avablog

And by that, I mean I hate people like my friend Ben, who sneakily slide their gorgeous iPhones out of their pockets when I’m not looking. Then, before I know it, I’m staring at this gleaming piece of hardware laid out on some bar table somewhere, and my technolust washes over me like a sepsis-induced fever. But now I have this iTouch, and it simply wouldn’t be like me to take the high road and pretend like I’m not smitten with this thing. (WARNING: Technobabble ahead)
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Our friend Megan told us a story yesterday about how she locked her keys in her car and had to impose on the kindness of her husband, Ed, to dig up the spare keys and bring them to her. Ed wasn’t pleased.

When Megan finally got home, Ed was lying on the sofa with a magazine over his head, requesting that Megan not speak to him for the rest of the evening so as to not to exacerbate his splitting headache. Ava fell in love with the story, and as soon as she was done with dinner, she wanted to reenact it. Here, she plays Ed. Leah is Megan. Enjoy the show.

PS: Note Leah’s new hair color and say something nice about it; it’s best for everyone involved.

Live chat transcript with Site5 support:

Nithin T. [12:31:37 PM]: Hello! Welcome to the Site5 Technical Support Live Chat! How may I help you?
Mark [12:31:37 PM]: Can’t access my leander-hosted site from XXX.255.214.YY. Have I been firewalled?
Nithin T. [12:32:13 PM]: Hello Mark. Please give me a minute to check your IP
Mark [12:32:17 PM]: Thanks.
Nithin T. [12:35:35 PM]: Your IP was manually blocked at the server
[12:35:42 PM]: I have unblocked it now
Mark [12:35:56 PM]: Works. Thanks!

Greg or Kevin (or Ben, or Denny, or Aprille, or any of my more tech-savvy friends) could undoubtedly provide a better explanation of why this blog has been down for the past 24 hours or so. My take on it is that the place that hosts this site, site5, had a server problem that resulted in some DNS server weirdness. Everything seems to be OK now. For the time being, at least.

But, really, this site is hosted for free by the goodness of Greg’s big ol’ heart, so as frustrating as these occasional down times are, it’s not as bad as it would be if I were actually paying for hosting. Thanks, Greg! Sorry for the interruption, folks.

Well, 50% cute, at least.

Ava was wearing my new sun hat while we sat outside at the Java House this past weekend. She was happy to take a couple arms-length portrait shots with me.
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Last night I heard the first cicada of the season. July 5, 2008, Iowa City, IA. As I type this, more are buzzing away over the lilting notes of Jazz guitar coming from downtown. None of which we’d hear with the A/C on….

So there I am 10 minutes ago, fresh out of the shower, when Ava trips into the bathroom. She has Topsy Turtle with her and is getting ready to brush her teeth. She takes one look at me in my birthday suit and — without missing a beat — says, “Your penis is disgusting.”

Leah was getting Ava’s toothbrush out of the medicine cabinet while all this is going on, and I could see her body being wracked with silent spasms of laughter as she turned away from Ava. I just stood and stared. I figure the longer Ava thinks penises are disgusting, the better for her parents.

Ava didn’t get to sleep until 10:30 on Thursday evening, the day we arrived in Decorah, so we fired up the sparklers a little early last night. Worked out better for photos anyway:

Thankfully, Decorah holds off on its fireworks display until its Nordic Fest celebration at the end of the month, so there were no big booms after dark to keep Ava up. We still have that to look forward to.

Guess who got into the dress-up bin again?

The Bunny Princess, with clover.

No, not that. This:

8GB model. And the best part? My cost: $17.94 (i.e., sales tax). It’s nice to know someone who’s buying a Mac with the .edu discount these days.

Talk about a lose/lose proposition!

I guess things could’ve been worse; it could’ve been Cindy or Leah. Ouch.

I wanted to get a picture of Ava on her last day of daycare today. This is before she left in the morning:

It keeps changing for me, but unfortunately, not for Mark. We have yet another month down the toilet (so to speak) in our efforts to have a second baby. I had a lot of terribly, desperately, pathetically high hopes riding on this month, since it was our first time on fertility medication. I was convinced that this little miracle pill might be just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
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Ha! Fooled ya! Not the cuteness you were expecting, eh? Well, still darn cute, if you ask me.

Leah and I got to have breakfast with our friend Dawn on Sunday (Gramary was with Ava at a different breakfast joint at the same time).

From The Wall Street Journal:

What the Dating Rules You Set For Your Kids Say About You

Parents who are involved in stable romantic relationships with spouses or partners tend more than other parents to set rules limiting teen dating behavior, such as curfews, minimum ages for dating, limits on places teens can go and explicit rules against sexual activity, says a new study of 169 parents and 102 teens by Stephanie Madsen, an associate professor of psychology at Maryland’s McDaniel College. While the reason isn’t clear, the author suggests these parents may hold more conservative beliefs in general; many of the rules involved sexuality.
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A better way for parents to expend their energy, Dr. Madsen says, is to emphasize constant, warm oversight over just setting rules. She calls this setting “supervisory” rules, or keeping up a free flow of communication without intruding too much. This means asking teens to disclose plans, check in by phone and inform parents when plans change. In such cases, the adults were focusing on their roles as parents rather than their own love lives. These parents also had the healthiest relationships with their children.

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The reviews are pouring in, and they’re love songs. Looks like I’m going to have to wait for this one to come out on DVD, which is fine with me. The more I go to movies, the more I’m reminded why I don’t go to movies. Seems the odds are anymore that my experience will be ruined rather than enhanced by sitting in a big room with a bunch of strangers.

One more awesome bit of news today, and the trifecta will be complete!

Schlitz brings ’60s formula back home

Schlitz Park may be the last hometown presence for the “Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,” but Schlitz beer is now coming home, in a sense, with what it calls its “Classic 1960s Formula.”

Sometimes I see something on the Wonderful Wide Web (frequently on BoingBoing) that pushes a magical button way, way deep down inside my being. Here’s the most recent cause for delight:

A “one-of-a-kind” Lego replica of Syd Mead’s Spinner flying car from the movie Blade Runner. Oh. Man. How Lego doesn’t go into mass production of a Blade Runner set is beyond me. Must be legal’s fault.

Ava was in a hammy mood last evening, and I happened to have my camera with me.

I rarely use my XTi’s flash, but it provided some nice fill for these shots. The downside — as you’ll see if you visit Flickr to view the rest of the shots from this session — is that I was close enough to her face that the flash was casting a shadow over half her mug. Suppose that’s what I get for shooting that close with the flash when the camera is vertical.

(Mosaic created with fd’s Flickr Toys.)

When it rains, it pours. Had five “suspicious” moles removed on Monday. Here’s a photogiraffic pimento of my appointment: