avablog

We’ve been in Decorah since the 25th to celebrate Christmas with Leah’s family. Yesterday Leah, Ava, Georgie, and I drive up to Minneapolis to visit relatives and get Georgie a new computer at the Apple Store at the Mall of America. We’ll drive home sometime tomorrow and get ready for Everyone to come to our house this Sunday for New Year’s Eve dinner.

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As I type this, Ava is spending her first night in her Big Girl Bed.  It’s weird to see her lying there, and I could picture her in the future with her feet stretching almost to the end of the bed.  Maybe she’ll never be that tall, but as I stood there at the foot […]

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Seriously, I remember going with my dad to the local sporting goods stores and standing in a quivering state of desire in front of the racks of BB guns. I only ever had pump action models; the CO2 rifles were exotics that I knew I’d never have the money to buy.

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When I bump into people in the halls at work these days, they always ask if Ava is getting excited about Christmas.  I reply that she is.

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If you’re any fan of quirky, smart humor, and you use the iTunes Music Store, get over there and check out the free (FREE) audiobook of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise.  Man, I’m really enjoying this book in the audio version even more than reading it on paper.  Hodgman does the reading, and […]

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Anyone old enough to remember that commercial for flavored Tootsie Rolls that featured claymation characters riding a rainbow? Well, my dad created that ad when he worked in Evanston. Here’s a shot from the set:

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Casual category: The “Tycoon,” by Born. Dress / Work category: The ECCO “Neoflexor” slip-on.

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Now, why can’t I get my old lady interested in one of these?

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In case any of you were getting sick of all the cute shots of Ava: Shot courtesy Apple’s Photo Booth software.

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I hate to dispense advice on this blog.  There’s too much of that going around these days.  But I read something today that rang true with me, and it seemed like such an important thing, that I thought I’d better at least write it down here, even if I didn’t make it look or sound […]

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I live with someone who loves shoes.  On second thought, I don’t know if it’s the shoes so much as shopping for the shoes that’s the drug. I don’t like shopping for anything.  If I must shop for something, I’ll try to do as much recon on the front end as I can to minimize […]

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Leah’s sick today.  I believe I’ve mentioned before that she and her sister are emetophobes, which makes being sick even more of a challenge.   So, she was in bed early.  I put Ava to bed and then spent a couple hours shoe shopping online (which I do once every couple years).

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Everyday life is full of pitfalls. I was wrapping a present for Ava two nights ago, and emblazoned across one corner of the huge box were the words “Easy Clean.”  In quotes.  Like it wasn’t really easy to clean.  Why the quotes?  I suspect there’s a lawyer behind them somewhere.  It would be nice if […]

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The only time I ever get in Old Navy is when I’m with Leah.  Something about that store makes me uneasy. As I was standing near a table full of zip-front fleece jackets today at noon, I happened to look at the care tag on one of them.  Made in Nepal.  Nepal?  I pictured warehouses […]

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In case you wondered where I get my flawless fashion sense:

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Here’s a peek at our Christmas tree this year. As we were piling on the ornaments, Leah and I concluded that either we’ll need a bigger house for a bigger tree (in process), or we’ll need to cull our ornament collection. Maybe we’ll do both.

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This weekend is shaping up to be Christmas Prep Weekend 2006, so long as Ava seems in good health tomorrow morning.  Plans include Christmas tree search and acquisition, breakfast and ornament shopping in the Amanas, and various acts of senseless decoration around the house.

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We learned today that, in fact, both tubes have worked free and are sitting, harmlessly embedded in wax, in Ava’s ear canals. But the doc says her ears look fine, so we’ll wait and see whether she starts getting a lot of infections again. If she does, it’s another set of tubes for her. We’re hoping she’s outgrown the need for the tubes (holding your child’s hand as she goes under anesthesia is not the most fun), but if she hasn’t, they’re an effective fix for a lot of pain suffering.

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So, Leah and I were talking about the situation one day, and I reminded her that we’d once half-joked with one of our neighbors — who lives in a bigger house — that we should exchange houses. Ha ha. Good one. But was she serious? I e-mailed her, and it turns out she is. To the tune of doing the exchange as early as this spring.(!)

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