My bad

Hey Claudia, Sorry 'bout that movie choice. What can I say? I wasn't into full frontal puppets that night. Wait. Stop. Think. Am I into full frontal puppets any night? But hey, Ladder 49 wasn't as bad as it could have been. I mean, it wasn't Adam Sandler in "Eight Crazy Nights" the (in Comic Guy voice) Worst Movie Ever. And besides... you went. (In Nelson voice:) Ha-ha!

Yo, ether -

I just wanted to let you know I sent my resume into 50 Below. I've tried calling Sam Carlson a couple times, but I assume he's a busy guy. If you know him, could you maybe give him a little nudge for me? And thanks another million for the tip! I think I'd be pretty stoked to work with 50 Below. It looks like an interesting company. Cheers.

Long day

This morning, Meg, MIL and I sat in the doc's office for more than three hours (8:30 'til 11:45) while she (Meg) went through a formal blood sugar screening process to check for gestational diabetes. But all's well. In fact, her blood sugar was so low, they skipped the fourth part of the test, said, "Yer jus fine, woman," and told us to get out of the office. So we went to brunch. Then I went to Japanese class (Hai, so desu!), then met the ladies at the Cat, but they hadn't shopped yet, so then we went shopping, then again at the other store. Then (now), finally, we came home. So this has pretty much been a wasted day. Except that my wife is healthy, I'm more learned, and our wallets are lighter. So maybe not a total waste. I can tell, though, that I'm not as chill as usual (And yes, English nazi friends, it's "chill," not "chilled," or "chillin'" ("chillun," anyone?).). When I was in the doc's office this morning having her look at my arm, my blood pressure was at 140-something over 70-something. This, from the guy who when faced with a bat bite and rabies vaccination sequence was cruising along at 122 over 60. So I'm going for a walk. Then I'm going to stretch out, pop some alieve as per doc's orders, and go to sleep. Maybe I'll get up for dinner. Maybe.

Havachu!

Nelson came back to taijutsu class tonight for the first time in a long time. It was great to have him back. As much as I like beating on Pete and being flung across the room by Greg, it's nice, too, to have a bigger class with more training partners. So thanks for coming tonight, Nelson. and...

MIL arrives, not without incident

MIL almost made it here from Syracuse — something like a 22 hour drive, this time 'round — but her Tracker gave up the ghost on Highway 28 just over an hour the wrong side of Ironwood. Fortunately, a towtruck going her way stopped (MIL didn't have a cell phone with her, and even if she did, I'm sure coverage out in the backside of the UP [does it have a front side?] is spotty at best), hooked her Tracker up and took her to Ironwood. I went and rescued her from there. So all's well that ends well. She and the Wife and I had a nice stir fry for dinner, and they're up looking at the nursury. I'm not. At least, I'm pretty sure. I *am* pretty tired, so I could be hallucinating this entire post, but then that would mean you're sharing my hallucination. Damn you; get out of my head! *yawns* O'yasumi nasai, ya'll.

Odd job AJ

Since I've been unemployed (or self-employed; take your pic because they feel pretty similar until money starts coming in), I've had a buch of friends reaching out to give me part-time work. Thanks, friends! That's awfully nice. Yesterday, I was over at Dew's place working on a serious buckthorn removal project. Today, in about 20 minutes, I'm going to Jacob's to help him get hay ready for the winter. And then to Japanese class. And then to taijutsu. And then... I feel kind of like some eight-year-old who's parents are signing him up for every "enrichment" class in town. Except that my parents have nothing to do with this. And I'm not eight. Not today. The problem with all this is, of course, that I haven't been doing a very good job of working on the business. I've got applications to fill out, resumes to build, I've been talking with reps from the phone company about an easement, from a different phone company about why my DSL is so slow, been trying to get hold of Duluth Web Guy, going to prenatal visits with the Wife and Kid, trying to get the house ready for MIL, taking care of dogs and cats and chickens and woodstoves, and making tea. I need to carve out some time each day for working on the business. That's my next goal. Find time for me to do the stuff I need to do to make my next "career" move.

Procrastination

So Mil (my Mother In Law) is leaving FIL (Father In Law; anyone spot a trend here?), SIL and BIL to drive twenty-something hours — most of it through Michigan, poor soul — to come here where the highs have been low and the lows are just plain old cold, with a car full of stuff for the kid. She and The Wife are going to put the nursery together. I'm going to stay out of the way, probably spend some quality time with the wood pile. Now don't get the wrong idea, all ya'll. I'm a good, sensitive, quasi-but-not-really-new-age kinda guy. I do the dishes, almost always. I cook, often. I put the seat down every time. But I draw the line at getting between The Wife, MIL, and a home decorating project. I may go to Duluth with them on Friday, but my role will be picking up chicken feed from the farmers who makes his own up that way. I'll not be picking out curtains — no sir! It's not that I don't like decorating; I sometimes do. Nor is it that I don't care about how the kid's room looks; I do. It's that For right now, and the next year or two, the kid isn't going to care. He or she is going to be wrapped in a lot of fleece for most of the year and learning about the rest of the world (like the cats, and dogs, and chickens, and the garden, and snow. A lot of that.). Later on, he or she will, I'm quite certain, have more to say about things. And then, it'll be my turn to play. So that's the deal that The Wife and I have struck: she gets free reign now, I get carte blanche later. At any rate, MIL's starting her trip in less than 12 hours, and we still have to put together my office-cum-guest room, clean the bathroom, and deal with our floors. Funny thing is, though, we're both blogging. Yeehaw! Let's go to the Last Minute Rodeo and see if we can pay a dollar to ride a wild horse. Heck, they may even let the pregnant wife try for free, just for the rights to the reality TV series it'd spawn.

Kung fu axe

For the last year, pretty much ever since I started taijutsu, I've been practicing sword cuts with my fire wood. Perhaps I should clarify. A solid sword cut has several things going for it: intent, intensity, focus, clarity, and control. Now granted, the mechanics and balance of a swinging axe or maul or sledge hammer are somewhat different than a ninja-to or bokkun, but I think some of the same ideas apply. The axe moves of its own accord when its ready to split the wood. The wood leaps out of the way of the blade more than it gets cut. I stand there, balanced, focused, elbows pulling my wrists down like I'm pulling a bell rope, energy (ki, anyone?) sizzling at the edge of the axe. Half the time, the axe ends up solidly burried in the cutting block after splitting the piece of oak. This makes cutting firewood so much more fun than just setting wood up and knocking it down. Of course, I don't really have endurance yet. Maybe twenty minutes of the serious wood splitting is all I can do at a time right now. I think, though, that as I work on my meditation and physical conditioning, I'll be able to split better and longer. No to mention beat the hell out of Pete the next time the padded bokkun comes out. Of course, I still have to figure out how to get out of the way of his sword...

Just ask

...and the universe answers. This afternoon, from out of the ether, someone sent a job opening my way. It's for a company in Duluth that seems like it could use me. So, hey, ether: thanks!