Yes, I know, it's been a long time.  Let me say something about getting ready to have a baby... some things go by the wayside.  Planning two baby showers, putting our stuff in storage, opening and setting up Jack's stuff, taking baby classes, reading baby books, trying to do as many things that we can't do once he arrives.... it takes up time, and mind power.  So, this will be quick, need to get to bed so I can get to work, do as much as I can in what will probably be a super busy day, go to the doctor to see Jack in an ultrasound, which we haven't seen in a long time, get back to work and finish all I'll need to finish, get home, eat dinner early enough for Jen so that she doesn't puke when she lays down.

Whoa, I'm tired just typing it.

g'nite

Well, there he is, yup he. He will most likely be Jack, and he's already like both of his parents. First, he really enjoys sleep, like his mommy; when the doctor tries to get a good look at him, he didn't immediately wake up like his daddy; and he wouldn't get into a good position to let us see if he was a boy or girl without much prodding, showing his stubbornness, like both of his parents.
Still haven't decided on the middle name, we still have time, no pressure. I'm pushing for Daniels, Sparrow, Anakin, Lucas, Lando, 3PO, Neo, David, Matthew, or something really biblical like Nebuchadnezzer, or Samson.
Maybe baby names shouldn't be my responsibility.

From this picture, we also know that he's happy and content, as displayed by his little thumbs up that everything is going a-ok in there.

In another month, we'll start learning all the details about the hospital, where to go, who to call, all that jazz, and start taking our classes where we learn things that I have no idea about, like diaper changing, what to do with the umbilical cord hanging from his belly, how and when to feed, and how early he can start watching Star Wars.

As a testament to either my predictability, Jen's smarts, or both, I said to her (completely seriously) "You know what a new baby boy really needs?"
She instantly responded with, "We're not buying him a big screen TV."
Man, she's smart.

Well, Jen is feeling somewhat better. She's not feeling great, but definitely better.  I sure hope this means she's closer to being fine.  It's not fun watching someone you love feel like crap all the time, while I feel just fine all the time.  

We signed up for netflix, pretty cool so far, I like the instantly watchable videos online, maybe if we get a HDTV, we can use it for movies too.

Thinking about selling the Mini.  Not because it costs us anything (because it doesn't), but realistically, we're not going to be working on it more than we do when the baby comes.  But, we both are happy that we have it, and really, the only advantages of selling it are that we can move all our stuff from the storage unit to the garage and save $100 a month, and we'd be adding the sale price to our bank accounts.    We'll see.

Jen said that if I can sell our tv in the front room, and in our bedroom, we can buy a new tv, so I'm trying hard.

Found out that the moment she leaves work for maternity leave, she is no longer covered by her medical insurance, and has to pay for COBRA, which sucks, I'd be ok with her paying for GI Joe, but COBRA? Ridiculous!

Helped teach an all-day seminar for Improv last saturday for a church in Poway and then did a show with them that night. It was awesome.  Tiring, but well worth it.  Got paid, which is always nice, but it was really cool to teach other people something I am fairly good at.  I told Jen a few weeks ago "I really like showing other people how to do things that I know how to do", to which she responded "you mean teaching?".   Ahhhh, the wise words of the wife.  Although, considering she doesn't actually know how to read my blog, they are wasted words, I'll go tell her myself.

Going to a Halloween party next Saturday, dressing up as a car wreck, I mean, Michael Phelps in 10 years, complete with skull cap, goggles, iPod in one ear, swim parka, our multiple marathon and half marathon medals around my neck, and yes, a Speedo.  Hey, I didn't say it was going to be pretty, I said it was going to be a train wreck.

Tomorrow is Friday, which is always a good thing, have a show on Saturday night, last one for the year, trying to get work people to go.  We're doing this show with someone from the class, which always makes for a fun evening.

I think that's it for now, life is pretty much how I tend to like it, busy.

baby murph

Well, we saw the little one again yesterday.  Still pretty crazy to think about, a little person that's about as long as a finger, actually living and moving and growing inside Jen's body.  And people say there's no such thing as miracles... I can't see how, and it's still just the beginning.

I was able to hold it together a little bit better this time than the first time, probably because I was so focused on the technical aspects, how it grows, what parts are functioning, how the ultrasound works, how much it can move.  We got lucky, cause the stubborn little murph wasn't in the right position for the measurements, so we were able to watch it a lot longer than most new parents get to watch.  Goes to show that it's at least somewhat like it's mother, cute and stubborn.  And, it apparently (not sure how the tech could tell, but it's what she said) was sleeping, so it's somewhat like me, able to sleep through anything, even being poked by a mysterious object, or being jostled around to change position.  No doubt it's our kid!  So exciting though, it's really hard to describe the feeling, I can't even begin to imagine once it's actually out and breathing, eating, sleeping through the night, never fussing........ we can dream, right?

Well, baseball season is over.  I guess some would say that postseason is still going on, but since the angels just lost, it's over for me.  I have now made it my life goal to become super rich, then buy the Red Sox, then either disband them, or mis-manage them to humiliation.

It will be done.

spore

Ok, so there's this game coming out in 5 days called Spore. I first heard about it and started getting excited about it back in 2005, no needless to say, I'm excited. It's basically (well, it's not actually a 'basically' kind of game, but I'll try) a game where you control a species of creatures that you create and evolve and control from a single celled animal to an intergalactic exploring species. The really fun part is that the entire game is populated by creatures created by other real people. So the question then come of, "what about when the first people start playing it, what creatures will be in that game?". Ahhh, good question, young padawan. They released the Spore Creature Creator a few weeks back. People can go in there, play with the creature editor, and publish them to the Sporepedia. As of this exact moment, there are 3,242,091 different creatures in the Sporepedia. And, if you want to see what I've made, you can go to my spore creations and take a look.  Pretty fun stuff.

so here's a couple more, first is the main building at grand central station.... very aptly named, the second is in the middle of central park, where people set up a roller rink shaped area, and skate and dance... i just stood there and stared.

Here's a scan of Manhattan from Jersey:

And here's your basic shot of a subway coming into a station... they come in faster than I expected, and are about 5 times as long as expected.

Here's a quick summary of the trip, since we're still in the middle, and i'm sleepy. First is a video from Jersey of Manhattan, which is way bigger than I expected.

This is the outside of the place we stayed in Jersey, our friends Tracey and Joe.. it has a basement, which was nice and cold, just my kind of sleeping arrangement temperature.

This is a building at Ellis Island. Due to time constraints, we could only visit here, or the Statue of Liberty, which we could not go up, so we chose the former... much better decision, it was really interesting, and I learned a lot. This building is the main one that people first went through to go through the very extensive screening processes.

This is an old church in the financial district, which since 9-11, very limited vehicle access, nice for tourists on foot. Just really liked the way it was framed. New York is hard to photograph, because it's all too big.