As promised - your weekend update.
As you know, Mrs. J's baby shower was this last weekend, and it was a resounding success.
Due to my limitless skepticism, I anticipated a colossal failure, but was pleasantly surprised at how many guests showed up. Of 22 RSVP's, we had only 3 no-shows. Although, knowing how poorly some people can adhere to commitments, I feel blessed that we had the turnout that we did.
Being our first child, we were flying somewhat blind into baby shower territory, not knowing how long it should last, what activities would be deemed enjoyable, or what the proper social protocols to follow during the event were. Even in spite of that, though, it went very smoothly.
All of the ladies in attendance seemed to have a genuinely good time, and my male compatriots and I sequestered ourselves to the back yard, and had a good time cooking, chatting, and relaxing.
Most important to me, though, was that Mrs. J, the star of the show, thoroughly enjoyed herself. For the first time in a long time, she had a day all about her.
The most notable event of the shower, though, was everyone's willingness to participate in the craft we planned out - everyone in attendance was asked to paint one of 26 wall hanging letters, in any pattern or design they like, with the colors we made available. Though not one person, aside from my wife, our son's godmother, and I knew what the end result would be, they all ate it up, and had a great time doing it. Even more surprising, was the amount of effort that every single one of them put into it (even the guys in attendance).
Following the paint-fest, and a barbecue lunch for everyone, were a couple of less exciting games, and then the gift giving began. Both Mrs. J and I were absolutely stunned at both the amount of gifts our son received, but also that our registry was almost 100% completed following it.
And while there were out of town family members unable to attend the shower, we were able to include them through the attachment of a notebook computer and a webcam to our television, and the utilization of Skype's group call function, making it so that everyone could participate in the event.
I look forward to being able to post up all of the photos from the event, although it'll likely have to wait until after his birth - we wouldn't want to spoil the name for anyone... and I'm waiting until I make the final decision whether to migrate this blog to another host, with a less terrible image capability.
All in all, I am certainly pleased with how well the shower turned out, and even more importantly, Mrs. J is even more thrilled with how it turned out.
So, until next time, stay tuned for another update.
-J
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Work in Progress
Quick update:
I do have an update planned for sometime this weekend.
However, I'm currently mulling over the idea of migrating the site to a custom domain hosted at WordPress, with an easier to read and more functional layout. As it stands, the Blogspot/Blogger platform is great for basic use, but it's a huge pain in the ass to do anything of importance with.
At this point, Mrs. J and I are mulling over the cost involved, as we hope to keep this blog running postpartum, to keep our friends and family apprised to our child's growth, milestones, and awesomeness.
If anyone's interested in donating to the cause of migration, leave a comment, or e-mail me directly (for those who have my e-mail address), as donations toward the $170 (ish) cost would be gratefully accepted.
Stay tuned.
-J
I do have an update planned for sometime this weekend.
However, I'm currently mulling over the idea of migrating the site to a custom domain hosted at WordPress, with an easier to read and more functional layout. As it stands, the Blogspot/Blogger platform is great for basic use, but it's a huge pain in the ass to do anything of importance with.
At this point, Mrs. J and I are mulling over the cost involved, as we hope to keep this blog running postpartum, to keep our friends and family apprised to our child's growth, milestones, and awesomeness.
If anyone's interested in donating to the cause of migration, leave a comment, or e-mail me directly (for those who have my e-mail address), as donations toward the $170 (ish) cost would be gratefully accepted.
Stay tuned.
-J
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Party Excitation
Greetings, once again.
It's been about 2 months since our last update, although for once, this was largely beyond my control. A short stint in the hospital, plus some home recovery time, sapped my will to do much of anything. Toss that in with the catch-up game at work, and it makes for a pretty quiet blog.
Hopefully, that's all behind us though, and we're now only four days away from Mrs. J's baby shower.
Normally, being a man, you don't care much about baby showers (or at least, I haven't in the past). And truthfully, leading up to ours, I wasn't all that interested. However, over the past two weeks, as it's gotten closer, I find myself being more and more interested in it. While I don't have any particular interest in participating in the party itself, I've been more active in the facilitation. Chasing people down for RSVP's (or not), making certain that all of the materials have been procured, and that everything is on schedule.
Although, in this two or so weeks, I've discovered an interesting dynamic, that perhaps we are unique in experiencing - people don't like to commit to an event. Mrs. J ordered and received her shower invitations by February 20th, mailing them out the following day (all local mail), requesting RSVP's from all invited parties by March 12th. Pretty reasonable request, right? Apparently not. It wasn't until two days later that our first RSVP was received, and until yesterday that we finally received what I can only hope is the final headcount. Mind you, this was after I personally chased down numerous people who were invited, and asked them if they were coming or not. Most people were simply the victims of intent - planning to RSVP, but simply hadn't. A few legitimately couldn't make it, but forgot to reply, and a few people simply blew it off.
Perhaps I'm simply being myself - the eternal pessimist, in the assumption that if I didn't chase it down, nobody was going to RSVP. Perhaps those peoples' intentions were there, and that they had truthfully planned on it, who knows?
What I find curious, though, is whether people understand how much that yes or no can impact the course of an event. An impact that Mrs. J is now victim to, as she had to have her cake order in by a specific date. She had her order in on that date, but the number based off of the people who had RSVP'd on time. So now, we find ourselves in a situation where there is likely to be an insufficient cake supply to feed all attending persons, simply because people couldn't be prompt in their response. And that's just too damn bad.
Fortunately, being in charge of the actual food for the event, I anticipated this happening, and waited a bit longer than necessary to purchase all of it.
People are a curious thing, as they seldom consider the impact their actions have on the flow of things. Something that people wouldn't normally see as a big deal (example: RSVP on time), can cause the biggest of hiccups.
On a more positive note, all is; at least thus far, well on the baby front. We're now 31 weeks and counting - just weeks until our little man is here in our arms, and we couldn't be more thrilled. While there was some prior concerns with placental placement, and other things the general public would find gross, those have since cleared up, and it looks like Mrs. J is well on her way to a natural delivery.
Our latest appointment went very well, with the doctor reassuring my concerns around baby snatching, and baby mix-ups. Our local hospital takes these things very seriously - so seriously, that the maternity ward is locked down from anyone who does not have the current day's pass card, and utilization of electronic monitors attached to Mom, Dad, and Baby.
I'm hoping for an update next week, following the party, but we'll see. You all know how it's gone in the past when I've tried placing a timeline on updates.
So, until next time, I hope all is well in your lives.
-J
It's been about 2 months since our last update, although for once, this was largely beyond my control. A short stint in the hospital, plus some home recovery time, sapped my will to do much of anything. Toss that in with the catch-up game at work, and it makes for a pretty quiet blog.
Hopefully, that's all behind us though, and we're now only four days away from Mrs. J's baby shower.
Normally, being a man, you don't care much about baby showers (or at least, I haven't in the past). And truthfully, leading up to ours, I wasn't all that interested. However, over the past two weeks, as it's gotten closer, I find myself being more and more interested in it. While I don't have any particular interest in participating in the party itself, I've been more active in the facilitation. Chasing people down for RSVP's (or not), making certain that all of the materials have been procured, and that everything is on schedule.
Although, in this two or so weeks, I've discovered an interesting dynamic, that perhaps we are unique in experiencing - people don't like to commit to an event. Mrs. J ordered and received her shower invitations by February 20th, mailing them out the following day (all local mail), requesting RSVP's from all invited parties by March 12th. Pretty reasonable request, right? Apparently not. It wasn't until two days later that our first RSVP was received, and until yesterday that we finally received what I can only hope is the final headcount. Mind you, this was after I personally chased down numerous people who were invited, and asked them if they were coming or not. Most people were simply the victims of intent - planning to RSVP, but simply hadn't. A few legitimately couldn't make it, but forgot to reply, and a few people simply blew it off.
Perhaps I'm simply being myself - the eternal pessimist, in the assumption that if I didn't chase it down, nobody was going to RSVP. Perhaps those peoples' intentions were there, and that they had truthfully planned on it, who knows?
What I find curious, though, is whether people understand how much that yes or no can impact the course of an event. An impact that Mrs. J is now victim to, as she had to have her cake order in by a specific date. She had her order in on that date, but the number based off of the people who had RSVP'd on time. So now, we find ourselves in a situation where there is likely to be an insufficient cake supply to feed all attending persons, simply because people couldn't be prompt in their response. And that's just too damn bad.
Fortunately, being in charge of the actual food for the event, I anticipated this happening, and waited a bit longer than necessary to purchase all of it.
People are a curious thing, as they seldom consider the impact their actions have on the flow of things. Something that people wouldn't normally see as a big deal (example: RSVP on time), can cause the biggest of hiccups.
On a more positive note, all is; at least thus far, well on the baby front. We're now 31 weeks and counting - just weeks until our little man is here in our arms, and we couldn't be more thrilled. While there was some prior concerns with placental placement, and other things the general public would find gross, those have since cleared up, and it looks like Mrs. J is well on her way to a natural delivery.
Our latest appointment went very well, with the doctor reassuring my concerns around baby snatching, and baby mix-ups. Our local hospital takes these things very seriously - so seriously, that the maternity ward is locked down from anyone who does not have the current day's pass card, and utilization of electronic monitors attached to Mom, Dad, and Baby.
I'm hoping for an update next week, following the party, but we'll see. You all know how it's gone in the past when I've tried placing a timeline on updates.
So, until next time, I hope all is well in your lives.
-J
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