This is the coolest idea

How many of you remember that staid, old, plain looking periodic table? Probably a lot of you. How many of you remember thinking it was stupid to have the Lanthanoids and the Actinoids separated in those 2 rows on the bottom? Or how many of you wondered why Hydrogen was in the saw column as Lithium despite not really being that similar? Probably not as many. Either way, a gentleman in England has rethought the periodic table to account for a lot of the problems and inconsistencies in the current model. The story can be found here. You'll have to view the slide show to see his new model, but it is awfully cool.
His redesign places the elements in a spiral pattern with aligned elements sharing similar properties. For example, the noble gases (Helium, Argon, Krypton, etc.) are aligned along a radii extending from the center of the spiral. Very cool!

Have you ever wondered ...

where sirloin comes from on a cow? Well, according to Debbie's interpretation of a diagram in a restaurant we patroned over the weekend, sirloin comes from the area you would touch if you wanted to tickle a cow. So, next time you're tickling a cow, remember that's Grade A Sirloin you're tenderizing as well.

Gallery Update

New pictures have been posted to Lauren's Eighth Month Folder. Go take a look see. My favorite is a video of LAUREN CRAWLING!!!!!!

It's been fun

Have you ever had a "Life flashes before your eyes" moment? I did today.
We were having fun with Lauren at the restaurant when it was obvious she wanted a bottle. No problem, we knew this would be the case so we came prepared. As I peered into our diaper bag, I located the tupperware container with formula powder. As I pulled it out of the bag, I noticed it seemed a little light. I found out why when I opened it. It was empty. Uh oh. I sheepishly look at my darling, beautiful, genteel, wife and said "uh ... it's empty". "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S EMPTY?!?!?!?!?!?!" At that moment, I could only turn to our daughter and say "It's been a lovely time Lauren. Please remember me through the many pictures and videos because your mommy is about to stab me in the eye with a spoon." Fortunately, I was mistaken. Not about the container being empty, but about that being the container I filled. I was wondering why the inside of the diaper bag wasn't covered in powder. As I peered around the bag, I found another identical tupperware container, this one actually filled with formula powder. Whew! No spoons in the eye for me.

It's that time again

My little girl is growing up. Today, she turned 0.6667 years old (that's 8 months old to normal people). One thing is for sure, this last month has seen some amazing progress. First off, she started pulling herself up into a sitting position no less than 2 weeks ago. Now, she's an old pro at it. So much so, that she now sits up in her crib to wait for us. Then, yesterday, she began crawling. CRAWLING!!!! Let the fun begin! Can you guess what grasped my little girl's attention so much that she just had to move her little butt closer? Was it a favorite toy? Lizzy? She just wanted to be closer to mommy and/or daddy? Nope. The item that captivated her so was daddy's stinky tennis shoes. What a goofy girl.
To top all this activity, today brought another milestone when mommy and I checked to see if she was asleep and she was trying to pull herself up to a standing position in the crib. Great. More work for me. Now I have to go lower the crib mattress and take out the bumpers because they now pose a hazard to our mobile little one.