I really need to get better at this

Well, once again, it has been a while since I posted something here. Since the last post, we found out that we are having a boy and a girl, which is pretty exciting, and has helped the planning quite a bit. Angela and Holly (her sister) went to Babies R Us again and added a lot of stuff to the registry, like bedding, clothes, etc.

We have also had two ultrasound sessions since the last post, one at 18 weeks and another at 22 weeks. Scans from both are available in the gallery. They still look mostly like little aliens to me, though.

Angela has also started to feel them kicking, which is very exciting. I have even gotten to feel them, which was neat. The first night Angela remembers them kicking, she was laying on the couch, and her stomach moved! I quickly went over and was able to feel the little kicks. Moments like that make me very happy, and are a nice interlude to the typical feelings of worry that I'm going through.

Earlier this week we had our tour of the hospital. I wonder how much of it we will actually remember by the time the babies get here. Just finding the elevators might be a problem, since the entrance we're supposed to use changes based on the time of the day we arrive. They did a very good job of explaining everything, though, and added some comfort by answering questions. We will be allowed to have four extra visitors during labor and delivery, which I thought was interesting. I don't know if we will invite others to come or not, but it is nice to know that if we want someone there, it will be possible.

I guess I had a lot to talk about, but that's it for now.

Babies R Us

We spent more than two hours in a Babies R Us on Sunday setting up our registry. We picked out most of the big stuff like cribs, changing table, stroller, car seats, etc. and Angela will probably go back later to add the small things. Of course, once we know what gender they are, we'll also have to add clothing, room decor, and all of that fun stuff.

It was interesting trying to pick things out when you really don't know anything about the person you're picking it for. What will they like? Will they like the color blue like Angela and I do? Which pattern should we choose for the bouncy seat thing? A couple of times we selected two different patterns for things. Hopefully we won't get into a situation where they both like one and hate the other. I'm sure that would make for some great times.

Been a while

It's been a while since I posted, which I feel bad about. Angela is doing well, although she is still recovering from a battle with bronchitis. The midwife at the office she is going to didn't pick up on it, but three days later she couldn't breathe so she went to our doctor. They gave her amoxicillin and she's doing much better now.

She has gained five pounds, which is apparently right on track. I think it's weird that she's only gained five pounds, but she looks bigger. I guess things have shifted around enough that her belly just looks big.

We went to the OB the other day and got to hear the heartbeats. She found the first one right away, but had to hunt around for the second one, which made us both a little nervous. It was in there, though, and sounded good, so we're very happy.

Her next ultrasound is on August 17th, when she'll be about eighteen weeks, so we should be able to really see something then. From what we've read, you can't normally determine sex until after twenty weeks, though, so we'll have to wait a little while until we can find that out.

Proud Papa?

I never pictured myself as the beaming father type showing off pictures of his kids. Yet, there I was yesterday with a printout of my wife's first ultrasound showing that we're pregnant with twins, walking around the Library showing it off to everyone at work. The babies are still pretty small and barely recognizable (at least to me) in the ultrasound, since Angela is only at six weeks, but we're very excited.

Taking a queue from Brenda at work, I've decided to start jotting down my thoughts here. I'm sure there will be a lot to talk and think about in the coming months and years, and I doubt I'll be able to remember it all, so hopefully this will work out as a good place to go back and check out later on.

Lock down Internet Explorer browsing through content manager

Microsoft KB Article 267930 describes this process for IE 5.x, but they also work for IE 6.0. The process is rather simple, yet effective.

Convert sparseimage to asr dmg

When creating an image with Carbon Copy Cloner, if you forget to have it convert the image to asr, the following command will do so.

hdiutil convert -format UDZO /Source.sparseimage -o /Source_asr.dmg

TinyP2P

TinyP2P

A very cool little p2p app that is only 15 lines of code.

Microsoft Anti-Spyware

I installed Microsoft's new Anti-Spyware program yesterday (
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx), and so far I am impressed. They purchased another company (Great Giant?) and have been re-working their product.

Some nice features include their "System Explorers", which allow you to view things that you would normally have to use several other programs to get at, such as startup processes, browser helper objects, and even shell execute hooks.

It also runs in the background to monitor installations for possible problems. I just installed Acrobat Pro and I received several pop-ups informing me of the changes that were being made and allowed. The software knew about Adobe, so therefore allowed them. I am guessing that if it didn't know what the software was it would ask what I wanted to do, and if it knew that it was SpyWare it would block it immediately.

We'll see how things progress. Hopefully MS will make this a free download. I would imagine that if they attempt to include it with Windows they will face lawsuits from other anti-Spyware companies, so that probably won't happen.

Add LPR Printer Port First to Avoid Hang

Adding LPR printers in windows is a little kludgy. I found that it was easier to add the printer port first, then add the printer using that port, since the computer hung when trying to setup the printer through straight IP printing. This is probably partly due to the network environment where the printer is only reachable through LPR.

To add the printer port:
Open the Printers and Faxes window
Select File, Server Properties
Select Ports tab
Click Add Port
Select Standard TCP/IP Port and install as usual
After installing the port, you should be back at the Print Server Properties Window
Select the Port and click Configure Port
Under Protocol, select LPR
Enter a Queue name under LPR settings (usually raw)

Played games this afternoon. Got home and read email. Cleaned the cat box. Getting ready to eat dinner.

First post from phone. Consider this a test.

Hmm

Starting this out. We'll see if I can keep it up.