Nursery Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised of the baby's room. I held off until after we picked up the decals for the wall this afternoon. They may be a little tiny here (click to make the picture bigger), but they include flowers, dragonflies, and lots of ladybugs. The changing table (and dresser) is to the left, and the bookshelf and rocker are to the right.

Here's a better view of the decals, along with the crib set that they match. The round thing strapped to the back of the crib is a "rainforest soother." It doesn't match, but it was one of Andrew's favorite things. The green and pink thing hanging on the left is a diaper stacker.

As you can see, all of her clothes have been organized and put away. The top drawer is for 0-3 months, the second is 3-6 months, and the third is 6-12 months. The younger clothes have already been washed in child-safe detergent and are ready to go.

The closet is also packed pretty well. Hanging dresses are to the left, robes are to the right, and the organizer holds blankets, bibs, sheets, etc. We have a few diapers of various types on the floor. Those should hold us over until we decide what kind we want and buy in bulk (probably at Costco).

Harry Potter and the Spectacular Brownout

We went to go see the new Harry Potter today with D's mom and Auntie JJ.  About half an hour into it, there's a scene where Harry uses a crystal purchased from Ron's brothers to make it dark on the train to Hogwarts....all of a sudden, it's pitch black so that Harry can sneak into Draco's train car.  The cloud slowly clears, and we can see.

Then, pitch black again.  The movie and all of the low-level lighting in the theater suddenly went out.  The theater lights came on about five seconds later, and a couple of employees came in to tell us that the power was out.  We soon came to find out that it was affecting not just the theater, or even the shopping center, but the entire city (Mira Mesa).  It was an undetermined problem with the electrical grid, and the initial estimate was over an hour to fix it.  We sat there for a while, then decided to take a rain check and head out.  After waiting over half an hour in a line of cars just to get out of the parking lot, we headed home unsatisfied.  Boooooo.

PS-There have been a lot of terrible disaster movies on TV recently.  While Impact was bad, Meteor is far worse.  I don't know who wrote this piece of trash, but they obviously think that given the slightest bit of hardship or natural disaster, every person in America will turn into either a rapist, a murderer, a price gouger, a gun-toting lunatic, or all of the above.  Also, the International Space Station is filled with unlabeled rows of useless lights, complex asteroid trajectories can be calculated on a disconnected laptop with no recent data, and the President doesn't need to be consulted before planning a combined Russian/Chinese/American nuclear missile launch.  Pure crap.

Le Tour

WARNING: Totally geeky cycling discussion follows. If you have no interest, skip it and save yourself some boredom.

One of the things that keeps us busy every July is the Tour de France, and this year is no exception. I've been watching the Tour for about twenty years, and I got D hooked a long time ago. For those of you that don't know, the Tour de France is a 23-day, 21-stage bike race through - you guessed it - France. The route changes every year, and the characters, politics, and tactics are just as intriguing as in any other professional sport.

I record 4-6 hours of live coverage every morning on Versus, starting around 4:30am. When we have the opportunity later that day, we fast forward to the good parts - generally, the opening analysis, the first breakaway, any mountain climbs, all the interviews, and the sprint to the finish. D and I even compete by picking two riders each that we think will do well that day, and recording points for whose picks win the stage (four points for first, three for second, etc) - the commentators have a similar competition.

This year the Tour has gotten more press coverage in the US because Lance Armstrong has rejoined the race after retiring four years ago. His seven wins are the most in the history of the Tour, and the chance for an eighth is obviously unprecedented. The big news of the last few days, however, has revolved around other Americans. First, Levi Leipheimer fell at the end of Friday's stage and broke his wrist. Though riders have completed the race with broken collarbones (and worse), he was in no condition to ride and didn't start Saturday's stage. Levi was one of only seven Americans in the tour and he was on Lance's team, so it's a big deal that he won't finish.

Back in February, Levi won the Tour of California for the third year in a row. The last of its eight stages took place in San Diego, from Rancho Bernardo to Escondido. D and I went to see the riders start the stage, and walked around the team buses beforehand. The crowds were very impressive for a cycling event in the United States, though they don't compare to the French crowds at the Tour. The largest crowd was around the Astana team bus, because everyone wanted to see Lance and (to a lesser extent) Levi. When it finally came time to start the race, they made their way out, signed a couple of autographs, and then got on their bikes to ride to the starting line. Here's a quick video of the mass of people surrounding them as they rode through:



Can you tell that Lance is loving his return to cycling?

The second piece of news from this weekend's Tour stages revolves around another American, George Hincapie. This is George's fourteenth Tour, and he's finished all but the first. He rode on Lance's team during every one of his seven victories, and is one of the most popular American riders around; he's known in the sport to be a really great guy and a strong competitor. In Saturday's stage, he definitely proved the competitive part. He was part of a 12-man breakaway that stayed out in front the entire day; his position at 5 minutes and 20 seconds from first place in the Tour meant that if he came in that far ahead of the main pack (the peloton), he'd be wearing the yellow jersey (signifying the leader of the race) at the end of the day.

D and I were watching intently, rooting him on, but in the end he came up just short and is now in second place in the race, just five seconds out of the lead. He just barely missed another great result for his team, Columbia-HTC, which is one of two American teams. The potential "scandal" that has arisen is that Astana (Lance's team) and Garmin (the other American team) seemed to be riding at the front of the peloton, helping the main pack catch up to George's breakaway. They had no tactical or strategic reason to do so, except perhaps an ongoing rivalry between Columbia and Garmin. George was visibly and audibly disappointed and upset by this turn of events, and almost called out his former teammates and fellow Americans. The truth of the matter may come out in the next few days of the race....it should only add to the drama of the last week of the tour.

Anyway, this brings us back to the Tour of California. While I was waiting to get a good video of Lance coming out of his trailer, D was over at the much less crowded Columbia trailer getting these great shots of George Hincapie. He's been one of our favorites for years, and he seemed really nice and approachable.

George was signing autographs and talking to his teammates for several minutes before the start. I felt a little bad that he wasn't getting the attention that Lance did, but I guess that's what separates the occasional fan and/or cancer survivor from the true cycling enthusiast.

D was quite proud of her pictures, and I have to admit that they were better than any of the ones I took that day.

As a last note, the Tour de France continues until next weekend. This Sunday (the 19th) is the first mountain stage in the Alps. The climbs aren't quite as large as they will be later in the week, but it's a mountain finish that could separate the men from the boys. If you decide to watch one stage, make it next Saturday, July 25. It's the second-to-last day, just before the finale in Paris, and it finishes with one of the most famous climbs in Tour history, Mont Ventoux. With such a huge mountain so close to the end, it could literally determine the final outcome of the entire race on its penultimate day. Now that's just good TV.

Sorry to geek out....I'll get back to more normal subjects tomorrow.

A New Leaf.....and Atlanta

It's summer, and for many that means some additional time off. Though I'm still working full time and won't have any vacation until the baby comes (paternity leave, technically), I thought I'd try to be more proactive about updating the blog, so that those with a more relaxed schedule (D included) will have something to read. I'm not going to make any guarantees about posting every day, but I will try to be a little more reliable about not skipping several days at a time. If you're one of our three readers and you feel like I'm slacking, poke me. Send an email or leave a comment bemoaning my disappearance on the last entry.....I'll find something to write about.

Unfortunately, there's not necessarily a lot going on to write about, which will make this task a bit harder. Aside from a quick jaunt to San Francisco, I've been staying mostly local. D's trying to take it pretty easy, so we don't do a lot, though there's plenty of shopping to complete the baby's room and she somehow manages to fit ice cream into the schedule somewhere. I've seen a lot of movies recently, but I don't really want to turn this into a movie review blog....though I've definitely got some strong opinions. We still watch way too much TV, but you also don't want to hear about how much I enjoy Cat Deeley, Top Chef: Masters, Better Off Ted, and many more. So, I'll be going to the mattresses and blogging about things that we've done (somewhat) recently that I never got the chance to discuss. By jumping back in time about three months, I'll be able to keep it fresh while still intermixing current events and baby news.

So let's start back in April, during D's Spring Break, when we took a trip to Alabama and Georgia to visit friends and family. We flew into Birmingham, rented a car, and then drove immediately to Atlanta, where we spent several days. We stayed with our friend K and saw a bunch of the city highlights; we bought an Atlanta CityPass for each of us, which gave us access to the main downtown attractions. The first day, we went to the "World of Coca-Cola," the Georgia Aquarium, and the CNN Center. I've posted the pictures to this Picasa album, but here are a few teaser shots.

The World of Coca-Cola is pretty much the incredibly commercial, self-congratulating lovefest you would expect from a museum about Coke, sponsored and built by Coke, in the city that gave birth to Coke. That said, it was somewhat entertaining, though I wouldn't have wanted to pay full price. The portions I found most fascinating were the sections on advertising. From the various signs in the picture below, to the vending machines from around the world, to the "invention" of the modern-era Santa Claus, to the Victorian-style "Coca-Cola ladies" pictures, to the memorable commercials that play on a loop in a dedicated theater, they are not shy about their marketing. It makes it easy to see why they're one of the most recognizable brands in the world, though I tend to have a knee-jerk desire to boycott their products after seeing how insidious their advertisements are.

At the end of the tour, you enter a tasting room that is filled with soda fountains. There are about ten pillars, with three fountain consoles each. Every console has eight actual nozzles, and each nozzle is a new type of Coke product. It adds up to hundreds of new flavors, as most of them are from other countries and don't exist in US markets. They have every different flavor of fizzy fruit drink you could imagine, and some you couldn't imagine until you tried it. Though I haven't had a real "drink" of anything except water in about eight years, I will take sips of other people's drinks every now and then, to 1) try a new flavor, or 2) reinforce my distaste for alcohol/fizz/sugar/etc. Well, I took sips of a lot of different beverages that day, and I was filled with regret (and a confused jumble of contradicting flavors) about ten minutes later.

Just across the Centennial Olympic Park from the World of Coca-Cola, the Georgia Aquarium has eight million gallons of water and the fish to fill them. It's relatively young as aquariums go, opening in 2005, but they definitely went all-out. It's divided into five large sections that each focus on a different natural habitat: Georgia waterways, rivers, cold waters, tropical waters, and open ocean. Each section is well-built and innovative, but I didn't feel like there were enough separate viewing areas for the huge numbers of people that were there. The haphazard, built-over-time growth of some of the older aquariums (Boston and Baltimore come to mind) would actually be a benefit here, as it would provide more smaller exhibits rather than a few huge ones. That said, I wouldn't change the main attraction at the Georgia Aquarium one bit. The Ocean Voyager is a massive tank with a 100-foot-long underwater tunnel, viewing windows on all sides, and a huge 60-foot main window onto a really well-put-together ocean environment. This tank contains four whale sharks and a manta ray, and is still the only place in the US to see either creature in captivity. We sat in front of the main viewing window for a long time, enjoying the natural feeling of the fish and whales cruising by. The environment is large enough that you can witness some authentic fish behaviors....they congregate by species, they trail after larger animals to pick up the scraps, etc. It feels like the ultimate SCUBA adventure, because you don't have to worry about running out of air.

The last place we visited that day was the CNN Center. The building itself is huge, and houses much more than just CNN, including a hotel, other corporate offices, and a large open food court and seating area. The gift shop has fun shirts and other CNN paraphernalia, as well as the cutout of D's new boyfriend shown in the picture below. D bought a snarky shirt that says "It's called journalism" to wear during newspaper publishing days at school. Then we went on a tour of the studios themselves, and had a great time. The tour is fascinating and highly recommended....you get to see in-use studios for both CNN and Headline News, you can eavesdrop on the control room as they direct the live broadcast, and you can see all the overpaid and sensationalistic producers trying to come up with 24 hours worth of news in the background.

More about the rest of our trip later....this was just one (very full) day.

Quickie

D had a doctor's appointment on Monday that gave a thumbs-up.  She's currently at 34.5 weeks, and we have another appointment next Monday for an ultrasound to get an updated size estimate.

Last weekend was all about babies.  On Saturday, we attended a nearby baby shower for our friends C&T, who live in LA but have family a few miles from our house.  On Sunday, we had a fantastic baby shower in Orange County.  The decorations were beautiful, lunch was great, and it was wonderful to have our friends and family turn out in droves.  Thank you so much to everyone who came.  A special thanks to our generous, hard-working hosts, plus D's mom and brother.  We received some great gifts, including lots of clothes that D has spent the last week washing, sorting, and putting away in their respective drawers.  I'll take pictures of the nursery and post them in the next few days.  After the shower, our friend J came down with her 11-month-old baby girl and spent the night.  The baby is darn cute, and if we didn't have one coming next month, we would've stolen her.   : )

The Backyard is Done!

It's been finished for a couple of weeks now, but I've been waiting to get some good pictures of the backyard. The concrete is 95% cured, though there are still some dark spots on the side of the house....they'll go away in time. There are more pictures at the end of the Backyard Album, but here are a couple of teasers.

This side is a bit more colorful, with yellow adirondack chairs, a purple umbrella, and a mixed pastel tablecloth.

The path connects the two patio areas, and we're really happy with how the lawn and planted areas have turned out.

The gazebo and patio furniture look great together....this patio has the darker decor. They work really well as a shaded seating area; we've already had several get-togethers out there.

The yard is peaceful and relaxing. We love it all!

Another reason I want our kid to be a vet

So, I have some more medical news about Willow. However, I feel like I have to be somewhat diplomatic about how I approach it. It sounds like terrible news, and it certainly does suck, but it's not as bad as it sounds. To give you a sense of why her diagnosis caused relief rather than anguish, perhaps I should start at the beginning.

It's no secret that Willow has had more than her fair share of medical problems (as have most of our pets). While her back surgery was obviously the most drastic, she's also had adverse reactions to vaccines, a scratched eye, bladder infection, etc. I recently chronicled her bladder stone surgery, and D mentioned that she was begging for food after she came home from that ordeal. Well, the begging didn't stop, and she had several other strange symptoms, such as excessive thirst, rapid weight gain, lethargy, food guarding, etc. A little Internet research led us to believe that it could be Cushing's disease.

The most common cause of Cushing's is a tumor on one of the adrenal or pituitary glands, which would have meant additional surgery, plus medication to maintain appropriate steroid levels for the rest of her life. Though the syndrome is not in itself lethal, one researcher suggested that an average lifespan beyond diagnosis would be about two years. We talked to the veterinarian on the phone and she mentioned that all of Willow's blood work during her surgery had been normal, and that some of the symptoms (the hunger and thirst) could just be learned behaviors from her time being boarded at the vet. So, we waited for things to get better.

Not only did things not get better, they got a little worse.  We started noticing some personality changes, and all of the other symptoms continued unabated.  Then I started noticing that she was having a hard time seeing a treat when I held it on her left side.  It was a little intermittent, but something was definitely going on.  We considered cataracts, glaucoma, etc, but we had no idea why it had come on so suddenly.  Then we considered a brain tumor.  When we started researching dog brain tumors, she ended up having about 75% of the expected symptoms......not a good sign.  Also, all the sites said that the only way to diagnose a brain tumor was to use an MRI or a CT scan, which can run around $1000 just for the test.  If a tumor were confirmed, surgery is uncommon, ridiculously expensive, and not that effective.   Yes, they have dog chemo and dog radiation, but those only extend their lives a bit....prognosis: about six months.

At this point we were sure there was more going on than just learned behaviors from her time at the vet.  We took her back in and they ran some additional tests....thyroid tests, blood cultures, etc.  She also mentioned the possibility of something called SARD, and recommended that she see a pet opthamologist.  We took her to the recommended eye doctor later that day....between D's OB appointment and Willow's vet visits, we had three different doctors' appointments that day.  The opthamologist recommended an additional test, an electroretinograph (ERG), which would measure the electrical impulses from her retinas to her brain.  If confirmed, this would rule out a brain tumor, spinal tumor, and endocrine-related issues....and narrow it down to SARD.  Two days later, she had the test and it was positive, meaning she has zero activity between her eyes and her brain.

Willow is completely blind.  I know it took me a while to get here, but it's really not as bad as it sounds.  First, the alternatives were all pretty awful, and there's no shortened life span associated with this diagnosis.  Second, dogs don't have the same kind of psychological issues that would occur if a human were told in middle age that they've suddenly gone blind and there was nothing that could be done.  And third, dogs' other senses are strong enough that they can learn to adapt really quickly.  Willow has already demonstrated this fact, and she's doing quite well.  Though she occasionally runs into things, for the most part she can navigate around the house at full speed.  If you didn't know she was blind, it would probably take hours (if not days) to realize that she was having any issues at all.  Between a great sense of hearing and smell, and the sense memory she had from walking around our house for the last six months, she's pretty comfortable navigating around by herself.

The culprit is called Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS), and though it's still very poorly understood, Willow's symptoms were dead-on.  Some researchers think it might be related to Cushing's (which we thought she had originally), but there's no known cause.  Essentially, over the course of days to weeks, dogs go from fully sighted to completely blind (that's the "sudden" part of the name).  It's generally believed to be an auto-immune issue, which means the rods and cones in her eyes were destroyed by her own immune system, leaving her with no sight at all.  There is no known cure and it's completely irreversible.  There is some research into potential ways to slow or stop the degeneration (mostly at Iowa State University), but it's all experimental and it's too late for Willow anyway.

Yes, this sucks.  However, I'd like to end on a positive note.  Willow is doing very well, and we're quite relieved that it wasn't a brain tumor or one of the other more lethal diagnoses.  As I wrote that last sentence, she walked down the stairs from the couch, walked into the kitchen for some water, and then headed down the hallway toward the front door.  Ninety-five percent of the time, there is literally zero difference in her behavior between now and a year ago.  Many of the associated symptoms like increased hunger and thirst have gotten better as she learns to adapt.  The few things that are still affecting her are perfectly manageable....for instance, she tends to sleep a little bit more and a little bit more deeply, and doesn't really show an interest in getting out of her dog bed at night to go upstairs and get in bed.  That just means we have to pick her up and carry her upstairs and into bed, which we're perfectly willing to do....it's good practice for carrying around the sack of potatoes that D will be delivering in August.  All in all, it's sad but okay, and we're moving on.

Bebe

Tomorrow will complete Week 32 of 40.  At our last appointment two weeks ago, the baby was still measuring very large.  The ultrasound is pre-configured to estimate the birth date according to the size of various measurements.  After each reading (head circumference, femur length, etc), a new estimate will appear based on that body part.  The due date estimate based on femur length was August 2, and our actual due date is August 22, so she's almost three weeks larger than normal.  It's also based on a leg length, which hopefully means that she'll be tall!  The doctor may want to induce about a week early, since any longer could reduce the chance of avoiding a C-section.

Everything is still going well.  We had the doctor measure D's amniotic fluid again, since it had been high at our previous ultrasound.  With a normal range of 5-25, it had come up at a 25.8.  Fortunately, this most recent ultrasound showed that it has dropped back down to around 20, which is well within normal parameters.

We've gotten some great clothes and are filling in the age gaps in her wardrobe.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), the local outlet mall has a Baby Gap, a Carter's outlet, and an Osh Kosh B'Gosh outlet.  Those stores are now almost as dangerous as the Coach outlet we have to walk past on the way back to the car.

Father's Day

A quick nod to all the fathers out there.  I have a couple myself (and lots of grandfathers), so I understand how special they can be.  That said, it's been a bittersweet holiday the last two years.

Last Monday was Andrew's birthday, and trying to picture him at two years old just makes me miss him that much more.  I've lived the last two years in a strange, sad limbo between fatherhood and nothinghood.  If Andrew had been 10, or 5, or even 2 years old when he had passed away, there'd be no doubt in anyone's mind whether I was a father.  But we were never able to bring him home, never able to show him off....never able to do more than visit him....unfortunately, the nurses were as much of a father to him as I was.  I was there every single day, and I changed his diapers and kissed his forehead and stroked his beautiful skin.....but how unfair is it to tell a father that he'll only hold his son a handful of times?  How can I claim to be a father with only five months of memories and pictures and videos to show for it?

Someone at a wedding last night asked us if D's pregnancy was going to be our first child, and we said yes.  We did it because it's easier than explaining the whole situation, and in the end it's the answer they were looking for.  What they were really asking is whether we have kids at home, and the answer that shouts loudly from our empty nursery is a resounding No.  Perhaps we should go through the whole story with anyone that asks about kids, but that would be a total downer....especially at a wedding.  Essentially denying Andrew's existence is just as unfair to him as denying my fatherhood is to me, but I'm taking the easy way out for now.

I suspect that the circumstances will be quite different next year, and I probably won't get quite as many questions.  With a 10-month old little girl at home, I'll also feel more like a father.  But until she's born, there's an emptiness that reminds me of everything I'm missing out on.  Crying babies?  I'd love one.  Sleepless nights?  Totally worth it.  Terrible twos?  Better than nothing.  This Father's Day, when dads across the country were getting their tacky ties, sappy shirts, and corny cards, I hope they realized just how lucky they were.

Recap

It's been a busy week.  D's last day of school was last Friday, and we've been on the go ever since.  Most revolved around a visit from our relatives in Texas....we had ten people staying with us all week.  I'll be posting more about each of the activities, but here's a quick recap:

• Friday- D's last day of school
• Saturday- my cousin Vinnie's graduation from UCLA (& party)
• Sunday- my grandpa's 80th birthday party
• Monday- three doctor/vet visits, plus family arrival
• Tuesday- San Diego County Fair
• Wednesday- Legoland Park (& Aquarium)
• Thursday- beach
• Friday- San Diego Zoo
• Saturday- family departure, and a wedding

On top of a full schedule, I was working full-time, which meant late nights, taking calls from beach parking lots, and driving straight from customer demos to various tourist destinations.

More on the baby, Willow, and our visitors to come.....

Almost Done

The only really major project left was the lawn, and the crew took care of that in record time. They flattened and compacted the topsoil, then added the sod and cut it to fit the space.

It looks like it's all ready to go, but we won't be able to walk on it for a couple of weeks. No football games yet!

Willow really enjoys the new yard, especially since she hasn't been allowed out there for the last two weeks.

All that's left are a couple of touch-up items that should be done by the end of today. They're installing a few lights around the yard, mostly up-lighting to illuminate the trees. They're also finalizing the sprinkler program and cleaning up a couple of drainage issues in the concrete. We're almost done!

Take a look at the rest of the pictures on the photo site, I've added a movie of Willow's first exploration. Being able to see it on video also gives a better indication of scale.

UPDATE: Here's the video of Willow exploring the yard....for some reason the Blogger video upload didn't work:

Plants!

There was an amazing amount of progress made today, all around planting. First they dug trenches and laid pipe for the sprinklers, both in the planters and behind the wall. They used a saw to clean up the ends of the scored concrete, so that water will freely flow from the patio into the lawn area, where the drains are. They finalized the last locations for the drains and then moved on to the planting.

I told them where we wanted all the plants that had been delivered, and they dug the appropriate holes in the planters (with the help of jackhammers, picks, and sledgehammers). They also laid topsoil on the planted areas (including the lawn).

All of our plants are in the ground and ready to grow. They're all a little small for their spaces, but they should fill out quickly.

D is really happy with the way everything has turned out so far....I had trouble getting her to come back inside the house. The wall was meant to be useful for seating and it turned out great; she just sat there and admired everything for quite a while.

The sod should arrive tomorrow, and then it'll just be a few clean-up items left. How exciting!

More pictures and details about the process (and the plants) have been uploaded to the photo blog. Check it out.

We Have Concrete!

There wasn't a ton of progress made on Day 5, and I didn't get any pictures, so you'll have to take my word on that. They filled in the trench and got all the drainage in place, but still didn't finish all the concrete forms or the rebar.

Which meant that early on Day 6 (around 6:30am), there were fifteen workmen in our backyard, trying to get everything ready before the concrete showed up at 9am. They added a layer of compacted sub-base (the hard-packed stuff under the concrete) and finished the forms and rebar for the right patio and the right side walkway.

Then the concrete truck showed up and deposited its load into a big hopper in front of our house. This was connected to a high-pressure hose that they snaked all the way around the house. They started on the left side and worked their way across the back patios and down the right side of the house, so they weren't "painting themselves into a corner."

To begin, it just looked like a lake of mud in the backyard, but they quickly created the score lines and detailing to give each patio some definition. This picture shows how they would measure out the distance between the score lines, then snap a string across the patio to mark where each one should go. Then another guy came by and actually cut the grooves with a sharper tool on a long pole. Finally, they came out on their hands and knees, using special knee pads that held them from knee to toe and distributed their weight across a large surface. They touched up all the smooth surfaces and carefully carved the edges.

When it was done, they left it to dry. It will take a few days for us to be able to walk on it without worry, and it will dry quite a bit lighter than the color in these pictures. We think it looks great, though, and we can't wait to be able to use our beautiful new patios.

On Day 7, they just came and removed the forms around the concrete. On Monday they'll lay the irrigation for the lawn and planters, and then the sod will go in that afternoon or early on Tuesday. Planting and touch-ups will continue for a couple of days, so we should be done by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

I took a lot of pictures during this portion of the job, mainly because I found the concrete process fascinating, and they were doing such a great job turning a river of mud into a great patio. I've posted some of the pictures on our photo site, along with descriptions of what was happening. If you're at all curious how all of this gets done, take a look.

Willow the brat

I promised J that I would pull my fair share of blogging, so here's my first entry on the new blog.

As most of you know, Willow has been a part of our lives for a little over six years now. Those of you who know her might have the opinion (albeit incorrect) that she is a bit, well, spoiled.

So maybe she sleeps under the covers with us every night. And, yes, her grandpa made her a ramp so that she can get up on the bed. I guess it is a bit unusual that we have to take her with us when we go away for the weekend- she doesn't really do the whole kennel thing.

Unfortunately, she seems to be taking the whole spoiled dog thing to a whole new extreme. Ever since we brought her home from her last surgery she has been a whiny, pain in the butt. She will sit on the floor, stare at us, and whine pitifully, nonstop. For awhile, we thought she was hungry, even though we were feeding her three times a day. She was devouring everything we put in front of her.

We think we might have figured out the issue last night and J put the theory to the test today. Apparently, Willow is only happy when she assumes this position on the couch.


I was sitting on the couch in the living room when we finally discovered the cause behind the whining. She kept coming in and crying at my feet. Since I had just fed her, I figured she wasn't hungry. It wasn't until I got up, found the white blanket that we use on our other couch, put her next to me on the living room couch, and allowed her to burrow under the blanket that she left me alone and went to sleep.

She did the same thing to J this morning. She whined at him until he grabbed the magic white blanket from the couch and let her sit next to him underneath it. I don't know what we did to encourage this behavior, but apparently Willow is only happy when she has her blankie to sleep under.

Fortunately, she hasn't gone completely princess yet. Here she is sunbathing in the dirt amongst the weeds before we started construction on the back yard.


As I type right now she is curled up next to me fully engulfed in the white blanket. I guess it could be worse!?!?

Baby Update

D's now at 28.5 weeks (out of 40) and everything's still on track. Almost two weeks ago we had our 27 week ultrasound, as a last minute check to make sure all the pieces we saw at 18 weeks are still there. Here's one of the ultrasound photos:

This might not be a surprise to many of you, but this baby is big. Chiquita was officially at 26 weeks, 6 days gestation, but she measured out at 28 weeks, 4 days on the ultrasound. That's almost two full weeks larger than "standard." She weighed in around 2 pounds, 12 ounces, and will continue to grow at about a half-pound per week for the rest of the pregnancy. So you don't have to do the math, that puts her around 9 pounds at full term, even if her growth tapers off in the last couple weeks.

We confirmed the gender, the presence of a diaphragm, and all the other basics. The one thing that was at all out of the ordinary was the amniotic fluid around the baby, which is measuring just at the high end of normal. Sometimes this can indicate gestational diabetes, especially with a big baby, but D was screened for that last week and passed with flying colors. That means it's likely nothing, since it was just barely remarkable and there usually ends up being no discernible cause. She'll get measured again in two weeks, and hopefully everything will be within parameters.

Chiquita's been moving around and kicking quite a bit recently, especially when D's trying to rest after a long day of work. I've felt several good kicks and a lot of movement....it's all fun but it doesn't help D with her already-sore muscles. Hopefully she'll be able to relax when school is over (in just over a week). Even though softball is done, D still hasn't been home before 5 or 6 in a long time. She has too many other commitments (and fun stuff) to take care of before coming home. A baby shower at school, a softball banquet, several meetings with next year's newspaper staff, a couple of doctor's appointments, and more....they're conspiring to keep her tired and worn out until the school year ends. Fortunately, she's still happy and healthy.

Backyard Day 4

Day 4 (Monday) brought a few changes, though many of them are not obvious. They laid rebar for the concrete patio on the left side of the house, as well as the walkway to the other side of the yard. They also put in a French drain behind the wall and completed a few more concrete forms. I've added a few new pictures to the photo blog.

Unfortunately there was no work on Tuesday because we had to wait for the city inspector to come out and approve a buried electrical conduit. That went well and the landscapers will continue working on Wednesday for a planned concrete pour on Thursday. Today we had someone from the local nursery come by the house to visualize the size and location of our planters, in order to give us recommendations on plants that might work in the space. We've picked out the majority of our plants and will have the landscapers plant them next week before they finish. Though everything will be small to start, the plants should all grow into their respective spots in the next six months to a year.

We also have to pick our concrete color tomorrow. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick the color that will take up 1100 square feet of our yard (that's as big as our entire condo!) from two-inch pieces of paper on a concrete color sample chart? The colors are numerous and though there are a wide variety, there are also some with only subtle differences. Telling the difference between the Omaha Tan and the Sequoia Sand, and then visually projecting it onto the entire patio area, ties my mind in knots. D is better at that sort of visualization...I can picture the shapes and sizes, she can picture the colors. For a glimpse into what the choice is like, take a look at the Davis Colors website. We have to choose from these options....just about anything in the "Subtle" or "Standard" sections.

We'll see how everything looks when it's done, which could be as early as the middle of next week. We've already purchased patio furniture and a standalone gazebo that are ready to spruce up the yard, and we'll have about ten people staying with us within a week of finishing the work....just in time!

Backyard Renovations

We've been having work done on our backyard for a few days now, and there's really been some great progress. I've taken pictures at the end of each day, and I'll be adding to an album of the best shots. The whole album is available here, but I've also thrown a few pictures in to give you a good idea of the work being done.

Day 0- Before the work started, we had a large slope at the back of the yard (pictured here), a good-sized area of dirt between the slope and the house, a cut-out side patio (also dirt), and two narrow walkways down either side of the house. The only greenery was the ground cover on the slope (provided by the builders), and the soil is rocky and full of clay.

Day 1- The first day was mainly focused on excavation of the lower portion of the slope, plus a little bit of digging for trenches.

Day 2- The second day saw the wall footings poured and two layers of brick placed, as well as significantly more excavation and insertion of drainage.

Day 3- The wall was completed on the third day, and forms were placed for planters and concrete patios. The general shapes of the patios and walkways are now visible, and the ground is being prepared for concrete.

Here's the album with pictures from all different angles:

From Backyard

My Cousins are Awesome!

I posted a couple of months ago about my cousin Vinnie, who was participating in a triathlon at the time, and is now graduating from UCLA. It made me realize that I don't post often enough about my awesome extended family, especially my cousins. I'm so proud of all of them, and lucky to have them!

Unfortunately, I don't get to see any of them as much as I'd like, but here are just a couple bits I've pieced together from Facebook postings, graduation invitations, and random emails. Vinnie's graduating from UCLA in two weeks. Vanessa is finishing up a year abroad in Rome, then returning for her senior year at Berkeley. Michael just graduated from CSUN and is at Marine Officer Candidate School in Quantico. Matthew just graduated from CSU Fresno and will be pursuing a career in professional golf. Ryan is starting his senior year at Santa Clara University. Alec was accepted to the film schools at Loyola Marymount University and NYU, and will be attending LMU in the fall. Jim is graduating this summer and headed to college in the fall. Matty is rocking his high school academics, and will be taking part in a medical summer program at UCLA this year. Samantha is starting on the Varsity Softball team as a freshman, and is following in her brother's academic footsteps.

And those are just the ones near/in higher education that I've heard about in the last few weeks. The last time I saw Valentina, I tried to answer a question on her math homework and failed miserably. Hayley tends to excel at everything she ever attempts. Jordan and Taylor are getting cuter by the day.

Most recently, we went to an SDSU Aztecs softball game. Jessica starts at second base for them, and this was the first opportunity we'd had to see her play. The game was against BYU, who had the best record in their division. It was an important game to win, and it didn't start off well.

By the bottom of the seventh inning, SDSU was down 4-0. It had been a rough start for Jessica as well, and wasn't looking like a happy night.

Then, one out from losing the game, Jessica was driven in from third for SDSU's first run. Two plays later, the game was tied at 4-4 and going to extra innings. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Jessica was up to bat with a runner on third. I'll let the video speak for itself.

Welcome to Ryan Road

Welcome to the new blog.  You'll notice that all of the posts from the old site are still here for posterity, but all new entries will be here alone.  We'll never forget Andrew, and he'll be mentioned here from time to time, but the focus of our lives has obviously evolved in the last two years, and we thought our blog should reflect that.

Here we go.....

Pregnancy/Willow Update

Today marks Week 24 (out of 40). There's not much news at this point, but no news is good news. D's last couple of doctor visits have been uneventful (there wasn't even an ultrasound at the last one). But, I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a couple of pictures.

Willow hates to have her picture taken....she runs away any time I point the camera at her. Even when D picks her up, she starts to wriggle and try to get away.

Here's a close-up of Willow's new scar. They took the stitches out last week and it's healing pretty well. Hopefully, in time, it'll be a memory like her other two scars (from her spay and her back surgery). She's pretty much back to 100%, though we had a little scare with an allergic reaction last week.

And here's mommy herself. Tummies always pop a little earlier with subsequent pregnancies, but she still hasn't gained any weight since she got pregnant.