outsourcing, I'll be able to make a good living at for the foreseeable future. I have a good manager who listens to my point of view. I have some good co-workers who help me accomplish my projects. And I'm recognized for the value that I provide to the group.

Personally, I have a good marriage, a handsome son, a comfortable, affordable home, good friends, and my health. We live a comfortable existence in a safe place. I am in a good place emotionally and enjoy my life.

After thinking about all of this I came to the conclusion that my friend was right. Yet through all of it, I'm slightly unsatisfied. And I think that's a good thing because otherwise I wouldn't try to better my situation. And that's why I am living the American dream.

Weekend update

Friday night, my wife went out to the bookstore while I did some work around the house. She got home just in time as Oliver had woken up just before she got home. This was the start of a fun weekend that was surely a sign that Oliver was growing some teeth.

Saturday morning My wife took Oliver to Gymboree, and I got up early and went downtown for the St. Patrick's Day run. The run went really well. I took the first couple of miles easy and picked it up on the the last couple. My splits were something like (8:30, 9:00, 8:45, 8:45, 7:30) for an overall time of 42:30. The embarassing thing about the run is that I forgot where the finish was (16th street) and mentally counted down to where I thought it was (14th street). So the last couple of blocks were really hard to keep going. But I was thrilled with my time. My goal had been to break 50:00. This means that I'm in good shape for River to River. I just need to work on my hills some more.

My wife, Oliver, and I went for a walk when we got home. While we were out I remembered that I wanted to make some food for the neighbors down the street who I had seen in labor. After an unusually quick nap from Oliver, my wife headed up to see her parents. There was a hash later that day that I wanted to do so I skipped the trip.

The hash itself was a bit of a let down. There were only six of us that braved the gorgeous weather to come out. The group wasn't really up to run the trail, so we did a lot of walking. It was still good practice for me, but not as good as I would have liked. Regardless I had a good time talking with the hashers. After the hash, I skipped the on-after to get home.

Sunday morning, I grabbed Oliver for a trip to the store while my wife napped after a long teething inspired night of non-sleep and nipple chewing. Oliver and I made the Sweet Potato and Black Bean burritos for the family down the block. My wife woke up about the time it was time for Oliver to take a nap. It ended up being another short one. His teeth must have been killing him.

That afternoon, Oliver and I walked down the block to deliver them while my wife got some stuff done around the house. It was about as awkward as you can imagine. I don't really know them all that well, flubbed the introductions, didn't ask many of the usual questions, and didn't gush like I c/should have when she brought the baby to the door. All said, I felt good about having done it no matter how awkward it was.

Sunday night at dinner Oliver was pretty insistent about drinking out of my wife's cup. So we gave him his own cup to drink from. It was funny as he kept missing low and spilling it all over himself. Towards the end he started getting more in his mouth than on his front. After dinner Oliver had a bath and went to bed. We gave him some Tynenol to help him sleep, but he still woke up a couple of times at night.

This morning we had Angela, our parents-as-teachers person, come over to the house. It was a good visit as he seems to be on track in terms of all of his developmental areas. She gave us some things to do with him in terms of helping his language development.

Dungeons and Dragons Update

For those that care, all one of you, here's what's is going on in my D&D campaign.

We're doing Return to Temple of Elemental Evil. Now, the party consists of 6 9th level PCs (Fighter, Samurai, Mystic Theurge, Warlock, Cleric, and Ninja). They have moved through Hommlett and Rastor and on to the Crater Ridge Mines. With two Bridge complexes down and the Fire Altar destroyed, they are feeling pretty good about themselves. For now...

In case you are wondering...

In case you are wondering what to buy me for... ummm... St. Patrick's Day, might I suggest looking here. This website lists some of a line of shocking toys. In each of them, the loser gets a mild electric shock.

I have the Lightning Reaction game. When the button in the middle is pressed it turns red and sounds a siren. When the noise stops and the button turns green, the last person to press the button gets shocked. If you press yours ahead of time, you get shocked. It doesn't get played a whole lot, but it is usually fun when it does. Or at least anyone who doesn't get shocked thinks it is fun.

Lightning Reaction is a great game but it lacks a certain level of skill. Sure, you can try and fake someone out, but in the end you are just waiting for the light to change and the noise to stop. That's why the next game I get (shortly before hell freezes over if I don't miss my guess) is going to be either the Shocking Tanks or the Shocking Lazer Tag.

The Tanks looks like a great game that harkens back to Combat on the old Atari. Except you are piloting your tank through a maze of books and pillows. You have a real incentive to win as you don't want to get shocked. The interesting thing would be building a maze that didn't create situtations where you have two tanks on either side of a right angle lying in wait for the other guy to dare poke his head out.

The Tag guns look like they would be fun. I've never played Lazer Tag, but I've gone paintballing. I have to imagine Shocking Lazer Tag would be a lot like that in that it hurts a bit if you get hit. But the batteries have to be cheaper than the paint. Lazer Tag would be a small step up in that you don't have to worry about a setting up a maze, but then there is the whole shooting a person thing.

Too much material, too little time

I get together with the same group of friends every Wednesday night to play D&D. We meet up at 7:00 at M&K's house to play. By 7:15 everyone is usually there and has gotten their dinner. We rotate the responsibility for dinner each week, so the time and money burden does not fall to heavily on any given house. While we are eating, I'll review my notes. By 7:30-7:45 we have finished dinner and are ready to play. I'll review what happened the previous session and set up the miniatures in position on the map. For the next two hours or so, we'll play interrupting the flow depending on children's bed times, dessert and bathroom breaks. Between 9:45-10:00 we'll call it a night. Ten-fifteen minutes of cleanup and good byes and we're out the door.

Our schedule undeniably works. There is sufficient time each session to eat, socialize, and advance the story. We're able to do this without sacrificing too much family time or intrude on other interests. We've been doing this for 5-6 year successfully and are still enjoying both it and each other.

But as the DM, I'm aware of how much we've accomplished in this campaign but how much there is still to go. I'm thinking of other campaigns that I'd like to run. And so I get distracted from this story that I've been wanting us to tell for two years. Or I push the cleanup up to the limit - one more round, one more room. But in the end I don't worry about it. If my players are happy and if they enjoy the game, they'll come back. And we'll get to tell next story in two years time.

And the Yellow Meal takes a fuschia ribbon

I entered the Embarassing Dinner contest on Flea's website and made the semi-finals with the Yellow Meal. It was and is not one of my finer culinary moments, but at least it provides extra material for people to mock me with. Like they needed it...

Debugging for fun and profit

I'm frequently staggered at how bad at debugging some people are. I have people in my group coming up to me several times a day saying things like "It won't compile." or "The code doesn't work" or "Daddy, tie my shoes." Or at least that's what it feels like. My next couple of questions are "What have you done so far?" and "Where is the problem happening?". And it's like I'm speaking in a different language. Almost "You mean I should try and fix this on my own before I come to you?" Occasionally they'll suggest things that they might want to try. "Should I look in the log?" I generally tell them that they should do exactly that.

I really don't mind lending a hand if it is something that is new, challenging, or might otherwise cause consternation. But I'm ready to kick these little birds out of the nest and hope they can fly.

Joined MySpace

Last night I joined MySpace. No, it doesn't mean that I won't be posting anything here. I really just wanted to see if I knew anyone on it. I entered my high school and university information and went to see if there was anyone on it who I would have been in school with. I ended up finding two people that I'd been friends with in high school. I also found two people on from my college fraternity. It will be interesting to see if they are interested in reconnecting with me after all this time.

After I found them I entered some more information about me - hobbies, favorite movies, favorite books, etc. The more I entered the happier I became. I'm really a geek. A not necessarily horridly unattractive geek who still plays Magic and Dungeons and Dragons. But a married not necessarily horridly unattractive geek who still plays Magic and Dungeons and Dragons. Whew! Were I using MySpace to get dates... well I'd either have to lie by omission or comission in order to be moderately successful.

Spreading the word

One of the odd things about parenting these days is that everyone has a style that they are trying to get you to buy into. Breastfeeding or formula feeding. Co-sleeping or crib sleeping. Rocking to sleep or crying it out. Cloth or disposables. Pacifier or not. In some ways it makes sense as new parents are more likely to listen to someone who is firm in their convictions however misguided rather than presenting a more reasonable yet equivocating front of "everything is just different kinds of good unless it is REALLY bad." After all most parents are of voting age and look at our White House.

One of the conversations that I had with my mother over this past weekend involved the fact that we still co-sleep. "When are you going to cut that crap out?" My response was basically that Oliver is a happy, confident toddler who is a pleasure to be around and about whom my wife and I get compliments on how well-behavbed he is. "And while I can't separate what is his personality from what we are doing, the fact that he is doing so well indicates to me that there is nothing wrong with how we are choosing to parent." There wasn't much to the discussion after that.

I'd love to claim some sort of moral high ground here with respect to being reasonable. But since I've already blown any chance of that out of the water, I figure I might as well spread my own version of the Gospel of Parenting. One of the way that I'm doing that is that I've invited a pair of couples who are expecting to join us at a La Leche League meeting.

I've heard mixed reviews about LLL. My brother calls the group "a bunch of breastfeeding Nazis." I've heard stories about how some groups are almost cult-like. But the group that we go to always starts with the idea: "We believe that every parent is the expert on raising his or her own children. We're here to present information. Treat it as a smorgasbord. Take what works for your family and leave the rest behind."

My motivations for inviting my friends to go are three-fold. First, LLL is an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience about breastfeeding. LLL is a good source for the latest research of breastfeeding as well as practical techniques for the feeding itself. The group does a good job reviewing the basics of positioning and latch for new mothers, too. Second, the group leaders are available for breastfeeding advice 24/7. One of my few contributions to the success that we've had was calling one of the leaders and putting the phone in my wife's hand. One of the leaders in our group is a professional lactatation consultant. Third, it is a really good support group for an activity that seems very natural but ends up being rather alien to first time mothers. Beyond the leader's support, it is nice to be able to go to a place every so often and know that the people there are either going through or have gone through the same thing you are going through. I see all of these benefits and I've never actually had to breastfeed Oliver.

The other things - co-sleeping, cloth, etc. - can wait until later. First things first.

Out for a walk...

So I was out for a walk with my mother and Oliver on Monday. Oliver was keeping us entertained by running up each walk to the house and starting to climb their stairs. "Sorry, Oliver, this isn't our house." I'd give him a little redirection and we'd be off again. Then he stopped to pick up debris from the sidewalk and give it to my mother and I. I had a good laugh when we had to stop Oliver from picking up a discarded cigarette butt to give to my formerly-smoking mother.

We got down to the end of the block and saw a man dart out from his house with a large backpack over one shoulder and some video equipment dangling from his other hand. He ran across the street to his car, put everything in the trunk, slammed it, went to the passenger side, opened the door, and started running back across the street. The whole scene was a little odd as his movements seemed like something out of a black and white Keystone cops movie. As he crossed in front of us, I said "Good morning." He turned to regard us briefly, blinked twice, and smiled shyly. "We're in labor." And he was off as my congratulations floated after him.

(Note to self: I need to remember to bring them some food in the next couple of days. Question to audience: I've met them once or twice before and perhaps said "Hi" as they walked by as many times. Do you think it would be weird to have someone that you don't know well drop by with a care package of food under those circumstances?)

After leaving the expecting-VERY-soon couple, we made our way back home. When we got home, our neighbor was out on her back porch with her two-year old and one-year old. So we went over and let Oliver, Bill, and Joe play together for a bit while the adults talked. One thing that I really like about our neighborhood is that there are a lot of young children on the block. Assuming not too many people move away, Oliver will have a lot of friends near by as he gets older.

Yea though I walked through the valley of Phase One...

Today I start Phase two of the South Beach Diet. During phase two I'm adding back in "good carbs" to my diet. Good carbs are low-glycemic index foods, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. I'm looking forward to going back to eating grains and fruit again. I've already downloaded several good SB dessert recipes that I wasn't certain qualified for phase one, but I'm certain that they qualify for phase two.

It's funny that I'm so excited about going to phase two. For one thing, I didn't lose that much weight on phase one. Another thing is that I am not really a picky eater - I could eat the same meal for a week straight without getting bored with it. Maybe the difference is between could and have to. On phase one there are so many restrictions in place that I have to abide by. A lot of them are removed in phase two or at least enough of them that it feels really liberating. I guess the other part is that phase two doesn't really feel like a diet. Sure, I can't have white potatoes, white bread, corn, or sugar, but I can live without them anyway.

All Gymboreed out

I picked my parents up at the airport on Friday at noon. After a nice lunch, I went to pick Oliver up at day care. I thought it would be fun for us to go to Gymboree to play. When we got there, neither of my parents was really able to get down and play with him, so they stood in the waiting area and watched us play. After a while, Oliver got tired and we went home.

Saturday morning I got my parents up and took them to Gymboree for the Saturday morning class. Again they got to watch as I chased Oliver around the play area. I hope it was a little more interesting for them as there was at least some structure to the class and the whole period was shorter than open play. On Monday morning we had class again. I'm not sure if I should take it as a good sign that my mother decided to go get some coffee during the first part of the class.

On the plus side, Oliver had a good time and is starting to get into it. He was even chasing after the bubbles today (a first!) and standing up under the parachute for Parachute time. As for my parents, I think we'll both have a better understanding in terms of how much Gymboree-ing they can take at a time.

My name is...

To set the stage, I have two older btothers, B and C. I'm driving around with my mother today and she turns to me and says "B (nope). C (nope). Anyway ..." and continues her story. Later she is talking about my son and calls him by my name.

Yup. Being the youngest is fun.

Photo Session

On Saturday afternoon, I took my parents, my mother-in-law, my wife and my child out to Portrait Innovations for a series of family pictures. They ended up taking about 120 pictures of us in various and sundry poses. The photo session took about an hour with a bit of a break when my wife and I realized that we had forgotten to bring the diaper bag and had a baby with a poopy diaper. Thankfully, Babies R Us was nearby and a quick trip later we had some diapers and wipes to clean up after young Oliver.

Oliver was really good about the whole thing. He only started getting a bit cranky towards the end of the hour. There was only so much cheese and crackers that would keep him happy and still. After the photo shoot came the hardest part - winnowing down the 100+ pictures to the few that we wanted to print. The sales pitch was pretty solid working down from 100+ instead of up from 0. The other part of their sales pitch is that the cost for a single sheet is $15.00 and the cost for packages (8x10, 2 5x7s, 8 Wallets) is $16.50 or only $1.50 more. We ended up getting 11 packages and their $9.95 introductory special which qualified us for the 5 13x10s and the photo CD. The salesgirl included all of the pictures from the session on the CD, not just the ones that we bought which made me happy. After the gift certificate that my boss had given me, the total ended up being about $100. So happy birthday, happy mother's day, happy father's day, happy easter, ...

Google responses

"My wife cheated at work"
"Mother-in-law spanking"
Either I feel sorry for you if you are the victim, or sorry for you if you found my site looking for porn. Good luck to you either way.

"Oliver pooping"
Four times today. And not a single turd.

"Growing moss dirt"
If you are looking for dirt on me, well let's just say that you probably don't have to dig very far.

"Bode Miller undressed"
Again wrong site. Or you could consider my comments about him undressing enough. Dressing... turkey... now I'm hungry.

"Reverse Mullet long bangs"
Okay, Flock of Seagulls, you are going to have to come up with a better hair cut than that.

"Kim Martino-Sexton"
She taught our Bradley class and did a really good job. I'm not sure how much of her class we actually needed, but it was still good for us none the less.

"Where to get blue moss in Oklahoma"
I'm not actually sure that I want to respond to that before asking what you want the blue moss for...

"Passat broken glove box lid"
Actually it was a Cabrio. But good luck getting that fixed. And anyone from VW, make better glove boxes!

Math at the workplace

Yesterday I had a meeting with some of the testers. They were complaining because the column labels on the excel sheet that they were looking at were written incorrectly. The label read

"650<=x<7777"

meaning the value was greater than or equal to 650 and less than 7777. But they misunderstood it. First was "What's being multiplied?" This took me a minute before I realized that many people use "x" as a multiplication sign. After some explanation, they moved on to a basic misunderstanding of what the inequalities meant. They couldn't figure out what x was supposed to be bigger than. They wanted to write it like "650 > x < 7777". After an explanation that that was all wrong and why, they wanted to just write it in English. The problem here is signaling which if any end points are included. If your statement is "x is between 650 and 7777" or "650-7777" it isn't clear as to whether the end point is included or not. If it is, then that causes all kinds of problems in terms of specifying the next range, especially when you are dealing with real (as opposed to integer) values.

After an hour of this, we got them to drink the Kool-Aid and agree that our original method is the most precise. However, if we ever get around to writing a user guide for the tool, I'll make sure to include a section on "Basic Inequalities and You."

Companies should subsidize healthy eating more

A salad in our cafeteria costs $.27 per ounce. That means that you can get a filling entree salad for about $4-5. But by the same token, I can get a hamburger for half that amount and a large slice of pizza for even less. In face there are a whole lot of less healthy options that I can get for less than the cost of a salad. And companies wonder why they spend too much on health care.

According to SysCo, a food service provider out of Washington state, the ready-to-eat food cost for each salad bar item at the salad bar varies between $.05 and $.10 per ounce. That means that at worst, they are marking up the cost of the item over 250% of the market cost. Labor costs are typically about 45% of the cost of an item, so we're still looking at $.12 profit or so per ounce. Consider that the average salad is between 12-15 ounces, and the salad bar ends up being quite profitable.

But I question whether the profit is worth the cost that the company has to pay in terms of the increase in health care costs for its workers. Overweight workers are more likely to have problems with blood pressure and diabetes than lean workers. The costs for treating the conditions caused by obesity are cycled into the health care system and the company has to pay for it indirectly.

I eat at the cafeteria because it is more convenient and generally less expensive than any of the options near the building. But when choosing options in the cafeteria, price is still a consideration. I know that 1 slice of pizza at $2.50 will fill me up, but that the $5.00 salad is better for me. If the entree salad could be priced more competitively, I'd choose the healthier option. If the company were to take a fraction of the cost of the employee's health care costs and subsidize food options that are less likely to cause obesity, more people would choose to eat better food, less likely to cause obesity.

I know that there are like 100 points to connect subsidizing the salad bar to a reduction in health care costs, but the idea is at least there. So Mr CEO-Man, are you going to kick in a little now or more later?

A single dad for just one night

My wife is headed out of town for a couple of days later this month. During her trip I'll be solely in charge of Oliver. Day time is not a big deal. I have down the day care drop off and pick up routines, feeding, bathing, clothing, and entertaining. It's just that I've never really had to be in charge of Oliver all night long. Usually that ends up falling to my wife as she is packing the two secret weapons, breasts.

And so last night we tried an experiment. Oliver was my responsibility from 7:00 until I got up this morning (mercifully at 5:00a). Getting him down wasn't such a chore. I employed the old reliable and walked him down to sleep. There were some tears but nothing different than usual. After he was down, I called my wife and told her that she could come home. When she got home I got to go for a run (small cheat) and then get some stuff ready for the next day.

I crawled into bed around 10:30 or so and adjusted my position near Oliver. We slept like that for about a half-hour before he woke up. I patted him back down and thought, "OK, this isn't so bad." About 12:00 and basically every half-hour to an hour until about 3:00, he woke up screaming. I'd pick him up, go downstairs, give him a drink, settle him down, walk back upstairs, and then try to get him back in to bed. There were a couple of times when I just about lost it, but then remembered why it was that he was screaming and found it again. Finally about 5:00, he woke one last time. I called for my wife who woke up and took him from me immediately calming him down.

The result of our experiment was a success. I can, in an emergency, take care of Oliver over night. But something tells me that I'm going to need to stock up on sleep both beforehand and afterwards. I have a growing appreciation for single parents who do that night in and night out. And my wife and her two secret weapons.