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It is just impossible to track how much and how wonderfully Abigail is growing. So many big and little things! Here’s a couple examples:

Until about a month ago, she often made up words, throwing syllables  and phonemes together with joy. I certainly encouraged her! She’d throw her body at a couch cushion, throw up her arms and proclaim “Gurumph-a-do!” She doesn’t -randomly- put together words any more. Now it’s more refined. For example, her hedgehog stuffies are named, in order of getting them: Hedgy, Baby Hedgy, and now Hedgy-Rinsterstein! Rinsterstein?! I love it!

Today, out of the blue, she told me how “drum” was an onomatopoeia and she happily banged on the dining room table describing how it sounded like the word :-)

For a long while, Abigail’s 2 favorite (only?) TV shows have been Tumble Leaf and Daniel Tiger (I totally recommend them). She always says that she needs to watch while pooping in the afternoon, a practice that Megan and I haven’t really been down with. She’ll sit on the potty forever watching unless we go fetch her. Yesterday, she said, “Mom, where is Purple (her purple tablet computer)? I have to poop.” Megan said, “You can have a book.” And amazingly, she said “Ok!” and ran off to fetch a book to keep her company in the bathroom!

We read every night. In April we started reading chapter books. We made it through the first Captain Underpants book with gusto. I started reading the new (2013) illustrated version of The Hobbit to her. She was nervous at how many pages the book had, and kept flipping through it and asking to find the part with the dragon. I told her gently that we would get there eventually as we started. By the second page she didn’t want us to stop! We made it about 25 pages over a few nights before having to take a real break but she now can tell you all about Bilbo’s hobbit hole and Gandolf and the dwarves…

Megan and Abigail went to Texas for 6 days to visit Megan’s dear friend Jane and family. When they came back a few days ago, I swear that she had grown so much in body, speech patterns, and thoughts that I barely recognized her!

We got this bathroom scale. It measures body fat, water percentage, and bone mass.

I did some research about all the different scales, in the under-$10,000 category, they are all pretty much the same, fairly inaccurate but fairly precise. That’s to say it might measure your body fat percentage incorrectly but if it goes up or down, it will track it well. This one cost $30 and works just fine.

Here’s the manual: Conair Weight Watchers scale

I tabled for The Crucible today. I presented several items that I have grown fond of…

• A 3d printed hand that moves straight off the printer, via.
• A 3d printed figure of my DnD character, Newnam Hrothnor, printed by Devon.
• A laser cut and assembled Walking Man Automata, via.
• My daughter Abigail’s bust, 3d printed by Devon!

I just got an oscilloscope and the manual mentioned “Locating Sleeve: Using locating sleeve could ensure the stability and reliability of the tip exposed to the test point.” Say what?

Here is what a locating sleeve is for. If you need to carefully touch just one point on a PCB, you can take off the tip of your probe off, that is the tip with the spring loaded hook, and then attach the locating sleeve. Now it will be easier to touch just what you are intending to.

Hypermiling is so 2010. Well, I did it anyway.
When I was commuting to grad school, I’d sometimes get stuck in slow, steady traffic on the highway. And sometimes I’d get… 87 MPG for 12.5 miles!

I’ve been listening to the music of This Will Destroy You for a while now.
It’s the best post-rock, shoegazing, ambient, drone music I know of!