Shrimp 'n' Grits

Hello all. It is hot here in NYC...but it was even hotter in Charleston, SC where we spent last weekend. In fact, on Monday, the day we left, it was about 95, and with humidity around 80-90%, it felt like about 105. Ugh. Katie said she'd never been more uncomfortable in her life. Of course, she is pregnant, and we were touring a rice plantation where we were in the direct sun for much of the time.

But the discomforts of heat and humidity were no match for the pure, unbounded joy of seeing my family. All of 'em: Alan, Gayle and my folks. We stayed at Alan's palatial house that he shares with two other guys (both USAF), which overlooks the marsh that abuts the Ashley River. It's a tidal river at that point, so the water is brackish and supports all kinds of yummy critters: crab, trout, minnows, flounder, shrimp, etc. Alan and I went fishing one morning and caught that day's lunch!

The whole trip was a kind of graduation gift to Bird (thanks Mom and Dad!) and we tried to keep it a surprise. She basically figured out that we were going to see Alan in Charleston a few weeks ago, but she didn't know Gayle and my parents would be there too. Some highlights: We visited Alan's Air Force base and toured the plane he flies, the C-17. It's about 5 stories high and can fit several jeeps, or a full-size tank, or helicopter in the cargo area. We also took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the historic downtown area of Charleston and enjoyed gazing at the stately homes and public buildings there. As always, after any outdoor activity, we were happy to get into an air-conditioned restaurant, church, home, or store, but especially restaurant. We ate like Kings and Queens, from the regional dishes "She Crab Soup" and "Shrimp 'n' Grits" which are both freakin' DELICIOUS, to Alan's wood-smoked cheeseburgers, to seafood extravaganzas, it was a good eatin' weekend for us.

Of course, it wouldn't be my family if there weren't some games. We all played Hearts and a game called Five Crowns (with up to 6 people), while Alan and I played some chess and also Halo on the 15' wide by 10' high projection screen TV upstairs. (Did I mention the house was palatial...'cause it was!)

Everyone was excited to see Bird's baby belly and some of them, especially Gayle, got to feel the baby kickin' up a storm in there. It was also kind of strange to refer to Mom and Dad as Grandpa and Grandma, but I bet we'll all get used to it pretty soon. The next time we'll all be together will be at the baby's baptism sometime in late October.

Katie says next time I take her on a trip, the requirement is that it has to be at least 20 degrees cooler than NYC. Next stop...Nunavut, Canada (I guess...I hear Baffin Island is quite pleasant this time of year...no wait, I just made that up).

Oh, and before I forget, here are some pictures from the trip. Our camera started to malfunction about halfway through the trip, so we're only putting up pics from the beginning of the trip.

Speaking of Therapy..

I know it is a bit presumptive to assume anyone will buy us anything for the baby, but I have to steer you away from our traditional registry and urge you to consider one of the items listed here:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16475_20-baby-products-great-traumatizing-infants.html.

(It's a guarantee that any one of these will be a hefty source of income for some lucky psychiatrist in the future.)

Baby vs. Bladder: Round One

Today marks month seven of my pregnancy and to celebrate, the baby has been bounding about within me, using my bladder as her trampoline. As you might expect, it is difficult to reprimand her for this behavior so I am forced to add it to my list of things to punish her for when she is born. So far she will be grounded for the first year of her life. Also on the list of offenses: knocking me down with fatigue, making me sick for three months straight, forcing me to eat cheese for every meal and magnetically drawing the hands of strangers onto my belly. Why are strangers compelled to molest pregnant women? I have been brainstorming a way to deter this behavior but many of my solutions are a bit impractical, such as constructing a barb-wire fence around me, electrifying my low-rise support maternity pants, carrying a taser. It’s really too hot to have electric pants right now. I welcome other suggestions.

Dan and I have been getting a lot of inquiries about what we are going to name the baby. We thought we had a fail-proof method of selecting a name for her: we would each create our own list of possible names from our 100,000 baby name book and then compare lists…surely a few names would overlap, you say. You are wrong! There was quite a cacaphony of pencils scraping as we each scratched out each others carefully selected names. Dan suggested we attempt to pick a middle name, instead. Maybe her first name can be _____. All was not lost, however. There are a few survivors for when we decide we want to pay for therapy for all of her adult life:
Tusnelda
Macuilxochitl
Capaquiupanqui and
Tupaquiupanqui
As it is, we are still working on the name and once (if?) we choose one we will make sure she likes it before announcing it to the world.