Merry Christmas, everybody!
I had a great Christmas. Grandmommy and Uncle Boo were here. Santa Claus gave me lots of good toys because I was a very good boy this year. Here are some of the things he gave me:
My grandmommies gave me some cool toys too:
And Uncle Boo gave me a suitcase for my Thomas trains.
I don’t normally do this, mostly because I loathe New Years (it’s just another reminder to me that I’m getting older etc. etc.), but I actually have TWO resolutions for this coming year. Normally, I don’t have any because I believe that any change you want to make in your life shouldn’t have to wait until some arbitrary date on a calendar. Nevertheless, things have gotten to the point in my life where I feel like I need to take action, now, on two fronts:
#1: Clean Up My House
This is a little more than just scrubbing the bathroom (and honestly, I don’t even do that; I have a housekeeper who does a much better job than I can do). I mean going through every nook, every cranny, and every pile of crap in my house and getting it all under control. Scanning in the kids’ art projects and sending the originals off to the grandmothers. Getting rid of the mementos I haven’t looked out (or taken out of boxes) in 4 years. Get my house into some sort of organized shape so that it doesn’t look like a FEMA zone all the time.
A one off on this theme is to redo the basement into a kids playroom so that we can get most of the toys out of the living room (where we’re always tripping on them) and into a dedicated space that the kids can call their own. This includes laying down new flooring since the cats have ruined the carpet there.
Another related part of this is to redo the floor in the kitchen. The original vinyl tiling that’s there has been peeling up since pretty much we bought the house and if we ever want to sell the place ourselves, that needs to be fixed up.
It’s a big project, bigger than it sounds, and maybe I should call it more “organize my life”, but if I can tackle the clutter that I live in, it will be that much of an improvement in my life.
#2: Don’t Buy Any More Books Until I’ve Read the Ones I Have
I should probably add to that “ask for books as gifts”. I have a pile of books I’d love to read, but I simply don’t have the time. Why compound the problem with more books? In fact, I haven’t read a single book I received as a gift for Christmas 2007! So I really don’t need any more. I don’t need to buy them, and I don’t need to ask for them. I need to read what I’ve got.
And the same goes for audiobooks. I recently bought one that I’ve only listened to the first 3 chapters of. I can’t listen to them in the car because no one else in my family wants to listen to them (and they’re almost always in the car with me, especially during the daily commute). I find it hard to listen at work because I can’t concentrate on the text and what I’m working on at the same time. So again, no time.
Basically, both of these resolutions come down to setting priorities. I’m going to find the time to clean my house and read my books. I have no idea how I’m going to accomplish this and still get any sleep, but I have 365 days to figure that out.
They’re chewy, they’re moist, and they’ve been compared crack. And now you can bake these delicious treats in your very own home:
Ingredients
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Beat together butter and sugars in stand mixer with flat blade. Add egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla; beat well. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add flour mixture slowly to batter; mix well. Stir in oats and raisins; mix well. Using ice cream scoop, drop batter onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour. Bake 14-17 minutes in a 350°F oven. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. Makes 24 cookies.
So, we go to the mall last night to pick up a few things, and don’t get home until 9:30. Then it’s the nightly fun of putting the kids to bed. Hooray!
So what do I do afterwards? Why, finish putting Christmas lights on the cherry tree out front, of course!
I only did this last night because it was 60 bloody degrees outside, and a cold front was going to be moving in overnight. So it was either do it late at night in the drizzling rain, or some other night this week in the cold. I chose late but warm.
They’re on a timer, so hopefully they’ll be lit when we get home tonight. Sammy should like that. He gets really excited seeing any house with Christmas lights and will point out each and every one!
(I’ll try and get a better picture up this weekend.)
I’ll spare the gory details of the entire weekend, only that we’re in the midst of holiday cheer.
However, I will relate the story of Sammy vs. Santa Claus. For weeks I’ve been telling Sammy that we need to go see Santa Claus so that he can tell him what he wants for Christmas. We even wrote a letter Sammy could give him detailing his preferences. And finally the day came, Sunday, when we were off to Lakeforest Mall with, I believe, one of the best Santa layouts in Suburban Maryland.
Sammy was reasonably good in the long line, as was Sasha who didn’t get fussy until we were approaching. A little nosh (yes, while standing in line) seemed to appease her. As for Sammy, I let him play with my iPhone for a little while, which backfired when it was our turn and I had to yank it out of his hand when he refused to give it back to me.
Sasha, who has been plagued with both separation anxiety and stranger anxiety lately, was a perfect angel. She gave Santa her biggest toothless smile and did everything she was supposed to do. Then there was Sammy.
I tried placing Sammy on Santa’s lap. His response was to start crying and then hop off. I gave Sammy the letter he had written, which he then threw at Santa and tried to run off. Finally, after coaxing from the photographer and from me, he stood sort of next to Santa clutching a tiny basketball squeaky toy, and then finally sat on my knee as I kneeled down next to Santa.
At one point, he gave the photographer one of his “I’m in pain!” smiles. I tried to tell her that that was his smile and that she should get the shot off quickly, but I don’t think she quite believed me.
We managed to get off a few passable pictures which we got in prints and on a USB key (a cool l feature that I think is a smart way to go), we were done, much to Sammy’s relief.
Greetings from the Rottons:
Mark, Tracy, Sammy & Sasha
It’s been an exciting year for the Rottons.
On July 11, at 2:43 in the morning, we
welcomed Alexandra Elaine Rotton into the
family. She weighed in at 8 lb 8 oz and is a
healthy and active bundle of energy. We
call her “Sasha” (it’s the Russian equivalent
of “Alex”).
Sammy is now a very precocious three year
old. He recently switched to a new
preschool located in the same building in
which Tracy works. With Sasha there too,
the whole family gets to be together every
day.
Mark and Tracy are still working for Discovery Communications. We invite everyone to enjoy the fine programming on the Discovery Channel’s family of networks. You can keep up with all our happenings on our newly relaunched blog: http://family.rotton.com/
You can also follow us on Twitter! Mark is @atarinut, Tracy is @taupecat and Sammy is @sammyrotton. (Sasha will get her account when she learns to talk. 🙂 )
To reach us in more traditional ways, call or email us:
301-460-6466
us@rotton.com
I subscribe to several news video podcasts (such as the NBC Nightly News) that I listen to at work. I subscribe to the video feeds because I like to have the video option available, although 90% of the time I’m content to just listen to it. And since this is at work (and I don’t keep an iPhone cable with me), I’m often concerned about exhausting the iPhone’s battery before the end of the day.
So, in order to keep power consumption at bay, I’ve found a trick to turn off the video on a video podcast yet still listen to the audio content. By default, you can turn off the screen on audio content and continue listening, but to do so on any video content will also turn the audio off. Here’s the way around that:
This will work for music videos as well as video podcasts. I’m presuming that it will also work for TV shows and movies, but I don’t have any content like that on my iPhone so I can’t test it.
Unfortunately, once you go back into your iPhone (that is, move the unlock slider from left to right), the iPhone will immediately resume the video playback, and if you try to leave iPod mode to go do something else, the audio will cease again. (This stinks because I often need the calculator while working, and hate having to stop and start my podcasts all the time.) At least, however, this is a way to conserve some battery life when you really don’t need to see the video in your video podcast.
I think Sasha’s “Flippy, the Wonder Baby” phase is finally over. For about three weeks, maybe longer, she felt compelled to flip to her tummy when put down on her back even the least bit awake. Once there, she’d start to fuss, and then scream because: A) she didn’t want to be on her tummy and B) she couldn’t flip herself back over. Once in the occassional while she’d finally manage to fall asleep on her tummy after fussing for a little while, but usually we’d have to flip her back after she worked herself into a tizzy.
Fortunately, I think she’s over all this. She hasn’t tried to do the Flippy thing for several days now, and I think as a result we’re both getting a lot more sleep.
Following @veronica‘s example, I’m posting the sixth photo on the sixth page of my Flickr photostream. Here we see my mom’s cousin Connie with Sammy taken when she last visited us on January 21, 2007. Sadly, the focus on this picture is a bit off, but the look on Sammy’s face is priceless!