McArtor.net

Archive for November, 2005

Well, Anya survived her first Thanksgiving and was the only one in this household who didn’t eat too much! We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed out time out of town.

I worked Thanksgiving evening 3-10pm and we were pretty slow. Jason made us a delicious Thanksgiving dinner of hamballs and squash, so we got to celebrate just the 3 of us that day. Then Friday morning we hit the road early and headed to Washington to have Thanksgiving with the Miller bunch that night at Merle & Bertie’s. On the way, we made a stop in Ely to see Derek, Shelby and their new little one, Isabella. She is so cute and so little…amazing how much they change in just a few months.

Saturday night we had the McArtor Thanksgiving at Marge’s in Washington. Lots of kids and lots of excitement there…Anya always had someone to entertain her that night.

So, we had a great time going down and staying with G’ma Jeryl, Papa Ron and Aunt Joni. Anya even had her own crib to sleep in (the crib Jeryl used when she was a baby), so she felt right at home!

We took a few pictures over the weekend, so check them out here. More later…

Had a nice moring doing some cooking (Mom’s ham balls) while Brandy set up Christmas decorations around the house. Also had a chance to try something new, by putting a QuickTime Video greeting on the site. (Note: You need the newest version of QuickTime to view, available FREE here.)

If you do not want to update QuickTime…click here. (I would suggest updating at some point, however, as the above file is 1/9 the download size of this one. 250K, compared to 2.5MB.)

I know I’ll be getting plenty of Turkey this weekend, as I make the rounds to a few different family get-togethers, so tomorrow, which is actual Thanksgiving Day, I’m going to do some hamballs for myself, Brandy and Anya (she’ll get hamball flavored milk, as we like to say). Thanks to Mom for the recipe.

Ham Balls
2 1/2# ham loaf
2 1/2# hamburger
3 c. graham cracker crumbs
3 eggs
2 c. milk

Mix and form in balls (can use ice cream scoop)

Sauce:
1 can Tomato soup
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. vinegar
2 tsp. dry mustard

Boil the sauce in microwave and pour over the top of ham balls. If you are going to freeze the ham balls–let the sauce cool before putting on ham balls.

Bake at 350 for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Cover them for the first half hour or so.

Maybe I’m just not paying attention anymore, but when did they update the look of the Iowa Driver’s License?

I do know one thing, they have made it look like one very important piece of plastic. The surprise today was that I was in and out in about 20 minutes, and the only downside was that they require cash or check, which I rarely carry much of. I can’t believe they don’t accept credit cards, luckily I sold a spare ticket to the Iowa football game this past weekend and still had the cash in my wallet.

Last Friday Anya had her 4-month checkup and she got a great report. She is weighing in at 15 lbs 6 oz and is 25.5 inches long. Everything seems to be going as it should be, and for that we are very thankful.

At her check-up, we got the green light to start giving her rice cereal. She had her first experience with that on Sunday and she did actually eat more than she spit out, so she did pretty good! I think the spoon in her mouth was a different sensation for her as she kept giving us the goofiest looks ever time we would put the spoon in her mouth. We took a few pictures of her first dining experience, so check them out here.

We had a pretty busy weekend. Mom & Dad came down Thursday night to do some Christmas shopping on Friday and Saturday and then Jason, Jill & the boys came on Friday night to spend the weekend and go to the Iowa football game. So, needless to say, we had alot of activity going on around here. Anya loves all the excitment and watching her big cousins in action.

Friday night Jason and I took advantage of the fact we had a babysitter for Anya (G’ma & G’pa Miller) to attended a fundraiser for a friend’s foundation and then out to eat with some friends…Chad & Jodi, Kevin & Lynnette, Brad & Steph, and Chad’s mom. We ate at HuHot and it was very good, as it usually is.

This last week Anya had her first snowfall. We tried taking a few pictures of us as the flakes fell, but it is hard to see them on the pictures. The weather got alittle nasty here on Tuesday and I had a slow drive home from work on Tuesday night with the blowing snow and icy roads. Thankfully, it warmed up a bit and the snow disappeared.

Well, that is all for now. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

With the evolution of Mac OS X and the popularity of the operating system, there have been more and more developers creating nice little (yet sometimes powerful and very valuable) programs that have definitely made my life easier for free, or occasionally $29.95 (or so). This post is partially self-serving, since I’m sure some day my computer may crash, and I’ll need to recover all these handy little nuggets, and I’ll never be able to remember what half of them are named.

Here’s my list (from left to right as they appear in my Dock):
Transmit – FTP program. Used to use Fetch, but Transmit is more intuitive and easier to use…even for an “expert” like me.

Direct Mail – Bulk Mailer program. I have a couple groups of 100 or so people that I email for events, etc. This program makes it easy to send out either text or HTML messages, directly or via SMTP.

Skype – Popular voice over IP app. Talk to anyone, anywhere in the world over a high speed internet connection, for FREE. Also available for PC.

TaskTime3 – Ever have troble keeping track of how much time you’re spending on a project? This little gem will put an end to that. Nice interface that lets you sort jobs by client. A real keeper.

Feeder – Just started doing a bit of Podcasting and this little guy makes writing the .xml file a piece of cake. For $29.95, I just couldn’t afford the time it would take to do it myself.

OmniGraffle – Nice app for creating flowcharts and diagrams. Pricey at $79.95, so more of a “business” application…which is what I use it for.

Renamer4Mac – Ever have a bunch of files that you want to rename in a sequential order…like some photos from a birthday party or something? It’ll never be any easier than this…can put in words, etc. i.e. jason_30th_birthday_001.jpg. Handy, huh? Donations accepted for this, but otherwise FREE.

Cocktail – Sounds like fun, huh? Well, sort of, but it will get rid of that hangover your Mac may come across every week or so—especially if you rarely restart your Mac (like me). Runs some scripts and fixes preferences and does some other tekkie things I really don’t understand, but bottom line, makes your Mac run like new. If you’ve got more than one Mac, get the Family Pack for $29.95.

SilverKeeper – No one can afford to lose all the data on their computer, so make sure you back up your system. Buy a LaCie Hard Drive ($150 for a decent size), and this little app is a FREEBIE. You can set it up to automatically back up your system every day, or you can click the big blue button on the interface and it will do it at your whim.

SnapzProX2 – Take screenshots. OK, I know you can do that without buying a program, but this app will let you select an area with a marquee, select a window to shoot, or even record a movie of a process taking place on your screen. One of the first Shareware’s I purchased for OS X.

Iowa sports fans can now subscribe (for free) to The Hawkeye Huddle weekly radio talk-show by visiting TheHawkeyeHuddle.com. iTunes users can click the link at the top of the page to subscribe, or you can simply copy and paste the URL of the podcast into your favorite client application. I have worked with Brett and Dave to create the logo and homepage for their show, and The Hawkeye Huddle has become my first experience with Podcast publishing.

This weekend, we traveled to Forest City to visit the family and watch Zachary compete in his first ever wrestling match. He did really well and was so fun to watch. He finished in 1st place in the third weight class of the “Squirts” division and got a big fancy trophy to display in his bedroom. I have to admit, I was alittle nervous before he wrestled (didn’t want anyone hurting my nephew), but he definitely held his own and was quite the little wrestler! Click here to see some of the pictures of his big wrestling debut.

Mom & Dad also made the trip to Forest City to watch Zachary wrestle, so we got to see them Friday night and Saturday. Jill’s parents also came to the wrestling meet, so Zachary had a pretty big cheering section.

Sunday we pretty much just lounged around Jason & Jill’s house and played with the boys and watched football. It felt nice to have a lazy day and just hang out with nothing too stressful to do!

Anya handled the trip great…she is such a good traveler. She pretty much slept the whole car ride there and back, so that makes it pretty easy. I think she was tuckered out after all the weekend activities as she slept until 8:15am today. Those cousins of hers are alot of keep up with.

Anya was 4 months old yesterday…I can hardly believe that. She has her 4-month check-up on Friday and gets more shots Here are a few recent pictures of Anya.

You know it’s been a rough day when you’re playing Mr. Mom all day and when your wife gets home, not only your 4-month old daughter has a totally new change of clothes on, but so do you. We had some diaper issues around 4pm today…the good thing was that Anya got a bath out of the deal.

Looks like another great fall day outside. What a nice day yesterday was!! I could hardly believe it when I checked the temperature reader and it said 74 degrees. I know they had been saying it was going to be nice , but heck…it was almost hot yesterday. But, the 90 mph wind (well…it felt like 90 mph anyways) kept it nice and cool. Anya and I went for a walk to enjoy the day…but I think all the leaves being whipped out of the trees by the wind kind of scared her as she kept looking up at the sky like it might fall on her!

A few days ago we got Anya a new toy…a jumperoo. It is basically a seat with springs attached to a base that a baby can bounce in. She has reached the stage where she does not want to be lying down anymore…she wants to be sitting up and seeing the world straight on. I understand where she is coming from..if I were her I would probably feel the same way. Only one problem….she can’t sit up on her own yet. So, this has led to either Jason or myself having to constantly hold her in the upright position which is getting alittle tiring and makes it hard to get anything else done. She also is an avid kicker….constantly kicking her little legs trying to make something exciting happen. So, I did alittle research and found the “perfect” toy for babies who like to be sitting up but can’t yet on their own and who like to kick their legs….a jumperoo. We read the rave reviews it received from other parents and were just convinced that Anya was going to LOVE this–we could hardly wait to see her in action. So, we rushed right out and got one. We got it home,assemble it, plop her in it and…..nothing. She just sat there and stared at us wondering what she was suppose to be doing. Ok, this is understandable since she is just a baby, so we decided to try and show her what she is suppose to be doing. So, Jason and I start bouncing up and down (similiar to playing 1 person leapfrog) in front of her trying to inspire her to do it herself in the jumperoo. Well, I am happy to report that this elicited a big grin and laugh from Anya, but no bouncing action. In fact, when she does manage to make it move unintentionally, it freaks her out. So, we are going to work on it daily and I am sure sooner or later she will figure out why we keep putting her in it. See a few pictures of her first experiences in the jumperoo.