Right Man's Burden

I often say that it is a terrible burden to be right MOST of the time. People usually bristle at this phrase and miss the subtext. I'm not so arrogant as to think that I am right ALL the time, but I am smart enough and self-aware enough to realize that my batting average is exceptionally high.

Here is the point to me bringing this up-

One of the few unfortunate things to happen as a result of Joybundle's imminent arrival is that I had to surrender my dog, Dudley, back to the rescue I adopted him from in the fall. To describe him as completely nuts is probably being generous, in that he is a 26lb. black and white bag of neuroses and anxiety. That being said, he was wonderful with me and adorable to boot. In the few months that I had him, I became very attached but very simply he could be a little erratic in his behavior, and occasionally bitey. This was never a problem with me, but we did not feel right taking a chance on him with the baby.

Last weekend he bit a little girl at his new foster home. The little girl is ok, and so far as I know, there won't be any consequences for him other than lots of training, but it reinforced the fact that I have made the right choice in giving him up.

There's not really any solace in that knowledge. I hope they can straighten him out...

On a related note

In completing Phase 1 of Operation:Nursery, it occurred to me that I owe an amount of thanks to my old college friend Andrew Huff. It was he (and his wonderful wife Cinnamon Cooper) who introduced me to the wonders of IKEA several years ago on a trip to Chicago. Seeing as we have outfitted the baby to be's room with at least 2/3 Sweden via Asia furnishings, I feel like I should give Andrew a shout out for providing me with my first taste of lingonberry preserves.

Andrew is one of the creators of a successful Chicago-oriented website Gapers Block please take a look if you are so inclined. He also took me to Kuma's Corner on a trip to Chicago last fall. I probably ought to send him a thank you card for that too.

OPERATION NURSERY:PHASE 1

This weekend we were FINALLY able to take advantage of the fact that B's roommate has moved out and got to work on the nursery.

This involved:
Carrying a number of large flat-packed boxes of furniture down a flight of stairs from my apartment.
Driving those items across town.
Carrying those items up two flights of stairs to B's apartment.
Cleaning every surface in the soon to be nursery.
Vacuuming and steam cleaning the carpets in the nursery.
Assembling the furniture.
Moving a number of baby related items into the nursery.
Full body aches and pains.

The very good news is that this is all done. Phase 2 will be complete next weekend when the dresser and side table we bought arrive, and Phase 3 will be finished when we get all of the assorted decorative stuff one. Phase 4 involves a baby moving into that room, so I think the longer we have for that, the better.

So far it's very nice and homey, and I think it will be a welcoming place for our bundle of joy. I hope.

I should also add that the electricity for that room has mysteriously stopped working, and that whatever breaker controls it does not reside within this apartment. All of this work, and we cannot wait to move. That's irony, right?

Oh jeez...

So apparently, almost a month has gone by since the last post. I suspect this is the sort of worm-hole like time loss that we will have to accustom ourselves to when squeak arrives.

Anyway, many changes are hand. Within the next few weeks a nursery will be cobbled together out of much flat-packed ready to assemble furniture and inexpensive vintage pieces. Updates will hopefully become a little more prevalent when things normalize a bit.

SH*T,FU$K,D@MN,P#SS,H%LL!

We've had some preliminary discussions about our (mostly,my) usually filthy mouths and how to deal with them uponst the arrival of our little bringer of joy. This article on Babble shed a little bit of insight into how to deal with it.

I'm really on the fence about this one. I have made some effort to reduce the aggregate amount of curse words that fly out of my mouth, but the fact is, I LOVE swearing. PHOOEY! and RATS! can really only bring so much satisfaction, and they're pretty bland in comparison to the refreshing minty flavor that comes with broad and flowery use of the usual suspects.

Between us and our associates, I reckon our little pipsqueak will hear her fair share of bad words from birth onward, maybe the "these words are only ok at home" strategy will be the way to go?

Entering the Home Stretch

We've turned the corner on the beginning of the third trimester, and if the early signs are any indication it's going to be a little rough. If someone has any big ideas for heartburn other than eating Tums like candy, we'd love to hear 'em!

On an unrelated note, a trip to Collinwood took us to Shoparooni and they have some really cool hand-made onesie/legwarmer sets amongst all of their other cool wares. Check them out!

Keeping Busy

From Dave and Janine:

Not exactly edgy (Dave's words) but this is still something pretty useful

Things To Do In Cleveland

Thanks guys!