Drew is born! No room at the Inn.

Lisa had been feeling funny all night, and things were just weird in general. So on Friday night, Dec. 21, at 9:45 p.m. when I was watching TV, I heard a whisper coming from upstairs - "Mike, I think my water broke."

Yeah, that caught us a little off guard since Lisa wasn't due to go into the hospital for a c-section (sorry, TMI) until Dec. 28. Annalee was asleep and we had nothing packed, or ready to go. Within minutes, I had called my parents to come up, and we asked our neighbors Jock and Stacy (THANKS GUYS) if they could come over and sit while Annalee slept and my parents drove to Columbus.

By 10:45 p.m. we were on our way to the hospital. A few items tossed into a bag, we made the 10-15 minute drive in what seemed like an hour. Once there, we checked in and found out Lisa was 2 cm dialated (again, TMI).

Oh, did I mention before we had eaten dinner at Red Robin about 6 p.m.? Yeah, that means waiting until 2:30 a.m. to have the C-section. So we waited. At 2:15 a.m., when they came and got Lisa and gave me my scrubs to go into the operating room. Within 10 minutes, Drew was born. 6 lbs. 11 oz. and 19 inches. He was adorable (he looks like me).

It was rough going for a while for Lisa, but Drew has been doing fine. Eating like a champ. Lisa has been recovering from the C-section and might go home Christmas Day. Coming out of the operating room, St. Ann's had no maternity rooms for Lisa, as they were jammed full. Something like 17 babies. So we had to wait in the triage room for a maternity suite. There was no room at the Inn, but they let us stay in a barn with the animals. I got some straw to make a bed for... oh wait, that's a different story. Anyway, by Saturday morning, we were good to go and Lisa got into a real room.

So, for the past two days, I've been boiling bottle nipples, getting clothes ready and shopping like a fiend to get ready for the arrival of Drew and Lisa home! Lisa's family (Pappa Sam, Abuella Lupe and brother Carlos) is coming Christmas Eve, so they'll get to see Drew firsthand.

Annalee is enjoying being a big sister. She's telling everyone we see about her big brother. Including the cafeteria workers - "My mommy got sick and so the doctor took Drew out of her belly." Too cute.

Everyone have a happy holiday, and a great New Year. More pictures to come.

OSU vs. Michigan

There's something special about waking up the Saturday morning of the OSU/Michigan game. The anticipation... the anxiousness... the preparation. Just like the athletes prepare for the game with their pre-game ritual, so do the fans.

Waking up this Saturday morning before the Michigan game was a little different. So, as I woke up Sat. morning to prepare the food and get all of the chairs ready, etc. for everyone to come over, I couldn't help but feel a little weird. I've heard people all week moaning about not making it to the National Championship game. After losing to Illinois last week, you would think that this game was a bit of a let down, for fans and the team. For me, however, I've moved beyond ... anger, denial.... I was in acceptance.

Part of the problem with fans is that you have to separate the emotion out of the game. Fans (short for fanatic) have a hard time doing that... especially Ohio State fans. Do we not remember bowls of years gone by? The Holiday Bowl? Liberty Bowl.. 53 Citrus Bowls. Remember when winning the Big 10 and going to the Rose Bowl was the ultimate prize? Should it still be?

OK, I'm all for going to the National Championship game every year, but let's be realistic. OSU started the season ranked 11th, and if not for 24,000 upsets this year, wouldn't have likely been No. 1 anyway. Next year was to be the year for OSU, not this year. So, it was a happy surprise that they made it that far. Given that it's Thanksgiving soon, let's be thankful for that!

I'm also sick and tired of hearing that the Big 10 Conference is weak. The Big 10 has 10 of 11 teams that are bowl eligible (which doesn't necessarily mean they'll be playing in a bowl game, but they are eligible). As a percentage, that's the best in the nation. Here's how the others play out as of Saturday:
ACC - 7
Big 12 - 7
Conf. USA - 6
Big East - 5
Mountain West - 5
PAC 10 - 5

And, of course, the SEC, has 10 (remember they have 12 teams). Without getting into the details of scheduling and opponents, those are pretty stark numbers if we're talking about conference strength.

OSU's schedule was terrible this season, but many others had a cream puff schedule too. I say shame on all of them for doing that - you reap what you sow. I would hope OSU learns its lesson and doesn't do something so dumb in the future.

So now we wait. It could happen that LSU loses its SEC Championship game to Georgia (assuming they don't lose to Arkansas this weekend). Kansas beats Missouri, but then loses to Oklahoma or Texas in the Big 12 Title game. What worries me is West Virginia losing to Connecticut or Pittsburgh... they're more likely to lose to UConn. I hate UConn, but I'll be rooting for them.

Halloween 2007

Oct. 31, 2007 - Annalee dressed up like Dora the Explorer this year for Halloween. She was very cute in her costume and got lots of candy.


Perhaps the hardest thing was not eating all of the candy as we were trick-or-treating. Also very hard, keeping the costume on.
















Here are some pictures of her with some of the neighbor kids (Duck - Olivia, Princess - Abby and SpongeBob - Larkin).

















In the end, however, we wound up with a lot of candy, and a lot of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood.

Opening Post

I finally did it. I've created a blog. It only took forever. I'm not sure what I want to accomplish with this, so we'll see. I'm too old for Facebook or MySpace, so this seemed appropriate. Don't expect anything earth shattering or ground breaking... just ramblings from time to time.

Feel free to give me suggestions for topics, start a conversation stream, etc. etc. etc. This is a work in progress. I'm hoping Bob the grammar Nazi will monitor this site and let me know when people have misused words, misspelled words, etc.

Next time, I'll pick a topic, I promise. I'm just setting this up right now.

Until next time...