Bis' ein Dressel

It's not much of a surprise, but our ultrasound results show us that -- yes, it's a Dressel.

Mauketina, Mauket Junior, Syd, or whatever you want to call it appears very healthy. The radiologist say that he, she, or it is developing very well so far. Fingers & toes are all there, the cord looks healthy, and all the major organs seem to be the right size. Amazingly, we could even see all four chambers of the heart eagerly pumping away.


November 25, 2006: Here, you can see its head on the left side looking down, its left arm held forward and its left leg sticking out like it's driving a car.


November 25, 2006: In this close-up image, you can see Syd looking up with its hand held up to its mouth -- almost as if it's sucking on its thumb.

Early to Bed,... Why Bother?

Kristina and I have recently discussed and agreed, at the tail-end of long days, that we are both so exhausted that we have become grumpy and angry. For Teen, work has been filled with nothing but report cards and difficult kids, and for me, it's been nothing but Incomplete Reports and, of course, difficult kids.

We're tired.

So now, after what seems to have been an endless number of days and nights of marking, organizing, and hunting kids down for assignments, I managed to award myself the opportunity to go to bed early. 9-o'clock early.

So, pumped full of Tylenol-3 for a headache and sore back, I trundle off to bed and leave Teen do deal with the dogs. But now after a 2:15am wake up whine from Kirby, and a 45-minute toss & turn in bed, I still can't get back to Never-Neverland.

So what's the point of going to bed early? I may just as well have gone to bed at midnight and wake-up with Philip Till telling me about the state of our water supply.

Which brings me to the weather...

Pretty sucky, eh?

For anyone living outside our 778,... er... 604 area code, you'll be surprised to hear that Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland is now in Week 2 or 3 (I've lost track) of 40 Days and 40 Nights.

If our zoo wasn't actually an aquarium, I'd suggest that someone had better build a boat and start packing it full of animals.

Because of all of the rain and storms, the local watersheds have suffered extreme "turbidity" (the latest catch-word) thereby resulting in a region-wide water-ban and boil-water advisory.

Luckily for most of us, the water bad ended after a little more than a day, but therre are still some ("some" meaning 1+ million) unlucky people like Mom & Dad and Rob & Shannon in Vancouver that are still living (if you can call it that) without tap water.



Well, good nig-- morning, then. I think I hear Kirby whining again.

Seeing Double

Last weekend, after my game, I bumped into another Cattle Dog owner in North Van. Fortunately, I like to bring Indy along to as many games as I can, so she, too, was present for the meeting. At first, they were kind of stand-offish, but eventually it was pretty evident that they were new friends.


October 28, 2006: Indy(right) & Niko.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

...Which isn't really the best description for the last four weeks. Four weeks? Has it really been that long?

If I may paraphrase some anonymous reader's recent comment, this is piss-poor blogging. But as my more annoying grade 8's often say to me: it's not my fault.

Life in and around the Coquitlam neighbourhood has been busy and sickly. My job with the grade 8's has left me working regular 10-12-hour days, and each Tuesday & Thursday has my night-school teaching adding on another 2-hours.

Meanwhile, Kristina has been getting the shaft on this whole pregnancy deal. She feels sick all the time, has trouble holding her meals & drinks down, and is feeling more tired than she's ever felt in her life.

Kristina is just beginning to show now, which, by the way, makes me happy since it's actually starting to seem somewhat real for me as well. Up until now, the only change I've noticed in expecting a baby is that I've ended up doing more housework. She hasn't said as much, but I imagine that's about the only thing Kristina would be able to get used to.

Last month, I had to leave Kristina to fend for herself for a few days. My grade 8's and I went on a camping trip to Loon Lake for three days. It was a good experience -- much like last spring's -- but fatigue was a big concern. From seven in the morning to eleven at night, it's virtually constant supervision of a bunch of hormonally-charged, sugar-high (they snuck their own candy up), attention-deficit 13-year olds.

I brought up some Tylenol, and that was a good thing.

In recent news, there was a incident where an Indo-Canadian, 30-year old, pregnant, elementary school teacher was found dead and burned in Delta. That alone has been a huge, disturbing, and very sad story; but last week I suffered my first, real, serious experience of worrying.

Kristina had gone out for the evening to a book-club meeting with some girlfriends from work. But after midnight, as I was getting ready for bed, she still hadn't returned home. This was very much unlike her, particularly in light of her continuous sickly feeling.

Then my mind started going on it's own... That murder victim was 30. Teen is 30.

The victim was pregnant. Kristina's pregnant.

She was a teacher. Kristina's a teacher.

And she was a elementary school teacher. Teen's an elementary school teacher!

... Beep-beep-boop-beep. Ring-ring... ring-ring. No answer.

Crap. Where is she?! Then, a few minutes later, she calls back. "I'm OK. I'm still at book-club."

This parenting thing is going to be a nightmare.