Christmas 2006

Here we are.. Another Christmas done. This year has flown by. I can still remember last year's Christmas! What's a little weird is that next year there will be two little Sens. That thought is so unimaginable, that it borders on the surreal. But, as I'm sure my two-or-more-children fellow bloggers will point out, that too is something that becomes all too real soon enough.

The card from this year

Priya, Christmas 2005. Wow.

Watch out for that unruly lock of hair

Getting the hang of opening presents

Her favorite toy was a 99 cent string of candy necklace

Opening a present from Uncle Todd

The gift from us...

...here shown being put use to!

We went downtown to see the Marshal Fields windows. Ooops... I mean Macy's windows. This year's theme was Mary Poppins.

Preparing for a new world

Well.. more like the new Windows operating system. For the last two years I have been running


It is now time to get ready for...


Other than the fact I like to always be in the front when it comes to technology, Vista has some cool user features that will make it pretty nice. The biggest problem with upgrading to Vista is the absolute system hog it is when it comes to computer specs. The recommended specs are a Pentium 4 processor (or better), 1 Gig RAM, and a "supported" video card. When I bought my computer a couple of years ago, I wasn't really paying attention to some of the finer details. Even though it was a mid-range computer, it came only with PCI-slots. Most video cards that Vista will support are PCI-Express cards. If I peer into my computer and look at my motherboard, you can see the outline where the PCI-e slot was supposed to be. They just didn't put one in (those cheap...).

So it was off to eBay to see if I could get a replacement motherboard. Sure enough, after about six weeks of bidding, I managed to get one for $40. Not bad at all, considering the new ones were going for $120 or more. This is the exact same motherboard, but with the PCI-e slot included. Can you see it?
I had never replaced a motherboard before, and it was slightly challenging. Of course, I ran into a snag just as I thought I was sailing home. In the end, everything was installed, and I am now ready to start bidding on a video card that will support Vista.

Oh.. did you come looking for Christmas pictures? We were in Michigan for the week, and forgot to take the camera with us. I am still digging up some pictures that we took here and there, and will post them as soon as I gather them all.

Quick Roomba Review: The dust container is pretty small, so I don't think it will suffice at all for any heavy duty cleaning. It's a pretty smart little machine though. It seems to remember all the "obstacles" it encounters in its way (like chair and table legs), and it works its way around them when it comes for the second pass. You can see it just kiss the table leg. Pretty cool. So far, the "spot" clean function seems to work best.

This side of vacation time

Sooo... my vacation finally starts. Well, it's the second day today, and it's been great just hangin' around the house. I haven't had to do much shopping this year because we decided that most of the present money is going to go towards stuff for the new bed. Speaking of which, here it is...


The bedding and stuff is all from our old queen bed, which is sitting in the basement. Our old queen set gets tossed in the meantime. Anyone have any suggestions on where a good place is to go for headboards?


So, on Friday I thought, well.. Tish should get something. So I ended up going on Amazon, and getting one of these.

I know Michelle has said in the past that she wasn't very thrilled with the one she has (she's always on the cutting edge of technology). This one is of a newer generation of Roombas, and I'm hoping it at least does what it's advertised to. Watch out for a review.

On a side note, I was having a conversation with a friend on how gifts like these aren't really perceived as "gifts" by women. I mean who wants to get something that reminds them that they have work to do up ahead? I guess I can understand that. Still, I hope it's a cool 'gift.'

Our continued attempts at self-portraits. You can see how much we enjoy them.

Boiled eggs for breakfast.

Saturday morning ritual

Ok. Here it is - a video of our Saturday morning routine. I am always surprised by how much Priya doesn't complain. I remember not liking it at all. Maybe once she gets older she will feel differently. Now, I just like her patience.

And now the result...

Look how long her hair is

Later on today I will be heading out to get a king bed that someone is giving us. It's the first time we will have a bed that big, and Tish is pretty excited..

Nine more days...

...till my vacation starts... Well, it's not really a vacation. For cost cutting, the company is shutting down for the last week of the year. So it's more of a forced vacation, but you won't catch me complaining about it. Yipee! I can't wait.

If Tish wasn't feeling the physical effects of being pregnant, it would be almost easy to forget that there's going to be a newcomer before we even realize it. When I think ahead of all the work that needs to be done, I quickly move on to other thoughts. The office upstairs needs to be converted into the second nursery. That means the "office" has to move downstairs, including the desk that weighs 200 pounds. Ugh. That means that the bedroom downstairs need to be converted to an office. Kids... they change your lives in more ways than one!

Big head, little body. We've also moved on to coconut oil. I was surprised by how easily it washed off without leaving anything behind. Put in a little conditioner, and you have shiny hair that smells good!

Presenting... the next Sen

Isn't this the cutest ultrasound picture you have ever seen? Ok. Maybe not. Psst... They all look the same!! But, it's still cool to see how something like that develops into a pink, squirming baby. We went to the doctor today for Tish's first checkup. She is around 8 weeks pregnant, and the due date is July 14th, 2007.

Priya also got to see the ultrasound. When she got the picture in her hand, she pointed to the baby and said, "baby." Smart little girl.

Wide-eyed beauty

Should Have Stayed Home...

There are some days when it's just better not to get out of bed. Today was the first major winter storm of the season. To find out what happened to me last year at the same time, read this. Maybe I should have learned a lesson from that. But when I woke up this morning, it still hadn't started snowing. So I thought maybe I could beat it, and still get to work before the worst of it hits us. Well... about 20 miles into my journey the drive started getting hazardous. At that point, I thought it will take me the same amount of time to head back home, as it would be to get to work. So onward I went. I've finally made it to work, but looking out of the window now, I don't have high hopes of getting home early tonight. I can just hope that by mid-afternoon the snow ends, and the roads have been ploughed.

My poor car is half-buried already

Hangin' out with Austin and Tasha

Priya prefers a blanket for modesty