Due to my recent injury and subsequent free time, I am VERY bored. I work a lot, just because of nothing else to do at 3a, but still, that gets old, especially since I don’t want to be a programmer/techie, I happen to love the team development aspects of management.

Well, as my team can attest, I have been pretty grouchy, mostly due to the snails pace at which my treatment is moving, but also the boredom. My father, did suggest to try and play a game he and I loved from back in the day of when computers had turbo buttons and DOS was the bomb. He was right (man that hurt to admit), and it was (is) a great game and a lot of fun. So, off I ran to download Red Storm Rising. Since it is an old DOS game, I also had to get a DOS Emulator called DOS Box. You can download both from this post, as I don’t think it is fair for you to have to jump through a bunch of stupid hoops on some of those download sites just to get it, so feel free to download them here instead. If you are also so inclined, it is a great book too.

We love to read. From day one we’ve read to Illianna. One of her favorite books is Peek-A-Zoo. It’s been a great book that’s grown with her. It’s more of an activity book. Dr Seuss has been great as well. My Many Colored Days is not a well known Dr. Seuss. Illianna has loved Oh The Places You’ll Go from when she was little. I think the illustrations catch her eye. It plays with black and white and bold patterns, which is good for babies. Recently Horton Hears A Who was turned into a movie. I haven’t seen the movie, but the book has a great message. Your tounge will get twisted when you read Double Trouble in Walla Walla, and The Cranky Sun has beautiful artwork. A Day With No Crayons is very creative and helps encourage children to see art in everyday things.

The Simpsons aired a very appropriate show for us this past weekend. “Feeling that Maggie is too clingy, Marge hires a counselor to teach her a child care method ‘C.R.I.E.’ that will help Maggie become more independent. But the method works a little too well, leaving Maggie with no need for Marge at all, not even for hugs.”

lllianna will be 4 weeks old tomorrow.  To this point, she’s received anything and everything exactly when she’s wanted it. Our thought being, that we only have a few weeks to spoil her while she is too young to know what’s going on. Well, we’ve noticed that she’s quite the smart lil cupcake ‘proud parent bragging- she holds her head, can roll from tummy to back, and can stand with some assistance for balance’, so we started to question our ways. Nana gave us a book My First 300 Babies ‘yes, it’s a bit dated but its basic ideas your looking for’ that I did skim thru, but it is heavily schedule oriented and we’ve been against that, but as we started to analyze the situation and with Ryan getting closer to returning to work, I decided to actually read it. While I in no way agree with the entire book, I think it’s given us some helpful ideas. Mainly we like the feeding schedule. You feed every 4 hours. We’d already been progressing in that way, but this helped us get over the hump. It only took Illianna one day to adjust to this routine and has made the house more harmonious. Wake time, sleep time and what to do during them we still play by ear.

It’s hard to know what is the best way and best approach to things, but I’m comforted in knowing that everything I do is out of love for my beautiful baby, and when you act in love you have only positive results.

We just got back from another trip to New Mexico. I would say where we stayed, but it’s such an oasis for us, I don’t want others to find out. I will say it was as beautiful as ever, and I can’t wait to return.

We ran into so many odd people on this trip. The whole town of Roswell is really into the whole UFO thing. I personally am open to the idea, but what we saw of the town was all hokey. We experienced the one and only spacewalk! A guy spent 6 years of his life creating a maze with black lights that included a little story of Roswell and the aliens. It was a well spent two bucks for the experience. He was actually very talented. I think if I were a retired actor, Roswell would be a fun place to live. You can just be a character and fit right in. While that is to be expected in Roswell, NM, I didn’t expect it in another little town we visited.

While visiting another town we saw a sign that said, “Rare Books”. Of course with Ryan’s hobby of collecting books, we had to stop. The “store” was run out of a motel, a strip motel. I don’t know if the guy owned the motel or what, but he’d knocked out the walls between three rooms to create one larger area. I was going to say the odd thing was he still lived there despite the musky paper/dust aroma lingering in the air, but I’m not sure I can confidently make that statement. There were so many odd things. Like when we walked in and I saw him lifting the mattress to reach under it. Then there was the fact that he was wearing penny loafers, cargo pants, a tweed jacket with the arm patches and all, or how he was rambling about how he just got back from Africa, or how he excused himself because he needed another libation. Not to mention the creepy mannequins dressed in various military outfits. It was a very interesting experience. He was a very nice man, just a little off. I think that’s what happens when a woman isn’t around. For Ryan’s sake I hope I live longer, but if I don’t I want to be able to come back and see how eccentric he’s become in my absence. Anyhoooo.. Ryan found a first edition he’d needed to complete a collection of his, so it was a worthwhile excursion.

Ryan and I were talking about the website last night. We really want a new design and I thought my mother was going to do it, but it seems that she’s quite busy with other things. I think Ryan is going to attempt Photoshop again. He does a pretty good job.

I have been super busy with my job, but wouldn’t want it any other way. I love being back here. The drive this week has been a little tough because we haven’t been able to carpool. I don’t mind it in the mornings, just in the evening. Traffic is never bad, but I just want to be home and not deal with all the morons on the road. Every time we venture around the neighborhood we end up having a conversation about how horrible the drivers are in the area. Thank God for each other. We would have gone crazy long ago without the other.

I’m making friends at work which is so cool. It’s the little things that really make a difference. From doing all the temp work I’ve done for the past few years, it’s been difficult to make friends. I have a girl here who I have a blast with ‘lunch is never long enough’. We’re going to have her and her fiancé out to the house for a BBQ once the weather is a bit more predictable. We’re doing dinner this next weekend with a co-worker and his wife. There is also a housewarming coming up for another co-worker. It’s just so cool! Seeing as how we typically stay at home and don’t go to bars or clubs, it’s difficult to meet people that we like. I’m sure if we did the bar/club thing we wouldn’t meet anyone we were interested in knowing anyways. ‘There’s a little elitist attitude for you college people.’

Our house is really coming together. We were able to purchase some bookshelves we’d been eyeing for quite some time. We were able to show the long overdue respect to our books by getting them off the floor. Ryan was so proud putting them away. He’s always wanted a library, and now we have one. We’ve already used it a couple of times. The candles provide just enough light to be able to read in the cozy makeshift chair. The house is so relaxing. There’s nothing better than taking a bath and then snuggling up in the library. I believe we’re getting a king bed next.