This is why I wish I was good at math: http://www.ted.com/talks/jean_baptiste_michel_the_mathematics_of_history.html
TED talks are WAY better than television, and always so good. If you've never checked out this site you really need to. It's better than a university education in many respects, but then, so are a lot of things.
This is why I wish I was good at math: http://www.ted.com/talks/jean_baptiste_michel_the_mathematics_of_history.html
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It's been three months since Emmett was born and I was starting to think it'd be a long time before we got to have a "regular" outing where we could do the things we did pre-baby. Like going to the movies. We wanted to see The Avengers since everyone was saying it's super awesome, but the timing seemed impossible. Since Emmett is having difficulty taking a bottle I have to stay with him as the primary food source. Timing things so that he could feed, and then be dropped off at the grandparents, and then last 3 hours or more before the next feeding seemed like tempting fate, not to mention everyone's patience. Then, I had and idea: The Drive-In! They have cheap Tuesdays, it's close to our house, and we can bring the baby and the dog. It worked better than expected. As for the movie, it was pretty good. Certainly a more entertaining summer blockbuster than most. I still think the first Ironman movie was a better overall movie/story, but the script/banter in this movie (particularly Robert Downey Jr.'s lines) were well worth the price of admission ($5.00). Anyone else have any summer movie recommendations? Now that Emmett is 3 months old and 12 whole pounds we've begun the transition to full time cloth diapering. When he was a premie we started with pre-folds and covers. Then as he got bigger we moved up to diaper-shaped cloth diapers and covers courtesy of Megan and Jack! (thanks guys). Our favourite of these by far were the diapers Megan designed and made out of the flat pre-folds. They worked amazing! You should totally go into the pre-fold sewing business Megan. Now we're on to the all-in-ones on the smallest setting. I had a lot of great advice about the kinds of diapers to buy and where to buy, and taking all that into consideration on my search I was fortunate enough to find a semi-local Canadian mom (Timmins, ON) who makes very affordable and VERY good cloth diapers. Buns up Baby! Her new designs are the cheapest I've found with all the features she includes. She also has a variety of kinds at different price points, and a clearance section, which is where I bought the first few diapers just to try them out without spending a lot. If you have a baby and are interested in cloth diapers I highly recommend this site: http://www.bunsupbaby.com/index.html My first order was late getting shipped and the owner (Amber) sent me a hand-written card apologizing and she included an extra diaper for free. Now that's service! When we're using disposable diapers we love these Earth's Best ones, available at Babies R Us and from Well.ca. At Emmett's baby shower my book club members gifted me with this collection of poems. It's a lovely anthology, and basically the perfect gift for a new mommy with an English degree. Sometimes in the middle of the night when I'm feeding Emmett I'll skim through and read a few poems. The other night I found what I believe is the William Wordsworth equivalent of this gem. Here's the text: THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT BY MY SISTER THE days are cold, the nights are long, The north-wind sings a doleful song; Then hush again upon my breast; All merry things are now at rest, Save thee, my pretty Love! The kitten sleeps upon the hearth, The crickets long have ceased their mirth; There's nothing stirring in the house Save one 'wee', hungry, nibbling mouse, Then why so busy thou? Nay! start not at that sparkling light; 'Tis but the moon that shines so bright On the window pane bedropped with rain: Then, little Darling! sleep again, And wake when it is day. And, just for the sake of a full and fair comparison, here's where you can listen to an audio version: http://archive.org/details/cottager_toher_infant_1101_librivox Well? What do you think? Am I right or am I hallucinating in the night? I love online shopping. Not just because I'm a new mom and it's difficult to get out of the house. No, no. I loved online shopping long before Emmett came along. The best thing in the world is online shopping + free shipping. This combination prevents me from having to go to the mall (ugh) and navigate a sea of shoppers. When I can't buy something from a local small-business person, I will turn to the internet every chance I get. I don't have to leave my couch and items turn up a day or two later at my door. Amazing. This comes in particularly handy at Christmastime as long as I get my act together before shipping deadlines. In any case, places I've shopped at recently that have great online shopping experiences are: Babiesrus.ca and Well.ca Both have fast, free shipping (babiesrus if you spend over $100.00) and babiesrus accepts gift cards online. Well.ca is like a huge online drugstore, but they have a lot more items, brands, and product information than any local pharmacy. The search functions are awesome and you can sort products by whether they are Canadian, organic, vegan, natural, gluten free, etc. The company is Canadian and based near Guelph, ON. They also offer discounts for word of mouth referrals, but you can't post coupon codes on blogs, so if anyone is interested in buying from here let me know and I can hook you up. So there's a house that backs on to ours, to the right, that has had various renters over the years. The owners of the property are absentee landlords that live in Toronto and don't maintain the property. This has been a constant source of consternation for my mostly elderly neighbours and I who keep our yards in good condition. The new tenants are a family with between one and three teenaged-ish boys (sometimes it's hard to tell who lives there and who is just visiting). In any case, I've had it with the garbage from all the previous renters that has piled up in the yard, and I guess these kids have too. Yesterday, they added to the pile, bringing out several appliances including a dryer (I think), and then they proceeded to spend the evening cackling maniacally while smashing it with a sledge hammer. Now ordinarily I might think this was awesome. Regan even commented: "I did that when I was about that age, but it was in the woods behind Leons". Yes. Good for you dear. But now I am 30, a mother, and thoroughly unimpressed. I'm going to be that-guy and call by-law enforcement. That is unless of course they can get their act together and be more like these guys: People don't really appreciate stationery very much anymore, at least it seems that way. One of the most recent victims of the downtown Barrie business curse was The Paper Merchant, a very cute little stationary store. Emmett received many, many gifts and cards, and when placed together in a pile they look very impressive (and intimidating for those of us writing the thank-yous :) ). Some of them are so beautiful they are like little works of art all on their own. I decided to display them all and take some pictures to share. Every card is shown below - see if you can spot yours! The view from the front hallway. It's springtime, I'm on maternity leave, and Regan now has a staff discount at a building supply store. This combination can only mean one thing... renovations. There's not a lot of large projects left to do on this house, unless we decided to start changing big things, which we don't really want to do (and we don't really have the money for), but there are a bunch of little things that are the last dated elements of the house that we want to fix up. First up: the old interior wood doors. We're changing them out for white six-panel doors, new knobs and hinges. The most important feature will be functioning locks on the bathroom doors (you're welcome all house guests who've been walked in on, and also sorry about that... Dave). We're halfway through the process, but the white colour really brightens up the upstairs. Check back for nursery updates and photos. Yesterday was my first Mother's Day ever; as a mother that is. I'm still getting used to that... I'm someone's mom. Weird. Regan and Emmett got up and let me sleep in. That was amazing, then I woke up to the two of them making pumpkin pancakes (mmmmm love it). There was also a beautiful card that I was not expecting, and the promise of the new Joel Plaskett Emergency CD coming in the mail for Emmett and I to enjoy. Later in the day we went to Regan's sister's house for a bbq and his mom had a little board-book and a card for us. I love presents. I imagine Mother's Day next year will be even crazier when Emmett's old enough to actually call me "mama". It's cliche as hell, but it really is kind of amazing. That is until 16 years from now when it'll be "mama I'm taking the car" (wait, make that "mama I'm taking the hover car")... because where we're going we don't need roads :) Things that are good always get cancelled, so I don't know why I should be surprised. The new NBC show Awake is another police procedural show, but it actually has a really interesting premise. I've watched almost all of the first season and I really enjoy it, but of course that means it's slated to be cancelled. Here's the show in a nutshell: "The series stars Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter) as Michael Britten, a police detective dealing with the tragic death of his wife in a car accident. That is, until he goes to sleep. Then he's Michael Britten, a police detective dealing with the tragic death of his son from that same car accident. He shifts between these two realities as soon as he goes to sleep (thus the title). The main question of the series is, which is real? The therapists that Michael sees on each side (played by BD Wong and Cherry Jones) each have convincing arguments for why their side is real." See, interesting. Plus it has high production values, is well acted, and doesn't involve the CSI-style superfluous use of technology. Le sigh. Why is our culture too stupid to understand things that are awesome? |