Baby

Yes, I know I don't have anyone reading this, but I'll write anyway.

So I've been off the blog since June, and that would mostly be due to our daughter being born in mid July. It has been quite the crazy several months and there is little opportunity to sit down with some time to myself.

It is strange, before the baby was born there was a list of things I would like to do, but don't happen for various reasons, sometimes important, sometimes just due to my procrastinatory ways. Now that we have our new 3 month old roommate, we both find that we barely have time to get the basics done like laundry and dishes out of the sink. Not that we were these crazy partiers that went out all the time but it is tough to get things done when the baby is up. Or asleep.

There is some sort of routine that is forming, and we're getting better at taking care of her and realizing what her needs are. So this is a short blog just to make I'm getting back on here and I'm hoping to get on a routine and do some writing, we'll see what she lets me do. She's a sassy baby, and as Wanda Sykes said "They a lotta work. But they worth it."

Timer

We moved into a new apartment last month and it is definitely a nice upgrade from what we had before. Not that the old place was crappy, but, well, a few things were crappy. Still, a great "first place living together". One thing that changed was that we went from a glass-top stove to the electric coil type that I prefer (and heats up like a supernova). This is an apartment stove and there is no timer on it. When I cook, I need to time things so there needed to be a method of timing. Sure, clocks work, but if you forget what time it was you started or get distracted from the culinary task at hand; BAM!

-Fission!-

And that's what the coffee, tacos, pancakes, chicken, etc. will end up as, all because you didn't time it. Way to go.

I am the main cook in the house, so I would rather not serve my wife eggs uneasy, dried out chicken, or charcoal. As noted before, there was no timer on the stove that we are now using and I grabbed a cheap-y digital timer when we were at the grocery store. I guess the fact that I preempted this with 'cheap-y' could be a window of understanding into why it sucks.

We have a simple, digital timer that you can set the hours or minutes. Here, it does what it is supposed to, counts down from the top and beeps incessantly when time is up. The problem is that it gives you warning beeps - 2 beeps that sound the same as the final beeping, many, many, beeps.

It beeps at 10, 8, 5, 3 and then 0. So if I set it for 4 mins, it'll go off after 1 minute. What the hell? I don't need the timer to remind me I set it 1 minute after I turned it on. Really I don't want to hear a peep from it until it hits the end. I figured that even buying a cheap timer I would set a number and it would beep to tell me the time was up, not say, "getting there!", "almost done!", "here it comes!", "home stretch...!", "aaaaaand...!". *beep"K, now you're done!"beep*.

Alright timer, I get it, I didn't forget that I set you up because I was the one who set you up 2 seconds ago. And if I set it for 45" to check the laundry, it goes off around 7 or so times before we hit pay dirt. Yeah, I mean, thanks for the reminder, but I think the timer is an overachiever. I have now thought of getting a new timer that just counts down and beeps, I didn't realize that the market had thinned out for those and you had to shell out extra money for that feature.

The beep is kinda shrill, loud, and relentless. Wait, I think that is good for a timer, or alarm clock. Actually I wake up to the radio because I hate the sound of an alarm. Maybe I should just put a clock radio in the kitchen and set it to start the music when I need to check. Hmm.

Of course the problem that might arise is that a song comes on that I enjoy and the timer is no longer annoying. I would rather not burn my food because I was dancing to Lady Gaga in the kitchen. That, or hit snooze a few times.

Mostly I just tell the timer to shut-up.

-James

2 things came true

If you happened to read my last blog then there are no less than 2 things that came true.

1) That mild rant about parking where you just end up going back to where you should have originally gone and paid the 15 bucks? Totally happened.

2) I said I would try not to get pink. Well, my arms and neck are kinda burnt right now. 1st degree burns, nothing a little aloe with lidocaine can't help out.

We spent the day at the beach in beautiful weather then went back to the house and did some BBQ, and it was just a plain old, simple, nice day with the family.

There, that's it.

Parking

Off to the beach today - seeing as it's a beautiful holiday weekend. It's going to be a zoo for sure and who knows what it will be like trying to find parking. Let's see, we could try and park on the side of the road and walk along the side while trying not to get run over, or, park in the big lot with everyone else and pay $15.

I actually think I might rather pay the money because by the time you drive around, sit in traffic, wait for people to cross the street or get out of the street so you can pass, turn around to drive back down the road to get that 'ok' spot only to find that someone as taken it, swear because there's too many people walking and driving in the area just because it's a holiday weekend, all while you've got all the people in the car are telling you the best option about parking - even possibly about the "secret parking spot we found last summer", and you just end up going back to the $15 parking lot only because someone else suggested it even though you wanted to do that in the first place.

I try to be good about my spelling and such, but I don't think that counts as a run on sentence, it just has lots of commas.

Also, since I have finished grad school and started my "real" career I have gained about 15 pounds. Hm, maybe I should put some money on the number 15. Or 1 and 5. Now last summer I was working out do to the impending wedding and honeymoon in Bermuda, so I was in relatively good shape. But, since August I haven't gone to the gym, and I think I have been trying to match my pregnant wife in calorie intake and that just makes me end up with a sketchy body image. Mind you, I am not on eating disorder level 3 or anything, I think it's more an end result of working full time, busy, getting ready for the baby, and turning 31.

Yes, these are all excuses.

But I can't complain, it's all good, and believe me it could always be worse. I know because I work with patients all the time that are in way worse shape. More on that later.

Well we're off to the beach to experience some of that parking fun I talked about earlier. I will not get sunburned today. I hope.

Really the first

Really? A first blog?

Actually, the first time I wrote a blog was for MySpace back in '06. This is when we were all just kids, the internet was new, and gas only cost 37 cents a gallon. Originally I wrote it because the girl I liked and started dating was writing fairly routinely and I wanted to try it out (and use it as an excuse). Now I'm married to that girl, guess it worked out then. So here we are.

I often go on kicks, get really into one particular topic or skill intensely for a few weeks or months and then it fizzles out. Sometimes it's because I am always retaining random things, or maybe because I get inspired from reading someone else's experiences and think "I wanna do that!". Today, me and the wife stumbled upon a very funny site and her blog inspired me to get back into the writing thing. Kinda though, I want to be funny.

Tonight I signed up and it's late - we've got beach-going activities to do tomorrow so I have to get to bed. I didn't want to sign up and not write anything down, this is all you get. Take that Twitter and your 160 characters, I have more useless stuff to say than 160!

Wow, this is bad.

I made a first blog and I already screwed it up.

Sigh.