Quick Trip South

So it's Saturday the 14th which of course means that we made it through the dangerous Friday the 13th yesterday. As mentioned I don't subscribe to those beliefs nor does Cicely but there are many out there that do and that is perfectly fine. Who am I to judge, maybe they are the wise ones and know something I do not. No matter we are safe and sound!

Baby Shopping

So yesterday the studio heads were kind enough to let us out 1/2 day to enjoy the weekend a little early because of the hard work we have put in over the past year. I thought that this gesture once again was pretty bad-ass-cool of them and very much appreciated!

Cicely and I took this opportunity to go over to the baby store and get some more stuff purchased and marked off of our ever growing but shrinking somewhat checklist. Our goal is to have it completed a few weeks before we get to meet baby.

So during last nights trip we were able to get more of the bigger items on the list. We purchased the mattress for the crib, all of the crib bedding, bumper pads, mobile, some bottles, sheets for the crib and sheets for the bassinet, picked up an extra bassinet bed pad to make it softer for her, curtains for the nursery / baby room, a curtain rod in nickel and ends for the rod that have monkeys sitting on a leaf to match the rest of her jungle / tropical themed room. I am sure there is prolly more that I am forgetting, it was a pretty big night at the cash register which rang us up to well over $650! This has become a biweekly thing it seems in preparation for her arrival.

Lazy Baby

I can't forget that because we got out of work early we decided it was a good time to go over to the furniture store and see if we could find a recliner for the nursery. As luck would have it we found one with everything we wanted as far as features.

The chair is electric so we can easily recline or sit back up smoothly and quietly at the touch of a button just like the rest of our furniture in the house. I though was a critical feature so we do not wake baby during those more difficult sleepless nights that we finally get her to fall asleep.

This chair also has very plush arms so she can lay on us or rest her head on the chair arm comfortably. We also got a model that has the ability to rock when it is not in a reclined position. Another very important feature for us to better sooth baby. A gliding movement would have probably been ideal but this one has more of a soft, longer rock that is almost the same as a glider moves so I think it will be great. The only thing this model did not have is the swivel base. That could be cool but was not a deal breaker not having it.

Last we were given a $200 side table for free for the purchasing the recliner that was over a certain price and of a particular model. I doubt we will use it in the nursery, prolly in the living room next to the spot Cicely always sits. She really needs a little table over there in my opinion. She has never wanted one because she worries that it will crowd the living room a little. Sure, maybe a tiny bit, but I think the convenience of it will outweigh that. Plus it has USB and power outlets hidden inside of it which is really cool for all of her charging needs!

Yea that was another $900 going towards the baby room and things we needed to buy but thankfully the last big thing is the stroller which is $300 or $400 if I remember correct. It will function as a car seat as well for awhile but eventually she will grow out of it and we will have to buy her a nice safety seat as well. After the stroller though almost everything is well under the $100 price point. Slowly but surely we are getting there!

Mom

So we are running a little behind today getting down to see mom. Usually we try to get down there around the time she has her lunch so we can visit while she is busy doing something. Today we farted around and did not even get out of the house until after 2:00 PM.

No biggie, at least we will get to visit for an hour or so before she heads down to have dinner.

Also figured that while we are in Carson we will stop by the Best Buy there. I need to get an inexpensive PC laptop for home to use with my new Stingray quad helicopter for updating the software and related. I also want to use it as the dedicated machine connected to the 3D printer and any other 3D printers we get. I mostly have Mac's anymore but sometimes you just need a PC and I don't feel like farting around with running it on my Mac.

The new laptop has a touchscreen as well which will be really cool for certain applications with the printers and if we ever get a prosumer type CNC or laser cutter it will be ideal for that as well. I may even try to use it for the Phoenix flight simulator if it has enough power to run it. It should, it has a decent video card and as far as RAM goes it comes with 4GB but is upgradable to 16GB.

More than enough for the things we will be using it for. Then I can just take my current media center PC out to the garage and hook it up to that TV as it's monitor when needed. Should be cool and work out really well for us!

Racing

So I keep forgetting to mention that there is a new kart racing facility opening in town, well downtown. It will be indoors and I think they should be pretty decent karts. Probably able to hit the 40-45 mph range. I know that does not sound fast but trust me it is and especially on a tight indoor course. 

If I was still racing it would really be an awesome way to keep the winter spider webs from growing. It would also give me some additional seat time to help muscle memory stay sharp.

I hope people utilize it and it's here to stay for a very long time. The cool side effect is that it may help to bring interested drivers out to my old club to race - that would be awesome, we can always use more drivers in the paddock and more importantly on the track!

About All I Think

That will do it for today. Once we are back from Carson we need to get more of babies room cleared out and I want to build the crib hopefully and FINALLY! It sorta dictates everything else being worked on or set up.

At the very least I will be able to built the bassinet today for sure and get that into the bedroom for baby. I think she will enjoy sleeping in it the first couple months. I know that we will really enjoy having her so close I us - warm, cozy and safe!

**Update: Once again we did not get anything done and the baby room has gone unchanged for yet another weekend day - grr! We were simply exhausted by the time we ate dinner and watched only 1 show that we had on TiVo. Not sure why lately, maybe its the mental stress of all that we have to do but we have been really slow going on this room setup. Lets hope we make some much needed progress on Sunday!

Hope you are having a great Saturday whatever you happen to be doing!

Photo: The mountains off to the west on the drive to Carson. Nice sky's for a change today. Now I just wish all of the massive ice mounds around home would melt away!