avablog

Today I’ve witnessed an amazing outpouring of good will from the blogosphere, even by blogosphere standards. As thanks for letting me insinuate myself onto their pages, I present the following:

Sure, a couple of my participants today were women, but everyone loves looking at pictures of pretty girls on the Internet, don’t they? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, thanks for playing along, and especially for not replying with, “I got yer meme right here.”

Oh, and Rachel, if you’re reading this: I found a great gift for you at Walgreen’s today, but they didn’t have your size. I’ll find something else soon!

From Knights Who Writes:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find sentences 5,6, and 7, and post them.
4. Tag five people.

Here goes:

From Clementine 11.1 Node Reference:

The default is T. Specify a value to include in the flag field for records that do not match the condition specified below. The default is F.

I’m tagging Aprille, Jenny, Nathan, Danny, and Lauren. I’m pretty sure they read books.

Kind of a whirlwind weekend, but we made it through OK. We were all just thankful that the weather cooperated this year, after shutting out Leah’s birthday the last couple years.

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Leah’s birthday is this weekend. She’s started celebrating already by staying home sick in bed today with a hacking cough. At least Ava’s at daycare so Leah can rest.

Leah’s fam is rolling into town starting tomorrow to celebrate on Saturday. Kevin and I are making dinner for Leah and Rachel tomorrow night. The menu includes mushrooms with thyme and mozzarella, chicken saltimbocca, cauliflower risotto, and creme brulee. I’m taking tomorrow off to do the shopping and cooking. A couple of these recipes come from Jamie Oliver’s Italy cookbook, which I recommend for the photographs alone; it’s wonderful.

Looks like the weather here is going to be OK for traveling. As you may recall, Leah’s last two birthdays were a washout, thanks to ice storms here. What’re the odds? She deserves a break.

I’m feeling pretty good today, as I’ve finally discovered a Web site that provides lots and lots of information on what it’s like to be white. I’ve long thought that what the Internet needs is more detailed study on stuff white people like. Now, I have it. At last.

Here it is, in this particular order:

An Iowa Mom
Planet of the Aprilles
arredonald
The UI Daily Mayhem
Danny Novo (is no rocket surgeon)
DANNY, TIFFANY, AND FAMILY 😉
PhilosYphia
Howe in the World
Knights Who Writes
mama-tchou-tchou
Cindy and Greg
daddytypes.com
dlisted (I know. I KNOW!)
OH NO THEY DIDN’T! (Again, I know!)

There are others I look at on a regular basis that are not updated daily. Once I run through these, I write a comment on avablog, if I can think of anything to write. Like, not posts like this one. Heh.

Leah and Ava baked cookies this past weekend while we were trapped inside. Oatmeal chocolate chip. Yum. It was a trial to get all the ingredients into the bowl and mixed before Ava ate them each individually.

We were unaware of her affinity for plain flour before last weekend.

This happened a couple days ago, but I’ve been telling myself I need to write it down so I can have the account in the official record.

Ava’s outgrown naps, for the most part. In truth, she was never much of a napper. Nor a sleeper in general. The only time she naps now, really, is at daycare when her favorite worker, Alyce (uh*lease), is there to snuggle with her.

So imagine our trepidation when Ava’s Gramary came to pick up Ava last weekend to attend a percussion concert in the afternoon on a day when Ava hadn’t napped (and had actually woken up pretty early, too). We had all sorts of visions of her coming home to bounce off the walls and be fussy and grumpy. No fun for anyone.

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Well, not quite. But I’m sure there are less objectionable ways to start one’s morning. Leah and I did our first IUI this morning after she received a positive ovulation indicator last night before bed. So after dropping off Ava, we were off the the hospital. Once there, I “produced” a “sample,” which was then cleaned and vetted for only the best candidates. Those candidates were then given a special escort into the heart of Leah’s reproductive system via a little syringe.

More salacious details and a vaguely NSFW image after the jump…you’ve been warned.
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Sorta like the chicken pox, Ava got her first exposure to the movie “Cars” at daycare. We were trapped inside today during the latest snow storm to hit the area, and after baking cookies and exhausting our other indoor entertainment options, we finally fell back on a little good ol’ video. I was scrolling down the list of movies on the AppleTV, and we came across “Cars.” I said, “Ava, this is the one with Lightning McQueen.” To which she replied, “Yeah! The one with Lightning the queen!” “No,” I said, “Lightning McQueen.” Lightning the queen.” It just wasn’t going to happen. So I rolled the video, and she loved it. Leah and I decided that her take on the name was funny enough that we’d just stop trying to correct her.

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Guess who got a haircut yesterday?

I love Ava’s hair like this. I think it really accentuates her little round face in just the right way. Also, it makes if more difficult for her to twist her hair into knots that then must be cut out with scissors.

In lieu of reporting on all the insanely romantic things I did for my long-suffering wife this morning (of which there are none), I’ll present this picture of Ava’s breakfast:

Heart-shaped French toast, just in case you didn’t recognize it. Happy Valentine’s Day! <3

Cindy posted a cute pic today of two of her kids in the tub. It’s such a classic photo. I wonder if any parents anywhere in the world have ever been able to resist the urge to take one of these shots? I know my parents couldn’t:

And of course you know I have absolutely no fortitude in the face of bathtime cuteness:

Apple pie. Baseball. Chevy trucks. Pics of kids in the tub. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

The ATV gurus are swarming over Apple’s recent AppleTV Take 2 update like flies on a rib roast. Leah’s excited about the update because it’ll let us watch online rentals (but only if you’re using HDMI!); I just want to make sure I can update and still have my beloved network drive mounts remain intact. Looks like it’s possible. In fact there may even be a new patchstick on the way (which is used to enable “added value” to the default ATV OS). I’m eager to try the new rental feature, even though it has its drawbacks.

Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff

…Bertram reportedly did not recognize the severity of his girlfriend’s near-chronic dependence on getting out of the house and doing stuff until six months ago, when she insisted the two attend a free outdoor concert in their neighborhood. Since that time, Maas has asked an estimated 11 times to be taken to dinner, 17 times to go grocery shopping, and, on 20 separate occasions, has expressed a desire to go on a meandering walk without a fixed destination, purpose, or time limit.

Dare to dream, people. A 15″ Beagle won the hound group last night at the WKC Dog Show. My, but he’s a handsome devil:

He’s a barker, too, which is endearing. I didn’t get a chance to catch much of the show last night other than Uno’s win, so I don’t know what kind of competition he’s up against. It’s stiff, I’m sure. I’m trying not to get my hopes up. If Uno can pull this off, it’ll be huge. No Beagle has ever won best in show at Westminster (that’s 131 shows), and a Beagle hasn’t won the hound group since 1939. If you can spare it, funnel some of that Obama love Uno’s way today.

We’ve been experiencing some issues with our Mediacom phone service at the house for the last month or so. It’s frustrating to not have a functioning land line, but not as frustrating as trying to hear someone on the phone using a Motorola RAZR cell. Who designed those things?! Blech.

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We attended sweet Lila’s one-year birthday today. I took a whole snotload of pictures but managed to get things down to a manageable number before uploading to Flickr. Since it’s still so snowy and cold outside, I thought I’d pass along this picture:

There are a lot more pictures of super-cute kids from the party in my stream, but only for you lucky stiffs I call my friends and family.

One of the highlights of our trip came at the Best Western we stayed at in Alvin. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Texas-shaped waffle:

It wasn’t our last encounter with the Texas-shaped waffle. They had them at the Airport Inn we stayed in near the airport the night before we flew (most of the way) home. I wonder if they have anything like this in Wyoming.

Man. That was some trip. And to top it all off, the drive from Madison to I.C. this morning was positively slippery. I very nearly kissed the garage floor when I got out of the car upon our arrival.

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If I never take another plane trip again, it’ll be too soon.

Today we’re stuck in Madison at Rachel and Kevin’s house, waiting out a major snow storm that’s spread from Madison to Iowa City. It’s supposed to mitigate here sometime this afternoon, but we’re not sure how things will be on the road once the predicted 30-mph winds kick up this evening.

We ended up driving from Chicago to Madison last night just as the storm was hitting, which was a whole lot of fun (our flight kept getting delayed, and when it looked like we might never get out, we just decided to rent a van and make a run for it). Kevin did a masterful job of driving first through sleet, then freezing rain, and finally snow. But we got home safe and sound. Ava was oblivious to every hitch in the trip. Plane turbulence, icy roads, whatever. All she cared about was having a piece of gum. And now she’s excited about having a “snow day.”

I’ve got just under 100 new photos of the trip to Texas. Knock yourself out. HOLLA!