Dave
Originally uploaded by gretchen04401

Testing another layout version….

Backyard swing is yummy, originally uploaded by gretchen04401.

Dave hung it, Ingrid loves it.

(testing)

Three years ago, TypePad was my shangri-la of internet services, as you are well aware. But now, I’m thinking there is probably a better way… WordPress wasn’t around when I started with Typepad, for instance, and I really like that as a free service… and flickr wasn’t nearly as rich as it is now. So, in setting up my moblog thing, and playing around, I can’t help but think there is a better way to do all this.

First, can one export their Typepad albums to Flickr? I’ve googled the hell out of it, and can’t find an answer, so it’s probably not easy, but is it impossible?

Here’s what I need, now.

Public family blog (currently here, under the default URL) Private, but not necessarily passworded, blog (like the one you’re reading now) Moblog (at Livejournal, works for me as-is, because I have to have an LJ account anyway to read friends’ posts.)

And it would be nice to connect my photos to all three. I’ve been doing TypePad albums, reducing the image sizes because of family members with dialup/WebTV, but flickr’s default view shouldn’t affect that, right? I don’t mind paying for premium services, but I don’t want to pay for EVERY premium service at every site. 😉

Ideas?

Hi!

Yeah. I’ve been bad about updating, i seriously only just realized that I skipped over Ingrid’s 13 month update, completely…. I guess after a year, the months mean less. But, things are going well.

New tricks in Ingrid’s bag: she now does kisses — she won’t kiss you, but she smacks her lips when we make kissy noises to her. She also clucks her tongue, and she she chirps a bit, like making the “brrrrriiiinnng” sound of old telephones. A dry, singsongy, raspberry, basically. She’s mastered crawling and pulling up, and is just starting to cruise a bit. Not on purpose, really, any cruising is accidental, but it’s coming fast. We put up our first babygate (yeah, most people do that before a kid’s first birthday…) and ordered a second to rope off the Darwin stairs, which, as expected, are a huge attraction. That gate is 3 pieces, so we will be able to put the pressure doorway gate in the dining room entrance, or maybe in her bedroom, and then the bendy one will come out from the wall where the stairs are and wrap around to the outside of the kitchen door, fencing in the stairs, the ficus stick, and the kitchen doorway. That’s basically all we’re doing — she’s never in the upstairs hallway alone, so I’m not worried about the top of the stairs.

Work is great, I have a really good group of immediate coworkers, and one of like, 2 air conditioned offices on campus, and the summer is pretty slow. I’ll be getting my new MacBook Pro soon (for work, of course) so I’m sort of excited for that (like you couldn’t guess…). I also seem to be doing well in both job capacities, which is good.

We’re adjusting to life after FatKitty. Still hard (gives me a lump in my throat just typing that) but we spent Sunday deep cleaning our bedroom which resulted in a station wagon full of stuff for goodwill, and a dusting, de-furring of everything, which is always an uphill battle with a cat like FK. Dave confessed that yesterday, though, when he came home for lunch he opened the door and started looking for her, to feed her, and it took him a minute to realize “oh….” :-/

Oh, and speaking of nothing, so, my birthday is coming up. And I’m going to be 32. !!! I had this weird epiphany while I was at the conference, that I still default to Everyone is Older Than Me (I’m Just a Kid), when, really, um, I’m not a kid. A woman that was hired just before me, here, I’ve assumed is Much Much older, but after talking to her, I realize that I in fact, might be older than HER. Huh.

Big plans this week — off to see Amy for one last hurrah on Friday, then to a meetup of my internet friends on Saturday, home that night, on Sunday, driving my aunt’s car back to the lake (with Ingrid) where I’ll stay until the 4th, when Dave brings us home. He’ll come up on the 3rd… We also just booked our thanksgiving trip to Austin, and very wisely rented our OWN car this time, as opposed to having the Family Shuttle of “OMG STFU MOM” anxiety. Thanks, Ingrid, for providing the perfect excuse! 🙂

But right now? It’s boring. And sunny. And I’d rather be at the pool. Sigh.

Dave is back from the vet, where FatKitty has been diagnosed with a heart disease, advanced dental disease, and a probable UTI, on top her diabetes. Each of those things require testing and treatment, none of them with guaranteed outcomes for a diabetic cat of 13, so we will be putting her to sleep on Friday. I am crying at my desk. This sucks. The vet was very understanding of the situation, doesn’t think we are awful pet owners for not going all-out, so that’s good. I can’t write more.

Vet appt scheduled for Tuesday. Not for the long sleep, yet, but to discuss our options. She hasn’t really been eating for two days, so maybe she’s on the way out anyway…Dave is taking her, because I will probably agree to an iron lung if they offered it. Anyway.

Today I worked til 11 or so, and got to leave early for summer hours. Came home and had a nice lunch with dave, winkwink, and then instead of picking Ingrid up, as planned, I did some errands and shopping. It was nice. I exchanged some clothes she’d gotten as gifts, that, uhhh, didn’t fit, ahem, and looked at dishwashers. I then bought the most insane purchase of the day (mid90s here, just crazy hot) at the LLBean Outlet.

See, our down blanket came with us from Levant, I got it at Overstock, it was an okay deal, but at this point, all of the feathers are in one corner of the blanket and that SUCKS.  Dave was even ready to buy a new one (and is sold enough on down to bear the expense) so I told him I’d keep my eyes peeled at the outlet for a good deal. Knowing the LLB product line like I do, there’s a few levels of down comforters, and I figured I’d keep my eye out for the taj mahal of down comforters, but if by fall I hadn’t found it, I’d settle for a lesser version if necessary.

WELL. On my first pass, after digging through the bins, I found the Taj Mahal — the PermaBaffle Box Goose Down Comforter, Warmer, in king size.  Yeah, that’s right. $299 retail. But the outlet price was 179. Oh, and there was a 30% off sale in the home department. Oh, and we had $20 in rewards points from our LLB card. $111 dollars.  I feel like I stole from them. Heh.  Of course, I absolutely don’t NEED it for a few months, but still. 111 bucks! DEAL!

Pushing the envelope… can I post multiple photos, I wonder? More Ingrid at work, the first taken by my coworker’s 3 year old, the second, showing Ing all belted in with the infamous Ingrid Ankle Cross pose.

Testing to see if emailing a pic works. If it does, this is Ingrid and Mama on their workday last week..

(I’m testing new mobile post settings, so if anything is wonkified, let me know….)

Ingrid is so cool. It’s so weird how we can just see her brain developing, it seems.. for instance, the other night we had our first show of her wanting a specific food. I mean, she goes apeshit for her puffs, and we’ve tried all kinds of flavors and she’s eaten them all with no regard to anything beyond their shape and eatability, so the other night we did the usual routine of eating dinner before bringing out the baby heroin, and she got all excited, YAY PUFFS! and we put a few on her tray, and she ate two and freaked out. It took us a few minutes to realize that, NO, she did NOT WANT the Apple Cinnamon puffs, but the sweet potato ones, you maroons, and when we switched them out, she was totally happy again. I mean, she’s always trying to eat paper, what’s the big deal between apple cinnamon vs sweet potato as long as it’s a puff? A lot, apparently.

Last night, she was digging through her toy bag and came across a pair of shoes that are still too big for her. Dave and I were curled up on the couch, watching in absolute amazement as she looked at the shoes, and then her feet, and then she banged the shoes on her feet. She maneuvered a bit more, and managed to peel off the shoe that was ON her foot, and then she again was banging the new shoe against her foot, and because we are total idiots that’s when we were like “OMG. She wants the shoe on.” So, Dave got down and put on the new shoe and she picked at it and beamed at us, and then went back to digging in her toy bag. It was so… weird…. to see her actually having such complex thoughts, and trying so hard to make shit HAPPEN.

She still doesn’t crawl, but Dave and I are convinced it’s because she hates being face down, because face down puts you out of the conversation, and she loooooves being part of the conversation. She will stand if shes holding on to something — your hands, a low table, the baby mirror at daycare — so it’s not a leg strength thing, just a “wait, wtf? Looking at the rug fucking SUCKS, mom! Turn me over! Sit me up! I want to dance!”

Kids are cool.

Another Youtube upload for you, from a few days ago. This one is taken on my digital camera, so it’s low quality, but basically I wanted to convey Ingrid’s wheezy old man laugh, and also her total excitement and being scared. Maybe it’s more evident to ME, but she does this thing where she pauses and is just lying in WAIT for you to scare her, and then she laughs her ass off.

If you’re reading via Bloglines, you won’t see the embedded video, so click to my actual blog to view.

Also, I hate that so much of the videos I upload featuring a moutbreathing me in the background. Allergies, and being the one holding the camera, seem to make it sound like the video was produced by a rutting moose or something. I really hope breastfeeding and Dave’s genes help Ingrid dodge the allergy/asthma/eczema bullet. SIgh.