“You dig my shades?”

Yesterday morning it was cold and rainy. Then out of the blue (so to speak) the sun came out and it warmed up to about 78 degrees outside. I found these pink flowers on a bush right out side our kitchen windows. Right next to a tree that had leaves on it!

I can't believe its been an entire year. Those first few months went by so slowly I thought we'd never get here. Time is speeding up, just like Andy is speeding up. He's all over the place now: crawling around (still on his belly though), pulling himself up, he's even taken a few steps along the side of the bath tub.

Happy Birthday little guy!

This will hopefully be our new house in less than two weeks! We're closing on April 13th, and at this point, I don't see any more obstacles in our way. I can't wait! Now I get to learn all about home maintenance! Laura and I really like the neighborhood its in. It's older (built in the late 1990s) so there are lots of big trees. None of the newer developments we looked at had any trees to speak of. Plus, there's lots of space between houses, and the nice berm behind the house provides a decent amount of privacy. In a couple of more weeks we'll be grilling veggie burgers out on the back patio, and sipping iced tea on the front porch!

Happy Birthday to the best 23 year old wife in existence. Just think of all the changes that happened in the last year. And think of all the changes yet to come! Things may take a while to settle down, but you'll always be 23 to me.

I totally skipped the NaBloPoMo last month. Which is probably for the best, considering I never really have anything to talk about. Plus, there's the whole Super Cool Baby thing. A man's only got so much blogging he can do in a given day.

This weekend Laura went to her annual Alpha Phi regional conference in Albany, NY, leaving me with the wee lad. This has really been quite an experience. Honestly, I'm not sure how single parents can possibly do this. Taking care of Andy 100% of the time takes a whole lot of energy. It doesn't help that he's been waking up on the early side for me. And then, last night, he wakes up at midnight to scream for half an hour. Thankfully, Laura will be home later today, so I can pawn him off on her. Of course, it sounds like she's had like 10 hours of sleep for the whole weekend, so I'm not sure how successful that strategy will be.

I'm writing about this on Super Cool Baby, as well, but I think it bears repeating. iPhoto rocks. I made this year's Christmas cards using iPhoto, and I think they came out very nicely. I wanted a double-sided card printed on card stock, and iPhoto was able to do that for $0.99 a card. Other places I looked at online were at least twice as much, and they didn't even let you customize the back of the card. So I was really happy with the card itself, and I think the photos that Jeff took were also awesome. (My favorite photo, pictured above, was one I snapped myself when I was just fooling around with Jeff's camera).

The card came together really easily. The hardest parts were choosing the design among the many options, and choosing what to say on the back of the card. Don't you just love our heartfelt saying? Anyway, those of you with Macs, I definitely recommend giving iPhoto a shot the next time you want to order photo cards. And those of you without Macs? Get with it!

So, it turns out that Andy really likes it when I dance around like a crazy person. I think I knew this at one point, but now he really gets into it. The funny thing is, I'm too busy dancing my head off that I didn't even notice that he was mimicking me during the lulls of my performance. And when I say dancing my head off I mean that quite literally. My neck was sore for about 4 days after this. At first I had no idea why — I thought maybe I was coming down with a nasty bug. It became quite apparent the next time I tried dancing for him though.

Andy Laughs at Daddy on Vimeo

Anderson loves to freak his father out. Yesterday I was taking care of him while Laura was off at a sorority event. The plan was to give him a bottle after his nap, and then put him down for his second nap after a few hours. Seems pretty easy right?

Well, his first nap was woefully short. Barely more than an hour (what happened to the 3 hour marathon naps!). I played with him on the play-mat for a while, watching V for Vendetta. He never really got too fussy (a good sign that he's hungry, or tired, or both) so after a while I decided to give him his bottle.

The last time I tried, it was an older bottle of breastmilk, and he refused to have any of it. This time? Yeah, he refused to have any of it. He makes some funny expressions while making his face immobile so he doesn't accidentally suck on the bottle. Well, they're funny to me anyway. He didn't seem to appreciate it too much. Eventually he went down for his second nap. I kept trying with the bottle, but no luck. Finally Laura came home and fed him -- 5 hours after his last meal.

Our theory is that most of the time he's just not that hungry. He likes to eat, because its comfy and he likes the closeness with his mother. But if he's not hungry, why eat something he doesn't really like.

The good news is, he didn't spit up from the small amount of formula that he did have. So, previously it may have just been some bad formula, or maybe we fed him too much. Still, I'd like to be sure that I can take care of him whenever Laura has to leave the house for a few hours. I have a feeling that if he was truly hungry he would've had whatever I was offering.

Happy 5 months Andy!

Last saturday night Laura and I screwed up Andy's bedtime routine. We were coming back from a family birthday party, and we left for the hour long drive home a little late. Of course, Andy slept in the car most of the way home. Then, after we got home, he was not at all about going to bed. Instead he jabbered to himself in his crib for a good hour and a half before finally getting upset and then falling asleep.

Now, Laura and I both understand that we're the luckiest parents ever when it comes to sleep. Usually we put Andy in his crib awake. He fusses for a few minutes. Then he finds (or remembers?) his thumb and falls happily asleep. Not so much these past two nights. Since we screwed everything up, we put Andy to bed and he screeches until we go in there and pick him up. This isn't the typical bedtime cry-it-out; he sounds legitimately unhappy.

We're starting to craft elaborate theories to explain this behavior: he's going through a developmental leap and the corresponding sleep regression, his routine isn't completely back to normal and he doesn't like it, his normal cry has actually changed to this new screeching cry, etc.

Whatever it is, I hope things settle back down soon. I liked it much better when he was easy to put to bed!

It's been a while since I've posted, and since I know everybody really only wants to see pictures of Andy, I have one better for you: videos of Andy!

Here is Anderson, sitting on his own:

Here's another one of Anderson finding peek-a-boo absolutely hilarious:

And finally, if I had a compound eye, Andy might look something like this:

Anderson will be four months old this week. He's growing like crazy, and every day it's something new with him. Yesterday was the first time we gave him a bath in several months (no, we don't keep a dirty baby, we've been showering with him since he absolutely hated the bath at first). He loved it. He kicked and splashed to his hearts content. And then kicked and splashed a little more. Its true that bath's really tire babies out -- 5 minutes after I had him out and dried off he fell asleep in my arms. Silly guy!

We've been taking evening strolls through the neighborhood for a while. However, it was only on Saturday that we actually started stopping at the park at the end of the street. Andy totally digs the swing. Not only because he likes the actual swinging, but also because it keeps his arms in a position where he can easily stick them in his mouth. Usually after swinging we'll hit the seesaw. I'm not sure who likes it better though -- Laura or Andy. (My guess is Laura).

Andy gets his next round of shots on Wednesday. I'm definitely not looking forward to this, as last time he was very out-of-sorts for the rest of the day. However, on the bright side, we should get the go ahead to start on solid foods! In preparation of this, we've bought all the necessary supplies (spoons, rice cereal, bowls, baby food cookbooks, etc.) and we've started giving Andy a little formula now and then. We made the executive decision that we'd mix his solid foods with formula to start with, just to give Laura more of a break when it comes to feeding Andy. And so far so good. None of the vomiting of previous formula experiments. We're using a different soy based formula. He really didn't like it at first, but I'm chalking that up to taste association with the formula that made him sick.

So this huge thunderstorm hit Arlington on Friday. Actually, it didn't even seem that bad at the time. Just a typical summer storm, with a cell going right over sleepy little Arlington. Well, apparently that cell had it in for us, because a huge downdraft caused a lot of damage on our street. The telephone pole right across the street from our front two was snapped in two, sending a few power lines crashing to the street.

I guess down the road a fairly large sized tree was knocked over onto a house and power lines. And the force of this was enough to cause our telephone pole to snap. Understandably this caused the wires to go flying. The Arlington fire department was here pretty quickly, and it was only purely chance that Laura got nosy enough at just the right time to overhear somebody say that we would be at least overnight without any power.

So, we did what anybody would do when confronted with a) a cranky baby b) 80 degree weather and c) some serious, drip-off-the-body humidity: we hightailed it down to RI to spend a night with Andy's grandparents. Good thing too; it was just under 24 hours without power. When we had finally arrived back in Arlington we found a freezer full of unfrozen food, and a refrigerator full of highly suspect food. The worst part? We had just gone shopping not a day before! Actually even worse than that was the 16 ounces of breast milk that we had to throw away.

When doing "tummy time" on my chest, Andy likes to look left and right. Then left and right again. And again. And a little quicker. Then suddenly, he'll look straight at me for a few seconds. Occasionally he'll let out a gurgle, or smile at the face I make at him. But then its right back to the left and right business.

The way it works in our house is that I am responsible for putting Anderson to bed. Lately, this has been as simple as putting him in the crib and reading him a bedtime story (Goodnight Moon is our current favorite). Every now and then I have to bounce him on the exercise ball in the living room while I watch a little soccer, or MythBusters.

Last night Andy decided he'd had enough with this pleasant system. Instead of nursing himself to sleep, he worked himself up. Instead of falling asleep after Goodnight Moon, he fussed more and more for twenty minutes. And instead of falling asleep while I bounced him on the exercise ball, he proceeded to wail. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't bug me too much, except it was already pushing eleven p.m. and he wasn't showing any signs of calming down. This was horrifically frustrating.

I hate the feeling of frustration, especially frustration towards somebody I love so much. I try to compensate by showering Andy with hugs and kisses whenever this happens, but the underlying feelings are definitely still there. And frankly they're much more upsetting than whatever caused the frustration in the first place!

Our bedtime routine did end happily last night. After a while I was afraid that I was going to jab him in the back of the throat with my pinky, so I got up to fetch a pacifier. As soon as I got out of the living room Andy fell asleep. Literally, steps into the darkened dining room I had a quietly slumbering baby in my hands. I was so shocked at first I wasn't sure what to do. Eventually I just crept into the nursery and laid him in his crib, and then explained to the equally shocked Laura what had happened. Our theory is that Andy is getting to the point where his interest in the world is overtaking his interest in falling asleep. Instead he just gets cranky and freaks out. So I guess what this really means is that I can no longer expect to put him to sleep while watching a little TV.

Things have been super busy around here lately. It seems as though every spare moment is taken up watching soccer games (indeed, right now I'm watching Argentina-Mexico). Since there are sometimes 4 a day, I've been watching them all on Tivo delay, and sometimes in fast-forward. I did discover that the slowest fast-forward on Tivo is 3 times faster than real-time. That means I can get through a whole game in a half hour. Somehow I still ended up going to bed at 11:30 a few nights.

Laura got me a fantastically awesome Father's day gift that she already wrote about. She is right, I'm very glad to have it. She was very coy about what she was getting me although I did manage to deduce that she was getting something framed. However, I was very shocked and very touched when she revealed this beautifully framed picture of my mother.

Tonight we went to a "New Parents BBQ" with some parents that we met at our childbirth classes. We tried not to brag too much about how well Andy sleeps. But really, we have the perfect baby, and after listening to everybody else, I appreciate it all so much more. It was kind of funny though: every baby started off the night fairly calm, but by the time we left at least half were crying. And the other half? They were asleep.

Speaking of Anderson. He's started to coo a little. I'm not really sure why its called 'coo', since its really more of an 'ah-goo'. Sometimes he says it with a side of gurgle, which is my favorite of course. He also gets a serious kick out of Daddy blowing raspberries. You can almost always count on a smile. Finally, when bathing today, he gave what sounded like an actual laugh when I cleaned under his armpits. He doesn't seem to be ticklish anywhere else though (clearly taking after his mother!).

Three lessons were learned today.

• We found out what happens when Andy gets too hot.
• We found out what happens when Andy doesn't get burped enough during a feeding.
• We found out what happens when these things are combined in a single excursion to the shopping center.

Yep, we were a little amibitious and took Andy to Babies 'R' Us and Old Navy, only to be rewarded with not one but two monstrous spit ups. (And then a third once we got him home!) He totally soaked his outfit, got changed, and then totally soaked his backup outfit. We need a bigger diaper bag, because 1 set of backup clothes is clearly not enough. Clearly.

It seems like every time we take Andy out of the house something bad happens. Last time, we spent a single night away from home, Laura comes down with mastitis! Again! We're definitely not ready to go gallavanting about, as much as we'd like to spend our anniversary (coming up, June 9th) up in Vermont (in the same place we honeymooned, no less!).

You're never leaving again Dad. Never!

I've always thought that my "intestinal troubles" have been primarily psychological in nature. They always seem to strike at the most inopportune time. Right as we're about to leave on a 20-hour drive to Florida. Or perhaps when we're out the door for a friends party. My morning commute used to be hellish -- you never knew when the T would decide to take an hour and a half to travel a few miles. Nevermind being late, the thought of being stuck on a train-car still strikes fear deep into my bowels.

That all seems to be different now. Frankly I'm a little scared that even writing about this will bring harsh retribution, but for the past 6 weeks, (at least to my sleep-deprived memory*) I've been totally fine. Laura thinks it's probably because I always have something else more important to worry about. She might be right. Frankly, I don't care what the deal is, as long as I can stay clear of planning out my day around my bathroom.

* When I went to make coffee this morning, I put the coffee pod in the machine and hit the button ... without putting a cup under the spout. I didn't realize this until it was done brewing and I went to fetch it.

I haven't been able to cook something new in a long time, so I overcompensated yesterday and went hog-wild and cooked eggs benedict, maple walnut scones, and a vegetable barley soup for dinner.

The eggs benedict were actually way easier than I was expecting. Of course, I overcooked the eggs a little, so we didn't have the slightly runny yolks that I was looking forward to. The hollandaise sauce was ridiculously easy. I found a recipe that uses a blender instead of a double boiler, so it was basically put a bunch of ingredients in and turn it on. I stored it in a pre-heated thermos while I finished the rest of the meal. Hollandaise sauce isn't something you can reheat. Although I can never be sure, it sounds like Laura did actually enjoy it. She doesn't usually like eggs, although she doesn't seem to mind whatever I make her, whether it be a nice omelet or scrambled eggs.

The maple walnut scones were from a recipe that I got off the Cooking News a while back. Its just your typical scone batter, but with maple and walnuts. Really just what you'd expect. They were good, but I think they'd be better with a little maple glaze on top as well. I hadn't made scones in a really long time. Probably more than a year. My technique has improved drastically. Still, I'm not sure if I'd be up to throwing something like this together and popping it in the oven before an afternoon tea with friends. It's still a little too much involved for that.

Finally, the vegetable barley soup is from a recipe that one of Laura's mother-friends gave us. This fantastically nice woman, Cynthia, has been such a help this past month. She's given us probably 75% of our wardrobe, and has dropped off several meals! Laura met her at the Knitting Room during one of her knitting classes. She made us this soup a while ago, and it lasted several meals. And so I made it yesterday. I couldn't find "quick cooking barley", so I had to settle with the quickest cooking that I could find. I think that threw the recipe off a little, since it came out as more 'stew' than 'soup'. But that's okay with me frankly.

There have been requests for pictures of our produce delivery, so here you go. This weeks box includes apples, pears, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, kiwis, radishes, baby romaine, broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes.

So far I've only cut up a few radishes for our salad last night, and I just had another of the seriously tasty apples. Gala apples are the best. I don't know why I've been messing around with Granny Smith apples for my entire life.

I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with the broccoli. My first thought was to toss it with some pasta, onions, cheese and a balsamic reduction. However, the Kovixen reminds me that broccoli causes gassy babies. And we definitely don't want any gassy babies around these parts.

Also, I'm watching the NFL draft right now. Am I missing something or has Leinart still not been chosen? Nope, I'm definitely not missing something. I guess rookie quarter backs just aren't what they used to be. Maybe everybody is hoping he falls to the 6th round where all the quality QBs are chosen. Ahh, just chosen. Pick number 10. Weird. Clearly this is why I typically never pay attention to the NFL draft. It never makes any sense!

July 26th last year I broke the 200 pound barrier. And today, I stepped on the scale and it read 185! I've officially hit my goal, and in the process dropped about 75 pounds.

(Yes, its hard to believe that at one point, I was 260 pounds. I still hide those pictures in shame.)

The crazy thing is, for the past few months I haven't really been dieting. I eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm full, and yet the pounds were (slowly) coming off. And between the institutional food, and the lack of appetite from general freak-outyness, the last few pounds were particularly easy.

Now the next step is to start going to the gym. I think that between the weightloss and the lack of physical activity (after all, I sit at a desk for most of the day), some of the loss was actually muscle loss. So, I'm going to target my abs and legs in particular to build up a little bulk. Hopefully I can lose a little more fat to offset the gain!

No matter where we eventually end up in the country, our son will definitely be a Red Sox fan. Not that he'll have any choice in the matter, but I'm sure he won't be able to imagine life any other way. Of course, its gonna be weird growing up in a world in which the Red Sox have actually won the World Series, but I'm sure he'll survive.

A few weeks ago we signed up for a produce delivery service called Boston Organics. Its a little like a farm share, except way cheaper, and not necessarily local. But every other week we get a green box filled with organically grown fruits and vegetables. The one surprising benefit to this, besides the fact that I have to do less shopping for fruits and veggies, is that I get things I would normally never buy. For example, my first delivery contained (among other things) an eggplant, and 3 sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes were easy enough. I just peeled, chopped, and roasted them with a little salt and oregano. Laura didn't particularly like it, but I thought they were fantastic. And then last night, I made some eggplant parmesan. And boy did it come out great. Nice and crisp. Well seasoned. Even Laura thought it tasted great.

Basically it goes like this. Cut up the eggplant, salt both sides, and let it rest on a rack for half an hour so some of the water is expelled. Then dip the slices in seasoned flour (1 cup flour, 1 tsp pepper), beaten egg, then a breadcrumb mixture (breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, salt, pepper). Bake (at 425) the slices on a sheet with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil for 30 minutes. Flip the slices after 20 minutes. Then assemble: Sauce, Eggplant, Mozzerella Cheese, Sauce, Eggplant, Sauce, Mozzerella, Parmesan. Bake the whole thing for another 15 minutes so its nice and crispy on top and the cheese is melty. I cut up some basil for on top but totally forgot about it. We served it over a little angel hair. Mmm. I can't wait for leftovers tonight!

(Yes, clearly a geek!)

Some delicious little cheeks that just have to be shared with the world.

We went on our first walk today. It was just around the block, but I think the whole family couldn't take being cooped up anymore. Especially on such a nice day. Of course, Mr. Anderson slept through the whole thing, so we'll just have to do it again. Andy also had his first bath last night, which wasn't so much a bath as it was a quick rubdown with a wet wash cloth. Don't worry little guy, we'll make sure you get nice and clean once that umbilical cord falls off. Now, if we can only work on that first night of no waking up...

And since 1 baby photo is never enough:

For those of you keeping track, Anderson was born on Sunday evening, April 9th! There's so much to say, but in traditional male fashion I'll stick to the basic facts for now. Born 5:35pm after 3 hours of pushing and 3 pulls of the vacuum extractor. 8 pounds 5 ounces. 20 3/4 inches long. Absolutely the most adorable little guy ever.

The Kovixen promises to tell her birth story at some point, so be sure to check back often at kovixen.com. Of coruse, there's lots more pictures. If you want, go check them out over on flickr!

It shouldn't be allowed to snow in April, much less on my birthday. (Happy Birthday to me!). Last year, it snowed all day on Laura's birthday. You can see the result of that fiasco below.

The worst part about that storm? I messed up Laura's angel food cake, and I couldn't go out to get more eggs to make another one. I learned my lesson though, and cook my cakes for the appropriate amount of time now.

I've just about given up hope that I'll share a birthday with my son. Perhaps he can share a birthday with Uncle John?

I've been having baby dreams like crazy lately. And this is coming from somebody who doesn't ever remember his dreams. I always seem to be calming a crying baby. I've been reading Happiest Baby on the Block before bed for the past few nights and I've definitely been applying the 5 S's to the babies in my dreams. I'm not entirely sure if it works on them, but its nice to see my brain preparing itself for many restless nights to come.

Laura and I checked out the Chilly Cow last night; the new ice cream shop in Arlington Center that mysteriously replaced JP Licks (when we least expected it). Its only been open for 3 weeks, so I'll give them a few more chances before I pass judgement. Their flavors were a little ordinary. Nothing previous favorites like Cake Batter or Cheesecake. Hopefully things will improve, as I think it'll be a common hangout for us this summer with the baby!

It was a good thing I was super-productive on Saturday because I had an absolute killer headache all day on Sunday. I'm still not entirely sure why I always seem to get headaches on the weekend. Popular theories include: change in sleeping pattern, change in regular caffeine intake, change in hydration. Of course, none of that matters when you wake up with a headache and two rounds of tylenol don't help at all. Interestingly enough, my headache went away once the Kovixen and I started making peanut butter cookies.

So, that productivity I alluded to earlier? Yeah, I now count 'handyman' among my many hats; I installed two dimmer switches (with permission of course) in the bedrooms. And without electrocuting myself, or burning down the house! It was actually astonishingly easy, so I feel like maybe I did something wrong. The idea here is that when we get up to change S'more in the middle of the night we don't have to turn the light on all the way and wake ourselves up.

In other baby-related news, we pre-ordered our birth announcement envelopes, from the Purple Stork. For those of you in the market, you should check them out. They have fairly reasonable rates, and their designs are just awesome. They do all the photo retouching for you to make your annoucements look awesome.

For the first time in my life, I think, I've actually been doing some spring cleaning. I'm blaming it on nesting. Laura and I went through our cache of junk in the basement, and got rid of a sizable portion, and organized the rest.

I also put together our new crib, graciously provided by Grammy Ricki. The instructions were a little obtuse, but everything turned out to be fairly simple, especially once I started using the drill to tighten all the bolts. That was definitely not something I'd want to do with the little tiny Allen wrench that they provided.

At this point we're basically ready for the baby to come. Sure, there'll always be more we can do, but if I had to take Laura to the hospital today (knock-on-wood), we wouldn't be hopelessly unprepared. Less than a month to go!

I think the so-called nesting instinct skipped right over laura and went straight to me. Maybe its just the residual effects of the crutches (that I spoke of just the other day), but when I woke up this morning, I felt the burning desire to get everything done on my todo list. And I nearly did! Not that it was very long, but I did get the car seat installed today, along with my usual weekend chores. I still have to take it to the police station where my skills as a problem-solving engineer will be routinely insulted. (Its an extremely common practice I hear). Then they'll install the car seat the right way.

Laura had the great idea of enjoying the warm weather with a picnic at the park. We sliced up a perfectly ripe mango, grabbed some triple-creme brie, a loaf of french bread, our cameras and headed to Robbin's Farm Park. I can't even remember the last time I had a picnic, but it was a blast. I'm thinking its gonna have to start happening more often, that's for sure.

Laura's got the flu. She had a hard time making potatos from a box. I'm not sure she got the proportions right, because they looked awfully thick and pasty to me. But what else would you expect from Idaho Spuds? She did seem to really appreciate the fact that I came home early from work to bring her some food. I made some tomato soup, and some jello, and bought other sickness necessities on my way home: Cepacol, Robitussin cough drops, apple sauce, and of course the #1 necessity, Coffee Ice Cream.

The picture from Monday doesn't really show the size of Laura's belly like this one does. In fact, I'm not positive its not a trick of the lens, because I didn't even think it looked that big. Two months to go!

Here's an embarrassing admission for everybody. Sometimes, I get so nervous that I'm going to get somebody's name wrong, that I'll do anything to avoid saying it. This doesn't happen for my closest friends, but it does happen for more people than I care to admit to. Its not like I have their names wrong either. There's just a little voice in my head that says "Peter, are you SURE that's his name? You'll look an awful fool if its not!" And instead of a proper greeting, out comes "Heeeeey... whipper-snapper".

Yesterday it was officially two months until Laura's due date. We're starting to hit the time when we tear apart the house in hopes of making it better again. We moved nearly everything out of our home-office, and we're starting to turn it into a full-fledged nursery. We've only got one more major piece of furniture to put in there -- the crib! Of course, it still needs lots of work. Like those shelves right there? Totally dusty. Yes, we live in squalor, but its not like we could've reached them for cleaning before anyway.

I want to thank Jeff for letting me use his camera to take these pictures. I think I'm going to have a hard time giving it back. At least until I can convince Laura that I need one. Hey, its bonus time soon at work. Too bad we have a down-payment to save for.

Another week, another picture. As the Kovixen mentioned, we spent most of the weekend moving furniture around, and for some reason today my right hamstring is killing me. I don't get it. I did go to bed with a sore back. I guess I did a decent amount of lifting, but it was only four boxes of books! If I have to move again (and surely that'll happen eventually), I have a feeling I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. Maybe its time to start hitting the gym again.

Really, is there any other kind of fudge worth having? The last of it was finished off today, so I figure now is as good a time as any to post some pictures of this fabulous creation. If you want to make it, and I highly recommend that you do, you can get the recipe from the King of the Kitchen, Alton Brown. Sure, 234° may scare you off, but really its not that hard. I got my candy thermometer from the hardware store for $4!

What starts off as a simple mixture of sugar, butter, chocolate and half and half becomes the gorgeous fudge that you see below. The hardest part was the vigorous stirring required to make all the tiny crystals that give fudge its characteristic texture. But, just like childbirth, while it may suck at the time, looking back on it, I could totally do it again. (Did I really just compare making fudge to what the Kovixen is going to go through in a little over 2 months?)

I should mention, if you do make it yourself, please for the love of all things holy, line your 8" x 8" baking dish with parchment or wax paper. The directions neglect to mention that, and I had a heck of a time getting it out of there with no squishing.

For those of you who made it this far, be sure to check out this wicked awesome website I found. You can play these totally rad games online, for free! *cough* *cough*

For those of you keeping track, my surgery is scheduled for March 2nd. Hopefully, it's going to be much easier this time since I'm only getting local anesthetic. The thought of waking up on the operating table ready to puke was a little too much for me. Hopefully a skin graft won't be required so my recovery will be nice and quick. Otherwise I'll be on crutches for 2 weeks.

It turns out I get to keep my toe. Yay! I went to a plastic surgeon, who fit me in between a breast reduction and a tummy tuck. He tells me that if he can't sew up my incision then he's going to do a skin graft (probably from a piece of skin from my thigh). The only problem with a skin graft is I have to take it really easy for about two weeks. Crutches easy. I'm hoping I can just work from home. Work from bed even. I hate crutches. They always hurt my arm pits. I'm definitely not going to subject myself to hobbling down the ridiculously long hallways at work.

Speaking of work. I've been working on a new project in Java. I have to take back most of the wicked things I've said about the language. Its not half bad. I still find C++ much more familiar; Java is still a foreign tongue, but its definitely bearable.

It was a good thing I had those moles removed, as it turns out the funny looking mole on my foot was a melanoma in situ. From what I can tell, this essentially means that while it is cancer, its completely contained and can be cured by a simple removal of the affected site.

The only problem with that is its on a funny spot on my toe where there isn't exactly a whole lot of extra skin laying around. The initial surgery was complicated enough to sedate me, and my doctor isn't sure there's going to be enough room in order to get everything out. He's even bringing in a plastic surgeon to help. Should that be true, it may turn out that they'll take my entire toe off. Thus, Peter Ninetoes.

Not that I'm hoping for this conclusion, but it will definitely allow me all sorts of fantastical tales to tell when I'm lounging about the pool with the family. Right now the #1 explanation will be that I lost it during my days an an international spy, or perhaps that time I was bitten by a barracuda when I was doing some undersea exploring. While I may lose a toe, just think of opportunity gained!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife and soon to be mother! Remember a year ago, when it looked like this outside? That certainly wasn't a fun birthday weekend. Sure, this weekend wasn't too exciting either, what with me stuck in a lay-z-boy all weekend nursing my foot. But at least I successfully made an angel food cake for you!

Happy Birthday! You'll always be 23 years old in my eyes.

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the hospital getting 2 suspicious moles removed. The doctor decided that it would be best if I was under a light sedation along with local anesthetic. He initially thought that local anesthetic would be enough, but I guess he figured the surgery was going to be harder or longer than he originally thought.

After dressing in a buttocks-exposing gown, and in a robe over that I was put in a holding room with Laura. They tried putting an IV in my left hand, but failed miserably (and painfully!). Giving up on that for the moment, I was moved into a bed in the "Preoperative Holding Area", this time without Laura. This time another doctor managed to get an IV into my right elbow. Usually I have such prominent veins, I can only imagine that the difficulty was due to a lack of water, or something. Now, after a 40 minute wait, everything happened all at once. My surgeon came out and initialed the location of the moles to be removed, a nurse anesthetist gave me a dose of knockout, and they began to wheel me into the OR.

I felt woozy almost immediately. And now, thinking back on it, I don't actually remember going from the bed onto the operating table. I have this fuzzy idea that I did it myself (and exposing my butt in the process!), but the memory isn't really in there.

The surgery itself was painless, and seemed to go by really fast. In reality I was in there for about an hour, and each incision required 10 stitches or so. There was one slightly freaky moment when I woke up in the middle and felt really really nauseous. I had an oxygen mask on at the time, and I couldn't figure out how to signal to the people in the room that something was wrong. I think I eventually twitched my hand, although I'm not sure anybody noticed. In the end, I just swallowed the rapidly pooling saliva, and went back to sleep.

(Yes, I'm a drooler when it comes to vomiting. In fact a few months ago, I was sitting in my easy chair watching TV when all of a sudden my mouth started salivating like crazy. I ran into the bathroom expecting to vomit, but eventually everything calmed down. The weirdest thing was I never felt nauseous.)

Anyway, once it was done, I was wheeled into the recovery room where I slept for another 20 minutes or so. Finally they felt I was ready for a few ice chips, and then some cranberry juice and saltines. The whole time I was still under the influence of the local anesthetic, I didn't really feel a thing. It wasn't until I put my shoes on to leave that I finally felt a little pain in my food.

Then, on the way home, with Laura graciously driving, a new wave of nausea hit. Luckily the hospital isn't so far away. Really only about 10 minutes with no traffic. I've been hopped up on darvocet ever since. I have a prescription for percocet, but I can't really justify it given the low amoun