Showered with Love

Yesterday Jeff and I went to a baby shower in our honor that was hosted by fearless relatives Ginger, Rhonda, and Liz, at the home of some of Jeff's cousins. We drove up to Kentucky on Friday night, spending the night with Dad and Marvis before continuing on to the shower the next day.

The shower was a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of relatives and friends that we hadn't seen in a long time, including Jeff's Aunt Mary and Uncle Wayne, who drove all the way up from Harlan; my cousin Elizabeth, a journalist temporarily assigned to work in Louisville; and my high school friends Carrie, Tabitha, and Chris, and Tabitha and Chris' daughter Samantha, whom I met for the first time.

There were more people there than I could count, but I would still say that it was a finite number, definitely less than 100, and probably under 50. I'm not the world's most outgoing person, so the sheer numbers of people and the resulting loudness was a bit much, but I tried not to let it overwhelm me.

Ginger came up with some wonderful games, including one where the object was to make as many words as you can from the letters of the baby's name. Thanks to the very long name that we have chosen for him and Ginger's word and spelling abilities, she came up with over 150 words that were contained in his name! She showed me her list, and the one that made me laugh the hardest was "tirade." If he inherits anything from either of his parents, we're going to hear a lot of those in the future!

Jeff made a very clever movie trailer about our baby, using his Father's Day gift video camera and the awesome software that comes standard on a Mac, and burned it onto a DVD. He gave one copy to Dad and Marvis, and another copy to his parents. But he also showed it at the baby shower. I can't really describe it without completely giving it away, and I want two of my fans to see it and enjoy it (I'm thinking of you, Rachel and Laura!) so I don't want to give anything away. Suffice it to say that the movie generated a lot of laughs and people really got a kick out of it.

Of course we also opened lots of gifts. Mostly we got stuff that we had registered for, but highlights from off the list include an afghan handmade by Jeff's mom, a UK outfit to counteract the UT onesie Jeff sacrilegiously bought for our son, and a hat handmade by bonus sister Vaughan. In total, we came out of there with a lot of loot. My dad used his packing SUPERPOWERS to fill every single nook and cranny in the trunk of our car, while dad-in-law and John Rice used their talents to fill the back seat, and by defying the Pauli Exclusion Principle, they fit all of it into the car.

I mustn't forget the amazing cake, brought by Rhonda. I am so bad about taking pictures and now I wish I had one of the cake, because it is hard to describe. It was a beautifully decorated cake with the baby's name, blocks with his initials, and two baby booties made of frosting. Under the icing, half of the cake was chocolate and the other half was white cake. The cake was specially ordered from a particular bakery in Winchester and it was really outstandingly decorated, and delicious too!

We drove home after the shower and got in just before midnight, because today we are going out to dinner with some friends. A graduate school classmate of mine, his wife, and their one-year-old son are in town visiting his parents, and they graciously agreed to take some time away from the family to see us. He currently works at Sandia but because of the dire financial situation there is looking for a job after his term of employment ends. He's interested in working here, because this is the happening place, evidently. No, seriously, national labs have their ups and downs, and right now Oak Ridge is on the upturn, while Sandia is on the decline. Ten years ago, ORNL wasn't such a great place for computational science, but now, we are becoming the center for leadership computing, we have attracted great people from elsewhere, and more and more money keeps flowing in. So I seem to be in the right place at the right time.