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(Title stolen/tweaked from Coupling episode that I had the misfortune to see last night, and worse, the amazement at it to sit through it all.. Now I’ve seen it once and can avoid it like the plague…)

The daughters are already in cahoots. When one’s asleep, the other’s awake. Up to today, I could count on the option of reclaiming some much-needed sleep during Cora’s nap. She always naps for two hours or a bit more in the early afternoon. Callie’s so little that she naps nearly round the clock, particularly if she’s just eaten. But today, no such luck. Cora went down, as planned. Callie stayed up. Oh, she snacked and dozed, but no sooner would I lay down to attempt to recoup some of my sleep loss from last night then she’d wake up again and start fussing. Pacifiers didn’t soothe her, swaddling her didn’t soothe her – only being gently bounced or given another go-round at the mommy Atkins diet plan (babies prove it wrong – no carbs [directly, anyway], yet they still gain a ton of weight) would calm her. Get her calm, put her back in the bassinet, sneak under the comforter to doze and … the cycle would begin again. I _think_ she’s down for the count this time, but I’m already hearing Cora begin to stir, so my nap time has come and gone. Given that Callie granted me one 3 hour stretch of sleep last night, and then nothing more until my husband graciously granted me another hour and a half by whisking her away with a bottle, I’m running a little low on steam here. Maybe tonight will be better (hah!).

It’s funny. Among the many guidelines for nursing mothers (no caffeine, no alcohol, no gassy foods, no spicy foods, …) is the instruction to get plenty of rest. What cruel, cruel words…

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Priorities, priorities, priorities… Write a blog entry? Clean a bathroom? Try to learn something more about Java or BEA’s WebLogic product? Heaven forbid, spend time with my husband? Nah – I’m a mom with an infant who goes two, maybe three hours tops between feedings, max, round the clock. Priority #1: get a shower. Priority #2: go to sleep. Anything else will either slide into some time slot when I can’t sleep (that whole sleep when the baby sleeps thing works great with the first child – doesn’t work so well when it’s child #2 and child #1 is a toddler) or will just have to slide off the plate together. All brain cells are now targeting pillow territory.

And for that co-worker who questioned my commitment to the company for not coming in for a non-billable meeting on my non-paid maternity leave on the morning when my daughter had a doctor’s appointment that was otherwise keeping me from sleeping??? Pffffffft. Remind me to remind you about your commitment when/if you have children. And should your wife take all the burden of childcare off of your shoulders, remind me to remind _her_.

Upcoming blog entry: thoughts sprouted from reading Fortune magazine’s annual issue on women in business, combined with reading ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It‘, by Allison Pearson. An interesting convergence of reading material, not consciously chosen to point and counterpoint.

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This entry is a draft of a portion of a required essay for entrance into business graduate school. The topic is my reason for pursuing a business graduate degree. I’m posting this draft for critique, in the same way that you’d ask a classmate to proof read a paper. Thanks for any comments. Comments of the “this is awful” sort can be emailed directly to me. (t i n a – at – this domain)Wonderful praise should of course be posted here…

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To put it in the most blunt terms possible, a business graduate degree represents to me the required next step both personally and professionally. My undergraduate degree is a dual degree in computer science and economics. Computer science offered me a hands-on skill; economics showed me how to look at the business arena in which my technical skills are offered. Several years of work later in the software industry, I ve become more and more convinced that the value of my technical skills and abilities is tied to the way that they solve customers business needs. I want to understand those needs, be able to speak knowledgeably of the return on investment of my services, and be able to craft the solution that solves a business need, rather than merely a technical itch. My economics degree began to hint at the impacts of markets and trends on business needs, but took much more of a broad-brush approach than the in-depth detail I find myself lacking. I need to understand the financial models used by businesses, the case studies in marketing, management, and operations from companies who have done well and companies who have failed miserably, and the skills in strategy necessary to craft a company or project s direction. Personally, attaining these skills represents an accomplishment worth working for, a business itch scratched in the same way that mastering a technology scratches a technical itch. Professionally, the value of a geek understanding the problems or opportunities of a customer is immense, both within my current company and in the industry overall. This geek envisions proposing business solutions implemented via technical means, rather than the technical solution du jour shoehorned onto a business need that s only been loosely translated into the technical realm. A business graduate degree will earn me the knowledge and skills necessary to be the geek whose solutions add recognizable value to the customer.

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Born to two computer geek parents, Callie entered the world on 10/10 at 1:10 am. (Never mind that she was supposed to come some 8 hours or less after induction began on 10/9… she’s apparently as stubborn and determined to make her own way as her mommy.) That either makes her a binary baby (all 1s and 0s, for my non-geek readers) or her own long-distance calling plan code (just dial 1010 0110, plus the number, to get our best rate ever!).

Surprisingly, she’s blond. Not sure why that’s such a surprise – Jason was blond as a little guy, and still has some blond in his beard. But we’ll get to see first-hand whether blondes have more fun… heaven help us!

Check out pictures of our new little girl. Please grant me more than a little leeway in any pictures that have me in ’em… 15 or so hours of labor just doesn’t do much for a gal’s looks. (My) vanity aside, Callie’s cute enough to cover the two of us. And pics with Cora in ’em (the new big sis!), too, just are nearly too cute to bear.

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I’ve been Jonesing for another PDA again. It’s not as if my Treo 90 doesn’t work… I depend on it to keep my calendar, contacts, to-do lists, and the like all in order. The problem is one of layered Jonesing. See, SanDisk is releasing a wireless access card for Palm OS 5.x sometime this fall. My Treo only supports OS 4.x, so I can’t add the card/get the really cool geek toy on my Treo. Combine that with a Jonesing for a new phone integrated with my set of phone numbers stored on my organizer (Jason got me started here), and suddenly I’m out surfing PalmOne and Handspring.

Problem is, there doesn’t yet seem to be a product that meets my needs/wants. I love the keyboard on my Treo – don’t want to give that up. I don’t want to pay for a data access plan, so don’t want to use the wireless capabilities that are built into some of the PDAs. I’d rather use the SanDisk card and just use the network available at home or at work. (I really don’t need instantaneous access to my email or the web while I’m at the mall or the grocery store – at least not at today’s data access plan rates.) And I want a built-in phone. So, I need a PDA that has a built-in keyboard, is a smartphone PDA, and uses Palm OS 5.x. Doesn’t seem to exist yet, unless the Treo 600 ends up fitting the bill (and then I suspect I won’t like its price). Palm’s Tungsten W _almost_ fits the bill, but its OS is listed at 4.x, rather than 5.x, so that card (when it’s available for the Palm OS) won’t work. I have hope, though – the Palm datasheet for the Tungsten W lists it as 4.x, but on their product comparison sheet, they list it as 5.x. Not much hope, though – the product data sheet also lists it as 4.x – and you can’t upgrade from 4.x to 5.x, ’cause they require different processors. Boo hoo. Guess I’ll have to restrain myself for a while…,and just keep drooling for the “perfect” PDA.