tehuti: (Running Wolf)
I normally only do posts like this after some sort of event, usually a con of some kind. But I've been really busy lately, and to catch up, I'm breaking out my "quick thoughts" entry style.

Our little Raspberry has grown up into a Munchkin. Every time we call him that, I picture him with a Baby Club of Cuteness +3 and a Spiked Diaper Cover, kicking in a door and Looking For Trouble.

Seriously, he's growing up so fast!

Thank you to all of you that got that joke and laughed a little reading it.

I've been applying to jobs on a fairly regular basis for the last month and a half. At least two or three a week. Trying to find something in my field is going to be very difficult. Finding anything at all that pays me enough to make it worthwhile to be full time or a part time flexible enough to let me take care of the baby is going to be a challenge.

Still working on finding freelance writing work. I'm getting more targeted assignments from Yahoo, which is good. My other main source of writing income looks to be drying up. Not sure if this is temporary or not.

Got leads on a few new markets for writing. Nothing to report yet, other than I'm plugging away.

Did I mention that the baby is already four months old? He's not crawling yet, but he rolls around pretty good. And he LOVES to stand. With help, of course. It wouldn't surprise me if he's one of those kids that skips crawling and goes straight for walking.

My Bunker Hill paper was nominated for an award. I'll know whether or not I win in the middle of September. Fingers crossed!

I've been offered an interesting book review opportunity. Ever read one of those academic book reviews where the reviewer looks at two books on the same subject and compares and contrasts them? I'm doing that with two new books on the Battle of Bunker Hill. As soon as the books come in from the publisher, anyway.

Last week I ran an 8k (almost five miles) with the local running club. I ran that distance much faster than I thought, which was very happy making. And I wasn't last! But best of all, with about a quarter mile to go, I reached down for the last of my reserves and finished strong. But even bester than that, after I was done, I thought to myself, "I'm tired, but not as tired as when I ran the half marathon two weeks ago." And that's when it really hit me for the first time. "Holy shit! I really ran 13.1 miles!"

Today was a tough day with the Munchkin. He was not happy without mommy, threw up on me twice, and absolutely refused to do the one thing that would make him feel better; take a nap. I was supposed to go to a fiction writers group in Northampton this evening, but was completely unprepared and frazzled so I begged off.

The silver lining? I took out my fatherly frustrations on my Bikilas this evening. Ran a 5k in 33 flat. Best time this year. And afterward, I felt much better physically and emotionally. Remember this, Micah. Running is good for you in more than one way. Make time for it.

I am really looking forward to Pi-Con this weekend. Like, almost stupidly so.

We have a fridge! Ian got us a furniture dolly with stairclimbers. They are these little tank-tractor looking things that help you slide heavy things up stairs. And with it, we were able to get the new fridge upstairs and the old one out to the garage. Our new fridge is full of awesome. And food. This is a goodness.

Family-wise, we've been having a lot of high-level discussions about goals, desires and long range plans. This also makes me stupidly happy.

The Munchkin is finally starting to sleep in his crib. When we go to bed, he still ends up in the basinet on the bed with us, for Aimee's convenience. But he's using his crib, which means we all get some adult time sans baby most evenings.

I need to make time for fiction writing. I'm sitting on a bunch of ideas that are too good to just moulder away in my brain. I'm strongly considering doing NaNoWriMo this year, for the first time since the first time I did it, to force me to write fiction. All comments and opinions to either encourage me or stop me welcome.
tehuti: (Enter At Own Risk)
Our fridge died Friday.

We're not sure what happened, or why. The front display started flickering, the ice maker door opened and closed on its own, and the lights rapidly flashed. It was like a demon possessed our fridge. Like good little geeks, we fled to our computers to see if there was something we could do to fix or reboot it. What we didn't realize right away was that the compressor was dead, too. Once we figured that out, the discussion turned immediately to replacing rather than fixing.

Like good little geeks, we started out shopping online. Between the four of us, we identified some good targets at multiple stores, and planned to go actually looking at some of them Saturday. As is typical for us, we found a good deal at the first place we went. Best Buy just happened to have the model we were looking at, in the color we wanted it, in the store. Someone had ordered one and canceled it. Instead of having to wait for a delivery (which, thanks to the tax holiday last weekend, would be weeks), we could bring it home today.

This was the end of our good fortune.

We finished our business at the mall, went home and took all the seats out of the van. This is what a van is for, right? Unfortunately for us, the box didn't fit through the rear hatch. It was just a hair too wide. Ian, being a smart guy, called for backup. Our awesome, wonderful and totally butch friend Laurel has a Subaru Baja, affectionately known as the ca-truck. It's one of those El Camino looking cars that were popular a few years back. We've actually moved large appliances in it before, so we were optimistic that the new fridge would fit.

She agreed to drive up from Connecticut to help us out. Luckily, we were right. The fridge fit. But it only fit if we stood it upright. I could describe it, but I don't have to. Like a good little geek, I took some pics. Sadly, Dreamwidth and Facebook don't seem to talk to each other, so if you want to see the pictures (in an album conveniently named "The Day the Refrigerator Died"), you'll have to go to my Facebook photos to see them.

Suffice to say, we strapped the hell out of the box with bungie cords for the drive home. On a normal day, the 10 mile trip takes about 15 minutes. With a refrigerator strapped upright in the back of a car that wants to be a truck when it grows up someday, it takes a bit longer. But we must have done something right. That box didn't move so much as an inch on the way home. We did get a bunch of funny looks, including two Springfield police officers who were too surprised at the obvious stupidity of the people driving around town with a fridge strapped to a ca-truck to stop and ask us what the hell were we thinking. After a somewhat tense trip, lightened considerable by our attempts at gallows-humor, we arrived safely at home.

This did not mark the resumption of good fortune.

The fridge was not going to go upstairs in the box. It was too wide and long by a couple of inches in both dimensions. So we took it apart in the driveway. Luckily, the manufacturer considered this as a likely problem, and had a handy-dandy set of destructions taped to the front. We rapidly disassembled the fridge, and moved all the little bits upstairs. During this process, Aimee decided, rightfully so, that the box was the best pre-made fort EVAR. Obligatory pictures were taken. The baby was introduced to the importance of cardboard forts, and even more obligatory pictures were taken. He was a bit confused at first, being inside a giant box, but came around in the end.

We were finally ready to move it upstairs. At this point, it was getting on to dark, so we were running out of time. The girls have a little hand dolly that we've used many times to move things around. We used it to get the fridge to the front steps. Sadly, it was not up to the task of moving this fridge up a flight of stairs. In the dolly's defense, I don't think it's ever been asked to schlepp approximately 300 pounds of metal before.

This is where what little good fortune we had completely vanished.

Ian and I, being manly men, decided to see if we could simply lift it ourselves. We were right and wrong. We were sufficiently manly enough to get it up the concrete steps. In the process, I almost dropped it on Ian. In the process of not dropping it on him, I wrenched my back a bit, and definitely pulled something in my right arm. We tried valiantly to get it up the stairs, but without better tools, it simply wasn't going to happen.

So, tomorrow we're going to UHaul to get an appliance dolly. They claim they are big enough for the job we need. Fingers crossed that their website doesn't lie. Either way, I get to tell you guys all about it tomorrow. Anyone that is more manly than I and able to help tomorrow will earn our eternal gratitude.
tehuti: (Default)
Hey everyone. Remember me?

I know. Two months without a real post. Yes, I really have been that busy. Of course, the few of you still paying attention to my LJ are my closest friends, so you all know that already.

A sizable end-of-semeser post is forthcoming. So are year-end posts. I might even be willing to post snippets of my writings from this past term, if y'all are interested.

Fair warning, guys. In a very short amount of time, I need to start concentrating on my comp exams. It is looking like they will be scheduled in the first week of May. That gives me less than five months to prepare, and during that time I have to take classes and prepare for the arrival of our family's first child. So when I disappear again, don't be surprised. :-)

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tehuti

January 2012

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