If you claim you’re going to be late to something, and then never show, are you infinitely late?
Archive for 2007-06
Terminology
2007-06-24 19:34Ran: New Charles River Run
2007-06-24 11:01New Charles River Run, 7.5M, 1:17:17 gun time. I think my actual time was closer to 1:15, though I surely didn’t break the 10 minute mile pace that I was hoping to. On the other hand, given that I’ve been running 11 minute miles of late, and I haven’t run in 4 weeks since the ½ marathon, I’m pretty happy with things.
I also managed to snag a number of run pamphlets for other ½ marathons this fall.
Website Cleanup: Alex FAQ
2007-06-22 23:35Well… Alex is now one… he’s no longer zero… yay! He’s definitely not an infant any more. The walking really has transformed him. That said, it’s time to retire the FAQ portion of Alex’s page. It was mostly written before he was born, oh so long ago (yes, I’m getting nostalgic, shut up). I’m posting it here for posterity (yes, to all the wise-asses out there, it’ll still be in my source control (svn) history, yes, I know how to access it, don’t teach your grandma how to suck eggs).
FAQ
When?
Dina’s due June 17th.
Play along at home with the Guess The Date Pool.
Update: 2006-06-20: Alex decided that he wanted to say hi to the world 3 days later than expected.
Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?
Not yet. We plan on finding out eventually.
It’s a boy.
Were you trying? Was this planned?
Yes, we were trying / it was planned. Mind you, I question whether you
can truly call something ‘planned’ if it didn’t involve thermometers,
calendars, spreadsheets, wiki pages, Microsoft Project, etc.
Notably, Nick didn’t read a single article like this one.
Do you have a name?
Yes.
For a boy, “Alessandro”. For a girl, “Alessandria”.
Alessandro.
Alex for short.
You can figure out why on your own.
We haven’t settled on a middle name yet. His middle name is “Niccolo”.
Ah! So that’s why Dina hasn’t been drinking lately.
That’s not a question.
Is that why Dina hasn’t been drinking / has been sick / has been tired / has been burping a lot lately?
Yes.
Is that why you’re in a better mood lately?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: It’s a combination of factors. So, yes.
<snigger /> Are you sure it’s yours?
Haha. Yes.
Is that why Dina’s suddenly wearing sensible shoes?
Partly.
She started wearing sensible shoes around summer time.
She’s keeping it up because she’s trying to take care of herself.
Why “Worst Kept Secret Ever”?
We’ve been hinting like there’s no tomorrow.
OK. I’ve been hinting like there’s no tomorrow, in person, in email, and in blog entries.
Dina has maintained her standard chagrined-amused attitude towards my hinting.
Besides, when have you ever seen Dina not drink for this long?
You excited?
Very!
Update: 2007-06-23: Still excited, but in a more tired, sleep-deprived way.
You ready?
You crazy?
Update: 2007-06-23: Apparently, we were. And we weren’t.
Anything we can do to help?
Hmmm… good question.
We don’t know.
Suggest away…
You’re staying in the same place?
For now.
I think we want to experience Cambridge with a baby for a while.
We have a big bedroom for the first little while, then we have the back bedroom.
Update: 2007-06-23: We’re moving downstairs so Alex can finally get his own room.
How’s Dina feeling?
Hmmm… you can ask her, but I think a succinct answer is “you name it”.
How are you feeling?
Glad you asked.
Very excited.
Quite scared.
Oddly sorry for Alex (he or she’ll have me as a father after all).
I have the ominous feeling that I’ll be learning at a faster pace than I have in recent memory.
Update: 2007-06-23: Nostalgic. He’s changed so much in such a short time.
How’s Alex feeling?
Don’t know.
But we think OK.
Ultrasounds have been good.
Hearing the heartbeat was one of the highlights of my life to date.
2006-01-19: He was moving quite a lot today.
Update: 2007-06-23: He’s doing well. People he meets tend to say he’s cute, small, walking, and curious.
What do you plan to do when the baby arrives?
In short? No clue.
In general? Take care of it the best we can.
Work-wise? No clue. Maybe move to Canada where parental leave is up to 12 months per couple (note to people who don’t get my sense of humour, that last sentence was a joke).
How long have you known?
Since October.
You didn’t tell people right away?
One generally doesn’t. Something like 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriages.
One normally waits until the end of the first trimester when the risk is much reduced.
Are you gonna cut back on a lot of stuff that you’re doing?
Yes. We’re already cutting back on dancing.
Some of the pregnancy books we’re reading note that people tend to lose contact with people on the periphery of their social circle,
people who don’t like kids,
and people who should have been ditched a while ago.
Hopefully if you’re reading this, you don’t fall into any of those.
Is Dina gong to continue being president of Tech Squares?
Yes.
You going to have a normal delivery in a hospital or somewhere else with a midwife, or one of those really weird ones where the baby is born in a tub?
Hospital.
We believe in the power of modern science and medicine.
Are you going to have the baby in Montreal?
No.
I don’t quite understand why we keep getting asked this question.
People, please think this through.
Driving 6 hours to Montreal after Dina’s water breaks seems like a Bad Idea ™.
A plane ticket would be prohibitively expensive at the last minute plus airlines normally won’t allow women in their late 3rd trimester to fly.
Yes, we could travel up a bit earlier, but to what benefit?
We live in Boston.
Our home is in Boston.
We’d like to have the baby where we feel comfortable.
Montreal isn’t home anymore.
For the Canadians asking this, having a baby is not expensive when you have health insurance.
I think the whole pregnancy is going to cost us @ACTION(“gasp”)@ in the low 2-figures, i.e., about $10, in medical bills.
At the time we paid it, this amounted to about $12 Canadian dollars.
Registry?
- Babies’R'Us [dead link removed].
- Magic Beans [dead link removed].
Moving Schedule Update
2007-06-21 23:00Our moving schedule is getting better. Thank you to all who have helped / volunteered to help.
June 19: Apt#1 mostly empty.June 20-21: Painted Alex’s room. Painted our room. Painted pantry. Primed pantry door.- June 22: Shopping. Paint touch-up. Post painting cleanup. Paint pantry door. Patch random kitchen holes.
- June 23: Apt#1 empty.
- June 23-24: Family in town, probably no moving activities.
- June 25: Help appreciated. Move small stuff downstairs. Start decorating Alex’s room. Start decorating our room.
- June 26: Day: Prepare big pieces of furniture to be moved downstairs.
- June 26: Night: Mover moves big pieces of furniture downstairs. Help appreciated getting our bedrooms ready for sleep.
- June 27-30: Help appreciated Move remainder of our stuff downstairs. Get Apt#1 in livable order. Childproof. Paint Apt#2 nursery white. Touch up random Apt#2 paint.
To All The Friends We’ve Moved Before
2007-06-19 18:04Short Version
If you want to give us a hand with the move, there’s some stuff that can be done this week (prepping and painting downstairs) and some stuff next week (moving non-big-and-heavy stuff downstairs).
Long Version
With apologies to Willie Nelson. If you sing it out loud, make sure to sing the appropriate verses with either Willie’s or Julio’s accent.
To all the friends we’ve moved before
We’ve schlepped stuff in and out your door
You’re glad we came along
We dedicate this song
To all the friends we’ve moved before
We’ve moved the stuff you have posessed
And may we say we’ve moved the best
Through rain and sun and snow
You owe us one, you know
To all the friends we’ve moved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And we’ve tried to move in the past
The winds of change continue blowing
And now we’re going to move at last
To all the good friends in our lives
We’ve moved kids, husbands, and wives
You’re glad we came along
We dedicate this song
To all the friends we’ve moved before
So now we’re asking everyone
Please move us to apartment one
We’re really almost there
Just down a flight of stairs
To all the friends we’ve moved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And we’ve tried to move in the past
The winds of change continue blowing
And now we’re going to move at last
To all the friends we’ve moved before
We’ve schlepped stuff in and out your door
You’re glad we came along
We dedicate this song
To all the friends we’ve moved before
To all the friends we’ve moved before
We’ve schlepped stuff in and out your door
You’re glad we came along
We dedicate this song
To all the friends we’ve moved before
Moving Schedule
2007-06-18 13:01Our moving schedule is still up in the air. Thank you to all who have volunteered to help. We’ll have more concrete answers for you soon. So far, our tentative schedule is:
- June 19: Apt#1 empty.
- June 20-22: Help Possible? Prep Apt#1. Patch holes in floors, ceilings, and walls. Paint both bedrooms white. Childproof.
- June 20-22: Help Possible? Maybe move some smaller stuff that won’t get in the way downstairs.
- June 23-24: Family in town, probably no moving activities.
- June 25-29: Mover moves big stuff downstairs.
- June 25-30: Help Possible? Friends help move smaller stuff downstairs. Help can be moving stuff up and down stairs, watching Alex, or helping us get Apt#1 in livable order.
- June 25-30: Help Possible? Paint Apt#2 nursery white.
Free: Who Wants An Old iPod Shuffle?
2007-06-15 09:13Used 1GB 1st generation (USB stick-style) iPod Shuffle to give away. Includes original, unused headphones. The last 2 times I’ve used it, it’s stopped working after about 90 minutes of use (despite the battery meter showing near-full charge). Mind you, the shuffle was wet from rain by that point. The shuffle started working again the next day.
Comment if you want it.
On Second Thought
2007-06-14 17:31Was at Macy’s today. The intimates section is next to the children’s section. At first, that didn’t make much sense… who has time? Then I realized that the children’s section is near the intimates section…. ah.
A Lot To Learn
2007-06-14 17:28Alex is enjoying is new-found freedom and walking up a storm. At the mall today, he walked into a store. The two young sales clerks said, “Hey handsome, come here!” (obviously that was meant for me, the hunky dad, but they were too bashful to hit on me directly). Alex hid behind my leg.
Lesson: Son, if a cute, young lady calls you ‘handsome’ and asks for you to come to her, go! If it’s two young ladies, go quicker! (If it turns out that you’re gay, oops… didn’t mean to push you toward the other gender… I didn’t know… you can’t talk yet).
Rules: Father’s Day
2007-06-14 17:24Kids, if you’re reading this, the rules for father’s day presents are:
- I’d prefer not to receive any.
- If you insist on giving me something, it has to be something that you made / or put together.
- Alternately, we could do something cool (and non-commercial) together like kick the ball around in the park.
IMHO, father’s day is yet another holiday invented by greeting card companies to pump up sales.
NYC Marathon
2007-06-12 14:02Bad News: I didn’t get in.
Good News: I didn’t get in.
… and yes… had I ‘won’ the lottery instead of ‘lost’ the lottery, this post would’ve been pretty much the same.
e-Commerce Technology: Fraud? Phishing? Spam?
2007-06-11 12:37I received an order confirmation from FortuneCookieStore.com. I’m sure I never placed an order there. The odd / worrisome thing about this is that they had my full name, email address, street address, and phone number on the order.
FortuneCookieStore.com seems to be part of a family of companies under e-Commerce Technology Inc. They have websites at ec-t.com and ec-shopping.com. The number of domains they use makes things seem totally fishy.
I called the (non-toll-free) number on their web site, 408-777-9821, got a very helpful receptionist, who remembered me across the 5 calls I placed in the span of 30 minutes. She claimed it was her first day, and actively encouraged me to file complaints / blog about this. Customer support, again, the same person every call, was unhelpful. Claimed to cancel the order, despite the online system showing that it hadn’t been cancelled. Refused to tell me how the order was billed, not even willing to tell me which credit card, if any, and the last four digits of said credit card. Customer support then hung up on me. When I called back again, the receptionist put me on hold, talked to the president, and politely said that she couldn’t help me. So, something fishy is going on.
Googling the companies doesn’t bring up anything weird other than the fact that some of their web sites are blocked due to unsolicited email… not great, but a lot of companies get pegged as spammers these days. Heck, my hosting provider gets hit with that tag sometimes.
Anyway… for being totally unhelpful, FortuneCookieStore.com sucks and e-Commerce Technology Inc. sucks.
If anyone has any suggestions as to what happened here, I’m all ears.
I’m #2!!
2007-06-10 10:22… for the search term hot busty blond get massage before fuck on some search engine I’ve never heard of before. It links to my Vegas category page.
I guess that’s why I use “the Google”.
Moving
2007-06-08 07:06We’re moving. To the apartment downstairs. We’re getting movers for the big stuff, probably sometime next week. We could use help with the small and medium stuff sometime after that. Schlepping stuff downstairs helps. So does entertaining Alex, which frees Dina or I to do said schlepping. We’ll feed you or otherwise be nice to you if you help us. Since we’re both not currently working, we’ll be moving day and night, weekday and weekend.
Comment / email for more details or offers to help.
Alex, Meme, Security
2007-06-05 10:47Alex is pretty much walking walking now. I think his record is about 2 dozen steps before falling or grabbing on to something. He’s also getting more reliable at pro-actively signing what he wants at us (food, water, milk, more, come). He definitely understands those words and signs. He’s also much better at dealing with drop-offs such as couches, beds, and stairs. Some times we have to sign / tell him to turn around, but he mostly does that on his own.
I hereby declare that the opposite of [heart] is [liver] since it produces bile.
I’m getting tired of all the security crap running on my computer. Windows Defender, Anti-Virus, Firewall, regular anti-spyware scans. I’m tempted to disable everything except the firewall and take my chances. The number of programs that run on startup is also annoying. Do I need a separate BlueTooth program to run, or can I just go with what the OS gives me? Ditto the touchpad driver? Gah!