Bǎi sī bù jiě

I wrote this (posting here for posterity)

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:25:05 PDT

I wrote this, although I don't remember writing it. I do remember going there -- and I am clearly the "me" in this post.

There was a time when we did not know how large groupes of people would react to our students in public. So we took a group to Kinds dominion to preform a few expermints. We found that the main reaction to doing the splits between the hand rails -- while waiting in line for the Hurler -- is only a few awkward stares. It turns out that most people don't even notice that we are exchangin a flurry of mock attacks while wondering between rides. Hardly anyone noticed that we were bowing to the camera on that first big drop.

The high points of our trip included such things as having to hold Joanna in the Rebel Yell (or she would have flown out!) and Sending Meline, Suzie and Me on the Extreme Flyer. I leaned two things from that ride -- Suzie is not scared of anything and Mel is freakishly strong.

Overall our trip to Kings Dominion was a success, While I am not sure that the Public in general is ready for wushu students, they did not reject us out right. However Keye did seem to baffel them with his softball-basket-toss skills.

Good times.

The Russian Army

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:49:26 PDT

Guest post by Kelly

This week was a hard week. About this time last Sunday my brother informed me that while I was at church my parents had called to say that my Grandma Lawson had passed away. We’d been expecting it for a week so it wasn’t a shock, but it was still quite sad. She was my last grandparent. My mom had to play family peacemaker on top of grieving for her mother. Grandma never met Laurence. I certainly didn’t call or write often enough. And I had to explain death to Leah somehow since she had just seen my Grandma the month before and talked about her regularly.

The viewing was Tuesday night and I saw lots of family I hadn’t seen in a while. Services were first thing Wednesday morning and they were nicely done. And the kids brought some joy to an otherwise sad occasion.

None of this was the hard part of the week. Well, maybe telling Leah about death was hard.

The hard part of the week was the constant trials and tribulations thrown in our path from a logistical point of view. Here are just a few of the challenges we faced:

Chris was in SFO, leaving me to single parent it while I planned and packed – I did tell him to go ahead and go, but still, it’s harder when he’s not around

The garage at DCA is under construction and impossible to navigate

The check-in machines for American don’t deal well with split parties

Renting two cars from someone who didn’t realize we wanted two separate cars

Reconciling TomTom’s instructions and my dad’s pre-planned routes

Finding places to eat that are both kid friendly and dad friendly

Sharing a hotel room with two kids who have different nap schedules

The bazillion outlets and drawers in said hotel room that Lars was magnetically drawn to

The tornados

The 3:00 a.m. fire alarm – which the fire department didn’t show up to turn off until 3:30

Locking myself out of the room during the fire alarm while Lars was still inside and I didn’t yet know it was a false alarm

And of course the “moving the Russian Army” sized task of flying with two small kids half way across the country

And there was more to be sure, but I’m already placing a mental block on a lot of this past week. My bother and parents suffered through all of this with us Sextons and each had their own things to add to the list. None of us, except my mom, handled every situation with grace, but we were all still speaking to each other when we got home, and I think we’ll even be willing to hang out together again sometime soon.

So, hopefully this next week will be kinder to us all. We could sure use the break.

God bless you Grandma, we miss you lots, and you were worth every little bit of trouble that we went through!

Golden Batido

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:37:17 PDT

Added another to my collection of Au Batido Pictures:

Dr. Harper was kind enough to not only drive me up there, but also take the photo for me. Aside from being out of Au Batido practice I think it came out pretty well.

May: The beginning of a summer of fun

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:54:47 PDT

Kelly and I have decided we are going to try our best to follow a summer of fun, and May was the start of it.

I have pictures to prove it.

Leah likes fountainses.

Fountain: 1. Laurence: 0.

Outside is fun for babies!

Playing Peek-a-boo!

This is how Thor relaxes.

Walking with dad in the sculpture garden.

The fountain in the sculpture garden.

There are more in the photo album .

That was a really good weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:23:34 PDT

It helps that it was a long weekend, but it also had quality content.

Saturday we went to Sweet Life Cafe and had an (almost) private show, met up with Beej to help on the kitchen (although we mostly just played at the park).

We wrapped up the day with Sean and Nina. We let them kids stay up a little later than normal so they could hang out. Discussion seemed to be centered around child development strategy and zombie board games.

Sunday we met one of Kelly's friends and her family for Lunch at P.F. Chang's over at Fairfax Square. Being a very hot and sunny day we decided to head over to the fountains. Luckily Kelly had preplanned and packed swimsuits for the kids. The boys were not so sure about this, but Leah was. She ran around with kids twice her size and had a blast. The impressive thing was the black eye she got. It was not impressive that she got a black eye, but rather she took the elbow to the face and didn't miss a beat. That is a girl serious about her fun. Laurence on the other hand decided he had quite enough once he caught a fountain to the face.

For dinner we headed out to National Harbor and met with the Tres Tulli for a tasty dinner at Rosa Mexacana. Which we followed up with Neal and Leah climbing on "The Awakening" and Gelato. The highlight of the evening had to be when Neal's dinner fought back and won. Now that's spicy!

Today was a lazy day at home. I got up with Lars around 7:30, played for a bit and then he and I went down for morning naps around 9. Slept until noon. It was legendary.

The rest of the day was just spent wrangling kids, making an experimental dinner, watching a movie with the wife during a simulnap.

Henry's problem

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:51:48 PDT

Henry has a serious problem. No, not the stink butt. Well, related to the sink butt. He has taken to 'presenting.' I will be sitting very nicely on the floor reading books with my little girl and this cat will come settle down inches away (he is determined to get as close as felinely possible to my face), and raise his tail straight into the air -- haunches slightly elevated. If you brush him even slightly the hind quarters shoot into the air.

This is gross.

Especially if he is currently in full stink-butt mode. So, I have been looking for a way to fix this. I have tried simply turning him around, which seemed to be working ok, but he will often turn back around. And always starts by facing butt-wards.

I have tried scolding the cat while I turn him around, no workie. So I need to explore possible strategies for preventing this behavior. Here is what I have come up with:

Keep a ball point pen around to insert into the nearest orafice when he presents. I cannot imagine the behavior will persist if there is any probing done on a regualr basis. I have ruled this option out, as I would never be able to look Henry in the eye again.

OK, so that is the only option I have come up with so far. If anyone has an suggestions please let me know.

What's the deal with them Sextons?

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:41:32 PDT

It has been a long time, I think twitter is bad for my blogging schedule.

Well, lets recap the last lots of weeks.

Leah went to Texas with her grandma, and returned with a strong command of family relationships. We can ask her questions like who is your Mommy's Grandma or who is Grandma's Mommy and she will nail them. I don't think I had that good of an understanding until I was 12. She has explained in great detail about how she went on the black airplane in the sky with <whisper> grandma </whisper>.

Shortly after that, or was it before that, Kelly went to Boston for work. I think she was gone 3 days, but it felt like weeks. I had to reconfigure the morning routine so that I could handle it. I cannot deal with the complexities of getting the kids dressed, fed and in the car first thing in the morning.

Before things settled down from the first couple trips I ran of to RailsConf in Vegas. The fun part of this trip was convincing Kelly to come join me. Vegas is a much different place when you decidedly pace your self and try to relax. I am really glad that my coworker, Scott, and his wife were able to hang out with us for the weekend. That town is just too weird to be with out friends. It was a good trip, from the sad story of Monorail Pidgin to the joy that was Bouchon.

We've only been back a week now but I am going to be scooting off to San Francisco for WWDC in a week -- poor wife. All this travel has Leah a little out of wack and I saved my longest trip for last. You know, to rub it in.

Potty training is war

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:12:51 PDT

Since last time I posted we have passed a few milestones here in the Sexton household. Laurence has gone from scooting to crawling and standing. Recently he has been starting to cruse around furniture while holding on. Started to get the controlled fall thing down. Baby break falling is pretty simple, if you are starting to topple -- sit! His diaper helps pad the landing. Works out pretty well most of the time.

The other huge milestone was Leah's. We officially have a potty trained toddler. We followed the book Potty Training Boot Camp which I think was a solid success. But it was not easy. There was plenty of crying, throwing tantrums, running naked and protesting -- and that was just me. Leah had similar behavior. Now that the battle is over, we are better for it. Leah still stresses about it, but is getting better. We have been able to venture on longer car rides and walks with nary an accident.

We have persisted the bribe for peeing or pooping in the potty -- and I am willing to continue it until her twenties if I have to -- candy. that goes for anyone at Ft. Truxion: if you pee in the potty, all you have to do is 1) put your underwear back on and 2) do that "I did it dance" and you will receive candy.

Sweet deal.

HALP, he's learned tools!

Lars loves the outside as long as he doesn't have to touch it.

Tackle!

Taking care of our pretty flowers.

Leah and panda going on a short walk.

Playing with her little buddy.

Too tired for food.

See more in the album.

Scooting for spoon!

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:28:12 PST

Look Max, I can scoot too!

If I were my keys, where would I be.

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:20:55 PST

I lost my keys. I really couldn't find them. I looked everywhere they could be, everywhere that is within reach of a two and a half year old. The really crappy part is they have my hard token on them. I did not want to call IT and have to get a new one, with "director level" approval. Ugh.

Retraced my steps. Last time I saw them was when I had Kelly read me the secret numbers so I could send an email. On a side note: sending email takes way too much effort. I remember that she did this very clearly because she read the numbers upside down to start with. She claims that she then physically handed me the keys. But I firmly but disagreed. Oh, another side note: don't disagree with your wife when it just doesn't matter.

After going through the desk and my bag, we both agreed that little miss must have taken them. I seem to remember the 'fixing' of my tower with keys. And I think that occurred after the upside down number incident.

We pulled up the couch. Went through the fridge and cabinets. Litter box. Trash cans. Toy boxes.

Nothing.

I was in the kitchen going through the shoe pile when kelly announce that she 'though she just heard them.' Understanding that left to their own devices my keys do not make any sound I could only figure she was mocking me in some way. But nope, she had ninja like hearing and heard a little jingle when standing up from our desk chair.

Well that desk chair is a fancy feux Areon from Office Max, and happens to have an elabrate truss system for the lumbar support, that, from the point of view of a two year old, makes a hand place to store some fixin' keys.

Had Kelly not heard them I don't think I would have found them until the next time I disasemmebled my office chair. And I don't know about you, but I don't disassemble my office chair very often at all. Maybe I should start, who knows what I might find.

Overheard at Ft. Truxion

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:36:28 PST

"I wanna be nakin"

"Nakin with the boys"

"I'm dancing nakin!"

"We are looking for the panda bear"

Some of those things make me, as the father of a daughter, very sad on the inside.

Lets see how bad the housing market really is.

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:51:24 PST

We have decided that we can't take our commute any more. Kelly has the chance to listen to 2 kids scream for a commute that can take upwards of an hour we've decided that this is simply not good lifestyle. And if she gets home and decides she wants some help -- she gives me a call and it might be more than an hour and a half for me to walk in the door.

Yeah, not really working for me.

So we are looking for a new place. We started looking near Dunn Lorring or one of the Falls Church Metro stops. But I think we decided we really prefer West Fall Church/McLean. The more I think about it, the better my wife's commute the happier I am gonna be. Weird how that works.

We did find one house that was, well, ideal. Unfortunately by the time we got to go see it it was already under contract. It was a bit on the pricy side (all the 'ideal' ones are), but totally worth it.

While we considered buying before selling, I think we've deiced don't like that idea, so have stepped up the 'getting the house ready' tasks. The sad thing is now that we are replacing all the light fixtures, painting, building circuit breaker doors, installing range hoods -- well, it really makes the current place nice. Man, all these little things add up. Hopefully it will help when people come look at it.

I know people do it all the time, but I don't know what we are going to do once it is listed and we get calls that someone wants to come see our place and we are waist deep in dirty diapers and kids toys. You can't keep the house clean with a toddler AND a baby.

So, anyone want to buy a townhouse in Burke? It's got new light fixtures!

shush-kaput

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:34:37 PST

If there is one thing I like it is setting up ssh to use my public key so that I don't have to type a password when login to a server. This wasn't too hard, but since OSX does not have ssh-copy-id by default I would have to pull up the instructions every time to make sure I remembered the file names and permissions just right.

So last night I made a ruby gem to remember how to do it for me, ssh-keyput

Now all I's got to do to copy my public key is:


$ ssh-keyput chris@server.com

To install all you need is a simple gem install:


$ gem install csexton-ssh-keyput -s http://gems.github.com

It is nothign bu a gloafied wrapper for a few shell commands, but it is much easier to remember

Email Fun

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:31:50 PST

A little email exchange I had yesterday:

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:04:18 PST

	kmsexton Lunch with the kids was good, I'm glad I went 01/08/2009 at 06:30PM
	fuzzymonk That was a long bus ride. 01/08/2009 at 05:52PM
	fuzzymonk @beejpowers that was hysterical. I want to get a Wii just to punch it. 01/08/2009 at 04:27PM
	kmsexton Very much looking forward to @fuzzymonk getting home. All of his girls are out of sorts due to his absence. 01/08/2009 at 04:06PM
	fuzzymonk @kmsexton is now stressing over putting an offer on the house she 'loves' 01/11/2009 at 05:49PM
	amperecat It is fun to beg for pork but then not eats any when the peoples gives it. 01/11/2009 at 05:48PM
	fuzzymonk Trikes and hills = hunched over dad. 01/11/2009 at 05:12PM
	kmsexton starting to get nostalgic about my current house, but excited about the prospects of a new house 01/11/2009 at 05:05PM
	kmsexton @KellyELawson jaiyo! you can do it!! 01/11/2009 at 03:10AM
	kmsexton So glad @fuzzymonk is home! 01/10/2009 at 03:54PM
	fuzzymonk Drat, gotta stop for gas. 01/10/2009 at 05:17AM
	fuzzymonk That was the best flight I have had in a long time. 01/10/2009 at 05:13AM
	fuzzymonk 737. I like me some Boeing. 01/10/2009 at 04:45AM
	fuzzymonk An empty plane?!? Yay! 01/10/2009 at 12:42AM
	amperecat @meow4u what's the happy happs? 01/10/2009 at 12:18AM
	fuzzymonk It wasn't syoder, it was @scott_yoder -- I was tricked! 01/09/2009 at 11:51PM
	amperecat Grr, twistie tie under the dresser. Must learn to use tools. 01/09/2009 at 11:46PM
	fuzzymonk Tricking @syoder into signing up for twitter. Evil plan makes progress. 01/09/2009 at 11:44PM
	kmsexton @shawnburns maybe it's an attempt to prep you for transportation in DC week after next 01/09/2009 at 06:57PM
	kmsexton I love that Fridays are slow. You know, so I can work on personal things like prepping to buy a house. 01/09/2009 at 05:16PM
	kmsexton made it to work on time, got an omlette for b'fast, and feeling pretty good today 01/09/2009 at 02:09PM
	kmsexton Looking forward to only getting one kid, the one who can't run away no less, ready this morning. Thanks Mom! 01/09/2009 at 12:11PM
	fuzzymonk If there is one thing that is good about Vegas it is how much it makes you value your family. Can't wait to go home. 01/09/2009 at 08:30AM
	fuzzymonk Nothing like a few $50 rum and cokes. 01/09/2009 at 08:25AM

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:26:38 PST

	kmsexton now that was what I call a meltdown, poor little girl 01/07/2009 at 11:25PM
	fuzzymonk @kmsexton good job! 01/07/2009 at 10:08PM
	kmsexton Woohoo! Moral victory is mine! Daycare finally decided they could waive a late fee since they lost the check that I sent very much on time. 01/07/2009 at 08:40PM
	kmsexton My daugher thinks she can be a TomTom of sorts. "Leah want go this way, not this way." 01/07/2009 at 01:38PM
	fuzzymonk Jet planes to #ces09 01/07/2009 at 01:31PM
	fuzzymonk It is official, my daughter can talk on the phone. 01/07/2009 at 12:37PM
	fuzzymonk The scrubs party would have been better with appletini's 01/07/2009 at 04:39AM
	fuzzymonk I seem to have lost my badge to @ces2009, hope that won't be a problem. 01/06/2009 at 10:52PM
	kmsexton hoping for a less confrontational day today, and maybe to go see a promising house! 01/06/2009 at 03:02PM
	fuzzymonk sudo port install memcached 01/06/2009 at 03:40AM
	amperecat I nom plastic. 01/06/2009 at 03:35AM
	fuzzymonk @doktahahpah you you mean squiggly brackets? 01/06/2009 at 12:35AM
	kmsexton @KellyELawson have you considered teeth? In which case Orajel and Tylenol should help. In another month you can use Motrin and that is great 01/08/2009 at 12:11PM
	fuzzymonk @crazyjulio welcome to the club! 01/08/2009 at 05:03AM
	kmsexton Finally made it home. Good thing too b/c mr man is hung-ung-gry. 01/08/2009 at 12:43AM
	kmsexton wow, three days without a tweet - i must have been very busy or very lazy 01/04/2009 at 09:13PM
	fuzzymonk Goodwill was insane! 01/04/2009 at 06:39PM
	fuzzymonk @nikkilooch ampere will be your friend too! 01/04/2009 at 06:38PM
	fuzzymonk Tired, but not sleepy. Not helping anyone. 01/04/2009 at 05:47AM
	kmsexton Expected the gym to be more crowded given it's the first week of Jan 01/05/2009 at 10:19PM
	kmsexton Ok my direct tweet to Chris seems to have been public. Oops! 01/05/2009 at 05:19PM
	kmsexton Dfuzzymonk our office is suggesting we stay home fir the inauguration, think we can handle the kids and work? 01/05/2009 at 03:33PM
	kmsexton "Leah had a big yawn." Me too little girl, me too. 01/05/2009 at 01:34PM
	fuzzymonk @shawnburns It looks like our friends from Austin will be there http://bit.ly/EqwZ #ces09 01/05/2009 at 04:27AM
	amperecat thinks roast beef is more fun to ask for than to eat. 01/05/2009 at 03:21AM
	amperecat I want loves! WANT! 01/05/2009 at 03:16AM
	kmsexton tomorrow will be back to work again. I'm not sure if more excited or sad. But routine is good, for me and the two year old. 01/05/2009 at 01:58AM
	fuzzymonk It's never good when you have to get a bucket and a drill at 9pm on a Sunday. 01/05/2009 at 01:41AM

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:37:31 PST

	fuzzymonk The Oskar Blues Gordon double IPA is gonna make Kelly drive home. 01/03/2009 at 11:51PM
	fuzzymonk Most dog for dinner, FTW. 01/03/2009 at 11:05PM
	fuzzymonk @shawnburns what don't I need help with! 01/03/2009 at 10:27PM
	amperecat The one with the lowest µ! 01/03/2009 at 09:28PM
	amperecat Two cats are on a roof which one falls off first? 01/03/2009 at 09:28PM

Christmas and New Years

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:50:25 PST

Christmas for the Sexton's, like always, was full of pandemonium.

We went down to Richmond to see the my side of the clan, which had the added bonus of having Nikki and Anthony. We actually had people in every bedroom at my parents house -- I think it has been a while since that happened. But now that the Sexton's take up 3 rooms for sleeping it the spare space seems to disappear pretty quick.

My parents bought tickes for The Demarco's, The Wilson's and us to go see the lights at the botanical gardens. I strapped Lars in the snugli, and we wondered in the cold looking at everything. The smores were fun but $3 for a bag with a gram cracker, marshmallow or two and a half a Hershey's bar seemed a bit steep. But it was worth it to watch Leah swing a flaming marshmellow at her mom's face.

Leah and her mom in the light maze

We had an early Christmas at my parents before we left to Grandma's for second Christmas. We packed up the loot (recieve much more than we gave, that's for sure), and headed back up to Burke to prep for Christmas morning (a.k.a. third Christmas). By the time we were finally up and playing with the presents from Santa man, them Tulli showed up for forth Christmas.

Christmas twice is nice, but four....is awesome.

The best part is Leah finally gets it. And not only that be was extremely well behaved. I am not sure how we did it, nor how long it is gonna last, but I will take the good behavior while I can get it.

And now, what everyone wants, pictures:

Christmas Kids

Bucket baby

Leah's big present

Lars' big present

At great grandma's

Boo! I'm a santamen!

More Pictures in the album.

Now I will leave you with a little saying that Leah has learned from her dad. I bet this will never get old.

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:54:45 PST

	fuzzymonk We have tooth #2! 12/31/2008 at 07:14PM
	kmsexton Today is NOT a holiday, the post office should be open! 12/31/2008 at 06:57PM
	amperecat Wheres dem humans? I's hungry. 12/24/2008 at 03:22PM
	amperecat I like to sleep in laundry. Clean. White. Laundry. 12/03/2008 at 03:44AM
	kmsexton 10 minutes to go and i think we did it. no shower for me yet and lars has been held for 90% of the day, but we did what we had to 12/30/2008 at 11:10PM
	fuzzymonk @crazyjulio Congrats! 12/30/2008 at 06:07PM
	kmsexton on the verge of spectacular victory or crushing defeat 12/30/2008 at 06:05PM
	kmsexton we can do this, we can do this, we can do this. it's just me and the kids today - i'm hoping the kids got all their issues out yesterday 12/30/2008 at 01:34PM
	amperecat They's takin pictures of me! 11/27/2008 at 11:19PM
	amperecat Nom nom nom plastic nom 12/25/2008 at 07:24PM
	kmsexton I need a sharp implement. 12/25/2008 at 06:36PM
	kmsexton Homeward bound and very glad to be so. 12/25/2008 at 02:24AM
	kmsexton To all my PSU friends: I'm pulling for ya! 01/01/2009 at 10:48PM
	fuzzymonk @Teshler it also works on hair. 01/01/2009 at 09:10PM
	kmsexton starting the new year off right - purging the house or toys 01/01/2009 at 05:20PM
	fuzzymonk Forcing friends to sign up for twitter is the best. 01/01/2009 at 06:31AM
	fuzzymonk @mjeshler flash! Ahh-ahh! 01/01/2009 at 05:41AM
	fuzzymonk @teshler why don't to like device updates? 01/01/2009 at 03:16AM
	amperecat We can study their tatics http://tinyurl.com/3nwgde 11/30/2008 at 02:08AM
	kmsexton On our way to nursery duty - made great time which is a bummer, means that we could have slept longer. 12/28/2008 at 01:29PM
	amperecat Henry has the rocking chair now. 11/23/2008 at 02:48AM
	amperecat The humans are hogging the couch. 11/23/2008 at 01:24AM
	amperecat Why does everyone assume Henry is the smart one? 11/29/2008 at 04:04PM
	amperecat I like treats. Treats, treats, treats! Prrrr... 11/29/2008 at 05:18AM
	kmsexton We escaped for a little while but there is still pandemonium. I think it is following us 12/27/2008 at 07:52PM
	amperecat The one with the lowest µ! 01/03/2009 at 09:28PM
	amperecat The on with the lowest µ. 01/03/2009 at 09:28PM
	amperecat Two cats are on a roof which one falls off first? 01/03/2009 at 09:28PM
	kmsexton @KellyELawson Congrstulations!!! 01/03/2009 at 06:47PM
	fuzzymonk @mjeshler bag, twitter people are more goth than retro. 01/03/2009 at 06:41PM
	fuzzymonk @Teshler it was worth a shot. 01/03/2009 at 06:33PM
	fuzzymonk help follow 01/03/2009 at 06:23PM
	fuzzymonk @Teshler --verbose 01/03/2009 at 06:19PM
	kmsexton @fuzzymonk you know, i blame your poor pronunciation, you afterall, have been my educator in the world of Star Wars 01/03/2009 at 01:55AM
	fuzzymonk The looser: @kmsexton. 01/03/2009 at 01:31AM
	fuzzymonk The prize: Sleeping in! 01/03/2009 at 01:31AM
	fuzzymonk The bet: "Who shot first (Guido\|Greedo)?" 01/03/2009 at 01:31AM
	kmsexton Powder everywhere, seriously everywhere in Leah's room. She should be in trouble but I can't keep a sraight face. I hope she didn't eat any! 12/29/2008 at 10:07PM
	kmsexton Ugh, major backup in the thru lanes, free and clear in the local lanes 12/29/2008 at 06:36PM
	kmsexton Just gave in to a tantrum but it was to go home 12/29/2008 at 06:13PM
	amperecat I think the big human has really bad hairballs. Or ate some grass. 11/24/2008 at 03:59PM
	amperecat @CyprianoHawaii I's like to try the hawaii weather, but I DO NOT like travelings. 12/22/2008 at 02:57AM
	amperecat The sky is FALLING!!!!1! 12/15/2008 at 03:47PM
	fuzzymonk MBP keeps forgetting its keyboard and trackpad. Sad panda. 01/02/2009 at 11:31PM
	fuzzymonk I had doughnuts for dinner. I don't like this feeling. 01/02/2009 at 03:37AM

ICU Gem on fresh OS X Install

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:13:47 PST

I was just helping our graphic deigner set up Rails on his shiny new mac, and was using the built in Ruby plus MacPorts for gettext and ICU. Everything was cake until ICU didn't install, which was because it wasn't looking for it in /opt/local. So to fix this:

$ sudo gem install icu -- --with-icu-dir=/opt/local/

Huzzah!

An actual real post, now with words!

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:30:24 PST

I figure that I don't have the time to really concentrate on doing work, and I have a limited time while the kids will let me sit uninterrupted at the computer -- that I should really create some more content.

Lets do a quick run down of the happenings since we got back from the family beach trip. Laurence was baptized. Kelly returned to work after 16 weeks. Tom signed up for Twitter. I got food poisoning. We had thanksgiving. Kelly's brand new car was hit by someone trying to squeeze by. Leah has learned her colors. Started looking for a new house. Have a huge list of stuff to do before we can put our house in the market. Kelly got flattened by an uber-cold. We ate thanksgiving fish.

Hmmm, I think that sums it up.

So about a week ago I woke up with what I am now thinking was food poisoning, but really could have been a bad stomach bug. I have just never heard of a stomach bug lasting THAT long. Seriously it was shooting out both ends for 3 days, then it took me till yesterday to not feel like vomiting. Even still I don't ever feel hungry, and I haven't poo'd in 4 days. Normally I'm like clock work (the kind of clocks that poo), seriously folks -- how long is too long? Now that I am over that fun, I am battling a more manageable, yet still annoying, allergies.

Kelly seems like she is finally recovering from her super cold, which completely disabled her yesterday. I think she must have slept 20 hours. She would get up and nurse Lars, hand him over and announce "Imf going'd bake da bed." I believe she described it as "razor wire around her brain."

Earlier in the year we decided we were not going to go anywhere for Thanksgiving. Turns out that Kelly's parents also intended to have a laid back T-day, and offered to drive our way and go out. So for Thanksgiving we went to McCormick & Schmick's. While the company was great I was rather disappointed with the meal. Seriously my Wife can make better fish and rice in 10 min with nothing but a microwave. It didn't help that we were not feeling great. The highlight of the day was taking Leah to see the windows a Macy's. She just love running around outside -- and nothing is better than outside with Uncky Neal and Grandma.

In the 16 weeks of Kelly's maternity leave I had to commute twice. Once up to Leah's daycare, then to work. This sucked. And during this time the construction on the beltway really picked up. So that inspired me to decide that I would rather pay two mortgages than continue to live with that. We have actually been to 4 places, a couple of which would work, and one that was really nice. My criteria is walking distance to the metro, however if we can find a place in McLean that is hella close to Kelly's office I might get trumped. Which would be fine, since West Falls Church as good parking. One thing that I didn't really expect was to be looking at single family homes that are smaller than our townhouse.

Added bonus: seems mortgage rates are improving. If we can actually sell our place the little experiment might just lead to less stress.

Grandpa is a funny guy!

Ooh rah!

Beach Week 2008

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:29:35 PST

I've been meaning to post these for quite some time, probably even give a fun write up of the beach adventure. Unfortunately I'd rather play with Laurence and Leah or do work. I know, I know, I am a jerk.

Laurence chillin

Kisses from big sis

Building leah Estates

Leah Estates

Going surfing with The Cheat

Pool excitement

Working on her short game

Getting airborne at mini golf

Snoozing with Grandpa

Mom and Lars at Sunrise.

Family portrait.

More pics in the photo album.

Programming for fun?

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:48:04 PDT

I've been working on the cookbook application for the wife and couple interesting things.

I use Dreamhost, and while they rock in alot of ways they won't let me have any long running processes. I wanted to add full text search to my cookbook (because if you can't find the recipe you want, what good is a cookbook) and I couldn't use the likes of Sphinx or Ferret. But if I changed my DB to MySQL (which dreamhost does provide) I can use the built in fulltext search. It is a little hackish, and MySQL specific but it works and is plenty fast for my needs.

I had to do two things:
1) Add a FULLTEXT index to my migration


  def self.up
    ...
    execute 'ALTER TABLE recipes ENGINE = MyISAM'
    execute 'CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ft_idx_recipes ON recipes(title,ingredients,directions)'
  end
  def self.down
    execute 'ALTER TABLE recipes DROP INDEX ft_idx_recipes'
    execute 'ALTER TABLE recipes ENGINE = InnoDB'
    drop_table :recipes
  end

2) In my recipes controller in the search action I have the following line


 @recipes = Recipe.find_by_sql("SELECT * FROM recipes WHERE MATCH (title, ingredients, directions) AGAINST ('#{query.gsub(/'/, "''")}');")

The gsub bit is to sanitize the sql. Pretty simple really, and if I ever want to replace it all I need to do is modify the controller.

I found out today that the Bort guys added OpenID support to the project. Which would normally involve some obscure svn/patch hijinks to deal with, but thanks to git I can just grab their changes (I did fork my project from theirs to start with).


 git branch openid # incase I screw things up
 git checkout openid # use the new branch
 git pull git://github.com/fudgestudios/bort.git master
 # Fix any conflicts and merge back to master

Finally, did everyone know you can put alias in the .gitconfig file? Well, you never told me.


 [alias]
   co = checkout
   ci = commit
   st = status

Instiki 0.13 Installation on Dreamhost with Passenger

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:29:06 PDT

Running Instiki on Dreamhost has gotten much easier since they have added Passenger (mod_rails).

Create a new fully hosted domain on dreamhost. Something like wiki.domain.com.

Check the “Ruby on Rails Passenger (mod_rails)” box.

In the Specify your web directory enter “wiki.yourdomain.com/instiki/public”

This will create the wiki.domain.com folder in the user’s home directory. Login to your shell account and do the following:


cd wiki. yourdomain.com
svn checkout svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/instiki/instiki/trunk/ instiki
cd instiki
rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
Open wiki. yourdomain.com in your browser and set up the wiki.

Chuckle

Building Visual Studio Projects with Rake

noreply@blogger.com (csexton) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:44:23 PDT

We are building a Rails applicaiton that has a C++ client developed under windows, and needed a nice way to script things. Since the web side of the project was in rails it seemed natural to use rake to build the C++ stuff. Pretty simple, but in order for the devenv to get loaded we had to load some of the envorment varables up for rake. Once that was done everyting has been easy.

My Rakefile:


# Visual Studio 2008 Environment Settings:
ENV["VSINSTALLDIR"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0'
ENV["VCINSTALLDIR"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC'
ENV["DevEnvDir"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE'
ENV["PATH"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\VCPackages;' + ENV["PATH"]
ENV["INCLUDE"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\ATLMFC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_35_0'
ENV["LIB"] = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\ATLMFC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_35_0\lib'
ENV["LIBPATH"] = 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\ATLMFC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\LIB'

# WiX Environment Settings
WIX_PATH="\"C:/Program Files/Windows Installer XML v3/bin\""
CANDLE= WIX_PATH + "candle"
LIGHT = WIX_PATH + "light"

desc "Build the project in release"
task 'release' do
  system 'VCBuild path/to/project.vcproj  Release /rebuild /nologo'
end

task :default => [:release]