Future Poltergeist

You may remember this story where I accidentally hijacked a car in Paris. The other day the FP Gal and I were talking about it and again I said that if I ever had a traveler here that needed a ride I'd be obligated to help out. She agreed. Well, we must have somehow put that out into the universe. Today I picked up the kids from daycare and was strapping them into the car. A small Chinese woman came up to us and asked if she could please have a ride to Richfield. Never in my life have I picked up a hitchhiker. I had two small kids with me. Still . . . well, I was much bigger than her. And we were kind of heading that way anyway. So I let her in to the car. She introduced herself (Sue) and started talking with us. Relia immediately told her about a) our Apple TV, b) what street Nana lived down and c) her brother. When Sue mentioned that she was from China, Relia quickly told her that we were going there to see the big wall. The ride was quick and uneventful. We go...

I mentioned that with our final kid on the way it seems like there is more pressure on getting the name right than before. (Actually, this is probably just me. I don't know that the FP Gal is feeling this pressure at all.) We are very happy with the names that we've already picked and want to keep that up. So we're knocking names back and forth. Some of the rules that I'm following, first the big ones: I don't want any Biblical names. Nothing against them, especially since we both have them but I want to go a different way. [Note: I'd make a possible exception for Samson. Maybe] No names that are a profession. So Mason, Hunter, Taylor and so on are out. Again, these can be perfectly fine names but not what I'm looking for. It should be something that is an actual name. Not some kind of made up sound or an acronym or something like that. Also not some word that is simply spelled backwards. If we're targeting a certain nickname then we go wi...

No time for a new post. Go the FP Gal's blog for our trip to the fair and my new favorite picture of DF and I.

About a month ago 'The Music Man' was on TCM. I have this (somewhere) on VHS but haven't been able to find it. Anyway, I DVR'd it and occasionally I'd take up some of my TV time to put it on when the kids were around. And sing along with it, of course. Last week Relia surprised me while we were out by asking me to sing the 'pick a little' song. So I did. And then I had her sing that part while I did the 'goodnight ladies' bit. She loved this and has taken to requesting it. This is something of a milestone as 'Music Man' is the first non-animated/non-PBS show that she wants to watch. She still likes 'pick a little' song but she also likes 'Marian the Librarian' and when I say something about the Wells Fargo wagon she quickly sings that it's 'comin' down the street'. All very cute. One weird thing. There is a scene where Marian and her mother are making fudge in their kitchen. Relia watched this an...

DF has started laughing. Or at least his laugh is becoming more prominent. And it isn't a quiet little titter, oh no. He has a full on madman's cackle. Seriously, tonight he was splashing in his bathtub and I fully expected him to say, "it's all coming together!" or some such. But don't get the wrong impression, it isn't sinister. Frankly, you can't be sinister at this age. If anything, it's infectious. He has also started dancing. Relia has been taking ballet classes and you can see it in her dance moves. The grace and the types of movements. Yesterday we were on the porch and she was dancing to a Fisher Price version of 'Humpty Dumpty' (and yes, this is true). She started doing pirouettes and DF decided to join in. He simply spun (well, shuffled) in a circle with his hands up, big grin the whole time. Relia wanted to tell him that he was doing it wrong but I assured her he was doing the best he could.

This was the Hugo winner for 2007. All great books stem from one great central idea, which the writer then polishes until it gleams. The central idea behind 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union' is based on an alternate history. In this timeline, the Jews were soundly kicked out of Israel in 1948 and were then offered a 60 year settlement in Sitka Alaska. They became known as the 'frozen chosen'. The story takes place a few weeks before the 60 year agreement is over and no one in Sikta knows what the future is going to hold. The story centers on a police detective named Meyer Landsmen. In great police-story tradition, the man is incredibly talented even though his life is a shambles. He suffers from great guilt, alcoholism and the fact that his ex-wife has become his boss. The story opens as he's woken from his flophouse apartment by his landlord asking him to look at a freshly killed renter. Landsmen is offended that a murder would take plac...

Let me first mention that they awarded the 2011 Hugo Awards this past weekend. The winner for Best Novel was 'Blackout/All Clear' by Connie Willis. Which suited me fine, since I enjoyed it . My book reviews have gotten quite a bit off track. The reason is simple, I ran into a stretch of books that I didn't care for. Oh, they may not have been bad books. More than likely I just hit them at the wrong time. In any case, I got stuck. I've been reading the Hugos in chronological order and it suddenly occurred to me that I don't need to. When I did the Great American books list I jumped around and read whatever seemed best, whenever I felt ready. There were books that I still didn't care for but at least I didn't get stuck. So I'm going to follow the same course here. Or, to be more candid, I already have done so. Which means I'll have some reviews coming soon. This may not mean much to anyone else but it makes me feel better.

I've been on Twitter for a while now. You can 'follow' me at @pdefor if you're inclined to do such a thing. I'm enjoying it for many reasons but among them because it is funny ! Here are some samples from my Twitter feed this afternoon as people responded to the earthquake (various authors): Whole block in DC standing outside, asking each other what the hell just happened My mother in law in West Virginia needs sedated when it rains heavy, so I think I'll avoid calling her in light of this quake. Oh, now the East Coast is doing earthquakes too? New York Times trend piece in 3...2...1... Not to panic anyone in NYC, but a screaming John Cusack just drove by in a limo that was missing a door. BREAKING: Excitement over reports of a Pataki presidential run trigger earthquake on east coast. I ALSO FELT THE EARTHQUAKE!!!!! I'M PART OF THIS MOMENT!!! To comfort a jittery nation, the White House should release another photo of Obama looking co...

The past month or so has brought about big development with both kids and I should probably mark that down. Relia already has a big vocabulary but something has changed in the way she plays around with language and the way she understands things. She's asking bigger questions and you can see her mentally work things out. She still comes up with gems like this today: Relia: We learned about birds that can swim. Like ducks. And swans. Me: When I think of swimming birds I think of penguins. Relia: But they can't fly! Me: True. What other birds can't fly? Relia: Um, really big birds. Me: Like what. Relia: Like . . . a giant sparrow. She also told me that a 'bold' eagle ('with white on the head') is our state bird. I said that it is actually our country's bird but I don't think she believed me. Meanwhile DF is just starting to really hit the language barrier. He can say about a dozen different things, most recently 'get down...

Ok, so the cat is out of the bag. If you read me on Facebook then you knew that already. But I should probably jot down some stuff here if only for posterity sake, right? And while we're here, let us break out the bullet points: The due date is April 7th. Or April 12th. Or anywhere within a range stretching from about March 15th to May 1st. We'll see. We aren't going to find out the gender ahead of time. We didn't with Relia and did with DF and after he was born we both kinda wished we hadn't peeked. So it's back to the drama for us! We're not telling Relia for another month or so. We're afraid that if something bad happened it would be hard to explain it to her. So we'll wait a bit on that. In the meantime we've been softening her up with 'hypotheticals' about another brother or sister. She wants a sister but would 'deal with' a brother. Boy or girl is fine for me. One of the things that you really only learn after you...

(Via Vodkapundit.) This is pretty amazing.

We had Relia's fourth birthday party today. The FP Gal put up pictures here . Lots of good pictures (natch!) but please do pay special attention to the last two. I'm not up for a full running tally of what happened today but it was a busy one. We were lucky to have two of the Norfolk cousins here and the three of them were very busy in our backyard. I so wish that we all lived closer together so they could know each other better, but what can you do? Anyway, they all seemed to have fun. Relia got two pretty dresses, one that looks like a purple formal and a genuine Cinderella type dress. She got a train with wooden tracks. She got her own laptop style computer thingie. (I think it is more of a design deal and it doesn't plug into the internet but it has a QWERTY keyboard and everything.) It was a very lovely day and we're all now a little bit ready for naps!

I love this list of hotels , each one having something to do with water. I think it would be fascinating to sleep down on the ocean floor. Especially if the morning light would somehow penetrate all the day down and wake you up. That would be very, very cool. Doesn't the one in Stockholm look like a future pit stop for Amazing Race?

I've set up the football pools again. Yahoo let me simply renew the ones from last year. I think Yahoo has sent emails out to whatever addresses you registered with before. In any case, I think this info will get you in: The first pool is a simple pick 'em league. Simply go here and choose to join a group. The group ID number is 24806 and the password is 'finally'. Each week you'll pick the winner of each game and assign confidence points. (The most confident pick gets the most points.) Also doing a survival pool again. For that you go here and join a group. The group ID for this one is 9892 and the password is 'football!'. Survival football is played by choosing one team each week. If your team loses you are eliminated. You can only pick a team once per season. This can be a lot of fun if you can make it into midseason or further. Remember, there is no charge. (Let me know if any of this doesn't work and I'll try to fix ...

Last night I finished work and came down about 145a. I was bleary and ready to climb into bed but my brain said something looked wrong in our darkened upper hallway. I stopped, looked around and noticed that Relia's door was open. She sometimes likes it open so this isn't necessarily a big deal. So I peeked in. Not in bed. I then crept quietly into our bedroom and carefully felt my side of the bed. Nope, no one there. Curiouser and curiouser. Went downstairs thinking maybe she crept down to the couch. Nope. Not on the couch. Instead she was at my desk on the computer. I asked her how long she'd been down and she said, 'not long'. I shook my head and told her that she simply had to go to bed. She told me she wasn't tired. Great. Nearly two in the morning and she's wide awake. This called for evasive maneuvers. I told her that we'd have a little treat. Then I made her be very quiet, turned off the alarm and we went out on the front s...

Today Relia and DF went back to daycare/preschool. Which meant that I got to pick them up in the car again and I got my Relia discussion period back. Me: So what did you learn today? Relia: We sure didn't learn about animals. Me: Oh. What did you learn about? Relia: we learned about words and letters. Me: And you already know all of your letters. Relia: Yeah, but I didn't tell them that. I missed this.

FP Gal to Relia: I would appreciate it if you didn't put any banana on the back of his neck, please.

Very interesting article here . This is based on some exhaustive research into the largest cities in the world at various points in history. Any guesses on the first city to top a million? It wasn't the one I thought it was . . .

Went road tripping today up to Duluth (and beyond). While there I wish I could have live blogged it. Lots of fun and strange moments. I'll explain. No, is too much, I'll sum up: We got on the road about 8a. I'm not sure how this happened and frankly I doubt it ever will again. The biggest jot of credit goes to the FP Gal. While driving I got a call from Heidi. She started with 'Is there something you'd like to tell me?' and then proceeded to ask me if I'd won the Powerball. Nope. Someone else. Ten minutes later Mom called to ask if I'd won the Powerball. I had to tell her no too. Both of them heard of a Powerball win and immediately thought of me. This sounds like the prelude to an intervention. Right around 50% of the road from here to Duluth is under construction. Roughly 80% of the roads in Duluth are under construction. (This is only a slight exaggeration.) We made plans to meet Carrie at a park in the city. Neither of us really know ...

From Lileks, today's Bleat : . . . So I popped Megamind in the machine and made a bowl of popcorn and said: enjoy. We watched it together, which put me deep in the hole for the evening’s work, but who cares. All the things that slightly annoyed me about it the first time disappeared, and I enjoyed it without reservation. Sometimes the self-imposed need to have a critical opinion is like a Berlin Wall between yourself and enjoyment. (Bolding mine.) That is so, so true. And it probably goes a long way towards explaining why we enjoy watching movies again and again. Even when we know where it's going we still enjoy the journey.

It will be light posting this week. We're having a 'staycation' and I'm just going to let the blog idle a bit as well. The FP Gal blogged about our trip to the Mower County Fair if you want to read about that (and see some pictures). Take care!

I found this gallery of behind the scenes stuff very interesting. The FP Gal and I were talking about this last night. They really did an amazing job with the Harry Potter movies. Taking a long book series and making it into movies is seldom done well and this time they really did. A casual fan could watch all of the movies without reading the books and still have a full and understandable story.

DF has suddenly learned how to kiss. Or something like that. He is walking around making kissy noises and offering his face to everyone. Watch out ladies!

Yesterday we found that one of the kid's movies had been put into the wrong DVD container . . . Me: I think we should check to see if it's in the Electric Company case. FP Gal: Ok. Me: Yep, here it is. (pause) Not sure why I thought to look in there. I hate it when they're in the wrong cases. Relia: Maybe [DF] put it in there. He's always doing the wrong thing. After this I told her that she was excellent blog fodder. She seemed very upset and told me in no uncertain terms that she is not a blog-father. It took some time to explain all of that.

I like this one almost as much as the 'Where the Hell is Matt' video: MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo . Here is the Matt video for comparison: (Man, I need to go on a trip somewhere...)

We've fallen in love with Netflix streaming. The size of the library is enormous and it keeps growing bigger and bigger. I keep being amazed at the quality they have. Not surprisingly, I'm focusing on the Best Picture nominees. This is what they have since 2001 (as of August 3rd, 2011). 2010 Winter's Bone The Fighter Toy Story 3 2009 Precious 2008 nothing 2007 nothing 2006 Letters from Iwo Jima 2005 Brokeback Mountain 2004 nothing 2003 nothing 2002 Chicago Gangs of New York 2001 Gosford Park Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Moulin Rouge Some pretty good movies there. I'll go and look further back at some other time.

I hope the next year is another good one for you!

Should probably write something about football now that they've cleared up the contract unpleasantness. No, I have no insights on the deal. Don't know whether it is good for the players or the owners. I do know that it is for the next ten years and that means we should have labor peace and full schedules for some time now. Anyway, the calendar has turned to August and that means my mind has turned to football. Training camps are open and soon I'll set up the football picks game you all know and love so much. But that isn't what I'm going to talk about tonight. Way back in the fall and winter of '77, it was our last football season in Illinois before we moved to Austin. Those are my earliest memories of watching it. Oh, I'm sure I didn't settle down and really watch. And the fine points and subtleties surely alluded me for some time, but that is how far back I can remember. My favorite team at the time was the Miami Dolphins. I'm certain this was sole...

Relia had a summer class today at one of the area parks. It was a Space and Planets themed affair. The FP Gal picked her up and brought her home where I tried to figure out what she learned. Me: So did you have fun at Space Camp? Relia: It was a work camp! Me: (blinks) Like a . . . labor camp? Relia: A work camp! FP Gal: And what did you do there? Relia: We played. I still haven't figured out what she actually learned.