Daley Ponderings

I have been having lots of fun (that's the bad kind of fun, not the good kind) configuring Asterisk for my new IT job.  It has been a pretty big pain getting it to work correctly with a couple different VOIP providers as well as the landlines.

I had a good day today, figuring both how to get Teliax to forward the calls to our landline (since I can't seem to register the connection with Teliax, via SIP or IAX), as well as I figured out the problem with outbound calls using the verizon line.  It turns out my theory was correct, that Asterisk was dialing too fast and not waiting for the dialtone, so Verizon wasn't getting the first digit (sometimes).  But, adding a half second wait before dialing did the trick. (More)

I was recently asked by a Microsoft engineer why I am still asking questions about Windows XP when I should be using Vista, since it is better for various reasons.

My response is below, which he called, "stunningly clear", and said that he had already forwarded it onto his executive management.  I don't know that it will have all that much of an impact, but it is nice to hear that he thought it was a good explanation. (More)

Hide 'Em In Your Heart scripture memory CDs by Steve Green gets my hearty recommendation for anyone with or without children who wants to memorize scripture in a fun and easy way. We heard about them from our pediatrician (who is a Christian father of young children) and got the first CD from Grandma and Dad-o for Noah's birthday. (More)

At the Maggie P, Jonathan learned how to tie knots.  Now he ties ropes all around the yard in a great booby-trap for potential robbers (or mail carriers.) (More)

Monday, Noah walked all the way to the ShurSave on his own two legs.  He also pushed the stroller the last half.  The only exception was that I carried him across Friendship Ave because his walking speed is not yet up to crossing that busier road. (More)

Noah just walked down from the third floor to the second facing forward, holding the railing, all by himself!  This railing is lower than normal, I noted with Jonathan that it's a great way to start learning.

On another note, Noah has another word, "go." 

Jon first noticed red spots on Jonathan's tongue and soft palate while brushing his teeth.  Then we noticed bug bite/pimple-like spots on his knees and then Noah's knees.  Then Noah got more and more spots all around the edges of is diaper area and some on arms and legs.  After two days of this, we thought to look in Noah's mouth and sure enough, red spots. (More)

We're back from a lovely two weeks at the best little house in the world.  I'll save time (so much to catch up on!) by linking to Janet's first post and you can proceed through all five entries.  The boys absolutely loved the sand and water and freedom.  It was rather hot throughout the visit, but at least we had the water nearby to cool off in. (More)

Jonathan is pretty good at catching a ball or object now.

He likes for me to print out coloring book pages for him.  But he doesn't want to color them.  He likes to cut the object (usually an animal) out.  He does a very nice job.

He can now reach our lightswitches if he jumps.

Noah can crawl backwards down the stairs, though so far has not made it all the way down before deciding he wants to go back up again.  I'm still not comfortable letting him do it without supervision, so I usually carry him down after he stops making downward progress. 

Oh, and I think he says "ball" now. 

"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Exodus 20:7 (KJV)

 I've been thinking more recently about what this means.  I grew up thinking that it pretty much just meant don't use "God" or "Jesus" as swear words.  But surely to be one of the Ten, God meant it to mean something much deeper than that. (More)

Reading my sister's post about her adventure as a bridesmaid has reminded me to write about my dear husband.  I, like my sister, am not interested in makeup (we do have the same mother!), and am blessed with a husband whose thoughts on makeup are, "But I want to be able to kiss you without getting goop on my face." (More)

For those of you who have gotten an "You entered an invalid URL" message when leaving a comment, no I didn't set out to ban you from commenting - it is that you didn't put an "http://" in front of your URL.  Due to some security bugs, the input checking code was tightened up a couple months ago, and part of that changed how the URLs were parsed.  After months of procrastinating, I finally got around to working on the problem - and it took all of five minutes to add a new type of filter that checks the URL prior to validation and prepends an "http://" to the beginning if you forget.

So, those of you who thought I didn't want to hear from you, comment away... 

Last weekend, we went to Keystone State Park with the Tomans.  We got a group campsite so we could put both tents together.  It was right on the lake and separate enough from other sites for privacy. (More)

Noah can now walk across a room, and he tries walking about half the time.  Video
 (More)

Happy Birthday, little guy!

Jonathan and I have been singing the birthday song to him all day, and Jonathan's version includes "dear my little brother Noah."  (More)