Spokes baby ???

So with a little Aveeno baby lotion, that rash cleared right up. Johnson & Johnson are you reading???



Daddy actually likes it too... finally a skin cream that doesn't stink and isn't greasy.





Only thing is that the doctors think I look a little yellow. geez, given my mommy and daddy, what were they expecting??? Anyways, I had to get a bilirubin test for jaundice today. The nurse pricked my foot for blood and I didn't cry or anything. Later, the Dr. called to say I had a mild case of Jaundice, and they wanted to test me again on Friday.

Beach Day... gotta start sometime

So with the sunny skies and mild weather, it was time to embrace the neighborhood. We ventured out to the beach to get our first taste of the world. Later on, Obasan and Ojiisan visited. Then, concerned with his growing rash, we visited the doctor for a quick look see. Hopefully his recommendation of some lotion helps it clear up.

Bath day

Our first full day together and the weather was a little gloomy outside. Most of the morning was spend lounging around. To lighten things up, we had great anticipation for Russell's first bath. ... oh, and you can see I'm starting to develop an icky rash.

Russell - going home

We expected to be discharged from the hospital 24 hours after Russell was born, however, they felt his weight loss was a concern so they kept us around for another night. Again, it was another long night so it may have been a blessing in disguise.

We checked out of the hospital around noon on a bright sunny spring day and arrived home to the sweet sounds of a bulldozer grading our front yard. Landscaping can't be too far off.

Russell Day 1

Night number 1 was not nearly as bad as I had feared. Russell had woke only twice through the night so Julianne tried to feed him and he was very quiet.... the after effects of the epidural were fantastic... the gift the keeps on giving you might say.



Our first full day with Russell turned out to be a pretty full day. Great Granny Chow came..


Obasan and Ojiisan Tabata came...


as did Pansy, Luma, and Hannan.

Even the Yam's made a late day appearance...



sadly, with all those guest, eating took a bit of a back seat, that combined with the epidural effects worn off, Russell was set for a cranky night.

Russell Day 0

... so around midnight, Julianne has to lie down and breath deeply for each passing contraction. By around 12:30, we are in motion to get back to the hospital. We enter the triage room around 1am, and it is almost full (4 beds)... funny because we were the only ones there a few hours earlier. Anyways, we actually have to wait for someone to get admitted before we have a bed for them to look at us.

It turns out that Julianne had gone from 1cm to 4cm's in about 2 hours.. very quick so now I'm thinking this could really happen anytime.... They check us into a birthing room around 2am and strap Julie up to all the monitors... the contractions continue to intensify. Julianne's original plan was to deliver naturally, but her judgment got the better of her. She figured that she had already been up for over 16 hrs so far, and if she couldn't get any rest, she might be having to push the baby out without rest for over 24 hrs, so she elected to opt for the epidural. I was pleased with this decision because it was already difficult to see her dealing with the pain of her contractions.

One problem.... the anesthesiologist was in emergency surgery and could not administer the epidural for some time. 2 hrs later (around 4am), he appeared and inserted the enormous needle into my wifes back. Shortly after, we both nodded of to sleep.

That morning, Julie was re-examined, and was only at 5cm's... (for the uninitiated, 10cm is the target to start pushing) They added some medication to strengthen her contractions, and figured that we'd be around 10cm's around 2pm.

Deanne, arrived around 8am to support Julie so that afforded me a few more hours sleep. Julie's mom and auntie Pansy arrived around 10am and the gallery increased. My mom, arrived around 1pm, and we were still waiting for the final act to commence.

Around 5pm, (24 hrs after the initial regular contractions) it was 'go' time... time for the first push. Julianne was focused like a marine... she breathed strong, pushed well, through all the pain and discomfort. I thank her endlessly for this as I wouldn't have been able to deal with the experience of her crying in agony as i heard from several other birthing rooms later that night.

At 6pm our baby boy Tabata was born...


He weighed in at 7lbs, 12 oz.

As you can see, the newly minted Grannys were there to get in on the action shortly after.

LCBO night!!! (aka - Russell day -1)

WooHoo !!! Tonight is my L.C.B.O. For the uninformed, LCBO stands for Last Call Before Offspring. Julianne is due with our first child on May 2nd.

HISTORY... the LCBO was born to be a 'rite of passage' event for guys as the enter fatherhood. We discovered that the transition from bachelorhood to marriage is relatively easy as you've most likely been exclusively dating your fiance before marriage anyways. The transition from a couple to a triple (or more) is significantly more impactful on ones social life with the boys. Thus the concept of the LCBO was born.

Ironically, we realized that we had infact celebrated our first LCBO inadvertently. When Brian asked me to be his best man, i was living on the other side of the country and was unable to organize a proper bachelor party for him. In consolation, I promised him I would throw him a proper send off prior to the birth of his first child, a claim I made good on prior to the birth of his son.

... back to our story... tonight Brian scheduled my LCBO... a simple cards, bbq & cigars affair at his house. Earlier in the day, around 1pm, Julianne started experiencing some "tightening" around her belly. This came and went throughout the day, and increased in frequency and intensity. Around 6pm, Julie still expected me to go to Brian's and considered inviting her sister over to stay with her in case something happened. Her "tighting" feelings were stronger now and happening every 5 minutes... I recall this was significant, from my vague recollection of child birth classes. I insisted she call the hospital to confirm this was 'normal' at this stage before Todd was scheduled to pick me up.

The nurse suggested "I think you should come in".... and the LCBO went out the window. We slowly got our stuff together to go to the hospital. We casually ensured all of our hospital bags had everything, Julianne took time for a shower and we arrived at the maternity ward around 8pm. There, they attached two monitors to Julianne, one for the baby's heart rate, and one to measure the intensity of the contractions. After around an hour, the Doctor examined Julianne and informed us that she had dilated to only 1cm. At around 10pm, she sent us home to wait for the contractions to intensify to the point where Julianne could "no longer talk through them" She told us that this could take anywhere from 2hrs to 2 weeks.

We got back home a little after 10pm, watched some tv and started to prepare for bed.

The Bed is in !!!

It has been a 12 round battle royal to get our new bed into the master bedroom. Here's a recap... dates are approximate.

Feb 24... visit Sleep Country to select a king sized mattress for our new bed.

Feb 25... purchase a new "Bachelor" king sized bed from UpCountry at a promotional price.

March 1... Move from the condo to the townhouse amid the worst snowstorm of the year

March 3... Mattress is delivered, but can't fit up stair case, is left in kitchen.

March 6... For an additional $100 a 'rope team' is hired to lift the mattress to the bedroom

March 16... Bed is finally delivered from UpCountry (see blog entry)

March 18ish... knowing a $2000 credit from UpCountry is worthless unless you wait to get something on deep discount once in a blue moon, I figure I'll get the bed upstairs somehow and have them "re-deliver" it at the cost of another $100.

March 21ish... bed is redelivered, this time, the two pieces that make up the base are removed from their boxes and again tried to negotiate the stairs to no avail. Other problems are that the headboard is missing, and one of the drawers in the base has a deep scratch through the stain to the wood..... wonderful.

March 23ish... headboard is delivered. Neighbor hires onsite crane operator to lift his furniture to his 3rd floors for $200, but i have a quote from the mattress guys for $100, and they're scheduled to arrive next week.

March 26ish... company that lifted the mattress comes back to lift the bed for the $100 quote... however, feel that they can't do it once they see the boxes.

March 28ish... UpCountry dispatches the "Furniture Dr." to fix the scratched drawer. I'm pissed that I'm paying full price for a damaged bed but I'm too exhausted to fight it anymore. He did do a remarkable job, but its not perfect.

April 8th... optimistically, invite a bunch of people over to attempt to lift the bed via rope and manpower upstairs, but wisely abort the plan at the last moment.

April 10ish... Building site proj mgr insists crane will be back "any day now"

April 21st... Get $400 minimum quote from crane operator to bring equipment onsite and move my bed and stuff for my neighbor. The plan is to hire him if we don't hear from the builder by Wednesday.

April 22nd... The mattress has been sitting in the master bedroom, still wrapped in original plastic since March 6th... Julianne and I break down and unwrap it and sleep on it on the floor.

April 23rd... 5pm the building site, crane guy arrives !!! I have no photos as i was too nervous watching a 100+ lbs piece of my bed being balanced on a tiny 4x3 cherry picker basket without straps or ropes holding it down, 30 feet over the roof of my garage. Ring up another $100 for the 30min work and the total delivery charges on the bed are $400. ($100 rope guys, $200 Upcountry (delivered twice), $100 crane guy)... oh and last thing, we debated on whether to lift the head board in its box or unpack it first.... (it had been boxed since it was delivered).... so we open the box and the fabric insert... is the wrong colour!!! ...forget it, it stays.



.... so it took from Feb 24 till April 23rd, 58 days to get the bed in order and we slept in it on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th. Yes.... 4 days!!! 4 days, and we're back to the 2nd bedroom and later posts will explain.

Hmmm.. so I wonder what else the new guy is going to get rid of ???

Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries

By Philip Pullella 1 hour, 1 minute ago

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation."

The 41-page document was published on Friday by Origins, the documentary service of the U.S.-based Catholic News Service, which is part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Pope Benedict, himself a top theologian who before his election in 2005 expressed doubts about limbo, authorized the publication of the document, called "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised."

The verdict that limbo could now rest in peace had been expected for years. The document was seen as most likely the final word since limbo was never part of Church doctrine, even though it was taught to Catholics well into the 20th century.

"The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation," it said.

"There are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible (to baptize them)."

The Church teaches that baptism removes original sin which stains all souls since the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden.

"NO NEGATION OF BAPTISM"

The document stressed that its conclusions should not be interpreted as questioning original sin or "used to negate the necessity of baptism or delay the conferral of the sacrament."

Limbo, which comes from the Latin word meaning "border" or "edge," was considered by medieval theologians to be a state or place reserved for the unbaptized dead, including good people who lived before the coming of Christ.

"People find it increasingly difficult to accept that God is just and merciful if he excludes infants, who have no personal sins, from eternal happiness, whether they are Christian or non-Christian," the document said.

It said the study was made all the more pressing because "the number of nonbaptised infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility of salvation for these infants has become urgent."

The commission's conclusions had been widely expected.

In writings before his election as Pope in 2005, the then
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was "only a theological hypothesis" and "never a defined truth of faith."

In the Divine Comedy, Dante placed virtuous pagans and great classical philosophers, including Plato and Socrates, in limbo. The Catholic Church's official catechism, issued in 1992 after decades of work, dropped the mention of limbo.

Global Warming???

I find it very interesting when predictions come to fruition. 1999 Ron Howard released the movie Edtv. Figure the concept for this movie was hatched a few years before that. The movie is about a regular guy they put on TV to follow around his daily life. It's interesting how the film pre-dated the flood of reality tv, but accurately illustrated how it can make a celebrity out of anyone.

So what does that have to do about Global Warming aside from all the additional hot air for psuedo celebrities produced from reality junk.... might be on to something there???

Okay, so if you haven't read State of Fear yet, it follows a lawyer who learns of a group that questions the assumption of Global Warming. Somehow, Global Warming has been marketed to become the key issue of today. Amazing considering how the promotion of supporting the cause of Global Warming is a component of the book, and it has actually happened.

Anyways, in the video, he talks about his next book "Next" for the first 22 minutes, but the rest is about his views on the issue of Global warming. (for those who don't want to read the book)



IQ2 Debate: Global Warming
Is Not a Crisis
Listen to Podcast or Read Transcript
On March 14, 2007, Michael participated
in a debate, speaking as part of the team
in favor of the winning motion "Global
Warming Is Not a Crisis".

Get me some gamma rays !!!

Today was supposed to be a happy day. Bed was coming. Looking forwards to finally sleeping in the master bedroom. First, the boxes the bed is packed in wont get up the stairs. Then, I find out that UpCountry's policy is for credit note only, so now I have over 2k tied up in the f'n store.

Gets worse because today is bonus day. I received my 'variable' pay today but the bank deposit looks much lower than i anticipated. 60% !!! They deducted 60% tax on the income !!! Fricken hell... drop another 14% if I actually chose to buy anything with it, I'm down to keeping 25 cents on the friken dollar!!!

That's it, i'm starting St Patty's early. Get me a drink!

Okay something usefull from the internet !!!

Yes sir... those crazy Japanese shows are more than just people kicking each other in the nuts. Finally, an awesome video from the web. My closet is going to look like a Gap Store by tomorrow.

Moving... week 1

Friday... Rogers came and said there was no line to the house.... "maybe around the 15th?" he said.

I also get a call from UpCountry saying our bed has arrived. However, I dont dare call them back until i see the mattress has made it to the bedroom.

Saturday... Sleep Country delivers our new king size mattress. We barely got the Queen size up the stairs so I'm genuinely concerned about the king. On the phone they assure me.. no problem, no problem. The get the mattress into the house and suddenly, "Houston, we have a problem." Have to reschedule a "rope job" to get the mattress in on the top floor balcony.

Monday...
All the stuff we laid deposit on came in so we had to pay the balance...Central Vac installed, security installed, speakers installed.... chaching, chaching, chaching.

Tuesday...
A/C unit installed and mattress guys got it upstairs.


Wednesday/Thursday/Friday... (all a blur)
window screens, garage heater (for the hydraulics), Bell, Rogers (with a temporary cable) cabinet touchups, re set a new tub faucet....

unending....

Moving Day

okay... i was too busy loosing my mind to take any photos myself but you get the idea.

So this time, I figured I'd hire movers and everyone could relax as they did all the work... well it didn't quite work out that way....

11:00am
So Thursday morning started with my parents showing up to help pack up the last few things in the condo. They're seem a little surprised that there is so much stuff still not boxed up. In our defense, all the closets and cupboards had been cleared and packed. The rest plus the fridge contents had to be boxed up.

12:00
Moved everything from the storage locker to the moving room so the movers would only have to get to one place.

1:00pm
A little later Tim and Louis are there to help to. Again, i figure they'd just be there to watch the movers if I had to finish up any paperwork or do something at the new house. The movers also arrived 30 min early. I was concerned because i didn't have a key to the new place yet. Work started on loading the truck.

2:00pm
Julianne, my parents and I walked over to the new house to do a final walk through. The site mgr, gave us permission to lay down drop sheets over the hardwood in preparation for the move. The snow started to fall around this time too.

4:00pm
The truck is still being loaded and i get a call from my lawyer. The clerk says they dispatched the courier to with the cheques at 2:30 but the are nowhere close to the builder's lawyers office.

5:00pm
The courier is cannot reach the lawyers office within business hours because of the weather/traffic. The office is now closed to let people get home. The deal cannot close today.

The site manager contacts his boss to see if a fax showing the certified cheques are appropriate proof of payment and he can give me the keys. At this point, the condo is packed on the truck, the blizzard is in full effect, and my condo is officially sold and closed. The !@$*X4'ing builder tells the site manager not to release the keys basically screwing us for the night. (details available in person)

Basically... a completely hellish day.

T minus 1 day...

I haven't really made mention of it but moving day is tomorrow. I'm anxiously waiting for my lawyer to receive the final paperwork from the builder so i can pay up the outstanding amount and get the 'dance for the keys' music started.

On the packing front, pretty much everything from the closets and cupboards are now packed up. There are still some loose items in various piles around the apartment right now and the TV & Computer are holding firm to their positions. Luckly, we have no crawling children or dogs right now. It's definitely a high choking risk environment.

Of course, the Tabata's milestone plans continue to be a magnet for extreme weather. Our engagement cruise was into the eye of the hurricane, the wedding was the second coming of Noah, and now they are predicting an ice storm tomorrow. I won't be surprised to see an entire burg fall from the sky. Wish us luck, and we'll be back to ranting the day after tomorrow.

I love this kind of stuff....(back to ranting)

So has anyone watched the movie "An Inconvenient Truth"?

In it, champion of the blue planet, Al Gore (and inventor of the internet too isn't he?) lectures that our current energy use is causing a dramatic increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. He builds a case that the level of carbon dioxide is directly related to the global temperature, and we will melt the ice caps, cease the ocean currents, flood a gazillion miles of prime real estate, and plunge us back into another ice age at our current pace. Basically, if you've seen "The Day After Tomorrow" that's what will happen if he's not voted president when he announces he'll run.

Anyways the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has published the following on it's web site.

Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.

Like i said... I love this kind of stuff.

Today's Random Photo

Another photo

In honour of Julia's birthday, here's a picture of her and Mommy in one of my all time faves.



child services can relax.... all of the boozing guests emptied the bottle before Mommy could get a grasp of it.

Keeping it fresh...

Okay... not much to write today. On the townhouse front, the cabinets and counter tops are now in, and they have set a delivery date for the appliances. Basically, everyone is starting to line up to be paid.

In a shameless attempt to increase blog traffic, I have new photo of the day theme. (okay, maybe not every day)

Anyways, here's today's photo. Please use the comments to log an appropriate caption.

Cheers.

All Aboard !!!

Okay, last nights game wasn't what you could call a "convincing" win but 5 in a row ain't bad and I wasn't the only one wearing a Leafs Toque on the streetcar today.

Of course this preamble is just an excuse to post this....