At my first Dodgers game of the season. Looking for Kershaw to bring home a win.

I’ve been enjoying summer so much that I forgot to blog! Now where to start…

The biggest thing we’re doing this summer is remodeling a bathroom. Originally I had dreams of remodeling it all by myself…but now we’re looking at maybe half the work. A friend’s dad will be tiling a new shower for us, and then I think I can do the rest. We went today to look at new vanities and countertops (oooh, quartz is pretty), and I might try my hand at tiling the floor. I had dreams of redoing both bathrooms this summer…but we might have to settle with one. We’re doing the bathroom in Luke’s room though, so once it’s all done we can start on our own. We’re doing that tile on the walls, a smaller 6×6 inch on the floor of the shower, and I’m going to try and put in an 18×18 on the floor. The glass/mosaic tile we’re going to use to make a stripe horizontally in the shower, and then also to make “diamonds” in the walls. Big thanks to Amanda and Kurtis for helping us pick it out!

Over the fourth of July we drove down to San Diego with Andrew and Sarah to see the Dodgers beat on the Padres. It was also the night Manny came back from his suspension, which was really interesting. Felt like we were witnessing a part of history. Every time he came up to bat the entire stadium was on its feet. It was half cheers, half boos. It was fun to spend a night away without the baby (thanks Grandparents!).

I’ve also been playing a game called Evony a lot. It’s an online, flash based game, but it’s far more advanced than you would think. You run a city (or multiple cities), collect resources, amass troops, and can attack other people. I’m in a great alliance with some other people, so it’s fun to protect each other and attack our enemies. If you want to sign-up, go here! I’m on world 5, in lower lorraine.

I have to put some Luke in here! We went a couple weeks ago for his 15.5 month check-up. He’s now 25.5 lbs, and 32 inches long. The kid eats like crazy…it’s like he’s never full. Our favorites are bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cheerios, goldfish, ritz crackers, cheese, and chicken. Come to think of it…he eats whatever we give him. He’s also letting us enjoy our summer mornings by sleeping in. The kid will go from 8pm when we put him to bed, and won’t wake up until 9am! Here’s some recent pictures.

Otherwise we’re taking it easy and enjoying summer. Stacie is headed to Las Vegas for two nights on Sunday, so it’ll be me and the boy! Should be fun, and tiring. Stacie’s going to put $20 on the Dodgers while she’s there, so Luke and I will watch the game and cheer them on.

In case you’re wondering, that caffeine counter is still accurate. Haven’t had any in two months now. Overall I wouldn’t say I have more energy…but I feel more balanced out. There are no highs and lows, just a nice normal all the time. I miss my friends Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, but they’ve been replaced by Sprite. But somedays I have a couple sodas and then I feel gassy all day, so I might give that up too, haha.

That’s all for now. I’m promising a super cute video of Luke very soon!

…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 a ton going on here, just getting ready to enjoy a three day weekend!

The hard drive in my HTPC died. Arg! I seriously considered getting satellite, but I didn’t. This is the second time the hard drive has died in the last year. I think the first time might have just been normal hard drive failure, but when Western Digital sent me a replacement it was a refurb, so that’s why I think this one didn’t last long. I ordered a NEW drive made specifically for DVRs, and at 1 terabyte it should hold close to 100 hours of HD video. As much as I hate opening it up and setting it up, when the thing works it does a darn good job. I just couldn’t justify spending $50-60 a month for a DVR with limited space, no ability to edit or save shows, and a channel I really want (Dodgers!) and a few channels we enjoy on vacation.

My proof copy of Terra Nova is still on its way. Should be here Monday along with the new hard drive. I think next time I might pay extra for faster shipping. Here’s what shows on my UPS tracking info so far:

SUMMERVILLE, SC
WEST COLUMBIA, SC
GREENSBORO, NC
COLUMBUS, OH
MAUMEE, OH
HODGKINS, IN

I’m guessing it was on a truck…a very slow one that liked to stop in every city it passed. It left that last stop 2 days ago, so I’m guessing it’s now on an airplane.

I’ve been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 the last few days. I really wish it had trophies, but I already had it, and it’s pretty fun. I have Fallout 3 coming to me from ebay for cheap. My new philosophy is to buy games used, play them, and then sell them and recoup some of the cost. Few games are worth having for a long time anyways.

Pictures of baby soon, I promise!

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.

I survived the first short week of school, but life is pretty hectic right now. It will be nice to get back into a routine.

I’m in my own classroom this year, so that’s going to be nice. That means less time packing things up and more time to get work done. My classes all seem pretty good so far.

Dodgers are a half a game up. Woot!

I’ll be back in a while when things calm down a little.

It’s a shame. Summer is almost over. It’s like a part of me is dying, only to be reborn anew ten months later. Despite my sorrow, I bring you the following photographs.

We’re starting to enjoy our baths a little more. We’re absolutely fascinated by the faucet and how it moves and water comes out of it.

We fell asleep in the swing the other day, but the way he’s holding his little Dodgers bear is just adorable. That’s right, I used the word adorable. Commence name calling.

Grandma and Grandpa got us a saucer! The little seat spins around 360 degrees and he can stand/bounce in the seat. The contraption directly in front of him makes animal noises. Oh, and every item on the saucer is excellent for chewing.

Luke went over to Aunt Denise and Uncle Paul’s and got to play their keyboard. Talk about a fun toy!

Technically no one in this picture is a baby, but I’ll put it here anyways. I went out to lunch the other week some buddies from High School that I hadn’t seen in a while. It’s fun to stay in touch with guys you’ve known for such a long time. I’ve known John since 1st grade!

Well there you go. Pictures. Glorious photographs. Little snapshots of moments frozen in time forever.

The Blarg’s hosting service crashed sometime last night and was down about 12 hours. The hosting service went to a backup from the 21st, so my last post was lost.

The htpc is back up and running with the replacement hard drive. It’s getting a super clean reinstall of Windows and I just installed Norton Ghost to make a nice backup in case this ever happens again. I’ve gone to great lengths to set things up, so once I have a backup of the whole thing, I won’t have to go through all the hassle of setup (which really wasn’t that bad a second time around). I bought a neat little cooler that attaches to the bottom of the hard drive and helps to pull some hot air off of it. In my case the hard drive is sort of isolated and no air passes over it, so this is a really easy and quiet way to circulate the air. I’ve even seen a five degree drop in my video card temps.

I started to play Final Fantasy 7 from the original playstation the other night. I remember when Andrew and I got that game back in the 90′s. I think he beat it, but I never did, so I figure why not throw it in and see what I can do. It’s an easy game to play when the baby is lying on your chest. I know the game takes a long time to beat, and I’ve got plenty of other things to do, so we’ll see how long my interest lasts.

Baby is doing well. He’s sleeping longer chunks at night, and already he’s able to spend a lot of that time alone in his bassinet. Hopefully sometime in the next couple months we’ll get him moved to his own crib and a good nighttime routine will be established. Our friend Shannon who lives in Georgia was out here on vacation and stopped by today to see Luke. It’s amazing to see the little changes he’s going through already. You can tell his eyes are working better because he looks around. Stacie walked by him in his chair today and his eyes about rolled out of their sockets as he watched her go by. He does a little bit of smiling, but not a ton yet. I can’t wait until I can tickle him or give him a raspberry and he squeals in delight. Right now when I do it he just looks at me like “what the heck is that!”

The Dodgers beat the D’backs. Woot woot!