Kids
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Jay: Three Girls
Sadie, cousin Julia, and Valerie down by Cape Code Canal.
Jay: Well Prracticed
Jay: Henry in April (so far)
Friday, April 18, 2008
Jay: How About Them Apples
Real quick, as we’re busy with stuff this morning, a Henry update.
It seems apples are also a problem, at least if not cooked to death, even if not as bad as bananas. And we’d fed them as one of the likely “safe” foods.
On the 15th he started full fledged, go anywhere in the house crawling, which made him much happier.
Yesterday he managed to use an upside-down plastic bin as if it were one of those push walkers, getting on his feet and walking while pushing it.
When asked if he wanted to go on an outing today, he said ‘I go,” which is how we decided we would all go.
A shame he seems affected by pollen and dust and such, with the food just part of it.
I pointedly bought him two sweet potatoes the other day, as both a safe food and his favorite of all time. Also got a small amount of broccoli, so maybe we’ll make that the next reintroduction. He adored it, and any green veggie, when he had it before.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Jay: Short American Idol Post
The kids seem to have made it their mission to ruin my experience watching American Idol, or better yet, prevent it. Last night they extended that to prevented my writing a quick post. Granted, not like they were preventing me from writing a resume or something, but…
At least the baby has been good about it. He was funny, totally hating Elliot Yamin’s performance, kneeling there and babbling angry-sounding sentence-length reactions that didn’t have coherent words, but sounded on the verge of it. He liked Mariah Carey’s excessively long but acceptable and “she’s clearly a good singer” performance.
So now the results are known, I’ll just say that it’s even clearer this week that this season the people in charge are taking the voting to be suggestions. Except… hard to believe Carly would have been spared from the bottom 3, even if they decided Kristy’s time was up. And it may actually have been the voters, and Dial Idol can no longer be considered anything close to a reflection of how the voting skewed. Without regard to that, I did predict Carly and Kristy as bottom 2 the night of the show, with Carly going home. Kristy being bottom only on the idea Brooke had a bigger fan base and Kristy had too much anti-fan built up from her earlier struggles. Which makes Carly not even being in the bottom 3 the bigger surprise. I liked it fine, but she has too much negativity around her. If the votes were used, and the results actually reflected in what happened on the elimination, then there was probably backlash for the judges trashing Carly.
Heh. That’s what I already said, so I guess I called it, and should ignore those who purport to predict. Here is what I had in the editor toward my post last night, most of which is direct copy and paste, typos, shorthand and all, from my Twitter live-tweeting. Twitter entries (tweets) are limited to 140 characters each:
I’m trying to throw together a quick American Idol post before the results show, which I can then append with reaction to results, which would make it briefly spoilerish if you’re in a delayed time zone. I can do this because I live-tweeted the show last night with Twitter, via the Blackberry, and have my brief thoughts as I watched. This puts them together and expands on them slightly.
Achoo-bot sounded *good* to me. It’s his kind of music, but sounded better than usual to me.
Forgot MC covered Without You, Badfinger originally. Great job by Carly. Henry loved it.
They really want Carly to go, even if they are somewhat right.
Syesha sounded fine, if you like the genre. Judges happy. Simon disagrees about obscure song pick.
a song I know? Brooke rules accompanying self on piano. Liked a lot. She’s beoing cute too.
Kristy keeps developing more star presence. And nice singing. She went from lucky to be there still to belonging.
MC is impressing as a mentor. Great attitude to revamps of stuff she wrote.
David Cook is outstanding. Wow. He’s as commercial as judges say. Simon spot on.
This is arguably the best Jason Castro has been yet. Randy was nuts, Simon good points.
Going home, Kristy or Carly. Not Carly only if voting backfire of judge trashing plus Kristy overdue.
So there you have it. Chances are it’ll be Carly next week. Chances are that, barring anything odd happening, it’ll be a finale between the Davids.
Deb observed that the public is more interested in rock than the Idol powers that be think they are or want them to be. Country goes well, but the bland, generic pop does not. Amanda may not be quite what people are looking for, and Robby may have been a pretender, but Michael Johns should sell, David Cook will sell well, and Carly Smithson will sell well in that genre. Her prior deal was the record people trying to manufacture something that wasn’t her. I’ve gone from suspicion and dislike to being intrigued by what she might produce down the road.
That said, because of the way Idol works and what Idol wants, they are best off getting Archuletta. They’ll get their Clay-like winner who will sell relatively well. David, Carly, Michael, Brooke, Kristy, Chikezie, Amanda are all better off not to have won it, so they have the fame but more freedom to be who they are. Then again, to their credit and his, Taylor’s album was about what you’d expect, and was good. It’s just that his being voted in didn’t translate to sales and excitement, and the album wasn’t amazing enough for a breakthrough.
Anyway, this was supposed to be brief, and I have absurd amounts to do. E-mails, dishes, another store run (didn’t realize we needed diapers, and they’re cheaper and better at Stop & Shop than Hannaford), site stuff, resume stuff, e-mails, more posts here and there, etc.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Jay: On Today’s Menu
Wow.
I have to run stuff to the post office, as people have been cleaning Deb out. Like 1/3 of the Etsy shop and several items from the book shop, and there was only one order ready to ship before the post office closed yesterday. I’m looking at 7 first class or priority packages, and packing slips for a couple more.
That’s first, because it’s about prompt shipping for which the shops have become known.
Then I need to do thank you e-mails. Lots of thank you e-mails. Sometime in the next day, I figure. We’re just… astonished.
I also need to do my planned “hire us” item on the sidebar, which would have been better done before yesterday’s post went up. I didn’t ask for anyone to link it, and have no idea how the heaviest of hitters knew about it almost as soon as it was posted. So I didn’t expect anywhere near the traffic or response.
I have an American Idol post to write.
Maybe not today, but very soon there will be an edition of CotC. While I may still call it a fundraising edition, and if that catches a few more people who’ve appreciated or are attached to it then great, the impetus now is that so many people donated here and mentioned CotC in conjunction. Plus I’m going to burst if I don’t do something soon with all the links I personally have been accumulating, let alone whatever is in the mailbox I haven’t looked at lately.
It’s a good day to put the resume and/or work solicitations in more places.
I need to look at some information worth knowing in advance of a likely phone screening for the far away support job possibility. No matter how massive your background, it seems there’s always a “really like you to know...” that you don’t, or have not even heard of.
Okay, off I go. Just wanted to fix this stuff in my mind and put forth what’s up, for the curious, as something besides birthdays.
Oh yeah! Need to post about Henry aging a few months yesterday, and how cool that was.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jay: Crunch Time
This is going to be a different post from the one I started the night before last, with the same title. That one started out on the topic of needing to locate the taxes I’d done, for the partnership and personal federal, and to do the state ones and get them mailed. I since located the partnership ones and mailed them, along with two books from Deb’s book shop. One was an advanced computer book from my collection, so went for $17.50 at about the cheapest price available. For us that’s real money. When it arrives in the twice a month payout. I also rewrote the federal to be neater, and did the state, cursing Romney over RomneyCare. There’s now a form HC, which at 3 pages if you need the whole thing is longer than the main Form 1 at 2 pages. I had the urge to ignore it, but you are supposed to use it to determine your personal exemption. By running too low on money to pay the last $1300 of insurance for Deb and the kids to cover October through December, and failing to apply for subsidized coverage, we paid a penalty of $220 in extra taxes.
Anyway, that’s all done. I have to mail those today.
Looks like the interview last week was a bust, which is fascinating in that it was a temporary gig. Which I suspect they planned to try to get someone permanent out of, and looked accordingly. The interview the week before was obviously a bust as well.
I have a possible something in the works with an internet marketing business. I have someone putting in my resume for a well-paid support job that just happens to be in Lowell, so it’d be on the $25 a day commuting plan. If I can stop worrying about money and the household long enough to chase an income just slightly harder and keep the household, something - even something great - should come pretty fast. It’s probably a matter of keeping the balls in the air a few more weeks.
Trouble is, we’re out of time, and while some awesome people have picked up distress, we haven’t been forthcoming on just where things stand. I’ve threatened to have a fundraising edition of Carnival of the Capitalists, even though I’m too busy trying to raise money to try to raise money. I’ve pointed out the resume, Deb’s Etsy shop and used book shop, and my availability for side work.
I haven’t asked for donations, apart from whatever is implicit in making the PayPal button available. And it feels wrong to do so, much as we get annoyed by unhelpful people who dwell on the fact history ought have been different, rather than acting on (or ignoring) what is. I could say and rue much about how we got here, but that doesn’t keep us from getting evicted.
Then again, I’d rather ask individuals for help than use public assistance paid for with stolen money. Or worse, stolen from the future, given the financing of so much of it through debt, creating a future need for inflation and/or higher taxes. But what do I know. I’m just a crackpot who saw the housing/credit bubble vividly starting years ago.
So yeah. Pretty much asking now, as I prepare to mail the tax returns and then throw ourselves on the mercy of the gas & electric department to avoid having those shut off tomorrow. When I gave them Henry’s birth certificate, which by itself should give us until August 20, they also wanted an income number. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I’d made last year. I would never have guessed it would be low enough for the EIC, or that rent, medical and health insurance technically took 2/3 of it. There was enough in residual, undrawn funds that it carried us a long time in the shutdown of the business (in which mailing the tax returns yesterday is the last major act, though I’ll have stuff to handle for a while).
If blogging is a bit slow, or you see as much on other blogs as here to keep them up enough to justify their value to advertisers, it’ll be because we’re scrambling. The ads, the selling things, the found money, the incredibly generous donations we already received, the Etsy sales - nothing to sneeze at but also in jeopardy because you have to have money for materials and shipping - and the bits of side work here and there only go so far. The fact I tend to stock the pantry as if I’m expecting to ride out the end of civilization - or something like this bad stretch - only helps stretch things so long before real money needs to be spent on groceries and sundries again.
Of course, if we lose power, that’s the end game. What money we do make is online. That would trigger a total meltdown of our situation. I don’t think that should be a problem, but we do have to start paying them Real Soon Now. We’ve been managing to get $250 or $300 a week to the landlord, staying basically half a month to a month or so behind. If we miss a week, game over, barring something like working with us because I just started a job and it’s all going to change. This week we’re sketchy but should manage it. Next week? No idea. I expect to do some small side work early in the week, but not likely enough.
Anyway, if you can hit the donate button, even in small amounts, that would be amazing. Alternatively, use the address deb at neatlytangled dot com for PayPal, as hers doesn’t have a transfer limit (to get it from there to the bank) and is useful that way. If we’ve ever entertained you through blogging, given you helpful advice, or even if you think I’m an idiot but want to keep the kids fed and off the street, perhaps it’s worth something.
Onward! Time to take care of business. Mail tax returns. Deal with utility crisis. Try to shake loose work. Planning to add Deb’s resume to the ones online and put a “hire us” box in the sidebar where “donate” is now, soon as I get a chance. So on. So forth.
Thanks for helping, or even just reading and quietly not saying or doing something unhelpful, no matter what you really think.
Update:
You guys are amazing. Not to replace individual thanks, but holy cow, we’re just blown away.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Jay: Who Knew?
I started to write about the interview today and have no idea what I was saying, looking at what I started earlier. The short form is it seemed to go okay, I was more nervous than the last one, got a little more experience and prep for next time, and I should know this week. I had no idea what to say I expected. I’ve had $25 - 30/hr in my head as a likely range if it’s not really lowball, and if it isn’t relatively higher than I’d expect for the nature of the work. I’d take it for less at this point, despite being contract, and I’d be delighted if it were more.
The place was easy to get to, not that far really, and the people seemed great. The products involved sounded quite cool.
I overdressed again, but it’s hard not to. Once I am dressing uncasual, putting on the full regalia feels like putting on a uniform. I know it matches. I know it’ll never be unacceptable. Deb says it seems natural on me, which actually makes sense.
Anyway, one thing I took away from the two interviews, to my surprise, is that had I kept even a little more of a hand in programming, I could either waltz into a programming job, or more easily get one that might potentially tie into that. I’ve been wanting to play around more with some new things, like some of the web development options, but I had no idea I’d come across as being painfully close to the droid they were looking for.
And that reminds me of the observations people have made about me. When I am writing code, it’s like watching unadulterated joy, to interpret one of them more poetically. One of the best programmers I’ve ever encountered, a former partner, scoffs when I belittle my own ability and potential in that area, and works well with me because I understand him. Which in a sense is a more generic thing - I can supervise and orchestrate programming work.
It’s one of those ultimate things that’s hard to enter into halfway, though. I have trouble if I can’t write in an uninterrupted stretch until the thought is out. I even have trouble prepping, planning, even cooking food with excess distraction. Not as bad, in a way, but you can’t engage me in conversation when I am, say, cutting stuff.
Still, I’ve wanted to dabble in it, playing guitar, as it were, but thought it would have no point, so I didn’t. I’ve even felt guilty about wanting to, be it generically playing with a language, or modifying an old program. The closest I’ve come, since I last tried doing code for the old business, was modifying, and wanting to modify somewhat more, the painting program for kids. Sadie learned to mouse with it, and still plays with it some. I’d been thinking I’d clean up some test code, change a couple things slightly, make it so you could toggle easy mode where moving the mouse draws without holding down the button, and make it available for download free.
Thus the title. Who knew that programming might have been something I could hope to get into? Or that a strong interest in it would be helpful when interviewing even for work that didn’t seem related.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Jay: Tuesday
In case I don’t get time to post in the morning, I do have a couple birthdays to post later, and will presumably have an interview experience to mention retrospectively. I’m due in Needham at 10:00 AM for one, where I should also get to see the former colleague who has been responsible for getting me two interviews so far.
The truck is gassed up. It’s about 38 miles each way, which is expensive these days. It’s momentum, anyway. Temporary or not, I feel good about it.
I also have at least one tiny bit of client work expected next week. A little grocery money, anyway. Speaking of which, tomorrow I need to stop on the way home for Benadryl for Henry. He needs some most days. At least today we confirmed he is bothered significantly by the bath. Even Valerie seems to have been affected by it. Either there’s residue or growth that’s not obvious and hits hard, or something about the water itself, or something about the tub itself. In retrospect, this started when he started bathing in the big tub.
Tonight no soap was used while he was in there, and the temperature was reasonable. He went in there fine. He came out as rashy as he ever gets, which is in proportion to the length of time. It seems worst where he most touches the tub, counting that he gets on his belly and crawls/swims around. The thing is, his very worst spots are where his face gets washed regularly, usually with just a damp cloth - water with no soap, plastic, rubber, etc., and a cloth that shouldn’t hurt him that gets laundered in detergent we have no evidence hurts him, as it shouldn’t.
Further experimentation will follow, obviously, including no baths some days, either at all or going in the shower with one of us instead, and the cleaning to end all cleanings.
It remains clear that he handles bananas badly. It remains clear that something happened that was most likely related to dairy - probably a specific package of cheese and its histamines - or eggs, and was more topical than internal. It’s unlikely now that either Deb eating eggs or him eating raw pears was a factor recently. It’s unlikely he was bothered by anything he might have ingested in trace amounts yesterday. It’s clear that washing his hands with Dial was bad. It’s clear that he reacts either chemically, texturally, or both to some of the screen printing on my T-shirts. He can eat rice, oatmeal, apples, butternut, carrots, and unofficially peanut butter and raisins with no apparent issue. He’ll probably get to eat sweet potato tomorrow, as I made extra tonight to save for the purpose. That’s likely to be fine, too. But you can see how confusing it would be to feed something, then have him broken out in rash in the evening… after a bath.
Stay tuned for another exciting episode of As the Rash Reddens…
Jay: An Adventure
I tend to get to Friday and say “gee, I didn’t get X, Y or Z done, but hey, I have all weekend and can plow through it.” Then I get to Monday and wonder what the hell happened. It’s like that, and all I can say is I maybe didn’t go backward, so that’s relief.
Henry and I went to grandma’s house for dinner and birthday cake for me and my mother, which was fun. He seems to like my older brother, of all people, though he was friendly, or at least not freaking out, in general.
My information conveyed Saturday about what he can eat, centered on absolutely no dairy yet, didn’t filter through to prevent the butternut squash from being mashed with butter before it hit the table. The mashing part being kind of bad too, as it renders it something he can’t pick up himself. That left him able to eat chicken. And the puffed rice I brought. In practice he ate a pile of the chicken, a little rice, a pea or two, and a bunch of the puffed rice. The chicken was cooked in rice with chicken broth, green pepper chunks, and whatever flavoring. At some point it had gotten a little margarine, which was the only concern. The peas had some kind of buttery sauce, apparently one of those frozen packages, which included pearl onions. He stole a couple of them and some of the rice from my plate, after which I gave him a bit more of the rice.
I hung out there quite a while, because he ended up sleeping like a log in the car seat, up on the dining room table. He’s slept a few minutes of the ride there, after staring at me like I was betraying him for making him sleepy. On the way home he didn’t sleep. In both cases, he seemed to enjoy the ride and change of scenery.
It doesn’t seem like food bothered him. However, he got rashy after his bath. It’s increasingly apparent he is either sensitive to Dove’s sensitive skin variant, or something in the tub bothers him through contact, which would be less of a surprise.
Speaking of the older brother, we had a funny conversation that almost got his head bitten off.
He was telling me I might have to take just any job to support the family, doing something I don’t like. He compared his guitar playing with my using computers. He could have spent all his time playing guitar for the past 20 years, but that wouldn’t have made money, which in his case comes from working on cars. So I’ve wasted all that time “playing” with computers, and may have to accept that now I will have to just do “something” for work.
This would be like telling him he’s been wasting his time “playing” with fixing cars for decades, and instead of finding work fixing cars, he ought to get a “real job” even if he hates it. Too funny.
I left it at “good thing my work and hobby are the same” and “what do you think I’ve been doing for a living since 1992.” Probably did a decent job on the “you’ve got to be kidding tone” and the silent “you dork” trailing clause.
Anyway, it’s insanely late already. I rousted the girls from bed before they were ready this morning, in hopes of resetting their clocks so we’re not fighting with them at 10 PM about actually Getting In Bed and Staying There. This seems to have resulted in a cranky Valerie. Oh wait, she’s unchanged. Never mind. Off to the races…
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Jay: Dial Soap
Can apparently be added to the sensitivity list for Henry. Washing his hands with it made him identifiably rashy in the contact area.
And we’ve been washing our hands with it and then touching him.
Jay: No Birthdays Today
Well, not in my calendar. Surely there are some, somewhere, for someone.
Today I am going to attempt to take Henry to my grandmother’s with me. Valerie had a recent turn. Sadie refuses to learn to use the big toilet, even though she’s getting too big for the potty, and we’re requiring her to do that before she goes visiting where that’ll be the only option. He can eat regular food, for limited values of same, so it’s his turn. This is the obligatory one for birthday cake for me and my mother, since ours were on Thursday. I need to get moving soon, as it’s starting to be late.
Ah, I hear kids.
Speaking of which, Sadie thought not being able to drive our new car until we “pay tax on it” (registration) was about the craziest thing she’d ever heard.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Jay: Sigh…
It seems we have to clarify the possibility that Henry is allergic/sensitive to raw pear, if mildly, and not with apparent oral symptoms, just rash. Including clarifying whether that carries over to cooked pear, which it might if the relation is more of a latex allergy cross-reaction versus a birch pollen allergy cross-reaction. Banana would fall under the former. And if there were a severe enough latex allergy, we’d have seen more signs, so it may be more of a convenient categorization than anything full-blown.
Poor kid.
And this could have nothing to do with raw pear, but instead have to do with dust and places he’s sat or crawled today.
Speaking of which, he made the girls look like amateurs in the “destructo” department today,
I have a second desk, which Sadie is at in this picture. On it I have the posts and a single shelf of one of those heavy duty plastic storage shelving units. It’s pretty stable (or was), and allows me to have a couple monitors on the desk, with the shelf above them. On the shelf are a pair of interruptible power supplies, answering machine, a couple milk crates with stuff in them, and on top of those some speakers and a computer not actually plugged in (apparently it’s catching, because at this point in my typing Valerie cam up behind me and knocked the shelf down worse than he did, except missing the opportunity to hurl a computer several feet). It’s been this way for approaching a year.
While Deb was outside with the girls playing in the yard, he was on my lap, and while I wasn’t looking managed to partially collapse the shelf. Partially, because I caught it, at the price of letting him drop to the floor beside the chair. The extra computer, one with source code from the old business, software of theoretical merit that is unlikely to get finished or used, but could potentially, went over me and landed on my desk, against the monitor. That’s several feet, at an angle through the air. No idea how I didn’t get hurt. The woofer part of the speakers fell, detached, and just missed Henry’s head when it thudded to the floor. I just realized minutes ago the answering machine was on the floor, upside-down, with the power unplugged, and had just put it back before Valerie struck. A container of tools also landed on the floor and broke.
So a seven month old baby, who’s just a tad strong, managed to collapse what had been stable, and untouched by the girls, since before he was born. Then Valerie apparently noted it was different enough to get curious and pull a leg until it collapsed again. Go, kids!
Instead of merely picking up and putting stuff back, I decided to incorporate that into the much pending office rearranging project. Which I then had to drop to make supper and stuff, so I was just on the verge of getting back to it, while trying to keep Valerie from trashing stuff I can’t replace that scattered onto the floor. I’m the keeper of photos of former colleagues, with pictures of a large number of them from 1995 through 1998. They got scattered by the shelf falling.
They wonder why I get cranky and yell at them.
Okay, I need to clean up, see if the monitor that’s off and won’t turn on was killed by Valerie or just came unplugged, fix or swap Sadie’s bed, make Valerie’s bed, get them to bed for the night, and so forth.
Jay: Overheard Last Night
Deb: “Want me to make you a bath?”
Henry: “Make me bath bath.”
Seven months.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Jay: Birthday and Many Things
So yesterday was my birthday. And that of a lot of other people, now up to a total of seven on that day in my calendar. That may be the largest number on one day. (Pauses to check, because he’s such a geek, finds that it’s tied with July 28, but no other day has more than five so far.)
It would have pretty much sucked - well, it did - apart from getting a car, and a substantial donation.
My left knee, and to some degree my thigh, have been killing me beyond all reason. It may or may not be connected to gout, which had been quiet recently until today, when I seem to have a minor touch of it in my right foot. Nothing like it was. The knees have bothered me before, over the years, and can be sort of twisted easily, or hurt by kneeling on a hard surface, or standing in place too long (I tend to need to sit, or move around extensively, after sufficiently long food prep, for instance). This has been unusual, and tough to keep away because of the kids and the need for activity that stresses it.
Ironically, sitting in this chair tends to bother it, while taking a walk tends to help it. Stairs? Excruciating, once it’s flared up, bordering on impossible.
That was making me extra cranky. Part of today it was better, but we have kids and stuff. They are pretty much a guarantee I can’t take it easy on the thing, and Valerie managed to add a bit of back to the mix yesterday by doing a backward somersault off my lap and being prevented from landing on her head.
Speaking of Valerie, she needs to learn to tell us when she’s bleeding, rather than being fascinated by the artistic possibilities. Keeping a bandage on would be good, too, once Dr. Dad has ruined her fun.
So yeah, a car. My aunt got this silver/gray 1994 Buick Century with 86k miles on it in 2003 at a good price. She drove it to 174k miles, replaced it yesterday, and brought it to us.
She seriously downplayed its condition and overstated its degree of foibles, I think. It’s beautiful, body looking at least as good as he one on the ill-fated van of the same model year. The foibles are things like a fan blade on the AC being broken, so you have to turn it off and back on strategically. I seldom use AC, even in a vehicle that has it. The trunk apparently can leak some in heavy rain. There can be a little trick to opening the rear doors. There are rear doors! And room for three carseats, of which they left an extra, a spare of my mother’s, in the car. It uses a quart between oil changes, and she keeps it to 65 on the highway. We’d mainly use it on local roads, very limited driving to places we’d need to go together.
The trick now is to be able to afford to register it. That’s a tough one. My aunt is getting the form to declare it a gift and save us the sales tax, so that will help.
I’ve always been particularly fond of my mother’s sister, who is only 17 years older than me, but this is just amazing and a huge surprise.
Anyway, I parked it where we’d been parking the truck, moving the truck up into the main part of the driveway. We’d been using two spots deep in the driveway, then hogging a third, spare spot with the Sentra. That wasn’t considered a favorable spot due to the mulberries, and really neither is at least one of the others.
Today I got home from dropping off a trickle of rent to the landlord, ran into the gal upstairs, and she had moved her car so we could have our other space back, having seen that we got a second car. The very same day, they swapped his truck for something better, very nice. Funny how things synchronize that way.
I was amazed, as I figured we’d lost that spot fair and square. The spot we’d hogged with the old Sentra has a trailer in it now, which works out perfectly. They can be funny sometimes, in their youthfulness, but once again, the people upstairs are great.
What else?
I ended up doing a lot of dishes and cleaning. I took Valerie on errands with me, to the post office, Benny’s, the bank, and Stop & Shop, where her bladder almost made it through the entire lengthy trek. I was threatening to make myself birthday brownies, with a mix on hand, but never did get around to it.
That would have been no fun for Deb. On the off chance stuff bad for the baby translates into breast milk, she’s been off the likely suspects, bringing them back until it’s just eggs and dairy. She ate a single egg, in a sandwich with ham. He got rashy the next day. It’s back off eggs long enough to let him clear up and test it again. It could have been random environmental, or something stray he ate courtesy of the girls. He also tried pear, and while there’s room to wonder, that’s one of the least likely problem foods. I’ll give him more this weekend and see, maybe.
I did splurge on flour tortillas, so we had chicken burritos for supper. That was popular. He’s had seasoned chicken since we started reintroducing stuff, but I cooked a little chicken by itself for Henry, just salt and a little pepper. He loves chicken.
For that I pulled out a tiny frying pan I never use, big enough to fry a single egg, and now I want to use it again and own more like it. It’s stainless steel with a thick copper bottom. Yeah, I needed more oil than I am used to using, because the second I turned on the burner, it seemed, the pan was sizzling hot and the meat wanted to stick to it. But oh, it cooked so nice. I think I’m in love.
And hey, the non-stick pans are starting to lose their mojo. They end up with a spot in the center, where the heat focuses, that the coating loses its ungrip. Once that gets serious, you may as well have a traditional pan. The really bad one is Deb’s deep frying pan with a glass cover, which gets used constantly. I wouldn’t mind having more than one of those, including a larger version, if I were outfitting the kitchen more completely.
What else?
Today was better. Overnight was weird, in that I was up most of the night, but during that time the knee was better, after a couple hours of sleep. The very best thing for it is to lay down a certain way on the bed. I can coddle it some laying on, say, the floor, but the bed is better, and then sleeping while it rests is better still. It got worse again as the day progressed, but it does that. While it may be nauseating at times today, last night I experienced a revelation of understanding how someone can pass out in response to pain.
Ibuprofen is shooting up the “must buy some” list.
I have an interview Tuesday in Needham. That’s a Good Thing. Same former colleague who landed me the main interview Monday got me another, but this time it’s his own employer, for a 2 - 3 month contract supporting a new software rollout. Beyond that there hasn’t been much activity, besides a ton of additions in LinkedIn and correspondence stemming from that, including with my last manager from VB support, who was awesome.
I did up the root of elhide.com to be a resume links and simple supporting text page, to give it the shortest possible URL without setting up a new domain. Plus elhide.com is more memorable than, say, gphmo.com. Which stems from when I was going to setup a new business as “Geek Practitioners.” The HMO in this case, besides a play on the medical theme, stood for “home, mobile, office.”
Still have to do a blogging-oriented resume. Still have to retrofit the blogs with “hire me” sidebar sections prominent. Still working on the odds and ends side work, but that’s going a little slower than expected.
Anyway, off to bed, I guess. Wanted to do a post for the day and talk about the birthday and the car and such. Got delayed and now it’s after midnight, but oh well.
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