Levi Turns One and Other Mumbo Jumbo

It's Spring in Michigan! We spent most of the weekend outside - me working on the porch rebuilding posts and Nora out in the yard with Levi. The past month a Morning Dove has taken residency in one of our hanging plants. She has 2 little babies getting ready to fly off on their own.

It's Sunday night and I got a new compliment from my wife, "You were a good dad this weekend." I assume that means that I shouldered a little of the "burden" that Nora usually carries. But it was mostly about giving Levi some undivided attention and playing some learning games. I heard recently that one parent's strategy for raising their kids was to live out what every one of us is really looking for, that people's eyes light up when you enter the room and that we put down whatever might distract us. I think if we lived our whole life as a giant game of peek-a-boo a lot more people would be happy.

Levi celebrated his 1st birthday (it seams like it has been his birthday all month). You know I've been spending too much time around statistics when one of the first things that comes to mind on his birthday is that he can no longer be an infant mortality stat. So we did a little celebrating with Eli Morgan, a little with my relatives and a little with Nora's relatives. Nora's 92 year old grand mother took a bit of tumble a couple months ago and is recovering in an assisted living facility. The uncles and aunts have been doing their round-the-clock thing, so Nora's uncle from Paris is in town this week. We had a great time talking over lunch today and I always enjoy his perspective on the US and our national religion.

Getting Things Done!

This post is just some recent media and communication tools I'm really enjoying.

1) Thanks Paul for turning me on to a new little app for my Mac called iGTD (Getting Things Done!) I've been trying to find something to help get my calendar, email and documents more organized. This app organizes things by project and you can link in due dates, documents and contacts. You also get the very satisfying button click that completes an item. There are few things more satisfying than getting something off your plate. I've been managing my "to do" list on sticky notes, so this is a major improvement.

2) I started a new neighborhood Wiki at wikipedia.com Belknap Lookout The nice thing is that wikipedia entries usually come up first when someone googles the keywords. It is also cool because others can contribute to the entry and it's free.