All set for the next party

For Christmas I set myself up with a kegerator. I bought the parts (see the previous post with the kegs :) and this past weekend I put it together.

Nothing coming out of it yet, I still need to brew the beer! But I've got some Oatmeal Stout bubbling away now in the carboys I got for Christmas as well... You can see the video here.

Below are some photos of the new kegerator set up. The one on the left is for fermentation (need to keep the temperature under control or it tastes too alcoholic), the one on the right for dispensing the finished beer.

Also I have a party tap so I'll be able to bring homebrew kegs to the next pool party up in Oakhurst.

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.