D-Day: Plus 1

On June 6th, 1944 the Allied troops invaded Normandy, France in an operation that has come to be known as D-Day. As I am sure most of you know that invasion changed the course of WWII...what you might not know is that the invasion was supposed to happen on June 5th, but it was delayed due to inclement weather.

That's fitting, because as it turns out our little soldier wasn't quite ready to storm the beaches either. Baby Dub is officially overdue.

In fact we had an appointment with our OBGYN today to determine whether or not we were ready to induce labor, which obviously we were not. What surprised me was how hard that news hit me. I was actually really emotional about it...apparently my subconscious thinks having a baby is a big deal.

Megan wasn't exactly thrilled about the news either, after all she's the one doing all the work, and neither of us wanted to go sit at home and stew in that news. So we didn't. Instead we went to Balboa Park and had ourselves an awesome day.

Little did we know the first Tuesday of every month (today) scores San Diego County residents free admission to the Ruben H. Fleet Space Center, the San Diego Railroad Museum and the Natural History Museum. I'm mean if it's free, it's for me, right?

It was a great escape filled with lots of information and plenty of photo ops. I call this one, "Did You Hear That?" Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the answer to be, "All I hear is a baby".

The Many Moods of John Weisbarth

For 10 years, between the ages of 25 and 35, I had a job that did not allow me to grow facial hair... except for a mustache on two different occasions, but that's a story for another post. The 10 years prior to that, from puberty to my mid-twenties, I didn't have the "juice", or the huevos for that matter, to grow the patchy beard that was dying to run free on my face. I did sport a pretty rocking neck-beard after a backpacking trip in the late 90's though.

Still I had never been able to fully enjoy my birthright as a man and grow out my beard...until now. In what amounted to a month long experiment I learned a few things, and had a few things that I already suspected, confirmed.

What I learned...
1. I have a tri-colored beard. Mostly red with some black hairs and more grey then I had hoped for.
2. Some people loved the way my beard looked.
3. Lots of people didn't love the way my beard looked.

What was confirmed...
1. My wife definitely does not enjoy kissing me when I have a beard
2. Beards are itchy a lot of the time
3. Shaving your beard down piece by piece is AWESOME

I present to you (in order of appearance) "The Full Beard", "Chops", "The 90210", "The Goat", "The Major League Closer", "The I Drive a Van with Teardrop Windows", and finally "Baby-Face Weisbarth".

Welcome to the Future

There is nothing quite like the allure of a new car. I don't mean a car that's new to you (though that is cool too), I'm talking about a brand spanking new one that was made in the same year that you bought it.

Allow me to introduce to you the Black Pearl.

Okay I'm kidding, we did not name our car the Black Pearl or Black Beauty or anything for that matter, but she is fresh off the assembly line. This little beauty is a 2012 Ford Edge with all the fixings...well most of them anyhow.

You can say what you want about American car manufactures but I think they have done an excellent job bouncing back after some incredibly tough years...particularly Ford. Sure, they were one of the only car companies that didn't take any bailout money, but that doesn't mean they didn't have some major overhauling to accomplish. In my opinion that is exactly what they did.

Granted, I don't know anything about cars but I do know about cool shiny things...and this bad boy is definitely cool and shiny.

Family Happy Hour

There are a lot of things I loved about my old job and I consider myself extremely lucky to have held it for more then a decade, but one of the things I don't miss...never being able to go to happy hour.

So late Wednesday afternoon, since my wife already had dinner plans with friends, I scampered off to the Gaslamp to enjoy a couple drinks and some appetizers. Of course Happy Hour is not that happy if you have to go to it by yourself, lucky for me my little sister Debra had my back.

She and her friend Kristin were posted up at the Lincoln Room so I met them there, and a few minutes later Kristin's Uncle Jimmy met us as well. We had some good drinks, some good food and plenty of fun.

I guess that's why they call it happy hour?

The Morning Show

My first job in TV was as an editor for a morning news show here in San Diego. It was brutal. First off, I didn't want to be an editor, I wanted to be on TV, and second off the hours were miserable! I have a lot of respect and zero envy for anyone who works that shift.

That said, I finally got to be on the other side of it today and not surprisingly, I liked being on the show better then working behind the scenes. My role today was as an extra during the Channel 6 live shot for my buddy Teevan's Stand Up Paddling company.

I didn't have to do much, I basically just stood there and then paddled around for a few minutes in the bay. Near as I can figure they needed some eye candy so they called in the big guns. I was more then happy to help...but I still think the hours are terrible.

Ain't That a Dickens

The first thing you should know about my wife is that she hates surprises. Actually, that's not completely accurate. It's not the surprise part that she dislikes, it's the not knowing part that precedes the surprise that drives her crazy.

If I wrap a present for her and put it under the tree a few days before Christmas, she can't control herself. I have caught her on more then one occasion trying to sneak a peek under the wrapping paper or shaking her present before Christmas morning. So believe me, if the wrapped pair of socks I put under the tree early drives her crazy, wondering if she's growing a boy or a girl in her belly is down right maddening!

Lucky for us, thanks to the  miracle of modern science, there are these things called ultrasounds which allow doctors to determine the gender of your unborn child. At 12 weeks pregnant we went to a specialist who told us we were having a baby girl. He was very sure about his prediction.

Today at 19 weeks our OBGYN said she was pretty sure we were having a boy.

Welcome to my wife's nightmare.

The Next Generation

Now that I am going to be a Dad in about 5 months, I've been thinking about family and family traditions a lot. Obviously for the last 35 years we've been celebrating holiday's like Easter and Thanksgiving at my parents house, but one of these days we're going to make the transition to hosting these events at our house.

I understand that is not the most profound realization, but it has made me think. That's why when my sister volunteered to cook Easter Dinner this year (albeit at my folks house) I thought it was a great idea. In her words, it's time for the next generation to take over and so that our parents can make the transition to becoming grandparents.

Doing it at my parents place was a nice half step...too much change is scary after all.