A Running Tally of Metaphysical Phenomena

Up there is our first ultrasound picture! You could really go do an image search for “ultrasound” on Google and find something just as clear and unique. But it wouldn’t say Kirsten C. Walter up at the top, so ours is better. We went in Friday and found out all kinds of great information. We got to see Kirsten’s insides and watch the little barley’s heart beating, and the tech even turned the sound way up to make it sound like Godzilla stomping around instead of the little “swish-swish-swish” you usually hear in movies and stuff. What a heartbeat! And what a fast heartbeat! 171 BPM. We learned that typical heart rate for an embryonic baby is between 120 and 175 and that it gets a little slower the further along in the pregnancy. So, going off of that, the information we supplied, and the baby’s length (.64 cm), the ultrasound tech, Elizabeth, said that Kirsten was 6 weeks and 2 days into her pregnancy. That makes 7 weeks and something now, and the anticipated due date is December 31st, which Kirsten immediately pointed out is good for tax purposes. Which is good, because that was totally our plan.

Our next ultrasound isn’t until 18 weeks! And it was so cool and interesting that we’re both getting impatient to go back in and see more. But the good news is that our patience will pay off at the end of July when we get to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl! Can’t come soon enough for me, let me tell you…

I guess it was just a matter of time before I realized that my child is going to be cuter than any other child ever. I really don’t know why it took me so long, but I got a little nudge last night from our friends Mike and Lissa when they gave us our first baby outfit. Baby clothes of any sort have the potential to be pretty cool, but check this out:

That’s the article of baby clothing they gave us. (I’m not comfortable with “onesie” yet, sorry.) Two observations:

A: That was so thoughtful! Thanks, you guys! and
B: How awesome is that design? Which leads me to:
i. Does it come on grownup t-shirts?
ii. Would I be lame if I got clothes that matched my baby, or would that be cool?

Life is complicated.

They also gave us a week-by-week pregnancy book that we can look at to find out what the Barley is up to each week. We found out last night was that it’s now the size of a green olive. Hmm… Olive… That’s not a bad name. Not my first choice, but much more name-ish than Barley, which my mom has warned me is not a really great baby name. I wondering if maybe as things go on, the book will progress from names that would be really bad for a child to things that are at least marginally less ridiculous.

Week 7: “This week, your baby is the size of an Olive.”

Week 8: “You may feel a bit more nausea this week. Your baby is now the size of a Lucretia.”

Week 10: “The eyelids are now growing lashes. By now, your new bundle of joy is the size of a Mildred.”

Week 12: “Almost done with your first trimester! Hooray! Your beautiful angel is the size of an Esmeralda.”

Week 14: “One month to go before you find out the gender! Your child is now about the size of a Ginger.”

Week 16: “People will begin to notice the ‘glow’ of pregnancy. This is caused by increased blood flow in the capillaries nearest to your skin. Your baby is now the size of an Emilia.”

Week 18: “Have you scheduled your next ultrasound yet? Your baby is the size of a Jennifer.”

And then Jennifer it is.* Awesome.

We’ll have a good time checking our progress each week regardless of what kind of tips or advice it gives us. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on all of the goings on. For now, celebrate with us, won’t you, that thanks to an iron will and stomach, Kirsten has overcome any and all nausea and has kept from throwing up even once! That’s my mighty Skirst! Stay tuned on that one…

Kent

* Not planning on Jennifer, even if it’s a girl.

While I get up and take a nice walk every morning and then hang out at a place that isn’t the same place I live, Kirsten sees a whole lot more of our apartment. She works from home, and while that may be a luxury in some ways, it can make one stir crazy if care is not taken. Add pregnancy to that, and lately, you have a certified case of cabin fever. I’m a little different. I’ve always been a recharge-by-solitude sort of person myself, and it doesn’t really bother me to stay inside for a several days at a time as long as I have a good book, a game, something to write, etc. Either one of these can be problematic: Kirsten can get pretty bored and miserable, and since it won’t bother me not to go out, I just won’t, even though I should.

It is in light of these two situations that Kirsten and I have enacted the May 2008 Get Out Initiative. It is our goal for the rest of this month to go out and do something every single night. (Wow, we’re going to start using actual gasoline! Crazy.) We will grant ourselves an exception in cases where someone comes over and we do interesting and fun stuff together, but really, that’s still the same walls, so we’re doing our best to keep that to a minimum.

Last night was the first night of the Initiative, and Ryan had the great idea to go over to the park and play bocce. I tend to drag Kirsten into a bunch of complicated games pretty often, so she was liking something as simple as bocce. They really trimmed the fat off that game, didn’t they? Throw the little ball, and then throw the bigger ones. No uniform, no rules (basically), no dice or anything. We went with Meghan and Ryan, and even though we were playing as individuals, there were teams from time to time. Ryan and I each had five points, so we were Team Five, and then later, Kirsten and I had the same score, so we were Team Walter. I ended up winning by one point, followed by Kirsten.

Tonight was a little more low key, but still out, not in. We just went to Panera and read for a little bit. Kirsten’s reading Anna Karenina, and I was a sophisticated English major, so I’m reading the much deeper, more philosophical The Bourne Supremacy. The Bourne books are shockingly different from the movies, but they’re good. Really heavy on the expository dialogue, but great stories. Lots of action and loopy twisty plots. Very fun reading.

How about your own Get Out Initiative? Are you getting tired of doing the same thing every day? Want a chance to change things up? Want to get out? Do I sound like a commercial yet? What would you do? What should we do? We’re taking all suggestions. The freer the better, so be creative!

Alright, as soon as I get our scanner out and running the way it’s supposed to run, I have a little barley picture for you. Stay tuned. It should be coming soon.

It’s up. Not yet 100% without issue, but it’s there. If you use a blog reader of any sort, point it here. If you don’t, you should really consider it if you read more than a single web site more often than about once a week. Go to Google Reader and start subscribing to stuff. You can check it like you’d check your email, and it will tell you when there’s a new entry from BBC News, or me, or the IRS or Al-Jazeera, or whatever other Very Important Things you like to read.

Yes, I am ever going to update my blog. Promise. I actually have a few entries you haven’t seen yet even though they’re already written. See, I have my web site all ready to go, designed, looking mezzosnazzy, etc. My cousin is hosting it for me, though, being the nice guy that he is, and it’s taken a little bit of work to get it up and running. It involves FTP permissions and some technical goofery. And then there were the issues getting it to look right in Internet Explorer, which I’m still only 93% sure I got through. It’s been a slow process. And see, the thing is, I’ve been holding off on putting new posts here because I wanted to wait until I could be like, “OK, new web site! Go.”

And that still hasn’t happened.

But it will. In fact, I’m hoping within the next day or two. That means I might as well go ahead and tell you: the blog is moving. Start visiting kentwalter.com on an hourly basis now, and with any luck whatsoever, you’ll see the new site within the next 24 hours. Just don’t bite me or anything if it’s not there right away.

The new site is kind of meant to be:

• A supplement to my resume if that ever becomes beneficial in any way. (Not that it is at the moment, but if there’s one thing being in Scouts having Eagle Scout friends taught me, it’s to always be prepared),
• A mini-biography/profile, which is sort like the first point,
• A place to put my “creative” writing, separate from my life and events writing, and
• This blog, moved, renamed, upgraded, and injected with a new dose of self-importance because I laid it out myself. Except really just moved. And renamed.

So there you go. Start clicking, and one day, you, like me, will have success seeing my web site on the actual internet. I’m looking forward to it!

Kent

For my training the last two days, I rode the bus over to main campus. The morning before that, I managed to walk past one of the bus stops along my morning route just as a bus pulled up that would save me about seven or eight minutes on my walk. I was going to be seven or eight minutes “late” (as much is there is such a concept at my job), so I hopped on. Three rides in one week, and it’s convinced me even further that I should ride the bus regularly. I’d have to concoct a reason, but I probably could. Two conversations worth recounting:

One
Middle-aged business guy (to the adorable three year old sitting with her dad in the seat across from him): What did you draw there?
Middle-aged business guy 2: Is that a cat?
Dad and daughter (cooperatively): It’s a cat octopus. Maybe a catapus.
MABG2: Well, cool. You know, there was a James Bond movie with one of those.

Two
Driver, when I am the only rider on the bus: You know, I appreciate someone who’s real, you know, without an inch of makeup and everything dyed and all…
Me: Mmmhmm. (?)
Driver: You know, I said to my ten year old the other day, I said, “You know, Willy… You see yourself in the mirror here. Would it freak you out just a little bit if you grew up, and you kept seeing yourself, and then one day, for some reason, you found out that it’s not really you? You know, that what you saw the whole time just fell away and wasn’t actually Willy?”
Me: Hmmm.
Driver: And he says, “Yeah dad, I guess it would.” And I said, “well, get ready, because one day, it’s gonna happen. Because Willy isn’t what’s out here, you know?” OK, well, here you go, end of the line. Have a good one. Nice day today.
Me, internally, whiplashed: Dude, that’s deep stuff for a ten year old, and I applaud you for bringing it up, but could we sit and talk about this? I’m not quite clear on just precisely what you were getting at, metaphysically.
Me, verbally: Thanks! Have a good one.

If this guy did long hauls with Greyhound or something, I would absolutely ride that route. Same driver had a story about being on military R & R in Senegal and having a taxi driver tip the taxi over -with him in it- by taking a corner too fast. Remind me why anyone drives to work again?