More Sonogram Pictures

Hands, a foot, and the whole baby demonstrating his flexibility. I wish I could put my feet on my forehead. As I said in the last post, he is one pound and confirmed to be a boy.

On the road again . . .

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We're in Fresno. The 7 hr drive took more like 8 and a half with the traffic in Vegas and the three bathroom breaks. The cat completely took the road trip in stride. It lay curled up on my lap pretty much the whole trip. Beckham isn't wild about Max (the dog), but was quite happy to spend the day sleeping on the corner of the bed in a sunbeam. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Slate's, a fancy Fresno restaurant, with Gramy and Curtis's parents. We also took some pictures for our Xmas cards.

Wednesday was my uber-ultrasound appointment. I got several pictures, but forgot them in my car. I'll post some when we get home Sat or Sun. The short of it is that there's no evidence of any birth defects or heart problems. According to the measurements made, the baby now weighs one pound and the feet I feel kicking me are each only an inch and a half long. It's also definitely a boy.

Tomorrow, we're going out early for some Black Friday shopping. Lot's of fun with the crowds. Brought my Santa hat and everything. There's also rumors that Mom and Dad might put up the tree tomorrow. Since I've never seen their house decorated for Christmas in the 4 years I've been married to their son, I'm pretty excited. UPDATE: The tree is up after a seven year hiatus!!!!

Home, Sick Home

I had a great morning. After showering, folding laundry, and packing (the newlyweds weren't up yet), I went to Mass at the newly reopened Baltimore Basilica. (It was closed 2 yrs for restoration.) Built in 1806, it's really gorgeous inside, very light, open, and airy. I went to a Latin Novus Ordo Mass. It was the first Latin Mass since it reopened. There were maybe 100 people in the huge interior. I should have known that it was going to be sparsely attended when it took me three tries to find a door that wasn't locked. I'd never been to a Latin Mass before, but they passed out missals as you came in. I sat near the front. After Mass, the monsignor complimented me and thanked me for participating. Apparently, I was the only response he could here (not surprising, considering the woman behind me who knew what was going on only spoke in a whisper). All in all, it was pretty awesome and I'd definitely do Latin again. Here's a picture of the dome over the altar. The whole ceiling has those flowers on it.

Afterwards, I decided to go over to St. Alphonsus Church around the corner and catch the last half of their English Mass. There were about 50 people at that one. The interior of St. Alphonsus is the total opposite of the Basilica, but breathtaking. It's pretty dark inside, lots of stained glass, ornate carvings, and tons of statues of saints. I tried to take some pictures, but the light was terrible. Baltimore seems to have a wealth of beautiful churches (I didn't visit any of the shrines), but not many people attend, because they are downtown.
When I got back to the apartment, we had official Maryland crabcakes and watercress salad for lunch. Real crabcakes are huge are basically chunks of crabmeat slightly bound together. Expensive, but delicious. Flew home, back to poor Mr. Headcold, the King of Kleenex, who is currently snoring on the couch. Well, at least the cat is excited to see me.

The Geek

Christa came down from Princeton to visit on Saturday. The four of us went to the Baltimore aquarium. It's an awesome aquarium. We saw the dolphin show. The best part was seeing the 400 lb dolphin jump 22 ft above the water. Christa and I then went out for dinner, because after visiting an aquarium I always crave seafood. We had a really nice chat over the live jazz going on behind us. She seems happy and looks very slim and trim. It's pretty obvious, though, that we don't swim in the same gene pool. She's not even standing up straight in this picture.

At last in Baltimore

We made it to Baltimore Wednesday night. Today was shopping for the apartment at IKEA and Target. When Jonathan got home, we had an IKEA party building bookshelves. I have a picture of me and my pregnant tummy alongside the 7 foot bookcase we built. I'll upload it to the blog when I get back Sunday or if I find a connector cable. Tomorrow, the movers arrive with all the stuff. Should be plenty exciting.

UPDATE: Here's the pic.

Day 7: Evanston, IL

Saw Emily's show yesterday. It was Cole Porter's "lesser known" works. I had only heard of 1 of the 20+ songs performed. Jonathan flew in Friday night and is about to leave for the airport. Ah, the life of those who have to get back to work. The plan is to hang around Chicago today and find some awesome pizza. Tomorrow we're off to Michigan to see Tilda (yay!) and head to Baltimore on Wednesday. Bum around Baltimore on Thursday and the truck with all the furniture arrives on Friday morning. Having a good time, but my stomach seems to grow every day. It's now noticable pretty much whatever I'm wearing.

Day 4: St. Louis, MO

In St. Louis, I stayed with my sister Marla. Her boyfriend, Craig, came up for a visit. We went to the famous Ted Drewes frozen custard stand (with temps in the 30's) and the Catholic Supply store. Check out her fancy badge for arresting shoplifters.

Day 2: Mapelton, UT

Here's willowlaughter and her aunt. Cousin Thomas is at school to prepare for some branch of the military, though I can't remember which. I tried to post this from my phone, but it failed. I'm currently in St. Louis at my sister's house. Tomorrow, we head to Chicago to meet up with willowlaughter's sister, Emily. Sunday, we're going to a professional show where Emily is the stage manager.

Road Trip!!

So tomorrow I'm heading off on a major road trip to Baltimore with willowlaughter. She and Jonathan are moving to Baltimore for his new job. Highlights of the trip will be seeing my sister in St. Louis, going to a Cole Porter review in Chicago, the Baltimore Basilica, and hanging out with my sister-in-law who'll come down from Princeton. I'm going to try and send messages from my phone to the blog along the way, but if that doesn't work, I'll be back here on the 20th.

Halloween

Curtis's last-minute Halloween costume. He was one of the best costumed teachers. One student commented that she found it difficult to take him seriously in a kilt. When he told her that the alternate costume was a Hawaiian shirt and coconut bra, she said that would have been impossible to take seriously.

Best joke of the day:
Q: Do you know why it's called a kilt?
A: Because I kil't the last person who called it a skirt.

Busy weekend

Thursday night there was a middle school football game at 4 (we lost 24-0) followed by a high school game at 7. Curtis worked as bouncer for the gate onto the field for the high school game. I left early since it was pretty chilly and I wasn't feeling well. It was the last home game for both teams. The middle school has one more game on Saturday. If they win, they'll be 0.500 for the season.

Friday, it was Nevada Day (a state holiday, NV entered the union on 10/31) and Curtis had the day off. We decided to spend the three day weekend in Palm Springs visiting Curtis's grandparents. I had met them at their house in Washington, but hadn't seen their place in Palm Springs. It's only a 4 1/2 or 5 hour drive. The exciting discovery was that there is a Tommy's in Baker (Lenwood Dr just south of the 58). I hadn't had a Tommy's chilli burger in way too long. We had to stop there on the way back as well.

We had a nice visit. Grandma and Grandpa Pehl are pretty awesome for people in their 80's. It probably helps that I haven't been hearing all their stories since birth. We also went to an awesome date farm and I saw my first date palm. I had no idea there were 119 different varieties of dates. We also went and visited my field area from my Ph.D. thesis. Since I got the samples from the geology building basement, I had never actually been to Palm Canyon. There was a gift shop, but it was long on Indians and had nothing on the geology. I found this nice little outcrop of mylonite and had to have my picture taken with it.