The Oil Room

Elven Cousins

2008-12-25T00:53:00.002-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Eli and a couple of his cousins put together a little music video for everyone.

Pictures of Piper's Zeroth Birthday

2008-11-24T16:58:00.008-05:00

Getting Ready

This is about an hour before the c-section.

Almost time

Here we are suited up and ready to go...

Dad

My first moments holding her.

Footprints

Here is Piper getting her footprints taken by the nurse, Anna.

Thumb sucker

34 minutes after she was born, Piper already found her thumb.

Mother and daughter

Ann and Piper back in recovery. More thumbsucking. Someone must be hungry. :)

Baby sister

Eli is not sure what to think of this baby yet.

Piper Eve

2008-11-24T11:40:00.002-05:00

She's here!!! :)

7 lbs 12.5 oz
20.5 in
10:44 AM

Everyone is doing fine. Pictures coming later!

Ready or not...

2008-11-24T08:39:00.001-05:00

Getting ready for the c-section...

Time to beat the Steelers...

2008-11-20T13:18:00.003-05:00

I just read that the Bengals are riding a 9-0 winning streak into tonight's game against the Steelers! boo-yah!

Uh, to clarify, that's a 9-0 mark against the spread in Week 12 games. So going back to 1999, the Cincinnati Bengals are UNDEFEATED in terms of [ losing by less | winning by more ] than expected in week 12.

Who dey?
Who dey?
Who dey think they gonna cover the spread against those Bengals in week 12?

NOBODY!

Put your money on the Bengals tonight, folks!

P.S. - Steelers fans/bettors: Don't think you can play only slightly better than us all night long and then get some miraculous Troy Polamalu defensive score to cover on the final play in regulation. That would be ridiculous.

Obama's strategy for Ohio

2008-11-01T10:26:00.001-04:00

Obama's strategy for Ohio
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Because this being the most important election of our lifetimes is no reason to expect people to bother to register by the correct deadline, prove they are citizens, and/or show up to the polls with required identification. Why do those darn Republicans have to make it so hard for illegal aliens to vote?

Not to mention dead people, pets, cartoon characters...

Wizard of Awwws

2008-10-29T22:25:00.000-04:00

mmmm
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Sorry for the cheesy title. We got Eli this lion costume a few weeks ago. On Tuesday we had a little Halloween party to go to (on Ann's birthday) for the Fairfield MOMS club. Ann was actually co-chairing the party planning.

We tried to think of how we could dress to complement Eli, so we threw together these Tin Man and Dorothy costumes at the last minute. Ann bought a blue gingham fitted bed sheet at Goodwill and her mom helped her turn it into a dress that day. (Maternity costumes are not readily available at many stores, as far as we have seen.) Ann warned me we would probably be the only adults dressed up.

Ann had to be there early. When I got there with Eli, I realized she was right.

Wizard of Awwws
Originally uploaded by parseljc

We were the only adults dressed up. We headed over to get our photos taken quickly before Eli decided he didn't want to wear the costume anymore. As soon as we were finished, in walked another family with parents that had taken the time to dress up! Whew, now we wouldn't feel so silly, right? What were they dressed as, you ask?

Why, the Tin Man, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow, of course!

1976 Yearbook Photo

2008-10-06T22:10:00.001-04:00

Josh Ann 1976 Yearbook Photo
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Here's a quick glimpse of what we would have looked like graduating high school if we had been born about 18 years earlier.

Isn't modern technology amazing? Are there any questions left we cannot answer?

YearbookYourself.com

Thanks, Bill Clinton!

2008-10-03T11:32:00.005-04:00

An eerily clairvoyant article by Steven A. Holmes, published in the New York Times on September 30, 1999, predicted this bailout.

...

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

"From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

...

Barack Obama's favorite line is "...the failed economic policies of the past eight years..." Problem is, the economic failure stems from a couple years before that.

Lights Out! Power has been

2008-09-14T20:24:00.001-04:00

Lights Out!

Power has been out since Bengals 2nd qtr. From what I understand, that means I was one of the lucky ones.

Ninety Percent

2008-07-04T21:36:00.006-04:00

Two kids
Originally uploaded by parseljc

We had our ultrasound at 18 weeks and were hoping to find out whether Eli would be a big brother or big sister. The baby wasn't really cooperating while the tech was doing all the measurements. In an effort to get a better look at the primary area of interest, she had Ann lay all the way back, then she had her roll to her left side, then to her right side. She even had Ann try this pose.

Despite these measures, the ultrasound tech could only give us 90% certainty that it's a girl!

ps - we are 100% sure that Eli will be a great big brother!

The Face!

2008-06-19T23:45:00.002-04:00

The Face!
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Eli can recognize the words "tongue" and "eyes" and respond appropriately by sticking out his tongue or blinking. He also randomly started making this funny face about a month ago whenever he was feeling cranky. We started noticing and saying to each other, "Look! He's doing the face!" So, of course, now he makes this face whenever he hears the word "face."

Sometimes it's kinda like that scene in Holy Grail when they keep saying "it". Ann will wipe something off his face and say the word 'face' and he'll shoot her the face. Then I'll say "Haha, you said 'face'!" and then he'll give me the face...

What a ham! He knows this gets the crowd going. ;-)

Happy Birthday, Elijah!!!! We love you!

Eli Heart's Mom

2008-05-12T23:36:00.001-04:00

Eli Heart's Mom
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Eli requested to wear this shirt on Sunday. He is so thoughtful!

He couldn't wait to wish Ann a happy Mother's Day, so he got us up at 6:30 AM. We decided to get around and get out the door, and ended up getting to The Original Pancake House at 7:45. It turns out that is a great time to get to TOPH. We were seated immediately and got our food very quickly after ordering. By the time we left (8:35) the line was already backed up out the door, which is how it has always been every other time we have been there.

Family of Four

2008-05-09T23:46:00.001-04:00

fountain
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Here we are sitting by the fountain at The Streets of West Chester, right after having dinner at P.F. Chang's.

If you're having trouble counting the people in the picture, it's probably because you don't have ultra-sound vision. (Or would it be ultra-sound hearing?)

The hidden person will be more easily visible in late November, probably around Thanksgiving. Watch out, Duggar's! We are hot on your tails!

First Reds Game

2008-04-23T22:55:00.002-04:00

firstRedsgame2
Originally uploaded by parseljc

On Sunday, April 20, we went down to Great American Ballpark with some friends from Fairfield to see the Reds play Milwaukee. We got our tickets at half price because it was Miami University day, so we had great seats right at third base in the ~20th row.

It kept trying to drizzle, and the game was still tied at 1 in the seventh when the mommies and kids headed home, leaving the dads to tough it out in the rain.

We were rewarded with a dramatic finish. Consecutive flubs (I guess only 1 was counted an error) directly in front of us by 3rd baseman Encarnacion in the top of the 10th let Milwaukee load the bases and then go up by 2. He was first up to bat in the bottom of the 10th and redeemed himself by whacking a solo dinger, followed by another solo dinger by Bako to knot the score at 3 all. Milwaukee changed pitchers but it didn't help much. The Reds got a man on first and sent in Freel as a pinch runner. Then they got another on base with Freel at second, bringing up Junior. He foul-tipped one ball that came pretty close to us, but a large man secured the ball pretty convincingly so we did not make an attempt on it. Soon, Griffey whacked the game-winning walk-off RBI that almost became HR # 597 (it temporarily fooled the person controlling the Griffey Home Run counter in the outfield) but actually just hit the top of the wall and stayed in play. There was no chance the Brewers could catch Freel, though.

What do you feed that kid?

2008-02-14T22:22:00.006-05:00

"Wait for dad to put the toppings on!"

It's a question we get a lot. Eli's weight and length was ahead of the curve when he was born, and he isn't slowing down. Part of it I guess is that he is a very enthusiastic eater. The only thing he doesn't like seeing in his bowl is the bottom.

Grandma Judy says Eli's mama was the same way when she was a baby.

Eli 1 - Steakburger 0

So here is an example of a typical dinner for Eli. Double Steakburger platter, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard, with fries and cottage cheese. And maybe a few "puff" snacks if he is still hungry afterward.

I'd say he liked it!
;-)

Travel Map

2008-02-06T11:51:00.000-05:00

Bigg Laughs

2008-01-15T10:42:00.001-05:00

It was the end of a long day and Eli was probably overtired. We were trying to finish up some shopping at Biggs and I discovered he could be easily amused when he is this tired. (Sorry about the poor quality; all I had was my cell phone.)

All done!

2008-01-14T20:36:00.000-05:00

This morning Eli's DOC Band® came off for good! What am I talking about? I know, I kept putting off posting about Eli's positional plagiocephaly and the orthotic device that we got for him to treat it. So, here's the (long) story...

Eli was born with a condition called torticollis, where the neck muscle is tight or shortened on one side. This caused him to be much more comfortable looking to the right than to the left. We noticed this preference when he was a newborn and didn't think much about it. After he was about two months old we started to realize this could be a problem. Grandma Janis showed us some information about plagiocephaly, and one of Ann's friends had a son almost 4 months older than Eli who was being diagnosed with the same condition at the time. When we looked carefully at Eli's head, we noticed the characteristic asymmetry and misalignment of his ears. So we went to the pediatrician and they recommended we start doing some gentle neck stretches and reposition his head when we put him to sleep. Sometimes the flattening will round out as the baby gets older and spends more time sitting up, on his tummy, or in other positions that don't put pressure on the back of the head. But it is less likely to "work itself out" when the baby also has torticollis.

We did the stretches, which did help improve his range of motion looking to the left. We also did the repositioning, which involved sneaking into his room repeatedly during the night and trying to turn his head from the right back to the left without waking him up. As you can imagine, this was tiring work. We also started taking him in for physical therapy to help his range of motion and midline. (Babies with torticollis also usually have a tendency to tilt their head to one side.)

After he got to be 4 months old, there was not any noticeable improvement in his head shape, so we decided to look into the "helmet" options. Several companies make orthotic devices which gently reshape the head over time. We chose Cranial Tech because they are the leaders in this field, their "Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty Band®" is FDA-approved, and they claim shorter treatment periods.

The only problem was, we would have to go to Cleveland or Chicago to get a DOC Band. We chose Chicago for several reasons. The main reason was because the clinic in Cleveland was not in our insurance network (it is a privately owned clinic licensed by Cranial Tech to provide the DOC band, while the clinic in Chicago is actually a Cranial Tech facility). The secondary reason was that we had good friends in Chicago who were willing to let us crash with them on a weekly basis for a few months. (Thanks, Ryan and Angie!) Thirdly, c'mon, we're talking about Cleveland versus Chicago. Which one would you rather visit 10 weekends in a row?

Immediately after casting

Besides, from where we live on the north-northwest side of Cincinnati, our drive time to Chicago is actually only 30 minutes more than to Cleveland. (The 70 MPH speed limit in Indiana is helpful in this regard.)

So in November we headed up to Chicago and Cranial Tech made a plaster cast of Eli's head. He did not enjoy this procedure, but it was fairly quick and he made it through okay. The anticipation of it was probably worse for Ann than the actual procedure was for Eli.

A new hat!

We went back for the initial fitting of his DOC Band® ten days later in mid November. He did a great job with it from day one! I guess some kids have a lot of trouble adjusting to it and sleeping with it. I don't know if it is because he was young when he started treatment, or because he's a pretty easy-going child, but he didn't really mind wearing it. It's probably a combination of both.

So earlier I mentioned weekly trips to Chicago. The inside of the DOC Band® is made of a kind of plastic foam that must be shaved out in certain places periodically as the child grows. Because Eli started at just under 5 months of age, we had to go back every week until the very end of treatment. (Babies can be treated with the DOC band up to 24 months of age, but the younger they are, the faster they are growing. This also means the treatment is typically shorter than for an older baby.) So there were about 7 weekly trips, then the last two were spaced out a little more.

ELI*JOE
A Real American Hero!

So now you know why Eli is wearing that sweet camouflage helmet with his trademark "ELI*JOE" logo, even though you'll not see him wearing it in person anymore.

Last Monday when we were at Cranial Tech they did a final adjustment to the band so he could wear it one more week. Then they re-did all his measurements and took photos of him from all angles just like they did in the initial consultation. They also usually do an "exit mold" (another plaster cast) of the head. This is so they have a record of his head shape post-treatment, for comparison if there is ever a question of him regressing in the future. However, Cranial Tech has finally come out with a digital laser scanner that allows them to scan the babies heads and make a mold without putting the child through the plaster casting process. The Chicago clinic is getting theirs in mid-January, so we decided to wait a couple weeks and go back one more time for the scan. Besides not putting Eli through another casting, we get to visit Chicago and our friends one more time and sample another fine Chicagoland restaurant. Plus, as my friend Ryan pointed out, "Lasers are kewl. Who knows, maybe Eli will even pick up a super power."

Here's hoping! ;-)

Zacchaeus' Christmas

2007-12-23T00:13:00.000-05:00

Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see
And as the Lord came by that day He looked up in the tree
And He said, "Zacchaeus! You come down!
For I'm going to your house today,
For I'm going to your house today."

Luke 19:8 - But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor..."

We first got the idea to give half our Christmas budget to the poor after reading a book called "How Much Is Enough" by Arthur Simon, at the recommendation of my brother-in-law, Alex. It was a great, thought-provoking book about how our Christian faith applies in the affluent culture in which we live. Simon offers many suggestions for loosening the grip of materialism and consumerism in our lives and doing something good with the resources God has given to us. One of his suggestions was, instead of spending so much money at Christmas on your friends and family who probably lack none of the essentials of life, why not consider meeting some real, life-or-death needs?

Although we read this book more than a year ago, we finally decided this year we would act on this suggestion. We decided on our Christmas budget, then cut it in half and divvied it up among the nieces, nephews, and certain other family and friends to whom we intended to give gifts. And for each person we gave a gift, we also gave at least an equally-valued gift in their honor to help rescue people from poverty. We did this though World Vision, which has a really cool Gift Catalog on its website where you can buy all kinds of life- and hope- giving gifts for people living in extreme poverty in our world. You can honor anyone with your gifts, and send them a card or e-card to let them know what you've done on their behalf. Please take some time to check it out. They have a wide selection of gifts for any budget. You could give a share of an alpaca for $15, or fund a new deep well for disease-free water for a whole village for a mere 18 large. :)

We hope to make this a tradition in our family, by sharing at least half our Christmas with the poor each December. These are gifts that can save lives. What a great way to honor friends and family in the spirit of the season. Merry Christmas!

M.C. Escher's Chicago

2007-11-27T17:03:00.001-05:00

M.C. Escher's Chicago
Originally uploaded by parseljc

When you think of Chicago architecture, maybe you think of Frank Lloyd Wright. But not many people are aware of how much influence M.C. Escher had on skyscraper design in the Windy City. This satellite image from Google Maps illustrates it nicely.

Let's go to Montgomery Inn to watch some Wheel!

2007-11-11T12:56:00.000-05:00

Montgomery Inn
Originally uploaded by parseljc

We went to Montgomery Inn the Saturday before my birthday with my in-laws. De-licious. We were seated upstairs and saw the end of the unfortunate Ohio State football loss too Illinois.

Following that game, the television in our upstairs room had been switched to Wheel of Fortune. (Yes, that Wheel of Fortune.)

UC (as in University of Cincinnati, the Big East school located in the same city as Montgomery Inn, whose future-hall-of-fame former coach hosted a weekly radio program at Montgomery Inn for many many years) had a basketball game starting at 7 PM. As tip-off time came and went, we asked our server why the television was still showing Wheel. He left to check with a manager. He returned later to inform us that due to some insurmountable technical problem related to how difficult it would be to physically change the channel on that television, it could not be tuned to the UC basketball game.

So, if all the local sports teams' memorabilia has given you the impression that Montgomery Inn is THE place to watch sports in Cincinnati, think again. It's ALSO a great place to go and watch broadcast network game shows in Hi-Def while local sports teams are playing games on other channels, possibly even on cable channels that you don't have at home.

Oh, the irony...

2007-11-05T11:42:00.001-05:00

At the Macy's at Water Tower Place in Chicago, the Crocs display is conveniently located near the second floor escalators.

The Unugly Duckling

2007-10-31T21:46:00.000-04:00

(Unugly = Cute)

duck...

duck...

duck...

GOOSE!

Florida trip

2007-10-30T14:58:00.000-04:00

Florida was nice, as you can see we enjoyed our trip to the beach where the wind was gusting and nobody was in the water. They didn't actually have the flags up saying you *couldn't* go in the water, but if nobody else was doing it we certainly weren't going to!

Eli slept like a... wait for it... baby for most of the flights there and back. We were so thankful that he was a good little traveler. This was taken when he was sleeping in my arms on the only flight that was so full we couldn't keep him in his infant seat, which had to be checked. The other three flights we had the car seat buckled in.

Here's a rather sad story, with which my friends from northern Virginia will possibly be able to sympathize. On our flight down to Orlando, we connected through Reagan National Airport. We took very early flights, so we got into DC around 8:something AM. We got to our gate with only about 20 minutes before boarding for the next flight. There, right beside our gate, taunting us, was a Five Guys restaurant. ugh. Why didn't I plan for this?!? I haven't had Five Guys since May when I went back to empty our house after it sold. Here we were, in sight of one of the foods I most miss from DC, with no time to get in line for a burger, and besides that no appetite to eat it seeing as how it was not even 9 o'clock in the morning.

Of course, on the flight home, we connected through Charlotte, NC, in the early afternoon and had a 2-hour layover. There is no Five Guys in the Charlotte Airport. Note to self: d'oh!

The last picture is Eli saying goodbye to his Florida-based cousins.

Fall Picture Post

2007-10-13T20:32:00.000-04:00

Here we have the obligatory fall baby-in-the-pumpkin-patch photo.

Mommy and Grandma Judy took Eli to Irons Fruit Farm while Dad and Grandpa Howard worked on the house.

Eli examining some colorful leaves.

The leaves are fake. No real leaves were ever in any danger.

All dressed up!

2007-10-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

Here we are all decked out in our fancy clothes for Ryan and Angie Merritt's wedding rehearsal dinner.

A New Achievement

2007-09-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

Two Months Old

2007-08-21T23:02:00.001-04:00

Family Picture
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Eli turned two months old on Sunday, so we took a family picture.

Later that evening we celebrated his milestone achievement with dinner at PF Chang's where we met up with our friends Rick and Becky and their 3-month-old son Howie.

Eli had so much fun, he slept through the whole experience! He did wake up at one point and make eye contact with a few people at the table, then went back to sleep. What a party animal.

Howie, on the other hand, was awake during the meal, and got phone numbers from some ladies at the next table when his parents weren't looking.

Later that evening, Eli laughed a little bit for the first time while Ann was talking to him before bedtime. I couldn't help giggling a little, too, when I saw the booger hanging from her nose. (j/k ;)

Eli's first (pre-season) Bengals game

2007-08-10T09:24:00.000-04:00

Eli got to see his first Bengals game last night, an event he has been anticipating since last season, when his mother was always blocking his view of the television.

He had to go to bed before it was over, so this morning he was surprised and disappointed to learn that Cincinnati lost on a rare last-second Shayne Graham missed field goal. However, I explained to him that it's only the preseason, so it doesn't really count. If Carson had been running the 2-minute drill instead of our third-string QB, we probably would have scored a touchdown or two.

Enjoying some family time together. . .

2007-07-29T20:57:00.000-04:00

Josh, Ann and Eli on the Green
Originally uploaded by parsellann

Josh and Ann on the Green
Originally uploaded by parsellann

Eli's First Play-Date

2007-06-28T00:25:00.001-04:00

MOM! HOWIE'S TOUCHING MY BOPPY!

Actually he was just yawning. ;)

Eli's friend Howie Stevens, who is about 1 month older, stopped by today for a visit along with his mommy.

Eli and Howie had lots of fun together playing Halo2 and Dance Dance Revolution. Hmmm, I guess we should have taken pictures of that.

Rock-a-bye Baby

2007-06-21T14:07:00.001-04:00

So in the last 24 hours, Eli has slept peacefully for a couple hours in Grandpa Howard's arms, then he spent all night fussing and keeping mommy and daddy from getting much (any) sleep, then he slept for a couple hours in Grandma Judy's arms when she showed up this morning.

Good timing, kid! He knows which side his bread is buttered on. Always be cute and loveable around the grandparents!

Click the picture below to go see a set of pictures at Flickr.

Welcome, Elijah!

2007-06-20T01:05:00.001-04:00

Ann and I are proud to announce the arrival of our son! Elijah Joseph Parsell, 8 lbs. 11 oz., 22 in., born at 11:44PM, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at Mercy Hospital in Fairfield, Ohio.

We spent 34 hours in labor, including 3 hours of pushing, but Eli was just too big to go the natural way. He was delivered by C-section. Everybody is tired, and Ann is starving. Good night!

mmmm... Ambar

2007-06-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

No, I said, "Ambar" (see yesterday's post) not "Mom Bar."

???

It was good, just like I remembered. We only ordered a 2 (out of 6) when they asked how spicy we wanted it. 2 is just enough to have a kick without making your nose run. I would usually get a 3 but Ann and I were sharing. Maybe if we had gone for a 3 it would have gotten this kid moving...

Checkup

2007-06-14T13:59:00.001-04:00

Ann saw the doctor today. Everything is fine, things are just progressing very slowly. If nothing has happened by Monday, June 18, then she will see the doctor again for another evaluation.

I hope Eli comes soon! It's so hard to keep waiting, since we've been thinking all along he would already be here by now. I guess Ann and I will take a long walk tonight and maybe go out for some really spicy food. Hmmm... I haven't been to Ambar India in years...

T plus one and waiting...

2007-06-11T14:11:00.001-04:00

So here we are one day overdue and so far nothing. I guess if nothing has happened by tonight Ann is supposed to make an appointment tomorrow.

It's nice he held off yesterday because I was still working on upgrading the wiring in the bedrooms until 11:30 last night, with help from my father-in-law, Howard. We got some additional help at the end from Ann and Judy (my mother-in-law). I think they just wanted to make sure we got things wrapped up quickly because it was getting so late.

Stay tuned!

All systems go...

2007-06-08T23:19:00.001-04:00

standby for launch sequence...

anytime you're ready, son...

(This has been a test of go.blogger.com. Had there been an actual launch/birth, there would have been pictures of a baby. :)

Bearcat Bobblehead Protest: Day 648

2007-06-04T11:26:00.001-04:00

Still waiting for Nancy Zimpher to be fired...

Talk about dedication!

T minus 6 days and counting

2007-06-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

Well, we are inside of one week for Elijah's due date. Of course, it could be any day now, or it could still be 3 weeks away. Ann is both excited and ready to not be so uncomfortable yet nervous about going through the actual labor. I'm also nervous about it. I hope it goes quickly and without any problems, and I hope I stay conscious throughout. :) Just kidding, I've only ever passed out in a hospital one time.

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to learn how to post video and how to do photo-blogging from my phone...

Powered by Windows Mobile, and by Mennen

2007-05-23T08:59:00.001-04:00

WMShaver
Originally uploaded by parseljc.

Everyone acts like Apple's iPhone is so ground-breaking. Well, Microsoft doesn't plan to let Steve Jobs catch up, so they just keep on innovatin' in the mobile market. MS is apparently going to be the first to put their Mobile operating system into a PGD - Personal Grooming Device. Here's a sneak peak screenshot from the latest Windows Mobile Newsletter I subscribe to by email.

Unfortunately, you can't tell from the picture if it's running WM5 or the newer WM6. One would hope they would have used WM6 to leverage the new sync'ing capabilities with the advanced lift-and-cut system on this device, but you never know.

Spring Formal

2007-05-17T22:42:00.001-04:00

20070504 STE formal
Originally uploaded by parseljc.

Here we just got back from the STE Beta Gamma Chapter Spring Formal 2007. I hadn't been to one of these since the first one in 2000. I was the oldest guy there. 8-o

If I look tired, it's because we just moved, we'd been working on the new place for a couple weeks, we were still unpacking, we were working with our agent back in Virginia on the sale of our old house, I'd been working at my new job for a week...

I know what you're thinking. So why doesn't Ann look tired? I don't know. She's the pregnant one. I know she is tired lately but she still always looks great. Go figure.

Goodbye, Old New House

2007-04-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

goodbyehouse
Originally uploaded by parseljc.

Here is my beautiful and very pregnant wife (33 weeks, I think), standing in front of our house on our last day. Why didn't I crop out the "NO OUTLET" sign? I dunno, seemed kind of appropriate. :)

We made it out of there, just out of the nick of time (as opposed to "in" the nick...). You see, my Father-in-law finished caulking the countertop on the wetbar in the basement about 30 minutes after the open house started. No one had actually arrived yet for the open house, though, so all was well.

So long, Virginia, it was fun.

Homecoming

2007-03-24T10:29:00.000-04:00

Here we have the traditional Homecoming picture in front of the fireplace, before the couple heads out to dinner and the school dance.

Just kidding. Actually, we got spiffed up and went out to eat at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Fairfax, Va. What are we celebrating? We are coming home!

I have accepted a new job back in Cincinnati and we will be moving at the end of April. Just in time to get settled, find a doctor, and set up a nursery before Eli shows up. We hope.

If you're wondering who Eli is, look a little closer at the picture, or read some of my older blog entries.

Here's the story, of a lovely lady...

2007-03-20T17:33:00.000-04:00

We were at the mall a few weeks ago and there was a big line outside the Verizon Wireless store. I went inside and looked at new phones, while Ann got in line to meet her favorite Brady, Peter. (Also known as Christopher Knight.)

No, we are not changing the name of our son based on this experience.

I Bought HDTV For This?

2007-02-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Actually I didn't. I already had an HDTV, bought 4 years ago, but I have no HD tuner. I did stop at Circuit City after church and look around for HD antennas and HD tuners, but didn't find much.

And I'm glad I didn't waste my money. I wonder how many people, having spent thousands of dollars in the last couple weeks for a sweet High Definition setup, enjoyed all those High-Def graphics overlayed against images of a hazy, foggy, Wayne-and-Garth-dream-sequence Super Bowl. Look at the amazing detail on all those water droplets on the camera lens!

Hopefully they'll get their money's worth next weekend watching the Pro Bowl. Maybe I'll get an HD tuner for the NCAA tournament...

In other news:

Worst Super Bowl Halftime Commercials ... Ever

Are you kidding me? A 6-month old Acura commercial, a 4-week old Ford commercial, and I don't remember what else. There were some good commercials in other parts of the broadcast; I thought Robert Goulet was pretty funny. But at halftime, we're supposed to get the really good stuff. CBS blew it again. 3 years ago they had the "wardrobe malfunction." Now I guess they're so scared of offending anyone they deliberately chose boring, humorless ads for halftime. Of course, they still let Prince make suggestive shadow puppets with a spotlight and a curtain as if he was Austin Powers. Very subtle.

By the way, where was the proposal? I thought some guy was going to propose to his girlfriend during the Super Bowl? Lame.

Elijah Joseph

2007-01-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

Elijah - "My God is Jehovah" - my paternal grandfather's middle name
Joseph - "He will enlarge" - Ann's paternal grandfather's first name

We talked about waiting until the baby is born before sharing the name with anyone. I have heard other parents reason that people are less likely to make comments or express "opinions" about the name once the kid has actually arrived.

However, when you're at the stage of life where you and all your friends are all having babies at the same time, you have this nagging fear that someone else will "steal" the name you've chosen and then you won't be able to use it. Also, once we knew for sure it was a boy we really started wondering, "Why wait?"

Therefore, we are introducing our baby boy now as "Elijah Joseph Parsell" - "Eli" for short - so as to "lock it in."

Now we can rest easy for the next five months without worrying that we will receive that dreaded phone call in the middle of the night, "So-and-so just had a healthy baby boy and they named him Elijah!"

"Noooooooooo!"

Halfway to Parentdom

2007-01-24T10:06:00.000-05:00

A picture of Ann showing off her belly. She is 20 weeks now, so we are rounding second and heading home! Or are we crossing the 50-yard line? Maybe we are just completing lap 250 (for the NASCAR fans) with no caution flags so far! Yee-haw!

As you can see, we still have some work to do with getting the cats not to blink during the red-eye-reduction pre-flash flash.

Basement Finishing Project - Demolition

2007-01-23T10:47:00.000-05:00

The first phase of actual work in any home improvement project is demolition, as anyone who watches Extreme Makeover: Home Edition would know. So I got out my bull horn, donned a hard hat, safety glasses, and dust mask, grabbed a wonder bar, and charged screaming into the basement with my demo crew (me). It was pretty exciting.

I removed all the foil paper from the walls in the portion of the basement I was planning to finish, then rolled up the fiberglass blankets. Then I wrapped the rolls in the foil paper and stuck them in my garage, where they would occupy my parking space for a good 6 months. Finally, I used the wonder bar to remove as many of the nails as possible from the concrete walls. There were two that absolutely would not budge, so I left them in place.

That's it. I guess I also spent some time moving all the junk that we were storing throughout the basement into the furnace room area and stacking it carefully. Not really demolition, but necessary before actual work could begin.

Son of an only son of an only son

2007-01-15T12:46:00.000-05:00

We had another ultrasound today, at the beginning of Ann's 19th week. We are excited to announce that we are having a boy! Now I can rest easy, knowing I have assured my father and grandfather that the family name will live on for at least one more generation, and the empire will not fall into the hands of some distant second cousin. Errr, something...

I was thinking, the internet will probably be around forever. So my wife's Flickr page, with ultrasound pictures of our son's wee-wee, will probably still be publicly accessible in about 10 years or so when he is old enough to be embarrassed by such things. For that matter, so will this blog post.

I hope you can forgive us, son. I mean, it's such low resolution. You can barely tell what you're looking at. It's not like we posted a 3D movie of it on YouTube.

-Dad

Christmas Cards

2007-01-02T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, December and 2006 are now history. We didn't manage to get any Christmas cards out this year. So to any of our friends who may have been thinking they got snubbed: "Quit whining! You got the same thing everyone else got! Nothing!" Oh, and also, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank You for the card, picture, and/or letter you sent. That was very thoughtful of you."

In case you are still interested in hearing about our year, here is a quick recap of 2006 for the family Parsell:

February: To celebrate our 3-year anniversary, we took a dinner cruise on the Potomac. Food, music and dancing was all good, but "Dinner Cruise on the Potomac" joins "Sightseeing in New York City" on our list of "Things NOT to do in February." It was bitterly cold (just like NYC!) which precluded going out on the outer deck. Also, the sun had gone down by the time we got there, and they changed our planned course and didn't even take us near the monuments (which are well-lit at night.) We sailed down towards Mount Vernon, I think. We couldn't see anything but small lights on the shore. We didn't even see a good sunset. But it was fun! I highly recommend it, in the summer.

May: I got my building permits and began work on finishing my basement. Little did Ann or I know how long it would end up taking... *sigh* Read all about it by clicking on the "Basement" category here on my blog.

June: My older sister in Florida had her fourth child and first daughter, Kailey, bringing my parents' grandchild tally to six. With my younger sister due around the end of the year, they would soon reach seven...

October: We found out that Ann was pregnant! She is due June 10. Also, Ann's brother and sister-in-law in Denver had their first child, Madox, who is the first grandchild on that side of the family.

November: We went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina after the "peak" season was over. Hotels are much cheaper, and even though it was the second weekend of November, temperatures were in the 70's! Praise God for how that worked out. :) We saw Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hill, and the Wright Brothers Memorial, walked on the sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge, and drove down to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Good times, no crowds.

December: Ann's parents came to town with tickets to see the White House. We walked through on December 22 and saw all the Christmas decorations. Unfortunately we missed George and Laura by about an hour. As usual, we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's Day in Ohio with our families in Findlay and Cincinnati. A day after we left Findlay to drive down to Cincinnati, my younger sister went into labor and had her third daughter, Camryn.

Happy 2007 to all!

Second visit

2007-01-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

We had our second visit to the OB office just before Christmas. Ann's parents, Howard and Judy, were in town so they were able to come in and listen to the heartbeat. Ann has been tracking along with the NFL season so she is 17 weeks right now. Since the Bengals failed to make the playoffs it's going to be much harder for me to remember how far along she is in the coming weeks.

Our third appointment is scheduled for January 15th. We'll be having another ultrasound and should be able to find out if it's a boy or girl!

Basement Finishing Project - Building Permits

2006-12-21T09:24:00.000-05:00

So, because I am a responsible law-abiding citizen who wants to pay all his taxes, I obtained the proper building permits before I began work on my basement. Armed with my blueprints and pictures created with Plan3d, I took a morning off work and made the 20 minute drive down to the Prince William County Development Services building. I had already determined that because I was putting in a "kitchenette" (consisting of a sink and a refrigerator) I would need to sign an affidavit promising to never try to advertise my house as a duplex, or as having separate living quarters in the basement, nor would I ever try to rent the basement out as a separate unit, nor would I ever attempt to prepare a meal in the basement unless it was going to be consumed by someone who normally sleeps on the first or second floor... etc.

Anyway, when I got through the line at the Zoning desk, the guy looked at my plans and asked for my house location survey plat. I didn't have it. I had looked at it that morning while gathering up my paperwork, but I hadn't brought it. D'oh! Then he said, "Hmmm, what kind of sink are you putting in?"

Me: "I dunno, probably a medium-sized, double-basin stainless steel kitchen sink."

Zoning Guy: "You know, if it was only a small wet bar sink, then this would not be considered a kitchen, and you wouldn't need Zoning approval for your plans."

Me: "Yeah, like I said, it's just gonna be a small, single-basin, stainless steel wet bar sink."

Zoning Guy: "Okay, you're fine. Just go get in line at the Plan Review desk."

Whew!

Basement Finishing Project - Design Plans

2006-12-20T15:02:00.000-05:00

When we bought our home, the sales office was located in the model home which had a finished basement. I didn't like the layout of the bathroom and other rooms in the basement of the model, but I had to work around the general layout of the plumbing rough-ins for placement of my bathroom and wetbar. You can see how the model was laid out (sans wetbar) by looking at the floorplan here. One difference is that we have the optional Areaway, but it is on the right side of our house as you view this floorplan, not the left side.

I looked at some cheap software for designing floorplans at Best Buy and decided not to get it. I searched online and found Plan3D. It's actually pretty sweet! You can drag and drop all kinds of objects and resize them to layout your room/house/whatever. Furniture, electronics, appliances, people, pets, etc. You can apply different colors and textures to surfaces. Then you can do a 3D walkthrough of the space to see how it looks, opening and closing doors and other things along the way.

You have to be connected to the internet while you use the software, because all these extra "things" in the "catalog" are on their server, which keeps the executable running on your PC fairly small and therefore quick to download. (It also enables them to make it a subscription-based service. If your subscription expires, you can no longer save any files you create or modify with the software.) If you email the company and ask for something to be added, they will make it for you. When I was working on my plans, I wanted a Bowflex, which they didn't have in the catalog. I emailed them and sent them a link to a picture of a Bowflex, and Voila! I never heard back. Not a peep. Not even a confirmation that they had received my request.

Then a couple months later I fired up the software again, and much to my delight, a Bowflex had been added under Exercise Equipment! So I have no idea how long it actually takes them to fulfill requests, but apparently they do take them. They just don't communicate to you about it. At some point I plan to send them a picture of me cleaning the cats' litterbox or running on the treadmill or something so I can add it to my basement plans.

Here you can see the way I laid out my basement design. As we only have one welled window - for reasons unknown to me... I think the builder should have put a couple in on the driveway side - I decided to jog the bathroom wall around the edge of the furnace air return ducts to make sure the window's natural light would go into the bathroom instead of the furnace room. (Yes we will put up curtains.) I used the toilet drain right in the same place the builder put it, but the toilet is facing the other way. My bathroom sink is tied into the main drain on that side of the house. The sink drain that was roughed in by the toilet is inside the wall behind the wetbar sink, which it serves. The tub/shower drain rough-in was in the wrong spot for my corner shower, so it would have to be moved. (That story will be told later.)

Basement Finishing Project - Introduction

2006-12-18T12:31:00.000-05:00

Well you may or may not know that I am finishing my basement. It's a project I started back in late May. I really didn't expect it to take this long. Neither did my wife, or else she may not have let me do it.

I am going to do a series of blog postings outlining this project from start to finish. It may take a while, but I'll start at the beginning and hopefully soon I can catch up to the present. Unfortunately, many of the pictures I took along the way are AWOL on a 256MB SD card that I am having trouble locating. If it ever turns up I will get the pics online and add some to the appropriate entries.

In The Beginning...
When we moved into the house, the poured concrete basement walls were fully covered (top-to-bottom) with fiberglass blanket insulation and a layer of foil paper over top of that (Fig. 1).

After researching basement insulation systems, I determined that I would replace the existing insulation with a half-inch of rigid foam insulation directly against the concrete exterior walls. I used foil-faced polyisocyanurate on the top-half of the wall (which can dry to the outside,) and extruded polystyrene (Styrofoam blueboard) on the bottom half (Fig. 2). The blueboard is supposed to be vapor-permeable, which allows the lower half of the wall to dry to the inside (assuming I do not use Kraft-faced insulation or any other type of vapor barrier in the wall construction.)

I decided to use a metal stud wall inside of that. Benefits of metal studs are: they are all perfectly straight, they do not burn, and they do not support the growth of mold and mildew. I would place unfaced fiberglass batts in between the metal studs. This would give me an overall R-value of about 16 for my basement walls. (Unfaced fiberglass batts for 3-1/2 inch thick stud walls have are rated R-13. Half-inch thick foil-faced polyisocyanurate is R3.3. Half-inch thick Styrofoam blueboard is rated R-3. Nothing in my basement is rated NC-17.)

I had considered installing an insulated subfloor by laying down a vapor barrier, then 2x4 sleepers and putting some kind of rigid foam insulation between them. However, this would have made that first step up the stairs really short and probably require me to raise all the stairs to get it to code. Also, the door that leads outside would have to be raised to clear such a subfloor, or I would have to have a step-down area by the door which would have been a major tripping hazard.

My dad suggested I look up something called System Platon (Fig. 3). Genius*! This stuff is made of 24mil dimpled polyethylene, which creates an impermeable moisture barrier, yet leaves a small airspace to allow the concrete floor to dry out if it becomes wet. You can lay down tongue-and-groove OSB right on top of it, giving you a dry subfloor that is not as cold as the concrete beneath it and costs less than 1.5 inches of headroom! My basement door still opens (and still has enough clearance for whatever finished flooring I choose, probably a wood laminate,) and the bottom stair step is not noticeably different in height than the rest of the steps.

In the next installment, I will discuss how I created my basement plans and obtained my building permits. Don't you just love cliffhanger endings?

* Yes, this refers to my dad and the inventor of System Platon.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2006-12-16T18:23:00.000-05:00

I apparently also "look" like some other celebrities, but they were people I'd never heard of, or people I don't want to look like.

It told me not to smile so I didn't.

If I use a picture of me dressed up like Clark Kent for Halloween, then I look like these people:

I was kinda hoping that one would pick up Bono. But Kate Bosworth!? Must be my cheekbones.

UPDATE: We did one of Ann's pictures and she also matched Chester Bennington (from Linkin Park)! Too weird...

You have to write in cursive to go to grad school

2006-12-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know that? I was shocked. I pretty much abandoned cursive after high school. I found I could write as fast and probably much more legibly if I just printed. The only thing I write in cursive is my signature, which - if you've seen it - proves the legibility part of my reasoning.

So I went to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test last night in Fairfax, and when I showed up they gave me a clipboard with a carbon copy form on it. It asked me to "Write, DO NOT PRINT, the following statement in the space provided."

The statement was something about me really being me, or agreeing not to cheat, or something. I don't actually know what it said. I was so flustered that I had to write in cursive for the first time in over a decade, it took all my concentration to focus on each word and try to remember how to form letters like "k" and "b" and to get the right number of humps on "n" and "m." I couldn't figure out how to do a capital "I," so I printed the first one. The others ended up looking like lowercase f's. I think it took me 5 minutes to copy three sentences. Who knew checking in would be the hardest part of the test?

So what's the logic here? Does success in grad school have something to do with knowing how to write in cursive? Or do they just think people who print an oath are more likely to break it than people who write it in longhand?

"Ready or not, here I come!"

2006-12-04T16:58:00.000-05:00

It looks like the days of "just the two of us" are numbered. Can't wait for next summer!

Can you believe my sisters already have 6 children and I have never changed any of their diapers? The key is to never be left alone with them without a mom or grandma nearby - or at least returning soon. "What? I didn't smell anything..."

Ann says I will not be able to get away with that when it is my own child.

The picture here is from November 22, at 11 weeks. See the rest of the picture set on Ann's Flickr page: Ultrasound

Memories

2006-07-20T23:01:00.000-04:00

So this is my favorite picture from my wedding. Ann and I got married at sunset by the water in Clearwater Beach, Florida. (This was waaaaay back in 2003. Ah, we were so young.)

Our church uses this picture for their Preparing For Marriage classes. That makes us, like, kinda famous, right?

(Sorry for the random nature of this entry. I'm just trying to learn how to use this thing. I'm also adding filler so it looks like I've been doing this for awhile...)

I give up

2006-07-20T06:30:00.000-04:00

Well, I was hosting my own blog with Movable Type and trying to use Gallery software to keep track of my pictures, but that's over. My (soon-to-be-former) web host broke something on my Gallery during the 6-month period between my first and second blog entry. :)

Anyway, I have not been able to fix it, so I give up. Here I am at blogger.com. And I guess I'll use Flickr to store my photos. As a bonus, it'll be completely free! Now I can take that $10/month I'll save on webhosting and add it to my mortgage payment, so I'll pay off my house in mid-September of 2034 instead of late November. Sweet!

What remains to be seen is whether I will actually update this blog more often than my original blog. And also whether anyone will actually take the time to look at it even if I do.