If anyone wants to buy a house in Richmond, VA, contact me immediately regarding 10231 Apache Road, MLS # 2712908. This is a steal.
We are moving to the area surrounding Villanova, PA (itself approximately 12 miles west of Philadelphia), so that I can teach at the law school there.
That is all.
I too love the environment. I'm not so sure about global warming (human-caused, long-term trend, etc.) due to all the political rhetoric polluting the discussion. However, I've found my dream vehicle is indeed environmentally friendly. So, buy a Hummer and hug a tree without being schizophrenic.
http://news.com.com/2100-11389_3-6174130.html
So I'm guessing this may not be the most popular post, but with Earth Day coming up and the impending environmental doom that has become inarguable by the most conservative of scientists, I am going to go ahead and post anyway.
I know we can't all make the switch to hybrid cards or convert all our homes to solar power right now, but this website www.gocarbonzero.com does allow you to make a difference. It will calculate your annual carbon footprint and - if you like - you can make a donation which will be used to plant enough trees to offset your carbon dioxide output for the year. Just for reference, to neutralize my CO2 emissions, it was a donation of about $60. Money well spent!
If you don't do this, it means that you hate polar bears. And New Orleans. And penguins. And your grandchildren.
Kudos to Dan for posting perhaps the lengthiest blog this site has seen. Unfortunately, it seems to have had the unintended consequence of shutting things down, as perhaps people are wary of posting something that does not meet the high standards Dan set. I have no such qualms.
In Baby News, My friend Jackie, who was our secretary here a few moons ago, just had her first baby. Ryan Patrick Davis was born April 10th. So now we can add that to the list of my friends' babies. It is growing at an alarming rate. I am going to have to start praying for "my friends' babies" as a general concept, because pretty soon I'm not going to be able to remember all the names. I think Jackie is attending the wedding, so I think you will get to meet Ryan.
Easter weekend was pretty fun. I went to Good Friday mass with my mom around 3:00 PM, and then headed downtown for the Indians' home opener. If the 26-degree temperature and constant snowfall were any indication, I don't think God was very happy about the Indians playing on Good Friday in general, or my attendance at the game in particular. I did swell a bit with Cleveland pride as I walked into the stadium, though, which was almost at full capacity. I don't think there are too many cities that would turn out almost 40,000 people in such awful conditions for a baseball game, Opening Day or not. Cleveland Rocks.
The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. My parents had their Easter dinner celebration that evening so as to avoid conflicts with other families the next day. Then Hillary's roommates at her apartment came by Sunday morning for brunch after mass, which was glorious. I am continually thankful that none of you wanted the breakfast sausages I bought for New Years, because I have been enjoying them weekly ever since. One of the presents my parents got me was a book called Shots! I don't really do shots, but I thought it would look cool on my bar. As I was paging through it, my grandmother was looking at the different shots with me. Of the 50 or show illustrated shots, I am guessing my grandmother recognized and subsequently roared with approval for about 40 of them, many of which called for types of alcohol that I had never heard of. Go, Gram.
Unfortunately for her, Hillary decided to join me at Catholic mass this year, which would normally be great, except that the children's choir was performing at the 9:00 mass. Now I like children, and I even like singing children (like on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" - those kids can sing), but whatever talents the children of Berea, Ohio possess, they do not in any way include singing. It is truly a challenge to find a sense of peace and holiness at church when your ears are constantly being bombarded by the cacophany of second graders shouting random notes (and sometimes words) at the tops of their lungs. Again, God's displeasure with my attendance at Opening Day on Good Friday was pretty evident.
Hopefully, all of you have received your wedding invitations. If you haven't, please let me know, maybe in a subtle way, so that I will have the ability to weasel my way out of the uncomfortable situation in the event you have been disinvited.
Also, if I haven't made this clear already, all of the groomsmen and ushers (and their significant others) are invited to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. In addition, babies and children (so long as they are not bad singers) are welcome at the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception. As yet, I haven't had any success in coming up with any group babysitting options for all of you, but I will let you know right away if I do. Finally, if you didn't see it on the save the date card, details about the wedding are available on our website at www.theknot.com.
Finis.
The fortnight report
Ben is fortunately the super sleeper, so we are pretty much sleeping through the night (at least for now). So Betsy nurses Ben for the last time at 9, 10, or 11 (depending on how the day has gone), and he typically won't get up to nurse again until 4, 5, or 6; and then he goes back to sleep.
Also, he seems to be able to soothe himself; that is, he can cry himself to sleep as long as we console him if he gets really worked up. We normally wouldn't even try that with a two-week old, but he's slept so well that we have given it a shot, and it's worked.
We are very thankful for the rest we've gotten. This behavior is better than Wesley, and way better than Aidan. Of course, we don't count on it lasting, but we figure that, at 3 months, we can start to strongly encourage him to sleep through the night, so each day that we inch closer to that milestone without being up all night.
Evidently the key to having an easy baby is to keep having babies until one has a good disposition from birth.
Wesley and Aidan have been really good with Ben as well. They adore him, and, with the exception of showing their love a little too roughly, he seems to like them, too.
This may all come crashing down when I return to full time work outside the home tomorrow. The first week, I was at home and not working. Last week, I worked from home. But this week, I'll be in Wilmington for at least most of the week, and I will be working full time.
Third Eye Blurry
Third Eye is no longer blind, but starting to gain some vision, as we got our first "official" client last week. Previously, we had a client of sorts, but they were really hiring me, and not the company. This time, we reviewed a failed 510(k) submission, and will most likely be resubmitting for our client. If you want to communicate something to the Food and Drug Administration, call Third Eye Associates.
Home Improvement
In my time as home, I'v ebeen taking all kinds of fun projects. First, I straightened out our shutters, which were parallelograms, but not rectangles. Now, with flat angle reinforcements, they will remain straight even if the house falls down around them.
Also, I made covers for my window wells. They are wood framed with metal mesh in the middle, so that the wells don't fill with leaves anymore. I wish I had taken photos of these things, so this would be more interesting to read. Sorry, father. I tried.
I fertilized my lawn. For some, not such a big endeavor. For me, an adventure. Last year I put 4x as much as I was supposed to put, and burned strips of ammonia through my lawn. I try to set the bar low so my neighbors won't complain when I mow on a monthly basis.
Finally, I hooked up my antenna to receive HD TV. I had no idea until last week that you could get an HD signal with a regular TV. So I went out and bought a new fancy antenna, then found that I could get HD with my old antenna. Now, instead of a fuzzy picture, my picture turns on and off (the beauty of digital television).
That's really all that could be said about us. Well, perhaps not, but it's all that will be said about us.
