GlennLog

Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo

September 4, 2008

Mothra

Moth in Close-Up
Originally uploaded by GlennFleishman

Posted by Glennf at 12:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 2, 2008

Vacation Over; Get Back to Work

I'm back at the office today after 10 days of not really working very much. The days were filled with boys; the nights with a little TV, conversation with a woman, apparently my wife, whom I spend too little time talking with in normal day-to-day existence, and some minor programming tasks. While 10 days with teh fambly can be exhausting--the boys are rather demanding--it was a big hoot, and went well until the end, when Rex got a small cold and went into teething overdrive. He's doing better today.

The key to keeping the kids happy is to get out of the house, and Lynn and I took the boys individually and collectively to dozens of playgrounds and parks. The weekend before last, Lynn took Ben down to Hood River to visit her brother and his girlfriend, while I had Rex for about 2 1/2 days. We had fun, although it got a bit unrelenting towards the end!

On Monday, I actually took the day off, Ben was in childcare, and Rex was with Lynn for some time back with mommy. I saw Hellboy II; I liked it! On Tuesday, Lynn and I did a day date with Ben at school and Rex with a babysitter. We went to the Seattle Art Museum, had lunch, and saw Bottleshock with Alan Rickman. (A bit of a mish-mosh of a film, but still very enjoyable.)

Wednesday, my body said, whoa, and I collapsed a bit. I had a bug or something, and had to stay in bed late and then slept three hours in the middle of the day. The next day, I was able to give Lynn some relief, though, and she got out of the house on her own. I felt myself quite quickly. It might have been exhaustion, too, because I felt better so fast.

On Friday, we went to Bainbridge Island, visiting Fay Bainbridge Park briefly (twice) and Bloedel Reserve, a foundation-run former estate with quite lovely grounds, plantings, ponds, and buildings. It's marvelous and low key. Rex had his first ferry trip.

Saturday, we had friends over in the evening; Sunday, the Evergreen Fair; and yesterday, we split up a bit so Lynn and I could have some individual sanity before we resumed our normal schedule today.

Lynn and I have been married six years as of yesterday--the event is important, but not the precise date, so we had a very hectic day, and we'll celebrate soon.

Posted by Glennf at 1:58 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2008

Stay Cay, Not Vay Cay

Posted by Glennf at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)

July 31, 2008

Conversation on Dung Beetles

Ben: The dung is on the plane! [after reading about dung beetles in a book]
Me: I don't think dung really needs to be on a plane.
Ben: The dung is flying the plane.
Me: But dung is an inanimate object. Like a rock. Can a rock fly a plane?
Ben: Yes! A rock can fly a plane!
Me: I would prefer not to fly that airline.

Posted by Glennf at 8:17 AM | TrackBack (0)

July 16, 2008

Ding, Ding

Rex has a new word: ding! I put a bell on my bike recently, something I've long resisted for its sheer nerd-a-liciousness. But the bike trails and streets are more crowded as folks shed cars for cycles, and I find myself calling out "passing" or "on your left/right" very often. Since everyone is obligated by a dictate from Apple to be wearing headsets while walking or running (and very ill-advisedly while biking), my voice doesn't carry far. The bell works nicely, and I think it's less irritating to people. They also seem to obey it more quickly than a voice alert.

Ben and I take the bus to his childcare most mornings these days. I load my bike on the bus, get on with Ben, and we take a short ride there, then I bike to work. It's a nice multi-modal combination that saves me driving around for 15 minutes near my office (some days) to find a parking space or breaking down and spending $7 to park for a day. That plus the saved gas and wear and tear outweighs the $1.75 for the bus for me (he rides free).

Rex and Lynn often walk down to the stop, which is about 200 feet from our front door. The other morning, Lynn was off and our weekly babysitter Taryn walked down with us, holding Rex. Ben was playing with the bell, and Rex said, distinctly, "Ding!" He now likes to say it in all circumstances. I think it's his third complete word: "Down" was first, then "train," a couple days ago, and now "ding!"

This morning, I needed to re-record my regular weekly KUOW-FM technology segment because of a double technology failure at the station. It's pretty rare that either their main systems or the backup (an in-studio mini-disc) fail, and sure enough, it happened. So I biked up to the U District, a couple blocks from Ben's child care, and then after recording was on my way down 45th towards my office.

As I'm passing through Wallingford, I see a bunch of kids with a few adults at a bus stop; some kind of summer program. The kids are making the universal sign to truckers of "pull your horn!" But the truckers, knowing urban law, aren't; they can get cited, and traffic was ugly, so they might not have been in any mood to honk.

I rang my little bell as I passed, and the pre-teens were pretty delighted. They cheered, said, "way to go, cycler!", and such like. I said, "The bell's the best I got!" I didn't expect such a positive response. It made my day.

Then I got to the office. A transformer in the building had blown. No power. I'd just sent back a couple of cell data modems to a carrier yesterday. ETA for repair was 5 to 20 hours. I called my friend Nancy, and cycle a few miles north where she works out of her house for a technology news service, taking an old laptop with me. I got a few things done, but the laptop was missing critical software I needed. By the time I had gotten it mostly in shape, the building manager texted that the power was back on. A bird had hit the transformer, and the utility was able to