all the news that isn't

Thursday morning we were all up early. The week prior Adrienne developed excruciating itching and a rash all over her body that would be diagnosed as PUPPPs. The only cure for the condition is delivery (and even then it could be some time), and so we eventually decided to induce labor, since everything else appeared ready – baby checked out and Adrienne’s body was well along its preparations. Even a few days of relief was a welcome prospect. And so we took a couple last photos before dropping Mal off at a friend’s and heading towards the hospital by 8am or so.

Since Adrienne was using the same midwives, she delivered at the same hospital – Morristown Hospital – about 30 miles south and west of our home in Bloomfield. It is a very well-regarded hospital with (what seem to me) very good facilities.

So here is where we insert the yadda yadda yadda part. No, not really, but I’ll give just minor details. It took 3 nurses and finally an anesthesiologist to have success getting an IV into Adrienne – she’s got hard veins already and the rash made it very difficult. Adrienne was already having decent-size braxton hicks contractions pretty regularly, and so a low dose of pitocin kicked things up pretty easily. Adrienne labored for about 2 hours 45 minutes and then spent 30 minutes in the water pushing. Baby girl Tallacksen (#2) was born at 1:15pm.

This birth was much less exciting than Mallory, and so the whole sense was of much more calm. In the birthing room there were us two, the midwife and the nurse and that was it. The nurse pretty much stayed back and just made preparations.

Sadly they’re using a new scale so it’s hard to get the weight and baby in the same frame. Measurements below:

Visiting hours are until 8pm, and so I was able to go pick up Mal from the friend by 5:15 and get back to the hospital so we could eat our first family dinner together. Mal proved to be quite the hit on the ward.

Mal enjoyed the double heart-shaped pretzels. They’re called heartzels.

This is what happens when you point a camera at Mal and ask her to smile:

Baby girl Tallacksen (#2) has more hair than Mal had at nearly 1 year old!

Mal immediately took to her little sister.

David and Mallory spent the nights back at home. We visited twice the following day (Friday the 5th) and celebrated Adrienne’s birthday with a candle (with a fake flame) in homemade oatmeal-chocolate chip-butterscotch cookies.

Saturday was the day to come home! David made Mallory a special breakfast of banana-chocolate chip pancakes. With sausage of course. That kid can pound back the sausage.

Discharge was pretty easy (we’re old pros!) and so we were on our way home, but not before finally deciding on a name – it took a while to figure out who this little person is and what fits her! And so we’ve got Mallory Lenora on the left below, and Hannah Lucille on the right. Both sisters passed out on the way home. Lightweights.

After a lunch of homemade pizza and some naps, we went for our first walk. I gave Hannah her first ride in the Ergo.

The neighborhood turkeys were out and about.

Hannah likes to sleep.

Celli likes to visit.

And Mallory sure seems attached. I figure it will be mutual.

With Mallory more mobile every day, I finally made a move I’ve been planning for probably a year and a half.

If you’ve been to our house, some of your first thoughts are probably:

1. This guy has speakers in the middle of his living room, he must be crazy!
2. And Adrienne puts up with it!

Tonight I pulled the Monitor Audio RS6s out of service from the living room (you see them over to the right in the dining room) and put in place the system I’ve used both as an office system and basement system. These are small NHT M-00 powered speakers plus the S-20 subwoofer. Their size allows them to be placed on the bookshelves. And this way there aren’t large floor-standing speakers in the middle of the floor. Mallory can’t damage them, and they can’t damage Mallory!

It’s certainly a different sounding system, but I don’t think we’re giving up too much in quality. And I do plan on putting the RS6s back in service elsewhere, though maybe not immediately. I’m not sure we’ll see a return to floor-standing speakers in the living room any time soon (or not-so-soon), but the plan does include custom shelves on both sides of the fireplace. And I do think the Harbeth P3ESR would look splendid on top of them…

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But I’m not Seth Myers…

So we recently had the baby room ceiling re-done, and we thought that’d be it. But then we looked at the walls compared to the ceiling and thought, geez, these need some work. So I convinced Adrienne it was worth it to do it now, vs. after the kid shows up. So here we are, after a layer of paint and two layers of wallpaper:

Walls will be patched and then skim coated with plaster. Paint is likely to be the same color as before, we liked it enough. Then we’ll be ready to rock and roll!

And now I’ll take the opportunity to share some music. I’ve loved this piece of music for a long time, so much so that I’m surprised I haven’t shared it yet, but search confirms that’s the case. So here’s a really cool vocal piece (with the help of a little percussion) that mimics a thunderstorm, Eric Whitacre’s “Cloudburst”:

Enjoy and happy Sunday!

Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom in Branch Brook park, here are a couple quick photos I took on my bike ride home:

Sadly, the cherry blossom tree in our front yard still needs some time:

Though the rhododendron are starting to show:

Tomorrow: we plant grass!

But not playing:

For the past few years WBGO has traveled to Newport, RI for the Newport Jazz Festival, to broadcast live with NPR Music. Last year one of the groups I recorded and mixed was that of Dave Douglas’ Brass Ecstasy. They seemed to like their performance and the recording, because they decided to release it as a commercial album. I suppose this is technically the first commercial album I’ve been credited for. Kinda cool. Here’s a crappy blurred scan of the liner notes:

Though I didn’t mention earlier this year another album I was able to play a very small part of happened to win a Grammy award. You have to read all the way through the credits to find my name! 🙂

A couple more from DC. First, Adrienne on the Mall:

And here is the Lincoln Memorial:

Adrienne says she likes this photo of me. I’m just checking my email… or maybe we were lost and I had to do some GPS’ing…

That’s a wrap for the DC photos. Last night I made my first pizza with potatoes on it. Quite good! It was a white (no red sauce) pie, but had: mozz, blue cheese crumbles, potatoe, cheese and parsley sausage, onion and a sprinkle of rosemary.

Also did a more traditional one with Sopresetta, green pepper,  and onion.

Don’t worry, we had a salad on the side as well! And Adrienne had a (pregnancy?) craving for cake, so she whipped one up:

Chocolate with coffee buttercream frosting. It was a nice enough to have the windows open but that made it quite brisk in the house, so I built a fire at night. The cats seemed to enjoy it:

And I finally got the basement painting done. Well, half of it, for those of you following the project. Admittedly, it doesn’t look all that different from the paint that was on it before:

But the goal is to not have it do this, which the current finish is:

Not too much planned for today, though we’ll probably spend some time watching the goings on at our neighbor’s house. They had a 1.5 story house. They’re adding a story to it. Friday the workers gutted the upstairs. And yesterday the four guys completely took the second story off the house. Kinda cool to see the process and how quick and easy the destruction is!

Whoppie Pie from ACKC:

Adrienne on Capitol Hill:

Modern art at the Hirshorn Museum. Some people don’t get the music I like. I don’t get the art that some people like. I guess it works out.

Adrienne in the sun on the Mall:

Julia Child’s kitchen, now on display at the National Museum of American History:

The Monument. So wishing that flagpole wasn’t there. Oh well.

Another day of exploring tomorrow. Likely will check out Georgetown and who knows what else. Happy Sunday!

Recently I made my first LP purchase. Note the careful wording: ‘my first LP purchase’… I do own two crates worth of vinyl that I acquired without any money changing hands. And truthfully, I ordered it – but have yet to receive it. No problem, though, because the indie label from which I purchased it also game me an mp3  (for immediate gratification) and CD of the same album. So what drove me to make the purchase? The fact that it was 17 bucks for the 180-gram LP and CD was nice (though shipping was kinda pricey), but really it was because it was cool music. I’m not sure Adrienne agrees (about the cool part – or even the music part!) but it’s her loss! What’s the music, you ask?

Colin Stetson is a bass saxophonist (no, it’s not a trick lens in the above photo that makes the sax look huge – it really is!) that has crazy extended skills – meaning doing non-saxophonic stuff on the saxophone. Feel free to check out some you-tubage of Colin, but they don’t represent the new album – which was recorded in single takes (no overdubs), but using up to 25 microphones placed all over a huge space – everything from on his body to far away, then mixed to create the sound portrait you get on the album. It really is magical. Perfect for listening late at night in the dark when you’re alone. Which granted, probably doesn’t happen to any of us too much. But this music makes it nice when it does.

Plenty of snow to work with…