Happy Halloween!

More Totally Looks Like

Ever Get the Feeling that You're Being Watched?

Peas and Pods

Can you figure out which picture is which brother? (Highlight to read answers.)

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

Ha! Trick question. Both are Anthony.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

I just pray that they grow up as close to each other as I did with my brother.

Twins, separated by two years.

Beate Joannes Paulus Magnus, Ora Pro Nobis!

As far back as I can remember, I've wanted to see the Pope in person. No, not any pope. The Pope. The newly-beatified John Paul the Great.

On the occasion of his 1987 visit to Los Angeles, my school sent a bus of students to see him along his motorcade route. Only fifth grades and up got to go. I was in first grade. My brother, who was only in fourth grade, got to go because he was accompanied by my sister.

For the 1993 World Youth Day, the youth group we participated in sent a bus of teenagers to Denver. Only those over 15 were allowed to go. I was 12. My brother turned 15 a mere two months before the event. Once again, I was denied the opportunity because I was too young, while my brother just barely snuck in.

I remember in 1987, when I was told that I wouldn't be able to go with my school, I cried to my Mom that I wanted to see the pope. "Well, when you're grown up, you can take a trip to Rome and see him," she offered in consolation.

"Yeah, but it's going to be a different pope then! I want to see this pope!" I'm not quite sure why, at the age of six, I had such a love of JPII.

Fast forward to 2001. I'm in Austria for a semester, and astoundingly, Blessed John Paul the Great is still the pontiff. I remember one day, upon learning that our scheduled trip to Rome and Assisi would include an audience with the pope, how overjoyed I was. I sat in my room, nearly in tears, that I was finally going to receive my childhood wish and see the pope! I remembered back to the 1987 visit to Los Angeles, and the 1993 World Youth Day, and even my mom's advice. "When you're grown up, you can go to Rome yourself." I was grown up, and I was going to Rome!


Fast forward to the Rome/Assisi pilgrimage and, as it turns out, the regular Wednesday papal audience was cancelled that week, because the Pope was going to be on retreat.

*Sniff*

Read more »

Slow House Elves

My desk, circa Feb 2010

My desk, circa April 2011

The house elves around here work too slowly. Obviously, I need to beat them more.

Easter Yummies

Read more »

First Pictures of the Littler One

First ultrasound was today.

Coincidentally, the technician—a nice Vietnamese woman named Mychi—was the same one that gave us our first glimpses of Damien, nearly two years ago.

I had to correct the technician's spelling error. You'd think she'd know these things.

She measured this Littler One at 3.07cm and 9 weeks, 6 days.... then later at 10 weeks. That would put the due date at July 26th or 25th.

Of course, she's wrong. The Murloc knows perfectly well when she got pregnant, thank you very much. We're still sticking by July 23rd.

The heart beat was a rapid, healthy 175 bpm, barely visible as a distortion in Littler One's chest.

A month or two ago, St. John's had its ministry fair. The Right to Life ministry was handing out little pins of ten-week-old baby feet, which Damien is modeling for us here:

Fig. 1: Pin indicating the exact size and shape of the feet of a 10-week-old pre-born infant. Fig. 2: Exact size and shape of the feet of a 17-month-old post-utero toddler, for comparison. Fig. 3 (not shown): Man eating five batteries.

Littler One is almost exactly ten weeks old (depending on who you ask), so this picture gives a good comparison of the relative sizes of the two babbies.