Fight Club, for real?

How's about some punches with that code?

Wherein I wax poetic on another year.

So my birthday has come and gone, and thanks to some wonderful caiparihnas it went very smoothly.

Heat up for the world cup

Amazing Football Skills and Tricks - Google Video

Nina's Neurosurgeon

This is Dr. Anderson, who saved Nina's life. Yesterday was a follow up visit, and although I wasn't able to go, Marlee indicated that it went very well, and Nina's doing great.

Might be a nice experiment for cameras...

Q. I've heard about a "Manhattan solstice," when the sun supposedly lines up along the streets. Is it for real? When does it happen?

Our little one, growing well.

So what happened?

So I promised to write more about what happened when Nina was born...

It's a long story, so this will stretch over several posts. Hopefully I can do the experience justice, and convey the great and terrible things that happened in a truthful way.

Nina's birth and hospital story begins and ends with football.

Marlee went into labor around 11:30 PM on January 19, 2006. We had just finished watching "Remember the Titans". Nina was discharged from the hospital on February 10th. We had just finishing watching "Friday Night Lights" in the hospital room the night before.

In between football games we suffered and loved like I didn't know was possible.

So what happened?

Hard to say. Whatever went wrong is "not uncommon" according to those medial people we spoke to. Something like 1/1000 births in the US encounter hydrocephalus, which basically means that the brain isn't able to properly re-absorb spinal and brain fluid. Left untreated it will be fatal. In Nina's case, the general feeling was that something caused bleeding into one ofthe ventricles of her brain, and the blood being in the spinal fluid prevented the brain from re-absoring the fluid.

Now - trying to get a straight answer from a doctor in the NICU when your child is the patient in question is quite an experience. Most of the doctor's are understandably afraid of crushing people with bad news that they tiptoe around the truth, and in some cases withhold information and, frankly, outright lie to you, because that's how they manage you.

I'm not kidding - my opinion of the medical profession ran the gamut of emotions we went through, and ended with the feeling that like all things, doctors come in all kinds, good to bad.

One doctor in particular, however, stood out, and in my mind is/was the reason that Nina survived. His name was Richard Anderson, and he's the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Columbia Persbyterian Hospital. Dr. Anderson was the only reason we made it through what happened, I have no doubt.

Anyway, I'm skipping ahead a little bit.

After Marlee went into labor, we got into a little bit of trouble. See - our birthing classes had taught us to wait to go to the hospital as long as possible. We had been told that by several people.

Sure. Great advice, except when things are going wrong. In a bit of bad luck, Marlee's potential doula was away, and our medical help pulled a no-show. What does that mean? That means that someone who promised to help us in our time of need didn't show up, wouldn't take our calls, and basically left us in the cold.

Wouldn't be so bad if they had told us they wouldn't help, but this person actually indicated they would try to help us, when in reality, they had no plans to help us. If that sounds terrible and unforgivable to you, you're not the only one.

By the time our friend JP showed up at the door at 8 AM to help us to the hospital, Marlee's contractions were about a minute long, and less than 5 minutes apart. We were in trouble, and soon, we'd see how little prepared we were for what was coming.

More tomorrow.

What I'm listening to at the moment: Death Cab For Cutie

Plans.

I'm loving this album, wish I had picked it up sooner. The lyrics are flat out fantastic.

Highly rec'd

Peace takes courage.

What Will You Do?

Nerd stuff

One-Button Data Backup in a Tiny Package - New York Times

I recently upgraded my laptop's OS, and the hardest part by far was backing up the hard drive's files, both work and personal. After clogging up my personal folder on the network drive here at work, i finally gave up and just ran the upgrade.

Thankfully nothing was lost and all I have to do now is rebuild most of my preferences. Still, for something so simple and important as backing up data, it's about time someone came up with a tool that does this quickly.