Life Evaluation
Now Playing: In The End - Linkin Park

Well, today is my 30th birthday. I've heard tell that many people get depressed on their birthdays, thinking about all that they have not accomplished. On this "I'm officially OLD" day, I must say that I am rather content with where my life is and where my life is headed. I'm married to the love of my life, have a job I love where I'm paid to learn new things and basically play with lots of toys (scientific instruments), have more good friends than I can count easily, and my first kid is about five months out. At the risk of tempting the gods to smite me down, I have to say that my life is better than I ever hoped it could be.

Now, just watch, since I've waxed rhapsodic about the joy that is my life, my experiments today are all going to crash and burn... ;)

Sonogram Photos

We went to get new sonogram photos yesterday - our first new photos since week 7, when the baby was pretty much a blob. At week 16, however, the baby looks like, well, a baby. Our favorites are below, and you can click here to see the whole set.

Profile (Head and Hand, waving)

Profile (waving hand)

We'll next be getting photos at the end of the month, then more a couple weeks after that . How are we getting so many sonograms? We signed up for a study - one of the benefits of being near a major research hospital. Anywho, enjoy!

Back in Ann Arbor
Well, Kathleen and I are back together in Ann Arbor. We flew back in last evening at the end of a long but relatively stress-free day of travel.

I'll probably write up a longer post later, but I wanted to put up two links. First, this link leads to the web page for the Tierrasanta Kiwanis Foundation, the organization that is handling the memorial scholarship in Dad's name: Kiwanis Foundation of Tierrasanta

Second, the SD Union Tribune published a really nice article on Dad yesterday, and I thought I'd link to it in case any of you would like to read it: Union Tribune article on Dad

Thanks again to everyone for the thoughts and prayers...we really appreciate all the love and support we've received from you all.

Recent news
Some of you have already heard about much of the recent news that will be discussed below, but Kathleen and I wanted to make sure we got the most current information out there for everyone.

As many of you know, Kathleen’s father passed away this past Wednesday. He suffered a massive stroke Tuesday morning, following which he never regained consciousness. Kathleen was able to get out to San Diego to be with her family by late Tuesday evening, and I followed along early Wednesday morning. Following Dad’s wishes, he was able to give the gift of life to another gentleman through organ donation. We have since been working through making arrangements and getting life into some form of order, during which time we’ve been overwhelming blessed by the prayers, love, and help that the community and family have extended to Kathleen’s mother and to us all.

Services for Dad will be held at the family church in San Diego on Monday, July 3rd. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to a memorial scholarship fund that has been established in Dad’s name. Anybody who needs specific info or details, please email me.

Kathleen is staying out in San Diego through to the services next week- luckily, when one telecommutes, Ann Arbor and San Diego are equidistant from Chicago ;) I am flying back to Ann Arbor (on the plane right now, actually) to take care of business at home, and I’ll be heading back out to San Diego next Sunday. So, again, if anyone needs info or details please feel free to email me or call my cell- on a somewhat humorous aside, I think my cell phone is sore from all the new numbers I’ve put into it in the last few days.

On a much more joyful note, Kathleen and I also wanted to let everyone know that we are expecting our first child! The new member of the family is due Dec. 28th, and we are experiencing the fun of sonograms and more doctor appointments than either of us have had in many years. In fact, before we had told everyone about the imminent arrival I had been telling my lab mates that I had all these doctor appointments for myself. Some of my poor coworkers began to get seriously worried about my health, convinced that I was hiding some dreadful health conditions from them! Needless to say, they were thrilled to learn that my subterfuge was hiding very happy news.

Kathleen and I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers as we begin the process of adjusting to life with Dad watching over us from above. Although we’ve always known how lucky we are to be blessed with the friends we have, the last few days have truly opened our eyes to the limitless abundance of love, friendship, and support that our friends and families shower upon us. Please know that your support has helped to ease our burdens and brought light to the shadows of recent days.

Hot! Hot! Hot!
We went to the Tigers/Yankees game yesterday. After all, what better way is there to celebrate the official start of summer than to go to a baseball game? Of course, we didn't count on the 93 degree game-time temp :)

It was one of those days where you're so hot that you don't want to eat... where your sweat seems to dry instantly on your skin... and where no matter how "sweatproof" your sunblock is, you still feel like it's dripping off.

However, it was our first MLB game of the season, and for that reason we enjoyed it. Plus, for $12, our seats weren't bad. Comerica has generally good sightlines, no matter where you sit, and there wasn't a single play that we couldn't see. (At least, not because of our seat location. There were a couple we missed because people stood up in front of us.)

Another college graduate in the family
Mood:  happy
I went back to Rock Island last Thursday to attend a graduation- my mom’s graduation from college! She had gone back to school to get her associate’s degree in child development so she could finally become a full-fledged teacher. Turns out she graduated magna cum laude and she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, which is the two-year college equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa. So, basically, my mom kicked a** and took names on her way to getting her college degree ;) She’s now going to be a teacher in a specialized pre-school at the community college, working with two year olds.

I’m still working on getting my head around my mom’s achievement. I mean, I’ve gotten my bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D., and I’m now staff at a major research institution, but I think that what my mom has accomplished goes far beyond anything I’ve been able to pull off. I’ve had the luxury of a support system that has always let me focus on my education and training, whereas Mom went back to school to achieve one of her dreams while still working and taking care of the household. I guess her getting her degree just reinforces in my mind how lucky I have been in life and what an amazing woman I have for a mother.

Here’s my mom in all her cap and gown splendor:

Easter in Ann Arbor
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: The Next Food Network Star
Today - well, last night actually - was the first Easter Vigil we’ve spent away from Sheil in quite a while (over 10 years for me). We went to vigil at our church here in Ann Arbor. The liturgy was very nice – about 10-15 people were baptized into the church, and over 30 people were confirmed. In fact, they cut back from the customary seven readings to four reading to keep the whole vigil running at a crisp three hours ;). Afterwards, we went to Denny’s to satisfy Kathleen’s craving for fried mozzarella sticks and my craving for caffeine, which I’d given up for Lent.

We had a bunch of people from lab over for Easter dinner today. Between the outrageous amount of food, Violet’s quest for treats from everybody, and me getting my a** kicked in MLB Slugfest by a guy who never had played the game before, it was a great and relaxing day.

In other news, I’ve finally finished all my postdoc fellowship applications and can now get back on the bench full time. My head is so full of experiments I want to do, it’s just a matter of getting them done. Good situation to be in.*
*Kathleen says "Good situation in which to be", and scolds me for the split infinitve. Guess that $100,000 M e d i l l education is worth something after all ;)

Random observations and occurrences-
1) I flew back to Chicago on Thursday; I took off from Detroit at 8:45 AM, landed in Chicago at 8:40 AM - and they say time travel is impossible…
2) Time spent cleaning and organizing the apartment is so worth it…
3) I think about 55 percent of the food we give Violet is turned into fur she sheds three days later…
4) The Ann Arbor library system, with its online item request system, is my favorite new toy…
5) We just watched “This Old Cub” on Friday night. If you haven’t seen it and really want to see an truly inspirational story of positive attitude overcoming adversity, I highly recommend it…
6) Oh yeah, and go Reggie for the Next Food Network Star!!!

Updates and such
Now Playing: Stargate Monday

Nothing much new going on here. We spent the weekend cleaning & shopping for our Easter party - we've now got a fridge full of meat and a lot of chocolate.

We also gave the puppy a bath - a couple weeks ago, we invested in all the stuff to wash her at home, because she gets all stressed out when we wash her at the dog-o-mat or the groomers. She definitely is more relaxed at home - hardly even tries to climb out of the tub or anything.

I stole the following from Christin:

Kathleen Now with opposable thumbs

'What will your business card say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

This is especially funny because I'm always telling Violet that if only she had opposable thumbs, she would be much more help around the house.

Questions and Comments on Opening Day
Now Playing: Pads vs. Giants
- Pads Win! Cubs Win!

- So Mike Piazza hits a homer in his first Padre at-bat. Does this mean I have to stop thinking of him as a ever-hated Dodger?

- Khalil Greene hits an upper-deck homer to left field (after almost homering to center on his first at-bat, a warning-track fly out). Since when is he a power hitter?

- I'm loving the anti-steroids commercial with the deflating sports equipment. You know which one I mean.

News and whatnot
Baseball season starts today! Woo!

The biggest news for us lately is that I chopped my hair off and donated it to Locks of Love last Saturday. Eleven inches of hair, gone! This is the third time I've donated my hair, and this time was a little different. The stylist, instead of just pulling all my hair into one big ponytail and cutting that off, put my hair into lots of little ponytails, then cut those off. She said that gives a better donation - makes sense. Plus, that way, you don't end up with lots of hair on the sides and no hair in the middle when the ponytails are gone.

So, since I knew I'd be seeing several blog readers in Chicago last week, I wanted to shock everyone and didn't post this story. But now, I've shocked everyone I can in person, so here are the long-awaited photos:



Other random news:
We are officially going to NYC for our anniversary this summer - the tickets are purchased and the hotel reserved.

The geese that have returned to the pond by our house have built a nest right by the edge of the pond - we're looking forward to seeing the goslings once they hatch.

We're thinking of having an Easter shindig, since this will be the first year we won't have church-related plans. For the past few years, we've always gone to Easter vigil, then a party with lots of friends from church on Easter Sunday. But, since we're going to be in Ann Arbor for Easter, we're probably going to have our own party.