My company made the “Red Herring Top 100″ list

A bit of work-related news.

The company I work for, Silver Spring Networks, was chosen as one of the Top 100 Tech Startups worldwide. The “Red Herring Top 100″ list is well-known in the tech industry – i.e. this actually means something!

Four weddings and a baby

Is it generally understood that when you say “one of my oldest friends” you’re referring to how old the friendship is, and not how old the friend is?  Because that is not what the words technically mean.  Anyhow, last night, Jean and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of my friend Kennaz Ellison.  I have many friends older than Kennaz, but he is nonetheless one of my oldest friends, and certainly one of my dearest.

The wedding was wonderful.  As always, it was touching to see somebody you’ve known for so long take such a major step in his life.  Somebody pointed out during the reception that though the bride and groom met at top dog, when I myself started working at top dog, the bride was not yet born.  (I filed that in the “Fun Facts to Think About When You’re About to Turn 40″ folder.)

Speaking of things that happen before you’re born, another topic that came up at the reception (and before the wedding, as Jean contemplating wardrobe issues both immediate and future) was that at birth, Beanberg will have attended (in a manner of speaking) FOUR weddings.  That is a pretty seriously wedding-laden pregnancy.  And our very good friends Jake and Chrissy will have the honor of being the first wedding we attend AFTER the baby is born.  Though our guy won’t be there (anybody want to come to beautiful Monterey and baby-sit for a night?), Peyton Huff will be making his first wedding appearance at that bash, at just under the age of a year and a half; I’m looking forward to seeing him in a tux and tails with a top hat, a cain, and white gloves…  He’s the kind of guy that can pull it off. 

Why do I mention all these weddings, you ask?  Well, for one thing, I am not claiming there is any scientific evidence whatsoever to support me, but I feel that many in-utero joyous occasions is a plus for the baby’s “mood” when he gets out here (the real world) himself.  And, much more importantly, I’m not at all sure what our future looks like financially, but I am not too worried anymore because I’m figuring the timing on all these weddings is working out just about right for our boy to be pulling down major baby-sitting bucks in about 15 years.

11-week Ultrasound (Old)

OK, so I finally got our scanner to work again. This is an ultrasound from around 11 weeks (I’m 17 weeks now)

Moving to Fremont June 15

We’re moving! We’ve been looking at moving closer to my work for a while now, and we finally found the right house (we’re still going to be renting). We will be moving June 15. I’m very excited because the neighborhood is MUCH nicer than where we are now, the house is very nice, it has a nice yard, we won’t have catering stuff everywhere, and it will be a 20 minute commute instead of 40-60 minutes. I’m sad that we will be further from the Huffs and from Matt and Mirna and from Elisabeth and other friends. Also, Fremont doesn’t offer the restaurants etc that you have in Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda (Fremont is suburbia). EB’s commute will be longer, but he can often do it during non-rush hour, and once the baby is here I don’t think he’ll be going to the shop as often.

Here are a few pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/themba/HouseForRent

Smedley

Today I called my mom and dad, and Dad answered. He said “How’s Smedley”?  Not that we’re looking for another in-utero name for beanberg / jelly bean, but I found Smedley amusing.

The Bean is almost 16 weeks now. He should be about 4 1/2 inches long. Other tidbits: “At this time, your baby is holding his head erect. Because his muscles are developing, he can make some faces now. Your baby is able to squint, frown and open its mouth. There is enough calcium in the bones that they will show up on an x-ray. Your baby’s fingernails are well formed now and the legs are longer than the arms.”

We went to the OB this week and I got to hear his heartbeat again, still in the 160’s. I’m probably gaining too much weight but she said that happens a lot in her patients with morning sickness. It’s when your tummy is empty that you really feel like crap, so you want to keep eating (but you only feel like eating carbs). “Morning” sickness has not left yet. I was disheartened this week because I felt sicker than ever. But I think that I had a stomach bug because 2 people at work has something and EB got sick, which he never does. I think that has passed and now I’m back to baseline, at least If it does not get better in a couple of weeks I will probably take some nausea medication so I can start eating healthier for my little guy!

I had also gone to a GP to see if there were any internal issues causing the tightness and mild pain in my side. He ran a bunch of tests and didn’t find anything, so I think it’s just muscular.  Sleeping with a cold pack on my side helps. (I hope I’m not freezing the Bean!) I’m still waking up every couple of hours to go to the bathroom, but I can usually fall back asleep pretty easily. I maybe get up one time to use the foam roller to deal with the hamstring spasms.  So, I am thankful that sleeping is a bit better.

At 20 weeks I’ll have a level-2 ultrasound so hopefully I’ll have good pictures to post in 4 weeks!