Geek Habitat

Thankfully, our return trip home (Dallas to San Antonio) went much smoother than our trip up there — less than 5 hours vs. the 7.5 hour trek on Wednesday. We had a terrific time visiting with Justin’s brother, Jason, and his family — including 6-month-old Eric and 2-year-old Jillian. In addition to lots of calories and good memories, we left Jason’s house with loads of outgrown baby gear and clothing (enough to completely fill the bed of Justin’s F-150 pickup!) We sincerely thank Jason and Karen for their generous donations to Sprout’s nursery and well-being. We knew there was a logical reason we waited so long to have a child — hand-me-downs!

As always, no matter how great the trip, it is wonderful to be back home with our furballs (cats Norton, Blanco and Amiga) and our own bed… especially now that the words “comfortable” and “sleep” don’t necessarily coincide for me these days.

I just stepped on the scale and thanks to building a new human being (Sprout) and providing temporary housing to her, as well as to overindulging with Thanksgiving goodies, I’ve now gained a total of 14 pounds… and it’s all forward-facing, such that when I stood on the scale (placed against a wall in our breakfast area), my baby belly hit the wall well before my feet were planted flat on the scale. “Hmmm… this is a new development!” I’m also finding it less and less easy to tie my shoes… I may find myself wearing my “UT orange” slip-on tennis shoes (purchased as cheap laceless bicycling shoes) on a daily basis in short order!

Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving, Jason & Karen! We’ll be introducing you to our wee one in no time at all… the time is definitely flying by.

Off-Topic:
I’ve found my one non-baby related Christmas/birthday wishlist item — eStarling Wi-Fi Gmail / Flickr Enabled LCD Frame. Yes, I still have a smidgen of GeekLust^<tm> left in me amidst all the pregnancy hormone overload. Truth be told, though, there’s an unmistakable tie-in with this item and being a new mom… what new parent wouldn’t want a photo frame that can display the latest baby photos the instant they’re emailed (GMail) or posted online (Flickr)?

Of course, like the items I’ve been ranting about offline whose availability is artificially and annoyingly tight at the holidays, this item, too, is backordered until a couple weeks before Christmas.