Pictures from Home

There are deer sleeping in my back yard

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anna Nicole

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corwin has worked out the physics of using a straw.

Darrent Williams

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

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

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

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

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.

Thanksgiving

As some of you may or may not know, Mom and Dad are getting ready to sell my childhood home. They are planning on moving to the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area. Many people ask how I feel about this when I tell them and my answer is that this is a good thing. I love my parents and have a great relationship with them. I think it will be nice for Corwin to see his grandparents more often too. Plus they have a couple of dogs, and I can borrow one to take to the dog park on days when it looks to be a good doggy in the park day. So it was decided to go back to C'town for one last Thanksgiving in the old house.

Unfortuately Anke got sick on Wednesday night and was still Ill Thursday morning, so she wasn't up to making the 3.5 to 4 hour drive. So me and Corwin- and all of his gear- piled into Maurice's new Jeep Commander with he and Bernie. This is a great road tripping truck with plenty of Hemi power, a smooth comfortable ride, and amazingly quite inside, considering it has the aerodynamics of a brick. It could also tackle the Rubicon Trail should it jump out in front of us.

It was a good day. As soon as we got to town Dad, Corwin and I went to Aunt Dorris's to say hi. We don't get over often and she and her family don't get to see Corwin much. Of course he was a huge hit, as always. Aunt Dorris gave Corwin a couple of Uncle PJ's old Beenie Babies. He got a nice little bear and a monkey. Corwin was pleased.

Dinner was up next at Mom and Dad's. The food- standard Thanksgiving fare turkey, stuffing, potatos and such- was great as always. Thanks Mom. Corwin and I went to visit the Milani family at around 3ish. Ostensibly the reason for the visit is to see Bill, Pam, Tony and the newest Milani Jen along with all of the others. But the real reason is for a slice of Pam's Apple Pie. The best pie I have ever had. I shall miss that pie on future Thanksgivings.

Toward the evening Corwin wanted to play outside some, so we went for a visit to Maurice's farm near Rolling Cove, Lake Rathbun. His farm isn't really big as farms go. And it isn't really farm like in that he doesn't really grow any crops but grass and poison ivy. It is really more of a giant camp site. But it is pretty big as far as camp sites go. One actually forgets how big it really is living in the city. The weather was wonderful for late November. Corwin kept lying down on the grass as if it were the most comfortable bed on earth.

All in all a good Thanksgiving. Shall I include the obligatory list of things I'm thankful for. Sure, why not.

I'm thankful for my wife, Anke. She is beautiful, smart, crafty(in the arts and crafts way, not the con you out of your lunch money way) and a good mom. I'm thankful for Corwin. He is just perfect, all I could ever ask for in a child. Well I could ask that he sleeps in maybe an hour later, but that's it. I'm thankful for my family. They know how much I love them. I'm blessed with wonderful friends most of whom I don't see enough. I have a good job that I usually don't hate going to in the morning. I'm not making mad cash, but I can pay all of my bills. I have the toy car I always wanted. But that doesn't stop me from wanting more cars. Like an early 50's Oldsmobile that I could drive across Mexico in a rally. But I digress. I think it's important to make lists like this on occasion in order to remind me that even when I'm feeling down, life isn't so bad.

I want to be a (sorta) race car driver

I so much want to be driving one of these old cars through Mexico.

La Carrera Panamericana blog (Day 5)

Halloween

Corwin was an exceptionally cute little cow for Halloween. Instead of trick or treating on Halloween night we went to Uncle Maurice's and helped give out candy. Corwin rather liked Aunt Bernie's Hello Kittie bucket. Some day Corwin will hate me for this picture.Thursday was Corwin's last day with Miss Crystal, his daycare teacher. She is moving on to Nursing school. Crystal is great and we are going to miss her. So far we have been extremely lucky with the daycare providers that Corwin has had and we hope this luck continues.

Broken Kettle Grasslands

Last Sunday - 2006-11-29- we took advantage of the unseasonable warm weather and went looking for Prairie Rattlesnakes in Broken Kettle Grasslands, just north of Souix City.We found this little guy first. He is your average Bull Snake, but an exceptionally pretty one in my opinion.He thought he was a vicious little critter though.Yellow Bellied Racer
The Loess HillsCorwin found the land managers yellow lab more interesting than the snakes.We found 4 Prairie Rattlers and caught 3. I say we, but I didn't do any actual catching as I had Corwin on my back. Plus I'm more than a bit scared of the pit vipers, so I leave the handling of them to friends with experience, skill and the proper equipment. The snakes were measured, had the GPS locations where they were discovered recorded. The two smaller snakes were also pit tagged so that if they were caught again in the future the data could be appended to their record. The larger rattlesnake pictured had been previously pit tagged in 2001.

Black Squirrel

I'd never seen a black squirrel before moving to Omaha a few years ago. I've since developed a -perhaps unhealthy- obsession with them since. As some of you may or may not know, if I had to be a rodent, I would choose to be a squirrel. And preferably a black one. They are rather rare here as I have only seen one in my neighborhood, across the street. One in Memorial Park, and one in West Omaha. I'm sure there are more, but these are the three individuals that I can account for. I spent about 40 minutes stalking the one in the park on Saturday.

This grey/red squirrel was chasing our black friend first. Then he turned the tables.I'm not sure how many trees that I followed him through, but I was amazed at the ground he could cover without touching the ground.

More HDZ

One of the nice things about living somewhere that isn't Centerville is that there are things to do. We have an annual pass to the zoo, so whenever Corwin is bored we like to stop by. Many people who visit the zoo try to see the whole thing in one go, but I don't like this. It can really wear you out, like going to a museum. By the end of the day, you're tired and not really enjoying yourself, but by damn you paid full admission and you're going to see everything. But because I visit the zoo two or three times a month I stroll along taking my time watching the exhibits that I really enjoy, getting passed by most everyone.

When we got the to the Desert Dome today, we saw our friend Andrew in the Sun Room. I don't remember his exact title, but he is the number 2 man in charge of reptiles in the Desert Dome. He invited us in and showed a couple of interesting things, before he had to go investigate some tree that fell over somewhere. He showed us a three day old gecko that was rather cute. And Corwin got introduced to a Black Something Something Snake. Andrew described it as a poor man's Indigo Snake. Corwin wasn't afraid at all and wanted to touch her, but even though she wasn't poisonous it would have hurt had she bit him. But she was a rather nice and calm snake.

Columbus Day

Italians think they're so damn important that they have to have their own holiday. I'm looking at you Tony. Can't they make up some cool holiday like the Irish and St. Patty's day where everyone gets drunk on green beer? Noooo, they've got to celebrate some guy who discovered America about 500 years after the vikings. And several thousand years after the Native Americans. But anyway, with thier holiday comes the closing of the government. And Corwin's daycare is in a government building. So even though I'm supposed to work, he can't go to daycare on Columbus Day. So I took Corwin to the zoo Monday afternoon.

Corwin had fun playing on the brass lion pride at the Henry Doorly Zoo's main entrance. He ran through the Desert Dome and wanted to play in all of the puddles and water falls that exist through out the complex. I got to watch the jack rabbits, which I rather enjoy. The older ones always have these torn up ears from numerous battles. Who knew that bunnies could be such warriors? We then went to the aquarium and played around the penguin tanks. We went through the tunnel aquarium next and Corwin became infatuated with these two girls that were maybe 6 or 7. He does this all the time, he'll see a cute little girl much too old for him, and stare at her or follow her around hoping to be friends. He is a terrible flirt. He should be more respectable like his father.

Return from C-town

I've always meant to take a picture of these funny dinosaurs at some place called Benny Davis Farm between Centerville and Corydon. I finally got around to it today. I'll have to do it again sometimes because I'm not happy with the quality of the image taken with my old point-and-shoot digital camera. And for those who care, my gas milage has increased from around 11 mpg to 17 with the new four speed transmission.

Yellow Hat

In many ways I'm a fairly simple guy. I'm really white trash with a decent income. I drive a 35 year old muscle car. I lament the fact that I don't own a house so that I might own a tree that I could hang an engine from to work on. I've owned ten cars in my life, and none has been an import. If you look in my fridge right now, you'll find Sam Adams but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the occasional Miller High Life or Busch Light. And little things often please me. I'm not very complex in some ways and that's OK. I know me and I like me.

Case in point, my new Hurst shifter finally arrived from Jegs.com today. It has been back ordered for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't in a hurry about it because I thought I had to have to whole transmission rebuilt. A shifter for it wasn't very important at the time. So I open the Jegs box and inside is my ratchet shifter but also a bright yellow Jegs hat that I didn't order. I suppose they included it just to say sorry for taking so long to get this to you. It pleased me in an illogical and stupid way. I put the hat on and show it to Anke, all excited that I had gotten a free hat. She says, "You look like someone from Iowa." And she's right, I put on this hat and I feel like I'm strait outta Mystic*! It makes me wish I still had my old black '77 Camaro that was held together with bondo, but was stupid fast. I could then put on my yellow hat and cruise the square listening to AC/DC in style.

Of course Corwin steals the hat right off of my head, and he just looks impossibly cute.




*Mystic is a small run down town about 8.5 minutes from Centerville.

Sometimes procrastination doesn't pay off

If you've been reading this you know that I put a new transmission in the Cutlass a month or so ago. Well the bloody thing was making a funny noise and not shifting right. The whole car was also extremely sluggish- like I'd lost 20 or 30 horse power. I was afraid that the transmission that I bought was bad. On top of that, the company that I bought the damn thing from is in bankruptcy at the moment. I was lucky to even get a transmission, some folks didn't. It was one of the last ones I believe.

But I was afraid to take the car to a transmission shop, because I didn't want to hear the bad news that the whole thing is junk and it'll cost you at least $1000 to rebuild the boat anchor in your drive train. I was talking to Dad about that this weekend and he suggested that I have Doug Widick of Widick Diesel rebuild it for me. Doug's shop is the only place that Dad will allow to touch his semi. Doug uses Dad's Western Star as a test truck of sorts and does all kinds of fun and wacky stuff to make it get better fuel mileage. He is currently getting around 7.5 mpg and pushing 550+ horsepower. That 7.5 mpg is a very impressive feat for a semi.

Anyway I didn't want to bring the car to Doug without really knowing the transmission was toast. So I took the Cutlass to a transmission shop (Transmissions Incorporated at 49th and Dodge, Omaha) that is only about 4 blocks from where I live. They sign out front that says free transmission diagnosis. So I thought that I'd have them check it out first. They then called about noon to say that the funny noise was the transmission dipstick was vibrating against something and the throttle pressure needed adjusted along with a cable stop thingy. Kirk at the shop said they could do all this for $51.43. This pleased me greatly- along with Anke who was very understanding and wasn't even going to yell at me if I had to get the transmission rebuilt.

I picked the car up after work and suddenly the Cutlass and I were friends again. I couldn't hear the transmission and it was much peppier. It seems that before getting fixed the car wasn't ever staying in first gear, so I was always taking off in second, which will make your car seem slower than it actually is.

So the moral of the story is I should have faced the music and taken it to the guys down the street weeks ago. I'd have been much happier if I had.