This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever.
It just so happened that Kelly and I conceived “Fig Newton” 12 weeks before Christmas – and the general wisdom is that 12 weeks is a “safe” time to let people know you are expecting a child, so Kelly and I kept it a state secret (save for a few needed “leaks”) until Christmas morning. We placed copies of an early (but very baby-looking) ultrasound into some cheap frames and had family open them at the same time after we were done with the rest of the presents.
After much squinting and guessing, everyone figured it out and all were very, very surprised. It would seem they had given up on us having kids! What with Kelly’s epic IronMan adventure I guess that was a little warranted, but c’mon folks!
No really good way to “tee this up”, so here goes:
Lima Bean at 12 weeks
It’s a baaaaaby! Kelly is pregnant! Right now she’s 12 weeks and a handful of days pregnant with a due date of July 12th! There are not enough exclamation points in the world.
We won’t know the sex for another couple of months, so in the meantime Kelly and I have been referring to it according to it’s relative size. It was Raisinette for a time and then Pinto Bean and then Lima Been and I’m voting for Fig Newton next.
The timing was as such that we surprised all of our families at Christmas with surprise ultrasound photos. Much screaming and yelling and flapping of hands and crying ensued! It was very special and everyone was very surprised and excited – especially considering they’d given up hope on us! Sheesh – we’re only 30 years old here, folks. Not like we need children ’cause we are going to die at 35 like it’s 1787 or we have a large farm to tend to!
Man, when did I become a cooking nerd? I’ll look back later and this will likely be the day. Almost all of my major Christmas spoils were cooking-related, and I can’t complain! I’ve gotten into grilling, bread-making, studying chili-fu and cookie-making in the past couple years and have acquired a taste for tools that are simple, strong and useful.
Sowing the seeds of these (perceived) needs in my gift-giving friends and family I came out with a bounty of culinary prep tools, listed herein after the jump…
The Sunday before last (Dec 14th), Kelly and I ran the 2008 Otter Creek Trail Run. Though, in 1980′s TV parlance, one could call it “A Very Special Otter Creek Trail Run”, as Otter Creek Park is closing indefinitely on January 1st due to Louisville Metro budget constraints. The race is always well-attended by a group of trail-running nuts who ramble over the singletrack trails and up some 45-degree grades for… no awards, no t-shirts and no official times. It’s different if you run the marathon, but most people run the 8- or 16-mile routes. Kelly and I run the 8.
I’ve been on a real documentary kick as of late and here are a few that should be mandatory viewing for anyone who calls Louisville, Kentucky home.
When We Were Kings – Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he was and is the product of both the racial tensions and the revolutionary times and no film shows all of those sides better than When We Were Kings. Ali has become a transcendent figure in his old age – but at the time of the Ali/Foreman fight in 1974, he was still a divisive figure. He went to jail because he refused the Vietnam draft, he joined the Nation of Islam, and to top it off he was a gregarious civil rights activist. But at the core of his being, beneath the pride and the talent was a man who cared deeply about where he came from, who he was and what he and his people could achieve. And all that from a dyslexic street kid from Louisville.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson
Like Ali, Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville and took his natural talent and revolutionary thinking and helped to transform the world. Ali and Thompson ultimately shared a similar fate – crippled by the sport they entered into – Ali crippled by Parkinson’s and Hunter S. Thompson’s drug abuse. Their heydays were amazing shows of force and talent spawned by unbelievable creativity, and their slides into the autumns of their lives are terribly sad.
Harlan County USA
While I might live in Kentucky, I love the rest of the state, from the mines in the east to the lakes in the west and the horses in the middle. And while the people in between might not share the same values that I do here in the “big city” of Louisville, they are nonetheless my people and people that shaped the person who I am today. Harlan County USA is a fascinating snapshot of life in a mining town in Harlan County, Kentucky in the early 1970s. An gripping tale of workers and the machine – and what happens when a people have so few options to survive.
The Sunday before last (Dec 14th), Kelly and I ran the