IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Phoebe Rebekah Schnaare

born: June 30th at 11:16 am

weight: 7 pounds 12 ounces

length: 19 inches

Pictures will follow.

Preparing for Fatherhood

I have to rise above my own expectations of what dignity is.

On Thursday, Monkey-Girl and I were visiting the OB. I had to bar the door against No-Knocky the interrupting physician. Then Dr. N-K suggested that we try natural ways to induce labor. We can take walks. Poor Monkey-Girl would not look too dignified doing this.

We were also told of semen's oxytocin producing property. Being prescribed to administer this particular labor inducer was another shot to our dignity.

My personal way of inducing labor? Make plans. As soon as someone is counting on Monkey-Girl and/or me to do something at a particular time, the cosmic rulebook states that we cannot be there.

At the very least, I'll have something to do while I'm waiting.

Mail Fun and More

Still pregnant!

On the way back from the OB's, Monkey-Girl and I stopped by the Student Post Office (SPO). I received my 2008 Transformers Collectors' Club membership figure. It's cool . . . and translucent.

Yesterday, I drove up to Murfreesboro to sell off some old comics. I unloaded volumes 1-14 of Cerebus and some Star Wars magna volumes. Because Cerebus has such a limited appeal, I told the store owner I'd understand if he wasn't interested.

His response, "Oh, I can sell me some Cerebus!"

I'm not kidding.

It was worth the ride just to hear that. Not just for the comedic value either. It was great to be in an actual comic book shop.

Oh, and $80 store credit doesn't hurt.

McCain Gunning for the Geek Vote

In an effort to look cool and capture the youth vote. Sen. John McCain's website has published a version of the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders. Level by level the player is treated to McCain crafted facts.

If a thirty year old game is enough to swing your vote you may want to play the above game and install it on your own blog.

Obama in '08!

Fuzzy Friends

Those lucky enough to have visited Monkey-Girl and my home have noticed our extensive collection of stuffed animals. Believe it our not there are many more stuffed animals on display in our home than any other toy. (I counted.)

It turns out that having this display along the back of our couch has been a big help. Monkey-Girl will often grab a friend to help as a prop for her increasingly beleaguered body. Poor thing.

The king of our collection must be this little guy. He currently reigns over our living room from atop his cheesehead throne. My favorite thing about the whole setup is that Monkey-Girl created the whole thing. The cheeseheads were placed there to deter our eternally naughty cat from jumping onto our television. The monkey just seemed to make sense to Monkey-Girl at the time. Since we spend hours gazing in his direction, I keep envisioning us paying respect to the monkey. Better still, we've had guests over to assume the same position.

Excellent.

New Things

I thought I'd try a new look for the website. Monkey-Girl thinks it's cute. I suppose I do too. I'm toying with making it my homepage. That way I'll be reminded to post more often. We'll see if it actually works.

Sometime last week Monkey-Girl suggested we have stuffed peppers for dinner soon. Stuffed peppers are not a dish I grew up with and so it wasn't until adulthood that I experienced them. My first outing was significantly marred by the presence of my mortal enemy, the tomato. (The FDA has put out warnings about these evil berries. It's about time.)

Always up for a culinary challenge, I dove in. The result, shown above, was delightful. I think I will seek out more ways to cook food inside of other foods. It'll be fun.

Cross Stitch Update: I'm about to run out of the dark-brown embroidery floss I'm using. The local Wal-Mart no longer carries embroidery floss. This throws a wrench into my dreams of actually finishing a cross stitch project before my baby is born.

Edit: I just remembered! I did a little project for my in-laws some years back when I was first dating Monkey-Girl. So I guess I have finished a cross stitch project at some point in my life.

Wow. That kind of makes the hustle I've been putting on seem ridiculous. What am I saying? How could anything about about a Transformers cross stitch project be ridiculous?

Confessions of a Goof-Off

Forty-eight days since an update? What kind of a blogger am I? I would argue that I'm not a blogger at all. A blogger, by definition, blogs. Maybe I'm something else then. A goof-off perhaps. You see, the "drive" to blog is in fact more of a way of not doing something I aught to be. With my teaching duties done, I now have much less to put off. Therefore, the desire to blog has been lessened.

We are about two week from baby's due date. There is very little left for us to do. Most of our days have been spent waiting and watching terrible movies on basic cable. (Even Mr. and Mrs. Smith loses something after the forth time in a fortnight.) Monkey-Girl is not sleeping very well which is causing me to not sleep well. As a result, our new bedtime has shifted to 3:00 am.

When the situation calls for it (like Unforgiven coming on . . . again) I turn to one of my distractions du jour. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the (likely) unholy pairing of Transformers cross stitch and Dungeons & Dragons, 4th edition.

I've been working on this cross stitch project for just about a year now. Mostly it's sat in a bag while I've occasionally thought about maybe working on it. Something gave me the crazy idea of trying to finish it before baby got here. You know, I just might.

D&D, 4E, as the cool kids are calling it, is quite the upgrade. I'm plodding my way through the Player's Handbook currently. The plodding is entirely on me. The book is very readable and well laid out. The regular players of D&D I know all like what they see in this new edition. The occasional players have been mostly negative. I am in the former category and am no exception. I won't bore you with details. It's just very fun.

That's all for tonight. I'll try to update again soon. We'll see what baby has to say about that. Who knows maybe I can call myself a blogger again someday.