It’s been about a month since I wrote last, so time to fill you all in to what’s been going on.

I’ll start things out with a Ben update. He’s grown a lot in the past month! Homeboy weighs 14.5lbs. He’s “coo-ing” now (which is hilarious) and his hair has fallen out and is now starting to come in quite nicely. He’s been feeding pretty regularly, and sleeping pretty good too most of the time. Ben’s mouth has also managed to find his thumb sucessfully one time. He seems like he enjoys sucking his thumb, which really calms him down. The blocked tear duct seems to have unclogged itself…it’s not longer goopy. His diaper rash has disappeared too! Here are some progress pictures:

We drove up to my parent’s place in PA the weekend of Oct. 18-19th. We drove up to Mama G’s Friday night in order to split our trip up a bit on the way up. Mom Y. had set up a “visiting session” for most of my relatives to visit and meet Ben for the first time.  He seemed to do really well eventhough there were tons of people around. My cousin Brad’s son, Simon, my niece Rachel, and nephew Nathan, really seemed to enjoy meeting him. Here are some photos from the day:

My friend, Derek, asked me to join his flag football team, so I said I would. We have had a few practices and a few games, but no victories yet. We have our first (and possibly last) playoff game this Wednesday (11/12). We did better last game, but we had too many mistakes. I caught 2 long passes last game for some positive yardage. It’s been fun so far, which is cool and all, but it would be nice to at least score once…we were shut out both games! Haha.

It was Holly’s 29th birthday on 10/24 and our 2nd wedding anniversary on 10/28. We went to Red Robin for Holly’s birthday, which was the first time the three of us went out to dinner. Ben was fine up until our food was brought out! Haha. I ate real quick and walked him around the restaurant a few times, which worked out perfectly since I tracked down our waitress and told her it was Holly’s birthday. Holly wasn’t so amused, but it was all in good fun. Holly started having mastitis pains on the Sunday after her birthday (10/26), so Mama G came into town to help her out around the house. She whipped up a really tasty dinner of stuffed cabbage, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. It was nice for both of us to be “off duty” when it came to cooking dinner.

I also had a little scare that same week. I was in the shower on Sunday (10/27), I saw a black speck on my knee. I looked closer and it was a deer tick that was in my knee. I dried off really quick and attempted to rip it’s mouth parts out of my skin. I pulled everything else off except it’s mouth parts. I called the family doctor the next day and was able to get an appointment the same day. The doctor numbed up the area around where the tick was, then dug the mouth parts out with a razor. He gave me a 1-time prescription that was supposed to take care of any infection that may occur.

I got a call from the powder coating guy the week of the 26th that my Raleigh bike frame was done and could be picked up at any time. I went the following Saturday (11/1) to pick it up. I ended up going with dark green. It turned out great. I swung by the bike shop on the way home to drop off the frame, wheel set, crank, and pedals. I was told that all the rest of the parts would be in and the bike would just about be ready. Once everything is on, he can measure what size stem I will need. I also need to figure out what saddle I would like. I heard back from the guy at the shop…he said the thread on the headset has an uncommon threading to it, so it he should have the proper parts by Thursday of this week (11/13). I’m really anxious to have it all come together. In other bike-related news, I picked up a bike trainer locally from craigslist on Halloween night. It was in ok condition, but for $50, it wasn’t bad at all. I took it apart, sanded the pieces down, and painted it dark gray. As usual, I’m too impatient and some of the paint scratched. I threw the Nashbar TT bike on there since it seems impossible to find a replacement front tire for that thing. I was down in our crawlspace and happened to find a 10-speed Univega road bike that belonged to our landlord. I asked him if I could ride it, and possibly buy it. He said sure, so I took it out, cleaned it up a little bit, pumped up the tires, and road it around the yard a bit. It’s a 1985 Univega Maxima Uno; 10-speed, lugged frame, and 27″ wheels, so there shouldn’t be a huge problem finding tires if I would need to.

I dropped the avant off to get the windows tinted last week (11/3). I was referred to a shop in Salem, VA, which is about a 20 minute drive away. It appears that they did a pretty good job. I just detailed both of the cars and took some pictures:

That’s all for right now. Until next time…

Categories: Baby, Cars, Misc., bike, cats
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