A month away...

Nearly. And we're still sans boy's name. Although we did get a couple suggested this week that we kind of like. Connor and Ender. Connor has definite possibilities. Ender, while I think it's a "cool" name, it's not very practical. Someone else pointed out that Andrew has the letters of "Ned" as well, but I'm not completely thrilled with Andrew. We'll keep thinking...

I'm also debating whether to try & blog as much as I can (when I can) during Jen's labor & delivery, that way y'all can keep as up to date as possible. Another thought was to have someone else (who is less involved) do the blogging for me to keep everyone posted. We'll see....

We watched a couple of waterbirth videos last week at our birthing class. Jen is definitely considering trying that. The babies we saw born via waterbirth were all very calm and peaceful & content. Plus it's supposed to be a lot less painful for the mother.

Here are some more links to homebirthing:
The Homebirth Choice

Home Birth Reference Site

6 Myths of Homebirth Exposed

ivillage's Homebirth 101

All About Waterbirth & Water Babies

Andaluz waterbirth center

Note to other Ebayers...

Dear competing Ebayers,

Please, please, please do your "homework" before bidding on fencing items on Ebay. I'm trying to acquire enough equipment to start a children's fencing class and you are making it more difficult than it should be. Don't you know that you shouldn't pay more than half of what this used stuff costs brand new?? Don't you know that a brand-new fencing mask sells for $55??? And when you jacked up your bid to $40 (+$10 shipping) that you're virtually paying full price for a USED mask??

If you'd also done your homework, you would have noticed that seller of the PRACTICE FENCING FOIL FRENCH GRIP has multiple ones of these for sale that he continues to list over and over again, so there's no reason to bid more than the starting bid of $9.99. And there's certainly no reason WHATSOEVER to bid over the Buy It Now price of $14.99. So when you won the auction with a final bid of $15.51, you actually paid more for it than you could have gotten it for right at that moment! If you see me with a bid of $9.99 on a foil, please skip it and go and bid on the next one he has with NO bids on it. That way we both win.

It doesn't take a lot of time to look at completed auctions or to look at all the fencing foils on sale at a particular time. Please do your homework and save me some heartache and frustation. And finally, please think of the children in this matter. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Disgruntled Ebayer

Back in the driver's seat...

After much more grumbling to Co-worker Buddy this morning at work, I think we finally got the battery problem licked. It turns out that the contact between the battery cable & battery posts was not great, and after some cleaning, the truck started right back up. Lesson to be learned? If your engine clicks at you when you're trying to start it, it's probably a bad connection to the battery. If the battery is low, it'll probably at least try to turn over.

The worst thing about this is that I probably bought a battery last night that I didn't need. *last grumble, I swear*

But at least now I have a kick-ass sound system.

*grumble*

Today was supposed to be perfect. The weather was perfect. My plans were perfect. Unfortunately, my truck decided to be imperfect. After spending nearly 5 hours installing my new Pioneer amp in my truck, we thought we had everything perfect. After all, we double and triple checked the connections coming out of the head unit. We made sure all the cables & speaker wires were hidden perfectly. In fact, when we finally hooked everything back up (not even having spare wires or screws), the amp worked just fine after some fine tweaking. So everything was perfect, or so I thought. The sun was still shining brightly. The temperature was still unseasonably warm. What would be a great ending to a perfect day was an hour or so on the driving range w/my new golf clubs.

But as fate or Murphy would have it, my truck wouldn't start. It just sat there clicking at me like I had somehow defiled it by installing my amp. So later tonight I'm off to Walmart to get a new car battery. *grumble*

So thus endeth the excitement and perfect plans I had for today. Off for a nap, methinks.

T-minus 5 weeks just about?!?!?

Damn. Where has the time gone??? It seemed like just yesterday that we found out Jen was pregnant. Surely we still have several more months, right?? I guess that's why I added the little countdown bar - so I could be reminded every now and then how little time we actually have left.

At our birthing class last night, we watched a neat video about calming a fussy baby - based on the book, The Happiest Baby in the World by Harvey Karp. That book would have been worth its weight in gold had we had it for Braden! The author basically talks about 5 strategies that work in calming a fussy baby - swaddling, side, shushing, swinging, and sucking. A definite must-read for parents who are getting frustated with a fussy baby!

Jen also went & bought all the supplies/items she'll need for the homebirth, as well as getting out all of our cloth diapers. So now that I'm surrounded by mountains of diapers, it's becoming more of a reality for me. :) Still no boy's name, although my MIL suggested "Denny". I vetoed that idea as I've already developed a negative association to "Denny Crane", the high-powered eccentric lawyer played by William Shatner on Boston Legal.

The latest table tennis ratings should be up on the USATT website, but the page isn't loading, dammit! I'm dying to find out what Co-worker Buddy's starting rating is! (And mine, as well!)

Been a busy busy busy week at work this week, but it's been productive. Definitely will be catching up on sleep this weekend.

I'd also like to wish my nearly lifelong friend, Scott, a very happy 34th birthday today!! Can you believe our friendship has lasted 28 years now???

Obligatory romance - bah humbug!

According to the National Retail Federation, "the average consumer is cutting back spending for the holiday this year, but more people are planning to celebrate. Average Valentine's Day spending in the federation's survey is expected to be $97.27 per consumer, down from $99.24 last year. But holiday participation rose to 61.8 percent of consumers, up from 59.8 percent a year ago. In all, 2005 Valentine's Day spending is expected to reach $13.19 billion, making it the third-highest spending season of the year behind Christmas and back-to-school."

Egads.

Talk about an *overly* commercialized holiday. Who benefits? Certainly not the loved ones in our lives. It's more certain to be the florists, chocolatiers, and Hallmark stores. I mean, who else in their right mind would purchase flowers that are marked up 500% because they are out of season?

I'm sure most of you are saying, "Why are you so cynical, Cliff? You must have forgotten this year or your wife wasn't pleased with what you got her." Au contraire, mes amis. In fact, I remembered weeks ago, and to be a rebel in the face of retailers shoving their V-day wares in my face, all I got for the two women in my life today was a single red rose and some yummy ice cream, the total cost ($8.23) well below the national average. And they were thrilled and surprised and overjoyed. And I didn't have to spend $97.27. In fact, if you know me, you know that I'm a pretty romantic type of guy when it comes down to it. So for me to say, "Down with Valentine's Day, up with non-obligatory demonstrations of affection," it must mean something, right? I would like to think so.

You want to show your loved ones that you truly love them? Then boycott Valentine's Day. After all, nothing says "I love you" more than *having* to do it on a day when you are *expected* to do it. Instead, do something surprising on one of the other 364 days of the year that will wow and woo them. Guys, do something that the woman in your life normally does when she least expects it. Not today, but someday soon in the near-future, beat her home early from work and do the dishes, and run a bath for her so she can slip into it first thing. Or on a night when she is tired and stressed out, take the kids on an outing and leave her some peace and quiet. Gals, take his car and have it professionally detailed one day when he is sleeping in late. Or find a babysitter for the kiddos and take him on a surprise trip to the driving range.

Trust me. If you do some of these things on any day other than February 14th, it will mean THAT much more because then it's not obligatory romance. You aren't telling your significant other that you love them because you're supposed to. You're telling them because you're not supposed to, and that means infinitely more than the $97.27 that you spent on Valentine's Day.

Now since I didn't meet the national average, what can I buy for myself with the remaining $89.04? ;)

Shall we dance?

So after some *serious* persuasion from Jen & my MIL (because they thought I would enjoy watching it), I sat down to watch the US release of Shall We Dance? last weekend. Even though I did hear that the Japanese version was infinitely & superiorly better in nearly every regard. Even though Richard Gere, who I have dubbed, "wuss man" plays the leading male role. Even though my ballroom dancing days have gone way of the dodo.

I'm somewhat embarassed to say that that movie moved me emotionally more than I would have thought. "No, honey, those weren't tears you saw me wipe from my eyes. My contacts were bothering me." "But you don't wear contacts, honey." Oops. Busted.

In my defense, I don't think it was the ballroom dancing that moved me the most, although it did elicit some *very* fond memories of my ballroom dancing days while I was at UT. I was emotionally stricken with the relationship of John Clark and his wife, played by Susan Sarandon. Don't ask me to explain it - I just thought their relationship at the end of the movie was very sweet.

While watching the competiton portion of the movie, I thought back on my first and only ballroom dance competition. I had only been dancing for about four months, I believe, although I was dancing on the order of 4-5x a week between the PE classes offered at UT, taking lessons with the UT Ballroom Dance Club, and going out to ballroom dance studios over the weekend. Someone mentioned that UT was hosting a ballroom dance competition near the end of the semester and asked if I was interested. I said that I was, and they paired me up with another novice woman named Heather(?). I found out that she had been taking some private lessons as well, so my work was definitely cut out for me! We ended up practicing together on weekends in addition to dancing with each other as much as we could during the club. Ah Heather, you're the one who gave me my first ride EVER in a convertible.

Come the day of the dance, I was pretty nervous but excited. We had entered in all the dances I knew (waltz, foxtrot, east coast swing, rumba, and tango.) To make a long story short, not only did we qualify for the finals in the novice division for ALL of those dances, we placed anywhere from 4th through 6th place out of over a dozen couples in each event! Considering that we had only been dancing together barely a month, and that both of us had less than half a year of experience, going up against people who had been dancing a year or more, we did awesome! At some point, there was a team competition, and I remember dancing in that event with a way more experienced woman from our club, and we ended up taking first place in that event! So for all of my efforts, I did come away with a 1st place ribbon.

At one point during the competition, I remember seeing my PE teacher there with some of my classmates. They were PRETTY surprised to see me competing! I guess they didn't realize I had been doing some dancing "on the side." Heh. I remember hearing them say, "isn't that Cliff from our class? Wow! Look at him go! Go number 34!!!" You know all the goofy shouting out of numbers during competitions to cheer on your favorite couples? A la Strictly Ballroom? That is not some goofy made-up thing. It really happens.

So while I have since hung up my dance shoes, after seeing Shall We Dance?, Jen & I are committed to finding a ballroom dance studio sometime after the baby is born. I'm fortunate that she took some ballroom dance at BYU, also known as the "granddaddy of ballroom" (well, that's my moniker anyway).

*****

My other recent obsession has been trying to acquire fencing equipment off Ebay. Jen mentioned a while back that she wished there was something for some of the older boys to learn while attending the Homeschool Zone, a group of homeschoolers that meet twice a week for various activities. That got me thinking about my fencing days while at UT, and the fact that I was a teaching assistant for almost two years. Could I actually teach fencing to kids? I still had my teaching manual & notes. I still have my own equipment. The more I thought about it, the more confident I thought I could pull it off. The only limiting factor was obtaining enough equipment for the kids to use. So I hit Ebay and started monitoring auctions for fencing equipment.

So far, I've managed to procure two masks, and trying to stay patient for fencing foils. The problem with the foils is that people keep bidding more than I want to pay, and more than the initial "buy it now" price! Go figure. But it looks like I may be able to start a 6-week class with around 4 kids and charge enough to offset my equipment costs. If this turns out to be a success, I may consider teaching fencing here at our local community center as well. We'll see.

*****

And since I'm such a good guy, I'll leave y'all with this funny video:

Geeky white boy lip-syncing to Dragostea din Tei

And after you see it, you KNOW you want more, so here's the original:

Original Dragostea din Tei

or Original linked to RealPlayer

Just so you're warned, I am not responsible for any ill-effects resulting from having that song stuck in your head all day. ;)

Cliff in action!

Some photos of moi from the Arkansas Closed '05:

A is for Ariel, B is for Braden, C is for...?

...possibly Caleb? That is, IF we have a boy. We are still in the process of picking out a boy's name that we both agree on. So far Jen likes Caleb, Andrew, Nathan, and Ethan. I'm not totally against any of those names - there's just not any boy's name I *really* like. Plus I'd really like to stick to our tradition of naming our children after relatives.

Ariel is named for Jen's dad, Braden is named for Jen's mom, and if we have a girl, her name will be Alison, named after my mom. So that pretty much leaves my dad, but it's hard to do a variation of 'Ned' other than Ed, or Edward (which I don't like). Actually, in retrospect, I just realized recently that if we spelled Braden's name backwards, it would be Ned(arb)! But I can't claim that we did that on purpose.

So we're still thinking....any suggestions?

Yet another trophy! :)

Nearly 11 hours after I left home this morning, I'm finally home after spending a long, FUN day at the 2005 Arkansas Closed Table Tennis tournament. With exception to my last match (which I lost), I played very well - and basically beat the people I should have, and put a good showing to the people who were MUCH better than me. The fruit of my efforts? A 1st place trophy in the U-1200 rated event. :) As far as my rating goes, it probably won't change a whole lot, but that's better than losing rating points, right?

The most fun I had was being able to hang out with Co-worker buddy for most of the day, as he came out to play in his first tournament. And he even took home a first place trophy in the U-800 rated event! Congrats man!!

The birthing class on Thursday night was very worthwhile - sure learned a lot about the physiology of giving birth and the philosophy of the midwives as far as home births are concerned. It really set my mind more at ease with the whole having a baby at home thing. :D

Now what I wouldn't give for a foot massage as my feet are *extremely* sore from me being on my feet for almost the entire day. I think I'm going to go kick up my heels and let these tootsies cool off.

Another fun day planned tomorrow w/the Super Bowl in store!