Joel Rendall's Blog

Imagine you were in the doctor’s office one day with an upset stomach that won’t go away, and left with the news that you were unexpectantly pregnant. This is exactly what happened to my friend Vera Teschow, and her husband Trevor Omerod six years ago:

“A few weeks after learning the news, I went to the midwife’s office. Desperate for some relief from the everwhelming “not-just-morning sickness” I had been having, the midwife took a listen to my tummy.  After a few minutes, she announces, ‘I don’t want to alarm you, but I think I might be hearing two heartbeats in there!’ (The increased hormone levels that come from a twins pregnancy can heighten pregnancy symptoms like morning sickness and swelling.)”

After finding out they were going to have twins, Vera and Trevor’s lives were completely turned upside down, with their goals and priorities immediately altered.

Apparently, an ever-growing number of couples are experiencing precisely the same thing, as multiple births are becoming increasingly common throughout the world. Some say this is partially due to women waiting longer to have children (every year over 35 puts a woman at increased risk of multiples apparently), or using assisted fertility (ART).

Taking everything she learned from having twins, Vera has spent the last 5 years running a prenatal consulting business in Toronto, ON. She has been driving around the city, helping countless other parents who are finding themselves in the same overwhelming position she once was.

On her spare time, Vera has been writing in magazines, and has been an influential voice in the multiple births community.

I can remember when Vera hired me to build her website 4 years ago. During one of our meetings, we had to make a quick stop to drop off some clothes and toys to a family… a huge family. First, the parents had twin boys. Then in an attempt to have a girl, they had 3 more boys – triplets! I guess that was when they learnt realize that the likelihood of having multiple multiple births is very high.

A couple months ago, after 5 years of prenatal consulting, Vera took another careful look at her priorities. Not only are she and Trevor raising twin 6 year old boys, they are also full time educators. (During the day, Vera teaches a grade 3/4 class in a high needs school in southern Ontario, and in the evenings, she delivers part of Tyndale University’s Faculty of Ed program to teacher candidates in the city’s north end.

She also volunteers with TPOMBA and Multiple Births Canada.)  With all this going on, Vera was struggling to meet the growing need for twins-specific prenatal courses. Her course has been in high demand in the GTA (General Toronto Area), and beyond.

With all of the responsibilities piling up, Vera felt that it was time to retire her local prenatal consulting business.

When I heard this, I was actually feeling excited rather than nostalgic. Why? Because I had an idea: Rather than Vera completely retiring from prenatal consulting and therefore wasting all of her expertise, it was time for us to take her business to the next level – the Internet.

It didn’t take much convincing. Vera and I sent a couple emails back and forth, and before we knew it, we had embarked on the new adventure that is BabiesinBelly.com. With my web design expertise and our eagerness to learn about Internet marketing, we have spent the last couple of months bringing Vera’s course to the masses.

We’ve invested hundreds of hours perfecting the content of this course, and it’s finally ready for primetime. Now we have to spread to word, and continue building this online experience that will enable Vera to share her specialized knowledge with the masses.

Check out BabiesInBelly.com to watch how our business unfolds over the next few months. This is definitely an exciting time for both of us, and we’re grateful for the excellent support and feedback we are receiving.

In every port we visit in Central America, fruit is always fresh and plentiful – especially coconuts. Today, I had some Agua de Coco (Coconut Water), from a freshly opened coconut. It cost me $4, plus $1 tip. Compared to other places, this is pretty pricy. This is normal because we were close to the beach.

When I finished drinking the water, I asked the waitress to whack open the coconut so I could eat the meat inside. Coconut flesh is a great source of raw fat, which can be challenging for a raw vegan to get on a ship. Surprisingly, she wasn’t going to charge me to cut open the coconut, but I gave her two more dollars anyway.

Coconut flesh doesn’t appeal to me too much when it is fresh, because it is still pretty slimy from having the water inside. Ideally, I’d let it sit in the sun for a couple hours to dry out.

Since we are not allowed to have food (nor Magic Bullet blenders) in our cabins, it would be wrong for me to make a Coconut smoothie. But using my black-belt Photoshop skills, I have constructed a photo (left) to show you what this scenario might have looked like.

Also shown is a bottle of real vanilla extract, which I paid $8 US for. I had to look in a few different shops to find vanilla that was in a glass bottle. I made sure I got a glass bottle, because in the hot (caliente) weather, I’m sure that some serious toxins would be expelled from the plastic bottles. I’m told it’s cheaper for them to use plastic bottles, and t’s also easier for tourists to get through the airport with plastic bottles.

This morning’s breakfast included a delicious mango. Just as I was about to throw out the mango pit, I glanced over at a bottle of sparkling water / seltzer / club soda (whatever you want to call the stuff).

I put the pit in a glass, then poured the club soda on it. I put it in the fridge with a plate on top (since the bottle was a room temperature).

A few minutes later, I was drinking Mango Pop! It was better than I recall actual soda tasting, and your teeth don’t hate you for it, either.

You can reuse the same mango pit for several glasses. I intend to experiment with different fruit scraps to create different flavours.

At first, when I saw the latest Facebook updates, the larger fonts made me feel more like I was part of a Fisher Price social network. But that was just on the surface, and we all know we should never judge a… website by its fonts.

I was sending a Facebook reply to someone at 2:09 in the morning (don’t judge my sleep habits – I just woke up a few hours ago), and the below screenshot is what I saw.

The logic behind this hurts my brain… maybe I need to go watch Back To The Future again and take notes.

A few weeks ago, I tried a trial of a Mac program called Hazel.

I was tired of looking at a desktop full of random downloaded files, and other pieces of information that I thought I might need, but have no place to file it.

Hazel lets me automatically move files from one folder to another, according to my custom conditions. I set one up that moves all Desktop files that are 24hrs old, to another folder out of sight, called “Desktop Files,” predictably enough.

You can also have it sort files according to file type, which I use for archiving my TV shows after I have watched them.

After the 30 day trial expired, I remember it being pretty cheap to buy – between $15 and $20 (don’t quote me on it). They are obviously a small software company, so it feels good to be supporting them, rather than the big, expensive developers who charge outragous amounts of money (Adobe, cough cough!).

I prefer Mac, but at Joel’s blog, we’re non-OS-denominational, so I’ll Google around for some non-Mac alternatives:

Linux: Ok, I take it back – there aren’t any obvious Linux programs, other than getting geeky with scripting. If anyone with Linux can help (hi Steffi), let me know. Update: Check out Plasma Dashboard, for a solution to keeping your Kubuntu desktop clean. See Steff’s blog post for this, along with additional linux geekery.

Windows: Apparently there’s a built-in desktop cleaner. But if Windows holds true to their reputation, it could be irritating. Try watching this video.