[Moriah] What's that salty taste?

I've definitely been going through new experiences lately. I had another doctor's appointment Monday. I've only gained one pound since my last appointment four weeks ago, but I've been trying to eat well to make up for the fact that I can't eat very much right now. I'm still feeling nauseous from time to time. But now, on top of that, I have a severe aversion to anything salty. I've been having a hard time eating pre-made or canned foods, and sometimes even bread products or food I make from scratch even if it doesn't have much salt in it. If I eat anything that tastes salty to me, I get very nauseous again, so I'm trying to stick to foods that don't trigger that. I'm craving fruits and vegetables lately, especially salad. That seems to go down really well. And I can eat sweet stuff, though I'm not craving sweets. I just made some vegan chocolate chip cookies but, while tasty, it's not like I want to go in there and eat the whole tray.



I was told in my doctor's appointment Monday that, since I'm in my second trimester now, I should start feeling more energetic and alert, and the nausea should go away. Well, I haven't seen that day yet. Instead, I have to carefully watch what I eat for fear of triggering the nausea. And I usually sleep (when I don't have pet sitting) until 11:00 or 11:30 AM, even though I only go to bed at midnight most nights. I also get very breathless sometimes when I do physical activity, and today I nearly fainted in a store that Daniel and I were looking around in. I was looking at stuff on the bottom of a shelf and stood up to look at something else, when I suddenly felt the blood rush from my head and arms. Everything started to go black and I started feeling sweaty. With Daniel's help, I wobbled over to a chair in the café area and sat down for a few minutes. It helped a little, but we ended up having to cut our window shopping short and go home. I still didn't feel right for a while afterward. But I'm sure looking forward to the day that I start feeling more energetic and have no more upset stomach!



On the positive side, we are extremely excited for June 1st to come. That is the day we will find out if it is a boy or girl. I go in for both a regular check-up and an ultrasound, and we can even bring a VHS tape to record the ultrasound! We're really looking forward to that. We'll finally be able to start thinking of names at that point, which should be awesome.



Here is an updated picture of me from last week (week 15).

15 Weeks

[Daniel] Django From Subversion on Mac OS X

Right. So I'm enamoured with Django, a Python web framework. It's very well done, fast and internationalized. Two days ago, Adrian, a project lead for Django, announced the impending release of the "magic-removal" branch of Django. Since I am in the early stages of Wagging Work and this is the future of Django, I wanted to port it all now up front. What I had been working on was the official "egg" release of Django (0.91). Installing Django from Subversion proved to be a challenge.



My setup is Mac OS X (10.4.6), MySQL 4.1.12, Subversion 1.2.3 and Python 2.4.1. My Python install is in "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework /Versions/2.4/lib" so site-packages is located at "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework /Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4 /site-packages".



Step 1: Grab Django.

In a suitable place in your home directory, use Subversion to grab the magic-removal branch. In "~/Documents/Code/Python", I ran:

svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/branches/magic-removal django_svn

Lots of line will scroll by as Subversion fetches all the files used by Django. Once it's complete, you'll get a friendly little message like "Checked out revision 2724." Time to move along.



Step 2: Symlink Django

In "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework /Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4 /site-packages", run the following command (and watch the path carefully. One too many tries at this did I symlink the wrong (one too high) directory and met with spectacular failure):

sudo ln -s ~/Documents/Code/Python/django_svn/django django

Now, cd to "/usr/local/bin" (or "/usr/bin" if local isn't in your PATH) and run the following symlink:

sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/bin/django-admin.py django-admin.py

There should now be a convenient symlink there pointing to the appropriate spot. To test if this worked, start a new shell, type in "dj" and hit the Tab key. If it completes to "django-admin.py", your symlink is working. Don't hit "Enter"/"Return" just yet because...



Step 3: Edit your environment variables

...you don't have the needed environment variables present. Without these, you'll get errors like "from django.core import management ImportError"s. So you need to put in the environment variables so Django can find its files. Since I'm going to be using this a lot, I'm setting these items in my "~/.bash_profile" file. You can execute these from the shell directly but you must do it with every new shell you want to use the "django-admin.py" tool in.

PYTHONPATH=/Users/cowz/Documents/Code/Python/django_svn

export PYTHONPATH

Obviously, substitute your path accordingly. I believe this has to point back to the original Subversion directory to work, though I have not tried it using the "/Library/Frame..." path. Save the "~/.bash_profile" file.



Step 4: Bliss

Start a new shell, type in "django-admin.py startproject whee" and enjoy your newly Subversion-ized Django install. Even better, now all you have to do to update Django is cd into your "~/Documents/Code/Python/django_svn" directory and run the following command:

svn update

The new files will be fetched and you'll automatically be running the most current Django code. Enjoy!

[Daniel] Photos!

Uploaded some new photos tonight. We've got, for your viewing pleasure, two new photos of Bear and some shots of the Saturn. Without further ado...

Bear Album

Saturn Album

[Moriah] Second Trimester Already?!

Yes, 'tis true. Today marks the beginning of my second trimester. I can't believe I'm already this far along. Though, I can't complain too much. Hopefully now the "morning" sickness will go away. We'll see.



I can definitely tell the baby is growing, aside from simply looking at the ultrasound pictures. I have been feeling a lot more pressure in my lower abdomen and lower back over the last few days, especially when I'm sitting upright in a chair or on the futon. I'm also starting to have trouble getting comfortable while sleeping. I'm allowed to lay on either my left or right side, but not on my back or stomach (obviously). I've been tossing and turning throughout the night, going from one side to the other, because my hips have been hurting for several weeks as well. Probably because they're expanding outward. It's going to be an interesting rest of the pregnancy.



I am also starting to show a little more, as you can see from the following picture.

13 Weeks

I'm beginning to outgrow my usual pair of shorts. Now I'm moving on to these low-rise jean shorts (see picture) and, soon, my maternity shorts. This is certainly an interesting experience!

[Daniel] Baby Excitement And A Good Book

So Moriah is one day shy of 14 weeks and she's really starting to show now. We'll post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow but, if it hadn't sunk in before, it sure has now. One week left of the first trimester. And thankfully she's starting to feel better.



Another big item has been maternity clothes. Moriah and I shopped a little (just a couple items) and also received quite a bit of borrowed clothing from Janelle of the Austin Flute Choir and a lot from Mya & Stewart! Lots of clothing that fits well and looks appealing so she should be set for awhile.



And Mya & Stewart included something for me in the box they sent, a book that Stewart had when Avalin was coming. The title is "Be Prepared" and it is both hilarious and highly informational. Illustrated with 50s/60s style art and a dry, humorous tone, this book is great. I'm perhaps 70-80 pages in and have had to wipe tears from my eyes several times throughout. Highly recommended!

[Daniel] One Year

I've been a full year without skateboarding. Many other things have come and gone in this last year but this keeps coming back to me, time and again. It's kind of silly that it's been such hard thing to let go of, and it's not like I was ever that good (especially compared to even the current Am's, let alone Pro's). But it still lingers.



And I can't go back. Even now, a year later and all the recovery time, the ankle still is not really healed. Every couple of weeks, when coming down the stairs, I'll step just a little wrong, feel it compress and be in pain the rest of the day. So there's no way I could hop back on anytime soon, if ever. There's always the longboard, which I still use (so I guess it could be construed that I still skate) but it's nowhere near as frequent as it used to be and nothing more than cruising.



Enough. Perhaps it's time to let go.

[Moriah] Hill Country Sketches

Today, I had the privilege to play with the Austin Flute Choir in a world premiere performance of "Hill Country Sketches." The work was commissioned specifically for the Austin Flute Choir by composer Catherine McMichael.



A few years ago, our flute choir director, Penny, asked Catherine if she would be willing to compose a piece for the Austin Flute Choir. She agreed, and ended up coming to Austin to get a feel for the city and what kind of character she'd like to give the piece.



Here in the "hill country," as locals call it, there are some prominent themes portrayed. The three Catherine chose to write about in her piece were: the bluebonnets, which bloom all over the city in spring; the bats, which live under the Lake Travis bridge from March until October and fly out from underneath it every evening at dusk to go on their nightly hunt; and the strong Mexican influence in the city, from the food to the dancing.



Combining these themes, Catherine produced three movements for the piece. The first movement, titled "Lago de los Lupinos" (Lake of the Bluebonnets), was a beautifully intricate and graceful piece made to encompass the beauty of the bluebonnets themselves. The second movement, titled "El Vuelo de las Murciélagos" (The Flight of the Bats), was meant to make you feel as though you were one of the bats, sleepily coming out from your afternoon hiding place and preparing to soar through the sky with excitement. The third movement, "Fiesta de las Flautas" (Festival of Flutes), was meant to capture the Mexican influence, including a small percussion section and a dance-in-your-seat beat using tango and merengue styles that prevented you from keeping still.



I had a blast playing this wonderfully composed work and look forward to many more opportunities like this in the future. Ahh, the supreme joy of performing again...

[Daniel] Coming Soon

I've been quiet lately (which isn't the best thing ever) but I hope to change that in the coming weeks. I've just been either very busy or very lazy.



Car:

We got a "new-to-us" car, primarily for my use. 1999 Saturn SC1 (with 3rd suicide door). 5 speed manual, "Blackberry" (extremely dark purple to the point of black) in color. I've only been able to drive it for the last two days but it's nice for Moriah not to have to get up with me every morning and it's 40 fewer miles per day on the Civic.



Project:

I've got a new project going: Wagging Work. It's going to be a simple, easy-to-use pet sitting web application, designed to help run the day to day business of a pet sitter. There are a couple (~6) other "competitors" but they are either expensive, look/feel crappy to use or require Windows to run. Neither I nor Moriah are impressed so I'm working on that, if nothing else but to benefit us when tax time comes around again. Wireframes are complete and object design is nearly done as well.



Parenthood:

I've been doing a little reading (though not nearly as much as I should) on being a parent and what to prepare for. I fully expect to still not be truly prepared when the baby arrives but at least I won't be totally clueless. (HA! 10 years from now, the child looks back and says "WRONG!")



Work:

Live Oak has quite a few big projects going on right now and I'm involved in one or two. It's been nice not to be hopping from project to project every couple hours.



Flute Performance:

I'll be recording (via the MiniDV) a performance Moriah and the Austin Flute Choir will be putting on this Sunday. I'm excited to see it as it will be the world premiere of a piece written about Austin. Should be very cool.



But I've been terrible about staying in touch with family. I have a lot to improve on in the coming months in that regard.

[Moriah] Second Ultrasound!

Daniel and I went to our second ultrasound visit today in order to do a screening for DS. We were very excited when the lab technician began and we saw our baby on the monitor. Wow! We couldn't believe our eyes. We were happy to see Baby has two arms, two legs, fingers and toes, and a cute little nose! He/She was even moving around quite a bit and sucking on a finger during part of the ultrasound. We had to laugh because his/her legs were crossed at the ankles as if he/she were lounging in a comfy chair! Baby already has quite the little personality, and he/she is only 12 1/2 weeks old!



We also got to see Baby's developing brain on the monitor, as well as the heartbeat. Baby measures 6 cm from head to butt, which is right on schedule according to the lab tech. And Baby's heart rate was 150 bpm, also right on schedule.



It was so fun to see Baby again since the first ultrasound, where all we saw was a little blob of cells and a beating heart on the screen. We can't wait to go in at 20 weeks and find out if Baby is a boy or girl! But that's 7 1/2 weeks off. For now, we'll just oogle over the print-out pictures of the ultrasound and imagine. You can see the pictures from today's ultrasound in our Gallery, but for a teaser, here's our favorite picture.

Second Ultrasound