Garage update

Last weekend I got the siding caulked. Now all I really have left to do, at least just to get me through the winter, is to finish putting up the fascia, get the final inspection on the electrical and grade out the land around the garage.

I also would like to get some shelving up for storage. My dad is coming over to help with that this weekend.

Here are a couple photos of the inside of the garage.

A post for Theo

During the course of building the garage, there was a pile of wood scraps and other stuff piling up. At some point during the summer the pile started to smell. I finally got around to cleaning up the pile and I found out why. Dead rabbit.

Unlike the mouse in Klund's post this rabbit was not well admired. In fact this rabbit was as Mary would put it "...one of those damn rabbit's". Mary didn't care much for the rabbits. They were considered garden terrorists. One day your tulips would be there, the next day they were gone.

As for the post title, if you were a nine year old boy who is interested in birds of prey and their leftovers, you would enjoy that picture as well.

Special Guest Writer

We are very lucky to have a special guest writer today. Mary

One of the greatest rewards of being Anika's mom is watching Anika's dad, aka Tall Brad, in action. Here is a sample of some of dad's best:
1. To Anika in a whipser; "Don't tell your mom, but I'm in love with another girl."
2. To me, "I never used to understand what you meant when you would say '...it makes my heart ache'. When I look at her, I now understand."
3 To Anika: after a "classic" Brad joke "That's going to be really funny to you in a few years." Hmm, I hope he gets funnier in the years ahead, but she'll never doubt how much Daddy loves her.

Thanks to everyone for sending well wishes, warm meals, and moral support our way. We hope to be sharing lots of adventures with you soon.
Mary

Backup your important data

A friend of mine, Mike, learned the hard way. He had and external hard drive that he used to store all of his photos and home movies. None of these were on his computer, just on the HD. Unfortunately his external HD crashed, so now he is hoping a tech service can recover them.

This got me to thinking about my backup solution. None, as of right now. Scooter told me that Ming is using an online service and loves it. So I will be looking into that, it is roughly $4 a month for unlimited storage.

So back up those photos and other important info before it is too late.

Woman Jailed for Killing ex-husband

A Japanese woman was put in jail after she killed her ex-husband. I know you are saying to yourself "So,what, it is not like I haven't heard of that happening before". While she killed her ex-husband, nobody really died. She actually killed her online persona's ex-husband.

Confused? Here is a quote from the story about the murder of the online virtual game, "Players in 'Maple Story' raise and manipulate digital images called 'avatars' that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles."

So basically her online husband divorced her online character. She got so mad she hacked into his computer and killed his character. But unlike the online game, the jail she is in is real. She was arrested for illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.

Here is a the full story

The Weekend

So this past weekend we got much closer to finishing the garage. The best part is that we are now able to park in it. All that I have left for this year, is to finish putting on the facia, caulking the siding, get the final electrical inspection and have the land graded out around the garage. That sounds like a lot but compared to what I had left a couple weeks ago it feels like a drop in the bucket.

So after working on the garage most of Saturday and some of Sunday we took Anika for a walk. We would like to think she enjoys these walks, but truth be told, every time the stroller is out of the house and on the pavement she falls asleep.


This is part of Cherokee park. I have a feeling I will be spending plenty of weekend afternoons here in the future.

Near Miss

Well it almost happened. Everyone talks about how sooner or later you will get pooped or peed on. Anika came close to getting me tonight. Mary was feeding her and thought she needed her diaper changed.

So I put her on a blanket on the floor and took off her diaper. It looked pretty dry. Of course as soon as I say that, she starts to pee. I put another towel under her and wait it out. I clean her up and get another diaper. I have both of her legs in one hand and I am about to slide the new diaper under her. Just as I lift up, I hear it before I see it. As someone once said, it is like someone squeezed the mustard bottle as hard as they could. With reflexes not seen in these parts in some time I avoid the stream of poop. If there were Baby Olympics she would be a medalist. I think she cleared the blanket by a good two feet.

A quick week

It is Sunday night and what a week. Anika has been great. We have been quite lucky, she sleeps a lot and hardly ever cries.

We spent today watching the football game and visiting with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Sue.


As you can see Anika finds Coach Childress' offensive scheme a little boring.

We spent Saturday on the road. We started out by heading to Delano to get some pictures taken. Angela, a former co-worker of Mary's, is now a professional photographer. We had a blast having photos taken of the three of us and a bunch of photos of Anika. We can't wait to see them.

After the photos we headed down to Victoria to Curt, Jen and the rest of their family. They had just moved into their new home. It is incredibly beautiful. Also, now Curt has only a 45 minute commute to Thomson Reuters (I still want to just call it West) instead of an hour and fifteen minutes.

We finally got home a little after 8p.m. She slept the entire time we were in the car. Right now she is great to travel with. I am sure there will come a day when she will want to control the radio dial.

We are finally home

Everyone made it home safe and sound. We are so excited to get her home. The hospital room was getting a little cramped.


We made it through the first night with some team work. Mary let me sleep while she fed her, and then I got up and would help change her and burp her. Then Mary would go back to sleep while I rocked Anika back to sleep. She was quite alert last night, which was no surprise since she slept all day.

If you are looking to visit give us a call, we would love for you to meet her.

Anika and family

Proud mother and daughter

The proud parents
Anika had visitors today. The grand parents showed up as well as some uncle, aunts and cousins. The cousins were extremely excited to meet her and that was fun. Some other friends showed up as well. Of course she slept through every visit. We are so grateful for all of the warm thoughts and visits. Anika is overwhelmed with all of the compliments.

Here are some more photos of family and visitors . She can't wait to meet more interesting people to add their photos to this album will continue to grow.

Anika Suzanne Zilge

She has arrived and we feel so incredibly lucky.


First lets get the vitals out of the way. She arrived on Monday October 6th @ 7:38 p.m. She weighed 7lbs 6.8oz, her height was 20 1/4" and her head was 13".

Mary's contractions started at 4 in the morning. At 5 o'clock she woke me up (thanks for the extra hour of sleep honey). The contractions were about 6 minutes apart. The progressed to 5 minutes rather quickly. After an hour of contractions 5 minutes apart we called the hospital. They had us wait at home for another hour.

We finally were admitted at 8:45. At 10:30 Mary got her epidural. Funny epidural story. At one point Mary asked me to scratch her left knee. So I started scratching it through the sheets. She said "No under the sheets". So I obliged, and she said "Under both sheets". To which I replied "Honey I am scratching directly on your skin"..."Oh".

At about 1:30 they administered pitocin to speed things up. We got to the pushing stage at 5:00 and we were pretty happy with how things were progressing. Well after more than two and a half hours of pushing little Anika arrived.

If you wish to see more photos go to http://gallery.me.com/brad.zilge#100107 some of the photos seem the same, others don't.

It is Saturday afternoon and Mary still hasn't had any real contractions. We are still waiting and using the time to get things done around the house.

So I spent the day working on the garage. My dad, Weaver and Paul came over to help. The siding is 90% done. The soffit and facia is almost done as well. We might be able to the garage soon.

Looks like we could have had chili fest after all ;)

Due Date

It is Friday October 3rd just a little after noon. Today is our due date, but so far nothing has happened. Mary hasn't had any contractions to speak of. Tomorrow would have been Chili Fest, maybe baby Z will be born on Chili Fest day. Either way, next year she will be voting for daddy's chili.

The Belly

There has been a request for a belly picture. So we shall oblige.