avablog

I wanted to get a picture of Ava on her last day of daycare today. This is before she left in the morning:

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It keeps changing for me, but unfortunately, not for Mark. We have yet another month down the toilet (so to speak) in our efforts to have a second baby. I had a lot of terribly, desperately, pathetically high hopes riding on this month, since it was our first time on fertility medication. I was convinced [...]

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Ha! Fooled ya! Not the cuteness you were expecting, eh? Well, still darn cute, if you ask me. Leah and I got to have breakfast with our friend Dawn on Sunday (Gramary was with Ava at a different breakfast joint at the same time).

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From The Wall Street Journal: What the Dating Rules You Set For Your Kids Say About You Parents who are involved in stable romantic relationships with spouses or partners tend more than other parents to set rules limiting teen dating behavior, such as curfews, minimum ages for dating, limits on places teens can go and [...]

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The reviews are pouring in, and they’re love songs. Looks like I’m going to have to wait for this one to come out on DVD, which is fine with me. The more I go to movies, the more I’m reminded why I don’t go to movies. Seems the odds are anymore that my experience will [...]

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One more awesome bit of news today, and the trifecta will be complete! Schlitz brings ’60s formula back home Schlitz Park may be the last hometown presence for the “Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,” but Schlitz beer is now coming home, in a sense, with what it calls its “Classic 1960s Formula.”

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Sometimes I see something on the Wonderful Wide Web (frequently on BoingBoing) that pushes a magical button way, way deep down inside my being. Here’s the most recent cause for delight: A “one-of-a-kind” Lego replica of Syd Mead’s Spinner flying car from the movie Blade Runner. Oh. Man. How Lego doesn’t go into mass production [...]

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Ava was in a hammy mood last evening, and I happened to have my camera with me. I rarely use my XTi’s flash, but it provided some nice fill for these shots. The downside — as you’ll see if you visit Flickr to view the rest of the shots from this session — is that [...]

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When it rains, it pours. Had five “suspicious” moles removed on Monday. Here’s a photogiraffic pimento of my appointment:

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Every now and then Leah gets on this “you’re on the computer too much” kick and does something rash like suggest a ban on all home computing. The claim is that my trusty MacBook is taking me away from the family. To which I say, “Pish posh!”

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I had a dream last night that I was typing an e-mail on an iPhone. I don’t recall the recipient or the subject, but my fingers were flying across the touchscreen with almost no thought to the mechanics of the process, like I was born to it. I rarely remember my dreams; why this one? [...]

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Leah thinks I’m crazy. For the past couple weeks, I’ve been trapping chipmunks at our house and relocating them to a park about a half mile (and across a creek) away. I caught five yesterday and one this morning before we even left for work. I’ve probably trapped about 20 total (not including the sparrow [...]

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Who doesn’t have a minute for Cameo? The little dancer is just a bonus.

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Maybe we’re the ones who’re out of touch? From an Entertainment Weekly interview with everyone’s favorite MILF: On Brad’s most recent gift to her (a gun-charm necklace she wore to her EW photo shoot): “Mad, our 6-year-old, draws lots of war scenarios. He’s all into war and guns. So for Mother’s Day he drew a [...]

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It poured here again this morning. It’s pretty demoralizing, and I say that as someone whose morning commute went from 10 minutes to 35 this morning. It’s impossible to complain, though, when so many others are losing their homes as I type. Our friends Greg and Linda, who catered our wedding rehearsal dinner and are [...]

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Leah and I are viewers of Top Chef, a show on the Bravo network that pits chefs against each other to see which is the best. I’m sure I’m not exhibiting any great prescience when I say I picked Richard as a finalist from the first episode. He seemed more polished, imaginative, and skilled than [...]

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…that CNN is trying to run The Onion out of business. Kimberlee Norbury wore a “saloon girl” dress for her cousin’s theme wedding

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On the way to Madison, we were playing some classic 80s hits–from a “Best of the 80s British Gold” album that Mark has on his iPod. When Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” came on, Ava sat very still, listening–eyes wide, mouth parted. It was as though she’d had a revelation. And after that, the [...]

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Pet peeve time! From some site whose authority I’ve no way to confirm: What is a Domestic Beer? Answer: In the world of beer, there are basically two trains of thought– domestic and imported. Any beer brewed within the borders of the United States would be considered a domestic beer, from the major commercial labels [...]

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