…at least for today. Luke got a fever on Friday, and it didn’t start to go away until last night. He’s also got a throat infection, so he’s on antibiotics, and lucky dad gets to stay home with him today. I think he’ll be ready to go back to daycare tomorrow, and daddy back to work.

I’m about halfway done with my final read through of Terra Nova. I’m still finding little things to fix and change, but I’m confident when it’s done it will be the best it can be. After I’m done Stacie will read through it, and we’re good to go. I need to finish it, because we can’t both read it at the same time.

I finished Metal Gear Solid 4 on Friday. It was cool, but I don’t know if I’d ever want to play through it again. It’s certainly a pretty game, though the story is a little ridiculous. The story goes on and on and just gets more ludicrous. Unfortunately it doesn’t haven’t trophies, but Fallout 3 does!

Over the weekend we got satellite tv. I didn’t really WANT to…but I was tired of fixing the DVR I had built. I’m sure once the Dodgers start playing I will appreciate it, and even right now I can actually find something to watch besides news, judge shows, and soaps. We went with Dish, and the DVR we got can record up to 2 satellite channels, and 1 ota channel at a time. It’s even connected to the TV upstairs, so you can watch recorded shows and access the guide on a second TV, something we couldn’t do with the htpc. I’ve got an order placed for a Popcorn Hour A-110 to replace the media capabilities of the htpc.

We have the TurboHD Silver package…so what should we be watching?

Not much going on. Only two more weeks until Christmas break!

Sadly, at the age of 27, I received my first filling on Friday. For years I have been proud of my cavity free mouth, but last week one of my wisdom teeth was the victim of evil tooth decay. The cool part is that a guy I played volleyball with in High School did the filling. Crazy! Anyone else beat 27 years without a cavity? My sister said that third molars (wisdom teeth) don’t even count though, which I’m fine with.

I’m already tired of Little Big Planet. Once you beat the game, it’s just a lot jumping…and no matter how cool the level…it’s still just a lot of jumping. I put it on Ebay, and I bought Wipeout HD for only $20!

Stacie just told me to turn off the computer and go to bed, and I said “The Department of Defense is under attack by a foregin terrorist and I have to stop it.” She said that’s not my job.

She also pointed out that I promised baby pictures in this post. In a week he’ll be nine months old.

Luke Mickey’s His Daddy

We do patty cake now, and as Uncle Paul points out, that’s all. We don’t roll anything or mark it with a B yet.

We also hold our own bottle if mom or dad won’t do it for him. If you let go and let it just sit there, then he’ll grab it. But if you hold it at all, he’s more than happy to let you do all the work.

We let cute little Romanian girls grab our ears and then we make weird faces.

On Thanksgiving we were thankful to be able to spend it with our Great-Grandpa. This is my favorite picture of the two of them.

It’s been a long time since baby! He’s doing great, and we’re all in a good work/daycare routine. I’ve been meaning to make a post about my thoughts on fatherhood, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. Maybe after the election is over.

Our friends from Utah were in town the other weekend with their son who is about four months older than Luke. He can crawl already, so he was doing circles around Luke. They both look a little dazed and confused here.

Before the Dodgers got booted out of the postseason we went over to a friend’s house to watch the game with them. The Dodgers were still playing Chicago at the time, so we had plenty to cheer about that night. These guys are just two weeks apart.

Earlier this month Luke got his first teeth, two of them on the bottom. Nothing has shown up on top yet. So far he’s been great, not a single change since before teeth. He still likes to chew on stuff, but if they hurt him he doesn’t seem to show it.

Here’s dad and his boy. I’m a very lucky guy.

This video trumps the last laughing video…by far.

See it in HD Here.

I’m not an expert on all things writing, but I’m pretty sure that when you finish a book from start to finish (for the first time) it’s called a first draft. I gots me one.

All street speak aside, I’ve finally finished my first draft. I started it mid-March of 2007, so it only took a year and four months to finish. Right now it stands at 112,000 words, or 195 pages in word (Times New Roman 12, single spaced).

Tonight I began the long and arduous task of editing. My goal is to have it done in two weeks, and then it’s off to my other “editors.” Hopefully by the end of the month or early next month you will all be able to sit down and see what I’ve been throwing hundreds of hours of my life into. And finally, now that it’s all done, here is a quick synopsis of my story. I started writing this to go on the back of the book, and it’s probably not the final version, but it’s enough to wet your appetite.

In a small central California town a seismologist working for the United States Geological Survey has a made a terrifying discovery. A recent seismic phenomenon is predicting global volcanic activity that threatens to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. Fearing widespread panic and civil disobedience the truth is kept under wraps, but the President pushes forward with a dramatic initiative to overhaul NASA and begin a new mission: to colonize deep space.

The newly formed deep space team must harness the technology of researcher and single-dad Tom Scolari, but with their eyes focused on the stars the odds are against them. News of the earth’s demise is on the verge of becoming public, and increasingly violent eruptions continue to mount around the globe. The continued survival of the human race rests upon the shoulders of a few, and time is running out.

Had a good Memorial Day weekend. Spent some time with family today, and went out to eat with Lydia and Joe and saw Iron Man. Baby is good and fat. Here’s a video of Luke drooling in HD.

Here are some fun pictures of the boy. He’s really become a drooling machine lately. He’s eating 6 ounces at most feedings, but he still only likes to sleep 3-4 hours at night. In one of our baby books it says at 10 weeks they “might” start to sleep through the night. HA! We shall see silly book.

This is his “I’m super fat” pose. If I was a cannibal I think his meaty thighs would look tasty. Reminds me of a good turkey leg.

This is his “I should be in a commercial” pose. I mean look at that face, it’s perfectly round, and save for the almost bald part, he could hawk some diapers or tires right?

This is his “I tried crawling and failed miserably” pose. Technically daddy made him try crawling just so he could take a picture, so I accept all the blame on this try.

This is his “look at my super cute smile” pose in front of the very popular afghan backdrop.

And Andrew, I need your help getting the pictures centered, because the way I’m doing it now is a pain! And Angelo, what you using to get vimeo vids embeded?

In a few hours Luke will be 2 months old. Today he went for a check-up and some vaccinations. From what I’ve been told he was a very good boy. During the shots he turned beet red, but after only a few minutes of crying he was over it.

Something we’ve been looking forward to is having him measured. There is some strange satisfaction about how big your kid is, it’s so hard to explain. He was born 8lbs 8oz, and he is now 13lbs 14.5oz. He was born 21 inches long, he is now 24 1/4 inches. He’s a big boy! That puts him somewhere around the 90th percentile for both weight and length. My dad even found the growth chart from when I was a baby, and Luke is already beating me by over a pound. Way to go son!

Mommy is upstairs sleeping and Daddy is downstairs watching Baby.

Since I went back to work I’ve been sleeping in the second bedroom so I can get enough sleep to function at work. At first glance people think it’s not fair that I make Stacie take care of the baby all night, but we’ve talked about it and decided it was really the only sensible option. While most of her nights are fairly tiresome, because I’m getting a healthy amount of sleep I can actually do my job, and when I get home I’m not a sleep deprived lunatic. That means I can run to the market, clean up the house a little, and make dinner. Then tonight at 8 o’clock she went to bed early, and I’m staying up for another 3 hours to watch the baby before I head off to bed.

I have to say again how nice it was to have so much help over the first few weeks. Whether it was gifts of clothing and diapers or homemade meals, it really made it a lot easier to bring Luke home and get used to this new arrangement.

I’m posting from the laptop, so you’ll have to wait until the next post to get some new pictures. Hopefully this weekend I can get to some video I’ve taken and you can see this little guy in action!