Babies are distracting

Yeehaw!  I'm in Texas!

Actually, let's be honest, I'm just spending my days in the happy comfort of Noel's house.  There is a lot of blistering Texas out there, and I am happy with the climate controls in here.  Obviously, I've distracted Noel from his semi-regular update on awesome things Tyler can do, so I'll do my best to give the update.  While my favorite new parents are off at work, and their best little baby is in daycare, I thought I could really get down to the business of job hunting.  But babies are distracting, even when they aren't melting you with their drooly smiles and shrieking laughs. 

Yesterday, under the guise of "helping," I went through all of Tyler's tiny little onesies... They are so cutely adorable, but then I realized, he is wearing 9-12mo baby clothes.  The 3month clothes look SO teeny compared to him.  He is turning into quite a giant!  He's actually really good at sitting up on his own, although he occasionally will give up, and fall backwards, almost always into his parents arms.  His two teeth are coming in quite well, and he seems excited to test them out on things. At the moment he is very interested in chewing up all of the alphabet blocks that Nana gave him- these should provide years of entertainment. 

Oh!  And carrots!  Noel mentioned he is slowly progressing through solid foods.  His first attempt with carrots was hysterical.  He's never had a flavor before, and and carrots taste like.... taste.  His face went through a barrage of surprise, and horror, and dissapointment and disgust, but after every bite, he'd happily eat whatever Jessie was spooning him.  Ack!  Not this again!  Check out the videos on Facebook, if you haven't yet.

Tyler is really seeing a lot of the world around him.  He and I are pretty cool, but you should see the way he lights up when his Mom comes in the room.  And he really likes Noel's "jokes."  They go something like this: "Tyler, ... hey Tyler.... Bleh!" And he just laughs and laughs.  So yes, Tyler is good, and his parents are good, and even the kitties are good.  It's so nice to finally get to meet the little guy!

New Blog! Steel City Science!

One of my friends, who is a talented scientist and great writer, has decided that Pittsburgh needs a new blog, a blog to cover the exciting science happenings in town.  It's surprising that there isn't something like this already, frankly.  There are a lot of "Pro-Pittsburgh" blogs etc., supporting this great online community of people who like to shine a light on what makes Pittsburgh unique.  There are dozens of research institutes and museums here, with cool science for Nerds and the Public alike, but no single place where all these great things get highlighted.  Her idea, then, is to publicize it a bit more.  Short news features from cool seminars, updates about great public events written for the average yinzer to understand.  And she asked ME to help!  I'm so excited!

The new blog is called Steel City Science, and you can follow us on twitter @SteelCitySci.  Obviously, the twitter is mostly me.  My posts are written by drsandlin (obvs), and the other bloggers (so far) are former coworkers.

I'm excited about this 1) because it gives me a good excuse to go to events and science stuff still, and 2) because it is a new way to think about science.  AND it's giving me an excuse to learn some new skills- I'm the defacto PR person (uh, Kels, expect some calls).  For example, I am linking here because I know you all LOVE to see what I am up to, but also because we need some more google cred to climb the rankings.  Share the link, send me Burgh related stories and prepare to be excited by the awesome science coming out of Pittsburgh!

In other news- I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW!  Don't leave your babies unattended or they will be kiss-tickled into hysterics. 

Aah, we're all gonna die...no, wait...

So hurricane Ike is barreling down on Texas like a barrel of some sort, and there is much talk and ballyhoo about people evacuating various locations. Potentially billions in damage, powerful winds, and at least the potential for a serious catastrophe.

Meanwhile, in Austin, they're saying it might rain.

So, evidently, there's not much reason for us to panic around here. Further toward the coast, about three hours away from here, several smaller cities have been evacuated in fear of what could potentially be a seriously devastating storm. Houston, on the other hand, the big coastal city, is not being evacuated. Mostly because the roads would become so clogged that everyone would be caught out on the road when the storm hit. Evidently this is precisely what happened several years ago when they tried to evacuate Houston on threat of a hurricane. I didn't see any horrible traffic, but then again, I don't live near any of the main thoroughfares.

Austin, on the other hand, is pretty much out of the red zone, so to speak. The current predictions seem to have the storm turning north, and, evidently, missing Austin almost completely. The predictions could, of course, be wrong, but even so, we're pretty far inland here, at least relative to Houston, and so the panic level seems to be hovering around 'not panicking'.

Just in the spirit of the thing, there's a good chance Jess and I may turn out all the lights and light candles and play board games to pass the time, but if you don't hear from us over the next few days, it's still more likely that I've lost my phone than been smooshed by a storm.

-N

Slowly becoming a Texan

So we're nearly official. Yesterday we went out to the Austin County Tax Assesor's office and got my car registered. We got there a bit early, which was great, because there was very little wait for us. We paid our fees and presto, I have Texas plates. Next, we have to to go the Texas Department of Safety to get our Drivers Licenses. Oddly enough, we're getting ourselves entirely registered without ever actually going to the DMV. Weird.

Also, Nagano had visit #2 to the vet yesterday. He checked out okay, free of stomach bugs, and got part two of his innoculations. At his next visit, we think he'll get neutered. Hopefully it'll calm him down a little without ridding him of that feline personality we've become so attached to. He's so cute.

-N