My butt cheeks hurt, calves are tight, and legs are jello-ee

What causes these afflictions? Nine hours of sitting on a plane and walking many many many miles through Manhattan with 18 pounds of baby on my chest and a diaper bag on my back. Galen and I tagged along with Shanna for a business trip to New York City. For those that understand, we stayed about 1/2 mile south of Central Park at the Sheraton on 7th & 53rd. Can you believe there is another Sheraton just across the street? Unusual.

Sunday we all went to Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty. That thing is TALLLLL, one of the awesome symbols of our country. And the security procedures to visit were ridiculous, you must x-ray a wallet??? - just the opposite of the message the Statute offers to us all. Galen was unimpressed. Chinatown was afterwards - we ate in some hole in the wall. Once again Galen was unimpressed.

On Monday & Tuesday it was pretty much just us guys. We spent most of Monday walking through Central Park. We looped up past the Sheep Meadows, visited Strawberry Fields, strolled through the Rambles, and ate lunch next to the Turtle Pond with Luce's Castle reflecting off of the water. We went west to Park Avenue and walked right by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Zoo, and by dozens of horse drawn carriages. We barely got halfway north only walking along the southern edge of the Great Lawn. I found it far hillier than expected, and very beautiful. How come there weren't more people? We got to the hotel and rested. That evening we took Shanna back towards the park and enjoyed a carriage ride...

Tuesday we were all over the place. In the AM we visited downtown Manhattan - the center of commerce and history. By the way, subway rides make Galen sleepy. He doesn't know it, but he visited Ground Zero, St Paul's Chapel, Trinity Church, the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, Federal Hall, and many other site seeing stops. It was somewhere on the way there when I realized I forgot his bottle. I even got a call from Shanna while at the Reserve pondering such a thing. No matter, he swayed in the carrier, flirted with the women, snoozed occasionally, and was a very good man.

After I ate lunch in a downtown deli, while he slept, it was back to the hotel for the forgotten lunch. And on the way we bumped into the Ed Sullivan Theater the current home of Letterman. After a brief respite we were off again. This time we went walked around the immediate area - and I use that loosely. We went past Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building and to the UN. Then back to the NY Public Library, and Bryant Park - the American Radiator Building is beautiful - back through Times Square and to the hotel. Upon Shanna's return we went to the Empire State Building and then had dinner at Los Dos Molinos. Los Dos is an Arizona based family restaurant, the daughter wanted to live in NYC, with awesome food. We needed a bit of home, tequila, and good spicy food.

Wednesday was a travel day home.

Observations:
Galen is a fine traveler. Not too fussy or demanding, he watches everything, eats, shits, and sleeps like a baby should. He is a flirt with the ladies, reserved with men. Cold breezes make him sing. Planes, trains, and automobiles sway him to sleep.

Diapers take up a great deal of luggage space.

Diapers are hard to find - where do NY babies excrete their stuff?

Manhattan is noisy. Not once during my visit did I hear my tinnitus.

Manhattan is diverse, exciting, vibrant - along with dirty, smelly, and oppressive.

NY style Cheesecake made in NY is overrated.

Bartenders give ya a funny look when asking for a pint with a halfpint attached to your chest.

They have some wayyyy cool old buildings. I need a good architecture/photo book of the buildings of New York.

Nice place to visit, could us a few more weeks, but wouldn't want to live there.

It's good to be home with the doggies and kitty, and sleep in my own bed.

I love my wife for making such things possible.

Sorry for no updates for the past week, I was busy. I got to watch Shanna's 6-year old nephew. The house doesn't have much in the way of 6-year old entertainment, so it was up to me... We went to the park, he did some helping in the kitchen, he suffered through homework, and swam in the pool. And not one minute of TV. He also did quite a bit of reading to Galen, that was nice & helpful.

I've added a few new pictures to my Webshots account. Clicky clicky. The three amigos picture was from last Monday - a few of us Dad's got together for a baby walk... Good times.

Sunday was Shanna's birthday. I offered to make french toast for breakfast, but she preferred her normal stuff. We spent the morning sitting in the back yard enjoying the wonderful weather, listening to the birdies and reading the funnies. We went to THE KEG for their free birthday dinner. Of course my dinner, the refreshing adult beverages and dessert cost, but that's OK. We sat next to another couple with an 8-month old boy. He and Galen kept looking at each other. What do they see?

The Indy 500 will be here soon. I used to numb a lot of brain cells walking through the infield, especially on Carb Day (when I should have been in school). Nowadays I know so few of the drivers and teams Official Indianapolis 500 Website.

Lazy Monday - Items I thought Noteworthy

I didn't have much energy this morning, so I'm just posting a few items I noticed last week but didn't get posted...

Galen's great by the way! He can sit up all by himself, though he needs help getting there. I took some backyard pic's yesterday, I'll get a good smile posted soon.

Talk about a greedy bastard, couldn't return the finger... CNN.com - Fight over finger found in custard - May 6, 2005

I should be able to shift the time, and media of recordings. Good call on this announcement, but I fear the lobbyists will eventually win by going straight to the congressional trough... US appeals court tosses FCC's broadcast flag rule - May. 6, 2005

Republican business interests can never let a good chunk of land go unmolested... CNN.com - New rule could open roadless forest areas - May 5, 2005

Don't ask, don't tell? CNN.com - Bloggers deserve the 'journalist's privilege' - Apr 27, 2005

Get out of Kansas, their education system is going backwards...CNN.com - Evolution hearings open in Kansas - May 5, 2005 If you EVER need help refuting the Creationists/Intelligent Design pseudo-babble, read Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. Even the Pope, a pillar of conservative thought, has declared evolution compatible with Christianity. Watch out, the Evolutionists might be in your school board too.

Didn't they know they weren't Oz Munchkin's? BBC NEWS | World | Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight

The First "Oh Shit"

Oh shit, there is no other way to describe it. OH SHIT. Heart stopped, up near the top of my throat. Face frozen, hands flailing to find the off-switch.

After watching Galen for five months, it had finally happened. The moment of stark terror and then the blessed rush of relief. And then the thoughts: How did I let that happen? How bad is it? Water, flashlight, tongs, and five mintes later it is alright.

Most weekday evenings I wash the tools of Shanna's labor, the parts of her breastpump, along with the pots & pans of the day. There are the breastshields, connectors, valves, and collector bottles. And don't forget the bottles with their nipples and collars. It's the valves that are most worrisome. They are small and hard to find floating around in the water.

I had strained my hands through the dishwater at least twice. All is clear: start the water: flip the switch: GRGRRRR, the garbage disposal chews through whatever organic material that was on the dishes. And then I felt something hard in the soapy water, something that shouldn't be there. OH SHIT!! Quick, off with the disposal. I strained my hands again, but felt nothing. I know it was there, but where did it go? Aghhh, into the disposal itself. I tried to look but saw nothing but soap. Water, that will rinse out the soap. Ahh, this is taking forever, I still can't see. There, bare metal, but it's sooooo dark. Where is that flashlight? Is that it? Yes. Is it OK. Tongs, tongs will let me reach it. Hallelulah, it's OK, the valve assembly is OK.

Relief. Time for a glass of wine. Time to make dinner. Time to let go of my first OH SHIT.

Bath Time for Baby

Galen had a great Sunday night. At bath time, while Shanna got herself ready, Galen & I played on the living room floor. There was giggling, laughing, bubbles, and many many smiles... As Shanna passed through the room to start the water & prep the bath, Galen got his diaper changed. It contained a material that we do not consider to be a proper bath additive, in fact, it's the material that the bath is to expunge. In the meantime the water was running, and I think he heard, knew what was going to happen. He was soooo happy wait'n for the bath to happen.

As Galen was dropped into his baby-tub I noticed a change, Shanna had removed the hammock, little man was sitting straight in the water several inches deep. After getting his initial spray down he began to kick a little, and then more, and then more... Galen was playing propeller-boy and having a blast! Never before had he splashed & played so vigorously with water, with so many giggles. Shanna had to be extra vigilant to slips & slides - that was especially hard with us laughing too.

By the time Galen was washed, rinsed, oiled, massaged, and brought back into the living room, he was ready for his evening dinner and then bed. So happy, so peaceful, so innocent.

Galen had a great Sunday night; and so did Shanna and I. It is moments like that that make it all worth while. I'm a Dad and I love it.