Parentheticals

This week we skyped with cousin Jack for the first time at our own house. Jack and Andrea mostly stared at each other, but we did get Andrea to tell Jack a 'Brave Lala' story (with a lot of prompting). Jack also sang a song ( Mana Mana ) for us. It was pretty successful. If any other cousins want to skype, we are accepting calls. Just exchange contact info with us. Whenever I brush my teeth, Sara tries to bite the tooth brush. If I am laying on the bed she can usually get the other end of the tooth brush into her mouth, and she thinks that this is the best game ever. She has started to sign this week. She says More (which was Rea's first sign as well) by tapping her feet together with her hands or slapping the table repeatedly. She has essayed into signing water by tapping her face, but that doesn't happen often, so we are not really sure if it is intentional or not. Rea has been feeding Sara a lot recently. One time she fed her half a cup of smoothie (which mostl

My new job is going well. I am working writing code to load test the web sites and writing code to ensure that the QA engineers know if bugs crop back up. They gave me a cell phone with unlimited texting, so I can receive texts now. SaltCon went really well. I was there for about 12 hours, and played about 8 games of Polynesia (among other games that were brought by other people). I gave away two copies of the game to someone that won a tournament and someone that won a raffle which I held. We came up with a few possible minor rule changes which I have to evaluate to see if they will fix some small problems that cropped up during the game. The math trade went well. I got Small World and Ninja Vs Ninja, and I also sold 5 D&D books that I got from the library book sale for enough money to buy Dominion Dark Ages. Rea, Mom, and Dad played Ninja vs Ninja. Rea mostly moved the pieces around and made it hard for the adults to remember where they were supposed to be. Today Rea ha

This upcoming week should be interesting. I was offered a job by 1800Contacts. It sounds like an interesting position, and the company sounds like a great place to work. I will miss my friends at the ICS, but I think that the move to a new place to work will be a good thing. Rea recently told me that I would grow up to be a pig. I don't really know what that means. We set up an appointment to have an internet connection installed in our house when I got laid off to help with the job search, and the guy finally came over to install it on Friday. This means that we might as well have not gotten it installed since I found my job before then. Fortunately it is a month to month contract, so we will just be able to cancel it at the end of the month. Apparently my new company will be providing me with a smartphone and a phone contract that includes texting. And thus I am dragged kicking and screaming into the decade of the text enabled smartphone. I will notify everyone pertinen

This last week I searched for a job. I currently have two companies that seem to be on the verge of writing me an offer. Honestly I would be happy if either one of them gave me an offer, but I haven't yet decided on what to do if both of them give me one. I like both companies, and I don't want to offend either of them (both know about how far along I am in the process with the other company, so I doubt that either would be surprised to hear that I got an offer from the other), but I haven't yet gotten any clear indicators as to who to go with in case of a double offer. The opposite problem is obviously far worse: not getting an offer from either of them. It is not that we don't have enough money to survive without me finding a job immediately, it is just that I find job hunting to be exhausting, and I like making a contribution to some worthy cause. Speaking of worthy causes, Saturday, February 16th is SaltCon. I have made an offer to anyone who has playtested m