Brandon, Barb & Maya too!

Barb had her Baby Shower on Sunday, December 7th and it went great! We had far more friends show up than I would have imagined. Due to Barb now being on bed rest, we had to move the shower from its original location (Wild Wing Plantation's clubhouse) to our home which actually proved to be far more intimate and appreciable.

Everyone was beyond generous with their gifts to us. In fact, the baby will now have a humidifier for every room in the house! (We received three of them). Onesies, bottle warmers, socks, booties, caps, rockers, bouncers -- you name it, someone gave it to us. We can't thank everyone enough for what they did.

The food was outstanding. Darla Domke-Damonte made some amazing pull pork with Sticky Fingers sauces, some Italian meatballs, brownies capped with icing, cole slaw and several other items that slip my mind right now. Basically -- the food was damn good!

My mother was a tremendous help all weekend long, cleaning like crazy on Saturday and Sunday and then spending time with Barb and taking her to the doctor's on Monday. We can't thank her enough for everything she did. I'm not sure any of it would have been possible without her help.

Finally, Kay and Erika were wonderful hostesses. They planned everything out perfectly. They made cute little treats, picked out a great invitation card...they simply did everything as perfect as it could ever possibly have been done.

I'll post pictures of the shower in a little while!

Well, the mommy-to-be is out of the hospital, thankfully. After being admitted on Thursday morning and having a Thanksgiving dinner that consisted of beef broth soup (nothing solid), three helpings of lemon jello and a special high-protein, high-calorie apple juice, Barb was kept on bed rest in her hospital suite (and it really was -- it has to have been close to 700 sq.ft.!).

When you spend a week in the hospital, you quickly realize just how unhealthy a hospital is. Barb's choice for breakfast in the morning consisted of whether she wanted a plate full of bacon or a plate full of sausage to go with her eggs (real eggs, not even low-cholesterol eggs!). For lunch -- how about a cheeseburger or deep fried chicken fingers? And dinner -- let's go with pizza or...pizza. But there was ALWAYS jello (and a brownie, and poundcake, and anything else deemed unhealthy). It blew our minds that a place you are supposed to "get well" at could harm you so much with such a menu. And all they offered the baby was steroids (two doses, in fact)!

Anyway -- the hospital was kind enough to give us its largest room so that I could stay each evening with Barb, which was comforting to both of us (significantly more comforting than the concrete beds we had to sleep on).

Barb had been scheduled to have an amniocentesis on Monday. If the steroids had expedited the baby's lung development to the point they were full operational, they would proceed with inducing labor. Right now, that plan is thankfully off of the table as both Barb and I would much prefer to wait until at least 36-weeks (December 22nd).

The most important thing is that Baby is healthy. At our last ultrasound, the baby weighed in at 4 pounds and 11 ounces, with the technician saying that she always underestimates. The ultrasounds can be off by one-full pound, meaning that chances are Baby is about 5 pounds right now which is a very good size. The baby is VERY active and really gets riled up when I play with its feet when they are pressed against Barb's stomach. It starts kicking, doing somersaults and everything in between. Chances are I will regret this as I am creating on irritable child before it even experiences the world...but hell, it is damn fun to do!

We got to see the baby one more time on an ultrasound, although it was tough to tell the features. My best guess from the static-ridden pictures is that the baby has Barb's nose (a bit more compact, smaller than mine), my lips (the baby's lips looked very full, while Barb has very thin lips) and my head...why? Well, I have a huge, huge head. Like, Barry Bonds size. I wear a 7-3/4" fitted hat. The Baby's head was a full two weeks larger than the rest of its body!

...So, Barb will thoroughly hate me while pushing the baby through. I can picture it now...

@#!$ you and your @#$^@$% massive skull! I hate you @$$^&%#!

Ah yes, the joy of birth! I guess as long as it doesn't receive from me what Barb refers to as my "Horse Teeth," she'll be okay with it (yes, my wife is very affectionate and loving...No, really...)

Well, we're 34-weeks come Monday and we'll just keep going along day by day. Wish us luck!

I always found this pretty fascinating. Back in 1924 a silent movie was made that received some very high reviews and is considered one of the better movies of the 1920's -- its title is "The Red Lily."

What is interesting about this movie is that two of the main characters were named Madame Charpied and Messieurs Charpied, a husband and wife played by Rosita Marstini and Sydney Franklin, respectively. Franklin was a highly respected actor, director and producer in the United States and Marstini was quite a Hollywood starlet of her own, for her acting and other news makings (such as murdering her fiance in order to steal the long lost crown jewels of a fallen Russian Czar...she was never convicted though).

IMDB.com lays out the movie as follows:

Jean and Marise, two young lovers, are forced from their homes by disapproving parents. To escape the oppression in their homes, the couple flees to Paris. When they arrive, Jean leaves Marise briefly to arrange their wedding when he is arrested for theft from his own father. The couple is irrevocably separated, and their lives deviate into the slums and hard labor of low-class French society. All the while, the two desperately search for their lost love.

A Paris-based silent film with the surname 'Charpied'? Sounds quite odd considering the Charpied's left the Alsace-Lorraine region in 1685 upon King Louis XIV of France authorizing the Edict of Fontainebleu which set out to destroy all French Huguenots and protestants.

Frederik Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, put forth the Edict of Potsdam in response...

To make a several hundred year long story short, the Charpied's were protestants and had to move to save their lives. They took up the offer from Frederik Wilhelm, which included land, money, labor, food and materials in Berlin for any French citizens that fell under the French "Sun King's" disgusting edict.

The Charpied's resided in Berlin until the early 1800's at which time they moved to Bonn, Germany. From Bonn, three brothers left for Hamburg to come to America -- Herman, Wilhelm and Johann Adolf. Upon reaching Hamburg in approximately 1900, Wilhelm and Johann Adolf (my direct relative -- and yes, Adolf WAS the family name...) came to the States while Herman remained in Hamburg not wanting to leave. Herman's son, also named Herman is the last remaining Charpied in all of Europe.

The point of this is that the Charpied's had not been anywhere near Paris in hundreds of years, making this name of French-origin an odd one to choose. And at this point in 1924 when the name was selected out of Hollywood, there were no Charpied's in California. It seems a bit more than a random coincidence considering that 1) there are only a handful of Charpied's in the world, and 2) through research it is thought that the name has altered over time anyway, being translated perhaps from a French/Latin-based root of "Carpete" to the German pronunciation that is now "Charpied".

Anyway -- here is a snippet from the movie that I found on Google Video. Enjoy!

On Saturday night, after months of speculation and anticipation, Zombies were finally found in Carolina Forest and proceeded to attack International Homeowner Celebrities, Juliet Wood and Matthieu ChanTsin. Barb Ritter, Yoav Wachsman and BT Charpied also were victims, but nobody really cared since they were never on TV. Yoav Wachsman arrived late because he thought he was a celebrity watching himself on Channel 13, but the rest of us know he was simply eating hummus and doing his disco disco dance.

Zombies were in the Mall, they were in the Town, they were in the Farm...Zombies were freaking everywhere! They even fell asleep in Piper's bed!

The games were a welcome addition our vast collective library of EuroGames that have become a hit within our little group of friends. Allegiances were formed, such as the mighty Parking Garage controlling "GOP" of Brandon & Matt, and the pathetic ass-kissing used by Mr. Disco Disco on Barb -- and allegiances were broken (go back to town square now, sucka!). All in all it was an excellent night with a lot of fun, a lot of laughs and a lot of lemon muffin tops.

After about 5-hours of Zombies it was finally time to call it a night...at which time we proceeded to attempt to dislodge Yoav's head from Barb's ass (which took about an hour, give or take a few).

Disco Disco Baby!

Oui Oui! It is true! The Frenchman won the pumpkin carving contest hands down this Halloween with a carving so good that it should quite honestly make him question whether he is in the right profession (which might just be the case with any more Coastal Carolina University budget cuts!).

The field was limited this year due to illness (the entire Keene clan had to pull out) and some no-shows. We also had some non-participants. Ken Small removed his pumpkin from competition after reading the 2008 amended rules that stated no financial equations allowed. His preparation of carving the infamous Hamada Equation thus went down the drain.

The Krupkas simply wished to keep their fingers in tact, so no carving for them...

Yoav was too busy working on his Dracula accent to get to his pumpkin...

Barbara was too busy answering the door for all the kiddies looking for goodies...

And Kay Keels couldn't find a pumpkin...so she stopped at the store to buy a Spaghetti Squash that ran her $10+; therefore, it was just too damn beautiful to cut open and gut.

This left two contestants: Brandon Taylor Charpied and Matthieu Chan Tsin -- which really wasn't much of a contest at all.

While Brandon was at a creative loss, the only thing he could come up with was creating a 'support sign' for Barack Obama to show his support:

It was tough finding an Obama-Biden sign, so this was the next best option.

Matt on the other hand wanted to do something to represent Coastal -- the Chanticleer. After the group laughed at him for a bit considering how detailed the logo is, Matt jumped on the laptop, found the logo and sketched out his creation.

If you aren't familiar with the Chanticleer logo, here it is:



And here is Matt's amazing creation:



You have to admit, that is damn impressive! Coastal would have paid someone to carve that at a University gathering. So, Matt was the winner hands down. His prize? Well, he received two prizes for this masterpiece -- 1) Hannah Montana crayons (a 3-pack no less!), and 2) Belly Dancing Music compact disc. The prizes just keep getting better and better every year!

We did have a new unexpected competition fall into our laps -- "Lost Children of the Stars"

Basically, what would happen if two stars got together to have a child?

Contestant #1 (Pink & Davis Love III)

Yes, it is October 31st, and you know what that means...

Pumpkin Carving Party!

2006: Inaugural Competition

The first Pumpkin Carving Party was in 2006 and saw some mixed results. Marvin Keene, making everything as much of a competition as possible, stole the show with his carving winning the 1st Place ribbon!

(...rumors were running wild after the competition that Dr. Keene had gone through twenty-something pumpkins in the days leading up to the big event, but our investigation turned up no hard evidence other than a few rotting seeds that the suspect claimed must have been 'blown in' from Kroger down the street...)

The last place prize went to J. Kay Keels who was carving her first pumpkin ever! This raised the eyebrows of the competition committee at first, given that Keels' biography claimed she grew up in a podunk town somewhere in South Carolina with a population of about 12 people or so. How could this individual go through life without carving a pumpkin? The committee was skeptical to say the least and feared they were going to be taken by a hustler...

...until they saw the end product.

Nope. She's never carved one! In fact, it was wondered whether she had ever even seen a carved pumpkin. Or a pumpkin at all! Or used a knife before!



Yeah, well you see why this effort won this prize:



Mmmm...Vienna sausage in a can! Scrumptious!


2007: 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Competition

In 2007 everyone knew the talent would be taken up a notch after the Keene exhibition the year prior. The Keene's were the odds on favorites to take the top spot once again, but this time Brandon came armed with his newly purchased Dremel...

...if only he knew how to use it. While butchering the pumpkin he was working on, he proceeded to distract the competition with shards of pumpkin shell and guys flying every which way (in fact, we are still finding pieces of pumpkin a year later).

New to the competition were Ken and Erika Small, who had just arrived at Coastal Carolina University several months earlier. Given that - like Marvin - Ken was a finance professor, hopes were high for him. Oh, how we were so sorrily mistaken. It turns out that Ken was apparently too much of a finance professor, which was apparent from this effort:



That said, this result was much to Kay Keels' delight, as she would no longer be known for having the worst carved pumpkin in history. And like Kay, Ken is also a podunk South Carolina native...is anyone else seeing a pattern here? Ken's losing effort was determined via a tiebreaking system after his level of pumpkin ineptitude was matched by Yoav Wachsman. Yoav did not grow up in South Carolina...he grew up in Israel...he has an excuse.

The prize?

Mmm...mmm...pure sardine goodness! (Well, Ken's cats -- Calvin, Hobbs and Baby Kitty liked it at least)

The winning pumpkin was carved by none other than the party's host, Barbara, who was greatly deserving of the honor. This too was a close call, but Barb's ended up taking home (staying home with?) the prize. She looks to retain her distinction as 'best pumpkin carver' tonight at 7:30 -- only this time the pressure is on...she's carving for one and a half, of course!

Bset of luck to everyone. May the pumpkin guts go flying and the cans of sardines in tomato sauce be plentiful!