latest update
It's been a while since the last time I had anything non-tattoo related to say so here goes.
1) My wife had our baby on 2/12/07. She went into labor when her water broke at 1am on 2/12. The nurse said to come in within a few hours. We got there at 3am and after a couple hours of contractions and labor not progressing, she had an epidural for the pain. A Pitocin IV then sped up labor and she was ready to push starting at about 1:30pm. It took an hour and a half of pushing before delivering a baby girl weighing 7lb 9oz and 20.5" long. Fast forward a bit and I now have a 10 week old daughter who is 90% awesome and 10% frustrating, with maybe 5% of the frustration due to my level of patience. I need to learn to be more patient with life and especially the part of life that involves crying babies in the middle of the night when I'm dead tired. Seriously though, she's great and for those that haven't seen pictures, they're on my Flickr page.
2) I'm learning how to cope with less sleep due to 1) above. I knew this was coming and so far she sleeps in 4 - 5 hour stretches per night. I've heard that the amount of sleep varies wildly depending on several factors (age, weight, diet, schedule). I know people with babies the same age as ours and we're in the middle of the pack sleep-wise. It'd be great if she'd sleep 6 - 8 hours at a time of course but would we just waste it? When she goes to sleep at night we never know if we should immediately go to bed as well or if we should get things done that we don't have time for when she's awake. Yet another thing you never think about before the baby is born.
3) I'm also learning how to cope with less cycling in my life. The 200+ mile weeks are long gone. The all-day Saturday rides? gone. Double centuries? not this year. So far I've been able to get out for some 30 - 60 mile rides on Saturdays with the friend I normally ride with. This is mainly because he had a baby 3 weeks before I did and our wives are friends. Our wives hang out for a while as we go for a ride on weekends. It's more riding than I thought I'd be getting in but most of my miles are riding to work now. Flat flat flat.
4) I quit my job on Friday. I'd been working for a small startup for 5+ years. They'd been bought by a big company a little over a year ago and the politics at the big company are almost crippling. I don't even have half the responsibility I did when we were a startup and I've got 3x the annoyances. The job stopped being even mildly enjoyable some time last year. Which brings me to:
5) I'm moving out of the SF bay area. My wife has been keen on moving back to Washington (state) for some time to live near her family again. She and I are kind of isolated living here with only a few of my second cousins in the area. She wants to see her family more, and truth be told, so do I. They're pretty cool people and not coming from a close-knit family myself, it's fun to spend with hers. When the market is sane again we'd also like to buy a house. With the median price of a condo over half a million dollars in the bay area I don't know if this is the best place to do it. I already have a rain bike and an awesome rain jacket but coping with the weather might be the biggest challenge for me in Washington. I've you're anywhere near Seattle, give me a holler. I'll be leaving the bay area by the end of May. It's scary for me to leave the place I've known for 10 years now as home and find a new job and life. I'm a bit more optimistic than I thought I would be. I'll have a good support network in Washington if I need any help.
6) No progress on the tattoo. It still looks like it did after the second outline session. The problem is finding some time in the artist's schedule. He's apparently so good that he has no free time to fit me in. I have an appointment for him in June and another in July but he might not be able to make those due to travel so I have provisional appointments in August and September. This means that I'll be flying back to the area for a couple of weekends just to have my tattoo worked on. This is taking so much longer than I ever imagined. Not a bad excuse to come for a visit though.
That's it I guess. catch you in another 6 months...
1) My wife had our baby on 2/12/07. She went into labor when her water broke at 1am on 2/12. The nurse said to come in within a few hours. We got there at 3am and after a couple hours of contractions and labor not progressing, she had an epidural for the pain. A Pitocin IV then sped up labor and she was ready to push starting at about 1:30pm. It took an hour and a half of pushing before delivering a baby girl weighing 7lb 9oz and 20.5" long. Fast forward a bit and I now have a 10 week old daughter who is 90% awesome and 10% frustrating, with maybe 5% of the frustration due to my level of patience. I need to learn to be more patient with life and especially the part of life that involves crying babies in the middle of the night when I'm dead tired. Seriously though, she's great and for those that haven't seen pictures, they're on my Flickr page.
2) I'm learning how to cope with less sleep due to 1) above. I knew this was coming and so far she sleeps in 4 - 5 hour stretches per night. I've heard that the amount of sleep varies wildly depending on several factors (age, weight, diet, schedule). I know people with babies the same age as ours and we're in the middle of the pack sleep-wise. It'd be great if she'd sleep 6 - 8 hours at a time of course but would we just waste it? When she goes to sleep at night we never know if we should immediately go to bed as well or if we should get things done that we don't have time for when she's awake. Yet another thing you never think about before the baby is born.
3) I'm also learning how to cope with less cycling in my life. The 200+ mile weeks are long gone. The all-day Saturday rides? gone. Double centuries? not this year. So far I've been able to get out for some 30 - 60 mile rides on Saturdays with the friend I normally ride with. This is mainly because he had a baby 3 weeks before I did and our wives are friends. Our wives hang out for a while as we go for a ride on weekends. It's more riding than I thought I'd be getting in but most of my miles are riding to work now. Flat flat flat.
4) I quit my job on Friday. I'd been working for a small startup for 5+ years. They'd been bought by a big company a little over a year ago and the politics at the big company are almost crippling. I don't even have half the responsibility I did when we were a startup and I've got 3x the annoyances. The job stopped being even mildly enjoyable some time last year. Which brings me to:
5) I'm moving out of the SF bay area. My wife has been keen on moving back to Washington (state) for some time to live near her family again. She and I are kind of isolated living here with only a few of my second cousins in the area. She wants to see her family more, and truth be told, so do I. They're pretty cool people and not coming from a close-knit family myself, it's fun to spend with hers. When the market is sane again we'd also like to buy a house. With the median price of a condo over half a million dollars in the bay area I don't know if this is the best place to do it. I already have a rain bike and an awesome rain jacket but coping with the weather might be the biggest challenge for me in Washington. I've you're anywhere near Seattle, give me a holler. I'll be leaving the bay area by the end of May. It's scary for me to leave the place I've known for 10 years now as home and find a new job and life. I'm a bit more optimistic than I thought I would be. I'll have a good support network in Washington if I need any help.
6) No progress on the tattoo. It still looks like it did after the second outline session. The problem is finding some time in the artist's schedule. He's apparently so good that he has no free time to fit me in. I have an appointment for him in June and another in July but he might not be able to make those due to travel so I have provisional appointments in August and September. This means that I'll be flying back to the area for a couple of weekends just to have my tattoo worked on. This is taking so much longer than I ever imagined. Not a bad excuse to come for a visit though.
That's it I guess. catch you in another 6 months...