My posts now have titles

Because I paid for the Blogger Pro update. Neener neener neener.

My sister in law is blogging now too. Check it out.

Got the car back today. The dealership got all nice on us, which was good, because they were starting to be a pain yesterday. They didn't want to fix a leaky tail-light, but relented. So the AC works, the tail light is fixed, and it's all oiled up and ready to good. That's wicked pisser, because it's too damn hot to be driving around without air conditioning if you can avoid it.

Katherine was a dreamboat tonight. There are no left-over problems from yesterday's little bed-time adventure. And I got a few compliments at work today about how cute she is (and in the grocery store too, but that's another story). She is pretty cute, but of course, I'm biased.

So it can kindof be a pain going out with her, because she does attract attention, and it feels like more than just normal baby attention, although I really don't know, because I haven't been through it before. She's very cute, and very happy, and so kid-friendly people tend to fawn over her a bit. This can get really annoying, though, like when you are in a restaurant and the wait staff won't leave you alone because they're playing with the baby. We don't go out that often, so when we do, we just want to be out, and eating dinner, and left alone. I mean, it's one thing if you're walking through a mall, or in Pottery Barn Kids or something. But when you're out to dinner, you just want to have the dinner experience. And there's one restaurant we go to that doesn't let us have the dinner experience, because we spend most of the time having to react to what the wait staff is doing playing around with our kid. What do you do about that? What would Miss Manners say?

So yesterday at work, I'm telling a friend (Hi Ed A) who has a little newborn girl about Ferberizing and sleeping, and I'm all the model of the experience parent and all that crap, and then last night, after months of easy sleep for little Katherine, she would not go to sleep. She started crying soon after Kara put her down, and she kept crying and crying. So we popped into Ferber mode, and checked on her for 5, then 10, then 15 minutes. Finally, I went in and spent about 5 minutes trying to calm her down, which didn't really work that well. Kara gave her baby-Motrin at the beginning of the episode. And then she finally fell asleep out of exhaustion, but woke up crying again within an hour or so. We really thought something was wrong at this point, because it was so unlike her to cry like this. So we got her out of bed, and brought her downstairs, and gave her baby-cold medicine. She was coughing a lot, and seemed to be having trouble breathing through her nose, so we thought maybe she has a little cold. The cold med probably also made her sleepy. Anyway, after being up and quiet for a half hour or so, she finally went to sleep, but she made a fair amount of noise through the night, although she didn't wake up again. So we were all geared up to go to the hospital, and call the doctor this morning, and all that jazz.

This morning, she was sleeping in late, which was nice. I got out of the shower and peeked in her room. She was sitting up in the crib, and as soon as she saw me, she grabbed the crib and stood up and gave me this big huge smile. Hmmm. No say, crying baby here. Maybe she just had to release some tension or something, or maybe she was playing us. At any rate, I got her out of the crib, and changed her, and brought her in to see Kara. And she was happy, and playing, and smiling. She seemed just fine, thank you very much. So we cancelled the call to the doctor, although we're still a little worried because morning is always the good time of day, you know?

It's funny too because she came to work yesterday because Kara had to give me a ride home with our VW in the shop, and I showed her around and she was a little dreamboat. Well, I guess there's a Jeckle and Hyde thing with any baby. If my peers at work could have seen her at 10PM. Hah.

Hey, a buddy of mine is selling a big-ass, expensive TV on the cheap. The TV is fine, he just can't get it up the stairs at his new apartment. If you're interested, drop me a line and I'll hook you up. This thing sells for $4,500, but he's willing to part with it for a fraction of that.

Today, Katherine learned how to clap. I don't know how it happened, because I was at work, but when I got home, Kara told me all about it. And I went and picked up the little one, and she started clapping for me right away. It's very cute. She's very happy about being able to clap.

I dropped my guitar off today for the pickup installation. I don't know when I'll get it back, hopefully they'll squeeze it in tomorrow. Oh yeah, and we have to drop off the (still relatively) new car tomorrow to have the air conditioning fixed. Thank God for that. It's really hot, and I'm actually happy to take the Honda (the old car), because at least it has working AC.

And that's about it for today's update. I have been dabbling a bit on eBay, because it turns out to be a source for lenses and other accessories that fit my old Canon camera, but I haven't actually won an auction yet. It's kindof fun, because I can just throw $20 at an item, and I either get it, or don't, but I'm not out big bucks if the product doesn't turn out right. If I do win one of these auctions, I stand to get some pretty good quality stuff on the cheap.

I'm baaaaaccccckkkk.

Well, vacation was great, until I had to go to work in the middle of the week. And until Katherine go so upset at being away from home that she whined all the time. And until I got sick. But other than that, it was really nice. No, I mean it. The cabin was the picture perfect Maine cabin in the woods, and it was very relaxing. After the heat broke on Monday, it was really, really nice, temperature-wise. I took a bunch of picture, which I will put up in Katherine's 7 month gallery as soon as I can get some free time. It actually might take awhile because I now have a gig that is getting very close, and I need to spend more time rehearsing. I've learned the basics of three of the four songs provided by Kim Davidson, and we're going to start rehearsing this week, probably. So I have a bunch of stuff to do, the most important of which is to get my guitar wired for sound.

When I bought the thing, (it's a Larrivée, I did not anticipate actually playing live music, or that if I did, I'd use an electric guitar like my Fender. But so it goes. So I stop over to my absolute favorite music store, The Music Emporium, in Lexington, and they tell me, no problem, they can put a high quality pickup in the bridge without any damage to the guitar. And since I bought it there, they'll give me a break on the labor. They are so awesome there. These guys all really know their stuff, and they are great to work with. So anyway, I have my guitar operated on tomorrow, I guess.

But that brings me to another point, what with all this talk about guitars. Those of you who are guitarists, or at least musicians, will appreciate this. I'm arranging the music for Kim's songs, and she's got this one tune that's basically in C, and the bridge has what must be one of the worst chord changes a guitarist can expect to see in any piece of music: Bþm, Fm, Bþm, C#. Geez, Kim, give me a break. Do you have any idea what it takes to play that on a guitar? When I can play that cleanly, I'll be able to pick up a car with my left index finger. My word. Anyway, it gives me something to do, you know, with my copious free time, learning alternate fingerings for barre chords to jazz the thing up a little bit.

Anyway, Katherine is amazing. She is crawling all over the place, standing up at a moments notice, reaching, climbing, and generally getting into trouble. Oh yeah, and I learned why my parents were so good at keeping the house clean. She will always find the one microscopic piece of crap that you don't want her to put in her mouth first, and then, well, put it in her mouth. Whether it's a cat claw that's shed, or a popcorn fragment, or basically anything that's not floor or carpet. I might not care except that children of this age are very prone to choking, so you have to keep an eye on her. So I spent over an hour scubbing the kitchen floor, and then vaccuuming, and generally cleaning up when we got home from Maine, and now I find myself paying attention to how sloppy I am, knowing that if I am casual about how I put the salt on my spinach, and it winds up on the floor, yours truly will have to mop it up a week from now.

OK, it's getting late, and I'm tired. I am back, waiting for the heat to be over, and ready to rock, man.