Out with the old; rolling in the new

With Baby Miller now the size of an orange and growing, we need to make room for the little gal/guy. Specifically, we will need to free up personal time (working with HR now to see what that looks like) and personal space (our home is cozy and about to get even cozier).

Baby-proofing will come later but we've already begun taking a 10,000 foot view of our situation to see what big decisions we can take care of before sleep deprivation begins to cloud our judgement. One such decision is how we will transport Baby Miller.

It occurred to me one day that I rarely, if ever, see a parent folding up the driver seat in their two-door car to reach into the back to pull out a child. Combined with the fact that Laine is not comfortable driving a manual, it seemed my Scion TC's days were numbered.

As you probably know, I often live in extremes. I approach many decisions with a "go big or go home" mentality. So, after realizing that I would need to trade in my two-door for a more "practical" automobile, my first instinct was to go with a minivan. Maybe like the one pictured to the right.


I'm unclear on why minivans are judged so harshly by young parents. I've heard peers equate buying a minivan to "selling out." I reject this notion for two reasons. One, there's never an explanation about what "selling out" really means. Isn't becoming a parent "selling out" single life broadly? Second, no one can argue with the practicality of a minivan. If asked to identify what features you'd like in a vehicle, you'd undoubtedly end up pulling back to the curtain to find a minivan.

And the poor minivan designers are unable to address this concern. Look at that picture above - taken on an angle, that Mazda looks like it is "zooming" around that tight corner. And yet, the minivan's fate seems to be sealed. The minivan will always be the fanny-pack of the automotive industry. We'd all rather stuff our pockets.

If you didn't realize, there are approximately a million different cars for sale and it's a real task to know where to begin. We chose to rule out sedans and anything smaller, leaving us with SUVs and other cars that strive for minivan features without actually being a minivan.

We put the pedal to the floor on the car search and test drove a number of cars in just a few days. Most of the salesmen were pleasant and seemed to be interested in helping us. "King" James and his manager at the Mazda dealership were the one exception. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. I half wonder if we left before the camera crew could jump out and tell us that we were on some prank television show.

After a few days of consistent shopping, online searching, and dreaming of cars, we finally decided to pull the trigger on a lightly used 2010 Mazda CX-7 from Extreme Kia. It was the one care that both Laine and I felt really good about as soon as we sat down inside and, after looking at a few more cars, it was the car we both felt was right.

Now, all we need is a baby seat, "baby on board" window sign, and Baby Miller.

Mother's Day

Even though Baby Miller isn't due until mid November, we celebrated our first Mother-to-be day this year. Jaime and Jesse sent this nice flower arrangement.

We also had a good time visiting the Braggs and Ms. Jane at their home in LaGrange Park. Jane has funny hair and a lot of personality. Not to mention her bright blue eyes.

 

Uncle Graeme

Graeme was our first visitor since we began sharing the baby news. He came from Champaign to do laundry at our house and watch the Bulls / Heat game. The Bulls came in leading the series 1-0 but lost by 38! He also presented flowers and a nice card on behalf of him and Nina. What a guy.

Coming November 2013: Baby Miller

If you're wondering what will bring someone back to blogging, it's the anticipation of a child.
I have forsaken this blog but am finally recommitting because Laine and I are expecting a baby person to join our family in mid November 2013.
We told our parents and siblings on Saturday, May 4th. Everyone reacted about how we'd expect them to, including Eric who sent this photo and text after Alison shared the news with him.

"The face I actually made when I heard the news!! Soooo happy for you guys!!"

Spreading the news makes it real in a way that it hasn't been up to this point. Laine and I have certainly been excited but when we talked, it still seemed very hypothetical. Now that the cat is out of the bag and we're starting to get questions from people other than just one another, it's only going to become more exciting.

Deep freeze

For our 3rd anniversary, Shirls and Doc got us this deep freezer. We somehow fit it into the back of the Scion and drove it home from Menards. We even carried it downstairs, set it up and read the instructions.

Single stream recycling

Pretty excited about our new Bloomington-issued 90 gallon recycling bin. I've been waiting for this bad boy for months. Recycling doesn't get any easier than this.

Power Smart

What's the average length of time elapsed between your typical blog? Whatever it is, I think I probably  quadrupled it.

This post comes from the basement of 5 Ridgewood Terrace in Bloomington, Il. Why is he writing in the basement? you might ask. Short answer, it's because I signed us up for Power Smart pricing through Ameren, our electric company. Long answer, read on.

I am a bit compulsive about electricity usage in our house. I don't like lights on in rooms that no one is occupying; I unplug power cords when the items are not in use; I just can't seem to find the perfect light timer. When compact fluorescents came on the market, I was all in. I purchased over $100 of light bulbs at one time. I even bought compact fluorescents for my dad for Christmas. (sorry Dad)

Knowing that I'd just reduced electricity output by approximately 75%  by switching to CFLs allowed me to relax a bit. But that was only a temporary fix.

A few months ago, I noticed an insert in my electric bill that mentioned Power Smart Pricing. I skimmed it over and I knew this was something we had to try. The way it works. If you're not Power Smart (power dumb, I suppose), you power costs you the same amount at 10 a.m. as it costs at 5 p.m. and you just pay for your usage. The idea with Power Smart Pricing is you pay whatever power costs at the time that you are using it. So, if power costs 2.7 cents/kWh at 10 a.m. you pay that amount at that time but if it costs 9.2 cents/kWh at 5 p.m. you pay that amount at that time. By enrolling in the program, you can save money and help keep the grids from getting overwhelmed by shifting your power usage to less popular times.

Sounded like a great idea to me. I pitched it to Laine and she was immediately on board. "If there's anyone who would actually pay attention and benefit from a program like this, it would be you" she told me. I filled out some paperwork, a guy came out and installed something on our meter and we were up and running.

The first few weeks were pretty uneventful. We would check the cost of power each day on a website and there wasn't much change during the month of May. There wasn't a big price swing from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. so, while we still tried to lean toward the cheaper hours, we weren't too concerned. Then June came. In May, the highest cost of power I had seen was somewhere in the 5 cent range, but 3 cents was pretty average. When I checked prices this morning, I saw my first hour of 9.6 cent power -- it was scary and exhilarating.

Over the course of the day the price of power was set to creep up hour by hour. 8 a.m. - 4.3, 9 a.m. - 5.2, 10 a.m. - 5.8, 11 a.m. - 6.5, 12 p.m. - 7.1 (the tension is building), 1 p.m. - 7.5, 2 p.m. - 9.6, 3 p.m. - 9.6, 4 p.m. - 8.5, etc. On the website, any hour that's over 4 cents is highlighted in yellow and any hour that's over 8 cents is highlighted in red. This was my first red sighting.

Don't worry though, we set had a plan. We cranked the AC from 7 a.m. until 8 a.m. while power was still under 4 cents. Then, we shut everything off and left for work. I felt good about the plan. I left the house at 70 degrees at 8 a.m. and it was going to be about 94 degrees outside. When I got home at 5 p.m. it was 80 degrees in the house. I escaped to Walgreens to run some errands but returned to an 82 degree house at 6:00 and that's where the temperature leveled off.

82 degrees is a pretty warm house but that's just the main floor. Turns out our basement stays at a cool 74 degrees. So, that's why I'm writing from my basement.