avablog

You might notice some changes over in the menu on the right. Aside from some shuffling around, I changed the search function a bit to use a Google custom search, which is part of Google Co-op. The custom search is cool because it lets me build a custom search database that contains only the sites […]

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Yesterday we carved pumpkins. Well, I carved pumpkins. Leah took pictures, and Ava ran around with a big spoon. This afternoon Ava will come to our office at 4 for the building trick or treating. She’ll be dressed up in her giraffe costume, which is a loaner from one of Leah’s friends. Luckily, Ava likes […]

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As my faithful readers already know, last night Leah and I went to a 9 p.m. showing of Marty Scorcese‘s The Departed.

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I try not to do this too often, but this is just too good to pass up.  I love The Outsiders, Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket, and bad acting, so of course I love this, too.

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We just got done with our tailgate party here at work. Someone came up with the idea of having a tailgate party for every home football game, which entails certain departments banding together to bring lots and lots of food. Then we all get together at 10 somewhere in the building and chow down. I […]

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I’m fairly excited about the weekend. First off, Leah and I are going to see The Departed on Saturday night. If it’s half as good as I’m expecting it to be, I’ll have a good time. But I’m really looking forward to working a couple “old” computers. One is an Apple iMac 400MHz DV SE, […]

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The guy who did the presentation at our conference yesterday was a younger fellow who works as a consultant. He told us a couple times how much time he spends on the road going from place to place across the country and how much extra work he does before and after “regular” work hours (his […]

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This is the view that greeted us when we got out of the car at Briar Cliff this morning. Really quite pretty. From what I could tell, this is about as good as Sioux City ever looks. Oh, and here’s our rental car: This is apparently what Enterprise is handing out for a “standard” model […]

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I’m off to a conference in Sioux City today at noon.  It’s tomorrow, actually, for half the day.  So we’ll drive for five hours this afternoon, eat dinner at Famous Dave’s in Sioux City, then listen to a vendor tell us about data mining tomorrow.  We’ll leave at 3:30 or so tomorrow and drive like […]

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I love making this dish this time of year.  Accompanied by mashed sweet potato, it’s a really, really nice meal.  No doubt those of you out there with more culinary imagination than I posses can come up with more exciting sides. Turkey Meatloaf 5 slices of firm bread 1 TB oil 1 onion chopped 2 […]

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Here’s a link to a photoset with all the pictures we have so far of our addition plans. Meeting with the builder yesterday really made it seem like this is going to happen. I’m not sure how much that feeling will get quashed when we meet with the banker again. In any case, I’ve made […]

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I was home this morning to meet with the architect and the builder for the addition we’re talking about for our house. They’re both great guys, and, fortunately, they seemed to get along well. So far, everyone is on the same page, literally and figuratively, when looking at the proposed plans. We have a preliminary, […]

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You ever have one of those days when everything you see looks like a picture?  Like every scene appears framed, with perfect light?  I don’t know if it’s the flat gray light outside today, or that I just finished reading a review of Canon’s latest DSLR.  Whatever the reason, today has me thinking that I’m […]

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We had dinner this past Friday at Simone’s, again. If only I had the money to eat there every weekend. It was fantastic. Here’s the menu: As Hors d’oeuvres: Zelook – a dip with Eggplant & Tomatoes- and an assortment of little salads. Served with Moroccan bread Harbel – a Soup with whole wheat grain […]

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I found out today that a kid I went to high school with, and whom I’d seen now and again since we graduated, killed himself two days ago. This is actually the second death of a classmate I’ve learned of in as many months.  The first one succumbed to a long bout of alcohol abuse, […]

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Well, you hear rumors about how bathroom-centric your world becomes when you have a kid, but like everything else about having a kid, you don’t really get it until you live it. Ava’s on a roll with her potty training.  It seems like we’ve rounded a bend in terms of getting her to think about […]

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It snowed yesterday.  SNOWED!  October 11.  Well, I don’t know if a meteorologist would call what fell from the sky snow, but it was white, and it didn’t look like sleet. And I suppose Iowans, by nature, are always ready for this weather, especially in the fall.  Spring’s the same way.  Cold, windy, and gray […]

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when your two-year-old tells you to “shoo” because “I don’t love you anymore,” and that you should “go away.” Kids.  What’re you gonna do?

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Well, here she is: Different father, different mother, same first and last name as our daughter. I mean, it’s not like we named our little girl Jane Smith, for crying out loud. Oh well. Hopefully Ava2 won’t grow up to be a serial killer or some other notorious figure (our Ava, of course, will be […]

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Here’s a shot of the lasagna Kevin and I made last Saturday night: We got the recipe from a Cook’s Illustrated issue; it’s one of their “faster” recipes, so it basically required a quick bolognese-type meat sauce and no-boil lasagna noodles. It was a cinch to make, and it tasted great (even though we couldn’t […]

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