The Garden by Zero 7 came out this week, and I’ve had it on repeat in iTunes all week. If you’ve listened to Simple Things or When It Falls, you have some idea of how amazing this group is. Their third album isn’t quite as serene, but it’s just as good. It has some faster moving songs on it, but the quality and atmospherics are still there. If you like Massive Attack’s songs like Teardrop or Morcheeba, you’ll love this album. If you need to chill out, forget about your worries and space out for a while, this is the CD for you. It’s a solid out of 5.
Author: Kevin Lawver
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Brian’s 2 year old check up
Height- 37 1/4 inches, 97%\
Weight- 36.1 lbs, 100%\
Head circ- 20 1/2 inches, 100%\
Brian is a little shorter than Max was at this age. If we estimate their heights according to the old wives’ tale of doubling their height when they are 2, Max will be 6’4 and Brian will be over 6’2.\
Brian is healthy- yay. He is behind in his speech development, however. Brian was nervous and wouldn’t talk to the doctor at all, answer any of her questions, or follow any of her directions. She said he should be talking more, putting together word combinations, and using personal pronouns. If he isn’t doing this by the end of the summer, we should have him reevaluated for speech therapy. Also I was scolded for him not knowing his animal sounds. Right now my mom is thinking, “those damn animal sounds again!” I still have the animal toy, so I don’t know what Brian’s problem is. Heh.\
No shots this time. And he still isn’t allowed to have peanut products. (Hear that, Babba?)\
Ha, I kind of want to tag this as “development” but I don’t think that is how Kevin uses the development tag. -
Random
Brian fell in love with a grandma he met at the playground the other day. He literally followed her around and kept wanting to be picked up by her. They sat on the park bench together and he looked at her adoringly. Then they would go play for awhile. It was the cutest thing ever.\
Kevin made brownies for a work thing and actually took them to work. :(\
Seeing toddlers at church is amusing. The boys wear sandals, pants or shorts, and a collared shirt, while the girls wear fancy dresses with the prettiest little shoes and tights. What’s up with that? It’s like the kids aren’t even at the same place. It starts a trend that continues through adulthood where you’ll see a couple on a date at the movies and the girl is dressed like she’s going somewhere else and the guy looks like he just rolled out of bed.\
Apparently today is the Scooperbowl and I don’t have any good ice cream with which to celebrate.\
I was slightly sheepish while walking to the bus stop this morning in my new capri jammy pants until I saw a woman hoing in her jammies, then I didn’t feel so sheepish anymore. (She was not doing the wrong kind of hoing, she was hoing her yard. At 7:30 in the morning. In her jammies. Yea.) -
Cletus’ Revenge
What’s Up?\
I went to Target this morning and got some clippers, because after two weeks of growth, I wasn’t using disposable razors to take care of it again. Cletus, among others, made an appearance. You’ve got the Porter, the Beefeater and of course, a couple Cletus.\
And when that was done and I properly shaved, I gave myself a haircut! I grabbed the number 3 guard and did the whole thing. Why? First, it’s summer. Second, I just didn’t want to have to deal with making an appointment and going to get it cut. The real reason? Simplicity. No more brushing, simple wash, dry and go. Simple is good. -
Hey
Hi mom! I know you are out there reading this, even if you don’t post a comment. Just wanted to say hi to you and all of the lurkers!
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The Beard Is Back
I made it back from Edinburgh safe and sound, although I’m jet-lagged, and have airline sore throat to deal with. Because I forgot to take shaving cream with me on the trip, I have a two week bear going, and you know what that means… Cletus is comin’ back, and he might stick around for a little while!
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Long-ass life update
Brian has completely left babyhood and has entered toddlerville. He’s the big T-W-O now! He has tantrums, gets into all sorts of trouble, and tries to do please-let-me-have-my-way, puppy dog eyes. When it doesn’t work, he laughs sheepishly. So adorable. He watches Blues Clues, loves bubbles and drawing. He loves his blankets, but isn’t really into stuffed animals. At the end of the day, his feet stink-eww, the number one sign that he isn’t a baby anymore. He can say: ball, bubble, apple, moon, car, and sign more. That one sign was a huge wahoo! moment for us. Mostly he just points vigorously. Apparently I have watched too much Prison Break while Brian is around, because he sneaks into the dishwasher for a butter knife and then proceeds to slip it into the window casing. Silly kid. He is a great helper and assists with the dishes, laundry, and putting trash in the trash can. I know he will grow out of this soon, so I am taking advantage of it. I can’t put dishes into the dish washer when he is around though, because he keeps trying to “help” me by putting the dirty dishes away and then he cries in frustration. So I just wait until bedtime and then procrastinate doing them anyway. Heh.\
Max is a kid, no longer a baby or a toddler. A real kid. At six, he is one of the smartest people I know. (Which, I only know like four people, so take that for what it is worth.) He is very creative and lovable and tall and funny. He started soccer this Spring. He has been really enjoying it, but is really bad at it. I read somewhere there is a Fall league; I am going to sign him up for it too. I also want to get him into karate. Maybe take it with him, as a mom/son bonding activity. I don’t want to hit or kick blocks of wood though. Hmm, do you think he’d be embarrassed to take karate with me?\
Kindergarten finishes up in 2 weeks, then I am enrolling Max in summer camp. They have all sorts of cool activities and field trips planned. It sounds like a lot of fun. So only 2 more weeks of Max only having half-days away from me. Soon he’ll be spending as much time away from the home as he does at home, awake. Eep! I still have things to tell him: don’t eat before you swim, always wear sunscreen, and it’s okay to use some phrases ironically like “raise the roof” but when in doubt just don’t. Speaking of talks, I was giving Max a refresher about people not seeing/touching/showing private parts and penises and Max was all, “I know, Mom” with an eye-roll tone-of-voice.\
I am a mom of two real kids now. They interact like real people. I even have to seperate them sometimes! It’s odd and cool, at the same time.\
I am at home, as usual. Now that Brian is officially no longer a baby, I have been looking into doing some volunteer work. The local shelter doesn’t need any help right now. Isn’t that just bizarre and, I suppose, a good thing? The Red Cross is currently at the top of my list, but I am not sure what to do with Brian. I think I may have to put this off for a few more years. I can’t find a daycare place that will let me do a half-day. Their definition of part time is all day Tuesday and Thursday. Eh. I guess I could go that route, and then just pick up Brian early. We’ll see. Money is meant to be spent, right?\
I am also looking into joining a gym, one that has daycare attached. That way, I can sit in the locker room for an hour each morning and have some peace. Ha! I am going to make Kevin come with me. Ideally, I’d like someplace with an indoor track, but they seem to be in short supply.\
My biggest dream right now is to spend 24 hours in bed with Kevin, only getting up to answer the door for takeout and for the bathroom. I have been trying to finagle this for over a year now, since I stopped nursing Brian, but so far no luck. We’ll lie in bed together, watch movies, eat takeout, listen to music, take a nap, talk, and it will be marvelous. Ahhh. Doesn’t that sound nice?\
My BFF was telling me that a lot of her friends are constantly fighting with their husbands. I said “I’m not.” She said, “I know. You don’t have to convince me of that because I know.” Isn’t that a great compliment? I am not sure how or why I got so lucky with Kevin. We have a great marriage and I am so thankful for him. Maybe because we are sometimes laid-back about the same things (how to spend money, the house) and other times only one of us really cares about other things (where to vacation, what kind of car to buy). Whatever, it works. Viva la KevandJen!\
Most of my tv watching happens between 6am-10am when I am awake but don’t want to be and the brain isn’t functioning yet. Thank heavens for Tivo, so I don’t have to watch The Today Show. Tivo is also how I am able to provide you such witty and purposeful tv commentary like I sometimes do. I know you are all appreciative even if you don’t comment. Jerks. Hey, there is a new show starting in a couple of weeks called Wind Fall. I expect it to be bad, but since this is summer hiatus, I will take anything.\
Kevin has started traveling for work again. He didn’t finish his physical therapy before the travels kicked up. I am not sure whether he will start it again or not. He is supposed to be home most of the summer, so maybe that is something he will look into. He has been really busy, happy, and successful with work. So busy in fact, we haven’t had the time to buy the new-to-us car we’ve decided to get. Sad, isn’t it? Yea, I don’t know what else is going on with him. Read his blog to the right <———— to learn more. 🙂 -
Last Day and A Thought
The panel today went really well today. Bert showed of Cesar’s really cool Advanced Layout demo, Andy Clarke did a great presentation about the responsibility we have as web developers, and I did my CSS for Syndicated Content, which went pretty well. I got some good questions, and I don’t remember anyone walking out in disgust.\
Andy and I got a sandwich afterwards, and had a good talk about a bunch of web-nerd topics.\
Now, I’m back in the hotel, really tired (happens after every presentation), and just waiting for Big Brother to come on (can’t help myself), and IM’ing with folks. While doing that, I had a thought. Next time I travel, I’m taking a headphone-jack-to-RCA audio cable, and an s-video-to-RCA cable, so I can hook the Powerbook up to the hotel TV and watch all the crap I bring with me. My room has a perfectly nice DVD player in it, but it’s region 2, and all my DVD’s are region 1 (right now, it’s Homicide season one and the first two seasons of Buffy). I don’t want to sit at the desk and watch stuff, so it goes unwatched. But, if I could hook the Powerbook up to the TV, ta-da, whatever I want to watch on the big screen.\
Just sayin’… next time, I’m bringing even more cables with me. -
TV pimpage
Hey, is anybody still out there in internet-land?\
For those who care, the Supernatural pilot is on tonight (Thursday) on the WB at 9pm EST. Check it out! Seriously, the music, the acting, the car, the emo-ness, the pretty boys, the lightness of it, oh, and THE MUSIC! What’s not to love?\
Did anybody out there, besides my loving and obedient husband, watch The Plight of Clownana? -
Presenting to The Webfather
I just did my first presentation at WWW on our microformat, and who was in the audience, but Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the web. There was a moment, sitting at the front of the room, waiting for my turn to present, that I got really nervous. I’m not normally nervous before I speak in front of a fairly small group (less than 100). This time, I was. I had a thirty minute presentation that I had to compress into 10, which didn’t help.\
I think Friday’s will be easier. I get to talk about CSS, on stage with two people I know fairly well, and I have my full time. If you’re at the conference, Friday’s Style and Layout panel should be a lot of fun. I get to talk about the guidelines we set up for CSS in modules and themes in AIM Pages, and how that process has worked out for us so far.