Fun at the Mall of America

With Mel out of town all weekend visiting a friend in Iowa, I was alone today with the kids. Maximus never seems to be happy when he's home with me, so he, Emma, and I all went to the Mall of America today. Emma always seems to want to go to the mall, mainly because she likes going to Nickelodeon Universe. When we got there around 10:15 this morning, she wanted to go on the carousel. Normally when I go there with Emma and Max, I put Emma on the carousel and then Max and I wait for her ride to be done. This morning however, I decided that Max might want to ride the carousel. So I strapped him on a horse next to Emma's. While waiting for the ride to begin, Maximus appeared to be pretty happy on the horse, but when it began moving up and down and going around, he got a worried look on his face which quickly turned to a scared look. Fortunately he didn't cry, but I thought we shouldn't go on the carousel again right away.

After our carousel ride we went into one of the Nickelodeon Universe stores where Emma looked at almost every item they had. She found a SpongeBob SquarePants dog tag with her name on it that she wanted, but we didn't get one. I was disappointed that they didn't have one with Max's name on it. After Emma had investigated every square inch of that store, the three of us set out in search for the Fossil store so I could get the battery in my watch replaced. As it is located on the second floor, we took the elevator up one level and began walking around the mall. We didn't make it to Fossil right away though. As we approached Macy's, Emma told me that she needed to go to the potty. We entered Macy's to find one. We ended up going to the third floor to find a restroom, after which Emma said she wanted lunch. So we ended up eating lunch before making it to the Fossil store.

After lunch we resumed out quest for the Fossil store. I however took us in the wrong direction. Before getting to Fossil, we stopped at the Disney Store where Emma looked around quite a bit, although we did not buy anything. Eventually we left the Disney Store and located Fossil where I had the battery in my watch replaced. Even though I knew the battery was dead, I had still been looking at it and kept wondering why time didn't seem to have passed. Now I will once again know the time.

By this time, Emma wanted to go on a few more rides. Before we got to any of the rides though, we saw that SpongeBob SquarePants and Squidward Tentacles were making an appearance, so we got in line so Emma and Max could see them. I was worried that Max might be scared of the large costumed characters, but he did fine. He even tried to grab SpongeBob's nose.

After getting their photo taken with SpongeBob and Squidward, we made our way to the Rugrats bumper cars. The last time Emma rode in the bumper cars, she ended up getting stuck in a corner. This time she did much better. She ended up riding the ride three consecutive times. She would have gone again if I would have let her, but I thought that three times was enough. I was amused the first time she rode the bumper cars today listening to all the parents along the side of the ride shouting to their kids to turn the wheel one way or the other and to press the peddle. I was among those parents doing this.

Before leaving, Emma wanted to ride on the carousel one more time. She wanted me to ride with her. I wasn't too sure about that since that would require Maximus to ride on the carousel again, and he really did not like his first experience on the ride. I relented though, and the three of us all rode on the carousel once more. This time though, I put Max on a horse that did not go up and down. He did much better this second time on a horse which was more limited in its motion.

Finally we were about ready to leave the mall. On our way out we walked by the LEGO store. Unfortunately Emma wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and the ran right into the corner of one of the support columns outside the side of the LEGO store. She was in a lot of pain and cried as we walked through the mall toward the exit. As we were close to the exit, we walked by Häagen-Dazs, where two employees were giving out small sample spoons of ice cream. The tiny spoon of ice cream had the effect of making Emma feel much better. Just to be sure though, they gave her another sample. She was doing much better for a moment until she ran into Max's stroller. She was once again whining as we made out way to the car. Finally leaving the mall a little after 2:00.

Both Emma and Maximus ended up falling asleep on our way home from the Mall of America. Maximus even stayed asleep when we got home, so I was able to put him down for a nap where he continued to sleep until I woke him at about 4:45 for dinner. Both kids had such a busy day that they each went to sleep fairly easily tonight. I am actually surprised that I am still awake considering all the work I did wrangling the kids today. I even walked over 14,000 steps today. More than 10,000 of those were at the Mall of America. I think I will go to sleep once I finish writing this.

Buying Tangled

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Tangled at our local Target store. It is going to be a present for Emma for Easter. There were several options available to choose from. There was the DVD-only, the two-disc combo pack with the Blu-ray and the DVD, and finally there was the four-disc combo pack which included the Blu-ray 3D and the digital copy as well as the 2D Blu-ray and the DVD. While we do not have a Blu-ray player, I decided to go with the four-disc combo. We did buy an HDTV earlier this year, so it's probably just a matter of time before we get a Blu-ray player. We will not be buying a 3D TV in the foreseeable future, but the digital copy will be nice. It would be nice if Disney sold a combo pack that had all three formats of the movie with the exception of the 3D disc, but I guess that would just complicate things. Besides, with the five-dollar coupon I got online, the four-disc combo pack cost the same as the two-disc pack.

The Losing Continues

I lost an additional 1.2 pounds this week, bringing my total weight loss since February 23 up to 7.0 pounds. I was worried that I wouldn't have any loss this week as we ate out twice during the week. I did count most of my Weight Watchers points though, although I did estimate the points for one of the dinners, and I used up every single point I had for the week.

I'm a Loser, Again

Yesterday was my weekly weigh-in day for Weight Watchers, and after two consecutive weeks of gaining weight, 0.4 pound each week, I have resumed losing weight. My weight was down 3.4 pounds from the previous week for a net loss of 5.8 pounds since I reset my tracking history four weeks ago, on February 23. Since I have not lost 5.8 pounds, I reached my first 5 pounds milestone. A couple of things that helped me get back to losing weight was more accurately tracking what I ate and actually getting exercise. I rode my bike on the trainer four times during the week. I intend to move up to riding at least five days each week. Not only will that help me with my weight loss, but it should also help me to prepare for RAGBRAI.

Four!

This past Sunday was Emma's fourth birthday. Time really goes by quickly. I can not believe she's already four years old! She seemed to have a pretty good birthday. We went to Don Pablo's for dinner Saturday night with Aunt Rebecca. Because we were there to celebrate her birthday, Emma got to wear the birthday sombrero, and we got a free order of sopaipillas.


We asked Emma Saturday what she wanted to do for her birthday. The only thing she indicated the wanted to do was to go to Sunday School, so since Maximus was sick, he has thrown up in the car on the way home from the restaurant Saturday night, I took Emma to church while Mel stayed home with Max.


After we got back home from church and ate lunch, Emma opened the presents we got her -- two Zhu Zhu Pets and the Zhu Zhu Burgers Overpass. She had a good time with her new toys, but later in the afternoon she didn't seem to be feeling well and she fell asleep on the couch. Emma ended up going to bed early because she wasn't feeling well, and by the afternoon, she also was not behaving very well. She still thought she had a good birthday though.

The Joy of Car Ownership

Two weeks ago I sent the final payment for our Saturn VUE to the finance company. A week later we got a check in the mail for the fifteen-cent overpayment we apparently made. It is nice to not owe any more money on the SUV. Now instead of making car payments, we get to spend the money on keeping the vehicle running.

Yesterday I took the Saturn in for an oil change and to get a tire repaired. I ended up taking home a vehicle which not only had new oil and filter as well as a patched tire, but also a new timing belt, a new battery, and new transmission fluid. Fortunately I only need to take it in for an oil change about ounce every five or six months, so barring anything unexpected happening to the Saturn, it will be at least that long before we have to spend any additional money on its maintenance.

Becoming More Active

This morning I weighed myself again for my weekly Weight Watchers weigh-in, and once again my weight was up. It was down less than a pound from my weight at the beginning of December when Weight Watchers started its new Points Plus program. There are two things that have been holding me back in being successful at losing weight -- not carefully tracking my points and not getting exercise. That will change beginning today. Today I rode my bike for twenty minuted on my new bike trainer. Twenty minutes doesn't seem like a very long ride, but I figured it was a good start considering that I haven't been on a bike since the final day of RAGBRAI in 2009. Also, I did my bike riding during my lunch break from work, so I didn't really have the time to ride much longer than that.

I also will be more careful about tracking my points. I know I have said this before, but I think I can do it. I even recorded the two Carbury Creme Eggs, 4 Points Plus points each, that I had this evening. One of the hardest parts of tracking points is keeping up with them when I am away from a computer. It would be easier to do that if I had a smart phone, but that will have to wait.

Happy Geeky Valentine's Day

Max's First Birthday Cake

Yesterday was Maximus's first birthday, and the first time he got to eat birthday cake. He didn't seem to sure about it at first, but he did end up eating some of it. A lot of it ended up in his lap however.

Happy Birthday Maximus

Today is Maximus Xavier's first birthday. As I recall, he arrived a little earlier than we expected. I had just finished cooking dinner, potato soup, on January 22 last year when I woke Mel up from a nap. About that time, her water broke, so we got my aunt and uncle to come get Emma, and Mel and I left for the hospital. The next morning, Maximus was born. He has grown so much in the past year. He weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces when he was born. He now weighs over 23 pounds. And his height has increased from 20.5 inches to over 31 inches.

We have had some challenges during the year, including dealing with his torticollis and plagiocephaly, but he successfully finished physical therapy and his head was reshaped using a cranial orthosis. One thing we are still working on is getting him to sleep through the night. With the exception of a night or two, until this week Maximus has gotten up at least once every night for a bottle. The past several nights though we have not fed Max when he was up. We have been able to get him to return to sleep without one. Friday night, he went back to sleep very quickly after getting his pacifier. I think we may very soon be done waking up with him each night. It will be very nice to regularly be able to get a full night's sleep once again.

He has also begun walking recently. I am looking forward to seeing what he will begin to do next.

Photo Friday: A Summer Photo for a Cold Day

With the temperature around -14°F this morning, I thought a photo from RAGBRAI a couple of summers ago would be nice. This is me eating a walking taco in Brighton, Iowa. It's just 26 weeks until RAGBRAI XXXIX!

1 Down, 25.9 To Go

My weight was down 1.0 pound this week leaving 25.9 pounds to lose until I reach my goal of weighing less than 200 pounds. To help in reaching my goal this morning, I declined buying a roller grill when I stopped at SuperAmerica. I really like the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Tornadoes that they have. They are tasty, but they are 5  Weight Watchers Points Plus points each. I would rather save that for a healthier snack later in the day.

The New HDTV

On Wednesday last week, we picked up our new high-definition television from Best Buy. After setting it up, it was nice to have a TV where the entire screen worked as intended. This morning a Comcast installer came and connected our HD cable service. I am amazed by the difference! The colors are so much more vivid than with our previous TV. When the screen is white it is so bright. And when it is black, it really looks colorless. I have found that reading the fine print in ads is much easier as the words are much more crisp than before. One drawback I have noticed so far is that these are some things that I really did not need to see in high definition. For example, the commercial with the guy carrying around the giant flask of uric acid is a bit more disgusting now than it was in standard definition. Overall though, I am sure we will enjoy watching TV in high definition. Now we just need to get a Blu-Ray player.

Progress with Walking

In the nine days since Maximus began walking, he has made a great deal of progress! The first couple of days, he just walked four or five steps before having to grab onto something. Now he can walk the entire length of our living room. I have also noticed that while he still does crawl some, if he has any real distance to go, he is much more likely to walk than to crawl. There is no stopping him now!

Emma's Legos

One thing Emma enjoys playing with is Legos. Last week, she left the Lego creations shown here on my desk before she left for preschool. She really loves putting the tree on people's heads. But yesterday she did something with her Duplo Legos that really impressed me. Without any prompting or assistance, she built one of the things shown on the label of the box the Legos came in. I was very impressed that she was able to make the connection between the picture and the actual construction of the item.

Photo Friday: T-ball

This Friday's photo is a photo of me from when I played T-ball. I do not recall how old I was when this photo was taken, but I assume it was sometime in the late 1970s.

Back to Losing Weight

I have been using the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program for the past six weeks now, since the beginning of December. I lost weight on the program for the first two weeks using PointsPlus, but then gained weight the next three weeks. This gain was probably due in large part to not carefully watching what I ate over the holidays. This week I have gotten back on track, losing 1.6 pounds, bringing my weight to 226.8 pounds, 0.8 pounds less than my starting weight on December 1. It may take me a little longer to reach my goal of weighing less than 200 pounds than I hoped, but if I really stick to this, I should be able to do it.

Winter Gala

Last night we went to the Winter Gala at Emma's preschool. I think they did a much better job of organizing it this year than they did last year. Last year, each class performed in its own part of the building, but this year they all performed on the same "stage." Emma's class sang four songs, "The Seven Days of the Week," "If It's Winter and You Know It," "The Three Little Snowmen," and "The Bear Hunt." Last year Emma didn't sing much, but this year she did better at singing along.

A Sick Day

We kept Emma home from daycare yesterday. She had gotten sick during the night and we decided that even though she was feeling better in the morning, we would be better off keeping her home. I was able to finish the tasks I needed to complete yesterday, and was able to call in for a regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting, but after that I wasn't able to get any work done. Being not quite four years old, Emma is not yet able to keep herself entertained for hours on end. That was all right though. We had a good day day.

New TV

We finally did it! After putting up with a television set that has been going bad since even before we moved to Minnesota in July 2008 we have finally purchased a new television. We will be replacing our normal old television with a new high-definition television.

For the past few years, we have been putting up with a television in which the very top of the image is distorted. The only time this does not cause problems is when something is presented in widescreen. In those instances, the distortion is in the black portion of the image. However, when watching sports it can be very difficult to read what the score is or to see how much time is remaining. It also makes it difficult to play some video games. We have been saving up for a while, both cash and Best Buy gift cards. We didn't quite have enough, but the TV we wanted was on sale at Best Buy this week for about $150 off the regular price, so we couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately none of our area Best Buy stores had it in stock, so we ordered it online. It should arrive at the store to pick up by Wednesday.

Now we have to decided what to do about our satellite account. If I read the information correctly, it looks like we will have to pay DirecTV an extra $10 each month to get an HDTV signal. I suppose we could also look into what Comcast has to offer. All I know for sure is that we no longer have to make sure whichever package we get has the Discovery Health Channel as it was taken over by the Oprah Winfrey Network. It looks like a lot of the programming from DHC has moved to FitTV, so maybe we need to see about getting that channel now instead.

Maximus Walks

Today Maximus walked on his own for the first time. Oh, he has taken a couple of steps without any support, and he has cruised along furniture for the past several weeks, but today he took several unsupported steps. To celebrate, we went to Stride Rite and bought him a pair of size 6½ shoes.

Photo Friday: Cyclone Me

I intend on posting a photo to my blog every Friday beginning today, the first Friday of 2011. For the first of my Photo Friday photos, here is a picture of me as a baby with an Iowa State University sweatshirt which I presume was a gift.

Difficulties With Resolution Number 1

The first of my New Year's resolutions was to get my weight below 200 pounds this year, and to keep it there. So far this has been a bit of a challenge. I do not know why I haven't been doing well at it, although I probably ate to much less-than-healthy foods this weekend when we closed out our celebrations of Christmas. My weight this morning was up to 228.4 pounds. I can definitely still reach my goal. It will just take a bit longer and a little more hard work. At a healthy rate of losing one pound per week, I should manage to reach my goal by June 16. Now I just need to remember to track my Weight Watchers Plus points, exercise, and ignore the chocolate chip cookies that are sitting on the kitchen counter.

Doing Better at Daycare

The past couple of weeks, Maximus has usually begun crying as I leave him at daycare. Fortunately this has changed this week. Both yesterday and today Max did just fine with my leaving him. I think part of the trick is to leave quickly after dropping him off. The longer I stay to chat with his daycare provider, the harder it will be for him.

Tax Time

Since OfficeMax is having an 20% off sale this week for almost anything that fits into a shopping bag, I stopped there this afternoon to pick up this year's copy of TurboTax. As one would expect, we haven't received any W-2s nor any other tax documents yet, but they will be here soon enough. Normally I like to get out tax returns filed as soon as I possibly can in order to more quickly receive any refunds that are coming our way, but I heard today that because the IRS needs to update its software, they won't be able to process any returns that include Schedule A until mid February. In fact, I read that we can not even submit our tax return to the IRS until they say they are ready for it. If I really wanted to, I could file using the standard deduction right away and then file an amended return once they are ready for forms itemizing deductions, but that seems like a big hassle. I suppose our refunds will only be delayed by a few weeks, but I would still like to get them as soon as I possibly can.

Sleeping?

As I finally succeeded in getting Maximus to sleep tonight at 10:00, I can't help but wonder when he will finally begin sleeping through the night without waking to be fed. I know we were spoiled by his sister's sleeping through the night at six weeks of age. But three weeks from today Maximus will be one year old, and he does not seem to be anywhere near sleeping through the night. In fact, I don't think he is ready to give up his middle-of-the-night feeding. I would like for Mel and me to be able to consistently sleep through the night once again.

New Year's Resolutions

I have returned to my blog to write a few resolutions for the new year.

1. Get my weight below 200 pounds.
2. Keep better track of spending.
3. Read at least six books during the year.
4. Keep up with my blog.

I think the third of these will be the most difficult, but I can do it if I just make the time to read.

Picture Day

Today is picture day at Emma's preschool. They just had pictures taken about a month ago, but this time it's "Holiday Pictures." As Maximus teared to shreds the form informing us of the impending picture day, I forgot all about it until I got Emma out of the carr and saw another parent carrying the picture sheet. Had I remembered that it was picture day, I would not have dressed Emma in her John Deere "I Love Dirt" T-shirt this morning. Oh it is a fine shirt, but I thought something a little nicer would be better for her pictures, even though we don't intend on buying any. However, just in case we decided we wanted some copies of her photo, I returned to preschool with a different shirt for Emma to wear, a solid red shirt. That should look nicer for her picture.

Finished

As of this morning, Maximus is done with the helmet to correct his plagiocephaly. He has mad a lot of progress since he started wearing it back in August. At that time, the difference between the measurements from the back left to the front right of his head and the back right to the front left of his head was 1.7 centimeters. Now the difference is just 0.4 centimeters. It will be nice not having to wash the helmet daily, and Max's head will smell a lot better now that he is not wearing the helmet twenty-three hours a day. I am glad that we decided to do this for Max though, and I think we would do it again if we needed to. Now we just need to work on getting him discharged from physical therapy.

Trick-or-Treat

We had a busy Halloween weekend, beginning with the Cottage Grove Halloween parade on Saturday, and ending with trick-or-treating with HealthPartners' very own Petey P. Cup. To begin, a little before 10:00 Saturday morning, the four of us walked to the route of the Monster Bash Halloween Parade. Once we got there, we had a little wait before the parade began. We discovered that we really need to work on Emma's tolerance of loud noises. She was deathly afraid of the police cars and fire trucks at the beginning of the parade. I had to hold her until they had passed because the sirens really frighten her. Despite that, we had a great time at the parade, Emma ended up collecting a lot of candy. She filled her candy bucket at least two-thirds full.

Then yesterday was the highlight of Halloween -- trick-or treating. A few weeks ago Petey P. Cup announced on his Facebook page that he would go trick-or-treating on Halloween with one of his fans. To get a chance of having him join you, you just had to post a message on his Facebook wall indicating why you wanted to trick-or-treat with Petey P. Cup. Emma really likes Petey, so I decided I would enter us in this contest. I made a short video of Emma asking Petey P. Cup to please come trick-or-treat with her. That did the trick, because last Monday he posted on his Facebook page that we were the winners! Emma was very excited when she found out Petey P. Cup would be trick-or-treating with her. All day yesterday Emma asked when Petey would arrive.

Shortly before 6:00, I got a call from Petey's handler that they were in Cottage Grove and would be at our house shortly. They wanted to know if Emma knew that Petey was coming and if Petey needed to be in costume when they arrived. I let them know that they could change here. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to ride in a car in that costume. Not long after that, two young women showed up with the Petey P. Cup costume. They also brought a couple of Halloween baskets, one for Emma and the other for Maximus. In one of the baskets was four Petey P. Cup plush dolls, one for each of us. The other basket contained a stuffed vampire and scarecrow for the kids. We all chatted a bit, asking questions about how they got to be Petey P. Cup, and what it is like, before one of them put on the Petey P. Cup costume and then heading out down the street.

We took a few photos outside and then started out trick-or-treating. We spent about an hour and a half walking through the neighborhood begging for candy from our neighbors. Emma had a great time, holding Petey P. Cup's hand as they walked down the street. The people handing out the candy were also quite entertained by Petey. Some other kids we saw while we were out were not sure what Petey P. Cup was. Some of them thought he was a jar of mustard, while others thought he was a container of ice cream. While we were out, Emma filled both the trick-or-treat basket that she had prior to Petey's arrival and one of the baskets Petey brought for her. It helped that a lot of people were giving candy to Petey P. Cup as well as to Emma. When we returned home, we took a few more photos with Petey P. Cup before they headed on their way. Emma went to bed not long after they left and quickly went to sleep. She had quite an eventful Halloween, one she won't likely forget anytime soon.

Zoo Boo 2010

This afternoon the family and I went to Como Zoo for their annual Zoo Boo fundraiser. Emma had a good time walking through the zoo trick-or-treating. In past two years we attended Zoo Boo, none of the animals were out, but this year was different. We were able to see an ostrich, a bison, and the polar bears. Emma enjoyed seeing the animals.

While we roamed through the zoo, I kept trying to get Emma to pose for a photo with some of the costumed characters around the zoo, but she refused to do so. She seemed to be afraid of many of them. She wouldn't even pose with the Star Wars characters toward the end of the route through the zoo. The only character Emma posed with for a photo was Petey P Cup. After taking her picture, we got one of the whole family with Petey.

Nine Months Old

Maximus turned nine months old today. I can not believe that it has already been three-fourths of a year since he was born. In no time at all, he will be one year old.

Today we took Max to Sears to have his photo taken. As usual, they did an awesome job. Max once again cooperated for the photo shoot. The hardest part of the whole thing was deciding which photos to get prints of. Fortunately we have them all on CD so we can make more prints later if we decide to.

After getting the photos ordered, we walked around the Mall of America a bit. We had to get Max some new long-sleeved T-shirts as most of the ones we have for him are too small. All of his 12-month shirts have now been put away to be replaced by 18-month and 2T size shirts. Max is one big boy!

The Pumpkin Farm

We spent this afternoon at Lendt's Pumpkin Patch in Wyoming, Minnesota, hunting for some pumpkins just right for turning into jack-o-lanterns. We had a great time there. We had the option of picking pumpkins from ones already picked or picking our own. We decided to do the latter. We managed to find four suitable pumpkins without much trouble.

After paying for our pumpkins, we put them in the car and went back to enjoy the rest of what the pumpkin patch had to offer. Emma got her face painted. She chose to have a spider in its web painted on her cheek. We enjoyed some snacks--mini doughnuts for Mel, cotton candy for Emma, and a bratwurst for me. We then looked around at the displays that had been set up. We had a fun time, even though it was a bit of a drive from home to get there.

Maximus Stands

Today for the first time, Maximus pulled himself up to a standing position using a stationary object. For a few weeks now he has pulled himself to standing by grabbing onto my fingers, but this is the first time he has done it without any help. At first I didn't even notice that he was standing. I had been talking on the phone and I turned around to see what Max was up to. I saw him by the gate I had put up to keep him out of the kitchen. I was about to turn back around when it occurred to me that Max wasn't sitting at the gate, but was standing instead! Now if Max just works on his balance, he will be walking in no time.

Helmet Adjustment

Friday afternoon we noticed that Max's helmet had been rubbing quite a bit. In fact, he even started grabbing at it, making us think that it had become less comfortable. We kept the helmet off of him all weekend until I had a chance to take him in today to have adjustments made to his helmet. We were actually thinking that his head had maybe grown to the maximum size of the helmet, but the measurements indicated no change in the size of his head. The orthotist shaved out some parts of the helmet, and we put it back on Max. In three weeks we'll be back to have measurements taken again.

The Kids and Me at the Zoo

Yesterday afternoon Mel was getting a tattoo, so I decided to take the kids to the zoo. Emma originally wanted to go to the Mall of America so she could ride the merry-go-round, but she changed her mind and told me that she wanted to go to the zoo, specifically Como Zoo since they have giraffes. Maximus, Emma, and I had a good time walking around the zoo, looking at all the animals. Emma was quite inquisitive, asking me what the various signs said about the animals. She even asked me where the bison and the lions go potty.

Burning Down the House

House Fire Training - Te Horo
Originally uploaded by 111 Emergency

Okay, I didn't really burn down the house, and the photo shown with this blog posting is simply for dramatic purposes, but I did manage to start a fire in the house yesterday.

While listening to a training session for work during lunch yesterday, I started cooking chicken breasts that we were going to use for dinner. I had started by heating a little bit of olive oil in a pan. Once the oil was hot, I added a couple of chicken breasts. These were chicken breasts that had been individually frozen with an ice glaze, and not all the ice had melted. Now I should have known from my years of experience working at Hardee's that putting ice in hot oil was a very bad idea, but I did it anyway.

At first there was a little bubbling of the oil as it melted the ice, but then the bubbling and splattering of the oil got much more vigorous. So next came my second big mistake, removing the pan from the burner. It sounded like a good idea, removing the pan from the heat would cause the oil to cool down, reducing the splattering. And while that happened, I hadn't considered the oil splattering out of the pan onto the hot surface of the stove.

As soon as I had moved the pan away, a ring of fire sprang up from where the heating element was under the flat top of the stove's hot burner. Now the oil that had splattered onto the stove burned up very quickly, extinguishing the fire, but it was a bit frightening. In reality, the fire probably lasted no longer than one second, but it seemed much longer as I stood, watching it on the stove.

Early Childhood Screening

On Tuesday, we took Emma in for the early childhood screening that the state of Minnesota requires of all three- and four-year-olds before they can begin kindergarten. Naturally, I felt that Emma would do really well even before we got there. I was impressed though that she actually answered when the person who greeted us upon our arrival when asked how she was. Emma is often very quiet when people she doesn't know talk to her initially.

Emma had her hearing, vision, height, and weight checked. All were fine. She then went off to administered an early childhood screening assessment. Coincidentally, the company I work for publishes the assessment that they used. Anyway, afterwards, the teacher who assessed Emma spoke with Mel and me, going over each of the tasks Emma was asked to complete. Emma got the maximum number of points on most of the tasks, earning a score of 24, which was higher than the 16 points that would be the minimum they would want to see from a child of her age. Her score was even higher than the minimum they would want from the next age group as well.

We still have a bit of a wait until Emma can start kindergarten; she won't be able to start until Fall 2012. I do worry though that Emma may not be challenged sufficiently when she does start school. We mentioned this concern to the teacher administering the assessment, and were told that Emma's kindergarten teacher should differentiate instruction to take each students' needs into account. This sounds good, but I know that in practice, it can be difficult to actually accomplish.

I'm Christine O'Donnell, and I'm Not a Witch

Is Christine O'Donnell implying that there is something wrong with being a witch? And what if I am a witch, then how is Christine O'Donnell me? Incidentally, another thing that Christine O'Donnell isn't is a grammarian. Otherwise she would know that "None of us are perfect" is incorrect. She should have said, "None of us is perfect."

Cuteness of the Day

I'm not sure why someone put two bunnies in paper cups, but they sure are cute.

Max's Head

Seven weeks ago, on August 10, Maximus began wearing a helmet twenty-three hours a day to help to correct his plagiocephaly. Today we went into the orthotist's office for a follow-up appointment to see how he is progressing. When we were last there, three weeks ago, there had been absolutely no change in the size of his head since it had been previously measured. This time though, his head had grown. In the past three weeks, Max's head circumference has increased by 0.4 centimeters, which I was told was a good rate of increase. When measuring Max's head from its right anterior to left posterior, the measurement remained the same at 15.2 centimeters. The left anterior to right posterior measurement though increased from 14.2 centimeters to 14.4 centimeters. Ideally, the difference between these two measurements would be zero. The right anterior to left posterior measurement is still 1 centimeter greater than the other measurement. This is an improvement from before he started wearing the helmet though. Then the difference was 1.7 centimeters. The orthotist is estimating that Max will be done wearing the helmet in three weeks. If his head continues to grow the next three weeks as it did the last three weeks, he will reach the casting measurement of the helmet, 46.5 centimeters, and it will no longer fit. We'll see on October 19 if that is the case. It would be nice to not deal with the helmet anymore, although it does come in handy protecting his head.

A Visit From Bill

For the first time since we moved to Minnesota, my friend Bill came for a visit from Cedar Rapids today. He originally planned on arriving around 9:00 this morning with the hopes of using our Wi-Fi to take a test for an online class he is enrolled in. However things did not work out as planned. Because of flooding, Highway 52 was closed somewhere between Rochester and here. When Bill took the detour, he ended up getting lost, and I had a hard time giving him help since his cell phone reception was poor. Bill noticed that he was running low on gas, so he returned to Rochester to refuel his car. While there, he stopped by the Rochester Public Library to see if he could connect to the Internet there to take his test, but by the time he got logged in, he was late for his test. Bill finally arrived at the house shortly before 1:00, four hours after he expected to be here.

Neither of us had eaten lunch yet, so we went to Ho King, a local Chinese restaurant for lunch. Afterward we stopped at Target, where I had a couple of things to pick up. As Bill enjoys comic books and comic book stores, we then went to Source Comics and Games in Falcon Heights. We went there because it is one comic book store in the Twin Cities that I know of, having visited there once before when I was in the area for a business trip several years ago. We then returned back to the house, stopping to buy a carbon monoxide detector at Walmart; the one we had in the basement stopped working today, so it needed to be replaced.

Bill left to return to Cedar Rapids around 4:30. He having quite a long day, with his very long drive here. Fortunately his return trip should go much better as Highway 52 has reopened.

Business Trip to Chicago

I am currently on a business trip to Chicago. I arrived yesterday afternoon after a rather uneventful flight from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Usually on business trips we stay at an Embassy Suites hotel. This time though, the Embassy Suites was booked, so the people from my company are at the Marriott Suites near O'Hare, while our committee members are staying at the nearby Marriott. Now I don't want to sound like I am complaining about the Marriott suites. Quite frankly, I think the room I am in is the best hotel room I have ever stayed in on a business trip. However, I really miss the breakfast with the omelet bar and the afternoon manager's reception that  the Embassy Suites has. Oh well, since the after-work drinks aren't free, the company will just end up paying for them.

This is a nice hotel though. The room has two large high-definition televisions. The alarm clock in the bedroom has a docking port for my iPod. That is especially nice since I prefer waking up to music than to an obnoxious alarm. And with the iPod dock, I can listen to my own music. I always find it such a pain to find a radio station that I will like in a city I am visiting. This eliminates that need. The bathroom is also very nice. Besides the typical bathtub, there is an actual shower stall, and the shower head is actually high enough for me! There are a couple of drawbacks about the hotel though, besides the lack of free alcohol. One is the lack of wireless Internet access in the room. I have Internet access, but it is not wireless. The second is the fact that sodas from the vending machines or from the front desk cost three dollars. That's an outrageous price! However, neither of these negatives are particularly bad, especially since I can get reimbursed for my beverages when I submit my expense report upon returning home.

Now on to the details of what I have been doing while I was here. Last night, two of my coworkers and I had dinner at the Carlucci Italian restaurant that is located very close to our hotel. I had some great food -- flank steak, pasta, and lobster-stuffed shrimp! It was fantastic! The crème brûlée I had for dessert was good as well, although the flame went out before the alcohol on top was sufficiently burned. It was so big that I was unable to finish it.

Today was the first day of our day and a half of meetings. I am not going to go into detail about the meeting, but I will say that I definitely earned the drink I had with dinner tonight! Speaking of dinner, we went to Gibsons to eat. We wanted to eat in the restaurant itself, but without a reservation we would have had to wait until 9:00 at the earliest before we could be seated, so we ate in the bar instead. Finding a seat in the bar was almost as difficult. I noticed that three women at one of the tables were eating some cake, so I staked out their table waiting for them to leave so I could pounce on the newly-vacated table before someone else had the chance. While I was waiting for them to leave, I noticed that the men at the neighboring table were paying their tab. They ended up leaving first, so I procured a table for my group. I had a rib eye steak sandwich for dinner. A few of us shared some crab cakes for an appetizer. For the second night in a row, dinner was quite delectable. After dinner, we returned to out hotel where we had some desert at our hotel's restaurant.

After returning to my room, I spent a little bit of time working on a different project to which I am assigned before composing this blog posting and going to bed. I am anticipating that my committee will finish up early tomorrow, so I guess I will probably be spending extra time at O'Hare waiting for my 3:05 flight back to Minneapolis.

Crazy Vandals

I stopped by my sister's condo this morning, and when I was leaving, I noticed that a sign in the middle of her street had been vandalized.

A Daddy Weekend

Mel went to Cedar Rapids this past weekend to visit a friend. This left me home alone with both kids. I got the kids put to bed alright Friday night, although Max did get up twice to be fed during the night -- at 10:00 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. He ended up waking up at 4:40 in the morning, followed by Emma waking up at 5:20. Emma wanted to go somewhere Saturday morning. She ended up asking if we could go to the Mall of America so she could ride the merry-go-round. So, I decided to take both kids to the mall. Taking a three-year-old and a seven-month-old to the Mall of America by myself was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. The hardest part was when we were in the middle of eating lunch and Emma told me she needed to go potty. Well, she is too young to go by herself, our food was only half eaten, I was trying to feed Max, and there was no one to take her besides me. I ended up telling her to finish her lunch first, and then we would go to the restroom. We finished up and went, however Emma apparently didn't actually have to use the restroom. I guess my gamble paid off. Emms ended up riding the carousel three times during our visit to the mall before we headed home.

Yesterday, we all went to the Woodbury Days parade. That is one really long parade! I think it lasted about two hours! Before it was over, Emma was ready to go home. It wasn't because we were there for so long, but instead because she was frightened by the fire coming from the RE/MAX hot air balloon basket that was in the parade. The loud noise was bad enough, but when they fired it up near us, I think the combination of fire, intense heat, and noise pushed her over the edge. It took several minutes to calm her down. She ended up with quite a bit of candy. I don't think she will be able to go through it all by Halloween even. She also ended up with a lot of political stickers on her shirt. Somehow though, the stickers from the Republican candidates ended up being covered by the stickers from the DFL candidates. Hmmm, I'm not sure how that happened.

Time to Blog

I've been having a hard time making time to blog lately. I have some time now, so I thought I would write about our trip to Iowa last weekend to celebrate my grandmother's ninety-first birthday, as well as the birthdays of my sister and my cousin's wife. We drove down to my mother's home Friday night. I think this really messed up Maximus's sleep schedule. It took a long time to get him to sleep. Fortunately, this meant he ended up sleeping much later than usual.

On Saturday we had lunch at the Colony Inn in Amana. Lunch was terrific! The mashed potatoes and gravy were delicious, and the Swiss steak I had for my entrée was quite flavorful as well. We then returned to my grandmother's house where we later had a small dinner followed by cake and ice cream.

My mom, sister, Mel, Emma, Max, and I went to the Other Place in Waterloo for pizza on Sunday before returning home. The drive back went pretty well except for the last half hour or so. By that time, Max had woken up and was tired of being in his car seat. He wasn't shy about letting us know it either. I hope we all survive our trip to Iowa next month for a wedding reception. That trip is going to be much longer than the one we took last weekend.

Taking Off the Pounds

I seem to be getting back on track with my weight loss. I lost another 1.2 pounds this past week, meaning that my weight has now decreased four of the past five weeks. And I think the only reason my weight was up last week was that last Tuesday I went to a potluck lunch at Mel's workplace. I was actually expecting to see an increase this week as I weighed myself Monday and my weight had increased significantly. I was very happy to see that it did not increase however. In the 14 weeks since I have been using Weight Watchers, I have had a net loss of 11.2 pounds, averaging 0.8 pounds per week. I'd like to see my weekly rate of weight loss slightly higher, but this number is acceptable. I now have 12.5 pounds to go before I have lost 10% of my weight when I started Weight Watchers in May, and 25.6 pounds until I reach my goal weight of 200 pounds. I know I can do this, but it would be much easier if I could find some time to get some real exercise in.

Voter #3

On our way to daycare this morning, the kids and I stopped so I could vote in the Minnesota primary. When I signed in, I found it interesting that there were two people whose names were on the same page as mine whose eligibility to vote was being challenged. For one of the two names, there was a not indicating that the person had moved. For the other, it said the person was a felon. I didn't think to look at the time, but I could have actually looked to see who these two people were who listed as possible illegal voters.

After getting my ballot, Emma, Maximus, and I proceeded to the voting booth. Up until the time I got there, I still wasn't completely sure who I was going to select for the nomination for governor. In fact, I hadn't even made up my mind whether I was going vote in the Independence Party race or the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party race. I ended up voting in the DFL column of my ballot, selecting the incumbents for Secretary of State and Attorney General. It was a tough decision for me between Mark Dayton and Margaret Anderson Kelliher when it came to the governor's race. I'm not going to say for whom I voted, but I didn't even consider voting for Matt Entenza. While I am sure he would do fine in the job of governor, his insistence that Minnesota should drop out of No Child Left Behind made me not want to vote for him. The fact that my job entails creating tests, such as ones used for NCLB, played a big role in this decision.

After I marked my ballot, I let Emma slide it into the ballot-counting machine. My ballot was the third one of the day at my precinct. I didn't think that was too bad considering that the polls had only been open for a few minutes before we arrived. The person manning the machine gave Emma and me "I Voted" stickers. He was going to give one to Max as well, but I declined. I told him that Max would just take it off and try to eat it.

No matter who wins today, I will still have a choice to make in November. I can not yet say that I am completely committed to voting for the DFL candidate, whomever that may be. I could still select the IP candidate. Of course, there is no way in hell I will be voting for Tom Emmer three months from now.

Maximus's First Few Days With His Helmet

We've been breaking Max into his STARband helmet since Friday when we got it. On Friday, he alternated between one hour of the helmet on and one hour of having it off until he went to bed without the helmet. Saturday he was two hours on then an hour off, without wearing the helmet for naps or overnight. Yesterday it was on for four hours and then off for an hour, leaving it on for his naps. Finally today, Maximus was supposed to leave it on for eight hours with an hour off. However, he was napping when it was time to remove the helmet, so he actually wore it for a whole ten hours before removing it temporarily. He didn't have any difficulties napping with his helmet on, and now he is sleeping with the helmet on. The past two nights, Maximus has finally slept through the entire night without waking up to be fed. I hope he manages to do it again tonight. I am not sure if the helmet will affect his sleep though.

I have been out and about with Max a few times since he started wearing his helmet. I admit that I wondered how other people we would see would react to his helmet since it isn't something most people are familiar with. At Target this past weekend, I noticed that some people looked, but no one stared or asked why my baby was wearing a helmet. There was a woman who was helping an adult with a developmental disability do his shopping. She stopped to talk to Max, commenting on how pretty his big blue eyes were.

Saturday evening though, we did get a question about Max's helmet. We were eating at a restaurant. When our server initially greeted us, he said that Max's helmet was cool. Later on he asked if Max was learning to walk, assuming that was the reason for the helmet. We did explain that Max had the helmet to correct a flat spot on his head, and he found that to be interesting. Likewise, Max and I were shopping at Target today when a girl who appeared to be about nine or ten years old commented that she liked his helmet. I started talking with her mother and explained the purpose of the helmet. And of course, when I took Emma to daycare this morning, the other kids were curious about Max's helmet. I expect that Max will get second glances from people when we are out, and of course I am perfectly willing to educate them about its purpose if I am asked.

Tomorrow Maximus begins wearing the helmet for twenty-three hours every day. He still doesn't seem to mind it, so I am not anticipating any problems.

Max's Helmet

Last month, Maximus was fitted for a cranial remolding orthosis, a helmet, to correct the shape of his head. Yesterday we got the helmet from the orthotist. Max has the condition plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome, due to his having torticollis, which causes him to turn his head predominantly to the right. Because he spent a lot of time lying on his back, and turning his head to the right while on his back, the right side of his head is flattened some. This helmet will allow the flattened parts of his head to grow out while restricting grown in the directions where his head has already grown out. After a brief break-in period, Max will be wearing his helmet for twenty-three hours a day until his head has a rounder shape. The orthotist estimated that this will take until Max is about eleven months old. So he could be wearing his helmet for about five months.

Prior to receiving the helmet yesterday, I was concerned that Max would have a problem with having the helmet on his head. However, its presence didn't seem to bother Max one bit. He does not act any differently whether it is on or off, and he hasn't tried to remove it from his head. For a couple of weeks, until he is completely adjusted to having the helmet, Max will probably have a harder time sitting up and rolling over. However, he will have the benefit of being able to fall over from a sitting position without hurting his head. Of course, when he finally gets rid of the helmet, he may be in for an unpleasant surprise when he does bump his head. We are going to have to start washing Max's hair daily now, instead of every other day as we have been doing. Otherwise, the helmet, which we will also have to wash daily, will begin to smell bad. I am really looking forward to seeing the progress that Maximus makes by wearing his helmet.

Wrap-up of the Past Week

We've had a pretty busy week this past week. Last Saturday we all went to the Mall of America where Emma finally got to ride on the carousel. She rode on it three whole times! I thought that since she was tall enough to ride on her own, but I wanted to go with her, I would have to pay as well, so I paid enough for two rides, one for her and one for me. However, when we got on, they only charged us for her, so we had enough points left for her to ride a second time. Somehow though, the points were not deducted from our ticket for on of her first two rides, so she was able to ride a third time. She had a great time on the carousel.

On Sunday we went to the Minnesota Zoo. Emma wanted to play in the splash pad, but we told her we would do that before leaving instead of right when we got there. As a consequence, Emma did not want to spend much time looking at any particular animal. She kept saying that she wanted to see the next animal. I am pretty sure this was so we could finish with looking at animals so she could play in the water. When it was finally time to go home, Emma was not happy about it. She screamed all the way to the car that she didn't want to go home yet. She fell asleep in the car, but when she woke up when we got home, she began whining again. She ended up spending a bit of time in her room alone until she managed to calm down.

On Monday, Max rolled over from his back to his tummy! He had begin rolling the other way regularly last month, but now he can roll both ways!

Max's physical therapy appointment for his torticollis was Wednesday. He is doing really well, although he still tilting his head to his left. This appointment was also a lot more pleasant than the previous two as Max refrained from screaming for most of the appointment. He did complain some during one of the exercises he did though. It was nice to not have him screaming for the entire appointment though.

I had a follow-up appointment from my gallbladder surgery yesterday. Everything looks just fine.

I have had quite a bit of work lately, especially since Wednesday this week. All of these other appointments haven't helped with getting it done, and we have another appointment this afternoon. However, working at night, I have been able to get things done. Well, I've gotten most of it done anyway.

Six Months

Six months ago yesterday, Maximus Xavier was born. I can not believe that he is already half a year old! He has grown so much since then. He weighed seven and a half pounds when he was born. He is now over eighteen pounds in weight. He is also quite tall. His feet hang over the end of his infant car seat.

Maximus is usually in a great mood, smiling most of the time. We took him to get his pictures taken yesterday, and he did a fantastic job. He did much better than Emma did when she got her pictures taken when she was six months old. Emma was not very cooperative, but Maximus was. The only problem he gave us was that after falling over once, he didn't seem too keen on sitting up on his own. Of course, Maximus is still pretty new at sitting up. He can't get himself into a sitting position, but if someone else sits him up, he can usually maintain the position for a couple of minutes.

Besides sitting, Maximus has begun rolling over from his tummy to his back. In the past month, until last night, he had rolled himself over three times on his own. However, this was not a feat that he would repeat. Last night, this all changed. I placed Maximus on his tummy, and after a little bit of whining, he rolled over onto his back. I put him back on his tummy, and he immediately rolled back over again. He did this a few times in a row, so I got the camera out to make a video of this. At first I thought he wasn't going to do it again, but then he did.

Surgery and Recovery

On Thursday I had my gallbladder removed. And as I was not going to be able to eat from between midnight prior to my surgery until after the procedure was completed, I decided that I wanted to have a large dinner Wednesday. So Mel, Emma, Maximus, my mother, including my mother, who came to visit to watch Maximus, my sister, and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I thought that was a good place to go since their portions are notoriously large. However, I ordered an item off of their specials menu. Those entrées are not as large. Nevertheless, I still had plenty to eat. Around nine o'clock that night, I had my last food prior to my surgery, half of the cheesecake that I had brought home from the restaurant.

Thursday morning, after taking Emma to daycare, and doing some shopping at the grocery store and Target, Mel and I headed to the surgery center. I was a little nervous. Prior to this surgery, the only surgery I had had was having my wisdom teeth removed. However, the fact that this surgery was routine did help to ease my nerves a bit. I figured that the chances of something going wrong were very remote.

Upon arriving at the surgery center, the nurse prepped me for surgery, putting an IV in my hand. I really hate needles, so I wasn't looking forward to that, but it wasn't too bad. The anesthesiologist came in to ask me a few questions, and then the surgeon stopped by to tell me that he had another laparoscopic cholecystectomy to perform before mine, so he would be in good practice when it came to mine. After waiting for an hour or so, I was wheeled into the surgery room. I seem to remember them saying something about the operating table not being long enough, but that is the last thing I recall before waking up in the recovery room. When I came to, I apparently was trying to sit up, because I seem to remember the nurses yelling at me to not sit up. After being observed for an hour and a half or so, Mel and I went back home.

I actually felt pretty good initially after my surgery, although I did take some generic Vicodin upon returning home to ensure I continued to feel all right. I also had some crackers and Jell-O to eat once I got home since I was so hungry, but didn't think a full meal would be advisable. I didn't have much pain at all until I laid down to go to bed. That hurt quite a bit, but taking ibuprofen and more Vicodin helped. I ended up going to sleep fairly quickly.

Yesterday I felt fairly good and ended up eating a good lunch and dinner. Staying medicated helped to keep pain away, although my right shoulder felt stiff most of the day. In fact, I felt well enough out that Mel, Maximus, and I even went out for a little bit. I didn't feel much pain at all yesterday until I tried to feed Max and ended up stretching in an uncomfortable way. The next real pain I had last night was when a joke on truTV's World's Dumbest made me laugh. It was very painful when I laughed, but I couldn't stop! I had to get up and leave the room, because just watching the clip on the show kept me wanting to laugh.

I seem to be recovering just fine from my surgery. Later this morning I will be able to remove the dressings from the four incision sites. Then I will get my first look at where the surgeon inserted his tools.

A Date with a Surgeon

Perhaps I should have written this blog entry before the previous one, but yesterday I went to see a surgeon about my gallbladder issues. Even though I haven't had any pain from it in over two weeks, the fact that I had two occurrences of pain that week, the other being two days before, the surgeon recommended that I have my gallbladder removed before it causes any more issues. So next Thursday, a week from today, I will be having a cholecystectomy done. This week has been, and next week will be busy weeks in the medical area for the Mathman family.

The Craniofacial Clinic

Back in June I blogged about how Maximus has torticollis, a condition which causes him to tilt his head to the left and look to the right. He has been going to physical therapy since then to work on that. We have also been doing exercises with him at home to stretch out his neck muscles to prevent this. However, despite this intervention, he still prefers to turn his head to the right when he is lying down, and as a result of this, he has developed plagiocephaly, or a flat spot on his head.

The hope was that his physical therapy would help in rounding his head out, but this has not happened. So today we went to the craniofacial clinic at a local hospital to have him evaluated. After taking some measurements, the nurse practicioner and orthotists decided that a helmet would help to correct Maximus's plagiocephaly. Maximus was fitted for a helmet. To do this, the orthotist put a cap on his head that contained reflective dots. She then scanned around his head with a laser which took information from the position of the dots. A computer then created a three-dimensional image of Maximus's head from the data it received. Maximus also needed to have a CT scan done to make sure that two of the bones of his skull had not yet fused. He actually did very well for that, especially considering how bundled up he was. Maximus hates being bundled up.

This afternoon, after we got home, we got a call from the nurse practitioner letting us know that the CT scan showed that everything was normal, and that we can proceed to order Maximus's helmet. I will call the orthotist tomorrow to set that up. She was supposed to email us a file showing the different color and pattern options, but she apparently did not get around to that yet. Hopefully she can do that when I call tomorrow so they can get to work on Maximus's helmet.

Star Wars: In Concert

This afternoon Mel, my sister, and I went to go see Star Wars: In Concert at the Xcel Energy Center. Having a sister with connections it really nice, as our seats were in one of the suites, complete with complimentary cookies, brownies, and soft drinks.

Before the show, I really did not know what the show would be like. All I knew was that there would be an orchestra playing music along with Star Wars movies being shown on the screen. The show began with the orchestra playing the 20th Century Fox fanfare, followed by the theme song to Star Wars. While they played this, scenes from the various Star Wars movies were shown behind the orchestra. Also shown on the screen was views of the orchestra playing.

Then, Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO in all six Star Wars movies, came out and introduced different musical numbers, many of which focused on different characters in the saga, telling the story of Star Wars as the show progressed. Through talking about each of the characters, and some of the events of the movies, Daniels told the story of the whole Star Trek saga.

This was a great show. I really wish we could have brought Emma along as she is somewhat interested in Star Wars. Not only would she have been able to see clips from Star Wars, leaving out some of the parts that maybe wouldn't be appropriate for someone who is her age, but it would also have been a good introduction to seeing a symphony orchestra perform. However, the show was probably a little to loud for Emma; she hates loud noises. Also, I do not know if she would have been content to sit and watch the performance for the entire hour the show lasted before the intermission. If Star Wars: In Concert were to return in a couple of years, I think she could handle it.

Courtesy Calls from Discover Card

Black Telephone
Originally uploaded by Ollie-G

Discover Card has begun calling our house again to ask to speak with my wife. When I ask what the calls are in regards to, they simply tell me it is a courtesy call. If I tell them she is not here, they just say they will call back later. I have told them that she is not interested in receiving their call, but they continue to call back. I know that they do not have to abide by the federal Do Not Call registry since she is a customer of theirs, but she really isn't interested in signing up for their credit protection plan or whatever they are offering her to get her to use her card more. I have tried being polite with them, and I have also been more stern with telling them that she doesn't want to talk to them. With the two most recent calls from Discover Card, I have changed my tactic for dealing with them. I told the caller that Mel was here and that I would get her. I then just went about doing whatever it is I had been working on, letting the caller wait. The first time I did this, it the caller waited one minute, forty-five seconds before hanging up. The second time, the caller hung up after just one minute, twenty-five seconds. Oh, I suppose I could just ignore the calls and not answer them, but I really want them to STOP!

The Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July holiday began with us taking Maximus to the urgent care clinic to be checked out. That morning, when he woke up at 3:00, he was very warm. Taking his temperature, we learned that he had a fever of 101.4°F. That, along with the rash he had on his chect and back, prompted me to call the hospital to speak with a triage nurse to see if we needed to take him to the emergency room right away. After hearing all of Maximus's symptoms, the nurse said that we chould take him to be seen by a doctor some time within the next twenty-four hours. At the urgent care clinic, we discovered that Maximus has an inner ear infection.

While we spent most of our morning at the urgent care clinic and running a few other errands, we ended our day by going to Woodbury to see fireworks. Mel considered staying at home with Maximus since he had not been feeling well, but we ultimately decided that we would all go to the show. We were not sure how Maximus would deal with the loud noises, but he did great! He loved watching them and only cried a little bit toward the end. Emma, on the other hand, reall hates loud noises, so I was anticipating that she might not like the fireworks. She did cover her ears the whole time, and asked several times if we could go home or if she could sit in the car, but she did fine otherwise. After the fireworks were over, she said that she enjoyed them but that she closed her ears because they were loud. As we were in line to leave the parking lot, Emma kept counting the number of cars there were. She counted from one to eight before declaring that there were one hundred cars there. She ended up falling asleep before we got out of the parking lot. Unfortunately, she woke up this morning at the time she usually does, so I am afraid that she may end up being a little crabby this afternoon.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day everyone. Below Superman is a patriotic video, but please use caution as it contains explicit lyrics.

Another Zoo Trip

Today we made out fifth trip to a local zoo for the year. This time it was to the Minnesota Zoo. In fact, only one out of our five zoo trips this year hasn't been to the Minnesota Zoo. Anyway, we had two things we wanted to be sure to do at the zoo today. We wanted to give Emma a chance to play in the splash pad there, and we wanted to see the baby camel which Mel recently heard about. Emma did get to play in the water, and she had a great time. Unfortunately, we failed to see any baby camels. All of the big camels were all sitting down close to each other and we couldn't tell if there was a baby among them. Oh well. We can always see it later. We didn't spend too much time at the zoo though as Max seemed to be a bit overheated. One other thing that we did end up seeing at the zoo today though was the prairie dogs playing.

Happy Pre-Independence Day

It was 234 years ago today that the Second Continental Congress voted to declare the United States to be an independent country from Great Britain. And in honor of that, I am presenting here Stars and Stripes Forever being performed by the Muppets.

Getting Back on Track

I did a pretty good job at losing weight once I started back on WeightWatchers on May 5. However, since the beginning of June I have struggled a bit at continuing to lose weight, as shown in the graph below. While I am not looking forward to the prospect of having a cholecystectomy, the fact that I have been having issues with my gallbladder has made me reevaluate what I have been eating lately. This has provided the extra motivation to eat well, as I do not want another gallbladder attack. Hopefully my gallbladder issues will be resolved soon after I see a surgeon in a couple of weeks. And while I would enjoy going back to care-free eating, I think I really need to focus on eating right!