Hello, is Mr. SaLL-mon there...?

For those of you who have tried to call us around 5 or 6pm and haven't ever caught us home it may just be that we think that you are telemarketers. BellSouth "which has joined up with the new AT&T "(I'm sick of hearing that phrase...) sold our phone number (before we had even used it) to the various "non-non-profit" organizations and any other company offering a free Mercedes because "after all Mr. Salmon you entered your name in this contest..." (Oh, really?) Anyway, I don't have any complaints about the phone service and I don't really mind BellT&T but the telemarketers are a bit much. However, recently I have found a new counter attack. I answer the phone at those times when Anya is bawling! I usually ask the telemarketer "Can you hear that?" If they say "No", I move Anya closer to the phone and give them an earful, then I say (completely honestly too) "I'm a little busy and I can't hear you... You'll have to call back!" Don't worry. I know they will call me back. I know the people that design the software these companies use... The marketing research is all tucked away in a little variable in some code that a software engineer wrote, which probably will tell them to call me back in exactly 3 months... I could set my watch by it! Anyway, Anya's perfect timing with her crying spell made me feel better about that one. So, with all the benefits of having a little baby around I found one more! (And now I can't wait to receive a call from that credit card company again...)

The hero of the day:

Yes. Technically "heroine"... I know.

2 Months = 400 diapers

Happy Birthday Anya!

We passed the 400 diapers milestone today to celebrate Anya's two month birthday! Hoo-raw! Only one month to go before I beat my record of keeping things alive under my care longer than 3 months... (Back when I was a cub scout I received my "pet keepers badge" by keeping my only pet, a hamster, alive one day passed the requirement of 3 months... I believe my hamster died on the 91st day...He was sick from the 80th day onward...)

Anyway, the 400 diapers is also an interesting statistic. At this rate by the time Anya is my age she will have used approximately 62600 diapers! Let's hope she is potty trained sometime before age 26. Looking the other way, she uses a diaper approximately every 216 minutes.

Oh... gotta go. It's the 215th minute and it takes a full minute and a half to get her our of her sleeper!

Does my breath smell?

Today Anya was a little concerned about her breath. We caught her breathing into her hand and then asking for a breath mint. I don't blame her... She hasn't brushed her teeth since she was born!

If you want to get a sense for how she feels try going for two months without brushing YOUR teeth... See what people start saying to you...

Still, that wasn't enough to keep Aunt Loraine away. Both Anya and Aunt Loraine (we think) enjoyed a little visit to her and Uncle Mark's house for dinner and some time in someone else's arms other than mom or dad's... Loraine spoiled little Anya by holding her for the majority of the time. I know Anya liked that, and we hope Loraine did too. After all, Anya can be fairly intense recently...

We also felt badly for our cousin-in-law Matt Calloway. He was in two car accidents last week. Nine years without a single problem and wham... (literally)... goes his perfect record. Neither one was his fault though. (It can't be your fault when your car is parked and you aren't in it!) Anyway, his car looks pretty roughed up. I won't write about it in detail here, as I think the story will probably make it to their blog and I don't want to "blog burgle."

In this last picture, Anya was so shocked that I caught her smelling her breath that she covered her eyes in complete embarrassment...

Move over Papa John

No--not the pizza, the person--Mama Lindy is bloggin' today.

Occasionally Anya Jo and I watch the news together. Well, we have heard some very funny things the last few weeks and wanted to share them. The first was a news bit about a dog show. There were prizes for all kinds of things, down to the nicest tongue. And there were competitors from, and this is a quote from the news anchor, "all over the United States and even three states in Canada." (If you don't get what's wrong with that statement, you can ask me and I'll explain.)

The second was that often (it seems like daily) the news is reporting another police shooting in DeKalb county (yes, the county we live in--but we live way northwest of all the action fortunately, don't worry Mom). I have no idea why anyone wants to be a cop in DeKalb, but anyway, back to my story. The news was reporting that DeKalb county police were instituting a special training in response to all of the shootings. Well, ironically WHILE this is being reported, they interrupt with a breaking news piece of guess what? Yes, another police shooting in DeKalb county!

Third, and lastly, the news was reporting that some of the Georgia political figures want to make the punishment more harsh for those who drive without a license. I'm not talking about getting pulled over and you happen to have left your license at home or something. I mean you don't possess a driver's license at all. Well, the news included a clip of a man who stated that this new law "is targeted to discriminate against the Latino community. Illegal immigrants won't feel welcome in Georgia and might go somewhere else."

Well let's be honest, you are probably coming to this blog to look at pictures of Anya and only skimmed through the above content, but John has been asking me to blog for many days now, so I know at least he will read it. So the first two are some of my attempts to catch Anya smiling . . . it didn't really work, but I was close. The third picture is Anya looking pretty in pink (thanks Camrell) and the last photo is Anya getting ready to go outside for a walk.

Marta Moment #3

Okay... A Marta moment... A weird one...

I was waiting for the train to arrive at my station and a certain fellow, visibly troubled, came up to me and asked me if he could use a pen, I assume to write some important number or information down quickly. Surprisingly I didn't have a pen on me at the time, which is rare. I usually keep a pen on me to write notes etc. while I'm reading various papers on the train. But that day I didn't. I said "Sorry " and then I watched him ask a few more people with out any luck. He was becoming more and more irritable with every rejection. After the train arrived I saw him board the same car as me and walk down the entire car and sit down directly behind me a little worried. After the train lurched forward the same man asked a teenager nearby if he could borrow a pen. The teenager handed him a relatively nice ink pen - a little nicer than the kind that companies hand out with their name or logo on them at conferences or job fairs... After the man grabbed the pen, he immediately upcapped the pen, ripped off the outer casing and threw everything on the floor keeping only the thin, inner, ink tube in his hands. The teenager (and I) was a little confused. We then watched the man shove the thin tube into a cast on his arm (the cast now visible after pulling up his sleeve) to scratch the skin beneath it. He had an itch. Obviously. And had been quite bothered by it. The scratching continued for a few moments and must have done the job because at the next station, the man threw the remaining pen part (the ink tube) onto the ground, got up and left the train without a word. After the door closed shut, I didn't really know what to say to the teenager except "Sorry about your pen. I suppose you can't use it now." He replied, "Yah. That's too bad."...

Homework's In! So, I'm Back!

It was a bit of a rough week. I had a large homework assignment due on Thursday and spent close to 30 hours working on it during the prior three days. Although I wasn't a procrastinator, I still found myself burning the midnight candle at 3 am Thursday morning trying to finish up the assignment. (Actually, if I was a procrastinator I would have never finished...) Anyway, the problem with going to school on public transportation is that there is a limit to how late the Marta train operates. Plan accordingly. At about 2:30am, I found myself stuck at school with no convenient way to get home. I called (and woke-up) Lindy and she and Anya were ready to make the trip down to pick me up. What a great bunch of girls! However, I thought it might be safer (and a little less inconvenient for a majority of us) to not have them pick me up, especially since I would have to get back on the train at about 5am and come back to school to finish my assignment before handing it in at noon. So I said goodnight and goodbye and worked for a few more hours before leaving my office to find a couch somewhere in the engineering building. I found one beside a little cubicle and curled up for a couple of hours. Ah.... Sleeping over at school.... Always a treat. I later had to move up a couple of floors and finish my night on a thinly covered cement floor. The cold wasn't as bad as waking up every 10 minutes to turn over and switch the body parts which held the pressure of my body weight. It reminded me of a period of time in Russia when I did the same thing for many nights in a row... (Except it was colder... and harder...we just don't make cement as hard as we used to....)

Anyway, it's been nice to catch up with my family after not seeing them for 36 hours. Anya learned how to talk, walk, read and sit up on the couch during my absence. In the following picture she was upset with me for taking her book away while she studied calculus with her mom. (Hey! Give it back!)


Although she's reading now, she still likes to eat like a baby. I asked her what she wanted to eat. She said, "Milk, dad. Don't you know?"


But after a hearty meal (and a change of clothes) it was back to the couch sitting around and reading some more great books.


When she was tired of that, it was time for a night on the town! She changed into one of her dresses and received more compliments on her cuteness than I have in my life!

Return of the Claws

If you have been following this blog you will remember that we removed Anya's finger nails a few weeks ago. The surgery was flawless yet we knew that the condition would reappear and plaque us all again. As predicted these "keratin blades" grew back stronger and fortified with larger doses of protein than even we could imagine. They left a vengeful wake of damage behind them and left poor little Anya with a face full of wounds... Yes, they even turned on their own master and displayed their malevolence in ways thought impossible:


We may have to increase the hours that Anya trains for boxing and that may mean a return... of the gloves!

Happy Groundhog Day!

"It's cold out there today - It's cold out there everyday..."

Yes, it is. I was kind of excited to see some ice outside this week for the first time since I arrived in Atlanta. I took a picture but before the shutter opened the ice had melted. I guess I'll try next year. But I did read that the official Punxsutawney groundhog did not see his shadow so there definitely won't be another chance for such a picture until we go to Utah later next month. In my heart of hearts, I was hoping for a cancellation of school and work due to an ice storm. I also wanted to see what Georgian drivers do when everything is covered in ice. They seem to freak out with even the slightest chance of forecasted bad weather so I expect that if an ice storm ever hits it will be great entertainment for all.

Anya has been fighting the cold with her new blanket vest thing... I don't know quite how to describe it. It is a blanket that you wear... Not a poncho... Not a thick toga... I don't know... I think this picture doesn't even explain it... I'll have to take a better one.


Well, enough about weather... Today, Anya celebrated her six week birthday. The time has passed by quickly. I can hardly believe that she has been around that long. I often feel like I'm still getting used to a third person in our apartment. I now wonder if parents ever get used to living with their kids... (maybe that's why mine were quite excited when I moved out...) Since her birthday fell on Groundhog Day we celebrated by asking Anya if see could see her shadow. At about six weeks we read that babies can see clearly to only a couple of feet. We assume she could not see her shadow since her shadow is small (after all she is small!), her eyesight isn't completely developed and she likes to keep her eyes closed most of the day. Thus, it looks like the "climate" in our own house will be nothing but flowers and sunshine, which hopefully equates to happy babies and sleeping throughout the night... We can at least hope for an "early spring."

A Basket Full of Joy

Anya is a day short of her 6th week birthday (she is also "short" in general)... We put her in a little basket that was once filled with some nice treats delivered by Julianne Echols a little while ago. Thank you! The contents were delicious however I think the current contents are even better! We hope to take the contents for a picnic soon. Lunch will be milk. Anya's favorite food... her only food...

As many of you know I enjoy basketball and this was Anya's first introduction to the sport... Yes, there wasn't even a ball in sight and the basket wasn't round or even one inch off the ground, but we started some training in this sport as well. We worked on holding her head up. I remember many coaches getting after me and my team-mates to keep my head up and not look down at the ball while I dribbled... Well, I tried to help Anya keep her head up and not look down at the ground while she dribbled drool...