Matt said he wanted to see some new photos. Here are two we took today. I didn't want to post these on Tasha's blog because I know if I skip some time, I'll never go back and fill in. I'm not sure if these will stay here or not, but I'll leave them up for a little while at least.

The pumpkin patch at Trax Farms

Some leaves at a grove in the park.

snack attack

I usually don’t mind the vending machines here on my floor at work. Sure, they are overpriced compared to Wal-Mart of Giant Eagle, but it’s convenient. Besides, the prices are better than the “rip-off store” in the upper lobby of the building.

I’ve had a few lucky encounters with the machines. On a few occasions I’ve place change in the Pepsi machine (which mysteriously stocks Diet Coke...that has to be a violation of PepsiCo policy) only to have it returned to me. However, when I pressed the Pepsi button, I received a can of Pepsi; free of charge!

Also, the snack machine shows that the snack in B-9 is 80¢. However, if you press B-9, the digital display is only 50¢. Lately I’ve been getting Potato Skins for a 37.5% discount. Yes, I am a cheap bastard.

Today however, the machine turned the tables on me. It ripped me off. I wanted a Snickers bar in the worst way. It wasn’t that I trying to put out a fire in the office. I just wanted some chocolate. The candy bars in the machine are 70¢. I fed the machine a dollar. It was a fairly crisp bill, so the machine took it, no problem. No problem, that is until I tried to make a selection. The machine beeped at me and indicated that I needed to deposit 70¢. It should have dropped a quarter and a nickel into the change slot and spit out my Snickers bar. I tried another selection. Same result. A third selection; no food, no change. Then I pushed the coin return button. What a useless button. No change. My dollar didn’t come back out and four quarters did not drop into the change return.

Did I throw in the towel? Not me. I wasn’t yet ready to quit. I really wanted a candy bar, dammit. I tried to feed the blasted machine another dollar. Do you believe the nerve of the machine? It wouldn’t take it. I would have kicked it, but someone else had come into the vending area and I didn’t want to make a scene. I ended up walking down to the “rip-off store” in the lobby. The stupid candy bar ended up costing me 85¢.

cheap games

I have a Playstation. The old original one. I have about 8 games for it, but none that were bought in the past 3 or 4 years. I still have my Sega Genesis hooked up to the same TV the Playstation is connected to as well. I have less games for that. A couple of years ago I got a Nintendo Gameboy Advance. It came with a Zelda game and I bought Metroid. I have a handful of games for my PC including SimCity and Warcraft. What do I play? Free online games.

Right now, my favorite is the 8-Ball Pool game from Orbitz. It’s a flash animation game of standard 8-ball. I love it. I wish I could save it to my computer to play anytime and not just when I get the pop-up when I check out the weather on-line. So far, my record is barely over .500. I hate it when the computer nearly runs the table on me, but I still enjoy playing.

My other current favorite is more a puzzle than a game. It’s a numbers puzzle called su doku. Basically it’s a 9-row by 9-column grid. Additionally, these rows and columns make nine 3x3 blocks. The object is to get the digits 1 through 9 in each row, column, and block without repeating. The difficulty of the puzzles gets harder each day of the week. Usually, I find the ones at USAToday.com to be quite easy. The ones from the London Times are more difficult. I’ve never been very good at crossword puzzles (my vocabulary skills suck), but these puzzles keep me on my toes.

The best thing is these games are free. The web is full of free games. I played a Myst-like game on line the other day that I really enjoyed. It wasn’t all that difficult, but I still enjoyed it. I honestly don’t have the time to play an entire season on Madden ’06 let alone an entire baseball season on a PSP. At least this way, I can tap into my inner child without paying $39.99.

out of material

Good material is hard to find. No, I haven’t been looking for silk at Hancock Fabrics. I mean material for this blog. I should re-state that. My daughter gives me tons of good material, but I’m a first time father, remember. Just because I find something she does cute, humorous, or amazing doesn’t mean my two readers (or am I up to four) are going to think the same. I find my daughter’s animals sounds quite cute, but others may find them boring. How am I to know?

Also, this blog wasn’t supposed to just be about being a first time father. Still, as of late my social commentary has been fewer and further between than my reflections on being a new dad. I just haven’t found anything all that exciting to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys).

I’ve had writer’s block before. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily the case here. I feel I am just having a hard time finding anything exciting to write about. Pittsburgh sports? Don’t care, after all it’s just entertainment. World affairs? Too boring. Local news? Either too grim or just uninspiring.

Hopefully, something will develop soon. Until then, I’ll keep searching for some new material.

changing spaces

There’s a lot that will need to be done around the house before April 11. It might not sound like much at first, but since we completed some similar projects while my wife was pregnant the first time, I know it will take a lot to “get ‘er done”. And having a toddler around this time doesn’t make it any easier.

First up is going to be redoing the largest upstairs bedroom. This one was the master bedroom before the previous owners added what is now the master bedroom. I need to clean out the furniture, rip up the carpet, refinish the hardwood floors, install new baseboards and install new doors.

I’ve done some of this work before. I refinished the floors in Natasha’s room. Using a drum sander isn’t difficult. It is noisy and it makes a dusty mess, but it was easy enough to do. Edging was more difficult, but even that wasn’t so bad. Staining the floors was simple too. Applying the polyurethane was the difficult part. The floors are supposed to be free of dust (they weren’t) and the coats are to be applied evenly (I missed a few small spots). The floors still turned out fine. I stained all of the woodwork, but we had my wife’s uncle install the closet door (I added Closet Maid shelving in there as well) and baseboards. He never installed the bedroom door though. It’s still in my garage.

This process will be repeated in the old master bedroom, which will become the new office/guest/playroom. Then it will be re-repeated in the current office, which will become the new nursery. This is going to be a busy fall.

The other project is refinishing the bathroom. The tub leaks and it is directly above the kitchen. We spent too much time and money helping her uncle remodel the kitchen to have the tub leak through and destroy it, so it will have to be replaced. The rest will get remodeled too, especially since the walls are fuchsia, the tile is pink, and the floor is cracked. The room needs to be brought out of the 1950’s.

My guess is that by the time these home projects are complete, the folks at Home Depot will know me by name.