Future Poltergeist

For Rachel ... This looks very nice . So does this , but you might be tired of mountains. You could try this (but don't tell the kids). Anyway, good luck!

This post (and accompanying YouTube) had the FP Gal and I crying we were laughing so much. The comments are pretty good too, as plenty of folks have links to other similar videos. I mishear (or misremember) lyrics all the time. The FP Gal is the best I've ever met at keeping the words straight.

For the story, and other cute pictures, visit here .

After a discussion with the FP Gal last week, I decided to try and figure out where the world's largest map is. I expected to find that some enterprising city would have painted a city square with a map of the world or something like that. If they have, I didn't find it. Instead I found something called ' Eartha '. Eartha is a 3-dimensional scale model of our earth with mountains and landforms in full 3D, that rotates and revolves, simulating the earth’s real movements. Eartha was given the title of "World's Largest Revolving/Rotating Globe" by the editors of the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999, and still holds that record today. It measures 41.5 ft in diameter. Unveiled July 23, 1998 Eartha took two years to build and represents earth as it is seen from space. It rotates and revolves on a specially designed and built mechanized, cantilever arm. This globe is located in Yarmouth, Maine, which is only a ...

The FP Gal took Relia down to Ioway this weekend and left me the all alone in the house. Very nice, except that I didn't have a lot of good stuff planned. I'd invited some friends over on Saturday to play some boardgames and while that was fun, it didn't fill that much time. (We did try and set a regular schedule for future games. We'll see how that goes.) What else did I do? Watched some baseball. Actually a lot of baseball. Got to see all of the White Sox - Cubs games on Friday and Saturday. Saw large parts of the Twins - Brewers game and most of a Mets - Yankees game. It reminded me that I really do miss having the baseball ticket and watching random games from other teams. Also caught up on some Dr Who. The new series is outstanding, the most recent season especially so. In the latest episode, the Doctor met up with someone from his personal future. What a twist! Also got some reading in. Am currently reading 'Lolita' on Meigan's recommendat...

...what the world really needs? You know what invention would make someone an absolute boatload of money? I'll tell you what it is. Someone should develop a universal remote that will turn the bass down in nearby cars. A few years back there was a hullabaloo about people talking remotes to bars and turning off TVs. This would be the same type of thing. Yes, there are property rights issues, but frankly I can't picture a legislature that would pass laws against these or a jury that would convict. I'd pay $100 for one, easy. This post is brought to you from the jerk down the street who is parked and talking to his friends while his music plays and plays and plays. May his battery run low. Very soon.

We went out to the MOA this morning for a quick walkabout. As soon as we got there we discovered that we hadn't brought any toys for Relia to play with. This is a tactical error because her attention span has shortened considerably. It used to be that she'd be asleep by the second floor, now she actively (sometimes loudly) wants out. On Sunday we fixed this by finding a quiet cross space and letting her wander for awhile. She made friends with everyone that passed by, she's not the least bit shy. The only downside is that she discovered that she can't throw herself at a fence made of bars, like she can a solid wall. Well, everyone needs to learn that lesson sometime. Today we decided to let her out near the legos. We thought she might have a fun time with the bright colors and all the other kids. We supervise her closely during this, usually walking beside her. That's what we did this time because the legos didn't interest her at all. Nope, she wanted ...

At first glance this is a book about a corrupt politician who finally gets his just desserts. The pol (Willie Stark) must be based at least in part on Huey Long . He's a populist in it's purest form, promising the 'little people' that he'll battle those special interests that are keeping them down. He starts from the best of motives and soon is seduced by the power until it becomes it's own goal. The book is told from the standpoint of Jack Burden, a son of privilege who became a newspaper man and then an assistant to Stark. He is a deeply cynical man who doesn't care that he's turned his back on his upbringing. His mother is on her own while his father has left to lead an almost hermitlike life. One of Burden's most important relationships with Judge Irwin, a very close friend of the family and something of a surrogate father. You might remember that the movie came out a few years back and it was terrible. Now that I've read the book I c...

Since I've complained so much about the cool weather so far this year, I should note that the weather has gotten warm on us. We started up the AC this weekend for (I think) the first time this year. We've been up above 80 the last few days, thankfully cooling at night. I might be sick in the head, but I'm ready for a nice cool drizzly day.

Or too much time on one's hands ( trop d'heure libre ).

Pretty good list here . This list is also good , with better onboard advice.

(Sorry, Aunt Donna.) After Friday's heartbreaking walk-off loss and yesterday's 23-2 loss, I've turned off tonight's game with the Sox down 6-0. That's enough for me. I might have to watch the 2005season DVD again. Sigh . P.S. The FP Gal says that the Cubs are ruining her marriage.

We've entered that period of time in which Relia's walking confidence is outshining her walking judgment. That means she hits her head. Often. She either misjudges her footing and tips forward. Or she tries walking under something and raises her head at the wrong moment. Or she moves at the wrong moment and gets clobbered by Mommy or Daddy. Right now she has two visible bumps on her forehead, towards her left. She's got a scratch on her cheek. No other bumps or bruises that we can see but her elbows and knees have been taking a beating. I know, I know this is all common. I still feel bad for her.

EW has created a list of 'new classic' movies (via Althouse ). This is the list of their top 100 movies of the last 25 years. I'm going to modify and pass it around (like we did with the booklist from Carrie ). Movies that I've seen will be italicized . Movies that we own will be bolded . Movies that I've watched in the last five years will get a plus (+), as classic movies should be rewatched, no? Movies that shouldn't be on the list, that aren't classics will get an x (X). Clear on the rules? Here's the list: 1. + Pulp Fiction (1994) 2. + The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) 3. + Titanic (1997) 4. Blue Velvet (1986) 5. Toy Story (1995) 6. +Saving Private Ryan (1998) 7. + Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) 8. +The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 9. Die Hard (1988) 10. + Moulin Rouge (2001) 11. X This Is Spinal Tap (1984) 12. The Matrix (1999) 13. + GoodFellas (1990) 14. Crumb (1995) 15. X Edward Scissorhands (1990) 16. Boogie Nights ...

Today starts the White Sox true biggest rivalry. (I know plenty of Twins fans consider themselves the biggest but it just isn't so. The FP Gal tells me that the Twins have a commercial now that includes some line about not letting your child grow up to be a White Sox fan. Yeah, it would have sucked for them to be champs in '05. They also would have missed out on the wonderful sense of moral superiority that Twin's bloggers seem to get but those are the breaks.) Anyway, this afternoon the Sox go up north to Wrigley and play the Cubs. The history of the rivalry has been that the less successful team somehow wins and turns their season around. Both teams are among the winningest in baseball so far so they don't really fit that pattern. Two years ago there was a big brawl between the two at Wrigley. The competition between the fans is always intense. Yes, I'm excited. Go Sox!

Relia got her hot little hands on an open bag of goldfish today. She wandered around for about ten minutes just carrying it nicely. We thought it was adorable and didn't take it from her. (Experienced parents know where this is going.) Yes, she overturned it all over the floor. How else was she going to get at the little fish? So there they were scattered in front of the couch smiling-back-at-her. And she was sitting there happy as a clam, picking them up and eating them. (Clam? That doesn't sound right. Shark? Sounds too harsh. What eats goldfish? Um, frat boys on a dare? Ok, there she was happy as a frat boy eating goldfish.) After a few quick pictures, I got in there to try and pick them up. A brief discussion with the FP Gal and we decided that they were mostly salvageable. (Judge us if you must.) As they started moving away from her she quickly got up and took a few steps after them. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Two morals to this story, no, three. Don't ...

Here's a gallery of flood pictures . It really is astonishing just how much damage has been done there. Kind of reminds me of Grand Forks. Who doesn't love economist jokes? Here's a whole page of them . Fun for literally 4% of the world. (I giggled a few times.) Yes, we're still enjoying Mario Kart. For those who don't know about it, it's a very cartoony go-kart race through exotic (and sometimes beautiful) locations. The goofy factor is huge. Once we're connected online, we can play it against people all over the world. Ken Jennings recently finished his nursery painting project . Looks very nice. I'm hoping that the FP Gal tries something similar. That's it!

Ok, this started with Carrie and then spread to the FP Gal . Here goes... 1. What is your first name? That's a Danish frigate with my name on it. 2. What is your favorite food? Some form of 'za. 3. What high school did you go to? 4. What is your favorite color? Royal blue. 5. Who is your celebrity crush? You can't tell from this picture but it's Brooke Burke. Yum. 6. Favorite drink? 7. Dream vacation? Hawaii. 8. Favorite dessert? 9. What you want to be when you grow up? Lion tamer. Why didn't I think of that when I was younger? 10. What do you love most in life? Same as the FP Gal. 11. One Word to describe you. Curious. 12. Your flickr name. Rocko! Play along, if you'd like. here's how it works: a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. b. Using only the first page, pick an image. c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker .

Ok, it's been a bit cool here in Minnesota so far this year. At least we're done with winter, right? Not so in Spokane , where they just had their latest snow in recorded history (going back to 1881). What the heck is going on this year?

Scientists are theorizing about why the gender gap between colors . "The explanation might date back to humans” hunter-gatherer days, when women were the primary gatherers and would have benefited from an ability to home in on ripe, red fruits," Dr. Anya Hurlbert, who led the team of researchers, said. "Culture may exploit and compound this natural female preference." While blue was liked universally, this preference stood out among men as it was not balanced by a parallel liking for pink, the study found. This, too, could have deep-seated natural roots: water that appears blue is more likely to be clean, and the colour is also an indicator of fine weather. Uh-huh. This isn't the least bit persuasive. If we were going to use the evolutionary model to explain color preferences, wouldn't hunting men prefer tans and browns and other natural colors for animals and prey? Seriously, they liked blue because of the sky? Why didn't they like green which show...

Saw a bit of Jimmy Kimmel on TV tonight and he joked that fathers around the world really wanted the same thing today - some peace and quiet. That's what I got this afternoon and it was very nice. I did spend some time with Relia's gift, the Wii. She gave me a little something else today too. She left some mashed up pancake on my shirt. Lately she's been very generous, her new thing is to hand you whatever she's playing with. It's very sweet. She also has a love of any toys that make noise. She'll bring them to you so you can activate them. Very cute, the first dozen times. Um, Hans and Heidi, we all have an agreement not to buy presents for nieces and nephews that make sound, right? Also called my Dad tonight and wished him a happy Father's day. We're alike in many ways. I probably got my love of books from him. Probably my enthusiasm for yard work, too. Anyway, it was a good day. But they all are, aren't they?

I've seen this type of comment all over the blogosphere, and it sums up my feelings too. I don't remember the last time the death of someone I don't personally know has saddened me like this. I used to watch MTP every Sunday and it was all because of Tim. (Honestly, try watching CBS 'Face the Nation' sometime .) He was tough and fair. Interview after interview you saw it. He'd display old quotes from politicians and force them to confront them. He'd show video clips that showed their contradictions. He could cut through the BS. I think it was his fairness that most endeared him. If you saw him in limited action, you'd think that he would always vote against the party of his interviewee. If you saw him over a longer period of time, you knew that everyone got that treatment. He recently got a lot of heat from the left side of the aisle after he asked some of the toughest questions of the Democratic primary. Much of that criticism was short-sig...

Only with difficulty can I stop reading this .

Today marks our third anniversary. We've got many special memories from that crazy day and we're still hoping that our ambush style of wedding will take off and become popular around the country. I gave my fullest version of the story here . A somewhat more complete version with loads of pictures and background can be found here . We've developed a tradition of going back to the site and taking annual pictures. The FP Gal has them posted here . We were a little worried that it would rain today but we had good luck. After our pictures at the steps we walked back down to the river so that Relia could see it. Awfully cute (of course) and thanks to my unwitting help she almost killed her very first caterpillar. It's been a good three years and I hope that our good fortune continues. Love you, FP Gal!

The FP Gal never sleeps anymore. She stays up all night playing Mario Kart and then spends the day in some zombie like fashion. It's a good thing her classes are all done, because her quality teaching time is over. I wonder if they'll take her here .

Link . Or: My fall back position if the travel industry tanks.

A great live performance.

Rachel mentioned it in the comments, so I thought I should explain more fully. Yep, on slow days I'm allowed to read at work. Always have to answer the phone and do other tasks, of course, but if nothing is coming to me I can kick back and crack a spine. It's because my job is very seasonal in it's busy times. We go through periods where we need twice the staff we have. Then we go through times when we could get buy with a third of it. Sometimes both of those things happen in the same day. Our management understands this and tries their best to cope. During slow times they actively promote unpaid time off. During the reallllly slow times they understand that card games will break out. The trade off is that they expect us to knuckle down during the active periods. We hit the slow period a little early this year. Oh, a little weather problem and a closed airport will still have us jumping but we've had some pretty slow days already this summer. Last August I pro...

I posted last week on the book habit and how to live with it. Well, I visited two different used book stores over the weekend and added eight new books to my life. One of them is a rebuy on a book I've had for years that suffered serious water damage and should have been replaced long ago. One of them is 'Lolita' and I'm really looking forward to it. Another is 'Anna Karenina' which I've been meaning to read for awhile. Most of the others are for the slow time we get at work each summer. The FP Gal looks at these new stacks of books and just shakes her head.

Since a rather large number of people that read this blog on a regular basis are taking Alaskan cruises this summer, I thought I'd point to this handy little site that helps you find out when you should keep an eye out for northern lights . The forecast is minimal right now but there are supposed to be periods of medium activity in the next month. The site is also useful if you're planning on camping up north.

We just got Mario Kart . Update: The game came with coupons for McDonalds. Scary. What else does this game know about me?

The FP Gal thinks that when she makes a mistake the other team shouldn't get the point. I think the reasoning is that they didn't really earn it. I asked who should get the points and she said that maybe the line judge should. I think John McEnroe would absolutely hate this idea. BTW, why does tennis have such a strange scoring system? Well, the good people at Wikipedia think ...actually, they don't know either. The origins of the fifteen, thirty, forty scores are believed to have medieval and French roots. It is possible a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of fifteen, thirty, and forty-five. When the hand moved to sixty, the game was over. Another explanation is that the scoring system was copied from the game sphairistike , which was played by British officers in India during the 19th century. That game's scoring system was based on the different gun calibres of the British naval ships. When firing a salute, the sh...

In the last 24 hours we've watched 'You've Got Mail' and 'Castaway', both on TV. (And let me give some praise to TNT here. One of my pet peeves is when they place commercials in TV versions without any feel for the movie. TNT seems to have made an effort to get away from that.) Watching them reminded me of something I'd heard about Tom Hanks having one of the most successful movie decades ever. Here's what he did from 1993-2002: A League of Their Own Sleepless in Seattle Philadelphia Forrest Gump Apollo 13 Toy Story That Thing You Do! (Might be my favorite on this list.) Saving Private Ryan You've Got Mail Toy Story 2 The Green Mile Cast Away Road to Perdition Catch Me if You Can The Terminal That's four different Best Picture noms and two Best Actor awards. I'd bet that you saw most of these in the theater (I saw 11 of them that way). It's just an astonishing run of films. I think TNT has the rights to all of them almost all of ...

To begin with, we've had this from Netflix for most of a month and only tonight were we able to watch it. Watching movies together as parents is incredibly difficult. Also, the weeks of waiting have probably put to much weight on our expectations. Frankly, we were disappointed. The theory is simple, tell a story about a group of people in 1968 and use Beatles songs to tell it. The execution was well done, as each song was masterfully produced. Really, the movie is beautiful to look at and sounds incredible. Why were we disappointed? The story sucked. It was a set of plot points put together to move the movie on to the next song and barely anything more. Couldn't help but think of 'Moulin Rouge' while watching this. The idea is similar and they even use some of the same music. The difference is that 'Moulin's' story is strong enough on it's own that it holds your interest while its songs serve to enhance it. Not so here. As a set of high concep...

I don't know if we updated, but Relia is feeling fine now, thank you very much. No more fever and she's back to being the happy girl she usually is. The clingy-ness is back to normal (i.e. sometimes too much but not overwhelming). She has slept through last night. In fact, I had to wake her at 830a! I've been given a mission today. I shall go forth and seize a Wii Fit for my lady. (Best Buy doesn't open for another few minutes, so you folks get a blog post.) Did May seem chilly to you? It wasn't just here, it was worldwide . Down almost .2 of a degree from the global norm. Brrrr. Spoke too soon. Just had to deal with a tantrum. That will not be the theme of today, though. And I've called around and no one has the Wii Fit. Guess we'll go to plan B (and no, I don't know what that is yet.)

We're totally into Wii Sports. For the uninitiated it features Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing. Each of these is fun in its own right and I can see why this set of games has made the system a hit with many unusual demographics. The unexpected (and wonderful) part is that each sport features training rounds. These are little competitions that focus on smaller parts of the overall sport. Each sport has three different skills you can select from. They might be the greatest set of late night, sitting around with friends games ever. Especially if adult beverages are involved. For instance, with bowling you get a chance to bowl for strength. They do this in ten rounds. Each round they add another row of pins to the back. You start at ten and then go to fifteen. 21, 28, 36, 45 and so on all the way up to 105. By the tenth round you're bowling at a virtual sea of pins. Who doesn't enjoy that? Similar fun is part of the boxing training. The trainer throws ten...

Berlin

Ran across this article (via Reason) written by a book lover. He writes about the need to buy books and what that does for his living space. But after living in smallish apartments for decades I just spent seven years in a house with a full-size attic, and everything went to hell. Books entered my house under cover of night, from the four winds, smuggled in by woodland creatures, and then they never left. Books collected on every surface; I believe that somehow they managed to breed. That reminds me of a certain brother and father of mine. Yes, and me too. Actually I can relate to the entire thing. I love books and have to make an effort not to buy too many more. Used book stores effect me just like catnip does to the kitties. When I worked at a B&N with a used section, I'd come home with arm-loads of the things. This section spoke to me too: Over the years I've gotten used to the inevitable questions about my accumulation of books. No, I haven't read all of the...

This list comes from Time magazine. It was published way back in 2005 and is the best 100 novels written since 1923 (when Time was first published. Before that there was only Space in the continuum.) (And no, I don't know if that last sentence was punctuated correctly but it's my blog and the editor says to go with it.) Anyway, the list is here . They aren't ranked so I can't argue with their top ten or anything like that. I've only read 17 of them though I've seen the movie versions of another ten or so. There are a number of books that this list and others have convinced me must be worth reading. Among them: Gravity's Rainbow I, Claudius Lolita A Passage to India Tropic of Cancer Some lesser known books from the list that I'd highly recommend are 'Snow Crash' and 'Midnight's Children'. Both were written in the last 30 years and have not been made into movies. 'Pale Fire' probably fits into that category as well.

It was another week of learning and doing for Relia. (If you're easily bored by stories of other people's children, you should skip this post. I'll try and follow it with something more broadly interesting.) She got her first real black eye this week. At daycare, not at home. There was a story about toys being thrown. We're assuming it was other children and not the kind daycare ladies. It was pretty impressive on Wednesday and you can still see it a bit. Her walking is becoming faster and more confidant. While it's usually the 'zombie walk', more and more she's carrying things with her. Sometimes something in each hand and she'll stop on the trip to trade out for something else. She's becoming more and more focused on certain objects. Or at least she really wants one thing over another. The 'thing' changes from time to time. Over the weekend she discovered that if she talks into a plastic tub that her voice sounds very differen...