You Were Warned....

Well by now you may have heard we're having a boy this August. And if you're a regular reader you might also recall K had her second ultrasound and everything looks great. Of course the rub is, just because the little guy looks great from a developmental perspective doesn't necessarily mean he's the most photogenic baby out there.

I think the word used previously about the following pictures was "creepy." Now of course none of this is reflection on the little tyke himself, who I'm sure will be the cutest guy either of us have laid our eyes on. However it's an interesting look at how sonagrams can distort the baby depending on the depth of the picture. Ladies & gentleman, we're about to play a little "You Make The Call'"...

Okay, it's just a foot. Not too bad, maybe even kind of cute.....

So this is a straight on picture of the Cubby's face laying on his side. Well, the terms "alien" or "evil teddy bear" might spring to mind. But we're not finished yet....

Well all right, here we've got Mr. Cubby in the same position and the creepiness factor has gone up a few notches. I tend to look at the pic as a cross between a skull & the puppet from Saw.

Editor's Note: The actual link to a picture of the puppet from Saw was removed, as the editor found it entirely too disturbing to connect that to her baby. In the interest of freedom of the press, the editor has allowed the reference to stay, but if you must see a picture, you will have to google it yourself.

That's Mr. Cubby To You...

Ladies & gentleman the Cubby now has a gender. Today was the big day of our 2nd ultrasound & we found out that we're having a baby boy!!!! We, along with all the parents & relatives, are thrilled (& its safe to say that at least one may be down right ecstatic). So now my mom's getting her wish when she said that she hopes I have a kid just like me. Apparently I'm supposed to be due for some sort of karmic retribution (or at least a glass cover to protect our coffee table); we'll see what happens.....

The doc also said that everything is looking great so we're pretty excited. All of the organs, spine, etc... are developing nicely which is always good to hear. The only bummer on this end is we couldn't get a good profile picture of the little guy but we've got a few (slightly creepy) shots of him head-on that we'll probably post to the blog later. Apparently some people are doubting the creepiness factor. All we can say is wait & see.....

Round Four

The handsome guy above is Lancelot, our fourth trial run in the dog foster department. As mentioned previously, we've had an impressive 3 for 3 streak of getting dogs put into 'forever homes' with minimal visits to the urgent care clinic (animal or human).

Lance actually might be our favorite one so far as he's pretty chill (he's 8 or 9, which helps explain it) and is well behaved. However, he's got enough energy to play with Chloe which is nice. 5 or so years ago we adopted our permanent golden Ben to be Chloe's buddy. Of course this never really worked out as Ben's pretty sure he's a person instead of a dog.....

Note to Self

Do not watch A Baby Story when you are home sick and your husband is out of town. It will only make you cry, which will make your burning eyes hurt more, your runny nose run more, and your slight headache turn into a large headache.

Its Game Time

Being a Michigan guy, there's no rivalry in sports that compares to Michigan vs. (the bastardly) Ohio State. However, I'm perfectly fine with Duke vs. UNC as a runner-up. Great schools, successful programs, large fan bases, legendary coaches--wait, make that one legendary coach & one coach who's not afraid to sell out his program.

Regardless, they meet for the first time this season tonight at 9:00. Hopefully UNC gets a full dose of the Jon Scheyer face....


I'm not sugar-coating it Beth..........

Go To Hell Carolina, Go To Hell!!!

Weekend Roundup....Plus

Well another fine weekend has come & gone in Raleigh with thankfully no yard work--here's the highlights:

• Friday night was momentous because K & I finally had success in securing some food at the Hayes Barton Cafe. We've attempted to eat there on two separate occasions & both were strikes; once it was just too packed & once we got there at closing time (What restaurant closes at 9:30 you ask? The HBC). The second time was particularly unfortunate as we stuffed 6 people in the Outback & poor Craig (who gets motion sickness in cars) had to ride in the back. Not exactly the ideal situation. Regardless, this time Kristin & I manged to sneak in just for some desert & we'll certainly be back. She had some sort of mint chocolate cake (with full Andes mint bars baked in) & I had a caramel apple pie--quite tasty. Its also noteworthy to point out the serving sizes were huge; we took most of our pieces home.

• On Saturday I took the pooches over to Andrea & Brandon's to watch Duke take out Miami while the K rested on the couch. She regrouped (I tell you, the pregnancy wears one out) & the four of us caught Juno at The Rialto. It was a fun movie that had a couple small but interesting twists that kept it from being too formulaic. Had some quirky characters & some good dialogue--its safe to say we endorse it.
  

• Sunday had a bit of errand running involved (for a duvet cover, if you must know) but since it had a high of 68 or so we took the dogs on a walk around nearby lake Johnson. We did a 2.5 mile loop which tired the dogs out but they did fine. We then drove (all the way) up to Wake Forest to catch the Super Bowl with a bunch of friends. Most of the party (including the hosts, Erin & Brian) were pretty hard core Patriots fans and, unless you're viewing this blog through some sort of time-travel portal, it didn't turn out so well for them. So the party ended on a bit of a downer which I can appreciate considering I lived through The Horror last year. However, the game was interesting & overall the party was great. Somehow Brian grilled hamburgers that actually had bacon & cheese already in the patty--if that's not a monumental human achievement I'm not sure what is.
  

And now for your 'Plus'....

• On Monday morning Kristin & I went on over to the doctor's office for the next scheduled Cubby appointment. The good news is both K & the baby are doing great and we got to listen to the heart beat for the first time. I think we were both expecting the heart beat to sound like what one would hear through a stethoscope (think 'thump, thump') but through the doppler thing it was much more of a 'whish-whish-whish' sound. The quote from the doctor was a 'strong 158 beats a minute & everything sounds great.' 'Very exciting stuff......
  

The Perfect Game

Many of you fair readers of the blog are aware that I regularly play Halo 3 . For those not in the know, Halo 3 is an Xbox 360 game that has sold over 8 million copies & can be neatly summed up as 'you are a cyborg shooting aliens in the future.' A sarcastic & funny 'intro/review' of the single player game by Zero Punctuation follows.......



However, the real draw of Halo 3 is its multiplayer game. Every day an average of ~ 2,000,000 people play Halo against each other online through Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service. The M$ (apparently its internet law to replace the 'S') servers automatically match people up based on respective experience & skill to encourage even & competitive games. I've literally played hundreds of games (each lasting ~ 5 minutes) & I'm actually a pretty good player (~ 90th percentile or so--which is still a far cry from the pro circuit Beth). However, I've never pulled off something quite like this.

Ladies & gentleman, I submit to you the perfect Halo 3 game. Here's the background: This was a free-for-all game type so there's 6 players & its every person for themselves. The goal is to be the first player to rack up a total of 25 (VIRTUAL) kills by (VIRTUALLY) shooting the other 5 opponents. I not only won the game with 25 (VIRTUAL) kills but I didn't have any (VIRTUAL) deaths. That's an amazing 25 - 0 & for those not in tune with the intricacies of online gaming, its pretty much a statistical aberration. That is, the chances of it ever happening/happening again are about as good at asteroid TU24 hitting the earth*.

While I understand that most of you (not to mention the general population) might not appreciate the accomplishment of the perfect game, it was pretty cool for me & putting it on the blog for posterity is a fun reminder of the temporary glory. Granted, when I proudly mentioned the accomplishment to Kristin she predictably/patronizingly said 'well that's nice Jeff.' Now when she sees me playing she's started the habit of teasing me asking 'will this one be the next perfect game?'. I suppose that's the price one pays for perfection........

*The chances were infinitesimal to begin with but they are now nil since the asteroid has passed without incident