First steps

Elizabeth has taken her first wobbly steps! After spending the first year of her life with bilateral club foot, 3 months in full-leg casts, and then wearing the Ponseti brace most of the day since then, she's doing great!

World Series tickets

Along with millions of other fans and ticket scalpers, I tried my luck yesterday in the Colorado Rockies' online sale of World Series tickets. Like 99% of them, I didn't get tickets, but instead spent several aggravating hours failing to connect to the ticket vendors' overworked and underpowered web servers. The whole system crashed on Monday so they tried again Tuesday, after the Rockies made the absurd claim that their site was the victim of an attack. The only "attack" was the massive number of fans all trying to buy tickets at the same time.

The vasectomy report

I apologize if any of this is incoherent. I'm still a little groggy from the valium. I just got home from the vasectomy. It's rather strange to be laying in a doctors office with your pants off and have 2 female nurses prep'ing your privates to be cut open. I was supposed to get a valium drip, but the nurse couldn't get the needle in right - after trying 3 different veins. She finally gave up and the doc administered a shot of valium. I quickly felt the drug take over, and next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and it was all over. I was totally out of it during the procedure, and was quite surprised to learn it was done. I was also the most intoxicated I've been in years as I got dressed and plopped into a wheelchair. Amy wheeled my to the exit, pulled up the car and drove me home. Looks like I'll spend most of the next day on the couch with an ice pack on my crotch.

Snipped

I've got an appointment with the doc tomorrow afternoon. Love my 2 kids, but don't want to have any more. So I'm gettin' snipped. The brochure from the doctor says I should expect to spend a couple of days taking it easy. It even has a picture showing a middle aged guy kicking back in his easy chair while his wife serves him food. That doesn't sound like such a bad way to spend the weekend!

Childhood toys

My brother and his friend Michael were in town (they live in Breckenridge) and came over for dinner tonight. Andrew loves to play with his Uncle Erik, and they had a great time wrestling, playing with cars, reading books, etc. I pulled out a box of toys that I had when I was a kid - my mom gave them to us a few weeks ago - and we were taken back to our childhood for a few hours. Some of the toys in the box from my mom:

• ping pong ball gun
• pop gun
• toy airplanes
• fake poop (2 different types)
• rubber snakes
• a kazoo
• gyroscope
• rubic's cube
• handheld ball-in-maze game
• rubber bigfoot figure (Erik said it used to scare him)

Rockies in the World Series!

Along with 50,000 others at Coors Field last night, I watched the Rockies sweep the Diamondbacks to win the National League Championship. It was a great and rare experience. The best part was that Eric Byrnes, the D-backs trash-talking left fielder, got slapped with the 3rd out in the 9th inning to end the game. After the D-backs were down 0-2 in the series, Byrnes said that the Rockies didn't outplay Arizona, rather they were just lucky.

Help kids with club foot

For anyone who would like to help the 150,000 kids born with club foot each year, I now have a personalized page where you can donate to the Ponseti International Association for the Advancement of Clubfoot Treatment.

I recently saw video of a Phillipino girl whose bilateral clubfoot went untreated until she was 10 years old. The Ponseti method corrected her feet without surgery, and without the high expense and likelihood of pain that accompanies it.

When we consulted with doctors at the Children's hospital in Denver, they told us that Elizabeth , at 1 year old, was too old for the Ponseti method and would need surgery. This is all too common with doctors in the US since they either don't know the Ponseti method, or they know they can make a lot more money performing surgery.

Rockies are rockin'

I've never been a big baseball fan, but I've actually enjoyed watching the Rockies in the playoffs. I got a call from a friend tonight who has tickets to game 4 of the NLCS on Monday might. The Rockies now have a 3-0 series lead over Arizona, which means that game 4 could send them to the world series.

Sucky ducts

I've been gradually working on improving my home's energy efficiency. Today's rainy weather made for a good day to stay inside, so I decided to check the ventilation ducts. The house was built in 1971, and apparently whoever did the duct work was a lazy, drunken buffoon. It's surprising that any hot air made it all the way to vents. I went through a hell of a lot of tape and duct sealer putty.

Brace relief

Elizabeth visited her doctor earlier this week and got some good news. Her feet look fine, and she can now wear her brace only 12-14 hours per day (overnight and during naps) instead of 18 hours per day. The extra hours of freedom every day should help her learn to stand a walk pretty soon.

Stock options pay out

When I started working at BoldTech back in the boom days of 1999, I got stock options. When I left almost 5 years later, I exercised some of those options, and it finally paid off. BoldTech was acquired by Perficient a few weeks ago, and I earned nice return on my investment. Not enough to retire early or buy that 40 foot yacht, but a nice bit of cash nonetheless.

Since Amy and I are close to buying an investment property, that money go right into our down payment. What an exciting way to spend my unexpected bonus. ;-)

October harvest

Garden fresh tomatoes in October? Yup. I was out in my backyard picking ripe red tomatoes yesterday. Not only tomatoes, but cucumbers, chiles and even a few raspberries, too. It's a balmy 83 degrees in Denver today. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.