I Suck At Infant Massages

All things considered, I would say that today was a productive day.

While my baby daughter (Briana) was sleeping in her bedroom, I watched Punisher: War Zone.

(The video below is a trailer for Punisher: War Zone.)


The movie is about the comic book vigilante known as The Punisher. Being someone who grew up on comic books, I naturally had to watch the movie. And for anyone curious, the movie is a reboot about the Punisher and not a sequel to 2004 movie (or the original Dolph "I must break you" Lundgren movie).

Anyway, I had low expectations for the movie mainly because the majority of movies based on comic book heroes never exactly pans out right (like the Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie). To my surprise, I thought the movie was entertaining. Sure, it was over the top in terms of violence with people getting their heads blown off and whatnot, but it was entertaining. Plus, Julie Benz (of Angel fame) was in the movie. So my opinion of the movie may have been biased a little... even though she wasn't blond in the movie.

Briana eventually (and conveniently) woke up just in time for her infant massage from yours truly. Too bad I suck at infant massages. Heck, I suck at adult massages. I'd have to say, my friend (Jen) gives good neck rubs.

One of the services provided by Early Intervention is to learn how to give an infant massage. The program is in three parts: legs and stomach; arms and chest; and head. Luckily, Briana qualified for Early Intervention because she was born prematurely. The infant massage program was recommended to Karen and I, so we decided to schedule it for Briana.

Unfortunately, Karen had to work and was not available to learn first hand about the infant massage techniques. So I, as the ever popular dad, gave Briana her first massage. Truth be told, I think Briana enjoyed it a lot. She was quite calm for most of the massage. She did fuss near the end, only because she was hungry. But other than that, she was great.

Interestingly enough, I did learn some things about massages. Apparently India and Sweden are known for massages. I also learned a song to sing to Briana while giving her a massage. (The song is basically sung with accompanying massage movements.) All in all, the infant massage was fun. I can't wait to see what is in store for part 2 of the program.

When Karen did return home from work, I naturally had to demonstrate the massage techniques for her so that she too could give them to Briana. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible teacher. (Plus, I do suck at infant massages remember?) Karen would probably do better reading the handouts and learning on her own than to learn it from me.

Later in the evening, I decided to continue my productivity and work on the first floor bathroom renovation project. With the floor tiled and grouted, the next step is the plumbing. I have been dreading this step because I am not a big fan of plumbing... because a) it's dirty; and b) I would have to spend a good chunk of time in our crawl space being dirty.

Before the floor had been tiled and grouted, I did finish running the water supply lines to the bathroom. The remaining plumbing, however, was never completed. And by the remaining plumbing, I mean the drains and vents for the bathroom fixtures (ie. toilet and sink). Consequently, there are just holes in our bathroom that lead to our crawlspace.

The amount of work I had done on the drain was to remove a section of cast iron pipe so that I could lay the floor down correctly. And back when I removed that section of cast iron pipe, I remember getting covered in black dust... a result of my cutting into the pipe with a circular saw.

Unfortunately, I had discovered that I did not remove enough of the cast iron pipe the first time around. The first time around only gave me enough room to put the bathroom floor down. There was no way I could connect a bathroom fixture to the current location of the pipe. So naturally, like most projects, there was going to be addition work before working on the drains and vents. That work: cut the cast iron pipe yet again... just further down the pipe so as to allow for new pipe to be run.

After the first time around, I thought I'd get well prepared tonight. I got my safety glasses; my mask; my circular saw; and my blade to cut through the cast iron pipe. Last time, I forgot the mask... to which my face was horribly covered in cast iron dust. The dust was everywhere, including my teeth. I swear, I'm probably going to die from all the gunk that I've inhaled while working on home improvement projects.

Even with the mask this time around, I still had black dust particles in my nose. It's nasty, which is why I was definitely not looking forward to removing another section of the cast iron pipe. And making things worse, my blade broke. The blade just flat out came apart. I had to make a little pit stop at Sears to get another blade.

Before it got too late, I eventually cut through the entire diameter of the 4 inch cast iron pipe. Again, I was covered in black dust. Like I said earlier, I'm probably going to die from inhaling all this stuff while doing home improvement projects. But at least the section of cast iron is removed and I can now continue with running the drain and vents for the toilet fixtures.