ben.parmeter

We’re so excited! We think that the day may finally be here! Claire will hopefully be making her début into the world soon and we’d like you to share in the moment(s). As mentioned in previous posts, I’ll be live-blogging the experience via Twitter here. So what are you waiting for? Get on over to twitter and read my blow-by-blow, sportscaster-like, coverage of the labor and delivery of our little girl. Just click here.

For the uninitiated, you may not need a Twitter account to read my twitter-feed, but it’s not a bad idea to sign up anyway. You don’t want to be left behind in the technical dust. When reading my feed (http://twitter.com/nebhead) you may want to refresh the page every so often to get the latest updates (on a PC press “F5″, on a Mac press “command+r”).

Away we go!

I’ve finally posted the video in all it’s glorious distorted choppiness.  And I kept the audio, because let’s face it, YouTube is just going to make me take down any copyrighted music content.   It’s embedded below, or you can go straight to the YouTube here.

This weekend, we went back to the same Ultrasound clinic that we went to several weeks back, and splurged a little because we just can’t wait to see our little daughter’s face.  Thanks to some serious mathematics, processing power, and of course pure awesome physics, we can take a glimpse under our skin with a simple sound wave.  (If you seriously want to know more about the real-time rendering of the 3-D images for ultra sound, take a gander at this website.  Prepare to get your geek on.  You’ve been warned.)

I have to say I never expected the kind of emotional response that this experience elicited from me.  It’s as if I got to meet my daughter for the first time.  And I’ll be darned if that didn’t bring a tear to my eye.  I may be a little biased, but even looking at these distorted yellow images, I think she’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

Without further delay, click here, to go straight to the gallery.

Personally, I think she is a spitting image of Suzy.  Her eyes and nose for sure.  Suzy seems to think she resembles me from the lower lip down.  You be the judge:

I’ll post the video’s later when I can get them compressed and posted to YouTube.  Instead of the lullaby’s that were recorded with the original, I’m thinking of re-dubbing it (like a Kung-Fu movie).  I’ll taking requests for potential tunes.

Until next time, I love you all.

It’s official, I am back on the bleeding edge of the internet.  Yes indeed.  I have officially signed up for a twitter account.  You’ve been hearing about it for a while.  Everyone is doing it… apparently.  Tweeting.  I’ve resisted for a good long time.  But I’ve finally succumb to the big’ol internet and it’s new-fangled technology.

I have a plan though, so it’s not without good reason that I have signed up.  You see, I have it in the plan to ‘Live-Blog’ the birth of my child.  Come November, prior to Suzy going into labor, I plan to start the countdown on this very blog.  And when we get to the actual event, the day (or days) of actual labor, I really want to post real-time updates replete with pictures to the internet so that friends and family can share in the experience from afar.

Here comes the technical rub.  I’ve looked into the ‘live-blogging’ plug-ins for WordPress (the software that this blog runs on) and I was a bit overwhelmed with the complexity that I’d face setting up such a system.  And, with people re-loading the page frequently, the site might actually buckle under the bandwidth pressure (that might be an overstatement, but it’s possible!).  So instead, I’ve come up with another third-party and entirely free solution.  Twitter.

Twitter allows me to update the world, very easily, in real-time, from my iphone in chunks of 140 characters or less.  It allows me to post pictures directly from my iPhone.  It’s nearly perfect for my plans.  It’s not quite as fancy as the Live-Blogging that Gizmodo or Engadget does for big tech announcements (like WWDC).   But it’ll do the trick.

So folks, come November, when we hit the big day, look for my link to twitter where I will be giving the blow-by-blow updates of what’s going on in our delivery room.  I am soooo bleeding edge.

Happy fathers day everyone. Kinda feels like this day was created just so dads wouldn’t feel left out of the whole mothers day thing. But dads surely do deserve a day to be revered as well. I love ya Dad, and I hope I can do as good a job at raising my child as you did with us kids.

As a celebration of fathers day and of my own impending parenthood, I’m posting some videos from our most recent ultrasound. This was the appointment where we found out that little Gizmo was going to be a girl. I have to say that it was a pretty awe inspiring experience to see my little progeny-to-be fluttering around inside my wife.

Since YouTube only allows ten minute videos, I had to cut this up into two parts. And no comments about the music, this was all part of the “experience” that we received at the place we had the ultra-sound done.  This was done right around week 17 of the pregnancy, so Gizmo still looks like an alien monkey.  Frankly, a bit creepy.  But also cute and awesome at the same time.  (Gizmo – I’m sorry, in advance, for posting a video with your naughty bits all over the internet – it’s really hard to see them anyway.  Some day you will will understand)

My gas guzzling days are over.  I have shed my unnecessary extravagance.  The end of an era, so to speak.  This weekend was a big one in many ways (more about that later), but in particular it was a significant in our vehicular history.  This weekend, Suzy and I pulled the trigger on a new car – which spelled the end for the big shiny Ford F150.  You see, we’ve been talking about this for some time, our vehicle situation.  The truck, even though I love it to death, is just not practical as a family car.  It’s beautiful, it’s comfortable and quiet inside, it’s easy to drive, powerful as heck (V8 5.4Liter), but it has plenty of downsides for practicality.  Besides the fact that it’s downright expensive, it also consumes petrol at an alarming rate, it’s too tall for us to get a car seat in-out of, it’s not good for more than two people, etc…

And so, we began the search for a new vehicle.  I have a strong aversion to mini-vans.  I know, I know.  They are great for families.   Sliding doors are fantastic for kids.  Having three rows of seats is great for getting the grandparents in the vehicle too.  But they just carry that stigma – the soccer mom stigma.  (Don’t get me wrong, I fully intend to be a soccer dad)  Blech!  No mini-van for me.

And at the end of the day we found ourselves a great compromise.  We eventually settled on a gorgeous little cross-over SUV – which is really just a slightly larger than a station wagon.  In reality, it is a station wagon with a SUV-like gait.  It’s waaay more fuel efficient than the truck.  The payments are way less.  It’s safe, it’s quiet, it’s comfortable.  All said, I’m really happy with the purchase.

I was definitely sad to see the old truck go, but it was a good run.  We had some good times together doing truck-like things, camping, road-tripping, hauling loads and just driving to work.  Alas, these days are over.  Farewell dear truck.  We’ve embarked on a new era.

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to announce this grand, splendid, and joyous news to everyone.  Of course it was going to always be announced through this very website.  But I thought that maybe some cleverly written blog post that ever-so-subtly dropped the hint would be fun for my readership.  As I sat down to actually write said blog, the words escaped me.  And my mind started to wander off to other topics, like getting ready to have a baby in the house, and all the books I am going to have to read, and all of the things that I should be doing to prepare.  Focus.  Write witty things. <mind wanders again>

And since it is impossible to maintain a steady stream of thought right now, I figured I just come out and say it.  I’m going to be a dad.  And Suzy is going to be a mom.  And collectively we will be parents of a child (sex to be determined).   And we will do our best to raise this child, even though I feel like I am still a kid myself.

In the meantime, pregnancy is going well.  Being the ever supportive husband, I’ve gained many sympathy pounds so that Suzy doesn’t feel like she’s in this alone in this.  Yup, I’m super-awesome in my supportiveness.

Since we don’t know what the sex of the baby is, and we quickly got tired of referring to it as “it“,  we decided to come-up with a place holder name.  After tossing a few boy/girl-neutral names around, we settled on Gizmo.  You know, from the movie Gremlins.  Don’t feed it after midnight.  And never get it wet.  I’m sure our little Gizmo will be twice as cute though – and hopefully less hairy.  I’ve added a new “gizmo” category in the blog so the many future posts (and hopefully the live-blog of the birth) will be here-to-fore categorized as such.

How’s that for a randomly slapped together entry?  Well, who can blame me – my mind is wandering and I’m going to be a dad!