Daddy's little sumo wrestler

Julie's off the scales for weight! On a diet of pure breast milk, she's gone from average to morbidly obese in just over two months. I don't know how she can keep this up. The nurse today would have suggested a change in feeding if Julie wasn't on breast milk but, since she's on it 100%, she can get as fat as she likes. We're noticing that her clothes are quickly getting smaller and have trouble going around her belly. She also has her dad's big, fat legs. If any of that baby fat turns to muscle, we'll have a great speed skating sprinter or track cyclist on our hands. But, for now, she only needs to keep practising sitting up and smiling. She's starting to get the hang of sitting and the smiling and laughing are going great. Sitting up might become tough because her head circumference has also gone from average to 95th percentile. Now we know where all the weight is!

I've also lodged my complaint with Canada's New Government about child benefits. Ying was turned down on a second benefit; again due to residency. I thought about reapplying on-line but it simply asks if you're a citizen, which she isn't, and then lists her citizenship as "not on file." I hope my complaint gets things done because all the literature clearly states that you only need to be a resident of Canada to collect benefits. One of Ying's friends is getting money and she's here on a student visa. She might have already gone back to China and, if so, I hope she's not still collecting.

The Great Mouse Hunter

We've got a mouse in the house! As you can see though, the trap is set. While I was in the hardware store, I considered being a good Buddhist and thought about how I will come back in the next life while looking at the catch and release traps. Of course, if I release the mouse close to home, it'll probably figure out the way back in. I don't feel like cycling, driving or walking with this mouse all the way to Nose Hill in order to keep it away from all houses. Ergo, I'm going for the quick, clean kill. I did ask to borrow one of Peggy's cats but she says they've gone soft and wouldn't be effective. I also wonder if my ceiling tiles in the basement can hold them. I don't think I'll post any photos of the next stage since it won't be of a happy, well-fed cat.

Non-universal child care benefit

Canada's New Government sucks. I'm not going to comment on their ridiculous insistence on calling themselves "Canada's New Government" and how they're trying hard to prove that absolute power corrupts absolutely after painting themselves as saints while, I guess you'd call it, Canada's Old Government got fried for the sponsorship scandal. I'm not even going to comment on my relief that Bush's invasion of Iraq has gone so poorly that Canada's New Government has forgotten that it would have sent our troops in too if they were in power at the time. I am going to discuss Canada's New Government's Universal Child Care Benefits program.

Now, one would assume "Universal" means that everyone can get it. One would be wrong. Yesterday, Ying and I found out that she didn't qualify due to residence restrictions. Now, I do have some beefs about some of the stories Ying brought back from her English class about all the free programs and cash given to "skilled" immigrants who don't seem very skilled at all. We were also dismayed because of the big push to get people into other courses to help immigrants but we would only run into dead ends as these programs were outrageously expensive. I earn enough money to prevent the organization from hitting up the government for the obscene amount of money required to attend. With all these stories in my head, I am glad you cannot arrive in Canada with a brood and start collecting Stephen Harper's pittance right away. However, I fail to see why Julie fails to bring in the cash for Ying and me. Since Canada's New Government is doing their best to force women back into the kitchen, we had to apply for the Universal Child Care Benefit under Ying's name since she's the primary care-giver. In the obtuse set of documents I filled out in order to collect the benefit, there were questions about Ying's residency and a bureaucrat's dream team of confusing questions if you couldn't just check the "applicant born in Canada box." We were refused and so I called Service Canada to get some answers.

My first call was answered by a machine which told me, "all our operators are busy so phone back later." My second call got through to a bitter, angry Quebecois woman who was determined to do her best to thwart me and ruin my day as well. She was not going to discuss my case at all since Ying was on title. She didn't even want to see if Ying has given me permission to handle tax and other bureaucratic topics on her behalf. I did trap the woman though. Since Ying was denied money due to residency and the woman wouldn't tell me why, I asked her what are the residency requirements. Simple question for one who's paid to answer questions about the Universal Child Care Benefit. She told me she didn't know and put me on hold. I assume she went on to other calls and was hoping I would go away. Since my New Government helper wasn't interested in helping me, I knew I should hang up and fight the Man some other way.

And I am going to fight the Man. I am going to get my Harper pittance. It's only $100 every month but it's Harper's crappy program and I'm going to take advantage. Even though that $100 doesn't pay for 20% of what child care will cost and even though you need to register your child for a day care space one year before the baby is born in order to get in when maternity leave runs out, I will fight to get my pittance.

If only more voters had small children, Stephen Harper would soon be able to call himself Canada's New Opposition. But then I'd have to wait another thirteen years for the Liberals to get their day care strategy underway.

Pedestrian

In just a week, we've gone from a two car family with just one driver's licence to a no car family. It's just a temporary situation though. Minutes ago, someone else drove away with my beloved Beetle. I bought it around Xmas 2000 and it's been a fantastic car ever since. I hope it does a good job with its new family. On Sunday while up at Lake Louise, our brand new car started to act a little strange and a non-critical warning light came on. Monday morning, I dropped it off at Fifth Ave to be fixed. They said they'd try and squeeze it in over the next few days. I phoned today and found out they've been swamped and it will be a few more days. It seems like such a short time ago that we had our Jetta in the garage, a Civic in the garage from some of Ying's friends and our Beetle in the driveway. That's all over and there's currently just a few bikes and a stroller in the garage. Well, good thing I haven't let myself go completely 'cause I'll be confined to the bike for the next few days.

One month

Julie reaches the ripe, old age of one month tomorrow. So far, so good. She's sleeping in longer stretches and she can stay awake for long periods of time as well. She can even be content lying on her own without crying; she doesn't need to be held and coddled every second that she's awake. She has become a bit more fussy lately but she will still settle down fairly quickly. Ying's been making sure that she's well fed so when she cries due to hunger, it doesn't last long. Ying's mom has been doing a fantastic job taking care of Ying and Julie which lets me make sure there's bread on the table and the house is in reasonable order; expect for the cleaning which Ying's mom is also doing.

On the work front, everything is going well. We've been a little slow of late but so has the whole industry and it is usual for a little summer lull. I did write my first useful Python production program though. Following a few examples by Marc, I wrote a time-variant AGC which Rob and Jon wanted. Since the gate length must be recalculated for almost every sample on every trace, it runs very slowly and there are few shortcuts which can be made. I was able to cut down the run time by 70% from my original version as I looked and found some good optimizations. Marc's our Python guru and he had lots of valuable insights as well. Last time I talked with him about it, he was just looking for a little more speed and cleaning up a few minor elements in the program; for example I wrote 1000000 instead of using 1.0e6. I really enjoyed writing that little program and I'm hoping I have the opportunity to do some more. If I had more time away from depth imaging and was using that time for programming, I think I've mentioned before that the job in the company I'd like to be able to do the most is Dale's. He is a TBI founder and owner but he seems to be lining himself up for an early retirement. If he does decide to check out, I'd love to be the Cocoa developer but I don't have the skills; it's a huge step down from Dale's Cocoa and application development abilities to mine. Those with most of the skills inside the company don't know Cocoa and don't really wish to learn. I don't think I'd hire me right now as a software developer but I'll keep reading my books at home for fun just incase.

In other work news, my former company has partially closed their doors. It appears that 4/7ths of the Calgary staff has been laid off. One more seems to have been given one month to finish off some work for the Houston company. That leaves the centre manager and secretary. It seems odd to leave the last two if the company is indeed pulling out of Calgary and not just cleaning house. I was glad to leave there and my experiences at TBI have only made me happier I landed where I did. I became increasingly embarrassed of the product I was sending out from there and my limited experience and limitations of management prevented any real improvement. The technical knowledge around TBI is astounding as is their desire to put in place a system which streamlines the delivery of a quality product. We've got a new accounts manager who'll constantly be shaking the trees for more work. I won't mind being busier; especially if the profit-sharing bonus starts to flow for all of us.

The world keeps on spinning

I know this picture also appears in my TFFTF photo challenge album but I kind of like it. The toys above Julie's head would be clearer with a shorter exposure but the challenge was for a 30 second exposure. I had thought about the typical long exposure of car headlights and taillights streaking through the night but this idea struck me as a good one too.

Julie's reached the age of 15 days. We're all settling in nicely around here and she's doing great. The first night home was a little rough 'cause Ying's milk hadn't come in and Julie was hungry until we gave her a little formula. There's now a plentiful supply of milk especially for Julie and she couldn't be happier. She's a very quiet baby unless she's hungry or her diaper's poopy. Even then, she's pretty calm. She was a major drama queen for the first few days when we were changing her diaper. She'd take her crying to the next level, shed a few tears and even get her bottom lip quivering but it'd quickly stop when the new diaper was on. The latest picture in her album on Picasa shows one such visit to the changing table.

Ying's mom has been great taking care of Ying and Ying's been great taking care of Julie. Ying thinks I need lots of sleep so I can do well at work so she gets up to tend to Julie during the night. Of course, there's nothing I can do about feeding Julie. Sometimes I'm woken up too and I'll do a diaper change or burping. Ying's able to get in lots of naps during the day 'cause her mom will look after Julie and do all the cooking. Once in a while I need a break from the Chinese food so I'll do a little cooking for myself. But, so far, Julie's been a great little baby and we're all doing well.

This is just a practice run...

I'd like to announce the birth of Julie. The girl we expected from our 18 week ultrasound was born today just moments before 3:00 in the afternoon. We had the name Julie picked out long ago and no other names. What started out as a practice run to the hospital at 9:00 in the evening on Thursday turned into the real deal when we asked to have a few minor labour indicators checked out. The official line is:

Julie Wei Reynard. 14:59 25 May 2007. 3.644 kg (8 lbs 0.5 oz). 49.5 cm (19.5 in). Cute as a button but that's a biased opinion.

Mother and baby are doing fine and expected home tomorrow. I'll update more after a little sleep since my last real sleep ended after just six hours at 6:45 on Thursday morning. See some photos!

Julie must have been reacting to events taking place in England with her soon-to-be cousin. My sister was induced on Wednesday but it took until the wee hours of Saturday for Joshua Arthur to make his appearance. We had briefly hoped that the two would share a birthday so Mom would have an easier time remembering dates. Josh is only three hours and 47 minutes younger than Julie but, due to the time change, he'll have to wait that extra day for his cake and presents. Congratulations to Tim and Leslie.