It's a. . . .

Stacy went to the hospital today for her ultra-sound. She was lucky enough to go to the Winnie Palmer Hospital. This hospital was a cross between a hotel, a Disney resort, and really good medical care. A very nice experience. The nurses were very nice and attentive.

While Stacy was laying on the table, she started to get pretty pale and uncomfortable. At one point she felt ready to pass out. The rest of the ultrasound was done while Stacy lay on her side. So she didn't get to see very many of these pictures until after the nurse was done.

This picture shows that the nose and lips are intact. No cleft palate. Whoo hoo!!

This photo proves that I am the father. Look at that giant foot! All six toes and everything!

OK, its time for the big reveal. We were lucky enough to find out the gender of the baby during this ultrasound.

If we are lucky, this will be the last time our boy's genitalia is posted on the internet.

Are you ready for the name?

Cavell Hogentobler Jensen

Cavell is Stacy's maternal Grandfather's first name and Hogentobler is Paul's Great, Great, Grandmother Amelia's maiden name (I think, I need to double check).

This is a big name, and I'm sure it will not fit into the boxes on standardized tests, but it is rich with nickname possibilities. Cal, Hogan, Toby, Gun. I'm sure we'll settle on a name when we meet him and get a feel for his spirit.

Putting Away the Silverware

Alayna likes to help put away the silverware. Warning, this video is almost 3 and a half minutes of a two year old putting away silverware. It's cute for the first minute, and then only grandmothers will be able to appreciate it.

Remember, you were warned. Watch this movie a second time at your own risk!

Razorback!!!

Alayna's favorite new game is Pass the Pig. We received the game as a gift from the Litke family at Christmas. Alayna has gotten quite good and has beaten her parents more often then not.

Pass the Pig has two plastic pig shaped "dice" that are thrown and how they land determines the score. Each pig position combination has a name and Alayna's favorite is Razorback, when one or both pigs land on their back.

Click Here to go to a computerized version of Pass the Pig!!

Alayna's American Idol

This is an experiment in video blogging. If this works, you will see a video of Alayna singing into her microphone. She is quite the diva. After the talent show, you will be allowed unprecedented access into a behind the scenes view of Alayna preparing for the next show with her hairdresser.

Key West part II

We went to Key West last weekend for work and our 9th wedding anniversary. Normally when people think about Key West, they think about drinking large amounts of adult beverages, fishing, snorkeling, and wild nights along Duval street and Mallory Square.

Now I'm not one for the drinking so we didn't go to any bars. Stacy does not like fish so we didn't go fishing. Stacy is pregnant and gets seasick laying in bed, so we didn't go on the glass bottom boat tour. Alayna is not a very strong swimmer yet and quite poor at holding her breath, so we couldn't go snorkeling. So we were left with walking up and down Duval street and Mallory Square.

I was able to go to Key West on the company dime because of a job that needed done in the area and I am the only bi-lingual (semi) person qualified to do the job in the company. So Monday morning I left the hotel room and went to work while Stacy and Alayna got to linger in bed, enjoy the continental breakfast and walk a short distance to the Butterfly Conservatory.

While they were enjoying the butterflys I was in a 100 year old house wrestling a toilet. Yes, in addition to all of the high-tech wheelchair stuff I do, I also do some minor plumbing. My job was to remove a toilet, install a 3" pedestal underneath, and reset the toilet on top of the pedestal so the client will not have to sit down so far and make it easier to stand up. In theory, this job can be done in about half an hour. I predicted two hours, but was afraid it may take up to six. Because the house is so old and the flange and piping was so old, it took four hours and two extra wax rings to accomplish my mission.

So keep in mind that I started off my anniversary up to my elbows in another man's sewer pipe and toilet.

So the highlight of the day is picking Stacy and Alayna up after spending the morning with the butterflies. Alayna was ecstatic and of course very cute in her picture on the butterfly bench. Alayna had her picture taken on the same bench during her last visit, but the picture cropped the bench. As cute as she was, people wanted to see the whole bench, so here's the picture as requested.

And if you like the bench enough, here's the pricing. You'd really better like that bench if you purchase this. Alayna is sitting on the large bench. She has expensive taste.

Key West is also famous for the chickens that roam free throughout the island and are protected by law. Some people have taken to feeding them and keeping them around their homes, but many of the chickens walk around and eat the scraps from tourists. Alayna was fascinated by these baby chicks and their mother and father. She told us that the baby chickens and the mommy chicken stay home and the daddy chicken is getting ready to go to work.

Another chicken on Mallory Square

Mallory Square is the home of the nightly sunset celebration on Key West. The crowd gathers and street performers entertain for a couple of hours. There are fire jugglers, acrobats, a guy that trains cats (no really), the one man band, and the ever present "guy painted in silver". The street performers are fun to watch for a while, but they are very aggressive in making people feel guilty until they give them money. A little bit of a turn off.

After the Sunset Celebration, and dinner at an incredible Cuban restaurant, we head to Duval street to look at shops and find a dress for Stacy we noticed in a window the previous day. On our way back to the hotel, I have Alayna on my shoulders to help speed up the walk. And I notice that my back and neck are suddenly warmer and wetter than they just were.

Already resigned to my fate, walking down Duval street in Key West with my daughter on my shoulders, her urine rolling down my back, and my pregnant wife trying to keep up, I feel even warmer and wetter as an even bigger stream pours down my back. Luckily Key West is warm enough that a man can walk down the street with a soaking wet shirt back and nobody thinks twice. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of people that come home with stories about being pee'd on while walking on Duval street, my story just doesn't involve any alcohol consumption.

STS-116
Discovery Launch

We were able to watch the first nighttime launch of the space shuttle in the last 4 years from the driveway in front of the house Saturday night.

Our little digital camera does not capture the light very well. But you can see a little bit of light behind the peak of the roof of our house. In reality this was very bright. At this point, the space shuttle was still on the launch pad just lighting up the engines.

Here the shuttle is visible above the roofline of the house. This photo is pretty close to what we were able to see. We can not see a lot of detail at 40 miles distance, but it is still an impressive sight.

At this point, the smaller thrusters are separating from the main booster and the shuttle. We were very impressed that we could see this. The last day launch we watched didn't allow us to see this phase of the flight.

The shuttle has to travel over 1700 miles an hour during launch to break the gravitational puoo fo the earth. At this point the shuttle is 70 miles away from the launch pad and traveling at over 770 miles per hour. I can't remember the altitude that was announced.

We just keep on pinching ourselves that we live here. Stacy and I never thought we would be able to see a shuttle launch except on TV. We hope to get a little closer and watch the next one from the beach. Our favorite beach puts us only 20 miles from the launch pad to the north.

A Visit From Miss Karen

We were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Karen while she was visiting her friend in Melbourne. Alayna enjoyed spending the day with Miss Karen (Not understanding what an Aunt is and preferring to call her "Miss" like she calls all of Mom and Dad's friends.) feeding the birds and turtles and driving around the Ranch.

Karen and Alayna by the Inter-Coastal Waters

Karen and Alayna

Alayna and Paul with a turtle we found in the middle of the road on "The Ranch"

The Jensen Family Alligator Wrestlers

Cutlery

I've been bit by another hobby bug. I was given a knife making kit as a gift. I didn't make the blade, but I built and shaped the handle as well as sewed the sheath. The knife is very simple and the sheath is even more simple, but I enjoyed myself so much that I hope to move on to something more complex.

The knife is somewhat modeled after the Finnish Puukko style of knife. The blade is a traditional Puukko size and style and is made from Swedish steel. The handle is made from two different woods found in the desert in Arizona. I shaped the blade in a modified traditional style using a coping saw, rasp, dremel tool, sand paper, and tung oil.

The sheath is a cross between a western style and a scandinavian style. It is very simple, just a fold down the middle and some leather stitching. I didn't have any leather conditioner, stamps, or dye, so it will probably stay very simple. I just wish the kit came with a belt loop, but I don't know wear I would where such a thing anyway.

Wekiva Springs Hike Trip Report

I have finally been able to get some time away from work and do some hiking in Florida. It was not very long and it was not an exotic location, but it was satisfying and now I've been exposed to the Florida terrain and "wilderness".

I hiked a 13 mile loop trail located at the Wekiva Springs State Park. The park is located in the middle of the City of Altamonte Springs. It is fairly close to the highway, about a 20 minute drive from my house, but is large enough to keep most of the city noise at bay. There are a few places where the trail comes close to main roads and cars or sirens can be heard easily, but I was not able to see them due to the thick trees and brush.

The terrain of the trail is FLAT. Although the trail boasts "sand hills", I was unable to find elevation changes over a few feet at a time. The trail winds through very dense brush, open plains of low growth palm bushes, and one area that almost had a meadow like appearance. I'm still new to Florida and can not identify the trees and plants I passed, but I'll work on it as I become more comfortable hiking through this jungle.

It's hard to see in this picture, but on the trunk of the tree, just above the level of the palm bushes, is a "white blaze". The eastern half of the country uses the blaze system to mark trails. This park paints a small rectangle on the trees to denote where the trail winds. There are four or five trails in this park and each trail uses a different color to mark the trail. The system is easy to follow until the trees are blown over by high winds and the trail hasn't been used in so long that it is hard to follow in the ground. Between keeping one eye on the ground trying to avoid stumps and rocks on the ground and keeping the other eye on the trees looking for marks, I can understand how a hiker not paying attention can become easily lost.

All in all, the hike was enjoyable. Next time I will take a set of swim trunks and a towel so I can jump into the natural spring at the end of the trail head to cool off. Even though the temperature was a cool 92 degrees, I lost a lot of water weight in sweat. In fact, every item in my hip pack was thoroughly soaked. I learned that even though my camera is water resistant, the lens gets fogged up from being near my sweaty self. I will have to zip loc bag it next time and see if I can get some less fuzzy pictures next time.

Not Quite A Notch

The snakes around here are getting awfully gutsy. Stacy recently found one in the guest bathroom. I was driving home from a job in Tallahassee and was about an hour away from home when she called. She seemed pretty calm for having a snake in her bathroom.

Stacy closed the door, stuffed a towel in the crack, and waited for me to come home. When I got home, Stacy reported that the snake was curled up in a corner and wasn't really moving. Alayna had decided that, "She was scared". Apparently, this particular snake is a girl. I entered the room and noticed a 12" long snake curled up in the corner. Stacy has the camera and is taking pictures. The snake seems pretty calm at this point.

Stacy told me that she had looked on the internet and found our new house guest. She is a Blue Stripe Garter snake. Normally found in Florida around residences and water sources, eating small bugs and supposedly harmless. I guess I was supposed to start feeling warm and fuzzy about this snake. But when I tried to get her to crawl into a plastic bag, she started attacking. Luckily, I was able to persuade her to enter the bag without any party being harmed.

I took her outside and released her by the pond down the street. She slithered off without even looking back. Not even a thank you for not chopping my head off. Ungrateful snake!

You can kind of see the triangle shaped head.