(Part time) JOB!

So I've been sitting on this for a week now and got confirmation today: I got a part time job as a bike mechanic at a shop down the street. Woo! Literally about 0.2 miles away. A few hours a week, every other weekend. My first thought is, "Awesome, it's become a dream of mine to work at a bike shop!" (It satisfies my desire for more social interaction while also promising to fulfill my obsessive bike-fix.)  My second thought is, "...and I can bring home a little bit of money to supplement our income!" (Thereby feeling good that I was doing even more to help our family.)

My third thought, which sort of trumps the others, is "But is this going to be a stress on C and/or Ellie, trying to schedule time away from home and not be worth it overall? Is C going to hate whatever our new schedule works out to be?" (This is partly a selfish endeavor that pays little and will require I work some weekends and possibly some evening hours.)

Well, we'll see. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and life goes on. I've been imagining this to be the skate-shop job I never had, where I am surrounded by bikes and get to talk about bikes and geek out about bike stuff at the shop with people who care about bikes, instead of my poor family who has to listen to me talking about bottom bracket spindles and chainlines and so forth. Plus, employee discounts, group rides, and the like... I'm having trouble imagining it sucking. That is, unless it doesn't work out with the fam. That will always be a deal breaker.

Happy Valentine's Day (with a couple of treats)

I don't have anything planned, but felt like this post would be my card to the world: forced like so many other holiday cards, it's not going to say anything very meaningful, but please know I'm thinking about you and I love you nonetheless.

For you gardeners out there, here's a dope Growing Calendar on the Burpee's Seed website. Plug in your zip code and be amazed. It suggests when to sow seeds for particular crops of plants. Cool. I should be sowing a bunch of stuff inside right now... Oops.

And finally, for all you young parents, here is Will.I.Am on Sesame Street. Pretty sweet. I gave up on trying to find a free download of it though. Holler if you do

The art of silence

Like Zach Morris I'm going to freeze time real quick just to unload this kvetch so I can get on with the day. My life is now marked by silence. I cringe at the clank of dishes as you might a gunshot in the next room. My head spins at the clamor of a door shutting into place in the jamb.  Don't get me started on a creaking door hinge: the bane of my existence. All this because Miss Ellie is sleeping. I walk on eggshells, pee sitting down, and will mute the TV if it is on. Part of the reason is to not wake Ellie; the other reason is to hear if she wakes up. Every aberrant noise is an explosion. As you may have already realized, this is mostly overreaction but I can't shake it because it's working so well. I just can't handle noise anymore.

That is all.

Goals

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. - Robert Heinlein US science fiction author (1907 - 1988)

After reading this I had to wonder: do I have clearly-defined goals? would I say I am enslaved by daily trivia?

I was hoping this would be the prompt to an inspiring blog post but I'm not sure what my answers would be.

Are my goals clear? Nope. I want to be a great dad and a great husband, but I don't have any certain plans on accomplishing those things, I just know I want to be that. I want to get work done around the house and make time for my hobbies in a responsible way, but don't have any strategy for doing that.

What I have done is made myself a running "GTD" (Get Things Done) list, complete with check boxes, to hold myself responsible for accomplishing certain things. So far it's menial stuff: clean the oven (check); paint the entrance to the basement (check!); and so on. I'm thinking it should expand to greater things like find a new recipe each week, exercise for 30 minutes at least once this week, do something new with Ellie at least one day each week, surprise C with something good each week... [I'm good with the bad surprises: check out my self-inflicted mullet haircut!]

Anyway, hopefully this quote will push me to better define my goals and recognize the daily trivia in my life. Sorry I didn't reach a better resolution, but hopefully you'll be inspired, too!

Ellie: Walk It Out

Ellie_walk it out from d strong on Vimeo.

No Apologies

For two days this week we had the pleasure of hosting my old college roommate, Chris, who farms in Portland when he's not visiting the Midwest on vacation.  Other than a hasty late night trip to our alma mater I kept our agenda pretty basic: play with baby, feed baby, put baby to sleep. He got to live a couple days in my shoes. I made it a point to not be apologetic about it. And I'm not saying that to sound like a dick, but it's true. Oftentimes I just want to apologize when I catch myself turning a conversation topic to Ellie, or the fact that at any given dinner party, Ellie becomes the focus of attention, but I realize I don't need to do that. Chris got to see a day in my life and I think I can safely say we had a great time. I didn't go out of my way to entertain him; like any best friend, we enjoyed each other's company, and he got to have fun with Ellie. There wasn't a single hiccup in the two days we spent together. I think he appreciated the opportunity to play Uncle during his stay, though I'm pretty confident he's not so worried about having a baby anytime soon. Uncle Chris is good folk for sure. I wish we could hang out more.

Happy New Year: 2011

So long, "oh-ten." It was a great one. 2011 will be even better, no doubt.

One Love, One Income: First day on the job

Yesterday was my first day on the job as Full-time Father, or Mister Mom, or however you fancy... It's one of those "easy" weeks where you get a couple days to adjust, then two weeks of vacation where you see everyone you know who will ask "So how was it?" and you say "well, it's been two days" and not being one to kill a conversation like that you continue to describe what you think it will be like and how you want to take Ellie swimming.

Anyway, the days have been good. Ellie has decided that sleeping at night just isn't her thing anymore. Blargh.

I'm pretty sure both Ellie and I are getting sick, too, which isn't making anything easier. And right before the holidays. Holiday?

The only thing that has me nervous is Winter. Cold weather, snow, and ice are going to keep us inside and our house is small. There aren't too many places to explore in here.

So, our life with one income begins now. I've been stretching my unimaginative brain in all directions trying to think of possible ways to supplement our income, just because a little more money doesn't hurt. Sewing stuff? Painting stuff? I don't know. But seriously, if you are interested in advertising here, let me know. I'll send you the smallest bill in our stack, on a first-come-first-serve basis; meaning you Johnny-come-lately's will have to settle on our car insurance or our property taxes. Don't delay! Call now!

Also, I updated my Linked-In profile headline to describe me now as an "Entrepreneur and Internet Visionary," for obvious reasons.