Snow

Ferrets and Guns

I feel like I have some sort of obligation to post on the mall shooting here in Omaha. But I really don't have much to say. It mostly comes down to these kids having shitty parents and friends. And how easy it is to get assault rifles. I remember back when Billy and I were wee pups of 17 or so, we drove the Cougar down to the Rutledge Missouri flee market/swap meet thingy. It was like a giant hill billy garage sale. Billy found a couple of good 'ole boys selling an SKS rifle, which is like the Chinese equivalent to the AK-47 or something. I think it was around $100 or so. I loaned Billy an extra $40 or $60 to get it. So we picked up an assault rifle for an even c note, no papers to sign. No idea who we were. We could have robbed a bank with the gun, wiped the finger prints off. Dropped it in the foyer while leaving, and there would have been no way to trace that particular gun back to us. Happily we were neither bank robbers nor psychos, so that gun did no damage to objects that were animate. I hope it's harder for 17 year olds to get guns like that today. But somehow I doubt it.

What did I get? Well, I nearly bought a ferret, and right now I can't remember why I didn't. Mom would have loved that. I probably didn't get the rodent due to my loaning Billy most of my folding money. I should thank him for that. In the end I picked up a used Damn Yankees cassette for an even 99 cents.

Those two purchases are accurate descriptors of who Billy and I were at the time. One must wonder how we became such good friends.

Red Bird

We hung up this swanky new bird feeder on Thanksgiving, and already we're getting high brow clientèle- like this refined cardinal.

This photo was taken with our new telephoto lens, so you can expect more bird pictures as the winter progresses. Along with a pictures of the elusive black squirrel, I assure you. I hadn't seen him for a couple of months, but with the foliage from the trees gone I've noticed him scampering through the forest recently.

Dresden 1996

The my little family is going to Germany for Christmas. It's been 11 years now since my first trip to Dresden, during Christmas break from Iowa State. How young I was then. Just look at the picture. I could be 12. Anyway, I was going to visit this girl I had only met four times. How insane was that? My heart had been crushed and battered around 6 months previous to meeting the cute girl in the fall. She was something and she really liked me. She made no doubt that I knew that, which was something I had never really experienced before. So I was going to go visit her for Christmas. Being young and dumb really paid off in that instance. I had these thoughts of, what if we don't get along when I get there and she kicks me out? I'll have to wander the streets of Dresden alone for two weeks until my return flight! As I think back now, it's patently ridiculous, but I did have that thought. It just happened to work out.

It was bloody cold when I got there. A cold snap had started the day I arrived. It hung around zero Fahrenheit most of the time and the temperature never reached above freezing until the day I had to fly home. Which is really odd for Germany, the weather there is generally milder than the Midwest. No one there could recall such a long cold, cold spell. At the time Anke was living in this old apartment building that had yet to be modernized. The place had a coal stove to heat it! And being a poor college student she was frugal with her coal. It was bloody cold!

The neighborhood she lived in was cool and trendy. We would go to these little bars that were only lit by candles. Another one was in the basement of an old castle. We met up with Maurice one evening while he was there visiting his Anke, and had tandoori chicken and many beers. We went camping in a cave up in the mountains with some of her friends one night. Had Christmas with her family and New Years in Prague. I'll tell you about Prague later in another post, but I love Prague.

The visit went mostly well and she never did kick me out. I never had to sleep on a park bench by a frozen fountain. Who'd have thought that I'd end up marrying the old roommate of Maurice's girlfriend at the time? That I'd be visiting again almost exactly 11 years later with Anke flying with me and our two very small children in tow? I was too young to have thoughts and dreams like that.

Thanksgiving

Thanks- giving this year was nice. We had dinner here in Anke's and my new house. We had feared that it would be a stressful event, but it wasn't. We had cleaned the house last weekend, but the little hurricane known as Corwin struck during the week. So we recleaned Thursday morning. So the house looked fairly good (aside from us not getting around to hanging any pictures yet.) But it was only Mom, Dad, Maurice and Bernie coming, so even if everything wouldn't be perfect they would understand. But weather aside, everything turned out damn near perfect. Maurice fried the turkey in the back yard which turned out scrumptious, and he didn't burn my house down in a ball of fire. We filled the table out with fruit salad, lettuce salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and bread. For dessert Anke made possibly the best cheese cake ever the night before. Her cheese cake is always top notch, but this one was even a step above. It was all pretty low key, and just really nice.

As I was running around trying to organize the house and Anke was cooking we didn't get many pictures taken. So thanks to Mom for these two.

Happy Thanksgiving all. And to the few of you who are reading this, I assure you that you have enriched my life in one way or anther. And for that I thank you.

Halloween

This was Corwin's 1 year old costume, but it's still great so we recycled.

Corwin the Pirate after a few too many grogs.

Off to ravish the neighbor girl I'm sure.

Gnome

Doesn't he look just like a little gnome?

Friday Evening Pix

October

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. The kids are wearing us out and work has been very busy and stressful for both Anke and I.

So in the past month: Anke's parent's came for a visit. My parent's came for a weekend visit. We went hiking a couple of times. Went to the farmers market and a Harvest Festival at Gifford Farm. Corwin got to ride a pony there. I installed a new alternator in the Alero. Corwin was sick. Conrad was sick. Scotty was sick. I had a terrible headache and all of my joints hurt. My spine, neck, ankles, knees, wrists. Not very pleasant. Anke was luckily spared. We borrowed Uncle Mo's jeep for a couple of days. That was perhaps the highlight of Corwin's month. Maybe the pony was, it's a tough call, he is very fond of Jeeps. I donated blood today and my arm hurts more than usual from it. The blood girl was friendly and cute, but not so good with a needle. I'm not sure if the friendly and cute make up for the lack of needle process or not.

Conrad starts growing into a real little person. He is really interactive now, instead of just an eating, sleeping, pooing machine. His little hands get nimble and grasp each other and anything else coming into reach. Conrad smiles and laughs. I had both children on my lap the other night and Conrad grasped the back of Corwin's jammies. Corwin decided to get up and run around, because that's what he does, and Conrad was still grasping the collar of Corwin's jammies. Corwin turns around and says, "Conrad! Stop pulling my jammies!"

Corwin's rides the pony. He doesn't look so excited here but he was. The pony was a bit of a rougher ride than the carousel, and requires more concentration not to fall off.

Corwin traps Uncle Mo in Conrad's playpen

Yellow Leaves on History Trail in Fontenelle Forest

Conrad plays with the gym that Anke and I built for Corwin originally

Corwin sweeps the leaves around Conrad

Conrad laughs at Papa's funny Hair

Corwin Talks

Many times when I'm at the computer trying to get something (or nothing) done, Corwin will run up the stairs and climb on my lap and say, "I wanna see Owl." So I'll google some owl pictures. Then usually he'll say, "I wanna see a Hawk." And generally butterflies follow that. On Saturday morning Corwin came up as I was checking my email and said, "I wanna see Marmoset." I asked him, "You want to see a Marmoset?" "Uhmm, Yeah." So I google some marmoset pictures. What's that I ask? "Marmoset." I don't know where that kid learned about marmosets, but he seems to like them now.

A couple of weeks ago we asked Corwin about Halloween. We hadn't really talked about it, so we wanted to know if he knew what it was about. So Anke asked him what he wants to be for Halloween. He says, "I gonna be Pirate. mumble, mumble mumble, Candy, mumble, mumble, mumble, Pirate." So we gotta get him a pirate costume now.

Pictures for Mom

Sorry, Mom, but only two are of Conrad. He's a great little guy, but all he really does is lie there. He'll get more photogenic as he get older.

Corwin and I took the Cutlass to work one day last week. If you look close, you can see Corwin and his cow seat in the car. He was very excited to ride in the Blue Car. But he was equally disappointed when we went back to taking the red car the next day.

Little Conrad.

Conrad's impossibly charismatic older brother.

Corwin often wants to play, and Conrad often wants to be left alone.

On Saturday we went to the farmers market and picked a slew of tomato and peppers. We then spent all day Sunday turning them homemade marinara sauce.

We still have 3/4 of a bucketful left that I'll turn into salsa.

Milestones

Anke tells me that Conrad had his first big smile today.

Last night Corwin used the potty for the first time. He used it twice tonight!

A Saturday of Pictures

A snail on the Marsh Boardwalk.

Corwin is jealous that Conrad can nap on the deck, while he must nap in his room.

Corwin and Anke sweep the detritus from driveway that have accumulated there from the weeks storms and my finally mowing.

Drawing with chalk.

Clothes baskets make great beds.

Corwin isn't dead.

Neither am I.

The first Saturday that Conrad was home, Mom and I took Corwin to get a couple of things for Conrad. Corwin has a swell Turtle Towel and I thought Conrad should have such a nice towel too. So we went to Pottery Barn Kids, where the Turtle Towel came from to pick one out for Conrad. We couldn't decide between the sheep towel and a puppy towel, so I showed both of them to Corwin and said, "Conrad needs a towel. This towel will be for Conrad. Which one do you think he will like best?" Corwin picked out the sheep towel.

When we got home Corwin went to the shopping back and got the little sheep towel out. He immediately ran to Conrad and put the towel down beside him and said, "Here ya go." My little family rocks.

Random

I've not been so diligent in posting lately. Works been hectic, and we are still trying to find a groove at home with a 0 and 2 year old to care for. So recreational computer time for me has been minimal. So some random what's been going ons: Conrad came home from the hospital Sunday August 12 and been perfectly fine since. No medicine to give him and he's acting like a normal baby. Hooray.

Last weekend instead of mowing the yard Saturday morning we went to the marsh down the road. Lots of lotus flowers still blooming. Then we took a zoo trip Sunday morning, instead of mowing the yard. Combined with the heat, rain, kids, and shear laziness, the yard is looking a bit jungle like.

Butterflies from the prairie before the marsh.

Me and Conrad napping. I need to do a better job of taking pictures of the little one. Anke has been on the ball and snapping shots, but not so much me. One thing I was on the ball about are play tickets! Spamalot a musical version of Monty Python's Holy Grail, is coming to the Orpheum theater in Omaha the first week in November. Tickets went on sale at 10:00 am last Thursday. So I skipped out of work at 10:30ish and walked down to the box office to get some. The lad selling tickets helped me pick out some good one. So now we have third row, balcony seats, which are very good at the Orpheum. The other two times we've gone, we've had nose bleed seats way at the back. I'm excited.

On Sunday we're taking a field trip to visit Tony and his wife Jen, along with their boys. This will be Conrad's first trip out of Omaha. Next Wednesday evening Anke's Grandmother Renate and her Great Aunt Ursel are coming for a visit. They are two extremely sweet old ladies, and we are excited that they are visiting.

Kids

Yesterday Children's Hospital tried to install a PICC line in Conrad for his antibiotic therapy. But the little veins in his arms were too small, which wasn't all that surprising. In children so small sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So they're going do a surgical IV today.

Conrad is doing well, however. He's eating lots. But he has rather bad diaper rash right now. Unfortunately the antibiotics kills some of the good bacteria in his digestive tract, along with the bad. Corwin is doing well also. It is good that he is such a resiliant little guy. I've gone back to work full time this week, as my sick time is starting to run on the low side and it will be another year before the bucket refills. And Conrad and Corwin are sure to be ill again in the next year.
Being a single parent must be really hard. I've only had to do it for a week now, and it's a lot of work. Getting up and showered and Corwin up and feeding him his cereal and getting him dressed and out the door on time is quite a chore. But he is so charming, it really isn't much of a chore. His latest thing is dancing in circles yelling, "CRACKCRACK! CRACKCRACK!" I'm not sure where he got the yelling of crack crack from.

I put him to bed last night, and at about 8:30 I heard some whining coming from his room. So I went to check it out. There he was, hiding behind the door buck naked. As soon as I came into the room, he became all excited and started jumping in circles and dancing around the room. So I got him dressed and put him in jammies that are a bit harded to take off. I let him watch TV with me for 10 minutes then put him back to bed. He was still dressed when he got up this morning.

Cliff Notes version

Conrad has been in the hospital since Monday. He has a kidney infection of some sort. On Friday his temperature finally broke, and he is starting to act like himself again. He's going to remain in the hospital for the next 10 days, so he can continue to receive the antibiotics via IV. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.

Nice

This has been a very nice week. I've stayed home from work to help with, and get to know Conrad. We've spent time bonding and relaxing more than I had anticipated. Conrad is a really relaxed an low key baby. He doesn't cry nearly as much as Corwin did, and he sleeps more than Corwin did too. The only time he really seems to get pissed off is when he's hungry or I change his diaper when he's sleeping.

At the supermarket.

Anke, Conrad, and I have taken walks out to marshes and wetlands of Gifford Point yesterday morning and this morning.

The lotus flowers are in bloom.

Anke sporting our her new Ergo baby carrier. It can be used as a front, side or back baby carrier. Anke is very happy with it, and feels it's a great improvement over the Baby Bjorn.

And froggies abound in marshes, which probably excites only me.


Tomorrow I hop a jet air plane for Eric's wedding in Dallas. Anke will stay home with the kids, but Maurice's girlfriend, Bernie, is going to stop by and give Anke a hand. Thank You, So Much, Bernie!