Welcome

That's what Kent used to say when we played peekaboo. Well, daddy, not Jack, but you get the picture.

Sorry for the disappearing act mom. Oh, is someone else still out there? I apologize to you too. Here's a quick summary recap of what I've been neglecting to write about the past couple of months:

• In September we found out that Beta is another boy, Dean Isaac. Kent's been getting ready to be a big brother and we think he'll take to it pretty well.
• In October my fantasy baseball team won the league for the third straight year, and the fourth time in the last five. Someone introduced an amendment to the rules last year limiting the keepers for teams that win back to back (or back to back to back). Fortunately for me it did not pass. Fortunately for my league, I'll be very busy and sleep deprived this spring when we're drafting, so it'll probably be a down year.
• In early November I took Exam C. Results will finally be available at the end of this week. I felt good about parts of the test at the time, but I wasn't sure I'd done well enough overall to pass. As the results date has gotten closer I've only gotten more pessimistic, and I won't be surprised if I have to take it again in April.
• We traveled to Atlanta for Thanksgiving, and Kent and his cousin Emerson started a band. Next Thanksgiving they'll have another member for the group. I think in about 10 years we'll have a one-hit-wonder boy band. Stay tuned.
• For Christmas we traveled to Ocean City and Baltimore in Maryland, where Kent got to see his cousins on the other side of the family—Nicholas, Travis, and seven-day-old Blythe, the first girl of her generation.

Right after we got back from Maryland we had a labor scare and went to the hospital. Everything was ok and they sent us home, but now we're in full out baby-preparedness mode. The infant car seat is in the trunk, and our hospital bag is packed. This past weekend we rearranged our bedroom so that we could set up the co-sleeper that my sister lent us. We also took the first real steps to getting the crib/toddler bed out of Kent's room and the daybed that was Erica's into his room so he can have a big boy bed and Dean can have a crib when he's ready for one. Thanks to Erica's mom we're setting up a new bed in the guest room so that we'll still have someplace for visitors to sleep, which is good since my mom and Erica's mom both plan to come down for several days after Dean is born. There are still a few things to do, but if Dean surprises us we're pretty much ready.

Finally, I wanted to follow up on last year's post, wherein I actually made two resolutions and even shared them with the world. I wanted to track our personal finances for a year, and I wanted to get out of credit card debt. The bad news is, like most resolutions, I didn't manage to do either. The good news is, I made progress and think we'll fulfill both this year.

Last year I tracked our finances for about two months before giving up. But, more recently Erica and I have been talking about trying to actually budget instead of using the loose "make sure you set aside enough to pay the bills and spend the rest however you want" method we've been using since I worked at the bookstore. So I've gotten the personal finance software set up again, and in the meantime several improvements have been made that should make it easier to keep up with. Having Erica actively involved will also help immensely.

As far as credit card debt goes, we did a good job of going after it until sometime this summer when we had a hiccup in our finances, and ever since then we've been kind of coasting. We've still been working away at it, but with less intensity. However, it's down to the point that our anticipated tax refund should pretty much cover the rest of it, so hopefully by the end of February we can bid it a very fond farewell.

—Jack

Labels: Dean, exams, fantasy baseball, Kent, personal finance, resolutions

When Kent has been getting worked up about inconsequential things lately I've started telling him "Don't you fret," which always makes him laugh and then he repeats it back to me. He especially likes the word "fret," which he sometimes repeats several times.

A couple weeks ago when we were traveling back from California we were on a layover in Dallas. The bathroom right next to our gate was closed for renovations, so when I took Kent to sit on the potty as our boarding time drew near we had to walk a long way to find a bathroom. We got back to our gate just in time for Kent to tell us it was time for a poo poo, so I gathered him up and headed back to the bathroom, and of course, it took too long to get there. On top of the eminent departure, we were down to our last wipe, our last pair of pullups, and we didn't have our changing pad with us since he's mostly been sitting on the potty lately. I was stressed about the whole situation, and when I put Kent up on the changing table and he looked at my face he must have been able to tell. He said, "Don't you fret," which made me laugh and then I repeated it back to him. It was just what I needed to hear.

We got things taken care of quickly and made it back to our gate in plenty of time. Kent slept with his head on mommy's leg the whole flight from Dallas to New Orleans. I love my son.

—Jack

Labels: Kent

I've been reading a few excel blogs lately, including a few that focus on making charts look better and easier to interpret. I admit, the handy pie chart has always looked a little cluttered, and it required a long explanation of what the various components were when I first posted it. To some extent it still does, because most (all?) of my audience is unfamiliar with the pathway to the ASA credential. But the new improved Super Pie Chart should be a little more visitor friendly.

The major categories of the requirements are grouped by color—blue for exams, red for VEE credits, green for the FAP modules, and purple for the APC—and each color region is labeled. Darker wedges in each range show completed requirements (all of the VEEs are complete) while lighter wedges represent outstanding requirements. The text for each wedge fits in place (except for the APC, which floats above), removing the clutter of all those leader lines on the old chart.

The only new progress on this incarnation is the addition of Module 1 from the FAP modules, which I completed earlier this summer. At the moment I am studying for Exam C, which I will take in early November, and I will start working on the FAP modules again while I wait for my result.

—Jack

Labels: actuarial, handy pie chart