Orel Family

Aaron, age 3 days. (Aaron, age 3 days). February 27, 1997 This is what I wrote, when I finally got home from a long, unplanned night in the hospital: If you've never seen a C-Section performed, here is one word to help you picture it: ALIEN . "What does it look like, honey?" "Oh, Sigourney Weaver is going to show up any second now to fight 'em off, otherwise you look great!" February 26, 1997. We went to the hospital for a non-stress test. This is a test which is performed on women who are beyond the expected delivery date. Basically, they hook up a monitor to check whether the baby is in distress or if there are any signs of contractions -- anything which could cause the doctors to induce labor. Lori's mother had wanted to go for this test, but this time I said I would go. Call it a premonition. I arrived at 11am, Lori had already arrived and they had started early with her. I found the room, it was hot and muggy and Lori was ve...

Last month, when I wrote a post called "Global Cooking," our local area was in the middle of an astoundingly mild beginning to the winter. Eventually, we would reach 37 consecutive days of above-average temperatures, including 31 consecutive days at least 7 degrees above normal, 11 consecutive days without a freeze, and 6 days with a high or low at least 20 degrees above normal (2 with both). On January 5th, the high temperature was 52 and the low was 44; that would be an average day on April 14th. Of course, that weather was due in no small measure to the effects of El Niño, and when El Niño subsided, inevitably so did the heat wave. Here, the warm weather finally ended in mid-January, and the cold arrived on January 28th. For the past 23 days, temperatures have been below normal, including one particularly bitter day when the high temperature was just 6 degrees (forcing a cancellation of ski school because it was too cold!). Inevitably, this has led to some caustic rem...

In November 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. All selected charities will be from the set of charities documented at http://bruce.orel.ws/charities.html. During Q4 2006, a total of 105 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $153.16, the highest of any quarter so far. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $300.00. I have selected 3 organizations as recipients of this quarter's donations: 1) Hungry For Music . Hungry for Music (HFM) began as an annual homless benefit concert on April 15, 1992. HFM's primary mission is to aid in cultivating the self-esteem of disadvanta...

As a loose rule, we try to exhibit some self-discipline with language around the kids. This has side benefits beyond the specifics of certain words -- including, of course, that what we say to the kids is bound to be repeated in situations where we might rather not have them repeated. Elianna can be particularly open. Last week when I picked her up at MyGym, she went in to her "jump!" bit, in which I hold out my hands so she can use them as leverage to jump. About that time, she also realized she could use me as a hinge and, instead of jumping up and down, swing herself to kick me... sometimes right where it hurts most. So I held out my hands, and when she aimed for me I pulled back. "Jump! Jump!" And, to anyone who would listen, "I'm going to kick my daddy's p***s!!" (see that? self-discipline in a blog. ) On Wednesday I was stuck at home, too much snow to get out. All the schools canceled. Early afternoon, she asked me to read the at...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a seeming snafu with the GM Card , in which cardmembers such as myself received trivial credits for something called "SHEA CLASS ACTION LIT. SETTLEMENT AWARD." It turned out that that was the result of a class action lawsuit against GM Card for slow process of payments, but most cardholders hadn't been informed of the settlement until they got their pennies. Not recalling how I'd been damaged, I suppose the nickel credit was welcome. Sure, I've now received comments from bloggers who received more than a full dollar, and I almost feel deprived. But where the GM Card thing was mostly a curiosity to me, I'm now in a more serious situation: The repeated failure of American Express to process payments. I pay my American Express bill by scheduling the electronic payment in advance; I've been doing this for several years. In November, my payment was due on November 30. Using the olnine system, I logged in on November 22nd to s...