Work day today as Nathaniel spent the day with Oma and Opa. I didn't get nearly as much done as I should have done, as I got up late and after working for a short while got lazy. I ran the self-clean function on the oven, and it locked in for a four hour cycle, but I was actually very impressed because it heated slowly or something, creating much less smoke than I would have expected. I got the floors cleaned, and vacuumed the stairs going up to the second level, but then I got lazy. I did eventually get the bathroom cleaned, but I decided then to go bike for a while. I played more FFXII, and I think it's less distracting than The Show, meaning that I feel the biking more than when I'm playing the baseball game. Anyways, I got lazy during the bike, around 15 miles really slowing down and considering stopping. When I finally gave up on the biking (and played FFXII for another little while) it was already around 2:00 or 2:30. I ate, showered and then ran to the law school to drop off the cheesecake with Amber, and to pick up Nathaniel with Stephanie.
He seemed to have had a good day, although he didn't sleep much. He was really talkative, ba ba ba ba baing away when we got there. He was happy to see us too. His crawling has really gotten better and he's fast. I think spending time in carpeted houses (and a little bit of time in the basement here) has helped a lot. It seems that he's no longer really reluctant on the hardwood either now. I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow with him, since the floors are clean now and I can let him roam a little bit more than I have the last couple of days. If I were smarter I'd have vacuumed the basement today as well, but that would have required moving too much stuff and I was too lazy, so we'll probably be upstairs most of the day.
Tomorrow night is the supporters planning meeting at the Sweetwater, so I will have to try to watch what I eat during the day. I think I've been a little bit better the last couple of days, but I've still been snacking too much and I need to get better at just deciding to get gum or a drink or something.

Day two of back to daddy duty today and it went pretty well. Nathaniel played nicely and slept a long afternoon nap allowing me to bike for 90 minutes or so. I started a new campaign of Final Fantasy XII, although I debated playing that or FFIX instead. The deciding factor was that I wouldn't have to switch out a PSX memory card. I played for about 45 minutes on the bike and a little more later this evening. I think it is ridiculous that I had to play 45 minutes just to get to the first save point in the game. Long cut scenes are irritating.

I went to the law school for an event where there was a drawing for a Kindle this evening. I shouldn't have bothered, as it turned out you didn't have to be present to win, and thus there was a 1/150 shot at best that I could get it. It really just ended up being a rather pointless trip in to the school as I also forgot the cheesecake I intended to bring.

Tomorrow Nathaniel is going to Oma and Opa's so that I can get a little more done and they can get to see him a bit. I need to clean the oven as there is a lot of smoke coming out when the oven is turned on. I'm also going to get the bathtub cleaned, since it's been too long, and there are a lot of dust bunnies that I need to get to as well. I did parts of the living room that I generally neglect today, so hopefully I can get the rest of the floors done relatively quickly. With luck, there won't be too much smoke and I can get the bathroom and kitchen floors clean too.to

My son has learned many behaviors. Some are more noticeable than others, and some are irritating, but the one that struck me today was what he does as you carry him up the stairs. Stephanie mentioned it or I wouldn't have thought of it. As you carry him up the stairs after rocking him to sleep in the basement, he squints his eyes shut tightly. He does it whenever he's going to somewhere bright; like if I'm carrying him past the bathroom with the light on at night. I always figured it was just a reaction to the light, but this evening he did it while Stephanie was carrying him upstairs and the lights were all out. Apparently, he can sense when we're carrying him up the stairs and closes his eyes in anticipation. The light tends to stream down the stairs through the back door when we carry him up since it's usually for naps around midday. I'm glad that Stephanie pointed it out, because it's this kind of little thing that I usually miss. I spend all my time with him trying to take pictures and thinking about taking video also because I want to be able to remember and relive these times; I'm scared of missing anything, and I think as a result of that sort of thinking I often miss a lot of stuff. Similarly, when I get overly emotional at certain events (like my wedding) I try to bite my tongue, keep from crying or whatever, and sometimes find myself feeling too detached and really missing enjoying myself the way that I wish I had when I look back, or even while it's happening, but I usually can't get back into things; I just end up too cerebrally disengaged, detachedly observing what's happening to me. It's one of the things that depresses me when I look back on things.
It's kind of ironic that since I always think about how much nostalgia I have at times I have so few memories that are clear. You'd think that with the detailed centered memory that I have I would remember things that happened to me, but that's not really the case. I tend to have a few clear memories of specific things, but generally cannot point to any general senses of a lot of things. In Home Game, Michael Lewis talks a bit about how his parenting strategy differed from that of his father. I tried to think about my dad, but I can't really remember much of anything that I could compare. That's not to say my dad wasn't around or anything, I just don't remember much; I can't point to anything specific about my mother either.
I hope that as time goes on and being aware of it I can make a conscious effort to avoid the problem.

Easter morning began with Nathaniel crawling all over the bed. He was happy and wanted to be playing. We got him up and he played happily in the living room for a while, eying his Easter Basket a bit, but not trying to get away from our arms to get at it. We kept him from going through it until he was dressed in his Easter Suit for pictures. He looked great in his blue shirt with the white collar and sleeves, tie and vest. Haven't taken pictures off the camera yet, though.

After a crowded church service, we went to my in-laws for lunch -- ham, roast beef, potato salad, chicken salad, cheesy potatoes, fruit, and other stuff. Ate too much, then relaxed for a while, served up the cheesecakes and Stephanie's desserts, then bloatedly sat around for a while longer. Then packed up and went to do it all over again at my parents' house with steak, baked potatoes, asparagus, and more dessert.

Finally headed home and ready for bed by 8:00, along with Nathaniel. Going to read a comic or two and then sleep, I hope.

I went shooting today, and had a pretty good time. I shot 50 rounds of a .38 Special, which has a heck of a kick. I managed to get 41 of the 50 rounds on to the target, although five of those failed to hit the actual target area of the paper. Not bad, for my first time shooting. My second target paper was actually worse, I think because I tried a couple of other techniques. I had best success when I cocked the gun before pulling the trigger, as this gave a littl eless of a kick, and required less pull on the trigger.

When I got home, I began working on the strawberry glaze for the cheesecake. It's kind of pain to make, with the boiling and pulverizing of the strawberries, then boiling them some more. I really had a hard time with it this time around because I was not careful in adding the cornstarch, so it got lumpy and I had to fish large masses of it out. Hopefully there aren't smaller ones that might hinder the enjoyment of the cheesecake tomorrow for Easter. I think in the future I'm going to use the food processor to make the glaze because the strainer method is just messier; I don't think it actually does much for the glaze that the food processor wouldn't do.

We went to my in-laws for dinner and to pick up Nathaniel, as Erin was watching him today for a bit allowing Stephanie to make her dessert. More burgers and beans and corn and fries. Tasty.

Stephanie had gone to the store to get some odds and ends and said that Target had a sale on coke zero, which I figured I should get so that I could use it in my super wonderful weight loss strategy (TM) but they didn't have cherry coke; it was sold out. I figured after we got home I'd hit another Target and see if I could find it. And go get a lottery ticket as well. The numbers are not promising; 35 shows up twice. I went to Byerly's too while I was out, looking to see if I could find chocolate curls to put on the cheesecake. We used to shop at Byerlys when I was a kid. I don't really know why; we didn't have much money back then, but we would go there and get Bryer's ice cream and LIttle Schoolboy cookies. (We also got a membership card where my sister and I got a free cookie from the bakery when we went. I should try bringing the card some time and see what happens.) I remember when we moved on to Cub instead and the most excitement we got was playing around with the CubPuter from time to time. That low end technology was probably hokey even then. It was a three-button directory of items in the store (up, down and enter.) Even so, I got the best deal I've ever seen on the sodas there, and it's just a nice store. It's spacious and much more calm than Cub, Rainbow or Lund's. I think it would be nice to good shopping there for things that are on sale. I'd have to look into whether it makes sense to go there regularly, but it's a much more enjoyable experience than Cub Foods is.

Fun

Nathaniel got to see his great-grandma and grandpa today, as my grandparents stopped by before heading north to Cloquet on their way home from Texas. They'd tried to stop by yesterday, but they would have gotten here around 5:45 at the absolute earliest, and with us having to leave by 6:15 or so to get to church it just didn't seem to make sense (so we went to the Wienery instead.)

They came over in the morning, and I began baking cheesecake for Easter. I have three made now, one large classic New York Style cheesecake and two chocolate cheesecakes. One of them is only about 5" in diameter; it's an extra for which we'll see if there's appetite on Easter or I will bring it in to the law school.
When it came time for 3:00 Mass, Nathaniel was napping, so we decided to try to make the 7:00 Tenebrae. In the meantime, I went to Costco with my parents to pick up some odds and ends. Mostly I was hoping that they would have a good deal on baby food, but it turns out they don't carry it. I nevetheless spent $95. Probably well spent, though. We hit a lot of traffic since we left at 4:00 and had forgotten that it was still a working Friday for most people. I used my phone a bit on the ride because we were talking about World Cup venues, and so I got a little car sick. The headache lasted until during church, even though I took ibuprofen.

Nathaniel was at first quite interested in looking around at the new church, but quickly became tired and got a little cranky. He wasn't actually crying or screaming much; he was just talking, but even if he's making happy sounding noises, it's hard to let him make noise in church, and trying to keep him quiet results in him becoming unhappy, so I spent time in the vestibule calming him down. We walked down to church because we figured that parking would mean we'd have to walk nearly as far even if we drove. There were actually very few people in the church, but it was only a 10 minute walk and probably easier than getting Nathaniel in and out of his car seat for such a short trip.

I'm going to head to bed shortly, and I think I'm going to try to read some comics tonight; something relatively mind-light. Perhaps the Infinity War or something that I actually remember relatively clearly from my childhood. I have been meaning to read the 2099 series, but I don't know if I feel up to beginning that just yet, as it's not my hard drive right now since it is a large file. (another thing I need to do is clear off a lot of the crap on this laptop, since I don't really know where all the space has gone.)
The iPad is released tomorrow, and pretty much the only thing that appeals about it would be reading comics on it. For that price, it's ridiculous, however, and I'd have to pay more for the comics and the reader given the nature of the product (Apple) so it's just a non-starter. I'm somewhat irritated that sites are running "alternatives to the iPad" stories, as if there was a need for the iPad, or that it filled some niche that had as-yet not been filled. In my eyes the thing is a relatively poor netbook. I'd rather get a convertible netbook to use as an e-book reader at this point; it would be more versatile and easier to use for most purposes. The only thing it would lack is 3G, and I don't think that's a huge deal with how I'd be using it.

Tomorrow I'm going to the UMPD shooting range with Calder and a bunch of other law students to try my hand at shooting handguns. I'm not sure why this appealed to me beyond the idea of just experiencing something new, except that since Nathaniel was born (or a while before that, really,) I have been a little bit more conscious of security and safety for my family. If I weren't more concerned about the gun becoming a danger if found by a young child in my home, I'd consider having one around. I think it's crazy that I find myself considering that, but I guess it's some sort of protective instinct or some crazy thing like that. I know that I'd do pretty much anything in my power, including giving my life or taking another to save my family at this point. Or at least, I feel that way now; in a situation, who knows what would happen.
After that, I'm going to have to make the glaze for the cheesecake. I'm considering making a chocolate topping for the chocolate cheesecakes as well, but we'll see how I feel after the strawberry glaze, since that's a rather messy process.

Today was calm enough to begin with, but ended up with a little bit more going on. I picked up my parents from the airport around 2:00, and they came over a little while later. They were excited to see Nathaniel, and he was happy to ham it up for them as well.
We then went to the Wienery for dinner, and to church for Holy Thursday. I had a Drive in Burger at the Wienery, and it was nicely spicy--to the extent that it gave me hiccups briefly. My parents both had Maxwell Streets, which I think they enjoyed, and we had a LARGE amount of chili cheese fries. We ordered four potatoes, and got two plates the size I usually get with an order of three potatoes. I ate too many of them simply because they were there.
None of us got our feet washed at church, I think as much because we wanted it to go quickly as anything else. By the time we got there, Nathaniel was fading quickly, and getting a little bit cranky with all the time spent getting in and out of the car seat, and sitting in the stroller in the restaurant. He got a little bit noisy, so Stephanie had to take him to the back of the church for a while. He got crankier in the car on the way home, but he was just tired and went to sleep without too much trouble.
It got up to 81 degrees today. When I put Nathaniel to bed, I turned on his fan! He watched it intently from when I turned it on until he dropped off to sleep, even when the light was minimal. I will go check on him soon to see if the fan should stay on for the night; he's under the blanket as well as his dino blanket, so I'm worried he'll get too hot, but I would prefer that he roll out of the blankets and/or wake up than be too cold. It's set to the winter setting still, so even though it was on the lowest setting I could barely feel it doing much more than circulating the air.