Nursery

NIGHTSTAND

DRESSER
ARMOIRE

Well, the furniture for the nursery arrived 1 week ago. I supervised the delivery with mixed results. I successfully guided the deliverymen as they carried the furniture upstairs without destroying any walls or the bannister. However, I failed to note two BIG issues with the furniture itself.

1. The furniture was not painted properly. In fact, all 3 pieces had different color schemes. The nightstand was painted properly. The dresser and armoire were not. Can you tell the difference?

2. Notice anything about the armoire (besides the paint)? Does it look more like a dresser? Why yes, it does. The top, "wardrobe" portion of the armoire was either left on the truck by the deliverymen or was not shipped with the other pieces. Everyone, including me, saw 4 "pieces" on the manifest and 4 "pieces" were delivered. Oops!

I partly blame myself for not noticing these issues and rejecting the furniture. I should have noticed the color schemes did not match and the armoire top was missing. I should have asked Smohr to remind me of the details about what we were to recieve. Although, I was awfully excited to receive the furniture and happy the house did not get damaged.

Anyway, Shannon has talked with the store and called the manufacturer. We are not getting many answers. Our current best guess is the armoire and dresser will be replaced at no charge. I'm not sure what happened to the top half of the armoire. I keep forgetting to ask Shannon.

I would prefer the manufacturer just send someone with the new drawers and top to the dresser. There is no need to replace all the pieces, only the drawers and dresser top. The drawers are easy to swap. The dresser top is more difficult, but still much easier than carrying the old back downstairs and hauling the new, correct dresser upstairs.

Whats a Happenin' Hot Stuff

Can you name the 80's teen movie that made the quote in the title famous?


Like Analee, it has been a while since either of us posted. Time is flyin' by and we're very busy with everything. Nursery preparations are still the big task. Besides working in the nursery itself, we're still wrapping up the "Great Purge of 2008". Work, doctor appointments, and general life take the remainder of our time.


Regarding the "Great Purge", Shannon said the other day "If I knew we had $700 of stuff we don't use sitting around the house, I would have sold it a long time ago." I think the total sales so far is $733 and change. I bet we have another $200 left to sell. It will be interesting to see if we hit the $1,000 mark!


Before I forget, March was a bad month for reading books. I only read 1. "Blue Adept" by Piers Anthony is the second book in the Adept series. It was okay. I don't really have much to say about it. The book was not very memorable.


Nursery preparations are going well. I finally remembered the technique for obtaining smooth joints when mudding sheet rock. It's all the wrist, baby. Daniel-san and Mr Myagi would be proud! I should finish the ceiling and polyurethane application tomorrow. Those are the "big", time consuming tasks. The remainder of the list is numerous small tasks....about an hour or two each. Electrical and re-installing the windows are two broad categories. Then it's on to the last big task....painting.


I took Monday, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday off to work on the nursery. Brian (Shannon's Dad) helped for a couple hours Friday afternoon. Help with time consuming tasks is greatly appreciated since it frees me to tackle other issues.


So how do I entertain myself while working? My main entertainment this time has been the radio. 98.7 "Simon" and "96 Rock" play pretty good music. I haven't listened to any books this time. When I'm sanding or making other noise that drowns out the radio, I like to think. I make mental lists of renovation tasks and supply needs. I think about work (is that time billable?) when an idea hits me. Obviously, I think about Sophie and Jacqueline. Having them around will be fun. I think about what life will be like next spring, whether we are here or in KC. Either way, I can't wait to take them to the park for picnics, stroll the neighborhood, and hang out in the yard.


Gotta run.....time to get dressed for the baby shower!


Everyone just left. I have 20 minutes before I and my neighbor Shirley driver over to Piedmont. Shirley is a great neigbhor. We call her the matriarch of the 'hood. She sits on her porch, watching the world go by. She's a quick wit and very loyal. Shirley and all our neigbhors is one huge reason why we'd consider staying in NC. We've built strong, lasting friendships with many of our neighbors. We're definitely scared we would not build the same friendships in KC.


Job status update. I went to MRI for a second interview in late March. I also spent a day driving KC with a real-estate agent to get a feel for the city. Interview went well. MRI definitely wants me. RTI, my current company, wants me to stay. I've talked with my new boss (she started in January) several times. She really supports my concept for career growth because it will benefit her and the group too. My opinion is she wants to "clean house" and re-build the center around her research, my work, and other young researchers currently in the group. She seems to be pushing the older crew out the door. Two already are "retiring" and a third may be retiring later this summer. We shall see. I think the job situation will be decided by the intangibles.


So what do I think of KC? KC seemed like a nice city. Since it is larger, KC has more historic neighborhoods. I'm positive we could find a house there. Of course, we love our house in Durham too. We easily could stay in our current home for 20 or 30 more years.

The pets are doing well. Tweedle and Raz are happy the windows are open. Tweedle prowls the house going from window to window, especially at night. Raven has finally figured out something is "up" with Shannon. Raven has become very protective. She won't let Shannon out of her sight. When people come over, Raven is constantly by her side. It is very sweet.

It is now Friday. I am in San Antonio, TX. Last day of a 4 day business trip. I go home for a day then head to Birmingham, AL. All my clients want field projects completed before my self-imposed ban on travel effective May 1. I've had some killer Mexican food in San Antonio. With all the Latinos in the Triangle, I wish we had better Mexican restaurants. Please stop "Americanizing" the food!

I really need to post this blog.....gotta go back to work. More on the baby shower later.

Why is the Sky Blue?

I am going to nerd out this morning to answer this question....recently raised by a family member.

Everyone knows that sunlight is composed of all the primary colors. Think about the famous Pink Floyd album cover for Dark Side of the Moon or seeing a rainbow during a storm.

The light separates into its components because each color has a different wavelength. Think about permed hair to describe wavelength. A tight perm with lots of curls close together has a short wavelength. A perm with long, wavy curls has a long wavelength. Blue light has the shortest wavelength and red light the longest. All the other colors are in between. It just happens that short wavelengths (blue) are the easiest to separate out of light. Long wavelengths (red) are much harder to separate.

Finally, we all know the atmosphere is full of particles....some good (ice, water drops) , some bad (air pollution). These particles act like a prism and scatter the light. The angle of the sun when it is directly overhead allows sunlight to pass through only a few particles in the atmosphere. This causes the short wavelength blue light to scatter and be seen by us (why the sky is blue) but the longer wavelength yellow and red light does not scatter and penetrates to the ground.

So, if I provided a good explanation, you should be able to extend my logic to explain why sunsets are red.

Final note: Yes global warming is occurring....no doubt about that. However, we should become very worried if the sky turns green!

Random Thoughts

1. Raven just farted and it really stinks!! At least someone in this house has stinkier farts than I do!

2. I don't know where my brain is this evening. 4 or 5 times tonight I have stopped because I couldn't remember what I was doing!

3. Wow! We have a lot of work to do on the house and nursery before the girls come. Time is flying fast.

4. Speaking of the nursery.....Only for the girls will I strip 4 layers of paint off wood. Geesh, I hate doing that task now! It's smelly (but not as bad as Raven farts), tiring, & dirty work.

5. I'm really sore today from spending 18 hours on the nursery this weekend.

6. Random sports thoughts.....Hurricanes could go far in the Cup playoffs. You heard it here first. Duke basketball is over-rated this year. Tyler Hansborough for UNC is one heck of a player....he is the team this year.

7. Pee Yew!!! Raven just farted again.

8. More sports....Clemson would have won the ACC championship if they could shoot free throws. As my coach said: "Small things win games.:

9. NPR on Sunday mornings from 8 AM to 1 PM is excellent entertainment. News from 8 to 10, with some puzzles thrown in. Car Talk for an hour. Wait, Wait Don't Tell me game show. And my favorite....Splendid Table hosted by my girlfriend (as Shannon calls Lynn Rosetta-Kasper).

10. I'll be very happy when the babies get here....safe & healthy. Let's wait 10 more weeks girls!

11. I was convinced St. Patrick's Day was the 15th. I always thought it coincided with the Ides of March.

12. I hope everyone is doing well....I haven't heard from anyone lately. Of course, I haven't put out much effort since work and home life is keeping me busy!

13. Shannon and I were wondering who the 7 people who voted were. We can guess Mark, Amy, Doc, and Analee. Who were the other 3. I learned last week that a friend I rarely see (but happened to attend the same party with on Friday) found our blog and voted. That leaves 2 more. I think Tara voted. Who else?

14. Looks like we are going with "Krystyna" (notice I spelled it correctly & yes Doc, I did find the "edit" button).

Whoops!

OK, so I just realized last night that it is probably not a good thing at 25 weeks and expecting twins to call your husband out of the blue on his cell phone during the day while he is on a business trip just to pass on the news that your good friends have just had THEIR babies. I was fully expecting to leave a voice mail message but was surprised when he answered. I, of course, was excited because I was supposed to meet Janice earlier for coffee after her regular OB appointment. She never called, and I just assumed that her OB appointment went over such that she ran out of time and had to pick up her older son from pre-school. Well, her husband, Tom, called and apologized for her missing it (to which I replied I understood having spent my fair share in the OB's office myself recently)...he said that the OB appointment wasn't the reason. Her water broke at 8 p.m. on Monday night, and they delivered a handsome baby boy at 2 a.m. Wow!!! Jon didn't sound that excited, which kinda confused me. Well, my pregnancy-brained mind finally figured out that he saw the home number, freaked, and answered in despite of what was going on (i.e., meeting with a client, etc.) and, therefore, didn't not have time for chatting once he found out that there was not an emergency with me. All I can say is whoops! I suppose that I need to be more sensitive to this in the future.

Jon Loses Honorary Polack Status

So, Jon can't even spell his daughter's prospective names correctly. Sophie's potential middle names are spelled "Krystyna" and "Janina." The Polish mafia are truly disappointed!!!

Baby Names

Many folks are asking so it's time to post to the blog what names we selected for the girls.

The first name we chose is Jacqueline Carol. We've had this name selected for many years. We wanted to honor our paternal grandfathers. Shannon's Grandpa Jack and my Grandpa Carrol. We thought about sticking with the double "r" in Carol but decided against it.

The second name was picked one day over lunch at Nosh after an ultrasound.

We wanted a unique name that honored Shannon's Polish heritage. Zoisia, the Polish version of "Sophia", was our top choice. However, we thought the strange spelling would lead to incessant teasing. Although it is a real Polish name, we also didn't want people to think it was a "made up" name that we thought sounded cool. To protect our karma, let's just say we are not big fans of "made up" names.

We considered "Sophia" as a compromise but learned it was one of the 10 most popular girl names in 2006. We like being unique so "Sophia" was out. However, the simplified "Sophie" is similar and barely registers on the name popularity index.

Since we didn't select a Polish first name, we decided to use a Polish middle name. Our first idea was "Krystyna," which is Shannon's Mom's middle name. Lately, we've been discussing "Janina" as the middle name in honor of Shannon's maternal grandmother. I love both names and Shannon does too. We're having a hard time making a decision.

Want to voice an opinion? Leave a comment or vote from the poll to the left of the post.