Travel – blog.circusgeek

It’s been an eventful few weeks since my last post, so here’s the recap.

For anyone who read the last post, I’m recovering nicely from my surgery. And I’m going to have a wicked cool scar. I’m going to tell people I got in a knife fight with a gang of baddies.

I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes (oh joy), so I’ve been working hard to lose some pounds (combination of a low calorie and low carb diet with a bunch of exercise) and taking my meds in the hopes that there’s a chance of reversing it. Time will tell I guess. I’m just falling apart. Stupid frail human bodies. Time to look into transferring my consciousness into a robot body. A strong one with metal claws.

A couple weeks ago Kelly, Max and I spent a weekend in Pacific City for our anniversary and had a fabulous time. We stayed at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda which was very nice (not exactly inexpensive, but worth it). The Inn was excellent for a few reasons; The rooms were very nice, the balcony with it’s ocean view, and most importantly it’s proximity to my favorite beach-front brewpub, Pelican Pub & Brewery, where we spent an good amount of time. Got some time in hiking around the beach and the peninsula, watched the dory boats cruise back onto the beach, spent a bit of time with Max on the beach (as much as he could handle anyway), and generally had a very relaxing weekend. It was hard to come back home. More photos here.

This past weekend we went to the Portland Art Museum‘s exhibit The Allure of the Automobile where we got to see over a dozen really beautiful old cars. You can see the list of cars at this OregonLive article. My favorites were the 1937 Dubonnet Hispano-Suiza, the 1933 Pierce-Arrow, the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut” Coupe (pictured right), and the 1959 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray. After ogling at the cars for a bit we ran upstairs to look at the collection which, while not huge, is really nice. Anyway, more photos here.

Also, I recently updated my server, so hopefully everything works correctly. Anyone who knows how to get in touch via non-blog fashion, let me know if you have trouble commenting or whatever.

Winter solstice (hooray) and more important stuff

Winter solstice is finally upon us (the end is nigh for these lame early nights/short days) and since it’s been such a long time between posts, here’s an update of what’s been going on the past few months.

Kelly and I went to the coast again in late October with a group of friends (split the rent on an awesome house in Lincoln City near Roads End State Park that Aymie found, thanks again Aymie!) and had a blast, despite the stormy weather that weekend.

Around the same time, I turned 36. Hooray or whatever. The big news from this was that I finally took the plunge (with a big, helpful push from Kelly and the rest of my family) and got an iPhone (4). No more cheap, crappy Virgin Mobile ‘pay as you go’ phone for me. Now I can retire my iPod Touch and post inane crap to Twitter anytime I want without having to hunt for a WiFi signal. Yay for everyone!

In late November I had an awning installed on my back patio (pic here), which will be nice come spring when it’s rainy but warm-ish again. Kelly and I also painted the dining room and several other rooms in the house (keep reading).

Work has been extra hectic the past few months, which is one reason I haven’t written in a while. I’m off work for a few weeks though, for reasons that will become apparent shortly.

Last night was a lunar eclipse, which we couldn’t see due to the cloud cover and rain.

Today we got hardwoods installed in the dining room, and they look awesome (pic here). If you’re in the market, Floor Factors does excellent work.

Another big reason I’m finally writing after such a long gap, Kelly and I are expecting our first child (a boy!) to be born any moment. Due date is/was today! So far the little man has remained content in Kelly’s tummy and isn’t in a hurry to join us in the world. I can’t blame him to be honest. It’s probably very nice in the womb, all warm and squishy. However, Kelly (and I) are getting ready for him to come out and say hello.

Over the past few months we’ve got his room cleared out, painted and decorated, and got the crib and co-sleeper set up. Also, due to the extreme generosity of friends and family, we’ve received a load of clothes, diapers, toys, a rocker chair for Kelly to nurse with, two strollers and an infant car seat which we barely we squeezed into our Scion xA. We’re ready to go!

Any day now (hopefully before Christmas) he’ll decide he’s fully cooked. Otherwise we go in to start the induction process at midnight on December 26th.

I’ll be writing again soon. Stay tuned!