welcome new niece, plus weekend recap

My sister and her husband welcomed their second child, Hayden, into the world yesterday afternoon at about 3:30. Despite my incorrect text message to some of you, her last name is the same as her mother and father, not her mother's maiden name (I really wasn't thinking when I sent that text). She is an adorable little girl, and the whole family is doing great. It was a real treat to be at the hospital, in the waiting room of course, and get to hear from my mom that she had been born. Apparently the process went ridiculously smooth, which is great for my sister, and cause for jealousy on the part of other women.

I'm certain that my nephew has no idea how his role as "the one who gets all the attention" is about to change. It'll be especially interesting watching Casey & Jeff deal with a 14 month old boy is now walking, grabbing everything, and trying hard to start talking, whilst dealing with the diapers, feedings, and erratic sleep patterns of the new little girl. I wish them all the best luck and lots of energy to do so! But I'm sure they'll do great. I did snap a photo with my cell, but it turned out very poorly, so I'll have to get a copy of a good pic from my mom and share it with you all later on.

At one point we snuck out to grab some burgers for Casey & Jeff (and ourselves) from a place near the hospital that the nurses recommended. If you're ever in Walnut Creek, check out Gordo's Gourmet Hamburgers. I wouldn't call the place gourmet, but the burgers were pretty good, and they have an interesting mural painted on the walls, including this bit

I'm not sure how Stewie earned a place amongst Batman, Superman, Hulk, Spiderman, and Thing, but if a parrot, a unicorn, and some kid with a candle can be on the wall, then why not a child with a British accent and a football head.

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Saturday we purchased some unfinished furniture (on purpose) for our master bath. We'd wanted a small unit for the open, empty corner of the bathroom to hold towels, TP, whatever, and we found a great unit, made out of real wood, for way less than if we'd bought from a regular furniture store. No, it's not as cool and original as a Telford piece, but I don't (yet) have the skills or the tools to do it, and by "yet" I mean probably not any time in the next 5-10 years. If you're looking for anything, the place we went had a pretty good selection, despite everything being crammed into a relatively small space, and there being NOBODY else there.

Saturday evening we visited Steph, Jeff, and their daughter Alexis at the birthday party they threw for her. S&J were fairly busy with all the activities and all their family that was there, so we didn't really get to visit too much, but it was nice to catch up during the short time we did have.

Sunday was rowing races at Lake Merritt in Oakland. I rowed in two different single events (me by my little self in a long, narrow boat with two oars) and an eights race. I was pummelled both times in the single, mostly because I just don't have enough practice time in it. I enjoy rowing the single, and I'm glad I raced it, but it just didn't happen. The eight went much better, and actually was a hell of a ride. We took second to a real sharp boat from Marin, and beat several other really fast boats. It was so fast, and hard to keep up, or breathe. It was a lot of fun, and I came away from it with a medal, so that felt nice. I'm still waiting for the service that was at the event taking photos to post proofs from the racing on their web site. Perhaps I'll link a couple here (if they aren't totally embarrassing) once they come out.

And I'm spent.