Dreaming of Baseball Season

Randomness

- Tucker turned 2 months old earlier this week. When I think back to the day he was born, it really doesn't seem like its been 2 months already. In the same hand, it seems like he's been around a lot longer than that. I'm sure this probably doesn't make sense to anyone other than myself. Its been amazing to see how fast he's growing.

- Over the last week and a half I've really seen a change in him. He seems to have found his voice over this time, and really likes to be heard around the house. In the same time he's figured out where his mouth is, and how to get his hand in it, with relative ease now. He also has started forming opinions about things. When feeding him, he does not like to have the bottle taken away from him, nor does he liked to be burped. If you try to do either of these things, he'll voice his displeasure and won't stop until he's got the bottle back. If you try to burp him, he'll pull away from you, and try to break free to get back to the bottle. It's been pretty amazing and fun to see him develop so far.

- Blake's 8th birthday was this past Saturday. For his birthday he wanted us to go roller-skating. After his basketball practice we went over to Staunton to a roller-rink that he went to a few times over the summer with his day camp. Overall I did ok. I started with roller-blades, but after a few times around the rink, I had to switch to roller-skates because my achilles tendons felt like they were going to explode. I didn't fall down once, nor did I run over anyone either. It had been at least 15-18 years since I last roller-skated. It had also been at least 7 or 8 years since I last used roller-blades, and that was when I was run-over by a girl on a 10-speed at Gallup Park back in Ann Arbor. I'm sure that Derek and Mike can still fondly remember that instance..

- You know you're getting old when you can type about something that happened in the past, and say that it happened 15-18 years ago....

- We've had some crazy weather over the past week or so. The past couple days it was in the 70's and sunny. Today, its in the low 40's and rainy. Tomorrow its supposed to be back up in the 60's. The warm weather over the past few days got me thinking of spring and baseball. Spring Training is only like 5 weeks away!

- I love election years. I love watching the whole election process play out, and listen to all the pundits make their guesses, and see who is right and who is wrong. I'm still trying to figure out who I'd vote for. Right now I'm in a toss-up for Obama or Edwards, leaning towards Obama. After 8 years of having the Bush Criminals run the country, I will have a hard time voting for a Republican. The only Republican I would vote for would be McCain, but that would only happen if he were to go up against Hillary Clinton. This country definately needs a new direction, and I think main way to take a new direction is to not have a Presidental string that goes Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton. Obama just seems to have something about him that makes me think that things can indeed be better, and that he's the one that could pull it off. It would be nice to vote for a candidate that I really believed in on election day, rather than going into the voting booth, trying to pick the lesser of 2 evils, as I have the past couple of elections (which unfortunately backfired since the evil one was the one I voted for and who won.)

- While listening to the radio one night last week while driving up to the store, I came across a band called The Kooks, and the song "She Moves in Her Own Way". Very catchy, and the rest of the album is pretty cool too.

And then there were four!

So its been exactly a week since Tucker was born. I've been meaning to post something about it, but haven't really had a chance. Overall it has been a very surreal experience. From the time we found out last Tuesday (Nov. 6th) that the doctor wanted to induce Sara the next day, everything was sort of a whirlwind. We were up by 6AM on Wednesday (the 7th), at the hospital by 7:30, and Sara was given the induction medicine by 8:30. Sara's doctor (Dr. Blommel, who ROCKS!) told her that she had to run to her office but would be back by Noon to give her another dose of the medicine, since usually more than one dose is required, and it takes a bit for it to kick in.

By 9:30, Sara was already experiencing strong contractions that were 7 mins apart, and it stayed that way for over an hour, until they started to get closer and closer. By noon, I was down to the nurses station requesting some pain meds for Sara. They gave her an epidural around 1:00, and it was soon after that that she was fully dialated. Around 2:00 the nurse was checking her, and found out that Tucker was on his way. After having Sara push through some of her contractions, the nurse had to make her stop so she could get the doctor back in the room. Things were already moving pretty quickly, and when the doctor and 3 other nurses came in, it then really started moving. Trying to not get in anyones way, I stepped back to let them all do what they needed to do, when the doctor instructed me to stand at the end of the bed, and let Sara put her right leg up on my shoulder. My mother-in-law always told me that she highly recommended to not look while Tucker was coming out, and I really didn't know if I wanted to see it all or not, but now I had no choice. After a few pushes Dr. Blommel stopped everyone, and made everyone appreciate the fact that with all the pushing Sara was doing, and the pain she was in, Sara still hadn't smeared her make-up. Pushing then resumed and a head soon popped out, followed by an arm, and then the rest of Tucker. I was so fascinated by it all (and trying to figure out the logistics of how that fit in there the past 9 months, and then came out of there) that after Tucker was born Dr. Blommel was posing with Tucker, waiting for me to take pictures, but I was just staring in amazement and she had to tell me to get the camera. The doctor and nurses were great with letting me get in and take some pictures. After the quick photo session, I was able to finally check him out in fine detail with Sara. It was amazing to finally get to meet the little guy who had been kicking and moving all around the inside of Sara the past 9 months.

We finally all came home and were able to start our life as a family on Friday afternoon. Its been awesome. Sure, I don't get to sleep through an entire night uninterrupted anymore, and now when we want to make a quick run to the store, it means we have someone else that we have to get ready, but it really hasn't been a problem. I'm sure its easy for me to say that now, as I am off work until after Thanksgiving, and really don't have to live back in "the real world" yet. Its ok, I'll learn to adapt. If I wasn't willing to adapt, make adjustments to my lifestyle, and make the other sacrifices that I don't even realize that I'll have to make yet, I wouldn't have signed up for this thing called "parenthood".

Its been great being off work and staying home with Sara and helping out with everything. It has given me a great opportunity to get to know Tucker, and play with him (when he isn't sleeping). I've had numerous people tell me that once you have a kid, time goes by even quicker than it already does. I'm trying to remember that, and take every minute in. Hopefully Tucker's second week will go by a lot slower than his first one did.

Here's a few pictures of my new buddy:

Taking a nap on his first night.


Uncle Aadam doing the Heisman pose, using Tucker as a prop.


The two of us having a moment.


Posing in his Tigers hat that Uncle Dock got him (you can't start being a fan too early).

I also want to say congratulations to my good friends Joe and Lori, on the birth of their first kid, Quin, who was born early on Monday morning. I've known Joe since the first day of Kindergarten, and we were exactly 2 months apart in age, now we both have sons who are just 5 days apart. Its funny how it works out.

Randomness

- So today's the day I picked for Tucker to finally get here. So far, there's nothing to report. It would seem like a good pick since the odds are in my favor. There's going to be a full moon tonight, and the barometric pressure has dropped over the past few days - both things that usually seem to cause women to go into labor, according to the people at our doctor's office. I guess there's still time...

- How come whenever there is a gathering of people and ice cream is being served, the gathering is called a "ice cream social"? Why is it that the only types of socials, are ice cream ones? Why aren't pizza parties called "pizza socials", or bagel parties (a common occurance around here) called "bagel socials"? I was going to ask this question last week, as we had an ice cream social at work.

- We've been getting quite a bit of rain around here, which is nice. Now we have a flood warning in effect for the day because rather than just rain here, its been pretty much pouring all day. It seems like the rain this year has either been feast of famine.

- Guitar Hero for the Wii comes out next week, and I want it. Seeing as its $150, I think it'll be awhile before I get it however.

- I can't believe that its now less than 2 months until Christmas. Where did the time go?

Randomness

- Its raining here today. It’s the first time in an extremely long time that we’ve had rain here. As a result of the rain, someone in our building had decided we needed to celebrate with a pizza party. Sounded like a ridiculous reason to me, but I’m always down for free food for lunch.

- We’re exactly 1 week away from the date that I picked way back when, that Tucker would be born on, and 2 weeks until the official due date. With that being said, he probably won’t come for 3 weeks.

- Yes, the Yankees lost in the first round of the playoffs, and Joe Torre won’t be back next year. Do we really need to have these 2 facts continue to be the “big story” on all sports related programs everyday? The morning after the Indians beat the Yankees in the playoffs, I turned on SportsCenter to see who won, and to check out the highlights (I can't seem to stay awake to watch the ends of games anymore), and 9 of the first 10 stories were all related to the Yankees loss, and no mention of the Indians winning the series. How is that right? Today, I check the news a little bit earlier, and in the “Breaking News” section on MSNBC.com, there’s a link saying “Joe Torre is addressing the media.” Really, MSNBC feels this is 1) a real news story, and 2) a important and breaking one at that?!? As I’m writing this, I find that there is someone else who feels the same way.

- Speaking of news, and prioritizing things - do we really need to know about all the BS that all these idiotic attention needing whores do every day/every night? It seems like at least 3 days a week I'll be trying to read the news in the morning, catching up on what's going on in the world, and there's always some "breaking news" about something stupid that Britney/Paris/Lindsay/the rest of stupid Hollywood did the night before. Its one thing if this is the big story on some Entertainment "news" outlet, and I can easily avoid it, but really, breaking news in the National/Global news portion? We have certifiable criminals running the country doing things like throwing around words like "World War III", "Invading Iran", "spying on US citizens", and "Vetoing healthcare for children", but all the news can tell us is that some over-paid, no talent hack is going to rehab in order to avoid going to jail. (Don't even get me started on the how lenient the law enforcement system is out there). I've always heard that one of these days a earthquake will hit California, and that the whole state is going to slide off into the ocean. Is it too much to ask that this just happens to Hollywood?

- I’ve been listening to the “Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Live at Radio City” album quite a bit lately. I think its one of the best albums I’ve gotten this year. The recording is crystal clear, and Dave and Tim’s playing is superb. Listening to the songs stripped down with just acoustic guitars (mainly), have given me an appreciation for Dave’s music once again. I’d really like to see another Dave and Tim show.

- Online grocery shopping might be the coolest thing ever. We have a grocery store near us that lets you order your groceries online. Someone in the store gets your order, goes through the store, and fills it for you, and then all you have to do is drive up to a special spot in the parking lot at a designated time, and the person comes out and loads up your car for you. Since the store is on my way home from work, Sara will place the order, and then I pick it up on the way home. We’ve been using this option for about a month now and are quite pleased with it. We may never have to set foot in a grocery store again. Ok, maybe that was a stretch.

Randomness

- We're down to the final month, until Tucker's arrival.

- I thought fall was finally here, as it had been pretty nice the past couple weeks. Starting last weekend it was warming back up, and we've been in the high 80's/low 90's ever since. I'm ready for it to cool down.

- This weekend is the last weekend of Tigers baseball for the year. Even though they didn't make it to the post-season this year, I can honestly say I wasn't disappointed at all. All of those years of being really bad, are still fresh in my memory, and I can remember just wanting them to play around .500 ball consistantly for a couple of seasons in a row. It's going to take another year or two of being good, but not contending before I start getting frustrated.

- With the Tigers out of it, I think I'll be giving my full support (for what its worth) to the Cubs, should they make into the playoffs. Being quite a fan of the history of baseball, I think its only fair for the Cubs to take their turn at winning it all. I'm also hoping that the Yankees and Red Sox get knocked out in the first round in the AL. I don't know if I'll be able to stand the love-fest that the media will give each team, as long as they are in it.

- Sara and I saw Ryan Adams in concert here a couple of weeks ago, it was an amazing show. After seeing that show, its got me itching to see some more good live music, luckily Bob Schneider is coming to town in December. Hopefully we'll be able to go..as long as we can get a baby-sitter for Blake and Tucker.

-Thank goodness its Friday!

Roastin!

- It's been hot here lately. It's been in the 90's for what seems like forever, and yesterday when I got home from work, the local station said it was 100, with a heat index of 110. I don't know if I've ever felt it as hot as it was yesterday. I ran to the grocery store last night, around 8:30, and it was still too hot to ride with the windows down. I can't imagine what Sara is going through, having to deal with being pregnant in this hot weather.

- Sara had a regular check-up the other day. Everything looks like its going along good. We're down to about 13 weeks or so to go. It seems like its still a long way off, but I'm sure it'll fly by quickly. I think we're going to sign up for some crash course parenting classes at the hospital. I am going to need all the help I can get. So far all I know is that the bottle goes in the mouth, and the diaper goes around the butt. How the diaper gets on there...I still need to figure that part out.

- Tigers are still sucking it up. It looks like they'll lose 2 of 4 against Tampa Bay, and things won't be getting easier since they play Cleveland and New York in something like 13 of their next 17 games. Luckily Cleveland hasn't done anything to distance themselves from the Tigers, but the Nazi's (Yankees) have been on a tear of late, and could complicate the chase for the wild card spot (though, to be honest, I really want a division title, and not have to settle for a wild card spot again). Hopefully Rodgers and Zumaya will get back in the rotation soon and pitch the way they're capable of, and Sheffield will get back to full strength. Bonderman also needs to get back on track and pitch, as he's pitched like crap the last couple of outings. I guess if nothing else, it'll make for a exciting August and September.

- Lions have their first preseason game tonight. You can never read too much into pre-season games, but it still will be interesting to see how they come out and play tonight. It will be interesting to see how the potent the offense will be, since they have the weapons to at least make things fun to watch for once.

- So Barry Bonds finally broke the home run record. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand I'm glad its over...I got sick of hearing about it everyday. For the 2 minutes I watched Sportscenter in the morning (mostly to check the Tigers score, if I didn't know it already) it seemed they were always talking about it. On all the morning news programs, they talked about the impending record breaker home run, and all the news and sports websites I read, it seemed it was the #1 topic of discussion. The most exciting part for me, was when he was in San Diego last weekend, I was wondering if my buddy Sean would be at the game where Bonds would tie/break the record (Sean wasn't...he went to the Friday and Sunday games, but not the Saturday game, where Bonds actually tied the record). I think that if I knew that Bonds record was going to be a record that was going to stand for an indefinite amount of time, and no one's career looked like they were on the trajectory to break it, I think I would be hating the fact that Bonds has the record. It looks like that won't be the case though, as there's already a couple people in line (A-Rod, for one) who barring any setbacks, will probably demolish whatever Bonds' mark will end up at. I only wish that Griffey, Jr. couldn't have stayed healthy all his career, and been the one to break Hank Aaron's mark.

Randomness

- Sara had her ultrasound this morning. Looks like Tucker is going to turn out a-ok, and it also looks like he's going to be a bit on the chubby side. Its amazing to see what a difference 4 weeks makes. In the new 4-D pictures we got today, you can see that he's starting to accumulate some baby fat. The pictures from 4 weeks ago, he looked to be on the skinny side. Maybe I'll do a side by side comparison on here, if I get a chance to scan the pictures that we got today.

- Some of my friends are starting to take bets as to when Tucker will be born. A co-worker of mine says he'll be born on Halloween. Sean wants him born on the 9th (which is Sean's birthday), Dock wants him born on the 7th (which is Dock's birthday). I for a completely random guess have October 26th as my guess.

- I think I'm starting to jinx the Tigers. It seems whenever I watch them play, they end up losing, and in a big way. I went to the game a weekend ago and they lost 10-2. I tried to watch the game last night, and they lost 13 to something. I stopped watching full-time after the 1st inning. I couldn't handle it, and when I flipped over to check the score, it seemed to just continue to get worse. Maybe I should give my lucky t-shirt another try. Something needs to happen. I was starting to think maybe it was time to start panicing about the recent plight of the Tigers, but my favorite blogger of all things Detroit, Big Al, says not yet, so I'll take his advice. I mean, they are still in first place (for now).

- So its football time again. It seems like every year I'm becoming less and less of a football fan, thanks to the recent plight of the Detroit Lions. I'll never be as big of a fan as I was when I was in high school when we had Barry Sanders to watch, and when Lloyd, Mike and I would drive from Lapeer to Pontiac 3 to 4 times a week to watch training camp. At least back then the Lions were entertaining, and you could expect at least a 8-8 season from them. Even if you didn't have a great feeling about the team, you always knew you had Barry and he would probably do something amazing, to at least keep you watching, or Wayne Fontes would do/say something entertaining as well. Lately is been painful to be a Lions fan. When I say painful I mean, its really painful to watch, but yet you watch, because you want to see what's going to happen. At least while the Tigers had their down years, there was some hope that in the distance things had a chance of changing, since the guy that owned the team had a history of winning in hockey. There's no such feeling for me about the Lions anymore. The owner has a long, extensive history of sucking (what is it, like 50 years now? You could also insert any "Ford cars suck" joke here as well). He has Matt Millen running the team, who has proven over and over that he's in over his head, and the owner (when he actually does talk) continues to praise Millen, saying that his job has not been in jeopardy at anytime during the most recent period of ineptness. Ford-Millen is like the Bush-Cheney of the sports world, both duo's need to be impeached. Living in central Virginia, doesn't help matters any either though. Sundays consist of having to watch either the Redskins, Ravens, and Eagles/Giants (if they are playing at a time when the Redskins aren't). I usually end up watching whatever is on Fox, so I can keep up with the players on my fantasy team, and hope that at some point they'll break into the game I'm watching with highlights (or should I say, lowlights) from the Lions game. I guess since I live so far away, I no longer am able to talk myself into wasting money on buying tickets anymore.

- I can't think of anything else to say right now.

Catching up

- So last week we finally found out that we're having a boy. Ever since Sara found out that she was pregnant, I just always assumed it would be a girl, so when we found out it was going to be boy, I was pretty surprised. Its nice to now be able to refer to the baby as a "he" and not an "it", and also to be able to call him by his name - Tucker. November can't get here soon enough!

- I found the entire ultrasound procedure pretty spectacular, and probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After seeing Tucker's man-parts from various angles and at various zoom levels, we were also showed his kidneys, butt, heart, and brain. With me being facinated with computers, and tech stuff like that, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I'm not gonna lie...I was jealous that I couldn't play with any of the stuff. After they showed us everything with the normal ultrasound pictures, they then kicked it into 3D and we got to see Tucker grab his foot with his arm, and pull it towards him and play with it a bit, and we basically got to see what he's going to look like. We get to go back again in a month for another round of ultrasounds, so hopefully we'll get some more cool pictures.

- We did have some troubling news while in the ultrasound. While taking measurements on the brain, the ventricles measured at 10 mm, which is the high end of being considered normal. The Doctor (Dr. Gary Helmbrecht) then started going through a list of worse-case scenarios of what could happen, one of which was that Tucker could be born with water on the brain. After confusing us with medical speak, we were convinced this was the case. Yesterday we had our regular monthly appointment with our usual doctor, and they informed us that the only way this would be worrysome, is if Tucker's head was abnormally large, and based on the measurements they took, Tucker's head is in the 54th percentile, so really there isn't much to worry about. While we are happy to hear that we don't have to worry about that now, I must say that I'm little PO'd that he didn't give us that bit of info. We were then informed that this doctor has a history of freaking out patients on a near-regular basis, and that our doctor occassionally gets calls of patients freaking out and calling her wanting to know what to do. I guess we weren't the only ones that have been freaked out by this "doctor". Its one thing to make the parents aware of something, no matter how slight of a chance it may be, but if they are going to do it, they need to speak to the level of the patients, and not throw around their big words that just confuses everything, and makes it harder for the patients, who are undoubtedly freaking out no matter how slight the chance, to comprehend what is being said. Basically, I've come to the conclusion that the doctor is a certifiable jerk-off.

- 2 weddings down, 1 more to go to this summer. Next week it's back up to Detroit, for the 3rd, and final, wedding of the summer. It should be a good time. Thursday is the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, which is a backyard cook-out at Mike's new house. On Friday, Mike, the groomsmen, and my brother are going to the Tigers-Royals game, and maybe do a little pre-game/post-game pigging out at Cheli's Chili across the street from Comerica Park, and/or PizzaPapalis in good 'ol Greektown. Saturday is the big wedding and reception, then its back home on Sunday. After that, I think my summer will finally be settling down.

- I finally got my computer set up at home once again, and got some new music for my iPod. I highly recommend the new Ryan Adams CD "Easy Tiger", and the Maroon 5 CD "It Won't Be Soon Before Long". Good stuff all around.

- I think I've finally found a show to watch this summer - The Singing Bee on NBC. Caught the first episode last night in between watching the All-Star Game, and I'm hooked. Guess I'll check out the same show that is on Fox tonight, and see how that one is as well. Other than that, there's not much that I find that has the status of "must watch". The show I'm hooked on is Last Comic Standing, and we usually watch "America's Got Talent", but other than that its pretty slim pickings as far as TV watching goes this summer. I wish that Boston Legal and The Office were on year-round.

- There was more I was originally going to say, but I can't remember what it was now..