Crunch Time

So, my brother in law is taking an independent-study course at college, and last week, he had to do 21 papers for the course. Of course, these papers were due every week throughout the duration of the course, but he let them all build up until the end, and then he had to crank them all out over a weekend.

The course is entitled "time management"

Ironic, huh.

Who teaches a "time management" course that way? Your students are presumably already struggling with the concept, but you give them 21 papers to do whenever they want? What do you expect?

Thanksgiving Roadtrip

We took a road trip to South Dakota last week to visit Heather's grandparents. The picture above is this huge structure in Nebraska that looks like a pedestrian bridge on steroids. It's one of many random vague monuments in Nebraska, and they're all named some permutation of the following: the pioneer western museum, the western heritage center, the prairie museum, the western prairie pioneer heritage museum.

A few notes:

1. South Dakotans can tell what kind of tractor a family owns by the sound the kids use when playing. John Deere goes putputputput and International goes rrrrrrrrrr.

2. The only pictures that Heather's grandparents have up is all of their grandchildren and great grandchildren, and both popes. (old and new).

3. Heather's grandfather Hub has some serious zen. The other day, Betty was worried because he'd been out at his field, where he was going to hunt some pheasant, for all afternoon, and it was getting dark. Turns out he'd decided to spend the afternoon laying down in the field. He swears that he didn't fall asleep, and I believe him. Also, he measures the seasons by the angle of the sun beams shining through the south-facing window on their living room. During the winter, it almost reaches the opposite wall. In the summer, it doesn't come in the window at all.

4. One farmer in way-rural Nebraska had a billboard sized sign in his field that read "Outlaw Sodomy". I was a bit puzzled. I wonder why he was so specific. And who's the target audience? All of us non-nebraskan interstate travellers? Or the farm on the other side of the road?

Pete is:

Learning about tense:
"Me try go potty, but me do ... no ... umm ... me don't did it!"

Speaking british english, thanks to Thomas the Tank Engine:
"Must get off bed"
"Me eat bit sandwich"

Learning the many uses of precise language:
"My mommy play trains" - This was in response to me saying that I couldn't play trains with him last night because I had to do some cleaning. It was said quietly, almost to himself, and had a guilt-trip tone of "Mom plays trains with me during the day, even when she's busy..."

"My tummy almost hurt" - This was in response to our explaning to Pete that he shouldn't lie about pain. After having been sick and realizing that he gets whatever he wants when he's sick, he occassionally tries to get out of things by claiming that things hurt (his tummy, his feet, his legs).

One of the great joys of life:

Trying to start a campfire in the morning using only the embers from last night.

If you believe hard enough, the invisible becomes visible.

It's been more than 2 weeks, and less than 3.

Thus ends the great sideburns experiment of 2005. Better luck next year.

E-mail time capsule

I think this is a very cool idea. I'm going to do it as soon as I can think of something to say that won't make my 20-years-from-now self think that I was a total dork in 2005.

E-mail time capsule

Son of a Loan Officer

Yesterday, quietly, in the car as Heather and I were having a conversation about bank policy:

"Me is lienholder. Me is good lienholder."

The Bro

My brother, Troy, is a brilliant artist in Portland OR. He has a show going on right now that opened last night. Check out his stuff at Gallery 500.

Halloween Pictures

I've put some good halloween pictures in Flickr. Click on the link to the right.

Also, you can see a very short video of Pete and his cousin being ninjas here:

Click here

How to charm my wife:

1. Walk up to her when she's sitting down, rub her thigh, and say, "Nice leg Mommy, nice big leg Mommy".

Pete did this last night. He's getting very complimentary (i.e. Oh, nice pants, Daddy. My mommy hair look nice. My baby so cute). It's very precious.

2. Engage her in a game of spontaneous breastfeeding charades.

The restaurant at which we ate dinner last night is basically a farm themepark, complete with goats, sheep, and fat donkeys. As we were eating our fried chicken (served family-style of course), Nora needed to eat, so Heather left the table to feed her. Heather is always very discrete and careful about breastfeeding, and she found an out-of-the-way spot to sit down and draped a blanket over the whole operation. A man approached wearing a shiny mock badge and a round flat-brimmed hat like a Mountie, and told her, "If you need to ... there's a room right over there with drapes." In the pause, he made a curious gesture with his hand, pointing it at Heather and the draped baby and waving it back and forth slightly. I imagine his eyebrows were raised.

So Heather was caught by the boob policeman, who was obviously a rookie because he couldn't even say the word.

Birthday Tributes

Life Is Intricate wishes a very happy birthday to two of our only readers: Dave, born 28 years ago Tuesday, and Robyn, born 28 years ago today. It was a good week in 1977.

Busy

Pete recently learned that he can get out of doing something by claiming that he is busy with something else.

A typical conversation which happened last night sitting down for dinner (this should also give those of you who don't get to hear Pete speak an idea of his particular grammar):

Me: Be careful with the broccoli, it's probably hot.
Pete: My daddy blow on my broccoli!
Me: Ok, I'll blow on it, can you help me blow on it?
Pete: No, me be busy with my... fork.

(He proceeds to pick up his fork and turn it over, seemingly inspecting the tines).

I think I got some good halloween pictures on Monday. I'll get them up in the next couple of days.