Update: house

What with someone else moving out so some one else can move out so our seller can move out so we can move in, and given that we are going to fix the floors and paint and all that, it looks like we will be living in the new house...after taxes sometime. May 1 at the absolute latest. That seems like forever, but it lets us pack carefully instead of rushed, so I'm ok with it.

Ok, no I'm not. I want to start having my slightly longer commute and my impossibly large mortgage and the luxury of coming home and jumping in my HOT TUB in my NEW HOUSE right NOW.

Update: New Guitar

Good call. This one will keep me pretty happy, as guitars go, for quite some time. It doesn't replace the Peavey, but it gives me scads of new sounds to explore. The serial coil setup is interesting, the serial and out-of-phase setup is weird, half the volume and quackier than anything. The pure humbucking sounds are marvelous, but not overwhelming; these are not the hottest pickups on the planet. The pre-amp is gritty in a good way, and has enough gain to drive a professional set of headphones! The 3 band eq I am just beginning to explore.

Two complaints, so far: First, I am having some difficulty adjusting to the 24.75" scale and the whole 24 fret thing. I keep grabbing for the octave and getting the 15th fret. Oops. Second, It is kinda heavy. I have a stretchy padded strap on it now, that is helping a lot,

All in all, a nice last self-gift before the house-poverty.

Update: Calvin

Oooooh, brains.

He has started forming simple sentences. "Hello papa!" when I come home from work [melty], "Hug Jake?" or similar, and this weekend, in response to "Go see Papa", he comes toddling into the bedroom saying "Go see you!", flapping his arms around while grinning.

He wants to be read to! This is new. He goes out to the living room and makes a whiny noise to get your attention. When you enter the room, he says "Chair?" and scootches over to make room on the big comfy chair for you. When you sit down, he get's all excited, jumps down, runs over to his bookshelf and grabs a book or two. For most books (Guess How Much I Love You or Whistle for Willie or The Monster at the End of This Book) he mostly wants to flip around the pages, or shut the book suddenly and say "End!"

But but but! More than half the time, if he grabs a single book, he grabs Goodnight Moon, and he will sit very patiently as I read it to him. Maybe it is something about the cadence? He won't do this with any other book. He points out objects he knows, and he always bends over to kiss the two kittens both times they are named.

This may turn into one of those rituals of endless repeat that drive parents batty, but for now, I am only too pleased to read this book to him over, and over, and over.