sunday evening

it's hot, just had a nice thunderstorm roll through to cool things off a little.
just sitting here watching a little tv, trying to stay cool

murphy's law

we were in a fishing tournament this weekend. matt, jeff, me and a kid named murphy were a team in the lema skiff. we arrived at the boat at 2:00 am as planned by captain smith. unplanned was the fact that the tide was a +10, which in layman's terms means "real high", and that we would be unable to get our little boat out of the inner harbor. between us and the fish was a railroad bridge. we should have known this was a sign of things to come. we ended up dismantling the windshield and grab bar to enable the boat to just barely squeeze out under the bridge. so we were on the water by 3.

beautiful night, but not a good night for fishing. we pulled out all the stops only to find a handful of fish in a 8 hour marathon of fishing. none of our fish were even big enough to qualify for the tournament. Of all of the fishing trips that our boat has been on this season, wouldn't you know that the worst would be the one were a good-sized striper would have won $1,000 for team lema skiff. that's alright, there is more to life than winning fishing tournaments (I think) and there are plenty of worse things than being off the coast of the north shore on a beautiful saturday morning before sunrise with my good friends. I would and will do it again even if we lose just as badly next time. I'll post some photos if I can get my hands on some of the shots from murph's $3 disposable. by the way, murphy brought some good perspective to the whole trip. he's where we were 10 years ago: loves to fish and is thrilled to death just to be on a boat catching fish. the kid was taking pictures left and right of everything in sight. having him and his great attitude really helped me keep things in perspective.

debate team

here is the group of guys that were on my debate team, which we won by the way. they are all now friends that I hope to stay in touch with. before you ask, no this is not the outfit I wore for the debate, though that may have given us an edge.

diploma

so I got my diploma this week; that's right, we finally finished our baby class tonight and we actually got a diploma from it. yeehaw. I also finally got my diploma from Norwich which you can see rolled up nicely in a fancy little tube. I actually had a great week in vermont, my expectations couldn't have been more wrong about the whole residency program up there. my classmates were great, smart, fun, and we all got along like we'd known each other for years, which I guess is not entirely untrue. I hope I get a chance to run into some of them at some point in the future, but you know how these things go; time passes and people get busy. So, I made some great friends up there that I may or may not ever see again. I could go on and on about the whole experience, but I think it would read much more boring than it actually was, so I'll just leave it here: learned a lot, listened to some very smart leaders, made some great friends, and finally got my master's degree.

So now I'm ready for the next stage. A day or two here before my next job starts then the baby will be here before we know it. Cool.

the other diploma

there we are in front of the podium at Norwich

the pregnant lady: thirty-four weeks

all coming together

What a week it's been. My new boss called last night at 7:30 pm to offer me the position. What a relief that was. Now I can relax and know that one of the little guy's first lessons will not have to be why daddy is home during the day. Seriously, a true answer to prayer, timingwise, just everything. On top of all that, I leave for my residency requirement at Norwich the day after tomorrow. My 18 month program is almost over, just this monstrous paper to finish. Between my academic burnout and the emotional high of the baby coming and the new job, I can barely focus long enough to write. You should read my paper so far. It is embarrassingly bad. I hope it comes together a little better before it's due.

Our dear old friend Dr. Sheila Beyer called out of the blue today to check on us and see how everything was going. Always so nice to hear from her. She is so intentional about her friendships, a trait that we both admire so much. She asks the right questions and. . . get this, listens to the answers. And she remembers the important things months and even years later. Bless her heart.

So here we are in mid-June '05, and life as we know it is about to take a form that is unrecognizable from that of a few weeks ago. Baby. Job (with benefits and real paycheck). no more school. Wow. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm sure it will once the paper is about 24 pages behind me and the big team debate in VT is over. it's all coming together here all of a sudden. cool.

new camera should arrive in a few days. then we'll start putting some more pics up, especially of the cute pregnant lady.

summer's here

Does anyone in New England remember what spring was like? I need a little time to help me transition from winter to summer, a role previously filled by spring. We just went from cold and rainy, like winter cold and rainy to 85 to 90 degrees in one week. I used to use those hints of warm weather to prepare myself, get the boat ready, take the snow tires off, you know, spring stuff. Before I knew it, summer was in full swing. I'm not complaining, summer is fantastic. It just snuck up on me is all.

So I'm graduating in a week and a half, so I have this 25 page paper due in a few days. And since summer has come on so strong, I'm wishing I was in my boat most evenings. I'm not. I'm writing the paper, or at least trying to. I'd better get it done and stop writing this blog.

Oh, one last thing. I think I finally got a job. I job that pays that is. I've had plenty of the other kind over the last couple of years, but I think this one may actually have the benefit of a paycheck every two weeks. Okay, that's it. Time to write my paper.

bad uncle

There are a lot of things I forget, just ask my wife. but I am famous for forgetting important events in the lives of those close to me. I don't think I've ever remembered my parents' anniversary. . . ever. In fact I forgot it again this year; it was a couple of days ago and I was reminded of it by my mother, a day later. And I don't ever remember birthdays of people around me either. The day after mom informed me that I missed their anniversary, she emailed to tell me that my nephew Ben's birthday was the next day. So, thanks to Amazon, at least he'll get a present within a week of the event. Luckily for me he's only, (oh no, I really can't even tell you exactly how old he is) maybe 7? And when I talked to him on the phone, he was pretty cool with the fact that he'd be getting a package in the mail in a few days. That's 'cause he and his brother, Thomas are pretty cool guys in general. Ben told me on the phone that he was "looking forward to meeting his new cousin after he's born."

So I was reminded of the anniversary too late, but the birthday just in time. One of these years I'll figure out how to remember at least most of these events, because so far nothing is working for me, including having a wife which was supposed to solve all of these little problems.

happy anniversary Mom & Dad, and
happy birthday Ben! Enjoy your castle and I hope your playmobil soldiers were successful in guarding the presents until daddy got home from work.

first sunburn

Well I'm just getting the hang of this blogging thing. For example, I just spent half an hour writing an entry, then hit the refresh button on my browser by accident. Entry gone. It's really no fun re-writing stuff again, so this is likely to be short.

Boat's in the water, on the slip. Fish are here, caught a bunch (over 30 myself) this week. I missed the big night, last night because I was in breastfeeding class with Ame. Yep, that's right, breastfeeding class. I can now add the words colostrum and engorgement to my vocabulary. At least we're one more step closer to having some knowledge about how to feed the next France. Did I mention that breastfeeding is free? What I missed in breastfeeding class was a night where some enormous fish were caught aboard my boat, in fact that largest fish every caught aboard the little green boat. But there will be other nights to be on the boat.

Today was one of those friday afternoons that we have far too few of in a given summer. Jeff, Matt and I on the boat from lunchtime to about 5pm. 75 degrees, sunny, hardly any other boats out there. Not lots of fish caught, but a few hookups, and one good-sized keeper. And the sunburn of course. Why do I forget to put sunscreen on the top of my feet every year? I hope I can get away without having to put socks and shoes on for a few days.

That's all for today. I'm going to go now and see if I can figure out how to add a photo to this blog. Wish me luck.