Layout Edit

I am trying to change my blog a little, I added a bunch of links to the left, and am altering some pics (the header is different, mountain now, not just clouds. its a pic i took in Switzerland years ago). I am also planing on adding a pic to the back ground. If you get the time , let me know what you thing, of the colors that is.

v-day dinner

When I got home from work last tonight (at about 9:50), my lovely wife was preparing a lovely valentines day dinner for me.



Here is what we had, A blue cheese, pear and prosciutto salad with a red wine balsamic reduction. Some nice pepper seasoned steak, with Rosemary potatoes, and some X-rated martinis.



We also had a cute little candle set up, to set the mood. As if the x-rated martinis were not mood setting enough.

Lego turns 50

Happy birthday to my bestest friend in the whole world, the lego brick.
lego history site 1

official site

just because

for those of you who love legos, star wars, and Eddie Izzard as much as me. Sorry about the profanity.

Public apology

I would like to make a general public apology. A recent interaction that I had, is the catalyst for this post, but I want to be very clear on the fact that this interaction is not the only one of these I have had, and because I know it will not be the last, I would like to apologize for my actions now, and not need to worry about doing it in the future.
Being a new dad, I appear to be a little exuberant in talking about my child. I have found that i interrupt people more often with a "well my son is doing this" statement. Having a child i find that i have the right to be proud, but i must admit that it does not give me the right to be rude. I realize that even though he is the center of my world, he is not the center of everyone else's and it is obnoxiously of me to assume so. This exuberance can be exceptionally hard for people that do not have that "parenting" instinct yet. There are many people out there (not just one!) that feel that they are not yet ready to have children, and there are a few people that i know personally, that know that they are not only not ready now, but they never will be. So i am making this post to let all of you know that if you feel this way, are over whelmed by me, over whelmed by my child, or need me to change the topic of conversation. Let me know. I do understand and I am not offended. I believe that everyone has the right to have there own opinions, and i do not have the right to judge them for those feelings. And i am sorry if I have made any of you feel judged or embarrassed for having said feelings.

Three months down, or is it 13 weeks?

X is 13 weeks old today but will not technically be three months until tomorrow, and this brings me to an important question. When do you stop reporting your child's age with meticulous detail. Being a first time parent I think it is funny the responses I have hear to the question, how old is your child. Mine is 63 weeks! mine is 18 months! Mine will be 3 years old in 5 months! What does That mean. When you get down to it, I do have a argument to make for a little detail. Last Friday, X was 12 old, this should translate to 3 months, assuming that the month is a four weeks (wich most people tend to do). However, if you do make that assumption, your child will reach 13 months on the date that they become a year, and that is just wrong. SO, I think that i am going to loose the weekly descriptor hear shortly and just switch to months. But i declare here and now that my boy will not be a month older until the 26th (except in February) of the month. After tomorrow X is 3 months old, and after that he will be 4 on the 26th. No more weeks. ANd beyond that his progression will be... he is a year, a little over a year, a year and a half, almost two, and then it is just 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. etc.
On a slightly different note I would like to let it be know that X is currently right on track, developmentally at least. Recently he discovered his hands, and he is quickly learning that he controls them and is able to reach out and grab things, He also rolled over on his own for the first time the other day, tummy to back. He has also learned that he has a voice that he is able to use, even if he does not "need" anything. Lately he is content sitting in his chair interacting with a frog that my mother bought him. I will put a pic of him and the frog up later. One other funny thing he does is this. Every time we turn the lights on in his room he sneezes. I think that the light makes him squint, which in turn puts pressure on his sinuses, and results in a tickle, that causes a sneeze. But that is just a guess, not scientific fact.

WTF?

most ridicules ploy of the new year this far is the corvette dollar. My chief complaint stems from the fact you are spending $20, on a silver dollar... but then again, it does light up.

What does that song mean?

One thing that I have noticed since becoming a proud papa, is that songs have taken on a new meaning. Not all love songs are gushy love songs toward ones significant other. Some can be applied to the love one feels for there children with no twisting of the imagination at all. Two examples. 1) I knew I loved you (before I meet you) by Savage Garden 2) I'll Be, by Reba. Both are good songs, and if you have not heard them, I highly recommend that you find them so you can hear them.
just a thought.

resolutions

We are sooo happy to announce that Xavier has decided to stick with the new years resolution. SO far, since the first of the year, Xavier has decided it is time for him to sleep through the night. This is good for me. Generally he is going to bed at about 9:00 and waking up around 4:00 for a quick snack, then crashing again until about 8:30. Last night he sleep straight through from midnight to 8:00. This, on the other hand, is not so good for Karen, considering she is working evening and night for the most part. This means that she gets home some time between midnight and 4am. This means that the majority of the sleep he gets, is while Karen is at work.

As far as Karen and my resolution, we have vowed to keep xavier happy. This should not be to hard right??

just because

Oh yeah, and happy new years.

movie review

I watched "nightwatch" and "daywatch" yesterday. WOW, were they good. They are a set of Russian films that i highly recommend to anyone who like fantasy, scifi, vampire type movies. That being said, this movie had vampires, but was not an actual vampire movie. In short the two movies fallow a guy named Anton. He is a "light other." in his world, there are light others and dark others who are watching out for man kind to make sure the balance of good and evil stays balanced. Ultimately the dark others want to get it off balance so they can rule the world. SO to do this they set Anton up. In the past he made a bad decision that comes to fruition in the first film. Then in the second film, he has to find out how to right his wrong. I give the two films four thumbs up. Great story line, great characters, great special effects, kind off loose plot, but there is always something.

the decorations are up.

Here is my crayola wreath
















and here is the tree.

smoke makes me smile

I have a confession to make, well kind of. I have a small addiction that some times gets me down. I am trying to kick the habit but it is, as with all addictions, an uphill battle. However, when I am down and out, nothing makes me smile like a house full of smoke, that is cooking something fun and new. Today was such a day. I was a little down earlier today, but a little browsing of the internet and some recipe web sites, set my mind straight. Tonight we had home made speatzle, with a blue cheese cream sauce toped by a creamy Parmesan orange roughy. Even though the color was very mute and on the bland side, the flavor was far from it. I knew speatzle could make me happy, but who knew it was so easy to make?

A winter wonder what?

Some of you are familiar with the last year’s winter debacle and the resultant purchase of snow blower. Well the past week it has been snowing and I have been eagerly awaiting the use of said blower once again. If not for the joy of throwing snow 15 feet with a mechanized spinning blade, then for the thought that some day I may get my moneys worth out of it. Well a few days ago we got about 4 inches. I woke up that morning and the walk way and driveway were already thawed considerably (or so it appeared). But there was still a light layer of snow on the concrete. I was ok with this and thought maybe next time, however I was a little confused because most of the other driveways had not began to thaw. Non the less I went on with life. Well it snowed again last night. When I woke up this morning by walkway, my driveway, and a patch in front of my mailbox were devoid of snow. Now I know that aint right. On closer examination I discovered that someone has been shoveling my snow!! Now for the confusing part, I do not know who, or why this has been done. It is nice, but I want to use my snow blower, and by the way Why could they not have done this last year, and made me not need to buy a snow blower in the first place. SO, to the mystery snowplow person I say thank you for your help, but back off, your taking away my fun.

Mutant boy X

truth be told, I have not taken a biology based class since I cut open a worm in middle school. Some how, I was able to make it through high school, collage, and graduate school learning the physical sciences and never once touching a biology or health science book. That being said, I believe my boy is a mutant. I may not have a lot of education to back that accusation, I am computer savy and able to look things up on line, and i am married to a doctor.
Lately we have been scrutinizing over Xavier, trying to decide who he looks like and determine what type of physical traits he may grow up exhibiting. We are Fairly certain he is going to be some what tall, have brown eyes (they are getting darker and darker daily), probably have dirty blond hair, no dimples, big ears and a cleft chin.... wait... a cleft chin??
After doing a little research we have discovered the following.
Genetically, the cleft chin gene is a dominant gene. in other words if you have the gene you have the cleft. This means that if one of your parents have a cleft chin, you have a 3 in 4 chance of inheriting it, because if one of the two genes you inherited is clefted, it overpowers the non dominate resulting in a physical manifestation. That is not to say that if you have one parent with a cleft chin you will have one. Do to it being a homozygous recessive genotype. This means that you have a 2 in 4 chance of not having a cleft. But I digress. The ultimate result of our findings was that in order to have a cleft chin, one of you parents MUST have a cleft, unless you have a spontaneous mutation. This is interesting because neither Karen, nor myself have a cleft chin.
so i conclude that my son is a mutant.
QED.

Dingos ate my baby

D.A.M.B,

here is the dead kola

The death of a family frined

the squeaker has passed away. Today in a tragic turn of events Arthur's favorite toy has found his final resting place in the bin. When it comes to playing with toys, Arthur is a gentle creature. We have multiple stuffed animals that are still in tact, and plenty of squeaking toys that have yet to be neutered. A little while ago we purchased a hard plastic koala bear that had a squeaker in it. This was Arthur's pride and joy. He brought it everywhere with him. He lovingly squeaked it in the corner, and carried it up and down the stairs with him every time he went up or down the stairs. Well today, in a tragic turn of events, Squeaker was cut in half, Black Dalia style. He will be sadly missed. Here is a parting shot.

adventures in onesie land

Karen and I have some interesting taste. We have some strong opinions about things, and luckily we agree on about 80% of those things (the other 10% of the time we agree to disagree). Well this has become an issue when it comes to clothing our child. We both are lovers of music, wittiness, movies, and science. Sometimes we like to geek out a little by listening to some lesser known bands while playing family friendly board games. And truth be told, I have some weird interests, such as in rocks, and Legos. Well, we (Karen and I) have decided that X makes the perfect billboard to express our views and opinions. Unfortunately, the populace, as a whole, does not have an overwhelming love for all things Lego, so finding onesies that reflects that love is hard to come by. Thus I have decided to create my own.
Yesterday I wen out and bought some iron-on paper, and sat down at my computer and started to create out little advertisements. Now X has two styling new lego themed onesies, and has at least one guster and one BNL design in the making. I will put pics up as things progress.

Tap the 57

Wouldn't it be nice if baby's came emblazoned with a spot that said "tap here to vent gas?" all it really needs to be is a little birthmark that looks like the number 57, and i would be set.

mom has worked the last two nights so it has been just the boys at home, and last night was a great night. We watched some tv until about 10:30, then we got fed and changed and were in bed by 11:00. X slept very soundly until 3:00, then talked to himself until 4:00. at 4 we got up and checked the dipper, to find nothing, then we took a 15 minute late night snack and passed back out until 7:30. now mom is home and it is time to eat breakfast.

all in all, i would say it was a great night.

Work, work, work, work.

Thursday night and Friday day guess what I did, made more cheesecake. I was at work, so i missed out on the most recent "advancements." But I was able to have an interesting conversation. How interesting is it that when you are a baby you get celebrated for every little achievement. simple thins like opening your eyes and keeping them open, and is it not also interesting that now those things are expected, such as opening your eyes and keeping them open. I guess it is not a good thing to nap at work :)
Anyway we did get some good pics over the last few days. I will get them up a little later today.