Daley Ponderings

I don't think I have written about USA Datanet on this blog.  They just reminded me to tell everyone how great they are, so I will gladly do so. USA Datanet is our long distance provider.  They provide a local number that we call when we think we are going to make a lengthy... (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)

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)

Colin Portnuff, a guy who uses an AAC (alternative augmentative communication) device to communicate, was recently at a conference that some guys from my company (DynaVox) also went to. He has ALS , which is a degenerative disease of the brain. A number of our customers have ALS; I am not... (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)

Jonathan can really have a conversation on the phone now. He even has good one-sided ones when he is just pretending. For example, "Hello, Mrs. Grover! How are you? You're feeling good. Good!" "Hello, Grandma. I love you, too. Bye." On Tuesday, Jonathan asked me to get the lotion for him,... (More)

This morning, Mom, Jonathan and I drove up to the birth center where Jonathan was born for my first prenatal checkup with our midwife. She was so happy to see Jonathan, but he did not understand the part about this being where he was born. (What? He didn't recognize it?!) She said I'm looking... (More)

As mentioned on the GirlTalk blog , there are a what I think is a disproportionate number of men in the Sovereign Grace churches that believe the best way to show affection to other men is to make fun of them, particularly in public. (I suppose I am continuing the stereotype published by the... (More)

Mom found this house while canoeing in the Merrimack River, and thinks it is just perfect for us. It does look great! There is a lot of land (13 acres) and a lovely place for the Black Rabbit to launch from. We have gotten used to Pittsburgh housing prices, so anything is a shock, but this... (More)

Sunday after church Jon suggested we go sailing again since we did not make it the day before. After lunch, we headed out again, this time to North Park because it is closer. The wind was strong, the best we've had in Pittsburgh so far. However, it was also gusty and changed direction a lot in... (More)

Jonathan now identifies two of his butterfly bits by name: "morpho" for brown morpho and "lady" for painted lady. By the way, I always type his words the way he means them, but often they are not exactly like that. For example, these two words actually sound like "my-foh" and "yay-dee." He has... (More)

All this talk about Aunt Janet might get Auntie E a little jealous, so I thought I'd let everyone know that Jonathan now calls all dogs Toby and he does recall Auntie E's name when he's remembering the vacation. (More)

Colors - just before we left for vacation, Jonathan and I were sitting on our tshirt quilt. I pointed out a yellow sun, and he repeated me. Then he pointed to another yellow sun and named it, then to a blue shirt and said "blue", to a green shirt and said "green" and finally to a black shirt... (More)

I was reminded of the Incredibles today by a slashdot article , and I went looking for the "Everyone's special, Dash." "That's just another way of saying nobody is." quote, and came across this guy's review of the movie. Interesting. (More)