Jazz and Blues

By the way, Tacoma's seventh annual Jazz and Blues Festival is taking place tomorrow downtown.

7 weeks

We took the first photos of Brittany's pregnancy a couple nights ago, the last night of week seven. She's now in her eighth week. It's gone by fast so far.

It all still seems pretty unreal. Maybe it will be easier for me to fully comprehend Brittany's pregnancy when she starts really showing. Maybe not. People keep telling me I wont really be able to understand all this until after the fact, after the baby is born. I'm really excited, but I can't completely wrap my mind around what's going on inside my wife right now. I don't think there's any way to really anticipate the changes that are going to take place in our lives over the coming months.

Broadway Farmers Market

The Broadway Farmers Market opened this morning. I took a break from my Census duties, and Brittany and I walked over and ate some corn on the cob in the rain. It was good.

I wrote an article all about it.

Happy Mother's Day...

Brittany is pregnant! We found out late Thursday night after Brittany got home from work and had a feeling she was. We ran out and bought a couple home tests and, sure enough, she was right. I bought her a card and a Stargazer lily for her as a surprise Mother's Day gift. Little did we know, a much bigger surprise was coming.

While we were at her first doctor's appointment, Skinner decided to eat the pollen out of the lilies. It didn't agree with him, to say the least. We came home to a mess on our bedroom floor, and a sad kitty. But he seemed happy and playful later in the day, so we thought nothing of it. For a while. Not until later that evening when Brittany's parents stopped by for a visit, and they told us lilies were poisonous to cats and humans. Skinner seemed perfectly fine at that point, so we still didn't think too much of it. I just moved the flowers to a place where the cat couldn't reach them.

The next morning I was feeling nervous about the situation, and I started looking up information about lily poisoning in cats. What I found sounded pretty dire. Skinner's symptoms were exactly as I read online. I called the vet, in a panic, and was told to bring him in right away. So, long story short, my first Mother's Day gift to my wife nearly killed our cat.

But, don't worry too much. Skinner should be fine. He spent three days in the hospital hooked up to an IV to flush the toxins out of his system. Cat's systems don't have the proper enzyme to metabolize the toxins of lilies, and that leads to renal failure, which leads to kidney failure, which leads to dead kitties. But, thankfully, the poisons were flushed from Skinner's system in time to save him, and now he's back at home with us.

We picked him up from the vet earlier this afternoon. He's almost back to normal. He wont stop licking the two shaved patches on his legs were the IV was connected, and where his blood was drawn. But I'm sure he's happy to to be able to, now that the cone of shame has been removed from around his neck.

Brittany is early in her sixth week of pregnancy, and she's doing great. We are both very, very excited. Her first doctor's appointment went really well. She has decided to have her pre- and post-natal care done through the Pearl Place Women's Center in Tacoma, which means that she will be able to deliver our baby at the Birthing Inn. Just visiting the Birthing Inn last Monday was a very emotional experience for both of us. We are very optimistic!

Bike to work

I just wrote an article about bike to work week, which is all next week in Pierce County. There are also a couple bike maintenance classes this week, two of which are free. I'd ride my bike to work if it hadn't been stolen earlier this year...

Zzzzzzz...

I have finally gotten around to writing another article since starting the Census job last week. The Proctor District is hosting an event to benefit breast cancer this Thursday, which I just realized is today. Here's the article. Now I'm going to bed.