Monday, December 08, 2008

Jesse’s transition to his new room and regular bed was challenging. Naptime took several hours of work, but eventually I laid down with him and within about 10 minutes he was completely unconscious. He was actually very sweet towards that sleep kicking in. He rolled over toward me and we whispered to each other - he whispered a lot of stuff I didn’t understand and I whispered that it was time to go to sleep and that I loved him. I put my hand over his eyes like I used to do when he was an infant and with his eyes closed, he gave a sweet smile and fell asleep. And he managed to sleep for about 2 hours, which was nice.

Bed time was less of a challenge, although we both played the heavy by opening the door loudly to catch him at whatever misbehaving he was doing - mostly playing with the mini-blinds. He dives for the pillows every time, which is hilarious. He knows he’s busted. Anyway, he eventually fell asleep and slept to his normal morning wake up time (between 7-7:30am).

I’ll be curious about how naptime on day three goes with Beau. I recommended to Beau that he lay down with Jesse this week, but then I worry that the kid won’t nap at all unless we lay down with him every time. Any suggestions from experienced parents?

I don’t think the show has already started yet (I hope not, at least). In any case, Manhunters should be a great show about fugitive hunting. I know that I will have my DVR set to record it every week.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Saturday was a busy day at the Speaks’ house. We spent a large part of the day prepping what used to be the guest room to become Jesse’s new bedroom. I can’t remember if I posted my thinking to keep him in his previous room, but to switch the bed/crib and dressers so that he kept his room while transitioning to the full-size bed. However, yesterday I could not handle the idea of dismantling the crib to get it through the door so we did the lazy thing and switched Jesse into the other room instead.

It’s a tiny room with odd window and door placements that make furniture arranging a challenge. We originally had the bed in one corner, but we turned it and moved it to another corner. At the foot of the bed, against the wall is his new dresser. Against the opposite wall is a shelf with bins unit that the Cooties brought up last week and on the door wall is a short end table/bookcase thing.

I put the sheep flannel sheets on the bed and he is using Beau’s old down comforter. My old body pillow is serving as a headboard/bolster. It’s a good thing we opted for the flannel sheets and down comforter - at some point overnight the pilot light went out in the furnace and we woke up to a pretty cold house.

Today, we’ll move some wall mounted shelves to Jesse’s room and transfer his books and toys to the bins and bookcase. Then I’ll start prepping his old room for the baby.

Oh, and we’ll need to get some glow in the dark stars to put on the far wall of his new room - he missed the ones in his old room last night when we put him to bed.

As for how Transition to Big Bed Day One went - naptime was a struggle. I laid down with him for about an hour where he played, pinched, scratched, and generally fought the idea of sleep until he finally wore down and dozed off. I think he may have slept for maybe an hour. However, after a long day with little nap sleep and a full evening at church, he did pretty well for his bed time. Beau and I opted to watch TV in bed so that we could tend if needed. Turns out the only time I went in there after we turned off the lights and closed the door was about 20 minutes later when I realized that the music has stopped and there was a clicking noise. Sure enough, I opened the door to find him playing with the tape deck in the stereo on top of his dresser. As soon as the door opened he dove for the pillows. I put him back under the covers, he asked for his blanket (which was across the room on the bookcase so I grabbed it for him), and with blanket in small hands he settled down for his night’s sleep. He woke up at about 6am, but didn’t start to make troubling noises until nearly 7am. I went in to find him peeking through the blinds at the dusting of snow outside.

I hear Beau with him upstairs now, so I’m guessing they may be working toward Transition to Big Bed Day Two naptime.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Also at my Mom’s open house, Beau brought Jesse over so that Uncle Bill could see him. On their way back to the car, Jesse ran to a small pile of leaves and started to play. The first picture shows the cul-de-sac and the loveliness of the foliage that weekend.

A couple of weeks ago was my mother’s open house. She always has the outside of her house decorated for the season, so there were plenty of pumpkins and gourds on the front and back porches. At one point I looked out of the back window to see this really fat squirrel chomping away at the huge pumpkin on the deck. I grabbed my camera and took a really crappy picture.

I dsitracted him enough that me he moved away for a bit and then he worked his way back to the deck, sitting on the rail by the birdhouse. And this shot of his obesitude is fantastic - not fantastic quality because I tried to zoom and the zoom on my camera sucks, but because even with the blurriness you can still see his massive belly.

A few days later, Mom reported seeing that guy head first into the pumpkin with only his tail showing from the top. And he chased his brethren away often, choosing to feast alone and quite selfishly. My parents cut up another pumpkin to throw into the yard - he rejected that, but they think the skinny, starving ones dined on those pieces.

And he nibbled on the pumpkins on the front porch, too, but we didn’t get photographic evidence of that.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Item 1: I haven’t been able to send email via Thunderbird since we switched to Verizon FIOS. I needed to know the SMTP server info. So finally, today I set up an online account with V-F and got the server info, but it’s still not working. I then spent about 45 minutes on hold with no response by tech support and eventually hung up because I have things to do and I can’t spend all morning on hold on the phone.

Item 2: I mentioned yesterday my need for a free FTP client. Turns out it needs to be SFTP, so I downloaded WinSCP, but I’m not able to access my host FTP. So I submitted a trouble ticket and I’m waiting to hear about that.

I’m really not in the mood to deal with this kind of stuff today.

[UPDATE]: Item #2 is fixed. Turned out to be a password problem - even the host techie couldn’t get in using my password. So they fixed that lickety-split and now I have FTP access to the backroom of the blogs.

As to Item #1, I’m not happy with Verizon and reluctant to call them back only to be placed on hold again. I also need to talk the billing section because they have not implemented any of the discounts that were promised at the time we set up service. I’ll eat some lunch and then try calling later this afternoon.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

It all started last week when I got an email from KN with a witness flight itinerary attached.

I emailed back to ask if there were court documents sent or faxed - a copy of the summons/subpoena and an order for us to make travel arrangements (we only arrange witness travel if the court orders us to do so). No documents, nothing except the email from the travel agent.

I recognized the name of the witness as being a guy we had previously arranged travel for this summer and I remembered, too, that he was a pain in the rear - very demanding, which I don’t tolerate well.

So today, I finally did the research to find the name and phone number of the attorney who had summoned this dude in the summer to find out what he knew.

Turns out he was stunned to hear that his witness had travel booked - his office didn’t do it so the witness himself must have done it. I impressed upon the lawyer the illegality of this action on the part of the witness and made it very clear that we either better receive those necessary court documents post haste or his witness would suffer dire consequences. I’m giving him until Monday to send the docs. If I don’t hear back from him by then the travel gets cancelled and I take it to HQ to find out what to do about the witness and also to let them know that our travel agent booked travel for a witness by a witness directly. That is not supposed to happen.

So with the server migration of my blog, the host internal ftp is no longer available. I need a recommendation for a good, free, easy to use ftp client so that I can do stuff behind the curtain with the jenspeaks.com based blogs.

For instance, I’m in desperate need of updating both this and Ticklish Giggles blogware, but I can do it without ftp access.

Leave your opinions (with links, please) in the comments. Thanks!

Two super quick movie reviews…

1. Get Smart - Here’s the thing that always surprises me about Steve Carell - he is a very good actor whose ability to show genuine vulnerability in the midst of hilarity is a rare talent. We laughed a lot more than we expected to. We both thought the first half was better than the second half. We both liked the movie a lot. 3 stars out of 5.

2. Miss Potter - I knew I was doomed for tears the first time Peter Rabbit blinked. I found the story of Beatrix Potter compelling and very sweetly told. We both liked this movie a lot and I enjoyed watching the extra biographical bit in the DVD special features section. 4 stars out of 5.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Starting today we were required to update one of our passwords to a 12 character monstrosity that includes at least one of each of the following:

1. Capital letter
2. Number
3. Symbol (ie, @#$&!)

And the reuse of previously used passwords is restricted to waiting until the 21st round of passwords. Oh, and we’ll now be required to change our passwords in 60 days instead of 90 days.

I have passwords for more than a dozen systems and some of those systems have two levels of passwords. What makes them think that they’re actually increasing security by making it so much harder to remember all of the passwords? Because at some point a cheat sheet is required just to avoid calling the help desk several times daily to get your passwords unlocked because you entered them incorrectly too many times.

Looks like I’ll be travelling to Phoenix in January for a training thing. Amazing One will be going, too, so that will make it more fun. I called Beau to warn him and he seemed pretty blase about being left alone with Jesse for a week.

I was supposed to meet with the Chief and A-Chief to discuss financial stuff. Turns out that they met with my boss for 2 hours instead and then my lunch hour consisted of having them quiz me about how I pay the bills. The rest of this week will be all prisoner medical all the time because Useless One hasn’t been doing her job again. I discovered a 3” stack of claims in her inbox last week. Joy.

My cough and congestion linger and after watching The Lord of the Rings on cable last night, I realized that I sound more like Gollum than Brenda Vaccaro. Lovely.

Church was great this weekend. I was on worship team again, which was very fun even with my hacking cough. I had enough raspy-ness in my voice that I blended very well with the other female singer. And the message was good - our pastor did a series on Jonah the past few weeks. His message this week resonated with me because of something that happened recently with a friend that is still somewhat unresolved. I’m at a loss as to how to resolve it and I have been praying about it constantly since the blow up happened. It’s a complicated situation for which a solution may not be possible, not because I’m not willing to work on it but because the other person is not and may never be, and that makes me sad. Anyway....

Coming up: Reviews of Get Smart and Miss Potter.

Friday, November 28, 2008

I left work early on Wednesday, thanks to the powers-that-be, got home and pretty much crashed with my hacking cough. They hot, dry air in my office only made my cough worse as the day progressed. I drove home with a window open to see if the cooler air would help - it did a bit, but I was desperate enough to take some Mucinex to try to loosen things in my lungs. I set up the humidifier in our bedroom and then I took a full dose of cold meds at bedtime, too.

I woke up yesterday feeling better, but still coughing. I ended up sleeping away most of the mid-day since I decided not to take any Zofran - it seems that the onset of my nasty cold matches the offset of my morning sickness. No puking at all the past couple of days and no nausea at all during the days. Praise the Lord! That only took 5 months.

Jesse has a slight cold - he’s not nearly as sick as I have been, thankfully. And Beau is pretty much well at this point.

All that complaining to lead into our lovely, low-key Thanksgiving afternoon/evening with my parents and Uncle Bill. We feasted and enjoyed each others company and watching Jesse be Jesse.

One sweet Jesse thing from yesterday - he loves our cat and that translates to any cat. Unfortunately, my parents cat isn’t people friendly and she kept running away from Jesse. The poor little guy was upset about it, so it was so great that when we got home Mr. Kitty rushed right up to Jesse to give him loving headbutts and even followed us all upstairs to Jesse’s room for bed time. Kitty hung out in the room while Beau read prayers with Jesse and as we put him in his crib and turned out the light so that he could gaze at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall, Kitty stood guard outside the doorway.

I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday as well.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Filched from The Port Stands At Your Elbow. Items in BOLD are those I have done.

1. Started your own blog - Hello.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band - junior high counts, right?
4. Visited Hawaii - Not super interested.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity - At times.
8. Climbed a mountain - Mt. Ampersand in the Adirondacks of NY.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - Too many times to count from high school to today.
11. Bungee jumped - I’m increasingly acrophobic.
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - jewelry making count?
15. Adopted a child - I’m open to the idea.
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - Do herbs count?
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse - Of the moon, yes.  Of the sun, only partials.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise - with my motion sickness problem?
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - not the specific towns, but I have been to Scotland and England.
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - at times.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - it’s that acrophobia thing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (badly) - not in the classic sense.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt - I think we went to Yellowstone when I was a baby.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - in my college film class. I was the seriously miscast murderer.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business - Bead on a Wire.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - this and the camping thing were the reasons I quit Girl Scouts.
62. Gone whale watching - not on an official whale watch. I did see whales when at the Outer Banks for a long weekend with friends years ago, though.
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - attempted many times and was rejected because I’m too anemic.
65. Gone sky diving - Not. A. Chance.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar - I don’t get the appeal.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - I quit before she could fire me.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - did not like it at all
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House - in the Reagan years.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My cold is progressing nicely. I sound like Brenda Vaccaro.

It’s a busy week at the office because of Thanksgiving and month end close out of the books.

Light blogging ahead for the rest of the week, I think. I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving with your families.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Beau catches colds easier than anyone else I know and he managed to catch his third in the past 6 weeks or so at the end of last week. I now have it, too.

I’m grateful for an old school OB who says I can take cold meds as I need them. For me so far, that just meant a half dose last night before bed, which was awesome because I finally got a full night’s rest.