Dad is Busy

I am very much consumed in my semi-annual self-punishment, which is my way of saying another graduate class. Fortunately, I expect this to be my last tough course, which is good timing I suppose. The subject this time is Fluid Flow. It sounds simple enough, but most of my free time is completely taken up by listening to lectures, doing homework, and reading. I'm sure looking forward to having that piece of paper in my hand someday.

In the little time that's left after finishing work and school, I'm keeping myself busy by playing racquetball in a new league that I discovered in Midland, and we're also on a once-a-week movie kick since we signed up for Netflix. Of course, I'm also staying busy trying to keep up with Alysia making plans for the baby. I tried to make some progress on the planning earlier this week on a weeknight after spending the evening doing homework: My task was to read a synopsis about choosing strollers from ConsumerReports.com (We signed up last week to help us make decisions on which brands of larger items to purchase.). I figured that this would be an easy break from thinking about fluid flow phenomena - I was mistaken.

The report was organized by different types of baby-transportation vehicles, so I expected clear differentiation between the available types. However, I was thoroughly confused because the differences seemed so subtle that every description sounded like the last one I read - especially when you get to the end of the section and find out that there are models for purchase which convert to all of the other styles of strollers - including carriages. Also, the combinations of options and features are endless, so it's impossible to quickly differentiate an obvious choice. Basically, what I learned is that no matter what you choose to purchase, it's likely that your choice will lack some key feature that you'll regret not having.

I think that our child will skip the whole stroller stage and go straight to the bicycle - or if we're really lucky, it can figure out the unicycle!

Let's go Steelers - bring home a 6th!

Until next time...
- Mike