Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by Surreal Deal.

PSA For Parents

ATTENTION:
It's never too early to start going through your five year old's pockets before throwing his clothes in the laundry!

My solution was to run the clothes through the wash again a couple times, and in the mean time scrape out what I could from the dryer, and then run a couple of wet towels that I don't care about through on high heat. That seems to have cleared up the worst of the crayon residue from the dryer.

The clothes I suppose will be a wash (Ha-ha).

Cyclops

Cyclops, originally uploaded by Surreal Deal.

6:45 AM this morning.

-10 degrees.

Oops, need a new headlight.

Winter Adventure

One evening before dinner the boy and I took a walk around the block.

Here is what we saw:

Then I turned the flash on:

Something that I remember from childhood is that these small outings are way more valuable to kids than adults probably realize. It did my heart good to watch the boy prance around in the snow while we took that leisurely walk, with no agendas or deadlines pressing down on us.

The world is still big enough to him that walking around the block really is an adventure. To think otherwise is the accompanying curse that comes with ownership of an adult mind.

Afterward we warmed up and had hot cocoa:

Hardcore Drinker

You know that you're a hardcore (coffee) drinker when...

You feel the compulsory need to bore out that little carburetor in the top of the lid in order to maximize your draw.

Crashed.

Fell asleep during dinner:

Introducing Numero Dos

I try not to use the names of my family here in case you didn't notice.
If you're someone I know go ahead and email me and I'll tell you what her name is.

Born 11/17/08, Nine pounds, one ounce.

Empty-handed, for the moment

Everyone,

The neonatal unit sent us home last night to wait it out - I'm a little frustrated to have spent the weekend this way, it's like having Christmas day pushed back over and over. But it did give us a chance to visit a little with the wife's sister (She is flying back to LA this afternoon) and to go out and get a new camera. The times sure do change - we found a 10MP Kodak on sale for $130 (The 4MP Hewlett Packard we bought when the boy was born in 2003 was like $250!)

Anyway we are going back in again on Monday morning bright and early.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers - I'll send another email when I have more news, and hopefully pictures of the baby from our new camera!

Still waiting

As of 8:45 AM on Saturday, still waiting for H20 to break...

We've been here for over 24 hours.

Forecast calls for babies

We're inducing on Friday... Baby expected to be in-arm this weekend.

Too tired to write about it and the little gal isn't even born yet.

A Peek Inside

Those ultrasound images have been piling up, finally got around to scanning a few:



"Hi" -






A.k.a., The Face on Mars:






Nose, Mouth, Chin:

Dirt under my nails

Had to do some work on the truck these past two weekends.

During a routine oil change I noticed that I had a bad sway bar link and thus went about replacing it. It sounds like it would be easy but the @#$!%@#$!! upper control arm was right in my way. I really had to beg Houdini to get that sucker in.

Here's my suspension in all it's ferrous oxide-laced glory:

I think that those shocks are OEM. They should probably be replaced too.

Last weekend I did the front brakes - replaced the pads, turned the rotors, the whole shebang. Still need to check the rears.


A blast from the past:

This is a dustpan I made in shop class in eighth grade. I'm not sure why it is green, but I suspect that perhaps green was the only available color. The corners are spot welded and one has given away, but as a whole it still works despite this defect in craftsmanship.

I found it when I cleared out my father's garage. He had saved it and used it all those years. Now it is in my garage, collecting debris and aiding in the honorable cause of tidying up my workspace.

Waiting Room

Camera phones are miraculous devices.

Do not attempt to entertain your 5-year-old in an
optometrist's waiting room without one.

Notes from the chasm

I avoid writing about politics or work, but a couple things from Obama's nomination acceptance speech last night sent the smoke curling out of my ears. I followed the primary races like most other adults and likewise was properly nauseated by the disengenuity of the Clintons. Obama had his share of gaffes of course, but by and large he has up to now been able to steer clear of any boondoggles surrounding his claims versus his record.

This is the upside of the experience issue. Maybe he hasn't spent much time in the game, but doggone it, isn't his uniform beautiful and stain-free?

Anyway, listening to his speech there were red flags galore indicating the chasm between his platform and reality. But there were two particular points that I felt noteworthy enough to break my no-politics guideline with this blog:

1. "I will cut taxes for 95% of the working families!"
   
   Absent from Mr. Obama's speech was any mention of the crisis that America is facing with mandatory spending items (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements that the U.S. Government is legally obligated to pay). The money that has been collected for those programs up to now has already been spent, and each year our payout comes out of the current budget.
   
   As more baby boomers retire, there are going to be more people collecting on those entitlements and as such more of the budget will be required to meet the costs. If we are to maintain the amount of discretionary spending that this country engages in, that will mean that the amount of revenue the federal government takes in will have to increase (i.e. higher taxes). And that's not even mentioning what to do about America's $9.2 TRILLION dollar national debt, my non-political friends!
   
   What's worse, Mr. Obama in several other points suggested that he would increase the government's discretionary spending with new programs (ex., $150 billion on renewable energy research).
   
   Newsflash: You cannot decrease taxes and increase spending without borrowing more. It's not a democrat or republican thing. Nobody can do that. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he didn't mention the national debt. How any tax-paying American who was within earshot left there believing that their taxes will be going down anytime soon is beyond me. Nevertheless this unattainable promise was met with enthusiastic applause.
   
   
   
2. "I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East."
   
   I guess it's nice to have goals, however lofty and unattainable they may be. The inference may be taken that he is counting on his $150 billion dollar renewable energy gamble to return a jackpot.
   
   The fundamental problem with this statement of course is that Mr. Obama did not indicate the significant paradigm shift that this country will need to undergo with it's relationship to fossil fuels in order to accomplish this goal at all, much less within ten years, which is laughable.
   
   The food we eat doesn't reach the store in the back of some ex-hippie's prius. The diesel trucks that move our goods, the planes, trains and automobiles and every mundane thing in our lives, including the plastic keyboard I am clacking away on right now, all come from oil.
   
   America is not addicted to oil. America is a morbidly obese consumer of the stuff.
   
   What Obama did not do is point his finger at America and say, "And that means you, fatty, are going on a diet!" I'm not arguing that we don't need the diet. Rather I am pointing out the disingenuousness of touting such superb-sounding ends and not mentioning the very painful means he will need to employ in order to keep that promise.
   
   Those means, after all, will be falling directly on to our shoulders. With no renewable (or even nonrenewable for that matter) energy sources that can take the place of oil on the horizon, that means we are going to have to not only dramatically cut back on our consumption, but completely change our attitude towards consumption. Don't expect that to happen without a lot of kicking and screaming.
   
   This statement by Obama, like all of his others, was met with thunderous applause. His supporters really do seem to think that within ten years we will all be using Mr. Fusion.

It's obvious that Obama's supporters believe in what he is saying. It is unclear if Obama does. But between Obama and his supporters I think that somebody is being naive, and I don't think it's Obama.


Sorry again for interrupting my stream of unimportant dribble with politics. As you were.

PS - Don't think for a second that this means I support the other guy... I think he's a snake too.

Clever Title Goes Here

We have reached that critical mass point in the summer where fellow bloggers are apologizing for not posting more often due to busyness or 'unblogworthy' content. Surmounted by work, too busy with play, 57 channels (& nothing on), etc.

I'm guilty of all of those things but won't apologize here. Instead I will try to distract you with photos from my little excursion to Coon Lake with the boy a couple of weeks (already) ago.

The shakedown went well. The motor ran, the depth finder worked, the boat didn't leak, and everyone made it back to shore safely. Sunfish were caught and the fishing bug is now coursing through the boy's veins.




Of course so rarely are things perfect. The lake itself was a haven for jet skiers, tubers and drunken party bargers. These guys actually were some of the tame ones... I just took their photo because I thought their pontooon modification was impressive. In the second photo they are very close to a fishing boat though in all fairness I don't know who approached who.




Ultimately the boy needed to be dragged kicking and screaming off the lake, which secretly pleased me to no end. On the way home we stopped for a dilly bar, which seemed to go a good ways toward smoothing things over. As a man, I have the inexplicable need to take photos of my vehicle and my rig. I believe it is the Y-chromosome equivalent to females needing to take pictures of the food whenever there is a party.



That is all.

Lunchtime phone call

Me: Hi, Son.
Son: Hello, daddy.
Son: Are you a coppaju, daddy?
Me: I don't know what that means.
Son: (mumbles explanation)
Me: What was that?
Son: Daddy?
Me: Yes son?
Son: I love you, daddy.
Me: I love you, too.
Son: Daddy?
Me: Yes son?
Son: What are you doing?
Me: I am at the office.

( Son puts phone down, wanders away)

Son: (From some distance away) What are these, daddy?
Me: I can't see what you are holding.
Son: What the white one is, daddy?
Me: I can't see what you are talking about.
Son: (Returns to phone) What's the one I'm pointing at?
Me: I cannot see what you are pointing at.
Son: OK Daddy, Bye.
Me: Bye.

4-0

My thirties were a roller coaster ride, a real screamer at times. It will be interesting to see what my fourties are like. I'm still two years younger than my dad was when I was born.

Here is what I wrote to myself last year via futureme:

Dear FutureMe,

Today is my 39th Birthday. I hope that you have been keeping up the good work. By the time you get this I will be 40, I guess. What an age! You are finally old enough that you could just keel over dead one day and nobody would be shocked. Anyway, make the most of your special day. Because they are numbered.

You and your wife celebrated your 5th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago. She has been approved for citizenship and is waiting to take her oath.

Your son is 4 years old. He is starting preschool this fall. It has been taking forever to toilet train him but at long last there is light at the end of the tunnel. He is very intelligent and constantly challenges you by saying the opposite of what you are trying to teach him (E.g., "I want to smoke cigarettes!" "Makeup is for boys.") and watching you for your response. He is also obsessed with his civil liberties and continually asks to go to the park ("Go parking"), the mall, and any other store that has ever handed out a free balloon.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You are currently memorizing this scripture:

Romans 12:1-2
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.

2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do you still remember it?

I do!

Yonder Can

"Yessuh, they're a fine bunch a boys. They sang in the yonder can and skeedadled."

"Hey mister! I don't mean to be tellin' tales out of school, but there's a feller in there that'll pay you ten dollars if you sing into his can."

"These boys is not white! These boys is not white! They ain't even old timey!"

-Assorted Characters from O Brother Where Art Thou?

Yesterday our little band had the opportunity to record at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, MN (Across the street from this place). A friend of a friend is going to school there and needed a guinea pig for his project. Well we were it! It meant four hours of FREE studio time for us to crank out some songs.

They recorded us on this great big 36-channel Digidesign system.

I pretended to know what I was doing, but...

Really it was these guys who were the masterminds.

I had no idea that recording involved so much time sitting around,
waiting for the techs to get the levels right.

Eventually we got to play.

While they were setting up to do the vocal tracks,
I took some photos of the guitars.

Here are some shots of the singers setting up in the isolation booth:

This is a poor-quality video I shot of the singers laying down a vocal track. You cannot hear the instrument playback that they were singing along to.

And when we exited the studio,
the Minneapolis skyline greeted us!

Stay tuned for when we get our songs back from production.

Queasy Rider

It all started with a storm.

Last Friday night as I was cooking dinner for my family a big thunderstorm system moved through our area, wreaking havoc on small towns west of the metro. Fortunately for me our community was unscathed. A few hours later I was riding shotgun in my friend Al's car, leading a caravan of four cars across Wisconsin, with the lightning still receding off to the East.

We were sharing a charter on the "Angler Managment," a 32-foot Trojan, out of Kewaunee, Wisconsin. We arrived in Kewaunee right at 6AM, when our charter was to begin, but because of the recent high winds we decided to delay until 8 to let things die down and to get some breakfast. When a Great Lakes charterboat captain suggests that you wait it out a bit, you don't really argue.

I wish now that I had actually eaten some breakfast in town -- But as it were, I had some greasy sausage sticks and other assorted pogey bait that I had brought along. I munched hungrilly on those sausage sticks as we motored out of the protected harbor. Out on the lake it was better than I expected but still pretty rough seas. After about 15-20 minutes of wave crashing I began to feel very very hot and very very queasy. I looked over at Al and he was worse off than me

I have only been seasick one other time in my life, and it also involved a hastily-scarfed breakfast of dubious components. I had to hurl a couple of cookies over the side but by and large held together. Thankfully my friend Faron had some Dramamine with him.

The first four hours of our charter were fruitless. In all that time we had one bite, which my friend Jet lost. It wasn't for a lack of trying; the skipper threw everything he had in the water save for Al's puke bucket. It was getting to be so bad that I suggested that we anchor the boat and fish with bobbers. About then the next bite hit. I was up.

At first I thought I was into the fish of a lifetime. He certainly felt that way. But as it turned out there was a problem with the planer board on my line, and I was basically trying to reel in my fish with the planer board turned sideways in the water. Making it worse we were still maintining trolling speed; so once the skipper saw what was wrong he slowed up the boat a bit and that helped. I boated the first fish of the day, about a 7 or 8 pound king.

The action picked up after that, and Jay, Faron and Al each boated fish. It was starting to look like things were picking up, but when we got back to the top of the order, it was Jet's turn and we didn't get anymore bites. So in the end we returned to port and Jet was empty-handed. Poor guy.


Here is the full group of us. From Left to right: Jeremy, Siegfried, Faron, Yours Truly, Jay, Al and Jet.

Siegfried and Jeremy were on a second boat with Sieg's grandkids. They boated three, so they didn't do much better. We're a pretty diverse group: A South African, a German, three Americans and Two Filipinos.

Here's a photo of yours truly with the skipper and his mate. Ironically the guy dressed for fish cleaning is the skipper, and the more 'skipperly'-looking fellow on the right is the mate.





Here is a picture of Faron and his King.
Faron took a lot more pictures than I did (I wasn't really in the mood once I started puking) so maybe he will get some more photos for me to post at a later date.









Here's me with my king.
Easily the smallest fish, he was pretty easy to find at the bottom of the cooler.








Big or no,
he sure did make for a tasty dinner.









Charter fishing is not really fishing.
Oh, some fishing does go on, but it is the skipper and the mate who do all that. That's what you pay them for. All you do on a charter is reel fish in. If there aren't any fish to reel in, then all you are left with is pretty much an 85 dollar an hour boat ride. I booked this trip before I knew that I was getting my boat. I probably wouldn't have gone if I hadn't already committed a non-refundable deposit. I would have spent the money fishing around home.

I function better as my own skipper, and my rates are more reasonable.