kapgar

Snippet Wednesday 2013.20...

2013-05-22T22:05:47-05:00

Betcha thought I was going to miss another Snippet Wednesday. In all honesty, I almost did. Being that, as of 4 a.m. today, I'm on vacation with Katie and Nathan. At the last second, or five minutes ago, I remembered it was Wednesday and I needed to get a post out there.

So here goes a Vacation Snippet Wednesday!

Destination
We're on our way to Colorado for a family wedding. And we're driving. This is not only our first vacation with Nathan but it's also our first major driving trip. Katie and I have taken road trips to Michigan (Ludington and Detroit), Wisconsin, and St. Louis. But this is a whole different ball of wax.

Rookie
If all goes as planned this trip, I will be visiting four states I've never been in before. So far, we've hit one of them already -- Kansas (proof below courtesy of Foursquare) --

...and we'll be in three more on the trip back -- Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Layover
The first leg of our trip took us from Chicago to Kansas City and we made it in just over eight hours. Not bad. What is bad is that the little bit I've seen of this town makes me want to see more, but we leave on the second leg of our drive early tomorrow morning. All we really got to see was the tasting room at Boulevard Brewing Company (tours were over for the day) and Oklahoma Joe's BBQ (fan-freakin-tastic! Try the Z-Man and Carolina Pork sandwiches).

Colorado
Katie and I have both been to Colorado but never together and not for quite some time. 1989 for me and 1996 for Katie. So we're really looking forward to this "triumphant return" and having Nathan in tow makes it that much more special.

Return
We're going to take a northern route back so we can hit Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Deadwood, and the Badlands, along with whatever else we may find. So it may take a little time, but it'll be worth it. I onl wish Nathan was old enough to remember or comprehend this. But at least Kate and I will.

Hashtag
Check out #colo13chronicles.

Geeky...

2013-05-20T15:40:54-05:00

As a proud geek, I take a bit of pride as I watch Katie's own repressed inner geek start to rear it's wonderful head.

This is, after all, my wife and I love her and I want to be able to share with her stuff that I find interesting and important and all that jazz.

Yesterday, while shopping a secondhand kids' clothing and toy shop, I found a bag of building bricks on a shelf and thought maybe I'd found some hand-me-down LEGO bricks I could buy for Nathan for when he's a bit older. Now imagine my geeky glee when Katie turned and said, "I already checked those out. They're knockoffs."

Wha waaaaaaa!?!? My baby knows how to identify LEGO knockoffs????

For the record, she saw the look of pride in my eyes, realized what had happened, and buried her face in her hands as she said, "I just did that, didn't I?"

Yes, hon. Yes you did. Own it.

My heart grew three sizes yesterday.

[image courtesy of Blogography.com, although I didn't specifically ask this time.]

Nathan: 8 months...

2013-05-19T21:28:39-05:00

Today, Nathan turned eight months old.

He's eight months old!

And I just realized that I never posted his seven month photos to the blog. I'm a bad dad. Here's a link to them posted to Flickr.

Here are his eight month photos, though. Not as many as last month, but that's because he's getting really good at squirming himself out of situations in which he'd rather not be.

30 Days Of...

2013-05-16T17:05:08-05:00

For some strange reason, and despite any indication to the opposite that you all might see via my Facebook page or my Instagram profile, I feel like I haven't taken enough photos of Nathan.

Now, granted a lot of this might be due to the fact that he has grown like a beanstalk practically overnight and, as I thumb through photos on my iPhone and iPad, it seems to me like there must be some steps missing in the progression because there is no way in the name of all that's holy that a kid can grow that fast. That's probably why I feel like I've been photographically neglectful, even though you all probably think I'm talking crazy.

To solve this problem, I'm going to spend the month of June doing what I'm going to call "30 Days of Nate." You guessed it, (at least) a picture a day of Nathan.

I've been tossing around this idea for a few months now and just keep forgetting to start it. But now, here it is, all official like and posted to my blog to keep me in check and hold my nose to the grindstone.

But, just to keep this from becoming all about Nathan (ha!), I'm going to throw out a PHOTO CHALLENGE to any of you who might be interested. Let's rename it to "30 Days of..." You pick the subject and take one photograph a day for the entire month of June. Let me know in the comments to this post if you're interested in participating and what your planned subject will be.

When you post your photo, use the hashtag #30daysof. Since almost anything works with hashtags anymore, it should be fine. If you have a blog and would like to share this challenge with others, please link them back to this post. I will also create a group in Flickr where you all can join and share your photos if you're a Flickr user. Otherwise, just share in the comments where you plan to post them so we can all check out your skillz.

Any interest? C'mon, I don't want to be the only one!

Snippet Wednesday 2013.19...

2013-05-15T16:56:01-05:00

Welcome to an exhausted Snippet Wednesday. Why "exhausted"? I just ran on my lunch break. Although it wasn't as long a run as I would've liked, it still kicked my butt and I'm still in recovery mode.

Cemetery
In my desire to find something new to look at while running, I went through a nearby cemetery. You might think that sounds creepy, but, let me tell you, it was a very peaceful run. Open streets, tree lined, quiet, nobody else there save for the guy burying a body (no, I'm not kidding on that one). It was ideal. And the perfect place should the run really hit me hard. Oh, and when that didn't happen, the next place I ran past was a hospital. Fatalistic much? Hey, I'm all about convenience. But, seriously, the #manintheyellowrunninghat lives on!

Poop
Got in a text conversation with Katie's mom yesterday while she was taking care of Nathan. Turns out that in little more than a couple hours, Nate filled up four diapers with poop. Normally that kind of output might be alarming. But, considering he'd been stopped up for more than a week, we welcomed it. So did he. He slept like a baby after that (pun fully intended). Amazing how you come to a point in your life when you look forward to poop.

24
Well, the long-rumored movie based on the FOX-TV series 24 isn't going to happen. But, what is going to happen is a return to TV of the show. A 12-episode mini-season of a show that is based on a 24-hour span of time will be interesting. Apparently, they are going to cut a lot of the fluff extraneous storyline and they may skip around the clock a little bit thus explaining how traffic always works in his favor and how we never see him eat or go the bathroom. Do you think Jack Bauer wears a diaper?

Axed
I guess with the ending of Burn Notice after this season and the likely, yet still unannounced, ending of Psych after this season (you had to figure this was happening considering Maggie Lawson is headlining a new series on one of the big four networks this coming fall), my desire to watch less TV that I expressed yesterday is receiving some help. But I actually like those two shows. Booger.

Nada
Is it wrong that I completely love the simplicity of this Nada Surf t-shirt? Just all kinds of retro cool.

Cookies
Time to check our cookie jar!

Have a good one! And don't go running near cemeteries or hospitals.