Another Dull February Day...

Friday, 15 February 2008. The only word to describe it would be tragedy, and that doesn't do it justice. The Eydes have struck a month early at the McGuirk household. What has happened? Rest assured, Bode is fine. However, during our morning getting-ready-for-work routine (which, pre-baby took us 45 minutes tops; post-baby, we're lucky to get out of the house in under 2 hours), the cable went out. Thinking this was just a temporary problem, we thought nothing of it. Returning home that afternoon, we found the cable was still out. I placed a call to Time Warner's technical support line. I spoke with Leon, a Time Warner support professional. He took us through a detailed trouble-shooting procedure:
"I want you to hold the power button down. This will reboot your cable box," Leon told me.
"Ok," I said, and we waited for a few minutes for the cycle to complete itself.
"Is it working now?" Leon asked.
"No," I replied.
"Ok, we're going to try something different. Can you physically unplug the box from the wall?"
"Yes, do you want me to do that?"
"Yeah, unplug it, but wait three minutes before you plug it back in."
"What does the three minutes do?" I asked.
"The hardware has an internal clock, and the three minutes lets it reset itself," he responded. I thought about pressing him on this statement, asking for specifics but then realized he's probably reading from a script, and questions just make his job harder. We waited the three minutes, and I plugged the unit back in. Still, no dice.
"Sir, I've done all I can do. I'm going to have to schedule a service call. How's Sunday between 8 and 11?"
"That will be fine. Thank you for all your help."

We've been without cable TV for 48+ hours now. It's 10 am Sunday morning, and the cable guy still hasn't shown up. I suppose I was being naive to think he would show up at the beginning of the scheduled window. I've heard rumors of people being told the cable guy would show up between 12 and 4, and the guy shows up at 12:05. I've also heard rumors of the Loch Ness monster and of alien spaceships being stored at Wright Patterson AFB; until I actually see it for myself, I won't believe it. But there has to be people out there that have been on the happy side of the dreaded cable service window; I'm just not one of them. I'm sure at 10:55, our doorbell will ring...

So how have we gotten by without cable TV? Surely man and woman would die if they couldn't watch The Soup Friday night at 10 pm on E!, or This Old House, or The Food Network where any number of chefs make an awesome looking meal in under 30 minutes. How can we go on not having watched Bridezillas, Bringing Home Baby, or The Shawshank Redemption for the fortieth time? Can you imagine the horror if this were a college football weekend, and we had to resort to (gasp) the radio to follow an Auburn football game?

Amazingly enough, we are getting along fine. At first, Ashley was quite bored when she fed Bode, as she typically would park herself in front of the TV and zone out while the little guy ate. She quickly developed a way to read and feed him at the same time. Thanks to the absence of TV, she's already 150 pages into The Kite Runner and hasn't really complained (although if this were a Tuesday, she'd most definitely be in Idol withdrawal). I've done fine without TV, but it does pain me to think I've probably missed a couple HBO showings of Revenge of the Sith. I've read a lot ( Forever Odd by Dean Koontz and some magazines), the house is clean, and the laundry is all done. I'd say this no-TV thing isn't half bad.

I took a lot of pictures of Bode the past couple days. Here are the best. We were actually able to get a couple shots with the kiddo smiling. This isn't to say he doesn't smile a lot. It's just whenever we bring out the camera, he stares at it trying to figure out what it is, which is not conducive to smiles. Thus, we had to be sneaky about getting these pictures. First, Bode and Mama. She quickly handed Bode to me, hoping to get a shot of the two of us smiling. Here's the result. No smiles for one that doesn't bear milk...
Here's a shot of Bode when I have the camera where he can see it. I kept trying to get him to smile, but, as I said, he just stares at the camera. In this shot, he looks pissed...
I then hid the camera, got him to smile, and quickly snapped the following shot. The lighting is bad, but you can see a big grin.Finally, per most posts, we end with a picture of Bode with Auburn. The two are becoming best of friends.
Pleasant day to you all (FYI: It's now 10:38 and still no cable guy.)

Two Months, a Weigh-in, and a Birthday

Hello to everyone on this happy February day, the first weekend in a long time when football is not an option (don't go saying the Pro Bowl counts as a game, because it doesn't; who wants to watch a bunch of millionaires on vacation in Hawaii while we're freezing our tails off in Ohio?) We've been happy and well. Ashley started back to work, half-time this past week, three-quarter time next week, and then the dreaded full time starting in two weeks. Bode has been going to day-care, and he's had no ill-effects. He's still his happy self that smiles and likes to play peekaboo and pull on his toy lion. He had his two month check-up on Tuesday. Bode weighed in at 10 pounds, 8 ounces, and is 22 inches long. For you math whizzes, this means every two months, Bode gains 40% of his body weight (he was 7 lbs, 8 oz when born). At this rate, he'll be 425 pounds by the time he's 2 years old. I didn't realize babies got that big by their second birthday...


At the doctor's office, Bode received his first set of vaccinations. As expected, he was not too fond of the needle, as he let out a silent scream for a couple seconds right after receiving the injection followed by a blood-curdling cry for a few minutes. Mama was able to calm him down and afterwards, he seemed none the worse for wear. He's been sleeping through the night consistently, for which we are extremely grateful, and we've started reading to him. I tried to read Fury by Aaron Allston, which (as I'm sure everyone knows) is book 7 in the Legacy of the Force series. He seemed uninterested, which makes me wonder if the hospital gave us the wrong baby, because how could my son be disinterested in anything related to Star Wars??? Bode does like the Frog and Toad stories, and he also loves it when I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yes, you read that right; he loves the sound of my singing voice. Auburn, on the other hand, howls horrifically during the song, and I can only guess her howling is her way of expressing dissatisfaction...


Quick sidebar: If anyone is looking for some good books to read, you might want to give The Good Guy by Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, also by Dean Koontz, or The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Folliet a try. All were very good. I started listening to books during the drive to and from work (there is no time to read at home). I've found this much more interesting than listening to the election coverage, and the sports radio shows are boring until football season starts again. Anyways, sorry about this commercial, but I figured with the writer's strike, you might be getting bored with TV reruns and looking for other entertainment outlets. If books are not your thing, we just finished season 1 of the HBO series, Rome. It was awesome and we highly recommend it. Another good watch was Fast Food Nation, but if you don't really want to know where steaks, ground beef, and sirloin comes from, this flick is not for you (nor is it suitable for those under 15). Ashley and I want to watch The King of Kong which is a documentary about two guys trying to set the high score in Donkey Kong. It sounds stupid, but the reviews have been top marks.


Here are some pictures. First, we have Bode playing on the dining room table. He's looking at his toy elephant, which he's able to reach for, grab, and pull. Hours of entertainment right there.Next, we have Daddy and Bode going for a walk with Auburn. Bode is strapped into his Baby-Bjorn device, which serves as a great simulator for Daddy who now understands what Ashley went through during the last trimester of her pregnancy. Daddy was really puffing on the walk especially on those hills (yes, he's old and out of shape). In the future, we plan on getting a saddle and letting Auburn haul Bode around. Here's a cute shot of Bode and Mommy. Hard to say who the kid looks like, but we do think he got my wonderful widow's peak hairline along with a nice array of cowlicks. Sorry about that, little guy.
Finally, here's a shot of Auburn and Bode after a full day of playing. Evidently each was exhausted.

We have birthday this week. Auburn, our little puppy, turns 8 years old on 10 February. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Pleasant Day to all.