Daley Ponderings

Here is my original post to enter the contest, here is my update.  

Our computer room/guest room is now functional and neat.  There are still two actively-being-worked-on server computers on the card table in the room.  We had hoped to have them both in their finished locations by the end of the month, but a broken new hard drive needed to be exchanged, and the colo guy hasn't gotten back to Jon yet.  It's possible that clementine will go there tonight.  But it still fits in the purpose of the room - the computer room - and the area is organized and neat. (More)

This month has been full, busy, and blog-sparse.  Because we're actually living life instead of blogging about it!  But here goes:

Noah is experimenting more with sounds.  He copies a lot.  Still not much consistently, but here are some things we've heard him say: "where?" "Papa" "more" "Dad" "no" "none" "that" "hot" "hat."  He also often covers his mouth when he sneezes or coughs.

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Normally, when we have an update to a post, we just put it in the comments, but since I've entered us in the 30-Day Challenge, here's a separate post to link up.

Now before any other "challengees" faint when they see my pictures, I'll remind you that we have guests coming tonight, so our deadline for a presentable room was much earlier than the end of the month.  Also, there is internal organization still left to be done. (More)

My friends Bonnie and Liz participated in the last Challenge, and quite intimidated me by doing so.  But I put OrgJunkie's blog in my reader (one of only three strangers' blogs I read) and have slowly been gaining confidence.  The real enouragement I give myself is to note what I can accomplish in little bits at a time.  Whenever I feel like I can't do it, I can point myself to an area that's working (like my system for kids' clothes) and realize that though I have far to go, I've also come far from where I was (or could be!) (More)

I have been tagged by Liz.  I usually skip participating in such things, but I like this topic.  It is always good to remember blessings and give thanks. (More)

Jonathan loves to create meals and side dishes.  On 10/2, he made a vegetable salad that we have recreated several times.  Carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, onions, with one lemon's worth of juice as a dressing.  Simple and delicious.

10/12 - I was in the basement doing laundry when the phone rang.  It was Sanda.  She was trying to take a shower and all the water disappeared! It just struck me funny to get a phone call from upstairs.

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I forgot to post yesterday that I am now officially working from home full-time.  Woohoo!  Now I just need to catch up on all of the work that I have been postponing until now.

Jon asked me to post this essay written by our friend.

Life as an Immigrant

By Marc Brands

From 1993 to 1996 I did an apprenticeship in Electronics Engineering at Siemens. In Switzerland apprenticeships are very common, students attend about 16 hours of classes and about 32 hours of practical training per week at an employers' site.  (More)

So - where can I buy one of these?

We headed out Friday morning, listening to The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian on the way.  At our first stop, for gas, Jon realized that he hadn't brought his wallet.  One of our stops was at our "usual" rest area, the one with the pedestrian walkways over the highway.  The boys liked watching the cars and trucks go under.  Jon had some Lime Daley issue to deal with, so we waited in a really long line at McDonald's while he used the free wireless. (More)

This game would be better if it were random, but still kind of fun.  I think 17 seconds was my high score on my desktop, and I just it again before posting on my laptop, and I only got to 11 seconds.  Perhaps I am just more tired, or else it might be showing the difference between a mouse and touchpad.

A bunch of people made a neat video of a lot of kids using augmentative communication devices.  My guess is that most of the devices are made by DynaVox, the company where I currently (for a little while longer) work.  It is neat to see our technology making a difference in people's lives.

I got a couple spams through my Lime Daley contact form the last couple days, so I took another look at the script that I was using.  I wrote it a year or two ago, and was my first attempt at writing an anti-spam tool that was designed to have a 0% false negative rate (ie. humans can't possibly fail - as opposed to the image recognizer thing, which I fail about 20% of the time, so I imagine less technical people people must fail and/or give up more often than that).

The one on the Lime Daley page isn't as good as the one I wrote for this blog, but I took a look at the statistics this morning, and it blocked 544 spams last month, only allowing three through. (More)

Sunday morning, after playing outside before church, Jonathan came to me complaining that his eye hurt.  It was red and watering, but I could not see any foreign object.  It continued to be irritated, so I wondered if it might be pinkeye.

The pain would come in waves, hurting the most when he closed his eyes, as for naps and bedtime.  This made me wonder if there was something under his eyelid.

It was not better by yesterday, so we had Dr.Anderson check it out while we were there for Noah.  He did the glow-in-the-dark eye thing and we definitely saw scratches.  It was obvious to me the difference between what his eye looked like and what Jon's and Noah's eyes looked like when they had the same dye test but no abrasions.

Jonathan did appreciate the mirror (which dear nurse Theresa found after much searching) so he could see his own glowing eye.

And guess what?  All those ducts and passages are connected!  What did we see a minute later but a drip of glowing liquid seeping out of his nose... 

Dr.Anderson looked as best he could under both eyelids but could not find any particle.  He prescribed an antibiotic ointment (like the stuff you put on your cuts before you put the bandaid on) and referred us to an eye specialist. 

So Jonathan has an appointment for tomorrow morning.  His eye looks horrible (he has a hard time restraining himself from rubbing so the outside is red too) and we have to put the medicine in four times a day.  That stings, so it has not been a pleasant experience, but this morning he handled it better than the two times yesterday.

I'm hoping tomorrow will bring a definitive answer and a move towards healing.  Please pray for my dear little boy!  It is hard to see him in pain. 

Noah is 30lb 12 oz, 34 1/2" tall.  He's getting over a cold, so the doctor could see fluid in both ears, but it's mild and Noah doesn't even care about it. (More)