organizing... yo.

So we have actually been reasonably organized around here this weekend... organized at trying to get organized... er... or something like that. There are still several projects left to be done around the house before the kid arrives (we hope). Among these are:

1. Clean out the office which has been stacked with the last few boxes of stuff that we haven't unpacked yet and a few too many years of AT bills so that certain items like Danette's sewing machine can be re-located from what is going to be the baby's room.
2. Various painting projects to keep small hands away from potentially peelable paint.
3. Finish the baby's dresser. We bought it unfinished, finally chose a stain, now it has to get done. Dresser will double as changing table too.
4. Taxes
5. Wax the floors... for some reason our first floor hardwood floors are of the 'waxing' variety... not a favorite job.
6. the other ten things that I am sure that I am forgetting, but that are equally important...

We actually made some headway on number (1) today, which is quite an accomplishment... so much so that the shredder over-heated and called a time-out of its own. Yesterday involved both of us actually going to work for a few hours in the morning, so we are rather proud of our attaining certain goals today.

According to some sources this week will mark the beginning of the third trimester --- woo hoo, home stretch... the 28th week also means yet another routine test. Basically this one usually means that someone (Danette in this case) has to ingest a known amout of glucose in a short period of time and then have a glucose blood test 1-hour later. The strange thing is that the only option in our chosen health system includes an artificial color that doesn't agree with my wife. Apparently there used to be several 'flavors' that would get around this problem, but someone in the supply chain decided allergies weren't important... the Dr.'s office has tried valiantly... but alas, no. So, 7-UP makes a good substitute (as long as the lab techs know, of course), therefore no-worries.

Today I decided to finally try to make a dent in organizing our digital music collection... we are starting to move toward MP3 players, Danette has one and I keep a some music stashed on an SD card for use in my PDA... but our collection of MP3's isn't even a fraction of our CD collection. All of our MP3 are actually from our own CD's, but we don't have them well organized. So I am moving stuff onto a single drive that we can all get at in the house... in the process I am sort of re-discovering music I/we haven't listened to much.... At the moment I have some Ned's Atomic Dustbin going... and I even had some tunes from a CD my friend Chad played on with Vanilla Thunder.(can you find Chad in the band bio pic?)..

All of this is happening against the backdrop of the kid being on the way, Danette's company getting very busy, and me having a few grant proposals to write before that eventful day in May sometime... no rest for the w.....

curling through dinner...

... not a whole lot exciting, actually. We are kind of back on the work, work, work, watch the Olympics merry-go-round. That's all fine. The Olympics fall just a little short of an obsession around here when they are on-going. Danette loves it, especially seeing all the sports you didn't use to be able to see. This past week has been the week of curling of all things. Curling has been playing right after we get home and are making and eating dinner, so it is pretty good timing... not sure that we have all the details figured out yet, but it is pretty fun... I guess that Danette's grandma and some of her uncles used to curl up in North Dakota and I was surprised to learn from my dad today that his parents curled for a few years and that he and my mom once had a bruising experience while giving it a whirl with my grandparents...

In baby-related news the baby-to-be-named-later is kicking up a storm still... often to the Olympics... (I think the kid is a fan of the Johnson sisters)... it is always fun to have others that identify with places you call home to cheer for in the Olympics!

Anyway, we have a crib now, set-up and ready to go and we even got the mattress today after yet another trip to Babies'RUs.. we also have the dresser/changing table - though it needs to be finished still... I think we have finally settled on a stain color, which is a good thing.

Other than that, life is pretty calm baby-stuff, work-stuff, etc... no ducking when the Vice President enters the room or anything...

celebs i've seen...

A pretty random topic, but it was one of the topics that popped into my head, so why not...

So, at the moment I can remember having crossed paths with two "celebrities" and one politician out of context (e.g., not in a state-house, Congress, etc.)... interestingly (or not) these all involved airplanes or airports... which shouldn't be odd since there are so many people that go through airports... but since I happen to be an airplane guy of sorts... it is a nice coincidence...

First, back in 1991 while standing outside in a line at LAX to check-in for a flight home after my trip to Japan a guy got out of a Mercedes Benz and brushed past me and another guy from Minnesota flying home. That guy was none other than former Detroit Pistons point guard - Isaiah Thomas. A very fleeting moment and it seemed a little odd, basically no luggage and in LA... but we were very sure that it was him.

Second, in 2003 I was in JFK having just flown back from a meeting in France. Unfortunately (for me) Delta had decided to sell me a round-trip ticket even though they had decided that they were discontinuing service to Nice, France... so they got me there, and didn't have a flight back... to make things more interesting for some people this was during one of the strikes at Charles deGaule airport in Paris... anyway, I got routed through Frankfurt and had to literally run from one end of the airport to the other and was one of the last people on before they closed the door.... anyway, I get through all the post 9/11 customs at JFK... man I dislike NYC airports... get to my gate and sit for a minute. I notice the usual groups of suits talking amongst themselves probably going over their performance at the last sales meeting... but their glances are kind of furtive.. toward a blonde woman in a leather trench-coat.... yeah, I was on a NYC-DCA flight with a "10"... Bo Derek....

For some odd reason I have had the experience of twice being on a flight with the same politician/public servant from the state of Arkansas - Asa Hutchinson. Once on a flight to Denver from, and another to somewhere else a few years later. The first was while I was living in St. Louis and he was still in Congress.. the more recent one was when I lived in DC, and it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise that I would be on a flight with a politician.... nevertheless, twice with the same guy seemd a little odd to me at the time.... maybe not a "celeb" but he is running for Governor (as I learned from the link above)...

So, there it is...

The Superbowl of... well... okay, football... and other stuff too.

Well, I caught my first NFL football game of the season... and of course it was the Superbowl... haven't really caught on to that whole Cleveland Browns phenomenon thingy yet... actually a little doubtful I will... heck I didn't really pay that much attention to the Rams when they were winning in St. Louis... though I did seem to care a little about the Broncos when I was younger... but that is almost a distant memory now. Prior to the hype of the game, I think I was aware of a total of one player in the game, Jerome Bettis - or the Bus - as I guess he is called. In case you missed the game or had it on mute the whole time, he is apparently from Detroit!

Anyway, why does this all matter... well, some of the commercials were actually interesting (okay, disturbing). Animal (and animal-like) characters were central to many a commercial... the streaking sheep Bud commercial wins the prize for most out-there. Then there was the Godzilla and robot progeny (Hummer H3).... Kermit the frog shilling for Ford was disturbing in a what-happened-to-my-childhood sort of way.... being on my way to fatherhood, I thought the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was a nice step away from the usual.... but I would like to know if the teenager in the Jessica Simpson Pizza Hut commercial fainted on demand, or reality, because that would be one heck of a shocking pizza delivery.

In other news... apparently it snows in Cleveland during the winter... we got a good snowfall yesterday and last night and I even dusted-off the ol' snowblower.... The kiddo is apparently going to follow in a long-line of swimming afficianados judging by its in utero habits... and we checked out another daycare facility this morning... it was fine, and much closer to the house, but the waiting list extends to November at the moment... not exactly convenient...