A promising new season begins........

Tomorrow is the start of the 2007 season for the Mizzou football team. They are generally the consensus pick to win the Big 12 North and play for the Big 12 championship in San Antonio in December. I'd love to think about the idea that it will happen just that way. With that said, as a Mizzou fan, I remember.......

-The 5th down game against Colorado

-The "Flea-kicker" game against Nebraska.

-Eary season losses under Pinkel to teams that we should have beat.

So I'll state it right now. To hell with old jinxes and curses of my beloved Tigers! We're going to win the Big 12 North this year and no skeletons in the closet will stop us!

There, now I've stated it. Now I'll settle into my sofa with my daughter in her Mizzou cheerleader outfit and just pray to the football gods that Mizzou has nothing but success in her lifetime and the rest of my lifetime.

Cell phones on the road........

I was driving around town running some errands yesterday. I noticed a car in front of me that was driven by an erratic driver. It seemed like she was weaving around, stopping prematurely at stoplights, not moving when the car in front of her moved, etc. I ended up moving into the other lane and happened to stop next to her at a stoplight.

I looked over to see a girl around 17-18 years of age. But her relatively new driving skills were not the reason for her erratic driving. In the time we sat at a stoplight, she made two phone calls and had started to send a text message. Worse yet, she continued to send text messages as we drove down the street, nearly running into a car as she did it. I'd heard that kids drive while sending text messages, but to see it in action was pretty frightening. She was an accident waiting to happen.

For what it's worth, I'm in favor of a complete ban on cell phone use of any kind while driving. While it's convinient to make calls while on the move, I don't think it's too much to ask people to wait until they get somewhere or to stop their car to make a phone call. I think the risks are pretty significant. It's already been banned in some states, so this is not a new idea. The thought of being run over by a kid sending a text message or an adult chatting about something that could wait until later just doesn't appeal to me. I'm sure people would complain, but they'd get over it.

Friends and Dinner.......

We invited a couple that recently moved into the neighborhood over to dinner last night at our house. They're actually no strangers to us as we've known them for several months already. Great people and we always have a lot of fun.

They came over around 7:00 PM and brought a nice bottle of wine. They came in and immediately went over to Kali 0.6 to play/talk with her. She was sitting in her baby chair in the middle of the kitchen table. Our guest commented that she 'was the best looking table centerpiece he had ever seen'. Kali played the role perfectly, smiling and flirting with them as they came over to talk with her. She's a sucker for attention and she'll ham it up when she gets it.

We headed over to the dining room table after chatting for awhile. Kali sat at the head of the table and watched the proceedings. Mrs. Lime had some napkin rings that had fake flowers on them which Kali loved. We all gave her our napkin rings to play with and she was in heaven.

The conversation at the table shifted over to golf at some point as Mr. Guest is a golfer. He mentioned that Mrs. Guest likes to go out and play as well and mentioned to Mrs. Lime that she should come along sometime to play. The capper of the conversation was when Mrs. Guest said, "I'm not all that good at it, but I have some really pretty balls!".

My response? "Well, it always pays to look good doing it!"

There's 100 jokes to be made here after those two quotes. Feel free to choose your favorite.

Note to all new parents........

Feeding a baby can be an awfully tough thing to do at times. With that said, I offer these pearls of wisdom........

1. If the food cup/bowl is within reach of the baby, it's pretty likely that they will either stick their hand in it or flip the bowl over completely. I suggest keeping it at a safe distance.

2. If the food you have chosen is not to the baby's liking, they will not hesitate to let you know just how much they dislike your selection. I suggest moving on to a different food rather than forcing the current food. The results could be catastrophic.

3. The food that they eat comes out in the diaper or back up in the form of spit-up the exact same color it went down. It makes for easy identification of the offending materials.

4. When the baby opens its mouth during feeding, be sure that the baby is opening its mouth to eat and not for other reasons. If the baby opens its mouth to sneeze and you stick some food in there, there's a pretty good chance that food is going to be forcefully sprayed all over you and the surrounding kitchen area when the sneeze does occur. Learn from me. It's a lot easier than learning on your own.

5. Similarly, when the baby shows that it's done, do not force the issue. The baby will often take any further food deposited in their mouth and spit it all over the kitchen. Again, something you don't want to learn on your own.

I hope this saves future parents from the lessons I learned the hard way.

Kali 0.6 picture blowout........

Hanging out with her favorite buddy (yes, he really did let her lay against him).......



Falling asleep while playing........



Eating her feet.......



Hey, you're taking pictures of me!!!!!!!!



Time to put on my camera face.........



What did you just feed me???????



Lots of playtime......







Different day, more playtime......

How to make a good first impression........

The vice-president of our work group flew out to Kansas City from Denver for the day to visit and see how things were going. He is a new VP, taking over for the company president since the company is getting bigger and he needs more supervisors to help keep things running.

He was a tall guy who was very friendly and approached each person individually to introduce himself. He walked up to my cube and extended his hand for a handshake. I was sitting at my desk and turned to greet him. My right hand was in my jeans pocket. As I pulled my hand out of my pocket, a blue and orange pacifier went flying out of my pocket and hit him in the leg.

His response? "So, I guess you're a dad?"

I summoned up the courage to respond quickly, "Yep!".

That, my friends, is how you make a good first impression. Embarrassing moment, but he'll never forget me or my name.

Lots to do, little time to do it.........

My life seems to be awfully busy right now. I feel like I'm doing a whole lot of things and at the same time getting nothing done. My parents came up to hang out with us last week (actually, they didn't give us nearly as much attention as the baby got). My dad got more stuff done around the house in one day than I've got done in a couple of weeks. I remember when I had time to do those kinds of things.

Kali 0.6 now has a second tooth popping out of her bottom gums. Good to see she'll have a matching set of teeth. Should make her look nice and balanced when she smiles. We also took her swimming yesterday. She kicked and splashed the water with her hands quite a bit. After 20 minutes or so, she had her fill and we headed back to the house. It was pretty warm outside anyway, so I'm not sure any of us could have lasted much longer without melting.

I'm heading out to the Chiefs' game on Thursday night. Saw that Damon Huard is injured, so Brodie Croyle is going to get to play quite a bit. Should be fun to watch the young guy get a lot of playing time. With Huard injured, it's going to be awfully hard for Croyle to lose the starting job. He's a much more skilled player than Huard and Damon is just breaking down at his age (he's only a year older than me, but he's got a lot more wear than I do). Hopefully, Larry Johnson hurries up and gets into camp to take some heat off our offensive line and quarterbacks.

Kali 0.6 play video..........

Kali 0.6 strikes some poses for the camera........

Kali play time

Heat and sleep..........

This heat is just oppressive. I can't remember how long it's been since I've dealt with this many days of 100 degree heat. My air conditioning is getting a heavy workout. I have the thermostat set at 76 degrees right now just to let them shut off every hour or so. The dog goes outside, does his business, and then runs back inside as quickly as possible. He's wishing he didn't have a fur coat right now.

Mrs. Lime is a big fan of summer. She likes the warm weather and the time outdoors. However, even she is waving the white flag at this point. She actually mentioned to me that she was looking forward to September and the cooler weather. STOP THE PRESSES! It's got to be brutal if you hear something like that coming out of my wife's mouth.

Kali 0.6 doesn't seem to mind all that much. She just goes about her business without much concern over the weather. She continues to increase her food intake and is drinking quite a bit of formula. She's also sleeping a lot better now that she's able to get a lot of milk in her system each time she feeds. Last night, she went to bed at 8:30 PM and didn't wake up until 3:15 for a quick feeding. She then went back to sleep and was still asleep when I left for work. The regular routine is helping quite a bit to get her into a good schedule. I can handle one wake up call a night. It's the multiple ones that will drive you nuts.

Just had one of my co-workers give notice that he was leaving the group. Got more money at another job. He'd only been in this group for 9 months, so it was obviously a job he took just to keep the money flowing and not a permanent position. I really like the time flexibility that this position allows. It's great that my kid loves spending a lot of time with me. I may be sacrificing a few thousand dollars each year, but the opportunity it provides from a family perspective is priceless and couldn't be replaced.

Really good story about parenting........

It doesn't amaze me all that much that there are a lot of problems in society. It doesn't take much to be a good parent, yet so many people shun their responsibilities when it comes to this simple task. I usually try not to post links, but this story was a really good illustration of the point.......

Camp Story

That's a tooth!

Kali 0.6 has been a bit fussy over the past week or two. We received a good reason for her fussy behavior two days ago as a tooth is popping out of her bottom gums. We didn't have a tooth a day or two ago, but you can now feel it sticking out of her gums. It's actually popping out surprisingly quick. I'm guessing we'll be able to see a big, white tooth sticking out of her gums in a couple of weeks. Mrs. Lime is probably thanking her lucky stars that we switched away from breast feeding a few weeks ago. That tooth could do some major damage to Mrs. Lime if they were still breast feeding.

Version upgrade to 0.6........

Evidently, Kali 0.6 is a substantial version upgrade from the 0.5 version Mrs. Lime and I had only a week ago. Here's a few good examples......

If she needs something really badly, she'll let loose with a good, hard cry (usually involves food or sleepy). However, she's now perfecting the 'attention whine'. You parents may know what I'm talking about. If she feels like she's being attention-starved (which is usually ever few minutes), she'll let out a smaller, but consistent whimpering cry to get your attention. When you turn your head to look at her, the frown on her face quickly reverses to a smile as she realized that she now has your undivided attention. It's becoming a game at this point.

Rejection of spoon-fed food has reached a new level. Before, she would just turn her head away. Now, she's gone to more aggressive tactics. If you stick a spoon of food to her mouth when she's full or doesn't like the food, she'll pucker her lips and blow/spit that food right off the spoon. We've worked around her rejections initially by getting her to smile, which opens up her mouth for a quick spoonful. She's now become wise to that move. We'll try to get her to smile now, but she's perfected the closed-mouth smile which allows for acknowledgement of the funnies while avoiding a spoonful of food. She's also getting good at grabbing the food bowl/container and flipping it over if you don't pay attention.

Kali's leg strength has been increasing with her play-time in the Exersaucer. As a result, her legs are very strong now. I set her up against the coffee table yesterday. She was able to stand up with her arms on the table without any help. I kept my hands nearby to catch her, but she did most of the work and stood for 15-20 seconds on her own until she tried to make a step and fell back. She's also making crawling motions when on her stomach, but her arm strength is behind her legs a bit. I have no doubt that will change in the near future.

She's also acting adversely to dirty diapers. If she's got something stinky in her diapers, she usually starts fussing. She's quickly figured out that she does not like wearing dirty diapers for very long. Switch the diaper out, and Kali is happy again.

Big weekend for space geeks.........

This weekend is the annual Perseoid meteor shower. The peak of the meteor shower will be on Monday morning at 2 AM, but there's no need to stay up that late to see plenty of meteors. Meteors should be visible as early as 11 PM on both Saturday night and Sunday night. The moon will be a new moon, so the meteors should be easily viewed. Sit in a chair and look towards the northeast sky. Expect 30-45 meteors per hour around 11 PM with as many as 90-100 meteors per hour just after midnight on Monday morning. Lots of fun to watch.

Helping out........

When Mrs. Lime or I head in to put Kali 0.5 back to sleep or feed her at night, Nova 7.5 sometimes likes to follow her in to 'help out'.

Last night, Mrs. Lime went in to feed Kali and put her back to sleep around 3:00 AM. I had turned over in bed when I heard a scratching noise on the carpet next to the bed. I thought it was weird, so I looked over the side of the bed. Nova was laying down with his front paws extended and half his body under the bed. I pet him on the head and rolled back over.

After a few seconds, I heard the scratching sound again. I quickly rolled over to notice Nova using his front paws to try to pull himself out from under the bed because he wanted to head into the nursery to help out. I quickly figured out what the problem was in this instance. He usually lays down on his side while sleeping. He moves around a lot during sleep and had slid his back half under the bed. When he heard the baby, he instinctively rolled over to his tummy. Unfortunately, he must be bigger when he lays on his stomach than when he lays on his side. As a result, he couldn't go anywhere.

I got out of bed and rolled him back onto his side and easily pulled him out. He was awful happy to be out of that mess and on his way to 'help out'.

Let sleeping dogs lie.........

I got home yesterday and Mrs. Lime noted that the baby had been a bit fussy all day. She was fussy the night before as well, so we're assuming that the early signs of teething are setting in. I took the baby while Mrs. Lime did some things downstairs.

I sometimes set Kali 0.5 in my lap while I'm playing video games. I sit in a rocking chair and she likes to watch things happen on the screen. She's also become very interested in the controller that I use while playing the games. She likes to try to grab it from me and play with it. Doing everything that Mommy and Daddy do appears to be a high priority right now. She's also becoming EXTREMELY independent of late. So yesterday, I gave her the other controller (which was disconnected) and let her play with it. She moved the joysticks and smacked the buttons, just like her dad does. Pretty funny to see that she's been paying that much attention to what I was doing this whole time. She did also chew on the joystick, which I do not usually do.

After playing games for a few minutes, Kali was fussy again and rubbing her eyes. We moved to the bed in the room and laid down for a hour-long nap. I woke up and Kali was still asleep. I decided to head downstairs with her. Bad move. She stirred when we got downstairs and went into a full-on screaming fit. Yikes! She didn't want any food, bottle, playtime........nothing! Finally, I just walked around with her for a bit and she fell asleep for another 2 hours. She woke up around her bedtime, ate some cereal and formula, and went right back to sleep again. She was pretty tired evidently. Just another day in the life of a parent.

Another poker game.......

We had our monthly poker game over the weekend. I played pretty well, but just couldn't get over the hump. I took a big hit in my stack early when a player hit a straight on the last card to beat my trip 3's. I took another big hit on the very next hand when my AA was beat by two pair. So in two hands, I went from a good stack (around 3500 total) to 400 chips. I actually made a good run and built my stack back up over the next 1 1/2 hours to about 2800 chips, but I eventually got to a point where the blinds were pretty large and I had to start pushing all-in with just about anything. I ran into a situation where I had to push in against a very solid player and she flipped over A8 when I held K8. Didn't get any help and I was out.

My bad luck continued at the cash game. I got my money all-in twice with the best hand and took brutal beats on both hands. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Kali 0.5 ended up with a friend at the party. There was a baby boy about a month older than her who came to the party with his parents. Both of them were pretty excited to see each other, both screaming and wiggling in delight. Kali did most of the screaming early on, with the other baby taking over as the primary screamer later in the evening. Kali must have been tired from all the playing/screaming as she went to bed early and wasn't woke up at all by the poker noise downstairs. Her sleep schedule's starting to get a bit more regular now. 9:00 PM comes and she's usually getting pretty tired. I can relate. I'm usually pretty tired by then as well.

Trip to San Diego.........

We headed to San Diego a couple of weeks ago for a 3 day weekend to take it easy. Everyone needed a break. Once we got into San Diego, we got a rental car and picked up Blondie (Mrs. Lime's sister) and Tom, who had just arrived from Baltimore.

We headed out to our accommodations, which happened to be the Lodge at Torrey Pines. Mrs. Lime had helped us out and printed out directions to the Lodge. Tom played co-pilot and we followed the directions just as they were printed. We finally reached the end of the directions and found ourselves in the middle of a bunch of condos which bore no resemblance to the pictures of the Lodge that we had seen on the website. We were obviously a victim of false advertising, or were we??? Tom quickly figured out that Mapquest had been unable to find the exact address, so Mrs. Lime had actually printed directions to the center of the zip code where the lodge was located, not directions to the actual lodge. We got some directions from a couple of locals and finally were pointed in the right direction.

The Lodge at Torrey Pines was wonderful. Drive-up valet service. Bellboys dressed like they were still in the 1930's. They actually reminded me of the attendants at the 'Tower of Terror' rides at Disney. That ride is set in the 1930s as well. Inside, there was wonderful wood everywhere inlayed with various stone and tiles. Lots of stained glass and a beautiful view of the famed Torrey Pines Golf Course (which will host the 2008 U.S. Open) and the ocean and cliffs beyond the course. Our room had a wonderful view of a huge courtyard with large pine trees and abundant flowers. Kali's crib even came complete with a teddy bear for her stay. The room was very large as well, which was great since we had 4 people plus a baby in the room.

View from the balcony over the courtyard......



We slept well and were ready for our first day in San Diego. We headed down to the restaurant in the hotel to have some breakfast. I ordered a WONDERFUL asparagus omelet with potatoes and sourdough toast. They brought out strawberry jelly with pepper mixed into it. Sounds really odd, but it was actually quite tasty. There was a great view of the golf course from the restaurant. It was a really relaxing place to sit and eat.

For the afternoon, we headed out on a 60 foot yacht for a 4 hour cruise around the San Diego Harbor. Really nice boat. It had a ton of space above deck and 2 bedrooms and 2 baths below deck. It even had multiple flat-screen TV's on board. It was pimped out.







Needless to say, it was a lazy day on the harbor........



As we drove along the harbor, the Stars and Stripes boat that won the America's Cup sailing race passed by us......



We also passed by the USS Ronald Reagan, which was in port for some minor upkeep work. The pictures do not do the size of this carrier justice. It's enormous.......





A view of downtown, which is right on the harbor.....





A great replica schooner that takes visitors on rides around the harbor. It was built in the early 1980s........



A picture of the Del Coronado Hotel from the water. It's on the National Register of Historic Places........



This man is actually riding the wind on a sail. Basically, the bottom rope of the sail is allowed to drop in the water. Then, a person sits down or stands on that rope. When the wind blows, the sail and rope rise, pulling the person out of the water. It's hard to see with the boats in the background, but if you look closely below the sail, there's a person floating in mid-air on a rope hanging from the sail........



Some pictures of the USS Midway, which is now a floating museum.......







A statue commemorating the famous kiss picture in NYC at the end of WWII......



In the center of this photo is the boat that played the central role in the 'Master and Commander' movie starring Russell Crowe. To the left of that is a WWII-era sub, which is now a floating museum.......



In this picture, we were passed by a large Navy cruiser. It was out on a cruise to show off the capabilities of the boat to Navy family members, hence the reason for so many people on the boat......





After a long day on the water, we were ready for a nap.......



We went to a nice restaurant in Del Mar for dinner with a great view of the ocean. During dinner, I ate quickly and then took Kali 0.5 from Mrs. Lime so she could eat her meal. As I was walking around the restaurant keeping Kali busy, a lady motioned me to come over to their table. I walked over to the table where a couple in their 60s was sitting.

Lady: I just wanted to tell you how nice it was to see a father taking care of their child.

Me: She's easy to take care of.

Lady: Back when I was raising my children, fathers wouldn't lift a finger to help out taking care of their kids! We were on our own!

Husband: Yeah, we didn't have to do all that stuff 40 years ago! We were too busy playing cards and stuff!

Lady: (glares at husband)

Me: Well, I don't think my wife would be too happy with me if I didn't help out here and there.

Lady: Well, she's a very lucky mom. Your daughter will love you for paying attention to her.

Me: (laughing) I've taped this conversation and will replay it to her to remind her of that fact.

Lady: (laughing) Good! (shoots glare back at husband)


The next day, we headed over to La Jolla (pronounced la-hoi-ya) to do some shopping, walking and eating. There are several blocks of shops and restaurants in the area. There's also a big concentration of art galleries. We walked around the area for awhile and then had a great lunch on a rooftop high above the ocean and the public beach below. Great food and easily the best fish tacos I've ever had.

Here's a pic from the street overlooking the ocean and some shops in La Jolla......



After lunch, we headed back to the pool at the lodge. Great pool with cabanas located right on the world-renown golf course........



Next to the pool was a wonderfully manicured croquet lawn, which was always being used by guests........



View of the first tee from the pool. Note the brown area beyond the tee, which is a large valley that falls to the ocean. More of the golf course is visible beyond the valley.......



We finished off the day at an Asian restaurant where they brought us all kinds of different foods to try out. Some of it was really good, while other parts of it was not all that good. It was fun to try out the different foods. It was different than anything we have at home. We headed home for another night of solid rest.

On the third day, we headed back down to the restaurant for another fine breakfast. We had some time to burn before Blondie and Tom's flight left, so we headed over to Castillo National Monument.

Castillo was a Mexican explorer who was one of the first explorers of the west coast of America and landed on the point of land where Castillo National Monument is now located. At the top of the hill is a monument to him and a lighthouse that was in use for most of the 1800s, which is now a maritime and lighthouse museum. Far below the monument, you can see the ocean and some boats........





In this picture, the Naval base is visible. It occupies a large portion of the land strip that separates the harbor from the ocean. I should also mention that any recreational boats that stray too closely to the base are quickly run off by naval patrol boats, which we saw happen numerous times......



A couple of great ocean views.......





You can faintly see land in the distance in this photo. That's actually the mountains around Tijuana, Mexico, which is only about 20 miles from San Diego.



Some pictures of the tide pools at the base of the hill......





We also went over to go inside the Del Coronado Hotel. Pretty neat woodwork inside the main lobby......





Kali enjoyed the view from the restaurant......



We took Blondie and Tom back to the airport for their flight home. We had another 3 hours or so to burn until we had to get back to the airport, so we headed back up the hill to go to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. It's a wonderful military cemetery overlooking the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Naval base on the other side. Over 50,000 men and women are interred in the cemetery. One thing that I did note is that there are a lot of soldiers buried in this cemetery who did not die in combat. It would appear that this great vista overlooking the Pacific Ocean with Navy F-18's flying overhead and Navy ships floating below is a popular final resting place.

The cemetery holds soldiers killed from all combat operations. Of special note is that there are quite a few combat fatalities from the Spanish-American War (due to the proximity to Mexico and the battles). Also, in the early 1900s, the USS Bennington steamship had 2 steam boilers on board unexpectedly explode, resulting in the death of 65 crew members and severe burns on the 46 survivors. Many of the dead from that explosion are in this cemetery and a marker memorializes the event.....



Here's some of the rows of graves which are always great in pictures because of their arrangement, much like rows of soldiers lining up to march into battle. Two things to note are the ocean views from the cemetery and the palm trees, which you don't often see in a military cemetery........













Note the stone in the foreground with the wife's name on the back of the stone. This is pretty common in this cemetery. The military allows the spouses to be buried together. The only catch is that they are actually buried on top of each other. The first person to die is buried at 9 feet deep while the second is buried 7 feet deep. Arlington National Cemetery actually allows '3-deep' burials on it's plots to save space........



These two men received the highest military honor: The Medal of Honor.......



This was a tribute by family in front of a grave. Evidently it was the soldier's birthday. The family and friends left multiple birthday cards and a partially eaten cupcake with a candle in it.......



Another great tribute that we noticed was the number of graves that had been 'kissed', likely by the spouse of the soldier. Some had left multiple signs of love all over the gravestone from their visits to see their loved ones........









We spent a couple of hours at the cemetery and then took our flight home after a weekend filled with lots of relaxation and fun. We had a great time.