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december 14, 2006: it's hard to believe that anyone was this small. hands so tiny that you'd think it was impossible for them to work. she doesn't cry as much as she wails and even those you just want to sit back and admire how cute they are until you realize that she's in pain and wants food. she has hungry faces and poop faces. hungry cries and gas cries. and when she lays on your chest she struggles to look up at you and then just stares at you when she's successful. and she pees on everything, except me. she cries all the way up the stairs to the car and doesn't stop until the speedometer reads 10 and if we stop she'll let us know that we need to go again.

Very early Thursday morning. After a whole day of waiting for the hospital to call us and tell us that they have a bed for us. They just called ... at 12:20 in the morning. - sigh - Oh well. It's baby time. Hopefully the delivery will go smoothly and it would seem that our little Anna will have a birthday of November 16, 2006.

Counting Contractions 2006!! ... 11.13.06 It was three in the morning when I was nudged awake. "Give me your phone." Aimee tells me. So I reached over to my cubes (aka nightstand) turn on the light which sits on top and went back to sleep. I was quickly nudged again. "Give me your phone!" She yells at me. So I give her my phone. She gets up and goes to the bathroom and upon her return I am confused and grumpy. "Can I have my phone back?" I demand more than I ask. "I wanted to use it for the clock." She explains. DECEIT!! LIES!! INJUSTICE!! "You're having contractions aren't you?" I exclam. She confesses. Indeed she was counting contractions. Now we are not new to the idea of contractions, she has been having them for a couple weeks now but we know that having contractions now, they are a bit more meaningful. And I will say this... At three in the morning counting contractions is boring. I will admit when she told me that it was three in the morning I was pissed. Not at her but at time itself. I was awake with excitement and anxiety and it was only three?!?! It felt like seven or eight, she had to be lying. So armed with only my drowsy wit I test her. "Three o'clock as in I have four more hours to sleep?" Aha! I trapped her. "Yes." - Drat! This was going to be a long morning. So she grabbed a book and nustled down for Anna's Indecision 2006. I said, "No fair, I get to play warcraft." She laughed at me and said, "Okay." And that's how we spent out 3am to 6am this morning. Time actually flew by. I was playing in sets of 25 to 40 minutes that honestly felt like five minute spans. She finished her book. Anna still won't come out but I'm half to exalted with Alterac Valley.

july 3, 2006: holy tostitos! after about a month of holding my hand on aimee's belly i finally tricked anna into kicking me. the problem was that everytime we put a hand on her belly anna stopped kicking. but today, even though i was incredibly tired, i had a clever idea. she always kicked at the sonargram thingie when the doctor put it on her belly, so i took three fingers, put them tight together and pushed. i tricked her into thinking that my finger were some sort of dopplar device or sonargram thingie and she kicked my fingers, about six times. it was amazing. this little baby inside someone's stomach kicked me. aimee said that it was the cutest face she's ever seen me make when i suddenly looked up at her wanting confirmation that what i felt was a kick. and i just ate a fig. never had one of those. weird looking things but good.

9:29pm, 25 may 2006: two years ago i was sitting on an airplane headed for london-gatwick airport. i was sitting, quite rigidly, in seat 28e onboard flight dl36 out of cincinnati. after sitting at the gate for forty five minutes outside terminal b08, one of the delta representitives came out to announce that they were overbooked and that anyone who didn't mind taking a 400 dollar travel voucher, being flown back to atlanta and taking a direct flight to london from there would be much appreciated. for a brief second i wanted to stand up, but then i thought 'i just left home, i don't know if i could handle going back and leaving again.' two other guys got the voucher. thinking back, i should have been all over that. i, like most everyone else on the plane, eagerly found my seat several minutes later and tucked in for the long journey. it's seven hours flight from london to atlanta. so i imagine it's around five and half to six from cincinnati. i arrived around nine in the morning, greenwich mean time, in london-gatwick airport, which would after all my travels become my favorite of the four london area airports. it cost about 15 pounds to take the gatwick express to victoria station, which is london's version of grand central. the bird's fly right in as there are not many doors between outside and in but open corridors. london was beautiful. most people from england hate london, 'it's dirty, and smells. did you like is as much, after you blew you nose at the end of the day and it was all black?' london was dirty, at times smelly, and no, i never had black bogies. london was beautiful because london was itself. played no games, masked no faces. it was real. the people and places i grew to know and love became apart of me as dry wit, harry potter, beer, cigarettes and rain filled my heart, head, stomach, lungs and shoes. i spent over five thousand pounds on beer, bar food, cigarettes, books, movies, cover charges, internet cafe fees, tube passes, the occassional cab fare, and this movie trivia game that we got addicted to in the kensington game room. one of the greatest moments of my stay over there, and probably in the top ten of my life, was when a bunch of americans came into the bar and surprisingly got along with all my mates. most of the time americans brought a lot of tension to the group. but as the night progressed and more beer entered our bellies, someone said 'lets play pool.' someone else said, 'england versus the states.' and then there was a pause. perhaps only in my drunken head, but a pause. my mate bryan stood up, handed me a que stick and said, 'well then, we have sam.'

may 23, 2006: ok, so long time no post. let me 'splain. no. there is too much. let me sum up. i got into an accident with my boss a week or so ago. a lady wasn't paying attention to where she was going and hit us at relatively low speed. once we got out of my bosses truck, he started calling his wife and insurance companies and such, and the lady was doing the same thing. so i thought, fine then i'll call someone too, and called aimee. i told her what had happened and i told her that i hit my head on the sunvisor and roof of the truck but i was totally fine. the real tragedy of the collision was the damage done to my birks. pic one and pic two aimee and i celebrated our one year anniversary with a dinner cooked by the soon to be infamous chef ryan and his assistant esteban (atimtim). it was a truly excellent meal (five courses!). although, he's only just started his cooking career, ryan truly has the fingers for flavor. the other day aimee and her mom went shopping and made a tremendous discovery, an ogre sized beach towel! this thing is totally kewl. it's my exact height (six six) and forty inches wide. i applaud the target at north point mall in their support to accept and accomodate ogres as part of their customer demographic. after several months on my part and several weeks on aimee's, driving to my mom's house in lawrenceville, we finally got our own washer and dryer. which just means i can no longer blame the smells emitting from my body on my dirty clothes. one of the coolest dart throws i've ever had. (for those of you who are ignorant to that of the dart board: that's three bullseyes and the way they are positioned is "holy shit!"-able.) we had a new neighbor move in and he decided to park his trailer in one of the best spots for non-trailer vehicles to park. needless to say, we were a little more than pissed (five days out of the week i parked there). we thought about slashing his tires, or putting obscene stickers on it, or even just moving it ourselves but came to the decision that we shouldn't do any of these things. then one day we pulled up and there was an orange sticker stuck to the trailer stating "trailer not in designated 'trailer parking area'" and threatened to tow the trailer. i couldn't help but laugh. whether he moved it our or the leasing office did. it's gone now. which made me laugh some more. we got a new welcome mat. target: eight dollars. and as an added bonus: aimee opening the door unsuspectedly to me taking pictures. pic

may 5, 2006: so i told aimee last night that she was getting fat and she said "yay!"

May 2, 2006: i'm excited, i'm getting a free stethoscope!! and it's pink!

click for notes: / april 27, 2006: after three months of waiting (for various reasons), aimee and i are pleased to announce the arrival of the first 'ogrelite' check out the new babymaker pages for more details.

april 21, 2006: one of the things i hate most about interior designers is that fact that they have no concept of other people's things, space or boundries. this old 'designer' comes in with one of those big leather satchels she calls a briefcase, a huge paper bag with an equally huge pillow in it and a stack of papers looking for paint. of course she plops all this stuff on my counter taking up the whole left side. i'm not busy or anything but it's just rude. this is not her counter it's mine. there's a whole table right next to the paint samples for designers to plop all their crap down on but she doesn't use that, does she? of course not why would she, no one's over by that table. it's as if she has to make her presence known by crowding my space and leaving all her trash up here on my counter. then she comes over and asks if i can help her. now, wait a second. i thought she said she was a designer?!?! why does she need help picking out colors. i get julie to go over and help her and of course, julie says the same thing that i did. 'i thought she was a designer? design away.' sigh.

april 19, 2006 (evening): i swear she said 'tatols' although she says she said 'tatos' as tired aimee leans her head on my chest, while i'm ending my convesation with sarah tollerson she asks me, 'i thought you were going to make dinner.' of course i start laughing and say, 'i recall asking you what you want for dinner, i never offered to cook, but if you would have said something then i wouldn't have offered.' she then replies with, 'we can have shrimp bisque and tatols.' there it is plain as the history of ever, 'tatols' tonight we dine on shrimp bisque and tatols.

april 6, 2006: i'm currently getting lost (again) in the world of jk rowling, that's harry potter to you know-nothings. i recently watched the second, third and fourth movies with aimee-san and she was asking me all these questions about the movies and i answered most of them but some i just couldn't remember, so i decided that it was time to reread. i'm starting on 'goblet' because that's where most of my missing details reside. i have to be honest, the beginning of 'philsopher's stone' is just too boring. i can't get past the first chapter anymore. 'chamber of secrets' was my least favorite, although it does make a little more sense after 'half blood prince'. and as for 'azkaban'? well that's the one i know the best. so i'm starting with 'goblet'. aimee-san's asleep and i'm going to read another chapter before i retire...

march 30, 2006: she is my sauna. the past couple of nights i haven't been able to go to sleep when aimee does so i'll stay up and work online or on the book. the heat that i return to in the bed is amazing. that woman's body, i swear generates more heat than the sun. which also means that her heat tolerance is way up there. we drove to athens last weekend and i was sweating the whole time, she claimed it was cold. but sliding into bed every night is like sliding into a slightly toasty oven. just something i'm not used to, but slightly comforting. i've been meaning to get used to heat anyway. i'm trying to evolve from my yeti ways and be more human, wearing coats and such when everyone else does, and not just when it's negative five out.

march 28, 2006: i miss my love affair with the road and my cd case. the three of us would spend a good five, seven hours sometimes before arriving at our destination. all my senses would be overloaded with the music blaring from my stereo. i would no longer hear anything but radiohead, counting crows, the beatles, even over the wind gusting in through my open window. this ménage a trois would last right up until i turned my truck off at the final destination, a good three and half hours to seven hours depending on the various locations. a good roadtrip is upon me.

march 7, 2006: so this crazy old lady walks into the paint department today and tells me that her front door is ugly and she wants to make it shiny again. i ask her if it's painted or stained, and she answers, 'i don't know.' after about ten minutes i figure out that she just needs to paint the door. i tell her that she needs to pick out a color and i'll mix up some paint for her and she tells me again that it needs to be shiny. i say 'i know, i'll take care of it.' she spends at most thirty seconds looking at the six thousand colors and then comes back over to my desk and says, 'i figure out what i'm going to do. i can't find the right color so ... i'm going to buy a new door.' i look at her and reason with her. 'ma'am, 12 dollar quart can, 800 hundred dollar door?' she tells me that, it's fine. so i take her back to the door and windows section. drane quotes her an eleven hundred dollar door and she says, 'okay.' ... wow

february 26, 2006: tonight has been a roller coaster of an evening, more for me rather than the the rest of the crew. the crew of the night timtim, jenna and myself. tim and i went down to lunch paper to throw some darts with a few people from work. we had a good night, played some good games and then came back home to drink the rest of the beer in the house. but when we got home we found that all the beer was already previously drunk. so we indulged outselves in big k root beer and family guy. although all the roller coaster effect are still into play, i'm hoping that it's nothing and that everything will work out alright. i'm sure it will.

february 8, 2006: i have nothing to say other than the fact that it's movie night and timtim is gone. and i have no idea when he'll be back. creechums will be over soon and then jason, creechums and myself will start a massive round of dart throwing and movie watching and if timtim decides to show his pretty face then we will greet him accordingly ... by throwing darts at his feet and saying 'dance boy, dance' like they do in old westerns to the new kid in town. and he'll have to dance michael j. fox style ala back to the future part 3 to make us stop.

january 22, 2006: after about three months of off and on searching, aimee and i have finally found an apartment. a tad under 1000 square feet not to pricy, not a bad deal at all. it's a couple miles from her work and a couple from where i will hopefully be transfering. she's excited, jumping around like a kid in a candy store when we left the leasing office. i'm excited, just a little worried that my transfer's going to take a little longer than i want it to. anyway, the ides of march aren't that far away, i can't wait. it'll be a good day. cheers to the rest of our lives.

january 17, 2006: scudder's getting married. makes me think of the old days when her and i would get drunk together at the kensingtion back in london. eating caesar salads and fish 'n' chips, drinking pints of cider, smoking cigarettes with the keiths and bryan. playing pool until the bar closed, to be one of the few that didn't get kicked out. one of the few that was told, 'don't go yet, have another beer.' getting phone calls at three in the afternoon on a sunday, i'd just woke up and couldn't remember how i got home and there's angela screaming into the phone, 'come down to the keno!' the first night we meet we hated each other. i was the new american; she was a loud, annoying girl trying to steal back the mates that i'd rightfully stolen. and then i look down and notice a little moose on the hem of her skirt. 'oh no, you wear abercrombie, that's not a good sign.' she laughed as she pointed out the same little moose on the hem of my shorts. i was caught. someone bought the next round of beers and the two americans were friends. and that's how it went: two americans, two scots, six brits, three aussies, one welch and a kiwi. my life as an intercoastal waterway.

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