Off to church!

Ethan and Emma are in new outfits. Trish just wanted to be part of the picture-taking fun.

Baby on the way

Yes, we are in fact expecting our third. Let’s get some vital stats out of the way:

• Our working due date is Aug 17.
• We know it’s not twins
• No, we weren’t trying.
• Yes, we are happy.
• Yes, we’re going to find out gender if we can.
• Morning sickness has been almost as bad as with Emma.
• No, you may not touch The Belly.

We found out ourselves about a week before all the Grandparents came out for Emma’s birthday. Trish did a fabulous job not saying anything to her mom so that we could wait until my parents arrived. We racked our brains for some fun, original way to announce it. We even called Jen for ideas - I still love her response — “Get out!” — when we told her. We talked about a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament with the 2006 crossed out and 2007 written in, but we thought that might be too subtle. I was surprised at how many really cool “I’m Pregnant” t-shirts are out there (see this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and best of all this) (yes, you have to click on all of them), but we couldn’t get them in time, or in the right size, or both.

The night we picked my parents up from the airport, we stayed up a few minutes longer (2-ish in the morning) to hang five stockings over the fireplace, figuring this would elicit some questions. Unfortunately, that clue didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. Tricia’s mom picked up on it about 20 minutes after she got up, but my parents had to be “informed” by the kids (who also didn’t figure out what five stockings meant). Ethan went on about how “his dreams have come true”. Emma practically adopted the baby from the very first — we made the announcement on her birthday after all.

At the first OB appointment, we got ultrasound pictures. Sorry for the blurriness - it’s hard to take a closeup with a camera phone, especially on that darned shiny thermal paper. According to both the ultrasound and a website we found, the baby is about the size of a coffee bean.

At the second appointment, we got another ultrasound picture as a side effect of not being able to locate the baby’s heartbeat using the little doppler wand thingy. (What a pain!) Now we’re up to an inch and a half, head to butt. We wrote it on a piece of paper for Emma, and found that’s exactly the length of her pinkie finger.

Now in Tricia’s 13th week (LMP), the baby is supposedly about 2.5 inches (head to butt) or 3.5 inches long (head to toe), and the morning sickness is starting to fade. Tricia’s still offended by certain smells and foods and sounds, but has been weaning herself off the anti-nausea medicine.

Now we move into the second trimester, when we can seriously start shopping for houses, and also shape up this house to sell it (ugh!). We’ve talked it over, and we just don’t think it’s really practical for us to stay in this house with five people. We’re looking into public storage as a way to “declutter”, and some necessary repairs, plus getting prequalified for a new mortgage. (Spammers: buzz off.)

Whew! Got this one off my list. Not having set the famework has made it really awkward to think about posting, since I couldn’t make offhand references to what I hadn’t said yet.

Watch soon for a special guest poster. He’s got a camera and he’s not afraid to use it.

Kid's eye view

It's been a while since I posted a picture of Trish that wouldn't get me slapped later. This was looking out a hole in a McDonalds playplace during a late drive home.

Xmas House

Here's how we (ok, mostly Trish) decorated our house this year. The words are hung from the upstairs shutters. Ethan walked it from one window to the other on the narrow roof over the garage while his parents held their breath.

Non-church church picnic

Joined some friends for a barbecue with a bunch of people from the church we don't go to anymore. Kinda strange. Nice to see old friends and see how big everyone's kids are, but still kinda wierd. Trish looked nice with her Grand Canyon jewelry, though.

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Baby steps

Tricia (erm, uh, "Daisy Rose") has started her own blog. It's linked from my newly-updated Blogroll, and she's got her first post. Since she now has a blogger account, I've added her as a Contributor here, which means she can post here too.

We'll have to see what develops.

Sitting in the van with

Sitting in the van with 2 kids throwing fits while Tricia grabs dinner, I see God's wisdom in having 2 parents/family. Less murder that way.

Tornado aftermath

The storm has passed, but not without leaving its mark.

When I sent that last picture, the three of us were huddled in the basement while Trish ran around and cracked the upstairs windows. Thanks to weather.com and my wireless network, we were able to keep a close eye on the ETA and new warnings. We had enough time to grab a snack and some drinks, set up chairs, and get settled before the storm started blowing hard. I tried to call a few friends in town until I started getting "all circuits are busy" errors.

We're not sure if there was actually a tornado that touched down, but there was plenty of damage. Trish was standing at the basement window when one of the trees in our neighbor's yard bent over from the wind.

The strong winds were accompanied by hail the size of quarters, but no direct damage to our house.

Well, that's not completely accurate. We were so careful to crack the windows, but we all forgot the garage door was open. The 2nd bench from the van was sitting near the door and got positively soaked. The winds were so strong, we had hail all the way back at the steps into the house.

Our gusher in the yard also flowed, as it usually does. This comes from a drain about 30 feet away, between our sidewalk and the street. The city thinks this is an adequate drainage solution, apparently.

We could hear sirens going off all over town for the next half hour, so there must have been quite a few people affected. Trish went out to get food and saw lots of trees down and lots of people with their power off.

Oh, and today was Ethan's first day of first grade. And I went to the doctor, had my blisters lanced again, and went on partial short-term disability.

Don't get around much, anymore.

Ah, the joys of camping. The sounds of nature, the cool breezes, the stars at night, the trenchfoot.

Yes, trenchfoot. Symptoms started up a week ago, and I've been progressively (!) less and less able to walk around. Calling it "athlete's foot" would be a little too ironic.

And not just plain-old trenchfoot, but I also have "pustular lesions" (think blisters). I can tiptoe or wobble along on my heels, but either way still puts pressure on the lesions. Yesterday, the 20-30 bumps on each foot started teaming up. On my right foot, it's as big as a dime, and on my left foot, it's the size of two knuckles worth of my pinkie finger, and at least 1/4 inch thick..

Oh, and I can feel my pulse at all times in both feet. Trish says she can see them change color in time with my pulse, exactly like those cartoonish commercials for pain meds.

The doctor said there's not much we can do for these except fight the cause, so I'm now on two antifungals, an antibiotic, a steroid, and Tylenol III, plus Motrin as needed. <sarcasm>I may be adding Amaretto Sours to that list shortly, if the Tylenol III doesn't help enough.</sarcasm>

The kids have been great. Both of them keep telling me they hope I feel better soon, and they've been very willing to bring me things when I can't get them myself. Trish misses her steppenfetchit boy (but I overheard her saying something to her mom about how she has ideas how I can make this up to her.

I took pictures for historical purposes, but I haven't included them here out of concern for those who just ate. If you're not queasy about such things, go ahead and have a look.

Left foot

Site of Mount Diablo. Note how the sunlight makes it glow like something from an Aliens movie.

Right foot

Site of Mount Krakatoa (get it?) Hopefully, the name is only a bad pun, and not prophetic. Krakatoa is an active volcano.

Would this be an inappropriate time to point out that my Thinkgeek wish list is up to date?

Flooding in Norwalk

A bit of flooding in Norwalk, while Mom's out of town with Trish and the kids. From an email from Lyndsey:

We received 6 inches of rain last night, and are supposed to get about the same tonight and into tomorrow morning. Most of the roads into town are closed except the Linwood Bridge, and it has been taking 45 minutes to an hour to get across it. By the way the picture I sent you is of [the Linwood Street bridge crossing over] Water Street. There is some concern about the dam at the reservoir breaking tonight with all the extra water. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem we will have our ark built in time.

Trish also sent along a note after calling Chris and Lyndsey, with more details.

The local news station has [or had] footage they were shooting 8 houses up the street from where Granny lives. She was asked to evacuate her house last night [the 21st], but chose to stay.

The weather man is calling for more rain tonight (another 8 - 10 inches). Norwalk officials are concerned about the dam on the reservoir breaking. Back in 1969, Norwalk had 8 inches of rain in 3 hours and the dam broke. Yesterday they had the same amount of rain in the same amount of time and the dam held. They are concerned about the next major rainfall.

Mom spoke to Christopher tonight [6/22]. He said that moms basement is flooded to the second step, about 2 feet deep. The water in her basement is sewer water. Whenever Norwalk gets a lot of rain, fast, the sewage backs up into her basement. The bigger problem is that her pilots where all under water and the house was full of natural gas. Chris got the gas shut off and is waiting until after the next 8-10 inches of rain fall to begin bleaching down mom's basement.

We both have mixed feelings about being in New Mexico. If she were home, she could have saved some of the things in the basement that now have to be thrown out.

Among other things, Mom had quite a stash of soda, mostly in cans. This picture shows what 384 cans look like, all on one table. The message Chris sent with the picture said something like "So much for an inheritance." No word yet on whether they'll try to clean the cans off and drink them anyway. I mean, the contents are still sterile, right? Should be able to clean metal pretty easy...

Six airplanes in ten days

I don't usually travel much, and usually not multiple stops in a row, but this week has been different.

Last week, I was in Sacramento for a conference, followed by a couple of days training a client in North Hollywood. Today I'm at Red Mountain Cafe in Las Cruces, NM., and I fly home tomorrow afternoon.

My itinerary looks like this: MDW -> PHX -> SMF -> LAX -> ELP -> HOU -> MDW. It's not the most fun I've had, but I have gotten pretty good at getting through security with a minimum of fuss. It's been a real proof of my ability to work remotely.

Jet Lag isn't even the term to describe what I'm going through, though. More like Jet Wierd. I haven't time shifted, but I haven't stayed on Central time either. I just wake up when I need to and fall asleep when I can't stay awake any longer.

Kind of like some people's college experience, I guess.

I don't usually sleep quite right when I'm away from Trish anyway. I can never seem to fall asleep, but my internal clock still wakes me up around 6:00 Chicago time (yes, that's 4:00 a.m. in California). My first night in New Mexico with Trish, I slept until 10:00.

The real test will be when I get home, to the bed I know, but without Trish.

Not a hiatus...

I haven't been taking a break from blogging per se, just had some really busy weeks at work, and some really busy weekends to match. Trish and I spent last week in Universal City, CA. I was there on business, and for the cost of one extra night and her plane tickets, she was able to get a much-needed and much-deserved vacation. Meanwhile, her mom stayed home with Ethan and Emma, which gave them a much-needed vacation from their parents.

We're not sure yet if the adventure was a vacation for Dollie or not. Trish is hoping to do it again during another trip later this year, so I guess we'll find out when Trish asks her to watch the kids for a week again.

Last night, we took the kids to see Veggie Tales Live at the Star Plaza. They both had a lot of fun seeing the veggies, singing along and dancing. Ethan is really lucky he even got to go. He was supposed to be at a friend's house until 4. When he wasn't back on time, I went looking and found that friend hadn't been home but 5 minutes, Ethan wasn't with them, and Ethan was off playing in the backyard of someone else who also wasn't home. I wonder if he'll ever really understand how close he came to missing out.

Progress!

I haven't been idle. That Work Thing keeps intruding, but I have actually made some progress on my list:

• Install Bacula on Progeny, configure it to backup Tricia's machine and the other servers on schedule. (Installed, not configured)
• Pull all my O'Reilly books together on one shelf, take a picture, bragblog about it. (organized, just need a picture)
• Get the Saturn into the dealership and have them reset my radio. (Locked out after a jump start.) (Done)
• Call T-Mobile and see what deals they can offer me to switch. (Left message, they haven't called me back)
• Call Verizon Wireless and see what deals they can offer me to stay. (They can't offer me bluetooth sync to my laptop: points off for that!)
• Move the script backing up my Bugzilla site from Athos back to Progeny. (Done)
• Get some lumber and start putting walls in my basement. (Starting to get a plan)
• Rearrange my office so the servers are outside the curtain to cut down noise on phone calls. (Nope, but moved the noisy switch to where it's farther from my phone)
• Buy a new battery for the digital camera so Trish can use it to take more pictures. (Trish did this)
• Get a newish computer to run Unix and X-windows the way they were meant to be run. (May have a line on some old servers from work)
• Figure out why my "sitemonitor" script notifies me about a particular site every night, even though I had programmed it to ignore that change. (Solved it by just not monitoring the site anymore)
• Exchange the fullscreen Indiana Jones DVD set I received for Christmas for the widescreen edition (thanks, Mom). (Trish took care of it)
• Get back with the Lindens to update the TongShan site I helped them set up. (Talked, but they had to go adopt yet another!)
• Write the Great American Application, make millions, retire early. (Still in progress!)

Sick as a dog because of cats.

Not fun. Missed a trip to California today because I was throwing-up-sick, but I think Trish has it the worst.

It's been going around. On Friday, Ethan and Emma played outside at Grandma Barnes' house. (We were in Ohio for a welcome home party for Tricia's sister-in-law's dad, who had been stationed in Iraq). They got into the leaves, and we think the stray cats had been there previously.

Late Saturday night, Ethan threw up, then again Sunday morning. We ditched church and also the party to get an early start home. Good thing, because Emma let loose in the car. We all seemed to stabilize for Monday, but early this morning, Emma and then Trish both had trouble in short sequence. Just after I had called off the trip, my stomach joined the party.

Amazingly, Ethan has stayed well enough to go to school both days. He's been a trooper, bringing cold water to his parents when they whine. Emma keeps telling us she's all better, and so far, so good. I made regular visits throughout the morning, now tapering off, but still no appetite. Trish is still flat on her back - could only take a few bites of Chicken Rice soup, and feeling like it's going to come back again.

Now it's timesheet day, and I have to remain vertical long enough to enter my time... which is why I'm blogging, of course.

Grand Canyon, F117, etc.

I'm trying to upload pictures of our adventure each day. Grand Canyon (Aug 11) Courtney's reup ceremony in front of an F117 Stealth Fighter (Aug 8) and before I showed up, Trish and the kids went to the St. Louis Arch and a volcano cave (I forget the name). The Grand Canyon pix are uploading as I type this, over a wireless connection. I'm getting full 54Mbps wireless, but I think this hotel has a dialup because my peak speed is slightly less than 56K! I guess I'll have to finish uploading at our next stop. There are 110 pictures in this folder on my hard drive, so if you see less than 6 pages, I'm not finished.