September 2004 Archives

Ostensibly, I sleep from around 11:30 to 7:15, a total of 7 hours, 45 minutes or so. However, I think I've identified a list of "zones" where I lose sleep. See if this matches what you all have in your notes:

1, Going to bed too late--This is my fault mostly, and it runs from a little to a lot late. Lets say, on average, 12:00 am. So there's 30 minutes gone.

2, Falling asleep. These days this isn't an issue. It used to be, when I got more sleep, but now, mercifully, i fall asleep quickly. No real loss here.

3, Children coming into bed: anywhere between 1 and 4 AM, figure 15-30 minutes of being awake with them, or having trouble getting back to sleep after.

4, Cat. The cat likes to play at around 4:00 AM. She doesn't come wake us for this fun,but her little bell, and the fact that she's ZOOMING up and down the hallway and stairs...Figure 15-30 minutes.

5, Daylight sounds. This depends on the time of year. Summer, stuff starts getting loud by 5:30. Again, figure 15-30 minutes at best, longer on a loud bird day.

6, Kim's alarm clock. She has one that I bought that lights up slowly to wake her as if the Sun were in the room. Lovely. And she has it going off usually about 6:15. If I catch a wiff of it, I'm out 45 minutes sleep.

7, Garbage trucks. Twice a week, 6:00 AM. Bang bang. Whee!

8, Bathroom break. Figure 15 minutes every night, depending on how dry it is in the house (e.g., how much I need to wake up to drink during the night).

So, sum total? A lot of lost time of a night that's not that long to begin with. Add in waking imperceptibly 50 times/night and one might see why I'm tired.

The other day (I meant to blog this earlier), this conversation took place between Kim and Katie:

Katie: Mommy, what was your name when you were my age?
Kim: My name was the same when I was four as it is now, katie.
Katie (wide-eyed and solomn): 'Mommy'?

What can you do but giggle.

I got to go to watch the NY Football Giants play yesterday as we routed...er...trounced..um...held on to beat the Redskins. I say this in a slightly annoyed fashion, not because I minded any part of the game--it was a TON of fun, nor because I think one team should really beat up on the other, the way that, oh, say, the Yankees did to the Red Sox this weekend. No, I say this because Washington turned the ball over SEVEN times, and the Giants only managed 2 TDs and 2 Fieldgoals.

But, that being said, I had a wonderful time seeing a future 6 and 10 Giants team get one of those precious 6 wins.

AND, thanks to my cameraphone, I even have a picture of our view!

This from Tiber:

Wednesday I'm heading to see a sleep doctor. I think he's a pulmonologist, but his specialty is sleep disorders, and he'll muse over what to do about my apnea. I imagine he'll go on about the CPAP thing, but I intend on having some surgery to rid myself of these pesky, swollen tonsills. I guess after that, I'll have to wait a few months to see if it helped.

Should be FUN!

So the cat is getting along quite well. She knows where her litter box is, thanks to Di she knows when breakfast and dinner are, and she isn't too bad about scratching things, although she hasn't touched the cardboard scratching post i got her, so I think she still scratches at the rugs...

However, she has peed on 3 separate things around the house, the latest being only yesterday. She does it when we're not around, and I don't know how to discipline her and make it clear that she shouldn't do it. We've taken away the things she's peed on, but I'm afraid that the next thing is going to be the couch or carpet (the other 3 were kids toys, all of which we were able to wash).

Suggestions?

Today's the first day of school for my big first grader! So of course, the weather looks like this:

See that red area? That's us. It's POURING. Ah, well, at least the curtain of rain helped everyone sleep in.

Katie starts "group 3" tomorrow. So, we're expecting...hail? frogs? Ah, no, for Katie, it would be Cats and Dogs--no question.

I just used iPhoto to make and order a book. It worked terribly to start, but after some work, was very cool. Here's what happened:

I put together the book, clicked "order book" and nothing happened. Some research from me and Greg found that this isn't a unique issue, but none of the solutions suggested worked. I tossed the application, which contains the resources that activate the netservices call to the apple store, and then replaced it with a copy of iPhoto 4, and then tried to update it from software update. Software update didn't even see it. Very odd.

So, I downloaded the 4.0.3 updater and updated it, and then it wouldn't even launch. Wonderful.

So, delete it again, reboot, install from the iLife CD, run the updater again, and BAM! it not only opened, but the book-maker-thingie worked flawlessly. Really nice.

The book is for my mom's birthday, and I think she'll love it. Navy blue linen cover, 12 pages of photos, and a lovely introduction page. A nice touch from Apple.

Oh, and with express shipping, ran around $50.

Today we went to Dorney Park and had a great time there for Katie's birthday. Because my parents tagged along, Kim and I were able to drop the kids with them for 15 minutes and go on their biggest roller coaster, a monster called Steel Force. It's a nice coaster, with a 200 foot drop and speeds up to 75 MPH. Really sweet. So I came home and decided to look up some coaster facts and found this:

This is the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point Amusement park. The drop on this thing is FOUR HUNDRED FEET, and it rotates 270 degrees as it drops! In addition, it's apparently rocket powered, literally shooting up one end and then down the other. Top speed: 120 MPH!

Uh...no. Sorry.

Today is Katie's 4th birthday. We're going to Dorney Park, where we've been before and was a lot of fun. We'll be exhausted when we get home, but it should be a good day. The weather is perfect.