Susanne Moore, a former Covenant nurse who had a baby Friday at the same hospital, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the hospital placed an electronic band on her newborn girl's ankle. She said she was told that if the baby were taken too close to a door or elevator, a sensor would cause the door to lock or the elevator to shut down.
Moore said she also was told that if the band were cut off before it was deactivated, the hospital would be locked down.

1. What has the world come to that we need to do this because we seemingly EXPECT babies to be stolen from hospitals...?
2. Cool idea. I imagine it's RFID technology, but how do you get it to detect when the band has been broken? Does this mean it's a non-re-sizable band that's completely made of electronic components/cables? Is it just a single cable that goes the whole circumference, and if so how do you prevent someone from cutting the rest of the band and slipping that part off? Hmmm.
   
3. This proximity-based door and elevator control is pretty clever, we were talking about something similar on the way home from Disneyland.
4. I can see other hospital applications here, particularly for hospitals that have this proximity based control already... why doesn't the ER/OR double doors swing open when a gurney approaches? (So you have to tag all the EMT's gurneys, but that's okay!) Why doesn't the elevator door automatically stay open when a gurney's approaching unless you press the close button (if you're full, you know).

• A desk for Charles (my desk will be an art desk)
  
• Lamps for the living room, bed room, and office
  
• A laptop stand for me
  
• Folding tables for the living room (between each of the chairs)
  
• A stepping stool (so I can clean the lizard tank, I can't unplug it to bring it down anymore now that it's on the tv cabinet)
  

So, after two visits from the phone company (the first time, they couldn't get into the telcom room because the key wasn't in the lock box and the manager wasn't home), two tech support calls (the installation CD is Windows/Mac, so we didn't have a user name), and two weeks at our new apartment, our DSL is up and running!

So, here's the latest goings on:

• We bought a TV cabinet at Best Buy. It took forever to put together (with just one person anyway) but it matches the wood floors and holds all of our DVDs and VHS tapes with room to spare. We put our lizards on top of it so we can watch them while we watch tv. The only other place for them for now was the kitchen table, because the fireplace mantle was only wide enough for the smaller tank.
• We're waiting to hear back about our application for an Ikea credit card. We've got a shopping list that'll go by quicker if we get that. :)
• I've been sorting clothes, trying to donate about half of my pants and maybe as many of my shirts and sweatshirts and such. It was about time I did that, I have too much clothes.
• The cable that the last resident forgot to turn off was finally shut off yesterday. Now we have to give some consideration about whether we want to pay for cable or not. If not, we need to get an antenna for the TV, beause we're currently not getting any channels at all.

On a side note, I've always heard bad things about YMCA aquatics... don't ask me why, but everyone I know who's worked for a Y never liked it, and I always hear stories about their lifeguards doing homework on duty and generally not doing their jobs. This spans four counties, and more than that many Y locations. Well, yesterday I was in the water for an hour and a half... when the lifeguard on duty started teaching aerobics, another lifeguard arrived, sat down on a plastic chair to put his shoes on, did a head count, and then went in the office never to be seen again. An hour later, he re-appears, puts in the lane lines, then goes away through the locker room. The next lifeguard arrives, now the only guard on duty, does a chem check, and sits at the table. A few minutes later, a lady with a YMCA employee badge, real clothes (not a uniform), and flip flops on comes to stand next to him. He shows her the chem check and they proceed to talk for a good ten minutes before they both go into the office. It appeared that the visitor was a supervisory aquatics employee.

For the last 250 yards or so that I swam, there was absolutely no employee on the pool deck and about 12 people in the water, 3 of whom were non-swimmers with aqua jogger belts. I did not feel safe in that situation... I left a comment in their comment box at the main counter saying "Please have the lifeguards watch the water."
 

What is it with YMCAs and bad lifeguarding? Someone out there have a YMCA lifeguarding text book? Are they telling them something different than we Red Cross people would come to expect?

Blogged with Flock

• Signed a course record sheet that I had filled out but forgotten to sign
  
• Tore off the instructor's copy (pink one) that I wouldn't have gotten had I remembered to sign it in the first place
  
• Brought home the combo cork/white board that I had bought for the office (I hear tell the guy who took my old desk doesn't want it anyway)
  
• Got directions to friend's wedding and wedding reception
  
• Picked up the Title to the Explorer, so I can now officially go change my name on it and add Charles
  
• Found my Red Cross wallet under the DMV stuff! (Hence the title. My mommy likes to put things away in strange hidden places, but things don't get lost when they're hidden so well.)
  
• Went shopping at what my dad calls "the third-hand store" (meaning I picked out what I wanted from mom's second-hand store shopping). I got frying pans, a napkin holder that matches our plates, and some candy dishes
  
• Picked up shirts mom bought for Charles, and a present one of mom's friends sent us for our wedding