My domain

I was thinking about domain names yesterday and I decided to check the availability of some names. I've known for a long time that stevenbrown.com is taken, but if you go to NetworkSolutions.com they allow you to check availability across multiple extensions (after the first search, "Select All Extensions") and it's an interesting measure. Of what I'm not sure, but it's interesting. For instance, stevenbrown is already taken for the following extensions:

• .com
• .net
• .org
• .info
• .tv
• .biz
• .name
• .co.uk
• .eu.

Surprisingly, many of them are not only taken, they're being actively used (and not just parked). This is in addition to the 12 'stevebrown' domains. In contrast, 'amberbrown' is taken for only .com, .net, and .name. The first is defunct (owned by the book publisher, I imagine) and the others are parked. Obviously a less common name, much like 'oliviabrown' (4) and 'carmenbrown' (3).

Even I, however, stand no chance against 'poop', which is taken for 16 of the 20 extensions given (or 'awesome', which is taken for 17). I wasn't brave enough to check out the status of these sites, however.

As mildly entertaining as this may be for you, the real reason I decided to post about this is because in my searches for variations on my name I came across this website -- swillard.com -- which epitomizes why the internet is awesome (and not poop). Enjoy.

Olivia sings the alphabet

Olivia has advanced from saying the alphabet to singing it.


She loves to sing and sings all the time. It's especially funny when she has kitty sing the song: "Meow meow meow meow..."

Here's an encore performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

A place to lay my head

After more than a year of deliberation, we finally bought a bedroom set. I'd like to say we got a great deal on it, but we couldn't ever agree on a high-quality set that fell into the price range we were hoping for. When we found this one we were so sick of going to furniture sales (are they ever not on sale?) that we just decided to buy it and not think too hard about the price.


It's really nice quality, solid wood and all that. I realize the bedspread doesn't really match, but it's the only one that really fits our bed well enough. Amber's working on getting a nicer one with some fancy pillows, etc. Here's the dresser/mirror. We're not sure what to put in all those drawers since all our clothes fit in the closet, but it still looks nice.


This is a cool feature that made me feel a little better about going over our price range (well, this and our tax refund). The nightstands have a built-in power strip for your clock, cell phone charger, etc.


The bedroom set was the final bottleneck for finishing our home decoration, so now all we need is a matching bookcase and desk for our room. Huzzah.

Doc Brown?

A few nights ago I was enjoying the beautiful weather (we haven't run the heat or AC for at least a month, probably more like two) by taking a walk with Olivia. As we got to the end of our cul-de-sac where the main road is visible, I saw the distinctive gleam of a stainless steel DeLorean as it drove by. I suppose this shouldn't be too surprising since, as I mentioned in a previous post, the resurrected company is headquartered near here, but it rekindled my fascination with the car. I don't think I would actually ever buy one -- it would be expensive to maintain, it couldn't be used as an everyday car, and we don't have the space for it -- but the idea is intriguing.

Changes

Carmen has already changed from a newborn into a baby. Instead of only sleeping, eating, and pooping, she now stays awake occasionally and talks to me. Here's the tail end of a conversation we had a few nights ago:


Amber took her to the doctor recently and she checked out just fine and is actually in the middle of the percentiles instead of at the bottom. How odd. It will be fun when she can interact with Olivia.

Olivia, meanwhile, has officially changed into a little girl.
She has been talking in full sentences for a while now, a few months ahead of her 2^nd birthday, and she acts very grown up. Thankfully, she hasn't grown out of being exceptionally sweet and happy just yet.

Easter

The Easter weekend didn't go exactly as we had anticipated because of Amber's surgery, but it was still nice. I think Amber posted this on her blog, but this is what happens when you leave your little girl with a mommy who has lots of little boys (thanks Hyde!):


On Saturday night we dyed eggs, which Olivia really enjoyed. I didn't get any good pictures of that, so here's a cute picture of Olivia holding a plastic egg (and kitty, her new favorite toy).


We all went to church on Sunday, then Amber went home early and I stayed so Olivia could go to nursery. She loves nursery. The girls wore their matching Easter dresses that Hyde got for them and we took some pictures of them in our backyard:




They got tired of it after while...

Afterwards, we set up an Easter Egg "hunt" for Olivia:



She eventually did go get the rest, once she exhausted her supply of "marshellows".

Texas vs. California

As it's said in the blogging world, "hat tip" to WILLisms.com for referring me to this book, specifically this chapter on the current economic differences between California and Texas. It's long for a casual blog post read, but fairly easy reading considering the subject matter. The authors show their bias, but their arguments are hard to refute.

Some points I found interesting:

• Texas is doing extremely well financially, despite having no state income tax.
• People and businesses are leaving states like California and New York that have high tax burdens and going to places like Florida and Texas, which do not. Generally, those that have the most incentive to leave are those making the most money, exacerbating the former states' problems.
• States such as California (and the Federal Government) that rely heavily on a progressive tax code where the rich are taxed at a higher rate than the poor (based on income) are more susceptible to economic downturns because of a wider swing in tax revenue. In boom times, more people fall into higher tax brackets amplifying revenue, but when the bust comes and salaries decline, much of the minority that was providing the bulk of tax revenues falls into lower tax brackets and the overall decrease in revenue is amplified.

The whole book is very interesting reading, if you have time. Also, one of the authors has an eponymous curve representing the optimal taxation idea I was trying to get across in a former post. Basically, I agree with what they say.

Good Oil Days

As you can see from this picture, this morning we went to the Humble Good Oil Days Festival in historic downtown Humble. Amber couldn't bear to look.


Humble is an old oil boom town (there is still a producing salt dome here) so I assume this is a festival to celebrate having lots of oil. It looked to me like a festival to sell kitschy stuff.

Actually it was pretty fun and we even bought a few things. We got several books for 10 cents each, some handmade trays to hold dominos, and a bunch of ribbon. Olivia wanted a lot more than that, including a nice rocking horse, playhouse, walking cat toy, and this hat.

But her favorite part of the whole trip was the dancing. She would have stayed there all day if we'd let her.


She had quite a few fans by the time we got her away. Maybe grandma and grandpa can take her square dancing sometime :)

Videos!

I hope you like watching videos of my children, because that's all there is for this post. I used my conference time to finally upload some videos of the past several months.

Here's Olivia playing the piano (Jan 15). She likes to say "One more time" and other things she hears when Amber teaches piano lessons.


This is Olivia opening her baby stroller (Feb 9). She got this as a big sister gift before Carmen's birth.


Here's Olivia singing rock-a-bye baby to Carmen (Feb 26). Olivia's been a great big sister.


When we went over to Dan's while Heather was here, Olivia really enjoyed hearing her own voice in the American Idol game (Mar 5).


Here's Olivia with the animals at the petting zoo at the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show (Mar 6).


Our neighborhood did a spring celebration and had a field covered in Easter eggs for the little kids to go snag (Mar 28).


This video is kind of long, but it shows Olivia sharing her toys with Carmen (Apr 1).