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Facebook is where I roll these days

2009-10-06T14:43:36Z

http://www.facebook.com/joedevivo

I've also been seen on twitter
http://twitter.com/howboutjoe

I'm not so much on live journal

Yeah, I still roll on the livejournal...

2008-10-10T19:32:13Z

But I've got nothing for you except pictures!

Renée's first haircut: http://gallery.me.com/joe.devivo#100123

Trying on Halloween costumes: http://gallery.me.com/joe.devivo#100130

For those of you who don't know, The Boy Wonder is my son Max. I'm sure you all recognize the Dark Knight.

Daughter turns one, personality fully developed.

2006-09-08T17:16:47Z

I can't believe I forgot...

2005-11-08T22:48:53Z

Quackie and Lulu Birdmouth.

Well, if you have a minute or two, and QuickTime7, http://www.devivo.com/Baby2Months.mov is for you!

a jolly bunch of baby nicknames...

2005-11-02T19:25:51Z

So, yesterday was exactly 8 weeks of baby goodness. We celebrated, by getting her shots. She screamed of a pain like she'd never felt before. It was awful, but 10 minutes later she fell asleep, and appeared to forget about it by the time she woke up. She also did something amazing last night. She slept from 10:30 to 8:00. That's 9 and a half hours to those at home. w00t!

I've decided to compile a list of nicknames we've managed to come up with after only 8 weeks. Enjoy.

Nene: as in the Nene Goose, Hawaii's state bird. Goose has also come into use lately.
Renaby-Baby
Mr. Baby (Even tho she's a she, inspired by Mr. Saavik)
Renoodle
Lovie Cub

She seems to respond to all of them, but she responds to alot of things.

She also has three states of existence: Uppy-Head (In which she is awake and alert), Drowsy-Head (In which she will not react to smiles or other stimuli) and Sleepy-Head (I'm not explaining this one). While the state of Uppy-Head is the most enjoyable for us parents, Drowsy-Head has brought us such actions as Burrowing (aka Building an interconnected series of tunnels like the Viet-Cong) and Blinky the Three Eyed Fish. She my also "Chew Tobacco" in either Uppy or Drowsy Heads.

Ok, shut up! Wait and see, you'll be giving all the stupid things your kid does stupid names with pop culture references too!

Anyway, she's now two feet tall and 11 pounds, 7 ounces. I'm told she's 95th percentile for both. It looks like our stuff is officially leaving CT on 12/14. I'm not sure where we'll be living at christmas time. It could be our new house in AZ, it could be on someone's couch. We'll know more by thanksgiving... I hope. And that's the news for now.

Swing Low... Sweet Baby

2005-10-13T13:25:54Z

Not one single thing I have ever owned has helped me more than the baby swing. You put the baby in, turn the knob and she's on cloud nine. She'll smile. She'll fall asleep. The only thing she won't do is cry. Ahhh...

Political Fun

2005-10-05T13:10:58Z

Ok, I'm late on both of these, but if you haven't seen them...

http://downloads.warprecords.com/bushwhacked2.mov

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Dick-Scarface-Cheney.mov

The Lamest of Ducks

2005-10-03T13:11:43Z

And so begins my last week here at the fence. Boring doesn't begin to describe it. I can't really go starting something I can't finish, but I've finished everything that I needed to before leaving. So where does that leave me? Well, the highlight of the morning is when I accidentally caught my left ring finger in my desk drawer. Only the tip was caught there, but I've got some nerve damage in that finger from childhood which causes it to hurt sometimes even without catching it in a steel drawer.

I crushed my left ring finger between two five pound dumbbells in the late 80's. I don't remember exactly, except that it was before '89. They did what they could to fix it, but ever since it's been very flat and wide compared to the ring ringer on my right hand. When I was a kid, I had a hard time playing the guitar because of it. Recently I've accepted that it was a cop out, and have since started playing the guitar again. It's hard, but with enough perseverance, it'll work.

Sweet

2005-09-30T18:16:20Z

You are Wash. Not only are you a great pilot, you
are also the joker of the group. Your devotion
to your wife is admirable, though you sometimes
feel insecure. Thank god you shaved off your
moustache.

Which Firefly character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Feeling Old?

2005-09-29T15:40:45Z

It's comming.

On October 15th, I'll be going to my 10 year high school reunion. That day is also my 29th birthday. Oh, and I'll be bringing my then 6 week old daughter. I may be officially old.

Ancestry

2005-09-29T15:15:28Z

The internet is truly an interesting thing, or at least contains interesting things. Today I was able to compile some information on my most famous ancestor: Pasquale Baffi. Google's translator likes to call him Paschal Moustaches.

Paschal Moustaches was my great great great great grandfather, or sucinctly, my great grandfather's great grandfather. He was a founding father of the Parthenopean Republic, which lasted from January 23, 1799 to June 28ish, 1799. He was executed by King Ferdinand on November 11, 1799 after the Republic has it's ass handed to istelf by none other than the infamous Admiral Nelson.

He was brought into the government in the first place because of his reputation as a progressive thinker and scholar. He taught greek at the university level, and founded the King's Library in Naples in 1786. The man himself was described of the sweetest disposition. He was born on July 11, 1749 in the town of Rossano in Calabria. And get this, his family emmigrated from Greece in the fifteenth century.

What does it all mean? Today I found out on the internet, that at least part of my Italian heritage is, in fact, Greek.

iPod my baby.

2005-09-29T13:52:09Z

I'm totally gonna iPod m baby

Parenting: Day 17

2005-09-23T18:11:26Z

So, I've been a father for seventeen days. The breaking news is, I'm exhausted! More news as it happens...

All systems go! Soon the world will know...

2005-09-20T12:07:06Z

It's been a while since we talked about Operation: Desert Storm. For the few of you not in the know, it is now safe to reveal that Operation: Desert Storm is the code name for our move to Phoenix. More precisely, it's Anthem, Arizona, which is so close to Phoenix, people aren't entirely sure if it really is separate.

So, what's going on? Well, I gave three weeks notice at my current job. This is good, because my new job starts on October 10th. Don't worry kids, I don't have to move until December, which means I get to work from home with the baby for a few months. I've also lined up a freelance gig out there, which could start as early as this weekend.

I was out there on friday (yes, for one day) and bought a house. Once I scan the pictures, I'll put them up, but know that it has four bedrooms and visitors are always welcome. Speaking of houses, mine went up for sale yesterday... You should buy it, but really it doesn't matter, since I've already signed with a realtor, who is now getting his 6% no matter what.

Is everything coming up roses? Not quite. Here are the wrinkles I'm dealing with. I need to come up with $25,000 before closing on the new house. Nobody can tell me when that is because the house isn't finished being built yet. What they can tell me is that any day I can get a phone call and then have to close in 45 days. Also, I can't close on the sale of my current home until 12/13 or I am subject to capital gains tax. Selling my current home will give me the money I need, but I most likely have to buy one house before selling the other. Of course, there are some banking loopholes I can work through, so it should be ok.

Also, I've got to do some landscaping. It's hard to do landscaping from 2,500 miles away, but we're doing our best.

We also have to plan a cross-country move, which will most likely occur while we own both homes. If I am able to sell the bulk of my shit, or at least, my bulky shit, this will go a lot cheaper.

We'll get this all in a spreadsheet soon enough. God Bless Excel.

More Pics

2005-09-19T15:01:56Z

Here's some more baby fun:

http://homepage.mac.com/joedevivo/PhotoAlbum36.html

Soon I'll get a few minutes together to actually write something here.

The Envelope Please...

2005-09-10T00:40:37Z

And her name is... Renée Emilia.

Here's another classic for you...

Wow.

2005-09-07T10:52:51Z

There really aren't words...

More Photos

Last Baby Watch Entry, I Promise

2005-09-06T02:37:32Z

Since Miki's water just broke and all, it seems like this is the end of baby watch. See you on the other side.

Due Date, Schmoo Date

2005-09-05T14:01:44Z

Due Date has come and gone. No baby. We gave her her walking papers, but she can't read, so it did us no good. Baby watch continues with no end in sight... I guess that's not true, since if it goes another week, they start medical inducement. Guess how much Miki likes that idea!

Baby Watch : 2005

2005-08-29T12:56:18Z

Well, August 28th has come and gone. It was my dad's birthday and my mother-in-law's birthday. The smart money was on it being the baby's too, but no... We're operating on the Baby Terror scale. We're at green alert now, although we did have a yellow alert yesterday. To get to Amber, there has to be actual pain associated with a contraction, and Red of course, is active labor. Did I mention the waiting around is killing me, so much so that I came up with the Baby Terror scale.

I very much like the notion that God is nothing more than a sense of humor. If this is true, than it will not be lost on me if my baby is in fact born on Labor Day. Oh, shit. It's Labor Day that you can't wear white after, right? What am I going to do with all these white diapers?!?!

Miki starts her maternity leave tomorrow, making her official work load from july to december about one week. Of that six months, five days of which are spent at school, she's only not be paid for about 4 weeks. That's a sweet deal, I'm taking two weeks off and only getting paid for like 3 days.

Say what you will about the government, but if I write them a letter that my baby was born, I'll get a letter of congratulations from the White House, and one day she may think that's cool.

Some major advances in Operation: Desert Shield this weekend, could make Operation: Desert Storm a go by midweek. Keep with the code people, this isn't 100% public yet, which is why I've only mentioned it in others' comments, and not my own journal.

Calves of Pain!

2005-08-23T11:52:52Z

Well, it's been two days since ominod's wedding and my calves are still killing me. I guess I can't handle "Jump Around" like I used to. It was great to see everyone this past weekend.

In other news, I felt what I thought were two contractions that were about twenty minutes apart last night. When I say "felt", I mean that I actually put my hand on Miki's belly and felt the entire uterus tighten. It was like her whole belly turned to steel. You'd thing this is more of an exact science, but truth be told, it could mean anything. It could just be Braxton-Hicks, or it could be real. If it's real, it means labor is in its earliest stages. How you can tell is by timing three or four of them and making sure they're at regular intervals. Since they were about twenty minutes apart, and I haven't slept more than five hours each night for the last five days, we decided not to try and track them.

This did have the effect of not letting me sleep well last night and giving me my first baby related nightmare. Miki's had pregnancy nightmares from the beginning. Not every night, but maybe once per week. Mine, I have to say, is true to form. My baby nightmare involved me beating the shit out of George Lucas for ruining Star Wars for my baby girl. If that's what I'm most worried about, I'm all set :)

So, wish me luck... If last night wasn't a false alarm, I could be getting the phone call any minute.

The Office

2005-08-04T18:28:57Z

So, I finally saw the UK Office. Well, series 1 anyway. #2 is on its way via Netflix but I'll say this. If you liked the Office, you'll loved Spaced. It's so good, I may have to leave my computer set to region 2 forever, because no one has bothered converting these bad boys to NTSC.

Oh well. Watch it. It's by the the writer and director of Shaun of the Dead. You haven't seen that either? I'm not talking to you anymore.

When I left you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master.

2005-08-04T12:10:42Z

Stick a fork in me, I'm done. Yesterday, I Mastered Science... Ok, I earned my Master of Science, which is still nothing to sneeze at. If I did as well as I think I did last night, my resume will now forever be adorned with: "Master of Science / Computer Science, GPA:3.89/4.0, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute"

On a mostly unrelated note, Miki commented last night that her initials "M.D." are the same as Medical Doctorate. I then replied that my initials "J.D." are the same as Juris Doctorate. I then went on to say we shoud name our daughter Pheobe, who's initials would then be "Ph.D.". Oh the nerd/geek/"sick of labels for shit I wish I had the self confidence to think was cool on my own 10 years ago, but now can validate thanks to the internet" humor. :)

Cotton, bitches!

2005-08-01T11:43:56Z

Well, we made it. Today is our "Cotton" anniversary. It's been two years since the hottest wedding ever, of course, it was the humidity that got you. I said it then, and I'll say it now. I kept that jacket on all night in 100 degree weather, because Damn... I looked good. A few days later we skipped town, missing the huge ass blackout.

Anyway, on our wedding video, each of my grandmothers wished that "we'd always be as happy as we are today". Today, of course, being then, not now. But, in purely mathematical terms, if we were always as happy as we were then, then Happiness(8/1/2003) = Happiness(8/1/2005), so it doesn't matter if they mean today then or today now. Either way, the truth is that we are just as happy, so thanks I guess.

Instrumental Break (7 measures)

2005-07-25T12:10:12Z

So to give last night some closure:

The guy from Newhart is Tom Potson.

Andrew McCarthy has never been in a movie with "Sweet" in the title.

Oh, and singing karaoke to Morrisey took balls, so back the hell up!