When I moved to NV, Ash told me to even bring a shovel because they never get snow and it never sticks. Well, apparently that was before global warming (which we know started up in early November 2007), because it’s snowed pretty regularly (with the exception of last year where it only snowed on October 5 for an inch or two and that was it). Anyway, since coming here, I’ve been involved with a White Christmas of some sort every year but two. Here’s how it breaks down:

2007 – We had a little patch of snow in our lawn. Ash’s folks’ house (where we celebrated Christmas) had only a tiny patch where there was the remnants of a shovel-job. Pretty technical in its assertion as being a “white” Christmas.

2008 – We had a decent snowfall on Christmas itself – Ash’s folks’ backyard probably got 5″ on Christmas itself. A TRUE white Christmas.

2009 – We had a big snowfall on 12/7 that year, but I’m not sure that any remained by Christmas.

2010 - We had our own tiny patch in the shade. Ash’s folks had none. VERY technically a white Christmas.

2011 – No snow at all for basically the entire winter.

2012 – I thought this would be another technical white Christmas, as our both our front and back yards had a few patches here and there with snow and ice. But then in the evening it started snowing and we got a good two inches when all was said and done.

So there you have it – in Reno, a desert, I’ve had White Christmases of some sort in 4 of my 6 years. I think statistically that is more than I ever had in NJ.

I took this picture the weekend I met my now wife for the first time. You think there’s something to that?

I started writing a letter to a very old friend who I had lost contact with shortly after high school. I wanted to catch her up to where I am at and how I got there, so I decided to catch her up on 15 years of my life, with the superfluous caveat that I would only allow myself 40 words per year. It was pretty tough, but somewhat rewarding. Interesting to see what sticks out in my memory (my first draft omitted that I graduated from college.) Here’s the result:

1998: spent much of year dressing poorly, being anti-social, and wishing I majored in writing – was put on wrong campus but became good friends with a few non-actors – dated a girl that went nuts – co-founded a multi-medium entertainment company Prometheus Productions

1999: finally started establishing friendship network and enjoying school a bit – wrote my first ever play that later debuted with Prometheus and won award – romantic scene barren – parents divorced after 33 years

2000: made resolution to date girl I’d liked for 2 years – got surprising amount of acting work –2^nd play I wrote for Prometheus got award – spent semester in London, hated it (but Edinburgh was awesome) – on 12/28, started dating that girl

2001: dated girl entire year – graduated college and took road trips – Prometheus performed last shows – was introduced to disc golf – my acting showcase (to attract agents) interrupted by 9/11, lost interest in acting after that – got new job at office-type company

2002: worked way up company ladder, soon helmed broker department – moved out of folks’ house for first time – broke up with girl for several reasons – had first liquor at 23 years old, started to make up for lost time – started website

2003: got jealous that old girlfriend moved on, got back together with her – it didn’t last – by end of year, moved in with her (as friends) – worked fine for a few months but seeds were sown for problems

2004: social implosion as friends and exes started hooking up, dishonesty and bullshittery abounded – became pretty reclusive – moved in with longtime friend where stupidity commenced and pretended to live a college-esque existence – increased disc golf activity

2005: made NYC debut as a playwright with two shows – social life rebuilt painfully slowly – started playing disc golf professionally, made $0 – quit longtime office job over increased loathing of it, worked freelance theatre lighting by year’s end

2006: released comedy music CD – toured as disc golf pro for 5 weeks, finally cashed – moved for fourth time – met no-expectations pen pal on dating site OkCupid – freelance work dried up, got job in old industry but better company

2007: fell in love with supposed no-expectations girl after several visits – first full-length musical debuted in NYC at Fringe Festival to emphatic end-of-spectrum reviews, convinced boss at relatively new job to let me move to Nevada and keep job – headed west

2008: bought 2^nd car – found out girlfriend was pregnant five days later, we got new larger apartment together – wedding plans discussed – tried to play as much disc golf as possible – finished my first novel – last year I got sleep

2009: son Landen born in January, had a “weddingish” ceremony for friends/family in May, had legal proceedings in August – after a two-month nightmare, bought our first house – spent year adapting to budgeting and selflessness with varied success

2010: Just existed happily for much of it – started small home projects – apparently played much disc golf, video games, and online poker – started reading much more frequently – company announced it could shut down close soon – panic ensued

2011: became an uncle for the first time – wife enrolled in school to get her degree – got promotion to A.V.P. at company which was now stable – welcomed second child Duncan – finished 2^nd at tournament, highest finish as a pro

2012: started short story writing project with friend – entire family traveled east to visit good friends who lost their toddler – otherwise lived life contentedly as father, husband, homeowner, professional athlete, artist, and frequent sweet potato fry chef

On a chat board for disc golf, I just stumbled on this post I had made on April 28, 2005:

“Fats is deliberating “pulling a Mullet” and just up and moving in about a year to some part of the country and completely restarting his life.  Any suggestion of areas?  (Do NOT include your own city/state, because if Fats follows through with actually leaving, he is likely going to want to know nobody in the area – an actual restart)”

I have no recollection of ever posting that, nor did I know I had ever thought about moving anywhere. I guess it made sense; I knew I was quitting my job around that time, but to move across country where I didn’t know anyone? That would have been nuts.

Well, it turns out my guess was exactly right, even down to “pulling a Mitch” – moving for a girl. I just was wrong about the timeframe. I left on Halloween of 2007. Though it was a spur-of-the-moment idea. I think from the time I spoke with my boss to the time I left in my car was less than 6 weeks if memory serves me.

Who knew I knew? I didn’t.

I’m just gonna throw up a bunch of random “Earth” pictures I’ve taken over the last few weeks (or, in one case, years).  They’re not the usual cute baby pictures, but I think you’ll enjoy them nonetheless.  The first four are from our trip to Michigan last month.  They’re also with the fancy new camera, so I was trying some nifty stuff there.  Click to make them bigger.

Lake Michigan at sunset

This little guy did not like staying still for me

A different sunset on Lake Michigan

Artsy and/or fartsy

The next two photos were from the balloon races today – this is an annual event that’s one of the largest in the world.  And, while I don’t consider myself a patriotic person, I was very happy to have snapped the last photo as I was walking with Landen around the disc golf course today.  That it happened on 9/11 isn’t the reason why, either.  I’m fine with patriotism, as long as it’s not manufactured.

Uhhh, I think you’re in my fairway

More in the next day or two.

Like most things in my life, once one thing starts up, I usually embark on a dozen.  I’ll go through long stretches where I have time (and desire) to play 1000 games of All Star Baseball 2005 (yes, I still play that game), and then other times when I don’t have time to breath.  I think I’ll soon be transitioning from the former to the latter.

First off, we expecting #2, affectionately named Peanut.  Now, this seems like a huge deal, and don’t get me wrong, it is, but having done it all before, both Ash and I find that there’s not much to DO about it right now.  I mean, he or she is just kinda gestating for a while, and Ashley is getting less and less comfortable, but our lifestyles only need minor tweaks right now.

So on top of that, I’m finally getting sick of not having a career in writing.  So I’ve signed up for an online class in writing and getting your work published, and what’s more I have a short meeting set up with an agent who describes on his website that he’s looking for humor writing, both in fiction and non-fiction.  What will I show him?  My finally revised novel!  Yes, the one I started in 1996.  It’s undergone many rewrites in the past, but 6 months ago I began some pretty serious cleaving of the words.  I trimmed it from 95k+ words to 82k+, almost 700 of which were adverbs.  I also took out 1,400 commas.  That tells you how unnecessarily convoluted the writing was.  Now it’s necessarily convoluted.  Either way, I’m excited about this prospect.

With the new one on the way, we also have about three dozen house projects (ranging from buying a light bulb for the fridge to completely overhauling the guest bedroom and setting up Landen with a new room).  The outside needs work and we’ve neglected it enough.

Add to the top of that that I’m planning on playing two of the biggest disc golf events of the year this year (Worlds, which is the biggest, and an NT, which is in the top 10), and I need to get better and more in shape to do so, and you’ve got a recipe for a busy time.

All in all, though, I gotta say I’m pretty excited about the prospects this year.  I won’t be as diligent in updating as Susan’s new blog, but I’ll do what I can.  Who knows, maybe some day I’ll get over to the other blog and put some new Landen pics up there.  He’s a cutie.

So we went to the Reno Aces game last night; they’re the AAA affiliate of the Diamondbacks.  Their mascot is this enigmatic tumor/cancerous drop named Archie.  He’s fun, as all mascots are, but he did something last night that totally won me over.

When an inning is over and the teams are switching places, the Aces’ staff does little competitions and fun give-aways to keep the crowd into the game.  One of these is a gigantic clear-ball race between two of the sponsors.  They lined up and as they started counting down the READY – SET – GO, the one dude just took off on READY.  He had a huge lead.  The announcers kinda laughed and said “Was that a false start?  We’re gonna have to punish that guy” etc.  All the sudden, Archie breaks out of the door and comes CHARGING full speed onto the field.  And he shoulder tackled that ball with all his weight.  After rolling around a bit, the dude inside was all “what the hell just happened”… and the other ball won by a little bit.

Archie, you have won my support.

After what has to be the worst week of health I’ve experienced as a family in my life, we’re hopefully finally turning the bend on the health spectrum.  Here’s the rundown of what went down.

Friday April 23 – At midday, Landen starts getting violently ill.  We take him home early from daycare.  He is not well and we put him down early.

Saturday April 24 – Ash has her sub-license test early in the morning and I have a small disc golf tourney.  We leave Landen with Granny.  He is tired and not happy, but not throwing up.  By the time I get him, he is very pooped, though still not sick.  Another early night.

Sunday April 25 – In the middle of the night, I wake up, having caught a version of the stomach bug.  In addition, I wake up to pretty severe left shoulder pain.  By morning, Ash takes me to the ER to get it checked out.  The doctor says it’s Impingement Syndrome and schedules me for an ortho visit.  I’m in a sling for the next 5 days, not supposed to do anything for a week.  Also, I’m on a few medications, which I’m supposed to take with food, but I am not eating because of the stomach bug.  Meanwhile, Ash leaves her folks Sunday dinner early with a pretty bad case of the same stomach bug Landen has.  Landen vomits again on Sunday, which I have to take care of since Ash is out for the count herself.

Monday April 26 – Landen is still fevered, so he is home from daycare.  Ash isn’t doing well at all, so I’m left in control of a cranky baby with an arm where I’m not supposed to lift anything.  They told me not to type so I’m not at work, and I’m trying to watch Landen and Ash.  Not being able to sleep on my left side (how I normally sleep), I sleep very poorly and we’re all extremely tired.  Ash’s mother and sister both get the stomach bug.

Tuesday April 27 – Landen is feeling better – not great – but good enough for daycare.  Ash and I take a day off because we need to legitimately recover.  At this time, my tongue starts to swell up, which happens nearly every time I am sick over the last 5 years.  By nighttime, it is making it very hard to swallow and eat (and take pills.)  Ash is back to normal at this time.

Wednesday April 28 – Landen is finally okay, back to his smiley self.  However, my tongue is so bad that Ash makes an appointment for me to see my doctor about my sores.  She takes a quick look and says she has no idea, and schedules me for an ear-nose-throat guy.  Now I’m basically only eating yogurt, which makes taking pills fun.

Thursday April 29 – Ash is now taking on full responsibilities of just about everything, as it hurts for me to do anything.  While the shoulder is mostly better, the tongue is in agony.  The ear-nose-throat guy says it’s aphthous ulcers (do NOT google-image it) – and I have six on the underside of my tongue alone.  Unsure of the cause, he prescribes a paste to be applied to a “dry” tongue.  It will be available Friday.

Friday April 30 – My ortho says I have calcification tendonitis in my left shoulder, which might have been caused by us doing yardwork in the backyard.  I might need a cortizone shot, but as it isn’t hurting much at this point, we’re going to drug it up for a couple of weeks and see if it goes away on its own.  Meanwhile, Landen has started a pretty nasty hacking cough, which he’s had a few times in the past year – could be asthma, we’ve been told.  He is back to not feeling and/or sleeping well.

Saturday May 1 – Landen has a fever and we’re home again with him all day, trying to get him to cool down.  He sleeps most of the day.  Ash is burned out because she’s been watching over both of us for half a week now, and none of us are sleeping particularly well.  I am still only eating yogurt and soup.

Sunday May 2 – I’ve stopped taking the paste for the tongue – it is meant primarily for when it is developing, not when it’s already full-blown.  It’s simply too painful to try to apply.  Landen still not feeling 100%, though he’s more just tired than anything.  Nap schedule is all off.  In a bold act of rebellion, the stomach bug resurfaces, this time in Ash’s brother.

Today – Landen’s fever has gone so he’s in daycare, but he’s very congested.  We might need to make a pediatrician appointment if he doesn’t improve.  My shoulder is in a bit of pain from a SMALL amount of yardwork we did yesterday, but nothing too bad.  The tongue is back to about halfway there.  I’m finally eating normal food, though slowly.  Ash is still doing great, but something tells me she would like a very long nap.  Ash’s father now has the stomach bug.

Edit: Landen gets home today and throws up 4 times.  Guess he’s getting a second bout of stomach flu.  *sigh*

As for this blog, some exciting stuff coming up.  But it’s all surprises.  Stay tuned.

January – Really, January was a blur.  At 12:15am on January 5th, I settled down for bed, only to have Ash’s water break.  11 hours later, our super-awesome son let out his first cries and took his first nap.  For the rest of January, not much else happened.  Actually, it very well might have, only I was severly sleep deprived and don’t remember much of my life at that point.  A rocket could have docked on my face and I doubt I’d have noticed.

February – Aside from the actual giving birth part, this month was identical to the first in that I don’t remember it at all.  I do remember him being sick for much of it, and that was worrisome.  I was still in that “need to check on him in his sleep to make sure he’s alive” unforunate part of parenting.  Ash might still be in it.  I have more faith in my son’s ability to sleep now.  But then, it was different.  Tracy came to visit and see the little guy, and that was excellent.  She was the first family member to meet Landen.  He celebrated by pooping like normal.

March – Perhaps no one was more excited about Landen’s birth than my mother, who has been waiting [impatiently, I may add] to be a grandmother since I can remember.  Probably since Doug hit high school, so it’s been a while.  She finally got to see him in March, and unfortunately came down with an illness early into the trip.  She didn’t really get to see him as much as everyone would have liked, but seeing her hold him was a pleasure.  I also had my first trip out east – I distinctly remembering thinking at the time that it will be nice to have a little sleep.  Yeah, that ‘nice’ phase lasted about 12 hours.  Then I missed him and Ash tremendously.  Not being able to see your little one for a week is a tough thing to do at 3 months.  I made it through, but I remember it being my hardest trip back east to date.

Monkey-licker

April – This was the month we realized watching over a newborn is a full-time job.  We realized this because we got into pretty heavy planning mode for the Weddingish.  Trying to raise a child while planning a wedding is not fun.  Don’t do it.  This was also at the tail end of his acid-reflux sleeping, where he would be up nearly every night, and we had to hold him up after every meal for 30 minutes.  It was a stressful time in general, and I was getting more and more of my night panics, waking up, thinking Landen was smothering in the sheets.  THAT was something I never would have expected.  Also, in looking at my blogs from that time, it seems I played an AWFUL lot of games at that time.  That strikes me as the time when I really was longing for my “me-time” that I “missed out on” with Landen’s birth.  I still don’t feel that way, but I remember that being very strong at the time.  Thank God Ash was understanding of this and gave me some space.  She’s the best wife [and mom] ever.

May – The big thing was the Weddingish, which was well-chronicled on this site already.  It went as perfectly as we could have hoped for.  I think most people need to stop with traditional weddings and have Weddingishes.  It’s really the way to go.  But this is also the first month that I recall Landen really seeming like a person.  He was interacting, awake more, and just plain fun.  Still before any stranger-anxiety crept in, he was smiling 23 of the 24 hours.  We are truly lucky.  My entire family, sans mom, came and got to see everyone, but really they came for the cute one.  He was a hit with everyone.  Whenver our formal shots come in, we’ll gladly share them with everyone.

June – This marked us starting to get out and actually DO stuff as a couple.  While we did include Landen on some of it, I was finally able to play in some tournaments and Ash and I were able to escape and watch some minor league baseball.  With Ash working for the first time since Landen was born, we both had shortened time with Landen, so we did try to make the most of it by taking him to the pool once in a while and plenty of playing with Granny and Papa.  He was getting bigger by the minute.  Also at this time, we started our search for houses to buy.  With the economy being the way it was, it seemed like the perfect chance to take advantage.  More stress.  Joy.

July – I had my second trip to the East coast of the year.  I will say it was moderately easier than the first.  While I was okay being away from him for longer, he got SICK (and was in the hospital the first day I was there) – nothing is worse than the feeling of being totally helpless when your kid needs you.  I also felt terrible for Ash who had to bear the brunt of his illness with no support from me.  She is awesome, I think I mentioned that.  I had my “bachelor party” while out there, (yes, after the weddingish) which was a good time with some good friends, though marred by Landen’s health worries.  More quality time outside was called for when I got back, as the weather had gotten quite nice, and not beastly hot if I remember.  Having a kid screws with your memory, that’s for sure.

August – Another big month.  Landen seemed to really grow in August more than any other month.  Now crawling, smiling, interacting, playing, and eating like a fiend.  I did all I could to keep up with him, but I do remember taking naps in August.  Probably because the rest of the month was so busy.  Not only did we officially tie the knot in August, but the beginning of the house fiasco started then.  I think actually our offer was approved at the very end of July, but August was when we started to make conscious efforts to get ready for a move.  Then the dreaded waiting game started.  And that would last longer than we all thought.

September – Another hard month.  With a second trip out east in two months, we made a very quick determination that I can’t go east that often for work.  It’s too much on Ash, who does try to maintain a life of her own.  Add to that Landen got sick again this month, and it was a very long month.  I had packed up much of the apartment before leaving for NY because we were supposed to move in on October 1 to our new house.  Here is also where the seeds were sown for October, which would be the worst month of the year.  But they say that it’s darkest before the sun rises, right?

Landen’s take on October and September

October – It sucked.  After tons of problems with the house and thinking at no fewer than 3 occasions that we would not be getting this house, and living in boxes for much of it, we couldn’t get past October fast enough.  Landen’s progress literally seemed to stall since he had no room to play, most of his toys packed, and it was too cold to go outside.  He did begin standing by the end of the month, but I think that was out of necessity because boxes were in his way everywhere he went.  Good riddance, October.

November – Finally, a month worth writing about.  On the 5th, we moved into our first house.  And by the end of the month, we had ALMOST fully moved in.  Landen had exploded in growth this month.  Beginning to use regular crawling much more than army crawling, and getting into EVERYTHING.  He is very curious and smart, that much is certain.  We got to have our first Thanksgiving as a family, though we spent it at the in-laws.  We still weren’t quite unpacked enough to clutter up our place, I guess.  It was nice to have things slow down a bit.

First snow at the first house in Landen’s first year

December – Ahh, the present.  Landen is seriously the best kid ever.  He’s been cranky, and the reason is simple – he’s got FOUR teeth now, and his gums are still swollen so more may pop out at any time.  However, he’s gained a whole new sense of independence.  He’ll play on his own for a half hour at a time, and then crawl over to the piano (oh yeah, Ash rescued a REAL PIANO for me for Christmas!) and tinker for a bit, then go back to his new toys.  Everyone’s been great with getting him fun and useful stuff, and he really has been playing with all of it.  Christmas was at our house, and the extended-portion of it was short and sweet.  Then we got to relax and revel in the first holiday season as a FAMILY.  It was a pretty great feeling.

Extra Bonus:

The Best and Worst Albums of 2009.

1.  Free – Jim’s Big Ego – Technically, this album came out in 2008, but I only heard about it this year.  This is, bar none, his best album.  And it’s interesting – you can go to his website and download it FOR FREE.  He also offers plans where you can pay to get additional things, but I guess he wanted to see how it would sell.  I paid $.99 cents, partially because I have an album or two of his that are disappointing, and while I wanted to support, I didn’t want to get hosed.  This album is fantastic.  From the opening “International”, which is a great anthem, to the groovy and awkward “I [Don't Know How To] Party”, to my favorite “Pascagoula Pawn & Gun” [which contains the best final verse of nearly any song], this is just a fantastic album.  Get it.

2.  The Fall – Norah Jones – I was at first quite disappointed by this album, mainly because the piano seems to have become a bastard instrument to Miss Jones.  She favors guitar and Wurlitzer on this album, and that immediately turned me off.  The first five songs also seemed to be the weakest on the album.  While I stand by that last sentence, the rest of the album has grown on me considerably.  It’s probably a little behind “Not Too Late” in terms of albums, it has a number of very good tracks, like “Waiting”, “December” and the closing track “Man of the Hour” which is not, as I’d thought, a cover of the Pearl Jam song.  Definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan.

T3.  Life of the World to Come – The Mountain Goats – This one would be lower on my list if it weren’t the Mountain Goats.  I suppose that means even a mediocre Mountain Goats song seems to be better than a good mainstream song.  I’ve noticed a trend with this band since they moved to the studio – every other album is great.  It’s like Star Trek movies of music.  Tallahassee was revolutionary, …Healed was hit or miss, Sunset Tree was one of his best albums to date, Get Lonely was boring, Heretic Pride was thoroughly solid, and Life… is very bland.  He is making the transition to piano, which I normally encourage, but his piano playing is very monotonous.  And while I like some of his slow songs, when he puts an album consisting almost entirely of slow songs, I can’t get into it.  There are a few good gems in it, but nothing that stands out in my mind.

T3.  Temple Bones Project – Temple Bones Project - This is my brother Doug’s band.  At first glance, it might seem like I don’t much care for this since it’s ‘tied’ with the Mountain Goats album that was a letdown, but this has the opposite situation.  I didn’t have many expectations for this, as I know their “band” is just some people screwing around with a didgeridoo and just learning how to use mixing software.  And it is just that.  But they’ve made some leaps since I first heard their original demos.  I can criticise the lack of melody, as they are primarily a percussive band, but the few tracks that feature a flute (notably “He Hides”) are quite enjoyable.  This is rated well because I see potential here, particularly if they bring someone on board who knows music theory to sculpt their musicians.

DEAD LAST – Embryonic – The Flaming Lips – I have been a Lips fan since 1993, and even enjoyed their early OKC Garage days when their music was talentless guitar chords and bad singing.  I reveled in their experiments like Zaireeka, and patted myself on the back when they broke through critically with Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi.  At War With the Mystics had some incredibly interesting things in it, and I felt they did deserve the Grammy they received.  I had high expectations for this album.  And it sucks.  It is terrible.  I actually say this is the only album I have ever purchased that I will skip every track on it when it comes up on random, with one or two exceptions.  It is droning, obnoxious, seemingly recorded poorly (bass and bass drums all seem to crunch).  I’ve read reviews where they call it “revolutionary” and “genius” and I wonder who the hell can honestly say that.  If you hear the “hit” of the album, Convinced of the Hex, you’ve heard the other 18 tracks, as they all sound the same: monotonous and dour.  DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM.  It is crap.

Weather.com says we should expect 2-4 inches of snow by tomorrow morning.  KoloTV.com, the local news station of Reno, predicts 9-16 inches.  Those aren’t even in the same ballpark.

Oddsmakers would have fun if they could make money off the weather.