Busy at work, busy at home, just no time to do much more than constantly refresh Flock to catch more Nintendo Wii announcements. But beyond that, well, much, much more.

For instance, did you know that we’re celebrating Caleb’s fourth birthday this Saturday? Of course you didn’t. But we are! And we also have the fortune of having to deal with family members more interested in the Iowa/Iowa State game than in some kid’s lame birthday party. But we deal. In the meantime, I’m tasked with figuring out how to turn eight refrigerator boxes into a castle. Fun! The wife is assembling shields as we speak. Guess the theme! It’s a real puzzler.

It will be a great party, though, I’m certain of that. My wife’s family and my family mesh together surprisingly well, as sardonically and hideously sarcastic as we all tend to be. Since Amanda’s family is centered around Iowa City, we don’t get to see them all that often, which truly is a shame. I’m blessed with a mother-in-law that I actually enjoy being around. Is that rare? The common stereotype is that every married man hates his mother-in-law. Is that a misconception these days? I just don’t hear it quite as often as I used to. I suppose that stereotype goes hand-in-hand with the lazy, shiftless husband who does nothing in the house and just sits around watching sports and drinking beer, playing poker with his buddies. And that’s not me, either. Not the guy who does laundry, cleans, vacuums, and (occasionally) cooks. But I’ve always hated stereotypes anyways.

In addition to the stuff going on, we’re all battling colds, and the problem is that there’s a million other things happening all at once. We’re going to need a few days to recoup, but I don’t think we’re going to get that. We just hunker down and wait for snow. Because, as we all know, fall in Iowa only lasts approximately three to four days. Then, we get a blizzard, and march right into winter.

Don’t laugh, it happens every year, without fail.

New header graphic today, a few days later than usual. The wife snapped Alex as he was crawling into her lap wearing a foam crown. He looked so incredibly adorable, I couldn’t NOT post the image to the site. It’s my constant reminder during those moments when he’s screaming his head off because he just doesn’t want to sleep, that there are indeed times when he is still cute. I’m still a firm believer in the fact that cuteness keeps some kids alive.

Back to the grind!