I love my family.

Just felt like saying that.

I love Elaine, Marcus, and Pythagoras. And the little one on the way.

I love my family that is here, and the family that is elsewhere in this state and this country and this world.

I love my friends, who I consider a part of my family. I'm grateful to the ones I'll get to see today, and will dearly miss the ones who will be elsewhere. They will be in my thoughts.

While I state that I like my alone time (and I do), it is only when I can have it by choice. My biggest fear is to be alone, and I haven't felt alone in a very long time.

Have a good year and many years to come.

Scene: wonderful dinner party, standing eating delicious finger food with pleasant drinks. Chatting with friends and acquaintances. One person who I see a few times a year comes up and starts a conversation.

Her: So, are you two planning on having any more kids?

Me: No … not after how rough this pregnancy is going, we feel we’ve had enough.

Her: Well then, time for you to have an operation!

Me: What do you mean?

Her: If you don’t want to have kids, you need an operation!

Me: [blinking eyes, confused stare] Pardon?

Her: [insistant] A vasectomy.

Me: Um…why?

Her: So you don’t have any more kids! The operation is far harder on women than it is men, so you need to have one.

Me: Oh. [drinks some wine] I see.

Her: So are you going to get the operation?

Me: [another sip] Elaine and I have already discussed what we are going to do.

Her: You really should get the operation.

Me: [trying again\ Elaine and I have already discussed what we are going to do.

Her: Well, you really should get the operation. You are going to do it, right?

Me: Actually, Elaine and I have decided to not have sex anymore.

Her: [rolls her eyes and says in a huff] Fine! Don’t listen to me! [walks away]

Elaine just got back from another checkup. She has Cholestasis of Pregnancy. Apparently this is more likely to occur in women of Scandinavian descent, of which Elaine is of some part.

She’s probably fine. The baby is probably fine. Everyone is probably fine.

We are having a very hard time not freaking out.

So now Elaine constantly monitors if the baby is moving after meals, and trying not to freak when the baby is asleep or just relaxing. This liver disease (which goes away a day or two after delivery) can put the baby into trauma.

Therefore, the Doctors will induce labor on January 8th if Elaine hasn’t already gone into labor by then.

Eleven days from now.

Birth is expected on the 9th. At least we’ll know everything by then.

Last night Elaine went to the hospital. We drove through all that snow on the ground, back and forth many times.

I suppose before anyone panics (heck, I did), Elaine is fine, our second unborn child is fine, Marcus is fine, and Pythagoras is fine.

I’m fine too.

When Elaine got some blood work done, she had elevated liver enzymes. That scared us, cause that is what Poor Little Arbeau had before he passed away.

Anyway, Elaine had to go to the hospital for a bunch of tests, including one in radiology for some reason.

Eight hours, one and a half books, and several tests later, we learn that Elaine and the baby are fine.

This kind of stuff is way to scary. With Marcus it was actual problems: slightly enlarged liver, gestational diabetes, that sort of thing.

This time it is scary stuff that might not happen: blocked passages, Down Syndrome, and who knows what else.

I’d say things will be better after our little girl is born, but I’m learning that the worrying never ends. We just live, and hope, and pray.

And also, love what we have.

Happily Holidays, everyone.

Yes, Elaine and I are having a New Year’s Eve Party! All are welcome.

If, by some chance, Elaine goes into labor during the party, we’ve made arrangements to take care of things at our place and keep the party going.

So, come one and come all! We’ll have many different types of games (not just Catan), as well as a chocolate fountain and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies (which, if you are feeling decadent, you can dip in the chocolate fountain.

Hope to see many of you there!

Today, Marcus is two.

Amazing.

He is definitely a toddler, saying “no” quite a bit. Fortunately, a book on how to handle tantrums is working out well, so the battle of wills is on.

Today he helped me put together a gate. He loves helping Daddy.

He knows tons of words, and is pretty good with his toys, too.

Yesterday was a good milestone. He slept in his room (not the nursery) in his little car bed all by himself all night long.

I’m very proud of my Marcus Man.

Another class, another performance.

Once again, this was at the Farmington Player’s Barn, Sunday, December 12th. Our show started at 3:15 PM, though the level C and D started at 2 PM.

Their shows were great. Really great. They have some amazing talents, and I like the way they did their games and worked together. They rocked.

Our show was pretty good. I had a good group of friends show up, people who mainly hadn’t seen me perform before, which was very nice.

Our performance was different from the ones we did before, as this time we had written our own Blackouts: short skits with a punchline. The Blackouts were interspersed between regular improv games. We also had lots of musical accompaniment, which added a lot too. And so, in order:

Puppy: Garrett, Charles, Ann, Carissa. This was a blackout. I played a Clown who created a blow up puppy balloon (Garrett) at a party, who then starts, um, getting excited on one of the kids legs. I pop the balloon, stopping in.

Burger King: John, Andrea. A Blackout inspired by the “Supersize Me” movie.

Dangerous Assignment: Russ, Ken. A Blackout about two cops on the beat waiting for riots after church.

Beginning to End: Everyone (Garrett hosts). We’ve performed this before. I was one of the anchors so I didn’t have to make anything up. While it started out slow, the last three performers tied in together great and it turned out to be a wonderful skit.

IRS: Bill, Christian, Charles, Ken, Steve, Carissa, Heather. A Blackout. Everyone in Beginning to End starts dancing, except me. I just walk off stage (I’m right next to the exit, hence me being one of the anchors). The people not listed dance off stage while everyone else kept dancing. I walk back on stage, gesture to stop the music, and say, “That ends the dancing portion of the interview. Congratulations, everyone is hired. I’m sure you will all enjoy working for the IRS.”

Canon: Mike, Bill, Christian, John, Ann, Andrea, Chris, Charles (Charles hosts). While most of us really can’t sing, this one turned out pretty good. As a host, I got to interview a member of the audience, and I had some fun with that. We then sang a canon based on the information I got. With respect to the person’s UPS job, I sang “I have a looser job. I have a looser job. I have a looser job. Better go to school.” It got a laugh. And no, being a UPS delivery guy is a fine job, but the way the kid described it, it worked.

Dinosaur: Mike, Andrea. A Blackout where Mike does a wonderful imitation of a Velociraptor. I laugh every time I see it.

Shift Left: Christian, Steve, Carissa, Heather (Russ Hosts). This went over well.

Bell Game: Ken, Garret, John (Heather Hosts). One of my favorite games, but I wasn’t in it. I believe the audience enjoyed it.

Santa: Chris Christian, Heather. A Blackout with a drunk violent Santa proving that yes, indeed, he does exist.

Sentences: Russ, Charles, Ann (Steve Hosts). Another game I love, and I was in it! We get lines and directions written on cards from the audience, which we insert into our scene. Unfortunately, our scene didn’t really go anywhere, and I forgot to get out the “who, what, and where.” Ah well.

Pistons: Steve, John. A Blackout relevant to our times.

MPD: Bill, Russ, Garret, Mike, Andrea, Carissa (Chris Hosts). One of our best skits, and a good one to do next to last.

Transcendental Switch: Everyone (Bill Hosts). Here we brought back many of our characters from earlier skits, and it worked very well.

And so, that was it. We got our Second City diplomas and all went out drinking afterwards. I’m very glad I took these classes and performed. A bunch of us auditioned to continue on with the Conservatory Level. I’ll know soon if we made it.

When I did my show yesterday, I knew something was wrong. I was feeling drained, I was blowing my nose far too much, and oddly, the left side of my neck hurt.

A lot.

I could barely turn my neck to the left. As the evening wore on I got worse and worse and ended up staying home all day yesterday. I’m home again today.

Yesterday I felt so bad that I didn’t even play computer games. In fact, by the early evening both sides of my neck were in pain. I went to bed pretty early and got a good nights Nyquil induced sleep.

I did get some work done at least – phone calls that I only have until today (Tuesday) to complete. They are all done, so right now, as of yesterday, I am resting.

Elaine is home today also, not feeling great either.

So far, Marcus is fine. I hope he stays that way.

The conference is going well. Our booth looks snazzy. The posters are great. The demos all work.

We have to man the booth for quite a long time, and it gets longer each day. On Sunday it took us over 8 hours to set up. Then on Monday the booth ran from 2 PM to 6 PM (and there were meetings until 9 PM). Today it was from Noon to 6 PM. Tomorrow it is 10 AM to 6 PM. Thursday it is only five hours, but I also have my talk (which, I admit, I’m looking forward too).

Still, talking to lots of people is tiring. The real problem is you don’t know what their agenda is:

· They want some of the candy in your bowl: 25%
· They are lost and need directions: 20%
· They want you to buy something from them: 20%
· They want to know what your products are, but aren’t interested in buying anything: 15%
· They want to know what your products are, so they can steal your technology: 15%
· They want to know what your products are, so they can team up with you: 4%
· They want to know what your products are so they can buy/license/fund your technology: 1%

I might be a bit too generous with that last one.

I have had some good meetings, especially with some company that we are already working with, and that is very exciting.

Tonight I spoke to my wife. I miss her terribly. But even more, she put Marcus on the line, and he spoke to me on the phone!! My heart just melted!!!! He said “Daddy!” and “Daddy work.”

I so want to see my little man, and my wonderful wife, and my silly cat, and I won’t see any of them until late Thursday night.

It is hard to live in the now when I have all three of them waiting for me in the future.

Tonight, well, earlier this evening, which was Saturday night, Elaine and I went to the Ball.

Elaine wore a lovely black gown, a matching wrap, and her sexy boots. She alcoved her hair just the way I love it, and wore black pearls. I wore my tuxedo, with the tie, vest, and suspenders. I even took off my chain watch and put on a gold one.

The St. Joe’s Holiday Ball at Eastern Michigan University is an annual affair, and this year’s theme was “An Evening At the Nutcracker.” It was at their convocation center, and you had to look very carefully to tell that it was a basketball court. The upper seats were covered in black cloth, and a dance floor was put on the main area.

My company invited some of us to go, including our out of town consultants. We took three cars, and the special evening started with valet parking. The reception area had a huge buffet in the center (with shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp) and two places to get drinks. I got Elaine (did I mention how beautiful she was?) some ice water, and myself a vodka martini. I figured it went equally well with my tuxedo and the Dayquil I was drugged up on.

The Charity Ball itself was wonderful. The place was incredibly posh, with satin tablecloths and napkins, three forks and knives per plate, and two wine glasses. It was black tie, so everyone was wearing a tuxedo or a gown. I have to admit I felt kind of young, as only ten percent or so were of my age. Most people were much older. Then again, everyone was having a good time, no matter what their age.

The band was incredible. They were the Simone Vitale Band, and have been called “the hottest band in the Midwest.” Eleven piece group with four vocalists, doing top 40, dance, show tunes, oldies, latin, and big band music. They’ve performed at the openings of Comerica Park, Greektown Casino, and the Freedom Festival Fireworks Party. I loved their music, and they were incredibly fun to dance to. Elaine and I hit the dance floor a number of times. The only frustrating part is that I can’t hold Elaine as close as I’d like because our next child is coming between us!

Before dinner they had a bunch of couples in 18th century garb doing waltzes, and then a ballet show with (I think) 10-12 year old girls as dancing snowflakes. The place was decked out in Nutcracker paraphernalia, which is scary enough, but the worst were these life-sized statues of ballerinas up on pedestals. They were in horrid poses, and the faces looked horrid. I swear they reminded me of undead monkeys forced into tutus and frozen in some demonic dance pose.

Tis the season, I guess.

Since I rarely get to tease Shawn about this, here is the menu, catered by Opus One of Detroit.

Prelude: Baby Haricot Verts. Tossed in roasted garlic olive oil served with a nest of curly cut carrots, garnished with diced yellow peppers, crumbled Gorgonzola and drizzled with roasted garlic vinaigrette then painted with a balsamic glaze.

Entrée: Char-Grilled Petite Filet and Shrimp Helene. Served with a twice-baked potato, char-grilled vegetables and sauce béarnaise.

Finale: The Nutcracker Torte. A seven-layer torte with a base of Pailette Feulletine, milk chocolate and praline, raspberry gellee, semi-sweet dark chocolate mousse, semi-sweet dark chocolate mousse, a dark cocoa lady finger and glazed with chocolate ganache then served with strawberry sauce.

So, tonight $630,000 was raised to support the Surgery Pavilion project, I got to dance with my wonderful wife, and spend a pleasant evening all dressed up.

Not a bad evening at all.

And now that I’ve taken Nyquil and the tuxedo is put away, it is time to get some sleep. I have to get up in six hours to catch my flight to Orlando.

I tend to get down when too many things are planned out for me, and I’m definitely feeling it right now. Even when the things are fun, I still would like to have some time where I can be spontaneous, or just to have to spend with my family.

On Friday there is a company holiday party. That will be fun, but there goes Friday night. I also have to do laundry as there will be no other time to do it.

Saturday I have to do some fast shopping (not fun), go to Improv class (very fun), and then go to a charity ball for St. Joe’s Hospital. That last is fun too, especially since Elaine will be looking stunning, and I get to wear my tuxedo.

That does mean, though, that Saturday is shot.

And then, from Sunday morning (literally, the flight leaves at 9:21 AM) until Thursday afternoon, I’ll be in Orlando at a conference doing the old ‘grip and grin’ in our trade show booth. I have so many other things to do at work that loosing this week is a killer.

But worse, I’ll be away from my family for five full days, and as I get older, the more I dislike that.

At least this time the booth is only open for half of the day. I just found out, though, that Monday night from 7 PM until 10 PM is taken up at a function, and I’m sure more will be scheduled.

I am very much looking forward to my talk on Thursday. I thought of a great way to give my paper presentation, and I’m hoping that will go over well. It is about teaching Astronomy, and I’m basically going to give an interactive animated astronomy lesson as over half of my talk.

See, my improvisation classes do pay off in the business world.

I still can’t believe that basically a whole week is going to disappear on me.

I am just hoping and praying that Elaine doesn’t go into labor during this time. Thankfully I won’t be traveling at all after that.