Another baby is here

I just got an announcement today about another baby in our circle of friends. This little beauty was born to Benjamin's friend since childhood, Jonathan, and his wife Yuka. Their baby girl is nearly 2 weeks old now. And if you're wondering, the answer is yes: we have more pregnant friends. ;-P Felicity Natsumi was born on July 18th at 7:32 pm. At birth she weighed 7lb 6 oz and was 20 inches long. According to her mama, the name Felicity is based on the Roman goddess of good luck and success, and also means happiness. Her middle name, Natsumi is a Japanese girl's name, meaning 'summer beauty'.

Mabry's birth day

Mabry's Birthday (3 of 4) by N. Herring

Okay, so it was wasn't the same calendar day, but it was her first 24 hours on earth. I got to meet her last night. She's very light (6 pounds 10 ounces) and long (20 inches). She was sleeping long and hard while I was there, so I haven't yet seen her eyes in person. But I'll be back to see them again!

New arrival

Miller and Nathan's daughter Mabry Parker Herring was born at home today at 6:28pm. According to Maegan, she is pink and has cried a bit. Nathan says she is cute and well.

Both Nathan and Maegan say that Mabry is still working some mucus out of her lungs. Maegan reports that Miller seems well and is resting on the bed with Mabry in her arms.

We hope to go meet the new arrival tonight or tomorrow, as soon as they're ready to receive us. Pictures to come.

Nice night at the dog park

Nice night at the dog park by Corinne S.

(Sent from my iPhone.)

Not overdesigning your portfolio

I agree with the general thrust of this article, though I haven't visited and reviewed each of the portfolios cited. Looking at the miniature versions of the site though, it seems like a reasonable selection. 10 portfolios that get right to the point

Yes, I am a geek

Were you unclear on that fact?

(Sent from my iPhone.)

My new desk

My new desk by Corinne S.

My new desk (at Amazon) isn't as fancy as my office at MS, but I talk to my coworkers a lot more (for business and pleasure) and I like my keyboard tray a lot. :-)

Unbox video player 2.0 launched

I failed to blog about this sooner--the final 2.0 version of the Amazon Unbox video player has released and is available online. You can download the software free anytime, but you should probably buy or rent a video from the Unbox store first so you have something to watch. You can also watch Unbox videos on your TiVo if it's a Series 2 or 3 Tivo (not a DirecTV Tivo like mine). As an extra enticement to try it out, selected video rentals are on sale for 99 cents on the weekend (Friday-Sunday). The rental period is 30 days from purchase. Once you start watching the video, you have 24 hours to complete it. And sorry Richard--Unbox is currently only available in the US due to licensing restrictions. If you're curious what I've watched via Unbox so far, check out my items tagged Unbox on All Consuming. :)

Fun afternoon

The family goes to the tropics by Corinne S.

Benjamin and I went to Russ and Renee's wedding reception today. Their wedding itself was in Hawaii. In honor of the wedding, they had a USnaps.com photo booth with tropical props provided. The results were fantastic. I am actually surprised the photos look as good as they do. All I did to this one was crop it a smidge.

See more photos from the reception

Book: Small Wonder: Essays

Barbara Kingsolver is a lyrical writer with a musical voice. This book is a treat to listen to as an audio book. Listening to her read makes me at once sad, elated, quiet, and humble.

Here’s a beautiful quote from the first chapter:

“God is in the details, the completely unnecessary miracles some tossed up as stars to guide us. They are the promise of fortune in a cloudless day, and the animals in the clouds; look hard enough, and you’ll see them. Don’t ask if they’re real.”

Just a Minute

My mom drew my attention to an article in a recent Oprah Magazine (yea, Oprah) about ways to connect with your spouse in our overstressed society. I thought it offered an interesting and possibly useful idea. New School Love: 60 Seconds to a Better Relationship

Second nature

Logging bugs on software has become second nature to me, so I was pleased to see this list of Apple iPhone bugs. I've added 2 so far. :-) iPhone v1.0 Bugs

More of Poland

Making our dreams of Poland come true by Corinne S.

I finally, at long last, after two months, posted a few more photos from Poland to our Seattle to Poland 2007 group on Flickr. This one is of Ola's dad pouring us some fantastic vodka.

The design geek in me is in love

Should I stay or should I go now? by Deluxx

I adore the Flickr group, This is Broken, which is I just discovered thanks to the Good Experience blog. You can count on seeing pictures and screenshots from me posted here in the future. :-)

Happy birthday to me

Hello iPhone by Corinne S.

My generous Apple- and gadget-loving husband bought each of us an iPhone for my birthday. I activated mine this morning. :-)

Birthday pictures

Girls' table by Corinne S.

I forgot to mention that I posted some of the photos from my birthday party. More to come when I get around to it.

Tom Fishburne: the art of greenwashing

Richard's blog turned me on to this funny, depressing, and timely cartoon. I just signed up for Seattle's Green Up! program for some alternative energy and was thinking about paying for some carbon offsets through TerraPass, CarbonFund, or another site. That's all dandy except that I can't bring myself to take shorter showers or get up early enough to ride the express bus instead of driving. One step at a time you say? Perhaps. Anyway, I followed a variety of links after seeing this cartoon and stumbled on the site of Tom Fishburne,the one drawing them. He has a fantastic cartoon collection on a variety of topics from fatherhood to advertising. I'm tempted to buy a calendar. Other favorites include the executive packaging review (bottom of page) and the minivan dilemma (middle of page).

Unbox Beta Test Program

If you're interested, you can now join in the public beta for the 2.0 version of the Amazon Unbox video player for Windows. Since I only started at Amazon a month ago, I didn't contribute much to this release, but my team would still welcome your feedback on the beta. Amazon.com Unbox Video: Unbox Beta Test Program

Movie: A Prairie Home Companion

Boring

I am not a huge fan of the Prairie Home Companion radio show, but I like it okay. If you are a fan and expect nothing more from the movie, then you might enjoy it. Otherwise, don’t bother. As mentioned by other reviewers, the movie was boring with no strong plot and not enough character development. The majority of the movie takes place during a single radio show and you just see little bits and pieces of what’s happening backstage.

Book: Homeland and other stories

Not good as an audio book

I listened to this book as a Chivers audio book and I didn’t think it was well-suited to listening. The short stories were fairly long, but since it was an audio book I had no sense of how long each story was and how far along I was in it. Also, there was no substantive pause between stories, so you didn’t get the natural resting period you would normally allow in a book of short stories. This was one audio book where I would have liked to have music between sections (and I don’t usually like that).