Baby Yank and Papa Yank

Since this is John's quasi-first Father's Day, I got him a present and one he definitely enjoyed. As most everyone knows, he is a big Yankees fan and I expect any child of his will be influenced in some way in this regard. So for Father's Day he got matching big and little Yankees golf shirts. The little being a Yankees golf shirt onesie. Give it a few months and we'll have to post a picture of the two of them together being worn.

Denver Dining

As with any long busy trip my days can be summarized by this... meetings. Okay, on to the fun stuff. What else do you do on trips? Got out for dinner late in the evening after the long meetings end. There were a few places of serious consequence to note from the fair gastronomical Mile High City.

First, on Wednesday night I met up with the Sanders and Marotta for dinner at the Old Louisville Inn. Excellent Irish/Colorado mix of corned buffalo and cabbage. Also they have the oldest hand carved bar in Colorado that was very neat. We also stopped at The Huckleberry for some excellent cake, pie, and tea.

Friday night I went to The Buckhorn Exchange for dinner with some coworkers. This place was great and claims to be the oldest operating restaurant in Colorado (also with an antique bar). But the great thing about this place is that they serve game proteins, as in buffalo, elk, yak, ostrich, and others. I had buffalo prime rib and a cornish game hen both of which were excellent. Others had elk, yak, and ostrich. We all agreed the ostrich (I had a bite too) was a bit sweet for a meat, elk was a little gamy but good. The real surprise was the yak which got rave reviews. The other interesting thing about this place was the decor, animals of all shapes and sized stuffed and hung on the wall. Many of which just might have been served at some point judging by the menu. There really was everything from buffalo, a monkey, a zebra, and a two headed calf. They also have Colorado liquor license No. 1 from the early 1900s. Pictures below.

Lastly, after I left the meeting Saturday midday I grabbed a pizza from Brooklyn MCs (actual New York "ex-pats" if you will) cooking it up right in Littleton. Fantastic pie! I burned my mouth because I couldn't wait for it to cool down it was so good. I was also shovelling it in as I drove to the airport but way worth it. That wraps up the culinary review of Denver for this trip. If you ever get that way, I recommend all of these places.

Meeting Math

I = Io x e^(-t)

where I is personal interest and attention, Io is initial interest, and t is meeting duration. Conversely, this can be expressed in percent Internet usage as follows

WWW = 100% x e^(t)

where WWW is Internet usage.

Bankruptcy Exhibit A

I'm in Denver for the week for work and, of course, that means fun rental car to drive for the week. My favorite thing about car rental places now is that they let you choose any car you want from a whole aisle!! Wow, I am convinced that you get to do this so when you get the crappy car you feel like it's partially your fault and has nothing to do with the fact that they only have crappy "intermediate" cars to choose from.

When I got directed to the aisle of choice, my quick assessment yielded Chevy HHR, Chrysler PT Cruiser, and a singular VW bug. Given my previous post making fun of bugs I didn't really want to take that one and my suitcase when have been somewhat annoy to try and shove in the small trunk. Since the HHR and PT Cruiser are essentially the same thing, I just grabbed a PT Cruiser.

I am quite sure there is absolutely no redeeming qualities to the PT Cruiser. It drives like a bus, is just as comfortable as one and feels like it's going to fall apart on corners. Getting on the freeway I had they thing floored trying to get to speed and it still took till tomorrow to get to speed with the engine complaining the all the way. But I think the thing that really tops it off is the fact that the dash joyously reported a fuel economy of a whopping 22mpg freeway. So really, tiny engine and no power and it STILL doesn't get good mileage? If anyone really wondered why Chrysler is bankrupt, allow me to present my rental car PT Cruiser as reason enough.

Next time I'll shoe horn my suitcase into the bug and suck it up.

First Furniture

This weekend we picked out the baby room furniture. Since we prefer solid wood furniture, the big box stores where you can register don't exctly have a lot of quality choices. The dresser is going to come from Bald Furniture which is a local business we've used several times which, of course, is all solid wood furniture and they can do the staining for us to match the crib. They are backed up 10-12 weeks on staining orders due to the on-going work they are trying to complete from people replacing Ike damaged furniture. We spoke with the owner and she said they actually had over 80 pieces queued up for work. Crazy. But it's good stuff so we'll wait. The crib we just ordered from Overstock where you can get pretty decent deals on better quality stuff. So it'll be awhile till the room is fully setup, but we still need to paint... again.

Lime-a-licious

Erin now has me reading the Pioneer Woman blog and I think it's awesome because she puts some fantastic recipes on there. Plus, she is a funny and entertaining writer. But yesterday I checked her blog and she made Key Lime pie...mmmmm. We had a store bought key lime pie that was brought to the Memorial Day BBQ, but this one looked way better because it was homemade. It also looked pretty easy to make. So good and easy? Gotta try this.

So last night, I made one... only it turned out the crust recipe really makes TWO, so what the hell, why not? I made the pie while our navy beans, beef, and rice dinner was on the stove which was John called it was "poor man's dinner". It is an inexpensive meal, but no less good especially loaded up on spices how I made it. But the pies turned out fantastic and I even topped them with fresh made whipped cream. Seriously people, good recipe.

10 Fingers and Toes

Today we had our big ultrasound to get the views of baby and make sure everything was in its place and it is! The appointment was pretty cool and the high tech toys they have are great. We don't have all the pictures from the session but she gave us the highlights. The whole thing is fascinating seeing all the bones and bits and pieces and watching the peanut punch me in the stomach at the same time.

All in all very neat, but in a way the whole thing still isn't "real". I'm beginning to think that when they are around age 3 I'll buy into this whole "we are having a kid" thing. Also, since we are keeping the gender a surprise, the tech was good and we really have no idea what it is still with no pictures that may provide an indication.

Jury Doody Recap

Today I had a summons for jury duty, so with the inevitable groaning and mumbling I headed down to the Houston Municipal Court. Last time I got summoned was District Court where the big stuff (robbery, murder, etc.) go. Municipal court is the "lowest rung" of the crimnal justice ladder as the judge put it and is people fighting citations for traffic, city ordinances (noise, etc.), and other low level "criminal offenses." Joy, so my summary of this is "a whole lot of crappy cases for people that won't just pay the speeding ticket." Although, interesting side note, Texas is one of only a few states that still allow jury trials for these offenses and the only exception is the much beloved red light camera tickets which are civil offenses.

Anyway, I was summoned for 10am, got there early at 9:30 since apparently traffic doesn't suck later in the morning and I proceeded to wait... and wait and wait. At 11:30 I was called to a panel (the first of the day) and we were taken outside a courtroom, where we waited some more. Then we were told to go to lunch... for an hour and half. Then we came back at 1:15 and waited... and waited until 2:00 when we were called in to the courtroom. In the courtroom, we waited, until they finally asked us the questions about being impartial. All I know is that this was a traffic issue with a limo and the limo driver was representing himself. The prosecutor asked typical questions about who thinks cops are scum and who thinks cops never tell a lie. The limo drivers only jury question... who has ever rented or been in a limo? I have no idea what the citation is but it really sounded like he was fishing for having ANY question to ask us.

But thankfully, I was number 12 in the panel and number 11 was the last juror needed. So I am now 2 for 2 on getting on a jury panel and missing the cut by one person. But the summary of my day is I waited for 5 hrs for 20min of panel questioning and then sent home. Good enough for me, time to take my $6 and go.

Viral Baby Marketing

After semi-recovering from my cold (one which John now has), we hit up two birthday parties yesterday. First, Carina Mendeck turned the ripe old age of 2 and we went to the party which, at that age, still mostly involves adults. But good times, I think it is something of a preview of things to come. Afterwards, I headed out to celebrate Kim F's birthday with the girls and had a great time. No complaints to make cheese fondue and play cards. It was just great to relax with the poker girls again since we don't seem to get to this nearly as often anymore.

Today, John and I went and did our baby registry. OMG!! We were both completely exhausted after that. I think it was way harder then a wedding registry and we still ended up leaving with several big items yet to be decided through Internet research. Things like car seats we don't think are best decided by the fabric colors in the store, call us crazy. I came home and finished off the research just to get it done (for the most part).

But I will say the most annoying part of the trip was in the selection of rubber duckies. There were 3 packs of duckies, one 'girl' set with pink accents and flower crap and the other 'boy' set was police, fire, and medical duckies. Ummm... really, so even the rubber duckies are sexist? It wasn't enough for girls to get pink flowers and boys to get sports stuff in baby gear we've moved on to career choices already? Needless to say, we registered for the "boy" duckies because they are just as good regardless of what we have. I have a feeling this is not the first time I'll run into this.

Movin' and Shakin'

Yay! So I think I have felt the baby move a few times now. Mostly seems to be just before I go to sleep and am quiet and still enough. Given the way I am carrying, I thought I might have to wait a bit longer to feel it but I'm glad I've detected something, even if only a few pokes. I'm sure it will pickup as baby gets bigger and stronger. John was disappointed he couldn't feel anything last night when he got back from a work trip in Louisiana. Maybe in the next few days there will be enough motion in the ocean for him to feel. Really though, first time I felt something was weird, it's very different getting a poke from the inside and knowing that was most definitely not gas.

But, part of poking fun is being dampened by having caught a cold. Ugh. So I don't like being sick in general (who does) but now I don't get to take a whole lot in the way of medication. I am allowed acetaminophen and I called the office and they said I could have Sudafed too. I am working from home today to not spread the uncontrolled germs at the office and so I can be more comfortable. Trying to sit in an office chair with the muscle aches from this would drive me crazy and was starting to get that way yesterday. My office for today is my couch, thank goodness for laptops.