Throne

My new rocking recliner. Main purposes: rocking the baby, watching TV, PS3

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Since my last post about fiction novels, I completed Patriot Games, and just yesterday I completed the next-in-line Clancy, The Cardinal of the Kremlin. I didn't think it could get any better than what I've already read from him (especially since this book was not made into a movie), but man, was I wrong. I'm pretty sure Cardinal is my favorite so far. It deals more with "spy" type stuff rather than military. It has a hint of special-ops, which is cool because Clancy introduces some of the characters that were in Rainbow Six. Clancy is an absolute master at weaving characters that seem to have nothing in common together, and eventually having them meet in later books.

Overall, this book was awesome and I recommend it. But you know, I recommend all his Jack Ryan / John Clark books. While they're all intricately woven together, each one can easily stand on its own without any loss to the plot. Next in line for me is Clear and Present Danger. I'm hesitant to go get it from the library because they take a while to read, and my little "vacation" is just about up and it's business time again.

Things I found 02

Unfortunately, well not unfortunately for me the new dad, but unfortunately for the new thing I started a couple weeks ago called "things I found," having a baby kind of hindered my ability to peruse the things I normally peruse online. Well, here are some stale things I found the week before my son was born, and one from today.

If you're lucky, they'll make a sign for your name, instead of spelling out the letters. Did any of your students do this Grandma? [Kottke]

I guess they make "cat"s out of some pretty expensive metal. [Tribune]

This stuff does happen. Straight out of Clancy... [Tribune]

Viva Watermelon! [Sun Times]

Line cutter!

Kottke posted about a guy who encountered a line-cutter at an Apple store when the iPhone 3G was released. I linked to Lance's site to read the entire entry, and it was absolutely amazing. Not only was it written with a great attention to his thoughts and details, but I started getting mad at the line-cutter myself! This blog entry is probably how I would envision my blog if that's what I did for a living. Unfortunately when I post, I get too excited and try to get it published quickly rather than being patient and adding the details that made that post so wonderful.

Read it! You'll be happy.

5 days

I've been Dad for 5 days. It's finally sinking in that I have a son. It's still a little weird for Linnea and I to refer to him as "Little Louie." It's not that he doesn't look like a Louis, because when I look at him it reminds me of my grandpa (Louis Sr.). We had been calling him "Little Guy" for about 5 months, so it's been hard, but we're getting used to it.

In case you hadn't figured, my posts here will be more sporadic for a little bit with the baby, and trying to update his blog. Also, if you have experience with private blogs, any ideas how I can get around the 100 reader limit?

It's a boy!

Well, it happened. We thought he'd never come, but Louis IV was born on Monday, July 7th 2008, on his due date ironically enough. He was born (naturally, with medication thank God) at 4:08 pm, 10 pounds 11 ounces, 21 inches. I'll talk about him more after describing the events preceding his birth.

It started on Sunday night, well Monday morning. We went to bed around midnight, planning on sleeping in since we had to go to the doctor as Monday was Linnea's due date. Linnea was up constantly with some more pain than usual, but nothing as regular as contractions. We should have thought something was up; for a change I was waking up when she would get up. I usually sleep through her midnight bathroom breaks. She started feeling strange and called the Labor & Delivery nurses at the hospital. They said it was probably nothing, but she could come and get checked out if we wanted. As soon as she hung up the phone she started getting strong pains about every 4 minutes. Contractions 3-5 minutes apart is the usual go to the hospital time, so I guess we were lucky she wasn't feeling strong contractions before then. Most people feel them for quite a while (5-12 hours) before going to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 5:00 a.m. on Monday. She was at 3 cm. Later in the morning her doctor showed up (just back from vacation, fortunately. We gave her another day away from the office), and Linnea was almost at 4 cm. The doctor decided to get things moving along and gave Linnea something to strengthen the contractions. By noon she was set up with the epidural and ready to go. We got a scare when it stopped working for about an hour, but it started working again just in time. Linnea was fully dilated around 2:30 p.m. and with only an hour of rock star pushing, we had our son.

I can't even describe the moment my son came into this world. I was overcome with unexplainable emotion and started crying. Not sobbing, but they were definitely rolling down the cheek. I couldn't even say a thing, maybe a squeak, but no words. It was all I could do to even smile at Linnea. The moment was easily in the top two of my life. I can't choose between my wedding and my son's birth, because they're totally different. In a way they were both an affirmation of overwhelming love for somebody, but the indescribable nature of watching your child come into this world sets it apart somehow. I still can't believe he's ours when I hold him, but big things tend to take a while to sink in for me. I'm sure bringing him home tomorrow will help. I really can't wait.

Back to the little guy. If you don't know babies, he is absolutely HUGE. Babies are about 8 pounds on average. He looks like he's 1-2 months old already! Every time I walked by the nurses station yesterday I heard some mention about the "big boy" or heard his weight being mentioned. One nurse told us that he had the biggest hands she's ever seen on a newborn. I guess we're going to be throwing away all the newborn diapers (up to 10 lb) we already opened... We had a couple of slight scares, but he is absolutely fine. Right after he was born they needed to take him to the nursery to monitor him. The reason was unclear at first (I think the nurses don't realize the terms they use are way over everyone's head), but since he was so big he had trouble adjusting his blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately that means we couldn't hold him until about 8pm. By that time my anxiety had definitely built up, but it was a huge release to hold him for the first time.

Everyone was here when we got to bring him to our room for the first time (Grandmas Krista and Laura, Grandpa Lou - Louis Jr., and Uncles Dylan and Christian). We passed him around and took pictures of him with everyone (email me if you want the link). We fed him and convinced the Grandmas to change his diaper. We chose to have him sleep in the nursery so we could take advantage of our last two solid nights of sleep. This morning we got the second scare. The pediatrician who checked out all the babies in the morning came in at 8:30 a.m. to inform us that the murmur she heard last night (normal for newborns I guess) hadn't gone away by the morning (not normal). My heart sank as I stared blankly at the doctor trying to not look too much in shock. Linnea and I were pretty bummed, and we couldn't get him from the nursery yet again. The doctor came back at 10:00 a.m. to let us know the eckocardiogram (sp?) showed no holes in his heart (which would cause a murmur), so we were sufficiently elated and went to get him! Everyone came back today and we all hung out with the little guy. Unfortunately, my family had to go back home, but will be back in a few weeks. Grandma Krista was pretty sad to say goodbye to her grandson. I'm sure Grandpa Lou and Uncle Christian were too, but they didn't express it as much. Grandma Laura will be staying for a week to help take care of everything, and Uncle Dylan is in charge of Bailey.

Anyway, my battery is about to die, and I don't feel like reaching for the cord. From now on, baby updates and links to all his pictures will be on his own blog site. We're paranoid, so it'll be private and you'll have to get invited to see it, so email me if I don't send you an invite tomorrow.


- Dad (Louis III)

Thanks for a good 4th, CU

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July. Happy birthday USA! Anyway, Linnea and I got pretty lucky this year. Usually, we head up to her Grandma's house on Lake Geneva and hang out with her family, and go out on the boat to see the fireworks on the lake. We couldn't do that since Linnea's ready to pop. Luckily, due to the construction at Memorial Stadium (usual fireworks venue), they put on the fireworks right down the street from us! It was awesome, we sat on our patio with our mosquito candles and had a perfect view. Then we just walked inside when done, and watched the line of cars behind the house for about a half hour.

For those keeping track, the Little Guy still doesn't want to come out yet. We have no idea what's going on anymore, because we've already had all of the "signs" that tell you you're supposed to go into labor soon.

Things I Found 01

Taking inspiration from something on kottke.org, I've decided to post an almost-weekly entry linking to really interesting articles or information I found online over the week. Enjoy.

Even Bill Gates hates Windows. [Endgadget]

Don't swat the honey bee. [News Gazette]

Maybe they'll make "anti-matter" like in Angels and Demons. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Nick Swisher really is that awesome. [Chicago Sun-Times]

People in my building are hanging with Harry Potter. [Chicago Sun-Times]

You can sell your life on eBay (including friend introductions) for $380,000. [Chicago Tribune]

Good thing I didn't play PS3 this week. [Endgadget]

Segways to protect Olympcs. [Endgadget]

Tiger hurting 10 years = new, SUPER TIGER. [Daily Illini]

According to Uni Watch, White Sox were the first team to put names on back of uniforms, use separate batting practice jerseys, only MLB team to wear shorts, and celebrate half-way to St. Patrick's day. [ESPN]

I love Armor All

I just cleaned the inside of my car yesterday for the first time since I got it over a year ago. That's about the only productive thing I did this weekend. But man, it was all worth it when I got in this morning and my butt slid on the shiny black leather and the dashboard was gleaming in the sun as I drove to work. It was amazing; it made my weekend feel a little more productive than it was. Now, if only I had washed the exterior... Oh well, I can't really see that when I'm driving anyway.

Joe Crede

So for the past 3-4 years (except when injured last year) I've said that Joe Crede is perhaps the most talented defensive 3rd baseman in baseball, and a pretty damn good clutch hitter too. Here's what Mark Grace (longtime Cub) had to say on the Fox broadcast of the Sox-Cubs game today:

Not a better defensive third baseman in all of baseball.

Thanks Mark! Now go tell all the people who keep giving Eric Chavez the Gold Glove!!! Joe should have had at least one by now, and if he doesn't get one this year I'll have a serious problem respecting the Gold Glove awards in the future.

Another decent book...

I wrote a detailed list of my favorite authors a couple days ago, but I left out Raymond Khoury. He wrote The Last Templar, and I think he has another book out, but I'm not buying the hardcover. Anyway, Templar is similar to some of Dan Brown's work (historical thriller), and I recommend reading it also if you're looking for something to grab you.

Proof that I rock

Here's some proof that I officially rock. Apparently, two-thirds of the last 6 presidents have been left-handed, and McCain and Obama are both lefty's too (thanks Kottke). In fact, in several of the elections both major candidates have been left-handed. You should read the article, it talks about how you only use half your brain, and I use all of mine!

I'm done jumping up and down now

I'm back in my seat. I can't believe the stuff I missed being behind reading my RSS feeds. If you click the title link you'll read a wonderful article, perhaps the most wonderful article I've read in quite some time. On August 15th, just in time for football, Comcast will be carrying the Big Ten Network! That's like 30 football / basketball games I won't have to miss anymore. Ahhhh, a sweet sigh of relief.

Warning: gaydar may be faulty

I was trying to catch up on some of my Google Reader feeds that have been neglected, when I came across the article linked in the title of this post. It's an editorial about an article the writer found in the LA Times about a study that found some interesting things regarding sexual orientation and genetic traits.

The story mentions one study that found that the hair of gay men was 3.5 times more likely to grow in a counterclockwise fashion.

Still another found that men who were left-handed were 34 percent more likely to be gay. That figure grew to 90 percent for women.

Holy cow! So if you don't know me, my wife and I are both left handed (and heterosexual). So we notice other leftys, and I really doubt the lefty remark above is true. I'd love to see who they actually studied to come to these conclusions, and would hope they try and look at people from all areas of the country.

Anyway, besides the lefty thing, and depending on how the media twisted their results, this could be a pretty ground braking study that could essentially prove that being gay is not always a choice, but genetic. If they can prove it, that would be a huge step toward certain people (and church denominations) becoming less homophobic. Granted it would take a while, and these results could be totally wacky. The editorial author does bring up a good point, that if they can find pinpoint accurate traits, what if someone doesn't want their orientation known, but has those traits?

Remember: "90% of statistics can be made to say whatever you want, 50% of the time." What a great commercial...

The Hunt for Patriot Six

In case you were wondering, this will be a post about books I've read, and recommend.

If you're like me, you rarely read anything (including required high school literature) until Harry Potter came along. It even took me until after I saw the second movie to start reading them. That was good though, because the first two books were pretty juvenile (I read them after getting through 5). Anyway, for those of you out there who need constantly thrilling / intense plot to stick with a book, I thought I'd share my experiences with books / authors who easily grabbed my attention, in the order I discovered them, obviously.

1) Harry Potter series. These are easily some of the best books I've read. I'm sure the books I was supposed to read in high school can compare, but when I'm supposed to take notes in them and find the oh so obvious metaphors, it loses my interest (except for Crime and Punishment). Back to Harry, J.K. Rowling does an awesome job keeping you hooked through all 7 books (about 3000 pages). If you haven't read them, READ THEM NOW!!! I'd skip the first 2 if you've seen the movies.

2) Dan Brown. Granted I don't believe the conspiracies in his stories AT ALL, but all of his books make for great entertainment. I got hooked on him after stealing Bob's DaVinci Code on the ride home from Arizona / Las Vegas. I read them all quickly. Extreme mystery / thrillers.

3) John Grisham. I really have no idea how I got into Grisham's work. By chance I picked up The Broker, I think it was for a plane ride. I liked it's legal-thrilling plot so much that I decided to read The Firm, and The Street Lawyer. I recommend all of them, but The Firm is heads above the others, throwing some mafioso-ness into his usual lawyer themes. You know the books are good when just about all of them have been made into major motion pictures. The last time I was home I found out my mom has basically all of his books, so that's nice. I'll just "borrow" them from her. Too bad they're hardcover. I prefer the lighter, smaller cheap little paperbacks that always come out a year later.

4) Tom Clancy. Like Grisham, the major motion picture thing holds true for Clancy, plus a video game series. It's even a bonus because of Harrison Ford. For a guy, Tom Clancy books are the best. They are CIA/military thrillers. I started with Rainbow Six, another airport buy I think. As you can tell, the title of the post is a Clancy mash of the two I've read already, Six and The Hunt for Red October, and the one I'm currently reading, Patriot Games. Once I read Six, I looked up all the books he wrote. I decided to start at the beginning (by publish date) with Red October. I was going to stick to the publish date, but his second book was not a Jack Ryan novel, the protagonist in a handful of his novels. So I skipped one and went to Patriot Games. Unfortunately, it takes place before Red October, and I don't know if he meant to write them in that order, or it was an afterthought. Anyway, I'm sticking to the publish date. I plan to go through all of the Ryan novels in this manner. Ryan eventually works with John Clark, who is the main protagonist in Six, so I'll continue with those. Then maybe I'll read his other couple of fiction works without either character.

I would highly recommend all of the above. Be warned that you will get hooked quick.

If you have any suggestions on where I should look after Clancy, please let me know.

"In the garage where I belong."

-Weezer.

I used to poke fun at my dad with that song. Now, I find myself getting more excited at the possibilities of my own garage. Granted, it's not a welding shop / online poker room / cigar lounge for one, but it's mine. I've just started organizing it, and getting everything up off of the floor. Check out the album below. I know, I'm a dork, but I can't help it. Go find Weezer's "In the Garage" and you'll know what I mean.

I think I'll be adding a work bench where the tools are right now, and just sliding the golf stuff onto the side wall. Suggestions?

In the garage...

Chik-fil-a, I mean McDonalds chicken sandwich...

I drove past a McDonald's on the way home today, and the message under the Golden Arches said "Try our southern style chicken sandwich." Now if you're from the midwest like me, you may not have known this, but the great, grand, new McDonald's southern style chicken sandwich is an EXACT CARBON COPY of Chick-fil-a's chicken sandwich! Same bun, same breaded chicken breast, same pickle(s). And did I mention Chick-fil-a has been around for quite a while, so this is nothing new. Did I also mention that McDonald's even newer breakfast chicken biscuit is an EXACT CARBON COPY of Chick-fil-a's chicken biscuit? Yeah, you can google chick-fil-a vs. McDonald's and you'll get a shit ton of blogs and articles comparing the two. IDENTICAL! McDonald's should be sued.

Come out already!

For at least a few months (probably when they changed our due date from 7/16 to 7/7) Linnea and I have thought that we would have our baby quite a bit earlier than the due date. Well, it's less than 3 weeks away, and Linnea is feeling just about as normal as usual, besides the fact that we know he's in position to go. The window is closing I guess, and we're getting the feeling that he's not going to come early at all. Obviously this is fine if he's not ready yet, if not everything is fully developed yet. But based on his size, we thought that he was, and it would be nice to have him soon, as we're dying to be parents and Linnea is ready to sleep on her stomach and back again. Also, I'm ready for my 2 week vacation from work. Oh well, he'll come when he comes I guess.

Congrats to the Celtics. I was absolutely disinterested in this series, but man, the Celtics laid a beatdown tonight.

We found this little par 3/4 9 hole course right down the road from us today! I'm so excited, it only costs $8! There's a range there too, with heaters for cold weather. It looks like a tiny, crappy course, but for the money (and the location), it looks to be an easy option to go swing the clubs within an hour.

Weekend recap

I guess I forgot to post about all the awesome stuff that happened this weekend. First of all, my parents and brother came down to visit, so that was cool for Fathers' Day. We went golfing on Saturday, and I won! Granted, I shot a 104, but hey, I still won. Oh, by the way, that's a 104 playing by all the rules, like the actual rules in the rule book, unlike everyone else I know who says they shoot in the 80's and suck worse than me. O.K., so I accidentally dropped my ball on the green once and didn't give myself the 2 strokes, but it rolled down the hill and I was putting up the hill, so I saw no gained advantage there.

Sunday was eventful too. First we went to church, then had my dad's famous fried eggs. In case you live in a hole, this thing called the U.S. Open was going on, with a dude named Tiger in the lead after Saturday's round. He's never lost the lead in the 4th round of a Major tournament. Never. Well, he sort of lost it during the final round, but fought back and made a huge birdie putt on 18 to force an 18 hole playoff on Monday, messed up knee and all. It was crazy. So Monday it was Tiger vs. Rocco Mediate, a 45 year old with a bad back. This dude is awesome. Now normally playoffs are sudden death, and EVERYONE crumbles under the pressure of playing against Tiger. This playoff was a whole extra round, and Tiger was up 3 on Rocco at one point. It's in the bag. But no, Rocco somehow jumped back ahead of Tiger by one stroke by the last hole! How awesome is that dude? At this point I'm torn between rooting for Tiger or Rocco, but I stick to my guns and root for Tiger and his messed up knee (almost made him fall to the ground after shots). So what happens? Sand for Rocco, and Tiger birdies to tie it back up! Now, after 90 holes of golf, they're going to sudden death. Tiger wins the first sudden death hole as Rocco hits the beach again. Too bad for Rocco, but he might be the only 2nd place finisher everyone remembers, a truly awesome performance when most would crumble. Anyway, congrats to Tiger. He won his 14th Major and set a record for most wins at a single course (7 at Torrey Pines, I played there - 98 I think).

FINALLY, Dale Jr. won! For the first time in over 2 years. He won on a fuel mileage deal, but I don't care, HE WON!!! He's got enough top 10's this year to prove he's as good a driver as anybody in NASCAR, and this win is a huge morale booster for a team already 3rd in points. I can't wait to see what happens now.

Golf

So I was going to write a post on how amazing Tiger's second nine was today in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines (the front nine, but played after the back; I totally played this course - South - a year an a half ago and broke 100 right before the Buick Invitational), but then I thought about how I posted so excitedly about the White Sox, who then lost 3 straight. But then they won again today, so I said "what the hell."

Tiger Woods is freaking awesome. Flat out amazing. He didn't play a full round between the Master's (April) and earlier this week, due to knee surgery. He didn't even walk that 18 holes earlier this week. His first round pretty much sucked (for him), finishing +1. The interesting topic all week was the top 3 in the world paired together (Tiger, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott). They were all mediocre yesterday. But today, they were even worse! All three were about +3 after 9 holes. Then what happens? Tiger shoots one shot off of the lowest score for 9 holes EVER to end the day -2 and T4. Obviously Lefty and Scott continued mediocrity in the face of greatness. Gosh, I wonder what would have happened to them had Tiger been healthy and about 5 shots in front of everyone else? This is his most successful course after all.

In closing, lets just think about how freaking awesome Tiger Woods is one more time... O.K., great.