Originally published at petermackay.com. You can comment here or there.

Maybe I’ll write more…

Maybe I’ll get more stuff done on the list of things that I want to get done…

Maybe I’ll be better about keeping in touch with everyone…

Or maybe I’ll just float along and see what happens… that’s way more likely

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Well, I cast my vote.  The line was pretty short, but that’s because we got there at 0540, since Ian has not adjusted to standard time.  He’s still running on daylight savings time, and decided to wake up at 0545 (which is now 0445).  I guess I didn’t need an alarm clock.

By the time we were leaving, the line had gone outside of the building and down the block a little bit.  Really, it wasn’t bad, once the polls had opened (0600) it took ~28 minutes to finally get to the machine or paper ballot.   Ian helped his mom hit the big red ‘VOTE’ button on the electronic voting machine.

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Well, yesterday was the last day of my first year of fatherhood, an I survived unscathed. Only 365 weekdays (weekends wake up at the same time as weekdays now), 30 trips to the doctor (give or take), 8 months of teething (he has 8 teeth now), 6 months of standing/learning to walk (he never wanted to crawl), 4 or so ear infections, 2 road trips and 1 emergency room visit. Phew. The last year has been exciting, scary, tiring, fun, nervewracking and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I should have some photos of our little birthday celebration up soon, but I have been slacking in that department lately. Besides, Ian wasn’t really all that excited by the little cake anyway. He spent more time smashing his fingers into it, and rubbing it around in the spillage from his sippy cup.

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I spoke with my Lao Lao for the last time on Tuesday night.  She woke up Wednesday morning, had a tiny bit to eat, and took her morning walk.  After returning, she lay down for her nap, and never woke up.

I’m grateful that I was able to speak to her one more time, and I’m happy that she went without any pain or troubles.  I will always remember her last words to me and Carla, “…I’ve lived for 93 years, that’s a loooong time.  Don’t worry about me.  Take care of yourselves, and take care of the baby.”

I love you Lao Lao.

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Our first family vacation (as two adults + baby) was really successful. I would generally want to drive more in a day than we did, but sitting for a long time in the baby seat is probably not the best. So, we ended up splitting the drive to Lake Placid into two days. On the way up we stopped to visit my grandmother (Lao Lao) then continued on for another few hours before taking a rest in Whippany, NJ. The next day we set out and made it to the ‘Tuk Away’ Lodge, as the house was named (photo at right).

There wasn’t much snow on the ground until we were far into the Adirondacks, but once there, the snow was waist deep in a lot of places. There had apparently been an ice storm recently as well, so the trees were heavily laden with their icy burden.

The first day we spent getting acclimated, and trying to get Ian into the carrier. He totally hated the one we had brought with us, mostly due to the outfit he was wearing not fitting properly into the carrier. We took a trip into town to get a real backpack carrier for him to sit in. He had a good time in the store, and he seemed to enjoy it for the rest of our trip, so it was a good buy and should serve us well for the next year or two. Maybe I should write a review for it or something.

On wednesday Carla stayed home with Ian and I went downhill skiing at Whiteface with Paul, Arnaud and Matt.   I hadn’t been on downhill skis in… a long time… but it came back pretty quickly.  Not that I was on really hard routes or anything, but it was a lot of fun.

The last day out Carla and I found a railroad track that only operates during the summer and fall.  At other times, it is used as a cross-country, snowmobile, mountain bike and hiking trail.  All in all, it was a great week and nice to have some time off.

Originally published at petermackay.com. You can comment here or there.

… and the first time I’ve gotten around to writing anything in a few months…

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The nuggetman hasn’t been sleeping so well for the last couple of days.  At least for the weekend, and apparently this morning.  The weekend wasn’t helped by the fact that I seem to have contracted some sort of… gnuzzagh… so I’m hoping he doesn’t get what I’ve got.  Bleh.

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I haven’t seen a new webthing to play with for a while.  Carla forwarded this Touchgraph thing to me, and it’s a pretty fun little toy.  I’m not sure how long it will be ‘new and exciting’, but I did find xep, so that’s something.

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Today started off really wonderfully when I went to fuel up the Corrado at the corner gas station.  Normally, my routine is to start the tank filling on the ‘low’ setting for the pump handle catch, then go check the oil, coolant, etc…  I took a little longer to check the wiring for the coils, when I’m suddenly alerted to the sound of fuel gushing out the side of the car!  Bah! I guess the vacuum thing in the nozzle didn’t trip the shut-off, so it just kept pumping!  I ended up dumping 1/2 gallon of fuel all over the place.  I used the window cleaner thing to squeegee water all over the side of the car to clean up most of the spillage, reported the problem to the ever-so-alert attendent, then quickly drove back home to give the car a better rinsing.  The gas covered the ground under the rear of the car.  My shoes still stink.  6 hours later.   Here’s an interesting tid-bit about nozzles.

Totally changing the subject, the nugget-man has been out and about for 19 days, although it doesn’t really feel all that long.  Perhaps because the days are sort of drifting together, what with the not-sleeping-for-more-than-3-to-4-hours-at-a-time thing.  Carla has had to take the brunt of it, since I started back to work again.  Also there’s that whole biological thing where I don’t make milk.  Ian went in for his second visit to the doctor today.  He seems to be gaining weight well.  On arrival, he was 7lbs 15oz.  Departing the hospital, 7lbs 7oz.  First visit to the doctor on 9/21 - 7lbs 10oz.  Today - 9lbs 5oz.  He is having some sort of eye crust thing (evidently called ‘dacrostenosis’) caused by immature/slightly obstructred tear ducts.  Apparently not serious, but we’ve been given some oinment to help things along.  Otherwise, he’s all healthy and (generally) happy! 

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Ian arrived Monday morning at 0530 am after a rather arduous labor for Carla. I spent the last few days in the hospital, since they have things pretty well set up for moms and their ‘birthing partners’. Fold out couches in the birthing room as well as the recovery rooms. Pillows, blankets and sheets for said couches and chairs. 24 hr coffee & tea. I had free reign to enter/leave the nursery after they moved him from the birthing room for his first physical exam. Just a quick check that my bracelet matched the three attached to the little guy. He had an additional tag attached to the umbilical stump that was some sort of RFID device so they could keep track of him (and make sure he never left the ward, or alarms would go off).

It was pretty scary when they handed him to me not more than 5 minutes after he was out and briefly cleaned up. I carried him back over to Carla so she could get a glazed look at him. He stayed with us for another hour, then went off for his checkup and first bath.

I’ve finally gotten some additional photos put up. I took one trip home to pick up some things for the little guy and Carla and uploaded a few, but today I uploaded the rest.

Carla was excitedly hoping that he would end up being late and share her birthday, but it still turned out interesting, since he’s born on my day (17th) and her month (September).

I know I’m sort of rambling a lot here, but I keep getting up to do things like.. get the laundry out, clean some bottles, check on the guy & Carla.. so this is really just sort of stream of consciousness for whenever I sit down in front of the computer again.

Today he got his first bath (outside of the hospital one). He seems to enjoy the hair washing, but not so much the overall sponge-bath. He’s got his first appointment with the Dr. tomorrow, so he gets to take another trip in the car. The hospital being less than 2 mi from home, it wasn’t a really exciting first car ride.