Aaah!!

Time has slipped, slipped, slipped into the future. Now I'm less than a week away from Walk Day and I haven't gotten a single sponsor to help me Save the Babies! If you can, please help.

The March of Dimes was founded to combat Polio. And they did it. So, instead of resting on their laurels - instead of patting themselves on the back and calling it a day, they decided there were more things to combat. They widened their view and took on all birth defects. Right now (and for the last several years) they are focusing on premature birth. As everyone who reads my blog on a regular probably knows, my first son was born 7 1/2 weeks prematurely. He did great (though it was disconcerting to see him with an IV in his head the first time). The equipment that helped him maintain his body temp, monitored his heartrate, were developed in part because of the March of Dimes and people who cared enough to donate.

The March of Dimes was an effort dear to my heart before Ryan was born. Since then, it is even more so.

Spam, spam, spam, spam, and lobster thermodore...

I'm torn. I don't know whether to be annoyed or oddly pleased.

I've been getting spam comments. Comments to my blog that are ads for - or at least attempts to drive traffic to - various websites. The last one was for an escort service in NY, no less. You probably haven't realized it, since they seem to favor slightly older posts (mostly "The year is new, not me"), and since I get an email for every comment, I can get in there and delete them fairly quickly.

The annoyance, I'm sure you'll understand right away. The pleasure is a little more oblique. If someone has grabbed my blog for spamming, that means someone other than my friends and family is aware of it. Even if it's just at a web-spider level, it exists out in the world, so to speak. There is a certain joy in reaching a wider audience (even if that audience is likely unaware).

For the moment, I'll do nothing about it (other than delete them as they come). If things get too crazy, I'll likely break down and make people prove they're people with the weird text and stuff.

By the way...there is not much time left to Save the Babies! We're less than a month away now. If you were waiting for later, well...it's later.

More stuff of newness

So, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. We here in Southern Virginia got snow of the type that only hits here once every few years. And we're likely to get more tonight/tomorrow. That's almost unheard of here.

There was some concern about my Master Sergeant stripe. After breaking my foot, I had a PT test. The waiver I got from the doctor (because of my foot and for the recovery) said I couldn't do any PT, but that means I get tested on my waist measurement alone - a guarantee of failure. After the failure, I am informed that 1) I can't sew on my stripe with a failed PT test, 2) my upcoming EPR will be a 4 (of 5) at best with a failed PT test, and 3) I can write a note saying that I want to ignore parts of my waiver if I don't do myself bodily harm.

So, I write my little memo, work hard to ensure that my push-ups and sit-ups are up and good. My promotion is supposed to be at 9 AM on Monday, Feb 1st. The very first day I am allowed to test is Friday, Jan 29th. My EPR is due Monday, Feb 15th. With a lot riding on it, I test on Friday morning and crush it. Not only did I easily max out my push-ups and sit-ups, but with the PT I was doing (screw the waiver), I lost an entire inch on my waist. So, I'm good to promote on time. (Whew!)

The very next day commences the freak snowfall I mentioned all the way back in paragraph 1. Though you may scoff in Denver, this snowfall shuts down everything for the entire weekend. Ryan's school didn't open until Thursday. So, Sunday night, I get a call from my boss saying to show up at 10 on Monday and in ABUs (cammies) instead of Blues (service uniform). Now, the week prior, knowing that Monday is blues day, I realized that I wouldn't need stripes on my ABUs until Tuesday, so I picked up my new blues on Friday and wasn't scheduled to pick up the ABUs until Monday evening. This new iteration from the snow is a double whammy for me. Not only does it mean that I'm showing for work an hour after my ceremony, but in a uniform without proper stripes!

We decide to play it by ear on the time (which then turned out to be "delay until tomorrow"), and I'd stop by alterations and beg them to do them a few hours early..."like right now?"

Everything worked all right, and I spent a lot of time at home with the kids (due to the aforementioned school closure), but it was a really wierd week.

Oh, and Tristan made me sad and proud the other night. I was cooking some chicken stroganov for dinner, and he wanted to help. I let him stand on a chair nearby and was gonna have him do some pouring and whatnot when the time came. Unfortunately, shortly after I moved the wok with oil on the bottom (for searing the chicken pieces), he decided to check the oil temp...with his finger. Too fast for me to react, he burned his finger nicely. We got it under running water, got a cup of ice water for him to rest it in, and Saundra tried to get him settled on the couch. He got very upset and insisted that he still wanted to help me cook. I had to fight off the proud-papa "he's gonna be a chef" syndrome, but continued to be proud of my brave boy.

I think that's it for this installment of Musty Piece Theater. Tune in next time for more...uh...frenzied recitation of a bizarrely normal life? (And don't forget to Save the Babies!)

The year is new, not me

Ah...the breath of a new year is upon us. There is an excitement for what the new year will bring - and a little cynical part of me admits that it will bring much what it has brought for the last few years. But just as every day brings something new, so does every year - times 365. I start this year in an office I wasn't in a year ago, at a level I wasn't in a year ago, looking towards a rank I didn't hold a year ago.

My boys will continue to grow; to find new ways to surprise and amuse me. As they get older, I see more and more of their personalities as distinct individuals. It's a lot of fun to get to know them a little more each day.

This year, I will again try to post more often. Again, I will do well sometimes and fail miserably other times. I will again make a promise to myself to be a better parent. Again, I will do better than most and feel like I'm failing miserably. I will again find activities to suck my time away. Again I will spend more time than I should doing them.

I will also again be leading a March for Babies team. I missed it last year (since I was in Korea), and this will be my triumphant return. I hope to raise a whole lot of money to help prevent birth defects like premature birth.

Playing Catch-Up

I have been seriously falling down on my blogging duties. So much has happened.

Son the Elder is 6 now; Son the Younger is 2. (Yes, their birthdays are that close together.) My mom got a year older (Happy B-day Wabbitt!) I passed my 14th year in the USAF, and my 4th year at this blog (really that long?). My office moved. I did an Adopt-a-Spot and got sunburned. I have gotten Saundra to 3 karaoke nights (in a row, no less). I realized that Wil Wheaton Twitters, so I'm following him. I've played tons of Bully. Our gaming group has died, but I'm resurrecting it one player at a time in Hellgate: London.

And I'm less than 2 weeks from Marching for Babies and I haven't gotten a single sponsor. D'oh!

See you in another month! (No really, I'll try to be more punctual.)

Left, Right, Left

WalkAmerica is no longer WalkAmerica. It is now March for Babies, and I will once again Walk...er, March for Babies. Though the name has changed, not much else has. We're still raising money to research and defeat birth defects (specifically premature birth); still walking on the Virginia Beach boardwalk; and I am still heading up Team Langley.

It's a great time, but it won't do much good without your help. Please visit my March for Babies page and do what you can.

2 Stuff

So I went out walking on Sunday. I raised $335 for the babies, which is not bad. But the team raised $1880 altogether, which is great! Of course, I had a good time with Ryan and some of the other teammates, and he got to run on the sand. And now I have a couple songs to record.

I saw this article online the other day. Doctors have discovered a fascinating new fact about how cells die (i.e. how you die) when they're cut off from oxygen (say, when you've had a heart attack). Which leads them to a whole new way of reviving you long after they thought they could. I dare you to read this paragraph and then not read the article.

1, 2, 5!

Wow...3 years later (as of yesterday) and my blog is still rolling along. Who'd have thought I could keep doing something for so long? And I think I now have enough readers to count on two hands. (Sweet!)

And now, as then, I'll be walking for the babies in two weeks. 14 days from today, I'll meander down the boardwalk with my wife and kids, one of which has directly benefitted from the work that the March of Dimes does. So, if you can, please add to our collection here.

So many changes over the years: format, my links section, the comments, labels. Perhaps I'll play with the look again over the next few days.

--Beav ("Still crazy after all these years")

What, Again?

It seems like I do this every year. (Wait, I do do this every year.) Again, I'm on my March of Dimes WalkAmerica drive. So, if you've ever wondered what the "My WalkAmerica Page" link on the right is all about, here it is.

The March of Dimes was founded to combat and cure polio. And they did (sweet). Following that success, they expanded their view and took on all birth defects. They're currently focusing on premature birth: why does it happen? how can we stop it? But they won't get far without the money we raise in WalkAmerica (they're biggest fundraiser).

What does this mean? It means I'm walking 5 miles along the Virginia Beach Boardwalk in late April, and trying to get people to sponsor me for it. But I'll add a little incentive to help. If you donate, and make a request on my WalkAmerica page, I'll record myself singing a song for you and e-mail it. So let's work together and save those babies!

--Beav (In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Beaver sleeps tonight)

"Save my Baby!"

Is it really that time of year again? Yes, Spring is on the way, so once again I'm saying "send me money!" But it really is for a good cause. March of Dimes is all about researching and preventing birth defects, and WalkAmerica is their biggest fundraiser of the year. As it happens, prematurity is considered a birth defect, and no one is really sure why babies are sometimes born early. So this is our focus. Anyway...on April 30th, I'll be walking 5 miles along the boardwalk in Virginia Beach, and I need sponsors to make that walk worth something. So check out my page at http://www.walkamerica.org/beaver1224 and help me help the babies.

Speaking of babies...our first is doing very well. Getting more well-behaved by the day. It hasn't been the requisite 3 weeks yet, but the progress is sufficient enough for an update I think. He hasn't had more than 4 time-outs since we started. I'd say about 75% of the time, we never have to go past "1." Awesome.

Our second is also doing well. He is much more active than Ryan was. (Which is good, cause I never got to feel Ryan do anything. He hid from me.) He's progressing very well, and we're happy.

--Beav (Ooh baby, baby.)