Rich and I went with some friends to a Colorado Rockies game this past Friday.  It was a great game, and the Rockies won 10-8.  We stayed until the end of the 7th inning where all the action happened.  The Rockies were down with two outs, bases loaded, and the next batter hit a home run – grand slam!  And Taco Bell has a deal out here where if the Rockies score at least 7 runs in a game, they offer 2 for a $1 tacos with your Rockies ticket.

So, Rich and Adelle got tacos for dinner Saturday night.  And tacos are spicy, they have lettuce, and they come in a hard corn tortilla shell, all things Adelle usually turns her nose up at.  Rich and I were very surprised when she downed THREE tacos for dinner!  Maybe we should get Taco Bell more often?!  Yeah, right…

I purchased my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sets of quality leather gloves while working as a road construction surveyor during summer break from college in 1997. The job consisted of pounding wooden stakes into the ground with a sledge hammer for 12 hours a day. Needless to say, gloves were a necessity. Experienced coworkers suggested that I purchase roping gloves and I have never regretted heeding their advice.

The best gloves are made from deer or elk skin and are AMAZINGLY soft, yet incredibly durable and are the most expensive costing ~$15/pair. However, cow hide gloves are not as soft, but work nearly as well and are much cheaper, especially if purchased at Harbor Freight ($5).

When I put on leather gloves, I become a different person…a real man. Bug? Worms (aka snakes when I was 4 years old)? Spiders? Not a problem. Gloves make me invulnerable to pests. Lifting bricks, shoveling dirt, pushing a lawn mower, and wood working all become enjoyable when I am wearing my ropin’ gloves. I even restrained a screaming rabbit (yes, rabbits do scream when they are scared) while cutting him free from the garden twine he got caught in on Saturday.

Rubber gloves are another amazing product I think all new mothers should purchase for their husbands. Diapers, poo, urine, boogers, and vomit are all cleanable when hands are properly protected. Cleaning toilets, scrubbing tile, working on a car…all tasks that I can conquer with rubber gloves. Harbor Freight also carries these at 100 gloves / $5. Gloves are WONDERFUL.

Work was amazingly productive on Thursday of all days…the day before a 4 day weekend. It was so enjoyable and productive that I actually regretted leaving for the weekend. Days like that are few and far between. I work as a design engineer and the majority of my daily tasks are usually clerical instead of actual engineering or design. On the other hand, Thursday was action packed with CAD modeling and problem solving and design work and thinking! I actually had to use my brain to do my job! Wow…that is a very invigorating feeling.

Anyway, this weekend has been very fun and relaxing. We visited the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (~1 hour away) and did some hiking and took photos and just relaxed for a nice drive. That was the first “sight seeing” we’ve done since moving. I hope to ascend my first 14'er (14,000-ft tall mountain) in another few weeks. It turns out that there is a paved road all the way to the top of Pikes Peak. So…it may not be much of a work out (aside from breathing more from thinner air), but there will be spectacular views.

I am concerned about Adelle’s mental health…I think she may have a multiple personality problem. She spends each day as one of approximately 30 personalities (including combinations of individual personalities): Cinderella, Ester, Cinderell-Ester, Grandma Grish, Grandma Burnside, mommy, princess, jewelry shop owner, etc. She also whispers to herself and has an imagination that may involve playing Cinderella or school or any number of other scenarios. Being a first time parent, am I over reacting? She I be concerned? Or should I be thankful that she is playing quietly in the other room? I think the later is what I will choose to believe.

This past week was a major milestone at work…the test of PA-1. That’s Pad Abort – 1. PA-1 is the “ejector seat” for the Orion space capsule. Similar in concept as an ejector seat for a military jet aircraft, this will abort a failing rocket launch in hopes of preventing another Challenger event. The test was a complete success. The rocket shot up into the sky and reached ~600-mph in ~3 seconds…that’s a LOT of acceleration. All of the forces involved with accelerating up and then down and all around will cause most astronauts to pass out AND lose their lunch (or breakfast or dinner…depending on the time of the launch!) I didn’t work on any of this hardware, but I will be supporting future launches and tests. Anyway, check out the video…it’s really cool.

I think there may be no better time to start a weightloss program then immediately following a sickness like the flu. And the best time would be after a really bad stomach flu…the kind that involves losing 5-lbs in 3 days. Symptoms may include all those with feeling completely miserable, especially those that deal mainly with inability to retain…um…bodily fluids.

As you may have deduced, we have been sick this week. I believe some disease carrying child infected Adelle at church. Adelle then hugged and kissed me goodnight and then I took Tuesday, part of Wednesday, and part of Thursday off work to recover. Karen, using the power of green (i.e. smells like dirt) smoothies, stayed the virus from knocking her down until Wednesday night.

There are many excellent places to start an Illness Based Weightloss Program (IBWP – google-ing this brings no hits, so this is original and I have just coined this phrase and now own it!…that may turn out to be a bad thing…) The local church primary and/or nursery is one such place and may be conveniently visited while dropping your child off. This may seem like a radical approach to weightloss and it is exactly that. This system is for people genuinely committed…committed to shedding pounds that is. A quick 5-lbs weightloss is just what many people need to get started.

For those that are more ambitious and energetic, I recommend visiting hospitals to start this plan…emergency rooms are especially good during the winter months for finding willing suppliers of infectious diseases and viruses. Illnesses from hospitals can greatly increase that initial loss from 5-lbs to 25-lbs and maybe 50-lbs if you hit the jackpot.

I woke up this morning and shuffled into the bathroom and turned on the shower.  After taking a long, hot shower, I dried off and checked the clock to see how much time until I needed to leave…1:30 AM.  What!?  1:30 AM.  So…I shuffled back to bed.  Luckily I fall asleep quickly.  This is the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve done it in the past 4 years.  Ugh.

Topic Change…after 2 years, I finally completed my first wood working project and it came out significantly better than I would have thought, though not perfect.  I built a puzzle holder for Adelle.  I started working on it in California and scrapped my work since I couldn’t make straight cuts.  However, I’ve upgraded to a 2.5-hp router that cuts wood like a hot knife through butter…it’s a LOT of fun.  I did learn a lot during the project.  One tip I picked up from my brother-in-law is the use of wood filler…it makes the project look a lot better than it would have otherwise.  However, none of the pictures are closeups for a reason…the box looks better from a distance…but then again, so does the Mona Lisa…so this is actually a work of art!

My birthday was several weeks ago, and Rich and Adelle took me out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (which was excellent).  Rich also brought me home a dozen red roses which were beautiful, and Adelle asked to smell them almost every day.  Well, we definitely don’t splurge like this every year, but Rich also purchased tickets to the Michael Buble concert here in Denver.  Rich and I have seen him once before in concert a few years back (we went with Jen & Scott).  The concert here was at the end of March, and it was excellent!  Definitely a treat – we only go to concerts about once every three years…

My brother recommended that I visit the Navy Safety Center Photo of the Week website.  Most photos show ridiculous and crazy photos similar to the one at the beginning of this post.  Throughout their posts, they state, “shoulda used a truck” to describe photos and situations where people are using cars for things they were never meant to be used for.  For instance, strapping a king sized mattress on top of a Smart Car.  There have been many instances in my life where I have participated in activities where I really should have used a truck.  I have fit a king sized memory foam mattress inside my little compact Saturn car (it was tightly rolled and compressed, but did create several very large blind spots…luckily most of the windshield was visible).  I did not catalog that experience, but I did photograph the times I fit a “portable” air conditioner, dishwasher tub, and 21 pieces of 2? x 4? x 8.5' lumber into my car.

The lumber was for my latest (and 2nd) wood working project. I have made shelving before, but those were UGLY. Even paint didn’t help much. However, these shelves look good…if I do say so myself…even without painting them. These are similar to those my brother-in-law installed in his home and I have been jealous of him since I first saw them. I learned a few lessons during this project…cutting wood creates a LOT of dust. Also, I need a real dust mask ’cause I inhaled a LOT and my mucous afterward indicated that it isn’t “healthy.” Also, I need a table saw and a router table and a larger garage or maybe even a wood shop and…of course…a truck to haul stuff. Most men probably agree to those statements and most women have probably heard those “needs.”

Speaking of hauling things, I’ve been contemplating purchasing a trailer for some time now.  A trailer would be much safer than either of my compact cars when hauling stuff…especially since we need to purchase some furniture (probably used) and I would have no other way of getting it home other than mounting it on top of a car.  However, I would need to get a trailer hitch for the Toyota Corolla.  Can you imagine a compact car with a trailer attached hauling a love seat or even a large sofa.  That would be ridiculous…so ridiculous that I think I should get a truck.

My first day of work (February 1st) at my new job in Denver, Colorado wasn’t quite as bad as the title may indicate, but definitely wasn’t as cheerful as I would have hoped.  During my interviews for the position in November, I asked several times concerning the possible cancellation of Orion (the program that I am working on) and was told that it is very unlikely that program would be canceled.

A tech blog started a rumor on the night before my first day (Sunday, January 31st) that stated the proposed Presidential budget that would be released the following day would not include any funding for Constellation.  No funding = cancellation.  Constellation consists of the following parts: Aries = rocket, Orion = capsule (where the astronauts live) and cargo, and Gemini = moon lander.

A wise friend of mine once said, “Rumors are usually true in the corporate world.”  Low and behold, the rumor was entirely correct.  President Obama’s proposed budget does not include any funding for these NASA programs.  Instead, his budget redirects NASA in a “bold new direction.”

I strongly disagree with this new direction for many reasons…one major reason is that I will be looking for a job in August if the budget is passed in its current form.  However, I think it is unlikely that the president will get his wish completely granted.  What will probably happen is that the rocket and moon lander will be canceled, but Orion will be spared…therefore my job would be spared as well.  I am hopeful this will happen, but not so much that I haven’t updated my resume.

Every few weeks, Karen and I fail to create a menu for the week which results in meals that are not always well thought out.  During those weeks I feel like we are surviving rather than thriving.  Usually around 5:00 PM, one of us will ask the other in a hungry, tired, depressed tone of voice, “What’s for dinner?”  Since hunger has already started attacking our stomachs, we forgo the effort of making something healthy or tasty and just scrounge through our cupboards trying to find something that LOOKS edible.  When even that fails to turn up a decent meal, I must rely upon my many years of survival training during my bachelor years to feed the family and get us through to the next day.

My first training in the art of quick and tasty, yet unhealthy meal preparation was provided by my father.  When mom was tired of cooking or out for the night, it was dad’s turn to cook and that meant one thing (because I think there was only one option)…toasted cheese sandwiches and Campbell’s tomato soup!  After getting married, I observed that my father-in-law has a similar talent for fixing meals quickly through the use of the microwave and frozen TV dinners.  I assume that most fathers have a similar ability.

Since the family was on the verge of collapse due to hunger, I went to the pantry and sought the help of my tried and true companion, the food that has supported nearly every college student, a food that must be nutritious ’cause how could so many college students subsist on it for 4 years without there being any serious and lasting health problems, the always quick and easy to prepare: Top Raman!  Luckily, I bought a case from Costco, which has served my family well for many years.  Although the expiration date showed August 2008, it cooked up just fine and tasted…well…like Raman.  To top it off, I nuked several hotdogs and dinner was served.  Judging by Adelle’s reaction, I know that this has become my signature daddy dish.