"It's looking to be a good install. Since I activated this AM, 225 attempts caught. No spam got through yet...
We'll see, if this doesn't solve the problem I may move back to Textpattern." - Jason Dettbarn
"Sorry about that, Marge. I've changed the commenting system to the one I use on my blog. Have gotten a bunch of 'site ate my comments' complaints over the last few months. Hopefully this helps." - Jason Dettbarn
"OK, so maybe the points were valid for the 5% of small business owners (or what ever extreme minority it is) that it applies to, but why keep on this 'Joe the Plumber' guy if his story isn't true? Two dozen times. McCain dug his own grave on this one... Why? Because 'Joe the Plumber''s "story" is more compelling than saying a (wealthy) small percentage of you will have your taxes go up under Obama's plan. That doesn't sell the issue to the majority of middle class (or 90-something percent who will get a tax cut under Obama) viewers... but "hey, if you work hard and get to a point where you can become an entrepreneur, you are going to be penalized for your hard work." does (or at least more so)... why not come out and say that, instead of keeping on this fake life story? Or, how about this... even easier: find a guy (or gal) that it really applies to and make them the centerpiece of your debate? That would have been too easy, huh? To me, it just seems as if the McCain campaign has..." - Jason Dettbarn
"Sour grapes, you're right... but it's the McSame campaign saying "I'm taking my ball and going home," because they don't like their VP being vetted in public. Saw a recent poll -- over 65% of Americans have no clue about Palin's past performance, her credentials as a 'reformer', or the scandals she is involved in... but almost 70% know about her daughter's pregnancy. Are those the kind of priorities Repubs value? The tabloid, half truth, spin-it-to-death stories? It sure seems like those are the ones they are pushing, because they have no where to stand on the real issues. I mean, what excites you about McCain? If you make under $250k per year, you'll get a better tax break; some kind of universal health care; more focus on the environment and alternative, renewable energies; focus on actually improving education (rather than a policy with a snappy name that doesn't do anything, like Bush); someone who actually understands the constitution and defends it; and someone who acknowledges..." - Jason Dettbarn
“Now that the twins are here, it's obvious we won't fit in the Honda Civic or Mercury Tracer. Without breaking the budget (or slashing our MPGs), what car/SUV/wagon do you recommend?”
Toyota Camry Hybrid, maybe? Not as trendy as the Prius, but uses the same drivetrain. The Prius is pretty much sold out until next year, anyway. There's a hybrid Highlander if you really must ... - Chris Baskind
The goal here is to fit four people in, including 2 car seats, plus dragging along stroller, diaper bag, and groceries on occasion. That might rule out the Camry. - Louis Gray
minivans are tangible evidence of evil. - Hao Chen
leave the kids at home, i will babysit - Allen Stern
Allen, given one already works for you, I think I'm looking for someone who wouldn't already be around the kids 8 or so hours a day. But thanks! - Louis Gray
The Camry is roomy for a midsize sedan, and gas prices at the end of a 3 to 5 year note could be pretty shocking. But if you're really hankering for big, you might want to watch the Chevy Tahoe hybrid. GM only sold about a thousand of them in May, and I'd expect discounts soon on the order of $4500 plus plum financing. - Chris Baskind
I have been in love with my Honda CR-V since the day I got it 3 1/2 yrs ago. Hondas rock the family transport thing - as they tend to rank highest in child safety year after year. They were the first with curtain side-airbags standard. Nice to drive w/ great gas mileage and fantastic handling. Converted me away from Saturns. Definitely check out the CR-V. (geez, I sound like a cult member...sorry - but I love that car.) - Lucretia Pruitt
unfortunately, size does matter when it comes to MPG, hence increasing family is inevitably means longer gas bill and more CO2 into common air - silpol
I'd recommend Pilot over CRV; the new CRV is so sporty, it goes down on utility. - Parth Awasthi
I have three children so if we have anymore we are going to have to upgrade as well! - Joe Dawson (beta)
Whatever you pic, I recommend that it be very gas efficient. I predict a rise in gas prices ;) - Dustin McLaughlin
No idea if you have them in the US but for our kids (18 mo boy/girl twins, 3 week old boy) we bought a Kia Carens. Room enough to bring along helpful relatives too! - Edd Dumbill
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Edd, the Carens is called the Rondo in the states. Thanks for the tip. - Louis Gray
The mileage isn't as good as a Civic, but the Toyota Sienna is quite nice. (assuming you're secure enough to drive a minivan :) We used to have a Subaru Forester, which was nice, but babies have a lot of accessories, so it's good to have the extra space. - Paul Buchheit
I am not sure if it is available in the USA, but we are very happy with our Honda FR-V (goes under the name EDIX in Japan), a 6 seater with a reasonably large trunk. With two car seats installed in the back there is enough space left on the third seat for an adult, so when the kids were small one of us could sit next to them on long trips. And with the folding middle front seat, grandma and grandpa can fit onboard too. The 2.2l diesel iCDT has average fuel economy but gives daddy a bit of sporty feeling ;) - Vlado Handziski
Honda have about the most fuel-efficient engines (fact). Now that they also do Diesel engines, maybe something like the Honda CR-V [perspective from a Europe person] - john conroy
Happy Toyota Highlander Hybrid owner here. Handles our two kids and their stuff very well and offers AWD (which we need in our climate / area). Not sure if there's still a tax incentive. Smart driving techniques are getting me 35 mpg. If too expensive, maybe a Ford Escape Hybrid? - Kevin C. Tofel
Yet another recommendation for the Honda CRV. It feels really big and doesn't kill you with MPGs. Minivans typically do not have good MPG, so I can't recommend any. - Rob Diana
I would go with a Ford Explorer. This is my Schwag wagon. - Mike Fruchter
Have you checked out the Honda Fit? It's surprisingly roomy for getting 30mpg (and costs $14k). - Gabe
we got both our boys honda cr-v's due to 4wd, safety, small yet roomy, good mpg for suv, honda quality/durability - been very happy with them - mike "glemak" dunn
second the Honda fit suggestion - I test drove a 2008 and liked it - the 2009 due in early fall is supposed to have lots of improvements too - mike "glemak" dunn
I like the fit too; if I were in the market for a car right now it would be near the top of my list. It is definitely roomy but I don't know if it's big enough for Louis's needs. To get a lot of stuff in it you need to pull down the back seats; which wouldn't work to well when you have to transport 2 adults and 2 babies. - Benjamin Golub
What about a Prius? We have friends with small kids that love that combo! - Susan Beebe
We have Honda CRV and Chrysler Town and Country (rated high on safety and has awesome storage) CRV perfect for around town with the kiddos but our cross country trips require the T&C. - tanya
You might consider a Mercury Mariner hybrid, the Ford Escape hybrid or the Ford Taurus X - Scott Monty
Our 2005 Honda Odyssey gets 16MPG city, 23 highway (real numbers, not sticker). - Bruce Lewis
I highly recommend the Toyota Highlander...wonderful vehicle. - Chris Rossini
Check out the Saturn Vue. I believe they still use Honda engines - which means you get a great engine at a far better price than actually buying a Honda. You could move up to their larger SUV if you need a bit more room ;) - AJ Kohn
Louis - the new Toyota RAV4 will have plenty of room for the twins and their gear. They added about 12" of length a year or two ago but it still gets around 25-28 mpg. My wife loves hers. - Barry Graubart
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You don't want a car. You need a minivan. Or a station wagon. Sorry to burst the bubble, but by the time you get two carseats in a sedan, that's it. Add in the double stroller and going grocery shopping is a horrible experience. Take the stroller out, put the stroller back in. Now if you are taking a trip somewhere... it all goes to hell quickly with the stroller, the pack 'n plays...I had an Odyssey and while I didn't love it, it was a nice vehicle. The MPG isn't the best, but sanity and convenience are... - Cyndy
SUVs... forget it. They just completely suck gas. Far worse than a minivan. Oh, and for cargo room, best bets are the Odyssey and the Dodge Caravan, with the Dodge winning with the Stow 'n Go. - Cyndy
Just downsized from a Suburban to a Toyota Sienna. Love it. With the 2nd row captain's chairs, much easier to move around for little ones, etc. Pretty inexpensive also, comparatively. - Steve Woodruff
MY wife and I have a Honda CRV - we average around 27 MPG and it can handle us, a kid, a dog, and plenty of cargo space. Trip to Niagara, trips to grandma's, trips to the store are all pleasurable. - keif
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I agree with Cyndy. I have two kids and I LOVED my old Ford Windstar. That thing was the most comfortable and convenient vehicle to get the kids in and out of without killing my back! The new Ford van didn't impress me and I now have the gas guzzling Pacifica. My kids are past the stroller years or I'd be driving the Dodge Caravan. If your shopping price, check out the Kia Sedona... lots of features for less - kbourke
I'm surprised at how much I like my minivan (we've got a honda odyssey). I like that the kids can open the doors themselves without me worrying that they'll crash into the car next to us (think small school parking lots filled with large cars all close together), I like that we can bring as much stuff on vacation as we want, and I like that they can each bring home a friend for a playdate at the same time. It also lets me carpool etc when the opportunity arises. - Jane Manning
Jane, there is that, and that's why next car will be a full-size van. We can't take more than one playdate ever. But yes... there are a lot of things to think about with two toddlers, like getting them into the car in a parking lot when they are walking, etc. that you don't think about when they are infants. I'm not LOVING that I have a minivan, but I live with it. ;) - Cyndy
We're having our first child in January so I'm trading in my beloved Mark V GTI for the new Volkswagen Tiguan which is kind of a combination of a Golf and a Touareg. It's small enough that it gets good gas mileage (25-30 using the same sporty engine the GTI has) but big enough for car seats and other things. Of course, clearly I'm a very biased Volkswagen fan and pretty much won't buy anything not German. - Akiva Moskovitz
You want a minivan, trust me. It's designed for this and you'll be thankful for it over time. Toyota Sienna is very good. - Scott Ludwig
To piggyback on Paul Buchheit's comment: We actually went to the San Jose car show upon deciding that our Subaru Forrester wasn't enough in hauling Camilla (who was no heavier than 4lbs. soaking wet at the time) and her accessories (car seat, diaper bag and Bugaboo stroller). We decided that having to fold and unfold our stroller actually doubled the effort in the loading and unloading process. In all of the SUV's (large and compact) and most American made minivans, we found that we had to do that, but... - April Buchheit
with the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna, we could just lift our stroller and put it right into the trunk without any problems. For me, I was still recovering from my c-section, that was a major plus. Between the Odyssey and Sienna, it just came down to the stats and Paul found that Sienna had better fatalities than the Odyssey and so we went with the Sienna. - April Buchheit
Also, our friends, who had just had a baby as well, did some research on their own, but had refused to go into the minivan department, decided on the Infiniti FX (even made a special order on theirs since it wasn't out yet). When we let them test drive our brand spankin' new Toyota Sienna, they were converted, canceled their order, and bought their own Toyota Sienna, which they now refer to as their "sweet van." That was 2 years ago, and now with 2 toddlers and an au pair, they still love their sweet van. - April Buchheit
I have 2 boys myself. one is 3 and one is 1. Our vehicle of choice has been the VW Passat wagon. The 2.0 liter Turbo gets better than 32 MPG on the highway. It's pretty peppy because of the turbo and has ample space. We looked at the A4 wagon, the Odyssey and the Avalon before selecton the Passat. I also have a 2005 Ford FiveHundred which also is very big )probably bigger than the Passat) but lacks a little power for my taste. - Sean Scott
Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna - you'll wonder what you ever did without automatic sliding doors. It just makes sense in size and usage. - Joel
Louis, I regularly drive both the Sienna and Odyssey. The Sienna is definitely better for napping kids (quieter, gentler ride), plus it has AWD as an option. The odyssey drives nicer (feels less like a boat), gets better acceleration and better highway fuel economy if you get the version that disables cylinders at HW speed. Also, the Sienna's nav system disables input when the car is moving, a safety feature that's sometimes really annoying. - Sanjeev Singh
Something german and diesel powered... - Andy Davies
We have the Toyota Hybrid Highlander too. It's pricey but an awesome car with reasonable gas mileage. - Mike Cassidy
My obsessive husband researched the crap out of this question (we were about to buy something new the next day and I found out I was pregnant!) Subaru - if your wife has hips just forget it. Best vehicle for combo of space (Rav4 types too small for us with two kids and a dog), fuel efficiency, problems per hundred, resale value yada yada, the Honda Pilot. However, the second best and MUCH better deal was the Ford Explorer - got 2007, extended warranty, great financing rate..... - leigh himel
We have a 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. We got the optional third row of seating: the third row is too small for adults to comfortably fit, but when the kids are out of the bulky carseats they can go back there. We wanted to be able to haul the whole clan around (us, two kids, two grandparents). We routinely get 27 mpg in mostly city driving. I applaud the other commenter who manages 35 mpg, but we've never achieved that. - Denton Gentry
Louis - Really depends on how long you intend on keeping the car. The older they get, the more 'stuff' you're gonna find yourself driving around with. Safety and mileage ratings have been going up on almost everything. Found the Jeep Liberty GREAT for space but horrid on gas and just traded it for a Nissan Sentra (with the continuously variable transmission). GREAT car, reasonable, super mileage. - Charlie Anzman
How about some kind of used Volvo wagon. 2002 or newer, good shape, taken care of. nice safe family car. - Julian Baldwin
We just got a Kia Sedona (mini-van) and love it... it's probably the best of the 2nd tier (surprisingly) behind Sienna and Odyssey, plus it's way cheaper. - Jason Dettbarn
You will soon have some new friends - other parents of same age children. Plan for 7 in a car, not 4 :-). Toyota Sienna is the only choice IMHO. - Keith Teare
You're home free at this point, for all intents and purposes. Most of the twins in my world - and for some reason there are several - were born from 32-34 weeks. And all are healthy and happy. So excited for you! Life is about to get very interesting for you guys. On that note, we should start a FF room for baby advice once they arrive. You may need a place to vent and ask opinions. - Carla Thompson
Nice! I'll add the first item to it as a christening. - Carla Thompson
Now the real question is, are we going to add the REAL parenting advice or just the stuff you tell first-time parents so as not to frighten them? - Cyndy
OMG, some of my favorite e-mails include Carla's "observations" after her first daughter was born. The room is a fantastic idea and you have to keep it "real." - Shellee
Shellee, in the interest of FriendFEED I think you should share them. Just for giggles. ;) - Cyndy
My general rule: before they're born, keep it polite and only share the nice stuff. After: all bets are off. It's honesty time. - Carla Thompson
You're about to witness a moment of happiness that is unmatched and indescribable. Think of winning the World Series, the lottery and Scrabble on Facebook all at the same time. ... That said, the best advice now is one word: Sleep. This weekend, no alarm clock - just sleep in. Spend the whole weekend in bed if need be. It will be ages before you do again. - Chris Reed
@Chris Please define "ages." Oldest is 8.5 and the only weekend I've spent in bed I was sicker than a dog and still had to drag boxes of cereal to the children. - Cyndy
@Carla and @Cyndy... bring it on. We can have fun with this. - Louis Gray
LOL Louis. I'm not sure... I've had friends tell me that conversations with me are effective birth control. - Cyndy
@Cyndy: Ages as in I think they have to age and leave the house, then you get to sleep again. - Chris Reed
Charlie makes a really good name - Boy or Girl ... :) - Charlie Anzman
Lots of twinnage here at FF!. Our boys were born @ 34 weeks, after 6 weeks of very scary hospital-based pre-term labor. Now they're almost 4 and I can't imagine life without them. To be honest, I remember about 8 minutes of their first 6 months. I agree with Chris Reed. Take a nap. Now. Not because you want to, but because you can. Once they arrive, try to eat right, because it will be very tempting not too, and you need a lot of resources to battle your imminent lack of sleep. - Erik Dafforn
I agree with the others here..take a nap. Right now. Once your twins arrive, you'll soon be posting on - 'What is this 'rest' you speak of?' :) - Mia
hmm.. at present you've got 143 comments and 162 likes this week. my prediction is after 20 days from now you never hit these numbers again. :) - Jeremy Toeman
My wife is 30 weeks pregnant with twin girls so we're getting closer too. And we have a 13 month old daughter. Yes, we are crazy. - Jason Dettbarn
@Jason Yes, yes, you are. Certifiable even. Although I have maintained since #2 that if ANY of our kids had ever made it to 2 without me being pregnant again, we'd only have one child. ;) - Cyndy
The only things I tell myself (to stay sane) is: we get through the next year or two we'll be golden; after this we're done having kids, so why not get it over now?!; they'll all be great playmates in a short time so we won't have to entertain as much... ahh, heck, who am I kidding? We are crazy. - Jason Dettbarn
Well, golden until the teenage years. Then I'll be taking up the shooting range as a hobby to scare off the boys. - Jason Dettbarn
Before our first was born, my wife had this thing: It would be two kids or four, no odd numbers (could have been from my being a middle child for a while). So after our first son was born, she said "2!" and I knew exactly what she meant. - Chris Reed
@Jason Ohohohoho. Hee hee hee. hoo. Sorry... I laughed til I cried. Four kids here in 3.5 years. Sorry to burst your bubble, but no, sir, you will not be "golden" in a "year or two." I look back on those days with three in diapers where some stayed where they were put with great longing. - Cyndy
@Cyndy and Jason: As I sat there last night, taking my eyes off of my 1.5 year old son for only seconds to watch a small snippet of the basketball game, only to find him seconds later pouring yogurt and milk all over the coffee table, the remotes, my lap, his lap, and the floor, I also longed for the days of waking up every three hours in the middle of the night to feed the monster, change the monster, and put him down again. "Hulk Smash" has nothing on "Toddler Smash." Still, I love every minute. - Rob Reed
@Cyndy delusional? maybe. but it's all I got left. ;-) What I mean was more getting used to the routine and actually having 3 kids, without going insane and destroying our relationship first. I think if we survive the first year or two, we'll be able to handle it no problem. Thanks for the insight! - Jason Dettbarn
"getting used to the routine and actually having 3 kids" Darnit, that was another hysterical laughing fit. And I think you made me wake up the only child who is actually napping! - Cyndy
Well, I guess I'll stop commenting here... sorry to hijack your comments Louis. Obviously every family of 3+ is exactly the same, so I should stop pretending things *might* be OK. - Jason Dettbarn
Sorry, Jason. Mine isn't the only big family I know and we unanimously agree that we lost our sanity LONG ago. My kids have friends in another family with 4 and two with 6 kids each and "ain't none of us right." - Cyndy
Hijack all you want. The thread's yours for the taking. I don't "own" the comments. :-) - Louis Gray
Good luck, Louis! My nephew just arrived last night (about 2-3 weeks ahead of "schedule") -- a healthy baby! - Andy Sternberg
"Good luck, Louis. I'll know where you're at in a few weeks myself. My wife is 30 weeks pregnant with twin girls. To add to it, we have a 13 month old daughter! Like others have said (and I've heard other places too): routine, routine, routine! Definitely keep us posted." - Jason Dettbarn
Hmmm....after seeing this, I've requested an invite. I have a hard enough time keeping up with everything that I currently have in my Google Reader.... - Snay Trivedi
Snay, send me an e-mail to louisgray@mac.com and I'll get you invited. - Louis Gray
Thomas, that is an abberation, the site is getting a bit overwhelmed right now with new users. Maybe you can try again in a moment. Sorry. Caleb - Caleb Elston
ok, going to cancel the import because it seems to be hanging and try again. hopefully it will work now. - Thomas Hawk
"Hi,
We can't wait for you to join Toluu. We are letting people in as fast as possible, but we want to make sure that our servers can handle the onslaught of people adding, sharing and discovering new feeds with their friends.
We will be sending out invites everyday so keep your eyes peeled!
P.S. When you do get in, you will have 3 invites to use to invite your friends and buddies.
Toodles,
The Toluu Team" - Doug Brooks
Ok, so Toluu is just RSS discovery not an RSS reader right? My only problem is that I abandoned reading RSS feeds since discovering FriendFeed. I wonder how I'll be able to use this? It might be nice to be able to subscribe to people on FF who I have a high likely match with on Toluu. - Thomas Hawk
Doug, send me an e-mail and you'll get in. I just added 5 more people. (To everybody asking ... louisgray@mac.com will get you invites. It's via e-mail only) - Louis Gray
do you have a toluu invite to send me???? Please - Walter Pike
I'd like to try, if anyone has an extra invite... - Jason Dettbarn
Doug: We do our best to plan for the growth, but on a day like today with so many other people inviting people the usage is a bit unpredictable. Please know we are doing lots of work to keep the service snappy. :) - Caleb Elston
Caleb.. i understand totally. It is beta :) and thanks Louis. - Doug Brooks
would like a place to enter my profile information on toluu. - Thomas Hawk
also don't like that I have to page through contacts to add them 5 per page at a time. Wished pagerization worked with toluu. Doesn't seem to be an easy way to see lots of contacts to add. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: So you want a place to put more of a profile on Toluu? More information like say how Flickr has profiles? Also, regarding the contacts view. We show 5 to make sure the pages load fast, but I agree more per page would be better, and we are working to see how many we can actually show without a major performance hit. - Caleb Elston
I still dont' get Toluu. Looked at it again, reimported my OPML and it appears I have several duplicates.... Of course, w/ my entire opml feed, it's likely nobody will "match" up with me very well from their side... - Andy Sternberg
Caleb, yes, a profile like Flickr has would be great. :) I think 5 per page is fine as long as Toluu worked with the pagerization greasemonkey script. At least for me it would be fine then. It's tough trying to find people to add with only 5 on a page. Is Toluu also an RSS Reader? - Thomas Hawk
Andy: Duplicate entries is one of our biggest battles. We continue to fight it at the time of import as well as rid the system of dupes that slipped through. We have seen so many 'unique' OPML file structures that we spend a lot of time tweaking for each one. We will continue to improve in this area. Matching is 1 vector to find feeds and people in Toluu. Another is the Activity page where you can see what your contacts and everyone has been adding. Another is now the feed page, which we just improved today - Caleb Elston
Thomas: Toluu does not aim to be a feed reader. There are dozens of great readers out there on the desktop, on mobile, and on the web. They do a great job on focusing on reading feeds, we focus on discovering feeds. We feed feedreaders. Seeing what your friends are actually reading day in and day out can be a very powerful thing. Our goal is to make discovery better. - Caleb Elston
I'll wait to hear more from Toluu. Sounds good, I wonder how everyone feels it compares w Greader discovery. Right now I'm trying to purge feeds, not add them. - Andrew Smith
i'm a big fan of toluu - it helps me find other interesting reads that i'm missing but shouldn't be... - Morgan
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Down in Buffalo too. I was having problems last night with Amazon too. Couldn't add anything to cart (got error messages) for a couple hours last night. Tough couple days! - Jason Dettbarn
Wow, 2.5 million in theoretical sales gone already. That would wipe out so many companies. Won't even register on their books when it's all said and done. - Jeremy Felt
Actually, even now (at 4:11 pm in the afternoon) the site seems to be back up but if you try to navigate the site via links to various titles, the infamous 1.1 Service Unavailable sign comes back. - Jill O'Neill
Ya, I use SmartFTP too, lots of great features and pretty easy - Ralph Poole
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For a free Windows command line (script-able) FTP with 'over SSL' ability, there's MOVEit freely ( http://snurl.com/2e4fu ). Admittedly, I haven't used it in a few years, but it was great back in the day. - Micah Wittman
Yes! Been waiting/hoping to see the Daily Show and Colbert since we had to give up cable. Never understood why/how Apple could charge so much for downloading these episodes via iTunes. Ad-supported and free makes so much more sense. - Jason Dettbarn
It should be mentioned that the system you have in the United States serves a purpose (namely giving small states relevance through over-representing them, so that states like Vermont get at least a little bit of attention). That said, I think Bush is one of the worst presidents the United States have seen for a long time. But still -- the system serves a purpose, let's not forget about that when the very election system is debated. ;) - sebmos
Ah, but is relevance more important than equality? Votes in the smallest state are worth more than 4 times as much as votes in the largest state. Also, states that aren't 'swing states' don't get much attention at all, regardless of their size, except for fundraising tours to better compete in the swing states. - Kevin
