avablog

when you’re busy living in the world as you want it to exist. You lose sight of all those people out there who’re living in their own world(s). I had one or 25 good spine-rattling shudders while reading this piece in the NYT: “Every human being, no matter the age, should be allowed to have [...]

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Forget the overpriced tickets, the expensive snacks, the lines, and the whole “going outside” thing. Here’s the best reason to avoid the movie theater. (Don’t pretend you don’t have a second of empathy for the shooter.) Well, 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella Jr went to see David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the [...]

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It’s nice to be back in the land of high(ish) bandwidth. It’s always a pleasure to visit Decorah, and G.G. and Harvey are great hosts (if not the best Taboo partners). But Georgie’s 256k Internet serice takes a little getting used to. As the Klevar women would be quick to point out, it wouldn’t kill [...]

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To protect and to serve (lunch).

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The challenge: Seven things about me (with selected item inspiration from Aprille). Ready, set…. I was thrilled that this meme gave me a chance to finally use the ordered list tags on WordPress. Maybe this tells you so much about me that you needn’t read further. I truly believe that I’m 2.5-3 times more awesome [...]

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We had a nice, albeit cold, weekend, with lots of visits from friends and some gift opening with Grandpa Chuck and Uncle Scott. A short work week ahead, and then off to Decorah on Wednesday for more of Santa’s largess (Firefox wants to spell check “Santa’s” as “Satan’s”).

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Midwesterners spend a lot of time each year contemplating weather-related minutiae, particularly in the winter. For my part, the early morning today was consumed by contemplation of which combination of frozen precipitation is worst to shovel. I’ve decided that one inch of sleet topped with another inch of snow should probably place near the top [...]

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Hello, unborn baby. I thought you might like to see a picture of what your mom looked like when you were 17 weeks old. Pretty neat, huh?

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Just because.

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I mean, really. You’re a white supremacist who’s naming your kids all sorts of insane things, and you put up a stink and make it into the papers for all to see? Clearly, I’m coming at this from the wrong perspective, like white supremacy is a bad thing. I should change my views. Surely there’s [...]

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The AppleTV just keeps getting better. My tech benefactor hooked me up with a Boxee invite this week, and I installed it on the ATV at noon today. It’s a slick interface. Built on the vaunted XBox Media Center, Boxee plays all sorts of video formats and streams radio and video from places like Hulu [...]

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I think, maybe, when one has 2.5 times as many photographs on Flickr as does the Library of Congress, it’s time to approach one’s photography with a little more discernment. Even if you’re not into photography, there are some really fantastic historical images in the LOC’s stream. And if you’re cool enough to have a [...]

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LOL

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Hello again, unborn baby. It’s your dad. I’ll no doubt catch all manner of heck for this admission (from your mom, mostly…maybe G.G., too), but it occurred to me as I drove back to work from home today that your impending arrival hasn’t consumed me the way the birth of your sister did. Which isn’t [...]

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It’s interesting that one of the main problems people have with breastfeeding is that some folks do it for too long. As my readers know, I start to feel a little weird about the endeavor once the child is old enough to verbalize her hunger. But what’s the big deal? I mean, if no one’s [...]

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Ava’s such a wonderfully sharing little girl. Hugs, kisses, her artwork…oh, and even her illnesses. As of this afternoon, I officially have strep throat, as does Ava. This is her second bout in as many weeks. I can’t recall the last time I was on antibiotics; it’s probably been 10 years. The nurse practitioner we [...]

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Leah gets pretty strung out when she’s home with a sick Ava all day. It’d be different if they could get outside and go somewhere, but we’re trying to get Ava to rest, and in case you’re not aware, it’s frickin’ COLD out there! Today, Leah was scrambling for ways to entertain Ava that didn’t [...]

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So I was home with Ava today as she suffered through another day of being sick. I sure hope this fever breaks soon. Anyway, she got a little restless at one point and asked if she could paint. So I set up all her paints and some paper on a tray on the ottoman, and [...]

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Dear unborn baby, I spent the morning at home with your big sister Ava today. She’s sick. Nothing serious, just a nagging fever and a few aches and pains. She and I watched movies together, and she painted a whole bunch of new paintings; I’ll get them online soon so you can see them when [...]

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Ava has a fever and congestion, but the doc says there’s no red throat, so no strep. I volunteered to stay home with her today. We’re just hanging out, watching videos and drinking juice. I’m working on the new blog for the new kid; s/he already has four pictures online, and s/he’s not even 20 [...]

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