jonathanhickman.com

Dear Comcast:

I don’t want to try again in five minutes. I also don’t want to unplug the cable box and plug it back in a few minutes later. They call it on demand because it’s available on demand, not when Comcast gets around to it.

And while I’m at it, I didn’t like you blocking my ubuntu download last week. I know I’m not your biggest customer, but I am your customer, and I can’t imagine any other business staying open with that kind of service.

It’s a grilled cheese kind of day

I don’t think I’ve had a grilled cheese sandwich in at least two years, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that was because I was too lazy to make one. But last week when I was staying home with the Bug, I broke my two year no grilled cheese streak. Now I’m hooked again. There are few things better than a well-made grilled cheese sandwich.

Or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Yum.

Doing as little as possible

Well, on the downside, it’s raining, so I’m definitely getting no painting done today. But on the upside, we have a nice fire going inside today, despite thinking we were done with that for the year, and my wonderful wife has convinced me that I should do as little as possible today. It was a tough sell.

Starting anew

In my spare time this week (ha!), I upgraded my linux installation on my personal computer. From the get go, I decided to completey reformat the drive and start anew. I wanted to get rid of any junk remaining on the computer. But I had planned on reusing all of my old bookmarks and feeds in my feed reader,  but I somehow failed to get the bookmarks or feeds backed up. It wouldn’t take too much work for me to recreate them, but I just made the executive decision not to. I’m going to start anew and only recreate what I need to. W00t.

The Bug downtown

ya gotta love cell phone cameras. And baby backpacks. And cuteness.

I don’t miss it one bit, and that surprises me

A few months ago, in the height of my stomach woes, I reduced my caffeine intake from six to eight cups of tea a day down to one or two. The weird thing is that I knew it would kill me to give up caffeine. It’s not just that I expected to have sleepiness issues, either. I just really enjoy a cup of tea.

But I’ve found that I really don’t miss the extra caffeine at all. And on some days, I forget to make my first cup of tea until the afternoon. Other days I find myself thinking about making a second cup and never getting around to it.

I actually feel freed by the lack of caffeine. Who knew?

Because I’m weird, I think

I totally want a pair of these:

I’ve got you!

It’s a real bummer that I’m sick right now, and not just because I’ve been sick for more than a week now (bleh).

One of my brothers lives in the splendid state that is Mississippi, so I rarely get to see him or his clan. But this week, my sis-in-law brought the two young’ins up to Knoxville.

I can’t express how cool it is to get to see them, I’m afraid I’m scaring the cuteness that is Harper (scroll down). She runs up to me and squeals, in the way only a not-quite-two-year-old can, “I got you!!!”

I try to croak out a “no, I’ve got you!” but I’m afraid that might seem like a bad thing. I’ve so far refrained from picking her up, for the same reason.

I’m afraid of scarring the poor child.

Electronit vampires

Reading this article made me wonder how much money we spend at our house due to laptop power strips left plugged in, and toaster ovens with their little useless clocks, and cordless drills with their batteries maintaining a charge for that one time a month they’ll be used.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.

She pulled up!

For the last week or so, the bug has been pulling up every chance she gets. Any time there’s something to grab, she tries to pull up. But her only luck thus far has been pulling up with our help.

Well, that all changed this morning. I left her in her bed for just a minute (although I kept an eye on her because I knew she’d been trying to pull up), and after about ten seconds in bed, she was standing - yes, standing - at one end of the bed, using the top rail as support.

She’s obviously going to skip crawling. Oh, and don’t worry - I have now lowered her mattress.

Random parenting thought

It’s funny that I can tell when the bug has gone from sitting to lying on her belly - and soon screaming because she hates tummy time - just by what sounds her toys are making.