May 16, 2004

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Posted by Scott at 09:24 PM

Diapers - Daniel is now making excellent progress in toilet training. You can tell that now he understands the sensation, how to "hold it", and how to let go. If it's been an hour or two since his last visit, you can ask him, "why don't we try?", he'll say, "OK", climb up and go. This evening he progressed to his first BM. Michael must be noticing all the attention Daniel is getting because he asked to have his pants and diaper removed. He sat on the little portable toilet for a while and he went for the first time. He doesn't have an appreciation for the control yet, but we were just happy that he was open to doing it. Two weeks ago he would have screamed if you took his diaper off and set him on a toilet.

Parish Day - Whereas yesterday was too hot for our neighbor's birthday party, today was too cool, overcast, and wet. We delayed Timothy's morning nap so that when he would wake up we would head straight to Alpine Grove for IJ's annual parish day. We ate at their indoor facilities. The girls played a little mini-golf. We finished things up by going on a horse drawn wagon ride around the facilities.

iMix - I was doing a little random music surfing within Apple's iTunes Music Store this afternoon. They have a new feature to help you find music called iMix. It lets the consumers build playlists and share them online. So while you are browsing song titles, in addition to the usual "Other customers who bought this also bought..." Amazon-style recommendations, it would note that the song you were looking at was in an iMix playlist (or lists) and let you browse the customer's genre oriented playlist.

While browsing the songs I was once again in an 80's mood. Browsing some of the iMix lists quickly pointed me at several songs, of which I purchased about a dozen that I or Michelle would like. (Who knew that Michelle was a closet fan of 'New Order' or 'Erasure'). My favorite find: Oh Yeah (by Yello). Or perhaps it should be written as "ooooooooooooohhhh yeeeeeeaaaaah". It was used in a handful of movies in the 80's but most importantly in one of my favorites: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "Oh yeah" is the music that plays when Ferris is looking at the (fake) 1961 Ferrari 250GT owned by Cameron's dad. The song is definitely helped by any subwoofer you have in your entertainment system.

Last Samurai - I forgot to mention that last week Michelle and I watched The Last Samurai on DVD. It took us two nights to see it all, but even Michelle liked it. Usually Michelle doesn't go for movies with a fair number of battle scenes, but she sat through this one. I'm not sure she'll do the same for Master and Commander.

Comments

Speaking of the 80s, we saw the movie "13 Going on 30" this weekend, and the girl is 13 in 1987. Although I was 17 that year, it was cute because of things like fashion and music. She had my Swatch watch, wore biker shorts under her skirt, and listened to Rick Springfield, Pat Benatar, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Belinda Carlisle. Her geeky guy friend had a Casio music keyboard too. The movie was good just in the 80s references alone!
Later!

Posted by: alyssa at May 16, 2004 11:53 PM

Do you ever wonder when we'll start reminiscing about 90's music?

Swatch watches! One of the few trendy things I really fell for. Overpriced plastic analog faces with digital timekeeping underneath it all. I think I still have one buried in a dresser drawer. I got it for my senior year of college. I dug it out a few years ago when 'Men in Black' came out because the watch was all black: black hands, black face, black band. Yes, it was fun to try to figure out what time it was in the evening. :-)

I just wish I had a few more pictures of me and my MG circa 1986. It was gone a couple of years before I met Michelle. Man! What an 'in the shop' car that was! All style, no performance, no reliability, no suspension... I was envious when Tom later got his Escort GT. Silly, but true.

Michelle and I are planning to have a sitter in the next week or so. Perhaps I'll take her to see the movie. Do you think she'd like it?

My favorite trendy thing to note is hair styles. Because dad never changed his, he always looks the same whether the picture is 25 years old or 25 days old. ;-) I guess you could say dad is 'timeless'.

Posted by: Scott at May 17, 2004 10:13 AM

its sad....my friends and I reminisce about 90's music

Posted by: Suzy at May 17, 2004 03:57 PM

I guess since it's 2004, I'll cut you some slack. :-)

Posted by: Scott at May 17, 2004 04:05 PM

My sister-in-law, Chrissy, reminisces about 90's music too. I don't remember early 90s music -- I guess I was too busy to appreciate it!
Yeah, I think Michelle would like it -- it's very light, a feel good movie.
Gotta go get ready for a school board meeting. Later!
Lys

Posted by: alyssa at May 17, 2004 07:17 PM

I spelled way too many words wrong in that last entry, sorry!
Have you had many malicious abusive users?

Posted by: alyssa at May 17, 2004 07:30 PM

I just figure you have enough distractions. Sorry that the 'Preview' button doesn't include a spell checker. I'll see if I can fix them up this time.

Regarding the comment timer that filters malicious users, I mentioned it a while back. It prevents hackers from writing small programs that fill your comments with spam (like email spam, but on a web page). I've had a few comment spams (before the timer), but since I got email notification when comments arrive, I deleted them right away.

Usually if you're the target of an attack, they come so fast that you have thousands before you can do much of anything about it. Since few people write very often, I thought the interval wouldn't affect you guys.

Posted by: Scott at May 17, 2004 07:50 PM

I got my receipt by email yesterday. Here's the list of songs I picked up -- an odd mix of mostly 80's music.

Oh Yeah
Bizarre Love Triangle
Blue Monday
True Faith
A Little Respect
Call Me (Theme from "American Gigolo")
Chains of Love
Eternal Flame
Rockit
Tainted Love
Take My Breath Away

Posted by: Scott at May 18, 2004 05:54 AM

hey, even i like those songs!
I'll try to write a new entry soon- started the new job- very busy with that and trying to get my stuff all moved in and set up

Posted by: Suzy at May 19, 2004 04:01 PM

A new job!? That's great! Completely different than Chestnut?

Hope things are going well at the new place.

If you think moving is a pain now, imagine how we felt two years ago. Large six figure checks floating around, huge moving trucks, four kids to keep busy, house showings, closings, inspections, negotiations. I hope we don't have to do that for quite some time.

Posted by: Scott at May 19, 2004 04:42 PM

Scott, can you send me the link i need to go to in order to post an entry? I have a new comp here so i need to get to it and bookmark it!

Posted by: Suzy at May 20, 2004 06:08 PM