Arianna's Christmas Present

Arianna gave us a great Christmas present today. Well, technically it's a Boxing Day present. I was playing with her this morning, and each time I pulled her up into a sitting position and asked her to say "Daddy", she started to laugh. It was the first time she's ever laughed! She repeated this about 10 times.

It was a great gift for Erika and for me. Nothing is better than being a Dad.

Not the Only Ones

I still can't put into words what it feels like with Penny gone. I was reading 1up.com's blogs and one of the editors there had the same horrible Thanksgiving weekend that we did in loosing a cat. For those of you who don't have that special bond to animals, it is hard to understand. To me, it really is what defines being human. Anyway, I hope to put my Penny thoughts together to share what she meant to me and to Erika (especially for all of those years we were a childless couple), but in the meantime, here's a link to a blog that really helps express what we, too are feeling: Jeff Green's Blog on the loss of his cat.

Rest in Peace Penny

Dedicated to the memory of the best feline friend a person could have ever asked for. Passed away due to congestive heart failure on Saturday, November 24, 2007. We shall miss you and hope that we will all be together again one day.

Erika Didn't Die

Erika's appendix was 3-4 times larger than it should have been and it was hours for bursting -- but it did not. It was successfully removed and after a few days in the hospital with some complications, she is now back home. I am very glad that my wife isn't dead. Our daughter is, too.

Arianna's First Computer Words

Arianna likes to sit on my lap while I use the PC, since I am on it so often for work. I was chatting with Ann, and she had this to offer:

Michael Nelson: nv mv xhdddddddd cccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddkllllllllllg vgfmmcccgb
Ann Nelson: arianna is that you?
Michael Nelson: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmjjjjjjjjjjmbn cn
Michael Nelson: hj\\

Life's turns

Erika has a stomach ache on Sunday evening. By 1:00AM, she couldn't move or sit or stand without being in extreme agony. She drove herself to Christ Hospital's ER while I stayed home with Arianna. It's turned out to be appendicitis. My parents came over today and took Arianna and I went over to the hopspital. They removed her appendix this morning and she is OK. Hopefully, she'll come home tomorrow. Arianna misses her, and so do I.

Pictures

Arianna is far more photgenic than I. Here are some pictures of her first five days of life (including shots of her Mom in labor from earlier on her birthday and Dad aftwerwards): http://picasaweb.google.com/mrmrnelson/Arianna

Culver's and Other Adventures

Erika and I like to eat at Culver's. We also go to Target quite often to buy stuff for the house. And, we visit the Post Office to mail back our NetFlix disks. Now that Arianna is here, she gets to join us on our adventures. Here's her first trip to Culver's:

Not photographed are her trip to Target and the Post Office, with a detour to Jimmy Johns for a late evening sandwich.

Why Life's Worth Living

Arianna Marie Nelson was born at 10:46PM, Tuesday September 18, 2007. She was 7 lbs 8 oz, and 21 inches long. There were some complications in that she swallowed her meconium in the womb so she was born non-crying and purple, with no movement. The OB/GYN started sucking out the gunk with only the head delivered so that she was still getting her nutrients from the umbilical cord. Then, after immediately after the full delivery the pediatricians on hand pumped out her stomach and started her breathing, and after a little time in the Nursery, she is OK now, as is Erika. Real vaginal birth is a lot more messy than what they show in the movies.

I couldn't stay the night, and just got home from watching the first breastfeeding. Mom and baby should be home on Thursday.

Baby Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, on September 18th, we are headed over to Christ Hospital where Erika is going to be induced.  Sometime tomorrow we should be the proud parents of Arianna Marie Nelson.  I sure she will be much more interesting than me.

My Camping Firsts

Camping

I went camping about a month ago. I am not cut out for camping. I did experience a lot of firsts though:

• First time riding as a passenger in a minivan.
  
• First time having my bags stored in a storage canvas strapped to the top of the roof of a minivan.
  
• First time sleeping with my brother in a twin sized bed.
  
• First time pooping in an outhouse.
  
• First time paddling a canoe.
  
• First time portaging a canoe.
  
• First time sleeping in a tent.
  
• First time sleeping in a tent with my brother.
  
• First time pooping a hole in a forest.
  
• First time drinking water from a lake.
  
• First time sleeping in complete silence.
  
• First time having mice and chipmunks run over my tent at night.
  
• First time guiding a canoe in by lamplight.
  
• First time seeing a guy almost start a forest fire because he burned all of our kindling at once.
  
• First time traveling with a chain smoker.
  
• First time I've sat in a car where someone was smoking in it.
  
• First time I went to Minnesota.
  
• First time I've been to the Boundary Waters.
• First time being chewed alive by horse flies.
  
• First time wearing knee length wool socks with sandels to stop being eaten alive by horse flies.
• First time dehydrated while paddling a canoe.
• First time I saw more than one shooting star at night.
  
• First time living off a sack of desiccated food. (It was heavy.)
  
• First time I've stopped every 45 minutes on a 10 hour car trip.
  
• First time riding 25 miles on a gravel road.
  
• First time petting a one-eyed dog. (Ruby was sweet.)
  
• First time I played with a forest cat. (She looked like Misty if Misty weren't Persian.)
  
• First time I saw two men sleep together in a minivan.
  
• First time I became angry with someone for his being able to kill a frog.
  
• First time I have vacationed only with guys.
  
• First time I've ever gone four days without a cold beverage.
  
• First time I intentionally took Imodium as a preventive measure to keep me from having to poop again in a hole in the forest.
  
• First time I camped with someone afraid of the dark.
  
• First time I camped with someone who mistook chipmunks for bears.
  
• First time I wished I would rather be at work than on a trip.
  
• First time I've spent 5 days away from Erika when it wasn't a business trip.
  

There were some lasts:

• Last time I'll camp only with guys.
  
• Last time I'll portage a canoe.
  
• Last time I'll stop every 45 minutes on a ten hour car trip.
  
• Last time I'll go to the Boundary Waters.
  

And the biggest first:

When I got back from this trip (It cannot be called a vacation), I read a commentary by Garrison Keillor that was the first thing he has written where I couldn't stop laughing so hard, because it summed up the trip so well:

"What truly cheers me up through these dog days of summer is the thought that two old friends of mine are up north on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and that I am not there with them. I am here, reading the paper, and if I wanted to go to a movie, I could go, and if I wished to use a flush toilet, I could do that, too. But for the grace of God, I could be sitting on the ground, filthy, embittered, a homeless person, eating freeze-dried food and listening to the Master Woodsman tell you what a great experience you're having and meanwhile the woods are not lovely, just dark and deep, and a cloud of mosquitoes has come out to avenge the white man's colonizing of North America. I have been on canoe trips, I know what goes on.

Every canoe trip has a self-appointed Master Woodsman. In civilian life he may be a mild-mannered clerk in a cubicle, but out on the trail he is transformed into the song leader, pathfinder, the great helmsman, the tier of correct knots, and the authority on bears. He shows you how to do everything except the things you really need to do, such as 1) move your bowels in some dignified manner and 2) get out of here and find a hotel. Your body aches from sleeping on the ground, your bowels have turned to stone, and you are thinking about "Lord of the Flies" and what it says about the fragility of civilization, but he is relentlessly upbeat. And then it dawns on you: Your suffering is what turns him on. The man is a sadist." -- Garrison Keillor, "No wonder they called him Turd Blossom" August 15, 2007

Camping

If you head over to my brother's blog (www.sybarite.us), you will read a well-written and thoughtful entry about an upcoming camping / fishing / hiking trip. I am also going on this trip. After reading brother Ron's blog, my wife became scared that I was not prepared for the trip. I suggested that I should buy some more life insurance before I go. She was upset with that idea, so I told her that I am prepared. I've got cardboard boxes and duct tape to make myself a nice camping shanty, garbage bags to carry my stuff, and I plan to go over to Jewel to steal a shopping cart to push it all through the woods. See -- I am all set.

Work

I haven't written in a few days. Work's been pretty tough with a lot going on and some personnel issues to deal with. Anyone who says that if they won the lottery that they would go back to their job is a liar. Or a moron. Either way, they have my sympathy. Or contempt. I can't quite decide.

New glasses

I was having trouble with the new pair of glasses I had gotten about two months ago. The right lens didn't focus quite right and I got sick of the larger lenses style that I have been wearing for about the past three years. So, I swapped them for a new pair of glasses with smaller lenses. My right eye feels better now.

My Bathroom

By popular demand from my fan base, here are pictures of me mounting the new bathroom light, the finished product, and the patched hole where the old light used to dangle from.

p.s. I know the shower rod is crooked, the trim is crappy, and the wall paint color looks like Mylanta. Those are next on my list of things to fix.

New bathroom light

In other exciting bathroom news, we had a light that was literally a cheap kitchen lamp dangling by a hook over our vanity. It wasn't an attractive light. Friend Graham came over this week and we installed a new octagon box in the middle of the bathroom and took down the old lamp. We then patched the hole where the old lamp once dangled. Today, I completed the work and mounted a new bathroom light. It is a far more attractive light and it makes it easier to read while on the throne, as it is also much brighter in there now.

Shaved my door

My bathroom door is a cheap hollow core jobby that was sticking at the top. The end result is that each time you would open the door it would open with a loud KER-THUNK!!!!!!!! I used a hand-plainer and shaved the top right side of the door so that it now opens and closes silently. You can now poop in peace in my house. Maybe I'll replace the entire door one day.

White bread bowling

My sister was telling me about the Lucky Strike bowling alley in downtown Chicago where they seem to be afraid of blacks, Hispanics, and Hasidic Jews:



I am a dull guy, but white bread bowling? And it runs $75 for 10 frames? Well, all I can say is "Fuck You, Khaki Pants Bowling Alley".


The Warriors can't come out to play at Lucky Strike.