avablog

Could today finally be the day I break down and buy a cell phone? I suspect it’ll be as close as I’ve ever come (which is to say, moderately close).

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Listen. I want Ava to learn to use the potty as much as the next guy. But this? This just seems…weird.

Pee and poo plush dolls, “fresh” from Scandinavia. “Ava, it’s time for bed! What dolls would you like to sleep with tonight? Butterfly the monkey? J.J. the baby? Sissy the dog? Bajs the shit?”

Ava loves to play with Play Doh. Some mornings she wakes up and it’s the first thing she wants to do. We can coax her into doing different things for us with the promise of a Play Doh session if she complies.

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Nothing big.  I just noticed today that this blog has been running now since January 2005.  Four hundred and four posts, 394 comments.  It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.

I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress today, and so far, so good.  As always, there were a couple hitches with the process, but it got done.  Good excuse to do a backup, anyway.

I’ve now effectively shut off access to what used to be my install of Gallery2 here on nicheplayer.net.  The siren call of flickr simply became too strong.  So don’t be surprised if you try to get to the gallery here and end up here instead.

There’s a big MacWorld conference this week.  As always, rumors abound.  I’m tempted to sit this one out, but I’m sure I’ll end up taking a peek at live coverage sometime during the day.  The keynote is on the same day we’re having an inspector come and look at the house in preparation for negotiating a sale with our neighbor.  It’s going to be a big week.  By Wednesday we’ll likely know if we’re staying here for a while or moving in the spring.

One Friday morning, then, it’s off to Madison to help Kevin do some finish work on a room he’s redone in his attic.  I love the smell of gypsum dust in the morning….

I’m glad I kept our old digital camera when we got our new one. Ava loves to tote it around and take pictures. As a matter of fact, I just went through over 100 shots she’s taken in the last two weeks. Most were overexposed pictures of the armchair in our living room, but now and then she captured something compelling. For example:

I love the juxtaposition of the camera bag with her toes.

I was reading some stories with Ava tonight before bed.  We were both lying on her bed next to each other like spoons in a drawer, each of us with our own Mr Men book.  I read Mr Tickle aloud while Ava paged through Mr Clumsy.

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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 that 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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I first saw this book a couple months ago at a bookstore in Decorah. The pictures of the food were what caught my eye initially, but closer inspection revealed some really nice, simple recipes for traditional Italian dishes.

I’m eager to get started on a couple of the entries. Between this and the online membership Kevin now has to Cook’s Illustrated, I’ll be set for the whole year.

I can see now how parents get blindsided by their kids coming up to them at a tender young age and blurting out some naughty word or other inappropriate speech. The thing is, you spend the first couple years of a child’s life trying everything you can to get them to interact with you. Our poor Ava was under constant pressure to smile or laugh or sit up or roll over or grab our fingers. Sometimes she’d react, but most of the time she’d lie or, later, stand there and stare blankly at us.

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I’ve never been a big maker of resolutions, and this year is no different.  In fact, I hadn’t thought about any resolutions at all until I set off to write this post.  Bah.  Who needs ’em?  Just one more thing to worry about not getting done.
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Here’s a sampling of the beers we had for our New Year’s Eve celebration yesterday. Kevin was kind enough to bring some great New Glarus beers from Wisconsin. The others we picked up at John’s.

We’ve been in Decorah since the 25th to celebrate Christmas with Leah’s family. Yesterday Leah, Ava, Georgie, and I drove 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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As I type this, Ava is spending her first night in her Big Girl Bed.  It’s weird to see her lying there, and I could picture her in the future with her feet stretching almost to the end of the bed.  Maybe she’ll never be that tall, but as I stood there at the foot of her new bed, I envisioned the day she’d grow up and leave.

Merry Christmas.

Now this is the kind of stuff my Christmas dreams used to be made of.  I wonder how old Ava has to be before Leah lets me get her a BB gun.

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When I bump into people in the halls at work these days, they always ask if Ava is getting excited about Christmas.  I reply that she is.

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If you’re any fan of quirky, smart humor, and you use the iTunes Music Store, get over there and check out the free (FREE) audiobook of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise.  Man, I’m really enjoying this book in the audio version even more than reading it on paper.  Hodgman does the reading, and his delivery is fantastic.

I’m presently listening to him make his way through his list of 700 hobo names.  One of my favorites so far is  “Honey Bunches of Donald.”  He also reads a special excerpt from his upcoming book about his new daughter “Hodgmina.”  Run, don’t walk….

Anyone old enough to remember that commercial for flavored Tootsie Rolls that featured claymation characters riding a rainbow? Well, my dad created that ad when he worked in Evanston. Here’s a shot from the set:

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Casual category:

The “Tycoon,” by Born.

Dress / Work category:

The ECCO “Neoflexor” slip-on.

Now, why can’t I get my old lady interested in one of these?