On Being in Love

On January 4th, I posted a note in Facebook about a question I asked Kyra, including her response. Here is a copy of the note:

I was asked, "How has it changed your life?" She, thinking for a day after asked, responded:

"Being in love is a wonderful sense of uniqueness. It is the feeling that you are experiencing something no one else has ever experienced, or at least not as intensely, not as deeply. At the same time, the world seems to share with you that feeling, that joy. The unpleasant becomes affable; the snide remark takes on a gentle, even humorous tone. Those insurmountable obstacles become pebbles in the road, because what really matters stands right in front of you, with open arms and a crooked smile.

"Being in love feels at once so wondrously connected and alive, and at the same time so secret and intimate, like the unexplained smile that appears from time to time as you lose yourself in some joyous contemplation. At times, it seems that the world spins around you, and while connected to it you are not part of it. You have somehow been separated, set free, allowed to float above the mundane troubles and travails of daily existence. Such a lovely dichotomy, the separateness and connection.

"Finally being in love is the desire to sink so deeply into another being that time itself stop dead, and all that exists is the two of you, for that moment, forever."

Gift from Work

On Tuesday, my company planned on moving our department from one area to another in the office space we rent. The new area is brighter, with more sunlight from the nearby windows. Our cubicles are also no longer facing inward, with the opening toward each other, but outward, with the openings away from each other. This eliminates the "fish bowl" effect--the feeling that others are watching you from across the way.

When I got to work today, I found a large gift bag on my chair. My cube was a mess from moving, with boxes all over and everything in pieces lying on the desk. I cheerfully opened the present, pleasantly surprised that my co-workers would get us a gift. The gift included two gifts we already received--a nice blender and a set of kitchen utensils. Fortunately, the other set we received included a gift receipt, so we can return them and get something else. We were planning on returning the kitchen utensil set since we had so much from Pampered Chef, but it looks like we'll have to keep at least one now. The gift also included a set of two knives, which I do not believe we received yet.

It was very pleasant to receive a gift from my co-workers. It brightened my day. The new arrangement will take some getting used to, but it's starting to feel better already.

Brief Follow Up

The wedding and reception were amazing, and we had fun on our mini-honeymoon to Kalahari. We also had a lot of fun opening presents and cards. On Monday, we went to the zoo with Carla.

There are so many pictures to post, and eventually there will be video(s) too. As soon as we recover and get back on our feet, we'll be sure to post them, along with some stories. Until then, keep in touch!

One Spring Day

Our wedding day was gorgeous! The wedding photos and film were great, and we had a blast at the reception. We spent Sunday, Kyra's birthday, at Kalahari, taking our lazy time down the lazy river, eating food, and having a lot of fun as husband and wife. We came home and watched Princess Bride, a tradition on Kyra's birthday.

Thanks to everyone who helped us (especially our family), those who attended the wedding and reception, and those who gave us gifts. All of you made the day very special for us!

Morning Note

I woke up this morning and found a note on my computer desk. It reads:

"Things to do today:

• Have fun!
• Smile :-)
• Remember how much I love my fiancé <3"

Thanks Kyra!

Weather Update 2

The weather looks like it's going to be great on Saturday. Yet again all three of my previous sources agree! It looks like there may be some storms on Sunday night, but that's okay.

The leis have started to make there way here from Hawai'i. We should receive them on Friday morning. Here's a picture:



We'll have quite a colorful wedding party. The guys will be wearing black suits of varied styles, with one red-and-black-striped tie, one light yellow tie, and one gold tie (mine). The bridesmaids are wearing canary yellow and dark red dresses.

It will be a beautiful day!

Pre-Wedding Appointment

We saw a nurse midwife again for a regular appointment. I totally forgot my sound recorder, and the heartbeat this time was nice and loud! Darn it... Otherwise, the ultrasound scans were just fine, and of course, we're having a boy! We talked about the pain Kyra has been having from the weight of the baby and standing all day. The nurse midwife suggested a maternity support belt, available at Motherhood Maternity. I am so sick of seeing her in pain and struggling to sleep, I am going to get one TOMORROW!

In other news, Kyra's mom, Linda, is here to finish making the dress and to attend the wedding. I invited Carla to come over to join us tonight. We had pizza, we talked about books, and we attempted to watch a movie. Linda and Kyra worked on the dress for a while, until Kyra's belly and feet hurt. Then it was off to bed.

We also purchased a video camera, and we'll be using it at the wedding. During the last week of preparations, we've been recording snippets of what we've been doing. I don't think we will have time to edit it before the reception, but eventually I'll get some clips up and post it on YouTube or Google Video. Oh yeah, we used our economic stimulus check to purchase it! We're being patriotic!

That's it for tonight. I have to go edit two pieces of music for the reception and finish laundry. Yea...

Weather Update 1

For the entire week, we will be watching the weather carefully. We would really enjoy having our wedding outside, with beautiful, sunny weather. The forecast from the National Weather Service, The Weather Channel, and Channel3000 agree aside from minor details. Here's a graph from The Weather Channel:



We hope this is accurate! Lewis Black wouldn't trust The Weather Channel so easily... He hates the Weather Channel and thinks being a weatherman would be the easiest job. He's also said, regarding Wisconsin weather, "It's not weather, it's malaria!" That's one of our favorite quotes when we're ranting about the weather.

One More Thing

Yeah, so I said I was going to go back to work, but I forgot I took these cute photos of Kyra today. Here they are:





There's my baby boy! :)

Pseudoscience: Not Even Wrong

I was reading some entries in Google Reader today, when I read about the phrase "not even wrong," which is often applied to pseudoscience and theories based on ideas that are known to be wrong or unprovable/untestable. The example I read about today, from Improbable Research, states that the Democrats running for President have ideas about the government that run counter to our "very nature" based on "American" DNA. Right.

It is claimed that the phrase came from a physicist who, upon reviewing another physicist's paper, said, "That's not right. It's not even wrong." Wikipedia claims that the phrase is "mildly derogatory" (as of May 17, 2008). I find the phrase amusing and may apply it in the future.

Okay, now back to wedding preparations. I shouldn't be procrastinating (read that, it's interesting, as always with Robin).

Formal Dance

Kyra and I attended the final UWMBDA formal dance last week. I ran in to Radio Shack to get some composite cables for our new TV, and Kyra took these shots while she was in the car waiting. She purchased new makeup earlier that week, and wanted to test it out for the wedding. She is gorgeous. I am so proud of my beautiful mother-to-be.





Mind you, she's kissing ME, not any of you viewers out there. : D <-- Proud look

Photos from Ultrasound

We're having a boy! Here are some photos... (Read Kyra's post below for more.)

Here are two photos of the lab area that the ultrasound was completed in.





Here's a profile pic of our baby boy!



And here's a 3D image compiled from the 2D ultrasound images.



Kyra has nicknamed him Teddy Bear. Cute. I just hope the nickname doesn't stick with him up to school age. Kids will tease him.

All my news, at once!

Ok, so things have been really busy of late and I have a ton of news, which I am going to throw on here all at once.

1) Wedding Shower
On May 4th, Chris's mother, sister and aunts threw me a wedding shower. It was a pampered chef party and I was a bit dubious. I like to cook and I thought it was sweet that Chris's mom wanted to "welcome me into the family", but the thought of a shower evoked images of women going "eeeeeeeeeeee" every time a gift was opened. I've never been one for the uber-girly. Not to mention Chris caught the flu and couldn't come and I was left in a big legion hall with a bunch of people that I didn't really know! My family did show up, late as usual, which wasn't surprising considering the drive they had to take to get to to Blanchardville. Then I was stuck trying to introduce them to people who's name I didn't really know. ("Aunt Viki this is...um...one of Chris's Aunts.) But I really did have a lot of fun. It was great fun decorating with Chris's mom and sister, the pampered chef lady made really good food, and Chris and I got tons of gifts (thank you so much to everyone by the way, I will have you all over and cook for you all!) I sat by Chris's Grandma Bea, who I just adore, and we talked and had lots of fun. The cake was also excellent, white chocolate on dark chocolate on chocolate mousse on chocolate fudge. Yummm! The only problem is Chris and I have no room for all our new stuff!!

2) The ultrasound
Today Chris and had our ultrasound at Meriter. We were both really excited, and justifiably so, it was awesome. First of all, we found out we are having a boy. ("I told you!" Chris's mom said laughingly when we called he after the appointment.) I definitely think he will be a dancer, he was moving around during the whole procedure, much to the chagrin of our ultrasound tech. He was a bit camera shy though, kept putting his hand in front of his face when we tried to take a picture of him. We did get some cool photos (which Chris will post shortly) and they even had the ability to take a 3-D photo of the baby. I think he looks like a teddy bear, so hence forth that will be my nickname for him. My little twelve ounce teddy bear.

Favorite Baby Names

Here is our updated list of baby names (last updated: July 12). If you want to provide suggestions, leave a comment! We're using Behind the Name quite a bit, as it has some useful search methods, although not as much diversity in names; and Think Baby Names, which provides stats on how common names have been.

Key
Names - meanings (notes)
* Favorites

Boys

• Asah* - healer/physician
  
• Names with "kai" sound:
  
• Cai - no meaning (nickname for Caius or Caillou)
• Caillou - pebble or stone, maybe bald head (nickname: Cai)
• Caius - rejoice (nickname: Cai)
  
• Kai - sea (Hawaiian)
• Kaimana - power of the ocean (Hawaiian, nickname: Kai)
• Malakai - my messenger or my angel (nickname: Kai)
• Dorian* - from the sea (or Dorus, another name; or Doris, a city; variant of Doric)
• Kalani - the heavens (Hawaiian)
  
• Luca* - from Luke, meaning "from Lucania, Italy"
  
• Lucian - from Lucius, meaning light (nickname: Luca)
• Sabin* - variant of Sabina (fem.), meaning, Sabine, a group of people

We have a name list at Behind the Name.

Girls

• Adria*
• Ayanna*
• Charity*
• Daphne
• Deanna*
• Isabel
• Nadia
• Oliana
• Olivia
• Oriana

Note: When leaving names for suggestions, please do not include last names. Thank you!

The baby is a...

BOY!

Baby Instructions

Carla sent me this hilarious website with some instructions on what to do and not do with a baby. Check it out, it's hilarious! (The site has many images, and if you have a slow internet connection, it may take some time to download.)

Instructions to Look After a Baby (See the translation here.)

There is a video posted at the bottom of the page listed above, but I posted it here, too. I'm surprised this works so well, and I wonder if it works for all babies.

A Long Week

It's been a long week. Last Friday, we had a UWMBDA dance after work. Saturday I woke up not feeling so well, and it just got worse and worse. I had food poisoning or some other virus, and I was terribly sick all day. Kyra and I were supposed to go help our friend Carla get to the hospital and settle in. Kyra went without me, as I couldn't really move from my bed.

We were also supposed to go to a movie with some friends from the dance community. No luck with that either. Kyra rushed home after helping Carla with her things and then waiting for hours while the hospital staff must have been sitting on their hands.

She got me some "flu" medicine that helped with the aches and pains. (It was simply liquid acetaminophen for the muscle pain, an anit-histamine to induce sleepiness, and a decongestant.) I actually couldn't believe how well it worked. I had tried some other medicine to no avail. Eventually I was stable enough to sleep and recover.

Sunday, we went to Blanchardville so Kyra could attend the bridal shower my mom organized (thanks mom!). I slept in my parents' basement. The party went well, and we are going to get so much stuff, we won't know what to do with it! (Thanks everyone!) I'll tell Kyra to write about the party since she actually went to it.

Monday I was still feeling crappy, so I stayed home from work. That night we went to our dance team's end-of-semester party. I don't think either of us realized that we will probably not be going back to the studio much now. We decided not to continue our membership this summer, but we'll probably visit class and/or practice and hang out with the team a lot anyway, if anyone's around.

Tuesday we went and applied for our wedding license. It was rather easy. Some of the questions were kind of odd, but I was still out of it from being sick, so I don't remember what they were. Something about swearing to never be a communist or something (just kidding). We should be able to pick up our license next Monday. After that we went to eat outside by the capitol.

Wednesday I had the annual performance review at my company. It consisted of the usual corporate questions. I still have my job, and I didn't even really get any feedback about my performance. Oh well. My boss is great, and I'm sure he'd say something if I were doing a terrible job.

So yeah, long week. Next week: the baby's gender!

Privacy on the Net

Robin "Miss Conduct" Abrahams, a psychologist and etiquette columnist (awesome!), recently wrote about privacy on the internet. Robin emailed another writer, asking to be linked to in the writer's blog, and the writer posted the email, with the link, online. Since Robin is an excellent writer, there wasn't much to worry about. Still, a bit disconcerting.

Our dear friend, Carla, also experienced a problem with online privacy. One of Carla's (former?) friends wrote a rather nasty journal entry about Carla. Carla posted a link to the entry and said little about it. Her friend(?) (let's call her "Girl" to keep with Carla's consideration for others' privacy--ironic?), Girl, ranted on and on, saying lots of spiteful things. When she discovered Carla had linked to her entry, she left a comment whining about her lost privacy:

"I really don't appreciate you taking my PRIVATE blog and putting it on yours. I already apologized for writing that, and i (sic) really wish you hadn't intruded on my privacy and posted it."

I'm sorry, dear. This is the Internet. The Internet is an anti-privacy god. If you want your journal to be private, then buy a blank book with a lock on it!

Of course, Miss Conduct's private email is not the same as a "private" journal. I like to think of emails as letters or snippets of things you would say to someone if you were with them in person. Typically these are intended to be just-between-you-and-me sorts of communication, unless permission is given to distribute (e.g., Subject: "FW: Stupid Chain Mail"), privacy is waived implicitly (e.g., multiple recipients) or explicitly, or some other condition I can't categorize (e.g., emails received at an account for a journalist).

Kyra and I are careful about what we write here because we know that what is written here is not private and somewhat permanent (e.g., it is possible to retrieve archived or cached versions of pages that are no longer available). We also realize that we may have an audience we do not expect or necessarily desire. And of course we don't really want anything to come back to us a few days/weeks/months/years/decades and bite us in the arse. Anything could happen, even if we're careful, but that's the implicit agreement when we signed up to have an online journal.

In honor of Carla's blog: Today's entry was brought to you by the letters E and G (e.g., e.g.) and /.