Site specific browsers on OS X

Hey, Mac geeks! Check out fluid.app, http://fluidapp.com/, a simple tool that lets you create site-specific browsers -- i.e., what appear to be standalone applications for browsing a particular site (Facebook, ping.fm, your favorite blog, whatever). It's an interesting alternative to multiple tabs and multiple windows for managing multiple sites.

Max talks pretty today

Max was watching Kira walk around the kitchen this evening. After one particularly long uninterrupted stretch of walking, Max said to Kira, "That was very good walking. I'm so proud of you."

Our little boy is apparently listening to us :).

Max on my haircut

Shortly after Max woke up this morning he said:

Papa, you have a nice haircut. It looks like pretty.

Go ahead, Max. Have a cookie for breakfast.

Browsing with Flock

I've recently started using Flock, the "Social Web Browser". While I have looked at Flock in the past, only recently have I started using services such as Facebook, Twitter, and so forth that make Flock's features attractive.

Flock has built-in support for a variety of social networking sites. This means, for example, that when you log in to Facebook you are presented with a sidebar showing all your friends and their current status, as well as a quick way for you to update your Facebook status. If you are using multiple sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr), then the sidebar will contain the aggregate of all three sites so you can keep tabs on all your friends.

Speaking of Flickr: Flock has tools that make it very easy to upload photos to Facebook, Flickr and other (supported) photo sharing sites. There is also a "media bar" that makes it very easy to browse available photos.

Flock has integrated support for a number of popular blogging sites (and blogging APIs, if you have a self-hosted blog), and a number of other Flock tools (such as the media browser) include a "blog this" option.

There is also integration with bookmarking sites like delicious, as well as support for a small number of popular webmail services (while Gmail is supported, Google Apps is, tragically, not, although that appears to be a popular feature request).

It seems pretty snappy. I've made it my default browser for now; we'll see how that works out.

Barstool DesignWin

Barstool DesignWin

Ergonomic?

It was the best of times...

After three months of parental leave I'm returning to the office on Monday. It has, on the whole, been a fantastic three months. The weather was crappy, but the kids were great, and I've had the chance to see them both grow so much in what seems like an alarmingly short time.

Kira in particular has gone from a whiny bundle of...um, whine, to a happy, giggly little girl who can, occasionally, walk across our kitchen all by herself. She seems to like all of us and greets us with big smiles in the morning. We recently took Kira and Max to a music class, and Kira in particular enjoyed it tremendously. She's very mobile, willing to explore new environments, and she's very determined. At our playgroup, Kira occasionally wanders off into the hallway all by herself (whereas at the same age her brother was pretty much doing a barnacle impression).

We do a lot of walking, and Max has serenaded me daily with rousing renditions of "Twinkle, twinkle", "Over the river and through the woods," and "Deck the halls". We're working on expanding his repertoire, but it's still really cute. Recently, Max has become a little more physically adventurous -- trying to slide down the firefighter's poll at the playground and jumping from heights that previously made him nervous. We're once again taking Max to a swim class, and while he's still a little nervous about the whole thing he does front floats and back floats while held and even managed to float by himself (with noodles) for a few seconds. Something that warms my heart in particular is the fact that he's started riding his push bike around outside (we did almost 3/4 mile earlier this week).

Max has also started using logic and reasoning in new and exciting ways (watch this space for a story or two), which on the one hand is great but on the other hand makes parenting just that much more complicated when your kids can actually present a compelling argument for something.

My last day of leave was a fitting end to the experience -- despite being miserably sick the night before I was feeling quite chipper in the morning. We went to a playgroup with friends, followed by a tasty restaurant ("Mac and cheese! Mac and cheese!" says Max). Both kids had good naps (at the same time), and then we went to a party at the house of one of Max's daycare friends. Max helped bake a cake and practiced jumping off the stone wall lining the backyard, and Kira generally enjoyed meeting people.

I've had such a tremendously fun time spending my days with Max and Kira. It's hard to imagine going back to work in just a day or so; I enjoy my job and the people I work with, but nothing seems quite as meaningful or worthwhile as being a dad. I suspect that for the first few days back in the office that I'll spend a lot of time staring out the window (at the nice weather that has perversely waited until this Monday to arrive) and feeling a little sniffly as I imagine Alix and the kids having fun out there. They're changing so much and so fast, and I don't really want to miss any of it.

Music Together at the Armory in Somerville

Max, Kira, and I joined our friend Karen (and daughter Lillian) at the Armory this morning for a free Music Together demo class. We've previously taken Max to Music Together classes in Cambridge, but I was interested in how Kira would respond to the class...and I was really curious to see the Armory, which was just recently renovated and turned into a center for the arts.

The Armory is just around the corner from us, and it turns out to be super-accessible to people with strollers -- a gentle ramp from the sidewalk leads up to big double doors, easy to fit through, and there's an elevator just inside. The bad news is that the Music Together classes are in the basement, which just means there's not quite as much natural light as I would like. There are also support columns in the middle of the classroom, but otherwise it's a very nice space -- lots of room for kids to run around in. It's a little to echo-y for my taste; they need some tapestries or something to help with the sound.

Since this was a free class, there was quite a crowd. It was fun to have so many people there with their kids. When the actual classes start in a few weeks it will be a smaller group.

Kira loved it -- she crawled around exploring (occasionally trying to crawl into somebody else's lap, much to the consternation of another little girl whose father Kira was poaching), and she clapped and banged instruments and generally had a great time. Max was a little more reserved, but that's been our experience with Max at previous Music Together classes. He really enjoyed the interludes between songs when he felt free to run around and jump and otherwise act silly.

It's fun having the classes just around the corner. It takes maybe five minutes for us to walk back to the house, so I didn't have to worry about snacks or anything. We just walked up and had lunch! It's too bad I'm going back to work in just a few days.

Show us your what, now?

Max, shouting across the street from our front steps, after seeing his friend Allison get a book out of her car:

Hey Allison! Show us your books!

I wasn't entirely sure where he was headed there.

Houston...

I asked Max to get out of the stroller and pick something up while we were at the Museum of Science this morning. Max managed to get his feet a little tangled up. I was changing Kira's diaper, and I heard his voice behind me:

Hold on a second, I have a little problem here.

Somerville maple syrup boildown

We walked over to the Somerville Community Growing Center this morning to visit the 2009 syrup boildown, part of the Somerville Maple Syrup Project:

The Somerville Maple Syrup Project is a joint project of Groundwork Somerville,Friends of the Community Growing Center, Somerville Public Schools, and Tufts University.

It was a fun outing -- the weather was gorgeous, and despite living here for upwards of a decade I had no idea that either (a) the community growing center existed, or (b) that there was anything like the Somerville Maple Syrup project. They primarily tap trees over at Tufts University, and figure that they'll maybe get 3 or 4 gallons of syrups by the time they're finished.

The sap is boiled in a small wood-fired boiler built by a metalworking class at Somerville High School. We were able to taste both the raw sap (which tastes like water with the barest hint of sweetness) and the final product from last year. The Somerville Maple Syrup is very dark; they had one of those little grading devices that have samples of syrups from grade A light amber down to grade A dark amber, and the Somerville syrup was darker still.

Max seemed to enjoying tromping around the grounds of the growing center -- it's not a large place; more a large backyard than anything else. They had some musical entertainment there. If you've ever seen a guy playing something that sounds like a steel drum outside of the Porter Square Shaw's, that's him. In addition to his metal contraption, he also had a broomstick bass and some drums that kids were able to play with.

Fun was had by all. I'll be looking forward to it next year!

Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on 'Sesame Street'

Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on 'Sesame Street'

Add Ricky Gervais to the set of 'Sesame Street' and you come up with outrageous comedy. Check out outtakes from his interview with Muppet Elmo. The full episode airs this November when 'Street' opens with its 40th anniversary. (March 11)

This is absolutely hilarious. Watch it! Now!