avablog

No one’s ever asked me why I take so many pictures of Ava (and of everything else). I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory why I’d want to keep a fairly complete photographic record of my daughter. But I someone ever does ask me, I’ll tell them I’m trying to get a shot as good as this:

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These FedEx guys rock! China to Bumf*#k, U.S.A. in two days? El mundo es un panuelo, si?

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I’m still trying to figure it out, but there was something intimidating about the sight of them together. Or, if not intimidating, maybe a bit panic-inducing. As we drove on toward “school,” I wondered about the day that Ava comes home from school and is smarter than her parents. Hopefully, it’ll be sometime after fourth grade.

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Ava has never been anywhere near being a chubby baby. She was a healthy 7 pounds, 9 ounces at birth, but that’s as high as she’s ever been on the weight percentile charts. Leah and I were…I guess “worried” isn’t too strong a word, for a while, that our little girl would have trouble putting on weight. But she stayed fairly healthy, and while she hasn’t gotten fat, she does seem to be growing steadily along the y axis.

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This computer will be a pretty big jump forward from my old machine, but for day-to-day use, there’s not much I’ll do with it that’ll take advantage of all it can do. Kevin tells me he’s been impressed by this computer’s immediate predecessor’s ability to quickly rip DVDs, but I don’t really rip DVDs. Perhaps I should start.

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Have you ever wanted to look at thousands of pictures of our adorable daughter but didn’t want to register an account at flickr, where they’re stored? Now you can!

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Memory is an amazing thing. In and of itself, the biochemical/electrical process that is memory is quite an invention. The way it persists, old memories fading away and becoming as good as forgotten in our everyday lives, only to come rushing back the moment we receive some sensory cue that immediately and vividly brings an event out of the past. And it’s usually the darnedest things that spur these memories. Like shag carpet.

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Leah and I were sitting on the couch last night, watching TV and chatting idly about my crazy scheme to get a new Apple MacBook laptop and give my beloved 900MHz iBook G3 to Leah’s mom in an effort to bring her at least into the late 20th Century.

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That’s my mom, there, overseeing my yawn. I can’t look at this picture without thinking about the day we brought Ava home and showed her our (her) house for the first time. There’s just no forgetting that moment when your life goes from two to three. It’s even more profound in many ways than being in the hospital and seeing Ava for the first time.

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As I’ve mentioned, I was born in Madison, WI, in 1970. Shortly thereafter, we moved to Evanston, IL, where my brother was in 1972. I don’t recall a thing about living in Madison, though something about the place seems vaguely familiar when we now visit the place where my family used to live there.

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We met with a banker last evening about a house loan for the renovation/addition we’re thinking about.  I’ll cut to the chase:  The bank will be happy to lend us an amount that is much past our ability to pay back.  Even using conservative numbers, the payment on our loan would consume my monthly pay.  […]

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Those of you who were prescient enough to register an account here at avablog have access to all the pictures I put up of Ava from time to time. If you haven’t registered, don’t despair! You can always click on the “register” link over at the right and set up an account (it’s easy and fast). If I know who you are, where you came from, or how you came across the blog, I’ll set your user level to allow you to see all the posts.

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For a while there it was looking like our fledgling New Year’s Eve party was going to be snubbed out this year due to Rachel’s monstrous schedule at school. Luckily for all of us (and especially for her), Rachel’s carved some leeway into the next year, which means she and Kevin are a “go” for this year’s festivities.

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Sunday night, Leah and I watched a show about the methamphetamine catastrophe in Iowa. When I was writing that first sentence, I hesitated for a bit in consideration of the best way to describe meth’s impact in this state. Epidemic is the word you hear thrown around most often. But after watching the soul-dampening profiles of these addicts and their families, it’s clear that this is more than “just” an epidemic. More, even, than a catastrophic epidemic.

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Sometimes it’s just weird to be around Iowa City without anything to do. But it sure is nice. No running around to get the car packed and Ava loaded up for a trip to Madison or Decorah or Chicago. No big social events to buy food and wine for. No parties to dress up and find sitters for. It’s healing.

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Today at work we’re having the last of this season’s staff tailgate events. It’s a biggie. There are plenty of people in the office who have strong Wisconsin ties (including yours truly, who was born in Madtown lo, those many years ago), so emotions are running high on the eve of the Hawkeyes/Badgers clash. But […]

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How does Long John Silver’s stay in business?  One of the Yum! brands, along with Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell, among others, the restaurant had $38M in net income in 2005. Wikipedia tells me that Yum! is in the process of pairing LJS with KFC, just as they’ve been pairing it with A&W (another […]

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From today’s Wall Street Journal: A growing number of auto companies are trying to place ads and products in child-oriented areas such as gyms that cater to kids, social-networking sites where young people hang out and the Saturday-morning cartoons. Their aim is to spur sales to parents — and, down the road, to the children […]

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Every year, about this time, I find myself wondering about the average amount of dead leaves a typical Oak (White, Red, Pin, whatever) puts off over the course of its life.  Aside from causing all the raking I do, it seems like it must be a pretty significant amount of biomass.  Couple hundred pounds?  Can’t […]

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Our workplace has a United Way drive every year, during which we put on various events aimed at raising money for that organization. One of the main events is a bake / book / movie sale.  Employees are encouraged to bring in stuff from home that they’d like to donate, and it’s all organized and […]

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