MichaelandChrissy.com

Chrissy wants a Dyson vacuum cleaner so bad that she can taste it. She has been tempted by all of the advertising spots. Personally, I don’t see the point, since we have owned a Kirby for the last four years. The Kirby works very well, has numerous attachments, is made from die-cast aluminum, and is self-propelled in both forward and reverse via its own Porsche-made transmission. I love the Kirby.

However, Chrissy has shown me a number of positive reviews by Dyson owners. I have read them all, but I’m still not swayed. I believe that there are two main reasons for positive statements regarding the Dyson: one is the glut of crappy disposable vacuum cleaners on the market, and the other is cognitive disonance.

For example, if you’ve spent your whole life eating Saltines, then your first Ritz cracker will be a life-altering experience (thank you, Eddie Murphy). The same goes for vacuums. People spend their whole lives using “disposable” vacs that die out after a year or so of use, and then lose their minds when a working vacuum comes along. If you’ve been using a Kirby for several years, then the Ritz cracker doesn’t seem so impressive.

Second is a psychological term called Cognitive Disonance. Simply put, if you spend a lot of money on something, then you’re inclined to believe that the object must be worth that much money. Rather than believing that you’ve been swindled, your brain does the exact opposite. So, $500 later, you believe that you now own the best vacuum known to man.

This isn’t to say that the Dyson isn’t effective. I’m sure that it is. And I’m sure that people who own a Dyson think that it’s the best vacuum cleaner ever. It’s just that they may be wrong, because they don’t know any better and because their mind (and wallet) reinforces the opinion.

And finally, Kirby rules!

Yahmo is a glutton for attention. Even when we’re sitting Aiden on top of him, he’s still happy for the attention. Suke keeps his distance, but we still get him occaisionally. Aiden loves his kitties, and I’m sure that they’re not looking forward to him being able to walk.

We’re going to submit these to www.stuffonmycat.com, which is an awesome web site. This site features, you guessed it, pictures of cats with stuff piled on them. I wonder what else we could pile on Yahmo?

Today, Aiden held his own bottle during feeding for the first time. Chrissy was feeding him when I came out of the shower this morning, and I noticed that he was holding his own bottle. I was shocked, since I’ve always had to hold the bottle for him. He has put his hands up to the bottle for about a month now, but he was previously unable to hold it up on his own. I’m sure that this is some kind of baby milestone, so I claim Daddy bragging rights!

A couple days ago, he started rolling over on his own. He was rolling over when he was younger, just by sheer momentum of his giant head, but he had stopped doing that once he his body size caught up with his head size and he began to get better control of his neck. Now he’s doing it all the time, and it helps him find those difficult-to-reach toys that someone end up behind you on the floor.

I was recently introduced to uranium trading, which is supposed to be very profitable. James Dines, of the Dines News Letter, highly recommends certain uranium stocks, so I did some research on my own and found that there is definitely money to be made here. I figured that it couldn’t hurt to give it a try, and I hoped to learn more about day trading at the same time.

I have plenty of mutual funds at my broker, but I wanted to try doing the trading myself with the Dines suggestions. So I opened up an account at FirstTrade, and waited several weeks for approvals, account checking, and finally, my first money transfer to complete. Now that I’m ready to trade some uraniums, I find that I can’t trade foreign stocks myself. I have to go through one of their brokers, for which they will most likely charge me through the nose…

The problem is that most of the uranium stocks that I want to try are located in Canada or Australia. The stocks have US-equivalent stock symbols, but they can’t be tracked that way. I’m going to call FirstTrade today and see if I can’t get around the broker-assisted trading fees. Otherwise, I might not be able to do the uranium thing… So far, this has been a learning experience.

I have been hearing about how great probiotics are on the radio for a long time, but never thought much about it. They’re supposed to be “good bacteria” that promote stomach and intestinal health. Since I’ve been plagued with all sorts of stomach ailments for as far back as I can remember, I decided to give them a try. I picked up a two-week supply from GNC.

I have been taking them for about two weeks, two pills every other day in order to stretch out my supply to a full month. I first noticed that the heartburn that had crept up on me over the last several months as gone away. I’ve also noticed certain lower intestinal benefits, similar to those that I got when first taking fiber supplements.

I’ll have to keep up with these until my supply runs out before deciding if I should continue with it. I’ve heard that they also boost your immune system in the long run. In the meantime, I’m seeing some decent immediate effects.

Aiden was baptised on Sunday, January 7th, 2007. He is now officially Catholic, having sat through his first mass and received his christening. I was surprised at how many of our family members showed up for the event. My dad videotaped for us while we were up front, assisting with the baptism.

Afterwards, we had a party at our house. Aiden got a lot of visitors. The last time that we held an event this large in our home, we didn’t have any furniture in the upstairs living room. Space was tight this time around. But everyone had a good time. Chrissy took a lot of photos, and I hope to get those up soon.