No Chloe Yet!

But we did take this cute picture of Wendy's Belly last night! Vote for Pedro!

I got a few calls yesterday from curious friends wondering if Chloe had come yet, you know who you are. ;-) Thanks, we appreciate the support!

Latkas, Houses and Fish Tacos, oh My!

Our good friend Scotty stopped by today with some home made latkas that he and family made yesterday. For those of you who don't know what latkas are, they are pototo pancakes, kind of like hash browns, but with more good stuff in them than just potatoes. They've got onions and other things to tie it together. Topped with sour cream and/or apple sauce (Scotty brought both for us!) they were delicious after being reheated for 20 min in the oven at 250 degrees.

Later in the afternoon, Wen and I drove around the neighborhoods of University City and Clairemont looking at the neighborhoods and trying to figure out what areas we liked, as well as to stop at some open houses.

Of course, we had to like the more expensive neighborhoods in University City more, where houses are barely affordable for us.

We saw some pretty shady areas in Clairement, and I quickly came up with a new index to quickly judge the desirability of the neighborhood. The more cars (and the junkier), trucks, motor homes and trailers parked in the neighborhood, the less desirable it is to live there.

Wendy came up with her own. The more cute old people walking and dogs being walked, the more desirable the neighborhood.

It seems that the fewer cars you found, the more old people and dogs were found roaming the streets, so it's good that we agreed on what neighborhoods we liked.

We finished up the day by eating at Rubios (mmm, fish tacos) and hanging up pictures in Chloe's room. I don't think that Chloe's room can get any more ready, so Chloe, we are ready when you are!

My left arm has been slowly getting better. I nearly have full range of motion in my elbow again, but it still hurts near those points and when pushing or pulling on it in funny ways. The last couple days my wrist and hand have been more sore than anything, which is weird because they didn't hurt that much at first!

Old and Broken

So last Sunday I decided to ride my skateboard to catch up to Wen on her daily walk. On the way while I decided to eat pavement while going up a driveway when the back wheels got caught on the lip.

I decided to break my fall by landing on my left arm, so my wrist and elbow took the grunt of it. I remember landing on my shoulder and feeling bones move around, but luckily I didn't break a collarbone or anything. I did manage to lightly sprain my wrist and elbow enough to render my left arm mostly useless for the rest of Sunday and yesterday. It even hurt to type!

Luckily it seems to be healing pretty well and I am getting range of motion back in my elbow, but it still hurts to do any moderate activity with the arm, so I'm taking it easy.

Before I went and busted up my arm (good thing I painted before I skateboarded!), I painted Chloe's room a nice shade of green that we picked out from the Disney collection. It's amazing how a little bit of color can brighten up the room! We're officially ready for you now, Chloe!

Come on out, Chloe!

Just over 2 weeks to go until Chloe is due to be born!

Wen keeps on saying "Come on out, Chloe!" and I can't say I blame her, it can't be comfortable to carry her around in her belly any more, and she looks like she's going to pop!

She's going to be so cute, I can't wait!

Todd (Wen's brother) visited from DC the last couple days. They brought home PF Chang's the other night, yummy! He flew back this morning, but may be coming back again in another month. It's always nice to have family come by!

Another reason to not use TaxCut - Yeah, they suck!

Apparently they've "mistakenly" exposed customer's Social Security Numbers as part of a tracking number on a recent mass mailing campaign. Last year I wrote about how insane their rebate policy was. Thanks for making it so easy to go with your competitor!

First weekend of 2006

Except for what appears to be the beginning of a cold that I haven't been able to shake (thanks Primm!) the first weekend of 2006 was pretty enjoyable.

Wen and I didn't do much for New Year's Eve, we celebrated by watching episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" and Dick Clark as midnight appeared. Yes, I officially feel old now.

New Year's Day Wen's mom came over to have me fix the problem with the heater on her Tercel. It wasn't blowing hot air on her commute home from Borrego Springs to Shelter Valley and she noticed that the temp gauge would real close to the bottom of the gauge. Sounded like a thermostat problem, for some reason it wass opening up too early or stuck open so we searched for a thermostat and replacement radiator hoses as well.

4 car parts stores later, some crazy chicken (El Pollo Loco) and a gallon of paint for Chloe's room, we finally found one that had the hoses in stock. The install went pretty smooth, until it came time to install the top hose where I found that the new one was about 1/4" bigger in diameter than the old one. Wen and Mary ran off to another store which had one in stock which fit perfectly after some trimming. A quick test drive had the temp gauge sitting in the normal spot (slightly below half-way mark) and the heater blowing hot air, so problem solved.

I spent yesterday installing Eibach springs on my WRX, then returning the radiator hose which didn't fit and the spring compressor I borrowed from Kragen. Install was pretty straight forward, the toughest part was getting the top-hat bolts off. That bolt likes to spin with the strut-shaft, so you have to use an offset wrench so you can hold the shaft with an allen key and/or a strap wrench to loosen and then tighten it. Breaking it loose while the car was on the ground seemed to make that go a lot easier, too.

I think we caught the last rat which has been pestering us. Sunday night I heard a bit of a commotion in the attic which sounded like rat activity, so I made a mental note to go up and check on the traps we set in the attic with peanut butter. Found a trapped rat along with an empty one without any more peanut butter. Hopefully that's the last of them!

Next weekend there is more car maintenance due, both Wen's Civic and my WRX need coolant flushes and brake flushes. Hopefully I'll get to paint Chloe's room, too!