A Bunch of Random Stuff

The View from My Dining Room

2009-10-27T22:34:00.000-04:00

The post where we do the same thing as my sister

2009-10-04T20:56:00.002-04:00

Fall Cleaning

2009-10-01T21:06:00.005-04:00

We get a bit of snow and ice every now and then here in Niskayuna, so it's a good idea to keep the cars in the garage during the winter. This can be a problem if the garage is being used to store all the junk that was cleaned out of the basement. I could put everything back into the basement...

Or I could have these guys clean up everything in about ten minutes. They may not be the cheapest, but it sure was easy.

Did I mention it was quick? I was going to take a before picture, but they were almost finished before I was able to run into the house and get my camera!

Here's a picture of Sophie and Kitty as a bonus.

Go, Anna, Go!

2009-09-12T23:27:00.002-04:00

Anna's first soccer game of the season. And she scored a goal!

Crazy Cat

2009-09-10T15:18:00.000-04:00

Waiting for the Bus

2009-09-08T09:24:00.001-04:00

Look Dad, One Hand!

2009-06-29T21:31:00.000-04:00

I got a TIE for Father's Day...

2009-06-27T21:39:00.000-04:00

A LEGO TIE fighter, that is...

Big Sister and Little Sister

2009-06-24T21:45:00.001-04:00

Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting for the Bus

2009-06-10T21:52:00.001-04:00

Happy 7th Birthday Kitty!

2009-06-01T23:39:00.003-04:00

Funny, she doesn't look more than one year old. Oh wait, that picture is from six years ago. I really need to get a new camera...

Sophie Sitting

2009-05-31T22:28:00.002-04:00

Ever since we got this mat (thanks, Cate!), Sophie has decided that sitting is much better than lying down.

She also likes to do this crazy crab crawling thing. She scoots across the mat on her back. I haven't been able to record it, but it's pretty funny.

Yum!

2009-04-19T14:37:00.001-04:00

Furniture Shopping

2009-04-04T23:12:00.001-04:00

Awesome!

2009-04-03T09:38:00.001-04:00

This high-quality sleeping bag looks just like a Tauntaun, complete with saddle, internal intestines and glowing lightsaber zipper pull.

I know this was an April Fool's joke, but still, how cool is that?

More Statistics

2009-04-02T10:27:00.004-04:00

Extreme Baby Proofing

2009-04-01T10:32:00.003-04:00

This is a picture of Anna when she was nine months old. We got a bit carried away with the baby proofing.

(Hearing that Luke was starting to crawl around reminded me of this picture.)

Happy 70th!

2009-03-26T23:57:00.001-04:00

Sophie and Her Giraffe, Two Weeks Later

2009-03-25T23:50:00.001-04:00

Welcome Spring

2009-03-20T23:49:00.001-04:00

What are YOU looking at?

2009-03-15T23:48:00.002-04:00

You just try to make me move!

Sophie and Her Smile

2009-03-14T00:25:00.000-04:00

Sophie and Her Giraffe

2009-03-07T00:24:00.000-05:00

Statistics Lesson

2009-03-06T15:27:00.007-05:00

Sophie in THE Gown

2009-02-28T11:43:00.003-05:00

Three month old baby in a 120 year old gown.

Emphatically Not Recommended

2009-02-23T13:17:00.003-05:00

How is this mess free?

(The hand shaped thing contains powder which reacts upon contact with the special "Go Paint!" paper.)

Say "Yes" to painting anytime, anyplace with Mess Free Go Paint! The vibrant, insta-dry colors paint ONLY on Go Paint! Paper.

Yeah, right.

The Glass is Completely Empty

2009-02-18T23:35:00.004-05:00

It's not a good idea to take a hot glass from the dishwasher and fill it with cold water from the fridge.

Anna Feeding Sophie

2009-02-17T22:03:00.001-05:00

Christening

2009-02-15T22:16:00.002-05:00

Jamie Rockin' Out with Hannah Montana

2009-02-14T23:05:00.002-05:00

Sophie at Three Months, with Anna

2009-02-11T23:46:00.001-05:00

Sophie and Kitty

2009-02-06T21:39:00.002-05:00

Hey you! This is my crib!

Update: There is some evidence to suggest that it's actually Kitty's crib. This picture is from 15 days before Anna was born!

Who's that in the Mirror?

2009-02-04T23:36:00.001-05:00

Fresh Roasted Cylon

2009-01-30T23:45:00.003-05:00

Frak! I can't believe this mug is sold out...

Sophie and her, um, sheep?

2009-01-29T22:02:00.005-05:00

Update: Right, a poodle! That's what I meant...

Sophie and Luke

2009-01-22T15:34:00.002-05:00

Anna and Kerry

2009-01-18T16:20:00.004-05:00

Anna and Grandma

2009-01-17T22:28:00.001-05:00

Little Sister, Big Sister

2009-01-03T23:43:00.003-05:00

I have a huge backlog of pictures to post, but since I'll probably never catch up, why not post a picture from today?

Hello, 2009!

2009-01-01T22:47:00.003-05:00

main() {
    printf("Hello, 2009!\n");
}

Can I sleep now?

Sophie Grace at Three Weeks

2008-12-02T22:51:00.002-05:00

More Clothes for Sophie

2008-11-17T23:30:00.000-05:00

Somebody had fun shopping for girls clothes. Thanks, Cate!

Did everybody get a look at the living room floor? Shiny!

First Trip to the Library

2008-11-17T23:10:00.001-05:00

OK, Now I'm Tired

2008-11-16T23:18:00.001-05:00

Anna is Happy to Have a Little Sister

2008-11-16T17:26:00.001-05:00

Homecoming

2008-11-15T23:57:00.001-05:00

Pretty, pretty! Sophie is wearing the same sleeper that Anna wore home from the hospital.

Tina is very happy that she can have cake now. Grandma wanted yellow cake with white frosting, while Anna wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The word of the day: compromise.

Doesn't Tina look great?

By the way, Anna has a balloon attached to her tiara.

I'm Not Tired

2008-11-14T23:33:00.001-05:00

Even though it looks like I am in this picture.

Mother and Daughter

2008-11-13T23:47:00.002-05:00

Tina and Sophie are getting along just fine.

Anna likes the blanket Grandma made for Sophie.

Anna Meets Sophie

2008-11-12T23:16:00.001-05:00

I liked Anna's smile in this picture, but I wish she hadn't just eaten that package of Oreo cookies! ($2 can buy you pretzels, peanut M&M's, and Oreo cookies from the vending machine at the hospital. Not bad!)

Introducing Sophie Grace Hehir

2008-11-11T22:52:00.003-05:00

birth date: 11/11/2008 @ 10:52 PM
weight: 7 lbs 2 oz
length: 18 inches
eye color: unknown (she sleeps a lot)

PS - yes, I messed with the post time

False Alarm

2008-11-10T11:50:00.004-05:00

We had a false alarm today.

Nothing to worry about. The doctor claims that Tina will be pregnant for another week, but who knows?

Here is a false alarm picture.

Update: We should have had the doctor put some money on his prediction!

Zoom into Science

2008-11-08T17:59:00.003-05:00

Anna and I went to the Schenectady Museum for their "Zoom into Science" program. Although it looks empty in this picture, it was actually jammed with children doing activities at tables located throughout the museum.

We always go to Villa Italia after a trip to the museum.

Living Room Floor Finished

2008-11-07T22:16:00.005-05:00

I gave the living room floor its final coat of polyurethane. It looks pretty good, although I'll never figure out how the pros do it without leaving brush marks by the door. At least the satin finish is forgiving.

No more floor sanding for me — at least for now — so we packed up the floor sander for the two minute journey to Mom and Dad's house.

Hey! I forgot to include a picture!

First Lunch

2008-11-06T22:31:00.004-05:00

First lunch at Mom and Dad's new house.

Dinner at our house. Yes, the dining table is in the sun room. We're flexible that way.

Election Day

2008-11-04T13:30:00.001-05:00

I voted early (but not often). Anna pulled the levers for me — yes, we still vote with levers in New York. State election officials are rightly concerned that the fancy schmancy voting machines mandated by the Help America Vote Act don't work. The two major systems being considered have failed every single test. The good news is that the state has refused to allow the use of uncertified machines (unlike some states, cough, Pennsylvania, cough, Ohio). The bad news is that Anna got a sticker for voting and I didn't. What's up with that?

Closing Time

2008-11-03T23:24:00.002-05:00

I have a backlog of unpublished posts, but let's just start with today's news.

Here's Grandpa with Anna after closing on his new house.

Grandma and Grandpa will be happy to know that there's plenty of wildlife in Niskayuna (although I haven't heard of anyone spotting any bears). I couldn't get a good picture of the real rabbit, but this little critter was left behind.

Halloween

2008-10-31T23:27:00.004-04:00

The Kindergarten class led the parade at Hillside Elementary School.

Anna and Mommy are witches.

It's hard to get a good picture of a glowing purple spider crawling up the side of an orange house in the dark with a fog machine blowing smoke everywhere.

Grr! I am Jack! The Pumpkin King!

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg

2008-10-24T12:53:00.007-04:00

Today I read a book to Anna's class.

The story, if you're not familiar with it, is based on a passage from Walden. Henry challenges his friend to a "race" from Concord to Fitchburg. Henry will walk while his friend takes the train. The catch is that his friend must earn his fare by working all day. The story juxtaposes images of Henry enjoying his walk while his friend toils at various menial tasks for Mr. Hawthorne or Mr. Emerson. In the end, Henry's friend "wins" the race by a few minutes because Henry stopped for blackberries.

I actually bought this book for myself several years before Anna was born.

Wah!

2008-10-16T23:26:00.002-04:00

Wah, nobody liked my rant.

OK, I'll go back to house-blogging and updates about Anna. She's sick, by the way. And I did a bunch of stuff, which I may or may not talk about. And I watched a movie. And then I went to bed.

The end.

Final Presidential Debate

2008-10-15T23:48:00.005-04:00

That was my kind of debate. There was the usual "eloquence" from Senator Obama, but also quite a bit of substance from both candidates. (Probably too much substance. Apparently, "perception" is everything.)

Even though John McCain is "not President Bush", he hasn't argued his case persuasively. (Although I thought he did pretty well tonight.) Note to Republicans: Next time, try to nominate someone with better communication skills.

That said, I loved this Freudian slip: "Senator Government"

I think that about sums things up. With Obama as president, and Reid and Pelosi leading their respective houses of Congress, the government will fix everything.

I could go on and on, but just one more thing before I go to bed. Why do politicians insist on using numbers and "facts" that have no basis in reality?

For example: How can 95% of Americans get a tax cut if more than a third don't pay any federal income tax at all?

Or (to maintain my bipartisan veneer) what about the $3 million dollar "overhead projector" for the Chicago Planetarium? First of all, the money was never appropriated. Second, it was not an "overhead projector" — it was a Zeiss projector, the enormously complicated device used to project a star field in a planetarium. Third, this talking point has already been widely ridiculed — at least among the group of people who fact check every word the candidates say. I happen to agree that this sort of thing shouldn't be funded by the federal government (don't they have any money of their own in Chicago?), but trivializing the request doesn't help the argument.

Oh, and what about "Eliminate our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and Venezuelan oil. Canadian oil is fine." Huh? what part of "fungible commodity" don't you understand?

One more thing. Why does Obama think he has a line item veto? Bill Clinton had it briefly before it was ruled unconstitutional. (McCain recently cosponsored a new version, but it hasn't gone anywhere.)

I'm not even trying to string this stuff together anymore, but I have to mention one more thing that I haven't heard from any mainstream politician: Corporations don't pay taxes — people do. It's called tax incidence.

OK, I'll stop now.

Driveway Repair

2008-10-11T23:12:00.005-04:00

Our driveway is not in very good condition. Every year I think, this year I'm going to seal the driveway, but I never do. Also, it seems to be just a thin layer of asphalt poured directly onto the dirt.

There's one really bad spot where the driveway is crumbling, and the weeds are thriving. Anna and I removed all the loose aggregate, then headed to Home Depot for some driveway patching material. I couldn't find it right away, so I asked someone who looked like he spends a lot of time there.

He said they ran out of petroleum byproducts. Don't I know that the US has only 3% of the world's oil reserves, while we consume 25% of the oil in the world?

Um, OK.

Because we didn't want to leave empty handed, we bought some daffodils. There seems to be a very limited selection of bulbs available, compared with previous years. I wonder what's up with that?

Lowe's had 50-lb bags of something called QPR from Lafarge. Quality Pavement Repair? The directions say to remove all loose material from the pothole, but this stuff is not cheap, and besides, what am I going to do with all that debris? Let's just put it back into the hole.

You can buy a special tamping tool, but who needs that?

Perhaps Jamie can comment on how this repair compares with the work done by PennDOT?

Gourds

2008-10-10T23:53:00.004-04:00

Tina has been clamoring for an update to the fate of the "pumpkins" I wrote about in an earlier post.

The "pumpkins" were completely out of control by the end of August. Anna was insisting that I needed to build a bridge over the vines that were snaking across the concrete walkway. Immediate action was required, so on August 28, even though they weren't completely ready, Anna and I harvested the crop, and pulled up all the vines.

Did I mention that they turned out not to be pumpkins? Somehow, we ended up with a collection of ornamental gourds. After drying them for one month, today we put them on top of the kitchen cabinets. (Note that I could only get a fraction of them in the picture.)

Another exciting bit of news is that the flashlight that Dad and I were convinced was thrown out with all the debris from the living room bookshelf deconstruction was discovered, by Anna, nestled between two sofa cushions.

Exciting news indeed.

Heard on the Radio

2008-10-08T22:32:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered what happens if you put two CDs into the CD player? It plays the bottom one.

Oh, and I have some other posts that were stuck in the queue.

Second Presidential Debate

2008-10-07T23:53:00.005-04:00

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

What? Oh, sorry. I must have fallen asleep.

Worst. Debate. Ever.

Town Hall? Half the questions were straight from Tom Brokaw.

Debate? The best moment was when the two candidates briefly wrestled control from the moderator and actually, you know, debated with each other. If only the entire debate could have been like that.

One hilarious thing happened at the end. McCain and Obama were were doing the post event handshake and they got in the way of Tom Brokaw's teleprompter. That was funny. But, you know? These debates aren't supposed to be funny. They're supposed to give voters a glimpse at how the candidates would handle things. And this debate was a miserable failure in that respect. At least in the first debate it seemed that Jim Lehrer was asking questions because he wanted to hear the answers. He tried to get the candidates to respond to each other. I don't want to be too hard on Tom Brokaw — because apparently the campaigns agreed to the completely stupid restrictions he was just trying to enforce — but it makes me angry that time limits seemed to be his biggest concern.

I have to agree with the pundits who say that Obama was the clear winner of this debate. But do voters even care about this stuff? My guess is that most people made up their minds a long time ago.

I was completely surprised by one idea from John McCain: Let's give everyone a house!

I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes...

What? Are you kidding me? It reminded me of something that Joe Biden said in the vice presidential debate:

...we should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you're paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that you owe.

[my emphasis]

Oh, and I finally managed to catch Wolf Blitzer's explanation of the audience response meter. It's dials. (It would have been really cool to have the focus group sit in an MRI and watch different parts of their brains light up during the debate. Although the pattern would probably mimic that of a narcoleptic patient.)

Bye Bye Bookshelves

2008-10-07T23:47:00.007-04:00

We have two bookshelves flanking the fireplace in the living room.

While I'm a big fan of built in furniture, and we obviously need lots of space to shelve our books, these particular bookshelves have a few problems.

They significantly impede furniture arrangement. One entire wall is eaten up by the fireplace, bookshelves, and door. (And the other walls aren't much better.)
They're not deep enough for most books. (This, despite being recessed into the wall.)
The construction isn't very good. (You can't tell from the photo, but the bookshelves are sagging on either side of the fireplace. Although, to be fair, it's actually the house that's doing most of the sagging.)
The aesthetics aren't that good. (Subjective, I know, but I've never liked the design of the shelves, and the proportions seem wrong.)

Tina's objection to removing them is that it will be a can of worms. I tell her that I have a plan, and I can get it done. Dad has long been an advocate for removing them, and today he got his wish.

Here's one final look, after all the books have been removed.

Demolition is not really the correct word for what needs to happen next. I like deconstruction, although the English majors have ruined it.

First we removed the face frame. Then we pried up the bottom shelf. I'm happy to see that the hardwood floor continues under the bookshelves.

With the face frame removed, we could collapse the two sides, then push down on the top.

Most people would just cover up this hole and be done with it. But wait! See how the back of the bookshelf is recessed into the wall? A bit of exploratory poking through the plaster confirmed my fear: homebuilders from 90 years ago did stupid things just like they do today.

The wall into which the bookshelves were recessed is a bearing wall that supports the two south bedrooms. Notching the studs without providing a way for the load to redistribute is a Bad Idea. Although the fact that the house is still standing is a pretty compelling argument that this sort of thing is actually not too bad, it makes me queasy to think of those little scraps of wood holding up the house, so it needs to be fixed, or at least improved.

In order to put in a header to redistribute the load, all that plaster and lath has to come out. It's messy work, but not nearly as bad as trying to pull down a crumbling ceiling.

Here's a closeup of the stud. Does that look like a 2x4? (rhetorical question)

I should mention that the wall between the living room and the kitchen has a quirk that I discovered while working on the kitchen ceiling. The wall needs to be thicker than usual to accommodate the waste pipe. I would have used 2x6s. The original builders used 2x4s and stacked up a half dozen pieces of lath to make up the difference. (That brittle lath is what the kitchen cabinets are attached to. Shudder.)

This is what should have been done in the first place: put in a header with jack studs on either side. Since we're filling in the hole, I added the studs in the middle.

The next step is to put up some sheetrock and plaster over the whole thing, but I don't have any scraps big enough. Since sheetrock is pretty cumbersome (and I'll need two sheets — one for each book shelf) I'll have to wait for Dad's next visit.

to be continued...

Sun Room

2008-10-06T23:47:00.007-04:00

Before fixing the living room, I thought I would quickly paint the sun room and redo the floor.

The sun room has 12 old, double-hung windows, and lots of trim. We wanted the parts not covered by trim to be yellow, but the correct shade was elusive, so there are at least three different shades of yellow, along with a kind of salmony pink that I never painted over because the two radiators were blocking me. The radiators were pretty well stuck. Fortunately, I have lots of WD-40, and some very large pipe wrenches that were originally used to assemble battleships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The ceiling is beadboard, and I just read somewhere that porch ceilings are often painted blue; specifically, haint blue, a light blue green color that supposedly wards off evil spirits. As much as I like that idea, I'm just going to give it a fresh coat of ceiling white paint.

The trim throughout the entire house is pure white, and that's what I'm painting the trim in the sun room. In many parts of the lower section, it looked like the previous owners had simply painted over whatever dirt happened to be in the way, but that's not how I do things. I sanded the rough spots and discovered that at one point the trim in the sun room had been painted red! Yikes!

One thing I've been doing, which is exactly the opposite of what the painting books tell you to do, is to paint the trim first, then paint the walls. There are several reasons why I think this is the better method.

When painting trim with semi-gloss paint, the brush strokes are more noticeable, so applying it first allows more degrees of freedom. (Flat paint is less fussy.)
It's much easier to cut in against the trim because it sticks out from the wall.
If you overlap some of the trim paint onto the wall it forms a seal, which makes the trim easier to clean.

The only reason I can think of for painting the trim last is concern that a roller used on the wall might spatter paint onto the trim, but in practice, I haven't found this to be a problem.

I haven't gotten to the floor yet, and I might get sidetracked into painting the sashes. (They just look so dinghy next to the freshly painted trim.)

And pictures! Well, maybe I'll save that for the LEGO post.

Luke's Christening

2008-10-05T23:20:00.006-04:00

We got back from Luke's Christening around 11 PM. Anna fell asleep, so we made pretty good time. We only stopped once, at New Baltimore, because I had to stretch my legs. I had already decided not to get coffee, but I was still bummed out to see the gates pulled down at Starbucks.

It was nice to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles. As usual, I didn't feel like I was warmed up until it was time to go. I should work on that, except, who am I kidding? I'm almost forty years old: I'm not going to change.

I was thinking that Cate and Jamie have it so easy with Luke. He never cries, and he sleeps all day. But then night arrives, and things change. Never assume that other people have it easy!

Vice Presidential Debate

2008-10-02T23:53:00.004-04:00

Much more interesting than the first presidential debate.

I thought Biden won the debate on points, but Palin beat the spread.

CNN has a cute audience response meter. Twice now I've missed the explanation of how it works, but presumably each member of the studio audience has a button or dial they can use to indicate positive or negative feelings, which are integrated to give real time feedback about whatever the candidates are saying. Or something. Anyway, even though it's nonsense, I can't keep my eyes off the meter.

There was some controversy about Gwen Ifill moderating the debate, because she has written a book called Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which is scheduled to be released on Inauguration Day. I didn't notice any bias on her part, and I thought she had some good questions, although the candidates mostly just seemed to talk about whatever popped into their heads at the moment.

Musical Rooms, Again

2008-10-01T23:42:00.004-04:00

It's week 32. We're getting close to our estimated due date of Nov 23. Based on one data point — Anna — we predict that Sophie will be early. I am therefore required to cease all "home improvement" by Halloween to ensure an ample cushion of time. (If I need to work on something after that date I can go over to Mom and Dad's new house.)

What would I like to finish before then? Obviously, working on the kitchen is out of the question. Fixing up the living room — and maybe the sun room — seems more reasonable.

The problem is that these rooms are filled with stuff. The sun room is knee deep in Anna's toys, and the living room has sofas, chairs, tables, TV, computer, bookshelves, and books, books, books.

We've played this game before. It's called Musical Rooms.

Gather Anna's toys. done
Temporarily store Anna's toys in the nursery. almost done
Bring the wicker furniture to the SE bedroom. (Tina's office, guest room, and now: sitting room.) done
Move the living room into the dining room and vice versa. almost done

Whoa, wait a minute. What was that last item?

The living room floor needs to be sanded and refinished. The carpet in the sun room needs to go. (We still haven't decided whether to replace the carpet or put in a Pergo floor.) Working on the floors requires that the room be completely empty. The original idea was to pile everything into the sun room while working on the living room, and then switch everything around. But that meant all the furniture would be unusable.

How could we set things up so we could have a comfortable arrangement while I work on those two rooms? The answer was inspired by an idea Mom had for her new house: make the dining room into a sitting room, and move the dining table into the living room. (There's more to Mom's idea, and it doesn't work nearly as well in our house as it might in hers, but it will be OK for one month.)

Although moving the dining table into the living room was a tricky, two-person job (thanks, Dad!), it can easily be moved into the sun room when necessary because the wide French doors obviate the need for maneuvering.

What I've Been Watching

2008-09-30T23:54:00.006-04:00

On a lighter note, here's a few movies that I've seen recently.

The Muppet Movie - Loved the songs, loved Kermit, thought Miss Piggy was mostly just annoying. Really didn't like the humans, except for Charles Durning, who was just right as Doc Hopper. The "comedians" were particularly unfunny. I was never much of a Mel Brooks fan, but Prof. Max Krassman was painfully bad. (I did like the part where Miss Piggy karate chops her way out of captivity.) And Steve Martin as the insolent waiter? I get how, in theory, it could be funny to have a waiter make fun of a frog and a pig on a date. ("Sparkling Muscatel, one of the finest wines of Idaho.") But it just didn't work for me.

Babel - I hated, hated, hated this movie. Not a single likable character.

Charlie Wilson's War - Based on the true story of a Democratic Congressman from Texas who led the effort to fund Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The movie stars Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, but Phillip Seymour Hoffman was brilliant as Gust Avrakotos, the caustic CIA operative who armed the mujahideen. Near the end of the movie, as they are celebrating the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Avrakotos foreshadows its rocky future by telling the famous Zen story about a farmer, his son, and a horse:

Gust Avrakotos: There's a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse... and everybody in the village says, "how wonderful. the boy got a horse" And the Zen master says, "we'll see." Two years later The boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, "how terrible." And the Zen master says, "We'll see." Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight... except the boy can't cause his legs all messed up. and everybody in the village says, "How wonderful."
Charlie Wilson: Now the Zen master says, "We'll see."

Update. It might not have been clear from the above that I liked the Muppet Movie. I have this occasional tendency to focus on what I don't like about something that I like.

Message to Congress

2008-09-29T22:37:00.002-04:00

Drop Dead!

That's all I have to say about that.

Garlic Festival

2008-09-28T23:58:00.003-04:00

Today we attended the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, NY.

One thing I had to try was garlic ice cream.

It tasted a bit strange. (Note that Anna is not eating garlic ice cream: she wanted chocolate.)

We also had a great time visiting Aunt Mary, who provided a delicious lunch and dinner, tickets to the festival, and a shed full of toys for Anna to play with.

The first thing Anna noticed as we pulled into the steep driveway at Mary's house was a small wishing well. Right before we left to go home, each of us made a wish. As we headed to the Thruway, Anna told us her wish: "Mary should move closer to our house." (I guess she had a lot of fun.)

PS - All the bedrooms are finished. That's why I got a LEGO.

Dune Buggy

2008-09-27T23:55:00.003-04:00

The latest prize:

It has rack and pinion steering, rear suspension, and the pistons in the engine move!

Mynocks

2008-09-14T23:12:00.002-04:00

Chewing on the power cables. OK, actually it was squirrels.

We haven't had more than a few sporadic minutes of internet access since Wednesday. The cable guy showed up this morning (yes, on a Sunday), and determined that our signal was being degraded because a squirrel had chewed almost all the way through the woven outer conductor. He was surprised that our TV even worked. So, now we have a shiny new cable from the pole to the computer.

Having to rely on the TV for breaking news was painful. I don't know how anyone can stand it. They just show the same two or three stories over and over. At least with the internet you can move on to the next thing. I understand that Hurricane Ike was a big story, but come on! How many times do I have to watch Anderson Cooper standing by a seawall in Galveston saying, yup, it's windy. And wet. Oh, and everybody should get out of here. It's really dangerous to be standing in the path of a hurricane.

Surprisingly, I didn't watch any movies. But I did read a book. One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. It was about... well, I guess the title kind of gives it away. It read like an early Tom Clancy novel, but with forty pages of footnotes. It's a good thing Curtis LeMay wasn't President!

Name Tags

2008-09-09T23:13:00.002-04:00

This is amazing. If you use Picasa Web Albums, there's a new feature that looks for faces in your pictures and groups them together so they can easily be tagged with the name of the person. (I used to do this manually on my old computer, but it was pretty tedious. Plus, my old photo cataloging program doesn't work on my new computer.)

Home Inspection Redux

2008-09-08T23:42:00.008-04:00

The roof doesn't look too bad from up here.

There was some concern that fixing the slate roof would cost as much as a brand new Subaru Outback, but now the price seems closer to that of a well-used 1995 Toyota Corolla.

So, that's one less obstacle preventing Mom & Dad from living within walking distance of their favorite son. (And least favorite son, but who's counting? Also, there are fewer obstacles, but one less obstacle? Usually, I'm a stickler for the "less/fewer" rule, but I find my ear failing me this time.)

In other news, I did not erase all of Dad's pictures today. Well, actually, I did — but at least this time I did it on purpose!

How do we protect our money from the government?

2008-09-07T23:31:00.006-04:00

Tina related this anecdote to me.

Sunday morning, Anna turned on the TV to watch Curious George, but instead found Ed Slott. (Dad may have heard of him.) The program was called Stay Rich Forever & Ever, and was basically an infomercial for his upcoming book. After watching this guy go on about pensions and 401(k)s for about twenty minutes, Anna turned to her mother and asked, "How do we protect our money from the government?"

Now, this is not the first time she has expressed concern about paying taxes. A few weeks ago, I was grumbling about paying $93.50 to register our two cars. (I didn't realize it yet, but Anna was about to have a major breakdown.) She said that I should "send them to jail for trying to take our money." After I told her that it doesn't work that way, she burst into tears, sobbing that we wouldn't be able to buy her any more toys or clothes for Kindergarten. She was genuinely frantic about it.

Somehow, I managed to calm her down while giving what I hope was an age-appropriate dissertation on two tricky concepts: money and government.

Having successfully weathered that storm — but not desiring a repeat performance — when the school tax bill arrived yesterday, I decided not to mention it to Anna.

John Braxton Hicks

2008-09-06T21:03:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder where the term "Braxton Hicks contractions" came from?

In 1872, an English gynecologist named John Braxton Hicks "discovered" them. (No doubt women noticed them at an earlier date.)

Thanks to a disambiguation link in Wikipedia, I also learned that there's an album named Braxton Hicks by a band called Jebediah.

Anna's First Day of Kindergarten

2008-09-05T21:31:00.002-04:00

We were waiting a couple of hours for the bus to pick up Anna. Not because the bus was late — it was, but only by a few minutes, which is to be expected on the first day. No, we were waiting a couple of hours because Anna was SO EXCITED SHE COULDN'T WAIT FOR KINDERGARTEN!

Home Inspection

2008-09-04T23:37:00.011-04:00

(oops, I forgot to publish this post...)

Today was the inspection of Grandma¹ and Grandpa's new house. (I'm crossing my fingers.)

Before they showed up, Anna and I went to her Kindergarten Orientation. Anna enjoyed meeting Mrs. Rogers. Then we went for a walk and talk to get food for lunch. And donuts, of course.

When Grandma and Grandpa showed up, Anna and I swarmed them with things to look at and anecdotes to exchange. There were more simultaneous conversations than seem mathematically possible:

For lunch, we had our usual — grilled cheese and turkey with macaroni and potato salads. We're already settling into a routine (although Dad and I haven't gone to Starbucks for a while). Then Tina came home to watch Anna, while the rest of us went to inspect the house.

A home inspection is when the reality of a real estate purchase starts to sink in. Mom and I were in charge of taking pictures and measurements, and trying to figure out how to arrange things. Dad looked at the house very carefully with the inspectors.

When we got home, I lost all of Dad's pictures. Apparently, some SanDisk SD cards are corrupted or erased by the Viking IntelliFlash USB 6 in 1 Flash Memory Reader. I didn't know about that.

1. There's this phenomenon, when you have children, of referring to your parents as "Grandma" and "Grandpa" (or "Nanny" and "Papa"). Does this happen to everyone?

And then, towards the end, I switched back to Mom and Dad. Weird.

My New PDA

2008-09-03T23:34:00.002-04:00

I usually get a new PDA every 2—3 weeks. My favorite is the free-form organizer shown below. It accepts text and graphical input. It never needs batteries, it fits in my pocket, and it's unlikely to be stolen.

The downside—it can't be used to check the weather or surf the web.

Here's the old one.

Three for $1.99 at Target.

Patriotic Kitty

2008-09-02T23:37:00.002-04:00

It occurs to me that I've never posted a picture of our cat. Isn't there some kind of rule that, eventually, every blog needs a cat photo? (Kind of like how, in every sci-fi series worth watching, eventually there needs to be a dance with vaguely Celtic music that portends bad things for our heroes? Oh, that only happens in Battlestar Galactica and Firefly? Well then, I think I've made my case.)

This is an old photo. It's from the time "BA" (Before Anna).

Cloverfield

2008-09-01T23:41:00.005-04:00

I watched Cloverfield last night, and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But here I am still thinking about it.

**** SPOILER ALERT ****

(Don't read any further if you don't want to know what happens in this movie.)

In many ways the movie isn't very good. The dialog is mostly uninspired, and the characters don't have much depth. But that's OK, because who has time for the luxury of whimsical bantering while their city is suddenly under attack by unknown forces? (Yeah, not very subtle 9/11 allusions.)

A group of pretty people are having a party to say goodbye to their friend Rob, who's leaving New York for a promotion in Japan (birthplace of Godzilla!). His dimwitted friend Hud is enlisted to tape the proceedings, a job he takes very seriously. The movie is presented as being shot through this video camera, which makes for a notoriously vertiginous experience. (Supposedly, some moviegoers became nauseous while watching the movie — and not from any gory special effects, because the movie is blessedly tame in that respect.)

And then there's Beth, a longtime friend of Rob. They recently became "more than friends," but since he's leaving anyway, Rob decided not to call Beth. (Rob, don't be a jerk!) Beth shows up at the party with her new boyfriend. They don't stay long.

At this point, I'm getting bored. What is this? Beverly Hills 90210, but in New York?

"Suddenly, a shot rang out!"

The building shakes, the lights go out, and the partygoers head to the roof to find out what's going on. They quickly head down into the streets after they start getting pummeled by debris. A large object flies through the air, crashes and rolls down the street. When it stops, we see ... the head of the Statue of Liberty! Commence taking pictures with cell phone cameras.

The people in the movie still don't realize that they're all going to die, but the collapse of the Woolworth building suggests that getting off of Manhattan might not be a bad idea. They debate various escape plans. (Come on, you're in a movie! Obviously you have to take the Brooklyn Bridge.)

After the monster takes out the bridge, killing at least one person whose name is in the credits, Rob decides to check his voice mail. Oh no! Beth is in trouble!

How would Jank Handey put it? "If the girl of your dreams is trapped in a toppled apartment building in midtown — and that's also where the rampaging fifty-story tall monster is — let her go, because man, she's gone."

(There's more, but I'm tired, so I'll finish later.)

Messy Art Party!

2008-08-31T22:41:00.002-04:00

Anna had fun at her friend Lauren's Messy Art Party! (Celebrating her five years, four months, and several days after being born.)

Jennifer had a few clothes for us to take for Sophie. (This is only up to six months — I'm assured there's more to come.)

Small Problems Overcome

2008-08-30T22:49:00.005-04:00

Very often, it's the small problems that halt my forward momentum.

In the southeast bedroom, there's a bit of baseboard trim that was poorly spliced by the previous owner when they decided to alter the floor plan. (It's hard for me to explain without a picture. One of these days, I'll figure out how to use Google SketchUp.)

Anyway, nobody but me would ever notice — or care — that this splice isn't up to snuff. The "correct" way to fix the problem would have been to remove the trim and reinstall it. But this approach would likely have caused a cascade of other problems. The newly spliced piece would have been too short, so I would have had to replace that part of the trim. But then I would have had to match the old trim. Or, failing that, I would have had to replace all the trim.

Clearly, I was looking at an excessive amount of work to solve a very small problem. And I knew that. I made a conscious decision to ignore the poor workmanship.

The trouble is, my subconscious was saying, "I don't think so."

So, I was stuck. Enter Tina. "Can you just smooth it out somehow?"

In my defense, I had thought of that. I just didn't think it would work.

A few strokes with a plane, a bit of wood putty, and a random orbital sander were all it took to bypass that obstacle. Is it perfect? No, but it's good enough.

And, to top it all off, I got a prize: a LEGO "Imperial Dropship" with four stormtroopers. I don't remember seeing this ship in the movies, but it was fun to build.

By the way, there was a question in the comments about the LEGO AT-AP featured in an earlier post.

Is the scary robot one of the good guys or bad guys?

The AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) is basically a gun platform. It was originally used near the end of the Clone Wars, by Republic forces led by the Jedi against the Separatists. So, I guess it was used by the good guys.

But then Order 66 came, and the clone troopers turned on the Jedi, and exterminated most of them. So, I guess it was used by the bad guys.

My First (Somewhat) Political Post

2008-08-29T23:46:00.003-04:00

Man, it's hard for me to write about politics. Tina keeps asking me why I don't post any political pontificating. (I usually give her an earful over the morning paper.) The thing is, a written political argument makes my brain hurt.

I was going to write something about John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, but I ended up with too many words and not enough time to edit them*, so I'll just note that it was a bold choice.

In other news, Anna is concerned that Halloween decorations are going up too early. "It's not even fall, yet!"

*(It would have been a really great essay. I'm not kidding.)

The Book Barn

2008-08-28T23:37:00.004-04:00

A trip to Mountain Lakes generally includes a visit to the Book Barn in Denville. They have a great selection of popular fiction and lots of children's books. The prices are so low they're practically giving them away - $0.25 to $0.50 for most children's books, and $0.50 for mass-market paperbacks, $1.00 for trade paperbacks, and $2.00 for "nearly new" hardcovers.

But sometimes the prices are so low they're actually giving them away. Here's a list of the Michael Crichton novels I got for free on Tuesday.

The Great Train Robbery (read Tuesday)

Congo (already read, saw the movie)

Sphere (already read, saw the movie)

Jurassic Park (already read, saw the movie)

Disclosure (saw the movie)

The Lost World (already read, saw the movie)

Airframe (1996)

Timeline (1999)

I read The Great Train Robbery Tuesday night, finishing it in a few hours. I don't usually read that fast (I'm not Tina!), but I can't think of any Michael Crichton novels that I didn't finish in an evening. I suppose this is a pretty common observation, but it's hard to put those books down. That's why I picked up Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, and the Lost World, even though I had already read them.

Anna's Lolipop

2008-08-27T23:22:00.003-04:00

We didn't make it to the dollar store this time, but one of Grandma's fond memories is how Anna zeroed in on this gigantic lolipop.

Anna worked on it for about an hour before giving up.

Trip to Mountain Lakes

2008-08-27T22:46:00.005-04:00

We're back from Mountain Lakes. For reasons that I don't understand, I couldn't set up a wireless network there without slowing the internet connection to a crawl. This meant no laptop, and no access to the computer without disturbing Dad, so no blog posts.

In what is becoming a tradition, just before we left I put down a coat of polyurethane in the upstairs hallway. (If I ever have need of a method for increasing my stress level, I should remember this one: do a messy, surprisingly time-consuming job just before leaving the house for a few days. Make sure to block access to the shower.) I taped a sign to the stairs to remind Lisa not to go upstairs. Anna made a "No Kitty" sign. Too bad Kitty can't read! (Fast forward to our return: I found a trail of paw prints and cat hair embedded in the polyurethane. Oh well.)

The main topic of conversation, of course, was the news of Grandma and Grandpa's decision to buy a house in Niskayuna. There's paperwork to be filled out, signed, and faxed. The house needs to be inspected. Plans need to be made: How should the new house be set up? What improvements can be made before the move? What stuff should be left behind? (I'm voting for the sofa bed.)

Note to Self

2008-08-24T23:52:00.002-04:00

Keep a list of things to write about. During the day I have "a bunch of random stuff" that crosses my mind, but I only write down thoughts like: buy coffee, fix wobbly dining room table leg. Then, after I get Anna to bed, my mind is pretty blank. I really just want to watch a movie, or read a book.

Anna's Room, Etc.

2008-08-23T22:48:00.005-04:00

Anna's room is completely finished. We moved her furniture back last night. To celebrate, Tina insisted that I get a toy.

Anna helped me build it.

Oh, and Grandma and Grandpa bought a house.

My First Meme

2008-08-22T23:50:00.011-04:00

A bunch of noteworthy things are happening today, but I'm grumpy and don't feel like writing about them (or it's not time to write about them yet). But I don't want to skip a day, so I'm resorting to an old trick. A sparsely annotated list.

Here's how this meme works. Below are the top 106 books tagged "unread" in LibraryThing (a book cataloging website that I absolutely love). The books I've read are in bold. The books I started, but couldn't finish are italicized.

I was hoping this list would demonstrate my amazing erudition, but I've never even heard of most of these books. Maybe they're unread because they're too long and boring? Anyway, here's the list.

The Solitudes by John Crowley

To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 by Tad Williams

The Arabian Nights by Husain Haddawy

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - The cover of this book appeals to me. (I've found that, yes, you can judge a book by its cover. Whoever is in charge of designing these things does a pretty good job. I rarely find a bad book behind a cover that I like - although sometimes a good book is hidden behind a bad cover.)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - I really wanted to like this, but the wording was just too stilted. I have the translation by Thomas Shelton, which has been accused of being too literal.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - Never read it, but it has a great opening line:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Not sure why I never got around to reading this one.

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien - Am I a heretic for thinking this book was kind of boring? (I'm a devoted LoTR fan.)

Ulysses by James Joyce - I liked what I read, but just didn't have the time for it.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Same comment as for Ulysses.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky - The best book ever! But it has to be the translation by David McDuff, which is available as a Penguin Classic (yes, the cheap one is the best). And the movie has Captain Kirk!

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Loved the book. And the movie was pretty good too.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Satanic Verses: A Novel by Salman Rushdie - Somehow, even with all the publicity this book received (what with the fatwa and all), I managed to read every book by Salman Rushdie except this one. So when I saw it on the shelving cart at the library I had to grab it. (The librarian had the same reaction as me.) So far, so good.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Odyssey by Homer - The Robert Fagles translation is the best if you just want to enjoy the story. (Some critics think he strays too far from the the literal Greek, but how would I know anything about that?)

Moby Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville - Great book. Hated the whaling bits when I read it in high school, but loved them when I read it in grad school. The difference between reading for pleasure and reading to pass a pop quiz?

The Story of Saddler's Croft by E & H. Heron - What the heck is this?

The Story of Baelbrow by E & H. Heron - And this?

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Whan that April with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendered is the flour

(Yes, I googled for the spelling. But I will never forget those opening lines.)

A Victim Of Higher Space by Algernon Blackwood

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson - I loved everything he wrote before the Baroque Cycle, but I just couldnt get into this one. (I saw that Jamie was reading it, so I might give it another chance.)

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - And, I saw the movie! (The Disney version.)

The Iliad by Homer - Again, I find the Fagles translation to be the most readable. (I suffered through the Lattimore and Fitzgerald translations in high school and college. But maybe they weren't that bad? I just wasn't ready for them?)

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - It took me a couple of tries to get through this book, but it was worth it. (The first time I tried to read it, I got bogged down trying to figure out which parts of the "history" in the book were true. If only I'd had Google back then!)

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Battle Royale, Book 1 by Koushun Takami - I read Casino Royale. Does that count? (And, I saw the movie! Casino Royale, not Battle Royale.)

Love in The Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak - Didn't see the movie either.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Emma by Jane Austen

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers - I have this book on my bookshelf for some reason, although I've never read it. A brief perusal of its contents indicates that it might be my kind of book. Many detailed tangents totally unrelated to the plot. Check. Author is full of himself. Check. What's not to like?

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond - Would have made a good magazine article.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - I read an abridged children's version. Does that count?

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Dracula by Bram Stoker - I saw the movie!

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Loved the book. Hated the movie (the one with Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox).

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini And, I got the DVD out of the library, but I didn't watch it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - And, I saw the movie!

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - And, I visited the house in Salem. Twice!

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Inferno by Dante Alighieri - The Hollanders have the most readable translation. I read this to Anna when she was an infant. (I'm not kidding.)

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - Who knows why I even bothered to try reading this one?

The Gormenghast Novels by Mervyn Peake

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - And, I played string bass in the high school musical. (And I don't even play string bass!)

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Underworld: A Novel by Don DeLillo

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - Saw the movie!

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin - Would have made a good magazine article.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - Didn't see the movie either.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Dressed To Slay by Harper Allen

The Confusion, Part I: The Baroque Cycle #4 by Neal Stephenson

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson - I just read this yesterday!

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond - Would have made a good magazine article.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Cate says I should try this.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - I just can't get into Faulkner.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri - I still haven't read the Paradiso, but the Hollanders have a recent translation.

Joseph Andrews and Shamela by Henry Fielding

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe - Saw the movie! (Does that count?)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells - And, I saw the movie!

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - I read the Cliff Notes. Does that count?

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - And, I saw the movie!

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - Saw the movie!

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - Also on my bookshelf.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

That was more fun than I expected. I'll probably come back to this list as I think of more things.

Be Careful What You Promise

2008-08-21T23:26:00.009-04:00

I've been trying to put the finishing touches on Anna's room. There's some urgency to this project because I only have until Halloween to complete all my projects. I'm reminded of Hofstadter's Law. (It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account.)

Anna wants to help, and complains that we never let her do any chores. (How about cleaning up all your toys in the sun room? Oh, Daddy, that's so boring!) I usually let her do something, so it's hard for me to explain that the remaining tasks require a bit more precision than she is capable of.

As an example, I've been putting base cap molding on top of the plain baseboard. It dresses things up a bit, and it's my way of saying, "this room is finished."

She doesn't want to help cut the base cap, because the miter saw is loud and scary, and I casually mentioned that it can cut off your hand; however, installing the pieces is a different story. If I had a nail gun I might be able to scare her away. But a hammer and nails? She hit a nail once at school, so she's an expert.

The proper response would have been to let her hit a few nails. I can always repair the damage after she gets bored.

But no. I had to get creative. She's not interested in pounding nails just for the sake of pounding nails. There has to be a payoff. Maybe we can build something? How about a princess castle?

Wait, did I say that out loud?

The thing about Anna is that when she hears that we are going to do something, she thinks we are going to do it right now. (This may be true of other small children, but I have a feeling it is particularly true for Anna.) A princess castle is something that we could build - given time to consider the requirements, research construction methods, acquire the necessary materials...

"Daddy, I made a plan!"

This is a concept drawing. Apparently, the castle needs to have a drawbridge that goes up and down, a moat (with crocodiles?), and a few towers with a place for the fairy godmother to hang out. The colors are for illustrative purposes only. The castle should be pink, but she didn't want to use up the pink marker. (She's not that concerned about using up the red, orange, and green markers.)

So, now I have to add "build a castle with Anna" to my list of projects. Ironically, I let her pound a few nails into the trim, and she didn't cause any damage. She also had fun with wood putty and sandpaper.

Coffee for One

2008-08-20T23:12:00.003-04:00

I'm not quite human until my first cup of coffee. Tina and Anna both know this, so the first order of business in the morning is to get Daddy some coffee. Tina usually makes a pot of coffee when she wakes up. However, today she had to go to work early, so no coffee.

Anna came in to let me know that she was done sleeping and "can I please go downstairs now?" I mumbled my assent and went back to sleep. The sounds of a chair dragging across the kitchen floor and cabinet doors opening and closing used to disturb me, but now I figure if she wants to get a granola bar and a glass of milk, well, she's five years old. And it gives me five extra minutes of sleep.

Anyway, five minutes later, Anna returns. "Daddy, I made you coffee!"

That's one way to make me jump out of bed. "What? What exactly did you do?"

And she proceeds to list a series of actions that sound remarkably like they could lead to the production of coffee. At least an abstract cup of coffee.

"You have to plug it in and turn it on because I can't touch electricity."

Whew. So she does listen to my lectures. I'm still a bit nervous, because there's a good chance that my day will start without coffee, but I stumble into the kitchen to survey the damage.

And I find that everything was set up just right.

Life is Full of Little Trips

2008-08-19T23:46:00.007-04:00

I'm not much of a traveler. Our recent trip to Boston was a major excursion for me. That doesn't mean I don't like to take trips at all. Just that I prefer them to be a bit shorter. Like, two miles is good.

For today's first little trip, Anna and I met Tina at work for lunch in the cafeteria. We've been there before, of course, but always for some sort of event. This visit was apropos of nothing, so we had to stop at the visitor's center to pick up an ID. (Anna brought her own special "Anna Banana" ID. I did not bring any cameras, explosives, or other contraband.) The girls had pizza and french fries. I had a "burrito grande."

The ride in the elevator to Tina's office no longer includes Anna holding onto me for dear life; however, it still includes a walk to the water cooler. Never mind that there's water in the office. We need to zoom down to the snack area, wave our hands to magically turn on the light, get one of those tiny paper cups, and always push the blue button to get cold water. (The red button is hot water. We don't want that.)

After we left Tina's work, Anna and I made a trip to her school to pick up some more books. We're up to 800 books as of today.

When we got home we read ten books before being interrupted by some tree trimmers for National Grid. Apparently the utility pole next our garage is slated for replacement and "could we pull our truck into your driveway so we can trim the trees?" Well, since you asked so nicely, yes you may. Anna set up chairs in the backyard so we could watch them. (They were pretty good-natured about that.)

Our final trip for the day was to Target to get Anna some curtains for her almost finished extremely lilac room. We convinced her to choose lilac over pink for the walls by promising pink curtains, so now it's time to pay up. As a special treat we had more pizza and popcorn in the store. And somehow princess pajamas found their way into the cart. Maybe that's why, when it came time for the ritual browsing of the toy section, we spent most of our time in the LEGO aisle. ("Daddy, don't you just love this big, giant, scary LEGO robot?")

Little Things that Break

2008-08-18T23:44:00.004-04:00

Very little. Like 1/16" little. That's the size of the drill bit I need to finish reinstalling the quarter round molding in Anna's room. I usually have extras, but for some reason I was down to my very last one. Just a slight deviation off axis is all that's needed to snap one of these little things. And so tomorrow I'll head back to Lowe's to buy a package of 1/16" drill bits.

The key point here - one that I am slowing learning - is that it is a false economy to say, "Well, I only need one of these inexpensive, but fragile (and/or consumable) items, so I'll just get what I need."

Now, I'm not running a hardware store, so I don't have to stock everything. But I shouldn't run out of things like cheap drill bits or drywall screws.

Harry Potter Delayed for Sophie

2008-08-17T23:44:00.005-04:00

There's been lots of speculation about why the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being changed from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009. (Some blame it on fallout from the writer's strike, or maybe Warner Brothers is scared of a vampire movie based on a book I've never even heard of.)

But the answer is simply that Sophie's estimated due date is November 23, and there's no way that Tina and I could be assured that we could watch the movie in the theaters.

Wow

2008-08-16T23:15:00.003-04:00

I'm not normally much of a sports fan, and I've only watched a little bit of the Olympics, but all I can say is: Wow. That Michael Phelps is pretty good.

(Also, I googled "Michael Phelps" a few seconds after the end of the relay, and someone had already updated the Wikipedia page!)

The End of an Era

2008-08-15T23:45:00.003-04:00

Today was Anna's last day at Our World Montessori. She has been a student there for almost four years. She said that she'll miss her friends and teachers, but she's ready for kindergarten.