Yesterday night I was actually watching the news as I was getting Benling ready for bed. Dave was on call so it was just the two of us in the house. I saw that there were a string of thunderstorms northwest of Chicago and the weatherman said they were pretty severe. I looked at the rain that was heading towards us and it didn’t look too bad, and I had known that we were getting some rain.

At around 10:30, Ben was already asleep in his crib upstairs and I was getting ready to work on my Thank You cards from the baptism, getting out my paper cutter and photos. I was ready to be really productive because I want to get these things done before I lose interest in them. I started to hear some rumbling outside and saw some flashes of lightning. I had several lights on and the television, as well as the microwave because I was sterilizing some bottles. I was afraid I might overload a circuit or something, and I didn’t even want to think about blowing a fuse and having to sit through the thunderstorm with no lights. I hate the dark. I can’t be in complete darkness. It freaks me out. So I turned off all the extra lights, save for the kitchen light and light on the second floor, unplugged my laptop and closed it. I sat down at my kitchen table with my paper cutter ready and waiting and Ryan Seacrest on TV telling me what the latest celebrity news was.

Then all the lights turned off.

…and I sat in darkness.

Panic mode set in. There were no lights on! All I could see were flashes of lightning, which came frequently and cast a ghostly light inside my house at irregular intervals. I immediately reached for the first light source I knew of - my laptop. I flipped it open, logged in, and opened a new notepad document knowing that the white screen would shine brightly in the room. It was not as bright as I would have liked, but it was enough to stop me from completely freaking out. I then carried my laptop over to where I know the only flashlight in the house was - our hippo flashlight. Not too strong, since it’s made for toddlers, but strong enough. Once I had my hippo flashlight in hand (it grunts and giggles whenever you turn it on, which in daylight is cute and makes me laugh, but in this situation was just a little creepy) I went over to where we have our candles. I got a couple and looked for matches. Of course, there weren’t any. How could we not have matches? At least I was able to find the lighter we use for the grill.

I carried my things upstairs - hippo flashlight, laptop, candles and lighter. I went into Ben’s room and set up camp. It took me a while to get the lighter going, during which time I contemplated finding some sticks and starting my own fire. Eventually I got the candles lit. I sat around in the near darkness with the thunder rumbling, the lightning flashing, and the sound of fire engine sirens blaring through the night. I looked out the window to confirm what I already knew - if this was just my house or if it was the whole neighborhood. The darkness of my neighbors homes as well as the storefronts across the street told me that I wasn’t alone - and it also explained why I was in complete darkness when the power went out. Even when the lights are off in my house, there’s still the streetlights that bring in some light into my home.

I tried to get to sleep, then I realized that the air wouldn’t be turning on. I debated moving the baby down to the first floor, but I didn’t want to wake him and I didn’t want to risk falling down the stairs in the darkness, so we stayed on the second floor. I wondered how far this blackout reached - was it just my street? Was it farther? How long would it last?

I woke up several times during the night and still no power (I would have heard the TV blaring downstairs). The heat wasn’t too bad, Benjamin tossed and turned just a little in his crib. I woke up at around dawn and couldn’t get back to sleep again, so I just listed to Ben move around in his bed, trying to get adjusted. Finally when he started fussing in his sleep I woke him up and fed him, and he fell back into his slumber. There was still no power, so I had to take a shower by candlelight. After that I stayed on the first floor to wait for my father in law, since I wouldn’t be able to hear him knocking upstairs. He usually comes in through the garage, but that wouldn’t be working.

By the time I left for work, the power still wasn’t on, so right now I’m worrying about a lot of things, like the food in the freezer, the fish tank, and most importantly, if the internet connection will be OK when the power comes back again.

Tags: Daily by Yano
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The Baptism went well…a bit hectic, but I think it went OK. More on that later once I get pictures and once people upload their copies on flickr. *cough* *cough* http://www.flickr.com/groups/benburrito/ *cough* You know who you are.

Anyway…

Today I got a slow start into work. I think I pulled a muscle in my arm, though I don’t know from doing what, so I woke up pretty sore. I was going to catch a later train into work, then Benjamin woke up and I decided to feed him since I really didn’t get much time with him yesterday. I headed out the door and got to the train station (to catch an even later train) only to find that the pay spaces were filled, so I had to drive to the police station to get a special pass. Luckily I had anticipated that happening and left home a little earlier. Then it turned out that the train was running 10 minutes late.

I was dying of thirst on the train, and visions of the Dunkin Donuts coffee coolatta danced in my head. I knew I’d be passing one on the way to the boat and I was really excited. I got off the train and headed to Dunkin Donuts, deciding to hang out there for a bit since I’d be really early for the boat and I didn’t want to wait outside. When I headed into the concourse of the building that DD was in, I noticed a bunch of construction workers and fans with these big blue smelly cakes around. It smelled like those things you put in your toilet bowl to make them smell good. Then I saw a sign that said “This concourse will be closed until further noticed.” WTF? I saw that there were still people milling around in there and I walked in, they must have been in the process of closing it. Maybe I was lucky and DD was still open.

Nope. I walked through the concourse as the workers were putting up plastic against the storefronts including my beloved Dunkin Donuts. It turned out that there was a fire in the concourse and they were checking things out. I was in a panic. I needed my coolatta fix!

I then remembered that there was another DD back in the train station, but I had to go all the way around the building because they had closed up the building behind me. I walked with my pump and heavy backpack back to the train station and got my coffee. I drank it like I had been in the desert for a month.

Since I was back by my train station, I decided to just take the bus to the office. I saw a huge line of families outside my stop, and realized that I was so late that the free trolleys were running to bring people around downtown to places like Navy Pier, the museum campus and Michigan Avenue. Oh wait, Michigan Ave! That’s where I work! So I hopped on the free trolley and enjoyed the tour until they came to their stop right in front of my office building.

Now I’m here and all I really need to do today outside of some customer work that I could do at home is shop for the class I’m teaching this week. We don’t do cool things like ‘catering’ so it’s up to me to buy a breakfast spread for my students. Luckily there’s a Jewel a couple blocks away!

Gah…I hate mondays!

I was dying of thirst

Tags: Daily by Yano
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So tomorrow (well, technically today) is Benjamin’s baptism day. The guest list count is at a whopping 152 so far, and who knows if anyone who hadn’t RSVP’d is going to show up. I was worried last week when the count was a mere 82 - I was worried we weren’t going to meet the “at least 100″ number we gave to the banquet hall, but in a way happy because then I could invite friends and family that I didn’t get a chance to invite. But once I made some calls and had the grandparents call their people, the number started getting higher and higher. I’m just thankful that I decided not to do a seating chart - that would just make it a lot harder for me.

But I’m excited this day has come. For some reason I’m a little nervous with Ben since he isn’t baptized. I’ve still got that old notion in my head that if a baby dies before he’s baptized he’ll be stuck in purgatory *loud scary voice* FOREVER!!! (echo forever echo forever….) Of course, the church now says that doesn’t happen. Babies get a free ride to heaven. However, getting baptized means so much more than just that - it means that he’s an official part of this crazy dysfunctional family we call the Catholic Church. Sure, it’s all kinda crazy, but I love it all the same.

One of Dave’s relatives from the Philippines had sent us this beautiful embroidered outfit to wear for the baptism. However, it’s a little too big and it looks a lot like a dress. If you’d like to see a picture of it, stop on over by Ben’s blog, he talks a little about it there. Also, he already had another outfit given to him - that was pants, and a little tuxedo shirt. After much deliberation, the tux won. I’ll have pics of that hopefully tomorrow.

Since I don’t want to post any pics of Ben Vereen in his outfit for tomorrow, here’s a cute one that I took today, when I was trying to be artsy…

Tags: Ben by Yano
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I used to like Jessica Simpson. I thought she had a great voice, she was down to earth, she was beautiful, and she didn’t want to do anything flashy to get attention like Christina or Britney.

But everything “Newlyweds” and after changed my opinion of her. She doesn’t even look pretty anymore to me. I don’t know if it’s all the publicity or that she just looks better with a little more meat on her, or maybe that she’s had work done, but I think she looked much better before.

Anyway, I laughed when I went to Yahoo! this morning and saw this headline on the Buzz Log:

I may have said that she’s no longer pretty to me, but come on, Yahoo!, you’ve GOT to have a better picture of Jessica than that! She looks like a 40 year old aunt that comes to parties smelling of strong perfume and who gives everyone smell-kisses. The funny thing is that the headline is saying that she’s hot - and the picture is the complete opposite of that.

Man, I’m mean at 5 in the morning.

Tags: Quickies by Yano
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As I said in the last post, I was in the office for the first time last Wednesday. We were holed up in the conference room having a brainstorming session. We took a break and I decided that would be a good time to go pump some breastmilk.

I know I haven’t gone over the whole breastfeeding experience yet (but believe me, Aquaman, I will!) but if you go for a while without breastfeeding, milk builds up and it starts to hurt. So what the working woman does is get a breastpump so she can a) relieve herself of that “full of milk” pain and b) store up breastmilk so her baby can have a meal while she’s gone. So not only do I have to lug around my super huge backpack, I also have to carry around my pumping equipment. Lucky for me, the makers of this equipment realize that and have made it all fit into a manageable, discreet bag.

I went into the bathroom and plugged in my battery pack. I couldn’t use the outlet because it was too far from the stall, and I didn’t want to stand by the sinks and pump and surprise anyone that came into the bathroom. I started pumping and realized that either my batteries were running low or the pump just had less suction when it was using batteries. It was taking FOREVER. I decided to just go back into the office and use one of the empty offices to pump so I could plug it in.

I stopped by the conference room to tell the guys that I was going to be in one of the offices, so they knew not to walk in on me. The convo went like this:

Me: Hey guys, I’m going to be in the office for a couple minutes, I need to plug this in there
Tony: You don’t have to do that, you can just plug it in here (pointing to power strip)
Me: Um, this is my breastpump
Tony: Oh! Wow, uh, yeah, go ahead, go into the office. I thought you were talking about your laptop! Yeah, go pump in the office!

Haha…I love working with guys.

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Yesterday I had to go into the office to do some work, so it was my first official workday without Benny-Bop. I packed up my laptop and breastpump and headed out for the day, of course first giving my little burrito a kiss and squeeze before I left.

I realize that I really miss working downtown. Wait, scratch that - I really mis GOING downtown. The city is so alive, especially in the summertime. I took the river taxi instead of the shuttle bus (since the CTA made fare hikes, taking the boat is actually cheaper now) and it was such a lovely ride down the Chicago River. That is, til I got to the Michigan stop which smelled heavily of dead fish. I looked around to see if there was maybe a mass grave of dead fish, but no. it was a smell with no source.

There aren’t too many people left in the office, so it can kinda get depressing, but I spent most of my time holed up in the conference room with some of the other guys, so it wasn’t too bad. We had Star of Siam for lunch and it was so GOOD! Though I still love the pad thai at Addison Thai - there’s is the best around!

I went for a walk during my “break”, which I used for shopping, something I rarely do anymore. I love walking down Michigan Avenue, seeing tourists wander by and people of all backgrounds. There’s a bunch of street vendors now, selling balloons in funny shapes, playing all sorts of instruments and adding to the awesomeness of the avenue. I ended up at H&M and found some great stuff for next to nothing that fit my “big boned” self quite well…I’ve gotta start shopping there more! I also found some really cute stuff for Benjamin. I’ll post up this at I bought him, he looks SO adorable in it!

But as much as I enjoyed my day downtown, I missed my baby terribly. I had to restrain myself from calling home every hour just to hear his wee little voice. I didn’t want to call and nag my F-I-L to make sure that Ben was getting enough tummy time, or that he should give him rattles to play with, or not to let him sleep on his stomach. My F-I-L has taken care of him many times before, he wasn’t going to forget just because I’m at the office.

I’m working from home today, so I make sure to take breaks and play with my little booger when I can, because tomorrow I’m back in the office!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Yesterday I started working again. My three month vacation slash baby love fest was over.

I’m lucky, though, because I get to work from home, only going into the office when I need to. Because really, there’s only two guys left in the office and it just isn’t as fun anymore. But I’ll get to that another day.

I get to work from home which means I don’t have to wake up early for a commute, I can work in my pajamas, and I can cook my own lunch.

Who’s taking care of letting Bento Box? My father-in-law. He retired last week and he’s been awesome enough to volunteer to come over and take care of my little one. I know Ben’s in good hands because Dave’s dad is great with him. That’s who Benjamin got his name from, after all.

I know I’m really lucky to have family who can take care of Benjamin. I’ve looked at the costs of daycare and it’s really scary. You’d need to get a second job just to pay for it. Not only that, but your work schedule is based on when you can drop off you child at daycare, and when you need to pick them up to avoid having to pay extra because you’re late. I admit to being a work-a-holic, and that my best work is done after hours rather than during the day. I give a lot of respect to parents who have to do the whole daycare routine - I know it’s a lot of work!

Before I had Ben when I’d work at home I’d just work in the kitchen and put on the Today show or whatever was on the E! network. Sometimes I’d work on the couch, especially when I was pregnant and needed to put my feet up. I liked having the noise of the TV in the background while I work - working in silence makes me nervous.

Now, I’m holed up in the office which before today was only used by Dave when he studied for his various doctor tests. I’ve got some MP3s playing, but it’s not the same as E! True Hollywood Story. Although I have the door closed, I can still hear Benjamin shouting and doing his baby speech downstairs. I have to restrain myself from running down there to play with him. Dave’s dad has a lot of activities planned for their time together, like walks in the neighborhood, around the mall, and helping him garden at his place. That will help so I don’t hear him and want to run to him and hug him and squeeze him until he pops. Not Dave’s dad…Benjamin!

Now I’ve got ten gazillion emails to catch up with and I need to get up to speed on the stuff that I was supposed to months ago. My brain is going to explode this month!

But at 5pm, every day, I’m off the clock and back to my baby boy!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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This is my current favorite commercial…it just makes me laugh when the mom says “Karate!!!”

Tags: Video Gaga by Yano
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Today my little chalupa turns 3 months old!

You know it seems like forever since he’s been born…it’s hard to imagine life without him. He’s been growing so fast. It’s not too obvious until I look at his pictures (his hair has grown at least an inch!) or when I hold newborns like Jacob. Every day he does something new, he gets stronger, he gets smarter and he eats more. I love talking to him, making him laugh, and even just watching him sleep.

I could go on, but it’s 6 in the morning and I need to get some sleep!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

You know, after a while all these collages start looking the same.

But I don’t care! I’m a proud mama!

[edit]Check out Ben’s site for the same picture, but with a little twist!

Tags: Ben by Yano
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You all know that I love taking pictures. I adore my little Olympus Camedia - he’s always been a good little bugger with his awesome 10x zoom.

But I admit that as of late, I’ve been longing for another camera. I’m a member of flickr, and I’m always amazed at the beautiful pictures that the other members have. The lighting is just right, there’s no motion blur, they have this soft, focused quality that I like. What do most of these photographers have in common? A digital SLR camera.

What’s SLR? Well, it stands for “Single Lens Reflex”, and essentially, it’s a higher grade, more professional camera that allows for more manual control. You can use different lenses and there isn’t that lag time after taking a picture that many regular digital cameras have.

Sometimes it feels like everyone has one! (but I know that that’s not true)

Maui let me play around with his Canon 10D during our 4th bbq. I was like a kid in a candy store, snapping pictures non-stop. He showed me the different lenses and how to focus. Some people go to amusement parks for fun - just put a good camera in my hands in a backyard full of little kids and I’m having a ball!

Melanie posted up some of my better ones (some of them were taken by other people ) on her photosite, so you can check them out.

Here’s a couple of my favorites:

Little Jacob

My godson Kenzo - capturing this on my current camera may have had some motion blur

This pic of my cutie patootie was taken in a room with little light. I was able to adjust the ISO and shutter speed to give it a little more light - also, there was minimal noise in the original picture - something that my camera creates a lot of at an ISO higher than 100.

I just threw this in here because Kenzo’s so cute!

As I said before, I love my camera, it takes great pictures. But I can’t help wanting something that I can use to get better quality pictures. I’ve always struggled with getting enough light to get a good picture and noise at a higher ISO level. From the tests that I did with Maui’s camera, those issues aren’t as bad as a regular point and shoot.

Sadly, an SLR isn’t in my near future. We just don’t have the cash flow for one - even the ones that I’ve found on ebay. We just got a new desktop computer, had several weddings to attend this year, and there was that whole baby thing…New SLR cameras start at about $800. *sigh*

One day…oh yes, one day I will get my SLR…and the pictures will be GLORIOUS!

Tags: Pictures by Yano
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