Industrial-Strength Procrastination

Our Christmas letter

2009-01-04T04:13:10Z

Here's what we sent as paper mail to some folks. This begins to fill you in on how 2008 went, since I ignored this blog for about half of it. :-)

Dear friends and family,

Greetings from the Carreiro/Tidwell family! Our Christmas epistle may be less exciting this year, as our life finally starts to settle into a more predictable pattern.

Matthew is two this year -- and he's [i]very[/i] two, as we like to joke. Never one to do things halfway, he is a chattering, running, giggling, climbing, protesting little tornado inside our house. Fortunately for his parents, he adores his "school," where he gets lots of art, music, and playtime, and where he’s made it his personal project to learn every other child’s name (and then give them shout-outs at night, when he should be sleeping). He is an absolute joy.

For a while, we were concerned that he wasn't talking. But it turned out that his hearing was off -- he needed tubes in his ears, and once he got those, his hearing became normal. He talks well now. He loves songs, books, puzzles, being outside, and "helping" in stores and the kitchen. And recently he surprised everyone by learning his ABCs and numbers!

Meanwhile, Rich and I both changed jobs. (What better time to do so than right before a recession?) Rich went to a software company named Imprivata, where he has much more interesting work than he had at Saba. He's far happier there, too.

I am still working part-time, but the home-based consulting wasn’t quite as enjoyable as I thought it might be. So in July, I started as a user interface designer for Google. This is my dream job! I work on a variety of projects, including social networking, online books, and mobile devices. The recently announced Google Friend Connect is one of my products -- in their introductory video, in fact, you can see my face and one of my Nepal photos, if you squint at the screen and don’t blink.

Our past hobbies really have taken a back seat to child-raising. Football games are out of the question for a while, though we still watch the away games with our Nashua friends. I want to get back to hiking; we took take Matthew up to the White Mountains this fall, and he loved it! We fervently hope that he’ll like snow better this winter than last, so maybe he'll learn to ski or sled this year. And though he seems to have outgrown his dairy allergy, I still relearned how to cook -- this time with local "off-the-grid" food wherever reasonable. That became a hobby in its own right (and lately, my way of coping with the economy badness). But I still do write sometimes, and a second edition of my book may be in the making. Stay tuned...

Have a wonderful and blessed holiday season! With love,

- Jenifer (and Rich and Matthew)

Happy 2009!

2009-01-02T04:37:52Z

New Year's resolution: to post in this blog more often. :-)

More later... it's late at night!

The Years of Saturdays draw to a close

2008-05-20T16:55:10Z

I'm going to work for Google!

Consulting was fun, but it's gotten slow lately, and I think I'd like to once again have (1) colleagues, and (2) a workplace. Some of you know that I've been talking to Google on and off for some time, but things finally aligned correctly. The Cambridge office is up and running; they have numerous projects that need UI attention, and they're ready to hire someone on a part-time basis to do this.

So here are the details. I'll be working until midafternoon each day, when I leave to get Matthew at his 3:00 daycare pickup time. (Matthew won't see bit of difference, except that Mommy will be busier on nights and weekends.) I'll be working in Kendall Square, which is a reasonable commute. Occasionally I'll fly out to Mountain View -- in fact, the first trip will be fairly soon! (Chris, CJ, Rob, Robin, etc.... that's your cue.) I don't know which project I'll work on first, but mostly I'll be doing UI work, with occasional coding. It seems I can't get away from that. :-) I'm not sure I want to, anyway.

I'm thrilled about this! So far, it looks like everything I wanted in a job -- exciting company, far-reaching projects, so much to learn, and I even get to keep my afternoons with Matthew. :-)

Recent Matthew slideshows

2008-03-30T01:47:11Z

I haven't posted these here in a few months! Of course, I am posting them over on http://comfort-and-joy.net along with the rest of the various Matthew news tidbits, so go read that if you want more. :-)

Wow. These go back a long time -- all the way to October.

http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-elevenmonth.php
http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-twelvemonth.php
http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-13month.php
http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-14month.php
http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-15month.php
http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-16month.php

Housecleaning report, week 3

2008-02-21T01:52:20Z

Once again, I was sick for most of the week, so not a huge amount got done. But I'm better now; thanks for asking. :-) This week we got some of the sweet payoff for the earlier work:

* Finished decluttering the back of the kitchen (yay!). The bay window is clear for the first time in... um, maybe since it was installed? Heh. Now I want to get a cushion made for it, so we can sit there. That'll be really nice once spring comes, when we can gaze out upon the daffodils and lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley in the back yard. Matthew already thinks it's pretty cool to stand in there and watch the squirrels.

* Continued decluttering the entryway area.

* Moved the drop-leaf table from the back of the kitchen to the entryway area (along with an accompanying Windsor chair). It's now a very pleasant, sunny place to sit and read the paper!

* Rearranged Matthew's play area to accommodate said table in the entryway. We also needed to cover up the builtin bookshelves, as he's decided that the books are quite fun to pull down from shelves en masse. This just took a little bit of creativity with the baby fences and a distracting pile of cardboard bricks. But now it appears that there's more room in there, which can't be right... oh well. It seems less cluttered, anyway.

* Bought a toddler-sized table and chairs for Matthew, and put them into the back of the kitchen where the big table had been. Now he can sit there and eat snacks, or more typically, climb all over the new furniture. :-) Happy baby!

Rant: childbirth choices in the US

2008-02-18T03:32:12Z

You should see the movie "The Business of Being Born." Put it on your Netflix queue, if you have one.

Why? This is why.

It's a statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists against homebirth. What you're seeing here, between this statement and the movie, is a conflict over the cultural framing of childbirth: should it be treated as a normal event, with occasional complications that require medical attention, or should it be treated as a medical procedure even when nothing goes wrong?

If you've never looked into the possibility of homebirth, it might sound frightening. It's true that childbirth can go wrong, and quickly -- who wouldn't want to be as close to medical facilities as possible, just in case? But according to the limited studies done so far, normal (i.e. low-risk) homebirth is just as safe as a comparable hospital birth. England and the Netherlands have no problem with it. Another thing we know is that homebirths have far fewer medical interventions, most of which are unpleasant and not entirely necessary! I'd guess that there's also shorter recovery time, less chance of a multiple-resistant infection, better bonding between newborn and family, and less stress overall. Less cost to the insurance system, too, though nobody talks about that much.

Least of all the ACOG. They imply that homebirth is "fashionable" and a "cause célèbre" (no doubt referring to "The Business of Being Born"), and that mothers who choose to give birth at home "place the process of giving birth over the goal of a healthy baby." Oh, please!

A few years ago, I had the honor of attending my friend's homebirth. The baby was born quietly in a sunny living room, without any noisy machines, IVs, monitors, hospital johnnies, nurses running in and out, or anything hospital-like. The midwife stood by with surgical equipment, ready to handle any likely emergency, and they knew how long it would take to get to the nearest hospital by ambulance: they were well-prepared, as anyone giving birth at home should be. Nothing terrible happened. The whole event was a wondrous and transcendent thing, and yet utterly "normal," too! It left a very deep impression on me.

I have to think that my friend's baby had a much better experience there than she would have had at a hospital. When Matthew was born, we did all we could to make his entrance to the world as gentle and wonderful as we could, but hospitals must follow policies. He therefore had to have eyedrops, and the Hep B vaccine, and a Vitamin K shot, and blood draws for disease tests. His "bed" was a hospital bassinet, and he had to be in it for all transport (mothers couldn't be trusted to carry their own babies in the hall; seriously). And the room on the maternity ward was just... dingy. It was clean enough, and the staff were lovely to us, but it couldn't possibly compare to home.

We got lucky with our hospital birth. My interventions only went as far as Pitocin induction, an IV, and continuous monitoring -- I refused all drugs and anesthetics, and I never got into a bad state medically. If I had, a C-section was only a few yards down the hall.

Did you know that 1 in 3 American births are C-sections? That's major surgery. Expensive surgery, with mostly predictable outcomes (healthy baby, long recovery for Mom, disrupted breastfeeding, infection risk). Think about that. Some women ask for C-sections, and other women get them for the flimsiest of reasons -- "you're just not progressing fast enough." The movie points out that the hour-by-hour C-section rate peaks at around 4 PM (dinnertime for doctor!) and 10 PM (doctor wants to go home!). Think about that.

Ina May Gaskin, a midwife who has been doing "natural births" for decades, didn't need to resort to a medically necessary C-section until birth number 293 or thereabouts. Overall, her C-section rate is 1.4%. Think about that. (Her clients might be self-selected for better-than-average health, but she's in rural Tennessee, not a wealthy coastal suburb.) Meanwhile, the ACOG claims that they're "concerned" about the 31% national rate, and is "committed to reducing it, but there is no scientific way to recommend an 'ideal' national cesarean rate."

I call BS. Are all those C-sections really a last resort, after cheaper, gentler, and more time-consuming approaches have failed? I doubt it. If the ACOG actually wanted to reduce the C-section rate, they would have done so by now.

(Though I wonder if the high rate is due to one thing: malpractice suits. We all know that OBs are particularly likely to be sued, and it doesn't make sense to have a national conversation about birth options without talking about it. Perhaps the predictability and finality of the C-section makes it too tempting for an OB who doesn't want to be punished for following a mother's birth plan. Perhaps hospital policies are set up to intervene and "actively manage" at every opportunity, because of the potential malpractice risk if they're seen as "doing nothing." If Americans weren't so sue-happy, how would our nation's collective childbirth picture be different?... Still, malpractice risk doesn't explain the ACOG's astonishing hostility towards homebirth.)

Let me go back to that "process of giving birth over a healthy baby" comment. No mother wants to put her baby at risk. Women I know who homebirth recognize the very real risks of giving birth in a hospital, and they believe their chances at a good overall experience are better if they do it at home (with the opportunity to transfer to a hospital should something go wrong). And why mock our desire for a good birth process? What the ACOG fails to recognize -- as do countless obstetricians -- is that many women have perfectly valid goals for childbirth, in addition to "a healthy baby." Sadly, those other goals are often cast aside at the smallest threats to safety, or -- despicably -- convenience.

Personally, my goals included natural and anesthetic-free childbirth; a quick recovery; to be mentally and emotionally present at all stages of childbirth; immediate breastfeeding and physical closeness with our newborn; and a good, gentle experience for Matthew during his first days. My excellent midwives supported those goals, to the extent they were allowed, given the hospital policies.

There's the rub, of course. By going into a hospital in the first place, I tacitly agreed to a whole bunch of non-negotiable policies and procedures that conflicted with my goals. (Like induction within hours of membrane rupture. I wish I could have waited for natural labor to start, but they could not give me that option. Edited to add: Rich reminds me that there were other medical reasons to induce, but even without those, they would have induced within a day of membrane rupture.)

No wonder a lot of women decide to punt the hospital altogether! At home, you have a far greater degree of control. You have comparable risk. And you have a much smaller chance of unnecessary interventions, including C-sections and other unpleasant invasive procedures. Is that so hard for the ACOG to understand? Why threaten mothers and direct-entry midwives with a statement like this, when cooperation with them would lead to healthier and happier births?

Please, if childbirth is a relevant part of your life, go watch "The Business of Being Born." Encourage other parents or parents-to-be to watch it, too. The movie has a strong point of view, and it doesn't pretend to be objective journalism, but it's eye-opening. Please know that homebirth is not a "fringe" thing or a fad, and that when done with appropriate safeguards and medical personnel, it can be safe and wonderful.

[crossposted from http://comfort-and-joy.net]

Internet radio idea -- update

2008-02-13T16:34:05Z

I did some poking around, learning about licensing, technology, and other things one would need to know about to run an Internet radio station. Let's say that it's a little daunting. The licensing and tracking alone is a real headache. (See http://soundexchange.com for a little taste of RIAA ugliness. Not that I mind paying honest royalties to artists, mind you -- it's all just, well, complicated. And Internet radio pays full freight on these things, unlike over-the-air or satellite stations.) You need specialized software to do this right. Plus, I'd like to be able to support a wide range of listener technologies -- itunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, handhelds, TiVo, and others. I don't know how to do all that yet.

So if I built it all myself, it would be a larger capital investment than I'm prepared to gamble on something like this. I don't have any clue yet whether such a radio station could make back its investment, let alone become a steady income stream, which I'd like it to be.

However, Internet radio is growing. According to one site that studies these things (http://bridgeratings.com), it reaches a larger audience in total than NPR does. And they'd like you to think that there's money to be made there. I wouldn't doubt it.

Now I'm thinking to myself, I can't be the only person who's looked at the first-tier information and come to these conclusions. Has someone closed the gap on the technology and licensing? Isn't there a turnkey service that can do this for me, and let me focus on content and market?

Enter Live365. (http://live365.com)

Yes, there is a way to start a radio "station" with a very small investment. The service leaves a bit to be desired -- they insert their own obnoxious commercials into your sound stream, for instance -- but it's not bad for a few bucks a month. At the cheapest levels of service, they handle all the storage, bandwidth, licensing, reporting, and playback technologies (which are extensive). You can upgrade through many tiers of packages until you reach "pro" level, at which point you can do your own advertising and lots of other things.

I might just do this. I'd like to test the market and see how many listeners are interested in a mix of kid's music and "gentle" grownup music. Stay tuned!

Housecleaning report, week 2

2008-02-13T15:39:12Z

I'm a couple of days late posting this, but...

* Reviewed a stack of old magazines and put them into recycling.

* Cut up a bunch of cardboard boxes into small pieces, and put them into recycling too. Total of 8 bags generated.

* Charged up and cleaned out the Dustbuster, and used it upstairs. I'm trying to get into the habit of regularly Dustbusting the hall and Matthew's room, to keep it from getting too nasty too fast. It's a heck of a lot easier than hauling the vacuum cleaner upstairs.

* Decluttered more of the rear of the kitchen (not done yet). Enough has been cleared that we can now move the antique table from there to somewhere else in the house, thus making room for a playspace for Matthew! Sometime in the next few days, I'll go get a toddler-sized table and a couple of little chairs for him. And a roll of butcher paper, to catch whatever creative messes he makes. :-) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

....And when that was done, we all got sick with a stomach bug! When we got over that, Matthew and I caught a ferocious cold, which we still have. So no other progress got made last week. We did achieve homeostatis, at least, which means laundry, sweeping, dishes, food cooking and consumption, etc. etc. Hopefully we'll all get healthy again and make some more progress this week.

Housecleaning report, week 1

2008-02-06T02:31:38Z

In the last few days, here's what Rich and I have accomplished, over and above homeostasis (laundry, vacuuming, dealing with food in all its stages, etc.):

* We cleaned up a "clutter corner" by the stereo. We sorted out a pile of random stuff on a TV tray, throwing some of it out, filing some of the rest. We dusted and cleaned all the TV trays and folding chairs that stood in that corner, put them downstairs where Matthew can't knock them over, and vacuumed and cleaned the dusty floor. We also brought an old box of tapes up to the attic. It looks SO much better!

* I bought a set of plastic bins, plus some other storage supplies.

* I emptied every single drawer in the sewing cabinet in Matthew's room, inspected and sorted the contents, went "oooooooh" at the cool 50-year-old steel attachments for the 100-year-old sewing machine, and stored the good stuff into one of the new bins. Matthew can now safely pull the drawers out and play with them. He doesn't know how, yet, but he will someday soon... better not to have pins and needles in there, I think.

* I cleaned out my crafts bin, threw some old junk out, and consolidated some of it with the stuff from the sewing cabinet. There's still too much stuff in there, but at least all the old yarn fits in it now.

* Bagged, labeled, and put out the old paper diapers for people to pick up. Except that no one picked them up. I'll try again when it's not raining outside! (Anyone want diapers of size NB, 1, or 3?)

Housecleaning

2008-02-05T16:56:17Z

Our house is a mess! There's nothing new about that, but it's starting to make me a little crazy.

I've become less and less tolerant of a messy house over the years, but (1) Rich and I are both terrible housekeepers, (2) Rich is still more tolerant of mess than I am, which means he doesn't have the same emotional investment that I do in cleaning (that's not a slight on him!), and (3) Matthew adds an amount of mess completely disproportionate to his size. :-)

Of course, having a child around who can now WALK (!!!) means that we need to get serious about the clutter, because it can become dangerous. We've caught him reaching up to countertops and tables to pull things down, for instance. No disasters yet, but it's just a matter of time.

So we've kind of reached a crisis point. I've concluded that these are the factors that will help us reach a better state:

* Do a serious decluttering. I want to get rid of a lot of stuff, which may involve freecycle, ebay, the local PTO thrift shop, Goodwill, consignment stores, or the curb. For things we want to keep, I want to get yet more big plastic bins, bin stuff up, label it, and move it to the attic or basement. The problem? This takes time, and my time is worth MONEY these days! Literally, since I'm contracting by the hour!

* More storage space, and more intelligent use of the space we already have. We've built an immense bookshelf system -- already mostly full -- which we need to use better. Our closets are small, and we don't use them terribly well either (they need decluttering too). I'm convinced that we three messies can live in this small house -- we just need to be smarter about it.

* We need to get our daily "systems" working better. We tend to leave random stuff lying around, to leave laundry on the couch, to not move recycling out to the storage area, to not break down the boxes we get in the mail, to not clear off the kitchen counters... With enough self-discipline and better daily habits, we can keep the clutter down without having to explicitly "declutter" nearly so often. I'm working on that, habit by habit, but it's maddeningly slow work.

* Dirt! I'm actually not bad at getting rid of dirt -- the clutter is in the way, that's all. :-) When I get on a cleaning kick, Rich knows to stay out of my way, and not a cobweb or speck of food remains after I'm done. We have the tools: a nice new vacuum, a good rag mop, non-chemical cleaners (soap and vinegar), a Dustbuster, etc. But we need to keep the clutter down, and I need to find time to get rid of the dirt more frequently. Only the time issue would be solved with a maid service, not the clutter.

So recordersmith and I are going to keep each other accountable. :-) We'll both post weekly about progress we're making in our respective houses.

Superbowl

2008-02-04T19:29:49Z

Dear Patriots:

Oh, gee. Someone finally figured out how to beat you.

It took all season, and eighteen games, but the Giants figured out how to shut down your offense, and you lost. Naturally, there are millions of other reasons. You always manage at least one or two stinker games per season, and maybe this was the one (though you picked a hell of a time for it). You were distracted by the media. You were pressured by impossible expectations. Tom Brady had a bad ankle. Tom had a bad game. Your defense finally got tired at the very end.

You and your coach pretend that your almost-perfect season was all for nothing, since you didn't win the Super Bowl. Maybe you feel that way, but I saw you all holding your heads high as you walked out of that tunnel at the end of the game, and I think you still had a season you could be proud of, deep down.

To me, nothing takes away from the fact that you won every single regular season game. As one of your opponent's coaches put it a few weeks ago, "Who does that?" Only the very best teams in the history of American sports ever do that.

Yes, you choked last night. It hurts, but really, it's not the end of the world. Thanks, boys, for a fantastic season!

Goodbye, Greg.

2008-01-29T01:45:55Z

An old friend of mine, Greg McMullan (filkergem), was killed in a house fire on Saturday night.

I knew him back at MIT. We weren't super close friends, but it seemed like our paths were always crossing, and I enjoyed his company. He always had a smile for me. For everyone else, too. And he had a generosity of spirit that I've seen in too few people since then. Even though he and I haven't seen each other in years, he would still make cheerful and enthusiastic comments on my LJ posts; he last did so just a few days ago, in the Crazy ideas" thread.

This is so depressing, so horrifying, that I don't have words for it... His house in Virginia burned down on Saturday, and he didn't get out in time. No one else was in the house, but his wife and (adult) stepchildren are living through hell right now. If you're the sort to pray for people, please do so for them. Thanks.

We're on HBO! (Not really, but...)

2008-01-27T04:24:15Z

http://www.hbo.com/infl/video/

On the drop down list, pick "Inside the NFL: Fan Life: Full Tilt Full Time". Take ten minutes and watch.

This video essay is about our friend Randy. It is also, secondarily, about Tedy Bruschi and the New England Patriots, and about the fan community that has built up around Randy. His story is tremendously inspirational; please watch it sometime between now and the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, the Patriots are making history as one of the best teams in football, ever, and Randy is one of their most interesting and well-known fans. I am so, so grateful to be a part of this community.

By the way, Rich appears in several spots in this clip. And Matthew makes a cameo appearance for a couple of seconds -- look for the baby who glances disdainfully at the camera and crawls away. :-) (I was interviewed too, but thank goodness, they didn't use any of my footage!)

Crazy ideas

2008-01-21T16:57:25Z

Once in a while, I get these crazy ideas of things that I want to do with my life, and I obsess over them for a while. Sometimes, I actually follow through on them. Recent examples include writing a book, and having a child. They both worked out pretty well, all things considered.

Some things I don't follow through on, but they're fun thought experiments, in any case.

One example is the healthy-and-local-food restaurant I wanted to open in Arlington Center. It would have been a sandwich shop kind of place (not an expensive sit-down gourmet restaurant), but one that would primarily offer vegetarian and vegan food, grown locally and/or organically whenever possible. Dairy intolerance? No problem. Meat averse? You'd have to ask for it anyway. Kid have a peanut allergy? You're safe. The emphasis would be on vegetables, fruits, and whole grains -- y'know, like the Whole Foods of sandwich shops, but cheaper. Anyway, it was an impractical idea, given the real estate availability and high rents in Arlington. And it would have been fun to design the experience, but it meant... well... running a restaurant! I'm not prepared to enter that particular circle of hell.

My current mini-obsession is starting an Internet radio station. For children. Well, sort of -- the kid's music I've heard so far is mostly hideous (with some excellent exceptions). A station that played only "kid music" all day would make me want to jump off a tall building. But I would *love* to have a radio station that would play interesting grownup music, but vetted for questionable lyrics, depressing stuff, dissonant and disturbing music, and so on.

"Gentle music." That's what I'd like. A mix of folk, mild classic rock, current pop, easy-on-your-ears jazz, classic show tunes once in a while, and some classical mixed in for good measure. High-quality music. Nothing to make a kid cover his ears. And no lyrics that would make a toddler look up and me and say, "Mom, what does that mean?" and force me to lie. :-)

It would be cool. Let's see... have we got lots of digital music? Check. Server? Check. Bandwidth for audio streams? Check (sort of). Desire to design the website and the aural experience? Oh yeah. :-)

I'm insane, right? Probably. Remember, this is one of the crazy ideas that I probably *won't* follow up on.

It's Christmas cookie time!

2007-12-14T03:48:07Z

Of these four cookie types, which three would you prefer to get in a gift box? (This post does not constitute a promise of such. They're for neighbors. So there.)

* Soft gingerbread-molasses cookies (not gingersnaps, nor gingerbread men, nor building materials)
* Chocolate toll-house cookies with 60%-chocolate chips and walnuts
* Lemon sugar cookies
* Oatmeal cookies with pecans and dried tart cherries

I made the gingerbread cookies tonight, and I gotta say they're excellent! I used the standard toll-house cookie recipe, but modified it to include blackstrap molasses, lots of cinnamon, and lots of ginger. They're crisp around the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, and as richly flavored as the strongest gingersnaps I've ever eaten. Yum!

Two quizzes

2007-11-30T20:38:41Z

Wow. Has it really been over a month since I posted here? I am lame. :-) (I've been busy, actually. A lot of my blogging has gone into http://comfort-and-joy.net -- our family blog -- and between Thanksgiving vacation and a sick baby, I haven't had a lot of time for blogging in general.)

Anyway. In my blog-reading rounds today, I found two quizzes that tickled my brain enough for me to actually finish them. The easy one first:

The data literacy test. At least, this should be easy for some of you software engineers. I got a 28, which kind of stunned me. Maybe I know more about programming languages than is good for me...

This is the harder one, at least for me:

The American history, civics, and economics test. Most of us learned this stuff in high school, but how much of it stuck? :-) Rich, you should be able to ace this one. I got an 80%. But if it hadn't been for Ken Burns's "Civil War" and other PBS shows, it wouldn't have been that high; heh heh.

I just realized that this second site holds colleges responsible for failing to teach civics. See, I disagree there. I think this stuff should be taught in high school, and that it's strictly optional at the college level. If someone wants to learn more about 18th-century political philosophy in college, that's fantastic, but don't hold MIT "accountable" for not forcing it down my throat, thank you very much. I liked the practical education I got at MIT. Hmmph.

When kids' TV used to be cool

2007-10-18T15:32:07Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE

Stevie Wonder rocks out on Sesame Street. Includes an extended jam at the end, special lyrics, 70's attire, and dancing kids on fire escapes. What's not to like?

Turn it up...

Uses for old pumpernickel bread

2007-10-17T01:42:35Z

Hey, Randy, listen up. (grin)

When someone gives you a bagful of bread scraps left over from a food project that involves star-shaped cookie cutters, what comes to mind? If you're me, it's "bread pudding."

But what if it's pumpernickel bread? Hmm. Well... what about a savory bread pudding?

I bought a pound and a half of apple chicken sausage, a carton of eggs, a pint of cream, and some sharp cheddar cheese. (No, this is not a dairy-free recipe. Yes, I'm experimenting with dairy again; so far, Matthew isn't showing any ill effects.) The sausage was browned in a skillet, then mixed with the bread in a shallow glass baking dish. I beat eight eggs in a bowl with some of the cream, some milk, salt, and pepper -- this was not enough custard, by the way, for a 9x13 pan -- and poured it over the bread and sausage. Then I laid some cheese slices over the top, covered it with foil, and put it in a 375-degree oven for an hour. (Take the foil off near the end for brownage.)

Dinner was delicious!

Matthew's ten-month slideshow

2007-09-26T14:26:56Z

Matthew's tenth-month slideshow can be found here. This month's pictures feature lots of outdoor time -- in the yard, in a swimming pool, etc. Ah, summer!

http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-tenmonth.php

The Patriots and "CameraGate"

2007-09-17T16:47:19Z

Time to weigh in here with my opinion. If you don't follow NFL football, move along -- there's nothing to see here that will interest you. :-)

In support of the Patriots: What they did wasn't as bad as I'd originally thought, and let me explain why. Football teams "steal" each other's play signals all the time. It seems to be the equivalent of the code-cracking done on military communications during WWII -- it gives an edge to the smarter side, and it's not dishonorable or below the belt. And, yes, everybody does it; to refuse is to give yourself a rather stupid disadvantage. Competition among playoff-caliber NFL teams is fierce and sophisticated, and decoding the other side's play-calling is a well-known part of it.

The NFL controls teams' use of photography equipment with a set of arcane rules. You can film your opponent's sidelines, but not this way, or from there, or with this kind of audio, etc. etc. etc. (I don't know them all.) This is to give all teams a level playing field, so to speak. Presumably, the use of too much technology and footage would make it too easy to crack the codes, and then competition would suffer. I'm guessing that's the reason for the rules.

So that's what the Patriots did. They broke a rule about how to film the opponent. Terrible, huh? Really makes you think they ought to be stripped of all their recent championships, doesn't it? :-)

Now for the other side: They really shouldn't have done it. Belichick defended himself by saying he misunderstood the rule, but I have to think that he's smarter than that. I'm guessing they did it on purpose, and that, to me, is not honorable. Code-cracking within the rules is fine. Deliberately breaking a rule, for the purposes of competitive advantage, is not. They deserved the penalties.

Furthermore, the context of the rule infraction just makes the whole thing seem stupid to me. They did this in a hostile stadium, to a grudge opponent (the Jets), with a coach who knows Belichick and his tricks (Eric Mangini), and who has his own personal grudge against Belichick. What a setup! Almost makes you think they wanted to get caught. It's very un-Patriot-like, and it makes me kind of uneasy. I wonder if there's a lot going on under the surface between these two teams that the public isn't seeing.

In any case, the Patriots brand has been besmirched. That's going to take a long time to fix, and I honestly feel a little embarrassed to have put myself fully behind this brand; I saw them as a "we play fair and well" kind of team, and I don't like to associate myself with someone I think is dishonorable.

But yesterday's win against the Chargers started to restore my faith. It was a clean win, and a ridiculously well-played game. :-)

New family blog!

2007-09-13T15:02:45Z

When I started this LJ, my intent was for it to be my personal blog. But since Matthew's arrival, it's been in danger of being "all baby, all the time." Which is fine for some readers -- hi, Mom! -- but not for everyone. A lot of you folks won't necessarily find it charming to read about the details of babytalk or nursing or cloth diapers. Yeah. So I'm taking my blog back.

Instead, all the family and baby stuff is going here:

http://comfort-and-joy.net

And this is a blog that Rich can post to, as well! Plus, it's got a layout that I had fun designing and implementing -- much nicer than the LJ skins, I think -- and commenting should be less forbidding for you readers who don't have LJ accounts.

Some of the major things will still go here, but not all of it. I think I'll still post the slideshows here, for instance, just not the day-to-day things.

First week of daycare!

2007-09-09T01:55:57Z

Thursday and Friday were Matthew's first two days at daycare. All things considered, I think it went very well indeed. He likes his teachers, he likes the room and its toys, and he plays happily with the other babies (to the extent that ten-month-olds can do so, anyway).

This is a very AP-friendy daycare center, and we're thrilled with it so far! They encouraged me to drop in to nurse Matthew whenever I want, for instance (the place is only five minutes away from our house, so I can do that easily). The caretakers engage the babies, hold them a lot, and even rock and walk them to sleep if need be. They allow cloth diapers, remarkably. The choice of toys is terrific -- simple, well-made toys with no electronics, lots of books, sturdy wooden furniture for Matthew to climb on, etc. And the director is a delightful woman whose childcare philosophies match ours.

There are six babies in Matthew's "class," with only five in actual attendance this week, and three adults taking care of them. (In point of fact, there will often be more than that, because staff members keep dropping in to play with the adorable babies.) The second day, only three babies showed up, including Matthew -- so they got one-on-one attention! Hard to complain about that.

So how did Matthew do?

The first day, he cried some, which was to be expected given that he was cutting a tooth and already super-cranky. He took one nap in the morning, and refused to take an afternoon nap. Also, he refused to take a bottle of EBM. But we kind of expected that, since he's never liked bottles. Whenever I came into the room (such as when I stopped to nurse him at lunchtime), he was being held by someone, which means that (1) he wasn't happy, and (2) they were trying to help him feel better.

The second day, he seemed more cheerful in general. The caretakers -- "teachers" in this school -- told me that early in the day, he had a giggle fit! Apparently you could hear him giggling down the hall. He took his usual two naps, and continued to mostly refuse the bottle (he drank one ounce; yay). Again, I stopped at lunchtime to nurse him, which is a pattern I don't mind falling into, honestly.

We've arranged to potentially have him there from 8-ish until 3:00 every weekday. He's not going to be there that long every day -- when I can afford to not work on a given day or afternoon, I'll have him with me -- but at least we have the option, which will be nice during weeks when my consulting gigs have me onsite for several hours at a time. I'll miss Matthew, obviously, but I know now that he'll be in skilled and caring hands. Literally.

My hippie moment

2007-08-29T22:24:54Z

So there I was at the farmers' market today, with a bagful of fresh vegetables, and with Matthew in his Guatemalan-fabric ring sling on my hip. A friend was performing folk songs for passersby, and I got up there with her to sing the harmony for "Peace Like a River."

The only missing element was Matthew's tie-dye T-shirt.

Matthew's nine-month slideshow

2007-08-25T22:16:19Z

http://jtidwell.net/photos/matthew-ninemonth.php

His hair is getting ridiculous. It's at least an inch and a half long, and it still tends to stand straight up on top of his head!

Home from the hospital

2007-08-11T18:21:22Z

We're back home! They discharged Matthew this morning, having determined that he didn't have any of a number of diseases that they can test for. He still has a fever -- 100.2 an hour ago -- but nothing like the 105+ that he's had in the last couple of days. And he's still spunky enough that none of the pediatricians were particularly worried about him. Yay! In fact, just a few minutes ago he was sitting in our playroom, laughing at me bouncing a ball. (Right now he's napping on Rich's shoulder. I think napping is the order of the day.)

Did you know that you can alternate Tylenol and Motrin, and thus get double your fever-reducing power in the same time period? Apparently everyone in the medical world knows this, but I didn't. Quite useful.

We brought him to the ER at Winchester Hospital on Wednesday night, when his fever first went up to a frightening 103.9. They were quite nice there, and it was a calm ER. Still, I got zero sleep that night (which was tough, because I'd gotten less than 4 hours of sleep on Tuesday night!).

They initially admitted him because they found that his blood was overly acidic. They weren't sure what caused it; their first guess was dehydration, though he didn't show signs of it otherwise, but it might also have been an indication of kidney problems. So in he went, for rehydration and observation. Turns out the blood pH thing was no big deal -- it was normal the next day -- but his fever was so high that he stayed in anyway.

Poor, poor kid. I feel so bad for him. They had three different teams trying to put an IV in him, but he's so fat that they had trouble finding a vein! Meanwhile, of course, he screamed and screamed as they held him down and probed each of his limbs for a suitable vein. (To their credit, the IV specialists all said they don't put a needle into a child until they're reasonably sure they can hit the vein the first try.) Fortunately, they found one in his elbow, and it didn't bother him too much once it was in. He was definitely dehydrated, he was uninterested in sippy cups or bottles, he wasn't nursing strongly, etc. And the alternative to an IV would have been a feeding tube or -- gulp -- an IV in the neck! Can you imagine? (shudder)

They also had to take a chest X-ray. This was awful too. To do this with small children, they have to immobilize them in this little clear body-cast thing. He sits down on the seat, I hold his arms up above his head, and they close this two-sided hinged cylindrical thing around his torso, pinning his arms up. The worst part was that I had to leave the room while they took the X-ray. I just hated having to leave him alone in that thing; he must have been terrified! :-(

But most of the time we were there, we just hung out in his room. He sat or laid down in the crib, and I sat with him or in a chair beside him, playing with him and holding him. I spent each night cosleeping in the crib with him (it was about the size of a twin bed), and no one had a problem with that, AAP recommendations be damned. :-) A nurse came by with not one, not two, but three blankets from Project Linus, all of which are lovely and will be treasured.

At this point, I'm less concerned about his physical health than I am about his emotional health. He got to the point of crying every time a stranger lady came into the room to look at him. :-( Is this going to worsen his stranger anxiety? Is he going to be more anxious in general? Will he be less "huggy" and more defensive of his personal space? Will he have nightmares about his hospital experience?

sigh.