Bring the Heat!

Greetings! So while Mather seems to be intent on teaching us the value of patience, we've been experimenting with the universe of tricks said to induce labor.

A lot of these revolve around food. First, Emily's mom, Laura, has always regaled her with tales of the canteloupe ice cream she ate while pregnant with Emily. So Em figured that before her own pregrancy could end, she'd have to try canteloupe ice cream. This might sound hard to find, but fortunately San Francisco has the one and only Mitchell's Ice Cream, a 50-year San Francisco institution.

Mitchell's specializes in a wide world of flavors -- while Em was enjoying the canteloupe, I had myself two scoops, Thai Tea and Mexican Chocolate. Yummy! But...no labor.

Another tip came from Anastasia. Her mother went into labor right after eating shrimp. While we were out to dinner the other night with Emily's father, Cary, and his girlfriend, Sheryl, Emily dined on Shrimp Scampi. While it was very tasty...no labor.

One of the classic old wives' tales is that spicy food is a sure bet. Now, there are plenty of ways to spice up a meal. But we've gotten our hands on the direct source.

Back up a little bit: amongst our friends are the Prola family. There's Bob, one of my groomsmen, and Tina, his wife. Then there is Bob's younger brother, the mad genius Ken. Ken is a peace corp volunteer stationed in Belize, formerly British Honduras, the only English-speaking Central American country. Bob and Tina flew down to Belize to visit Ken (newly decorated with an eight-foot beard) and came back with bottles and bottles of Belizean Heat, a Habanero-based hot sauce. While cooking, Emily decorated tonight's ground turkey (for taco salad) with a liberal dose of Belizean Heat.

While I was still in the kitchen, after Emily had already dug in, she called "Bring more Belizean Heat!". She poured on enough she was sweating by the end of the meal...

So if we go into labor tonight, we'll have the Prola's to thank for bringing the Belizean Heat!

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PS Getting away from baby talk for a moment, I wanted to encourage our California-based readers to vote on Election Day. Specifically, I'd really like to encourage all voters, conservative or liberal, to vote No on Prop 90, a slimeball proposition designed to trick voters into thinking it is Eminent Domain reform when really it's a taxpayer trap -- putting the government on the financial hook for zoning regulations. It would cost the state billions of dollars -- a direct cost to taxpayers, that is -- and put a regulatory halt to a lot of the great work environmental organizations try to do. It's very telling that organizations from both sides of the usual political spectrum have come out against it -- environmental groups, business groups, developers, municipalities, and virtually every major newspaper.

In addition, I'd like to encourage everyone to vote Yes on Prop 84, a well-built bond measure that would commit funds to conservation efforts throughout the state, particularly protection for our vital waterways.

However you feel on the issues, remember it is your civic duty to vote!