Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

I haven’t posted much this week, as, unsurpringly, we’ve been busy getting used to the new addition to the family, and I’ve been spending a great deal of my not playing with the baby time at one of the hotels down the road for some work-sponsored training (second week of the class I took a few weeks back) – I’ve been trying to get this class for three years, and if they’re funding it, I’m not going to pass it up, since who knows when the next time will be.

Catherine’s been mostly cooperative in the sleeping department; letting us get at least a few good hours in; enough to allow me to pull myself out of bed and pump in a few miligrams of caffiene to get me out the door.

The hotel, however, is probably less cooperative. The lobby, bathrooms, and all the common areas have piped in music; which doesn’t do me any favors, as the tend to dial in lite-70s AM-Gold easy listening stuff in the morning; It’s tough to remain conscious when faced with the soothing sounds of Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, and Air Supply.

Getting back to the kid, she’s a pretty good sleeper (other than the getting me up two hours before I want to), not at all fazed by noise or activity; not really surprisingly, given the fact that there are cat fights and loud siblings going on pretty darned constantly. That, and the fact that for at least half of Catherine’s short life, nighttime means loud, violent thunderstorm.

After this, I’ll have two weeks off, then the final week of class, then it’s back to the usual office grind. I figure I shall be ready to return by then.

While I’m off, however, I’ going to try to get a few projects done. Stuff like fixing the backyard fence, the kids’ swingset, and maybe some painting. Nothing too taxing or expenseive, but stuff I haven’t managed to get done amongst all the other life noise.

Beyond the immediate, to follow up on some old dangling threads here…

My windshield that cracked the day the baby was born is due to be fixed on Friday; the small crack (which was due to a rock) quickly stretched from four inches two about twelve, which means new windshield. No worries. My investigations into insurance coverage turned up an interesting bit of info – turns out my agent was no longer my agent! The insurance provider somehow managed to take us on direct when I added the new car last year, and never told anyone (I had always paid the company direct, and never made a claim, so no one knew). After talking to my “former” agent, they managed to score me a better deal with someone else anyway – yay, saving 260 bucks a year, and just in time for renewal!

Also, that one fish I lost on Catherine’s birthday turned into three by the end of the week. All the female platys. I suspect old age – all were over a year old, and almost constantly pregnant – tends to wear them out, and they don’t go much past two years at best. The boy wasn’t looking good either; it seemed a matter of waiting him out, or putting him out of his misery (sometimes the best thing, but I hate doing it…).

This afternoon, though, I took an hour or two to mostly tear things down, clean, and redecorate – pulling up, cleaning, and pruning the plants, seriously vaccuming the gravel, and putting stuff back, in a slightly different order, and doing a serious (like 17 of 20 gallons) water change, in case there was some leftover pathogen (doubtful, since it only affected the platies – everybody else, including the “fragile” oto, were fine), before I found some new fishy friends.

Strangely, the redecoration seemed to pull the little platy out of his funk, at least so far; he’s exploring (it’s just different enough that it’s all new to them) and picking at leaves (he was doing nothing but hanging out at the top of the water in the corner, barely moving), and no longer moping – I wonder if he was merely lonely, and the change of scenery distracted him? I had tentative plans to replace the platies (figuring he’d give up by the weekend) with a small school of six cherry barbs this weekend (happy birthday to me), though if he hangs on until then, I might have to cut back to four and get he-who-was-dead-but-now-seems-to-live a new same-species friend.

Well, that’s pretty much a catch-all for the last week or so. The kid’s asleep now; I’m going to try to get some as well while she lets me.