Touche.

1. I have been to a reggae festival in Windsor, Canada.

2. I need sleep more than I like to admit.

3. I love the new HBO show Flight of the Conchords. We've had the lavish (but most of the time, I find not so lavish) luxury of HBO the last couple of weeks in the hotel, so we got to see the premiere of the show last night.

4. I once "played" a wind chime with a 9 foot long branch in public... without pants. Really.

5. I have nearly died instantly several times in my life, but after each time, I've walked away completely unharmed.

6. I've been in two original bands: Table 6 in high school, and Les Seducion Mechanique in college. Both played hole in the wall coffee shops, but they were very different musically.

7. I had a rat tail for about 8 years. Never too long, just a tasteful 6 inches or so. There was even an attempt to add a Nike swoosh to the back of my head to add to the ensemble, but it ended up looking like a crooked smiley face. Katie considers it divine intervention that that cut, in the long run, didn't pan out.

Home away from home

Things have been going great. We've finalized the lease for our house in Greenlake, and our things should arrive on Monday. We're living in the great extended stay hotel near downtown. We've gone to the birth center, and while it's further away than what I'd like, the midwife we met with was excellent as were the birthing suites. PLUS, it's going to be about $10,000 LESS having the baby there than what it would have cost us at the hospital in Urbana. Seriously, a third of the cost, and our insurance should cover it. It would be about a sixth of the cost if we had the birth at home, but I think we'll be much more comfortable at the center.

We start our birthing class, plan to visit a good friend, and go to Feast tomorrow. On Sunday, more relaxing at the hotel and experimenting with our friends' new Wii. We are very lucky.

Miracles do happen

I completed all of my experimental work in the early evening of the very last day I could be in Urbana. While it's disappointing I couldn't make it up to Chicago to give proper goodbyes, I now have what I need to write my thesis and complete my degree. We fly to Seattle tomorrow morning to start our new lives, now ruled by Elsa the benevolent dictator whose mere presence has overthrown my former advisor's iron-fisted strangle hold on our daily affairs. Long live Elsa!