Boy or Girl? We will find out on November 29th

Well we went to an appointment last week and got a bunch of good news. Every thing is going well with TLC and she is in great health. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat and that was pretty cool I must say. It made it more "real" for me. It was about 150 bpm and the doc said that it was normal. I asked him if he/she was running and he laughed and said "I don't think so".

As far as whether or not its a boy or a girl, I can honestly say, it does not matter. As long as things are okay with him or her and its healthy, I really don't care. Taunya seems to think that its a boy. I am not sure but everyone has their own thoughts based upon what questions they ask Taunya. Its weird because it seems like everyone wants to say they had something to do with it for some reason. For example, I ran into an old co-worker at lunch. When I told her that we were pregnant, she immediately said "remember I told you I had a dream about you having a baby?". I was like "aaaah no". Then she went on to try to convince me that she somehow predicted this. She then went on to tell me how she was 5 for 5 with baby/pregnancy predictions and that now I was number 6 of 6. After telling her that I did not remember, she still thinks that she somehow "worked a miracle"..funny. I guess having a baby is such a great thing that people want to be a part of it. I think that could be it too. If that's the case, then so be it. If she wants to think that, then fine. No harm in doing that.

Like I mentioned earlier TLC has not really been ill, just more tired than anything else. She is starting to show and went to "A pea in the pod(maternity clothing store)" and bought some new clothes which made her feel better about the weight gain. Not to mention that she is now more comfortable as well.

I am having a good quarter at work as well. Things are great.

16 weeks- Baby update

Friday I went to my first appointment with Taunya for the baby. Pretty cool. I am not gonna say it was "the most beautiful sound I have ever heard" because that would be a lie. That would be the sound of Jimmy Page's guitar in the solo of "Stairway to heaven" from the motion picture "Led Zepplin ; The songs remains the same". But the beat of the baby was pretty cool. I liked the doctor and he said that all of the reports look good and that Taunya is in "perfect" health. This was good to hear.

The next major appointment is the 29th. It will be then that we will know whether or not we have a boy or a girl. That is when it is really going to get exciting. As far as the pregnancy is concerned, Taunya has just been tired and a little ill. Not to the point of being sick, but just an upset stomach. She is starting to show a bit and really really tired. She is such a "doer" that seeing her come home and sit on the couch is weird.

Anyway, I will post more later. That is it for now. We have been kicking around girl names are pretty set with Madeline or Victoria. Boys? All I can think of are dogs names. Ha.

The new bike and commuting to work on it

Well I have bought the new bike and I am using it to ride to work. Its about 20 miles round trip and I really like it. Yeah it is cold in the morning when I leave the house at 5am, but with the right gear, I feel just fine. When you are riding in weather like that the key is to layer, layer and then layer.

As you can imagine, its also dark at 5am too. So I bought a like for the front and the back. I also bought one that I mount on my backpack as an additional one. Never hurts to make sure that you are seen. One thing that can happen when you are riding is that you can "outrun" the light on your bike. Meaning that you can go faster than you can see. This was the case on Wednesday last week when I hit a pine cone and almost crashed. One thing for sure, it woke me up!

I rode 3 of the 5 days last week and would of rode on Friday, but I had to take TLC to the doctor for the baby appointment. The plan is to ride 5 days a week and save gas, mileage on the car, money on lunch(forces me to bring lunch) and get some use out of my new bike. Oh yeah, to stay in shape too.

What prompted this? My new job is pretty flexible and allows me to pretty much come and go as I please. Well not really, but as long as I am doing my job, its fine. The building that I work in has locker rooms with nice showers. What I do is ride to work, go to my office and sit there in my cycling gear and do some work. I do this so that I can cool off before I take a shower. The last stretch of the ride consists of 3 different hills and I usually work up a sweat by the time I arrive at work. Sitting at my desk allows me to relax, get started on work and then head to the shower.

Here are some pictures of the new bike. Its made by a company called Kuota. Its pronounced "Quo tah". The model that I have is called a Khan. If you look at some of the pics you will see that the frame is all carbon fibre and the components (shifters, brakes, etc are also made of carbon as well. The company that makes the shifters or brakes and other items is called Campanolo. If you look on the brake level you will see "Chorus". This is the level of campy that is on the bike. This is the second to the best they offer which is called "Record"They are also an Italian company and pretty much everyone on the tour de france rides "campy" as they call it. The shifting is quick, reliable and the shifters and brake levers pretty much just sit right in your hands. Its really nice and smooth to ride and the carbon fibre helps to eliminate road vibration and makes the bike weight just under 15 lbs total. In cycling, weight is everything and people will spend tons of money to have the lightest bike out there. This was not my goal when I went bike shopping, but it just kind of worked out that way. Next time you see someone out there on the road riding be courteous and give them just a lttle more room. Its good karma!

I can't get enough of these videos....

Pictures speak volumes....What is weird is that the time I took this picture, 4:20:35, is the due date of the baby, April 20th.