Digging In

Howdy from the wintery north. Looks like we could be getting a pretty good storm starting monday night and running much of the week. I like the term "heavy snow accumulation" That's nice, especially when it's followed with "moderate snow accumulation." I suppose it won't be so nice if the power gets knocked out or something; at least it's a warm storm seeing as night time lows are around 20 or so. Notice how a low of 20 is "warm?" Today the sun was out, the temps were in the high 20's and I was getting things out of the car. A brisk eind was coming straight out of the northwest and I thought, this is really quite pleasant =)

Anyhow, we'll see what kind of snow we get. I've put the word out to the head of ski patrol at the local mtn who's possibly the best tele skier I've seen to get some local beta on any off piste descents that may be around. I know there's some in the area, just not where they are. I've got my snow shoes, mountaineering boots, and my shovel. At least avalanche danger should stay low.

So let's see. Since last blog I've joined up on ski patrol as a volunteer 'courtesy patroller.' More than anything I'm an extra body on the mountain with a radio to watch for people that need help, and provide logistical support for any patroller response. And of course, I don't have to buy a lift ticket while I'm wearing the blue jacket. Pretty sweet deal for everyone involved. Over the next few years I'll be looking to become a certified patroller, though we'll see where that actually goes.

Anyhow, not feeling particularly inspired to write just now, had a couple pints of Guiness last night and I've been paying for it all day. When did that start happening? I used to be able to drink twice that and the next day was like nothing happened. I guess I'm not 25 anymore =)

On the Raelin front, we had a fun little outing the other night. Kelly was down in Portland sitting in on a birthing class, so Raelin and I had the afternoon and evening to ourselves. First item of business was to watch Jasmine and Bear play, which is always a treat. Kelly bought Raelin some new galoshes. They're very cute with little cat faces on the toes and a tail on the outside of each one. Being only a couple days old she insisted on wearing them out into the snow, which I let her do despite the lack of insulation. Let's see, cold feet or a tantrum over boots? I'll let her get cold feet. So we did that, then while taking Bear home Raelin melted down for Mommy. Nothing daddy could do; only dee-dees would do. So some gently firm explaining that daddy has no dee-dees and that mommy's away for awhile followed by hugging and rocking, which is simply the best, and it was decided that we would go to the fire station. I'm a nut for fire trucks, and having a kid is a great excuse to go to the station and ask for a tour. I wasn't sure what to expect at 5:00 on a weekday, though figured the firefighters would all be there. So away we went. I waved at the assistant chief through the window as I was getting Raelin out of the car and he had a fire man there to give us a tour.

Now you gotta understand that Raelin's kind of nuts about big trucks. She's really into truck and car books, and she likes pointing out the ambulances. It's to the point where I'm wanting to find a hippy-dippy nature equivelent of Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, but that's another story.

Anyhow, so we're looking at the ambulance, and the fireman opens the back door. Of course there's a gurney sitting in there, which I tell Raelin is a bed, and then tell her it's a special bed because it's on wheels. She thought that was just the coolest thing over and replied with "hold it" and reached out and grabbed part of the frame. I literally had to pry her little fingers off the damn thing!

So we looked at all the fire trucks, and Raelin was very quiet the whole time, though looking with big eyes and taking it all it. She declined the opportunity to get in the driver's seat of the biggest engine, and also declined sitting in the jump seat of the same. She was, however, very excited to meet the fire station kitty, especially since she was still wearing her kitty cat boots.

She amused all the firefighters with her antics, we got a couple of stickers, then back home for dinner, tubby, and driving to sleep. It was quite fun and I'm sure we'll be heading back again in the not-too-distant future.

Anyhow, Kelly's just emerged from putting Raelin to sleep for the night, so off to watch a movie with my wife!!!!

Compliments and Complexes

The other day I finally got around to shoveling all the snow off our deck. Raelin watched much of it from inside. When I was all done and was taking off my snowy outdoor stuff Raelin came over and started clapping and saying "yay daddy!"

A couple of days ago after I'd gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed Raelin looks at my crotch and then says "teeeny tiny pee pee". Gee. Thanks.

WTF is "565" Anyway?

So I picked this template for my blog cuz I think it looks cool, but it's got this whole "565" thing all over it, and I have no idea what that might signify...any ideas?

News Flash

Raelin has now peed in her potty twice on her own accord!!! The first time was this morning. I was taking a brief timeout from playing with puzzles with her to check the snow conditions at the local ski hill. The next thing I know, I hear some thing being poured into the toilet down the hall. I get there just in time to see Raelin emptying the last bit of pee from her little potty into the big potty. She then looks up at me with a hand on the level and says "flush." So I go over and help her flush it, then she hands me the potty bucket and says "rinse it." So I do. All very very exciting.

In Raelin fashion news, eccentricity is key. She refuses to wear matching socks, though will happily choose socks of different colors to put on. In a few instances, she and I have spent several minutes sitting on her bed with a pile of socks picking out and putting on (she does the picking out and then "helps" me put them on) several different combinations. She also will only wear mismatched legwraps. The final touch is a very colorful fleece-lined sweater that we call the rainbow jacket. Always have to wear that outside now. There was one time a few days ago where Kelly tried to put Raelin's winter coat on over the rainbow jacket. Not a chance; there was much fussing, resistance, and crying until the idea was shelved, then happy Raelin again.

Another favorite activity is "pushing the button" to start the washing machine or dryer. One time last week when there were loads ready to go and I asked her if she wanted to push the button, she ran out of the room. I got curious when I heard her pushing her tower across the floor, and watched with amusement as it got hung up on the hall corner and rug. I asked her if I could pick her up: "no no no" as she ran over to the table and started pushing a chair across the room. So I picked up the chair and positioned it in front of the machines so she could happily push the buttons. I tell ya, toddlers are a trip with their little OCD stuff. Everything has to be juuuuussssst right.

She also likes being out in the snow, though her favorite part is to shake her mittens off, make a hole in the snow with her index finger, then suck and ice crystals off that have stuck to it. I'm not sure just how long she would do this for, but I have a feeling it could take up most of an afternoon...

This morning Kelly was out and I was showering. Raelin came in to check things out for a second then went off on her merry way. We've pretty much child-proofed the house, so it's not really that big a deal with Jasmine at the in-laws and the cat in the basement to let her play on her own. When I got out of the shower I could hear her muttering to herself in our room. She often talks and whispers to herself or her Dolly as she plays, which is totally funny. In this case she was sitting in the middle of a pile of Kelly's clothes trying to put a bra over her head. Another time she managed to get a pair of Kelly's underwear on each arm and across her back, though she couldn't get them back off. It was very funny. This morning she also brought me a pair of long underwear while I was in the bathroom.

On the diet front; I've made an executive decision to eliminate the elimination diet =) While we can certainly cut back on those foods, removing them completely is too much of a pain in the ass. However, I must admit that I am feeling a lot better than I have been, and I was feeling good before. I think the big eye opener was the first week of hard snow boarding I did and wasn't really sore afterwards, like my body was just taking it even though it's the first exercise I've had in weeks, OK, in months. Very nice to not be crippled by lactic acid build up, which (I understand) is a result of inefficient energy/byproduct transportation across muscle cell walls. Since I've substantially increased intake of essential fatty acids that are the key to this system, I think this is part of it...

Sometimes I Blog, Sometimes I Don't

Hey there campers. So this is the latest incarnation of my blog; you can see historic posts at http://kevcallahan.com. I would have kept running things there, though I got *very* tired of spam bots posting comments and track backs. I write web applications for a living; at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is fuck around with non-work web apps.

So that brings us to here at blogspot =)

My blogging has been, shall we say, less than regular (I suppose I could pull a low poop joke out of that, though I will refrain). In addition to the fun and exciting roles of father, husband, home owner, and bread winner, I've now seen the light of winter. Namely, my surfing buddy talked me into picking up a snow board. As promised, it has totally changed the way I view winter! After 4 days of walking up the lower part of the local ski hill, I popped for a lift ticket today and went big time. I wanted to do it yesterday as the snow was absolutely prime after an 18" dump. But alas, the snow caught up with the convenience technology of the hill and claimed the power line to the chair lift. So most people didn't even bother. The snow cat drivers had left some wide swaths of powder left on the open slopes. Now this is the east coast, so it's not light and dry like out west, though I happily snarfed up first, second, third, and more tracks down it. Boarding through it is as close to surfing as I've gotten without being on a wave. Anyhow, so I'm hooked. Feels good to be active again.

Now Kelly's reading over my shoulder, which makes me somewhat self-conscious. Pretty odd since this is being posted to the internet. On a google site of all places. Google has some crazy shit running; though that's another story.

Anyhow, what else is new here? Hmmmmm...Kelly and I are on this thing called an "Elimination Diet." It basically removes common food allergens and irritants from the diet for 30 days. Then, items can be slowly introduced to see if any of them cause a reaction in the body. Now, in theory this sounds like a grand idea, but after a few days of no: dairy, sugar, wheat (or other flour or grain containing gluten), oranges, vinegars, eggs, red meat, popular spices (rosemary, cinnamon, thyme, ginger, etc), most condiments, and caffeine (even decaf), the whole idea pretty much sucked. I thought the idea was to eliminate food reactions, not myself. I mean, what the fuck is left to eat? Rice cakes smeared with flax oil? While not that bad, OK, not nearly that bad, it's still been a challenge. So, we've tweaked it a bit to bring eggs back in, and dammit I cook mine in butter. We even made decaf coffee today, though it kinda flipped us both out a bit.

It actually feels really good overall to be eating better. While Kelly's been learning more about general nutrition, I've been focusing on fats and oils. Well, OK, I've been reading a book about it called, you guessed it, Fats and Oils. It's very good, informative, and somewhat frightening to think about. I highly recommend the book, especially if you give even a tiny bit of a rat's ass about your long-term health.

Anyhow, enough about food. Let's blog about Raelin. Today, for the first time, she peed in her potty!!! This is a very exciting turn of events. She also really likes to 'help' clean, which we whole-heartedly encourage. Yesterday we cleaned the stove top, which had gotten pretty nasty as I'd not done it in several days, mostly cuz I'd been boarding instead =). Anyhow, I made sure to give her a wet sponge and a nice supply of suds and she just kept on wiping the nearest corner getting it squeaky clean. I've also been getting my guitar out, though she really only lets me play 1 song: "O Donald". I enjoy playing and singing with her, so that's cool, though I really need to figure out some more songs. The nice thing about childrens' music is that it's pretty simple stuff. A few basic chord progressions and bam, there's a song.

She also still enjoys watching the dogs play. And of course, the harder they play the louder she sqeals. When they occasionally go past playing into skirmishing, she thinks that's just the best.

Anyhow, that's enough for now...cheers and thanks for reading!