So....who's up for another wood-splittin' party?

I came home last night to find this monstrous, 20-foot-long branch had fallen into my back yard. Astonishingly, it missed the house, the utility cables (just a few feet away), the outdoor furniture, the dog, the dogwood and basically everything else in the yard.


While I'm happy with this minor miracle of avoided destruction, I'm not left feeling very optimistic of the longevity of the huge hickory that dropped the branch. As many of you will remember, we had a hell of a time taking apart the hickory goliath in my front yard last year. This one is about the same size, and seems to have even more branches.


I'm just telling you all this as a fair warning for when I call and ask who wants to help run the hydraulic splitter in exchange for some premium firewood -- as much as you can carry! What a deal!

This should clear up some things.

Not my office., originally uploaded by Griner.

I fully expect this to become a standard piece of signage, like "Not an Exit."

My Christmas wish for my Web browser.

There's something that drives me crazy every time I try to recall a login for a Web site, and Firefox asks if I want it to remember the password. The answers, essentially, are "yes," "no" or "never."

What I want is a "yes, but only if this password works." A lot of times, a failed password takes you to another screen, where you try to guess again. Firefox remembers that one, but also remembers the wrong one for the front page. I'm sure there's a manual way to fix all this, but bullocks to that.

Anyone know of an extension or fix for this kind of thing? Or am I just light years ahead of the Internet? Poking around, I found this security extension, but I can't say I really understand how it works.

But if you are using Firefox, I overwhelmingly recommend this calculator add-on. It's wonderful for day-to-day stuff or more advanced things like successive calculations (we use it for budgeting). Anyone know of other great extensions? I love Firefox, but I feel like I'm not really using it to its full potential.

We picked a name and a monkey-robot nursery theme. Can't we just use a dartboard for the rest?

All things baby related are proceeding well. Karen and I have obviously had to stumble somewhat blindly through the many selection processes -- pick what to register for, find a day care, pick a pediatrician, etc.

I feel like we've been pretty lucky with each of these, considering how little experience we're operating from. Stacy was a huge help with picking registry things we'd actually need, and hand-me-downs from her and Kim have negated a lot of decision making.

The day care was pretty easy. We toured three. One was complete crap. Chaotic, messy, grumpy staff, bad vibe, hefty price (at least for that level of crapiness). The second was nicer but just felt cramped and loosely organized. We ended up going with one that was a bit sterile and institutional, but well coordinated and safe. They had cameras in each room (really just a psychological barrier to keep workers from losing their cool), lots of sanitary precautions, a helpful staff and a ton of space indoors and out. Plus, it's close to the house. Score.

Pediatricians were a little tougher, because you're picking a person, a location and a business.

The first one came highly recommended, but there were some snags that were immediately noticeable. First, the practice is in a hospital complex, which means parking stinks (and costs money...no validation). The waiting room felt messy and uninviting, and I'm guessing I'll have to spend a lot of time there. The doctor herself was nice enough, but she spoke 100 miles an hour and never came up for air. I was left feeling stressed and confused, just from the atmosphere of our conversation.

Plus, the practice seemed to shovel a lot of the work onto nurses. Phoned-in questions were answered by nurses. After-hours calls were divided up with another practice entirely. And the doctor only worked three days a week (no doctor there works more than four). Finally, she rushed us out the door because she had a backlog of patients.

Luckily, we found a place the next day that was everything the first one wasn't. The practice is in its own brand-new building with its own free, covered parking. The waiting rooms are comfortable for adults and, presumably, kids. The doctor was fantastic. Calm, supportive, upbeat and practical. Plus, she's only 38, so odds are good she'll be around a while.

I have no idea what the next "Oh my god you haven't done that yet?!" decision will be. But at least we've found that trusting your gut is about the only thing you really need to muddle through.

Oh, and congrats to our friend Sarah, who just made it through 10 hours of labor, 2 hours of pushing AND a C-section. If our kid puts us through that, she better damn well be the next Doogie Howser.