The Name of Trent

In one of my trips to the wikipedia, I discovered that the name Trent is one of the standard cast of characters adopted by the cryptographic community when creating narratives about communications sequences. For instance, "Alice wants to send a message to Bob". Trent is the name used for a trusted third party or a neutral arbiter. Here's the disambiguation page for Trent. As mentioned on the page, Trent was the location of an important catholic convention and a major diplomatic incident that could have changed the course of the American Civil War. The name is a favorite of mine because it is the name of one of the characters from Daniel Keyes Moran's The Long Run.

Trent Comes Home

Trent came home from the hospital today. He has a clean bill of health so far. It took him about a day to learn to breast feed, which was worrisome, but he's doing well with it now. The cats have both approached him and sniffed him a bit. Tina's parents brought his first hat home early so that the cats could smell his scent for a day or so before Trent's arrival. I'm feeling pretty good. Haven't gotten much sleep, but seemingly enough to function at the level required to take care of an infant.

Trent Nathaniel Hudson Is Born

Trent Nathaniel Hudson was born on September 23, 2005 at Howard County General Hospital. He weight 7 lbs. and 12 onces. He measured 21.25 inches in length. Mother and baby are doing well. There are some blury low resolution pictures over at the moblog [Again Text America appears to have deleted the account, so these pictures are lost]. Here's a nicer higher resolution better lit shot of Trent. Here's a picture of the new familty. Poor Tina was such a champion pusher, that she blew out all of the capillaries around her eyes. That's why she looks a little bruised in the picture.

Finally, Something to Plan

Tina's OB appointment today resulted in a trip to the hospital for possible preeclampsia symptoms. The further tests for preeclampsia were negative, but some other test was borderline for indicating a possible problem with degraded performance of the placenta. So, now they are planning to induce the baby tomorrow morning. So, finally something to plan. We'll be at the hospital tomorrow at 7:30 to try to get labor started. We'll probably be at the hospital until Sunday, so I probably won't post here again until then. From the hospital, I should be able to post some pictures to my moblog [Note:Text America seems to have deleted my account, so these pictures are lost] from mobile phone friendly areas of the hospital. So, check there for updates until Sunday.

The Toys Of My Youth

Of all the toys I played with as a child, perhaps my favorite was the giant tinkertoys. The only picture I can find on the net that shows the scale is from someone's picnic. I had endless hours of fun with these toys. I built robots, spaceships, and helicopters. The beauty of the toys is that they are child scale. I have no idea why they stopped making them. Since I'm going to be a father soon, I would like my children to have that same opportunity. E-Bay has an auction going right now that's selling a complete set in the original box. The last time such a set was sold it went for $350. There are some modern alternatives. Toybeez are a similar toy. They are child size and look like they have versatile connectors. There is also a Belgian company making Omagles. They appear to be able to build actual vehicles. The set has wheels and pictures of people sitting on the constructions. Finally, there was an article on making your own construction set from PVC pipe and fitting available from Home Depot. That last option really appeals to my do it myself nature.

Painting The Nursery

Painting in the nursery has been completed. The project involved painting a landscape of mountains under a cloudy sky and a mural with all sorts of funny storytime characters. Because of the close quarters in the room I had to stich these pictures together from several shots. You may note some digital artifacts in the pictures that are a result of stiching process. The actual window in the room is a little less Dali-esque. The whole project took about three weeks of my free time. The walls are Duron Minor Blue. The mountains were painted freehand with colors I mixed. I was inspired by my time on the A.T. The mural was a kit that we found online.

More Crimson Raptor

I've been delinquent in posting more baby pictures. What can I say? The move and everything just happened at the same time. But, now I've got the computer up again and I have some time to scan a one of the thermographs and capture some frames from the ultrasound video. Here they are. Plus, here's an MP3 of the heartbeat.