sorry for the lag

Seeing as I haven't posted since I returned from India (and have long since emerged victorious from the fascist claws of food poisoning), I guess it's time to do a few updates. Please note that I have decided to drop my normal "telegraph" style of paragraph structure and punctuation (or lack thereof) to increase readability.

On the personal front, Krissy is heading into her ninth month of baby baking so the little guy (yes, it's a boy) is almost ready to burst forth from her innards a la the first Alien movie. As such, we have been attending quite a few "baby prep" classes that constantly make me wonder how children were even brought into this world for the past couple thousand of years. Krissy has been doing a ton of reading (as English majors are often wont to do) and I've been picking up some choice tidbits via osmosis (though a lot of it is stuff I already knew from watching medical dramas on TV - thank you ER, St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H, Trapper John MD, and General Hospital). The classes, however, have provided Krissy and I hours of entertainment at the expense of our fellow classmates. Here are a few choice quotes from the class:

"Will a Doctor be present in our room from the moment we arrive to the hospital?" - Sure, because Kaiser has hundreds of OB/GYNs just sitting around in delivery rooms.

"Do the forceps hurt the baby?" - Yeah, because having their entire bodies shoved through a 10cm opening is a joy ride.

"That's what a cloth diaper looks like?" - Apparently this gal didn't have younger siblings and had never babysat before.

And the Grand Prize Winner (in response to What is an Episiotomy?) Drum roll please...

"It's when the doctor makes an incision in the Cervix." - WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!

Krissy's shower was this past weekend so we came home with a ton of schwag for Aidan Miles (Aidan is Irish for "Little Fiery One" and Miles for my two favorite musicians: Miles Davis and Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff). We can't thank my family and especially my folks enough for being so generous. We were a little concerned that some might not be all that thrilled with the idea of a "Green" shower, but it sounds like everyone did what they could. I can't believe that March 10th is just around the corner.

On the political front, Barack Obama got elected!!! I can't even begin to describe how thrilled I am to have a president that doesn't cause me physical pain when he opens his mouth to speak. I can conclusively say the Bush was the DUMBEST president we have ever had. And DUMB mixed with unchecked power is a dangerous combination. Mr. Obama's first two weeks have been a bit rocky. He's made a couple of serious missteps in his recent staff selections (Geithner, Daschle, Killifer) and there are some things in the stimulus package I'm not too thrilled about - $88 mil. to "develop" a new Coast Guard cutter when they can just buy a brand new one from STX Europe for about $43.3 mil. I guess they want the Coast Guard to "build American." I think that if it doesn't relate DIRECTLY to job creation or helping people not have their homes foreclosed on, it shouldn't be in the bill. The Dems have the majority now, they can move on their pet projects later. The bill to lower executives' salaries is something I've been railing about for years now. Personally, I don't think it should be limited to TARP funded companies either.

I love how the Republibots lump all Obama supporters into the same "idiots that drank the Kool-Aid" batch. Obviously, they've never read the Pew Research poll that states that 43% of self-identified liberals have a Bachelor's degree or higher compared to 19% of self-identified conservatives. I'm not even a Democrat (though I'll probably be leaving the Green Party soon) and I fully support Obama. He's done more in his first 2 weeks than Bush did in his entire administration. For the first time in a long time, I look forward to the next four to eight years.

OK. I think that's enough for now. I'll try to be more consistent from now on (yeah, right).

Pleasant Dreams.