September 5th - Labor Day
Marie’s appointment this morning went well. Our pictures from the ultrasound were horrible again. None of them have compared to the first one we got. I’m wondering if the machine they used the first time in Grandville was better than the ones they are using at the GR office. It’s just a big fuzzy head. The NST was pretty funny. During the test, the baby was moving around so much that the unit recording everything was going crazy! The nurse heard it out in the hallway and came in to see what was going on. I took some pictures with my camera phone of Marie all hooked up and even recorded his heartbeat but Marie being the shy type doesn’t want them posted online. If I was her I would be showing off that big belly!
The doc made an appointment at the hospital for us to go in on Monday, September 5th (Labor Day) at 7:30pm for her to be induced if she doesn’t have the baby on her own before then. How appropriate. Our next doctor’s visit is Friday morning. All this waiting and not knowing is driving us nuts. It’s crazy to think that in one week if she hasn’t gone into labor, we will be driving to the hospital for Marie to give birth. I’m hoping they let me grab our boy as he comes out - and get it on film to boot. That would just be the coolest thing ever.
Past due
Friday was Marie’s due date, but the baby had no plans of making an appearance. Marie had a doctor’s visit that same day and her doctor said she hadn’t even started to dialate yet. She scheduled another visit for Monday at 9am to do another ultrasound (this will be our fifth!) and a stress test. Who knows, maybe we’ll go in for her appointment tomorrow and her doctor will have us go straight to the hospital to deliver the baby. I know that’s what Marie is hoping for. He’s been really active lately, to the point where I can look over at Marie’s stomach and see him moving around like crazy. The other day he kicked me hard really hard, to the point where it shocked me. I can’t even imagine what that’s gotta feel like for Marie.
Aaron got back from France late Sunday night. We hung out on Wednesday for a couple of hours at my house. I showed him the progress I’ve made on the house since he left and we talked about his adventures overseas. Doesn’t sound like he will be sticking around GR for much longer. He wants to head out east to be with Sophie, who he meet during his stay in France. She will be out east for two years and the two of them have grown quite fond of each other. I’m sure we’ll still stay in touch via email and the occasional phone call. He’s a great friend and I wish him the best.
Ryan and his crew went to the Rue Morgue horror convention in Toronto this weekend. He kept me updated all day Saturday by sending pictures to my camera phone. He finally got a chance to meet Cliver Barker and other horror icons like Tony Todd, Ken Foree and Elijah Wood. I gave Ryan my Candyman laserdisc jacket to have Clive Barker & Tony Todd sign it. I’d piss myself if he got Tony Todd to sign it “I hear your looking for Candyman bitch”.
You got Asteroids? Naw, but my dad does…
Tonight I finally got my Asteroids board to coin up and play a game. When I first got the board from John, it was missing 4 of the 2114 RAM chips, tho someone did install machine pin sockets. I installed new RAM in the sockets and fired it up. At first, I got the attract mode to come up on the screen, tho the screen kept flashing and the spot killer light would come on in sync as the game would constantly reboot. After a few minutes, the monitor blew a fuse and shut down. The board must had did more damage then blow a fuse since I replaced the fuse and plugged the monitor into my Battlezone and got neck glow but no picture. Shortly after this all the game would do is reboot. I verified all the ROMS and the 6502 CPU and they were good, tho one of the ROM’s had a leg that was about to break off - so I programmed a 2716 to replace it. That still didn’t fix the problem. I also installed a new big blue on the power brick. After doing this, the game would go into attract mode once in awhile and coin up but as soon as I started a game, it would reboot.
When going into test mode, I would get 6 or 7 tick sounds - not the normal beep sounds you are supposed to get to indicate a RAM problem. I thought maybe the vector RAM was bad so I cut these out, installed new sockets and RAM. I manged to damage a couple of the traces under one of the RAM’s when I was trying to cut it out. (note to self, get better chip cutters). I fixed the broken traces and fired it up - no change. I then grabbed my DMM and tested each one of the traces to/from each pin on the 4 RAM’s that had machine pin sockets installed. I found 1 broken trace while doing this. I fixed the broken trace and fired it up. I coined it up, hit the start button and I could hear the game playing! I went into test mode and got one beep sound, which I believe is normal since my Asteroids Deluxe board does the same thing. One thing I noticed is that the ‘do do do do’ sound was making a ‘tick tick’ sound instead. All the other sounds are fine. I still need to hook up a monitor to the game and see how well the vector output section is working.
To be continued…
I can feel his foot!
As of today, Marie is due in 3 weeks. Other than finishing up packing our bags for the hospital, we are as ready as we are going to be. Last night the boy was moving around like crazy. I felt him kick quite a few times and even felt him move his foot across Marie’s belly. That was the first time I’ve been able to feel that. How freaky yet cool at the same time. I’ve been trying to feel him moving for months now but everytime I would rush over and put my hand on Marie’s belly, he would stop. It’s so weird because now you can feel his feet on the top of Marie’s stomach. As soon as he moves them, you know it. Sometimes you can even see the impression of his foot move across her belly. He’s in the birthing position and has been for almost a month now. I have a feeling that Marie is going to go early - probably a week. Marie thinks she’s going to be a week late. Anyone else care to put in a wager?
I’m putting together a CD for her to listen to during labor. She’s requested some KH (Race The Dream, Kennedy, Raining All The Time) to help keep her going. Personally I can’t wait until we are in the delivery room. I know this is going to be one, if not the most, intense, scary and exciting moments of our life. And with my new miniDV camera I’ll be able to capture it forever, in 16×9 widescreen.