Oh boy, I'm way behind. I know you see that for yourself, but I just had to affirm. Things have been massively busy around here and I'm pretty stressed in general about getting all my work done both for home and, well.. work.

So I'm feeling a lot better about most of this whole Baby thing, but the weight of many things is certainly great. For now, I'm trying to get as much work done as I can while Amy isn't totally knocked out. She's been sick a few times now, which sucks for her since she has very limited medicinal options. Luckily, it's been smaller things like head colds and coughs, but it still sucks.

Our friends have been contributing many wonderful things to us, including things like car booster seats (will be a while before we use those) and toys that have been previously-loved. I think that rocks. I like the idea of using stuff passed-down, but that's basically how I grew up. I'm the youngest of a large group, so I mostly knew only of hand-me-downs in general.

On the other side of the "wonderful to get helpful stuff" coin is the part where the stress hits a bit: where are we going to put this wonderful, helpful stuff??!? Again I'll point out that we have been together, doing our thing, for over a decade and we're pretty well settled into a bit of a routine. We're less than stone-like in our ways, but still, we didn't spend a bunch of years planning on having a little rug-rat rummaging around and needing his/her own space! So... we're trying to figure out how to rearrange our home to accommodate.

For instance, we've been given a wonderful (yeah, that word again) crib that is both beautiful and, well... massive! I haven't put it together yet, but dang, this thing should hold the kid until s/he is about 10 years old, I figure. (yeah, that's a joke... maybe.) This is an example of what I'm getting at -- we don't have a place for a separate bed!! We barely had a setup for a spare bedroom, but now I guess the kid gets that space. We went from having a guest room (with a bit of storage thrown in) to having a kid's room with absolutely nothing kid-like in it! I've got some cleaning to do. *sigh*

In Amy's words: "quit yer bellyachin'!"... yeah, I know. We're whining a lot about this stuff, but it really is a major adjustment for us. I know we're not unique on that front, but hey.. it's my blog, so I'm writing about my gripes!

Anyway... I'm not sure what I'm getting at with all this. I just figured I'd write something down and let folks know I'm still around. Amy is claiming she's getting ready to post more too, so we'll see if we can get 'er done.

Cheers,
Paul

[update: Fixed this issue (I hope).. read below this post for more info.]

Hi folks. I'm hoping there weren't (aren't) too many people having trouble with this, but I have many reports that there is a problem with the new account creation page. I've heard several times that people can't seem to read the image on the page under the section called "CAPTCHA". This is something I have to put in to stop the spammers (jerks!) from automatically creating dozens of accounts with their automated programs. If they get through unattended, there will be tons of spam all over in the comments and such... not pretty.

So, I've finally seen some of the difficulties myself so I actually know what's going on now! Yes, I believed all of you who complained, but without actually seeing the problem for myself, it's awful hard to pinpoint the problem sometimes.

Anyway, if you've been having trouble creating new accounts and getting past the security guard, help is on the way! I'll get a solution found shortly and I'll post again when it's fixed.

Sorry!

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Update:
Well, that was quick, I guess. I changed the way the system works, so you should be able to see a very clear string of characters to type in when the site wants to be sure you're a human. It's currently set up so you only have to enter the code once each time you log in (I think). This is another improvement on the old system, which would ask you in several places to enter a code.

I hope this greatly simplifies the usage of our site! Please try again to sign up and/or post comments if you've had trouble in the past!

Thanks!
Paul