The Steussy Ranch

I know, I need to put up more Aaron photos. Things are busy at the Steussy Ranch, so we haven’t quite gotten around to posting more. But they will come!

A woman is sued, successfully, for $220,000 for sharing 24 songs on the internet.

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1036120

An auto repair shop is sued for playing the radio so that their customers can hear songs from the airwaves, making it a commercial performance, for £200,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7029892.stm

In the words of Marc Andreesson, in his guide to running Big Companies:

“Appendix for media companies only: For God’s sake, stop suing your customers.”

Good morning! It’s our first weekend to sit comfortably as a family of five. No school, very limited work responsibilities. Time to get things done.

Change those light bulbs. New batteries in the thermometer. Fix the Toyota’s flat tire (since Tuesday, its been sitting in our garage with a flat). Do shopping with everyone. Then naptime back at the ranch.

Very domestic. Very comfortable.

Yes, we’re still here. I haven’t posted for a couple of days since work has increased to a level similar to August again. It’s High Season here in the Videogame support community. And Baby Aaron is great. I have a few stories.

We took Baby Aaron out for his first walk on Tuesday after dinner. We piled him into his stroller (new for baby #3) and took him around the block. That’s a very big “we”. Mom holding Camilla’s hand and pushing the stroller. Dad and Dan-dan each with a leash attached to Pappy, as Pappy jumps from smell to smell. Gabi was exhausted after the short walk.

We’d decided awhile ago that the kids should go to daycare when Baby Aaron arrived. It would give Mom more time to relax, recuperate and get minor things done around the house. For two years, Dan-dan had been going to the local preschool, a short 3 or 4 minute walk away. Expensive, though. And he never really seemed to learn anything there.

Last week, we decided to try another school. There are two Montessori schools in Temecula, Christian and secular. While I’d heard that the Montessori schools were good, I knew nothing about them. We enrolled them in the secular one, and their first day was yesterday. It turns out that in Dan-dan’s class of 24 four year-olds, Dan-dan is the only one not able to read. I may kick myself about a lost opportunity in the future. Camilla, at two years old, is part of the entering class, so she’s not starting at a deficit.

This may be good practice for Dan-dan. Entering Hungarian preschool next year, he’s going to be at an even bigger deficit compared to his whole class—his Hungarian language skills are limited to talking with Mom.