I realize that I’ve been noticably silent these last few weeks on the blog.  Heck, I haven’t even attempted to put out the monthly “newsletter”.  AM really wants me to write something out, but I just haven’t felt up to it.

I’ve read several times now that the generation working its way through school now is the “YouTube” generation, the “MySpace” generation.  They express freely and passionately and most importantly publicly every thought and whim that comes through their heads, regardless of how personal those thoughts might be…or should be.  They catalog their lives completely and without hesitation.

I am not of that generation.  I started this blog because it was the Thing To Do.  I started because I am, at the heart of things, a sucker for the Thing To Do.  I’ve also been told that I have always exhibited some talent for writing, and perhaps that played into the decision as well.  (Granted, I’ve only been told this sort of thing by my relatives, and they just might be biased.)

Long story short, lots of stuff has been happening, but I really haven’t felt it appropriate to share it in a public space.  Even if this public space only has a few visitors a day.

In a  brief Micah Update:  she’s now sitting up and crawling up stairs on her own.  Walking and proceding down stairs in a safe manner are still to come.

Categories: Daily Life
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Apparently the software I had been using for the newsletter isn’t compatible with the new Wordpress.

But most everything else seems to work…

Categories: Maintenance
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Well, there’s a new version of Wordpress out, so I’m thinking I’m going to go ahead and upgrade.
Hopefully I won’t screw up the site too badly.

Categories: Daily Life
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So we were back in GA for the second time in as many weeks this past weekend.  This time around, we arrived without family waiting to whisk us away to LaGrange.  They were all busy.

That’s ok.   We knew this ahead of time, so I had arranged to rent a car.

It’s the common joke, best articulated by Seinfeld that car rental locations know how to make reservations.   They just don’t know how to keep them.

Take our situation for example.  I went onto a discount aggregator website to find the best possible rental rate for 3 - 4 days of driving around Georgia.  Being a financially conservative person (read: cheap), I went with the subcompact, of course.  All we need to do was haul AM, Micah, and me along with two pieces of luggage and a stroller around…at most.  More often it’d just be one of us in the car.  (And by one of us, I mean AM or I.  Micah is NOT old enough to drive.)

Of course, we arrive late at night, so by the time we got to the car rental place, they had no more subcompacts.

In fact, they had no more cars.  I walk in the door and they immediately ask me if it’d be ok to take a small SUV rather than a car (same price!).

You know a car rental location is running low on inventory when they skip over like 5 different classes of cars to go from subcompact to small SUV.

“Sure,” I said, “why not?”  After all, the car is likely to be newer so the gas mileage wouldn’t be that bad.   Plus more room to store stuff.

So the rep and I walk out to the parking lot so that I can pick my car.  Sure enough, the lot is pretty darn empty.  We walk to the middle of several empty aisles and the rep looks one way, and then the other.

“So…it looks like we’re out of small SUVs.  Would a regular SUV be ok?  (Same price)”

I don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to renting cars.  I’ve only done it once or twice.  I later asked my father, who has lots of experience, what exactly happens if you refuse the upgrade.  Apparently they’ll actually let you wait on premises until someone drives in the classification of car that you want.  Not an ideal situation, even had I been aware of it.  I’d already said that it’d be ok to take the regular SUV.  I was tired and we had a long drive ahead of us.

The guy gave us a 2008 Dodge Durango with 90 miles on it.

For those of you not following SUV Daily, the thing was an absolute MONSTER.  It was so big that AM had problems getting in the car.  It was so big that I had problems getting into the car.  I was almost eye level with the tractor trailers around me.  I don’t move mountains.   I drive them.

In any case, it’s been a long day.  I’m going to catch some shut eye and think about upgrading my instance of wordpress tomorrow.

Categories: Daily Life
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We’re home…briefly.

It’s been a long week or so.  Remind me to tell you about it some time.

Categories: Daily Life
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Last night Nancy did something that I thought was the height of foolishness:  she offered to take Micah for the night.

“Dan, you don’t understand,” she said, “I love her so much.  I just want to spend every waking minute with her.”

Which is true.  My daughter is a delight in the eyes of all of her grandparents and great-grandparents.  She is quite possibly the most beautiful and joyous baby in the whole damn world.  I can say this as I am in no way biased.

But I was coming at this proposition from the other side of the fence.  As I mentioned earlier, Micah had been up from 9:30 at night until 1 in the morning the night before.  She pretty much powered through the day following.  I was teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown from exhaustion.

In that frame of mind, I decided to allow it. 

And wouldn’t you just know it, she was an angel.

Figures.

Categories: Baby
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I had hoped that the trip down to Georgia, that the new yet familiar sites and sounds might pre-occupy my daughter to exhaustion.  I had hoped that she might finally settle into a routine that included only one awakening during the evening hours and otherwise uninterrupted sleep.

I was mistaken.  So very very much so.   Apparently at a certain point of cerebral stimulation, my daughter’s “Off” switch breaks, leading to a night like last night, where she was up and unconsolable between the hours of 9:30 PM (Eastern) and 1:00 AM (still Eastern).

She took food with great relish, and often times seemed as if she was on the verge of just falling asleep, only to pull herself back to wakefulness a moment later.

My wife, who is incredibly busy preparing for her last great hurdle in her student career, was only able to help me out with feedings.  I was too stubborn or too used to doing things on my own to ask Micah’s grandparents to take her.  So it was just me for most of the long hours.

You could just about knock me over with a feather.  That’s how tired I am.

But tonight will be different.  Nancy has volunteered…VOLUNTEERED…to take my daughter off our hands for the evening.  I’m pretty much planning on sleeping from 9:30 until 5:30. 

And there’s nothing, daughter dearest, that you can do about it.

Categories: Daily Life
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And if you feel my love won’t leave you
And if your sorrow has been your share
If you are traveling back to Georgia
Won’t you take me with you there

–Nancy Griffith, Going Back To Georgia

Well, we’re back in Georgia.  In preparation for AM’s upcoming PhD defense, and in conjunction with her spring break, we’re spending the week in the state we left not so very long ago.

I have to say…travel with Micah was a lot easier not that long ago.

It’s hard  to understand how four or five months can seem like such a long time ago, but it does.  The last time we flew with Micah to New Jersey and Georgia, it was nice and easy.  Micah fussed very little.  She was fed early on during take off and kept on her pacifier throughout the trip.

Now…my daughter is…active.   She’s not content to sit in her car seat and watch the world go by.  She wants to be out and moving around.  Furthermore, she had a rough few nights prior to the trip (honestly we thought there was an outside chance that she was coming down with something).  So Micah was grumpy.  Having our takeoff delayed by 40 minutes didn’t help.

Actually, I shouldn’t be that negative.   After the first 30 minutes or so in the air, Micah fell asleep across my lap.  Her head was cradled in the crook of my arm and her legs extended onto AM’s lap.  And she stayed down…even through some rough turbulence as we approached Atlanta.  My arm felt like it might fall off, but at least we weren’t “Those People.  You know…the ones in the back of the plane with the crying baby?”

We’re counting our blessings.

In any case, it’s getting kind of late for me.  More will come later.

Categories: Daily Life
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I’ve realized that I haven’t been hugely active on this website lately.

Honestly, I’ve been tired.  Darn tired.  The week is filled with work and then Micah.  And the weekends with chores and more Micah.  I’ve heard several not-so-subtle complaints from unnamed sources that I haven’t even updated the pictures of Micah in the gallery in quite a while.  And that’s true.  I haven’t.  I keep meaning to, but…

Heck, I’ve even got some funny videos that I need to get around to converting and then uploading.  Well, funny to me in any case.  Disinterested third parties might not find five minutes of Micah eating chunks of sweet potato too funny after the first moment or two.  Then again, disinterested third parties aren’t likely to be reading this website.

So what’s been going on?

Oh, hold on a sec.  Let me tell my wife, who occasionally  wanders over to my blog not to read this next part as it might increase her stress levels.

Honey, don’t read this next part.

[Stressful Subject Begins Here]

Well, the big news is that AM is finishing her final push.  The dissertation has finally been shipped off to her adviser.  Next week we’ll be traveling to Georgia for a practice run.  The week following we’ll be back down for the Defense.  Not too long after that, we’ve got graduation.  And then it’s over.  We made it.  Thank goodness.  It’s amazing how such a major effort by my wife will be over in such a short period of time.

[/Stressful Subject Ends Here]

AM also played in her concerts this weekend.  For those of you who don’t know, she’d been asked to take part in the semi-professional Beloit Janesville Orchestra, and this weekend was her first concert series.  She even scored me a free concert ticket.    It was an interesting experience.  She played in the first piece, but they had a reduced orchestra for the second piece, so most of the players who weren’t involved (including my wife) headed out into the audience to watch.  She found me while they were still setting up, so we ended up watching the second piece together before the intermission.

It was all pretty good, except that I nearly fell asleep.  Multiple times.

Look, I’m just being honest here.  It’s not a reflection on the orchestra.  I was pretty tired to begin with, and they were playing classical music in a dark room where the seats were surprisingly comfortable.   So really it was their fault.  Not mine.

Heck, AM was almost mad at me for admitting as much to her when she came and found me initially (we have an open, honest marriage).  But then the lights dimmed and the second piece began and more than once I saw her own head droop just a smidge.   So there.

On the Micah front, my daughter has just been puttering around the house, exploring the various nooks and crannies.  She’s managed to sit up in her crib a number of times, and she even almost did it in the living room.  Then her aunt starting clapping excitely to encourage her and Micah got distracted and toppled over.   She’s all about the finger food.  Moreso smooshing it up than eating it, but it’s a start.

Speaking of which, I can hear the little one starting to stir.  More to come.  Possibly even pictures.

Categories: Daily Life
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Obviously yesterday did not go as planned.  The tear-filled political machine that is Hillary Clinton did not succumb to the wit and charm of Barack Obama.

Damn.

Did you know that AM & I almost moved to Pennsylvania?   Really.  Waaaaaaaay back when AM was doing her job search, she had a promising prospect out there in the Mid-Atlantic states.  It didn’t work out, and she got the offer from Wisconsin instead, and here we are.

Thank.  Goodness.

I’m sorry Mom.  I know Pennsylvania is the closer state, but they’re about to undergo seven weeks of BRUTAL political bombardment there.  I don’t have much hope that anyone will survive.

I hate to quote political hacks that are trying to be both funny and relevant, but…THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

Now, I’m not going to make any excuses.  I am certainly disappointed…on several levels.  I’m not looking forward to much more in the way of “I’m the Bestest Democrat in the Land!”  “No I am!”  “You’ve got no record!” “You’ve only got a nebulous history of ‘experience’ that anyone can point to!”  Actually, I’m not looking forward to the race after that either.  But what can you do?

Ah well.

Categories: Politics And Issues
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