...and the verdict is...

Well, aside from one person who had an unfair advantage (tee hee), good guesses everyone. You were all at least 50% correct! It seems that almost everyone was hoping for a girl, but expecting a boy. Mr. waaz and myself really had no clue or expectations, aside from having a short list of girl name possibilities and NOTHING for a boy. uh oh. Mom, how do you think this will look as the beginnings of a "coming home" ensemble?
Surprise, surprise (not really) my due date changed as well. Apparently I am now "due" June 12, exactly a month before Big Brother turns 2. Sorry, Gma/Gpa W, I doubt I'll be able to hold out until your anniversary. The good news is, that makes me 5 months/20 weeks PG already. Woo hoo! No wonder I'm not fitting into those size skinny jeans anymore...N.B.: for fear of offending the sensibilities of a certain doctor cuz, and because really they just look like black and white and grey fuzz, all ultrasound pics have been left out of this post. We'll bring them along in the suitcase if you really feel like squinting. We promise, however, that it's not worth it. We did get one wonderful "straight up the butt between the legs" shot that offered 99.9% confirmation, but the tech didn't happen to print that lovely angle. I'm sure the new boychild will be forever grateful.

Hockey update

Hey sports fans!
I just got back from Arcireale where the Sigonella Sun Devils handed out an impressive beating to the Catania Flames. Led by stellar goal tending from yours truly, Sig pulled out to an impressive seven goal lead after the second period. I then decided to let one of our other guys play a little net minder and I skated out. Apparently I forgot how to skate. Anyway, the 'ol Sun Devils still managed to win by 7 or 8, but who's counting?

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I forgot the camera.

Bonus

Patrick "Roy"-sdorp*
I just realized that I named my child after a professional athlete and got away with it.
I don't think the missus will go for naming the next boy Michael Richter W.
* Patrick Roy is french and therefore his last name is pronounced Wa

Final Score

Ok, here it is:
B&E -2
Dadw -2
E.G. -2
Momw -0
LilB -0

Now the awards,
MomW gets the award for originality.
LilB picks up the most concise answer award
B&E and DadW split the first place points prize.
Mrs G. takes the Bob Barker award for guessing closest to the price of the equipment without going over. In case you were wondering it was in the neighborhood of $1400. Hurray MWR!!

Prizes that have no monetary value:
First place:
a picture of $5000! Yay!

Second prize:
A broken hockey puck, to be hand deliverd when I visit in February.

Enjoy your prizes!!

Your tax dollars at work, er.. play.

Christmas came early for the Sigonella in-line hockey team. Our local MWR has seen fit to use of a large portion of their budget on new goalie equipment. As you may already know, that's me. woo hoo! Look at all this cool stuff:


Free points if anyone knows what any of these items are called. Points will get you some cool prize. Prizes will be selected by me and will more than likely have no monetary value whatsoever. The wife says bonus points awarded if you know how many of your tax dollars was spent on said/pictured equipment.










will I model it for you? Of course.

So I am huge now and goal tending should get a lot easier. Look for future posts about the Sigonella team pummeling Catania and other Italian and European teams in the near future (of course led by some stellar goal tending from yours truly.)






Patrick approves wholeheartedly. he would also like you to see how big the stinkin' bag is that they gave me to lug all this stuff around in.



























That's all for now folks!

Hockey night in Catania

Well, Arcireale really but Catania is close enough....

Anyway here we go.

The teams (notice I am not in the goalie gear)
Catania Flames in the blue
Sigonella Flames in the red

apparently "Flames" is a popular name for hockey teams around here. A little known fact about our jerseys is that the sun was drawn up with a pitchfork and horns and the old team was going to be called the "Sun Devils" but the old CO thought it was satanic and did not want his base to be represented as such. So now we are unoriginal.

A salute to the teams. Each team salutes the other by saying something like
Us: "For Catania, pip pip!(sticks banging)
Them: For Sigonella pip pip! (more banging of sticks)
This is their pre-game ritual to show respect and sportsmanship and whatnot.



Here we are in the 1st period intermission. So far we are not losing too badly.







A mid-period conference to strategize as we begin to lose our grip on the game.






There were no good action shots as the lighting is odd (as I am sure you can tell) and we are not so savvy with our own camera yet, at least not enough to find just the right settings to get action shots at night in weird light. Better luck next time I guess. Anyway we went on to lose our inaugural scrimmage either 10 to 5, or 9 to 4. Something like that anyway, we weren't technically keeping score. I think we are playing again Thursday, so maybe more pictures and stories or something.
XY

I have a new job!!

on the hockey team that is, and no, mom, I didn't get a raise either. Equipment manager? you say. Again, no, my new job is much more, hmm... important. People that I have talked to regularly (about the hockey team) know that one of our biggest problems was finding a goalie. Well it would appear that I have found us one, me. Ugh. It's hot, there are a ton of pads to wear, and by the time we actually get around to playing in actual tournaments I will have the most cut up legs (muscularly toned) ever. I don't know how I got this position but I can assure you that after practice today and a scrimmage against Catania on Wednesday we'll have plenty of pictures.
(mira took pics at practice today...slideshow below)
(mira will also be bringing the camera to the game so look for more to be added later)
XY (who will also [hopefully] be known as "the brick wall')