avablog

Refer to it in your advertising as a “ginormous yum rocket.” Who comes up with this stuff? I think this was an ad for Subway that ran last night during either Law & Order or Project Runway (do NOT get me started on Suede. Just don’t.). In any case, it was a truly gag-inducing bit [...]

[Read more →]

We leave this afternoon for our annual Grand Marais vacation. I call it “our,” even though it’s really Leah’s family’s vacation; I just married into it. They keep tolerating my presence (barely) each year, so I keep going.

[Read more →]

I don’t recall what occasioned it, but I got it in my mind a couple days ago that we should pick up some new books for Ava, namely Mr. Popper’s Penguins and The Trumpet Of The Swan. Someone read these to me when I was younger, and memories of them came rushing back recently.

[Read more →]

So here’s a weird thing: For the last three weeks or a month, Ava has been waking up almost exactly 90 minutes after falling asleep and crying inconsolably for five minutes or so. You can darn near set your watch to it. We’ve been sliding onto bed next to her and patting her back or [...]

[Read more →]

I found a black strapless bra in the parking lot at work this morning on the way into work. So, if you’re missing a black strapless bra (and have relatively small breasts, by the looks of it), you know where to look.

[Read more →]

We’ve had a nice time at Decorah’s (in)famous Nordic Fest. Ava’s grown into the little dress that Georgie got her two years ago. Here’s what Ava looked like back in 2006: And yesterday, as we prepared to hit the parade:

[Read more →]

We arrived just at lunch time. Ava’s in a real mood, but G.G. wants to take her down to Nordic Fest to do some face painting. We’ll see how it goes!

[Read more →]

So I’m quickly reading through one of my favorite blogs this morning, and I come across the news that Laura Lieghton turns 40 today. I was never a big Melrose Place fan, but that’s the show on which Laura made her big break. Anyway, she’s from I.C.; I think she went to West High. I [...]

[Read more →]

I was originally thinking that there would be maybe two readers here who would have any interest in reading about the trials and tribulations of my home theater/Apple TV setup, but then — as I thought more — I figured, what could it hurt? Don’t click through unless you know what a TOSlink cable is. [...]

[Read more →]

Sort of. Gramary took Ava to the Johnson County Fair yesterday, where Ava did all sorts of fun stuff, including gathering wool from a freshly shorn sheep. Would’ve been nice to have had her face in the picture, but this provides a little more anonymity, after all.

[Read more →]

I downloaded the WordPress app for the iPod Touch. This is a bit slow for typing, but it’ll be nice to have along in a pinch.

[Read more →]

you’re part of the problem: In a subsequent conference call, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer also braced analysts for unwelcome declines in the company’s gross margin going froward. He said an ongoing back-to-school promotion and an unspecified product transition during the current quarter will see gross margin fall sequentially by 330 basis points to [...]

[Read more →]

Last night, Ava and I were lying in her new double bed, which was delivered yesterday. She said to me, “This would make a great bed for a baby butthead.” (This “butthead” word, which she did NOT learn from us, is her newest linguistic obsession, with which she daily tests our limits. We’ve been repeatedly [...]

[Read more →]

The challenge: Familiarize your toddler with the Internet/WWW and all its crazy little nooks and crannies. The answer: Baby’s First Internet It’s funny because it’s true (< — did you see what I did there?) Denny, Aprille, Jen, Mara, Dawn, Ben, Kathryn, Cindy (AND Nathan!)…I’m looking at you (not all at once, but, like, one [...]

[Read more →]

Ava actually asked me to take her picture as she clutched Leah’s coffee mug during our trip to the Java House yesterday. I’m not sure why. Would you like some eggs with that ham?

[Read more →]

More bad news to end the week: Deming and Dynarski note that, in the last 40 years, almost every state has raised the age at which children can start school. “This change is remarkable,” they write, “given the strong evidence that, in the United States, starting school later decreases educational attainment.”

[Read more →]

…I will: WTF happened to Carrot Top?!

[Read more →]

We didn’t pay anything extra for the flowers in the yard at our house when we bought it last year, but I suspect I may have if it had been an issue. I’m particularly smitten by these blackberry lilies: I noticed them even before we moved in, since they were just up the street from [...]

[Read more →]

Then (July 2007): And now:

[Read more →]

So we had friends over for pizza this evening, and Ava said she’d go along to pick up the food. As I was strapping her in her car seat, she said, nodding to the empty two-cycle motor oil can on the retaining wall near the driveway, “Dad, could you make your next project to take [...]

[Read more →]