avablog

Ava has entered a stage in which she’s very interested in the differences between boys and girls. She’ll often make it a point to tell us a particular individual has either a vagina or a penis. We were picking Ava up at daycare yesterday, and as we were getting her coat and mittens on, the […]

[Read more →]

It’s not because they cost me money every time they walk through the door, though that’s certainly an endearing quality.  No, the best thing about contractors is that they have an authority I don’t.  So when they tell Leah something that I’ve told her before and been dismissed for, she listens to them.  Thank God […]

[Read more →]

It’s kind of sad to be glad that a weekend has passed, but I’m not going to miss this past weekend one little bit. Oh, it had its moments. We had a nice time with Leah’s parents, and there was some birthday celebrating going on. But there was a lot of hassle, too, and I […]

[Read more →]

About 6 last evening Leah made the decision that we weren’t going to wait at home for the electricity to come back on. So we loaded up and slogged across town to the hotel. As you can see, it didn’t take Ava long to get settled. That’s her monkey Butterfly sprawled out on the bed. […]

[Read more →]

Today is Leah’s birthday. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for her. I won’t say how old she is, but I will post this nice picture I took of her cake: Anyway, we were supposed to go to Chicago to meet up with Kevin and Rachel (unbeknownst to Leah and Kevin) […]

[Read more →]

Leah has some painters coming by today to give estimates on painting the new (to us) house.  I always forget how big a deal it is to pick out interior paint colors.  I’m a big believer in color’s ability to influence mood.  I’ve been happy with the colors we used in the house we occupy […]

[Read more →]

Leah has designs to change many of the interior colors, but as you can see, the house is already pretty darn nice (I don’t mind the existing colors, but what mama wants, mama gets!). Clicking on the mosaic will take you to the flickr set for the house pictures, which contains a couple shots not […]

[Read more →]

Our neighbor stopped by yesterday to tell us that she’s comfortable with the price we proposed to her for her house, so it looks like we’re going to move in May.  Only three months away. There’s lots to do.  Leah wants to have some painting done and to get the wood floors upstairs refinished, too.  […]

[Read more →]

Leah and I went to dinner with some friends last night at Cafe Dodici. As always, it was delicious. Aunt Rachel is in town for the weekend, so she offered to babysit for us. In appreciation, I wanted to make her a meal. She likes (among other things) pasta with mushrooms, so I dug up […]

[Read more →]

I figure I owe it to Ava to include on this blog at least one shot of myself in the tub as a tot. Lord knows she endures enough poking and prodding in front of the lens from me. As you may be able to see there on the right edge of the photo, this […]

[Read more →]

I’ven’t* yet ceased to be amazed (and often disturbed) by the search habits of the general WWW-using public. One example is the perennial placement of the search term “philly cheesesteak burger” among the top five terms in my httpd log. Look, I love Hardee’s as much as the next person, and I might’ve even searched […]

[Read more →]

Leah surprised me this morning with a new Italian wool sweater and a nice dress coat.  Wonderful gifts, particularly for this ongoing cold snap. I certainly do feel sorry for Leah sometimes.  She takes a lot of pride in — and puts a lot of effort into — her own appearance, but she’s married to […]

[Read more →]

Here’s what it looks like in my back yard right now: The snow is supposed to get heavier here this afternoon before it lets up.  I already shoveled a couple inches off the walks this morning, and I suppose I’ll have more to do when I get home.  Man, that’s a good workout.

[Read more →]

This is one of my favorite pictures of Leah when she was carrying Ava: Aside from always being a bit envious of photogenic people, I just love how Leah glows here. Since I’ve never figured out exactly how the whole month-counting thing works, I’ll simply say that this picture was taken April 2004 (Ava was […]

[Read more →]

Finally, a reason to not delete my Yahoo! ID.  Pipes. For people who browse, this is huge.  FYI:  That’s you.

[Read more →]

Ava’s home sick today with a virus that’s seemingly everywhere right now.  So she’d been in our bed since about midnight last night, which isn’t great, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. But it throws things off a bit.  I’d just hopped out of bed this morning when the carbon monoxide alarm […]

[Read more →]

We’re in the market for a new database at work, so we’ve had vendors coming in to give three-day demos of their software. I won’t name any names, but the first group was really top notch. All of the presenters really knew their stuff, and they were polished and professional, but not aloof. Their product […]

[Read more →]

Today seemed like a good day for this particular blast from the past: Thing is, I can’t tell for sure if that’s me or my brother my mom’s holding there. I’m fairly certain it’s me, but the face looks a litte more round than mine. Anyway, it looks even snowier in that picture than it […]

[Read more →]

We enrolled Ava in Kindermusik when she was barely old enough to hold a rattle. She really loved it. Once she figured out how to walk, she got even more enjoyment from running around the classroom, jumping and clapping and twirling. It was interesting to watch her interact with music. Ava’s become more physical now, […]

[Read more →]

Welcome to the 21st Century’s equivalent of the shoebox full of photos: This is an image of the widget that shows me the status of my RAID, which is where I’ve stored digital copies of every single movie and picture I’ve taken in the last three years (and some pictures from long before that). It’s […]

[Read more →]