New Years

This is one of the days that the whole country has optimism.  Everyone, even those that are cynical and act as though they don't care, feel a sense that new beginnings are on the horizon.  We set up goals and ambitions.  We look forward with eyes that allow for anything.  That hope and that feeling that new beginnings are on the horizon is contagious.

It is also a night when we celebrate.  We celebrate the end of the old and the beginning of the new. For some of us we are celebrating a good year and hoping for another that measures up.  For others we are celebrating the end of a crappy year and the hope for one that is much better.

As I head off into this new year, I celebrate a wonderful year and I am thankful for the next.  There have been trials for sure, but I have a wife and child that love me dearly.  I am able to care for them both financially and emotionally and the rewards that I get will continue to come.  Not because I deserve them, but because my family and I work hard to make sure that whatever we have, we appreciate each other and ourselves.

I hope that your life is full of love and happiness, full of brightness and warmth.  And with that, I am off to celebrate!

Delilah's first meal

Here is the video of Delilah trying her first meal.

The long drive home

We made it home safe and sound.  With one baby, a dog and a cat in the car it can get a little hectic and stressful.  Luckily all three are really good travelers.  The exception seems to be that the cat picks the most inopportune times to jump into the front seat and want to be petted.  I swear that she gets on my lap half a second before I have to slam on the brakes almost every time.  And I made the all too common mistake of wearing pj pants for the drive so on top of making sure she doesn't cause an accident, I get the joy of claws digging into my legs.

But Delilah made it through with flying colors.  She only cried for a few minutes when we were about two hours out.  She always gets a little anxious when we are nearing the end of the line.  I don't know if that is because she can tell we are getting close, or if she has just reached the end of her rope.  But we put on a little music and she usually calms right down.  Well, after Jessi puts her hand back there so she can hold it for ten to fifteen minutes.  I don't know how she does that.  I start to lose feeling in my hand after about a minute.  Mother stamina I suppose.

The trip to San Diego was really great.  We got to spend some much-needed down time with the family.  I was able to get some work done on the house. And everyone got to know Delilah a little bit better.

It is always so fun to watch people watch her.  She captivates the room by making a noise or by grabbing a hold of something.  I know that all babies do that.  I know that it seems to be hard wired into us to pay an extra amount of attention to babies, but I like to think it is because she is so damn cute.  Here is a picture of her falling asleep on her play mat after a long day of traveling.

Goal accomplished...almost

Wow, that was a full day of work.  I got the floor done, the sink in, the toilet back together, the shower working and the light and mirror up.  The only things that I wasn't able to do was finish the baseboards and paint.  But that will have to wait for another trip.  I can't decide if I am going to put up wainscotting in  there or not.

But, I got this stuff done.  I am super proud of myself.  It was the closest I have ever come to a day with no problems.  The only hang ups that I had was a little drip in one of the valves, the light we bought was wrong, and I had a little trouble at the store. Well, I had a little trouble at the store twice!  It wouldn't be a project without a little something going wrong.  Oh yeah, and I forgot the drain when I went to the store the first time...which is why I had to return to the store and thus had two problems.  But all in all it was a productive and successful day.

On a sad note, a friend of mine died of cancer today.  Her and I were not really close.  I was close to her husband at one time, but I haven't spoken to him for days.   My heart truly goes out to him.  It is a terrible thing to lose a loved one.  And watching this particular man really come into his own personal happiness during his time with her was beautiful.  I pray that he does not lose that.  I pray that the cold and loneliness doesn't drag him down and away from the light-heartedness and happiness that he has experienced.

She was in her thirties.  Which scares the hell out of me.  I know that when someone dies you are not supposed to think that. I don't really like to admit it.  But death is something that has always haunted me, and knowing that someone my age, or close to my age, died terrifies me.  Not suddenly like a car crash, but drawn out over months from the time she discovered the illness till the end.  She had a hard last few months.  I cannot stop my brain from imagining what it would be like to be either the sick or the helper.  It is always terrible.  My heart goes out to my friend.

Bathroom remodel in a day

This will be one of the more ambitious goals that I have set out to do.  It isn't a complete remodel, but it is fairly close.  I pulled out the sink and the mirror, the floor and the toilet today.  And I am going to replace them all tomorrow.  So I guess that is more like a two day remodel.  We will see how it goes.

The plan is to finish the destruction phase in the morning.  I am going to take off the baseboards, measure the room and cut the new flooring.  Put it in, and then start on the cabinet and sink.  I am hoping that everything goes fairly well.  I am not too worried about it.  But that is because I am facing a nights sleep and a full day tomorrow.  In the morning, when the nights sleep is behind me, I might have a slightly different view.

As always I expect the devil to be in the details.  I imagine that the big stuff will be really easy and go fairly quickly.  The problem that I am most likely going to run into is replacing the valves from the wall to the hose, or in some little detail, like getting the sink stopper to set correctly.

I do enjoy these projects.  I know that I will have fun doing it. I will inevitably become frustrated at some point.  But I am always pleased when I am done.  Both with the accomplishment and with my own stunned disbelief that I was the one who was able to do it.

At any rate, I am sure that I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Jessi's old house and Mount Helix

This morning we got up and went to Mt Helix.  It is a cross on the top of a hill a little South of here.  When I saw the hill from afar I thought that it didn't look very impressive.  I had heard of Mt Helix before and I know that it is a tourist attraction down here in San Diego, but on the drive there I thought that we probably could have walked up the hill two roads over and had a better view.  Boy was I wrong!  

The view from the top looked like this:

Not a bad view and some pretty good looking folks!  You could see all the way to the ocean on the West and into the mountains passed the city to the East.  The South showed Mexico and the North was La Jolla and beyond.  It was pretty amazing for being on top of what looked like a little hill.  We snapped some pictures and took a few moments to take it all in.  Then we headed off to the house that Anita, Jessi and Henry lived in when Anita and Joe met.  It was just like Jessi remembered except the shutters used to be blue and now they are white.  That is a pretty good memory considering I think she was like six when she lived there.  

Delilah ate her first meal with a spoon today too. It was pretty funny the way she didn't seem to know what to do with the food.  It is hard to believe that eating is something that she has to learn to do.  I guess that it makes sense.  She pretty much has to learn to do everything except breath and beat her heart.  She is getting so close to being able to sit up on her own.  I can't wait until that day for some reason.  For me I think that signals the beginning of the really fun part.  She is fun now, but every new thing that she can do seems to make her a little more fun and I think that is going to be awesome when it happens.  Anyway, I was going to put up the video, but it is taking too long.  Maybe tomorrow.

Christmas day

What a wonderful day! We had a nice morning with some coffee and cooking. Everything came out beautifully and on time. Which is quite a change from the norm.  Usually something hasn't cooked all the way by the time dinner is ready. But today was the exception that proves the rule.  The turkey and the pork roast were done right on time. Both came out juicy and delicious.  I overate as I always do on these days.

When dinner was done we did a gift exchange.  We made a game of it.  The one where you can choose to open a present or steal one that has already been opened.  Jessi and I got a matching set of nutcrackers.  They will make a good addition to our usual holiday decorations.

Delilah got some presents as well. One of the nice things about doing a family Christmas is that your kids never get shorted on the presents! 

We finished family time with pumpkin cheesecake, blueberry pie, pumpkin pie, and lemon bars. Then we sat and talked for a while.  I really enjoy the Sims side of the family get-togethers because it always involves a lot of talking, sharing stories, and laughing. 

All told it was a marvelous little Christmas! I hope everyone who reads this had one just as nice.

Midnight Mass

Tonight we went to midnight mass.  It was in the mission del oro.  What a beautiful mission!  The mass was nice. Although I don't really understand all of the ceremony that is the Catholic church. But Delilah got blessed by the Father and Jessi and I were blessed by the people who give out the communion. It is always encouraging somehow to have someone look into my eyes and tell me that I am loved and appreciated by God.  I always seem to walk away with a great big smile on my face.

We spent the day cooking.  Which is one of my favorite  holiday traditions. I love when everyone comes together to create a meal that will be shared.  It is tiring and hard work.  It takes two days to make a meal that will be gone in about an hour, but somehow it is never a thankless or rewardless task.

Tomorrow is Lilah's first Christmas. I can't wait to be with family and enjoy some good food and great company. Love and light to all who come across this message!

Can't decide

So I can't decide if I want this challenge to be about me, like a journal.  Or if I want to use it as an opportunity to work on my writing.  I wrote a little piece that I wanted to get into the newspaper.  But the more that I read over it the more I realized that it wasn't really very succinct.  I kind of tend to ramble.

The journal would be easiest.  All I would have to do is tell a little something about the day.  "Delilah was great," "Jessi made an awesome dinner last night."  That kind of thing.  And I would be happy to do that. I would love to have an opportunity to come back and look at this month and know what kind of things I was thinking.  What I was going through.  But I am not sure that this is the kind of thing that I want to put on the internet.  I think that would be something that I would want to have a little more privately.  Like not on the internet.

The harder thing to do, but perhaps the more appropriate for the public forum of the internet, is practice my writing.  Because that would mean that I would have to think about what I am putting on the page.  I would have to worry about composition.  I would have to start with a thought.  Expound on that thought.  Give a little background to my ideas or thoughts.  And bring it all to a conclusion.  But I don't want this to turn into something that I have to work all day on either.

So I guess I will stick to my original 30 day plan for now.  I will write everyday for the next 28 days.  On the days that I feel like going a little deeper I will do that.  But I am not going to stress over it too much.  And at the end of the 30 days, if I wanna keep doing this.  I might start a different 30 day challenge with the goal slightly tweaked.

That is all for today

Date with the Dainos

We made it to southern California safe and sound.  Visiting some old friends and telling ghost stories. It would have been more appropriate for Halloween! But Christmas ghost stories are fun too!

The drive was long. I think that we got caught in a lot of holiday traffic. An eight hour drive took just over ten hours. It was extremely frustrating at times. But luckily our daughter did awesome. She is going to be quite the traveler.

Shelving unit

One down. One to go!

Haha, day two and I hit the cancel button on my alarm on accident.  What is funny about this is that I almost never hit the cancel button.  I usually have to turn off the alaram even after I am awake.  So I didn't make it up before the sun this morning.  I was about 8 minutes late.  I guess that is why it is called a challenge.  I haven't decided if I am  going to restart the clock on my 30 days or just try a little harder tomorrow.  But I am going to write in the blog.  So here I go.

I finally built the shelves in the garage that I have been thinking about since we bought this house.  Of course it was pretty easy except that somehow I measured incorrectly with regards to how tall they needed to be.  I forgot to add in the height of the plywood that makes up the shelf in my calculations and didn't realize it until I had the first half done.  It turned out to not be that big of a deal.  I just re-measured and moved the supports up a couple of inches.  But it did add a little extra time to my project.

Jessi and I did Christmas last night.  She really loved the scrap-booking stuff that I got her and I am really excited to try out my new deep fryer! 

Delilah woke up twice last night.  Which isn't that uncommon these days.  For whatever reason, she has been waking up twice more regularly for the last week or so.  I guess that means she is in a growth spurt? It is funny when I hold her . Sometimes she feels like she weighs 20 pounds and other times it is like she has no weight at all.

Well, I am off to make breakfast

So, I was stumbling through the internet last night and I came across something that really struck a chord with me.  I have been wanting to make some changes in my life with the arrival of my daughter and the fact that I am a little bit miserable at work right now.  I have been changing the work stuff.  But I know that I am not the person that I envisioned when I was a younger man.  And I have been contemplating making a lot of changes in my life to become the person that I was so sure I would eventually just become.  The "something" that I found was this TED talk.

And so I have decide to try it.  This way I can commit to a change for 30 days.  And if, at the end of it.  I absolutely hate it.  I can always change back.  My first commitment is to get up before the sun.  Which happens to work out because I couldn't sleep last night being so excited to start a 30 day challenge.  And because it is winter I can still sleep in a little bit! The second will be to write in this blog.  We will have to see how it goes.  But for my part...I am committed...in the short term!

Fairy falls bike ride

Saturday morning was my first bike ride of the season.  I was really excited. I decided to invite some friends along.  They are not big bike riders but I picked a ride that was pretty easy.  We got up there and realized that it was the first day of the deer hunt.  I wasn't worried about getting shot, but there were a lot of people out.  We did the bike ride. Which was a lot of uphill on the way there, it was tough but we made it. This is one of the smaller waterfalls. And the view from the top.

My first legal letter

So I am trying to get the security deposit back from the last house that Jessi and I rented. The landlord puts on the front of being a pretty good dude. But after nearly a year of living in his house I know that he is a scumbag landlord. He made a lot of promises during our tenure. The longest lasting B.S. came with an engine (yes, like out of a car) in our driveway the entire time that we were in that house. I didn't keep track of the number of times that I asked him to move that damn thing out of the driveway. And inevitably he would tell me that someone was coming by and they would be there in the next couple of days. I listened to this speech probably 15 times before I stopped bringing it up. We never got a copy of our lease. We never were able to do an inspection, either at the beginning or end of the lease. He took some of our screens "to fix them" and never returned them, despite multiple phone calls asking about them. And as the final little gem of joy, he is trying to keep our security deposit to replace carpet in the whole house even though it was old and disgusting when we moved in. I will agree that one of the rooms carpet was completely ruined. But that doesn't mean that we should pay for the whole house. And I doubt he really replaced it any way. Regardless, I wrote up a legal letter with a little help from the Legal office at my work. I was going to attach it here, but I can't figure out if that is do-able. So instead, I just wrote about it. There you go!

Delilah's new phase

So this is my solution to the newest Delilah phase. It is a sling that I made with a little help from my Mom. Well, if I am being honest it was a lot of help from my Mom.  But it is perfect during this phase.  It is fun to have her so close.

SDS

I realized that I forgot to post my weight. So here it is. I started at 229.8. I have been down to 224 but this week I was back up to 227.2. Hence the biking to work thing. Wish me luck!

Workouts

So, I decided to try and bike to work this week as part of my weight-loss competition. It is called Scheuttel Deinen Speck, which literally translates to "shake your ham" in German. It hasn't been going very good for the last couple of weeks with the arrival of D. But this week I am trying to step it up. So I biked to work on Monday. Then I ran with a buddy of mine. I did Yoga this morning and I am going to bike to work tomorrow followed by another run.

The goal will be to eventually do a triathalon. The ones that I am probably going to do are called a sprint. It is 1500 meter swim, 15 mile bike ride and a 5K. I am really excited to go for it. It is something that I have always wanted to do, along with running a marathon. I will definitely get those things to happen!

Our first blowout

We had our first poop blowout today. It was not pretty. There was little yellow baby poo all up D's back. It was funny because we had to put her in disposable diapers cause we ran out of liners for our reusable ones. I am not saying that it wouldn't have happened if we had an extra cloth diaper around, but it is quite a coincidence. I guess it is just one of those mysteries in life that we will never know the answer to!

Lil D' up in the daytime

So here is a little video of Delilah being up in the daytime. Hopefully this will be the new normal. I could really use a nights worth of sleep!

Delilah Christine

Here is the first picture of our little girl. Her name is Delilah Christine and she was born on August 28th at 1151 am. She was 8 pounds 7 ounces and she put up a helluva fight coming out of her Momma's belly. Jessi was in labor for 28 hours, almost three of that was pushing. I know that it doesn't mean anything to anyone that hasn't had kids; but if you have, you know how much work labor and delivery is and you know that pushing for that long is exhausting. Thankfully we had a lot of really great support in the Midwife who delivered us and Jessi's parents who didn't have the good sense to avoid the whole process! Just kidding, they were great and such a big support to us during that time. It was pretty amazing. If there is ever an opportunity to be in the room during this amazing experience, do not skip it. You will be shocked by what a woman is capable of!

It's a ....

Tomorrow's the day

Tomorrow we learn the sex of the baby!

Baby on the way...and a new house too

Jessi and I are expecting. Well, she is expecting...I am anticipating. And we are buying a house. Here is a picture of the Baby.

And here is a picture of the house.

Beer Can Chicken

So this year for my Birthday I got a new grill. I have never worked with Gas before so there is a little bit of a learning curve for me, but I think that I will be more than happy to rise to the challenge. My Sister-in-law but my a beer can chicken roaster for Christmas, and you are looking at the first attempt. There were definitely a few lessons learned. Like go ahead and cook it over the heat...don't use the indirect heat method. And season the chicken like you normally would. (I just put the seasonings in the beer.) Here is pic when it first went on the grill.