Boxing and shopping

Hello again, fellow people around the world. I am back to blog and as my stories have been told and told, I have found some new stories that might interest you.

First, I would like to tell you the day that I boxed my mom and dad with empty soda can boxes, which I also did today to my dad. Emma was also helping me, too. She had two empty boxes and I had the other two. We pounded and pounded on Daddy and Mommy until they couldn't take another pound. Today while I was boxing my dad, I had four empty soda boxes instead of two, and I kept pounding him with them. I laughed and laughed.

While we were baby shopping for Baby the other day, we had to find a bumper set we liked for the baby's crib. I hope you know this, but I do know this for sure, that yesterday you might have seen me shopping in Babies R Us. We also took some pictures there of the different bumper sets we liked.

One was called "Bright Hopes, Sweet Dreams".

The other one was called "Lady Bugs".

They both had different types of bugs on them, but they looked cute the way they matched with themselves.

I liked the Bright Hopes, Sweet Dreams one better, because it was so colorful, I thought it would be just right for Baby.

I know some of you have seen the picture from my Dad's blog post, below. I liked the picture because I was having fun. I like making grins, having smiles, and I especially like shopping for Baby.

Goodbye everyone around the world. I hope that you will log on to my dad's blog, because it is so special to me, since he is so special to me. I think you should log onto his blog to see my paragraphs that I made and have been making.

Bye!

EJW/btw

One of a kind!

Seen at a local pizza place. It's amazing to me that people will put a grammatical error in print like this and leave it there long enough to wear out. It's not like the rules of grammar are some big secret -- Ethan is learning about There, Their and They're in first grade. Worse yet, if the customer didn't spot it, how about the company who printed it for them? Dave Barry was right.

Dear Mister Language Person: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?

Answer: The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business signs to alert the reader than an "S" is coming up at the end of a word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ITEM'S.

Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when creating hand- lettered small-business signs is that you should put quotation marks around random words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.

Fuzzy pickles

Ethan looks so cool in his dark glasses. Even at night. And the worst part is, he knows it!

Update: I guess I should explain that the subject was what I told him to say when I took the picture.

Off to church!

Ethan and Emma are in new outfits. Trish just wanted to be part of the picture-taking fun.

Two winners

Ethan and Emma with their awards from indoor soccer.

My dad's favorite things

Hello, my name is Ethan. I am posting these pictures to my dad's blog. I chose these pictures because my dad likes electronicals.

I took this picture in my room. I think I look really cool. My dad likes to wear sunglasses lots of the time.

This is a picture of my dad. His shirt says SYN and the back of his shirt says ACK. That is the first thing that two computers say before talking to each other. My dad is a computer fixer. He is called a Computer Geek, but not the bad kind of geek. Geek is a fancy word that they used as an insult many years ago that they have now.

The Ant Bully is a life lesson. It teaches you not to be a bully, because bad things can happen to you. People will bully you back. But if you do nice things to the other people, then you will get nice things back. And also, weird things will happen to you.

This alarm clock is from the movie Cars. Also, the alarm doesn't work very good. It doesn't go off but it is good to look at. It has Lightning McQueen on it, and it makes noises. It says "Oh yeah, Lightning is ready!", and Lightning McQueen has lots of stickers on him.

These eggs are not called eggs. They are called Oggz. They are odd eggs and change color. They look beautiful, and if you put them on the charger they will run all day and all night. There are three Oggz and the charger looks like a triangle. I got them as a birthday present from Grandma Barnes who bought them at thinkgeek.com.

Here is a picture of my camera. Nothing unusual really. It's a regular old camera, except it runs on batteries, and can't be charged, but the batteries can be taken out and charged. I took these pictures off of my camera a few days ago, and blogged them today. The reason that I took a picture of this, is because I got the camera for a present. It was a birthday present.

Well, that's about everything. Oh, and the reason that I picked these pictures was because my dad likes technology. I love my dad a lot, and I hope you enjoy these pictures that I blogged.

Goodbye until next time I blog!

EJW/btw

Baby on the way

Yes, we are in fact expecting our third. Let’s get some vital stats out of the way:

• Our working due date is Aug 17.
• We know it’s not twins
• No, we weren’t trying.
• Yes, we are happy.
• Yes, we’re going to find out gender if we can.
• Morning sickness has been almost as bad as with Emma.
• No, you may not touch The Belly.

We found out ourselves about a week before all the Grandparents came out for Emma’s birthday. Trish did a fabulous job not saying anything to her mom so that we could wait until my parents arrived. We racked our brains for some fun, original way to announce it. We even called Jen for ideas - I still love her response — “Get out!” — when we told her. We talked about a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament with the 2006 crossed out and 2007 written in, but we thought that might be too subtle. I was surprised at how many really cool “I’m Pregnant” t-shirts are out there (see this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and best of all this) (yes, you have to click on all of them), but we couldn’t get them in time, or in the right size, or both.

The night we picked my parents up from the airport, we stayed up a few minutes longer (2-ish in the morning) to hang five stockings over the fireplace, figuring this would elicit some questions. Unfortunately, that clue didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. Tricia’s mom picked up on it about 20 minutes after she got up, but my parents had to be “informed” by the kids (who also didn’t figure out what five stockings meant). Ethan went on about how “his dreams have come true”. Emma practically adopted the baby from the very first — we made the announcement on her birthday after all.

At the first OB appointment, we got ultrasound pictures. Sorry for the blurriness - it’s hard to take a closeup with a camera phone, especially on that darned shiny thermal paper. According to both the ultrasound and a website we found, the baby is about the size of a coffee bean.

At the second appointment, we got another ultrasound picture as a side effect of not being able to locate the baby’s heartbeat using the little doppler wand thingy. (What a pain!) Now we’re up to an inch and a half, head to butt. We wrote it on a piece of paper for Emma, and found that’s exactly the length of her pinkie finger.

Now in Tricia’s 13th week (LMP), the baby is supposedly about 2.5 inches (head to butt) or 3.5 inches long (head to toe), and the morning sickness is starting to fade. Tricia’s still offended by certain smells and foods and sounds, but has been weaning herself off the anti-nausea medicine.

Now we move into the second trimester, when we can seriously start shopping for houses, and also shape up this house to sell it (ugh!). We’ve talked it over, and we just don’t think it’s really practical for us to stay in this house with five people. We’re looking into public storage as a way to “declutter”, and some necessary repairs, plus getting prequalified for a new mortgage. (Spammers: buzz off.)

Whew! Got this one off my list. Not having set the famework has made it really awkward to think about posting, since I couldn’t make offhand references to what I hadn’t said yet.

Watch soon for a special guest poster. He’s got a camera and he’s not afraid to use it.

Catching up...

Wow, eight days since my last post? That may not seem like much, but a lot has been going on that I really should have blogged.

I'll put a quick bullet list here, then put separate posts for each topic later.

• We're pregnant. Due date is August 17. We know it's not twins and have two rounds of baby pix. We don't have enough room in this house for a third child, so we're investigating moving.
• We've all been sick in various ways and degrees for the last two weeks. Right now it's my turn.
• I'm in the doghouse big-time because I have a business trip to Orlando next month and I decided we can't afford to bring the family, what with buying a new house. Hopefully she'll forgive me if we end up in the house of her dreams.
• Ethan cut his hair at school with art scissors again, so he's one of those weird kids who got a buzz cut just when the weather finally got cold. Or maybe he's one of those kids with weird parents who gave him... At least he looks good in a buzz cut.
• Ethan, Emma and I went sledding, which was fun until Ethan collided with another kid. Both kids went to the emergency room. Definitely more information in another post.
• The war on spam took a turn for the worse as spammers have started sending email from addresses in my domain. Now I'm getting spammed with non-delivery reports from legitimate email servers all over the world. Fear not, I have a way to strike back.
• Today is the day: I'm cutting off the email subscription to my blog right after this post publishes. For future updates, come read me on the web at http://www.toomuchblue.com/blog, or subscribe to the Atom feed at http://www.toomuchblue.com/blog/atom.xml
• For that matter, I've made some improvements to the layout of my blog, and I'm eager for comments.
• Ethan is in an indoor soccer league, and seems to be a natural for goalie.
• I found a couple more interesting websites on the development process. It'll take a little longer for me to get these out, because I'd like to talk about each one as I post it.

That pretty well hits the high points.

Xmas House

Here's how we (ok, mostly Trish) decorated our house this year. The words are hung from the upstairs shutters. Ethan walked it from one window to the other on the narrow roof over the garage while his parents held their breath.

The hat looks nice too...

Ethan thinks I'm taking his picture because he looks good wearing his hat.

Not a hiatus...

I haven't been taking a break from blogging per se, just had some really busy weeks at work, and some really busy weekends to match. Trish and I spent last week in Universal City, CA. I was there on business, and for the cost of one extra night and her plane tickets, she was able to get a much-needed and much-deserved vacation. Meanwhile, her mom stayed home with Ethan and Emma, which gave them a much-needed vacation from their parents.

We're not sure yet if the adventure was a vacation for Dollie or not. Trish is hoping to do it again during another trip later this year, so I guess we'll find out when Trish asks her to watch the kids for a week again.

Last night, we took the kids to see Veggie Tales Live at the Star Plaza. They both had a lot of fun seeing the veggies, singing along and dancing. Ethan is really lucky he even got to go. He was supposed to be at a friend's house until 4. When he wasn't back on time, I went looking and found that friend hadn't been home but 5 minutes, Ethan wasn't with them, and Ethan was off playing in the backyard of someone else who also wasn't home. I wonder if he'll ever really understand how close he came to missing out.

Things I've been meaning to do

Now presenting a random list of things which have been cluttering up my mental "todo" list.

• Install Bacula on Progeny, configure it to backup Tricia's machine and the other servers on schedule.
• Find a quiet time for reading the Bible and praying.
• Pull all my O'Reilly books together on one shelf, take a picture, bragblog about it.
• Get the Saturn into the dealership and have them reset my radio. (Locked out after a jump start.)
• Buy the bike Ethan "gave" me on my birthday in 2003 (2002?), go riding with the kids.
• Call T-Mobile and see what deals they can offer me to switch.
• Call Verizon Wireless and see what deals they can offer me to stay.
• Move the script backing up my Bugzilla site from Athos back to Progeny.
• Get some lumber and start putting walls in my basement.
• Rearrange my office so the servers are outside the curtain to cut down noise on phone calls.
• For that matter, just cleaning up my office would be really nice.
• Redesign my website, using Drupal to manage content and setting myself free from FrontPage.
• Buy a new battery for the digital camera so Trish can use it to take more pictures.
• Get a newish computer to run Unix and X-windows the way they were meant to be run.
• Release a new version of Customer Service Alerts on my own time, since I can't seem to find time at work to get it done.
• Get over to Victory Christian Academy and see if some of the less pleasant popups can be blocked.
• Figure out why my "sitemonitor" script notifies me about a particular site every night, even though I had programmed it to ignore that change.
• Exchange the fullscreen Indiana Jones DVD set I received for Christmas for the widescreen edition (thanks, Mom).
• Migrate my Bugzilla install to the new server purchased two months ago for that purpose.
• Inventory the various unused computers in my basement and get rid of the ones I have no use for. (I mean really, how many 200Mhz PC's can one person use?) I guess I could work up a simple install image and set up my whole family up with FreeBSD firewalls. Gotta be low-maintenance, though, otherwise I'll never see my family again.
• Get to the doctor and see about this finger that's been giving me trouble.
• Configure Tricia's old computer as a games (ahem, "educational software") computer for the kids; find a good home for it where they can play supervised. Hmm, maybe the landing?
• Get to a different doctor and get screened for adult ADD (which, if it comes back positive, could explain much of this list).
• Write the Great American Application, make millions, retire early.
• Get back with the Lindens to update the TongShan site I helped them set up. (Guess I won't be done with FrontPage very soon.)

Sick as a dog because of cats.

Not fun. Missed a trip to California today because I was throwing-up-sick, but I think Trish has it the worst.

It's been going around. On Friday, Ethan and Emma played outside at Grandma Barnes' house. (We were in Ohio for a welcome home party for Tricia's sister-in-law's dad, who had been stationed in Iraq). They got into the leaves, and we think the stray cats had been there previously.

Late Saturday night, Ethan threw up, then again Sunday morning. We ditched church and also the party to get an early start home. Good thing, because Emma let loose in the car. We all seemed to stabilize for Monday, but early this morning, Emma and then Trish both had trouble in short sequence. Just after I had called off the trip, my stomach joined the party.

Amazingly, Ethan has stayed well enough to go to school both days. He's been a trooper, bringing cold water to his parents when they whine. Emma keeps telling us she's all better, and so far, so good. I made regular visits throughout the morning, now tapering off, but still no appetite. Trish is still flat on her back - could only take a few bites of Chicken Rice soup, and feeling like it's going to come back again.

Now it's timesheet day, and I have to remain vertical long enough to enter my time... which is why I'm blogging, of course.

Haircut on the fast side

Well, Genius Boy came home from school today with a two-inch strip of his hair missing. At school during craft time, he "decided" that he didn't like his hair so long in front (it was only half an inch to begin with) and the way it stood up, so he used his scissors and cut a wedge straight up from the center of his forehead.

Trish pulled out the home clippers and shortened it all to about the same length. I don't think he fully understands why we're upset, nor how much trouble he's in. He'll go to our usual friend for a real cut tomorrow sometime.

Sorry, didn't get any pictures. Luckily for Ethan.

Now that gives me a lot of confidence.

I only have a moment to note an article in the Washington Post which says that a recent study shows over 25% of public school teachers in large U.S. cities put their children in private schools - almost twice the average of all parents. In Chicago, about 39% of teachers enroll their children in private schools. The authors of the study add,

"Teachers, it is reasonable to assume, care about education, are reasonably expert about it and possess quite a lot of information about the schools in which they teach. We can assume that no one knows the condition and quality of public schools better than teachers who work in them every day." "They know from personal experience that many of their colleagues make such a choice [for private vs. public schools], and do so for good and sufficient reasons."

Currently, we're planning to put Ethan in public school, but this adds an interesting spin to that decision.

Sailing, sailing

Specifically, garage-sailing. Not sure why anyone would want to sail a garage, not very maneuverable (manoeverable?) I would expect. Tomorrow and Saturday, on our driveway, we're featuring some of the stuff we can live without in the hopes that someone else can't. Tricia's mom brought (rather, sent) a bunch of her teaching materials out in the hopes we'll attract a lot of teachers. Unfortunately, an unavoidable meeting at work called me away for Friday morning. Doesn't look like I'm going to be able to help the first day. It's unlikely I'll even be home in time for any part of the Friday sale. I guess the hardcore garage-salers show up Friday, but the mad rush is obviously Saturday. Hey, as long as we move some of this stuff, I'll be glad. No, I take that back. I'm actually somewhat nervous about what might get sold while I'm out of range. My comfy chair, any of the old computers in my basement, or who knows what clothes. I suggested that Ethan sell lemonade, tea, or maybe even some of my soda stockpile. (Currently five and a half 24-can flats of a really broad mix.) It might be just the ticket to keep him out of everyone's hair. Oh, and he's selling some of his toys. Trish has tagged them with a different color, and Ethan gets to decide how to spend the "take". Seems like a reasonable way to get him to part with stuff he may otherwise want to keep.