What a mess

Caleb is having a problem with his food (or his feeders, maybe both). We are getting some serious vomiting. Serious!

He sprayed one a full3 and a half feet of good upholstery yesterday. THREE AND A HALF FEET! I CAN'T EVEN DO THAT!

All this is apparently quite normal though. We have nothing to worry about, since all babies vomit like drunks on a booze cruise after 3 hours of fully-loaded sea-sickening, boat-rocking, good-times sailing.

That's what I've been told anyway.

In all fairness, we have tried a few different formulas out by now, and all of them have been tried in varying quantities from different bottles and different positions, so on and so on. No dice...

Seems to be getting better now, though. I really think he was just fooling with us, like "ha, just kidding, I just wanted to see how many times you would change my clothes today." He's at least keeping some of it down, so that's plus.

It's kind of funny in fact....I actually burst out laughing yesterday because 1) I totally could see it building, like a wave on the horizon, and 2) it was a freakin' 3 and a half foot blast!

If you were paying attention earlier, you probably noticed the use of the word "formula" in place of the usual "breast milk" or the more humorous yet improper "boob juice." Yes, Caleb is on formula, not the boob. There are reasons for this, suffice it to say that we have a good set of reasons. Nonetheless, some people are looking upon our act of [so-called] child abuse with shameful eyes. I totally get it..."breast is best" and all that. Great, I'm glad that's out there. Now, for the rest of us, there is formula and I couldn't be more happy about it. Sorry if it makes you angry and whatnot.

I'm back at work today for the first time in two weeks. Nothing has changed. Crap.

And Happy St. Patty's! We'll even slip a little whiskey in the formula tonight for a big family celebration at the Jolly house (haha...only kidding!). Flogging Molly blasting on the radio.

Can you believe UGA men's basketball winning the SEC championship game? I heard a guy had a sign made up that said "Worst to first!" and it's pretty much spot on. UGA basketball (men's, again) could not be less interesting on an average year. Doesn't help that I don't really like basketball anyway, but still...UGA basketball is just not that good. So kudos to them for making those last 4 games count! I'm actually doing a bracket for the NCAA tournament this year. Wanna guess how far I let the Dawgs ride in the tournament?

Giving birth to a car and buying a baby

They say a picture tells the story of 1,000 words, but here are about 1,000 more in case you wanted them...

Baby time is NOW! Caleb Nathaniel Jolly was born on March 4, 2008 at 6:26am. 7lb, 9oz and 20 1/2 inches. His official due date was about one week later on March 10. After about a week of getting to know the guy, I've finally found a few moments to blog about the whole thing. (FYI - the car thing is at the bottom of this post, just so you're not too confused by the title).

I keep reminding myself how wrong it is for me to claim this (being a dude and all)...but the labor and delivery went surprisingly well. Water broke around 11pm on Monday night, and after 7.5 hours and about 4 pushes the little guy was outta there. We were completely prepared for this marathon, sweat-it-out, profanity-laced endurance test that would last for 12 hours or more, but it was over so quick I barely had a chance to respond. I think my first words after the delivery were ".............."

I just couldn't believe we were done with it all! Hilary couldn't either, just shocking how fast it was. The remainder of the day was filled with doctors, family, friends and a little bit of rest. Two days later we were out of the hospital and headed home for a little quiet time (yeah, right).

They say you can never really prepare yourself for parenthood. Knowing that early on, I felt emboldened, not afraid - hey, if I can learn as I go along, that works for me. The whole preparation line is quite true if you've never experienced parenthood (or at least these very early stages). I knew there would be nights of lost sleep (I just didn't realize how horrifying 3 hours of screaming could really be). I knew there would be a lot of feeding and diaper changing (....yeah, I'll just leave that one alone for now). All told, however, I'm very excited about this turn. It's weird, it kind of makes my marriage itself seem brand new as it changes the rest of my life around as well.

People support has been super awesome this past week, and that is a big thank you to those of you reading this who have come by to visit, called, e-mailed or just said a prayer for us. You will never hear me say that "it takes a village," but I will acknowledge that the people in my life are more important to me than I might have realized.

There's not really a lot else to say...it's just happened so fast!

I will be setting up a separate blog for Caleb to keep people posted on pictures, news and emotional stress levels (NO, I won't be writing it from Caleb's perspective - though I could try it once or twice if requested...). That will free me up on this blog to continue the useless writings you have become accustomed to seeing here. As soon as I get that ready, I'll park a link here for you all.

[NOTE - parts of this car blog were drafted the day before Caleb showed up, so I'm mainly posting it now so I don't feel like I wasted so much time talking about a car just to not post it at all. Make sense?]

So as we got closer and closer to baby time, we realized we probably wanted a different car...something bigger, easier to get stuff in and out. However, we had two perfectly good cars, and despite being a little cramped, they seemed like they'd pretty much fit the bill for a good while longer. It's been a couple of years since we've had a car payment, and that's nice.

Well, one of those cars got a little less reliable (that would be "The Chief," our '96 Cherokee). High mileage, old car, time to rethink. We took a look around, but everything was a bit pricey, and we were figuring a zero-sum on the trade in value for the old car. In fact the Kelly Blue Book value was only around $400-$500, maybe $1,400 if you labeled it as "great condition." So on a whim (and a lunch break) I took the car over to CarMax to get an appraisal. Even though they basically refused to make an appraisal the first time, another guy chased me down as I was leaving to let me know they could try to offer me something. Long story short, they offered WAY more than the car was worth, and so the idea of getting rid of the old car became more of a possible reality.

We looked over our options for a new car and settled on a handful of different SUVs. Big ones and small ones. We mainly wanted to buy a pre-owned with low mileage like we did with our first car back in '03. The one we wound up really liking was the Saturn Outlook. It still seemed a bit outside what we wanted to pay, but we crunched the numbers, moved some stuff around and made it happen.

Now it should be noted that Saturn is a "no-haggle" car company. It's like they say...you pay what the sticker says. That's really not so bad, because they're not charging a whole lot on the car when you compare it to others in the same class (invoice, NOT MSRP), and most of the features you'd want are standard (tinted class, floor mats...the basics that you normally have to pay hundreds or thousands extra for). However, we felt the need to do SOME haggling just to make sure we got what we came for and nothing more. It almost didn't happen, but....well, long story short, we bought one new and are now officially ready to transport Caleb around in something that rides less like a theme park ride and more like a family automobile.

Caleb is riding in style.

It seemed like a dangerous thing to do...buying a new car (let alone a "new" new car) in the days leading up to your baby's due date. But...the offer on the old car was only good for 7 days, and so we made good on it while we could. Now we have a car payment again, but we have safe, reliable transportation.

Our sales guy was awesome (I never thought I'd say that about a car salesperson...ever). He (and the other people at Saturn of Gwinnett) were very helpful throughout the process. Turns out he and his wife go to our church (we never know...our church has something like 11,000 members and we've only started getting to know people). He's around our age, so he and his wife are going to look into joining our Sunday morning class before worship service. Pretty amazing that you'd be able to join your car salesman at church...I think you usually end up being at odds with a guy once you've debated over a car purchase. What's next, lawyers and tax collectors in the church?

Unheard of!

Anyway, I think this is one of those situations where you spend a lot of time researching something, you feel like you know it backwards and forwards, but then a few months later you hardly remember anything you learned while researching your purchase. I'll be happy for that...right now, I am wasting WAY too much brain space on car knowledge and sales/purchase tactics. I could really use that section of my brain for something else right now.

Like a baby.

Maybe. Ya think?

A little bit more, a little bit more

My brother and his wife were expecting a child (yes, "were") with a due date of March 17th...just about a week after the due date for my little bundle-o-joy. However, this past weekend, Heather (my brother's wife) went into labor and came out with a little boy not much long afterward.

Taylor Hanlon Jolly is his name. We're all obviously excited...it's the first Jolly kid to be born in quite a long time (my niece and nephews are Galloway kids). He's a cute-looking kid, but as excited as I am, there's a bit of a problem here.

The kid came a month early.

Now, he's alright, mommy's alright, it's all good. Apparently he was just done. The real problem here is how I am now perceiving my own situation.

My kid could come at ANY SECOND. Serious. I mean, I knew that before, but now every time Hilary's name pops up on my caller ID, I have a mini-panic, like "oh crap, time to go!!!"

Just knowing that my brother had no clue what his plans for the weekend were really going to be all about....well, I just liked that old idea I had in my head about how this was all gonna come down, and now I can't shake that "any second now" mentality.

I'll get over it.

Needless to say, I feel a certain amount of guilt over the deal, since I almost feel like I haven't been fully excited for my brother. I guess once a few months have passed here and everyone has all their kids and has a chance to settle down, maybe we can start really celebrating what we've all gone through.

I feel like I'll be fine once it all starts, but just KNOWING that I could get a call sometime today to fire it up is....is....well....bothersome.

Phone's ringing...better check it.

No, it's not another tech-heavy post

Okay, so enough tech crap for a while, right? At least the blog is safe for now.

Right now...today, this hour, right this minute, right this very second...this is where it all starts.

I'm going to be a daddy-o, and that's just about a complete certainty at this point (praying nothing goes wrong).

Am I worried? Really, honestly, no. Not a single bit. I've seen the birthing videos, witnessed the screaming child in church....I guess I'm not concerned. So...where does that put me? Am I soon to be blindsided, smacked in the face with the dirty diaper of reality? It's possible, but folks, I am quite optimistic.

First and foremost, I consider myself to be at least average intelligence, so I'll wait while some of you contain your laughter.

Got it together? Let's move on...

With all the morons out there making bad decisions, no decisions and indecisions, I think I've got a leg up. Law of averages. There are so many uneducated and unprepared people out there making a major impact on the world (better or worse) that I'm sure that I'm at least a little better off than they are.

Even better, I fully accept two very important things:

1. your life is what you put into it
2. $&*# happens
   

Now, a child raised by his/her parents will often grow up to live life according to the example provided. That can be seen as a huge burden or a huge opportunity. I look at it as an opportunity. As with everything, I don't expect to put up nothing and gain everything, so I'm fully prepared to give it my all.

On that second part...well, does ANYTHING really ever work out the way you think it will? Certainly, that is not the case for me, otherwise I'd probably still be on the road with SCAP right now, making millions and recording our 5th album (mostly covers, sorry). I think that knowing AND accepting the fact that anything can happen is a real good position.

So, being fully ready to give myself into this new endeavor with my wife, and being fully aware that anything is possible, I guess you could say I'm completely comfortable. I'm not assuming I'll always be tiptoeing through the tulips of life's garden...I just think that sometimes you gotta know that the bitter mixes with the sweet, and that no matter how bad it gets, you still get the sweet more often than not.

This little kid is going to change my life, and that is awesome.

Bring it on.

So I built a TiVo...

Most people have a general idea about what a TiVo does...it grabs programming information off the WWW and uses it to record the TV shows you specify. Not really a very complicated thing...so I built one instead of buying one. Generically, this type of product is called a DVR or PVR (digital/personal video recorder).

Why in the world would I build instead of buy? Well, TiVo is EXPENSIVE. Add to the cost of the little box the fact that you have to pay a monthly subscription, and adds up very quickly. The boxes start around $99 and go to $599 depending on what you want. Monthly subscription will run you $9 to $13 per month, or $108 to $156 per year. Most cable or satellite companies have a similar product with similar prices. In most cases, cable or satellite companies will simply rent you the box.

My problem with both scenarios - I really can't stand the idea of paying a subscription fee month after month. For anything, especially TV (I already have to pay once for TV, a second time seems more like an addiction). Even worse, the quality of the video recorded for TiVo or the cable/satellite junk is usually rather low, and the amount of hours that can be recorded is usually WAY too limited as well.

HEY HEY HEY!!!! Lots of you are probably clocking out right now....that's cool, it's a pretty nerdy post. If you want to just see the final deal, CLICK HERE to wrap it up (not sure if that works in Facebook...if not, just scroll for a couple of days, you'll see it).

Anyway...opportunity presented itself when I won a teeny-tiny barebones computer at some trade show thing last fall. I thought "what am I going to do with this thing?" It would require building out with my own parts and software to make the thing usable as any kind of computer, and it would be too small for most of the work I would throw at it. Ah, but it occurred to me that the machine was small enough to fit in with my DVD player in the living room, so the idea came about to make a DVR. But how?

Did all of like 5 minutes of reading on line and determined that the main thing you need to figure out is HOW you are going to get the cable line into the computer...most people don't have that little screw-on coaxial plug on their computer, so you need to buy a part for that (it's called a "tuner card"), and there are a few choices out there for that. I already had a few spare parts (memory, CD drive, hard drive, video card) hanging around from old machines that are no longer with us, so I could re-purpose those without and cash expenditure. Then I also had a Windows XP license that I've never used (it's legal...thanks Mike) so I saved $$ there, too. All I needed was a processor and a TV tuner card.

Fast forward a couple of months later, I got the tuner card for Christmas and then I won the college football pick 'em for 2007 season and had cash-on-hand to finish building this thing out (I won it for football so Hilary green-lit my project...I think she was just amazed that I'd made money from football). A few hiccups and a couple of underestimations later, I figured it all out and got the dang thing up and running. Been testing it out with a trial software (program guide) for the last week and I gotta say...it is great. We only have about 30-40 TV channels, but there is plenty on those channels that I would like to record for viewing at one time or another. Even better, for shows that have conflicting time slots, I can record one and watch the other.

AND I found out...it's connected with YouTube and Google Videos (plus some other online movies and sources like NBC and CBS for their TV shows). Not that I can't go in the other room to enjoy the latest junk on those sites, but there's something cool about parking it on the couch and doing that in full screen.

It also does a 10 day detailed weather report. Guess they thought that was the missing piece to make this thing worthwhile....? People love weather.

For the geeks, here's a rundown of the parts and how much you might expect to pay for similar parts if you build your own:

• Shuttle XPC barebones - $200 (this is the thing I won)
• Intel E2160 processor - $68
• OCZ 512MB (x2) 533MHz RAM - $45 (mine was leftover parts from old computer)
• Western Digital 250 GB SATA hard drive - $60 (spare parts again)
• CD writer drive - $15 (spare part, but will probably get a DVD drive soon for $25)
• nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB video card with TV output - $60 (spare part)
• Hauppage HVR-1600 TV tuner card with remote control - $85
• Windows XP Professional OS - $100 (just happened to have it around)
  
• SageTV media center software - $70 (running a 21 day trial right now)

All told, I spent less than $200 of my own money ($140?). If you want to build this system, it would come in around $700. THAT is a lot of money, but here's where you can compare it to a typical TiVo system...assuming you only keep the thing for 3 years, this system would have an annual cost of around $230. A typical TiVo system would run you at least $210. However, to get one that compares to the system I built, your annual cost would be more like $300.

Even still, my system is better in every area but one when compared to a TiVo-style box...my system was built by me, so if it breaks or something, I've got to fix it myself. I'll assume for the sake of argument that if your cable company DVR or TiVo box breaks, they will fix it for you free of charge (optimistic, I suppose?).

To summarize (welcome back!)...my junk, when compared to the best TiVo system, is better because:

• it can record many many more hours of TV shows (important when you tell it to automatically record every episode of every show you like to watch...adds up quickly)
• it doesn't require a subscription to keep it working month after month
• the video quality is better, and can be customized. I can allow low quality for things like reality shows, high quality for stuff like movies on TV...this means I can fit even more content on the thing.
• I can still use my box to surf the web from my couch, watch YouTube videos on the thing in full screen, and do anything else that any other computer can do - TiVo is just TV recording, nothing more
• it can be cheaper (mine was/is/will be), depending upon how long you keep it and which TiVo you would want to have
• Um....I made it. That's like 5 bonus points right there.

I'll totally build one for you if you want, it wasn't so hard. You can pay for the parts, I'll build it. My fee is like...a beer (or a bear, which is what I typed when trying to type "beer"), a steak and we'll call it even.

Maybe not the bear....then you'd still owe me, except I'd probably be dead. And that's why you'd owe me. Because of the bear.