Future Poltergeist

In what has become something of a tradition for us we went down to Austin today for Memorial Day. You may remember our trip last year where we raced down there but were late for the parade. We really, really didn't want that to happen again so the FP Gal and I woke up very early to get us on the road. She woke up DF and I woke up Relia. I don't know that this has ever happened to us before. We ate and dressed and packed and were on the road by 630a. We made good progress and even had time for a bathroom break. It was 828a when we pulled into the parking lot for the parade, a full two minutes before its listed beginning. Except that the schedule was wrong and it started about 850a. Oh well, better early than late! We used the extra time to meet up with family. Pop-pop, of course, Uncle David and Aunt Donna, Andrea and shortly thereafter Uncle Jerry. Not a big crowd watched the parade but our family was well represented there. In fact, we almost outnumbered the parade...

In the car this morning: FP Gal: Relia, do you know what day tomorrow is? Relia: Monday? Me: Monday. Gotta get down on Monday. Relia: (singing quietly) Gotta get down on Friday . . . I'd say this qualifies as a parenting fail but neither of us can figure out where she learned the 'Friday' song from. Not even sure where she would have heard it at all. I guess culture really does invade everywhere.

I mentioned this site a couple of months back but I want to do so again. They are doing a countdown of the best 200 songs that reached #1 since 1955. Which is a pretty sizeable endeavor when you think of it. I might question their judgment as the numbers get lower but not yet. Each song comes with a set of facts like this for their #150 song 'Chapel of Love': Stats: #1 for 3 Weeks in 1964 (June) Replaced: Love Me Do - The Beatles Replaced by: A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon Sample Headline from its Reign: Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison. #2 Hits It Prevented from Reaching #1: None Top 200 #1 Hits 1955-2000 Rank: #167 The last great girl group song to reach number one. Since it cleaved two Lennon & McCartney hits, it was clear there was a change in the air 1964, but this song was too good to pass up. I was playing the #1 hits at a retreat for the small church I was in about ten years ago. This was a congregation that was trying to inco...

After a few minutes of quiet in the car this morning. Relia: What if a real live moose actually got hurt. Me: What do you mean? Relia: Well . . . what if one caught fire? Me: Um, how do you think that would happen? Relia: There could be a fire at the zoo. And then the moose could catch fire! Me: Sweetheart, they work very hard to at the zoo to make sure there are no fires. Relia: Good. (A few minutes later . . . ) Me: Do you think that dolphins would be ok if there was a fire? Relia: Yes! Dolphins can swim very fast if there's fire! The things that you learn from your kids!

A set of them found here . Note the full path of the tornado seen in picture 3. Also note the cars piled up in picture 10. Just a wildly devastating storm. Update: Related, this is a first person video taken during the tornado. It's almost exclusively audio and it's scarier than any movie. Another update: This photo is simply amazing.

Interesting user poll from Tor.com, asking what was the best science fiction or fantasy movie of the last decade. The results : The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - 172 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 151 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 147 Serenity - 107 Inception - 92 WALL-E - 88 Pan’s Labyrinth - 80 The Dark Knight - 78 Spirited Away - 67 District 9 – 67 Moon – 66 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – 60 I'm not surprised that the LOTR trilogy dominated. It really was a monument in epic fantasy movie making. So much so that it overshadowed other efforts to repeat it's success. I can't understand how 'Two Towers' could possibly get the least votes of the three since it was clearly the best of them. The rest of the list has some very good movies on it. The only quibble I have is with 'District 9', which I thought was overrated. It's nice that 'Eternal Suns...

Interesting post from Megan McArdle about the future of print books: There's a famous old joke about two people walking through the woods when they spot a bear. The first hiker drops down and prepares to play dead. The second one opens his pack and takes out a pair of running shoes. "What are you doing?" asks the first hiker. "You can't outrun a bear." "I don't have to," responds the second hiker. "I just have to outrun you." New technologies are like that. They don't actually have to be faster, or better, than any conceivable product. They just have to be better in key ways than the competition. She talks about how industries reach tipping points as technology progresses. If the printing industry loses too much ground to ebooks then printing firms lose out on their economy of scale and costs go up. If ebooks become the norm then there will be less infrastructure in place to deliver paper ones. She also mentions th...

We have had some thundery, stormy weather here today. Enjoyable all, save for the part where I was driving Pagoda when the wipers stopped. That wasn't fun at all. Tonight we've had some of that low rumbling in the distance stuff. We also had that last week and (what fun!) it was accompanied by a tornado warning. The FP Gal came upstairs and got me from work so that I could join her and the kids in the basement. This meant that DF was awoken and it completely screwed up Relia's bedtime. Good times all. So there we were huddled in the basement wishing for a radio and all I could think of was the London Blitz. I was reading Connie Willis's books 'Blackout' and 'All Clear', a story of time traveling historians who go back to London in 1940 and have to deal with the Luftwaffe and nightly bombings. Think about that situation for a moment. Every night they would hurry off to shelters. Each time they would hope that their spot wasn't hit. Every mor...

This morning we watched a bit of the 'robot movie' (i.e. Star Wars) at Relia's request. We haven't watched it for some time so she had some questions. Relia: And who are those guys? Me: They're called Jawas. Relia: (pause) Did your mom teach you that? Me: Uh, no, I don't think she did. Last night at dinner she told us that she hates Star Wars because everyone at preschool goes on and on about it. The FP Gal told her that her parents enjoy it and then I told her that it had robots in it. She decided that she might give it a try. If my math is correct I was just about the age she is now when Star Wars first came out. I have dim memories of seeing it at a drive in though I also remember watching the next screen over which either had 'Jaws' or 'Smokey and the Bandit'. (Wikipedia tells me that it must have been Smokey because Jaws came out in '75. Unless, well, did drive in movie theaters show two year old movies back in the 70's?) Anyw...

We live in amazing times to see things like this.

Holy cats, there is a lot of time to be wasted here . . .

This book was the 1979 Hugo winner. This book is really about futuristic engineering, specifically an engineer who is building an elevator that will reach all the way up to orbit. On the way it takes some lovely detours and asks some interesting questions. It's a bit on the dry side but I'd recommend it. We open in the past, in a thinly fictionalized version of Sri Lanka , the island that Clarke lived on for the last 50 some years of his life. The story is about a king who lives on a mountain and a monastery on the next mountain over. They have an uneasy relationship at best. Fast forward hundreds of years and the kingdom is long gone but the monastery remains. Which is a problem for our protagonist, Dr Vannevar Morgan, a renowned engineer . He has decided to build a space elevator and the best spot on the globe is occupied by a monastery . He tries various ways of arguing with them and the solution is, well, interesting if not the least bit convincing. There follows the d...

You've recently changed the design on your Macaroni and Cheese boxes. One unfortunate element of this change is that it is much harder to tell at a glance which of your many yummy varieties is in the package. This needlessly puts my wife's spiral Mac & Cheese at risk when I'm simply trying to make the traditional kind for the kids. Please correct this in your next design update, which is hopefully soon. Regards! A very loyal customer.

Last night was the Survivor finale and I thought I'd jot down some notes. I don't normally review Survivor simply because I usually can't watch it until more than a full day after it airs but this time I'll make an exception. Survivors ready? It had to be Rob. No one else deserved a vote. He was easily the dominant player. Not even close. Probst said that it may have been the most perfect game a player has ever played and that could be true. Having said that, this was a very dull season. Once the tribes merged it was easy to see how the rest of the game would play out. Sometimes that tricks us into thinking that we'll see a different narrative. Not this time. One of the reasons this season was sub-par is that there was an incredible amount of dead weight. Each tribe started with two girls who did almost nothing but ride coat-tails. One of them, Natalie, even made the finals. The four of them added nothing. Try harder, Survivor casting crew. During the r...

In the car the other day after preschool: Me: What did you learn about today? Relia: We learned about what stuff is in our heads. Me: Like what? Relia: There is a pink gum in there. But you can't eat it. Your head doesn't open the right way. [Note: I think she is talking about the gums around the teeth but I could be wrong.] Me: Oh. Relia: Also, our brains are in there. Me: And what do they do? Relia: They send sig-inals to your hands and feet and tell them what to do. Me: Yep. Relia: And they get sig-inals from your eyes and ears too. Me: Very good. Relia: And that's what is in your head!

Just a brief rundown: DF looks much better today. Much, much better. This might be a brief deal and not the full ten days that I feared. Cool and rainy again today. I haven't written much about weather this month but the thing to understand is this: on Tuesday we were brushing up against 90. Today the high was about 43. Went to the platelet vampires again today. Nice and enjoyable time. For dinner we tried a recipe from my Campbell's soup cookbook. Some kind of 'flash back crispy ranch chicken' or other. Quite tasty. After dinner I made some homemade blueberry ice-cream. We'll let it freeze overnight and eat some tomorrow. Dr Who tonight, this episode written by Neil Gaiman(!). We're part way through and I'm enjoying it. The rest will be watched when the FP Gal is done settling Relia. That's all!

Last night the FP Gal gave DF a bath and afterward she told me that he seemed to be getting a rash. He had some vaccines last week and we were told that there was a chance that he'd have a reaction. And (poor guy) he certainly has. I felt bad because I'd been with him all yesterday and hadn't noticed a thing. Well, let me tell you, he didn't look like this ! Just look at those spots. He's almost more pox than not. Fortunately he doesn't seem to be in bad spirits. He hasn't been itching except maybe a bit when he wakes up. He tires a little easier and needs a little more cuddling but it hasn't been bad. The really tough thing is that we can't really take him out in public easily now. We'd hate for him to get anyone else sick. He's fine around most adults, though notably not around the FP Gal's dad. This can possibly go for as long as ten days . We're hoping that our very advanced kids can get through this more quickly though...

This morning while driving to work, and it helps to know that after she found out that Roxane has a tree in our backyard, Relia adopted the other one as hers. Got it? Me: I love how quickly the leaves are coming out of the trees. Relia: My tree is waiting for its leaves. Me: Well, that happens sometimes with smaller trees. Relia: (thinking for a bit) But when it grows maybe it will have apples and bananas and supper! Me: Supper? Relia: Like eggplants. Eggplants can be supper. Me: I, uh, don't think eggplants grow on trees. Relia: Where do they grow? Me: I think they grow in the ground. Relia: (thinks a bit more) Maybe it will get little white flowers. Then we'll have apples!

Wednesday mornings now involve Relia at preschool and DF at daycare. This gives me a few hours to catch up on sleep/get some things done around the house/regain some sanity. And today I need it. The temps here in MN went from cool and springlike to full summer yesterday. I think that it went over 90. Anyway, sleep last night wasn't easy. My normal Tuesday night five hours became something more like three and a half. I'm kind of in zombie land. So this morning I got food for both kids. Got DF changed and dressed. Relia was a big help by picking out her own dress and getting socks and shoes on with a minimum of fuss. I got DF's lunch packed (Relia's is provided) and out the door we went. It wasn't until I we had arrived at daycare/preschool and I was unstrapping Relia that I noticed that her dress wasn't exactly clean. Some stains, guessing Mac & Cheese were on the chest. Not hyper noticeable but there. I said, "Oh sweetheart, this dress isn...

I know that Relia coverage on this blog really outshines that of our dear DF and that probably isn't fair or right. I also know that some years from now I'll read back through this and wonder what he was like as a baby. So think of these as notes for that time: He is very inquisitive, really wants to get into things and see how they work. He doesn't seem to spend a lot of time at one activity but wanders from thing to thing. Which shouldn't be taken to mean that he doesn't return to the same things over and over. He loves the toy kitchen in our real kitchen. And the new toy castle. He also loves the cats. Is totally fascinated by them. Whenever one of them comes close enough for daddy to pet, he thinks it's the funniest thing ever. He also wants to pet them but can't quite figure out how not to grab. Eventually he'll get it and then they (Ozzie at least) will let him pet. DF thinks that Relia is the most fun thing in his life. Which is probably...

Relia: Ok. Pretend that you're the bouncing monster and you stayed right there!

Spoilers ahead, of course. And we go from the Alps to Rio de Janeiro. Only four teams are left. Two of them found flights that would get them into Rio at 730a and the other two were set to come in at 540p. Ten hour advantage? That's a big deal. But (not surprisingly) the two later ones found out about the earlier flight and voila, everyone was together. The whole season has fit this mold. Each of the opening flights has been a bunching point and there has been little advantage in the flights. (Well, except for Kent and Vyxin's Japanese adventure.) I'm fine with this. Into Rio and on to the taxis! The Globetrotters drew the short straw here and ended up missing a tram. The next one didn't come by for a half hour. They were fortunate though, they were able to catch up at a samba challenge. After everyone got a Brazilian wax (ouch!) each team had to choose between making 100 mixed drinks or selling bikinis on the beach. Poor Zev and Justin tried the bikini ap...

Today was the official kick off to the garage sale season. Here is what we did: Relia came into our room at 7a, which was right in line with her light. We all got up and went downstairs for cereal. DF had sliced banana. We all got dressed and were out the door a little after 8a. We arrived at the Bryn Mawr neighborhood and started walking the alleys and looking at sales. Relia had $1 to spend and that was quickly spent on a rock and roll Elmo. She also found a princess themed bike ($15) and we upgraded her ride. Back to the car and we met up with the FP Gal's dad and his truck. We dropped our first load and went back to the hunt. DF was in the stroller and Relia went back and forth between walking and riding. After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch. They all had pizza while I had a burger from a restaurant named Dredi. I won. Back on the road (well, sidewalk). DF finally took a nap in the back of the stroller. Grandpa and Relia stopped to listen to a string quartet...

We're only a few hours away from the 2011 Kentucky Derby. Here is the field of horses: I wanted to go with 'Stay Thirsty' but the FP Gal took it. So I'll go with my back up plan (i.e. pick a name having to do with cats) and go with 'Derby Kitten'. What's amazing to me is how long the odds are on almost every horse here. Only two of them are at less than double digits to win. If I was a betting man I'd plop down $20 on all of the 10/1 and 12/1 horses. If any of the five of them win (which isn't a bad bet) you'd double your money.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I was thinking about how we've adopted both Cinco de Mayo* and St Patrick's Day as national days here in the U.S. We celebrate Mexican and Irish culture on those days (to some small extent anyway). This made me think that we really could use some more days to help fill up the calendar and cover the other ten months. *According to Wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo isn't really that big a deal in Mexico itself. How strange is that? So let's see what we can find out . . . January - Chinese New Year . The only problem with this is that, like Easter, it moves around a little bit and sometimes bleeds into February. February 11th- Japan's ' National Foundation Day ' which celebrates the founding of the Imperial line by Japan's first emperor. March 17th- St Patrick's Day (natch) April 30th- Queen's Day from the Netherlands. One of it's traditions is for flea markets in the streets. This should also serve as the kick off to garage...

Out of the blue, not connected to any other conversation . . . Relia: (hands on hips) I . Am not a Diva! Oh, sweetheart, I hope that you're not.

For nearly 30 years I've been jealous of the copy of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' that my brother bought on cassette. Today I finally bought a copy of my own on iTunes. The FP Gal and I are rocking out.

(After we finished the show last night on the DVR, we turned back to regular TV and found out that OBL was dead. The recap kind of got lost. But better late than never, right?) Our remaining teams are still deep in the Alps after, well hold on, I didn't blog that either did I? (Sorry, I don't remember the excuse for that one.) Ok, quick recap of that one, everyone went from Salzburg to Liechtenstein. While there, they had to measure the length of the country while on moped. The Cowboys screwed it up and had to repeat this. Everyone else worked together and got it right on the first try. The Cowboys fought to work their way back in but they fell short and were eliminated. Ok, everyone caught up? So, our remaining teams are still deep in the Alps after last week. This time they stayed near the Matterhorn and everyone had to choose between Search (where teams use post-avalanche equipment to find buried signals) and Rescue (where a team member must rappel into a glacial c...

A very Happy 1st Birthday to our beautiful little boy, Felix! You are the happiest and smartest little guy that we could ever ask for. I can only hope that this continues. It was late on April 30th, 2010 when it all started. I was walking on the treadmill in our bedroom. (I'd been doing this for more than an hour, six days a week for the past two months. Little did I know that this hobby was fast coming to an end.) The FP Gal came up and complained that she was having some kind of backache. She said it kept coming and going. I remember thinking, "well, we're close to the due date so there's little chance that this is really the deal". But, we got out the stop watch anyway. As we were timing the pains they became worse. We started talking about calling in to get some guidance and the pain got more intense again. By the time we got through on the phone, the FP Gal was doing some Dr Seuss style breathing (hee . . . hoo . . . hee . . . hoo). It was time! T...