Now that I'm back at work, I wondered how different the baby process would be if the Washington Post tried it. Instead of it lasting 9 months with regular milestones, I think it would go something like this:
Fall 2005
An employee drafts a memo on the benefits of a new baby. It is ignored.
Summer 2006
The NY Times catches the Post off guard by launching a baby that is a big hit with readers. The Post frantically throws together a team to figure out how to create one asap.
Fall 2006
After 3 months of requirements gathering and usability studies, the Post figures out what the baby should do. The project is put on hold until a project manager is available.
Winter 2006
A project manager becomes available but the project is put on hold until Tech resources are available.
Spring 2007
The NY Times enhances its baby by adding innovative features like talking, crawling, and laughing. The Post realizes their baby won't have those features and decides it won't be worth launching unless it can do everything the Times baby can do.
Late Spring 2007
After another month of requirements gathering, the Post revises their requirements document to include all the capabilities the NY Times baby has.
Summer 2007
A Tech resource becomes available and reports that it's not possible for a new baby to start talking, crawling, and laughing right away. The Post initially thinks Tech doesn't know what they are talking about and responds to every point by saying "If the Times did it, why can't we?" After several tense/ridiculous meetings, the Post decides to revisit the requirements and prioritize them.
Fall 2007
The NY Times baby starts walking.
Late Fall 2007
The Post prioritizes their requirements and decides that walking, talking, and laughing are absolutely necessary at launch in order to compete with the Times. Tech laughs and then sobs when they realize the Post is serious.
Winter 2007
Tech announces that the only way to meet the requirements is to adopt a 1 year old baby. The Post calls Accenture.
Spring 2008
Accenture declares they can produce a baby in 6 months that does everything the NY Times' baby can currently do. The price is kept completely confidential but it's rumored to cost an arm and a leg.
Spring-Fall 2008
The 9th floor is overrun with consultants who look very busy. They print huge documents and have lots of important-looking meetings. The Post is impressed because the look like they know what they're doing.
Fall 2008
Accenture announces that factors outside of its control will delay the launch of the baby by 3 months.
Late Fall 2008
The NY Times baby learns how to dress itself.
Winter 2008
The Post announces that it has determined that it is best to delay the launch until Spring because of "market conditions".
Early Spring 2009
The NY Times baby learns to read.
Late Spring 2009
Accenture delivers a beta baby for testing. It meets all of the Post requirements except for two -- it has plastic skin and runs on batteries. It is determined that these are low priorities and acceptable to not meet them for launch. But if it's possible to add these later, that would be good.
Early Summer 2009
The NY Times baby starts pre-school.
Summer 2009
The Post baby launches! It can crawl and talk but can't learn new features without a major upgrade. Maintenance is also an issue because it takes a team of developers to keep it working and requires frequent reboots.
Winter 2010
The NY Times baby is potty-trained.
Late Winter 2010
Users grow tired of the Post baby because it never does anything new. It is quietly pulled off the site for retooling. The Post blames Tech for not delivering something the users want.
Spring 2010
The Post spends the next month revamping the requirements in order to compete with the NY Times baby. A vendor is identified who promises to deliver a 4 year old baby. The price tag is enormous because they must outbid Angelina Jolie for it. Meanwhile, the NY Times baby learns to ride a bike.
Late Spring 2010
The NY Times launches an exciting new feature -- a sibling!
Summer 2010
The Post decides to get a dog instead.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Katherine and her Mobile
Katherine oohs and ahs at one of her favorite things in the world -- the mobile above her crib.
Warning: There's a chance that watching a 5 1/2 minute video of a baby laying in a crib could be boring but I'm too biased to tell. Just be happy that it's edited because the raw footage is 20 minutes long.
Warning: There's a chance that watching a 5 1/2 minute video of a baby laying in a crib could be boring but I'm too biased to tell. Just be happy that it's edited because the raw footage is 20 minutes long.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Hockey Cheerleaders
Here's a short video of my nieces Kaylyn and Cassidy showing the cheers they created for their Uncle Frankie's hockey game. Their creative cheers were definitely the highlight of the game. We lost 3-0.
Week 8 Update
Sorry for the long delay in posting any updates. Last week I returned to work and, needless to say, it was a busy news week.
Katherine has been settling into a semblance of a sleeping pattern and has even slept for 5 or 6 hours at a time. Some mornings she has slept as late as 10am. I think she learned that from Rusty.
Speaking of Rusty, one night last week I woke up in the middle of the night, looked next to me and saw not Nancy but Rusty's head. He was laying in her spot with his goofy head on her pillow smiling at me. There was no sign of Nancy. Strangely enough, I didn't think anything of it and went back to sleep. It turns out that Nancy got up to feed Katherine and Rusty took advantage of the opportunity to take her warm spot in the bed. We're not sure if he realizes that he isn't a person or that Katherine isn't a puppy.
Katherine has been smiling and laughing a lot lately. It's so cute. She absolutely loves the mobile above her crib. It only lasts for about 60 seconds so it seems like we're constantly winding it. I shot some video of her smiling and laughing at the mobile and I'll put it online shortly.
We finally got a table for our patio and have been using it a lot lately in this beautiful Spring weather. It's nice hanging out there while reading, eating, and enjoying adult beverages.
Katherine got to meet Nancy's friends Tara and Susan on Sunday. She was a little fussy at first but then remembered her manners. She survived the afternoon alone with her Dad by watching plenty of baseball and hockey on tv (and dozing on and off).
We booked a beach house on the Outer Banks for mid-May! We're very excited and can't wait to take Katherine and Rusty on their first beach trip. We're lining up our beach reading selections and I'm already craving pizza fries. Mmmmm!
The weather was so beautiful on Saturday that I went rollerblading around the Mall and monuments in DC. I haven't done that in at least a year, maybe two. It had definitely been a while because my first thought was "Did I really used to do this? It seems awfully dangerous to skate on the road." But before long it felt more natural. I didn't race any cars like I used to but I also didn't wipe out. Self-preservation seems like a good idea.
I did have one rather annoying incident during my skate that I need to rant about. When I was passing the south lawn of the White House, the Presidential motorcade was out front and waiting for the President to drive him to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, 5 blocks away. It was an exciting, uniquely DC moment and I decided to hang out and watch. There was a crowd of about 100-150 tourists watching excitedly too. We were so far away (about 300-400 yards) that we could not even begin to distinguish the faces of the tiny little figures we could see scurrying around. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the police came by and suddenly announced that the sidewalk was temporarily closed and everyone needed to leave. People were in disbelief, including me. What danger did we pose from so far away? I could understand posting a cop near us to make sure someone doesn't suddenly whip out a sniper's rifle. But completely closing the sidewalk seemed excessively paranoid and bizarre. So instead of 150 people feeling like they were a part of something, they walked off grumbling and disappointed. And it seemed so unnecessary.
Ok, the rant is over. Sorry about that.
Nancy went running today for the first time since Katherine was born! Very impressive. She's only 1 run behind my total for the year. Today was hot and muggy but she managed to make it back in one piece.
Katherine has been settling into a semblance of a sleeping pattern and has even slept for 5 or 6 hours at a time. Some mornings she has slept as late as 10am. I think she learned that from Rusty.
Speaking of Rusty, one night last week I woke up in the middle of the night, looked next to me and saw not Nancy but Rusty's head. He was laying in her spot with his goofy head on her pillow smiling at me. There was no sign of Nancy. Strangely enough, I didn't think anything of it and went back to sleep. It turns out that Nancy got up to feed Katherine and Rusty took advantage of the opportunity to take her warm spot in the bed. We're not sure if he realizes that he isn't a person or that Katherine isn't a puppy.
Katherine has been smiling and laughing a lot lately. It's so cute. She absolutely loves the mobile above her crib. It only lasts for about 60 seconds so it seems like we're constantly winding it. I shot some video of her smiling and laughing at the mobile and I'll put it online shortly.
We finally got a table for our patio and have been using it a lot lately in this beautiful Spring weather. It's nice hanging out there while reading, eating, and enjoying adult beverages.
Katherine got to meet Nancy's friends Tara and Susan on Sunday. She was a little fussy at first but then remembered her manners. She survived the afternoon alone with her Dad by watching plenty of baseball and hockey on tv (and dozing on and off).
We booked a beach house on the Outer Banks for mid-May! We're very excited and can't wait to take Katherine and Rusty on their first beach trip. We're lining up our beach reading selections and I'm already craving pizza fries. Mmmmm!
The weather was so beautiful on Saturday that I went rollerblading around the Mall and monuments in DC. I haven't done that in at least a year, maybe two. It had definitely been a while because my first thought was "Did I really used to do this? It seems awfully dangerous to skate on the road." But before long it felt more natural. I didn't race any cars like I used to but I also didn't wipe out. Self-preservation seems like a good idea.
I did have one rather annoying incident during my skate that I need to rant about. When I was passing the south lawn of the White House, the Presidential motorcade was out front and waiting for the President to drive him to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, 5 blocks away. It was an exciting, uniquely DC moment and I decided to hang out and watch. There was a crowd of about 100-150 tourists watching excitedly too. We were so far away (about 300-400 yards) that we could not even begin to distinguish the faces of the tiny little figures we could see scurrying around. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the police came by and suddenly announced that the sidewalk was temporarily closed and everyone needed to leave. People were in disbelief, including me. What danger did we pose from so far away? I could understand posting a cop near us to make sure someone doesn't suddenly whip out a sniper's rifle. But completely closing the sidewalk seemed excessively paranoid and bizarre. So instead of 150 people feeling like they were a part of something, they walked off grumbling and disappointed. And it seemed so unnecessary.
Ok, the rant is over. Sorry about that.
Nancy went running today for the first time since Katherine was born! Very impressive. She's only 1 run behind my total for the year. Today was hot and muggy but she managed to make it back in one piece.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Aunt She Sweet
My two sisters and their families came up to DC from Georgia to see their newest niece. It was a great visit and we discovered that we can adequately house 11 people in our humble abode. Everyone was very patient and accomodating which is important when there's only one bathroom.
We had beautiful Spring weather on Monday and Tuesday which was perfect for trips to the Mall and the Zoo. The cherry blossoms were in peak bloom but so were the crowds. The waiting times to enter the Archives and Mount Vernon were over an hour. But there was no one at the Nats game on Wednesday which worked out well for us. Wednesday was damp and chilly which kept a lot of "fans" away from RFK. Thursday and Friday were very cold and windy but the hearty travelers toughed it out for trips to the tidal basin and Mount Vernon. And Saturday morning revealed a dusting of snow that was good enough for a brief snowball fight.
At the house everyone stayed entertained by roasting marshmallows to make yummy s'mores, dyeing Easter eggs, crafting original (and abstract) compositions on the piano, playing some crazy new twister game, having fun with a pitch modulator that made them sound like Zeus or a chipmunk, and watching the Nats lose and lose and lose (the rallying cry of "they're only 5 runs down" was often heard).
It was a great week of fun and in the end, our small house helped by making sure we all spent quality time together. Everyone pitched in to help cook and clean and make things go smoothly. We were sorry to see everyone leave and haven't yet adjusted to the eerie quietness in the house. Katherine is currently doing her best though to make it not-so-quiet anymore. Rusty looks like he needs a vacation.
Here are some photos from the last week. I'll post more as I get them from my sisters and I have a video of some of the fun that I'll post later today.
Incidentally, a film crew from "National Treasure 2" was setting up at Mount Vernon when we were there. But we saw no sign of Nicholas Cage and we were too cold and tired to hang around.
We had beautiful Spring weather on Monday and Tuesday which was perfect for trips to the Mall and the Zoo. The cherry blossoms were in peak bloom but so were the crowds. The waiting times to enter the Archives and Mount Vernon were over an hour. But there was no one at the Nats game on Wednesday which worked out well for us. Wednesday was damp and chilly which kept a lot of "fans" away from RFK. Thursday and Friday were very cold and windy but the hearty travelers toughed it out for trips to the tidal basin and Mount Vernon. And Saturday morning revealed a dusting of snow that was good enough for a brief snowball fight.
At the house everyone stayed entertained by roasting marshmallows to make yummy s'mores, dyeing Easter eggs, crafting original (and abstract) compositions on the piano, playing some crazy new twister game, having fun with a pitch modulator that made them sound like Zeus or a chipmunk, and watching the Nats lose and lose and lose (the rallying cry of "they're only 5 runs down" was often heard).
It was a great week of fun and in the end, our small house helped by making sure we all spent quality time together. Everyone pitched in to help cook and clean and make things go smoothly. We were sorry to see everyone leave and haven't yet adjusted to the eerie quietness in the house. Katherine is currently doing her best though to make it not-so-quiet anymore. Rusty looks like he needs a vacation.
Here are some photos from the last week. I'll post more as I get them from my sisters and I have a video of some of the fun that I'll post later today.
Incidentally, a film crew from "National Treasure 2" was setting up at Mount Vernon when we were there. But we saw no sign of Nicholas Cage and we were too cold and tired to hang around.
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