Friday, June 22, 2007
Jay: ‘My Crayon Needed Duct Tape!”
Valerie is napping and Sadie therefore has her crayons out, coloring.
One of the crayons broke. She paid me a visit, pieces in hand. I exclaimed about it being broken and wondered why she was bringing it to me; was I supposed to do something.
“Duct tape.”
Sadie loves her duct tape, and her crayons too. She learned about duct tape because it is required to keep Valerie wearing her diapers, which means Sadie requires it as a fashion accessory by the reknowned oriental designer Me Too.
I got a small strip of duct tape and rejoined the sundered crayon, praising Sadie for her fine job of generalizing about the properties of the tape and extrapolating to crayon surgery.
When she got back the crayon, she waved it triumphantly in her mother’s direction, proclaiming “my crayon needed duct tape!”
It doesn’t get much cuter than that.
Jay: Mulberry Splat
Just like John Scalzi, we have a mulberry tree in the yard, though in our case it’s hard not to notice, since we park under it. I love mulberry trees, if only for the nostalgia factor, having grown up with a huge one in my grandmother’s yard. The berries are fairly tasty, but neither as tasty nor as easy to use as many other fruits. In their case, “for the birds” is more factual than dismissive.
So it is that we have branches laden with berries in varies stages of ripeness, or lack thereof, hanging over the cars and the driveway. We have to walk through them. Had Jimi Hendrix shared such an experience, he might have sung of purple feet rather than haze.
Our “scuse me while I kiss the ground” girls both felt compelled to pick up a berry, wanting to taste. Which is fine in that they are edible, but yuck; they are ant food once they hit the driveway.
All of which brought up the topic of learning about such things. I obviously learned at an extremely young age about blueberries, huckleberries, blackberries, checkerberries, and so forth. I’d like them to learn that sort of thing, but initially the main lesson needs to be not to eat things off of random plants. Or the ground.
As they get old enough, the more they know about what they can eat (or not!) in the wild, the better. I always consider it a matter of potential survival if tshtf or the need to know otherwise arises. The more a parent equips a kid with the skills and knowledge to survive and thrive, the better a job of parenting has been done, and to me that includes covering extreme conditions. Kind of like testing software needs to cover the endpoint or extreme conditions.
Jay: Lockdown
I nearly cracked Deb up while she was on the phone with USAA. I’d located Val’s social security card in my desk drawer, which has been sitting on the desk getting stuff piled on top of it since the kids broke it again a few months ago.
I have an ancient metal box, somewhat insulated against fire, with a long since dead lock. It contains the title for the Sentra and some other stuff like silver certificates. Periodically I remember I could use a new one and then promptly don’t buy one.
I pulled that out, took it and the envelopes with the offspring identity social security cards in them to the living room, got Deb’s attention and announce that I was putting. social. security. in a. lock box.
He probably gets picked on more than deserved, but that’s one bit of unintended Al Gore humor that will never stop being funny to me.
Deb: Precise Sadie.
A couple of nights ago, when picking out a book for bedtime:
No. I don’t want to read that one.
Complete sentences. What a kick.
Jay: Mileage Lookup Site
Our van is officially supposed to get 16 MPG city, 22 MPG highway, and 18 MPG combined. Sounds about right, at least when it’s not about to die. Before it went, it seemed to be sucking gas at single digit rates. I normally use the trip meter for checking mileage, but on this it’s broken, and I have yet to remember to note the miles on the odometer at one fill and then a subsequent fill to do the math. Nor does it help that gas isn’t always a fill. Not at $46 as it cost most recently.
I stumbled across the mileage site when trying to find out online the size of our tank, which the dead tree owner’s manual says is 20 gallons. I’m not sure I have the precise model specs, but they’re all close to the above.
The good news is we went for a substantial shakedown drive yesterday, with the girls going to Rhode Island for the first time ever (for “turn around a block or two into Pawtucket” values of “going to Rhode Island"), and the gas still indicates almost as full as when the tank had been freshly topped.
I looked up the Sentra and, sure enough, it is supposed to get 25/33/28, which is close enough to my experience when it wasn’t sick.
The pickup is supposed to get 15/20/17, which also seems in keeping with my experience. Seems funny for it to compare badly to the larger van, but the truck is overpowered.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To my friend and former colleague Maureen.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger John Cole.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Jay: Long As It’s Not a Bad Sign
|
You Should Have Been Born Under: |
 You’ve got a ton of energy - and need plenty of room to roam. You tend to follow your whims, and it’s hard for you to stick to one thing. Specific jobs, loves, and friends are always changing and never a part of your life for long. Very intuitive, you tend to know what people are thinking before they say a word. You are most compatible with a Dog or Tiger. |
Jay: Mmmm… PBJ
I read this result to Deb and she was quite impressed with it.
|
What Your Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich Means |
 Your eating style is gluttonous. If you like something, you’re going back for seconds… no matter how full you are! You don’t really have a sweet tooth. If you go for dessert, you tend to go for something light. Your taste in food tends to be complex and sophisticated. You’re probably a great cook, and talented at mixing unusual flavors. Admit it, you’re a little trashy and low class at times. You’re definitely more comfortable at a tattoo parlor than the theater. You are a tough person who isn’t afraid to live life fully. There isn’t a lot that scares you. Precise and controlled, you can be a bit anal retentive when it comes to how you like things. You’re definitely a perfectionist. |
Jay: Decent Geek Quiz
81% GeekMingle2 - Free Online Dating
Jay: Heh
I brought home an old AMD 400 with Windows 98 I used to use at the office. The kids are playing with it now, experimenting with word processing and seeing how many times they can accidentally log off or reboot. I need to get some age appropriate games or whatnot onto it, but they’re as likely to end up using it as I am. Maybe I’ll backup some files to it, as it has 6 GB free. The big thing is it has a mouse, so ohmygod there is a mouse Valerie can torture play with that won’t get her in trouble.
I poked around before I turned it over to them. One of the things I found on it was a document giving reasons for upgrading at the law firm formerly known as the Big Client. I had to laugh at how similar it was to the reasons for finally upgrading everything finally this year. Reduced maintenance costs and greater ease of swapping more uniform and current machines around as needed, for instance.
The document was from 2000.
Jay: Tea Girl Lives On
Funny, I just stumbled across the old post with this picture:
Sadie loses Tea Girl for long stretches of time, most recently because she’s ended up under the stove. Yesterday Sadie found her there, apparently in easy reach, and has barely let go of her since. It’s been months, but here she is, walking around announcing “my Tea Girl!”
Not sure what happened to her, but Valerie recently latched on to Lemon Girl, another one in the set, and acted as attached to her as Sadie always was to Tea Girl.
All this, from a couple of McDonald’s Happy Meals back a couple years ago.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Deb: Apparently the sunlight was the only thing keeping me awake.
It’s all rainy today and it’s all I can do not to fall asleep.
I hate it when that happens.
Jay: Pita and Hummus
I finally got the pita pocket bread and hummus experiments post up at Married Guy Cook, complete with a bunch of pictures.
Deb: Time flies when you’re having fun…
Another midwife visit yesterday. Everything still looks really, really good. I’m beginning to believe all those myths about boy pregnancies being better are true after all. 31 weeks, which meant it was time for the Big List o’ Questions. Pediatrician? Yes, Dr. Our Family Doctor. Breastfeeding? Yes. Circumcision? No. And we know you have all of the baby stuff you’ll need, ha ha ha. Ha ha. *snicker* *snort* I just can’t believe we’re to this point already. If the birth stays scheduled where it is right now, this child will be here in less than two months. Two months! 8 weeks! Ack!
And yay! Because no matter how many times people tell me that they’re easier to take care of inside than out, I’ll always answer them, maybe, but they’re a hell of a lot more fun when they aren’t sitting on your bladder. Because they are.
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