Sunday, June 20, 2004
Sunday Morning Conversational Snippet
Deb: “I don’t believe a word that comes out of Dan Rather’s mouth.”
Jay: “Except for the part about ‘we’ll be back after these messages’.”
Kerry On Space
Via Frank Hofer comes a Space.com discussion with Kerry. He’s rather critical of Bush, big surprise there, but doesn’t seem to have anything new. Just throw money and see what sticks?
“The most critical element of our space program should be reducing the costs and increasing the reliability of space transportation to and from low Earth orbit,” Kerry wrote. “This is just one of the many critical areas lost in the Bush initiative.”
Cool, so let’s reduce costs and increase reliability - and redundancy of available services! - through private means. Encourage that rather than bloat NASA more.
Eye of the Storm
This is an amazing, comprehensive analysis/discussion of the state, causes and solutions to the world’s Region of Terror. Not written by, but mirrored and noted by den Beste. It makes sense to me.
Unyieldy Trains
The Milwaukee anecdote in this post was just too funny.
Father’s Day
Dean has a good father’s day post with three links of interest to father’s rights, including this one. I was unaware that the Supreme Court had ruled in such a way as to make life vastly more difficult for non-custodial parents. This could be very bad.
Meanwhile, I got my first father’s day card ever! It was so sweet. Plus a gift in the form of a hooded baby towel and washcloth set that says “I love my daddy” on it. Awwww.
Have I mentioned lately how amazing my father is? (Hi dad!) He just finally retired at 71, not being one to embrace idleness.
Anyway, happy father’s day!
Is It Littering…
If the Boston Globe drops an unsolicited, unwanted copy at the edge of your yard? Heh.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Energize That Base
This will be a tough election whomever Senator Kerry picks (well, maybe not if he actually picked Osama bin Laden, but that would get the Democrat base fired up...)
Tootsie Heinz Kerry
If you liked the movie, you’ll love the campaign!
And also, methinks Velocidude is by no means the only one who might like cute chicks.
An Oxymoron Kinda Thing
Also, don’t miss the hysterically funny frog story!
Darn Good Question
Lee asks what I had idly wondered myself recently:
Yahoo continues to impress, early reports from GMail sound good; is there any real need for Hotmail anymore?
And Bigotry Too
I read the second paragraph of this to Deb with some amusement and sympathy. She pointed out, in her charming, pretend to be a lefty for a moment manner, that making them learn another language is “cultural genocide.” Heh.
Eating Cheaply
Via TurkeyBlog, this post on eating cheap, poking some fun at people trying to eat “cheap” for a whopping $10 a day, reminds of the stretch of time during which I ate on $10 or so per week. That was circa twelve years ago.
Chicken breasts indeed!
My splurge was cheese, and that was, and sometimes still is, my meat substitute. I no longer buy the cheapo bread without damn good reason. I can’t bear the idea of eating light tuna, as opposed to white, preferably “solid” (why is “solid” white tuna sometimes pre-shredded so finely it barely needs any fork action on the way to becoming sandwiches?), much the way my grandmother to this day won’t eat oatmeal. It was all they ate during the Depression. I still eat pasta freely, but I use the sauce I like, not icky cheap sauce or none at all. My consumption of pancakes and french freedom toast are tiny compared to what they were at times. At least I still love peanut butter. And if I eat popcorn, it’s the microwave kind, not the old-fashioned, cheapest available, cooked in a pan using cheap oil, and not served in a huge bowl as my pennies worth of meal for the day.
$10 a day? Near luxury eating. Not bad even split between two. Just gotta watch out for that scurvy.
38 weeks
First, a pic of me a week ago:
I’m bigger now. I wasn’t sure it was possible, but I am definitely still growing. That’s one big baby in there, folks.
Last week was the kind of amusing that just didn’t inspire me to write. Monday my normal NST turned into a 6 hour ordeal, since we couldn’t get her to do her tricks on the monitor. Wound up making my first visit to L&D to hang out on their monitors instead. Joy.
Tuesday’s estimated weight: 8 pounds. Bejus.
Wednesday was the appointment with the midwife, wherein I received serious encouragement...my cervix is starting to change. Not much, but I’ll take “still pretty firm, but I can get a finger in it” over “hard and closed” any day. At least we’re moving in the right direction! This is especially happy news since I’ve started getting runs of little contractions, mixed in with the occasional one that feels like it’s doing something, and my back has been killing me in a way that suggests that baby might just choose to leave one of these days. Nice to know that it isn’t my imagination/is actually accomplishing something, IYKWIM.
We worked all day today on getting things ready for the little twerp. I got the laundry completely caught up, the bathroom cleaned, the sheets changed, and our room rearranged to make room for the bassinet (which is a great assembly story that I believe Jay will be posting soon...). Jay worked on cleaning out the room that will eventually be Sadie’s and organizing our storage space in the cellar. We totally made up for the way we goofed off yesterday. But it was good to spend most of the day in bed relaxing while we still could...very, very soon now we’ll have no peace at all. And I suspect we’ll be absurdly happy about it, too.
The “big appointment” this coming week is tomorrow, when we see the OB. Next after that is a week from Wednesday, which will be the decision point for kicking her out, if she hasn’t left gracefully by then. I’ve still got my fingers crossed that she’ll wise up and decide to leave…
Why yes, I can be both sick [i]and[/i] twisted
When I first tried going here after seeing Ith’s post pointing it out, I got no satisfaction because it was overloaded. Today it actually worked, and I am most pleased with the results. The results should be available at that link for at least 24 hours. However, I also captured an image to be sure to have it available.
Just for giggles, I tried this with Paul’s picture and got Enrique Iglessias, Tom Hanks and David Boreanaz as the results For giggles, to see if the software would freak out, I also tried this on Paul’s dog. Paul’s dog allegedly resembles Liam Neeson, John Goodman and Morgan Freeman. Go doggie!
Deb’s picture generated a couple chicks I never heard of, plus Sandra Bullock as the second result of the three. Not too shabby.
No More New Cookies Until Later
Saturday hit and I just didn’t feel like doing anything, except obviously blogging, and my mind has unwrapped from that now. I need to go work on our beta program, which last night I got this close to distributing successfully.
The one hangup was some third party controls that the distribution grabbed trial versions of, rather than the licensed ones. Which makes no sense to me, since the real ones had been installed successfully and referenced by the program.
It resulted in popups announcing the trial status of the controls. Multiple times. And prevented parts of the program from functioning at all.
The most imperative functions did work, and were easy to get that way. I decided to end on a high note, go back today to straighten it out, then if time still allowed, go work on deploying it.
I’m down to perhaps straightening it out and deploying it the beginning of the week. Meanwhile, I need to do some neglected billing. That may get worked on tomorrow. Can’t let it get any later, and it’s silly to be as busy with billable work as I have ever been, and not be able to run things as a result.
This may be the last post for the day or until tonight sometime. I figure I tossed enough up here today to entertain and bemuse you all. Time to do some work, and if it weren’t for that, it would be time to do some stuff around the house. The baby’s room is still full of crud that needs to be moved to the cellar or discarded. The computer toom still needs a little finishing and to have the rug put down. It’s great I was able to reuse the rugs I bought for the previous apartment.
Anyway, off I go to do something non-virtual! Or, as my brother would say, time to do something, even if it’s wrong.
Speaking of brothers, I just talked to my older brother and he may be able to swap the windshield in the Sentra for me Tuesday night. Then I can make it legal, drive it, save gas, and be able to hand the van over to the garage to get the scraping brakes fixed and the sludge changed. Yay!
Homeless Providence Kittens
I just received an e-mail from a friend who lives in Providence, RI, looking to get some feral kitties adopted. If anyone in the area is interested, I’ll put you in touch. Here is what he said:
Need to find homes for 4 kittens (approx 6 to 8 weeks old)...
There is a female feral cat that has recently had a brood in my back yard. My back yard is small and very enclosed so it’s nice and safe, so they don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. There are currently 5 cats - 1 mom and 4 kittens playing in my backyard (flattening the ferns, getting underfoot, sniffing at my doorway). They are mostly feral, I’ve been trying to acclimate them to people (me) without getting too involved (except for occasionally playing with them with a bit of tinfoil tied to a string...), so they can be given to loving homes. They’re at about the age where if they are going to be with humans, they had better be socialized SOON. (...didnt realize that until yesterday). I cannot have cats or dogs in my apartment.
I don’t want to give to a shelter, because I don’t want them to possibly get euthanized.
They are four absolutely adorable kittens: one is totally jet black with grey-ish blue eyes, the other three are charcoal grey tabbies with greyish-blue eyes (dad must’ve been a siamese). The mother is a calico. I’d really like to see these kittens go to a caring home rather than to a shelter. I don’t want to see them return to being feral either, because - well, what kind of life is that? Ya can’t even get food stamps if yer a feral cat…
You Could Even Say She Glows
Isn’t she adorable?
I love the way the light and angle imparted kind of a glow. In the background you can see part of our Wall of Books™.
There are more pictures! I posted them over on the baby blog. There are pregnancy pictures in this post. In this other post I listed what we have for Sadie so far, including a couple pictures. Enjoy!
“…the pedophile of organized religions.”
I am sitting here trying to think of a clever, an “I agree,” a “he so totally rocks,” a “go. read. now.” way of introducing this post that will sound fitting. Velociman is a blog among godders. Er… a god among bloggers. Or something.
Where We Stand So Far
[Originally published to the old baby blog.]
For those keeping track at home, here is an updated loot report list of things we have so far for Sadie. With a couple pictures!
I’m told we have a crib that my father and stepmother originally bought for my sister’s family.
We have a good high chair (or is it spelled highchair?) from my brother and his wife. Just needs a bit of cleaning and is currently in pieces in the disastrously messy storage room baby’s room.
We have an infant stroller with infant car seat transportation system. It’s a good one, given us by one of the lawyers I work for, pictured here:
After drooling over it for a few visits to BJ’s, we bought the 3 in 1 bedside bassinet changing table unit in the box pictured below. Luckily the picture gives a good idea what it is exactly:
We’re getting a big toybox made by my grandmother’s late brother, which for now will answer the “where are we going to store all these blankets” question.
Finally, some days ago we received a box of adorable baby clothes, things like receiving blankets, and even a cute rubber duckie (you’re the one) from the Jedi Parents. No pictures, at least not yet, but as we unwrapped and looked at each item, it made the baby so much more real and got us all emotional.
There you have it so far. I am thinking it might be useful to create a more compact, less editorialized list down the road, that we can update as needed, as an informational tool for family and friends who are eager to supply baby stuff. This will do for now. We may be getting more soon, from another lawyer I work for who has a whole laundry list of items she can pass on to us that will otherwise go to someone else or charity. We just have to make a point of stopping by her house to see what we want.
Sloyd
Via that spiritual insectoid blogger comes a rather cool, almost Rubik-like, almost Pegged-like online game called… Sloyd?
My two tries were 143 and 140 moves respectively.
Update:
110 On the third try. Go me.
Conversational Snippet At Our House
Me: Rachel says she totally sucks as a blogger.
Deb: Rachel would be wrong.
Barefoot Is Just Better
[Originally published to the old baby blog.]
Here’s another edition of pregnant Deb pictures for your clicking pleasure. It’s even on the baby blog this time! What a concept.
Here’s the best shot we could get that gives an indication of size at 25 24 weeks and 5 days:
Here’s a “barefoot and pregnant” belly shot she’ll be totally pleased that I posted:
That second one was totally unintentional, getting the feet in it, but it ended up amusing me. Not that it’s difficult to do that.
A Gross Top 100 List
Via the Cheese Lady comes the latest blog meme. The idea is to take the list of 100 top grossing films ever and bold the ones you have seen. I modified that slightly. The bolded ones are as best I can recall ones I have seen at a theater or drive-in at some point; on the big screen, as it were. The colored ones I have seen entirely or in some significant part on video or TV.
1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
4. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
5. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
6. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) $377,019,252
7. Passion of the Christ, The (2004) $370,025,697
8. Jurassic Park (1993) $356,784,000
9. Shrek 2 (2004) $356,211,000
10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) $340,478,898
11. Finding Nemo (2003) $339,714,367
12. Forrest Gump (1994) $329,691,196
13. Lion King, The (1994) $328,423,001
14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) $317,557,891
15. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) $313,837,577
16. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) $310,675,583
17. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) $309,125,409
18. Independence Day (1996) $306,124,059
19. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) $305,411,224
20. Sixth Sense, The (1999) $293,501,675
21. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) $290,158,751
22. Home Alone (1990) $285,761,243
23. Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) $281,492,479
24. Shrek (2001) $267,652,016
25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $261,970,615
26. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) $260,031,035
27. Jaws (1975) $260,000,000
28. Monsters, Inc. (2001) $255,870,172
29. Batman (1989) $251,188,924
30. Men in Black (1997) $250,147,615
31. Toy Story 2 (1999) $245,823,397
32. Bruce Almighty (2003) $242,589,580
33. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) $242,374,454
34. Twister (1996) $241,700,000
35. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) $241,437,427
36. Ghost Busters (1984) $238,600,000
37. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) $234,760,500
38. Cast Away (2000) $233,630,478
39. Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) $229,074,524
40. Signs (2002) $227,965,690
41. Rush Hour 2 (2001) $226,138,454
42. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) $219,200,000
43. Ghost (1990) $217,631,306
44. Aladdin (1992) $217,350,219
45. Saving Private Ryan (1998) $216,119,491
46. Mission: Impossible II (2000) $215,397,307
47. X2 (2003) $214,948,780
48. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) $213,079,163
49. Back to the Future (1985) $210,609,762
50. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) $205,399,422
51. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) $204,843,350
52. Exorcist, The (1973) $204,565,000
53. Mummy Returns, The (2001) $202,007,640
54. Armageddon (1998) $201,573,391
55. Gone with the Wind (1939) $198,655,278
56. Pearl Harbor (2001) $198,539,855
57. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) $197,171,806
58. Toy Story (1995) $191,800,000
59. Men in Black II (2002) $190,418,803
60. Gladiator (2000) $187,670,866
61. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $184,925,485
62. Dances with Wolves (1990) $184,208,848
63. Batman Forever (1995) $184,031,112
64. Fugitive, The (1993) $183,875,760
65. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) $183,405,771
66. What Women Want (2000) $182,805,123
67. Perfect Storm, The (2000) $182,618,434
68. Liar Liar (1997) $181,395,380
69. Grease (1978) $181,360,000
70. Jurassic Park III (2001) $181,166,115
71. Mission: Impossible (1996) $180,965,237
72. Planet of the Apes (2001) $180,011,740
73. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) $179,870,271
74. Pretty Woman (1990) $178,406,268
75. Tootsie (1982) $177,200,000
76. Top Gun (1986) $176,781,728
77. There’s Something About Mary (1998) $176,483,808
78. Ice Age (2002) $176,387,405
79. Crocodile Dundee (1986) $174,635,000
80. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) $173,585,516
81. Elf (2003) $173,381,405
82. Air Force One (1997) $172,888,056
83. Rain Man (1988) $172,825,435
84. Apollo 13 (1995) $172,071,312
85. Matrix, The (1999) $171,383,253
86. Beauty and the Beast (1991) $171,301,428
87. Tarzan (1999) $171,085,177
88. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) $170,708,996
89. Chicago (2002) $170,684,505
90. Three Men and a Baby (1987) $167,780,960
91. Meet the Parents (2000) $166,225,040
92. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) $165,500,000
93. Hannibal (2001) $165,091,464
94. Catch Me If You Can (2002) $164,435,221
95. Big Daddy (1999) $163,479,795
96. Sound of Music, The (1965) $163,214,286
97. Batman Returns (1992) $162,831,698
98. Bug’s Life, A (1998) $162,792,677
99. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) $161,963,000
100. Waterboy, The (1998) $161,487,252
Still Poor
Saw that Mega Millions was up to $121 million, so I played it. No dice. But hey, nobody else won and now it’s $150 million.
Friday, June 18, 2004
*shakes head*
People wonder sometimes why I’m not a big fan of doctors. I think the problem is that they’re impossible to satisfy. I’m thinking that I did the most amazingly incredible almost-damned-impossible thing ever by managing to quit smoking (an accomplishment that *still* torments me on a daily basis), and the medical types are like, good for you. Now cut all the salt out of your diet.
I don’t fucking think so.
Besides, at the rate things are going, if I did that I’d turn up with GD. Then what the hell would I eat?
Anyway, for the stats conscious among you (or any random googler who’s looking to feel better), I gained 8 pounds in 3 weeks but managed to hold steady for the two days between appointments. 
My fantasy of staying under 200 pounds with this one is gone, though. 4 pounds to go to hit that milestone. *sigh* None of the medical types seem to be disturbed by the gain, at least. 22 pounds for the pregnancy so far. Not great, but not absurd, either.
Interestingly enough, the stretch marks haven’t come in yet. Surprised me a bit...as a rule, I get them any time I gain weight quickly. I’m quite pleased.
My bp is behaving itself (the doc today actually referred to it as “spectacular"), I’m showing no signs of metabolic naughtiness...I’m a pretty damned boring high-risk pregnant type. I hope to hell it stays that way.
The no-salt thing came from the fact that I’m having trouble with my feet and ankles swelling, which is something I was expecting, considering that I have pitting edema over my shins when I’m *not* pregnant. I have to admit, I miss my ankles, and I’m uncomfortable enough at the end of a bad day to be willing to experiment with diet, but cutting it out entirely seems a little draconian, since it isn’t anything outside of the normal range.
Can a measure *be* a little draconian, btw?
Technically Creaking
I seem to be reaching the end of the entropy attack. I hope. It seems like maybe Mercury or Vulcan or something was in retrograde this week.
Now for continuing to prepare the software for beta deployment! Tomorrow. Like yeah, maybe.
It’s All Relatives
And speaking of people named Wayne, my brother Wayne started a blog! If you go there, please bear with his spelling, grammar and such. My sister and I got most of the writing ability in that regard, despite the public school system. My older brother is good at writing lyrics, so long as someone respells the words for him afterward.
Watching the adventures in education experienced by my younger brothers has as much to do with my desire to homeschool as my own experiences. My biggest problem was with high school, and the fact I learned essentially all I got out of twelve years of school in the first eight or perhaps nine.
Anyway, the main reason for this post is to show off a picture of Wayne’s kids, five of my sixteen nieces and nephews (and two grandnieces with another coming soon!). I haven’t seen them in a couple years or so at ths point, so it’s astounding to see a picture like this. The two youngest ones came along after I’d already started seeing less and less of them.
Thus it was that when I was in California and four of them were staying in my apartment with Wayne for a couple days, I got to speak with them on the phone. Where Michelle said plaintively “I miss you!” Jon said “who are you?”
One of these days I want to contact their mother and bring Deb to meet her and the kids, but their mother can be prickly enough that I don’t look forward to trying to arrange that. I fear I may not actually have in-person contact with them until they’re each at least eighteen.
Ka-Ching
And on another carnivalistic note, don’t forget to send Wayne Hurlbert your entries for the next Carnival of the Capitalists. Capitalists -at- elhide.com or blogbusinessworld -at- yahoo.com
Woof
Don’t forget to send entries for Carnival of the Dogs! mickeym -at- comcast.net
Thursday, June 17, 2004
For my husband