Gutbombs

Deej is out of town so I'm home with the young'uns today.  Since Morgan didn't have to work until 11, we managed a breakfast out at the "best breakfast in town" place, Peg's.  So here it is, 1:30pm and I'm still feeling pretty sated.  Probably not the best time to read this post.  I honestly felt nauseous reading that and didn't even finish the list.  And then I click back to post this and spot this little gem that I "shared" last week.  Barf.

Foodie mystery

Heard a story on NPR today, full of international intrigue, fine dining, and mystery.  Quite the story, had to share.  Depending on how it eventually turns out, might make a good book and/or movie.   Read about the missing gourmet.

Just Gross

Last night, Marc and I headed out to meet a friend that we have in town.  We wanted to grab something to eat before we met up and decided to try the BBQ House on Wells.  We have driven by many times and have always wanted to stop.  The menu consisted of sandwiches and such.  The least expensive sandwich being $9.99.  I didn't thing much of it expecting to to come with a lot of sides or something 'big' for it to be worth the $10.  I ordered the Oakland style (who knew Oakland was into BBQ?) that was supposed to be a BBQ beef sandwich topped with coleslaw.  This is how Patty McCormick told me true BBQ sanwiches are made in the south. Our order was $28 for two sandwiches and two sodas.  For those a little slow on the math....that is almost $3 for a fountain soda!!!!  Really too much. I was once told that a 24oz fountain soda actually only cost about $.35.  What a profit.  So we sat outside and were presented with two plates. (Marc got the same thing with pork) It was an french roll filled with BBQ beef and two small Styrofoam cups of slaw and beans.  The sandwich was just okay.  Really nothing to rave about and in fact, I like Port of Subs BBQ sandwich a lot more and that is just heated up roast beef in BBQ sauce. The slaw was plain - not even any carrots in it.  Just mayo and cabbage. The beans were peppery.  Like someone had accidentally poured pepper in.  I pictured a person making the beans and the lid accidentally coming off. (Ever done that with salt or pepper?  I hate that!)  We ate it because we were hungry and had paid a buttload for it.  About 10 minutes later, I thought I was going to be sick.  Ugh.....such a gut bomb.  What a waste of money.  They don't go out of business because they charge way too much for their food, but I have a hard time believing that people really LOVE this place.  Yuck. Avoid it......or if you want BBQ, head to Port of Subs:)

Michigan, day two

Good day to start our visit ~ nice leisurely morning followed by a big fat delicious breakfast.  "The Abner" is a skillet meal composed of hash browns with shredded cheese, diced ham, and gravy on them, topped with two eggs over easy.  And toast on the side.  It's not as grotesque as it might sound.  Reasonable portion and oh so good.  After that, a visit to Grandpa Dave's Lowe's (bought a new shower head and a little gas grill to cook dinner upon) and some quality time at the park.

After naptime (and grill assembly time), we ventured back out for steaks and assorted other goods for dinner.  On the way, we stopped and looked around the house that Grandpa's dad built when he was a kid.  Empty for a year now, it's in kinda sad shape, but it was neat to visit anyway.  Grilled ribeyes and corn on the cob are as good a way to end the day that The Abner started.

Toledo Zoo tomorrow.

Today's beerlog: Leinekugel's Red Lager

Food and stuff

Meant to write this yesterday, ran out of time.

I was recently feeling all boo-hoo for us, that there seem to be a spate of interesting, delicious, new restaurants (and actually, some not new at all, that I continually drive past thinking "We have to try that place some time" but never think about when we ponder where we should go for dinner) that we hear great things about but don't go to, either feeling handicapped by kids, disposable income, or whatever reason. Finally, we got to try the lunch spot that everyone seems to love, Süp. Very delicious, as expected. A bit chaotic, felt a little pretentious, but in the end, the food was great and that's what matters.

Also on our list of places we simply must try sometime: Zagol, El Pescador, and La Fuente.

I also failed to mention here, our little beer tasting get-together here last weekend. Turi did a fine job of describing and documenting, so I'll defer to his already-posted review. He didn't mention the fabulous edibles that Morgan (and with a tiny bit of help from me) came up with to complement the beer - Arrogant Bastard chili (amazingly delicious), Sam Adams Brown Ale bread, Old Rasputin bread, and Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout mocha freezes for dessert.

Speaking of eating, we had dinner at Jack's last night. Good time visiting with their little one who's a week younger than Sid. In doing so, I remembered some photos I've been meaning to post, a series of sorts:









Happy weekend, everyone.

Marc's enormous post about all kinds of stuff in our lives

OK, here I am, back again so soon. Still not loading pictures, but my mind was racing last night after posting the last little blurb, full of other little items of note. When I converted the old cheztiar into this blog format, it was in an effort to preserve our little familial goings-on, rather than losing them each time I revised the front page. So at this time, as we approach the end of the year, when everyone is looking back on the past and ahead to the future, I want to toss out a bunch of stuff in that spirit. It may not make for the best reading for you, dear readers; the minutiae of the Tiars' recent lives, spouted forth like a broken sewer main does not "Ulysses" make. But if you're into stream of consciousness, random tidbits, and odds and ends recorded here for posterity, read on...

In the kids department, we had another one this year. Young Sid is going on five months old now. Doesn't sleep through the night. Taking formula isn't going very well. He cries more than Lola did and takes really short naps. But he's growing like a weed, cute as a button, and going to turn out OK. Lola turned three recently, and she's still our little princess. Adorable barely describes her on her worst day. That's still little comfort when she calls us back into her room 3-4 times for a sip of water or other ridiculous reason after going to bed, or when she wakes up at 4am still, or insists on pooping in her diaper (she still sleeps in one) when she knows darn well how to use the toilet like a big girl. Perhaps some regression due to baby brother and new house is going on... Both kids have had their share of colds lately, lots of runny noses, coughing, etc. but we bought a nice vaporizer that keeps a room nice and humid through the night. Speaking of devices we bought, as of a couple weeks ago, we're the proud owners of a remanufactured Roomba robot vacuum. It's still more of a novelty than a real labor saver since you still have to pick up a bunch of toys and shoes and stuff, but it works OK and it's kind of fun. Returning to the topic of Lola for a moment, Morgan toured a couple preschools this week, so we're starting to think about it. Expensive! Need to figure out the best schedule and what's affordable, but we think we've found the place when it's time. No daycare for Sid yet though, we're not ready for that yet.

(This is silly, I started writing this as a text document that I would paste into cheztiar later, but I'm having to do it in such small bits as time permits, I should just be writing online in the first place...but I digress.)

One other thing I envisioned doing a lot of on this here website was sharing books, music, and movies that I've enjoyed (or not) with you all. Not much reading going on these days - by the time I get to bed, too tired to read much, and what I've been reading is pretty dull. I picked up a book on coffee, a sort of reference book on personal finance, and one on making beer. I need to get back into some page-turner fiction. Most of my reading these days is Wired magazine, trying to get through one issue before next one comes, or the various blogs and websites I try to hit every day. I guess reading is reading, but a book would be nice sometime soon.

Speaking of personal finance, that's the other thing on my mind these days. I must be a real grown-up now, I think a lot about ways to retire early, save a lot for retirement, writing a will, and look forward to doing taxes so I can see just how much having a 2nd child and a home equity loan will improve our tax situation. This year, I opened a Flexible Spending Account, another tax break for medical expenses, and enrolled in the Hartford's 457 plan, yet another way to save on taxes and save for retirement pretty easily. Fat nest egg, here I come.

Musicwise, I just recently started listening to Sublime again. After getting the box set earlier this year, it's kind of sat on the shelf for a while, so I brought it out to listen to again, and have been really enjoying it, getting back into their music again. I have to say, I really think they claim the title of "my favorite band ever". Which brings me to a trivial little anecdote. With my renewed interest, I thought I'd look to see what Wikipedia had on Sublime. As expected, a good thorough entry, and good entries on each band member. So, reading through the entry on drummer Bud Gaugh, it mentions he now lives in Nevada. Huh, interesting coincidence. So I visit his MySpace page, read about his new surf band (which sounds great, looking forward to hearing what they put out), and it turns out he lives in Reno at least part of the time. More coincidence. Among all my reading and websurfing, I am referred to a recent SPIN magazine which has a good article on Sublime's legacy and a tribute band back east called Badfish. So I go to find that issue at the library, and Foo Fighters are on the cover. Foo Fighters just announced a concert date here in February, which I think I'll be attending. And the final coincidence...Dave Grohl is wearing a Bucket of Blood Saloon t-shirt on the cover...it all comes back to Reno. (I've always maintained, besides being a great place to live with lots of interesting history, Reno is forever destined to be the footnote to history...famous people get arrested here, relatives of famous people die here, we're mentioned in songs randomly.)

Movies...never get to those much anymore. Netflix (and the library) keeps us in recent release, but all our time is getting sucked up by Six Feet Under these days. I can't give up any more time to TV series!

Changing gears again here, let's talk food and drink. Morgan and I celebrated our fourth anniverary with dinner at Harrah's Steakhouse, probably the oldest fine-dining establishment in town. A bit disappointing, mostly the crowd, but the food was nothing that special. We'll probably return to LuLou's or 4th Street Bistro in the future. And there's always our usual splurge that doesn't really qualify as fine-dining, SUSHI. For now, our attention is on Amish Friendship Bread since receiving a starter for a coworker. I continue to dwell on my love for two beverages - beer and coffee. Someday you'll all be regular customers of Marc's House of Barley and Beans (I still need to work on the name...)

In the technology realm, we're still happily wireless and using the laptop around the house most of the time, but I had an epiphany recently and added 1GB of memory to the desktop PC in the office and it runs SO much better now! Still need to tidy up the hard drive some, and I think I've committed myself to migrating to Picasa to organize and tag photos. With two kids being reared in the age of digital photos, we're rapidly accumulating hundreds of digital photos with little organization. At least I've got some piecemeal backup systems in place, but I need something more systematic I think. Picasa and some kind of offsite storage may be the answer. Not sure when I'll have the time, but at least I've started thinking about it... I dabbled in trying to burn a movie onto DVD, wrestling with the matter from every angle before deciding the DVD burner on the laptop is kaput. Sigh.

I'll toss out a plug here for a game we've been enjoying quite a bit lately, courtesy of Grandpa Dave, Apples to Apples is our latest party-game fascination.

And lastly, I just want to give a shout-out to our little dog Daisy. She's seen some rough times lately, with her diagnosis of Cushing's Disease, recent stomach issues, difficulty with stairs, and general aging. We still love her, and hope she'll stick with us comfortably for a little while longer.

And with that, dear readers, I'll come to a close. If you've read all of this, I owe you a coffee or a beer. Keep coming back to cheztiar in 2008.

Gobble, gobble

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is already and done with, Christmas is a month away, and that Sidney is 4 months old. I can't believe that the weather has been as nice as it has been - and there are people who still deny global warming?

Lola is just getting over a cold, and Sidney has gotten his second cold already! Poor boy. Can't be easy to be that little and sick.

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Highlights has to be the pumpkin gooey cake and the date bars which I intend to perfect. They weren't quite right. But, if you have ever had and liked my gooey cake and like pumpkin - I have got a bite of heaven for you. Lola, Paige and I also made placemats from grocery bags and turkeys with pipe cleaners. It was a funky little table. After Lola ripped off the eyes of the turkeys, it looked more like a massacre on the table.

Lola at the table

My little elves are hard at work trying to get all the Christmas goodies together - okay, I am the only elf. I am dragging out the vintage aluminum Christmas tree again this year and am going with a blue/green decor for Sid. I decorated it all pink after Lola was born. We will be attempting to take the family Christmas photo today or tomorrow.

Wanted to throw in a couple more photos:

Lola in her Princess dress - bday present from Gen and Chris.

Lola and her artwork

Sid and Dada on Thanksgiving Day

Terry and Lola on Thanksgiving

Priscilla and Sid on Thanksgiving

Cold, turkey, sickness, etc.

Here I am, last day of the best holiday weekend of the year. Four days straight off work. Feels like winter is finally upon us, temperature-wise at least. Nighttime lows in the teens recently so I finally disconnected the garden hoses. No snow yet though.  We have enjoyed a few fires in our fireplace, still learning some of the fine points of fire-making and ash removal.

Had a good Thanksgiving dinner here, with family and guests totalling eight adults plus Lola and Sid. Sorry, no photos to share. All the fixings were definitely present along with the big bird, and a good time was had by all.

In other family news, along with winter comes sickness. Lola came down with the barking cough followed closely by runny nose, and crankiness. Now Sid has it, poor little guy - he just doesn't know to cough up the phlegm at night. Last night was really bad, not entirely sickness-induced. Lola threw a big fit at bedtime, crying, screaming, vomit....the whole nine yards. Sid's frequent waking/crying/feeding/stuffiness episodes throughout the last few nights do not a good night's sleep make, either.

Other random goings-on and thoughts...we're on the last episode of season two of Six Feet Under...new neighbors across the street, including two high-school daughters eager to babysit...trying to re-frame Grandpa's arrowhead collection myself after balking at the $953 cost of a real pro job....Morgan and I celebrate four years of wedded bliss this week...maybe
our desktop PC will run faster with an extra GB of RAM I ordered this week...new tattoo in honor of Sid coming next weekend...Grandpa Dave coming to visit this week....out of thoughts for now; until next time, this is Dada, signing off.

These are a few of my favorite things....

I took Marc out to sushi for his birthday on Friday. We had not been happy with our latest choices. Sushi Pier 2 where the service was beyond horrible and when brought to their attention, it only got worse with attitude. Sushi 7 has a fantastically designed restaurant with poor service, but at least they knew without it having to be brought to their attention. Anyway, after reading a review in the RGJ, we decided to head to Rickshaw Sushi (try saying it three times fast). It was formerly Rickshaw Paddy which I had only been to once many years ago. We were immediately greeted the moment we walked in. You can do all-you-can-eat from a table or the bar. We sat sat at the bar. Everything happened so quickly from there. Our drinks were ordered and brought right away and the sushi chef asked if we like cream cheese and ordered us an appetizer (these are included in the all-you-can-eat menu.) It was a deep fried egg roll with cream cheese and seafood. He cut it and drizzled it with a sweet sauce. It was a very elegant looking egg roll and so yummy. The sushi menu was filled with rolls that had ingredients I didn't know you could put into sushi. The Tundra Roll had mango, macadamia and balsamic in it. (I meant to take a to-go menu to really know what was involved, but totally spaced it as we left.) It had salmon on top which he charred with a hand held torch. The Kwon had charred cheese on it topped with a wasabi tobiko. These were so beautiful and delicate - not to be dipped in soy sauce. These are not rolls that belonged in an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. We ordered mussels. These were huge and not shriveled up and too chewy which you find in other restaurants. YUMMY! Another thing that caught my eye was the tempura banana with ice cream for dessert.  Since I have given up dairy temporarily, it will have to wait until next time. Marc and I were thrilled from the moment we entered. The all-you-can-eat dinner is $20.95. You can get cheaper in town but surely not better!

Here is a picture of the Kwon roll with Kwon. He's worked in many sushi restaurants in Reno and made the menu for Rickshaw Sushi.





I have more to blog on but am running out of time. Stay tuned for my first auction experience. It was CRAZY!

Ah, nutz!

Having a two year old is stimulating, always interesting, and sometimes heart-stopping.

I am a huge trail mix fan. I like the kind with the M&Ms, nuts and raisins. Lola has become a huge fan as well. Yesterday, Lola and I were hanging out in the office (what we call the extra bedroom) when she calmly told me she had a peanut in her nose. I jumped out of the chair and rushed over. She was as calm as can be, continuing to eat her trail mix. I could see it. It was right there in sight. So I propped her up on the toilet (the bathroom has better light) and went after it with tweezers. She kept moving before I could even get the tweezers near her nose. I had her blow her nose. "Pretend there is a kleenex here," I said. Nothing.

At this point I am wondering if someone will be be able to get this out or if it will have to be surgically removed. With mom and Paige, both Lola and I have been told of stories of children with watch or hearing aid type batteries, nuts, jewelry, coins, etc being stuck in orifices or swallowed Here I am, a parent to one of these children.
I called Paige and calmly told her that she needed to come over because Lola had a peanut stuck up her nose. She hung up without asking any questions and rushed right over. Upon her arrival, she informed me that she would not attempt to extract it because she did not want to be responsible.

She distracted Lola while I attempted once again to remove the peanut. It moved even further up. This frightened me even more. Asking her to blow her nose again, while plugging the other side, it came down again ever so slightly. Again, I stuck the tweezers in her nostril and tried to remove the nut. Nope. It moved up again. UGH!!!! At this point I dropped the tweezers and exclaimed that we would have to go to the hospital or call her doctor. "Okay Lola," I said, "try and blow it out." After three hard breaths, the peanut shot out of her nose.

I cannot explain my relief. I understand that this will happen. She will attempt things, she will get hurt sometimes, and now I know she will make my heart stop.

Making cookies

Lola and I decided to make cookies together one afternoon. Okay, I decided that we needed to make cookies. We sent half back to work with Marc so that we would not eat them all. [Note: Adding captions has become an all-consuming obsession for me that I have yet to get working correctly. Until I do, just hover your mouse over the photos for the caption. - Marc] [Captions now working! - Marc]

Homeward bound

Actually wrote this last night, but wanted to add some links so didn't post it.  So rewind to Saturday night...and it's:
Last night in San Diego. Watching MASH again tonight. Funny how vacations can seem like so much work. It's been four days of...

• Indecision - where to eat, what attraction to visit next, what to do


• Unhappy driving - wrong turns, aggressive drivers, gridlock


• Fun! - Sea World today, a walk along Mission Beach, dinner in our room brought in from a too-fancy-for-a-two-year-old Thai restaurant, Coronado yesterday, Gaslamp quarter, good times generally.


• Indulgence - junk food, good food, Starbucks, six big bottles of extraordinary beer coming home with me, several local brews tasted while here.

I guess those are the major themes. Unfortunately weather didn't cooperate for real beachgoing, but we at least touched the water and got sand between our toes.

Lots more detail than this but it's bedtime. Maybe more later or shared in person.

Writing again now in real-time, it's Sunday night in Reno.  Back to the chaos.  I always have mixed emotions returning from a trip...a bit of home-sweet-home, a bit of sad that the fun is over, a bit of stress from the catch-up that's required.  It's worse now because it's back to the home buying/selling stuff that we left behind for a few days.  At least the shower's (almost) done downstairs, that's some big progress I'm glad to have (almost) behind us.  But where success appears in one place, ugliness rears its head elsewhere - tried to bring the sprinklers online for the season and some minor problems need attention from a professional.  Sigh.  It's always something.

Update update

Well, sushi was good stuff...until the 2 year old puked again.  In the restaurant.  It wasn't as bad as you (or I) might imagine, Morgan stepped to the plate and cleaned up discreetly, then took her home so Paige and I could finish.  Thanks Mama.  Looks (again) like she might be over it today.  Stay tuned.

And in the "where we sleep" department, ugh.  That air mattress does NOT rule.  Need more air!

And just for fun, trying a different way of embedding images in posts, here's a shot from Tina's birthday party...

plague

So, I thought I was immune to all the crap floating around this house. I was even going to post one of my 'things about me' as the fact that I have never gotten pink eye. Well, I woke up this morning and I have it! Yuck! The first time I had to call in to my new job and I hated doing it. I am really enjoying it. Darn it!!!

A few more things about me:

21. I bite my nails. I have since I was in second grade.

22. I've never had a cold sore.

23. My first concert was MC Hammer. I've been to very few since then. I am not good about music. I just know what I like when I hear it.

24. I was a huge New Kids on the Block fan. When I moved to Reno, it was not cool so I quickly abandoned them.

25. One of my favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird.

26. As much as I'd like to - I do not have a green thumb.

27. A kid named Wade was going to kiss me in my grandma's garage, instead wiped a hand full of spit on my face. I didn't kiss a boy until I was 16. It was very romantic by the falls in Sioux Falls.

28. I love golf. My dad and grandma started me when I was 5. I won trophies when I was in junior golf, but I think we all got trophies.

29. I LOVE Vietnamese food.

30. I started driving when I was 14. In SD, they have limited permits because of all the rural areas.

That's it for now. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be!

Goings on around here

Just a random assortment of miscellany on a Friday morning...

• This past Wednesday, Lola went to see this casting agency to see about using her 7th-degree black belt in cuteness to become rich and famous.  No riches or fame yet, but they signed her up.


• Dang cold around here again.  Still no snow worth mentioning, but it's 12 degrees outside this morning.


• I'm currently reading this book of columns about historic Reno; just acquired another book about Burning Man, but oddly not as jazzed about that one, probably just because we're not going.


• Planning a trip to San Diego just before Easter, Sea World, the zoo, the beach, etc.  Any other suggestions?


• Perhaps equalling my recent passion for soymilk, I now have a rekindled love for those little sweet, seedless, easily peeled clementines.  They're fabulous.


• One last thing, then I'm off to work: cross your fingers and send good thoughts my way to win this contest.  Or you could just enter yourself, but that would lower my odds of winning!

Happy Friday everyone, stay warm out there!

Oh one oh one oh seven

Well here we are, beginning another new year. New Year's Eve/Day was nice - Morgan worked yesterday and Lola and I had a good day, just doing "stuff" and picked up Maggie from the airport. For last night's festivities, we ventured out early to John's party at Arlington Towers, noshed a bit, took in the amazing view, then came home to enjoy a quite evening among friends here. We were joined by Paige, David, and Ryan, and we played a game, had a few drinks, and stepped outside to catch glimpses of fireworks downtown. We launched 2007 right with a small brunch, done well by Morgan with quiche, hash brown casserole, fruit salad, and more. A walk to the park on a very mild day, a nearly new baby swing courtesy of freecycle, a bit of TV, and I can only say, I hope the rest of 2007 is as agreeable as today. The only flaw was a spilled latte.

Word has it that Nathan and Sarah welcomed baby #3 into the world today. A big boy ready to take on the world. I don't think I know of any other January 1 babies. Welcome, baby Tobey!

I also want to go on record: I don't usually bother with resolutions, and pondering the concept this afternoon, my "resolutions" read more like a to-do list than anything (get the van all fixed, get a new tattoo, replace the laptop, remodel the bathroom). But, there's something I've been trying to do for the last few weeks, and meaning to get to for months. Write our will(s). Life can take unexpected twists and turns without warning, and with two young ones, I want to be sure everything goes the way we would want if the worst should occur. A living will too. So that's the one thing I want to be sure to do this year. This month even. You should too, you just never know.

So that's that. Sorry to end on a somber note. Another page on the calendar, time to get used to writing a "7" instead of a "6". May 2007 bring you happiness and prosperity.

A wide variety of miscellany

Everyone likes to talk about the weather, so I'll just put this out here...it's dang cold here! For those readers across the pond and throughout the land, it was 16 degrees at maison Tiar this morning (or -8 for you aforementioned "across the pond"). High temp forecast for the next 5 days: about 50. Sheesh, winter doesn't start for 3 weeks still...

In other news rattling around my consciousness, I've developed a newfound fondness for soy. Specifically, soymilk. Randomly picked up a box of vanilla, and man, that's good over Life cereal in the morning. Now I'm hooked. Edamame too.

Coupla links to throw out here for you all: This news item is too good to go unposted, and please give a hearty welcome to Turi's blog!

Finally, I should thank my lovely wife this week for being married to me for three whole years, as of yesterday. Thanks Morgan!  Dinner tonight at 4th St. to celebrate. (Coincidentally, that review written by the wife of a colleague here at the lib. Small world.)

Family Holidays

We had a full house for Thanksgiving yesterday. My friend Maggie, Mom, Paige, Aunt Patty, her friend Tom, my cousin Alex from Omaha (currently at Travis AFB), Matt (works with mom and Paige), Marc, Lola and I. Marc fried a turkey and it was delicious. He injected it with a marinade and it only took about 45 minutes to cook. It was really really good! We also made a ham, all the standards, and a runny sweet potato pie. Not sure how that happened. Lola had a ball with all the company and didn't get to bed until late. That of course was after her naked dance for our departing guests. Too funny!!

I think we will be a little more subtle with Christmas. Just a small family gathering. We bought our Christmas tree today. I opted for a real tree instead of our vintage tinsel tree. Lola even has her own little pink Christmas tree in her room. We will trim them both tomorrow and add over the next few weeks until Christmas.

We took Lola to the movies for the first time today. We went and saw "Flushed Away." I should have known that she would not be that into it. She doesn't really like TV and only has the attention span for things less than 5 minutes long. She wasn't too bad and we watched the whole thing - just missing a few parts to step outside to give her a break and change a diaper to give the rest of the theater a break! Yuck! She didn't even want to eat any popcorn! I think any future presentations will wait until she is a bit older.

That is about it for now. We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday.

more news, mine and others

forgive the brevity, I've got a sleeping child on me...

• bought peanut oil and a turkey fryer today, so I think we're going to go for this delicious yet potentially dangerous project for Thanksgiving


• RIP Jack Palance and Ed Bradley


• Happy birthday Carol and Sofia


• wanna buy a camera?

that's all, i can't type like this any more.

Lucky winner

Well, I certainly drew the winning card this week. Sickity sick sick sick, and Morgan left for Michigan this morning. Either one of those occurrences would be just fine on their own, but watching Lola for 4 days by myself while sick, well, it's sort of like having to take care of two people, her and sick me. We're about 4 hours into our little solo adventure, and so far all is well.  Morgan's on a layover Denver for about 15 more minutes.  (Update moments later: OK, now it's getting to be more work...3 diaper changes already, and this stuffy head just makes everything so exhausting.)  To be fair, I do have a good support system in place, with several friends and family at my beck and call to help out.
As for sick me, hmm, let's see, I think it started last weekend or so, mostly cold-like, cough, stuffy nose, etc.  But yesterday, the fatigue and aches hit me mid-day and I left work early.  By late afternoon, all I could do was lay on the couch, shiver, and take my temperature (101 if you're interested) and eventually I just skipped dinner (and we were having Vietnamese, dangit!) and went to bed at 6.  I'm actually much better today than at that pinnacle of illness, but there's a broad range between better and well.

Like Morgan said, we got the new camera.  Hopefully I can get some of those new pics up this weekend and list the old camera on ebay.  Actually, I'm really hoping this creeping crud subsides soon...I've got a three day weekend that I don't wish to spend nursing myself back to health.  I've got to go shopping, buy a turkey fryer, and hopefully devour the new Michael Connelly book.

So I suppose that's it for now.  Hoping this finds you well and fine.  Marc