I owe a complete baby post, and I should also do a Cambria post, but you’ll have to settle for a hodge podge of the last two weeks.

Took Luke for his 18 month check up (18.5 month if you want to get technical). He weighed in at 27.5 lbs, 33.5 inches. Put’s him right around the 70th-80th or so percentile. He’s doing better in height than weight, which I think at this point is a good thing.

And speaking of Luke, I like posting that kind of stuff on here as a way of journaling. In the next week though I am going to get a nice leatherbound journal to chronicle his life growing up. I think it would be really cool to read my dad’s thoughts from when I was 1.5 years old…or my grandpa’s thoughts when my dad was 1.5! How cool would that be? That’s what I want to do…sort of write a memoir/journal to him that he can read when he’s my age. Maybe once he moves out and has his first kid I will give it to him. Then he can read about the excitement I felt when he scored his first run, or how it pained me to discipline him (but that I hoped he would understand some day). These are all things I could tell him eventually….but our memories just aren’t that good. So I’m going to start my Luke diary this week, and when I fill it up I’ll start a new one. When we have another kid I want to start one just for them. Another goal of mine is to write a short “book” about my life before them, because that’s another thing your kids don’t ever hear much about. What was I like growing up…what did I do in High School, and college…all these fun memories I’ll be forgetting (and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten a lot!)

Cambria was a lot of fun, but I’ll try and make a bigger post later. We did a lot of eating, walking around, and lying around. I broke my caffeine streak finally. It was kind of sad…but I didn’t really want to go my whole life without ever having a cup of coffee in the morning, or the occassional mountain dew. If anything though, I want to treat it like alcohol. Having some every now and then is fine, but I was having a cup of coffee in the morning, sometimes a big soda at lunch (with a refill!) and it was killing me doing that every day. So now it’s a treat (like a beer!).

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!

My caffeine intake isn’t insane like some people. I’ve read about people that drink like 5-10 diet cokes everyday and crazy stuff. I usually do a cup of coffee in the morning, and that’s usually it, unless we go out. At a restaurant I can easily have a cup or two of soda. Lately I’ve just felt really crummy, like I’m constantly tired, and the only way to perk back up is a coffee or soda.

I woke up on Saturday, and instead of my normal coffee or mountain dew from 7-Eleven, I decided to drop it cold turkey. I’ve read that it can take anywhere from a few days to two weeks to get over the headaches and other withdrawl symptoms, but I’ve also read it can take up to 6 months to get back to normal! Hopefully since I wasn’t a super caffeine addict (just a small one) I’ll bounce back much faster.

Today is day 3 without caffeine. Back in ’07 I got to at least five days, but I can’t remember what happened after that. Obviously I didn’t stay off of it. Hopefully this will be good for my overall health. I’ll promise to keep you posted (and I’ll start a counter in the top right to keep me going).

This is a battle that my taste buds have been waging for the last several years. In High School I would have been proud to pronounce Dr Pepper as my favorite soda, but now the decision is not so simple.

Starting in college my affection for Mountain Dew began to grow. Cal State Los Angeles was a Pepsi supplied school, so there was no Dr Pepper to be found. Contrary to popular belief, Dr Pepper is not owned by Coca-Cola, but instead by Cadbury Schweppes. It is sometimes bottled by Coca-Cola, but they do not own the trademark. Thus, Mr. Pibb. This left only Pepsi products for this sleepy college student to drink.

Classes at 8 am were the norm for my first two years of college. Staying up late also became the norm, so a caffeinated beverage became necessary to stay awake in those boring business classes. Mountain Dew and I became friends, and a 20 oz. bottle allowed me to stay attentive. This marked the beginning of my love for Mountain Dew.

Over the years my favorite soda has been in a state of flux. When Mountain Dew came out with Code Red and Livewire it gave my Mountain Dew love more variety. The Dr Pepper variations on the other hand have been ho hum. I did enjoy Dr Pepper Red Fusion and Sobe’s Mr. Green, but both only lasted a year or two.

What I drink now usually depends on what varieties a restaurant carries. Lately though, when given the choice, I almost always pick Mountain Dew over Dr Pepper.

I love Mountain Dew. Lately though I am outraged by the high cost I have to pay. I am part of the working class of this country. I pay my taxes and obey the law. But evil Pepsi is charging way too much for Mountain Dew. They are making tons of money and paying their President millions of dollars. And who is suffering? Myself and all the other helpless soda drinkers. I have no choice but to drink Mountain Dew, because there are no other rehydration options available to me. I demand that Pepsi, a private business that only exists because they want to, lower the price of Mountian Dew immediately! They are obviously charging more for soda than they have to, and even though I have zero evidence to prove that, I will continue to cry "PRICE GOUGING!"

Ridiculous right? The above is completely idiotic, yet people continue to complain about gas prices in the same way. Some morons in Sacramento are suggesting a new tax on gasoline profits. As any economist will tell you, taxes make things cost MORE!

Sacramento: Hey evil oil companies, if you make more money than we think you should, we’re going to tax you.
Oil Companies: Geez, that doesn’t sound fair. Are you going to tax McDonald’s if they make a lot of money?
Sacramento: No, of course not, don’t be silly.
Oil Companies: Why are you going to tax us then?
Sacramento: Because you’re EVIL! (and all the morons in America will be happy and vote for us because we attacked the evil oil companies).
Oil Companies: Right…

The above article details several things that explain our current oil "situation."

1) We have LESS oil refineries than we did in the 1980′s, reducing the supply of refined crude oil.
2) After 30 investigations in the last 20 years there has been ZERO evidence of price gouging (including congress questioning oil execs just a few months ago).
3) Oil companies earned 5.8 cents on each dollar, compared to 5.5 cents for other industries.

Unfortunately none of that matters. The public hears that an oil executive makes 400 million dollars and BAM, they’re evil and ripping off the American worker. GET OVER IT! Ride a bike, buy a bus pass, strap on your rollerblades, tame a wild stallion, carpool, walk, jog, run, crawl, move closer to work, get a hot air balloon, flyer a glider, invent a new gyrocopter, or hop on that pogostick.

Here at The Blarg I am proud to say….I AM NOT A VICTIM!

AKA a Super Bowl Party. I don’t really care about football, but I’ve got the HDTV and surround sound, so might as well use them. There also is rarely a good excuse to eat big and juicy hot dogs on steriods, aka sausages. I’m open to suggestions…I personally like a good hot link sausage with some spice, but we could have a couple different kinds. Let me know if you’d like to come so I know how much food to buy.

When: Sunday, February 4th
Time: 2 pm (game is at 3).
Place: My House
Who: People

If you want a sausage, you have to comment. And if you think you’re going to come anyways, post a comment.

Update: Here is the menu! Thanks for offering to bring stuff, but we just went to the store and grabbed some stuff. We have strawberries, carrots and celery, chips and dip, baked beans, bratwurst and sauerkraut, hot italian sausage, regular oscar meyer wieners, mountain dew, cherry 7-up, and diet coke. I think Stacie is going to bake some pre-made cookie dough.

For whatever reason I was bored yesterday, so we bought some coffee and creamer to use in our unused coffee maker. I think I’ve got a new love.

First off, I’m not a morning person at all. It’s super hard to wake up, and when I do I don’t have much energy. Lately I’ve been drinking energy drinks like the Sobe No Fear or Rockstar, but that gets expensive quick. So, I’ve turned to coffee to provide that morning bolt of caffeine. Quick little research seems like I’ve found an even higher caffeine source than mountain dew. For a while I used mountain dew to start my day (heck, it got me through my bachelors), but too much soda gives me indigestion.

So like I was saying, we bought some French Vanilla grounds at Target, and some Vanilla Carmel creamer at Stater Bros., and surprisingly, it’s reallllly good. I made the mistake of trying it last night before bed, only to find that I couldn’t fall asleep for 3 hours (seriously). So now I’m sticking to only drinking it in the mornings. Anyone else a coffee drinker besides Denise?

For the first time, probably since 10th grade, I made a lunch today. During my prep I went to Stater Bros. and picked up all the essentials. Some good deli meats, sliced muenster and provolone cheese, spicy brown mustard, a head of lettuce, french rolls, lime and chili fritos, and some mountain dew. I’m in the middle of a 10 day sub job at West, and so far I’ve been living off of Taco Bell. So am I saving any money?

The food I bought will last me six days, and totaled just over $20. My average meal at Taco Bell is only $3.50, which for six days would be $21. Not much of a savings there. However, if I were to branch out from Taco Bell my lunch could easily be $6 at say Subway. Six days of Subway would be $36, almost twice as much as my “bag” lunch. Maybe it is worth it.