Don't Forget to Refresh...

I've noticed that there's a bit of a problem at times with Blogger and your web browser--it seems that cached versions of this site come up quite frequently, which means you're usually a day behind (or more). So in response, I have a public service announcement to make: please hit the refresh button on your browser whenever you come to this blog. I do post on a daily basis (weekdays, at least), so there will usually be something new.

Here's another announcement: no, my wife and I are not fighting. Even though she takes the opposite position of me on the whole early or late presentations debate, we're still speaking to each other. And I didn't have to sleep on the couch, either. All is well in the Carroll household. And I promise that's the last time we'll air our dirty laundry on the web. Or not. No guarantees.

Old man winter is starting to really flex his muscles now. This morning I thought it was raining, but it turned out it was snowing. What confused me was the fact that it was so fargin' windy. Nothing like the icy-cold wind cutting you to the bones, while at the same time having snow blown in your face. Lovely. Got a little bit better as the day went on, though. Except that wind. I could really do without that.

One good thing about the wind, though, is that it completely cleared out the clouds and gave us a spectacular view of the night sky this evening. When we first got here, we were really shocked at how few stars we could see, because we thought that coming to a small town meant lots of stars. But alas, we were disappointed. I guess we just didn't get a good night (and haven't bothered to look up since then) because man, you can really see the stars in this town. Lots of them. It's really quite breathtaking.

Had a little Friday night adventure. Well, okay, it wasn't exactly an "adventure" in that we just went to Olds for dinner, but hey, come one, we're hicks now. The big city of Olds impresses us. It's a nice little place, if you like mid-sized prairie towns. Got a good restaurant selection, though, so this time we hit the Boston Pizza that's attached to the Best Western. And you know what? For the first time since coming to Alberta, we actually got decent service at a restaurant. It was a total shocker. In fact, we almost felt like we were back home again. Good times.

Had a bit of a scare on the way there, though (and my apologies for the unintentional rhyme). As we were driving along, we see a large truck coming our way (note: in Alberta, trucks are allowed to pull two full trailers in behind them, which is illegal in BC, and makes for some very large rigs on the road), slowing down to turn down a side road. As we approached to pass, I noticed that the pickup in behind the large truck had blue smoke coming out from under its tires. I realized, albeit belatedly, that the pickup was in a panic stop. Sure enough, just as we passed, he slammed right into the back of the big truck. Needless to say, no damage to the rig, but quite a bit to the pickup. Fortunately, he had slowed down enough by the time he hit that the impact wasn't all that severe (everyone was fine afterwards), but man, that sure was scary. I mean, he hit the truck literally as we passed. It's strange to hear the sound of a jarring collision so close to you. Almost surreal. We were both kind of shaken up, actually. Not Theo, though. He was sound asleep.

So yeah, life on the roads of Alberta, I suppose. On the way home, as we were approaching an intersection in the lovely town of Torrington (it was a highway intersection, where the main highway we were on bisected a secondary route--drivers on the secondary route had to stop), a truck was waiting to cross the road laterally, and, even though he could see us, did this weird thing of almost diving out right in front of us. He did the whole hesitation thing, which to me is worse than if he'd just gone through, because then at least I'd know what he was doing. Strange.

Besides that, not much in the way of eventful things happened today. Theo was in quite the mood this morning--if it hadn't been snowing, I'm sure he would've been out on the porch when I got home. He's so funny; sometimes he just wakes up in a terrible mood, and there's nothing you can do to get him out of it. It's almost like he has to take a mulligan on the day and start all over again. Sure enough, he had a nice nap in the early afternoon and woke up in a better mood, just in time for me to get home. And see that familiar expression on my wife's face. The one that says, "I am ready to strangle someone, but since I can't do it to the baby, you'd better watch out." Yikes.

After I did some homework, Steph managed to get a nap in, and I took Theo down to the end of the street to walk around in the fallen leaves. Quite fun. That kid is quite a walker. In fact, he's figured out how to pull himself to his feet from a sitting position, which is really scary, especially since he has no idea what to do when he gets there. Except try to walk and end up falling over. In fact, just the other day, he pitched himself right off the bed in the spare room. Fortunately, it's not very high and the landing area is soft carpet, but it sure gave us a scare. You have to watch him like a hawk, you do, and at all times. Turn your back for an instant, and he's right into something that will likely lead to severe injury. Not sure why, but it always happens that way. Such is life having an inquisitive child with absolutely no idea of the things that could hurt him.

It's funny, but I thought that as soon as his colic ended, he'd be less of a handful. But he's still a handful, it's just a handful of different things (you decide what things--I'm not going to go there). Oh well, keeps us on our toes, and makes us appreciate our parents and the free babysitting they provide, especially since we haven't had a night to ourselves since we got here. It's long overdue, let me tell you. Fortunately, the visitors start streaming to our door in a matter of weeks, so we're looking forward to that.

That, I think, is all I have for this evening. Okay, I know some of that could have been saved for Theo's blog, but hey, I wanted to get it out before I forgot it, so too bad. Speaking of Theo's blog, I'm going to do another update on the weekend, so check that out if you get a chance. Other than that, I'm done here until Monday. Another exciting weekend ahead, full of reading and writing essays. Ooh! I'll bet you wish you had my life! Anyway, see you back here next week.