hmmm...I best write about this, lest I forget.
My mommy came to visit!
Saturday, our good friend from DC visited! She was curious about life with childrens...what if they spit up on you, she asked as I was holding Miss Squeaky above my head. It don't matter. I've been through much, much worse*
Most bad things that infants do, give me data points. If the baby is screaming, I know they have enough oxygen. (This might be from my fears right after they were born, and Mr Grunty couldn't cry.) When they woke up in the middle of the night, I was always a bit happy, because SIDS hadn't attacked my childrens. Poo & pee...it's good that they do that, their digestion is working, it's bad if they don't. Hmm...not much data from spit up...oh well...it doesn't smell that bad.
Right before she left, our friend said to Miss Squeaky, "later, I'll teach you about your reproductive rights" She failed to point out that Mr. Grunty will have less reproductive rights than his sister.**
Miss Squeaky took her first steps. I am so very happy it was in front of us at home. (Note, she hasn't since. Maybe we made to big a deal of it.)
Miss Squeaky wanted to share a carrot with Mr. Grunty, he wouldn't take it from her, so she crawled over to him, and pushed on his chest trying to make him take the carrot. We adults thought it was so very cute, until gravity took over, and Mr. G fell over and bonked his head on the floor. :-( Poor Mr. G.
Sunday
I played in the garden. I've dug up a new spot. I got some dirt from the store, (Mr. G helped pick it out.) I planted some beans and some radishes, and some raspberry. I found worms. I got dirt under my nails. It was fun.
Later that night, I was sitting on the floor and eating a banana. The childrens mobbed me, they wanted banana, too. They were very happy as I fed them pieces, until we ran out!
Monday
We went to kite hill for a picnic. Entertained by lots of people fail at flying a kite.
*Like the time I spilled rotten pork blood all over me, because physical plant didn't tell us that two of our coolers were on the same circuit! YES, still bitter about that.
**A woman can legally choose not to be a parent, weeks after conception. A man, legally is obliged to be a parent as soon as he consents to sex.
Yes, they are still incredibly cute.
Adventures from this morning....
I had to dig a bunch of cat fur out of Miss Squeaky's mouth.
I think Miss S dumped a bucket of blocks on her brother's head.
Mr. Grunty, though he hearts the banana, would not pick a piece up. Until I topped it with a cherio, then it was cool to touch.
Mr. G pulled himself up to play on the piano. (yay!)
I played chase the toy chain-link with Oliver.
And I almost forgot to feed Sophie.
alright, this is weirding me out.. I (and well, half of the basketball community) called it when I said the finals would be Lakers -vs- Celtics.
So why don't I feel happy about it?
I think I am gonna have to root for the Western Conference team. Maybe it's because there was minimal shots of Jack Nicholson in the Forum, or no audience pans of the celebs at the game just to be seen. But I don't have the normal loathing for the Lakers that I normally do. Maybe, I just am starting to like Kobe, after all he did last summer in the FIBA tournament.
Also, I don't see how Boston can match up. None of them can defend Kobe. And Odam & Gasol will be tough for them to defend. I don't think LA needs to worry about Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett is not a closer.
Speaking of...Phil Jackson showed his team the "Always Be Closing" speech from Glengarry Glen Ross.
I hear rumors that the NBA will start fining those that flop. Completely silly. How about this, have the refs ignore those that flop? If there's no advantage, within a week 250 lb men would quit falling to the floor every time someone's jersey touched them.
I was entertained.
I haven't yet read the book, maybe I should, the books are short, and I'm behind schedule.
I'll give it a "B".
And I kept seeing things, and thinking about the d20 conversion.
I kept thinking, wow, there's a lot of violence in this. And the kids were involved in the violence too.
So, what do you think. Who's the better writer, CS Lewis, or JRR Tolkien?
I think CS spins a better yarn.
(I still haven't forgiven JRR for Tom Bombidill!! )
Miss Squeaky likes to take a toy with her as she crawls.
Mr. Grunty likes to walk around, holding onto parental fingers, and will fuss if we quit.
In an effort to get to know my little sister T a bit better, I am reading a book that she likes.
"Stray" by Rachel Vincent
Hmmm...how best to say this. I'll give it a C .
Compared to "Last Man Standing", let see, I think Baldacci is a better writer, the idea hook was more interesting in "Last Man", but I enjoyed "Stray" more. Also, in credit to Vincent, the characters seemed more true to themselves, and the plot was straight forward and believable. Every turn of events was believable, except one*.
Now here is the interesting thing, I picked it up, and thought "the narrator totally talks the way my little sister T does!" Vincent has picked up the rhythm and meter of teenage speech.
"Stray" is urban-fantasy, which Wikipedia says is a subset of contemporary fantasy, which is a sub-genre of fantasy. ("Stray" is published by Mira, a Harlequin publisher.)
I think my next novel will be a rural-fantasy. About a young were-gopher torn between two lovers...one is the stable, nice-guy, human...the other is the fun, wild-n-crazy gopher. Think there's a market for that?
Alright questions for discussion.
Do boys like fantasy in fantasy lands, like Salvatore, whilst girls like fantasy based in a contemporary world, such as the slew of chick-lit vampire stories, Mira publishing...? And if so, why?
What makes a hero? I think I'll go with sacrifice and responsibility. Samwise, he trudged along with his friend, long after I would have strangled the whining Frodo. Spiderman "great power, great responsibility." Most parents are heroes.
I don't think just by having a special talent grants you hero status. (Pay attention to that SportsFans...just because A can do something cool with a ball, don't make them a hero.) It seems these days, in the movies, super-heroes are very popular. But the thing that makes them super, is their powers, not their actions, which is kinda sad.
...spoilers follow:
That said, the main character is not a hero. She's spoiled and selfish.
She wants to be independent, but papa is paying all her bills.
She only cares about what she wants, (which means having a boyfriend, then a day or two later making out with another boy you have a crush on, and a day or two later having sex with an ex-boyfriend) without regard to others feelings.
She goes out of her way to circumvent the protection her family is trying to give to her, putting herself in danger, and others that have to rescue her in danger.
Other reasons not to emulate the main character, she's always quick with the wise-crack, (which got tiresome near the end of the story in the big battle). Remember Miss Vincent, even Chandler Bing had endearing moments when he was serious.
Things that bother me that were left undone by the author.
A were-cat war should have erupted! South American were-cats invaded USA to kidnap female werecats. Maybe this is taken up in the second book, but it was so cheerful in the last chapter, it didn't look like war was on the way.
*And the main character accepts responsibility and living with family in the last chapter. Just like that, she changed. There was no development, just a flip of a switch, accepting everything that she had been fighting against.
And the brother who betrayed her, what happened to him?
And only 8 breeding female werecats in USA...uh...is there some frustration with the boys? Not much on that sociological issue of what to do when only a fraction of the men can expect to have a wife.
And...she wakes up in a cage "I could hear nothing but my heartbeat and Abby's." (pg 350) however, later, (pg 441) same cage, "In one corner of the basement, water dripped from a leaky pipe, dropping into a growing puddle on the ground." That inconsistency bothered me, why did a pipe start dripping, it reminded me I was reading a book, and I think the pipe started dripping to build up a dramatic moment.
quotes I like
"He subscribed to the Jackson Pollock theory of cooking...."
mother: "you place to little value on life. Particularly on your own."
main character: "I value my life very highly."
mother: "Then why waste it."
yeah...we broke down and bought the childrens an inflatable pool on Sunday because the weather was so very nice this weekend, and MyBetterHalf was very excited about seeing the childrens in their cute swim suits.
I don't think they really got it. Both of them kept trying to crawl out of the pool. The grass in the backyard was much more interesting. And the trying to get the grass off of them while getting them out of their swim suits, not very fun.
Later, whilst MyBetterHalf balanced the checkbook, the rest of us went on a walk up to the new Inter-urban trail. A nice bit of green right off of Aurora.
It started at 5:30 am, because Miss Squeaky thinks "if the sun is up, I should be too."
Later that morning I finally planted the red potatoes that had been sprouting in my kitchen for a few weeks. And YAY, some of the sunflowers are popping up.
We finally mailed some baby clothes to my sister in Arkansas.
Then we went for a picnic. But first, at Safeway, I taught the childrens how to honk the horn in their shopping car. Mr. Grunty did most of the steering, usually he had his hands on both steering wheels.
At the picnic...
Miss S attacked her mommy. MyBetterHalf was laying down, Miss S crawled over to her, crawled up, and then started giving her slobbery kisses on her neck. MyBetterHalf was laughing lots, and that only encouraged Miss S.
Mr. G discovered that sitting in the grass and kicking your legs is as fun as taking a bath. He was laughing loud. And it's even more fun when a parental does the same.
We took them walking (They still hold onto our fingers) barefoot in the grass. Yay! Miss S isn't afraid of walking in the grass.
Mr. G encountered his first dandelion. It was ready to disperse the seeds. He bent down to touch it, and very gingerly touched the white poof. He did that a few more times, and then, when the dandelion wasn't expecting it, he grabbed it and captured most of the seeds.
I finished a book.
And finally, I put up the curtains that our good friend Blub gave us a million years ago for the childrens room. Maybe now Mr Sun won't wake up Miss Squeaky.
:-)
an article talking about what works for AIDS prevention, and how we aren't really budgeting our monies in the best way.
One of the things that is working:circumcision
Over 45 observational, biological,
and other studies from the last 20 years
have shown that MC significantly reduces the
risk of heterosexual HIV infection . The population-level effect of widespread
MC is observed in west Africa, where HIV has
been present for many decades, yet prevalence
remains relatively low . All three
recent RCTs of MC in Africa were stopped
early for ethical reasons when initial findings
demonstrated at least 60% reduction in HIV
risk. The population-level impact, taking
into account “herd immunity,” could be
even greater if a large proportion of men
become circumcised . Unlike most
other interventions, MC is a one-time procedure
that confers lifelong protection. Modeling
suggests that MC could avert up to 5.7 million
new HIV infections and 3 million deaths over
the next 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa, many
of these among women .
A dozen acceptability studies and on-theground
experience in many high-HIV-prevalence
African countries demonstrate that the
majority of uncircumcised men and their
female partners accept and want MC services
(typically for reasons of hygiene and sexual
pleasure). In Swaziland, men almost
rioted because circumcision services were not
available. Studies suggest that up to
80% in high HIV-prevalence countries like
Botswana and Swaziland would seek MC if it
were safe and inexpensive.
Over time MC, which
has been called a “surgical vaccine,” would
probably protect more women, albeit indirectly,
than nearly any other achievable HIV
prevention strategy.
My boy is crawling. Yeah, y'all knew that. But I saw it this morning!
Miss Squeaky likes the green bean finger food.
How about for starters, instead of implementing some silly national policy, what if we don't waste so much food?
I'm sure the Brits aren't the only ones that waste lots of food. The average UK family throws out 18% - 27% of all food purchased.
Remember, you pay to buy the food, you pay for garbage service, you pay for environmental destruction of wasted crop lands, and poor people pay for higher prices because of the higher demand.
Common wasted foods that could have been used, bread & potatoes.
If you want to read the 237 page report.
PS We at GBAtT are not suggesting that you gorge yourself. That raises a-whole-nother set of issues.
Why didn't this story get any American press coverage?
Here's the thing, researchers have been observing great tits near Oxford since 1947, so there is many years of data to draw upon. The birds are laying their eggs earlier, than they used to. This matters because the great tit chicks have about 2 weeks to mature, so they eat lots of abundant caterpillars. Lab testing shows that caterpillars show up at a certain temperature. It appears the great tits are able to coincide their breeding, so that there will plenty of food for their brood.
Other birds, can have trouble with changing their breeding time to match up with their food sources.
Here's an evolution question, is it better to set your biological clock by amount of daylight, or by temperature.
Yes, I know I'm juvenile.
It just goes to show you, that by hanging out with people smarter than you, and participating minimally in the group effort, you too can be thanked by part of a huge international company.
Mr. Grunty crawled today! MyBetterHalf saw, since she stayed at home with Mr. G today because of him being sick. (Some vomiting, some diarrhea, I hope he doesn't get dehydrated.)
And, he really doesn't like broccoli.
Miss Squeaky has a new favorite word. "uh". A truncated version of "uh-oh" and she usually says it before or after dropping what ever she is playing with. We lost two pieces of Zweibeck toast yesterday, because I wasn't quick enough when she said, "uh."
Yesterday, on Mother's Day, I took the childrens for a nice long walk, an hour and a half. We walked up to Hamlin Park, and I tried the jogging stroller on the trails. I had fun lifting it over fallen tree branches and exposed tree roots. The childrens slept through most of it. It was an adventure!
more stuff from Mother's Day...
Miss S helped me sort clothes, practicing saying "uh" everytime she dropped a sock on the ground. She did get frustrated with my Portland Marathon shirt, because the long sleeves made it difficult to get the entire thing out of the laundry basket.
And she took a good morning nap in her mommy's arms.
Mr. G and his mommy were playing a game. He would kick on the floor, then she would copy him. He would kick on the floor and make a noise, and she would copy him. He found this very entertaining, and soon they both were laughing and stomping on the floor.
...embarrassing story...
some time last week...
you know when you have those "I'm falling dreams"? well, this time I had a "MyBetterHalf is falling!" And tackled her in my sleep so that she wouldn't fall off the cliff from my dream. Naturally she was not amused by this, or thankful that I was attempting to rescue her in real life from my dreams.
I think her words were "what the hell?" as she was violently saved from slumber.
I was hyperventilating from the adrenaline of the dream, and all I could say was "I thought you were falling."
oh my goodness, tonight, Mr. Grunty was very fussy from being sick and all. I was in the kitchen, getting stuff ready for their night-cap, and it was quiet, too quiet....
...Miss Squeaky had her fist in Mr. G's mouth. I rushed right over to rescue my poor boy, picked Miss S up and gently put her in the exer-saucer. Mr. G then started crying loudly. A good sign, I rationalized, means he has enough oxygen. Then I held him as I cried and apologized to him, my imagination running wild of the many ways that scene could have horribly played out. (I suspect it was more traumatic for me than for him.)
I'm not sure I'm ready to be a parent.
alternate title for this entry
"We don't need no stinking laugh track"
I don't watch much TV...too busy wasting time on NBA analysis web-surfing. But I catch a glimpse of "the Office" from MyBetterHalf's viewing.
I like how they'll put jokes out there, some are subtle, and they don't tell you to laugh with a laugh track, or actors acting like they just received a punch line.
a few examples:
Michael was going to a high school for interns so they could "youth-inize" the place.
Or when Pam said, "OMG, he's really going to kill himself pretending to kill himself."
Or when Michael wanted ideas of what to do with wet cement, got a suggestion he didn't understand, pointed at Pam and yelled, "Pam, translate." That whole scene seemed to me like a social group that had a history together.
Another show that had a social group pre-show history. Buffy. I always enjoyed the Willow - Xander dialog. And that show had some hilarious moments w/o a laugh track. Or even sometimes w/o dialog ("the Gentlemen" episode, when Anya uses hand gestures to get Xander to go have sex.)
I think that takes confidence to put a joke out there without a laugh track, like a string walking into a bar...
the other morning it was quiet
too quiet
I left the kitchen to peek into the living room. Mr. Grunty was on his back, Miss Squeaky was over him, with her little hand spread out over his face.
Calmly, I asked, "Miss S, what are you doing?"
She looked at me and crawled away.
Then, Mr. G started to cry.
The Institute for Creation Research, was denied unanimously by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, to offer a Master of Science degree.
Antarctic's deep ocean waters are going through a cooling period.
Salzman & Lowell write about comparing of testing scores between nations. It is silly to compare the average scores of American vs students in Singapore, because the average student isn't the innovator. They write "it would seem far more effective to transfer best practices across city and state lines than over oceans." (Another vote for not having a federally mandated education requirements.)
There's a "new" circuit element:
(resistor, capacitor, inductor) memristor
why care? because in theory it could help increase greater processor density
Miss Squeaky isn't feeling well. She was fussy. And very sleepy. She even spit out the little pieces of water melon that we gave her. (She liked water melon the on Sunday & Monday.) She went to sleep without a fuss by 7:30, usually she's still trying to prove how awake she is at 8pm.
Mr. Grunty is doing alright. Maybe he's seen me doing push ups, or just babies can be silly. He was laying on his tummy, face down on the carpet & yelling, then would lift his head and chest up, drop down and yell at the carpet again. A couple of times it was a loud thunk of his face hitting the floor.
Tonight, our friend, the Reverend Indecisive Ramblings visited us to pick up some babies clothes. The childrens found her very fascinating and were staring at her.
Hey SportsFans!
Today, we honor someone who pushed the human body to its limits...and then later became a neurologist.
Thanks Roger, for breaking the four-minute mile back in '54!
Me, I'm hoping to one day run a mile in five minutes, my best was 5:04 back in '87. With my age, I think the window may be closing.
Well, today at lunch, we gave the childrens some Zweibeck Toast. Right away Miss Squeaky picked it up and started gnawing on it with her two teeth. She would stop every now and then to stick out her tongue. And we thought all was cool, until she started gagging and spit up. :-(
Mr. Grunty would touch the toast and laugh. Eventually he picked it up and put it in his mouth. :-)
...a little peace of mind is what we got when I took Mr. G to the doctor regarding his twitch from Thursday night. We were told that it was pro'lly just him trying deal with inner ear stuff - his eardrum looked a bit irritated. When we are to worry, if any of the following:
- loss of consciousness
- eyes roll back
- if it happens often (although, they didn't quantify "often")
- fever
- loss of normal motor function
And yes, I do realize that I'm a worry-wort about my childrens.
this morning...
Miss Squeaky thought that rice cereal would make a wonderful hair conditioner.
Mr. Grunty, I thought he had finally fed himself a puff, because he was chewing something, and the puffs were gone. But, when I picked him out of the high chair, there were 7 puffs where he sat.
And bedtime, we had to go tell them to go to sleep, because they were on their hands and knees in their respective cribs, talking to each other. (So cute, but don't tell them I said that.) And yes, they were showing the signs of being sleepy before we put them in their cribs.
...tonight, Mr. G was twitching every now and then, jerking his head to the right. We parentals are nervous and scared. (Pro'lly he's fine.) None-the-less, I'll be taking him to pediatrician, just so they can look at him. It seems to coincide with him being upset, but I don't know if that's a cause, or an effect. Please remember us in your prayers.
work was grrr today, lots of people were "yelling" at me...fortunately I remembered my South Tacoma roots, "Don't argue with crazy people."
...WASL me that, who's afraid of a big fat test?
Recently, some dude either stood up for students' rights, or wasn't doing his job, and refused
to give the WASL to his students.
Personally, I think the WASL is a step in the right direction. If students in school A are scoring worse than the students in school B, maybe we can see if there is a problem in school A.
So, in the spirit of fairness, a few WASL math questions...
1: Third Grade: The number of amoebas in a jar doubles every minute. The jar is full of amoebas in one hour. At what time was the jar half full?
2: Seventh Grade: 16 players are on a baseball squad. 6 can pitch. 8 can play second base. 4 can do both. How many can neither pitch nor play second base?
3: Tenth Grade: The number of two-dollar bills I need to pay for a purchase is 9 more than the number of five-dollar bills I need to pay for the same purchase. What is the cost of the purchase?
And if you are curious, I got the answer to #3 wrong, because I was an idiot and misread the question. That is an important thing for students to learn, how to read a question. That way, they can properly do their IRS (Willy Nelson), or
write the right prescription, or not bomb the Chinese embassy (NATO forces, Belgrade, 1999).