a view thru smudged glasses

Hi

2008-12-22T17:13:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted much lately. Blogger has been giving me fits with my password and I have to have it reset nearly every time I log in for some reason. I've also been using Facebook more for posting photos and little updates for what I'm doing. So if you really care you can get a facebook account and add me as a friend to see what I'm doing. With a blog it seems like I should have something substantive to say, when I don't always. I'll still update this when I have something to say that's more than a few words, but it won't be as often.

Have a Merry Fesivus all.

A Couple of Unimportant Things

2008-11-09T20:16:00.003-06:00

I took the Cutlass to a storage facility in Fremont two weeks ago. It's about 40 miles from Omaha. It's less than half the price of any place that I could find in Omaha, though. So we're essentially back down to a two car family. The reason to store the Cutlass was so that the Benz could be in the garage during for winter. I didn't plan on doing that when I first bought the Benz, but become so smitten with the car that I really didn't' want it to expose it to the elements full time. I've given thoughts of selling the Cutlass. The Mercedes is faster, handles better, more comfortable, more economical and safer. Plus it has a back seat that is usable for the boys. The only thing that the Cutlass has over the Mercedes is swankiness. Which isn't to be sneezed at. The Mercedes does have a cool factor to it, but it isn't the same. The layman can't tell a lot of difference between an AMG Mercedes vs. an average Mercedes. But with the Cutlass you have kids giving you the thumbs up when you pass them on the interstate. And really, who doesn't want to look cool to seven year old boys? In the end, I'll probably keep. I just need a bigger garage.

Brainwashing a 3 year old is really easy. Without much effort I've convinced Corwin that the Broncos are the only good football team on the planet. Last week the Broncos were on the TV, and I told Corwin that they were on. He got so excited and came to sit down and watch the game with me. For about 10 minutes, then he had to run circles around the couch. Now every time a football game is on TV, college or pro, he'll watch the TV to determine if either team has blue helmets with a horse on the side. If not, he'll ask who is playing. I'll say, "Oh, that's the Chiefs and Chargers." He'll say something like, "They're not the Broncos. They're bad." I'm a proud father.

Halloween at the Daycare

2008-11-01T09:03:00.001-05:00

TV

2008-10-30T22:01:00.005-05:00

Do yourself a favor. If you watch TV, try and catch Life on Mars. ABC at 9. It's the best show on TV in my opinion. Granted I don't have cable nor watch much TV, but it's bloody good.

Specialization is for Insects

2008-10-23T10:37:00.002-05:00

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein

Is Scotty a human or an insect?

I can change a diaper. I have a lot more experience at that than I’d prefer.
I think I could plan an invasion, but I suspect I’d do better if all participants involved were fighting with swords, crossbows and catapults.
I can butcher a hog. My 1.5 years working at Excel- a hog packing plant- in college finally pays off in a philosophical way.
I had to look up what conn means. To direct the course or steering of a ship or plane. I can’t actually conn a ship, but I can launch and dock a ski boat. Learning how to sail a boat is on my to-do list.
I could perhaps design a shed.
Writing a sonnet is right out.
I can balance accounts, but I generally don’t.
I’ve never built a wall, but Anke has. Perhaps she could help me.
I don’t think I could set a bone.
I’ve thankfully never had to comfort the dying.
I take orders daily.
I give orders daily.
I can both cooperate and act alone.
I can solve simple equations.
I analyze new problems regularly. The Analyst portion of my Programmer/Analyst title.
I can pitch manure, but I’m not volunteering for that job.
I write computer programs on a daily basis. The Programmer portion of my Programmer/Analyst title.
I can definitely cook a tasty meal.
I don’t know how efficient a fighter I am.
I’m hoping to live long enough for technology to make me immortal.

Family Pictures

2008-10-12T09:21:00.007-05:00

I'm finally getting around to uploading some photos from the past month. Here is Corwin with Sparky the fire dog at Pancake Day.

Tony is kind enough to give Corwin a better view of the Parade.

Corwin and Conrad enjoyed playing with some the toys from the youth of Maurice and myself.

The Crane that Corwin plays with was Maurices. You can tell this due to it's less battered nature as compared to the dump truck which was mine.

Last weekend we went down to the Gifford Farm Fall Festival. Conrad watches the ponies while Corwin is waiting his turn to ride.

Corwin gets his turn riding the Pony. Corwin likes Ponies.

Conrad and I watch Corwin riding. Conrad will get to ride next year.

Corwin and a bushel basket.

The boys play at a water pump.

Corwin and Anke.

Giant tree.

Conrad and Corwin play one of the Xylaphones at Acorn Acres. When I showed Corwin this picture, the first thing he says is, "Conrad's not sharing."

Broken Hearted

2008-10-11T18:39:00.002-05:00

Love is a fickle thing.

We went to Acorn Acres at Fontenelle Forest this evening with the boys. It just opened last month and is a sort of nature playground with a tree house, outdoor xylophones, digging areas and other things. Corwin met a 7 year old named Maddy and fell for her head over Chuck Taylor All Stars. They played together for a while. She showed him a cool acorn that was connected to two other sibling acorns. She went to play with her sister at the tree house and Corwin was yelling at the top of his voice, "Maddy! Maddy where are you?! Maddy!" He went off to find her and they played some more. 1/2 an hour later her family wanted to take a walk so she went with them. Corwin really wanted to go to, but it was time for us to head home as Conrad was hungry and it was nearing his bed time. Lots of tears and crying.

Frusterations with the Post Office

2008-10-10T15:04:00.003-05:00

I'm mailing a couple of books to Tony, so he doesn't have to buy them to read them. Why have a tiny libary if you can't share it? So I pack them in a priority mail box that I had lying in my basement from something that I bought off of Ebay. At the mail counter the mail lady says that I can't mail them via media mail in a priority box. It just seems so damn stupid that I can't recycle this box to get more use out of it. I'll have to find a different box now that'll work and repack. This is one of the things that drove me to near madness that I used to be able to brush off.

Little Feet

2008-10-10T14:56:00.002-05:00

Conrad took three steps this morning. The past couple of days he's taken great strides towards being a more verticle human as aposed to his mainly horizontalness up till now. He's so different that Corwin in this way. Corwin has always been all about trying new things as soon as it pops into his head and/or he is physically capable. Conrad is more contemplative, calm and careful. Conrad really does things at his own pace and won't be rushed. It seems that he feels ready to start walking.

Cope

2008-10-08T12:21:00.003-05:00

I've always been a fairly patient person. I can put up with quite a bit before I really get upset. That doesn't seem to be the case so much anymore. Recently my patience just seems a bit worn and frayed. I can be having a normal fine day, and a small thing will convert my mood to dark and foul. I try not to externalize it, because rarely does ranting and raving accomplish anything except put others in a corresponding state of mind. And in my case misery really doesn't want company. I'll just have to adjust, cope and hope it isn't permanent.

First of Fall

2008-09-22T19:11:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day of Fall. By default that makes today the End of Summer. At 11:43 today to be precise. And again I didn't do any waterskiing or camping. That saddens me. Hopefully next summer.

The summer still contained quite a bit of hiking through the local woods. Quality time spent with my family. It sounds so cliched when I say it, but the boys are growing so fast. Corwin does and says so many funny things. A couple of weeks ago we took a long walk, so Corwin got to ride in the backpack for part of it. He had a feather that he was playing with. We stopped so Anke could photo some flower and Corwin started drawing on my neck with the quill. When we got going again Corwin started yelling, "Papa! You're paper! Paper doesn't walk! Don't walk, Papa! Paper doesn't walk!" Moments like that do make up a bit for the lack of boating.

IBM and the Desert

2008-08-19T19:40:00.003-05:00

The IBM Conference was pretty good. It seemed more geared towards systems programmers than application programmers. But still got some useful stuff out of it. I know a bit more about SOA than I did before and I can talk about Virtualization now if I have to. I found out that COBOL 4 has some built in XML tools which are potentially useful. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Jon and we found my new favorite bar. An Irish place called O'Flaherty's. It's a really friendly place with a cool racecar driving Irish bartender named Antoine. They also had the dishiest waitresses.

I started back for Omaha on Friday morning at 7. Driving through California wasn't a lot of fun. I got a bit lost at first and ended up going through San Francisco instead of around it. But I only lost maybe an hour.

I really enjoyed the drive through the desert of Nevada. I just like deserts. It would have been nice to have had Anke with me so I could have slowed down to look at some the interesting places. But I was really in a hurry to get home.

Tunnel

This photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of a full moon rising above the mountains of Salt Lake City. Cut me some slack though. It's taken through the windshield at 80 mph after 13 hours of driving.

Big sky country of Wyoming.

The C36 in front of what I believe is Elk Mountain in Wyoming. I don't have any photos of Nebraska as it really isn't extremely interesting. I did make it back to my own bed at 10:30 Nebraska time. That's around 1700 miles in 37 hours total travel time.

One day in San Jose

2008-08-10T23:55:00.003-05:00

I left Omaha at around 6:30 this morning. Anke and Corwin took me to the airport. We had been prepping Corwin for my departure for over a week now. When I went back to C'town with Maurice a couple of weeks ago he really freaked out a bit. He really thought I was never coming home. So I told him I was flying to California and driving a new car home. And I would bring him and Conrad presents. I think that helped a bit.

I picked up my car this morning. But once again I don't know where it's at. My hotel only has valet parking so some young kid took my car away again today. Here is the AMG at the valet parking viewed from my room. The internet said that my hotel had a parking garage and wifi access in all rooms. The wifi access is only in the lobby. Luckily my laptop can barely pick up that network with only one bar.

Last night I went to an Share.org reception. It was nice with free food and drinks. And I have never seen so many CICS tee shirts in my life. Let alone in one place. I also met my dopleganger from Wisconsin. He too is a youngish COBOL programmer. Whose dad also is a truck driver. A lot of the conference seems to be directed more towards systems programmers vs. application programming, which is what I do. So it was nice to meet someone with a background similar to mine.

Muskrat update

2008-08-04T19:03:00.001-05:00

Corwin now thinks that the muskrat that tried to attack me is Scabbers from Harry Potter. Corwin also wants to be Voldemort for Halloween. I wonder if it's time to be worried that I may be raising a dark wizard.

Nature photos from a Sunday Morning

2008-08-03T19:15:00.009-05:00

This morning we got up early- not buy my choice- and decided to go down to the marsh before the day became unbearable. The lotus should be in full bloom by now.

Near the overlook, things aren't in full bloom yet. But there are single flowers here and there.

Across the lake is another story.

All of the photos, excluding one, are taken by Anke. This isn't the one.

I'm generally too busy chasing the hyperactive three year old to stop and watch bees and flowers.

I very much like this picture. Well done, Anke.

I like frogs.

As Corwin and I are walking along the path I notice that there's a beaver looking thing not two feet away from him. Making the rodent about 7ish feet from me. I've glimpsed muskrats down by Hidden Lake before, but generally they take to the water in a jiffy when they notice humans. But this one is just sitting there eating a stick, cool as James Dean. Then he notices there is a tiny human- but still much larger than him- quite near by. And a larger human coming up. So he takes off in the general direction of the water. But more precisely, strait at me! All I can think is that, I just saw his sharp little pointy teeth eating a stick. What will those teeth do to my toes? So as he's coming right for me, I jump and he zooms right underneath me making for the lake. I was inches away from having bloody stumps for toes. I was barely saved by my under appreciated ninja-cat agility. Corwin thought the entire affair entirely too amusing. I'm not sure he comprehends the peril I was in.

Later when Corwin and I were playing else where, the vampire-muscrat came back and Anke was able to shoot a picture of him on the boardwalk.

Corwin hunts for a "giant mouse" with a stick.

The gold finch is the lone photo by your narrator.

A few words after a few beers

2008-08-01T21:25:00.003-05:00

I just finished watching The Thirteenth Warrior and noticed for the first time that it's basically a retelling of Grendel and Beowulf. How did I never catch this before? I was inspired to watch The Thirteenth Warrior again by a viking saga that I finished reading about a month ago called The Whale Road. I'm a big fan of viking sagas and have read several. I need to do a post in the future strictly about them.

My (and Anke's) Mercedes is paid for. Now all I've got to do is pick it up. It makes me a little bit nervous paying for a car then having to wait 1 1/2 weeks before picking it up. I've still got a week before I get it. I should land in San Jose around 9:30 am CA time. I'm hoping that my hotel will let me check in early. I'll then take the bus from San Jose to Fremont CA. It's like going from Omaha to Bellevue or Des Moines to Altoona. Basically the same city. I'll pick up the car, pay CA sales tax on it. I've then got an appointment with the San Jose Mercedes dealership on Tuesday to have all of the fluids changed. Oil, transmission fluid, new fluid in the differential. It'll probally be an expensive service, but it'll be much cheeper than a new transmission down the road. The Mercedes automatic 5 speed transmission in these cars tend to grenade if they aren't properly maintaned. And I'm afraid that putting a new transmission in this car may be a bit trickier than swapping a new one into the Cutlass.

Anke was telling me this evening how she never thought that she'd own a Mercedes-Benz. She always pictured them as cars driven by important buisness men. She thought that she could maybe see us in a BMW at some point, but not a Mercedes. The problem with BMW is that they hold thier value too well. The M3 is a highly sought after car. Even old ones. So a comperable M3 to my C36 would be at least half again as much more than what I paid for mine. This despite the fact that when both were new in 1997, the C36 was about $15,000 more than an M3. It's really the same way I ended up with a Cutlass. I started out looking for a Chevelle and realized that they are really expensive. A Cutlass in equivalent shape was about half the price. And I've come around to the opinion that I think Cutlasses look better than Chevelles now.

I'm sure the boys will be up early, so I should get to bed soon.

AMG Mercedes-Benz - The winning edition

2008-07-25T17:58:00.003-05:00

So I ended up with a silver one, instead of a red one. The car is still in San Jose as I type this, but I wired the payment for it today.

So what do we have? It's a 1997 Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG. AMG is Mercedes in house tuner division. Basically the same thing as the BMW M division, SVT for Ford or SRT for Chrysler. It's the zoomy one. It has a hand build I6 with 276 horsepower at 5750 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4000, sport suspension and all the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz. 1997 was also the only year this car was made with the 5 speed automatic transmission. I wish the car had a manual, but AMG products have never used manual transmissions.

My car has ~103,000 miles. And has lived it's entire life not in the Midwest. This was important. If I was going to buy a car older than 10 years that'll be driven on a nearly daily basis and have to live outside, as this one will, I wanted one that hadn't been exposed to Midwestern winters and salt. So basically I was looking for a Florida, Texas, Arizona or California car. According to Carfax this one was sold in Georgia, lived in Florida for two years and then moved to California in 2000 where it has lived since then.

It has black leather interior, a sunroof, Bose sound system, and a worthless built in Mercedes phone that only works on a now non existent network. It has four doors for easy access to kids and car seats. That is important, for it was a big selling getting Anke to agree to this.

The C36 replaces the Alero in our household. It'll be my car while the Vibe will essentially become Anke's. But it still won't get driven most days as Anke and I commute to work together 85% of the time. I'll have to get some snow tires for winter duty, as it's a rear wheel drive car with bloody wide tires. The transmission does have a winter mode though, but I'm not quite sure what that does.

I'll be in San Jose next month for an IBM conference so I may drive the car back then, but we're also thinking about having it shipped back on a truck. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. All in all I pretty pleased with it and very happy with the price that I paid. No reserve auctions on Ebay rule.

DKM

2008-07-17T07:17:00.003-05:00

Dropkick Murpheys played at Sokol last night. I had no idea they were in town until about 7:30 last night when I saw a small blurb about it on the Omaha World Hearld web site. So I quickly put Corwin to bed and drove down to Sokol to see if I could still get in. I couldn't, sold out. As I was driving home, it occured to me that I had a rainy day $50 hiding in my wallet. I should have pulled that out and started asking the kids outside if any of them wanted to sell there ticket for double face value. Oh, well.

What really bugs me is that I didn't even know they were playing. I checked their tour schedule on their web site a couple of weeks ago, and Omaha wasn't on it. How did all the punk kids know that they were going to be here and not me? I need to pay more attention.

Initiative

2008-07-16T18:41:00.002-05:00

I'm a rather laid back, easy going person for the most part. And this has served me well in many areas of my life including being a father, husband and parts of my job.

It makes me easy to get along with and I can work with most people and don't cause clashes. But there comes a point where if you're only letting the job and work come to you, you sort of plateau. And that's been OK for the last couple of years. I've been preoccupied with having a pregnant wife and raising infants and toddlers. But with Conrad turning one on Friday, life at home is getting a bit easier. I'm truthfully at a better place and happier than I've been for a very long time. Having kids and being a good parent is hard. But it's getting easier now and I can put a bit more focus back being a better employee. And getting that next promotion, which is what this is really about. More money.

I have the skills and ability to do that. My coding skills are good and have served me well the past couple of years, while I've been on auto pilot a bit. But to advance, it means being more proactive and taking initiative with my job and not just letting it come to me. The non-technical aspects. So I've started carrying this little orange dice around with me in my pocket as a reminder. It's a 10 sided die, which is what one rolls for initiative when playing Dungeons and Dragons. I've owned this particular die for somewhere around 20 years now. There is even a chip on it from where it sat in Billy's driveway for a few weeks lost. We found it later, after Bill Sr. had run over it a few times with the Subaru.

It's kind of a corny thing do to, I know. But I'm going against my nature with this and the reminder helps me.

AMG Mercedes-Benz

2008-07-08T09:19:00.006-05:00

I tried to buy this Mercedes yesterday. It's a 1995 C36 AMG, with 110,000 miles. I've been eyeing these cars for months now, and this one came up on Ebay with no reserve. I was all ready to fly down to Florida ($180 via Southwest) to pick it up and drive home. I tried to swipe it for the low amount of $5000, but it sold for $5100. It's annoying because you might think that for only 1 or 2 hundred more, I could have had it. But you never know how high the other person is willing to go. And you really shouldn't play that game on Ebay. One needs to decide what you are willing to pay, and go no further. And that's what I did, but damn I really wanted that car!

Well I probally won't find one going for this cheep again anytime soon, so I'll have to continue on with the plan to wait two more years for Corwin to get to daycare. By then I'll have more money to spend and can maybe get a C43 with lower miles, which is mostly the same car as the C36 but with a V8 instead of an I6.

Elmo

2008-07-01T14:01:00.003-05:00

On Sunday we had my parents give birthday presents to Corwin and Conrad in a small joint birthday ceremony. One of the gifts that Conrad got was a Tickle Me Elmo that Mom had bought a couple of years ago, but didn't give away. Corwin is a big Elmo fan and was very happy to play with Conrad's new toy. When bedtime came around, Corwin was asking where Elmo was. I didn't know off of the top of my head, but I said that he's sleeping in Conrad's room, because Elmo is Conrad's toy and I didn't want Corwin taking too much posetion of him. That's cool with Corwin. OK, off to bed.

Around half and hour after bedtime, I hear desperate crying coming from Corwin's room. I go into check on him. First I ask him if he bonked himself as he does sometimes while playing after bedtime. He tells me, through his tears that no he hasn't bonked himself. He says he's scared of the alligator. Alligators are the only thing at the zoo that sometimes scare him. I tell him it's OK, nothing to worry about, but he is still crying and sobbing in a way I'd never seen him do before. He's really freaked out. Anke thinks that we should take him to the living room where it's brighter to remove him from the traumatic situation. I'm holding him, hugging him in the living room when he says, "Elmo's in Trunki!"

Trunki is a small blue suit case on wheels with a pull strap that can be pulled and is sturdy enough for Corwin to ride around on. Corwin wanted Elmo to ride on Trunki, but Elmo didn't stay on Trunki so well. Anke helped Corwin open Trunki and put Elmo inside. We had forgotten where Elmo was. It seems that Corwin had remembered and was really scared for Elmo. Anke rushed off to Corwin's room to rescue Elmo.

Corwin hugged Elmo and through his tears insisted that we take him to Conrad's room. So we put Elmo in Conrad's crib and Corwin was ready for bed again. It touches and pleases me that Corwin is growing into a loving, caring person.

Hurricane

2008-06-29T09:13:00.005-05:00

Friday evening we had a storm come through Omaha that featured Hurricane strength winds. It was a very brief but intense storm. We had leaves and branches and one medium-large size tree limb knocked down in our yard, but nothing severe. Maurice wasn't so lucky.

He had several large tree limbs from his silver maple fall in his yard and a giant one land on his house, putting a hole in the roof. Mom was in town, so she and I went over Saturday morning to help clean up.

When we got there, Maurice was already cutting away with his little chainsaw. He tried to go buy a larger one at Menards that morning, but they were already sold out of all but the professional grade chain saws by 9 am.

Luckily the neighbors son, Bob stopped by and offered to give us a hand. He had a nice Stihl chainsaw that was able to cut up the largest logs for us. We were really lucky that Bob helped out.

-----------------------
Monday update:

Below are before and after photos of a house from West Omaha owned by the sister of a co-worker of mine. It was only a couple of years old. I don't think they build houses like they used to.

Turkey Fry

2008-06-26T20:06:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday Maurice invited the family over to his place to fry a turkey that had been in his freezer for months. It was a really nice Thanksgiving in June. Corwin had a blast playing ball with Bernie, digging under Maurice's tree and petting the cat.

Maurice got some nice pictures of Anke and Conrad while I was taking Corwin to the potty. Although Mo (and everyone else out there) needs to learn, never use the digital zoom on a camera. When using a point and shoot, use the mechanical zoom to your hearts content, but you're better off taking the image with your subject little smaller in the frame than using the digital zoom. Your computer at home can crop and enlarge the pictures better than a little camera. But aside from that, the pictures are rather nice. Thanks Mo.

Corwin plays ball with Maurice too.

Conrad, Uncle Mo with Nicole in the background.

Corwin's Third Birthday

2008-06-16T19:33:00.005-05:00

Corwin blows out the candles on his Birthday (banana) Bread.

After yet another storm we went to the Safari Park west of town. They had this lovely screech owl, who I suspect might have spent the night partying with Maurice.

Barn Owls look like ghosts. They are much spookier live.

Corwin and I walk the trail from the bear display.

Sandhill Cranes.

White Buffalo.

Roadtrip

2008-05-27T08:58:00.006-05:00

On Friday night Maurice and I left for Indianola for a barbecue at Tony's place. Eric was up from Texas with his wife and new baby, Gabriel. It was really fun hanging with all my friends and drinking a few beers. Unfortunately I left the camera in the car, so I have no pictures to commemorate the event.

On Saturday I was supposed to go to Eric's baby shower in Moravia. But I couldn't actually find it, so Maurice and I stopped in Fat Annies for a beer. A $1 beer! It wasn't even happy hour. One dollar beers, all day, every day at Fat Annies. I love Iowa. Unfortunately they didn't have any food outside of pickled eggs, so we only stayed for 1 $1 beer.

Next we headed out to the Landing for dinner. On the way we cruised through Honey Creek, looking for the looking unsuccessfully for some destination park that is supposedly being built for Lake Rathbun. We didn't find any construction, but we found this old barn in the process of slow decomposition.

I wish that I would have had the DSLR camera for this barn. The point and shoot is compact and convenient, but it has it's limits sometimes.

The Landing's had this burned out sputnik thing going on outside it. The food was fairly good, but the bartender messed up Mo's dirty martini.

On the drive to Maurice's farm to set up the tents, we found this stump.

We attempted to do hero pictures.

We weren't able to set up the tents, however. Despite the LSD in the cutlass, the Kumho tires couldn't get any traction in the wet grass/mud on the hill up to Mo's farm. So it was back to Centerville, to find a place to sleep that night.

We hooked up with Russ and Di Saturday night. We started the night off at a small party in someones garage, southern Iowa style.

Jessica and Di are singing with some 90's dance song in the back of Russ and Di's swanky Enclave. Maurice was quick to point out that his Jeep is much more butch than Russ's Buick. We went to Moulton first for drinks. I actually saw a couple of guys I went to school with and/or worked at Hy-Vee with back in the day. Then we went to another bar in Centerville that I'm not sure the name of. It seems the bar formerly known as Jim's is closed again, so we couldn't go there.

Sunday morning I woke up, surprisingly refreshed and it was back to Omaha.

Corwin

2008-05-21T08:29:00.003-05:00

I'm home with Corwin for the third day in a row now. He had a bad fever on Monday and was basically miserable. Yesterday he ran a low grade fever all day, but was perfectly charming until about 3:30. I took his temp again and it was upto 102.5 again. He felt warm this morning, but I took his temp and it's down to 98.5. He says his head still hurts though. I think I may be able to take him into daycare later this morning if he keeps feeling ok.

So he's watching Pixar's Cars while I'm trying to get some work done for work at home. About half way through the movie Corwin comes upstairs to tell me, "Big red truck went away. Race car's sad." In the movie the race car falls out of the semi transporter and gets stuck in a little town on Route 66. Later the car gets found and the semi comes to get him. "The red truck came back! Race car's so very happy!", says Corwin in his sweetest voice.

The Month (and more) in Review

2008-05-17T20:39:00.013-05:00

Today wasn't great, but it started and finished well. Corwin and Corad in a box is a good way to start any day. But, Anke didn't sleep well last night and was not in the best of moods all day. The boys didn't nap as much as they should have and therefor were rather fragile most of the afternoon. I spent most of the day running errands and doing chores around the house. By dinner time, I was at the end of my line. But a beer with dinner helped. Then after putting the boys to bed, Anke and I watched a short film. Thankfully we're starting to get a little of our life back as the children get a little older. So anyway we watched Peter and the Wolf. It's a stop motion animated film based on the the orchestrated children's story that won the Oscar for best animated short film. It was fantastic. We watched it twice. So now, despite a bit of a difficult day I'm in a rather good mood. The two glasses of wine I had while watching have helped relax me too.

So what else has happened or what I should have been posting about for the past month (get ready for image overload):

April 19:
We went on a long (really long) hike in Fontenelle Forest.
Conrad likes the Deuter backpack, just as Corwin did at that age.

Corwin did really great walking over half of the hike.

These are two views of a ravine along history trail that I love. I need to drag Maurice on this hike some time, I think he'd enjoy it.

As the kids get older, I relish giving away the trappings that they no longer need. But I suspect I'll keep this backpack as a keepsake of Corwin and Conrad's early years.

Last winter arrived before I thought it would. So I didn't do anything to prepare the sprinkler system before the first freeze. But the brilliant engineers who created it created an easily accessible piece that's designed to fail in freezing situations. I photographed, unnecessarily, it so I'd know how to put it all back together after I got the new part.

April 20:Dad was in town for the weekend, so he went with us for a walk along the board walk on the marsh trail.
We let Corwin bring his little yellow bike.

I wish I still ran for the shear joy and abandon of it.

The turtles were out in force.

April 24:
Our major retaining wall went to hell over the winter. We knew when we bought the house it would need redone at some point. But I thought it'd last a couple of years at least. The top bricks pushed out over a foot since fall. Houses are expensive.

April 26:

My friend, Brett, from Indian Hills was in Omaha so Anke and I met him at the Zoo.

Brett's son Jadon and Corwin have lots of fun playing with boxes.

May 3:
Thanksgiving in May. These two were at the top of the hill behind our house. If I could shoot a bow as far as I can photograph, we'd be frying this bad boy. Assuming I still had a bow of course.

May 4:There aren't enough pictures to document the amount of yard work that I've done in may. Here I'm setting up the irrigation system for our raised vegetable garden.
These some bushes that we whacked the hell out of last year. They're about 15 feet tall now! After I borrow Maurice's chainsaw they're really gonna get pruned this year!

We got some bamboo trellis like things to help protect the bushes from the deer infestation.

Who needs sledding when you can just ride Tonka trucks in summer?

The magnolia tree and the raised vegetable garden before we put the clear plastic over it. It works as a little green house now. For some reason it hasn't been photographed in all it's covered glory yet. But the tomatoes are doing well so far.

May 10:
Who needs a truck when you have a hatch back. The Vibe has hauled over well 2000 lbs of compost, mulch, soil and stones this month. And let us not forget who had to load and unload all of that. Not the wife or kids!

No need for lowering springs when it's full of mulch. For the back anyway.

May 11:
Check out my awesome manga hair.

Today:The new and improved retaining wall with the freshly laid sod to cover the yard where the construction company that rebuilt the wall destroyed my nice green grass.

If anyone except Mom is still reading this, well I'm shocked. One of the big reasons that I do this is so that Corwin and Conrad can come back and read this someday (Hi boys) and get a bit of their dad's point of view on my life and maybe another perspective (mine) on who I am. Anyway, we started with the box and we'll end with it. It's really fun to watch Corwin and Conrad play together. And it must be said that my kids have the coolest hair at their daycare.

Water

2008-04-30T21:02:00.004-05:00

I so much want to be on the water. I hope I'm able to find time this summer. Sorry for the crappy scanned photos.

Wood Wheel

2008-04-03T21:54:00.002-05:00

I ordered a new steering wheel last weekend off of Amazon. Who knew that they sold car parts now, with free shipping to boot? The walnut Grant steering wheel came on Tuesday and the mounting kit came on Wednesday. So Wednesday night I took apart the old blue wheel only to discover I needed a steering wheel puller to detach it from the steering column. Good think I don't need to drive the Cutlass to work anytime soon.

So I pick up a steering wheel puller from Sears after work Thursday. After Corwin goes to bed- and Anke is still trying to get Conrad to sleep- I sneak down to the garage to finish the job. With the right tool, the old steering wheel pops off in about 30 seconds. Now I am having a moral debate with myself if I should repackage the puller and return it to Sears for a refund. It's in literally like new condition. I used the damn thing for under a minute. You could just say I borrowed it from the next guy who buys it. And it should be noted that I think that someone borrowed it from me previously, because the package had been opened before and was taped shut.

So with the old wheel off the instructions say that it typically can be installed in less than 30 minutes. Perhaps by someone who has done this before, but it takes me over two hours. It pays to read the instructions all the way through once before starting a project. And hooking up the horn was a relatively simple proposition. But the directions made it seem much more complicated than it was.

But it was enjoyable. Relaxing. Therapeutic, really. It was just really great to put my new Dropkick Murphy's CD in the old player and fiddle with my car. Now I just need to convince Anke to let me get my new radio so I can install that. Then I can get rid of the below mounted CD player and do something with the gauges to hide that awful tangle of wires.

Photos

2008-04-01T19:28:00.002-05:00

Conrad may walk before he crawls. He doesn't have any inclination to motivate around on his arms and knees, but we're practicing standing.

Corwin sports his new Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

I never had such a big Tonka truck as a kid. Mine were nice, as far as 70's Tonka trucks went, but they were made of a rather brittle plastic. This bad boy is nigh indestructible.

Evidence of beavers in Fontenelle Forest. I rather treasure having such nice trails so close to home.

34

2008-03-13T20:39:00.002-05:00

Another birthday has nearly come and gone. And I'm happy. When I was a youngster I thought that the only things I wanted in life would be a good wife and a nice car. And I have that. Anke is a good woman and wife. Things aren't always all peaches and cream with us, but right now they are pretty good. I'm a believer that happiness is a choice. Of course there can be barriers to this, like financial difficulties or finding out you spouse isn't who you thought you married as has happened to a couple of friends of mine. Luckily I'm not really burdened by those things. And it is luck. I could have easily ended up with a different career that paid less well. There are girls that I might have married that would have resulted in much rockier relationships. Anke and I aren't rich, but we earn enough that money isn't an issue. A lot of that is that we do live rather more frugally than we have to. Anke and I have also evolved as we've been married. Together in some ways, apart in others. But we both want it to work out, so we try to make it work through difficult parts.

At work today I think I've found a solution to an issue that has been plaguing me. I haven't coded, let alone tested it yet so it can all still go sideways on me. But I think it'll work and that makes me feel good about myself and getting that damn project done.

I don't feel like I thought a someone in their mid 30's should feel like. I feel as spry as I ever have, aside from the occasional back and knee pain. I feel young still. And that's good.

Peace with the Opossum

2008-03-12T20:38:00.005-05:00

This little fella was clearly just a wayfarer and not some rogue raider like others that will remain nameless. I let him travel in peace.

War with the Raccoons

2008-03-12T20:03:00.005-05:00

So Sunday night we hear this loud banging rumbling sound at around 3ish AM. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I really should find out. Our fear is that our furnace is about to blow up as it's nearly 30 years old and all. But first I check in Corwin's room as occasionally he'll go a bumpin' in the night. He was sound asleep, sans blankets. So I cover him and move on down the the basement and check the furnace. It's running fine as usual. No bumps or explosions.

I check out the front door and don't hear anything. I check out the back deck door. And there is a raccoon on the deck railing trying to eat the woodpecker suet cake. I run back in the house to get the camera, but when I return he buggers out down the deck support pole.

Monday night, he is at it again but this time he's after the seed in the swanky bird feeder. It really makes quite a racket as the tree is just outside of our bedroom window. But it's nearly empty of seed so we go back to bed when they quiet down.

Yesterday I refill the bird feeder and move it further away from the deck railing, hoping that he can't reach it there. More clattering sounds at 3 am again. Louder than ever. This time he's invited a friend to come along. As I look out the bedroom window one of them is in the tree, shaking the bird feeder for all it's worth. The other one is trying to get at the suet cake. I bang on the window to scare them away. They proceed to ignore me.

So I stumble down the stairs open the door and find one of them has taken off. But the other is hanging out in the tree, cool as you please. So I wander back in and find the little point and shoot, cause there is no focusing the DSLR in this dark. So I snap a couple of photos. Then I roar like a great ogre, flailing my arms. He just looks at me like I'm some lunatic. And a harmless lunatic at that, cause he isn't running.

I think the better of engaging him in hand to mouth combat, because he has sharp little pointy teeth and eyes that glow with the fire of Beelzebub. That raccoons dynamite! I think a broom vs. a raccoon will even the odds in my favor. I run in the house and get the broom and return to the deck. When I return he's advanced on the door, surely thinking he's scared me off. But when he sees me return wearing nothing but glasses and boxer briefs wielding a green broom, he knows it's better to cut his losses and run. I swing at him whacking the deck a few times but he gets away. As he stops halfway across the yard to glare at me, I whack the deck railing again with the broom making a most satisfactory sound. He hightails it for the forest after that.

As I return to bed, victorious, Anke tells me that I'm much louder with a broom than the raccoon raiding bird vittles. Ungrateful wench. I bet she couldn't do half so well with a mop.

Squirrels!

2008-03-02T20:03:00.002-06:00

The squirrels are under the impression that spring is coming. They've been more active recently.

I'm so happy that there is a black squirrel living in the forest behind my house.

His coloring is really awesome.

If you look closely you'll notice that there's a red squirrel glass squirrel house.

Life

2008-03-02T19:31:00.004-06:00

I've been feeling a bit down lately. Anke's paternal grandmother has been ill lately. We fear that when we visited at Christmas will be the last time that we meet her. My Dad had accident with his truck a few weeks ago, so he's been off the road during that time. That weighs on my mind. One of my retaining walls behind the house is deteriorating. We knew when we bought the house that it'd have to be redone at some point, we just didn't think that point would come so soon. We're going to go with the lowest bidder- still being 4K- to fix the wall and hope that'll hold until Corwin is in school. After that we'll have more disposable income to rebuild the wall completely. The drain for my drive way is currently frozen shut, so I've been fighting the thawing snow that pools into ice at night at the bottom of my driveway. And I discovered this week, that by clicking the wrong button while signing up for group benefits this fall, I diverted $2000 from my HSA plan into a limited benefit FSA plan. The HSA plan can be used for health care expenses, builds interest, and rolls over from year to year. The limited benefit FSA plan can only be used for dental or vision expenses. Doesn't earn interest. And doesn't roll over. On the bright side, it looks like I'll be getting that lasik surgery for my eyes a few years sooner than anticipated.

Life isn't all bad though. Corwin and Conrad are doing well. Conrad moved into his room this week, and has been sleeping pretty well after the first night. We've been doing some more decorating around the house. We got a couple of our nice but not worth much German prints framed and hung up. I'm happy with how they look. Anke is doing well also aside from general exhaustion. My new laptop should be arriving tomorrow. I went with a Dell XPS over a Macbook Pro and Sony Vaio. The day after I ordered the Dell, Apple introduced upgraded Macbooks. Grrrrr. I don't know that I would have ordered the Macbook Pro, but it would have been something else to think about.

Fontenelle Forest a couple of weeks ago. I love the matching coat and boots.

Corwin after his bath

We spent Saturday at the Durham Western Heritage Museum Saturday. Lots of trains (model and full size) meant that Corwin loved the place much more than one might have expected.

Conrad tries to steal some of Mommie's rice at the Thai Kitchen.

Corwin on his little bike.

Conrad and Anke.

Bad things happen to everyone, but posting and looking at these photos remind me that I am truly lucky and blessed. I have a wife and children that love me. And that's only the people in these pictures. There are parents, a brother, in-laws and friends too.

3 Conrads, 2 Corwins, and a Squirrel

2008-02-18T12:22:00.003-06:00

Fresh pictures! Only hours old!

Cars

2008-02-16T20:02:00.004-06:00

My Cutlass still has the original radio in it, in addition to the after market one mounted below it. I have never really liked how it looks, but have been hesitant to cut up dash in my car. I'm not sure why. I'm not all about keeping the car original, hence my replacing the perfectly fine 3 speed transmission for the 4 speed 1.5 years ago. But I just like how the old school radios with two stalks look. So I've been hoping to find a radio that would fit in my dash, but had an auxiliary input that I could plug my iPod into. Finally, Autoblog introduced me to a radio that'll do that. Some company called RetroSound put together a shaft radio that has an auxiliary input but also will allow one to plug in a USB flash drive loaded with MP3s and play them strait off the flash drive. I think I'll be able to get one this year, now that I'll actually get a tax return instead of having to pay in this time for the first time in 5 years. Buying a house and having a second kid really helps out in this area.

But this radio is a good thing in that it's gotten me excited about my car again. I haven't driven it in months. All it does is sit in my garage under a car cover most of the time. And I really wouldn't bother with the car cover except that I have a hyper active 2 year old. It doesn't provide total protection from him, but it's better than nothing. Anyway, I've been having thoughts of eventually selling my car and buying one of these:
I'm really excited about the new Dodge Challengers coming out. I'd really like an R/T with the 5.7 Hemi and 6 speed manual, when they release them later this year. I've never been married to the idea of driving a 37 year old car. But Detroit stopped making cool looking cars around that long ago. Until a couple of years ago with the new Mustang. I've never been a Mustang guy so that didn't excite me overly much. But that Mustang convinced Chrysler to make the new Challenger that looks like an old Challenger after a hotrod shop has gotten hold of it. Plus it'll be faster, handle better, be safer and more comfortable than anything built in the era of my car. But the Cutlass is paid for and I have no illusions about how much it's actually worth on the open market. It is a nice car, but there's probably a 20-25 grand difference in price that I'd be forced to pay. In addition to the yearly taxes and insurance. I only pay $27 a year for plates on the Cutlass, whereas the Vibe is over $200 by a fair amount.

Anyway I know that we won't be getting any new cars until Corwin starts school and gets out of daycare. And even then, I don't think a new muscle car will be able to take a priority over trading the Alero for an SUV or 4 door pickup. So my new black Challenger is a pipe dream at this point. It's good to be excited about putting a radio in my old blue car.

Illness

2008-02-12T19:36:00.000-06:00

Conrad got sick on Sunday and in continued on thru yesterday. We kept him home today because we weren't sure if he was over it, but he's mostly better now. Unfortunately Anke is now down. It might be catching Corwin and/or myself. Corwin was telling me his tummy was owie, but when I put him down for bed he said it was OK. My tummy feels a bit funny now, too. Normally I wouldn't give it a second thought, but with the flu running though my house, I'm afraid it may not let me ignore it.

update, 8:41 poor little Corwin has been sick now, too. I'm going to sleep on the floor of his room, so he won't be alone if he gets sick again. I fear it's only a question of if it gets me tonight or tomorrow at this point.

Random

2008-01-28T20:12:00.000-06:00

We had a very nice weather day today with a high of at least 56. Yahoo says the high tomorrow is 13. I know anyone reading this, has or is experiencing this too. But still! It's just wrong.

For Christmas Mom got me a couple of CDs on my Amazon wish list. One is Flogging Molly's Whiskey on a Sunday and the other is Dropkick Murphys' Warrior's Code. They are similar in that they are both a sort of punk/Irish folk music bands, but they come at it from different angles. Flogging Molly are more rooted in the folk music, but all of their songs are written by them. They don't have any traditional folk songs on their albums. Much of it sounds old, only with some electric guitar and a fast punk beat thrown in on occasion. Whereas Dropkick Murphy's is a full on punk band with an Irish influence of bagpipes and the occasional fiddle. And they will cover some old songs such as a rolling rendition of Captain Kelly's Kitchen and a beautiful cover of The Greenfields of France. Both good bands and recommended by me.

On Satur- day Anke built a couple of snowmen. She then made a couple of signs to wish her Tante Ursel a Happy Birthday. Not surprisingly Corwin didn't fully cooperate, despite his love of getting his picture taken. You'll also notice that Conrad is sitting up by himself. This is something that Corwin didn't do until he was over a year old. Corwin was always trying to get somewhere and was never content to sit and watch.

We went to the zoo on Sunday morning and it was great. The weather was nice and you get few other zoo patrons there at 9:30 on Sunday morning. While in the aquarium the octopus was out and about, which is rare. One of the keepers was there and he told us that the lifespan on at octopus is only one to five years. I hadn't known that and was surprised. Evidently when the female lays the eggs and young are hatched the female dies shortly thereafter, so HDZ doesn't even try breeding them.

Cast iron skillets rock. I got a cast iron skillet this summer so that I could cook some side dishes on the Webber grill this summer. But you have to cook the skillet in the over for a couple of hours after slathering it with Crisco, and I never got around to doing that until fall. So it never made it to the grill, but we've been using it constantly on the stove. It cooks more evenly than a nonstick skillet and if you oil it regularly it is even more nonstick than said nonstick skillet. The only downside is it's heavy and the handle gets hot, it being iron and all.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

2008-01-19T19:31:00.000-06:00

While sledding with Corwin in the back yard today, we noticed a small falcon perched in the tree that borders with my downhill neighbor. I was only able to get four pictures with the DSLR when the bloody battery went dead. So I ran back inside to get the new pocket sized point and shoot that Maurice got Anke and I for Christmas to get a few more photos. But as I was turning the little camera on, the Hawk flew into our blue spruce tree to chase a couple of chickadees. Dinner then zoomed between the houses and across the street I presume, with the falcon in pursuit.

With the help of my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds (Eastern Region North America) I was able to identify my new non vegetarian friend as a Sharp- shinned Hawk. It feeds mainly on other birds, which it can catch in midair. It's short rounded wings and long narrow tail make it rather maneuverable and able to dodge around trees and branches while in pursuit. They tend to migrate along rivers, so I suspect he was just passing through. (I believe it to be a he, as the females are significantly larger than the males, and he wasn't a real big fella, being maybe 10 inches tall or so.) But he really should stick around. Between the bird feeders of my neighbor and us, there are plenty of sparrow sized birds for him to buffet on.

Germany Photos

2008-01-02T20:30:00.000-06:00

Anouk, Inga, Oma Alfriede, Conrad, Anke, Oma Renate, Corwin

Corwin does a puzzle

Conrad

My Family

"Want more water fishies? Here ya go."

Mule Deer

The Blue Wonder

Feeding birds

Snow

2007-12-15T19:38:00.001-06:00

Ferrets and Guns

2007-12-11T21:19:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-02T19:31:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-29T20:53:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-23T20:37:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-04T20:10:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-03T21:46:00.001-05:00

Doesn't he look just like a little gnome?

Friday Evening Pix

2007-11-02T21:15:00.000-05:00

October

2007-10-30T19:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-24T21:06:00.001-05:00

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

2007-09-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-28T19:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-25T21:00:00.002-05:00

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

2007-08-23T19:46:00.001-05:00

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

2007-08-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-05T12:38:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

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!

Conrad's Life at Home

2007-07-21T20:13:00.001-05:00

So far Conrad has been of a sunny disposition. He doesn't cry much and is sleeping long hours. After his night time feedings he goes back to sleep without too much fuss. He only get really mad at night when changing his diaper. Thus far Conrad is allowing much more sleep for Anke and I that Corwin did.

Corwin is adapting to big brotherhood like a champ. He hasn't been jealous of Little Conrad at all and is always genuinely delighted to see him. Corwin tries very hard to be gentle and wants to hold him regularly. Additionally he wants to carry Conrad and have him play, but the three day old isn't quite ready for rough and tumble play of the two year old yet. I couldn't be more proud of how Corwin is coping with the new addition to the family. It does help that Grandma has been staying with us, making sure that there's plenty of affection to go around. Thanks Mom.

Hospital

2007-07-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

Anke was brought into the hospital Tuesday night to start the induction process. If everything went according to plan, Anke was to have had Conrad sometime during the day, probably afternoon of Wednesday. So I went home that evening so that Corwin would at least have Dad there in the morning. I would get up, take Corwin to daycare at 6:45- when they opened- and proceed to Creighton University Hospital.

When I arrived at just before 7, Anke appeared to be in much pain. Immediately Anke yelled for me to begin massaging her lower back. So I did. The next hour goes like this. Anke screaming, me massaging her back as hard as I can for the next hour. At the end of this time, my wrists are throbbing and I can't feel my finger tips anymore. I challenge any of you to massage someones lower back, as hard as you can for 15 minutes. It isn't pleasant.

Anke was in excruciating pain. The greatest pain she had ever experienced in her life. She had asked for an epidural at some point, but no one seemed to pay attention to her. So 10 minutes later I brought it up for her, again. So they paged the anesthesiologist, and she arrived 10 more minutes later.

(Papa acting like a monster, impressed Conrad not at all.)

The anesthesiologist was very firm, but friendly, telling Anke to sit on the bed and don't move. When having needle stuck in your spine it's important not to move. Just before inserting the big needle in her back, Anke starts saying "The baby is coming!" It takes a few seconds, and Anke saying it a few times before they start to believe her and think to check things out. And little Conrad was coming. I run out into the hall yelling "Get a doctor! She's having the baby!"

So Dr. Babcock, the anesthesiologist, delivers the baby. Anke's doctor later told us that Dr. Babcock was glowing later, as this was the first baby she had delivered in 20 years. So all in all, Anke's actual labor was just over an hour, but she was able to cram all of the pain associated with Corwin's 23 hour labor into that one hour.

Conrad Charles Parker

2007-07-18T18:22:00.001-05:00

8:07 AM
9lb 11oz
21 3/4 inches

Baby still In Utero

2007-07-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

Baby is now two days overdue. Anke had a doctors appoint- ment today and they said everything was OK. We are planning on waiting until Monday, and if Baby doesn't arrive by then, on his own, Anke and her OB will start planning for inducing labor. The OB said that they would induce before Monday if Anke wanted, but induced labor is generally more painful. So she is going to wait it out a bit longer.

Baby Animals

2007-07-09T20:17:00.000-05:00

Back Yard

Fontenelle Forest

Nothing Yet

2007-07-07T19:46:00.000-05:00

I was hoping for the baby today (07-07-07), but it looks like the little fella is going to hold off. We even went for a long walking visit to the Zoo this morning to try and help things along. But no luck.

The official due date is Monday the 9th. A month ago I was sure that Baby would be here by now, judging by how Anke felt and the size of her belly. Shows what I know.

Heart

2007-06-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

My Dad had another angioplasty in Des Moines today. He's had one bypass surgery and countless angioplasties in the past 10 years. He's always been a great father to me and set an example that I want to live up to. I love him and it always scares me when his heart betrays him this way, reminding me of mortality. He needs to lose more weight and exercise more. He really does much better with his diet than he used to, but getting the exercise is the hard thing for him. Hopefully he and Mom can get their house in C'town sold soon and they get over here to Omaha. I can just give him Corwin a couple of times a week and say, "Keep up!" That'd whip into shape in no time.

I've been lucky in that I haven't suffered much death in my life. I'm out of grand parents, it's true. My Dad's father died when he was 14. His mom died when I was only 5 or so. I was too young to really understand what was happening. My Mom's mom died when when I was a early teenager, I think. The only one to really affect me much was Grandpa. I wasn't all that close to him, he was one of those stoic old school farmer's. He didn't really believe in showing emotion. I believe he is where Maurice got his height from, and both of us got our long monkey arms from. But I used to go and watch pro wresting with him when I was 10 or 11 every Sunday. That was fun, he would always take it so seriously. That was in the days of the Iron Sheik and some Russian villain with CCCP on his red wresting trunks. How he hated them. Later at the end of Grandpa's life, when he couldn't drive safely, I'd take him to his doctor's appointments occasionally. This was at the very beginning of my Doc Martin phase (which continues to this day- Let it be known I wore them before their rampant popularity, and still wear them now that the trend has wained) and I had on a pair of plane black boots. Grandpa had on a pair of plain black shoes, too. He was so pleased that we were wearing the same kind of shoe. He died not long after that. It was sad, and I cried, but I dare say I'm a more emotional kind of guy now and would cry more.

When we were cleaning out Grandpa's house someone (I think Aunt Susan, but I'm not sure) threw an old beaten leather coat into the trash can. I thought, this is a pretty cool coat. I'm taking it. So I dug it out and put it on. It fit my long monkey arms well. But it was DRY. When I moved my arms, you could hear it creaking. The inside collar said, "100% Horse Hide". Mom put a whole tub of horse saddle grease on the coat to moisturize it. She told me that this was the coat that Grandpa used to wear when he would ride his horse to the bar to sew his oats in the 1930's. I've gotten many compliments on this coat over the years. Around 5 years ago I brought it to a tailor to have a new lining put in, and have some of the seams redone. I think it would please Grandpa to know that I'm still wearing it. And someday, I imagine it'll get passed down to Corwin or his brother. Or perhaps one of their sons.

Of the nice memories I have of Grandpa, though, we weren't as close as I would have liked in hindsight. Anke is so close to her Oma Alfrieda and Oma Renate, and she was very close to her Opa. Corwin's named after him. Corwin Günter Parker. I want my children to be close to their Grandparents, as I really wasn't. And we are off to a great start so far in that direction. But Dad has to live longer to do it. His procedure today went well and I talked to him on the phone, just hours ago. He already felt better. So he's ok, and that makes me feel better. He'll be around to see his second grandson born. I think having the Parker name carried on is important to him, so I think it pleases him that I've had boys. It also let's Maurice off the hook a bit. He owes me.

Anyway it's getting late, and I've rambled long enough. Enjoy the photo of Grandpa and Grandma from I'm guessing mid 1940's.

2

2007-06-20T19:26:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Corwin

Please, allow me to introduce myself as someone else

2007-06-12T10:37:00.000-05:00

While on the way to the store last Saturday morning, we stopped at a garage sale a block down the road. I picked up a shovel and 50 ft extension cord. Got a little riding/rocking zebra for Corwin and Baby. Before leaving I introduced myself to the house owner, as I’m still fairly new to the neighborhood. He said his name was John and I shook his hand and said “Scott Parker.”

A few days later, I think I hear Corwin saying my name out on the deck. I wander out there to see what’s up, and he runs up to Anke with his little hand out saying, “Scott Parker!” He shakes her hand and runs off.

Transfomers

2007-06-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

There is a new live action Trans- formers movie coming out that I am rather excited about. The new Optimus Prime looks good. But I feel that they should have left him as a cab over, instead of making him a blinged out Peterbilt. The following is an awesome clip by some guy who did a transforming Ultra Magnus (Optimus Prime's cracker cousin) as an exercise in computer animation. Michael Bay should have taken some notes. I think Ultra Magnus looks great as a old disheveled Freightliner. Optimus Prime would have too, but I would have modeled him off of an old GMC Astro.

Döner Kebab!

2007-05-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

Scotty having a döner kebab and pilsner at Mt Ararat in Dreseden circa 2003. A little slice of paradise.

As some of you may have heard me go on about at one time or another, a döner kebab is one of my three or four favorite foods. But I only get döners when I visit Germany. I did have one in NYC once, but it was a poor imitation using a flour tortilla, instead of a pita.

Until Wednesday. A QA at work told me about a little shop that opened in Dundee that sells döners! So I skipped my packed lunch and hopped in the car at lunch to go check it out. And they do sell them Amsterdam style, not German style, which is too bad. But still the taste was 9/10ths right. The only thing that pisses me off is that they opened this shop in my old neighborhood four months after I moved.

Observations

2007-05-24T20:35:00.000-05:00

The other day I was driving home from work with Anke and Corwin on the freeway. We get passed by a late 90's civic with one of those loud coffee can mufflers. Corwin is at the age where he likes to point out the obvious. He promptly says "lawnmower!" It's enlightening that there are things he can already figure out on his own, and doesn't need to be taught.

Flood

2007-05-19T07:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went with a couple of co-workers to Missouri Valley, IA to help clean with the flooding that occurred a couple of weeks ago. The neighborhood that we were working was a rather poor place to begin with, before everything was swamped with three to four feet of water. Most of the houses were single story homes, built on concrete slabs. The owners of these had no where to put their valuables even had they known the water was coming.

In the morning I helped out with the salvage of one of these homes. This old woman lost nearly everything. The stove, fridge, washer and dryer. All of the furnishings of the house creating a pile in the front yard. The carpet that we were pulling up was a drab brown, except for a single two foot by four foot rectangle of white where something had protected it. We cut the carpet into blocks, pulled it and the padding up and added it to the growing detritus. From the pile it would go into the bucket of a giant end loader donated by the local Case Implement dealer to be taken Zeus knows where. Nasty, ugly, smelly work. It made me thankful Woodmen provided free tetanus shots for us.

It's saddening to see those that have so little, lose nearly everything. It makes me thankful for what I have, and that I don't have to live on a flood plane. It has to be disheartening to see all of the possessions that have taken you years to accumulate and many of them that must have some sentimental value, being ruined and thrown away like the garbage that they now are. How do you start over?

After lunch I helped at a vet clinic. Most of the clinic had been emptied by the time my team got there. We were helping to clear out a storage room in the back. The vet had seven or eight book shelves back there filled with books. The bottom half of all of them sat in water for a week. It felt sacrilegious to be throwing so many books into plastic bags and added to growing pile of junk in his horse trailer. Thousands if dollars of books being added to the thousands and thousands of dollars of other stuff. The vet was in a better situation than most, financially, to deal with the disaster, but he too was hurting. Especially because during the cleanup he hasn't got any income coming in.

I had to leave early to pick up Anke at work and Corwin in daycare. The relief effort was being organized at the local pool, which was convenient, allowing me to shower and change clothes before having to climb into the car and meet civilization again. But that may have been the coldest shower I have ever taken. I suppose swimming pools don't feel the need to hook their showers up to hot water heaters.

Yard Work

2007-05-16T20:32:00.000-05:00

For the past month and a half, Anke has had me out in the yard doing Yard Work every weekend. I had no idea that owning a house would entail quite so much of the stuff. First shoveling snow and now this.

To help with the job, I picked up a Craftsman racing mower from sears. It has a 6 3/4 pound feet of torque Briggs & Stratton engine. Big directional tri-spoke wheels. And a parachute on the back to help me slow down. On top of all that, it's menacing black, with a fire red engine cover. Maurice may have a faster car than me, but my mower smokes his. One thing that does confuse me is that I can't find the rabbit and turtle to control the throttle.

See those bushes behind me? They used to be huge. Anke thought that they were too huge, and had me wack them down to nearly nothing. She says they'll come back bigger and better than ever. All I know is that it was a lot more work than I wanted to do. And now I have a big patch of dirt that used to be covered by bush.

Notice how tall the grass is here? That is in my swampy area that nearly never dries off. At some point I'm going to have to do something about that, like a French drain. Or something. But my racing mower took care of that 8 inch wet grass like it was nothin'. Torque bitch!

Here is the obligatory picture of Corwin trying to help out. He loves water and therefor he loves the water hose. He's also getting taller and talkier.

Anke has also had me planting plants galore. Two rose bushes. Two currant bushes. Transplanted a blue berry bush. Weeding, weeding, weeding. Ripping out Virginia creeper and a couple of poison ivy vines by the root. The yard really did need a lot of work. Since the house was unoccupied last summer, the yard was a bit neglected. We also planted two bamboo plants, one of which is shown. I'm actually excited about the bamboo. They are small now, but they should reach around 6 or 7 feet in height. The bamboo photo was taken with my new phone. It isn't quite camera quality and very far from our DSLR, but it's much better than my old phone.

Social Distortion

2007-05-02T14:57:00.000-05:00

Maurice and I went to see Social D on May Day.

The first opening act was The Black Halos. They were kind of like the Evil Dead 2 of punk bands. Like Evil Dead 2, you're not quite sure if that was supposed to be funny or did it just happen to be funny? It took me awhile decide: Is the lead singer was really trying to be super cool or is it a bit of a tongue in cheek act? It was when the lead singer took off his shirt and he had a bit of a Chris Willcolm build (a round belly and narrow chest) that I decided, he can't be taking himself too seriously. I liked them a bit better after that. Musically I thought that they were a talented band, but the lead singer needs to learn how to sing. I could never understand him.

Band two was I Hate Kate, and they were very good. More of a modern rock band, but very strong. ...this post is now continued almost a week later. I'm sure there was more that I wanted to say about I Hate Kate, but I can't recall what it was. Anyway, I liked them.

I like Socol Auditorium. It's an old place in south Omaha, that has lots of character. And no air conditioning. It is set up mainly like a giant high school auditorium, but with no seats. There is a balcony that rings the main floor, giving a good view of the stage if you are in the first couple of rows. But Maurice said that the balcony is a good 10 degrees hotter than the floor. When we got there early the building was comfortably cool and it remained that way though the first two bands. Then it rapidly started heating up as the energy level was noticeably raised when Social D took the stage. They played a variety of tracks from their whole catalog of albums including favorites like Prison Bound, Ball and Chain and Highway 101 from their newest album. A couple of covers were included- The Stones Under My Thumb, Hank Williams Sr.'s Six More Miles and of course Ring of Fire made popular by Johnny Cash, but written by his wife June Carter before their marriage. The didn't play my favorite Social D song Story of my Life, but that was the only disappointment of the night.

Social Distortion played with the precision that one would expect of a band that's been around since the late 70's, but more energy than one might expect of guys on the north side of their mid 40's. I was surprised by how old they looked until I thought about how long Mike Ness has been making rock 'n roll. And I doubt they were all easy years.

It was also fun seeing Omaha's Rockabilly crowd come out. There was an authentic rad rod parked across from Socol when we came in. If I had more garage space and time. And money. I'd really enjoy having a rat rod. Along with several other cars. But now I'm getting off topic. There were several cats there with the slicked back black hair or horn rimmed glasses or black and white wing tips. The punk girls with tattoos and 50's style bobbed hair, the tight capri pants and string tank tops. Yummy. I love punk girls.

A grand night out, and one of my last ones for the next year or so.

PowerBook G4

2007-04-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

A design flaw of the titanium PowerBooks is that the hinges are made of aluminum and not titanium. Therefor they are a bit fragile. The PowerBook is a bit outdated, but it does most of what I want a laptop to do, so I wasn't ready to give up on it yet. Plus it is still stylish and aesthetically pleasing.

I was able to pick up a used hinge mount from ifixit.com for under $20 w/ shipping.

Replacing the broken hinge mount was surprisingly easy. I was lucky that only the brittle hinge mount broke and not the actual hinge itself. That is closer to the $100 and requires complete disassembly of the laptop to reinstall. I think I could have done it, but it would have been much more of a pain in the arse.

It was so easy I let Corwin finish up for me.

Weekend Images

2007-04-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

We have bonus images this week, but Dinner is the official photo of the week. Slow cooking the beef ribs wasn't so easy as a hurricane rolled during hour two of the ribs cooking. The patio is located underneath the deck and I put the patio furniture umbrella beside the grill to help keep the water off, and my grill temperature up. And marinated vegetable kabobs is a yummy way of eating my veggies, which Anke says I need to do a better job of in order to set a proper example of Corwin and the soon to arrive Scotty Version III.

Corwin has a ball on his little swing that he got from his Opa.

Finally starting to get some green in the forest.

Corwin is all about learning how to drive. But it won't be in this car.

I'm just buzzed

2007-04-18T07:56:00.000-05:00

This is short film of Will Ferrel and his daughter. Very funny.

Nappy Headed Moe

2007-04-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

For the record I thought that Imus deserved to be fired, and I'm glad that he was. But this made me laugh.

Weekend

2007-04-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

I completed my first home improve- ment project. While Dad was in town on Saturday we mounted the kitchen cabinets that I picked up for $50 and a case of beer. Anke won out and they ended up in the laundry room and not the garage. The look really nice though. Dad and I ended up buying a new hammer drill to mount them into the concrete wall. The difference that the hammer drill made, vs. the old average drill in attacking in the concrete wall was shocking. The right tool for the job.

The cabinets still need to be cleaned up a bit, but they do look nice. Now I have to find a new storage solution for the garage.

For lunch Dad wanted to order food from the Thai Kitchen. A little hole in the wall place in South O. It's a bit odd to me that the best Thai that I've ever had would be found in the Mexican neighborhood of Omaha. But I am so proud of Dad for broadening his culinary horizons. I never thought the day would come when my father would say, "Let's get Thai."

Sunday was a good day too. Anke, Corwin and I took a walk on the Fontenelle Forest board walk Sunday morning. That afternoon I had a couple of beers with Maurice at the Horseshoe casino and we discussed the finer points of IT in the insurance industry. That afternoon Casa de Parker had a winged visitor in the basement. The poor little fellow was scared out of his mind. He found a nice retreat in one of Anke's plants for a while. I eventually shooed Mr. Sparrow into the garage and he was able to find the great outdoors from there.

For dinner I fired up my new Webber grill for the first time. I'm a slut for aesthetics, and that is kind of how I ended up with an expensive charcoal grill instead of a cheep gas grill. All of the cool looking gas grills are north of $300. But I got this groovy retro Webber with the blue enamel coat for much less than that. But still more than a sane person should pay for a charcoal grill. I cooked some chicken breasts that had a Turkish rub on them, along with some onions and potato kebabs. The chicken breasts turned out freaking phenomenal. The best chicken breast that I have ever had in my life! Charcoal does rule. They were so good that I broke out my last bottle of Eibauer (Scotty's favorite beer in the whole wide world, but only available on the other side of the world) to complement my dinner. Sometimes I think that I may lead a charmed life.

Photo of the Week

2007-04-13T20:56:00.000-05:00

This is a new series I'm starting. Once a week I'm going to try and post a random photo. Some will be recent and some will be old. Like this one. If I had to guess, I'd say it's 1991 or so. I wish when I had taken this, I had a better idea of what I was doing. The framing on it is off. The front of the Blazer should be in the picture. And the back corner of the Cougar shouldn't be cut off either. Or probably the Cougar should have been moved, taken out of the photo completely. The composition of the old mower and old truck alone would have worked better in hind site.

That old black truck still holds a special place in my heart. Who can say why. It was slow, old, ugly, rusty. And the damn thing burned my leg back in the late 70's when it had side pipes. (It didn't have side pipes the next week, however.) Left a nice little scar on my leg that looked like a goldfish, that has since faded away in the skin cells of time.

But many good times were had with it. It was the first vehicle that I can ever recall riding in. Mom and Dad got it in 1975. My folks were cruising the SUV before the SUV was hip. As a youngster, it was always a special treat to get to ride on the console between the two front seats. That was a concussion waiting to happen. Now I strap Corwin down in the middle back seat of anything he's riding in. Different times.

Later it was my primary mode of transportation a couple of times in my driving career. By this time it wasn't quite as swanky as when I was a child. Rusting like nothing else. The passenger seat and driver seat didn't match. It was beat up, so it could be abused. I recall climbing snowing hills in the old beast with Tony. Getting just a few feet from the top of one, and losing traction. Sliding down the hill, the truck turning sideways and getting sideswiped by a tree. Loading boxes in and helping Maurice move to Ottumwa. Whacking stop signs around the high school that no business trying to stop the natural flow of traffic. Taking the roof off and mudding it with Mo. But that's another picture.

Sokol

2007-03-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

The Reverend Horton Heat is playing at Sokol Undergound in Omaha tonight. Unfortunately I'm not going. The whole job, pregnant wife, kid thing strikes again. I think that I should have made an effort to go to more shows before Corwin was born. On the bright side Social Distortion is playing at Sokol on May 1 and I am going to that. If, on the odd chance, anyone else wants to go, me let me know.

Rainy Day Corwin

2007-03-25T20:14:00.000-05:00

Sandhill Cranes

2007-03-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Kearney Nebraska to try and view the migrating Sandhill Cranes around 3ish on Sunday, March 11. First we checked into a motel and then we had dinner at Whiskey Creek- recommended by Matt who hails from Kearney and absolutely despises Sandhill Cranes with an unhealthy passion- which was very good. I had a Jim Beam marinaded steak which although good, pails in comparison to the average steak that Russ brings camping with him and that generally gets cooked over an open fire. After dinner it was off to the public viewing area at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area.

The Sandhill Cranes are interesting in that they winter and summer in many different locations, but nearly all of them meet in the Sandhills of Nebraska in the spring and fall to stop, have a break, get some food and inevitably party in the middle of their migrations.
The weather on Sunday was wonderful, but as the evening wore on, it got progressively chillier. We were able to bundle Corwin up satisfactorily, but I remained a bit cool. The cranes were supposed to show up at around 6ish, but they didn't arrive until 7:15ish. We nearly gave up on them, but another fellow told us to stick around as there was a large flock in a field just over over a couple of hills. We waited it out and got to see many formations of birds flying above us. Without exaggerating I would guess that there were at least 10 t0 20 thousand birds in the sky. They never did land in the river near enough to us to get any good pictures, unfortunately.
The next morning, it was cold and rather foggy. We got to another public viewing site at around 6:30 but never did see anything other than some light ghostly cranes flying overhead. You'll notice the cool hat I'm wearing. It's an old Mack Trucks stocking cap from my youth that I found in my folks house this year. It was a present from my father from when he must have been close to my age.
Later we went to Rowe Sanctuary and saw many cranes flying over the river. Corwin had a grand time playing on the path to the viewing blind. Rowe gives out guided tours to viewing the Cranes in the evening and morning, but Corwin is still too young to go on one of these.

After leaving Rowe we cruised a couple of gravel roads where we saw a truly impressive flock of cranes hanging out.
We crept up slowly on them and watched for a good minute before they all suddenly took to wing.
At first we thought that these birds have really slow reactions if they are just now running away from us. But then, we too heard the train whistle in the background. The trip was worthwhile, but also a bit disappointing. I really wanted to see the dance that Sandhill Cranes are known for. But we got some good intel for the next trip. I think that our best bet will be to have someone baby sit Corwin and Baby overnight so Anke and I can rent a blind and cabin. We also need to get a telephoto lense for out DSLR.

A special thanks goes out to Maurice for allowing me to borrow his Jeep. That allowed Inga, Andre, Anouk, Corwin, Anke, myself and all our gear to travel to the middle of Nebraska in one vehicle, making the trip much simpler.

Happy Birthday to Me

2007-03-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

Normally my birthdays tend to suck. It's my own fault because I generally want something grand to happen and, really, grand things rarely happen. But sometimes they are nice. Last year I got an unexpected card on my birthday that made the whole day brighter. This year it looks like we are going to have some kick ass warm and sunny weather. Internet tells me- and Internet never lies- that it will be sunny and 76 today. I can recall one other birthday where the weather was so nice, I think it would have been '95. The weather was warm that day and I had a birthday party at the old Ottumwa house on Church street. Many of my friends were there. Cold beer was on tap. I made out with a cute girl at the end of the night. Good times.

Times change however, but this is going to be a good birthday too I think. I have, I can say with absolutely no impartiality, the world's coolest little boy. I have a lovely wife, that drives me nuts on occasion but loves me with all her heart, brewing another little boy for us. And if we do nothing else well, we make good kids.

Anke's sister Inga is visiting with Andre and their daughter Anouk. We went to view the sandhill cranes on Sunday and Monday. More on the later, I promise, but it was pretty cool if you're a nature dork like me. It makes me happy that I'm able to share silly things like watching birds with my wife.

There is a cake waiting for me when I get home and lasagna on the menu for dinner. It shall be a good day.

Napping

2007-02-19T21:22:00.000-06:00

Little Corwin wasn't feeling so well on Sunday. At one point I picked him up when he was whining and he fell asleep on my shoulder. So I curled up on the couch with him and took a nap too. Somehow he managed to sleep with the sun shining on him through the window.

Truck

2007-02-19T21:13:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning I took Mom and Dad's old battered truck (In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I did a bit of the battering to it myself. With a boat.) to get some cabinets for the garage. But first I had to shovel snow out of the bed. The cabinets were stored in a barn down a snowy hill in Iowa. But said battered truck climbed up and down the hill in 4 low like a billy goat. I was a bit surprised and impressed how easily it handled the short off-roading trip. Having the truck here has been really helpful the past couple of weeks. Thanks Mom and Dad.

The cabinets that I picked up are rather nice. Anke thinks that they are too nice to put in the garage, and wants to place them in the laundry room instead. I should have gotten the ugly cabinets.

Robin

2007-02-16T20:08:00.000-06:00

I saw what must be the first robin of spring yesterday. Or a bird that was simply too stupid to fly south for the winter. It was perched on a branch outside the kitchen window, puffed up like a little gray and orange ball. The robin says it is spring, but the snow on the ground says it isn't.

Pictures from Home

2007-02-13T20:24:00.000-06:00

There are deer sleeping in my back yard

2007-02-12T21:45:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anna Nicole

2007-02-09T19:37:00.000-06:00

I was besotted with Anna Nicole Smith in my precocious youth. When she was still young and sexy. Back when she was the Guess Jeans girl and Playmate of the Year. The first Playboy I ever purchased was her PMotY issue. I had cut out several of her Guess Jeans adds from Rolling Stone tacked them to the wall of my bedroom. This was when living in that little house in Ottumwa, dating girls that were no good for me or to me. If only they could have been Anna Nicole.

Unfortunately fame didn't agree with Anna Nicole. In the end she looked like a caricature of herself. I don't know if it was too much plastic surgery or too much hard living. But the past 10 or 12 years weren't kind to her. One of the many advantages of not having cable is that I never saw her reality show, which I have heard was horrible and not very flattering. This makes it easier for me to choose to remember her as the buxom Guess Jeans Girl that I had a crush on.

Moving is not a pleasant experience

2007-02-07T20:53:00.000-06:00

96.5% of my possessions are now at my house. Hunter's cage and Hunter still have to be moved from the apartment, along with my tool box that I have left there for the dismantling of his cage. I have 8 wheels and tires in Maurice's garage that are to be moved. And also some speakers that I'll take out of his basement. Oh, and my weights are still in his basement too. But everything else is there.

We got most of it moved on Saturday. Special thanks go out to Maurice and Matt for helping load and unload the U-haul. It was bitter, freezing cold and I'm sure there were lots of places they would have rather been. Especially Matt who spent the entire night fixing a cycle problem at work. He only got 2 hours of sleep. Thanks, guys. After moving multiple boxes consisting of my burgeoning book collection, Matt suggested that I invest in a library card. Who knew paper was so freakin' heavy. Thanks to Mom for watching Corwin during the move, that allowed Anke to pack and me to load and unload. I had intended on documenting some of the move with pictures, but I was too busy actually working and at some point the camera got packed into a box somewhere. I'm still not sure where the damn thing is.

On Sunday Anke and I went back to the apartment to finish packing and moving stuff. We did three pickup loads and two Vibe loads. All loading and unloading done by your faithful blogger, due to Anke's delicate health situation. There was more stuff after the U-haul load than I thought. I did get the TV hooked up and found my bunny ears right away, so was able to catch the second half of the Super Bowl. On the plus side TV reception is much better in Bellevue than Dundee.

On Monday there the house was still a wreck and there was still more stuff at the apartment. Two Vibe loads and one pickup load later, everything is nearly moved. Thanks to the guy that lives above the apartment for helping me carry Loki's cage out to the pickup. Thanks Guy Who Used To Live Above Me. Maurice and Bernie stopped by Monday evening to help move Loki's cage into the house. Bernie got there just in time to see the 10 deer in the forest behind the house. I wish I had known which box the camera was in. Bernie had never seen deer before- having grown up in Hawaii and all. She was excited.

All in all, it was pretty exhausting though. Going back to work on Tuesday was a relief. But then I have to go back home and continue unpacking.

But the house is nice and I'm happy being there.

Live from Bellevue, NE

2007-02-01T18:13:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the first post from Casa de Parker. I'm sitting in a mostly empty house waiting for the gas and water guy to come and read the meter to show up, typing on my bare bones PC that's only real purpose is for logging into work when necessary. The cable and phone guy clearly came first as I do have Internet access to post this.

So anyway, I am now a 20% homeowner as of yesterday. And that number will start climbing by ever so minute amounts monthly. And I have the joy of paying property taxes. The property taxes in Nebraska are rather high, too. Especially when the redness of this state is taken into consideration. But Corwin and Baby will be going to public schools and I want them to be nice schools so I'll pay with little bitching involved. But getting to this point made it an interesting week.

On Sunday we did the final walk thru on the house, with our buyer's agent Galya Leathers. If you do any real estate transactions in the Omaha area, I cannot recommend her enough. Anke and I couldn't be happier with the job she did for us. So we get to the house and it is COLD inside. Like really cold. We check the thermostat and it is set at 40. I guess the stupid sellers decided to save themselves a couple of dollars and turned the heat down now that the house was sold. We go to the kitchen and there is ice formed on the tap. Damn. We turn the heat up and call the seller's agent. She comes buy to check the house later and sure enough, the damn pipes between the kitchen and the garage broke. They get a plumber in to fix them that day and promise to have the ceiling of the garage, which sustained substantial water damage, fixed by Friday. Gayla has her own plumber come and check out the work done by the buyer's plumber on Tuesday just to make sure. I would have preferred that disaster not have happened, but it's been taken care of.

So the plan is to go ahead and close on Tuesday. My lender phones and tells me that everything looks good. But my documents have to go through some sort of "quality control" by the underwriter before everything can proceed. And that won't happen today. What the hell is going on I think. They've known for 5 weeks that we are closing on the 30th. What do they think I'm a terrorist, needing to check all of my documents? Damn Bush and his Patriot Act. The sellers are now freaked out too, because this is the second time that the house has sold. The first deal fell through at the last minute, too, back in June. Tuesday comes, and they still aren't sure if they will get to my documents today. Well after much hand wringing my Indian lender finally calls at around 3:15 to tell me that the underwriter finally signed off and we can close tomorrow on the 31st. Hooray! Everything finally comes together and I can stop stressing.

nobody knows how cool I am

2007-01-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

Sometimes at work- like today for example- I do some really clever code. But no one else knows or appreciates it, because to the end user it really looks pretty simple. Which is the point I suppose, to make everything appear easy and intuitive. I'm not sure everyone knows how not easy that is sometimes, though.

Oh, well. Someone will get really excited by some small simple thing that I'll do later, because it appears difficult when it really isn't and I'll get kudos for that. I suppose it all evens out in the end.

Saturday Pictures

2007-01-14T11:07:00.000-06:00

Corwin's first real encounter with snow.

Funny Hat Club. Funny Hats courtesy of Inga.

Daddy's bread pudding is for desert.

The little scamp.

Friar Corwin

Froggy Went a Courtin

2007-01-13T10:08:00.000-06:00

Froggy went a courtin, he did ride,
with a sword and pistol by his side, Uh-huh

Corwin is running off with a little frog that his Aunt Inga made for him.

He is getting really big now. In the last couple of months he has sprouted. After his 18 month day in December he transfered to the next bigger room in his daycare. He is still the youngest and therefor smallest in his room, but I'm not sure he knows that yet. But he is noticeably taller than little Ethan and Carson from the previous room when he used to be pretty much the same size as them.

Everything with the house seems to be going according to plan. We are planning on moving February 3. If anyone is bored that day, you are more welcome to help me move. It really shouldn't be too bad. We still don't have all that much big stuff. Just the TV which is pretty heavy, the credenza it sits on, our bed, a futon, Loki's cage and Hunter's cage, and three or four book shelfs. And a couple of computer desks. The hardest part will be taking Hunter's cage apart. It is huge and won't fit through any doors without dismantling it.

And the final piece of news to share is that Corwin will be getting a little sibling around the first week of July.

Physics of a Straw

2007-01-02T08:49:00.000-06:00

Corwin has worked out the physics of using a straw.

Darrent Williams

2007-01-01T18:26:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit of an anomaly. I'm the only sports fan in my family and only have a couple of friends that are real sports fans. My brother has gone to basketball games with me, but that was only to hang with me and party afterward. My favorite teams are the Iowa State Cyclones for collegiate athletics, for obvious reasons. The only pro sports team that I am a fan of is the Denver Broncos. My allegiance to them stems from my watching John Elway's first Super Bowl teams during my formative years in Junior High.

Last night I was watching the Broncos last game of the season, while trying to stop my son from pressing random buttons on the TV. When buying a TV pre-children you don't think how nice an option it might be to be able to temporarily disable all of the buttons on the TV. Anyway if the Broncos had won they would have advanced to the playoffs. They didn't win, but they were playing with a rookie quarterback who has a bright future so I can live with it. He's no Elway, but he'll be pretty good.

This morning I checked the Denver Post web site to see what some of the post game comments from the coaches and players might have been. The top headline is Darrent Williams was shot and killed last night. I was a bit in shock. Darrent was a 24 year old second year starting cornerback. He was a little guy at only 5'8 and around 165lbs. This isn't far off of Scotty size, and he's a quality starter in the NFL. I had been watching him on TV just over 12 hours earlier. And now he's dead. All that is known now is that he was leaving a night club at two AM New Years Eve in a Hummer Limo. Another vehicle pulled along side it and riddled it with bullets. It's hard to say if they knew who they were shooting at or not, but I tend to believe that these things don't happen completely at random. It saddens me that a life can so suddenly and senselessly be taken. Probably over nothing more than a random drunken disagreement at a night club.

Home

2006-12-27T20:04:00.000-06:00

You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land. - Delmar O'Donnel (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

I am on my way to becoming some kind of man. Anke and I signed a contract to buy a house today. Hooray! We hope to close at the end of January. We'll be located in Bellevue - which is just south of Omaha- near Fontenelle Forest. My commute to work will probably grow from 15 minutes to 20 - 25 minutes. And there is no covenant. I've had this discussion with friends before about how I don't believe in covenants. And it's usually me against everyone else in this, but I believe in personal freedom over property values. I believe in hanging engine blocks from trees . And I now have a tree (see the above picture) to hang one from. Just do me a favor and don't tell Anke about this plan. I'm not quite sure she would understand, and she may attempt to thwart me.
The back yard goes right up to this public hilly foresty land. There should be lots of wild life for nature geeks like me and Anke to enjoy.
The inside is very nice with high vaulted cedar ceilings and an open floor plan. The master bedroom is decent sized, but smaller than we have now. Our current apartment actually has huge bed rooms. The two kid bedrooms are rather small to my eye. But that is ok, because kids are small people. And I won't be the one living in the small room. Oh, and there is a wet bar in the basement. The back of the house is the really cool part. Look at those huge windows! Anke and I are really excited about this house. It will be a bit stark with furnishings in the beginning, but we think we can be happy living here until Corwin gets out of school. So that'll give us plenty of time to decorate. (Photos a borrowed from the real estate listing.)

December

2006-12-20T19:25:00.000-06:00

No updates for a while. I've been lazy. What has happened this month?

I've gotten new glasses. Actually two new pairs. We had a lot of money left over from our annual medical flex spending account. Way over budgeted on that. Some day I think I should just get the lasic surgery and have my vision corrected. But the truth is I like glasses. I don't like the part where I wake in the morning and am blind or when they get smudged, which happens all to often with a toddler running around. But I like how I look with them.

I also got a new hair cut. Quite a bit was chopped off. It took a week or so to get used to, but I like it now. In the winter my hair tends to get rather flat with the lack of humidity in the air. I'll grow it out a bit when summer rolls around again. On the bright side, I think I look a good five years younger.

I got to see The Who on December 7. Maurice emailed me that he had been given four tickets to the show by his consulting firm. The Pretenders opened for them, and Chrissie Hynde can still rock pretty well for a 55 year old lady. My only complaint is that they didn't play Brass in Pocket. If you're The Pretenders how can you not play Brass in Pocket?! But I digress, they were good none the less. The only remaining members of The Who left are Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey. These are two talented individuals. Especially Pete who essentially wrote all of The Who's material. It was a good show. It was also nice to be someplace where I felt young. I don't get that too often any more. Tickets were a bit on the pricy side, and I'm glad that I didn't have to pay for them. Thanks Mo and ProKarma.

Corwin was sick on Friday. Anke was sick on Sunday. Scotty was sick today. Corwin's pediatrician thought it was probally the Noral Virus. I'm feeling better now, but still don't feel quite right. We'll see how I feel in the morning, but I think that it may be another day at home for me tomorrow. On Friday I'm supposed to go to Des Moines and visit Eric and his fiance Diana (pronounced Dee-ana, a fine Chicana lass way out of LT's league). I hope I'm feeling better by then, as I'm rather looking forward to it.

Why am I not surprised

2006-12-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

You are The Fool

The Fool is the card of infinite possibilities. The bag on the staff indicates that he has all he need to do or be anything he wants, he has only to stop and unpack. He is on his way to a brand new beginning. But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop daydreaming and fantasising and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking the fool.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Trucker Movies from Three Continents

2006-11-30T20:41:00.000-06:00

This post is mostly for me, because I'm not sure anyone else will really appreciate it. These are the opening credits for BJ and the Bear (actually an American TV show not movie), a German trucker film and a Japanese dekotora truck movie.

I love how similar these all are and how a simple fascination with big trucks is universal the world over.