Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
Will, Katie and I take walks at night as our way to get excersise. Plus, Katie really likes to go on walks. I made a map using Yahoo Maps Beta and it turns out our normal walk is 2.7 miles. Here's the map
We had an interesting weekend. Saturday, was marred by discovering my mothers 1997 BMW M3 had been vandalized while she was at our house. We were just about to leave for brunch when my wife (who had just returned from the chiropractor) asks my mom if she was aware her car had no license plates on it (Normally the car has plates the read: SuesM3 : if you see those plates call the cops! They are stolen!) So, my mom decided to stay at the house and Tonya and I left Kathryn with her for company.
Brunch was nice. It was kind of nice for Tonya and I to get out and see our friends with out having to entertain and manage the baby. It was kind of like being transported back in time by a year or so (that was about the last time we regularly saw our friends for brunch). We were up to our old tricks of scaring and offending the people around us with our angry/strange/educated liberal discussions. The really kicker was our talk about child molesters and parents defecating in front of the principal's office. We scared away a family with that conversation.
When we returned home I retrieved my mom's car from the street it was parked on to top off her brake fluid. While looking for further damage from the plate thieves we noticed that they stole almost everything off the exterior of the car that had the BMW M logo on it. It made me sad. While my mom has bought 2 new Mercedes since getting this car, and my dad has bought and given away a Z3 this car has kind of a special place in the family. It was the first car since my parents had kids whose purchase wasn't the result of pure practical need. Since having me, (when they had a BMW 2002tii and an AMC Gremlin) my parents have owned a dodge station wagon and two Chrysler minivans all were aimed at being able to handle a growing/large family. My first year away at school my parents were finally in a place to buy a car that they actually wanted. Before my mom left I topped off the brakes and test drove the car to verify it was OK. Then my mom left to be with my father.
Tonya, Kathryn, and I then went to friends house for dinner. The plan was to eat and then play board games. However, after dinner Kathryn was exhausted. So we left. She fell asleep as soon as we put her in her car seat. She then went straight to sleep when I moved her from her car seat to her crib (this is almost unheard of!). It was a really nice night. In fact other then my mom's car it was a very nice day!
Sunday was a family day. Tonya and I spent the whole day playing with and giving Kathryn our love. I had planned to go for a dirtbike ride Sunday morning but I decided it would be better to spend the day with my wife and daughter. We had a lot of fun. Kathryn got to take her first shower. Let me tell you a wet baby, is very slippery you have to be very careful! We didn't drop her or anything but she was definitely slippery and had to be held carefully. She seemed to enjoy the shower. Even the water in her face didn't really bother her. She wasn't crazy about it but she didn't get upset. She did enjoy all the other aspects of the shower. It was pretty cool. The rest of the day was spent dealing with the heat and playing with Kathryn. It was a nice day.
After dinner when it had cooled down we took a family walk. We have a normal loop we take that is a little over 2miles and allows us to stop about half way at Starbucks. It used to be that Kathryn would fall asleep during these walks. However, recently she has gotten where she stays awake the whole way. She likes to look at two things: cars and motorcycles, and trees. One of the ways I know her object tracking is developing is that she can follow a far with her eyes even if it is temporarily blocked by an object. As for trees she loves to stare up at the branches while we walk especially if there is some wind to russell the branches. After our pit stop at Starbucks at about the 2/3 to 3/4 mark we decided to add on to our route. We went an additional block and decided to turn right into the park rather then left to go home.
We walked from the edge of the park to the lake. All the while marveling at the huge swarms of knats visible in the dusk light. We were some where along the edge of the lake when Kathryn got really unhappy. She started to make it very clear that she didn't want to be in her stroller anymore. We pressed on, knowing that we were probably a mile and half or more from home. It soon became apparent that Kathryn was not going to be placated by a change in position in the stroller or by her toy giraffe. We stopped and I volunteered to shoulder the burden. Literally, I took Kathryn out the of the stroller and walked from the corner of Stevenson and Pasao Padre to our house. Here is a google map of the approximate route... We actually took civic center to walnut but it should be about the same. I did this whole walk in flip flops while switching her from side to side so that my arms could alternate recovering. Towards the end I even gave her a piggy back. She did really well with that but it made Tonya uncomfortable and even through the had a great grip on my hair I wasn't sure she wouldn't fall asleep so I took her down and went back to the arms. She started to fall asleep when we were almost home. I think she can recognize our neighborhood because she tends to let herself sleep when we hit our neighborhood on the way back from many walks. It doesn't seem to matter how long we walk, she falls asleep when we hit our neighborhood.
We then put her to sleep for the night. We had a few false starts but we got her to sleep in her crib... She is very cute when she is asleep!
AP Wire | 07/11/2006 | Sea Scouts appeal speech ruling
SAN FRANCISCO - The Berkeley Sea Scouts asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court decision requiring the group to pay berthing fees at the Berkeley Marina.
The California Supreme Court ruled in March that Berkeley did not violate the rights of the youth sailors connected to the Boy Scouts of America when it demanded marina fees because the group violates a city anti-discrimination policy.
The city revoked free berthing privileges for the Berkeley Sea Scouts because the Boy Scouts bar atheist and gay members, which violates the city's 1997 policy to provide free berthing to nonprofits that don't discriminate.
City officials told the Sea Scouts that the group could retain its berthing subsidy, valued at about $500 monthly per boat, if it broke ties with the Boy Scouts or disavowed the policy against gays and atheists.
The Sea Scouts, which teaches sailing, carpentry and plumbing, refused to do so and maintained that such an edict was unconstitutional.
While I think scouting does provide some really good things for kids and does have real value, I'm not sorry to see them penalized for their bigotry and intolerance.
Kindie rock | Salon Arts & Entertainment
But the Dan Zanes story doesn't end there. Last month, the indie rocker released a new album, "Catch That Train." It's Zanes' sixth record on his own Festival Five Records label, and like the other five, the newest is a collection of folksy rock songs for children. Co-released through Starbucks' Hear Music label -- yes, you can pick one up along with a latte -- the album was hotly anticipated by fans, earned positive reviews from the music press as well as a variety of kids music blogs, and and peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's new kid audio chart (it also debuted at No. 9 in the Billboard independent album rankings).
Tooch turned me on to For The Kids. I then bought For The Kids Too and Mary Had A Little Amp. It is great that kids music if finally tolerable for parents. Kindie rock beats all the music my little sisters subjected my family to and the music of Sharon Lois & Bram. I'm hoping to keep Kathryn from being exposed to anything but kindie rock and adult alternative. I'm hoping to avoid Barney and the Wiggles.
The cities of Santa Cruz, Carmel, Monterey and scores of towns in Southern California have passed similar bans on beaches, but to the delight of environmentalists -- and the dismay of some salty fishermen -- Pacifica is believed to be the first in the Bay Area to be heading toward a total waterfront ban on cigarettes.
Pacifica resident Susan Danielson says she hopes her hometown will be the first of many in the Bay Area to adopt a smoking ban on the water's edge and start people thinking about sandy beaches as a precious resource, not giant ashtrays.
"I think we are going to see this as the norm and the standard for our beaches,'' said Danielson, who spearheaded the effort for Pacifica's ban and is hoping officials in San Mateo County, and ultimately the state, will follow with their own law prohibiting smoking at more than a dozen other beaches.
Danielson, who led San Mateo County's annual coastal cleanup for the past two years, says that since she began cleaning beaches five years ago, she and other volunteers have picked up thousands of butts from the sand.
One of things I hate most about most smokers is there complete disregard for anyone but themselves. It starts with the fact that they smoke in locations that cause others to have to experience there smoking and it extends to the fact that most smokers think nothing at all of littering there cigarette butts and ash anywhere they choose.
Opinion: Sticking with AT&T? You're a fool
The implication is that AT&T is making a profit from selling the data to the federal government. And that profit must be substantial; after all, there are clearly many customers who are dropping AT&T services as a result of this proposed change. (Including me -- I actually stopped a switch to AT&T's Cingular cellular services when I heard of this development.) Clearly, AT&T will lose business by implementing or even announcing such a profound change in privacy policies. I can only imagine how much money AT&T is receiving from the government for all those records if they believe it's worth the hit.
Tonya and I am in the process of transferring all of our service from AT&T as our contracts expire. Today Comcast is installing a business class cable connection with 5 static IP addresses. To get static addressing and the permission to run a server from comcast you need to be a business customer. However, with a contract the business link is the same a highspeed DSL link with static addressing from AT&T. As a Business customer you get priority service and downtime reimbursement. We will also be moving to ComCast digital phone service. It is based on VOIP but isn't tied to internet service. This will make us a an all ComCast home. The only final AT&T service is Cingular. We are stuck for another year with them. I find it vary unfair that companies can change a contract out from under you and you can't decide that the new terms aren't OK so you want to terminate the contract. :-(
UPDATE: The cable and cable modem have been installed. I'm getting somewhere between 20 and 9 Mbps download. On upload I'm getting 512 to 768 Kbps on upload. PQBON.COM is still on DSL. For now I'm testing the cable connection by using it for internet access but so far so good. If this goes well, I will recommend that anyone who has dsl that might be involved with AT&T move to cable internet.