Pretty Cool...

I read about this kid in the Charlotte Observer this morning…

Teen pioneers `extreme sitting' sport
LAS VEGAS - It's easy to spot Aaron Fotheringham spinning and hesitating atop the rim of a half-pipe at the neighborhood skate park.
He's the one in the wheelchair, the one with the bright yellow helmet, the one who does a back flip that has made him a celebrity.
His friends slap him high-fives as they pass on their BMX bikes and skateboards. They call him "Wheels."
Adults call Fotheringham, 15, a pioneer carving a niche somewhere between BMX and skateboarding.
Fotheringham just calls it "hard-core sitting."
He was born with spina bifida, a defect of the neural tubes that affects more than 70,000 people in the United States.
He uses a custom wheelchair with welded braces, joints and crossbeams to take a pounding, a scrape bar, shock absorbers and independent four-wheel suspension, and soldered spokes on modified 26-inch downhill mountain bike wheels.
"He's constantly needing things in equipment," says John Box, president of Colours 'N Motion Inc., which provides the chairs.
Fotheringham tips over a lot. But he pulls himself up. No apologies. He jokes about starting a wheelchair company called "Crazy Cripple Industries."
"It just takes a lot of trials and errors," he says.

Check out a video of him in action, including his backflip!

A Revision

Even though I selected tomorrow, I am revising my Cletus arrival estimate to March 5. Feel free to revise your guess as well.

The Evolution of a Nursery...

Here is the long awaited (by some) debut of the Cletus' (or Cletessa's) nursery! He/she is almost here and yes the room is ready and prepared.

This is the bedroom (an upstairs guest bedroom) before the painting started. Some taping of the door frame and floor board can be seen. Here is the room almost completely painted. The color is Antique White, which is an off-white color. The light in the ceiling light eventually was replaced by a fan.

After the room was painted, we taped it off to add shadow stripes.

And here are the walls with the shadow stripes, which are much more apparent in person than in the photo.
After the shadow stripes were laid down by Chrissy, she added by hand a chocolate ribbon loopty-loop all around the room.

After the ceiling light was taken down, I had to paint around the whole to prepare for the ceiling fan installation.

The painting has been completed...and now it is time to put together the crib. Gotta read the instructions carefully to it does not fall apart!

Putting in the last screws.

Voila! The crib is complete!

And here is the finished nursery, all ready for its resident!

Chrissy hand painted this saying on the wall over the crib.

Here is the nursery lookikng towards the window. A closet is on the right.

From a different angle.

A dresser/changing table.

Looking away from the window at the other dresser and the crib. Raggedy Anne and Andy are on the bench in the corner.

The entry door and ceiling fan.

Another picture towards the window.

So there it is...the nursery. Now we just have to fill it!

Thanks to you all who contributed to it in one manner or another!

The Final Countdown

Hmmmm...if we only know what the countdown actually was. Could be tomorrow, could be this weekend, could be March 2, could be March 16. No one really knows.

Had another doc appointment today, and everything was status quo.

Just waiting for Cletus to enter the world...who knows how long the wait will be.

What is your guess?

When will Cletus come? Name your date. Winner will be the closest to labor day, and will get no prize :-) Well, maybe we can work out a picture autographed by Cletus.

He/she is due March 2.

My guess...February 27.

What is your guess?

Inching closer...

...to labor day. Not in September, but Cletus' (or Cletessa's) arrival.

We are excited. We are at 37.5 weeks now, and the doctor (midwife actually) told us this morning it is basically up to nature now. In NASA-speak, all systems are a go. Appointment this morning was fine...everything is as it should be. Heartbeat was strong, and the baby has dropped. Now it seems to be up to Cletus when he/she wants the birthday to be. Could be tomorrow...could be in three weeks.

We are hoping it is a little closer to the three weeks because there are still a few things at work and home we would like to wrap up.

Chrissy is still feeling good too, which is great. Me, on the other hand...just kidding.

We took a tour of the maternity center as the hospital last night. It was nice. Walking in the door though made it all seem very real.

The journey is about to begin, that is for sure!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Super Bowl XLI Impressions

Well, it was kind of "egh" all around for me.

The pregame music/circus...ok.
The Thunderbird flyover was cool, but it was dark out, so you could hardly see them on the TV.
Opening kickoff...awesome!
Rest of the game...pretty boring overall. The Colts shoudl have won by 40.
The rain...sweet!
I thought Prince was pretty good.
It seemed like overall, the Colts were not all that excited. It was a very restrained celebration.
The commercials...overall I thought they were pretty average. I think Coke and Budweiser bought all the ad time. My faves...the Careerbuilder's were good. Connectile Dysfunction (Sprint wireless broadband card)...hilarious! The Chevy ad with the shirtless dudes washing the car in the middle of the street was top notch. The the Snickers ad with the two guys eating the same candy bar...solid humor. And Jim Gaffigan's beard combover (Sierra Mist) was pretty funny.

And one more thing...how does Michael Irvin make the Hall of Fame and Art Monk doesn't??? There is no sense in that!

Today

A couple things...

1. I think today, February 2, is one of the stupidest days...Groundhog Day. I mean, really, what is the point? A groundhog named Phil (and how many Phils have there been) gets put in a hole, and then comes out of the hole, and supposedly knows if it sees its shadow. Yeeeeaaaah right!

2. My mom sent this website to me...http://ww2.howmanyofme.com/ and if you plug your name into it, it will tell you how many people in the US have your first name, last name, and your first/last name. According to the website, only 900 (soon to be 901) out of 299,968,595 people in America have my last name. Who knows how accurate this website is, but that is a pretty rare last name is the stats are correct...pretty cool.

3. My Super Bowl (I hope I can use that term in my blog without the NFL suing me...see #4 below) pick...Colts win by over 10.

4. What a farce!

5. Don't look now, but the Bullets are in first place in the East, and have two all-stars...Gilbert Arenas is starting, and Caron Bulter is a reserve...AWESOME!

6. I passed an Autobell car wash this morning on the way to work. It was open. I wonder how much business they will do today as it is a wet, cold day here in Charlotte.

Have a great weekend!

The Library

Since Chrissy and I are both well read (insert laugh here calling myself "well read"), we both have a good number of books. Since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, we have wanted to have a built-in bookcase built in our study. This was finally done in December, and it turned out great. We had a great contractor who worked very hard to get this done. He built all the pieces at his house, installed it over one weekend, and painted it the following week. Here is a photographic documentary from start to finish...

Here is the wall the bookshelves were installed on before the project started.

Another shot of the wall (on the right side) prior to kick-off.

In this shot, you can see the pieces that were fabricated in the contractor's work shop. He brought them over in a truck. Pretty cool stuff.

Here is the first level of the bookshelves installed. The countertop laid on top of this level.

Here is the almost complete bookshelves (trim still missing in upper right-hand corner) sans paint.

The bookshelves are complete here, the the painting has commenced.

And here it is! The completed bookshelves all painted up!

See, we do have a lot of books!

The last two photos are taken from a similar angle to the first two photos, so you can really see the difference with and without the bookshelves!

Coming soon...the evolution of a nursery!!!

Snow Day In Charlotte

We got our first discernible snowfall in Charlotte this morning since getting about 2 feet in a blizzard 4 years ago. Maybe an inch or two fell. Now, it is raining (freezing rain that ices/freezes upon contact with the ground). Here are some wintry pictures from before 8 AM this morning...