Chessmaster Bode

Many many things are happening here at the McGuirk household. We decided to help do our part to stimulate the economy. Of course, we are not simply making money out of thin air and giving it to people, a la the government. Rather, we are spending some of our "petty cash" on home improvement. The first in a series of planned upgrades is a new front door. Since most of you have never been to our home (you don't like Dayton?), here is a before picture.
We didn't do the installation ourselves because 1) we are lazy, and 2) we did want to stimulate that economy. Thus, we paid someone to do it last week, and wouldn't you know the stock market went up. You can thank our little stimulus bill for that :-) Here are some after shots. Note the inside picture isn't very good due to all the light that now floods the entryway thanks to the new windows.
It really looks great. We still have to stain/paint the trim, but I have a gal that's good at those things. The only bad thing about the new door is we went from a double-door to a single. This means the baby-grand piano is now a permanent fixture in this house, as the only way out would be through a window. In the coming weeks, we plan to paint a couple interior rooms (we'll contract that out), and install new carpet (also contracted out), so look for the stock market to soar. Additionally, we will upgrade our 1/2 bathroom, but we might do that in-house depending on how the economy is doing ;-)

This week, I tried to teach Bode how to play chess. We did great, but he hasn't quite earned the nickname, Checkmate.
We started off well--note how his first move is with a pawn, albeit the queen-rook pawn, a horrible move in terms of strategy, but one step at a time. Unfortunately, he never placed his pawn anywhere. Instead, he grabbed my queen, a gross violation of the rules.At this point, he started to position all my pieces on the one side.
This is a very interesting strategy--take the opponents pieces and position them for him, and poorly at that. Certainly a new way of thinking. I'll have to contact Gary Kasparov and see what he thinks of Bode's method. Not sure if we have a prodigy on our hands. For now, he'll just have to be a cutie.
Freezing here today. High of 40, rain, and yuckiness. A good day to make some chili and read a book. Ashley is reading Brisinger (3rd book in the Eragon series, which she recommends) and I'm reading Needful Things, which I just started, so I can't yet give it a go/no go. Also, tonight on AMC is the TV show, Breaking Bad, which we give two hearty thumbs up.

Pleasant Sunday to all.

March Madness

Stupid basketball pools. I checked my bracket this morning and found at best, I will have picked twelve of the Sweet Sixteen teams correctly...and that's assuming all my picks win today. Oh well, there's always next year. Ashley started out great on Thursday, picking 16 out of 16, but she suffered some setbacks on Friday. Her bracket is in better shape than mine, although she did West Virginia have going to the Elite Eight. Of course, we've been more interested in the NIT, as Auburn is through to the third round. Go Tigers!

Here are some more pictures from our FWB trip. First, here's Bode in Nana and PapaFrank's backyard.Next, we have Bode and Mama on the boardwalk.
Bode had his first French Fry on our trip. He's now officially given up fruit and expects fish and chips at every meal :-) While we were eating, I had some ketchup and tarter sauce on my plate, into which I would dip my fries. Bode was watching me, and a short while later, he grabbed a fry, leaned over, dipped it into the ketchup, and ate it. Yum yum. Evidently he's watching and learning all the time...hopefully he picks up on my good habits and ignores the bad.

Forecast is for a beautiful day. We hope to do some yard work while Bode is down for his nap. In order to ensure he sleeps well, I'm going to take him for a stroll around the block, and then maybe some turkey for lunch (go tryptophan). Pleasant Sunday.

Fort Walton

Greetings from Fort Walton Beach. Ashley had a meeting/conference at Eglin AFB. Bode and I decided to tag along for some fun in the summer, err, spring, err, late winter sun. Despite the season, it is quite lovely today in the panhandle, so much so that Ashley and I went running in our shorts and t-shirts. The high was 75ish today with perhaps one cloud in the sky. Sadly, the weather in Dayton is forecast to be beautiful, with it returning to the high 40's by the time we go back. Why couldn't it be crappy while we were gone? Sheesh.

We've had a great time. On Sunday, we ran into some friends--the Rezek-Millea clan of Starkville, Mississippi. They're on their spring break and spending the week near San Destin. On Sunday, we received an email from them, asking what they could do for fun in the area. Unbeknownst to them, we were here, so we met up for an afternoon.

It was nice to see Jon, Meghan, Elliott, and Oscar. We thought Bode was a seasoned traveller, but compared to Elliott and Oscar, Bode is a novice. Elliott and Oscar have been to Alaska, England, Germany, and South Africa, which is quite impresses considering Oscar just turned four...

Bode loves the water. We were at the outlet mall, which had a play area. Part of the play area was a little fountain. Once Bode saw this, he never, ever wanted to leave. Here are some action photos. And before you ask, yes, he is wearing two different sets of pants. At one point, he was soaked, so we said that's it, cleaned him up, and went on our way. However, we evenutally walked by the fountain again, Bode saw it, and his screaming could only be appeased by letting have another go. In this first picture, Bode looks tough..except for the diaper sticking up through his pants...

Here he is getting a little more daring...and a little more wet.

Next, we have the little dude using his foot to spray the water everywhere...note how Ashley is a safe distance away.
Finally, we have the little guy using both hands and sometimes his face. We have to get one of these installed in our backyard.

In case you can't tell how much Bode really loves the water, here's a movie.

The play area also had some swings. Here is Jon pushing Oscar.And now here's Bode enjoying his time in the saddle. Bode was exhausted--he enjoyed the water so much, he skipped his nap. Obviously he crashed hard on the drive home.
Pleasant day.

Door 1, Bode 0

Bode is now past 15 months, and he is quite the boy. Little boys like to move from point A to point B as fast as they can. Unfortunately, Bode doesn't quite have the fine leg dexterity that is required for speed work. Thus, in the immortal words of Cosmo Kramer, "There was an incident," at daycare last week. Nothing serious or hospital-worthy, but there was blood and tears. Bode was "hauling a*s" across the room and tripped over the carpet. His little alligator arms weren't fast enough to brace the fall, so Whamo! Face first onto the floor. Lots of blood from his nose and mouth, but he shook it off and was playing again in less than ten minutes.

Unfortunately, the exact same thing happened on Saturday at the grocery store. We go there early Saturday mornings, so there isn't a big crowd. We let Bode explore while we shop. There he was strolling along when his feet got tangled, and Whamo! again. Face first onto the grocery mart floor. I didn't realize the severity until I saw Ashley holding him, blood pouring down his face. The store personnel were quite helpful (ice, water, and a couple lollipops), and in a few minutes, the little dude had calmed down.

Tonight, Bode had another fall. This one left a mark. He was walking into the sun-room. His feet must have gotten tangled up in the floor-runners, because next thing we knew, we had a screaming kid. Bode didn't hit the ground, but rather, his face slammed into the metal rails on the wall upon which the door closes. You can see the line running down his face just under his eye. Poor little fella...but we suppose there are only going to be more incidents as time goes by.

Nothing else exciting. My immune system continues to take a beating in the post-Bode era, as I had a 101 degree fever last night, and seem to have developed YET ANOTHER COLD. Fortunately, Bode is fine. Evidently he's just the conduit through which the germs make it from daycare to our house.

Pleasant day.

An Old Dog New Tricks

Perhaps the title is a bit misleading, as no tricks are learned. Rather, this old dog (me) finally learned what many knew years ago. If you've known me long enough, perhaps you've heard me make the following boast: "Yeah, I think I could take a dog in a fight." I would say this half jokingly, but in every joke, there's a little bit of truth.

My reasoning, I believe, was sound. Even Auburn, a supposedly menacing, powerful rottie, weighs only 100 pounds. That's less than Ashley (sorry hun), and not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I could take Ashley in a wrestling match due to my 50+ pound weight advantage (provided she promises to not hit below the belt). People would argue, "But the dog can run really fast at you and pounce." My response? I'd simply charge right back at the dog, knowing my momentum is more than his and let physics take over.

Of course, I tended to overlook a few things. First, there is a wealth of empircal data which clearly shows in the showdowns featuring man-v-dog (excluding matches where chiahuahuas represented the canines), the dog usually comes out the victor. I discarded this data, as I figured no one as savvy as me ever got involved in a dog fight. I also looked past the data point I obtained from John Q. Policeman, a dog-handler I met in Alabama. He said, "No one can beat the dog." Yeah, well, it was also said no one could run a sub-four minute mile either (granted I've never done so but that's beside the point). Finally, and most importantly, I tended to ignore just how painful it is to actually be bitten by a dog. I think I failed to realize this because in all those dog-attack training videos, the guy getting bit is in a huge, dog-proof suit.

So there we were this weekend, Auburn and me, playing in the den. I had out the big bouncy ball that so infuriates Auburn when I slam it into the ground. She'll leap at the ball and snap at it, and try to pin it down with her paws. Now, tell me what was wrong with the following thought process: It'd be funny if I throw the ball and just as Auburn tries to bite it, quickly grab it and pull it away. Hmmm. Surely you see the recipe for disaster? It was at times like this that it would be nice if the little angel on my left shoulder spoke just a bit louder, because I don't move as fast as I think I do. Ball is tossed. Auburn jumps, jaws chomping. I grab ball, and pull away. Alas, I was too slow.

The pain was instant and intense even though she connected just below the finger tip on my pinkie. I immediately slumped over, curled my legs around my finger, and hussled to the sink, where I soaked my finger in cold water while applying pressure to stop the bleeding. During those moments, I finally realized that I probably couldn't take a dog--if it was this much pain for just a nick on the finger, how much must it hurt to have a dog clamped firmly on your arm shaking its head? Fortunately, the cut wasn't bad though the very tip of my pinkie is quite swollen. Notice I never said that Auburn "bit" me, because that words convey malice and intent to injure. She was playing, and didn't realize what a jacka*s idiot for an owner she had :-)

Ok, enough about me and my little drama (although it's taken me much longer to type this because I don't have the use of my right pinkie...damn those p's). Bode is doing awesome. We bought him some new PJs, and here he is, modeling them after his "baff."After we put him in them, he was a bit ticked--"Horizontal stripes?" he asked. "Do you want me to look tubbier?" Of course not--in fact, we thought the little jabba was looking skinnier...until we saw the below picture taken on Saturday.The little dude still has a gut on him. And the diaper certainly doesn't make his a*s look tiny :-) But as my friend says, a tubby toddler is a tired toddler, and I have to admit, Bode sleeps like a champion, which is where he is right now. I suppose I should finish up and pretend to watch The Bachelor with Ashley (what a horrible, horrible, show, but that's a topic for another blog).

Pleasant Monday.