Alex had another milestone last night: his first fit in a restaurant. We went to Fort Wayne last night to do some shopping, including buying his first high chair at Babies R Us. Alex also spotted his new favorite toy there; I was looking at the rattles and things and showed him some to see if he liked any. One in particular he reached for, then cried when I put it back on the shelf. So I got that one, and eventually had to open the package and give it to him right in the store. Before we were done shopping, he cried when he dropped it twice. He also cried when he dropped it in the car. He's never done that for a toy before, so I guess it's his new favorite. After that, we were going to go to the mall because I need some new jeans, but first we went to dinner. At the restaurant he became inconsolable so we ate quickly and went home. Lesson learned: if we go to Fort Wayne, go on a weekend because going after I get out of work means he's up too late. We also had bowling today; all of us did much better than last time.

Today we took Alex to the zoo for the first time. Fort Wayne has a very nice children's zoo, complete with African veldt, Indonesian rainforest, and Hoosier farm. He seemed to like the fish best, though. I don't think he was paying much attention to most other animals. The goats on the farm really liked him. After the zoo we test drove a new Hyundai Santa Fe. Beth had seen them and liked the look and I've read some good things about them. Apparently Hyundai has improved their quality considerably of late. Beth liked it well enough to consider it her next car, but I'm not sure about it yet. Anyway, a new car is months away. The first day of bowling season was last week, and it seems we have forgotten how to bowl. The first game, Steve bowled a 102 and he had the high score on the team. I bowled a 96 in the first game. It's been a long time since I couldn't break 100. We were a little better in the next two games but not up to where we were last year. Beth was...well, awful, but we chalk that up to not being used to bowling while she's not pregnant. She got better the more pregnant she got last season. Speaking of that, Alex rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time the other night. He's been going from back to tummy for quite a while now.

I got back from Kansas City yesterday. I went on a business trip to do a factory acceptance on a machine Zimmer had to send back to the vendor for a rebuild. I was glad I got back yesterday so I didn't have to fly on 9/11. I was by myself, and didn't have the vendor pay for all sorts of food, drinks, and Lakers tickets like the trip to L.A. in May, but the guys at the plant told me that the Royals had a promo going on with Krispy Kreme where if the Royals get 12 hits in a game, all the ticket holders get a free dozen donuts. So, I went to a Royals game. It was less than memorable, as I already have forgotten nearly everything about the game except they lost to Cleveland and got 11 hits. I also never got to any of those famous Kansas City steakhouses (if there are any...I just assumed) because I didn't feel like extending the effort to find one by myself. I ate at Ruby Tuesday twice.

Today was tox-away day in Fort Wayne, where you could haul any toxic household chemicals that you don't know how to get rid of to a collection site and for a nominal fee, get rid of them. There were a few cans of roofing cement and oil-based paint in the garage when I bought the house so I got rid of them for $5. They will not, alas, take latex paint or shingles, so the back of the truck is still full of those. Alex was fussy-to-mad nearly the entire time in the truck today. He hasn't been riding well lately, I don't know why. His two front upper teeth have now broken through so the snot has reduced greatly but the drool is still there big time.

Laura just left us after visiting since the middle of last week. She came for a Tastefully Simple party that Beth hosted and was given by her high school friend Lynn, then stayed for the long weekend. Saturday (nice and sunny) we went to the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth, where Beth and I found something we'd been looking for for nearly a year: an engraved wooden plaque that says "The Knights, Warsaw In" for us to hang on our trailer when we go camping. We also sampled...I am not making this up...a deep-fried Twinkie. Yes, there are apparently those who believe that a Twinkie is not fattening enough as is, so they came up with deep-frying it. However, I must say it was REALLY GOOD. Sunday we went to Chicago and spent the night. We did the Museum of Science and Industry but only had about 2 hours before it closed, so we hit the highlights of the new exhibits...trains and planes, mostly...before getting to the Omnimax show about helicopters, which startled Alex quite a bit. He watched the show but the loud noises bothered him, so I watched it holding him in the rear of the theater and took him out when it was too much. We all stayed in a hotel room about a block from the Hancock tower, at the Raphael Hotel, a room I got for $50 on Priceline.com. I think a regular price room like we got would be closer to $150. Of course, the entire time we spent in Chicago was cold, overcast, and drizzly.