Steven & Lisa Solomon Family: Leave has left

First, let me address the previous post. Some of you did not get the Top Gun references. [Including your wife -- Lisa] For those of you who need a refresher on this classic cinema, the DVD is available at our house for checking out - or watching on the plasma in the basement - but until we get an upconvert DVD player, it will not look quite as stunning as it should (or it plays on HDNet movies and we can TiVO it). Optional with watching it here will be Steven talking throughout the movie (no, I don't really do that - except in a few notable scenes).

Today (really yesterday but I'm backdating this post so it doesn't appear that I really am writing at 2:30am Monday morning due to Ms. Fussy) marks a few notable commemorations. One, Melissa is now three weeks old. Two, grandparents Solomon have been married for 39 years (are you supposed to do the same thing with anniversaries as age - so they have been married for 19 years and holding?). Three, this is the last official day of Steven's paternity leave.

Some of you may know that last week wasn't what most people would term as "leave" or "vacation", because that means one is not on email, editing documents, on conference calls, or going into the office. Despite reviewing documents at 2am and other non-business hour times (driven by Melissa's schedule) , everything got accomplished that needed to. But since there are only 24 hours in a day, something had to give. Let's see a partial list of what Steven accomplished off his to-do list on his last few days off:

changed lots of poopy diapers
fixed crib so Melissa can sleep in it (currently, it is being used as a display shelf)
load / unload and run the dishwasher a few times [this is partially due to Steven's "perfect" method in his head to load the dishwasher - no matter who loads it, there is always some way Steven has to move things to reach his pinnacle of precision -- Lisa]
brew sun tea (decaf for Lisa)
supervise fireplace masons (which included hanging out on the roof a few times)
string of return / exchange errands (including buying over 200 diapers - thanks to a friend who can remain anonymous unless she wants to reveal herself, I found out that diaper purchasing can be a sport as how to find them cheaper - if you are curious, Babies-r-Us using coupons - got it down to below $0.18 / diaper - booyah)

Now let's see all the things that Lisa said had to get done and now are procrastinated further in the future:

clear desk off
hang pictures
buy nightstand or similar furniture for Melissa's room
relax [hm, something doesn't seem quite right about this item -- Lisa]
file papers in desk
put stuff in attic for Melissa that she can't use right now
fix Lisa's closet drawer that keeps falling off
daily back scratches for Lisa
pimp my ride (with mirror to see car seat and sun shades - the Camry is plenty pimp already sporting the TiVO sticker and bruises from multiple hit-and-runs)

Enough rambling on. The real reason you tune in is for pictures. We haven't been quite as good without grandmother Gail at the shutter but here are a few good ones to keep you coming back for more:

Melissa and mommy