MORE NEW BABY PHOTOS

Well, not of our baby, but of a couple of new arrivals over the past few months.

First up, William Gardner, son of Matthew and Dana Gardner, Seattle Principal of my company and his wife. William was born a premie, but he's adding weight and growing quite quickly every day. Here's a shot of him sleeping quite soundly and happily based on his smile.

William Gardner


Second, Noah Chow-Monreal of Waco, Texas. His mother, Inga Chow, is an old friend from Baylor and his father is another alum, Richard Monreal. Looks like little Noah is excited about getting teeth!

Noah Chow-Monreal


IS THIS LINE OF QUESTIONING GOING ANYWHERE?

Yesterday, I had the privelage of testifying before a hearings examiner in Seattle as an expert witness regarding negative economic impacts of construction activities on nearby business.. noise, closed lanes, etc. It was a bit stressful, but it was a great experience. In fact, it was my first time to be an expert witness like that.

I apparently did an okay job because opposing counsel got a bit flustered.. rubbing his eyes and red-faced in frustration. I didn't stonewall, but he just wasn't able poke many holes in my study, his primary job. At one point, counsel for my clients while leaning back in his chair, turned to the hearings examiner and asked if the opposition's line of questioning was going anywhere. It's a question that comes as close to a slam of opposing counsel as one can get in such a formal setting.

I haven't heard how the rest of it went, but all should be well.

NEW BABY PHOTOS

Well, not of the baby itself per se, but it's certainly part of the picture. Here's a shot with a happy mommy and daddy.


And check out the fantastic job the daddy did on replacing the old window trim!

Turns out it's not necessarily the baby's head I was rubbing and poking as I previously discussed. It might very well have been the baby's backside. According to Jill's nurse-midwife, the baby is turning upside down and rightside up, so nobody knows. We still think it was the baby's head based on the shape.

Yesterday we went through a litany of possible names.. I'm the only one that likes Rufus... and spoke them to the baby. I figured the baby had a right to input on a name, so we felt for response after saying each name a few times. Only two got a response:

William and Charlotte

But I'm not inclined to name my own son, if it is a boy, after myself - plus, William is a little too popular of a name right now. What about Ronald Wilson?

By the way, I forgot to mention that we registered the baby at Babies R Us. You are welcome to check out the registery if you care to, but please feel no pressure to do so. I'm not very crazy about when people send announcements and invitations to absolutely everyone in hopes of casting a wide net for gifts. The news is then cheapened, in my opinion, amounting to nothing more than an invoice. So there it is: all is appreciated but nothing is expected.

JUDY HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL

I didn't get to post it Friday, but Judy did actually get to go home on Thursday rather than Friday. They still expect her to have a speedy recovery. She's pretty well confined to her bed with her foot in a cast, elevated with a pillow. Unfortuntely, she has to use her crutches more than she cares to because the halls in their home are to narrow for their wheelchair with the leg support fully extended. Otherwise, all is going well over there.

MOM AND DAD CHANGE REAL ESTATE GEARS

Jill and I had dinner with them at the Raccoon Lodge Friday night.



They let us know they backed out of the five-acre deal, feeling that the general contractor was trying to rip them off and would likely do so no matter where they purchased up there because there wasn't much competition. So, they're looking for a home more like ours.. smaller, likely 30 years or so in age, and with a bit more land than the typical new home these days. All in all, I think this is a good strategy, also.

RONALD REAGAN

I'm not going to bother writing a lot about President Reagan. You'll find tributes on TV - it's times like this I'm grateful we don't have cable TV and its monotonous, redundant news channels - and all over the web, among the best of which is this one by Peggy Noonan, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a former speechwriter for him.

But I've been impressed with the resonance his death has had in the minds of most Americans across most of the political spectrum. It seems that to those who are Democrats/liberals/members of the press, Reagan was a "great leader" whose legacy was chiefly "the restoration of American spirit and confidence" but little else - what incentive do they have to canonize him? To those who are Republicans/conservatives/libertarians, he walked on water... and even Jesus didn't get to personally vanquished the great hobgoblins of the 1970s: Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, union contract-driven stagflation and the Soviet Union.

Somewhere in the middle is the the truth about Reagan and his legacy, though I have to admit that I lean towards the latter category of inclination: major change in the world is a very complicated thing, but there's no doubt in my mind that his rhetoric, decisiveness, charisma and ability to stare down the Soviet Union and force them to blink will and should be most remembered. A negative legacy is there as well: I have seen firsthand the human toll his militarization of Latin America has taken. All too many women and children south of Mexico are widows and orphans - and their peace, that comes only with justice, is just now beginning to take shape. We might not have pulled triggers, but we gave aid and comfort to those who deserved the exact opposite.

But on the balance, the world is a better place because of him, no matter what some bitter opponents might say. Who but the malevolently self-loathing would prefer the Soviet Union's health? He was like everyone's favorite feisty but good-natured grandfather; a welcome member of the family. And just in case you forget how much like family he was received, here's the 1984 Electoral College map. As you can see, nearly the entire country was blue - and, so it seems, it has been since Saturday when the sad but long-expected news broke.



Rest in peace, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

YES - STILL ALIVE

To say that the past several weeks have not been extremely busy would be a lie. So, updates have been non-existent. But much has gone on - and I'm still committed to describing the rest of our Kaua'i trip among other things, so I'm taking a quick breather and doing some posting.

JUDY HAS FOOT SURGERY

Tuesday morning, Judy Korynasz had reconstructive foot surgery at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland. Instead of having artificial reconstruction, the doctors utilized bone tissue from her hip to rebuild depleted structure in her foot. The surgery went very well, though Judy took a bit longer than expected to wake up afterward. We have since learned that mildly low blood pressure was to blame.. nothing too serious.

She should be home tomorrow, Friday the 4th. They originally expected her to be home today, Thursday, but several factors may be contributing to the delay. First, foot reconstruction requires a longer healing period before she gets to begin walking in physical therapy. The healing process is more delicate and unlike her knee replacements, she will not get to begin walking immediately after her surgery. She is more than likely going to have to wait at least two months. You have your work cut out for you, John!

Second, her care at Legacy Emmanuel is apparently not as diligent as she received at Medford, Oregon's Providence Hospital. The doctors and nurses rarely come by and, when she presses the call button for nurse assistance, they take up to a half hour to check in on her. I have to say that Providence is, indeed, a superior health care provider. Finally, her occasional low blood pressure might also be contributing to her day-longer stay. Again, it's nothing serious but remember: hospitals make more money the more time you spend in them.

We look forward to her returning home for the remainder of her recuperation (how's that for alliteration? - and a rhyme to boot).

MOM AND DAD UPDATE

It looks like they've found five acres of land overlooking the Columbia River in Woodland, Washington. They plan to have a Lindal cedar home built, with a central "great room" full of tall, large windows to maximize views. Sounds great to me. I did a walk-through of the property a couple of weeks ago, Dad with his machete in hand. It's a nice piece of dirt, no improvements whatsoever, but plenty of privacy, a small seasonal creek on the periphery, and plenty of space for a nice woodlands garden and a pottager, to say the least. I'm excited for them. And apparently, the home will only take six months to build.

This weekend, Mom was in Montana at some big antique fair. I'm sure I'll get the full report soon and when I do, I'll provide details. Apparently, she and Jim Ed picked up some sort of Vegas-bound hitchhiker. We'll see what that's all about soon enough.

And regarding the Washington State car registration fiasco. Mother went in to the Washington DMV to register her truck. Because she listed the date of her permanent relocation to the beginning of her apartment lease, April 1, State law requires that she pay the balance of sales tax on her new truck because she purchased it in a different state and moved within two months of that date. Well, the WA sales tax rate is 2% higher than the New Mexico rate, so she was charged $1,200!

I told her to go back and tell them that because you had not yet decided to actually make Washington your permanent residence until you purchased land - anyone can rent an apartment anywhere on a temporary basis - she should not list April 1 as her new residency date. She did just that and they gave her money back. Moneygrubbers. And the fact is, if Washington didn't work out for them, it's not their primary residence.. both of them are on the move most of the time and Dad could just as well claim Tulsa as their primary residence because he's there more consistently than than she is up here for longer periods of time due to his job.

BABY UPDATE

I can honestly say that there is little news about the baby other than the fact that it's growing like a weed. We figure it's now over three pounds and adding half a pound every week or so for the next few weeks. Jill is in her third trimester now and is definitely getting a bigger belly, but she's still comfortably mobile. Gardening has become a problem as she can't bend over to pull weeds, plant things, etc. so easily, however.

Each night we talk to the baby some and we're able to feel its little head pressing against the top of Jill's belly. We play with it a bit.. pressing here and there and usually getting a reaction of different movement. If it could speak, I suppose it would say "Cut that out, will ya?!" Or something along those lines. It apparently has a developed sense of hearing and can identify bright light, so we're going to be a bit more diligent about talking to it, reading to it and playing music - Vivaldi, precisely.

Since I don't have any ultrasound pics yet scanned, here's a 3D ultrasound image of a 30-week fetus for everyone to see.. the kid should look something like this: