'Twas the night before Friday and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except me. I can't sleep. I probably shouldn't be tired anyway--it's only 10:30. Lately I find myself going to bed much earlier than I used to. This is where it all begins I guess. Pretty soon I'll be eating dinner at 4 in the afternoon and complaining about the weather. The truth is that I've been a grouchy old man for a long time. I was off today, and I had every intention of getting something posted on the blog earlier. I spent a great deal of the afternoon at the computer, sorting through the last year's worth of photos. People with children take a ridiculous number of pictures. I have some shots that are just the same thing over and over, each one barely distinguishable from the previous one. After all that, I didn't get anything written. Now I am sitting at my laptop in the dark and have completely forgotten what I was going to write earlier. I'm not much of a rough draft kind of guy anyway. Sometimes I do have an idea in my head, but mostly these words just spew forth like diarrhea of the mouth (or keyboard). Occasionally I check for spelling errors, but often I don't even bother to read what I have written. I will admit to occasionally editing or rewording something after its original posting based on readers comments. A good blog, like a song, is always a work in progress.
Ethan's first birthday party went just fine. I'm going to say there were 15 to 20 people here. We scrapped the original plan to cook hotdogs and hamburgers, and instead picked up a boatload of barbecue from Betty Rose's. The food was delicious, and there was enough left that I ate it for about four days afterwards. We even had to throw some potato salad away. I just couldn't look at it anymore. We also have a ton of new and irritating toys to play with. I don't know why these things don't have volume control on them. Speaking of annoying sounds, the backup battery in our security system chose last weekend to die. I called ADT. They told me how easy it was to change out. What they didn't tell me is how difficult it would be to find the replacement. Actually, it wasn't hard at all, but the only place in town that carries them was closed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for the holiday. I need a job like that. The problem here is that the alarm panel feels the need to remind me every four hours that the battery is low. No amount of reasoning would make it stop beeping. I did MacGyver some tape on there to make it quieter, but every four hours is pretty extreme. Somehow it didn't wake the baby though. Other than the complete lack of sleep, we did have a good fourth of July. We spent the evening in Merkel with Mike and Elizabeth, stuffing our faces with shrimp. Ethan managed to get a few bites down, but he was mostly just excited to see his cousins and hang out. I am pretty sure he ate carrot cake and ice cream though. Tuesday morning we woke up early. On the way to see the pediatrician for Ethan's one year visit, we made a quick stop at the battery store. The doctor's visit went well. Here are the vital stats for anyone keeping track: 21 lbs., 7 oz., 31 3/4 inches long. They also took a measurement of his head. I am going to assume it is normal size, but mostly because I don't remember the number. It wouldn't matter if I did anyway. Who knows the measurements of a normal size head? Ethan had to endure four shots. He wasn't happy about it, but he did survive. They said that at this point everything looks normal. No doubt that this has everything to do with our superior gene pool and excellent parenting skills. One more thing for those of you that don't read the Enquirer--my sister got married a couple of weeks ago. It's a good story, but I don't want to think about it anymore. Congratulations Callie and John.
