2003 brought A.

2004 saw us married.

2005 brought little Sadie into our lives.

I’m really looking forward to 2006.

Let’s see, what am I forgetting? Need to make sure we write down everything we’re going to need for this trip…

This week on Survivor, Cindy won a car in the competition over the other four players. The producers then gave her a choice: keep the car or give the other four people cars of their own.

A. (my fabulous wife, the tax lawyer) looked at me over the baby and said, “You know, if Cindy gives the cars away, that’ll have pretty serious gift tax consequences.”

I replied, “Interesting. We’re likely the only couple in America having this conversation right now.”

We’re hiring a designer. Could it be you? Here’s the job description:

Ever want to transform a Web 1.0 company that makes money into a Web 2.0 company that makes money? Ever want to help people find jobs? Wish you could improve this very site? Here’s the opportunity. Boston.com is redesigning its BostonWorks site, and we need an outstanding interactive designer to help us dominate the Boston recruitment marketplace.

Strange things are afoot in the recruitment space. Monster.com is strong; Yahoo HotJobs keeps getting better; CareerBuilder does great things with its guided search; vertical search engines like SimplyHired and corporate-cousin Indeed are shaking up the industry business model. Many are experimenting with different ways of connecting job-seekers to employers, but no one has really nailed it yet. Chaos reigns.

But, in chaos lies opportunity, and Boston.com is well-placed to stake its claim as the powerhouse in the market. We have the most job listings in Boston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom and the ability to localize and customize in a way our friendly national competitors can’t touch.

We need someone who can think through an interactive design that will win, someone who can design a site so useful that job-seekers love it, employers will give us lots of money to be on it, a site that’s just so damn good it’ll shoot onto del.icio.us/popular when it launches.

We have a strong position to build from. We have the rest of the team on board. You are the final piece.

So, who are you?

You love the web and its endless possibilities. You play around with websites for fun. You’ve likely already done your own Google Maps hack, just to see what it could do. You have your own domain to show off your work. You don’t use a Hotmail address.

You like the idea of being able to help tens of millions of monthly visitors, help regular folks trying to improve their lives.

You were writing XHTML before it was all the rage. You know the ins and outs of box-model hacks. You curse IE, but make it work.

You have a strong presentation and design skills as well as familiarity with web usability. You know your way around Photoshop and know how to translate your designs to the web. You have an eye for design and a respect for the information you are trying to communicate. You can wrangle a roomful of opinions into a thoughtful, accessible and dazzling design. When you spill your coffee, your first thought is “command Z.”

You can spell. You write emails in full sentences with proper capitalization.

You believe in the power of the media (Boston.com, The Boston Globe, The New York Times) to improve our community.

You believe the Standells when they sing “Boston, you’re my home.”

You believe in doing right by the job-seeker.

You know there’s more than one way to do it.

So, what’s the job?

You’ll start by designing the BostonWorks.com website. The building blocks are all here, scattered on the living-room rug. You get to put the design the building and help put the blocks together. You’ll handle the visual design (with help from the rest of the design department) and plan the interactive design (with help from our developers and product people). You’ll get your hands dirty (in a good way).

After launch, you’ll keep working on BostonWorks, but we’ll also find you more worlds to conquer. Recruitment is only one of our many sections.

So, is this right for you?

Can you design an application that does right by the job-seekers and the employers? Can you design in a way that accentuates our unique strengths and differentiates us in the marketplace?

Can you do it in a collaborative atmosphere?

If you’re really interested, we’d love a thoughtful letter telling us why. Please write us a note, along with your resume and (most importantly) links to interesting things you’ve done. We run a job board, so believe us when we say we can smell boilerplate a mile away — it’s worth a few minutes to think it through

It starts with a little squeak, then a grunt. The bassinet shakes from her thrashing.

Uh oh, the meltdown is coming. I can see the little clock in my head ticking down: 24 seconds until screaming…23…22…21.

Run over. Is it food? Diaper? Random fussiness? Must think quickly…10…9…8.

Ok, pick her up — support the head!…5…4.

Woo Hoo! Meltdown averted.

Until next time.

I’ve changed the site banner, the image that shows up at the top of each of the weblog pages. For those of you reading in a newsreader, you’ll need to click through to the site to see it. You may have to refresh a time or two.

By far the best music we’ve found for soothing the baby is Thelonious Monk’s Solo Monk album. I highly recommend it for the baby’s room.

It’s also a pretty fabulous record for grownups, too.

I can’t believe how hard it is to actually order 3×5 prints online.

We’re putting a picture of Sadie in the envelope with the birth announcements. A. took care of all the hard pieces; all I had to do was pick the picture and order 60 prints to ride along with the cards. Little did I know this would turn into a 45-minute adventure.

I went to Ofoto and uploaded the picture. I then went to order, but they didn’t give me an option to order 3×5. So, I went to Shutterfly. Then Snapfish. None of the main providers of prints will sell you a 3×5 print. Eventually, I found dotPhoto, a site kind enough to actually allow me to buy prints from them.

I’m really surprised that none of the major sites support this size, because 3×5 is still a pretty standard card size.

Still no baby. She’s likely coming tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re trying to handle today like any other day, starting with a hearty breakfast.

And yes, we are a “two laptops at breakfast” family.

This baby is never coming out. Entering the forty-second week, our baby girl is perfectly comfortable right where she is. Her mother is somewhat less comfortable.

We went back to Metrowest Medical Center (nee Framingham Union Hospital) this morning for our second non-stress test and AFI of the week. Everything is still perfect, operating within normal parameters, etc. Tomorrow, we’re back to the doctor’s office for our regular appointment. If nothing’s happening by Sunday morning, the doctor will bring us back to the hospital and induce labor.

By Monday morning, I may have some exciting news to post here.

Here are more pictures from my parents’ recent trip to Brazil. These are pictures of Cristo Redentor, “Christ the Redeemer,” the 100-foot-high statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I really love the mood of the long shot.

I’m still jealous of my parents’ recent trip down the Amazon in Brazil. Here’s one of my favorite pictures of theirs from the trip, a black-and-white picture of a small Brazilian crocodile.

My phone rang at 7:04 this morning, and on the other end was the stupidest person in the world.

I say, as I generally do, “Hello.”

She demands “Who’s this?”

I’m not sure of the etiquette in other parts of the world, but here in New England, that’s considered pretty rude. You called me.

“This is Jason. Who’s this?”

“Where’s Mark?” she replied, apparently looking for Mark Ryberg, the previous owner of my phone number. We’ve gotten a ton of calls over the past 10 months looking for the Rybergs, and our patience with these calls is starting to wear thin.

“Mark doesn’t live here anymore,” I said, assuming that would be the end of the conversation.

“Where did he go?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met him, I just got his phone number.”

“Did you move into his house?”

“No, I bought my own house.”

“Did you kick him out?”

“No, I just got his phone number.”

“How did you get his phone number?”

“Well, the phone company only has a limited number of phone numbers available, so they recycle them. When I bought this house, they assigned me this number.”

“Can you give Mark a message?”

*click*

For propriety’s sake, I’ll not reveal the caller, but if they call back I’ll let them know about the magic of caller ID and reverse lookup.

Our NSTAR gas bill jumped this month, not only because we put the heat on for the first time, but also because NSTAR raised the rates. I’m not looking forward to this winter’s bills.

On the plus side, NSTAR just helped us install insulation in our attic, insulation that will likely save us hundreds of dollars this winter. They have a plan which allows homeowners with gas heating to re-insulate their attics and walls, and they’ll rebate 50% of the cost. Thanks to them, our $1,100 insulation job only cost us $550.

If you qualify, you should definitely check out NSTAR’s insulation program.

Weatherization Rebate
Thinking about adding wall insulation, attic insulation or air sealing to your home? If so, you might be eligible for rebates up to $1,500 from NSTAR for such home upgrades. Call 800-654-5833 for more information.

She’s a stubborn, stubborn little girl.

We went over to Framingham Union this morning for additional testing, and she’s perfectly fine and perfectly happy, just not ready to come out. Oh well, if nothing’s happened in the meantime, we’ll induce her on Sunday.

We hope she comes out on her own, though. From what I’ve heard, pitocin is not our friend.

Many months ago, the baby told me that she’d be arriving on Friday, November 4th. I took her at her word and blocked out today in my calendar. It’s now the fourth, and I’m just sitting here at home drumming my fingers and waiting.

Turns out she was using the project-management definition of “it’ll be done by Friday,” meaning “it’s not really due until 7:59am Monday.”

New job. Long commute. Impending baby. While tending these new demands on my time, I may have allowed a thing or two to slip through the cracks. Yardwork, for example.

Can you pinpoint the property line?

As it turns out, there’s actually a fairly big difference between one centimeter dilated and one *inch*.

Oops.

So much for me sounding like an intelligent father-to-be in front of the doctor.

Yes, it’s been a while. We’ve been killing ourselves trying to get everything squared away before the baby arrives, an event that could happen any time now.

One of the last things on the list is complete. I now have an official will and estate plan. I’m such a grown-up.

As it turns out, it’s pretty handy having a wife who is a trusts-and-estates lawyer.