Painting the Baby's Room

The only thing harder than trying to name a baby boy (which we've already done) is to figure out how you want to decorate his nursery. Yeah, I'm one of those husbands that wants a vote. So last week I bought some paint...I bought a quart because I'm also one of those people that doesn't think you can tell what a paint color looks like in a 2'x2' square. So I bought this dark green paint. And then Katharine and I went to Babies R Us and figured out that we were going to go with a jungle theme...and that the dark green paint might be a bit too dark. It totally would have gone with the furniture we picked out, which looks like this:

But it wouldn't have gone as well with the wall decals, and decorations we've chosen, which look something like this:

We kind of felt like that was going to make for a dark room so we started looking at lighter and brighter paints. Afterall...he's a baby and he's going to like bright colors. So I went back to the paint store today and bought another quart of paint...another "test" color, and I slapped that on the wall today. It's hard to tell from this picture because it doesn't look exactly like this on the wall and dry (it actually looks more yellow in the picture, but it's not). This is the green we're going with.

I'm totally standing on a ladder here...I'm not a giant.

Hopefully it'll all go together well enought. And maybe we'll use the dark green for something...you never know.

A Little Something About Lily

Katharine and I had the misfortune of having to say goodbye to our cat Lily this weekend. Instead of trying to write something myself, I thought it better to let Katharine tell you a little something about about her:

http://letmetellyouaboutmy.blogspot.com/2009/03/heart-break.html

Although Lily and I didn't always get along (you'll see what I mean when you read Katharine's post), she was part of our family and I will miss her.

10 Years and Counting

Recently I attended a luncheon celebrating the 10 years that I've been at my job. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go, but it turned out to be fun (thanks in part to the friends that were also in attendance). Out of the approximately 80 people there, we found ourselves sitting next to the university president, and I believe it made the luncheon a bit more interesting that it would have been if we hadn't. He made a comment about waiting to sit because nobody wants to sit with him...having been in the military and working alongside squadron commanders/high level military officers, I've never been one to shy away from those in positions of authority in any organization. Whatever. He's a person...I'm a person.

I had butternut squash ravioli on top of some vegetable thingy, a glass of wine to go with that, and finished it off with a chocolate cannoli. Oh...and I almost forgot the marble bookends commemorating 10 years of service (on either side of my coffee...which is totally Starbucks because it's cheaper than Dunkin Donuts).

Catwalks, Attics, and Rooftops

Anyone that thinks the job of IT management is glamorous, wasn't with me the other day when I found myself spelunking around in the attic area above one of the largest campus auditoriums. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Part of my job deals with maintaining AV systems in technology classrooms and working with such vendors to install new equipment. There was a problem in this particular auditorium and we were trying to get some work done in short time. To know if this was possible, we needed to investigate the "crawl space" above said auditorium. Getting there was an adventure. It started with a climb up this ladder. Shouldn't I be wearing a safety harness?

This was only the first part of the obstacle course. The second part of the challenge required me to whack my head on a steel beam in one of the musty passageways. THUMP! This is a recreation of the actual whacking of the head.

It's true...I asked someone to take pictures simply so I could post them here. So along I walked with a small group of people...feeling like we we were in the type of space you would see in a Saw movie, and nobody was more surprised than me to open the next particular door and find myself outside on the rooftop...the day after a major snowstorm!

I don't know if you know me or not, but I'm not a particular fan of heights, and you don't get much higher than a building rooftop...again, without safety gear. Sure I'm exaggerating this a bit, but what's a blog post without slight exaggeration, hmmm?

Spellcheck Fail

Hahahaha. No seriously. I know that we all rely on spellcheck a little too much these days. As a matter of fact, it's likely that I'll spell something wrong right here and now because I'm making fun on this. But seriously still...if I'm a sign maker...which I'm not. Wouldn't I be more careful than this?

This is real. I'd tell you where it is in Massachusetts, but that would be mean. It is definitely at a Dunkin Donuts near me. Can't see it? It took me a few tries too. Don't just look at it...really read it! Hahaha.