One more cup of coffee

New pictures

BlogJet problems

BlogJet has a new version out (1.6.1 build 55). Unfortunately, it still doesn’t fix the bug I had reported several months ago with the last version, which makes it essentially unusable for posting images. It has a feature that lets you upload pictures just by adding them to your entry, then it gets uploaded when you publish. The bug is that it mangles the URL at post time when posting to Movable Type. I have it configured to post in <http://www.mohea.com/mike/words/images/>. It uploads the file correctly, but then drops the trailing slash from the URL, so I end up with something like <http://www.mohea.com.mike/words/imagesfoo.jpg>.

The spell checker also still has the bug where it can’t deal with apostrophes. For example, if it seems the word “Nathan’s”, it suggests “Nathan+'s”. You can click ‘Add’ on “Nathan’s”, but it won’t help – the next time it sees “Nathan’s”, it will once again say that it’s not recognized and suggest “Nathan+'s”.

I’m pretty disappointed in this update and the bugs it still has. I think it’s time to find a new blog editing program.

When toys are too realistic

Waiting tonight in SJC for my (late) flight, I wandered into the gift shop and found 'plush' toy airplanes that you could squeeze for 'realistic airplane noises'.

I left after a while, because as far as I could tell, the intent of the toy was to replicate all the noises, in real time, from push-back until take-off (or later).

The noise of an airplane taxiing is not actually very interesting.

Ill

I got back home Thursday night, and woke up yesterday morning sick. And I'm still sick. Bleah.

I knew I was doomed last week when Nathan would curl up on my shoulder to sleep and sneeze on my face from half an inch away.

Not that every moment isn't bliss...

Tuesday night, I was so tired, I went to bed at 10:15, just half an hour after Nathan finally went to sleep.

Half an hour after that, he woke up crying. Between then and 2 AM, he mostly cried, with Meredith and me alternately trying to comfort him. Finally at 2 AM, I got up with him. A little while later, and a bottle later, he had calmed back down, so back to bed.

Oh, no. It was Play Time!

Back up, back to his room, where I curled up in the rocking chair and tried to keep half an eye on him while he crawled around and played with his toys, until he finally got tired enough to go back to bed – at 4 AM.

Ben & Jerry's Body & Soul: yecch

Meredith picked up a pint each of Ben & Jerry’s new Body & Soul Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Body & Soul Chocolate Fudge Brownie. In a word: yecch. The premise is that it’s 25% less fat, sugar and calories than the original flavors but without using artificial sweeteners. Part of this is clearly because the ice cream is just lighter (more air whipped into the mix) than normal B&J ice cream. But that’s clearly not all: it just tastes bad. Not only is the taste off, but it leaves a nasty after-taste.

Frankly, grocery-store brand ice cream tastes better than this, and is certainly far cheaper.

Best Show on Television

I’m so happy that new episodes of Battlestar Galactica have started airing again. This has to be the best show on television, by far.

Role reversal

Well, this is something of a switch. The Tennessee men’s basketball team (unranked) beat the #2 ranked team (Florida), and the women’s team (#1) lost to the #2 team (Duke).

Now I’m on the lookout for a white horse carrying some rider with a bow and crown.

Sick Meredith

Meredith woke up yesterday with a 102.5°F fever, so I stayed home to watch Nathan while she mostly stayed in bed.

This morning, she woke up with a fever of 102.9°F, which isn’t really the hoped-for direction, so I'm home again today.

Redmond, here we come

We’re moving.

Today, I officially accepted a job with DMD (Digital Media Division) in Microsoft up in Redmond, WA. This means that sometime in the next couple of months, Meredith, Nathan and I will be packing up and moving ~850 miles north. (It also means we have to learn how to sell a house.)

I’ve lived here full time for 10 1/2 years; Meredith for longer than that. It’s kind of strange to imagine moving, but it’s the right thing for us now. I’m excited about my new job, and think that I’ll have a lot of fun. But we’ll definitely miss all of our friends here.

Time for a new adventure…

"Girl" as a bad word

Meredith and I took Nathan to the aquarium today. Nathan loves it, and it’s probably our last visit there before we love, so our last chance to use our membership.

Towards the end of our day, we went into the acrylic tunnel they have set up with waves going overhead. It’s neat to see (click on this link to the Monterey Bay Aquarium site, then cycle through the pictures and you’ll see it), but it’s very loud and startling when a ton of water suddenly erupts into view and washes overhead, and the last time we were there, Nathan nearly jumped out of his skin and then tried to crawl into mine when it hit. We thought we’d try it again this time because he loves playing with and being around water so much, and he did much better, but clearly this is not an experience for everyone – startled or scared kids are not an incredibly rare sight.

And, sure enough, today there was what looked to be a somewhat distraught four-year-old boy being hustled out of the tunnel by his mother, who was angrily telling him, “OK, come on, little girly girl. Just be a girl about it.”

(a) One hopes this woman has no daughters.

(b) It somehow seems worse that he was getting this from a woman.

Pretty sad.

Why is it that women are sometimes the one pushing the bad stereotypes of women?

A night in the life

Last night:

8:00 PM – Meredith and Nathan take a bath.
8:10 PM – I get Nathan out of the bath, since he is All Done.
8:20 PM – I finish getting Nathan’s diaper and pajamas on. Yes, this took ten minutes.
9:00 PM – Meredith volunteers to put him to bed, so starts rocking him to sleep.
10:00 PM – Meredith calls to me to ask if I could please take a turn trying to get him to go to sleep, since she’s been trying for an hour. I take Nathan back to our bed, cover him with the blanket, and lie down next to him.
10:06 PM – Nathan falls asleep. I think to myself, “this was easy.”
10:07 PM – Nathan wakes back up.
10:14 PM – Nathan falls asleep again
10:14:30 PM – Nathan wakes up
10:15 PM – I give Nathan a bottle of water. He drinks most of it.
10:19 PM – Nathan expresses his frustration by trying to claw a hole in my throat
10:24 PM – Nathan falls asleep
10:26 PM – I get up to go get the baby monitor transmitter from the other room.
10:26:01 PM – Nathan wakes up as soon as I am three feet away from the bed. I go to get the baby monitor anyway, thinking that maybe God or the fates will reward me for my optimism
10:27 PM – I return. God is amused by my optimism; Nathan is still awake.
10:29 PM – I refill Nathan’s bottle and give him more water. Nathan may be on a hunger strike, but he makes up for it in volume of water – at night. This probably explains that diaper problem.
10:33 PM – I wonder if my voice will wear out from trying to sing Nathan to sleep. I am not the trained singer in the family.
10:35 PM – Nathan expresses his frustration by kicking me repeatedly with his damned shoes.
10:37 PM – I get up to tell Meredith that I’m just going to go to bed and give up on getting back up.
10:38 PM – I brush my teeth. Nathan hears and is fascinated. He is wide awake.
10:45 PM – I notice that Nathan has kicked off his right shoe; I take it off and fix it.
11:05 PM – As Nathan thrashes around, I consider getting a drink of whiskey. Can’t decide whether I should give it to Nathan or me. The indecision paralyzes me, so I don’t get up.
11:13 PM – I notice that Nathan has kicked off his right shoe. Again. I say to hell with it and take the whole set off.
11:14 PM – Nathan falls sound asleep. Damned shoes.
11:17 PM – Meredith comes to bed. “Hey, everyone’s asleep.”

Not that every moment isn’t bliss.

Learning about switches

For the past couple of weeks, when I get up in the morning with Nathan and take him into his room, I point up to the overhead light in his room (the one with the big star lantern on it), then point over at the light switch and turn it on.

This morning, when I got up with him, we walked into his room, he pointed up at the light, then whipped around and pointed at the switch. Then we spent the next couple of minutes with him turning the switch on and off, looking back with delight at the light each time.

I’m so proud :)

Find the green marks

Meredith and I have been looking at Seattle-area homes on Redfin, a realty site that uses Google’s mapping service to show the properties.

Once you sign up for an account, you can create a list of your favorite houses. Normally, it shows the houses from a search in red, but for the ones you’ve already looked at, it uses green.

On a satellite map. Of Seattle.

What an outstanding choice of colors.

Important safety tip

From the TSA's page on traveling with children:

"Babies should NEVER be left in an infant carrier while it goes through the X-ray machine."

Thanks, Egon.