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In a few weeks, Amanda and I will be heading to Kansas City to throw a bit of a graduation/going-away party for a couple of our (married) friends. We’ll probably drive down Saturday morning, spend the afternoon with my extended family down there, spend the evening at the party, and then crash at the uncle’s place. Our friends graduating from medical school, and will be leaving their home in KC for warmer waters: Austin, Texas.

It has to be a fairly stressful time to move, with the housing market as it is. Amanda and I were hoping to put our place on the market next spring, but we’re not sure we’d get our money back out of it that soon – especially considering there are already two houses for sale on our block at the moment.

However, there are always two sides to every market, and it’s a fantastic time to buy a house. The real estate agents in Austin must have had a heyday showing our friends around their fair city. The options are nearly limitless if you’re looking to buy (presuming you have a decent credit rating, I suppose).

So it will be sad to see our friends moving even further away, but hopefully the market let them make the most out of their move. Oh, and moving their careers forward has to be a nice big plus too, I suppose. :)

Hmm… I suppose I should make a point to get hold of my uncle this week and verify that we can actually crash at his place.

I’ve posted a bunch of new photos up on Flickr, for those of you who… err, like looking at me, I guess. They’re a couple of weeks old, though, so you’ll have to imagine what I might look like now. And for those that have a bad imagination, here’s a little help: my hair is a couple of millimeters longer, my facial hair is a bit scruffier, and today I’m wearing black instead of blue. Otherwise, the resemblance is downright uncanny.

I only have 18 days until I start teaching my first class! This is exciting and scary simultaneously. Right now it’s mostly scary, because I haven’t finished the course pack for that class yet. And I haven’t even started the pack for the second class. Or planned what I’m going to teach in the second class, for that matter. I think I’ll have to start thinking about that stuff this weekend. :)

So that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend. Well, that and writing stuff for CSSnewbie. And I’m going out with friends on Saturday night. And I’ll have to post a few more comics on ICanHasHope. I keep busy, is the uniting theme here.

I spent a good portion of the day today over at my parent’s place. My niece Lilly was visiting for the weekend, and we hadn’t given her a birthday present yet (her party was a couple weeks ago, but we couldn’t make it), so we figured it was a good chance to remedy the situation. As luck would have it, Eric and Renee were also visiting with Caitlyn, so it was a chance to see both of my nieces (as I’m going to think of Caitlyn) at once. :)

As I recently decided, being an Uncle is pretty darn cool. All of a sudden, I get to visit toy stores, buy little shoes the length of my thumb, and read books I haven’t seen in twenty years. It sort of rocks.

Take yesterday, for example. Amanda and I were in Ames sort of spur-of-the-moment to satisfy a long-standing King Buffet craving. Afterwards, we headed across the street to the Borders to pick up some books for Lilly’s third birthday. I managed to find a few of my favorite books from when I was that age, as well as rediscover a few I’d forgotten about. In the end, we settled on these seven:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Where The Wild Things Are
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• Tuesday
• Just Go To Bed
• When I Get Bigger
• Just Grandma and Me

I think that’s a pretty respectable library for a 3 year old. Do any of you have any favorites from when you were a kid that I should know about? There’s no reason I couldn’t start stocking up for next Christmas. :)

I’ll update this post as I have news:

6:05am - Eric and Renee are at the hospital… the baby might be coming today! They should know more by around 8am. Stay tuned!

9:26am - The baby is coming today! Renee’s water just broke!

1:12pm - I haven’t heard any updates for a while, but I thought I would add the photo above to the post. That’s an ultrasound of what baby Gookin looked like at 16 weeks, on August 2nd, 2007. Click for a larger version.

2:28pm - Eric reports that Renee is on an epidural and feeling just fine. :) She’s currently dilated between 3 and 4 centimeters.

For those readers who aren’t sure who Eric and Renee are, Eric has been my best friend since 1st grade, which means we’re somewhere into our 20th year of friendship (here we are around year 10). He and Renee married in September of 2004 (here’s a cute photo my mom captured). I got to be the best man (terrible photo here). This is their first child, and I’m very much looking forward to being an uncle twice over. :)

3:15pm - Renee is at 5 centimeters! Whatever the hell that means! :)

3:16pm - Eric has explained that 10cm is the goal, if you’re following along at home. So we’re halfway there, I guess.

3:20pm - Renee is very near 6cm now. That’s a quick change… I blame inflation.

4:35pm - Renee is at 9cm! I find myself wondering if that is radius, diameter, circumference, or area. I also find myself wondering if I really want to know the answer.

4:55pm - Sorry folks, but I’m going to be out for a lot of time this evening. I’ll update if/when I can, but you’re not getting up-to-the-minute updates any more this afternoon. :)

6:05pm - It’s a girl! Baby Gookin is now Caitlyn Veronica Gookin, weighing in at 7lb 10oz and a whopping 19.5″ tall. ;)

8:10pm - I got to hold her for the first time. :) I’ll post one photo here — for additional photos, see my mom’s post.

Whew. This weekend, Amanda and I successfully hosted our first-ever dinner party. Or party of any sort in this house, actually. And although it was a lot of work, it was totally worth it.

The final and official menu turned out pretty kick arse:

• For Dinner:
  • Turkey (brined & roasted) (via Amanda and I)
  • Chive Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy (Ditto)
  • Apple-Herb Stuffing (Same)
  • Green Bean Casserole (Us again)
  • Cheesy Carrot Casserole (Sara!)
  • Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Anne!)
  • Dinner Rolls (Amanda and I)
• For Beverages:
  • 5 bottles red wine (via Amanda & I, Kate, Lindsay, Megan, and Anne)
  • 2 bottles white wine (via Amanda & I and Julie)
• For Dessert:
  • Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake (Megan)
  • Pecan Pie (Hannah & Toño)
  • Apple Crumble Pie (two of ‘em) (Amanda & I)
  • Flan (Hannah & Toño)
  • Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes (Sara)

So, Holy Crap, in other words. We had a lot to eat. :)

We had 11 people in attendance in total, counting The Hosts with the Mosts. People started arriving around 5:30pm, we all sat down to eat shortly after 6pm, and people filtered out slowly until pretty close to 11pm.

Dinner-Related Happenings of Note:

After peeling five pounds of potatoes what for the mashing, we tried sticking the peelings down the garbage disposal. The intense vibrations from the disposal unit trying to handle the extreme overabundance of ‘tater peels actually managed to shake the drainage pipe lose from the wall, causing a small flood of extremely starchy water all over the new floor. I got the pipe reattached, though, and after a bit of plunging, it didn’t cause us any more problems.

Smaug was being his usual social self during the meal, hanging around the dinner table and playing with anyone who happened to glance his way. At one point, he got bored and jumped up onto the credenza under the window. The only problem with that was, the credenza was covered from end to end with our desserts. He realized his mistake at the very last second and managed a mid-air course correction, missing the caramel top of the delicate Flan by a quarter inch and then stepping carefully around the pies before I caught him an inch from the side of the cake. He spent the rest of the evening locked in the basement.

Miles spent the majority of the dinner outside, because he was just a little too excited by all the new people and smells. Around dessert time, we felt sorry for him, and let him in while we ate our sugary snacks. He happily galloped around the table for a while, saying hello to everyone, and then wandered off for a bit. A few minutes later, we realized that while we were stuffing our faces with cake and pie, Miles was in the kitchen finishing off the turkey left on the platter. He managed to eat a good pound and a half of turkey before anyone noticed. Luckily, I hadn’t finished carving the bird, so there was still some left for leftovers.

But other than that, things went really smoothly. We’re calling the party a success, and are hoping it turns into a yearly tradition. :) And if you would like to see my photos of the evening, you need go no further than right about here.