AJ's Online Journal

Guess what!!!!

Here's a photo that I think will let you know what I want to tell ya...

As of today... we are at 13 weeks. We had a scan and blood work done yesterday to confirm everything was ok so now we have decided to come clean on the whole secret. So without futher delay, we are having a baby! And as the doctor said... we have more than a 70% chance that it will be a girl being delivered by the ol' stork on groundhog's day!!! We are both very excited and I just wanted to tell ya about it. Heehee.... that's all I have for today. :)

P.S. If you want to see the secret scan that proved without a doubt that she is going to be an offspring of Julie and I just click HERE.

Amsterdam it!

I know I have dropped of the face of the planet lately and I am truly sorry. Work has been hectic... we moved into a new and improved office space and *sniff sniff* we don't have internet yet. Truly sad. And I don't have to mention that the wedding planning has taken up most of my spare time. Julie and I did manage to escape town last weekend for a little R & R in Amsterdam. It was my first time there so I was pretty excited. Amsterdam is Europe, New Orleans, and Las Vegas all rolled up into one little fun town. I would highly suggest it for a group destination. Lots of bachelor/bachelorette parties going on and they ALL looked like they were having a blast. But anyways, as usual, I took a few pictures to share....

The first picture is actually a Mall. How cool is that? You don't get very many palace-mall conversions in the States these days. The second photo is well.... a McDonalds. I've now been in McDonalds in 5 different countries. I note this one because, being a Pulp Fiction fan, I wanted to go in and order a "Royale w/ cheese". But to my dismay... a quarter pounder with cheese was just that, a quarter pounder with cheese. No cool names. So sad.....

Another cool thing was the amount of people that ride bicycles. Yes, that is a photo of a bicycle parking garage. For every car there are like 10 bicycles. They have real separate bike lanes complete with bike traffic signals. And I mean real as opposed to most cities that have bike lanes but all they are used for is additional parking or walking space. You walk in a bike lane in Amsterdam and you will, I repeat WILL get you arse ran over. I was more paranoid crossing a bike lane than crossing in front of cars. Oh well, on other notes... the second picture was taken by Otto Frank. It's a photo of his daughters Anne and Margot. While in this city you HAVE to go see Anne Franks house. We all know the story, but this experience made it so much more.... ummm real? From the moment I stepped behind the old bookshelf that had covered the door to their hidden apartment a great deal of sadness came over me. Seriously! You immediately walk into Mr. and Mrs. Franks room. The room connected to this was a great deal smaller. It was Anne's room. Glued all over the walls were postcards and magazine clippings that Anne had put there to decorate. This was the only room that still had it's personal touch still intact. This was the most depressing room on the tour, obviously. From there you went upstairs into the kitchen and living area. The restroom was also on this floor and in a small room that had the attic stairs was Peters room. From there you went back into the main building that kept their house hidden. They had all kinds of videos and multimedia stations that had interviews with Otto and Miep and others who knew the Franks. All very educational and very well done. The last room on the tour were display cases that had Anne's diary's. All very powerful and moving. It was so sad that they lived in that space for 26 months only to be turned in by a still unknown person. Anne died 1 month before the Allied forces liberated the area. It's amazing that they came soooo close to surviving. But I suppose if ever a sad ending had a happy ending was this one... the story of Anne Frank has left it's mark in all of us... if only in hopes that we never let something like this happen again.

And on a less depressing note... here's a few random photo's of the flower market in Amsterdam.

All in all, it was a really nice weekend. Ate some good food, drank some good wine, got a lot of sleep, and took a really cool cruise around the Amsterdam canals. I give the city a thumbs up. On other notes... Julie is off to the States this week for wedding stuff. I will try and write a blog this week updating all the details about the wedding. So until then...... STAY OUT OF THE BIKE LANES!!!!