December 2006 Archives

Ahh, lots of stuff going on. It's been a fun week, though. I have joined Bricklink. I haven't listed anything in my store yet but you can be sure I'll let you know when I do.

I freecycled a piano today. My garage is so much emptier now! I got the whole garage organized for the first time since moving down here -- it's much easier without a piano in the way, you know.

My mother-in-law has been her usual productive self -- mending my son's blanket that he inherited from me, fitting and hanging curtains in the bedroom, etc.

It is another 3-day weekend for me -- I can get used to this. Asher had already gained a pound at his 2-week checkup! He also already holds his head up when he's on his tummy. Amazing. Pretty soon he'll be walking and talking. . .crazy.

Today we made a trip to Soulard Market for the first time since moving into the area over a year ago. It was a good time and now that we know how great it is, we will be making regular visits -- though maybe not as a whole family. Jamie carried Asher in the Mei Tai, I carried the almost 2yo in the Ergo, the 5yo walked, and the 4yo and 3yo were in the double stroller.

We had a fun time overall and picked up some yummy produce. It was very busy -- of course, it helped that it was 65 degrees or so today. At any rate, I think that I will probably make a trip once every other week or so and take one child with me for special daddy time.

I didn't end up taking the whole day off on Tuesday, and I worked full days on Wed/Thu. But I'm taking today off. Jamie's mom is on her way here and will be here almost until the end of the year. I am looking forward to seeing her again. And then my mom will be coming out for parts of the first and second weeks in January to help out around the house (and meet her new grandson!).

There are never enough ways to say thank-you to the all the people who care enough about you to help out when you have needs. Our church family and our neighbors and our friends have been blessings to us as they have provided meals the past 2 weeks. Thanks to everyone for prayers and for sharing in our joy.

Some background: author Laura Numeroff has a series of kids books that start with the phrase "If you give a. . ." (see link). We have two of them so we are familiar with the series.

More background: some dear friends of ours brought by several nights' worth of meals for us along with some homemade muffins -- pumpkin spice muffins with chocolate chips, to be precise. They didn't last long -- Mike, if you read this please pass along an extra compliment from us to your daughter -- and sometime during the first tasting of them either Jamie or I said "If you give a mom a muffin. . .hmm, I wonder what would happen next?"

Well, I was curious and foolish enough to google "If you give a mom a muffin" and sure enough, it's out there. Parents of young children will get a kick out of it, especially if they have more than one. As for the rest of you. . .I can only hope that God blesses you in such a way that you may find this funny someday as well.

I'm something of a silly sort of person. Sometimes. Like one night last week, when I decided to rename everyone in the family as we were getting ready for our family time. I'm Gorg, married to Piquanda, and our children are Raury, Tuka, McQueen (guess who is enamored of the newest Pixar movie?), and Bucky. Asher didn't get a new name because 1.) He wasn't born yet when this happened and 2.) He needs a chance to get used to his real name before he gets a silly name.

It actually all started because our 4th child has a serious name but a very unserious personality, and I called him "Bucky" in jest. Then everyone else wanted a new name, too. But the point where it has gotten out of hand was when "Bucky" starts telling us his name is "Beh-ee," not his real name. He now answers to "Bucky" and sometimes insists on being addressed as such. He does still answer to his new name, though -- but only under protest. Too funny, but hopefully it's not permanent.

Jamie Piquanda and Asher had their one week checkup this morning and everything is great. So now I'm left to see if I really want to go into work for 2-3 hours this afternoon or if I will just turn this half-day of vacation into a full day. I'm leaning toward the latter. . .

With all apologies to Jer, I hate Microsoft today. I decided to do some updating to XP this morning and so I got on the update website and downloaded everything it recommended. An hour later (yeah, I don't use automatic updates at all) XP finished installing everything and now. . .Outlook Express encounters a problem every time it attempts to open, and has to close. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I have attempted to find a hotfix and so far have failed. This has happened before with OE and I'm tired of it. So I'm looking for a new (free) email program. I have already downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird but I haven't figured out how to get it to give my wife and I separate inboxes. Any help on that would be appreciated. Is Netscape's email program still free (and/or cheap -- I would be willing to pay a nominal fee for the functionality I need)?

My home email account gets relatively little use from me as I get all the email I want and more at work each day. It is mostly for electronic billing notifications and such these days. But it is an inconvenience to say the least to lose all my saved messages. Thunderbird imported all of my wife's settings, folders, and addresses, but it didn't get mine. Nuts to that.

Oh yeah, I went back to work this afternoon for about 5 hours. I'll be pulling the half-day deal again tomorrow and then on Wednesday it will be back to full time for Yours Truly. Yippee skippy. I have managed to burn some vacation days that would otherwise have been lost this year. . .unfortunately it looks like the last 3 or 4 aren't going to be used at all. Nuts to that, too. I'll make sure it doesn't happen that way next year.

Asher is 5 days old today. We took him to his first church service this morning. Asher's birth presents us with an opportunity to test our recent changes in theology in the crucible of real life. Namely, whether or not we will have him baptized. As my theological views have moved toward the Reformed tradition I have maintained that I would be equally agreeable to both credo and paedo baptism, with the choice being made by the doctrine of the local church we attend. So now, we are attending a Presbyterian Church (PCA) and seriously considering becoming members. So, will this dyed-in-the-wool Anabaptist really change his stripes? I dunno yet. I think so. But it presents other issues as well; namely, what to do with the other 4 children who were born while we were attending anabaptist churches?

Anyway, we have a few months to decide yet. My mind is convinced that paedobaptism is a biblically sound practice. But as in so many other things spiritual, my heart lags my mind in this issue. We'll see.

One thing we are doing differently this time -- we are not having him circumcised. We just didn't feel right about it this time. With our last boy (the 3rd boy) we went back and forth and finally decided to have the tip clipped, so to speak, so that he wouldn't be different from his two older brothers. But the more we wrestled with it this time the more we realized that keeping them the same was not a good enough reason to have him circumcised. So, he won't be.

Parenting is such a huge responsibility. So many choices you make for your children can affect the course of their lives. As in everything else, I pray for wisdom and stumble on, trusting in God's grace alone to cover my myriad mistakes.

Thanks for all the input so far. I really don't want an iPod. It's just the way I am. If everyone else has one, I must not have it. It's probably a manifestation of sinful pride. It keeps me out of trouble sometimes, though.

I have done way more research than I should have (time could have been better spent) looking at iPod alternatives. The first thing I can say is the Zune is not it. It's just not ready yet. From everything I've read, it has a ton of potential but right now it has a lot of annoying bugs. Maybe a future generation of the Zune will be worth it. Generation one is not it.

My next exploration was the Sansa. I am a big fan of flash media and their portability. There is a lot to appeal to me personally about the Sansa e280 -- including the mini-SD expandability that will mesh well with my current method of porting music here and there (regular SD cards). But it just wasn't quite it, either. After reading several reviews and comments, I decided to keep looking.

If I get an MP3 player, it will be the Toshiba Gigabeat. It plays music, movies, and just about any other type of media file. It also functions as a portable hard drive. It beats out the iPod gen 5 on the CNet editors' rankings, too. And it's still cheaper than the iPod. I'm going to wait at least another month to make a final decision (I've changed my mind so much the past week I want to give the decision more time to percolate) and I still may end up not getting anything at all. It'd be great if there was a post-holiday price drop, too.

If you have any personal experience with a Gigabeat (specifically the MES30VW) feel free to fill me in. Thanks again for all the input.

Reason number 17 why midwives are better than doctors: How many doctors do you know who would prescribe a fermented barley beverage to speed up the transition from colostrum (the first stage of milk production) to actual mommy milk?

Yeah, midwives are great. Yes, it is O'Doul's -- apparently the alcohol is not the important part. Jamie hates beer -- I'm getting a real kick out of making her follow the midwife's orders. :)

I'm posting a picture with the boy and me, because it's my blog and it's about me. So there. I'll get more pictures up eventually with Jamie and the boy as well.

Entered the outside world today at 10:56 AM CST. 7 lbs. 14 oz, 21 in long. Brown hair, blue eyes. Pictures will follow in due course. Everyone is healthy and tired. We're going to sleep.

I was given some Christmas money and I'm thinking about finally getting a real MP3 player. So, what should I get? Is an iPod worth it if you have no desire to subscribe to iTunes? That is to say, if your only goal is to have the music that you already own more portable, is the iPod the way to go? Does it have wireless connectivity? What issues will I run into with portability (as in, what kind of DRM stuff will get in the way of me listening to the music that I own already?)

Or is a Zune the right choice? The wireless connectivity seems to be a plus -- is that an advantage over the iPod?

I've also been considering getting a PSP. How is it at playing MP3's? Or should I go with something else entirely, like a Creative Zen Vision or some such lesser known device?

Other considerations:
-- My car stereo has a USB input and I would like whatever I buy to be able to plug in via USB and play over my car speakers.
-- I also want something that will never leave me wishing I had a bigger battery or hard drive. My current music collection takes up about 5 GB of space and doesn't grow very fast these days.
-- The ability to play movies is a bonus but not necessary.
-- It would be great if whatever I get can be added wirelessly to my existing home network.

All advice is much appreciated. I'm not planning on buying anything soon so take as long as you like to formulate useful advice. Thanks!