Future Poltergeist

Last summer I linked to a book trailer for Valente's 'Palimpsest' which I thought was very well done. This morning at Tor.com I ran across a trailer for her upcoming book, 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making'. I think it looks pretty good: It doesn't come out for a while yet but I'm going to put it on my list.

For the last two mornings I've put DF in the car while Relia screams bloody murder from the front porch. What horrible thing has caused this? It's simple. I've made her wear pants. Yep, pants. Pants, pants, pants, pants. It's 2011 and my daughter is convinced that she needs to wear glamorous clothes or no one will like her. It's like the feminist movement never happened!

My dad tells a story of the first joke I knew well enough to ask strangers. Q: How do you get dragon milk? A: From a cow with short legs. I think he told Relia about this last week because now she knows it too. She hasn't told it to any strangers yet (that I know of) but I'm sure that's because she never finishes our family tree and history quickly enough to get to the jokes. Yesterday in the car she tried playing with the formula: Q: How do you get princess/fairy milk? A: From a cow with very tall legs. Gotta love that!

Btw, this is the 3000th post of this blog.

This morning near our hat station: Relia: Is that your Viking hat? Me: Yes. Relia: And is that your White Sox hat? Me: Yes. Relia: I like your White Sox hat! Me: Thanks, sweetheart. Relia: (pause) But I want a Tinkerbell hat! Yay, Tinkerbell! Go team Tinkerbell! Could be an interesting baseball season . . .

A couple of weeks ago we went to Girl McO'Donalds and in Relia's meal there was a set of Pac-Man toys. I had to explain them to her and (thank you internet!) I was able to show her the real thing. Warning : if you've ever been addicted to Pac-Man, please don't click this link . She played it for a bit but doesn't really understand how to keep away from the ghosts. Fast forward to today and she asked me to play again. This time I let her do it all on her own and (this seemed like a milestone) I taught her how to restart it after her three lives were up. Which she did. Again and again. It wasn't even irritating. In some ways it felt nostalgic. I can't wait until she starts playing Asteroids!

Let me begin by admitting that I missed writing about last week's episode. The FP Gal and I didn't even watch it until Monday night and by Tuesday it was so late that it didn't seem worthwhile. I won't do a full recap but there is one thing that I want to say: the bunching point at the train leaving Lijiang made the entire first half of the leg unnecessary. For competitive reasons that sucks. Still made for good TV but it undermined the idea that the race was important in and of itself. And now, on to this week's episode! Each team had one small task to perform before leaving China. They had to find a tea shop and drink some tea. What they didn't know was that they would later have to identify that one specific tea out of a multitude of others. They all flew to Calcutta, India on the same flight. They were all amazed at the crowds at the airport at midnight. For some reason that's when the international flights arrive in India, in the middle of the ...

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo . Gorgeous video here. Bonus points for whomever identifies the movie that the music is from.

We're continuing through the kindness of grandparents again tonight. We've dealt Relia off to Grandma D for the night. We've talked about watching a movie but . . . I wouldn't be surprised if the FP Gal goes down for an early night. Possible updates later.

Last week the FP Gal surprised me with an offer of a day off. I didn't think I'd get any more of these until the kids leave for college. I've been trying to figure out what to do with my time. Here are some options: See some art at a museum. Take in some theater. Run off and see a circus. Invite myself to a posh embassy party. Partake of some exotic cuisine. And of that doesn't work . . . Catch a movie. Learn a new language. Unearth some hidden gems at the used bookstore. Buy something selfishly for myself. We'll see what happens!

Interesting item at io9. They set up some brackets with the top 64 science fiction movies of all time. They've already done a couple of rounds so the choices are whittled down but it's interesting to see what current fandom thinks. Also interesting was the seeding that the io9 staff decided on. Their top four seeds: Star Wars 2001: A Space Odyssey E.T. Blade Runner You can go there and vote if you're interested. No registration or anything needed.

This is spring break week for the FP Gal. I took off the nights so that we could go on a wonderful trip to somewhere warm and beachy. Well, that didn't work out. But we could get some grandparents to come over and watch the kids for the last two nights and we took advantage! (And before I go any further, I big, big thank you to my dad and to the FP Gal's mom. Watching two small kids overnight is a lot of work and you were both very helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!) On Sunday we lit out for exotic Rosedale so we could have some eats and see a movie. Our timing was poor and we missed the afternoon showing. That meant a 430p trip to Macaroni Grill. I recommend the 'penne rustica', by the way. We'd debated on going to Panera but we decided that we can easily do that with kids and it was good to take advantage of our carefree status. Went to see 'King's Speech'. An excellent movie, well acted and written. Made me glad that I wasn't bor...

Part of me thinks that this looks beautiful. Another part thinks it should be captioned "Brakes failed".

Just about off on our little local vacation. Very light posting the next few days.

You've probably heard that tonight's moon is the brightest in some time. Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration Unfortunately, we've got cloud cover here! If you've got clear skies, please enjoy...

In the car today Relia told me that she hurt her foot. I asked her to hand it to me so that I could take a look. Relia: I can't give you my foot! Me: Why not? Relia: (pause) Because it's connected to me. (longer pause) My foot is connected to my leg. And my legs are connected to my . . . bottom. And my bottom is connected to my tummy. And tummy is connected to my neck. And my neck is connected to my head. Me: Very good, sweetheart! Relia: And my arms are connected to my shoulders.

Normally this is where I talk about the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (i.e. March Madness) and how this tournament, especially the first four days, is one of the true highlights of the sports calendar. I still think that's true. The next few days will offer random team match-ups and hopefully a slew of upsets and buzzer beaters. But this year I'm actually a little bit down about the whole deal. There are two reasons for this. The first is that for the last ten years I was the guy in the office who organized the office pool. On Monday morning I'd send out the email and print off some brackets. Then I'd dutifully collect $2 from all the participants (not so big that it hurts, big enough that the final prize is worthwhile) and hang on to copies of their sheets. On Friday and Sunday nights I'd tally up everyone's points so I could send out updates. All wonderful stuff. Of course this year I'm at home. I thought about having Relia pick out teams a...