A little Betsie has arrived!

Early this morning, my best friend in the whole world, Betsie (Simon) Feldman, gave birth to her first child, a tiny little daughter named Julia Charlotte Feldman. She was born at 1:16 a.m., weighing in at 6 pounds and 10 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. She’s a little one and she was a week late. Imagine how small she would have been if she was on time!

I met Betsie our freshman year at the University of Michigan. We were paired together as roommates in the desolate North Campus dorm of Bursley Hall but we managed to have a good time. And, for the next two of three years, I would live with her again – first in our house on State Street and then in our apartment on Hill Street – and continue to have a good time. There’s not much we haven’t been through together in over 15 years of friendship and I’m so excited to see how she’ll handle this next step in her life. Ever since I’ve known Betsie, she’s always taken care of everyone so I know little Julia is in great hands!

Congratulations to Betsie and Paul and I can’t wait to meet Julia!

OK, some photos of us over the years!

Here we are at graduation in the "Big House" in April 1995:

And together again at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1998. This is when Michigan won the national championship and probably the last time we won a big game, let alone a Rose Bowl! Good times!

Home Improvement!

When we moved into our first house during the summer of 2005, one of the things that was attractive to us was the mostly unfinished basement. It does have a full bedroom down there, but the rest is pretty wide open. Right away, we imagined a carpeted family room with lots of room for a nice, fluffy couch and big TV for watching football ... I mean educational programs with Harmon. Well, work is now underway on this space. My Dad came up from Illinois for the week and has been working almost non-stop (with me for four of those days) to make our dream a reality. He makes Bob Villa look slow. The walls are up (this is a view from the bottom of the stairs into the back of the room), the wiring is in place and the insulation is placed. The room is so huge and will be great space for our family. Aimee jokes that it is my "man-cave," that one room all men have in their homes where they can go and drink beer and watch sports. Well, I don't drink beer and Aimee likes sports, too, so everyone is invited.