theparkerfamily.org

Month: January 2010

  • take mommy to work day

    we’re in the slow countdown to mommy going back to work (first day back is tuesday) so we took a trip downtown to (a) get mommy back in the swing of things, and (b) get baby sparklet her first look at the fastlane of digital public relations.

    she even sat in on her first client conference call, but was clearly less than impressed.

    because we are “those” type parents, we immediately started wondering what she was going to be when she grows up.

    we’ve already ruled out a life in ballet, but with her current obsession for color and light, i’m thinking she’s a future digital graphic designer.

    based on her first conference call, however, we’re pretty sure sparklet won’t be a project manager or account executive. she slept through most of the call, and was pretty ornery when people on the call started asking questions.

    fittingly, those traits seems to mesh nicely with my understanding of being a designer … at least in the online, non-profit setting.

    UPDATE: yes, i know that the image is of the lady sparklet in an Abaya … and no, she doesn’t wear one to work everyday, but last year she spent a week in Saudi Arabia doing client work …. and yes, i think the notion of her being in an Abaya is pretty damn funny, too.

  • video: peekaboo

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYBSDZEq7oo

  • guestbook: kristina, benton and calder

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    ECPA20100110_x002, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Explore the Photo Set:
    guestbook

  • “itsy-bitsy (internet-savvy) spiiider, went up the water spout…”

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    ECPA20100107_1312, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • video: first giggles

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F08wbTPY-gI

    we’ve got the certified “first giggles” of the new baby sparklet administration … people kept telling us that we’d turn to mush the first time she smiled and laughed, and we absolutely blew them off as “yeah, whatever.”

    turn out they were right. also turns out that we are still on the path to be one of “those” people. God, i’m going to hate to hang out with myself at cocktail parties and happy hours, assuming we even make the invite list again …

  • how at&t has made me hate my iphone

    I think I should have guessed something was wrong last fall, when i accidentally left my iPhone in the car overnight. the next morning, when i realized what i had done, i secretly wished that my window had been smashed in and my iPhone taken.

    Rock bottom came two months later, when I dreamed that my iPhone was stolen … and i woke up bummed that it didn’t actually happen.

    Don’t get me wrong, i love my iPhone. It’s arguably the best thing that I have ever owned. it’s just not a phone — because for it to be a phone, i’d have to occasionally get AT&T coverage within the borders of Washington, DC.

    It turns out that my problem is a mixture of the science behind AT&T’s network, and location-location-location. The range of each cell tower shrinks as more and more people us that particular tower. In DC, all the towers are on the beltway. When the network gets busy, the coverage retreats from the center of the city towards the edges … which is exactly where I don’t live.

    So, once the new version of the iPhone came out (and another gazillion people started using AT&T’s network) my reception went from spotty to non-existant.

    When I walk around Mount Pleasant on an average day, I get limited, spotty access to AT&T’s vinatge EDGE network. I’ll average about two hours of cell coverage a day in my house, but more often than not those tenuous bars disappear as soon as I try and make a call.

    In Columbia Heights, I don’t even get that … my phone tells me I’m roaming. Last week, I actually ducked into the Columbia Heights metro station because I needed to make a call. As far as i can tell, the best chance of getting a signal up here is to go underground.

    To date, my only hope for salvation comes because Gizmodo.com is giving away a new Google Android if you write in to them and tell them why you deserve one. Which I did.

    I need it because I’ve had 36 dropped calls in one day … because I regularly get voicemails a week after they are sent and text messages the following morning … because I now give my wife’s cell phone number out to friends and family … because I can’t stand the thought of riding out the last 6 months of my current phone contract.

    So far, they have had 12,000+ comments, so I’m guessing i’m not going to be first in line to win. Either way, my contract with AT&T is up this summer, and once it expires, i’ll be long gone.

    It turns out that it doesn’t matter how great your phone is, if your network blows chunks.

    PHOTOS: Street in Mount Pleasant, DC by Chambo25 via a Creative Commons license; Darth Phone image courtesy Gizmodo.com.

  • sleep

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    ECPA20100106_3138, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    this is a picture of baby sparklet sleeping. last night she went to bed at 10:30 pm. this morning she slept until 5:30 am. by my math — which is admittedly as fuzzy as my brain — that’s seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.

    while we don’t have one, please imagine a picture of the lady sparkler and i doing a samba in celebration. the part that puts us over the moon, however, is that baby sparklet did this all miles away from us (well, 20 feet) in her very own room, in her very own bed.

    words honestly can’t explain what it’s like to get sleep after months without, but i am pretty sure that the lady sparkler will talk your ear off, with joy, trying.

  • video: yapping

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKHvWQrBqUU

  • “dorothy, you’ve had the power to go back all along…”

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    ECPA20100103_1294, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • video: star wars? unimpressed.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viRuLa6kz4c