Stardate 61144.76 - Quick Loren Update

Loren is doing much better now, after a minor setback on Sunday where we overdid it on her milk, resulting in my cleaning vomit out of the backseat of the car as well as the car seat. She had her check-up yesterday and was in the 90th percentile on height, and I think something like the 30th percentile on weight (but we're sure she had some weight loss due to the stomach virus last week). I'm sure Cheryl will comment with the actual height and weight numbers, but I cannot remember them.

NYC

Stardate 61142.37 - Loren Turns 15 Months

Earlier this month Loren turned 15 months. Cheryl took her out to NJ that day to visit with the Grandparents and to give me several uninterrupted hours in which to do work. Here are a couple of photos of that visit.



NYC

Stardate 61141.80 - USAirways Makes a Joke

I received my USAirways frequent flyer e-mail a day or two ago, and this little item caught my eye. I'm sort of surprised corporate let this go out, but maybe when your organization is in a market where companies are going bankrupt a little levity is called for. This is a direct quote from their e-mail newsletter. The last sentence is the punchline.

A320 First Class overhead bin space (or lack thereof)

If you’ve flown in First Class on one of 20 reconfigured A320s then you know that we blew it on the overhead bins by putting everything but the kitchen sink up there (e.g. oxygen tanks, video players, survival gear) and took up space that belongs to you and your bags. We sincerely apologize and we’ve thrown that process into reverse and will be clearing the bins out ASAP. We’ve already started getting some of the equipment out and we plan to have them nearly empty no later than the early summer. It was clearly our mistake and you can take it out on us, but please don’t take it out on the flight crew; they’re on your side on this one. They’ve let us know loud and clear where we can put our “equipment.”

NYC

Stardate 61129.60 - How Dull

This is my cube at the client location where I am working right now. Pretty dull. Since it is temporary space and a temporary assignment the space is...you guessed it...temporary. So I'm afraid to take anything down there in case I show up one morning and there is someone else in the cube.

NYC

Stardate 61129.58 - Loren not well, but getting better

Loren threw up twice at daycare on Wednesday, and a few more times Wednesday night at home so Cheryl stayed with her all day Thursday trying to keep Loren hydrated. Cheryl was giving Loren a teaspoon of Pedialyte every 10 minutes or so, hoping that she would digest enough of it before the next vomiting episode to say hydrated.

Loren was completely not herself Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, just sitting and staring at the TV and then lying down on the floor and falling asleep (like the photo above). Lying down on the floor and falling asleep is something she has never done before. Sleeping on her own, with no encouragement from us, is unusual enough that we knew she was not well.

After throwing up a few times on Thursday (and not eating all day), we were hoping by Friday she would be better and Cheryl planned to stay home in the morning while I went to work, and then I was going to come home at lunch and take over so Cheryl could go to work. But Loren was so lethargic and cranky Friday morning that Cheryl took her to the doctor before I got home at lunch.

The good news is that it looks like it is just a stomach bug, and by Friday afternoon Loren was keeping down larger quantities of Pedialyte and even had a tiny bit of food. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she will be even better on Saturday.

NYC

Stardate 61115.80 - Loren at Blockheads

So here is Loren at Blockheads, eating her quesadilla with a big person knife. When we tried to encourage the spoon or at least the fork, she would have none of that. As I mentioned in my rant against blogger, this is not our favorite place to eat Mexican, but it was nearby when we couldn't find the new Yama Sushi on the Upper East Side. They were quite nice about getting Loren a high-chair (from the outside patio, so they had to clean it first) and they put us in the back out of the way. But the food is just not as good a Burritoville.


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Blogger Sucks Sucks Sucks Now - Thanks Google

We went to Blockheads the other day for lunch (the place we wanted to go to we couldn't find, so we ended up there). It is not our favorite Mexican place, but they were very nice about seating us in the back away from everyone else and providing a high-chair for Loren. I'd love to post the pictures I took from my camera phone when we were there, but this is what happens when I try to do that:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:
Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
Provide the following error code and additional information.

bX-2o3sed

Additional information
uri: /upload-image.dohost: www2.blogger.com

This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

OK, I know this is a free service, but I am one more fracked up post away from quitting and moving to another service. And Blogger? I'll take all my friends with me. And they will take their friends. I have at least 10 other people who went with Blogger purely on my recommendation from 3 years ago when you didn't suck. But now you suck. Suck, suck, suck, suck, suck.

Get your crap together. Seriously.

I have a very limited fucking window these days to post anything, and I am getting really really pissed off that when I try to post I can't get pictures up or a post up or both.

That's it. I'm done. I'm taking suggestions for a new blogging service right now. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

NYC

Stardate 61110.34 - Everything Greyfeather

Regular readers know I am a pretty big fan of Jessica Stover. In fact, I've given at least 3 copies of her first book, Aidmheil, away as gifts. In that first book there was a piece of a story called Greyfeather. She has expanded that story and published it in another small book. As of Friday night, February 9th, there are only 9 copies left. So if you enjoyed Aidmheil, you have a very, very short amount of time to order the second book. If you never purchased or read Aidmheil, you can still get copies of that book and you can read my review here.

When she's too famous to return my e-mails you'll be sorry you didn't get a copy of her books now. Don't act, and years from now when Aidmheil costs $100k on E-bay I'll be saying, "I told you so!"

;-)

NYC

Stardate 61096.50 - Diarios de motocicleta

Cheryl and I watched Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) this weekend. According to IMDB, it is "The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling." Overall, we thought it was pretty good, although I lack the historical context that would have perhaps made the movie more meaningful to me. I have to confess I know very little about the Cuban Revolution or Che Guevara.

I thought the acting was good (as far as I could tell with the language barrier). We did find it odd that the only option for English subtitles included closed captioning - that was a little distracting but I guess we got used to it.

Two thumbs up.

NYC

Stardate 61096.43 - Expecting

Early August, 2007.

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Stardate 61096.42 - Loren's Play Date

Last weekend Loren had a play date with one of the Mommy Groups that Cheryl participated in when she was on maternity leave. I intended to put the photos up last weekend, but between studying for my test and work and other weekend activities I never got around to it. So here are some choice photos from that event.


And here is Loren practicing her "Don't make me get out of this car!" look after being cut-off by another driver. :-)



NYC

Stardate 61095.77 - Potential New Floorplan

Here is what the renovated floor plan might look like, in case my readers had trouble visualizing the text in the last post. The Living Room would become a combination Dining Room/Living room with the DR near the door and across from the kitchen and the LR at the end near the window. No wall to separate them - we'd aim for a flowing layout to permit light through.

NYC

Stardate 61095.26 - Floorplan

Since James asked for the floor plan of the co-op we are in the process of purchasing, I've posted it above. The co-op is 1100 square feet. The renovations we will do (provided we get it, there are still quite a few steps between us and a signed contract) include:

• Wall-off the doorway between the kitchen and the dining alcove
• Wall-off the dining alcove from the living room, add a door into the living room, turning it into a second bedroom
  
• Take down the wall between the kitchen and the living room, add some type of island/bar
• Possibly turn the closet by the bathroom into a half-bath

There are also lots of renovations not visible from the floor plan, like replacing all the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen, and essentially gutting the main bath and replacing the tub, sink, and toilet.

NYC

Stardate 61093.79 - Made an Offer on a Place

Cheryl's parents came into the city today to babysit Loren so that Cheryl and I could go back to look at a co-op we found last weekend through an open-house. After checking it out again (and having thought about it all week this past week), we made an offer this afternoon and it was accepted this evening! We are going to call the broker back tonight to go through the next steps. It takes about 90 days to close on a co-op in NYC, plus we are going to do some renovations before moving in so it may be 5-6 months before we are actually in the place.

It is about 4 blocks south of our current apartment, closer to Cheryl's work, and is the biggest place we've seen in our price range. We still have lots of hoops to jump through, but we're pretty excited and we'll keep you all posted!

NYC