Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) #3

Fox introduced me to this musical soon after we met. I will admit freely that I did not watch it right away, and, alas, never watched the version she bought for me. I have, however, seen the show, and I am chagrined to say that I should have watched it long, long before. I am sorry, Fox. This part of it now makes the top three, so that should ameliorate all ill feeling.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Tooth? No, Teeth

Thorn is eight-months old today. In that time he has learned to crawl, learned to say "Dad", "Da-da", "daddy", "ma", "mom", and "goo", though only "goo" and "da-da" with any regularity, learned to hold his own bottle, and has mastered the technique of getting his parents to pick up after him, which, I imagine, will have terrible ramifications later. But, what has got our attention piqued this week has been the appearance of a tooth, which, today, became the appearance of teeth. Tristan's two bottom central incisors have appeared. This has made his teething worse, naturally, and his sleep cycle is less a cycle and more a series of kick-filled naps. But we have teeth! Little, ridgy baby teeth. To think that a year ago we were still imagining what he eyes would look like...

Good Eating/Good Body Update

It has been one week since I decided to be accountable for what I did to my body. So far, so good. I will still need to watch the portion sizes. I've a tendency to eat meals in an American fashion: large, very large. This, I imagine, accounts for most of my weight trouble since what I'm eating is generally deemed good for you. Fox and I rarely go out to eat anymore, and I think this will help, too. Restaurants are all about portions and hidden fat (which makes everything taste so good!). Next week I'll know more, since I intend to keep a better daily diet guide than I did this week.

Starting Weight: 186 lbs.
Current Weight: 183.6 lbs.
Goal Weight: 159 lbs.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Food News

Today we have seen a converging of events, so it seemed the best time to write a blog entry. This way, if some of the information is tedious, I'll be too busy going onto the next item for you to get bored. How considerate of me. Really.

Thorn will be eight months in two days. He's right on target, leaping over his baby milestones one at a time. He crawls, he babbles ("dad" is still his favorite word), and he's eating solid foods with only an occasional raspberry splatter. Today, I gave him his first bite of meat, which smelled of dog food but didn't taste awful (yes, I taste His Highness's food first). Having secured the viscous pink goo in his mouth, I sat back to see what would happen. After a pause in which he rolled the stuff around his tongue, he closed his eyes and shuddered. Seeing as I've read so many Pearl S. Buck novels lately, the first thing I thought was, "Heavens! He's a Buddhist!" I've since come to my senses and mixed the chicken with vegetables. Now he's fine. He wasn't a Buddhist; he was a gourmet.

Thorn is also about to secure another milestone, too: today, having felt Thorn's gums, Sparrow exclaimed, "I think we'll be seeing a tooth soon!" His words were prophetic, for pulling back Thorn's lower lip revealed a tiny ridge of white. This, of course, touched my alter ego (who, for those uninitiated, is a rather flamboyant fey thing), who instantly began to wonder what color Thorn's toothbrush should be. I think he might be settling on orange.

In other news, I put on my engagement ring today. It fit. Breastfeeding is the best diet ever.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 4

Javert dreams of hunting down Valjean, but this next song concerns a different kind of dream. Sometimes we wish ourselves in worlds of dragons and sorcery. More often, however, we wish ourselves to be heroes, to be greater than we are. May our wishes inspire actions. May our actions inspire others.

#4: "Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 5

Les Miserables was my first Broadway show, and you never forget your first. We had fantastic seats, and many songs from that night would influence my imagination for years to come. The following song, however, was my favorite all those years ago, and while it isn't now, it deserves to be on this most arbitrary of lists.

#5: "Stars" from Les Miserables


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Accountability

I want to lose 27 pounds. I am not in a rush to do this, but I want to get it started. A little more than a year ago I was getting close to my goal weight of 160 lbs, but now I'm up to 186 lbs. Many factors contributed to this weight shift -- not least of which was becoming a dad. While I didn't gain as much weight as poor Fox did when she carried our Thorn, I was eating pregnancy-style right alongside her, and so I watched my deficit become a surplus. I am ready to spend my excess, however, and fit back into my jeans. In honor of this goal, I'm going to call my entire weight-loss scheme: I Wanna Wear My Jeans. I was keeping track of my weight successes and failures on a white-board, but since we are moving, and since the board has been recently delegated to loftier purposes, I've decided to use this blog (weekly) to keep myself accountable.

Starting Weight: 186 lbs
Current Weight: 186 lbs
Goal Weight: 159 lbs

Pills for Food

For breakfast, as a substantial aside to the delicious spanish rice with pineapple-peach topping made by Sparrow:

* four ibuprofen (as the Steve has it, Vitamin I)
* a chewy multivitamin (tasty!)
* omega 3 (I might as well jump on the bandwagon and keep my telomeres long)
* folic acid in a pill the size of a pin
* Claritin (I'm allergic to life)
* calcium taffy

I recalled the days when my morning cocktail was less vitamins and more:

* Klonopin
* Prozac or Effexor
* Zyprexa
* Adderol
* birth control pill
* Allegra

I must say I like the way things have changed. How have your pill-popping habits changed over time?

Gender

(Fox and Sparrow walk out of Borders.)
Two Teen Girls> ::walk up to the door::
Fox> ::holds door open, smiles::
Twenty-Something Woman> ::walks up to the door::
Fox> ::holds door open, smiles::
Sparrow> ::smirks:: Just to remind you -- you're not an eighteen-year-old male.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 6

When a song is particularly catchy, and you find that the melody and the lyrics roll like marbles in your head, it deserves to be on a list somewhere.

# 6: "An Old Fashioned Wedding" from Annie Get Your Gun

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Red Lights

(The car stops at a red light.)
Fox> ::does a complicated series of digital maneuvers::
Light> ::does not turn green::
Fox> And... GREEN!
Light> ::does not turn green::
Fox> Green on!
Light> ::does not turn green::
Sparrow> Clearly, you need to work on your chromatomancy.

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 7

This list is not meant as objective critique, but rather a list of songs that inspired me, that made me laugh or cry, that filled me with that special, glorious sensation of wonder.

#7: "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) #8

Money makes the world go round. And this song is my favorite from Caberet.

"Money" from Caberet is # 8.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Homecoming

Thorn and Fox returned from Florida this afternoon. Meeting them at the airport was one of the happiest things I've ever done. I thought my boy would cry when he saw me. I thought I would have become a "stranger" to him, but I hadn't. He didn't know me right away, but he soon figured out who I was. He held my face, touched my beard, and eventually gave me one of his shy smiles. This evening I got a much larger smile when I smiled at him, and I even made him laugh a few times. It was only ten days, but it felt longer. I don't think I could have handled more than ten days. I barely made it through the ten. I used to imagine myself a lonesome fellow. I used to think I'd live alone more readily than with someone, but I've been with Fox for ten years now, and I am just not a complete person when she isn't around. I'm like someone in a shadow world, shuffling along, not sure of anything, confused, dazed. I'm glad she's back, and I'm glad Thorn is back. The work increases now, but it is good work, welcome work. Vitam meam amo.

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 9

The only version of this song that I could find comes from the cinematic adaptation, but that is fine, because it is still one of the best numbers in the show, and my ninth best choice for Broadway songs.

# 9: "We Both Reached for the Gun" aka "The Press Conference Rag" from Chicago

Friday, January 8, 2010

The Best of Broadway (IMHO) # 10

I enjoy Pandora's Broadway selection from time to time (read: daily), and so I have decided to spend the next ten days posting my favorite bits of Broadway.

#10: "I am what I am" from La Cage Aux Folles

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Gaining Health. Losing Pounds.

I want to lose twenty pounds. I have not set a time limit, because I don't want to lose twenty pounds very quickly. Whenever I lose weight quickly, I find that I gain it back just as quickly. My goals are to lose twenty pounds, to keep those twenty pounds off, and to continue the shift in my diet from food of convenience to food of health. Alas, the overabundance of information pertaining to nutrition makes this process difficult. 15 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day. 30 minutes a day. Three hours a week. These are all times advertised by folks who claim to be able to give you a foolproof method to a better body. I just want something that works. Here, then, is my plan. I am going to adapt Michael Pollan's Food Rules to my vision of the world. Mostly, I'm going to do as he says in rule #1 -- I'm going to eat food. That handles diet. Exercise is more difficult. I've no idea what to do. Weight lifting? Cardio? Both? How much of each? I need to do more research. This, my friends, is what an academic does when confronted by a problem. Research, research, research. I'll let you know how it goes.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Be it resolved...

...in 2010.

Sparrow will

     1. exercise two to three times weekly.
     2. work at least 30 minutes a day on his dissertation.
     3. try to remain organized for more than a single day.
     4. only check Facebook twice a day.
     5. only check the news once a day.
     6. plan menus instead of buying random stuff at the grocery store.
     7. finally bake bread.
     8. spend more time with Fox.
     9. finally finish the 50 book challenge.
    10. keep better tabs of his correspondences.
    11. will learn how to use commas, semicolons, and colons.
    12. will write more frequently in Thorn's journal.
    13. will write more frequently in this blog.

Sparrow reserves the right to retain or remove any of the above, as well as the right to add new resolutions whenever it suits him.