• 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!

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • Bad Mommy #36,189

    Lesson #1: Don’t ignore the baby.\
    The baby monitor in the kitchen isn’t usually on anymore because of some newly acquired static. The static is probably caused by one of our neighbors having recently setup their own baby monitor (the pain of living close to lots of people). So this morning when I woke up before the boys, I snuck downstairs to have breakfast in peace. A few minutes later, Max ambled on down. Over an hour later I realized Brian was still sleeping, and yay and hallelujah! because this means I will eventually get to sleep in when the weekend rolls around. Except, Brian wasn’t so much asleep as I just couldn’t hear him since the baby monitor was off. Oops.\
    Lesson #2: Don’t watch un-previewed material with the baby nearby.\
    After our morning walk, I settled in to watch an award winning short film, The Plight of Clownana, knowing nothing about it. I was pleasantly amused to learn that Clownana is a half-banana/half-clown, ice cream store mascot who likes to dance. Brian came over when the groovy music started to watch the dancing Clownana. Who can blame the kid? He loves to dance. Just about that time, Clownana’s rival makes his debut: Dildo Man, the mascot for the adult bookstore located across the street. The two mascots proceeded to have a… you guessed it, a dance-off. And of course Dildo Man would use streamers as Props! We’d expect nothing less from him. Oopsy again. At least Brian can’t talk yet, so he can’t tell on me when Kevin gets home! This is seriously one of the funniest shorts ever. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I nearly busted a lung laughing so much. You too can watch Clownana

  • Special delivery!

    I ordered Chinese food for dinner tonight and when I opened the door to collect it, there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me. They were sent by my husband’s work thanking me for lending him to them during all of those late nights and weekends.\
    So thanks, husband’s work, for the flowers! It was very thoughtful and much appreciated.

  • Happy Boy

    Happy Birthday!!

    Happy Birthday!!\
    One of the pictures from Brian’s birthday party. What a happy, happy boy. I’m so lucky to have two amazing and different boys. Brian’s quieter than Max was, and cuddlier, but so unbelievably happy most of the time.

  • Pictures Finally

    A couple new photosets. I can upload pictures from the conference center, but can’t from the hotel. So, here they are and there are more to come. I’m way behind on pictures.