The Sorensens

Part Deux

Haakon Sorensen — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:53:00 +0000

Can a miracle be repeated? On Wednesday, we welcomed our daughter into the world. Her name is Ingrid Gwyneth, meaning “beautiful happiness/joy”. She was born at home, 6lb 11oz, 19.4 inches long, healthy and alert at 3:58am, May 28th, 2008.

Labor was wonderfully short and shockingly easy. A couple of days later both mother and baby are doing very well. Jenny is losing weight, Ingrid is gaining weight, and the rest of us are keeping busy.

I have taken to calling her “squeaker”, as she lets out a good squeal when she wakes up hungry. Sounds like such a girl! :)

~Haakon

A Nice Cuppa

Jenny — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:44:00 +0000

We’ve been having a rainy day in Seattle–consistent overcast, showers, and 63/17 degrees. I usually love the sun and the heat that we had been having, but today I am enjoying the rain. Something about the comfort of being all snug and warm in the house appeals to me today. I don’t feel the need to rush out and enjoy the sun while it lasts; I can just be. Trygve is sleeping peacefully (at the moment, touch wood), there are brownies baking in the oven, and I can actually enjoy a hot cup of tea in the mid afternoon without breaking into a sweat. I apologise to all my friends in Edinburgh who are probably craving a warm, sunny afternoon and an excuse to sip a cold smoothie, but here I am enjoying a break from the heat and savouring a nice cuppa. It makes everything better!

Cheers, Jenny

Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets

haakon — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:53:00 +0000

Have you heard of them? In their own words, Sass is:

a meta-language on top of CSS that‘s used to describe the style of a document cleanly and structurally, with more power than flat CSS allows. Sass both provides a simpler, more elegant syntax for CSS and implements various features that are useful for creating manageable stylesheets.

It has cool features like:

Better formatting for complexly nested selectors
Math support (use simple mathematical expressions)
Constants – define a color in one place and use it throughout your file. Want to change it later? Change it in one place only!

To learn more, check out the Sass Documentation. Sounds nifty, eh? I just came across Sass last week and have since change my css files over and it is a definite improvement. Less typing, more readable, better in every way. The only downside is that my editor didn’t give me nice color syntax highlighting for my .sass files.

I’ve just started using the NetBeans 6 editor which has some very nice ruby support. Here is a movie showing off some of it’s features. Unfortunately, it currently does not have support for sass files. So, I took a little bit of time and created a NetBeans module to provide syntax highlighting for Sass files. The beauty of syntax highlighting is that in many ways it works like a compiler, letting you know of errors in your code earlier rather than later. While working with Sass I found it a little annoying to make a mistake in my Sass file and not see the problem until I actually refreshed the page in a browser. Color highlighting can make your mistakes more obvious and findable. For example, when I was converting my css files to sass files, I would often make an error like follows:

a
  :font-size: 10px

I would put the colon to the front of the property name, but forget to remove the colon at the end. Color highlighting can highlight that as you are working on the file making it easier to catch errors. At the moment this is very much in a beta state, but please feel welcome to download and install the module. Currently it only supports sass property names with the colon at the front, rather than at the end.

[Update]

I’ve since found a more recent plugin that someone else is doing a fine job of maintaining. Download the plugin by Dylan Bruzenak

Enjoy!

~haakon

Fixed Impressions

haakon — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:18:00 +0000

For Father’s Day (and Christmas, Birthday, etc.), my lovely wife gave me a new bike. What is better than getting a new bike? Delightful in itself, but to make it more interesting, how about a new bike in a very old style? A growing community of people are riding single speed bikes, and an even smaller segment, fixed gear bikes. I’ve been interested in these bikes, and have now made the plunge. I am currently commuting to work on a Bianchi San Jose fixie.

What would possess me to lose 18 gears and only ride with one? Some will say that a fixed gear is very efficient. In some respects it is: a perfectly straight chainline, no shifters, no chainrings, no cassette, A fixed gear bike will be lighter than its counterpart, and the drive train will be more efficient. Also, maintenance is drastically less when you remove all these components from a bicycle. Finally, the unquantifiable feeling you get from riding such a bike is addictive. Somehow I feel like I am riding the quintissential bike when I am riding my fixie. Nothing to think about but pedalling. Total quiet. Everybody should be riding this way!

No! The obivous “but” is that you will not be as efficient if there are any hills where you ride. Though a single speed bike is very efficient on the flats, as soon as hills are introduced all bets are off. Some people ride single speeds as training practice. This is because a single gear forces you to go faster up hills (if you can). Your option is to become a stronger cyclist, or die! (Okay, death may not necessarily ensue).

Also the first time you ride a fixie is freaky! Hop on and it is a little bit tricky to get your feet in the pedals as you cannot pause during your spin to get your foot in. But then it all feels nice and smooth. Really smooth. The bike is quiet, chain is silent, nothing to think about but pedalling. The joy of cycling is there. You are sitting on a machine that magically makes you able to travel miles in 4 minutes rather than 20. Sheer poetry. Oh wait, red light up ahead, I must stop. Begin braking and coasting. WAH! The pedals won’t stop! I almost fell off! Rear wheel seems to be skidding a bit! Oh yeah, the pedals never stop while the bike is moving. Ok, don’t panic, slow down bit by bit. Phew, disaster averted. And don’t get me started on the first time you go down a steep hill. Suddenly what has previously been a delight has been transformed into a terror.

But it gets better! After two weeks I am feeling good. Stops are not a problem, mild downhills are doable, I cruise up most hills faster than I ever would have before. Steep downhills are still not the joy they used to be, but neither do they raise my heart rate. I figure the real test will occur when I try riding a “normal” bike again. Will I want to go back? Who can say.

~haakon

Twenty Hours in Spandex

Haakon Sorensen — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:19:00 +0000

This past week I have been doing the most epic commute I have ever attempted. Each day I travel from our home in Rainier Valley to Poulsbo. This is about 30 miles in total, though I don’t bicycle across the water. Rather, I bicycle to the ferry, then bus from the ferry to Poulsbo, then ride the remainder of the trip to work. At a little over two hours one way, I am spending over twenty hours this week wearing spandex. Perhaps you would like to try it? You needn’t cycle, you could just wear spandex half of your day at work. Go on!

It is an interesting commute. Going across the water is beautiful. I particularly enjoy watching the ferry unload, and seeing all the bicyclists and motorcyclists come off first. It is a veritable horde of cyclists rampaging out of the gates. Such fury! Such power! And then the motorcycles which are of course a bit of a letdown after the bikes.

Would I want to do it for any extended period of time? No, it is far too much of my day spent traveling. But it is an interesting diversion for a short while.

~haakon

Haulin' Donuts!

haakon — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 02:53:00 +0000

For the past month on so we have been delighted to ride around on our new bike, Morag. This past week I have really put the bike to the planned use and have been very pleased. On Tuesday, I transported among several other things, a microwave from Ballard to South Seattle. Woohoo!

The amazing thing is how much of a non-event the ride was. Yes, the bike was a bit heavier, but it handled everything just fine. The only rough bit was that Seattle pulled out the stops and dumped rain on me for about half the trip.

My next favorite haul has to be on my commute in to work. I stopped in to the local QFC to get a dozen donuts, but the bags on the bike were all full with my laptop, clothes, lunch, etc. I didn’t really want to put the box vertically in the bags as I was worried about them getting crushed. Fortunately, it had sprinkled lightly and so the wooden snap deck was a bit damp. I optimistically set the cardboard box just flat on top of the snap deck, and the moisture kept it from slipping at all! And so I cycled the remaining half mile into work with a box of donuts sitting casually on my back rack. The reward was sweet!

~haakon

Whirlwind Life Changes

Jenny — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:23:00 +0000

Here is a high speed catch up with the Sorensens…

32A Warrender Park Terrace is ours no longer. We organised, the removal men came, they drank tea, they worked their back sides off, and at the end of two days we had an empty flat. After some serious scrubbing and some generous friends who were willing to take our remaining food (we had an ungodly amount of pasta and olive oil), we handed our keys over to Braemore and walked away with a sadness in our gait.

After some sad but lovely goodbyes, we set off for Scandinavia. I have to add here that Trygve has been an amazingly good traveler and a trooper with all the change we have put him through in the last month.

Stockholm was as beautiful as we imagined it would be. We stayed in a small, quaint hotel in the Old Town that exceeded our expectations. It was a bit of a trick figuring out how to share a room with a seven month old person, but after the first night we adjusted. Our highlights of Stockholm were the Vassa Museet and wandering through the streets of the Old Town. The strangest thing about Sweden was being in a foreign country where we didn’t speak the language at all, but looked so much and felt so much like we belonged. After four lovely nights we caught the train and rolled our way to Oslo. We had a rough start in Oslo as I rolled my ankle walking away from the train station and had to slowly limp our way to the hotel. Needless to say we took it easy that evening. The next day was Sunday and they take their ‘day of rest’ very seriously in Norway-~~everything was closed except for 7-Eleven and a Deli deLucca. We learned that day that Norwegians like to watch a lot of skiiing~~-Cross Country skiing. A bit boring after more than ten minutes. Luckily things picked up on Monday. After a quick trip across the street to buy a brace for my ankle, we were off to the Viking Ship Museum and the Nordic Heritage Museum. The skill they have with wood is impressive!

We enjoyed our time, but were glad to be heading off again. The whirlwind continued with a quick stop in Edinburgh and a wonderful last dinner with close friends—curry, cup of tea, and good conversations. It definitely made our last night in the city we’ve called home memorable and bittersweet. We are going to miss Edinburgh and our friends there greatly!

We are now in Florida and have been enjoying the slowed pace, help from grandparents, lovely weather, pool time, sunsets over the beach, good conversation, and today we are off for a bicycle ride. This is the perfect way to transition back and wait for our stuff to make the crossing. Couldn’t be better really!

Cheers, Jenny

Visiting Home

haakon — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:30:55 +0000

It is a strange feeling to visit a place that used to be home. It is both familiar, yet strange at the same time. This Christmas we left Edinburgh and traveled to Seattle to visit with family and friends. Traveling with us was our 5 month old boy. He behaved extraordinary well, but a journey of that length is still wearisome. A thought experiment. Imagine a carry-on bag which weighs roughly 15 pounds which is socially unacceptable to put either overhead, or under the seat. Rather, it must be held on the lap for the duration of the flight. Add to this some drooling, pooing, spitup, etc. This is work enough on its own if the baby is well behaved. Then add the possibility of crying and things begin to get fun. But Trygve was really exceptionally good. I do have significantly more respect for parents and patience with crying children on flights now. One tactic I recommend is to bring earplugs onto the flight to offer to people around you to diffuse the situation a bit.

So what did I notice about the States upon my return?

+ washers and dryers! Having two separate machines parallelizes the task of washing clothes making it possible to do more than 1 load a day. Astounding! Then make the machine large enough to contain more than 3 pairs of socks and you really have something!

+ appliances, bathrooms – I took a long shower at my parent’s house, forgetting that they had a water heater rather than on demand water heating. I thought to myself, man, the UK does this better. But then I thought about the fact that I had showered under gale force water pressure rather than a stream rate which could be compared to the rate of a glacier melting. Hmmm.

+ cheap food, cheap gas, cheap everything! The downside of this is a strong feeling of materialism, that your worth or value or importance is determined by how much you consume. Also, the obesity of the general population is staggering. I suppose an unsurprising side effect of cheap, fast food is that people eat too much. One grandmother observed that obesity may be the biggest health problem facing the nation in the years ahead.

+ friendly – people smile, customer service is actually helpful, random strangers talk to you, I hardly know how to respond!

- cars – It is mind boggling how central cars are to the American way of life. And cars is probably the wrong term to use here, as the number of trucks and SUV’s seems to dwarf the number of cars. Again this may be an example of wealth making it possible to take things to excess.

+ natural beauty – this is perhaps an unfair comparison, for how many places are as beautiful as Seattle? The man made beauty of Edinburgh far exceeds Seattle, but the lakes and sound and mountains in Seattle are stunning.

What did I miss from the UK? Driving is far superior in the UK. People travel at higher speeds, and yet I feel safer (maybe a side effect of having much fewer cars on the road, and smaller ones at that). In Edinburgh a green pedestrian walk symbol means you are safe to go. In the States it means, “now is your chance, but watch out because somebody turning might not see you”. I missed the beauty of Edinburgh buildings, the feeling of history, spires and castles, cobbled streets. And of course, I missed the BBC.

But the most important part of the trip was seeing family. How grand to witness family delight in seeing Trygve for the first time! How glorious to be parented rather than parenting for a while! We loved seeing family and friends, and were blessed by all those we stayed with. Now we return to our quiet life in the windy city.

More Pics!

~haakon

Squeaker Squeakerson

haakon — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 17:26:42 +0000

A random post for the fam – here is Trygve making some noise as he plays>

Squeaker Squeakerson

Autumn Respite

Jenny — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:24:33 +0000

I thought that after the last couple techy posts (informative and enlightening as they are) I would change the pace a touch.

I am continually amazed at how quickly time passes. I look at our son who is coming up for 12 weeks on Thursday and think, when did he get to be such a little person? Last time I checked it was the beginning of August and now in the blink of an eye we are in the thick of October. I’m usually heard complaining about the weather in Edinburgh, but as of late, it has been absolutely beautiful and I wanted to put it on record that I am enjoying this Autumn fully.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk with a new friend Jennie and her 13 week old son Louis. We meandered through the cobbled streets, enjoying the crisp air and the lovely colours. We walked towards the “Hermitage” which is a large ‘park’ just south of our flat with fields, a large hill, pond, creek, and woodland as well. I love that in just 20 minutes walking I can go from the upbeat pace of the city to tranquil countryside. We walked through a field and sat on a bench overlooking it all as the sun was beginning to set. The trees were showing off their full colours, the sky was a lovely hue of pink, and both our sons were peacefully sleeping—a virtual moment of heaven. It was a lovely break in the midst of what can feel like a busy and hectic life filled with feeding, nappy changing, and trying to get chores done around the house. We paused for several blissful moments and took it all in before walking back to home, city, and the clambering needs of our wee little men. A short Autumn respite indeed, but it made for a restorative Sunday evening.

~Jenny