Whose Cuisine Reigns Supreme?

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog entry, Monday night, after my colleagues and I arrived in Philadelphia for our meeting, we went to dinner at Morimoto, the restaurant of Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto. In ordering dinner, I had to choose between ordering a specific item from the menu or omakase, in which the chef prepared a variety of dishes of his choice. Wanting to get the full experience, I had the omakase.

The first course of my dinner was hamachi tartare with fresh wasabi and osetra caviar.

The next course was whitefish carpaccio seared with hot olive and sesame oils, yuzu - citrus soy, finished with shiso, ginger, mitsuba, and chives.

 The third course was sashimi salad, mixed greens, yuzu vinaigrette, shaved bonito.

After the first three courses came the intermezzo, a palate cleanser, almond-spearmint soda.

Fourth came the first of the hot courses, black cod miso with su miso mustard.

The fifth course was pan seared duck breast and foie gras with port wine glazed ginger reduction.

Next came the chef's selection of sushi. I do not recall what they all were but one of them, the one shown on the top left, was tuna, and the sushi at the bottom right was octopus.

The dinner concluded with desert. For desert we were served chocolate strawberry bavaroise and white chocolate shiso mouse.

Each of these dishes was fantastic, and they were all very tasty! I have been trying to pick a favorite of the courses, but such a decision has proved to be impossible. Everything was so flavorful and delectable. I am not likely to return to Moromoto Restaurant any time in the future, so I will savor this visit.

Cheese Steak!

Last night my colleagues and I had dinner at Moromoto Restaurant in Philadelphia. I will be blogging about that, but that will have to wait until I get the menu of what we had to eat back from one of my colleagues. In the meantime, I am going to write about today's meeting and dinner. The meeting which I facilitated today went very well. We made a lot of progress at getting finished what we needed to work on. I am very pleased with what we accomplished.

This evening, a couple of colleagues, a few of our committee members, and I all went to get cheese steak for dinner. I got cheese steak from Geno's Steaks while a couple of the people in our group got their cheese steaks from Pat's King of Steaks across the street. Our cab driver said that he prefers Geno's, which it why I chose that for my dinner. Geno's is the restaurant which was controversial a few years back for having signs up in their windows telling people that this is America, so they should order in English. I was certain to place my order in English as I didn't want to anger the employees. Besides, I wasn't sure how to say "cheese steak" in Klingon. I had my cheese steak with onions and Cheez Whiz. It was good, but I also had a taste of a sandwich from Pat's. I think the meat at Pat's tasted better, but I thought the cheese was better on Geno's. That could be because the steak sandwich from Pat's had provolone instead of Cheez Whiz.

I Dislike Flying

I do not understand why, but I do not particularly care for flying. Oh, I know it's supposedly the safest way to travel, and without flying, it would be a lot less practical to go places that aren't as nearby, and while I wouldn't way that I have a fear of flying, I just can not get over the fact that there is a possibility that the plane will crash. Of course, the probability of that happening is very slim, and it it much more likely that I would get in a car accident if driving a long distance.

Anyway, I had a rather uneventful trip to Philadelphia earlier today. Everything went according to schedule. I even got an entire row to myself on the plane! I have checked into my hotel room at the Embassy Suites, and am currently waiting for my colleagues to arrive so we can figure out what our dinner plans are. This hotel is interesting. Each floor of the hotel is dodecagonal in shape. I have found it to be somewhat confusing finding my room upon exiting the elevator, having to sweep around a whole 360 degrees until I located my room. It might take me until my stay is over before I get a hang of finding my room.

While I am writing about things I dislike, I should also mention that I very much hate heights. Heights don't always bother me. Really the only time I hate heights is when I am not fully enclosed in a structure. For some reason I fear falling over whatever railing there is. I know this fear isn't completely rational, but I seem to get by having it. I did manage to walk up to the railing of the balcony of my nineteenth-floor room, holding my camera over the edge so I could take this photo of a building I have yet to identify. I think I have had enough time on the balcony for the rest of my stay now.

Three Months

Maximus turned three months old this past Friday. It doesn't seem like it's been that long already. Anyway, we took him to the Sears Portrait Studio at the Mall of America yesterday to get some pictures taken of him. They turned out really well. He did a much better job of getting his pictures taken than Emma did when she was his age.

Aaron Doubles Down

For weeks I have seen ads for the latest fast food monstrosity, the Double Down from KFC. And while this creation appears very unhealthy, I have had a strong desire to try it. I am going to resume watching what I eat in an attempt to lose weight once I return home from a business trip, so I figured this was my only opportunity to give this "sandwich" a try. Before I continue, I am not sure if I can really call the Double Down a sandwich, despite the fact that KFC does use that term. In its definition of the word sandwich, Merriam-Webster makes it pretty clear that sandwiches involve bread, something that the Double Down is lacking, unless you consider the breading on the deep-fried chicken breasts to be bread, which I do not.

When I ordered this composite of meats and cheeses for lunch, I actually felt a bit of embarrassment for ordering it. I was worried that the person taking my order would judge me for my willingness to eat this fat-laden conglomeration. I got over that and took the item home, along with my order of potato wedges, and Diet Pepsi. Yes, I ordered a Diet Pepsi with this. Some might think that there was little point in ordering a diet soft drink if I was already planning on subjecting myself to this wad of meat, but I didn't want to add on one hundred more calories than I needed to.

Since this sandwich contains no bread, eating it was somewhat messy. Yes, it did have a paper wrap with which I could hold it, but that only lasted so long. Eventually the amount of remaining chicken was reduced to the point that I had to discard the paper, unless I wanted to eat that as well. If there had been any doubt in my mind about how much fat was in this item, the greasy feeling left on my fingers took care of that. Looking at the Double Down, I was expecting to really like it. After all, I do love chicken breasts, bacon, and cheese. The Double Down did not live up to my expectations however. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the orgy of flavors that I expected either. It was simply adequate. Now from previous experience, I know that my local KFC isn't one of the best ones out there. We have gotten some less-than-terrific food from them before, but now that I have tried this culinary atrocity, I will never eat one again. Maybe I will try the grilled variety. Okay, I don't think that it necessary either.

While the media would have us think that KFC's Double Down is a crime against humanity, destined to kill us all, nutritionally it isn't really any worse than a lot of what fast food restaurants offer. According to information I have found online, the Double Down has 590 calories and 31 grams of fat. Now if I were counting Weight Watchers points, this would have been about 15 points. I am estimating this number as I do not want to dig out the Weight Watchers points calculator. Besides, I don't think it goes that high. While that is a lot of points, it's hardly record-breaking. In fact, Mel was looking up the points for Dairy Queen Blizzards tonight, and several flavors of large Blizzards have over 30 points.

So let's compare the Double Down with chicken items from other leading fast food restaurants. The Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich from McDonald's has 630 calories and 28 grams of fat. From Burger King, the Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich has 800 calories and 46 grams of fat. This appears to be significantly less good for the eater than the Double Down, yet it does not seem to garner the same publicity. Finally, let's look into the nutritional information from a chicken sandwich from Hardee's. Their Big Chicken Fillet Sandwich has 710 calories and 38 grams of fat. All three of these sandwiches should be more of a concern than the KFC Double Down. I guess the Double Down's lack of bread gives it the appearance of being more gluttonous than these alternative fast food chicken choices. Now that I have looked up these other sandwiches, I think I may strike them from my future fast food choices as well.

Update (4/22/10 3:37 PM): I may have to reconsider what I said about the calorie and fat count of the Double Down. Here's an article that says KFC has grossly underrepresented these numbers: http://cityrag.com/2010/04/kentucky-fried-bullshit-2/

What Are You Waiting For?

If you haven't yet completed and mailed back your Census 2010 form, do it now! Mailing in your form saves the Census Bureau, and thus taxpayers, a lot of money.

Cedar Rapids

Mel, the kids, and I spent this past weekend in Iowa. It was the fifth consecutive weekend I was in Iowa, and fortunately it will be the last for a while. The driving is getting to be a bit much, and travel with two kids under the age of four can be challenging. On this trip, we visited a friend and former coworker of Mel's, Penny. Spending time with Penny and her son really made Mel want to be living back in Cedar Rapids, preferably in a house across the street from Penny. I admit that, while I do like living in the Twin Cities, I would gladly move back to eastern Iowa if we had the opportunity.

While Mel didn't really care for Cedar Rapids all that much when we lived there, after moving to Minnesota, she attributes her dislike for the town mainly on the fact that she did not like her job. So, the main obstacle to moving back to Cedar Rapids would be Mel finding a job she thinks she'll like there which pays enough. One other thing standing in the way would be being able to sell our house in Minnesota.

I still enjoy the benefits that working from home full time has to offer, but I would not mind giving them up to return to the office in which I worked in Iowa City. That is one nice thing about keeping the job I had when we were living in Iowa. If we were to move back, or even somewhere else in the country, I would not need to find new employment.

I do not want to get the hopes up of any of my Iowa friends and family by making you think this blog posting is an indication that we will be returning to Iowa in the near future. It is possible that we could move back within a year, but it is also just as likely that we will stay where we currently are for many more years. Of course, if we do decide to make the move back to the City of Five Seasons, you will be able to read about it here.

Missing Severe Weather

Okay, maybe this sounds wrong, but I really miss severe weather. Oh, I do not miss the property damage and loss of life that can come with severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, but I miss seeing such weather. In general, the thunderstorms here where I live now in Minnesota seem so boring. Sure, there is an occasional thunderstorm worth watching, but for the most part, the storms here are very weak. On the other hand, the storms I experienced in eastern Iowa were much more worthy of attention, and fun to watch. Here's a storm a recorded from my front door in Cedar Rapids in July 2007.

To Friend, Or Not To Friend

I have a bit of a dilemma that I am dealing with. Okay, maybe calling it a dilemma is a bit of an overstatement, but I have an issue with which I am dealing nonetheless. Should I be friends with my manager at work on Facebook? Here is some background on this issue. A while back, I became friends with one of my coworkers who had about the same position with the company that I had. This is a coworker whom I have never actually met, since we have three offices in two states, as well as several employees, including myself, who work completely offsite. We do seem to have a lot in common however, so I have enjoyed viewing his activity on Facebook, and he has made several comments on my activity. Several months after we became friends on Facebook, he was promoted at work and soon after that he became the person to whom I report for general work-related things. Perhaps this is really a non-issue as I can easily modify my Facebook privacy settings on a case-by-case basis to exclude him from seeing anything I wish to keep from my manager. However, any input my readers have would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Easter!

I hope all of my readers have a happy Easter. Here's a picture of Emma with the Easter Bunny at the Minnesota Zoo yesterday.

Farm Babies!

During the month of April, the Minnesota Zoo is featuring farm animal babies at the Wells Fargo Family Farm. As we had nothing else planned for today, we decided to go to the zoo to check them, and the other animals, out. This was Max's first trip to the zoo, however he ended up sleeping through most of it. At just ten weeks of age though, he probably wouldn't have gotten much out of the experience even if he had been awake. Emma had a great time though. She was a bit apprehensive about looking at the bears. For some reason she has been having bad dreams about bears roaming around outside the house. These often coincide with when they sing the bear hunt song at daycare. On our way to the zoo, Mel told Emma that the bears couldn't get her because they'd be locked up in a cage. Emma did eventually go up to the glass to see the bears, and she did enjoy watching them swim. As we looked at other animals at the zoo, Emma just kept wanting to move along to the next animal. She continued to do that until we got to the prairie dogs. She just wanted to keep looking and looking at them. Prairie dogs must be one of her favorite animals.

When we got to the farm area of the zoo, Emma at first did not want to pet any of the animals, but when we got around to where the goats were, she decided that she did want to feed them. Fortunately Mel had a couple of quarters in her wallet, so we were able to buy a handful of food for the goats. Emma had a great time feeding the goats. I thought she might not like the goats licking her hand, but she did not mind it one bit. In fact, once the food was gone, she wanted to get some more to continue feeding the goats.

After viewing the farm animals, we had our lunch and then went through the Tropics Trail portion of the zoo. It was very crowded there this afternoon, and the animals were especially active. We had a good time watching one of the gibbons swinging through the trees. I don't think I have seen a gibbon that active at the zoo in a while. Of course, the last time I was at the zoo, the gibbons were not on display. I am looking forward to the new animals they are adding to the Tropics Trail this summer. Emma is especially looking forward to seeing the crocodiles!

Grammar at the Grocery

Thank you "Weird Al" Yankovic for making this grammar correction at your grocery store. I hope everyone takes your lead and starts correcting all such signs they encounter.

Back In Cedar Rapids

Jeremy, a good friend of mine we were in junior high school, was getting married this weekend in Cedar Rapids, so for the third weekend in a row, we all spent the weekend in Iowa. We had long ago decided that we did not want to find ourselves encumbered by a three-year-old and a two-month-old while we were at the wedding and the reception following it, so we dropped Max and Emma off with Mel's aunt and uncle in Robbins before proceeding to the wedding. The ceremony was very nice, and we had a great time at the reception. It was great to see many friends whom I hadn't seen for quite some time. While we are all in contact with each other on Facebook, it was nice to see them all in person.

On Sunday, we picked the kids up and went to my grandma's house in Keystone, Iowa. She had met Max for the first time two weekends ago when we were in Waterloo for Emma's birthday, but we thought it would be nice to visit with her in a much smaller setting. After our visit with Grandma, we headed back for home.

Our trip home went fairly well until we stopped for dinner. After that we had a problem with Emma constantly saying that she had to go to the bathroom. That last stretch of our drive home, from Rochester to Cottage Grove, took way longer than it should have. It will be nice once both kids have better control of their bodily functions.

Happy Birthday

Today was Mel's birthday. Before doing anything for her birthday this evening though, we took Emma to the doctor for her three-year check-up. Emma is growing just fine. She is 39.5 inches tall, which places her at the 95th percentile for height. She is definitely going to be tall!

After the doctor appointment, we all went to El Loro in Eagan for dinner. Mel was going to have a large margarita and I was going to have a smaller one. Thinking that she may end up buying a second margarita later, I thought we should order a pitcher of margaritas. As I was driving, I didn't get to drink to much of it, and not wanting to waste a drop of margarita, Mel ended up drinking the vast majority of the pitcher's contents. We had a really good dinner, but Emma did not seem to interested in the food which she had ordered. She did like eating my rice, so maybe next time we go to El Loro, we should just get a side dish of rice for Emma. Sure, it's not a well balanced meal, but she gets plenty of nutrients throughout the day.

When we returned home from dinner, Mel opened her birthday presents which included a Minnesota Twins T-shirt, the DVD of New Moon, and Buckyballs which I had purchased with the gift certificate I had won from ThinkGeek.com.  We then rounded out the evening with some cake, which I baked, and ice cream.

A Visit to the Doctor

We took Max to his two-month doctor appointment today. There we learned that he weighs 12 pounds 14 ounces and is 24.25 inches long. These measurements place him at the 75th percentile for both weight and length. Max is going to be one big boy. The doctor told us that he is quite healthy. We did mention to her that Max seems to have a problem digesting his formula as evidenced by the consistency of his dirty diapers. She suggested that we switch his formula from Similac Advance to Similar Sensitive RS. It will take us a few days before we know if this formula is working better for him, but just this afternoon, he appeared to have an easier time consuming it. He drank more before stopping to burp. This was all really good especially since he was very unhappy this afternoon, probably because of the three vaccination shots he received. By this evening though, Max calmed down quite a bit.

Putting Maximus to Bed

On Friday night, Mel decided that we should start trying to put Maximus to bed before he is asleep, allowing him to fall asleep on his own in his crib. Previously we had been holding him until he was sleeping, then we would place him in bed. Mel had read that between six and twelve weeks of age is a good time to start this. With Emma, we did not try to get her to go to sleep on her own until she was one year old. That resulted in several nights of lots of screaming. That is something that we would like to avoid if possible Well, it took just under an hour for Max to go to sleep the first night we tried this. He didn't scream at all, but he did make some noises, and we went in to check on him several times. Both Saturday and Sunday nights, as well as tonight, went even better. I think it only took him about ten minutes tonight to be sleeping. It might help that he has suddenly started eating more; yesterday and today he began eating five to six ounces of formula at a time, up from four to five ounces. Now if he would just sleep through the night, things would be even better.

Birthday Party

We went to Waterloo, Iowa, yesterday for Emma's birthday party. She shared a party with her cousins David and Benjamin, both of whom have birthdays either this month or next. While it made for a long day, driving to Waterloo and back in one day, we had a good time. Emma really had a great time. She got quite a few presents, and seemed to like them all. She even liked the clothes she got. When we told her that she needed to try them on tonight, she couldn't get to it soon enough. It is good that she got some new clothes, because she was lacking on summer clothes that fit her still. We gave her several T-shirts on her birthday, and yesterday she ended up getting quite a few pairs of shorts.

3

Today was the third anniversary of Emma's birth. I still remember receiving a phone call at work from Mel on this day three years ago telling me that her doctor had told her to go to the hospital. Since it was still a couple of weeks early, I was sure that it was nothing and that Mel would be going home from the hospital that day. I even told my coworkers that I expected to be back at work the next day. How wrong I was. Mel's water had broken and Emma was breach, so they delivered Emma that afternoon.

Today was, of course, much less eventful than that day. Emma did have a good birthday. Mel asked her if she wanted anything special for breakfast, giving her the option of McDonald's or doughnuts. Emma decided that she wanted a doughnut, one with sprinkles. The doughnut always has to have sprinkles. After breakfast, Emma opened her presents from us. We got her a Memory game, a pink soccer ball, and five T-shirts. It was good that we got her some T-shirts as we had her try on all of her short-sleeved T-shirts this morning and discovered that she had outgrown most of them. While we didn't have McDonald's for breakfast, we did have it for lunch as, after she said that all she wanted for breakfast was a bowl of cereal with milk, Emma decided that she wanted chicken nuggets, apples, chocolate milk, and a toy. So off to McDonald's we went to get lunch.

Emma took a really good nap after lunch. Then this evening we got the chicken alfredo pasta from Pizza Hut, one of Emma's favorites. She really likes pasta. I think she would eat noodles every day if we let her. She then blew out the candle on her birthday cupcake. We are having a larger birthday party tomorrow, so we decided just to have cupcakes and Dairy Queen ice cream tonight. After desert, it was bath time, followed by bedtime. For some reason this evening, Emma just started saying "X-wing fighter" over and over, so for her bedtime story, I located my Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back pop-up book from the basement and I read that to her. She really enjoyed it. She especially liked pulling the tabs in the book. Remarkably, the book is still in really good condition. Only one of the pop-up features does not work. Now Emma just needs to go to sleep, she's been in bed for quite a while, but she seems to be resisting sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow morning to head to Iowa for a birthday party with our relatives, so she better sleep soon, otherwise she is likely to be cranky tomorrow.

Sweet Child O' Mine

I can not believe that Maximus, who is not yet two months old, is already wearing 6-to-12-month clothes, some of which are already too small for him. The Onesie that Max was wearing today fits around his shoulders and chest, but it is lacking in length. Max is definitely going to be a tall kid. Finding clothes for him is going to prove to be challenging. I've seen some devices for extending the length of Onesies. Hopefully that will work, but I need to remember where I've seen them.

Census 2010

We got our 2010 Census form in the mail today. I am not sure why some people, like my neighboring congressional district's representative, Michele Bachmann, are so concerned about it. There were very few questions, and except for the question about whether we own our home outright or have a mortgage on it, none of the questions were overly probing. It took Mel less than ten minutes to fill out the form. It's now ready to go back to be tabulated.

Trip to Cedar Rapids

Last weekend Mel had a bridal shower to go to in western Iowa. She took Max with her so her bride-to-be friend could see him. This gave me a great opportunity to go to Cedar Rapids to visit friends who I hadn't seen in about a year. I took Emma to my mom's house in Waterloo on my way to Cedar Rapids. There I stayed with my friend Bill. The two of us went out to eat Friday night to Metro Buffet. The food was pretty good, although I still thin it was better several years ago.

Saturday morning, Bill and I drove around Cedar Rapids, seeing the sights. We even went to Westdale Mall. Surprisingly the mall was quite busy. There was some charity walk going on in the mall. If that were not the case, I would guess that the mall would have been dead as it still seems to be less than half occupied.

Saturday evening, Bill and I got together with our friends Jeremy and Jason. Jeremy is getting married in a couple of weekends, so we had a bachelor party of sorts. This entailed us driving to Coralville where we had dinner at Old Chicago. This was followed by miniature golf at Colonial Lanes in Iowa City and pool at Gus' in North Liberty. The whole evening was over before 10:00 when we headed back to Cedar Rapids. Some of us are just too old to hang out very late these days.

I left Cedar Rapids to get Emma from my mom around noon. Emma and I then headed home.

Dishwasher Update

Here's an update on our new dishwasher. We were the repairman's first stop Friday morning. Upon looking at the dishwasher, he discovered that the installers who had been here two days prior neglected to install the check valve when installing the dishwasher. The water line also had a kink in it. He easily solved these two issues, giving us a fully functional dishwasher!

Disappointment

This afternoon, after lunch, I started our new dishwasher out on its inaugural run. After the dishwasher beeped to indicate that it was done, Mel opened it to put the dishes away. The first couple of dishes she pulled out were still dirty. We both attributed this to how the dishes were loaded into the washer. We both assumed that I didn't rinse them enough or that they were too close together. Upon removing even more dishes from the dishwasher, Mel discovered that none of them were clean. Once all of the dishes were taken out of the dishwasher, Mel noticed that the dish-washing detergent was pooled up at the bottom of the dishwasher, below the door from which it was dispensed. All of this gave us the impression that no water actually ran through the dishwasher when it was supposed to be washing the dishes. I called the Sears installation and maintenance number to see about getting our dishwasher working. After being on the phone for nearly forty minutes, we now have an appointment for someone to come out and look at the dishwasher between 8:00 and noon tomorrow. I was planning on leaving town at noon tomorrow. I hope this repair does not delay my departure.

A Functioning Dishwasher

If you have been a regular reader of my blog for the past year, you may recall that on April 10, 2009, I broke our dishwasher by tripping over the open door in the dark of the night. The dishwasher had never really worked too well, so we did not want to invest any money in repairing the door so that it wouldn't leak. Instead we simply stopped using the dishwasher, and washed dishes by hand since then. We had considered buying a new dishwasher but when I learned that the government would be having a rebate program for purchasing Energy Star appliances, I decided that we should hold off on buying a new dishwasher until we could get the rebate.

Last Monday the state of Minnesota opened up its appliance rebate program. The website and phone lines were both down for most of the day, but in the afternoon, I was finally able to get through on the website and register for a $150 dishwasher rebate. I consider myself to be pretty lucky as all the alloted rebate funds had been reserved by 9:00 the next morning. So Saturday, after attending a birthday party for one of our nephews, Mel and I bought a new GE dishwasher from the Sears appliance store in Woodbury. The salesman who worked with us, who from our conversation I gathered to be a high school senior, was very helpful and did a fantastic job. This afternoon the dishwasher was delivered and installed. We didn't bother to wash our lunch dishes today in anticipation of the dishwasher's arrival. I can not wait to get it fully loaded so we can give it a proper test run.

New Roof

When we bought our house in 2008, we knew that we would have to replace the roof sooner than later. It had some damage, probably from a hail storm. However since the house was owned by a bank, having been repossessed from its previous owner, the roof had never been repaired. A few weeks ago we got an estimate for repairing the roof that we thought we could manage, so we decided to go ahead with the repairs. Having people banging around on the roof all day made it a little harder than usual to get my work done, but I did get everything done that needed to be done today. I am definitely glad that this major repair is done. That is one less thing to worry about for the next twenty-five years.

A Raise

Yesterday I received a phone call from my manager at work informing me that I am getting a raise. I was expecting one, although I wasn't expecting much of a raise as I had told that raises this year would likely be modest. I was surprised to get a bigger raise than I expected. Today I also found out that I will be getting a bonus this coming Friday. All this extra money will definitely come in handy, especially with having a relatively new baby at home. The raise and bonus are nice, however I am coming to the realization that being a full-time work-from-home employee is probably hurting my prospects of getting promoted at work. Perhaps I should talk to my manager about the possibility of being the lead on a project. That would help in getting promoted, but I do not know if that will happen. I do not suppose it will hurt to ask.

Photos

Last night we went to the Sears Portrait Studio at the Mall of America to get Emma's picture taken in advance of her third birthday in two weeks. We had been very pleased with our experience there last year when we had pictures taken. The photographer last year was very understanding when Emma didn't completely cooperate when we first went in, allowing us to come back a couple of days later to get more pictures taken. This time, Emma did much better at listening to the photographer, looking at the camera, and smiling. Our entire session took very little time, and we were once again quite pleased with the photos. I especially like that they include rights to reproduce photos on the CD which we purchased with our portrait package so we can make additional prints ourself. Looking at the portrait CD this morning, I did notice however that they did not include the enhanced portraits on it as they did last year. Those would have been nice to have on the CD to make additional prints of, but I suppose I can always add borders and change the tone of the portraits we do have, myself. Regardless, we certainly will be returning to the Sears Portrait Studio next month to get photos of Max taken when he is three months old.

ThinkGeek Action Shot of the Month

I know it's been a long time since I have blogged, but I have been quite busy with both work and home life. I also haven't had much to write about lately. I do have some news to share now however. A few weeks ago I submitted to ThinkGeek.com this photo of me wearing my geek T-shirt holding Maximus moments after he was born. Last week I was notified by ThinkGeek that my photo was their action shot of the month! Not only did this come with the honor of having the photo in their monthly newsletter email, but it also came with the award of a $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate! I bought a few things last week. I got s a T-shirt for Emma and a Monty Python killer rabbit plush for Max. I have yet to buy anything for myself though. There are a few things I am thinking about buying, but they are all out of stock at the moment. Hopefully when the items I want are in stock, ThinkGeek will be having a sale that I can take advantage of, getting even more benefit out of my prize.

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.

Flat David

In the mail today, I received Flat David in the mail. My nephew David's third grade class is participating in the Flat Stanley Project to help them prepare for their upcoming mapping unit. I have been asked to write back to his class about what Flat David and I do together. Hopefully I have a chance to do some fun things with Flat David while he is with me. Today we went to Target, but tomorrow Emma, Flat David, and I are going to try to go to the zoo. That should be an interesting place here in the Twin Cities for him to visit. One thing I need to find out about Flat David is when he needs to be sent back by. That information was missing from the letter I received.

Playing with the Atari

As I previously mentioned on my blog, my sister got me an Atari 2600 video game console and several games for Christmas. I finally got around to hooking it up this afternoon while Mel and Maximus were napping. I started by playing Frogger, followed by Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Other games which came with my Atari are:

• Adventure
• Asteroids
• Berzerk 
• Breakout
• Centipede 
• Chopper Command 
• Circus
• Combat
• Defender
• Dodge 'Em
• Donkey Kong 
• Dragonfire
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• Fishing Derby
• Frostbite
• H.E.R.O.
• Ice Hockey
• Kaboom! 
• Kangaroo
• Keystone Kapers 
• Lock 'n' Chase
• Math Gran Prix 
• Maze Craze
• Megamania
• Millipede
• Missile Command
• Ms. Pac-Man
• Outlaw 
• Pitfall!
• Pole Position
• Popeye
• Pressure Cooker
• Q*bert
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• River Raid 
• Robot Tank
• Seaquest
• Solar Fox
• Space Invaders  
• Sky Jinks
• Stampede
• Super Breakout 
• Super Cobra
• Tennis
• Tron Deadly Discs
• Turmoil
• Venture
• Video Olympics
• Video Pinball

This is probably more games than I ever actually owned for my Atari when I was a kid. None of these games includes a manual, so I am hoping that either I can figure out how to play them on my own, or that I can find directions online somewhere. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to trying them all out. One thing I do need to do though is to locate a switch so I do not have to disconnect the satellite box from the TV in order to attach the Atari to it. I may have one somewhere, otherwise I will need to go out and buy one.

The First Days at Home with Baby

Mel and Maximus checked out of the hospital Tuesday after lunch, and we all headed home. Overall, I was very pleased with the hospital where Max was delivered, Saint John's Hospital in Maplewood. Every one of the nurses that worked with Mel and Max was excellent, and the facilities were very nice. The only real problem we had was that Mel's dinner was very late Sunday night, but that was resolved. There were a couple of other details that did not rise to the level of being problems, but could have improved our stay. It would have been nice if there had been a channel listing for the cable TV provided. It was sometimes difficult to determine what channel was what. And I thought that the food in the hospital cafeteria was a bit pricey, although it was good. One thing I liked about where Emma was born, Saint Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was that the maternity section had a room where the baby's mother and father could serve up their own food at no additional charge. Once again, these were not real problems, and neither of these would deter me from recommending Saint John's Hospital to others.

When I brought Emma home from preschool on Tuesday, she was very excited to see mommy and "her baby." Her excitement waned however when it was time to give Maximus a bath. He did not appreciate being stripped down and being bathed. Max was sure to let us know this by screaming as loudly as he could. Emma, who has never really liked loud noises, was very upset by this. I was going to wait to give Emma her bath until Max's bath was done, but I decided to do it right away.

As the week has gone on, Maximus has become less and less agitated while having his diapers changed, and even, to some extent, while being bathed. Just to be considerate to Emma though, we gave Max his bath today while Emma was still at preschool.

With Emma, I remembered being up multiple times throughout the night to feed her once she came home from the hospital, but I do not remember the frequency at which she required to be fed. With Max, we ended up feeding him approximately every two hours the first couple of nights. And after being fed, he did not want to go back to sleep right away. He appeared to have his nights and days cattywampus. Last night though, Max managed to go at least three hours, up to three and a half hours, between feedings overnight, and he went back to sleep much more quickly. Consequently, I got a much better night's sleep last night. His sleeping this long between feedings did concern us somewhat as we were already used to him waking more frequently. However every time we checked on him, he was just fine. I do wonder how long it will take for Max to sleep through the night. Emma was doing so at six weeks. Of course, every child is different.

The home visitation nurse stopped by the house today to see how Mel and Maximus are doing. While she was here she weighed Max. He is already exceeding his birth weight by 2.5 ounces. Mel had thought it looked like he had filled out a bit. We take Max into the doctor for his first appointment next Wednesday.

Everyone in the house is transitioning well to the new resident of our home. Even the cat, Ike, is doing well with it. We'll see how things go next week when I return to work. As I work from home now, things will be different from when I went back to work after Emma was born, but I am sure things will work out fine.

Emma Meets Her Brother

As I wrote earlier, while Mel and I were in the hospital Friday night, Emma spent the night at my aunt and uncle's house. When my mother stopped by their house on the way to visit Maximus at the hospital, she picked Emma up and brought her along.

When Emma entered the hospital room, she was really excited to see her mommy, she wasn't so sure about her little brother though. She sat down next to my sister, who was holding Max. Rebecca asked Emma if she wanted to hold him. Emma quickly replied "no!" She didn't seem to want to have much to do with him. She was much more interested in sitting with her mommy and looking at the present that Aunt Rebecca had brought. She did become more interested in him before she left for the night though. It may take some time, but I think she is going to enjoy being a big sister to Maximus.

Maximus

This morning, at 8:23, my son Maximus Xavier was born. But before I go into any details about this morning, let me begin by writing about what happened on Thursday.

Thursday afternoon, Mel and I went to the hospital where Mel had an ultrasound done to see how the baby was doing. Mel's blood pressure had been very high on Wednesday when she saw her doctor, so he was a bit concerned. From the ultrasound, the technician estimated that the baby's weight was about 9 pounds 2 ounces. Mel was also hooked up to a monitor for a while so the nurse could listen to the baby's heart. Everything was fine though, so we were sent home, as we expected to be.

Yesterday when she got home from work, Mel decided to take a nap so she would be more alert when Emma got home from daycare. While Mel was sleeping, I cooked dinner. When it was ready, I sent Emma downstairs to wake Mel. It was then that Mel's water broke. Emma seemed a bit concerned by everything that was going on, Mel's cleaning herself up, and my getting things packed in the car. My uncle came over to Emma to his house where she then stayed the night. In the meantime, Mel and I headed to the hospital.

At the hospital, they verified that Mel's water had indeed broken and checked the location of the baby. Everything was fine. After Mel's doctor consulted with the obstetrician on call, Mel decided that she would deliver the baby by cesarean section, so around 8:00 this morning, Mel was wheeled into the operating room. About half an hour later, our 7-pound-8-ounce and 20.5-inch-long baby boy, Maximus, was born.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

I hope you all are having a good Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I had the day off from work. Instead of doing anything to celebrate the day, I painted a wall in the living room and the ceiling of the bathroom. Besides that, I took a trip to the Mall of America where I purchased eight postcards representing the Twin Cities. Since moving here, we have had a couple requests from friends and family in Iowa for us to send postcards for school projects, helping students learn about different places. The last time I got such a request, I had a hard time finding a postcard. Fortunately, my sister helped out that time and gave me a postcard that she had acquired at some point. Recently I realized that the Mall of America gift shop has postcards, so I got some there, and from the Underwater Adventures gift shop. Now I will be prepared the next time I get a Minnesota postcard request.

Killer Fish

In case anyone is curious about the fish in my aquarium that has killed almost all of its tank mates, here is a video of it. This is my black-banded lepornius which I have recently bogged about, on both December 19 and 31. Perhaps it is my fault this fish decided to eat his companions. Maybe I hadn't fed them enough. The last time I fed the fish, I thought I put too much food in, but the lepornius quickly ate it all up.

Finishing Christmas 2009

Day 294/366 - Atari 2600 Luvin
Originally uploaded by Great Beyond

Yes, Christmas was over three weeks ago, but today my family finally got around to finishing our exchange of presents. Emma and I, along with my sister, were supposed to go to Iowa to spend Christmas Eve with my family there, but because of the weather, that trip was cancelled. Then my sister spent two weeks galavanting about the Galapagos Islands, returning home last Saturday. So yesterday my mom drove up from Iowa, and we all got together this afternoon at my sister's house to complete our celebrating of Christmas.

We had a good time together today. Emma especially enjoyed the presents she received, although my sister's cat kept scaring her. Prior to Christmas, my sister had told me that she thought she got me the best Christmas present ever. That really intrigued me, and for days after that, I was trying to figure out what she could possibly have gotten me. Well, while my sister was on her South American vacation, one of her friends, with whom I am also friends on Facebook, let it slip that my sister was giving me an Atari 2600. This mutual friend had indicated a couple of months ago that she was selling hers, I guessed that my sister had decided to buy it. Anyway, not wanting to ruin the surprise, I didn't tell my sister about it, and I figured she wouldn't see our Facebook conversation since she was riding around in a boat in the Pacific Ocean while that conversation took place. I did tell my wife though that I had accidentally found out about the present.

So this afternoon, I opened the present from my sister and was quite surprised when I saw an Oral B Vitality electric toothbrush in a rather large box. There was something under the toothbrush though, so I continued through the box only to discover that she had weighed it down with softballs to make it appear as if it had held more. I had really expected the Atari to be in the box, so I was a bit disappointed, although I tried to appear not to be. After we were done opening presents and had cleaned up, we ordered pizza for dinner. I went to pick it up. While I was away, I was wondering if my sister had figured out that I knew about the Atari. I thought maybe it would be out when I got back with the pizza, but when I returned with the pizza, it still was not present. After dinner, and after viewing my sister's vacation photos, I loaded up our car with the presents we had received. After my last trip to the car, I went back up to get Emma and Mel and was shocked to see a large present on the chair. Of course, this was the Atari 2600.

Apparently another mutual friend of my sister, her friend who originally had the Atari, and me reported to my sister about the conversation regarding the Atari. My sister wasn't too happy about my finding out so she decided to mess with me. Originally she had planned on waiting until I was at the hospital with Mel when the baby was being born, during which time she would place it in our house. However, my mom wanted to see my reaction when I got it. I was quite excited to see the game system in the box once I opened it. There are quite a few games with it as well. I haven't checked out what they all are yet, but I did see Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Pitfall to name a few. I really can not wait to hook it up and give it a try. The only problem is that it only came with one joystick, so I won't be able to play any games requiring the joystick with two players. It did come with two paddles though, so games using that controller will not be a problem.

After expecting the Atari 2600 for the past couple of weeks and not seeing it right away, I was initially a bit disappointed, but I really was getting excited about the electric toothbrush. And while I think I will really like the toothbrush, hopefully it helps prevent me from getting any more cavities, I know I will really enjoy the Atari. Just now as I write this, I can't help but remember the hours I spent at home playing games on the Atari system I won in a coloring contest in the late 1970s. Actually, my game system was a Sears Video Arcade system which was fully compatible with the Atari 2600.

Emma's New Favorite YouTube Video

Just a few days ago I wrote about Emma's watching of Sesame Street videos on YouTube. Well, she now has a new favorite video, it is a video of Elmo's daddy singing to him about using the potty. Emma now comes up to me when I am in the office and tells me she wants to watch Elmo use the potty. It is kind of cute.

Late Nights at Work

Since the beginning of the year, I have spent a considerable amount of time working late into the evening. Part of the reason for this is that I had two dentist appointments last week. I could have used sick time to make up for those, but I didn't want to dip into my paid leave so early into the year. Also, I had a lot of work to get done.

It had been quite a while since I had really worked late into the evening. Until last week, I had been keeping pretty regular, 8:00 to 4:30 hours, but with Mel going to bed fairly early lately, and little worth watching on TV, I decided I might as well get some work done. Now if I hadn't volunteered to take on some of the extra tasks that I have lately, I probably wouldn't feel the need to work so much. But I do have a lot to get done before I take time off when the baby comes, so I feel it needs to be done.

Celebrity Lullaby

Recently, I began using videos on Sesame Street's YouTube channel to keep Emma entertained while I do some tasks such as washing dishes or vacuuming the basement. I like that Sesame Street Workshop has put up videos from older episodes of Sesame Street. I really feel that the program was more educational back when I was a kid than it is today. Today it almost seems that they should just rename the program The Elmo Show.

Anyway, the first time I checked out the Sesame Street channel, the video that came up initially, and began playing automatically, when I first did this was a video of Ricky Gervais singing a "lullaby" to Elmo. The song also teaches about the letter N. Emma did not care for this video the first time she saw it, but she now enjoys it a lot and will sometimes come into the office while I am at the computer and ask to see the "Elmo lullaby." I actually find the video to be pretty entertaining as well, which is something which I can not say for much of the more recent Sesame Street programs I have watched.

Return to the Dentist

Today I had my second appointment with the dentist this week. On Monday I had some cavities filled, mostly on the right side of my mouth. Today it was time for the cavities on the left side of my mouth to be repaired. This visit did not go quite as smoothly as Monday's visit. The dentist had a difficult time getting my lower jaw to become numb. She had to inject me with the usual anesthetic three times toward my back lower left tooth, and my jaw still did not really get all that numb, so she ended up using a different anesthetic which she injected down into my gums right in front of the tooth. After that, there were no problems with pain. I did have a problem keeping my mouth open the whole time though as she had to work on my rear lower molar, so I really had to keep my mouth open wide. That ended up being very uncomfortable. Fortunately I made it through the procedure pain free.

The Dentist

I had to go to the dentist this afternoon to have some work done on my teeth. I had some cavities and a few fractures that needed filling. Despite what Mel insists, not all of these dental issues were my fault. The dentist even told me that the fractures had been beyond my control. Mel is right though that I need to brush my teeth better. Anyway, I had a few fillings put in today. I have to go back on Wednesday for the rest. The whole process was rather painless. The dentist did a really good job of numbing my gums prior to injecting the anesthetic into them. I barely even felt the needle as it entered my gums. The wort part of the whole ordeal was having to sit in the dentist's chair for almost an hour and a half with my mouth open most of the time. That was not the most comfortable position to be in for that long. After leaving the dentist I had to stop at Walgreens to pick up a night guard for my teeth as my dentist told me that she saw signs of my grinding my teeth at night. I am going to wait to use it until the remaining teeth are done Wednesday night since the work she does then will likely change the impressions that my teeth leave.

And while I didn't have any experiences like this kid, David, when I left the dentist, for some reason I feel the need to further spread this video which has already had over forty five million views on YouTube.

The Hangover, The Movie

Yesterday I rented the movie The Hangover from Redbox. I had reserved it on their website, but there was an error when I submitted my credit card information, so I had to resubmit the information to complete my reservation, or so I thought. When I swiped my credit card in the Redbox machine at my local Cub Foods, the machine dispensed two copies of the movie. Not needing to watch the movie twice, and definitely not needing top copies of the DVD even if I did want to watch it twice, I returned the second copy immediately. When I got home, I emailed Redbox to make sure that I wouldn't be charged twice for the movie. The rental is only one dollar, so if I do get charged twice, it's not that big of a deal, but I don't feel that I should have to pay twice as much just because their website hiccuped when I used it.

Anyway, Mel and I put Emma to bed about half an hour early last night. She hadn't napped much the past couple of days, and we couldn't really start the movie until she was in bed. I enjoyed the movie. It had that certain offbeat humor in it that I like. Mel appeared to enjoy the movie as well. I thought the idea of having the characters of the movie retrace their steps from the night before to reconstruct their memories of what had happened during their drunken night was clever. And while a lot of the things that the discovered shortly after waking the next morning in their suite didn't make sense initially, everything came together through their day of fact finding. While Mike Tyson is not one of my favorite celebrities, I thought his part in the movie was really good. He was actually pretty funny! The major problem I had with The Hangover is the same as a problem I have with every movie that takes place in Las Vegas. After seeing this film, I really want to take a vacation there. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be in the cards at the moment.

I Gotta Feeling

I found this lip dub of the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" thanks to @billprady on Twitter. It features 172 communications students at the Université du Québec à Montréal and was filmed in September 2009 with a single shot. This is a really fun song.

A Late Christmas

We were supposed to have Christmas with my wife's family last Saturday, but since the weather was so crappy, we had to postpone those plans for this weekend. So today we managed to squeeze fourteen of us in our house to celebrate Christmas. While our house isn't all that large, we did manage to fit in it alright. It's just a good thing that we received, not one, but two card tables and sets of chairs for our wedding in 2005.

Before lunch, all six of the kids managed to make a mess of my daughter's room playing with her toys. When I eventually told everyone it was time to pick up the toys later this afternoon, it took a significant amount of time to get things straightened out. After lunch it was time to open presents. To avoid having too many presents to buy, the adults each draw names so each of us gets just one present from another of us, so most of the present opening is left to the kids who get more presents. My present came from my parents-in-law. They gave me a book, Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, published by DK. The book is "the ultimate guide to characters and creatures from the entire Star Wars saga" according to the text on the cover, and it is right about that. It includes photos of many of the characters in each of the movies, as well as nice photos of the various weapons and ships from the films as well. I was looking over the book with my nephew David. He  has a rather extensive knowledge of the Star Wars movies, especially episodes I and II. It is a pretty long book, so I will need to make some time to read it from cover to cover.

We are going to be meeting all of the family tomorrow morning for breakfast at Perkins before those who live in Iowa leave for their homes.

Dead Pool 2010

For the second year in a row, I am participating in the celebrity dead pool at TheDeadPool.com. Here is my list of twenty celebrities for the year:

• Amy Winehouse
• Roger Ebert
• Steve Jobs
• Fidel Castro
• Darlene Cates
• Bernard Madoff
• Lindsay Lohan
• Magic Johnson
• Gary Coleman
• Kim Jong-il
• Stephen Hawking
• Nichelle Nichols
• Nancy Reagan
• George H. W. Bush
• Rush Limbaugh
• Don Imus
• Bryant Gumbel
• Billy Graham
• Muhammed Ali
• Seve Ballesteros

I do not personally hope any of these people die during the course of the year, but if they do, you can read about it here in my blog.

The Year We Make Contact

Good morning everyone! Here is my very first blog posting in the year twenty ten or two thousand ten, whichever you prefer. I think I am going to be calling the year "twenty ten," but we'll see how well I stick to that. And while I am talking about sticking to things, I am going to make a few New Year's resolutions. We'll see how this goes, but my wife is already doubting my ability to keep any resolutions.

• Watch what I eat -- I need to watch what I eat for the purpose of losing weight. I will know if I have succeeded in this resolution if I manage to get my weight down to 205 pounds and keep it there, as my doctor says I should.
• Reduce my caffeine consumption -- While I have greatly reduced the amount of soda I drink over how much I used to, I should cut down on the amount of caffeine I consume.
• Exercise more -- I only exercise sporadically as it is. I need to get into the habit of exercising at least three days a week.

I could probably come up with some more things I need to to, but I think I will just leave it at these three resolutions for now.