Take a lot at what I did! (With my wife's help of course)



That's my girl. She's almost four. Time flies. She's fun.

(The other two are her first two snowpeople)

Holy shit. LJ is available again.

For how long?

We shall see.

Just popping in for a quick hello! How are you? *wave*

I'm still alive. LJ still stupidly blocked from work. However, I do blog (somewhat) on The Basement Office (link in previous post) but that's a little more focused on writing (although I'm expanding it).

Everything is going swimmingly. I am currently training Anna on sleeping alone in her crib (without first sleeping on us) and it's going well, but it's tough watching her cry. Still, there is progress.

Otherwise, there's not enough time in the day, as usual...but we soldier on.

Wow, again, it's been awhile. Man work blockage sucks.

All is well, Anna is growing, parents are coping. I wish I had more news on that front, but it's basically progressing nicely :)

This year, for various reasons of which Anna and J play a part, I've decided that enough's enough and I'm getting more serious with my writing.

To that end, I've started a new blog at WordPress:


The Basement Office

I picked up my own domain name last year, inspired by a couple of very good friends...however I let the site languish without doing much of anything.  I decided that this year I'd update it often and put some writing up there and see if I could build an audience while I try and write more.

So far it's been interesting and it has helped me write (I wrote roughly 1-1.5K a day in the last two weeks, which for me, is a BIG improvement).

I hope to see you there!

Hi all, I just realized how LONG it's been since I've updated LJ. It sucks to be blocked at work.

At home, the free time just isn't there these days.

But, I'm up assisting (re: sitting and waiting) with a mainframe CPU upgrade so I get to update a bit.

Work:

Things are going well. There was a real dark time over the summer and fall at work. I was certain I was headed for a second (very) bad evaluation (unwarranted I assure you) and I felt rather ostracized. The attitude I saw from my higher ups was questionable and at times demoralizing. I admit to having paranoid delusions at this point. Talks of downsizing ran rampant in our department.

Being a new dad, I felt my responsibilities as provider weighed quite heavily on me. I was in a real dark place for a while.

Turns out my evaluation was excellent (well Meets Expectations) which was a very pleasant surprise and since the evaluation, my bosses seemed to have done a complete 180 degrees. Work-wise it is very pleasant now. To me, it feels like someone turned on a light switch, or that I've just dimension-shifted, but I'm sure a lot of it is my perception as well. However, on several instances in the last few weeks, my bosses backed me up in a way I hadn't seen in a while. It feels good.

The raise is nice too.

Mostly, I feel so nice without the extra stress.

House:

The house is still a mess, but we're hacking away at it. I need to get serious about finding bookcases, maybe another dresser.

As cluttered as it is, I love this house. It's not fancy but it's ours.

We put up a tree last week, the base broke and it fell down at 3 in the morning 2 days later. Luckily, J found a replacement base while shopping and we have a tree again, lovelier than the last. We're considering outside lights too.


Baby:

Anna's growth has slowed down a lot in the last few months, causing some concern. She went from the top of the curve to the bottom of it, in both height and weight. She's perfectly healthy and happy. Don't get me wrong. It's a concern, not a worry. She is seeing her doctor this week.

She's still not quite doing her nights but it's close!

Anna also has said her first word on Saturday :)

Papa! And I have video proof! My parents were in attendance. Now we are working on 'mama' which I am told she has said as well by now.

She's a joy. She's more aware now and social and so playful. We took her to see Santa last week and it was a hoot! She was all smiles and yanked the beard :)

Here is a newer pic of her:



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In general, I still find it amazing how happy I am.

I'm having a bit of trouble sleeping and I thought, what the hell, it's been a long time since I've updated my LJ.

Yes, I'm still alive! Work still blocks LJ and I don't really have time to surf much at home with the new(ish) baby. I have the LJ iPhone App but it kinda sucks.

Anna is doing well and growing so much! Here she is:



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She is my joy and my life along with her mother.

She now has 2 teeth and is eating baby food (though still breastfeeding along with it). She plays and chats and sings. The highlight of my day these days is coming home and seeing her smile when J says "Daddy's home!".

We took at trip to Moncton this september and Anna travels well, it took 13 hours or so to get there by car and we figured out that Anna's limit is around 12 hours :)

J is an awesome mom, but exhausted, she can't wait to get back to a regular sleep pattern.

I'm pretty tired myself. Work is stressful a bit these days, bullshit office politics, but it could be worse. We're coping.

The house is still a mess of stuff. We're not too worried about it, the baby and ourselves take priority. In a week or two, I plan to have my folks over to watch and play with the baby, leaving us free to go through the last remaining boxes and finally get stuff organized maybe.

J wants to do NaNo this year again (how awesome is my wife?) and has made it clear she'd be disappointed if I failed to participate, so (twist my rubber arm) I'm planning to do it too! Again, did I marry the right girl or what?

Life continues apace.

Well the work web censor has flip flopped again.

I can no longer access LJ from work. Again. Yeesh.

Oh well, I'm sure I can find a way on my iPhone.

Just caved and got myself an iPhone!

Couldn't resist, with my renewal incentives and my old plan, turns out I've got a new decent plan with Data for only 5 bucks more (about)...and they're selling the 3gs phones to clear before the iPhone4 comes to Canada...so 32Gig 3GS for me!

Fun fun fun!

http://www.rdorion.com/galerie/enfants/

She's the cutie in the polkadot dress (first two pics of the second row from the top)

(No, we are not going to enroll her in pageants or anything. A friend of ours hooked up with a professional photographer who needed to fill out his portfolio and decided to use her pics on his site. Still pretty cool though.)

I've been plagued by someone from somewhere in this province who shares the same name as I do.

Apparently this guy likes to order stuff online, from many different websites but whenever he does this, he opens an account with MY email address (myname@gmail.com), places his order and leaves me to deal with the dozen emails whatever online store decides to send (confirmation, spam, etc...)

If this had happened once or twice, I wouldn't care, but it happens on a regular basis and I KNOW that at least ONE website did contact the person over the phone. It's apparent this guy doesn't care and is using MY mail to avoid spam, yet is dumb enough not to realize that *I* can access his online accounts for most of these places.

The last was a rather skeevy online store that sells cut rate printer ink and fax supplies (you know the kind that loves spam).

I had to bite my tongue when I logged on, changed the info so that my email no longer appeared in the account (which will completely block anyone from logging in since the email is the login name).

I had to restrain myself because the site keeps the credit card info (not fully displayed...but saved for "easy convenient ordering") IOW I could have placed any number of orders...

Sadly, I am not that malicious. I simply deleted all credit info that I had access to.

I have the shipping address though, I'm tempted to send a strongly worded letter to this guy.

I mean, what the hell right?

Well I have one more reason to put some effort into guitar practice (or to practice at all...because it's been a while).

I went looking out of curiosity and so'nuff I found tabs for Jonathan Coulton's songs! Yay!

So on the list is Code Monkey and Skullcrusher Mountain for purely personal pleasure and "You Ruined Everything" because I would love to play that for my daughter...it's a very sweet and quirky song (I assure you the title is ironic).

I've been going to the gym for 4 solid months now and I've only missed 1 workout day (with the exception of my time off when my daughter was born).

I've gotten into the routine. I'm comfortable with my gym and the ins and outs. I love my gym.

For the most part.

There are a few people however that drive me up the damn wall. I've mentionned it to trainers and desk people but it's things they seem to really want to curb too much.

To be fair, in the morning it's fairly quiet so a lot of the time it isn't an issue. It's that one day a week that it's busy that these things annoy me because they get shoved in my face more.

Don'ts:

1 - Do NOT "reserve" machines by leaving your towel/water bottle/ipod while you go and workout on OTHER machines. Do NOT do this for 3 or 4 machines (one lady, I swear to god, had 5 "saved" one morning). It's great that YOU want to do super-duper-sets but when there's only one of those machines in the gyms it kind of screws US til your whole workout is done.

2 - (This is a bit related to number 1) Do NOT reserve the pulldown machine so that you can do your weird ass exercise that only uses the bench part and a barbell, and then walk away to do your other exercises. There are four pulldown machines available and they are popular...you can use the normal benches just as easily and there are a dozen of those...and are usually deserted.

3 - Do NOT grab every single weight/ball/matt/rope that you need ever and then take up half the mat area while you go do "a set or two" on the ab crunch machine. Some of us would like to use the mats and the equipment as well.

4 - Should you DO rules 1,2 or 3...if you absolutely feel that your majesty needs to...do NOT then walk away to cruise the cute guy/girl on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes.

5 - If you have a HUGE water bottle (I'm talking 2 liters), please...don't stand there for 5 minutes filling it up while there's a long line of people who just want a gulp between sets. We get that you're a fish and perhaps your home is a parched desert so you need to fill up at the gym...but please...it sucks to have to stop dead while you chat and fill that barrel.

Do:

1 - Put your weights back where they belong. Heck, the general vicinity would be nice. It's fun to try and find a 50 pound dumbell and finally figure out that all 4 are lying around the mat area across the gym.

2 - Workout. It's nice that you got that fancy skimpy outfit and all, but moving the machines with no weight and looking around really isn't fooling anyone. And guys...I'm sure you're a cool hipster dood, but doing the above in cut off jeans and a wool cap is lame.

Alright that last one isn't a big deal...but the rest are really annoying.

WooT!

LJ seems unblocked from work!

I don't know how long that will last, but I'm going to enjoy the heck out of that while it does!

Wooohooo!

Yesterday J and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Wow. I did not see the year go by. Has it really been that long? I still remember the wedding fairly clearly, as if it happened a few weeks ago.

We couldn't go out really and money is tight so celebrations were low key but I tried to make it special. I made the same dish that I had cooked for her the first time I invited her over to my place, I got her a little gift she said she wanted (Up! on dvd) and made a card. I think it was special.

Anna was a special guest in the festivities.

It's been a heck of a year...the house, the baby and everything else. I'm still spinning a bit.

Went to see Jonathan Coulton at the Cabaret Juste pour Rire on Thursday night. Br and I had bought tickets before our daughters were born, not really thinking it through. Luckily we have awesome SOs...J spent the evening hanging out with Fr...while Anna and Gabrielle got better acquainted.

The show was pretty awesome. It was an intimate venue and the opening band Paul and Storm were just as entertaining as JoCo.

I managed to snag a CD/DVD combo of Jonathan's San Francisco concert...I watched it this morning (couldn't sleep, migraine, so I called in sick) and it's somewhat similar to the set we saw so it will keep the memory fresh.

I'm kicking myself because apparently he had no objections to cameras and I failed to bring mine :(

Ah well...it was awesome anyway.

Well Anna has finally discovered her lungs. In an effort to give J a break I kept her with me for most of the evening, went to bed late. It must be the growth spurt I've been hearing about.

I couldn't get to sleep after, so I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep, thankfully it seems Anna DID sleep most of the night.

I'm struggling and doing some heavy self-talk to get my ass to the gym this morning.

I'll be popping in to Hurley's tonight for a short spell. foi_nefaste needs boxes, I have boxes...it works out. It was a great excuse to have a quick beer and say hello to some folk. I wish J and Anna could come but alas, our wee one is a tad young to hang out at bars :)

Alright. I'm off to the gym.

Well I'm about to start my second week back at work. Things are good.

I've started going back to the gym again. 5 workouts, no skipping. I had stopped going when Anna was born, as I was reluctant to be away. This worried J a bit, as she does not want me to stop working out and wasting my money, but I reassured her that I would go back when I return to work...and this is what happened.

Anna is three weeks old and doing well.

J is also recovering slowly, she's quite a trooper. She's had no issues with me going back to work. She does look slightly frazzled when I get in at night, but I make sure I do everything I can to give her a break when I get in.

It's funny how much time Anna takes, and I don't mean this in a bad way...it's not a chore or anything. It's just that I go to work, and most of the day I'm eager to get home. Once I do, I grab up my daughter and change her, then I sit and hold on to her a while to give J a break...and next thing I know it's 10pm and I'm going to bed! It's amazing.

I don't really miss doing things yet...so I'll just savour the time I have now. She's growing very fast, you can almost see if you watch her carefully. Right now it's just about the most relaxing thing in the world to just sit in my chair and have her fall asleep on me.

Life is good.

Well my first week of parenthood is over.

J and I really lucked out. While her condition was dangerous, it happened at a time where I was present and able to get her to the hospital quickly and safely. It happened at a time where it was downright convenient for me to be off work. It happened while my sister was in town.

As such, J avoided a lot of labour and such...it was over quick. I say it's to make up for her painful pregnancy.

Add to that Anna herself. She's a lovely babe. Hardly a fuss at all. She's very good natured and rarely cries for more than a few minutes at a time. At night, she's now feeding every 3 hours and sleeping like the dead in between, allowing J and I to get sleep. When she is awake she chats, coos and makes all the cute noises with hardly a fuss.

J is recovering. I'm starting to sleep the entire night because she doesn't wake me up...I want her to, but she says there's no need (I disagree...but..what the hell) So I'm getting back to a regular sleep schedule and doing chores around the house. I should be quite ok to go back to work.

Although I'll hate leaving my girls at home for the whole day, so I'm enjoying my time while I have it.

Changing diapers is no biggie, as is giving Anna her bath. That's daddy/daughter time right there.

I know that things change...heck, Anna is changing from one day to the next right now...but right now, I'm very lucky and thankful for what I have.

Well, it's not really an ode, but the joy is there and is very real. It threatens to overwhelm my senses at times and I find myself openly weeping. I'm a big ol' softy I guess.

My friends, it would be my distinct pleasure to introduce you all to my daughter Anna:




The next evening after my last entry (Sunday) was very very scary. J started hemoraging at home. I kept my cool and got her to our hospital in record time (I'm told I would have beaten the ambulance had we called 911 AND J and the baby were much better off by us driving in quickly).

It was quickly determined that the bleeding could not be stopped easily and that there could be a danger to both mother and child if the situation wasn't resolved. An emergency c-section was setup and big bang boom next thing I know I'm waiting in the hall wearing scrubs and trying really really really hard not to kick down the door to the OR while waiting for them to come and get me.

It took all of 30 breathless minutes and I got to cut the cord...then I was holding my new born daughter in my arms and crying like a fool. Jess was also doing much better. It wasn't until the next day that I realized that she was in quite a bad situation...the staff at the hospital were super efficient and extremely caring, they kept us at ease the whole time. I was going out of my mind but thanks to them partly I was able to keep my cool.

J and I have been in the hospital since then, only coming home with Anna today.

During the hell ride over to the hospital, J was impressed at my calm demeanor and I told her point blank "Oh, I reserve the right to fall apart at a later time when it's more convenient...right now let's just get you to the hospital"

I'm gonna go fall apart now if you all don't mind.

My cup runeth over.

Update: J is still pregnant. The baby's head is present and in a good position, the doc is (by the med-tech's opinion) confused. We don't like that OB. Luckily, we saw the other one after the echography and were given a more accurate report.

J is still borderline for preeclampsia, so they are adopting the "wait and see" approach. Which means we are not parents yet. Her cervix has not moved since last week, so it's gonna be a bit. The good doctor is convinced it will be at least another week, if not more and that we may have to induce, but that's a last resort.

So baby side, all is well.

Fitness side, friday was workout number 60. Woot! 12 weeks! I did it! 3 months!

Last night, my sister and the parents came over. Basically they invited themselves, well semi-invited. We had made loose weekend "we'll have you over" plans and had told my sister to come over on friday...it was nice tho. I made chicken on the BBQ, my sister brought us some nice lawn chairs and my dad gave me his old lawn mower (the grass is getting long). It was a nice family evening, even if it did stress J a bit. She's not really easy going these days ya know? It was overall really a good night though, and I LOVE BBQing, even if I'm not great at it yet (Tournedos are tricky).

I need to clean my grill.

Today has been a pretty good day too. We had lunch at buffet Maharaja with Fr and Br who are damn cool. Br is thrilled that I bought Left for Dead 2 on steam this weekend (TWENTY BUCKS! WOOT!) so we're setting up some online zombie slaughter soon(ish).

The food was delish and everything is relaxed. It sucks that I have to work (typing this as I work from home) or else I'd be out in the yard lounging with this month's Analog and such...

The house is neat, my belly is full, my two favorite girls are napping upstairs. Life is pretty damn good.