Word on the street is that my nephew, Greyson William DeVille (very distinguished, no?) was born this morning. I was out cranking away (30 miles to go!) when the text message arrived. We got a nice cellphone photo of the little guy — 9 pounds, 7 ounces — and he looks to be solid, and darned cute!

Can’t wait to meet the little booger…

(figure 1-a: Baby Greyson embraces his inner burrito-nature)

Just got back a little while ago from meeting Greyson. The little dude is cute! So calm and mellow. So round and mushy. He had that “yeah, they wrapped me up like a burrito and you know what? I kinda like it! So there!” look on his face the whole time.

(figure 1-b: the author attempting to read the baby’s mind)

To quote the Olivia and the Missing Toy: “Wooshie Gaga”

(figure 1-c: as you can see, Grandma doesn’t like babies much.)

Cautiously, I silently crossed the room, the floorboards creakily groaning under the weight of my feet. Gah. 62 pages into The Sword of Shannara and I’m wondering how I could have read this as a kid. It’s chock-full of adverby goodness and bad writing. Whoo, don’t know if I’ll finish.

Found this on the web. I’d call it art. I love the cat iconography next to the price.

I’ve got 60 miles to go to hit my goal. I was going to hit up the NCR today and do twenty, but I got lazy and just rode 7 on the trainer in the basement.

Then I cleaned the bike, got a crapload of gunk out of the rear wheel and gears, partially disassembled the rear derailleur and de-gunked that. I need to learn how to adjust derailleurs. I think my shifting woes would go away with a good overhaul and adjustment.

Either that or I’m going to drop it off at a shop for said work once I hit 1,000.

Tomorrow I’m going to bottle the “beer” that has been “brewing” in the Mr. Beer plastic tank that Jen’s aunt got me last year. Should be interesting to see what it ends up tasting like. I ordered a 15 buck capping system that’s pretty fun to play with a couple weeks back and I’ve been collecting bottles.

Oh, today was the first of my 11 days off from work. What an f’ing relief to be away from the madhouse for a while. I’m taking 40 hours of vacation and I’ll still be carrying over 18 hours into 2008. Can we conclude that I work too hard?

Plans for the next 10 days? Riding. Waiting for my bro’s baby boy to be born. Oh, and I might dive in and re-read The Sword of Shannara.

Yup, you heard me right. I know, it’s goofy, but I loved the book when I was in the 9th grade or whenever it was that I read it. I need some light reading. Elves and all that crap…

I was reading Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell, but damned if I don’t think it isn’t nearly as good as Ghostwritten. Poo, I’m disappointed.

If you need to buy toys this year for a little kid, go to Shananigans in Roland Park off of Wyndhurst. They rule. Great service, great toys.

I blew $46 bucks today on a giant Snow White coloring book, the ugly doll card game, a Mad Libs book, a mini etch a sketch, and an Ugly Doll (”Peaco”).

It was mobbed, but a nice young lady was super helpful and they wrapped a bunch of the presents super fast and with a smile. They rule!