We went to Italy last weekend.

What's in a name?

Ceasar Augustus Thibodeau?
Well, we know we're having a boy now so that pretty much leaves picking a name as the only remaining loose end. Picking a name for your baby is a huge deal. Think about it; the name you give your unborn child is something he will carry for his entire life. So how do you go about picking a name? One obvious way is name your son after yourself. For those who don't know, I am a junior, named after my dad. When I was younger, I had always thought that I would do the same and carry on the tradition. This changed very quickly when I was in college and got a crash course in the dangers of being a junior - I filled out one of those credit things at Sears for the free gift and neglected to put the "JR" after my name on the application form and was subsequently greeted with a phone call by my father who spent the better part of 5 minutes cursing at me for ruining his credit rating. I decided right then that I would never give my son my name.

We picked the X Man's name rather quickly. My heritage is French Canadian so I kind of wanted to give my son a French name but the problem was that I hate most of them - Pierre, Francois, Jacques...they all sound pretentious. So I was in Germany for a class, perusing the internet sites for baby names but finding nothing. Frustrated, I slumped in my chair and asked my buddy Paul Granneman, "What the hell am I going to name my kid?" It was rhetorical but without missing a beat, Paul quickly replied "Xavier". I knew right away that he was right. I loved it. Surprisingly the wife did too and the legend of the X Man was born. We were living in Italy at the time so I also wanted an Italian name so we went with the most famous Italian of all time; Michelangelo.

And now it's time to do it all over again. We were both kind of hoping for a girl this time (actually, the wife was REALLY hoping for a girl) so we already had a name picked out: Scarlett Reagan. However, we hadn't really thought about boy's names so we currently have none. We don't really have a system for picking names so occasionally one of us will throw out a name and see if the other person likes it. The problem is, while we both agreed on Scarlett pretty quickly, we've yet to find a boy's name that both of us agree on. For my part, I would really like to give our second son a prolific name, a name of someone who has made an indelible mark on history. My favorites are Augustus, Ceasar (or the Italian form, Cesare, a very popular name in Italy), Napolean, Fausto, Romulus, Constantino, Hannibal, Ulysses. Those are names destined for greatness. Naturally the wife hates all of these.

I wonder how she would feel about "Manny Papi Larry Brady Moss Cam Bobby Beckett Curt Raymond Ted Youk Pedro Wes McHale Garnett Yaz Thibodeau"?

So...

Stay tuned for news...

At approximately 1530 CET (that's 3:30 pm Central European Time for all you civilian types), we have an appointment with the German clinic downtown for the ultrasound during which we will of course find out the sex of our unborn baby. I will be posting the results here afterwards so check in later if you want to find out.

Sup.

I'm bringing it back!

The goatee that is...

A Very Gino Christmas

[Editor's Note: Gino sent this to me over the holidays but since I wasn't at work I didn't get it in time to post it. It is in response to my "Ghost of Christmas Past" post on December 23rd. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.]

It isn’t often that I think about Christmas past, but Rik’s last blog entry started me thinking about what is great about Bon Natale.

My greatest gift was as a 9 year old I received a Red Ryder BB gun. It was carbine action that held 650 rounds, had the leather saddle strap attached, and the burned in image of the Red Ryder with his lasso in hand on the stock. It remained my favorite gift for 35 years.

Christmas Eve ‘07 I watched from my rocking chair as my son Jake opened his very own Red Ryder BB gun. It hangs by the backdoor, every time he leaves the house it is in his hand. Our homestead is now safe from cattle rustlers, storm troopers, and all around “bad guys”.

My favorite gift is still the Red Ryder, only now it’s in the hands of my son.

Thanks Pardner!

Worst New Years...EVER.

A few days after Christmas, the wife got really sick with the flu. It was more of an intestinal bug than anything as there was no fever, just a lot of vomiting out of "both ends", if you know what I mean. It got so bad that we even had to call the doctor to be sure that we shouldn't worry about it having any negative effect on the baby. The doctor said nothing to worry about, as long as it doesn't last too long.

So we had plans to go out New Year's Eve, the plan was to meet up with a bunch of friends at the Dubliner around 9, hang out, then head to the old bridge to watch the fireworks. Needless to say, the X Man was very excited. The wife was getting better and was feeling well enough to go out so we were looking forward to a fun night. As luck would have it, she got hit with a bout of, erm...well...that is to say...ummm...how do I put this...well, let's just say that she had to go to the bathroom before we left. The X Man and I waited in the living room...and waited...and waited...and waited...eventually I took my coat off because I got hot...waited some more...

And then it happened.

Stomach pain. It came on slowly but surely, but enough so that by the time the wife got out of the bathroom, I told her that I was not feeling good and that we'd better not go. And sure enough, within an hour I was in bed, writhing in pain. I felt like one of the people in the movie "Alien" right before the parasitic creatures come bursting through their stomach. I spent all New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in bed with intense stomach pain, complete with the requisite vomiting and diarrhea.

Of course, the bright side is that I'm starting 2008 about 5 pounds lighter than I left 2007...