KJToo

Laura and I have noticed that Kyle has somewhat pointy ears, as shown in the photograph below. This leads us to believe that he is at least part elf.1

If Kyle is part elf, then it stands to reason that one of his parents also has elven blood running through their veins, but which one? Neither of us has pointed ears, nor do we seem to resemble elves in any other respect.2 We’re not terribly graceful, and we’ve achieved maturity3 far more quickly than the long-lived race normally does.

Laura is half Colombian, but she is also very fair-skinned. Could the lack of melanin in her dermis be explained by heretofore undiscovered elven heritage? Perhaps, but Laura has done some fairly extensive research into her genealogy and has yet to stumble across anything to suggest that she is descended from the Firstborn.

I, on the other hand, can only trace my ancestry back a couple of generations,4 but what I do know about my forebears is that they were primarily Finnish. This is very telling, because it is well-known that the High elvish language, Quenya, has striking similarities to the Finnish language.5

Is this enough to conclude that I am the source of the elven blood coursing through Kyle’s veins? Probably not for science, but it’s enough for me. When the boy comes of age, he will accompany me across the sea to the Grey Havens, which I imagine will be a lot like Disney World.

1. Keep your Vulcan mouth shut, Trekkie. [back]
2. I have a goatee. Have you ever seen an elf with a goatee? Didn’t think so. [back]
3. I’m using the term loosely. [back]
4. Granted, I haven’t exactly researched my lineage. [back]
5. Really. It’s well-known. [back]

Posted January 31, 2006 Comments(6)

Codeshaman tagged me with this silliness, and though I generally don’t participate in this sort of stuff at KJToo.com, I’m making an exception. I don’t know why.

The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You have been tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

1. I’m extremely disorganized, but every once in a while I organize the living hell out of something. I create a wholly-unnecessary spreadsheet of all my PC and Xbox games about once every two or three years.
2. If I’m channel-surfing and I see that the movie Predator is on, I’ll watch it, whether it just started or it’s halfway through. This despite the fact I own the DVD.
3. I will pick up a “hobby” on a whim and pursue it very determinedly until the next shiny thing catches my eye. Darts is a good example of this.
4. When I’m in a video-gaming mood but don’t want to get too involved in playing a game, I’ll play Spider Solitaire. This almost invariably leads to two solid hours of playing solitaire on the computer.
5. I used to claim that I “went to high school with a guy/girl named” whoever Laura and I happened to be talking about at the time. She got so annoyed with me that I told her I’d stop doing it, and I did. I told her that this might work for some other things I do that she finds annoying, but I don’t think she believes me.

Now, who to tag? How about blob, Yotto, TechnoHippyBiker, Jude and Sudrin.

Posted January 30, 2006 Comments(8)

As I mentioned last Friday, Kyle is now home from the hospital. He spent six days at the Children’s Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him. the best guess anyone could give us is that he had a bad reaction to the formula he was given at LakeWest to bring his blood sugar up.

We’ve now had a four-night sampling of what is to come, and we’ve seen both extremes, I think. On Friday and Saturday night, Kyle slept in four-hour stints, which is pretty much what we were shooting for. Sunday and Monday night, he was a bit fussy. He’d cry, we’d pick him up and take care of whichever orifice needed attention, get him all settled down, put him back in the bassinet… and five minutes later have to do it all over again. This did not make for a very restful night. Or two.

In related news, my mother was babysitting my eldest brother’s (that’s you, Thagg) boys in Toledo over the weekend. Toledo is about eleven hours from my parents’ house and about two hours from ours, so it seemed only logical that she swing by for a visit before heading back to the U.P. It also gave my sister-in-law and nephews an excuse to see their newest nephew and cousin, respectively.

So, while I catch up on my correspondence, Laura has been making phone calls and my mother has been cuddling her newest grandchild (she has seven, now) and cleaning the floors. She also made coffee and cinnamon rolls this morning, which made for a pleasant treat when I finally got out of bed at noon. Hurrah for mothers and grandmothers!

Coming soon: a return to the type of nerdliness you may have come to expect from me. I’ve got a review of The Forty Year Old Virgin in the works and the TiVo is recording Mr. and Mrs. Smith from pay-per-view as I write this. Also, I’ve been tagged by Codeshaman to discuss five of my weird habits, and I want to prattle on about George R.R. Martin a bit.

Posted January 24, 2006 Comments(6)

Kyle is home.

That is all.

Posted January 20, 2006 Comments(7)

The days are kind of blurring together, and I didn’t realize that it had been so long since I posted an update. Kyle has been eating very well, so the doctors have been changing his feeding schedule and the amount he is fed throughout the week. He started on 10cc of milk or formula every three hours, which was elevated to 20cc, then 50cc. Now he is “ad lib, on demand,” meaning he gets fed as much as he wants, as often as he wants it. When I called to check on him this morning, the nurse said that he had been eating 100cc at a shot through the night, but backed down to about 60cc (2 oz.) this morning.

The nutrient and lipid IVs were turned off a couple days ago, though they haven’t removed the IV tube just yet. After Kyle kicked the IV out a couple of times, the nurses put the tube in his left hand, where it has stayed pretty well. I’m hoping they’ll actually remove it today, though.

The nurse I talked to this morning said Kyle would most likely be discharged tomorrow, but it has been very frustrating to have one person tell us “Thursday or Friday” at 2PM, then another say “Friday or Saturday” at 6PM. The difference between Thursday and Saturday may not seem like much to them, but it’s huge to us.

That’s about it. Hopefully, the next time I post it’ll be to say that Kyle is home with his mom and dad (and Rosie & Gil).

Posted January 19, 2006 Comments(7)