Still with the birthday money.

tivo?! Sing me its praises. I’m one click away from owning it.

Pros:
*Tivo!
* Can use Amazon unboxed and cancel or reduce netflix, which I have a love/hate relationship with
* Can record shows I want to watch but are on too late for my bones, these days –SNL, Conan, ER
* Can record competing shows (30Rock and Grey’s Anatomy, for instance)
* Can record PBS — for both us and Ingrid
* More efficient tv viewing …. will that equal less tv or more tv?

Cons:
* We don’t have cable, so it’s not a matter of choosing between a TON of shows, it’s more about making the shows I/we want to see more accessible
* Costs money.
* Don’t really want to watch MORE tv, but is that what will happen?
* Dave will moan that "we already have a VCR" (but I’m also certain that after using it, if even to just watch Conan, he’ll be sold)

We’d be using it with a digital tv, with antenna reception, and a wireless adapter. We turn off the wireless when we’re not here, so will that be a problem? I imagine it will just do it’s magic when it finds a signal….right?

Convince me.  I’ve always WANTED tivo, as it made such complete SENSE to me (like cameraphones) and didn’t realize that I could get it without cable or satellite. Yes, we only get 8 channels, but I’m thinking it would still make TV life better.

(It should be noted that the VCR of Love is almost 7 years old, and I haven’t taped SNL on it in *years.* Sigh.)

Point and shoot camera!

I heart my D70, of course I do, but I’m thinking a point& shoot might be a good addition to my life. I have the 5050, which I’ve loved for years, but now I feel like the D70 is an SUV, and the 5050 is a stationwagon, and I really need a SmartCar instead of a station wagon.  Any recommendations?

Under $250, pref under $200.
At least 5mp
Ability to record video with sound

Those are my big parameters, obviously I want it to be small, too.

We survived St Louis! It went swimmingly, actually.  Kate and Ingrid had a great time, we all got to go to the zoo, and 3 of 4 flights were flawless, and the 4th wasn’t even entirely flawed. I got bumped up on my rental car, the weather was great, and the food free and/or reimbursable. Note to self: when traveling with Ingrid, ALWAYS get a suite.

ANYWAY. On the trip, I was totally jonesing for a cameraphone. My sister has one (and I used to! Ingrid’s first photo was on a cameraphone, lost to the ether, now) and I was thinking of all of Molly’s (hi!) moblogged journeys with her own daughter, just 6 months older than Ingrid. Oh, how I’d have loved to zapped in a pic of Ingrid eating at CVG, secured in a waiting area chair by her wrap. Not to mention all of the awesome typos and amusing things one sees in a day, when the D70 just isn’t the tool of choice (or even a tool at hand) to capture it with. I’ve really, dug the whole moblog thing of Molly’s, so today when my cell company had an offer in the mail for existing customers, i went out to the retail store.

It wasn’t entirely no-strings-attached, but I was able to get myself a new Nokia 6085, move my old phone to a new number for Dave to use (something we’ve been meaning to do, anyway) and instead of having to buy a family plan, they now let you do two of the barebones plans, which is what I prefer, anyway. With Ingrid here, Dave has been wanting a cell phone beyond what he used to have, a prepaid kept in the glovebox, but he could care less about a camera feature. So now, he has my old phone (old=January) and a barebones plan, I have a barebones plan and a new phone, and the new phone was 80 bucks, and comes with a 50 dollar rebate. (Which Unicel has always been good on, so I was confident in that….)

ALL THAT to say that I’ve now converted my livejournal — used to post a handful of friends-only work related entries — to a public moblog, so when I take interesting cameraphone pics, I upload directly there, and it shows up in your friends list or an RSS reader. If you’re interested in that sort of thing.

http://gretchens.livejournal.com

I am so freakin’ excited to have a cameraphone that works as both a CAMERA and a PHONE. My last run of phones has been one or the other….plus, 2mp! Wheeee!

One of the things that the internet makes easy, is notifying your elected officials of your stand on something.  See, today I’m mighty uncomfortable, since the Supreme Court has decided to camp out in my vagina. That’s not cool.

There is a movement afoot to change this, and the easiest thing you can do is go to this website:

http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/congress_foca_0407

fill in your info, and click submit. It generates letters to your congress people stating your support of the Freedom of Choice Act.  Please, if you are pro-choice, click that link, send a letter, at the very least. As a woman, and the mother of a future woman, this step against choice by the Supreme Court has me terrified.

Yes, it’s taken me a long time to get on the skype bandwagon, but I had a good reason! iChatAV doesn’t work, apparently, unless you have an Airport router, which previously cost around 250, which was way too goddamn rich for my apple-loving blood. The AV part of iChat never worked with Netgear (and won’t essentially, I’ve tried EVERYTHING) and whatever, I don’t have a webcam either.

So, when I was that the Airport (not the new one, but the dome one) was selling for about 99 bucks, refurbished, at apple.com, I snapped it up, because long before Ingrid arrived, i wanted to get video chat set up. I also didn’t want to get hosed like I did with iSight — "Oh," I thought, "I’ll just wait to buy an iSight, because when everyone gets one in their new computers, used ones will be a steal!" Um. No. I am kicking my own ass, over and over, for not just grabbing an iSight for 129 (student discount) because now they are selling for AT LEAST 200 bucks on ebay, but up to 3 or 400. So, yeah, that plan didn’t work out.

ANYWAY, I ordered the airport, and started looking around for iSight alternatives, blah blah blah, and decided I’d download Skype, because, what the hell, with the new magic router coming, why not try everything. Long story short, holy fuck! Skype works with the Netgear router! My friend Amity, the only perosn I know that uses Skype with video, let me test my own setup, first with just audio, and later, running through our video camera, and I was positively giddy.

I emailed my sister, then called her, and walked her through installation and setup, and within MINUTES, she was watching Ingrid clap and dance and play peekaboo. She was also totally losing her mind — remember, this is my SISTER, who called Dave very recently to learn how to copy and paste (only she still doesn’t know that’s the term) because she "wanted an address in an email, that you can click on." Her mind was totally, totally blown. And really, so was mine.

I’ve long wanted to get video chat working for my sister, and since she got a computer for christmas, it’s been more of a possibility. Really, I was just waiting to upgrade the router to do it. With a MacBook Pro in my future (from work, but I’ve no idea when I’ll actually get it, academic budgeting, etc) I figured I’d just upgrade the router now and wait a bit to do the rest… maybe use some audio chat. But no! VIDEO! I ordered a webcam for my sister, and had it shipped to her, so hopefully in a week or so we can have a two-way chat.

Until then, I’m hoping my mom will check it out from Utah (they are on vacation, and she’s been terribly ill, according to a doctor there, she has pneumonia, so she’s been lying very low while my dad and their friends ski, so an Ingrid sighting would lift her spirits), and that my sister doesn’t have any problems installing the actual webcam when it arrives. And also? If you have an iSight kicking around, now is the time to triple your money on eBay. Seriously.

I could not be a parent without the internet, I’m pretty damn sure.  All of my favorite products have come from the internet, and the rest were researched heavily online. Plus, hi, the mama boards.

Anyway, here is a roundup of Baby Stuff that makes me thank the Internet gods all the damn time.

1) Babywearing. My wraps, now, but earlier, my pouches. I would be just another person with a Bjorn had I not found thebabywearer.com and all of it’s less expensive (um, usually, I’m looking at you, Storchenweige) and way more comfortable than the Available at Target options.  My Storch, for costing as much as it did, is my desert-island purchase, as in it’s the one piece of baby stuff I could not live without. Period.

2) Our carseats. Everyone has their own parenting bugaboo, and mine is carseats. I got a Britax Decathlon when Ingrid was born, with money from my grandmother earmarked for such a purchase, and love it. We used the baby bucket less than a dozen times, and only once as an infant carrier. I had my IUD checked with Ingrid sitting on my belly, even, it was so not a big deal*.  When I started at work, I TRIED a well-rated seat (the Uptown) but it just didn’t work for us, my Britax threshold had been set, and I returned it and ordered Dave a Marathon. Technically, I could get these at Target, but we saved well over a hundred dollars by ordering online, before factoring in the tax-free savings.

3) Babylegs!  It actually took me a while to get on the babylegs love train, but  as winter set in, I did.  We have three pair, now, and are used primarily as a long-johns-esque layer, but on that warm day last week, I used them as tights.  Her daycare providers love them, because it keeps her warm but doesn’t add another diaper changing layer. I can see using them a lot more as it gets warmer this spring, under the handful of dresses she has.

4) Baby shoes… I have two pais of Robeez knockoffs from an ebay store, QQshoes, and they have been great. I also just picked up a pair of Isabooties from a swap board, and they are a little big but have a touch more traction for when she ends up on her feet. And when she starts walking, the girl is so getting a pair of Pedoodles, at least the orange runners, or maybe flower power, but maybe also the Ruby Janes.  But that’s a ways off, since she is still Just Sitting.

5) Breastfeeding supplies.  Mostly, my pump. I got a screaming deal on an Ameda Purely Yours, and ended up having to get the larger horns, and the manual attachment, but it was still light years less expensive than a Pump in Style, and as powerful and well rated. Actually, Lansinoh now co-brands the same pump, and sells it at Target and WalMart for about 150, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a pump.

6) Nosefrida! My newest score.  Yes, it’s a snot sucker from sweden that is operated with your mouth. But no! It’s not gross at ALL! Well, not as gross as the bulb is, anyway, when you’re in the business of blowing someone ELSE’S nose, it’s going to have a certain level of gross. But, the bulb is hard to navigate, can’t be cleaned, has to be squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, whereas the nosefrida? You don’t have to keep plunging, or even get it IN their nose…. the filter means you don’t end up with a mouthful of boog, and it comes apart to be cleaned. Since you control the suction, you can get just about everything in one pass. As I referred to it earlier — it’s the Nose Dyson. Yes, I bought a 20 dollar swedish snot sucker. But I would’ve paid TWICE that if they’d done a demo in the hospital. Seriously, it ROCKS.

7) Cloth diapers. We’re not CD’ing anymore as with Ingrid in daycare it would take a long time to get a load together (uh, for the wash) but we used them about 85% of the time until she was almost 9 months old. I actually kind of miss it, and can’t bring myself to sell her current stash like I did her newborn stash, but um, anyway, the CDs worked well for us while we used them. Could not have found any of my supplies locally.

8) Our stroller. While we haven’t used it as much as I expected (see, #1) we do use it, and it’s a fabulous stroller. We used it almost daily over the summer, and only once or twice this winter. I’ve never used it inside anywhere, preferring to wear her instead, but it’s a great outdoor stroller, so I’m glad we have it.

9) Information. The aforementioned babywearer website, kellymom.com for breastfeeding info, askdrsears.com or drgreene.com are my quick references, and for car seat safety, carseatsite.com.

10) All of my friends in the internet, who have shared their experiences, their time, their story, their thoughts with lil’ old me and Ingrid. Can’t imagine it without the internet. Truly can’t.

*I’m actually really, really, viscerally bothered by bucket carseats now, in a way that I never could have seen coming.  The concept of never-touching-your-baby as ‘convenient’ is so backasswards, I just don’t get it. I hate going to Target and seeing babies in buckets, crying, and their parents like "WHAT COULD BE WRONG!" and not moving to pick up the baby. Or, if they DO, then they’re hauling around the baby AND the bucket, and that is sooo not convenient. I still wear Ingrid in stores a lot, but I feel like my impact of showing the alternative is wearing down as she gets bigger.  Also, now? Graco is making a swing that you can clip the carseat into. So, car, grocery cart, stroller, and swing… GREAT. And, as a disclaimer, I’m sure that there are good reasons that people use bucket seats, that maybe I never had to deal with, and it’s not individual parents that I react to, but this general thought that since the advent of the bucket seat, you are SUPPOSED to make sure your kid is in a 5-pt harness at all times, that a sling or wrap is less safe, or you’re ‘spoiling’ the baby, or it’s not NATURAL to want to hold your baby close. It bothers Dave, too… one of his coworkers brought in her same-aged baby and just left him in the bucket in the hall while she ran around the building doing stuff. It freaked him out, because our way of doing things is just so…. not like that. But, it’s what Everyone Does! Way to go, Graco Marketing! Sigh.

Dave and I also have talked about going to Portland for the weekend, with a -gasp! – hotel room, so that we can see our respective best friends, which is something we did a few times when I was teaching, and was always a remarkably nice time.

AND, I’m thinking I want a Palm, only, OF COURSE, I’m the weirdo who wants a discontinued one. The Zire72, to be exact, because it has bluetooth and a goofy camera, which are the two features I used the most on my last cell phone, and miss on my new phone. (I don’t miss that the old phone and service had about a 6% success rate of call completion on the maybe 2 dozen calls I ever made.) The 72, though, would be like a Palm…. Duo. Instead of a Treo, which I don’t need. Yet. Anyone out there used the Zire 72?

I should just go to bed. Seriously. Like I need to spend money right NOW.

I cancelled my TMobile service on the 1st, because while it started off really good, the service in the last 6 months has gone completely to shit, as I’ve mentioned before. I would have five bars of service, dial, put it to my ear "call failed!" and look down, no bars of service. And this is in TOWN, not in my parents basement in the middle of the woods or whatever. I don’t even get how people can rely on a cell as a sole phone number, because I swear to god, my own experiences have just sucked. But, they do, and I see people on cell phones EVERYWHERE. Hell, in my own HOUSE I barely got service, but I’ve seen people from all kinds of other providers talking away on theirs! Anyway. DEEEpressing.

So, I cancelled the service, and want to go with a regional carrier, Unicel, because it seems that around here, if you can rely on your cell as your sole phone, you use Unicel. Plus, it’s the only carrier that has mini-plans, which are my preference, because I’m really NOT a cell phone user, but it’s really nice to have when I’m running late, or whatever. Plus, I am a HUGGGGE geek, and love the camera phone concept, and, quite honestly, I used my phone more for it’s camera than it’s PHONE, so,err, yeah.

Anyway.

Here’s the rub! Yay, Unicel for having a $20 plan and good local coverage and all of that! But, your phones blow, from what I can see. I really loved my Motorola V330, like, a lot, and it’s not an option at Unicel. I really want a camera phone but my choices are the RAZR (so does not appeal to me, looks like an accident waiting to happen) or the PEBL in red (very cute, but not well reviewed), or the Nokia 6103 — again, looks fine, but not well reviewed, and maybe possibly the Sony Ericsson z520A – no longer on the website, but it was at the kiosk in the mall. The Sony appeals the most, I think, but then there seems to be some problem with the screen going black within months, if I’m to, again, believe the reviews.  The  cheapest  camera phone option is the LG1400, which won’t allow me (if I’m to believe the website) to use the picture messaging email thing, which if I get a camera phone, i totally want to do, because I’m a weirdo and love Molly’s cameraphone LJ, which would be possible to do through unicel, I do believe.  Oh, and the Nokia and LG are tri-band, instead of quad.

And then I think, jesus christ, it’s a PHONE that you will rarely USE, so just get the freaking base model, the Motorola V197 (it has to be a flip phone, that’s a dealbreaker) which would be like, 30 bucks before rebate, is quadband, all of that….  which would really be the sensible thing to do, you know, just get THAT and then… upgrade? I wonder if you can do that. Or when I get a super awesome job, maybe I’ll be able to upgrade to a phone I really want, instead of choosing from phones I don’t necessarily dig. Any experience or advice?

ARGH.

Not my physical house, although we’ve been doing that too — trying to re-find stuff that was put away wrong by well meaning family members over the holidays just makes it trickier — but for a few weeks I’ve been planning on cleaning my iBook of random data, and the addition of a D70 means that I should really make room for more pictures, aside from the 3k (of 1mb or bigger pics, too) I have in iphoto already. I’ve had a TON printed, but really, only about 1/7 of that, and I post probably less than 10 percent of all pics I take, but even the ones that haven’t been printed or posted, I want the originals, I don’t know, in case Ingrid wants to make a flip book of her first year or whatever. But managing to rack up 3k of pics in 7 months (and yes, almost all are of Ingrid or Ingrid-related) with just occasional visits from the D70, means that I think I’m looking at taking even more photos this year with the new camera. Tomorrow is Other Data day, where I’ll burn off school work and other crap, filter through the random PDF files that I don’t need, etc, and back that up.

I also finally, cancelled my cell service today — I had TMobile from 2005, and it worked well for a good long time, but after Ingrid was born it went straight to shit — I think I had 5 successfully completed phone calls in the last 6 months. I’ve only been able to complete a voicemail check 3 times, I think. It’s gotten insanely shitty, considering I live in one of the biggest cities in Maine. (Prowling on the internet, though, I see that something definitely happened wrt T-Mo over the summer, and I’m not the only one suffering.) Part of why I liked them was that I could get a less than $40 plan, but some investigation shows that Unicel has a $20 plan which would be perfect, and I know several Unicel users that have their cell phones as sole phones, and they always sound crystal clear, never have service issues, etc. I’m not going to sign up right away, but that’s on the agenda for The Future. (weirdly, though, it seems like Unicel’s phones are a generation behind all of the other companies phones, but, whatever… I just need a damn phone.

ANYWAY.  I tend to love the holidays, agnosticism aside, and yet, I also love the return to normalcy that January 2 tend to provide. Now, I have to go find my ass a JOB. Sigh.

Seriously. I love the D70. It’s a fairly…. extravagant…. gift, but the reality is that it’s basically the newest one my dad had purchased for the studio, but the flash (speedlight!!!) and the lightsphere (LIGHTSPHERE, omg) are new. And yes, one helluva gift, but it also means that I have my own setup for when Dad needs me to work — I can be second shot at weddings, do the tournaments, bring it for graduation shoots, etc. And, a d70 always gets more Ingrid pics out to my mom, so both of my parents have definite pros to me having a sweet camera in the house.  Still pretty freaking generous, and OMG, D fricking 70.