Support is Important

Having a baby is challenging. It's hard work, but it's not the physical work that's tough (at least not yet), but it's the emotional side of things. The frustration of not knowing if you are doing something right, of not being able to tell what he wants when he fusses or cries. My respect for single parents has increased one hundred fold since becoming a dad. It's a tough job, and going at it alone is just unfathomable to me.

Our biggest challenge has been not having much in the way of a support network around us. At least not in the immediate vicinity. Both of our immediate families live multiple provinces away, and while we do have extended family in the city, I find it really difficult to ask for help.

I thought we were developing a decent support network here. Going to church, having a small group, making friends... but it has all seemed so distant these past two weeks. Bean was born two weeks ago today, and we've haven't had much in the way of visitors. I mean my parents surprised us with a visit the weekend after he was born, and what a HUGE blessing that was, and a couple of friends from out of town who just happened to be in town that weekend dropped in, but other than that, we've had no one.

I dunno, I guess I just expected more, which maybe I shouldn't, but I thought at times when there's a birth or death that the community comes together and helps those people out. I mean we've missed the last two Sundays at church and haven't heard a peep from anyone. That's not true, one person gave us a phone call and congratulated us which was really nice.

Maybe technology is getting in the way? When Bean was born I let everyone know on facebook, and posted a couple of pictures, and the messages and comments on my status poured in. It was really nice, but that's where it stopped. Other than from a couple of really close friends, nobody even called. Nobody offered to drop by with dinner or to visit (things i thought just happened, especially in churches). Maybe I'm being a little old fashioned, but commenting on someone's status is nowhere near the same as calling them on the phone, or dropping in to see them. But I think people have gotten comfortable sending greetings and congratulations from afar and the personal interaction has been left behind. It's so much easier to type "Congrats!" than to pick up the phone and call, or drop by and see how things are going.

Now, I know I'm just having a little pity party for myself over here, I just expected more. And maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe the relationships that we have cultivated just aren't at that point yet. Or maybe I just need to learn to ask...There was just so much love and support prior to the birth, I thought it would continue. I think it's the fact that the extent of most people's comments were a reply to a status update. That's not enough.

It'll get better though. Hopefully we'll make it to church on Sunday and reconnect with people there, and Jo's parents are coming in Sunday afternoon for a couple of weeks. It'll be a good thing, though I'm sure trying at times. ;) I love my inlaws, they just drive me nuts sometimes. But then most people do, and living with them for a couple of weeks just amplifies things. lol It'll be great for the love and support though, just what we need right now.

Using the command line to unpause/enable printers in Leopard

~~Nerd Content Ahead~~


With a recent upgrade to Leopard from Tiger, we're having a lot of issues where the computers are constantly pausing the printers locally on each machine. In Tiger, the user could resume the printer, but in Leopard the user requires admin rights to resume them. This is causing problems because student and teacher accounts in our division don't have admin rights. This means I have to go around to each computer and enter admin credentials to unpause them. This is a giant waste of time, so I want to use the command line or a script to unpause/enable them.

So after much research and fiddling, I finally figured it out!

I use three commands that I've put into a script, and send out via ARD with the UNIX command option. They will unpause/enable the printer so that users can resume printing.

Here are the commands:

#finds printers that are currently disabled and clears the queue on them
cancel -a `lpstat -t | grep disabled | awk '{print $2}'`
#re-enable stopped print queues
cupsenable `lpstat -t | grep disabled | awk '{print $2}'`
#checks to see that all printers are re-enabled. should return nothing
lpstat -t | grep disabled | awk '{print $2}'

The only issue I've come across is that if the printer is being unpaused immediately following it being paused, then remove the top command which clears the queue, and just run the second two. This won't clear the queue, and unpause the printer so that the job goes through immediately.

I know there is a larger problem with the way our queues and printers are setup, so this is just a quick fix in the meantime, but I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring out this much as it is saving me a ton of work and headaches.

My New Bass!

Friday was an exciting day. On Friday I bought myself a new bass. :D
It'll look a little something like this (actually exactly like this one):



It is an Fender American Vintage 1962 Reissue Precision Bass in olympic white. It's absolutely gorgeous and I'm going to keep the pickup and bridge covers (the chrome pieces) on. I played one at the store the other day and it's such a beautiful instrument. I bought it from Bass Central down in Florida, and they shipped it via UPS this morning. So exciting! Hopefully be Friday!

I was looking at this one:
It's an Ernie Ball Dargie Delight Stingray. It's absolutely beautiful. The green is mesmerizing, and check out the martini glass inlays in the fretboard. It's one of only 25 made, and the guy only wants $1500. It's a sweet-ass deal, but I'm really looking for that vintage sound of a quality p bass. This stingray is such a quality instrument and so beautiful, but I guess I can't buy a bass strictly on looks, when the p bass has looks AND tone going for it. I like the looks of the Stingray more, but you can't beat a full package. :)

Oh, I can't wait! So exciting...

It's been just over a week...

So it's been an interesting past week and a half following the birth of Bean last Thursday. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride as we adapt to this thing called parenting. I spent the first couple of days on the verge of tears every time I looked at him. It was overwhelming to be responsible for this little creature, that I created, and having no clue how to do it. I mean, I know I have this innate knowledge about what to do, but it's all the other stuff that worries me. It's trusting that I can make the best choices for him and his future to maximize his potential in life.

It's fucking scary.

Things have gotten a lot better as time has gone by. I'm feeling a lot better about my role as a dad, and I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with Bean.

We had quite a bit of trouble feeding him, though that has also gotten a lot better. He wasn't breast feeding at first, so we were using this fake nipple thing and a supplemental nutrition system (SNS), which is a syringe that you fill with milk (forumla or breast milk) and feed it to him through the fake nipple. It was a royal pain in the ass, and it took both of us to feed him. This meant that every 3 hours we'd both get up and feed him, then go back to sleep. Since then, we've weaned him off of the SNS, and he is feeding exclusivly off breast milk. :D This means that it only takes one of us to feed him at each feeding, which makes life a whole lot easier. Well, for me anyway, Mama Bean still has to get up an feed him.

So while it is nice that I don't have to get up, I have been feeling guilty that she has to get up all night, while I just sleep. I'm going back to work this week, so it'll be a definite advantage to be able to sleep through the night, but it doesn't alleviate the guilt. I'm working hard to make her life as easy as possible, by cooking, cleaning and trying to do what I can to make her life easier while she does all of the feedings.

I go back to work tomorrow after being home since the birth. I sure Mama Bean will be okay by herself all day, and it's nice to know I'm just a phone call and 5 minute drive away in case there's a problem.

5 more weeks of work and then I'm a SAHD for the next 9 months. :)

Oh, and we posted more pics over at Bean's Picasa Album

Day 6

Over the past couple of years, I've read countless posts on how great babies are; about how much they love them, and how much they enrich the lives of their parents.

None of these posts come close to expressing the love and elation that I feel when I look down at my baby boy. And I'm sure the same is for the writers of those posts. They tried to capture what they were feeling, but there aren't words to describe the love.

Bean is in his 6th day of life, and already so much has changed. His eyes are starting to focus, and they move to look when he hears sound. The shape of his head is changing and widening a bit as the skull plates start to move into place.

Granted the lack of sleep is tough to take, but it's all part of parenting right? We take it one day at a time, and each day brings its own unique qualities. Each day different than the last, and all exciting.

I've always been told that your wedding day is the biggest day of your life. I disagree, I don't think anything can top the day I first became a dad.

Pics of Bean

Here are some pictures!!

Jasper Rainn Pictures

Enjoy!

I'm a dad!!

Ummm...so I'm a dad. :)

Mama Bean woke me up shortly after 3 this morning saying she was having contractions and asking if she should be calling the midwife. She went back downstairs (i'm not sure what else was said as I was half-asleep) but I didn't fall back asleep. I didn't think they were actual contractions, but maybe something like braxton-hicks as she hadn't actually had much in the way of them yet. Though despite my doubts, I still didn't sleep. I lay there thinking about all the things we still had to get ready.

As we were planning a home birth, there was lots to prepare. Mama Bean had gotten almost everything together, but as we'd had company the past 4 days, some things still weren't setup. Music wasn't on the ipod, the matress wasn't upstairs, there were no sheets on the mattress, the plastic to protect the floor and stuff hadn't been laid out, and the list went on. All of this was running through my head as I tried to fall back asleep.

Mama Bean came back in just before 4 and said that we should probably bring the mattress upstairs and set things up, and the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I still thought she was overreacting, but part of me was worried, so we setup the futon mattress on the living room floor and put down our dollar store shower curtain to protect things. By this time it was shortly after 4 and Mama Bean was having what looked like serious contractions. So since they fit the criteria of 511 (5 min apart, 1 min each, for 1 hour) we called the midwife and let her know. Our normal midwife has received a call shortly before ours so she was just heading out to another birth so she sent over Lisa, another midwife whom we hadn't met yet.

Lisa showed up about 4:30 and looked to have a mini-freakout session in her head when she realized just how far along Mama Bean actually was. Mama Bean was fully dialated and trying hard not to push. So Lisa quickly called another midwife to come over and help (as there always needs to be two for a delivery) and Kara showed up shortly thereafter.

By about 5:30 Mama Bean was pushing and her water broke around 6ish. At 7:17 we welcomed Bean into this world. Mama Bean is such a trooper doing this all at home, drug free. I'm so proud of her, and so thankful we had such awesome midwives.

The midwives were gone around 11:30 and we spent the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating.

More to come later... :)

Quick Post

So I had a couple of other posts in the works about goose hunting, and thanksgiving, and how Mama Bean is doing and my visit with relatives until this morning...

Umm...I'm a dad.

After just 3.5 hours of labor my wife gave birth to a darling baby boy. His name is Bean and is 7lbs 4oz and 20" long. My wife is friggin amazing and I can't believe it went so quick.

I need one

I've been wanting one of these for a few years now, and if someone wanted to get me one for my birthday or Christmas, I totally wouldn't mind. I have an awesome Last Supper one that I received for Christmas the year I started playing bass, and still use it. I'd like to add another awesome one to my collection. :)
Get'm Get'm.com has them. :)

Totally Awesome Site!

The Spoon Sisters is totally awesome!

Check out some of these awesome things we've been looking at on this site.

Butter Boy


Thumb Things (how genius is this?)


Calf and a half creamer


And so many other cool things. Check out the site.

Oh, and I'm looking for recommendations on a diaper bag. Something manly. :)

My Deliver is Coming

This song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It makes me sad that Rich Mullins died before I even discovered his music. The man wrote amazing music.

GodTube.com - My Deliverer (Is Coming) - Rich Mullins - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Learning in the Kitchen

Normally I do pretty well in the kitchen, but yesterday I made a little oops with my beans.

I bought a package of dry lima beans the other day in hopes of cooking them myself and enjoying lima beans for much less than it costs to buy by the can. I read the directions, and left my beans to soak for 8 hours.

Somewhere around 24 hours later I decide to cook them. For some reason most of them had split open and the shell had come off of them, which they don't look like in the can, but I decided they'd probably be okay anyway. So I throw them in a pot and bring it to a boil. You are then supposed to turn it to low and let them simmer for 1.5-2 hours. And in the last 30 minutes add salt if you'd like.

Well I figured since I was already there, I may as well add the salt now and then let them cook for the next 2 hours. Boy, was that a mistake. :( 2 hours of boiling in salt water turned them into an inedible batch of beans. They came out totally infused with salt, it was like pouring salt straight into your mouth with each bite.

So, lesson learned. Add the salt near the end (or at the table) and avoid spoiling your beans.

Though now I understand how salt pork works. :D And I'm excited to make some one of these days.

Computer Joke

One of the teachers posted this the other day on a staff bulletin board. It's the same joke my prof taught me the first day of college. :)



I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Jaden, the 9 year Old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to Come over.

Jaden clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.

As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?

He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An, ID
Ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'

Jaden grinned. 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error
Before?''

No,' I replied.

'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it Out.'


So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T

I used to like the little shit.