avablog

What’s worse than catching a cold in the summer?  Blech.  Fortunately, I just got an e-mail that’ll keep me going: “Tour De Brew” Seventh Annual Brewery Bike Ride Saturday, July 14, 2007 INFORMATION: ·        Route is Old Capitol Brew Works in Iowa City to Millstream Brewing in Amana.  The exact route will […]

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I try to keep up with as much tech news as I can, but I admit to losing touch a bit over the last couple years. Things just happen too fast, and Ava deserves my attention more than, say, the iPhone (just writing that is a huge step for me).

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Tonight was the first night I cooked in our new house. I mean, I’ve made oatmeal and scrambled eggs, but I actually made dinner for the family this evening. For the record, it was a stir fry with asparagus, onion, sirloin, snap peas, and mushroom, served over brown rice. Ava didn’t eat much of it, […]

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Somewhere along the way, Ava’s become concerned with people on motorcycles and bikes who don’t wear helmets.  She absolutely delights in pointing out every time someone goes by with no headgear on. She and I were standing in the front yard during the move two weekends ago, and a woman rode past us without a […]

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I know, it’s getting to the point of boredom. This’ll be over soon. The kitchen, complete with toddler eating breakfast. The TV room. This picture looked much brighter on my MacBook. I swear I’ll get some better pictures when I can get some decent (natural) light in the house.

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I was putting Ava to bed this evening, telling her a story about Terry the worm, and she asked me out of the blue if I have nipples.  I said I did.  Then she asked, “Are you going to feed me?”  I told her she’s a big girl now, and she eats big girl food, […]

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What a weekend!  There are still some boxes sitting around here and there, and there’s certainly some stuff that needs to be put away, but we’re in now. I had a nice Father’s Day.  Ava gave me two beautiful ceramic tiles that have her hand prints on them.  Leah gave me a gorgeous framed print […]

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And I was not prepared for it. Not prepared at all. I expected this conversation when she was six–NOT when she was three months away from her third birthday!

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Forget anything I’ve said about previous versions of there being only two types of people in the world.  The definitive measure is whether people say they like to paint. I hate painting.  I hate the prep.  I hate the mess.  I hate the cleanup.  I frequently run into someone who says, “I love to paint!”  […]

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Now I know why it’s called that.  My cursed desk job is harder on my arse than it is my hands, but a weekend chock full of manual labor is a great reminder of how easy it is to thrash your digits.

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I don’t have a picture yet, but the new stove is now at the house.  It’s cool, all black and bad-looking.  I unboxed it last night when I stopped by the house to walk through and make sure everything was OK.  It was. I have lots to do this weekend.  Ava and Leah are gone […]

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One of the coolest things about having a child, IMHO, is contemplating the things they’ll live to see.  Space elevators.  Cure for cancer.  Robot revolution that rises up to destroy all humans.  Stuff like that. But one of the –  if not the — coolest prospects is finding life on other planets.  There’s a story […]

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A couple recent pictures of the new house: There are many more pictures of the house, including some from before the renovation, in this flickr set.

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The “floor guys” started yesterday and made a lot of headway getting the stair treads and second floor sanded. It looks very cool, and it’ll look even cooler once the poly is applied. After work last evening, my brother and I ran an errand out to Lowe’s and then headed back to the new place […]

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I mowed the lawn at our new house for the first time today.  It was interesting.  Mowing one’s lawn is a pretty intimate experience, or at least can be.  More than just a means for getting the yard presentable, it’s a process of discovery. I’ve been in the new house now dozens of times since […]

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