Entry 416: American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

I didn't put up an entry last weekend because I was at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT).  And there will be no entries other than this one for at least another week because we are going to visit S's parents in South Carloina.  (It's the kids' spring break and we gotta do something with them.)  Don't worry, however, if you are jonesing for your DG fix, you can read my lengthy post about ACPT.  It should hold you over.

Until next time...

Entry 415: More Stitches

Following in his brother's footsteps, Lil' S2 fell at daycare and busted his head open, requiring stitches.  I had to pick him up and take him to urgent care.  It actually went very smoothly -- a pleasant surprise -- all things considered.  Unlike big brother, who injured himself late on a Friday night, little brother had the courtesy to do so in the middle of the workday, so we could take him to urgent care instead of the ER -- so much easier.  The waiting room was literally empty when we arrived, and we were seen by the physician within twenty minutes, and that includes the time it took to fill out the paperwork, take his vitals, sit in that little room, etc.

The wound wasn't long but it was deep.  It took two sutures to seal it.  The physician gave me the option of numbing it with anesthetic or just doing a quick hit-it-and-quit-it.  I went with the latter.  As she (the doctor) explained to me, sometimes numbing makes things worse because it still requires a needle poke, and it burns a little at first, and it prolongs things, and that area feels weird for a while after the procedure is over, which some patients, especially kids, don't like.  For two stitches, it seemed to me no anesthetic would be the least discomforting option.

And I must say, he took it amazingly well.  He was stoic throughout almost the entire process, only shedding a few tears when the little hook they use actually pierced the skin.  "It hurts!  It hurts!"  Then when it was over -- and it only took two or three minutes -- it was like nothing had happened at all.  It's incredible how resilient kids are.

S and I were both working from home when daycare called, but S had an important meeting coming up, so I had to go.  I was annoyed at first, but it's a very good thing I went instead of her.  She can't handle seeing the kids in any sort of pain, to the point that she has to leave the room when they get a vaccine shot.  For this, I had to be there front-and-center, holding his heading still and comforting him.  I don't think S would have handled such a duty very well.  I didn't like seeing my son in pain, of course, but it was pretty interesting to see the doctor at work up close.  She did a real good job... or so it seemed to me anyway -- it's not like I'm an expert on suturing wounds.

In other news, March Madness is upon us, which means I'm fanatically keeping tabs on all the games.  Last night I was up until 1 am watching the end of a borderline blowout because I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep without knowing the result for certain.  The thing is, as I've mentioned before, my company does an office tournament competition -- it's a little different then the standard one -- and I've won it three of the past five years (I've only played six total).  There is only one person in the office who has ever won four times, and he did it over like 25 years, so I would basically be the all-time champ if I win this year.  And I'm currently in the lead!  The thing is, it's just for fun, but it also makes me look smart, and looking smart in front of your coworkers and bosses is never a bad thing.

There was a giant upset in the tournament.  The little-known (outside of the greater Baltimore area) school University of Maryland Baltimore County became the first 16-seed to beat a 1-seed (University of Virginia) in the history of the tournament.  Two coworkers of mine and my boss' son attended UMBC, and I've never once heard a single mention of the basketball team before this -- I didn't even know they had one.  The upset did not help or hurt me in my picks, but it could hurt me this round.  I need them to win again tomorrow against Kansas St. (a low pick for me), but that's highly unlikely -- I suspect it was fluke win over Virginia and flukes don't generally happen again, which is why they're flukes.  But, you never know -- we shall see.

That's all I got for today.  Until next time...

Entry 414: Naps and Whales and Such

We will see how far I get in this post without interruption.  S is supposedly putting Lil' S2 down for his nap (Lil' S1 is occupied with the iPad, as per usual), but I can hear those little legs running around upstairs.

And no sooner did I finish that sentence then he came bounding down the stairs and wanted me to take him on a walk, which I did, so I now have little time to finish this post, but I will do my best.

Walking is one of the few ways we can get him to go down these days.  He's at that unfortunate age where he doesn't absolutely need nap and he certainly doesn't want to nap, but if he doesn't take one the chances of a six pm meltdown go up drastically.  S and I have different mindsets on this.  I take a more laissez-faire approach -- I'll try to get him down, but if he's not into it, then I'm not pushing it too far.  And then after that initial window has closed, I actually prefer if he doesn't nap because if he sleeps too late in the afternoon it's a nightmare to put him to bed at night.  I'd rather deal with an early evening meltdown than have it be 10:30 pm and he's still running around.

The other thing I will do is the walk, like today.  S also opposes this because she says she doesn't want us to "rely" on this method, lest nothing else work.  My feeling is: There's not much left for us to "nap train" him for.  He's basically done with them.  We should be squeezing out as many as we can while we can -- if the only way to do that is with a walk, so be it.  It's actually a good thing for me because I enjoy walking and I get some exercise.  Today it all worked out because S was very tired, and she wanted to nap, and he was annoying her, so she was in whatever works mode.

Sleeping schedules is one of those things where S and I have learned to compromise -- the compromise being, you do it your way when it's your turn; I do it my way when it's my turn.  And we keep our mouths closed when the other one is doing it their way.  (Although that latter part is not as stringently adhered to, by either side, as it should be.)

In other news, I started reading Moby-Dick on a whim, a while ago, and I'm almost done with it.  It's really quite good (which is probably why it's, you know, a classic and whatnot), but it's pretty long, and there is a lot of whale talk into it -- like a lot a lot -- like multiple chapters that are just about describing the anatomy of a whale in textbook-like detail.  I wonder how accurate most of it is now, being that it was written over 150 years ago, and our knowledge of whales has surely increased dramatically.  Actually, I wonder how much of it was accurate even by the standards of the day.  But it doesn't really matter.  The beauty of the book isn't in it's description of whales; it's in its little observations of life that still remain true today.  It's amazing how much I can relate to a Nantucket whaler from pre-Civil War America.

It's also got a bunch of terrific arcane words in it I only know from Scrabble and crossword puzzles.  Here is an incomplete list:

• Fain: Happily willing
• Tierce: Third
• Poser: Baffling question or puzzle
• Stove: Smashed (past tense of stave)
• Wight: Human being

Another thing about Moby-Dick is that I have yet to read what I think of as the iconic phrase from the book: "Thar she blows!"  Everything I've read so far is "There she blows!"  (Emphasis mine.)  I wonder if somebody says this later (I still have a bit left) or if this is just one of those misnomer lines like "Play it again, Sam."

Anyway, everybody is up now, and we are off to the park.  Until next time...

Entry 413: Life Update

Life is pretty good at the moment -- or at least it's as good as it can be with our current toddler-president and his cast of fuckups and cronies and fucked-up cronies running the country.  Trump is always in the back of my mind, stabbing my brain with a rusty ice pick every time I get too happy.  But the resistance seems to be holding up, strengthening even -- I'm cautiously optimistic about the future.  And it can't get here quickly enough.

On the positive personal front, I got a pretty substantial raise at work, around 10%.   My company used to be part of a parent company that owned two other businesses.  They were struggling and were cannibalizing the profits of my company.  I was told by my boss that, once upon a time, the situation was reversed, so we couldn't really complain too much.  But it really started to drag us down.  Finally, the owner of the parent company (my boss's boss's boss) sold the other two businesses and kept ours.  It was the best case scenario for people like me because I didn't have to deal with the disruption of being sold to a new owner, and with the dead weight jettisoned, there is more money available for salaries.  Win and win.

We will likely need the money, too, because we are thinking of buying a new more expensive house.  S has been agitating for a bigger kitchen for years, and we thought about renovations, but we don't really have the layout for it.  It'd be a lot of money just to get something we kinda like; I'd rather hold out for something we really like.  The market is insane right now (it's always insane in DC), but it would be somewhat mitigated by the fact we already own property, which is appreciating too.  (The smart financial move would be to sell in DC and move to a cheaper area, but there is not a cheaper area in which we both would like to live.)  I think we will look into moving in earnest next summer, or, if I have it my way, 2020.  I'd like to move into a neighborhood zoned for decent schools, and Lil' S2 will be in kindergarten then.  If we move before then, we run the risk of being denied a spot in the neighborhood pre-K progame because kids are not legally required to attend pre-K in DC and the city is not legally required to admit them (no matter where they live).  If we stay where we are, it will be easier to get him into pre-K (less competitive), and thus we will not have to pay for daycare anymore, which is good.  Now, even if we move, Lil' S2 could probably attend the same charter school as his brother (sibling preference), but we are looking for places mostly on the other side of the city.  If I have to drive across DC every morning, and add 45 minutes to my daily commute, I will not be happy -- and that's a huge understatement.

Anyway, I hate dealing with school stuff.  It's simultaneously boring and stressful.  That's part of the problem with "choice."  Proponents of choice -- in school, in healthcare, in consumerism, etc. -- always frame it as facilitating freedom but I often find it does the opposite because I have to spend so much time and energy sorting through the various options.  I'd feel much more free if there was only one school, and I could sign my kids up for it and be done with it.

In other news, Krav Maga is going pretty well.  I'm getting to be among the best in the entry level class, so I need to test up pretty soon.  It's just a matter of finding the time to train for it.  I'm confident I could meet all the requirements with a little practice, but I actually have to do the practice, not just talk about it, and therein lies the rub.  I've had little motivation to move up thus far, but I'm starting to feel overqualified in my current class.  Plus, I'm not getting any younger.  It's not going to get any easier.  I haven't really done anything like this since high school wrestling, and the biggest difference is recovery and bending over.  I feel just as strong as I did back then; I have just as much endurance, just as much power; the balance and footwork and coordination are still strong.  But I'm so sore after every workout, and it takes me days to recover (just in time for next class to repeat the process).  Also, I struggle with anything that requires me to get down on my knees or otherwise bend over.  Sometimes we do bear crawl in class, and it's aptly named for me because it is a fucking bear.  If you give me the option of thirty push-ups or bear crawling the length of a wrestling mat and back, I'm taking the former.

Lastly, the wife and kids are doing fine.  Well, the wife is actually pretty sick at the moment, but she'll get over it.  Lil' S2 is also a little thorn in our side right now -- he never wants to go to sleep or otherwise to anything we ask him to do -- but that too shall pass.

That's all I got today.  Until next time...