Everything you wanted to know about the Coburn Family, and more
Wow, Google has really been caught with their pants down when it comes to the latest version of Firefox. No one knew the exact release date, but everyone knew it was coming. But now that I have Firefox 3.5 installed I keep getting “Support for Firefox 3.5 is coming soon.” warnings. Not good. Not good at all.
Not a whole lot new, so this should be quick. Corinne is using more and more new words every day, which is amazing. She still has not learned the word “no”, which is even more amazing.
We’ve started on what will hopefully be a short campaign to get Corinne to fall asleep in her crib instead of on or next to one of us. Last night was hard, and I’m sure there will be times when both Raelene and I falter. But it’s for the best, especially since we could easily end up creating life-long sleep issues for her. That would not be good.
Raelene’s back is doing better, but she’s still in quite a bit of pain. Please keep sending her healing thoughts and energies.
Our friend Maggie, who recently had a melanoma removed, is now cancer free. They got it all, and the cancer did not have a chance to spread. This is very good news. 
The family and I had a pretty darn awesome weekend. Saturday was hot, so we spent most of the day hiding from the heat. In the morning, however, we scored a really nice toy organizing shelf for Corinne thanks to Raelene’s dilligent monitorning of Freecycle. It has a bunch of plastic crates that sit on some open shelving, and the shelves are tipped forware slightly to give you a good view of what’s in the crates. This should hopefully bring some order to the insanity that is our living room. We also made it to the Pinole Farmer’s market in the morning, smoked some tofu in the late afternoon, and baked two batches of vegan cookies after the sun set and it started to cool off. To help with the heat I cleaned out a water play table Raelene picked up off Freecycle maybe a month ago and filled it up, and we let Corinne play with it for a few hours in the evening. It was very cute, especially when I got her to make Jaws theme song noises while playing with a plastic shark.
On Sunday we went to San Francisco to participate in the worldwide vegan bake sale. The two day effort, which included the two batches of almond cookies mentioned above, managed to make $3000 for Animal Place and the East Bay Animal Advocates. Cool! I am proud that we were a part, even it our part was relatively small. For her part Corinne was a lot of fun in her little rainbow dress, blowing kisses and getting excited every time she saw a dog as people passed by. By the time we got home she was exhausted, however, so it was a quick dinner and bath and then off to bed. Raelene and I finished off the night watching a Chinese film called Painted Skin, which was okay but not great. Maybe I can convince Raelene to re-watch The Promise with me, as that is a much more touching love story.
I made the plunge and bought an inexpensive Lamy fountain pen. I really hate the way the ink flows (or doesn’t flow) in ball point pens, and rollerballs aren’t that much better. So while I’ve been wanting a fountain pen for a long time now, I finally decided to go ahead and spend the $25 for a cheap one and see if it’s something I’m really going to use and love. So far it is. Couple that pen with my moleskine notebook, and I feel very Victorian. Maybe I should be programming difference engines instead of computers… :-)
Raelene saw her chiropractor yesterday, and her back is feeling much better. Hopefully she will be able to make it through the rest of the week okay. Thank you for the healing energy you’ve been sending our way.
Last night Raelene and Corinne went to Herbivore in Berkeley for dinner and vegan donuts. Yes, I said vegan donuts, brought back by hand from Ronald’s Donuts in Los Vegas by a bay area vegan. I tried some small pieces of a couple, and they’re amazing. And the best part? They are 100% cruelty free. No CostCo battery cage eggs. No hormone and antibiotic loaded milk. No bone char sugar. Just good things, like apples and maple and fat and vegan sugar. Stuff like that.
Our weekend was eventful, that is for sure. On Monday I played in my monthly Godlike game, which was shocking and intense and a lot of fun. My character died at the end of the session, cut down by an enemy machine gun. I’m sad because I liked playing him, but that is all part of the game. The GM is keeping the casualty rate consistent with what the Americans suffered in France after D-Day, so we are neither losing characters too often or not often enough. It’s quite sobering, to be honest. For those that know anything about the game Call of Cthulhu, the kill rate in this game is higher than most CoC games…
Sunday was Father’s Day, and my big present was to be allowed to sleep in… and I did! Thank you sweetie! I was also planning on doing some grilling and house related stuff, but Raelene ended up throwing out her back again and spent most of the day prone and in pain. So I ended up on Baby duty most of the day, which was wonderful because that is what Father’s day is all about. If you have any healing thoughts, please send them towards Raelene right now. Her back is in pretty bad shape, and she needs them.
