tammyandtom.com

visit http://thebraseltons.com

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We moved. http://thebraseltons.com

It is now more than Tammy and Tom!

I’m still working on it but that is what is getting updated.

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Was crying but by the time I started the recording, she was done! Cool!

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Don’t touch the hair!!!

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Her first appearance on YouTube!!!  Go Zoe!

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I cruise inside the local Wal-Mart and walk down the isles.  People constantly walk out in front of me and get in my way.  Then, from the corner of my eye, I see a kid zipping by as if he/she is floating.  How do they do that?  With those darn shoes that have wheels in the bottom.  I looked in the store for them and only found some for kids and with a 150 lb. weight limit.  That was plenty to disqualify me from the beginning.  I just let that desire fall to the side.  

I keep seeing these things and always say that I want some of those darn things.  I really meant it too!  Well, last week, I found that Heelys makes some for adults!  They go up to size 12 and there is no weight limit!  I immediately told Tammy that I would like them for my birthday in February.  I was dead serious.  I read reviews and all about them.  I was just wanting them more and more.

Last weekend, we had the family at our house and had a great Thanksgiving.  My niece showed up with an early birthday present - a pair of Heelys.  What the heck?  Just days before, I was checking them out.  I asked her how she knew that I liked them and she just remembered that I always say it when kids roll by and since she works at a shoe store sometimes, she saw them on sale and thought of me.  She is the coolest!  

They are VERY cool but hard to get used to.  I wore them all weekend and to be truthful, it hurt my feet to break them in.  They are now broken in and all is great.  I can get rolling on them but I am not as skillful as I would like to be.  I am doing great for the first week.  I can’t wait to roll past another kid on “rolling shoes” and give them the finger (just kidding there).  I’ll just smile and they will wonder what a 37 year old is doing with Heelys shoes!

I love being a kid all of the time!

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I like the arcitecture here in Fredricksburg. It’s all really old- timer-ish looking. Nice stuff. Well kept too.
The building is the Old Gillespie County Courthouse. Erected 1881-1882. It is a historic landmark.

UPDATE: This has been turned in to a library…

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This place is in Fredricksburg, TX. The food was good BUT:

• A stein here is a glass 
• Portions are kids sizes 
• You have to ASK for bread (not offered) 
• The menu is inaccurate 
• I just paid $38.75 and we are still hungry 
• They only accept discover, American express and checks. None of which I have.

Staff sucks too.
Don’t waste your money or time here!

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I went to the local hotels today to get average pricing.  I’m sure you can use Priceline.com or something to get the prices down.  These are their normal rates (as of today - 11-19-2008@~16:00).  Also, there is an entire map included and the address of the hospital for when this all happens.

We’ll see everyone soon!

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Hampton Inn & Suits

1201 Cabelas Dr
Buda, TX 78610
(512) 295-4900

weekend - [2 queen] $129 / [1 king] $129 || weekday - [2 queen] $119 / [1 king] $119

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Best Western Southgate

18658 I-35 South
Buda, TX 78610

weekend - [2 queen] $119 / [1 king] $110 || weekday - [2 queen] $89 / [1 king] $95

—————————–

View Larger Map

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So, yesterday, I was working on the computer on stuff for my brother. Tammy comes back from pre-registering at the hospital and hands me a bag. The bag had a wonderful thank you card and a brand new Garmin Nuvi 205w (GPS)! My piece of junk TomTom broke some time back. She said that it was for taking such good care of her when she was sick and while she was on bed rest. Awww. Too cool!

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I am the odd ball out. While some of you would say: “Duh, are you just figuring this out, Tom?”.
I am the only one that is non-eee. We have Tamm-eee, Dal-eee, ibb-eee and Wikk-eee. I am the only dud. It’s Tom and that’s it. No eee sound at the end. Even when my child is born, it’ll be Zo-eee.

From left field,

Tom

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As Tammy and I are keeping up our morning walk and noticing that approximately 70% of our neighborhood cannot follow the directions on the garbage containers, we were greeted by a nice man.  This gentleman was taking out his trash and going to work (yes, he put the container out the correct way).  About a block away, he pulls up in his car and asked if we needed a baby bed.  He obviously noticed my pregnant wife at my side.  We said that we had one already and wished him a nice day.  As he drove off, Tammy and I discussed how nice that he was and how people sometimes are amazing.  We felt that was super nice and we really appreciated it.  

We also discussed the neighborhood association and what a pain it is.  If we take the 70% of the people that cannot follow directions and imagine how bad the neighborhood could be, the association is not totally bad…

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Tammy ordered this from Walmart.com and had it sent to our local store for free. I picked it up and pit it together today. It really looks expensive but the instructions were lacking details on a couple of steps. The quality of the fasteners are also in question. I think that it will last a long time. I just like to over-build everything. We will fill it up tomorrow with all of her stuff!

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 Tammy scribbled notes as the doctor explained them.  She was instructed to visit a specialist where she will be put on a special diet and have to prick her finger all of the time.  Gestational Diabetes is treatable and I am sure Tammy will make it like a trooper.

There are four readings. It will read hers/targeted.  87/below 95, 230/180, 208/155, 194/140.  It never came down enough.  She will be able to regulate it.

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Our irrigation system was installed in September.  There are six watering zones in this system.  There are a total of 58 heads in this system.

• Zone 1 = 9 heads
• Zone 2 = 9 heads
• Zone 3 = 10 heads
• Zone 4 = 6 heads
• Zone 5 = 14 heads
• Zone 6 = 10 heads

P1 - P12 in the document indicate places were pictures were taken.

I have pictures for each location on the diagram but I am not including them in this post.

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The bad?  I was laid off last week.  It’s not the best of time since I have a child due in December and will have a child that relies on me in addition to a wife.  Of course I understand the business reasons but personally, it stinks.  

After the news, I went with friends on a 4 day trip that we officially named “Mancation 2.0″.  I had a great time and took time to clear my head.  Monday, I revised my resume from the ground-up.  Tuesday, Tammy reviewed and offered excellent corrections/advice on my resume.  The remainder of Tuesday consisted of posting my resume on job sites and on our website so I can link it everywhere.  Today, I am submitting it to applicable jobs and following leads.

I am going full speed to find another job.  This is where I am finding out how great people can react.  Tammy sent mail to her company’s HR department to find out about insurance and such.  She copied her boss to let him know of her request.  Immediately, he called her with concern and asked that I send a resume to her company and gave all of the contact information.  As others found out about my situation, they came running to help.  

Clif Smith has sent internal job postings - twice!  Rick Reeder has offered (and is still offering) numerous leads and assistance.  He even posted an outstanding recommendation on LinkedIn.  I have had calls/emails from Kevin Foster, Kirk Hubble and Dag Nybo at Vignette offering condolences and assistance if needed.  I can’t thank you all enough.  I would really like to thank Tammy (wife), Tan (wife’s boss), Clif, Rick, Kirk, Dag, Kevin and all others that have contacted/helped me.  You all make me feel SUPER special in a non-special time.  

Well, back to work on the job search.  My resume is posted here: http://tinyurl.com/tombraselton-resume.

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When we found out about Zoe’s gender, Tammy and I visited the local Wal-Mart and went a bit crazy buying clothes.  Today, I reminded Tammy that it is tax-free weekend here in Texas.  She immediately came to attention and whisked me away to the mall.  We visited JC-Penny’s, Dillards and Janie & Jack.  We got clothes at each store.  There were many sales and we were able to save a bunch on taxes.  Please beware that Dillards was charging tax on our baby clothes.  Tammy had a sharp eye and saw it immediately.  They had to refund the bunch and start over while hitting the “no-tax” button for each.  It is a real scam.  There was another lady close to us that came back from shopping in the morning because she wanted her tax money back.  

Here is a scary sight, the clothes (click for larger image)!

Here are close-ups of the sections (they are BIG pictures if you click…):

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I woke up this morning reading my Tweets on my iPhone while taking the dogs out at 06:00.  The application I use to read Twitter posts is called Twinkle.  I read all of the tweets from people that I have decided to “follow”.  These are people like @leolaporte, @typicalmacuser, @maccast, @kevinrose and so on.  They are all computer industry related people.  My normal scan for the  morning.  Most of the participants are at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas at this moment.  I like the ability to see what is happening in the industry in real-time.  It is a very interesting technology.  

I then switch to the “nearby” tweets.  You can configure Twinkle to see the latest nearby tweets.  It uses your current location to see who is close to you.  I was reading the tweets as normal and checked out some of the pictures.  The normal “beer bottle” pictures appeared as expected when people are describing their night out.  I was shocked seeing two of the pictures from the same user.  This is where my horror begins.  One of the pictures from this user was of his penis while it was urinating.  Another was of his penis while erect.  Immediately I begin to think about my little and unborn Zoe.  Twinkle is an innocent application as one would expect.  It is the users that make it scary.  I was thinking of all of the filters that I could apply to any computer that Zoe might use and how I could keep this stuff out of her view.  Twinkle would not have even been on my radar as an unsafe application.  

In thinking about all of messed up crap that my child will be exposed to, I begin to worry.  I can only hope to educate her to the best of my ability about the strange and dangerous people that are out there.  She has to know that it could be as close as the guy across the street that we say good morning to weekday mornings while going to school.  She has to be armed with as much information as I can give her to quickly asses situations and avoid any danger if necessary.  Hopefully, I can provide her ammo.  

Does anyone have advice that they would like to share that would educate/shield her from the freaks of this world?

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We ordered her minivan and my truck at the same time - 3/11/2008. I have had my truck for some time. We have not heard a peep about her van. We would casually ask about the van every now and then. When we reached the 5 month mark, Tammy started calling. David (Salesman) said he would call back a couple of times but did not. He would apologize but that was not getting the van to us any faster. I put on the “man pants” and gave him a ring. They were not able to get the “exact” one but got us one with a ton more options for close to the same price they originally quoted. I think she will be VERY happy as this thing is FULLY LOADED. It is missing one SMALL thing. That is it. Out of all of the options, it is missing a glass break sensor. No big deal as she will get an alarm with a remote-start anyway. That will include glass break. The van is coming from Houston and should be ready next week! Yay!

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Grandma Anne has already been hard at work. Zoe receives her first package today!

Note from Grandma Anne -

Package contents -

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I did this before encoding the ultrasound video. I just goofed around with a little clip of Tammy. Enjoy!

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This ultrasound showed us that our child is a GIRL!

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I find it far too common for people to rant and rave about bad service.  I would like to praise the work of my wife’s doctor, Dr. Gus Freiha.  He is a Urologist in the San Marcos, Tx area.  

I’ll start with a small background about my wife’s situation.  She was 5+ months pregnant and I rushed her to the emergency room as she had a severe pain in her back along with vomiting and cramping.  After several hours in the emergency room, they transferred her into the hospital.  We spent several days there as she was diagnosed with a 12mm kidney stone which was successfully removed by Dr. Freiha.  

I was able to attend all meetings and discussions with my wife and Dr. Freiha.  The only time that I was not around was during surgery.  Dr. Freiha explained every detail of the surgery and left little room for questions.  The questions that did arise were answered politely and with great detail.  He spent ample time with us and we never felt rushed.  Prior to my wife entering the operating room, Dr. Freiha explained every step.  He told me that he would come see me in approximately 45 minutes, explain how things went, then go back and she should be ready in about an hour.  I did not have to wonder about what I should do or how long I had.  I waited 45 minutes, had a discussion with the doctor and had time to get a quick lunch before seeing my wife again.  I never felt left out or wondering what was going on.  I could almost picture every event in my head. 

Our follow-up visits have been just as smooth.  He removed her stent in his office and explained everything to the second.  She knew when to expect pain and for how long.  This made the process extremely smooth.  When you know that there is pain coming, it is good to know that it will end very soon (stent removal only gets a little bit of local numbing).  He even considered our child in all of this ordeal.  He asked that we come back after the child is born so he can get complete x-rays to check the other kidney.  He could not be as thorough as he would like to be as there was a baby in her belly.  

If I should ever need medical help in the future, I hope that I would be lucky enough to find someone as good as Dr. Freiha.  I would recommend his service any day.

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I saw a tweet that Kevin Rose was going to join the hundred pushups challenge.  I decided to join the challenge too!  If you are going to do it also, drop me an email.

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Can you guess where we are for a 14:00 breakfast? She is cheating, by the way…

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I did a restore recently.  Check out this post before you do it, please.

Tom Thinks that iPhone restore can be a bummer…

–Tom

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Man! I have had enough with sick people!  Now, the maid, Alice is sick too!  I have sent an email to support to see if she can be revived.

Alice (our Roomba Vacuuming Robot 2.1 - Model 4170), has fallen ill.  Her brushes don’t seem to rotate any longer.  After her last cleaning assignment, the bin was pretty clean and there was no dog hair in the brushes.  I cleaned her up to run again but she refused to pick up dirt.  I followed her around cupping my hands at her exhaust to ensure that the vacuum was working.  That was good.  I then placed the “nose-end” on the table and started her so I could see the under-side of her.  I noticed that the brushes were not spinning.  I turned her off and the brushes spun correctly by hand.  I disassembled the brushes and cleaned her undercarriage.  I then performed the same tests but her brushes still did not spin.   Is she injured?  Is she sick?  Help me iRobot, you’re my only hope…

 

I hope she can pull through.  I can only handle so much.  I like to add humor to my support questions in case you couldn’t tell…

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What the heck am I going to post about this morning?  Well, I wanted something that made me especially happy.  I had breakfast and smiled because I recalled so many childhood memories.

I grew up in Germany for a good part of my life.  Like any place, there was good and there was bad.  I was a picky little fellow when it came to food but when I found something that I liked, I more than overcompensated.  To start, they had different bread.  It wasn’t the good old “white bread” like we have in the states.  It was a big home made loaf that we had to cut ourselves.  The bread was darker and dry.  At the time, I did not appreciate it compared to white bread.  They would have all kinds of cold-cut meat and jellies to accompany the bread.  They only used real butter.  A normal person would start drooling now.  As an adult, I wish I could sit at a table that had an assortment like we had every day.  The only thing that I found as a child that would make the bread palatable was this chocolate stuff called Nutella.

Nutella is a hazelnut spread with skim milk & cocoa.  It has the consistency of peanut butter.  I would spread that all over that dry bread and fill my belly like you wouldn’t believe.  As we moved to the US, my family in Germany would ship some over on special occasions as we could not find it in the USA.  I would bring a toaster in to my bedroom along with a loaf of white bread and a gallon of milk (I was a teen and growing).  The bread had to be toasted so it would spread nicely.  It also melts the Nutella “just right”.  

I can’t say that you can lose weight with this stuff.  It has 190 calories per table spoon.  It also has 11g of fat with 22g Carbs.  All but one of the carbohydrates is sugar.  On the bright side - you get 3g of Protein!  Wow, that’s about a half of an egg!

So, if you want to have a great big smile in the morning as you shove a piece of toast covered in this wonderful chocolate spread, BUY SOME!  I find it in HEB now.  It is originally from Italy.  Germany picked it up really quick and it was a big seller.  It was so big that competitors started showing up.  I can recall one that was named Nusspli.  Truthfully, I did a taste test between the two and Nusspli won.  Even so, you should run out as fast as you can and give this stuff a try.  Make a piece of toast and spread it on really quick.  Do not let the toast get cold.  Shove it in your mouth and chew.  When you swallow, notice the huge grin on your face!  

You can also check out their website.

UPDATE:  I checked out the website more and noticed that you can get merchandise for just the proofs-of-purchase!  You can get a Spreaders, Cappuccino Mugs and/or T-Shirts!

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Tammy was really tired Sunday and went to take a nap. See if you can find everyone in the picture.

Tammy (human)
Wikki (Yorkshire Terrier)
ibbi (Mixed white dog)
Dali (Cat)

It was funny to see them all just passed out!

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It’s been some time since I have been to the mall. Tomorrow is my wife’s birthday and I have waited as long as I can for her to suggest something. I ventured out on my own and picked up nice things.

As I don’t frequent the mall that often, it seems that the kiosk people have become more aggressive. They jump out of their little shells and attack the women passing by. A few of them with products applicable to men jumped out at me but not that many.

Is this a new thing? Have I been missing this my entire life? I have never noticed them on the offensive. I usually just see the person chewing bubble gum and texting on their phone. There seems to be a new league of “go-getters”.

That was my lunch break. A hectic time at the mall. I did get to eat at my favorite Japanese place though. That made up for it. I did manage to refrain from visiting the Apple store. Whew!

–Tom

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