First Things First Dept.:

The results of the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool Contest are in. Using my amazing spreadsheet skills, I was able to determine the winner and make transfer arrangements within a few hours of MEG’s birth (12/30/06 at 1442 MST).

Drumroll, please:

prying1 came in second, with a guess (12/31/06 at 0700 MST) that missed by 16 hours and 18 minutes, winning the consolation prize of 184 BlogMad credits.

Jarhead John, with a winning guess (12/30/06 at 1800 MST) that was off by a mere 3 hours and 18 minutes, wins the grand prize of 836 BlogMad credits.

Congratulations to you both, and please make your accounts ready for an infusion of BlogMad credits!

While the turnout for the contest was light, I want to thank everyone who helped me keep it in front of the masses (my Blogroll on the left is the thank you list, most of them mentioned me at least once during this contest) but especially Paul, at BlogMad, for putting it up as a banner that alternated in with other messages.

Now, it’s really late and I have to go to work instead of hang out with TMBWitW and our new daughter tomorrow morning. I praise God for having a job to go to, and I look forward to being able to do it in order to support my newly expanded family.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support the Freedom Project!

Well, no baby.

Yet.

We traveled to the hospital this morning; we are at home this afternoon. The RN on duty told TMBWitW that the contractions, while painful and frequent, were not enough to admit her – she was not in full labor yet.

This is a very emotional and trying time for TMBWitW, as it is the culmination of her dreams and to be so close and yet so very far away, and to be told by a nurse who has no bedside manner that she isn’t really feeling labor yet – well, it was all I could do to not coldcock the RN myself.

Talk about a lack of empathy.

I am re-opening the pool, until that time that we are so sure of the impending birth that we see what color hair the little girl has.

OK, maybe not that late, but you know what I mean.

This has been the most tense and terrifying and thrilling and depressing Christmas I have ever experienced.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please keep praying, as we need all the help we can get.

We are leaving for the hospital as soon as she gets dressed.

Contractions are 1-3 minutes apart, long, and strong.

Baby pool is closed.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

I am going to be a new daddy in less than a month.

I realized this (or should I say, this point was driven home to me) whilst listening to KLOVE on the radio the other day and John Rivers, the morning host (with his lovely bride Sherri) said that it was thirty days until Christmas.

Thirty days. Now, it’s even less. And Christmas Day is the projected due date of the bundle of joy. Are you in the pool yet? Over 800 BlogMad credits are up for grabs…

Less than thirty days. Wow.

So, how was your Thanksgiving Holiday? TMBWitW and I spent the day at the house, with the exception of the church service. We had some turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing and peas (with baby onions). Friday I went to my toy store (big blue sign, rhymes with Bowes) and picked up some 2x4s and three sheets of 3/4″ plywood. Since the room that used to have our “extra” stuff in it is now a baby room, we have had some boxes and what not stacked in the hallway. I built some shelves in what is now the hobby room (as opposed to train room – I gave up some much-needed real estate, since I do most of my model railroading on a club layout; I need less room for a shelf-type switching layout than the miniature empire I had planned) so that the hallway can be navigated by a certain person who is much larger than she was a few months ago. Saturday was spent cleaning the house. Sunday was spent visiting TMBWitW’s cousins in Kingman, and, since it would be the last trip up there for a while, we exchanged Christmas gifts. It was quite enjoyable, and not nearly as traumatic as certain trips up there have been.

Wow. Less than thirty days.

I have one more project in the baby room – a “knob board” – basically, a board, with knobs mounted on it, to hang clothes on. Pretty, frilly, special clothes, on pretty, frilly, special miniature hangers. I’ll get a picture of that one, it should be good.

I missed doing this last Friday, so maybe this will make up for it:

Go here. Order a shirt or two, and steal this picture. Plaster it all over the web. Please. Show your support for our troops!

Thank you, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

I posted yesterday, bemoaning the fact that I didn’t have a lot of entries for the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool.

Then, I had a brief brain storm, and emailed Paul at BlogMad Control: since I was offering BlogMad credits, could he, possibly, give me a bit of a mention on the UCP announcement scroll? I didn’t want to ask him to do anything untoward, so if he couldn’t help out I understood completely, and I would keep trying to drum up interest on my own.

Well. Paul wrote back, after looking over the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool, and agreed to mention it on the UCP. And on his blog. And kick in another 500 credits to the basic prize. Plus another five credits per entry (which will go into the consolation prize pool). AND, he congratulated me on becoming a new father! How’s that for cool?

Paul, I can’t thank you enough!

So: The first prize is now at 806 BlogMad credits and the consolation amount is at 109 BlogMad credits. Not a bad haul for guessing when our daughter will be born!

Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!