Chris's Law

Today, this happened to me:

I went into the kitchen to throw away a tissue. I noticed the trash was full. I thought: "Oh, I'll just take out the garbage." However, I then noticed that the top of the trash can was rather dirty, so I went to get a wet paper towel to clean it off. I turned to find that the paper towels were out.

So then I went downstairs to get some more paper towels. I remembered that we had laundry to put away, and that later today, when we usually do laundry, we would be out to the hospital for a tour. We had to do laundry earlier, likely about right now.

I got the paper towels, came back upstairs, cleaned the trash can, and while I was taking out the trash, noticed the recycling bin was also full. So that had to be taken out, too.

This situation, along with many others (e.g., fixing anything in the house; replacing a light switch ended up taking half-a freakin' day), resulted in a conclusion: There is never only One Thing to Do. There are always Many Things to Do. To think otherwise is to commit a fallacy.

In other words: One task is Many.

"I'll just do this One Thing." Yeah, right!

Baby Tetris

What is Baby Tetris?

Baby Tetris occurs when a baby needs to be rotated into position for breastfeeding. Typically it is done by a mother's significant other, family member, or friend. Baby Tetris has a limited selection of shapes, based on the baby.

The basic shapes include the long shape, with the baby's arms and legs straight, or the L-shape, with the baby's arms or legs bent from the shoulder or hip. Once the shape is selected by the baby holder or determined by the baby, the baby is slowly placed in the mother's lap.

The holder obtains points by placing the baby in the correct position for the mother to breastfeed, based on which breast should be selected first for the feeding. Mother's can play this game solo; however, it is a bit more difficult to lower the baby into their own lap and they do not receive points because they know the correct position in advance.

A time limit is set in place by the fussy or screaming baby. More points are awarded for calmer babies who are still hungry enough to eat. No points are awarded for babies who just want to suck on something or who are not at all hungry.

More details along with photos and/or video coming soon!

Dancing with a Baby

Kyra and I took Luca to a UWMBDA ballroom dance a few weeks ago. We put Luca in a carrier and danced a couple of dances with him. Here are some photos from the dance from our friend Carla.











That night we dance a waltz and a west-coast swing with Luca. We wouldn't dance certain dances with him, like swing/jive, quickstep, hustle, or other fast or "jumpy" dances. Those dances are too fast or have too much vertical movement to be safe for him or his brain. At any rate, it is possible to dance with a baby, so long as the dance is slow and the baby can hold his head up.

I also added some more photos to our Christmas Album.





These photos are from Carla's place. We went there just before Christmas to share presents and spend some time together. Her Christmas tree was very pretty, and Luca like to look at all the lights. He was a cute little present under the tree!

Guest List in Spreadsheet

This is an update to the entry about using Google tools to plan weddings, based on a report from the Official Google blog about a couple that also used Google tools to plan their wedding.

We used a spreadsheet (alternate version) instead of a document for the guest list, so we could quickly add up how many people were going to attend the wedding and reception when guests responded. I had a couple of calculations set up to determine who would be attending the wedding and reception separately, so we could quickly determine if we had enough seats and food. For example:

• Each guest entry (e.g., Family A, column A) had a column for how many were going to attend (e.g., 2 people, column B). Another column had a code for which event the guests told us they would attend (column C). If a guest entry had a 1 in column C, it meant they were attending both the wedding and reception. A 2 meant only the wedding, a 3 meant only the reception, and 0 meant neither.
• Then two calculations added up how many guests were attending each event for that entry (columns D and E). Another two calculations told us how many people were attending each event total (in column headings D and E).
• We even had a projected total of guests and the ratio of guests who responded (column headings B and C, respectively).

We had a capacity limit of 120 people at the wedding, and we needed to be careful about how much food we ordered for the reception, so this worked really well to monitor responses.

Related Entries: Event Planning and How to Plan a Wedding

Event Planning with Google and Other Tools

Update on July 8th: I realized I had some additional tips about using the Google Docs spreadsheets, so I added more details in a new entry.

A recent entry in The Official Google Blog noted how one couple used a number of Google services to help plan their wedding (see their journal entry). We used Google services to plan our wedding, too. Here's a list of the services we used:

• Blogger - Our blog was originally intended to share news with our family about our baby. It has changed quite a bit since we started it, and we started to use the blog to update our family about the wedding plans, make some important announcements (e.g., this entry), and post digital media (i.e., photos and video). Our site also uses Analytics, Custom Search, FeedBurner, Gadgets, Groups, Page Creator, Reader, Translate, and Webmaster Tools (more about using these tools for blogs and journals later).
• Calendar - The calendar was useful for sharing events with each other as well as managing our to-do list and making appointments.
• Docs - (See update.) We kept a few documents for the wedding in Google Docs, including the guest list and a service provider comparison spreadsheet. We included all of the addresses, and we used the address list later to write thank-you cards and keep track of who we sent cards to. (I also use Docs to manage a budget spreadsheet and a database of music, books, and movies I'd like to "experience".)
• Gmail - Of course we needed email to communicate with most of our service providers, guests, and other helpers (ourselves too!). Gmail is useful for a million other reasons, too.
• Maps - We didn't create a custom map like the other couple did, but we did direct people to specific locations, like the reception hall, using Google Maps, usually via email using the link provided on the map.
• Notebook - We used Notebook quite a bit. I think it's a bit easier to manage collaboration and sharing, and there's an extension to integrate it with Firefox (see below). We had song lists, service providers and costs, a long to do list, the guest list, and all sorts of stuff in a shared notebook. We also used RememberTheMilk (see below) for managing tasks. (I still use Notebook. It has replaced random text files I used to write on my computer.)
• Picassa Web Albums (aka Google Photos) - Of course we used Picassa Web Albums for sharing photos. Some of our photos are online, but we haven't sorted through all of the professional pics yet. We just got married in May, after all!
• Reader - I shared various articles with Kyra using Google Reader. I set up a folder with her name, "made it public" (Reader creates a blog and feed for it), and shared the feed with Kyra to use in her Reader. I also have a Blogger blog to share notes with her, which is a bit more flexible, but more time-consuming to manage. (It is set up to receive emails and publish them automatically, and so is the "text-only" version of this site.) Reader is by far the best news feed aggregator I have used so far. (Check out our feeds, by the way!)
• Search - I almost didn't think of it because it's so natural in my everyday life. With Firefox, I search using the Google Search Engine easily. For the most part, we were looking for service providers for the chairs, reception hall, food, etc.
• Talk - We used the version of Google Talk integrated with Gmail, not the stand-alone software version. Usually we were just chit-chatting about plans or sharing links. I think we found the leis while searching the internet and chatting on Talk. Once Kyra started her new job, she didn't have access to a computer or the internet, so we didn't use Talk as much. I'm sure if she had access, we would have talked using Gmail Talk a lot more.
• Video - Eventually, we posted the video of the wedding online. It wasn't smooth, but eventually it worked. (I haven't had significant problems with Google Video like I had with the wedding video. I still wish Google would communicate with its users about problems more.) We've also been using Video to upload the recordings of our baby's heartbeat (sample 1, sample 2, and sample 3). (I decreased the height of the embedded video player for the website, so it's more of a "sound player" than video player.)

Other tools were very useful, too, inlcuding:

• Facebook - We invited a lot of our friends to the reception using Facebook. We still gave them a physical invitation, but it was nice to see who was going to attend online.
• Firefox - Firefox is incredibly useful, especially the tons of extensions. I think one of the most useful one is the Email This! extension, which is really useful for sending links via email. I also use Better Gmail 2, Better GReader, Google Notebook, and the RTM extension (see below).
• RememberTheMilk - We used the Firefox extension to integrate RTM with Gmail. I used this quite a bit and shared to-do items with Kyra. We went back and forth between our to-do list in Notebook, which was a long-term list, and RTM, which was a short-term list.

That's about all we can think of at the moment. Our wedding was planned in less than four months and under $3,000, so we did quite well! Check out the video of our wedding to see how it went, browse through the photos, and keep an eye out for more videos of the reception.

How to Plan a Wedding in Under 4 Months and $3,000

In May, we had our wedding, which was planned in under four months and with under $3,000. How did we do it? Here are some details about our wedding that may help answer that question.

1. Pre-Wedding Dinner. We decided to have a dinner for our family and the wedding party on the night before the wedding instead of a rehearsal dinner. (Since we were having a simple ceremony, we decided it wasn't necessary to rehearse.) We chose Pedro's Mexican Restaurant to host the dinner. They have good food that is moderately priced, and the staff is accustomed to large parties. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was a good way to introduce family and friends to each other.
2. Ceremony Location. The wedding was held at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The rental fee was one of the largest items on our budget, but it was worth it. We did save a few hundred dollars by having a morning wedding. The rental fee included an indoor space in case it rained and allowed for a professional photographer. It was a gorgeous day! Our pictures are beautiful!
3. Clothing. The wedding dress was Kyra's grandmother's wedding dress, sewn by her great-grandmother during WWII. Kyra's mother altered the dress for her wedding and altered it for our wedding. (No small feat.) I wore a suit that I've had since college, and I purchased a tie that matched the dress. The groomsmen wore their own suits, with ties matching the bridesmaid's dresses, and the bridesmaids wore dresses of their own choosing.
4. Items. Our rings are made of tungsten carbide, which is one of the hardest substances, ranked just below diamond, making it low-maintenance. Kyra's mom also assembled the bouquets. The leis were shipped from Hawai'i and although they were an additional cost, were traditional in Kyra's family, as her grandmother is Hawaiian. Everyone commented how nice the leis were, too. The staff at Olbrich helps renters contact each other to share chair rental when there is more than one wedding on that day. We chose Bucky's Rentals and split the costs with two other parties.
5. People. The officiant, Peter Flessas, is an excellent speaker and sensibly priced, even though he traveled from Milwaukee. (We had a quote from one officiant for $600 who lives in the area!) My aunt Roxy was the photographer, and my aunt Beth was the videographer. Brent Darley of Madison Grapevine, a friend of ours, provided sound equipment for our wedding ceremony and some post-ceremony music. (Brent has excellent taste in music. He also helps with local social ballroom dance organization, UWMBDA.)
6. Music. We selected music for preludes, the processional and recessional, and the reception. We also DJed at the reception using Kyra's laptop, which we hooked to the sound system. We had about five hours of music picked out, which was excessive, but at least we were ready! We programed the first half-hour with songs we really liked, then populated a list to be played at random.
7. Reception Meal. Our reception was held shortly after the wedding ceremony at about noon, and we served lunch, which consisted of sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, chips, and other light fare. We purchased most of the food at Sam's Club, which was rather cheap and surprisingly good, especially the sandwiches and cakes. Kyra's family helped out by bringing in a few dishes of they cooked. Since the reception was at lunchtime, we decided not to provide alcohol at the reception, but we did provide soda. An extra item was the non-alcoholic champagne for the wedding party.
8. Reception Hall. The reception was held at Victoria's in Stoughton, WI. Having the reception outside of Madison reduced our costs exponentially. (Some of the halls in Madison were unbelievably priced for a barren, boring hall.) I delivered the food from Sam's Club on the day before the wedding, so everything was ready to go. The night before, after the pre-wedding dinner, we went to Victoria's with supplies we purchased from Party City and Jo Ann Fabrics. We decorated with our family and the wedding party. We didn't really have a plan, but it was fun and the hall ended up looking great! The staff at Victoria's helped us with everything, including setting up the food before we arrived. It was very stress-free thanks to all of their hard work.
9. Software. We used a variety of software to help us plan the wedding, including a number of online products offered by Google. See the entry about it for more information (and the update, too). Another couple had the similar ideas, as reported by The Official Google Blog.

Our plans may not be fitting for everyone planning an event or wedding. For example, if we didn't have the wedding dress and Kyra's mom's exceptional alteration skills, our expenses would have been a lot more. Nonetheless, we had a great wedding, planned with little time and money. So to anyone out there with little time and money to plan an event like this: It is possible! Our wedding video shows the beauty of the day and ceremony. Everyone involved made it a very special day. Thanks everyone!