No News

Hello. How are you? It's been a while since I showed up here. No, nothing really interesting is going on. I feel fine, thank you. There is no baby yet. Yes, I am feeling a bit impatient but not too impatient (mostly) yet. I have work that I can do, although everything important will be done by the end of the day today. In fact, I am feeling rather bored at the moment. Due to a scheduling conflict, we celebrated Valentine's day on Saturday. We had grilled stuffed flank steak.

B grilled it outside in the middle of February. It didn't look like he was TOO cold. We also had roasted potatoes with rosemary and a salad with baked pears and ginger vinagrette. It was yummy. My contribution was carrot cake. I do not think it was the most successful carrot cake I've ever made, but it was (and continues to be) good. We've been eating it two meals a day (breakfast and dessert.) I also drank a small glass of wine and then Spawn got hiccups (probably unrelated, because he/she gets them all the time when I eat. I think it must be the pressure of the food pushing down. I thought it was funny anyway.)

Yesterday we celebrated my Dad's birthday (Grampy PF) and there was gluten free carrot cake. I mention this for comparison. I will now proceed to analyze the two cakes. I put coconut in my cake. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake. Coconut is kind of stringy and I do not like it much. Grammy's carrot cake had raisins. I will not call that a mistake, because apparently Grampy approved the raisins. It was his birthday cake, so he has that right. However, I do not like raisins in my carrot cake. My cake was very moist (due to the massive amounts of sugar perhaps?) and Grammy's was more fluffy. Grammy's frosting was better. The gluten-free status of the cake is really of no relevance at all, because Grammy's gluten free cakes are as good as regular cakes. The final conclusion is that, in my opinion, the carrot cake ideal lies somewhere between these two cakes. More research and experimentation is necessary.

That is all. Thank you for your attention.

Furniture

It seems that one of the many nice things about future grandparents is that they will buy you furniture. E's parents bought us this lovely rocker as a baby shower present. It is made of ash and is very comfortable. It is sporting E's latest completed quilt on top of its usual garb of a Red Sox blanket. Sorry the lampshade is crooked.

B's parents bought us this crib and dresser set as a baby shower and Christmas gift. Err, they will have, once I send them the bill. They are made of maple and look very durable. The drawers look much less likely to fall apart than some models we saw. The crib has an adjustable height mattress (once we buy one), and can eventually convert into a toddler bed, and then to a regular twin size bed. Hope the kid likes the style as much as we do, since it'll be stuck with it for a long time.

Meanwhile, these guys are patiently waiting for some company, while getting a sunburn.

Waiting

1. Effingham Farms, 2. E sledding, 3. Robbers and cities, 4. Our lovely hosts, 5. Crossing Basin Brook, 6. Indian pudding, 7. North Conway Station, 8. Roaring success, 9. Edith at Hermit Falls, 10. Arethusa Falls, 11. William S. Bryant, 12. Yo-yo, 13. Basin Brook

There is no news to report, we are just waiting for something to happen. We are getting kind of bored and wishing a baby would come out already. I guess we are ready.

As we wait, please enjoy some pictures from our week in the Mt. Washington Valley for Christmas, and from the 10th annual (!) New Year's Eve gathering at Seth's house in NH. More photos and videos here and here.