Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

7 foot bookshelf? No problem. Fits with the trunk closed.

The Question

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alt="Photograph: Chapel bell, Dina, Mount Sinai, 2005-10-06, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Chapel bell, Dina, Mount Sinai, 2005-10-06, © Nick Varacalli." />A question I’m frequently asked is, “What do you do with your day.”

It’s hard to explain my day in a way that satisfies the questioner. It’s hard to communicate how much time is just spent ‘playing’ with Alex, feeding him, changing him, and keeping him fed, clean, happy, and stimulated. It’s also hard to explain how much he slows most tasks down. I’ve been thinking about how to describe my day… but I think the better thing to do is to describe my week. I’ll get around to that sometime… or not.

Writing

Things are both good and bad here. I actually have enough time to write… I’m just not in the right frame of mind. Part of it is that taking care of Alex seems boring to everyone except Dina, Alex, and I… and sometimes even we get bored of it. Part of it is that I’m in a quieter mood.

Sexism

Encountering a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle sexism as a stay-at-home dad, and quite frankly, as a dad period. I should be blogging more about this since it drives me nuts.

The one that’s currently stuck in my craw? A ‘friend’ of mine said “You’re rich. You can afford to take a year off to take care of Alex.” Would that person have said the same thing if Dina took the year off? I seriously doubt it.

Tell them you’re contemplating suicide and then tell them you’re not in the mood to talk.

Yeah, I’m a selfish bastard.

Who says you don’t get to stay up late and party when you’re a parent? Kid woke me up at 03:00 to do just that. 04:50 and still going strong.

Got rid of my dedicated / anonymous parenting blog and moved most of the content over to here. Too much effort to maintain multiple blogs.

Sitting him in front of iTunes visualizations while I warm his milk seems to work quite well.

We’ve decided to name our new car (well… our recently purchased used car) Dozer.

We had our first group gathering at our house on Sunday. It went well. I’m a bit bummed that we still haven’t organized gaming… but watching football was a good way to break us back into being social.

It also served as a good test for the contraptions I’d built to keep the sofa sections from moving. They worked. A piece of wood between each pair of sections with holes cut out for the feet. Since the feet are the only non-movable parts on the recliners, this seemed like the best way.

Speaking of being handy, I’ve also jury rigged a way to support a lot of the car seat weight on my waist (via my belt) when I’m carrying it. Jim suggested a neck strap for additional support and safety. I think I can accomplish that with an old camera bag strap. I also thought (and was backed up by Jim’s suggestion) that it’d be better to put small holes in the car seat so the hooks could hold better. I’ll ask the owners of the car seat when they next visit.

A B C

Ay, bee, see, dee

eee, eff, gee

aich, eye, jay, kay

ell-em-en-oh-pee

queue, arr, ess

tee, you, vee

double-you, ecks

why and zed

Now I know my ay, bee, sees…

Next time won’t you sing with me.

12 Ladybugs

Zero one two three

Four five six

Seven eight nine

Ten eleven twelve

Ladybugs came

To the ladybugs’ picnic

 

Zero one two three

Four five six

Seven eight nine

Ten eleven twelve

And they all played games

At the ladybugs’ picnic

 

They had twelve sacks so they ran sack races

They fell on their backs and they fell on their faces

The ladybugs 12

At the ladybugs’ picnic

 

They played jump rope but the rope it broke

So they just sat around telling knock-knock jokes

The ladybugs 12

At the ladybugs’ picnic

 

Zero one two three

Four five six

Seven eight nine

Ten eleven twelve

And they chatted away

At the ladybugs’ picnic

 

They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs

And fire insurance for ladybugs

The ladybugs 12

At the ladybugs’ picnic

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alt="Photograph: Tourists watching the sunrise, Mount Sinai, 2005-10-06, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Tourists watching the sunrise, Mount Sinai, 2005-10-06, © Nick Varacalli." />Some BP employee predicted the BP catastrophe. Some operative predicted the September 11^th attacks. In hindsight, what were the higher ups thinking?

The problem is, many such predictions were made by many different people. Some have come to pass, some have not, some never will. How does one separate the wheat from the chaff without benefit of hindsight? With great difficulty. Think about the simple case of every day life. Do you see every Tom, Dick, and Harry making perfect decisions based on incomplete information?

The Verizon guy is getting chubby. Lame that I watch enough TV to notice.