New Favorite

This is Peter's new favorite game. It entails me putting him on my legs and bouncing him up and down while he drools all over my stomach. He'll hang out up there while I sing him silly songs and he just smiles and laughs like crazy. Basically, the kid just loves any type of bouncing, I discovered this while trying to make him happy in church one day. I bounced him while he was sitting up on my lap and he just giggled away. I think he liked the funny way his laughs sounded. Ohh, I love this little guy -- three months and getting cuter by the day.

Boiled Peanuts

I love crock-pots. I don't think I can stress this point enough. Those little beautys can make some of the best meals with the smallest amount of preparation. When my brother was in college he wrote this bluesy-esque song called "The Crock-pot Blues" basically lamenting the fact that women aren't more like crock-pots in general. (Jono- care to post a little portion of that ditty?) I thought it was great then and I still do. Anyways, my crock-pot is great. We've named ours Steve (that's a whole other post) -- feel free to dub yours with whatever moniker seems pertinent. Please keep in mind the temperament of your crock-pot when deciding on that oh-so-perfect name and trust me, naming it WILL make your food taste better.
I can make any number of exquisite edibles in Steve and this weekend I tried a new one -- boiled peanuts.

Many of you may remember my post from last year about the perfect way to eat boiled peanuts and my distress over not being able to find any while we were in Georgia over Thanksgiving. After thinking it over, the husband and I decided to take this bag of peanuts we had lying around the house and try to re-create the magic using our handy-dandy crock-pot (Steve).
Anyways, all we did was cover the peanuts with water and add about 1/4 cup of salt and let it simmer on low for a couple of days. The result? Mmmm Goodness. They turned out pretty good; a little harder and not quite as authentic, but still just as tasty. You've gotta love the wonderful invention that is the crock-pot. Thanks Steve.

A Whole Slew of Geekiness

So I went to the career fair a few weeks ago not so much to find a job but mostly to stock up on pens and to see exactly how much free schwag I could walk out of there with. Incidentally I picked up some foam balls with which I could play catch with Peter. It turns out that Peter is still months away from a successful volley of catch, (though he does play a pretty good game of "Get Hit in the Face with a Ball and Cry Like a Howler Monkey"). Then I thought to myself (partly out of curiosity, partly for a grade), 'Why not build a robot to play catch with?", this way Peter has some friendly competition to help push along his motor skills. Here's what resulted...


Not quite there...



Almost...



Wohoo!

I'll spare you the details but it basically uses two cameras to find out where the ball is in a few frames and then calculates where it will be in the future (assuming Newton was correct).


More geekiness...

We just presented our final projects on my Robotic Vision class and I thought that they were noteworthy enough to put here for your viewing pleasure.


1. Limb Tracking Software- This program is handy for when your dance moves become so good that you feel they should be digitized for future generations to experience.

2. Hit and Run Robo-Style- This program is good for maiming people that are wearing red... or possibly blue. The military applications would be endless if we could only convince enemy troops to wear red uniforms and not hide. Where are the redcoats when you need them? This also makes a nice pet for kids whose parents won't let them have a dog. It also makes a good pet for children of engineers, or even better for engineers. Nerds best friend.

3. Helicopter Pose Estimation- This is my favorite, mostly because it was my project. Basically it finds points in space and calculates it's own roll, pitch, yaw, and x, y, z, coordinates based on those points. This would be great to put on an airplane or helicopter if only there were green triangles and orange balls installed every 10 feet or so. I don't think that's too much to ask.



4. Real-Time Light Saber Effects- The usefulness of this program of course needs no explanation. Basically this program is used to pick up chicks with your mad bowstaff skills and to show those kids from High School who called you a geek whats up.

Workin' hard for the money

This week I officially started back to work as a part-time librarian. I know, anyone who knows me knew that I always wanted to stay home with my kids, but we just couldn't pass up great insurance and an additional paycheck while Trav is finishing up his Masters. The only way it works is because my kind mom keeps Petey two days a week and Trav comes home from school the other two days to watch him. I don't think I could quite bear to leave the little guy with anyone other than family. It's still remarkably hard, I cried the first couple of times I left (and I'm sure I'll continue to do so) but my excuse is that I'm running on substantially reduced amounts of sleep. Peter has done great however. He is such a happy man and always has a smile and a giggle for 'the milk lady' as soon as I get home.
I am amazed when I think about how hard it must be for single parents to have to leave their kids. I am so blessed to have a husband with a flexible schedule and a work schedule that basically lets me decide when I can work. I love my job and co-workers, but lets just say they aren't quite as cute or as funny as my little man.

2 Months Old

I took Peter to get his pictures taken last week and here are a couple of my favorites.

I probably spent way too much, but he just looked so dang cute in all of them! I was pleased with how they turned out except for the fact that we didn't get any with him smiling. Usually he is so smiley and happy but he wasn't too excited to have his picture taken and didn't really smile at all--I think he just wanted to sleep instead.