Those Martins

April 20-26. On April 21, I hit the road again. This time it was a recruiting trip in Berkeley. Once again, I flew 4 hours west and then 4 hours east. This time, in the space of 2 days. But, before leaving, I took my first certification exam. It felt easy. I certainly hoped it was.

I landed in San Francisco on Tuesday night and took a 30 minute cab ride across the Bay, to Berkeley. I stayed in the Bancroft Hotel. The drive actually took 10 minutes longer than it should have. When I tried to pay the cabby, I discovered that he didn’t take credit cards. Since I don’t carry cash that presented a bit of a problem. We circled the block a few times until we found an ATM and I could withdraw some cash to pay him off.

Wednesday, from 10am to 4pm, we hung out at the Cal Berkeley student union and talked up Epic to job hungry students. Afterwards, after crashing at the hotel for an extended nap, I started exploring the campus. I’m glad I did. I found the world’s most awesome hot dog shop: top dog hot dogs. Have you ever seen a hot dog shop plastered with libertarian propaganda? I sure hadn’t. But I found one — in Berkeley of all places. I actually found it in the hotel, searching Google for restaurants near the hotel. I was convinced when I clicked on the “Propergander” link and discovered that it contained updates from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

I walked over to it and it was awesome. I was reading pro-gun statements, old Thomas Sowell columns, and anti-government screeds while I waited for my food. Over it all was a giant version of the World’s Smallest Political Quiz. Truthfully, I haven’t enjoyed myself that much in a restaurant in a really long time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the rest of my night nearly as much. Our hotel was right in the middle of the Berkeley campus. Wednesday night, the students put on a drumming contest across the street. It lasted until sometime after midnight. Given that I’d never adjusted to Pacific time, it felt like 2am. Then, when I’d finally gotten to sleep, I was woken up by the sound of someone singing and playing guitar — piped through a really loud sound system. Two hours after that, it was time to get out of bed for my flight home.

I flew back to Madison bright and early (6am) on Thursday morning. I was quite exhausted and actually managed to get a good bit of sleep on the return flights. I landed in time to go back to the office for a few hours before going home.

When I did, I saw the results for both my first project and my first exam. I passed both: 98% on the project, 96% on the exam.

Friday afternoon, I took my second certification exam. It felt harder, but I still thought I passed.

Friday night I had the privilege of seeing our friend Teresa, from our church Life Group, get baptized.

All told, I logged 13.25 hours to my certification work, 7.25 to recruiting, 19 to travel, and 53.25 hours total this week.

April 27-May 3. Tuesday morning, I got the results from my second certification exam: 95%. I decided that I wanted to get things finished as quickly as possible, so I started ignoring all other work and just focused on my second project. Besides getting it done, focusing on it would also be good study for my third exam. I managed to finish the project late on Wednesday night and submitted it for grading. I took my third (and final) test on Friday. I felt like I knew the material well, so I walked out of the exam room already feeling certified.

This week was definitely devoted to the EMR. Out of 51 total hours logged, 24.25 hours went directly to my certification work.

April 13-19. Life returned to normal. Nobody was out of town and Christine and I both returned to work. Of course, the week did have its complications. For the past several months, I’ve been planning to move from one application team, at work, to another. I will move from supporting our clinic billing application to supporting our clinic electronic medical records application. But, before I can switch, I have to be certified in the new application. Well, at Monday’s workplan meeting, my team lead told me that it was time to actually buckle down and get certified. He wanted me to finish the certification by May 1 — just 3 weeks away.

That may sound easy. It’s not. Certification on the EMR involves 3 classes, 3 tests, and 2 hands-on projects. I took the classes a year and a half ago. But I hadn’t studied since and I hadn’t started any of the tests or projects. Essentially, I would need to relearn everything, take the tests, and do the projects. All in 3 weeks, all while doing my normal customer support work. Yikes!

This started a series of 50+ hour work weeks. I pretty much put the rest of my life on hold and got down to business. During this first week, I put in 14 hours on my certification and 57 hours overall. It was hectic, but I was able to submit my first project and start preparing for my first exam.

Needless to say, I didn’t see Christine and the girls all that much.

The past month has been busy. And things look to stay busy for a while longer.

The Past

I’ve been traveling quite a lot the past month or so. When I haven’t been traveling, I’ve been working. Let’s take things week by week.

March 23-29. I was in Fountain Valley, Orange County, California from March 23-26, to help a customer with reporting needs. It was a fun and extremely useful trip. Unfortunately, it did put me behind on other customer issues and left me with a huge load of email to plow through on Friday.

March 30-April 5. I did the best I could to continue catching up on work email on Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, I started getting behind again on Wednesday. We left April 1 to go to my brother-in-law’s wedding. (Congratulations again, David.) His wedding was on Saturday and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. For once, I didn’t mind wearing a suit and didn’t feel like I had to find the nearest air-conditioned alcove just to stay comfortable. After the wedding, we had Sunday brunch with the bride and groom and extended family. Overall, the trip was great and the girls had a lot of fun seeing their extended family.

April 6-12. The trip to Tallahassee may have been fun, but we won’t be flying Delta Northwest again anytime soon. We had do deal with multiple delays and cancellations getting both in and out of Tallahassee. We tried to leave Tallahassee at 6am on April 6, but didn’t actually leave until 4pm. We didn’t get home until close to midnight.

We also celebrated Easter this week. Mars Hill Church streamed their Good Friday service live online. We watched that Friday night. We had an Easter brunch with the Slagers on Sunday and attended Blackhawk’s Easter service on Sunday afternoon.

Christine and I have different priorities while on vacation. I like to sleep in, eat a slow breakfast, and then retire to a couch or comfy chair to read. After an hour or two of that, I’ll retire for a nap. Then it’s time for lunch, followed by more reading. Or maybe watching a saved TV show.

Christine likes to sleep in, eat a quicker breakfast, and then go out and find something to do. She likes to either visit local attractions or just explore the local area. In short, she’s far more active than I while on vacation. I find her pace vigorous and tiring while she finds my pace languid and boring.

That’s why I was so amused by the events of this morning. But, first, a little background.

Yesterday, we visited Bethlehem Baptist Church, then spent 2 hours walking around downtown Minneapolis. After we got back to the room, we stored the double stroller in the closet of the hotel room. Esther was quite involved in this process. She helped us store the stroller and enjoyed opening and closing the closet door, pointing out the stroller each time. We finally got her calmed down and got the girls to sleep around 10:30pm. As soon as they were asleep, we went right to sleep ourselves.

Finally, I should also mention that I’m far more of a morning person than Christine. I wake up earlier, with more initial energy. Of course, I fizzle out much quicker than she does. (I typically wake up around 6am but am ready for a morning nap by 10am. Once she’s awake, she’s awake for good.)

Well, we were hoping that the girls would sleep in. Our hope was futile. Both girls woke up slightly before 7am. At the time, both Christine and I were exhausted and we both wanted more sleep. But, being more of a morning person, I snapped awake pretty quickly, while Christine was not nearly ready to wake up yet.

Esther bounced right out of bed, walked over to my side of the bed and said “Papa! Stroller! Closet!”. She then proceeded to grab my hand and drag me over to the closet. She pointed and said “Closet! Open!”. When I opened it, she triumphantly dragged me inside and said “See! Stroller! Walk!”. There she was, still in her pajamas, not yet 10 minutes out of bed, ready to go back outside for more walking!

It made me laugh. For once, the roles were reversed. For once, Christine was in the position of wanting to rest and sleep while someone else was prodding her to leave and party. For once, I wasn’t the one dragging my feet trying to get more sleep. I laughed because I figured turn-about really was fair play.

Of course, I’d still like to go back to sleep myself. I feel about ready for my morning nap.

Those of us who have kids realize how much they change our lives. Those of you who don’t have kids don’t really appreciate the full impact of the change.

Let me give you an example.

This weekend we visited Minneapolis. We didn’t really have a particular reason for going. We just wanted to get out of town now that the weather was nicer. We could have gone anywhere. Chicago and Milwaukee would have also been good destinations.

We picked Minneapolis because John Piper pastors there, at Bethlehem Baptist Church. I’ve benefitted quite a bit from his books and sermons and I wanted to see what his church was like.

Bethlehem’s main campus is the downtown campus. We decided to attend the Saturday night service. We also decided to stay at a downtown hotel. Since the weather was nice, we thought it would be fun to walk to and from the service.

The evening service ended around 7:30p. We hadn’t eaten dinner before the service, so we needed to eat. It was a 30 minute walk from the church back to our hotel. We figured that we could grab something to eat on the way back. After all, we were downtown. There are stores and restaurants galore in any downtown area.

Well, we were right. There were lots of restaurants downtown. We passed at least one on every block. But, well, they were all bad. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure the food and service were excellent. But they were no longer appropriate. All of the restaurants were very relaxed, cultured places. The kind of place where you can sit outside, order some drinks, order some food, and enjoy the evening. The kind of place where the staff will leave you in peace to enjoy your evening.

In other words, the worst possible place to take an active 2 year old. 2 year old kids have no interest in sitting quietly and reflecting on the world. They have about a 10-20 minute interest in food. They’ll wait for food — for a short time. They’ll eat quietly — for a short time. They’ll sit quietly at the table after dinner — very rarely.

When you have a 2 year old, leaving you alone is the last thing you want your wait staff to do. You want them to take your order quickly. You want them to bring your food quickly. You want them to bring the check and take your payment quickly. You want to have the option of getting in, eating, and getting out very quickly. For a toddler, fast food is the best kind of food. It moves at their speed and suits their attention span.

So, as a parent of a toddler, downtown Minneapolis was not teeming with choices and options. It was a barren wasteland. We thought it completely devoid of life until we finally spotted the perfect place: a Pizza Hut Express inside of a Target.

Jackpot! We had our food 5 minutes after entering the door. We ate and left within another 15 minutes. When toddlers are involved, suburbia — with its miles of fast food and chain restaurants — is the perfect place to be. Downtown — with its gourmet restaurants and lazy bistros — is the worst possible place to be.

Four years ago, I wouldn’t have agreed with that statement. Four years ago, I didn’t have a toddler. My life has changed dramatically and I didn’t fully realize it until I spent an hour wandering around downtown Minneapolis, looking for food.

We’re almost the ides of March. We’ve had some warm weather and a substantial amount of snow has melted. We still have some stubborn ice patches at the bottom of the driveway and in front of the curbs.

Today’s forecasted high is 50, but we’re supposed to drop back down to 27 on Wednesday and Thursday. Because of all of the melting and raining, there’s a lot of moisture in the air. So, we have lots and lots of fog. All of this makes for some truly spectacular “stay inside and wait for the sun” weather.

Katya started sleeping through the night a few weeks ago. We still wake up 2-3 times a night because one daughter or the other lost her pacifier and can’t find it. Katya has an excuse, Esther just needs to be less disoriented (and lazy) at night.

Still, all in all, we were starting to get caught up on sleep. But Sunday was the change over from “real” time to Daylight Savings Time. Now we have to wake up an hour earlier than we’re used to. We’re backed to waking up while it’s still dark outside. Neither one of us handles that well.

The girls still wake up and go to sleep at their accustomed times. They care nothing for our silly concepts of time and time changes. That means they’re going to bed “later” and waking up “later”. That means that we’re going to bed later too. Some “adult” things (like paying bills and taxes, enjoying sugary desserts, or just having some quiet cuddle time with a good comedy) are best done when children aren’t around.

We’re going to bed at 11pm (feels like good old 10pm) and waking up at 7am (feels like 6am). Throw in a couple of mid-night wakeups and we feel like we’re right back to getting way too little sleep. It’s sufficient to say, I’m not a big fan of daylight savings time.

This year was the first time that Esther really got the hang of opening presents and seeing what was inside the packages. She had a blast and insisted on helping Christine and I open our presents. A good time was had by all.

Monday through Wednesday (Dec 8-10) were very exciting for us. Justin Staskal came over and ripped out our sink, vanity, light, medicine cabinet, toilet, floorboards, floor, and vent cover. On Monday he put in our new floor and new light. He grouted the floor and installed the new toilet, vanity, sink, and medicine cabinet on Tuesday. He finished up on Wednesday by filling in the drywall and installing new floorboards and a new vent cover. We’re thrilled to finally have a new bathroom.

Monday night I had to stay late at the office. We had some light rain in the afternoon that changed to freezing rain by the early evening. By the time I got to my car (around 6pm) it had frozen to an 1/8” thick sheet of ice. I had to spend 20 minutes chipping it off of the windshields before I could drive anywhere.

Tuesday, Christine was scheduled for her first day back at the pharmacy. Unfortunately, a rather nasty snowstorm moved in Monday night / Tuesday morning and shut down most of the area. The roads were clear by Tuesday evening, but the pharmacy was a dead zone for most of the day. So she stayed home and worked Wednesday afternoon instead.

Earlier this week, I got the opportunity to move out of my cube and into an office. Because it’s a big office, I’m sharing it with someone else. I’m still happy: there will be less background noise, a window (to remind me that it’s time to go home!), and more personal space.

On Saturday, Christine, Esther, and Katya helped me move into my new office. Esther had a blast investigating all of the drawers in my old cube and drawing on the whiteboard in the new office. (Katya slept most of the time.) Afterward, we dropped the girls off with some friends (thanks Mike and Alicia!) and had lunch by ourselves at Old Chicago.

Saturday evening, I worked on some of my personal web projects (I think it’s fun) while Christine and Esther frosted Christmas cookies. I was able to have a nice, long talk with my brother Sunday morning before watching the Packers lose yet again. This week, they guaranteed that they’ll miss the playoffs and finish the season with a losing record. This, just one year after missing the Super Bowl by a field goal.

We had a nice warm temperatures (37, 42) on Saturday and Sunday. That melted most of the snow and ice off of our driveway. We also had a short bit of rain on Sunday afternoon, to help rinse the driveway clean.

We’re all ready to start another week of fun and excitement. See you next week.

P.S. — I just went outside (9pm) and discovered that our gentle rain is quickly freezing into an icy sheet on the driveway. I could skate down it very easily if I wanted to. Hopefully I won’t have to chip my windshield clean again before I can leave in the morning.

On Monday (Dec 1), UPS delivered the new hard drive for my laptop. On Monday night, I installed the new drive and went from a 120GB MacBook to a 500GB MacBook. After I opened up the laptop, I discovered that I’d need a Torx screwdriver to finish the installation. One ice-filled drive to Sears later, I was able to boot up the new drive.

On Tuesday, I gave in to the inevitable and decided that I needed drugs to keep my healthy. I stopped in at Walgreens and bought a pack of Wal-Phed — the largest allowed by law. I think I even managed to be polite to the tech on duty — it’s not is fault that the government treats me like a child every time I get a cold.

On Wednesday I glumly watched 3 inches of snow blanket the region. I worked late, got home at 7pm and went right back out to buy gas for the snowblower. I spent 40 minutes making the gas / oil mixture and coaxing the snow blower to life. After that, it only took 20 minutes to clear the driveway and park my car.

On Thursday we decided to skip the whole make dinner and clean up after dinner routine. Instead, we went out to BrouxNellies and enjoyed their cooking. I had the meatloaf: a perfect meal for a cold winter’s day.

We had more snow on Friday night, so I blew it off the driveway Saturday morning. A good thing too. Christine found a buyer for her old PowerBook G4 and he picked it up Saturday morning. In the afternoon, I watched the girls while Christine went out shopping. She bought Christmas dresses for the girls. She also bought grout — the last thing we needed before getting our new bathroom.

I watched Vertigo for the first time Saturday night. I agree with 90% of the world — it was a great movie. But I still don’t know why Maddy threw herself out of the bell tower. It doesn’t seem to fit her character. I’m sure Hitchcock had his reasons though.

I watched the Packers lose another game on Sunday (Dec 7). Clearly, the defense has been overrated this year.

It was a good week at Chez Martin. On Monday (Nov 24), we had our first “sticking” snow of the year. It started to melt by mid-morning, but it was a sign of things to come.

Tuesday night I met with some men from church about hosting a Returning Prisoner Simulation at our church.

A friend from Christine’s Bible study invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. We had a lot of fun and Esther really enjoyed playing with them.

Friday was a nice, slow day at work. The team and I (the 9 or so that were actually in the office) went to lunch at Old Chicago.

The real action happened on the weekend. On Saturday we cleaned out the garage: moved the lawnmower to the shed, the snowblower to the garage, the kitchen cabinets to the basement (we’ll get ‘em hung soon, I hope), and Esther’s toys to the basement.

We went to Home Depot and bought our new toilet, vanity, and sink for the bathroom remodel. We already bought tile, a mirror / medicine cabinet, and lights. Now we’re just waiting for the contractor to come over and install everything.

Sunday’s are always really slow for us. I got up early and watched the girls while Christine slept in a bit. As usual, I napped in the morning while Christine corralled the girls. Then she napped in the afternoon while I watched the Packers’ game. (Lost to Carolina, 35-31. The defense bombed — again.)

We missed church this week because Esther took a long afternoon nap — and was too sick for the nursery. We did watch the video of the sermon though. I put Christine’s pantry shelves in her pantry cabinet. The cabinet has been up for over 2 months. Now it’s finally completely usable.

Oh, and it started snowing Sunday morning. We were treated to a slow, gentle accumulation throughout the day today. Forecasters are predicting 2-4 inches on the ground by Monday morning. Winter is settling in for the long haul.

And that was our week, the week of November 24th. On to December!

A few nights ago we were watching the Blues Brothers 2000. Towards the end of the movie, Esther started watching too. She really enjoyed watching the cars pile up. Check it out.

As part of our visit to Treinen Farm, Esther got some extended play time with the young goats. She had an absolute blast. This is Esther at her most typical: yelling, running, petting — above all, intensely curious.

[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2008/08-1018%20Esther%20and%20the%20Goats.flv 640 360]

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Last weekend, we picked apples at the Eplegaarden.

I think we all had fun.

(You can view all of the photos at Flickr.

[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2008/08-0920%20The%20Eplegaarden.flv 640 360]

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Esther’s growing up and quickly and no where is that more evident than breakfast. She can feed herself now and is pretty sure about what she wants.

So, I taped a typical morning breakfast. If you’re not family you may want to skip this one. There’s nothing super exciting here. Just a toddler eating her breakfast.

Enjoy!

[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2008/08-0911%20Esther%20Eating%20Cereal.flv 640 360]

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This morning, at 11:25a, CDT, we welcome Katherine Elizabeth Martin into our family. She was 7lbs 11oz, 18 inches long, and perfectly healthy. We’re happy that she’s finally here — although I think Mom is a little happier than Dad!

We’re uploading pictures of Katya to our Flickr! site.

This afternoon, I took Esther up to visit her new baby sister. I was a bit worried about how she’d react — she tends to be more than bit rough with her baby dolls. A newborn is small enough and — when sleeping — still enough to be mistaken for a baby doll.

I needn’t have worried. Esther seemed to recognize right away who Katya was. She took to her immediately and kept asking me to hold her up so she could see Katya better. She even asked to hold her 3 or 4 times. For now, I think they’ll get along great.

I finally let her hold Katya and she had a blast. Watch and see:

[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2008/08-0909%20Esther%20Welcomes%20Katya.flv 640 360]

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For August, I continued to focus on maintaining a stable weight. I did better this month than I did last month.

My weekly weight gain was 0.07 pounds and I ate 33 calories more per day than I should have.

I’ve been trying to get back to losing weight but it hasn’t been working out too well. I do best when I can ignore food and pretend it doesn’t exist. Right now, Christine needs to eat more calories to support both her and the baby. Every time I see her snacking or taking seconds it’s harder for me to resist doing the same. So, I’m focusing on maintaining my weight.

And, yes, I did just throw my wife under the bus because of my lack of willpower.

My weekly weight gain was 0.29 pounds and I ate 147 calories more per day than I should have.

Yesterday, we arrived safely home from our summer vacation. On July 15, we drove from Oregon, WI to Strongsville, OH to spend 2 days with my grandmother. On July 18, we drove from Strongsville to Buffalo, NY to visit Christine’s parents. We stayed for about 2 hours, then left for Williamsville, NY to visit some of Christine’s friends at Camp Cherith. We stayed for the evening, then drove back to Buffalo to spend the night.

On Saturday, July 19, we drove down to Pittsburgh, PA to visit some of my old college friends and some of our old college hangouts: Uncle Sam’s Subs and Dave & Andy’s ice-cream. We spent the night at the Mariott Pittsburgh City Center (thank-you, Priceline.) On Sunday morning, we worshipped with Allegheny Center Alliance Church. We went there during my last three years of college and it was a joy to be back there once more. Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Buffalo where we spent the remainder of our vacation.

On Friday, July 25, we left Buffalo and headed home. We drove as far as Shipshewana, IN before spending the night at Der Ruhe Blatz, in the heart of Amish country. On Saturday morning we ate a fantastically delicious breakfast at the Blue Gate Restaurant before walking through several of the local shops. We left Shipshewana around 11am and arrived home around 4pm.

I finally remembered how to bypass Chicago, on the drive home. I took 80-West, through Indianna, then 80-94 North, then 290 North (Tri-State toll-way), which goes west around the Chicago suburbs. Finally, we hooked back up with 90-North and drove into Wisconsin. It saved us the hassle of Chicago traffic and didn’t take any longer than 90-North through Chicago normally takes.

Finally, here’s a look at our vacation in numbers:

2100. The total number of miles we drove, round-trip.

847. The total number of pictures we brought home. We took some ourselves and Esther’s grandmothers took the rest.

700. The total amount we spent on our vacation.

295. The total number of hours we were away from home.

5. The number of different cities we visited.

4. The number of different cities we slept in.

3. The number of days that we spent half on the road, half actually doing something.

2. The number of different hotels we slept in and the number of days that we spent doing nothing but driving.

0. The amount of video we took this trip.

Here’s a look at how we spent our vacation dollars:

It’s getting harder and harder to take pictures and videos of Esther. She’s recently discovered the camera. Not “discovered” in the sense that she wants to get it down and play with it. No, she’s discovered that there are pictures on the back of it. She’s discovered that when she sees someone using the camera, she can run up and look at the pictures on the back. More and more of our pictures and videos just show a girl running towards the viewer.

Take yesterday, for example. Over the weekend, I brought up a large box from the basement. Esther decided that it was a great toy, so we left it upstairs for her. Yesterday, she was playing in it and I wanted to snap a few photos. Far easier said than done.

She noticed that I was using the camera and she quickly got up and ran towards me to see what the display on the back was showing.

I put the camera away and we both tried to distract her and get her interested in the box again. I was hoping to snap some pictures while she wasn’t paying attention. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

She ran into the box, hit the back wall, turned around and noticed the camera. Then she came charging right back out to see what was going on.

After losing 24 pounds between September and December of 2007, I stopped keeping track of what I was eating and how much I weighed. The result was predictable: after plateauing for a while I started to gain weight again. Now I’m back to tracking calories and losing weight again.

My overall history.

A close-up of the last 30 days.