Shabbir's Diary

Sunday was Baby's Day Out

Today I stole the baby, stuck him into a carrying sling, and trotted down the hill to pick up Sunday morning's necessary items: The Sunday NY Times, the Sunday Washington Post, two bagels with lox, cream cheese, tomatoes, and onions, and a cappucino.

It wasn't a bad trip, and my daddy skills were in top form as I kept the baby quiet so I could return home and bring my take on what you should read of Sunday's papers.

Thank you, gods of Newborn Sleep

Oh thank you, gods of Newborn Sleep.  I take no credit for excellent parenting skills for having slept 7 1/2 hours last night.  I thank you.
(Look for far fewer baby entries from here on out)

Baby Day 3: A plea to the gods of Newborn Sleep

O ye powerful gods of Newborn Sleep, why have though forsaken me?

Beautiful Birth, Wonderful Family

Life's funny, eh?

On the morning of the 18th, shortly after posting my "Greetings From Ish's Biggest Fan" comments, I spoke to a friend who asked when I thought the baby was coming.

After having said 'any minute now' for about a week, I realized that I'd gotten the due date wrong and there was little chance we'd be seeing the little one in person for a while. "Not today," I said.

Well. Now we can add "Batman Begins" to the list of labor accelerants. Who knew?

Because you wanted a minute by minute account of the labor...

Actually, I know you didn't, but some people have asked, so I wanted to explain the whole process of our home birth.  If you've never had a baby, or never had one out of the hospital, this might be interesting to you.

Day 1: Baby Ground Zero

The first day has been wonderful, though neither of us has slept more than a few hours.  Everyone took a morning nap and then BJ returned and we all toasted our good fortune.  We used a bottle of port that Sarah and I picked up on one of our first dates in Napa back in 2000.  We were out there for New Year's, and during a side trip to Napa we visited my favorite place in wine country, Prager Portworks.

Happy Father's Day

On Saturday night, after seeing the first 1/3rd of Batman Begins, Sarah began having 4 and 5 minute contractions.  We raced home to meet the midwives and the birth assistant.  After a breakneck labor of 4.5 hours without drugs, a good portion of it in the hot tub, Moishe Ben Imber Safdar was born at 12:20am.  At least one stage of labor was 11 minutes long, and we almost missed it.

He measured 20 3/4 inches and weighed 7 lbs 5 oz.  Mother and baby are resting, father is not.  We have more photos under password, so please call the house or our cellphones to say hello and get the password.   (that's Sam on the right)

See you all soon.

Greetings from Ish's biggest fan

Hola, friends and admirers of the Imber Safdar clan.

My name is Bj and I will be your conduit for the next few weeks. As in, look for posts from me about the status of Ish's big debut and updates on labor and arrival.

During the hours of the blessed event, I'm honored to be a non-medical assistant around the 'ol homestead. I'll be managing dogs, cooking, clearing up and running interference while Sarah and Shabbir get on with the business of gifting us with a brand new human. (I have a feeling he's got big plans, our Ish.)

I'll also be posting here discreet, while artfully composed, photos to give you that 'you were there' experience. As Shabbir says, we'll have photo ammo to embarrass Ish later in life, but nothing to embarrass Sarah right now!

Before we get to the main event, I'm available to answer questions and anxious "are we there yet?" inquiries. You can reach me at bjkt at innerstory dot com or bj at bjcounsels dot com.

Please join me in sending right-position-keeping, easier-than-anybody-might-have-thought labory and welcome-dear-boy, vibes Mom and Pop's way.

Stay tuned!

Results of 1,700 hands of $.5/$1

Since the beginning of June I've been aggressive about tracking my hands as I played $.50/$1 limit holdem, and I think my numbers are good, though my earning rate is a little low.  Here's my analysis through the evening of June 15th.

Scamming the scammers

A good friend, William, pointed me to a discussion board where people talk about lots of various types of scams.  While you might think it would be a great place to find gullible people, the stories are great.

The one William specifically pointed me at was a sob story about an American in Nigeria who has a mother with a store in another African country that has levied taxes on her, and she needs to pay it, blah blah blah.

This is where Sarah tells me I'm an unfeeling dolt, except for the fact that people IM her all day long.  Odds are good some of them are hunting for an easy mark.

Check out the Scam Victims United forum, and learn some new ways to fleece your friends.

Note, Joe Grossberg below pointed out that there are lots of great scam-baiters around and pointed at a few.  My favorite is this one where the scam-baiter actually sent a 60+ page questionnaire to the scammer in Ghana, and HE RETURNED IT FILLED OUT!

It's hysterical.