avablog

From today’s WSJ: The CEO of Victoria’s Secret admitted that the brand has become “too sexy” and plans to win customers back to its core lingerie business by producing more sophisticated merchandise. You know, he’s right. We get the VS catalog at home from time to time, and I flip through it quickly just to […]

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I’ve been reading The Wall Street Journal for years, before it was online, in color, or ad-supported. It’s been fascinating to watch this grand old paper change with the times, and I’ve not yet had any negative reactions to the things it’s had to do to stay competitive. But there’s a new man in charge […]

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That’s life. We thought we had Ava’s cold beat, but she had a pretty good fever again last night, so no daycare for 24 hours. Rules are rules. The real kicker is that we were about 15 minutes from the end of The Painted Veil, which we got using Leah’s new Netflix subscription. We have […]

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Today I’ve witnessed an amazing outpouring of good will from the blogosphere, even by blogosphere standards. As thanks for letting me insinuate myself onto their pages, I present the following: Sure, a couple of my participants today were women, but everyone loves looking at pictures of pretty girls on the Internet, don’t they? Maybe it’s […]

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From Knights Who Writes: 1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find sentences 5,6, and 7, and post them. 4. Tag five people. Here goes: From Clementine 11.1 Node Reference: The default is T. Specify a value to include in the flag field […]

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Kind of a whirlwind weekend, but we made it through OK. We were all just thankful that the weather cooperated this year, after shutting out Leah’s birthday the last couple years.

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Leah’s birthday is this weekend. She’s started celebrating already by staying home sick in bed today with a hacking cough. At least Ava’s at daycare so Leah can rest. Leah’s fam is rolling into town starting tomorrow to celebrate on Saturday. Kevin and I are making dinner for Leah and Rachel tomorrow night. The menu […]

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Here it is, in this particular order: An Iowa Mom Planet of the Aprilles arredonald The UI Daily Mayhem Danny Novo (is no rocket surgeon) DANNY, TIFFANY, AND FAMILY 😉 PhilosYphia Howe in the World Knights Who Writes mama-tchou-tchou Cindy and Greg daddytypes.com dlisted (I know. I KNOW!) OH NO THEY DIDN’T! (Again, I know!) […]

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Leah and Ava baked cookies this past weekend while we were trapped inside. Oatmeal chocolate chip. Yum. It was a trial to get all the ingredients into the bowl and mixed before Ava ate them each individually. We were unaware of her affinity for plain flour before last weekend.

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This happened a couple days ago, but I’ve been telling myself I need to write it down so I can have the account in the official record. Ava’s outgrown naps, for the most part. In truth, she was never much of a napper. Nor a sleeper in general. The only time she naps now, really, […]

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Well, not quite. But I’m sure there are less objectionable ways to start one’s morning. Leah and I did our first IUI this morning after she received a positive ovulation indicator last night before bed. So after dropping off Ava, we were off the the hospital. Once there, I “produced” a “sample,” which was then […]

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Sorta like the chicken pox, Ava got her first exposure to the movie “Cars” at daycare. We were trapped inside today during the latest snow storm to hit the area, and after baking cookies and exhausting our other indoor entertainment options, we finally fell back on a little good ol’ video. I was scrolling down […]

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Guess who got a haircut yesterday? I love Ava’s hair like this. I think it really accentuates her little round face in just the right way. Also, it makes if more difficult for her to twist her hair into knots that then must be cut out with scissors.

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In lieu of reporting on all the insanely romantic things I did for my long-suffering wife this morning (of which there are none), I’ll present this picture of Ava’s breakfast: Heart-shaped French toast, just in case you didn’t recognize it. Happy Valentine’s Day! <3

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Cindy posted a cute pic today of two of her kids in the tub. It’s such a classic photo. I wonder if any parents anywhere in the world have ever been able to resist the urge to take one of these shots? I know my parents couldn’t: And of course you know I have absolutely […]

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The ATV gurus are swarming over Apple’s recent AppleTV Take 2 update like flies on a rib roast. Leah’s excited about the update because it’ll let us watch online rentals (but only if you’re using HDMI!); I just want to make sure I can update and still have my beloved network drive mounts remain intact. […]

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Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff …Bertram reportedly did not recognize the severity of his girlfriend’s near-chronic dependence on getting out of the house and doing stuff until six months ago, when she insisted the two attend a free outdoor concert in their neighborhood. Since that time, Maas has asked an estimated 11 times […]

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Dare to dream, people. A 15″ Beagle won the hound group last night at the WKC Dog Show. My, but he’s a handsome devil: He’s a barker, too, which is endearing. I didn’t get a chance to catch much of the show last night other than Uno’s win, so I don’t know what kind of […]

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We’ve been experiencing some issues with our Mediacom phone service at the house for the last month or so. It’s frustrating to not have a functioning land line, but not as frustrating as trying to hear someone on the phone using a Motorola RAZR cell. Who designed those things?! Blech.

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We attended sweet Lila’s one-year birthday today. I took a whole snotload of pictures but managed to get things down to a manageable number before uploading to Flickr. Since it’s still so snowy and cold outside, I thought I’d pass along this picture: There are a lot more pictures of super-cute kids from the party […]

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