By Julie

Kevin has owned his new car for less than 2 weeks, and it's already been washed twice, once by the dealership on the day he bought it, and once by him last weekend. Now he's outside washing it again.

I'm glad he likes his car :)

I'm at 36.5 weeks. Only 3.5 weeks to go, unless the baby decides to come early. Yesterday I had another ultrasound. We learned that she is already 6.5 or 7 lbs. From here on she'll gain half a pound every week. Also, her head is already resting down in my pelvis in the ready-to-be-born position. Good girl!

"She can come anytime," my doctor said. I'm excited. But I need her to give me at least another week to finish up stuff at work.

Today I went to a conference in the OC and ran into some friends I used to work with. They asked me how the pregnancy was going. When I told them all of the above, they were excited for me but also slightly uneasy.

"Why are you here?" They asked accusingly. "You should be home! Resting!"

"It's okay, my hospital is on the way home," I joked.

Off to start finishing up all that work I was talking about...

Labels: pregnancy, toys, work

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By Kevin

When I started talking about getting a 'sporty' car a few years back, I saw it as the final realization of a dream that started when I was about fifteen. My first two car choices were driven primarily by a severe income shortage. The 70' VW Beetle that was given to me with only 220,000 gentle miles on it and the '93 Civic VX hatchback which was the first car I actually bought.

These days when I think back to '93 it's usually to recall the year in which I met Julie. We got married a year later, started talking about having kids, and rather suddenly I found myself driving an '00 Honda Odyssey. Now there's nothing at all wrong with the Odyssey. I still think it's the greatest minivan on the planet and when I bought it I was very much taken with the idea of carting the family around in a big comfy boat van.

As the kids grew up and started calling it "Daddy's car" to differentiate it from the Prius which was of course "Mommy's car" I started to think that perhaps it would be fun to get something a little smaller and more responsive. I missed driving a manual transmission and feeling a connection with the pavement.

Which takes us back to the quest for a 'sporty' car and several years of trying to reconcile my new, family-oriented life with my nearly twenty year old lust for something fast and entirely irresponsible. I have read reviews, stared at specs, and created massive spreadsheets. It turns out the main problem I had wasn't picking a car, it was picking an acceptable level of practicality. All the cars I wanted in my teens were two-seaters or 2+2 at best. Given the realities of picking up the kids after work every day, these cars would end up sitting in the driveway while I slogged around town in the minivan M-F. Then there were the times I swung the other direction and convinced myself that I really didn't need much 'sport' in my sports car to be happy.

K: Well, I've picked my new car.
J: Again?
K: Yep. Civic Si Sedan.
J: A Civic?
K: No no, it's fine, it's a 5-seater. They're bigger than they used to be.
J: A Civic?
K: It's the Si...
J: Your mid-life crisis car will NOT be a Civic.

Well, I'm definitely too old to be having a quarter-life crisis so lets call this a one-third-life crisis. Whatever. I'm fortunate to have a wife who absolutely refuses to back down when she knows I'm being a stupid-head, so she forcibly kept me away from Honda dealerships until I found something better.

Yesterday she bought it for me.



Seats five. 6-speed manual transmission.
Five doors. 1/4 mile in low 14s @101mph.
Room for groceries. Turbocharged 2.3L DFI.
Nice smooth ride. 18" alloys on multi-link suspension.
Did I mention the five seats? Limited slip differential.
$21,800. 263hp and 280ft*lbs of torque.

When Alex first saw it yesterday he said "Yeah! Daddy got his race car!" and when I picked Ana up from the babysitter today she ran out into the driveway, hugged my car (!) and jumped into her car seat.

Labels: kids, midlife crisis, shopping, toys

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By Julie

Monday morning, while I was still struggling to get out of bed, Kevin went to the kids' room. By the time I finally got up, they were already out of pajamas and in their school clothes. Kevin pointed out that he had dressed them both in green.

"That's nice," I said absent-mindedly. Meanwhile I dressed myself in blue. It wasn't until I got to work that I realized it was St. Patrick's Day. Duh.

I'm in the 34th week now. For some reason my weight hasn't changed. I'm still at +20, but it feels like +100. My backaches come and go with no apparent cause other than the fact that I'm in the 3rd trimester. When I sit too close to or on the ground, it takes me a long time to get up on my feet. And forget about climbing stairs. You might as well be suggesting I climb Mt. Everest.

The baby's movements have been intense. Sometimes she'll jab or kick so hard that you can actually see her fist or foot against my skin, stretching it several inches out. Kevin has been taking video. I'm too self conscious to share them at this moment. Maybe I'll change my mind later.


We've had American Idol Encore for 5 days now and we're still singing our hearts out. Alex has almost mastered "Black Hole Sun" and "Rio," and tonight he started learning "I Just Died in Your Arms." Kevin's been getting great scores on pretty much every song he tries, even ones with female vocals, like Madonna's "Holiday" and Fergie's "Glamorous." My (now not so) secret ambition is to get 100% on "Midnight Train to Georgia." You can stop laughing now...

Labels: kids, music, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

Yesterday morning, on the drive to daycare...

Ana: Mommy, can you still call me Ana when I'm big?

Me: Of course, sweetie.

Ana: Can I still play Littlest Pet Shop when I'm big?

Me: You can play with Littlest Pet Shop for as long as you like.

Ana: *beams*


When I got to work, I had to write a report on what I've been doing for the past 2 months at the request of a higher up, with time estimates for each project. (It wasn't targeted at me; all of my coworkers had to do it.)

I have mixed feelings about this kind of thing. Sure, it felt good to see how much I've accomplished, but I already spend 2 hours a month writing reports with similar content, and this report just added 2 more hours to that time. I could have spent those 2 hours doing something more productive.

Today was a good day. I stayed home, supposedly to sleep in (2.5 hours), eat all day (20 min) and do nothing (0 min), but I ended up cleaning the kitchen (1.5 hours), filing paperwork (1 hour), stopping by the post office (10 min), going to the credit union (1 hour), and writing a letter to the editor (2 hours) in which I referenced Jay-Z AND Neal Stephenson. Kevin was so highly amused by the letter he ALMOST forgot to remind me about how I should have been taking it easy.

Labels: famous people, kids, toys, work

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By Julie

Friday I took the kids to the doctor for their annual checkup. Alex was lucky because he didn't have to get any shots, but Ana had to get a TB test in order to register for preschool in the fall. The doctor also offered to give her the three boosters that she'll need for kindergarten, but seeing as she was already starting to look agitated during the vision test, I figured I'd do all of us a favor and skip those shots until next year. When the nurse came in with the TB test in a gigantic syringe, Ana started crying, and having to hold her down while the nurse pricked her arm broke my heart.

Saturday passed in a haze as I worked from home. Still, it beat having to travel. Even though I was completely occupied all day, I was grateful to be able to hear the kids playing in the other room and kiss them good night.


Today, after Alex got a much needed haircut and we got some groceries, we took the kids to the store to let them pick out toys using the gift cards they got for their birthdays. While Kevin and Alex headed over to the video game section, I accompanied Ana to the toy section. I was curious to see what her interests were these days. As the younger sibling, so often she ends up playing whatever her big brother wants to play. I was very hands-off as she wandered through the aisles aimlessly, stopping once in a while to point out a toy she already had or examine one she didn't have. Finally she picked 3 toys.

Her first pick was a gorgeous wooden box with 9 games that included chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, etc. I think this toy reflects Alex's influence. He's taken chess lessons for the past 3 years and talks about them all the time. She's probably curious to see what the fuss is about.


Her second pick was a medic kit with a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, syringe, and bandage. I guess Friday's trip to the doctor's office was still on her mind. When we got home she had me play doctor for all of her stuffed animals. Most of them were healthy, but whenever one was sick and had to get a shot, she gave it lots of comforting.

Her third pick was a Mr. Potato Head set with three characters. It reminded her of a similar toy at daycare. She still has a ton of gift cards left, so Kevin will be taking her back to the store again in a couple of months when I'm home with the baby. I'm curious to see what she will choose then.

Labels: kids, parenting, toys, work

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By Julie

This weekend we reached an important milestone in our financial life: we stuck to our credit card budget two statements in a roll! I haven't been this excited since we paid off all our student loans. Back then it was me wielding the whip that got us there, but I haven't shown much financial restraint since. Sure, I've gone through all the motions of making a budget, but it was just this number in an Excel spreadsheet. Every month I'd pay all the bills and tell Kevin, oh well, we've gone over again.

Finally Kevin got tired of hearing that we weren't putting as much into savings as I'd hoped, so he made it his personal challenge for 2008 to stick to the plan. He started logging into our accounts every week and coloring in a thermometer representing our budget, and during the final week of each billing cycle we've been finding ourselves going to extremes to keep from bursting the thermometer. Not that there's any real consequence to bursting the thermometer. It's just a fun game.



Speaking of games, Alex drew this impressively accurate representation of Pacman using the pattern editor in Animal Crossing. He has never played Pacman before. When we asked him where he'd seen it before, he said he noticed it on somebody's T-shirt. If the kid does not have a photographic memory, I'd say he has something close to it.

Over the 3-day weekend we had a Harry Potter movie marathon at home. By Monday night we'd watched all five movies, and when I went back to work today I was experiencing serious Harry Potter withdrawal. I don't know how I'm going to make it 'til November when the Half-Blood Prince finally comes out.

One thing I noticed was that Alex watched both Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets with rapt attention but barely paid attention to Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix. Kevin thought it was just short attention span, but I have a different theory. As a kid I never paid much attention to movies or TV shows unless they had at least one character who was my age, and I think that's what happening here. In movies 1 and 2, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were ages 11 and 12, older than Alex but still young enough for him to feel like they're not much older. By the 3rd movie, the characters are 13 years old and full of teenage sturm und drang, and I don't think Alex can relate to that just yet.

With all the lazing around this weekend I experienced the worst leg cramp ever Monday night. My first thought was blood clot (panic!!!) but Kevin assures me I had it this bad the last two pregnancies and rubbed my leg until the pain went away. Also I'm pretty sure my cold is gone and that my runny nose is just due to rhinitis of pregnancy, yet something else I'd experienced the last two times. And finally, I'm back up to +17 pounds, thanks to a huge batch of oatmeal cookies I baked and subsequently ate. (Hey, at least they were made of oatmeal.)

Labels: harry potter, kids, pregnancy, shopping, toys

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By Kevin

A lot of people at work brought up Valentine's Day this week. When they asked what I was planning I told them that we already had our Valentine's Day outing last Sunday. Some people seemed to think that celebrating V-day at the opera was a perfectly appropriate thing, but others didn't seem to get the concept. I know art in general and opera specifically is not for everyone but how could lovers not be touched by great singers, a fabulous orchestra, and luscious set-design telling a timeless story of tragic love? On top of all that, the audience was much younger than I expected. There were loads of twenty-something college students and hipster couples in attendance challenging any assumptions about the appeal of opera to the younger generation.

When I was getting blank stares at this point I segued briefly into the more material gifts like the lovely Merkur double-edge safety razor, badger hair brush and shave soap Julie got me.


It's hard to believe that from roughly the turn of the century until 1971 everyone used these razors and now there's not a single US manufacturer. It's too bad, because all the marketing and downstream revenue lock-in is costing everyone the chance to enjoy a closer, more comfortable, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly shave.



Today Alex came home with a Valentine's Day magnetic dart set given by a classmate to each of the kids in his second-grade class. We were *greatly* amused to see that it had items such as "clean the kitchen" and "breakfast in bed" printed in the various sections. Amused doesn't even begin to describe the reaction he got from us when he told us that two of the other items were "shave" and "wear a dress."

Labels: art, kids, toys

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By Julie

My HMO has a wellness program that pays members a lot of money for participating. When I first heard about it last year, I didn't bother signing up, thinking the time commitment would be prohibitive. But yesterday I changed my mind. The requirements turned out to be simpler than I thought. All I had to do was fill out a health assessment (already done!) and then participate in three different health education programs via their website.

My health assessment is a boring read, no surprise there, seeing as I've been on my best behavior due to being pregnant. Thanks to my walking buddy I've even been getting plenty of exercise. The only criticism the website had for me was that I didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables, but that's mainly because I haven't been eating much, period. I can't eat as much per meal as I used to because of the baby butting up against my stomach, so ideally I should be eating 6 small meals a day, but seriously, who has the time to eat that often?

I shrugged. Oh well, I'm just doing this for the financial incentive anyway, I thought. But today at lunch I avoided the burger and fries and picked up a tuna sandwich and orange juice instead. Go Hawthorne effect :P

Tonight, while watching Kevin play Animal Crossing...

Alex: Wanna know what would make this game more exciting?

Kevin: What?

Alex: Earthquakes and fires.

Labels: kids, pregnancy, toys

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By Kevin

Julie sent me an excerpt from today's Unshelved blog discussing a problem we've been banging our heads against for a while now. I'll quote the pertinent section:

Our old family office had stations for me, my wife Sara, my housemate ... Jana, and our kids. But while I work in the office 8 or more hours a day, everyone else just drops in for a half hour now and again. So now in addition to my permanent station the new office ... has a nice old round wood table ... two chairs, and a power strip (the printers and server went into a closet). Jana and Sara drift in, plug in their laptops, do some work, and drift out. The table is perfect for meetings (family and otherwise), paying bills, and the occasional need to spread out.

When we furnished our home office five years ago, Alex was two and Ana was still over a year off. The boy already had his own computer (for educational games) and we were planning on having another child so we decided to cram four desks into the smallest room of our house. The logic was that naturally everyone would need their own computer and that putting them all in the same room would give us the opportunity to keep an eye on the kids' web browsing habits. We also felt strongly that each of the kids would need their own horizontal space for doing homework.

Well, five years went by and over time it has become pretty obvious that nobody goes into the study unless they absolutely must. The furniture is nice, the task lighting is adequate, and there's a small window for natural light and fresh air. The problem is, when you put the necessary paperwork and office supply storage for running a family into the same small room as four desks it just becomes an unpleasant environment. As soon as Julie and I each had laptops, the study became storage rather than workspace. The allure of the cozy wingback chairs and sofa in the living room combined with the house-blanketing wifi was too great to resist. You get more work done (and have more fun doing it) when you're in the most comfortable space. This is also the case for homework of course. Alex does his in the same place I did as a kid - at the dining room table while dinner is being prepared. We're right there to help him through any problems and he has a vast, well-lit table to spread out on and be more productive.

In the ensuing conversation we hammered out the details of our new workspace. It ended with Julie proclaiming her undying love for sofas and both of us anxious to clean off and disassemble two desks so there's room for a sofa and a nice coffee table in their place. Eventually we'll replace the two remaining desks with one big desk and lots of shelves/cubbies over it to hold the necessary stuff. The big desk will be for paying the bills, doing taxes, or anything else that requires having lots of paper out at once. The sofa and coffee table will be the perfect place (when combined with the existing lighting) for reading, blogging, uploading photos from our cameras, doing homework, etc. We've already replaced the home server with an NSLU2 and two Passports so our file server now requires about a quarter of a square foot of shelf space. The printers can go on an end table next to the sofa with USB cables an easy reach for nearby laptops. As a final touch, we'll remove the (previously closed and blocked by a desk) door between the study and living room and close the one leading to the hallway instead. It will end up being a semi-secluded extension of the living room rather than a room in its own right.

Tonight Alex learned how to Google by watching me locate his favorite flash games. Julie wandered into the study this evening and found him on YouTube watching nintendo character related fan animation. After getting over the initial shock (and concern) we laughed about the coincidental timing. It's going to be fun converting our old-school office into the home productivity equivalent of the corner coffee house. A place we can all hang out, get things done, and have fun together.

Labels: home improvement, kids, toys

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By Julie

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays! This year we went over to my cousin Lynn and her hubby's house for Christmas potluck. I made green bean casserole and freshly baked rolls, Kevin made bow tie pasta with sausage, and the kids made chocolate cupcakes with green frosting and red/green sprinkles.


Here they are on Christmas Eve, each sampling a cupcake to make sure it tasted all right before taking them to the potluck the next day.


On Christmas morning we opened presents at home first. Kevin won Dad of the Year award with this gift for Alex, a Legend of Zelda edition gold Nintendo DS. Alex is being super careful with it and will be buying a protective case with his allowance soon.

Then we went over to Lynn's house. During Christmas dinner, Lynn offered me a beer. Kevin and I both gaped at her for a beat before she realized what she'd done.

"I totally forgot!" she laughed. "You're so small you don't even look pregnant."

Other than Kevin's daily reassurances, that was the nicest thing anyone has said to me since the start of this pregnancy. At the time I was 22 weeks and +9 lbs. I don't even want to know how much I weigh now.


The day after Christmas we hit a few after-Christmas sales. Got some cards, wrapping paper, and lights. We also stopped at Beard Papa's to enjoy their delicious cream puffs. Kevin had the chocolate, and I had the vanilla. Mmmm, good.


I was so inspired that a couple of days later I tried making cream puffs from scratch. Opened up Joy of Cooking and was delighted to find a recipe that didn't look too hard. The result was ugly but *dangerously* tasty. Kevin and I ended up devouring two whole batches by ourselves.


Let's see, other things we've been doing... Cleaned the house a bit. Donated several bags of clothes to get in the last tax deduction of the year. Most of the clothes were mine. I've held on to all of Alex and Ana's old baby clothes for obvious reasons. Now that I know we're having a girl, I'm waiting to see if my sister is having a boy before giving all of Alex's old clothes to my friend T, who's having a baby boy a few weeks after me. (Can you tell I can't wait to give them away? The amount of baby clothes clogging up our garage is just overwhelming.)

ADDED 01/02/08: Check out this NYT article, Tackling Clutter to Improve Your Health!

I'll blog about our day trip to Olvera Street/Chinatown and our new year's resolutions later.

* FYI, #2 comes on February 7th this year. It's going to be the Year of the Rat!

Labels: chinese, food, kids, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

Today as I was waiting for my lunch at the counter in a diner, an elderly woman sat down next to me. After she placed her order, she watched intently as I sent a text message with my cell phone.

"Is that an iPod?" she asked. No, it's my cell phone, I explained.

The conversation went on longer than I would have liked, with her playing the part of the self-righteous luddite, demanding to know why there's so much unnecessary technology in the world, and me being respectful to my elders and trying not show my annoyance.

She owns a business, she bragged, and she still banks the old-fashioned way - by walking into the building. She doesn't want a computer because of hackers. She doesn't want cable television when her TV antenna works just fine. Yada yada yada.

I was polite. I didn't tell her that evil hackers wouldn't be interested in her computer; they would much rather hack into her bank's servers. The only thing I did allow myself to say was that many municipalities do not allow installation of unsightly TV antennas. She muttered that wasn't the case in HER neighborhood. That's when I bade her good bye.

I consider myself to be a reluctant technophile. I don't automatically lust for every new gadget on the market. Heck, I don't have cable TV OR an iPod. But I do embrace technologies that obviously enhance my life. (I LOVE my cell phone!!!) What annoyed me about this woman was her outright rejection of individual differences, her ignorant belief that there is no need for new-fangled things like computers, and most of all, her lack of reciprocation in the manners department.

I mean, really, old people these days are SO rude.

Labels: lusers, toys

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By Julie

You know that moment in a sci-fi/fantasy movie when the hero/ine grabs their head, crashes to their knees, and experiences a cgi-induced vision that implies they are either 1) psychic, 2) being controlled by unseen forces, or 3) more powerful than they could ever imagine? I had one of those visions on Thursday, except all it told me was that I was 4) suffering from a bad sinus infection. I immediately popped an extra-strength Tylenol, then picked up the phone and scheduled a doctor's appointment for early this morning.

I took Ana along to my appointment because I didn't have time to drop her off at daycare beforehand. In the middle of my appointment, while I was discussing with the PA which antibiotic would best take care of my little problem, Ana calmly informed me that she needed to go to the bathroom. If you know kids, you know that meant I had about 10 seconds to get her on a toilet or else suffer the consequences. As I picked Ana up and ran for the nearest bathroom, the PA called after me and said she would send a prescription for my antibiotic of choice to my pharmacy. I yelled thanks back over my shoulder.

These days Ana's favorite toy is a magnifying glass. She likes to use it to look up my nose. I'm just glad she doesn't use it to torture ants.

Tonight, while Kevin and I discussed our evil plans to take over the world, aka the finances, I told him that on Monday, as I got on the plane for my meeting in San Jose, I suddenly remembered that we still hadn't signed me up for life insurance.

Where's the form? I asked, you were supposed to help me get that done.

It's somewhere around here, he motioned vaguely. Then he told the kids to get ready for their bedtime story.

Months and months of forced conversations, changes in topic, and now missing forms. It was just as hard when we signed him up for life insurance. Neither of us wants to think about the possibility, but I'm not going to be able to avoid plane rides for the rest of my life.

Labels: kids, meds, parenting, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

One of Alex's good friends at school told him about this online game called Pokemon Crater, and now he's hooked on it. They've swapped user names but haven't friended each other yet. I'm sure that's soon to follow.

This is not the first online game Alex has played. There were at least two others before this. It didn't take him long to learn to ignore those flashing banners that pretend to look like video games or say things like, "You have won a _insert video game system here_ !"

Meanwhile, Ana hasn't outgrown our educational CD-ROM collection yet, but she's gotten hooked on a math game site that Alex's teacher introduced to us. No obnoxious banners there, thankfully. She likes to click around randomly and insists on playing 3rd grade level -- she probably thinks the number 3 stands for age 3 -- and I only said yes after she promised not to badger us for help. Her computer doesn't even have Internet access, so she has to switch off with Alex. It's probably best that way at least until we're certain she can ignore flashing banners. I wonder when that will be.

You have to see this adorable short film by Mud Films. It made my day.

Labels: kids, nablopomo, parenting, toys

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By Julie

Today the kids and I attended my niece Abby's 2nd birthday party. I'd bought her present weeks and weeks ago, a set of six pairs of Disney princess shoes, so it was only a happy coincidence that her party today was Disney princess themed. I was overjoyed that she liked the present. As soon as she unwrapped the box she wanted to try on a pair. Here she is wearing the Snow White shoes.

My sister's pregnancy is about a month behind mine. The poor woman is still nauseous all the time, so I don't think she was able to eat a single thing during the party. I, on the other hand, was able to add to my *ample layer of pregnancy fat* (see my post yesterday :P ) by ingesting large amounts of shiitake mushrooms that I picked out from the delicious chow mein my mom contributed to the buffet table, plus a couple of squares of Hawaiian pizza.

Kevin didn't attend the festivities because he was planning to paint the bedroom. He was also waiting on a guy to come move our air conditioner, which had been sitting askew during the entire construction project, blocking the walkway on the side of the house and making it impossible to wheel the trash bins into the backyard. Once the guy came, it was tedious how much of Kevin's attention he needed to do the job right. Kevin couldn't actually start painting until after dinner, but luckily from there it went fast.

Tomorrow we'll lay the flooring together. Hopefully that will go fast as well.

Labels: food, home improvement, kids, nablopomo, pregnancy, toys

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By Julie

My current pet peeve is people ranting about retention vs. social promotion in U.S. public schools when they don't even understand the basic underlying issues. There aren't any simple answers, and I wish people would stop acting like there are.

Other than that, I greatly enjoyed my three-day weekend. (Happy Veterans' Day!) Yesterday a couple of Kevin's friends from work came over to hang out. The one who brought his Xbox 360 is now Alex's new best friend.

Today I didn't get out of bed until 10:30. After a leisurely brunch Kevin went to paint our bedroom. I tried to be productive as well. At first I tried to concentrate on a presentation for work tomorrow but after two fruitless hours I gave up and turned my attention to the kitchen, where I spent over four hours cooking enough food to last us all week, starting with dinner tonight.

The awesome thing is both kids ate without complaining about my cooking. It put me in such a good mood that after dinner I went straight back to my presentation and finished it. Yay.

Here's what I cooked: beef and daikon soup (using the slow cooker instead of the stove), potatoes au gratin, Taiwanese sausage fried rice, and chili relleno casserole. I haven't cooked regularly for years and now I've cooked every weekend four weeks straight. Must be something in the air.

Labels: food, home improvement, nablopomo, parenting, toys, work

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By Kevin

Nobel Laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitz writes about the economic consequences of this administration from a historical perspective. Oil and gold are at their highest prices in decades and the dollar is plummeting. Over two million adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset this year and next. What this country badly needs is a reining in of personal and governmental spending, even though it will almost certainly result in a recession. I hope our next president has the intelligence and the will to do what is needed.

"SimCity is entertainment that's unintentionally educational" says Steve Seabolt of EA Games. EA donated the original SimCity game to the One Laptop Per Child initiative which aims to provide inexpensive laptops to children worldwide. I'm glad more people are getting it - having fun is the best way for kids to learn. I learned basic boolean logic and circuit design when I was nine or ten playing Rocky's Boots on an Apple ][. The author of that software has links to emulators and disk images on his site. I'm downloading Rocky and the sequel, Robot Odyssey for Alex and Ana to play.

Labels: nablopomo, parenting, politics, toys

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By Kevin

Today was one of those days in SoCal that makes people from colder climes particularly jealous. 88 degrees in November, go figure. We drove over to San Marino to visit Doll House Lady in advance of their permanent closure on 15th December. 70% off everything in the store and they have some really amazing miniatures. I'm really quite amazed that we got out of there for under $100, it's not like I tried to stop Julie from getting more. She came home with a fantastic wood-burning stove and matching copper kettle, a hand cranked sewing machine with table and stool, and loads of other great finds. Now I just have to make the time between home improvement projects to finish the (much assembly required) doll house I got for her ages ago.

After the lilliputian furniture hunting, we stopped at the Santa Anita mall for food and a spin on the carousel. The kids rode Seal and Zebra, both on the upper level. I have a feeling they're going to start asking about a return trip soon.

If you have two monitors on your computer, be sure to check out this Lifehacker article. Years ago I had a Matrox dual output card which handled stretching the task bar in the drivers. These days I'm running AMD video and the single-monitor task bar has been driving me nuts. I'm glad I came across that article in my feed because it has lots of great suggestions for getting the most out of your dual display setup.

Labels: los angeles, nablopomo, shopping, toys

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