Queued Up
By Mike | February 3, 2010
Wow oh wow, a lot of stuff going on in the O’Brien household right now. They almost all fall under the heading of “good problems to have” but it sure makes for a busy schedule.
- Andrea and I have decided to sell our house. We are actively looking for a new home, but haven’t found one yet – as we need to sell our house first, this is for the best. Just to clarify, this is more of an onward-and-upward act as opposed to a crisis action. We’re looking to progress from our starter home we’ve been in for 7+ years already (how the hell did that happen) and hopefully progress to something with a bit more living space. Along those lines, we’ve been prepping and moving many, many, of our possessions into a storage unit – its been a lot of hard work, but I think we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, this is the light after shampooing the carpets, touching up paint, cleaning grout, sweeping, boxing, and vacating, etc.
- Fortunately – we also have the rest of our lives to keep living at the same time, which is why the house is probably going to go on the market NEXT weekend, instead of this weekend as we’d been hoping.
- Of course, psychologically I’ve shifted into penny-pincher mode in preparation for an increased house payment, the inevitable $300 trips to Home Depot (made one already) etc. That and we’re trying to eat our way out of our pantry and freezer in order to not have to move that much more stuff. Again, a calamity of riches. (Gotta stay humble about this… seriously…)
- Of course, in the next 4 days we have 3 activities in off-peak hours when we usually work on the house – a dinner, a late work shift, a relative baby watching, a relative birthday party, and the Superbowl.
- I think I am going to try and shampoo the carpets on Superbowl Sunday, lol.
- In the meantime, Erin has had a bit of a cold, not too serious but a lot of snot and a bit of a cough, so she hasn’t been sleeping well – which has been hard on Andrea and I’s sleep patterns.
- Meanwhile my library book sits on the bedstand next to me. (“The Human Guinea Pig” by Andrew Jacobs)
- While I just found out another book I really want to read “Feedom(TM)” by Daniel Suarez is out in hardback – but since I’m in penny-pincher mode, I should get from the library, which I can’t psychologically commit to until I 1) Finish the house and 2) Finish the book I already have.
- Of course, these are both conflicting with my new video game I have been desperately searching for months – Star Trek Online – which I like a lot so far, but its release timing could not have been worse.
Bah.
What I really need to do is quit whining like a yuppy about all of these “good” problems I have, suck it up and get the house stuff done, and everything else will take care of itself.
I just need more sleep and more time…
LOL, “…at least I can walk.”
(Bonus points if you know who that comes from…)
MO’B
Topics: About Mike | 4 Comments »
We say “Potty” You say “Potté”
By Mike | February 1, 2010
So, Erin turned two years old on January 18th, can you believe it? (On a scarier note, I started this blog almost 5 years ago before our wedding! Eeep!)
Like the latest Christmas present, or a holiday romance, Erin’s fleeting fascination with using the potty, is sadly – gone by Valentine’s Day.
We’re not too crazed about it as of yet, as she is still very young, and hasn’t quite verbally developed enough yet to explain where, when, and how she needs to go to the potty in a timely manner anyhow.
But of course, we’ll analyze it a bit anyways. (And when I say “We” I mean “Me.” Andrea will no doubt think I’m insane and could have been more usefully helping to pack up the house during this time. But that’s another post…)
- Pull-Ups – not quite a diaper, not quite a training pant(y?) I think we screwed this one up a little bit here. The size we started out with was just too small. But not knowing what to expect, it took us a while to figure it out. Damn these weight, size, and age “range” on the boxes. I actually think this may have caused a bit of constipation and trauma to poor Erin. Especially considering, these suckers are not rated for full capacity anything, and they frigging leak. Combined with the perma-wedgie of them not being quite the right size, I think this was a bad start.
- Middle of winter? Also not such a good idea. Erin is still wearing onesies that snap on the bottom, with pants. This is not exactly “Sundress and Squat” supporting wardrobe. Those pull-ups do have a quick release pseudo-velcro thing, but you still have to strip the kid down to put a new one on. Not worth it, and if its difficult and not fun, she’s not going to do it.
- Public potty? Oh, hell no. Modern, secure-in-my-masculinity, man that I am, I tried it. I sanitized that f’ing toilet seat to no end, lined it with paper and everything. You would have thought this kid was going into a wood chipper the way she screamed and was terrified. Thank God for those Koala rack changing table things (which I use regularly, thank you very much.)
- Wiping. Well, I’m 34 years old, and I’m pretty sure I still haven’t consistently gotten the hang of it (ask my wife!) I don’t think a 2 year old is going to grasp it, and I assure you, I am NOT qualified to teach her. Andrea is going to have to step up to the plate on this one, or this poor girl is going to be in therapy for years…
Lastly, and this is what about broke my heart. The last time we went to Sam’s Club – the writing was kind of on the wall on the whole pull-up thing, so we picked up a case of Size 6 diapers (Daddy’s Little Heifer) as a backup plan. I changed her yesterday, and in a fit of frustration decided if she wasn’t going to even try and use the potty once in a while, it wasn’t much use putting her in the more expensive, and more frustrating, pull-ups. So I busted out the regular diapers.
Erin was so happy to see them, I really thought she was going to cry! Seriously.
She kept hugging them and going “My diapers! My diapers!” She was so happy to see her friends from Sesame Street on her diapers too! I actually thought she maybe wanted to play baby and put them on one of her dolls or something. Nope. This kid was overjoyed to have her diapers back and proceeded to promptly soil and unusual number of them in rapid succession. Poor kids been holding it in, hope she doesn’t get an infection or something.
So today, I grabbed a vacuum pack of diapers and dropped them off at the Daycare, I hope she has a better day and feels free to unleash the fury as needed, especially since I forgot to take her clean spare outfit in.
Pooped,
MO’B
Topics: About Mike, Baby, Parenting Angst | 6 Comments »
The Avatar Movie thing nobody wants to talk about…
By Mike | January 6, 2010
There is a gaping plot hole nerdboys like myself notice.
The majority of the creatures on the planet Pandora have at least 4 eyes, and 6 limbs.
The Pandorans, which we are to believe are native to the planet, because they share the magic ponytails like much of the other wildlife on the planet. Have only 2 eyes, and 4 limbs.
Science would suggest this seems extremely unlikely, or at least, Darwin would – unless the 2 eyes gave an advantage over 4, which if that was the case, would suggest that the other apex predators (and there are many on Pandora) would have begun to shed the 3rd and 4th eye as well.
I think they just wanted to make the aliens seem more humanoid.
Deny, deflect, dispute, deride?
MO’B
Topics: Movies, scifi, models, cool, gadgets | 2 Comments »