The Catwalk

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Introducing the next Calvin Klein model. Stand back ladies, don't crowd the talent.

Kung Foo Master

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

All dressed up and ready to go out. This is Joshua practicing his karate-chop right before going trick-or-treating.

The Forbidden Fruit

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

This weekend we all went to an apple orchard & pumpkin patch. At first Joshua was a little uneasy with all the "nature" around him but later he was picking more apples than we could carry. Great weather, great company, and a great time.

Daddy's Little boy

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

As you can see he loves the new iMacs as much as his dad. This is Joshua kicking it at the Apple store playing Lego Star Wars.

Of course a few seconds after this picture he turned his attention to the black yoga balls the Apple store uses as seats.

Man Day

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

So yesterday was the last day I was required by health services to stay away from the office. I decided to keep Joshua home from daycare and have a father/son man day. It was fantastic!

We started the day the way all men should, with coffee and donuts. Then we hung out at the Ann Arbor mall for several hours. Briarwood mall is a great place for Joshua with its nice playground, fountains, and wide halls for him to run around in. We read books at Borders, played kids games at the Apple store and even listened to the piano player at Van Maur. We then went to lunch at Macs, his favorite restaurant where he ate his weight in tomato pasta and French fries.

Even though with all the excitement we missed his nap time he was in a good mood all day. I think I'm going to make "Man Day" a more regular event.

Don't touch the monkey

One year, I don't remember which one, the outbreak movies were all the rage. Several shows came about describing some virus that starting in a monkey or rat and threatened to spread to the human population. Usually in these movies there was an unfortunate human who had caught the virus. This character usually appeared in a glass bubble being poked and prodded by doctors.

Well, today I'm that human. Late last week I started feeling ill, and just thought I was catching Joshua's first cold of winter. I later find out that I have the mumps virus! I'm one of the lucky 10% who can both be immune an also catch the virus (which sort of changes the definition of immune but I write code, not cure viruses).

Luckily Joshua is fine, the doctors are very sure that he is not at risk and with his teeth finally breaking through he is in the best mood in weeks. I, on the other hand have been ordered to say in my house until next week for fear of outbreak. I mean this seamed like a big deal. My boss at work got a call from the Human Health Services and had to pass out informative information and everything. So I'm the guy in the bubble for the next few days that everyone wonders if they got too close to.

I'm not complaining though. I've got a pretty good setup at home and I loving working here (quite and comfortable). While I'd love to just take the next few days off from work and have some father-son time I know cold season is around the corner and Joshua will need those sick days then. So he has been cleared for daycare, which he loves to go to anyways (he is very much the social butterfly).

15 Months and still going

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Kerry just posted the 15 month pictures of Joshua. Its been a few months since we did this and you can really see the differences. In my eyes one big difference is you can really start to see his personality come out. In previous pictures he obviously smiled more but that was simply because there were lots of people in the room. Now he is more engaging. He was studying the people in the room and more interested in communicating with them rather than just smiling and laughing at what they were doing. Don't get me wrong, he was still the very social butterfly but now he wants to do stuff with you and learn about you rather than just laugh at you because of a funny face.

Oh, and of course the other major change is the mountain of white hair on his head. We try to comb it, and that lasts for about 5 minutes until he starts pulling at it or rubs some sort of food into it. Who knew tomato sauce could add such body to your hair?

The Boy likes meat

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

For anyone who questions whether any of my Texas blood made it into Joshua I submit this photo as evidence of his heritage. Only a Texan can feel comfortable attacking a rib like that in public.

This photo was taken at our block Labor Day party. My neighbor David, and accomplished grill master, treated us with his special ribs and homemade BBQ sauce. As you can tell these ribs are Joshua approved. What is more impressive is what his shirt looked like after the party.

One for the little guys

un·der·dog –noun
1.
a person who is expected to lose in a contest or conflict.
2.
a victim of social or political injustice: The underdogs were beginning to organize their protests.

iPhone Buzz

Last week I finally got the chance to play with an iPhone. As I blogged about earlier, my razor V3 was destroyed in the wilderness so I stopped by my local Cingular store to see if there was anything they could do. Incidentally there wasn't but while I was there I played with one of the iPhones they had on display.


The iPhone has gotten mixed reviews. Most professional reviewers loved it but the tech forums have gone both ways. I usually don't give too much notice to tech forums in these things because it seems to be human nature that if non-journalists are going to go through the trouble of posting a comment on a technology forum, its usually because they want to say something negative.

Anyways, I played with the iPhone for several minutes and my professional opinion as a technology professional is that it is unlike any hand-held device I have ever used! The ease-of-use both in the hardware and the software is truly a innovation in human interaction. Any software engineer who has had to create a user interface for customers know how difficult it is to make things "user friendly" for the average software users. Traditionally hand-held devices have not done a good job of this but gotten away with the fact that they are "hand-held" .


The way I usually measure the usability of a new hand-held device is by trying to do something and seeing how long it takes me to figure out. That includes trying to decide which buttons to press, menus to go through and how to enter data. The more "trials and errors" I have to go through to figure out a task, the less usable a devices is to me.

The designers of the iPhone really took this into consideration. When looking at the main menu you see a list of familiar icons (iPhoto, phone, ipod, maps, etc). Pressing on any of them takes you within one or 2 clicks of what you want to do. The integration of gestures on the touch screen, while may take some getting use to, can increase functionality much like the famous "click wheel" did on the blackberry.

One of the big points of controversy is the qwerty keyboard that is displayed when you want to enter textual information. While at first it looks very unusable (buttons are very small), the smarts behind it seem to work well with how human figures would use it and I was able to type very proficiently in no time at all.

So from a technology perspective its awesome. Now lets get down to price, $499-$599, and yes that is a huge sum of money for a device which will most likely keep me from getting one. Not because I don't think its worth it but because I have a 14-month kid and we need to spend that money on other things. Do I think it is worth the money, absolutely! This is a revolutionary device and people should not expect it to be dispensed from candy machines.

Santa Fe

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

This last week we have been vacationing at my parent's house in Santa Fe, NM. If you have never been Santa Fe is an amazing place with beautiful scenery, climate and culture. Joshua enjoyed being royally spoiled by his grandparents and Kerry and I enjoyed everything from hiking in the rain (that was me and my dad, not Kerry), eating some amazing food and enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains.

The one downside is my phone (Razor V3) got wet while hiking and no longer works. I've reverted back to my previous phone, which feels like a brick compared to my Razor. If you called me on my cell and I haven't called you back you may want to retry.

Ninja Chop!

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Aunt Megan is currently traveling abroad in Asia and decided to send Joshua the COOLEST outfit ever! As you can see, he takes to the character quite well. Obviously we will have to add pants before Halloween but you get the idea!

Skype me!

Traditionally I've done most of my online chatting on the AOL AIM network. I literally have the same screen name I've had since high school. Working at Zattoo where we are very geographically separated I've gotten use to Skype. Skype (recently bought by eBay) is a p2p client that offers chatting, phone, and video conferencing. I have to admit, if more of my friends would switch so would I.

The phone service works great and we use it regurally for conference calls across the world. The video conferencing is actually better and more reliable than iChat (although will still use all the goodies your mac provides) and the chatting software is very up to par. And since its p2p it makes good use of any bandwidth it can find.

So try Skype, and if you do IM me or give me a ring. My screen name is jonathanduty (home) and jonathan_zattoo (work).

http://www.skype.com

[Update] Corrected above but my Dad just pointed out that eBay actually bought Skype, not Amazon.


~Jonathan

Eating everything in sight

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

For those who remember Joshua was not only born under weight but really didn't like to eat. Well, those times are gone. We have ourselves an eating machine. Even though it is sometimes difficult to keep the food coming in fast enough Kerry and I secretly love it. There is nothing better than seeing your once very underweight son plow through a whole stack of pancakes and smile while doing it.

I should also note that he is completely off the bottle and formula. We now start every morning with a sippy-cup of milk and slice of cinnamon-swirl bread (thanks to Pop and Grammy for that discovery). The nightly bottle is completely gone and is replaced by a cup of yogurt.

Its a Nitchie!

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Originally uploaded by cnitchie.

Congrads to my former co-worker and his wife, Chris and Shannon on their beautiful new baby! Connor Loughlin Nitchie was born Monday, 6/16/07, 19:58. 5 lbs, 8ish oz. It sounds like there was a few scary moments but from the looks at this picture everyone seems to be fitting into this new world quite beautifully.

5 Years and still going

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Today Kerry and I have been married 5 years. It has been a great and wild ride including a nation-wide relocation, buying, selling, and buying a house, a few hospital visits, our first baby, a few vacations, and about 10 different jobs between us. I can't speak for her but when I first met that girl in the elevator of Collins Dorm at Baylor I had no idea almost a decade later she would be the mother of my child. Its wonderful being married to her and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years will bring us.

going down the slide of life

For Joshua's birthday Kerry and I got him the "Swing-Along Castle". It basically a small swing set with a slid and climbing wall. He hasn't shown much interest in it until today, when he pretty much wore himself out going up and down the slide.


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Calendar of Events Part 2

You may have noticed that I have posted an agenda to the left. This is directly linked to our calendar and as we add events you can see where we will be. Feel free to subscribe to the calendar and create invitation (requires Google login). We can't wait to see you all.

P.S. I know this is completely geeky and may not be that useful, but remember this is me we are talking about.

Calendar of events

As I said earlier Kerry, Joshua, and I will be in Dallas from June 22-July 2. Obviously we would like to see as many people as possible which in the past has usually been a difficult feat to pull off. This year I thought I would go organized. I've shared a Google calendar describing our trip. Feel free to add events and see where we will be.


Here it is:

best present ever!

Recently CNN ran a story about an 11-year old boy who killed what was believed to be the largest wild pig ever. The animal weighed more than 1000 lbs and was more than 9 long. They have now uncovered that this pig was not wild but was raised on a farm in Alabama and recently sold to a couple who owned the property that it was killed on.

What really amazes me about this story isn't the pig but the story on how it was bought and sold. It was actually a Christmas gift from a husband to his wife.

Kerry and I have our 5-year anniversary coming up. I keep trying to imagine the scenario of me buying her a 1000 lb pig to show my love for her. Its hard to imagine the outcome but I'm pretty sure it would eliminate the need to purchase a 6-year anniversary present ;)

Here is the CNN story

Monster Pig

Coming Down South

We have just finalized our summer Dallas trip. The gang and I will be in Dallas, TX from Jun 22 to July 2. A few of those days we will be on other towns visiting family but overall we should be in the DFW area. If you are in town and want to see us (but probably just Joshua) then let us know. Both Kerry and I can't wait to have some vacation time!

Foodie

My brother has always been a source for creative ideas. His most recent, and personally my favorite, is a foodie site for the Fort Worth, TX area. Lets first talk about what a foodie is.

food·ie /ˈfudi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciati[foo-dee] Pronunciation Key

–noun Slang.

a person keenly interested in food, esp. in eating or cooking.

This site gives some very good information about the food scene in Forth Worth including restaurant reviews, events, and discussion forms. As someone who loves food and loves to eat out I see this as a huge resource for the Fort Worth population. Before you make your dining selection you can log on and see reviews about your restaurant, what type of food they offer, prices, events, and what others had to say. I also see this as a huge resource for the restaurant community in Forth Worth as it gives them a whole new way to reach out to their population. And if you are just looking to chat it up with others like you look no further.

So if you are in the Dallas, Forth Worth area and looking to enjoy a meal or want to know who has the best happy hour give this a try. The site is http://www.fwfoodie.com

Party time

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

We decided to have Joshua's Birthday party on Saturday when family and friends could make it. The party has huge, both family from out of town and many friends from the neighborhood came. As much as Joshua loves people this day was a marathon for him going for several hours with lots of people and noise around him. That being said he did wonderful smiling all the time and playing with the kids. And everyone really seemed to enjoy him also.

Afterwards Kerry and I have decided we need to sell some of our furniture to make room for all his toys.

Birthday Dinner

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Last Friday was Joshua's Birthday and to celebrate my parents took all of us out to dinner. I have to say it was literally one of the best nights of my life. Joshua was completely animated the entire time and really was the star of the restaurant. He was having so much fun flirting that people were actually coming over from other tables to see him. We then came back and he played on his new "Swing A-long Castle" on our deck with my dad and Megan. It was a fantastic night. Click on the picture to see other photos from that night.

PRESENTS!

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Let the games begin! Today Joshua got some presents from Jessica, Jody and Hannah. As you can tell he had no problem learning how to open them. Thanks guys for the great gifts!








[Update] - After seeing this picture Kerry and I will be changing Joshua's nickname from "Bug" to "Fang".

This week

This week is looking to be a fun and very busy week. First off, and most important, our little Bug turns 1 on Friday! We will be throwing him a party on Saturday with lots of family, friends and cake. We have even ordered him a special "smash cake" that he can, well smash.

My parents are coming in Wednesday to ensure that Joshua is rightly spoiled for the following days. Both Kerry and I are really looking forward to this and I know they are also. My dad is severely allergic to cats so the Hershey and Patches have been exiled to the basement for the week and we have been madly sterilizing house. Its something we've needed to do anyways so this is a good excuse. Obviously it will be impossible to get all of the dander, but hopefully we can increase the amount of time my Dad can be inside. We have also been contemplating getting a HEPA filter. Odds are if they weather stays the same we will be spending most of our time outside anyways.

I'll post more later as plans materialize.

Beware of the monster!

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Since last week when Joshua took his first steps he really hasn't done much walking. We can't blame him since he has had a double ear infection which can throw your balance out of wack. Of course when he does decide to move it is 100 miles an hour and usually involves high pitched noises and flailing arms. This picture is usually the last thing you see before the monster gets you.

Baby Steps

I could write some witty post here, but I think this video speaks for itself. This happened at 11 months, 1 day. Enjoy!


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I'm the drummer man

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Things have been great around the Duty household. Joshua is literally on the verge of walking. He can stand up on his own but still hasn't taken that first step. This picture was taken from our phone at a store in downtown Ann Arbor. Every week we take Joshua to Music Together. Its sort of a music class for babies and toddlers. Joshua loves it and whenever he sees something that resembles an instrument in that class you can't keep him away. When we were shopping we came across this African drum and he knew exactly what to do.


Things at work have been awesome. Working at a startup is very fast-paced but I love being on the edge of technology and the small company atmosphere is wonderful. While most of you in the U.S. don't know what Zattoo is in Europe it is erupting has an awesome technology.

Other than that we are finally seeing warmer temperatures in Michigan. Right now its 70 degrees and sunny.

Joshua goes to Florida

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Last week was Kerry and her Mom's spring break so they took Joshua to see her grandparents (his great grand parents) in Florida. After a rough start that included getting sick, a trip to the hospital, and rescheduling departing flights for a day they finally got there.

From the looks of the pictures Joshua had a great time and so did his great grand parents. We learned a few things:

1) Joshua loves swimming pools (while in flotation devices of course).
2) Joshua hates sand
3) Its warmer in Florida that it is in Michigan.

I had to stay back and work so I was thinking about them on that beach while I was driving through the snow.

Child proof my ....

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

child·proof Pronunciation [chahyld-proof]
–adjective
1. resistant to being opened, tampered with, or operated by a child: a childproof medicine bottle.
2. made free of hazard for a child: a childproof home.
3. made safe from damage by children: a childproof living room free of breakable objects.
–verb (used with object)
4. to make childproof: to childproof a home.
Also, child-proof.

Road warrior

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Last week there were about 2 days where it was just beautiful. 70's and not a cloud in the sky. Being an avid runner I shoe-up for a good run. Luckily this year I get to have a buddy help me out. Kerry got me this running stroller for my birthday last year and this is really the first time we've gotten to use it (December in Michigan is not great for running with an infant).

Joshua did great, staying awake for half the run and laid back and taking a nap for the other half. I love running and I love sharing that with him, as long as I survive pushing the stroller for a good 45 min. Hopefully as we continue to move towards spring this can become a daily thing.

Attention not so much

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Obviously Joshua has pushed our cats down the attention ladder the last 10 months. Before Joshua our cats were our babies. Now, well they are just cats and moving toys for Joshua. So, what do they fill there time with now you ask? Other than days busy with sleeping and eating, they seem to still find things to explore.

I Zattoo, do you?

Well guys, I've decided to go off the deep end. I will be leaving my job at PTC to join a really cool internet startup called Zattoo to do some ground breaking work in the world of internet TV. I'm really excited and a little nervous but I think its the right move at the right time and I feel I can contribute a lot to their overall goals. Plus, its just a cool place and how awesome does P2P TV anywhere sound!! If you haven't heard of them, don't worry, they are mostly in Europe right now but just wait. This is promising to be a wild and at times crazy ride but I'm ready for it.

9 Month Pictures

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

I just uploaded to flickr Joshua's 9 month pictures. These were taken when he was getting a nasty cold and teething so the smiles aren't as big but the little guy still comes through. Of course these are the first of the monthly sets where he is showing off his standing abilities, maybe next month we can have an action photo of him walking.

Joshua's 9 Month Photo Set

suds in the bucket

One thing a little bouncing boy brings in lots of laundry, along with what Kerry and I already produce we were really giving our current machines a workout. Kerry does most of the laundry and was averaging close to 10 loads a weekend (our current machines are very small). So, with gas and utility prices on the rise we decided to invest in some shiny new energy efficient appliances. We went with both front-loading LG brands and we can't wait to get them installed. Hopefully this will not only decrease the amount of energy we use but decrease the loads and time spent doing laundry. And if all else they look really cool.

We got them at Best Buy and Joshua really picked them out liking the shiny metal around the doors.

[UPDATE] - Kerry wanted me to correct some facts in the above post, she does all the laundry. Every since I put a red pen in with my laundry in college I've been banned.

Phone Pictures and Early-Bird specials

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Over the past several months Kerry and I have been taking pictures with our Motorola Razors. Of course we waited 9 months to actually put them up on the internet but they are there. You can see all the ones we uploaded using our flickr "phone tag".

Jon & Kerry's Phone Pictures

This pictures was taken today, Kerry's birthday, at Palio's. We did an early dinner and Joshua was fantastic the entire time. I think early dinners are the way to go with a baby, the restaurant isn't that busy or noisy and it gives us plenty of time to get back home and get him. of course we do feel a little old going to "early-bird" dinners in our late 20's.

Duck, the new white meat

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Joshua loves people, the camera and attention. This is him clowning around a one morning. What you can't see is he almost has an entire rubber duckie in his mouth, and smiling while doing it. Watch out gifted programs, here comes Joshua!

Man Pretty

Kerry got me a really great gift for valentine's day. I got the Burts Bee's Ray Rum shaving kit. This kit comes with one of those lather brushes and shaving soaps that you see on old-style movies. After using it a few times I have to say I have no idea why this stuff went out of style. It is so much better than shaving cream. You basically put the soap bar in a mug, wet your brush and swirl it around the mug until the foam forms. Then use your brush to lather that stuff on, all the while ex foliating your face (not sure what that is but Kerry says its a good thing).

I get closer shaves with no burn and my skin feels better. It takes a little getting use to and I'm not totally sure I'm using it correctly yet, but I recommend it to any shavers out there.

Keep on truckin

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

This is one of Joshua's favorite things to do. Put him on this, honk the horn a few times and cover every square inch of hard flooring in the house.

This last weekend was good. Our day-car provider had Friday and Monday off so Joshua got to spend some quality time with his grandma (Thanks Again Grandma). We really wanted to take him outside but figured a 3 degree wind chill was no good for a baby. This next weekend its suppose to be in the 40s so hopefully we can break out the turbo-sled before all the snow melts.

these boots were made for walkin

Joshua has pretty much out grown his current pair of Robeez so we were looking for a new pair. For those who don't know, I think Robeez are the best shoes for infants because they fit well and they can't pull them off. I went looking on their website for a new stylish pair and just for fun (and partially to tick off Kerry) I typed in "Texas" as the search criteria. Low and behold they make a Lone-Star style Robeez! I couldn't take my credit card out fast enough. This summer Joshua is going to be flaunting his Texas bloodline.

iChat rocks

There are some things you come across that are life-changing things. Things that you use on a day-to-day basis that really impact how you live your life. I think this is why blackberries are so popular. For me, its Apple's iChat. Me, my parents, and my brother all have macs and very rarely a day goes by that we don't iChat (well, usually Joshua iChats). If you have a family that is geographically separated its a great investment.

What I'm amazed with is how Apple got amazing quality and made the whole video conferencing idea completely push-button. And no, you don't get the same quality from other vendors, I've tried. I'm still waiting for someone to show me a PC that can do this.

Today I was eating lunch at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor, MI while playing on my MacBook. Luckily Whole Foods offers free WiFi (thank you). So right there in the middle of Whole Foods I startup an iChat session with my Dad in Santa Fe, NM and its crystal clear! Bravo to the Apple iChat team!

Of course what is even more amazing is that less than 10 years ago I would have been lucky to get a cell phone connection there, and if I did the device I would have been using would have been larger than my briefcase.

8 Month Pictures

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

We just got Joshua's 8 month pictures back from JC Pennys. These are so cute we will just let them speak for themselves. Except for the football pictures, those are pure manly.


Joshua 8 Month Photo Set

Freakin Cold & thoughts of Fast Food

This morning when I left for work it was -9 degrees. Luckily Kerry had a delay so we didn't have to get Joshua out in that. It was around that cold all weekend and not knowing what that would do to Joshua we pretty much kept him inside all weekend.

While Joshua got his fill of chasing cats around the house and iChating with family I started reading "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. This book seems to be taking a systematic look at the rise of fast food and how it has affected so many parts of our lives. Some of the numbers are amazing, including the fact that 1 out of every 8 working adults in America at one point in time was employed by McDonalds. That seems like a huge number to me but it shows how big these companies are. Anyways, I'll post more once I'm done.

Norah Jones CD

I just picked up the new Norah Jones album Not Too Late on iTunes and I love it. It is a little different than her previous albums as she seems to be experimenting with different styles (folk, blue grass, jazz) but it comes out very well. I really recommend you check it out.

On the album she sings a song called Sinkin' Soon twice (#2 and #14) and I'm trying to figure out what she is singing about. With all the stuff going on today it could be directed at a bunch of things.

The Best Idea Ever!

The miracle of YouTube. Where else could something like this be seen by millions of people? I mean, a take a cat, a washing machine and you have a good time. I'm totally going to get this for our 18 lbs blind cat. Enjoy

My Tech Blog

Most people don't know but I've also started a tech blog. Its basically for people who actually want (and can stomach) to hear me talk about programming and tech stuff. For the other 99.999% of the population I'd stay right here.

enjoy

http://dutytech.blogspot.com

Video Evidence

Here is the little guy in action. He is getting close, if only the chair was a little taller.


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Moving on up!

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

It seems like we have entered a race, For the last week or so everyday has been something new. Now Joshua is pulling himself to his feet every chance he gets. He is also eating a lot more so we are pretty sure he is staring his next growth spurt. Just watching him interact with toys, objects and other people you can see he is just a sponge right now.

After he was born everyone told me don't blink because you will miss something and before you know it they will be grown up. I'm beginning to think thats true.

Quick note, as you can tell from the bump on his head, he had a few unsuccessful tries before he got it right.

Running hard but going nowhere

Last night Kerry and I purchased a NordicTrack Elliptical 800 from Sears. I'm a pretty regular runner, but with the ice and snow its a little scary (I'm not quite ready for a broken hip) and Kerry has been looking to do some cardio. With Joshua its a little hard for either of us to get to a gym regularly so we thought this was the best option. We were never expecting to get a Nordic Track but got lucky finding a closed-out returned one at the store which was marked down heavily. Its not delivered until Saturday so don't except to see my pecks ripping through my shirt until then.

Where is the baby?

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

After looking at the sledding pictures, I'm not convinced he was actually with us. We may have accidentally left him inside and just taken a pile of winter clothes with us. Can you find the baby in this picture (helps if you cross your eyes)?

Need for Speed

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Saturday there was a light dusting of snow, so we decided to try out Joshua's new sled. All and all it worked well, and you can almost see him through all the snow gear. This is him breaking 3-Gs in our front yard.

What's This????

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Turned around in the kitchen today and saw this. Looks like we need to do another round of baby proofing.

sitting tall

Today Joshua went from a crawling position to sitting up on his own! This is a big deal now because now, without the help of us, he can crawl to something, sit up on his own, and play with it. Our boy is going places!

Its finally snowing!

I just looked out of the window where I work and saw that it is finally snowing! So far this winter has been filled with cold, wet, cloudy, icy days with no snow. That makes for a boring and uncomfortable winter, at least snow is fun and pretty to look at.

Kerry and I are super excited because we got Joshua a baby sled we have been really wanting to tryout. Don't worry, this baby sled comes equipped with seat belts, padding and roll bar. Plus, it got 5 stars in the 30 mile/hour side impact test. Hopefully I'll have some fun sledding pictures to put up after this weekend.

High definition sound

Kerry and I have really been enjoying our new HD-LCD TV. The picture quality is amazing and since our Comcast DVR has an HDMI interface, we can really take advantage of it. While its great to watch TV shots in high definition, I find you really get the most out of it in live television, usually sporting events. Panning through a packed football stadium seems to really show off the technology.

Once thing we have both noticed is while several TV shows and broadcasts are now in high definition, most commercials are not. This is fine, our TV shrinks the picture and displays it just fine. However something we have noticed is the sound volume increases quite a bit when a non-high definition commercial comes on while watching a HD channel. Its a pretty big difference and I'm trying to figure out if this is a function of our specific TV or just high definition in general.

Has anyone else had this issue?

roller coaster of life

M0nday Joshua had a procedure to open his tear ducts. People who have seen him lately know he usually has a lot of crud in his eyes, which is due to the tear ducts not working properly. Its a common thing and the procedure is also. However, its never fun taking you baby to the hospital and having to send him into surgery. Of course most of the worry is with mom and dad, Joshua was more interested in playing with the TV remote in the waiting room and figuring out a way to put the doctor's stethoscope in his mouth.

In the end everything turned out beautifully and he was already back to chasing the cats later that day. His eyes are looking great and I'm sure they feel better also.

On that same note, my co-worker Jason and his wife had their triplets a little over a month ago. They were delivered at 28 weeks and have been on a roller coaster of different issues.
I remember how scary it was to have Joshua in the NICU and can't even begin to imagine what they are feeling. Of course doctors today are amazing and what they can do with babies is even more amazing. Without going into specifics just keep them in your thoughts. If you want to follow he keeps a pretty detailed blog about the whole experience at:

The Myers Triplets Blog

On another note my friend Curtis lost his brother last week to cancer. This is a huge tragedy and we are all thinking and praying for him and his family.

jonandkerry.com is moving!

I have decided to move this blog to Blogger. This will take effect within the next day or so. This means if you are reading this blog using a news feed (rss, atom) then you will need to reset that feed to http://dutyfamily.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default . Using some code I wrote I have migrated all pasts posts to our new blog (let me know if you would like to do a similar thing and I’ll give you the code).

The new jonandkerry.com blog is at http://dutyfamily.blogspot.com/ and in a few hours jonandkerry.com will forward to that.

I’ve decided to do this for a few reasons

1. The new blogger is very cool and customizable. You can edit templates using a rich AJAX interface and posting via their web interface, phone, or mobile device is easy. I want this and I its for free! Plus, this will also allow me to post more often (which some will like, others won’t
2. The last few months my free time is decreased considerably (wonder why). Having someone host and manage my blog is one less thing I have to do.
3. SPAM! As of now the jonandkerry.com domain name gets about 800 pieces of spam a day, many of which is not getting caught by my filter. I’m getting tired of this and I’m getting tired of paying for the bandwidth to host this. If you know someone who makes money off of SPAM let me know, I have some smurf attack code from college I’d like to revive on their machine.
4. Multiple Blogs - I would like to start a blog for technical content and other stuff. Blogger allows me to do this. This way people only interested in family stuff (well, mostly Joshua) can just read the dutyfamily blog, and other can read my other blog.

So thats it. I have moved jonandkerry.com to point to this new blog, and will start posting in it immediently. Until then you can get to it at http://dutyfamily.blogspot.com/ .

Enjoy,

Jonathan

Back to the Grindstone

Well, its the new year and for the first time I’m sitting at my desk. Kerry, Joshua and I had a great vacation. We started by traveling to Dallas, Texas to see my family. Joshua did very well sleeping in a new place and even cut his first tooth while down there. While there we got to see my parents, brother, grandparents and some of our friends from college.

We flew back to Michigan on the 27th and decided to spend a day settling down at home before heading to Kerry’s parents in Okemos, MI. During this time Joshua was cutting his second tooth so we figured having him in his own bed was a good thing. On the 29th we headed to Okemos and had a great time with Kerry’s family. While there Joshua learned how to blow raspberries. Lets just say that was the last time I made it through the day with a dry shirt.

We headed back home on new years eve and literally not 30 minutes after we were back Joshua crawled for the first time. That sort of took Kerry and I by suprise so we will be spending the next few days installing gates and cabinet locks.

New Years was pretty low-key. Joshua didn’t sleep well the night before so Kerry and I were pretty tired. We elected to just stay in, get Joshua to bed early and watch a few movies.

Oh.. and speaking of watching movies, we did it on our brand new HD LCD flat panel. It was awesome! I can’t believe how clear the picture is. If you are looking for TVs, I highly recommend the LCDs, they are worth it.

So now I’m sitting here at my desk missing Joshua a little (got use to being around the little guy). Kerry has off today so she is having a mom/son day. Some new pictures are up from the trip, but I’ve got many more to publish, just not the time.

Happy New Years!