Nineteen more years...

...before Tessie can come here on her own.

This may not get us any "Parents of the Year" awards, but when Tessie expressed her birthday dining preference not simply as "Pub!" but as "Pub pub pub pub pub!" what else could we do?

A pint glass of ice water, a kiddie plate of fish and chips, and she's a very happy birthday girl.

(The party hat came from her day care - the pub doesn't provide them!)

Tessie's Two!

Today is Tessie's second birthday. Hard to believe it's been two whole years since I nearly missed her birth while sitting at a Wendy's. (Long story. Short version: I was hungry.)

In honor of the anniversary of her appearance in this world, I'd like to post the text of the announcement I sent out the next day:

Subject: Tessie is Here!

Dear Friends and Family:

I am thrilled to tell you all that our daughter, Teresa Caroline [xxx], was born at 7:12 pm yesterday, the 7th of August.

Hannah and Tessie (as we have been calling her) will continue to convalesce at the hospital; Tessie was delivered by C-section after a lengthy and, well, laborious, period of labor. She is strong and healthy, exceptionally cute, and so alert after delivery she looked like she was taking notes. If she grows up to be an obstetrician, we'll know when she got the idea.

Mother and daughter are expected to be released from the hospital on Thursday or Friday, but Hannah's recovery is already ahead of schedule. (She's really tough - I'm so proud of her!)

Tessie, meanwhile, has charmed us all by being quietly well behaved. I think she may not have figured out crying yet, and we're in no hurry to teach her. She is feeding well, sleeping a lot, and not doing much else, but she does have the ability to make displeased expressions at the sound of my singing. (Smart kid!)

The attached pdf file has a photo and a bit of data, so if it won't open for you, here are the key facts: weight: 8 pounds, 7.6 ounces (3845 grams) length: 21.5 inches (546 mm)

That's it for now; it's been a long couple of days. Thank you for sharing our happiness; we hope to see as many of you as we can soon.

Greg (& Hannah & Tessie)

Manny Wins!

By a twist of fate, we happened to have tickets to today's Dodgers game. Unlike many of our fellow visitors to Dodger Stadium today, our tickets were purchased long before the trade that brought the Dodgers their new left fielder, Mr. Manuel Aristedes Ramirez. Last week's trade made us all the more eager to attend; Tessie was too excited to sleep last night, so she napped on the way to the game.

Manny has done a lot in a short time to "energize the fan base" as they say. Before the trade, the Dodgers were hovering around .500 in a division (the NL West) that can charitably be described as mediocre. Since the arrival of the Dreadlocked One (who, incidentally, will be required to adhere to his new team's more conservative tonsorial policy, um, eventually), local media have been going nuts with "Manny sightings" around town and ticket sales have picked up dramatically. Manny was acquired during a ten-game homestand; the average attendance for the pre-Manny games was a respectable 41,344, but with Manny, the Dodgers have averaged 54,252. (Capacity is 56,000. Put another way, Dodger Stadium was 97% full all weekend.)

Manny did not disappoint. By the fifth inning he was 3-for-3, a triple short of the cycle. He finished the day 4-for-5 (although I think his fourth hit should have been an error on the Arizona third baseman), and the Dodgers won, 9-3, on a sweltering day at the ballpark.

For now, the fans are happy. "Manny being Manny" may have been an act in Boston all along; today we saw a focused player who ran out ground balls and alertly reacted to other batters whether he was in the field or on the basepaths.

As a Red Sox and Dodgers fan, I am conflicted. Manny was frustrated by his contract with Boston, specifically the two option years the Red Sox held at $20 million each, that could have kept him there until 2010. Instead of taking it out on his agent (you know, the guy actually responsible for creating that situation), he took it out on his team. I believe he tried to undermine his own value to the Red Sox, through a series of calculated actions, with the intent that they would find him unworthy of $20 million for next year. That would make Manny a free agent, free to negotiate and sign with any other team. Obviously, he thinks he'll get more than $20 million on the open market next year.

He may actually be worth more. He has amazing baseball skills, as he has demonstrated here over the last three days. But how can he be worth anything as a teammate when he has put his future paycheck ahead of his current team's success? After watching him today, I am convinced that he was holding back in Boston, and I am convinced they did the right thing in trading him. Manny joins a long list of player who left the Red Sox too early, but he left them no other choice.

Either that, or National League pitching just plain stinks.

Tessie knows none of this. She is simply happy to see her favorite player, even if she doesn't fully appreciate the mercenary characteristics that brought him here for her amusement. After the eighth inning, when got his fourth hit, he was replaced in left field by Juan Pierre. So Manny's day was done, as ours soon would be. Walking back to the car, we asked Tessie "Who won the game?"

"Manny won!" she replied.

Home Improvement

Travels with Tessie World Headquarters is starting to shape up. We still don't have pictures up on the walls, and there are just a few cardboard boxes remaining to be unloaded, but just about everything has settled down and we can get around to living in our new home. (Or as Tessie calls it, "New House." As in: "Where are we going, Tessie?" "New House!")

I've spent a considerable amount of time in the garage, trying to make it a functional workspace. The previous owner left behind a bit of a mess, and I've been clearing it out, as well as reconfiguring the space (adding storage, etc.) a bit at a time. I'm about half done. Upcoming projects out there include replacing the doors and windows, tearing out the non-functional plumbing, and building a workbench. That'll keep me busy for a while.

Inside the house, new projects pop up faster than the existing ones get resolved, but I understand that's par for the home ownership course, at least in the early going. On the project list are the following items:

• fix the dripping shower
• fix the pet door opening left by the previous owner
• get drapes/curtains/blinds
• add a shelf and hanger rod to Tessie's closet
• paint new wood that replaced the termite-damaged stuff
• replace the kitchen faucet

And those are just the highlights. There's a lot of even more mundane stuff to deal with. Like last weekend, I replaced a few of our damaged crawlspace vents by fabricating new custom ones. (Any two the same? No. Any of them square? No. Silly questions!) This task moved up to the top of the list one night when we heard something gnawing underneath the kitchen. We have squirrels, opossums, raccoons and skunks in the area; any of them could have been the culprit, but access to the crawlspace is now more of a challenge for them.

Tessie is very excited about all the changes going on. She loves to come out and visit while I'm working in the garage, frequently pushing a broom and saying "I'm sweeping Daddy's mess!" She's already demonstrated her prowess with the screwdriver, lately it's been the tape measure she can't seem to keep her hands off of. Mommy and Daddy did an awful lot of this sort of thing while shopping for the new couch, so it must be important, right?

Traded!

Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox' dreadlocked, baggy-pants left-fielding malcontent, has gotten his wish and been banished, er, traded, to the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Note: Not the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, just the Los Angeles Dodgers. Period. See how that works, Arte Moreno?) The Red Sox may miss his powerful bat, but the man had worn out his welcome with his erratic defensive play, lackadaisical approach to running, criticism of management, and the frequent self-diagnosed ailments that would keep him from playing in important games.

He was an instrumental part of the 2004 and 2007 World Championship teams, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2004 World Series. It was the 2004 team in whose honor Tessie was named, so Manny's departure, though inevitable and probably the best thing for all concerned, brings a touch of sadness.

The sadness is compounded by the fact that Manny was Tessie's favorite player. She never expressed that sentiment as such, but it was obvious when watching games. The happy-go-lucky outfielder with the baggy pants and wild hair was immediately recognizable (although Tessie occasionally thought that similarly coiffed and complected Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero was also Manny), and Tessie would refer to all Red Sox players as "Manny" until she recognized them for themselves. Her first four-word sentence may actually have been "Manny hit home run!" The last time we watched the Red Sox, Manny did in fact hit a home run, much to Tessie's delight. She'll miss seeing him in a Red Sox uniform, I'm sure.

The good news is that he's joined our local team, and we'll be seeing him in his new uniform this weekend. Tessie is already looking forward to it.