avablog

1 picture = 1K words:

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I’m a big fan of grapes. I love grapes. All of them. I even like grapes with seeds. But my mother turned us on to these Asian pears recently, and they are fantastic. Even Ava loves them. For the uninitiated, the experience of eating an Asian pear is like biting into the crispest, juiciest apple [...]

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This is what my darling Ava told me yesterday when I realized she’d been quiet in the bathroom for too long. She had said she needed to go in the bathroom and “have some privacy.” Very well, dear. No problem. Except, of course, when I come in a few minutes later to find that you’ve [...]

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Today there is a memorial service for my dear friend Melinda in Chicago. I won’t be able to attend, but I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about her and reminiscing about our college days. She’s been dead for a year now; the anniversary of her death was last week. It’s hard to believe that’s [...]

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Men have biological clock too, claim researchers Scientists said men who wait until their 40s before starting a family face a greater chance of their partner having a miscarriage, because of the poorer quality of their sperm. “Drops in fertility from the age of 35 have been traditionally thought of as a fact-of-life for women [...]

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File this under TMI (done). I’ve been ambivalent from the start about undergoing fertility interventions in an effort to conceive a second child. Maybe it makes me some kind of traditionalist to feel like conception should just happen for two people, and if it doesn’t, it’s not supposed to. I suppose I’d feel different if [...]

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“Grandma” and Poom Poom were in town this weekend for fun. Ava’s gone to calling Leah’s mom grandma now instead of G.G. Just out of the blue. This has come on about the same time she’s started pointing with her middle finger, so take it with a grain of salt.

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G.G. and Poom Poom are coming to town this weekend for pumpkin patch madness. I have to say, Halloween is something I don’t look forward to these days nearly as much as I used to. I suppose that’s what growing up will do to you.

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But really, if this doesn’t get your blood boiling, I don’t know what will. You can even divorce the whole notion of politics from this video, and it’s still astounding. My favorite comment on it comes from Digg: I wish no ill on people like her- but I do think it is time to turn [...]

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I’ll stop posting them when they stop happening. Deal?

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Playing the Presidential Election Dozens (aka yo mama political fights on Twitter) # Yo mama so fat, she authorized a $700 billion bailout of Dairy Queen. # yo mama so fat, she thinks the G8 is a Value Meal. # Yo mama so fat, her other biography is called “The Audacity of Hardee’s. # Yo [...]

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We’ve got a maple in the yard that’s on the verge of dropping its last leaves. You know what that means, don’t you?

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I really don’t want to turn this into a political blog (again); no one needs another political blog. But I read something this morning that angered me more than usual. It’s here. Excerpt: WALLACE: But Senator back, if I may, back in 2000 when you were the target of robo calls, you called these hate [...]

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We traveled to IL this weekend to see my friend A.J. It was a nice trip, if a little on the cool side. The Brookfield Zoo was having its annual Boo in the Zoo celebration on Saturday, and the place was full of kids (and some adults) in costume. I wonder what the animals thought. [...]

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The hits just keep coming.

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And then there’s criminal. A father in Johnson City, Tennessee is going to remember this Election year for a long time to come. That’s because Mark Ciptak named his newborn daughter Sarah McCain Palin. Ciptak and his wife originally named their daughter Ava Grace but Ciptak changed the name on her birth certificate without his [...]

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I came home last evening to find Ava painting the sidewalk with her mother. I’m a big fan of diffuse sunlight, so I grabbed my camera and started clicking away.

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Leah’s finishing off bed time with Ava last night, and I settle in downstairs in front of a fascinating profile of Richard Nixon showing on PBS. As my better-educated readers probably already know, the story on Nixon is that he was a fairly vicious, often spiteful political opponent who never met a sleazy campaign tactic [...]

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We’re not, but I came across this book today at BoingBoing and found the discussion around it interesting.

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What a great weekend in Madison! I believe this photo sums up our adventure fairly:

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