Blogging is so two years ago...

It is the ultimate irony of blogging that when you have things to write about, you don't have time to write it.

Rebecca was born on January 15. In the time since then she's been growing a lot both physically and developmentally. A couple days ago she started noticing her surroundings a lot more. She gets excited when she sees you and even watches TV a little. Fatherhood is a good thing, and I tell anyone who has ever pondered the meaning of life to have a child and then it will make sense.

On the day of her birth (she was born at 1:58AM) there was a major ice storm in the area. I went home from the hospital that evening to make sure that everything was OK at the house and to grab a shower. I came home to a neighborhood filled with the sound of generators and a wailing water alarm in the basement announcing four inches of water. So, on 2 hours of sleep and after the most emotional experience of my life, I spent the evening running power cords across the icy yard to a generous neighbor's generator-powered house, dragging stuff out the the basement, and shop-vacing the standing water that was left. Luckily for me the power came on as darkness was reaching totality so I didn't have to do all this in the pitch dark.

In other arenas of my life, I was planning on testing at Taekwondo for 2nd degree black belt this month. That was before my body started falling apart. I have a mysterious foot problem that makes walking without shoes a real chore. I think I got something embedded in my foot and infection followed. I'm on antibiotics now and it slowly seems to be getting better.

In addition to this, a knuckle on the right hand has gotten insanely sore and swollen. It happened over a period of time (no traumatic injury) and X-rays show no fractures or sign of arthritis. Right now ice and 800mg ibuprofen are helping, but I really wish it would get better or at least that I knew what was wrong.

Of course, in the middle of all this my back started acting up again. It was a lot less bad than previous act-ups, but it has been enough to keep me from doing everything I want to do. Picking up Rebecca from her "bouncy seat" or out of the basonette is very uncomfortable due to the "hunching" required. I did find a chiropractor who I really like nearby my work, so I am going to keep seeing him, follow his treatment schedule, and if all goes well I hope to be in much better shape in the near future.

Since most of my hobby time in the past was spent pursuing athletic activities, this has left me with some time for other pursuits. I have recently gotten into genealogy research. I never realized how easy it is to research family history online. Two great resources are www.familysearch.org and www.rootsweb.com. I've been able to trace my ancestors back as far as early 15th century Germany in the person of Tyl Van Fispe, and to places such as England and Holland (I never knew I was Dutch before this discovery). I even found out that I am related to Halle Berry (8th cousin, twice removed) through our common Dutch ancestors in the Van Swearingen family.

Well, I hope some folks still check this page periodically and will see this entry. Post a comment to let me know if you are still looking. I hope to start blogging a little more in the near future to keep my friends up on what I'm doing as with the baby now I'm not as around as I might have been in the past.