February 21, 2013

So I have decided to do some DIY around my house and I am short a number of tools. So its shopping time….man-shopping time :). One of the issues though, is that having made my earlier life in another continent, I have had to leave behind most of my electrical goods because it was just not worth dealing with all the hassle of getting them to work here in China. That unfortunately included all my power tools of which I had a truck load ready for all sorts of jobs around the house. This time around I think I might try something different: Air tools. As the name suggests, they are powered by air from an air compressor. If and when the time comes for me to move on from here to another land far away (read: with different electrical standards), then I will be able to carry most of my tools with me and just get a new air compressor which is the only part of the equation that is powered from an electrical socket.

i have never bought air tools before so I was initially pretty excited about delving into this new power tools field, but it is turning into a lot more complicated a subject than I initially anticipated. You have to be a bit of a physicist and know about air volume and air pressure, etc because apparently there are an almost endless number of air compressor types and air tools and you need to make sure that the compressor you go for has the characteristics necessary to power all air tools you plan to use with it. Anyway, enough of me trying to faff around the subject, others have provided much better explanations on air compressors and their complimentary air tools, so I will leave it to them. All I have to do is buy them.  Should be simple enough but even though this is the land of almost everything manufactured, I have been hearing some horror stories as to how many fake products there are here in China, so I have decided to stick with some name-brand tools to ensure that I get something that actually works as it’s supposed to. That’s assuming that they haven’t faked the brand as well!

Up at 12:30am with a cranky baby, sitting on the couch trying to rock him to sleep, I realize the remote control is within reach. I flip on the TV and immediately stab the mute button, not wanting the results of my hours of rocking and soothing torn asunder by three seconds of Beijing Opera. Knowing that Chinese TV — even with sound — isn’t the most entertaining, I decide to head for an old standby that, through years of insomnia, has never let me down — sports.

Flipping to CCTV-5, or CCTV Olympics as it’s called now, I’m treated to a rousing match of…

Go.

Goddamn it.

June 24, 2008

In no particular order:

  • 2.5 hours of sleep is starting to feel like it’s enough
  • I now know exactly how far to put the bottle’s nipple into Will’s mouth to facilitate optimum feeding
  • The terror of picking him up has subsided
  • My hands constantly smell like wet wipes
  • I know the difference between “something’s wrong and I’m uncomfortable” crying and “come here and pick me up you heartless bastard” crying

This being a dad thing is going to work out just fine.

June 21, 2008

At just a little after 6am this morning (after just three hours of labor!) my wife gave birth to our first child, William Jeffrey Biesnecker (???), a 2.95kg (6.5lb) baby boy. While we weren’t expecting him to pop out quite so soon (the due date was July 13), both baby and mommy are doing fine. The nurses say he’s an eater — he goes through those 20ml milk meals like they were appetizers for the main course — and he’s barely cried even once (though we’ll see how he does tonight).

The delivery went smoothly, and my wife is expecting to stay in the hospital until Monday or maybe Tuesday. Her parents are staying with her during the day, and I’m going to be there at night.

The photo is of Will taken about 3 hours after delivery — he takes after his mom which, I think we can all agree, is a good thing given the options :) Thanks to everyone for their e-mailed, twittered, SMSed, and Facebooked well-wishes!