A really good day

Here I am, with my proverbial wallet out, showing almost complete strangers pictures of my kid. This is a cultural phenomena that I've never really understood until today. Today, my wife (aka "Windy Britches", aka "Stink Bait", but she's allowed; she's pregnant.) and I went to the doc for our 20 week ultrasound. So, I thought to myself, we'll see some grainy, rough images of the kid, maybe see the head, or a bloth of hand or two. I was *so* not prepared. I saw my child wriggling around in my wife's belly, sucking his or her thumb. I watched my kid's jaw move while working that tiny little digit. I saw his or her heart beat; could see each chamber of the heart. I looked at each hemisphere of the kid's brain, at it's spinal cord, at it's foot (OK, so that was kind of blotchy). I was (and still am; as I write this, my eyes are all misty) totally blown away. That's my kid. I'm *really* a dad. Holy crap! Talk about really bringing things home for me. Wow. Yeah, so for the rest of the afternoon, I've been walking up to anyone who'll stand still for 30 seconds and asking, "Hey, you wanna see pictures of my kid?" I've been at it enough, maybe Ashland will pass an ordinance making this sort of photo-accostage illegal, or at least highly frowned upon. I'll have to start meeting other parents in the parking lot behind Country Kitchen with all the stoners and motorheads and be like, "Pssst! Hey lady, wanna see some pictures?" ---------- FOOT NOTE: As you may have gathered if you've been paying attention, I didn't get a clear look under the hood, and truth be told, that's the way ol' Windy Britches and I want it. It'll be fun to have a surprise when the kid makes his or her grand entry into the world.

Mixing business and "pleasure"

I revamped a mini Web site I keep at work to let everyone know what I'm working on. I'm using the site to learn CSS better (yes, Dad, that's a legal use of my time at work ;-)) and to keep everyone up to speed on what I'm doing, since it seems to be the topic of considerable debate at times. Though the pages look pretty basic, I'm pretty proud of them since they represent almost completly my own effort to learn how to build CSS pages. I didn't even rip off any code. I took the really long road to CSS semi-glory. I did have a little help at the end from one of my co-workers in figuring out some background image stuff, but other than that, it's all me! I hope to refine the design some in the near future and make it a little better looking, a little less angular. But one thing at a time, eh?

The job search, part 1

Is there a job out there for someone who's hyper self-aware except for most of the things that matter in life? I mean aside from "Chief Neurosis Tester?"

Dev /Null

I just had an incredibly ungracefull conversation with a friend. I stopped by his office to say "hi" since I hadn't seen him all summer (him being a college professor). He made a really cool linoleum print for a Christmas card that was drying in a stack on his desk. I asked him about it, and kind of generally made chit chat with him, but the whole time, I felt like he couldn't wait for me to leave. So I left. And I've been picking up that same kind of vibe from a lot of people I work with. I wonder what the deal is. Am I being paranoid? Am I just being incredibly receptive to other people's moods? What's the deal? I guy I got hired to help me with my job for the summer seems like he's actively trying to take my job. First he moves into his own office space, then he started using my title in his e-mail signatures, and now, my boss goes to him when she needs something done. There's a legal term for this sort of thing. I believe it's:

screwed.

On the positive side of the ledger today, though, I got a call from my wife. Or rather, a voice mail message. She said, "I'm calling for completely no reason other than to tell you I love you!" Talk about making my day...