Daley Ponderings

( Originally read on the phone, Mother's Day, 2006 ) Dear Mom, I want to say some things to you and I thought it would be easier to write them in a letter because I am not very good with words and after all those years of getting me to write thank you notes, you know how hard it is for me... (More)

I read an interview of Dean Kamen recently. I first heard of him when he was demoing his Segway invention around the mall in our very own Concord (I don't know if I will ever be a Pittsburgher - still feel like a New Hampshirite), or possibly for USFirst , but he has been around a while - I... (More)

I guess Microsoft has decided they have cornered enough of the Anti-Spyware market to start charging for the tool to fix their insecure OS. Microsoft popped up a dialog offering to download the new version of the anti-spyware tools. Usually the upgrade doesn't pop-up a separate window, so I was... (More)

Our first attempt at keeping a live Christmas tree live was a dismal failure, for two main reasons. One, we didn't take it down until April or some other such long time. Two, I misunderstood the instructions about misting the tree. What you are supposed to do is mist the branches to keep them... (More)

On our flight to Boston, I made sure we had plenty of snacks. Jonathan was eating a fruit leather when he held it up and exclaimed, "Looks like Nebraska!" It really did! A recent set of bits Jonathan has seen is fruits and vegetables including: apple, baby corn, banana, broccoli, cabbage,... (More)

This is the hardest one I have ever worked on. [ Update 10/24/2006: thanks to you all reading this post and posting other links, I have since found more interesting ones -- look through the comments - the one posted on October 9th appears to be pretty hard, though maybe I just made a mistake on... (More)

Don't ever name your child the same name as you. It confuses everyone, from doctors to insurance carriers to airlines. USAir and United won't let me check-in online any more, since it can't figure out what to do with Jonathan and me. We both have different frequent flyer numbers, but it is... (More)

From Vicki: Just a reminder that Oral Arguments will be heard tomorrow in Judy's case. The judge could make a ruling tomorrow from the bench, or otherwise he has up to 120 days to rule. There is a possibility the case could be dismissed or it could go to trial. I will post an update as... (More)

On Saturday morning, April 1st, I saw the mother robin checking out the nest over our door. I put up a blanket over the window (since I never got to finding a one-way glass) so our comings and goings would not disturb the nesting. There are no eggs yet, and I have not seen her again. I... (More)

I got a notification from a credit bureau today saying that a new account had been opened by: Verizon Pen, PO BOX 165018, COLUMBUS, OH 43216. Since I haven't changed phone service since last year, it seemed odd that there would be a new account from Verizon.My mortgage company had their backup... (More)

I wrote it out formally about a year ago but it never got onto the blog. So below is the story. I'll post a comment on Jonathan's first post with a link to this one. Jonathan's Gentle Birth by Heather Daley This is Jonathan's birth story, but to really appreciate it, the... (More)

Jon made Jonathan a lightswitch stick so that he (Jonathan) can turn on and off the lights himself. It is a dowel with a loop of wire fastened to the end. When Grammy and Auntie E were here, Jonathan demonstrated the first observed completion of the USA puzzle all by himself. Before, I had... (More)

Posting this, since it took me a long time to find this site today when I wanted to stop my home computer from annoying me with the reboot dialogs every couple of minutes.If you never reboot your computer, it might be a good idea to not implement this solution, since you might forget to ever... (More)

ThinkGeek has lots of fun things for those ... uhh... those people like me. I just saw an advertisement for lightsabers , and I immediately thought of Brian, (Heather's cousin) though it says "Although the blade is very durable, it should never be used for fighting or dueling." One thing... (More)

Since we paid for the professional license, we get OpenMake for "free", so I figured I would try it out. The conclusion is that it isn't worth anything.The longer version is that it, like all Merant products, is quite hard to actually get up and running. When the manual says, "you aren't... (More)