Happy B-day Piano Meacham

You know, I never knew how much work putting together a stupid little video would take. This was my maiden voyage into video editing and it took several hours of downloading software, taking tutorials, and re-doing the whole thing on different software after the first one wanted to put its company's logo right in the middle unless I paid $40 a year. Arrgh. I hope I've advanced on the learning curve so that the next one isn't so painful. Enjoy.

The Polls are Closed

Well, I guess the polls are not technically closed, but it's kind of futile now to vote for a girl because...it's a boy! I know this news might disappoint the grandparents who don't have a girl grandbaby to spoil yet, but hey, I'm stoked as I think about the upcoming ballgames, the fishing trips, the donut outings, and the wrestling matches that'll happen once he can climb up the couches and jump off to deliver the body slam. I'm thinking already about how I'll train him on his balance, poking him on the shoulders as he begins to walk at 12 months. Only by stumbling will he champion his equilibrium and prove to be The Rock that I know my boy will be. Yes, this is great news. Sarah is excited too because she thinks that by having a boy maybe I'll release all of my rough housing energy on the offspring instead of her. We'll see how that works out.

I got to the OB's office a little late today. I got away from the hospital a little later than expected and started driving home on snowy roads to the OB office. It's kind of funny how all of Ohio hits the panic button with just a couple of inches of snow and starts to shut down. The OB's office even called Sarah to let her know that they were moving her appointment up an hour to 2:00 or else they would have to postpone her visit until next week because the roads were so bad. Good grief. I wish the city council could move to Utah, or Michigan, or Minnesota where people experience "feet" of snow before schools and cities shut down. It's kind of annoying actually. But anyway, I arrived after the OB had already started his evaluation. I got there after they had used the ultrasound to rule out any cleft lips or palates, increased nuchal rigidity (a sign of Down Syndrome), or extra digits. I DID get there in time to see the baby's beautiful cerebrum, aortic arch, and the extra little extension coming off between the two legs. Yeah.

Somehow everyone thinks Jimmy LeRoy is a joke. I personally think it's quite noble to name your child after his two grandfathers. And the name kind of rolls off the tongue. We'll have to see if we can get a few more pollsters to come away in favor of it. I think our plan will be for me to have one vote, Sarah to have another, and give the last vote to the public. Come on, I'm trusting you guys.

Maple Syrup Festival

This week we had Jesse and Alicia Alba come up and visit from the great city of St Louis. Actually, I don't know if being voted as "America's #1 dangerous city" in 2007 counts as "great," but whatever.

We drove up to the Maple Syrup Festival outside of Mansfield, OH. We enjoyed a free day of taking a horse-drawn trailer up the snowy "mountains" (I mean "hills") to get demonstrations on the making of maple syrup from the indians, European settlers, and modern day syrup makers. We learned that the sap drained from the trees is 2% sugar and 98% water. To get the syrup you have to boil out the water to get a 66% sugar consistency. You can also boil out all of the water and have dried maple sugar, which the pioneers used instead of going down to the mercantile store to pick it up. Although everything here was free, they did ask for donations. And they did sell maple fudge, maple beef jerky, maple barbeque sauce, hot dogs boiled in maple syrup, and of course maple syrup.


We're sad to report a member of our family died today. Yes, Brutus passed peacefully this afternoon. Although it was a little sad, I think it must have been fate coming. When we bought the fish back in September, I made the agreement with the little fish that we would name him Brutus and dedicate him to the Buckeye's football season. We had the arrangement that if the Buckeyes ever lost, we were going to cook him up for dinner. Well, he DID bring us luck for most of the season, but alas it wasn't enough. We extended him mercy by not eating him when the Buckeyes lost 2 games at the end of the year, but perhaps karma was reaching out to him when we weren't. Over the last 2 weeks he started swimming more slowly and developed some black spots on his chin and on his ventrolateral side. Note: black spots are never good. Last night he decided to curl up into a semicircle shape. His gills opened slower and slower. We're not sure at what minute he expired, but we're pretty sure it was overnight. At least, we hope he's dead because Sarah flushed him down the toilet already. She said he had "fish rigor mortis"--he maintained a perfect semicircular form as he disappeared down the crapper in clockwise swirls.