Is Home Schooling a possibility for the kids? Nope, not in this house.

I am the dish washer in the family. Tonight, as I was washing the dinner plates, something i cleaned up reminded me in an off-hand, round-about way of a conversation my friend and I had.

This friend of mine, who I've known since I was five, told me that he was going to put his kid into a private kindergarten next year. The neighborhood they live in is very nice but it is in the middle of a larger part of town that is not-so-nice; the school district has a bad reputation and he has decided that it would be worth spending the extra money on a private school.

My mind started reeling at the idea of spending big money on my kid's school. Of course I would pay, if it came down to it. My children seem pretty smart so far - I sure do want to give them every advantage. But how do you afford it?

Then there is always the "alternative" method of schooling your kids: home schooling. If you home school your children, you don't have to send them to those "poorly staffed" schools with those "bad influence" kids. In fact you might even get a break on your property tax since you have opted out of an expensive part of your county's services. All that aside, I still don't think I could handle the responsibility of teaching the kids everything they need to know -- how could I possibly handle it.

Then it occurred to me... I could at least teach them chemistry.

You know how every bit of matter in it's natural state exists in either a gas, a solid or a liquid? Introducing energy in some way to that matter can change the state -- exciting the molecules or slowing them down. For example, Carbon Dioxide exists at room temperature as a gas -- but if you cool it down it becomes a solid (dry ice). Even water is another great example -- cool it down and it freezes into a solid, but heat it up and it becomes a gas.

With this knowledge I have discovered that I may already have the tools, or at least the "classroom" to teach a chemistry class: my kitchen. Did you know (and it is a bit of a shock to me as well) that milk demonstrates this principle very well? Cooled in the refrigerator or warmed in the body of your neighborhood cow, milk will act like a liquid. But, lo and behold, if you leave that milk out all night so it can return to room temperature it becomes a solid, it's natural state!

Amazing. I have found my calling as a science teacher after all this time. And all because I am the dish washer.

Fantasy Baseball 101: Pre-draft Strategy

So many players, so little time. As the date for your Fantasy Baseball draft looms, your stress understandably grows. How do you create a successful pre-draft ranking for your live or auto-draft Fantasy Baseball League?

Trust me, I know the feeling. One false move and you have got Kirk Benson on your team instead of Barry Zito. If we were playing Fantasy Baseball Wives, then that might have been a good pick. Normally, it wouldn’t be.

So what do you do? In an “all baseball” fantasy league, there are a huge number of players for you to consider for your team: on 29 major league teams, there are 5 starting pitchers + 2 top relievers + 9 position players = 29*16=464. Add in the backups, the rookies and the platoon players, and you have well over 500 players to evaluate. No one expects you to have a short bio ready for each player on draft day. But it sure does help to know who the top players are at each position.

Ok, I confess. I probably know something about each one of those 500 players. But I am not normal. There once was a time where I didn’t know much more than who last year’s players were on my favorite team, and I went into the fantasy draft with just my Yankee-love. In the following years, after a dismal start in fantasy sports, I learned how to learn. I taught myself where to go, and how to gain the knowledge. It took some time, but it was worth it to me.

First thing to know is that you don’t have to put in any extra time if you don’t want to. Most fantasy sports pages provide you with a standard ranking system. Yahoo’s page provides its users with two ranks: a basic Rank, based on last years performance, and an O-Rank, an overall assessment of that players worth, past, present and future. The lower the number, the better the rank; draft players with better ranks wherever possible. Simple, isn’t it?

Other websites provide a dollar value to each player. A player who is valued at $50 is worth more than a player worth $16. Seems obvious, right? What’s nice about this kind of ranking is that you can see the relative difference between players that might be harder to figure out by the Yahoo ranks. Yahoo may rank Jorge Posada and Javy Lopez as the fourth and fifth best catchers in a given year, respectively. A dollar-value based system may assess Posada at $24 and only give Lopez a value of $18. You can see how much difference there is between two players ranked right next to each other as well as compare that value to players at other positions with the same dollar value.

So, basically, with almost no time invested, you have a simple guide to who will be a better pick for your draft. Leagues that use Yahoo’s website for their auto-draft will automatically suggest the default Yahoo O-Rank as their draft pre-rank. With no work at all, Yahoo will make the choices for you, based on who the next best players is available from their master O-Rank list.

One of the things that make it enjoyable is that you don’t have to spend more time than you have. However, I am not satisfied with the Yahoo list alone. Yahoo doesn’t make any pre-draft adjustments for injuries, trades, free agency, or World Baseball Classic participation. So what do you do now? Where do you go to get all that juicy information that makes your draft so successful? There really is no secret. I don’t pay for any of it. All my data is available for free somewhere; in magazines, on TV, on the radio, and on the web.

Every little bit helps. I was always told by my teachers in elementary school, “The more you read, the smarter you are.” In high school and college, my creative writing professors told me that the same holds true with writing, “The more you write, the better you become”. One of my favorite bands, They Might Be Giants, subscribes to the same point of view: the more music you produce the better you become at producing music. Of course, we all do it more because we love to do it in the first place. But the rule holds true to Fantasy Baseball. The more you read about, listen to, watch and look up about baseball, the more you know about baseball.

I’d also say that doing a little bit at a time helps. Cramming might help you score well on that one test, but you are bound to forget all that info faster. If you learn a few things each sitting, you are more likely to retain that knowledge and make better decisions throughout the course of the season.

Most of us regular guys can’t be employed by ESPN and travel around from camp to camp during Spring Training. Very few have that luxury. Instead, we are all in the same position to begin with, knowing as much as those people choose to report. Read as much as you can, and you can try to know just enough that you might be able to get the jump on that one budding star, or to avoid that injury prone dud.

Here are some of the resources I have used in the past:
I subscribe to The Sporting News. Ok, it sounds simple enough, but this magazine gives me a weekly summary of every recent newsworthy baseball observation and how it affects each team. There is commentary on recent transactions, player health, manager opinions, and other expert articles. I rarely have time to read the entire thing, so, when I have time, I sit in my big chair and skim read for the player names in bold. When I notice that a particular player is noted to show promise or greater potential the next season, I circle their name. If a player is mentioned to have some sort of injury or fatal flaw that should keep them off my team, I put an X through their name. When I have time I use the results of this method to bump players up on my master list or eliminate them completely.
I listen to Sports Radio. It doesn’t matter what station you listen to, but any news you hear is more than you already knew before.
I watch SportsCenter. I actually don’t watch many sports on TV until baseball season starts, and then if there is a game on, the TV is on. I might tune in for a good college basketball matchup, but it is not essential. If I see some bit of news on the ticker at the bottom of the screen, I consider that a bonus.
I surf the web. I surf it like crazy. I surf it so much, Bodie from Point Break called and wants to meet me and catch a gnarly wave. There is a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge out here that few people know how to find and read. Here are a few of the sites that I have found to be the most helpful.
www.baseball-almanac.com
www.thesportingnews.com
www.fanball.com
www.kffl.com
www.rotoguru.com
www.sportsfanatics.net
www.cbssportsline.com
I pay attention to what the experts do. Most of the Fantasy Baseball experts I have read all post their own predictions as well as their own fantasy teams. One expert I like to follow is located on Yahoo’s site, Brandon Funston’s “Big Board.” Updated weekly, this will rank the top 50 players at any given week and 100 players during the pre-season (the Bigger Board). If you are looking to see how your superstar shortstop is ranked against the rest of the studs, this is a nice place to look. Funston is generally very objective, and he will tell you which players he himself has selected in his own expert’s drafts.
I review as many mock drafts as I can. Mock Drafts are drafts that act like “practice drafts” for anxious players. From these you can see what other rabid fantasy baseball fans think about the value of each player. You will see player movement trends early enough to then do the rest of the research on other websites to figure out why some people are giving more or less value to a particular player.

Once you have done all the research you can, get yourself a master player ranking list. This list would have player names, positions, teams, probable rankings and maybe even last year’s stats. Cut and paste it from a website, borrow it from a friend, or hand type it yourself, it doesn’t matter. Its value is great. If you can even rank players by position on different pages, that gives you a better look at things. Using this list, for players that you have read favorable news, bump them a little higher on the list. Players that have received poor press or who are injured, bump them down on the list, or eliminate them completely. This will give you a good idea on what you think certain players belong in the draft – when you think they will get picked.

Finally, it’s important for you to have a plan. Nothing huge, just have an idea on what positions you think there are fewer good players at. This year, there are a multitude of very good shortstops available – if you don’t want to pull the trigger on the best one or two out there in early rounds before they are picked by others, wait until later to make your choice. Keep an eye on who has been picked as the draft progresses, and if it fits in the plan, grab one before most of the good ones are gone. Other positions are generally thinner when it comes to available talent. You might want to try to grab one of those players earlier in the draft so that you aren’t left out in the cold when all the decent talent is gone.

Spread it out. Don’t draft too many of one position all at once. My suggestion is for every five rounds pick at least one infielder, one outfielder, one starting pitcher and one reliever. Use the fifth pick to fill in the holes. Another suggestion is to spread out the power/average/speed picks as well. For every power hitter you grab, you should also target one player who hits for average and another who can steal bases. There is no perfect order or formula, just spread it around. The same rule applies to players on the same team. The year after the Angels won the World Series, a friend of mine went out and drafted their entire starting lineup. Of course, many of those players were very good and helped his team weekly. There are reasons that some players bat at the bottom of the order, or pitch at the end of the rotation. Don’t fall into the trap of drafting every player on your favorite team; if just doesn’t work. Every fantasy team will have players from lots of different teams, even teams that have no chance at making the playoffs, let along a World Series.

Ultimately, you should have an idea about what kind of team you want to have by the end of the draft. Do you want to focus on pitching strengths or batting? Are there certain players you like more than others? As you figure that out, I encourage you to keep one thing in mind – pick yourself a team that you love to look at every day; it’s a long season.

Are you kidding me??

This new toy is bound to be the next Cabbage Patch Kid: http://www.appleheadfactory.com/
Teddy Scares...

Warm and Cozy

Recently we had to take Big Sis to the emergency room. The poor kid got a huge splinter lodged under the nail of her middle finger. I can't imagine how it got there, and it didn't really cause her much discomfort. She had woken up from her nap like any other day and was playing happily in the living room until she eventually let us know there was a problem. Very quietly, she walked into the kitchen where WW and I were sharing an afternoon snack. Without a word she entered the room and walked right up to us. She held her hand up to my wife and said, "kiss?" (we had to kiss it to make it better)
After a futile attempt to tweeze it out myself, while my wife gently but firmly held her still amid her screams, we decided this task might be best left to the professionals. I drove Big Sis to the local Kid's Healthcare walk-in clinic to be seen. Like that annoying, self-absorbed parent that we all hate, I cut the line and asked the admission nurse if it was worth the wait: would the seriousness of her splinter force us to go to the real ER, or could she be seen here.
The nurse led me to a room where the Doctor on duty came in to examine Big Sis's finger. With one look he knew: there was no way he was going to touch it. We had been dispatched to the Emergency Room, Scottish Rite, the prestigious Children's Hospital. The doctor said that in order for him to remove the splinter, he would have to sedate her, remove her nail, remove the splinter and then replace the nail. He didn't have the equipment/medication there to handle the sedation.
Off to Scottish Rite we went, picking up my wife and son. After meeting up with Grandma to drop of the boy, we made the 40 minute drive to the children's emergency room. Supposedly, this is the best place to take a kid in the greater metro area, so that's the place where we were going. Once we were there, and after a long wait, we saw a very nice doctor-lady who brought a tough orderly and a needle of painkillers. Loratab, to be specific, my kid's first fix. Well, after one shot of that stuff, and 15 minutes for it to kick in, the nice doctor-lady was able to gently pull the splinter out without a peep from Big Sis.
About six hours, and $100 later, we were finally on our way home. The drugs hadn't exactly worn of yet either. For most of the ride home, Big Sis sang quietly to herself. One song quickly became her favorite, sung dreamily and repeatedly, I can't even guess what tune it was to. She, in the haze of a Loratab high, contented herself to sing "Warm and Cozy" over and over again on the dark ride home. Our baby was okay again.

1000 visits!

I am not sure how it happened, but I have had 1000 visits to my site. I have been up and running her for almost three months, so that is more than 10 hits a day. Of course that isn't 10 unique visitors, but still, 10 is 10, and 1000 is 1000. Wow.

I get visitors from all over. Many of them come from BlogSpot/Blogger referrals. You may have noticed that you can click on a link at the top of the page to send you to the "next" blog. I don't suggest it if you are faint of heart; there are many blogs out there that are NOT for public consumption. Seriously, don't press that button.

I also get a lot of visitors from websearches. I get lots of hits from MSN and Google searches based on content that i have in the blog (stadiums, Mayor Nagin, Best Wings in Marietta, Pomperaug Coach, etc.). I am surprised how often people click on random content like my blog.

There are ways that I can optimize the code to this page to get even more hits from random websearches, but I am not an expert on that, and I just don't have the time. Maybe some day.

Oh, and I haven't sold a single t-shirt to any of the 1000 hits. Not that anyone was surprised. Maybe i need to expand my offerings... hmmm...

Nagin proves himself to be an Idiot, says Johnny Damon

I couldn't believe it. I had to slow the car down and turn the radio up when I heard this.

In a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech, Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, said something that made me shake my head in disbelief. On the day where we celebrate the man who said:
"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Ray Nagin stands up and dishonors his memory.

"I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day," Nagin said in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." (CNN Article Link)
Holy candy wrappers, Batman! Even Willy Wonka could tell you that rebuilding a "chocolate New Orleans" would be a bad idea that close to the equator. It wouldn't last through the summer! How wasteful.

Or, maybe he was just listening to a lot of funk music lately? Getting Parilament confused with local city government, perhaps? Chocolate City. Mayor, you are a hoot.


Mayor, will there be a Vanilla Sky in Chocolate City?

The best part was his explanation on what he meant. When pressed that his remarks were devisive and racist he explained, "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about." Mayor, what ARE you talking about.

Mayor Nagin is up for re-election in April.

Best Wings in Marietta, part two

A while back I wrote a short article about my experience at Wild Wing Cafe in Marietta, GA. Seriously, the best wings ever. It's a quick read: link

The results of a google search for "best wings" Marietta gives you: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22best%20wings%22%20marietta&btnG=Search
My site is the first on the list.
I am going to make this place famous. I want free Athens Fireball in return. And beer.

Baseball Stadiums

My friend, Jeremy, and I were discussing Busch Stadium's demise in St. Louis recently. This prompted us to trade lists on which stadiums we had visited in our lifetime across the United States. (trackback)

Here is my list:

• The King Dome, Seattle
• Safeco Field, Seattle
• Coors Field, Denver
• Shea Stadium, Queens
• Yankee Stadium, The Bronx
• Turner Field, Atlanta
• The Astrodome, Houston
• Comisky Park, Chicago
• Candlestick Park (3Com), San Francisco
• McAfee Coliseum (Network Associates Coliseum), Oakland

Which makes me think about how much I am looking forward to bringing Big Sis back to Turner Field. What they have done to that ballpark is taken a boring baseball diamond and turned it into this carnival of things to do before, during and after the game. It's not just about baseball anymore.

Once you get to the game, you can take your youngin' to Tooner Field, a Cartoon Network sponsored play area. Designed with the kids in mind, it really attracts a young demographic to the game, which does two things: creates new baseball fans, and retains existing, older fans.

There is an enormous jumbo-tron-like viewing screen, which is almost more fun to watch than the actual game (did I just write that?). The 72 feet by 80 feet "BravesVision" lights up a night game, and is crystal clear during a day game. It makes following the game action very easy, and really gets the crowd involved.

At the end of each Sunday afternoon game, fans 12 and under are invited to "run the bases." Yep, the little kids get to go out onto the playing field and run like little maniacs around the basepaths. On Mother's Day, Mom gets to run too.

Of course, I am still there for the GAME. But if that's what it takes to get my kids interested, so be it. Opening Day is scheduled for April 1st weekend again, as usual, and I just can't wait. With Little Bubba's arrival, it may be harder to get to a game, but I'll be tryin'! See you at the ballpark.

Check out the new online shops!

There is a new section on the right-hand sidebar called "Shops". This spot will be dedicated to places to go o the web to find great stuff.

I have created a new CafePress online store for you to buy Nobody Tells Me Anything Brand Merchandise! Don't kid yourself, everybody will be wanting this by next Christmas. Get yours today!
Click the link to see the latest offerings, and check back frequently to see new items as they are made available.

Below that is my friend, Jen's, Vintage Clothing store. Lots of good finds there, cheap. Check it out regularly; her stock rotates often.

Kids say the darndest things... Especially in the South.

Our Little Bubba is sick. He caught a cold from his Big Sis recently and it turned out to be some big nasty virus called RSV. Supposedly it isn't very nice to the wee ones.

Turns out that after some coughing and wheezing, a trip to the pediatrician and two trips to the hospital, he has been diagnosed with bronchiitis (infant bronchitis) and pneumonia. He has some antibiotics to take as well as another medicine that he inhales through a nebulizer. Neato. He is such a trooper -- barely cries, a little fussing, but generally pretty happy. Good kid.

My Wonderful Wife, during a break while Little Bubba was napping this afternoon, took Big Sis for a ride down the driveway in the wagon. They were met by our neighbor's child, Katie, who is a precocious little 8 year old. Very nice kid, very talkative, and not shy at all. W.W. told Katie about how Little Bubba was sick, and that he had "Bronchitis and Pneumonia." Katie nodded knowingly, responding "Oh yeah. My cousin is sick too. He has Bronchitis and Dwarfism."

Is it baseball season yet?

I am hungry.
Starved in fact.
My only nourishment is coming from a website that we keep up, referenced on the sidebar there, about our Fantasy Baseball League. I need to have myself a full baseball meal. This always happens to me during the winter. It's the same every year. I have had enough baseball by the end of October, and I barely think about it during November and December. But once January comes... hoo boy.

The World Baseball League should be interesting, and will probably keep my hunger at bay for a little bit. But that is still over a month away. Until then, I talk baseball with anyone who will listen. You'd be surprised to hear that there are others out there like me.

• I discuss trades,
• talk about free agents,
• mull over the sorry state of the Red Sox,
• lament the Red Sox acquisition of Mark Loretta to fill their 2B hole,
• revel in the "Babe Ruth-like" acquisition of Johnny Damon by the Yankees (could this be the Curse of the Idiot, another long Red Sox World Series drought? please, let it be so.),
• argue with the sister-in-law's boyfriend that it's ok to be a Yankee fan AND a Braves fan because they are in different leagues,
• compare recent Hall of Fame inductee, Bruce Sutter (the fourth reliever inducted ever to the Hall), to our own superstar, Mariano Rivera,
• coax and cajole the father of a friend to join our highly competitive keeper Fantasy Baseball League,
• discuss the merits of the Rule 5 Draft with people who actually know what Rule 5 is.

All the while, I completely ignore that there is a Basketball season, forget that there are NFL playoffs happening, and barely acknowledge that the hometown Thrashers might actually make the playoffs in their short NHL existence.

I can't wait to bring the kids to baseball games this year. I was totally disappointed to find out that the Atlanta Braves vs. NY Yankees games will all be played in New York again this year. The Yankees haven't visited Atlanta in years.

I have considered canceling NetFlix just so that I can subscribe to XM satellite radio in order to get all the Yankee baseball broadcasts.

I look forward to the start of Spring Training when I ritualistically buy a new Yankee cap to replace my own. As a part of the ritual, I "hand down" my current Yankee hat to someone who is a fan, but really needs a good hat. Last year's hat remains on my shelf because it has become my "painters cap"; I can't wash it enough for it ever to be anything other than a "work hat".

I have two coffee table books for when I have a coffee table that will not be attacked by my curious children. I received one of them from one of my sisters, a Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums book. Very cool. The other is a History of the World Series. I love that book.

You are welcome to join me in the baseball talk by clicking on the link on the right for the Baseball Addicts Anonymous page. See ya there.

My gym teacher died.

My former gym teacher just passed away. He was too young, dying in his sleep at the age of 53. This is shocking to me, trying to exersize more now to keep from dying, but this isn't about me. This news has struck my littlest sister hard -- she played basketball for him for years. She and her former high school teammates got together Saturday night to watch some old game footage.
I wish his family well. We enjoyed his class. I enjoyed watching the girls volleyball team he coached.
Here is the article from the local paper:

Basketball coach's death leaves community shocked
Sunday, January 8, 2006
BY JOE PALLADINO
Copyright © 2006 Republican-American
Pomperaug High School girls basketball coach Pete Kamide died at his home early Saturday morning, leaving an athletic department and a community shocked and saddened.
Kamide, who taught in the physical education department for a quarter century and who was in his 19th season as head basketball coach, was 53.
"Right now we are still in shock and disbelief," said Pomperaug High athletic director Joe Velardi. "Pete touched so many people in this community."
The Pomperaug girls played at home Friday night against Lauralton Hall, winning 41-33.
"As he walked out of the gym Friday he complained of a little headache," recalls Velardi. "He went home, called the newspapers, watched a little television, had dinner, and went to bed. He passed away in his sleep. There is an autopsy being done (Saturday). We don't know what happened."
Velardi said that Pomperaug's girls basketball game Tuesday against Newtown has been postponed. A determination has not been made on the home game Friday against Masuk
"The kids on the team and their families are deeply saddened," added Velardi. "It is hard to gain perspective right now. Nothing has been decided. We need some time to deal with that."
One man who coached with Kamide for more than a decade, and taught alongside him for more than two decades, is Pomperaug football coach Chuck Drury.
"I am as shocked as everybody today," said Drury.
Kamide served as a football assistant for Drury for eight seasons, and Drury was a basketball assistant for three more.
"Pete was a wonderful husband, father, and coach," notes Drury. "He was a good friend and a good colleague, and he had a great relationship with a lot of the other coaches. He was a guy's guy. I guess a guy would understand what that means."

Jack Edward is here!!

My sis has FINALLY had her kid. I'll get a picture up soon, with her approval, but the kid is a GIANT!!! Jack Edward was born at 3:08am on January 4th, 2006. He was 9 pounds and 10 ounces, and 22 inches long. As my mom says, "A big baby for our little Katie."

Hurray! I'm an Uncle!

Just let Ryan do it.

It has been too long since I have posted, and my head is filling up with too many random thoughts. I just need to share some of them.

Was it just me, or did Dick Clark mess up the New Year's Eve Countdown.
Fifteen, Fourteen, Thirteen, *mmmph*, *mmph*, eight, seven, six... and so on. I lost four seconds off my year. Thanks, Dick. I realize you are recovering from stroke and that you have made great improvements, but DANG! This is live television! Let's just let Ryan Seacrest do it next year. Maybe Dunkleman will join him.

Sidebar: there is no way that Mariah Carey wasn't freezing in that outfit. She sure did seem a bit "happy" to be there... did you notice that too? And when did she become so "voluptuous?" E-gad, I couldn't decide what was more distracting, Mariah's skimpy outfit or trying to decipher what Dick was saying at that time. Ugh. Not my favorite New Year's Eve TV moment. But that may have everything to do with the fact that I was more sober than I had ever been on a NYE, since I was eighteen? Maybe. Two kids and one less than a month old sure does curb your New Years Eve party experience.

Happy New Year!! What is your resolution?
I have thirty more pounds to lose. I'd like to see the inside of 200, and it would be great to hit 190. If I can start running again, I'd like to run the Peachtree Roadrace on July 4th. That one might be a stretch.

Camera fun

Some photos from the holi-daze.
Hope yours were happy.

Cake Good.

My kid is very smart. At least I think so.
She is really starting to talk, putting together full sentences. The odd thing though is that she has this odd English dialect that is something like "Eastern Caveman".
Oh yeah, she can put together a sentence, if you have the time to wait for all the words. It is great to watch her mind work as she puts the words together. The first word is spoken, (count to three), and then the second word is spoken, and so on.

You can ask her just about anything and she will give you a good answer. Here are some of the favorites:
Last night, after dinner we gave her a piece of coffee cake left over from Saturday breakfast. Unprompted, with a mouth full of dessert she stammers "Cake!" pause... pause... "Good!" She did this for the entire time she spent eating the cake.
Her favorite movie is "Finding Nemo". She can watch this movie in the morning, ask for it again in the afternoon and then want to watch it once again in the evening. If you say things like "I like Dory," to her, she will respond "I-Ike" pause... pause... "Dough-y" pause... "too". Very cute.

She has really started to get two syllable words down. It used to be that all words, no matter how long or complex they were, only had one true syllable. If it was a two syllable word (doggie), the first was the only pronouncable part of the word (daw, no 'g'), and if it was longer (cock-a-doodle-doo) the last was plenty (doo). I first noticed the use of two syllables when we were decorating the Christmas tree. There is a "holiday moose" (don't ask, i don't know) on our tree, and she will point to it and say "moo" pause... "sss". Ok, so she turned a one syllable word into two. I am still proud.

Finally home and settling in...

I'll be laying low for a little while. I am afraid that little sleep makes me stupid. My writing when i get little sleep is also stupid.

*Sigh*

On a lighter note, the First Kid (i'll have to come up with a better pseudonym when i am less tired) demonstated how smart she is tonight. Her Southern Grandpa asked her where she wanted to go and she pointed to the kitchen. When they got there she pointed at a part of the coffee machine in the drying rack and said "Kah", which obviously means "coffee". He picked it up and said, "yes, Coffee." She then pointed to the fridge and said "Kah" again. He carried her over there and watched as she pointed her way through the contents of the fridge to the very back to where the coffee is stored. She made him take it out and bring it to the counter where she asked him to open the cabinet through a series of grunts and pointed at the filters.

She cried a little when I wouldn't get out the coffee maker to make her coffee and just gave her milk instead. These kids today. The attitudes on them...

El Nino has arrived!

At 7:32pm on December 2nd 2005, our son was born at 37 weeks. He is a healthy 6 pounds, 6 ounces, a little heavier than his big sister was when she was born at 38 weeks, a svelt 5 lbs. 14 oz. He is 18 inches long, one inch shorter than big sis was.

Toe count: 10
Finger count: 10
Cute factor: 10
Grumpy old man factor: 10

Mom is doing very well, much to my relief.

The New Kid on the Block Arrives One Week Early. Film at Eleven.

Yep that's right. The new Kid shows up today. Not as of right now, but the C-Section is scheduled for 5 o'clock this evening.

One week early.

I can barely breathe.

I'll let you all know how it goes later. Say a little prayer for the wife and future kid, would ya?

At the very least, my wonderful wife is relieved to be rid a little early of the extremely difficult and persistant contractions she has been experiencing for the past six months.

I still can't breathe.

I am very excited to have a son. Thanks, Wife. I love you.

December 2nd, 2005.

Goodbye, Gordie!

We had to say "goodbye" to one of the Kid's new friends this week, Gordie.

Gordie had a recent introduction into our household, and he was welcomed with open arms. We named him Gordie because the name just "fit". I even called him Gordo as a nickname because he was kinda plump around the middle.

The Kid loved Gordie. Ever since Gordie arrived in our house, she would carry him around the house in her arms. She would give Gordie kisses, and rock Gordie to sleep at night. Eventually Gordie lost his appeal and he had fallen out of favor with the Kid. Eventually she ignored him completely, as kids tend to do when they lose interest in something. But he stayed with us because, well, the wonderful wife and I just liked having him around. He reminded us of all the good times we had these past couple of months.

Lately Gordie started to smell a little funny. I can't actually describe it, but it wasn't anything that soap could fix. The other day he got a little soft on one side, so the wonderful wife and I decided it was time to let Gordie go. One night when the Kid wasn't looking, we tossed him into the garbage. Goodbye, Gordie! We'll miss you!

Here is a photo of Gordie: