Month: January 2015

I am not ashamed that I get excited by LED lightbulbs

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Today MC and I took some of our holiday to goto Home Depot.  We are looking at renovating our kitchen and we needed to investigate some details.  After we finished doing that I wanted to check out the lighting section.  Our fixtures in the ceiling are not big enough to allow me to put in 75 Watt equivalent CFL bulbs.  I have enough trouble seeing on a bright sunny day outside so I can use every extra lumen I can get.  I recently read about a flat LED bulb from Phillips.  The shape of the bulb had me curious if a 75 Watt equivalent would fit in the ceiling fixtures.  The only problem has been that the last Home Depot and every online store I have gone to have not had them in stock.  I am not ashamed to say I was very happy to see that this Home Depot had them in stock.  I picked up 4 of them to see if they would work out.  I was happy to see that the bulbs do fit perfectly in the fixtures were only 60 watt equivalent CFL’s fit before.  In our bedroom it was amazing how an extra 300-400 lumens make the room so much brighter.

Besides the fact that I now have brighter lighting in the apartment, these bulbs shouldn’t need to be changed until after Amelia is out of College.  That is assuming we still live in this apartment.  The LED bulbs will also allow me to dim them.  Master plan is to put in smart dimmer switches that plug into my home automation system.  The possibilities get interesting once i do that.  I hope to write about that once my plans start to materialize, but I am excited by the possibilities.  Yes I said it i am excited about new light bulbs and light switches. I had to think about why that was.  The reason I came to is I always loved Science Fiction.  I don’t yet have swooshing doors that open when i walk up to them but I can have lights that dim depending on the time of day or go off when people leave the room.  That on top of the fact that my iPad seems to do more than those PADD’s in Star Trek The Next Generation my 12 year old self would think I am living in a great Sci-Fi future.  Take that Star Trek!

Raffi vs Rafi

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I can no longer listen to the children’s musician Raffi. Every time I or hear a song of his I think of Rafi from the League and get the shivers thinking of him singing to my kids.

Homemade Bread

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Gouged myself on homemade bread with dinner tonight. It was totally worth the hour of Amelia screaming while MC was making it and not able to hold her. Because that is how Amelia rolls, no mommy no quiet.

My Evolving Use of Cloud Storage

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Last year I canceled my pay Drobo subscription. I still have the service but with a lot less storage. At the time I wanted to build my own “cloud” storage system.  In reality I wanted to take my data at home and make it syncable via the internet like a cloud storage provider to my devices were ever i was.  Originally I bought a Transporter that I had hopes would take a 1TB drive and let me sync data to my computers.  That dream lasted about a week.  Their sync software was problimatic for me.  Instead I opted for a Synology NAS DS412+.  The added app’s functionality and redundant storage allowed me to move all my data to the Synology and no longer rely on my aging Drobo(s) as my primary storage system.  The Synology also allowed me to move some multimedia functions i did on my mac mini off to the NAS.  So far I have been very happy.  The Synology Cloud Sync app gives me Dropbox like functionality with my personal stuff.  The other file access options the Synology offers gives me access to all my data.  To do that with any other provider would be prohibitivly expensive because of the amount of data stored on the NAS.

The timeing for this change to self hosting my data was perfect.  I couldn’t realistically do what I am doing now earlier because when I had Time Warner my upload speeds were horrible (1.5mb).  After I moved to Fios my upload speeds jumped to between 25-35mb.  I have no problems using the Synology.

The problem with the Synology is that as much as the NAS itself is designed to last and has some drive resiliance in it, I do not have an offsite backup.  I used to copy my data manually for a while but now a days that is not a good idea.  it is also not feasable with the amount of data i have now.

After leaving Dropbox I read more and more about the potential issues with public cloud providers.  Such as Dropbox knows what you upload and wont keep a duplicate copy of a file of music if others have it.  That means they can (and i believe they have) removed content if there is a DMCA request.  I am also increasingly uneasy about US based hosting providers and the easy the government can get access to data.  I am not a criminal and don’t really have anything to hide in what I am storing however those are not reasons why I should be ok with the ease of government access to my data.  I will talk about that more in another post.  In relation to cloud storage I am glad I do not use Dropbox, however I put myself in the same situation with another provider.

Because I have so much data and I need to really be thinking about a 321 backup sceme I started using Crashplan and Amazon Glacial.  Crashplan I recently canceled because I was having problems with my copy of data on my Drobo that i would sync to Crashplan.  The crashplan app kept thinking that the drobo was disconnected and would keep creating new copies of my data.  When it takes weeks to sync a backup using crashplan having a new copy get created every so often is not good.  With that issue and the fact that the Crashplan Synology app caused my Synology to perform super slow to the point that I uninstalled it I gave up on Crashplan and canceled it.

Amazon Glacial has been good so far.  The challanges with Glacial is that the cost per month varries by how much i use it.  It is also much more expensive than Crashplan for the amount of data i have.  Another challange is getting data out is expensive in the event of a major issue.  Thankfully i havent had to worry about that yet but it is a concern.  The most current concern I have is that Amazon is a US based company and my data is hosted on US servers.  For now I am living with that risk.  My rational side says I dont do anything to warrent the government to want my data however I would rather that not even be an option.

One alternative to Dropbox I have been looking at is Mega.NZ.  They don’t have any access to my data once it is uploaded.  They offer 50gig free.  It is good to replace dropbox for some files i have and to give my most important stuff an offsite backup but it is not enough to backup my music, videos, and photos.  Their 1tb option is doable for me but even that isn’t enough to backup everything.  For now I will continue with Glacial as my backup.  I am investigating working with a friend or two to replica sync our Synologies between each other.  The cost of that may not be worth it but it is an interesting idea.

T and Our Coffee Ritual

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When T was about 4 or 5 months old she was big enough to fit into the Exosaucer and bob around.  She loved it.  On the weekends MC and I would (and still do) rotation who would get up with T and later both girls.  Some days it was great bonding time.  When T was that little there was little to do with her after her bottle.  We would put her in the Exosaucer so she wasn’t lying down right after her bottle.  After doing that I would make myself some coffee.  I like Cappuccino so I would make a cup with our Nespresso machine and then sit with T.  She would follow my coffee no matter were it was in my hand.  I thought it was just any beverage but when I moved a glass of water around the same way i would move the coffee she was less interested.  It was very funny.

Once T got a little older I would hold T in one hand and make the coffee in the other.  She was always facinated.  Once she was crawling or walking and saw that I was going to make some coffee she would come over and in he own way demand to be picked up.

Sometime after T was a year old (the exact time eludes me and I wish I kept track better) after she would keep trying to drink my coffee I had the idea to take an espresso spoon and give her a little of the frothed milk from the Cappuccino.  It was the stuff right on top that was not touched by coffee so it was just foamed milk.  It was an instant hit for T.  I didn’t do it all the time but she often wanted spoons of milk.  A few times I just made T a cup of frothy milk for her to spoon up.  That could get messy so I didn’t do it often.

Over the past several months T has gotten old enough to be good enough to help with our ritual.  When I go to make Epsresso or Cappuccino she runs over to the kitchen and demands to be picked up (uppie).  T puts the cartredge into the machine.  She has trouble closing the door but does most of the work.  She then presses the button to make the coffee.  Afterward if I do a Cappuccino she will expect some or go get heself a spoon.

A few weeks ago I was working at my computer with a Cappuccino in hand.  I heard T demand a spoon to MC but didn’t think anything of it until she shows up at my desk with it.  It was clearly implied that I was to provide her some milk.

Amelia on the otherhand has not been as interested in the same ritual.  I am wondering what she will get into when she gets a little bit older.

The Purple Coat

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Teagan has been favoring anything purple in recent months.  She doesn’t know what a favorate is but it is clear that purple is her favorate.  Most of our family knows this so when we needed a very cold weather coat for the girls my mom decided we needed to purple up her wardrobe.  She went out and got both girls purple coats.  I beleive she consulted with MC prior to getting them.  We now have two very purple coats.  Amelia’s wont fit her till next season but next year we will have matching girls.  For now it is very cute to hear Teagan “purple coat”, “purple coat”.  What is funny is sometimes it is a statement and other times its a question.

MC also just got purple socks.  That is a big request in our house and Teagan had only has one pair.  Now she has more.

Amelia the Destroyer

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Since Amelia has been a few months old and learned to grasp at stuff she has been battling me.  She has been attacking my watch, Jawbone UP, eye glasses, chain, hair, nose, chin.  She goes after pretty much anything she can grasp at.  After loosing weight and getting rid of any double chin I had i was surprised when she grabbed a bunch of skin on my chin and yanked.  Not fun.  I seriously need to watch out for her to ensure i don’t get my eyes gouged out.  She is happy about the whole thing, so i am glad she is enjoying herself.

Last week she added to her head count of fatalities and destroyed my chain.  I got the simple gold chain from my parents for my Bar Mitzvah and have been wearing it every day since i was maybe 17.  Amelia has been attacking it for some time but finally was successful at pulling it off my neck.  It was the 2nd time she did this.  The first time the chain came off at the clasp so after i found the coin that goes on the chain i was able to start wearing the chain again.  This time Amelia just yanked the chain and broke one of the links.  This time i was able to find the coin and chain before it got lost.  Last time I was panicking for a day till i found the coin in the girls room.

Today I dropped the chain off at a jewelry store to get fixed.  They said it wasn’t a big deal to fix so i am happy by that.  I am pondering looking for something a bit stronger until Amelia is a bit older and won’t destroy this one again.

This whole event reminded me why I wear an old pair of glasses when i get home after work or during the weekends.  They are not as comfortable as the ones i normally wear but much more resistance to child attacks.

 

 

Its Been Fun Getting Excersise But I Want My Elivator

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In October my building began upgrades on the elevator we use.  We only have access to one elevator so without it we have to walk up the stairs.  It is not so bad during the week.  it is only a few flights.  The challenge is the weekends when we need to move two small children.  It is still amazing to me how much gear we need to transport when going anywhere with two kids.  Even with an elevator going anywhere in the car was challenging since MC would go get the car and i would get downstairs with all the gear and both kids.  Now we have to get down flights of stairs with both of them and stuff.  it becomes a production.  For a basic outing near the house it is not significantly easier.  We had to leave the stroller in a room in our lobby and carry Amelia and have Teagan walk down the stairs.  I have been a sucker recently and picking Teagan up when she asks.  Did i mention she asks all the time to be carried.  Its just easier than having he take 5 minutes to walk up stairs.

Other challenges we have are simply doing laundry.  our laundry room is in our basement.  No problem you think, its just one more floor of steps to go down.  You would be correct if there was stairs that went to the basement.  Without an elevator we have to go outside to get to the basement.  In the winter when its cold or rainy that is an added bonus when we have to do the laundry.

I only feel compelled to write about this now since we are at or past the due date for the elevator to be done.  The reality is the work needed to be done so we sucked it up and dealt with the situation.  Now when the project is supposed to be done any day now, i can’t have it working soon enough.  Apparently all construction work is done but the city needs to inspect it.  Fingers crossed that when i get home today it will be done but i don’t know how good my luck is.

Amelia’s Photo Shoot

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Today we took Amelia to a photographer for her 1 year birthday photo shoot and cake smash.  We did the same thing for Teagan last year and we loved the photos.  For Amelia we went to the same photographer (Amanda Saldarelli Photography) we used for Teagan.  We also used Amanda for our holiday cards.  We have been very happy with her photos so we were excited to see what she could do with Amelia.

Going into the photo shoot we had a feeling Amelia would be more challanging.  She has a “slightly” more demanding personality than Teagan.  I didn’t stay for much of the shoot.  We first took some family shots with both girls and then I took Teagan away so Amelia could get some personal time to get her photos.

Teagan and I ended up at a Starbucks nearby.  She was happy since she got a snowman cookie.  I was happy since i got a cappuchino since i hadn’t had coffee at all that day till then.  After a little one on one time with Teagan we headed back to see how Amelia and MC were fairing.  I got back in time to see the cake smash.  Amelia at first was super excited to see cake.  That was until she touched it.  Then it was like we poured nasty goo on her hands because she got very upset.  Teagan on the other hand had a blast at her smash.  So much so that we can proudly say Teagan’s smash photo (one of our personal favorate photo of the shoot) is hanging on Amanda’s studeo wall.

All is not lost however since the first teaser photos of Amelia from the shoot looked fantastic.  We are patiently waiting for more.

The rest of the day was a nice day at home.  The girls slept in the car on the ride home but then wouldn’t take regular naps afterward.  They were tired by the time it was bedtime.  MC & I were also pretty tired too.  I am a huge fan of nap time and I think MC is too.

Frozen Avoidance

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I feel like someone who dodged the zombie plague for so long only to catch it in the end. MC and I introduced Teagan to Frozen for the first time today. She didn’t watch the whole thing. Wondering if that means she is immune?