smacky and bucky

Here's snapshot of the books I received for Christmas. Despite my complete lack of time for reading, I stubbornly continue to ask for books!

They are (From left to right, starting at top):
(1) Not Bad for a Human, autobiography of Lance Henriksen. (Title from his line as Bishop to Ripley in Aliens, if you didn't know.)
(2, 3, 4) The newest Torchwood novels, all three taking place before the events in Miracle Day.
(5) Shatner Rules, the latest book by Bill.
(6 & 7) Two Doctor Who novels from the early 2000s, starring the seventh Doctor and Ace.

My left ear is still almost completely stopped up, but the drugs have dulled the pain to a light throb, so that's progress, right?

Last Caps game of 2011 is tonight. Hopefully we'll see the team that beat the 1st-place New York Rangers the other night 4 to 1!

I'll post a Christmas roundup soon, but feel like hot crap. Son got RSV, then passed it to us. Now he's better (yay!) and I was happily controlling the symptoms in myself with meds, but I awoke at 4am this morning with intense pain in my left ear. It got worse as the morning went on, so I went to the urgent care place in town. I'll spare you the gross details, but the doc said I have a really bad ear infection. To the best of my knowledge, I had managed to go 40 years without getting one (It hurts so freaking bad I'm sure I'd remember). Now I'm in bed waiting for the meds to kick in. Did I mention my family is visiting? So happy the kid is well, but this blows.

The boy is feeling a bit better. Fever down. He's still Captain Whinypants if I try to put him down (or dare to leave the room). And I'll spare you the disgusting details, but let's just say that dairy and phlegm don't mix. Yuck!

Kid has snot-running cold and fever. He's in a cranky mood. Luckily we have a few more recovery days until Christmas. His increased snoozing allowed me to watch a movie on my iPad via Netflix streaming. I watched The Car (1977), staring James Brolin. It's best described as Jaws, if it took place in the desert and the shark was an indestructible possessed driverless car. You know what? It kind of worked! After the first kill, it was kind of spooky. And in typical 1970s cinema fashion, they don't really explain shit at the end! Makes it better, in my opinion. Can't embed the trailer with the iPad, but check the link to see it's grainy glory!

So, for my birthday, Laura said I could get a hockey jersey, if I so wanted. I wasn't too keen on anything in the official store (especially in the $200 range!), so I said I'd look around the web. I found something I liked, but when I placed the order, a few weeks later I received an email that it wasn't available (but I had received a shipping notice, huh???), so that was a bust.

I was browsing ebay, just looking at random jerseys, when I came across this one:

It's Alexander Semin, with his name spelled in Cyrillic. Am I a complete dork? Here's what pushed me over: It was $35. At that price, you're lucky the name is spelled correctly (and it is, I checked!).

So I get a jersey and save the family $165. Win!

I can watch the hell out of some kids TV these days. Wiggles, Yo Gabba Gabba, Backyardigans (which I find really has catchy songs)... It's replaced reading in my life, which, is a little sad, but what a trade off for having this little dude to watch things with! The Caps play tonight in Colorado, so the game doesn't start until 9 (usual start time is 7), so I will hopefully get the kid bathed and asleep before the first puck drop! Wish me luck!

The boy can now walk, feed himself things, play by himself, look at his books, say some words, and notice the world around him. Because of that, his trip to see Santa went from this:

Sometimes things happen and you deal with them and you even forget to post about it on Facebook. Example: We got a flat tire yesterday afternoon on 95 North. Emptying the trunk to get to the spare with a wife, screaming baby, and two dogs in the car on the side of the of the highway. Good times.

[I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. The office is next door to Goodwill (classy, huh?) That's the background to this post.]

Number of times in my life I've thought about Penn State before their recent child rape scandal: ZERO. I can literally not think of a single time the school has entered my mind. I knew the name of the head coach, but only because he apparently coached Abe Lincoln when he was in school (haha, age joke).

But yesterday at Goodwill? TWICE:

This is exactly what you do NOT want to see your sitter posting on Facebook:


This seems very appropriate to post right now:

Laura bought us tickets to the Revels for this afternoon. The revels are ... huge musical productions done across the country. This one is in DC. You can read about this year's theme here (It's worth the read, honest!). It included a very comical scene with Don Juan fighting a dragon that Henry really enjoyed.

But let's rewind an hour and a half. We're driving around downtown DC looking for a specific parking garage. Henry starts crying, then it gets louder, and louder, and louder. Finally, he spews two full pouches of baby food (pumpkin/pear and apple & cinnamon) all over himself, the backseat, and his car seat. Laura starts crying, because she had planned for this to be an experience to kick off the holiday season and Henry's outfit is covered in orange puke. But there's a superhero in the car: Daddy! I grab paper towels and start wiping him down, and inside his diaper bag: a second outfit, including another Christmasy red top! I strip him down on the sidewalk and toss his nasty clothes in the trunk, then dress him in seconds flat. Clean again, I hand him to Laura and tell her to go ahead inside. I'd park the car and find them (assigned seats made that easy). Henry felt much better after vomiting, and was in good spirits the rest of the afternoon. Yay!

Now we're having some chicken and stuffing for dinner and there's a hockey game at 7, during which I will have a few well-earned brews. Yay again!

I made this...