Sophia figured out how to take a picture a couple of weeks ago. She proceeded to take about a hundred pictures of various items around the house that are important to her. Given her perspective of the world it’s interesting to know that this included plenty of pictures of her parents’ butts. I deleted those. Instead I’ll highlight the interesting things she focussed on.

I’d like to note that she primarily photographed things that were important to her and her family. The office door, the mess in my office, phoebe’s blanket, her blanket, her dad, her mom, and at least one photo of every room in the house. Given the weight of the camera we also had about 50 pictures of her toes. I have deleted most of them.

Tags: photos
Categories: Sophia
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There’s an indoor hamster habitrail for children in Lewsiville called going bonker. It’s a wonderous place that is seemingly infinitely fun for children while smelling like feet. I’m not sure I can convey the enormity of the multi-tiered play area without pictures.

Cousins joined us a couple of weeks ago while they were in town. I joined the family during lunch to partake of the odors of childhood ecstacy… which as I had mentioned previously smell like feet. Yes, I did crawl around in there. Sophia got stuck once and began to cry so I had to fly through the winding snarl of padded plastic like a bumbling overweight gorilla. Thankfully there are no pictures of this incident.

Tags: family,going bonkers,portly primates
Categories: BJ, Weekly Family Update
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At the very least Phoebe has wavy hair. It does random things after she wakes up. Sometimes having her hair up in a sprout/tail or two will cause a hair explosion that’s hard to contain.

Good thing we have a camera.

Tags: curly hair,Phoebe,photo
Categories: BJ
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There is something magical about a mirror. Well, at least when you are a child. As an adult it is pretty much a way for us to do hair, makeup, for men to shave, or for us to stand there and analyze all our imperfections. We spend so many hours a day, day after day, in front of other people and allow them to see all our expressions.

I can remember as a child spending time in front of the mirror looking at my face and making all sorts of faces. It was interesting seeing what I could do with my eyes, mouth, or cheeks and how my face would look if it I moved it a certain way. It was purely out of curiosity, well, and it was a little fun too! Over the last couple weeks, since I have really been cracking down on her brushing her teeth more consistently, she has had more alone time in front of the mirror while she is brushing. She has taken to just standing there and makes faces. She does it in our bathroom mirror sometimes when I am in there doing my own makeup or hair. I pretend like I don’t notice and quietly observe her silliness. She tends to stop or slow down if she knows I am watching. She looks so sweet and funny when she does this. I love that kid.

Categories: Sophia, Weekly Family Update
1 Comment »

I just wanted to put a note here that I’ve created another website, LolLibrary.com. Before you blindly follow the link I need to explain a few things. Some stuff on the site are probably NOT SAFE FOR WORK. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I primarily post weird, crazy, or funny stuff from the internet.

With that said I promise the site won’t become a shock site or be built to offend. I collect gifs and jpegs in the gallery and the front page will probably consist of links or youtube videos that I find particularly interesting or hilarious. Sometimes I’ll post something that’s just plain awesome. Anyway have fun, and due to the nature of the site I probably wouldn’t surf it at work. The last thing you need is some crazy guy with asperger’s syndrome spouting racial invective at full volume in your office. 95% of the content on lollibrary.com so far is perfectly safe, but that 5% if played at full volume in an office setting might not be the best career move.

Tags: hilarity,lollibrary
Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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I’ve had an account at Last.fm for more than 3 years now.

Almost all the music I listen to is tracked at last.fm. You can see recent songs that I’ve listened to in the sidebar.

The problem is that all music listened to on our home theater computer is also tracked by last.fm. One of last.fm’s features is the ability to listen to a stream of music that reflects the listeners musical taste. So Celtic Black Metal (death metal with a tin whistle) then backyardigans… maybe some underground hip-hop that is immediately followed by a Dora the Explorer song. From Raffi to death metal, my last.fm account is a reflection of my family and how we listen to music.

This opt in broadcasting of our personal lives gives everyone an opportunity to see aspects of people that would normally be hidden. Take every usenet post, blog post, forum post, twitter, song, purchase, picture, or video that’s been taken of my life and you would quickly find more information about me than is contained in a biography of a famous person from even 2 decades ago. None of this information is particularly useful or interesting, but it does make me wonder how my daughters’ lives will look through this profusion of information. They both have upwards of 1000 pictures already. When they are old enough to begin to contribute and shape their own exposure to the outside world, how much more will be captured?

Tags: family,information
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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On the surface it would seem that I haven’t done much for my wife this year in the way of Mother’s Day/Birthday/Anniversary. This trifecta of sentiment is a little draining and for my poor wife it’s the time she can cram to get all of her good will for most of the year.

A few interesting notes however. We won a drawing at a NICU reunion for Phoebe which will allow us to stay one night for free at the Westin in Frisco.

Heather called me one day a few weeks ago and was complaining again about her 1991 Honda Accord. It was a serviceable car with relatively low repair costs. The transmission seemed to be in the process of failing however and after some consternation on Heather’s part and some quick googling, test driving, and investigation on my part and she had a new car in the driveway… well a used car, but a fairly nice one.

You might roll your eyes and think that I’ve given her a gift that I seem to benefit from. This might be true. I might even have had this intention. You should also know that she guards this vehicle with everything she has. Her confidence in her tinkering husband is immediately called into question when he opts to install an iPod interface in her vehicle.

“You have to what?”
“Why does it need one?”
“Do you really have to take the dash apart.”

I am happy to report that only 2 screws did not find their way back into her dashboard and there are no scratches that did not already exist. Also, her car has a decent stereo in it already… subwoofer and all.

There is no question this is her car. I have to plan hours in advance to actually be able to drive the family anywhere since it is the family vehicle. She is more than willing to play chauffeur at a moments notice. In order to console myself I also bought a car; a car I could tinker with endlessly.

It’s fun.

There’s something else I have to get her for her anniversary… but I can’t say what it is.

Tags: anniversary,bj,Heather
Categories: BJ, Heather
1 Comment »

Categories: BJ
1 Comment »