At 11:10 PM, Monday June 22 2009, Andrew Noah Warbiany entered the world. 6 lb 12 oz, 19 inches long. Picture below. Everyone is happy and healthy, and even Wyatt seems to currently be welcoming the addition.

I’m not going to belabor the post here, because I’m not sure whether I’m going to return to any sort of regular activity here. But for more, I’m still active at my facebook page, The Liberty Papers, and I’m the voice of The Liberty Papers on Twitter.

But today, I apply it to a very specific issue…

On the table is an envelope. Inside the envelope is a business card. On the business card is written whether the baby my wife is carrying is a boy or a girl. We haven’t opened the envelope — and won’t for a few more days.

So what is the sex of Baby W? From our point of view, there is no knowledge. So for at least a few more days, this is Schrödinger’s Baby.

But then there’s the love portion. First and foremost, my wife’s family is here, and with a young child and another on the way, I can’t imagine how we’d survive without them. Second, of course, is the opportunity. There are jobs and options here that aren’t available in less-populous areas. It’s that double-edged sword, where the price of having great job prospects and lots of stuff to do is large crowds at all times. And, of course, there’s the natural scenery of being surrounded by mountains, ocean, silicon enhancement, etc.

But as someone that grew up in the Midwest, one of my favorite differences is the weather. First, there’s no humidity (and thus no mosquitoes) in the summer. And the winter? What winter?

This is Wyatt and I, on January 31st. In Newport Beach, the weather topped 70. I doubt you’d see anyone like this on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago on January 31st…

Some days, I don’t think Wyatt understands how good he’s got it. For that matter, neither does Joanna.

Well, it happened again. Not to me this time, thankfully, but I’m still affected.

I’m here in Cleveland, enjoying the cold, blustery winter snow, and had just returned from a very productive meeting with a major prospective customer. We had been chauffeured around by our local sales rep, and the regional sales manager and I were getting back to the hotel to dig the car out of a snowbank and head out to Erie, PA for some further excitement — because not much is more exciting than Erie on a Wednesday night in January!

Unfortunately, some petty thief had other plans. I didn’t see whether the GPS was stored in the open overnight, but apparently it was enough of a draw to break a window. Inexplicably, the bastard took the GPS but not the power cord! So not only is he unethical, he’s also a moron.

I hate to wish ill will on anyone, but I hope he gets plowed into a snowdrift.

UPDATE: I hadn’t realized it, but my coworker just informed me that the GPS was in his pocket. So apparently the thief broke in LOOKING for it (after seeing the power cord/etc), but didn’t get a damn thing. Serves him right.

TJIC, who has apparently been where I was earlier and my life and understands where I am now, has this to say:

For a decade or so in my teens and early twenties I acted as if my internal mental state was not my choice.

It made me miserable.

It’s been a bit more than a decade since I decided that my internal mental state was my choice, and it was my responsibility to every day pick the mental state I wanted.

I’ve been a lot happier, and accomplished a lot more.

It seems like an easy thing to suggest, and it’s probably not as easy as it sounds. But it works.

When you absolutely realize that you have the power to choose, when that fact truly sinks into your head… It’s about the most powerful thing you’ll ever learn.

It didn’t last long, though because he got happy once he was back in the warmth of the cabin. Here he is with his cousin Patrick, happy because he’s playing with Patrick’s iPhone. Like his father, he tends towards electronics, even at this young age:

And I promised pictures of the view… I think this will cover it:

A short time ago, my brother-in-law Dustin and my wife’s sister Tara headed down the mountain, as Dustin’s sister is about to give birth to a little girl…

…but not all has been happiness this weekend. Some colossal bag of douche with the audacity to call himself a human being broke into my cousin’s car and lifted a lot of valuable snowboarding equipment from his back seat. Some people in this world deserve nothing more than a fair beating, and I think a few of us here today wish that we could find the culprit and administer such.

Other than that, though, we’re having a hell of a time. And the nice thing about being a Midwesterner amongst a family full of Southern Californians is that if I grow tired of this, I can always retire to the outdoors, as I’m more willing to deal with sub-freezing temperatures than these softies!

Surprisingly, I had no control over the camera (Joanna was taking care of it), but the below photo is the one that really gives the weekend the proper tone.

More to come when the weather subsides, as the view from this place is amazing.

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Sadly, that was the highlight of the weekend. We were down at Joanna’s family’s house at the beach. Joanna’s father wasn’t feeling too well on Friday, but we thought nothing of it. Then, at about 3:30 in the morning on Saturday morning, I hit the bathroom for some extraoral evacuation of my stomach contents. Not pretty.

I went back to sleep, and then earlier than usual, Wyatt woke up. He started spitting up everything he tried to eat. I was lethargic and couldn’t eat all day Saturday; he seemed to act normal (and ate normally) but couldn’t keep anything down.

By Sunday, I was almost 100%, and Wyatt was able to eat but had a case of Montezuma’s Revenge. That afternoon, though, Joanna started to catch the bug, and it’s been downhill from there.

Today, now, is one of the more trying days of my parenting experience. Joanna is still sick, Wyatt’s case of Montezuma’s Revenge has turned into the diaper rash from hell, and I’m sitting at home helping out just wishing I could be at work!

Here’s hoping we have a better day tomorrow, because my sister and her husband are coming in for Thanksgiving, and I don’t want them to come into this house full of sick.

We’re in the process of rebuilding The Liberty Papers (should take several days), and my email is now transferred to a new server which should also be much more stable, so my original email address is back to normal.

Through all of this, I’ve decided to transfer control of The Liberty Papers to another contributor. I won’t be stepping away from blogging there, but I simply don’t have the time, energy, or sysadmin expertise to continue to be the guy “running the show”.

With that, while I will continue to keep my main political blogging over there, I wonder constantly what to do with Unrepentant Individual. I think I may make some effort to keep things a little bit more fresh here, once I can get an idea of what to write about. College football has been a nightmare this year for my Boilermakers… Brewing and beer is always an option, and something I hope to explore more fully. I may go into some more humorous writing if I get some better ideas. And, as always, I’ve got a crazy little man at home who is always good for a laugh! Expect some video of him “Dancing With The Stars” shortly.

If anyone has particular topics or subjects that you’d like to hear more about, though, let me know and I’ll try to expand.

For now, here’s the little man on Halloween.

PS – There’s another Warbiany on the way, so life is getting a bit more crazy!

With that, my email is hosted on the same site, and is also having problems. I am currently trying to set up a forwarder, but if you cannot get to me, try bwarbiany AT hotmail DOT com

Krispy Dips

I’ll let their description cover it for you:

A Krispy Dip is the grown-up version of the crispy marshmallow treat you loved as a kid.

We start with our signature recipe for the original “Krispy” square made from real imported Madagascar vanilla, creamery butter and the gooiest marshmallows we could find. Each hand-crafted square is then dipped in the finest chocolate and topped with an array of decadent toppings including rich caramel, real espresso beans, sweet coconut and roasted nuts.

Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us. Every order is dipped then shipped to ensure quality and freshness. We are dedicated to providing a superior product that you will come back to again and again. So come dip into delicious!

They’ve worked very hard to create a truly unique and elegant product. For those of you looking for new gift ideas for friends and family over the holidays, you won’t be disappointed. And for anyone who either owns a small business or sends out corporate gifts to thank important clients, they can do customization to give it the personal touch. They’ve already been involved in a wedding, a baby shower, have provided Dips for an LA Dodgers function, and will be doing a major function later this month with another SoCal sports team. They’re even working towards entry into local gourmet markets.

And last, but most certainly not least, they taste great. If anyone happens to be a fan of dark chocolate and espresso, the espresso bean flavor is my favorite. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and that one blows me away!

So head on over and give it a look. It truly is a new and refined twist on a familiar treat, and it’s sure to please!

For more pictures from August and Wyatt’s first birthday, see here…

And then I had to have the nerve to turn 30. As if becoming a parent isn’t enough new responsibility, I had to officially leave the carefree days of 29 and become old.

Time to start living vicariously through Wyatt, because my opportunities have closed off. Hopefully he’ll remember me when he starts the Martian colony that I was hoping to found. Ugh. 30! Why me?!

Wyatt, as usual, was a little angel on the airplane. When he was around my family (who he doesn’t know very well), he did take a few days to warm up to them, but by Sunday was doing well. He did have a lot of fun with his cousin Jack, who’s now about 2 1/2 years old… Jack (and his parents, of course), are moving back to San Diego from Texas, so that should be a lot of fun.

Soon to be best of friends!

The family outside the church after the wedding.

Wyatt gets Pizzeria Uno– the best pizza in the world– at 10 1/2 months? What a lucky kid!

He was very interested!

One was the Rye Pale Ale, which is probably well beyond its life at this point. One was the milk stout, which has already had some very promising results, but didn’t medal at the NHC competition. The third was our recent IPA, which hasn’t been introduced to any competitions prior to this.

Well, the IPA took second in category, which is particularly nice because they split the American IPA category from the English and Imperial IPA styles. A very hoppy IPA, it really seems to have come together exactly how I envisioned it (maybe slightly darker). I’m not sure why the Milk Stout didn’t do well, but I’m still waiting on the score sheets, so maybe I can figure out what happened in the judging process.

Up next is the Orange County Fair, where we entered the same three beers. More to come once we have some results. Based on the milk stout and the IPA, I really would like to see a blue ribbon between those two.