Colleen's recovering nicely from her ordeal as well. If she's feeling any serious discomfort, she's doing a good job of concealing it from me. She's somewhat frustrated with the limits the doctor's set for her, but I think she kind of enjoys being waited on.

We're all pretty tired, as we adjust to the new arrangements. Wednesday night, as one might expect, was the worst, but as Mary began to realize that Mommy wasn't going away again, and Andrew became more comfortable in his new surroundings, things began to improve. We're still adjusting to the feeding schedule, but the old routines from Mary's infant days are slowly coming back to us. I think we'll manage well enough. When we're awake, we've been spending a lot of time just relaxing- we don't really have the energy or ambition to do much of anything else just yet! We've been managing a basic cleaning regimen on the house- keeping pace with Mary's toys, and keeping the sink from overflowing from dishes, but not much more. Luckily, we've had a little help. Some of the members of Colleen's MOPS group have brought dinner over once or twice, which is much appreciated - it's one less thing we have to do until we get our energy back. I did manage to venture south to Fort Lee on Friday to make up a statistics exam (scheduled for Wednesday night as I was bringing the family home), and I got a bit of shopping done this afternoon, but we're basically staying close to home.

I guess that's about all there is for right now. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to check in with us- we appreciate it! We hope to see you all soon, and introduce you to our newest family member.

For now, though, I'm going to post this and get some sleep!

-chuck

And here a few more pictures (because that's what everyone really wants, isn't it?)

Here'a s a couple of quick snapshots I got with the digital camera this afternoon. I'll get more out as they get taken!

Not much to report otherwise; preparations for the baby are filling in most of the gaps between taking care of Mary, school, work, and home maintenance. I have been killing some time revisiting some diversions of my youth through the irony-laced wonder of software emulation, taking this top-dollar, hot-rodded Pentium 4 PC and making it behave like an old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System so I can play Dragon Warrior just like my brother and I did years ago.

Anyway - if anyone's reading this (and I have my doubts), have a happy Valentine's Day!

later,
-chuck

Has it really been two weeks since I added something here? Not a whole lot to report between now and then- it's been unseasonably warm, Mary's further indulged into her appreciation of dinosaurs, Colleen's still pregnant, and, oh yeah, I got a new job!!!

Big life changes, in my experience, have a tendency to happen very quickly once set into motion. This one took less than a week. Last Friday afternoon, I received an email from a friend inquiring of my interest. Thursday morning, I was getting welcome messages from my new co-workers. In the interim, I was frankly amazed and flattered to learn that I have several very supportive and influential champions who, without thought of reward, took it upon themselves to help a friend take advantage of a great opportunity. To these folks (they know who they are), I offer my eternal gratitude and undying devotion.

Now that I've purged myself of melodrama, here's the scoop: Once the powers that be negotiate a release date and the paperwork catches up, I'll be leaving the production floor, and joining the my site's contingent of the Agency's software modernization team, working on the initiative to get the agency up to modern standards in terms of information technology. Some of the stuff we're currently using has been in service since the mid-1960s; that is, hopelessly out of date when compared to the programs and processes used by today's world-spanning corporations (who face most of the same challenges that our agency does in keeping track of inventory and moving it around to where it's needed). With the help of some corporate partners (i.e. - those companies that advertise during big sporting events that sound high-tech but nobody knows exactly what they do) and their enterprise software, The team aims to bring the agency's business model up to date.

Okay, that's the big picture. What I'll be doing is working with the DT&E (Design, Testing, and Evaluation) team to adapt the basic commercial software the agency is adopting to meet the particular needs of the organization. Basically, designing the interface and how users are going to interact with it, and running test cases to make sure that the tools work the way they're supposed to. It's a really exciting opportunity, the folks I'll be working with seem like a great bunch of people, and I'm looking forward to getting involved.

For the forseeable future, I'll be splitting my time between Richmond and Washington DC, with a few other side trips to various locations all around the country in between. The travel requirements of the job will take a bit of time to get used to, especially with our young family growing the way it is. But, Colleen and I have evaluated the benefits and drawbacks, and while it may be inconvenient for the moment, the long term opportunities (in terms of the experience and visibility I'll gain as a result of the job) are very much worth it.

In other news, the Super Bowl (and, incidentally, Colleen's birthday) is coming up tomorrow. After the enjoyable but really, really loud and raucous event last year (way too many kids in a really small house), we're planning a kinder, gentler Super Bowl get-together this year. Of course, the game's going to be secondary to the food, fun, and conversation with a bunch of good friends, not to mention laughs brought on by what Mrs. Kurt Warner will undoubtedly be wearing in the stands. Here's hoping you and yours have a good time celebrating this entirely vacuous and thoroughly American occasion.

Philly'll make it next year,

-chuck

More important to anyone (is there anyone?) reading this, I'm posting a bunch of picture galleries in the photo section. Most of the old stuff is up there (though not really yet in any sort of order), plus a few others. There should be more coming, but what's gone up today should keep you busy for a while!

Have a good MLK Day weekend - and take a moment to remember the things that the good doctor stood for and still represents. The country's a better place today because of his influence.

later,

-chuck

On The Homefront: As we get closer and closer to Colleen's due date (March 11, if you're out of the loop), our preparation for Andrew's arrival is rapidly trying to catch up to Colleen's ambition - I know I frustrate her terribly by not being as organized and up to speed as she is. Still, I can feel the rush, as Mary was born about two weeks from now, relatively speaking. She's never been this pregnant before, and we'e all entering new territory with this one. Unfortunately, my main symptom of the anticipation is being unable to sleep - Colleen suspects that my body is training itself to be able to function during the day while still attending to the numerous late night wake up calls we'll be getting before long!

In other news, I started my second semester as a graduate student this week with Introduction to Managerial Statistics, the bane of every Ft. Lee/FIT student, taught by the endearingly eccentric Dr. Lee DeWald (who, oddly enough, appears to have taught at West Point at the same time as my equally eccentric undergrad history professor Dr. Ronald Benson). I'm hesitant to believe the horror stories, but just the same, I'm glad I'm taking only one class this semester. I'm simply enjoying being a student again, though dreading the timing of our second exam, scheduled within a week of Colleen's due date! Hopefully, the laws of probability will be kind.

until next time

-chuck

Since my site had become little more than a portal for family and friends to check out pictures of Mary, It was probably best that I just re-purposed the address to more closely fit what it was doing anyway. We'll probably each end up putting together our own personal sites eventually (at least I will), but in the meantime, you have this.

I'll be using this space to report the latest happenings. Feel free to take a look at the links to your left for other goodies as we come up with them, though you won't find much of anything there right now. In the redesign, I temporarily took down all the pictures that were on the old site, but don't worry, once I go through it all and crank out the galleries, you'll find all the old stuff plus TONS of new shots in the photo section.

Thanks for checking in!

-chuck