Wah May 30, 2008

This is how we’re feeling these days:

No, Daddy didn’t make me or the Critter cry! But in addition to some crazy things happening in our lives, the hard drive on our home computer went pffsttt! the other night. A trip to the Apple Genius bar last night confirmed it. Gone. Zero. Zilcho. Their master computer (or whatever) didn’t even recognize it as another computer.

So all the pictures and video of our little guy since his birth are GONE. Yes, we have those that we uploaded to Flickr (thank goodness!), but most of the video we’ve taken has disappeared into tiny little broken circuits in our hard drive. The worst part? I spent HOURS on Sunday backing up my work computer and cleaning up the home computer so that we could back it up, too. I just ran out of time before ACTUALLY DOING IT.

We’ve been referred to several data recovery companies, and we’re getting quotes now. The lowest we’ve seen is $500 and the highest so far is $9000. Jumpin’ jehosephat! So right now I’m mentally balancing what it would cost to recover the data vs. buying a new camcorder (the video we’ve taken with our camera doesn’t save to a format that allows sound when sharing video) and an external hard drive so that we won’t be faced with this in the future.

Suggestions? Consolation? Stiff drinks?

Backlog: Memphis May 4, 2008

Howdy friends. I’m WAY delayed in writing many updates, so I’ll start with our trip to Memphis at the beginning of April. The Rhodes Biology department had invited me to be a part of their seminar series a while ago, and the dates just worked out that the trip would coincide with the 13th anniversary of our first date. So that was a happy accident (both the trip, and the circumstances of our first date, as well as many aspects of our relationship, as it is with most). The talk was called, “Eating in the Rat or eating rats? From Rhodes to the Bushmeat Crisis.” A little cheesy (ha!) but anyone that knows Rhodes might find it a little funny.

We arrived on Saturday, which gave us time to spend with family and friends. We got to visit with Big & Little Grams, Uncle Philip and George and Barry.

The Critter loved spending time outside with his Great Uncle Philip

…and being loved on by his Great Little Grams (Little Great Grams? we’ll work that out)

Of course we had to take him to Graceland.

It’s very important that he know where Elvis lived and came from.

When we went to Huey’s this time, he kept his shirt on at the table (though his socks are another story). Good thing, too, because Jessica said she couldn’t have any redneck babies at her table!

It was really nice to be back at Rhodes, and to catch up with the faculty members that had such a big influence on me. I had a good number of students at the seminar – though many of the intro-level students were bribed with extra credit to attend. They asked very good questions, too. Of course we were so caught up in what was going on that we didn’t take any pictures of the Critter at Rhodes, but I did manage to capture a picture of the Rat Statue.

Family is on our minds a great deal right now. Dave’s brother Barry had a bad accident last weekend. He was camping with some friends and went out for a solo hike. He slipped on some rocks and fell 60 feet, breaking both arms and scraping himself up pretty badly. It was a couple of hours before he was found and evacuated by helicopter to Vanderbilt. He’s going to be ok, but he’s got a lot of healing and physical therapy ahead of him. We’ll keep you posted.