Big little announcement

In case the photo below isn’t a dead give-away, Dusty and I are expecting baby #2 late this summer. We’re both very excited, and so is Evan. He’ll pat Dusty’s belly and say “baby!”, but he’ll also do the same for his own belly, so I don’t think he entirely gets it yet!

To answer the questions everyone asks:

  • Yes, Dusty’s having morning sickness, except it’s 24 hours a day.
  • Yes, we’re going to find out if it’s a boy or girl.
  • Yes, we’re going to tell you when we find out.
  • No, we won’t tell you what names we’re considering.
  • No, either a boy or a girl would be fine.

Actually, on that last one, we’re hoping it will be a boy just on the grounds that agreeing on a girl’s name has been VERY difficult! Right now our gut feeling is that it’s a girl (so, there, we have our prediction in writing). We always knew Evan would be a boy, so we’ve been right every time so far 🙂

ultrasound

Superbowl Party

On Sunday, we had a few friends over to watch the Superbowl. Since the NFL seems to like putting the game in TV prime time instead of mid day, traveling out of town to watch the game (thanks for the invite, Brian) wasn’t really an option for us this year. This year’s get-together was a gathering of other folks in the same boat (except my sister!)

Three couples came over to hang out with us, and each has a kid around 2 years old. Evan had a great time sharing all his toys with his buddies, and we were glad to have the company! No major incidents or events to report- just the basic hijinks of a house full of two-year-olds up past their bed time. They were very well-behaved, though. Young Lilly did get a small scratch from our little cat… but she explained to us what happened. She pointed at Ginger and said “eat!” We asked her, “did you try to eat the kitty?” and she nodded and smiled!

I’ve posted the pictures on the photos page.

Going to CFL

No, this post has nothing to do with Doug Flutie.

After an aborted attempt a few years ago, we’ve recently made the switch to compact fluorescent (CFL) lightbulbs. The switch was made possible by increases in both electronic ballast quality and spousal tolerance. Over the past few years the quality of the light has improved drastically, to the point where my wife relented for many of the bulbs in the house.

We have a total of 68 lightbulbs around the house and so far we’ve replaced 35 of them. Of the remaining incandescents, 12 of them are rarely used, 3 are on a dimmer, 13 are weird sizes, and 5 just didn’t look good. We didn’t switch the candelabra bulbs and the round globes in the bathrooms since they are pretty expensive, but the general purpose 60 watt equivalents are available locally for 6 for $10.

One interesting thing with the CFL bulbs is the warm-up period. Modern fluorescent lights start up quickly (less than 1 second) but aren’t at full power right away. Indoors I can’t notice the difference, but the outdoors light start dimmer as the temperature drops. Last night I fired up the porch light to take the trash to the curb, but at approximately zero degrees Fahrenheit there wasn’t much light to be had for a few minutes.

I’ll report back in a few weeks to see if I notice a difference in the electric bill, but I’m only out $60, so it shouldn’t take too long to recoup my costs.

One color, $2.49

Today Dusty was reading Evan one of his favorite books. It’s a book about colors, with a kitten on each page dressed up in or sitting amongst some colorful object. When she turned the page, Evan pointed at a purple teddy bear and said “purpie!” From that we knew that he associated that page and bear with the word “purple”, but whether he actually understood the concept and knew the color we weren’t sure.

Later we went shopping for a few things and walked past the toy section in Target. He pointed at the giant cage full of cheapo inflatable balls and asked for one. We rarely get him toys, and he was asking very politely so we wheeled him over next to the bin and asked him to pick which one he wanted. I grabbed several balls out of the bin, but he refused each of them and kept asking “Ball? Ball?” “Which one?”, we asked him. “Purpie!” he said. We handed him the ball and finished our shopping while Evan repeated his excitement over his “purpie ball!” Two and a half bucks to teach a color? Money well spent.

Say “Daddy”… “Homer!”

Evan started saying an entirely new word tonight, but we couldn’t figure out what it was… It sounded like “Goy” or “Coy” and he only says it when he holds a phone up to his ear. We just figured out what he was saying. It’s “Korey”, but when has he ever heard that word? We always refer to me as “Daddy.”

Dusty’s old cell phone, which she lost in November, had a voice dialing feature. You hold the phone normally, press a button, then speak the name of the person you want to call. Her new phone has that feature too, but she doesn’t know how to work it, so it’s been a couple of months since that’s happened. Today Dusty’s friend came over and brought her phone back- she’d found it in her car.

Evan immediately picked the old phone up and wandered around the room saying “Koy” in the rather deep tone of voice that Dusty used to voice dial. He doesn’t do that with other phones. He’s very smart… it just took his dumb parents a while to figure it out.

Sound effects

Evan is at the stage where he doesn’t quite know the actual word for everything in his world, but he’s found ways to express what he’s observing or thinking.

Whenever he sees a siren on top of a car, he loudly mimics a fire engine siren: “Woo oo oo!” Any construction equipment reminds him of a Wiggles song, inspiring “Dig dig dig dig!” He knows what a wheel is, though he pronounces it with two syllables: “Whee-uhl!” Finally, anytime anything backs up, whether it’s a car, shopping cart, or himself, he’s learned from the forklifts at Lowe’s to say “Mah Mah Mah Mah”, emulating their backup alerts.

A few days ago, there was a snow plow clearing the cul-de-sac across the street from us. Evan sat in the living room looking out the window and was in the same predicament as a chameleon sitting on a television screen. “Dig dig dig dig, Woo ooo oo! Mah mah mah, dig dig, whee-uhl! Woo ooo, mah mah mah!” It’s good thing there weren’t any animals, balls, or helicopters outside, or he might have exploded!

Watching movies on the cell phone

My cell phone service plan was up, so I got an LG VX8300 about a month ago since I had an upgrade discount to take advantage of. I did a little digging and discovered that it’s possible to play videos and music on the phone. First step is to head over to Newegg.com and pick up a microSD card. I got a 1 gig card for $14 shipped. At that point all you have to do is copy MP3’s or WMA’s into the proper folder on the card and the phone will play them. The video is more restrictive; you have to use the 3gp video format. I found an article on how to convert your videos to that format at http://vx8300.blogspot.com/2006/08/tv-movies-and-videos-on-your-cell.html.

I watched about 20 minutes of “Waterboy” as a test, and even though the screen is small, it’s actually pretty watchable. Given the opportunity, I’d choose a TV or iPod first, but in a pinch, the phone works fine. I’ve actually used it in the garage a number of times to play music while I worked on a project. The little speakers sound rather tinny, but it’s better than nothing. When I get a chance, I’ll have to try it with a decent set of headphones.

The most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten…

Tonight I had a pretty light dinner, so I went to the kitchen later looking for a reasonable snack. I grabbed a stalk of celery from the fridge, but I wasn’t sure that would hit the spot, so I grabbed the jar of peanut butter and spread it on. Oh yeah, I should mention that I have a cold and can’t smell very well.

One bite later I experienced the worst taste I’ve encountered. The peanut butter had turned rancid and was now stuck to my mouth, even stickier than regular peanut butter. I swished with about three glasses full of water, a cup of salt water and a mouth full of crackers 🙂 I brushed my teeth, had a soda and another piece of celery, and the taste finally started to subside. While I had my snack, I sat and watched Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs”, in which the host was rowing a boat across a retention pond filled with manure. The whole time I thought to myself that I wish I’d had a glass of that instead!

In fairness to the peanut butter manufacturers of the world, the jar was significantly past the expiration date, and my wife reminded me that I stopped her from throwing it out. Now I know better… The question is, will I ever be able to eat peanut butter again?

Free directory assistance phone number

Maybe I’m the last person on earth to know this, but there are free alternatives to the standard “411” directory assistance phone number.

Try 1-800-FREE-411 next time. It gives you an automated system with voice recognition, and actually worked really well for me. If the automated system can’t understand you, you can get a real person. Now, you do have to listen to a short advertisement, but it’s only a few seconds, and they have to get something for providing this service.

They have a website also, at http://www.free411.com. It was able to find our number just fine, and they have a feature that shows your neighbors as well. For many of them I didn’t know their last name!