Henry's first few weeks at home!

Henry has been adjusting to being at home now. He's going on 4 weeks old and doing great so far! He is eating more than we ever imagined possible and sleeping for 4 hours at a time. He is also putting the Diaper Genie to the test!

Here is Henry taking a bath. Thankfully he is a good-natured baby, because mom and dad were quite unskilled at the whole process. Dad assumed a stiff-armed stance with a very firm grip on the slippery baby. Mom was in charge of the washing and avoiding of the cord. Henry seemed to not notice our lack of skills and appeared to enjoy the water!

We are always looking for ways to help Henry work on - um - releasing some gas. We figured that a tummy-down, head-higher-than-feet position combined with a back rub would do the trick. It didn't really help, but he looked cute in that position. It also allowed for him to bond with dad.

We also attempted to get some photos of Henry in his cute Halloween duds. Photographing a baby is a LOT harder than it seems. Especially when the adult in the picture looks ridiculous.

Now that's better! I think I see a little bit of a smile there, don't you?

Here is Henry showing off some of the faces that he likes to make!

Welcome, Henry!

We are thrilled to introduce Henry Michael Fabrizio to the world! Henry was born at 10:51am on October 6, 2010, weighing in at 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 inches in length. Hi Henry!



Mom and baby both did wonderfully and are recovering nicely. Henry arrived a bit early (36 weeks) so he's spending a little extra time in the hospital nursery getting some expert help and training on the whole "eating/sucking/breathing at the same time" thing.

We've spent many hours with Henry at the nursery getting to know each other. His favorite activities so far are being a champion snuggler and trying out all of his new facial expressions. He's also been busy entertaining his grandparents, charming his nurses, and hanging out with his special UAB friends Ginger, Juliet, and Kristy. Mostly, he's been catching up on his sleep. The big day tuckered out the little guy.

Mom is having tons of fun getting to know Henry face to face after all these months together.

Dad doesn't care that he's looking scruffy and sleep-deprived because he's having fun teaching Henry how to burp. As you can see, Henry has a full head of hair already!

Katie was discharged and came home on Sunday. The doctors say that Henry is making such good progress it might not be too many more days before he can come home too! In the meantime, mom, dad and the grandparents are spending lots of time at the hospital with our new family member. Welcome, Henry!

Wedding in New Orleans

This past weekend, Fran and I traveled to New Orleans for our friend Naz and Wes' wedding. Naz is from New Orleans, but relocated to Birmingham to work at the VA after hurricane Katrina. It had been a long time (about 10 years) since we'd been to New Orleans, so we were excited to get back. As expected, it was HOT, so we were concentrating more on staying cool than on taking pictures.

The wedding was in the Garden District on St. Charles Ave. We stayed in a very nice B&B - the Sully Mansion - only a few blocks away. We enjoyed great breakfasts, took a driving tour of the areas damaged by the hurricane (which was about 80% of the city), discovered the St. James Cheese Company, had a picnic at Audubon Park, and shopped on Magazine Street. We briefly went to Bourbon Street, but it was so crowded with people at 9AM that we just turned around and went back to our relaxing part of town.

The wedding was at 7PM and was very pretty. I have been talking with Naz about the wedding planning for about a year, so it was nice to finally see all her planning come to fruition!

What a great looking couple!

What another great looking couple!

Me and Naz took a break from rockin' out on the dance floor.

I really liked the orange dresses!

Overall, it was a great quick getaway! We'd like to go back again in the future...but next time, I think we'll go in the winter. =)

Batch Number Two Has Flown the Coop!

The backyard bluebirds have been hard at work on their second set of children this summer. Another three bluebird babies were growing quickly as mom and dad bluebird flew back and forth to the house with an endless supply of food. This photo was taken on July 3rd.

Then this morning we witnessed the highlight of our bird watching career! We were on the back deck with breakfast and coffee when we noticed a very young looking bluebird in a nearby tree. He had very immature coloring and still had his HUGE baby beak and mouth. He was sitting very, very still. Then mom flew in with a snack and we figured out that the babies must have left the nest this morning and taken their first flight to this tree! By watching mom and dad, we were able to locate a second baby on another nearby tree branch.

For the next hour, we watched the two babies getting used to their wings by stretching and cleaning their feathers, and testing out their perching balance. Every once in a while they would get brave and stand up, but then they'd get wobbly and plop back down on the branch. Mom and dad were coming constantly with snacks, and we think they were visiting the third baby too, although we couldn't see that one. The parents were also super vigilant - they would immediately chase away any squirrels or other birds that got too close for comfort by doing tag team dive bombing runs! We even saw a bigger sibling come in to help out when two squirrels made simultaneous approaches.

After an hour of this, we noticed that the food visits were becoming less frequent and the babies were getting antsy. Finally one of them took a short flight to another branch! We then watched for another 10 minutes as the other baby got up his courage to try out his wings again, and he too finally made a small flight when mom and dad came by to encourage him (or her - hard to tell!) A few minutes later and they were bravely working their way up into the treetop out of sight.

Another successful bluebird generation is airborne!

More Crafty Katie

Katie also made gifts for Mother's and Father's Day for Sally and Loren. For Mother's Day, she made this piece with mama and daughter bird on it (here she is with her friend Christy at their latest craft day).

For Father's Day the theme was a classic woody car, using the car ads as the background.

Very creative, and very thoughtful gifts!

Mini crafts!

Katie has been extremely crafty lately. For our niece Ada's birthday, she decided to create some homemade accessories for her play kitchen. Check out the embroidered mini towels and kid-sized oven mitt!!

Looks like it was a big hit with the girls!

June 11th

On June 11th, we took the day off from work and spent the day remembering Claire and Sarah and spending some fun time together. We spent the morning relaxing at home. In the afternoon it was really hot but we were able to find a shady spot at Aldridge Gardens to lay a blanket out in the grass and rest and play games for a while. The hydrangeas were in full bloom.

It was the perfect way to remember the girls' birthday. Family and friends also sent us messages and flowers and made donations to the bear program at the hospital. It's nice to know that so many people were thinking about the girls on their birthday. We're also happy to report that the bear program is still going strong. We get regular updates from the hospital staff, who continue to be amazed and so thankful with how Claire and Sarah have been able to help so many families these past two years. What a wonderful legacy for the girls to have.

Three Little Birds...

Three more hungry mouths to feed in the back yard!!

They're back!

The first batch of 2010 is in the oven!

A Nice View

Those of you who have seen my old office will recognize how much of an improvement this is... my new office not only has a window, but it comes with a very nice view too! 

That's our Campus Green, with Vulcan up on top of the mountain in the distance.  (Click the image to enlarge it.)

After 6+ years with no natural light, I am very excited to be where I am now. I haven't even turned on my office lights yet!

It's also a good incentive to stop and let my eyes focus on something other than the computer screen, and there is usually some fun activity going on the campus green to distract me whenever I need a break.

Best Bloom Since 2005

Our Saucer Pink Japanese Magnolia tree had a perfect bloom this year!


It's pretty sensitive to the weather and usually blooms early due to the typical January/February heat wave we tend to have down here. This year it stayed cold all winter, and we think the tree likes it that way. Then, once it bloomed, we didn't have any frost to kill the flowers. We haven't have a bloom this good in five years.

Katie has an eye for the artistic photo framing. She snapped this great tree-and-sky shot.

Here we are having fun in the shade.

It's been in the mid-80s, the lawn is growing like crazy, and the lilies and hydrangea have woken up all of a sudden in the past week. The hawk has returned to the back yard and the bluebirds are building nests. The funny fat bees are hovering in search of the ladies by the back deck, lots of leaves emerging on the trees now, and soon we won't be able to see our neighbors across the creek.

Spring has most definitely sprung in north-central Alabama.

End of an Era

This week marks the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Friday was my last day as the IT manager for the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. I spent six and a half very satisfying years at the helm there, truly some of the best years of my career to date.  It's a place full of great people (and now great IT as well! :-) where I had a boss who gave me the resources and the freedom to implement my vision for how IT shops ought to be run.

I had lots of help along the way, including the best professional and student IT staff anyone could ask for.

The 2009-2010 UAB CIS IT Staff

Yesterday, I started as Director of Information Systems for UAB's new College of Arts and Sciences. It's a transition made easier by the fact that I am just across the street from my old department, and they are a member of the new College so I will still be working on their behalf.  I'll be able to visit often - I already made it over there yesterday (free cake!)

I look forward to the challenge of building an integrated IT organization from what was four separate Schools, and my new work environment is full of nice people and even some familiar faces.  Still, I'll always look back on my time in CIS and think of it as one of the best jobs I've worked, and I'm grateful to have had such a fantastic place to be these past few years.

Gotta Go Back in Ti-i-ime!

The other day, Katie was casually flipping through the paper when she froze.  It seems she had just read the news that there was going to be a Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Reunion as part of a film festival - in Florence, AL of all places.  I didn't even stop to read the details - I immediately headed to the computer to buy tickets.

Back to the Future is Katie's all time favorite movie, and the prospects of a reunion, complete with writer and cast members, in our backyard, was too good to be true.  We bought tickets, booked a hotel, and made plans to leave work early that day.

We arrived in time to visit the DeLorean.  A couple has recreated the car down to tiny details to use it as a tool to raise money for Parkinson's Disease research. 

We made a donation and Katie hopped into the time machine.  Oops, I think she's getting close to 88 miles per hour...

After that it was time for the panel discussion with the writer and actors.

On the far left is Bob Gale, the writer and co-producer of Back to the Future (with partner Robert Zemeckis).  Next to him is the moderator, and then Claudia Wells (Jennifer, Marty's girlfriend) and James Tolkan (Principal Strickland).  They spent 90 minutes answering questions and reminiscing about their time filming BTTF.  Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly, Marty's mom) also participated via pre-recorded video - she was scheduled to appear but got called to film a pilot at the last minute.

The next morning we tracked Bob Gale down at a comic book movie adaptation panel discussion and Katie asked for his autograph afterwards.  He gladly signed her copy of the DVD set, thanking her for buying it and helping pay for his house!

"To Katie:  Best wishes for the FUTURE!  Bob Gale, 3-6-10"

It was lots of fun to take a BTTF-themed trip.  There are still a lot of fans out there!  Clearly one of the classic movies of all time.  

Before heading home we took a detour to Tuscumbia, AL to see Helen Keller's birthplace.  I'd love to blog about how amazing the tour was and how much we learned, but in reality we got a "tour" from a crazy old woman who assumed everyone already knew the whole story of Helen Keller (why would we be at the museum, then?!), so she just would point to random pictures and say "wasn't she pretty"?  Very bizarre.  

We actually had to go home and read Wikipedia to learn about her story.  She was amazing!  Among other things, she was a radical Socialist, helped found the ACLU, introduced the Akita dog breed to the US, and was friends with Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain - none of which we learned on the tour!  

We then headed back to Birmingham because we had tickets to see the Indigo Girls that night.  So it was a quick trip to Florence, but a nice excuse to go see a part of the state we'd never been to before.

Katie's Birthday

We all know that Katie loves things that are out of scale.  So, this year for Katie's birthday I went big on the cake.

Behold the giant cupcake...

This behemoth was made possible thanks to the giant cupcake baking mold that my mom gave Katie for Christmas.  This guy took almost two full carrot cake box cake mixes to create!  The other cupcakes are regular size, to illustrate scale.  It was, of course, a big hit.  Happy Birthday Katie!

Winter Beach Getaway

Katie and I like to escape to the beach in the middle of winter, when it is still quiet at the Gulf resort towns.  We recently went down to spend a couple of days, centered around a trip to our favorite store, the Eddie Bauer Outlet.  It was chilly but that didn't stop us from hitting the beach.

Our only companions were the birds.  

After doing much damage to the credit card at Eddie Bauer, we took a spin on our bikes.  Here's Katie pausing for a photo in Seaside's town square.

It was a short trip, but a good one.  We also found time to watch movies and re-discovered a fun game from my childhood, Rummikub.