I saw [url=http://www.mikematas.com/2005/01/how-to-make-life-poster.html]this great page about creating Life Posters[/url] which are large format collections of personal photos. I thought this might be a great Mother’s Day gift for Robyn. I pulled it together quickly and set it up to be printed by [url=http://www.perfectposters.com]Perfect Posters[/url] due to the large size of the output. I think the results are great.

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1628&g2_serialNumber=2[/img]

Next time, I would like to try some different formatting and [url=http://jasonyanowitz.com/articles/2006/11/24/creating-a-higher-resolution-life-poster]differing photo sizes[/url] within the poster.

My son has become my hero. Gabriel had surgery last Friday to fix a couple of small urological issues. Although the surgery was pretty “minor” it did end up going almost an hour longer than expected due to some bleeding that the doctor needed to track down and fix. We brought the little guy in at 6:30am and his surgery was scheduled for 7:30am. After a short delay, they got started and we met with the doctor around 11 to go over what she had done and to answer any of our post-op questions. We were very happy that the anesthesiologist was thoughtful enough to call us from the OR and give us an update while the doctor was working. The extra time was making us nervous and the call helped to calm our nerves. Of course, it was a great relief to see and hold Gabey in the recovery room. When we first saw him, he was crying pretty hard, but after a few minutes he quieted enough to see that we were there for him. The bottle that we gave him probably helped, too.

In the two days or so after the surgery, we were really amazed at how quickly he seemed to bounce back and to resume his normal routine. Gabriel was smiling within an hour of returning home and by Friday evening, we were pretty much handling him as we normally would. His resiliency was truly inspiring. Yesterday, as the doctor had ordered, we removed the remainder of his bandages during his (badly needed) bath. That was difficult since he seemed to be experiencing some pain. But again, we were surprised at how quickly he got past it and moved on once the pain had subsided. As he continues to heal, we’re expecting that each day will be better.

Although our situation is thankfully very minor, it’s never an easy thing to see the people you love in any pain – and now that I’m a parent, I can say – [i]especially[/i] one’s own children. We know that by putting the little guy through this now, he will avoid any issues in the future. Children are really incredible. We’re so happy to see Gabriel laughing and smiling. Even when he does seem have pain, a little distraction works to quickly take his mind off of it.

Yeah, I know it’s May 1st today….

Anyway, here is April’s playlist:
[list]
[*]I Dream in Infrared – Queensryche (Rage for Order)
[*]We’ve Got Everything – Modest Mouse (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank)
[*]Be A Man – Tesla (The Great Radio Controversy)
[*]Vicarious – Tool (10,000 Days)
[*]Not Alone – All that Remains (The Fall of Ideals)
[*]Weak And Powerless – A Perfect Circle (Thirteenth Step)
[*]Sing For The Moment – Eminem (Curtain Call: The Hits)
[*]Raoul and the Kings of Spain – Tears for Fears (Gold)
[*]Weight of the World – Evanescence (The Open Door)
[*]Indifference – Pearl Jam (VS)
[*]Dragon Attack – Queen (The Game)
[*]Take It On The Run – REO Speedwagon (The Hits)
[*]Bangs – They Might Be Giants (Mink Car)
[/list]

This one features some old stuff and some newer stuff. I’ve been getting back into good ole’ metal again thanks to some interesting new bands. I particularly like [url=http://www.allthatremainsonline.com/]All That Remains[/url]. They manage to combine what most would call thrash (I guess it’s called “metalcore” now…) with some truly melodic guitar playing and great vocals interspersed with some traditional metal grunting and yelling. I’ve also been listening to [url=http://www.shadowsfallrocks.com]Shadows Fall[/url] – another Massachusetts metalcore band. What’s going on up there since I moved away? Apparently western Mass has become quite the haven for heavy metal.

Of course, I have some [url=http://www.toolband.com]Tool[/url] on there. [url=http://www.lyricwiki.org/Tool:Vicarious]Vicarious[/url] is a great song that really resonates with me although some would say that it’s Tool’s “sell out” song.

Another recent favorite of mine has been [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_for_Fears]Tears for Fears[/url]. I’ve always really liked their hit songs, so I got their best-of compilation (Gold) and I’m finding it to be quite good.

I’ll be working on a May playlist over the next few days….

More baby-proofing around the house today. I’ve been putting off putting up the “baby proof” gate at the top of our stairs thinking it would be a long and tedious process. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. Most of the installation went smoothly until Robyn noticed one of the anchors holding a screw into our wall was beginning to pull out of the wall. I knew this might be an issue because there was no stud available into which the hinges could be mounted. A quick trip to Home Depot and a question to one of the associated netted me a couple of “EZ Toggle” bolts. Of course, you can’t leave Home Depot without at least $20 in other stuff that you just remembered that you needed, so I also got a [url=http://www.amazon.com/DeWalt-DW2523-Pc-Rapid-Load/dp/B000H0RX1M/ref=sr_1_8/104-7689253-0692704?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1177893140&sr=1-8]Rapid Load kit[/url] for my drill, some new work gloves and a coat hanger for out entry way. After I got home, the rest of the installation went fairly smoothly and the screws seem to be holding well. We’ll see how they hold up to two kids over the next few years….

Speaking of kids, Chloe’s sprouting another tooth right next to her other one. The things are practically razor sharp, but she looks so cute when she smiles now that we can forgive her any little nips! Gabriel’s got a little toe infection from his ingrown toenail, but it appears to be getting better with the antibiotics that the pediatrician prescribed last week. We’re watching it closely.

I got my bike back from the shop yesterday. It was nice to hop on and be able to shift into the low gears again! The bike is about 10 years old and has never really been tuned up. So, for my birthday, Robyn had my bike fully tuned up. This included all new cables in addition to having a new handlebar and v-brakes (thanks, John!) installed. I had to replace the rear tire since it was pretty beat as well as the chain. It looks good and seems to ride great. Now I just have to get out and ride a little more often than I did last year. With the weather getting warmer, I’m hoping to be able to do at least a couple of short rides each week in order to build up my endurance and start getting some exercise.

And speaking of the weather, this is the time of year that we all get our yards cleaned up and the grass turns green. Well, our front yard is green, but it mostly seems to be a carpet of moss! Robyn made an appointment with [url=http://www.trugreen.com/]Trugreen/Chemlawn[/url] to come take a look last week. They called back and gave us their suggestion which basically consists of 6 visits throughout the season for weeding and feeding as well as a lime treatment to both get rid of the moss and to prepare the soil for seeding in the late summer. It was fairly inexpensive, there is no contract and of course, they have a “satisfaction guarantee”, so we decided to give it a shot. I think the total expense would not be less than I usually spend on fertilizer and grass seed throughout the year, so it should be worth it. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing less moss and more grass in our front yard this summer.

[url=http://www.dropline.net/cats/kitty/im-a-fucking-cat]This[/url] struck me as incredibly funny….

It’s great to see that the push for Net Neutrality is really gaining some momentum with many new and sometimes unexpected allies.

See this article on Ars Technica: [url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070426-net-neutrality-advocates-thank-att-ceo-for-shooting-off-his-mouth.html]Net neutrality advocates thank AT&T CEO for shooting off his mouth[/url]

I’ve been appalled at the way the company I work for (that’s right, the one with the “deathstar” logo) has been lobbying against net neutrality in the hopes of somehow getting Web companies to pay AGAIN for the bandwidth that their customers are using. It’s ridiculous!

Yes, I know the rollover pop-up bubble things don’t exactly look perfect in Internet Explorer (at least not in version 6!).

There’s something screwy in my style sheet that is causing a problem. I’ll get it fixed eventually….

Did you ever want to see all the fonts that you have installed displayed in Word with some sample text? No, well I did and I didn’t feel like doing it manually. I’m sure there is some font program that already does this, but wanted to be able to run a simple macro each time rather than having to install something.

Anyway, after an hour or so, I came up with the following:

[code]
Dim allfonts(400) As String
Dim thefont As String

Set fontlist = Application.CommandBars(“Formatting”).FindControl(ID:=1728)

‘ If Font control is missing, create a temp CommandBar
If fontlist Is Nothing Then
Set TempBar = Application.CommandBars.Add
Set fontlist = TempBar.Controls.Add(ID:=1728)
End If

For i = 0 To fontlist.ListCount – 1
thefont = fontlist.List(i + 1)
‘Selection.TypeText Text:=thefont & vbNewLine
allfonts(i) = thefont
Next i

‘ Delete temp CommandBar if it exists
On Error Resume Next
TempBar.Delete

For y = 1 To UBound(allfonts)

Selection.Font.Name = “Arial”
Selection.TypeText Text:=allfonts(y) & vbNewLine
‘ If youre going to type in Japanese, use this
Application.Keyboard (1041)
Selection.Font.Name = allfonts(y)
Selection.TypeText Text:=”The quick brown fox did his thing”

Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend

‘Selection.Font.Name = allfonts(y)
‘Selection.TypeParagraph
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeText Text:=vbNewLine & vbNewLine

Next y
[/code]

Seems to work pretty well.

[b]Edit:[/b] My real imepetus for doing this was to view all the Japanese fonts that I have installed with something typed in Japanese and styled with the appropriate font. My lovely and smart wife pointed out that you can go to your fonts folder and click on any of the installed fonts to see what the font looks like.

Today, I turn 36. Wow. Not much to say about aging. I don’t feel that much older than I did yesterday.

I just wish it was a nice warm day instead of this cool, gray weather that we’ve been stuck with for the last week.

I’m taking the afternoon off from work to relax and spend some time with the family.

This is Chloe laughing hysterically in response to Robyn. Very cute!