Neil Patrick

It happened again over the weekend. It hasn't happened for a while, but this was perhaps the most random, most unique occurance of this odd trend in my life.

Moments after leaving my old friend's house in Riverbank**, CA, we realized that Tyler needed food if he was going to be happy during the hour drive to our next destination. We pulled over mere blocks from my friend's house and proceeded to feed the kid in the car.

At this point it's dark outside, and the only light around other than a couple street lights is the dome light in our car. I'm feeding Tyler while sitting in the driver's seat, and Laura is getting stuff moved so that she can sit in the rear with him as we drive.

Just then a group of perhaps high school aged kids walks by the car along the sidewalk. As he passes our car, one of them says, I kid you not "that guy looks like Neil Patrick Harris".

What is it? Do I really? No! The only thing interesting about it happening this time is that this is the first time anyone has gone straight to Neil Patrick and not said Doogie Houser. That could easily be rationalized away because Mr. Harris is back in popularity what with "How I Met Your Mother", but the fact that this keeps happening is just plain odd. Typically it's been in face-to-face interactions with someone like a cashier or similar, so this occurrance is definately a unique one.

But really? Dark, late, outside, random walker-by, guy in a car feeding his kid, yeah sure, that must be Neil Patrick Harris.

Maybe the universe is trying to tell me that I should contact Mr. Harris and offer to be his body double, stunt double, or whatever you call a person who helps distract the papparazzi so that you can go about your normal business. Maybe that is my true calling, waiting to be answered.

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** Where in the hell is Riverbank, you might ask? East of Salida I answer. And where is that? Why it's just north of Modesto, of course. Geez.

of mice and minivans

I was falling asleep one night last week while bottle feeding Tyler, very comfortable and relaxed in the Lazy Boy rocking chair that we bought for just such a purpose, when Laura comes into the room with a spooked look on her face.


"We have a mouse", she said. At the moment I was somewhat still asleep, and the whole idea of there being a mouse seemed preposterous to me, although to be fair I also kept thinking that I was at my parent's house, and that they should deal with it. After waking up fully and accepting the fact that I was indeed my own house, it occurred to me that Laura was serious, and had no interest in letting the mouse remain in the house.


About a half hour later, after corralling and shooing and brooming and various attempts at getting the mouse into a box, we finally encouraged it to leave through an open door. It's funny how this tiny little thing (maybe an inch and a half long) encites dread in people. Maybe it's more the fact that it is not supposed to be inside the house, than the fact that it is a mouse, that got us wound up.


So it was much to my dismay when, after cleaning up mouse poop last night, that I found mouse poop again this morning, and in the same location. As I was thinkng about going to buy a trap, another (or the same) mouse jumped up out of the garbage can and scurried into the recycling bin. After a minor heart attack, I covered the recycle bin with a trash bag and re-delivered the mouse back outside, where it will no doubt go back through whatever hole it is using to get inside my house and proceed to poop all over the place until I realize that I just have to bait it.


Oh, so much fun, having a mouse in the house.



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In other news, we may buy a minivan. Yup. Are you not excited for us?

Ever since Tyler was born, getting him and his car seat in and out of our sedan has been tough on our backs. It's not that we're weak people, it's just awkward because we're tall. So we started talking about replacing the sedan with a SUV some time next year, but never got very serious about it. Then last week, Laura comes to me with the idea of a minivan, claiming that "we'll probably end up with one some day anyhow, so why bother with an intermediate step of the SUV?"

Probably? Anyhow? Really? When did we become a big family? Why do we want to drive such a stereotypical family soccer-event car around? The whole idea made me tweak a little bit.

Then Tyler outgrew his removable car seat. Ok, no big deal, just install the convertable seat rear-facing (because he still isn't one year) and everything will be fine, right? Well, he is so tall now that you literally have to hold him sideways to fit him between the car seat and the roof of the car, then stand him up in the seat, then pull his feet out from under him to get his butt to drop down to the proper location. Long story short, the idea of a larger car is starting to sound marvelous, and suddenly the idea of bypassing something like an SUV to move into something like a minivan is, well, sounding very practical.

Sure, there are only three of us, but some day there might be four. And each of the road trips we've taken lately seems to require the packing of a stroller, a pack-and-play, Tyler's clothes, our clothes, blankets, pillows, toys, hiking backpacks, etc. This stuff fills up the trunk of an Accord pretty fast.

So to summarize, don't be suprised of some day soon we arrive for out visit driving a miniature van.

random post

Tyler seems to have figured out that kicking his legs while in the bath means that the water will splash all over dad, the mirror, the countertop, him. He's not quite sure what it all means, or he is just so curious that he hasn't allowed himself to laugh at it yet, but there is some sly enjoyment in it because last night he just kept doing it and got everything wet. Crazy baby!

mind tuned to work during walk

Just went for a walk with the intention of relaxing my mind during a lunch break. Interesting thing though, as I am walking along, though I know I am looking at the path in front of me, I don't actually see it. Instead I see the CAD models of machine parts I am working on. So I'm out where the air feels nice, but I am still developing parts, trying to solve fit problems, still working. I know my eyes are open, and that there is light entering them, but it's like my brain is tuned to a different input.

I managed to not walk into any trees or trip over scurrying squirrels (by the way their activities along the olive tree path here at Cousteau are fascinating to watch), but probably only by dumb luck. It's really kinda freaky.

laughter, please

Today's quote comes from pages 234-235 of Lewis Black's book Me of Little Faith, from the chapter entitled "God Knows Funny". Mind you I am not necessarily a religious person, but neither is Mr. Lewis' book trying to preach or convert anyone. This one paragraph really struck me as intersting:



"And imagine a religion where all God asks of you is to have a good laugh and then get back to trying to be a nice person. Let's face it, we could use something like this since we're living in a world that makes most of us so uptight that being nice is an exhausting proposition. Which is why my God would want each and every one of us to laugh - as it simply and miraculously alleviates stress."



Since I'm the kind of person who can't seem to get away from introspective blogs, I'll mention here that lately I've observed that I've been unusually uptight. If you know me well, you know that I'm generally uptight anyway, which means that lately I've been ... making diamonds? So I read that paragraph and am reminded that laughter is a very healthy thing to have in one's life. Perhaps it's not only laughing at the funny, but also being able to laugh at the rediculous or the impossible instead of getting angry that could help me relax and live a healthier life.



Way back in 2008 after returning from a breathtaking trip to New Zealand, I said I should adopt the "No Worries" lifestyle, and I certainly haven't done that yet. Perhaps I should start looking at both that and more laughter, particularly at myself, so that I can sigh and move on with living.

no traction work day, parents watch kid for first time

Kind of a waste of a day as far as work is concerned. Never could get any traction, just kept spinning my wheels. probably mostly my own fault for not brainstorming with peers to get through the design block I was experiencing. Also quite nervous these days about staying at home on Wednesdays. It's totally worth it to get to spend the time with my son, but loosing 20% of my work week puts a LOT more pressure on me the other days to get all the work done.

But hey, on the brighter side of things, my parents watched Tyler today and had a great, fun day with him. Apparently he was nothing but smiles and was rolling over in both directions, so that's really great; I was afraid there's be trouble since he hasn't spent all that much time with them in his life so far, but he proved me wrong and did really well today.

weekend, most of it

Had a lot of fun at a BBQ at the Shaw's yesterday. It's so very, very healthy for Laura and I to visit friends and laugh. Something about the friends we have .. they're just such cool people, and we always feel so good around them. We always come home afterwards feeling refreshed. Anyway, just a couple hours spent hanging out with them, the Telfords, and Beth and Thom.

Spent a chunk of today bbqing again with Laura's family. Tyler was argumentative most of the time, but it was still an enjoyable visit, right up until the part where we had a metal object jammed in the front right tire of the car, and had to put on the spare to drive home tonight. No, it wasn't vandalism; somehow the tire, which, by the way, is essentially brand new, picked up what looks like a broken tire valve stem. It wasn't leaking any air, but it sounded like a large rock stuck in the tire as we tried to drive away from Laura's brother's house. We thought about just staying the night in Folsom, but ended up driving back home ... at 50 miles an hour. It's really interesting to see just how fast and reckless everyone drives when you are going that (relatively) slow and watching them damn near run up your ass. So we cruised home with the hazards on, and had a lot of laughs.

Oh hey, Happy Birthday America!