Mark, Hev and Jack

Double Hopped Rye Ale

2010-08-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

Heather's sister Heidi and I have been speaking about brewing together for years. She has an appreciation for good beer and is a creative genius in the kitchen (http://www.101cookbooks.com).

Heidi's expanding her portfolio and entering into the world of fermenting sugars rather than just cooking with them. Heidi will help us formulate recipes, adding a touch of creativity to the process. She's also become an "investor" having just splashed out on a 15 Gallon Mash Tun. Sweet.

Here's our first joint venture brew, a (very) slightly modified brew originally created by Byron Burch of the beverage people. We doubled the hops because, well, they were sitting around doing nothing - and we couldn't just copy a recipe verbatim could we?

Brew Journal below. Kinda bland if you don't know brewing. If you are interested and want explanations about stuff let me know.

It's a 5 Gallon all grain brew.

-----------------------------------------

Grain Bill -

6 lbs. 2 Row Malt
2 lbs. 6 Row Malt
2 lbs. Rye Malt
2 lbs. Rolled Rye

Hops -

1 oz. Spalt Hop Pellets (60 min.)
1 oz. Spalt Hop Pellets (30 min.)

1 #WLP029 German Alt Yeast

Water treatment -

1/2 tsp. Gypsum
1/4 tsp. Calcium Chloride

2 tsp Irish Moss

---------------------------------------

Brew Day Stuff -

12 lbs of grain = 13.2 quarts of water for the mash (3.3 Gallons).

We didn't get a high enough mash-in temperature using the cooler, probably because I'd rinsed the mash tun with cold water before putting the water in. Temperature dropped 25 deg. to 140 once grain was in. This will be the last time I use the cooler method.

Added boiling water, slowly, raising the temperature to around 150 after it sat at 140 for 10 minutes.

We had one boil over, nothing too bad.

Cooled wort down using wort chiller to around 70 deg.

OG was 1.063.
FG (two weeks later) was 1.012.

Fermentation started after around 12 hours. Fermetation was at around 69 for the first 2 days. dropped to around 65 for a day, up to 69 again during a hot spell after one week. stayed around 66 to 67 for the rest of the time. 2 week fermentation

Bottle day it smelled kinda musty in the car boy. tasted OK. Bottling took around 3.5 hours.

Come on you irons!

2009-04-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

Union Jack

2009-03-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Fat boy has grown out of his chair

2009-03-28T12:37:00.001-07:00

Auntie Ivonne

2009-02-21T19:08:00.000-08:00

Wasted

2009-02-20T23:22:00.001-08:00

Waiting for lance at Russian river!

2009-02-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

Another first - high chair

2009-02-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

Needed another place to store the kid (he grew out of the drawer) so
it was time for a high chair. :)

Stinky baby = big boy bath

2009-02-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

Xmas story costume!

2009-01-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

First meal!

2009-01-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

5 seconds later = projectile squash

I hate reindeers!

2009-01-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

Better late than never. I heart reindeers!

2009-01-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday!!!

2009-01-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

I lost at bowling ...

2009-01-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

... so we went for Mexican food afterwards.

Strike face

2009-01-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

Bowling!

2009-01-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

The weekend so far

2009-01-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I helped out with the leukemia and lymphoma society team in training, who I raised money for at the end of '07 by participating in a bike ride century. This team in training group are doing a 100 mile bike ride in solvang in March, they have to do their riding over the winter which is a lot tougher that when I did it. I provided "roving" sag, basically driving along with the group and helping when needed.

I got a good blackberry snap of jack this morning during our morning walk into downtown San Rafael.

In other news my arse still hurts from snowboarding on ice last weekend. Snowboarding really would'nt be right if I didn't hurt myself in some way!

Big day!

2009-01-24T12:35:00.001-08:00

Good hubby!

2009-01-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

9 year anniversary! Seems longer. :)

Goodbye Lake Tahoe!

2009-01-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Packed up and heading home

2009-01-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Gus is done after a hard day doing nothing

2009-01-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

Finally!

2009-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

a quick bar pit stop before half day snowboarding tickets go on sale....

2009-01-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

Grandad Swanson takes a turn!

2009-01-17T11:41:00.001-08:00

Old red and grandma

2009-01-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of pictures, old red in in the snow and grandma giving jack breakfast. Heather and I are heading to homewood today for snowboarding while the granparents keep an eye on the boy!

Wrapped up in Tahoe!

2009-01-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to me!!

2009-01-13T07:59:00.000-08:00

I got it!

2009-01-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

Baby, 6 months, devours blackberry in blatant defiance of technology

2009-01-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

Mornin'

2009-01-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

Don't take a picture, I have food in my mouth

2009-01-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

One day of bottles!

2009-01-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

Morning bounce

2009-01-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Sarah takes a turn

2009-01-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here's Sarah taking a turn ...

I can't read

2009-01-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Which probably explains his frustration with the paper!

trekkie spotted in coffee shop

2009-01-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Heather just snapped a picture of a trekkie at our local coffee place ...

Wrong time to nap?

2009-01-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

New years' resolution?

2009-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

OK, I don't do new years resolutions, but if I did it would probably be to post more on this site.

Heather and I can now post directly from email, which is handy because we often send each other pictures from our mobile phones of the boy in various states of Jackness. I'll aim to do quick and easy posts as and when, then do writeups and videos from the new camera ma ruder got Heather for Christmas.

Mark

come on you irons!

2009-01-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of pictures from last week. West Ham have now won 3 games in a row!

I'm a ham!

2009-01-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Hev, Jack and crinkle fly

2009-01-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

Mark Ruder
mark.ruder@gmail.com

Oh deer

2009-01-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

We had to do it! Thanks Kirsty!

Just napped

2009-01-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Wakey wakey !

More toys

2009-01-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

Jack officially has more toys than me.

Philip Charles Ruder - 20th November 1947 to 9th October 2008

2008-11-08T07:18:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy couple of months. Ginfranco Zola took over at West Ham United, I've been to England twice and there is a black president elect of the United States of America.

Change is something to believe in because it's constant. While, in the hopes of my adopted land it's a good thing, change is also unpredictable and comes at the cost of people around us.

We found out about my fathers return of cancer at the beginning of September. He'd not been feeling well for a while, apparently the diagnosis was not that unexpected. Dad was his very practical self, asking all the questions that needed asking when they received the diagnosis from the doctor . All we really knew at the time was that it wasn't going to be years.

Heather and I flew out with Jack mid September so Dad could meet him for the first time. We were there for 10 days, helping a bit around the house and just hanging about with the family. It was an important trip.

About a week and a half after getting home to the US we got the call from Mum that dad had been taken to hospital. He passed away in the early hours of the 9th of October.

I want back again without Heather and Jack for the funeral, the funeral being as good as one could be (!), we found a minister who helped us workout a timeline, we were able to project pictures through his life on a screen throughout the service. My brother and I spoke for a few minutes each.

I spoke about his early life. which started in Hackney, London. Here is the majority of my speech from the funeral.

------------------------------------------------------

Philip Charles Ruder was born to Gladys and Charles Ruder in 1947. Based on the early pictures we found of dad, the Ruder family would often take trips to the seaside; nanny Glad and granddad Charlie dressed up nicely withdad and his sister Lesley in tow.

During his teenage years dad was a singer in a band, even making an appearance at the Hackney Empire. Dad started his working years as an apprentice plumber, eventually running a building company with granddad.

Lesley introduced our mum to dad in 1963, they became a couple in 67, engaged in 68 and married in 69 - so it would have been their 40th anniversary next year.

The year I was born dad switched jobs and started working for Ford Motor Company. He did shift work for over 25 years.

When he wasn’t working, dad would be engrossed in one of his many hobbies. His great passion was photography. You’ll notice him with a camera around his neck on quite a few of the pictures being shown here today. Once, on a family holiday, he made us sit around for ages while he set the camera just right for a group shot – he set the timer so he could be in the shot as well, but just as the picture was taken the rest of us ran away - one the most memorable pictures we have is of that empty table.

He was also a keen radio ham. When he’d get home from work he’d dive into his shack built into the loft and broadcast his call sign around the world, we’d see strange postcards come though the door with other amateur radio enthusiasts call signs on them.

To support his radio habit he built an aerial, which can be described as a 15-foot high rotary drier washing line on our roof. It made our house famous; you could spot it at least half a mile away. It was great, we didn’t need to give the local cab drivers an address – we’d use “house with the massive washing line on top of it”.

Our dad also occasionally played golf with Roger, but I don’t think he enjoyed it that much. Once he sliced badly to the right and hit a moving eastbound central line train, which was at least 100 yards off the fairway. That was bad, but on his very next tee shot he hit a westbound central line train. I don’t think he played golf much after that.

He loved music, his favourite genres were doo wop, motown and 50’s era rock and roll.

He also collected coins, stamps, miniature cars and seemingly computers. He was a fisherman, I remember him often taking me and Darren to the River Lee with a packed lunch of ham sandwiches wrapped in cling film - but I don’t remember any fish.

After dad retired he went back to work part time, earning extra money for his camera lenses, radio gear, fishing gear, flights to America etc (!). He was a minicab driver for Clarkes of South Woodford – which was handy because the cab drivers already knew where we lived.

In closing,

I’ll remember our dad as a decent, honourable and trustworthy man.
I’ll remember our dad as a man whose dedication and love to my mother was outstanding.
I’ll remember our dad as a smart man whose experience and knowledge will be sorely missed.

I’m very proud to be my father’s son.

------------------------------

Her are some pictures we showed at the ceremony.

Videos - July 30th to August 8th

2008-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Seven weeks in

2008-08-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

We're seven weeks in and everything's going well. He's focusing and tracking our faces, eating loads and, for the last 2 nights, only woken up once or twice. It's wonderful to be awake again. No kidding this is the hardest thing we have ever done.

We've been able to get out the house more, taking him to local eateries with outdoor areas. It's great, when he cries it dissipates rather than reverberates like it does around the house. And - these places supply new parents with booze! I did fall asleep into my beer at the hopmonk last week back which Heather managed to capture on film.

The hounds have adjusted well - apart from When Jack farts - it scares Gus; he jumps back, ears up and attentive wondering what's going to happen next. Lola is healed and looking better than ever, even with her poodle-like shaving where her IV's were.

I went back to work on Thursday and it was, I guess fortunately, still there. The guys in my department, Rob Noah and Matt seem to have held the place together very nicely - even cleaned the place up a bit, which made me suspicious but eventually thankful. Thanks for the extra effort fellas.

Two groups of friends had babies this week, Stephanie and Jason gave birth to Tanner Kai, Doug and Julie to Katherine Olivia. I can now challenge you to a "weigh the pee and poop competition".

This one is 5 1/4 oz (taking off 1 oz for the diaper itself). Let's see what you've got up your sh*t sleeves bi***es.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures over the last few weeks. I'll get some videos together for the next post (I promise nanny Ruder).

Mark

Lola

2008-08-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Last night I rushed Lola, our Belgian Shepherd, into the emergency pet clinic due to her stomach expanding right before our eyes. She was in obvious pain, hunched up and anxious.

Heather knew it was bloat immediately. Bloat is a condition where the stomach swells and sometimes rotates, twisting and trapping in air and obstructing veins which in turn damages other internal organs. A bad situation.

Lola is a rescue dog, we picked her out because she was opposite from the Rottweiler we had - subdued, calm, just hanging out behind the bars of the Hayward animal shelter at a discounted $25. They thought she was 7 at the time which makes her 12 now.

Due to Lolas’ age and hip issues I’d convinced myself if anything bad happened to the old dog we’d let her go. I assumed it would be her hips and that would be it; no hard decisions, just done.

The clinic explained the diagnosis, the risks, survival rate, etc. I received a quote for the emergency operation – about 2000 Starbucks coffees. Honestly, I tried to find excuses not to do the operation. Not only for the cost but because of her issues; hip strength, fusing spine, age. I asked the doctor to diagnose her pre-existing conditions before we made a decision. I called Heather, we were in agreement that if her spine and hips were as bad as we thought Lola wasn’t coming home.

Then the doctor came back and things changed. X-rays showed the spine was only fusing in one place, nowhere near the back of her body like we thought. Her hips were not likely to just give out; she has arthritis, nothing fusing her spine to her back legs. No cancer in her mouth, no cancer showing up anywhere else. Her vitals were great.

We signed up for the operation. Here's to Lola being around for another bunch of years.

Jack goes to the pediatrician

2008-08-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how a baby can go from idilic cooing baby to screaming murder. The 4th and 5th pictures below were taken only seconds apart!

We took some video and pictures before a doctors visit. The last video should be of particular interest to those expecting parents (or should that read those expecting children?!)

Babies Smell!

2008-08-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Jack's a real man. He's started to stink! I'm very proud.

Heather swears his poop smells like English muffin, even though it can't be because Heather doesn't eat English muffins, they are "Thomas' Hearty Grains" which look like muffins but really aren't. What do you call and English muffin in England? Assuming "muffin".

Anyway, you know what love is when your child wee's over you, twice in a row, and you find it amusing and cute. Fortunately, since his cord and willy holder (plastibell) has fallen off we can now give him bath! See pictures and video evidence below.

Video - Jack's First Week

2008-08-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

My excuse for the delay in posting is twofold. The first is to spend time with the new science project rather than just document happenings around it. The second is that my machine is having meltdowns, crashing mid edit, unable to post to blogger, etc. I plodded blindly on. I could have used Heathers machine, but no, I tenaciously worked on the videos, determined to discover the root of crashing evil before doing anything else. Which basically means that I'm about two weeks behind and nobody bothers to check this site anymore!

I've got the videos sorted, here are two more videos from the first week.

At the hospital - July 15th & 16th

Back Home - July 19th

Jack's first video

2008-07-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here's Jack's first day video!

I'm trying to workout how best to do video so bear with me on it! It's really big but I've not got much time to work it out today. I'll get some pictures up soon, we have a digital stack of them.

Generosity

2008-07-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

I just caught myself watching William Shatner talking about his selling his kidney stone on Oprah. This is probably a better way to spend my time.

People are still being kind to us. Heather's sister Heidi came over on the weekend with a bunch of goodies from the taste food conference she attended earlier in the week (no pictures because we ate most of it on the spot).

Heather's mum and dad are here, Gary also cooked up a feast last night and are able to hang out for a day to get to know their grandson.
Our neighbor Richard came over on Saturday and and asked if we had any special dietary requirements, then came over the next day with the rest of his family (Mary, Jen & Matt (who, coincidently, I work with at BSSP)). They arrived with a roast chicken, salad, bread, chili and all the fixings pictured here. Thanks loads chaps.

Heidi gave me a few pointers on how to use the camera, apparently we can get better pictures than the camera on my cell phone! My dad's a great photographer, I'm sure he's embarrassed I've not inherited his skills.

I rather obviously tried out the camera on both this posting and on Jack. Here are some more shots of the stinkbag and another incidental of life with a newborn.

Out of the hospital and back home

2008-07-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

We're out!

Our last day in the hospital was the 17th. we stuck jack into his going home outfit, Heather into something other than a hospital gown and we ran out as fast as possible. The car ride home was easy, he slept during most of it.

We went for our first pediatrician visit on the 18th, his jaundice is getting loads better. He'd lost about 8 ounces which is totally normal. Everything else checked out OK.

Gus and Lola have been terrific with him. Lola has taken to sleeping in his room and Gus is surprisingly dainty around Jack. Heather and I have both called Jack Gus a couple of times but I'm sure neither of them care (Lola might though).

Here are some pictures, from us getting ready to leave Hospital until a 3am diaper change on the first night / morning. I'm going to see if i can get some video up, need to workout the flipping flip camera we just got. If anyone has tips on editing flip video using something other than the flip software please post em here!

Final night at the hospital

2008-07-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

We have one more night at CPMC in San Francisco, then it's back over the bridge to San Rafael. The hospital treated us us a nice meal, we put Jack into the nursery while we ate and talked about future plans. A really nice night. Doug and Julie visited, and I learned a new technique to calm him down which I'm all chuffed about. Doug and Julie are expecting their first child, a girl, on August 29th.

This afternoon I left the hospital for the first time since Saturday (when I got the car out of jail). I didn't do anything productive, just to the bottle shop to sneak in a big Belgian beer for dinner :). Here some more pictures from today. Tomorrow he gets to meet Gus and Lola, I'll try to workout how to get video uploaded for that.

Picasa Album

2008-07-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

I've just discovered that these pictures are automatically uploaded to a Picasa album. Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.ruder/MarkHevAndJack

Wednesday AM (updated)

2008-07-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Jack and Heather are sleeping so I pulled some pictures together for a post. Most of these are from yesterday, some were taken by Heidi and Wayne. The last one is 2 minutes before he was born.

The blue and red headphones are from a hearing test this morning.

I upgraded a few pictures and saved this post again at 11:35am

Tuesday - Jack day 3

2008-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

We had paternity issues today. Janelle is a medical technologist so knows a bit about blood. After I explained I''m B positive, she explained that I can't be the father! After a phone call to England we got it all worked out (for future reference I'm actually A negative!)

Jack found his voice last night proving the 2nd night is harder than the 1st. He went from extremely contented to miserable screamer in seconds just as I got comfortable in the cot. We were up most of the night, I did get some sleep and Heather maybe got 2 hours. We will work this science project out!

Today Jack had his manhood messed with; his foreskin was removed. This is a common procedure in the states with 50% of babies having it removed for hygiene reasons. He handled it really well, It bothered me more than him. When he came back it seemed he wasn't bothered at all.

We had a lot of visitors today; Stacey, Kenneth, Janelle. Gary (Hev's parents), Heidi (sister), Wayne, Rebecca, Josh, Sarah, Cristy and Chris. we are forever indebted to all these guys who have helped out during this time, especially with our two dogs. I'll get them on here later in the week.

I'll get more pictures up soon, Jack is being, well, a baby.

Monday - Jack day 2

2008-07-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Day 1 is done! We are learning all his new ways and pesky traits. We are dealing with crap, crying, swaddling, feeding (and that's just me, hah hah).

Heather is recovering great, but isn't quite in the mood for pictures. I, like all fathers before me, have an extreme respect for the mpother of my child. Jack is behaving, doing the stuff I'm told these little monsters are supposed to do. Currently the poor little blighter is lumbered with me for everything but feeding as ma is still pretty much bed bound (but walking a bit today! ).

My baby duties include:

wrapping him up as tight as possible
checking for poop or wizz
handing to mum for food
burping
checking for poop or wizz
visits to the nursery for various tests
various moments of love (see pic)
repeat

Here are a few more pictures.

1) The donation plaque for our labor, delivery and recovery room. "Donated by the Beavers". Classic.

2) the view from our new room on the 4th floor. It's taken from my camera phone yesterday, a little cloudy but you might be able to make out the Transamerica and B of A buildings (but probably not).

3) This is me waiting to go into the delievery (operation) room, right before the colonel showed up (see previous post).

4) Today's day board. I'l keep doing these until we leave. Mabel is quite an artist eh?

5) Jack Day 2! just like Jack day 1 but froma camera phone instead of a superb camera!

I promise pictures of Heather tomorrow to prove it's actually her child (not like you couldn't tell already eh?).

Sunday night update

2008-07-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

The last full update explained that the doctor was coming in at 12 to check in on Heather, and I had a pair of scissors in my hand cutting the cord before that hour was out. Mental eh? I had no idea things would happen that fast.

After 3 days it was obvious to the doctor that the baby wasn't coming out via normal means. Heather had a fever, she couldn't stop shaking and was totally wiped out because of extremely limited sleep. I had 5 minutes to get my scrubs on, pack up the rest of the stuff, move stuff to a recovery area & head into the staging room where they were to perform our C-section.

While Heather was being prepped the the anesthesiologist came past me asking "are you nervous?" "Of course" came the obviously reply, "I'm shitting myself". OK, Nah, I didn't say that last bit but it sounds better than my jelly spine whimpering. He picked up the accent and started whistling the Colonel Bogey March which was a nice touch.

I was called into the room and sat up at Heathers head, with a partition from her neck downward. She was still shaking and it was al in alll a daunting experience, even though we had both researched and seen videos from our classes. Old Colonel Bogey was great, he had me stand up and watch the birth. I took some pictures but I've no idea what to do with them! Oh yeah, first girlfriend. Right.

I cut the cord and then me and our kid were off to the nursery while Heather received the final touches to the procedure.

We took his temperature (high because of Heather's fever), did all the tests and given an APGAR score of 8 to 9, which is apparently splendid.

We had a bunch of pictures taken by Heidi, Sarah with me looking like I'm about to pass out but confidently happy. We gave him a bath there and we went to meet mum in the recovery room.

Heather was given something that stopped the shaking, she is looking great now. The fever went down, we are not to sure what that was all about.

We moved to the room where we will spend the next 4 days. Heather's parents, sister, Josh and Sarah came in, which was great because she hadn't seen people in a while; it was great for her to feel good enough for it.

I've now changed a crappy diaper and learned the swaddle wrap on something that isn't a doll. Amy, our nurse, gave me a great breakdown of what we are up to with the new science project. She is another excellent staff member of CPMC.

We confirmed "Jack" right when I did the last post.

And here we are. Heather just found Extreme Makeover Home Edition so is totally set up.

Finally, my ma told me that today was the date of my Nan's birthday. She also died on my birthday, i think 6 years ago. My mother thinks she is somehow watching over me / us. That's a pretty nice thought and, if you know anything about me, while that kind of comment is not my typical reaction I'm rolling with it.

Introducing ...

2008-07-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Jack Aaron Ruder. Born July 13th @ 12:58PM. 7lbs 13oz, 19". Everything is checking out great, Heather is the most relaxed and contented I've ever seen her.

More to follow later.

Sunday morning update

2008-07-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Heather had a procedure at midnight last night that put her into labor. Things happened really fast for about an hour and a half and then slowed right down. The doctor is coming back in about 15 minutes and will tell us what's next. She has 5 different machines plugged into her and would divorce me if I took a picture, so, instead, is a picture outside the room and the last 4 nurses' names on the board. Exciting stuff.

2 1/2 day hospital update

2008-07-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

We're approaching the 60th hour at the hospital, and there ain't nothing going on in there. The most exciting thing today was hearing Heather finally go to sleep!

If Heather doesn't go into to active labor tonight or tomorrow morning our doctor will book a C section for Sunday afternoon.

Our nurses are switching over every 8 hours, each one has been great. Heather is being a trooper, and even though I'm biased I'm pretty sure she is a nurse favorite.

Heather's note for the blog - "I haven't left this room in days so I doubt I've anything interesting to say" :(.

On a lighter note, here's a picture of me finding our the car was locked in a garage. Guessing it doesn't matter, I'll not be going anywhere for a while :).

Also, a big thanks to Heidi, Becca, Josh and Sarah who have been great, helping out with anything we have asked for. Cheers chaps.

At the hospital - the first 36 hours

2008-07-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Heather and I are at the hospital getting ready for a baby to pop out.

Heather was a day past our due date of July 9th so our doctor booked Heather for a nonstress test to make sure the baby was all good. We arrived yesterday morning at 8:15AM and planned to be out for breakfast around 9AM. Turns out the test could have been better (low amniotic fluid) so we had to check in to OB reception and get ready for a baby.

We were in OB reception for ages, hanging out in the admitting room watching major laborers (I'm sure that's an incorrect term) come in, and, quite rightly, were moved to the labor rooms before us. It was really busy, seems like there must have been a few San Francisco power cuts in October 2007. But, the nurses were great, a little nuts - they were shouting at each other in a seemingly productive and efficient way. Heidi, Heather's sister came in, shook her head is odd disbelief that her little sister was certainly having that baby, hung out & dropped off a bunch of food which I've been eating ever since.

After about 12 hours we were sent to the room where Heather can deliver. She is now hooked up to monitoring machines and IV drugs to induce labor. She is obviously really tired.

I'm guessing the next post will be once the action starts or after the baby is born.

An Intro

2008-07-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

I know there are other Ruder's in the world. I've met a bunch of them and grew up with three of them. There are Ruder Internet presences on myspace, facebook, friendsters and linked-in profiles all across the internet with my last name in it.

In any case, this particular Ruder is Mark Ruder. I'm an English Ex pat living in Marin, across the GGB from San Francisco in California. If you're looking for Heather Ruder, you'll be looking for my mother or my wife (while most men apparently marry their mothers I can guarantee they are both completely different people). Heather Ruder (wife) will also knock out a few posts on this blog from time to time.

In any other case, this Ruder has taken the domain theruders.blogspot.com to post, primarily, about an impending birth of our first son (TBD Ruder). I really hope to embarrass him by 1) being a really annoying father or 2) showing pictures of a weeing child to the first girl (or boy, as long at it isn't their kid) he dares to bring home. I seem to remember my mother (not wife) doing that to me, it's only right to pass on what is now a family tradition.