Babies and Books

Dear Loyal Readers,

I apologize for my absence; much has happened over the last month, and I will record it, but if I included it all in one post, you would grow bored and stop reading. So I will update regularly until you are up to speed on my life (I now anticipate the comments, "Do you think we have nothing better to do than read about your life?" from people who visit a blog that is about nothing other than my life).

I told you last time that I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. It has taken two weeks and several phone calls (most of which were unreturned), but I finally have an appointment for Monday at 10:30. Of course, once I got the appointment, everybody I had left messages with returned my calls. I'll be sure to let you know what I find out.

If you read my mom's blog at all, you may have seen a photo or two of our nephew, who was born on New Years Day. We were so happy he came while we were there, and Christine had a great time helping Dana that week. While Christine might not think she has maternal instincts, anyone who has ever needed care while she was around would disagree.

As of yesterday, the baby is one-month old, and while watching him grow on mom's blog is better than nothing, we miss him dreadfully. We will be in Grand Rapids next weekend, and will have to fight with Grandpa over who gets to hold him. Dana, make sure you know where the baby is before either of us leaves.

While the baby may have overshadowed most of our holiday trip to Michigan, it was not the only enjoyable part. We went to a couple of parties with friends, which were great. One in particular, a Literary Party, was awesome. We played Trivial Pursuit: Book Lovers Edition, which made all of us English majors despair of the last four or five years, and had a white elephant used book swap. I went home with Stephen Lawhead's Byzantium (thanks Zac!) and gave one of my many copies of The Princess Bride to Cousin Chris.

We ended the evening playing Riff, a music trivia game. A word to the wise, if you play this game with people who know music, get some definitions at the beginning. I apparently did not adequately differentiate between hair bands and heavy metal, which is very funny to some people. Apparently my palette is not refined enough to distinguish the subtle differences that separate one crappy sub-genre from another. But I'm not bitter. My team was undefeated that night.

Well, until next month (I'm kidding, I promise).