avablog

I love this shot of Ava opening up her new doll house on Monday morning. It’s like she can hardly believe what she’s looking at. This morning, as we were getting ready to leave, she was in her room playing with the doll house. It’s interesting to watch Ava set her imagination to work moving […]

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People who keep talking in a meeting after all the meeting’s business has been conducted. It makes me want to rip my own arms off.

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Some of you might be familiar with the life and work of John Hodgman. If you’re not, I encourage you to seek out his teachings and live by them. As for myself, I plan to acquaint Ava with the six oaths of the virtuous child just as soon as she’s able to understand what an […]

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It’s official. Ava’s first airline trip will happen in January when we travel with the entire Klevar clan to Mexico for a week. The last time we were there, Leah was three months pregnant with Ava. Here’s what she looked like: She’s on the right. Leah’s convinced Ava’s going to have a good time playing […]

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Overall, I’m happy to be a lefty. It’s just that sometimes I feel like I have that many more annoyances during the day than my right-handed friends. Little things, is all, but then a snake bite is little, isn’t it? This comes to mind today because I have this coffee mug at work emblazoned with […]

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I was late for our first date. You remember. Back then, I was never late. I hated being late. I believed that showing up anything but on time showed disrespect, and I was especially mortified to have flubbed up on such a rare occasion as a first date. But, there I was. I’d gone to […]

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OK, maybe CNN lost it long ago, and I just haven’t been paying attention. But I was paying attention this morning, when they published this little tidbit on their front page re: Pavarotti’s death: Pavarotti died today, prompting one reader to cry on her way to work. What, exactly, is it supposed to convey to […]

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Burning Man festival loses its innocence I’m not the final authority on all things Burning Man, but nothing I’ve ever read about the proceedings out there in the desert evoked the word “innocence.”

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As of 4 p.m. Central Time yesterday afternoon, my sister-in-law Rachel passed the oral section of her Ph.D. comps with flying colors. I’m so proud I could spit, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with her success. Way to go, Rachel! I’m looking forward to celebrating her accomplishment in a couple weeks when […]

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Via Sanjay Gupta (he’s no Quincy, but he’ll do in a pinch): Recent evidence suggests that older men are more likely to pass down genetic defects to their children. Scientists have found a gradual increase in DNA damage as men age. Bad news: I’m getting older. Good news: I’m a model of flawless DNA. I […]

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First the big face, now this. Don’t make me get out that unicorn again.

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Wow. Just…wow.

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Kind Reader: I appreciate your patience during our prolonged absence. I anticipate our vacation will be just the thing to allow me to attack this blog with renewed vigor as summer draws to a close. On the drive to Decorah on Sunday, we stopped at a rest area to have a stretch. There was a […]

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We’re on our way north, which is fine with me.  The temps here down below look like they’re going to continue to climb into the 90s over the next week, while it’s going to be in the upper 60s where we’ll be on Tuesday.  Rain, maybe, but who cares? Marital issue:  We arrived in Decorah […]

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But not for long. Chicago, in retrospect, was a bit exhausting.  It’s not the kind of place you go for a little R&R.  Fortunately, we’re following Chicago with an honest-to-goodness relaxing trip to N. Minnesota this week, starting Thursday.  We’ll be gone until the 13th. In other news, BABIES EVERYWHERE!  In the past week, one […]

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Shot from our hotel room: It’s nice enough, I suppose. Small. We’re right over the river, so Ava’s enjoying the seagulls. Today were my pre-conference workshops; tomorrow things start in earnest. We’re off to dinner with an old friend here in a few minutes, though I’m not sure where. I’ll let you know. UPDATE: I […]

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A friend of ours recently described Ava as gregarious.  It’s accurate.  She gets it from her mother, who has a well-documented habit of never being the one to end a conversation. I tend to be more reserved, so Leah and I make good bookends in that way.  Leah constantly makes apologies for my brusque behavior […]

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I’m going to carry the following text with me on a note card from now on to hand to people who ask what it is I do during the day: Mean, median, 5% trimmed mean, standard error, variance, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, range, interquartile range, skewness and kurtosis and their standard errors, confidence interval for […]

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I was sitting on our front porch yesterday morning before going to work, and there were two police cars at the curb down the street from our house.  It didn’t appear there was any action going on, and when I got to work, I e-mailed a neighbor to see if he knew anything.  He didn’t, […]

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