I'm not George F. Will, exhibit #19,837

I could type my fingers to the bone, and then down to the first knuckle after that, and never turn a sentence this clever:

Having received nearly 53 percent of the popular vote -- better than Ronald Reagan's 50.7 percent in 1980 -- Barack Obama won 100 percent of the presidency, and almost that much of the nation's leadership expectations now that the public, which really should diversify its investments, invests such extravagant hopes in presidents.

Maybe it IS a clown car!

Doctors said the mother knew at 23 weeks that she was going to have seven babies. Neither she nor her doctors knew she was carrying eight babies until she delivered Monday night.

Meaningless noises

And for once, I'm not talking about the ones that come out of my mouth...

Theo is, for lack of a better term, phone-obsessed. I can't have a conversation in front of him, and half his toybox is half-filled with dead cell phones, toy phones, unused cordless phones, and old remote controls that he mistakes for phones (honest mistake -- they have a keypad, after all).

A very good friend bought Theo a toy phone for Christmas. His reaction to new phones is always hard to guess in advance, but this has become one of his favorites. We play together with it almost every day ("Hello, Mr. President? We're calling to support the toy stimulus bill.") and it is a reliable attention-getter in the car.

The phone just made the craziest noise -- an infinitely repeating series of half-second tones. I think back in ye olde days they called it a "busy signal."

When I heard it, all I could do was laugh and tell Theo, "Bud, you're never going to know what that means."

One more thing: A quick search for "busy signal" brought up this press release, which also made me giggle.

Jobs and Apple

What Walt said:

.

Via John Gruber.

For Diana

The youtube page gives away the joke, so rather than send her the link I'll post it here.

Stay at home daddy tip

When you leave the room just long enough to pee, your son WILL open the trash can and start eating the used coffee grounds near the top.

Yeah, naptime should be a BLAST today!!!

One of my favorite categories...

Natalie reminded me on Facebook that I haven't used this one in a while.

"Theo, you're not climbing on that. The dishwasher is not a toy."

Travelblogging

The calendar says we've been away from Norfolk 12 days, but it feels like forever. We drove off the afternoon of the 29th, later in the afternoon than I'd hoped because Ruth was busy at work. The late start actually ended up being a good thing, because it kept me from wanting to make the drive to Chicago all in one day, like I normally do. The second day was still a long one after stopping in Hagerstown, MD, but spending the night in a crib rather than the back seat of a Volkswagen meant Theo was in a much better mood all week.

I tend to be a hermit when we spend time with relatives, but this trip we've been far more social -- positive influence from my wife and son and it also helps that my sister was with us much of the time. We spent New Year's Eve with Kevin & Denice, their son Michael, and our friend James, who was in town from Atlanta to see the Winter Classic (The Bastard!).

New Year's Day we hung out with Ruth's cousins and their family. Theo had all kinds of fun with his cousin Natalie -- too much fun, it turned out. He refused to nap all afternoon, leading to an overtired boy who woke us every so often all night long.

The other highlight of our time in Chicago was a visit to the Shedd Aquarium with Kevin, Denice and Michael. Theo and Michael ran each other ragged, I think Theo was just as happy to check out all the doors as he was to look at all the fish.

We've been almost a full week now at my parents' house. I haven't done much other than sample my Dad's homebrew and enjoy all the extra hands available to help with Theo. We spent a day with my Grandma over in Indiana, Ruth and I spent an evening out catching up with friends and the ladies spent a day shopping.

Theo seems to be learning a new word every day and some days it seems like a word every hour. Watching him interact with his grandparents has been the best part of this trip.

I'm not looking forward to the drive, but going back home again with no plans for another trip anytime soon sounds really nice right now. Between all the trips and Ruth being gone for two months, the house is still in chaos. We never really settled into our last house and I'd like this one to feel like home sometime before Ruth's next orders come through...

The other challenge will be getting my good routines back -- I was running and writing regularly before we left, but haven't done either on this trip.

Cooking gadget geekery

Am I as cool as Alton Brown? Paul, who has seen us both in person, would probably say "No."

But now, I'm at least getting close, because I own one of these:



That's right, lesser beings -- pick a random surface within a few feet of me, and I will illuminate it with a built-in laser pointer, then tell you its exact temperature. For instance -- the back of my mouth? 96 degrees. My coffee table? 71 degrees. The back of my cat, Guinness? 76 degrees and ALL FREAKED OUT because I'm holding a laser pointer.

Alright, so I admit it's not an everyday tool -- or even something I plan to use much outside a few kitchen tasks -- but it will come in handy from time to time, I got a great price and it doubles as a cat toy. What more justification does a kitchen geek need?

Hilarious new blog

Because the world has been waiting for someone to take the animal kingdom down a notch.


Thanks to my sis for the pointer, once again proving that every blog in the world is funnier than this one.

The first sign of Christmas

It's not really Christmas without it, huh?

So very quiet...

Ruth has been home two weeks now. We all seem to have readjusted without a hitch and the three of us are having a great time.

I've had near-daily ideas for posts or even longer pieces -- the whole "watch the ship pull up to the pier for a family reunion" thing would provide some material -- but the time and motivation to sit down and do the actual typing hasn't materialized. Either I've wanted to watch Theo play, or wanted to hang out with Ruth while she watches dumb movies or finally watch some of the NFL I've been missing. I don't usually feel guilty for not posting, but I'm getting there.

Although I feel like a dirtbag for not getting more done around here, we're having so much fun that it's hard to get back in a productive routine. You'd have to look out our windows to even know it's December -- we're not really feeling much like Christmas this year, so all the decorations are still in the basement.

Still, we're all very happy to be together. Maybe I get around to those posts in my head, maybe I don't...

Election Day!

Today is the real election. In a process understood by the poli-sci geeks and a few others, the people you were REALLY voting for on November 4 will gather in the capitals of the states and elect our next president and vice-president, presumably Osama Bin Laden and William Ayers.

...seriously, though, there are historical precedents for faithless electors mocking the system -- or mocking their party's losing candidate, at least. Would anyone care to bet on how many electoral votes Sarah Palin collects today?

More proof prime time is DEAD

NBC Expected to Give 10 P.M. Show to Leno

Funny because it's true

Of course some people are only happy when they're complaining, but he says it better than I do. This video reminded me that after a day when Theo and I pretty much drove each other crazy, I really can't complain.

Not very many years ago, if Ruth and I had set up our little family, I'd never have been the one home with Theo. Money or expectations about the "Man of the House" or what have you would've had me spending my days at a real job, loving my family but hating my life. Ruth would've been at home with Theo, loving her family but wishing she could do more.

Instead, we're both happy with where we're at. We've got it pretty good.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

And I'm thankful for everyone who is still checking my blog despite my sporadic posting. Just can't get myself to travel-blog much. I'm also thankful for my wonderful wife and all my family and friends, who are nicer to me than I deserve.

Massive Thanksgiving Road Trip 2008 is a smashing success. Theo is making all kinds of new friends, traveling well, and we're having a great time. Of course there have been hiccups and stories of woe, but you won't read those stories here. :) Of course if you're following my Twitter feed you probably know this already.

Happy Thanksgiving.

20,000 Free Homecoming Banners From BuildASign.com

Passing this along from Tom:

We’re giving military families a free customizable banner to help welcome home their loved ones returning from overseas or the option to send a free customizable jumbo card to a loved one overseas. … We are giving away a total of 20,000 banners plus jumbo cards to support our troops at home and abroad.

Goose Island Brewpub SAVED from closure

Hooray, weak real estate market!

Goose Island toasts 11th-hour deal to keep brew pub open

I KNEW it!

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

For the record,

YouTube and They Might Be Giants are saving sanity around the Avelis house today.



TMBG are now making music for kids, but leaving out all the Suck you usually find in kids' music. As a parent, I appreciate that.

...and now, since Theo's Grandpa is probably shaking his head at the first video, here's some Bach.

A longer version of a tweet from earlier...

I don't know if I'll like the guy. I'm certain I don't agree with him on everything, or even a lot of things.

But...No one will ever be able to tell my son that a mixed race kid whose grandparents weren't born in the U.S. can't do anything he wants with his life.

Right now that makes me happy for my son in a way I can't express.

F*** it. Throw the ball downfield.

In honor of Sexy Rexy's return, his #1 fan...

Nipped by the Feds...

Reason number 38D that women are better than men at being corrupt politicians.

(The woman in the picture is a MA state senator, and these charges are apparently no surprise.)

I hate Tennessee Nazis...

...and there's nothing funny about death threats, especially death threats against people under Secret Service protection. Nothing funny at all.

But man, every time I hear "White tuxedos and top hats, firing guns through the car windows," I giggle. Sorry.

Some days...

Maybe Theo has been fighting me all day because he knows October 25 is a big day for battles:

1415 - The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

1854 - The Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade).

1917 - Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia.

1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, takes place in and around the Philippines...

1983 - Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada...

OK, Grenada might not look like Agincourt right now, but in 600 years, who knows what they'll think?

Serious baby is serious

Had to post this one too. For the briefest of moments he stared into a camera lens and DIDN'T ham it up.

From Theo, Aug-Oct 2008

My new furniture

With the recent move, I was finally able to justify purchasing an piece of pseudo-furniture I've wanted for quite a while: A giant, premium beanbag. What can I say? I'm a simple man.

I promised Diana some photos to illustrate the actual size of the beanbag, so I had Ruth take a few before she left:

From Theo, Aug-Oct 2008

Theo and Daddy relaxing. But Daddy seems very concerned that Theo pay attention to the book they're reading. What could be so important?

From Theo, Aug-Oct 2008

Well, THAT explains Daddy's concern.

From Theo, Aug-Oct 2008

From Theo, Aug-Oct 2008

There's more photos where these came from. I'm putzing around with Flickr and Picasa, trying to figure out if either one will be more convenient than my dot-mac galleries when it comes to integrating with Blogger and Facebook...

But "Joey Beer" doesn't sound as good

I've been saying lately that barring a revelation about a dead girl or a live boy, Obama has the election in the bag -- but the "Billy & Roger Theory of First Brothers" indicates I may have to reconsider...

Paul will comment on this post

So during the move, my grooming routine suffered...





...to the point where I was thinking that maybe I'd throw a barn raising. It's not my record for a beard, but it's probably as much total hair as I've had in 10 years or so.

I'd also considered letting my readers vote on whether to hack it off or let it go until Ruth gets home. Then I realized, that would require coming to grips with how few people actually read this, and that's never a good thing.

In the end, even though I love that shade of red, I was annoyed by the extra weight on my face. So yesterday I took out the clippers...



Unfortunately, the clippers don't shave off that extra chin along with all the hair.

UPDATE: If only I'd realized everything I was giving up...

Attention Old People:

Bite Me.

One week down

So it's been exactly a week since Ruth left, and... Wait.

Just a minute.

WHAT!?!?! A FRAKIN' WEEK?!?! IT'S ONLY BEEN A WEEK?

If you'd asked me this when I didn't have a calendar in front of me, I'd swear it's been three weeks or a month already.

But it's been a week with no hospital visits and the house is still about as clean as when she left. So I guess we're going to make it.

A couple times a day I spend a few minutes with Theo in front of a wall of family pictures, asking him to show me Mommy, then after he points at her I tell him how much Mommy loves Theo and how she wishes she were home to give him a hug and put him to bed and help Daddy.

I've had him look at a few photos Mommy has sent from the ship and listen to some videos with her voice, but doing anything in front of the computer with him, it's only a matter of seconds until the computer itself becomes more interesting than what's on the screen. He's still trying to update his blog.

Finally, every night before bed, along with the usual litany of "night-nights" to family and honorary family all over the place, I tell him, "say night-night to Mommy, wherever she is"; and that's his cue to wave at the door to his room.

and I start getting verklempt, because how much cute can you fit in one kid?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Do you hoppy-hop here often?

I'm naming this photo "Daddy's little player looks to get his cradle robbed at the playground." Click to view it at a larger size and just look at him laying on the charm.

My son: Doing better with the ladies before age 2 than Daddy did in 27 years of single life.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Call it a political post if you must

So NBC gave Colin Powell some free air time this morning for a speech about the upcoming election. Ignored in all the endorsement blah-blah-blah was the most eloquent, direct endorsement of religious freedom and inclusion I've ever heard from a politician. The criticism is directed at his party, but to me the words are universal:

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?

The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old.

And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life.

Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

Too much to ask, I suppose, that today be remembered for these words rather than an endorsement. Full interview is embedded below, the relevant clip begins @4:27.

Indeed

I linked a George Will column about Gettysburg at right (sounds like it's time for another visit), but his paragraph about certain ... misconceptions ... people hold about the battle reminded me of a story...

I visited Valley Forge once; as with most of these monuments, there's an informative short film to watch before you tour the grounds. At one point they talk about the contributions of the Prussian General Friedrich Wilhelm von Stueben, well-known for introducing formal military training to the Continental Army. Pretty standard stuff for those of us who have studied the history of the war.

As the lights went up and we all filed out of the small theater, the woman in front of us exclaimed to her friends, loud enough for everyone to hear,

"von Steuben was Prussian? But I thought he was GEEERMAAAN!"

I didn't laugh out loud. Not until she was well out of earshot.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

It can't hurt, right?

I believe that all future political speechifying should take place in a "Friar's Club Roast" style format.

Trader Joe's, bastion of civilization.

So I went to Trader Joe's this morning, not because I'm running low on food but because it's something to do with spud and I'm still exploring all their products.

I didn't go into the beer/wine section last time I visited; I'm feeling pretty good about my beer supply at this point, at least until I can start brewing again. On this visit, though, I figured I'd take a quick walk down the last aisle, and what do I find?

OTTER CREEK COPPER ALE.

...and the skies opened, the angels trumpeted, the choirs sang, etc...

My favorite New England brewery, and the one I didn't think I'd be finding this far south. I paid far too much for a six-pack of Copper Ale, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Hey Diana

This AP religion article interviews some of your friends from GABF ... I'm sure you can guess who.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Just the boys

Theo and I are finally getting back in the game. Tuesday afternoon/evening we were pretty much wiped out, after getting up early to take Ruth to the airport. Neither of us is at our best at 5:30 AM. Luckily for all three of us, airline travel is a lot less of a hassle when you flash military orders and a red passport.

The Norfolk airport is just as we left it, except it now has a Starbucks concession. When it's 7AM and you're holding back tears because you don't want to upset the 17-month-old who is staring at you and depending on you and you alone for the next 7 weeks ...well, a venti is in order.

We're all lucky I got us to the airport at 6AM in a decaffeinated state. Ten years ago, did I really make a habit of driving the Chicago expressways at 8AM with no coffee?

So the first day was bad news. Daddy wanted to stare at the wall and stew, but Theo wanted constant attention. Not the best start. But I got over it pretty fast and today we took a long walk, probably 7 miles or so round trip. I put him in the stroller and finally tracked down the Elizabeth River Trail.

This woefully underpublicized resource runs from West Ghent (where we live) down through Fort Norfolk, into the Freemason Neighborhood and Downtown, and much farther. The city is doing some construction on a section, so I had to detour into The Hague, well worth the early morning view. I'm so dismayed by the lack of useful descriptions of the trail I could find using Google that I've decided to break out a camera and Google Maps and document it. The way my other projects are going, If I finish that before our next move, it will be a major victory.

So the two of us walked down to the USS Wisconsin and back to West Ghent. Now knowing that our three or four favorite neighborhoods in town are all within a half-hour walk, I once again feel like the money we're spending to live in this area is so worthwhile.

I've also managed to be pretty good about another plan for deployment, to eat as many meals as I can with Theo. Never could do it when Ruth was around, either because of timing conflicts, me being unable to get dinner ready by Theo's early dinnertime, or because we wouldn't give up our valuable just-the-two-of-us-and-food time. With just the toddler and I here, none of that applies. Although I did have to throw him a piece of bread tonight while I fixed a hasty meal. [In another one of those "separated at birth" coincidences, Tom posted about this at Milspouse just yesterday.]

In truth, I settled in fast because I'm excited for her. I'm excited because she was ready to do her job, and now she's out in the thick of it. It will be hard to adjust to a new command and new duties as she's dumped into the middle of a deployment but she's had to deal with more.

I don't worry about Ruth and I. Seven weeks is a cakewalk, almost not worth worrying about when so many people (like us, earlier in the decade) go through so much more. I worry more about how the two of them will deal with the separation, it's a whole new world for them. I suppose 17+ hour days with no time to think about home will help ease the transition for Ruth. For the toddler, Routine is King, and anything works as long as you do it at the same time every day, so I plan to just carry on as usual, show him lots of pictures and movies of his Mommy and talk about her often.

The last question -- am I a worthy single parent? We'll just have to wait and see.

It's all up to me...

Sadly, I'll forget how to get out of my own house.

It's one of those days...

As the world proceeds from "financial meltdown" to "Crack each others' heads open and feast on the goo inside..."



As you can see from his Flickr stream and his home on the tubes, my friend Paul doesn't just edit photos, he also takes very good ones.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

On Military Husbands and the "wives club"

Now that I have some more time to myself and no television (and soon, no wife, but that's not important right now) to suck that time away, I want to start sharing my thoughts on my pal Tom Litchford's posts here, here, here and here about us military husbands and whether we're well served by the military's traditional (i.e. female-focused) family support structures. My bias, for those who don't know me -- I'm the husband of a career-minded Navy Surface Warfare Officer, so my opinions and observations come from that experience.

In addition to Tom's posts, MilSpouse has a great article on their website, split into two parts, that gives some good background on the challenges of the husband.

Despite its absurd length, this is meant to be another waypoint in a conversation, not the last word. Hopefully it's comprehensible and adds more light than heat to the topic.

As "The Guy" who has often changed a gathering of "wives" into "spouses," I've had very few bad experiences. However, I'm not a common case. Contrary to "guy" stereotypes, I'm very comfortable around groups of women and I have no problem being a good listener or talking someone's ear off, as circumstances demand.

I've had my share of dirty looks from wives who made it clear through their arrogance and snark that they didn't like the idea of women on ships or men in the "Wives' Club;" however, I noticed that they were generally negative people, who had some reason to be upset with most people and situations. Even without any men in the room, they would find a way to be unhappy, so I didn't take their actions personally.

Lacking any firsthand horror stories, I still share Tom's sense that the existing support structure isn't helpful to husbands. Then again, the spouse groups I've been involved in had a very small core of regular attendees; many of the wives were no more dedicated than the "attend once and run like hell" husbands. So maybe it's not just the men who are poorly served?

I wonder, is the entire concept of the wives/spouses club an anachronism? The institution of the wives club was created for women who were far from their extended family, had little to no contact with their husbands during deployment, were expected to be helpless and pitied without a man around, and without work or interests outside family life -- in short, women who usually bore no resemblance to today's spouses of either gender. Today's military wife brings a set of experiences much more like mine than like the military wife of years past.

In my experience, for couples today to succeed at the military lifestyle, the non-military spouse MUST have interests and "a life" completely unrelated to the military member. Among my "Navy Wife" friends, the question "When are they going back to sea so I can get back to normal?" is sometimes asked only half in jest. When a couple can't create independent identities, even a short separation becomes intolerable and one of the relationships -- either the military career or the marriage -- is doomed.

Cheap travel, instant global communication, more and more nonmilitary husbands who have never been subjected to the "you poor thing" military wife stereotype and fewer and fewer women fitting that profile: Maybe it's no wonder that the traditional model of the spouses club is no longer relevant.

I think there are other reasons the military husband is overlooked -- email me if you want to have a long, boring discussion about them -- but it's more important to ask, "What should spouses groups do to stay relevant to both men and women?" and "What should individual spouses do to retain sanity in the age of neverending deployments?"

Don't read this as a eulogy for the spouses club. It just needs to be seen in its proper context. Instead of expecting an official group to be the sole source of support and social interaction, call it a first resource among many.

As far as what groups should do for husbands, this may sound simplistic, but I think my good experiences could be chalked up to the leaders and "regulars" in the group who did their best to make me welcome. If I'd received an icy reception from those groups, I certainly wouldn't have returned. In the end, if you can treat me as professionally as you would a co-worker, I'll probably feel part of the group.

It's easy to say that family groups should look for activities that have appeal across gender lines, but it's not practical to constantly find activities that will draw in both genders, regardless of whether or not they have kids. An organization will tend to represent the majority, and if that's women alone with kids, the childless husband is going to wonder where he fits in.

What groups and group leaders can do if they have a small number of husbands who don't seem linked to the group -- encourage them to get together on their own, if the group's activities aren't of interest. Leaders can use their training opportunities and connections to other units to gather information, for instance could the base form a husbands group from multiple commands? Is there a command anywhere nearby that has a critical mass of husbands to form a group but would welcome more?

The individual husband should recognize that their unit's spouses club is going to have access to information they may not get anywhere else, and maintain links to it regardless of how they feel about the people or activities. You can make it through your wife's career while never having an emergency or question or crisis that requires an official conduit to your wife's command, but the one time you need it, you must know who to call.

In the end, if a military husband feels that he needs a group of men who are going through the same experiences, it's up to him to take the initiative and find those men himself. It feels silly to say this on a blog, but the Internet does exist. Form a meetup group, create an online forum, just start poking around Google. We military husbands are out here, and always ready to lend a hand.

Triumph

I don't think it's quite up to the "Star Wars Nerds" episode, but Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the San Diego ComiCon is like like shooting fish in a barrel ... with a thermonuclear bomb.

Work flashback

Back when I worked for money, my boss and I had this EXACT CONVERSATION about timesheets pretty much every month.

All it does is encourage them

C&D Approves (of) This Message.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The day is coming...

Ruth went to the base and checked in this morning. She's now waiting for a call -- at any time they can call her to get on a plane at a moment's notice to go to her ship. Chances are she'll have more notice than that, but maybe not.

So yeah, we're all totally relaxed and having a great time. Thhhhhhhpppppppt.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Another sign we're growing up fast

Theo was begging for attention all day, so after dinner I sat down with him in the living room while he played. He stood up, ran over to me and started hugging my knees, pretty normal "I'm needy today" behavior. I thought I felt the beginning of a bite, so I pulled him away...

"Theo, no biting! Do you want to go to bed right now?"

Kid looks up at me and clear as day yells "YES!"

Ruth and I both blinked. "You heard that too? Well, OK then! Theo, if you want to go night-night, go to the stairs."

Quick as a flash, he's standing in front of the gate on the stairway. I took him upstairs and he practically put himself to sleep. Throw the books on the floor, can the songs, forget the milk, all he wanted was the crib.

Writing this down reminds me -- this wasn't even the first time he'd done this. During last month's road trip, probably the first or second night at my parents' house, he walked US through the bedtime routine. Out of the blue, long before we'd even considered bedtime, he grabbed Goodnight Moon and brought it over to Grandpa (who had pulled a lot of bedtime duty during his visit a couple weeks prior), then started pointing at the refrigerator door and yelling until I put it together -- he knows that's where his milk lives.

Never underestimate a toddler -- they know what they want, we just need to watch carefully and know the right questions to ask.

Life in my house

Ruth: "What are you nerding up to now?"

Me: "Thinking about a new blog post."

Ruth: "About what?"

Me: "I dunno. If I knew I'd be writing it."

Excitement?

A question I've been hearing a lot lately is "Are you excited about your new house?"

The answer, every time -- No. I'm not excited. Not even a little, and I'm not sure why.

It's a very nice house. It's in a gorgeous neighborhood. Our neighbors are friendly and generous with us. We're an easy walk or near-instant drive to everything we enjoy about Norfolk. There's very little it requires in the way of redecorating or repairs -- I painted a couple rooms and we're hanging curtain rods.

There's still plenty of boxes to empty and things to be organized and stored and hung on the walls, but when I'm not busy procrastinating, isn't all that part of the fun of a new place?

Yet, the only thing I've been even mildly excited about this week was our new refrigerator.

I definitely don't regret buying in the midst of the current financial climate. Before the real estate slowdown, this house would've easily sold for far more than we paid, so in that sense we got a "great deal." We have a solid, unspectacular loan with lots of money down from a local bank and my wife has an extremely secure, well-paid job in (sadly) a growth market. We also received some reminders during this move about the uncertainties and inconveniences of renting that left me happy we didn't go that route here.

Despite all our friends here, we did leave some friends and a comfortable routine behind in New England; I could just be missing our past lives, looking for something to replace them.

One possibility that has been sneaking into my head recently -- Ruth is weeks, or even just days, from getting on an airplane and heading to wherever her new ship will be meeting her. As we've learned from experience, approaching separations such as deployments cause all kinds of strange, almost random behavior when we know they're inevitable. This could be predeployment dread that I'm just directing at our new house.

Or, maybe I've finally truly internalized the nomadic lifestyle of the military family and it's left me hopelessly cynical about what should be a happy time. I know that if Ruth's plans come together then this house, however beautiful, is going to pass out of our lives in 4-5 years or less.

So...yeah. This little vent has cleared up nothing in my mind. It is a very nice house. Theo, Guinness and Aslan have settled in like they've lived here forever. I guess that's enough for me.

Our travels...

So today is the first time I've been on the Internet since Monday morning. As usual when I don't have easy access, the entire time my mind has been racing with funny and insightful blog posts that will never see pixels.

We've moved into the new house with no hiccups so far. The kitchen doesn't have as much storage as we'd first thought, but a trip to IKEA will solve that pretty quickly.

Theo and I left Norfolk Sept. 5 to meet Ruth in Newport. After enjoying a few last visits around town and seeing Ruth graduate from DH school, we went back to Norfolk for a few days. Monday afternoon found us back on the road driving to IL for visits to relatives.

I'm pretty much brain dead at this point. Might have more to say about the trip but maybe not.

Cubs Win!