avablog

On the frequent occasions when Ava comes into our bed at night, she often asks Leah to tell her a story. This is at, like, 2:30 or 3 in the morning. Sometimes Leah explains that it’s not morning, and it’s too early for stories; other times she just mumbles a little bit and rolls over […]

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In response to all you who have silently wondered, “What if avablog were written by a handsome, tech-savvy, funny version of Mark and a brunette version of Leah?” I give you ava’s blog. Now you know. UPDATE: Oops! Looks like my four readers crashed the server. Let’s hear it for Drupal!

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I was really looking forward to having this disc, too. Since the gift won’t be given now, the CD I wanted was Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda. Mark, Hello and thank you for your email. I apologize for the incorrect item you received. Unfortunately we do not have another copy available to send out to […]

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For your consideration: Yahoo!’s Top 10 Searches of 2007: Britney Spears WWE Paris Hilton Naruto, The Japanese Manga Series Beyonce Lindsay Lohan RuneScape Fantasy Football Fergie Jessica Alba Google’s Fastest Rising Search Terms of 2007: iphone webkinz tmz transformers youtube club penguin myspace heroes facebook anna nicole smith

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I received a CD in the mail yesterday that was to be a gift for a family member. I ordered it used through a reseller at Amazon; I don’t see much point in buying new CDs anymore, since they’re just going to get ripped within 90 minutes of hitting my door. But I digress. I […]

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I debated posting this, because a blogger pal does such a better job covering this show, but Leah and I just about wet our pants last night watching Project Runway. It’s the same kind of laughter you get from watching merry mishaps in which someone ends up rolling down a steep embankment in a shopping […]

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Ava got a lot of painting done while we were in Madison. I don’t know if any of it is ready for the Met yet, but she sure seemed to have a lot of fun splashing color around. We did end up leaving Madison on Saturday, at Rachel’s gentle prodding. The drive home was much […]

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Yes, I’m blogging on Thanksgiving. We’re done with dinner and first round cleanup and are waiting for pie. I thought I’d drop a quick image of what we had waiting for us when we walked outside this morning. Ava was thrilled. But man, is it cold. And windy. And it’s supposed to be colder tomorrow […]

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I don’t know if I almost never have dreams, or if I simply never remember the dreams I have. Seems like the latter is more likely. When I do manage to remember one, it feels like a special event, even when the dream is stupid, like the one I had last night. While every other […]

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A colleague sent me this image and accompanying headline earlier today. They’re from Yahoo! Perfection fantasies to avoid Could you be setting expectations so high that your partner can’t live up to them? General consensus is that this fellow is a ringer for me. The closest comparison I could find is this: Leah points out […]

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My MacBook was busy this weekend ripping and encoding a number of DVDs. Handbrake‘s latest version really does a nice job encoding DVD rips with 5.1 channel surround via default settings. I was able to get through Monsters Inc., Cars, The Incredibles, and two Caillou DVDs before the weekend ran out. I wish I hadn’t […]

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My friend and colleague Marcia is, among other nice things, an absolute fiend for Classical music. She goes through CDs like other people go through milk, or bread, or Manolo Blahniks. She has rack after rack after rack of CD storage lining her living room (she and her partner, Dennis, hold the current record amongst […]

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Right here: Dr. Carol A. Livoti, a Manhattan obstetrician and gynecologist and an author of “Vaginas: An Owner’s Manual” (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004), said vajayjay and other euphemisms and slang offend her and can render women incapable of explaining their symptoms to health professionals. “I think it’s terrible,” Dr. Livoti said. “It’s time to start […]

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My pal and BIL Kevin used to work the help desk at “a large Midwestern teaching hospital” until he tested out and joined the networking team. He still has friends on the help desk, of course, and every once in a while they’ll send along a plum like this cry for help: “MY NAME IS […]

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…[T]he curator of the Rotterdam Natural History Museum asked the public to donate pubic crabs, claiming that their population was dwindling as a result of Brazilian waxes. “When the bamboo forests that the Giant Panda lives in were cut down, the bear became threatened with extinction. Pubic lice,” he explained, “can’t live without pubic hair.” […]

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Why does my child eat better when she’s watching TV? It’s like she’s on autopilot, munching away while she watches Ms. Honey lead her class through alphabet exercises. It’s weird.

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If you dig science, you know who James Watson is. You may also know him if you dig nooses and burning crosses. See, James is straight-up racist. And to cover his bases, he’s sexist, too. What’s interesting (to me, at least) about James is that he’s one of the world’s most celebrated scientists. To understand […]

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with these goons? For crying out loud. Gibson went on to say that he “knew this was not a classic hip-hop shooting” once he learned Coon killed himself. Gibson continued: “Hip-hoppers do not kill themselves. They walk away. Now, I didn’t need to hear the kid was white with blond hair. Once he’d shot himself […]

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Went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning and checkup. Everything’s A-OK. Not to brag, but the hygienist positively gushed about the condition of my soft tissue. I’m so proud. She’d know about it, too, because she drove her f#*king little metal hook down into my gums far enough to pull my tonsils (yes, […]

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I’ve been looking forward to today for a while. My brother got tickets to Pat Metheny‘s show at Hancher this evening, and they’re good seats. Kevin is driving down from Madison this afternoon to go with us, and it’s always good to see him. As an added bonus, the new lens for my new camera […]

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