Meeting Bennett in person

Merry Christmas! It's been a busy week for us so far. We went to Sarah's Grandma's birthday party, met our friends Liz and Jeff for dinner, drove to Boston to see Bennett, came back for Christmas Eve with the Petersons, ate a great Christmas dinner, and just caught our breath this morning.

Finn has seemed as tired as we are napping more than he has in quite some time. That hasn't kept him from playing with all the new toys and books that he got. He's had a fantastic time with a xylophone, a piano, a drum, blocks, more blocks, touch books, a shirt, and a sweater. His first word was "Thanks!".


Nana's birthday party gave a good opportunity for Finn and great Nana to hang out. He got to see his cousin Kate and Emily and aunt and uncle too. There were touching toasts from Nana's daughters, but to me the show was stolen by the best cheese plate I've ever had and duck breast slices on bread with orange marmalade.

The morning after the party we headed east to see little Bennett and his family. The rip went well and reminded us about the life new parents. The parents never get much sleep even though the baby sleeps almost all the time. We found it nice that those days are over.



For another couple those days are about to come. Our friends Liz and Jeff are expecting their first child this spring. We had dinner with them and Liz's parents to catch up and for them to see what fun a kid can be first hand.

The trip photos will be posted more completely when it is over. This is just a mid-trip update.

What's this wintertime favorite?

Hello Bennett

Congratulations to our friends Jill and Rich who just had a baby boy named Bennett. He was born December 15th and weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long. It looks like he's got some nice hair already in place. Hair is good for those Boston winter nights.


We'll be headed out to say "hi" to the new guy next week. We'll be sure that all our diseases are cleared up by then. The recent lack of posting is directly attributable to one of the family being sick which dramatically reduces disposable time to do things like blog.

Also remember to check out Wait a Minute and Yell for Help from Rich's Farmhouse Films. If you like it you should get a t-shirt from the online store. There's a new mouth to feed.

How big is Finn?

Keep all of those steriod users out of the Hall of Fame!

I'm joining the cry to keep all of the players who used steroids out of the hall of fame. Some were clearly destined for a spot and need extra pushing to keep them out. I'm talking about that portly pitcher making the headlines from Fox Sports to ESPN Deportes. You know who you are, Bart Miadich.

Page 212 of the newly released report says
Radomski described Miadich as a frequent purchaser of small quantities of testosterone and Winstrol from 2002 to 2005. Radomski also said that Miadich advised him that he was getting human growth hormone elsewhere. According to Radomski, Miadich called him regularly, including when Miadich was playing in Japan in 2005, when he called to buy performance enhancing substances for use during the upcoming off-season.

My personal goal is to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. If he gets in I will take it as a personal assault. It will be tough given his career stats:

Year Tem W L GM S CG INPI H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP IBB BK ERA WHIP
+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+
2001 ANA 0 0 11 0 00 10.0 6 5 05 02 08 11 0.0 01 000 0 04.5 1.400
2003 ANA 0 0 01 0 00 02.0 5 4 04 00 01 03 1.0 01 000 0 18.0 3.000

Let's remember Bart Miadich as proof that massive steroids use can't turn just anyone into a great baseball player. And Let's keep him out of the Hall.

Christmas in the City

Sarah is sick and yesterday Finn and I needed to get out of the house to let her rest. That's pretty easy to do downtown. I packed up my hockey skates and set off with the boy.

We went to Fountain Square first to see if the ice was OK for skating. The rain had really messed it up so we decided to skip the skating and go on to the next activity. We watched some people working on the fountain. It looked like they were changing the lighting, maybe hanging lights from the lady's hands as I've heard they used to do.

Next, Finn was amazed by the display in the entry to the building that stands where the Albee Theater once stood. He stared and pointed at the giant Christmas tree and waterfalls of twinkling lights.

After a while we went through the skywalk to the Hilton lobby where there is a gingerbread village of downtown Cincinnati. I didn't expect Finn to think much of it, but he pointed at it and said something in baby language.

Next we stopped in at the Dixie Terminal Building whose lobby is most known from its appearance in Rainman.

Our main event was the holiday train display at the Duke Energy building (pictured above). The trains were a big hit. There are 50 engines, 300 cars and almost 40 feet of track. There is even a Thomas the Tank Engine train.

The whole trip wore Finn out and as we headed home, he laid his head down on my shoulder and dozed off.

Finn's Friends

On Saturday, Finn had Elena over to play and later went to Rowan's house. By the expressions on their faces in the picture above, you can see that Elena and Finn had a great time. They played a game called "not sharing" or "gimme that" for a while. Finn also had lunch while Elena played by herself. He's a great host.

After lunch and playtime, Sarah and I took the kids on a walk to fountain square which was packed with people who were there for the skating, shopping, Santa, and fireworks. We took some pictures in front of the big tree and made our way back home.

After Elena's dad came by to pick her up, we made our way up to Dayton for a hockey game followed by dinner at Rowan's. The hockey team won again bringing their record to 6-2-1.



Finn and Rowan played the same games together on the floor in the kitchen. After a while the boys got tired and went to bed.

Sarah and I often talk about our memories of what the adults might have been up to after the kids went to bed. In our young minds, at this point the night gets crazy. Clowns appear, games begin and endless amount of candy is thrown around.

Now on the other side, we see that it is much more mundane. The parents ate lemon squares and agreed that we were tired. After trying to prolong the evening, we gave up, scooped up the boy, and went home.

Dorktastic calculation

Angela asked about the expected fuel efficiency difference for a 300 ft uphill drive. I'm a dork and thought, hmmm...I wonder.

Turns out a gallon of gas has 125,000 BTUs of energy which is about 97,000,000 ft-lbs. Assuming a standard internal combustion engine efficiency of 20% (thanks Gary Smith), there is almost 20,000,000 ft-lbs of produced energy from the car.

Now, given my car's empty curb weight plus my 140 pound nerd frame we have to move 3000 pounds up 300 feet. Sounds like that is 900,000 ft-lbs or the equivalent of 0.046 gallons of gas.

Then, if my overall average gas mileage is about 49 mpg, I would use 1.22 gallons each way. However uphill would require 1.22+0.046 and back would be 1.22-0.046. That would have me expect to get 47.2 on the way to work and 50.9 on the way home.

So no. The difference is more than I would expect. And I'm still a dork.

Dayton is uphill

The new car is working fine. Here is a picture of me being a hip-hop master in our garage.

The hybrid technology is pretty good. I'm averaging about 48-50 mpg per tank. What I have noticed is that my mileage going to work in about 45 mpg and coming home I get about 53.

Now, I know I am not going faster to work than coming home, so the difference must be the change in elevation between Cincinnati and Dayton.

So that is the great benefit of my new car; I figured out that Dayton, on the Miami River, is higher in elevation than Cincinnati, near where the Miami flows into the Ohio river.

The second benefit is that I get about 25% better mileage than the old Civic. At $3-4 per gallon that is almost a dollar a gallon cheaper. That helps when you commute 120 miles a day.

Christmas tree fun

We went around the block to City Roots, the best urban garden store in history, to get a Christmas tree on Saturday. We found the perfect one and brought it home. We estimated that it was 2 Finns tall.



After letting it settle, we decorated it. In this case "we" means Sarah and I since Finn's not all that helpful yet. It made us tired. The cats have ignored it so far. Let's hope that continues.



The next morning we brought him out and told him that Santa came and brought our tree much like how the grinch steals the tree in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.



He seems to like all Christmas trees including ours. We went down to Carew Tower and saw the displays there. He liked all the lights and dancing bears. He even saw the real Santa. He was hanging out he mechanical bears "playing" music a la Chuck E. Cheese. Just like the stories.

What a difference 34 weeks makes

On Thanksgiving, Finn got to play with his 2nd cousin Kai. The last time we saw Kai was during our first trip to the States with Finn back when Finn was 12 weeks and Kai was 6 weeks old. Here's a picture from that trip:

And from this one (in the same chair):

Both times, the kids were difficult to keep in the chair. The first time it was because neither boy had any control over his own body. Now they have control and know for sure that they don't want to sit anywhere long enough to pose for a photo shoot.

Sarah's Rant of the Month

Several weeks ago I got a letter from the friendly folks at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles asking me to provide them with proof that I have auto insurance. A portion of the letter went like this:

You have been randomly selected to verify that you have coverage for the vehicle listed above. We are requesting proof that you did have insurance or other financial responsibility coverage for this vehicle on the proof of insurance coverage date of this notice.

And here's the best part:

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. However, obtaining proof of financial responsibility benefits all Ohio drivers by reducing the chances that you will be in an accident with an uninsured driver.

The only way this could have been more ironic is if Beach himself had received the letter to provide proof of coverage for the car that no longer exists due to an ACCIDENT WITH AN UNINSURED DRIVER. Here's some salt to rub in your head wound, sir. If Beach had gotten the letter, I think he would have been well within his right to provide, as his proof of insurance, a copy of the accident report and a picture of himself with his shiny new car, courtesy of our own insurance and a hefty portion of our own hard-earned cash.

But, since I am the one who received the letter, and since I am a law-abiding citizen, and because they would suspend my license if I didn't, I paid my $.41 to send the BMV a copy of my insurance card right quick. I did, however, resist the urge to write in the margins of the letter a few of the shortcomings with this little program they've got going. I've done the same before on our tax returns, but Beach made me start over on a clean form. I thought I'd share my comments here instead.

First, I would be willing to bet that a significant proportion of uninsured drivers are also unlicensed drivers, like Beach's friend Maria Carmen (From the police report: "Driver license number? None yes - Mexico"). If they're unlicensed, they're probably driving cars that are either unregistered or registered to someone else (as in Maria's case). How is the BMV going to find these people?

Second, when uninsured and/or unlicensed drivers do cause accidents, why are they not arrested? If I don't send proof of insurance within 21 days I lose my license, but Maria Carmen slams into the back of my husband's car and gets to go home with nothing more than a slap on the wrist?! I know the BMV can't put people in jail, but maybe the police should get in on this, too.

Third, my guess would be that a lot of the people whose licenses end up being suspended as part of this program probably have insurance, but didn't send in the proof because they're too busy and missed the deadline, they lost the letter in a mass of junk mail, or never got the letter or got it late from that other well-oiled government machine, the USPS.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm done thinking about this. Anyway, I'm definitely in favor of protecting Ohio motorists (the ones who follow the rules). I just think it's clear from our recent experience that their system of checks is broken.

Lola wanted a picture of Finn playing in the snow

He's a tough guy.

Thanksgiving trip

Thanksgiving was long and busy this year. It started last Saturday after a Centerville Hockey game in Columbus. After a one-sided win we packed into the front wheel drive sled and headed to the great white North arriving at 4:30 Sunday morning.

Sunday was a day of rest and recovery from the overnight trip. Monday we went over to my grandparent's house and had the day described in the earlier post. That night the grandparents watched Finn and we went downtown for a date of Himalayan food. Tuesday we went out with Finn with some friends from high school. Cailin is expecting her own little one in March, so she got to see all the fun to be had. We also met Kyle's brother's little boy, Benjamin. What a cute kid! We had plans to go out Wednesday night without the boy, but the snow made the roads a little risky so we stayed in.

Thursday we went to our aunt and uncle's house for a big feast. Finn played with cousin Kai and really liked his bouncy seat. Finn also was very into the Packer's dissection of the Lions. Bring on the Cowboys.

Enjoy the photos.

Early November photos

The first half of November was warm and that allowed practicing crawling both outdoors and in. Here are a few pictures from around the house and down at the park from a few weeks back.

It's a Thanksgiving miracle

Our trip to the great white north became as expected when we opened our eyes to the winter wonderland that appeared overnight.



Last year, I had to work and Sarah cooked a turkey in a mini-sized oven. We heard the Germans on the radio laughing about the American's Danketag. It is nice to be not working and to be at home with family.

Happy thanksgiving to all!

Greetings from Wisconsin

Finn was wiped out today from all the fun of visiting the great-grandparents. He got the taste of his Wisconsin heritage by eating a butter burger and watching us eat frozen custard.

After lunch we returned to their house and Finn was chased around the floor by Grandpa while Grandma, Sarah and I played Yahtzee. Perhaps Grandma uses loaded dice, because she scored over 500 points.

We have the lucky chance of seeing two Packer games in less than a week. They handled the Panthers easily and are all set up to crush the Lions on Thanksgiving day. Perhaps you are wondering about the hometown Bengals. I noticed that the Packers' bandwagon was passing by about week 3 and we hopped back on. I don't want Finn to pin his heart to an awful team without a hope of winning that's just a step up from the Dolphins.

Finn's a left-handed shot

Finn loves playing with the hockey stick he got at the game last week. He holds it like a lefty, but you can see he makes the mistake of dropping his top hand. That's easily fixable, so I'm not worried.

We're thinking of getting him double runner skates so he can skate on the ice being set up down on Fountain Square. He may need to learn to walk first, but that's debatable.

The Shining: Redux

Kubrick Schmubrick

Hockey season starts

The games have started for the year. The opening weekend had Centerville going 1-0-1. The tie was a little disappointing because the lead was lost on a last-second goal by Talawanda. Still, the team is very strong and things are looking very positive this year.

This was also Finn's first hockey game ever. He seemed interested in the movement on the ice and likes the miniture stick one of the moms gave him. He must be a northerner at heart since he didn't mind the cold rink temperatures.

Rowan and his family came out to watch the game as did Joe and Melissa of The Beck's Files. Being from Minnesota, Joe and Melissa had been hankering a hockey game. So it seems everyone got their wish.

What's good for the goose

"I haven't had to wax my eyebrows since July. I guess all those years of yanking the hairs out by the root have killed the follicles."

"Hm."

"Maybe you should start waxing your beard. Then after 10 years or so you wouldn't have to shave or worry about facial hair ever again. Well, except for maybe a pluck here and there."

"Um - no."

"Hey, I'm just thinking of you. I know how much you hate to shave."

"That's enough thinking of me."

Leaps and bounds

Finn turned 10 months old last Thursday and to celebrate this double-digit milestone, we visited the doctor for a checkup and flu shot. The boy is now 17 3/4 pounds and 29 inches tall, which puts him in the 50th percentile for height and the 5th percentile for weight compared to other boys his age. Average height and really skinny - sounds like someone else I know...

Anyway, the doctor said developmentally Finn is doing "awesome" - ahead of schedule, even. She may say that to all the moms, but I'm pretty sure she was confirming what we've known all along - that the kid's a genius. And good-looking, to boot.

So far, month 11 has been eventful for Finn (and us). Since he started crawling 2 1/2 weeks ago, he's gone from being unsure and wobbly to racing all over the house and getting into everything (cat food and water dishes are favorites). He sprouted 3 new teeth in 10 days and the drooling has subsided a bit (for now). He babbles all day long - usually at the top of his lungs, but has also been whispering "dadada" as he scoots across the floor. And, he learned how to pull himself up to his feet. The one problem with this new skill is that he hasn't figured out how to get down once he's standing up. The other morning over the monitor I heard him move around and then suddenly start crying. I went into his bedroom to discover him hanging horizontally just a couple of inches above the mattress, gripping the crib rail for dear life. I wish I had gotten a picture of that. I did get one of him standing up:

With the advent of all this new activity has also come a fatigue Finn has never known. He's bone-tired at the end of every day and has been sleeping a solid 10-11 hours a night. And when naptime comes around, it doesn't matter where we are, we wind up with this:

Finn's fancy new hat

I was going to put the pictures of Rowan's visit to our place a week or so ago, but they were identical to the ones shown on The Daily Squink so I thought it may not be necessary. Instead I'll talk about Finn's new hat. It's a blue corduroy messenger cap and it's quite fetching. His lady friend thinks it's pretty nice too. They each wore their charming hats on a recent walk to protect them from the cool morning air.


Sarah and Finn are off to New England, home of the world champion Boston Red Sox who are originally from Cincinnati. That's not quite right; the Cincinnati Red Stockings were disbanded and a new team formed in Boston the next year called the Boston Red Stockings that was comprised of largely the same players. They eventually became the Boston (Milwaukee and Atlanta) Braves. An American League team formed in Boston in 1901 and changed their name to the Red Sox in 1907 to honor the original Boston American League team. I guess that I'm just searching for a way to connect Cincinnati to a winning baseball team.

As I was saying, Finn got a new hat. It's blue.

Finn's new front yard

The city of Cincinnati, Hamilton county, and The Banks working group finally agreed today on a development plan. This is huge news. For the past 10 years there has been only talk about what the riverfront could be, while the reality has been a giant dirt patch.



Here is an aerial view of the plan. Beginning in early 2008, a massive mixed-use development will be built between the football and baseball stadiums. This is fantastic for us. A question we often get about having a kid downtown is "don't you want to him to be able to play outside?" Well, here's our front yard. Not too shabby, huh?

We already have the park at Sawyer Point, but this new addition will create a 2 mile long riverfront park. There will be a huge playground and a giant waterfall/fountain (below). It also looks like there will be a streetcar built that will run directly from in front of our house to The Banks. No long walks hauling strollers, just hop on a train.



I am a little jealous of Finn. Looking back, he won't remember the fact that he had to wait for the construction to be complete. He'll just remember the fun times he had growing up in the city.

Copy of Police Report Obtained

There were a few interesting points to the report.

1. Blame was squarely assessed to the woman that hit me.
2. She was ticketed for ACDA (being too close) and not having a licence, no mention of insurance.
3. The guy in front of me wrote that he stopped to "wate" for the bus.
4. I filled in my phone number and address wrong. Perhaps my head trauma was worse than I suspected.

Here is the woman-who-hit-me's version of the story. I thought it was a Haiku until there were 10 syllables in the last line.

"The guy stopped. It's not my fault.

the guy in the truck

I have to take my baby to my doctor."

The police seemed to overlook the fact THAT SHE HAS NO INSURANCE AND THAT IS AGAINST THE LAW!!!! I'm glad they sited her for following too closely for conditions, but negligent operation of a motor vehicle seems more the case. Given that it was about 5 seconds between my stopping and getting hit and she was going 30+ miles an hour, her following distance was at least 120 feet. That should be plenty far if you are pay attention or use your brake. By the way, they checked her brakes and they did work.

Here is what I should have given as my statement had I ignored giving details and caught on to the Haiku requirement.

Morning mist, stopped behind bus

Bang and shattered glass

Quiet, smoke, and bloody head

October Photo Dump

October was a month of excitement. Finn and Elena have been spending lots of time together usually walking (strollering) and occasionally playing together at either one's house.

Food has proven exciting for Finn as well. He has discovered the American love of Italian food moving spaghetti and lasagna to the top of his favorites list. Beans and rice as fun for smearing on your head.

Fancy toys were ignored for the wonders of things hung from the inside of a laundry basket. The "magic box" has provided endless minutes of entertainment.

Finn's new found mobility put him on more equal round with the cats. He holds their toy and shakes it, but is arms aren't long enough to really have it work right. He can approach the cats and has touched them a couple times so they have learned to walk a slightly larger radius around the boy when passing.

It looks like the top tooth teeth will make an entrance very soon. All the warning signs are here. We are worried that he may be dehydrating since he loses about a quart of drool per hour.

Enjoy the snaps!

Mr. Turtle Crawls

Finn dressed up as a turtle for the big Holloween festivities this year. We also dressed him up as a turtle for our own enjoyment. Here's a video of him in ation. You can see he is still turtle slow trying to move around, but is cute the whole time.

We also went down to Foutain Square with our neighbors to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". It was finally cold and autumnal; overnight lows about 37 degrees. Covered in layers of cloth and foam padding, the kids hardly noticed. We were glad that the cold drinks they normally serve were supplemented by hot chocolate. Little Elena, the hot chick, was Finn's date.

Finn was very into the show, being out after dark, and all the kids running around. When we got back he went right to sleep and stayed asleep until 8:30 this morning. 12 HOURS! That treat is much welcomed after the tricks of the last couple days. If that is the result, there is ikely to be more crawling, costumes, and cimena in the future.

Why I so rarely post blog entries

and never get to bed before 11:30.


My life has been a good example of Murphy's Law lately. The things that go wrong for me are minor, but they still add up to an explanation for the title of this post. Take today, for example. Beach was at hockey practice tonight, as he has been many nights over the past few weeks. Finn was happily splashing in his bath when he stopped, screwed up his face, grunted, and just like that we had poopy bath water, complete with undigested corn. I was really hoping we could get him potty-trained without having to deal with this, but that just wasn't in the cards. I grabbed Finn out of the tub and plopped him in Beach's sink to rinse him off, noticing how dirty the sink was. Sidenote: Beach, why is your sink so much dirtier than mine? I clean them at the same time. Anyway, if Beach had been home, I would have told him to clean up the tub and the sink while I took care of Finn. But, since Beach was not home, that stuff had to wait. So, after Finn was cleaned up, diapered, pajama-ed, fed, teeth-brushed, read to, and sleeping away soundly, I went back to the dirty work. Once the poop-water was out of sight, I scrubbed down the tub. After I was done, I thought, I should just clean the rest of the bathroom while I've got all the cleaning stuff out (even though it's already 9:30 - starting to see the problem here?) As I was cleaning the toilet, I accidentally mixed a bleach cleaner with some other cleaner and created some fantastic fumes. When the lightheadedness had passed, I grabbed the bottle of Tilex for the sinks and the cap came off, spilling most of the contents on the floor, into the cats' water dish, and all over my pants. Now I want to yell, except Beach isn't home to be the target, and I can't even blame him for the loose cap, since I was probably the last one who used the Tilex. So, I take off the pants and wash them, wipe the stinging chemicals off my legs, and finish up the bathroom. Then it's on to the kitchen, where I've left a whole day's worth of dishes and Finn has left half of his dinner on the floor. I clean up the kitchen and make my way back to the bedroom at 10:30. But not before pouring myself a glass of wine. In a plastic cup - just in case. And that is why I rarely write blog entries.

Oh yeah, and all night I was wondering what smelled like puke. Turns out it was me, from when Finn vomited his mango dessert on me when I got him out of the tub.

But things aren't all bad - in fact, we've had an exciting week around here. Everyone's mobile - Beach has a new car, and Finn has figured out how to crawl. He's not a speed-demon yet, but he's shown improvement in the short 28 hours that have passed since he first made his way five feet across his room to grab a bottle of baby lotion (this is the thing that motivates him to go further than he's ever gone before?). I'm sure glad I moved all of our guns, knives, drugs, and rat poison into a baby-proof cabinet this week.

More photos of car and bloody head

For those that are into that sort of thing, you can see the inside of my head and more wreckage in this photo set.

We decided to get a new car

I was driving to work in my little Civic coupe yesterday and stopped for a bus at a bus stop. There were two other cars ahead of me who also stopped behind the bus. After waiting for a few seconds and then was rammed from behind by a giant Ford Explorer who seemingly never even slowed down.

My car was pushed forward about 20 feet ending up with my hood under the pick-up truck ahead of me. That truck was also pushed forward and hit the car in front of him. Altogether, there were 4 cars damaged, but the bus was not hit. The firemen had to pry apart my car from the one that hit me.

On the inside of the car, some large piece of plastic flew forward and hit me in the back of my head and landed in the passenger's seat. It cut the back of my head pretty good, one cut of 2-3 inches and another about 1 inch long. I have pictures if you would want to see. I was leaning forward when I was hit, so my body flung back into the seat that is permanently stuck in a reclined position now. I then bounced forward against the seat belt causing bruising to my hip and shoulder. I seemed to have a mild concussion too, but nothing too bad.

The driver was a woman without a driver's licence or insurance. She also spoke very little English. My insurance will cover my car and medical bills, so I'm OK that way too. The police issued a ticket for driving without a licence or insurance, but said that they could not arrest her because they did not see her driving.

When the fire department came the guy asked it I needed to go to the hospital. I said that I couldn't see the cut on the back of my head and asked what he thought. He said that the bleeding was stopped and I could just go to an urgent care center to get a stitch or maybe just a butterfly bandage.

When we got to my doctor's office, both the RN and the doctor were surprised that they didn't say I should go to the hospital. They also said that it shouldn't be up to person who just suffered head trauma to make a decision like that. Pretty good point. They ended up putting 4 stitches in the smaller cut and one long running stitch in the longer one.

So today we are off to look for a new car. Probably another Civic. They seem to be a pretty safe car.

Visit back to Wisconsin

My cousins Chuck and Andi came out to visit Wisconsin so we decided to take the weekend trip up again to see them. We enjoyed a lazy Columbus Day weekend watching the Badgers and the Packers lose. Biscuit the dog (seen above) seemed to exemplify the laziness.

Yes, it was Columbus Day. If you're not a government employee you probably had no reason to know. Lanny even still had school.

This trip marked the last time we need to stop to pay the Illinois tolls. We ordered an I-pass and can now drive straight through the tolls. The tolls are even less for I-pass holders. Hoo-ray.

We had a fun time and can't wait to go back up for Thanksgiving. The photos are here.

Back in Germany?

Big beers, outdoor eating, sausages, Bavarian flags waving the breeze...Am I back in Der Vaterland? Nein! We're at the Hofbrauhaus Kentucky. We scooted on our bikes across the river and had a dinner out a couple weeks back. Outdoor dining is good with the boy since he tends to throw food on the ground. There's less guilt if that's outside. While there, Finn had his first meat, a slow roasted chicken. While in German this would have been called a Hänchen or little chicken. It was delicious in any language.

We also started swimming lessons. Finn learned to have water in is face and, to a lesser degree, in his lungs. A fun time was had by all.

The final big event of the weekend was the Bengals party at Fountain Square. Finn asked to get his picture taken with the Bengals. I thought it was cheesy, but I acquiesced. Too bad the Bengals are no good. At least the Packers are doing well.

Not many pictures, but what we do have is here.

New New Blog Revealed

Ok, I changed it. I admit that it wasn't optimal.

New Name/Look Revealed!

Firmly back home in Cincinnati, the Strangers in a Deutschland title seemed not as applicable. Though I still stand that it was a great title for us, especialy pre-Finn. The new name maintains some literary reference as well as the geographical reference, but brings it into today's mise en scène.

With the new title, a new look. Perhaps it will change again, but I like it as a starting position.

The blog is dead! Long live the blog!

Sick of being behind on our posts

OK, so I'm just throwing all of September into one post so that we'll be up to date. It was a busy month. Here are the pictures to go along with the commentary.

At the beginning of the month our friends offered to share their Monday Night Football tickets with us. We left Finn with a baby sitter, which was the first time he stayed with a non-relative. The Bengals won the game, their last win so far this year.

We also went to Indiana with Jeff, Angela and Rowan. We all went out to eat and Finn thought dropping his pieces of bagel on the floor would be real funny. It was. Until we had to pick them up.

We also all went up to visit my work. Emilee brought Lola down from the day care and they spent time playing together. Finn noticed Joe's mistuning model and thought it was colorful.

We've been going on bike rides each weekend. I got bikes for us for Sarah's birthday and Grandma Jill got a bike seat for Finn for us. Finn looks cute with his ducky helmet and car next to us at red lights always smile.

Oktoberfest Cincinnati was last weekend. It down a few blocks from us and we brought Finn down to retaste his German days. It actually isn't dissimilar to real German fests and had the best Strudel we've ever had.

Our friend Kyle came up for the weekend too. We haven't seen him in a long time so it was good to catch up. Finn to a natural liking to him right away.

So that just leaves what we did this weekend. I think I'll leave that for another post.

Strangers Aquire New Technology

Our blog recognized the visitor stats presented by The Daily Squink as an awesome capability that we did not have. Last night I added similar capability to our own blog.

I noticed that there are a few additional capabilities that are very neat. I can see what web page people came from (thanks Katie Lemaire!) and where they are coming from. Since yesterday we have have visitors from the locations in the map at right. Hello!

We think we have settled on a new blog name. I need to work on a new layout before unveiling the new since the blue and orange is very Deutschland.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys...

Our decision to not get cable means we need to find alternate forms of entertainment. Tonight we had a real-life Grand Theft Auto event to watch from the safety of our home 60 feet in the air.

First a note on the local crime. The most recent and less recent crime statistics show that the downtown crime rate are consistently declining. We are very safe in our place and these events are VERY infrequent and are geographically close simply because we live on a major road in the heart of a city.

The city is also loud. When we heard some shouting and police sirens we ignored them for a while. When I finally got up and went to the window I heard the police say, "what I want you to do is get your hands out on the car door!" The "gentleman" complied and eventually got out of the car and backed over to the curb where he knelt down. Twelve cop cars and as many police with their guns trained on you can help get the unwilling to comply.

After they searched the car, a woman got out of a police car, got into the red car and drove away. I did note that she drove away still talking on her cell phone (without a hands-free set). She's lucky that it isn't illegal here, yet. The police would have nabbed her too.

They are very, very good police here. We have one of the lowest response times in the country and a high quality police force despite some publicized controversy. Thanks guys.

North Carolina

I had thought that maybe our traveling would not be as much as it was back in Germany. It turns ot we haven't had many weekends when we haven't had a guest or traveled ourselves.

This week (back a few weeks) we went to the outer banks of North Carolina. I caught Finn a new friend. They had so much fun together. Crabby and he would go swinging, crawl sideways, and even rip apart dead fish together. In this picture Crabby almost fell out of the swing, but Finn caught him. He was quite upset when we boiled and ate Crabby. Well, actually I guess they both were.

We saw the last wild horses in the East on the beach just after the guide told us that we wouldn't see any. He said if we had come five minutes sooner or later we wouldn't have seen them. Right before we left Finn wan't a five minute sip of milk. That put us right on track to see the horses, thanks Finn!

Finn built sand castles and blocked the ocean from hitting our tent as the tide rose. Hanging out with Jill and Rich was a ton of fun, and if we have a vacation next year, they'll have a babyof their own by then. It's a baby-bonanza!

Here's the pics.

Visiting Wisconsin

Our visit to Wisconsin was the first trip back since this spring. Needless to say, Finn's changed quite a bunch since he was 3 months old. Still it is fun to compare him to everyday objects, like a bottle of ketchup (see pictures).

We drove more in the daylight and less at night than our previous drives. That reinforced the need to drive overnight. Our 8 hour dive became 12 hour odyssey.

The weather was nice if rainy. The cool air was appreciated and we even got to put Finn's cool jean jacket on.

There was the requisite game of scrabble, which Finn decided to join in on. There was also a lot of playing on the floor. It seems when a baby plays on the floor, everyone else joins in from uncles to great grandparents.

It was a short visit, but we'll be back in October when cousins Chuck and Andi come out.

Back in the 'Nati

So back in Cincinnati, a bunch of things happened. We went out to the hose track where Finn got to see the horses and start a gambling addiction. He won big betting on a horse called "A Fin Gets You Ten".

He spent his winnings on the smallest bike helmet we could find. I got Sarah and I bikes for her birthday and the Wisconsin grandparents sent a bike seat, though we wouldn't let him ride until he got a helmet. He liked the one with ducks on it.

Memé visited for a while before she had to start this year's teaching. It was quite a nice visit and gave us free baby sitting for a night out on the town.

We also went to the outlet mall where I got new pants and a couple shirts. I was done in 10 minutes and the ladies still wanted to shop. Finn and I decided to kill some time together and he showed me how much of a boy he was. He disliked shopping so much he'd rather gnaw his foot off and gave it a good try. Good thing this was before his first tooth popped thrugh.

That's right, he has a tooth now! He now has as many as most people we met driving through West Virginia.

These photos take us through August 17th, so we're less than a month behind now. We're slowly making our way back to current time.

The photos are here.

From Virginny to Massachusetts and finally home

Continuing the effort to archive the complete adventure, here is the section of our trip from the end of our stay in Williamsburg, visiting Massachusetts, and the drive back home. The photos can be seen here.

Sarah left Virginia a couple days earlier than I did to give her extra time with the boy to visit friends and family. She flew up to the Berkshires (actually Albany because the Berkshires don't have an airport) and had the mandatory meal at the Golden Eagle with its amazing view.

I flew into Boston and Sarah drove out to pick me up. She showed Finn off to our friends Liz and Jeff, Jill and Rich, and brother Josh. Josh lives up on the north shore, which gave an excellent chance to introduce Finn to fried clams at the Woodman's.

Once back in Adams, we had a big cookout with the family and enjoyed the much cooler New England summer as compared to the Dixie Heat of Virginia. Finn watched the fun corn shucking and saw all the flowers of Nancy's Garten.

The drive back home was a long overnight affair. We left at 5 in the afternoon and arrived in Cincinnati at 7am. Finn was packed tightly in the back seat with the two kitties and there was very little drama, especially when compared to the rainy, poop-filled drive to MA when dropping the cats off a year ago.

We introduced Finn to the Mighty Ohio and got him a new exersaucer to feed his new love of assisted standing. He seemed to enjoy the new surroundings and his new room. Of course, having lived for a week or more in three places in the last two months, he is rather adaptable to change.

We made it to our North Carolina vacation

We left our house at midnight friday night/saturday morning and headed east en route to an Outer Banks week-long retreat.

To all those wondering, we made it fine (16 hours later). We all took turns driving, including Finn as seen above.

Our house is nice and has a classic lighthouse view out the back porch.

Fourth of July: An American Experience

We needed to make sure that the German had been washed out of our son. Part of our re-American-ization program was living in Williamsburg, VA and going to Washington, DC. We stepped it up a notch for the 4th of July.

In Norfolk is the USS Wisconsin a floating museum to America's power and history. We took little Finn there and toured around. His favorite part was standing on the artillery shell and finishing the puzzle. He ended the day by reciting the pledge of allegiance.

We also went to the beach at Ft. Monroe. He explored the waterfront and pictured himself standing watch against shore invaders. He also took a nap.

He is now a real American. He suggested we get rid of our Honda and get a big Ford truck with a gun rack and a flag in the rear window. I told him we'd think about it.

Proof of the experience is here.

Connected to the Interwebs

We're back in Cincinnati and after a fairly long pause, we are hooked up on the interwebs. So expect to see a more frequent blog update. Once a month is more frequent, isn't it? So many adventures to talk about since we've returned, but that's for another time.

There's a first time for everything

It's been a busy few weeks for us in Virginia. Beach has been working, but that hasn't stopped us from taking a trip up to Washington DC, seeing the sites of Colonial Williamsburg, going fishing, hitting the beach, and even hosting both of Finn's grandmas for 4 days. It's been fun but I, for one, am exhausted and am looking forward to returning to normalcy (?) in Cincinnati the week after next.

For Finn, Williamsburg has been the site of many firsts. No wonder he's been easy to get sleep at 8:30 every night. He's been practically begging us to put him to bed.

First solid food
Finn started with rice cereal and soon demanded some variety, so we added oatmeal to the menu. He's doing great with eating from a spoon; he gobbles up two bowls a day and is showing a definite preference for the oatmeal. This is no big surprise considering my love of oats in all forms.

Note: Along with the first solid food came an added bonus - first incredibly stinky diaper. Now I know why odor-blocking diaper pails really are necessary (the hotel housekeeping staff must love us).

First baseball game
For those of you who know of Beach's love of the Reds, you'll be surprised to hear that Finn's first MLB game was the Washington Nationals vs. the Cleveland Indians. Beach's cousin Chuck lives in DC and has season tickets. Anyway, if the Reds are the worst team in baseball, it only made sense to to see the second worse team in baseball so we're better prepared for the disappointment of what I'm sure will be many more Reds losses that we'll see this season. We do know that Finn is not a Cleveland fan, as he screamed through most of their comeback to win the game.

First swim
Even though the smallest size swim diapers are still too big for him, we've taken Finn for a couple of dips in the hotel pool. He seemed to enjoy it, if with the slightest hint of apprehension. That's OK with me - a little bit of fear is healthy, especially of large amounts of water.

First trip to the beach
We took Finn to Virginia Beach last week when the grandmas were visiting. It was very hot and windy that day and there was a lot of sand blowing around, which was not ideal. However, he seemed to be doing OK until we brought him to the edge of the water. When a big wave crashed and splashed him, Finn decided he was definitely not interested in continuing the fun. But then he fell asleep under a tent of towels held up by human tent stakes (his grandmas aka handmaidens), and everything was OK. Beach and I later took Finn to another beach on a cooler day and he enjoyed putting his toes in the sand and eating seashells.

First time rolling over back to front
Finn's been rolling from front to back for a couple of months now, but today for the first time he decided he wanted to have some tummy time and flipped right over. Actually, I'm pretty sure he had no idea that what he did would result in him being on his stomach, but he was clearly proud of himself for his big accomplishment. So are we!

It's been a few weeks and we've been saving up the photos. Check them out here.