A New Career?

A couple of weekends ago, I had some friends over to watch football on the BIG SCREEN. The rec room, of course, needed some straightening. I vacuumed the floor, moved some plastic containers over to the sofa to serve as temporary coffee tables, and cleaned off my desk.

I also cleaned off the credenza that came with my desk. One of its "features" is that all four of the drawers tended to open up after I closed them. They just wouldn't stay closed and looked ugly. Three of the drawers had little push button locks on the side. Without thinking much about it, I pushed in all three of the locks. The drawers stayed closed. But, of course, they were now locked. And I didn't have the key.

I guess I thought that you wouldn't be able to lock the drawers without a key, and that the buttons would just pop back out. No dice. I asked my sister-in-law, from whom I'd gotten the desk, if she had the key. She just laughed.

At the party that evening, one of my friends helped me try to get them open. He works for a furniture company and was pretty knowlegable, but we were only able to get one drawer open, the one under the drawer that I didn't lock. He also showed me how to set the casters on the bottom of the credenza to prevent the drawers from sliding out. Which was cool.

But I still had two drawers locked away, with all my files from S to Z. It wasn't an immediate emergency, but you never know when you might need to check a Washington Gas bill from 1999, so I knew I had to do something. Maybe a locksmith, or maybe I could pick the lock.

I went to a pretty cool website called HowStuffWorks.com and looked up lockpicking. It gave me a pretty good idea on what to do, and after about twenty minutes work with a screwdriver and paper clip, I was able to pick the lock of the top drawer! Very exciting, although I'm sure it was mostly luck. I tried another twenty minutes on the bottom lock, but wasn't able to pick it. Taking the top drawer out allowed me to get the bottom drawer out.

Then I took off the lock hardware from each of the drawers, fixed the casters and put the whole thing back together. The drawers now stay in and everything is fine. I still do have this strange urge to pick another lock, so if this whole computer programming thing doesn't work out.... Well, you never know.

Update: (There was also an interesting story in Wired magazine this week about the World Lockpicking Championship. Read all about the Arthurmeister.)

The Missus

For everyone who has kindly been asking, the Missus is doing well. She's getting bigger all the time, but is still working. There haven't been any more symptoms of the placenta previa since a few weeks ago.

Here are a couple of pics of the Missus. I show up in one of them. (Click on the picture to see a larger version.) My brother-in-law Ray Flanagan took the one of both of us. Be sure to check out his photo website to see some awesome photography.

The Long Way Home

Snopes.com is the location of the Urban Legends Reference Page, the first place I check when I hear or get email about some almost unbelievable story. Bookmark it. Every once in a while, read the What's New? section. You won't be sorry.

Here's a pretty funny (true) story about Microsoft's MapPoint service and a long, long trip.

Thunder Snow!

Thunder and Snow. Pretty cool combination, especially if you don't have to go anywhere. The Missus and I are hanging out and staying warm. Hope everyone can do the same.

Here's a picture of the snow in Leesburg as of 12:30pm. Have a great day.

Less Fun

Yesterday was my birthday and cause for a little reflection about how things change as you get older.

Some good things come with age. The impending arrival of Frick and Frack is an example. (The Missus had another doctor's appointment yesterday and everything is still fine and dandy.)

There are a whole bunch of things that were just better when you were a kid. Summer vacations. Saturday morning TV. Christmas. And of course birthdays. When you were a kid it was your day, everybody did what you wanted (at least in my memory) and there'd be cake and presents and ice cream.

It's just not the same any more. Yesterday I went to work, stayed late, and, since the Missus was out when I got home, made myself a bowl of soup for dinner. My party, kindly planned by my sister-in-law for this weekend, has already been cancelled due to the twenty to twenty-five inches of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow. (I may be exaggerating.)

And next year I turn forty. Ouch.

It's a Boy!

Well Frack is anyway. We're not so sure about Frick. The technician thought Frick might be a girl, but wouldn't bet on it. She was pretty sure Frack is a boy. (It's easier to tell.) We go for another scan in three weeks. There shouldn't be any more mysteries after that.

Good news all around. The babies look fine and the Missus is fine too. There's evidence that her placenta previa is receding, something we were hoping for. We still have to keep an eye on that, according to the doctor.

But don't get me started on our experience at the hospital! I hate institutional incompetance, and though Fairfax Hospital's famous for delivering babies and their doctors seem to know what they're doing, the rest of the people there are idiots. We arrived early for our appointment at the sixth-floor Antenatal Testing Center, which we scheduled a month ago, only to be told we had to all the way back down to the lobby and register again. After a half hour of waiting for some paper pusher to finish her coffee break, the Missus was given a printout and sent back upstairs. Very inefficient and sloppy. I hate that! Okay, I feel better, now back to the babies...

Here's a couple of sonogram pictures. I added some translation to them (how much of it I'm just making up, I'll leave as a puzzle for the reader.) Enjoy.




Frick was a little shy and kept looking away.



Frick was trying to kick the sonogram wand.



Here's a picture of the both of them. The tech said we wouldn't be able to get them in one scan very much longer, since they'll be too big. They aren't as jammed together as they appear. Believe me, the Missus's stomach is big enough for two. (Don't tell her I said that...)

Mi Suegro

My father-in-law is in the hospital down in Puerto Rico after suffering a stroke last week. He's making slow progress, but his prognocis remains unclear. The Missus, who wants to rush down there to nurse him back to health, is unable to travel at this time due to the twins. It is really tough on her, but she is holding up well. I hope he gets well soon; he is a great guy and has always treated me wonderfully. Your prayers and kind thoughts are appreciated.

Goodbye HFS

Thursday morning I headed to work through an eerie fog that was like something out of a Stephen King story. Cars appeared suddenly out of the mist and swept the fog along in their wake. When I reached the ferry, I could barely see its lights out in the gloom that was the river.

Turning the radio on, I expected to hear the Sports Junkies, the genial donkeys (and fellow alumni of DeMatha High School) that I tune in to most mornings on good old HFS 99.1. Instead of hearing their usual babble, I heard Spanish salsa music. That's weird, I thought, the fog must be causing some strange echo. Maybe I was hearing a station from Mexico City or something.

Esta es tu nuevo radio! I heard some guy yell in that way that Spanish radio announcers do. (Multiple visits to Puerto Rico have given me experience.) Then some Anglo guy quickly says "WHFS Annapolis." Freaky.

Turns out when I checked good old dcrtv.com, an informative website that covers Washington radio and TV, HFS on Wednesday suddenly changed to a Spanish music station. It's all for ratings I'm sure. And I can't honestly say I listened much to HFS any more. I just didn't like the music. One of the reasons I liked the Junkies was that they didn't play music.

Oh well. I'm sure I wasn't in their target audience. I'm certainly not now, but maybe the Missus is....

Craving

The Missus has had her first craving, I think. It's not strawberries, or pickles, or strawberries and pickles, but it is a little strange. It's kim chee, the national vegetable of Korea. Actually it is a kind of pickle, but it ain't no Vlasic. The Missus has been eating a lot of it. That's not so weird, you say? No, but tonight she had it with her spaghetti.

Small Frick and Frack update

While the Missus was working at the hospital yesterday, she stopped in at the testing center, and was able to listen to Frick and Frack's hearts beating again. Everything sounds fine.

Next Tuesday we are scheduled for another sonogram, and we should be able to get some nice pictures of the boys (or girls, or both). We can't wait!

Go Navy!

Here's a link to the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet photos page. It has a bunch of pictures of the Navy's work in aiding survivors of the tsunami in Indonesia.

January People

They're back! There's one over there on the StairMaster. Two more on the treadmills. The gym is packed with guys and gals who made New Year's Resolutions to get into shape. The January People.

Most of them will be gone by February, but for now it's a pain in the butt. I haul my sorry self out of bed every morning (well, most mornings) at 5:15 so I can exercise in a relatively empty place. This morning, the place was packed. I hate that.

It's partly my fault. I've gotten attached to certain machines there, which is a dumb thing to do. There's one StairMaster that I really like to use on my cardio days. Now I get upset when someone is using it, or, as happened this morning, someone is using the machine right next to "mine."

I know I should just use another one and not worry about it, but I'm bothered by it anyway. Out of all the identical steppers there, it is the best, dammit! Mr. Spock would say "That is not logical." I would say, "Bite me, Mr. Spock."

It should only be another three weeks or so until it's back to the regulars and goodbye Januarians.

So Far, So Good

The Missus had another doctor's appointment today and everything seems to be going fine. We didn't get any sonograms of Frick and Frack, but we did get to hear their heartbeats and, well, I could tell there were two of them, and the doc said they sounded okay. I couldn't figure out if either heartbeat was male or female so we'll have to wait a couple of more weeks to find out.

It's back to work for the Missus, but she'll have to take it slow and make sure she doesn't strain herself. Because of the previa we'll have to keep a close eye on her, but unless she starts spotting again, the doctor doesn’t think she needs to stay at home.

It Was a Deer, Dear

There's a long stretch of road after you drive through Poolesville on the way to White's Ferry. A few houses line the road, but it's mostly woods; a nice scenic drive, especially on a beautiful sunny day. At night, the drive is a little tougher. Not many lights on the road--actually I'm not sure there's electricity out that way. Some things bother me: the cars in the opposite lane that neglect to switch from their high beams; people who go too slow when I'm in a hurry and too fast when I'm not. And deer who run right out in front of my car!

Last night I came around a corner and there was a deer jogging down the middle of my lane right toward my car. As I hit the brakes, the deer calmly moved to his left and continued down the side of the road. I think he waved at me as he passed. If he'd turned to his right, he would have been sitting in my car with me, at least whatever part of him made it through the windshield.

When I got home, the Missus saw that I was keyed up. She might have noticed that I was squinting my right eye like Popeye the Sailor. "Headache," I mumbled, and explained about narrowly missing the deer.

"Have dinner and then I'll rub your shoulders," she said, showing what a dear she is. Of course she's pregnant and fell asleep before I'd finished dinner, but hey, it's the thought that, well, you know.

Back to the Grind

The Holidays are over. Definitely somewhat of a letdown after a couple of weeks of parties, vacation days and good food. Tomorrow it's back to a full week, and a less-than-full belly as I try to get back to eating sensibly.

We're looking forward to Tuesday when we go see our doctor again. I hope we'll get some more pictures of Frick and Frack then. We might even find out if Frick is a boy and Frack is a girl--and/or vice versa--and/or in reverse.