The Wisconsin Martins

Last weekend, we picked apples at the Eplegaarden.

I think we all had fun.

(You can view all of the photos at Flickr.

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This morning, at 11:25a, CDT, we welcome Katherine Elizabeth Martin into our family. She was 7lbs 11oz, 18 inches long, and perfectly healthy. We’re happy that she’s finally here — although I think Mom is a little happier than Dad!

We’re uploading pictures of Katya to our Flickr! site.

This afternoon, I took Esther up to visit her new baby sister. I was a bit worried about how she’d react — she tends to be more than bit rough with her baby dolls. A newborn is small enough and — when sleeping — still enough to be mistaken for a baby doll.

I needn’t have worried. Esther seemed to recognize right away who Katya was. She took to her immediately and kept asking me to hold her up so she could see Katya better. She even asked to hold her 3 or 4 times. For now, I think they’ll get along great.

I finally let her hold Katya and she had a blast. Watch and see:

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I’ve been trying to get back to losing weight but it hasn’t been working out too well. I do best when I can ignore food and pretend it doesn’t exist. Right now, Christine needs to eat more calories to support both her and the baby. Every time I see her snacking or taking seconds it’s harder for me to resist doing the same. So, I’m focusing on maintaining my weight.

And, yes, I did just throw my wife under the bus because of my lack of willpower.

My weekly weight gain was 0.29 pounds and I ate 147 calories more per day than I should have.

Yesterday, we arrived safely home from our summer vacation. On July 15, we drove from Oregon, WI to Strongsville, OH to spend 2 days with my grandmother. On July 18, we drove from Strongsville to Buffalo, NY to visit Christine’s parents. We stayed for about 2 hours, then left for Williamsville, NY to visit some of Christine’s friends at Camp Cherith. We stayed for the evening, then drove back to Buffalo to spend the night.

On Saturday, July 19, we drove down to Pittsburgh, PA to visit some of my old college friends and some of our old college hangouts: Uncle Sam’s Subs and Dave & Andy’s ice-cream. We spent the night at the Mariott Pittsburgh City Center (thank-you, Priceline.) On Sunday morning, we worshipped with Allegheny Center Alliance Church. We went there during my last three years of college and it was a joy to be back there once more. Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Buffalo where we spent the remainder of our vacation.

On Friday, July 25, we left Buffalo and headed home. We drove as far as Shipshewana, IN before spending the night at Der Ruhe Blatz, in the heart of Amish country. On Saturday morning we ate a fantastically delicious breakfast at the Blue Gate Restaurant before walking through several of the local shops. We left Shipshewana around 11am and arrived home around 4pm.

I finally remembered how to bypass Chicago, on the drive home. I took 80-West, through Indianna, then 80-94 North, then 290 North (Tri-State toll-way), which goes west around the Chicago suburbs. Finally, we hooked back up with 90-North and drove into Wisconsin. It saved us the hassle of Chicago traffic and didn’t take any longer than 90-North through Chicago normally takes.

Finally, here’s a look at our vacation in numbers:

2100. The total number of miles we drove, round-trip.
847. The total number of pictures we brought home. We took some ourselves and Esther’s grandmothers took the rest.
700. The total amount we spent on our vacation.
295. The total number of hours we were away from home.
5. The number of different cities we visited.
4. The number of different cities we slept in.
3. The number of days that we spent half on the road, half actually doing something.
2. The number of different hotels we slept in and the number of days that we spent doing nothing but driving.
0. The amount of video we took this trip.

Here’s a look at how we spent our vacation dollars:

After losing 24 pounds between September and December of 2007, I stopped keeping track of what I was eating and how much I weighed. The result was predictable: after plateauing for a while I started to gain weight again. Now I’m back to tracking calories and losing weight again.

My overall history.

A close-up of the last 30 days.

We bought our first dishwasher today.

Once we decided that our time is more valuable than our money, we started working on upgrading our kitchen. The most obvious way to cut the amount of drudge work was to stop washing dishes. But we value hygiene too highly to simply let the dishes remain unwashed. Thus, a dishwasher.

But this old house has never had a dishwasher before. The previous owner did put washer and dryer hookups in the kitchen. We decided to piggyback on that water line and to install a dishwasher next to the washer and dryer. That wall of the kitchen doesn’t have a countertop to put the dishwasher under. So, we’re also going to install a second countertop and some additional cabinets.

(This is also why you shouldn’t ask me to scope a project for you. Instead of going with the easy solution — a portable dishwasher — I chose to go with the much more expensive kitchen upgrade package.)

We’ve been working with Stoughton Lumber to plan the project and decide what we’ll need to buy. After we’ve bought everything we’ll need, a friend from our church Life Group will help me install it all. Because I lack pretty much all handyman skills, this will be a real learning experience.

Christine’s been watching the sale flyers for a while now. She’s also been researching dishwashers and checking out the Consumer Reports rankings. This week she saw a good deal on CR’s Best Buy. So we went out and bought it at Quam’s Appliance. They’ll hold it until we call them up and tell them we’re ready for it to be delivered.

We thought about buying our new dishwasher from Sears. Sears was willing to more than match the advertised price from Quam’s, but insisted on charging a $75 delivery fee for any purchase less than $399. The price match would have cut the dishwasher down to $344. The total price (including delivery) would have been $419. Quam’s sold us the dishwasher and delivery for only $389. Done deal. Sears wasn’t willing to price match on the delivery and that cost them the sale. Their loss, our gain.

Now we just have to finish the overall design, buy our new cabinetry and countertop, and do the installation. We can’t wait.

We went to the zoo today. Madison’s zoo, The Henry Vilas Zoo, is fairly small — it only takes about an hour to walk through the whole thing. It has two redeeming characteristics: it’s free and it’s small enough that young children can see the entire zoo without getting too tired or cranky.

We walked through the entire zoo with Esther. She enjoyed watching the chimpanzees climb around their cage. The zoo staff setup an indoor habitat and covered it with climbing ropes and nets. Esther enjoyed watching the chimps climb around the ropes.

She was starting to look tired by the time we reached the goat pen. As soon as she saw the other kids feeding the goats, she wanted to have a go of it. She climbed out of her stroller and started reaching up towards the goats. We helped her find some food that the other kids had dropped and she tried to figure out how to give it to the goats. Her idea was to just hold it between her finger and thumb and put it into the goat’s mouth. We helped her lay it on her hand, for the goats to eat out of, so she didn’t accidentally lose a finger.

After the zoo, we went out to dinner at Broux-Nellie’s. We ordered macaroni and cheese for Esther. Before her dinner came, she amused herself by eating most of a cup of ice and watching everyone else in the diner. Once her dinner came, she ate most of it herself. It was so much fun to see her scooping up bite after bite herself, using her spoon like an old pro.

Welcome to the family. We can’t wait to meet you. Whoever you are.

We’re driving through the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We haven’t seen another car — or any other sign of civilization — in several miles. You can almost imagine Pa Ingalls stepping out of the trees, tracking winter game.

Anyway, we’re driving from Madison (80 inches of snow this year) to Houghton (140 inches of snow this year) for a career fair at Michigan Tech. Along with two other co-workers, I’ll be representing Epic to Tech’s finest. (At least, we hope they’re Tech’s finest.)

We stopped for dinner at the Applebee’s in Wausau, Wisconsin. (Epic motto: Wasau is wausum! From what I could see, it’s certainly true.)

There is, of course, snow on the road and the ground. The roads are reasonably clear after the ice and snow that blew in over the weekend.

(We continue to have some truly impressive icicles hanging off of our roof. They’ll probably disappear when warmer weather crawls in this weekend. No matter. The warm weather will only last long enough to tease us with thoughts of spring before winter once again tightens its grip. The icicles will return when the cold returns.)

As we drive, I’m reminded once again of the sheer wealth of our world. We’re driving through the deserted wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The overnight wind chill is -5 to -10 Fahrenheit. The nearest house or gas station is miles away. If not for the warmth of our car, it would be quite easy to freeze to death tonight. Yet, here we set. Listening to music. Reading eBooks on a laptop. Playing World of Warcraft on a laptop. What sheer unmitigated wealth. Truly amazing.

Me, I’ll spend the next two days enjoying the sights of Houghton, Michigan. It’s my first trip to Michigan. Mike tells me that the Michigan Tech Winter Fair recently concluded. I’m looking forward to seeing the traditional ice sculptures. Each time I step outside, I’ll be reminded of how rich I am and how thoroughly we’ve mastered nature. Thanks be to God for the world he’s created and the ability he’s given us to master it and care for it.

Oh — you want to know how I’m writing this? I’m using my trusty MacBook. In full power saving mode, I have another 5 hours of battery life. That’s more than enough to last me to Houghton (three hours from now). I’m sure you’ll be reading this shortly after we arrive.

We arrived in Louisville, KY for the night after about 12 hours on the road. We left Waxhaw, NC at 8:40am. We had lunch in Knoxville and escaped with only 2 or 3 stops on the way.

More details (and pictures!) to come.