Future Poltergeist

We finally got Relia out in her costume and did a little trick-or-treatin'. She is a kitty this year, with a delightful outfit that the FP Gal got second hand. We had to lean heavily on the grandparents/candy levers to get her dressed. We also added make up whiskers. I joined in on the whiskers, call it a throwback to my theater days. (I'm sure the FP Gal will add a picture.) (yes, she did) We chose the FP Gal's parent's neighborhood, in part so we could take her over there in costume. I'm sure the whole experience is just surreal for her. We walk up to strange houses, ring their doorbells and then they fawn over her cuteness and give her candy. I'm curious what she'll ask to go back to those houses and see if it works again. We don't give her a lot of candy so this was a special treat for her. We'll try to ration the haul to keep her from getting sick. And . . . we just might thin the bounty ourselves. These are the lengths we're wil...

Relia, singing in the tub: "A-B-C-D . . . next time won't you sing with . . . elephants!"

In an attempt to broaden or movie menu for Relia, I tried some Miyazaki today, 'Spirited Away'. Don't know if I've ever blogged about the movie, let's just say that it is something like a Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland. Very beautiful, great score . . . and maybe a little too scary. At least that's what I was afraid of. Movie scariness is a tricky thing with toddlers. For dramatic purposes there must be some conflict and it's not always clear what will be too much. 'Nemo' is basically about a kidnapping and she doesn't seem to have any issues with it. We've also been watching 'The Jungle Book' which is about a tiger that wants to eat a boy. Not only is she ok with it, she roots for the tiger! 'Spirited Away' opens with a small girl whose parents suddenly turn into pigs. She must find her way through a magical and unpredictably dangerous world in order to try and save them. Relia seemed to be fine with it. Sh...

Or maybe more accurate would be non-slumber party. Relia has decided that sleep is totally overrated and she's not going to play that game tonight. As a direct result she is now eating breakfast and we are watching Movie Fish (i.e. 'Finding Nemo'). She also demanded to wear regular clothes instead of her pjs and I fully expect her to throw a tantrum if I don't drive her to daycare at 3am. She better take some good naps tomorrow...

I loved this in the Strib : Dear Mr. 8C: I'm sorry your Silver Elite status on Northwest Airlines didn't qualify you for a first-class upgrade on your recent flight from New York to Minneapolis. All of us, your fellow passengers, shared in the incredulity you expressed so vocally to the gate agent when informed that you would be flying coach. The subsequent announcement that our departure would be delayed clearly inconvenienced you alone. Your expletive-laden denouncement of the airlines, while unsettling to many of those standing near to you, was an opinion that you obviously deemed necessary to share with all within earshot. It is shocking that the airlines would let a little thing like a mechanical problem with the plane interfere with your very important schedule. Trust me, we all heard you when you said how (expletive omitted) upset you were. The whole thing is worth reading. Now most seasoned travelers are nice, of course. They understand the vagaries of air travel wh...

The kitties are holding us hostage. Really, they are. It goes something like this. They want to be fed first thing in the morning (and afternoon, evening, holidays, etc.). If they can wake one of us up then they get fed. The FP Gal is good at sleeping through their nonsense but I must sleep more lightly. For awhile their strategy was to howl in the hallway. I'd be afraid that they'd wake Relia and get up to feed them. Because waking Relia is what it's all about. We can ignore them but we can't really ignore baby screams. When she wakes up, we're up. At some point that will change but for now it's true. So if they can wake her by howling then we have to get up and they get fed. For a while I tried locking Ozzie in a different room but he has to have litter box access or things go badly. Then we started closing our bedroom door but that brought two problems. We like having the kitties sleep on us. And Sana can sometimes open the door all on her own. ...

Spoilers? Yes . Remember last week when I thought that the teams were going to the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas? Well, guess what, apparently there is an Atlantis hotel in Dubai too! Learn something new everyday. Yep, for this episode they all stay put in Dubai. First off each team had to choose a briefcase and go to a yacht club. Then one member would row a small rubber boat out to one of the yachts and receive a 'treasure' and then row back to shore. This 'treasure' would give them a clue to help open the briefcase. What they got was a watch and they had to enter the time in as the combination. Unfortunately our favorite team, the Globetrotters, had trouble translating this and they let several teams pass them. Next up was a choice of tasks. Each team could either put together 12 different hookah pipes or they could go to a money exchange and weigh out exactly $500,000 worth of gold. The hookah pipes took a great deal of detail work. Each team that went t...

The NFL has been running commercials where they talk about big games from last season that people may have missed because they lived in the wrong place. Things like big running or passing games, big comebacks and the like. They talk about how you could improve things by buying the NFL ticket which allows you to watch live games from around the country. I've purchased the MLB equivalent for many years because my favorite team plays in a different market. Never really tempted to buy the football one because a) it's really expensive and b) I can still watch a huge (virtually unhealthy) amount of football on local TV and cable. Unfortunately, the local affiliates are working hard to change my mind. Right now there are two games on both right around the end of the third quarter. One is 38-3 and the other is 31-0. For the love of Goodell , switch to a different game ! Last week they stuck with the Patriots 59-0 game all the way to the bitter end. Apparently there is no point ...

Last night the FP Gal and Relia came home to find me watching 'The Perfect Storm'. After watching for a few minutes, Relia yelled at the tv: "Get the rain off the boat! Get the rain off!". We quickly decided this wasn't good pre-bedtime viewing. -- My dad and Relia: Dad: How are you? Relia: Pretty good. (later) Dad: How old are you? Relia: Pretty old. -- FP Gal calls to me, Relia repeats it. Me: Are you in a repeating phase? Relia: (pause) I'm Relia!

Interesting article on how Barnes and Nobel's new e-reader, the Nook, could be very bad for them in the long run. Basically, B&N's brick and mortar stores have been losing them money. The company is poorly positioned to compete with Amazon because they haven't followed the internet model nearly as well. The Nook will try and combat that as B&N is offering special in-store services for Nook users. The article suggests that the Nook will have to be crazy successful for that to work. I used to be a B&N nut. I've worked between four and five years worth at various stores and it would be top of my list if I ever needed to dip my foot back in the part time pool. But over the last year I've almost stopped shopping there completely. Amazon is much more convenient. Their interface of recommendations and reviews is more user friendly. And it's easy enough to avoid shipping costs. B&N's prices on music and movies are generally much too high....

This made me smile. And giggle a couple of times. Update: This one too , but probably only funny for comic book fans.

Yesterday was my father's birthday so today Relia and I decided to drive down and see him. I did most of the driving. Frankly, she's a little erratic on the road. In her defense, it is hard for her to reach the pedals and impossible to see over the wheel. Anyway . . . we drove down to see him. We got there and Relia ran around his house, chasing his cat Missy. She got some cookies (we're too mean to give her any) and played with Grandma's stuffed toys. We took a quick spin through town and saw Aunt Donna (hi!). Off to lunch and we had Chinese buffet. Relia liked the lo mein noodles, the raisins and the ice cream. Oh, and the dumplings. She didn't care for the beans or the constant requests to sit down. Next was Oak Park Mall. It's a ghost town, but ghost towns have their advantages. In this case I was hoping for a place where she could run around without cold or crowds. Problem solved! Speaking of empty spaces, I had an idea for the mall. I think t...

Why isn't there an Olympic event where contestants have to change and dress a toddler and get them out the door to daycare? I'm not saying that I'd be skilled enough to participate. Frankly, Relia has been pretty good at pointing out my weaknesses and shredding my gameplan. But surely someone out there is good at this. Right?

I think I've mentioned this before but this Baby Name Wizard thing is pretty cool. It tracks name popularity throughout time. As I said, pretty cool.

News from Green Bay is that the mayor is seeking ideas for how to best welcome Bret Favre into town on November 1st. Part of me thinks that the town needs to somehow put this behind them and move but . . . maybe this is the step that will help them get there. The leading idea seems to be a video montage of all of his interceptions. I love this for two reasons, a) I had the same idea for when he broke the touchdown record while playing against the Vikes and 2) I'd love to watch so many Packer failures. It's a win-win! Please (please oh please oh please) do this, ok? I'm a little bothered by the Favre praise going on here in Viking land. He has played very well and for that I'm thankful. Watching awful quarterbacking for the last four or five years has shown just how incredible superior play can be. And it is wonderful to watch. But I'm not a Favre fan and I won't be one anytime soon. Why? A couple of weeks back, after the Monday game when the Vikes bea...

Unprompted and unrelated to what we were talking about, Relia just told me that she's going to be a big sister. I asked if she was happy with that and she said that she was. Man, she's becoming more and more articulate by the day. Full of surprises!

Just a couple of weeks left for anyone planning on trying this year. Remember, it's free. And very rewarding... I've got my story picked out for the year. I'll probably post the first few pages on Nov 1. Should be fun and I hope some of you will take the plunge.

Another rare one from U2. Love this song.

As always, SPOILERS follow. A few weeks ago Amazing Race had one of their wettest episodes in memory. Tonight they went to the desert. That's right, Dubai baby! The city that makes Vegas look dull and unimaginative. The opening clue was a fun one as teams were told to fly to the Persian Gulf and find the tallest building in the world. I wonder if teams weren't clued in on the Persian Gulf if they would have ended up somewhere else. Also fun, one of the teams showed up at the airport and asked for a ticket to the Persian Gulf. That's the order that every travel agent dreams of! All teams ended up on the same plane so the only race here had to do with who could find the clue box. The first four teams got the first elevator ride up and the second four got to go up fifteen minutes later. The building is the Burj Dubai , of course, and it is ridiculously tall. And unfinished. And the Tower of Babel comparisons are pretty obvious. Most of the teams were then sent out i...

According to the Strib ... On Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed that there has never been a colder first two weeks of the month. Typically the average high temperature for the Twin Cities during Oct. 1-14 is 63 degrees, but this year the average high temperature was only 47 degrees, or 16 degrees below average. That breaks the old mark of 52 degrees set back in 1875. Frankly, that's insane. And it's kind of screwing everyone up. Halloween is in two weeks and it isn't on anyone's mind. The leaves really didn't turn this year. They're dropping off the trees while green. Very strange. It's also the seventh snowiest October in recorded history. What else? One of the top ten wettest ever. And we still have two weeks left. Sure hope this isn't a sign of things to come...

Relia has decided that the words 'happy' and 'tired' are opposites. For example, we'll be in the car and she'll start to look a bit drowsy. If we ask if she's tired she says, "No, I'm happy". If the FP Gal or myself nap on the couch when she wakes us at 5a she'll repeatedly ask if we're happy. We're trying to explain that we can be both happy and tired. In fact we often are. Tonight, after her bath we were getting her dressed for bed. She became very upset and with tears in her eyes started crying, "I'm happy! I'm happy! I'm happy!". Poor thing. (For the record, she was out very quickly tonight. She really was tired. Maybe happy too.)

I'd like to welcome my new nephew, William Friedrich to the world. He was born yesterday. Mother, baby and the rest of the family are doing well. (I'm not good at metric measurements but he's something like 2 meters long and weighed nearly half a stone.) That brings Relia's cousin count to four. Someday we'll get them all together. That will be a good day.

I just found that the FP Gal has never seen 'The Blues Brothers'. Shouldn't there be a law against that? Update: Lookie what I found!

Relia and I have been sick the past few days. Today was my first real day back at work since last Wednesday. As of this afternoon, Relia seems much better than she did the last few days. We've got our fingers crossed that she's done being sick. On a related note, the word 'temperature' makes her cry out and keep her bottom covered. We're trying to use a replacement word, 'Gumby'. This makes sense to the FP Gal for some reason. I'd say that Gumby's horse has the more. . . appropriate name. Anyway, we're on the mend. Regular posting should occur tonight.

That is what greeted us this morning. It looked like a March blizzard. Beautiful, if totally out of place. Or at least out of time. The second week of October shouldn't feature snow that actually sticks to the ground. On the plus side, it wasn't that cold, probably right around freezing. I'll take the snow over the cold any day. Of course, this is pretty early to make that kind of compromise...

As always, SPOILERS! When we last saw our racers they were in Ho Chi Minh City. This week's episode opened with news that they'd be traveling to Sean Penn, er Phnom Penh. The teams arrived at the airport with news that the next available flight didn't leave for some 16 or 17 hours. On our couch, we call this a 'bunching point' as the very long delay lets everyone catch up and the teams bunch together. High drama this week as the last two teams couldn't get on the same flight but were instead waitlisted for a flight a couple of hours later. At the last possible minute, they were allowed on so everyone arrived at the same time. (Two possibly interesting things here. The distance between the two cities is about 130 miles. Did the clue say that they had to fly and couldn't drive? Don't remember and I'm too lazy to rewind the DVR. Second thing, each team must actually secure four seats. Two for them and one for each the sound person and cameraman...

Micah wrote about her son Peter's habit of asking what things mean . She says that they haven't really had a 'Why?' kid (though no doubt one of the next four or five will come through). Relia isn't asking 'why?' yet. She does have a similar habit though. She asks what we're doing. Constantly. And it doesn't matter if she already knows the answer. For instance when I'm driving the car she'll ask what I'm doing. I tell her that I'm driving. A few minutes later she asks again. (Interestingly enough, whenever she asks the FP Gal what she's doing the answer always seems to be 'cleaning'.) Anyway, I've developed a strategy. The second time she asks me I simply reverse the question. I ask her what I'm doing. That seems to satisfy her. Sometimes I mix it up and ask her what she's doing. From this I've learned that she somehow drives her car seat. For some reason I really, really expect that the '...

(I've been timid about writing this review. This book means a lot to me and I want to do it justice.) 'Moon' is set in a futuristic penal colony (such as the English used in Australia) based on the moon. Or perhaps it's better described as 'in' the moon as the populace lives in tunnels carved out for that purpose. The largest ones are used to grow crops in and the excess is shipped to Earth with an enormous catapult. The colonists (Loonies) have become accustomed to the much lower lunar gravity and can only survive on Earth with great difficulty. Heinlein uses this setting to create a story of revolution, in many ways resembling the American revolution. It masterfully explores the mechanics of revolt and the process of building a government from scratch. It's widely hailed as a libertarian masterpiece. The book is written as first person, a computer tech named Manuel, and it's told in a lingo that borrows heavily from Russian and Australian dialect...

I know I've posted about this before ( uh...here ) but someone is using the re-release of the Toy Story movies to rank all of the Pixar movies (h/t Instapundit). Their ranking: The Incredibles Monsters Inc Toy Story Up Finding Nemo Wall-E Ratatouille Toy Story 2 A Bug's Life Cars Hmmm, not quite how I would do it but I see part of the problem. When I try to do this on my own I get a five way tie for first. I loved most of these, liked the rest (and still haven't seen 'A Bug's Life). What an amazing run they've had!

The cool weather of the last couple of weeks has in full Fall mode. These are things that happen every year: Changes in wardrobe as we try and find jackets and sweaters from last spring. This year we're trying to convince Relia that she can't wear her pink flip-flops anymore. She doesn't believe us. Putting the flannel sheets and electric blanket on the bed. Every year the FP Gal turns to me and tells me I'm a genius for getting the sheets. A serious hankering to watch 'Dead Poet's Society'. Is there any more Fall movie than that one? Blankets back on the couch. That means a burrowing Ozzie. And nice warm feet while reading. (Never have had a cave dwellin' cat like Ozzie. It's wonderful .) Start shopping for stews and heavy soups. Try and figure out when to cut the lawn for the last time. Leaving earlier in the morning to scrape frost off of the car. Ugh.

A fun little game from Scalzi , Please to answer the following question: You have the ability to expunge one song from the history of your favorite musical artist. Name the artist and song. I'm going to open with U2's ' Miami '. Who else wants to play?

After a good, peaceful night's sleep: So...this Favre guy, I guess he can kind of play, huh? I didn't want him in the offseason, I still don't want to cheer for him but it's so nice to watch some great play from the quarterback position. Relatedly, any gifts of a Favre jersey will be destroyed or given away. Please take note. Love those throwback jerseys! Parts of the defense played very well last night but I question the overall scheme from last night. The front four got plenty of pressure on their own. When the Vikes blitzed, the Packers made big plays. Man, they rushed well! Also, the corners played too far off of the Packer receivers. Their receivers are very good in space so you should try and stay close to them from the beginning. No wonder they gave up so many yards. I'm not sure why a team with a great running game can't run out the clock but they really couldn't. Don't know if they just didn't adjust the play calling to take advant...

Experienced parents will tell you what sound means that your child is up to something: silence. It can be tricky. Imagine that you've had a long day and you really wish that he/she would just be quiet for a moment. That moment comes and for a brief instant you savor it. Then you try to figure out where they are and what they're doing. Earlier today the FP Gal made some frosting for a project of mine. The whole afternoon was a bit chaotic. Her folks were over. There was much baking and frosting in the kitchen. There was an unbelievable amount of snack food wandering around the house. And to cap it off, we got a preview of the NFL Redzone channel (one where they constantly switch to the most exciting game). This was Relia's second day in a row with large amounts of family and she was pretty darn tired. Quick to tantrum. Very unclear about what she wanted. Tears and yelling at the drop of a hat. And then she was quiet. After about a minute the FP Gal and I looked ...

Warning, Spoilers! I love this type of episode. Tonight's episode took place mainly in Ho Chi Minh City. Each race starts with the teams separated by the same time amounts in which they finished the previous leg. This time there was only a 45 minute space between the first and last teams. That makes it nice and tight. Being in Vietnam, everyone faced a significant language barrier. The Amazing Race people played off that well as most of the directions were subtle, confusing or in Vietnamese. The trick to this type of episode is to keep your wits about you, make good decisions and have good relations with the locals. The teams that could do this did well. If not, they sank. The second to last couple screwed up all of these things. They charged around without direction. Their pride in their ability (horribly overwrought) kept them from figuring out clues and solving problems. If they don't learn some very quick lessons they will be eliminated next week. Frankly, good ...

Driving home earlier, the FP Gal in the passenger seat and Relia in back, somehow the word 'spitfire' came up. I asked Relia if she was a spitfire and she said, "I spit fire (spitting noise)!". In some way she didn't get it but really...she does.

Tried something new this week. On Thursday we took a break from Sesame St and tried a movie. I figured something animated would work well and the Pixar set is top notch so that helped. After some small deliberation we went with 'Finding Nemo'. Or as Relia has decided to call it, 'Fish Movie'. She liked it a lot. Didn't understand much (probably) but that's ok. The movie opens with Nemo's mother, Coral, getting eaten by a barracuda. There were lots of 'where's Coral' questions and that made me wonder if the movie was ok for her. But she accepted my explanation that she 'went with the bigger fish'. I think her favorite part was the sea turtles though that could be projection. The FP Gal tried 'Monsters Inc' with her. She pays attention but her main focus is 'where baby go?', as in 'where is Boo?'. I think she enjoys it.

Nice article from ESPN on the Twins leaving the dome for an outdoor pasture. I think some fans here in Minnesota are fond of the place because it belongs to their team but overall it is a pretty miserable place to watch baseball. Get ready for some glowing praise next year after fans get a taste of the outdoor stuff. It's kind of like the difference between sunbathing on the beach and using a tanning bed. Relatedly, here is a post from Shysterball who looked up some of the news coverage that the Metrodome got when the Twins started playing there in '82. Click through to find out what perk then owner Griffith mentioned that the private boxes would include. Let's just say that a modern owner wouldn't have said this. Lots of history at the Metrodome, to be sure, but they really are moving to a better place.

(This seems like more of a spring picture but I just couldn't resist. Doesn't that look peaceful? And also, go purple!)

And...we're done. Michelle wins again (and I'll need to figure out another prize for her). Here are the unguessed pictures. Pic 13, Azadi Tower , Tehran Iran Pic 15, Marquesas Islands Pic 25, Drakensberg Mts in South Africa (and this picture probably wasn't distinctive enough to find, mea culpa!) Pic 34, Plaza Indepencia, Montevideo Uruguay