In the kids department, we had another one this year. Young Sid is going on five months old now. Doesn’t sleep through the night. Taking formula isn’t going very well. He cries more than Lola did and takes really short naps. But he’s growing like a weed, cute as a button, and going to turn out OK. Lola turned three recently, and she’s still our little princess. Adorable barely describes her on her worst day. That’s still little comfort when she calls us back into her room 3-4 times for a sip of water or other ridiculous reason after going to bed, or when she wakes up at 4am still, or insists on pooping in her diaper (she still sleeps in one) when she knows darn well how to use the toilet like a big girl. Perhaps some regression due to baby brother and new house is going on… Both kids have had their share of colds lately, lots of runny noses, coughing, etc. but we bought a nice vaporizer that keeps a room nice and humid through the night. Speaking of devices we bought, as of a couple weeks ago, we’re the proud owners of a remanufactured Roomba robot vacuum. It’s still more of a novelty than a real labor saver since you still have to pick up a bunch of toys and shoes and stuff, but it works OK and it’s kind of fun. Returning to the topic of Lola for a moment, Morgan toured a couple preschools this week, so we’re starting to think about it. Expensive! Need to figure out the best schedule and what’s affordable, but we think we’ve found the place when it’s time. No daycare for Sid yet though, we’re not ready for that yet.

(This is silly, I started writing this as a text document that I would paste into cheztiar later, but I’m having to do it in such small bits as time permits, I should just be writing online in the first place…but I digress.)

One other thing I envisioned doing a lot of on this here website was sharing books, music, and movies that I’ve enjoyed (or not) with you all. Not much reading going on these days – by the time I get to bed, too tired to read much, and what I’ve been reading is pretty dull. I picked up a book on coffee, a sort of reference book on personal finance, and one on making beer. I need to get back into some page-turner fiction. Most of my reading these days is Wired magazine, trying to get through one issue before next one comes, or the various blogs and websites I try to hit every day. I guess reading is reading, but a book would be nice sometime soon.

Speaking of personal finance, that’s the other thing on my mind these days. I must be a real grown-up now, I think a lot about ways to retire early, save a lot for retirement, writing a will, and look forward to doing taxes so I can see just how much having a 2nd child and a home equity loan will improve our tax situation. This year, I opened a Flexible Spending Account, another tax break for medical expenses, and enrolled in the Hartford’s 457 plan, yet another way to save on taxes and save for retirement pretty easily. Fat nest egg, here I come.

Musicwise, I just recently started listening to Sublime again. After getting the box set earlier this year, it’s kind of sat on the shelf for a while, so I brought it out to listen to again, and have been really enjoying it, getting back into their music again. I have to say, I really think they claim the title of “my favorite band ever”. Which brings me to a trivial little anecdote. With my renewed interest, I thought I’d look to see what Wikipedia had on Sublime. As expected, a good thorough entry, and good entries on each band member. So, reading through the entry on drummer Bud Gaugh, it mentions he now lives in Nevada. Huh, interesting coincidence. So I visit his MySpace page, read about his new surf band (which sounds great, looking forward to hearing what they put out), and it turns out he lives in Reno at least part of the time. More coincidence. Among all my reading and websurfing, I am referred to a recent SPIN magazine which has a good article on Sublime’s legacy and a tribute band back east called Badfish. So I go to find that issue at the library, and Foo Fighters are on the cover. Foo Fighters just announced a concert date here in February, which I think I’ll be attending. And the final coincidence…Dave Grohl is wearing a Bucket of Blood Saloon t-shirt on the cover…it all comes back to Reno. (I’ve always maintained, besides being a great place to live with lots of interesting history, Reno is forever destined to be the footnote to history…famous people get arrested here, relatives of famous people die here, we’re mentioned in songs randomly.)

Movies…never get to those much anymore. Netflix (and the library) keeps us in recent release, but all our time is getting sucked up by Six Feet Under these days. I can’t give up any more time to TV series!

Changing gears again here, let’s talk food and drink. Morgan and I celebrated our fourth anniverary with dinner at Harrah’s Steakhouse, probably the oldest fine-dining establishment in town. A bit disappointing, mostly the crowd, but the food was nothing that special. We’ll probably return to LuLou’s or 4th Street Bistro in the future. And there’s always our usual splurge that doesn’t really qualify as fine-dining, SUSHI. For now, our attention is on Amish Friendship Bread since receiving a starter for a coworker. I continue to dwell on my love for two beverages – beer and coffee. Someday you’ll all be regular customers of Marc’s House of Barley and Beans (I still need to work on the name…)

In the technology realm, we’re still happily wireless and using the laptop around the house most of the time, but I had an epiphany recently and added 1GB of memory to the desktop PC in the office and it runs SO much better now! Still need to tidy up the hard drive some, and I think I’ve committed myself to migrating to Picasa to organize and tag photos. With two kids being reared in the age of digital photos, we’re rapidly accumulating hundreds of digital photos with little organization. At least I’ve got some piecemeal backup systems in place, but I need something more systematic I think. Picasa and some kind of offsite storage may be the answer. Not sure when I’ll have the time, but at least I’ve started thinking about it… I dabbled in trying to burn a movie onto DVD, wrestling with the matter from every angle before deciding the DVD burner on the laptop is kaput. Sigh.

I’ll toss out a plug here for a game we’ve been enjoying quite a bit lately, courtesy of Grandpa Dave, Apples to Apples is our latest party-game fascination.

And lastly, I just want to give a shout-out to our little dog Daisy. She’s seen some rough times lately, with her diagnosis of Cushing’s Disease, recent stomach issues, difficulty with stairs, and general aging. We still love her, and hope she’ll stick with us comfortably for a little while longer.

And with that, dear readers, I’ll come to a close. If you’ve read all of this, I owe you a coffee or a beer. Keep coming back to cheztiar in 2008.

Been a booming last few days around here. Family is all gone home now, but we had a great time with all our visitors. Shot some balls at the Aqua Range with Paige and Grandpa Dave, and even made some beer yesterday for next month’s celebration of impending baby brother. It’s bubbling away happily on the basement stairs now.

Also during my nice five-day weekend, I finally finished The Kite Runner, enjoyed the last third of it far more than the first two-thirds that took me forever to read; plowed straight through Michael Connelly‘s new The Overlook and really enjoyed it (although it was a pretty quick read, a bit shorter than a typical Connelly book); and finished the Burning Man book I started a long time ago, Inspired Madness, and put down when I found it a bit too Burroughs Naked Lunch oddball-like in language and style. Wow, that was quite the lengthy sentence. Oh yeah, we also started watching Volver last night. Jury’s still out for me particularly since we didn’t finish it yet, but it’s sort of weird too.

OK, that’s all for now. With any luck, next time I write we’ll be in escrow.

Starting a new book, Alternadad, and enjoying it so far. Reviews have been mixed, but it sounds so straight down my alley, I feel like I’m predisposed to like it.

Maggie comes for a visit tonight, Andrew’s birthday, new carpet comes on Monday, we’re rethinking the timing of moving to a new house (sooner rather than later?), Costco tires for the Vue are ordered, and we’re officially half-way through pregnancy. Life continues careening along at a rapid pace.

A few more things about me:

21. I bite my nails. I have since I was in second grade.

22. I’ve never had a cold sore.

23. My first concert was MC Hammer. I’ve been to very few since then. I am not good about music. I just know what I like when I hear it.

24. I was a huge New Kids on the Block fan. When I moved to Reno, it was not cool so I quickly abandoned them.

25. One of my favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird.

26. As much as I’d like to – I do not have a green thumb.

27. A kid named Wade was going to kiss me in my grandma’s garage, instead wiped a hand full of spit on my face. I didn’t kiss a boy until I was 16. It was very romantic by the falls in Sioux Falls.

28. I love golf. My dad and grandma started me when I was 5. I won trophies when I was in junior golf, but I think we all got trophies.

29. I LOVE Vietnamese food.

30. I started driving when I was 14. In SD, they have limited permits because of all the rural areas.

That’s it for now. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be!

Went with Paige and DayDay to see NOFX last night at the New Oasis. Wow. Sold out show (~1000 people), never seen that before. Taps ran dry, bartenders couldn’t come close to keeping up, steam poured from open doors into the cold night, the sheer size of the crowd was incredible. They were really good and fun to see. I’ll admit I’ve seen better shows, but they just command such a big energetic crowd, have good songs, and enjoy themselves. Sorta-celeb sighting: a couple of the guys from 7 Seconds in the crowd (steve and troy if you’re curious). Now that’s punk.

Couple of interesting reference questions at work today:
How much does US currency weigh, and how many bills would be in a pound of them? See the seventh fun fact for the answer. Address for ABC? How tall is the Empire State Building? I love my job when I get to answer these kinds of questions.

In Lola news…a bit of sickness going on again. Lots of coughing, a brief sighting of thick green snot this morning. She generally acts well, but symptoms are there. Invest in cold medicine. This on the heels of a minor bout with pink eye which it appears the antibiotic drops have put a quick end to.

One fun link for you, and I’ll end with a plug for the book I’m reading. Really enjoyable book – a collection of columns from the RGJ, historical Reno stuff. It will make you look at our city in a whole new light, and have fond memories if you’ve lived here forever. If you’re interested, let me know, I’ll have a loaner copy available.

• This past Wednesday, Lola went to see this casting agency to see about using her 7th-degree black belt in cuteness to become rich and famous.  No riches or fame yet, but they signed her up.
• Dang cold around here again.  Still no snow worth mentioning, but it’s 12 degrees outside this morning.
• I’m currently reading this book of columns about historic Reno; just acquired another book about Burning Man, but oddly not as jazzed about that one, probably just because we’re not going.
• Planning a trip to San Diego just before Easter, Sea World, the zoo, the beach, etc.  Any other suggestions?
• Perhaps equalling my recent passion for soymilk, I now have a rekindled love for those little sweet, seedless, easily peeled clementines.  They’re fabulous.
• One last thing, then I’m off to work: cross your fingers and send good thoughts my way to win this contest.  Or you could just enter yourself, but that would lower my odds of winning!

Happy Friday everyone, stay warm out there!

Like Morgan said, we got the new camera.  Hopefully I can get some of those new pics up this weekend and list the old camera on ebay.  Actually, I’m really hoping this creeping crud subsides soon…I’ve got a three day weekend that I don’t wish to spend nursing myself back to health.  I’ve got to go shopping, buy a turkey fryer, and hopefully devour the new Michael Connelly book.

So I suppose that’s it for now.  Hoping this finds you well and fine.  Marc

Slowly getting back into the swing of things, caught up on email at work, bills around here, and, perhaps most importantly for the purposes of this post, vacation photos are up on this here website.  Actually, that may be about all for now.  Coming weeks seem kind of busy: Nana Tiar and Grandpa Dave are coming, baby showers, birthdays, cupboards to be painted, sprinklers and swamp cooler shut down for the winter.  Sorry this seems kind of scattered, but well, that’s how I’m feeling at the moment, so dangit, that’s what goes up on the website.

On my nightstand: The Long Tail, Spam Kings, and Buddha (v.6).

And a website worth mentioning: dailyepisodes.com has full episodes of Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, South Park, and Futurama.  Every episode from every season.  Yep.

In other news…a few notes for posterity:

• I’m currently reading my way through Buddha. Also on my reading list is The Wisdom of Crowds, Man Without a Country, and The Long Tail.
• I hate to keep bringing it up, but Burning Man just dominates my mind these days. Building shade structures gets less fun every time.
• Oh, and another Burning Man note…check this amazing project from BoingBoing
• We’re (probably) going to have a yard sale this weekend. Come buy stuff!
• I set up a wiki for folks to collaborate on scheduling time to watch Lola while we’re on the playa. Pretty cool! I love wikis! (Mouse-hover the first wiki link for the password if you want in to the Lola wiki…)
• Yellowjacket update: Morgan got stung again yesterday, I emptied another full can of poison, found few corpses, so not sure where we stand. Grrrr….
• If I’ve never mentioned it to you, you should really take a look at PostSecret. They update every Sunday and almost always some pretty amazing stuff to read.

OK, I think that’s about enough for now. See ya!