Victory

Executive Summary: John fixed his laptop

Growing up I have one distinct memory of taking things apart. Our hair dryer would not switch between the different speeds - it would only run on "high." My dad got a screwdriver, I helped open it up, and he decided it was beyond what he wanted to deal with. He put the screws back in; the hair dryer never worked again - at all! The moral of the story was clear - don't disassemble what you want to work again.

Well, one of the hinges on my laptop broke recently, which made the monitor flop around unless perfectly vertical.

Its getting old - beginning its sixth year this summer. But upgrading will be troublesome (Windows 7 vs XP, getting new software, other computers in the house will still be XP). So I purchased a new hinge for $10 on ebay. But this means I have to take apart the computer (see story above).

This would be the third time I have opened up the laptop. The first time was to replace the fan assembly. The second was to fix the keyboard that stopped working after I put it together the first time. But this would be more involved: removing the modem/daughter card, removing and rewiring the PCI adapter, removing and rewiring the wireless antennae. Sounds serious.

Here are pictures of the the monitor detached and dissasembled, the "screw map" (to keep track of all the screws coming out of the monitor and base), and all the spare parts that were piling up as the project progressed.

Foolishly I started at 11:30pm. "This will take just a second." But this is like surgery, you can't just walk away after an hour and come back... Four hours later, I get the last screws in... BUT... It still works...so far... Here's to progress...

Some habits carry over quickly

When the girls carry around dolls, they tend to carry them two at a time - just like they themselves are carried. And, as it turns out, they carry the babies in similar fashion to how they are chartered.

Here is Camy demonstrating the two-babies-in-one-arm method, necesarry when you are also trying to schlep a stroller and diaper bag down the stairs too.

Here Camy is is showing the more typical one-under-each-arm carry:

Here is Camy after careful coaching, "head in one elbow, feet in the other elbow, rock her gently side to side". It lasted long enough for a photo, but was short lived. Just didn't make sense I guess.

Table Manners - a long, long journey

We still have a ways to go with table manners:

Leaving the table without being excused.

Feet on the table.

Drinking from the milk carton.

Boogey boarding on the table.

And in case you have noticed, these are all pictures of Camy. Macy does very well sitting in her chair, just one issue:

We won and only lost to one ten year old

Today was the second annual Larchmont Library paper airplane contest. I took the girls to the event. Camy slept through the whole thing, which was nice in retrospect. Macy was content to run around the library and throw the orphan planes left on the ground.

The contest takes place in the art gallery of the library, where a second story balcony over looks a long corridor of paintings. Each contestant throws his or her airplane from the balcony - farthest flight wins.

Because the corridor is narrow (about 6-7 feet) most of the dart-style planes would run into the wall. So I crafted a glider and tuned it to fly straight with little initial starting speed. My plane went about 40 feet, which gave me a glide ratio of about 2.7 - okay but far from optimal.

The average plane went about 20 feet with a standard deviation of 9 feet.

One youth went 41 feet to win the whole competition. He was particularly proud of his accomplishment, but probably not proud enough to go home and write about it on his blog ;P Macy and I won the 18+ age group.

Taking pictures

Almost all of the pictures on the blog come from Edna. Over time she patiently tries collects moments from the day. I take those photos and turn them into blog posts.

Recently I had to get pictures for passports. As I went into "get this checked off the list" mode, Camy was happy to play along. Macy was having none of it and only gave me mug shot stares. I took 199 pictures with only 9 where they were looking forward into the camera and not fussing.

Oh, so behind

Yes, it is 1 AM, but I'm realizing that if I don't decide to neglect my responsibilities (and sleep) I won't do anything other than chase toddlers, clean up, and otherwise manage our home.

Here are a few pictures from the last few months.

Twin Buddies

When we went to Boston we made sure to see Will and Lilly. Will and Lilly have pretty great parents, and they are a few days younger than Macy and Camillie, so a play-date/ parent hangout was in order.

Exploring

Our two favorite activities are going to the park and watching out the front window. Either way, we are always on the lookout for "'og" or "'uirrel".

Excessories

Have we mentioned that Macy likes accessories? She wore that glove, that is as big as her head, for about a week.

Camillie

And we need more time for Camy. She is a sweet little mellow girl. She loves to see how things work and takes particular interest in anything that plugs in.