Tag: General

favorite new quote

A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills. — Arthur Schopenhauer

This is not a quote I could have sufficiently understood as a youth, and perhaps not even into my twenties. Even now into my thirties, like much of Arthur’s philosophy, it is not something I am willing to embrace. But I do realize that many of my objections to his philosphy were pure vanity.

Daddy care report

Kayla is picking up words so quickly that we no longer try to keep track. At 15 months, we could rattle off a list of words she knew. Now, at 20 months we’re only amused by the 2-3 new words she uses each day.

Two days ago I walked into the room with two tangeranes and an orange. I peeled a tangerine and offered Kayla a slice. “No, BIG orange!”, she demanded. She’s been really fond of superlatives lately, with big getting the majority of the attention. I called to Jen, “I think Kayla has a new favorite superlative.” Her response, “Yes, but it should be no surprise. We are in Texas after all.”

Yesterday Jen left for Huntsville on business, so I’ve been keeping the merry little tribe cared for. Kayla and I get along well by ourselves, but with Lucas here the bar was raised. He’s used to breastfeeding and so a few adjustments were required. The little man is not just strong of body (which still surprises us) but also a bit head-strong too.

Our initial feeding after mommy left went surprising well, but the second didn’t. Which led me to a modified version of an old corollary, “you can feed Lucas a bottle but you can’t make him drink.” After a fairly dismal attempt, I decided we’d give up and wait until the next feeding. At the next feeding we ate like a champ. And for our final feeding, once again dismal.

But daddy didn’t bother battling Lucas’ will. Lucas went to sleep hungry, in our room so I could hear him when he woke up hungry. Sure enough, at 4:00am we had a great feeding. Today has been more of the same. The morning feeding was dismal, but he ate really well at the next one. And now it’s that glorious time of the day when both babies are sleeping and daddy gets time to work. 🙂

Family dinner for four

Tonight all four of us ate dinner together for the first time. Lucas joined us for some real food – bananas. He’s interested in food – very interested if you can judge by these signs: excited breathing, reaching for the spoon, and grabbing whatever he gets, wide open mouth and a bit of drooling. Once food is in his mouth, he’s not so sure what to do with it. ‘Food Eating 101’ here we go.

How secure are your doors?

I recently learned a few things about home security. Some of the highlights are

* most doors can be busted open with one solid kick
* deadbolts offer little additional protection against kick ins
* 99% of deadbolts can be drilled through in under 2 minutes
* most deadbolts can be sawed through in a couple minutes
* a blunt instrument (hammer) and a screwdriver can quickly defeat cheap deadbolts
* most deadbolts can be picked in less than 2 minutes
* average time to break into a house is under two minutes
* two categories of burglars: skilled w/tools, and opportunists

If the burglar is skilled and has tools, he will get into the majority of houses within two minutes. Short of spending thousands of dollars on security, there is little you can do to prevent it. However, what you can do is make sure your house is secure enough to keep out the opportunists for at least two minutes. By doing so, they’ll continue down the street looking for an easier target.

According to Consumer Reports, “Nearly two thirds of all burglaries involve forced entry, and they succeed partly because of flimsy door locks and mounting hardware.” In doing tests that involved kicking, drilling, sawing, hammering, and other attempts to defeat locks, they found that simply replacing the screws provided with cheap door locks with 3″ screws “significantly” strengthened them. I suggest also replacing the screws in your door hinges with longer screws that will penetrate at least 1″ into the door framing.

It makes good sense that you should use screws long enough to go through the prehung door frame and into the framing. However, if you really want to raise the bar, then spend $10 for a M.A.G. Security Strike-3 Deadbolt Frame Reinforcer (747-B). Next to using longer screws, this delivers more security for your dollar than anything else. I bought them for all three of my entry doors. It takes a bit of drilling and chiseling to install but I am considerably more confident in my doors now.

I had embarked on my journey of door security because our existing locks were rude, inconvenient, and annoying. Upon insertion of a key, they were loathe to return it. I was also suspicious of their integrity. Last, they were not keyed alike. I’d often be unable to get in the nearest door because I didn’t have the right key. Those combined to inspire me to replace them all. Unable to find a decent set at nearby retailers, I went online and started searching.

I found useful information from a couple homeowners insurance companies, Consumers Reports, and The National Locksmith. Both CR and TNL had nice pictures of busting down doors and how they fail. After replacing my deadbolt latches with strike boxes, the next weakest link was my locks and deadbolts. Thankfully, CR tested enough locks to make that choice easy; pay $160 each per deadbolt for the top of the line stuff, or $25 for second best. Second best is good enough for me. The only challenge was finding them. The better lockset makers only sell through locksmiths.

Replacing the deadbolts is quite an easy job, easily within the grasp of anyone with a screwdriver and the ability to read. However, what can be a bit more challenging is adding a deadbolt to doors that don’t have them. In my case, the entry door between the garage and house did not have a deadbolt. I chose to add one because I had noticed that someone attempted to break into my garage while we were at the hospital for Lucas’ birth. A few days later, I was chatting with my neighbor who was repairing his garage door after an attempt had been made on it as well. Both our garage doors were good enough to dissuade an opportunist.

I learned that a significant portion of burglaries that are not forced entries are the result of entering through unlocked garage doors. If someone does get past my garage door, I want to stop them there. I used my drill and Rotozip to cut a round hole through the steel door and installed a deadbolt on that door as well. Now we actually use the lock on that door since it has a matching key. This is a very important aspect of home security. If using the locks is a pain, they won’t get used. If they aren’t used regularly, they are no better than not having them. Now we have three doors, with five locks and 1 key.

I also looked into keyless locks as well, using a variety of mechanisms. All the keyless locks CR tested were lacking in basic security. The more I read, the it appears that there is not a good residential grade keyless lock available. Even the best offer less security than a good $25 deadbolt. The Mythbusters guys did a nice set of experiments on the best of the biometric locks and were able to defeat every one of them quickly and reliably. While they are convenient and appear high tech, they offer less security than the basic keyed lock at a much higher cost.

The last product I learned about is the door wrap plates. They are C shaped brass plates with pre-drilled holes for your deadbolt and lockset. The plates wrap around your door and you mount the locks through the holes in it. The plates are a reinforcement for the door itself. They add security by making it significantly more difficult to bust the door and thereby defeat the locks. They only cost $15 each, the challenge was finding a place to buy them. I’ve had them on order for three weeks now. Should they ever arrive, I’ll take a few photos of the results.

717

Totally scrumptious!

For all of you not married to a food-loving, systematic, engineer of a husband, you have my condolences.

Over the last month or so, my husband has methodically tested many pancake recipes in search of the ‘perfect’ pancake. And he has achieved it. He altered recipes one ingredient at a time to learn each ones affect on the overall finished good and now has come up with a totally scrumptious whole wheat banana buttermilk pancake. Fluffy, soft, moist and truly tasty!

Testers of course include Kayla who gives this version the big “mmmmmm” when she sees it come off the griddle. Matt treated me to a blueberry version of this pancake for breakfast recently (fruit infusion is my ultimate test) and I gave the finished product 5 stars.

Score one more for my husband and his determined approach to making something downright tasty!

Top 10 list

Today’s “Top 10” list is the best ways to insure you have very attentive medical assistance.

• When your wife wakes you to inform you of labor pains, get up and start making cookies for the attending staff.

• Make sure the cookies give off a powerful and attractive aroma. I recommend peanut butter oatmeal cookie sandwiches. Empirical evidence suggests a high degree of effectiveness.

• Make sure they are fresh and warm upon arrival to maximize odor emanation.

• Give one (or two) to the Doctor just before he leaves your room. This will assure that nurses will see the cookie(s) and inquire of their origin.

• Make plenty of cookies. You’ll need enough to satiate the immediate attending staff and the “scavenger” staff who come strictly for the cookies.

• Plan ahead and have a list of “niceties” you can ask the scavenger staff to supply in exchange for cookies. You won’t think of this “in the moment” because there are too many other things to think about, so keep a list. Examples: parking tokens, WiFi access, a wheelchair for daddy to wheel himself around in for amusement, etc. Be creative! Once you have them in your room, the cookie odor is intoxicating and they will be quite motivated.

• Did I mention the need to make many cookies? The scavengers crumb trail will attract other hospital staff.

Junior arrival

We had a checkup this morning. The doctor inserted a tin can and string to Junior and handed us the other tin can. After a short conversation, we learned a few things.

1. The quarters are quite cramped. Momma would say we already knew this, but hey, this is “insider info!”

2. He’s in no hurry to get out. Unlike Kayla, who just couldn’t wait to arrive, Junior is chillin’. Apparently he likes the warmth and moisture, which bodes well for him if we stay in Texas. It could also be that he likes seeing his food arrive in a tube. The string wasn’t very tight so we had to guess at exactly what he was trying to say.

Doc says we’re 50% effaced and 2cm dilated. What does that mean? Not a whole lot. Being half effaced means the cervix is getting ready, but arrival is not imminent. It could be later this week, or next, or even the next…unless we choose to induce.

It could just be that Junior 2.0 likes to be on time and is waiting until Saturday. We shall see.

User Interface

Explain why a Macintosh pull-down menu can be accessed at least five times faster than a typical Windows pull-down menu. For extra credit, suggest at least two reasons why Microsoft made such an apparently stupid decision.

I ran across this question on AskTog and finally know the answer. It’s one of those things I have known for years, but did not understand, “why?” The answer is here: http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html