Yahtzee!

After 37 weeks of waiting, it was a matter of mere hours once we got to the hospital today.  About 4 hours from admission to birth.  What a whirlwind!  Becca gave birth to our son at 9:03am.  Gabriel Shane Thompson weighed in at 6lb 9oz and stands (lays) 20.2 inches tall.  Here’s a photo of the little guy and me, his proud papa.  Click it for more on our Flickr site.

Wait for it…

B-Day is upon us.  Baby day, that is.  Becca’s water broke this morning around 3:15am and we’ve been at the hospital for the last few hours.  Things seem to be progressing nicely and the doctor says we should have the baby before lunch.  I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.  Prayers, crossed fingers and/or ritual sacrifices are appreciated.

I’m going to be a dad.  How crazy is that?

I’m keeping this post short and sweet but promise to post again soon with lots of photos.  Stay tuned.

Sympathy Weight Gain: Myth or Male Malady?

Becca is now 27 weeks into the pregnancy and she is – as they say – “showing.”  All things considered, the pregnancy is going well.  At Becca’s last doctor’s appointment, they determined that she has gained 9 pounds since her first appointment.  That discovery in itself is not particularly noteworthy.  Rather, I was dismayed when I compared her weight gain to my own.  Since we found out about the pregnancy, I have gained 10 pounds.  Ugh!  10 pounds in 27 weeks.

I’m at a loss for excuses.  There is no small human developing in my belly.  I’m not a method actor gaining weight for a movie role. Nope, I’ve just been lazy.  I haven’t been eating as healthy as I used to and my workouts have dwindled to one per week.  That’s my take on things, anyway.

A few of my friends have offered an alternative explanation.  They suggested that I am suffering from sympathy weight gain.  Basically, because Becca is gaining weight with the pregnancy, my body has decided to do so as well.  That sounded like a bunch a hooey to me but – ever the diligent geek – I Googled the subject.  As it turns out, they weren’t making it up.  There were dozens of articles from reputable sources discussing the phenomenon and lending credibility to my friends’ theory.

Alas, this discovery didn’t offer any real comfort.  Digging into those articles a bit further, I found that the “symptom” of weight gain was often explained as a side effect of increased caloric intake and decreased activity.  Wow, who would have figured?  To be fair, they seem to credit the increased calories to aligning your eating habits with your wife’s and the decreased activity to…well…decreased activity.

Has anyone else out there experienced this theoretical sympathy weight gain?  Care to offer your two cents on the matter?

All other theories aside, my physique is mine to control.  I’m a big enough man (10 pounds bigger than normal, in fact) to admit that I’m at fault and have taken steps to turn this around.  My goal is to be back down to a lean, mean 180 pounds by the time our son is born in December.

Random Movie Quote (TV Edition)
Peter Griffin: Oh, you people can kiss the fattest part of my ass.
Family Guy

May the Force be with me

You’ll have to excuse me but I feel the urge to geek-out for a minute.

Lucas Arts will be releasing The Force Unleashed on September 16th.  I’ve been playing the demo on XBOX 360 and it’s pretty impressive.  If any of you (the approximately 5 people who read this blog) are gamers or Star Wars fans (or both), you should give this game a whirl.

You should visit the website if you want the details but I’ll cover the features which I find most appealing.

• Impressive Graphics
  • Nothing groundbreaking, but the game looks very good.
• Responsive AI
  • For example: characters cower and duck for cover when you brandish your lightsaber or shoot lightning from your fingers – as they should.
• Realistic Physics
  • Suspend your disbelief that someone can levitate another person and then marvel at how said person flips through the air like a rag doll, shatters glass, splinters wood and bends metal.
• The Freaking Dark Side
  • There’s no sense controlling your emotions. This game is all about kicking ass, Dark Jedi style.

I’ll be snagging this game after work on September 16th and hope to be drop kicking helpless storm troopers by dinner time.

Random Movie Quote
Yoda: Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

Dude, it’s a dude!

The wife and I went for a 13-week sonogram today and the doctor was kind enough to let us know that we’ll be having a boy. It’s pretty early so they gave themselves a 5% margin for error. I don’t know about you, but a 95% chance sounds like good odds to me.

I told my wife that I’d be happy with a boy or a girl and I meant it.  However, I think she can tell that I’m pretty excited at the thought of a son.  Now I can start counting the days until we go shopping for his first shotgun.  Well, I suppose I should count in increments of years.  Is 5 too young for dove hunting?

Here’s a picture of our baby boy at 13 weeks.

A picture is worth a thousand words

I’ve always liked the proverb: a picture is worth a thousand words.  And it was foremost in my mind when I struggled to justify the cost of my most recent purchase.

My 30th birthday is coming up this month (groan) and my wife was looking for gift ideas.  Given that our first child is on the way and we don’t have a decent camera, I figured that might be an appropriate gift.  We have been talking about a new camera for quite a while and I was torn between Canon and Nikon.  I spent some time with my friend Brad’s Canon Rebel XTI and my father’s Nikon D80 and liked them both very much.  However, I ultimately decided that the D80 – while certainly more expensive – was the better choice given its feature set and the fact that Best Buy had a nice package deal which included the camera, an 18-135mm lens, an additional 70-300mm telephoto lens (nice) and a very nice camera bag (backpack style).

Best Buy also offered me an additional 12% off the purchase because it’s my birthday (sometimes I really love that store), provided I used my Best Buy credit card.  Because the purchase qualified for 0% interest for 18 months, it was a no-brainer.

Anyway, to make a long story only slightly longer, I’m now the proud owner of a brand new Nikon D80.  See below for a photo.  Ain’t she pretty?

Breaking news: there’s one in the oven

That’s right, Becca and I are expecting our first child!  We’ve been pretty sure for a little while but she just had her first sonogram yesterday and we couldn’t wait to get the word out.  I am SO bummed that I’m stuck here in India but Becca’s sister went with her to the appointment and kept her company.  I’m flying home tonight and can’t wait to get there.

Anyway, we’re both overjoyed.

The doc tells us it will be a late December baby.  Here’s the first photo of it (that’s right, it) from the sonogram.  They tell me that grayish shape in the middle of the black oval is our baby.  Who do they think they’re kidding?  That doesn’t look anything like a baby!

Random Movie Quote
Alison Scott: I’m pregnant.
Ben Stone: Pregnant…with emotion?
Alison Scott: Pregnant with a baby.
Knocked Up

Delhi, Other Destinations, Dining and Diarrhea

Sorry about the post heading.  However, it’s absolutely not for shock value (well, mostly not) as you’ll read later in this post.  I know it’s been a while since my last post but the reason should be self explanatory.  I’ve broken this one into easily digestible little snacks that cover each topic.  Enjoy!

Last week at the Gurgaon office

Last week, we successfully completed 1 day of planning and 4 days worth of training here in our India office.  I’ve met the entire team and I’ve gotten to spend some quality time with many of them.  We have a lot of work to do to ensure smooth operations between the US and India teams but I’m very optimistic.  We’ll make as much progress as possible today and tomorrow before I head back to the States.

Fine Dining

Tuesday evening the GM of our India facility took me to dinner at an excellent Chinese restaurant whose name escapes me.  The food, service and environment were all outstanding and the menu was pretty reasonably priced.  I don’t know why but initially it struck me as odd to have traveled to India only to be taken out for Chinese food.  However, I quickly changed my mind when I took my first bite of our pan-seared dim sum appetizer.  I wonder if the Indian food in China is equally good?

Thursday evening, two directors and another colleague took me to an Indian restaurant called Park Balluchi.  I have mixed emotions about this experience.  The food was fantastic, as was the service.  Unfortunately, Thursday morning I got hit with a severe case of Montezuma’s revenge (read: diarrhea) – more on that later in this post.  Suffice to say, my stomach was in no condition to accept ANY food, much less the spicy, complex flavors of Indian cuisine.  I tried a very little bit of everything they put in front of me and it was simultaneously delicious and nauseating.  In spite of my assurances to my hosts that the food was really wonderful, I’m fairly certain they were disappointed that I didn’t eat more.

Other than the two nights on the town described above, I generally ate at either the hotel restaurant (breakfast and dinner) or in the office (catered lunch).  Neither offered anything worth writing about so I’ll spare you any unnecessary verbiage about them.  However, there was one other meal worth mentioning.  On our way back from Agra to Delhi (following our trip to see the Taj Mahal – more on that below), we passed a McDonald’s and decided that we would never forgive ourselves if we didn’t sample some McIndian food.  My colleague, Mike, and I were immediately shocked to find that not only was there no beef of any kind available on the menu (we expected this) but – even worse – none of the traditional non-beef McDonald’s classics were to be found.  That’s right, no Chicken McNuggets, no McChicken Sandwich and no McRib.  Had they not sold McDonald’s French Fries and Soft Serve, I would have forced them to take down the golden arches right then and there.  Alas, we sorted through the menu before us and having considered items like the following…

• McVeggie Burger – strictly vegetarian
• McVeg Surprise – presumably, same as above only more “surprising”
• McChicken Burger – how do you even put those two words together?
• McAloo Tiki Burger – not sure, won’t venture a guess
• Veg Pizza McPuff – I’m not making this stuff up

…we decided on the only thing that closely resembled an American McDonald’s classic: the Chicken Maharaja Mac.  Oh yeah!  Top, bottom and middle bun?  Check.  Cheese?  Check?  Lettue, tomato, onion and special sauce?  Check.  Two all-beef patties?  Of course not.  Instead: two mushy, curry flavored chicken-like patties.  D’oh!  So close.  I’m sure that McDonald’s conducted extensive market research and taste tests when putting that menu together because, hey, that’s what McDonald’s does.  Let me say this for the record: McDonald’s, conduct more tests!  Thank heaven that their fries were the same otherwise I might have starved.

Agra, India: The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

Saturday afternoon, Mike and I drove four hours from Delhi to Agra and checked into a very nice hotel.  Much nicer, in fact, than our hotel in Delhi.  After settling in, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant which – again – was so much nicer than our current hotel’s restaurant.  Sunday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast (or Mike did anyway, Montezuma was still reeking his vengeance on me), checked out and drove to the Taj Mahal.  Rather than bore you with a written description of our tour and the experience, I’ll simply say this: it was awesome!  Now I’ll let some of the photos speak for themselves (the full set is on Flickr).

When we finished at the Taj, we drove over to Agra Fort and took a quick tour of it as well.  The fort is over 2 miles in circumference but only 25% of that is open to tourists.  Here are a few photos of it.

That fort had two moats.  The outer moat was a water moat (though it’s dry now) which was once filled with crocodiles and the inner moat was a dry moat (still dry now) which was once filled with tigers and other anti-personnel creatures.  How cool is that?  I want two moats.  Hell, I’d be happy with just one moat…or a tiger.

Diarrhea and a quest for the cure

Alright, we’ll keep this part short and sweet for those of you who are faint of heart…or stomach.  Thursday morning I woke up with a bad case of “you know what.”  I had packed a crap-load (pun intended) of Imodium AD so I took some, as directed.  Thursday night we had the aforementioned dinner at Park Balluchi and I think that made things worse because Thursday night and Friday morning were pretty rough.  By Friday evening, I was feeling a little better and I attributed that to the Imodium.  Saturday we drove all the way to Agra with no issues and had dinner in the restaurant.  So far so good, right?  Wrong!  Sunday morning around 3:00 AM, I woke up and never went back to sleep.  I was in the bathroom about every half-hour until I had to head down to meet Mike for breakfast and checkout.  I decided that enough was enough and the Imodium wasn’t cutting it so I took the first Azithromycin in the Z-pack that had been prescribed for just such an occasion.  Between not eating anything for most of the day and the antibiotics, Sunday turned out to be an uneventful day as far as my bowels were concerned.  I took the second of the Z-pack this morning and have felt fine all day.  Tomorrow I’ll take the last of the antibiotics and – God willing – I’ll have gotten past that misery.

And finally…

I’ll be headed back to the good ole’ USA tomorrow night (or Wednesday morning, I suppose) at 12:15 AM.  I’ll be back home in time for lunch on Wednesday.  I think I might have a burger.  My wife is picking me up at the airport and I can’t wait to see her.  Hey baby, I’m coming home!

Winding down with a smooth, refreshing Kingfisher

My first full day in India is nearly complete…and I’m exhausted.  The combination of jet lag and very little sleep has rendered me useless.  I’m pretty sure that my exhaustion will guarantee a very restful slumber but – just in case – I decided to continue my international travel tradition and sample a local brew.  Tonight’s selection…

Kingfisher Premium
The King of Good Times

I’m pretty sure I can get this back in the states so I’ll try something a bit more exotic tomorrow.  However, as my friend would agree, Kingfisher is a pretty tasty beer.  Take a look…

That beer must weigh 5 times as much as him but he chugged the whole damn thing shortly after I took this photo.

I enjoyed mine as well.

Exhaustion and beer drinking aside, my first day in India was pretty enlightening.  I want to get at least one more day under my belt before I start documenting my observations but I’ll venture an obvious one…

People drive like friggin’ maniacs here!  I’m certain that I owe my life to the driver that took me to the office this morning.  More on that when the other observations start rolling.  In the meantime: nighty night.

Random Movie Quote
Douglas “Swish” Reemer: Dude, I know you’re feeling jealous right now. Don’t blame me because I have a sweet ass! I can’t help it!
BASEketball

First night in Delhi, India

Alright, I suppose that – technically – I’m in a city called Gurgaon but it’s essentially a suburb of Delhi so…whatever.  I arrived in India without incident but the flight was a beating.  15.5 hours in coach did a number on my back so I’m hoping that I can get a good night’s rest and recuperate a bit before I head into the office in the morning.  Speaking of a good night’s rest…

The Hotel

There were some last minute changes to my hotel accommodations last week and I’m now staying at a Lemon Tree hotel instead of the Park Plaza.  This place is half as much per night so I can understand why the company wanted me to switch.  However, I can definitely see why it’s so much cheaper.  No frills in this place.  Small room, small bed, small desk and small bathroom.  Oh, but I got a free bottle of water.  Sheesh.  The Hilton it ain’t…but it will have to do.

The first of many photos I’ll take while in Inida were of my hotel room and they’re already up on Flickr.  Here’s a sneak peak of my accommodations.

Okay folks, time for me to hit the sack.

Random Movie Quote
Dr. Peter Venkman: Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head. Remember that?
Dr. Egon Spengler: That would have worked if you hadn’t stopped me.
Ghostbusters