Today

I was just taking random pictures, one of Andrew watching TV just to tease him, and look what else I got:
Oliver and Molly were wrestling. They look and sound quite vicious when the play.

Here's my belly this morning at 14 1/2 weeks.
I may get camera shy and more self-conscious as it grows, so don't count on more!

Fourteen Weeks: Baby Baby Baby!

Long before I ever seriously considered having a baby, my friend, Kristen, told me a story. Kristen had had pregnant friend who cared about nothing other than her pregnancy and baby. While Kristen completely understood why her friend's interests had changed, she was frustrated that the friend had zero interest in anything else, including Kristen's life. Kristen's an especially comical story-teller, and repeatedly imitated her friend saying nothing other than, "Baby, baby, BAABBYYY!" (Kristen did this rolling her eyes with an exasperated expression.) Kristen made me laugh, but it also left an impression on me. I hope to be a well-rounded, interesting, fun, good friend and mama.

So now, at the risk of boring the pants off most of you (if you're bored, don't take your pants off, just skip these kinds of posts), and for the benefit of my parents on the other side of the country (who are interested) and for myself (to record & remember stuff), let the baby baby baby posts begin!

On June 11th, I took a pregnancy test. There was a an obvious positive plus. Of course I took the second one in the pack later the same day... just to make sure. Andrew and I were really REALLY happy. Here's the proof:
Yesterday was the second check-up. The baby's heart beat (152 bmp!) was heard for the first time. In the video, you can hear it. What you see is the ceiling of the room.

It only sounds sporadic because our midwife was still moving it around to find the strongest spot. After I stopped recording, she found a really strong spot. It was so loud you could hear it in the next room.

Skiing in August (Part 2)

I had such a great time! Well - ok - hiking up with skis & boots on my back, not fun. But skiing down, and watching Oliver play in the snow, and hanging out with Andrew - tons of fun and worth the hike up. I've had a few skiing dreams since then. I just wanted to add a picture of Andrew since he rarely includes one of himself.

Andrew & Oli in the snow:


Didn't anyone tell Andrew you can't run in ski boots? Notice the dust trail behind Oliver.


You think Oliver was having fun in the dirt? You should see him in the snow, he just goes nuts - digging, throwing it around, just crazy romping and playing.

Thanks so much Andrew for a really fun time!

Skiing in August

The thought of missing one ski season due to life in equatorial Micronesia and the prospect of missing another due to a large belly made Megan really sad. I had told her that you can ski in Oregon all year round. The skiing is on a glacier high on Mount Hood and can be really terrible or really pretty okay depending on weather and the previous winter's snow fall. Last Saturday we decided to give it a try. Megan was really excited. Of all my life's accomplishments getting my then girlfriend and now wife to love skiing ranks pretty high.

The thing with summer skiing is that you have to start pretty early in the morning. Mt Hood is about two hours away so we left around 0530. If you want to ski all day it costs $45. This gets you six or seven hours of skiing on a glacier. We decided that one run was enough for us so we carried our skis up the mountain. The run that we paralleled is called the "Magic Mile" so named due to its length. The ascent is a little over a mile, gains about 1500 feet of elevation and took us about an hour and half (we took a lot breath/picture breaks).

The decent took a quite a while because Megan kept stopping saying that she wanted to savor it. The snow was good. Oliver was really good...


Here is a view of Mt Hood socked in from the parking lot...


The trail had a nice view from time to time...


Here is a video of Oliver following Megan. The sound is absolutely terrible due to skiing on hard snow and wind. You can see that the run is so long it kind of ends in the clouds. Oliver ran down the whole run following us during all of our S-turns...

Liars

Q: What do you call two empty seats on a bus full of politicians that is flying off a cliff?

A: A waste.

_____________________________________________________

A bus load of politicians were driving down a country road when all of a sudden the bus ran off the road and crashed into a tree in an old farmer's field. The old farmer after seeing what happened went over to investigate. He then proceeded to dig a hole and bury the politicians.

A few days later, the local sheriff came out, saw the crashed bus, and then asked the old farmer, "Were they all dead?"

The old farmer replied, "Well, some of them said they weren't, but you know how them politicians lie."

I've watched more TV in the past week than I have in the past year. The reason for this is the Olympics. I love to watch just about any kind of sport. So far, my favorites are badminton and synchronized-diving. I like watching gymnastics too but they don't start until 2230, so I never get to see them all. Due to my time in front of the tube I have, for the first time this election season, also been subjected to Presidential Political ads.

There's the one that compares Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears(Ms. Hilton had her own response) . Obama has some light ads, you know, hope, change, blah, blah, blah. But he also has this one about energy. McCain has a similar one that deals with energy.

The problem is they spend millions of dollars saying they are going to provide tax incentives for solar and wind power while neither of them showed up to vote for a bill that provides said incentives. Not showing is the same as voting no. McCain has missed the vote for this bill eight times. Eight.

This bill makes the price of solar and wind power competitive with coal and oil power. In a free market people choose what is cheaper. Without the incentive tons of projects will be put on hold or canceled when the current incentive ends, 31 December 2008.

You can find out quite of bit of information here on the information super highway. The bills number, S. 3335, gives you the voting record for every senator (both senators from Oregon voted "yea", how about your state?). From their you can look up the actual description of the bill.

Voting

S. 3335 Description

How can you be for promoting renewable energy while at the same time voting against a bill that does that? Simple. Lie.

"Go buy a helmet tough guy."

I ride my bike very frequently. I own two helmets. I did not buy either of them and I don't ever wear either of them. Last summer I posted a video on Youtube that shows me riding without a helmet. Since then I have received two comments (out of five) and two thumbs up (out of two) saying I should wear a helmet. The last one assumes that I am showing off my toughness by calling me a "tough guy". A few weeks back I went on a group ride with about 40 other people. This was my first time riding with this group and I chose not to wear a helmet. Not one person introduced themselves to me or even said hi. Only three people spoke a word to me.

1. "Where's your helmet?"

2. "You should really wear a helmet."

3. "That must be nice a breezy. You should probably wear a helmet though."

When I was in college I showed up for a group ride and the people wouldn't let me ride with them because I didn't have a helmet. That's how I got my first helmet. A friend who invited me gave me his old one (helmets, like many safety things, have a only a short life).

I aquired my other helmet in a similar fashion.

This post is not about the merits of wearing helmets. I have no good reason for not wearing a helmet, I simply don't like them. Feel free to think of me as an idiot for not wearing one. Don't call me a tough guy though please, that hurts my feelings :' (

No, this post is asking the fundamental question "why are people so adimate about me wearing a helmet?" Most people, when they see a personal flaw in somebody else they keep it to themselves. What is it about helmets that is so special? I am a very stubborn person and have been known to things strictly because other people didn't want me too. So now I can never wear a helmet, even if I wanted to. Otherwise I wouldn't be such tough guy.

In thinking about this I can across a couple interesting stories about bike helmets. One. Two.

The first contians a rather graphic images and it's message is bascially "Always wear a helmet because you never know what's going to happen." But when I read I hear "Wear a helmet, that way you don't have to pay attention to your surrondings."

The second one the guys says he doesn't wear a helmet because he's too pretty. I'm tough and pretty!

Are you a criminal? I am.

Enter your name here to find out. My dad is :o)

Of course they have a small disclaimer:

Note: Some states include minor traffic offenses in the data that we receive; however, these people might not be actual criminals.