Danny is (Finally) Crawling

We are so delighted to report that this Saturday, our little Danny finally decided to become mobile. When two of his toys left his toy perimeter, he decided this time to recover them and leopard-crawled his way across the carpet to do so. Two days shy of 11 months; hip-hip-hooray! After that he seemed to enjoy this new found mode of transportation and decided not only to retrieve lost toys, but to do some investigating too.

Giving up the Ghost - New Beginnings

It's been a long time in the making, but this week my WinXP machine decided to call it quits after a reboot required for some Windows Updates to take effect. Considering the grief she gave me last year with having to replace a power supply and then a video card and memory, I knew I was operating on borrowed time. The problem with all this is that I ABSOLUTELY NEED A COMPUTER to function and all I am left with is my trusty AMD Athlon 900 running Mandrake 2005 with just the console. Well last night a decided, after having evaluated Ubuntu Linux and liking it very much, to replace Mandrake with Ubuntu. I'm relieved to say that I don't feel the need to run out and by a replacement WinXP system. Ubuntu is handling better than I could have dreamed and since it allows me to VPN into work and Remote Desktop to my development box there really is no need to change. I'm thinking I'll save up and wait for a Vista capable box or maybe even jump ship altogether and get a Mac.

The Big C Diet

C as in crazy!

With recent news regarding my health in mind, Inna has seen fit to completely overhaul what I'm eating, taking her cue from what Patrick Quillin had to say in his "Beating Cancer with Nutrition" bestseller. I'm in week three of a 12 week program (12 because that will take me up to my next CT-Scan) and missing out on all those foods I enjoy the most :( Basically all processed and refined foods have been ditched with an emphasis placed on eating grains, vegetables, fruits and white meat. No more sweets (not even the occasional one), no more beer (or anything alcoholic) and no more coffee (or anything with caffeine). Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Of course, if ... at the end of the day we can report a measurable improvement in my condition, then this would have been a small sacrifice. What's interesting is that it's not too far off from the "Body for Life" eating paradigm I tried out a few years back.

Now, where's that celery stick?

Back to the Botanic

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Originally uploaded by Macknal.

After missing out on many attempts to visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens, we finally made a trip today. I would say just in time to see some incredibly beautiful blooms, but somehow they always manage to have beautiful flowers on display. Still with our new appreciation for the season's blossoms (thanks to the crab-apple tree outside our front door) and wonderfully warm weather we very much enjoyed our walk through the gardens. Some recent pictures (including a few from the gardens) have been added to our flickr collection.