Baby Toys

1.  Kids don't need them.
Why do toy companies make baby toys so bright with colors?  Does it attract your child to them...so that they play with them more often?  Henry doesn't seem to care what color they look like.  I honestly believe that he knows that he is playing with a toy.  That is why he would rather play with other "real" things.  Here are Henry's favorite toys currently (in no particular order):

• Mom and Dad's cell phones
• The TV Remotes
• Xbox controller
• Doors
• Dresser Drawers
• And his favorite....without a doubt....door stoppers.

None of those things are particularly bright.  Henry even has TWO (not one) toy tv remotes.  A red one and a blue and grey Sesame Street remote.  However, my boy prefers the U-Verse remote.  Oh, and Henry also has a toy cell phone.  Yes, they make those, but it doesn't matter.  He always goes for our cell phones first.

The door stoppers...I can sorta understand.  Henry can crawl towards the bathroom.  Stops at the door.  Closes the door.  Sees the little thing sticking out of the wall.  He hits it and it makes a funny sound. He hits it again and it makes a funny noise.  He hits it again and it makes a funny noise.  He hits it again and it makes a funny noise.  He hits it again and it makes a funny noise.  He hits it again and it makes a funny noise (I think you get it by now).  After enough of that, he crawls into the hallway.  He finds the door stopper to the linen closet and goes to town on that.  Then the cycle repeats.  The only thing we have to look out for is when Henry tries to chew on the end of the stopper.

I can say that one actual child toy he loves is the activity table/center.  He pulls himself up on that thing and just bangs the crude out of that thing with his hand....and it just sings to him.  Lately, we have caught Henry swaying back and forth to some of the music which is pretty funny.

Overall, he is just growing up so fast.  Still no teeth...and we are couple weeks away from his first birthday.  Here is your parting shot...

Valentine’s Day

1. I dropped the ball.
So, Valentine’s Day has come and gone. I’m not a fan on Valentine’s Day. VD seems quite forced to be “romantic.” This doesn't make sense to me. One aspect of “being romantic” is to be spontaneous, right? Anyway, I could spend an entire entry on this…but I will not. I want to write about what I have learned from THIS Valentine’s Day.

This year, VD showed up on Monday. After Ape and I got ready for work, we were standing in the kitchen. I said…

MARTIN

Happy Valentine’s Day, babe.

APRIL

Oh it is. Happy Valentine’s Day. You know, it would have

been nice if Hanky gave mommy a valentine.

It's funny how certain things totally do not register. When she said it…she was looking straight at me. This never crossed my mind. It’s okay for me not to buy something for Ape. However, it is not okay for Henry to NOT get something for mom.  I guess I should of probably prefaced the above dialogue.  Henry has been sick for roughly 5 weeks.  That would include 5 visits to the doctor.  Don't know if its just the changing of the temperature.  Or the new daycare he is attending.  Doesn't matter.  Just have to deal with it.  Hankster got a cold...and it wouldn't go away.  Then, he caught a respiratory virus that made him wheeze.  He got better.  Caught another cold...which in turn brought his wheezing back.  Basically what this all means is that Mom and Dad's energy levels are not at their peak.  But Henry always seems to be in a good mood.

So, lesson learned. All you new fathers or soon-to-be fathers...remember this.  Get a valentine for you wife and make it from you kid.....How about this for a late valentine????

Commercial Brewing

1.  It is just glorified home brewing.

Southern Star's year round lineup

I had the honor to brew with Southern Star Brewing Company back in mid-December.  Back in early October, there was beer festival in downtown Houston called The Monsters of Beer.  It was a pretty cool little festival where roughly 12 breweries (all from Texas!) showed up so the people can sample their beer.  It also gives many of these breweries some face time in the Houston area.  Not all of the beers are available in your local stores.  Back to my experience.  At this festival, a silent auction was held for some really cool beer items.  All proceeds went to charity.  And guess what?  I won one of the prizes.  It was for the winner and a friend to go to Southern Star and  brew with them for a day.

Fast forward to December 22nd.  All of our schedules finally synced up.  My friend, Justin, and I headed toward  Conroe around 6am...and pulled up a few minutes after 7am.  I may have gotten us lost.  Once there, we met Dave.  Dave is one of the owners and I believe the "head brewer."  He had been there since 4am.  That was the start of the first batch of beer.  Basically, their plan is to brew 3 batches back-to-back-to-back.  Why?  Because that is how much beer they have to make to fill just ONE of their large up-right fermenter.  We were brewing their Bombshell Blonde Ale.  Want to guess what color it is? (blonde)

Now, me being a person that has dabbled in beer making for all of 6 months, I had many questions.  I won't bore you with all of the questions...but I will give you my summary.  Dave and his team are glorified home brewers.  The only difference....his equipment is bigger than mine.  I am using a 7 gallon stainless steel pot for brewing.  He is using a 15 BARREL boil kettle.  If you want a breakdown in ounces, here you go.  7 gallons = 896 ounces.  15 barrels =  59,520 ounces.  I'm using a five gallon glass carboy as a fermenter.  Southern Star uses several 75 barrel upright fermenters.

the fermenters

As the boil is going, Dave has a sheet of paper and does a few small calculations to get the gravity of the liquid correct.  Maybe adds some water.  Or tweaks the temperature.  But that is about it.  Most other things....he eyeballs it.   Really wild stuff.

The day of work ended with us at their bar area that is used during the weekend tours.  Perhaps the coolest thing we did all day... we tried 3 of their beers that haven't been released yet.  Currently, they are still tweaking the recipes...and we got to taste them.  All three were awesome in my book.  The first one we tried will be released in the summer.  The name is called "Walloon."  Named after a county or province (whatever they call them over there) in Belgium.  Can't wait it.  Tasting it...it just felt perfect for one of those 100 degree days.

I apologize if this entry bored you to death.  Currently, I am fascinated with the craft beer scene.  Especially, in Texas.  It is in a boom right now.  Beer making is a lot of fun.  Plus, can't I daydream about opening my own brewery one day?!?!?!?!

Justin (friend), Dave (the man) and me

One Year Ago.

1.  How fast things change.
Oh no! Not another blog entry where Martin complains or just points out that time flies. Thanks, Captain Obvious! We got it. Time moves fast. Specially when you are busy doing things.

Hey, how did you read my mind?  It's the new year.  What do you expect?  This is the time of the year when everyone reflects.  Writers and critics fill out their obligatory best of (or some times worst of) lists.  Well, I won't do that....here.  It did get me thinking about this past year.  And I just wanted to look back and see what I was doing exactly one year ago.  And I found some pictures of it, too. 

On January 7th, 2010, I put together (with a little help from my bro-in-law) Henry's crib.  His room was empty.  That was the first thing in there.  The room had been converted from a study to a bedroom basically overnight.  Thanks to a super sales woman that happened to be carrying my unborn child.  

Two days later, on January 9th, my wife and I went to Lowe's and picked out the color of the back wall (you can see the color in the two pictures below) in Henry's room.  And when I say "my wife and I" I totally meant "my wife."  But that was understood, right?  Actually, back then ... we didn't have a name picked out.  He was referred to as The Hulk.  He earned this moniker because he was so active.  I could watch him move from one side of April's stomach to the other.  Elbows and hands and feet just contorting the outside of Ape's stomach  It was one of the wildest things I have ever witnessed.

 Fast forward to exactly one year later.  We have a nine month old son who can stand in his crib.  That is, if you stand and prop him up against the railing.  Yes, just like propping up a two by four against a wall.  Except this two by four smiles, has a ton of curly hair and poops like it's going out of style.





I like this photo.  You may say that Henry is out of focus.  Well, you would be right....but that is what I intended on.  His name in the background is the focus of his pic.  Oh, Martin you are so artsy!  Oh, you are too kind.  Actually, I just took a ton of different pictures...with different settings.  Aperture...shutter speed...ISO.  Once again ... the great thing about digital.

Hobbies.

1.  I don't have enough of them.
I have very little time for my hobbies.  So, I thought, "What the heck, lets add another one!"  Between my movies, TV, video games, knitting, reading, beer-making, THIS BLOG and shredding old fools at basketball...I think I can squeeze one more in.

So, what is this new hobby?  Photography.  With Henry growing up right in front of my eyes, the urge to "capture" as much of him as possible motivates me.  It would be great to learn some basic concepts and practice them on my little "model."

Good news.  I kinda hit the jackpot.  My dad has a fantastic old school SLR camera that uses 35mm film PLUS 4 different lenses.  The camera has not been used since the mid-90s.  So, he was more than willing to let me mess around with the camera to.... A) see if it still works and B) see if I have some skills.  I will not make you wait.  The answers are.......IT DOES and I DO. 

After I got the camera, my wife found a GROUPON for a photography class that was about "capturing true emotion."  So, that was my birthday present back in October.  I had some reservations about going.  I didn't know if I would learn that much b/c everything is digital these days.  Just take a pic...review it instantly...make adjustments...take a pic...review it.  That is not the case for with my Olympus OM-1.  This bad boy was made in 1979.  There is no reviewing process.  There isn't an LCD screen.  This is FILM.  Did you know...they still make film?  They do.  It isn't cheap.  However, the class was amazing.  I learned a ton in the 4 hours there.  It really gave me a good foundation on how to take great photos.  So, after that....I had to go see if I could incorporate these skills I learned to actual photos.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well some of the pictures turned out.  The last one has quite a few blemishes due to the film.  But there is a certain quality of nostalgia or ... something that makes it cool anyway.  Some didn't turn out...due to user error.  Manual focus is difficult.  You are working with such a small viewfinder. 

After this, I started looking for a digital camera.  I found a cool one.  Good reviews.  However, the part that makes cameras expensive are the lenses.  I already have 4 of them....but they do not fit on the new digital cameras.  My problem was solved with a little searching on the web.  There is an adapter ring you can buy and mount it on a digital camera....then your old school lenses connect to the adapter ring.  And bingo....they work.  There are some drawbacks.  There is no auto-focus or things like that...so it is still quite manual.  However, I can instantly review my pictures.

Maybe I will learn some cool tricks and post them here.  Sound good?  Here is a parting shot of downtown Houston from Discovery Green park.  You can actually see my window (at work) in this shot.  I will give you a hint.  I work in a high rise...

Parenting.

1.  Works just like a bartering system.
So, it has been awhile since the last post. (It feels like I start every post with this sentence.)  Anyway, I thought I would share a parenting story.

Henry loves to poop.  He excels in filling his diaper.  You know when he is doing his business, because he concentrates real hard.  By "real hard", I mean he puts all of his energy into it.  He usually makes a serious face...and then the slight grunting starts.  He grunts when he pushes.  Henry also holds his breathe when this is going on.  So, he turns bright red when taking care of his business.  Usually when he is done ... it is a mess. Like clockwork ... we take him up stairs to change his diaper.  Lay him down ... and it seems like it immediately shoots up his back towards his shoulders.  I mean, his onesie is clean when we lay him down ... but it goes everywhere one he is laid down.  If there was a cleanand effective way for me to change his diaper while he stood up...I would do it.

Back to story time.  Henry is in his little horsey jumper.  Going to town (jumping).  He has hops like Michael Jordan.  Then, abruptly he stops and goes into poop mode.  Faint grunts and the red face.

INT. - LIVING ROOM - DAY TIME

APRIL

(to Henry)

Hey, buddy.  Tell Daddy to give you some fresh pants?

MARTIN

(knowing that it sounded like a mud bomb went off in H-dogg's diaper)

If you change him, I will be on night duty tonight.

APRIL

So you will do night duty for three days in a row???

MARTIN

Absolutely.

APRIL

(to Henry)

Hey Bud, lets go change that diaper.  Mommy gets 3 nights of un-interrupted sleep!

FYI - I guess I should tell you guys that we switch off night duty each night.  It definitely helps to know that you will get a full night's rest AT LEAST every other night.  But the cool thing is that Henry sleeps through the night.

Henry Roy (Vol. 6)

8.  The force is strong with this one.

This would be Henry's costume for Halloween.  He would be Yoda.  And yes, that is from Star Wars.  This is how it works.....  I like Star Wars = Henry likes Star Wars.  He will thank me for this later in life.

I know.  This is a tad late to post a Halloween entry.  Sue me.  In the last few weeks...I have entered my 30s and my wife and I have celebrated our 4th anniversary. We also spent a week in the Dakotas, ya know.  I got excuses.  Want another one?  I have a 7 month old! Care for another one?  I'm tired.  Doesn't that sound like every other facebook status update???

During the upcoming holiday season, I plan to update the blog more often.  At least, that is the goal.  The last several entries had been more pictures than writing.

Just remembered this.  We had our annual pumpkin carving party at the house this year.  And guess what I carved for my pumpkin?  Yoda!!!