Nick Postagulous
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Eighteen Twelve
Nina went to the doctor yesterday to see if she had an ear infection. She doesn’t, but she does have dry crusty ear wax. Such a rough life. But one thing we did find out is that she now weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces. So, feed that baby some lard and soon she’ll be able to ride in a font facing carseat. Woot.
Hardwood
When I got home, Alison’s car was sitting in the driveway and Alison was checking the mail. Nina was still in her carseat asleep.
It ends up that Alison’s mom’s hardwood had been installed in her new house and she needed to go by and see it and pay the hardwood guy his money. Since her house is one of those package deals, and her hardwood would put it over the acceptable addon-ness, she has to pay out of pocket to get that put in, rather than roll it into the mortgage. (So that the builders don’t get stuck with a house they can’t sell if she backs out.)
Not II Bad
I’ve never seen Menace II Society before, but I always assumed it was standard blaxpoitation fare. Well, it wasn’t. It was really good. I’m not going out and buying the DVD or anything. But I’d recommend it to people who can handle realistic urban ugliness and the sorrow it brings. I need to check IMBD to see if Ol’ Dog was Kel from Kennan & Kel on Nickelodeon.
Sleeping or Non-Sleeping? Non.
I decided that I didn’t like my self imposed sleep exile and decided to sleep in the same room as Alison and Nina. Well, I forgot that both Alison and Zapato hog the bed something awful. And that Velvet will bite your feet if you leave them uncovered. At three, I took my comforter and pillow upstairs and slept until 5:30, when I had to get up.
Alison asked if she really hogged the bed that badly. Yes, you and Pado are horrible. See attached picture from China where Nina and her conspire against me.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Ouchies!
Well, I kept my copy on the replay just so I could re-watch this segment to see if the controversey was real, and I guess I don't need to. See, Marvin should not be HOH. Karen and Cowboy should have been in the showdown.
TVGASM: Big Blunder 5
BTW, Karen is my favorite. I've almost totally forgotten about her early 90's big hairdo and her talking to herself like a loony.
Wrecky Follow-up
My neighbor, Sunny, came by and told me how things went with Kay, the name of her heavy roommate that rolled her SUV through a few cars last Wednesday. Sunny said that Kay was not released by the Hospital on Thursday morning like the paper said. However, she was irritated that the hospital had listed her as in Good condition. Well, considering that she only has a broken arm, bruised brain, and five broken ribs, that’s not like she’s bleeding out her eyeballs or anything.
Sunny seemed to try feeding me the info that “I’d seen Kay’s hand switching, right? Right?” when Sunny was holding her hand. I’m feeling a subpoena coming on, dangit.
What Were That Sick?
Seems that Sue here at work had the same sickness that I had over the weekend last week from Monday to Wednesday. The only common ground that we share is either the fax machine or the coffee maker. I wonder if the Director will get it too. She had it exactly like me: not wanting to eat, barfing bile, body aches, dizzy, etc. Her doc said it would be five days total to get over it. Maybe I still have my mutant healing factor from “back in the day” afterall.
Down With The Sickness
What I did over the weekend was mostly sleep. Friday seemed normal, except that Alison was picking Nina up from her mother’s apartment rather than me showing up and keeping Nina company until Alison showed up. Alison got off work early because she went in early. Not a normal thing, though.
Saturday, we woke up and Alison made scrambled eggs and biscuits. I ate mine, but didn’t feel too good afterward. It was mostly flu like body aches and bloated gutness. Alison and Nina went grocery shopping without me while I slept. They got back and I slept. At some point, when I was awake, I ate two bowls of Rice Chex. Then I slept more.
I kept sleeping, but then in the middle of the night, I did get up and have some diarrhea. Sorry about the graphic language, but it was one of the highlights of my weekend. I slept more, and more. And around noon on Sunday, I was up and had another two bowls of Rice Chex. And then I slept. I slept until around 7 p.m. when I threw up bile.
Throwing up made my body feel much better. In fact, nearly all of the dizziness and body aches were gone. I had two more bowls of Rice Chex. I wanted to stay up some, while I felt better, and play some of my Playstation game, but I was too tired and went back to sleep.
Today, when my alarm went off, I set the snooze for 10 minutes but forgot to activate the snooze. I use a Palm IIIxe as my alarm clock and it’s got it’s quirks. So, I actually woke up at 6:20 when I’m supposed to be leaving for work. And here I am, at work.
Nina Progress
So, last Tuesday, Nina walked about 8 feet from Alison to me without being prompted. Yesterday, she walked from the sofa to the coffee table. Not a long distance, but it’s the first time she has walked by herself between two regular items, meaning neither destination or start point was a person. She also knows how to put a peg into a hole. She studied her pegs and holes a great deal upstairs with Alison while I slept downstairs.
I think coming into work was a mistake.
Friday, August 27, 2004
My Neighbor is Fine
I read in the paper that my next door neighbor, who is named Karen, is fine. She went into the hospital on Wednesday night and was released the next day. The dude in the pickup, a 14 year old kid, and the driver of the burgundy Buick that I thought was a Dodge Intrepid, were all taken to the hospital and then told, "Shoo shoo! You're fine. Go home." The 79 year old lady in the Buick, however, was still in critical condition at the time the reporter wrote the story.
And they said that Karen's Grand Vitara, a smallish Suzuki SUV, was a van. But, to be honest, who could tell after the wreck.
I Learned It From The Sims
If you've ever played The Sims, and I only have on the PS2, when you have a baby, the best thing to do is to put one adult sleeping in the room with the baby. This persons life will start deteriorating. They'll eat when they can. Read some. But mostly get woken up by the baby. This, however, allows the rest of the house, preferably the Sim that you are sending out to make money at work, to not turn into a total zombie and miss the bus (the way all sims get to work).
Since Monday night, I've been sleeping on the floor in Nina's room. Now, before you think I'm the selfless sim here that's sacrificing their life for the other person, Nina sleeps in a porta-crib in our bedroom. So, Alison and Nina sleep in the same room, and I sleep elsewhere.
This all started because I was taking Ambein every night to get to sleep. However, after two weeks of no REM sleep, I was really, totally, losing it. So, no more Ambien and no more middle of the night events. See, if Nina whimpered in her sleep, I'd wake up. Alison does the same thing. But Alison is a zombie now, an undead, and as long as she gets "more brains" she's fine.
And the reason that Alison is a zombie is that Nina has three teeth coming in right now. Two bottom teeth and a molar up top. Her teeth hurt. We put oragel on her gums, but that only lasts about 15 minutes. But in those 15 minutes, she laughs at the sheer joy of not having pain. We dose her with motrin too. I need to start buying it in the gallon jugs. But, Nina is a trooper, she really tries to put on a good face, but the pain gives her nightmares and she wakes up crying or screaming.
Also, it really hurts for her to take a bottle, so she's trying not to eat. Which is really irritating since if she could just get to 20 lbs and be able to ride a forward facing kiddie seat, then she'd be able to ride in my car.
Other News
Alison's mom's house's walkthrough is scheduled to be on the 20th of Sept and closing would be the 24th. That's also the week that she might have surgery to remove the screws from her leg. Her leg is feeling good, but with those screws in there if she tried walking, she could shatter that bone again since both lower leg bones are pinned together. Her appointment with the doctor is on the 13th. Ooh, and Survivor Vanatu* starts the 16th and Sky Captain comes out in theaters the 17th.
*Yeah, It's, like, Vanuatu or something. Whatever.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
The Replay is Dead, Long Live the Replay
Well, to make a long story short, I fixed the replaytv hard drive. Alison says I saved us around $400, which just shows that she, like me, would love to get one of the newer, but still obsolete, Replay 4000 series units.
They’re unique that they have non-upgradable operating systems and were made during the time that Rio owned Replay, and they lost tons of money in lawsuits since they would not abandon the automatic commercial skip feature. Eventually, Rio sold to Marantz and that feature was removed from the 5000 series. But, hey, remember, 4000 has non-upgradable OS.
The way I fixed it, and this is the long version of the short story, I tested the old drive with Maxtor’s Powermax free software while I used the old, original replay drive to connect and start editing out channels which have changed since that drive was removed from the unit. I had to cancel the full surface scan of the dead drive, as it was hanging up and would take a week to claw its way through the entire drive. Low level format, quick version, and then use RTVPatch to turn the big, formerly dead drive into a replay drive again. Ta-da. I then recorded and watched Judgement Day, or whatever that show is called on G4TechTV, just to test it.
Wreckage
In the middle of that hardware fixit session, after the original drive had gotten all the information off the replay servers but before the formerly dead drive had been diagnosed, the next door neighbor, Sunny, came by, panicking. One of the kids had the van so she had no car. Her female roommate person had just called saying she was having a seizure while driving and managed to tell Sun where she was before the sound of the phone being dropped was heard.
We got to the site before the firemen. Sunny’s roommate was conscious, but didn’t feel any pain, which really, she should have. During her seizure she had apparently floored it. A Dodge Intrepid took most of the damage, but it also an early 90s Accord and a late 80s small pickup truck were also hit. The SUV was on the pavement, but had mud on it’s roof, so it had been upside down on the hill that I stood on with the Apartment people.
The Firemen were very efficient cutting Sunny’s roommate out of the SUV. The apartment people were very insensitive. I think it almost came to blows when I told this one apartment guy that he was not going to go tell Sunny to put out her cigarette. Hell, she’s standing with six firemen. They’d tell her if she needed to.
The guy in the little pickup got a neck brace before being moved. The old lady in the passenger seat of the Intrepid was taken in a stretcher. So was Sunny’s roommate.
After I was sure that Sunny didn’t need me anymore, I went back home. It wasn’t hard weaving between the fire trucks (3), police cars (around 6), ambulances (3), and urban responder units (2) in the Focus. Traffic was backed up for only about a mile since HPD was turning people around before they entered the wooded area on Old Madison Pike.
One Person, One Vote
There is a riverside community about an hour from here that had some interesting election stuff go on. The new mayor of Guntersville won by one vote. It was an absentee vote, the kind you get if you won’t be available for election day. And, it turns out, the reason he couldn’t vote on election day was because he died after he sent the absentee ballot in. Legal wrangling will ensue, I’m sure.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
RIP ReplayTV Harddrive II
Yes, I managed to watch Big Brother last night, but I'll never see The Amazing Race where the Twins almost got eliminated but it wasn't an elimination round, and that jerk dude that plays the game so well almost got thrown into prison. Alison had been having trouble with the replay during the day. Sometimes it would take around 10 seconds to process a button press.
During Big Brother, sometimes it would shudder and the image would freeze, then it would start back up. At one point, I thought it was crappy editing on the part of the BB5 producers, since the audio kept playing even though the video froze.
I did a reboot and it didn't come back up. And then I did a reboot and it didn't come back up. Then I took it apart and it was burning up. I took the hard drive and put it in the freezer under some peas. I disconnected the fan that I added since I had a 7200 rpm drive in it rather than the 5400 one. That fan's been bugging the heck out of me since it's gotten loud in it's old age.
After cooling, it still wouldn't come up. After sitting overnight, it still wouldn't come up. What does happen, is that "Please Wait A Moment" appears in it's little oval text bubble against the blue background. It stays like that for about 15 seconds, then the hard drive goes "Guhguhguhguhguh" and it reboots itself to do the same thing again.
I have the original replay drive that came with it. I'll put that back in this afternoon. How will we ever live with only 20 hrs available rather than the 140 we were used to. Before I do that, though, I will dismantle the computer upstairs and attach the original replay drive and the dead replay drive to it and run the Linux based diagnostic stuff I have (or I'll redownload if I can't find it). Hopefully, there is something that will do a checkdisk like thing for the dead drive, maybe it can be salvaged. I really don't like putting the original drive in when the death of a drive is so fresh in my memory. It's the lil' holy grail of that unit. Without the datakey it holds, we don't really have that replay account, paid forever, anymore.
Yeah, you heard right Tivo people, lifetime service. Cho Chi Cha! (dink dink)
Today's TC-ism
After selling his dad's old '88 Taurus to a co-worker so that his stepson could have it to drive...
When my dad first got that car, he accidentally ran over and killed a prostitute on Governors Drive. So you may see the ghostly image of a mangled face in the rear view mirror, and feel a strange sensation in your groin area.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
TC Keeping It Unreal
Tony, our meticulously groomed, tall dark and handsome UPS guy, who is so totally aware that office ladies fantasize about him, comes into the office. He's wearing his little brown UPS shorts today.
TC: Tony, I'm going to go home on my lunch break, sit down at my piano, and write a song about you called "Little Brown Shorts".
Tony looks uneasy, but is used to this kind of humor from TC.
TC: It's going to be to the tune of Double Dutch Bus.
TC then proceeds to dance, shaking his rump around, singing "Little brown shorts" to the tune of Double Dutch Bus.
Tony turns red, flees.
I, unfortunately, missed this. But I'm just glad it happened in our lobby.
Me and Video Games
Just to clear this up, the only RPGs I like are rocket propelled grenades. Thank you.
Friday, August 20, 2004
The Great Experiment
This week, which feels way too long, has been rough on our little Neener. See, her Mommy, my spouse, had to go back to work, yadda yadda, so she’s staying with her grandmother. And I suppose that grandmother should be capitalized, as Grandmother is the chosen moniker of Alison’s mom.
Monday night, Nina didn’t want to go to sleep. She wanted to stay up with us.
Tuesday night, Nina didn’t want to go to sleep. She wanted to stay up with us.
Wednesday, well, she had no choice as it was church night, so she got in bed around 8:30 or nine. And that gave me an idea. Actually, I think I may have had the idea earlier, but it was this that made me think, “Yeah, I think we should keep her up and see when she’ll fall asleep by herself.”
So, we did that.
I showed up at Alison's mom’s apt at 3:40 as usual, then Alison got there at 5:20. I stopped by Wal-Mart and got diapers, etc, on the way home. And I tell ya, the people who work at Intergraph know how to use the self checkout. It was like I was in some kind of gadget savvy utopia, free of the rural riff-raff. I got home at 6 p.m. when my parents were supposed to get there. They were about three minutes late, and in that time I had eaten two boiled eggs and a bowl of rice chex. I had started a bowl of rice crispies when the doorbell rang.
They left around seven, according to my mom, but when I looked at my watch (Casio Waveceptor EDB700, which sets itself via atomic clocky radio signal out of Denver) about 25 minutes after they left, it was only 7:11. But Alison and I continued to play with Nina, and play with Nina, and play with Nina, until Nina was all played out. She didn’t want to stand anymore. She didn’t want to walk back and forth between us.*
Alison gave her a bottle and walked into the bedroom and Nina extended her hands and tried to dive into her crib.** It was 8:30. All hail the glorious revolution, we have a new bedtime.
* Kelley and other relatives need not worry, Nina can’t walk more than three feet without losing her balance. We sit about five feet apart and aim her back and forth. She loves it.
** I know I’ve been calling it a basinet lately, but Alison informs me that it is a porta-crib. However, the instruction manual says it’s a Funtime Play Yard.
A Good Day For Reality TV
The Big Brother episode last night was classic. After Adria and Natalie, the twins who were playing as one person and fooling everyone up until last week, took over the house and haughtily dominated everyone, they are now out of power and Nakomis is HOH. I was so rooting for Nak to get it instead of Diane, who has lousy strategy.
Well, that was BB5, but also Alison and I hadn’t watched Amazing Race from Tuesday. Woot, Myrna and Shmyrna were gone gone gone. But, I have to say, that Shmyrna rocked and it was just so unfortunate that she had her cousin Myrna with her. Even with Shmyrna being so small, Myrna made her eat all the food challenges. Last night, she ate a scrambled ostrich egg, which we were told was the equivalent of 2.5 dozen chicken eggs, but really, to me, it only looked like 15 or so eggs. But I like to buy the Jumbo.
Not Yet TV (BB5 Spoilery)
And getting into work and doing my coffee n’ internet warmup for the day was good reading too. BB5’s hamsters had their food reward challenge last night at 9 p.m. their time. They were given plates of their favorite food. Like Marvin got fried lobster, fried shrimp, French fries, and a Corona. Karen had Taco Bell; a bean burrito, nachos and cheese, a Choco Taco, and diet coke. They had to finish them in less than three minutes. If they did, the day of the week that they were assigned they would all get food. The twist was, it was Smoothies from Hell and they blended up all the food. Only Marvin’s heart attack shake wasn’t able to be choked down. It seemed to absorb all water and make a chunky goo. Nasty. Can’t wait to see it Saturday.
Interesting Spell Check Thing
For Nakomis’s name, Microsoft Word suggested Nokomis, the way that Jase pronounced it. It is a city in Illinois.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
One More Hour Of Work
Alison emailed me and told me that Nina has been having a bad day. See, Monday was the first day that Alison went back to work. Nina is at her grandmother’s place. Monday went fine, with only one fit of crying due to crapping herself. Tuesday, Alison’s mom said went fine, but once I showed up Nina started getting fussy. Then, when Alison showed up, Nina was fussier. The rest of the day was fussy. That night was fussy. It was all just so fussy.
Wednesday is Alison’s day off, weekly. She’s cut her hours down, but rather than getting off a few hours earlier each day, it just makes sense to have her get a full day off. Nina never has to be without Mommy 24/7 except for two days in a row. And since Mommy’s work starts at 9, lil Neener gets dropped off at 8:40ish and then I get there at 3:40ish, so she’d only without parents for 7 hrs. She likes her grandmother, but, hey, grandmother isn’t mommy or daddy. Oh, and there’s also Brad there as entertainment.
Nina woke up with me at 5:30 this morning and has only had a 45 minute nap so far. I need to eat something as I’ve only had pretzels for lunch and I’m starting to get a headache.
When Alison gets over to her mom’s place, then we’ll zip home and shortly thereafter, like at six, my parents will show up for a little 30 minute visit. I hope Nina is asleep at that time, really. But I know my parents really want to see her. But do they really want to see her scream?
Nina's Nanny and Papa
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Cleaning Lady
When I got in today, the most noticeable thing different was that there was a post it note on my boss’s office door from the cleaning lady. T-boss has been locking his door lately, mainly because, here at work, a very large crap is very slowly and laboriously hitting the fan. I don’t see how locking his door has to do with it, but then again, I prefer to be a mushroom. Keep me in the dark and I’m happy and I flourish.
Well, seems that Cleaning Lady (CL) asks if she has done anything wrong. Him locking his door makes her feel like he is upset at her. She does not “still.”
T-boss took the first 40 minutes of work trying to phrase a sincere apology/description of why he locks his door. As well as tell her she does a wonderful job, which she does. With past cleaning crews, to get my carpet to be vacuumed I had to eat popcorn and get gibbles all over the place. He now has an envelope with her name on it taped to his door with the apology letter for her.
Cleaning Lady Saves The Day
Some of you know, since I am a government environmental droog, that my office building is located in front of a massive wastewater treatment plant. In fact, unit operations uses our laboratory for it’s daily analyses. Well, when the cleaning lady, same one, was cleaning one evening up at the offices on the hill, she saw outside that “brown water was coming up from everywhere.” Well, one of the more non-mensa of the operators (in fact, the one who took the test six times before he passed) had turned something the wrong way so raw sewage was pouring out of the top of the headworks.
Quick as a bunny, CL looks up the person who is head over the sewer department’s home phone number and calls it. And, really, he’s the wrong guy since collection system, aka sewer, isn’t the same people as the ones that run the plant. But she calls him at home and saves the day. Sure, still an environmental nightmare, at least paperwork wise. But at least it’s not my paperwork. Well, until I do the yearly Municipal Water Pollution Prevention report, which, quite frankly, is out of my jurisdiction and should really be done by, oh, the guy who’s head of all plants.
Homestudy Visit
Today is the first of our post-placement homestudy visits. At 10, Anna will show up. Alison thinks that since China requires two visits and Alabama requires two visits, that we’ll have four. I’ll have to ask Anna, since shouldn’t we be able to overlap at least one, so we get three? But, they are only $150 each, so it’s not a big deal.
Freedom Fighters
The game that I bought a few weeks ago and wasn’t going to open until I has some spare time since I figured it would suck my brain for hours on end. Yeah, I opened it and it does. Freedom Fighters just plain rocks. It’s like playing the action scenes from Black Hawk Down. Well, maybe that’s more because I get killed doing the wrong things. Right now, I’m able to command three other soldiers. Though, now that I know where the POWs are kept, I’ll get them out and see how many more troops I can control after that. I need a sniper. Badly.
The gist is that how WW2 ended was with the USSR nuking Berlin. Now, it’s Fall 2003 and Russia finally decides to take over the US, starting with Manhattan. Guess where your character, a plumber, is working when the attack happens. Yep, not only in Manhattan, but in the apartment of the rebel leader.
Man, you kill one high ranking Russian officer with a pipe wrench and they’ll never let you live it down.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
One Month Anniversary
Sunday, the 15th, was our one month Anniversary being home from China. Nina is doing great. Since we got her a month and a half ago, she has learned to roll over, sit up (this is sounding like dog tricks), pull herself to a stand, and then, finally, crawl. She’s been off antibiotics for a week now. Though she’s still on Pediasure, otherwise she’s a normal kiddo.
One of the questions that I get asked is how she’s adjusting to English. Well, I think a baby babbling “dah dah dah” is about the same in Chinese as it is in English. Well, Nina is saying “Dah Goo” when we hand her something. We always say “Thank You” when she hands us something.
Speech Impediments
I’ve informed Alison, and when Nina is old enough I’ll let her know. I will not permit any child of mine to have a speech impediment. I wasn’t able to pronounce my R’s the first 8 or so years of my life. It’s actually hard to figure out when it ended. It was the state who ridded it from me. In second grade, they put me in speech class. I was done with that and allegedly pronouncing stuff correctly at the end of that. But I was made fun of, by both students and teachers, until the end of the 8th grade. Sure, character building, but it sucks. The mocking ended when I entered Dead Astronaut High School. One of my regular taunters made fun of how I pronounced my name (real name has two R’s in it) and another person said, “What are you talking about?” I responded that I used to have a speech impediment when I was a child and people still made fun of me because of it. “Oh.” And I never had anyone make fun of my speech again. It was a historic day in my life.
Nina’s Big Change
Yesterday was Nina’s first day with Mommy working. Alison’s mom babysat her from around 8:30 until 5:20. I showed up at 3:40 though. But since Nina isn’t 20 lbs yet, she can’t ride in my car. She was good all day, except when she crapped herself the threw a fit. I can understand that. I’d be upset if I pooped myself. I don’t think she was used to Alison’s mom or the little kiddie potty she has over there so she didn’t get baba mmm on yesterday morning.
Nina uses a normal size toilet with an adapter thing so she doesn’t fall in. We got the same unit as a potty for her grandmother’s TDY apartment, but since Alison’s mom can’t get the little one into the bathroom in her wheelchair (broken leg, remember) and you just can’t carry an infant with a walker, so we got the lil potty.
We met Zoe and April
For the first time since we got back home, I did a real wash on my car and put some more wax on the areas where is had worn off mostly. While I was doing this, the neighbor two houses down came outside. Their 11 month old, Zoe, is already walking and knows hot to say one word besides “mommy” and “daddy”. She knows “hot.” And odd word to know, but it’s an important word. Alison has Wednesdays off, so maybe April and Alison will hang out a little. Alison needs a little more support system than just her mom et al.
Brad’s Call
Oh, and speaking of support system. Brad, our nephew and junior baby sitter, called last night and told us how much he liked spending time with Nina. He said he had to go quickly though, as he wasn’t allowed to use the phone.*
*Teri (Brad’s mom), if you’re reading this. Don’t get onto Brad for this, Ok?
Friday, August 13, 2004
Junk Food
I forgot to eat breakfast this morning, and I missed the exit for McDonald's to get my usual McBreafast McBurritos, so I went to Hardee's. For those of you in our parallel universe, Hardee's is Carl Jr's. I didn't see the biscuit n' gravy that I was looking for, but they did have this biscuit & gravy & sausage & egg bowl. $3. It totally rocked.
I'm out of Skippy Superchunk here at work, so I can't eat peanut butter straight out of the jar with a plastic fork. Well, I can. I accidentally bought creamy, but, sheesh, that just totally sucks. So, I went out and got a 1/2 lb Beef & Potato Burrito (no sour cream) and a bean burrito at Taco Bell.
Ouch, I've just had a heart attack and died.
Good Money News
For some reason, the director, on the sly, pushed through paperwork to get us, even at my grade, overtime rather than just lame old comptime. I think it is because you couldn't get us to work over at all and work tends to pile up. And, not only that, but it's time and a half. I never did get my stormwater sampling done for this season. Har har har. Also, if I ever get in charge of the flow monitoring, I think I might have to come in really early for some of them, because, hey, they are in high traffic areas. Bwah ha ha.
Kerlympics
In case you've gone to the NBC website and tried to figure out what their stupid schedule is but couldn't figure it out, at least Sports Illustrated dot CNN dot com has us covered.
Clicky: U.S. Olympic TV Schedule Aug. 13-26
The 23,000
I’m writing this in word because my internet usage was second most in the department. During a certain time period which I will not mention since it really sounds bad for me to be at so many web sites in that time period, I visited 23,000 sites. And, really, I’m not really in second place as far as I’m concerned, because in first place with 59k is an office of 4 other guys.
When the director told my boss, he told him not to get onto me about it. I think because I’m pretty good at keeping all the stuff I’ve been told to keep up with done. But, really, there is a massive load of crap which has partially hit the fan, a piece of crap that I’m not associated with, and since this crap is so large, it will take a very long time for all of it to hit the fan, so less chaos is better.
I blame Lauchcast. And, nicely enough, when I was informed, I was using my two unique-to-me programs in a way that really helps my department, and no knows how to use them. Also, I had Launchcast streaming. So, around every three minutes, a new page would load when it plays a new song. But, hey, to get 23k hits from that alone it would take…
23000 hits x 3 min/hit x 1hr/60min x 1week/40hrs = 29 weeks
And, uh, this wasn’t 29 weeks. So, I’m keeping my internet usage to a minimum just so I’ll be below someone else. TC was 21k. I think Labman was 13k. And, oddly third place (really fourth) was a maintenance fellow that I’d think would the the last person to be web savvy. Princess Fluffy was also in the top 10. As was my boss. He claimed his was 6k, but Labman actually saw the report and it was 9k.
Also, I had to go back through and change all the parts where I had written 24k for mine into 23k, since I forgot that the original number I was told by my boss wasn’t actually accurate.
Another Good Nina Day
Nina was great yesterday. She’s a happy baby. We ran the risk of letting her have refried beans and some Spanish rice last night with out meal. She loves refried beans, and, you know, it’s probably the cheapest babyfood out there, really. She didn’t have an upset tummy. Just to make sure I stopped halfway through our meal and gave her some gas relief drops. I’m wondering if the hurty stomach screaming she did on Monday and Tuesday were due to getting her antibiotic after her meal rather than with it. But we’ve done that before. Who knows? Also, we don’t have to give her the antibiotic anymore, woot!
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Stair Dealings
From the Group620 (our CCAI travel to China group) Yahoo group forum:
Linda asks, "Say, do any of you live in two-story homes? And if so, what did you do for gates?"
Alison resonds:
Hi guys!
Linda, Nick and I have a two story house. We put a gate at the top and one at the bottom. It almost hurt to drill into the wood on the stair railing, but I guess we'll patch later. We had to stuff a cat through the gap at the bottom to make sure they could still get from place to place. The gates aren't too pretty, but we bought the kind with the clear view panel, it just looked a little nicer. These swing way back so it was perfect for the odd angle of the railing up to our loft. Nick had to use an extra piece of wood for the installation.
Nina had a developmental appointment today, all is well. And we can FINALLY stop the Augmentin. Yay!
It's so nice to hear about all these babies. I miss seeing them from day to day. We went to our first FCC outing last Saturday. There are 3 Nina's age, so that's going to be good.
Take care, all. : )
Alison
Actually
I like the way the gates look. Very Space 1999. Rather Logan's Run. 70's Plastic Future is NOW!
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Baby's Don't Cry For No Reason
The past two days, Nina has not wanted to go to bed. Actually, that is an understatement. If we put her in her crib, she will scream. Scream. Not cry. She will scream at the top of her lungs. We'll let this go on for a while, then maybe after 20 minutes, we'll go get her, try all the usual medicines, etc. And then put her back in her crib.
Yesterday's Scenario
After an evening at my parent's house, with my parents occasionally totally disrespecting me by doing whatever they felt with their granddaughter (Key Lime Pie + 13 month old kid = Hmmm), we got home later than her bedtime. So, rather than getting to sleep at seven, it was around 9. And she screamed and screamed.
We got her up after a while and did the ambesol (for teething pain), Motrin (for pain and fever reduction), and checked to see if she was hungry (she wasn't), and I'm not sure if we had to change her diaper (just pee if it was) and then put her back down.
Some screaming. Some more screaming. After 20 min of screaming I went in and made sure she was horizontal. She wasn't. She will stand in her bassinet and scream. If she is put lying down, she might go to sleep. But she never falls asleep standing up. After I lay her down again, 4 minutes of crying, with only a little screaming involved, and she fell asleep.
She would occasionally wake up crying and fall right back asleep. This continued until 11 p.m. Then she slept through the night.
Baseline, Just So You Know
Now, how that story, and the one I'm about to tell differ from what normally goes on is this. Usually, She's been fed, changed, and played with. We put her in bed and she cries mildly for 4 minutes and then falls asleep. This is around 7:30 to 8 p.m. She sleeps through the entire night, and stays sleeping when I wake up at 5:30 to get ready for work. That's a normal night. Yes, a true fantasy for a lot of people with infants, but it's normal for us. Oh, and did I mention that our daughter will use the toilet on command. Yeah. We rock.
Last Night's Scenario
I get home from work and we play some. Alison wants to putter around outside so Nina and I play in the little turtle sandbox that we'll use as a kiddie pool.
Then after that, we had some lousy Lipton brand Red Beans & Rice with some pan fried chicken. I fed Nina some pieces of hot dog, cheerios, a little sweet potato baby food, and quite a bit of the red beans & rice. We played some afterward and she was fine, but had the hickups. Then, we tried to put her to bed.
The screamed and screamed. After 20 minutes we checked on her. We did all the normal stuff except feed her, as we knew she was full, and put her back down. She screamed and screamed. After 20 minutes, we checked on her and this time we decided she needed a bottle. I thought that maybe the table food, though she did eat a lot of it (which was Alison's point why we didn't give her the bottle at her normal time), maybe table food doesn't matter that much in the whole filling thing.
Nina drank nearly the entire bottle and then puked all over herself, Alison, the bed, a cat, and the floor. I have pretty good evidence that it was the hotdog that was probably upsetting her stomach.
What I Left Out
What I left out of the story was me absolutely freaking out due to Nina's constant screaming. Sure, a little screaming and I can make jokes about bats falling out of the air, but constant, sustained screaming. It's very psychologically attacky on me. I couldn't take it anymore. I was about to go on a drive and leave Alison with Nina for a while. I mean, I was really losing it. "Can you make that child of yours stop?" and crazy stuff like that.
But, after the puke, she was better. We let her play a little before putting her down again.
Actually, I have no idea when she went to bed, as I fell asleep on the bed when I was supposed to be watching Nina while Alison did something. I remember Alison waking me up and making me change clothes and take out my contacts. Alison said this morning, "I was out." But, to keep Neener from screaming bloody murder, I think we'll lay off the junk food for a while.
Oh, and that screaming the night before. No more key lime pie. Period.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Small Update
So, what's gone on with the kiddo this week. She learned to crawl. She learned to open her Cherios holder by herself. She now will take medicine without a fuss. She knows that a Grizzly Bear can kill a Lion.
Oh, wait. That's something I learned.
New pics at my picture place.
Friday, August 06, 2004
I'm so lazy
I'm not sure when I'll actually read Fibonacci Numbers, the Golden section and the Golden String. Becuase, you know, I know, like, nothing about Fibonacci numbers.
Alison's Sister Leeann
She too has a Pbase site, but I'm not sure she'd like me posting the URL. As if I get sooooo much traffic. Actually, I do get around 400 unique hits a month.
I Haven't Had A Good Night's Sleep in 16 Hours
One of the long spewed montras of the two new-to-fathering fathers here has been "Oh, you better get as much sleep as you can, because you'll not get a good nights's sleep the first couple of years." T-boss even went so far as to say that since his 2-year old daughter has been born, he has not had a good night's sleep.
I commented to Labman and TC, both childless, that even if my house had mortars going off outside 24/7, in two years, I'd manage to get at least one good night of sleep.
Well, guessy what? I think in the past month, and it has been a month and two days, since we've had Nina, I think there were only three nights where I didn't sleep well. Of course, the first few, where she had to deal with being separated from her foster mother (her family, to her) are understandable. And when I stay up to 11pm playing video games when my daughter is sick and I pretty much know she'll wake up around 2am since she went to sleep so early, well, those are my fault.
Last night wasn't a bad night, but she sure was rattling those stupid toy keys she has around. After my alarm went off at 5:30 and I got up and took a shower, I went over to the bassinet that she's sleeping in (in our bedroom, so much slack must be cut toward the kid for any waking of us she does do, which really doesn't happen) and the ring part of the key ring was on her leg, above the knee, and she's totally asleep but when she moves, sure, it makes noise.
So, I woke her up by taking it off. Oops.
And another thing, when I would jokingly say, "Oh, my kid will be different" when people told me about the *horrors of parenting and they said, "Just you wait." Well, so far, my kid has been a lot better than your average rug rat. She uses the toilet for her poo. She doesn't cry unless the situation really warrants it, and usually, just fussing and whining covers most situations in her daily life. And she falls asleep at the drop of a hat. Yeah, life is rough.
Sonic Mine? Photon Torpedo?
The other day while driving my crappy work van from one place to another, suddenly one of the deepest, loudest, but with a quick attack and decay, if you know what I mean, sounded. It wasn't a "boom", it was more a "dun." Me and the other drivers on the Parkway looked around but didn't see anything. I'm sure that everyone in a house near us looked around too. But people quickly lost interest, as did I. In fact, by the time I cleared the bank parking lot and was looking at the people at the tire place, they had all turned back around to do whatever they were doing before.
We know what it was. It was the Arsenal testing something. If you don't know who Werner Von Braun is, he is some former-nazi rocket dude that lived here and pretty much got us into space. That's why all the schools here are named after dead astronauts. Though it must be noted that the older astronauts, Grissom, Chaffee, Stone, etc, they got schools named after them, but newer astronauts only got schools named after the ship they died in; Challenger and Columbia.
But, whatever it was that the arsenal boomed at us (or dunned), it was very impressive and sci-fi in my opinion. Just thinking about how tight that thud sound traveled, since it was on then off quickly, it was like one of those 2-D explosions they have on Star Trek where the only explody part is like this blue ring of fire that's rapidly expanding. It reminds me of a scene in Futurama where Bender and Fry are playing with a flashlight that sees though things:
Bender: "What should we point it at first?"
Fry: "I dunno. Try it on me!"
*ZAP*
Fry: "Ow! My sperm!"
Bender: "Wow! Neat! Mind if I try that again?" *zap*
Fry: "Huh, didn't hurt that time."
Come in, Come in, You're Breaking Up!
I think Alison's most anecdotal moment on Wednesday was when she was going down the road and had a cardboard box fly across several lanes of traffic (according to her) and hit her mom's car. It didn't leave noticeable scratches in the paint, but it did try to rip the power antenna off. Alison lamented driving an obviously damaged 10 year old car (I was driving her car, and we just hadn't returned the Camry at that point). Well, it went into the body shop yesterday at 3:40ish and we had a call that it was ready by 4:11. We went back and just scooted it from the body shop to the service department, as it needs some random crap. $500 worth of random crap. One of those hundred is to replace a light bulb inside the dash. You'd think that they'd make them easier to get to (or maybe not so they can make more money). It's the one that lets her know what gear she is in and, I think, the fuel gauge.
And today is Friday, no real plans today. But tomorrow Tom et al will babysit so Alison and I can go see a movie. Tom hasn't seen Nina much, so he called and volunteered. I guess we'll try to see Spiderman 2 again.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Why I Think Alison Will Like Dooce.com
This Post.
Oh, and since at work we have to make up a new password every 3 months that contains at least a capital letter, a lowercase letter, and a number, my current password is Pwned111. OMG!LOL!!1111
Buying Baby Stuff
Even though tomorrow is the first public sale day at the Kid's Kloset (*flinch*), a local gigantic used baby stuff thing that happens at the Jaycees building, we bought a walker for Nina at Target yesterday. For something like that, I'd rather have a new one that I can, among other things, pick out the fabric and general motif of the thing. Besides, the freaky clear plastic dinosaur with red LEDs in it that plays dinosaur mooing or soothing ambient music when you touch it, that was just too over the top.
But tomorrow, it'll be the first time non-helpy people can do the Kid's Kloset thing. I'll be driving Alison's Focus, as I am doing today, just to see if it works right, and it appears to. Alison will be in her Mom's Camry and we'll actually go separately, but at 10 a.m. when it first starts. I'll be trying to get pants, etc, wintery stuff. I'm not so much looking for toys. Heck, Nina has enough toys.
R: Racing Evolution
I bought this game at a super discount from EBGames, $10.5ish delivered. It's OK. The cars are odd feeling. I'm used to the pure arcade feel that's in the old Ridge Racer (which this would be Ridge Racer 6, but it's not too good and they didn't want to soil the good Ridge Racer name again like they did with Ridge Racer 5, which is very difficult to control the cars) or in games like Grand Theft Auto, or the simulation feel that's in Gran Turismo, but this is an odd, freaky feel.
One of my pet peeves on it is that when the cars accelerate, they don't rock backward as the weight is transferred to the back causing the front suspension to lift the car slightly and the back to lower slightly. It really makes the driving experience artificial. However, the dumbest thing ever in the game is the brake assist. This isn't ABS. You can drive around the entire track totally floored and it will slow you down to the correct speeds for the turns. I had to turn this off. Not only is it blatantly cheating, but it's not that good at braking for my grippy driving style. Heck, I'm not sure it the cars in this can do the arcade style drift thing.
Now, the game that want (and has been marked down to $15 at Amazon) is Freedom Fighters. Reminds me a little of that classic game I loved in the early 90s, Syndicate. But since I did 17% of R:RE in about an hour, I think I'll win this puppy.
I really like two different titles in the Ridge Racer series. The third installment, Rage Racer, was great in the fact that you had money involved. I'd much rather be given money to upgrade my cars or buy a new one rather than having that choice already made for me. Also, Rage Racer has great track design. Granted, it only has five or six tracks that you run either forward or backward, but what do you expect for 1997ish.
R4, or Ridge Racer Type 4, is my favorite. They don't have money, which is a strike against it. But they do have wonderful tracks and the cars still handle as brilliantly arcadey as they did in Rage Racer. Of course, 5 messed all that up. And 6, if you'll call R:RE that, is a little better than 5, but they have real world cars. One of the great things about R4 is that you had some freaky three wheeled cars, a hovering tank-like thing, oh, freaky freaky crazy crap. And it was fast and tight.
And, while mentioning Playstation 1 racing games, I would be remiss (I think I'm using that word right) if I didn't mention Wipeout 3. The Best Wipeout Game! I have all four and I'll only play W3. Wipeout Fusion, the PS2 version, blows chunks in it's crap track designs.
Oh, and another reason R4 is better than Rage Racer is the analog support. I need to play Rage Racer, then R4, again.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
So Far So Good
The Focus cost $224ish to get back. It seems that the fluid change and computer reset might have done the trick. However, I suspect that Alison is driving around her mom's Camry today, as it had the baby seat in it and it was blocking in the Focus. I only drove the Focus about 7 miles on the way back from the dealer, but it behaved correctly.
Lunch Issues
I ate the last of my Skippy Superchunk that Alison had bought me. She got it in a big jar, but since I just eat it straight with a plastic fork for lunch here at work, bigger jars make for harder eating as the amount of PB in there gets less.
At around 12:30, my brain threw it's little arms up into the air and said, "I've had it. I need real food." So I headed out, in to the heat of the day, to hunt and gather.
Rather than my normal dropping the top of the Miata immediately, the inside of the car was so hot that I cranked the AC. I rarely run the AC in the car, and it makes it feel like I have an extra 400 lbs attached to the car. After getting $20 out of the ATM, I dropped the top. That car is just too small and I'm just too tall to do any kind of drive through interactions. Too much ducking down so I can see out the window.
I briefly thought about going to McD's. But thought that would totally suck, so I headed to Taco Bell. Taco Bell was muy crowded. I didn't want to get into the distended drive through line, so I parked and went inside. And the line there was really long, so, I bit the bullet and just went to Publix, where I know I can buy Skippy Superchunk.
No, I didn't eat more plain PB for lunch. But I did buy some more to last me the week and possibly next week. Publix has sushi. They didn't have the eel rolls that I like, so I got some "spicy" tuna rolls.
Rant: I am sick of all this "spicy" crap. None of it's spicy at all. You know it might be spicy if they call it "spicy hot" which is also a lie, as it's not hot at all, but at least it's spicy. The only hot potato chips I've ever had were the TGI Friday's brand Habanero Potato Skins (like, bought at Wal-Mart) and they had some good heat, but the flavor behind it was not impressive. Well, I better get back to what I was saying. I'm just not much of a ranter, you know.
So, I got the sushi, some canned coffee for here at work, two things of Skippy Superchunk, and a 12 pack of diet coke. The coffee I got was Folgers Darkity Dark roast. If I could afford it, I'd get some of that Havana Blend coffee that I get for at home for here at work. Actually, if I could afford that on a regular basis, I think I'd go work somewhere else. Well, no, there is that pension I'm working on. Pensions rock. And unlike most people who get pensions, I don't have to be shot at during my line of work.
Well, there are problems with everything, and I didn't actually get two jars of Skippy Superchunk, I accidentally got a Creamy one. And I didn't get a normal 12 pack of Diet Coke, I accidentally got caffeine free. Oh, well.
NASA Contact Keepin' It Real
My NASA Contact, aka Publius, wrote the following to me:
I started a second one, a first order ODE, which at first seemed to be a straightforward change of variable problem. But when I solved the integral using the table of integrals, I ended up with an inverse hyperbolic cotangent, which is undefined at zero, although my initial condition was y(0) = 0. I eventually gave up. This morning I worked out the integral by hand and came up with a nasty expression involving natural logarithms and absolute value signs galore. It's odd for Dr. Ferengi* to give a problem with such an ugly answer, so I keep wondering if I've done something wrong.
*The name of the good doctor was changed slightly to protect the, probably not innocent, but let's be nice. Coincidentally, back when I was working on my degree in rhetorical theory, the spell check would always suggest Dr. Crap for Dr. Kray's name. Good spell check. Blogger's just suggested Krouse, which isn't funny at all.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Nina Virus Spreads
Get ready Huntsville, because it seems that my dad has now contracted the upper respiratory infection that only Nina, Alison, and I had from China. Imagine, when people talk about that horrible bug that's going around in the next few weeks, it'll be a direct import from mainland China, and really, it's all about my daughter.
I'm so proud. (Coff coff wheeze)
Also, Kelley, now in Marietta (aka Atlanta suburb), has to have it after her bubble blowing fun with Nina.
Speaking of Spiders
Which I was doing at the end of my last post, we were under a massive spider attack last night. The cats are heroes.
Spider 1
I'm watching The Road to G-Phoria part 1 as Nina and Alison are quietly playing in an attempt to wind lil Neener down so she'll go to sleep. They are lying on a blanket that's lumpily lying on the floor.
Zapato doesn't really like getting near Nina. Mainly because, despite our "tender touches, tender touches" suggestions to Nina, she would rather pet Zapato in a pummelling, pugilistic way. So, Zap was sitting about six feet from Alison and Nina.
Then Zapato jumps toward them getting about a foot from Nina's head. Pado hops back a foot and then we see the spider that almost made it to Nina's head. I pounce at it and beat it with my open palm, quite a bit too hard too.
It's dead. Nina is confused but not traumatized. Zapato is a hero.
Spider 2: Electric Boogaloo
So, Nina has gone to bed finally. I tell you, no more fun for that girl after 4 p.m. as she just doesn't want to stop having fun and go to sleep. I'm either watching The Road to G-Phoria part 4 or some other vapid, passive thing off the Replaytv. I hear Mouse scrabbling around near the Digital Media Pie Safe.
Obviously, Mouse knows that Zap got major kudos for being a hero and decided to one up her, finding the most enormous spider she could ever find and planting it inside the house. Scandalous.
Well, I got to investigate what's going on and, Holy Sheep Excrement! I think we need to call Gojira on this one. Alison brought me a piece of tupperwarishness which we call egg drop soup bowls (as we have lots since that's what egg drop soup comes in from the nice take out place near Kroger's).
I caught it. I chucked it in the freezer. I'll take a picture of it later if I remember.
Sure, Mouse is a hero. But I think she faked it all. She's like that. Wiley.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Nina Sleeps In Her Actual Crib
She's been sleeping in a basinet at the foot of our bed since we've been back, but today I put her into her crib in her bedroom. I'm staying home from morning church with the sick baby. I think I'm sicker than her though, really. But no need to get other one year olds in the nursery sick.
A second ago, Mouse was standing on the changing table in Nina's room meowing. I had to walk in there to see what was going on and tell Mouse to stop it. The upstairs has always been Mouse's domain, so I hope she doesn't mind that Nina's room, which has been closed for a long time to keep the cats out, and has now taken on some kind of specialness in the cat's minds, is not Mouse's room anymore.
And Speaking of Sick
If your doctor ever tries to give you one of those three day only Z-packs, say, "Oh-ho-ho, hell no. I heard from a guy on the internet that those things are too powerful and give you hellatious stomach cramps, diarhea, and your body might try to make you throw up." Cause it's true. And I'm that internet person.
Yesterday, we had spaghetti for lunch (a nice thing to throw up, really, especially if you're me and you don't chew your food) and I took my second day Z3-pack pill. Later, around 3, we left to go to my parents house, but also to go by Alison's mom's apartment to get the PO box key and get her mail.
Before that, I was vacuuming and asked Alison if her stomach hurt any from lunch. Dumb ol' me, it was the antibiotic. Then, in the car to Alison's mom's, my stomach really started hurting me. When we got there, we had to wake up Nina getting her out of the car since I desperately had to go to the bathroom and exhibit all the symptoms I mentioned before.
It was kind of a good thing, as I killed two spiders in there. I asked Alison do go hunt the rest down, after I had finished my ordeal, and she got two more.
The Social Life of Spiders
While I was bonding with the toilet, I noticed the spiders and that they had bulbous back ends and hung out together. They cooperated rather than competing. I know that black widows will have their offspring help out around the web. (That's why you always find black widows, not "I found a black widow.") But these...
...crap, the cats are fighting right in front of Nina's crib. You better not wake that kid up, you cats!
But those spiders weren't black widows. They had grayish brown bands on their fat lil thoraxes. No cool red hourglass. Though black widows are very common around here. I think the count is up to around 17 that Alison has killed here at the house.
Now, if it's a bug inside the house proper, Alison will make me get it. But for some reason, if she sees a black widow's nest, she'll kill them all. Sometimes she wants me to take a picture first, but I've never had one come out decent.
October 3, 1998
About to be dead:
Dead:
