September 1st, 2010 mattdaddy
We live in a townhouse complex and have been there for about 10 years. Initially we said, “Oh only 5 years, 6 at the most”. Well, several refinances later, a plummet in the housing market right when I got my job 86 miles away, and the reality of knowing that if we had gotten into a place, we’d be living at my inlaws after declaring bankruptcy. 
Everything works out in the end, right?
So we’ve been okay with the idea that we’ll be in our current place – 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, great location, excellent schools – at least until Gillian graduates from high school. Aidan’s starting 8th grade this year, has a lot of friends in the neighborhood and it finding his groove. The last thing I want to do is disrupt that.
Gillian’s problem is, there are only two girls in the complex (there’s about 200+ townhouses) that she’s of an age with and is friendly with. So I was working from home yesterday and she came down to where I was working around 11 yesterday morning. Gloom infused her voice as she said, “Dad, I’m destined to be bored today”. My son had gone out already to do some filming with his friends (they’re making a movie). “NO one’s HOME! I called every single friend and some people I don’t even know that well and NO ONE’S AROUND!”
Queue dramatic faint onto the couch, arm drawn over her face.
“Go out for a bike ride and see if anyone’s around.”
“Dad, G isn’t home, and I don’t want to play with X or Y. *sigh* I’m just gonna go watch a movie”
Well, Aidan came home a few hours later and rescued her with some boardgames and some stuff on the computer until Fae got back from work and we sat and had something to eat. I promised her I would take her over to the pool in our complex at 5:15 when I was done working for the day. So we got our towels and pool stuff and went over to the pool, pausing several times to promise that “Yes, I will go in this time”, and “No, I won’t sit on my phone or read a book – Look, I didn’t even bring one, See?!?”
So what happened? We got to the pool, put down our stuff, and jump in, and 5 seconds later this girl swims up and says “Hi, I’m N, I just moved here a month ago and I don’t know anyone. Are you going to X School next week and are you in 5th grade?”
I had been bugging her to go ride around because something told me that there was someone out there for Gillian. They started talking, and I was good, I stayed in the pool, but after about 15 minutes, I was pretty much ignored Happily on my part because I was just psyched that she had someone to hang out with. She got out after a little while and they went and talked and played on the little playground attached to the pool and were genuinely having a great time. Can’t be happier.
Cool thing we found out as we exchanged numbers so Fae and N’s mom could schedule something since I’ve learned not to because I always mess that up – she lives right in the building across the street.
Fate/God/Gods/Mr. Tree/Universe – Thank you.
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August 22nd, 2010 mattdaddy
We went to Lake George in upstate NY for a week and let me tell you how much I needed it. My parents rented two cabins – mind you they were fairly big, slept 15 people fairly comfortably – and we came in from NJ, my bro in from Long Island, and my sister in from Chicago.
Fan – Freakin – Tastic.
I had been thinking how I have a huge project ramping up soon and how I’ve needed a vacation for a while now. So needless to say, the timing was perfect. I went to get Gillian in Rhode Island at her Celiac Camp (i designed the site thank you very much) and from there to Lake George. Nice 8.5 hour drive…
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Here’s the catch – I couldn’t check in until Saturday at 4 and we had to pick Gillian up at 1 on Friday. Found a little campsite, pitched the tent, crashed for 10 hours or so, and packed up quickly and went to Silver Bay YMCA grounds. Picture the set of Dirty Dancing and you’ll be just about right.
Hilly, picturesque, lots of stuff to do. Ever notice when you’re out and about on a vacation like this, you eat like a fiend? I lost 5 lbs. My aunt rented a boat and we took the kids skiing and tubing.
Yes friends and neighbors, aside from being 41, aside from the last time I had been skiing was in college and before that at 16 at my friends house in NH, I not only got up on two skis, I managed to drop one and slalom for almost a full rotation – we had island markers about 1/2 mile apart FUN FUN FUN! Felt like I had no arms left when I was done, but it kicked so much ass.
The long and short of it is, I am so totally relaxed, so totally reconnected with my immediate and extended family, and I’m ready to go back to work and get this thing up and running in 2 months. At one point, there is this labyrinth that they have. It’s a walking maze and you release, receive, and renew as you walk through it. All I asked for was some calming peaceful energy and man did I get it. I stood in the middle of this brick maze, stared across the beautiful lake at the mountains in the distance and found my place to go when I’m stressed and anxious. A few deep breaths and I know I can be right back there.
Anyway, here are some pics – Yeah, that’s me doing the William Tell thing in the black shirt.
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July 24th, 2010 mattdaddy
My wife is part of a Celiac parent group and a few people expressed interest in how we ended up getting Gillian a hot school lunch that was gluten free. Believe me, it wasn’t easy.
Our daughter Gillian is the first in our school system to be diagnosed with Celiac Disease (detailed description of Celiac below), and we had quite the time getting her legal protection via a 504.
So I’ll share the 504 with you, below. If you live in the US, you’re legally entitled to everything on it for your school-aged child with Celiac. The cherry on the sundae, though, was getting the school system to train staff (by a registered dietician) and provide hot lunches every day for her (for which we’ll pay the same as every other child in our district, $2.25, but the quality is extremely high). We had trouble getting them to agree to this (we were told that they didn’t see this as a necessity), until we told them that, according to the Food & Drug Administration in Washington, DC, schools have to accommodate under 504 by preparing and serving at least one SAFE meal per day to the student (this goes for kids with 504s with food allergies as well, and there are lots of them in our district). This means safe hot dogs, hamburgers, etc (whatever is formulated in 504 plan) and prepared in separate area of the cafeteria with separate utensils.
The woman who runs the cafeteria couldn’t have been more helpful and accommodating, and Gillian had a wonderful experience eating a gluten free version of what the other children were served.
Here’s the actual file we got finalized and put into her permanent file. Just the fact that she can eat a lunch along with everyone else is HUGE since she has a tendency to feel apart from the group.
CLICK HERE TO GET the 504 plan
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July 6th, 2010 mattdaddy
Its 4pm and I haven’t taken a Percocet. I wanted to work a few hours this morning because it was a short day for the weekend. I’m feeling pretty good right now, but I have a feeling I’ll need one before too long. All in all, there wasn’t as much sharp pain as I had feared, but it’s definitely uncomfortable.
update 7/6/2010 had a good day, went to friends, saw The Last Airbender (wait for dvd), and spent saturday by the pool at friends house. nice relaxing day, napped 3 times:) Body is healing itself. Had mild panic attack centered around a smothering dream, arm hurt, took percocet at 3am, up until 5:30 or so. Slept until noon
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July 6th, 2010 mattdaddy
I’ve been doing some experimenting lately and one of the things we’re trying to do is to use WLW to update our posts on our intranet blog. Still having some problems we’re ironing out with the developer, but I wanted to see what it’d look like on my personal blog.
To keep everyone up to date, had a nice 4th, watched the fireworks, had a great picnic at our friends house with delicious food and generally nice weekend. Until yesterday where we spent hours reupholstering chairs. No fun.
Especially one handed:) Splint comes off Thurs, we’ll see where we go from there.
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July 1st, 2010 mattdaddy
How many episodes of Band of Brothers can I watch?:) Having some pain, not bad tho. Took pill this morning, will see how I feel when I’m due for another. Would like to forgo the next one, but not going to be a hero. To tell the truth, it’s helping but not as much as I would have thought.
Working on getting some dictation software to do some of my documenting backlog, but in the mean time I’m resting and reading a lot about datawarehousing,
typing with one hand is annoying, so I’m going to stop.
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June 30th, 2010 mattdaddy
(yes, I’m still typing one handed)
How many of you have had surgery where you are put under? Anyone have thoughts/fantasies that you would wake up? That you’d suffer some weird aneurysm and just die and leave everyone to keep living?
Yeah, I know, irrational. Until my Dr. came in, I was super nervous. He showed up and it was gone. I mean nothing, no nervousness, nothing. The even cooler thing was when I thought about the anesthesiologist, I thought it’d be cool to have the guy who put me under for my colonoscopy, and two seconds later, he walks up.
Talk about feeling like I was in good hands:)
The prep room was the weirdest for me b/c I’m usually the one to be making Fae feel better or more secure and here I was, the one who needed reassuring. She was good, cracking me up when I needed it, and just holding my hand when I needed that.
All in all it was fine, and everything worked out. The doc even called me before dinner to check on me:)
In a bit of pain now, so gonna watch a movie for a while.
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June 29th, 2010 mattdaddy
Sitting in bed, percocet taken, typing one handed:) Surgery went well, just have to heal now:)
thanks for all the well wishes.
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June 26th, 2010 mattdaddy
Lets see….
Went to New Orleans for a geek conference for a week, with just my wife…and of course I was sick for most of it. Nice
Went to Great Wolf Lodge with Fae and the kids, Gillian’s troop has a trip at the end of the year and this was it. Aidan and I had to carry the bags and stuff like that…yeah, totally It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed it too 
We were on our way back when Aidan’s phone rang, it was his girlfriend (yes, he’s 13 and they’ve been dating a year), inviting us to game night at her house the next day. Sounded like fun. So we went over last night and not only was it a lot of fun, but they went out and got everything gluten free so Gillian could snack on everything. How cool is that? It’s amazing how thoughtful people can bed.
To top it all off, I’m having surgery on Tuesday. Yay! Not. I was in an accident in 2007 and because of it, there was some damage to my shoulder and elbow. They’re going in and removing the damaged tissue. Hoping to be in a sling for a week or so and from what the doc says, back to fairly normal in around 6 weeks. Not being able to do any kind of contact exercise has been driving me nuts, so being able to get back to it will hopefully allow me to feel better physically and emotionally
Wish me luck.
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June 14th, 2010 mattdaddy
Man this sucks. It’s 4am and I can’t sleep. Can’t take a tylenol PM, I have to wake up in 2 hours. Tried going back to sleep but can’t get back and I don’t want to keep Fae up with me rolling around either.
What do y’all do when you can’t sleep?
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