Sophie Can Walk

When Sophie was born, the doctors said it would be at least a year before she could walk. This is a father’s struggle to draw attention to a tragedy often ignored by the medical community.

Also, pics from our NH visit are up on PicasaWeb. Most of the people were automatically detected by Picasa 🙂

Meet Dave England

Andy’s youngest brother, Dave, came to Connecticut along with his father, who is attending some sort of Coast Guard conference down in New London. So Dave decided he’d drive up and visit 🙂

I haven’t seen him or Mike (middle brother, sick at home with the flu) in a very, very long time.

It’s so amazing how alike they are, though they grew up in very different homes.

We went to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, played some Rock Band afterward (Dave is a decent singer), and watched Starship Troopers.

Andy talk to his brothers all the time, but it’s nice that they can get a chance to just hang out together now and then.

The IT Crowd

They are about to start filming the third season of the IT Crowd, and the writer/producer/everything guy needs some ideas for how to dress the set so it looks uber geeky. Personally, I thought the first season set was wonderful, but I guess they need to change it every year to show that time has passed.

But — HEY JENN! MORE MOSS!

American Idol tour

I did a full write-up of my night at the concert on my other blog. Enjoy! Or not! 🙂

Stormy Hartford

Yersterday was 20C, stormy, rainy, cloudy, but as I drove to work, low-shining sunbeams lit up the Hartford skyline like a spotlight. I cursed myself for not having the camera ready. I took this shot sometime later, but it was not nearly as dramatic.

Still, it shows a rainy, cloudy Connecticut. I was talking to someone later, at work, and looking out the window, mentioned how much I loved being back in New England. He thought I was being sarcastic since — you know, winter — nut I was looking out on the green, forested hills that stretched off into the distance and I was just telling the truth. I miss Monterey, too, but in the same way — those gloomy, cool days that I love.

Slow Sculpture

When I’d leave high school to go to work back in Concord, I’d usually stop by the library along the way and do some reading until I had to get going. I must have read their entire science fiction section twice over. I first read Philip K. Dick’s “Ubik” there. I also discovered Theodore Sturgeon, whose short story “Slow Sculpture” stayed with me over the many years.

It always reminded me of Dad, even when I was a kid. And now, more so. And so after a lot of effort and shady legality, here is Ted Sturgeon’s “Slow Sculpture”.

She didn’t know who he was when she met him–well, not many people did. He was in the high orchard doing something under a pear tree. The land smelled of late summer and wind–bronze, it smelled bronze.

He looked up at a compact girl in her mid-twenties, at a fearless face and eyes the same color as her hair, which was extraordinary because her hair was red-gold. She looked down at a leather-skinned man in his forties, at a gold-leaf electroscope in ‘his hand, and felt she was an intruder.

She said, “Oh” in what was apparently the right way. Because he nodded once and said, “Hold this” and there could then be no thought of intrusion.

Ten Penny Ale

Sometimes you get behind a truck that make you rethink your decision not to drink…

The Mystery Cell Phone Spammers apparently have lost interest, so I can once again be reached 🙂

Pluto

I guessed 25C coming into work, sign said 26C, but by any measure it will be a hot day.

Was just thinking about Pluto and its moon, Charon. Even though Pluto is small for an ex-planet, Charon orbits so close to it that Pluto fills its sky. Someday they will probably collide.

That’s all.

Thumbplay

22C on the way into work today. Nice and cool, perfect day with a hint of rain in the air. Huge thunderstorms moved through southern New England yesterday; it was the first time I had ever heard the Emergency Broadcast System used as anything but a test. The full force of the storms stayed along the southern coast, but it was pretty intense where we live. The thunderstorm went from thick drops as we carried the cat litter from PetSmart to the car, to drenching sheets of rain and heavy winds by the time we got home, five minutes away.

I rammed my right little toe into something Saturday; still limping.

Anyway, Sunday was pay the bills day. As I went through the bills, alerting Andy to the interesting bits (like, hey, you called Canada 120 times and used 80 text messages over your 300 message limit!), I saw that there were two “ringtone services” attached to the bill, for Flycell and Thumbplay, which, for $20/month, apparently let you download new ringtones.

Now, I don’t like ringtones. I hate even more that new “service” where you can blast staticy, too-loud, badly level-balanced music that is impossible to a) recognize as music or b) have anywhere near your ear. Ally has that. Makes it impossible to call her. I have to put the phone on speaker and leave it on my desk until she picks up because it hurts my ear so bad.

Anyway, I just use the standard ring tone that comes with it. So does Andy. A quick google showed that these “services” are randomly applied to people’s accounts without their consent or knowledge. I called Sprint and complained loudly about it, and they removed the charges. I can’t understand how they can just add these things on without my consent, but apparently, all any of these services need in order to start billing you for something is your phone number. Your input or consent is not needed.

These places make their money by hoping you don’t read your phone bill too closely. You can have your bill paid automatically from your checking account so you would never even know!

Anyway. I need to get my bills down a lot so I can afford to pay for Andy’s college this fall. First to go is cable TV. I will keep the basic stuff but all those movie channels are going bye-bye. I never watch them. Then I am going to see about cutting down the phone bill. I only ever use the AT&T service for the Internet. So I don’t need the land line or all the services attached to it that I never use. Now they are letting you unbundle, so that will be another bill I won’t have to pay.

I have no credit card any more, so that’s a bill that doesn’t exist, thankfully.

Bought and watched the first season of Buffy. It was better than I thought it would be. As the season progressed, it became clearer that the whole show is more a satire on television shows about high schools than anything else. What with so many students and teachers dying every episode. Now that I’m seeing how freely Joss Whedon kills people off, I understand how people were expecting Penny to die the moment they saw her in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog. We’ll see this fall how readily he kills people in “Dollhouse”.

Allergies :(

27C coming into work today, but last night’s thunderstorms drained the humidity from the air. So it’s comfortable. For most people. But not for me. I have been having an allergic reacion to *something* for a few days now, and it has spread to my eyes. None of that yellowish, mucous discharge that heralds pinkeye, luckily, because I held Atticus over the weekend. Anyway, will be starting on some strong antihistamines tonight and I hope it will clear up quickly. The tearing-up is making it hard to see or concentrate on anything.