avablog

Ava talks. And talks and talks and talks. She has a pretty good vocabulary (I don’t have anything to measure it against, but it seems impressive to me for a three-year-old), and her pronunciation is surprisingly sharp (Leah noted with due parental affection last evening how cute it is that Ava pronounces “belly” as “bewwy”).

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I love to walk around like a total tourist when I’m visiting a place. And particularly cities with lots of cool architecture. I think it would be sad if you lived or worked every day somewhere like downtown Chicago and became inured to the beautiful buildings all around you. I suppose it’s inevitable to some […]

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Leah was generous enough to let me come back early from Decorah this past weekend to participate in the annual Tour de Brew, which is put on by Millstream Brewing Company. The weather was gorgeous this year. A bit breezy, but it beats the 97 degrees we had last year. I think a good time […]

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We’re driving up to Decorah this afternoon for a little getaway at Leah’s parents’ house.  Rachel and Kevin will also be in town, as Rachel is throwing a big birthday bash for a good friend.  Ava’s already looking forward to swimming, the coffee shop, making cookies with G.G., and looking at all the animals down […]

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We had a nice day with friends. Spent a couple hours at the local pool with Ava as she hopped around in the shallow end, then went over to a neighbor’s place to lounge by their (inflatable) pool. Then off to another neighbor’s for dinner and sparklers. They had a nice chalk mural waiting for […]

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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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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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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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That’s what I finally ended up with for an LCD TV. Office Depot was (still is, until 6/2) selling these units for $699, which is a nice deal. So I ran over and picked one up. It looks good so far, even with a standard def feed. Of course Leah walks in, looks at it […]

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I almost hate to write about the evenings we spend at Simone’s Plain and Simple. It’s nearly impossible to relate even the smallest detail of our meals there without coming off like a braggart, but there’s hardly anything I can do about it; there’s always at least one dish in any of her offerings that […]

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I just got back from a show at our local theater that was absolutely awesome.  Area piano guru and Steinway artist Dan Knight performed a review of Bill Evans tunes.  Dan played only one original tune, but he’s a hell of an artist in his own right. And did I mention that Dan played our […]

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Leah and I have very different taste in music.  This Friday, my brother and I are meeting Kevin up in Decorah for a Kurt Elling show. I understand that Kurt is not to everyone’s liking.  So be it.  I don’t listen to much Top 40.  I’m looking forward to the show.  Leah recently got us […]

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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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grouse about how long Leah spends in front of the mirror, so long as she keeps her legs. Just weird.

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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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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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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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If you’re any fan of quirky, smart humor, and you use the iTunes Music Store, get over there and check out the free (FREE) audiobook of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise.  Man, I’m really enjoying this book in the audio version even more than reading it on paper.  Hodgman does the reading, and […]

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Anyone old enough to remember that commercial for flavored Tootsie Rolls that featured claymation characters riding a rainbow? Well, my dad created that ad when he worked in Evanston. Here’s a shot from the set:

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