The twinsoes must really hate the stroller. This is how they’ll “remember” their first visit to Spina Farms [...]]]> Working through the picture back-log … cleared out 80+ this evening. Only 1640 left to work through. But, on a plus note, there are now 2 new photo galleries posted — Woo hoo!

• Pumpkin Patch 2008
• Pumpkin Patch 2009

The twinsoes must really hate the stroller. This is how they’ll “remember” their first visit to Spina Farms last year:

Lonely — Sleeping babes, abandoned in the stroller last year…

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/5.6, 1/320sec, 40mm focal L., map

And their second visit must have caused them déjà vu:

Starting off just like last year — That is, the twins being abandoned in the stroller.

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/6.3, 1/160sec, 50mm focal L., map

But, they quickly were set free to terrorize the pumpkins.

Maia begins the sorting project

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/500sec, 50mm focal L., map

Stand in the nose — Valerie had to toddler wrangle to get this shot

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/6.3, 1/400sec, 34mm focal L., map

Self portrait. Hard to confirm the focus when you aren’t actually looking through the viewfinder.

2 out of 5 — That’s about all you can expect to look at the camera.

NIKON D70, ISO 250, ƒ/4.5, 1/500sec, 34mm focal L., map

Lots more photos posted in the gallery linked above.

It came with a 3-month teaser introduction to the Clear Channel FM traffic service which allows the GPS to “intelligently” determine how bad traffic is and reroute [...]]]> Recently purchased a Garmin Nuvi 760 GPS for the car/motorcycle. All in all, it’s lived up to expectations and does the advertised job. But, it’s not without quirks and annoyances.

It came with a 3-month teaser introduction to the Clear Channel FM traffic service which allows the GPS to “intelligently” determine how bad traffic is and reroute to find the fastest path to your destination. Sounds all well and good, until I actual found some traffic this weekend.

There was a section of “slow-n-go” for a few miles along I880 north while making my way from San Jose to Albany. Normally, 880 would be the preferred route all the way. But, at Hayward, it commanded the following departure:

The blue path is our track. Note the departure from the freeway, only to return right back onto 880! Yes, the GPS’s grand idea to route around the traffic was poach the off-ramp and then merge right back into traffic!

And suddenly, I was THAT person that so infuriates me. The one that zooms up the right lane on I5 and cuts you off just before rear-ending the semi-truck that everyone else in the left lane is patiently waiting in line to pass. The one that tail gates you for a mile, changes lanes 3 different times attempting to weave around you only to end-up back on your ass again, because, yes, in fact, you are actually going faster than everyone else. The one that uses the on/off ramps to pass people — it’s just not polite, and Garmin’s programmers think it’s a good idea!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, later in the trip, it sent me off the road again to a stop-light intersection in order to route around traffic that didn’t exist.  Yes, it was there an hour prior when we started the trip, but had since flushed out while en route. We were very near our destination so I assumed it was time to exit the freeway — but then it wanted us right back on it again, only to exit for real a mile down the road.  It clearly showed there was no traffic in our vicinity, yet, it wasn’t smart enough to note the change in conditions and update the route.

So, lesson learned — if you don’t look ahead at the next 3 turns when it wants you to depart the freeway, good chance it’s doing you no favors.

To which, Valerie [...]]]> After Maia finished dinner last night, she was excused while Valerie and I finished up. A couple of minutes later, Maia ambled back in and said, “It’s time to put on PJ’s and brush teeth and read a story and lay down with Moosey and go night night. What do you think about that?”

To which, Valerie and I responded with unplanned, yet perfect unison, “THAT’S A GREAT IDEA!”

For the non-parents out there, let me just state that parenting is at least 75% dealing with the bodily functions of your children. There’s nothing sacred about it — so if you [...]]]> Today was day 3 of Maia’s potty training (revisited), and we have a new milestone:  it was her first accident free day wearing big-girl pants!

For the non-parents out there, let me just state that parenting is at least 75% dealing with the bodily functions of your children. There’s nothing sacred about it — so if you don’t want to hear a poo story, bail out now…

And to top it off, it was also her first time ever going poop on the potty.  Not just any potty, but, a full sized toilet in a public restroom. She wasn’t so keen on it at first, but, I made silly faces at her and she giggled and played for a minute. And then suddenly, she got very serious, and sternly said, “I have to go pee pee” and stared off into the distance. Then she grimaced and grunted, and tensed up, and grunted some more with a slight convulsion. At first I thought she was just being silly and trying to squeeze out a drop of pee, but the grunting and grimacing kept on for about 20-30 seconds and I suddenly felt slightly embarrassed — maybe she needed some privacy.

What could I do or say?  “Go Maia! Push! Push!” Or, maybe adapt the Lamaze breathing techniques for toddlers? “Take a big deep breath, now hold it and push for 5, 4, 3 keep pushing, 2, 1 … and relax.”  Uhhh, yeah….

So, I sat quietly and made no fuss. She finally relaxed and declared, “all done potty!”, and behold, there was a ripe brown trout in the pond. The paper work proved much more challenging than normal without 1) wet wipes and 2) a changing table, but, we managed.

As we stepped away from the toilet, the auto-flush kicked in and Maia looked over her shoulder and said, “bye bye poopy!”

All in a day’s parenting…

I didn’t sleep prior to the 1 AM feeding, [...]]]> For the singleton parents out there, let me just say that having twins is not twice the effort of having a single baby and puts a distintly non-linear increase of stress on parents of multiples. My present state of sleep deprivation is doing nothing to help this opinion.

I didn’t sleep prior to the 1 AM feeding, which is my own fault because I chose to read TDIClub forums and get things prepped for the evening.  Both kids fell asleep on half-full bottles. Not 15 minutes after putting them down, they decided it was “non-productive poo time” and proceeded to grunt and scream for the next hour. Failing to find any useful appeasement, another round of bottles was warmed in hopes that they just hungry. Stella powered hers down and contentedly dozed off; Elise found no such satisfaction.  She’d calm down just long enough to think, “FINALLY, peace and quite”, and just as I was about to nod off she’d belt out more screams.  Valerie had been getting small bits of sleep throughout this, but, she’d been up since 5:00 AM that morning and was dragging too heavily to be of any help for Elise. So I returned the favor of sending her to the office as she had done for me the night before.

The discomfort continued on. Elise would not stay quiet. Somewhere along, Stella filled her diaper (literally — it’s unreal the volume of poo she saves up) and proceeded to wail from the discomfort of all that smelly gooey goodness left for me. By now, it’s 5:00 AM; both are in high grump for food.  At 6:00 AM with the twilight glowing behind the curtains, both kids are quietly pulling on pacifiers and slumber falls upon them.  That left me pondering if there’d be any value in getting 1.5 hours of sleep (best case) before Maia woke up. I’d convinced myself that I might as well just start my day without a wink of …

7:15 — Wah! Wah! Wah!

As I groggily woke up and searched for Stella’s pacifier, Maia and Valerie bound into the bedroom. A brief synopsis of the night was exchanged, and was sure she’d have pity on me and take the terrible twosome away to let me sleep under the silence of my earplugs. Work would be there at noon, or whenever I’d be rested enough to be functional — I’d be useless with only an hour of sleep.

And she did take the screaming Stella. And then she brought her back, with two bottles in hand. And a toddler in tow. A toddler that was very happy to see me. And the lot of them climbed into bed. My night was clearly over and so the day started with a brusque departure from bed and hardly a word to Valerie as I staggered out the door for work.

I wasn’t totally useless at work. Absentmindedly stumbled through the day; dumped coffee and cocoa on a wall, of all places. Dumped soup on the kitchen table as sat down for dinner.  It was like being drunk, but without the warm fuzzy happy feeling.

Those with triplets or more, my hat’s off to you. I’d have rolled the dice to figure out who goes up for adoption.

But, today started with a revolt followed by incessant bouts of giggling and screaming — combinations that do not lend themselves to relaxing for the call of nature. Ohh well, back in the diapers for a [...]]]> We gave potty training an earnest try yesterday. Maia batted a 429 for the day. Not a bad start.

But, today started with a revolt followed by incessant bouts of giggling and screaming — combinations that do not lend themselves to relaxing for the call of nature. Ohh well, back in the diapers for a while longer…

This 1 hour [...]]]> We recently installed a “night vision” camera in Maia’s room.  It’s been rather telling about what happens when we turn the light off and say “good night”.  Now we no longer have to wait for the tell tale sounds of toys to know she’s off on a mission gathering sundries to extend her wakefulness.

This 1 hour time lapse was today’s attempt to get her to nap. Valerie was busy tending to the babies, so, Maia had the run of her room.

Direct link to download here. (CTRL+click, “save link as”)

Note — as of this moment, the video is served from my DSL. I’ve seen that some players do not stream correctly, so, you may have to wait 1-2 minutes for it to download in the background and then play.

Here’s a higher-quality MP4 encoding (24 MB, H.264 encoded).

In case you were wondering, [...]]]> While visiting Chris last week, we spent a bit of time getting a some of the gremlins chased out of his boat. Hopefully, he’ll get the last one figured out soon with the proper fuel mapping of the computer.

Here’s a higher-quality MP4 encoding (24 MB, H.264 encoded).

In case you were wondering, the supercharger has quite the loud whine without the engine cover on.

This was from a 2005 Jetta, but probably applies to most A4′s.

Must be new to [...]]]> “This is your final boarding call for flight 1347 at gate A9 going to”, short pause, “dez mone aze”.

Must be new to the job.