avablog

I rarely think about age and getting older. Well, actually, I think all the time about age, thanks to Ava, but I don’t usually sit around in wistful remembrance of my youth. But today I saw something that made me feel old. Meat Loaf is 60. Meat Loaf! It hardly seems possible, but then he […]

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First Apple drops a WiFi-enabled iPod days before my birthday, and now the 20th anniversary edition of one of my favorite movies is due on DVD on the 18th. It’s like they’re conspiring against my poor wallet.

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Two ultrasound videos of Ava. This is back when Leah used to refer to her as our “bun.” Original, I know. Anyway, Leah ended up having at least three ultrasounds. She heard about a clinic in town that trains ultrasound technicians. Turns out the place also has a religious-based, pro-life mission, but Leah’s desire to […]

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Grandma Georgie has decreed that posts on this blog featuring Ava (as well as pictures of Ava on my Flickr account) should be password protected. I aim to please; and if you’re not registered here, now’s a good time). But I’m posting this video out in the bright light of day because, firstly, it’s so […]

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I thought it would be cute to take Ava to her first movie last Friday evening.  Pixar’s latest, Ratatouille, is out, and it looked really good.

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Anyone unfamiliar with the quote in the subject line of this post really, really needs to go check out The Young Ones (now on DVD!).  But I digress. I’ve been backing up all the video I have sitting around on MiniDV tapes to my NAS.  It’s been great going back over all the stuff I’ve […]

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I think we’ve read this book 20 times since G.G. left. Ava gets a huge kick out of the two trolls featured in the story, Mig and Tig. Mig and Tig employ the talents of a hedgehog to steal all the Christmas accouterments of a little girl named Treva and her brother Sami. Treva catches up to the trolls and teaches them about the spirit of Christmas. All well and good.

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Our workplace has a United Way drive every year, during which we put on various events aimed at raising money for that organization. One of the main events is a bake / book / movie sale.  Employees are encouraged to bring in stuff from home that they’d like to donate, and it’s all organized and […]

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As my faithful readers already know, last night Leah and I went to a 9 p.m. showing of Marty Scorcese‘s The Departed.

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I try not to do this too often, but this is just too good to pass up.  I love The Outsiders, Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket, and bad acting, so of course I love this, too.

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Leah’s taking Ava to Decorah this afternoon for a girls weekend, so I’ll be on my own until Sunday afternoon.  What to do, what to do…. Tonight I’m going to have a little screening of International Blue Velvet, which is on loan from a friend.  I’ve never seen it before, and everyone I’ve ever heard […]

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That’s what I need. I’d like a method to tell how much Scientology is mixed up in the media I consume (you got chocolate in my peanut butter). Surely there’s an easy way to tally this. Is the leading lady “clear?” Is the director an operating thetan? We could assign a point total according to […]

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This morning Leah stood in line next to George Lucas at one of the local coffee shops. Turns out he’s in town to visit with University of Iowa Professor Nancy Andreasen, whose research centers mainly on the relationship between creativity and mental disorder. One can only deduce from these facts that Nancy is trying to […]

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No, not one of those afternoons; it’s one where everything goes right. I finally got VNC set up on my mom’s wireless iBook, which was a test run for our friend Jude’s computer when she gets her new MacBook Pro next month.  It took some doing and some help from Greg (as usual), but it’s […]

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I’m pretty sure last night was the last night of Leah’s birthday celebration.  I’ll have to check with her to make sure.  If it was, it was a nice way to end the festivities. We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie.  We hadn’t made any reservations anywhere, but we figured […]

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As magnicifent an experience as having a child is, the whole process really makes you appreciate your downtime. The couple hours between Ava’s bed time and our bed time are really exquisite little pieces of the day when Leah and I most often plop down in front of the tube to indulge in some trashy […]

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As mentioned below, I wasn’t as impressed with Brokeback Mountain as the rest of the world seemed to be. The one thing that did impress me, however, was Michelle Williams, who I am pleased to see has been nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress.  Given her screen time and the performances of […]

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You may have read the post below about Steve Martin. Pretty bland. Nothing terribly provocative. So tonight we get a phone call from the Dove Foundation. Of course we don’t answer it, since it screams “solicitor.” But I’m curious, so I Google them. From their site: THE DOVE FOUNDATION is a non-profit organization established to […]

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I just saw — again — the trailer for The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin. Look: Even if you can’t bring yourself to say that The Jerk was one of the most influential comedies of the last 50 years, you can at least concede that Steve Martin deserves better than he’s had in his last […]

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Leah and I saw Brokeback Mountain a while back. It was O.K. Leah enjoyed it quite a bit. I tried to go into the theater with an open mind, not so much because I had a problem with the relatively graphic depictions of rump ridin’ (see? I’m down with gay cowboy slang), but because the […]

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