No More Training Wheels

Tomorrow is my last day working for a public interest law firm. I have been working on an amicus curiae brief for the past few weeks. The research has been rather consuming and the writing has been painfully slow. However, it's getting done. I have been doing my best for the sake of doing a good job. As I was driving home today, I realized something: the training wheels are off. In a little more than a month, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma will be reading my thoughts and hopefully will be persuaded by my reasoning. It is possible that my fingerprints will be on Oklahoma law. Granted, this is just an amicus brief and local counsel will sign onto it and my boss will help edit it.

It's not about money, grades, prestigious firms. My drive home today was an injection of reality and jurisprudence.

A Saturday Adventure

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. Rather than braving the beach crowd, we decided to park in Norfolk and take the ferry across the Elizabeth River to Olde Towne Portsmouth. I don't want anyone of you to sound like a tourist, so I need to help you pronounce the names of these cities. Norfolk: "Nahh-fk" (yeah, the second syllable is a very bad word). Portsmouth: "Port-smith" (the second syllable here, fortunately, is not a bad word).

In Norfolk:

From the $1 Elizabeth River Ferry:

In Portsmouth:

Though we really like the Hampton Roads area, one of our complaints has been the lack of local coffee shops. Portsmouth had just what we've been looking for:

What Is He Going to Look Like?

Christine and I have been trying to figure out what our boy is going to look like. That's a tough one. We are not going to win one of those husband and wife look alike contests anytime soon. Right now, the boy has two first cousins within a year of his expected birthdate. Unfortunately, neither possess a y chromosome. However, due to recent technological advancements, we now have a good idea of how our son will look. The software I used is called Babyface™. It takes faces of close family members and runs a similarity hypermatch protocol. You then can select the age and gender you'd like to view. So...
Here is cousin Tristin:

And here is cousin Maggie:

After running these pictures through Babyface™, here are the two most likely depictions of what our son will look like:

Or

A Strange Discovery in the Last Ultrasound

During a recent ultrasound, Christine and I were greatly entertained by our son's continual pursuit of sucking his finger(s). Though it took a few minutes of strain on his neck and lips, he finally was successful:

I'm sure Aunt Lizzy is proud.

This blog is officially open

Wow. Already we have hit the 22 week mark. You'll be pleased to know that "The Boy" is quite accurate with his kicks and punches. At a recent trip to the Dr, the nurse strapped a monitor on the outside of Christine's stomach so we could hear The Boy's heartbeat. It sounded something like this:

"thump thump thump thump thWHAM thump thuBAM thump thump POW ZOK KABAAM"

Resulting, we are considering naming him "Chuck Norris Tyler" or maybe "Jack Bauer Tyler." I hope to update this at least once per decade from here on out. So please, check back regularly.