a quick update

Janelle and I are still waiting for Belle to be born. The due date was yesterday, so it could be anytime now. I can't imagine how tough it'd be to be pregnant for nine plus months. Janelle's a trooper though and is still a lot of fun to be around, which is good for me. With each passing day I get more excited about being a dad. I am not looking forward to the diaper changing thing but I am looking forward to having a little girl I can take to A's games and the park and stupid pumpkin patch things that held absolutely no appeal to me until this whole child thing came up.

Speaking of the A's, I am proud of them for clinching and am much more optimistic this year regarding their postseason fate. I think they may actually make it past the first round of the playoffs. Of course this optimism is against my better judgment and my general policy of not getting my hopes up, but I can't quite help it. At least this year I'll have a baby to distract me from any chokage, whereas if the A's wind up winning it all I will have a baby to make it all the sweeter. And it will also mean she is responsible for them winning - a standard I will hold her to for the rest of her life, and any further A's failures will rest squarely on her shoulders. It's the only right thing to do.

a day off

Lately I've been feeling a bit drained. Throughout the summer I worked full-time with the Crossing and while that was a lot of fun and exactly what I wanted to be doing with my time, I didn't ever get away for even a few days of vacation. I didn't really recharge after school/finals ended and went right into the summer with the Mexico trip and then keep on rolling. Before I knew it summer was over and school had started up again. And I have very little in the way of emotional energy. Little tasks have seemed like monumental undertakings and while I am mentally excited about various things I'm finding it difficult to summon the mental and emotional energy it takes to actually do them. In order to combat this I am trying to pay more attention to what I eat and exercise more regularly (I am very sore because of this), and I also took today off. There are some things I needed to get done but I wrote them off in order to spend time with Janelle, relax, continue my Madden 07 49ers' romp through the NFL, and finish the day by watching the A's take on the White Sox. I'm hoping these various diversions will help restore some of my missing energy and help me to take on the many things in front of me with passion and energy instead of just slugglishly enduring my life.

Also, various signs seem to indicate Janelle will be entering labor soon. Of course you never know but it looks like she may not make it all the way to her due date of the 28th. The fact that at any moment she could begin labor and a baby pop out is very frightening. Each day could be my last without a child to take care of. It's kinda weird. But also exciting.

bsg - the resistance

If you haven't heard of Battlestar Galactica, you should really check it out. It's a series on the Sci-Fi channel and on October 6th the 3rd season premieres. I suggest you check out the DVDs in order because it's one of those shows that actually has a continuing storyline. If you see what's going on in a later episode it'll spoil the awesomeness of the earlier ones for you.

If you are a Battlestar fan, then make sure you are checking the website every Tuesday and Thursday until the season premiere. They're showing "webisodes" of a few minutes each, which will lead into the premiere. I get the feeling that Tigh is going to become a lot more hardcore this season. Like Jack Bristow. In the previews for season 3 people keep saying "you don't do some things Colonel Tigh, even in war." You do if you wanna beat the toasters, you cylon-sympathizers!

brewing coffee

At some point in the last year or so I seem to have lost my ability to brew a pot of coffee that doesn't taste like garbage. I'm not the kind of person that always pays attention to details, like how good the coffee tasted when I used x amount of beans and x amount of water. This morning I decided that I will no longer be content with wasting the precious precious beans we pay good money to purchase so I'm going to start tracking how the coffee tastes when I use certain amounts of grounds/water until I find a good mix. I am going to do this at least partially here because it's a place I know I can check and I won't lose it.

So this morning:
Water: Filtered, 4.5 cups
Beans: Medium/fine grind, 13ish flat tablespoons

The coffee tastes way better than usual (I actually measured according to the instructions on the bag of beans). I used a little bit of the Coconut Creme Creamer from Coffeemate and it's pretty good. The coffee isn't blonde, it's more brown than tan. Still room for improvement but it's much better than it has been lately. Wow, reading the instructions really can work.