Labor Day weekend has come and gone. It was a fitting unofficial end to summer. The weather was absolutly stunning! New Jersey summers are usually pretty hot and humid, but this summer, we’ve had a lot of cool, wet weather. I haven’t gotten outside as much as I would have liked to over the last year. One would think that working from home would afford me the opportunity to get out a bit during the day. I wish that were true. Caring to two children ensures that our days are generally strictly scheduled, leaving little spare time for lounging around outdoors. I’m also pretty strict about my work schedule. I like to start around 7am and be done by 4pm with a few short breaks for breakfast and lunch thrown in there. I really do start to feel guilty if I fall out of that routine.

Anyway, here’s how the weekend went down: Saturday after class, we did a bit of shopping and then I put the kids’ new car seats into the CR-V. These things are so cool – they’re like aircraft ejection seats! It actually wasn’t too bad getting them in and strapped down, but then had to make all the adjustment to get the kids to actually fit right. It was getting dark by the time we finally got both properly adjusted.

On Sunday, Robyn had Weight Watchers in the morning, so it’s my chance to spend some time with the kiddies. We play, have some breakfast and then they nap. After Robyn got home (lighter by a couple more pounds, I may add!), we tried to clean the house a bit and then her mom came over for a visit. We all agree that the weather was so nice that we needed to get out and do something. I remembered the [url=http://www.njbg.org/]NJ Botanical Garden[/url], so we ended up taking a drive up north for the day. The gardens is in Ringwood State Park. It’s a really nice place to bring the family and a fun drive. I’ve never been up to that area, so I was happy to go check it out. The place is stunning! I highly recommend it and I’m sure we’ll be back there again soon.

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On Monday we were at Robyn’s brother’s place to celebrate the holiday. We hadn’t seen them since the [url=http://don.oninohana.com/blog/?postid=206]baby naming[/url], so it was nice to hang out and watch all of the kids play together – and eat hot dogs and burgers, of course! Douglas is completely enamoured by Chloe, so he kept her entertained throughout the day while Gabriel and Hannah enjoyed the toys. I hope they’ll all be quite good friends as they grow up.

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I guess summer is unofficially over…and I have barely used by hammock!

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This was from about 40 minutes ago. I had just gone back downstairs to the office after giving Chloe and Gabriel their first taste of pancakes when Robyn yelled out “There are two black bears in our yard!”. Looking out the front door, I saw the two large bears nosing around by the road. Then they crossed the street and started tearing at our neighbor’s garbage.

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We called the police and they said that they had already had reports of the two bears in the area and then proceeded to give us a piece of advice: “Stay in the house.”

Thanks, I would not have figured that out on my own.

These are in no particular order:

(updated 8/29/07)

[url=http://www.irfanview.com/]Irfanview[/url] – Almost forgot this handy, well implemented image viewer application. We find more uses for this software every day. It’s got great batch processing features, will open almost any file type (download the plugins) and is ultra-customizable. Go get it now!

[url=http://www.lopesoft.com/en/fmtools/info.html]FileMenu Tools[/url] – This is another “can’t live without it anymore” piece of software. The “synchronize folders” and “advanced renamer” tools are a fantastic addition to the standard Windows functionality. Try it out…now!

[url=http://www.editplus.com/]EditPlus[/url] – I use this every day for work and for play and have for years. There are other text editors that purport to do more but EditPlus doesn’t everwhelm the user by trying to do [i]too much[/i]. It’s also fairly extensible, so you can play around with the ini files and add your own tweaks. It supports some scripting and keystroke recording and has good regex support for file search/replace. I don’t often spend money on software, but this is one effort that I’ve gladly supported!

[url=http://www.imgburn.com/]ImgBurn[/url] – Burn a CD or DVD? This will do it…FREE! It will also write ISO images and make you an omelette. There is a bit of a learning curve on this one, but I’ve never made a coaster with this ImgBurn.

[url=http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/]InfraRecorder[/url] – Get rid of Nero’s bloatware and don’t pay a dime! You can use ImgBurn to do almost everything that this does, but Infrarecorder is much more user-friendly.

[url=http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/]Adobe Photoshop Elements[/url] – Adobe has been getting a bad rap lately, but I love their line of Elements apps. I know, “Picasa is free!” you scream. But, PS Elements has everything that the average to expert user needs to fix and catalog their digital photos and express themselves through the creation of new works. My major complaints are that it’s a little slow (at least on my PC) and that it doesn’t seem to support the moving of existing files from one directory to another without causing problems.

[url=http://www.opera.com/]Opera Browser[/url] – It does it all and it did it before Firefox!

[url=http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm]Real Alternative[/url] – A nice free replacement for Real Player.

They’re getting soooo big! It’s probably obvious to anyone who doesn’t have kids, but these little humans grow up so quickly! We’re coming up on Chloe and Gabriel’s first birthday in just a couple of weeks. The last year has been the fastest of my life and we can’t believe that we’re already here! Each day brings new and exciting changes:

Gabriel is now crawling. We were a bit concerned that he was not going to crawl on his own because Chloe has been doing it for so long, but, as with everything else, he just needed a few weeks to catch up. The major difference between them with this was that Chloe was preparing to crawl for a while before she did it with rocking while up on her hands and knees and reaching for stuff that was out of her immediate area. Gabriel pretty much just decided to start crawling one day with very little notice! He’s now scooting all over the place and seems to be very close to pulling himself up to standing using anything he can get his hands on.

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Chloe is making lots and lots of conversational noises and trying to repeat everything that we say to her. Yesterday, Robyn had her saying “ball”. She also makes several gestures that are really funny. She’ll put her hands on her face and shake it back and forth when we say “aye yay yai!”. She also does “tremors” which is something that Douglas did when he was a baby, too. She tenses up her face and neck until she shakes – it’s very funny and it must be something that babies just figure out how to do because she began doing it all by herself. In addition, she’ll answer “How big is Chloe (or Gabriel)?” by spreading her arms, palm up and giving a big smile. This is her standard response to a few things, actually. They’re all very cute.

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2616&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]

Both kids love to eat Cheerios and Gerber Puffs now. We were so concerned that Gabriel was never going to get the hang of eating with his hands, but again, one day he just did it. A little while back Robyn and I gave them a tasty homemade dinner consisting of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and zucchini souffle. They both seemed to really enjoy the new flavors and textures. Gabey is still a little freaked out by some of the new stuff, but he is generally doing MUCH better with his eating. Now, if we can just get him sleeping through the night on a consistent basis!

I’ve been lax about writing anything lately. The last two weeks have been very busy and happily, things have been good.

My mom came down for the baby naming ceremony two weekends ago. Actually, I went to pick up my mom in Massachusetts and brought her down here since no one else from MA was attending the event. We invited my sisters and their families, but they weren’t able to make it, so it was up to me to make the trek. As you know, my sister had tried to drive my mom half way, but I had [url=http://don.oninohana.com/blog/?postid=186]a little accident[/url] before I even got on the highway. This trip was much less eventful. It was actually kind of nice to be out on the road by myself for the first time in a long time listening to songs and The God Delusion audiobook (ironic given that we were about to have a religious ceremony at our home in two days) on my iPod. My mother-in-law had come over to stay with Robyn and help her with the kids while I was away for both days of driving (bringing my mom to our house and back home), so that lessened my worries about being so far away.

Saturday was spent mostly cleaning up around the house. I had forewarned my mom that, with the exception of the party, it was going to be a pretty boring weekend!

The baby naming for the kids went well. We had about 19 adults (plus the rabbi) and 6 kids at our house and aside from the heat (even with the air conditioner turned back on!), it was quite enjoyable. Chloe and Gabriel were excellent throughout the 20 minute ceremony that mostly consisted of the rabbi explaining how we were welcoming the children into our homes and leading everyone in Hebrew songs while he played the guitar. A baby naming outside of the synagogue is not an “official” ceremony, so we were free to make it whatever we wanted. The main purpose was to announce the godparents and to give the kids their Hebrew names. It was quite enjoyable and we got a lot of compliments on the whole affair. Of course, once the main event was over, the food was served and everyone chowed down on the meats and salads from [url=http://www.jonathanskosher.com]Jonathan’s Kosher Deli[/url] and a huge, very sweet cake from [url=http://www.costco.com]Costco[/url]. The rest of the day after the party was over was very nice and relaxing. Spending time with my mom and the kids and Robyn’s mom was nice for both of us, even if my mom was quite quiet for most of it. I know that she was very happy to finally be spending time with the children again.

On Monday, we did the whole trip again, in reverse and again, it was nice to be on the road for the trip back. Spending eight hours in a row behind the wheel was enough for me, though. I’m not looking forward to making the trip again – but it looks like I may have to in order to have my mom present at the first birthday party in September.

The rest of last week was pretty boring. Robyn and I went WAY off our diets. We attribute this to having tons of leftover food that we neglected to give away to the attendees, but it was, of course, our weak wills that were the cause. As the week went on, I was reading about smart, healthy eating at [url=http://www.marksdailyapple.com/]Mark’s Daily Apple[/url]. On top of what I was reading there, I was thinking a lot about my doctor’s advice to lower my carbohydrate intake. The way that we do the Weight Watcher’s plan tends to be rather high in carbs and low in fat, so I have no doubt, that even though I have been losing weight, I’m not being as healthy as I could be. So, given all this, I have decided to make a concerted effort to lower my carb intake. I know that I’m a carb-addict, so it’s going to be difficult. Today is day two and I’m already craving bread! I’m going to hold the course, though!

The new Bujinkan Happo Dojo t-shirts are now available. They look great and they can be picked up at your next class. All sizes are $17.

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According to my iPod, these are the songs I’ve listened to the most often:
[list]
[*]Behind These Hazel Eyes – Kelly Clarkson
[*]Faraway Land – Alison Krauss / Union Station
[*]Anything – Seven Mary Three
[*]New Slang – The Shins
[*]Real Thing – Gwen Stefani
[*]The Crush of Love – Joe Satriani
[*]Africa – Toto
[*]Beast Of Burden – The Rolling Stones
[*]Vicarious – Tool
[*]Who Can It Be Now? – Men At Work
[*]Doesn’t Remind Me – Audioslave
[*]Fly – Adrina Thorpe
[*]Time to Say Goodbye – Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman
[*]Sad – Pearl Jam
[*]Weak And Powerless – A Perfect Cirde
[*]If Walls Could Talk – Celine Dion
[*]Speed Of Sound – Coldplay
[*]A Plain Morning – Dashboard Confessional
[*]You Are – Lione Richie
[*]Blame It On The Tetons – Modest Mouse
[*]Devil Boy – Seven Mary Three
[*]Breathe Me – Sia
[*]The Old Apartment – Barenaked Ladies
[*]Just Lose It – Em nem
[*]Civil War – Guns N’ Roses
[*]Whiskey In The Jar – Metallica
[*]Red Rain – Peter Gabriel
[*]Anarchy-X – Queensryche
[*]Mammal – They Might Be Giants
[*]Feels So Good – Van Halen
[*]Not Alone – All that Remains
[*]Don’t Panic – Coldplay
[*]Cliffs of Dover – Eric Johnson
[*]Heartbeats – Jose Gonzalez
[*]Concerto in E major, ‘Spring’-i. Allegro – Lorin Maazel
[*]Harvester Of Sorrow – Metaliica
[*]Defying Gravity – Wicked – Original Broadway Cast
[/list]
I’m sort of surprised that these are the ones that I’ve heard most often. I wouldn’t generally say that these artists/songs are my favorites. Most of these were part of one or more playlists that I listened to a lot.

So, what do you think this list says about me? Give me your comments….

We finally got our car back on Monday afternoon. It looks and drives great. There’s really no sign that it struck a medium sized mammal hard enough to make it fly through the air. Actually, there is one very small flaw that I see (Robyn noticed it, too, so maybe it’s not so small!). Where the hood runs down to meet the top of the grill, there is a slightly larger gap on the right side than on the left. I can live with that, though.

It was nice to be back in the driver’s seat of a mini-SUV once again. The ride is certainly not as smooth as the rental car was, but I feel like I have better visibility and a better view of the road when I’m in the CR-V.

This weekend is the Four Winds seminar at our dojo. I’m looking forward to seeing Joe, Glenn and Fred again as well as whoever else shows up from the BNYD. It’s been almost exactly a year since I was last out there for training! I miss my Tuesday nights devoted to training and I miss being uke for a training partner.

As usually happens every six weeks or so, our shower drain started to run slowly and we would find ourselves drying off in an inch or so of water after a shower. After getting home from training yesterday, I remembered to get the [url=http://www.zipitclean.com/]Zipit[/url] tool and clean the drain before getting in to clean up. As I was heading into the bathroom, Robyn told me to get the sink, too. After pulling a decent amount of hair out of the tub, I moved onto the sink not knowing what I was in for when I began.

I pulled out the sink stopper and stuck the Zipit waaaay down into the drain. I knew I was in for a surprise when I tugged on it and I felt a fair amount of resistance down there. As inched it up towards the surface, I could see huge clumps of nastiness on stuck to the barbs of the Zipit. As it emerged into the light, I am pretty sure the whole gooey, smelly mass actually cringed and tried to pull itself back into the sink drain. I managed to wrangle it off the tool and I was hit by the strangest smell – it was almost minty but with a hint of dark, organic overtone. It reminded me of those algae drinks that were all the rage a few years back gone horribly sour.

After dipping the tool into the drain several times, the payload got lighter and lighter with each successive return to the surface. I used a plastic bag to transport the mess to the garbage and then cleaned the sink and the surrounding area very well. Oh, and I threw out toothbrushes away as well…I was not taking any chances that that stuff had touched them!