"Paris Hilton Plans Reggae, Hip-Hop Album"

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Pain and Baby Nicholas

Hey all, I just thought I would give all of you an update on what's been happening.

Since this past Sunday morning I have been in the worst pain of my life. I am not kidding, nor am I exaggerating. I re-aggravated my back cleaning the garage Saturday morning. I bent down and picked up a box of books and when I went to stand up with it pain shot through my lower back and I collapsed. The pain was horrible for the remainder of the day Saturday but the next day is when the wishing that I was dead started.

I have never been a supporter of assisted suicide but I now have a new understanding of it. I am not trying to be funny by writing that either. Sunday morning was the worst morning of my entire life. I have never, ever been in that much pain. I was praying and praying that I would just pass out but I didn't. As my luck would have it Jack and I had an open house that day so that meant I had to go up and down our stairs and go over to Norm's house while two people who weren't even interested in buying our condo came over.

Luckily my mother came over and cleaned up the condo for us Sunday morning since Jackie can't really lift anything and I was dying. Thank You again Mom for helping us. I Love You.

Today has been the first day when the pain has even been "tolerable". I actually took a short drive today since I have been going insane staying in the house watching TV. In hindsight I should've stayed in today as I am feeling worse tonight then I was this afternoon.

Anyway I have to get this fixed. I NEVER, EVER want to feel like I did Sunday morning again. I don't care if I don't have the full range of movement that I had before. I simply cannot exist like this.

This has been a really cheerful blog post so far ehh?

In other news I am so so so so so so so so excited about Baby Nicholas. At times the fact that I am going to be a father still doesn't seem real to me. Jackie and I tried for years to have a baby and it never happened. We tried and tried and tried until I was really starting to lose faith in our ability to have children and I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that our "family" was going to consist of Jack and myself.

Jackie and I were just about home after the long trip from Paradise and I was driving the Torrent. She said something about her not being happy with the way that I was driving and I immediately went into "asshole" mode. Normally in that situation the chances of me going into "asshole" mode are about 50/50 but after a 6 hour trip in a car when neither of you want to be coming home at all the chances of me going into "asshole" mode are pretty good.

We got home and unpacked the car all while not speaking to each other. After we had unpacked I was on the computer and Jackie came up to me. She just said "You need to see this" and led me into the bathroom. When I saw the pregnancy test on the counter I pretty much went into shock. I'd love to be able to write that my heart immediately filled with joy and happiness but it didn't. Even though Jack and I had been hoping and wishing for that day for years, to actually be standing over a positive pregnancy test was absolutely the most surreal moment of my life. It really screwed me up for about an hour because I had gotten to the point where I just didn't think it would ever happen. After the initial shock wore off I was really happy but at first it was just so out of left field that it didn't seem real.

But real it is and I have photos to prove it. I am really excited about Nicholas. Jackie is going to be a great mother. She has so much love in her heart and she's kind and intelligent and Nicholas is really lucky in that respect. She loves Nicholas so much.

I am really interested to see how much of Jackie Nicholas becomes and which of my characteristics Nicholas inherits. I'm guessing that he will like reading as both Jack and I love to read. I hope he likes music but it's cool if he doesn't. I won't be one of those fathers who force their kids into doing things they don't want to do. I am fairly certain that Nicholas will be a sarcastic smart ass just like his parents.

I also can't wait to see my parents and grandparents and Jackie's parents interact with young Nicholas. Nicholas will be Norm and Sass's 4th grandson but my parents first. I think my mom and dad will be great grandparents. My grandparents are also very excited about Nicholas and I can't wait to see my grandmother hold him for the first time.

I'll write more about Nicholas later but my back is killing me right now so I am done for tonight.

Baby Nicholas's first music.

Tonight Jackie and I spent a half an hour or so playing Nicholas his first music. We played him the music from my new Ipod by placing the headphones on Jack's belly. The first song we played him was "Deep Blue Day" by Brian Eno. Nicholas then enjoyed an excerpt from Eno's "Discreet Music".

After that we played him "Astral Weeks" and "Ballerina" by Van Morrison and "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix.

I am really curious as to how the music sounds to Nick. I wanted to play Nicholas some Melt-Banana or Fantomas but Jackie said no. Maybe next time.

Norm's Place

My brother in-law Norm has made a blog page. You can check it out by clicking here.

The Mighty Oilers 

Congratulations Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers just wrapped up their first round series against the Red Wings winning by a score of 4-3 in Game 6. I felt kind of bad for the Red Wings after the Oilers won but the fact was that Manny Legace played horribly.

I like the Red Wings but they aren't really one of my favorite NHL teams. The Oilers however have always been amongst my favorites along with Toronto and Montreal. Now I just hope that Montreal beats Carolina tomorrow to force a Game 7 in their series.