Dad by Dawn: February 2013

Protect Ya Neck

I hurt my back somehow. The pain started around my right shoulder blade and spread to my neck. This has happened before but with some ice and rest it usually goes away in a day or two. This time it didn't go away and, in fact, seemed to be getting worse after three days.

So I went to a chiropractor on Wednesday for the first time and he popped everything back into place. There was tremendous improvement after the first visit and I was able to go back to work and do everything pretty much normally. My neck is stiff and a little sore but most of the pain is gone.

Besides applying ice and a liberal amount of Tiger Balm, I started doing some Yoga stretches to loosen up. I was practicing more or less on the regular in 2009 and a little bit in 2011 while I was running. Seems like a good time to start back up again, and Jenna said she was interested in learning with me, which is very fun!

I be liking chess

Cuz chess is crazy, right there, that's the ultimate
It's like a great hobby right there, playing chess
The board, the pieces, the squares, the movement
You know, war, capturing, thinking, strategy
Planning, music, it's hip-hop, and sports
It's life, it's reality

BNM DAY 8: Battle of the Bulge

It's another app, and another game! (Are you noticing a trend here?) Battle of the Bulge looks fun, and comes highly recommended by my favorite strategy gaming podcast. What's your favorite iOS game?

BNM DAY 7: Drawing Carl

Ironically, this entry is for the free drawing app that I'm using to make the entries for Buy-Nothing Month. $0.99 unlocks more colors and brushes and, well... I guess it's just fine the way it is.

BNM DAY 6: Navia Dratp

This is a playing piece from a deeply nerdy out-of-print board game. I have nobody to play it with, but I want it anyway, just because it's so beautifully weird.

BNM DAY 5: Bacon

There was a breakfast thing at work this morning. It was pay $5 and get your fill of pancakes/eggs/sausage/bacon/toast. I declined, full of Buy-Nothing-Month vigor, but a coworker took pity on me and paid the suggested donation on my behalf. Win-win!

BNM DAY 4: Grown-Up Shoes

I feel like I'm past the point in my life as a man when I should have at least one pair of nice dress shoes. There's a reason I haven't taken this step (pun intended)--quality footwear is really expensive. My first stop at every thrift shop trip is to see if anyone's dropped off a salvageable pair of Allen Edmonds in my size. So far, no dice.

BNM DAY 3: Chess Clock

Unlike yesterday's entry of undershirts--which I don't need, but would certainly wear--I have almost no real-world use for a chess clock. Mostly because there's a (free) app for that. Also because I'm not especially good at chess.

Catch-up photos

We made a big snowman after the last storm. Natalie rolled the torso all by herself! Jenna had the idea to use a food coloring solution for decoration, which resulted in the eldritch snow-horror you see above.

Paisley is so cute! She has to have tubes put into her eardrums though, because she keeps getting these terrible infections up in there. Other than that she is a pretty good baby I guess.

Natalie has lost three teeth in three different ways:

Knockout (front top)
Naturally (front bottom)
Extracted (molar)

She is a dental disaster. :(

BNM DAY 2: V-neck Undershirts

I was started to type that I "need" some of these but I've survived so far without them. The trick is finding a V deep enough to hide inside most of my shirts, but high enough to cover my tattoo. And I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

BNM DAY 1: IAP for Outwitters

Outwitters is an outstanding iOS strategy game. You should download it. It's free! Except if you want to play with anything other than the base army, then it's an in-app purchase. Totally worth it? Probably. Am I gonna buy it? Nooooope! (At least, not this month).

BNM 2013

I'm doing Buy-Nothing Month again this year. Just decided. I haven't even thought about it for nearly a year and suddenly it just struck me as a thing I wanted to do.

Same rules as last year. I'm not buying anything for myself and I'm drawing pictures of all the things I'm not buying. Except this time I'll post on the main page because, why not?

OK, let's go.

Merry Craftsmas!

I made Christmas presents last year! For Kevin and Anne, Pokemon papercut art. They requested Golduck and Rapidash, respectively. Paisley helped by tearing apart my original Rapidash, so I got to make it twice. The second one (pictured) was even better than the first.

For Jim and Kelsie, a Mario diorama! They like Mario so I thought it would be well received. This little scene from World 1-1 was meticulously cut from paper. It took hours but I am really happy with how it turned out.

Can you spot what is missing? I almost forgot the tiny yellow buttons on Mario's suspenders! I glued them on before shipping this masterpiece out to Montana, but I forgot to take a photo, so my mistake will live on forever.