Kegs for Christmas

Christmas came a little early around here, as you can see from the photo below. I've decided to upgrade to brewing into kegs and to build myself a kegerator instead of forcing Shannon to keep capping all of those bottles for me!

You can see my three kegs (they're old soda kegs) and CO2 tank in the photo, as well as three of Shannon's handywork.

Shannon crocheted all three stockings herself, down to the braided lettering. There is an A for Andrew, S for Shannon, and of course a B for Blake (because though he isn't born, I have it on good authority he's already been good enough to get presents!)

Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

We've carved our pumpkins, have you?

From left, Boo Bat from Shannon, a dog for teenie, small skateboard (with eyes) for Blake, Creepy thing from me, and a Candy (with eyes) for LuLu.

Juggling!

Yesterday Shannon and I met a couple friends of ours (Peter, Danika, and their baby Jocelyn) at the Berkeley Juggling Festival and had a ton of fun. Peter and I juggled most of the time while Shannon, Danika, and Jocelyn went shopping in Berkeley, then we rounded out the day with dinner at the Pyramid Brewery down the street. It was a great day.

Peter has been juggling much longer than I so he taught me a few things. We did the standard four-count pass, two-count (throw every other), threw in a few tricks to each other, then he taught me to pass 7 clubs with two people. I never did get the total hang of it, but next time I should be much better.

We also juggled in a couple groups of three, and five doing larger patterns. Almost everyone there was better than me but it was fun because there was lots to learn from them.

After the dinner Shannon and I went back to see the show, and we got to see Vova Galchenko at the end of the show juggling 7 clubs and doing a few other neat tricks, very cool.

Ok, enough writing, time to go practice more!

And of course a few photos from the juggling festival.

Blake, in moving pictures

Well it took a couple hours last night to upload the video so I decided to post this story this morning and get some sleep. Click the play button below and you can watch the whole ultrasound (17ish minutes) with sound.

The sound is a little quiet so you might need to turn up the volume to be able to hear us. The person talking most of the time is the ultrasound doctor, and he was a great guy. Really nice, really knowledgeable, and a whiz with that machine.

We're totally excited. Only 6 months to go...

Everyone Meet Blake Walter Hurst

I'm Pregnant!
And It's A Boy!

This week I started my fourth month of pregnancy with our baby boy Blake Walter. Below is a picture taken today showing my oblong bump that starts out small in the morning, when I haven't eaten, and grows larger througout the day when I have eaten.

My morning sickness has gone away for the most part, but flares up on the days I wake up early to commute to work.

Here is my belly photo:

Here are the photos from our first ultrasound:

MEASURING IN AT 2.5 INCHES

THE ARROW POINTS TO THE PROOF HE IS A BOY

THE 3-D IMAGE OF ONE ARM ABOVE HIS HEAD AND ONE HAND NEAR HIS MOUTH (FYI: This is how Andrew sleeps - minus the thumb sucking)

Andrew is working hard to upload the video of the ultrasound as I create this post. It is about 20 minutes long and has our recorded voices so you can hear what the sonographer has to say about Blake's positioning/health. I am sure he will post another story with the video tonight or tomorrow. Thanks again for everyone's love and warm wishes. We are so excited to grow and meet this little guy. Teenie and LuLu are thrilled to have a baby brother.

Camping at Mount Shasta

Our friends Suzie and Mark met us up north at Mount Shasta for a quick weekend camping trip.

Our campsite.

We found a creek about a half mile from our campsite that the dogs loved swimming in.

Cosmo and his parents.

Cosmo loved the water.

This is what Teenie does after swimming in creeks.

On our way up to see Mount Shasta Mark and Suzie had to take this picture since their last name is McBride.

Mount Shasta in all of her glory.

Happy campers.

More Pictures From Canada

Here are more pictures from when we visited Banff National Park in Canada with Ellen, David, and Walter.

The car in front of us broke down right as we got to the entrance to Banff. David is pushing, but Andrew is along for the ride!

Here I am taking a break before we climb up a hill to sit in the hot spring pool.

We soaked up all the good minerals and were ready for more Banff.

Walter and Ellen in front of the great RV at the waterfalls.

The waterfall.

Our view as we leave the park.

Those Canadians sure do know how to make beautiful mountains.

We've Made It To Canada

Andrew and I attended the tail end of one family reunion. It is so great to see where Andrew's mom grew up for the first five years of her life. A thunderstorm is rolling in so tomorrow should be a bit wet. The lightning is great because it is so flat and seems to be so close to the horizon.

Photos will follow I am sure. There were two dachshunds at the reunion tonight. I guess Walter (Andrew's Grandpa) started the trend when he brought dachshunds back up to Canada. Now everyone has them! Teenie is missing out.

Moss Landing Camping

Shannon and I drove down to Moss Landing to meet my Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Nick and Mia (oh and of course Peggy) for camping. First trip out in the new RV!

Shannon and I slept in the Prius, but not for lack of room in the RV. That thing has tons of room with the pop-out. We just put a blow up mattress inside the Prius and inflated it when all the seats were laid down. Lots (ok, well some) room. But it was comfy.

We went to the beach a lot, took the dogs around, and finished up by going to another beach on Sunday where we could (attempt) to surf. The water was pretty choppy though.

More photos.

Shannon and I's birthday cakes (with matchstick candles)

Shannon and Mia in the Prius with the mattress blown up.

Moss Landing sunset

Walking to the beach

Mr. Beer

Please forgive the horrible pictures, for Andrew loaned out his camera to a co-worker for a week (yes, you read that right) so I had to use our old, tiny digital camera.

Andrew has started the new hobby of beer brewing. He absolutely loves it (we haven't tasted his first batch though) so if you have any fresh hops in your backyard let us know!

Now, our home improvement projects consist of tapping mini fridges and making room for all the supplies in the garage. I told Teenie to stand on her hind legs so she resembles a beer bottle and then maybe her daddy will pay attention to her.

Traveling in NYC

I'm in New York this week (6/10 through 6/16) for work, and have been having a blast. I'm staying in the Google apartment, and working at the Google office in Chelsea (at least I think thats the name of the area).

I'm here to work with some teams based here, and generally just hang around, but how much work can you really get done with all there is t do here? ;-)

So far I've been to an irish pub, a steakhouse, times square, and a tiny pizza place. I went to Times Square last night after a couple co-workers and I went to a steakhouse. I got to Times Square at about 11:15 pm, and it was still super busy. People everywhere, lights flashing, it was amazing. I spent about an hour just hanging out looking at the lights and taking photos.

The Google apartment that I'm staying in is great. 2bdr, 2 bath, a kitchen, living room, Direct TV, and internet access. That is all great stuff, but all I do is sleep there since I'm online all day at work and off doing things at night.

Tonight I plan to go to the top of the Empire State building (open till 2am) and take some photos of the city. They don't allow tripods though so I'll have to get a little creative to take the shots.

Well, looks like a Drum Band is starting up outside, so I better wrap this up, put on some headphones, and get some work done.

Oh yeah, pictures. (You can see all of them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/NYCTrip.)

The apartment

The view from my building (not my window though)

Three photos from Times Square

Work Out

This morning Bear helped me do my exercise ball workout dvd. I would be flat on the ground with the ball over my head and Bear and Teenie kept dropping toys on me to get me to play with them. By the end of the dvd the dogs were doing "downward dog" positions and loving it.

Bear has been to the dog park two days in a row now. On Saturday, Teenie, LuLu, Bear, and Barley will be meeting up at the dog park at 2pm in Dublin and then we are all going to BBQ back at the Ballands'.

It is going to be tough to give this doggy back!

Baby Bear

We are pet sitting for our friends this week so Teenie and LuLu love their new roomate Bear. Bear wanted to go to the library today so of course we obliged. He loves to read. We love to read to him.

Teenie has finally given up on trying to constantly dangle from his mouth. The poor guy was not amused, but all is well now.

More of Bear to follow.

Eat, Drink, Sleep Praha (Prague)

We've made it to Praha! What a great city. I've had a bad cold so the first two days of Prague were a bit hard to get through, but since I am better today it has been great. Now Andrew is coming down with the cold so I have taken over as tour guide.

*We are currently in a cafe with "super slow" Wi-Fi so we will update Picassa web at the end of our trip from our hotel room*

I will start with some pictures from our trip through Bern and Lucerne in Switzerland:

THE GOOGLE APARTMENT (Zurich, We were the top windows above the bakery)

WE VISITED BERN (bear) AND THERE WERE BEARS

THE SHORTEST TRAM RIDE IN THE WORLD (~100m)

FINE DINING ON EMMENTHANLER CHEESE (Lucerne)

OUR HOTEL ROOM VIEW IN PRAGUE (Wenceslas Square)

WALKING TO PRAGUE CASTLE

ST VITUS CATHEDRAL IN THE CASTLE (we climbed the forward tower, 287 steps)

ANDREW WAS KING FOR A DAY

THE CLOCKWORKS INSIDE THE TOWER (Daddy I thought of you)

WE CROSSED THE CHARLES BRIDGE AND DIDN'T GET PICKPOCKETED

OF COURSE I RAN TO THE LENNON WALL (A memorial to John Lennon)

So here is our breakdown of what we have done in Prague so far:
Day 1: Wenceslas Square, street market, Old Town Square and the clock, ate the best soft serve ice cream

Day 2: Prague Castle (including St. Vitus Cathedral & Story of Prague Castle museum & Basilica of St. George), walked through Mala Strana, went over the famous Charles Bridge, visited the medival torture museum (kinda creepy), looked up at the Dancing Building, sat in a park and got attacked by a bee (Andrew's ok), had dinner, had drinks in the square outside of our hotel (we had absinthe...super fun), walked through a casino, saw a tow-truck pick a whole car up and set it on the flat bed.

Day 3: Slept in, the National Museum (awesome taxidermy & fossils), went to the Communist Museum (I had no idea! Fascinating and now I see the world from a whole different perspective), Sparky's toy store, ate a dessert that had a whipped cream topping that actually tasted like bile (it should be part of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans), and here we are at the internet cafe. We are off to another weird museum, back to the Old Town for a jazz club, and if I am lucky again we will stop for more absinthe.

Here are some last thoughts: smoking is truly disgusting in huge quantities (please send fresh Californian air), send these people some Swiss clothing fast, for we are seeing way too much unnecessary exposure, it is so humid I can't breathe (it started to rain tonight so things have cooled down). Off we go.

Na Shledanou