In the spirit of establishing a regular posting schedule, I’ve decided to steal an idea from my lovely wife and start doing “Tuesday Ten” posts.  It will also be a good way to catch up on what’s gone on during my unintentional hiatus without boring you with a long, tedious post.

1. As you may have noticed from the reference to “my lovely wife”, Rhonda and I finally got married!  It was a fairly simple affair – we just went to the Mobile, AL, courthouse and did the deed.  Our “honeymoon” was a night away from the boys in the swanky (by our standards) Downtown/Historic District Holiday Inn and boozing the night away with some good friends.  Rhonda keeps threatening to write up a post about the whole thing.  If she ever carries out her threat, I’ll make sure to link it up.

2.  Harper is walking! He’s been pulling himself up and even standing on his own for a couple of weeks, but didn’t have the confidence to try more than a few steps.  Last Wednesday, though, he decided to go for it.  While we were waiting for Jude’s mom to drop him off, Harper got up and just started toddling.  Two steps was about normal.  Then he took another, and another, and made it to ten steps before toddling over.  He’s gone a little farther every day since and seems very proud of himself.

3.  Jude left yesterday.  I may or may not have cried a little when he left – I can neither confirm nor deny.  I’m already missing him like crazy and August seems a long way off, but I’m also kind of glad for the relative peace in the house since he left.  It’s also nice to be able to stretch out in our bed again without little elbows jabbing me in the ribs.

4.  I’m really impressed by how good Nick is with Harper.  He does get irritated, like any big brother would, and occasionally just wants to hide out in his room, but he also goes out of his way to look out for Harper.  Occasionally, he even yells at Mommy and Daddy to be nicer to his baby brother.

5. A big reason for my lack of posting is that I’ve been working and adjusting to working an evening shift.  I’m sure part of it is that I’m just happy to be working after a year of unemployment, but I’m really enjoying my job.  It’s challenging without being impossibly hard, There’s pretty good support if I have any problems, and we have awesome benefits.  I get pretty much every holiday off (paid!) and the company partnered with the county in a free clinic that we have access to the day we’re hired.

6. There is constantly some sickness, usually in the form of a cold, circulating through this house.  Rhonda almost always catches it, and I rarely do.  This time, though, I seem to have caught it.  I rarely get sick, but I seem to pay for it by getting really sick when I finally catch something.  Between this and number 7, I’m in for a miserable week.

7. I developed a rash last week.  At first it seemed kind of mild and not itching that bad, so I wasn’t too worried about it.  But now I’m starting to notice it spreading, getting more red, and more itchy.  I think I have poison ivy or poison oak, and that’s not good.  This is the least disturbing picture I have from my last poison ivy outbreak:

Like I said... this is the least disturbing, the others are much worse.

So yeah… I need to go to that free clinic.  Sadly, I don’t have the fifteen dollars for the meds I know they’ll prescribe for this.  I may have to tough it out until payday on Friday.

8. I’m no longer questioning my geekiness, but I am realizing that my inner geek is… morphing, I guess?  I’m into more adult things these days, or geeking out on a more adult level.  I haven’t read a comic in ages and, while I’m mildly interested in what’s been going on in comics, I don’t really miss them all that much.  I guess I’m just too busy.  Yes, this probably means that For The Love of Comics has ended its run. I’ll keep paying the hosting fees and all that, but I don’t see myself updating it again any time soon, if ever. I probably will begin writing about things that I’m geeking out about here, like books and some cool toys I’ve found for the kids.

9. Since moving to South Mississippi, which is highly conservative, I’ve found myself getting pushed further left, or at least more vocally left-wing.  I’m not really going anywhere with this point, it’s just something I’ve noticed about myself recently.

10. Rhonda and I are starting up a blog focused on the small, tragically unwired town we live in. Rhonda gives a nice explanation of our vision in her Tuesday Ten post today, which I’ll quote for you here.

We live in a small town that is so not connected to the internet.  The few hiring businesses want you to send in a resume… via snail mail.  People shop and do business in surrounding cities, because they don’t even know what’s available to them here.  And the local newspaper (published once a week, on Thursdays) is very sad.  The “writers” have very biased views… and they show in the articles.  I’m pretty sure you can pay for an article too (if you agree with the editor’s views, at least).  We hope to bring something new and fresh to the table, and we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about our plans!

Jokes about launching a new blog when I can’t even keep this one updated, while very accurate, should be kept to oneself.

And that’s ten!