Les Singes: The Life of Monkey Boy

The Appendectomy

Another month, another hospital visit. Today my wife is getting her appendix removed. It is stirring up sorts of emotions inside me. I'm very proud of my brave wife as I know how much I personally would be freaked out.

She was a bit nervous as we had the anesthesiologist explain details prior to her surgery. I'm currently hanging in the hospital waiting room trying to relax.

Going under anesthesia is never easy. I realized I've been fortunate enough in my life to avoid ever going under. I also realize how extremely lucky I've been with my health. I try hard to take care of myself, but sometimes things do happen. No matter how well you take care of yourself, things can happen.

Now I've seen two other patients finish before my wife and it makes my mind go crazy. I know she is fine though as it's just an appendix. I will be happy to leave the hospital and not hear another pager beep and vibrate uncontrollably. I love you Mrs. Lessinges.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Bumping fists is for the emotionally weak

I reflect often. If you ask Mrs. Lessinges, she'll tell you I love the expression "guess what we were doing two months ago?" more than life itself.

2 years ago = November 2007 - my Best Man Tod is settling into his Peace Corps assignment. He will spend the next two years helping youth in The Dominican Republic make themselves healthier. Believe it or not, he returns to Seattle this Friday evening and I couldn't be happier.

3 years ago = November 2006 - miraculously conception occurs after wearing bike shorts for half the year. It was a nervous time as my wife and I learned she was pregnant. We couldn't tell anyone other than a few close friends. I wanted to tell all my friends and family, but it wasn't appropriate. I was so anxious to share the news with everyone reading my blog. However, there are rules about sharing things of this nature. To me, fall of 2006 seems like ten years ago.

I've never had a close friend spend two years away for humanitarian reasons. I'm so very proud of my buddy for his charitable acts. Deciding to spend two years away from family and friends to selfishly help others is most impressive. My friend may not return home the same person he was a couple years ago. He may return a changed man in many respects. Think about the sacrifice it takes for someone to join the Peace Corps. I can hardly find two free hours to read/comment/type blog entries these days. To take two years out of your life is inspiring. And by "out", I don't mean it in a negative sense in the least bit.

Tod - I can't wait for you to meet the girl who was conceived three years ago. Two years ago she barely fit in your forearm. Your mother deemed purple to not suit Baby Singes well. I've bragged about you since the day you left. At the age of 36 you've accomplished many things in your life. I look forward to hearing if you were lovestruck in The DR and what truly happens in the Peace Corps. Welcome back to Seattle my good friend. Your presence in the Pacific Northwest has been missed. Leaving the island of Hispanola will most likely be bittersweet so let it be known Téo, wherever you go hombre...you're loved.

Un abrazo fuerte...

Stomach Churns

I find it wonderful when people can laugh at themselves. I find those without a sense of humor rather unfun. Forced jokes are rarely funny and make me feel all sorts of awkward inside.

Sports are a diversion. Too many sports analogies in a workplace could tire fast. Well why stop at sports analogies when it's more acronyms that creep me out. I still don't trust fast office walkers. They have too much to prove.

I'm getting lots of practice with my French these days. It is a very good thing and is sort of like getting paid millions to play baseball professionally. Ha, I made a comparison to sports when it should've been avoided.

There's this new song I can't get out of my head about this guy and his ex-girlfriend. The Airborn Toxic Event song resonates through my head all day long. Beautiful song, not such an ideal topic. The part about his stomach in ropes, that is magnificent song writing. If you don't know the song, I can sing it for you.

Finally, it may not comes as a surprise to any of you, but I whipped out this blog entry in about 8 minutes using my BlackBerry Flip. I'm super cool! Eight.

Crib Notes

I have a daughter, she likes things. She enjoys learning and making up stories with her stuffed animals. I'm not so sure she likes napping though. I dread the day when she stops napping because it gives us a chance to nap as well. Yep, I'm a vicarious parent.

Last weekend we had a busy Saturday visiting friends. Baby Singe almost fell asleep in the car on the way home for lunch and her nap. I carried her inside, read her a few books, and then put her in her overpopulated crib. She plays and chats with the stuffed animals as I imagine most girls her age do.

Mrs. Lessinge and I go down to the basement to relax in front of the TV. An hour later our daughter is still awake in her crib. She's not winding down at all. I decide to wander upstairs and take a peek on her. I open the door and started laughing because Baby Singe was completely naked. She removed all her clothes and was just playing in her crib. I was very impressed and highly amused. "Mrs. Lessinges, you need to come up here and see why our daughter isn't sleeping".

Last night I was just about to hit the sack when the little one wakes up. She immediately says "I want to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed". I scurry up the stairs and notice she's fully clothed, meaning her pajamas were still in place. Unfortunately her sheets were wet. We had our first full on bed wetting incident. This would probably happen every night... if every night she took off her diaper in the middle of the night.

Baby Singe took off her pajama bottoms, then took off her dry overnight diaper, and slyly pulled her pajama bottoms back up. Not sure why she did this, but it's not the best way to stay dry overnight. It does get daddy to read a few more Care Bear books though in the middle of the night.

================

Since we're talking about plumbing issues, we had to spend $1500 to fix our pipes after a wash cloth slipped down the drain again. We've lost at least two down the drain that I know of. I once snaked our bathtub drain and found lots of hair and a shampoo cap. 80 year old houses aren't known for their equisite plumbing, but they do have fantastic charm.

It Rhymes with Mulva

I'm not stellar with first names. I've been on a mission as of late to improve this skill, especially at our daughter's daycare where parents are understandably linked to their offspring. Such as Colin's mom or Audrey's dad. The kids in my daughter's class see me and immediately say "Anna's daddy". Very cute I must say, yet it does not help me to achieve my Q4 goal.

About six weeks ago we had a daycare picnic. At the weekend gathering, I made it a point to memorize some new names. I learned a few and probably only remember two of them six weeks later. One I do recall is Conrad's mom, Angela. To reinforce her name we shared her name with Baby Singe. I didn't really expect her to learn the name or memorize it a full month later either.

A couple weeks ago I went to pickup of Baby Singe from daycare and Conrad's mom, Angela, surprisingly declares "Anna knows my name. My own son doesn't know my name". Huh, biting my lip trying desperately to recall Angela's name.

"wow, that's remarkable", I state. [still not fully remembering her name... got it Angela]

She proceeds to tell me a quick story about how Anna used her name over and over again in class. Personally, I've tried the entering names in my BlackBerry trick. That does a pretty decent job, but can be challenging when face-to-face with someone. I use the BlackBerry trick most often when I see someone in the distance who I anticipate will want to chat. It works pretty alright, but does have some drawbacks.

There's also the word association trick which can work if the name is fairly unique. (Phoebe, Foebe, Feebe... gave me a freebie... got it. Free coffee folks). I think I know about 27 Jennifers and 6 Meg(h)ans so that makes this trick not as successful.

I have four more Q4 goals to set and accomplish before December 31st. I wonder if using my daughter to accomplish MY goal truly qualifies as accomplishing the task? What's your trick to learning someone's name?