Esmé Anne Needham

On January 20th, 2008 at 3:33am Esmé Anne Needham was born. She tipped the scales at 6 pounds and 3 ounces, and is 19 and a half inches. New mom and baby are doing well.

The baby was due on February 15th originally. We had birthing class all day on Saturday at Emerson Hospital in Concord (just in time). Gretchen had a few irregular contractions in the afternoon during the class. And we guessed that she probably would be having a January baby instead of a February baby.

We got home around 5pm and Gretchen settled in for a nap, I went out to walk Beulah dane. When we returned Gretchen was resting in the bedroom, and only 1 minute later she told me her water had just broke. Fortunately Gretchen had packed ahead of time, and we loaded into the car and headed back to Emerson which is about 30 minutes from our home. The contractions were much more intense since the water had broken and were about 3 minutes apart. We made it to the hospital without any really big scares other than the 10 or so contractions she dealt with during the ride. So it was right back into the labor room we had visited just a few hours ago. Ironically the nurse who taught our class was still there and was surprised to see us again so soon.

I'll spare the details, but will say that watching my wife deal with contractions for six hours, and push for 3 plus hours was so impressive and inspirational. And to first lay eyes on our little baby girl was incredibly emotional for me. I am so proud of them. It was without a doubt the highlight of my life thus far. I'll post more later, thanks for reading.

Some favorite tunes from '07

I'll start with these three...


Here is Tall Firs with "The Woods". I love the simple and clean guitar lick with the slightly chaotic percussion.


Bat for Lashes here with"Trophy". A nice groove that mesmerizes my ears. And the singer Natasha Kahn is easy on the eyes.


The Good The Bad and The Queen play "Nature Springs". I first saw these guys on IFC's Rollins Show. Great bass line.

Obligatory New Years Post

Been a while....

Happy Baby New Years everybody.

What have I have I been up to in the last month or so?

Finished out the cross season w/ two days of racing in Rhode Island. My first 2/3 races which were super fun even though I got smoked.

Up the shrubbery to the Cupcake feed zone

I went cross-country skiing a couple of times at Windblown in New Ipswich, NH. It was great to take advantage of all this snow we have been getting up in north-central Mass and southern NH. Windblown is pretty cool too, family owned, lodge built from lumber off their land, and quite scenic. I did downhill skiing for a couple of years in my early teens before switching to snowboarding. I thought I would have been better at the downhill but I was all Bambi-like. The 2nd day I was a good deal improved, and I started to get into a good rhythm with the diagonal stride. But damn, the next morning it felt like Chuck Lidell punched me square in the front of both thighs.

We spent the holidays in Buffalo with my in-laws. I ate lots of Christmas cookies and drank some great beers like Fantome Hiver, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, and plenty of Ommegang Dubbels. There's no hiding the evidence w/ my waistline. We went to the movies and saw Juno one day. I thought it was good and solid flick , though the title character was much too witty for a 16 year old girl (it was a good performance nonetheless). All in all it was terrific to see family, eat well and enjoy the holidays.

Christmas Eve

In the fall I started clearing some of the downed trees and loose rocks in the woods behind our house so that I could make some trails for mountain biking shenanigans. So lately I've been snowshoeing out there with my dog Beulah. She loves to bound around in the snow, her long legs have no problem keeping her out of the 2'+ of packed powder while she pretends she's a bloodhound and sniffs out the deer tracks.

And we are also about 6 weeks away from the baby due date. It has really just started to sink in that I am going to be a Dad soon !?! I am really looking forward to this whole experience.

I know my sports/activities will be a bit limited going forward but I still hope to do some solid bike riding and get back to jiu-jitsu. I signed up for the Battenkil-Roubaix race in April and would like to do a few MTB races just to have a few events to keep me somewhat in shape.

Out for now.