avablog

I mean, I never miss an episode of The Hills, either. I wonder if McCain knows the show isn’t named after Heidi’s chest. I wonder if he cares….

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A friend of mine lost her baby yesterday. She was due to deliver him in the next week or so, and yesterday, she noticed that he had stopped moving inside of her. When she went in, the doctors couldn’t find a heartbeat, so they performed an emergency C-section. He was dead when they delivered him, […]

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You can have the software throw down a “best word” for you if you’re stuck, can’t remember every single word in the Scrabble library, and really don’t feel like playing “DO.” For example, who knew that enations would end up being a 131-point word? Who in the hell even knows what it means? Cheating? Perhaps. […]

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We drove down to Burlington on Saturday to spend the day knocking around and visiting our friends Bob and Jude, who now live in my grandmother’s old house. It’s nice to go and see them and to get to spend some time in that familiar place. Ava likes it, too. And she likes to play […]

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or are you just happy to see me? Last night, after I switched off the light and turned over to go to sleep, a blue glow suddenly filled our bedroom. I looked over to see that Mark had brought his iTouch to BED with him, so he could continue “messing around” with it at MIDNIGHT! […]

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And by that, I mean I hate people like my friend Ben, who sneakily slide their gorgeous iPhones out of their pockets when I’m not looking. Then, before I know it, I’m staring at this gleaming piece of hardware laid out on some bar table somewhere, and my technolust washes over me like a sepsis-induced […]

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Our friend Megan told us a story yesterday about how she locked her keys in her car and had to impose on the kindness of her husband, Ed, to dig up the spare keys and bring them to her. Ed wasn’t pleased. When Megan finally got home, Ed was lying on the sofa with a […]

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Live chat transcript with Site5 support: Nithin T. [12:31:37 PM]: Hello! Welcome to the Site5 Technical Support Live Chat! How may I help you? Mark [12:31:37 PM]: Can’t access my leander-hosted site from XXX.255.214.YY. Have I been firewalled? Nithin T. [12:32:13 PM]: Hello Mark. Please give me a minute to check your IP Mark [12:32:17 […]

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Greg or Kevin (or Ben, or Denny, or Aprille, or any of my more tech-savvy friends) could undoubtedly provide a better explanation of why this blog has been down for the past 24 hours or so. My take on it is that the place that hosts this site, site5, had a server problem that resulted […]

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Well, 50% cute, at least. Ava was wearing my new sun hat while we sat outside at the Java House this past weekend. She was happy to take a couple arms-length portrait shots with me.

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Last night I heard the first cicada of the season. July 5, 2008, Iowa City, IA. As I type this, more are buzzing away over the lilting notes of Jazz guitar coming from downtown. None of which we’d hear with the A/C on….

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So there I am 10 minutes ago, fresh out of the shower, when Ava trips into the bathroom. She has Topsy Turtle with her and is getting ready to brush her teeth. She takes one look at me in my birthday suit and — without missing a beat — says, “Your penis is disgusting.” Leah […]

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Ava didn’t get to sleep until 10:30 on Thursday evening, the day we arrived in Decorah, so we fired up the sparklers a little early last night. Worked out better for photos anyway: Thankfully, Decorah holds off on its fireworks display until its Nordic Fest celebration at the end of the month, so there were […]

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Guess who got into the dress-up bin again? The Bunny Princess, with clover.

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No, not that. This: 8GB model. And the best part? My cost: $17.94 (i.e., sales tax). It’s nice to know someone who’s buying a Mac with the .edu discount these days.

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Talk about a lose/lose proposition! I guess things could’ve been worse; it could’ve been Cindy or Leah. Ouch.

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