Betty White on Facebook

Betty White is my new hero!

Pre Order

My friend, Lish, has a book coming out this fall and it's available for pre-order at Amazon. I encourage everyone to order it as she is a great writer.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Another New Blog

I've been switching gears a little bit lately. I'm trying to focus more on the baby and getting our debt paid off. So I already have my debt blog. I started a new blog that is just about Elliott. I will probably not write in this blog as much from now on. There are obviously things I may want to vent about from time to time, but I don't see the need to mix that with my account of Elliott. I transfered some past blogs that were mostly about him (or stuff we did as a family) and I will weed out and tranfer the rest of the past blogs that were just about him in the future. You can check it out here.

The Chronicles of Elliott Action

A Day at the Beach... And the Cheese Factory

We drove out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory today. The tour was short, but interesting. I got a bag of fresh cheese curd which is the tastiest thing in the world. I don't like plain cheese. I put cheese on stuff but I can't eat just a chunk of cheese. But this fresh cheese curd they had was fantastic. And unfortunately I think you can only get it there. They don't sell it at the store so we'll have to go get more some day.

After that we drove up 101 and stopped in Cannon Beach. We got some pizza and walked down the little main drag with all the shops. We got some candy in a decent sized candy shop. I also got a sweet business card holder that has a picture of Spock on it and says "Live long and prosper". Too bad I'm out of business cards, but it reminded me to order more when I got home. I can't wait until they get here.


Then we walked out toward the beach where a friendly bunch of ladies took our picture for us.


And here is a video of Elliott being Elliott.

Eyedrops Made of Pure Gold

I got something in my eye the other day and kept bothering me for a couple days and then this morning I woke up and couldn't keep my eyes open. I went up to the walk in clinic and they told me a I had a pretty good scratch on my cornea and gave me a prescription for eye drops. I went to the Fred Meyer to fill the prescription because they have $4 generic prescriptions and honestly, how much could a little bottle of eye drops cost. They told me they didn't carry the generic (of course) and that the name brand would cost $104. FOR A TINY BOTTLE OF EYE DROPS! Do what you want to force everyone to have health insurance, here lies the real health care problem. Just like my $304 tetanus shot, these medications don't cost anywhere near that much to produce. And the Pharmaceutical CEO's are taking home record salaries.

Ultimately we were told a different Fred Meyer carried the generic version, so we went there where it was going to cost $80! For generic? What happened to your $4 generic advertisement. The pharmacy ended up calling the doctor to see if they could give me a different but similar eye drop that did have a $4 generic version. The doctor said fine which begs me to ask, why the expensive one was even prescribed in the first place?

I don't know about this broken system we have. And it doesn't look like it's going to be fixed any time soon. Now that the health care bill just passed it will create the illusion that we are working on the problem when we are doing absolutely nothing to solve the REAL problem with health care costs in our country.

So I will solve the problem on my own. I wear glasses, but debris always seems to get in behind the lenses anyway. I mean, they're not safety glasses, they are just regular prescription glasses. Safety glasses have two problems: they aren't prescription and they still don't seal to your face so stuff gets behind them. I have a pair of clear plastic safety goggles, but they don't fit over my glasses very well and they fog up. So I order a pair of prescription safety glasses. They are like regular glasses but they have a foam seal around them so they actually close up around your eye so stuff can't get back there, and they are prescription so I'll still be able to see, plus I opted for the optional clip on sunglass lens for summer time.




So now I will stop getting shit in my eyes.

Getting Out of Debt

It's become our new goal to sell a bunch of our crap and get out of debt. Today we opened a new bank account at a credit union so we can stop supporting the big for-profit banks. The bank provides a free debt counseling service and it looks like they might actually refinance our car at a lower interest rate. They said yes to the initial application, now they have to review our last two tax returns. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm starting a new blog that is just a chronicling of our efforts to get out of debt. We've set a time frame of 2 years. 2 years to have a whole lot less junk and no debt.

View the blog here: Two Years To Debtlessness

I actually agree with Republicans... WTF!

THe healthcare bill has passed and they are now going to mandate that all Americans buy healthcare from a private company. That, my friends, is a load of bullshit.

Today, ABC reports:

The individual mandate is an "unprecedented overreach by the federal government forcing individual citizens to buy a good or a service for no other reason then they happen to be alive or a person," Republican governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty said today on "Good Morning America."

The Republicans are challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare mandate and I agree and I hope they succeed. Some say, "well it's mandated that you purchase auto insurance on your car". Yes, only if you drive. You have an option not to drive. And if you individually refuse to not drive or have a job that requires driving, that doesn't make it something you HAVE to do. You are still choosing to drive. Not like you HAVE to be alive. The healthcare mandate is "you breath, you buy a product from a private, for-profit company". That is a perfect example of something that makes our free country a little less free. If our government wants every American to have health insurance, well they better find a wy to provide us with it.

And the subsidy for people who can't afford health insurance is no answer. It has a crap load of requirements and will be VERY hard to qualify for.

So, if the Republicans are unsuccessful and the mandate stays, I encourage people to not get healthcare if they wouldn't have without the mandate and I hope all of them refuse to pay the fine. I have a feeling that is going to be the case and it's going to cause a whole of problems and cost the tax payers a whole bunch of money. This is yet another one of Obama's great ideas that he royally fucked up on execution. And I'm not being sarcastic. The man has great ideas for making the country better, but by the time it gets passed he's compromised so much it turns into a steaming pile of shit. I have a feeling I won't be voting him into a second term.

I think we should do the opposite. I think everyone without insurance should refuse to get it, and I think people with insurance should start canceling it until they take the mandate out of the bill. We're supposed to live in a free country but we're being forced to do business with a private, for-profit company that's already charging outragous amounts, posting record profits and there is nothing it the bill that makes them lower their rates. They can actually still raise their rates a little more under this bill. It's fucking ridiculous. Everyone should cancel their insurance on the same day and send a message to the insurance companies that we're not taking it up the ass anymore.

But we won't, because we're lazy Americans who seem to have no problem taking up the ass from big corporations. So, good luck with that.

I know, I know, "but what if I get sick with no health insurance". I've lived for the past 10 years with no health insurance. I've been sick, I've been injured and I'm fine. and I'm not overrun with medical bills. If you know where to go, you can survive just fine. And this may come as a shocker, but most people don't need all the shit that they're on. There is no other country on the planet that suffers from as many "syndromes" or "disorders" than we do. And no other country takes as much medication as we do. "But what if I get cancer". Well, you can make all your decisions in life based on fear of what-if's, or you can do something that might actually be good for you and the country in the long run. It's up to the American people. We always want to blame the government for everything, but it's the American people that are responsible for everything that is going on in this country. You want more jobs: stop using companies that ship all their jobs overseas (Facebook being the newest company to do that), you want better banking rates: stop using the big private banks and switch to a credit union, you want better treatment of employees: stop shopping at Walmart and stores like it, you want better healthcare rates, refuse to pay for expensive insurance. We decide and we have decided that making a difference takes too much work. So screw the unemployed and screw the workers and screw the uninsured and screw ourselves, we don't want to put in the extra effort.

Baby Time!!!

It's baby time. Most of the time it's a constant investigation into what the baby wants and how to make him happy but occasionally he settles down and lets me snap a picture.

I'm Sorry, But Vaccines Don't Cause Autism

It's funny how you have a conversation about something and then over the next few days things just keep popping up about it. I was having a mildly heated debate about vaccines causing autism with my friend the other day and then over the past couple days I've seen two news articles about the same subject. Just now I got on the computer and my start page has goggle news on it and on of the top stories is: US Court Rules Again Against Vaccine-Autism Claim. It's an article in Reuters about the US Courts ruling against a parents baseless lawsuit for the fourth time.

Now let me clarify: I am not for vaccinations. I think that a majority of them are unnecessary and some are unsafe. And I think most drugs come with harmful side effects and I am very anti doctor and anti medication. That's what's so funny about this issue. I seem like I'm on the wrong side, but the other side is a bunch of bullshit.

Here is quick history of the whole 'vaccine causes autism' theory. From the 40's through the 90's there was a theory that a mercury based preservative caused autism. Now that theory was disproven, but the FDA felt that mercury was still bad and they made the companies that made vaccines faze it out. It's pretty much gone today except when a vaccine is rushed to the market (can anyone say swine flu vaccine?). After that it bacame a theory that the MMR vaccine is causing autism. Now that idea didn't materialize out of thin air. A British doctor named Dr. Wakefield did a study that showed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The study was published in The Lancet, one of the worlds largest medical journals. Well, funny thing is, just last month The Lancet publish a retraction to that very same article because they found out that Dr. Wakefield acted unethically in his research. It wides up the the good Dr. Wakefield found 12 kids that had already presented signs of autism and put them in his study. So the retraction was printed and Dr. Wakefield was fired from his job. So, the study that created the very first mention of this theory ended up being based on fraudulent research. In 2008 Columbia University replicated Dr. Wakefield's study and could not find any evidence that the vaccine was linked to autism.

This theory was presented way back in 1998 and it really didn't get much mention. It wasn't until a few years back when it got some celebrity buzz (Jenny McCarthy) that everyone got up in arms about it. Unfortunately it was a flawed theory that got the attention of a celebrity and all the mindless sheep followed along. And the reason that was so easy is because we live in a country when nobody wants to take the blame for anything. I mean, 10 years ago every kid you came across had ADD. Autism is just the new ADD. It gives parents something else to blame for their kids behavior. Has social issues: Autism. Doesn't do well in school: Autism. And of course their are genuinely autistic kids, but the difference is that those kids have autism, the rest are just diagnosed with it. Because there are parents who go to the doctor looking for an autism diagnosis. So they can take all the blame off of their parenting.

The reason for all of this is to find out why the amount of autism diagnosis is up. Well a few years back they changed the way they diagnosed autism. They took a bunch of different kinds of autism and put them all together so there is only one kind of autism and at the same time, they made the symptoms much broader. Making it easier to find a diagnosis. The very same year autism diagnosis when up 800%. That's no coincidence.

So by all mean, be skeptical of the vaccines and the medications and your doctor. I am all for that. And is it possible that there is some link between any vaccine and autism, sure, anything is possible. But right now, no matter what list of talking points someone gives you, there is no evidence anywhere in the world that shows any sort of link. Yes there are kids who have autism that got vaccines, but there is no research anywhere that says it's from their vaccine. There are shitload of perfectly healthy kids that did get the MMR vaccine. And there are actually some kids who have autism that never got vaccinated.

It's all up in the air but this mass hysteria is completely baseless. It causing more people to try to use the system to sue over something that is most likely their fault. More likely possibilities of a rise in autism (if there really is one) are: diet, pesticides, preservatives, man made formula, taking anti-depressants while pregnant. And there are about 4 anti-depressants that say they are safe to take while pregnant or nursing, but are they?

And while I'm on the subject, I looked it up and yes Amish people do get vaccines for their kids. There is a clinic in Pennsylvania (where the largest Amish population is) that says they do a weekly vaccine clinic for the Amish and they are always very busy. they say that about 70% of the Amish community participate is a vaccination schedule. And the same doctor that holds the clinic said there are Amish kids who are autistic but they are less diagnoses because the Amish don't see a regular doctor very often. He said that there do seem to be less autistic kids but it's most likely from diet and lifestyle.

See, if we admit that a possible rise in autism is from diet and lifestyle, well again we would have to blame ourselves and actually change. And we're a country full of people who don't want to do that and THAT is what fuels this "the vaccine gave my kid autism" rage. And of course as soon as a family finds out their kid has autism, what's the first thing they do? They try to sue. It's their meal ticket and it's bullshit.

So if it's one of the things you want to consider when deciding which vaccinations to get, you're not crazy. Even a theory is enough to pay attention to your child's safety. But it is a theory. There are doctors and scientists on both sides of the issue and there are no studies proving or disproving it. So call it a theory, call it an idea, call it a warning, but telling people it is anything more is a lie. Honestly I'm getting our son the MMR vaccination just out of spite for Jenny McCarthy... Screw you Jenny!

CNN: Medical Journal Retracts Study Linking Vaccine To Autism

Do The Amish Vaccinate, Indeed They Do

The Way I Am

I was 5 years old when my parents divorced. My dad was much more concerned with himself, his stuff and his image than his children. He had visitations every other weekend but a lot of times he wouldn't show up. After couple of years my mother wanted to move us from Califonia to Washington which is normally a big custody no-no. But my mom threatened to take half his business if he didn't let her move us, so he caved. his money was more important to him then us. Then there were sporadic calls and maybe three visits for the rest of our childhoods. One time he called and asked if I was going to be the wrong age in the wrong month. The guy didn't even know when my birthday was. He died when I was 17. He died without knowing anything about his two children. He died with two children who didn't give a crap about him and knew that the feeling was mutual. Occasionally he would send us money or try to buy our love somehow, but my sister and I could see right through that. He was a selfish person who had helped create two life's and didn't give a shit about them.

This was what I struggled with growing up. Why didn't my dad love me? How could somebody have a son and not care about them at all? How could he just disregard me like that? I started driving myself crazy convincing myself that I apparently wasn't worth his love. Drinking was one of the few things that made the thoughts go away. And of course I was turning into an alcoholic which made me believe that it was my lot in life to turn out just like him. Drink and put myself into financial trouble and eventually die young.

I eventually stopped drinking and had to really struggle to come to terms with my issues with my father. And things have been much better, but it's not like they ever went away. If you people only knew the amount of shit that's going on inside my head. It's like a crowded room of noise that follows me around 24/7. Sometimes it keeps me up at night and sometimes I sleep through it but it translates into horrible nightmares. They're nightmares that I don't really talk about. Before Elliott was born they would mainly be of myself being hunted down by something unknown. Something was after me and I couldn't get away no matter what I did. I could just barely stay one step ahead of it and I couldn't stop and I couldn't rest, I had to keep running. Other times I would have nightmares that my sister was being beaten or killed by somebody. Sometimes my mom's old abusive boyfriend who lived with us for many years after the divorce. Either that or she'd be being beaten by someone cloaked in darkness. Now my nightmares have shifted to me dying and leaving my family alone or, as much as I hate to say it, of me killing the baby. And not in accidental ways, I have nightmares of me intentionally killing Elliott. I don't know why or what that means but I can tell you that I have never experienced a single waking moment where I have wanted anything bad to happen to him. Not even when he's fussing and crying. I actually think his little sad face is cute.

So now that you all realize that I'm shit-nuts, I'll continue my story.

I worked on my issues with my dad a lot. I've struggled with depression and still do but things were much better and I was really coming to terms with my dad basically telling me to fuck off. The only problem is that I did this stuff before I had a son. Now that I have a son of my own I am driving myself crazy again trying to figure out how you could just abandon him. How is that act possible?!?! So I find myself having a hard time getting attached to him because the more I do, the more I don't get my dad. And of course I tell myself, "my dad was just broken." He was a broken person. But I'm not fully functioning myself. Hell, I dream about killing my kid. We all have some defects. But of course I do get more attached to him and I love him more and more every day. I can think there is no way that I could ever love this little guy any more, there is not any more love in the entire world, I'm using it all up on him right now; but the the next day you realize that yesterday you were wrong. And the loving of my son makes me happy, but the shit in my head kicks up a notch and I'm right back where I was.

I hate sounding like some whiny famous person on celebrity rehab with Dr. Drew. "Whaa, whaa, daddy didn't love me enough." I'm not the kind of guy that needs to be showered with affection, but nothing at all? It's just something I can't wrap my head around.

So if anyone wants to know why I am the way I am? Good luck. This might give you a hint but really who knows. And anyone who thinks I should act a different way or do things differently, I don't have the time or energy to deal with making you happy. I have enough on my hands with own shit. Honestly, you're lucky that I am not 10 times worse than I am. I really do have to work hard at being as non-offensive as I am right now. The rest of the time I'm telling all the other people in my head to shut up. But they don't and they probably never will.

Fathers Day

My birthday happened recently. You know what I did? Nothing. I never do anything for my birthday because I don't care. But I still get cards in the mail and people still call me on the phone. I realized the other day that now I have father's day to look forward to (that's sarcasm). So just because I impregnated my wife I'm going to get more cards in the mail and people will call me on the phone. And I just don't care. I have the baby right here in front of me, I don't need to be reminded that I'm a father. People need to realize that the greatest gift anyone can give me is to just leave me alone. Where other people get upset if you forget their birthday or don't say happy father's day, I am the opposite. I am disappointed when the phone rings. I just want to be left alone. And greeting card are a waste of trees and money, but no matter how much I tell people that, they just send them anyway. Because it's ingrained in people's heads that you're supposed to send a greeting card to people. Hallmark has people trained like the dogs we are. So here's one more shot at this: don't send me anything, don't call me to wish me a happy anything, don't plan a party for me, don't buy me a present. The best gift you can get me is the gift of silence.

Growing Up In This World...

Nato Airstrike Kills 27 Civilians (including children). This on top of last week when a Nato forces mistakenly killed 5 civilians, a Nato airstike missed it's target and killed 7 policemen, and last December Nato mistakenly killed 10 school children. Way to go saving the world from crazy terrorists who would travel to foreign countries and kill innocent people... Oh, wait.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7035978.ece

And a Baby Makes Three

Things are going well with the baby. He's still in that stage where he sleeps a lot so we've been able to catch up on sleep after our week long ordeal. HE's also really calm when he's awake. He's not a big crier. He cries a little when he's hungry but otherwise he just sits there and stares at everything. I think he's fascinated by my beard. I think he thinks he has a mom and a grizzly bear as parents. Then sometimes the dog gets in his face and I wonder if he thinks it's me. Babies don't have very good eye sight so you never know.

We did take the baby back to the hospital for a jaundice follow up because his yellowness was getting worse but they told us his bilirubin levels were actually lower so that's good. Thank god for Oregon Health Plan. I can't imagine if we had to pay for that out of our pockets. I mean, we really wanted a natural birth but you can't predict the future and I'm glad we are covered for what happened, plus the baby having jaundice. I mean even if the natural birth happened without a hitch he would have still had jaundice, had to go to the hospital and go under the lights. So anything can happen. Not to mention if there is some complication before the baby is born. It's just better to be safe than sorry. I'm not one to take government assistance, but at least I've paid into that system. Not like a guy I knew who's family just lived off the government and never really contribute to society. He said "They can't get a job, then they will lose their assistance." What a bunch of leeches. At least Krystal and I have worked hard and contributed to society.

I found the cloth diapers very very easy to use and they are not much work at all to wash. I don't why more people don't use them. We do have a big utility sink right next to our washing machine so I guess I will give other people the benifit of the doubt if they don't have that. I'm sure it makes it easier, but still, not that much work. I couldn't imagine paying disposable diapers. We'd be broke... Or broker than we already are. Seriously we'd be bankrupt.

We also bought a jeep baby carrier (baby backpack) to replace the piece of shit Baby Bjorn we had. Why are those things so popular? That thing had to be the most poorly designed piece of garbage I've ever owned. There were buttons that you pushed to release straps under the baby while it was sitting in it. I couldn't stand it. It was nearly impossible to get the baby in and out of it. It sucked. So we got a Jeep baby carrier and I love it. All the adjustments are easy to get to. the baby sits in it really well without it squishing the baby into my chest. Very happy with it.

It looks like things are going to start getting very busy at work. I have a few upcoming jobs now plus a couple bids out plus an engineer working on a couple plans for future jobs. So it's time to work a couple weekends and put some money in the bank and then we can go up and visit the family. If their good.

Welcome Home Baby

He's finally home..

The Babies Journey

It's been quite the adventure. Krystal started contractions at about 6:30am on Wednesday. We stayed home and our midwife stopped by and checked her out a few times. Then we went in at about 2:00pm to the clinic only to be turned away because she was not dilated enough. Understandable. Tried to get some rest that evening and finally went back in to the clinic at about 3:00am Thursday. Krystal labored for a while and still wasn't dilated a lot so we left, got some breakfast (just a smoothie for Krystal) and stopped at home to let the dogs out of the kitchen. We went back to the clinic at about 2:00pm that afternoon where things just kept on not progressing. Krystal finally got almost fully dilated but couldn't really push. So there was a whole lot more laboring and she sat in the tub and they broke her water manually which made her cervix go back down to 6 cm. So we watched TV and tried to nap and eventually Krystal got back up to almost 10 cm at like 5:00am today (Friday) but still couldn't push. Remember that there has been virtually no real sleep and no food since early Wednesday. Now our midwife is suggesting that Krystal get back in the tub but I can tell that the poor girl doesn't have anything left in her. And Krystal finally gives in and asks to be taken to the hospital. The place we didn't want to go but by this point I just want the baby to be born healthy. I don't care how anymore.

So about 6:30am friday we go over to Legacy Emanuel and get admitted there. We get a new midwife from the hospital and a nurse and they give Krystal a mild painkiller just to get her relaxed. Then after talking with the midwife about our options with epidurals and pitocin, we decide to give Krystal and epidural and just let her get some sleep. which she does and it seems to help out tremendously. So after a tiny amount of pitocin and some laboring she is finally fully dilated and she starts pushing. To make a long story short, after 4 hours of intense pushing, the midwife and nurse come to the conclusion that the baby is not going to make it naturally. The midwife said she's never seen anyone push so well and there should be some progress but there just isn't. It's literally the story of the baby's life. So they bring in a doctor as a second option and he agrees that a c-section is the only way to go. Krystal is disappointed but after over 2 days of solid labor (contractions every 5 minutes sometimes 2-3 minutes the whole time) and 4 hours of pushing, there's not much else she can do.

Within 15 minutes we were in the c-section room and they had me sit next to Krystal's head, I couldn't see the operation due to the blue curtain. Finally they held up a wrinkly, blueish baby boy... Boy? Apparently the doctor was wrong about the sex, which we weren't completely surprised about. So I got to go around and I took some pictures and some video as the nurse cleaned him up and printed his feet and he peed on some of the nurses (which I got on video) and then I got to hold him and bring him over to Krystal. And nurses just assume that guys don't know how to hold a baby, I got lots of compliments on my baby holding skills. I've been around a baby or two in my day. Then they stapled Krystal back up and we went back to the room where she breastfed him and he did great at latching. Then Krystal took a nap and I just held him in my arm for the longest time. He would just look up at me with these pretty blueish/ grayish eyes.

No I'm back home letting our dogs out of the kitchen they'd been locked in for 21 hours. I'll probably watch some TV and just pet them for a bit so I don't feel like they're being neglected and then go back to the hospital. Krystal will have to be there until at least Monday. My sister is coming down tomorrow.

I will say this from our experience. Whoever made the movie "The Business of Being Born" has never been to Legacy Emanuel. And since that is my only point of reference, in my opinion, that movie is 100% false about hospitals. At least based on that one. I know there are some terrible hospitals out there, but if you look into it, you can find a good hospital that uses midwifes and will respect your wishes in a lot of areas. I think also that movie came out just before the hospital birthing industry changed so now it's not quite as accurate. Having the parents in control of the labor is a growing trend in hospitals. Not that our original midwives did anything wrong. After the c-section the nurses told me there was no way that baby would have ever came out naturally, he was just jammed in there weird. And I trust that they are right. There's nothing our first midwifes could have done about that. But honestly, we don't plan on having another baby, but if it did happen I wouldn't go anywhere else to have it. That hospital was fantastic. I recommend it to anyone especially anyone who is interested in having, or at least trying to have a natural birth. Or anyone afraid of having drugs pushed on them. They used the epidural and pitocin perfectly to help along an already troubled labor. And any time they thought they could back off the pitocin they would or occasionally turned it off. There was no pressure to use more and it was always up to us. And to us, eventually you have to start picking your battles differently. having the baby became much more important than any ideal we had about how the labor would go.

But I'm glad our baby boy is out and healthy. And Krystal did an amazing job that I don't think anyone else in the world could have done. She deserves her beautiful son she worked so hard to bring into the world. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Elliott Action O'Neal...

0 Weeks 0 Days: Day Two

The baby is still working her way out. When we went to the birth center yesterday, the midwife had us come back home because Krystal wasn't dilated enough. So she told us to just come home and be comfortable. We got a little sleep and went back to the birth center at about 3:30am. Krystal labored there for a while and then we laid down and kind of slept on and off through contractions. Sleeping made the contractions start coming further apart which got Krystal really discouraged, thinking it would take a long time before the baby is born. But the midwife came in and checked Krystal and determined that she is about 4 cm and effacing really well. So the progress is happening but we still had some time so she suggested we go get food (or smoothies) and check on the dogs, maybe take a shower and relax. One, to be more comfortable and two, to pass some time. So we just got home, Krystal is sitting on the couch. She says that the contractions are happen more frequent again. We're going to go back to the birth center at 11:00am.

0 Weeks 0 Days: Right Now

So the baby is on her way. The midwife came by and said everything looks good and will come back in a few hours. We're still having the baby at a birthing facility but the midwife said it's best to stay home where you're comfortable as long as we can. Then we'll go to the facility and have the baby. So now I'm cleaning up the house and talking to my mom and soon I'm going to go get some beverages for Krystal.

Word.

40 Weeks 0 Days: The Time is Right

Everything has been business as usual. I have been making sure my customers know that I might have to take a couple days off from their project on any of my new jobs. Everybody is fine with that of course. I can't imagine anybody going, "I'm sorry but we have a contract and you need to miss the birth of your child to work on my house." That would just be silly.

Everything is as ready as it can be though. The baby has a bed and some clothes (actually a lot of clothes) and the car seat is installed. And we have diapers. So we can get the baby home where it can eat, sleep & poop.

I have been planning ahead and downloading various cartoons and kids shows because I don't like any of the crap that's on TV for kids now. It's all way too PC and geared toward really over-sheltering kids. I'm not the sheltering type. I have absolutely no interest in making sure my kid doesn't see nudity or hear swearing. And everybody goes, "Oh you'll feel differently when you have a kid." Oh, nope. I think that the more you make something taboo, the more your kid is going to want it. I'm not going to get my kid liquored up and sit it down in front of a porno, but I'm going to continue to treat things the way I normally do. There are some movies that have weird graphic sex scenes that make me uncomfortable and I will most likely not let our kid watch those, mainly because I don't really want to watch them either. But violence, nudity and not so graphic sex scenes are fine by me. I really think it's weird when people don't let their kids see just nudity. We are so afraid of the naked body in this country. We are the only country (of mainly white people) who are this afraid of nudity. I mean, we blur out cleavage on the TV and bleep the word "balls". Really? Balls? Maybe if we didn't constantly teach our kids to be ashamed of their bodies, their wouldn't be so many kids with eating disorders... Just an idea.


And swearing.... Give me fucking break. My mom NEVER swore. I mean, literally she swore once while I was growing up and my sister and I were amazed that she did. She was prudish about sex and violence in movies and she never swore and I love violent movies and I swear like a sailor. So that doesn't work. Maybe the fact that she made it a big deal focused my attention on it and made it an attractive way to rebel? I find it hilarious that my mom thinks I should not swear around my kid, which is what she did and she has a kid who tuned out to swear a lot... And she thinks I should do the same thing? Am I the only person who sees that as a pattern for failure? So, no offense, but I'm going to go ahead and disregard the advice from the parent who's kid turned out to swear constantly and try my own method. My method is called the "I don't give a shit, everybody makes everything out to be way to big of a deal" method. And maybe it won't work and my kid will turn out to swear a lot but really, not the end of the world. I swear a lot and I'm doing just fine. And, though I don't want my child to walk around swearing at people, if she swears as an adult, I don't care. I'm not trying to eliminate swearing from my child's vocabulary. If my kid learns swear words when she's little I think teaching the kid how to be polite and respectful will stop them from swearing at everybody. But my prediction is that it will work perfectly and my kid will never swear and it will frustrate my entire family. Oh, the simple pleasures in life...

37 Weeks 0 Days: Clean Your Room

Over the course of last weekend and this weekend I built a piece of furniture to store the baby's clothes in. I don't know what to call it. It's not really a dresser. I guess it's a hutch of some sort. I had the basic box already built as something I was going to use for a place to put work clothes and to have somewhere to put my wallet, phone and the little tools I keep on me at work every day. I like to put things in the same place every day so I don't forget them. I never finished it so I used that. Then I had made some built in cabinets in a customers hallway a while back but the door I ordered originally didn't fit right so I kept those and ordered new ones. There was one shorter door and one taller door. To my surprise the shorter door fit perfectly on the front. So I made a drawer because I had some drawer tracks lying around the garage and put the door on, put a little trim on it, added a shelf, painted it with some high gloss paint and now we have some baby clothes storage. It's not perfect. It was so cold in the garage when I painted that the paint took a really long time to dry so there are some drips dried into the paint. Even trying to do a light coat, with the paint taking so long to dry it gave it that much more time to drip. I put a space heater on it and it helped a little. But it's sturdy as hell. It's all 3/4" material, even the drawer. It's no Ikea dresser that will fall apart in a matter of months. This thing is a tank.