avablog

There’s almost nothing I hate more than driving in winter weather.  Well, bad winter weather.  Last March Leah and I drove back through Nebraska with Ava during a miserable snow storm.  We got out of North Platte within hours of the area being hit by over three feet of snow. Our drive to Madison today […]

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The WWW’s killer app.  I’ve been waiting for this since 1990.  Why didn’t I think of it?

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So Leah mentioned the other day that the sound coming out of our entertainment system was inadequate, somehow.  She was right.  We had some family over tonight, and I was firing up some Jazz for background music while we supped.  Sure enough, we were missing audio out of the left front channel.  Time to troubleshoot. […]

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Really, I don’t measure stuff that often.  Except when I’m cooking a recipe I don’t know well, in which case I have my little measuring spoons at the ready. But then I read this story today, and it really hit home that Ava’s going to grow up in a mostly metric world.  Her old man […]

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Leah and I were lying in bed this morning at 6:30, alone (what a luxury!), when we heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming from Ava’s room. Sure enough, she’d hopped out of her bed by herself for the first time and walked over to our room. She had her dog Sissy with her to keep her company on the trip.

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Could today finally be the day I break down and buy a cell phone? I suspect it’ll be as close as I’ve ever come (which is to say, moderately close).

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Listen. I want Ava to learn to use the potty as much as the next guy. But this? This just seems…weird. Pee and poo plush dolls, “fresh” from Scandinavia. “Ava, it’s time for bed! What dolls would you like to sleep with tonight? Butterfly the monkey? J.J. the baby? Sissy the dog? Bajs the shit?”

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I’m glad she’s into Play Doh. I’d forgotten all about it before Ava got her first kit, complete with four containers of the clay and a bunch of items for cutting, pressing, and rolling it out. When we sit down together at her little table to begin a molding session, I always ask her what I should make. This last time it was a dog. With a ball. A big dog with a big ball. Oh, and a small dog. With a small ball.

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There’s a big MacWorld conference this week. As always, rumors abound. I’m tempted to sit this one out, but I’m sure I’ll end up taking a peek at live coverage sometime during the day. The keynote is on the same day we’re having an inspector come and look at the house in preparation for negotiating a sale with our neighbor. It’s going to be a big week. By Wednesday we’ll likely know if we’re staying here for a while or moving in the spring.

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I’m glad I kept our old digital camera when we got our new one. Ava loves to tote it around and take pictures. As a matter of fact, I just went through over 100 shots she’s taken in the last two weeks. Most were overexposed pictures of the armchair in our living room, but now […]

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After a bit I noticed Ava putting her index finger in her mouth occasionally. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then I turned to her and observed her wetting her finger so she could turn the pages in her book. She didn’t notice me watching her, she just kept licking and turning and licking and turning. Very busy.

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..come on. Really.

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Anyone use them? I’ve memorized the basics: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup; Roy G. Biv; HOMES…stuff like that. But I know there are people out there who live their lives by these things. I don’t know if I have the mind for it. I seem to have a knack for repeating the exact wrong option when presented with two possible options that I’ve seen numerous times before.

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I first saw this book a couple months ago at a bookstore in Decorah. The pictures of the food were what caught my eye initially, but closer inspection revealed some really nice, simple recipes for traditional Italian dishes. I’m eager to get started on a couple of the entries. Between this and the online membership […]

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But she got smart very quickly. Or, if not “smart,” at least figured out what kinds of responses we were asking for and offered them up on command. That was the beginning. The last couple weeks she’s started to do a lot more of her own creation independent of our prodding. She’ll sit at the dinner table to go on and on about what she did at school that day, or she’ll pick up her stuffed monkey Butterfly and console her in the same way we console Ava when she’s hurt. She absorbs everything, and it’s easy to forget sometimes that she’s there.

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We went to the coffee shop yesterday morning with Leah’s family. As we sat there discussing possible trips in the new year, I looked up to see we were seated two tables away from Marvin Bell. He was sitting by himself at a small table, on top of which sat his Apple Powerbook. He had headphones plugged into the laptop and was obviously listening to something invigorating as he pecked away at his keypad.

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Here’s a sampling of the beers we had for our New Year’s Eve celebration yesterday. Kevin was kind enough to bring some great New Glarus beers from Wisconsin. The others we picked up at John’s.

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