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When we were younger I used to race my brother to the store doors or to the car or to the store carts. You name it, I wanted to race. The conversation usually went like this:

Me: Race ya to the store!

Drew: no

Me: Come on! I’m gonna beat ya!

Drew: Fine

Me: Come on! Run!

Drew: No, I’ll walk.

So imagine this conversation going on daily for most of our childhood.

Now, enter adulthood.

Drew and Michelle told the family over Labor Day weekend that they are expecting their second child, affectionately known as “Dos”. We are elated to have another cousin in the mix. It has been so much fun to watch Riles and Avery grow up together. We’re ecstatic that our next kids will do the same.

To Drew and Michelle, with all sincerity, congratulations. We’re happy and over joyed that we’ll have friends and family we can relate to again. You guys made us not feel so crazy when we just weren’t getting Riley some days. It will be wonderful to have someone to lean on again.

We told our families early on about Courtney’s pregnancy in August. We knew were weren’t going to be able to keep a secret long. We whipped up this video to tell everyone. We hid the announcement under the guese of a funny Riley video:

Back to the race.

After a few more doctor’s appointments Courtney’s due date was honed down to March 27th, my cousin’s birthday. I’ve been happy to have another March baby. With my birthday being March 20th I thought it would be neat to have my kid have the same birthday month.

Back to the race.

Drew and Michelle tell us over Labor Day weekend about “Dos” and we quickly did the math. Michelle is one week further along than Courtney, putting their due date roughly one week ahead of ours. In the most impolite fashion I denounced their method of joyous announcement as rotten and underhanded.  My brother had beaten me in the race.

But, as it was when we were children, I think I may be the only one racing.

I honestly cannot remember when the toilet started running, but as of late it had become more than a drip or trickle. It had gotten so bad that we’d get up in the middle of the night to shut the bathroom door AND our bedroom door just to muffle the noise.

3 weeks ago I bought a “replace-everything” toilet flushing kit. Unknown to me at the time, I didn’t need to replace “everything” per-se, the bolts holding the tank to the bowl could have been saved. Regardless, since I had all new parts I spent Saturday morning fixing the toilet. After living with the a running water noise for so long, the lack of it is deafening. But it also feels like a bad itch has finally been scratched.

In other news, I have switched jobs once again. This time, though, I think I’ve hit on something good. I made the career switch to consulting vs permanent employment. I’m still salaried through a consulting firm, but now get to enjoy the luxury of zero emotional attachment to the work. I still really enjoy working with the technology and working on solving complex problems. With consulting comes the automatic respect and expectations of a job well done. I don’t feel like a drone so much.

The downside, working at a large corporate healthcare client has seriously cut into my online social life. No longer am I able to ping anyone via instant messaging. If I try to access any sort of IM on my work computer I’m kindly reminded via the proxy server that I am violating corporate policy and if I continue attempt to access IM it will be reported to my manager. Yet-another-reason I’m glad I’m not an employee.

Riles birthday party is fast approaching. With it comes the release of Guitar Hero III for the Wii. If I’m not reading about GH3, I’m telling Courtney about it. While Riley’s birthday party will be fun, I will also be enjoying a few competitive “battle of the bands” round against Drew and Chad.