Are my Irish eyes smiling?

The other night I had an interesting conversation with my mother. She is talking about renting a house on a farm in Ireland this summer. The idea is that the extended family could fly to Ireland and spend a week or so wandering around while using the rented house as home base.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled. I've been to Europe but only to Italy and Greece. I've always wanted to see Ireland. Now I'd get to see it for the first time with my wife and my son. It would be great to be able to introduce my son to where my family came from even as I get to see it for the first time.

The time is also right for my parents. My father has never seen Ireland and my mother was there over 45 years ago. My mother turns 70 years old this year. Between various age related complaints and my parents failing but still present health, this may be their last chance to go.

I don't know if the time is right for my family. We were planning on taking a week long road trip this summer to see friends on the East Coast and attend the wedding of one of my wife's friends from college. We wouldn't have time to do both trips. Because of reassessments our mortgage payment went up $200 this month. Between that and other expenses, we aren't managing to save any money.

I guess one of the other things that bugs me about the trip is that it seems like a faulty premise. I've never been to Ireland, let alone the British Isles. I don't know when if ever that I'll get back. I'm unlikely to want to keep retreating to the same place over and over again. More likely is that we'll drop by to see my parents when we arrive and then kiss them good bye a week later when we are leaving having spent the entire time touring the country. When I go to Ireland, I want to spend all of my time there soaking it in, seeing all it has to offer, and touring the entire country. I could do the same thing with day trips, but then I'd spend most of my time there driving over the same area.

I appreciate what my parents want to do, but I don't think that the plan that they've come up with is particularly workable. I'll talk to my parents a little more about it this weekend. If anyone has any information on how big Ireland is in terms of driving distances, that would be a great help.

Wild life in the city

Saturday night we had a couple of close calls on our way home from seeing Paul and Sarahlynn. First, on our way out of the subdivision, we almost ran into a raccoon who escaped down the sewer drain. Then turning the corner on our way to the highway, we almost ran into a deer who escaped to stand by the side of the road with four of its family members. Finally, we almost ran into some guy while we getting of the highway when he decided that it was a good time to walk across the exit lane from the highway. Sunday I didn't get in the car until late in the day. Coincidence? Not a bit.

Parents coming this weekend

My parents are coming into town this weekend. They get in to town Friday afternoon and will be leaving Monday night. It'll give us more than three days to hang out and let them play with Oliver again.

I'm looking forward to their trip down. In a change from what normally happens when they come down, I actually have events planned for them to do. On Saturday, we're going to go to Gymboree in the morning. I'm not sure how much they'll be able to get down and play, but it should be fun to let them see him at play anyway. On either Saturday or Sunday afternoon we are going to get pictures done with my parents, my wife's mother, Oliver, my wife and I at Portrait Innovations. On Monday, we'll head back to Gymboree. Then Monday night I whisk them away to the airport. At some point, we'll probably go out for dinner - most likely after the portrait session. All told it will be a pretty packed trip.

Now we just need to get the house in order for their arrival. Nothing like a bit of stress before your parents show up, huh?

Running with a stroller

Sunday I took Oliver for a run around Forest Park. While we were out I reflected on the ways that running with a stroller is different than not running with a stroller.

• Hills - Running with a stroller adds additional difficulty when climbing hills. I don't think that it adds the full weight of the baby to the weight that you are pushing or makes the hill seem steeper or both, but it definitely makes the hills more difficult. Going downhill is also a bit different as you have to apply extra pressure to minimize your acceleration. I find my stride is different when I'm pushing Oliver up a hill. I'll squat a bit more and I lean on the handles a bit more as I push.
  
  
• Wind - I was much more aware of the wind with the stroller. No one will confuse our stroller of being aero-dynamic. It catches the wind like a sail, especially when it is a headwind.
  
  
• Arms - When I'm pushing Oliver in the stroller I need to use one arm at all times and two arms when we're going at a good pace. So all told, my arm pump is definitely different when I'm pushing a stroller.
  
  
• Motivation - One of the nice things about running with Oliver is that my motivation is close at hand. I'm running in part to get healthier so that I have energy to keep up with him now and health so that I can stick around later. Closer at hand, it is a solid motivation that every step I take is one closer to home for him.
  

Google responses

"Bode Miller undressed"
I'm sorry, but you've come to the wrong blog. I wasn't even that harsh in my criticisms of he-who-was-hyped. But if you watched any of the Olympics, you definitely got to see him. Again. And again. And even occasionally skiing.

"Ricotta dessert"
Recently, my wife and I have been debating whether my interpretation of the Ricotta Dessert of Phase one-ness is truly phase one. I tend to add a bit more cocoa powder and vanilla than the recipe calls for. I also add a sprinkling of slivered almonds and a dollop of peanut butter. Everything is on the list of allowed foods, though perhaps not all together.

I did some web searching and found a cheesecake recipe and a lemonade sorbet recipe that are supposed to be phase one compliant. I'll try them out and post them if either works out.

"Freakanomics", "Freakanomics review"
It was a good book, but a couple of weeks out it hasn't really dented my consciousness as much as I would have thought. The Tipping Point seems to have resonated with me more.

"Pooping", "Oliver pooping"
On the pooping ... back, we're still not seeing any turds. But at least my little guy is regular.

"diarrhea edamame"
I've never had a problem with edamame causing diarrhea. Or used it to stop diarrhea. But if you fed it to your baby and ran into problems, it may be that your baby is allergic to soy.

"Miscarriage 5 weeks tell gender"
According to Pregnancy.org, a fetus does not begin to show gender until week 11. At week five, the arms and legs are little buds. So I imagine short of genetic testing, it would be impossible to determine if the fetus was male or female.

Phase 1 Menu Complaints

I know I said that I wouldn't post anything about my diet this time around, but this one is less about me specifically so it's allowed.

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One of things that I like about the diet is that the book lays out a 14-day meal plan for the first phase. My wife and I have found that it is easy for us to follow the meal plan when we have a listing of what we can eat laid out in front of us. When we start improvising we tend to get in trouble, either not cooking ahead of time and trying to throw together Phase 1 compatible foods or starting down the slippery slope of allowing ourselves small cheats. The meal plan is full of a variety of appetizing dishes and that's part of the trouble.

Take today - I'm eating a Dilled Shrimp Salad for lunch. For those of you scoring at home, it is a fairly labor intensive meal with all of the shrimp and dressing preparation. But the recipe serves four, not two. I could have cut the recipe in half, but then I'm getting less bang for my labor buck. So I make the full recipe only to find that it doesn't occur again during these two weeks. I could substitute it for another meal, but then I'm off book and on to a slippery slope. It would be nice if they'd set up the meal plan for a standard number of people (2?) and adjusted the recipes to fill as many servings as appear in the Phase One meal plan.

The other problem with the phase one meal plan is that they haven't come up with any interesting desserts, just variations on the base ricotta dessert. Don't get me wrong - I like the Ricotta dessert. I make mine with cocoa powder, vanilla, packet of sweetener, couple of chocolate chips, slivers of almonds and a spoonful of peanut butter. The only other option that I've seen is the Sugar Free Fudgsicles, which are apparently popular with the people who shop at the same grocery store that I do as they've been out the last two times I went to the store.

Email Limbo

I haven't checked my personal email account in a couple of days. I can't check it from work and I didn't check it at home in the last couple of days. It's sort of weird. I have this feeling that there is something important in my mailbox but it's too far away to check. Chances are good that my mailbox contains some ramblings from an ex-girlfriend's father, some spam that got past the filter, a few Ebay/Paypal phishing emails, and maybe one message of any significance. But I'm sure that that one message is important. Feh! We'll see.

Communication works

Yesterday I was really frustrated with how things were going at home. After dinner, I talked to my wife about it in a non-judgemental manner. She explained some of her frustrations. We talked about it some more and concluded that we needed to make some changes. And by bed time my frustration was gone. This communication thing really works!

Incompetence

Our normal process for moving a file into production is that the file should be in place by EOD Wednesday at the very latest. I came in this morning and found a note on my chair telling me that J, my favorite co-worker, could not get it compiled. Within ten minutes of looking at the error messages and asking the question "What changed?" I was able to get it compiled. It's not that I'm writing this to trumpet my own prowess, but after over a year of working on the same program wouldn't you expect her to have the barest modicum of debugging capability? This is the same co-worker who immediately comes to other people in the group whenever anything goes wrong without putting in any effort whatsoever into figuring it out on her own.

The problem is that I don't think this will register on the Bottom 10 rankings. And it really should.

Movie Review: The Longest Yard

The movie opens with former NFL MVP Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) getting arrested for drunk driving and sent to a prison in Texas for three years. The warden of the prison has pulled some strings to get him to the prison to help his semi-pro team of guards win their league championship. After Crewe suggests a tune-up game, the warden puts him in charge of putting together a team of convicts for the Big Game.

The performances are generally good. Adam Sandler doesn't play Adam Sandler in this movie and is actually pretty good about portraying Paul Crewe. The cons as a whole are pretty good including performances by Michael Irvin and Nelly. There were some pretty funny moments and the whole movie holds together pretty well. The only distracting thing was that I spent most of the movie playing Spot the Cameo (Dan Patrick, Rob Schneider, ...) and Who's That Guy (Brian Bosworth, ...).

Movie Review: Elizabethtown

The film opens on Drew (Orlando Bloom) as he flies to the company headquarters to meet with the CEO. It seems that Drew's latest project is about to flop badly into the realm of fiasco to the tune of a billion dollars. Later that night as he contemplates suicide, he gets a call from his sister saying that his father died while vacationing in Kentucky. As the oldest male in the family, he has to fly out to Kentucky and pick up his father's remains. On the way there he meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst), a perky flight attendant. They have a connection which deepens over a marathon phone call later that night. In the mean time, Drew has to deal with his extended family while taking care of his father's remains.

I'm a big Cameron Crowe fan. I loved Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous. So I was excited to see Elizabethtown. But after watching it, I was struck by a sense that something was missed. It certainly wasn't extra footage as Elizabethtown just kept going. I guess what was missing was a focus. There are so many threads that are introduced but have nothing done with them. For example, Stacy Keach plays someone who swindled Drew's father out of some money. But we never get any details about what happened. Drew has this spectacular failure, but we don't know what happened. Why was his shoe such a spectacular failure? Drew runs into an extremely friendly wedding party, but other than padding the running length it doesn't accomplish anything. The salesman at the funeral home keeps ogling Claire and nothing else happens. It doesn't come up again.

Orlando Bloom is photogenic, but the character doesn't come through enough to really connect with him. And the script mashes a romantic comedy, a family drama, and a family comedy into one mishmash of a script. I had a feeling that the movie was trying to say something about the relationships between fathers and sons, about the importance of family, and about the redemptive power of love. I don't know, but it's all sort of mashed in there. In the end, the movie left me unsatisfied.

Dieting again

So yesterday was (Get) Fat Tuesday for my wife and I. We ordered in Indian food, ate ice cream, and had a bottle of wine. Then we watched the Longest Yard and Elizabethtown before crashing. The Indian food was too good. I'll have to check with a co-worker and see if there are any Indian dishes that might pass for allowed food on my diet because I've been craving Indian food.

We're restarting the South Beach Phase 1 as of this morning. While I had great fun keeping everyone abreast of my diet the last time, I think I was the only one who cared. So few diet postings for you. My biggest complaint about the diet is how much time we need to spend cooking each day. I think I'll try and get ahead of the game this time around and cook a lot of food at once to get ahead. I didn't weigh in this morning, but I'd guesstimate my weight to be somewhere around 196-200.

On the plus side, I've managed to successfully go cold turkey on caffiene in the last week or so. Considering that I was drinking 4-8 cans of diet Coke or diet Pepsi a day, I think that is a definite improvement. I will admit to being a good deal sleepier since I dropped it though.

Random thought: Ice dancing costumes

Random thought: The only dancers that I've seen wear costumes like the ice dancers worked on the other side of the river. At what point does an "athlete" say, "I think I'd like to wear something that looks like furry pasties?"

Top 10/Bottom 10

One of the items that managers in my division are required to produce each month is a list of the Top 10% and Bottom 10% performers in their group. The Top 10% is publicly praised and rewarded in some fashion. The Bottom 10% is privately informed and put on notice. If the same people keep showing up month after month on the Bottom 10% list, they are put into a process that could eventually end up getting them fired.

There are a lot of things that I liked about the idea. I like that top performers are recognized regaularly and publicly. I like that it puts in place a process under which the company can purge its ranks of slackers aside from the shotgun approach of massive layoffs. Done correctly it can assist in increasing the amount of talent in the organization by shedding the chaff and adding in fresh skilled people.

There are some downsides though. Every month 10% of your workers are depressed. If the same workers are being recognized every month there is less incentive to press forward. If the standard becomes who makes mistakes, it could stifle the impulse to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects.

In general, I'm in favor of the program if for no other reason then I think that I'm unlikely to qualify for the downside of the program. And while it isn't a nice thing to admit, we'd all perform better if we didn't have to deal with the incompetent or barely competent co-workers in our jobs.

Google responses

Here are my responses to people who came to this blog over the last week in case they didn't find what they were looking for.

"Sexuality and breastfeeding toddlers"
I've been told by my wife that there really is a thing as being "touched out." When my wife first started breastfeeding Oliver, we thought that the arms motions were so cute. When he started growing his fingernails it became less cute (trimming the fingernails helps, but only so much). When he developed his pincer motion it became less cute. When he's teething and wants to nurse constantly and you are co-sleeping so he's constantly searching you out, yes, you can get touched out. What can you do to recover from that? I don't know. I'll ask my wife and get back to you.

"Bradley Birthing classes"
I totally recommend them. Our instructor was Kim Martino-Sexton. The class ran ten weeks, which was great for us as we got to focus on the main event together for that long. Also, she had us keep track of our protein counts for that long which helped my wife focus on what she was eating in a practical way. The amount of information that we got each week was easily digestible. By the time Oliver was on his way we were much more able to be our own advocates.

"Nose spreading as a sign of labor"
There is an old wives' tale about how to tell gender. Here's a link to a site with more old wives' tales.

"Pooping"
I'm glad that I was able to post about pooping and immediately have people tune in to find out what I had to say. On a related note, I still haven't seen a turd in weeks. I beginning to think they are the Big Foot of toddler excrement.

"I didn't want a boy"
I don't know how this came to me, but I'm sorry. While I'll admit that I had a preference for boy, I was really just hoping for 10 fingers, 10 toes, two of everything that there should be two of, one of everything that there should be one of, and enough of everything else. I do know people who have a very strong preference for one gender over another to the point that they don't want any more children, so you aren't alone. I just want children, gender unspecified.

"Bad Baby Names Moss" & "Odd baby names for 2005 that starts with I"
Let's see... my wife didn't like Falcon, Lord, or Orestes for boys and more names than I can count for girls. If I had to pick an odd baby name that starts with I, I'd have to go with Imogene, Ichabod, Illyana, and Iona.

"Jochen pronounced"
Yo-ken (see Hecht, Jochen)

"Meatball all covered with cheese song"
There are at least two versions of the song. You can go with mine which makes sense and imparts the moral of not eating too much (?). Or you can go with the traditional version, which makes no sense and is therefore difficult to remember. Seriously, I like my version better, but I'm most likely in the minority.

"Painting dwarf minis"
I don't have a lot of experience painting dwarf miniatures specifically, but I keep picturing them as swarthy blonds with a lot of metallic colors and gemstones. Not helpful, but I'll post a picture when I start painting minis again.

"Runner"
I'm a runner. A lazy out of shape runner to be sure, but I'm always doing better when I've been able to get in a couple of miles. I'm training for the River to River Relay now. Six weeks until the race! Gack!

"Abu Gerib"
I'm still waiting for the fallout to land on someone. Anyone. Preferably Bush, but if he can grossly violate your civil rights because he's fighting a concept (War on Terror?), then he can do just about anything he wants and get away with it. I'm just waiting until the government has to step in and regulate playground bullying.

"Skater cut and picture"
Unfortunately (or fortunately), I don't have any pictures. The idea was basically a top knot with the sides and back shaved down. In theory I like the haircut, but it doesn't look like that'll hit the mainstream in this decade.

"Leukemia"
My brother's niece, Rose, passed away last week from complications from leukemia. Please keep her family in your thoughts.

Off the Wagon Again

So I'm off the low-carb wagon again. It was probably a bad idea to try and resume the initial phase of the diet after veering off the path over my birthday weekend. Regardless, I'm off the wagon. Until we go back on again, I'll see what I can do with some moderation in intake and an increase in exercise.

Trivia Night

On Saturday, my wife and I went to Alton, IL for a trivia night to benefit IMPACT. We dropped Oliver off with Grandma and went to the Trivia Night. Our team consisted of two my brothers-in-law, a couple of their friends, my wife and I. We've had the same basic team for most of the trivia nights that we've gone to except that my wife's parents used to fill in the last two spots.

IMPACT provided beer, soda, popcorn, and pretzels. In addition, Paula brought a lot of snacks including chips, dip, and chocolate. I ended up drinking beer and eating Mr. Goodbars all night. I was amused because the people from IMPACT kept bringing around pitchers of beer all through out the night. There wasn't even a last call before the last round of questions. I guess they didn't want to leave anything in the keg.

The first round of questions was labelled "Mathematically speaking." I'm thinking that we're golden until the first few questions have nothing at all to do with math except the answers all had numbers. After the first couple of rounds, we were somewhere in the middle of the pack with one team clearly dominating. But after the first few categories, that team crashed and we slowly rose through the standings. We averaged eight questions per category all night long with one terrible category that no one else got more than five on. When the final scores were tallied, we'd won!After the event, we went to the Knights of Columbus Hall to further celebrate our win. After a couple of rounds, my wife and I headed back to Grandma's to crash. Or at least I did.

I like going to trivia nights. They are a nice mix of social interaction and thought provoking questions. And there's free beer!

Peeing in the bathtub

My wife and I tried to get Oliver potty trained early. In the beginning we had some success, but after a while the drama of getting out the potty and plopping him down on it in the middle of the night while he wailed became a little much. So we started slacking. And changing more diapers.

But recently we've started working on it again. When Oliver wakes up in the morning, we carry him into the bathroom and get him undressed. Then we stand him up in the bathtub and entertain him (this morning it was a chorus of "Itsy Bitsy Spider") until it's time for nature to take its course. Then as he starts going we gush "Good Potty. Good Potty." A splash to wash off any stray streams and he's off to breakfast. Occasionally we'll vary the routine by trying to use the potty or a sink instead of the bathtub, but the bathtub seems to be the most popular choice.

We'll get to full potty training some day. I just hope that all of the effort that we are putting in now helps to get there soon. I could do without all of the loads of diapers.

Oliver's Pooping Spot

Whenever Oliver crawls underneath the end of the dining room table on his own, we know that it is time to get out the wipes. He'll spend a minute or so there and then he and his load are out and ready to play. I'm hoping that this is a good sign for future potty training.

A Good Drop Off

This morning I had a good experience dropping Oliver off at day care. The last couple of days he has been clinging to my leg as soon as we got into the room. Today, he still wanted to sit on my lap, but was easily tempted away by one of his teachers. As I left the room, there were no tears.

It seems that Oliver is getting to be a favorite at day care. He is in general a happy smiling boy. He plays well with others and doesn't fuss much. As soon as we can get him to eat his food instead of decorating the floor with it, he'll run away with the Toddler of the Year award.

Given that he has always been like this, I'm hard pressed to figure out how much of his sunny personality comes from his personality and how much comes from how his mother and I parent him. Is the manner in which we parent him giving him a sense of security that allows him to relax and enjoy the company of others? Or is it just good genetics from two people who are both closer to type B than type A?

Sleepy

I've been really tired all week. I keep having to walk around the area in order to not fall asleep at my desk. I'd go get some caffiene to wake me up, but I'm going cold turkey. So I'm just sleepy.

In large part it's my own fault. Last night I didn't get to bed until after 1:00. I left gaming after 10:00, stopped by the recycle yard to drop off our recyclables, and deposited a check at the bank. When I got home I discovered that we didn't have any diapers for day care. When I went down to the laundry I discovered that there was already one load in the washer and another in the dryer. So I had to rerun the load in the washer before I could start on the diapers. While I was waiting, I did an easy 30 minute workout, averaging about an 11:00 mile. By the time the diapers were ready to go into the dryer it was very late.

I might end up going to sleep when Oliver does tonight.

I'm an official R2R runner

Last night at 7:00, I officially paid up and became a River to River runner. The River to River run is a 80 mile eight person relay race. Each runner on the team runs three legs totalling about 10 miles over hilly terrain through southern Illinois. The goal of the race is to finish before the sun goes down so your team gets their race t-shirt.

This will be my third year doing the race. The first year I was drafted by the hashers when they needed an extra body. I ran in the fifth leg (Hard, Moderate, Moderate/Easy). It was a blast. In fact I was inspired to borrow a poem to record the experience.

Last year, I jumped on to a team early since I knew how much fun it was. I talked a friend of mine into joining the team as an alternate. Over the course of the spring we went for some nutty training runs. In the end, he couldn't go and we ended up picking up some friends of friends to finish out the team. The team that we ended up with was not in as good of shape as the team that we put together the year before. I ended up running the 8th leg (Hard, Moderate, Hard) and due to time constraints was the only person to run all of my legs.

This year the line up looks a lot stronger than last year. We kept all of the strongest runners and added two very good runners. Some of our weaker runners from last year have been training hard. So if I don't get my butt in gear, I might end up being the weakest link. That's not going to happen if I have anything to say about it.

Random thought: Miller = Bosworth

Is it just me or is Bode Miller the next Brian Bosworth? Brian Bosworth was a linebacker with Oklahoma who had a flair for self-promotion. But when he made it to the NFL, he ended up scrubbing out. He now stars in action B-movies.

Bode Miller was portrayed by the media as America's great hope for medals going into the games. But as yet bupkus. To review - not in medal contention, disqualified, and still appearing in his own series of commercials. I'm just waiting for the B-movies.

Random thought: Yogurt covering

In turning yogurt into a covering do they also make it non-dairy? Why can I eat this type of yogurt when it's been sitting out all day long? Whatever else it is, it tastes good.

I miss turds

It sounds funny to say, but I miss turds. For the uninitiated excrement comes in several different types determined by consistency and smell. Diarrhea is the most liquid form of excrement and generally has the worst smell. Diarrhea has the ability to squirt out from the diaper and all over the outfit your child is wearing. Diarrhea is never a good sign either of your child's health or your immediate future. Cleaning up a diarrhea explosion will generally require several wipes and a good run through the laundry.

Shit is a step up from diarrhea. It has a slightly more solid consistency but an awful smell. Shit has a less explosive quality, but is more prone to ooze out of the diaper your child is wearing. If caught early, shit can be cleaned up with several wipes, but if left unchecked will require a run through the laundry.

Crap is a step up from shit. Again it is a more solid consistency and a if-you-can-call-it-more-pleasant smell, after all crap is still crap. Crap is less likely to ooze out of the diaper. It's still a several wiper, but at least it's not likely to get on you. It's somewhat difficult to determine the difference between shit and crap without letting it sit there.

Poop is just a step down from turds. It lacks the solid consistency and still has a smell. It doesn't require many wipes and lacks the smear quality found in crap or shit. For lack of a turd, I'd take a poopy diaper.

Turd is the creme-de-la-creme of excrement. It's generally solid and has very little smell. It requires few if any wipes and can be cleaned up easily. In fact it makes so little mess that after you pluck it out of the diaper, you could reuse it if you were really pressed.

I've been reminiscing on turds because it's been a while since I've had to clean up a diaper with turds. It's almost to the point where I feel like asking the doctor if he shouldn't be having some more turds by this point.

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As if responding to this posting, later that night there was a turd sighting. But like the Loch Ness Monster, the turds have not shown up again. If my wife weren't there to witness the occasion, I doubt she'd have believed me.

Dad at Gymboree

Yesterday I stayed home from work. Usually my mother-in-law, RA, comes over on Mondays while my wife works from home. It's a good arrangement for us - RA gets to see Oliver, my wife gets to work from home, Oliver gets to spend time with mom and grandma, and we get to save the money that would otherwise be spent on day care. This Monday, however, was the second anniversary of my father-in-law's death, so RA didn't want to come over. I had an extra holiday that I needed to take, so it worked out well for all of us.

In the morning I took Oliver for a preview class at Gymboree. He had fun climbing the ramps and throwing the balls. He was not as thrilled with the parachute or the singing, but there weren't any tantrums. At the end of the class, I'm sure that he would have been happy to play some more, but it was time to go.

Dad was a little more uneasy about the whole thing. It wasn't that I thought the place was dangerous or something. It was more that I was the only post-pubescent male there. Given that it was 10:00 on a Monday, I shouldn't have been surprised, but there were seven mothers there with their children. It also seemed like they were all regulars, so I wasn't really included in their conversations. By the end of the class I was quite happy to pack up my child.

Maybe I'll check again on a weekend.

Please keep my brother's family in your thoughts

This is another tough week for my brother's family. Rose passed away this weekend.

Temptations

One of the hardest things about Phase two of the South Beach diet is that once you expand the number of things that you can eat you still need to not eat everything. Wish me luck. It seems I'll need it.

Book Review: Freakanomics

Freakanomics is a book by a self-described "rogue economist" who applies economic analysis of data to non-economic subjects. His subjects for this book include school teachers, sumo wrestlers, crack dealers, crime, real estate agents, the KKK, and parents. This esoteric tapestry of topics is knitted together with fluid storytelling. It seems odd to describe a non-fiction book as a page-turner, but this one is.

Two of the topics appealed to me specifically. First was the topic on real-estate agents. The data that he based his findings on came from the Chicago area - where my mother is a real estate agent. His findings point out the difference in the amount of incentive that an agent has vs a homeowner. If an agent is able to get you an additional $10,000, then it is only worth an additional $150 to the agent. But what his analysis misses is that if the client is unsatisfied with the agent, they are less likely to use the agent again or to refer friends to the agent. Most of my mother's business now comes from referral business rather than walk-in clientele.

The second topic was what makes a perfect parent. Levitt examined a number of factors to determine what factors correlate with academic success. His conclusion is that the factors that correlate most strongly to academic success are what the parents are (highly educated, involved, high SES), but things that parents do are not (spanking, intact family, stay-at-home mom, monitor TV watching). In a lot of ways conclusions like these are a nice safety blanket for if/when I'd decide to slack as a parent. But it is one thing to say that in general what I do doesn't matter, but it is another to decide that you can slack. I guess I'll just remain one of his "overbearing parents."

Diet Day 14

Breakfast: Cheesey Fritatta
AM Snack: Cheese Stick
Lunch: Turkey and salad
PM Snack: Veggies and hummus
Dinner: Turkey leg
Dessert: Sugar free candy

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- I'm feeling lethargic this afternoon. It could be a lack of caffeine, a lack of sleep, a lack of motivation, or an excess of turkey. My money is on the turkey.

- I weighed in last night. I'm back to 191. Apparently this week has made up for last weekend.

- I did an easy run last night. Once I got going it felt fine. The start was a bit rough though as my HRM wasn't detecting a heartbeat. Do HRM's wear out?

- I think we're going to start phase two tomorrow. I know people have been enjoying my diet log, but I don't think I'll be chiming in as much on it in phase two.

Sometimes it's hard not to believe

I had my first crisis of faith when I was very young. Being Catholic you get used to crossing yourself at the beginning of a prayer and at the end of a prayer. So I got the idea that it was like [prayer]Praying[/prayer]. So everything you did while you were praying like saying the words or being in church was prayer. But one day I forgot whether I'd crossed myself an odd number of times or an even number of times. But how was eating a PB&J snadwich supposed to be prayerful? I could be a good kid from there on out, but I actually didn't that of that as an option. I don't remember how I resolved my crisis of faith, but it set the stage for my later "conversion" to Atheism.

So I don't believe in God. On the plus side, it means that my weekends are even more free. I feel that it is more intellectually honest to not believe in God than it is to believe in God and also that the Indians, Greeks, Romans and other non-Judeo-Christian cultures were quaint for believing in multiple gods or other animistic beliefs. But that doesn't always mean that it's easy.

There are things that I miss about going to church. I miss the built-in community. I miss the assuredness of a patriarch looking down upon the world and shaping it. I miss the reassurance that when you die you go to a better place. I miss the ceremonies that you get to share with friends and family, welcoming new members, celebrating their milestones, sharing their joy, and sending them on to their final resting place.

At this time, it's the last part that is getting me. I wrote yesterday about asking people to keep my brother and his family in your thoughts. The conventional manner of asking that is also to include "and prayers." But as an atheist, I can't really honestly ask for that. And when my brother's niece passes away, I'd like to imagine that she is going to a better place, but as an atheist I don't believe in Heaven. I know what her suffering is ending, but is that the same thing? I suppose that's why I doubt that I would have the courage to do what her parents are doing.

They say that there are no atheists in foxholes. I can see why they have trouble holding on to the "faith."

Diet Day 13

Breakfast: Eggs, Canadian Bacon
AM Snack: Cheese Stick
Lunch: Turkey and Salad
PM Snack: Veggies and Hummus
Dinner: Shrimp and Salad
Dessert: Ricotta Dessert

---

- I used to have a co-worker from Canada. When I mentioned that I was eating Canadian Bacon, he said "You know what they call it in Canada? Ham."

- I definitely need to cut down my caffeine intake. I have four cans of Diet Coke lined up to drink at work today. I think I'm going to go cold turkey tomorrow. What do you think the odds are that this will last?

- I've decided that I don't like red onions in salad.

Keep my brother and his family in your thoughts

This has been a hard couple of weeks for my brother and his family. His niece who has leukemia relapsed. Please keep his family in your thoughts.

Thanks.

Breastfeeding language

My wife recently sent me a link to an article on The Language of Breastfeeding. I don't know why, but in this case I feel like adding a disclaimer to this post. Perhaps it is because some people might find it offensive. While I agree with the author's premise and politics, I had a hard time getting through the article. It has a very militant tone with regard to breastfeeding. The article describes a syntactical inversion of the langauge used to describe the difference between formula feeding and breastfeeding. But this particular inversion implies that formula feeders are substandard parents. Like I said, militant.

Personally, my philosophy on parental advice comes from one of the phrases that they use at the beginning of our La Leche group. Think of all of the advice as a smorgasbord. Take what works for you and your family and leave the rest behind. In this case, think of this article as a habenero pepper - strong, but not for everybody.

Diet Day 12

Breakfast: Eggs
AM Snack: Hummus with broccoli and zuchini
Lunch: Salad with chicken and edamame
PM Snack: Cheese Stick, Veggies
Dinner: Turkey, Green Bean Casserole
Dessert: Butterscotch Sugar free pudding

---

- It was sort of a skimpy breakfast today. I just didn't take the time to make it. I wanted to give Oliver something to eat besides eggs, so I gave him some orange. I've found that it is easier/cleaner to bite into the orange section than to use a knife, but harder not to do the old "one for you, one for me" deal. Especially when you are dieting.

- It's gaming night tonight. In an effort to divest ourselves with the rest of the turkey from this weekend I'm bringing dinner. I'll stop on the way there to pick up soda, rolls, and a dessert - few of which I'll get to eat. *grumble*

- One of the benefits to having been on the diet is that I got the idea of using veggies for dips. It's not exactly an earth-shattering discovery, but veggies are most filling than chips and broccoli and cauliflower are great for scooping us dips. Not to mention that veggies are healthier than chips. I'll likely make the change to veggies from chips going forward.

- I did a BFL run tonight. I wore my heart rate monitor and watched my heart rate get to 180. I'll have to check my resting heart rate when I get a new battery for the watch. After the BFL run, I did a hill workout. I didn't end up going that fast, but it was still hard. I'm looking forward to an easy day tomorrow.

Startling discovery!

I really don't know why it is, but every time I go to the library I make this startling discovery - They have all these books here. For FREE! Really, I know about the library. I just forget that it's there. Yes, they don't always have the book/movie/audio book I want, but there are plenty of other books to choose from. And it doesn't cost anything more than late fees. Although I will say this: tonight was the first time that I went to the library and had to park across the street because it was so busy. I guess there are a lot of other people who've discovered this library thing.

Officially a Toddler

Well, Oliver's officially a Toddler now. His mother and I dropped him off at day care today. And perhaps not too surprisingly, he wasn't crying as we left. Toddlers is a much more active and interesting place than Transition. All of the kids were up and running around. The room is much more open since there aren't baby cages lined up along the walls. And knowing their audience, the teachers have tiny soccer balls scattered about the room. With balls to throw, Oliver is a happy camper.

Diet Day 11

Breakfast: Eggs and Canadian Bacon
AM Snack: Celery and Laughing Cow Cheese
Lunch: Turkey salad wraps
PM Snack: Veggies and hummus, Pistachios
Dinner: Steak with Tomato Relish and Edamame Salad
Dessert: Butterscotch Sugar free pudding

---

- I was really hungry this afternoon. I think it had more to do with me being bored than anything else.

- I really need to increase my water consumption. I'm drinking way too much diet soda.

- I went for an easy run tonight. Going easy is a lot harder than it would seem. I'd much rather be going faster.

- I had some whey protein and water. If I can find a way to make it taste good, then it would be a good addition to my diet - protein to take away the hunger pangs and more water to wash it all away. For the record, just stirring it and adding cinnamon did not do the trick.

Diet Day 10

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs
AM Snack: Cheese Stick
Lunch: Salad and turkey
PM Snack: Veggies and hummus
Dinner: Turkey salad in a lettuce wrap
Dessert: Ricotta dessert

---

- I'm back on the carb wagon again. I'll spend the next two weeks still in Phase 1.

- I weighed in this morning. It was not a good dieting weekend.

- My wife came up with the idea for the turkey salad because she just couldn't imagine ANOTHER meal of plain turkey.

- I'm out of vanilla for the ricotta dessert and it REALLY just doesn't taste the same with the almond extract.

- I did a good run on the treadmill last night. I had planned a longer run, but my heart rate monitor was acting squirrelly, so I shifted into a different workout.

Diet Day Mulligan 2

Breakfast: Eggs, canadian bacon
AM Snack: Turkey
Lunch: Stuffing
PM Snack: Green Bean Casserole
Dinner: All of the above
Dessert: Cake

---

- I was going to get back on the diet today, but I peered into the fridge and saw all of those leftovers. They were just calling to me. "Eeeaaattt Mmmmmeeeeee" So I did.

-

Diet Day Mulligan

Morning: Eggs, canadian bacon
AM Snack: Cheese Stick
Lunch: Turkey
PM Snack: Stuffing
Dinner: Bread
Bedtime: Cake

---

- I was good up until the point when my guests started arriving. Then I broke down and started eating everything I wasn't supposed to.

- At the end of the day, I stripped the birds and had three containers of green bean casserole, two gallon bags of meat and one gallon bag of stuffing.

Diet Day 9

Breakfast: Quiche cups
AM Snack: Cheese Stick
Lunch: Salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays
PM Snack: Cheese Stick
Dinner: Steak and Salad
Dessert: Ricotta Dessert

---

- Went out to lunch with co-workers for my birthday. The salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's was good except for an extra long sneeze guard. I felt like I was dislocating my shoulder to get the items at the back. They also use mirrors cleverly to make it look even bigger.

- Went out to Outback with Oliver and my wife for dinner. The steak was good. I think my wife is getting sick of going there, but it's so near and I like it. Next time we got out she's going to veto the suggestion that we go there.

- I was up for a while roasting the turkey for tomorrow's party. Making the stuffing was hard because I wanted to snack but shouldn't/couldn't.

- It was even harder to resist because I've been planning on a diet mulligan for tomorrow. After all, what's 12/10/8 hours?

Keeping up with the carrots

I'm an interesting character when it comes to competition. I like to compete, but I don't really have that burning desire to win. I'm sort of a type B+ personality like that. When I'm running arounf the park, I'll try and keep up with ot catch the other runners who are going the same direction as I am. Sometimes I'll even make up competitions with people who don't know I'm competing with them. For example, I'll pick a runner coming towards me and I'll "race" them to a spot in the middle. Another example is that when I have a set of lights timed, I'll "race" the cars that rush up to the stop light and see if taking it easy is a better strategy.

The evil side of the type B+ personality comes out when you are a parent. In many ways, Oliver is very advanced. He's a good walker. He has good gross motor skills and is developing his fine motor skills. He is a very happy and sociable fellow who warms quickly to strangers. He's not far along in his acquisition of language and doesn't feed himself yet. At one point I had to stop myself at my party because I found myself scoring imaginary matchups between Oliver and my friends' children. I was not being appropriately appreciative og the successes that the other children had had or that Oliver had had.

So in apology, I'd just like to say a belated congratulations to all parents on your children's successes.

It's my party

So ThankRock is over for 2006. All in all it was a good time. Most of my guests were able to come. Those that came had a good time. It was great to see the kid drum circle form in my front hall. I got to talk to some people that I don't see enough of, eat good food, and play games. Not bad for a birthday.

I've just about finished cleaning up. The plates and glasses weren't such a big deal, but putting away the food turned out to be a chore. One of the many things that my wife keeps trying to warn me about is my propensity to grossly overestimate how much food my guests will eat. Turkey and two breasts minus guests equala two gallon size zip locks full of leftover meat plus a bag for wings and a bag for drumsticks. Add to that the other assorted leftovers and I'm quite certain that I'll have enought turkey for a month.

I hate it when she's right.

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday Sear Me
Happy Birthday to Me
And many more

200th post

This is my 200th post. There have been substantially fewer cheater posts in this second century of posts unless you count the recent rash of diet postings. I've been less confrontational in this century. I've had a lot less to be confrontational about since I stopped watching the news or listening to NPR. I blame it on Books on Tape. I'd been listening to books on tape while driving back and forth to work and they've worked like a charm. As long as the book is good and I'm not in a rush, I don't mind gridlock - it is just an opportunity to listen to a few more chapters. For a while I didn't mind the length of my commute. The radio that I've listened to since I returned the books on tap has gotten my hackles up. No, I'm not talking about the music these young kids listen to. I'm talking about when radio hosts inject their beliefs into their purportedly non-political program. (Say that a couple of times fast).

One show that I listen to regularly is the afternoon 590 AM show with Bob and Kevin. The only reason that I listen to it is that 1380 AM cuts its signal around 5:00pm. I've written about these guys before. I'm still waiting for the day when Bob is something other than an absolute suck up. Lately the talk has been about the police beating in St. Louis. Kevin seems to think that the officers were completely justified now matter what they did. Bob agrees. Yesterday one caller said that he thought that the police's excessive force was justified. Hello! They call it EXCESSIVE force because it is TOO MUCH force. TOO MUCH force is never justified. It would be justifiable force or appropriate force then. I still haven't seen the clip, but from the descriptions I've heard it seems as if the police stopped beating the guy when they realized they were being filmed. If you stop doing something when someone sees you do it, isn't that a good sign that you were doing something that you shouldn't have been doing to begin with. Police officers have a tough job. But part of their job is to use an appropriate amount of force when necessary to get their job done. Smearing the line too far just makes their job harder. See the mess from the Iraqi detention center in Abu Gerib (sp?) for an example.

At what point...

One of my co-workers was telling a story about how her friend had her license taken away by the police. It seems that she had just gotten a new Mustang and was seeing how fast it could go. They clocked Mustang Sally going 120... on Mason Road... at 5:30pm.

There are so many things that are wrong about that. First, there are several schools along that road. At that time of day, there could have been parents driving along after picking up little Joey from kindergarten. Second, Mason Road is a windy two-lane road with a max speed of either 30 or 35 MPH. It's not a highway and certainly not the Indy Motor Speedway. 120 is three to four times the speed limit. Third, there are homes and a farm along that road. If a animal or heaven forbid a child had wandered on to the road, she wouldn't have been able to stop in time unless she went into Bullet Time (tm) like she was a character in the Matrix. Fourth, at this time of year that time of night is dark or at best twilight. Neither is the best lighting conditions for breaking out your inner Andretti.

So, surprise! She's got a court date and will likely have to pay a substantial fine for reckless driving or some similar misdemeanor. And no, as my co-worker suggested, she should not get off with just a ticket or a stern warning. And this morning, as she should, Mustang Sally is riding the bus to work downtown St. Louis from her home out in the county. Next time, I guess she better slow that Mustang down. Before she kills someone.

I've been known to speed. My general rule is that adding 5-8 MPH is generally still safe especially in light traffic. And on occasion as I drive out to the sticks for work, I'll hit 80 MPH on 40 as I clear 141. But 120 is so far out of line that I have a hard time empathizing if she did it on the highway. At what point do you stop standing up for your idiot friend and tell them that they got what was coming to them and if anything got off easy?

Diet Day 8

Breakfast: Eggs with V-8
AM Snack: Almonds
Lunch: Fish and Squash, Jello
PM Snack: Roast Beef Rollups
Dinner:
Dessert:

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- This morning felt a little rushed as my wife took off for work much earlier than she ahd been. Since I didn't prepare last night, today's food was a sort of poaching of what was quick and easy.
- I feel bad about not running last night, but it was a late night. Not too late for me to have done some late night surfing, but still late. I know, it's a pitiful excuse, but that's all I got.

Diet Day 7

Breakfast: Eggs with feta and pico de gallo
AM Snack: Red peppers with cheese in balsamic vinegar
Lunch: Salad with lunch meat
PM Snack: Roast beef rollups
Dinner: Beef with black beans and peppers
Bed time: Ricotta dessert

---

- I finally weighed myself today (191). I'm either really dehydrated from last night's BFL run or I'm actually losing weight. My money's on dehydration.
- The BFL run last night was tough but rewarding. It's been a long time since I ran that hard. It's a 20 minute run that I had changes in pace every minute. Mine in MPH was 5,5, 6,7,8,9, 6,7,8,9, 6,7,8,9, 6,7,8,9,10, 5 with a 5 minute cool-down. I'll try this workout once a week as a hard day. I wanted to do some more work after it was done, but decided to let a good night stay that way.
- I may have overdid it on my lunch salad. I'm very full.
- I smiled as I wrote down what I've had to eat today. On the one hand, I'm on a diet, but on the other hand doesn't it sounds appealing? I guess I'm coming to peace with my diet instead of fighting it. But that doesn't mean that I won't set it aside on Saturday. I'll just do another two weeks of phase one afterwards.
- I have to go shopping tonight on my way home for Saturday. I'm debating between 2 turkeys or one turkey and two turkey breasts.
- I ended up going with 1 & 2.
- I sort of made up dinner on my own. It reminded me a lot of the dinners that I was making before we started dieting.