Parenting, running, and staying Punk into adulthood.

Swimming pics

2010-04-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Thought it would be a good idea to go to the pool so Koletrane can get in some practice since he has a pool party coming up soon. Also a good chance to try out the underwater settings on my camera.

Click here to see a video of me swimming underwater.

Or click here to see Kole playing in the water!

The year so far...

2010-02-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

It's been about 4 weeks since my last post, but not for lack of interesting life events. First off, Elliette started walking! She's been able to for quite some time...she has been standing up on her own for about 2 months, but lacked the self confidence to actually take a step. She still prefers to crawl, or "walk" on her knees since she gets to where she is going much faster. Here is a video of her practicing.

Winter has been kicking our asses, though. CT has been quite cold, and snowing on and off every few weeks...enough that all the trails around here are pretty icy and snowed over. I still manage to sneak out once in a while, when I can! But for the most part cold weather makes me want to hibernate.

Don't let the "serious" face fool you, I really was enjoying myself! The pictures I took of myself smiling just looked silly. I found a nice spot to do an overnight in the spring on the Quinipiac Trail in Bethany (I think it was Bethany), and there was a trail log in a wood box nailed to a tree. I had a nice sit n' read, reading all the entries in the log, some years old, and leaving my own before I left. It was a nice, "warm" 35F that day, but by the time I started back I noticed there was only about an hour of sunlight left, and it had taken me an hour and a half to hike in over icy terrain. That was the closest I've come to running in the past month.

In running news, I very regretfully had to drop out of the Ragnar Relay race. I had been looking forward to running and training with a team, but the brokeness of my foot won't let me run. I made it up to 15-20 miles per week after the ortho gave me the ok to run again, but after a few weeks of that I came painfully close to have to go back to using my cane. So no more running. For now. I still try to get some cardio in on the treadmill every day, or every other day depending on how my foot feels. I limit myself to 1/4 mile "brisk" walks followed by resistance work, 2-3 sets of 2-3 different exercises (usually arms, legs, chest, repeat) with little to no break between. On a good day, I'll do 6-8 repeats of that workout. That has been happening 3-4 times a week. It makes for a productive way to spend 2 hours while Elliette naps during the day. Now if only I could kick that nasty ice cream addiction...

I've been making good use of my New Years resolutions, and I think I've been keeping up with them quite well. I decided to take it a step further and each month give up (for that month) one thing I consider to be a crutch. Last month it was material purchases, this month its no alcohol. I don't buy a lot of shit, since I don't "work" more than 3 times a month, but I thought it would be a cool experiment and a good way to practice non-attachment. I only broke it once, when I went to Boston to see Humanwine and bought a cd. I felt fine with that since I was helping support underground music, and I like the ideals they as a band embody.

Heres a video I took durring the show.

Speaking of music, I've been playing with a few friends once or twice a week. I've had a handful of songs/ideas bouncing around my head for quite some time, and it feels really good to share them with other musicians. We've already worked out 4 original songs in 5(?) practices, so now we're just keeping an eye open for possible additions.

Other trivial banalities:
Koletrane joined the chorus at school. I drop him off before school (8:15AM) on Wednesdays, but the last two have been canceled due to snow. He claims he joined to impess a girl. :)

Nancy has been applied for medical rep jobs all over the country, mostly (well, only) in "warm" states. California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Arizona. Fuck snow.

We've been having some fun family jam sessions. We play along to songs we all like as they play on the stereo, since its easier for the young ones to keep the beat that way. The kids do drums, rattles, harmonica, and kazoo while Nancy sings and helps them, and I do guitar. "Oh Valencia" by the Decemberists is a favorite of ours to do.

Nancy and I had some really awesome ideas for where we want to be in life by the time Elliette is done with grade school, so 12 years. But that will probably be a long post, so I'll get to that some other time.

Little readers! (and headbangers)

2010-01-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

2010-01-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

Kole had his friend Matthew over today for a bit of sledding in our yard. They have been in the same classes in school for the past three years and are quite good friends...but unfortunately Matthew's family is moving to Florida in July.

My baby girl is getting so big.

Kole decided his loose tooth was ripe for the picking, and thought it would be fun to get creative with the removal.

New Years Resolutions

2010-01-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

For the most part, I think New Years resolutions are BS. People don't take them seriously or even care about them for more than a week or two into January. I also feel that the usual "resolutions" are self serving, superficial and don't do anything to make our lives truly happy. That said, having goals to strive toward and working for positive change in ones life is a vital and important part to leading a fulfilling and satisfying life. I try not to make mine unrealistic, if I make them at all. Keeping them within our means and not making them overly stressful can ensure better results. Here's the short list of positive things I'd like to see happen in 2010.

-Eat slower. Eating is a great time to practice mindfulness meditation. Rushing through meals out of breath like you're mad at your food is not a healthy way to eat, or live.

-Be more patient with my kids. Sometimes it is hard to remember that they're children, and not miniature adults.

-Take my running less seriously than I did last year. I'd like to run just to run, not to place well in a race or log big mileage. That's the sort of false pride that has caused me to over train and, as a result, hurt myself.

-Be less of a grump. I don't feel grumpy often, but Nancy says I am. If it will make her happy, then its something I will look into and work on.

-Don't pig out on junk food late at night. There has never been a single instance where I wake up in the morning and say to myself "wow, I'm really happy I ate six cupcakes and a plate of nachos last night".

-Tell my wife that I love her every day.

-Live life one breath at a time.

“Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.”

-Thich Nhat Hahn

The past 10 years in brief retrospective:

2010-01-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

The years 2000-2009 in the life of Jay Prince:

-Quit my job with a marginal future in lieu of an artistic job that paid crap.
-Played in a great band with a bunch of awesome guys.
-Moved into my first apartment.
-Broke edge.
-Played a ton of awesome shows and met a ton of awesome people, some of which became life long friends.
-Met Nancy in the beginning of 2000
-Ended a relationship with a very nice girl.
-Drove a car without a rear windshield for an entire New England winter.
-Fell deeply, completely, and hopelessly in love.
-Got pepper sprayed by ~~pigs~~ cops a few times.
-Moved in with Nancy.
-Got arrested for dumpster diving/learned valuable life lessons.
-Quit my band.
-Had a Baby Boy.
-Got a job doing body piercings full time.
-Worked long miserable hours.
-Lost my Dad.
-Became very depressed.
-Quit my job and got my life back on track.
-Took a wonderful, mind cleansing trip to California.
-Read hundreds of books.
-Discovered my love of long distance running.
-Discovered Buddhism, and Buddhist meditation.
-Got married.
-Confessed to Nancy I really did want another child. :)
-Had a Baby Girl.
-Lived life.
-Loved.

Various New England Proverbs

2010-01-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

"You can't keep trouble from coming, but you don't have to give it a chair to sit
on."

"Small circumstances produce great events"

"Wishing isn't doing."

"The world is your cow. But you have to do the milking."

"It won't be warm till the snow gets off the mountain, and the snow won't get off
the mountain till it gets warm."

"You can't always tell by the looks of a toad how far he can jump."

"Talk less and say more"

"He who feels the benefit should feel the burden."

"One today is worth two tomorrows."

"A good word now is worth ten on a headstone."

"A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple."

"The hardest work is to do nothing."

"Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves."

"Money is flat and meant to be piled."

"Cut your sail according to your cloth."

"We have two seasons: winter and the Fourth of July."

"In New England we have nine months of winter and three months of darned
poor sledding."

"Take off your flannels before the first of May, and you'll have a doctor's bill to
pay."

"Thick and blue, tried and true. Thin or crispy, way too risky." (proverb about
the safety of ice)

"An ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory."

"The quickest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time."

* * *

New Years Eve

2009-12-31T18:04:00.000-08:00

What it is not is sometimes better than what it could have been...

2009-12-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note concerning Elliettes MRI for her nose bump: the doctor was NOT able to tell us exactly what it is, but he was able to tell us what is is not. It is not a nasal dermoid cyst, and there is no intracranial connection, which means no worry of brain tissue involved. All we really got out of the whole ordeal was that it is just skin and blood vessels and that removal won't be a problem. We're still waiting to hear from the ENT office to schedule a consult on whether we should go ahead with having it removed.

It begins...

2009-12-29T18:57:00.000-08:00

When I initially started this blog, one of the main focus points was to be my running, but since my injury there really hasn't been much to report. Now that I have the OK from my orthopedist to start running again, its going to be a long road to regain the fitness I lost, and shed the weight I gained.

A brief history of my past year in running:
Starting last winter, I had been training for two races: The Hartford Marathon, and Bimblers Bluff 50K. I've always felt drawn towards longer distance races, but had never raced anything over a 6K. I thought since both races were only two weeks apart, and a 50K is only 5ish miles longer than a marathon (26.2) I could easily train for them at the same time. The marathon was actually scheduled to be on the day of one of my long runs anyway. Now, when I get into training, I REALLY get into training. It's the obsessive/compulsive side of me I suppose. I would religiously track every single yard I ran in my log and pore over the numbers, trying to see how hard I could push myself without getting hurt. I bought a Garmin 405 Forerunner from REI, which was the best purchase I made all year, without a doubt. After that, I had every ounce of data I could have wanted right there on my wrist. Speed, mileage, heart rate...even a virtual training partner to race. I never missed a single run, which of course I had planned out months in advance and planned my life around them. Everything was going extremely well, and there was no doubt in my mind that if race day went as well as my training was going that I could easily slay a sub-3:20:00 marathon. My weekly long runs had gotten up to 18 miles, and I was recovering from them without a hitch. I learned so much training for those races...like that I get bad cramps if my sodium levels are low, I don't really need to eat a ton out on long runs to keep my energy up, and a PB&J was as good as a power bar for me. Also to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I now have a small collection of hydration-compatible backpacks and waist packs that all serve a different purpose, depending on what sort of run I expect to be doing.
Then WHAM, seemingly out of nowhere, I started experiencing a sharp pain in my left knee while on vacation in the White Mountains with my family last July. What was so odd about it was that I had decided to take the week off from running to recover and spend the entire trip with my kids, and it happened at the end of said week so I'm pretty sure it wasn't running related. Bummer. Big time. I got over that, still managing to run as much as possible with my knee wrapped, then iced afterward. I also learned what a helpful ~~tool~~ drug Aleve can be.
Then in September, I had my epic fall caused by a foot-eating baby gate, breaking a small (but not insignificant, oh no!) bone in my left foot. And that was that. Training over, no races were going to be ran in any foreseeable future. Depressed and unable to even walk without pain, my house fell into a state of terrible clutter, I could feel myself getting weaker, and I put on about 10lbs. I bought a treadmill, but even an easy walk was unbearable. I decided to stay off it completely until I could see an orthopedist.
Finally, after an agonizing two months (!!!) of no running, my ortho said it was OK to start training lightly, as long as my pain level was tolerable. I even got a prescription for this nifty patch of something called lidoderm, and it has been helping a great deal with the soreness. The pain is nothing serious like it was a few months ago...now it is something more like a bruise that only hurts if pressed or bumped on something.
SO. I've begun preliminary training for the Ragnar Relay that takes place in May 2010. We almost have the whole team of twelve on board, needing only more more confirmed runner to round it out. Some of the best parts are that I don't have to concentrate on any crazy distances, just running more than once a day to get my muscles used to running while fatigued, which makes training though a recovering injury a lot easier. Also, Nancy has recently taken up running and wants to run in the race. I can't even imagine how much easier it is going to be getting myself out the door to run if she's prodding me, or even (gasp!) joining me.
For now, the hardest part is trying not to jump right back into crazy OCD running man mode, but to rather ease my way back into it. For the first couple weeks I didn't even track my runs, I just ran when I felt up to it, if I didn't...so be it. For now, I'm just concentrating on length of time spent running, not mileage. I feel it is far more important to train my mind and muscles for the task ahead (a full and healthy recovery) and not race a clock when there is no tape at the end of the road. I'm up to an hour a day, covering about 5.5 miles. Nothing like the mileage I was ticking off 6 months ago, but after being layed up for so long, even a very slow jog is better than riding the couch.

Can I get an Amen?!

2009-12-28T19:16:00.000-08:00

“Anarchism, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government.”

Emma Goldman

Every thing in its right place.

2009-12-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

A confession: I am a neat freak*. My wife, Nancy, is not. When she was the house parent and I worked full time, coming home from work at 9:30PM to our bombed out disaster area of an apartment was almost enough to send me into a catatonic depression. It was a serious (but not the only) strain on our relationship, but we got past those hard years and don't look back. When I became a full time stay at home Dad almost three years ago, I made some serious changes, believe me! I made vast, dizzying sweeps of our condo and purged it of everything that was broken, not used, or clothing we didn't wear. For some reason, I find myself purging unworn clothing twice yearly, even though I don't purchase more than 3 or 4 items a year. (NOTE: this does not including shoes and boots. Those are necessities for a person with an active lifestyle) Once that first mega-purge was done, I had a written schedule of which rooms got cleaned on which days, and keeping the place in good order was easy-cheesy and freed me up butt loads of time to run, bike, explore new places, and still be home in time to get Kole off the school bus. After Elliette was born 15 months ago, obviously I had a bit of a harder time keeping up with it all. Having to take a baby into every room with you while you work isn't ideal, or sometimes not even practical. My laundry room is in desperate need of a nice hard purging, but it's very cold and there is no place to let her play while I work my magic. On top of having to lug the baby around with me, I broke a bone in my foot in September, temporarily disabling me and leaving me (for all intents and purposes) couch bound and allowing WEEKS of house work to fall to the wayside. The place is a MESS. It has been VERY stressful. (I have an appt with my doctor to talk about anxiety meds, but that's a topic for another day)
.
Having an emptier house works for me in two ways:
1: It's very calming to live in a minimalist house. There is just something about not being overwhelmed with clutter and knick-knacky crap that puts the soul at ease. When I see a big mess, I need to see it go away. It's like a sneeze. I CAN ignore it alone and go on with my day, but it is very unpleasant, and as it goes on longer it gets uncomfortable, then painful. If I can nip all that in the bud by cleaning, or just NOT making a mess, so be it. Case closed.

2: It's less cleaning. Which means less work. I HATE work. I want to play all day. But this isn't very realistic. So, when my house is "very" clean, I can get away with about an hour or two of straightening up everyday just to maintain.

Over the past week, I've made significant headway into getting the place back to ship-shape, and getting my head to shut up and not scream every time I walk into a room. I even had a sit down meeting with Koletrane and Nancy and discussed things we can all do to make life a little neater. Kole is doing well with the general rule of simply "NOT making a mess!!!" Well, as long as I'm there to remind him. Nancy, not so much. She thinks that since shes going to come home from work and put on her sweatpants right away, that it is perfectly OK to leave them on the couch all day. But she is making an effort to change the trash when it needs it, and not just pile trash up next to the sink. I'll take what I can get for now. Small victories, no matter how small, are still victories.

*I am not a germophobe, down on all fours scrubbing out corners at 3AM like an ODC poster child. I don't very often use chemical cleaners, often opting for warm water with vinegar. I simply abhor mess, and clutter.

Christmas in Connecticut

2009-12-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Considering the unholy times I hear that other parents get up on xmas morning, I'll consider myself blessed to have slept until 7:45am. Nancy's family arrived promptly at 8:00am to see the kids open their gifts, and to share a holiday breakfast. Kept it pretty low key throughout the day, went to my grandparents house for a wonderful brunch prepared by my womderful Grandma Helen, then home for a little "spiked" hot chocolate and some much needed downtime. These are the highlights:

Kole has been practicing his guitar a lot more as of late, he has even taken to writing out simple melodies and playing them to me. I think I'll use this as much as he will!

Found the pickle!

All the girls...

Elliette showing her new teeth to Papa...

...then checking out his old ones!

Grandma Helen and I.

My crazy uncle Doug found this widow maker hanging off the roof.

Currently taking up prime real estate in my living room...

A very nice, thoughtful gift from our friend and neighbor, Lisa.

Experimenting with new(ish) camera

2009-12-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

I bought my first digital camera a few months ago, an Olympus Stylus "Tough 8000". Nancy and I are going to be going on our honeymoon in April (almost in time for our 3rd anniversary, and just after our 9 year "being together" anniversary) and thought a real camera might be a wise investment. I'd read a ton of reviews for pocket-sized point and shoot units, and this one seemed to fill every requirement we had and then some. Waterproof? Yup, down to 33ft. Shockproof? Ayuh, drop it from 6ft onto concrete and it'll still work. And 12 mega pixels isn't anything to shake a stick at, especially since it only costs about $320. But aside from dropping it a few times, I haven't really put it to the test yet. So today while giving Elliette her bath I decided to give it a whirl in the water. Unfortunatly, I didn't have the foresight to take the bar of soap out of the tub before filling it with water...so it was too murky to get a clear shot while submerged. Otherwise, it did pretty well in the water. I mean, it still works, and I consider that a win. I'm not really up to writing a full on review, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Most of these were edited, but nothing crazy, just to get the light right and crop out any baby pee-pee parts.

Young Punks

2009-12-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well, flu season is officially upon us. Elliette came down with a light fever yesterday, and this morning when I was busy trying to get Koletrane's bag packed for school, she barfed all over herself and her playpen. Man, if I had stuff in my belly that smelled that bad I would ralph too. It looked like curdled milk, and smelled about 100X worse. We usually drive Kole out to the bus stop in the winter since our driveway is VERY long and icy (its about 1/8 mile from our door to the bus stop), but this morning I had to send him out alone. There are other kids who wait out there, so I wasn't worried about leaving him alone on the street. Anyway, once I cleaned Elliette up and got some Motrin in her, we shared some saltine crackers and her mood improved a great deal. She still hasn't had much of an appetite to speak of, but she's been getting plenty of fluids and isn't acting very sick.

The boy has been crawling up my butt to start putting studs in his leather jacket ever since he got it. For some reason, people (including me, I'm ashamed to admit) told him that it may not be appropriate to go ahead with doing it since he wears it to school, and the administration might find it "inappropriate". But the more I thought about it, it just seemed incredibly hypocritical to not let him modify his clothes and dress the way he wants to. Especially since I have a denim jacket covered in patches and studs. It just seemed to me like we were sending a message of "don't stand out, keep your head down and don't do anything that would draw attention to yourself". That is NOT the way I want to raise my children. Haters be damned, he's a good kid, and he should be able to do and wear whatever he feels is "cool" as long as it's not endangering anyone else. THATS the message I feel is most important for kids to grow up with.

Happy Winter New England!

2009-12-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

We're all looking forward to being snowed in tomorrow...the ~~Sorcerer~~ weatherman tells us to expect 10-18" of snow, which means sledding all day on our little front yard hill. The above picture was taken about an hour into what is predicted to be a 12 hour snow storm. I LOVE New England.

MRI

2009-12-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

At about eight months old, Elliette started to develop a small red spot on the bottom of her left nostril, and slowly grew into a medium sized bump. We've seen a handful of doctors, and have gotten a handful of diagnoses. First, we saw a plastic surgeon who said that it was a hemangioma, and that it would go away on its own as she got older. The only reason he could think of to have it removed was if it grew large enough to interfere with breathing through her nose. The second diagnosis we got was from her pediatrician, who said he thought it was a pyogenic granuloma. That one made the most sense to us, since we found a few pictures that looked a lot like what she had going on. But, a few weeks ago, it started breaking open and bleeding, so we went to an ear, nose and throat Dr. who said it was a nasal dermoid cyst. Those can have an intracranial connection, possibly containing brain tissue, making removal very difficult and risky. Needless to say, we DID NOT like that diagnosis at all. So yesterday we took her to the childrens hospital in Hartford for an MRI to rule out the intracranial connection.

Since she wouldn't be able to keep still during the procedure, she had to go under anesthesia. She did remarkably well, and came out of it in very high spirits. We should hear from the ENT by Friday to discuss what he sees.

This is my brother Daniel's new puppy, Angel. She's a Pit bull mix, but he's unsure what the other breed/breeds are. You can't really see the Pit characteristics in the pictures, but in person it really shows.

Getting back to training

2009-12-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

For those I haven't told, I have a small "chip fracture" in my left foot from a bad fall I took trying to climb over a baby gate while holding Elliette. I saw an orthopedist about two weeks ago, and he said the fracture is so small that I can start running again as long as there is no significant pain. I've been doing an easy mile or two on the treadmill every day just to see how the foot would respond. So far, so good! There really has been no pain at all related to the running, so today I did my first road run since late September. (I would have prefered to be on trails anyday, but I didn't want to risk breaking an ankle slipping on the snow and ice) I did an easy 3 miles with no problems at all, so I think it is ok to get back on a light training schedule. What makes it even better is that Nancy has really gotten into running on the treadmill, and acually seems to be enjoying herself. We've decided to try and get a team together to run the Ragnor Relay, a 180-mile relay for teams of 12. It starts in New Haven, CT, at Yale, and finishes in Boston, Mass, at Harvard. So far, we have a tentative 4-5 confirmations and a few leads on more. It's really nice to have a goal to work toward...it makes training much easier knowing I have a race on the horizon.

Trivial Banalities

2009-12-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

Even though the forecast for Koles X-mas is looking very sunny indeed, I still had a few minute gift ideas that needed attending to. Elliette and I invited Papa-Grandma (a.k.a. Nancys mom) out for lunch, and made our way out to the Cabelas in East Hartford. I found what I was looking for right away (just some little $10 gifts that will be a ton of semi-dangerous fun for Kole and I to do together), wandered around for a bit looking at cast-iron dutch ovens and huge canvas tents with indoor-stove capabilities, then got an Elk burger for lunch. I rarely eat red meat, so to me it tasted alot like cow meat...maybe a little chewier, but nothing very exotic. For people not familiar, Cabelas is the "largest outfitter for the outdoor sportsman", but as far as "sportsmen" go, they tend to cater to the shooting and killing variety. While I don't find anything wrong with killing animals you've raised for food or hunting for your dinner, I usually feel very uncomfortable in these kinds of places. I am of the opinion that a good deal of the people who claim to be hunting to "thin the herd" and "protect the species" really just like to kill stuff. I understand this is a mass-generalization...but I still am very uncomfortable with the whole set-up.

Got my "baby greenman/Elliette" tattoo worked on a few days ago...almost done! Lou says there is only one more sitting to get the rest of the sleeve done. (insert sigh of relief here)

Down on the farm

2009-12-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures from going to the park with my sister Jess and her dog Charlie. It was a beautiful December day, you know, 65F and sunny. I was literally outside in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Weird. Highlights included Charlie trying to play with the goats who really couldn't have cared less about his presence, and Elliette copying the bleating baby sheep.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

2009-12-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

Or not... Kole recently decided he does not believe in Santa anymore. It's taken a lot of convincing that even though he does not believe anymore that it's still okay for his younger friends and baby sister to carry on thinking that Santa brings them presents.

Kole is also at the age where it is no longer "cool" to take pictures with Dad.

We've been experiencing unseasonably warm weather here in south-central Connecticut. Today it was 60F at 8:15AM. But despite the warmth, the leaves still fall and make trails very slippery. A few falls were taken, ruining what was otherwise a nice hike. Seven is a very dramatic age.

Big boxes are still the best toy around...

Quick update:

2009-11-25T18:32:00.000-08:00

First off, I'd like to say congrats to my little brother Justin, who played in last weekends Special Olympics Basketball Playoffs. This was his first time playing in the "A" league, in the past he's played in the "B". He didn't get played often (much to his and our dismay...it was his birthday), but the team as a whole took 3rd in the state. Way to go dude!

A lady bug commited suicide by plunging itself into hot molten wax in my bathroom.

Slumber party at our pad tonight. Koles friend Nora is staying over for Yatzee, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and ice cream. Elliette tried to wrestle with them. Hilarity ensued. Good times.

Swim class and Doctors meetings

2009-11-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick picture update with a few from our Wednesday "Mommy and Me" swim class.Thanks to Mommy for the pics!

Late morning was Elliettes appointment with the ENT for her nose bump. More to come when it's not 11:30pm. :)

DIY Ghost

2009-11-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

Kole made this ghost the other night, cutting it out and sewing it totally by hand. He enjoyed it so much that he plans on making a whole "ghost family".

Also, I spoke with the secretary from the Doctors office and scheduled a CAT scan for tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed. I'd really like to be running as soon as I can, but I'm trying to stay in a "rest today and live to run another day" state of mind.

Nothing broken, but still not working as it should

2009-11-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

I went and got my foot checked out today at the walk in clinic here in town. The Dr. said there probably wasn't anything broken since I had almost full range of motion, but he sent me to a satellite office to have an x-ray done just to be sure. We just spoke a few minutes ago on the telephone and he said there was no indication of a break or fracture, but there was an area of opacity (white spot) on the part of my foot where the pain is located. So I'm being set up for a CAT scan sometime in the next few days to have a better look. My x-ray tech wife, however, thinks the spot may be an indication of avascular necrosis. That would mean that I had had a small fracture or dislocation that disrupted the blood vessels that supply blood to that part of the bone, and without the blood supply the bone will die, and eventually collapse. Awesome. So if that option isn't brought up by the Dr., I might mention it and request an MRI, which would make for a better diagnosis.

More bitching about various injuries and maladies:

2009-11-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

On a normal day, my foot won't start bothering me until the afternoon, after I've spent the day being semi-active and walking around on it. Today though, it hurt right out of bed. I think maybe it's time to go get an x-ray, since the initial injury happened almost two months ago, and doesn't seem to be getting any better. This morning Nancy brought up that she can see a visible difference my two feet, the left appearing to have a protrusion at the base of my big toe. Being forced to walk on the outside of my foot has me more or less couch bound, which is absolutely tearing me apart. At least I'll get caught up on all the reading I have to do.

Winter

2009-11-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

I don't know if its the global climate changing, or just the ebb and flow of natural weather paterns, but it seems that New England has been experiencing only two seasons in the past few years: summer, and winter. Sure we still get "spring" and "autumn", but they seem more like precursors to the more harsh and long lasting season to come, rather than 1/2 of the years weather. Winter, to me at least, lasted a whole 6 months last year. It might have seemed longer than normal since I was more or less home bound without a car and a new baby, but it was still entirely unpleasant nonetheless. It would be far easier to deal with cold weather if my right hand wasn't in almost constant discomfort, or when it's really cold out, dull throbbing pain. Due to numerous injuries, there is a great deal of scar tissue and nerve damage, and coupled with my naturally poor circulation makes it feel like I've been squeezing an ice cube, even in 55F weather. My doctor has said there really isn't anything that can be done, besides major surgery to clear out the damaged tissue and attempt to repair the nerves. Even if I did decide to have the surgery, there really isn't any guarantee that it would be very successful. So instead I've developed a ritual of balling my hand into a fist and rubbing it harshly on my thigh to warm it up. I cannot wait to move to a warmer climate.

If I had a dime for every time I took something out of Elliettes mouth, I'd probably have a few hundred bucks by now.

I've been talking with some guys who hang out at the tattoo shop I've been piercing at recently about starting a new band, and with it starting to come to fruition I thought it was time to buy a guitar. I've been getting by playing guitars that people have loaned me since I had to sell my two vintage Gibsons to pay the mortgage a few years ago, so it's nice to have my own again. Elliette likes it, too. It's a 2004 Fender Telecaster (American), and sounds like sonic gold through my Mesa/Boogie Maverick 4x10.

I'll be working all day today, which usually means I get to sit around and watch movies most of the day since not many people tend to get piercings in the colder seasons. Fine with me!

Swimming Classes and more Skydiving Pictures

2009-11-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

Today was Elliette's first "Mommy and Me" swim class, inappropriately named since there were 3 moms and 2 dads (including me) in the class. Whatever. After being on the "Parenting Magazine" mailing list for more years than I can remember I've come to grips with the fact that people understand that there ARE stay at home Dads in the world, they just don't expect to encounter it in day to day life.Whatever. I can deal with that, I blow minds for a living. :)

Anyway, Elliette LOVES to swim and get wet, so it was a big treat and she enjoyed herself immensely. We got to do perennial favorites such as "The Wheels on the Bus", "The Hokey Pokey", and "Simon Says". The instructor also had them practice kicking, blowing bubbles in the water, and floating on their backs. I wasn't too excited for Elliette to get the pool water in her mouth, but she didn't like the taste and got the hang of spitting it back out. She's never been scared of water and puts her face right in, a bit unlike Kole. He's 7-1/2 years old, and still won't put his head under or swim without floaties or someone there to hold him up. And it's not limited to the pool, oh no. In the shower whenever it's time to rinse his hair or face it's like he's being waterboarded. Seriously. Like I'm pouring acid on him. I've learned to close all the windows before bath time so the neighbors won't think I'm beating him. He is getting better, for sure...but I thought it was something he'd grow out of A LOT earlier.

I received a disk with about 80 more images of my skydive in the mail yesterday, here are some highlights:

Halloween and Autumn Fun

2009-11-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

Kole vs. bird feeder: bird feeder 1, Kole 0.

Autumn is probably my favorite time of year...I love the weather, the leaves changing colors, and Halloween. We've been really busy the past week with Kole having a bunch of half days at school, getting ready for Halloween, and the party and parade at school. This year Nancy and I volunteered to help in the classroom with the party, which was more or less just handing out snacks and making sure everyone was in their costumes.

After the events at school happenings, we met Koles best friend, Nora, at a local farm to pick out pumpkins and see the animals. The cages the animals were in were a little small for me to be comfortable with, but the kids liked looking at them and seeing the goats showing off. There even was a one-legged goose who never seemed to move. Pumpkin pickings were mighty slim:

On Halloween we spent quite a bit longer getting Koles makeup looking right, since we didn't really have time in the classroom to make it look very zombie/ghoul-like. The jelly-blood really sold it. Nancy had been working for the past week or so on making Elliette a Witch costume, basically a cloak and hood combo with a purple lacy/spider web fringe. It was looking great, but Elliette refused to keep it on and kept trying to tear it off. So we just dressed her in a Halloween themed outfit, and put her in a pumpkin costume for pictures.

Papa and Grandma Gore came down to Grandma Prince's house for trick or treating before Nancy and I took off to attend a house warming/Halloween party at our friends Matt and Liz's new house. Late night shenanigans ensued, and we hitched a ride back to Grandma Prince's house, slept semi-soundly, and woke to coffee and eggs. Good times!

(FYI, I was Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead fame, and Nancy was Rainbow Brite)

Rain, rain, go away!

2009-10-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

We've been getting quite a bit of rain this year. Well, that's a gross understatement. I don't remember having this much rain, day after day, ever in my life. It does make it hard to do the things I would like to be doing with the kids, and thus limits us to indoor activates and turns my house into a powder keg of short tempers. Kole and I are so much alike that at times it seems to cause much more friction than any of us (esp. Nancy) would like to put up with. Plus, we're both stubborn as the proverbial mule. Luckily, today went very well, even when it was time to clean the boy-cave. I'm not too strict about how often he cleans his room, since that was one of the things I hated most about being a kid. I feel it's very important that he has his own space where he can be wild and messy...even though I HATE messes. Not that I'm a neat freak, by any stretch of the imagination. At any rate, here is a video I took this evening of Kole reading a story he wrote at school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J56TGv700XU

Sorry about the lazy link, you DO need to copy and paste. My Html skills are nonexistent.

After doing my morning chores and feeding the baby, we spent most of the day in the basement where I could do the treadmill and workout, and she could watch her "Signing Time" videos and play with Saetia (one of our two cats). We've been trying to teach Elliette to "do nice" to the kitties, but she gets very excited and the line between petting and pounding can get very thin. Saetia is very kind and affectionate, so he tends to be a bit more patient than our other cat, Claude. Claude is half Siamese and he don't take no garbage from no one. Word.

In more trivial news, I got my new Doc Martens in the mail today! Needless to say, I feel 80-85% more tough.

Mondays, am I right? Eh?

2009-10-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm still having trouble getting to sleep at night, it happens every year at this time and I should learn to expect it by now. Luckily, Elliette still takes a two hour nap in the late morning, and I was able to recharge a bit more. So now I'm probably functioning on 70-80% power. Nothing copious amounts of caffeine won't remedy. Load me up and send me rattling down the street, oh yeah.

I made a good amount of headway into the mountains of laundry that amassed durring the summer break. Doing chores takes a backseat to more important things (like playing) on school break, haha. I got all the clean stuff folded, put away, or hung up, and tomorrow I'm going to really lay into the dirty stuff.

Koletrane Has two half days of school this week, and he has been asking to get back to Sleeping Giant so we can do a little rock climbing. I think I may surprise him soon and take him to Prime Climb, an indoor rock climbing facility in Wallingford (one town over from us). I'd feel a lot better about his reckless abandon and lack of concern for personal safety if there were pads under him in case he fell. I would also like to get out with him for one more overnight camping trip with him, too, before temps get below freezing at night. It'll probably have to this weekend or the next, if it's not too cold by then.

Sleep Deprivation and jumping out of aeroplanes

2009-10-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile...

Long morning. Coffee rations were waning. After waiting to be debriefed (for almost 2 hours), orders were given, and the mission was on. Liz and Steve suited up, strapped in, signed the secret documents, hid the microfilm and took to the air.

When Steve and Liz were safely returned to the loving arms of the Earth, Caitlin and I had to do our duty fighting the Reds. The Big Bear never stood a chance.

With the American People safe from Matryoshka dolls, dreadfully dry and long winded existentialist literature, and furry hats, we once again slipped back into the guise of civilian life. And rode scooters.

New Haven, I love you

2009-10-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Nancy came home early from work today because she didn't feel well. I always feel a little guilty being happy that she's coming home, since I should want her to feel well and not have to leave work. I like to tease and tell her she's pregnant whenever she's not well in the morning. Luckily, all she needed was some Tylenol and a nap and we had the rest of the day free. We decided to head out to New Haven to one of our favorite restaurants, Mamouns. I've been going there pretty regularly for the past 15 years, and still get the same thing every time, the combination plate without meat. I don't think I'll ever get sick of it, as long as I keep it to an every other month treat.

It comes with falafel balls, baba ghanoush, hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, and tahini sauce. Nancy usually gets the combination plate with lamb, which is the same thing as the combo plate without meat, except lamb replaces the falafel balls. I've tried it, but I don't really like lamb that much. In fact, I really DISlike it.

Elliette tried her first bit of falafel, and seemed to enjoy it, but after a few bites found it to be more fun to smoosh it up and drop it on the floor. She made quite a mess before we were able to intervene, so we made sure to leave a good tip. She also had a few bites of the Syrian rice, which we later discovered make her have sloppy, sloppy poops. Awesome. Got to file that away for future reference.

After gorging on some yum-yummies, we walked over to Cutlers Records to look for some CDs. Nancys new car has a CD player, so she was looking for some good jams for her hour commute to work. We got two "Decemberists" disks, The Crane Wife, and The Hazards of Love. I'm listening to The Crane Wife right now, and the title track is amazing (we have a Marianne Faithfull disk with her doing a cover of it), but the rest aren't, in my opinion, as good as anything from Picaresque (an older disk of theirs). As we left, we walked past this very cool mailbox.

Running has been on my mind more than usual lately, probably because the 50K trail race I was training all year for is this weekend. Unfortunately, due to a lingering foot injury, there is no way I would make it through. The race coordinator, Jerry, was nice enough to refund my entry fee and send a note wishing me a speedy recovery. I've been padding out and easy few miles on the treadmill twice a day, every other day, just to try and keep some sort of base fitness without over doing it. I'm really hoping that this winter will be injury free so I can get into the North Face Endurance Challenge next April in New York. The past three years I've remembered too late and it was all full. I know the trails around the Bear Mt. area pretty well, so even if I can't train up for the 50K or 50 miler, I can probably churn out a pretty fast 10K. Here's to hoping for at least 6 months without injury!

Sitting on Ledges with Kitties

2009-10-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Tattoos and pizza

2009-10-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Elliette is right in the middle of what every parent can agree is the best part of having a toddler: teething! It's sooo much fun to wake up at 1am to change a diaper, fix a small bottle, and snuggle. Then repeat at 4am. And the constant whining and generally poor disposition? It's just so precious. So this morning when Nancy got up with Kole at 6:00 this morning to see the meteor shower, I didn't really give much thought into getting out of my warm bed. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy for them to see the sky. That would have been really cool for Kole to share seeing a meteor shower at school during show and tell.

I got to sleep pretty late (9:45am) since Nancy was home and she got Kole on the bus. After a short breakfast, and one "Signing Time" video, I had to leave for a tattoo appointment. I booked a bunch of time with Lou Jacque at Transcend Tattoo to finish up my right sleeve, and all there is left is the underarm from armpit to elbow, and a few blank spots here and there.

It's a different take on the classic Greenman, using Elliette's face. There are probably two sittings left according to Lou. I'm very pleased with the way it's going so far.

Nancy went to Kole's parent/teacher conference today. We really like his teacher a lot, she's very sweet and great with the kids. Nothing really exciting to report, just that he excels at math, his reading and writing skills are above average, and he can get a bit chatty when other kids are distracting him...all of which we already knew.

When I got home from my appointment, there was this beautiful pizza from "Vespucci's" waiting for me. There is no pizza, I repeat, no pizza like those from the New Haven area.

Then Kole farted and made Papa-Grandma choke on her pizza.

Once the kids are in bed for the night, I have this to look forward to. Nancy has been really into making pies lately, and even though I have only had a few pieces, I love how the house smells like apple pie.

Fall for a bit...

2009-10-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update with some pictures from yesterday. Elliette and I waited outside in the yard for Kole to get home from school, then we all played together with his friend Nora. Elliette LOVES to crawl around in the grass and pull up grass and try and put it in my mouth. One of the things we've been most blessed with is finding a place to live with such a huge yard. There are always lots of animals running around the edge of the woods, but that has to be the subject of its own post, for later time.

Passive/aggressive old women, ASL videos, and walks in the woods

2009-10-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get to the post office in the past few days to send back a leather jacket we had bought for Kole(it was a bit too small), but haven't been able to get there while it was open. Despite being kept up until 1AM last night with a very restless baby girl, we made it out on time, and shipped it off. Easy enough, right? Well, as I was waiting my turn to pull out of the parking lot, an elderly woman backed into the side of my car. We both got out to assess the damage, noting only cosmetic damage, she had the nerve to say "it was kind of both our fault", since I was just sitting behind her. I replied, "no, thats not it at all. I was behind two other cars waiting to leave." We agreed that insurance information should be exchanged, in case a claim had to be filed. As I was writing down her info, she asks again why and how I got behind her in the first place. I told her, again, I was unable to move forward because I was blocked by CARS. She shakes her head, and says "well, it was kind of stupid to just be sitting there." WHAT?!

It's just a little dent, the paint is still intact, and it isn't causing the wheel to rub on the body, so I'm not going to be vindictive and file a claim. If my car wasn't 11 years old with 165,000mi on it, I might care...but it is, so I don't. There was a nice couple there who gave me their phone number and said they witnessed the whole thing and would tell the police, or whomever, that I was not to blame.

When Elliette and I got home from the post office, we found that her two new "Signing Time" videos had arrived. Nancy and I have been teaching the kids ASL (American Sign Language)for a few months now, with the help of "Signing Time" Volume 1. Kole caught on VERY quickly, memorizing about 15-20 signs and figuring out how to string them together into short sentences. Elliette, being only one year old, is learning considerably slower, but catching on at her own pace. She knows "milk", "more", "eat", "sleep", and a few others that make communicating with a baby far, far easier. When we thought they were ready to go to the next level we ordered the next two in the series. These ones deal with "playtime signs", and "everyday signs", like "play", "friend", "please", "thank you", and a variety of common courtesy words. I'm very excited to learn more myself!

After Nancy got home from work we quickly emptied out our van, a 1995 Nissan Quest with 190,000mi, so we could donate it to NPR. It's so old and has so much work that needs to be done to register it I can't imagine it being worth it to any potential buyers.

After we did that I popped out to a local state park, Sleeping Giant. It's an old haunt of mine, and know every trail on the mountain very well. Today I made it out to the old quarry, and had a little impromptu rock climbing session.

I made it almost 3/4 of the way up the face, but the rocks got real loose up there, and figured it wasn't the most prudent idea to continue since no one knew where I was, and it was close to dusk.

It was my second hike/trail run with my new Vibram FiveFingers "shoes". The point of them is to mimic being barefoot, strengthening the foot and surrounding muscles and ligaments, therefore improving posture and reducing injury. I'm still getting used to them, but it's really neat learning to walk and run with a proper posture that won't thrash my knees. They also made GREAT climbing shoes.

The rest are pictures of some of the area surrounding the quarry. I'm not quite sure what the structures are, but when I was a child I imagined they were ruins from an ancient civilization. It's still fun to pretend when you're alone in the woods running like an animal.

Introductions:

2009-10-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Very rainy, dreary day here in Connecticut. Koles soccer game was rained out, again...I feel bad that he has only gotten to play 3 games in the 6 weeks since the season has started. He was so excited to play, but inclement weather and fevers have been keeping him off the field as much as he has been on it. So today we'll be eating pizza, drinking chocolate soy milk, and watching "Howls Moving Castle." We absolutely LOVE Hayo Miazaki's films, and Kole and I like to get excited and make an event out of watching them, even if it's one we've seen many times before. I wish we had gotten out to the theater to see "Ponyo" when it was being shown, it looks amazing. It's supposed to be a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid", and I'm very excited to see the story through the eyes of Miazaki.