oct17.com Blog

Baby needs a cellphone

Daddy and Brij share a moment before bedtime, and the baby calls it like he sees it.

babycellphone

Daddy’s a little slow

One needs to keep on one’s toes, even when grabbing a little video of the bouncing baby before bedtime.

grabbing phone

Nine Rubies historical film footage

From just before the store opened in January ‘06…

Nine Rubies panorama

This was taken with Gopal Sarin’s new digital camera.

This is cowboy

I just have to write this down for posterity. Brij figured out the structure of “This is…”, so we now get to hear ongoing commentary: This is black car, this is milk, this is Thomas choo-choo.

But the sweetest pronouncement came after Atul and Shona Sarin brought him a very cute, two-year-old-sized leather vest and chaps. This from their recent trip to Yellowstone Nat’l Park. We put it on the nearest two-year-old, and he promptly pronounced, “This is cowboy.”

And so it was.

Brij’s 2nd birthday

Compared to last year, where our boy ended up in an ambulance, this birthday was fantastic! We stretched the fun out for several days, starting with presents on Friday (the actual “Big Aught Two”), one more on Saturday, then a veritable orgy of gifts on Sunday (when we had friends and playmates over). There are still some presents hidden away for a rainy day–so. Mom, if you’re wondering why he hasn’t mentioned the helicopter, now you know why. Tons of pictures over on WebShots.

Saloni did a great job with getting Thomas the Tank Engine decorations for the Sunday get-together. She had this lovely banner made, too, which is just too special for words. Words in a dictionary, I mean.

1988. Oh. My.

Raines discovered a video of my first TV appearance: On Computer Chronicles with Raines talking about sharware. I don’t appear until the last half of the show, but the whole thing is an amazing blast from the past — the DOS screens, the ads for CompuServe, and my hair.

New photos at Webshots

These newest ones are not all that new (some are from my visit to Chicago in January), and they are all
pretty low quality because took them on my Treo 650 cellphone/e-mail device/camera. Still, I’ll trade quality for
convenience much of the time.

Two kinds of cold turkey

My New Year’s resolution (one of several; I’m an enthusiastic participant) is to stop smoking. This might surprise some of you who didn’t know I’ve been smoking for about 10 years — but probably fewer than I suspect. So far so good on that front, but this is not the cold turkey that concerns me.

At his 18-month checkup, Brij’s doctor informed his shocked mother that it was really quite inappropriate for a child his age to be drinking 32 ounces of whole milk a day. So, my darling son is will find himself sans bottle tomorrow. Pray for us.

Nine Rubies is open

Saloni and Sudha have opened their yarn store!

This a big day for the family, I don’t need to tell you. We’re still settling into the schedule, since the store is open every day from 10 to 7. (Comfortable shoes are being purchased as we speak.) There are new photos of the store on Webshots, which give a pretty good indication of how pretty it is. Several prospective customers have been poking around this past week, and they all comment on how beautiful it is.

I’ve also got a video, taken from Mr. Sarin’s digital camera. It’s about 1MB, and not the best quality, but here you go: Nine Rubies video.

New Year’s Day

It seems that everyone we know celebrated New Year’s Eve at home this year. Does that mean we’re all getting old?

We compiled lists of resolutions for 2006, wrote them down so that we could keep score as the year progresses. We also recapped the year-that-was, and I have to say that quite a lot happened. Here’s the short bulleted list:

• Sold two houses in San Francisco and moved to San Mateo
• Sarins and Howard-Sarins moved in together (and so far no big “blow-ups”)
• Saloni quit job and started Nine Rubies Knitting
• Stephen got promoted (just in time; see above)
• Gopal recovered from second heart surgery (some stents last Dec.)
• Brij learned to walk, say “doodoo” and sundry accomplishments

I have a theory that there are no easy, calm years anymore.