avablog

This is what our car looked like when we got up this morning: That was at 8. It’s been snowing steadily since then, and the winds are supposed to pick up as soon as the snow dies down. So, instead of risk the snowy and slippery roads this afternoon, we’ll wait until tomorrow morning and […]

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There’s almost nothing I hate more than driving in winter weather.  Well, bad winter weather.  Last March Leah and I drove back through Nebraska with Ava during a miserable snow storm.  We got out of North Platte within hours of the area being hit by over three feet of snow. Our drive to Madison today […]

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Really, I don’t measure stuff that often.  Except when I’m cooking a recipe I don’t know well, in which case I have my little measuring spoons at the ready. But then I read this story today, and it really hit home that Ava’s going to grow up in a mostly metric world.  Her old man […]

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Leah and I were lying in bed this morning at 6:30, alone (what a luxury!), when we heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming from Ava’s room. Sure enough, she’d hopped out of her bed by herself for the first time and walked over to our room. She had her dog Sissy with her to keep her company on the trip.

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..come on. Really.

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Anyone use them? I’ve memorized the basics: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup; Roy G. Biv; HOMES…stuff like that. But I know there are people out there who live their lives by these things. I don’t know if I have the mind for it. I seem to have a knack for repeating the exact wrong option when presented with two possible options that I’ve seen numerous times before.

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We’ve been in Decorah since the 25th to celebrate Christmas with Leah’s family. Yesterday Leah, Ava, Georgie, and I drive up to Minneapolis to visit relatives and get Georgie a new computer at the Apple Store at the Mall of America. We’ll drive home sometime tomorrow and get ready for Everyone to come to our house this Sunday for New Year’s Eve dinner.

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Seriously, I remember going with my dad to the local sporting goods stores and standing in a quivering state of desire in front of the racks of BB guns. I only ever had pump action models; the CO2 rifles were exotics that I knew I’d never have the money to buy.

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Casual category: The “Tycoon,” by Born. Dress / Work category: The ECCO “Neoflexor” slip-on.

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I live with someone who loves shoes.  On second thought, I don’t know if it’s the shoes so much as shopping for the shoes that’s the drug. I don’t like shopping for anything.  If I must shop for something, I’ll try to do as much recon on the front end as I can to minimize […]

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Everyday life is full of pitfalls. I was wrapping a present for Ava two nights ago, and emblazoned across one corner of the huge box were the words “Easy Clean.”  In quotes.  Like it wasn’t really easy to clean.  Why the quotes?  I suspect there’s a lawyer behind them somewhere.  It would be nice if […]

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The only time I ever get in Old Navy is when I’m with Leah.  Something about that store makes me uneasy. As I was standing near a table full of zip-front fleece jackets today at noon, I happened to look at the care tag on one of them.  Made in Nepal.  Nepal?  I pictured warehouses […]

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In case you wondered where I get my flawless fashion sense:

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This weekend is shaping up to be Christmas Prep Weekend 2006, so long as Ava seems in good health tomorrow morning.  Plans include Christmas tree search and acquisition, breakfast and ornament shopping in the Amanas, and various acts of senseless decoration around the house.

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Memory is an amazing thing. In and of itself, the biochemical/electrical process that is memory is quite an invention. The way it persists, old memories fading away and becoming as good as forgotten in our everyday lives, only to come rushing back the moment we receive some sensory cue that immediately and vividly brings an event out of the past. And it’s usually the darnedest things that spur these memories. Like shag carpet.

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That’s my mom, there, overseeing my yawn. I can’t look at this picture without thinking about the day we brought Ava home and showed her our (her) house for the first time. There’s just no forgetting that moment when your life goes from two to three. It’s even more profound in many ways than being in the hospital and seeing Ava for the first time.

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From today’s Wall Street Journal: A growing number of auto companies are trying to place ads and products in child-oriented areas such as gyms that cater to kids, social-networking sites where young people hang out and the Saturday-morning cartoons. Their aim is to spur sales to parents — and, down the road, to the children […]

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That’s right. What? You’re not done? I love trying to find good gifts for people. Sometimes it’s things I know they want or need, but often it’s things I think they should have…things they don’t even know they need until I give it to them. My list this year has a little bit of each […]

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When I was an undergraduate studying English, one of my professors nominated me for a scholarship. I ended up winning it, mainly, I suspect, because there was a lack of interest in the award. But I was excited to get it, and I was even more excited that a professor I admired thought enough of […]

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Same s#%t, different day.  You figure it out.  I give up. From one of our local papers today: A Tiffin woman has been charged with child endangerment after a drug screening reportedly showed she and her infant daughter had tested positive for cocaine, authorities said. … In a similar incident, a Fairfield, Iowa, woman was […]

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