Baby Update

Madeline appears to enjoy eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom and crying loudly. The crying part is the hardest to deal with. All in all, though, things are going pretty well. She goes to the doctor on Friday to be weighed to make sure she's gaining weight properly.

House Work Update

Lots of activity this month at the new house. We have the brick mason, roofer and plumber all set to begin work. All new windows and storm doors have been ordered and should be here in mid-June. And the floor refinishing has been scheduled for early July.

In the pictures we link to here you can see some of the much needed yard rehabilitation we've done. First was to remove a large and unsightly bush from the front yard. Next was to prune the out-of-control holly tree in the back yard. Both things were big improvements. Now, what to do with the front and back yards??

The biggest work was the demolition of the existing kitchen and breakfast room. A wall was removed and now they are all one big room (relatively speaking of course). Check out all of the pictures here as well as a 3.5MB AVI of the kitchen.

The CMV News

Today we learned that the CMV infection Katie contracted during pregnancy did indeed pass to Madeline. The biggest relief was that Madeline was asymptomatic at birth. While there are still many risks it appears the largest one right now is a 15% chance of progressive, profound deafness. So it looks like we have a lot of hearing tests in front of us. It continues to amaze us that a CMV vaccine does not yet exist. It should. Infants who are symptomatic have far worse problems in life. See this page and this page for more info on CMV.

Madeline's First Day In The World

Check out a few selected pics here on the site. Check this blog for occassional updates and photos.

The Big Arrival

We welcomed Madeline Faith Livingood into the world today, May 15th, at 4:38 a.m. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces. She was born at Pennsylvania Hospital following a torturously long labor of just a hair over 28 hours; 10 ½ hours at home and 18 hours at the hospital.

A Big MINI Reversal!

I find the turn-around on this amusing. I still have to hand it to MINI for doing the right thing though!!

Great credit must go to AutoWeek magazine, who carried this story from beginning to end. I have been an AW subscriber for a year or two. I read it religiously and am not sure how I avoided buying it before - especially since you get a copy a week for not too much money. And, they really tell it like it is and have great columnists.

Anyway - compare for yourself the quotes from MINI execs in AutoWeek the past few weeks:

NOW -- 5/13/03:
"Mini will get a rear fog lamp in the not-too-distant future," says Jack Pitney, head of Mini’s U.S. operation. Pitney says all U.S. Minis, new and used, will get rear fog lamps.

THEN -- 4/28/03:
Michael McHale, Mini communications manager, says BMW's product marketing group, which decides the content in vehicles, opted to make rear fog lights unavailable on the U.S. version of the Mini. He says Mini and BMW officials are aware of the group of owners asking for the lights, but there are no plans to reverse the product group's decision. "The matter is not scheduled to be discussed again," McHale says.

MINI Agrees to Offer Rear Fog Lamp!

Don't know the details yet so it's too early to celebrate, but MINI has agreed to offer rear fog light software upgrades in the near future, according to this AutoWeek article. We have 756 signatures...

MINI Rear Fog Issue Picked Up in AutoWeek Again

The MINI rear fog light issue has been picked up again by AutoWeek this week. The article is online here.

The original petition that I started can be found at PetitionOnline. So far 683 people have signed it!