The boys are back in town!

After a week at grandma and grandpa's house, the boys (aka Trent and Brian) are now back home. Quick update on Trent's rash... we went to see the dermatologist this morning and she shares my suspicion that the rash was shingles. The reason being that the rash contained itself to a specific muscle group on his body, which is characteristic of shingles. She suspects that it was from the chicken pox vaccine that Trent received. It's not common, but it does happen. The good news is that you generally only get shingles once in your life, and it's much less painful and easier to recover from it as a child, than as an adult. The rash is pretty much gone now. Just a few scabs remaining. Trent doesn't seem to be too phased by it, though now that the rash is healing he indicates that there's some nerve tingling in that region, which is common after shingles. I'm just relieved that it's going away. It's quite alarming to see a rash like that show up on anyone, but when it's your kid, it's a million times more scary!

In other Trent news, he's learning new words every day now. The rate at which he's picking up vocabulary is astounding. Every day he busts out new words that indicate understanding of the world around him. They're not just words he's repeating from hearing us. I'm so impressed with the little guy.

Yesterday I got to babysit Jett for the first time. It was only for an hour while Barbie showed a house, but we got a lot done. See for yourself: http://picasaweb.google.com/trent.bauman/Jett#.
Later on we had a visit from aunt Jen and cousin Ethan. It was so cute to watch the two boys play together. I think Ethan will make such a wonderful big brother ;-)

Happy New Year!

It's that time of year again. My favourite time of year, in fact: New Year. The mother of all holidays (for me). I prefer it over all other holidays because of what it symbolizes. Out with the old and in with the new. A time of new beginnings, and a time to reflect on the happenings of the year behind us, rejoice in the victories, learn from the failures, and look forward to all that the universe offers. New year's day is filled with good intentions. We resolve to do something or stop doing something with the aim to generally better ourselves. This year I have no new year's resolutions to speak of. But in in 2009 I hope for the following:

To have the awareness to see the opportunities before me, and the courage to take those opportunities that suit me.

Some of the highlights from 2008:

• Nothing is more important than the well-being of my kid, and that anything or anyone blocking that mission is going down.
• I've learned to let go of my need to have a tidy house and have adjusted my tolerance level of mess.
• I changed jobs, even though I was perfectly happy in my current job. The opportunity presented itself and the signs from "the universe" were received loud and clear.
• I've made new friends and reconnected with some old friends.
• Girl's weekend with Kris
• I can eat a Dove bar every night, and as long as I work out it's ok!
• Tequila is my frenemy.
  
• Eventually, a cat will figure out a way around the child gate.
• You can smuggle veggies into almost anything, and both husband and kid will be none the wiser ;-)
  
• Some day Trent will wake up and see me watching him sleep and get creeped out. LOL!
• Mineral make up is the only way to go.
  
• Johnnie got married!
• Social networking is fun, but one should always be aware of one's internet footprint.
• I finally have enough pairs of shoes. Is that really possible?
  
• All those cute trousers in my closet are too big, and I'm ok with that. I should get rid of them.
  
• Brian has never let a day go by without saying he loves me :-)
  

testing

Just installed Flock. I'm testing to see if this actually makes it to my blog :-)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Horsey horsey don't you stop...

Just let your feet go clippety clop
Your tail goes swish and your wheels go round
Giddy up we're homeward bound.

That's the song I've been singing to Trent all morning while he rocked his new rocking horse.

This morning we used the web cam and Skype to spend xmas with both sets of grandparents. One set here in Houston, and the other set on the other side of the Atlantic in England :-) it was quite successful. Nana and Grandad got to see all of us open our presents, and got to watch Trent play with his new rocking horse that they sent him. Trent's napping right now and I took the opportunity to shower and catch up on some web surfin ;-) The menfolk are all outside doing manly things, such as car maintenance, with the new man-toys they got from santa.

It's wine-thirty :-)

Xmas eve

It's xmas eve. 11:05 to be precise. Only another hour before mum gets up at the crack of dawn (6am GMT) to open her presents like a kid waiting for santa ;-)

Trent enjoyed his first xmas dinner. Not that it's his first xmas, obviously, but last year he was too young to eat solid foods. Today he drank BBQ sauce and sampled almost everything on the menu. He's such a great kid. I'm happy to report that his rash is looking WAY better. Of course, it's a relative term. I mean, someone looking at it for the first time would still be somewhat horrified, but having seen it progress over the past week, it's actually looking ok.

After Trent went to bed, Brian and I, with a little help from Grandma and some heckling from "Onion" (more on that in a sec), put together the rocking horse that his Nana and Grandad sent him. I can't wait to see his face tomorrow morning when he sees it!

Onion: Kevin's been trying to teach Trent to say "uncle". It sounds exactly like "onion" when Trent says it. Who are we to argue.

I've been tracking Santa for my own amusement. It's amazing how elaborate the tracking web sites are. Take this one for example: Norad Santa tracker You can even see youtube videos of santa making stops!

Merry xmas from Texas, y'all!

mystery rash

Last week Trent got a little rash on his right hip. We didn't think much of it and I put some diaper cream on it. The next day it was a little bigger, but still nothing to worry about. Then daycare called and mentioned it, and I decided it was time to take Trent to the doctor. We got in that day and saw the doc, who could not identify the rash, which was now red and raised with tiny blisters all over it and extending from his hip up the side of his torso about 6 inches. The doctor told us to bathe him twice a day with Dial soap and to call him the next day to let him know how it was looking. It looked bad. Had spread quite a bit. Anticipating that he'd advise us to see a dermatologist I made an appointment before speaking to him. The dermatologist narrowed it down to 3 possibilities, 2 viral and 1 bacterial. She took a swab and sent it off for testing, and in the mean time we would treat it for a bacterial infection with a topical antibiotic and a steroid. It took about 3 days of that to get the rash under control and meanwhile it had spread over to his butt cheek and down his right leg.
The surprising thing in all this is that it didn't seem to phase Trent at all. He never scratched it, and he never indicated that he was in pain or that it bothered him. He was marginally irritable on Thursday after we took him to the pediatrician, but beyond that he was his normal, charming self.
Yesterday, the last time I saw the rash, it was looking so much less angry and the blisters had turned into tiny red scabs. This morning the dermatologist called to tell me that the tests came back "normal". I asked her to clarify what she meant by "normal" since it could mean that it was an expected result taking the symptoms into consideration. However, she clarified it to mean that there was no virus and no bacteria. I should be relieved, right? He doesn't have a virus, and his skin isn't showing any signs of a bacterial infection, such as staph. But I'm not relieved. I want to know what it is. Of course, when the rash became a concern I googled it and found many sites with descriptions and pictures, none of which matched exactly. Some pictures of shingles matched, but the description didn't. And the way you get a bacterial infection, such as staph didn't match either. Usually you have to have an open wound that gets exposed to staph, and Trent never had a scratch on him. It's just so puzzling and frustrating.
Since the rash is responding to the current treatment, we'll continue to use it. And we see the dermatologist next week again so I hope to get some better answers.

The Queen's English?

I had to laugh today when I got a text message from my mum & dad on Skype, and they actually used the word "Y'all"!!!

It's nice to see them embracing the Texas side of the family :-)

Sssshoe!

Last night, Trent and I were hanging out watching "baby", which is what he calls the telly. (Start of tangent:) The reason he calls the telly "baby" is because when we were on our trip to Europe, we took his portable DVD player, and only played baby sign language DVDs. His favourite one, "Baby Signing Time" starts off with a song with lyrics "baby, baby, baby signing time, baby, baby, baby signing time" and of course the sign for baby is like you're rocking a baby. So he associated the word and sign "baby" with watching his DVD. Now he can actually say the word baby, and to clarify which baby he wants to watch, he says "big baby", which means the plasma (vs. just baby, which means the portable DVD player). (/end tangent)

Anyway, last night, while we were busy signing to each other I said and signed "Trent, help mummy take her shoes off". And do you know what he did??? He got off the couch, pulled off my right shoe, walked around the couch to the shoe cubby in the entryway, put my shoe in one of the compartments, walked back around the couch, took off my left shoe, walked back to the shoe cubby and put it in one of the compartments! How fricking smart is he??? I was so very, very proud!

I'm all a-twitter

Some of you might be wondering what that widget is on my blog that looks like a bunch of random posts by people you don't know. Well, that's exactly what it is. It's known as twitter. I was skeptical about twitter after hearing about it from co-workers, but I needed to try it out to see its potential for something I'm working on in my job. So I signed up, and within moments people from all over the world started to "follow" me. I guess you could call this the next generation in internet stalking tools. You can stalk - ahem - I mean follow anyone who has a twitter account.

The point is this: You update your twitter status as often as you want by simply answering the question "What are you doing?" These are known as "tweets" so for example, my status could say "I'm blogging about twitter (and I could put in a link to this blog)". People following me on twitter would receive this message either in their browser in a twitter application like twitterfox, via a twitter application they've installed on their system, on their phone as a text (if they chose that option), or the next time they go to twitter.com and log in, they'd see it. You might wonder why this is useful. I know I did, and I'm actually still on the fence about it. Although today I was posting an article to a product wiki, and within moments of me pushing the post button, I received a "tweet" from LotusInfo (it's a twitter user name, obviously) that mentioned my wiki article and provided a link to it. So I see it has potential. I just need to figure out the best way to use it :-)

Anyhoo, if you care to follow me on twitter, you can do so by signing up for an account yourself, and then searching for "amandabauman".

This concludes the geek portion of my day. Amanda out!

Dallas TX - You remind me of why I live in Austin

So this past weekend I made the trek up to Dallas for a wedding. 2000 was the last time I visited, and for good reason. I observed on my drive up there that as my proximity to Dallas increased, so did the arseholes on the road. There's a point, right between Waxahacie and Dallas where the courteous driver becomes the minority on the road and the SUV driving, bumper hugging, lane changing jerk who speeds up so you can't pass becomes the majority. It makes me very nervous driving around discourteous drivers and I swear I could have crushed diamonds with my buttox by the time I got to my destination, especially driving that tiny Honda. Why are people so dang angry in Dallas? Discourteous driving isn't the only off-putting thing about Dallas. When I checked into my hotel the guy at the front desk never cracked a smile, even though I was pleasant and smiling, and even joked with him. And later on in the evening I almost had to throw down with someone trying to steal a parking spot that I clearly had identified as being mine with my turn signal, proximity to said space, and the fact that I arrived there first.

Anyway, the reason for my visit, as I said, was a wedding. My friend Johnnie, who I've been friends with for about 14 years now, finally got married. This was the first time for me to meet his wife, Candace, and since my departure from Dallas, Johnnie has a whole new set of friends. I loved Candace and I made sure to let Johnnie know that he was marrying up. I made a couple of new friends at the wedding. The wedding took place in a dojo and the ceremony was fun and brief, as all good weddings should be.

After the wedding I took off for part 2 of my trip to Dallas. As luck would have it, my favourite Austin musicians were playing in Dallas that night at the Glass Cactus, and Michelle was there. Traffic getting to the Glass Cactus was ridiculous and it was here that the parking garage throw down almost ocurred. I must admit, though, I felt pretty cool when I got to the front of the club and told the hostess I was on the guest list, and she waved me through the velvet rope ahead of a line that was forming, and informed me that my party was waiting at the VIP booth on the far side of the dance floor :-)

Fortune smiled on me once again as one of the band members and his wife were not using their hotel room that the club had reserved for them and paid for, so I was able to take it and not have to worry about driving back to my hotel. That's when my good friend Tequila showed up. You know Tequila. He gets around, is the life and soul of every party, and man did Tequila party with us. We met up with our Dallas friend whom I'd met before at Cedar Street and she introduced us to her friends. What a fun bunch! we danced the night away and behaved completely inappropriately -- this tends to happen when you mix a bunch of girls with booze and good music. After the gig the party moved to the hotel and we partied well into the not so wee hours of Sunday morning. Further details surrounding this evening shall be omitted and locked in the vault to protect the guilty. I realized early Sunday afternoon that Tequila, despite being the life and soul of the party, is nobody's friend. In fact, Tequila will bite you on the arse, and kick you in the groin when you least expect it. Damn you Tequila.

Hey, Y'all... it's snowing (and Happy Birthday to my other BFF)

Last night was our first "snow" of the season. I'm using quotes when I say snow because it's Texas snow. The kind that causes the whole city to freak out and drive like complete idiots, even though the ground is far too warm for it to actually stick, and far too warm for ice to form. It'd be amusing if it wasn't life-threatening. It's rare for snow to happen in Austin, so we're ill-prepared for it, unlike the northern parts of the country.

Last night we went out for Michelle's birthday, anyone who knows Michelle will also know that on her birthday, more so than the rest of the year, she is the Queen and her every wish should be granted. And as her friends we all rally around to make this happen. And what fun we had. We started off with dinner at Azul Tequila, which was infused with margaritas and colourful dinner conversation, most if which should not be repeated in a public forum, but I can assure you that the restaurant mysteriously cleared out. Coincidence? I think not.
After dinner we went to Warehouse saloon for a bit of Karaoke. Now let me tell you, karaoke in the presence of a number of very well respected Austin musicians is rather an intimidating prospect. There were 4 of said well respected musicians in our group and as I took the stage for my rendition of Evanescence's "Bring me to life" I had a major case of stage fright, which I pushed through and sung my lungs out, accompanied by the fabulous Robert Wagner (of Suede fame, among other things), and Brian (Lee, not Bauman - who is musically challenged) belted out an amazing rendition of a Dio song that prompted a standing ovation from some neighbouring tables. Brian and Andrea were "nominated" to sing a duet together, and for neither of them really knowing the song, they did a damn fine job, and Andrea and I did Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't go breaking my heart", which I thoughoughly enjoyed singing with her. Michelle looked like she had a fun birthday, surrounded by great friends.

When we left to go out for the evening, the weather was not looking like it would produce snow and I was skeptical as we dropped Trent off at Aunt Tara's house when she said that the forecast predicted sleet. But as we left the bar it was, indeed, snowing. Driving home Brian and I observed that it was like experiencing warp speed as depicted on Star Trek (I'm a huge Trekkie). Tara reported that Trent was an absolute angel for her. He played and impressed her and Uncle Mike (via phone) with his mad skills with the flash cards. They cuddled for a while, and Trent curled up and went to sleep. What a good boy he is. We're so proud of him. Trent woke up during the transition from house to car and we got to introduce him to snow. He pointed out of the car window and said something that sounded like "whasat?". I said "snow" and he said "noo?" and I repeated "Snow" and then he started signing "bird". It occurred to me that bird is really the only thing he knows that floats around in the sky so maybe to him he was thinking the snowflakes were a massive flock of very tiny birds.

When I awoke this morning I was greeted by a Texas winter wonderland where all the houses had snow on the roofs, and any cars out in driveways had a nice layer of snow on them, but the rest of the world was relatively snow-free. It's funny that we can go from a high of 78 degrees to snowing on the same day. Ah the joys of living in Texas. I wouldn't change it for anything :-)

on a more positive note...

Thanksgiving was delicious! Some of the highlights:

Baked Brie with cranberry and walnut - I didn't make this but it is worth mentioning. Delicious! It's brie with a pie crust around it, and inside the crust is cranberry sauce and chopped walnuts with apricot.

Stilton cheese imported from England - if you have never tasted Stilton, you really should. It's so flavourful and creamy, and goes so perfectly with a big oaky red wine. MMMMMMMM!

Homemade sage and onion stuffing - Darice and I bought freshly baked bread and made our own breadcrumbs for the stuffing. I sauteed onions celery and garlic in butter until the onions were soft, then added freshly chopped sage, garlic salt, and chicken stock, combined this all with the breadcrumbs, and baked it for 40 mins. Delicious!

Shiner Bock Turkey with sage, rosemary and garlic rub - I made a sort of pesto with fresh rosemary (swiped from the bush outside my neighbour, Jim's house - thanks Jim for letting me "steal" some), fresh sage, garlic, and olive oil. I rubbed this all over the turkey, and separated the skin from the breast/legs and stuffed a bunch under there too. This year we decided not to stuff the turkey since nobody ever eats the stuffing inside the bird. It kinda groses me out that it's been touching raw poultry. Anyway, I shoved some coarsely chopped onions up the bird's bum, and then poured in 2 bottles of Shiner Bock. I basted the turkey every hour with the Shiner, carefully pushing the baster into some small incisions in the skin to baste under the skin. Oh my! what a wonderful turkey!

Orange glazed carrots with ginger - I got the idea for this from weelicious.com (http://weelicious.com/2008/11/25/orange-glazed-carrots/) however, I modified it by using butter instead of vegetable oil. Far less healthy but oh so yummy!

Garlic mashed potatoes - Freshly chopped garlic, garlic salt, milk, butter, feta cheese. Mash it all together. Need I say more?

Homemade cranberry sauce - Just a bag of Oceanspray cranberries, a cup of sugar, a cup of water/OJ or so, simmer and presto! way better than the crap you get in the can.

But the best part of all...

Best Bread Pudding - all credit goes to Darice for making it, and to "Paula Deen, y'all" for coming up with it. It truly, absolutely, was the best bread pudding I've ever had. Ever. Seriously. Go make it. The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-best-bread-pudding-recipe/index.html

Slight variation on the sauce though. We ran out of eggs and we didn't have brandy so we used rum. It was amazingly good.

Aside from the good food, we had good company, and Trent, as always these days, was a proper good boy. And we finally got to use that room at the front of our house... you know... they call it a dining room. It's not just a place for stashing your strollers anymore.

Xmas funk

Thanksgiving is over, and I can't shake off this grumpy feeling I get whenever the subject of xmas arises. I'm not trying to be a grinch, in fact, I was hoping that this year I would get into the spirit of things because now I have the best reason ever to celebrate xmas... to see my son's face light up when he opens his presents. And I am looking forward to that aspect, but the consumerism of it all just sucks all the joy out of the season for me. I hate having to come up with a list of things I want people to buy me. It takes all the thought out of gift giving if you just send someone a direct link to the item you want. Hell, if we're gonna do that, then let me just go buy it for myself, you go buy your own gift and we'll drop all the pretense that we're being thoughtful and call it even.

It's a bad attitude, I know. And people want to give gifts that you want and will appreciate, and are asking for my help. But if you know a person well enough to feel like you want to give them a gift, then shouldn't you also know enough about them to make a thoughtful decision for yourself on what the gift should be?

I guess the root of my attitude problem is this: last year was Trent's first xmas, and my parents were with me on xmas day for the first time in over a decade, and it was magical. And I suppose I'm protecting my heart from the disappointment of not having them here this xmas by copping a 'tude and setting my expectations low, which consequently makes me grumpy.

I want to shake it, really I do. Last year I even put lights up. This year I can't be arsed to do it.

Trent loves his Uncle Kev and Aunt Darice

Kevin and Darice arrived on Saturday night. We spent Saturday at Mike and Tara's for the OU game, and Trent was perfectly behaved and sooo cute when he curled up in my lap and went to sleep! Oh it just melts your heart. Kevin and Darice got Trent the coolest present. It's a dinosaur that is about as tall as him from head to floor, and he can sit on its back. At first he didn't know what to make of it, and when we sat him on it he was a bit confused, but now he tries to get on it on his own and bounces on it (it doesn't actually bounce) but he rides it like it does. I think he's going to really enjoy his xmas pressie from Nana and Grandad :-)

Kevin and Darice have enjoyed spending time with Trent. The last time they hung out with him he was still very young and not as interactive as he is now. Today we hung out in his play room and went through his flash cards from Renee. This is one of his favourite toys. Today he saw the monkey card and said "mummy" and made an "uuh uhh uh" sound like a monkey. Then he also saw the yak card and repeated the word "yak" after us. It's just amazing how much he's learning right now. So very cool to watch. Every day he busts out with a new word or sign. Yesterday we were driving and he pointed to the car in front of us and signed "car".

You can tell that Trent loves his uncle Kev. He sat next to him on the couch and tried to imitate him, and he had the biggest smile on his face.

A mushy post about friends

This month marks 16 years since the best move my BFF, Barbie ever made. Moving to Texas! Early next year she and I will be celebrating our 16 year anniversary. I've always believed that boyfriends/fair weather friends come and go, but best friends are forever. Sometimes when you make friends, you immediately know you'll be friends forever. Those are the friends with whom you can be completely honest, who can handle you raw, unfiltered opinions, and will always forgive you when you disagree or hurt their feelings. This, for me, is Barbie. There are those friends who slowly become best friends over time, too. Not the same "lightening bolt" so to speak, kind of a slow charge until one day you realize that your week isn't complete unless you interact with this person (you know who you are). Then there are those who you didn't expect to become your best friend but turn out to be irreplaceable (you know who you are, too).
I remember when I first met Barbie. I was fresh off the boat, so to speak, and she had just moved down from Iowa, a cocky 17 year old who thought the world owed her. I would greet her every morning with "morning Baaaaaahb!" and she'd reply "uh.. it's BaR-BIE". And I'd laugh because she hated to be called Barb, and it cracked me up to have her correct me. She was so emphatic and animated. Her hands would go up as a visual cue for me as she sounded out the word "BaR-BIE", and her eyes would kind of dart around in her head. Y'all know the face I'm talking about. LOL!

Anyway, happy 16 years in Texas, Baaaahb! And here's to another 16 years of us laughing, fighting, and being there for each other.

quality time with Trent

Brian made his yearly trip to the race track with the Honda this past weekend. He is now certified to race without an instructor! Go Babe! Unfortunately, he wore through an entire set of brake pads, and is spending today working on getting the Honda back up to spec. He had a blast, though, and he made some very cool new friends. Hopefully he can make this a more frequent trip than just once a year. Meanwhile, Trent and I spend the whole weekend hanging out, just the two of us. I really enjoyed it, I think Trent did too.
On Saturday morning we played and watched the Disney channel, then we went for a run in the afternoon and played some more up until bed time. On Sunday we ran errands together, and had a lunch date a Whataburger. Trent was the most charming lunch date. He used his fries to eat almost a whole carton of BBQ sauce, and he only wore a little bit. We sat and chatted and used lots of sign language and Trent flirted with people as always. When we were leaving a lady came up to us and said that she was really enjoying watching how we interact with each other and she was really impressed with Trent's communication skills. It's so nice when random strangers compliment you on your kid :-)
We also had a productive weekend. Trent helped me vacuum the carpets upstairs (he sat on my hip as I pushed the hoover around), then we cleaned the floors downstairs (Trent pushed the swiffer around), we cleaned out the pantry and Trent helped me by putting things in the trash can and when I was finished, he so helpfully took something out of the trash and put it back in the pantry ;-). And then he helped me fold all the laundry by crawling on it and pulling out random things for me to fold. After a nap and chores we went out for a run to help offset the Whataburger we had for lunch, then we played and Trent took a bath, playing with his new bath boat we picked up during our errands. And we ended the day with stories until Trent signed "sleepy" and he went to bed.
I think alone time with Trent was just what I needed! I'm just so proud of my little helper.

you guys

I realized the other day that I no longer use the word "you" in its plural form (which is still "you") and instead I use "you guys". Even when I'm referring to women. I do this because in America, using you as plural confuses people and they think you're addressing just one person in a group. At least that's been my experience. I don't like how "you guys" sounds, so....

I'm going to embrace my Texanism:

Coming to a conversation near you soon...

"Y'all"

As in "y'all better not be makin' fun of my accent when I say y'all".

Dog - Free to good home

Our neighbor has a puppy he's giving away (FREE). It's a Dachshund, it's house broken, and it's great with kids.

He's giving it away because his wife says the dog 'stares' at her when she is undressing, and that gives her the heebie jeebies. I think she is just weird!

So ff you're interested, or know someone who is, let me know. Here's a picture of the dog (see below).




















Hehe. Creepy, no?

Baby Blue Tooth

It's amazing how much information toddlers absorb about their surroundings. I was blown away the other day when Trent picked up a USB thumb-drive that way laying around. My first instinct was to take it from him, but as I was about to, I noticed him putting it up to his ear and trying to talk into it, just like daddy does with his Blue Tooth headset!

There are no flies on this kid!

It's Alive!

So remember my recent post about my Canon Digital SD450 LDC screen getting shattered? Well it is now in full working order! Just call me Handy Mandie from now on :-)

The instructions I used can be found here: http://www.andyozment.com/guides/broken_lcd_cracked_screen_canon
These instructions were spot on and extremely helpful. Without them I probably would have made many mistakes and it likely would have taken many times longer. So thanks, Andy Ozment, for explaining this so well!
One small amendment to Andy's instructions:
In step 6, you actually can remove the tripod mount. I found that there were 2 small screws holding it in place on the SD450, and I undid those and the tripod mount came right out. I highly recommend doing this rather than threading paper through with the old ribbon cable. (I did try that method and broke the paper, which then caused me to look for other options).
Here are some pictures of the process...

Camera with the case removed







Camera with the LCD removed, but still attached by the ribbon cable. The white area is the LCD backlight.






This image shows a piece of paper taped to the ribbon cable so you can pull the new cable through with it. I suggest if you use this method that you use something stronger than paper, like string, instead.




This is the new LCD screen in place after it's been connected to the circuit board.






And this picture is evidence that it works! YAY!







Of course, I couldn't stop at just fixing the camera. I also wanted to understand how this happened since clearly the glass surrounding the LCD was not actually broken. So I decomposed the LCD screen layer by layer till I found the source of the crack :-)
The screen is made up of two layers of glass. One thicker outer glass, then a paper thin layer of glass, presumably with the transistors embedded into it, which is overlayed by two sheets of flexible polarizing material, with the liquid crystal between the two. The paper thin glass to which the polarizing material was attached was shattered. I still have no concrete proof that it was sound that broke the screen. But it's looking more likely.

Baby Einstein

I don't put much stock into other people's comments about their kids being geniuses, or smart, or gifted. I think every parent would like to think that their kid is special, smarter than other kids of the same age, etc. So I am posting this not to say my Trent is a genius, but just to say I'm proud of him for working so hard on his communication skills.

At school yesterday his teacher told me that they took out a sign language book, and Trent knew far more signs than anyone else in his class (even though he's the youngest).

His sign language vocabulary is quite impressive, I must admit. He's also mimicking things we say, so now's the time to "mind your Ps and Qs" so to speak. He has a toy owl (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa's trip to Ireland) and he is very fond of it because he actually can say it's name. "Ow-el". He points to it, or holds it out to show me and says "Ow-el" very clearly. And the other day I asked him what an owl was, and he signed and said bird!

Way to go Trent! we're so proud of you.

Election 08

I can't let the presidential election results go uncommented... And I don't like to talk about politics. My views on politics are similar to my views on religion. Private. Nobody's business but mine. And if you want to shove your ideals down my throat or persecute me for mine on either subject, I'm likely to tell you to f*** off.

As a person who doesn't have the right to vote in this country, which I might add, is by choice -- I am quite eligable to become a citizen, and I have my reason for not becoming such, which far outweigh any benefit I might gain from doing so -- the most PC thing I can think to say is this:

Thank you America :-)

Get yer kit off, Jason?

Ok, I'm a huge fan of Jason Statham. I'll watch anything he's in because he usually does awesome action movies where he plays a complete and utter badass, and while he's not the best looking man on the planet, he exudes manly sexiness. I watched "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" last night. Well, I attempted to watch it, let's put it that way. About an hour into it I declared it a complete snooze-fest. I've come to expect a certain level of gratuitous shirtlessness and greased-uppedness from Jason, based on his past films, but this movie had no such thing. At least not in the first hour. Where's the hook, man? how are you gonna keep us womenfolk watching if you dunna take yer kit off? Sure there were some fight scenes in which he was a badass, but again... shirt. Hear me, Hollywood. It's what the ladies want.

Suede rocked my LCD screen to pieces!

Check out these images of my LCD screen on my Canon SD450:



The interesting thing to note here is that the actual glass is unaffected. It's simply the LCD that is shattered. There's clearly an impact point, which would lead you to believe that something hit it. But I'm 99% sure that nothing hit it. I have no evidence to support this theory, and I've tried Googling it, but no hits, but I think that the sound produced by the band cracked my LCD! Ok, it's a far-fetched idea, but bear with me here. I mean sound waves can actually break glass. A little background on why I think this:

So the girls and I were at the cave party. Suede was playing (side note: Awesome party, very creative costumes). We went to dance and Barbie and I put our purses on top of the speaker. The camera was in my purse, which was never dropped or put in harm's way. I had taken a photo only moments before we went to dance and all was well. The next time I took the camera out, which was a few moments after retrieving my purse from the speaker (where it had stayed the whole time I was dancing), the LCD screen looked like that!

So the camera is toast. It still takes pictures, but I can't access any of the menu functions like this so we're stuck on Automatic. First instinct is to write it off and buy a new one, but the geek in me wants to take it apart and fix it, bionic man style. I blame my dad for this trait - when I was a kid, I'd always find him in the garage with the back off of a TV or the guts of a VCR hanging out, and I'd watch as he fixed it. Is it strange that I feel a little excited at the prospect of taking something apart? Anyway, I'm gonna order a new LCD and install it myself. What do I have to lose? If I pay someone to repair it, that would cost more than just buying a new camera. And if I destroy the camera, well ok, I'm out $60 and I no longer have a tiny camera that doesn't fully function and we're back to buying a new camera.

We have the technology. We can rebuild it. Wish me luck!

End of week 1

Today marks the first week in my new job. I've been busy all week and my email inbox is extremely active. I've got about 10 pages of handwritten notes and a todo list as far as the eye can see. And aside from the fact that I have a burning knot in my left shoulder, I'm actually not stressed. Or maybe I am and I'm in denial.

I hope the pace of this week isn't an indication of how life will be from now on. I'm hoping it's a learning curve and a matter of getting processes in place, and then thing will slow down. I've managed to get to the gym only once this week and haven't had time to even go for a run. Not good. The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that I'm far too busy to eat. Every day this week I've sent the boys off and got straight the laptop, and around 10:30 my stomach has complained that it's hungry and I've fed it something to shut it up, like a banana, or a small bowl of cereal. Then by 3pm I've realized that I've missed lunch, so I grab a large handfull of peanut M&Ms (curse you Costco for having a 5lb bag of them!). Then, realizing it's too late to eat otherwise I'll mess up everyone else's dinner schedule, I suffer through till dinner time.

Hopefully when things settle down I'll be able to get back into a healthy routine. Hey, at least I'm not bored at work!

Trent "Awesome" Bauman

The "A" is for "Awesome".
Today I'm going to bore you by bragging about my kid. I always got so annoyed by those parents who felt it necessary to share every little detail of their kid's development with me. Like "little Jimmy drank out of a big boy cup today!". I never quite got the significance of those tiny accomplishments, passing them off as "big fricking deal, my cat can do that". Having lived with Trent now for almost 16 months, I can really appreciate this type of cheer leading for your kid. Aside from the wailing episode from the recent haircut, Trent is the most amazing, sweet kid I've ever met. Ok, granted, I'm biased, but every day I'm just blown away by something he does.

Recently he has been so cooperative when he's getting dressed/undressed. He used to struggle and fight but now he actually assists.
He is now really good at eating with a fork/spoon. Almost always gets the food into his mouth. When he comes home from school, he immediately goes over to his chair and indicates that he'd like you to help him get in it.
He can drink from a regular cup now without spilling it all down the front of him, and he will put the cup down without knocking it over. While I always thought this was no big deal, it actually is because so many times he's tipped the cup too far and ended up wearing the contents. They also go through a throwing phase with cups, where when they're done, they just let go or toss it. You can't do that with a regular cup.
Then there's all the words he's saying - he's repeating a lot of the things we say. He's using his sign language consistently, and he's sounding out the letters of the alphabet when I use the flash cards with him. It's so cute when he hears Brian in a different room, and he says "dada!" and does the sign, then goes to find him.
Over the weekend he actually took a nap without fighting me, largely thanks to Grandma, who simply put him in his crib and walked away. He doesn't try to push Grandma's buttons like he does me. But following her lead the next day I put him down for his nap and walked away. Presto! the kid rolled over and slept!
The last several nights he's signed that he's tired and gestured to get into his crib! Usually, when we put him in his crib, he'd have a little fuss for a few seconds, but now he's just rolling over, hugging his night-night bear, and going to sleep.

Every day I'm so impressed by how smart he is. Lately he's been learning to put the shapes into the shape sorter. He consistently goes for the circle or square and knows which holes they go through. The other shapes he's working on, and with just a little pointing from me, he wrestles them into the right holes. He's also doing really well with the stacking cups. He now builds towers all on his own using the cups in the right size order, and then he nests them, experimenting with the different sizes till the right one fits. He seems to have a very logical mind, which I think he must get from Brian. For that I'm very thankful.

Every evening after dinner, we go up to his play room and spend an hour playing before bed. And every evening he does something that makes me so proud of him, whether it's sorting blocks, building towers, gathering toys and putting them away in their bins, or simply curling up on my lap for a story. I sure do love my little guy. He's so cool right now that I want to freeze time and keep him like this forever. But I know even cooler times are ahead.

Brian and I can totally see now why people have more than one kid. Not that we have any plans for more right now, so you can all let out that breath you just sucked in and held for a split second longer than normal breathing ;-) I'm just saying that with how awesome Trent is these days, we wouldn't be opposed to having another one just like him. And the liklihood of having another one just like him is quite remote... so that's just a silly pipe dream.

Sweeny Todd

This morning, as I sent my boys off to school and work, I couldn't help taking a time out to snap a few quick shots of Trent.
Last night he went through the trauma of a haircut. He hates having his hair cut and it takes two of us to hold him down as he wriggles and struggles, screaming like we're trying to actually cut his head off or something.
I use clippers, which is part of the problem. He doesn't like the sound of them. Grandma had a good suggestion - she said maybe I should let him hold them for a while and get used to the sound. But, alas!, it didn't work out so well. He immediately cried as soon as I turned them on. Even when I stopped using them, and set about him with the scissors he freaked out because he was being held against his will. Tossing his head around. You have to be really careful with a pair of scissors around a writhing 15 month old, it's kind of like trying to shave a cat.
I've tried other methods of cutting his hair, such as waiting for him to fall asleep in his buggy, and then giving him a stealth haircut. But it's hard to do and I can never get the back properly. Again, the though of duct taping him to a chair crossed my mind, but that'd make me a bad mother and CPS would be knocking on my door if they caught wind of it.

But the end result is always worth the agony. Just take a look a this handsome fella I woke up to this morning!

1st day on the new job

Monday was my first day on my new job. My day flew by but I couldn't tell you what I did with the time, really. I've spent the past 7 years working, for the most part, with the same set of developers, and essentially on the same product, although the product (well just call it XPD) has morphed and changed over the years. So I've had a very narrow view of the world for a long time. Living and breathing XPD, not having the time to raise my head up and take a look around me to see what else goes on. And now suddenly I find myself up in the clouds looking down at the bigger picture. It's still not the big picture in the grand scheme of things, but it's definitely a bigger picture than I'm used to.
I found it interesting, refreshing, actually, to think of something other than XPD. It's not without it's bad points, though. As with all change, with it comes the feeling like big dumb ass because I don't know anything yet, and I don't even know what it is I don't know so I can't ask good questions. But I know this is temporary and I am going to rock this job. I just have to figure out how to divide that bigger picture into manageable chunks.

Weekend fun

Trent and I ran 8 miles with Uncle Mike on Saturday. That was my first time to run 8 miles since my last marathon, I think... We both felt great, though (Mike and I). Trent seemed to enjoy the scenery around Brushy Creek Park as well. When we arrived home, Grandma and Grandpapparazi were here! Brian and Grandpa spent the entire weekend trying to fix a broken sprinkler in our back yard, meanwhile Grandma and I entertained Trent.
Trent is learning so fast these days, it's amazing to watch. Some of the things he does leads me to believe he's got a very logical and analytical mind. We spent a lot of time building towers, sorting shapes, climbing up and down stairs, etc.
On Saturday night I got a reprieve from the routine to go shake my bum at Cool River with my favourite band, spending the majority of the evening dancing up front with my "partner in crime", Michelle. I've mentioned this before that the people watching at Cool River is stellar. This night was no exception. I hate the place, but I love it, and for the same reason. Weird!
On Sunday I got a hankerin' (that's the Texan in me coming out) for ribs and in the interest of time, we opted to satisfy my hankerin' with a trip to Rudy's. Not the best place for ribs (y'all remember the Salt Lick, right?), but good enough.
Normally I wouldn't bore people with the details of Trent's nightly routine, but this warrants a mention. Last night after his bath, Trent actually asked to be put in his crib. He signed that he was tired, then he walked up to the crib, put both hands on the bars and tried to climb up. When I picked him up and put him in he rolled right over with this night-night bear, and went to sleep. What a good boy! Brian and I came down stairs and were like "did that just happen?".

Random post

This week's been pretty fun. On Thursday night I finally introduced a new set of my girl friends to Suede at Cedar Street. Renee was skeptical because she's not a fan of cover bands, but it was so much fun for me to see the look on her face as they rocked out. I think she was sold by the time they got to Van Halen. The other two, Veronica and Mara, joined us up front for the obligatory booty shaking.
On Friday evening Brian, Trent and I were planning a family dinner at County Line, but Aunt Tara offered to take Trent for the evening so Brian and I could have a date. Of course we took her up on the offer and went out for dinner, just the two of us. We had such a great time talking and being just us. It's surprising how you don't realize how little time you're making for one another when you are so busy raising a kid. It's also surprising to realize how relaxing it is to have dinner sans kid.

So far this weekend, Trent and I have ran 14 miles over 2 days. We thought about doing the IBM 10K but it was too early in the morning and I was feeling slightly lazy. Several of our friends ran it, though, and I can't wait to hear how it went for them.

One more week till new job starts. I'm sooooo ready for the change. I will miss working with my old team, though. I've been working with this group of developers for 7 years. I guess you could say I have a 7 year itch. I'm struggling to come to terms with the fact that I'll be giving up my technical skills to do my new job. It doesn't take long to get rusty in this industry, so I need to be ok with that. Part of me thinks I could still keep up with the technology. Maybe I can. Or maybe I just need to deal with the fact that I'll be aquiring new skills and focusing on my soft skills. Anyway, it's a good, scary change. I needed to shake things up a bit.

New Job

OK. Now that it's been announced, I can share a limited amount of details on what my new job is. Of course, I never reveal which company I work with, or mention any co-workers or manager names in my blog, so if you want more details than this, you can contact me directly.

I'm staying with my current company, and I am even staying within my current division. I'm going to be a Program Manager. I'll be reporting to a 2nd line manager in my organization now, and will be managing a program that identifies the need for technical articles, finds writers willing to write the content, and connect them with the appropriate delivery formats and vehicles for that type of documentation. That's an over simplified version.

I have a mixture of feelings about the new role. I'm ready for a change and I feel like it's long overdue, but of course I've been in my comfort zone for so long now that it's a scary change. It's also a very visible role, and being an introvert (gasp! it's true), this is the part I'm struggling with the most. I can't let fear keep me in my comfort zone, though, so here we are.

BFF weekend

This weekend was filled with the company of many of my BFFs (Best Friend Forever). I'm so lucky to have so many people in my life who qualify for that title. And I'm not sure if I've shared this news... my oldest BFFs (as in those I've known the longest, not that they're necessarily old) are working on moving to the USA! How fricking exciting is that? Mel has accepted a job in California and is working on passing all the tests now. It could be less than 2 years!
So this weekend was a long weekend for us. I took off Monday to hang with my sweet Trent. On Saturday we all went over to Mike & Tara's for the Texas / OU game. I actually wore burnt orange --not because I like football. Let's get that right out of the way-- but because I feel a sense of loyalty to my home town's team. Yeah, you read it right. My home town. Austin. I can be considered a Texan, even an Austinite. And because I feel a sense of loyalty to the school and team that my husband loves. Anyway, needless to say I couldn't tell you what happened in the game, nor could I tell you the score. But I did enjoy hanging out with great friends. Trent got to hang out with his best buddy, Maverick. They just love each other. He would throw the ball over the upstairs balcony and Mav would run down the stairs to fetch it. I bet Maverick was sooo tired that evening.

On Sunday Trent and I got to go running with Aunt RockStar (Andrea) around Brushy Creek trail, where we discovered a really cool sand pit that Trent and I will re-visit when we have more time. It was covered with a big canopy and there were tons of buckets and spades strewn about for kids to play with. We did a respectable 5.5 miles. On Sunday afternoon we went over to Aunt Barbie and Uncle Scott's to hang out with Cousin Jett, where Aunt and Uncle Bebe and Cousin Aria met us. It was our first time to all hang out with the kids. Trent was a perfect little boy, playing with his buddy, Radar, and trying to be gentle (but not succeeding) at petting Jett. Uncle Bebe entertained us a little with Uncle Scott's guitar, and Trent sat mesmorized on the floor with me.

On Monday, Trent and I spent the day together for the most part. We walked on Town Lake with Aunt Barbie and Jett, then had lunch at Magnolia Cafe. Then we played all day, and Trent went for a run with Daddy some time before dinner. He's such a cool kid, these days. I wish I could just stop time and keep him like this forever!

15 month milestones

I can't recall if I mentioned that Trent has "graduated" to the toddler class at daycare. He's fitting in really well and seems to be having a blast. Unlike the infant class, in the toddler class their days are more structured. We really like his teacher, Ms. Mandy, and feel confident that Trent's getting the best care possible.

Lately, though, he's been coming home and running to me wanting to be picked up. Which I do, because I miss him during the day and I'm so happy to see his smiling face come through the door. However, as soon as I put him down he throws a massive tantrum! Twice now I've had to give him a time out. I've found that time outs are effective if combined with a stern voice and some finger wagging, but it's so heart breaking to have to do that and see his little face looking up at me sniffling and trying to be a good boy and stop throwing a fit. I think he's testing boundaries right now and once he discovers how far he can push us he'll move on to other tactics of manipulating us. I'm sure he doesn't understand me when I say "Mummy does not respond to screaming, so you'll have to figure out how to communicate in another way". But it makes me feel better that I said it.

We had our 15 month Dr. visit yesterday. He's doing very well on all his milestones and has grown to 31 inches tall and 23lbs. That puts him right around the 50th percentile. The snotty nose and congestion he's been suffering lately is viral, which is actually good news because it's not allergies, and it's helping him build his immunity. He had 3 shots yesterday, including a flu shot, and was such a big boy about it!

Mail Goggles

Oh man! I've needed this in the past, and I know some people who need it now if they could adapt it to work on text messages from your phone :-)

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html

Fun with cousin Aria

eeeeeeeeee!

I have a new job :-)

A girly weekend

It's been a weekend packed with girly fun. Brian and Trent spent the weekend in Houston, which gave me a much needed break. A big thanks to Grandma for taking care of Trent all weekend :-)

My weekend consisted of shopping, sleeping late and taking up the entire bed (aah! such a luxury), cuddling on the couch with the cats and the remote control, a clean house, slumber party at Renee's complete with pedicures, tie dye, pole dancing, playing on the playscape and swings, and my favourite thing... Tequila!, downtown, Suede, shaking my arse, best friends, and Katz's.

And to round off my blissful weekend of freedom, I'm going to enjoy this great weather, put my iPod on, and go for a long run.

My new niece

While I was gone, a new family member entered the world. Little Ms. Jett Ann Joplin, born on September 14, weighing in at 7lbs 6oz, and 20 inches tall. I was so sad to not be there to greet her on her first day in the world, but so very happy to come home to her. And what a cutie pie! She looks exactly like Barbie. Exactly. Heart shaped face, dimples, big beautiful eyes, perfectly arched eyebrows, dark fuzzy hair. She even has Barbie's fingernails.

I'm so proud to call her my niece and I just love, love, love the little cutie already! When we went to visit, I didn't put her down the whole time we were there, except for a couple of minutes when I let Brian hold her.

Europe 08 trip highlights - Espania

Day 7 - Arrival in Spain
Our flight from Zurich to Malaga was broken up by a layover in Madrid. The airport in Madrid is quite dirty and, frankly, their security is a complete joke. We let Trent run around the airport and blow off some steam. At one point he found a toy car in a vending machine, and being the sweet boy he is, he went over to another kid, quite a bit older than him, and tried to play with him. The kid snatched the car away from Trent and took off leaving Trent screaming his head off. The kid's mother was on her phone and completely uninterested. Trent was screaming right in front of her and interrupting her conversation. Normally I'd pick him up and pacify him, but under the circumstances, I figured I needed to make a point. To her. So I let him scream and I said "It's ok Trent, maybe that was HIS toy. You can't keep it if it belongs to someone else". The woman gave the evil eye, but did nothing. I picked up my screaming kid and left feeling disgusted. The flight to Malaga was uneventful and Trent, as is becoming quite usual, was a complete angel, watching his "baby". He started associating the sign for baby with his DVD player during this trip, and so whenever he wanted to watch it, he would sign baby. Sooo cute.

We took a quick cab ride from the Malaga airport to the hotel. It was a nice hotel and on arrival we were offered a choice of orange juice or champagne. I took champagne, of course. Not two minutes after checking in, mum and dad appeared! Oh it was sooooo great to see them! Mum and dad had already hooked us up with a great room with a view, and had already set up the high chair for Trent in the dining room.
We took our bags up to the room and got settled in, then headed down for dinner. We went what they call "half-board" for this trip, which means that your breakfast and dinner are included. The dinner buffet was really good. I got Trent a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, his favourite, and he devoured it in the usual manner, grabbing with his hands and smearing it all over his face in the process of shoving it into his mouth. People around us were highly amused. All the waiters and waitresses, and the hotel managers made a huge fuss over Trent. He just lapped it all up.

After dinner we went for a walk along the promenade and Trent fell asleep in his stoller.

Day 8 - First day in Spain
Breakfast was fabulous. A buffet of practically everything you could possibly want. You could choose from a full-English, to a continental, to just cereal or yogurt. There were so many types of breads and pastries, and the coffee was sooooo good. I don't even drink coffee but I did in Spain :-)
We spent the morning by the pool. Trent seemed to enjoy just sitting on the edge but had little desire to actually get in. Mum told me that their had been a scantily-clad water aerobics instructor the day before, and that he had a nice bum. He showed up again today and I goaded mum into doing the water aerobics with me. She was a good sport. Eventually, more people joined in. Such trend setters, we are.

We ate lunch at the poolside cafe, then let Trent take a nap. Later that day we headed down to the beach to let Trent run around. He really loved playing in the sand with Grandad. Mum and I took him down to the water's edge and he wasn't very enthusiastic about getting wet, so we let him be. A little later, Grandad brought him down to the sea and he slowly got brave and started to play in the surf. All he needed was his Grandad. Awh.

Dinner was awesome again. We learned from the previous night's experience that we should put a napkin over the table cloth in front of Trent. He practially ruined the one from last night. During dinner you could see people all throughout the restaurant commenting on Trent and how he used sign language to communicate with us. He signed milk, then when he was finished with his pasta he signed for more. We discovered that he really loves creme caramel (Flan to you Americans).
After dinner we went for a walk along the promenade again. This time we let Trent walk all over the place. He had so much fun. Every time he saw a dog he would get excited, sign the word dog, and make a bee-line for it. The dog owners were all so sweet and always stopped to let him pet their dog. So many people stopped to comment on how cute Trent is and ask how old he is.

Day 9 - 10 mile walk, anyone?
Today after breakfast we decided to take a leasurely stroll to the next town via the promenade. It turned out to be about a 10 mile walk, round-trip. We walked all the way to Benalmedina where we ate lunch at the marina, then we made the 5 mile walk back to Torremolinos. After a brief rest on our room we went down to the beach and spent the remainder of the time playing in the sand and running in and out of the surf with Trent.
We cleaned up and headed down for dinner at our usual time, and then out of our customary stroll along the promenade. We were now developing a routine. While we didn't do a whole bunch of exloring or sightseeing on this portion of our holiday, I was so happy to be just relaxing and spending time with my parents. I wanted to stay for so much longer than the time we had.
Day 10 - hanging around the pool and fun on the beach
This morning we booked an excursion to Africa for Saturday. It's such a shame to be so close and to not actually set foot on another continent. Mum, Dad, and I had been before, 24 years ago to be exact! YIKES! so it was time to go back for a visit. After that we took a walk and found a place to eat some lunch. Mum and I had Paella. I'd been dying to try it. I wasn't disappointed, either. After lunch we headed down to the pool for a while and mum did her marathon of 80 laps while we all hung out under the parasols and Trent napped. Then we had a coffee and headed out to the beach where Trent and I played in the surf and built sandcastles again. Brian, for the most part, just napped whenever we were on the beach. I guess he's not really a beach person.

As is our routine now, we ate dinner and went for a stroll. The hotel did provide entertainment in the evenings, but it wasn't very good. Trent would walk onto the empty dance floor and steal the show. At one point he walked in, danced on the dance floor to the lady singing. She got a huge kick out if it, and then when he was done, he started to clap and walk around, it looked so much like he was asking the crowd for applause that they all started clapping. In the middle of the song. How funny!

Day 11 - Train to Fuengirola
Today we decided to find the train and head out to another town along the coast. We thought we had an idea of where the train station was and headed in that general direction. We got lost. No worries, though, we had a map and were able to eventually find our way to the train station. It took us about 2 hours to find it.
The ride to Fuengirola was about 20-30 minutes with all the stops inbetween. When we arrived we made our way to the sea front and walked along till we found a suitable place to have lunch. All of the beach front towns on the Costa del Sol look the same. Fuengirola looked like Benalmedina, which looked like Torremolinos. There's not a whole lot to do but walk the prom, lay on the beach, eat, drink, and shop for souveniers. So after having our fill of that, we made our way back on the train. Trent is such a great traveler. During all of our journeys he was a model baby. Barely ever complained, and told us what he needed using signs so we were able to ensure all his needs were met and avoid tantrums.
After we arrived back in Torremolinos we made our way back to the hotel, wich was much quicker since we now knew where we were going.
We returned to the beach for an afternoon of playing with Trent in the sand. How he loves the beach. He and Nana would walk along the water's edge and Trent would find pebbles and throw them into the sea. He looked like he was having a blast. I know Nana and Grandad thoroughly enjoyed playing with him. Trent really took to his Grandad. He would go and snuggle up to him to play and build sand castles. Awh. I was in heaven. All the people I love most in the world all together having fun. What more could I want?

We rounded off the day with dinner and a quick walk and off to bed early because tomorrow would be a very long day!

Day 12 - Africa, baby!
Up at 5:30! ACK! This is supposed to be a holiday. Why the hell am I getting up at this ungodly hour?? because we're going to another continent! That's worth getting up for! Ok, so it's only Tangier, the very northern tip of Africa, but it's still Africa and it counts. Our main motivation for taking this trip was for Brian. Mum, Dad, and I, as I've mentioned have been to Tangier 24 years ago. We were curious to see the changes that had been made since we went, though.
The coach (glorified bus) picked us up at 6:30am and we made several other stops along the way. Our guide, Michelle, was wonderful. She was so very friendly and we were amazed at how easily she switched from one language to another. She spoke 4 languages: French (her native language), Spanish, English, and German. All fluently. Amazing. Michelle really liked Trent and played with him whenever she wasn't adressing the group. People in Europe are so friendly.

We took the fast ferry from Algeciras to Tangier. The fast ferry is a hoverfoil and it really did go fast. A regular ferry left a good 20 minutes before we did and we passed it in no time flat! After about an hour on the ferry we arrived in Tangier. The approach to Tangier was cool. You could see so many Moroccan-style houses cascading down the hillside. It looked like they were practically built on top of each other. When we got off the ferry, we were immediately swarmed by men wanting to help carry bags, etc. One man tried to take Trent and his buggy from me to help me up the stairs. I damn near broke his arm wrenching it off of the buggy. Nobody is treating my kid like a piece of luggage. I'll carry him my damn self thank you very much!

We got on a new bus and took a tour of downtown Tangier, stopping briefly for a camel ride. Then we headed to the Casbah where we would tour around the narrow, labrynth-like streets and soak in the culture. Inside the Casbah we were treated to a snake charmer show and I got to hold the snake... Afterwards we went for lunch at a local restaurant and treated to a traditional meal. The meal was actually quite good, and I imagine it contained more food in that one meal than most of these people ate in several days. So spoiled we are. During the meal there was a band playing traditional African music and the band members saw fit to entertain Trent doing peek-a-boo with thier instruments. Funny how peek-a-boo is so universal.

After lunch we went to the local market where we could buy souvineirs and chachkas. Brian and I aren't really souvineir people so we just enjoyed taking it all in. In the market place, children as young as 7 or 8 were pedalling goods. Prices started around 20 euros and very quickly dropped down to 5 euros the longer you said no. Everywhere you went someone was waving some unneeded item in your face. It was actually quite stressful. I don't like to be harassed like that. It must be successful, though, or they wouldn't do it. Nobody likes constant rejection and I imagine it can wear a person down. Interestingly, there were no women pedalling goods in this manner. In fact you scarecely even saw a female unless you peeked into a doorway into one of the many tiny sweat shops where they were busy working on sewing machines or other equipment to bang out these chachkas and nick-nacks.
Not much has changed in Tangier in 24 years. My memory of my original trip is somewhat hazy now, and I do recall the terrain being a little more rough. Perhaps they've improved their roads with cobblestone streets now, or perhaps we were in a different area of town the last time. Who knows. What I didn't see this time, though, was people upright begging. This time they were selling things. Although one child did say to my mum "you give me your loose change? just for me?" She would have if she had any, I am certain.
We got to see a demonstration of Moroccan rugs, which was very interesting, and the man presenting was cracking Brian and me up (unintentionally) with the way he spoke and his choice of words. The rugs were beautiful and all hand made. But it's completely impractical to buy one there when they are so readily available at home. Next we visited an apothecary (pharmacist) who demonstrated all of the homeopathic remedies they carry. Trent took a nap for this so I skipped the demo and hung out with our tour guide and mum.
Trent just rolled with everything the whole day. He was such a star! On our way back to Spain we had a small delay with the ferry and Trent made friends with some children in the terminal.

Back on the ferry, we all took turns chasing Trent around. We let him run around to his heart's content since he had been strapped into his stroller for many hours today. I chased him in and out of the empty seats and he was cracking up. So many people on the boat stopped to talk to him in all different languages. Upon arrival back on Spanish soil, we got back onto our bus and made our way back to the hotel. Trent passed out on his Nana. Such a good boy!

Day 13 - Relaxing day at the beach & a parade
Today (Sunday) we thought we would take a stroll into downtown Torremolinos. We stopped at a cafe and had a beer while Trent ran around in the plaza, then we went in search of somewhere to eat. We accidentally stumbled across a festival/parade. We don't know exactly what it was, but there were a lot of tractors and farm-type equipment, and people riding on wagons. Everyone in the parade was dressed in traditional spanish attire. Shot glasses could be purchased and as the parade passed by, people with large watering cans full of sangria would pour you a shot and also pour sangria down your throat!
After having our fill of the parade, we made our way back to the promenade in search of a lunch spot, picking up a couple of souvineirs for people at home along the way. After a frustrating search for a place with a high-chair (most places did not have them) we had to settle on a place that didn't have one, and pretty much tied Trent to a regular chair with a belt. Hey, it works. It might have looked a little barbaric, but it worked really well. So always wear a belt :-)
This being our final day in Spain, we had to round it out by giving Trent his, now much loved, time on the beach. And of course he had a blast. Running in and out of the waves, smashing my sand sculptures, and digging for pebbles to throw in the sea.

As is our routine now, we had dinner and went for a walk along the promenade. Of course, stopping to pet every dog that passed by until Trent got tired and passed out in his buggy on the way back to the hotel. I was wishing we could stay longer, and Brian was ready to go home.

Day 14 - NY here we come!
Lucky for us that our flight didn't leave Malaga until 2:40pm today, so we were able to spend time having breakfast together, and mum and dad took Trent for a walk while Brian and I finished packing. Then we checked out of the hotel, said our goodbyes, and headed one step closer to home. New York City.
The flight over was uneventful. Trent watched his DVD player, ate and took naps, and we arrived safely in NYC around 5pm that evening (which was around midnight to our body clocks). Unfortunately, there was a problem with our hotel reservation and I had to call Viji (0ur awesome travel agent) to fix it. Which she did. So after about an hour delay we were able to check into our hotel. Surprisingly, when we got there, the front desk was kissing our butts. I assumed it was because of Viji. Turns out that by some weird twist of fate, there was another person with our last name checking in that day, and he was a Hilton rewards member. It was HIS butt they thought they were kissing, and it was HIS room they gave us. They had lost our reservation, and even though Viji called to sort it out, they still didn't get it right! They woke me up at midnight to tell me that there was a problem with our room.
Having been on a trans-atlantic flight and was dog-tired, I wasn't feeling very friendly and as politely as I could, told the manager that this would have to wait until the morning. She finally backed off. But for the remainder of our stay, the front desk staff were incredibly rude to us!

Day 15 - Homeward bound
Having a few hours to blow in New York, we decided we would take the train down to Manhattan, have lunch in Central Park and let Trent run around since he'd be spending 4 hours strapped into an aeroplane again. We took the sky train, then the subway, and walked a few blocks to the park. Trent had a blast chasing the birds and petting dogs. Unfortunately he took a spill on a ramp and hit his head, resulting in a nice lump, bruise, and graze. It didn't seem to phase him much, though. Our little tough guy.

Finally, it was time to make the last leg of the journey. Home sweet home. And how glad we were when the plane's wheels touched down on Texas soil. There's no place like home :-)

Not the face!

Brian came home last night with a very nice lump and bruise on his gorgeous face. Right on the cheekbone under his right eye. It looked pretty grusome last night, but he iced it down and this morning it's not looking bad at all. Shame really, it was kinda hot ;-)

How did he get it... well, that's a story only Brian can tell. I wouldn't want to steal his spotlight.

the ancient art of reading tea bags?

Ok, don't freak out, but I saw something pretty spectacular in my morning tea today. I know that for centuries, psychics the world over have used tea leaves to read people's fortunes. This morning, as I was making my morning cuppa, a face appeared to me in the tea bag. Perhaps I've just discovered a new medium for post death communications with the living? Could it be Jesus? Elvis, maybe? my dead grandmother? What does it mean???

Here's a picture. Please note that I have adjusted the lighting using software to make it more visible, but I have not altered the image otherwise. Who do you think it is?

Regardless of what it means, it was a delicious cup of tea!

Glad to be home

I'm working on a trip report from our recent holiday - it's taking longer than anticipated because a) I have a lot to talk about, b) I am busy catching up at work, c) I'm a starter but not a finnisher, so it's half done, and d) I'd rather spend time playing with Trent.

But rest assured it's coming.

I went to the gym for the first time in several weeks yesterday. It felt so good to work out. Unfortunately, when I got done I got to the car and the security system malfunctioned and immobilized the car. I guess the anti-theft system works a little too well. I had to run home from the gym and today, a whole 24 hrs later, the car still won't engage. Stupid alarm. The silver lining is that I got an extra few miles of cardio in. But now poor Brian has to figure out how to get the car to start or we have to tow it somewhere to get it looked at. BAH!

Europe 08 trip highlights - Switzerland

I'm very glad to be back home after what can only be described as a very cool, interesting, and surprising holiday in Europe. Normally when I travel I keep a hand-written journal, but since this time I was traveling with a baby, I assumed I wouldn't have time for that, and I was right. So let's see if I remember all the key things I wanted to remember about this trip. I think perhaps breaking it up into days might help me. So here goes:

Day 1 - Travel day
We got up EARLY, after no sleep at all for me. I can't sleep before a trip. I think most people suffer from this. You know the one where your brain won't let you sleep because your alarm might fail and you'll miss your flight. We got Trent up around 5am. I put him to bed the night before in the shirt he was going to travel in so that I wouldn't have to wake him. I did a stealth nappy change and put trousers on him, then put him in his car seat, but the act of picking him up woke him. He was super mellow about it, though. Just sleepily sat in his car seat and looked out the window. Then we took a bus from the parking area to the terminal. We thought he'd go back to sleep but he never did, which was kind of ideal really since we wanted him sleepy for the plane ride.
We played in the airport and let Trent walk all over the place to tire him out. Then when we boarded the plane, he politely went to sleep for most of the flight to Atlanta. In Atlanta we had a few hours before our next flight so we ate lunch at Chillis and again let Trent walk all around exploring and playing. In Atlanta, we plugged his DVD player into a wall outlet (so as to not drain the battery) and he was happy as can be.
On the long flight to Zurich, Trent had his own seat so we were able to use the CARES harness, which worked like magic to get him settled. Because he'd worn himself out at the airport, he was very accommodating and sat quietly playing or watching his DVD until he fell asleep pretty much for the remainder of the flight. Since this was an overnight flight that worked out quite well. One thing to note about the CARES harness - if the seats on the plane are vinyl (which they are on Delta), then you need to put something on the seat to stop the kid from sliding and strangling himself on the harness buckle. Some of the non-slip pads you put under rugs or in drawers works well.

Day 2 - Arrival in Zurich and dinner at Chez Dupre
We arrived in Zurich as scheduled and Benoit was there to meet us as we came out of customs. Ben so kindly traveled to Zurich on the train to meet us and accompany us back so that he could help with luggage and to ensure we get the right ticket, etc. Then, Nadia met us at the station in Fribourg with their car, and she took all our luggage to the hotel while Ben, Brian, Trent and I all walked from the station to the hotel (about 1KM). Fribourg is a very small place. We checked in and Trent took a nap while Ben and Brian returned to the train station to greet Brian's parents who were arriving from their trip to Amsterdam and Lucerne.
That evening Ben picked us all up in a car he had hired that seated all of us, including a baby seat for Trent! What a thoughtful guy! We made our way to Ben's parents' house, which was just a few KM away from the centre of Fribourg. There we met Ben's parents and Nadia's parents. Ben's mum made a fantastic dinner with several courses, made with vegetables fresh from their garden. Neither Ben nor Nadia's parents spoke any English, so when I was able, I translated and conversed with them. Nadia's dad, Jean-Paul was so great with Trent. He and Trent seemed to really like each other - they played with blocks and played peek-a-boo and Nadia's mum was so very sweet, even in a different language. Ben's parents were just so warm and friendly that the language barrier seemed so nonexistent. We had so much fun that evening, gesturing, speaking in broken French and English, and laughing when we finally did understand what the other was saying. That was one of my favourite evenings of the trip.

Day 3 - Trip to Gruyere's Medieval Town
Ben and Nadia picked us up bright and early after breakfast in the big car, and we drove about 20 minutes to Gruyere, the origins of the cheese. We first went to the Gruyeres Castle, which was built in the 13th century. The castle was small, but impressive in it's construction, especially given the date it was constructed. We had fun roaming the rooms and took in the multi-media experience that educated us on the area and the castle. In the darkened room, Trent very respectfully took a nap so as to not disturb anybody. What a good boy! After the tour of the castle, we ate a fantastic lunch of Fondue at a restaurant just outside the castle. After lunch we took a tour of the cheese factory where they make the Gruyere cheese that you buy in the grocery stores today (that is if you don't settle for a bad immitation, and believe me, after tasting this, you shouldn't).
After the cheese factory, we spent some time relaxing in the Swiss Chocolate store where we bought a whole variety of chocolate and shared it between the 7 of us. This was Trent's first time to taste chocolate. At first he didn't like it, but he went back and tried it again and before long we had to cut him off! Afterwards, we all went back to Ben and Nadia's and hung out on the balcony drinking wine and chatting, while Trent played with all of Nadia's stuffed animals and tried to terrorize their rabbit, Merlin.

Day 4 - Discovering Fribourg
Today we all slept in late, which was such a treat. Though we did manage to miss breakfast. As we were making our way to the hotel where Brian's parents were staying, which was about 1km away, we bumped into them in the town centre. Then as we were standing there outside this bakery, an american guy came over to us and said "Hey, are you guys from Texas?" and I was for one second quite mortified that it could be so obvious. Then he identified himself as the Todd, the guy from Vermont, that was also attending Ben & Nadia's wedding. He was having a coffee with Pascal, one of Ben's brothers, and Pascal's 2.5 year old son Edgar. What a small town this is! We hung out for a while chatting with Pascal and Tood, then we all met up with Ben and Nadia for lunch, except for Pascal and Edgar who went to the doctor because Edgar was a little bit unwell and he was to be the ring-bearer in the wedding so they wanted to be sure he would be ok.
After lunch Ben and Nadia went to take care of some final wedding prep, Todd headed for a coffee shop, and we (the Baumans) went back to Brian's parent's hotel to give Trent some play time. We drank some wine and watched the news about hurricane Ike. After that we went walking around Fribourg to find the church where Ben and Nadia were to be married, just so we knew where to go on Saturday. On the way back, we stopped off at a little bar for a beer. That evening, we had dinner in a highly recommended fondue restaurant. We had goat cheese fondue, herb grueyre fondue, and a really cool beef dish that cooks in front of you in a pan over a flame on the table. After dinner we went back to Brian's parents' hotel room and let Trent play a while longer, then we walked back to our hotel as Trent fell peacefully to sleep on the way.

Day 5 - The wedding
The weather took a turn today from relatively cool and a bit overcast, to rather cold and drizzly. We slept late again and of course missed breakfast, so we took a stroll over to the bakery I had spotted near the Train station when we first alighted the train in Fribourg. Mmmm, freshly baked pastries. There's nothing better than that. We took them back to our hotel room and spent the morning playing with Trent.
Brian's parents came to our hotel around 2 or so and we took a cab over to the church. The wedding was beautiful. The church was so old and quaint. We could really see why they chose this place. The church was packed with so many family and friends, it seemed like the whole town was there. Ben later told us that the choir, who were up in the balcony and out of my line of sight, was comprised completely of his aunts, uncles, and cousins. Although I couldn't understand what they were singing, since it was all in French, they were amazing. The depth of the harmonies was breathtaking and despite the fact that the wedding was quite long, I found myself hoping they'd sing again. And they did. I can't recall how many songs, but definitely more than 5.
Nadia looked so beautiful in her dress, and I loved her dress. So funky and so very French. I can't do it justice to describe it, so I'll have to rely on pointing to pictures when Ben sends them to us.
After the ceremony we all left the church and went outside and the bride and groom took pictures with everybody. There was one really cool shot in particular with the whole group assembled on the little bridge over the Sarine river, with old Fribourg on the hills in the background. I can't wait to see how that one came out!
After pictures, we Ben's parents drove Brian, Trent, and me to the next phase of the wedding celebrations, which was an aperatif at the youth centre of the Church near Ben's parents' house. Here we all drank wine/beer, ate appetizers, and socialized. We mingled with many people, and Ben introduced us to his boss and wife who were from England. Trent played with the other children, chasing balloons together and laughing and I discovered that there's no language barrier when you're a child. It was so cute!
During this portion of the evening, postcards adressed to Ben and Nadia were given out, and people wrote down a gift and some advice on them. Then we tied them to a balloon and as we were all leaving, we all let them go at the same time. Whoever finds the postcard is asked to mail them back to Ben and Nadia. Those that get returned to them will owe Ben and Nadia the gift that they wrote on the card :-) what a cool idea!
Ben's parents drove us over to the restaurant that was hosting the wedding dinner. The Hotel Schiff am See in Morat. You can see France across the lake from here. It was such a nice place. The dinner was amazing. Four courses of what can only be described as gourmet cuisine. The dessert buffet was to die for! The festivities lasted well into the wee hours and Trent did an amazing job of rolling with everything we threw at him. The hotel staff were so kind and got Trent his own little plate. They didn't have to do that and we were so grateful and very impressed. Around midnight, the little guy passed out and fortunately, Ben and Nadia, being the wonderful hosts they are, had reserved a room right next to the party, where people with children could go and take care of their needs. Trent and I spent the last 2 hours in there. Trent passed out, and me just laying next to him relaxing. During our time there a couple of other mums came through to change a baby or to breastfeed. Around 2am Ben's parents took us back to our hotel, which was quite out of their way. They are so very sweet.

Day 6 - Dinner with Ben and Nadia
Today, for the most part, we did our own thing and Brian's parents left for Ireland. We did a little sight seeing around town, took Trent to the park where he played and chased dogs. Then we bought a baguette and some cheese and ate lunch in our hotel room while playing with Trent. Trent did something remarkable today. As Brian and I were lying down hoping to take a nap, and we'd spread out a blanket on the floor for Trent to play on... and after a while of playing, he got up, picked up his blankie, laid back down with the blanket over him and went to sleep!!! I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to you... but to us it was completely priceless. So we all took a nap.
That evening we made our way over to Ben and Nadia's house, consulting a map and relying on Brian's memory... we eventually found it. We sat around, chatted, and ate Pizza. Trent did a little more terrorizing of the rabbit. After dinner we took a leisurely stroll back to our hotel and Trent passed out on the way.

Day 7 - Departing Switzerland and going to Espania!
This is the day I've been looking forward to most of all. Visions of my parents greeting us in the hotel lobby as we arrived danced in my head all night long. So much so, that I wasn't able to get much sleep. Lucky for us, though, because I had thought our flight left at 2:30, but at 6:30am I had a bad feeling, so I got up and checked our itinerary. Sure enough, we were to depart at 12:30! ACK!!! We had arranged to meet Ben at 9am and go to the train station to get the 10:08 to Zurich. Change of plan! "Brian, you need to get up! I've made a mistake and the flight leaves 2 hours earlier than I thought!" Lucky for us that we had 2.5 hours before our designated meeting time with Ben and plenty of time to catch the 8:04 to Zurich. We called Ben, then called a taxi.
Ben and Nadia met us at the train station and helped us buy our tickets. Then we were off. A quick goodbye to our fantastic hosts.

Summary of Switzerland
We really enjoyed our stay. Fribourg and the surrounding area is gorgeous. We wished we had more time to go to Zurmatt or some place in the Alps, but the things we did get to see were beautiful and I can totally see why people live here. The people in Switzerland are so friendly. We loved our hotel. The De La Rose, part of the Best Western chain, but you wouldn't think so. It was nothing like an American hotel - very European, and in an old historic building. We felt completely safe walking around in Fribourg. Even at night. There was a park by the hotel that Bri's parents stayed in (and a strip club next door) and that was the only area of town we found to be a bit dodgy, but even that wasn't so bad that you wouldn't walk through it at night. Transplant that park and the people who frequent it to any city in the US, though, and wild horses wouldn't drag me through it, day or night. There's a reason why nobody's at war with the Swiss :-)