All the good stuff

I have been complaining for some while now about the limitations of the Microsoft Live blogs. I was especially annoyed by the fact that I couldn't even access the site using Firefox on my Linux desktop -- which is has had zero problems thus far, and has taken over as my primary computer at home.

Through a series of hyperlinks, I found myself on the blogger website. It appears that google owns blogger, and since I have a gmail account, I was halfway setup for having a blogger account. So I went the whole nine yards, and set up a blog to replace this one. I expect this will be my last post on this blog. Future updates will be found on my new and improved blog page, http://lesbonneschoses.blogspot.com/ now with gender agreement between subject and adjective!

Rebecca sent me a picture of a stranger's baby. She most likely found it on one of her knitting blogs, who is in all likelihood married to a nerd. Or is a nerd herself. Clearly, there is some kind of correlation going on here. Well, anyways, here is the shirt:

I needs me one of those for Pokey. Not that I'm a nerd. Nor is Pokey. It's just too funny to not want.

Today, Pokey and I are wearing the same outfit: an orange waffle-weave crewneck pullover and navy blue pants (his are fleece; mine are denim). You will submit to the cuteness.

 

I also wanted to post an update that I think is kind of interesting from a concept-development sort of perspective (which is what I do for a living). I noticed yesterday (or maybe it was the day before) that Pokey, who is turning 1 on Sunday, has learned that keys are things that are somehow used in locks, which are in turn found on doors. Carrying him past our keyholder, he points at the keys to tell me he wants to go over there. There, he grabs a key. He then points to the door and does the same thing. Standing at lock level beside the door, he touches the key to the deadbolt. One of the things that we never know in concept development is the trajectory for learning about things in the world. This anecdote will probably find its way into a talk sometime.

Today Pokey made his (alleged) first steps. I say alleged because there's no telling what he does when we're not around. Like those fanciful stories of toys that come alive or animals that act like people when nobody is watching. He's a little daredevil, that Pokey. He's been running and jumping for awhile, I'm sure of it.

 

Speaking of running for awhile, I went in for the 3rd time to try and make the cut for an athsma study at the Robarts center. They were testing a medication and an MRI imaging technique on people with exercise induced athsma, with which I was first diagnosed in June '06. I'll skip the back story, and get right to the part where I showed up two Mondays ago to see if I was a candidate for the study. I followed the instructions they sent the previous Friday. I kept them, so I was able to refer back to it and confirm my non-idiocy when they had to halt the test because I had taken Benadryl 9 hours prior. According to their procedure (but not their email), I was not allowed to take Benadryl for 48 hours. So I had to rebook the test for Wednesday. It also meant that I had to play soccer that night without taking my puffer. I have moved to defense, so that was much easier than it would have been had I remained in midfield (sorry, defense players, I don't mean to insinuate that your position is easy).

 

I went in last Wednesday, and they put me on the treadmill. They had a heart monitor, and kept talking about staying in the target rate so I followed along with their speed suggestions. Turned out they were just being cautious with the speed suggestion because some people tend to exaggerate when describing their fitness levels. Well, I was unable to induce an athsma attack that day, nor again yesterday because I only reliably get them when I sprint (though I did run through an attack at the 5K Run for the Cure 2 years ago). I am not aware of a treadmill on which one can safely sprint. And as the treadmill challenge requires 4-6 minutes of exertion, it's also hard to cover 5K in that time without sprinting either. Stupid limbo lungs. Too crappy for sports, too healthy for their damn study. It's like the opposite of goldilocks. 

There is a cartoon called Pocoyo that Rebecca and I like to watch with Pokey. Okay, I admit it -- Pokey sometimes watches it with us. I don't know why I find it so amusing, but there you go. Anyways, Season 2 should be airing soon, if it hasn't started already. I learned this from the official Pocoyo blog, which features behind the scene details on the Spanish children's cartoon. From that site is a preview clip, which you have to admit, is pretty slick, and I think rather humourous.

So there you go. That's Pocoyo, just so you know what I'm on about. We're looking into making Pokey a Pocoyo costume for Hallowe'en this year. They sort of look alike. I think it's the cheeks. Oh, and hey, wasn't Ellie's model strut great? Right out of ANTM. I couldn't have done better myself - just ask the girls in the Jared lab.

Edit: Also worth mentioning is that ANTM started up again. And there's a girl on there with a name like "Ridiculeuse". No, seriously.