Regardless of your politics...

This is a great piece. I loved the "wassup" guys!

And you must admit, it's been a tough eight years...

Sorry, I'm a bad blogger

Just a note to say I'm still alive. Grayson is going through his 6-month "let's make a parent's life hell" phase. Not sleeping right, teething, had an ear infection/fever for a few days. He's ultra-aware of everything now, starting to get the separation anxiety. Common things for a baby his age, though.

I'm starting to get some anxiety too. I'm really, really busy with work and I'm going way too long between forays out into the real world. (ah, the life of someone who works from home.)

Parenting is great. One minute life is fantastic, the next... you're questioning what the hell you're doing. At the end of the day, it all balances out.

And now after Em's been up half the night with our boy, I'm handling the second half. As I type, the horizon is beginning to turn orange. I love early morning, and I don't see the sunrise often enough. That is the gift Grayson has given me today!

There's your update. My blog used to be a busy place, but lately it's pretty quiet. If there was an emoticon that was a wrinkled smile, a touch of depression, an little excitement for the future and a little "oh god what did I do" all combined I'd use it here.

Edit for night two: (and by night two, I mean night two of this blog entry, but about night 6 of not getting even close to 8 hours of sleep) Dang I would love to get 8 hours of sleep. Just one night of 8 continuous hours of sleep. One.

Lady killer...

Here's Grayson in all his Fall glory. He gets cuter every day...

Too cool for the room?

Exactly what is this commercial about - an airline or a perfume?



This spot always makes me roll my eyes.

Man-rules

While walking through Sam's Club with my friend Chris Friday, both pushing individual carts which, oddly enough, both contained diapers and wine, it occurred to me that there are very few instances when it's appropriate for men to shop together:

• Anytime IF you're shopping at Home Depot, Sam's Club or Auto Zone.
• At men's clothing stores IF you're intoxicated at the time, but it's never OK to try anything on. (right Dr. Mike?)
• At girly stores (Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy's, etc.) IF you're intoxicated AND shopping for Easter/Valentine's/Birthday for a woman AND you don't make eye contact with the other guy.
• Liquor store. (without restrictions)
• Adult movie/bookstore IF you're shopping for a halloween costume AND you have a female escort. (Again, no eye contact with the other guy)
• Bait/Tackle shop. (without restrictions)
• Sporting goods store. (both of you MUST make a purchase)

There are no other known instances when shopping with another guy is considered appropriate.

Welcome to America...

Not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind, do you think?

When left to my own devices

We returned from the East Coast this afternoon, to a nice clean house... albeit devoid of a cohesive food selection.

I thought about a Weight Watchers frozen chicken dish but it was freezer burned. (expired in February) I searched high and low for a frozen pizza, nothing. There aren't even any tortilla chips in the house I could eat with salsa.

So I was forced to improvise. While Emily is out playing Bunko and probably enjoying a full selection of appetizers, I made myself a sandwich.
Yes, it's an egg sandwich. With cheese. And pepperoni. And mayo.

I feel like it's pretty inventive. What's more, it tastes pretty good! No complaints here.

Semen's in...

About three blocks from our hotel here in Mystic, Connecticut is one of the area's best seafood restaurants. It's called Seaman's Inne, and I can't drive by without giggling like a moron.

Yes Blogarita, there IS a Mystic Pizza, the actual restaurant after which the movie was named. The film (Julia Roberts' first) was shot on location in Mystic. You can have Mystic Pizza delivered anywhere in the US, although it's pretty expensive. I'd say on a scale of 1-10, their pizza is about a 6. Very good, (not great) but the ambience and novelty more than makes up for it. There is an old saying about pizza and sex... but I don't want to reference it in the same post as Seaman's Inne.
We stopped at one of the many roadside fish stands yesterday, and had lobster rolls and clam fritters, two things you can't find anywhere back home. It is clear to me that, where my diet is concerned, I will have to write this week completely off.
As we enjoyed our lobster rolls, Grayson enjoyed fresh Elephant.

C, in answer to your question, we were here during Christmas last year and took the Mystic Seaport tour. The old whaling ships are fascinating to walk through. We went below deck and found that the fishermen must have been really short. At 6'3", I had to duck almost the entire time.

We took Grayson for his first trip to the beach yesterday. He got to play in the sand a little, but given his tendency to put everything he touches in his mouth, we didn't let him play for long.

Speaking of, he got his first tooth today! His right-middle tooth on the bottom is poking through and he definitely has the teething attitude.

Tomorrow is the wedding (the reason we're here) and Monday we leave for home. I miss being able to do anything we want anytime we want, but Grayson has been a total joy on this trip. He's a great little passenger and he makes us smile a lot. I can't wait to take him on our next trip, especially as he starts being able to remember the things we do with him.

We be trippin'

We picked the absolute worst time to drive through NYC. Traffic made me wonder how people live and work here without killing each other.

Yesterday, we took a break and hit a little cafe' called the Olympia Tea Room near Watch Hill in Rhode Island. We sat in their sidewalk seating area and watched the boats. We gulped down a double order of raw oysters-on-the-halfshell, then walked around the shopping area with Grayson until it started getting dark.

We're staying in Mystic, Connecticut at the Hyatt Place. It's a nice suite hotel with plenty of room for all our stuff. (traveling with a 6 month old, you have to take everything - the hotel staff thought we were moving in.)

We'll check in again later.

Oh and by the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY Grayson, who is 6-months old today.

"Toby" and me

This is a test post from another iPhone blogging service called cellspin. This is a picture of a guy named John who, in person, looks JUST like Toby Keith.

UPDATE: it appears cellspin cuts off the picture instead of resizing it to fit, thus you see only half of me. (although it IS my best half) I'm not sure how to fix something like that, so I'm pretty sure the application is worth what I paid for it. (free)

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Testing iBlogger

I've downloaded a program that supposedly allows me to blog from my iPhone. I'm not really proficient at it yet so bear with me as I experiment.

Mobile Blogging from here.

Only after I downloaded the program was I made aware you cannot upload photos to Blogspot blogs. I paid 10 bucks and I'm very disappointed.

UPDATE: After registering the product and posting this, the owner of the software company visited the blog to follow up. (click the comment link) I appreciate that kind of service, and it does lift my opinion of iBlogger. After working with it a little, the program is very functional and useful. Its only shortcoming is the inability to post photos.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

This is not a diet blog, only a diet post

It's going really well in the "O'Fallon's Biggest Loser" contest. Oh sure, it helps when you go to Melting Pot and consume 3 pounds of fondue cheese the night of the weigh-in, but I've already lost six pounds.

Only 24 more to go.

Night

It's late and there is a cool breeze blowing in the window of my office. I'm listening to a Billie Holiday/Frank Sinatra jazz station streaming in from some far corner of the world. A cup of hot tea is helping me stay focused on paperwork.

Em had class tonight so Grayson and I had lots of time together this afternoon. I think he's showing signs of teething - he was pretty cranky and needed direct contact a lot, so I ended up holding him most of the evening. He sat on my lap and we watched television awhile, but mostly he just watched what I was doing.

I didn't get much work done, but there won't be many nights like this. Good times...