Author: randyaa

Playtime

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailOur recent trip(s) and membership to Strong reminded me of the first time Delilah interactively played with us. It was a very memorable experience.

A few months ago we were all out to dinner together at The Olive Garden and Delilah was in a different high chair for the first time. It was almost too big so we stuffed a blanket and some other stuff behind her to give her some support.

After the waitress brought us drinks there was a coaster left on the table just inside Delilah’s reach. Once she realized this she quickly flung it towards the edge of the table. With cat like reflexes I stopped it from toppling to the floor with a single finger and slide it back to where it was. Her shocked look said to me: “Whoa! What was that!?”. She then tried again, and I stopped it again. This repeated for about 5 minutes until our food showed up and she was smiling and laughing almost hysterically.

Little games like these are every day occurrences now and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Taking her to Strong is a riot and she’s really noticing and playing with everything now.

Updated Facebook Comments TNG

~ randyaa ~ 13 Comments

We use the Facebook Comments TNG wordpress plugin here to keep comments on Facebook coming into the Blog.  If you’ve ever noticed a comment you’ve made on one of my notes in Facebook that showed up here… this is how we do it.

Anyway, a short time ago Facebook changed their website layout and as a result the Facebook Comments TNG plugin was broken.  Unfortunately the developer has not had time to update it to match the new Facebook layout, but as it’s breaking some functionality I depend upon (here and elsewhere)  I did a little digging to see if I could fix it.

WARNING

I’m fairly certain this plugin breaks the ToS with Facebook so if you’re not comfortable with that, Don’t use it!

The results are less than spectacular, but it seems to work (mostly) with the following caveats:

  • It requires you to enter a profile ID in the options window
  • It is limited to only examining the most recent 10 posts (regardless of your setting)
  • It may or may not handle multiple pages of comments (untested)
  • Somehow the copy I started with was an older version, so some of the newer features are unavailable

NOTE: I do not warranty anything this plugin will do and I will NOT be keeping this up to date.  I’m simply providing a temporary location for the fixes I implemented.

If you’re good with that list and can’t wait for an official update, feel free to download my version (in TEXT form).

If the list is too much for you, feel free to wait for an official version here.

Camp in the Winter

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailThere’s nothing more welcoming than a warm and cozy cabin at 21 below in the mountains.

We’ve only made it to camp once this winter so far for a few reasons but the weekend we spent there was a beautiful (cold) one. The second night the moon was shining so bright it was casting daylight like shadows. The next morning we woke up to -21° which was easily explained by the clear skies and bright moon.

Even in the brisk -21° degrees and the middle of 4ft of snow, the camp always offers a nice warm zone of comfort, and sights like these are some of the top reasons I love being in the mountains in the winter.

Snow Removal Empire

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

A few days ago, just before the “big snow storm” hit, a boy from down the street stopped and asked if we’d like the sidewalk or driveway shoveled.

I’m a sucker for young entrepreneurs so of course we did until I realized we didn’t have any cash.

“if you stop by tomorrow we’ll pay you double.”. “sure!” he exclaimed and headed towards the next house.

The next evening I shoveled the whole driveway after the kid never showed up. While doing so I had two thoughts:

  1. We need a new driveway, seems plausible to add a heating system when we do it. I’ve been examining the options and it seems where we live the electric system may be the most reasonable.
  2. When Lilahs old enough she should run a snow removal empire.

That last one probably warrants a description of my train of thought:

  • man it’s too bad that kid didn’t stop back over.
  • if we have a boy, he’ll be able to shovel or mow to earn some money.
  • screw that our daughter can shovel.
  • screw that, she can make the contracts and get the boys in the neighborhood to shovel and get her a tiny cut.
  • ooooh it could teach her scheduling, budgeting, organization and lots other managerial type tasks.
  • Holy crap! Extreme parenting anyone?
  • maybe that’s a bad idea.
  • yeah, not sure I want to teach her to get boys to do her dirty work.
  • yeah dumbest idea ever.

I think for now I’ll just forget I ever thought of it.

Keeping Up

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

IMG_7574These Days she’s growing so fast it’s hard to keep up. She’s now pulling herself up, (assisted) walking, babbling (non stop), laughing up a storm, teething, high-fiving, smiling (all the freaking time), wearing pigtails and she even had her first real fever the other day (101.8°F). Pulled out of it without a scratch in 2 days though. She’s a trooper. Coming home is so much fun now because as soon as she sees you she smiles like crazy and wants you to pick her up right away just to be close.

Favorite thing in the world right now? Comforting Baby-Hugs. She’s been doing it for a long time but it doesn’t make it any less special. If she wakes up or wont go to sleep for a while and she’s crying & you walk in and pick her up she gives you the biggest bear-hug and calms right down. Gotta say, it’s awesome.

She’s only 8 months old and I have NO IDEA what’s next, but that’s the best part. I can’t wait.

Corn Truck Cleanup

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This past Tuesday A semi filled with corn tipped over on interstate 490 downtown.  Since the news didn’t have any up to date pictures I went searching for webcams that showed it.  Soon enough I found 2 that had decent shots of the incedent.  It took about 6 hours from the time of the accident before traffic resumed.  Just in time for rush hour.  So much for a speedy cleanup.  Since I’ve been in the mood for some timelapses lately, I used the WebCam Tracker I wrote a while back to grab some shots throughout the day.

Kinda interesting.  In the process I found a few things I need to do to the app to fix some annoyances.

Our First Christmas Tree Timelapse

~ randyaa ~ 10 Comments

We might have a new tradition.

While we decorated the tree this past Monday I setup the camera and had it take a shot every 5 seconds. Threw it together in a timelapse video and it didn’t come out half bad.  My favorite parts are the few times you can see the little monster jumping up and down, spinning and grinning.

Next years will be even more fun.

So Close to Winter Sealed

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Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailA few weeks ago my friend Brian and I headed back up to camp to get the Soffit and Facia in place to seal up the addition on our camp for the winter.  We made some excellent progress on Saturday with the soffit started on the front and finished on the end.  However; Sunday we ran into some nasty weather and what should have only been a few hours worth of work turned into an entire day of sloppy wet mess working right under the overhang dropping a full 12×26+ square area of water right on our faces the entire day.  It was fantastic.

Brian was a trooper though and we toughed it out, managing to get everything installed except the last 2 pieces where the addition meets the existing roof. The rain wasn’t letting up and those pieces need a bit of measuring and figuring, not to mention a larger piece of tin than what we had.

It’s coming along nicely though, and I think I’ll be back up there soon to finish ‘er off.  Provided we get some decent weather (not rainy, cold or snow I can handle) the rest shouldn’t take more than a couple hours solo or not.

I’m hoping maybe my dad will be able to make the next trip just to look things over, but we’ll see.

Roselawn Kitchen

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The few weeks after we brought our daughter home from the hospital and moved into our new house we put the final touches on the kitchen in 1/2 of the duplex we own.  Basically, we finished what had been an extremely long project just in time for our new Tenants to move in.  The transformation was pretty dramatic, but unfortunately we have no before shots just a halfway started shot, some in progress shots and the finals.  Anyway, take a look:

Not bad for our first kitchen.