Yeah, like that last one isn't going to be used against her later in life...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
What's New?
I'm writing this post from a secret location in Eastern Washington where we are visiting Lisa's parents for the first time in many months.
We drove out last night after dinner, and kids did really well. They fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got here, but really didn't fuss at all on the trip out. That gives us great hope for a planned trip to Canada in September. We'll not count our chickens yet, though.
The kids are really fun right now. They aren't talking a lot (besides Mama, Dada and Uh-oh), but they are learning sign language quite quickly. About a new word every couple of days or so (if we remember to try it). Fortunately, our nanny is more diligent than we are, and she's taught them things like 'More', 'All done', 'Airplane', 'Please', 'Thank you', 'Milk', and 'Water'. They do, however, understand pretty much anything you tell them to do. I asked Reece yesterday to help Lorelai get off the little step we have by the window, and he ran right over to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her off the step. Apparently, I need to be more precise.
They're really getting out and exploring the world around them, and we're trying to let them experience more of it, by taking them places and not being such home bodies. But, let's face it, they're still fascinated by rocks, dirt and the neighborhood cats, so I don't think they would truly appreciate the wonders of Mount Ranier just yet.
I've been doing a lot of work in the back yard the last couple of weeks, putting in some new vegetable garden areas, converting one of our lawn sprinkler zones over to drip lines, and planting the garden. I've got all of our potted plants now hooked up to drip irrigation on a timer so I don't have to go out and water them ever night. If only I had some automated way of pulling weeds.
Work is going well, but very busy. We've added a lot of new people to my company in the last few weeks, including one of my former co-workers from my old job. We're nearing the end of a really big project, and since it will be a public facing web site, when we are done in a few weeks, I'll post the link here so you can view what it is I do for a living.
I've slowed down on my technical reading the last few weeks to avoid burnout, and have been reading novels instead. Here's a few I have finished:
Pierre - A collection of letters and stories gathered from friends and acquaintances of Pierre Trudeau. My sister gave me this book at least a year ago, and it sat on my shelf until a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty good read. I was to young to remember much about Trudeau and all the history that was made during his time in office, but I did gain a certain amount of respect for him by reading it. I found myself wondering if I could ever run for office. Oddly, I would never do it in the US (even if I was a US citizen), but I would consider it in Canada. I guess I am more patriotic than I thought. Of course, that would involve moving back to Canada, and don't get your hopes up on that. We're pretty happy where we are.
Florence of Arabia - Another book my sister gave me at least a year ago. A pretty good read, not what I thought it was going to be at all. I would recommend it to anyone who sits a little to the left of center. I don't know that those way over to the right will get it.
Forty Signs of Rain - Kim Stanley Robinson wrote one of my favorite trilogies of all time with the Mars series. This is the first book in a trilogy of stories around global warming. I just finished it an hour ago, and while the OCD in me will have to read the other two, I found it to be a little, ordinary. Not bad, just not extraordinary. It's hard when your early works sets the bar so high.
The Eyre Affair - Lisa recommended this one to me, and I started it three or four times and couldn't get into it. But after the first hundred pages, it got really good, and left me wanting more. Good thing there are more.
One the movie side of things, we've been watching BattleStar Galactica Season 3 on DVD. This is probably the best science fiction show of all time. I'm stealing a quote from Brad Paisley here, when I say, that you get into watching an episode, and you're saying to yourself that the episode you just watched was the greatest you've ever seen, and then you realize you haven't hit the opening credits yet. It blows my mind on every episode. It's dark, it's innovative, it's amazing.
Another movie I really liked was 'Hott Fuzz' by the same group of folks who did 'Shaun of the Dead', which I haven't seen yet. Really well done, laugh out loud funny at times, snicker at others.
Of course, May means the return of 'Deadliest Catch' on the discovery channel. Best show on TV right now other than BSG (though I can't say there is much in the way of competition.)
We'll have some videos of the weekend posted in the next couple of days, I think. We've got a bust next couple of weeks, but we'll do our best to get things organized.
We drove out last night after dinner, and kids did really well. They fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got here, but really didn't fuss at all on the trip out. That gives us great hope for a planned trip to Canada in September. We'll not count our chickens yet, though.
The kids are really fun right now. They aren't talking a lot (besides Mama, Dada and Uh-oh), but they are learning sign language quite quickly. About a new word every couple of days or so (if we remember to try it). Fortunately, our nanny is more diligent than we are, and she's taught them things like 'More', 'All done', 'Airplane', 'Please', 'Thank you', 'Milk', and 'Water'. They do, however, understand pretty much anything you tell them to do. I asked Reece yesterday to help Lorelai get off the little step we have by the window, and he ran right over to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her off the step. Apparently, I need to be more precise.
They're really getting out and exploring the world around them, and we're trying to let them experience more of it, by taking them places and not being such home bodies. But, let's face it, they're still fascinated by rocks, dirt and the neighborhood cats, so I don't think they would truly appreciate the wonders of Mount Ranier just yet.
I've been doing a lot of work in the back yard the last couple of weeks, putting in some new vegetable garden areas, converting one of our lawn sprinkler zones over to drip lines, and planting the garden. I've got all of our potted plants now hooked up to drip irrigation on a timer so I don't have to go out and water them ever night. If only I had some automated way of pulling weeds.
Work is going well, but very busy. We've added a lot of new people to my company in the last few weeks, including one of my former co-workers from my old job. We're nearing the end of a really big project, and since it will be a public facing web site, when we are done in a few weeks, I'll post the link here so you can view what it is I do for a living.
I've slowed down on my technical reading the last few weeks to avoid burnout, and have been reading novels instead. Here's a few I have finished:
Pierre - A collection of letters and stories gathered from friends and acquaintances of Pierre Trudeau. My sister gave me this book at least a year ago, and it sat on my shelf until a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty good read. I was to young to remember much about Trudeau and all the history that was made during his time in office, but I did gain a certain amount of respect for him by reading it. I found myself wondering if I could ever run for office. Oddly, I would never do it in the US (even if I was a US citizen), but I would consider it in Canada. I guess I am more patriotic than I thought. Of course, that would involve moving back to Canada, and don't get your hopes up on that. We're pretty happy where we are.
Florence of Arabia - Another book my sister gave me at least a year ago. A pretty good read, not what I thought it was going to be at all. I would recommend it to anyone who sits a little to the left of center. I don't know that those way over to the right will get it.
Forty Signs of Rain - Kim Stanley Robinson wrote one of my favorite trilogies of all time with the Mars series. This is the first book in a trilogy of stories around global warming. I just finished it an hour ago, and while the OCD in me will have to read the other two, I found it to be a little, ordinary. Not bad, just not extraordinary. It's hard when your early works sets the bar so high.
The Eyre Affair - Lisa recommended this one to me, and I started it three or four times and couldn't get into it. But after the first hundred pages, it got really good, and left me wanting more. Good thing there are more.
One the movie side of things, we've been watching BattleStar Galactica Season 3 on DVD. This is probably the best science fiction show of all time. I'm stealing a quote from Brad Paisley here, when I say, that you get into watching an episode, and you're saying to yourself that the episode you just watched was the greatest you've ever seen, and then you realize you haven't hit the opening credits yet. It blows my mind on every episode. It's dark, it's innovative, it's amazing.
Another movie I really liked was 'Hott Fuzz' by the same group of folks who did 'Shaun of the Dead', which I haven't seen yet. Really well done, laugh out loud funny at times, snicker at others.
Of course, May means the return of 'Deadliest Catch' on the discovery channel. Best show on TV right now other than BSG (though I can't say there is much in the way of competition.)
We'll have some videos of the weekend posted in the next couple of days, I think. We've got a bust next couple of weeks, but we'll do our best to get things organized.
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