Laminate Flooring Recap - Pictures!

In this first picture you can see the initial cut-away of the water damaged area near the old patio door. The night before the door was replaced, I pulled the laminate back to the left further to expose and clear out the remaining area.
This shot of the kitchen area shows the new french doors that replaced the old slider.
Now the work begins. With the furniture removed, this is what the old rooms were like:
Of course, the furniture had to go somewhere. Think of it as an expensive game of Tetris!
With the carpet removed and a large section of linoleum taken up. You can just make out the repaired section of the floor near the door where the wood is a different color. That repair goes under the door, by the way.
The start of the next day we indulged the kids and let them "ride" a bike inside. The plywood layer they are riding on brings the floors level so there's no funky transitions going on. This picture is more like the "end of day 1" progress picture.
End of Day 2:
End of Day 3:
End of Day 4: (Opposing views)
End of Day 5: (again opposing views)
End of Day 6: (End of the Big Stuff)

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 6

This coming weekend doesn't provide much time for working on the floor so I took the opportunity of a small lull at work to flex some time and headed home early to work flooring before the kids came home.

2:45 - start of last row by cabinets, initial pieces needed to be cut down.
3:30 - 4 rows later, start cuts on vents.
4:15 - now the trickier side, the 2nd row at the vents (the way it happened, I had to cut out the majority of the vent from the 2nd row, leaving only 1/4 inch of the board. Decided to lay the row immediately behind at the same time for stability -- to keep from shattering/splitting the 1/4 inch sections.
5:10 - Time to start the last row on the main part of the floor. Each one will be measured and cut as the wall is a little wonky.
6:20 - 6:45 - Eat the dinner my wife kindly brought home.
8:00 - The main area is now done. Yay!

Summary:
4' x 21' aprox (one longer row in front of the cabinets) covered.
3+ (probably 3.5) boxes used.

To Do:
Pantry and hallway. All floorboards (which it seems we're inclined to get a larger, slightly fancier cut to add a further formal touch, stained of course.)

For now, I'm going to relax. After that, I'll see about putting together the photos of each day into a post.


To do:

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 5

tonight (back to real-time), after a full day away from working the floor, I decided to work in a little bit of flooring between cooking dinner for the kids, starting recorded kid shows, refereeing and time between dinner and bed.

6:30 - 8:30 pm - interspersed putting down rows of laminate with parental duties.

2 more boxes down. Covered about 4x40. We should have around 2 boxes left over. Not too bad considering we purchased based on maximum floor dimensions without accounting for space taken up by cabinets.

The next row starts with ripping down boards to go up against the last set of cabinet faces. Only about 4' left of width to cover. Of course, that includes the work around the cabinets, the door, and the floor vents. Oh, and figuring out the pantry closet and most likely the hallway. I'm reasonably certain at this point we'll end up doing the hallway. Not a large task, just need a piece of transition strip so we can change directions. Then there's figuring out how to end at the stairs and the other transitions/thresholds to do.

I'm going to pretend that all the floorboards are going to stain and install themselves.

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 4

I should have been at work. I was planning on going to work. The head cold/virus/whatever had other plans for me. It really would not have been pleasant for coworkers to have to deal with me -- the drugs weren't working well enough and my headache and general exhaustion was debilitating. Instead, with the kids home for President's day and my wife having to sacrifice her day to be home with them, I fought through the pressure to try to complete more floor, taking a much easier pace and trying to return the home back to normal sooner.

8:30 - after eating a granola bar, started placing more wood. Today will include cuts around the island (which should be highly entertaining given my mental state and mood) thankfully followed by long runs of open space.
10:00 - start working island.
10:36 - the first row at the island is in. Examined remaining space and decided it best to move the stove.
11:03 - vacuumed out the work area, threw the circuit breaker and pulled out the stove. OMG are the sides of the stove and the floor under it disgusting. There's barely an eight of an inch (1/8") gap to the counter on either side, but liquids and small crumbs have found their way into a protected area.
11:21 - stove is out, linoleum under it is removed.
Noon -Lunch.
12:20 - back at it, groaning a little.
12:50 - 1:10 - Hobby Horse repairs: 4 new springs placed, attempted to run a stringer between support bars for the feet, but the rod is a little too wide.
2:30 - the width of the island has been covered. Several PITA pieces to cut, but they're done. Wife starts helping as Little Trooper is napping and our lady in waiting is entertaining herself with TV and playtime in the basement.
3:50 - Little Trooper wakes up, back doing the boards alone (I miss the company)
4:50 - enough of the floor done to put the stove back in place.
5:05 - anti-tip hold down hardware relocated and installed. Determine the original placement never worked. Power restored to the stove and it still works. Done for the day.

5 more boxes completed. Only about 6' of width remain (that's slightly under 1/3 of the floor). Should be interesting to work the vents and around the cabinets.

Addendum:
9:30-10:00 pm - discuss what we're going to do about pantry closet and hallway at the garage door. We're leaning to working those. Fun, especially since the boards in front of the pantry have been in place for days now - we'll be working those in kinda backward. Most likely will need to purchase a direction-change transition runner to go from the kitchen to the hallway.

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 3

Roll the clock back a couple of days, here's what happened on project day 3:
8:30 - move refrigerator, pull linoleum with my daughter's help ;). Take out remaining floorboard. Resume laying down laminate.
Noon - break for lunch which we could assemble in the little remaining kitchen space.
12:30 - back to the boards.
2:15 - enough of the floor done to put the fridge back and rip some more linoleum.
2:30 - done for the day. Time to clean up to celebrate my birthday with extended family.

4 more boxes placed, about 1/2 the width of the floors completed.

The time with family was a welcome break, getting all of us out of the house for an extended period of time and away from the noise of construction. Unfortunately, dinner wasn't much quieter and my head was not clearing up.

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 2

You'd think that my body might decide to cooperate, given the large amount of work ahead. Instead, I woke nice and early. This is the Day2 recap (posted the next morning as I had no finger energy left to type last night):

5:30 - Wake up, take drugs for stuffy head. Lay in bed and try to get some rest.
6:30 - Start of the morning routine, Little Trooper woke up and was not to be deterred from breakfast.
8:00 - After the family is completely up and breakfasts are completed, send everyone else but me to the basement. There's plywood yet to place.
9:15 - First row is down. 2nd row is going to either end at the closet or need to be cut to go in. Decide with my wife that we need to do the coat closet. Fun, more ripping and staples. (Just cant' get enough of those staples.)
9:40 - 2 Birthday calls and lots of Tetris with plywood, the closet is now ready.
10:46 - Plywood underlayment is now complete. House and garage are vacuumed to remove as much sawdust as possible. Bring up compound miter saw and prep work areas to start laying laminate in earnest. Rest of the family heads to swimming classes.
11:30 - Oh yeah, need to do more undercutting of the door frames. It's not fun to run a hacksaw as close as possible to the floor and my hands have a lot less skin on the knuckles.
12:30 - Family is back from swimming with lunch. Break for lunch and settling the kids down for a nap.
1:30 - Back at it. Cringe at how slow things seem to be going. Spacers are pivoting under the drywall (most of which stops about 1/2 inch short of the floor) and the previously laid rows are bowing against the large open doorways between rooms. Curse at myself for agreeing to start on what isn't a very solid continuous wall. The results had best be better than starting against the outside wall of the house. My wife is able to assist while Little Trooper is napping and the princess is watching Dora/Max & Ruby episodes in the basement.
5:00 - Stop, discuss dinner, break for dinner.
6:50 - Return from dinner, banish everyone to the basement again while I continue work on the floor. (Did I mention my wife is doing an extraordinarily good job dealing with all the noise and constant kid needs while I'm banging around and she's still fighting off a bad headache? Kudos.)
7:30 - Did you know it can take nearly 1/2 hour to size/cut/re-size/re-cut just one board? Yeah, an ugly cut that has a 1 inch strip that runs 23 inches until it spreads back out to full width. And that has to go into a space where I'm pushing the board in next to a wall. Ugh.
8:20 - Need a break. Little Trooper went down for bed on the early side. That was good as he will sleep through the noise. Go down to watch part of a show with my daughter and take a rest.
9:00 - Oops, long rest. She's going up with my wife to get ready for bed, I'm going to try to work some more.
9:30 - Done for the night. We're at a break in the room where the next row must extend into the kitchen and under where the refrigerator is now. That will wait until after breakfast tomorrow. Clean up work areas, put tools out-of-reach of kids.
10:30 - My wife poured me a bath in our indulgence tub. Bless her soul, she's still making sure I have some time to relax on my birthday.

Summary:
4 boxes of laminate used, about 6' x 18' of floor covered. Gee, that only leaves 12' x 36' now that we're to the long runs!
About 300 brad nails to hold plywood in place (not even worrying about the centers of most boards).

Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 1

A brief history:
We have about the cheapest carpet made down on the floors in the house that date to when we had the house build 8 1/2 years ago. As we made the carpet selection -- mostly what color of cheap carpet -- one thing we did do right was to listen to suggestions and upgrade the padding. That decision turned out to pay for itself many times over.

Now, with 2 kids and 8.5 years of general use, there are well-worn tracks in the carpet where even the upgraded padding can no longer compensate having been broken down under the relentless traffic. There are stains that give rise to fun memories yet which "decorate" the high-use areas. And now that the kids are proficient walkers we don't feel the need to keep the same level of "crash zone" padding around.

In short, it's time to bring in the wood! You can read my wife's post on the agony of making the decision on what to do and where to stop. Keeping this down to a reasonable size... (yeah, right)

Monday: New patio door (in this case, French doors) installed, with a defective astroglade (sp>) unit -- it's the thing that holds the door closed by pushing rods into holes in the door jam.

Tue-Thur: catch up at work for time lost to door install.

Thur pm: bug very good friend to help pick up plywood underlayment to level floors. After he comes over, while not feeling tops, we make the clarification that the underlayment is 4x8 sheets of plywood that won't fit in his SUV. (BTW, I'm extremely grateful for his willingness to help and I will make it up to him)

Now for today's recap:
6:30 - out of bed, help with morning routine
7:45 -take kids to daycare
8:15 - back home, time to start working!
9:10 - complete Tetris game to move the furniture out of the 2 rooms getting the new laminate flooring.
10:00 - Completed removing baseboards (minus the one behind the refridgerator that will come out when I get to working that part of the floor)
10:25 - cut-out and removed the largest square of carpet which is then in a lump in the middle of the garage.
10:36 - grumble and groan after vaccuming up a cigarette butt that was closed up behind the baseboards.
Noon - OOOOOWWWW! Most of the carpet padding is now removed, way too many staples removed (needle nose pliers and I are now really good friends).
12:35 - after 3 phone calls, clean-up of pulled staples and padding, along with removal of a few stragglers, is completed. Time to go shopping for the plywood and maybe some lunch.
1:00 - decided to pull up an additional section of old linoleum to see just how bad that effort would be and to expose the transition area. Finally going for lunch and flooring.
1:20 - 3 - The trip to the store didn't work out as smoothly as planned. I picked out the plywood, went to rent a truck to bring the full sheets home, found out my insurance card needed to be updated to the most current one which I had already paid for. Purchased the wood and placed it on hold for pick up later. Returned home, dug through the pile of mail to find the cards. Returned to the store, rented and loaded the truck. Returned home again, unloaded wood. Searched owner's manual for type of gas the truck uses (required to bring it back at same level on tank with accompanying gas receipt). Giggle at the fact it took as long to figure that out as to load, move and unload the wood. Buy 2 gallons of gas. Return the truck. Wait for it to be checked back in. Guess what... I went a whopping 9 miles. While waiting for check-in, laughed with sales clerk because the hadn't written down my departure time and were surprised I was back to soon.
3ish -4:15 - Valentines part for both kids at daycare.
4:30ish - show kids around the floor, cover dangerous areas, coverse about plans for the night, and return to working by starting to lay plywood.
6:20 - dinner break - Pizza in the basement.
6:50 - back to work with lots of cuts (corners, vents, etc) on the docket.
7:30 - kids meltdown, stop work for the night, put kids to bed.
9:00 - for whatever reason, type this up.

On the plate for tomorrow:
All the complicated cuts of plywood.
Plan out if we're going to do closets, a hallway, etc. and finish preping those areas (or leave them as-is)
Finally get to laying laminate and pray it gets done.

(Un) Common Courtesy

This evening was, majorly, a delight. Although a little tired from a shortened nap for my son and no nap for my already tired daughter, the two of them, the two of us, my parents and sister's family all went to see "Elmo's Green Thumb" tonight. The show was OK, I watched enough to wonder at the level of anamatronics and their implementation in the performers' costumes, but the real treat for me was watching my kids. Both of them enjoy Sesame Street at levels appropriate to their ages and the two of them together seem to have some other shared consciousness which causes them to laugh, sing, bounce, etc with synchronized precision and honest joy. This interaction didn't diminish with my interposition or with repositioning to various laps and seats. Probably the most enjoyable time was the spontaneous bouts of dancing both engaged in with fascinated looks pastered on their faces. With the other stresses in the family, this was a welcome respite that did my soul much good.

Prior to this evening's festivity, we all attended church together. The priest offered a homily reflecting on the transformation of Saul's convictions about Jesus's resurrection. (Bear with me, this is related even if religious.) To overly-simplify the point, Saul was overly-zealous and overly-guilty. He persecuted early Christians with fervor because of their blasphemous (in his eyes) belief in the resurrection. His guilt was well-intentioned but proven to be misplaced and it took Saul many, many years to reconcile for himself -- in the face of the factual resurrection -- his beliefs; a period of introspection that ultimately resulted in the complete conversion of Saul's life into the reborn Peter. The priest then challenged us to be neither over-zealous nor over-guilty. We're not perfect and we must observe the world around us with tolerance so that we may gain wisdom.

Got that? Wondering where this is going?

So, after the show, we planned to go for a meal with the gathered family at a location not far away. We had parked on the 3rd level of a parking garage above the rest of the family that had parked on the 1st level having arrived much earlier. The other car was quickly out and re-parked at the restaurant while we packed up and proceeded to get into a line of cars backed up the exit ramp. A quick glance at the cars around us would confirm that this family show was attended by families. By far, SUV's and Minivans populated the parking slots -- both demarked by paint and defined by the momentary gridlock. Families of all sorts braved the wind and cold to take tired children to their cars, weaving through the same mass of viechles that saught direction.

With the kindness of a minivan driver a couple of spaces down, we both joined the stream flowing toward the exit ramp. We proceeded to the end of the row, just around the corner, then join the gridlock. I would estimate that there were about 20 slots on either side of the lane where the majority of the cars were still parked. Pedestrian traffic moved faster, but terminated in the viechles in-view and going nowhere. While engines started and drivers attempted to communicate, the most prevalent light in the row was the glare brake lights .

I can't speak for all viechles, but in my car the kids were antsy and I wouldn't think it too much of a stretch to imagine the behavior was shared in most of the cars surrounding us. One, which was to my side, had two women, dragging 3 children into the viechle; one under audible, even if unintelligable protest.

This is where things seemd to go all wrong. We had all just come from a show that embodied the good qualities for our children to learn. In sharp contrast, it's nearly amusing to see 6 minivans try to all back into the same space at the same time, none willing to yeild, while two additional cars try to navigate out of the way. While that went on, I reminded my daughter that there was no where for my car to go and that -- here's the initial tie in -- we were not the only ones with opinions on how this should go. It was not right for us to believe we knew best and had the only opinion that mattered.

I will admit, I wanted to get out and direct traffic, but eventualy the congestion started to clear. Nearly exactly at that moment, the car with the two women and 3 children, reversed quite rapidly, nearly into the side of my car. Apparently their impatience was boiling over. Their horn started honking and I could nearly taste the resentment they were projecting from not moving. To be honest, I was likely eminating much the same set of emotions, but I remained on my break while the automotive knot was unwinding. Apparently my view on the situation was not shared.

From the kindess of the mothers, a door was opened and yelling comprable to the gentleness of a seasoned drill seargent commensed. Right in the middle of a gridlocked garage and in a stellar role-model for their children and mine, the mother in the passenger seat instructed me that I should be driving like I intended to go somewhere yet that night -- along with other phrases I will decline to share. Now, I have no idea where I could have gone except to plant my viechle further into the congestion, but that was of no concern. The driver of the other viechle decided that the point was not taken seriously enough and laid on the horn continuously for 2 minutes.

After having been parked for roughly twenty minutes, the knot was undone to the point where I could move forward. As I cleared a critical amout of space, the driver quickly reversed her car out of its parking spot -- while still on the horn somehow, nearly hitting the back side of my car and I would imagine the nose of the car that has been patiently waiting behind me, pulled completely across the isle, and charged forward down the parking spaces next to me, culminating in cutting me off ("rode raging" me as my wife put it likely most accurately) while still hollaring out a window before nearly hitting a car parked in the makeshift lane. Incredible!

It's not worth it, I reminded my daughter as I let the other car in front of me. I could have gunned it -- my car would easily have raced into the back of the car in front of me -- but what good would that do? I would have been just as guilty in my miopic perspective and wrongly zealous by that action as the other driver already was. I would have risked the safety of my family and several others for what?

No, I'm not confessing to a peronal faith conversion from this eventm but I was quite frankly shocked and dissapointed in the behavior of many adults this evening with the safety of many families in their hands. All I can hope is to hold onto what I grew up learning as common courtesy, teach it to my children by example and pray that more people open their eyes to the world around them.

Aged or Jaded?

I have a new teammate. He's recently out of college and reminds me of me at that point in my life. He's secure in what he knows, willing to challenge the established practices, respectful of the "elders" on the team, etc. I miss the times when I didn't worry about the other dynamics of software development, when the code itself was the focus of the effort and the reward for a job well done.

So what is it that changed things for me? Some of it I would classify as maturing, seeing that there is more than code to having a successful product. Good code is easier to maintain and it is still a joy to see. But not everyone has the same definition of good. Good code simply works; both in that it is simple and that it does just what it should. Good code may also be judged for lucidity, elegance, brevity or even against "coding standards" -- someone's idea of a quantifiable measure of good. I've started to add: Good code is maintainable code, well documented and testable. Unfortunately, that starts to become a balancing act with elegance and brevity as not everyone is able to write or understand code at the same level. In this case, the maturing aspect is the inclusion of others in the goal.

But, it's more than that. Much of it is that I'm growing tired of the fight. I'm weary from nearly arguing about quality and costs with management that does not want to hear anything other than what is it going to cost the customer on contract. There's no buy-in to producing good code. It seems that the bean-counter definition that drives decision making is: Good code is shipped code. That's it, nothing else would seem to matter. I've put together justifications about technology upgrades to bring codebases into today's world (much of those are over a decade old!) The cost of being unable to attract or retain good developers doesn't seem to matter. Yet we're expected to be judged on quality, meeting customer expectations and other "Good Code" (and important outcomes) metrics. Apparently we're expected to do this for free or on someone elses' dime.

It would be nice to get back to the simple definitions, to being the happy coder truly enraptured with my job. Where I could have simple pride in the completion of the job, not, "if you qualify it thusly, make this exception, take that into consideration... Yeah, I could be proud if it!" Yet, somehow, I still enjoy the work. It's still a thrill to see the software through the customer's eyes. I really love it when on first demo they pick at little things because it means we've truly impressed them and nailed the big stuff!

So, Is it that I'm Aged or Jaded?


My answer: Yes.

You Know You're a Parent When...

Romantic time starts with, "Are they asleep?"
And ends with. " Yes, so am I. Goodnight."

Ask The Hard Questions

It wasn't all that long ago that I asked, rhetorically of my son, "Who told you that you could grow so big?" A simple enough question I've heard uttered aloud on numerous occasions. I was not prepared to receive an answer, however. My daughter, in a perfectly casual, nearly off-handed way said, "God did, in his heart." Such an amazing answer I couldn't do anything but sit there in awe.

I don't make a habit of posting religious items. For that matter, for the last nearly 6 months I haven't really posted at all. ;) But matters of faith have been in the forefront lately for me and I've started wondering if I'm missing the not-so-subtle nudge to start speaking out more. Tonight provided further fodder.

My daughter's bedtime routine hasn't changed substantially. We put on PJs, brush teeth, read books, snuggle, and finally turn out the light. I tuck her in and then wholeheartedly offer: "Good night, sleep well, God Bless you, I'll see you in the morning." There are nights where we have some discusson on how many books we read, how much snuggle time is allowed, not being ready for bed, etc. Tonight there were no arguments; she was on top of the routine.

We brushed teeth, put on PJs, picked out books, and read books as normal with my daughter keeping track of what we had done and what was next. She had picked out 3 of the Golden Book books from the collection on her shelf: I Love You, Daddy, The Little Tugboat and The Story of Jesus -- arranged into that order. None of them were new or strangers to the bedtime routine.

After finishing the books my daughter chimes in with, "Let's turn out the light and talk about after Jesus died. OK, Daddy?"

Um... woah. Wasn't expecing that one. "Sure. What about when Jesus Died?"

I can't do the conversation justice, nor does my gramatical sense stay out of the way enough to be able to faithfully reproduce it here. What I did come away with was the thought that I need to call a good friend (and Priest) to come have a better conversation with her. We touched on subjects from how Jesus was conceived, born, why he died, where he is now and even a little on Heaven and afterlife. Nothing like asking the easy warm-up questions first.

If there's anything from what happened tonight that I would emphasize it is simply this: I hope that people never stop questioning items of faith, that we can approach the questions, no matter how hard, with an open mind and search for answers even if they remain beyond our reach.

My daugher has started on this path, and for that I am grateful. May I never stand in her way.

Mellow Rib Rub

(originally posted to the wrong blog... my apologies)

Wanted to do something with some pork spareribs that wasn't a heavy Southwestern blend and that would complement smoking with Apple Wood chips:

• 1/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp ea:
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Sweet Hungary Paprika
• Crushed Marjoram
• Ground Ginger
• Ground Coriander
• Ground Cloves
• Crushed/Ground Fennel

Personally, I'd go on the light side (3/4 or less) with the Cloves and Fennel to help keep the more subtle apple wood flavor come out more.

Who Cut the Cheese?

If you will forgive me the junior-high level joke for a title, this was actually a question with much weight on it as both my wife and I palled at what could be implied by the unknown answer.

The back story:
Sunday mornings are always a bit of a challenge. I like to try to sleep in at least one day on the weekend; something that hasn't happened effectively since my son was born nearly a year ago. My daughter has always insisted on breakfast, ideally pancakes, muffins, or some other home-cooked meal for Sunday breakfast. So, she would come in, join us in bed for a snuggle and snooze, then my wife, feeling much hungrier than me, would take the girl downstairs and prepare something.

(I would guess she's already posed a rant about wanting me to help with this activity. Much as I would try, it's just not something I find I'm able to motivate myself to do consistently and for that I'm sorry.)

Now, with my son deciding to wake up at the usual morning time to eat -- why should he break routine for this weekend thing he doesn't have any concept about just so I can nap? -- that starts the day a little earlier. I do try to be the one to go get him and bring him to my wife in bed for the morning start. I then lie back down, half-snoozing until, inevitably, my daughter comes in. From there, the quiet morning snuggle becomes more like a circus as she and the boy play/fuss/tunnel in the sheets/fuss and otherwise act like their ages.

Back to the story:
Today there was no difference other than we all managed to stay in pretty good moods, even to the point of getting everyone dressed and working in showers after breakfast. My son was the first one done, followed by my wife, then my daughter and finally me -- IIRC. It was at this point where we heard a melodic, "I need a snack," followed by the pitter-patter of my daughter's little shoes going down the stairs and around to the kitchen.

We heard the pantry door open, rustling in the pantry, the door close, drawers open and shut, nothing outside the noises you would expect to hear for the preparation of a snack. So, it was with quite a shock when my daughter came back upstairs and my wife asked, "Where'd you get that?" "That" was a big hunk of cheese from the fridge. We were not upset with the choice of snack, but this is precisely where the question at hand came into play as both my wife and I stared at each other. We decided, in that parental-telepathy kind of way, to wait a few minutes as we were all going to be wrapped-up and headed down anyway.

So, we get downstairs and my wife asked, "How did you get the cheese?"
"I cut a piece."
"With what, honey?"
"A knife."
"From the drawer?"
"Yes."
"Where's the knife now" (it wasn't on the counter as far as we could see)
"I put it back."
"Ok, in this drawer?" asked my wife, pointing at the drawer with our eating utensils.
"No, the other one."
** Panic sets in at this point as I start moving across the kitchen **
"Which one?" my wife asks again.
"That one." my daughter answers, sorta indicating with her head in the direction I feared before returning to another bite of the snack.

Sure enough, I get over to the drawer, open it, and see the tell-tale streak of cheese along the blade of our butcher knife. I think I laughed as I pulled forth the blade to clean it and check the rest of the drawer for escaped cheese, but I was quick to mentally count the fingers toes and other body parts I'd seen in the last few minutes.

We've moved the knives.

What Did You Leave For Santa?

My daughter continues to surprise us. We were preparing for Santa's visit last night, setting out a snack. Traditionally we place out a couple of cookies, milk, and a small snack for the reindeer. However, in an unexpected turn, my daughter looks at me and says, "No, Santa not want cookies. Make him tummy sick." while rubbing her tummy and looking quite sad. "He need... nana with him's milk." So we put out a glass of milk, a banana and some baby carrots for the reindeer. Santa was pleased and left several nice gifts for the family. I guess there's room for changes in all traditions.

Warm Your Belly Rub

I do a fair amount of grilling throughout the year. I'll stand in rain, snow, hide from sleet, and bundle up as appropriate to complete a meal with some nicely grilled, preferably smoked, meat. In the course of dinners, I've played with various wet and dry preparations. The following recipe will be inflicted on my in-laws and relations via their Christmas stockings this year. It is my understanding that they enjoy a little kick to their spices so I aimed to deliver. This has been kitchen and friend tested and has received the "Scott Safe" label by the narrowest of margins.

My wife and I are admittedly spice snobs, we like fresh spices and frequent our local Penzy's Spices store.

With no further ado, here is a dry-rub blend I'm calling "Warm Your Belly Rub." (sized in parts)

12 parts Brown Sugar
4 parts Medium Hot Chili Powder
2 parts Ground Cumin
2 parts Ground Chipotle Chili Powder
2 parts Kosher Salt
2 parts Course Ground Black Pepper
2 parts Garlic Powder (not salt)
1 part Lemon Zest (I used a dried Lemon Peel)
1 part Ground Allspice

Surgery ?= Developmental Milestone?

Sorry to post a lot about the Little Trooper, but he decided to crawl and transition to/from sitting tonight. He wasn't full-on crawling before surgery. This isn't the first time he's made a transition to a new developmental milestone immediately following surgery, it's the 3rd!

Guess he's like me... wont' take a challenge without a good hard fight! We don't start tasks without finishing them... even if surgeries interrupt!

The Little Trooper Is Home.

Surprising all of us a little, Little Trooper was discharged this morning. He can eat whatever he feels like (although we'll probably ease his way back into solids). When I arrived to pick him and his mother up he was giggling and playing, rolling around the crib before I could change his diaper, and pretty much back to normal!

He's home now, taking a nap in his car seat from which I will not wake him. Time for the rest of us to recover.

An odd thing to celebrate.

Sometimes being a parent is just plain strange. Like tonight:
After 2 days of very very bad sleep schedules resulting from being with my son in the hospital pre- and post-op with the constant stream of checkups I am only barely qualified to even type this entry.

My wife came over after taking our daughter to her swimming lesson; bringing lunch for us. Sometime after she had arrived, we were taking turns holding the little trooper and eating lunch. I held first, then finished lunch. With things settled in, I decided it would be a decent time to shower and started preparing. I was about to step into the bathroom when I heard quite the rip from where they were sitting. Looking over, my wife confirmed my thoughts: it really *was* the little trooper! We figured it was just gas... exciting enough as that is as it actually came from the proper place. Instead, we started doing the happy dance as I checked out the results and found that we actually had encountered our first soiled diaper!

Now... bring on the paste and more frequent diaper changes.

The surgeons were happy when they came and did rounds. We had a further 2 examples for them to review and they were quite happy. If he keeps responding this strongly, he could be on clear liquids tomorrow, then breast milk. He might even be able to come home as soon as Tuesday evening! Surgery was Friday morning and we were expecting 3-5 days minimally with the operating surgeon hinting that, based on little trooper's reaction when the ostomy was first performed, that we'd be looking to the longer side of that range.

There may be more cheering in the future, but for now I must sign off as I believe my pillows are calling my name.

The Pedicurians Are Coming!

To start off this Independence day, my headstrong daughter wanted to have a little home pedicure. My wife did the honors, soaking feet and trimming toenails. Then my daughter insisted that it was time to switch. My wife started soaking her feet and then the phone rang.
Answering the phone, I started to do my usual wandering around while talking routine. Unfortunately, my kind daughter decided that I was to be included in the pseudo-spa day and started to follow me around with a pair of toenail clippers saying, "Dad, give me your foot!" loud enough to carry over the phone and dropping down to my feet whenever I paused. This lasted for about 3 minutes before I had to beg a moment away from the conversation to respond.
Beware! The Pedicurians are coming!

Interesting Sandwich Toppings

Over the weekend we decided to have a lazy lunch and went to Subway as a family. My daughter was her usual independent self, insisting on doing things her way. I must credit her, however, for fairly clearing expressing her desires. The most interesting part was in selecting toppings...

Lettuce, cucumber, pickles, tomato and Olivers.

She was mumbling a little, but it was fairly clear... especially repeating Olivers several times because we didn't know what she was saying! Once I figured it out it was time for a good laugh. We have had one of our friends' son over more for some play time. His name is Oliver. I would suspect he doesn't know that he is now a part of my daughter's diet!