Liebster Blog Award

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I’ve been bestowed the honor of the Liebster Blog Award by the monster wrangler Kaye Draper! She chronicles her writing trials and tribulations over at Write Me. Give it a peek, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

In turn, I am to grant this award to five more blogs.  Well, here you go:

  • Dandelionlady – An artist whose posts inspire me to keep working on my own art.
  • Off the top of my head… – A tumblr that punches me in my geek and then follows up with a kick of surreal.
  • Serenity Acres Now – A farm started by no-nonsense geeks that truly embrace the Browncoat ideal.
  • Suddenly Sara – The journal of a transgendered woman living in a cisgendered world.  I never knew how much I didn’t know.
  • Raise the Horns – Informative blog about Paganism, as long as you ignore the football references. (Not sure if this breaks the readership rule.)

The ‘rules’ of the award are the following:

  1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
  2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
  3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
  4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less.
  5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Dad’s Day

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I got to have a bunch of Father’s Days. You’re jealous. It’s ok. No one will know.

Hunter left to spend most of the summer with his Dad, but wanted to celebrate with me before he went. So, Nikki and I saved our quarters and I took Hunter to the same place we visited on our first Father’s Day together. We went to Pinball Pete’s. Quarters were inserted into slots, fighting and driving games were played, skee balls were rolled (and rolled and rolled and rolled), and tickets were collected. We got over 425 tickets between us, which Hunter spent on things that make a Hunter happy. (Yes, there was a sword.) On the way home, when we babbled about how much fun that had been, he decided that I needed a souveneir. He handed me the 8 ball keychain that he’d bought, and it’s been on my keychain since.

The Thursday before Father’s Day, Aidan, Cian, Acelyn, and Nikki came parading through my office shouting Happy Father’s Day at the top of their lungs and carrying a large foil covered plate. They had spent the morning baking me peanut butter and apple cinnamon cookies together. Many of my coworkers ate yummy cookies that day, I can tell you. That evening, we all went to MSU Dairy for some delicious ice cream. And it was. Delicious. DELICIOUS!

On the morning of Father’s Day proper, Cian, Acelyn, Nikki, and I went to the Fork in the Road diner. It was a good sign when I noticed the meat smoker going as we walked up. We got there just as they were opening, and there was already a line to the door. By the time that we were seated, the line had gone out the door. And I tell you what, the food was worth every penny (not a cheap place to eat). Cian had the American Breakfast, and shared his potatoes with Acelyn. Nikki had the biscuits and gravy. I had the smoked pork belly hash. Yeah, smoked right out in the parking lot. When we left, to quote my good friend Peter, I was fat, dumb, and happy.

Soon after that, we were on the road to the TWP to celebrate with my parents. “Uncle Joe Awesome” was there, there were burgers and brats fresh off of the grill, and there was much grandkid doting. I hope Dad has gotten some mileage out of his gift, because he was all smiles when he opened it.

This Father’s Day really brought home how lucky I am, and how amazing the gifts I’ve received are. They didn’t come in any form close to what I expected, but maybe that’s part of why.

Writery Updates

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I am a few sentences away from completing the climax – the showdown – of Adam’s Name in Detroit. I have some that I want to add on the end, to tie up loose ends, and some at the beginning, to create more loose ends. The structure of the piece seems to call for both bits of extra, so I’m going to see where it leads me. I am incredibly excited to be completing this piece, and it’s going to be a hard wait for input from my Alpha Readers (who rock) and then it’ll be hard to not rush through the subsequent rewrite. First thing’s first – I need to focus and get this draft done. I need to not get distracted just as I’m nearing the finish line.

Last night, I got to see John Scalzi here in Lansing, at Schuler’s Books. He’s on tour for Redshirts, which I’m hoping to get as an eBook. Not only do the author and subject matter make me drool over the book, but Tor‘s switching to a DRM-free distribution model, and Redshirts is the first released. I’d really like to support that. Anywho, I showed up an hour after the event started, and my wife (who, as is noted in earlier posts, is awesome) took the kids to browse around the bookstore while I listened to the end of the talk, and got in line to get my copy of Old Man’s War signed. I was nervous about getting that one in particular signed, because I’d bought it used (at John King in Detroit), which means the author didn’t get any money from my purchase. My good friend reminded me that I was being silly, and to not worry about it. So, I went, and I ran into other people I knew, as I usually do. Despite my wife’s accusation of flirting (I am SO not protesting too much!), catching up was pleasant and helped pass the time in line.

I expected more people there, honestly, but I was happy that I didn’t have to fight too big of a crowd or wait too long in line. I was surprised and amused that despite explicit instructions not to bring any, there was a container of frosting (with sprinkles!) on his table as he signed away. When I got to the table, I got to thank him for his movie columns in the past, and for bringing rationality to some movies that had just generally made me pissy. I made my save vs. fanboy, which means I didn’t drool or stammer, didn’t bring up bacon taped to a cat, and was able to hold an intelligent conversation. I’m making a note here, great success!

And according to what he wrote, he remembered me from some point in the past. Of course, the last time I had him sign something, he wrote that I should “never mention bacon again.  No, seriously.” Great success, indeed.

One Year Old

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I never thought I’d have a daughter.

Truth be told, I had convinced myself pretty thoroughly that I’d never have kids at all. That is, until I met Nikki. Hunter and Aidan came with her, as a package deal, you might say. Then Cian came along. Three boys was a hell of a lot of work and stress and crazy, and then just as I got let go for the second time in my life, we found out that we were pregnant again.

We made it to three months before the miscarriage hit. The night before, I’d placed a lit candle outside on the snowy porch railing, as if I knew something was about to happen. I hit a pretty deep depression after that, and after a while, I decided that it wasn’t worth trying again. Three boys were more than enough. Nikki wanted to try; she wanted a little girl to raise. The disagreement almost ended our marriage. In the end, we agreed to wait and see if time changed our minds after a year or two.

Time decided that we’d get months instead of years. I figured it out one morning when Nikki had beef jerky and orange juice for breakfast as we headed out on a road trip. She’d not had her usual signs, but sure enough, Acelyn was on her way.

On June 10, 2011, we welcomed a screaming banshee of a girl into the world. She was wailing before they pulled her out, which made the weirdest gurgling sound I have ever heard. EVER.

This past Sunday, Acelyn Elizabeth Crampton turned a year old. She was surrounded by family and friends, soaking up every ounce of attention that they were willing to shower her in. She’s completely unlike her brothers, and fearless to boot. I’ll tell you something else: that cake never stood a chance.

Snippets

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Here are some short little updates from my world to yours:

  • The thumb splint is off! It turns out that there was no fracture, after all. After a trip to MSU Radiology and then hounding my doctor for the results, I am now in the process of slowly de-stiffening my thumb. Also, it seems to be a noticeable shade paler than my other thumb. Huh.
  • I realize that I never wrote about my birthday, which happened shortly before my trip to Cleveland. I owe a thank you or three to quite a few people for chipping in and getting me a new solar keyboard. My parents got me a couple of new t-shirts (which are extremely soft and comfortable) as well as some cash. This ended up helping to fund the trip, which was perfect timing. There was also a delicious dinner at Clara’s. This pleased me greatly, as the last meal that Nikki and I had eaten there was sub-par. All is forgiven!
  • Avengers was an awesome movie! I want to see it again. You should go see it. Now. Seriously, go. Shawarma.
  • I wrote a batch file today. It had me so nostalgic, I want to go and tweak the autoexec.bat and config.sys.
  • Acelyn is walking on her own, seven or eight steps at a time.  She’s also decided to skip jarred food entirely, and go straight for the adult stuff. This morning she was nomming on whole Apple Jacks.
  • Aidan will be with us for most of the summer, and I can’t tell you how excited that makes me. With all the drama in his life, I’m really hoping that this summer will be good for him.
  • Hunter will be with his Dad for most of the summer, and I’ll miss the bejeezus out of him, but it’s not an opportunity that he gets often. We’ve been butting heads a lot lately, too, so it might be good for us to have some time away from each other.
  • With the thumb splint off, I was able to get words down on paper during my lunch break. *kermit arms* YAAAAAAAY!

Mom’s Day

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I’m fairly certain that the breakfast gods are taunting me with the ever-elusive over easy egg.

That’s how Nikki likes them, so she can mop the yolk up with her toast. I’ve gotten it right a few times, but that’s usually when she’s requested them be over medium. And for the ever-important Mother’s Day breakfast in bed, the yolk broke as it exited the shell. I raised my fists to the sky (ceiling) and roared my lament at the gods (wondered if that paint was chipping). Ah, well. At least I got her bacon floppy.

With the baby wanting her morning nursing session, and the three- and five-year-olds in their natural, hyperactive state, I knew that Nikki wouldn’t get much of a chance to sleep in.  I gave her what I could, though, and we all brought in her breakfast (DAMN YOU, EGG YOLKS!) and wished her a Happy Mother’s Day.  I gave her my homemade card, which let her know in no uncertain terms exactly what her Mother’s Day present was. A date with yours truly to see the Avengers! The kids were a bit disappointed that they couldn’t come along, but they got to give her tissue paper flowers. How am I supposed to compete with that?

Later, it was off to the T-W-P to hang out with my parents and my brother.  My Dad cooked steaks under the guise of not letting Mom cook, but she still ended up putting out snacks and making her potato salad. Sometimes I have to wonder if that’s Mom’s need to be a host, or if it’s Dad’s idea that an entire meal can consist of steak. Not that I disagree with him…

The kids were their usual wild and crazy selves, Joe hung out a lot with Aidan and Cian, and Acelyn soaked up as much attention as she could get, as always.

Nikki and I have caught up on the Marvel movies that one or both of us had missed (Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America), so we’re ready to go for The Avengers. All we need to do is pick a date and confirm kid-watching, and it’ll be popcorn and superheroes for DAYS.

Cleveland Rocks!

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Well, technically it was Westlake. A couple of weekends ago, I took a Friday off and drove down to Ohio for a three day weekend with Gil.

I think that this was the first time that Michigan roads were better than Ohio roads.  It used to be that you could tell the exact moment that you were crossing back into the mitten by the sudden crappy pavement. US-23 is more smooth and pleasant to drive than it has been in years past.  By contrast, the normal highways in Ohio have suffered a bit, and the Turnpike has really seen better days.  (I drove it from I-75 east to the I-80/I-90 split, and then back again.)  I have to admit, though, that the raised 70mph speed limit made me feel right at home.

The theme for the weekend was rejuvenation. The pace was relaxed; there was no rushing around or worrying about being late.

We went down to Tallmadge and hung out with Terri and Duncan, whom I hadn’t seen face to face in years. It might as well have been a couple of weeks once we all started catching up on kids, ailments, and craziness. I’m hoping that they can do all they want with their house – their plans are grand and perfect.

Gil had rehearsal for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, so I even had a couple of hours to sit and put some words down on paper. The cafe in the Beck Center for the Arts was a great setting for it, too.

Both Gil’s girlfriend and roommate made me feel at home while I was crashing there. I got to know Allison a lot better than I had in our previous (and brief) meeting, and I’ve decided that I’d like hanging out with her whether or not she was dating Gil. Paul was a scholar and a gentleman.

If, while out and about for the purpose of drinking, I ever decide to go back to my mainstay drink – the Jager Bomb – please point and laugh. I didn’t even think about the caffeine in the drink’s Red Bull component. Getting hit on by a woman celebrating her 30th birthday helped forestall the inevitable migraine, as did finding the perfect Irish (Gil says Scottish) pub tucked away in a not so nice part of Cleveland. I don’t care where it’s located, a place as beautiful and stately as that should never be so deserted. It’s a crime, I tell you! The bartender, wearing a vest and a bow tie, made a perfect White Russian.

Last but not least, there were some lessons learned: Spines are good to have. Getting to Tallmadge is like getting to Shelby Township – tons of ways to get there, none of them direct. Mango liquor and cream looks like a tiny beer, and makes a great shot.  Accepting is harder than it sounds. Semantics are STILL important. If the headlight assembly of your Pacifica isn’t coming unclipped as the manual says it should, you’re probably not pulling hard enough.

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Ouch.

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So, I broke my thumb on Sunday night. On my left hand. My dominant hand.

Well, after the initial visit to Lansing Urgent Care, then the disagreement by their contracted radiologists, and then a visit to my primary doctor, the results are inconclusive.

Either I didn’t break my thumb at all, or it’s a stress fracture that will show up on x-ray in another week. Stress fractures don’t show up on x-ray right away, don’tchaknow.

In the meantime, I’m still wearing the thumb splint. Typing is slower than usual, but not terrible. I just need to keep the thumb out of the way. Writing in a journal or filling out forms or anything of the like is difficult, and looks like I’m trying to write right-handed. Signing my name, oddly enough, doesn’t seem harder than usual, once I get the pen angled correctly.

Chopsticks are right out, though.

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