Today’s my wife’s birthday, so I’m using this space to say some mushy stuff. Feel free to stop reading here if that’s not your thing.
Sarah’s my special lady (cheesy, but true). Though she’s entering her (gulp) mid-30s today, she’s as beautiful as the day I met her. I say that with complete honesty. If anything, seeing her tender side from the sideline as she cares for our son makes her even more beautiful in my eyes. What a ride this past year has been for us. I know that her 34th year will be full of even more joys and excitement. It all starts today. So to Sarah, I say this: “Happy birthday, beautiful!”
All posts by jlope23
Oliver stands up for himself
Oliver has mastered crawling and babbling. His latest thing is standing. He crawls over to something he can grab onto and pulls himself up. He’s quite good at it.
He stands in his crib:
He stands in the hallway:
And he stands next to Molly’s crate (his favorite spot):
Exhausting weekend
It’s almost time for bed on Sunday night, and it’s safe to say that it’s been quite an exhausting weekend. My day job has kept me extremely busy lately, and I’m in the middle of grading papers pretty much nonstop until this semester ends for the classes I’m teaching. I spent several hours on Friday, Saturday and today grading papers. Between that excitement, I did spend a lot of time with Oliver. The little guy is pretty pooped out himself. Below are a few pictures from his part of the weekend (sorry, no pictures of me slouched over a keyboard).
Saturday afternoon, we decided to take Oliver to the grocery store. On the way, we decided to stop by a department store. Next thing we knew, we had hit four stores, the grocery store and Bread Co. for dinner. Oliver was out cold by the time we got home:
Today, we took Oliver for a walk up to the local elementary school where we goofed around on the playground:
After we got home, we gave Oliver a bath:
Then he crashed for the night:
R.I.P. KNSX (93.3 FM)
R.I.P. 93x, also known as KNSX (93.3 FM): http://www.knsx.com/.
Yes, the best radio station in the area is no more. Back around 1997 or so, I discovered 93x and am forever grateful. At the time, I was into alternative rock, but the scene was being overtaken by “nu metal” or whatever it was called. Thanks to 93x, I was able to avoid the onslaught of rap-rock, Metallica, etc. I did have to change the channel for the occasional Days of the New and Creed songs, but it was a nice trade off to hear all the other great music being played. Oh yeah, and 93x didn’t play commercials. Yes, it was commercial-free radio. Awesome.
So now button No. 1 on my car stereo, which has been tuned to 93.3 for more than a decade through a Dodge and two Hyundais, is up for grabs. I have no clue what station to program there. I may wait until Jan. 1, when 101.1 FM becomes a sports-talk station. Until then, yeesh, I just don’t know. Most of the local radio is pretty bad. I’ve been on an AM kick lately, so I may just stay on that side of the dial for a while longer.
Just say ‘no’ (to your lame, slick-sounding financial adviser)
We’re all friends here, right? So as friends, why do we always turn each other’s phone numbers over to our financial advisers?
The other day, I received a call from probably the seventh financial adviser in the past four years. All were referred to me by friends (some friends, right?). Usually they call several times and never leave a message. I don’t typically answer calls if I don’t recognize the number. However, after seeing the same number on my caller ID five or six times, I get PO’d and pick up. Sure enough, it’s often a slick-sounded financial adviser. The conversation almost always goes something like this:
“Hello. Is this Justin?”
“Yes.”
“How are you doing? Pretty nice out today, isn’t it?”
“Ummm … who is this?”
“Oh yeah, hi. This is Annoying Guy. I got your name from your good friend Bunghole.”
“OK?”
“Bunghole told me that you might be interested in talking to me. I’m a financial adviser and I’d like to schedule a time when we can get together to talk …”
“You can stop there. I already have a financial adviser.”
“Oh. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to just look things over. Maybe we could just grab a cup of coffee. What do you say?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, may I put you into my database to call you back every six months or so just to check in?”
“No, and please do not call me again.”
[CLICK]
So there you have it. As your friend, I am going to give it to you straight here: I have a financial adviser and I do not want to talk to yours. Do not give your adviser my name and phone number. I can already tell you that I won’t be interested, I will hate the guy no matter what because I hate all salesmen (generally speaking) and I will resent you for giving out my personal information.
If your financial guy pressures you to turn over some names and phone numbers, maybe you should be looking for a new person to oversee your finances. Who really wants to entrust their money to somebody who’s less interested in your well-being than he is about making his next sales call? And while you’re at it, tell him the “let’s grab coffee” ploy is extremely lame. At least offer to meet over a few beers.
Oliver and Molly – best of buds
Molly, our crazy goldendoodle, has been front and center the past couple of days. We took her in to get her haircut on Saturday. The next couple of days, she was acting really strange and obsessively scratching herself and biting her fur. Plus, her skin was pink — everywhere. Then, a couple nights ago, she puked several times and had some loose …. well, you know.
We took her to the vet yesterday and they think she had an allergic reaction to something (possibly the shampoo at the hair place). Anyway, she’s on doggy ‘roids now and looking much better.
Anyway, with thinking about Molly, it’s hard to not think about how much Oliver adores her. His face just lights up and he squeals with glee when she’s around. Here’s a video of the two of them interacting:
And here’s a still version:
Finally, this is Molly with her latest short-hair ‘do:
World travelers stop in St. Charles to visit Oliver and Co.
We were visited by some world travelers recently. Well, they had reason to be here: one of them is family. Yes, my little sister and her boyfriend were in town for a few days. Carrie and Eli are both in the medical field, and they work in different cities for a few months at a time. So far, they’ve been in Florida a couple times, Seattle, Kansas City and Chicago. They also recently went to Mexico. For their current gig, they took positions in Carrie’s hometown of Springfield, Mo., so they could be close to family through the holiday season. You can read about their travels on Carrie’s blog, The Nomadic Life of Carrie, though she needs to start posting some new stuff (hint, hint!). All the while I’ve been here in St. Charles. Oh well…
Anyway, we had a good time. Oliver was excited to see his Auntie Carrie. Here are a few pictures from the visit.
The boy’s historic first trip to the polls
Sarah and I took Oliver to the polls with us this morning. He sat in his stroller as we cast our ballots. Though he won’t remember today, I can’t wait to sit him down one day and tell him that he was there, with us on Election Day, as we helped make history.
Babies don’t catch on regarding Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time ended this weekend. And while many in this country issued a huge “yawn of relief” for that extra hour of sleep, that couldn’t be said of our son.
Oliver, it seems, doesn’t have a concept of what Daylight Saving Time means. When 6 p.m. rolled around yesterday, he was ready for a meal and then bed. His little 8-month-old baby brain couldn’t fathom the fact that it was not 7 p.m.
And this morning? He was up and ready to go at 5 a.m., crying out to us with a noise that could be interpreted as, “Mommy and Daddy, come get me. It’s 6 a.m. Time to start the day!”
Hopefully we can get him back on schedule this week. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long winter.
Horror movie scare No. 3: “The Strangers”
Sarah and I wrapped our annual scary movie-watching experience with the film “The Strangers.”
Released earlier this year, the movie sort of came and went with little fanfare. While not the best horror movie I’ve seen, it’s a decent flick. Lots of freaky moments.
“The Strangers” is allegedly based on a true story, but a quick Google search proves that to be quite a stretch. Basically, a mom and her family were killed in a cabin maybe 20 or 30 years ago (I’m too lazy to search it again, and we watched this on Thursday so I’ve forgotten some details). Anyway, in the movie version, it’s a man and his girlfriend who are the victims. They’re attacked at a house, and that’s seriously the closest connection I could see.
The couple is played by that Ben guy from “Felicity” and the girl was played by the better half of those old Aerosmith videos (Liv Tyler, for those who don’t know). Well, they get attacked over and over. The attackers wear masks and never explain why they are attacking. The couple do stupid things over and over … you get the point.
So pretty scary, but not the best. Oh well. Maybe we’ll have better luck next year.
Blog Full of Letters 