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Riles attended daycare for the first time last week. He was only there for two days but it was long enough for him to catch a nasty cold. On Saturday he started showing signs of the oncoming sickness. He slept most of the day and looked miserable. It was only a prediction of what was to come.

By Monday Riley was in terrible condition. Courtney had taken him to urgent care Sunday night where they told her it was a virus and Riles would have to tough it out. That didn’t really help much on Monday as he ran a fever and sneezed out of his tear ducts (a sight I didn’t believe until I saw it). Courtney spent most of the night up with him.
Tuesday was my turn at the sick kid. I had worked some very long hours over the weekend and had just finished the project so I volunteered to take the kid on. He was in better shape on Tuesday, the fever had subsided, but he still had snot coming out everywhere. He spent most of the day sleeping. When he was awake he was crabby and refused to eat. By evening he was ornery and still refused to eat. Once again, we were up a good portion of the night with him.

Wednesday is Nana Angerer’s turn. Hopefully she can work her nursing skills on the boy. We’re starting to feel a little helpless and stressed about it. Regardless of what we do Riley will scream. We can’t tell if he’s hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or just pissed.

As I left this morning both Courtney and I were coughing and sneezing. My money’s on us spending a significant amount of time on the couch this weekend.

On my way in from the garage last night after work I was greeted by Syd, our shepherd mix (or as I refer to her the $6,000 dog). She was in our fenced backyard doing the dance and yelps that she always does when I come home.

As I walked in a voice said, “Does she forget about him?”

I turned around, “Huh?”

“Does she forget about him? The dog…She’s been outside for awhile.”

The voice came from a woman I did not know. She was at my neighbor’s house.

I said to her that Syd was probably okay and that Syd liked to be outside.

“I dunno about that…”, she responded.

Irked, I went inside. I told my wife of the conversation, changed into some more relaxed attire, and fed the dogs (Which required letting Sydney into the house).

20 minutes later a rap came on our front door. Surprised, I opened it cautiously and was greeted by Crystal’s finest men in blue. They explained to me that they had gotten a report about a rottweiler being outside. We explained the situation: 1. Yes, our long haired dog was outside for quite some time 2. She likes it out there and 3. She’s not a rottweiler. The cop was quite nice and explained that he was just doing his job. He asked to see Sydney and was promptly greeted by her and the other two dogs. With plush toy in mouth, Syd even tried to convince him to play a bit.

Irked even more, I stewed about it all night. Courtney had a good point, though, that people will do what they think is right, even if there is no problem. The unknown lady felt she had to perform a civic duty and shouldn’t be blamed for it. One look at our dogs will tell you that they are properly cared for.

But what I’m worried about is the odd relation it now puts between us and our neighbor. We’ve never had any problems with her. Now I may think twice before helping her shovel her driveway. Or maybe the next time her ladder falls over I won’t help her down off her roof.  We’ve always been kind and courteous to her and I had hoped that if she, or her friend/relative, had a concern that it could be handled better. I now have this feeling that everyone is watching and judging me. Next time I leave my dog outside will someone call the cops on me? Is someone sitting by their window counting the minutes my dog is outside?

In the end, there’s not much I can do about the whole thing. We did nothing wrong. People are going to do what they do…*sigh*

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My DVR from Comcast (it’s no Tivo, that’s for sure) had crapped out on us last weekend so I took it back to our local Comcast center to exchange it for a working one. I got back home and wired the working unit back up to the television. Upon firing it up I was surprised to find shows already recorded on it. I laughed at what had been taped, The O.C., Days of our Lives, and…Resident Sex. It turned out that the previous owner of my DVR was not only a soap opera fan, but also dug hardcore porn. It was no late night HBO special either, it was the real deal. I wasn’t sure if I should be stunned, appalled, or entertained.

Well, it was that time of the decade again, time for my 5 year dental checkup. When I was a child my parents were very strict about our dentist visits. Every 6 months we would get poked, prodded, and chastised for not flossing. To this day, though, I have had very little dental problems.
The fact of the matter is, I should have gotten braces when I was a kid. I should have had my bottom teeth realigned somehow. My parents asked the dentist when I was 14 about it but he said that I should wait until I was 18 to see how puberty shook out. Well, puberty didn’t solve anything.

Fast forward to 2001. I managed to crack my own tooth with my upper jaw. Because my teeth are off kilter the top teeth crunch down on the wrong spot on my bottom teeth. In 2001 I went to the dentist for the first time in 5 years to correct the problem.

Fast forward to September 2006. Because my jaw is still misaligned I managed to chip/crack the same tooth that had the problem in 2001. My jaw began to ache and became sensitive to cold weather.

Fast forward to today, after yet-another-5-year-sabbatical I went back to the dentist today. The hygienist was a little put off by the fact that I hadn’t been to see any dentist in 5 years but after a few minutes she said to her own surprise, “Wow, everything looks good. It’s like you were here 6 months ago.” I chalk that up to my toothbrush.
The dentist was a very large Russian man. He was quite intimidating but also quite nice. He was able to confirm that I had cracked my own tooth yet again. He told me that my filling will need to be replaced and that he felt it was a very “basic” filling (a.k.a. I had a shotty job done last time). I was a little perturbed by his statement because I had gone to a large corporate dentist office last time. I assumed because it was part of my actual insurer’s medical clinics that they would do the best job. According to this dentist, that was not the case. And the lousy job probably contributed to the repeat problem.

So, back I go next week to finish up the job. I hope this time they will heed my warning about Novocaine (I need lots of it).

Regarded as one of the better stinkface makers, Riles gives a commanding performance

Christmas was a whirlwind around our house. Even though I had a full week off to enjoy being with the family the days passed quickly. We spent our time going between houses, showing of Riley, and generally having a good time.

For Christmas Riley started smiling. It might seem like a simple thing but babies aren’t born with a smile on their face. For the first 6 weeks he would accidentally smile. You could tell it wasn’t real because he couldn’t repeat it. A few days before Christmas we got Riles up in the morning and to our surprised he gave us this big smile after he recognized us. It was odd because he doesn’t usually acknowledge us much except that we picked him up and he would stop crying. For the first time our kid was excited to see us! He continued to smile at us for a good half hour every time his eyes focused on us.

Ever since then he smiles when we get him up in the morning….Oh, yeah, and right after he drops a load in his diaper too.