Leonard's Adventure

We've decided to spell Teklo with only one "k" for efficiency and ease of use. The name is receiving good reviews so we're quite happy with it. What movies will Teklo want to watch as a young child? We made some good guesses and picked up a few titles the other day including: Mary Poppins, Wallace and Gromit and
Godzilla/Gojira. Margaret has never seen Godzilla movies so we had to put these in as soon as we got them. We watched the American release first and found it pretty boring. The next night we watched the original Japanese and were very pleased. Margaret has decided she really likes Godzilla movies now. Her favorite part was when Godzilla ate the train, we had to rewind it and watch that scene a couple of times while she made growling and stomping noises! I would never do such a thing myself. I so look forward to introducing my son to such wonderful entertainment.

We had the first of several baby showers yesterday. We had lots of fun, starting at Nickel Mania, moving on to Momo for superb Italian food and ending up at our hotel suite for Guitar Hero and karaoke. For dinner I got the Rotolo Verde, which was OK. I think I can improve it and plan on doing so shortly. We had a blast at each location, thanks to Natalie who planned it all out for us. As the gifts went . . . there just wasn't much magic there. Gift registries are great things for organizing large gift-giving events like weddings and babies but they take the spontaneity and originality out of choosing on the guests part. It was strange knowing exactly what everything was with a glance and not having to explore anything. We need some kind of balance between the specificity of current gift registries and the free-for-all of unorganized giving to make sure the recipients get what they need but can be surprised by the choices of the guests. Ah well.

Buying a house is quite stressful. Especially when it happens unexpectedly. We were considering looking at houses to rent while we built up a bit of capital to make a purchase, possibly using a lease w/ option to buy contract. The last house we viewed was quite nice, if a bit small at 1250 sf but with an outrageous 2 story deck. Instead of offering to lease we decided to give a low-ball offer that we could pull off the financing on pretty easily and the owner bit! Now all of a sudden we've got to get our financing set up and close. How exciting! This adds a few more items to our big list of things to do building up to Teklo's arrival.

In anticipation of getting into our own house I've been checking out kitchen appliances. In the house right now is a Magic Chef oven and a similarly low end dishwasher. Unacceptable. I cannot get up each morning to be greeted by the suspiciously perky and evidently "magical" chef stamped on the range's console. After some thought and debate, Margaret and I have opted to go for higher quality consumer appliances, namely KitchenAid. We picked KitchenAid becuase it appears to be an excellent balance between cost and quality, and so that we could get appliances with similar appearance to give the kitchen a custom look. We've chosen a slide-in gas range, cabinet depth fridge, and sleek dishwasher. The prices are a bit steep, but the kitchen will look like a professional, custom kitchen and will perform like a dream. I so look forward to cooking in the new house. Look for your personal invitations to sample my wares, coming your way in late 2007!