RosettaStone

So I started a new job at the beginning of October with Fairfield Language Technologies. They make the RosettaStone language learning software. This is a real adventure for me. I’m learning a new programming language called Ruby (and a framework called Rails) that are all the hip new rage. I am both enthralled and outraged by the language, but I’m incredibly happy with the company. They do good. I really feel that way.

Jonah is doing well. I’ll be uploading yet more pictures to the photo gallery as soon as I get a chance. Jonah is ALWAYS sick. Cute, cuddly, and one long continuous wet cough. Delivered right when you go to kiss his forehead. Jonah has kindly re-introduced Tamara and I to the all the pleasures of childhood illness. Sore throats, stomach viruses, compound congestion, and the general shakes and sweats were once just a distant memory. Now it’s like playing the “Wheel-of-Plague” every week. But you can bet every cent you earn that I pick that slobbery mess up ever chance I get and hold him for as long as time permits.

Jonah Arrives

Our new son Jonah arrived this past Saturday at 12:20 in the morning. He weighs in at 7lb. 6oz. and stretches to 19 inches (but if you let go he looks much shorter). We discovered last night that Jonah can hit decibels that had once only been theorized.

Aside from keeping us up and creating dirty diapers, Jonahs interests never stray far from eating and belching. Given his talent and interest at this early age we believe he may go far in these areas.

Jonah is by far the most beautiful thing Tamara and I have ever seen. And when I seriously consider what an amazing thing he is, I get tears in my eyes. This is by far the most wonderful experience of my life, and he only gets cooler from here.

Visit our image gallery for more pictures. You can find even more pictures at Tamara’s parent’s blog.

Funk Beer

I made my own beer a few weeks ago. Well, sort of. About two years ago a small brewery opened up about a block from my house offering the option to “Brew your own”. I’d been wanting to try it out ever since, but never thought about it, never had free time, etc… Well a few weeks ago I signed up, and this evening I just brought home the very first edition of Funckweizen Beer! It’s so cool it’s got its own label! You can find Queen City Brewery here: http://www.queencitybrewing.com/

Parks are cool

We live a block away from the city park. For the last few years they have been decorating the park with a myriad of small lighted scenes of one form or another. For the most part this activity has produced some relatively tame fare, a Santa here a reindeer there, trees strewn with the standard helix of lights. But last year, things began to change. Just before you began the sweep around the amphitheater you were greeted with a lighted statue of Elvis, actually moving his arm across his guitar, as a sea of lights shifted in the background. Wow. “Wow” that our little town can muster such frivolity, and “Wow” that I have grown old enough to appreciate such things.
But that’s all old school. Tamara and I nearly drove off the small paved lane that runs around the park when we came across this years spectacle. I could, honestly, expect nothing more from Grand Central Park. It was wet your pants excitement, I kid you not.

Are you ready?

Darkness.

Then, suddenly, across a regulation junior league baseball field appears a full compliment of blue jerseyed, white panted, ball capped players in a glow of lights. What’s this? The pitcher raises his arm! A ball of light appears in his hand, a second later another ball of light a few inches from his blue diaphanous arm appears, winks out, and another appears a few feet father along it’s predestined path. The damn thing is moving towards the batter! A bat rises in the air and (in all the stop motion glory of a neon junior league regulation field sized flip-book) comes around his side and strike the ball! It’s going! 10 feet in the air, 12, 15. It’s rising over the third base. And would you believe it, a man in center field begins to move. His arm stretches out, his glove is clearly visible, the ball appears inches from his grasp and blinks out. A second later, the ball winks back into existance a few feet behind our failed catcher. In a flash, we glace back knowing it’s happening, and it is … That batter is off and around the bases, and just like the ball, he vanishes from one location appearing several feet later long his path to his home run.

I was a little impressed.

Tamara is Pregnant

Which, of course, you already knew, since just about the last place you go to find out new stuff about us is our blog, because we can’t ever seem to get around to updating it. But that’s the news. Just wanted to post it.
Tamara is due in late May. For reasons I can’t seem to control, deep down inside, I really believe it’s due in March, and I can’t convince myself otherwise. “When is it due?” people ask, and I, in a steadfast and assured manor, hold my head up high and declare: “March, it’s due in March…, I think.” Tamara was born in March. It just makes sense, right? We’ll I’ve figured it out. I know, deep in my heart, that the answer to every non-theological question exists somewhere on the Internet. And now, thanks to this blog, so does the due-date.

Folksonomies and Quantum Tunneling

So, I’m a smart guy, right? Sure, within reason, I AM a smart guy. Someone out there is paying me money to sit here and read about folksonomies. Reading about folksonomies may not make me smart, but finding a job that pays me to do so sure as heck does.

Anyway, if you are not on the hip side of information technology (yes, I hate to break it to you, but there is a ‘hip’ side … No, I agree, it isn’t pretty). You probably do not know what a folksonomy is, and what’s more you don’t want to know. And if you do, you know how to use google.

What’s got my dander up is that I’ve been reading one new web site/blog/wiki after another for the past three days, and quite often, at the end of all that clicking and browsing, I find myself reading about something else intirely. Yesterday it was that crazy wiki software, today its Quantum Tunneling. (Can you believe we are doing stuff like that?) And when I pause and suddenly realize what I’m reading I get this quezy, sea-sick feeling. It is, as if, I’ve been floating along in the trench of a wave, and for one reason or another, I’ve all the sudden been hoisted up on the crest for the slightest of moments and I realize just how much I will never, ever know. And it’s an amazing thing.

MonkeyPirateTiddlyWiki

Do you want your own blog? Well, I have a suggestion for you: TiddlyWiki by Jeremy Ruston. You can find a slightly enhanced version here that was created by Simon Baird. It’s still experimental, but it has some genuine wiz-bang to it that makes me proud to be a programmer.

Basement Blas

We have been in the process of renovating our basement for almost a full year now. Most of our home renovation projects remain in progress for about a year. It goes as follows: (1) Tamara innitiates activity by removing a big chunk of wallpaper, or pulling up a large chunk of carpet. (2) Dan toils endlessly to remove the rest of the carpet/wallpaper, giving up in frustration and a well crafted bit of profanity. (3) Tamara calls a contractor. (4) Contractor does some stuff that costs a hell of a lot more than you would think. (5)Dan and Tamara paint the walls. (6) Dan and Tamara take full credit for the project.
The basement has been far more difficult that our standard renovation project. We’ve been through steps 1 to 6, and are quickly discovering maybe this may be more of a 10 phase process that includes additional steps such as denial and acceptance.

Our friends Jay and Tiff stopped by today. Jay’s a contractor, he’s agreed to come by and help me out in the evenings and on weekends. I think he may be enabling my current problem. But we hope for the best.

More Cat Haiku

Cinder
black cat stares blankly
laser pointer traces floor
blur of paws smack light

Beverly
Frightened kitten fleas
oh no, door to bedroom locked
captured, pees on floor

IO
Gray cat rests in window
not looking at the critters
licks, and falls asleep

To Power Wash or Not to Power Wash

Our big excitement today was the purchase of a power washer. To the world at large (ie, anyone under 30) this would not be an exciting thing. But for me, this was a much anticipated event. It all started when a friend at work loaned me their electric power washer. It was love at first spray. I cleaned the deck. I cleaned the sidewalk. I even inadvertantly removed a little of the paint from the side of the house. I knew then, that one day, God willing, that I would own a power washer. The actual event was a little anticlimactic. I knew exactly which power washer I wanted, after doing not quite extensive research on the Lowe’s website. (Well hey, there were only two electric ones at Lowe’s, and Consumer Reports was entirely mum on the subject of power washers. If it’s not on Consumer Reports, and there aren’t any crash tests about it, then I make the best guess I can based on the available marketing information. But I digress…) We walked directly to the aisle with the power washers. I pointed THE ONE out to Dan, who agreed, it looked like a good power washer from the availale marketing info. And then the unthinkable happened.
Lowe’s Associate: “Can I help you?”
Us: “Yes, we are looking at getting a power washer to clean the cement around our pool and to prepare our deck to stain it.”
Lowe’s Associate: “You are looking at this one?”
Us: “Yes.”
Lowe’s Associate: “Well you don’t want this one. This one isn’t powerful enough. It will get surface dirt off, but it wouldn’t get anything else up. We just had a lady come in the other day – wanted to use it to clean her tennis court. Didn’t have enough power, so she brought it back. Now what you want is one of these gas powered models over here. One of THESE will get the dirt out for you.”
Dan and I stand there in the aisle, dismayed. One of us is crushed to have chosen the WRONG power washer, and the other just wants to go the heck home. We stand there awkwardly for a minute, while the Lowe’s Associate waits to see what we will do. Finally, Dan tells him “Thanks.” And he strides purposely away, his job done well.
“Now what?” Dan asks me.
We debate for a while, and then do the inevitable. We buy the electric power washer. Dan carefully puts it down on the very bottom of the cart, so that it is inconspicious. At this point, we don’t want to make it obvious to anyone that we are buying an electric power washer. After a stop at the birdseed aisle, we check out and head home.
After putting the power washer together (2 screws and some plastic parts popped on), we head down to the pool area. We attach the hose, plug it in, and Bliss! I am power washing once again! Grime is melting away from the steady spray coming out of the end of the special variable water strength power washer wand.
Dan heads back up, ready to have a chatter free afternoon. He checks back occasionally to make sure that I haven’t power washed all the cement away or fallen in the pool with it. It take a long time to complete the area I have set out for myself, but the rhythmic sound of the electric motor soothes me, and I almost don’t feel the muscles in my back aching as I look down to power wash another stripe of ground in dirt. Finally, I am finished, and Dan carries the power washer back up to the house for me, after I discover it is a lot heavier to carry than I had figured.
To summarize: Watts and watts and watts (or volts and volts and volts?) of electricity used, gallons of water squirted, and another day well spent in home maintenance.