Pedro and Mad-dog had a beautiful baby girl, Frances Ray, on July 5th. She was 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and is very advanced. They tell us she can already say helicopter and count to 5. We would expect nothing less. The whole family is healthy and happy and we’re so excited for them! I see a bright future as a Grim Sweeper for this little bruiser… just look at her. She’s so ready to tackle someone.

I really needed a new post so that I don’t keep opening to that last one. Nate hasn’t had time yet to post about his recent adventures, so I decided to put something cheery on here. I could use a little cheer, who couldn’t? And what is cheerier than babies? Well… puppies are a close tie in my book, but we’ll go with babies. I give you – Baby O.

Nate and I recently invited our friends Peter and Madeline to become part of potato chip history with us. Last summer when we were at the Uptown Art Fair we visited the Kettle Chips booth, where we were given a free bag of chips and got to vote on what we think their new "happy hour" inspired chip flavor should be. If you are not familiar with Kettle Chips, you should be. They are an awesome company that converts 100% of the waste vegetable oil from their production into biodiesel, they have an enormous rooftop solar energy array, restored wetlands around their facility, and oh, did I mention that they have Cheddar Beer flavored chips? And Spicy Thai? Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese?!? YUMMM!!

Anyway, at the art fair, I of course submitted a suggestion for a bloody mary-inspired chip flavor, of course. The good people at Kettle Chips either took the five most popular suggestions or the five they liked the best (not sure) and made a limited amount of each. They then assembled 500 People’s Choice Happy Hour Party Packs, containing one 5-oz bag of each flavor, a tasting guide and ballots. Needless to say, I simply had to have one. And so approximately two weeks later Nate and I journeyed to Peter and Madeline’s house in negative 20 something temperatures with our box o’ chip fun. On the agenda for the evening? Watching Winter Olympics (did you SEE snowboard cross?!? So. cool.), experiencing the glory and wonder that is the boardgame the Settlers of Catan, and being part of potato chip history. Worthy of risking frostbite and car engine failure? We obviously think so. 

Some of us (Madeline) followed directions better than others (Peter), but in the end, we each judged the following very exciting flavors:

• Spicy Mary
• Dirty Martini
• Tuscan Three Cheese
• Creamy Caesar
• Buffalo Bleu Cheese

We each filled out a ballot and submitted our votes online. Here are the current stats:
Total voters: 4089
Buffalo Bleu Cheese: 3.37
Dirty Martini: 2.61
Tuscan Three Cheese: 3.78
Spicy Mary: 3.28
Creamy Caesar: 3.62

Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for my top choice, Dirty Martini. Buffalo Bleu was a close second for me though, and it still has a chance. I think Nate chose Tuscan Three Cheese. I can’t remember how Peter and Madeline voted, so they will just have to comment to let us know.

And by the way, voting goes through the end of March, so you too can still get in on the history-making.

I mean come on. If that doesn’t melt your heart then you just aren’t human.

Bruno had his first puppy play date since we’ve had him on Sunday. My new friend Sonja is a grad student in the same program as me and we share an office. She and her fiance Greg have a one and a half year-old black lab, Casey, and we talk about our dogs constantly. They’ve had Casey since he was a little bitty puppy, so she’s been a great resource for me to talk about stuff that’s going on with Bruno and get advice and ideas. So on Sunday Nate and I took Bruno over to their house to meet Casey. They were instant best friends! Casey is actually about 80 pounds, about 15 more than Bruno, but they were a perfect match. We were there 2 or 3 hours and they never stopped! They tore around the house after each other, wrestling, playing keep-away, tug-of-war. It was the cutest thing in the world. Bruno gets to be around lots of other dogs at doggy school and occasionally meet other dogs on his walks, but he hasn’t been able to just play, play, play. And Casey knows lots of other dogs, but none that are of comparable size so he always has to play a little less hard. So this was a wonderful thing for both of them. And it turns out that Sonja and Greg are fellow good beer enthusiasts, so Nate and I may have made new best friends as well!

Introducing Baby Ophelia! Our good friend Anni just gave birth to all 7 lbs 10 oz of this small wonder a week ago, Sept 12th! She has her mother’s hair, that’s for sure.

I got to spend some quality time during the first three days mama and baby were at home with them, and I must admit, I was in a little bit of shock after Day 1. After witnessing the wonder of technology that is the electric breast pump, I now feel that I can accurately say that I have seen it all.

In addition to being so very excited to be a part of this new chapter of Anni’s life and to be one of the wee babe Ophelia’s super-cool Aunts, I’m viewing this as a great opportunity to learn about this whole baby thing. My sister has 4 kids, but since she is 14 years older than me I was pretty young when she had them and didn’t have any good understanding or perspective of the whole thing at the time. For another thing I’ve always lived far enough away from them that I’ve only gotten to see them 2 or 3 times a year. This is so different because I get to live in the same city as this little one, and hopefully get to see her every week! So I’ll get to see all the little changes, watch her grow, and I better learn some of the finer points of baby life if I want to be the world-class babysitter I intend to be for this munchkin !

So the time I’ve had with mama and baby so far have left with me with some seriously strong impressions. First, I’ve gotta say the whole childbirth thing is even more terrifying to me now than it was before, after hearing Anni’s story of what she went through, seeing the burst blood vessels in her eyes from pushing so hard, and hearing the after effects and the things that are currently going on with her poor body! But I must also say that after holding little baby O that first day, I could not stop thinking about her and seeing her beautiful face all day long the next day and couldn’t wait for more!

So congratulations to our wonderful, amazing friend Anni! I am so excited to watch this little girl grow, to learn from her, and to be a part of her incredible life!