A hard year on the horizon

Ahoy ahoy! I'm not dead!

I've just been out and about. For example, celebrating Lenny's first Christmas (version 2) in Germany. Then I flew back and had two more interviews in (wait for it) Portland and Albuquerque. And I got the Portland job. But it's in Albany, New York. Until it's in Portland. Although it starts in Portland.

Huh?

Well, I am going to Portland for four weeks of training starting Feb. 15... because my job and the Albany branch both don't exist yet. Then I'll come back to Austin, maybe for a week but no longer, then head to Albany full time for a few years. (Then full time in Portland is the plan.)

That sounds fine and dandy, we'll have some time to explore an area that's new to both of us, hopefully frequently visiting New York City, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, the Adirondacks, and Cooperstown. Plus, Toronto, Philadelphia, DC, beaches in New Jersey, Ottawa, and Wilmington, DE, are all also within weekend-trip distance, if a bit further away. (Just kidding about Wilmington. Nobody wants to visit Delaware.) I think it will be fun to watch lots of lacrosse (UAlbany and Siena are both local and apparently good, Army and Syracuse are close, too), and I'd hope to go see an Army football game at West Point.

But that's a ways out, because Ariane and Lenny will be in Austin for the bulk of the year. She's determined to finish her degree, and I'm 100% behind her. I can't wait to be down here for her graduation in December. When she sets her mind to it, she can be Superwoman. I've seen it before - specifically Fall semester '08, carrying a full load and working every day while dealing with morning sickness and the insane exhaustion of the first trimester and Spring semester '09 taking a full load while having a rapidly expanding tummy and swollen feet. We're talking about the same woman who was ready to go to regionals last year just days before, you know, pushing a small human out.

There will be family in and out while school's in session, and I'll try to take some trips back here and there where I can, although I expect the work load to be heavy (but interesting). It's going to be hard for all of us for a variety of reasons. I miss them so much when they're gone, it's going to be nothing short of major suckitude to be apart from both of them for such a long total time, and I'm kind of worried that Lenny will forget who I am. By the time she's 1 1/2 years old, I'll have been away from her for something like 9 or 10 months. Makes me feel bad, man. But I know that this is for the best.

So what's going to happen with the ol' Kinderbloggen? I dunno. It's not like I've been typing up a storm here anyway. Life's just a wee bit more important. Maybe it will just become dispatches from south of Quebec (the location sounds more attractive if you can refer to it as "southern" and block out the long, cold winters with 5' of snow). Maybe I'll try to teach myself Mohawk or Quebecois French and post some donde esta la biblioteca-type entries. Maybe I'll post daily updates on how much weight I've lost (since I'm too lazy to cook and don't plan on having TV to distract me from working out) and how much I can military press. Maybe I'll just miss my wife and my daughter and come on here to bawwwwww! about it.

We'll see, but I've got no plans of going away entirely.

Kindertuben

This week I am going to try to figure out how to use our camcorder. (Is that term antequated already? I feel so old when I try to talk about technology. Also, I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro.) Then I'll be launching Kindertuben. I will embed videos here, provided I can embed with the privacy settings I want on YouTube or whatever video sharing site I choose to use (hint: probably YouTube).

I'm done with my manuscripts now, so I can get back to writing here... if only something interesting would happen.

Two weeks to Armageddon.

In unrelated news, the baseball regular season is over :( but Texas won the Big XII (I insist on Roman numerals) regular season title :) It looks like we only made it to 20 games this year, 19 at home, 1 at Waco. Texas will host a regional and (knock on wood) super-regional in all likelihood. When are regionals scheduled for? Last couple days of May/first couple days of June. Needless to say, we will not be making those games.

The great debate

While some people are debating the ins and outs of an economic stimulus plan, we here have been debating something much more important: Which collegiate sports football team will our baby be indoctrinated into emotionally attaching itself? This is the only sport over which there is a debate, and the one that elicits the strongest emotional response in me. There are 119 I-A teams, and I can find some way to justify an irrational hatred for everybody but the doormats. I love the doormats, especially New Mexico State (mainly because they have a guy who does radio broadcasts in Navajo, which kicks so much ass it's unbelievable), but being passionate about a doormat is a curse.



But of course it's going to come down to Mizzou or Texas. Sorry Dr. Krugman, you can offer PE Obama all the advice you want, but your fancy-schmantzy book-learnin' and Nobel Prize for Economics is no good around these parts. As they say, "You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't really pick your favorite sports team because your dad is insane enough about one team that even when your poopy diaper leaked on him he sat there for four extra minutes because WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PLAY IS UNDER REVIEW? THAT WAS CLEARLY A CATCH, YOU IDIOT!"

Sports loyalties are things you are indoctrinated into. It's like religion. Someone usually chooses it for you, and you just kind of go with it. That is, unless you are one of the few who converts, but that just makes for uncomfortable holidays. Conversions need to be done with care, though. You don't want to be like the guy we met on our "religions of the world" field trip in middle school, the pasty redhead named Ibrahim O'Donnell, who led us around the mosque. And you don't want to be the kid who grows up a Michigan fan only to attend Ohio State. It's best to let sleeping dogs lie. Really, don't we actually all know that Tim Tebow is God?


Natch, Ariane wants kid to be a Texas fan. This is the logical choice. We're here. We both attend Texas. Texas is a Program with a capital "P." It would not be cruel to cultivate UT fandom in Kid. And, at least to my perspective, you can be a UT fan in Austin and still not be like one of those moronic yahoos who are convinced Texas is the only place on Earth.


But... but... MIZ! ZOU! No, we're not in Columbia. Yes, only one of us attended it. Yes, they are likely to hit the skids and go back to suckdom while Nebraska goes back to owning the North [teeth clenching, vein in forehead popping]. But... but... MIZ! ZOU! Besides, I would love to see Kid become a scientist, and pulling for Ol' Mizzou provides a natural route, a "Gateway" if you will, to a degree in chemistry. And in Missouri, it appears you can do correspondence online and get that degree at home.


I wasn't planning on this debate being settled for some time, but the die has now been cast by none other than my mom. The deciding vote came in the form of a bib.

Oh well. Kid will be a Longhorn. No sense in denying it. But I will not budge on teaching my child proper capitalization, bib be damned.