100th day of kindergarten!

I had mentioned recently that Lourdes will be celebrating her 100th day of school soon. Today we bought two bags of Hershey's Kisses and Lourdes counted out 100 of them for her to bag up and take to school for the celebration. I think she still needs a little work on her counting skills when it comes to large quantities, but I'm sure it will come along. I had her organize the candy in rows of ten and we tried working on counting the established rows by tens. She did pretty well at counting by tens and by the time we were done she understood that putting just one candy in the next row didn't increase the tens yet.

I think her favorite part was eating some of the extra candy!

From Sluggo is YoYo

DQ Blizzard

The Rivermen have a promotion with Dairy Queen that if the Rivermen score 4 goals in a home game, everyone is given a coupon for a free Blizzard at Dairy Queen. Well tonight Derek Armstrong of the Rivermen scored a "natural" hat-trick (three goals by one player in a game is a hat-trick, a "natural" is a hat-trick where the player scores three goals in succession with no other goals scored in between his goals). In fact, Armstrong went on to score a fourth goal, giving the Rivermen a 4-0 lead and giving the fans a free Blizzard.

I started thinking the Rivs were going to not only get a win, but possibly even a shutout!! Well the Houston Aeros threw a monkey wrench into the works. They scored a goal in the third period. I can live with that. Then they sored again. Okay, 4-2, let's close this out. Then again! 4-3! This can't be happening! Oh no, another goal - tie game!! So the game goes into overtime and no more goals; this one will be decided in a shootout.

First up for the Rivermen, Derek Armstrong- he shoots, he scores!! Wow!! All Rivermen goals scored by the same guy. Unfortunately that was the only shootout goal by the Rivermen and the Aeros got three so the Rivs lost 5-4.

A lady behind me said "Well at least we get free Blizzards!"

Her friend said "Yeah, but they'll taste like defeat!"

Flora from Paraguay

Let's face it, winter can be pretty blah! So I dug up these pictures of plants around my mother-in-law's house in Paraguay.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

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From Blogger Pictures

Spring is only a few months away!

She's a model - another picture post

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

Photo Post

From Blogger Pictures

Bless you

Teddy just hit 19 months old yesterday. It's really neat to see him growing and changing. He's been chattering for a while now, but most of his words seemed to be gibberish to most people including me most of the time. But now, some things are starting to be more intelligible. If you happen to sneeze around him you're likely to hear a very clear "Bless you!"

I know several posts have mentioned New Super Mario Brothers, so why change now. When Luigi loses all his lives, he is given another five lives and he proudly announces "I'm back!" Teddy has heard this so many times that he chimes in as well.

I think his favorite sentence now is "No Mommy!"

Teddy is quite helpful, or at least tries to be. He helps Raquel with some of the housework. He often will take my empty coffee cup to mommy for a refill. When I arrive home from work, he comes running to greet me and he immediately pulls a chair out and pats it motioning for me to sit. The routine is that I sit down so that he can help take my boots off. After the boots come off, he wants to help remove the Velcro blousing straps that help keep the pants tucked into the boots (tucking the pants into the boots will be mandatory later this year). He gets extremely upset if he's not allowed to help.

Hopefully he will continue to be a helpful little boy.

Colds and cold

After a reasonably warm weekend with lots of rain, it has turned cold again which brought snow. I know that cold temperatures don't cause colds, but it sure seems that colds come with cold temps. So now Teddy has a head cold, Lourdes has the slightest of colds, and I feel a little run down. Hopefully a little rest and over-the-counter medicine for all will keep things in check and let us all recover.

Teddy actually had the croup at the end of November. The good thing about that was that we now know what it is and how dangerous it really can be. Infants and small children have small windpipes and croup is an inflammation of the windpipe caused by a viral infection. This inflammation causes difficulty breathing and causes a barking sound when they cough. Usually croup will go away in a few days, but a severe case can require breathing treatments, steroids, and hospitalization. Teddy was close to being admitted. We didn't realize how distressed his breathing really was. Now we know what to look out for and what actions we need to take. For more information on croup, check out kidshealth.org.

Greg is a pusher

One time Greg and I were in his BMW and we came across a guy struggling to push his stalled vehicle to a side rode. Greg and I dutifully got out and started pushing to help the gentleman out. It just so happened that the side road had a bit of an incline to it but it was no challenge to the three of us. The man thanked us and we got back into Greg's bimmer and were on our way. I remarked about how easy it was and that I barely had to push. Greg looked at me incredulously. Turns out I barely had to push because Greg was doing all the work!

Good times, good times! Another time we were going to the mall in Greg's bimmer to buy a wedding gift for a friend. On the way back from the mall, I had an unfortunate gas attack. Something so foul that even the deepest bowels of hell itself couldn't produce the equivalent eked out of my bottom. Greg almost had to pull over due to retching. I'm sure Greg can't tell the story without throwing up in his mouth a little.

Another time I had the pleasure of driving the bimmer. I think I needed to run home to get something and Greg was gracious enough to let me borrow it. On the way to my house, a squirrel darted right out in front of me and I had no time to react. There was the sickening thud of flesh and bone against steel. Yes, that squirrel committed suicide by bimmer.

I don't know why Greg ever got rid of that car.

Productive day, lazy afternoon

I spent some time today paying bills, going through the week of mail, and filing federal and state income taxes. Once that was all done, it was time to be lazy. We played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii for a while making it into World 8 and then lounged in front of the TV. But it wasn't mindless TV, it was some Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel while playing MegaBlocks with Lourdes and Teddy. After the kids were in bed, it was time for some quality time with the wife - playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We made it to the first fortress and defeated Kamek and were able to save our progress.

Now it's time for bed.

PS Rivermen defeated Chicago on Saturday night - awesome game!!

100th day of school

Lourdes is closing in on her 100th day of school and they will be celebrating this on 1 February. All the students in her class have been asked to bring in 100 of an item. The teacher has even provided a small plastic bag to take the 100 items to school. The bag has some pictures of suggested items, like buttons, paper clips, jelly beans, Cheerio's, and Hershey Kisses. I asked Lourdes what she would like to take and she replied "Butt Kisses!"

REF YOU SUCK!!

Rivermen lost 3-2 in a game where two goals scored by the Rivermen were disallowed by the referee, one with less than a minute to play. The ref got an earful from the crowd on the first one. The second blown call had the crowd beside itself and the chants of "REF YOU SUCK!!" rained down for a long time. As the ref left the ice, a paper wad and a "chuck-a-puck" foam puck also rained down on him.

Now to be fair, being a referee or umpire (or whatever your sport calls the official in charge of rule enforcement) is a tough job. And sometimes the fans see (or think they see) injustice when in fact they have a different perspective. The ref is often in a better position to make the call and has training on the rules. For example, a hockey ref has an obligation to whistle a play dead when he loses sight of the puck. The first disallowed goal fell in to that category - a pile of players blocking the refs view of the puck so he had blow the whistle. No goal for my team. I hate that it happens like that, but I'm sure my team has benefited from that type call at the other end as well.

The second disallowed goal tonight I'm going to have to go right now with the "REF YOU SUCK" crowd. I'll have to see if there are any replays and I'll have to read what the local sports writer writes. But for now, once more "REF YOU SUCK!!"

Darn you Mario, and the Wii you rode in on!!

When I got home tonight, one of the neighbor kids was over playing New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii with Lourdes. I played a little before eating, and with the boy's help we made it through the final stage of World 5. I had supper and the neighbor went home. After supper, Lourdes and I played more and we managed to make it to the end of World 6 after I managed to find a shortcut that let us bypass several stages in that world. Then Raquel took over for Lourdes and we managed to get through that final stage and in to World 7. We made it to a stage that if you win, you can save your progress. It took lots and lots of tries, but we finally made it. We basically played about 5 hours of Wii. Is it wrong to do that?

When it rains, it freezes

Yucky weather today - freezing rain. It was quite bad for a while. We put out ice melt but it just melted small pellet sized holes in the ice. It was very slippy and one had to walk like a penguin to avoid falling.

Ever notice that when you really need to buckle down and focus on something you seem to get more interruptions that keep you from the important task or tasks? Especially when you're shorthanded! I needed to do some fine-tuning on our network switches at work as we are going through the initial phase of a security certification. I wanted to look at the configurations of the switches to prevent some simple findings. For example, every network device has to have a warning banner at the log-on screen kind of like a "no trespassing" sign. So I wanted to make sure every switch had the appropriate warning banner. Every time I started, something would come up that couldn't be ignored and there wasn't anybody else to handle the issue. A company came by to pick up a storage pod that one of our contractors had used. That was a good hour in the freezing rain. A person called with a computer issue that diverted me for a little bit. Someone else complained about a radio not working properly. A contractor needed help troubleshooting an alarm system that uses our fiber and copper infrastructure. Several other minor interruptions happened as well.

Long story short (too late!), I was finally able to check about seven or eight items per switch stack on nearly 30 switch stacks. I was surprised to find that several switch stacks needed the tweaking. We've had major infrastructure changes over the last year that involved moving/rotating switch stacks. We reconfigured the switches during the moves (updated firmware/software) and somehow overlooked some items. I need to update my cheat sheets for my people on configuring our switches and implement some preventive maintenance/security maintenance checklists.

When it rains, it pours. When it rains when it's really cold, it freezes.

15%

What is 15%?

Perhaps a decent tip for good service at a restaurant...

Maybe the return on an investment...

Or how about the amount of your income you are stashing into your retirement fund...

Could be those things and more. For me 15% is none of the above. I've had this blog since July 2003. I've never been very good at the upkeep of this thing. It's often hard to post - I've even posted about how difficult it is to blog on a regular basis. In fact, I didn't post one single time in 2009, causing me to tumble from Dan's Blogroll. I was tempted to blog a few times last year and just lost the urge. As the year wore on it became a personal challenge to not blog just so I could say I didn't post in 2009.

Now, 2010 I have posted every single day, even a couple posts on one day. The 20 posts this month represent 15% of the total number of posts on my blog!

Okay, so what to post about today has been solved. Maybe tomorrow I can post about how long it took me to come up with the idea for this 15% post.

Another exciting day, another exciting post!!

I'm a liar! Not a very exciting day overall. We did get some laundry done, Raquel cleaned the basement a little, and I changed the filter on furnace. Lourdes was counting down all day to watch iCarly to see Freddie and Carly kiss. We also played on kongregate.com. There were a couple games I found quite interesting - Music Catch and Red Remover. Don't blame me if you check them out and lose 10 hours on the computer.

I also read a little on the computer today. I try to follow Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay. One guy just got assigned to a small town very close to my in laws' home. My wife has lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins in his town so I left him a comment about how to get in touch with us and maybe we can help him from afar. Volunteers have to stay with various host families for the first three months in their site before they can get a place of their own. Sometimes it can be really difficult for them to find a suitable place so I figure that my wife's family can help if he wants.

We played a little Mario on the Wii this morning and a little this evening. Teddy wants to be so much more grown up and when Lourdes didn't want to play anymore, she gave him the Wiimote. The only problem was that he kept hitting pause!

Back to work tomorrow after a four day weekend. Sometimes life is really rough!

Mario, WalMart, Taco Bell, and Eli

Today was a mostly relaxed day. Lourdes, bless her heart, has been going through her terrible twos for the past four years. She was sent to a five minute time-out that actually seemed to work for a change. I'm trying to get back to time-outs because yelling doesn't seem to work, just gets me madder, and is a bad influence/role model for the children. By the way her acting out was minor overall, but needed correction because it involved tossing things at her little brother.

Sometime after the time-out, we played some Mario on the Wii until it was time for Lourdes to take a bath so we could start getting ready to shop. While she bathed and Teddy napped, Raquel and I actually played on the Wii. Raquel had not played Mario Brothers on the Wii yet, but loves playing it on the Nintendo DS. She's probably going to addicted to it now.

We eventually got ourselves together and made it to WalMart for the weekly shopping. I wandered off to look at guy things while the rest of the family shopped. Turns out that Teddy was completely grouchy and as I went to look for them I could hear a kid/baby crying. I hoped it wasn't my offspring, but it was. I took Teddy for a walk in the store hoping it would blow off some steam but I think it only served to make him more determined to be cranky and not want to sit in the cart. I don't blame him, but it makes everyone on edge.

We made it out of there and hit the Taco Bell drive thru for supper. After getting home, unloading groceries, and eating, I took off for the movies to see The Book of Eli. I really enjoyed it and there was a big twist at the end - turns out he's an ALIEN!! Just kidding! There was a big twist at the end that I thought was clever. I'll leave it to you to either see the movie or find someone on the internet to reveal it for you. I'm wondering if there are plans for a sequel because they definitely set the very end for that option.

Okay, enough is enough - it's bedtime!

Late start + overtime shootout = not much of a post

The Rivermen started 30 minutes later than normal due to another event happening. The game was really exciting with the Riverman coming back from being down 3-1. They were able to tie the game, force an extra period, and win in a shootout.

I'm beat and want to get ready for bed.

Boom Boom Pow

Teddy loves music and loves to dance. I think he has some pretty slick moves for an 18 month old toddler! Here he is dancing to Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas:

Dick, Jane, Mario and Luigi

I've mentioned before that Lourdes is starting to read and is doing a good job. She read another Dick and Jane book to me this evening that was much longer than the some of the previous ones. She only needed help with a couple of words and read the whole book in very short order. I'm very proud of her progress. She's also using little tricks to help her figure out words that she doesn't know like looking at the illustrations to get clues.

After she read to me, we played a little New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. I mentioned earlier this week that Lourdes is a clever Mario Brothers player. She's also quite skilled in moving around, jumping and shooting. We played for almost an hour and got through several stages, but alas didn't get to a stage where we could save our progress. So we'll have to do it over again next time. Since we have a long weekend, I'm sure we'll make a lot of progress.

What's in store for the long weekend? I've already mentioned the Wii and yesterday I mentioned seeing a movie. I think I also mentioned going to a hockey game on Saturday. No other hard and fast plans at the moment.

Okay, time for bed!

Scoring and fighting

We went to an NHL game in St. Louis last October. It rained all the way there and all the way home. There were five of us cramped in a little car that is only meant for four. The seats we had for that game were really high up, not horrible seats but you could see the horrible seats nearby. The Blues played an uninspired game that night and lost quite handily.

Yesterday was a different story. The weather, while not warm, was mild. There were only four people in the four-person car. The seats were really, really good (well except when the action was down on the far end). The Blues were on fire, scoring three goals in the first period. There were also four fights in the first period. Exciting. The Blues went on to win 4-1. We thoroughly enjoyed it! Now I'm looking forward to a Rivermen game on Saturday night.

I'm also looking forward to catching a movie this weekend. The Book of Eli will probably be on the top of the list. I've really enjoyed the last three movies I've seen. I went to see Avatar in 3D when it came out. I must say 3D is the way to go. That movie was visually stunning and the plot wasn't bad. I also saw Sherlock Holmes which I thought was quite good as well. Rounding out the trio was The Blind Side and I found it to be the feel good story of the year. So I'm hoping that whatever movie I get to see continues my little streak of enjoying movies.

Got the Posting on the Road Blues

Driving while blogging or blogging while driving is tough. Plus it's illegal in Illinois. That's why I'm in the passenger seat, which frankly makes it difficult to drive. We're on our way to St. Louis to watch the Blues play Columbus. It's gonna be a late night. The last time we did this I got home late plus I had to make a late night run to WalMart for juice for Lourdes to take to school. I don't think I'll have to do that tonight, so I'll probably make it home at about 1 AM. Well that's all I'm writing tonight. I don't do well reading and riding.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?

Lourdes woke up this morning complaining about her hands burning. She had some red splotches on her hands but we didn't know what they were. She kept complaining about her hands hurting but we thought she was just being a morning grouch. We sent her on to school and apparently her hands got worse. After a couple of visits to the school nurse, the nurse called us. I took Lourdes to the doctor and he said Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease - a viral infection. She doesn't have any signs of it on her feet and she doesn't have any sores in her mouth. The doctor did say her throat was a little raw looking. She didn't complain about her throat any. So she's out of school for two days.

So Lourdes and I spent the evening playing New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We busted in to World 4 and got to the first place you could save. Lourdes is a really good player. Sometimes I have to remember she's only 5, because sometimes she thinks better than me while playing the game. She's got some great hand-eye coordination and uses innovative strategies to get through the levels. In this variation of Super Mario Brothers, there can be up to 4 players playing at the same time. Lourdes and I have chosen to work together when we play. We call out "Bubble!" to each other when we think it's appropriate for the other player to activate a protective shield. If one player gets too far ahead of the other, the one that is too slow can get pushed off the screen and easily dies. But if the person "bubbles" then they are protected and can float towards the other player. We try to be apologetic when one of us causes the other to die. If you have a Wii and were contemplating a fun game for the family, I think the New Super Mario Brothers should fit the bill.

Side note, how do you get your kid to listen? For example, if your child is jumping on the bed and you tell them to stop and they don't what's your course of action?

-12F

Driving to work this morning, the thermometer in my truck was showing the outside temperature to be -12F (-24C). That's freeze-the-snot-in-your-nose cold!! At work, there are public address announcements to let us know the current wind chill (or real feel temperature) and appropriate work/rest cycles for those who have to work outside. It seems that the work/rest cycle is always 40 minutes work / 20 minutes rest (warming) once the temp is below about 25. There have been a few times when I think it's too cold to walk from the parking lot to my office, let alone work outside for 40 minutes. I'm glad my primary duties don't take me outside for very long!!

The Rivermen lost this afternoon to Milwaukee. That's two losses in two days. Hopefully they'll get there act together. December was really good to the Rivermen (or rather the Rivermen were really good in December).

It's bedtime now, night night!

18.6 Stone

I weighed in today at work for our Biggest Loser contest. I rocked the scales at a whopping 18.6 stone! I've really let myself go and there's the proof. Our contest runs until the beginning of June so I hope to lose 2-3 stone in that time.

All right, I don't know the proper grammatical use of stone. What is the plural of stone? Stone or stones? I know one stone equals 14 pounds, so I weighed in at 260 lbs and hope to lose 28-42 lbs.

I'm going to lose the weight in a radical manner - I'm going to eat foods that are good for me in the appropriate amounts and exercise!! Novel idea, huh?

Rivermen

The Rivermen lost in Chicago tonight. They play here tomorrow against Milwaukee but I have to work and will miss the game. Next home game I can go to is next Saturday against Rockford. One of the actors from Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place is expected to be there to sign autographs.

Good night!

Quantity or Quality?

Okay, I know my posts have been lame, but at least I'm posting something!

We just got back from a Rivermen game and they won 5-1, woo hoo!! There weren't any fights but there were a couple of times when somebody on one side or the other was ready to go at it. The Rivs put the game out of reach with an empty netter with under 2 to play. Then the Marlies got a penalty and we capitalized on it in just a few seconds.

Lourdes generally plays her DS at the games while Teddy watches the game a little, dances to the music, and looks around for the team mascot. There's a game Sunday afternoon, but I have to work. Bummer!

Well I could probably just go on and on, but I need to get ready for bed. The important thing is that another day has gone by and the streak continues!

Hurry up Saturday!

This Saturday we will start our Biggest Loser competition at work and it can't get here quick enough. I feel so bloated and run down. If things get much worse, I'm going to have to hire someone to tie my shoes for me and take care of the nether region hygiene. Seriously, I'm at the point that if I drop money on the floor, it has to be at least a fiver before I consider bending over to pick it up lest I risk the ridicule of my coworkers. "Look at Sluggo! I bet if it were a twinkie he'd pick it up!!" Ironically, we weigh in on Saturday morning and then have a large holiday meal.

We did get quite a bit of snow and now we're supposed to get a lot of wind to blow it all over the place. At least it's supposed to warm up to the 20's. Hopefully our parking lots get cleaned well or we'll have the same old skating rink we always have.

This is the 7th day in a row that I've blogged. Take that you naysayers. Now if I can only liven up the entries, maybe I'll make it back on Dan's blogroll.

Posting from the crackberry

I'm sitting on the couch watching Man vs. Wild on Discovery Channel and updating my blog from my crackberry. I'm using Opera Mini as my browser and it is quite adequate. I don't think I can do the brackets to do HTML so this will all be one paragraph. But at least I'm feeding the blog. It's currently snowing and we could get up to 8 inches.

Two posts in one day, is the world ending?

Well, close. We just experienced a small fire in the kitchen. Everyone is fine, thanks for the concern. It seems that our little Teddy is so eager to be a big boy and do anything he sees the big people doing. So he has learned to climb up to the microwave and turn it on. And he's quick at it too! Turn your head for just a moment and in a flash he's up there turning it on. So tonight, he was playing with the cordless phone. Next thing you know, it's on fire in the microwave!!

Luckily it was caught in time and the fire was contained to pretty much the phone inside the microwave. I was able to grab the phone and throw it into the sink. Obviously it was a total loss and the microwave is no good either.

I'm not too upset about the phone, it's been doomed for a while. The phone was originally a base station, a satellite station and two cordless handsets. Shortly after getting the phone, I had one of the handsets with me outside in the garage. I put the handset on the hood of the truck towards the base of the windshield (frontal glass to you Englatarians) and worked on whatever I was working on. After a while, I needed to go to the store for something and took off. On the way back home, I saw a phone laying in the street at the turn in to my alley. I laughed at the poor sucker who lost a phone as I ran over it pulling into my alley. Then about the time I heard the crunch I realized that it was my phone!!

The microwave has been on its last leg as well. The carousel made an awful noise, like the sound an accordion makes when it's thrown into a dumpster full of banjos (or ukuleles). I'm surprised it's lasted this long. Years ago, a pop tart on a plastic plate was meant to be heated for a few seconds, but some carelessness resulted in a completely melted plastic plate and a pop tart reduced to a charcoal briquette.

We already have a spare cordless phone to take over phone duties, but now I'm in the market for a microwave.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....Nevermind!

We've got a few inches of snow on the ground and we've been in a deep freeze for a few days with lows in the minus single digits and highs around 10. For those of you in England, that is between 1 and 6 stone I think.

Tomorrow the forecast is calling for 3-5 more inches of snow to start falling. Again, for the non-american, that's like 7-11 deciliters or something. We'll see how it turns out.

Read with Dick and Jane

Lourdes is halfway through kindergarten and will be six years old in a couple of months. She had really great teachers in her pre-k and currently has a terrific teacher that really loves her students.

I have been reading to Lourdes for a while, but now the tables are turning. She started reading to me. She started with some books that focus on a particular letter or sound and then progressed to Dick and Jane books. As long as she stays focused, she can read really well and I thoroughly enjoy listening to her read. I'm proud of her.

As I type this, I'm eating Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream and it is yummy. I'm trying to pack on a few pounds before this weekend. We'll be kicking off a Biggest Loser competition this weekend. I absolutely plan on winning as well. I've really let myself go and need to use this competition to jump start a change in my eating habits and start working out again. I hit the gym for a couple months in 2008 right before we went to Paraguay and it worked wonders for me, but I've lapsed in to a steady stream of late night cookies and milk and little to no exercise. In the mean time, I've got to finish this ice cream and pass out.

Historic Antarctica plane remains 'found' by expedition

This is the title of a story on BBC News. The way I read this headline was more like "Historic Antarctica plane still  'found' by expedition". Kind of like Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead of SNL fame.

In general I'm a descent decent reader and righter writer, but sometimes I just reed read words wrong. So the story about the plane explains how some Australian conversationists have found the remains of a plane in Antarctica. I wondered what the heck were conversationists, only to find out the word was actually conservationsists.

Now get this, it just dawned on me that Antarctica is the continent around the South Pole. Again my attention to detail had me thinking of the North Pole and that these Australians sure are adventurous and were a long way from home.

Two days in a row, say it ain't so!!

I'm sure I have lots of interesting things to catch you up on but I just don't have time right now. It's late, the kids need to get to bed and I want to get to bed too.

I just needed to post something so that I don't break my streak.

Here's a tweet from the Rivermen Twitter page today: "Bishop makes a face save. The shot was hard enough to knock the strap loose. I'm sure his head is ringing a bit after that laser."

Maybe I'll post something original tomorrow, maybe not.

The Year Without A Blog

Happy New Year!

See, my blog isn't dead!