One / Thirty-...Five?

A few weeks ago our Smoochface reached that big first birthday.  At her checkup this week she was looking great, measuring leaner and taller than average as per usual, but (to us at least) in the highest possible percentile for adorableness.  She didn't much care for her shot at the moment, but a few snuggles from Mommy and she was her usual happy self again.  She's overall such a pleasant and sweet girl, so cuddly these days and usually pretty sweet to new people.  She is absolutely walking and starting to talk just a bit and make animal sounds, which we can hardly stand how cute it is.  She has her way when it comes to meal time, hungry for what she's eating but only in just the moment she wants to eat it, and her naps are kind of hit-and-miss but her nighttime sleeping is great.  We love her ombre hair and her close-to-double-digits teeth and her scrunchy smile and her bright blue eyes.  She definitely has a nice loud wail that she uses to great effect when she feels it necessary, but overall she is a delight to one and all.

The Wife's great twelve-month update is just here, but here are some of my pictures:

Helping herself to one of Mommy's Valentine's Day gifts

Throwback to visiting the Puppy Barn

At the Provo City Center Temple open house.  She at least was very well-behaved there.

Enjoying a tea party hosted by Big Brother.

Helping with some home improvements

New favorite game!

The weather was finally getting nice enough to go out.

I love being home on the weekends and able to fetch this face after naps!

On her actual day of we just opened some presents (BB was happy to help her out with the wrapping paper/playing) and she tentatively tried out the strawberry shortcake provided by Mommy, and a few days later we had her birthday party playdate at the park, which was fun and with lots of cousins, and Mommy's amazing butterbeer cupcakes.  Kind of the opposite of The Boy's first birthday party, it was beautiful all morning long and then turned windy and cold by afternoon party time rolled around, but we bundled her up and she enjoyed her treat and some cozy snuggles while the kids played on the fun playground (and big bro took a tumble into the dry creek bed... watch your step there, Boy... more to come on that later).

Every little girl's birthday dream come true:  Costco.

Oh all right, and the mall.

Hee hee, Baby Yoda!

New book!

Ummmmm yes.

3 Cs: Cute, cold, cupcake. 

As usual, it's hard to forget our tiny baby but it's also hard to imagine her any other way than she is right now!  She has the sweetest disposition and I am always so so glad to see her clutching to the baby gate at the top of the stairs waiting to see me when I come home.  It's all I can do to not smother her with kisses at every moment.

Oh!  And then I had a birthday too.  Is it so weird that it's just hard to remember exactly how old you are when you get to a certain age?  I say it is so weird.  But I never mind a birthday (even if I am about halfway through the decade to 40...), and The Wife always makes it such a special occasion.  I went in to work a little late so I could enjoy my special birthday cereal with my three favorite people, and then was treated to lunch by my coworkers, and then had a special delicious dinner of my childhood pick spaghetti followed by presents, and THEN we had friends and family come over to enjoy another of The Wife's confectionary masterpieces.  She always does, but she really outdid herself this time.  It was great to have so many fun people come over, but we admit that we were sorry not to have leftovers...  Next time we'll make a bonus and hide it away.

Yes, Boy, you can have some Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Aww, thanks, work.

The best pants ever.  I have worn them every day since then.

Masterpiece!

So much for good luck -- St. Patrick was not with me when I somehow or other shattered my poor iPod screen.  At least it still plays just fine.  Back in the day I would have done a whole blogpost about this, but eh.

Happy birthdays to us!  We both had good ones.

Almost 30

Just last week we celebrated my 29th birthday.  For some reason the difference between 29 and 30 seems really pretty big.  We'll see just how big the difference feels next March.  This was my first birthday as a husband and Julie was determined to make it memorable for me (even though I always just responded ever so helpfully with shrugs and "Oh, I don't require much").  After a long day of work, at which I was able to successfully avoid anyone finding out it was my birthday, we decided we would use the coupon we received at a recent 5K for a free birthday dinner at Magleby's.  Imagine our surpreeze when Magleby's did NOT appear where it used to be, and even more when we learned they had moved to Springville...  We were hungry and time was of the essence, so we decided to save the coupon for Julie's birthday in May and go somewhere closer by.  We ended up at P.F. Chang's and went all out with the special for 2, which included an appetizer, soup, entrees and mini-desserts!

After that, we went home to watch LOST and for Julie to finish her big birthday cake, which she had planned quite carefully.  Although she asked me what flavor of cake I wanted, the decoration and theming was all a surprise, and what could have been more fitting than a homemade Disney specialty cake??

Doesn't it look so professional?  We later similarly celebrated by buying The Princess and the Frog on DVD (which also included, against my will, but necessarily if we desired the best deal and most special features, the Blu-Ray version, which I did NOT want, and which also means the casing is different so it doesn't match my expansive Disney DVD collection, and which manipulative marketing kind of annoys me), and taking our cake to Elise's house to share the delicious confection with the LOST Club after the new episode.  Just a few days later to round out the Cajun theme, we had a big party at Mom's house for me, Penny and Jonny, where we ate delicious beignets, gumbo and watched our newest Disney movie.

But I must say my shiniest and most exciting present was this:

 

It's so tiny!  It's so sleek!  It has a video camera and microphone!  It plays aloud when you take the headphones out!  It plays (and rewinds) the radio!  It speaks and tells me what I'm listening to on demand!  It shuffles when I shake it a certain way!  It's amazing!  I called it Helo.

Thank you, sweetheart!  Best Birthday Ever!

A Tale of Two iPods

Once upon a time I had two iPods. One was a Shuffle and one was a Nano. Approximately one week ago, tragedy almost struck both of them.

First, on my way back to my car after church meetings on campus, I noticed my Nano in its protective leather case lying on the parking lot next to my car. It looked as though it had fallen out of my pocket as I left my car earlier that morning, and also looked dangerously in the line that the car next to me would have taken to park after me. I picked it up and amazingly noticed that it looked virtually unharmed, and when I tried playing it in the car, it worked perfectly. I figured the car next to mine must have gone right past it, without actually running over it. It wasn't until several hours later when I was plugging it into the computer to recharge/reload with podcasts and new music that I noticed something odd: The adapter to the computer wouldn't fit into the iPod's slot, even though it had previously clicked into place easily. I realized with a sickening pit in my stomach that it must indeed have been run over, and the slot had been narrowed ever so slightly, making it so that the adapter would not fit...

Second, after going on a run last weekend, I foolishly ran a load of laundry without checking the pockets of my shorts. It wasn't until I loaded up all my darks in the dryer and heard the loud rattling of something not clothes-ish being tumble-dried. I thought perhaps it was just the buttons on my jeans, but instinctually opened up to check, and imagine my horror when I saw my poor Shuffle, headphones and all, tumbling around with my darks!!! I usually don't put it in my pocket after running, but for some reason this day I had. I examined it and noticed that it looked and smelled linen-fresh, but I realized that this poor device had been soaked, soaped, spin-cycled, and now, even tumble-dried. This was especially frustrating, since, you may or may not recall, this is not the first time I've soaked an iPod...

Fortunately, and amazingly, the end to both of these tales is happy.

...After panicking about the grim prospect of using my Nano until the battery slowly died, with no hope of recharge, and after a little bit of working the slot and examining the negligible damage, the adapter suddenly clicked once more into the bottom of it! It takes the slightest bit of coaxing but the hearty little device is otherwise unharmed. So the Nano is so small and thin that it can be run over by a 4-Runner and still be in nearly perfect condition?? Amazing!

...I went about this wetness predicament quite differently this time. I did research again online to discover the best way to handle a possible resurrection of a drowned iPod, and found that this time, my chances were infinitely better for many reasons: 1) The iPod was NOT playing when it was soaked, in fact it was switched to "off," 2) The headphones WERE plugged in this time, rather than leaving a wide open entryway for the water to go into the inner-workings, 3) I did NOT immediately turn it on to see if it would work, but rather waited several days, 4) The Shuffle apparently has no inner moving parts, which leads to less likelihood of it going on the fritz, 5) It had plenty of time to dry, not only in the dryer, but also in front of a desk fan for several days, and 6) It was probably in the pocket of my shorts for the duration of the wash (I don't know if this would actually affect it in any way, but it seems like it might). SO, after several days, as instructed and with the slightest apprehension, but with Julie's moral support and encouragement, I plugged it into its adapter, and a few long seconds later, the little light started blinking and it appeared in iTunes, starting syncing with my running playlist and I was back in business. So the Shuffle is so sturdy and resilient that it can be soaped and squeaky clean from a turn in the washer and eventually work like new (not to mention smelling so nice and clean)?? Incredible!

The moral of these tales is that I'm either cursed or clumsy or irresponsible, or some combination of the three, when it comes to handheld electronics on which I rely far too heavily. I know I have two of them, but they have their unique advantages, and if one were to disappear, it would be quite a weight on the temporal side of my heart.

So, much to my astonishment and pleasure, both iPods are still in working order, both appearing almost as if nothing had ever happened. It's a Christmas miracle!

iPod Update

So, as for update #2 (in re: this post)...

As yet, my iPod is still woefully unresponsive. As directed by several sources, I let it sit for several days (nigh a week), even in front of a desk fan for added circulation and drying, but even then (even now, actually), the poor thing just will not turn on. I hear from many people that sometimes a month, or even months later, the thing will just suddenly start working again, when its parts are all finally dry, but you know me... I can't wait that long. Dad was ever so nice enough to loan me an extra little mp3 player so I can go on my runs, but I still held out hope for my beloved iPod. And I still kind of do.

But then, in a strange and surprising turn of events, an elder still serving in my mission contacted me to let me know that he had by a series of circumstances come to own a new 16 gb iTouch (at a bafflingly reasonable discount, due to a damaged product previously purchase), and was no longer in need of the player that he had bought back when we were in Appleton together in December. In the end, he offered it up to me, and I ever so eagerly accepted. In return, he sent me his iTouch so that I could load it up with all the missionary-appropriate music that the boy could ever ask for. I even put a few church videos on there (heaven knows the thing had enough space). I still felt like I should pay him something for it, since it is practically new, so I sent some cash when I sent back his fully-loaded iTouch.

So now I am the proud and happy owner of an 8 gb 3rd Generation iPod Nano video!


Elder... You know who you are. You know I already loved you, but now I add my thanks. You're a life-saver!

Silent Drive Home...

Hello. We had a lovely weekend in Moab. I spent much of it with an "unsightly growth" in my ear (as Elise would call it), my iPod earbud, providing a subtle soundtrack to my life, especially useful as we walked around and as I spent time by myself, resting or reading. The iPod itself spent most of its time in my pocket, the whole apparatus hardly perceptible by anyone else. We had a great time, watching Todd and Mike golf in the two-day tournament, watching the girls swim in the pool (enough to turn their hair green!), watching good movies, visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, overall relaxing.

The only sorrow is thus: Today, after a nice visit to the Moab 4th Ward for church services and a short walk to see some petroglyphs and some big, red rocks, I went to watch the little girls at the pool. There I was, sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet on the first step, cooling my tootsies, when I stood up to let some newcomer kiddies get in. The one time, of course, that my iPod is in my lap and not in my pocket is the time I stand up over open water... It fell and pulled free of its earbud cord with a sickening splash, falling into water not even a foot deep. The good: I grabbed it immediately, seriously not even two seconds in the water. Some water dripped out of it, and it seems any water that had entered the earbud jack (which seems to have been the only entrance to its innards) exited. It was covered in its leather case (which is actually quite all-covering when closed, and which wasn't even completely wet, when examining the velvety inside lining). The bad: It was 'on' when dropped, and then, when tried, continued to play after being retrieved, but only for about ten more seconds, when the screen went blank and hasn't returned. I also tried to turn it on several times since then, but have decided on the advice of many to wait several days for it to dry completely before trying to turn it on. This seems to be a common problem, and I have much reason to hope (mostly because of this website--luckily mine didn't fall into a toilet). This stupid little thing is too important to me (mostly because of sentimental, but also financial and entertainment reasons), and while there are many variables like and unlike stories I've read online, I'm still hoping that in a few days, my little toy will be as good as new. I've barely had it for seven months.

NOOOOO!

Anyway, other than that, great trip! Nice weekend, and looking forward to this week.

P.S. One more plus--the thing was also wrapped in a protective plastic covering, so that prevented a lot of water from penetrating certain places. Really, I'm only worried about the earbud jack.

P.P.S. No, I did not drop my iPod again into the water to take the above picture. That photo is courtesy of a google image search for "iPod in water".

UPDATE! The iPod is now sitting propped in front of a desk fan, hopefully having a nice drying. Almost two days since the plunge, we'll see what happens in a few more.