Wow. It's been about two months since I last updated this. My five readers, I suppose, got bored and stopped reading this.

Well ... the biggest news is that Rebecca is pregnant, and it's a girl!

Her name is going to be Melanie Sharon Pickrell. Sharon was pretty easy, since both grandmoms are named Sharon. A first name was harder. Rebecca liked Janis and Lorna, neither of which I liked. Since there was an A&E Biography show on Janis Joplin, I started naming musicians from the 1960s and 1970s. We eventually settled on Melanie, who is best-known for singing "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" with the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the bubbly hit, "Brand New Key."

And we didn't know until about a week ago. Honest. On November 10, I noticed Rebecca was feeling a bit ... odd around the stomach. However, I guess I crudely phrased it since she thought I was calling her fat. A few weeks later it got to the point where she was noticing, and so she called the doctor. The doctor essentially told her to come back another day. Finally in late December it got to the point where we couldn't ignore it.

So on Tuesday the 2nd we found out she was pregnant and on Wednesday the 3rd we found out it was a healthy girl, 34 weeks along. She is due on February 12th and we are both very excited.

I think we've done pretty good when it comes to preparing. We've gotten a carseat, a playpen-type thingie (it has a name but I forget what it is), and found ourselves a pediatrician. A crib will be arriving and we even have a second crib lined up. We'll be moving as much of the "adult" stuff to the basement as possible and making the living room more Melanie-oriented. There's going to be a number of changes like that gradually occurring.

We'll be doing the hospital tour thingie in a couple weeks, and getting various knick-knacks from friends and family. There'll be a shower for work on the 26th of January and for family on the 4th of February (I think.)

I'm excited.