I have to admit that WordPress has come a long way over the years. It’s a pretty impressive platform, even if I’m not a big fan of PHP.
Still need to tweak the theme – the background color isn’t right, you’d think I’d have the color saved somewhere but you’d be wrong.
And soon – back to actually writing things.
At exactly 7:56AM Friday (9/24) morning, Matilda Sheehy Renaut was born at the DC Developing Families Center in Northeast.
I know I haven’t done much posting to this blog recently. Or, really, any. But I’ve been busy with other projects, and the now two kids, and all of that. I’d like to get back to blogging at some point, so I’m keeping this alive, but I make no promises.
Anyway, Matilda. Another great experience at the birth center. The wife’s labor was incredibly quick – first contraction was only about five hours before the baby was born.
I’m still getting used to the fact that I have two little girls. Matilda looks JUST like Adelina did at this age except for her chin. Adelina’s was a little more like mine. We’re curious if they’ll end up looking the same as they get older. My little brother and I could have been twins up to age one or so, and now look very different.
It’s very convenient to have another girl at the same time of year – she’ll be the same size as her sister in the same year/season, so we should be set for hand-me-down clothes.
I’m taking more time off work this time. I took all of last week and all of this week. I’ll go back after the Columbus Day holiday next Monday. It’s been cool to spend time with the family, and now we should be a little more settled in to the change before I have to go back to work and leave the wife alone at home.
And, in case you’re wondering, it’s still crazy, being a dad. And both of my girls are amazing.
I still can’t believe it. Our Verizon cell phone bill was $19 lower than last month. The guy who called me was actually telling the truth. Verizon actually called me and lowered my bill. Maybe other companies struggling through the economy these days could take a page out of Verizon’s book. Like Citigroup – instead of adding new fees, maybe try actually helping you customers. Credit cards, like cell phone companies, are largely interchangeable. It’s pretty simple for me to switch to AT&T; or to another credit card company. If Citi adds a fee to my card, I’ll close the card immediately. But now Verizon has actually given me a reason to stay with them. AT&T;, meanwhile, is forcing smart phone owners to buy a data plan in the name of better customer satisfaction. And I’ll probably spend more money with Verizon soon – when they have a phone with a data plan that meets my requirements, I’ll upgrade, and there’s another $30 a month or whatever it is. Anyway, thanks, Verizon. This is one of the coolest things a company has ever proactively done for me.
I’m always a little uncomfortable calling a place without any tables to speak of a “restaurant”, but that’s not the point, here. I got lunch from the Uptowner, the new sandwich place just north of Columbia Heights Metro. I got a club wrap and a bag of BBQ soy chips. It was kind of expensive – about $9 – but the food was good. They have some vegetarian options, which is rare, and the guy behind the counter was quite pleasant. The layout is a little funny – you order in one room, and go next door to pick it up. I didn’t immediately see next door, and was worried that the sandwiches were going to be pre-wrapped and shipped from somewhere, but they’re made fresh next door. Anyway, I’ll go back at some point. I apologize to Julia’s Empanadas, where I planned to go, but the construction makes it very difficult to actually get to Julia’s. Maybe next time.
I’ve been sitting here trying to think how this could be a scam, and I don’t think it can be. Verizon Wireless just called me, offering a plan review. I was skeptical, but figured I might as well listen. He told me that they could drop 150 minutes from each phone on our plan, and save us $10 a month. We don’t use all our minutes, so that was fine. It doesn’t renew our contract, it doesn’t give us fewer text messages, it doesn’t change anything. Just fewer minutes, cheaper plan. And the guy was obviously from Verizon, because he knew what my plan was, could see my usage, and didn’t ask me for any information. Has this happened to anyone else? I think I’m still in shock. Unless I’m missing something, this was just fantastic, proactive customer service from Verizon. And our contract is up – we can jump to another carrier whenever we want. I assume that’s why they called. Maybe the competition is finally strong enough that it makes sense to go after current customers instead of just trying for new ones. Anyway, this sure makes me more inclined to stick with them while I wait for them to jump on the Google Android bandwagon.
Originally uploaded by thetejon
The concert was, and I don’t hesitate to use this word, amazing. The openers, Street Sweeper Social Club, featuring Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, were cool. They put on a good show. If I still ever listened to music, I would think about buying their new album next week. We did not stay for Jane’s Addiction, so I can’t say anything about them. When we arrived, having bought presale tickets through NIN.com, we found that not only were we not on the grass, but we were actually on the floor, right in front of the stage. Now, my friend and I are not really the type (Or the age, I guess) to crowd up front, but I could have held a conversation with Trent at a more or less normal volume from the distance we were away. Not with the crowd there, sure, but that’s an idea of the how close we were. By the way, note to other bands – this is how to treat your fans. Presale tickets just required that you sign up at the website. When we arrived, there was a longish line to get in, and a short line to get presale tickets at will-call. I handed them my id, they gave me my tickets. They had my name printed on them. We went straight over to the presale entrance line, where they checked id again. So we couldn’t possibly have scalped them, even if we had wanted to, and we barely had to stand in line. Plus we got awesome seats. Do you notice how this makes you money, makes your fans happy, and works perfectly with or without the horrors of music piracy? And then Nine Inch Nails came on. This is a text I sent the wife:
This is [expletive deleted] awesome. I’m getting goosebumps every time they start a new song
They played a great variety of stuff. They played the song from The Crow soundtrack, which was surprising. They played “Gave Up”, one of my favorite not-as-well-known songs off 1992’s Broken. They closed with “Head Like A Hole” and encored with “Hurt”, much to the delight of the crowd. For most of the concert, I was just standing there, thinking, “I can’t believe I’m here listening to Nine Inch Nails live”. I’m looking forward to telling the kid someday how I left her with the wife to go see them. “Dad, you’re old”, she’ll probably say. But that’s okay.
Our honeymoon registry website recorded its first transaction today for a person we don’t know. The registry for our first customers has done well, but we know them. Well, I don’t, but the other guy who built most of the website knows them. Today was the first time someone we don’t know had something purchased from their registry. For the record, it was $100 towards “A visit to Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai’s most famous temple, located on a hill overlooking the city”. Chiang Mai, for those that don’t know (I had to Google it) is a city in northern Thailand. It’s pretty exciting. The website we built because it seemed like a cool idea is actually getting some use. Not a lot, yet, but some. So, remember, if you need a free custom honeymoon registry, you know where to go.
I think I posted a while back that I’m going to see Nine Inch Nails next week. I’ve been a fan ever since I saw the video for Head Like a Hole on MTV a million years ago, but I’ve never been to a show. This is their last tour “for a while”, which maybe means forever, so I just bought tickets. I just found out today that Jane’s Addiction, the worst band in the history of the Universe, is actually going on after Nine Inch Nails. This is the best news ever. Now, I don’t know if there are Jane’s Addiction songs that don’t suck – the only ones I know are the few that got on the radio back when I was actually listening to the radio. But the ones I know are truly and amazingly awful. Sorry if you’re a fan, but that just means you have bad taste in music. It’s really your fault. In any event, I’m pretty excited.
This one happened across the pond, not in DC, but this story is nearly as good as our local hero who beat DC parking enforcement. They decided to change some parking rules in (near?) London. To do this, they paint double lines on the street right next to the curb. This is in stark contrast to the ridiculous signs they put up here in DC, or sometimes the total lack of markings, requiring you to just know that you can’t park within five feet of an alley. So this woman’s car was parked legally before the unpublicized change to the rules. After the change, she would be illegal. So what did they do? They lifted her car off the ground, painted the lines, and put the car back down. Parking enforcement then came by and towed her for parking illegally. The article linked above has an awesome picture. She eventually got her MP involved and was refunded the 2400 pound fine (I think the exchange rate is better now than it was last time I was over there, but that’s still nearly $4000). By the way, Express, feel free to quote me again, but try to get it right this time.
The wife has been going a little crazy on eBay lately. If she was spending more than $5 at a time, I’d probably intervene, but she’s just buying clothes for our daughter, and she’s barely spending anything, so I figure it’s not a problem. I’ll be keeping an eye on her, though. Whenever someone mentions eBay, I invariably get an urge to buy something, because you can buy pretty much anything there. And every time I look at eBay, I end up searching for a nice Triumph TR6 in good condition for a reasonable price. I’m going to own one someday. I’m going to get some money together, buy one, get a one-way plane ticket to wherever it is, and drive it home. It will be glorious. I’ll do it when the weather’s nice so I don’t have to put the top up.