Ethiopian well-wishing

I got the most charming email from a colleague in Ethiopia who heard the news that I was pregnant. This woman is really amazing. She started and runs her own orphanage/child care center in Addis Ababa. Her native language, Amharic, is a very different language from English, with a whole different alphabet. I can't claim to speak any of it, but I love the way Makeda (not her real name) translates to English.

Dear Kate,

How are you doing? I heard that you started a process to bringing new person to our planet that is great!

so how is it going? you are in my prayer to have a peaceful time.

I wish you to have all the best time.
Makeda


The last time she visited here, I helped her pick out some gifts for her daughter, who really wanted some binoculars. We went to Target and found some. She sent me this after her return:

Hi Kate,
Thank you, I arrived safely in Ethiopia all my family members are well. My daughter who get binocular gift, she is very happy for that, and now she planning to go to the nearest forest to see wild animals with it. Please pass my greeting for all staff of Health Inequality Department.
Thanks
Makeda

George's Garage, like $24.99 per pound

Mama and Baba at their morning dine. Mama noms away at brunch decadence whilst Baba nurses a third Joe. Boy howdy.

Perhaps the most dangerous thing in Durham on a Saturday morning is brunch by the pound. George (of George's Garage fame and owner of like 9/10ths of all the good restaurants in the city) knows well how to work this racket. Look at that white plate in the phote at the left: it just cries out to be filled. If you put a single scone in the middle of that thing it would just look wrong, so you go back to the bar out of guilt and add like 3 pounds of hummus. Next thing you know, you just spent the boy's college fund on a glorified breakfast.

Dinner with Jenny, Les and Aaron

We got to have a lovely local farm dinner with my oldest sister Jenny, her husband Les, and our six-year-old nephew Aaron. Their African Grey parrot Ashley joined the conversation, but didn't creep Biff out this time by asking "Do you know how to whisper?" in the dark. The whole time I was watching Aaron, thinking about what having a boy of that age will be like. It seems we are in for some hilarity. When we arrived he was super excited to show us some fish that he had caught that day fishing with his dad. As we were leaving, he invited Biff to go fishing, including in the details that "the boat holds three people. My dad sits in the front and I sit in middle, so you can sit in the back." We had brought him for his birthday (which was in February-oops we were late) some of these crystals that grow when you add a powder to warm water. We were pleased to find out that he was really into them, so much so that he coupled it with another favorite activity, calling people on the cellphone. He called his brother Ben in California to tell him "Ben! We have some rocks and they're growing!" before tearing back off to watch them again. Later in the conversation, I prodded him to talk about his new future cousin, which would make six. He told us, "Yeah, six cousins, but only two of them are good at Super Mario!" My all-time favorite Aaron story is from a year ago when I pointed out an old baby picture of him and asked rhetorically (which I guess doesn't work with a five-year-old?) "How cute were you?" His response: "REALLY cute. At the baseball game everyone was trying to talk to me." Loved it.

The other big success of the night was discovering crewel, which is this crazy embroidery from the 70's that comes in kits. It's totally awesome and I thought it would be easy to track down on eBay. Not the case, the (few) ones that aren't kittens, religious and/or Thomas Kinkade-esque are snatched up. And there is only one contemporary kit and it makes only 3x3 squares. Jenny found hers at the thrift shop, but she has that kind of luck. I'm still searching though.

May 19th : It's/he's a BOY!

We had been anxiously awaiting this appointment because we were getting the anatomical ultrasound, which included finding out the sex of the little one. It was Biff's first time seeing the baby, and my third, and it was quite long (well, 20 minutes) as they measured each body part. All was fine, and he moved around a lot, as I had been telling Biff he was doing.We actually got a whole CD of it all made, but it wasn't ready by the time we left. He kind of looks like an alien!

Locopops flavors sampled

Lemonade spearmint
Strawberries and cream
Cookies and cream
Blue berries
Apple cinnamon
White chocolate lemon peppermint
Pomegranate tangerine
Pistachio

May 12th Anatomy and Physiology final exam

Not that this compares to getting a Master's or anything, but I was pretty pleased with myself for making an A in Anatomy and Physiology, which included a 3 hour lab every Wednesday after work during a time period where I couldn't keep my eyes open or my food down. Sadly, the reproductive system isn't covered until A&P II, which I won't be taking until after el niño is born.

Biff's Graduation May 11 2008

After two years of hard work, Biff got his Master's of Library Science degree from UNC! The speaker was Dr. Duane Webster; some of us were a little lost... Most of his family came up to attend the ceremony and after party at my parents' house. This is one of the few pictures of me taken while pregnant that I can stand, although the bump doesn't show in this photo. Nevertheless, baby J was very proud of his dad.

Weekend Beach Trip - Emerald Isle

Three guybrarians and their spouses convened at Emerald Isle, on North Carolina's Atlantic coast, to celebrate their impending graduation from UNC library school.

We watched the Kentucky Derby, played board games, went to the beach (where we played paddle ball and got sunburned). "Periwinkle Cottage," where we stayed for the weekend, was about a half a mile from the beach (but we had a golf cart).

The drive out there was really nice. Biff especially loves driving on old country roads in the South. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our house in Durham. The trip gave us some nice backcountry Eastern North Carolina memories, including:

we stopped at a McDonald's in a gas station off I-40 where a toothless, wizened lady tried to "maysh" all the buttons on the "caysh" register, but just couldn't make it work without a manager's override;

then we went to buy some boiled peanuts and little tomatoes from a man at a produce stand at the other gas station across the street;

and we also drove through Jacksonville, N.C. (Ryan Adams's hometown and home to Camp Lejuene) - we'd never seen so many hot doggin' Marines on crotch rockets in our lives (or tattoo parlors for that matter).

We did not pass through South of the Border on this trip.

After a great time in Emerald Isle we drove back on a different set of backcountry roads so that we could see historic Beaufort (not S.C.'s Byoofurt) and New Bern (birthplace of Pepsi Cola). The return trip gave us these:

we got to see Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, near Goldsboro - yes that's really the name

we drove around New Bern, saw the outside of Tryon Palace - Biff liked New Bern, Kate did not so much

in Beaufort Kate tried to buy fudge from a mean ol' lady on Front Street. When asked if they took debit cards, the lady responded with more attitude that any fudge peddler I've ever seen. So, Kate offered to pay by check. After inspecting Kate's signature on this check and snarking, "What does this say anyhow?" and doing a watermark and address inspection, the lady (still begrudgingly) handed over the $4 slab of fudge.

Oh wait! The most important detail of the entire weekend was that Kate felt the baby kicking for the first time!!!

May 2: David's 60th birthday

David turned 60 on May 2nd, and it was also Tara's birthday April 30th. We went out to dinner at Crook's Corner with the whole fam. The pimento cheese/pepper jelly cracker plate was awesome. We got to see our nephew Anderson, who is a very well behaved baby.