Excellent! I need some of those accessories (I can tell you that using your Blackberry while you drive is difficult, but not impossible).
It's not recommended to have your child drive while you're using your Blackberry.
And not recommended that you let your child drive your Blackberry.
Actually, my kid desperately needs that helmet IRL, as he is apparently spot-welded to his Blackberry. I think he's looking forward to the Cranial Implant Blackberry.
I just got the Blackberry Pearl. It's the phone I've been waiting for for the past decade.
Chopper, spill! I want that! Is it as good as advertised?
Well, it's great as a phone--very good reception, clear audio both sending and receiving. The form factor is excellent--it's the first smart phone I've had that I'm really comfortable just sticking in my front pocket. It has all the blackberry goodies--e-mail, calendar, web, contacts, etc. It will play video and audio and has a slot for an expansion memory chip (although it's behind the battery, not convenient for switching in and out). And the trackball cuts down on scrolling thumb when you're moving around a document.
The one real downside is the keyboard is not a full qwerty. But you get used to the anticipatory typing software pretty quicly.
Thanks. But I have more questions!
How is the browser? Can you install your own (Opera, for example)? And are there third-party apps you can install? Woot!
ogged, I'm not a power user. This is the phone my company gave me when I asked it for something that would let me pitch my iPAQ (that is, something that could play videos).
The one real downside is the keyboard is not a full qwerty.
And the brain tumors and infertility.
Looking around on the web, there are many third-part apps, including a mini-Opera.
and infertility
Not an issue. We just found out that Baby #2 is on the way.
Congratulations! I assume that you're already smoking the celebratory ham.
Congrats Chopper, and thanks for the info.
I assume that you're already smoking the celebratory ham.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around how much more daycare is going to cost. We're going to be paying more for daycare than we do for our house.
As long as we're handing out cigars, baby #3 is on the way at our house as well, scheduled for a late May/early June landing, assuming no problems. When are you guys due?
16: I don't think we can afford to have two kids in daycare. Not sure how we're going to handle it. This one wasn't planned, y'know.
Not conclusive proof, Chopps.
Well, you mom keeps asking me for money to pay for the trips to the clinic to "take care of our little problems." so that's another data point.
Dude! The new baby's big brother can introduce him to the mesmerizing wonder of sofa-arm covers.
When are you guys due?
Congrats, Apo! We're due in early July. (Yes, I know it's very early to tell people, but we're not telling our families yet and I had to tell somebody).
18: It's only a couple of years until the next oldest is in school; you'll manage (I say glibly).
At the end of this year, we're going to give up our afterschool babysitter (who's been with us since Sally was nine months old), leaving Buck watching both kids as he works at home after school. It was his idea, but I worry about whether he's going to be able to manage.
18: I'm trying to wangle a new job in another division that'll pay me a fair bit more in return for travel/even more overwork. Otherwise I'll have try to pick up some freelance work on the side.
Congrats to Chopper and apostropher!
22: Whew, that is early.
Day care is incredibly expensive, isn't it. I have friends who I think of as much richer than we are, and the difference is just that they don't have kids.
Congratulations, apo!
Man, you people and your wriggly sperm.
Congratulations Chopper and Apo! Woo-hoo!
I love that these announcements are coming in the "Product of the Week" thread.
29: I was just going to post that.
I think both of you should pay for day care by auctioning off naming rights on Unfogged.
Sorry LB, you've been former-commenter-Weiner-pwned.
It's only a couple of years until the next oldest is in school
The next oldest doesn't turn two until January.
30.--Tthat cracks me up every single time.
Congratulations, apo and Chopper. You inspire me towards ever greater heights of contraceptive paranoia.
32: No way am I naming a kid Hoohole.
35: Word. I think I've told the story here before, but Newt's accidental. Now, we were lucky -- we'd actually just decided to start trying again, but I got knocked up before we actually quit with the contraception, so no real disruption in plans. But yeah, contraceptive paranoia is key.
36: Armsmasher does have a nice ring to it...
Awwwwwwww... future commenters! Another one to squawk in delight at the wonderful world of sofa arm-covers!
You guys could move to the same state and share a nanny. It'd be like the Washington house, only with spit-up and diapers.
Congrats to both of you, and my best wishes to your wives.
41: They should move to the Washington house. The current inhabitants can be tag-team nannies in between writing gigs.
43: That's brilliant: aren't they all unemployed barring Becks?
It'd be like the Washington house, only with spit-up and diapers.
LB has obviously never been to one of our parties.
Hmmmm... should we infer from the anecdata that cell phones cause the wrigglies to wriggle with more determination in order to save themselves from death-by-dialing?
Congratulations, and don't forget to subject the upcoming offspring to complex evaluations re: their innate senses of fairness, then report back.
aren't they all unemployed
I believe the preferred terms are "free-lance" or "working on a book."
While we're spilling secrets, it looks like I'm in my final weeks of timesheet keeping, but I have to get a little closer to having a transition plan before I tell the powers that be.
Wow. Congratulations to both of youse!
41--There's tons of medical technology technical writing/editing in Minnesota, Apo.
48: Go, Dave! Escaping the tyranny of time sheets!
51: Let's hope it works out for the best. My wife is going to kill me if doesn't. But at least it will give a colleague and me another data point as to whether the cause of lawyerly unhappiness is:
1. Private practice sucks;
2. Practicing law sucks;
3. Working for a living sucks; or
4. Life sucks.
I really, really hope the answer is (1), and I know a bunch of people who got a lot happier when they went to in-house or governmental positions, but we'll see.
Keep me posted on how it turns out: I'm toying with making a similar move. (And am also hoping that the answer is (1) rather than (3) or (4).)
Will do. I have pretty high hopes. It's a small office with interesting stuff to do and a good person in charge.
52. Those are non-exclusive categories, donchaknow.
I can't wait until commenters' kids start finding these posts. "Mom, Dad... why did I have to find out I was an accidental baby from the internet?"
Dude, Newt and Sally are both hearing that story as soon as they're old enough that contraception might possibly be a relevant factor in either of their lives. I want them paranoid.
Congrats, everyone.
Chopper and Apo, your wives are braver than I am. I'm still dithering about whether or not I can deal with a second kid.
58: That just might make them conclude, "no biggie, everything turned out okay in the end."
Geeze, I avoid this thread because I can't watch video at work, and what do I find but I'm missing Important News.
Congratulations, Apostropher and Roberta, and Chopper and...hm...does Mrs. Chopper have a name of her own? Stupendous news!
Data point of one: It doesn't do any harm to tell your kids they were accidentally conceived. Unplanned is not unwanted.
52: I vote for 1). I really & truly like law, but I really & truly could have done without 95% of the clients. What I really would enjoy most is sitting in a back room playing with the intricacies of the tax code, trust allocations and estate tax returns, and writing persuasive interpretations of oddly phrased will clauses. But my old firm kept making me talk to clients and sit in conference rooms with them, listening as over-privileged beneficiaries whinged because Daddy had the good sense to tie up his money in trusts, instead of giving them a couple of million outright to piss away on fast cars and cocaine.
59: IM(limited)E, at least at the baby stage, second babies are much easier because you know what you're doing and aren't afraid of screwing up and doing something that will hurt the baby. I was all tense when Sally was an infant, but Newt was just fun. And it wasn't a personality difference, they were both easy kids.
63 - And, in the wisdom of Project Runway: ''Five, six, seven — it doesn't make that big of a difference. I'll just throw it on the pile with the other ones.''
second babies are much easier because you know what you're doing and aren't afraid of screwing up and doing something that will hurt the baby.
Quite true. By the time you get to four kids, you pretty much let them raise each other.
Congratulations all around! More good news: my kid has just started reliably sleeping through the night! And crying less, and smiling more! Hooray!
I'm having a drink in celebration of these good times here and now at unfogged.
My Mom said it didn't get any worse after four.
Hate to say this, but with two kids a competitive dynamic seems to come into being. You really need three. Then they can have shifting alliances instead of a lifelong battle.
66: That deserves yet another woohoo! Colic sucks incredibly much, but it sounds as if you're through with it.
67- an odd number of children is definitely the way to go. Although I'm not a fan of only children either (having been one), so that unfortunately puts you at a minimum of three.
Although children are blessings! The more the merrier!
69: My brother and his wife planned on three kids and proceeded to execute that plan even as it became obvious that they were only marginally able to deal with the first one. It ain't pretty. There are some signs of hope, but many more of pure exhaustion.
I think that (3) and (4) are clearly false based on first-hand experience, while (1) is clearly true, based on vast swaths of 2nd-hand experience.
(1) being true because private practice (maybe just associate practice) combines the worst aspects of paid-by-the-hour consulting with the up-or-out policies of partnerships (as opposed to corporations) and with no workplace rights protection, and with an added helping of poor task subdivisibility and a strong cartel to make even just full-time work impossible. Coming up with a worse white-collar job would be difficult.
58: "I was a nice catholic girl, innocent as the new-fallen snow. I still thought that babies were brought by storks. Then I met the man you call 'Dad'...... Amazingly, he was able to fool me a second time."
I've always been a sucker for card tricks.
Shoulda seen the girth of that jack of hearts!
63: I actually really love the baby stage. And I don't see how, sans learning disability, a second kid could be more of a handful than PK is right now--he's basically good and well-mannered, but contrary and energetic as hell. But I still worry about shit like the whole work balancing thing: PK was born while I was dissertating, which made it pretty easy to be flexible, time-wise.
As to odd numbers, I agree (although PK's old enough now that probably some of the competitive dynamic would be muted), but I'm close enough to 40 now that, uh uh. I'd like any and all kids to be the hell out of the house by the time I retire.
Wow, you get sick for a day and you miss out on all the great news. Glad to hear it everybody. Good news over here is, we are getting a new puppy to complement our ederly Lola. She will be named Pixie. Ellen and Sylvia are taking a road trip down to Greensboro next week, to the breeder's abode; I have instructed them to give Raleigh-Durham a wide berth.
In worse news, I just found out my best friend has been sentenced to 12 months in the state penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit. I'm incredibly bummed right now, and angry.
That's a bitch, Brock. can he appeal? Can he get bail while he appeals?
I'm still trying to get details, but my understanding is that his lawyer (with whom I've been completely unimpressed) thinks an appeal is unlikely to succeed, and may therefore not be worth said friend's legal fees.
He's out on bail right now, I think (not really clear on the details)... all I know is that he's scheduled to go in on Friday to be locked up.
Be sure to maintain contact with him. Both for his own spirits, and because people with outside contacts are far less likely to be abused in various ways.
Damn. My sympathies, to you and to him, and Emerson's advice about staying in touch is good.
On the appeal, getting a second opinion isn't nuts. If the lawyer bobbled something, he's not the best judge of whether it's fixable.
John makes a really good point.
Over here, lawyers will give you ten minutes for about $10 to see if it's worth your while to go any further. Can you do anything like that with a different guy?
Or, rather, talk your buddy into doing so. But deciding whether an appeal is viable is pretty laborious -- you really have to go through the trial transcript looking for stuff.