Still trucking

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.
New baby, new house, same job, same school.
Start my last class on Friday.  I think I might take a break after I am finished.  Some place quiet, and maybe tropical.

Oh how times change

Oh, how times changed.  My wife is not a morning person.  Her normal idea of early morning is about an hour after the sun comes up.  On weekends, when there were no real obligations driving our schedule I would wake up by my definition of late, usually around 7, then have a few hours to myself which I would use to get very important things done, like play video games.  My wife would wake up around 9ish, wander into a cup of coffee, then breakfast, then a shower.  When it was all said and done, on the really lazy days, the house would finally be up and ready for the day around 11 am.

Then baby.

Having a child changed all that.  My schedule stays the same.  Even after the infant feeding schedule turned into the toddler approximation of a reasonable routine waking up around 9 was no longer in the cards.  I still wake up at my normal time of somewhere around 6, but I no longer get to sleep in until 7 and more often than not I am up in the 5:30 range.  This is because this is when Max wakes up. 

Today is a perfect example of the change in our routine.  I find the family, at 8 am, playing outside in the last bit of reasonable temperatures before the sun finishes obliterating the prospect of having a good time with out the judicious application of water (either in sprinkler or pool form).  At 8 am, the entire family has been up, had the chance to dress, had a big breakfast of pumpkin spice wafffles (it is technically Autumn now), and I have even mowed the lawn.
Its hard to explain, without getting long winded, how surreal this seems.  In a reasonably short amount of time, we have gone from "don't even try to do anything before 10" to "Its a slow morning because it is after 8 and I have only done one useful thing".

My lovely wife has come such a long way.

I have a feeling this will all change with the arrival of baby #2.  I think we will be back to "don't even try to get anything done before 10".  Not because we are all sleeping in, but because it will take us 3-4 hours to wrangle 2 kids through the morning routine.

3 months later, I remember to post.

So its been a while.  I am sure over the last 3 months I have had a lot to say, I've just said it to people instead of the black hole of the internet.  I've also lost a lot of my disdain for social network, so those venues  have received most of my pictures and posts.
Things are changing around here.  We have been house hunting because we decided we needed a bigger place.  Mostly because by the end of the year we will be upgraded to a family of four. My desire for a station wagon is increasing.  A luxury sport wagon packing a supercharged V8 would be nice, but I would be just as happy with a German biturbo V6.  In reality, if I actually got one it would probably a 10 year old Saturn.  I thought a college degree was going to get me a great job and make me rich.  Maybe my university lost the paperwork for my ridiculously large salary.  I should call them.

Today was fathers day.  I spent most of the day playing with my son.  It was a lot of fun, and I"m sure the grass in my yard enjoyed the extra sprinkler time.

Wish list

Most of you know I want a new car.  My truck is handy.. very handy.. but it isn't much of a family vehicle and is kind of cramped.
It could carry Max in a pinch, but that's about it.  I've been trying to get a handle on my needs for a vehicle, and then balance that with my desires (Bugatti?), and then cap it all under a budget.
I haven't had much success.  I think I finally know what I want and it doesn't exist.  So listen up automotive industry.  I would like a vehicle that has great cargo and hauling space, can seat 5 (which we all know actually means 4) and gets great mileage while still being powerful.  You may think that these desires break the laws of physics.  I say you just aren't trying hard enough.  How about something like a scaled down Chevy Avalanche with a small turbo diesel.  Take the new Chevy Coloroado world truck platform, put on 4 doors and that ridiculously small 4 foot bed, but give it a folding rear cab wall so I can have a 6 foot bed for those odd home depot runs.  Give me a 200+ HP diesel engine with nearly twice as much torque.  I was thinking 240 HP with 375 ft lbs would still be able to return something in the high 30 MPGs on the highway.
Drop the sucker on the market for under 30k and you will realize that the small truck market hasn't died in America, it has just been ridiculously under served and ignored.
Since this doesn't look like it will ever happen.. maybe I will just buy a station wagon.  I hear Audi is bringing more TDI models to the U.S. next year.


*UPDATE*
I looks like Toyota has the basics down in a concept truck they debuted a while ago.
http://www.trucktrend.com/future/concepts/163_0712_toyota_a_bat_concept_truck/photo_03.html
http://www.trucktrend.com/future/concepts/163_0712_toyota_a_bat_concept_truck/photo_06.html