So, how was your weekend?

At 4:03pm on Thursday, my friend who was driving from Missouri to Atlanta to visit me, called and said he was broke down in Clarksville, TN (on the Kentucky/Tennessee border).  He wasn’t going to make it.  This guy has been my “brother from another mother” since high school and I haven’t been able to hang out with him in months.  He was coming down celebrate his new found job and the birth of my child.  Canceling the weekend was not an option.

At 4:06pm on Thursday, I was driving to Clarksville.  Thanks to Atlanta traffic it took me over 5 hours to get there, but it was time well spent.  My friend spent time getting to a dealership to fix his truck and pleading with them to fix it asap.  I spent my time making plans to make the most of the situation.  I called my brother and had him activate his google powers.  Before I hit Chattanooga, we had plans and directions for Friday’s activities.  The truck would be fixed Friday.  While we waited, we would be touring the bourbon trail in Kentucky.  Before I hit Nashville, my brother had used his points to get us a free hotel reservation with breakfast included.  Bam, the weekend was saved.

I arrived in Clarkville to find my friend standing under the overhang of a bank to hide from the pouring rain.  It was a pretty sad sight.  He greeted me with a sarcastic “WTF took you so long?” and cracked a smile.  The weekend had begun.  We were both exhausted from the day so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then some beer to drink at the hotel.  The rain eventually cleared and let us puff on a couple nice cigars that I happened to have so the rough day ended up with smooth finish.

On Friday, we got on the road again early.  We were headed about 3 hours out to Kentucky’s bourbon trail.  Near Louisville you can find the distilleries for Maker’s Mark, Evan Williams, Jim Beam, and various other brands.  Sure, we could have had a good time in Nashville which was less than an hour away, but we had already been there.  We were looking for new adventure.  Of course, we had a blast.  We saw some new sights, ate some local food, and made some new memories.  That afternoon we headed back to Clarksville, picked up my friend’s truck and headed to Atlanta.

This story is long enough so I’ll just say we had a great time Saturday and Sunday.  Motorcycles, dogs, 2x4s, steaks on the grill, and lots of alcoholic beverages were involved.  Props to my brother for coming through with the room and plans for us.  Props to my friend for keeping a good attitude.  When life gives you lemons… call a friend, kick life in the nuts, and have a good time anyway.  My weekend was the best I've had all year.
 

damn today sucks though.  Is it 5 o'clock yet?

A little sooner than expected...

Meet Evelyn Ann.

Evelyn is 100% healthy.  Her mother is doing great.  I am overjoyed.  Life is great.

Looking back on my last blog, it's hilarious to me.  My daughter was born less than 5 days later on 5/12/09 at 5:32am.  She was, in fact, early.  Was the freak out justified?  Totally.  That is an understatement.  The past few days have been the most intense and rewarding experience I have ever been through.  I'd love to tell you all the story, but I have to get some sleep.  Thank you, 2o2p, for all the support.  It really is helpful.

Baby Time

So, most of you that know me, know that I'm expecting my first child in June. Well, my wife is expecting. You know what I mean. Geez, I still don't how to word that. Anyway, I'm as excited as can be about it. I went all out on the baby room for our little girl. I put in chair rail, 4 different colors of paint, re-did an old dresser, and hand built shelves, a coat hangar and a changing table that we can put the baby inside of if there's an earthquake. It's huge. And very heavy. And on the second floor now.

The wife wanted to take some baby classes so we've been doing that for the last few Thursdays. It was pretty good actually. I learned a lot and it helped me feel a lot more at ease about the whole process. Until, the last class that is. I've been hearing from every direction that first time moms always go to or past their due dates. That means I have another month to prepare. Cool. Well last week, 2 of the 9 couples weren't in the class. Those first time moms went 2 and 3 weeks early.

Holy. Crap.

I take a breath. No big deal, I can handle this. Yesterday, I went to my wife's now weekly doctor appointment. I've missed a lot of the appointments because they're pretty routine and I need to save my off time for when the baby is here. After that last class, I needed to ask a few questions though. Everything was normal, great blood pressure, perfect heart beat, oh great you're dilated 3 cm...

Wait. What?

My wife is walking around dilated 3 cm. The doctor said it's perfectly normal, in fact it's great. I said I was already worried she was just going to drop while I was working downtown. I jokingly said I had planned a get home fast route that included driving through the median of the interstate highway. In response, she kept a straight face and said "Yeah, you should make a sign that say's Get out of way, Woman in labor".

WTF

I thought that first time moms were supposed to be in labor for 12-20 hours. Plenty of time to get through a little traffic. Apparently some go quick and my wife may be one of them.

I'm freaking out, man.

Also, I can't post without giving a Pwnathon link. Hope to see you all involved this July. If I survive the next month, that is.

Lord, have mercy on me

We just had our ultrasound today and found out we're going to have a baby girl in early June.  WOW, that was intense.  Seeing the baby, hearing the heart beat and finding out that I'm going to have a little princess has made for quite a morning.  I've been saying that I want a boy, but I really couldn't be happier that its going to be a girl.  I have a niece and a friend with two other girls and I always have a blast with them.  She will probably wind up being spoiled because I am a sucker for pretty faces (as my wife has found out) but I don't care right now.  I am excited.

The wife is napping right now, but when she wakes up we're going baby room shopping with my mother in law.  I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for all the pink I'm about to see.  Lord, have mercy on me.

Australia!

My wife and I just got back from a two week vacation in Australia.  We recently decided to start a family and decided this would be our last chance to have a real vacation.  Wow, it was awesome.  On Friday, Nov 14 I got to work at 6:45am and worked until around 2:00 when I took off to pick up my wife.  Something like 30 hours later (layover in LA), we arrived in Brisbane, AU... on Sunday morning.  Actually, I don't remember the exact timeline, but Australia is 15 hrs ahead of the Eastern time zone, that sure does screw with your system.  Anyway, our flight to AU was part of a package that included flights to Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, and Sydney.  We were going to pack as much in as possible!

Notice, they're all coastal cities.  We opted to not go to the outback desert because of the way our plans and timetable worked out.  I had actually already seen the outback and, while I wish I could have shown it to my wife, I think we made the right choice.

So, first up was Brisbane.  It's a great city with lots of parks and a river running through it.  We took a road trip to see the Australia Zoo, home of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's family.  The zoo was great.  It had a very open feel that allowed kangaroo interaction, koala petting, and elephant feeding.  It was all structured and overseen, but in some cases, there was only a small fence and an illustrated sign to keep visitors in line.

Our next little road trip from Brisbane was south to Surfer's Paradise on the Australian gold coast.  Beautiful beaches line the AU east coast.  This was a lazy day of playing in the water and laying on the beach.  Good times...

Next, we headed to Cairns (pronouced "Cans").  We took a boat tour to do some snorkling on the great barrier reef.  It was a crappy day and wind was kicking up sand so the pictures aren't too clear, but there really is as much wilflife out there as I had seen in pictures before.  Fish, sea turtles and all sorts of creatures were in abundance.

Cairns is on the edge of a rainforest, much in contrast with the desert that AU is famous for.  The best part of that excursion was a Sky Rail ride that took us over the tree tops of the forest.  The views were spectacular once again.

With our trip half over, we headed to Melbourne and rented a car to drive west along AU's Great Ocean Road.  This was probably my favorite part of the trip.  Driving a tiny little Yaris, we weaved through the tight turns and post card views for a full day.  Signs like the one below were frequent reminders for us American tourists.

The city of Melbourne was one of the best I've ever been too.  The city has unofficial sections like Chinatown and Little Italy.  They're in the process of revamping their harbor area with shops and restaurants.  It's already nice and it'll be great when it's done.  There's a free tourist trolley in the heart of the city and other trains and such aren't expensive so a car is more trouble than it's worth.  People were out enjoying the air all over the place, not just tourists, so the city had a great feel to it.

Finally, we made it to the city AU is most famous for: Sydney.  There's a ton to do and see.  The shops and bars were the coolest, I've ever seen. The pic below was of a restaurant area just a few blocks from our hotel.

Of course, I have more pics but I need to filter out the ones of my pregnant wife.  She's really not interested in showing her current form on the internet.  Speaking of the wife, she did a great job planning this trip.  All of our rooms were in excellent locations and had very reasonable rates.  We had the time of our lives, while coming in under budget.

It was a great time, but to be honest, I'm glad to be back.  Glad to have my own bed back, glad to have my dogs to play with, and glad to get back online with my 2o2p family.