In the black is white world we live in, I guess the She-nis was just a matter of time.

As a result, I only demand that we get couches in all of *our* bathrooms.

Hope she remembers to life the seat.

I don't know, Bob. Maybe you could find a club near you and see if anyone will help you brew a batch with their equipment so all you have to buy to start is a Better Bottle carboy (and accessories) to ferment in and then a month down the road, get a box of bottles and caps to bottle in. You'd be in for less than $100 and it would all be stuff you could reuse. Using the Alton Brown method (but modified), you might be able to do it yourself with very little additional equipment than you already have.

I bought my first equipment kit for $35.

Thanks, Bob. I should copyright it.

so, Clay. It sounds like you want a quick tour of The Cave. As you walk in, there is the chest Freezer. It's not enormous, but the largest of the three we own. Maybe 24cf. It faces toward you on the right, keeping the (cave) door in the open position. Next to it, but facing the door is a smaller chest freezer, maybe 18cf, that has a two tap beer faucet on top and room for five kegs and a CO2 cylinder. Behind it it a concrete ledge, roughly three feet deep and three feet high that runs the length of the room, a part of the house's foundation. I put wire shelves above this to hold beerware and supplies, as well as serving as a drying/curing rack for garlic and cheese. Yes, cheese.

The ledge gets used for fermenting beer and mainly manly storage of bits and pieces.

Now, turn your head right and up and you'll see sausages hanging from the joists. Mostly smoked summer sausage and beef sticks.

Then there's the entertainment corner in the left far corner which has been used, maybe three times in the last three years. And the facing wall, left of the door, is a work bench piled with things my wife had well before we met. Some of it is inventions of her step grandfather, like a quarter inch wide bench belt sander. Outside The Cave is a fermentation freezer, the freezer I killed in trying to drill through to have CO2 enter from a tank outside the freezer because it would only have fit two kegs. Now it houses fermenting beer that needs to be insulated from the heat or cold. It has 12 gallons of Belgian Pale right now.

So, the meat. Our farm offers meat with the full CSA share. You can read all about it on beer www.hawkinsfamilyfarm.com. Half a hog is 85-95 pounds and half a steer is only slightly more. It sounds like more than it seems when you pick it up. The pig fit in 2 coolers.

*The reason for no photos? It's an absolute wreck right now.

You don't come off as a particularly crazy, first-time parent (all of them are at least a *little* crazy, IMHO). You come off as someone that listens to their pediatrician. Which you should. And ignore me.

Because our preemie experience was different.

Ours was also a "big" preemie, born at 31 weeks and about 4.5 lbs. He was about that size when we brought him home from the NICU three weeks later. Our doc prescribed synagis to prevent RSV, but did not suggest that we needed to curtail visitation. I have clear memories of putting his tiny self in a sling and taking him to a faculty party within days of bringing him home.

Now it sounds like we should have neither brought him out *or* used a sling. Things evolve, I guess.

It's actually much, much, much easier to go out and do things with an infant than it will be later on. Take advantage of it and treat yourself to a little fun. Eating out is still relatively easy, which will not be true again for a really, really long time.

I agree with Ben that you want to do something to mitigate the sound at the movie.

Have fun!

Ben- You must have a battery of freezers in the basement. Right next to the brewing equipment and keggerator. Dude. What the hell else you got down there? A particle accelerator? You're like the Phineas and Ferb of fatherhood.

A half a pig?!

Dick Chop is an Austin legend. The name has got to rank up there with the pediatric office that I went to as a child (Dr. Hurt and Dr. Payne), and my teen years dermatologist (Dr. Cheek).

Our toddler was trying to put on a bright yellow Bjorn the other day. It made him look like a crossing guard.

And...

If anyone sees a 2 year old walking around town with a yellow Bjorn and his 3 month old brother safely mounted to his chest, do let me know. I just know they're planning their escape!

I wouldn't dismiss the iPod yet. The multi-purpose nature of the device makes it really appealing for what you are going to use it for. I just haven't used mine for video yet, mostly because I use my iPhone. I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.

The "assembly" really isn't a problem. The big payoff is that it folds up very small in comparison to the others we found. The seats just slide on quickly and if you have the room, you can leave them on and just deal with it only folding as much as the Gracos or BabyTrends. The baby carrier attachment doesn't ever have to come off to fold down flat, so right now, we just stretch it our and slide the front seat on for our toddler and we're done. Maybe 20 seconds if my back's hurting.

That's quite a job, there. Way to go!

We were still debating whether we'd replace the windows in the nursery when Duncan was born. We didn't but the window trim and all of the moulding at the floor and around the doors is still some weird puke color, even though the walls and ceiling are in the new color scheme. We've had the paint for over two years now. It'll take a miracle or some migrant labor to get that project finished. I think I just gave up after fighting with ground faults in the wiring while working on the ceiling fan. (It turned out not to be my fault!)

You really want something you can put on a tripod or whatever they call the single pole mounts. The full-blown cameras really aren't that expensive and certainly aren't like what my parents had to use. The extra features and flexibility will pay off. I think the Flips do everything, by the way. Just look through the features and maybe take a look at CNET's reviews.

But the iPod Nano isn't bad. I just wouldn't buy it AS your video recording device. It's just a convenient "don't want to miss this" feature.

I took the boys to the farm to get my brewing equipment. I taught a bunch of clergy how to make beer about three months ago and left my equipment because I had to leave before it was all done. We stopped on the way and got some McD's nearby for a McPicnic under a big arched coldframe they have at the farm. Duncan started wandering while I made up a bottle for the baby. I finally got his attention and he came back to me and followed my direction to stay on our picnic blanket. Then I think the wind whipping over the loose plastic and the various farm noises (the steers were all out in pasture nearby) made him nervous. He wouldn't leave me. Kept crawling up on my leg, sitting on my foot, or just sitting next to me and laying back on me. I drove away from the drive-thru before they handed me his Happy Meal, so we "shared" a Quarter Pounder and fries while I fed Tristan a bottle. It was a moment when I wished someone had been there with a camera. It was precious.

I have a Graco Nautilus in my car currently. As a matter of fact, I even went so far as to BUY A BIGGER CAR in order to accommodate the Nautilus. It was too big for my pre-schooler to sit comfortably in the back seat of a Mazda 3. So I upgraded to a 6 (in my defense, I had other safety concerns as well).

UPPAbaby are definitely cool, and one of our favorites at the most recent ABC kids show was this from TFK.

@teacherdad No need to be an expert. Just share your experiences. No hurry, or pressure though. Just curious.