TeamSax: October 2010

The Team

A new change has come to the family blog. We've always had a problem of author ambiguity, and for the most part context clues are probably enough. It makes sense to make this a bit easier to follow though, so we've chosen characters from the "Simpsons" to accompany each post. I've applied these to some of our earlier posts going back to the summer.

I'm Hank Scorpio, a Bond-style supervillian from the episode "You only move twice," voiced by Albert Brooks. Note that I think in Albert Brook's voice, and that some of my logic follows a similar path as that of Scorpio.

Claire is Lurleen Lumpkin from "Colonel Homer". Lurleen, a country singer, is a blond, but I've made her a brunette using the gimp to match Claire more closely. I think it's really funny that she's voiced by Beverly D'angelo, best known as the mom from the Grizwald movies with Chevy Chase.

Karl will be played by Bart's satire of the Nirvana album "Nevermind".

Charlie, if he ever writes a post, will be icon'd by Santa's-Little-Helper, obviously.

Three quilts, two days

I finished making quilts for a charity project in which blankets are going to be given to a children's hospital in Colorado. I had been working on another quilt, but just didn't like it and wanted to have three to send.

This Friday, I started a pink- bird quilt and a blue-star quilt. I finished the binding of the blue one last night and the pink one this morning. During Karl's nap this afternoon I decided I wanted to try a "tree" quilt, which I hope is gender neutral enough to be for both a boy or girl. I really love them all, but especially the tree quilt (maybe it's because the flannel is argyle?). I know they will find good homes at the hospital and I hope they bring some comfort to a child and their family.

More birthday pictures

Karl here; now that I'm a year old, I get to use family blog in the 1st person!

Why are all these people singing to me?

Oh! A cake! I'm going to put my finger in this stuff. Why are you blowing on my cake, Mom?

Hmmm...what is this? I better poke it.

Let me poke at it some more.

I guess I could try it.

Here goes nothing!

WOAH! This is good. Really good. Have you people tried this? Hello? ATTENTION PEOPLE. THIS IS AMAZING.

Nom nom nom

Well, that hit the spot. Time to PARTY! Yay sugar!

The Facebook

When I was in college, a girl I liked sent me a link, and before you know it, I was on "thefacebook.com". I graduated in spring of '05, so this was pretty early on in facebook history; which was started in 2004. Anyway as time went by I found facebook more annoying than it was worth, and eventually got rid of it. Here's my post explaining why.

Eventually facebook became more ubiquitous, and I started to consider re-opening an account. Instead of my earlier impressions of voyeurism and narcissism, a tool for communication has emerged, and feels much more useful to the "discussion."

One night recently I was itching to see a movie, and by chance decided to see the "the social network." It was that or the stupid owl movie. Anyway I'm a sucker for a few key things in movies, and this movie has a big one. Real computer stuff. Several times in the movie you get to see Mark Z's screen, and it's not the kind of crap you might find ripped up and crapped out of a movie director's butt. It's just like my screen at work every day. Apache2 webservers, wget, Perl, Linux, MySql. To most people it's probably mundane, or a jumble. But for me: seeing your day-job onscreen is really cool.

So that pushed me over the edge, and now I'm back. I wonder for how long.

MPG

My total cost of ownership post was lacking in data. I felt the need to rectify the situation, so when I got home tonight I wrote a little program to aid in calculation, and started entering data. Bicycle rider efficiency is 500mpg (maybe closer to 1000mpg if I wasn't so fat), but since I don't drink gasoline the calculation gives a value based on calories per dollar. Enjoy!

First, regular milk again to verify my earlier results:

Milk (1% milkfat)
%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 16
enter cost per package: 3
enter cals per unit: 110
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 17.61 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 28.38 equivalent to automotive mpg

Great! now for chocolate milk, which has more calories for the same money...

Chocolate Milk:
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 16
enter cost per package: 3
enter cals per unit: 220
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 8.80 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 56.77 equivalent to automotive mpg

Cinnamon Toast Crunch:
[esax@finch:~/bin]%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 12
enter cost per package: 2
enter cals per unit: 130
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 19.87 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 16.77 equivalent to automotive mpg

Cheerios:
[esax@finch:~/bin]%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 14
enter cost per package: 3.79
enter cals per unit: 110
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 20.12 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 31.37 equivalent to automotive mpg

Tomatoes:
[esax@finch:~/bin]%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 2
enter cost per package: 3
enter cals per unit: 37
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 418.91 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 1.19 equivalent to automotive mpg

Eggs (2)
[esax@finch:~/bin]%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 6
enter cost per package: 1.29
enter cals per unit: 199
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 25.96 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 8.28 equivalent to automotive mpg

Dollar menu double cheeseburger from Macdo's
[esax@finch:~/bin]%perl calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 1
enter cost per package: 1
enter cals per unit: 440
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 70.45 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 2.36 equivalent to automotive mpg

Pizza!
[esax@finch:~]%bin/calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 8
enter cost per package: 12
enter cals per unit: 300
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 12.91 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 154.83 equivalent to automotive mpg

Butter
[esax@finch:~]%bin/calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 4
enter cost per package: 1.19
enter cals per unit: 810
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 9.56 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 20.72 equivalent to automotive mpg

Granulated sugar
[esax@finch:~]%bin/calc_mpg.pl
Enter rider efficiency: 500
enter units per package: 10
enter cost per package: 4
enter cals per unit: 770
Assuming gas has 31000 calories at 3 $ per gallon..
You need 4.02 packages for a gallon of gas
You're getting 165.59 equivalent to automotive mpg

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Remember, this is an efficiency comparison with respect to dollars per calorie. That's why it's surprising that Macdo's is so low on the totem, Milk is just super cheap and has tons of calories per dollar. I'm not sure you get 8 slices that are 300 calories for 12 dollars, but pizza might be the most efficient food of all.

Sooo... the lesson is to eat cheerios with chocolate milk for breakfast, a cup of sugar for lunch, and pizza for dinner. This may have a negative feedback on your efficiency though...

Notes:
-Rider efficiency is at 500mpg, or 500 miles per 31000 calories. When I lose weight this may approach 1000mpg, so for a healthier rider, double all my final mpg calculations.
- I'm cool! Promise! Please be my friend on facebook. :-/

Karl's First Birthday and dancing

I have to admit...I am EXHAUSTED! It was worth it , though, as Karl had a wonderful birthday party with friends and family. I only have a few pictures right now because our camera died right before cake eating. Friends promised to email their pictures, so expect those in a few days.

The birthday boy opening presents:

Little guy wandering the house:

Birthday boy!

Also, here is a funny video of Karl dancing that we took tonight. Enjoy!

Karl is a year!

As I write this, exactly one year ago my husband was filling up our birth pool. Labor had started around 6pm and from the beginning contractions were about 3 minutes apart. Little did I know that I would have to labor until the next afternoon. It was such a strange feeling after Karl was born. Part elation, part exhaustion, but mostly I felt scared. Scared that the midwives were leaving and soon after that my sister (who had come up for the birth) and shortly after that Erik to go to work. How could I ever get through a full day with this needy, grunting, pink baby? I did, as all mothers and fathers do, and I can honestly say that this year has flown by. Our little newborn that smelled of spit up and sweetness fell asleep tonight smelling like meatloaf and mischief.