Daley Ponderings

Good advice: if you're tired, make yourself get some exercise, even (or especially) if you're pregnant! I have observed before that I feel better when I am getting exercise, but for some reason I have lacked motivation to be consistent. Jon has been bugging me a lot about exercising, mostly I... (More)

Jonathan can be very good at pouring things if he is careful. He can pour just the right amount of juice into a glass, he can pour just the right amount of cereal into a bowl. Sometimes he gets excited, especially to look around to make sure we're watching him, and that often leads to trouble.... (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)

I was working on the computer this morning, so Heather and Jonathan made it downstairs before I did. Jonathan asked Heather if he could make breakfast (eggs, since it is Saturday), and Heather said that he wasn't ready to do it by himself, and do it with Daddy.When I got downstairs, he asked me,... (More)

Found an interesting spyware/virus/malware/etc at the Quinlisks yesterday. It was a "Browser Helper Object (BHO)", a method of getting your own code put inside of the windows explorer, and thus pretty hard to remove.They run Ad-Aware every once in a while to clean up their computer,... (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)

Sunday, February 19, 2006, Jonathan went skiing for the first time. Just after 11am, we headed east to Seven Springs, which is the closest/best mountain to Pittsburgh. We arrived at the parking lot at 12:45, then took a shuttle to the lodge. We got off at the wrong place and had to walk to the... (More)

One reason Jonathan talks so well is because we talk to him like a real person. Children learn by hearing and by imitating. It is sometimes amusing to hear the things that he says. For example, he got a valentine's day card from Aunt Ellie, and as he saw the stickers on the back and was... (More)

This morning, in beautiful sunny 60 degree weather, Jonathan successfully rode his tricycle all by himself. Since he has finally been able to reach the pedals, I have helped him by getting him started down the slight grade in the driveway. Today for the first time, he managed to start himself... (More)

Mark Minasi, a guy who writes a Windows newsletter about various IT tricks and other things related to using a Windows system. This month, the majority of his newsletter was about spam, and I think he missed a couple points, so I wrote to him, and it ended up pretty long, so I figured I might... (More)

Thursday morning, we drove up to Jon's Aunt Janet's place in Hamilton, Ontario. We stopped at "our" Wal-Mart at the two hour mark for a bathroom break and to buy some snacks. (I think we've stopped there every time we go that way - it must just be at a good break point.) Going through customs... (More)

On Thursday as we were going about our day, Jonathan looked up from his play and said, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" (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)

We recently switched our automobile insurance to State Farm, because Amica doubled their rates on our homeowners policy, a bait-and-switch sort of thing - they told me the estimated rate, and I agreed, spent a month trying to get the inspector to come look at the house.The only thing he pointed... (More)