baby update

We had an appointment yesterday morning. I will try to get sonogram pictures up tonight or tomorrow. Everything seems to be going according to plan. We are somewhere around week 27. The baby weighs 2 pounds, 5 ounces according to the doctor. Heartbeat is 150 beats per minute. They tell me all this is normal.

Tomorrow we are going to Dallas for a couple of days to look at baby furniture and run some errands. That's about all I have to say for now.

"and we all enjoyed the weekend for a change"

Saturday night we went to San Antonio for the Elton John/Billy Joel--Face to Face tour. Before the show, we went downtown for some Mexican food and margaritas. Tiffany drank a virgin margarita, which I'm sure was just as good as the real ones. After dinner we headed to the AT&T Center for the show. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it might be the best show I have ever seen. Don't confuse that with the most fun I ever had at a concert. That is something totally different, but the quality and showmanship of these two performers is outstanding. The show lasted close to four hours, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. We came home Sunday and had a couple of hours to rest before heading out for the Mudvayne show here in Abilene. It was a totally different kind of show than the previous night, but a good time nonetheless. We don't get that many bands here, so we try to see them when we can.

Here is the setlist for Saturday's show if you are interested:

(Elton & Billy)
Your Song
Just the Way You Are
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
My Life

(Elton John)
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night's Alright (for Fighting)
Burn Down the Mission
Madman Across the Water
Tiny Dancer
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
Levon
I'm Still Standing
Crocodile Rock

(Billy Joel)
Prelude/Angry Young Man
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Allentown
Zanzibar
The Ballad of Billy the Kid
She's Always a Woman
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
River of Dreams/Deep in the Heart of Texas
We Didn't Start the Fire
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
Only the Good Die Young

(Elton & Billy)
I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues
Uptown Girl
The Bitch is Back
You May Be Right
Bennie & The Jets
Birthday/Back in the USSR
Candle in the Wind
Piano Man

It's not easy being green

I was just looking back at the blog archive. Apparently at this time last year our kitchen cabinets were being installed. So much has happened since then. It seems like a lifetime has gone by. Here are a couple of pictures showing off our latest home improvement. We had shutters put on all of the windows. I think they look fantastic, and you can close them up and make it super dark in the house which I love. Maybe I'm part vampire. I will try to get some pictures from outside as well. I just haven't been home too much when the sun was up. Also, we are still watching The Office. We started season 4 last night. I'm afraid Tiffany is going to develop some sort of anxiety or depression when we get to the end. She already has her hacker friends working on bootlegs of season 5. I will probably just wait until they come out later this year. I got my satellite problem fixed, so I am looking forward to watching Lost in high definition for the first time ever tomorrow night. Thursday is our final childbirth class. This weekend we are going to San Antonio for a concert. We are going to squeeze in as many as possible before June. Tuesday we have another sonogram appointment. I hope to find out if our baby has special powers or anything. I hope Emily had a great birthday. From the looks of her blog she had a more exciting St. Patrick's Day than I did. At least I wore my green shoes. Last but not least, congrats to Sarah and Josh. I love you guys.

health class

It is raining outside and freezing cold. About three days ago it was 85 dgrees. I don't know what's wrong with the weather, but I'm going to blame it on Al Gore. I was glad to see some rain though. I can't even remember the last time we had any. One day last week it was supposed to rain, but of course it didn't. I don't believe meteorology is an actual science anyway. On the other hand, biology is a real thing. Last week we started going to child birth classes. We have one this week and one more next week. This class is divided equally between things I already know and things I don't want to know. Tomorrow night is apparently the movie portion of the class. The nurse told us to bring popcorn, but that just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I'm not actually grossed out; I just don't like popcorn. In other news, the shutters that we ordered for the windows are here and going to be installed tomorrow. I have grown quite attached to the paper shades, and I will almost miss them after I wad them up and throw them in the trash. On Friday the satellite people are coming to the house to repoint the dish so I can get my local networks in high definition. Now I will be able to study Lost even closer. Speaking of time wasting, I apologize for the length of time between this and my last post. A friend loaned us the first two seasons of The Office, and we have been able to little else around here since. Thank you Erin. It is hilarious.

Aqua Net and other awesome things

I finally have recovered from the Vegas trip. Because of the timing of our little jaunt, I ended up working nine days in a row. It wasn't that much fun, but I guess you have to work hard to play hard. Besides work, we have had plenty to keep ourselves busy. Thursday night we went to see Hairspray--The Musical at the civic center. It was surprisingly good, despite such a terrible name. Saturday night we had tickets to see David Copperfield. Not much of the act has changed since the last time we saw him, but I still had a great time. This was my fourth time to see him live, and I am always amazed by this stuff. I think maybe he sold his soul to the devil, as there cannot possibly be a natural explanation for some of these tricks. Monday we had another appointment with Dr. Tadvick. Blood pressure is good; heartbeat is still good. We will do another sonogram in about three weeks. Now that we know we are having a boy, there is all this pressure to come up with a name. We are currently taking opinions and suggestions. Current possibilities include Joshua, Jacob, Caleb, and the latest frontrunner Ethan. I also like Michael and Matthew, but I'm an alliterative kind of guy. If none of these names suit you, I do have a proposition for you. If you give me a million dollars, I will let you name the baby anything you want. In the event that more than one person takes me up on this offer, I will be forced to choose the highest bidder.

The Dam Tour

We spent the better part of our last day just outside of Boulder City marveling over the great Hoover Dam. It was about a 30 minute drive from Vegas, and in my opinion well worth it. We expected to spend a couple of hours there and then drive back. As it turns out, we were there almost five hours. We took the official tour which took us into the power plant, as well as inside the dam. Probably the most impressive thing about it is that almost everything there is the original stuff from the 1930s. It is a classic example of doing it right the first time. After the tour, we looked at the exhibit halls and then just walked around for a while. It was a bit windy, but it was probably the best weather we had for the entire trip. After we got back to the hotel, we changed clothes and headed to the Luxor to see the new Cirque du Soleil show with Criss Angel. It was mostly just a magic show with weird costumes and imagery. We have now seen all six of the Cirque shows in Vegas, and I would probably rank this one toward the bottom. It wasn't bad by any means--just not anything special. I am a sucker for magic shows, and we have tickets to see David Copperfield here in Abilene this weekend. I have seen him several times, and I am never disappointed. Also, we have tickets to the musical Hairspray this week. I don't know if that's my thing or not, but I will let you know. Tiffany is at work tonight, which means I am waiting on her to watch the Oscars. Generally this is a major event at our house, but we saw so few movies this year I don't even really know what's going on. I have seen a total of zero movies that were nominated for Best Picture. Most years I catch at least four of the five. It doesn't help that I live in a small town, where most of these movies weren't even showing until last week. I do think Heath Ledger is probably going to win the Best Supporting Actor trophy. Tragic death never hurt anyone's popularity. I will admit that he was good in The Dark Knight, but otherwise I never thought much of him as an actor. He might be slightly better than Keanu Reeves. I admit, I still haven't seen Brokeback Mountain.

We stopped at the Las Vegas sign (see last blog posting) on the way to the Hoover Dam. I promise I didn't wear the same clothes everyday.

"Where can I get some Dam bait?" --Uncle Eddie, Vegas Vacation

recession?

If the economy is in a bind, there are no signs of it in Las Vegas. Maybe there are a few more penny slot machines than there used to be, but there were plenty of people everywhere. They are still building giant new hotels on the strip. Apparently there are a few people that still have money left. We left a small donation, but it was a still a pretty good trip. Tiffany handled the traveling just fine, even though the flights in were pretty bumpy. The first three nights we went over to the Palms for a semi-concert/comedy/cabaret style show which is a side project of Maynard James Keenan of Tool. The shows were different each night, and I am glad we went to all three. Some of you may find that obsessive or crazy, but isn't that what Las Vegas is about? I promise you we were not the only people that went to all three shows. The weather was cool for a couple of days, so we spent some time shopping and just wandering around inside the hotels. We did manage to see a couple of movies, but the only one worth mentioning is Gran Torino. It was excellent. I have a few more things to say, but I am going end this post here for now. Now that I am back in the real world, I have to do things like go to work. Enjoy your day!

Happy Birthday Sarah!