Thanksgiving At Home

This Thanksgiving will always be quite memorable for me as it was the first one I've ever had at my own home. Because Carrie is so far along in her pregnancy, travel is discouraged. Subsequently we decided we were going to have Thanksgiving at home and were hoping some others would join us. Luckily Carrie's Dad was able to get time off from work and come down. In total we had 8 people and two dogs - just enough to put all the leafs in our dining room table - yippy! It was Carrie, Carlos and I, Mike and Katy, Nancy and Dave, and Grampa Andy also made it down. It was really nice that everyone was able to come being that they all had to do more traveling, but it meant a lot to us. Dinner was awesome with all the thanks going to Carrie and Carlos for getting everything ready.

I have to say I will never forget the feeling of sitting at the head of my dining room table and having Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the first time. Apparently, your life flashing before your eyes isn't always predicated by a near-death experience because I found myself spending a few minutes during the beginning of the meal reflecting on how much my life has changed in the last few years, particularly since Carrie and Carlos came into it. Three jobs, two states, and two apartments later, here I am sitting at the head of my dining room table in my house having Thanksgiving. I accredit all the good that has come into my life in the last few years to meeting Carrie and Carlos, so needless to say God putting them in my life is what I'm most thankful for.

Everyone got to check out the basement as well while they were down including my command center ... and yes I really need all those computers.

Be thankful I don't have an entire image generator rack. While I'm on the subject of the basement, here's a few more shots that'll give you an idea of how it looks. We still need to get some more furniture, but it will give you a rough idea. As you get to the bottom of the stairs, there's a door to the left that leads to the aforementioned office. If you go right you hit the main area which is an entertainment/workout room. Here's the entertainment room area:

We ordered a 42" 1080p LCD TV to hang on the wall down there so Carlos and I will be all set for some serious gaming, although the Playstation 3 is the only thing that will currently support that resolution (1920x1080) and we won't be getting one of those anytime soon. But I will be able to hook my laptop up to it and play some true hi-def videos. The entertainment room is separated from the workout room by a half wall:

We over-sized the workout area a bit to leave room for and elliptical trainer and some other stuff should we choose to add it later. Off of the entertainment area is a bedroom that is pretty bare right now:
You can see the bathroom off the back of the bedroom. It is also accessible from my office by walking through the unfinished storage room. We have the shower in and most of the plumbing run, we just need to tile, drywall, put in the toilet/sink, ceiling, and finish.

After dinner we watched some football and settled into what is quickly becoming a new tradition .... bowling on Wii Sports! Mike, Dave, Carlos and I played while everyone else watched. With Grampa Andy's advise Dave was quickly able to get back into his Christmas 06' form, as was Mike - once again getting enough English in the ball to traverse he entire lane on a throw. But the true star was once again Carlos as he bowled an all-time hi for our house - 241. But in all fairness he did have the entire week off and I know he was practicing.

Everyone left Thursday evening, but most of us met up again on Saturday for Carrie and Katy's baby shower. It seemed like everyone had a good time and it was really nice of Corinne to put everything together. When we got home Carrie, Carlos, and I took everything out and started getting Jackson's room set up a little more thoroughly. Here are a few pics:

You can see "Gillseppe" the frog that I bought in Italy, and it you look real close you can see the Davy Crockett hat that Mimi got Jackson along with a picture of his Dad wearing his when he was little. Man I used to love me some Davy Crockett, after all he was the king of the wild frontier.
Carrie and I also went shopping to get some more stuff off our registry that we needed. I also spent a good deal of time on Sunday reading up on the labor/delivery process and getting my ducks in a row. I have a number of questions for our physician that I'll be asking on Friday, but I feel much more comfortable now. Except for when I go to sleep and have nightmares about losing my job, not remembering where the hospital is, and much worse. Luckily these are only dreams and are quite common as I've read.

With setting up Jack's room and my mental preparation for the delivery I can say that is finally starting to sink in that I am going to have a baby at home soon. I am getting really anxious and excited, it seems to be all consuming mentally. I have trouble thinking about anything else. I suppose this is good practice however as I hear having a baby can be pretty all consuming both physically and mentally. :)

Movie Test

I wanted to see how well the video support works, so here goes ...

Rob's with the SMIBs, Carrie's with the Stalkers

Well thus far this week has been a busy one for the Best's. I'm at Pax for work, hangin with the SMIBs (if there are any SMIBs reading this, I'm only joking, wait a sec .... SMIBs can't read). On the domestic front Carrie's been taking care of business, including having several plumbers over to give us estimates on a few minor repairs we need in the basement bathroom. The first plumber was a kind old man who seemed quite eager to do the work.

Perhaps too eager.... Dum Dum DUM

Carrie told him we were going to get some more estimates and would call him back the next day (today) after speaking with the other plumber. Well we're not sure if the plumber is starting to go Ronald Reagan on us and can't remember his conversations or if he just isn't very professional, but he called 3 times on Tuesday (including a call at 10 pm) and started calling this morning at 9 am. After Carrie informed him that we had decided to go with another plumber he went on a tirade about being the only professional plumber in the United States. Come to think of it, maybe he is going Reagan on us... He followed this up with another phone call later on tonight. Looks like we got ourselves a certified stalker! Well if he calls again I'm going to have to tell him that we have made our decision and don't wish to speak with him anymore. We consider any further contact to be harassment and will have to notify the authorities. I can empathize with someone trying to make a living, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Hopefully he's not mobbed up.

Well I have a few more things to do for work tonight and I'll be wrapping my trip up tomorrow. Then if everything goes according to plan I won't be traveling for a few months. It'll be nice being at home and I should be able to hack out a ton of code, which I'm looking forward to (man I'm a gigantic nerd).

Remembering Chet

The funeral home put together a nice tribute to Chet's life that is available online and includes an obituary and a video tribute. Just click the link and use the menu on the left to navigate to the obituaries, then select Chet's name. I will always remember a funny experience I shared with Chet when we still were getting to know one another. Carrie, Carlos, and I made a trip up to Corinne's house in March of 2005. Any college basketball fan knows that this is one of the best times of the year, and I was particularly interested as Syracuse was playing that night against Vermont in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I was a bit concerned that I wasn't going to be able to watch the game because it's not exactly good-mannered to visit someone and sack out in front of the TV and watch a basketball game. Thankfully, Chet had my back and said we could watch the game upstairs in Corinne's bedroom. For the next 2+ hours it was just Chet and I lying next to each other in bed watching some sports and yelling at the TV. We had a big laugh at the image of us two heterosexual males lying in bed together and passionately viewing the game. The humor of the situation easily outweighed the disappointing outcome of the game and is a testament to how warm of a person Chet was and how he made anyone feel comfortable, like you'd known him for years.

Definetely a Boy

Today we had another ultrasound and it started with the technician asking us if we knew the sex of the baby. Carrie said that they told her that they were pretty sure it was a boy. Well a few seconds later the technician captured this gem of a picture, which pretty much solidifies the fact that Jack is indeed a boy.


Yeah... that's Jackie's little scrotum. You've got to love technology. When I was young I worried about walking through the door and seeing my Mom showing my girlfriend pictures of me naked in the shower except for my swimming goggles. Now I've already embarrassed my unborn son by posting a picture of his scrotum on the internet. I thought it was embarrassing when my parents pulled over the car and started dancing to "Old Time Rock-and-Roll" in the middle of the road. They've got nothing on me! I can only assume that with a start like this I will surpass them in the long run.

Jack seemed to be sleeping through the ultrasound, but we also got this picture, where you can make out his face.


What you can't see is that the technician told us that he has a lot of hair already and weighs about 6 lbs 1 oz. We also had our weekly appointment and things seem to be progressing nicely. Carrie's been doing very well with her gestational diabetes.

- Rob