One week ago today I saw my first marmot of the season. It seems a little bit early for the marmots to be coming out to play - I think last year I didn't really start seeing them until April. Anyway, the one I saw was over on Old Virginia - always a hotspot for cool things.

It occurred to me last night that "Why Don't You Get a Job?" by The Offspring is basically a rip of "Cecilia" by Paul Simon. Apparently they readily admit that they took the chorus from Paul Simon. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before. I'm also not sure why I even care.

For those of you who missed the punchline last week, here's the image again:

In case you have no idea what this is a picture of, it's two babies. In the medical community they sometimes refer to this situation as "twins". They are fraternal and it will still be a couple months before we know the genders. Woohoo!

After waiting so many years to have Chase, we decided to once again start the process of trying to have another baby. Being aware of our fertility problems from previous experience, we went to the fertility doctor in December. Not knowing how many months it would take, we were a little surprised when Emilie learned that she was pregnant after the first visit!

Since we are also familiar with the complications that can arise during pregnancy, we remained cautiously optimistic. A couple of weeks ago we went to the doctor for the first ultrasound. Everything looked good, but Emilie started crying. It wasn't even a happy cry. We called some family members to share the news, but Emilie consistently broke into tears every time she broke the news.

We went back to the doctor yesterday and everything is looking good! Although it's still early in the pregnancy, we're announcing the anticipated expansion of the Carpenter family!

Why does Emilie cry when she talks about it? See for yourself.

I was going to make an announcement tonight, but I decided to do it tomorrow instead. Just because I can. So keep your eyes peeled for more. Literally.

Chase was getting some pretty shaggy hair, mostly due to the fact that we could only cut his hair when he was asleep. Putting sharp blades near his has while he's trying to twist his head and grab at them seemed more than a little careless. I suggested to Emilie that we just buy a clipper and buzz his head with the longest attachment, so on Monday we picked up a Wahl Clipper kit from Wal*Mart. That night we took the clippers to his head. We used a No. 4 attachment, which is a little shorter than we planned but it still worked okay. Here's a little before and after shot. The first picture is from last Saturday - the after picture is from last night.

Pharmaceutical companies are very wealthy. According to Wikipedia, pharmaceutical companies make billions and billions of dollars, even taking into account the huge amount of money spent on research and development.

One thing is certain, though: none of this revenue is spent on making commercials. For such a wealthy industry, I think we can all agree that pharmaceutical ads are among the worst on television and radio. For example, what's the deal with the Nasonex bee? The computer graphics look like something created in the 80s. I don't think I need to bore you with more examples - you are fully capable of coming up with several examples of your own.

All I'm saying is this: pharmaceutical companies make bank. Quit being so cheap! Hiring a marketing firm and put a little effort into it! Learn from your sister industries!

I'm getting over a cold that's been lingering on for several weeks. As annoying as my cold has been, it's nothing compared to what Chase has been going through. He had a cold that turned into RSV. The RSV cleared up pretty quick, but the cold is still hanging on. Chase and I are both down to an annoying cough, which will hopefully clear up soon. Anyway, here's a picture that was taken last week that pretty well sums up how Chase has been feeling:

Amazingly, Emilie hasn't caught anything from either of us.

Alas, it finally came to pass. I found a way to get the pictures off my cell phone. A task that should have been simple and, in fact, was. I just didn't do it. But now I've done it. Here are two of the much anticipated pictures:

The first is a picture of El Capitan - a piece of rock that can only be appreciated in person. The second picture is a self-taken photo that shows El Capitan and Half Dome in the background. Why are these photos so anticipated? The fact is, their aren't. It's all a bunch of hype.

Some potentially huge news may be announced some time on Thursday the 22nd. It may not be. But it probably will be. Stayed tuned.

I seem to be good at starting to write blog entries - I just don't seem to finish them very often. I just posted an entry that had been sitting around unfinished since the beginning of January. Now I'm going to have to post a ton of entries to make the formatting on my page look normal again. I'm sooooooo pathetic.

Anyway, Chase had started walking as of that last post I mentioned, but he is now starting to stand up without the help of furniture, walls, etc. He's even making crude attempts to talk. The first thing he seemed to try to say was "bah" - a reference to a red ball that he fell in love with. He also recognizes that when we say "ball" we are referring to the ball. He recently went to the doctor for his one-year shots. He is still in the 98th percentile for his height, but he's hanging steady at 25 lbs. - the same as his last visit.

I never posted about Christmas, but I didn't have much to say anyway. I took three days off and we had a great holiday. Chase got a lot of stuff and I got some excellent books including Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, Volume 1: 1995-1999, Jesus the Christ (an awesome illustrated, hardcover version) and The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment. Emilie got a watch, some perfume and some scrapbooking stuff. Chase was pretty sick through the Christmas holiday, so our socializing was limited.

Work has been crazy lately. The week before last I went to Boise and the cab driver took me to the wrong hotel. After a few minutes of trying to explain that I was at the wrong hotel I finally just got out and called another cab. The other cab driver took me for free after I explained what happened. I insisted to pay him, but he adamantly refused. The trip was a quick, but productive one. On Wednesday and Thursday of this last week I was in Fresno and San Francisco respectively. This trip involved about 15 or 16 hours of driving - about 12 during the first day alone. It probably wouldn't have taken so long except that Shane missed the junction and we ended up driving through Yosemite. I had never been there, so it was kind of cool; however, we didn't have much time to stop. I took a couple of pictures with my cell phone. I can't share the pictures now because I have no way of getting them off my phone currently.

I'm going to try to dig up my pictures and then I'll post again later...