Still Blogging

Despite my failure to blog since last week, I want to assure everyone that I have not abandoned this blog. I plan on writing a blog entry of more consequence once I have a chance. In the meantime, you may also want to check out my blog on Tumblr: geekaaron.tumblr.com

Bacon, Bacon, Bacon

Yesterday I received my copy of the ThinkGeek catalog in the mail. I always enjoy looking through the catalog when I receive it, and this time I found some new items, or at lease some items that I hadn't noticed in it before. There was an entire column of one page devoted to bacon-related items. These include Bacon Beans Jelly Beans, Baconpop (bacon-flavored popcorn), Bacon Salt, Baconnaise (bacon-flavored mayonaise), and Tac Bac - Tactical Canned Bacon, which is bacon strips in a can with a 10-year shelf life. All of these items sound interesting. Maybe I'll have to pick up one of these items the next time I am making a purchase from ThinkGeek.

Nostalgia

For Christmas my sister got my mom a new scanner. Since the majority of the photos that my parents took for the early years of my life are on slides, she got her a scanner with a slide attachment. This week my mom has started getting to work as scanning these old photos in her collection. From what she has told me, she scans about one hundred slides each day. Some of these images are making their way to my mother's Facebook page. She started with photos from 1979 and has worked her way to 1980. I assume she will make it back before 1979 at some point. I for one really enjoy seeing these photos, such as the one of me at my seventh birthday party with the R2-D2 cake that Mom made for me. And I can not wait to see more of them, as long as she doesn't post any of the photos of my in my Underoos!

RAGBRAI XXXVIII

The overnight towns for this year's RAGBRAI were announced on Sunday. The tows are:

• Sioux City
• Storm Lake
• Algona
• Clear Lake
• Charles City
• Waterloo
• Manchester
• Dubuque

Unfortunately though, I will not be on the ride this summer. Mel and I have a wedding to go to in Ohio in June, and with that trip, our budget will not allow for RAGBRAI as well. This will be the first year I will not have gone on RAGBRAI since my first ride across Iowa in 2000. From the description of the ride, this year's ride would have been a great one to be on. This year's route is the shortest and flattest of all time and is being called the third easiest RAGBRAI. Who knows. Maybe I will somehow come into a large sum of cash in the upcoming months and be able to go, although that is not likely.

Too Busy to Blog

I have been meaning to blog all week, but I have just been so busy. I returned to work on Monday after a week off. Of course, I work from home, so I haven't had to go anywhere for work, but it still takes up a lot of my time nonetheless. Mel has been staying home with Maximus. So occasionally I take a short break while working to watch him if Mel has something she needs to get done. Of course I keep track of how long I do that so I make sure I work enough and get my assigned tasks completed.

Also taking up my time this week had been getting the taxes done. I have to say I am pleased how that ended up. Besides that, I have been going to bed early all week. Since Mel and I have each been getting up in the middle of the night to feed Max, we need to get our sleep when we can.

While I have been busy, I have had time for some fun. On Sunday, I took Emma to the zoo. With all of the attention we have been giving to the new baby, we need to remember that Emma still needs attention as well. It was pretty damn cold on Sunday, so we spent most of our time there looking at the indoor animals. We did venture outside to check out the brown bears which were sleeping in their den. I also wanted to get a photo of Flat David with the bears. It took me several attempts to get a decent photo on my cell phone. By the time I did get an acceptable photo, my hands were freezing, so Emma and I quickly returned to the indoors. Emma and I had a lot of fun at the zoo, although she was happy to get back home to see Mommy and her brother.

Sunday evening, all four of us went to Green Mill for dinner. We treated my aunt and uncle to dinner since they were so helpful in watching Emma on such short notice two Fridays ago when Mel and I went to the hospital. They really enjoyed seeing Max, and they both had a good time holding him. Max did really well with both of them. It seems that the only person who can not hold Max without him getting fussy is me myself.

Emma continues to do well with having an additional family member in the house. She likes to help out as much as she can. Of course, as she isn't even three years old yet, there is not a whole lot she can help with at this point. She does like putting the lids on Max's bottles when I make them, she takes Max his bottles, and she likes putting his dirty diapers in the Diaper Genie. She also likes to help me do all the shopping.

Yesterday morning we took Max to the doctor for his newborn appointment. He is doing great. His weight is up to 8 pounds 1 ounce, which places him at the 50th percentile for weight. And his height is now 21.25 inches, which is the 95th percentile for height. He didn't get any shots at this appointment. Those will wait until March.