Aunt Danielle & Uncle Jason

Oh, that sounds weird. Jason's sister Tiffany had Cullen Charles Oxford yesterday, May 13th. Both mom and baby are doing fine down in Florida. We expect them home Sunday, if not Saturday. Cullen was 6lbs 14oz, 20in at birth with all his fingers and toes. He looks like Derek with all the dark hair, but we are eagerly awaiting more pictures from Mimi and Grandpappy before making a final decision. Early front-runner nicknames are "Ozzy" from great-aunt Cindy and "Chuck" from Jason.

Next Week

Our nephew is scheduled to arrive next Thursday, May 13th. We are super excited for Tiffany and Derek to finally meet Cullen. Cross your fingers that all goes well. I am a bit sad that Cullen won't share Megan and I's birthday at the end of the month, but every generation has to be different, I suppose.

Footnotes on the Weekend

Work consumes us, but a couple things to note from the weekend:

1. Comment after visit to the dog park where the dog clearly revealed that he is not fond of water: The hot air in the dog's head will probably keep him afloat, so what's he worried about?

2. We survived two trips to IKEA in the same day and spent less than $200. Winner!

3. It's NHL playoff season. The NHL playoff commercials are amazing. My favorites are the Bobby Orr and Patrick Roy ones.



4. Jason and I now demand to go ice fishing. And we want to catch a big one. Check it out below.

Okay, so I am working on saving the world and have changed my "To Do List"ing to making lists of reasonable lengths. Enjoy some Gus love.

Bad Image Day

I wrote this post last week just before I had to teach, when all my insecurities were rising up at once. I feel better just now, but I still would like to hear what suggestions are out there for looking and feeling better.

Lately I have been having what I call Bad Image Days. My hair is imperfect, my make-up is non-existent, my clothes are out of style, my work performance is adequate, but not spectacular and my body is not bad, but less than ideal. So you know, I have been working on it. Letting my hair grow and thinking about highlighting it. Exercising to have the clothes fit better and feel stronger. Trying not to work every evening at home so that days at least seem more productive. It is not really helping. I always feel like I need to do "MORE" of everything - work, home, exercise, saving the world.

Realizing that some things will not change - as in I will never spend more than 15min doing my hair and make-up in the morning or 30min working out or 10 hours working each day - I'm looking for ideas of small things to build confidence at all these levels. I think I mostly have an attitude problem combined with a perception problem.

Spring Eating

I am posting about eating again. I think this may say something about my psyche...

It's spring, which means it rains less, which means we could wait outside in the sunny warmth for dinner at Vij's. Jason and I are not foodies, nor are we socialites, but we have wanted to eat this Vancouver hot spot for a while. The restaurant is smallish with only about 20 tables and no reservations, so everyone comes early and waits outside to be seated first. We arrived about a half hour before opening and missed the first seating by one table. Not a bad thing as you get free appetizers while you wait.

We had a delicious wine from Argentina with our meals of saag paneer (indian cheese in spinach sauce) with dal (lentils) and beef shortribs. I have to say that dessert of warm dumplings (like donuts) in cardamon sauce with hot chai was the best. We came home and started a movie and both promptly feel asleep with too full bellies. Yum.

3 things for 3 days

Easter break is technically 4 days here. We probably took 1 day total off - working at home today and worked until mid-afternoon on Friday.

1. We have taken Hedgehog Dog to the dog park twice in the last week, and both times had great walks with him off his leash. This is a huge improvement to the constant pulling, pushing, cajoling that usually accompanies a walk. He is still very tentative when off his leash - rarely running and walking very slow with a limp. A limp that he does not have the moment we get home. Everyone asks how old he is - just a middle-age guy (5 yr)! He obeys (mostly), and we have really enjoyed the time out with him. He's my first dog that doesn't bolt the moment he's free of the leash.

2. Easter dinner was fabulous. We started with my mom's spaghetti sauce recipe as a base and added fresh mushrooms, fresh Italian sausage, and fresh spaghetti for a wonderful meal. Dinner was completed by two Merlots, one from New Zealand and one from Oregon, to give us something to compare and chat about, and, of course, Cadbury CreamEggs.

3. We have been getting spring storms lately. The most distinguishing characteristic of them is high winds. In Delaware, I think these would qualify as nor'easters. Here, they don't have a term for them, but the winds regularly hit tropical storm to hurricane force. Upon listening to the wind the other night, I commented that I'd like to go into a basement, and we realized that this is the first home we've been in that doesn't have a decent tornado shelter. The Arkansas-Alabama-Tornado Ally gal in me is kind of disturbed.