First of all, I want to say that my radio station is bad for making me cry while I was trying to drive.

I live about forty miles from the biggest U.S. Navy installation on the east coast - the Norfolk Naval Base. Local businesses, if they know what's good for them, keep up an astonishing level of military support even when there isn't a war going.

So this morning, about halfway to work, the morning DJs announce that they've been exchanging e-mails with several sailors in the Churchill battle group, which is based in Norfolk. And that one of them asked them asked them to contact his wife and read her a short letter.

So they did. They called her, on the air, and talked to her for a minute, and read her the letter. It was short and sweet and not overly personal, but by the time they were done, she was sobbing, and so were both DJs, and so was I.

It's a good thing I'd already turned into the slow, low-traffic street where I work; that's all I'm saying.

Right. The ultrasound.

If you didn't already read the blog entry, then you can follow that link for a couple of anecdotes.

If you want to just get down to brass tacks, then: It's a girl. Probably. We didn't see any dangly bits in the genital region, but since Particle wouldn't show us from more than one angle, there's still a vague chance that we'll be surprised.

The pictures they grabbed for us were kind of crappy - they missed a fantastic shot of her hand, unfortunately, so all I have are two face shots. She was moving so much that the scanner couldn't keep a constant depth, so in both of them they look vaguely skeletal. In the first, it's sort of creepy - you can see the nose hole and incomplete dental structure. In the second (the one I'm not posting), the head is at just enough of an angle that the nose hole looks like a snout. I'll just skip that.

So anyway, here's the slightly creepy ultrasound picture:

But in the meantime, Matt and I have to come up with a girl's name that we can live with.

I hope it doesn't turn out to be as much of a pain in the behind as picking out a nursery theme. 'Cause we can't solve the name problem the way we solved the bedding problem, and just pick two.

See, we went back to the Babies R Us after the ultrasound, and we each picked out our favorite crib bedding. Neither of us hated the other's, but neither could we really agree. K.T. and Kevin were no help; K.T. sided with me, and Kevin sided with Matt.

And just because I'm in a picture mood today, here they are:

Those are the best pictures I could find that give a decent idea of the colors and scheme without having to be enormous photos. If you want to see the rest, you can hit the link for the baby's registry over there in the sidebar and look for the two sets; there are links with the individual items that will show you everything in the set.

The objection to the bug theme ("Whirligig") is... Well, they're bugs. Also, the crib sheets are a fairly obnoxious shade of yellow, but that could easily be remedied by just buying some plain white or pale blue sheets instead.

The objection to the animal theme ("Musical Parade") is that the colors are a little darker and less cheery than the colors for Whirligig - espcially the green that's on the base of the lamp, which in the rest of the set is a very dominant color. And unlike the crib sheet for Whirligig, it's everywhere. Also, the animals aren't as cute as the bugs are.

No, I'm not telling you which one is my preference, though you can probably guess. I'm trying to be objective, here. Anyway, we finally decided - fukkit! We'll register both! They'll have to be laundered eventually, anyway, so that'll give us one set to keep on the bed while the other is in the wash. And the colors in the sets have enough in common that we could decorate for both fairly easily.

You can feel free to tell me your opinions, of course, but it's not likely to sway either of us.

--Liz