The Wedge Is Complete

Chris here. So after over a month of work, the Wedge is finally complete. Behold the grandeur. Here's the downstairs:



As you can see on the left, we have nifty Kayak racks, and in the center some fancy stairs. Now if I only had someone to play ping-pong with (I spose in five years I definitely will have someone).

Here's the upstairs:



This is where I spend my work day. Very comfy. My desk is mess as this pic was taken in the middle of a work day.

Once we get the new carpet in the house, all of this will become the domain of the cats.



Until then, ta ta!

Fatty McGee

I have a friend (who shall remain nameless) who has a fat alter-ego named Fatty McGee. He's the devil on your shoulder who encourages bad habits and makes you fat. I'm starting to feel like Fatty McGee has picked up and is nestled firmly within my body. I don't really like any pictures of myself anymore, but I post them anyway--grudgingly.

I have two funny stories that are proof of my Fatty McGee manifestation. The first being that last weekend, when I flew home to Cincinnati, I took my seat and realized to my horror and the embarrassment of the woman next to me that...ahem...my seatbelt wouldn't buckle! I must qualify this by saying that the seatbelt was extremely short and the seatbelts on my other flights did fit. However, rather than facing the embarrassment of having to change seats, I held a book over my lap the entire flight so that the stewardess wouldn't notice my unbuckled seatbelt.

Then yesterday I attempted to wear a skirt that was not a maternity skirt, but has an elastic band and I thought I might be able to wear it below my belly. No such luck. To my pure shock, I couldn't get it past my thighs! Until that point I hadn't realized how much the rest of me was growing. Now I know.

People keep telling me how I'm "all baby" and I don't look big at all for being almost 6 months pregnant. But the facts don't lie. And the fact is that I've gained 25 pounds so far, and women are generally expected to gain a pound per week in the last trimester. I keep trying to figure out how I'm not going to end up with a 40 pound weight gain! Maybe I could lay off the cake and ice cream...nah!

I'm not complaining, I love my pregnant body and look forward to the last trimester, despite the miserable things I keep hearing. I generally feel good and am thrilled about what we're doing.

July 20

When I tell people my due date, I get the same response 90% of the time: "Oh man, you're going to be hot". The other 10% of the time, I hear, "Oh, so and so's birthday is July whatever. Maybe he'll be born on that day". My brother's birthday is on July 23rd. At first, I just thought the same thing, that they could have the same birthday. Then, around Thanksgiving, I realized that meant that I would be going through my stages of pregnancy at the same times of year that my mom did. We were both around 6 weeks at Thanksgiving, 10 weeks at Christmas, 11 weeks at New Year's (no partying), and, yes, in the later stages of pregnancy in the heat of the summer. Just another way that I feel connected to my mom.

My due date is also significant because Chris' beloved Gramps passed away on July 20, 2005. He is greatly missed and would have loved to meet his great-grandson. But if our son is one of the 5% of babies born on their due date, it would be a nice, sentimental reminder that Gramps is still with us, and hopefully many of his traits will be passed down to Talleybaby.