F@H

I just turned my computer into a folding machine. Probably have no idea what i'm talking about and probably wonder why you should even care (besides for me being interested in it). Basically "Folding @ Home" is a chance to let your computer become part of one of the most powerful distributed computing networks on the planet. It is based out of Stanford, and is protein folding.

Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding.

It runs when your computer is on (connected to the net) and isn't being used. When you jump on it to do something it basically goes idle while you are using it, then it goes back to work when the computer becomes idle again. If your computer is on most of the time anyway, why not have it do something useful that someday could save lives and make the world a better place?

http://folding.stanford.edu/

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Bring Your Umbrella

Chocolate Justin

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Larry

You turned 2 years old today (Monday) and Mommy & Me are excited to finally get through this adoption process in the next few months. We love you, buddy.

Flippin' the Bird!!!

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals. Birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, and the earliest known bird is the Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx. Ranging in size from tiny hummingbirds to the huge Ostrich and Emu, there are around 10,000 known living bird species in the world, making them the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrates.

And OH MY GOD CAN THEY POOP. Maria & I were sitting at the beach watching the kids play on a pirate ship playset... when all of a sudden AN ANGRY MUTANT BIRD PROCEEDED TO SHAT POO ALL OVER MY FACE AND BACK. I'm like "what the hell was that" as I feel this hit me...I thought someone ran by us on the boardwalk and threw something at me. I look at my shirt and look up and realize that one of those huge seagulls that everyone feeds thrasher's fries has decided to try a pinpoint anal assault on ME. I was sitting within a foot of Maria on one side, and our stroller on the other.

The bird COMPLETELY MISSED MARIA, DELILAH & THE STROLLER and just totally destroyed me. Maria couldn't stop laughing as I used wipies and desperately tried to get it all off of me.

If I ever see this bird again I will have my alka seltzer tabs ready

Possible Contestant on America's Next Top Model?

What a frickin' hoser, eh?

We have a large 5.4L V8 Powered Ford Expedition (extra smog edition) that has been running like a piece of crap for about the past 5 months or so. In my quest to fix it myself, I started simple... did some googling and found that it is a symptom of a vacuum leak. I looked and looked, changed out cheap parts of the emission control system & found a few hoses that were cracked. "That should fix it" I would say... but each time I would be monumentally disappointed.

I was getting ready to take it up to the shop so they could remove that $300 that is burning a hole in my bank account to get it running right again. Maria and the kids drive around in it every day, and it's worth it for their safety and my (and Maria's) peace of mind.

Well, last week I broke down and bought a OBD-II code reader (it was only $50 and it talks with you car's computer and it tells you what is broken, mechanics charge you $75 just to hook it up and read the codes.. it's paid for itself already). It came back with 6 error codes, all related to a vacuum leak. So I did some googling and found the problem in only about 10 mins of searching. I ran up to Ford and bought the new PCV Hose Assembly and figured it was worth a shot. I got home and jumped up under the hood and what do you know... this hose that is hidden out of sight all the way behind the engine was completely rotted and cracked in half. I put the new assembly on and voila! It works almost like new again.

Give me props people... I'm proud of myself for turning what would have most likely been a $300+ repair job into a $34 one... and still never getting any of my cars worked on by a mechanic.

Company Yacht

Not really. Me and the fam went down to our local Nassawango shelter and had some fun. They have a big playground full of Russian children and a shelter full of Orange Sunkist Sodas & Crabs. I took Holden, Larry & Pearl out on a two-seater kayak.

I had a hell of a time getting out of the kyak... I almost fell out into the water. I probably missed the funniest thing I would have seen in months... my buddy Ed doing that exact thing.

OMG

Maria and I realized that we never got in the ocean this year. We went to the beach like gangsters earlier in the summer, then we just stopped going. Our kids like the beach... only for the sand. We try to get them down by the water and they freak out.. all of them.

This past weekend was different though. Holden really started having fun down by the water. He would run down and let waves crash down near him while he tried to outrun them... a few times he turned around too late only to be knocked off his feet and washed up on the shore like a piece of driftwood (laughing all the way, ha ha ha). There was this other little boy down near the water that Holden played with nearly the whole afternoon.

And the best part was that nobody was assaulted by a wild stallion this thyme... although there were more ponies and deer on our way in and out than we have ever seen. There must have been at least 20 or so ponies on the side of the road. Or as Pearl calls them... dog-dogs

Couldn't Have Said It Any Better Myself

All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!!

Tokyo (Japan) – A Japanese game company is withdrawing its arm-wrestling arcade machines after several players broke or fractured their arms. 155 of the machines are installed in Japanese arcades and the company is blaming foreigners (non-Japanese) on failing to read the instructions.

I bet the instructions aren't in English? (or maybe they are in engrish?) Would make sense if this is why the foreigners aren't following instructions. I normally would stand beside my Asian brothers in this situation, but not this time. If I saw one of these machines I would do an All-American ROUNDHOUSE to it's face while singing some random Bruce Springsteen songs.



How many much nutrition do you know? I know quite a few actually!

Ghost Town

Man, there is nobody at work today. I am the only person in the back half of the building... it's so quiet I can hear the ticking of the wall clock all the way across the room.

I took part in my first fantasy football draft of the 2007 season and I got another one Sunday night. That one is real important cause there's money involved.

Maria and I had a verbal agreement that if this next child was a girl (she is) that we would be done having kids. Maria has since reneged and our agreement and wants "just one more". I think I need to figure out how this guy made his detachable so I can hide it from the wife.

She's Money

So far so good with all 4 kids finally at home at the same time. Sure it's quite an ordeal going out and doing anything, but it's not as overwhelming as you would think. Lilah is doing good, of course she gets up several times during the course of the night, but being that I can't lactate that really doesn't affect me too much.

I cut our yard last weekend and it's already looking like a forest again. What a difference a month makes.. our yard went from brown and dusty to very green and lush. Although at the time I was missing having nice grass.. now, not so much. We have a riding lawnmower that we bought for $100, but it has issues. I don't really have the time or the money to dump into it at the moment, so hopefully this fall or over the winter I can get it going or find someone to work on it if I can't figure it out.

We brought our dog Lucas back home after a long time in Baltimore staying with Judie. Before he got shipped off he and the cats were finding a harmony around our house. Otis would flex is dominance over him and Abe would hide in the laundry room until the evening. Now, all of that is pretty much gone now. Once Luke catches a glimpse of a cat he's off to the races chasing them around and sliding all over our hardwood floors. It's highly annoying and not what you want to wake up to first thing in the morning. At least Luke didn't get into any dirty diapers and shred them all over the floor (yet).

Maria's mom friends got her a flower/plant arrangement for having the new baby... actually you would think that they got it as a fancy snack for the cat because they've eaten about all of it. That's the sad thing about cats, you can't really have any plants or flowers around the house cause your damn cats will eat them and make a huge freaking mess.

She's here!

This baby surprised everyone and is a girl... we've named her Delilah Mae Stewart

She was born @ 11:09am

She weighs 8 lbs 0 oz

She is 20" long

And she's cute

8/9/07 - Write It Down

That's when they are going to break Maria's water. I'm just super relieved I don't have to play doctor this time... I mean I was ready to do it a week and a half ago.. but it's just nice to be able to enjoy the experience and not have all the pressure and worry on my shoulders.

We will be at the Special Beginnings Birth Center in Arnold (right near the Safeway & Fire Department off of Ritchie Hwy.) Give me or Maria a call if you want to see the baby... we will be stuck there for at least 4 hours after the birth, so we will have some time to kill.

No Newz iz good newz?

No baby yet. Many thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. Maria is going in for a sonogram today to make sure the amniotic fluid is still there and everything looks good. They did a stress test on Saturday and the heart rate was perfectly normal. So no worries... this Stewart is just setting a new record for showing up late for important events.

Full Moon

This baby is already two days late

Holden was 2 days late and Pearl was 4 days late

Maria ate spicy chinese food tonight

There is a full moon

Stay tuned here for pictures.. I will post a pic of the new baby here within the hour of birth.

LOGO

I guess I should come up with some sort of logo to put on my business cards and such for the new company I started up STEW*art PRODUCTIONS

I will post a few that I come up with over the course of the next few nights (or hours) and see what ya'll prefer. Oh and if you know anyone who needs video editing or any kind of graphics/brochure work done send them my way will ya? I'll straight up give people a 5% slice of what I make off of any work they send me way.. how sweet is that for basically doing nothing? ;)

Hit the Snooze

We have a bit of a ritual in the mornings. It involves Maria, Holden and I. I will recount this ritual as it has happened like clockwork the past two or so weeks.

6:00 -- Holden Wakes Up
6:01 -- Holden crawls into bed between Maria and I
6:02 -- Holden kick each of us in the backs and giggles and nuzzles under the covers
6:03 - 6:20 -- Maria and I are pelted with questions about random things Holden has on his mind, we retort with "be quiet or you're going back into your bed"
6:30 -- Maria and I can't take it anymore and I get up to turn on the Disney Channel (usually that clown show.. can't think of it ATM... and the TV is already set on Disney from the night before, because if we don't the first thing Holden will see is "Girls Gone Wild" commercials (because we watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report on comedy central before bed, and that's what's on comedy central @ 6:30 in the morn.))
7:00 -- the alarm blares some random reggae song we've never heard before, and Holden springs up to hit the snooze button so his dad can get an extra 10 minutes of sleep. Usually shortly after that Holden come in and tell me Larry is awake while I lay there super excited to be waking up to go to work.

It's hard to see Holden growing up so fast.. and it's true what people say.. kids sure do grow up fast. Each night before I go to be I go in to check on all of them and it's amazing how much kids change in such a short amount of time. Maria occasionally goes to baltimore for 2 or 3 days streteches and I swear I feel like I've missed a ton.

My favorite time with Holden is our evening talks. It's just Holden and Daddy time and we talk about his day, and lately he's been asking me alot about my day at work. Sometimes we talk for 15-20 minutes (Holden always tries to stretch it out even longer.. but I gotta draw the line somewhere or the boy would never go to sleep.)

Happy Birthday Buddy, I love you. Your Mommy and I are so blessed to have you.

Bored

I was going to spell the title of this blog "board" as an ode to my friend Davey, but I didn't want people to think I actually thought that was the right use of the wrong word.

I have been cranking out the work at work lately....only one downside to that. I get bored with nothing to do.. and the day drags on and on.

We had coconut cake here at work for Mark's birthday, we actually have a party each month for birthdays here at work. I have always hated coconut cake, except when Wayne's wife makes it. She must shred those freakers by hand cause it's really good, not that nasty, tasteless sawdust chips that most coconut cakes remind me of. I must find the secret recipe.

I started my own video production company called "STEW*art PRODUCTIONS" lame title I know.. but it's something to attach to my work.

I am getting very excited to meet this new little one we will have in our midst in the next 2 weeks or so. Maria is fairly sure it's a boy.. but I've been saying girl all along. If it is a girl then we are done having kids.. but if it's a boy I MAY give Maria one more shot at having another girl (that she wants so bad).

I have a ton of work to do around the yard to get it ready for Holden's blowout B-day party. Hard to believe the little guy is already turning 3 and is getting to be so opinionated and hardheaded. For all of that though, he is a very well behaved and thoughtful boy.. and when he does something and gets in trouble he takes his timeouts like a champ and really truly means it when he apologizes for, say: shoving his brother into the corner of a table, or smacking the back of Maria's leg with a piece of wood.

Baby Pearl

love this pic