Bad father of the year award

Yep. That's my claim to fame for the day. Bethany left to teach her yoga class. I wanted to feed Silas a little food before putting him down for a nap. So, I grabbed the sweet potatoes from the fridge and started feeding him. He winced big time at the first bite and gave me a really perplexed look. I laughed, because I thought he was shocked at how cold they were. He opened his mouth, and I fed him a second spoonful. Then, as I gave him the third, I remarked, "wow, Silas, why are you turning red?" Well, it turns out that the container happened to contain leftover Franks Red Hot sauce and butter (buffalo chicken salad for dinner last night).

The great thing was that he took it with style. His poor father freaked out, of course. I washed his mouth out with water, fed him a ton of yogurt, and let him drink about half a sippy cup of water.

I kept him up from his nap until I was sure his tongue wasn't going to swell and block his breathing and ended up sitting with him reading a book while he slept, checking to make sure he was still breathing...

Don't the sweet potatoes and buffalo sauce look similar in the picture above?!?! Who can blame a tired father?

So, long story short: he's ok. I'm kind of frazzled.

After Bethany got home and laughed at me, we had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant, where Silas got to try new eats: a little lamb curry, naan bread, mango chutney, and mango lassi. Here's a parting shot to show he's ok.

Melon study

After I recently clippered my hair all off, we took some pictures of Silas and me to show that his hairline looks nothing like mine. :)

Coffee cup musings

Coffee. It gets me through the afternoons. This is my favorite coffee cup in the office. There are three of identical manufacture, but this one stands out to me. There are lots of other mugs here, but they're all too large. Too much mass. Too much coffee. Not set up for good sipping. The smaller mugs reduce my coffee intake, saving my liver from certain death.

The bit of personality that makes this particular cup special to me is that it has a small crack. The handle is actually only fully attached at the bottom. The top is sort of vee-connection now. The crack profile aligns and supports the handle side to side, but not against the torque induced by lifting the cup by the handle when it is full of coffee. Every time I pick up this beautiful piece of imperfection, there is a slight shift as the top part of the handle separates ever so slightly. Perhaps I have heightened senses, but I would swear I hear the tiniest 'chink' as it pops into its loaded equilibrium position.

Some day, this cup will dump hot coffee all over me and my keyboard. I love the uncertainty and adventure I experience every time I pick up the mug. The little things get me through my days.

Intentional attention

I'm hoping to soon write a piece about how I think the blogging this past year has helped me and what I've learned from it. However, in the meantime, here is an article I ran into this morning that captures some of the essence of what I plan to write about. It's about intentional attention.

This is a topic Bethany and I have discussed a lot. I spend lots and lots of time thinking about this. I think it also ties into her constant assertion that I expect too much from everyday people I come across, as I have difficulty remembering that most folks don't do this.

In any case, I strongly believe there is value to be found in almost everything, every situation, and every person. All it takes is some paying attention and active consideration. While I dislike the 'god' language, I feel this is very similar to finding the world or god in a grain of sand vis-a-vis William Blake and Paulo Coehlo. Perhaps also Leibniz's Monadentheorie. I also think this ties in well with the concept of mindfulness from Buddhist and other philosophies.

Dustin Wax writes about intentional attention in his post on the Stepcase Lifehack blog. He discusses several cases where students, artists, photographers, and writers prepare themselves to accept new information and ideas.

As a general rule, if you don’t intend to find value, you’re more likely than not to miss it. While it’s no guarantee, if you intend to discover value, you’ll find it – or at least greatly up your chances.
-Dustin Wax, Stepcase Lifehack

I think this is also important in creating the environment for authentic interactions with people.

I need to get back to work. I may expand or refine this later.

First bath in the "new" house

Yes, we've had the house for nearly three years, and it's taken this long for the bathroom to finally be 95% finished. There are some details to finish, including finding/commissioning a vanity, but nonetheless, it's functional. Bethany got her first bath a few days ago. Tonight was my first. Yay! I needed to soak after a long run with Guthrie. For the bibliophiles, I got the notion to read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. I made it through several chapters in the late 30's during the relaxin'...

Blogging with baby and listening to music

Sorry, perhaps a bit gratuitous...pics from yesterday and this morning.

It's challenging to move about and do simple things like typing with the little hanger on. I love it, though. He's already become such a good friend. I fear he's getting a little tired of the same 6 or 7 CD's in the changer. I need to expand some and teach him some of the goodies in the back catalog...perhaps a little Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, the Cure, Morrissey, Modest Mouse, Johnny Cash?

oh, my banal writings

banal

Yes, but can we hope for a positive Maximal Lyapunov exponent?

Anniversary

Yep, a year has gone by. It's been great. I'm not a gushing sentimentalist, so this is as much as you're going to have to put up with. I'm happy and thankful.

Nice dinner at Casbah in Pittsburgh.

Introduction and Plan of Action

So, blogging...

In 2005, I moved to Pittsburgh, PA, for my current job. It's been an interesting ride. I've found myself dug into a weirdly (for me) unhappy hole. I really don't know if it's this city, my job, our complete and utter disaster of a house renovation, or what. So, my intent here is find something generally positive to post about daily. I think this will be a good experiment for changing my mood. It will be a nice stream of data that can, perhaps, give me a glimpse into some larger patterns in my life, hopefully ending this spiral of ever-increasing life complication.

It will also allow me to write casually about things that are very important to me, such as green building, sustainability, cycling (commuting, racing, and for no purpose beyond the enjoyment of riding a bike), art and music, etc. Much of our thoughts are imperfectly formed, and one doesn't fully realize it until one tries to communicate it to someone else...

If you have fallen upon this blog, please forgive me if I come across as alternating between immature and pedantic, as I'm sure that's the spectrum my neuroses fall into. Drop me a line with any comments.

Gracie,

-e