I went out and cleaned the snow off the car, which was like feathers due to the extreme cold. I then proceeded to clean and salt the steps leading to the car. That's probably it for me outside today, sadly. It's sunny out, but with all the raging shoppers and -30 wind chill temps, there's really little point. Thankfully I went to the store yesterday and bought some groceries.

Looking forward to Christmas next week and catching up with several friends. While it will definitely be a white Christmas in Chicago, I think it will just be a wet Christmas in southern Indiana.

All last night I could hear the sleet slapping against our windows. By morning it was a wintry mix of mainly snow and ice. They had first predicted between 6"-14" of snow, so our work Christmas party yesterday decided not to have an official after work party at a local watering hole because of the approaching foul weather. What's even more odd is that I talked to my mom this morning and she said it was in the mid-60s in southern Indiana. WEIRD.

Supposed to snow for two more days. Maybe I can get Julian on his sled and pull him around.

Sadly, Congress caved in. Below are links to both the Senate and House and how they voted for this:

Senate
74/25
[link]
IL - Durbin and Obama - Yea
IN - Bayh and Lugar - Yea

House
263/171
[link]

Overlooked by the media, but not by me. A fantastic speech.

Plans are flying all around our building.

Somehow this guy has been able to take some amazing photos.

But of course wouldn't we rather cover John Edward's infidelity?

With all this foul weather, flooding, and tornadoes, I think it's finally caught up with Sonya's mental state. Around 4am this morning Sonya wakes me up saying we've just been hit by a tornado and that it sounded like a jet running over the streets. I woke up, hearing nothing and followed her to our back door. She opened it and to her surprise our streets and parking lot was untouched.

I have a copy of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends produced by Brian Eno. My initial thoughts -- too complex and overproduced. Coldplay is about simple songwriting and it feels too 'larger than life'. However after relistening I am enjoying it a bit more. I'll have to see how it fairs after repeated listenings.

I've been reading Obama's Audacity of Hope. I really enjoy it. He's both a very good storyteller as well as giving me real insight on his personal character and how Washington works.

Sonya, Julian, and I will be down over the Fourth of July weekend in Indiana. Friends beware. Then in August we're planning a trip to South Haven, MI with some family members at a B&B. I really looking forward to that as well.

Julian is just on the verge of really crawling (I call it 'classic crawling'). He's starting to realize military style crawling is for babies! He also sits up most of the time now, and enjoy playing all day. He and I have been sitting on the back porch and looking at our flowers and I always point out to him where the moon is.

Tonight is the mid-season finale for Battlestar Galactica!

By driving the speed limit, laying off the brakes, and giving yourself a buffer of space between you and other cars can greatly increase your MPG. Check out this site for more info.

Since I took a week off between jobs, we decided to take Julian down to Indiana to see everyone. To our luck not only was it a relaxing week but the weather was in the 70s and sunny. I couldn't believe it and I think Julian loved being outdoors really for the first time.

The trip started out Monday morning and the drive down went pretty smooth. We stopped at Bob Evans in Lafayette to break it up and change his diaper. I had the biscuits and gravy and asked to substitute the pork sausage with the turkey sausage. I'd forgotton that the gravy had pork sausage in it as well, so I decided, no biggie, and scarfed it all down. I did leave like 2 cups of the gravy in the bowl. I can't believe anyone could eat the amount of gravy they gave me. Friggin unreal! Anyway, we stopped by Starbucks in Bloomington along 37 and Sonya juiced up and I stretched.

Monday evening my aunt and uncle came over, along with my mom. We had a debate about who is a better candidate for the Democrats after I found out my grandma, aunt and uncle all voted early. They went with Hillary. I asked them why, and of course like most americans they had little to say other than basically she's a Clinton. My grandma treats the Clintons like the Kennedys - total royality. My uncle though said that if Hillary doesn't get elected then he's not voting. I knew where this was going. It was a bit upsetting to hear a family member speak like this, but it's not like something out of left field, small town people who get most of what they know about races and cultures from television.

The rest of the week went very smooth. We did some shopping, drinking beer in the evenings, and driving to Bloomington on Weds to see Scott and his daughters at his house, then head over to Star of Siam to have lunch with Ned. Sonya was pretty famished, so a Thai buffet was something hard to beat. After our meal we walked around the campus enjoying the total perfect temps and blue skies. Ned, Sonya, and Julian walked from campus to Shari's, while I grabbed the car and met up with them. Shari lives on the southeast corner of Bryant Park. Pretty choice area, if I may say. I tried calling Phil up but didn't get an answer and figured with all his moving and work and teaching, that the chances would be pretty slim.

The latter part of the week we did some exercise in the afternoon. We would take turns pushing Julian in the stroller while doing power walks. I'm what I call in my Phase 2 of getting back into health. After completely blowing out my back and herniating my L5-S1 disc, I've spent the last 6 months almost entirely stretching and strengthening my core by doing stomach workouts and plank positioning. The last 3 months I've added doing numerous pushups and daily hamstring stretching. Now I'm just starting to do a bit of jogging and fast walking as well as lifting things heavier than 20lbs. So with the rolling hills in my town and pushing Julian, it provided a perfect gentle workout for both of us. Even if I never had any problems, getting any free time to head to the gym is almost ridiculous. Almost every moment of my life is somehow devoted to making sure the boy is taken care of.

I think Julian enjoyed my grandparents carpet. He's used to hardwood floors where it's not very inviting to crawl around on at all. I felt like since we've returned that his crawling capabilities have gone up. He can now move left to right but his forward momentum is still to be desired. He can flip over and lay over on his side, but he's still hesitate about chugging down the hall. He's also starting to form more coherent blabber. We've both heard him say mama and dada in nonsense speech, but it could also be just a coincidence.

Just to let everyone know, I purchased a new 4'x6' carpet for our living room. This rug is machine washable in a commercial front-loader and has rubber backing on it. We'll pull it up before bedtime, but during the day, this is another option for Julian to lay and crawl on. Lewis won't like it, but I refuse to give into a cat!

Ok, so about the earthquake. I woke up to my room in Bedford shaking. Everything in it was bouncing around and Sonya said "tornado!". I was confused and sat looking at everything in a daze when I realized it was an earthquake. I grabbed Julian out of his packNplay and headed for the front porch. I turned on the TV and nothing was being broadcast at first, but within minutes the Louisville channel broke in and started talking about it. It's been since the 1980s that I've felt this and I remember back in college around 1988 or 1989 when some famous expert said the New Madrid Fault was gonna blow within months. My grandparents even chained down the hot water heater, which was advised by the media. Anyway, at around 1pm we felt another one and that was pretty much it. It's an interesting feeling and was kind of glad I was in town to experience this.

Well, it's almost 6:30pm, I've spent the entire day shopping for food and essentials, as well as cleaning the place and rearranging the living room and Julian's room. I'm gonna spend this evening watching reruns of the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the computer and drink some reserve beer from Goose Island. Saturdays have never been so redefined!