I'm fucking Matt Damon

No explanation needed. Just soooooo damn funny.
To Jeff, Wendy, and Jenniffer: yes, this induced the silent laugh.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KUowJzpgxs

R.I.P. Mike the Mouse

Over Christmas, we had a furry little house guest. Word to the wise: don't use poison to kill mice. They die under couches, leaving a stank you wouldn't believe. We pulled out the couch, and there he was, in all his decomposing glory. We promptly disposed of him. He is now resting in a Target bag coffin at the Cedar Rapids landfill

Ben's First Christmas (and Colleen's big 3-0)

I won't bore you with thousands of tales and pictures of the first Navidad. Suffice to say it was a nice holiday and for the most part, the families respected our reuqest to not go apeshit with presents for a baby who will not give two shits or even know what is going on.



Here is a nice picture of us before we went to Midnight Mass:

I am feeling the effects of quite a bit of wine in this picture. I was a bit drunk as we went to mass, as was Colleen's younger sister, Megan.

We really enjoyed spending time with Ben, since we really don't see him during the day while we are at work.

The whole Christmas extravaganza got off to a great start with Colleen's 30th birthday the week before. Her older sister, Erin, flew in from Seattle to surprise her. Of course, I knew about this and arranged for her to be at our house when we got home from work. Colleen was complaining about how uneventful her birthday had been up to that point and when we got to the front door she demanded that I open the door. I told her to do it, since I had my hands full of packages and things from work. As we argued over who was going to open the door, I finally had to give in and admit that I didn't have my keys. At that point, Erin heard us arguing and came to the door--and my rescue. Screaming and general giddiness ensued. We all went out for a nice dinner that night and then came home to enjoy some delicious lemon-raspberry cake from a local bakery, ice cream and champagne. Good times.

There are more posts to come, including the tale of another furry house guest, but for now, I will just post my favorite picture of Ben from over the Christmas break. Happy New Year!

Way too long

Holy crap--I knew it had been a long time since my last post, but I didn't realize it had been this long.
Holidays, work, shopping, etc. It is all a blur.
Ben is doing great. This week he has dropped his 4am feeding, which means that he now is sleeping straight through from 8 or so at night until we get up at 6am. We actually have to wake him up in the morning to get him ready for day care. It is so funny to watch him stretch and rub his eyes as he wakes up. Then when he sees us standing there, he gets a big smile on his face before he realizes that he is awake and hungry, when he starts to frown and then grunt and whine a bit as we put him on the changing table to get him dressed for the day. He doesn't launch into a full-blown cry until after he is changed and we pick him up off the changing table.
We didn't make it up to Spirit Lake this year for the Kollasch family Christmas due to the crappy weather. It seems like we are getting a snow or ice storm once a week around here. So we met my parents in the Amanas last weekend for dinner to celebrate my mom's and Colleen's birthdays.
Colleen turned thirty on Monday, so there was much rejoicing :)
We went out to dinner at Atlas with friends last Saturday and then spent some time in the Atlas lounge downstairs before moving on to Mickey's for a while. It was finals week, so downtown was pretty dead. On Monday, Colleen's sister Erin surprised her by flying home early. I organized it so that when we got home from work, Erin was there waiting and Colleen freaked out. It was lots of fun. We went out for dinner with Erin and Colleen's parents and then some people came over for cake and ice cream afterwards. I got an awesome lemon-raspberry swirl cake from a local bakery that Colleen loves. Yum-o. And then we opened the little bottles of champagne that I brought back from Spain this summer. The little bottles are called "Benjamin" in Spanish, so it was fitting.
So this week, we are enjoying having Colleen's sisters spend some time at our house (Megan flew in yesterday). The sisters volunteered to hang with Ben today, so we'll see how they handle him. Now that he is sleeping at night, he is awake for most of the day.
We are heading to Clinton on Friday for Christmas, and then we'll spend next weekend inColfax with my family.
We hope everyone has a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

Random photos

Ben in his Gap t-shirt and jeans. Looking pretty f***ing smooth.
Notice how we were very matchy-match that day. I love the fall long-sleeve-t-shirt-under-a-short-sleeve-t-shirt look.

He looks a little high in this one, but this was his Halloween outfit. We didn't go trick-or-treating, but we did get a nice bag of candy from day care. Score!

Rubbing elbows

We spent the past weekend in Clinton. Our friends Gus and Courtney got married in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago and they had a reception in Clinton for their Iowa friends who couldn't make the trip to the tropics. It was Ben's first time spending the night away from home and he did very well. The loud music at the reception didn't bother him and he slept most of the time.

Sunday we went to a Hillary Clinton appearance in Clinton. Colleen's cousin works for her campaign and we had seats in the front right by the podium. Ben was great again, which was especially crucial since the Secret Service had blocked all of our crying baby escape routes. Luckily, there was no crying baby. After she spoke, Hillary came around shaking hands, signing autographs, etc. , and we found ourselves being "those" parents.

Me: "Senator Clinton, will you take a picture with our son?"

Hillary: "Sure!"

*Colleen thrusts baby at Hillary*

The doofus sticking his head in the picture in the back is Colleen's uncle. Needless to say, we're working on the photoshop version of this picture for Ben's collection.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Babies, bad football, and sleep deprivation

That pretty much sums up the last few weeks.
Ben is now a month old and has new friends showing up left and right. Congrats Donor and Jenniffer!
The Hawks need some help. Fast. Although it was nice to be able to witness the Illinois game in person (thanks, Donor). But keep in mind, it could be worse. We could be Nebraska, Iowa State, or Notre Dame.
I am getting used to the little 2 hour naps I get through the night. Colleen and I try to take shifts, so we each have a chance at a good chunk of sleep. My students sometimes feel the brunt of my sleep issues, though. I try to stay cheerful, I really do.

Homecoming

Yes, the annual "how's your liver" weekend is upon us. Although I may not get to stick around for the full beer band circuit, I am scheduled to appear in all Homecoming activities. So tell the bartender at Gabe's/The Picador/Whatever the hell it is now to get the lemon drops ready!!
And the little guy will be joining us at The Vine on Thursday and will also get to watch his first ever Homecoming Parade! Here's a pic from us watching his first Hawkeye game together:

I'm a Dad!

This morning at 12:29am, the little guy finally decided to enter the world. We went ot the hospital to induce labor at 7:30am on Saturday, broke the water aroun 8:30 and sat around contracting, dilating, and shitting away another game to ISU in Lames. Finally, around 9pm the doctor announced that we were at 10 centimeters dilated and could start pushing. So we pushed. And pushed. And pushed. At 11:30, the doctor could still feel the baby's head, with little progress since the last check. So it was determined that his head just was too big to fit through the birth canal and all she was feeling was the top of his skull, which had been pushed into a little cone.
Off to the OR we went, with a quick change into scrubs and a big extra dose into the epidural. Sure enough, he had been pushed into the birth canal and was wedged right into the pelvic bone. He was literally stuck in there, and it took the doctor pulling him from the chest side and a nurse reaching in from below pushing his head to get him unstuck and out of there.
So it goes without saying that the little dude was pretty stressed out when he came out and it took a little bit to get him to come around and perk up for us (scary moments). But after a few moments, he was on his way and I got to hold him in recoevery while Colleen was being stiched up. His breathing was faster than normal, so we had to take it easy this morning, but his last few checks are starting to even out and everything looks perfect. Colleen is pretty sore and very, very exhausted. After all, she did all the work of a vaginal birth and also had to endure the C-section surgery.
All is well and we look forward to coming home in a few days with the new guy!

Baby Watch 2007

So the due date has come and gone and we are still waiting. If he doesn't decide to join us today, we are heading to the hospital and they will induce labor on Saturday morning. Does anyone know if Mercy Hospital gets the Vs. channel in their cable lineup?

And btw, it's 11:11 and Iowa State STILL SUCKS!! (And apparently, this year, much more than usual)

GO HAWKS!

Another quiz

Again, stolen from Wendy. I wouldn't post it, except, well, I did better than she did :)

80%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Waiting Game

Still no baby yet. This kid seems to have a Spanish sense of time. Yesterday was the due date. We have another doctor's appointment this afternoon, so hopefully we will get some idea of how things are going and what the plan is for if he decides to keep hiding out for a while.

Fun Quiz

Blantantly stolen from Wendy. But I thought it turned out fairly accurate. Enjoy.

My personalDNA Report

Peeing my pants...

I'm so excited for football season. Especially since I have been given permission to make the trip to Chi-town for the game on Saturday. I'll be heading out on Saturday morning, going to the game and then trekking straight back to CR. I'm doing the trip Han style--solo. Can't linger around too much in Chicago because the little guy might decide to join us any day now, and we can't have Dad in Chicago when that happens.
Although we are taking a red shirt season from this season, I do still plan on being at Homecoming and marching Alumni Band, both the parade and game. I am also hoping to get to one more game at some point this season, maybe Illinois or Minnesota, depending on how things go, ticket availability, etc.
I am so excited for college football season! My normal preseason tradition of watching Rudy has not happened yet, but hopefully I can squeeze that in tonight or tomorrow night--we'll see.
GO HAWKS!!

Back to school

Yesterday was the first day of school. Although we started back to work last Thursday, the kiddies came back for a half day yesterday, making today the first full day of classes. So far, so good. I'm trying to maintain as positive an outlook as I can.

En casa

Home again. Without luggage. Thanks, US Airways. Nobody on the flight from Philly to OHare on Tuesday night received their luggage. How do you lose everybody's bags?
The first suitcase was delivered to our doorstep while we were out running errands on Wednesday afternoon. I got home to find that the back panel was completely ripped halfway down the suitcase, leaving a gaping hole. A phone call on Thursday alerted me to the fact that my other suitcase was at the Cedar Rapids airport, but it was at the United desk and they would not deliver bags from US Airways, so I would have to go out there to pick it up.
Turns out I had to go there anyway, because when I called to complain about the status of suitcase number one, they told me I had to take it to an airport to file a claim and have the damage verified. So I lugged the suitcase out to the airport and filled out the paperwork. After which, the United employee (since there is no US Air desk at the CR airport), informed me that I would have to empty the contents of the suitcase and leave the bag there. Why couldn't I be told this on the phone before I schlepped all the way out to the airport? So I threw everything in a giant plastic bag they gave me, got my second suitcase and sulked out of the airport. Damn you, US Airways!!

So back home, enjoying the unpacking, doing some chores around the house to finish getting ready for the baby and dreading going back to school in a week. Also catching up on movies--saw The Simpsons Movie today and I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so much in the theater. Hilarious.

Vacaciones...de puta madre

With a few days before I return to the US, and classes finished this week, a couple classmates and I took a short trip north to the País Vasco (Basque Country). Two days enjoying the beach and the cool weather of the northern part of Spain. I had never been to the northern coast, and I absolutely loved it. How could you not, with views like this:

The city rests around this bay--Bahía de la Concha and the beach of the same name. Concha, because the shape is just like a seashell, or concha. Our hostal was right underneath the big statue of Jesus on the mountain in the picture.

The trip was fantastic, relaxing on the beach, taking a boat ride out into the ocean and around the bay, enjoying the view from the top of the mountain, and taking in the spectacularly cool night air. The most interesting part was the signs posted around the city that read (in English):
"Welcome tourist. Remember: You are not in Spain nor France. You are in the Basque Country." Well, if that didn't put those thoughts in the back of my head about ETA to rest, I guess nothing will :)

Despite the scary separatist propaganda, it was cool to see the Basque language on all the signs and everything. We thought about counting all the appearances of the letters t, x, and k, but decided to stop after the count hit 100--on the first sign :)

Got back to Madrid around 7:30am this morning and it was pouring rain, with a little thinder and lightning. I am not sure I have ever seen a thunderstorm in Madrid. Granted, it has nothing on the storms you see in Iowa during the summer, but it is rare to even see rain during the summer here, so the thunderstorm is a bit of a conversation piece here. I took advantage of the free day at the museum on Sundays to head to the Sorolla Museum and to make a visit to the Prado. Sorolla was Spain's best impressionist painter, and the museum is in his old residence here in Madrid. Nice, but I was disappointed there was no store to buy a print or two. The Prado store also disappointed, since I really wanted a couple Goya prints for the house. I took a stroll through the Goya wing and visited my favorite Velazquez works, the got the hell out of there, because the Prado on free Sundays is a tourist haven and the crowd was driving me nuts.

Tomorrow is my last day in Spain :(

I am having lunch with MadridMan (see sidebar link), and then the traditional dinner with Marcos and Sandra on the night before I leave. We have gotten together for dinner in Madrid on my last night in Spain every summer for the past few years, and I am looking forward to doing it one last time.

Mañana

As I have been procrastinating writing my final paper (I have the worst case of senioritis right now), I have been messing around with the blog. Check out the new poll feature at the very bottom.

Grrr...finals

Classes are almost finished...now gearing up for finals. I have two final exams and a final paper. The paper is tough, since I would much rather just show up for a test and be done with it all. Hopefully I can hammer out the paper this weekend, touch it up Monday and have it turned in on Tuesday. It's only 6-8 pages. Finals shouldn't be too bad. The dialect variation class will be fairly easy and the theater class is just a matter of reviewing and studying really well over the weekend.
I'm heading off to the mountain house for the weekend, one last hurrah by the pool with my notes and enjoying Margarita's great food. Marcos and Sandra are going too, I'm actually riding with them Friday night instead of taking the bus out on Friday morning. A little less pool time, but a much more comfortable ride (and free!).