Picture Time!

We have our computer back! HOORAY!!

Unfortunately we don' have any room left on the hard drive for photos and we need to get a bigger backup drive before I start taking things off the computer.

As such, these two phone pics wil have to hold you for now.

Penny sleeping in the blanket my friend Jill made for her.

Tummy time!

Living With Engineers

Mark comes from a family of aerospace engineers. Obviously, their take on the world is sometimes different from my elementary school teacher mom and manufacturing operations manager dad. Here's a little story about something that happened on their visit last week to demonstrate.

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We've been looking for a new show to watch. We like to pick one that already has a few seasons on Netfl*x so that we can watch a few episodes at a time. Mark's mom suggested we watch Eureka.

Eureka is a science fiction show about a small town where the government has gathered the country's top scientists. They are provided with the world's most advanced technology and encouraged to "push the envelope" in their research. As expected, when you give a bunch of scientists permission to run amok (scientifically speaking) all sorts of kooky things happen (scientifically speaking). In the pilot episode, for instance, an unauthorized project causes a tear in the space-time continuum that starts "eating" parts of the town.

In the pilot, we also meet Jack Carter, a US Marshall who makes a wrong turn on his way back from retrieving a teenage runaway and finds himself in Eureka. He's not the kind of genius that the townsfolk are used to, but his street smarts and common sense make him instrumental in solving the mystery of the space-time tear.

At the beginning of the second episode, we learn that the sheriff of Eureka is retiring and has recommended to the Department of Defense (which oversees town operations) that US Marshall Jack Carter be tapped to become the new sheriff.

This is the point where things went all "engineer" in my living room. The conversation - though I can't remember it verbatim - went something like this:

Mark - "That's impossible! There is absolutely no way a US Marshall would be offered a job by the Department of Defense. Government agencies don't share personnel that way."

Dan (Mark's dad) - "I find it funny that of all the scenarios posited by this show the one that you point out as least plausible is the US Marshall Service sharing personnel with the DoD."

Me - "Yeah. You know there's a flying car in the opening credits, right?"

Terri (Mark's mom) - "You know you're an engineer when..."

** Everyone laughs **

*Wait a beat*

Mark - "Yeah, but you know I'm right."

Dan - "Oh sure, that would never happen."

*****

So, you can take the guy out of engineering but you can take the Engineer out of the guy.

For the record, we've really been enjoying Eureka.

And yes, we are fully aware that that fact makes us nerds.

Computer Fail!

We here at the Jones household have had a computer fail. We're pretty sure the computer is functioning, but it's hard to tell because the screen is blank. I'm posting from Mark's work computer but, of course, it doesn't have any photos on it. Sorry for all of you hoping to check in for cute baby photos. I assure you, both girls are still adorable. Norah is being an amazing big sister and I can't wait to share the photographic proof of that fact!

If you're the praying type, please pray that the issue our computer has is the manufacturers defect we read about online so that the fix will be free. If the fix is not the free one, we've been informed that it will cost about as much as just buying a new computer. Super. In case you were wondering, I have been cleaning the house and haven't managed to find the money it would take to buy a new computer just lying around. Weird huh? I checked the couch cushions and everything.

I'll try to get a photo or two of the girls up on the World Wide Interweb soon.

Until then, stay warm, dry, safe and happy. I think that covered all the bases.

Now Phosphate Free!

Okay, so this is less a blog post and more of a PSA for my tens of readers. I don't know about you, but we recently started noticing that our dishes were coming out of he dish washer dirtier and dirtier. I was seriously considering calling a repair man (since our washer was less than 2 years old) when we just happened to hear this story in NPR on the way to work one day.

Based on what I learned from this story, the phrase "Now Phosphate Free" might as well be code for "this detergent doesn't work any more". I've done very little research on phosphates, but it looks like there is some conflicting evidence on how much damage they may or may not do to our waterways. The states that banned them seem to have gone the "better safe than sorry" route. That's all well and good, but as far as I can tell the public was largely uninformed about the change. This is especially true in states that did NOT ban phosphates. For efficiency sake, most detergent companies removed the phosphates from all of their detergents so that they didn't have to worry about accidentally shipping an "illegal substance" to the wrong state.

Anyway, I'd encourage you to do your own research on phosphates and come to your own conclusions. According to the story, there are ways to make sure your dishwasher still, you know, WASHES DISHES even with the new detergent formulas. Just wanted to give you - all three of you - a heads up. If your dishes aren't coming clean any more, it's probably not your fault. And for heaven's sake, don't spend money on a repair man or buy a new dishwasher!

*** This now concludes your Public Service Announcement for the day***

Part of the Family

When Norah came to visit us in the hospital, and meet her new baby sister for the first time, she was attentive to Penny for about five minutes. Really, that was about all we could ask from her at her age.

The very first thing she noticed on deciding that she was bored with the baby was my collection of bracelets. They were all pink. She was really impressed that they matched. Then Mark showed her that he had a matching bracelet too. By the time we showed her Penny's matching anklet, she was asking where hers was. After all, she was part of the family too.

She even pointed out the matching collection to my sweet labor and delivery nurse when she came in to check on me. Lucky for me, my nurse has two kids. She left for a few minutes and returned with a special "Big Sister" bracelet for Norah. God bless nurses who have time to pay a little extra attention to the big sister!

One Of These Things Is A LOT Like The Other

As it turns out, the Jones sisters look quite similar so far. It's photos like these that make me grateful that all of our photos are auto dated.

Norah Elizabeth Jones - August 5, 2008

Penny Lynn Jones - December 28, 2010

Norah in hear car seat.

Penny in her car seat (which also happened to be her big sister's).