Dale was home sick again (second day this week) with a fever and a cough, although you wouldn’t know it by his demeanor. Sam and I juggled our schedules around to take care of him, which mostly translated into playing football and riding his bike up and down the street. From the picture above, you can tell he’s under the weather.
Hope he feels better tomorrow.
Tomorrow marks 26 weeks along for Sam (and us too, but it isn’t really fair to include Dale and I in the same tier of experience that Sam’s endured). So far, everything has been moving along smoothly, and with the girls approaching two pounds a piece (more accurate weights after tomorrow’s ultrasound), they’ve started to kick and push to the point where we can all feel it.
Genetically, in the absence of an amniocentesis at least, they look healthy which is a relief to be sure. There is a complication with baby A, however – her fetal vessels normally sheathed in the umbilical cord are instead coursing through the amniotic membranes and traverse over the opening on the cervix. While somewhat rare – 1:2500 or 1:300 for twins some report – it does have a name: vasa previa. We’ve known about it for a couple of months now, and the concern is that when push comes to shove – literally – the vulnerable vessels could rupture and the baby would bleed to death, quickly. Survival in those instances is 40%, however it approaches 98% survival when it’s diagnosed ahead of time and the Cesarian section route is taken preemptively. However, since there always exists the potential that they could rupture prior to labor, Sam needs to be in a hospital where they could deliver within 5 minutes if something went wrong. And that means extended stay at Rochester or Syracuse.
At the end of the month, she’ll head over to Rochester and continue life from there, which we anticipate will be a hurry up and wait scenario: most often, the babies are delivered before signs of strong contraction occur to extinguish the potential of an emergent delivery. Our parents have both committed to helping while Dale and I hold down the fort in Ithaca, and he’ll go and visit once during the week with them and then we’ll head over there during the weekend. Not ideal, but in the larger scheme, that’s pretty easy to do. Our current plan is to deliver around 35 weeks: right in the middle of July.
Dale’s excited to be a big brother, as you can see from the picture above, and he always gives two kisses to Mom’s belly before going to bed. Obviously he doesn’t have any idea what’s ahead for him with siblings, but to be fair neither do we. But we’ve been telling him it’s going to be the greatest adventure in the world, and I think through inculcation he’s starting to believe us. And it’s a good thing he travels well, because Rochester is a two hour drive…each way.
Keep your fingers crossed for Sammy, and thanks ahead of time to Skype. This summer is going to disappear quicker than the sleep we’ve been taking for granted!
Our plans to wake up early and surprise Mom with breakfast in bed were foiled due to insomnolence. Sam woke up sometime around 6:30 to go to the bathroom, and when she peeked in on Dale he was already up and looking for books to read in his room. She took him downstairs and I awoke to see them playing in the living room a couple of hours later. Dale did have a Mother’s day card prepared however, and a bar of dark chocolate which he wanted a courier fee for to deliver it to her. And nothing says romance like a couple of pairs of Reef sandals, which is exactly what Sam wanted this Mother’s day. The times have officially changed.
We had a nice day running around though, which proved a bit much for Dale and after weakly asking for his pacifier, which we didn’t have, he fell asleep in his car seat. I can’t even tell you the last time he did that. But he was in a superb mood all day, and told Mom “happy mommy day, I love you super much!” at least a half dozen times. By the end of it all, it was a bit much for her too, and her holiday officially ended right around 9:30 this evening.
Here’s to hoping you had a wonderful Mother’s day if the occasion fits. And to my own Mom, you card and Dales should be arriving any day…just as proof that they came from us.
I’m well overdue to add a list of the week to this website (not to worry Mom; a new poll is right around the corner), but there have been a few things which have caught my eye recently which suggest that the more recent advances in technology have become smarter. A while back I discussed how everything has become so small in the world of electronics that things were becoming virtually unusable…and it sounds like the engineers have listened. Smart phones have once again gotten bigger so we can type on them again. However, that’s not to say that all technology is headed in the commonsense direction – only some of it is. So without further ado, I provide here my list of commonsense and practical advances in innovation:
1. Phone chargers that are separable from the A/C adapter so you can plug them into your computer to charge. 1a – Android phones mostly: non-proprietary plugins to your phone that allow you to use generic micro/mini USB cables (no way Apple will ever go this route). 1c) A/C adapters that are small enough to not commandeer the neighboring receptacle (above). Motorola has taken it even a step further to allow two devices to be charged simultaneously.
2) Stemming from 1) above, wall receptacles that have USB power ports already incorporated. At roughly $25 each, they’re not going to be selling like hotcakes, but the idea is a step in the very right direction.
3) Google’s new cloud service Google Drive. Sure, there are plenty of cloud servers out there – iCloud, Amazon Cloud, Dropbox, and the like. However, Google’s is exceptionally good in that it is part of your email system, so that when you’re logged into your email, you have access to the cloud space. And who isn’t hooked up to their email all the time?
4) Graphene. A buddy of mine devoted much of his PhD to this, and it’s the hot thing in biomaterials/physics these days (a Nobel prize just went to its discovery and fabrication). Very similar to carbon nanotubes or Buckyballs, it is a monolayer sheet of carbon, but it is unique in that it is very strong, is waterproof, and is about 1 angstrom thick. Furthermore, put light on it and it can conduct electricity. The potential uses are all over the place, ranging from drug delivery to enhanced batteries, to new substrates to culture cells on. Funny story, it was first discovered by scribbling on a piece of paper with a pencil and then ripping off a single layer with a piece of Scotch tape.
5) In-plane Switching LCD monitors (IPS). The technology has been around for 15 years, but it is now becoming affordable, and mark my words Dad it will be the end of plasma televisions. IPS monitors are unique from their predecessors in that they have all of the LCD crystals aligned parallel in the same plane between pieces of polarized glass, and when voltage is applied they change their orientation which allows a particular level of light and color through. The end result is a 180 degree viewing angle and color reproduction that is over a billion shades to the palette. These were the major shortcomings of the of TN style monitors which you are likely reading this from. As they continue to become more affordable, there will be no reason to keep on with plasma. And since organic LCD is almost officially deceased, there’s nowhere else to turn.
That’s what I’ve got, or what I don’t have but has impressed me. If I’m missing anything, feel free to post in the comments.
It used to be that the broken iPod in our basement was the only Apple product in our home. Yesterday that changed, thanks to Sam’s company who shipped her a new work phone…you guessed it:
Sam has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of her iPhone 4, which replaces her Blackberry and welcomes her to the real world of smart phones. As an aside, Sam’s absolute resistance to evolving technology will have to flex some, as she no longer has a true qwerty keyboard to type, and hence the transition to an Apple operating system will be compounded by a new means to communicate. Fingers are crossed that the operating system that everyone is so over the moon with pans out to be as simple as has been claimed.
I must admit, it looks handsome. It’s a bit thicker than a lot of smart phones, but it is still sleek and the screen is crisp and bright. Sam has yet to activate it, and from there she’ll need to be introduced to the world of Apps – which I can’t really help her with because I don’t have an iPhone. Do you readers have any Apps that you can suggest to her?
All of this reminds me of my own big news – a few weeks ago I finally grew so fed up with my own Droid X that I upgraded to the Droid Razr Maxx, which is among the fastest machines in the telecommunications world and also has a battery that is like none I’ve ever seen. It can literally go two days, with everything including GPS running, without needing to be recharged. It’s thinner that the iPhone, but the footprint is bigger (above), meaning it can coverup the fact that we have a new Apple member in the house. Everyone wins.
Again, what are some great Apps for Sam to get for her new iPhone?
Hey folks, Dale here. This isn’t really the appropriate landscape to highlight Dad’s indolence of late: he’s been working under some deadlines that have made him spotty at best in multiple regards, not the least of which are thorough and frequent postings on the website. I continue to ask how he’d manage a post position at The Times, but fearing that might jeopardize me getting chocolate, chocolate pudding, or chocolate chip cookies, I yield my inquiry and instead provide you with an update of life from my always-blue eyes.
Where am I in all of this? Just over two years and three months. I find at least a modicum of irony in that we as toddlers are all praised for our individuality, coupled with the adage that ‘every kid is different,’ yet we’re continuously measured by how our actions at a given age compare with the peak of the Gaussian distribution. How does my toilet training compare with others? Do I speak in complete sentences at least some of the time? Do I initiate games with the other toddlers? What incentive is there to achieving these tasks, just so I can become a statistic? Nobody benefits by falling within the norm, and in this vein I’ve refused to do so. To that end, I communicate exceptionally well – full sentences no problem, and more often than not finishing with a please or starting with a thank you. Just the other day, I informed Dad ‘Dad, you’ve got a piece of tissue paper on your eyebrow.’ And he did. And then they go nuts about my ability to communicate to Dad that he looks ridiculous: if these guys were scaled among any distribution, their reaction towards ebullience would suggest they need to be monitored while eating.
Now, the toilet is intense. As of last week, I’m officially interested, and as of last Tuesday, I’ve started going to the bathroom in the toilet at least once a day. I think it helps that the whole room erupts in celebration every time I’m successful, even though more often than not it means I need a change of pants. But this is insignificant in the larger picture: Rome was not built in a day, and there was rubble along the way.
I’d be dishonest if I were not to admit that the terrible twos have at least given me seasonal allergies in my age. For the most part I continue to be a spectacular student of toddlerhood, but over the past week I’ve been pushing my boundaries to see what I can get away with. Mom used to be a pushover, but that’s starting to change. Dad’s excessively rhadamanthine. I’ve endured more time outs in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. But I have backed off a bit, and have been pleased with the response from my parents. So I think I’ll stick to being a good kid.
I entirely enjoy my matriculation to my big boy bed, and can’t even imagine what life would be like inside a crib again. The best part of all of this is that I have ready access to the books that are next to my mattress, and usually spend 20 minutes or so at night (10 in the morning) looking over the books and flipping through the pages. Dad will come in and tell me it’s time to go to sleep, but I inform him “I’m reading my book” and he usually leaves me alone. How can you scold someone for trying to advance their education? We’re not Amish.
From all of this reading, I have stunned everyone with my memory. I can recite an entire song after hearing it once. If Dad reads the first line of a story, I will tell him the next seven sentences verbatim. I’m certain this will aid me significantly in the future, but at present it is merely a fun party trick. Most importantly, I feel fortunate that I have these faculties, and choose deliberately not to hold these accomplishments above their absence in my peers. My peers are still my friends. And I cherish them at least as much as I do my ability to recount things. After all, once we lose our minds, we still have our friends, right?
When I left work this evening, the moon was just coming up over the horizon and it was magnificent. By the time I got home, it had already launched itself up to mid-sky, but I was able to grab a few photos of it. Apparently it’s among the brightest it has been in ages, which made getting the camera settings right a bit of a challenge…too bad I didn’t have a bigger zoom lens!
Here was one I took from outside my building at Cornell:
And here was one from our back yard:
We spent part of Thursday evening in the basement, after a quick glance out the front window to see green sky which has proven to never be good. It corresponded with the green radar shading on the radar below:
You can see where we are by the pin on the map…in the midst of the worst. It was a lightning storm, equipped with hail, tremendous gusts of wind…and then it was gone. All in, about 10 minutes, but the aftermath was impressive:
Luckily, no hail damage to the cars – although ti would have been fitting given the recent misfortune with our Camry.
I brought a ruler outside with me since I wanted to be analytical about matters. While most of the hail was roughly a centimeter in diameter, some got pretty large:
Perhaps more impressive than the hail was the torrential rain that accompanied it. Like I said, 10 minutes, and here was out front yard:
Next to the light, it measured an impressive 4.75″ deep.
That’s impressive rain. We also had later bouts of heavy rain, but fortunately no water leaks in the house for a change. You’ve got to hand it to Ithaca weather – it’s unpredictable to say the least.
Trading in an overnight Dale-sitting voucher with our friends Nicola and Brian, last Saturday Sam and I jumped in the car and took a day trip to New York City (Dale was in good hands with Nora, who he loves to see). Our friend Jamvis was in town visiting our other friends Ting and Christian, so we decided to crash the party and have an overnight get together and long-overdue reunion.
Ting and Christian live in mid-town, just on the west side of Central Park. Sam, in her dealing Sam capacity, was able to use Marriott Rewards points to get a free night’s stay at their hotel 30 blocks away…all we needed to pay was $52 for overnight parking (giving it away, right?). We arrived at about 5pm, and took a cab up to their place, where they awaited us in their doorway just like the picture above shows. I guess each family has their own traditions.
From there, we headed over to dinner at this magnificent restaurant/wine bar/imported food/butcher shop called Eatily, which is a play on the concept of what you do there and where the food comes from. I was shocked at the size of the building – it was enormous by NYC standards, and I almost got lost there twice. They had so many great things to search through while we waited an hour for our table to be ready.
Before heading out, we grabbed a picture of all of us, which was initially foiled by a security guard who deliberately walked in front of the camera while the picture was being taken. Classic New York. Still, we managed to get a photo of all of us and it came out well. Afterwards we stopped at another bar for a drink, at which point Sam and the girls were ready to head back so we called it a night around midnight. And up in the morning, we headed back. A short trip, but one well worth it. I do regret that we don’t make it to the city more often. These guys are always terrific to see.
Sam called me this morning with the following unpleasant update, which you can likely surmise from the photo above. Indeed, some lovely individual had side-swiped the rear end of our car and took off without leaving so much as a word of their mistake. We thought it was done at Wegmans this morning, but the absence of broken plastic on the ground near where Sam parked suggested that it was more likely done at Cornell last night while I was at work. How annoying.
Our Camry has been the victim of a fair number of dings and scrapes, and to date not a single person has claimed their stupidity. I think it will cost us a $100 deductible to have the damage fixed, and I suppose it would have cost the other person more had they been honest…but still, it’s the right thing to do. And now we have to deal with this nonsense.
Looking forward to heading away from the east coast in the future.