Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Baby moment

Tonight, for the first time, I felt our baby move. Liz has been feeling the baby move around a lot in the last few weeks, and when we're at home or together and she feels it move, she puts my hand on her stomach so I can maybe feel it as well. Never happened before. But tonight it did. Gotta say, all cliches etc recognized, it was amazing. Doesn't really make sense in a way. It really starts to make this whole thing more real though. Guess that's a contradiction, but it's a strange (and exciting) feeling.

Extras


Just watched the latest episode of Extras tonight. This could be the funniest show on TV right now, although the Office is right up there too. The latest Extras episode featured the kid from Harry Potter in a scout uniform, plus -- the best part -- very un-PC treatments of disabilities. The episode before featured David Bowie doing a great song ridiculing Andy. I was "havin' a laugh." Definitely.

Here're some youtube clips.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Gettin' busy

Man, things have been busy for us in the new year so far. So, here's some stuff that's been going on... it's been a while since the last post.

Baby stuff: Things are going well so far. We had the 20 wk sonogram, and everything is looking normal. Liz and I are just hoping for a healthy baby. But otherwise, Liz's friends and family have been great -- donating hand-me-downs clothes and baby gear, furniture, etc. Liz is feeling good and starting to show, although she's been knocked-out tired at night. We've decided not to paint the nursery room in the new house -- bright green is an excellent color as far as I'm concerned (and don't have to paint). Speaking of painting...

House stuff: I've been trying to get painting done in our bedroom, but it's been slow going. We finally decided on a color, but had to use primer to cover old paint. So, I managed to get the primer up while it was so warm, so we could air out the room while it dried. (The doctor says Liz should avoid breathing in paint fumes.) Now I'm very close to having the room all taped up and ready for the real stuff, but still need to worry about the fumes. So gotta figure out best time to do that.

We're zeroing in on a couch for the basement. There's been much thought and time spent debating what the right one should be -- most of that done in my head w/ Liz getting annoyed on the sidelines. Oh yea, and more painting to be done in the basement. Trying to get it ready for TV room/rec room use.

Did some spackling (!) to patch up the walls from previous owners' nails, hangers, etc, and repainted that as well. Then, there's pictures to hang. Oh yea, still gotta finish installing a towel rod and shelf in the upstairs bathroom. Never would've thought I'd want to/have to do all this stuff! I guess it can be fun... not the painting really.

Plus, on top of those (mostly self-imposed) projects, we still are trying to rent or sell our condo. That is the first thing that needs to happen. And we've also got to get our cars registered in MD (and get MD driver's licenses). Whew.

But, I was able to take a sort of last minute trip up to NYC w/ Scott to visit Tom, my nephew Isaac, and his dad, Errol. It was a fun trip. It was freezing up there this weekend though. I was hoping the warm spell might hold out while we were there but it pretty much ended right before the weekend. Me and bunch of friends are heading back up in March.

That's the latest for now.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

National Park Seminary

If you've ever driven by the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, you'd say "what the heck is that -- some kinda weird cult compound" (that's what I said anyway). It's a cluster of buildings made up of a strange combination of castles, pagodas, elevated covered walkways, and generally out-of-the-ordinary looking buildings.

It's been in a state of disrepair for a while (and some, including me, would say it looked pretty cool that way).

So, now it's being redeveloped and semi-restored to build a sort of planned neigborhood. Check out the developer's site for lots of photos, plans, schedules, etc. Try to take a look at the photos, especially the historical ones and the current state of the buildings. I thought those were really interesting. I had no idea that the campus used to be a women's college back at the turn of the 20th century. Kinda wild...