Laura

If you're not aware of the blackout, either it's no longer Wednesday the 18th, or else you haven't opened many sites today.

A little research shows that both my senators have already come out in opposition to the bills (I knew one had, you don't get much more opposed than publicly promising to filibuster if it comes to the floor!). Because of this, I contacted them via their Twitter accounts to thank them for that opposition. (I would not count on Twitter mentions to come to their attention OR carry enough information if I were trying to persuade them to oppose, but to say 'thank you for opposing this' I think they work well enough.)

My representative's position is unknown, as far as I have been able to find (using the various information sites for these bills, and a quick scan of his own site). I went to his web site contact and I sent him an email. I may call to reinforce it, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time/energy for that. I'm wary of phones when there might be a screaming baby.

I am proud of my analogy in the email, however. I was going to compare it to swatting a fly with a Cadillac but that implies piracy is no more harmful than a fly...besides, how destructive is swatting a fly with a Cadillac anyway? It's overkill, but not necessarily detrimental to what's around it. It didn't make the point I wanted it to make, in the way that I wanted to make it, at all.

...I rather liked the modified analogy I came up with. :P

( Text of the letter, cut because it's on the long side )

Aka "first world problems."

Last year I was invited to become an Elite at yelp.com, which surprised me, but sure, why not, it's free and it's a nice badge and there are events.

One problem: the events are RSVP only (no big deal) and 21+ only (big deal) - all of them have spirits/alcohol served, apparently. You can bring guests to some/many, so I could take Scott, but not Drew and now not Ian either of course. Which means I'd have to find child care to go to them.

I've been thinking for a while that in February, as Ian starts day care, I might be able to go to one if there's one of the lunch ones (evening/weekend is more common) and he's in day care. It's not likely. I'll probably not go to such an event this year unless it lands on a Friday or something. Which is okay; I didn't start writing reviews to get to go to the events. Though a lot of them sound neat and I *wish* I'd gone to some.

Today's whine: there is a Moonstruck Chocolate cafe event. In the evening, on a Monday, this month. In no way does it meet the criteria for something I can make it to, unless I want to leave Scott with both boys, which I do not. But ... chocolate tasting!

Oh well. I'll survive missing it. :)

...and he snores or murmurs while you have it turned on and vibrating, well, he just might sound like a tribble (link is a 10-second mp3).

So, Ian fell asleep. He's in the bouncy chair next to me at my desk. Scott was in the gaming room about 10 steps away, if that. But I wanted to tell him something *without* leaving Ian alone *and* without being noisy to wake Ian. So rather than simply calling out, or walking over, I texted him.

Whereupon there was a VERY LOUD chime from behind me. His iPhone was charging at his desk, and on max ringer volume. Ian was not at all disturbed by the chime OR by the ensuing laughter as I explained to Scott what happened.

Some of my friends on LiveJournal are moving to use Dreamwidth in addition to, or in place of, LiveJournal.

If you are one of them, I am also kyrielle on Dreamwidth, and I would love to know who you are there. Especially if you are cross-posting all material or if you are posting material on Dreamwidth that is not appearing on LiveJournal.

Also, if you are doing this or are contemplating it, and haven't already found it, Dreamwidth's FAQ section includes a guide to Dreamwidth for LiveJournal users.

The first part is cadging from my Twitter feed, because it's there. ( Cut here because some have already seen this on Twitter or Facebook, repetition is no one's friend )

Not cadged from the Twitter feed: we went to John & Julia's for Christmas dinner and had a lovely time. The food (prime rib for the main dish) was delicious, but more importantly the company was lovely!

Drew, having smacked his forehead into a doorknob at home the day before, managed to whack himself (in another part of the forehead, fortunately, not the same one) on something else, then caught his toe in a door and gave himself a very small owwie that way. Poor kid. He had a small-scale war with doors for the holiday, apparently. On the other hand, he sustained no major injuries - only the first injury even resulted in our needing to be careful of a tender patch much after it happened. (He had a good 1" bruise from it - it would have been smaller but he fought icing it, so it didn't get iced. Still visible, no longer sore as far as I'm aware.)

Drew has held Ian on his lap a couple times and is very sweet and gentle with him, but you have to position Ian carefully as "support the head" is not something Drew entirely gets OR can entirely do (dude, that head is heavy!). Drew has also appointed himself to help Daddy with diaper changes (Daddy gets the help because he does most of the diaper changes, it's not like Drew is shutting Mommy out here! :), by handing him diapers and wipes. He gets mad if Daddy gets his own diaper. Too. Cute.

My Christmas cards arrived. Well, most of them. I didn't do the address-confirmation step this year - I lacked time - and I've had at least one bounce because of that. (And another got forwarded for me, whew!)

Now I just need to do the thank you cards. Ooof. I VERY MUCH need to do the thank you cards.

Also, partially for my own record and partially for anyone else who's interested, this is a page with information about the new comment form in LJ's latest release (which you may not have seen if you have S2 comment pages). It also includes some other recent issues, as well as igrick's comments in translation. (That is the head of Russian LJ, and the guy who could give a rat's behind what users think of the comment changes.)

My icon in honor of igrick's reactions to this mess. Alas, he's apparently not required to believe mine either. :P

We are doing well. It is so different, novel, and pleasant: instead of averaging a medical appointment a day for Ian's first two weeks (for him, me, or both) as I did with Drew, we have a whopping two - the standard first two well-baby checks. Technically only one, as his two-week appointment is tomorrow, at two weeks two days.

It's amazing how much easier things are when you already basically know the baby-care tasks (and just have to learn this baby's quirks), and both of you are basically healthy (yes, I'm recovering from birth, but it's a normal/healthy recovery). Also, life is easier when the first week is not spent on oxycodone in any dose (not that I am objecting to its use when I had Drew as I sorely needed it then, if you'll pardon the horrid pun - but so nice not to need it now).

I am tired, but not usually exhausted.

Today was highly productive. This is NOT my usual Christmas, and a lot of gifts I might otherwise have wanted to work out simply have not been worked out, because I was rather busy with gestating, delivering, and now caring for a baby. But the Christmas cards went out (...today, so the international ones will be late, but they went out...), immediate family is getting at least some gifts, and the Christmas ornaments and pajamas have been acquired.

(Every Christmas Eve, we gift new pajamas - already washed - to each member of the household. Thus, there is a Christmas Eve gift to open, and that gift is new, clean jammies for the holiday, which we then go to bed in - well, in theory, you could wear another set if you wanted and if the kids want to some years that's fine - and can greet Christmas morning in. And every Christmas, everyone gets a new ornament from someone else. Right now Scott and I are handling those but I think next year Drew will get to help pick one of ours and in a couple years Ian will get to help pick one. Or make them at school if that's how it works that year.)

There are also a few other gifts for Drew, but not for Ian, who is unlikely to notice that all he got was jammies and an ornament. I doubt he'll care about those two this year...but we will, and Drew will.

Also, thanks to Scott, bills are paid, dishes have been done, and the kitchen nook table was clean (until I had him deposit groceries on it a bit later, heh; oh yeah, also got some grocery shopping done!).

Now to find out how many of the cards "bounce" due to bad addresses. There's always a certain amount of that, and I SWEAR I should have updated addresses for one branch of the family but couldn't find the email. Argh. Oh, well. They went out...some will come back...that's the way of Christmas cards, in my life. :P

Last night, Ian was VERY fussy. Understandably. We had to go by my OB's office to get some paperwork finished (you know, the paperwork that my company needs to fully handle my leave...the bits the doctor has to fill out). That's been sent in now, at least.

Then from there we went to the mall because Scott's contract on his phone was done and he could upgrade. Since his phone (long out of warranty) has decided that "reception" is an optional feature, this was really NOT an option. Had we not been within a few weeks of the upgrade when it started the worst of its flakiness, we'd have had to buy a cheap phone of some sort to tide him over; as it was, it was really annoying. (The problem was mainly inbound calls - he could usually call out fine, and data was almost always okay, but the darned thing just didn't bother to ring or register missed calls. I learned to text when he didn't answer, and roll my eyes at his phone.) Anyway, we made it our Christmas present to ourselves and both have shiny new iPhone 4S's. I really wanted one for some of the improved features, though my previous phone was still working.

In any case, it was a LONG trip out for an Ianling, and he slept through it. Partially unfortunate, because when he woke up when we got home he was MOST unhappy to have not been fed sooner (he was not past a reasonable time frame given his age, though he was close to it and clearly past what HE considered reasonable. Apparently the car rides were too soothing - not entirely a surprise. It made him a bit frantic through the evening and up to midnight, so I kind of expected the whole night to be a sleepless, miserable blur.

It wasn't. After the midnight feeding, he appeared to calm down substantially and resume his general trust that, yes, we are responding to him and his needs will be met. He woke a reasonable number of times to eat (and get his diaper changed, not that he appreciated that part), and slept well. Which meant WE slept well, for parents of a baby.

Drew took a while to settle down, time he spent with Scott on the couch in the family room, but once he came to bed with us he slept well (and right through Ian's various wakings, mostly). At one point, Scott put Ian back in his crib after a feeding and Drew rolled over until he was snuggled against me, draped an arm over my neck and tucked his head under my chin. So. SWEET. And yes, I know he was also looking for reassurance that he's still mine and I'm still his too, but it was still so sweet to have him snuggled there. Made more so by the fact that, as Ian was sleeping, I *could* cuddle Drew and give him that wordless reassurance.

I wish I thought it would go this perfectly from here on out, but I will for the moment be very happy that days/nights like this are possible.

Also, happy that the paperwork and phones are sorted. We do have to do grocery shopping, but that's a lot shorter/easier trip to manage. Other than that, and an afternoon appointment with our financial adviser, next week is wide open and lazy. We'll probably drop by day care some time to show them Ian and do his paperwork for when he starts next year. They have the slot held, and only need it sometime "a few weeks" before, but this way both Scott and I can go. If I wait until he goes back to work (which is sooner than I do), he won't get to enjoy the initial showing-off of the Ian. :)

(I was going to go back and mark ones no one had gotten yet to encourage guesses, but that was my plan if I got around to it. Yeah, we're short on round tuits here and the square ones are just not the same, so...here are the answers instead.)

Answers to the music meme. Includes the first person to get the ones that were solved (regardless of correct artist, although as it happened every first named the same artist that was performing in my list).

( Cut because hey, 20 songs is a long list. )