Holiday Tree

Polly and I picked up a holiday tree yesterday on our snow day, and just in time! Today we got a box full of ordiments from Polly's mom and dad. Here's some pictures of the tree in our window.

Please Sir, More Gruel?

So Polly says that I look "Dickensian" in my snow outfit, but she doesn't know what character. What do y'all think?

Snow Day!

At around 5 PM yesterday it started hailing and snowing at a furious rate. Within an hour Seattle was slowed down to a crawl. Traffic was backed up at the tops and bottom of all the hills and the buses were going nowhere.

I walked from our house to meet Polly when she got out of work. We got some dinner and walked home through the snow, some of which had melted and then refroze as ice. It was a long walk back from work cos Polly was having back pain, but we made it.

Once we got back I found a flashlight and surprised the chickens by bringing them some extra hay. They'll be talking about it for quite a while: The mysterious UFO who brought the winter hay.

This morning everything was icy, cold and quiet. We got up extra early to get prepared. Polly caught the bus to work only to find that today was a snow day! Woo Hoo! All right!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!

Polly, Unit and I spent the day cleaning house and cooking for a little party. Here I am hard at work...
















We had two Megans, two Chris', one Cari, one Polly and one Unit attending. We had dinner at Polly's family table which was shipped out from Chicago to Seattle.















After dinner we went downstairs and played a boardgame of Chris P's which was all about building castles, roads and cloisters in medieval France.

Belly Shots- Week 22

Unit Throws a Party!

I want to suck your cord blood!

In the spirit of Halloween:

One of the many things I was unaware of is that having a baby brings up questions about stem cells. Apparently the blood in the placenta and umbilical cord contain stem cells which can be frozen and used for treatment of diseases of the blood and immune system. Typically this cord blood can be collected after the placenta comes out and can be stored in a private cord blood bank in the event that they donor (ie. the baby) develops a disease, or in a public bank in case a matching donor can be found.

Polly and I talked about what should be done with Unit's cord blood, and we decided that we are going to donate it to a public cord blood bank. It's pretty unlikely that Unit will develop a blood disease (about 1:2,700 to 1:20,000 odds) and if someone else could use the cord blood it's better that it go to use. Also, my father had a blood disease, aplastic anemia, which is one of the fifty or so diseases that cord blood may be helpful in curing. My dad had to get blood transfusions on a pretty regular basis for a number of years. I'm grateful for the fact that public medical banks exist and are there for people who need them. With any luck Unit's cord blood might be able to help someone else out.