sleepless nights and shizam

we didn't get much sleep last night. well, i slept a couple of hours, and the missus slept none. seems the new addition has his days/nights mixed up. he also wants to nurse, A LOT! which means lots of diapers. so it was an endless cycle of feeding/diapers/feeding/diapers. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

i got up this morning, groggy and crabby. but, it was such a glorious day it was hard to stay in a bad mood. i ate my otis spunkmier bananna nut muffin and kiss the family goodbye. first, i headed over to mom's house...i still have this nagging feeling that i'm going to drive down her street and find an empty lot where the house once stood...like some catastrophe just took it away like dorothy's house. in my case, though, it would be more like a flooded basement from my dubious plumbing. anyway, it was in ship shape and i was happy.

i went back to work today. i was lucky that the guys at work were on top of things and i didn't have any extra work in my lap because i missed a day. i missed the troops at home terribly, though.

after heading home, checking on the family, eating a snickers crunch and drinking a pepsi, i pedaled off to the tuesday night races. not as many guys tonight, but everyone was quite jumpy. seems like the tilles crit had a break go from like, lap one, and i think there were some sore egos. so what did i do? i chased after everything that moved, too. doh. i even bridged to a couple of promising breaks. and it worked! it was a BIG group. 13 guys, i think. mr. hill, fletch, zach, lanyon, the whole crew. notibly absent was mr. carter...probably satisfied after trouncing the field over the weekend. anyway, it was tough. our break was not content to roll along. fletch was driving like a madman, and joe took matters into his own hands a few time. even gary, of ace and gary fame, came out to make my life miserable. mw put in a few pulls that weren't bad, but not up to his usual. finally, with a lap to go, there was an attack and i latched on. about 6 of us got a gap. i bobbled the last corner, taking the inside line and getting cut off pretty badly. i managed a half-baked sprint and came up third. not bad, not bad. shizam, i could get used to this!

coming home

hold this baby is serious stuff. i think tyson can handle it. as long as he doesn't get distracted by something shiney.
elijah was unhappy here, dispite what i thought was a rather fetching pooh hat. or maybe he is just learning his gang signs?
ah, the contorted deep sleep of an infant in moms care. i would have a really, really bad kink in my neck if i slept like that for even a few minutes. doesn't he look tan? doesn't the missus look gorgeous?

Hi

i'm elijah oliver. i was born yesterday. i know, i know, it's a tired joke about someone who doesn't know much. but i really was. yesterday i weighed 7lbs. 6oz. and i measured 20 inches. today i may have dropped a few ounces 'cause it's hard to gain weight on what they feed you here.

yikes, it was a madhouse here yesterday. first there was all this comotion about me, and all i wanted to do was get warm. there were people everywhere wiping and poking and pushing and wiping some more. i don't see what everyone was so excited about, i didn't make anyone wait very long. i finally got to get cozy with mom and dad, and then i had to take a bath. a bath? i didn't even have time to get dirty! next, all of these people came in to see me. mom and dad kept telling me who these people were, but it was hard to remember them all. i met hanna and tyson, my older brother and sister. they seem like pretty cool kids. i'm pretty sure they'll come in handy when i need help with the neighborhood bully. there were a few other nice people, too. like grandma and pawpaw, aunt neenee, unca jim, and a couple of other redhead kids that look a lot like tyson. unca jim kept congratulating my dad on breaking the redheaded kid streak. i guess i'm going to be special because i have black hair. there were more unca's, too, like keith and kevin. the room was packed.

once it got dark, mom, dad and i settled down in a nice private room. i ate a lot, soiled quite a few diapers, and got in lots of good lovin' from them. every now and then, i dozed off for a while, and when i woke up, i noticed mom and dad were sleeping too! i woke them up each time this happened, i'm not sure why they kept falling asleep like that.

today was pretty much the same as yesterday, except i didn't have many visitors. there were lots of different nurses, and i'm pretty sure my doctor came by, but i told her to take a raincheck because i was having lunch. maybe i'll see her tomorrow, something about circum -stances, circum-vention, circum-something? couldn't be that bad, right?

anyway, that's the first two days of my life. is this pretty much what life is like most of the time?

saturday first, greasy spoon next

so the big day is saturday! deanna went to the docs office today and the verdict was "let's have this little guy already!" 8am to be precise. it's kind of nice this way, we don't have to worry about the middle-of-the-night frantic trip to the labor and delivery room. we're already packed. we have the room ready. we have the car seat. we have a name!!!

on another front, i finished my plumbing nightmare at mom's house. my brother had done the dirty work in the bathroom downstairs...bashing the concrete floor up so that the drains could be plugged. he also poured in new concrete. my job was to cut and plug the water lines. i don't know anything about plumbing, but some good advice and a little reading on the internet did the trick. i resembled a mouse on a wheel for a while, though, running up and down the stairs, opening and closing the faucets. when i left the house tonight, there were no leaks. if i return to Captain Nemo's revenge in the next day or two, i guess i get what i deserve.

i cut out a few of rosco's stitches tonight. his gaping wound healed up really well. he was pretty dubious about me taking them out, but he sat quietly through most of it, and i only had to manhandle him once or twice.

i had an omlette for dinner tonight. with salsa. and bacon. mmm. my wife sure can cook. between that and the tuna, i think we can open a greasy spoon. chicken enchaladas are another specialty. she brought some of those to the shop when we first starting dating. apparently, she believes that the way to a man's heart is though his gaping mouth!

you ever feel?

like no matter how hard you try, the pieces of the puzzle just don't go together? i mean, they are all right there. most of them, you even know where they go. when you grab one and put it in place, another one seems to have gone astray. so, you stretch again in the other direction, grab another piece, ooops. wrong one, try again. a lot of days, i feel like i have to put the puzzle together while running on a treadmill. bummer when a piece falls then! i don't give up easily, though. life to me is still a participant sport, one that can't be played while watching life go by. i still like to do things myself, or at least try. i know i'm not always right, i do lots of things wrong, for sure. i could use an instruction manual, although experience has taught me to ignore the manual anyway until i've done things wrong at least once. my dad died 15 years ago yesterday. he was 72, but i think he was a man when he was 10. i mean, it just never seemed like he was ever less than an adult...maybe his life was too serious from the get-go. at 39, i still don't feel like the man i thought my dad was. i don't feel like i make the most adult decisions until i have screwed things up, again, at least twice. i don't feel like my dad did that. he just seemed like a man all of his life, and i feel like a kid in an older persons body.

man, i need a dr. pepper.

we have a name!

....and no, i'm not going to tell you until the critter is born. because i can.

tuesday night worlds and super fans

tonight was the first edition of the time honored tradition of the tuesday night worlds. those savy old-timers will remember them as the wednesday night crits, when they were run on the old airport course. those tuckered out due to bad pavement and became the tuesday night races at gateway international raceway across the river in illinois. thankfully, that only lasted a couple of seasons and the tuesday night world championship races came home to st. louis city and settled in carondolet park, only a hop skip and a jump from our humble home.

good weather meant a good crowd. from the gun, my super fans were belting out a string of "go daddys" to rival nascar fans. two out of three of my super fans were there; mrs. k and tyson. hanna is the third member, and usually joins them on weekend races to make for a noisy cheering section.

the noise obviously helped, as i was in an early break that lasted the duration. josh carter attacked, and i followed. luckily for me, others caught on because going mono-0-mano with mr. carter is not my idea of a fair match up. although i'm sure some in the group would beg to differ, i thought it was tough. it ended up being a 10-man break, but i liked my chances in a sprint. and it did come down to a sprint. josh went early, before the last corner, and i followed again. he looked to be easing up, and i poured it on. i came within a wheel of getting it, but in a sprint with josh, i think that's pretty good. (he only beat me by a wheel because he didn't feel like beating me my a bike length tonight, i guess?) 2nd is okey dokey with me.

my super fans went crazy. they brought down the house. dad got 2nd at a road event!!! dad placed at a road event!!! whooo hooo.

it's good to have super fans.

over the weekend

take this thing off, it's driving me crazy!!!
strangely enough, this is cute on 6 year olds
i'm sure i'll get in trouble for this one, but i really think it's cute!

while we were waiting for the baby to make an appearance this weekend, we actually did some things.

hanna came up to visit, and she, tyson and i rode our bikes around wilmore park while the lovely mrs. k tried walking herself into the delivery room. that didn't work, but the kids and i put in some rightous milage. tyson still has a little trouble keeping up, having 16" wheels and those pesky training wheels. he promises he will shed them come summer. hanna, meanwhile, is sporting new dental work and absolutely FLIES when she has a little room. i clocked her at 14.2 miles per hour on a straight by one of the ponds at wilmore. whew! tyson, meanwhile, also posted a personal best of 10.5mph, but i had to stop pushing him when he exhibited a bit of speed wobble.

mrs. k did a little wobbling of her own when i made the whole clan go to home depot with me to buy some supplies for mom's house. i finished the upstairs bathroom, installing a sink and vanity all by myself. i cuss a lot when noone is around. i still need to cap off some water lines, and getting a little inside info from the M part of the S&M duo, i feel like i can do it. smart cookie, that M.

i keep getting text messages from my friends dan and myriam...where's the baby? did she have it yet?? what's going on?? sadly, i keep texting back that there is no news. i really appreciate all the encouragement from everyone, though. the mrs. and i have tried every trick in the book to speed along these painfully slow final days. yes, EVERY trick, some really fun, others not so much.

no name, but the room is done

while we haven't agreed upon a name yet, at least the baby's room is ready. the mrs. has been hot after the pooh room for a while. so, we enlisted the brother-in-law, who is the artsy talented type, to do the walls with grass and sky and clouds. it looked great. after that was dry, a friend of the family came and drew up the pooh characters. i have to say, it looks great. i sort of wish my room had a cool mural on the walls. maybe not pooh, though.

again, nothing.....

i guess we'll just have to wait. the baby knows when it wants to come out, and it's not telling us when that will be. maybe it's waiting on us to pick out a name?? ug. girl names are so easy. there are so many good ones. boy names are tough. i mean, a boys name can haunt him for life. but, you want unique, right? you don't want something plain, but you don't want the male equivalent to Shaniqua, either. look at my name. themistocles. i like it. my mom obviously liked it. but the general public (starting with my kindergarten teacher, mrs. menkus) decided that it was just too long and complicated. so, henceforth, i was tim. one syllable boring old tim. i don't want to curse my son with something like that. ok, ok, little guy. if the beautiful mrs. k and i give you a name, will you come out??????????

nothin'

ok, so nothing's happened yet. a lot of anticipation, but not a lot of baby. i was sure it was coming yesterday. in fact, i was sure it was coming today. so much for my woman's intuition. i guess i'd better stick to being a dumb guy.

it did give us time to get some essentials, like a stroller, bassenette, car seat, etc...you know, things we should already have.

stay tuned! it's coming! i promise! and ILL HAVE PICTURES!! of the baby, that is. keep your mind out of the gutter. what do you think this is? ER?

the crowds wait with anticipation!!

soothing intermission photos

baby?

we're going to have our baby in the next 48 hours! pardon me if i don't post any drivel for a couple of days...

rim wrecker 2006

the king, clean

since i didn't have my usual race traveling posse (pregnant women do not like car travel) i started the morning by driving to the shop to meet a couple of friends from work for the trip to council bluff.

matt 'just chillin' lewandowski and ben 'the doop' lake

we piled into the cheby cobalt and set out at a not so fast pace to potosi and beyond. i say not so fast because ben is not a fast driver. he usually drives the posted speed limit, which, while safe, is like being a spectator at a nascar event. cars go by pretty fast. we did eventually get to the race venue, although at times i felt as if the guys from dumb and dumber were going to pass us on their moped.

would you leave your car unlocked around these guys??

once we parked and got situated, we noticed there weren't many cars in the lot. bummer. another great course, fine day, good prizes, and empty seats. we were consoled by the fact that we had lots of friends there. matt black, scott 'bring back the monthly magazine' rendall, and john 'dirty' cozad were among them. dirty was just along for the ride, sporting his new really cool full suspension bike. he probably had more fun than we did riding middle fork and enjoying the day.

the king after

the course was a bit rough, but 99% dry. i say 99% because there were 2 20 foot sections of ooze that were unavoidable, and countless tiny stream crossing. enough to be splattered from head to toe. i bit it just once, after hitting my pedal on the edge of a bench cut trail, gravel flying and me and my bike not really seperating. it hurt, but i forgot about it until later when i was dressing. very quickly in the race, it was obvious that it was going to be a two man show. bobby, the quick and smooth youngun' from the clubbers, was matching me pedal for pedal, and certainly showing me the fast way around concil bluffs 1,000,000 turns. thankfully, on lap 2 of 2, he bobbled a bit on the courses main climb, and sort of threw up the white flag. he was tired and only needed a mistake to back off to sane speeds. i was tired, but i turned up the wick from 'i can't believe i can still turn the pedals because i'm so tired' to 'i can't believe i can still turn the pedals because i'm so tired but i'm winning'. i finished in 2:04, not bad for march.