Does anybody know how to make Photoshop kern worth a shit? My text always turns out like this:

I usually have to create my text as a selection, fill it with the color I want it to be, then manually select and move each character with the marquee tool...it's quite a pain in the ass. There's got to be a better way.

Making babies is fun and easy, but taking care of them is hard. =) Neither my wife nor I have gotten much sleep the past couple nights, but Michael sleeps a lot during the day, so we nap when we can. Still, I'm very happy.

My wife only got two hours of sleep last night, though, and her mom pressured her into going to work for a couple hours this morning, so I'm not very happy about that. Her whole family can die and go to hell for all I care, the selfish bitches. See, her mom owns a scrapbook store, and Traci works there. Her mom claims she bought the store for Traci's benefit, though Traci only gets paid about $2.00/hour, so while Traci's working, her mom is raking in all the money. I don't see how pressuring your own daughter into working just two days after bringing her newborn son home from the hospital, and after major surgery, can be considered "for her own benefit."

Finally, it looks like we'll get to take the baby home on Sunday. We have to stay at the hospital all day tomorrow and all Saturday night so Traci can nurse Michael, and as long as he does ok with that, we get to take him home. =)

Well, Michael's finally eating real food instead of being fed through an IV. Traci even got to breast-feed him yesterday. We're feeling more and more normal, but it won't quite be normal 'til we are home with him.

Traci is starting to get over her cold, but mine is starting to get worse. Traci's doctor originally thought she had pneumonia, but after an x-ray, they decided it was just a really bad cold. She had it two weeks before Michael was born, and they think that was partially to blame for the low amniotic fluid and his lack of weight-gain. Traci's on pain medication and antibiotics, and I'm taking tons of DayQuil and NyQuil.

I got a letter from Price City's insurance company last week informing me that they weren't going to pay for any of the damages to my basement. The letter claimed that Price City was not negligent, and that they clean their sewers once a year, which they believe is sufficient enough to not cause back-ups. I went to Price yesterday to pay some bills and get some stuff that we needed up here, and I stopped by Price City's offices to talk to somebody. The lady I talked to pretty much told me, "Tough shit, deal with it." I asked to speak with her boss, who was the mayor as it turned out, but she said he was out of town (yeah, right). So I got pretty irate and started yelling at her, and when I grabbed my letter off her desk on my way out, I sent some stuff on her desk flying across the room, and she started freaking out and said she was going to call the police. I just said, "Fuck you, bitch!" and left. I don't know if she did call them, because I left in quite a hurry. I went to my homeowner's insurance company and explained the situation to them. If Price City says they're not liable, then my homeowner's insurance has to cover it. And of course, they don't want to because it's clearly Price City's fault, so my insurance agent is going to get their attorneys to handle the case. So hopefully my insurance company's attorneys can duke it out with Price City's attorneys, and the loser will be forced to pay.

Little Mikey's doing much the same as he was yesterday, but the nurse said he probably won't start feeding normally for a couple more days, which means it'll be more like a week before we can take him home, though Traci should get discharged Tuesday. So we're going to stay at Jaysen's (my bro-in-law) until we can take the baby home. I'm going into work tomorrow to tell them that we had the baby, and that they shouldn't expect to see me for at least a week, unless I get really bored and decide to save a few vacation days (or unless he gets better faster). =)

I was pretty upset to find out that Dale Earnhardt died today. I was watching the race here at the hospital, and when they stopped coverage after the race, I assumed everything was ok, or else they would have said otherwise. I didn't find out until my mom called me and told me. The TVs here only have up to channel 13 (cheap bastards), or else I would have been watching ESPN to find out how Earnhardt and Stewart were doing. It's just sad when somebody goes well before their time. For all you non-race fans, here's the story.

Finally, a hospital with internet access. =) A hell of a lot has been going on, so I guess I'll tell the whole story now. Traci had an ultrasound Thursday, and it showed that Michael was a little small for how far along the pregnancy was, and there was very little amniotic fluid. So the doctor decided that they were going to induce labor right then. So we went to the hospital we were planning on delivering at, which was just a few miles away. They applied some sort of gel there that was supposed to dilate the cervix, but after 3 treatments and 18 hours, nothing had happened except a few small contractions. So they gave Traci some pitosin, which is supposed to induce full labor. After a few hours of that, she hadn't dilated at all yet, and with each contraction, the baby's heart rate dropped considerably. So the doctor decided to take him c-section, because he didn't think Michael would do well (or maybe even survive) a regular delivery. So they took him c-section, and besides him being small, he was ok.

After being fed, he kept spitting everything up, so they had to feed him intravenously. That kept up for a while, and they were getting worried about it, so he was transported to another hospital, which is where I am now. Traci was moved here too, 'cause she still has a few days left to stay in bed, though we were lucky to get a room here, 'cause they were really crowded. Michael is in the newborn ICU now, and he's doing as well as he has been lately, but they just moved him to this hospital because they were better equipped to monitor him and take care of him if something else went wrong. We should find out tomorrow whether or not he'll continue to vomit his food back up, or if he'll finally keep it down. The doctor said he might possibly have a viral infection that's causing all this, so he's being treated for that now too. If he can keep it down, we might be able to take him home by Tuesday. Hopefully.

This has been a long three days. My wife had a c-section today, and gave birth to a 5 lb. 5 oz. boy, 18 inches long, named Michael Ryan Udink. He was a couple weeks early, but he's doing just fine. Traci's doctor thinks she has pneumonia, and that along with her incision is going to keep her in the hospital for at least four days. I just came home to get all our stuff together, since we didn't go up to Provo prepared for this, and I'm heading back up tonight (after a quick shower).

There's no way to describe how I feel now, but it's impossible not to cry when something like this happens. I'll post more later if I get time.

I'm up in Provo (at work) now, and I'm gonna have to spend the night up here too. My wife had a doctor's appointment today (she goes to a doctor up here 'cause all the ones in Price suck ass), and her doctor said she hadn't gained enough weight since her appointment last week, so Traci has to get an ultrasound tomorrow. The doctor said it's nothing to worry about, it's just that they're being cautious. The drive up here this morning was nasty...there was a lot of snow and fog (and it was still dark out), so much that I could see better with just my parking and fog lights on. It took about 20 minutes longer than usual to get here, and we decided it would be cheaper and safer to stay at my bro-in-law's place tonight, rather than driving home tonight, then back up tomorrow morning and back home again in the evening. I guess I'll have to borrow a different shirt to wear to work tomorrow. =)

Maybe I'd just drive home if the front driveline in my truck was intact, and I've wanted to go to a junkyard and get a new one, but I'd rather wait 'til it's not cold and muddy. I figure if I get a used driveline and brand new spiders, caps, and bearings, I'll be ok. I think the old driveline broke because a seal fell off one end of one of the spiders, the bearings fell out, and it rattled itself 'til it broke.

It looks like I'll be getting some money back from the IRS this year after all. I claimed credits for interest on the house, some charitable contributions (heheh), and since I work from home, I claimed a percentage of my house payments and utility costs. Also, the person doing my taxes said I can claim mileage for driving to work every week, which ended up helping a ton. It's 146 miles round-trip, and the government pays 32 cents a mile, so it ended up coming to about $2600. It would have been less, because I was just going to use 55 fuel receipts (55 being the number of trips I made last year), but the IRS requires you to use the 32 cents a mile calculation, which equaled about $47 a trip, but it only takes me about $35 to fill up my truck with fuel (one tank, anyway).

I wish I knew how my employer managed to take out way too little taxes last year. I filled out my W-4 according to the instructions, so you'd figure they'd take the correct amount out. Filing taxes for this year will be much better--I'm going to bitch to my employer so they take out the right amount of taxes, plus I get to claim one dependent and a child tax credit, each of which I think is a $2800 credit.

I made the mistake of taking a four-hour nap this evening, and as a result I haven't slept at all tonight so far. And I don't think I will, either. So it looks like I'm gonna download mp3s the rest of the night, and maybe get a little reading done.

Good news:

It's been a long time (too long), but Pixelated Vision is (finally) back at a new addy (http://pixelatedvision.hypermart.net/) for the time being. Just thought you might like to know..

- Brandon Kaylor

Shit...apparently my employer didn't withold enough taxes last year, and as things stand now I owe about $700 to the gub'ment. So now my wife and I are trying to find anything possible to claim as a write-off. I'm pretty sure we can whittle that $700 away to nothing, but I was really kinda hoping to get some money back. :( I'm gonna have to change my W-4 when I go into work next week, so I don't get fucked this year too...well, at least not by the IRS.

It's about damn time NASCAR updated their site. There's nothing like waiting 'til the last minute--there's only two days left before the first race. I'm still rootin' for Tony Stewart, but I wouldn't mind seeing Ricky Rudd or Dale Earnhardt kick some ass this year too.

Audiogalaxy is the shit...I've been downloading music for almost two days straight. If I had cable or dsl, I'd have a lot more than I do now, but I've already gotten several hundred megs. I just grabbed a bunch of Billy Joel and Elton John and Luscious Jackson today.

This cold is still kicking my ass, and no amount of medicine seems to help. And I'm sure it also doesn't help that I've been sanding the wood trim in the baby's room, and breathing all kinds of polyurethane or lacquer or whatever kind of dust. I've got a lot more work left to do in there, and while I'm glad the weekend's almost here, it kinda sucks that I have to spend it doing other kinds of work. I guess that's what happens when you become a parent.

Traci and I went to the hospital where she's going to deliver, and it was pretty nice. But if I thought I was nervous before, it was nothing compared to when I looked into the nursery. It really hit me that life as I know it is almost over.

My wife caught a nasty cold, and now I have it. :( I have a feeling that I'm not going to feel like working tomorrow, or maybe the next day, depending on how bad this cold gets. Mostly my head is just stuffy and my nose is runny, and I know I'm gonna have to get some Dayquil to be able to function normally while I have this.

I saw Fuel perform on Leno last week, and though I'd heard one of their songs before, I didn't think they were all that great. But they were badass on Leno, and I forgot all about how cool they were 'til I heard that same song on the radio when I was up in Provo on Friday. So I decided I'm finally sick of not having any radio stations here in Price (well, except country, which doesn't count much as music) to hear new music from, so I started downloading shitloads of mp3s. It's sure hard to get shitloads when you're on a 28.8 dialup, and I don't think I'm quite up to a full shitload yet (6 songs so far today, pretty sad), but I have enough Fuel that I think I wanna buy the album.

I washed my car tonight, 'cause it was getting hard to see out the windows for all the dirt. I just hope I can get into the car at 6:00 tomorrow morning for work, but I really think it might be frozen shut. The walls at the car wash had ice all over them, and there was a sheet of ice on the car when I got home.

It sure was a nice day today (weather-wise). I went target shooting with Ty and a teacher from the high school, and even though there was plenty of snow where we went, I left my coat at home and didn't freeze my ass off. I was half afraid that I'd get my truck stuck, but I managed ok. I got a little sunburned too, but I had a lot of fun.

My wife and I have been adventurous the past couple days: we made 5½ batches of chex-mix yesterday (4 whole boxes of cereal), and today we made hard-candy suckers. Heh, and I wonder why I've been getting such a gut...it's definitely not just the beer. =)

This weekend just flew by. Friday, I worked in the office for six hours, then went shopping for several more hours (plus three hours of drive-time), so by the time I got home I was tired, and I just crashed on the couch and read my book (Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos) for the rest of the evening. I did a lot of reading yesterday too, and spent a few hours at Ty's house watching a movie and just bullshitting. I was going to spend a lot of time sanding all the hard-wood in the baby's room, but the lacquer really gummed up the sandpaper on both the belt-sander and the sanding blocks, so I decided I'm going to use lacquer thinner to strip everything before trying to sand again. Even with as close as it is 'til my son comes, I'm still finding reasons to procrastinate. =)

And one last thing, Russ got a new layout up over at The Funhouse, so I told him I'd give him a plug. Word.

I added some pictures to the site (permanent link on the right), and moved my contact info to a separate page.