long weekend

it's nice to have three day weekends now. my old company, they were few and far between... but since i had nothing going on in those days, i didn't really mind at all. now, it's a different story. having a son is quite the change, although, it's not as difficult as i thought i'd be... for now. i'm sure this will change, but the thought of the oncoming challenge is exciting, especially when i have someone to share it with (which includes estatic grandparents). so. after a four day work week, i found myself waking on friday morning not having to travel the 11 miles to work, so i rose and took care of aiden while p caught up on some sleep. it was very nice. i'm very happy to have the time to spend at home in the mornings so p can get some more rest after waking about every 2 hrs to feed to the hungry bean.
it was a lazy afternoon spent watching movies on the dvd player and playing with aiden. but around 430pm, we headed out the door to the library for some more movies to last through the following week. at the library, we bumped into our friend bridgette and coerced her into heading to whole foods with us for some shopping. with our errands run and some time with our friend, we settled on the couch with a dinner of (boxed) risotto with chicken and mushrooms with artichokes while watching the english patient. and at this time, aiden was fast asleep in my arms.
saturday saw more of the same as friday evening. it was a lazy day for me. i ended up playing with aiden and taking care of him throughout the afternoon while watching movies and doing not much of anything else while p took the time to get some work done for the upcoming quarter of school. that night, we bundled up the bean and took him out to dinner to meet p's friend jay, who had just moved from iowa. dinner was at gumbo's at 16th st and wazee. i settled on the blackened catfish with shrimp gumbo while p had the crawfish gumbo and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. jay ended up having a cup of gumbo and the stuffed rainbow trout. we ended the dinner by sharing a slice of cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries. after dinner, we said our goodbyes and hopped the mall bus back to welton st for our short walk home. aiden was incredible, yet again... slept the whole time we were out - about four hours.
i celebrated aiden's first easter sunday. growing up, i remember my parents taking the time to boil eggs so we could color them. they would then hide them while we slept and when my brother and i would wake, we'd run around the house looking for the eggs. that was about the extent of it. no church, no special brunch or anything. we were invited to our friend donna's for brunch. it was a pretty late invite, but we decided to go anyway. get out of the house and spend some time with friends. all we had to bring was the baby for entertainment and some chocolate. we walked the 2 miles to donna's apartment off 3rd and broadway and enjoyed a feast of french toast topped with berries, an egg braid made with pillsbury croissants, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, muffins and mini chocolate gem donuts (my favorite). post brunch, p and i took a stroll over to crown and a couple of book stores three or four blocks from where we were, then headed home.
at home, i rolled through the laundry that i had planned on doing saturday morning. i can't believe the place i live in. i put out clothes in the washer, all timed for about 30 minutes of wash time. 35 minutes later, i stroll down to the laundry room only to find that a disrespectful impatient tenant had taken MY clothes out of one of the washing machines and into a dryer. the nerve. second time it's happened to me... and her excuse was that she didn't have a laundry card (basically a credit card to put credit on) and needed to use one of the coin operated machines. i started to hold my tongue and then let her have it; saying how disrespectful it was to be touching someone else's clothes... i wanted to say more, but felt it unnecessary... but not really. and her excuse was that she didn't think someone was coming down for some time. damn. makes me angry. i hate the place we live. people are so rude it's incredible. the interesting thing, though, an hour after my clothes had been in the dryer, i retrieved them only to find that their clothes were still in the washing machine. i was very tempted to move all their clothes to another washer, and if they had come in, i'd make an excuse to say that i thought i had lost something. damn. couldh've wouldh've shouldh've. next time. i can take so much crap for only so long, no matter if it's from different people.

ring ring

i'm getting a cell phone. i never thought ten years ago i'd be working corporate and being a cell phone carrier. well... maybe i new i was going to be in corporate working engineering at some point, but not rolling with a cell phone. it'll be good. with the new baby and the possibility of needed to contact p during the day, the phone will come in handy. getting myself a nice motorola v220 flip phone. we scored on our deal. the second phone plan was suppose to be 19.99/mo, but the rep quoted 9.99/mo. oops - so we're getting the second phone at a discount. haha. stickin' it to the man.

weekend round-up

SUNDAY
didn't do too much on this day. slept in until 9am; p took great care of the little one and when i had awoken from being on the floor, the two of them were on the couch getting some nummie nums. after a morning of laundry and cleaning up, the three of us decided to take a walk. i conned p into going- she was a bit tired from the early morning feedings. we took our usual route- down 19th ave to 16th st. mall. we stopped into tj maxx and i bought 2 shirts for work and 2 books for reading time with the little one. after a stop at ross, we headed down to buffalo toms for malts and fries. not the healthiest of meals, but p was craving a malt after not feeling so hot for the first 20 minutes of our walk. we bumped into 2 of p's friends and the second led us on to the ability of purchasing cigar boxes for 2USD a piece. so p and i stopped by the cigar shop and walked out with six boxes, one of which is on my desk at work. quite the handy pencil holder. four hours later, we were home. aiden didn't make a peep the whole time. quite amazing.

SATURDAY
i finally got p out of the house on a weekend without the baby and without having to go to work. after a morning feeding, p headed out to a yoga class while ap and i had some father son time. i was pretty excited. was going to take him for a walk to the library for some more movies. we got all ready to go and headed out at about 11am. two blocks later, aiden started fussing and crying. i knew it wasn't one of those 'i want to sleep but i'm going to fuss a bit before i crash out for two hours.' it was a, 'hey! i'm hungry still!' so, we turned around and he sucked down four more ounces of formula. gave me quite the belch and fell asleep on my chest.
that evening we took the little one to one of p's coworker's wedding. it was a quaint chapel on the campus of DU. it was a very quick and nice ceremony and aiden didn't make a peep. it was absolutely amazing. the reception followed after some very very poor directions provided on a ripped sheet of notebook paper left at the chapel. we were off s. university blvd and the directions told us to go north on colorado blvd, then left on cherry and then left on s. jackson. ok. university is about a mile west of colorado... and why wouldn't directions be given from where we were, not a mile east from where we were... anyway. and then someone said it was by an office located on south colorado blvd... wow. totally screwed us up. of course, we forgot to bring the address. so. after driving around for about 30 minutes, we finally found the reception... the cherry address was totally wrong. there are 3 - s. cherry street, cherry creek dr north and cherry creek dr south... could have used some clarificaiton... especialy when s cherry st. runs parallel to colorado blvd.
anway. the reception was nice... and i think aiden stole the show. everyone was wanting to hold him and see him, even the bride - she is expecting a child shortly as well.

FRIDAY
nothing like half day fridays. i was suppose to work the afternoon to make up for good friday this coming week, but having a photo appointment, i made up the hours the previous two days. so i left work at noon, drove home and got aiden ready for his first photo shoot. p found a photographer on e 17th ave and park ave who specialized in taking baby/ child photographs (b&w). we spend three hours with the photographer, looking at his photos, got six rolls of film taken, and got peed and pood on. the photographer said he'd be able to get us a contact sheet today (tuesday) so hopefully p has time this afternoon to meet with him.

swinging

when p's mom and dad came to visit, they bought us a swing for aiden to sit in so, when he was old enough to be content with being in it, we could get some stuff done around the house. as an engineer, i seem to find any and all faults with various equipment that i put together... this time, it's the mobile that goes over the swing and rocks and rolls and rotates as the baby chair swings. the mobile, it has a tendancy to rotate and end up behind the chair so our child can't even look at it. aiden is now old enough where he actually enjoys the chair and will fall asleep in it while rocking back and forth. and after about seven weeks of having the swing, i've finally put an end to the rotating mobile and put a screw in it so it'll stay in place.

father and son weekend

this past weekend p had an NCIDQ exam prep course that took up friday afternoon, saturday and sunday. so it was more or less a father/son weekend. it was pretty darn good, i must say. i got home friday afternoon to an eating child... then he played in his gym, did some swinging in the chair, some more nummie nums and then hung out with pa for a nap on the couch.
saturday was more of the same. a morning nap after breakfast, then a walk to the library for some movies and the store for some more diapers. i can't believe how many diapers are being used, so crazy. got home around noon for some lunch, play time, swing time, story reading time, a nap, more food, cowboy bebop seasons 1 and 2 for me, then another walk. this time, we strolled to the corner mod furniture store, then down to capital hill books and then d/t to tattered cover. i was on the hunt for some books for work; mainly a book on pressure vessels and a materials book, but i found neither. after the walk, it was home for some more food and then mom came home... after more feeding p and i went out to dinner at protege - a quaint restaurant across the street from a wild oats. i forget the cross streets, 11th and something...
sunday was another fantastic day with my son. it was snowing out so the walk was kind of out of the question so as to not to give little aiden a cold. so after breakfast, he was in the baby bjorn and we did five loads of laundry, made a double batch of banana bread, posted some photos of the little one, and watched the goonies.
not a bad weekend.

interoffice

on thursday of this past week, i got my first piece of interoffice mail handed to me by the gent that runs the mail around the office. it was quite exciting. i issued my first material requisition for purchase for my uncle. a couple of hours later, a piece of paper was placed in my inbox stating that the documents i issued were with procurement. this coming week i'm looking to purchase my first piece of equipment... it's an off the shelf item, under the advisement of another engineer. i think i'll keep the catalogue when i leave the company as a momenta.